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In the Pale Moonlight

by LDSocrates

Chapter 1: Luna Prima

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A gentle wind swept through the dark, chilled night. The only sound that could be heard was the rustling and shifting of the world beneath as the moon hung low in its midnight perch, surrounded by the twinkling of brilliant stars of all colors and hues.

A soft blue aura engulfed a handful of stars and plucked them right from the sky. Rarity brought the glowing lights before her eyes and scrutinized them. She turned back to her latest project with a deep hum of thought. The pitch black evening gown and its companion cavalier hat flowed around her mannequin in the silent breeze.

Her brow furrowed as she put the stars up to her model’s neck, a string of the night sky weaving through them into a necklace. Their glow flickered out to reveal a string of sparkling sapphires.

“No, no, that’s not right,” she said with a shake of her head. “Rubies would go with her eyes much better.” The gemstones turned from midnight blue to crimson red. “There we go,” she said with a smile and a nod. “Now what to do with that hat…?”

After a few moments of thought she let herself sink from the sky above to the ground below. She hovered inches from the ground as she perused the selection of feathers of all colors sprouting from it like grass. “No, no, no, no… maybe?” She magically lifted a peacock feather from the velvet earth and looked it over. “The mare is awfully full of herself, and she does like vibrant colors…” She furrowed her brow before tossing it aside. “No, wouldn’t fit with the rubies. Though I have no doubt she would get a kick from all the puns she could wring out of it. Cardinal might be better.”

She plucked a cardinal feather, scrubbed of its murkier tones and left a bright, candy red, from the ground and examined it. “Then again… she does love her sunglasses. Would she even take them off during a formal affair? In which case, maybe I should be coordinating the colors with her mane instead… hrm, decisions, decisions.”

Rarity looked between the two for a few moments before clapping her hooves together with a happy gasp. “I’ve got it!” She swept over the sea of plumage and plucked out a single parrot feather, in all its vibrant reds and greens and blues. “A bit gaudy, but she isn’t known for modesty or subtlety.” She let out a curt whistle, and within moments her mannequin had galloped up to her side. The parrot feather slid into place in the cavalier hat’s band. Rarity allowed herself a little satisfied sigh for a tasteful decision made, but went right back to concentrating as she scrutinized the dress. “Now, what pattern on earth would be appropriate here…?”

“Miss Rarity?”

“Yes yes, one moment, I’m in the middle of-” Rarity bit her lip and looked over her shoulder to see the tall figure of a certain midnight blue alicorn sitting behind her, the demi-goddess’ mane flowing behind her like her own personal night sky. “Your majesty!” She almost stumbled over her legs as she turned around and lay her front end to the ground in a bow, her mannequin mimicking the gesture. “So sorry; I was so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn’t… okay, the fact that anyone else was speaking in my dreams should’ve tipped me off, but I was quite distracted,” she gushed, trying to sound as dignified as she could as she groveled. “My deepest apologies.”

Rarity looked up and to her relief found the princess with a soft smile on her face. “I could tell. Though I must say, I am impressed that you can tell you’re in a dream at all. Ponies so often forget meaning, context, and basic logic when they fall asleep. I take it you’ve trained yourself to lucid dream?”

Rarity blushed softly as she stood upright and cleared her throat. “Yes, I have. Gives me more time to think and muse on my work. I was in the middle of a new commission just a moment ago, in fact.”

“So I see,” Luna said with a hint of the rumble of worry in her voice. “That’s actually why I decided to make my presence known, Miss Rarity. I-”

“It’s horrible, isn’t it?” Rarity fretted, her mannequin lowering its head in shame as she fussed over its wardrobe and pulled out the feather in its cap. “Oh, I knew I should’ve gone with the peacock feather! Where did I put it?”

Her panic was replaced with embarrassment when she heard her guest giggle, a toothy smirk on her muzzle. Her horn glowed with an aqua aura as she put the parrot feather back in place. “You’ve barely even started; it looks fine. Besides, it’s your artwork, not mine. Please, take a seat and relax; the velvet ground and feather grass is quite comfortable.”

