Chapter 12

We were now on the train, on our way to Canterlot. I was a little surprised that they even had this advanced technology, but I wasn’t one to argue. As I relaxed in the booth with my new friends and marefriends, I began to think about what happened when Twilight brought up the news. I was shocked at first, until they all assured me that they just wanted to see who I was, and not put me into some sort of dungeon. I was still nervous, and I decided to bring my staff, just in case. Luckily, Twilight also brought my sais along as well, although they were for emergencies only, since they were the more deadly of my weapons. I chuckled slightly as I remembered how Rarity pouted a little for not being able to get her massage, since we had to leave pretty much right away. We were finally able to convince her to come with us with the promise that I would let her be my first customer when I get to my job. As I sat there, looking out of the window and watching the scenery go by, I felt a hoof being placed over my hand. I turned to see who it was and I saw Fluttershy, a worried look on her face.

“Drak, are you sure that you’re ok? You haven’t said much since we got onboard.” She asked me. I sighed, knowing that I couldn’t lie to her, or anypony really, and said, “I still am nervous. For some reason, I’m always nervous about doing things like this. I just can’t help it, really.”

“Well, of course you can’t help it, sugarcube. It’s normal to feel a little nervous.” Said AJ, coming to join us. “The Princesses are the most understanding ponies around, though, so you don’t have to worry so much.” I smiled at them and gave them both a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks, girls. I’m sure that everything will be fine, I’m just still nervous, and I hate being nervous.” They looked at each other, and nodded. Soon, I was trapped in a dual mare hug, with me in the middle.

“Well, we’re going to stay by your side, no matter what, ok?” said Fluttershy in a soft voice. AJ nodded in agreement with her. I looked at both of my marefriends and sighed, putting an arm around each of them. We stayed there for about 5 minutes, before AJ spoke up.

“By the way, partner. Have you decided to ask Ditzy to join us yet?” Asked AJ. I looked at her, and then at Fluttershy, who was also looking at me, waiting for my answer. I was quiet for a second, and then slowly, I nodded.

“I think so. Once we get back from this royal meeting, I will ask her. Once again, thank you girls for being so understanding with me.” I told them, hugging them even tighter. As we cuddled, I could feel myself begin to drift off to sleep. Shortly afterwards, I could hear my marefriends snoring, so I decided to join them into the dream realm.

“Drak, we’re here.” I groaned, and opened my eyes, seeing Twilight’s eyes staring back at me.

“Uh…I-I’m up, I’m up.” I said, getting myself up. I noticed that Fluttershy and AJ were already up and waiting along with the other girls. I groaned as got up and went to leave the booth. As we exited the train, I made sure to keep my hood on and over my eyes, not to prevent them from being scared of me, but to prevent me from having another panic like the one at the party. I assumed that there would be a lot of ponies, since this was their capitol, and low and behold, I was right. There seemed to be hundreds of them, and the strangest part was that they were all wearing some sort of fancy suit or dress. There were so many of them that I began to shiver even with my hoodie on. Luckily, both AJ and Fluttershy knew that this might happen, since we did talk about this on the train, and were next to me the whole time, comforting me. However, I could still see a lot of the ponies were staring at me, and unlike the ones in Ponyville, these ones were not so nice with their comments.

“Why, what a dreadful creature! It looks like a mutated Diamond Dog.”

“Looks more like some sort of hairless ape to me!”

“How could they let something so disgusting into our city?”

“How repulsive!”

Now normally, these comments wouldn’t affect me in the slightest, but I was already being shaken by the amount of ponies that were already here, so ever so slowly, they began to grind away at my nerves. I didn’t get angry, though, rather, I just tried to make myself smaller. Even with my herd mates with me, I almost didn’t make it to the castle gates I was so scared.

Once we got to the gate, there were a couple of ponies in what I assumed to be guard uniforms, and they were each holding up a spear. As we passed them, they crossed their spears right before I could get by them, and one of them said, “You will have to leave that thing outside until the Princesses say otherwise.” Before any of my friends could object to this, however, I cleared my throat, slightly startling the guards.

“This ‘thing’ is the reason why were are here, sir.” I said. If they were startled, they kept it well hidden.

“Oh, well our apologies, sir. We just didn’t want anything that could be a possible danger to get by.” Said the other guard. I smiled at them, knowing that there job can be tedious at the best of times.

