A ruined Vacation

Kitran awoke in the darkened room he called home and he rolled to turn on the lamp beside him, continued to roll and get out of bed after the lamp flickered to life and looked around his room as he stepped on the floor. The lamp had lit up most of his room but it was such a large room he would have had to use four or five lamps to light the whole thing, it's walls were a dark colour that Kitran couldn't quite tell if they were black, blue, or purple; it had windows on every wall of the room but the inner most wall, the windows were either two that were located right beside each other or were on either side of the outer door. The floor was checkered white and a light purple that he didn't like; and there was a dark wood wardrobe just beside the door that led further into the castle, it was simple and large, it was also the only thing Kitran liked in the whole room... Then there was the bed Kitran just slept on... He did not like the bed he had just slept on, for it was pink and frilly, with hearts on the footboard and headboard, and was so small he had to sleep cross legged.

In all Kitran didn't really care for his room one way or another, it was an abode that was given to him by The Princesses as an act of faith, or as they said "to promote friendship." Kitran went to wardrobe and opened it, and was met by another group of presents from the Princesses: clothes. There was a great multitude of different clothes in his wardrobe that varied from light silken affairs that looked like they would make the wearer blend in an "Arabian nights" novel to great burly cotton monstrosities that would most likely winter gear... or a portable tent you could wear, Kitran honestly wasn't sure which; Kitran picked a red, silken, long sleeved shirt and a set of black cloth pants that were fairly tight fitting. Kitran went to close the door to his wardrobe and noticed his refection on the door's inner mirror... he looked like a red coat from Star-Trek; he changed his shirt to a light grey, cotton, t-shirt instead and walked through the door that lead to Canterlot Castle's interior.

Kitran made his way to the dining hall to have lunch with Celestia, marking the locations of each pony and doorway mentally as he passed; some ponies waved at him, but he made no move that even suggested he had noticed them. After a few minutes of walking he was standing in front of the large door that led to the dining hall and, as he paid no heed the guards on either side of the door that payed equally as much heed to him, he pushed it open and walked in... Then a number of voices yelled "SURPRISE!" and then a few voiced different forms of being confusion as to why the guest of the hour just stumbled backwards through the door as it closed sharply in his face. Then Kitran opened the door again and looked at the dark coloured princess with his stone faced stare, as a purple pony he had never met before leaned over to Luna and said "The Canterlot Voice may had been over doing it a little, Princess." Luna blushed and made some sort of noise that may have been an apology.

Then his pink thing filled Kitran's vision and as he stumbled back he found out it was a very curly mane with confetti and candy in it, and a voice came from the very excited looking face just below said mane "Hiyah, what's your name, mine's Pinky Pie!"

Kitran re-composed himself and said "My name is Kitran, but you may call me Sven if you wish, and" - he stepped back calmly -"you are much too close to me for my tastes." Pinky Pie just smiled, and Kitran had to suppress a shutter as it seemed she was going to split her head in two if her grin spread anymore.

"That name is kind of hard to say, so I'ma call you Kit!" She started to bounce around the newly dubbed "Kit" as he went to walk over to the white princess but found himself standing in front of a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane.

Kitran blinked and looked back at his intended destination, which was on the other side of the long dark brown table, then turned his attention back on the blue one standing in front of him with her eyebrow raised "If you'll exc-"

"This hear is Rainbow Dash!" Pinky piped up from beside him, "She is the fastest flier in all of Equestria, and is the only pony I know who can preform the Sonic Rainboom!" Kitran looked at the pink creature, he was having a hard time thinking of it as a pony... or sentient, and looked at the blue pegasus, who was posing with her left hoof pointing at her chest, her right one behind her head and standing vertically with her wings flapping lazily.

"Yup, I am the one and only Rainbow Dash!" she flipped around so she was laying down in mid-air, with her legs crossed, a cloud with a rainbow coloured lighting bolt that was on her flank aiming it's broad-spectrum fury at the heavens, and (most importantly) with her eyes closed and, when she was distracted by her arrogance, Kitran went to make his way over to Celestia and was half way there before he heard a confused "Huh?" pop up from behind him and a blue face that was looking down at him popped up in front of him, "Hey, that was rude!" the upside down head said as she glared at him, "All I was doing was introducing my self!" Kitran just gave her his neutral stare as she huffed and puffed.

