Chapter Four

Twilight's jaw would've hit the floor, though her facial structure and bone mapping are unable to do such a feat. In either case she was still extremely surprised by the strange alien creature sitting on her couch. The fact that the Princess was sitting next to her was insanely confusing as well, not to mention Luna was extremely casual towards both of them. Stammering, Twilight then said, "I-er, wha-who-I, I don't..?"

The Princess, however, made a 'shush' sound to her so she shut her mouth, looking downwards. As much as Princess Luna always asked Twilight to not call her by such a official title, it was a moot point on Twilight, mostly because of her astute, and usually professional, personality cut off her more casual side of her personality.

Luna opened her mouth to speak and Twilight walked over with a quick pace, cutting her off, "But it's an alien or-or maybe it's some kind of mutant- um, no offence miss- wait, is it even a miss? I think it is, wait is it even sentient? I don't think it'd be wearing clothes if it w-" Immediately Twilight stopped her rant to look over to Luna and blushed slightly with a slight, nervous laugh, "Oh, er, sorry Princess, I sort, ah, of cut you off. Eheh."

Twilight stepped back, staring down at her hooves, obviously embarrassed, shamed, or possibly both. The only problem is that Luna knew exactly that. She wasn't Princess Celestia's personal protege without knowing her sister Princess Luna, at least enough to see the tells. Though the tells were usually just seeing if she was uncomfortable or bored, and perhaps even excited. The flip side of the coin also went alone with Princess Luna knowing Twilight, though she knew a bit more.

While most ponies would think, 'Hey Twilight, isn't it easy to see those things and emotions from ponies?' Twilight would simply answer no. All ponies and creatures alike have different facial movements, twitches and of course expressions for different emotions and thought processes. Though Twilight thought she should probably stop over thinking it and pay attention to the Princess talking. Wait, the Princess is talking?! I didn't even notice!

"-and that is where this strange woman, Marceline, is originated from. While exact details, we are unsure on those, but it is impudent to the point." Luna finished her apparently paragraph long explanation. Though Twilight stammered her sentence, she responded, "Could you perhaps repeat what you said, Princess? I wasn't paying attention." Another quick and nervous half giggle half sigh left her.

The Princess' expression then dropped to a deadpan version of it's normally controlled self. She stared at Twilight and cleared her throat a bit, sighing lazily, "Art thou certain we have to repeat the explanation?"

Rethinking over her wording, Twilight smiled lightly, looking back up to the Princess and said with slight hesitation, "Well, could you perhaps summarize what you said? If it's alright Princess, I'd hate to be not courteous towards you."

A small giggle escaped the Princess of the Night, one that Twilight hasn't exactly heard, almost ever if at all. Looking over, Twilight saw the same slightly blank-faced Luna and the snickering woman beside her, however, she saw another woman.

She shifted her head a bit, looking out the window behind the two. There, a secondary Marceline-like person smiled warmly, waving lightly towards Twilight, then ducking down suddenly.

Luna cleared her throat, getting Twilight's attention again, "Twilight, is something the matter? Do you wish us to go?"

Gasping lightly, Twilight gulped and shook her head furiously, "No! Of course not! Unless you want to, I don't want to get called a Princess napper. Not that I could I mean, you could probably overpower me if you wanted to, and I-okay, I mean, uh, no, I'd like you to stay. Ahem." Twilight scratched the back of her head nervously before returning a small smile, "Princess and friend. Just, give me a moment, will you please?"

A nod was her answer and Twilight took the time to thank them for their patience, then walked towards the door, her facade of calm melting off like a marshmallow off a stick. She quickly closed the door and moved around back to the window. As soon as she got near it however, an indigo glow enveloped her and tugged her downwards and forward.

Leaving little room to complain Twilight simply went along with the magic's tugging and ended up avoiding detection and behind the Library. As soon as she got there however, her eyes slowly widened before it seemed they would pop out of her skull.

"W-what in the name of Celest-!"

Luna waited patiently for the now strangely acting Twilight. While she was always nervous around the Princess herself, poor dear, she was absolutely losing her concentration at the moment. For whatever reason, Luna knew that something was up, possibly just the fact that Luna had come over in the middle of the night with an unknown creature to Equestrian society and introduced her to Twilight like it was no big deal.

