Chapter 5 - Phase 1 - Twilight Sparkle

"Twilight!" Spike yelled while running towards Twilight, holding parchment, quill and ink in his claws.  "You almost forgot your-" Spike cut himself short upon seeing who was before him, he slowed his approach to Twilight and stood to her side bowing his head. Twilight stood dumbfounded, her jaw agape in sheer awe at the Alicorn stood before her.  She had not seen this pony since the defeat of Nightmare Moon one year ago, and in lieu of any form of progressive thought that might aid her in this situation, Twilight could only stare at the princess.

"Twilight, Twilight Sparkle?" asked Luna, unsure of what to make of the Unicorns gaze.  Twilight remained confused, in awe of the situation she did not know how to address.  She had not been visited by Luna before, yet, why would she be?  Should she have been expecting this visit?  Had it slipped her mind? Had something happened to Celestia? Were she and Luna... Friends?  A whirlwind of thoughts stormed through Twilights mind, forcing upon the many questions she could not answer, and through this silence a concerned Spike turned his head up at Twilight.

Luna, left unanswered, became too nervous and quickly thought of a way to leave.  "Oh, I'm sorry, I must have gone to the wrong place.  Please excuse me." She slowly backed herself out from the doorway,  and with Twilight still stood motionless, Spike decided to intervene.

"Wait...Princess Luna!" called Spike, raising his head and delivering a sharp jab of his elbow into the stomach of Twilight's still unconscious body.  The purple Unicorn suddenly awakened as her dragon ran through the door after Luna.  "Wait!" he called a second time, the princess could move faster than he had thought.  "Princess Luna, come back!" Finally hearing the call, Luna turned her head to see the small purple, green spiked dragon running after her, and to Spikes surprise, Luna stopped, allowing him to crash straight into her hind legs.  Spike bounced from her and landed on has back.

"Oh no, I'm so sorry!" Luna quickly turned and lowered her head to see a dizzy Spike, clambering back to his feet, trying regain his balance.  "I didn't mean to, I-"

"Princess Luna, you did find the right house...ah, library." Spike interrupted, ignoring her attempts to help him.

"I, er-" hesitated Luna, but before she could reply, Spike had grabbed on to her hoof and began luring her back over to the library.

Twilight, onlooking from the doorway, quickly realised what she had done, she had just shunned her royal guest, a princess no less.  Shaking her head of any conflicting thought, she quickly ran over to the princess, greeting her in a most apologetic way possible.  "Princess Luna, I'm sorry, where are my manners?" she chuckled awkwardly.  Spike continued to pull Luna towards the library with Twilight now facing Luna and pacing backwards herself in with them;  while Luna, trying to get a word in, but finding no openings through the noise of Twilight's apologetic ramblings, could only whimper as she was steered back into the library.

"...anyway," said Twilight eventually calming herself, stopping her parade of apologies to politely address the princess as she would any friend.  "what brings you to Ponyville, Luna?" On deliverance of this frighteningly guilty yet warm reception, Luna decided to forget any first impressions from her arrival and hesitantly began her somewhat confused response to Twilight's question.    

"Oh, you haven't received the letter from Celestia yet?" asked Luna in fear that her plan had failed.  Meanwhile, a busy Spike who had just finished putting the last book that Twilight had left out back on to the top shelf, was now grabbing his stomach in pain.  Balancing on the top step of the ladder, Spike tried to make his way down before unleashing a fiery belch, which in all it's force, propelled himself off and left him hitting the floor with a crash.  As several of the books toppled back down, Spike let out another burp, and all at once a large scroll materialised in front of him.    

"Letter?" Twilight replied.  "But I haven't gotten any letters Princess Celestia today." Luna gulped, her plan had failed, but before she managed to sum up the confidence to explain herself, she was interrupted yet again.

Now buried under a pile of fallen literature, a weak and dazed dragons voice pierced through as Spike tried to climb his way out. "I think she means...this one." a scroll was launched out from the pile of books, landing next to Twilight.  Looking curiously at the scroll then back to the princess, Twilight's face was consumed with confusion while Luna only gave a worried smile, encouraging her to open it.  Twilight shook off this confusion, only to be met by it once again as she opened the unusually large scroll.

The scroll was at least four times larger in width than any other scroll she had received before and the writing looked as if it had been written not by quill, but by thick marker pens instead, while the handwriting was also...quite unnerving. Bewildered, Twilight couldn't help but to look over the letter to Luna and ask, "Is Princess Celestia...feeling okay?"

