Night Luna

“Aaaawww christ…”

Wallace was having a tremendously hard time getting to sleep at night. A few days ago he had been to a great cheese banquet with lots of famous mice - Jerry, Mickey Mouse, Danger Mouse, Hannah, Mrs Brisby, Fievel, Basil The Mouse Detective and what have you - and after the cheese eating competition, he had been struggling to get to sleep for days.

He had been having nightmares about a group of rats in a lab, which mirrored scenes from a grown up animated film about cats, named Felidae. In one of them, he even saw Mrs Brisby cut open by a scientist alive, and when he woke up screaming for Gromit, he had to run in and comfort him.

“I’ll never sleep after that Cheese Party….” moaned Wallace. Wallace, whose brain was always full of ideas, knew he could rely on the Snoozatron to always get him to sleep, but then he considered for a moment - wait. If Gromit got dressed as a sheep, that would mean smelly underarms, messy fur and bloodshot and crusty eyes. We don’t want that now do we?!

Nah.

Wallace tossed and turned, thinking with all the energy left over in his manic brain from the day. He was thinking up all kinds of ways to get to sleep without leaving the bed.

A room service phone to get teddy bears and hot water bottles?

Nah, too much money.

An automatic lullaby machine?

It would take days to invent.

A midnight sna-

OI! Not cheese!

Just when Wallace thought he was all out of ideas, an ethereal voice floated around his small bedroom from out of nowhere.

“I hear you’re having trouble sleeping. Mind if I come and help?”

“Princess Luna! How delightfully unexpected!” cried Wallace, trying hard not to shoot up in bed and get an unexpected bad head like the last time he did. “Okay, show yourself, my lovely lady, I’m in need of your help.”

In a puff of dark blue smoke and yellow stars, Princess Luna appeared, lovely as she ever did back in Ponyville, or Canterlot, or anywhere else.

“Thank you, your ponyship!” cried Wallace, “I am in need of your help. I cannot eat cheese anymore because it keeps giving me nightmares. Mind if you help?”

“Why of course, friends always help each other in an hour of need.” smiled Luna. Using her magic she conjured up a lampshade decorated with little pets and coloured blue and green. “I will be your nightlight for the night. Is that clear?”

Wallace nodded, and with that collapsed in his bed and went back to sleep. Princess Luna fitted the lampshade over her head and shone her bright blue horn gently, to bring in a nice light to the room.

Not only that, but legend had it that if Princess Luna becomes your nightlight with her horn glowing a bright shade of dark blue, you get pleasant dreams with this magical glow.

And that’s exactly what Wallace had - pleasant dreams of making new inventions and impressing all of West Wallaby Street all night long.

But at about 5AM precisely, Princess Luna’s horn flashed off its warm blue light and she collapsed on the floor, feeling completely tired.

And at 9AM precisely, Princess Luna woke up, feeling like she was floating in Space, but still firmly placed onto the floor. She used her magic to brush the bits of splintering wood from her chin and let out a horse lip snort - very typical of the average British horse.

“I never knew Wallace’s hard wooden floor was so uncomfortable,” she grumbled. And when she looked at Wallace to see if he’d had a good night’s sleep, Wallace was gone and all that was left was a Jack In The Box. Luna took hold of the box and turned the handle. The tinkling tune of ‘For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow’ - the same heard on Gromit’s birthday card before the whole incident with the Techno Trousers - softly lilted into Princess Luna’s cold, pointy alicorn ears.

And then, BOING! A Jack In The Box shaped like the Laughing Cow mascot bounced out of the box holding a sign written with cheese sauce saying:

“You’ll have to try better than that, princess.”

Princess Luna, as a result, spent the whole day pacing back and forth trying to think up an idea on how to get Wallace to properly fall asleep. And then, she had a brainwave. And when alicorn princesses like Luna have a brainwave, their ideas are usually good.

And this one, guess what, IS!

Princess Luna stampeded downstairs towards Wallace’s cheese storage vault. Upon opening the yellow door, she could see shelves and shelves stacked with all sorts of cheese of every different shape and type and size. On another shelf on the opposite wall, there were lots and lots of packets of cream crackers.

“Well, who knew Wallace kept a storeful of cheese? They would’ve known it from the moment I-”

But then, a strong flashback occurred in Luna’s ever active mind.

Luna’s banishment to the moon lasted until 2010, when the Elements Of Harmony were first discovered in the form of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. So, it was 1989 when she first encountered Wallace and Gromit on their trip to the moon which enchanted generations of British kids and families since that day.

Princess Luna was pacing about the moon, wondering what to make with the cheese that built its foundations, when she saw Wallace and his faithful pooch trotting by, looking for the perfect picnic spot. She hid behind some cheesy pillars, and began to speak in an ethereal voice:

“OI!”

“Did you hear that, lad?” asked Wallace. Gromit shrugged and shook his head, but then a mysterious blue cloud surrounded them, as did lots of tiny white sparkles, and then Luna’s ethereal echoing voice began ringing in their ears:

“Wallace. Gromit. You’ve yet to know that there’s no need to go to the moon to search for cheese. You have a whole pantry of cheese and crackers at home - and if you dare not wish to be grateful, you will be cursed with many curses.”

Princess Luna was horrified. She had cursed Wallace & Gromit, which lead to the incidents we British folk know today - the Techno Trousers, Shaun’s rescue, the Were Rabbit, even their run in with Piella Bakewell. She knew there must be some way to lift the curse to make up for this whole shebang of bad luck the two friends had experienced.

And then, she had yet another brainwave. And when alicorn princesses have yet another brainwave, their ideas turn even ‘Gouda’!

Feel free to laugh.

Anyway, Princess Luna used her magic to produce over 1,000 bottles of Nyquil, and then did the easy task of using her magic to make big, huge holes in each of Wallace’s cheeses. And then, carefully, she poured each bottle of Nyquil entirely into each cheese, then wrote a note on a parchment with a Phoenix feather. And then, in a flash of white, she was gone.

When Wallace returned to his cheese pantry, he was surprised to find lots of empty Nyquil bottles littered all over the floor, and in the middle of the sparkly, sticky pink medicinal mess, there was a roll of parchment - Luna’s note. Wallace picked up the note and read:

“Dearest Mr Wallace,

Eat one of these cheeses every night before you go to bed. With every cheese you eat from this pantry, you’ll have pleasant dreams. Try them with crackers and your dreams will be even more pleasant.”

Wallace smiled and looked up at the sky, an expression of pride on his face.

“Thank you, Princess Luna.” he said in a hushed whisper, but just loud enough so it can be carried all the way to Equestria, Canterlot and beyond.

So before bed, Wallace tried one Nyquil filled cheese slice and had some crackers with it for extra effect like Luna told him, then before bed he hammered Luna’s note to the wall so he won’t forget what she told her.

And guess what happened next?

All through the next night, Wallace had nothing but pleasant dreams, all thanks to Princess Luna and her Nyquil filled cheese.

THE END.