A Kindred Spirit

Despite the awkward air that existed between me and the guards as I entered Luna's bedchambers for the night, the pair of stallions seemed to have divined the circumstances and let me past with little hesitation. I was not at all dirty from going to dinner and taking a quick walk outside, but despite my new innate marginal dislike of wetness, being the Pegasus I had become, I decided to bathe again anyway. As I strode thoughtfully across the bedroom, the giant mirror in which I had first observed my new form caught my eye with a glint of moonlight. I stopped and looked at myself again.

When I observed the steel gray stallion with silvery moonlight shining on his coat, I didn't see myself. He wasn't me; I was a human from the planet Earth. But... I wasn't anymore. Who... was I? What did I do on that planet? Who was my family, who did I call my friends? I felt so isolated... from... from myself. There were many blanks in my memories of the past; nothing really individualized me.

And... in spite of my ready acceptance of my transformation, I was still not entirely comfortable with it. There were so many things I wasn't used to, and I wasn't sure if I ever would be...

I broke off my mental thread-raveling. No matter how deep this issue dug into my very core, it did not matter now. Now was here. I continued my walk to the bathroom, albeit slower and more absent. I reached the rather large door of the deepest purple and emblazoned with a crescent moon. I was thankfully aware of the fact that this was a double door that appeared to be double-hinged. Pushing it open, I saw that the room was not of bright white porcelain, but of a deep, dark grey that looked a lot like glazed stoneware. I smiled softly to myself. Luna, neither of us tire of dark, soft colors.

After making my way through the bathing process in Luna's massive, ornate 6'x12' bathtub/shower of silver and sapphire, I dried myself with extreme thoroughness, not wanting to wet the soft and expensive silken sheets for the sake of the launderers and for my own. Still being sheepish about using all of the princess' things like they were my own, I softly laid down in the impossibly comfortable bed and promptly dozed off.

Luna was... bored. A check of the records earlier revealed night court had again yielded nothing for her to be involved in. She had taken to lounging on one of the thick banks of cumulus clouds the sky offered to simply observe happenings in the world below. Mostly this was just something for her body to busy itself with while her mind wandered. She had not enough to ponder this evening without the asking of questions she could not answer on her own, and so she was... bored. Thinking of things she could do, she wound up thinking of the human-turned-stallion that was probably asleep in her bedroom by now. The realization softly nudged the night princess. She could talk to him... in his dreams. She was not much of one to intrude into ponies' minds and ask questions of them, but from what she had gathered of the colt, he probably wouldn't mind. Raising herself into a poised but comfortable sitting position, her horn flared with the casting of magic unique to her, and her consciousness left her form.

I am not sure of what course my dreams were flowing, but at some point I was interrupted by the appearance of Princess Luna. My dream-form decided to look at the royal mare, and in so doing I was suddenly as lucid and logical as I would have been in the real world. Somehow, in that instant, everything just sort of melted away and I took my real-world form as the environment around us morphed into some sort of dark, quiet forest. The night princess sat down about ten feet from me.

"Hello." The voice of Luna came softly to me, somehow slightly unclear and more echo-y than would have been normal.

"Umm..." This slipped out. "Hello." My voice had the same qualities as Luna's; echo-y, lacking sharpness.

Luna smiled in an apologetic manner and turned her head to the side. "I bet my presence here mystifies you."

Somehow the complex wording did not come across; only the meanings. "Uh...yeah." I looked around. "Dream-scape?" I asked for clarification.

"Yep. Yours, to be precise."

This was a bit of a different development.

"Umm... Okay then. Is there something you needed?" I was still a bit lost.

"Well, I came to talk to you." The princess smiled softly and somewhat awkwardly. The awkward tension in the air began to ease.

"Okay." This was all I said.

After a brief pause, Luna spoke. "You don't know who sent for you, do you?" This question was asked tenderly, but in earnest. This made the air taut with a new tension.

"No." I responded.

The princess got up, looked at the ground and advanced slightly. "Well..."

She stopped about two feet away and looked up into my eyes.

"It was me."

These words should have dropped like a ten pound hammer, but they did not have the extreme impact that they could have. It was interesting, it did answer a question, but, like most answers, it opened up more questions. I was flattered by the news, but I wasn't sure exactly why she did it. I relayed this to her.

Somehow I became aware that the mare of the night was opening up to me, letting me someplace only her and probably her sister could go. "I.. I was feeling... lonely. Lonely, and empty. Nearly everypony fears and shuns me as Nightmare Moon, and I didn't have anypony to turn to except my sister. She's very kind and comforting, but... she just doesn't... understand me. We're a lot different, and, I know she was doing what she could, but it wasn't enough..."

My face was a mirror of the pensive, processing mindset I was in. Luna looked up, and from my inaction knew I wanted her to go on.

"I was... depressed. All I wanted was a friend; someone to talk to, someone who could understand. I finally ended up going to the archives to find a spell to summon something, or somepony. I didn't pay attention to the details of the spell until the next day." Again she looked up at me, started to speak, and looked down again. "I didn't mean to rip you from your home, your family, your friends, your life." Her voice was rising, and her words were speeding up. "I didn't want to uproot your whole life because I felt bad! I just feel like a selfish idiot because I did that to you!"

I could tell she was on the verge of tears. She was about to continue and become a train wreck, but I cut her off.

"I understand."

Those two words told all. I understood everything she said, and my expression, a sort of deep look, told that I didn't care too much, because I really didn't. Luna slowly closed the short distance between us, and I knew what she wanted and was asking for; well, a shoulder to cry on, literally and metaphorically. I stood there and welcomed her. She sped up a bit and gently put her head on my shoulder and did just that; cry, softly. Just let it come. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath. and leaned into her neck. She seemed to appreciate it. That was all that mattered.

When Luna drew away, she seemed refreshed. She started away, but craned her head around to face me. After that deep moment, words felt cheap, but that was really all we could use for the sake of attempting to re-establish a casual feeling.

"So, uh, I'll see you in the morning?" She gave a sort of happy smile.

"Of course." I returned her smile. She walked away and vanished, leaving me to my dreams and my thoughts,