The press was by far the worst part upon her return, as she landed with her elder sister before the gates of Canterlot Castle. Many ponies began to swarm around them as they took notice of her cobalt blue coat, and sky blue mane. From the get-go, they recognized her as she had appeared in a newspaper not more than two days ago in Ponyville. Voices rambled around her as Earth Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns; all of which being reporters, were trying desperately to get to her, to no avail however, as the guards kept them at a safe distance.

“Princess Luna!” a dark brown unicorn stallion called out. “Now that you're back, what is it you intend on doing?” his voice stood out from the rest of the crowd, as it seemed he wanted her attention the most, however, she simply ducked behind her older sister, skittish because of all of the ponies around her. Nearby another, this time a pegasus flew over, using her wings to get up closer to the princess.

“What was it like, being imprisoned on the moon?” she asked, this time Luna wanted to answer the question, raising a hoof to answer before being cut off once again by an Earth Pony.

“Why were you sent to the moon in the first place?” his voice echoed out, his head shifting out from between the guards before being forced back. What happened next caught the Lunar Princess off guard, a very bright flash from the left, this almost made her leap from her skin, before she realized it was one of the 'cameras' she had seen from Ponyville, it was here she let out a soft sigh. Finally she turned up to her sister, before looking back at the various ponies trying to get past the guards to get at least one question answered.

“Do not worry, you won't have to answer the reporters until you are ready.” her sister reassured, this allowed her to relax a bit as the gates drew closer. The guards gathered around, and the gates slowly closed after they had passed through. Once inside the grounds, Luna released a held breath, her mane just showing the level of stress she had already endured from the reporters alone. Strands of hair stuck out at various places, split ends were very visible in her short mane, however, this was also to be expected, as she hadn't had any royal pampering for a millennia.

“Welcome home Princess Celestia, Princess Luna!” a teal colored earth pony rushed up, bowing before the white alicorn with flowing rainbow-colored mane. Soon followed by her bowing to Princess Luna, but after a moment her attention shifted to her outward appearance, slowly turning to Celestia as if asking for permission, who then gazed at her sister, before she herself turned to the servant.

“Yes?” she finally spoke up, her voice a bit squeaky and rather quiet at the present time, due to a distinct lack of confidence. n

“Well...I was wondering if...I could take you to get a full on beauty treatment, as it looks like you really do need one.” the servant said, Luna went silent after she had been asked this, she understood what the servant had asked, and she knew very well that she needed a beauty treatment something fierce, however she also wanted to get a little bit of rest in her own bed at the same time.

“Tomorrow morning, we will be there to receive said treatment.” she finally said after nearly a minute of silence.

“Actually...sister...it'll have to be tomorrow afternoon.” Celestia interrupted, as she sat beside Luna. “You have a visit to the doctor in the morning.” This caught Luna's attention instantly, her head turning towards her sister. The look in her eyes asked the question 'why?'. She wasn't even getting a chance to relax anymore, she had only been back for about three days, and already she was being put into situations she really didn't even want to be a part of, she just simply wanted to relax for a couple days.

“On second thought, we shall go for it right now.” In seconds, Luna felt her body being surrounded by magic, before she was lifted just slightly into the air by a nearby unicorn, this unicorn was one of the other servants that had followed the earth pony out, which was strange as she hadn't seen her a few minutes ago. She didn't pay much mind to this however, as her nerves began to take hold as she was dragged off to the wash room.

Since Princess Luna's previous visit to the washroom, which had been over a thousand years ago, it had gone through some serious changes. What frightened her the most however, was what the staff said after just one second of being in the room.

“HER MANE IS TERRIBLE!” One unicorn shouted.

“HER HOOVES ARE DREADFUL!” an earth pony shouted.

“AND HER TAIL!” A pegasus roared, in seconds she was swarmed over, being dragged in so many different directions that it left her dizzy.