A soft heat graced Rarity’s cheeks. She nodded and followed instructions, daintily sitting her plot down on the floor of her dreamscape.

“I’m here because I’ve noticed that your visits to my realm have become more erratic and shorter in length,” Luna continued. “I know you’re here in Canterlot on business, but I fear you may be working yourself into an early grave.”

“I appreciate the concern, your majesty, but I’m doing just fine,” she said. “I have many events to attend and even more orders to fill, is all. As an Element of Harmony and a friend of Fancy Pants himself, my time is in very high demand. Any gathering worth having has me on the guest list, and every pony who’s anypony wants my designs. This is the life I’ve always dreamed of!” By the time she’d finished gushing, she was positively beaming with stars sparkling in her eyes.

Luna’s smile diminished and she hummed in thought, taking a sledgehammer to Rarity’s enthusiasm. “Very well, if you think that’s best. I have one question, however: How many hours do you work or socialize a day lately?”

Rarity blinked as she added the hours in her head. She let out a nervous chuckle and admitted, “Eight…teen.”

“And judging by your sleeping patterns, you fall right into bed and fall asleep when you’re done,” the princess added. “And you spend those six hours dreaming about your work. Does that seem healthy to you, Miss Rarity?”

“Not in the strictest sense of the word, no,” she replied with a nervous smile, tapping the edges of her front hooves together. “But it hasn’t lead to any complications before, so I don’t see any reason to change.”

“Twilight sent a letter to my sister and I after your last trip to Canterlot outlining an incident where you fell asleep mid-word into your afternoon tea,” Luna said flatly.

“I…erm…well…” The fashionista sighed and flopped forward, the mannequin turning into a couch and catching her before she hit the ground. “Alright, alright, I don’t get enough sleep. I’ll try to clear up my schedule, your majesty.”

“I don’t think that will be a problem for tomorrow,” Luna said with a small smile.

Rarity looked up from her bed of melodrama and asked, “I beg your pardon?”

“Truth be told, I think you’re not only sleep deprived, but relaxation deprived,” she explained. “What do you normally do to relax?”

“I go to the spa with Fluttershy once a week, and… um…” She blinked and furrowed her brow with a frown. “Not much else, now that I think about it.”

“Precisely,” Luna said with a nod and a knowing smile very reminiscent of her sister. “And while you’re in Canterlot, Fluttershy is many leagues away. I propose that you cancel all your appointments tomorrow and simply take the day to relax.”

Rarity bit her lip. “Oh, your majesty, I’m not sure I can do that. There’s just so much to do, so many ponies to see, and-” She caught Luna looking at her with an “I told you so” raised eyebrow. “Alright, but still, what would I do with that time? I don’t exactly like going to the spa alone, and I don’t know the spas or the spa ponies here in Canterlot. Back home, Aloe and Lotus are very good friends of mine. I can’t imagine a day just doing… nothing.”

Luna hummed in thought, her head tilting ever so slightly. “Well, my sister has been urging me to take a day off as well. Though that’s akin to the ocean telling the sea to stop being so wet, I suppose I wouldn’t mind. Perhaps you’d like to spend the day with me?”

The heat that spread through Rarity’s face was not as gentle as before. “A day with you? I mean, of course I’d love to, your majesty, it’s no offense to you, but why me of all ponies?” she stumbled over herself. “I mean, you’re royalty, and I’m just… me. Don’t you have much more interesting things to do and ponies to spend time with?”

“You did say that anypony who was anypony wanted your time, right?” the princess chuckled. “I’ve spent some time getting to know Twilight’s other friends, but I’ve hardly gotten any time to get to know you properly. And if you think a whole day would be too much, then how about lunch and we’ll see what we feel up to from there?”

Rarity’s lips pursed and her brow furrowed as she weighed her options. On the one hoof, so much work to get done. On the other hoof, sweet Celestia a lunch date with royalty! But again on the other hoof, so much work!

Rarity took a deep breath. “It’s a date then, your majesty. What time and place?”