“Understandable. If I were in your shoes, so to speak, I would have done the same thing.” I said. Apparently, this seemed to have relieved the guards. I assumed that they didn’t want me to be offended, although I rarely get offended when somepony is just doing their job. I just nodded to them and continued along the way with the others.

After a short walk through the hallways, we came across a pair of large doors. One side of the door was white, while the other side was dark purple. Once again, there were two guards standing next to the doors. This time when we tried to enter, they stopped all of us and one of the guards said, “You need to leave your weapons here.”

I sighed at this, but knew that I should cooperate. “I hope I get them back.” I said to them, handing them my staff and my sais. Once that was done, we all headed through the doors and into a big room.

The room was enormous, and it had all sorts of murals depicted on the windows. I assumed that they were about famous past events of their history. In front of us stood two thrones, both of which were currently occupied. Sitting on the thrones were the Princesses. One was white with a diluted rainbow mane and tail that seemed to move on its own, while the other one was a dark purple, with a mane and tail of that like the night sky, which also moved on its own. The white one’s cutie mark was the picture of the sun, while the purple one’s cutie mark was the picture of a crescent moon. The most unusual thing, though, was that they both had a pair of wings and a horn. I couldn’t think of what they might be called. One thing that did strike me odd, though, was their eyes. While I was only able to take a glance from each of them, for me it was still enough.

The white one’s eyes were a light pink color, and they radiated an authority not to be trifled with. However, I could see that they held no malice; rather she produced a sort of motherly aura, giving the sense of comfort and caring. The purple one, though, was a different story altogether. Her eyes were a cyan color and I could sense a sort of…longing…a longing for something. I couldn’t really describe it any more then that, for as soon as I tried to figure out what that feeling was, I saw that all of the other ponies were bowing done to the two. Being the kind soul that I am, I joined them on the floor, bowing to the two Princesses as well.

“Rise, my little ponies, and rise human, for you are not one of our subjects, and therefore you are not required to bow to us.” Said the white one, in a motherly tone. I did what she said, as did the others, but I kept my head down slightly, so they wouldn’t be able to see my face. I noticed that they got off of their thrones and began to descend the platform that they were on, probably to get a better look at me. I also noticed that Twilight was trying to hold something back, I assumed that she was trying to hold the urge to run up to the Princesses and give them a hug, which made me chuckle a little. As they got closer, I saw that their size was much bigger then the other ponies, with the white one being a head higher then me, while the purple one was about my height. Once they were next to me, I took a step back to try and ease the tension that was beginning to build up inside of me. I saw them pause, a look of confusion and possible slight worry on their faces.

“We will not hurt thou, we merely wish to see thy face.” Said the purple one, in an old English kind of tone. At this, I cocked my head, finding the accent to be rather curious, and said, “I do not mean to be rude, You Majesties, I just don’t like being crowded by so many new ponies at once.“

“Well, first of all, you may call me Celestia, and my sister Luna.” Said the white pony. “And second of all, may I ask why you feel uncomfortable being so close to ponies?” the white one, now known as Celestia, asked.

“Well, it’s just new ponies, for a start.” I said, and then began to explain to them my phobia and how it worked, as well as why I wore my hood up. After a while, I felt comfortable enough to show my face, but I still kept the hood on. Once I was done finishing my explanation, they both had a look of sadness to them, more so from Luna than her sister, though.

“Thou must have had a terrible life, then. Even we need to be with others. We have never seen something like thou before.” I raised my eyebrows, once again at her accent. She appeared to have noticed before I could recover, and asked, “Doth thou find our accent amusing?”

“W-well, n-not to be rude, Your Majesty…I mean, Luna, but it is kind of distracting.”

“Well, we…I mean, I am sorry, for I have not been back here for a long time, and sometimes I just go back to how I talked before. It is a habit of mine. I do apologize if I have offended you in any sort of way.”

I chuckled at this, saying, “Actually, far from offending, I kind of find it to be rather cute.” As soon as I said that, Luna began to blush.

“Y-you think m-my accent is c-cute?” she stuttered. I nodded, and then I remembered something that Twilight told me on the train. “I just remembered, you two both raise the sun and the moon respectively here, am I right?” I asked them, to which they nodded.