A voice laced with a southern drawl came from Kitran's left "Uh, Rainbow, your "introduction" was going to be all about your "awesome" flyin' skills and how "cool" yah are, Ah think that yah should just let it be." Rainbow gave Kitran one last glare before flying off to the side to grumble in a corner. A orange pony with a blonde mane that was tied into a "pony tail" with a brown hat that sat on top of it walked over to him and said "Don't mind her none, she's just a little full of herself and likes to let everypony know it, I'm Apple Jack-" she raised a hoof as if to shake... appendages, so Kitran shook her hoof and she smiled before continuing "- and it's a pleasure to meet yah."

Kitran looked at the orange pony with the three apples on her flank and said "likewise," as he inclined his head, "now if you'll excuse me." then he turned away to go see the princess for a third time that morning... and came face to face with a different white pony, this one had a mane that was lovingly curled to show her horn and a tail that was curled just as lovingly to accentuate her "cutie mark" of three diamonds.

The white unicorn looked him up and down with a critical eye before saying in a regal tone "You show up to breakfast with the Princesses in that, late mind you, and you speak like a commoner-" she raised a hoof theatrically to her forehead "- you must not have been schooled in proper social etiquette!"

Kitran's response was "No, you are wrong there, I do know most of my proper social etiquette, but I simply do not care enough to use it." The white unicorn's jaw dropped, and he continued as neutrally as before "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to." and he made a bow just before he walked around the still shocked pony.

The pink demon was once again by his side, Kitran looked down at her, she looked up at him and said "I have somepony you should meet!" and she grabbed his hand, which he still had no idea how her species accomplished, and lead him to the orange pony again.

"I have already been acquainted with this particular Equine, Ms. Pie" Kitran said before he heard a sound of fear squeak from behind Apple Jack, who stepped to the side to show a yellow pegasus with an illustrious pink mane, and equally illustrious tail, that cowered like a scared animal and on her flank were three butterflies that seemed blissfully ignorant to their owner's distress.

The yellow pegasus looked out from behind her hoof and her mouth moved, but Kitran didn't hear anything. His eyebrow raised at her as she uncurled from the fetal position and stood on her four hooves as she said "Hello..." in a voice that was so quiet that it wouldn't wake a paranoid alley cat in a world that was other wise silent.

"I can't hear you, you need to speak up," Kitran said before adding in the exact same tone "Please." The other ponies looked at the yellow pegasus expectantly, who hid behind her mane shyly. "Fine, Ms. Un-named, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to be off."

Kitran turned to walk away and he heard "MynameisFlutterShyit'snicetomeetyou." erupt in a quiet stream from behind him. he stopped and turned around to look at the source of the sound. "I mean... My name is Flutter Shy, it's nice to meet you."

The yellow pony looked around the room shyly as Kitran looked at her and said "Hello Flutter Shy, I am Kitran and you may call me Sven or..." he felt his face twitch as he said ""Kit", if it pleases you." Flutter Shy smiled as she looked at him for the first time in the conversation, which ended abruptly as he turned to talk to the ever elusive Princess.

Kitran made it to the White Alicorn without further incident, to his mild surprise, and she smiled at him and said "Ah, the guest of honour, I was beginning to think you would never get here." she finished with a chuckle as she looked in the direction of the Pink One. Her gaze turned back to Kitran and she said cheerily "I have someone I would like you to meet as well, Sven, this is Twilight Sparkle; my ever faithful student."

Celestia's wing gestured to the significantly shorter unicorn standing next to her; her coat was a lighter purple and her mane was a deep dark purple that looked almost navy blue with a lighter, but still dark, purple streak that ran down just to the right side of the horn that poked out from center of her head and a pink streak that ran down beside that, her tail sported the same colour scheme as he mane with they highlights on the underside of the center. The unicorn threw on a smile that was about seventy five percent genuine and said "Hello, Mr. Kitran, it's nice to meet you."

Kitran inclined his head at Twilight and said calmly "I am Kitran, it is a pleasure to meet to person that Celestia is always so pleased to talk about," Twilight blushed at that, but there was a puzzled look on her face, ".. Sven, or "Kit", are my other monikers... the latter you can thank your pink friend for." the confused look on her face left and was replaced by a hundred percent genuine smile.