But then again, she had met many a different creature back in the time of her traveling, and it wasn't completely odd to have an alien creature sitting next to her. Yes, it was odd, but it wasn't to the point that it was completely insane.
For quite a few reasons Luna kept questioning Twilight's story and her motives, but she then stopped herself. Why is it my place to decide what her motives are? Twilight is an astute young Unicorn, she'd never plan any sort of riff raff.

Sitting back up, and with a small smirk, she decided to relax against the cushions more. It was probably nothing.

Twilight continued trying to talk, though the hand clamped over her mouth prevented speech. Little more than murmurs escaped her lips as she tried to ramble on and on about what she was seeing at the moment. Then, a hushed voice spoke to her, "Twilight, calm yourself! It is just us- I mean, I, Luna. I've come to speak with you, if now is the correct time."

Taking her grip away from the exasperated mare, Twilight let her maw gape, staring at Luna. She gestured with her hooves to the Library, then to herself, then back a few times. At last they pointed at the Princess standing before her. However, one problem was that Twilight finally started to analyze that the Lunar Princess outside the Library had transformed into a pseudo creature like the woman in the Library now.

Firstly, the Princess looked like Marceline, if not shorter and having a cover of the same color of fur. Her top was a dark, deep blue color which stretched along her body and covered most of her legs. The tell tale signs of some sort of other clothing with light blue and black colors, strings and frills laid beneath the dress. Her wings were still there, as well as Luna's horn which let Twilight relax slightly.

More over, her face was more flat than a pony's, again, like the woman inside. What was her name? Marceline, yes. Looking downwards, Twilight noticed Luna was wearing a pair of rather casual looking pair of shoes on her feet. They didn't look like metal or glass or anything important so she disregarded them. All in all, Twilight had to admit that she may have preferred the Princess looked this way, it was rather...different.

Then again, ponies aren't always nice with different. Oh well.

Opening her mouth to speak again at a slightly slowed pace, "Luna?! What happened? When did- who did- wha-?!"

Another giggle. This caused a small pout to form on Twilight's face, which only made Luna get down on one of her knees, "Twilight, it is quite alright. We have used this spell many times by this point and-" Her eyes drifted to Twilight, and for a moment her expression dropped to that of the Princess inside, "-are not a changeling. So we suggest you stop charging a spell."

Twilight grimaced lightly, taking a small step back as she backed up into the Library with a light thud. She grinned sheepishly, "Sorry Princess, just, I try to not take risks."

Smiling warmly once more, the Princess responded, "It's quite alright Twilight. Now then, I have a simple task to ask of you before I return to ah...well, where we're from doesn't matter."

Looking at Princess Luna curiously, Twilight asked with trepidation, "...What kind of simple task?"

Yawning, Marceline had turned herself upside down and was hanging there with a bored expression on her face while Luna waited patiently. Another astonishing trait of Luna's is she has an amazing patience with even the largest annoyances.

The last time the Princess of the Night had lost her temper was...well, about a thousand years ago. The chances of this act bleeding back into her however were completely unlikely, and even so, Twilight and her friends would be with Luna the whole way back into a better state. A smile crept onto her face as she lifted her head slightly. Twilight and her friends.

It was a subject she gave much thought to whenever she could. It made her feel warm and happy inside instead of cold and hard. No one should ever have to suffer like that, and Luna always did her best to make sure of that, though sometimes it didn't seem like enough. Sighing, Luna decided to herself she was over thinking the matter and it'd probably be better if left alone. Mostly, anyways.

Still, back on a more happy thought process and leaving the other in the dust, the Princess started to think harder on Twilight and her friends. She held them dear, most definitely, and saw why her Sister saw cause for them to be friends. Without any friends or acquaintances really except for Tia, Luna may have...

A poke at her shoulder interrupted a dark thought, and Luna looked over with a curious glance, "Yes?"

Twilight smiled widely, taking a seat in front of the couch, "Sorry about making you wait Princess, I thought I saw something outside. It's fine though, just one of Fluttershy's critters."