Luna had not expected this so could only reply, "Please, the letter will explain." Twilight lifted the scroll back into her face and buried her nose into it, every so often glancing back to a now reassured Princess Luna.

Now perhaps it was her social incapabilities which lead to Luna's overconfidence in this letter, or perhaps the hundreds of scrawled up pieces of paper she had used for practice attested to what she thought was now a flawless imitation of Celestia's handy work; either way, for Twilight to read this and believe that Princess Celestia could ever have written something so ghastly, would take a miracle.  

Before you read on, it's important to note the Princess Luna had not written a single letter, let alone even picked up a quill for the last one thousand years, and that whatever merit of penmanship or knowledge of spelling she had attained, has since diminished to what can only be described as a pre-school level of writing.  

The letter read something like this-

My deerist and most fatefull stewdent Twilite Sparcal,

as you no, the time for the Summer Sun Selebrayshon will soon be upon us.  I no you have been very bizzy with your studys on frendship as you continyoo to impres me with the lessens you have lerned with eech letter I receve.  With this in minde, I have disided to send a sertan sumpony to help with the preperayshons for the selebrayshon, the locayshon of witch has now been revised to take place in Ponyvill.  I hope this newz brings you peese of minde and alow you to enjoy yourself up to and threw the coming selebrayshons.

As she finished reading, the scroll rolled up before her.  Twilight didn't know what to think, was this supposed to be some kind of practical joke?  She looked puzzlingly over to Princess Luna who had had been wearing a long dumb smile across her face the entire time.  Trying to make the best of the letter, Twilight pieced together what little information she could.

"So...The Summer Sun Celebration is being held in Ponyville?" Luna with closed eyes kept her smile and began nodding her head.  "And Celestia sent you..." said Twilight carefully as Luna continued to nod as she spoke.  "...to help with the preparations?"  

"Yes, she thought it would be best if I see over the preparations personally." said Luna with little emotion, almost as if she was reading from a script.  Pushing any doubt aside and deciding to take the word of a princess, Twilight put the letter out of her head and tried once more to pretend this was just another visit from one of her friends.

"That's great!" cheered Twilight, trying her best to feel something for this strange conversation as Luna closed her eyes and smiled again in triumph. "Well, there's a lot to do this time of year, especially with such short notice.  I'm sure you'll be very busy helping everypony with preparations."  Luna, still with closed eyes, who had forgotten she was in mid conversation with somepony, carried on smiling, now with her tail wagging through the air.  Twilight waited for her, but with no response, decided to carry on the conversation. "So...Where will you be staying, Luna?"  The sound of her name snapped the princess out of her trance, making her to recoil as if she had just been woken up.  

"Ah-" Luna hesitated, she had not given this much thought to her plan and before searching her mind in hopes to find some answers, Twilight helpfully interrupted.

"You can stay here if you like, I have a spare bed you can sleep in if Princess Celestia forgot to find you a place." Twilight became excited for a moment in hopes of a slumber party which were quickly dashed, knowing a princess would never agree to such a thing.

"Oh yes, that would be nice." agreed Luna, who's tail once again began moving from side to side.

"Great! you make yourself comfortable, I'll go find the extra blankets." and though it wasn't anywhere near time for bed, she would have said anything to get out there and finally have a chance to clear her head.  So with that, Twilight trotted off upstairs.  Seeing a chance to talk himself up in front of royalty, Spike, who was busy on the top step of the ladder putting away the books that had fallen, started speaking loudly.

"So Princess Luna, I don't know if Twilight told you this, but if you ever want something done around here, you'll wanna talk to this guy.  see, I don't put Twilight down or anything, but when there's work to do, she's not always up to the task, and talk about Clum-sy!  Yeah, you need something doing, I'm is the dragon for the job." Spike finished and started making his way down the ladder, but without any reply, started up again.  "I mean sure, Twilight is great at studying and she can do the little things, but when it really comes down to it-"

"Spike," interrupted Twilight, sighing under her breath. "Luna already left."  Spike reached the bottom of the ladder and turned to face an empty room with Twilight standing halfway down the stairs.  Chuckling slightly, Spike looked up at Twilight while rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ah...You didn't happen to hear all that stuff I just said, did you?"