“I’ll make the arrangements later and send a messenger pegasus your way,” Luna said, her smile promoted to a small grin. “You get back to your musing; I have other dreamers to visit before the night ends. Sweet dreams.”

With a small flash of light, the mistress of the night was gone, leaving Rarity alone in her dreamscape once more. Her dream self had no heart in her chest, but she felt as if it were pounding away in there. She let out a sigh of relief and climbed off her fainting couch, which promptly turned back into her modeling mannequin. “Alright, let’s make the most of the rest of the night.” She looked her model over once more and sighed. “Now that I get a good look at it, I think black would make her plot look big… confound it all.”


“Sorry, excuse me, coming through, oh that’s a very nice dress, where did you- gah, no, late for a very important date, sorry!”

Such was the long string of apologies that Rarity spewed as she galloped down the halls of Canterlot Palace, weaving around, under, and sometimes over the guards, servants, and other guests. She heard many of them start to protest behind her before they realized who she was. Then they promptly apologized for being in her way. Being famous for all the right reasons had that perk.

After a leap over a patrolling guard and a slide under a maid that let out a Fluttershy-like squeak, Rarity skidded to a halt outside the double doors to her destination. The two bat pony guards flanking the doors looked the panting unicorn over with their reptilian eyes before the mare of the pair asked, “Miss Rarity, I presume?”

“Yes, that’s me,” she huffed, holding up a hoof. “One second.” Her horn glowed, her magic grabbing a brush and a hand mirror from her saddle bags. The two guards raised a brow to each other as she straightened her mane and tail with the efficiency of a veteran busybody. After she was satisfied that she didn’t look like she was in a panicked hurry, she took a deep breath and shot a charming smile at the pair. “Sorry. Let’s not keep the princess waiting any longer.”

The two shared another look, the colt’s look saying, “Mares,” and the mare’s saying, “I know, right,” before they pushed open the door with a rear hoof each.

Rarity trotted inside with as much poise as a mare who’d just done a thousand-yard dash across a crowded palace could muster, which in her case was the picture of pretention. What greeted her eyes was the sight of a room that could clearly hold ten ponies, but there was only a table large enough for one pony and an alicorn. Said alicorn looked up from a rather bulky book on her end of the table and greeted, “Good afternoon, Miss Rarity. Sleep well after our meeting?”

“A bit too well,” she said with a sigh as she approached the table across the stunningly smooth and luxurious midnight blue carpet. “Sorry for being so late; I only woke up a short while ago.”

Luna tilted her head before turning it toward an ancient looking brass clock. “You’re only five minutes late.”

“Fashionably late is for soirées, not for friends and royalty,” Rarity said as the doors closed behind her. “Do you mind if I take my saddlebags off?”

“Not at all; allow me.” Luna’s horn glowed, followed by the sudden loss of weight on Rarity’s back.

“Thank you, your majesty,” she said with a bow of her head as she sat on the available cushion. She glanced over to see her saddlebags get hung on a rack next to the door.

“Think naught of it,” Luna assured. “Very beautiful bags, by the way. One of your designs?”

Rarity beamed and nodded. “Naturally! It’s hard to make canvas look fashionable, even black canvas, but I think the gold embroidery did the trick. I even sewed on the five-pointed star of the Elements of Harmony myself.”

“A very natural choice,” Luna chuckled. “I think I may commission a design from you myself one of these days.”

Rarity’s eyes widened and sparkled. “Oh, I’d be honored, your majesty! Of course, you could simply request an outfit; I wouldn’t dream of charging you a single bit.”

“Please, call me Luna,” the princess insisted. “You did say we were friends, right?”

Rarity blinked. It took her longer than it should have to realize that Luna was referring to her comment on fashionable tardiness. “Why, of course,” she fibbed, trying not to be rude. “Any friend of Twilight’s is a friend of mine.”

Luna’s ears lowered and her lips took an earthward curve. “Yes, most of your other friends still haven’t quite warmed up to me, have they?”