“Yes, I raise the sun, while my sister raises the moon and stars.” Said Celestia.

“In that case, I must thank you, Luna, for doing such a wonderful job with the night sky. Back were I was from, the night skies, at least what I can remember of them, were not even half as pretty as yours are. Whenever I have a hard time sleeping, which is a lot usually, I’m always begging myself to try and go to sleep, for you see I have a bit of sleeping trouble, which always made it a pain to fall asleep. However, I will be able to enjoy the nights much more now, thanks to your artwork, for it is truly a masterpiece.” I said, putting as much emotion as possible into my little speech. The entire room was quiet for a few seconds, all of the ponies were looking at me with a little surprise, probably from me saying that I have a hard time falling asleep most of the time. Celestia had a smile on her face, while Luna’s face was one of shock and disbelief. After a few seconds, I started to get worried that I might have stepped over the line.

“I-I’m sorry if what I said was offensive, but-” I tried to explain, but before I could finish, Luna grabbed me around the neck and embraced me in a tight hug. I was shocked, to say the least. Not only was the Princess of the Night hugging me, she was crying into my shoulder as well. Unfortunately, it was my wounded shoulder, and I gave a small hiss when she put too much pressure on it. She didn’t seem to notice, however, and continued to sob into my shoulder. Celestia did notice, though, and immediately said, “Luna, careful!” Luna heard this, and finally noticed my pained expression on my face, and immediately removed her head from my shoulder and relaxed her grip on me, not fully releasing me though.

“I-I’m sorry. I-it’s just that, n-no pony h-has ever said s-so m-much about my night sky a-and m-my work, a-and…I j-just…” Luna stammered. She became quiet for a second, tears threatening to come out again before she looked back at me. That was when I noticed the feeling in her eyes again. It was that look of longing. It was then that I knew what she was longing for.

She was longing to be loved and to have her work admired by somepony.

As I looked into her eyes, I could tell that she was looking at me right in my own eyes. I smiled, knowing what I should do, and gently moved her head onto my uninjured shoulder.

“There, the other shoulder was just messed up. You can continue if you want to.” I whispered to her. She was silent for a moment before she immediately began where she left off, while the whole time I was just comforting her, saying words of comfort and slowly rubbing her back, being careful of her wings. This seemed to do the trick, and she slowly calmed down to the point were she was just sniffling a little. The whole time, not a single pony said anything. I took a quick glance at my marefriends and saw that they were…happy? Whatever the case, I noticed that Luna was lifting her head from my shoulder long enough to look me back in the face. I looked in her eyes and saw that she was feeling a little better then before.

“Better?” I asked her, and she nodded. I motioned for all of us to sit on the floor, since my legs were starting to feel like they were falling off. As we sat down in a circle, Luna, for some reason, stayed next to me, while my herd mates sat on the other side of me. She even leaned against me and placed her head onto my unwounded shoulder, letting off a sigh of content. I tried to see if they were upset by what just happened, but AJ simply said, “Don’t worry about it, partner. We’re more then ok with this.” I simply nodded, then I heard Celestia ask me, “So, why is your shoulder ‘messed up’ as it were?” I sighed and began to tell them everything that has transpired so far, from when I first woke up in the Everfree Forest to when I got my job at the spa (minus a few intimate details, of course). As I got to the Manticore attack, Celestia asked if she could see my wound. I had to move Luna off of my shoulder for a second, which she did with great reluctance, and removed my hoodie, feeling comfortable enough to do so. Once they saw my bandages, Celestia’s eyes went wide with surprise, while Luna was almost in tears again. I quickly tried to comfort her before that could happen, though.

“Hey, don’t worry about it. I didn’t even feel it at the time.” I said, to little effect, however.

“S-still, it must be painful to have such a wound on you.” Said Luna, a few tears in her eyes. “I-if you want me to, I-I could heal it for you. It will still leave a scar, but the pain will be gone.”

