Written by RandomString Proofread by Knight of Cerebus

Clouds are remarkably comfortable places to sleep. Both Twilight and Luna were tired from their exertions of the previous day, and both were well protected from the elements.

Princess Celestia was well aware that the show Luna had put on the night before would have exhausted her. When the time came for the moon to be lowered and Luna did not do her duty, Celestia correctly guessed that Luna was sleeping in and discretely did the job herself.

She certainly didn't scry out her sister, out of respect for her privacy and out of a certain trepidation over what she might see. She was, after all, well aware of Luna's sexual preferences, and did not want the sight of that in her head the next time she saw her beloved student; 'Nurse Twilight' was bad enough. She certainly would have done something to wake the couple (probably involving Philomena and perfumed water bombs), were she aware of their situation.

As it was, the sun rose in its usual fashion. Luna unconsciously protected herself from the glare, a reflex built up over ages of pony civilisation. That same shadow she cast naturally protected the little unicorn she was curled protectively around. Neither pony woke until the sun burned through the cloud they were sleeping on.

It was a memorable start to the day.

-------------

Once Spike had been calmed, the search parties had been called back, the embarrassed apologies had been made for the dozenth time and the last innuendo-laden jibe had been delivered with minimal sniggering, Twilight and Luna were each finally able to perform their normal morning routine. Said routine was slightly different from usual, as neither pony particularly felt the need for coffee.

--------------

Twilight and Luna had discussed their plans to shift their sleep cycles into the night with Spike, and he had generously agreed to manage the library in the mornings and early afternoons in return for an increase in his allowance.

Li'l Twi had gotten bored of the snow fairly quickly, and Bally was apparently complaining of shrinkage, so they both stayed in the library to play. Twilight worked at the front desk and consoled herself that the phantasm had yet to learn how to break anything as she galloped around the library floor, chasing after the equally insubstantial Bally.

The highlight of the working day for Twilight was Rarity's visit, when she discreetly dropped off a velvet bag with Twilight. Twilight sat at the front desk for several minutes, casting anxious glances towards the bag and trying to keep a calm facade, before finally breaking and galloping to hide the bag in her laboratory. The patrons noticed none of this.

The highlight of the day for Spike was when Mr Cake dropped off the half-dozen mouth-watering cakes that Luna had ordered at the library. The lowlight followed swiftly after when he found out that none of the cakes were for him.

Twilight was also rather disappointed when she found that none were for her either. Eventually Twilight and Spike's puppy-dog eyes finally wore away Luna's resolve, aided admirably by Luna's own hunger. She put aside one cake for the three of them to share, but insisted that the other cakes be sent to her sister.

"Uh, Luna, are you sure you want to send them to the Princess right now? She will be holding court– This is another prank, isn't it?"

Luna sighed, "Yes, Twilight, it is a little prank. Do not worry, I have not enchanted any of the cakes. The prank is merely the interruption of her daily court for the delivery of a series of cakes, each timed to occur after the flow is expected to cease.

"I had intended for there to be six cakes, so 'Tia would be left waiting for the seventh, but five will work adequately. She will also feel obliged to examine each cake in turn to ensure that it is unenchanted and safe to eat. I am hoping that this will also draw observer ponies' minds to the display I put on yesterday."

"Wait, I don't want to prank Princess Celestia! She might get upset with me."

"Do not worry, dear Spike. My sister will understand: she enjoys a good joke. You will be rewarded for your service as well. See?"

"Oooh, Fire Rubies!"

Twilight decided that she didn't want to be party to the corruption of a minor, and so retreated to her laboratory to work, taking her slice of cake with her.

-----------------

Luna managed to manage the library without incident until it was time to close. Once that was done she went to find Twilight, who was still working hard in the laboratory. She had barely gotten a glimpse of the diamond that Twilight was working on, and a sizeable velvet bag, before she was unceremoniously shooed out.

"No alicorns! Not yet! It's going to be a surprise!"

Casually leaning against the door that had been slammed closed behind her, Luna reasoned with her marefriend.