The proverbial dropped piano of making the wrong conversation decision crashed on Rarity’s head. “They will eventually,” she said hastily. “Don’t you worry about that. We’re a really friendly sextet once you get to know us.”

“So I’ve heard from my sister and her letters from Miss Sparkle many times,” she said, her enthusiasm curbed as she levitated the book in front of her back onto the shelf. “Though I still have yet to forgive Miss Pie for making me think I was still horrifying to children in a bad way last Nightmare Night.”

“I love the mare to bits, but I must admit she isn’t the most… sensitive of ponies,” Rarity said with a sigh. “Or the most prudent. She is still sorry, you know, and I must say I’m terribly sorry on her behalf.”

Luna shook her head. “No need. You weren’t even there on Nightmare Night, if I recall. I take it you were busy?”

“I was actually on a date with a stallion by the name of Twilight Sky on the other side of town,” she admitted. “I didn’t hear that you’d visited until later.”

“Must have been pretty far on the other side of town,” Luna said with a raised eyebrow.

Rarity blushed. “We were kind of… preoccupied, in the kissing sense of the word.”

Luna giggled. “I’ve lived for generations; no need to be shy around me when it comes to romantic aspirations. How did it go?”

“The date went well. The relationship did not,” she huffed. “He was a very sweet colt until the second you disagree with him. Then he had his head rammed so far up his plot he could see up his own throat, pardon my crudity.”

“There will always be colts like that. I’ve met and dated a few in the past. You’re better off without him,” Luna assured.

Rarity opened her mouth to respond when an ominous rumbling cut her off. Her cheeks turned pink when she realized it was her stomach. “Erm, excuse me, your ma- I mean, Luna. I slept through breakfast.”

The alicorn giggled. “I think it’s time we get to the lunch part of this lunch date.” Her horn glowed, her aura picking up and ringing a little golden bell. Within seconds one of the castle’s staff cantered through a side door. She was a pretty young mare with an eye-catching electric blue mane tied into a braided ponytail that offset her dull grey coat.

“What can I get for you, your highness?” the servant asked with a bow.

“The usual for me,” Luna said with a small bow of her head in return. “Miss Rarity?”

Her stomach rumbled again. “I could eat a horse right about now,” she joked through her blush, “but a large salad with lilacs, forget-me-nots, and raspberry vinaigrette would be just lovely. Oh, and some apple cider, if you have any.”

“Of course, ma’am; we’ll have your food ready right away,” their server said with another bow before scurrying off.

“Now, what were you about to say, Miss Rarity?” Luna asked.

“Please, if you insist I call you Luna, I must insist in turn that you just call me Rarity,” she said with a wave of her foreleg. “I was just about to ask you to elaborate.”

“On what?” Luna asked.

“You said that you’ve dated a few stallions like that. I mean, you’ve lived so long you would at some point, but I admit I am curious about your romantic experience. Perhaps you would have some tips for a mare that’s not having any luck?” she asked hopefully.

Luna smiled, though it was a somber one. “Any advice I could give probably wouldn’t apply to this day and age. All of my courtship experience is from a time long gone.”

A second proverbial piano crashed on her head heavier than the first. “Really? I’m surprised you haven’t had many suitors yet. You’re the picture of beauty and very kind, eloquent, and elegant to match,” Rarity reassured.

“Thank you for the compliment,” Luna said, her smile growing a mite more relaxed, “but it’s not that I haven’t had many; it’s that I haven’t had any. Ponies aren’t exactly jumping at the chance to court the mare they’ve been taught since birth is lurking in their closets or under their beds.”

The proverbial pianos kept falling, loaded with bricks just to punish Rarity for being so careless. “I don’t have the authority to apologize on behalf of all of your subjects, but I am deeply sorry,” she apologized, hanging her head low in penance. “I’m sure an open-minded and kind hearted stallion will grace your doorstep someday.”

For the first time in the entire conversation, Luna broke eye contact. “Yes, of course…”

Rarity raised her head again and was about to question Luna’s hesitation when she was interrupted once more. Not by her stomach to her relief, but by their server waltzing in with their food balanced on her back. “Lunch is served, your majesty,” she chimed with a bright grin.