I didn’t even have to think before answering her. “I would love it if you did that, Luna” I said to her, which made her blush a little. After a few seconds, her horn began to glow, as well as my shoulder and bandages. After another few seconds, the glowing ceased, and with the help of Luna and Fluttershy, I was able to get the bandages off of me. Once they were off, all that was left were two large scars running down my shoulder. I moved my arm around to see if it was better, and to my surprise, it was in perfect working condition. I smiled and gave a big hug to Luna, saying, “Thank you.” She blushed even more at this and nuzzled into my hug, which made all of the others, even Celestia, go ‘aw’. I just blushed at the attention that I was getting, so I continued my story from were I left off. When I got to the part of the sleepover, and when I got my first two marefriends, Luna’s ears perked up at this, and I thought I saw something like excitement from her eyes, but it was so brief that I thought that I imagined it.

As I finished my story, Celestia had a smile on her face, and said, “Well, I’m glad everything worked out in the end, and you even got a couple of marefriends in the process, and they’re two of the Elements of Harmony, no less. You should be proud, all of you.” When she mentioned the ‘Elements of Harmony’, I got a curious look on my face.

“Uh, what are the Elements of Harmony, if I may ask?” I asked.

“Well, the Elements of Harmony are the most powerful known magic in the world, and they can only work when they are together. There are six of them in total. Your friends here each carry an Element, Fluttershy holds the Element of Kindness, Applejack holds the Element of Honesty, Twilight holds the Element of Magic, Rarity holds the Element of Generosity, Pinkie Pie holds the Element of Laughter and Rainbow Dash holds the Element of Loyalty.” said Celestia, gesturing to each of the respective Element Holders. I was quiet as I processed this new information, and then I finally said, “Well, I guess that makes sense…kind of…” They laughed at this, and I joined them shortly afterwards.

Suddenly, Luna let out a loud yawn. “Well, looks like somepony is tired.” I said, smiling. Luna blushed, and she slowly nodded, saying, “If you don’t mind, sister, perhaps we can continue this discussion at breakfast tomorrow?”

“I agree, for it is getting quiet late.” Said Celestia, giving a yawn herself. “You girls know were your old rooms are, right?” she asked the Elements. They all nodded. “Good, so the only problem is were will Drakalian be sleeping?”

“Thou can sleep with us!” Shouted Luna, then, realizing what she said, quieted down and said, “I-I mean…”

I chuckled and quickly patted her on the head, saying, “Don’t worry, I know what you meant. And I think that it’s all right with me, as long as it’s all right with my marefriends. AJ, Fluttershy, is this alright with you two?” I asked them. They both nodded. With that said, we all got up and began to head for our separate rooms.

As we went to our rooms, Luna would walk close to me, even making us bump into each other a few times. Each time we did, I would quickly glance at her and I would see her blushing like mad. I was curious as to what was going on, but before I could ask her about it, we arrived at the rooms. The rooms themselves were pretty spacious and I thought that they looked like some of the best rooms that I have ever seen before. As my herd mates and friends entered their rooms, Celestia, Luna, and I began to head out to their rooms; Fluttershy and AJ stopped me. I looked at them, thinking what was up, before AJ spoke quietly so that only we could hear her.

“Ah just want to let you know, that if it comes up, she is more then welcome to join us.” This caused me to raise an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?” I asked her. This time, it was Fluttershy who spoke.

“W-well, she hasn’t been on the best of terms lately with most ponies. T-they never really gave her much of a chance. Also, y-you might have n-noticed that she seems to have taken a l-liking to you already.” She said, blushing slightly. That was when I realized what they were talking about: they were saying Luna, the Princess of the Night, might actually have a crush on me, just because I complemented her beautiful nights.

“W-well, I’ll see where it takes us, but no promises, ok? I don’t want to hurt her feelings, that’s the last thing that I want to do to anypony.” I said. They nodded and began to walk to their rooms.

“Drak, w-why did you stop. O-our rooms are t-this way.” Said Luna, stuttering almost as bad as Fluttershy. I just smiled and patted her mane, which she seemed to enjoy immensely, and said, “Just some herd stuff. You don’t have to worry yourself about it.”

“Oh, well, if you’re ready then.” She said, blushing a little again. I raised an eyebrow, thinking, ‘Wow, she really does have a crush on me. But the next question is, how do I feel about her?’ “Well, lead the way, Princesses.” I said in a playful tone, causing a giggle from Celestia and more blushing from Luna. We began to head towards their rooms, with Luna still walking close to me. We finally came to a room that had a pair of white doors; I assumed that it was Celestia’s room. As she began to enter the room, she paused and turned around, saying, “One more thing. Pinkie told me to tell you two something.”

