It was nearly midnight at the small train station, a small crowd of ponies were awaiting the late arrival of possible ponies, two which were certain to arrive. Six of the seven mares and the drake were standing off to the side, watching as the newest unicorn in their town paced back and forth, looking down the train tracks, waiting for him to come.

“Sugarcube, calm down, Ah’m sure that the train will be here soon enough.” Applejack looked at her new friend, a bit worried at how angry she was. Sure, she would have been just as annoyed with Big Mac if he dated somepony and didn’t tell her about it, but still this might be a bit too much.

“Indeed, and while it would be nice, the trains hardly ever arrive on time.” Madame Mayor Mare spoke gently, a bit worried about how to deal with citizens of her town, wondering how would they take this news. She still had yet to call a proper town’s meeting as per the Princess, - Princess Celestia she corrected herself, trying to get herself used to the fact there was another princess on the throne now- request to keep things low key for as long as possible. Thank goodness it was Sunday tomorrow so she could get most of them together and get this headache dealt with. Hopefully Princess Luna would not mind the lowly house she had found for her and her guard to use too much and not banish her to some dismal place.

With a sigh, the purple unicorn looked at her friends and the mayor of Ponyville.

“I know, but still girls…” She whined, looking down the track again, ears perking up as the tell-tale rumble of a train approaching was heard. Moving backwards on the platform, the ponies and dragon watched as the train pulled up to the station. They ignored the mass of sleepy ponies walking out, waiting for two certain ponies to step out.

What they got was the loudest, most grating snore from a mouth of mare that was on top of wincing white stallion. Blinking, they stepped back as the Captain of Royal Guards carried out two large saddle bags with the Princess of the Night on his back, her face buried deep into his mane as she slumbered. Her legs, both front and back were draped over his sides, wings slightly fluttering it was fairly common for a pegasi’s wings to twitch as they slept.

It was the very last thing they ever expected from a Princess, and they were stunned for a few moments, which left the stallion blushing as the alicorn began to chew on his mane again. He wasn’t sure if he missed the snoring or not, considering how strong her jaw was. Then again, she sounded like a whole company of lumberjacks when she snored.

It took most of the mares’ strength not to giggle at scene, a lot of their fear and dread seeping away as the blue alicorn began to snore. There was one exception, and she was frowning as she stalked over to the Captain of the Royal Guards.

“Hiya, Twily.” He smiled softly, he almost knelt down to nuzzle her but remembered that he had a very special pony on his back. “How’s my L.S.B.F.F.?” He blinked as she glared at him, pointing a hoof right in his face.

“You’re so lucky that you’ve got the Princess on your back right now or I’d be kicking your hide for not telling me you have a marefriend!” She snarled at him, looking up at Princess Luna. “Wait, why is she on your back Shiny?” She blinked, looking at her friends who were holding back a poor laugh -wait, where was Pinkie Pie?

“I think, darling, that she is sleeping.” Rarity gazed at the gorgeous stallion, a bit miffed that this hunk was already claimed. “I’m certain that introductions are not needed, are they Captain Shining Armor?”

Twilight seemed to blush while her brother grinned at this, the train starting to pull away.

“Well, from what Princess Celestia told me, yes I know who you are, but I would love to hear who you are all from Twily.” He rubbed against her, causing the unicorn to glare at him.

“You mean you didn’t tell him about us egghead?” Rainbow Dash shouted, causing nearly everypony to jump. Princess Luna muttered softly before going back to snoring her head off. “I mean-”

“Ok, ok!” Twilight snapped back, blushing horribly. “I messed up a bit.” She rubbed her foreleg, a bit ashamed that she hadn’t told her family about her friends yet or vice versa. She made a mental note to send a letter to her parents first thing in the morning, telling them where she was and about her new friends! “Shiny, these are my friends Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy.” Each of her friends reached out to shake his hoof, with Rainbow giving a hoof bump to him. “This is Madam Mayor Mare.” She let the mayor give her greetings; a simple nod of the head between two official figures. “And of course you know Spike.”

“Hey B.L.D.B.F.F!” Shining Armor smiled at the drake, wrapping him into a hug.

“Hey B.B.P.B.F.F.!” Spike said, leaning into the hug, very happy despite this close uncool contact.

“BLDBFF?” Dash looked at Twilight, who rolled her eyes at the boys idiocy.

“Best Little Dragon Brother Friend Forever and Best Big Pony Brother Friend Forever.” She muttered, annoyed at the dorkish greetings those two had.

“I don’t know where Pinkie Pie went, though, she was just here…” She turned her head back to her brother, who used his magic to place the alicorn into a more centred place on his back as she started to slip to the side.

“I’m sure she had a good reason Twily.” He smiled, relieved to see that his little sister already had so many new friends and was so quickly aware that one of them was missing. This was a huge sign of growth for his sister in such a short time. “Although, I do think it would be nice to get some sleep.” He turned his head to gesture to the mare on his back, snoring loudly again. “And getting her a proper bed would be a good idea.”

This caused a short amount of giggles, one even escaped the lips of the mayor despite her.

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It was a nice, pleasant, walk towards the centre of Ponyville, with Princess Luna snoring the whole way. They mostly talked about Twilight when was young, her friends asking to hear embarrassing stories which caused the mare in question to blush and glare at her friends and older brother respectively.