"Twilight, I've closed the library and raised the moon. It's night time. And we need to prepare for Little Twilight's conversion into a dream entity."

The door swung open, causing Luna to fall through and land on her back. She looked up, startled, to see Twilight beaming down at her with shining eyes.

"Really?! We can do it?"

"Yes, Twilight,” said Luna as she returned to her hooves, “I have made arrangements for her position in the dreamscape and, having consulted your notes, I believe that her promotion will be without any issues. Considering the rate of fade, I believe that it should be done sooner rather than later. We can bind her to Miss Pie on another day, once Little Twilight's essence has acclimatised to the dreaming."

"That's wonderful-"

"YAY! I GET TO BE A NIGHTMARE!"

"I am glad you are excited, but you should know that you will not be a nightmare, Little Twilight."

"Awww. I was looking forward to running around and being scary."

"I hope then that your actual role will be some consolation to you. Whilst in the dreaming, you shall be a guide for foals. As you are already adept at guiding dreamers from one dream to another, you can help out by escorting foals from their bad dreams into Toyland."

"Uh, you spotted that, did you? Aheh heh heh. Um, sorry..."

"What's this?" asked Twilight.

"Um, well, last night I went to visit Pinkie while you were dreaming, 'cos her dreams are better. But we kinda got bored and, um, we sort of went looking for something fun to do..."

"Little Twilight expertly guided Miss Pie directly to Toyland, and from there to the Sweet Factory. All without any mishap, beyond the considerable volume of chocolate that Miss Pie manages to consume whenever she visits the place. Dreams heal over time, and with a little encouragement the Sweet Factory should be fully restored within days," here she turned a sharp look at Li'l Twi, "PROVIDED Miss Pie does not return there for snacks in the meantime."

The foal looked sheepish.

"Considering her skills as a psychopomp, Little Twilight can escort foals from bad dreams before the dreams can become nightmares. It shouldn't be arduous work and she will in effect become a citizen of Toyland."

"Ooh, I get to live with Bally! Yay!"

-----------------

Strictly speaking, the process did not require a mystic circle, robes or chanting, but Li'l Twi insisted. Her infectious enthusiasm even helped lighten Luna's somewhat grim mood, and soon both Luna and Twilight were happily chalking up a mock magic circle in the root cellar, complete with candles, incense and a spellbook on a lectern.

Li'l Twi decided that a large and thick book of carpentry schematics had a suitably eldritch look for the spellbook, which was obviously more important than the actual contents.

Once Luna and Twilight had finished with the chalk their design was so full of mystic symbols that it was more fractal than circle. Li'l Twi tried to argue that she should be on a sacrificial altar in the middle of the circle, but was talked out of it when Twilight pointed out that they didn't have space in the middle of the circle for anything other than a filly and there was no way she was going to redraw the whole thing 'just a little bit larger'.

Li'l Twi conceded the point with good grace, settling instead for three glowing orbs circling above her head as a suitably dramatic setting. The light cast by the globes was rather distracting, but Luna and Twilight were both well practiced at ignoring things.

Twilight was having great fun with the game and broke out her Stawswirl the Bearded robe for the occasion, before noticing the looks she got from her co conspirators.

"Twilight, you do not need to dress up as one of my other lovers in order to impress me. And while I learned to tolerate Starswirl's beard, I do not think that it looks good on you."

Twilight blushed furiously, and quickly shed the robes and beard. Thankfully she had recently purchased a large bolt of blue silk, and, having become somewhat familiar with the enchantments that Rarity practiced at work, was able to fashion some (very) simple robes. She was also able to paint them with silver and gold stars and yet more magical symbols, and soon both mares sported extremely arcane robes that would have been certain to impress any passing wizards.

The next problem was that there were only two spell casters, when every filly (or at least every phantasmal construct in the form of a filly) knew there should be three for this sort of thing. Spike gamely donned another new robe, and promised the air where Twilight assured him Li'l Twi was standing that he was actually an archmage and would have no trouble assisting in their venture.

