The sun was slowly setting in the distance. Or perhaps it should be said that Celestia had decided that it was time for night.

Flicking my ears, I approached the entrance of the castle grounds where the outer guard simply gave me a nod before letting me pass onto the grounds as I shivered slightly. It had started getting colder in the evenings. Autumn had surely begun for real.

You would think the guards of a government would be a bit more careful about who they allowed onto the grounds of the seat of government, but apparently not.

But I suppose the Secret Service would also relax a bit if the US President was a genuine divine entity able to control the sun.

But even so, it seemed a bit lax to me.

Then again, not like they let anyone in everywhere, they just recognized me by sight by now. Crossing the grounds, I turned onto another path to the left, giving another pair of patrolling guards a nod as I moved past them.

I had thought about trying to learn their names, but how in the world would I know which was which? Only the officers stood out at all, the rest had their armor which made them look identical.

It didn't take long before I rounded the main castle building and approached Luna's tower, guarded by a pair of her 'bat ponies'.

They were not actually a different subspecies, their armor was just enchanted to change their appearance. Their eyes looked slitted and their wings seemed to be those of bats instead of those of a normal pegasi. Their fur was a dark, dark blue, matching that of Luna herself.

“Blank Page to see Princess Luna.” I said with a nod in greeting as I stopped a couple of meters away.

They looked passively at me for a long moment, just like every other time, before the left one nodded as he moved to pull the door open, allowing me inside. “The Princess is expecting you.”

Heading past them I started walking up the stairs circling the inside of the tower, all the way to the top room where there was another pair of identical guards standing and waiting.

“Blank Page to see the Princess.”

Same passive look before the left one reached to open it for me. “The Princess is expecting you.”

Yes, I know. That's why I'm here. Well, I was here visiting my friend, but that was neither here nor there. I usually dropped by several times a week.

Entering the chamber, I looked around as he closed the door behind me. You would think the chambers of what was effectively the Goddess of the Night would be a lot of dark colors, black, blue.. maybe some red.

...And to be fair, there were a lot of dark colors, especially on the doors and couch and chairs, but the rest was a lot of nice wood, bookshelves and such. A painting of Celestia and Luna together above the couch.

There was two more large doors in the chamber. One I knew lead to Luna's bedchamber, the second lead to the balcony and that one was open. A tray of breakfast was sitting on the table by the couch, untouched so far.

Luna's 'day' was just starting. Raising the moon was the first thing she did after waking up usually. Then she had breakfast before going off to spend some time with Celestia until Celestia went to bed, leaving Luna to her own duties until Celestia woke up and they traded off again, giving Luna the rest of the morning to relax.

Other than the work hours, I could not help but think that Luna had the better end of that deal. Not only did she have to work less, but her hours would mean that fewer people would bother her about stupid things.

Sitting down on the floor, close to the door I waited. I didn't have to wait for long before she entered from the balcony, smiling when she spotted me.

“Page, you made it. We are glad you we-”

“I.” I corrected quickly.

Luna let out an annoyed sound. “ 'I' am glad you were able to come today.”

I shook my head and smiled. “I try, Princess.” I said as I got up, moving over to the table to join her, sitting down on one of the chairs.

“Tea?” she asked and blinked, actually looking a bit sleepy still.

“Yes please, how was your day?”

“...Slept well enough.” She said and focused on adding a bit of tea to her sugar. I couldn't help but look on with slight disapproval.

Having sugar in your tea was one thing. What she was doing was a disservice to the beverage. “Think you have enough sugar in that, Princess?”

That earned me an amused look. She knew exactly what my opinion was on the subject. Other than that, she ignored it and poured my tea, floating the cup over and allowing me to take it with my own telekinesis, keeping a hold until she was sure I had it. She learned that lesson after the first time when I was not quite ready to take a hold and ended up wearing it instead.

Luna had found it hilarious.

Her field felt kind of... tingly. Like feeling stars. Or poprocks.

“How was your research?” She asked as she let go of the cup of tea and I put it down on the table while she laid down on the couch, her cup floating in front of her.

I shrugged. “Okay. Tried at magic again... no real progress. Neither I nor the librarians were able to find the book you recommended. They had never heard of it.”

That earned me a surprised look. “What!? But it is the premier guide to starting to lea... oh. It might be a bit out of date. Well, it used to be very good and very well known.” she finished a bit more quietly, taking a sip from her cup of sugar.

She probably felt as out of place as I did most of the time.

“I have been thinking of seeing if I could take some of the classes with the youn-”

“Aha!” She suddenly exclaimed, surging to her hooves. “We know...” before she paused, “ 'I' know where there should still be a copy! In the royal archives!” before she lowered the hoof that had been pointing at the ceiling. “...I think.” she finished hesitantly.

I couldn't help but grin as I sipped at my tea. “I can take a look before I leave, see if I can find it.”

She sank down onto her couch again and sipped on her tea, floating a apple over to herself. “We will accompany you. We are well aware how difficult the archives can be to navigate.”

I just nodded. They were pretty massive.