Eclipse pt. 4 (cancelled)

You hate to leave your friend like that, but you don't really know what else you can do. It's getting late so you decide to just go to bed and figure it out tomorrow. You make your way to your room and lay down. Almost immediately, you're teleported into Luna's bedchambers. You're in Luna's bed, but you don't see her around anywhere. The sloshing of water in the other room tells you that she must be taking a bath. You decide to get comfy, you're not letting her be the big spoon this time.

She comes out of the bathroom still damp. You have a hard time keeping your eyes off of her. Something about seeing her with a wet mane is really attractive to you. You try to ignore how hot she looks as she gets ready for bed. As much as you'd like to fool around, it's getting late and your relationship isn't there yet. She seems pleasantly surprised to see you in her bed. She explains that she enchanted your bed to teleport you to hers.

You're not entirely surprised, but you don't really mind either. She might be a bit clingy and eager, but you've really grown to like Luna. You think you could really have a future with her. Something crosses your mind though, how would the two of you have kids? There's no way a human and a pony could breed together. You feel a twinge of sadness as you realize this. You've never really thought about having children, but with Luna, you think it would be worth it.

She notices your somewhat low mood and wants to know what's wrong. You're silent for a bit, internally debating whether to tell her or not. Knowing how eager she can be makes you hesitant to let her know you were thinking of starting a family together. On the other hand, you want to be open about your feelings with her. In the end you decide that it's best to tell her, regardless of how eager she can be. At first she seems surprised, you can tell she's trying to hold back her excitement though. You both decide that tomorrow would be a better time to talk this over.

As she climbs into bed behind you, you stop her. You explain that she got to be the big spoon last time so it's your turn now. She's amused by your demand, but obliges you. Once she's in bed you wrap your arms around her. You slowly fall asleep with your head buried in her mane. Sleepily, you tell her that she smells nice. She giggles and thanks you as you both drift off to slumber.

It's a nice feeling, waking up with Luna in your arms. You're glad the two of you are sharing a bed now. The relationship is moving pretty fast, at least by your standards, but you're starting to not care. You make a mental note to ask Cadance how quickly relationships happen in Equestria. Suddenly, you remember the state she was in last night. As much as you hate to leave your mare and her comfy bed, you decide to check on your friend. You slowly get out of bed and try not to wake Luna.

After getting your morning routine out of the way, you sneak off to find Cadance. You notice Luna shifting uncomfortably in bed without you and feel a bit bad. Next time you're going to stay in bed with her for as long as you can. For right now though, you just want to make sure Cadance is ok too. Making your way out to where you left her, you're unpleasantly surprised to see her still there. It seems as though she fell asleep standing there. You wake her up pretty easily, she doesn't stay that way long.

You figure that she probably stayed up quite late last night before finally falling asleep. You guess that sleeping while standing does not make for a good nights sleep. After waking her again, you decide that you should probably help her back to her room. You're not sure it's wise to let her lead with how sleepy she is. You don't have any other options though. In the entire time she's been here, you haven't so much as seen which room she's in. As the two of you finally arrive at a doorway, she slams face first into it and falls asleep again.

You peel her face off the door and pick her up. Opening the door, you look for the bed. There's something not right when you find it though. It seems that someone is already sleeping in it. You creep closer to see who could be sleeping in your friend's bed. As you near the bed, you realize that this probably isn't Cadance's room. Unfortunately, as you're turning around to leave, you hear something quite bad.

It sounds like whoever was in that bed is up now, an not happy with you. Slowly, you turn around to see a very angry griffon staring you down. For a moment, the two of you lock eyes. A split second later, you're sprinting as fast as you can to get away. The first few guards you pass are just confused. Soon enough, there's a whole crowd running around. You're not really sure who they're after, you, or the angry griffon chasing you.

You just keep running, hopefully Luna can sort this whole thing out for you. Looking back to see how far behind you your assailant is, your foot catches on something. As you fall, you try to twist so you don't land on Cadance. The griffon closes the gap before you can get up. You haven't seen many griffons, but they're pretty scary up close. It stares you down as it gets closer. The crowd of guards is finally catching up.

You guess their armor slows them down a bit. For a minute, things seem to be still as the griffon stands over you. The guards have their spears pointed at both of you. Your pursuer isn't scared, and in fact, is amused by this. It looks like a bloodbath is about to happen. Just as the griffon is about to make their move, the windows around you shatter. As your hearing comes back, you hear the voice of your marefriend.

"Now what is the meaning of all this?" Luna questioned the guards.

A single guard steps forward from the crowd, "Your highness, this griffon was chasing the human through the castle at high speeds."

"I see." Luna replied, "Pray tell, why were you chasing our human?" You can tell that she is not happy at all with that griffon.

"I caught it trying to sneak out of my room! The thing was probably watching me sleep!" The griffon yells shrilly.

"Oh come on! I was not! I was just trying to get my friend to her bed!" You yell back.