Kitran turned to the Princess, opened his mouth to speak... and was promptly cut off by the very person he was about to speak to as she said with grace "I believe you would like to know the special occasion for this impromptu party?" Kitran raised an eyebrow as a signal to go on. "In the month since you woke up, you have healed in our hospital, lived in our castle, studied in our library with a fervor that I have seen in vary few others-" she glanced at the blushing purple pony beside her, "- and I have not seen one bit of change in your demeanor... which makes me think you need a more personal group of friends to bring you out of your shell, so I as sending you to be under the charge and protection of my Faithful Student, Twilight."

Twilight looked about as confused as Kitran felt and started to sputter about about how this was so sudden and that the library was a mess and other things Kitran didn't bother listening to as he studied the Princess' face for clues to the real reason he was leaving. He didn't see anything other then the warm smile that she always had glued to her face like a mask. He didn't like this, he didn't like it at all, there was something else going on but he couldn't quite grasp it. "You have one week before you are scheduled to leave for Ponyville, which means you can grab what ever books you'd like from the library and say farewell to any friends you have made, though hopefully not for long because I would like to see you again some time soon." Celestia inclined her head to the rest of the silent room and said "I'm sorry girls, but I have to go tend to royal duties, I will see you all at dinner." and the trotted out main doors without so much as a backwards glance.

After a moment the group of mares all started to talk to one another, save for Twilight who never stopped sputtering, Kitran heard lamenting from a familiar tomboy-ish voice, a southern drawl talking quietly to a regal mumble. Kitran just stood there, running numbers and scenarios through his head as a set of hooves approached him quietly and said "Art thou saddened to leave?"

Kitran didn't even bother to turn his head and he said coolly "You know I don't get sad, Luna, but I can tell you are," he decided to turn to the Dark Princess and as he turned continued, "you only speak that way when your emotional." When he finished turning he saw the saddest looking Luna he had ever seen, he was rather surprised by this, "I see you are rather upset about me leaving," unlike her sister Kitran could read her like a book, not that it was hard right now, "Why is that?"

Luna managed to look even sadder "Thou art my only real companion during the night hours in which I dwell... I will miss thou terribly!" She wrapped her fore hooves around him but then they fell over and landed in a tangled heap. Luna stood up and looked around bashfully and Kitran brushed himself off and stood up as well and eyed her stone faced as he tried to understand why she was so sad.

Everyone else in the room was silent as they watched this display, the White Unicorn's jaw was hanging loosely once more, as Kitran walked over to the Princess and wrapped his arms around her neck awkwardly and patted her shoulder as she began to sob into his shoulder about how much she will miss him and how he was such a good friend. Kitran didn't like the sounds of sadness coming from the Night Princess, they were about as unnerving as the lament of the dead, so after a moment of her crying he broke contact and looked her in the face and said "Your crying is unnerving, stop." She stopped the verbal part of her crying, but the tears still streamed down her face "I will spend the rest of the nights I have here with you if you stop crying right now."

Luna's face brightened, she smiled brightly, she even hugged him brightly, Kitran wasn't sure how the last one worked though. She was crying again, but happily, as she said "Thou has made my day!" then she broke the hug and galloped out of the hall talking to herself happily about what they were going to do. Kitran was not pleased by the feeling of foreboding that passed through his body as he sat down to eat some of the party favours.

|*|

A few hours later, in the Royal library, where Kitran was reading books about the various properties of magic and it's applications, He was treated to the surprise company of Twilight Sparkle, who sat down across from him with her own stack of books and smiled weakly at him before opening her first tome. After about a half an hour of her fidgeting uncomfortably and the quiet murmurs of her friends behind the third bookshelf to his right he spoke up "What would you girls like to know?"

Twilight blushed as red at the dawn sky and said "Come on out girls, he found you." and the five other ponies walked out from behind the shelf, embarrassed by the fact they were caught. Kitran just leveled his eyes at Twilight and raised an eyebrow, inciting her to tell him her question, after the other mares got to the table she said "Are you and Luna... Umm... "Special friends"?"

Kitran left his eyebrow raised and said "She regards me as a friend, and I don't care one way or another for her company." The mares clustered around the table gasped as if he had just said he kills kittens and wears their furs, so he explained even further "I find her to be the most tolerable of the ponies I've met here, he sister being the exact opposite but a intriguing case subject, and if tolerable is the prerequisite for being a friend then I would say she is my "friend"."

