Small note: broke my scene breaks. They should be fixed, now. again.

Chapter 4: Hanging with the Guise, Part 2.

Much to Luna's surprise, the whole of Ponyville was completely receptive to her company now that she'd found a proper... a suitable... well, a functional disguise and moniker. It might have just been Pinkie's company, but they didn't seem nervous at all anymore. They smiled and chattered and she even got dragged into a game of lawn volleyball until one of the unicorns accidentally popped the ball.

The princess wiped sweat from her brow as she and Pinkie sat down for a cold glass of lemonade.

"I never realized that having friends is this exhausting..." she said. "How do you keep up with it all?"

"It's what I live for!" Pinkie said, draining the entire glass in one go. "You get used to it and when all else fails you can always rely on sugar to keep you going."

Luna's eyes widened. The sweet lemonade she was drinking did pack quite a punch- in spite of being merely lemonade- and she felt the rush going all the way down to her trembling hooves.

One of the green earth ponies from nearby leaned in and grinned at Pinkie. "Showing off another one of your new friends, huh?"

"Yep~" Pinkie chimed.

"Well, don't wear her out too badly." The pony leaned in and whispered to Luna. "The first time I met Pinkie we somehow ended up stuck on top of the belltower. Just be careful."

"Um, I will." Luna laughed. "Thank you." She then leaned in close to Pinkie and sighed. "I can't help but wonder if you're doing all the work for me, Pinkie. Would this still work if I was alone?"

Pinkie hummed long and loud. "I don't know. Maybe you should give it a try."

Luna sipped her lemonade and surveyed the crowd. How to just pick out one? And why pick out one in the first place? It seemed odd, among pegasi, unicorns, earth ponies... to pick one that was more worthy to be her friend than the others. Absurd even.

Somepony caught her eye, though. A blonde young colt that seemed to be shuffling about one of the apple stands. For some reason that she couldn't shake, he seemed awfully familiar to her.

"Wish me luck," she murmured to Pinkie.

"Good luck~"

Luna carefully hopped over the fence separating the cafe from the street and meandered towards the blonde colt. He seemed to notice her in an instant, and gave quite a fright. He reared back and almost bolted but for some reason he stopped halfway and gave her a nervous smile.

"Hello there," said Luna, adjusting her fuzzy glasses. "Have we met before?"

The blonde colt scuffed his hoof on the ground. "I don't think so," he said. "I would remember someone as... interesting as you."

Luna raised an eyebrow. First the boy was afraid, now he was trying not to laugh at her? Not the politest in the world by far. Still, she had to persevere. "That's a shame. I'm Lu... er, Eluna."

"Maple," the colt replied. "I'm still in school but pa thinks I'll be a workhorse someday. Taking the fields. Says it's a good way to meet uh..." he rubbed his mane and flustered. "Good ponies I guess."

"And you can't meet good ponies otherwise?" Luna hmmed. "I'd like to think of myself as one. Perhaps we could be friends?"

Maple's ears perked and he looked left and right. "Y-yeah, sure." he swallowed. "I think I hear my mom calling me. I'll see you later, Eluna."

The fright seemed returned to the boy. Pinkie approached as he scurried off, head tilted.

"It's okay," she said. "Sometimes that happens to me, too."

Luna looked after the pony but couldn't see where he had gone. "He said he'd be my friend. But he's something of an odd fellow. I can't shake the feeling that..."

"Hmm?"

"Oh, nothing." Luna clopped her forelegs against the ground. "I'm having the best time. Let's try to meet some more people!"

"Okie dokie! I know just the place~"

# # #

Twilight spent the day pouring over the new books she'd received from Luna. Even the most dry passages fascinated her. Such as the tendency of Luna's city to host a generous peach crop, around the blooming of which was a particular festival. Not even the tromping of hooves from the stairway could pull her nose out from between the pages.

"Is this really what you do with all your time?" Trixie yawned. She looked quite a mess, her typically glorious mane frizzed in all directions.

"No," said Twilight. She flustered and turned the page defiantly. "Not anymore, but this is important. Did you sleep alright?"