The topic shifted to the growing infamous tale of Princess Luna and Shining Armor binge drinking, which Dash was more than eager to learn about which bar had the best booze, Applejack was pleased to hear that her farm’s cider was one which both ponies had loved to the point that Luna had taken the cask of cider with her, and Twilight was aghast to hear her brother had taken the Princess to so many bars!

As they drew closer to the library, they heard a spatter of lips, and one drawn out yawn. Stopping in their tracks, they all turned their attention to the mare who was beginning to rouse.

Lifting the alicorn as gently as he could, Shining Armor placed Luna onto the ground as she started waking up, he made sure that she was standing on her four hooves before letting go of her.

“Nice nap Luna?” He asked in a mild joking manner, ignoring the gasps from the mares around him. Probably not expecting somepony to be so informal with a Princess. Twilight slapped him in the chest.

“YoucannottalktoPrincessLunalikethat!” She whisper shouted at him, furious he would do this to her. Didn’t he have any respect for the Princess?

“Miss Twilight Sparkle, be rest assured it is most fine with Us- I mean, me.” Luna smiled, shaking off her tiredness. She turned her head to Shining Armor and smiled a bit broader. “Yes it was.” She blushed a bit, her forehooves rubbing against each other. “And thank thee- you-, for carrying u- me.” She yawned again, blinking as she tried to wake herself up more.

“It wasn’t a problem, Luna,” Shining smiled proudly, stealing a glance at the looks of surprise the mares were giving him, minus the bored dragon who simply rolled his eyes. “And good job on your language.” He nodded his head, giving the same tone of approval he gave to recruits who did well with a training drill.

“But I still stumbled…” she muttered, taking a step backwards. Her wings were starting to flutter as she started to look to the sides.

“Yes, but you corrected yourself, and you are tired, so that shows me how much you took those lessons to heart.” He smiled warmly at her, which caused her to straighten herself upright and nodding her head in agreement.

“If you say so.” She turned her head to the other mares and the lone drake, giving them warm greetings to which they returned. She gave a short chuckle when Rarity called her Princess.

“As you no doubt heard, my dear little pony,” she turned her head to the side slightly, looking at the white unicorn who was just barely smaller than her. “My princess title is temporarily out of my reach.” She gave another chuckle, feeling herself beginning to relax. “But thank you none the less. I cannot tell you how much it means to me to hear that.” Her laughter died off, looking off to side sadly, wondering if these ponies knew why Celestia and her chose the title of Princess, and why it disgusted her to see a pony like Blueblood to have such a title when he had been through none of the events like they had been through. Cadence she could understand, being an alicorn must have meant that she had done something beyond measure to earn her horn, but she had doubts either of those youngsters knew what it meant to be a Prince or Princess of Equestria.

Or Celestia had lowered the level of acceptance in her absence like she had done for so many other things, like the status of the standing army. Besides Shining Armor and a few other ponies, it was almost deplorable to how soft they had become!

“Luna?” Blinking, Luna shook her head as she saw the others were staring at her confused. “Are ya ok sugarcube?” Applejack blinked and shook her head, blushing at something. “Ah mean, your highness!”

“It is alright Applejack.” She smiled, her own blush growing on her coat. “I was lost in thought over something that Rarity said.” Stepping closer to the apple farmer, she found herself smiling a bit wider to comfort the sacred earth pony, which was working. Tia was right about smiling doing more than the old ways, Luna thought to herself, and that is becoming more natural to do so. “And you need not worry about proper titles like your highness.” Her head dropped a bit, her coat nearly violet now. “And it was nice to be called that endearing title.”

That got her a round of light, caring chuckles from the ponies and dragon around her. It was not mean spirited, hurtful, or condescending at all. It felt like laughter from a group of friends, laughing at one of their friend’s little idiosyncrasies. It was like that exactly!

Letting out another yawn, she turned her attention to Twilight Sparkle. “If you may, I would like to sleep in a proper bed.” Turning her head back to the mayor of Ponyville, she put on a more politically correct face from one official to another. “I do apologize for not being able to properly converse with you-”

“It is alright, Princess.” She smiled softly, shaking her head. There was no real fear of the former Mare of the Moon, not anymore when she saw the mare like this. She was young mare, maybe even a teen, by the looks of it, that was almost dead on her hooves that was trying her hardest to stay awake. She was not the terror that her parents once told her when she was a little filly that was misbehaving, the fearsome monster of Nightmare Night or the pony that attacked her town a few weeks ago. “I see that you need your rest, and trust me, no pony is that good at talking business without some beauty sleep first.”

“Twas the same in our younger days,” Luna shook her head fondly, remembering how Tia would need a good, solid prod to her side to keep her awake when she tried to tend her Night Court for dignitaries that wanted to talk about some border conflicts. “Thank you very much.” She nodded her head, turning her attention back to the door of the library, to which Twilight had long opened. The mare was kind enough to let her go in first, which Luna gladly took.

She stepped into the pitch black room, her night vision starting to kick in when it happened.

“SUUUUURPRIS-

GAAAAAAAA!”

Author's Notes:

Chapter seven is ready to go, buuuuuuuuut Evil is going to be a jerk and wait an hour to post it. Enjoooooooooooy