“Well, what is it, Tia?” Asked Luna, curious as to what it could be. I too was intrigued, for I didn’t recall asking Pinkie for anything.

“She said something along the lines of ‘don’t do anything I wouldn’t do’ or something like that.” This caused both Luna and I to blush profusely. Which in turn made Celestia chuckle a little. As she entered her room, Luna nudged me slightly towards her room, and we began our walk there in silence.

We soon entered a room that had a pair of dark purple doors; the inside of the room was amazing; it seemed like somepony took part of the night sky and placed it into this room. I also saw next to the door that my bow staff and sais were here; apparently somepony was told that I would be sleeping here for the night and brought my weapons back up here. Luna apparently saw my look of amazement and giggled slightly, saying, “Doth thou like our room?” I just nodded, which caused more giggles to erupt from the Night Princess. As we walked in, I decided to get myself comfortable by taking my hoodie off. As I took it off, I sensed that I was being watched, so I turned and I saw Luna, staring intently at my body. I smiled, and flexed my muscles slightly, saying, “Enjoy, the show, Luna?”

She blushed even more and quickly looked away. I was worried that I might have offended her, so I tried to apologies to her. “Hey, I’m sorry if I embarrassed you, I was just-” before I could finish, though, she quickly placed a hoof onto my mouth, saying, “We did enjoy thou’st show.” Now it was my turn to blush. Before I could recover, Luna gestured towards the balcony just outside of her room, saying, “Wouldst thou like to see us raise and lower the sun and moon?” I nodded and followed her towards the balcony. Once we were out, I had a grand view of the entire city. I could even see Ponyville from here the view was that incredible. When I looked next to us, I could see Celestia on an adjourning balcony, preparing herself like Luna was.

Slowly, their eyes and horns began to glow, and I swore I could have sensed a surge of power moving around me. As I watched, I saw the sun gain a larger glow then before, and slowly, began to sink in the sky. Once the sun was completely engulfed by the horizon, I saw the moon, with a similar glow on it like the sun, begin its steady accent towards the heavens. As the moon moved, I could see stars beginning to blink into existence, first by the tens, then by the hundreds, before there were literally thousands of stars painting the night sky. As I stared, I noticed that both Luna and Celestia were done, and as I went to look at Luna, a small gasp escaped my lips.

The moon had apparently stopped right behind her, making her form become outlined by it. She seemed to have gained an alluring sense of beauty and passion around her, that I couldn’t even take my eyes off of her. As she began to look at me, I saw her eyes filled with content for a split second, her amazing cyan eyes that seemed to glitter as if the stars themselves were trapped within. She began to chuckle at me and with her hoof, she closed my gaping mouth that I didn’t even noticed was open, and said, “Didst thou enjoy our show?”

I shook my head for a second to clear it, and then said, “That was the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen. You have to be a goddess to even attempt a feat such as that.”

She giggled at this, saying, “Well, technically, we are goddesses, my sister and I. She is the Goddess of the Sun, while I’m the Goddess of the Moon.” I raised my eyebrows at this.

“So, what have you done during your time as the Goddess of the Moon, if I may ask, for I have never been able to talk to a deity before.” I asked her. Suddenly, she gained a mournful expression on her face, and slowly she went to sit down on her bed. Curious, and also wanting to help, I went down to sit next to her.

As I sat down next to her, I could see that she was beginning to cry again, so carefully, I brought her into another hug like before, and she embraced me back, taking deep breaths as I tried to calm her down. “Hey, if it hurts you too much to answer…” I began to say, but she stopped me, saying, “No…I…I want to tell you. A-after all, y-you have…been s-such a n-n-nice f-f-friend to m-me.” So she began to explain how, one thousand years ago, she became jealous of her sister, for all of the ponies would always walk around in her sunlight, but sleep during her nights. It was around then that her jealousy grew so much that it became an entity of its own. This new Luna, called Nightmare Moon, began a campaign to raise the night sky all across Equestria and to make it night for all of eternity. The only way that she was stopped was when Celestia, her own sister, banished her to the moon. For one thousands years, she lived there, with nothing, not a single soul, all alone on that cold bleak space rock. She literally just came back because she was somehow able to escape the imprisonment, but was turned to normal when Twilight, along with the other Elements of Harmony, were able to turn her back into Luna. This happened just a few years ago, yet she still remembers the day that her sister banished her to the moon like it was yesterday.