Rainbow Dash spoke up loudly, eliciting many "shhh"s from the surrounding tables as she did, "Your just using her for information, Spy!" All the other mares face hoofed and sighed, which caused Rainbow to look around with a confused look on her face and said, in an equally as confused voice, "What? That's what he is!"

Kitran just looked at the Blue pegasus and said calmly "The type of information she gives me is useless for spying, she usually just tells me how her day was, or how a spider scared her that one time before tipping it's hat and being on it's way. I don't see why you people are so-"

"Ponies." Twilight corrected him, and when he looked at her she blushed but stood her ground.

"Yes, ponies, for give me." he said calmly and continued "Why you ponies are so confused and nosy, she is just my friend and the person who freed me from my mind, that is all there is to it." The ponies looked at him skeptically.

This time it was Apple Jack's turn to pipe up "Why would she tell yah all about her day, that seems like a awfully boringly thing to be doing when the pony your talking to doesn't even care whether your there or not."

Kitran's piercing blue eyes snapped to the orange pony's face, scaring everypony around the table and he said glacially "You try living on the moon for a thousand years; trapped in your own mind, listening to your insanity babble on about it's revenge and how it will destroy the world to re-make it in it's own image, when all you want to do is go home and see your loved ones and to beg their forgiveness;" His eyes focused less sharply then before and his tone returned to normal as he continued "I know a fraction of how she feels, for I was under similar circumstances when I came to this world, but even I cannot comprehend the despair that she feel those thousand long years." Everyone was silent for a moment as the message worked it's way into their apparently thick skulls. Kitran looked at the watch that Luna had gave him; it had silver hands with moonstones on the backs of them, there were silver ticks where the numbers would be and double ticks to mark the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth hours, and it's silver face glowed faintly in the dark as he read that dinner was fifteen minutes away. "I would suggest getting cleaned up for dinner, girls, you have fifteen minutes."

The white unicorn let out a noise that may have been distress and galloped away as the rest, save for Twilight, walked away with abashed looks on their faces. Twilight calmly got off of her seat, turned her head to Kitran and said "Your a great friend, don't let anyone tell you different." and she caught up with her friends, leaving Kitran to think about his strange day.

|*|

Kitran was sitting at the table that had the six "Elements of Harmony" sitting at it, along with the two Princesses and 4 or 5 higher ranking nobles, even then it was still much too large for the amount of people sitting at it: The closest pony, who was Rainbow Dash, was 5 feet way from him talking excitedly to a noble pony who seemed disgusted by the blue pegasus' eccentric behavior. Kitran looked down at his plate of vegetables and felt a pang of longing for some nice crunchy chicken wings, which was odd because he hated chicken wings, and started to eat his steamed broccoli with cheese sauce.

He looked around as he ate, seeing the Elements each doing their thing; Flutter Shy was hiding behind her hair as a noble pony across the table "Put the moves" on her, Rainbow Dash fell on her plate as she over-extended her self in one of her many over-exaggerated movements in one of her slightly less over-exaggerated stories, Twilight was taking with her mentor excitedly and though Kitran couldn't hear the details there were points where he heard words like "meta-physics" and "Cyclic ignition", the White Unicorn he had yet to learn the name of was batting her eyes at the stallion across the table from her who was blatantly ignoring her presence, the Pink Demon was everywhere which caused Kitran's skin to crawl because no being should be able to move the way she did, and seated across from him was Apple Jack and the look on her face told him she was about as at home as a mouse in a snake's den.

Kitran finished his broccoli and moved on to his peas, which he mixed with his mashed potatoes, and chew methodically  as he thought about how he would be sent to live with the Elements in a town he had never been to; it didn't scare him, or fill him with joy, but he didn't feel at peace either... which was odd. There was something nagging at the back of his mind that he couldn't get rid of but couldn't figure out either, like a phantom. He sighed and finished off his potatoes and peas and moved to his Tofu, which was cooked in a special sauce that made it sweet tasting cardboard as opposed to normal, bland cardboard.