Luna had walked Twilight through the actual modification of Li'l Twi's spell ahead of time, so all three adepts were able to focus most of their attention on the rather more difficult job of chanting a suitably portentous chant without giggling. Twilight dug up a draconic cookbook that had a recipe for a mixed-gem salad that sounded suitably foreboding to Li'l Twi's expert ear, so she made some copies and handed them round.

Once everything was set to Li'l Twi's satisfaction, they chanted the salad recipe, waved the carpentry book around and gesticulated dramatically as the filly sat in the middle, clapping her hooves with delight.

The actual modification of the spell that was Li'l Twi took about thirty seconds.

The long and dancing shadows from the three light globes were at one instant lighting up a filly beaming from ear to ear and the next found nothing: she was gone.

Luna quickly teleported to the bedroom in order to help Derpy, who was waiting for Li'l Twi in the dreaming, leaving Twilight to tidy up the root cellar with Spike's help. They got about halfway through before Twilight started crying.

"I'm going to miss her," Twilight sobbed as Spike awkwardly tried to comfort her.

-----------------

Twilight had wanted to join Luna and Li'l Twi in the dreaming, but stayed behind for poorly expressed reasons.

Luna returned about an hour later to find Twilight waited nervously in the library main room.

"Well, she's set up in the Dreaming. The fading is completely reversed. She has taken up residence a full-sized playhouse, with plenty of room for her 'Bally' pet. She is showing her usual resilience and seems to be taking to things very well. I left her as she was exploring her new home. She did seem disappointed that you didn't come, though."

"I didn't want to get in the way. I'll meet her soon enough, anyway. I'm glad that everything is resolved. Thank you so much for your help, Luna. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"You are most welcome, Twilight. I like her too."

-------------

It was late, but Twilight needed to adjust her sleep cycle to the hours of daylight and so needed to stay awake. Luna found herself absorbed in a book, reading being something she seldom found time for in Canterlot, and was in the process of catching up with a thousand years of literature. Twilight retreated to her laboratory and continued her work. It was a useful distraction from her thoughts, but she did find herself missing having a lab assistant around who could read her mind and had perfect recall.

----------------

Luna was struggling to give Chorser the attention he deserved. Twilight was working on a private project – 'a surprise'. The diamond could be used for a number of magical applications, as they were useful for holding enchantments and storing power. The bag she had barely seen had definitely been in Rarity's Boutique when she had visited to apologise and purchase Spike's bribe the day before.

Rarity had discretely hidden the bag when Luna had come in. Hmmm.

Luna knew that Rarity had made the naughty nurse's outfit that had been so alluring, and now another transaction involving the seamstress had taken place – a transaction that she was not allowed to know about.

Possibilities swam through her mind as she mentally dressed up Twilight. Policemare Twilight swirled her truncheon suggestively. Scientist Twilight grinned over a smoking-hot beaker as her figure-hugging lab coat showed off her smoking-hot body. Wonderbolt Twilight, complete with butterfly wings, looked up with tearful eyes and begged for loving care. Sergeant Twilight, with her gleaming breastplate, glared at Luna, threatening all sorts of punishments for lackadaisical behaviour. Luna shivered, losing focus on the world around her as ever more enticing dreams of Twilight paraded before her mind's eye.

Twilight soon came back out of the lab and headed into the root cellar. Luna broke from her reverie, curiosity taking hold. Maybe Twilight was expecting her to follow after her and capture her? A little slave 'uprising' could be fun for both of them until Commandant Twilight restored order, and it wasn't as if Miss Pie was working today...

Twilight came back from the cellar before Luna finished making up her mind, carrying several long bamboo sticks. Luna had already worked out what the bamboo was for when it had been delivered with the rest of the hardware purchase, and her rump was practically aching in anticipation. She would have to be very naughty to be punished with those, and she was already trying to plan out appropriate mischief to earn said punishment. Twilight glanced guiltily at Luna as she headed back into her lab. The door was closed pointedly behind her.

Neighponese Prison Warden Twilight? Thought Luna, thematic revenge for our last night in Canterlot? No, it would be Schoolteacher Twilight. Flexing her cane, punishing the naughty filly who was disrupting class. Luna shivered. With Twilight's passion for learning and order, and her burning need to drive a filly to higher learning, it would be intense.