“Thank you, Silverpoint,” Luna nodded, levitating their food off her servant’s back and placing Rarity’s in front of her. “That will be all.”

“Enjoy your meal,” the mare said with another bow before leaving the two alone again.

“Thank you!” Rarity called after the servant girl before the door slipped shut. “She seems like a nice mare.”

“She’s my personal attendant; she was scared of me at first, but she’s warmed up to me more than most of the staff,” Luna said with a wistful smile. “Her passion is pencil art, but she works here to pay the bills.”

“Lucky for her; she has one of the best employers in all of Equestria,” Rarity giggled, raising her glass.

Luna smiled back and clinked her glass of what looked to be pink wine against Rarity’s before bringing it up to her lips. After a refined sip she said, “Thank you. But enough about me and my life; what’s going on in yours?”

“Not much aside from all the high-life soirées and commissions, and I’ve told you all about those,” Rarity said with a chuckle. “The details aren’t terribly interesting.”

“I doubt you’ve told me everything,” Luna said, taking a bite out of a fresh pear. “Who’s the commissioner of the piece you were working on in your dreams last night?”

Rarity hummed, taking a sip of her cider. “I’m really not supposed to tell, but as a princess I suppose you have state secrets to worry about, so a little secret like this won’t get out. Ever heard of Vinyl Scratch? Or ‘DJ PON-3’ as she’s called onstage.”

“I’ve heard of her, yes. Not sure if I like her music, or even if I can call it music,” she said hesitantly. “I never would have guessed that she’d be the type for such an elegant dress.”

“She isn’t; according to Octavia, trying to get her to wear any clothes at all is an uphill battle,” Rarity giggled before digging into her salad. “The dress is for Vinyl, but Octavia commissioned it. She wants an outfit that will fit in at a high-class function, yet be something that Vinyl would want to wear. It’s one of my more challenging commissions, to say the least.”

“Octavia von Clef, yes? The cello player?” Luna asked. “I’ve had her visit for a private performance a few times; very talented young mare. I never would have guessed that she would be friends with such a radically different performer.”

“Marefriends, actually,” Rarity corrected without really thinking.

Luna broke eye contact with her again, choosing instead to focus on her food as she ate it. “I see,” was all she managed to say.

For a while the only sound was the ticking of the clock and the chewing of produce. Rarity glanced around uncomfortably, trying to focus on the gorgeous mahogany walls and the many relics that adorned them. The princess seemed to have a love for frescoes, as many of the paintings on the wall were pictures of the night sky and twilit landscapes in that style. The centerpiece of the collection was a mounted stone mural of a stylized Discord fighting Luna and her sister in a clash of fire and arcane flash. After an eternity of perusing the art gallery with her eyes as she ate, she glanced back at the clock.

Only ten seconds had passed.

Unable to bear the silence, she took a deep breath and said, “Terribly sorry if that made you uncomfortable. I know you’re from a different time, but it didn’t occur to me that such a thing might still bother you.”

Luna raised a hoof and shook her head, looking Rarity in the eye again. “It doesn’t. I am from a different time, yes. Celestia and the public at large have changed their minds on many issues in the millennia I was gone. All the same, I have no qualms with such relationships. I was accepting of it long before my sister, in fact. It’s just that it wasn’t a topic brought up in polite company, so I really don’t know how to talk about it, if that makes sense.”

“No, I understand perfectly,” Rarity assured with a smile and a nod. “Some subjects are hard to discuss if you haven’t talked about them before. Just don’t be nervous about it and say whatever you would about a more traditional relationship; they really aren’t all that different.”

“Thank you for the advice,” Luna said with a courteous bow of her head. “Do you… speak from experience, if I may be so bold?”

Rarity didn’t have to look in a mirror to tell that her cheeks had turned fire-engine red. “Oh heavens no! Not that I wouldn’t. I mean, if I wanted to, if my stable door swung that way, but it doesn’t! I… I think I’ll stop talking before I say something offensive,” she muttered, looking away.

