I was coming home rather late at night. I had intended to be home much earlier, but apparently a massive order had come in for Sugarcube Corner and I was the first person Pinkie had run into who she trusted to know which end of a whisk to stick in the bowl. Unable to turn down Pinkie’s puppy eyes even on the best of days, I soon found myself up to my eyeballs in various batters and creams.

The amusing part of that statement is that you can’t even know if I’m exaggerating or not because Pinkie Pie was involved. Anyway, I was coming home after a long day slaving over a hot oven alongside the Cakes and Pinkie. Truthfully, I didn’t mind it. Cooking has always been something I enjoy…just not the cleanup afterward.

I’m getting off topic again. I arrived home to find Thistle still awake. This in and of itself was rather odd, as the dryad was typically asleep as soon as the sun went down and that had been hours ago. What was even odder was that she was staring through one of my windows with hawk-like determination.

“Thistle? What are you doing up?” I asked as I approached. She didn’t answer me directly. Instead she settled herself for muttering darkly about ‘shouting loud enough to wake the dead’ and ‘inconsiderate meat bags’.

Getting a response like that, I was starting to get a little worried. So I entered the house and found Fluttershy sitting on one of my couches with Luna asleep while resting her head on Fluttershy’s lap. The mystery deepened, as Luna was supposed to be in the middle of Night Court.

“Welcome back Ranma,” Fluttershy greeted quietly as she gently brushed Luna’s hair.

“So Thistle is outside wishing death upon us all…care to explain?” I asked.

“Luna had a rough night at court. A noble wanted her to rearrange the stars for his birthday. The astronomy guild somehow caught wind of this and unsurprisingly was not fans of the idea. Rather than let Luna decide, the two parties spent the better part of two hours in a shouting match without letting Luna get a word in,” Fluttershy explained, “Eventually she got fed up, kicked them all out, and came here.”

“I imagine the Royal Canterlot Voice was employed?” I asked dryly Fluttershy nodded.

“Thistle came to get me after Luna woke her up and you can probably guess the rest,” Fluttershy replied.

“Sounds like Luna could use some good, old fashioned comfort food,” I said and I moved to the attached kitchen, “Are you hungry Flutters?”

“I wouldn’t mind something to eat, but haven’t you been helping Pinkie cook all day?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yup, but I don’t mind. Making something nice for my girlfriends, especially after one of them has had a hard day, is more than enough reason to do this,” I said as I dug out some boxes of elbow noodles. I could almost hear Fluttershy’s blush. I have such an adorable girlfriend.

Soon I had the noodles boiling away in a pot and a homemade cheese sauce my great grandmother used to make in a separate pot. Nothing says ‘comfort food’ like home made mac and cheese. Ideally I would’ve made the noodles myself too, but this hadn’t exactly been planned for.

As I was about to set everything to simmer until it was done, Fluttershy spoke up.

“Ranma..?” She called out hesitantly.

“What’s up?” I asked as I adjusted the heat on the stovetop.

“I…I think there’s something else wrong with Luna,” She said quickly and I came over, concerned she might be developing a fever or something.

“What is it?” I asked with concern.

“It’s…hard to tell through all the eye shadow she normally wears but…if you look carefully under her eyes...” Fluttershy trailed off. I was feeling more than a little confused, but examined the area under Luna’s eyes as best I could.

At first, nothing jumped out at me. She had bags under her eyes something awful, but there was no rash or infection as far as I could tell. Then my subconscious caught it. How were there bags under her eyes? Luna, Princess of the Night and guardian of the Dream Realm, should not be missing enough sleep to have visible dark circles under her eyes. Fluttershy saw my expression as I had my realization.

“There are potions and spells and medicine for helping someone get to sleep and most of them are non-addictive, so there’s no reason for Luna to be suffering from insomnia…unless…” Fluttershy trailed off again and I recalled the Tantabus incident.

“You’re worried she’s using it again?” I asked.

“I don’t know…I want to trust her, but at the same time if she’s hurting herself again, especially now that we’re in a relationship…but if she isn’t and she’s losing sleep for some other, completely innocent reason and I bring it up again she’ll feel like I don’t trust her!” Fluttershy made her dilemma known to me.

“Leave it to me Fluttershy. I’m somewhat removed from the incident, so if I ask she’s less likely to get defensive, if I even have to ask at all,” I assured her.

“Thank you Ranma,” She said, looking relieved.

“No problem. I admit I’m slightly worried myself, if for no other reason than my own history with chronic insomnia,” I told her.

Soon thereafter, the food was ready.

“Luna, it’s time to wake up,” Fluttershy nudged the slumbering princess gently. Luna let out a quiet groan. She clearly wanted to go back to sleep, but her brain had woken up just enough to smell food and her stomach growled. Thus the ancient war between two of the three most primal desires of living things played out once again, the war between the desire for more sleep and the desire for food.

Fluttershy and I watched with a certain fondness as food won the day and Luna groaned louder before sitting up, freeing Fluttershy from her lap pillow duties. She rubbed the bleariness out of her eyes and yawned.

“What time is it?” She asked as she stretched the kinks out of her muscles from sleeping in such an awkward position.

“About half past eleven,” Fluttershy answered. Luna groaned again, this time of annoyance.

“I’m not looking forward to going back to Canterlot. It’s only a matter of time before Tia gives me the whole ‘concerned big sister’ routine,” She grumbled.

“Fluttershy told me what happened. I admit I’m a little concerned myself,” I told her, “Your makeup can’t quite hide those bags under your eyes Lulu.”

“Blame Tia,” Luna said shortly.

“Care to elaborate over a bowl of fresh made mac and cheese?” I tempted her. Another growl from her stomach answered for her.

“Yes please,” Luna blushed. I served up three bowls and we sat at the table to eat. After a few mouthfuls Luna started talking.

“Tia’s decided she want to ‘improve diplomatic relationships’ with the Minotaurs and so is going to spend about a month in their capital, Istanbull...which is right next to some of the best beaches in the world,” Luna told us.

“You think it’s a working vacation?” I asked and Luna nodded.

“I wouldn’t normally begrudge her doing such, but due to how sudden this decision was and how long she’ll be away, I’ve been left holding the bag. I’ve been filling out so much required paperwork and attending to other preparations that even my usual tricks for being active during both day and night are failing me. Thus these circles under my eyes and my temper being somewhat shorter than usual,” Luna explained.

After Luna laid bare her woes, I noticed Fluttershy relax as her fears were laid to rest.

“Well, you should probably apologize to Thistle. If she hasn’t gone to sleep by now, she’s still cursing your name for waking her up,” I told Luna and she grimaced.

“I should, shouldn’t I? Hopefully she can forgive me,” Luna sighed.

“I’m sure she’ll understand,” Fluttershy said optimistically.

After that, the conversation becomes much more mundane. What books we had recently read, what projects we were working on, what mess the Bearers of the Elements had gotten into this week, things like that.

There is a simple pleasure I can’t overstate to talking about nothing in particular with loved ones around a hot meal. Especially for someone like me who spent most of his life the special kind of isolation brought about by my specific mental illnesses and a family that was less than supportive.

If there ever comes a day where I take the companionship of these wonderful people for granted, it will be both a very sad day and a uniquely happy one. It will mean that such feelings of love and companionship will have been in my heart so frequently that it stops being the exception. That loneliness is no longer my constant companion and instead a fading memory...if the day comes that I no longer wax poetic about these feelings in my heart, then I will count myself amongst the truly blessed.

Forgive me, I still don't understand the difference between mascara and eyeshadow, so if I mixed up the two, please correct me.

Nothing else to really report. Still waiting for my sleep doctor to return.