If she lowered her natural resistance to damage enough to keep it 'real' then her coat might not be enough to cover the healing welts. She could cover them with an illusion good enough to fool anypony other than her sister, but it might be more elegant to purchase a dress from Miss Rarity. Good way to reinforce her apology, too...

It would help keep Twilight interested, and the thought of why she was wearing that dress might excite Twilight, remind her of what it hid. Something modest, for when she permitted Twilight to be in control. It would be easy enough with a few accessories to make the same modest dress intimidating when the tables were turned, and the little minx did love to be intimidated.

Such a dress would be well within the capabilities of her master dressmaker friend. Now, should she purchase it in advance, or allow herself to be caned first and suffer the embarrassment of dress measurement afterwards? Let her friend see what Twilight had done? Give her the thrill of dressing the naughty princess? Twilight would be mortified, of course, but it wouldn't be such a secret between such close friends anyway...

Luna would purchase the dress after her lesson. She was already looking forward to it. She was, in fact, already looking forward to a lot of things, and was even getting a little excited.

It is a good thing, Luna thought, that she didn't fetch the twine as well. Twilight is well read, and probably knows those really rather painful things that can be done with bamboo and twine.

Luna's mind cast back to one of her crueller lovers. The relationship hadn't lasted long, but moments from it lived strong in her memories. Time had softened the sharpness of her thoughts on the topic, and she had, at times, almost thought wistfully of what the stallion could do to her with simple sticks and string.

Admittedly, those times had been whilst she was exiled to the moon and he and his gardening tools were far away in time and space. At the time when she had been with him she had lost her temper, and he had been grateful enough to escape with his life and most of his body.

Her thoughts were brought crashing down as Twilight hurried back to the root cellar, grabbed the ball of twine and retreated back to her lair, without even glancing in her direction. This may get painful thought Luna, and she shivered. Still, it would be good to replace old memories of him with nice new memories of her.

Luna ignored the dampness that was forming on the rug where she was sitting.

Twilight might be thinking of exploring the advantages of a lover who can take incredible amounts of damage, ran Luna's thoughts, I must not forget the magic at her disposal as well. These could just be the physical toys. Think of all the things she can do to the bamboo, the twine, the diamond. The oranges might only be the beginning...

Luna was tending to her excitement with a stray hoof, and Twilight was working in her lab. Luna could not concentrate on the book in front of her, but refused to bring herself to a climax without Twilight's permission. Twilight loved to tease Luna, and satisfying her urges ahead of time would lessen Twilight's opportunity to do that.

Luna spent hours on tenterhooks before Twilight finally opened the laboratory door and peeked her head out.

"Luna, could I have you for a moment, please?"

Luna stood, her stomach fluttering in anticipation and a hind leg threatening to tremble. She relished the feelings coursing through her as she bravely entered Twilight's domain.

Down the steps and inside the laboratory, she found the place well lit and without any obvious scene setting. There was an indistinct pitch black shape on one work desk, with a hint of red within its depths, but it seemed inert. A surprise ambush? thought Luna, Will she launch an attack from behind as I inspect the darkness? Maybe she’ll knock me out... Will I wake up in chains? Mmmm

Stepping into the chamber, steeling herself for anything, she was still unprepared for the black shape to rise up. One leg at a time, the black spider rose to its impressive height. Eight glowing red eyes looked at her from a body that was twice the size of Luna's head.

I have never been cocooned in spider web as a sexual activity before... mused Luna before her mind finally acknowledged that Twilight probably didn't have anything sexual in mind. Well, not right now, at least. The night was still young, after all.

Luna found herself irritated, both with her assumptions and with her bottled up frustration and disappointment. She walked forward to look at the mysterious black object, feeling unreasoningly angry towards it.

The object made an indistinct hissing noise as it swayed, seemingly not in full control of its body. She watched as the spider gained its balance and focused on her. The hissing noise dove up and down octaves until it found a register it liked and then gained coherence. The hiss turned to a chittering which then became a word.

"Huuuugs!"

The spider leapt at Luna.