"You can't fool me, you probably kidnapped that mare and were going to take advantage of her while watching me sleep!" The griffon shrieks.

"How would I have even done that without waking you up?!" You can't help but yell.

"ENOUGH! Both of you!" Luna interrupts, she points at the griffon "You are supposed to be a diplomat, this behavior is most unfitting of your status!"

You can't help but giggle a bit at the griffon getting yelled at. Unfortunately, this brings Luna's attention to you. You can tell from the look she's giving you that she's not much more pleased with you. All the humor fades from the situation as she looks at you.

"And just what were you doing in that room?" Luna shoots you an accusing look.

"I swear I was just trying to get Cadance to her bed. I didn't know what room she's staying in so I had to let her lead the way. I thought it was her room."

"Really Anonymous? Then why did she lead you there?"

"She was tired, she was still where I left her in the hall, sleeping while standing."

"And you still let her lead the way?"

"Yeah, what else was I going to do?"

"Anonymous, did it never occur to you to ask a guard where her room was?"

"Uh…it…didn't…"

Her hoof goes immediately to her face. She explains the misunderstanding. The griffon reluctantly leaves, but not before shooting you a mean look. The guards are dismissed and told that they need to be faster in case of future incidents. Luna then nearly breaks your spine with a hug. She asks you to never do something so stupid again. She exclaims that you could have been hurt, or worse.

Eventually, she loosens her grip and you take the opportunity to breathe. You assure Luna that it was just a mistake, and that you have no plans to do it again. She hugs you for a bit longer then finally lets you go. After checking to make sure your back isn't broken, you start to head off for food. Almost immediately, you're stopped, and float back towards Luna. She explains that She's going to be watching over you personally for a while. While you don't mind spending more time with your mare, you don't exactly look forward to this.

A few hours later, your bored out of your mind during yet another political meeting. You're just about to fall asleep when you feel a hoof poking you. Luna explains that there's just one more thing she needs to do and the politics will be over for the day. You sigh with relief and get up to follow Luna. She leads you to a stage that was apparently set up overnight outside the castle. You can already see a whole crowd of ponies gathered in front of it. She has you wait just behind the stage as she goes to address the crowd.

Almost immediately you can hear cameras going off. The questions are flying so fast you can hardly understand any of them. To your surprise, Luna seems to be able to bring order to the crowd with ease. Slowly, she addresses a myriad of questions about her sister's banishment. At first, a lot of ponies seem to think she's just lying to gain power. After a while, she manages to win them over with sincerity. It seems to take a while though, and the press conference drags on for at least an hour.

You peek out from behind the stage as the press ponies leave. You can tell by the way they look that not all of them believed what Luna said. Luckily, it seems that she at least got through to a few. As she comes back you bring up the question of evidence to her. You want to be sure that the two of you have ample evidence to show when the time comes. She tells you not to worry, she's been working on fake evidence for at least a couple days. You ask her to show you, you want to see it for yourself.

"R-right now?"

"Yes Luna, right now, we're in this together."

"N-no, we have some uh… royal business to attend to first." She shifts around nervously.

"Luna, show me what you've been working on."

"I-it's not ready yet…we don't want you to see it before it's ready."

"It needs to be done soon Luna, the longer this takes, the more ponies will know it's fake."

"These things take time Anonymous, if we rush no pony will believe any of it anyways."

"Let me give you a bit of advice Luna, the best lies are grown from a seed of truth."

"…What?"

"The most believable lies have just a bit of truth in them, so all you have to do is stretch the truth a bit."

You explain that she should use the truth about celly to help the lie. Since you and her both know how celly really is, all you need to do is exaggerate a bit. She's far less than enthused when you tell her your plan. She really doesn't like the idea of releasing any of that diary. You explain that, by releasing the worst entries, you can use them to damage her sister's reputation. She still doesn't like it, but agrees that it would be a smart idea. You tell her to relax, and that if things go well, it will paint her a sympathetic.

She's a bit unnerved by your sudden cunning. You tell her not to worry, there's not a lot of consistency with how good your ideas are. While she's not reassured by that, you tell her that it's better than you being able to lie to her. That…wasn't the smartest thing to say either. Suddenly she's accusing you of wanting to lie to her. It takes you a good few minutes to calm her down. You explain that it was just a poor choice of words. She still seems a bit skeptical, but doesn't say anything.

You decide to change the subject. Once again you ask her to show you her fake evidence. This time she's more aggressive in declining. You almost suggest going over the diary together, but think better of the idea. After thinking for a second, you suggest that the two of you head back to bed. That catches her off guard, she immediately blushes and starts sputtering. You realize your mistake and explain that you just want to cuddle a bit. She calms down, and eagerly agrees, completely forgetting about your earlier mistakes.

It's been about a week since Luna's speech. You've had to comfort Luna a lot lately. Telling you about what was in that diary wasn't all that bad on her. Having to release sections of it out to the public, is far harder for her. She's been on edge a lot lately thanks to an annoying little purple alicorn. You'd seen her before in passing, but never paid her much attention. Apparently, she was Celestia's personal protégé.