“Get me the Mane 'n' Tail!” said the unicorn, as they threw her into the bath, the water was warm and soothing, although with so many ponies swarming over her she didn't exactly get the chance to really enjoy it very much. Not long after they had thrown her in, they began to scrub down her coat, this removed any unsightly burrs she had gained from the past, as well as it even brought it to a new shine. Next came her flank, once they had cleaned up her coat entirely, they moved on to her mane, which was already being cleaned with the shampoo. This was relatively new to her, especially the feel of the shampoo and the contact with her tail. At first it felt uncomfortable, but after a second, she let out a sigh, closing her eyes as the warm water was poured over her, rinsing the shampoo from her mane. The shampoo itself seemed to have a bit of a cooling effect after it had been washed out, giving her head a bit of a cool tingling sensation, and while she did find that it felt a bit funny, she seemed to enjoy it, not saying a single words as she felt everything from the past being washed away with the water.

The bathtub was soon drained, and the result showed significantly, as they proceeded to file her hooves. This in it of itself felt wonderful as her hooves had overgrown a tiny bit, making it uncomfortable for her to walk. This vanished very quickly though as her hooves had been returned to their former glory, they even trimmed the feathers on her wings as well as trimmed off the split ends from her mane and tail. Once they finished, they slowly placed the crown on her head, where she finally opened her eyes.

“You look beautiful, Princess.” one of them said.

“Simply amazing!”

“But...why isn't your mane flowing like Princess Celestia's?”

This question struck Luna relatively hard as she stood in the washroom surrounded by her loyal subjects, even she didn't have that answer yet, but she at least wanted to provide them with a good answer, however, she was simply cut short as someone else had entered the room, what startled her the most by far of this earth pony was not the fact he was an older gentlecolt, but, what was on his face. Luna's eyes went wide when she saw it, the sheer size of it was terrifying it seemed to even have a life of its own, just adding to an intimidation factor that the pony had. It was so thick, yet so well combed, it reminded her of Starswirl's glorious beard, it made her wonder how one cared for facial hair like that.

“The Mustache...” Luna whispered, as she shivered in place, not from the fact that her mane was still wet, but from the aura of intimidation the mustache gave off. She gulped as she stared at him, before looking away in the hopes he wouldn't find her rude by staring.

“Princess Luna, my name is Reginald, it is a pleasure to meet you.” he said, bowing just slightly to her. “Now, if you will come with me, I shall take you to your room, where you may rest.” This grabbed her attention instantly, following the pony out of the room without question.

“So...um...Reginald was it?” she asked as she followed him down the hall. “What is your position?”

“I am simply a butler and an assistant if you need it.” he replied.

Before long, the two arrived before large double doors, which Reginald pushed open. Upon doing so, they came upon a horrendous sight. Forget the darkness of the room covering it up, the stench that came blasting at their faces was the first thing that struck home. The stench alone almost made Luna's mane curl, her eyes were watering from how 'ripe' it was. Reginald himself slowly turned to the Princess, his eyes watering a tiny bit. He remained silent however, pulling the doors closed as to prevent more of the hideous scent from getting out.

“Princess, please remain here, I'll return in a moment.” was all he could say, before dashing down the halls, vanishing behind a door. Luna waited quietly as she was asked, while she wondered what could've been left in her room that had caused that rancid oder, and the only thing that seemed to come to mind was, a bit of food that she had left there a thousand years ago, which begged the question, why wasn't her room cleaned out while she was gone at least? Did her sister forget to tell the staff about it? Or did the staff simply forget about it themselves? Or was this one of her sister's pranks, ones that she was all too familiar with, recalling the various bits of trouble she got into when they had been younger. It wasn't a much longer wait as several ponies came running up along with Reginald, who opened the door for them, before closing it behind them. In the room a loud ruckus could be heard, as well as plenty of shuffling.

“Are you sure you wish to wait here, princess?” Reginald asked. “It'll at least be an hour before everything is cleaned in there.”

“OH DEAR SWEET CELESTIA, WHAT IS THAT!” a shout roared, coming from the room.

“HOW DID SOMETHING LIKE THAT GET IN HERE?!”