-------------

"Okay, that didn't go quite the way I had intended. Sorry. Um, you can stop stomping on it now. Luna?"

Luna, breathing hard, finally relented and ceased pounding the remains of the plush spider golem into the wooden floor. The diamond core had escaped unscathed, but the cloth body was little more than shreds, the stuffing was pounded flat, the bamboo leg reinforcements were splinters, the twine that acted as joints was gone, and even the wooden floor beneath had seen better days. Twilight's self-esteem wasn't looking too good either.

"I am sorry, Twilight. I appreciate the thought, but I was not in the best of moods for jocular gifts, it seems. I will essay to repair the damage. Please give me a moment."

"Um, uh, don't worry, Luna. About the repairing, I mean. If I've made it properly..."

Luna turned to look at the wreckage on the floor and noticed with surprise the flickering green magic surrounding it. The splinters and shreds crept together and the spider slowly reformed in front of her eyes.

"You see? It repairs itself from even massive damage. Uh. I wanted to give you something that would last. Longer than I will, anyway,” Luna winced at this, “So, um, I made you a golem. A self-repairing golem. Sort of a toy – or almost a pet. It would learn from experience too, in theory. So, um, it won't jump at you again, I think. I'm really sorry you don't like it. I thought you would like a plush spider."

"Oh Twilight, I am so sorry. I overreacted terribly. It is such a thoughtful gift. I love it. Or, I will if it will let me. It may have only learned that I am something to fear..."

The spider was now fully repaired again, and the green magic plasma subsided. It rose to it's legs and turned to Luna hesitantly. It spread its forelegs wide and chittered, "Hugs?" tremulously.

Luna smiled and brought the spider into a close hug, at which point it chittered happily, embracing Luna with an eight-legged octohug.

"Oh, you do like it. Phew."

"I love it. Thank you. I am very impressed by the self-repair mechanism. How long will it last? How does it work?"

"Well, it should last for a very long time; the central diamond will be hard to damage, and I've given it some extra protective magics. It works by- Well, I imbued the plush superstructure with an alteration enchantment, giving it a pseudo-morphogenic field, similar to standard golem construction techniques, and then imprinted a meta-image of that field onto the diamond spell-matrix.

"When it is damaged, the image is projected onto the structure, and it reforms using locally available material. You could throw the diamond by itself into a fabric store and the spider should walk out, in an hour or so. Probably followed by an irate shopkeeper, of course."

"That is an interesting technique. Where did you get that idea from?"

"Ponyville occasionally gets attacks from timberwolves, so I've been studying them. I've basically modified their self-repair mechanism for this golem. I'm still trying to find the time to write up the paper..."

"What are timberwolves? I have never heard of them."

"Really? That must mean that they post-date, uh, you know. Fascinating. I mean, they're natural animated constructs formed out of vegetable matter, primarily wood, that shapes itself into a lupine form. They exhibit pack behaviour, but 'lone wolves' are not unknown. They are aggressive, with strong territorial instincts, and will attack ponies without provocation. Thankfully their preferred habitat is the Everfree Forest. They are notable for self-reconstructing when damaged."

"How long do they live?"

"My researches have not answered that question to my satisfaction. Eyewitness reports state that multiple wolves can fuse together into a single larger entity, and my own research suggests that separate viable entities can be produced by forcibly dividing them. As they have a non-discrete identity, tracking lifespan is difficult."

"Hmm. Are they nocturnal? Diurnal?"

"Generally crepuscular, but activity has been observed during all periods of day and night. Why so curious?"

"Well, a golem would make a lovely toy, but it isn't really a pet..."

"The spider will learn over time! It should already understand several words: hugs, yes, no, dance..."

The spider stopped hugging Luna and dropped to the floor. It quivered in confusion for a moment before bobbing up and down to a steady rhythm, occasionally kicking out a leg. Luna giggled.

"I'm sorry, Twilight. I love the spider, but sometimes I want to earn something's love and trust."

"Well, we could give timberwolves a try. They smell foul at times; the vegetable matter rots quickly. The aggression may be manageable if we can find or make a cub."