She came to the castle soon after word of celly being evil got out. It was kinda funny at first to see her shouting about finding out what you and Luna were up to. Lately, Luna has had to ban her from castle grounds. For a while, the two of you were worried about her actually finding something. As time went on though, she just ended up looking crazier and crazier. One time, she even brought her little friends out to the castle. Even they seemed to know that she was going a bit overboard.

Apparently, one of her friends is an expert on honesty. She nearly lost it when that friend questioned Luna on those diary entries that were released and found that Luna wasn't lying. Since the ban, she's tried to use her power as a princess to get back in. Apparently, she's not very well respected though. The first few times, the guards busted out laughing so hard they fell over. Lately though, they're starting to get annoyed with her visiting multiple times a day. You've even heard some of the guards asking if there was any way that she could be arrested so they won't have to deal with her.

While she's annoying, she's not actually breaking any laws. You think that if she keeps things up though, she'll end up in a mental asylum. It's not hard to see that she's becoming obsessive about this. Today she brought her friends back again. Apparently, they're starting to find her annoying too. The guards let her friends in but not her, and that didn’t go over well. When she asked why they won't listen to her, they told her very seriously that she's not a real princess.

That really set her off, she goes on a tirade about how many times she's saved Equestria. She's really not happy when they point out that she's only saved Equestria a couple times, the rest were just Ponyville. As they argue back and forth, you can tell that the situation is about to get ugly as her horn starts to glow. Her friends step in and drag her away while trying to talk her down. A few days ago, Luna might have reprimanded the guards for antagonizing her. Lately, you think she's been encouraging it. They seem pretty eager to get her extremely mad.

You think that either Luna is encouraging them to piss her off, or they have some kind of bet going. Either way, you're a bit worried about them. She may be annoying, but you've heard that, Celestia's protégé has some serious magic. You worry that if this keeps up, one of them is going to end up getting seriously hurt. While you don't really care all that much about the guard, you'd rather not see a pony be vaporized. As you and Luna head back inside, you decide to bring up your concerns to her. She says she's not egging the guards on, but a bit of pressuring reveals that she might have a hoof in their attitude lately.

"Luna! You can't do that! Those ponies could have gotten hurt."

"We…uh…well…"

"No, no excuses Luna, you saw how she was, those two could have been killed."

"B-but…we were just trying to get her to go away."

"Luna, that's not the way you get her to go away."

"We did not think she would take it so far! We though she would just get frustrated and go away!"

"Look, I know you didn't mean to put them in danger, but you have to tell them not to antagonize her, if only for their safety."

"We…fine, we shall tell them to stop."

"Good, I'd rather not have see a pony vaporized…or worse."

While you've stayed pretty well out of trouble all week, Luna still rarely lets you out of her sight. At least your studying of proper dinner etiquette for royals has been paying off lately. You've had to attend a couple formal meetings between countries. Many foreign dignitaries are surprised by your table manners. Unfortunately for Luna, she's had to come up with many excuses as to why you were there. She's told you that if word got out right now, things could go very badly for you. You could be kidnapped in the night and used as leverage in negotiations. While you think she's just being overly protective, you appreciate the concern.

You've started helping out a bit with Luna's royal duties during the week too. Nothing too important, mostly just helping her find documents she's set aside. Every now and again, you get a good laugh out of hiding a paper or two from her. She never stays mad at you for long. She's told you that despite your tomfoolery, your company makes her royal duties somewhat fun. You and Luna have also gotten a lot closer over the course of the week. To be honest, even when Luna does stop personally overseeing your safety, you think you'll still spend most of your time together.

As much as you like Luna though, you're starting to think that you might need more friends. You know that at some point, Cadance will have to go back to be with her husband and child. Once she leaves…it'll just be you and Luna. You really do love Luna…but that's not really a good position to be in. Unfortunately, you haven't really gone out all that much in the two years you've been here. You don't exactly know where to go to meet ponies with interests you share. Suddenly, there's a pink face in front of yours talking about a million words a second.

After nearly falling over from the surprise, you try to get the pink mare to slow down. Luna looks just as surprised as you do. While the pink mare continues to talk at unintelligible speeds, Luna explains that this is one of Twilight's friends. Apparently, her name is Pinkie Pie, and she's extremely friendly, if a bit weird. Eventually, the mare stops talking and you ask her to repeat what she said, but slowly. She says that she heard from Cadance that you don't have a lot of friends. It seems that she wants to try and help you make some.

Before you can even finish thanking her for her offer to help, she declares herself your first new friend. She says that she's going to start planning a party to celebrate. Shortly after, she seemingly disappears. As you open your mouth to ask Luna how she did that, she says she has no idea before you even get a word out. You simply stand there confused until Luna drags you away. Luna is happy to see that you're starting to make new friends. You ask how much longer Cadance is going to be here, and Luna's mood seems to drop a bit.