“I r-remember her looking at me, with sadness, regret, but most of all…disappointment.” She said, the tears flowing freely now. It was one of the saddest stories that I have ever heard, and it even brought me to the edge of tears. At this point, I couldn’t take it anymore, and I quickly embraced Luna, who did the same to me, and quietly we both began to cry. We stayed there for what felt like thirty minutes until Luna felt well enough to loosen her hold on me, but she still held onto me while I did the same to her. She sniffled a few times, before she nodded her thanks to me. I just slowly rubbed her mane to calm her down even more, and said, “Luna, if it makes you feel any better, I don’t judge what someone-”

“Somepony.” Said Pinkie out of nowhere, before disappearing again. Fortunately, I was already used to that so I just continued with my talk. “-What somepony does in their past, but what they do to redeem themselves in the future. You were not in a clear thought of mind during the time, even I could tell, and I still want to think of you as the Princess of the Night. Not only that, but I hope that we could also be the best of friends.” I paused when I said this, expecting to see some reaction, and what I got was what I expected. She began to look happier, but at the same time saddened when I said that I wanted to be her friend. Before she could recover from it, though, I said, “…Unless, you want to be something more.”

She looked at me in surprise then realizing that I found out about it, she said, “H-how did y-you know?”

“Well, AJ told me, actually. I was too thick headed to notice.” I said, getting a small giggle out of her. “But in all honesty, can you tell me how you feel about me?”

She was hesitant at first, and then with a sigh, she began to explain her reasoning. ”W-well, t-truth is, e-even though w-we just met e-each other t-today, I have been w-watching you ever s-since you first slept here in Equestria. I must be honest, I was worried that you might bring harm to our subjects, but when I saw your dreams, I noticed that you had nothing but kindness in your heart, as well as a will to defend those that meant the most to you.” I smiled, for she perfectly explained what it was that made me, well…me. “So, when I noticed that you were coming over here I became so nervous, because I really wanted to make a good impression so that you would think that…well…I’m not some sort of…bad pony…I guess.” as she quieted down, we both stared into each other’s eyes for what felt like forever, until I asked her, “Luna, m-may I kiss you?”

She was startled to say the least, and then she slowly nodded. Slowly, our lips touched one another, and once again, I felt the so-called fireworks from the touch of her lips on mine. It was a short one, for she was still very nervous about the situation. Our lips just slowly brushed up against one another, sliding off of each other with ease. After a few seconds, we slowly broke the kiss, and once again looked into each other’s eyes.

“So, what do you think of me now?” I asked her, a small smile on my face. Luna was quiet, just looking into my own eyes, thinking. After a minute, she finally spoke.

“Even though you just met me, I…I…I r-really think…I think I love you, Drakalian.” She said, still staring into my eyes.

I got a bigger smile when she said that. “Good, cause I would love it if you would join our herd, Princess Luna.”

Luna was quiet, her eyes widened with surprise. “D-do you mean it?” She asked.

“It would be thy own honor if thou’st would join thy herd.” I said, talking in her accent. Once I said that, Luna just held me in a death hug, repeatedly saying, “Yes, yes, yes, yes!” I just chuckled and hugged her back. After a few minutes of hugging, Luna released me a little, realizing something. “W-wait. What about your other herd mates?”

I shook my head. “They were the ones who told me to have you join our herd, and trust me, I’m glad they did, otherwise I would have never noticed what a beautiful pony you really are.” That got another blush from Luna. I decided that we were up long enough and motioned for us to go to bed. I had to get out of bed for a second to take my shorts off, which caused Luna to blush even more. We then crawled under the covers of her bed, and then we began to cuddle, finding warmth in each other. We were quiet for a few minutes, before Luna broke the silence. “Drak, c-can I ask you something?”

I looked at her, and she continued her question. “W-well, I w-was j-just wondering if…well…we could…k-k-kiss again, please?” I smiled at her and brought my face closer to her, whispering, “You don’t even have to ask.”

She smiled, and once again, we were kissing each other, our tongues this time were slowly, almost timidly, touching each other. Our hands and hooves caressed the other as we made out with each other. We both moaned into the kiss as we slowly let sleep overtake us.