“ITS SO GOOEY!” came another shout. “AND STICKY!”

“GET IT, CRUSH IT! HIT IT WITH THE MOP!”

Luna gulped as she listened in on the shouting, her own curiosity growing, wondering what had happened, and what they had found.

“Why don't we get you something to eat?” Reginald's voice asked, drawing her attention away from the door. “I'll go on ahead and inform the cooks to prepare something for you.” he continued. “As Princess Celestia is in an important meeting with the delegate of the griffins...”

Luna's eyes widened at the mentioning of this, before she attempted to run off to help out her sister, only to be stopped short by Reginald.

“You still need to rest...only a few towns know you're back...I'm afraid that if you were to burst in now, you may cause a scene.” he explained. “So, your meal will be moved to the royal garden for the time being...you do still remember where it is, right?”

“Of course we do.” Luna replied.

“I shall bring it when it is ready then.” he said, before trotting off, leaving Luna to quietly walk down the halls, alone.

Aside from the chirping of the birds, the garden was relatively quiet, as Luna sat, enjoying the fresh air for a change, letting herself finally unwinding from her ordeal completely, a yawn soon escaped from her mouth, doing the polite thing, even though she wasn't in the company of anyone, she brought her hoof up to it. It wouldn't be long before she began to drift into a slumber-like state. In it, her surroundings changed drastically, first becoming warped, colors shifted from greens to reds. She panicked as this occurred, her heart beginning to race as she scrambled to her feet, trying to figure out what was going on. The colors of her now warped surroundings began to change even further, growing darker, blacker, grayer, reminding her of what it was like on the moon, being alone that entire time, it was a struggle to fight it, a struggle to keep her sanity. The surroundings seemed to melt as she crouched down, clutching her head with her hooves.

Luna fought back tears of agony as she sat there, now in the castle's throne room, at least, so she thought. It was far from the throne room, as sitting upon the throne was what she thought was her, or at least, someone that looked like her, at least back when she was Nightmare Moon. There was something different though, something she couldn't pin on it, as her eyes witnessed this, tears began to form, her sanity beginning to slip. In the back of her mind she began to hear whispers, ones that begged for dark deeds. The voice was...enticing to say the least.

“No!” She cried out.

“Your sister banished you...take your revenge...” the voice beckoned.

“No!” Luna cried out again.

“...Do it...your sister doesn't care about you...”

“S-she does care!” Luna replied, her own voice growing weaker, while the other voice grew in volume, the voice itself was dark, enough to send a chill up somepony's spine.

“She'll just banish you again.” the voice pointed out, striking a blow with her already, causing more tears to run down her cheeks.

“No she won't, Princess Luna...” a third voice said, this voice was strong and stern, seemingly very wise as well. “Your sister loves you very dearly, and you know it!” This voice seemed to call out to her more than the previous, bringing her comfort.

“Now, dear princess, return from the world of dreams.” the third voice called out, causing her vision to go black, before her eyes finally snapped open. What she was faced with made her leap from the chair she was relaxing on. Just above her she could see a figure draped in a very dark green cloak, which covered most of the body. However, simply judging by its build, it was clearly a male. The creepiest part however, came when she saw his eyes glowing a bright green color, while she had seen many forms of magic, she hadn't seen this type of greenish glow before except in dark magic.

She wanted to scream in terror as he hovered over her, but what caught her attention next left her shocked. For a brief instance, she saw a black mist hovering just on the opposite side of where the male was standing, it was only there for a few seconds however, as it seemed to dissipate into the air.

“Do not worry...” he whispered. “We shall meet again, Princess.” She perked up the instant he spoke, recognizing the voice as the one that pulled her back in her dream. He too was only there for a moment, before he trotted off himself, vanishing as he walked into the shrubbery, a gentle breeze blowing as he did, which stirred up a few leaves. Just as she was about to get up to follow after him however, Reginald arrived with her cart of food. For the entire time she ate, she was watching the area of shrubbery that the mysterious pony had vanished into.