Luna kept her gentle smile on her face as she said, "Ah, well, back to the matter at hand then, Twilight." The Unicorn nodded, scooting up a bit closer like a filly ready for story time before bed.

Then, the Princess began her tale, "We shall sum up the story then. We, Princess Luna, had gone to another...world, we suppose thou could'st call it. However, it was not one we had visited before. More over, it had very comical others there as well as strange looks. But after spending quality time with the inhabitants and sharing information, we had gone to leave and the girl Marceline tackled us into the portal and-"

Marceline looked over sharply, a small, confident smile, "I thought I was your guest, Lunies?"

Gasping, Twilight said, "What?! 'Lunies'? What kind of name is that? Princess Luna why is she calling you by pet names?" Said Twilight quickly, Luna retorted with, "Well, We're not exactly cert-"

Once more, seemingly for the hundredth time that night, Luna was cut off by Twilight with yet another ramble, "Oh, oh no. Is she close to you or something? Like, how close? Is that even possible?! Oh sweet Celestia, cross universe couples, how is that even possible! Marceline, Princess please tell me that isn't true and that I'm just crazy, I mean I know I'm crazy but-"

This time, Twilight was cut off instead by Marceline letting out a chuckle, leaning next to Luna and taking hold of her shoulders, craning her head just above Luna's shoulder and said in a sultry, yet playful tone, "Heh, you don't gotta worry Twilight, let me tell you it's completely possible."

Confused noises came from Twilight as she tried to comprehend the situation, looking between the two, a blush rising to her cheeks as her pupils shrank slowly in size. Luna felt her own cheeks slowly rise with color, as well as her own pupils dilating slightly as she retorted rather loudly, "What?! Marceline don't be ridiculous- Twilight we promise you that isn't true at all, Marceline is trying to make you befuddled, please disregard her statement."

Twilight shook her head, nodding as she ran a hoof over her forehead and sighed in relief, "Oh, good. I mean- you know, I'm just thankful that I'm just crazy, eheheh..."

Marceline backed off of Luna flying around them both lazily, "Man, you two are so boring right now. I mean, yeah I understand I gotta go or whatever but I was just playing around, you don't have to get all touchy Luna." And Marceline had faked quite a well done tone of being upset.

Groaning quietly, Luna regained herself and sighed heavily, "Marceline, we came for the ingredients to the potion, nothing more. You must calm thy self until you return to your home. Now then Twilight, what we need is a dragon scale, nothing large or overbearing, something we may carry with our hooves, not bigger than a pebble."

A slow nod came from Twilight as she rose a hoof to her mouth, "Hm...well, I don't think Spike would appreciate it, but I'll see if I can get one from him, maybe one that he was shedding anyways."

Smiling once more, the Princess nodded once, "That would be perfect, Twilight. We shall wait here for it then." For a few moments Twilight was silent, before she responded, "Er, well, it could take a day, maybe two..."

Something in her voice made Princess Luna almost question her, but deciding to leave it be for the time being, she shrugged, "That will be...a slightly troublesome time then. We can wait, we think. Marceline?"

Looking up at the Vampire Queen, she was simply floating about and answered without even batting an eye in their direction, "Yeah, sounds good. I get to relax over in this place for a while, seems exciting yo."

She felt like grimacing at her grammar, but decided to ignore it. Luna looked back down to Twilight, gave her a curt nod and got up, her magic tugging on Marceline, "Good night to you Twilight, I'll be heading back to the Castle now..."

Marceline got the message and sighed, letting out a long winded, "Finally!" And followed her quickly out. Twilight attempted to give a small bow but Luna had already flapped her wings out of the Library and she sighed, falling to the ground and shutting the door with her own lavender magic. Just then, a knock was on the window, and as her tired eyes looked over, she saw the other Luna waving a few times before turning around, followed by a flash.

It was going to be a long night, reasoned Twilight as she stepped upwards to her bedroom.

Author's Note

I did it, finally. Jeez, crunching out these chapters while waiting for inspiration is like waiting for the pizza guy to get to your house, you're pretty sure when he'll be there but it's like get the fuck over heeeere already.

I hope you enjoy, as always, I tried my best.