Kitran did not usually enjoy dinner with the Princesses when there were guests, there wasn't enough banter to keep his mind from wandering and usually not enough topics to keep it entertained when it did, so he looked around the room again and noticed Pinky Pie was standing right beside him, with her face less then an inch from his as she said "Hi!" in a chipper voice. Kitran look at the intruding muzzle, lifted his hand to her chest, and pushed her away as far as his arm would go.

"Minimum distance, Ms. Pie." was all he said as he returned to his meal, then he heard a whimper and looked back at Pinky Pie, who was several shades darker and her hair was flat. The change was enough to shock Kitran right out of his seat.

Kitran laid on the ground as he hear a sad whimpering "I... Just wanted... to make you happy..." He pulled himself up off the ground and sat back on his chair as he looked forward, those sad eyes bored right into his soul.

"I do not get happy or sad, Ms. Pie, but your concern is noted and your actions are appreciated," he didn't even bother her a glance as he added "Thank you though."

She looked at him sadly and said "You never feel happy? That's so sad..."

He looked at her and said "nor do I feel sad, didn't I just say that?" Her eyes continued to bore into him, it was starting to get rather unsettling, then he said "You shouldn't worry about me, Ms. Pie, so please stop being sad... it isn't who you are." She still looked at him sadly, but less so, so he added "remember how I'm going to be-" he brought his hands up and air quoted as he said, "-hanging out-" then he brought his hands back down, "-with my dear friend for a whole week?"

Pinky Pie's frame disappeared in a cloud confetti as she said "Oh yeah! That will defiantly make you happy!" then she bounded off to talk to Flutter Shy. Kitran shook his head and looked around the room and noticed everypony look away just in time to avoid being pegged as a watcher to the whole affair and his eyes settled on Luna, who was the only one who didn't and who was beaming with pride.

This is going to be a long night he thought as he finished his Tofu.

|*|

Kitran felt odd, he anticipated his night with Princess Luna, which in it's self was odd, he dreaded the time he was going to away from Luna, which was again odd, but the white Unicorn that he found out was named Rarity buzzing around him like an irritating bee was just insult to injury because it was the an all to familiar feeling. She picked and prodded and then told him to try on other clothes, and he did so, just to be told that they weren't right and to try on another set. His patience was worn to the breaking point when she finally decided something was worth keeping on his pale frame, It was a light tan silk vest, left unbuttoned, with a set of pine brown silken pants that ballooned at the bottom... He felt like an Aladdin re-colour, "This will not do, get out, I'll make the decision myself." he said calmly as he pushed the protesting Rarity out of his room and closed the door. He grabbed a set of tan dress pants, that were the same shade as the vest, and a White t-shirt, made from a special soft cotton weave, and put the set of clothes on as there was a knock on the door. He ignored the knock as he looked himself over in the mirror, though he didn't know why, a pale skinned man with near-platinum blonde hair that was almost ringlet curly looked back at him, his eyes a blue that cut through all illusions and a hairless face etched in stone.

"I know what your putting on, and it simply will not do!" came a regal, distressed tone from outside the door as a more pleading knock was forced upon the door, Kitran pushed the door open and bowled over Rarity. She looked at him from the floor and, after her jaw decided it was going to re-locate herself, said "I stand corrected, I thought you were going to put on the black dress clothes... this look suits you well, my friend." Kitran didn't make an attempt to confirm he heard her as he offered her his hand and, when she was standing, turned to rendezvous with his friend and nearly ran into a wall of five friends that smiled at him hopefully. Kitran stepped to the side, and the wall stepped to the side, and after a moment of looking at the group in front of him coolly, he said "What is it you would like?"

"To wish you luck!" Pinky Pie piped up happily, the others stared her down, "... I mean to say hi?" she added hopefully as she drew circles on the floor with a bashful smile on her face.

Kitran sighed and went to walk forward again, only to be blocked again, and he said to the offending group of flesh "Move now, I'm going to be late."

Twilight stepped forward and said happily "We came by to say that we hope you will have a nice night tonight." The others nodded in agreement.

Kitran breathed in and closed his eyes for a split second longer then a blink and said "Thank you, now. Move." with a force in his voice that he didn't know he possessed. The wall move reluctantly out of the way as he pushed through and walked to the Princess' chambers. He walked at a brisk pace, trying to make up for lost time and managed to get to the door to her room with a full minute to spare, the guards on either side ignoring his presence as he ignored their's. He gathered himself as he waited for the full minute, surprised at how much the "Elements of Harmony" managed to get under his skin, then when the minute had passed he knocked on the door and a surprised yelp was the response from the other side of the door.