What came out of Luna’s mouth was something between a giggle and a cackle. “No, it’s perfectly fine; keep talking. You stumbling over your own hooves is quite amusing,” the princess teased with a Cheshire grin.

“The only reason I’m not telling you to hush is because I’d probably find myself hilarious too,” Rarity huffed, a smile tugging at her lips in spite of herself. “But no, I’m straight, though that isn’t exactly working out for me. I spent so many years pining after a dream date with Blueblood that I-”

“Wait, Prince Blueblood?” Luna cut in. “Tia’s brat of a great great grandnephew?”

“That’s the one,” she said with no shortage of venom.

“I apologize for that; Celestia can only parent her descendants so much,” Luna sighed. “Look at it this way: the fact that you realized what a twit he is and decided to leave him means that you’re not shallow and at least have a decent taste in stallions.”

The smile tugging at Rarity’s lips pulled them all the way up as she nodded gratefully. “Thank you, Luna.”

“Think naught of it,” Luna giggled.

“Who is Blueblood’s ancestor, by the way?” she pressed. “I must admit, I have to wonder how far the apple could’ve fallen from the tree.”

“Not by much, I’d imagine,” Luna said with a small snort. “Apparently his sire was a unicorn named Blue Rose over a century ago. It's royal custom to call our descendants past a few generations our nieces and nephews to preserve a virgin facade. Anyway, I naturally never met him, but though I love my sister to death, picking lovers that were good for her has never been her strong suit. In today’s slang, I guess you could say she has a thing for ‘bad boys.’”

“Really now? Though, we better move on before she somehow figures out we’re talking about her behind her back,” Rarity giggled in return through a sip of cider. “Besides, I don’t really have a good taste in stallions, I don’t think. After my disastrous date with Blueblood at the Gala, I didn’t know how to swim when that ship sank. I just hadn’t had a real date or a relationship before, and every sad attempt since has just been me floundering.” Rarity’s smile deflated as she looked at her reflection in her cider. “I’ve given up for the time being. I don’t have much time for a relationship as it is, anyway. The romance tree is bearing no fruit, so I’ll wait for it to be in season, as it were.”

She looked up to find Luna’s cyan eyes looking much more intensely into her own. It didn’t give off a look of hard scrutiny; it was much more like deep worry. “A wise policy, I’d say. But worry not; there will be someone for you, someday. You’re far too attractive, talented, hardworking, and kindhearted for someone worthy of your time not to come along.”

Rarity’s smile widened as a weight lifted off of her chest and mind she didn’t know was there. “Thank you very much.” She giggled and added, “Though I don’t know about suitors, as far as friends go I’d say you’re more than worth my time, Luna.” She raised her half-empty glass and tilted her head, her smile refusing to fade.

Luna smiled in return and clinked her own glass against her guest’s. “It’s an honor.”

Rarity pulled her glass back and gulped down the last of her cider. “Now, enough about me; what’s going on in your line of work?”

“Nothing I’d want to bore you with,” Luna said with a wave of her hoof. “It’s nothing but politics. What’s the point of living in a diarchy if a citizen like yourself can’t just let the diarch handle the political zoo?”

“No, please, go on. You let me have my time to speak; it’s only fair that I let you have yours,” Rarity insisted. “Besides, I know a thing or two about politics. Back when I actually had time to read, a lot of the romance novels I read were also political dramas.”

“Why anypony would want to read about what I have to handle every day for leisure, I don’t know,” Luna chuckled. “But I suppose, if you really want to know…”

And so Luna talked about the issues of her work day and the issues she was trying to work through, from the oil trade with Saddle Arabia to the threat of Egryph seceding from the dominion of the Griffon Confederacy. Rarity interrupted and voiced her input when she felt necessary, but beyond that she kept her mouth sealed. Not out of boredom; she just found the voice of the princess strangely… hypnotic. She just wanted to listen as much as she could.

Next Chapter: Luna Crescens Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes
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