"I'm sure I can mask the smell with a illusion if need be, or just occasionally replace the rotting timber with fresh wood. And when you say 'make', you mean recreating the original spell that created the timberwolves in the first place?"

"Uh, that's a bit beyond me, I'm afraid. I was thinking of capturing a large timberwolf, sedating it somehow and then removing enough branches to form a smaller one. The smaller wolves act in a puppyish manner."

"Let's go hunting!"

------------

Twilight liked to think things through. She liked to plan in advance. Unfortunately, sometimes her enthusiasm got the better of her and she found herself fetlock deep in snow, in the middle of the night, hunting an aggressive apex predator in the Everfree forest. This happened worryingly often.

Twilight would have very much liked to grab her enthusiasm by its ear and point at her current situation and shout, "This is what happens when you win!", but all she could do was sigh.

Luna misinterpreted the sigh and whispered back, "Yes, romantic, isn't it?"

They were in one of the rare forest clearings, examining the stump of a massive fallen tree for the spoor of a timberwolf. The first response that sprang into Twilight's mind was that sniffing a rotting log for the rancid odour of the urine of a cross between a zombie, a wolf and a compost heap wasn't particularly romantic, but when she turned her head to say as much, she stopped.

Luna was practically glowing in the moonlight. She had dropped the Midnight illusion when they entered the forest, and her ethereal mane and tail glittered with a thousand stars. Her dark fur stood in stark contrast to the brilliantly moonlit snow. Her natural and innocent smile, one that was only there for Twilight, warmed her heart.

The duplicitousness Luna had to employ while in Ponyville had been taking a toll on her, Twilight saw. Now that she was back in the night and back in her true form, a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"Yes. Its beautiful" whispered Twilight, before turning back to the log, to look for the particularly rotten and slimy twigs that constituted the majority of timberwolf droppings.

The fallen tree had looked like a good candidate for a timberwolf set, but it was a bust. Leading Luna on to another likely option, Twilight re-entered the overgrowth.

They hadn't gotten far when a distant roar sounded, followed by a brief silence as the usual quiet forest noises ceased entirely.

"Not a timberwolf. Too loud. Maybe something stumbled on a sleeping hydra..."

"Twilight, I do not like to sound like a worry-wart, but do you often wander alone into a monster infested forest?"

"Oh yes. Well, not ‘wander’ as such. My friend Zecora lives out here, and she brews absolutely delicious tea. And there's so much to research!"

Looking back at Luna's alarmed expression, Twilight quickly moved to calm her down.

"Oh, don't worry – it's pretty safe. I usually travel with an invisibility spell and an air-shroud that stops my scent from spreading. Of course, there was that one time I was petrified by a cockatrice, but that was just a one-off."

"A cockatrice! And you were petrified!?"

"I got better," Twilight said defensively.

"Twilight, I am not happy that you risk your life for research and tea. What would happen if you were attacked?"

"Well, normally I'd teleport away, but it's hard to do that when you're being turned to stone, as I found out. Anyway, it's very good tea."

Luna sighed in exasperation, but chose not to push the issue.

----------------

The two mares managed to search the forest for well over an hour before they were attacked. Luna was poking a fallen branch with a stick in the hope that one or the other would animate when a shrieking howl sounded nearby.

She turned her head to see a furry creature that looked like a wolverine crossed with an armadillo launch itself at Twilight's throat. Twilight eeped, and grabbed it with her aura.

"Step to one side, please, Twilight, so that I have a clear shot."

Seeing Luna's lethal intent, Twilight positioned herself directly between the monster and her lover. Luna noted with alarm that the creature's oversized claws seemed to be able to penetrate Twilight's aura, even if the rest of it was held fast. It took a few swipes at Twilight's behind, but couldn't quite stretch far enough to make contact.

"Please don't hurt it, Luna. Fluttershy has taught me to be kind and considerate towards all animals," said Twilight, as the creature struggled to break free and eat her.

"Twilight, you are being unreasonable."

"Pleeeasee..."

Luna sighed with resigned exasperation.

"Very well, I shall attempt to shoo it away. Put it down."