"Hold on, I'm almost ready, just five more minutes!" came Luna's muffled voice from the room beyond the door as some shuffling was heard. Kitran sighed and walked across the hall to lean against it as he waited.

Two minutes and thirty five seconds into waiting, according to the watch his eyes were glued to, he realized how absurd everyone was treating this, he was visiting a friend he had visited dozens of times before so why was every one treating it like a date. After five minutes had passed the door still had not opened, so he waited another thirty seconds before pushing himself off of the wall and walked back over to the door to knock, the guards continuing to ignore his presence, as it opened to let Kitran in.

Luna was dress as she normally was with her silver tiara and silver pauldron necklace cross, both of which had a moon stone in the center of them, her silver leggings clink gently as she walked over to the bed and stood beside it, looking at Kitran shyly and said "What would you like to do tonight, I wracked my brain all day and couldn't think of a thing to do..." She trailed off uncertainly.

Kitran was silent for a moment as he surveyed the room; It was all dark blues and silver, which was a nice change from her sister's bright white and gold that filled the rest of the castle. The walls were a slightly light blue the her own coat, with gold trimming along the roof and floor. The floor was checkered like his own room but with a slightly darker blue then Luna's coat and a pale colour that reminded him of the moon. The desk in the corner was cluttered to the point of causing Kitran to guess if there even was a desk or if it was just a pile of junk, when Luna followed his gaze she blushed and mumbled apologies to him under her breath. There was a wardrobe of similar size to the one in his room, which he doubted was half as full as his, but painted to be very dark, so dark that you had to stare at it a moment before you realized it was blue and not black. The outside wall had two windows about 2 feet off of the floor and a central glass door that lead to a balcony that could house several alicorns on it with room to spare. The bed was a four poster affair similar to his own that was all silver and blues, but much larger then his and covered in a dark blue quilt that had a large pale crescent moon on it.

Kitran looked at the Princess when he was finished looking at her room and said "I would like you see your work." as he walked to the balcony and opened the doors, letting in the warm summer night air. Luna walked out to the balcony with him and looked at him with a questioning look on her face as he looked at the stars.

Luna's gaze followed his to the star filled sky, far away from the moon that had just risen as he sat down right in the middle of the balcony, then she looked at him and said "What is there to see? It's just the stars, they are just little balls of light, they do nothing at all."

Kitran looked back at her and beckoned for her to sit with him as he said "Do you control the stars, Luna?"

Luna looked at him with an eyebrow raised and said "No actually, I do not need to, they move about on their own... though I tried to do just that once, my magic ran dry before it even reached to it's destination." He nodded his head to this and resumed gazing at the stars. and after a moment she sat down beside him and followed his gaze.

Kitran continued to look into the sky before he said "Where Sven came from-" and was promptly cut off by an irritated Luna.

"Why does thou always refer to thyself like that when thou talks about the time before thou showed up in Equestria?" she asked with an irritated note in her voice and punctuated with a stomp of her hoof.

Kitran sighed and ran a hand through his hair, something he had never done before, and said "I didn't exist before he came here. I wasn't just hiding under the surface waiting to emerge at his first mental break down, his mind literally shattered when he was tumbling down the mountain..." He looked at his companion and said "I was born from his death, even though his body didn't die."

Luna was silent for a moment as his gaze returned to the heavens above, and then she said "Well... I think your just a continuation of his existence, the moth to his caterpillar if you will, he was you and you are him... So please stop referring to your past like someone else lived it..." Kitran was silent for a moment as he thought about it and then Luna implored with more then a little sadness in her voice "Please, Kitran?"

After a moment of silence "Just call me Kit, Luna, you of all people have earned that right... and I will heed your wishes, but only because it makes you more comfortable." He said as he looked back up into the skies. "As I was saying earlier, Where Sv-" he cut himself off, and tried again "-I come from, the stars are giant balls of burning gas, each at least several million times larger then my world, with quite a few that had planets that may have inhabited like, but as I had last knew we never found a single one... but most of humanity thought that there was life out there, and most of that feared it..." Kit ran his hand through his hair again and continued "my people are a paranoid and destructive race, that's why I said that I shouldn't go back and you shouldn't send an ambassador through because we would most likely die when people found out about us."