Twilight put down the now slathering beast, which gamely made a lunge for her leg, bouncing off the shield she had erected.

Luna took a deep breath and shouted, "Shoo!" in the full Royal Canterlot Voice. The creature decided that it wasn't that hungry after all, and turned tail and fled as the sound of Luna's shout echoed through the forest.

By the time that they finally found a timberwolf set, it was so late that it was early. They had been attacked by magical beasts three more times. Most attacks had been quickly turned away by a Royal Canterlot 'Shoo!', which worked wonders on almost every poor creature that faced it; the only exception was the land-shark, which required a firm rap to its snout with one of Luna's hooves after repeated shoos had failed to drive it off. If Twilight didn’t know better, she would have sworn that Luna was enjoying herself.

Twilight was trying to work out a method of replicating the effect of Luna's 'shoo' when she noticed that the eyes in the darkness were glowing green this time.

Finally, thought Twilight, the one time I want to be attacked by timberwolves and they take forever to show up.

Luna caught sight of the eyes and tensed with excitement.

The stench of rotting wood wafted out from the darkness as three timberwolves with salivating maws and glowing green eyes stalked out, approaching the two mares.

The timberwolves growled menacingly. Luna let loose a Royal Canterlot Squeal of delight.

The wolves ran away.

---------------

During the ultimately futile chase after the fleeing wolves, a portion of Twilight's mind clinically noted that the 'squee' was probably more effective than the 'shoo'. She was halfway through working out how to record the effects of showing pictures of puppies and kittens to the cutimark crusaders before sanity returned.

---------------

Twilight trudged through the Golden Oaks Library door with a particularly disgruntled hunch to her shoulders. There were burrs on her coat, tangles in her mane and mud caking her fetlocks.

"Stupid timberwolves!"

"I really am sorry, Twilight. They looked adorable and I reacted instinctively," said Luna for the dozenth time.

"Don't worry, Luna. Zecora said that she'd look out for orphan wolf cubs for us. We'll get you a pet."

"It really was very kind of your friend to promise to look out for cubs. Particularly since I, er, was keeping her from sleeping with my efforts to not hurt the local wildlife."

"The Royal Canterlot Voice does carry, doesn't it? It must be useful for summoning servants and the like."

"You would think that, but I have noticed that it has a similar effect on servants as it does on Everfree beasts. Most inconvenient."

-----------

There were a few hours to go until dawn, and Twilight planned on spending that time untangling her mane and deburring her coat. Luna had left enough hot water that her shower had warmed and relaxed her immensely, and her mood was much improved when she was done. Leaving a light trail of water behind her, she left the shower to find Luna waiting for her in the hallway.

Luna wordlessly guided Twilight to the lounge and had her lay down on a thick rug in front of the newly lit fire. Luna tenderly removed the towels that Twilight was using to dry her mane and tail and knelt down beside her. The heat of the fire soon dried Twilight out, and the crackle and flickering of the flames calmed her down as she stared into their depths.

Slowly Luna began brushing Twilight's mane, carefully teasing out the tangles as she went. Twilight sighed at the steady calming motion and closed her eyes, drifting to the halfway land between sleep and wakefulness. Once Luna could brush Twilight's mane freely, without obstructions, she set work currying and then brushing her coat.

"Mmmmm, that feels good..."

"You looked tired, so I decided to help. It is close enough to dawn, so you may sleep if you wish. Little Twilight is probably waiting impatiently."

"You don't mind?"

"It is fine. This won't take long and then I shall join you. Sleep, Twilight."

"Thank you... Hmmm... Luna?"

"Yes?"

"You asked me before to show you my 'evil' side?"

"Don't worry about that now," said Luna soothingly.

"Nah, it's okay. If you want... We can do it tomorrow. If you still want me to, that is..."

"Not in dreams?"

"Nope. 'can be evil. Sort of. Show you tomorrow. Not now. 'going to see Li'l Twi..."

"Sleep, my little pony..."

Luna kissed Twilight's forehead and continued her ministrations as Twilight dozed off. Her salacious thoughts from earlier were distant from her mind.