Luna looked up at the sky with renewed wonder as Kitran continued "The stars and where they dwell is a very dangerous place where the unwary and unprepared would die a horrible death, but the pay off would have been huge if we found anything that we hoped was out there, even dead worlds rich with resources would have been a great boon to all of humanity... Even some of our best Astronauts died horrible deaths because a single plate wasn't fastened on the ship properly, causing a massive explosion that kill all of them nearly instantly and the ensuing debris crosses hundreds of Kilometers and injured many more people." Luna looked at him in shock as he continued, "And they were willing to make that sacrifice and many tears were shed for them, but their loss would save many more lives in the years to come... All in the hope that some day we would meet another race of beings that we could befriend and call our brothers, or at the very least expand our own race from a dying world when we needed to." Luna looked back to the stars with a sad look on her face.

"What I'm saying is that the night sky held all out hopes and dreams, that is why it is so special to my species as a whole, and why I would like so share that feeling with my closest friend... my only friend..." Kitran looked back at at Luna, who had tears streaming down her face.

"I didn't know that the night sky meant so much, that it held so much... I always viewed it as my job, my burden... I never thought for once it could hold so much more..." she buried her face in her friend's shoulder, who just stroked his distressed friends mane and looked up at the stars.

Other then her sobbing, which abated after some time, they were quiet for a few hours before Luna said in a suddenly happy tone "How would you like a better view of the sky, Kit?" He looked at the now smiling princess and shrugged, she smiled even brighter. Luna dashed into her room, grabbed the quilt off of her bed with her magic, dashed back onto the balcony, and said excitedly "Hop on!"

Kitran looked at her with his eyebrow raised, she motioned for him to climb on to her back, and he shook his head and heeded her wishes for a second that night. She took off immediately, her wings flapping powerfully, the blanket fluttering behind them quietly, and her humming happily as they flew up to the the top of the mountain that he had fell down only two months previously. They settled down a fairly level spot about a hundred feet from the top of the mountain, she set down the quilt and laid on it as he sat beside her. They sat like that, The Princess smiling happily as she stared at the stars with a wonder she had never felt before with him staring at the same thing with his inscrutable, stone faced expression, for a few more hours. When the moon had reached the point in the sky where it blocked their view there a cold wind blew down from the peak of the mountain, which cause Kitran to shiver involuntarily before a wing draped around him. As he moved closer to the Princess he thought he hear a sound similar to a clap, or high five, from behind the mountain.

Luna held him close, her side was warm and soft, and after not-so-long Kitran realized her was leaning against her with his head on the back of her neck. Then he realized he was smiling a little, it was more a softening of his face then a smile, but it scared him more then death, which scared him further because the most fear her felt before that was a slight discomfort. After a few minutes of sweating coldly he finally managed to wrestle his emotions down to their previous, non-existent levels as Luna continued to stare at the stars in awe. "Luna," he began, she turned her head to face him with a curious expression as he realized his voice was quivering, so he coughed and continued with the quiver hidden once more, "I will miss your company when I leave for Ponyville."

Luna's eyes grew sad as she nodded and said "I will miss thou also,-" she nuzzled his face "- but thou will make sure to write me every day or I'll come down there and make thou." Kitran couldn't stop his face from softening as she butchered two languages, Luna didn't notice and for that he was thankful. Then stopped talking and watched at the stars faded and the moon descended until it was resting on the horizon, then they gathered their things and made their ways back to the castle.

"I enjoyed our night together, Luna." Kitran said as they landed, Luna smiled happily and smacked the dirt of of her blanket. "I am going to turn in for the day, have a good rest, my friend." then he hugged her awkwardly, and after an initial moment of confusion, Luna hugged him back. Kitran broke of the hug just as awkwardly and nodded to his friend before leaving.

The trip back to his room was uneventful, though as he closed the door he though he heard whispering down the hall. Kitran locked his door and changed into a set of pajamas that were blue and had clouds on them, when he slipped on the pants he though to himself I feel like a six year old in these. Then Kitran laid down on the bed and thought about his night till he fell asleep, and just before his mind passed into the world of dreams, face twitched into something resembling a smile.