"That spare bed of yours is so cramped," fussed Trixie. "And I'm used to traveling in a cart. But... I guess it was cozy." She tipped her horn up and began brushing her hair. "Things seem to have quieted down a bit."

"Ponies around here are used to this kind of thing," said Twilight. "I think it's in their blood, if these books are at all accurate. Apparently not everything weird comes from the forest."

Trixie pulled up beside Twilight and looked only once at the tight columns of text. "There's not even any pictures. Are you sure we can't just let this go?"

"No, Trixie. There's something out there that's still threatening Equestria. I can't just leave it."

"Of course not. Not Celestia's protege... that would be a travesty."

Twilight rolled her eyes and turned another page. Trixie meanwhile grabbed the copy of Granny Grimm's Book of Mare's Tales and scuffed it across the table towards her. "Now, this looks a sight more interesting!"

"Careful with that," Twilight said, carefully straightening the book against the table. "These aren't mine. They're Luna's!"

"Oh, please. You can tell these are well loved. She'll hardly notice." Trixie tipped open the cover, revealing a double-page span of illuminated text. Its Golden borders almost seemed alive, swirling about armored ponies, silver towers, creatures of stars and darkness. She giggled and looked a little closer. "I dare say this is a little more my style."

"Just don't hurt it."

Trixie smiled and glided her hooves across the pages as she turned them, cooing. "Oh, I wouldn't dream of it. Not this precious book. Now, why don't we read a story..."

Twilight shook her head and tried to focus on the histories, but to no avail. The other unicorn began to read out a random story from the book.

There is a place that is said to be very close to Heaven where many great and mystical ponies once lived. Far above the highest clouds, a kingdom long isolated from both the ground and cloud dwellers of Equestria. There, the ponies lived in peace and harmony, but also guarded some of the most powerful and ancient magics ever known.

Only a scarce few ponies have ever ascended to this kingdom. The young knight, Silvergale, was one of these, and one of the only to ever have been accepted by its inhabitants. But it was not so easy. A night and a day of circling the skies and riding the winds. He alone could listen to their fickle currents and learn the secret path to the island kingdom.

On the night of his arrival, a marvelous island as big as a city. It was covered in towers and buildings made out of white, shining stone, and capped in sapphire and other lustrous stones. Much to his chagrin, however, none of the ponies came out to greet him! The few that were out to realize his coming all hurried indoors and locked themselves away.

Except for one.

There was one young pegasus boy, a scrawny thing with a blue coat but the most fascinating mane. It seemed to unroll like water everywhere he went, with the color and sheen of quicksilver. And on his flank was the bright image of a shooting star, which, of course, he would promptly introduce himself by.

"Who are you?" The boy wondered, hanging upsidown in front of Silvergale. "I'm Shooting Star, but most ponies call me Star."

The wandering pegasus was taken aback by this sudden show of gregariousness. By the time he had remembered to speak, the colt was already spinning about, zipping amongst the reeds. "I'm Silvergale," he said, "and I'm a knight of the Lunar Kingdom. I'm seeking a..." The colt then cursed the winds that had led him there, for he had found not a star from the sky above, but a pony bearing that title!

"That's a long way from here, Silvergale," said Star, suddenly close again. "Why come here? You seek something?"

"A star," muttered the knight. And then he inidcated upward with a hoof. "One of those, I'm afraid. I doubt you'd want to be a gift to my lady, anyway."

"A star for a lady? No, that wouldn't be me." Star laughed. "But perhaps I can help you. You've come this far, after all."

"Help me reach a star?" Silvergale repeated. "I thought it impossible. But still I try..."

"Perhaps it normally is," said Star, puffing his chest up to twice his normal size. "My special talent, though, is to grant wishes. I'm not sure if it's magic or just persistence. But that's how I got this mark." Star indicated his flank. "My father is an astronomer. If there is some way to retrieve a star, then he probably knows."

What choice did Silvergale have but to agree? So the two ponies went into the kingdom together, and through the windows the citizens of the kingdom could see that the stranger had made fast friends with one of their own. Over time they would learn to welcome him, and the other knights as one of their own.

Star's father was a powerful pony indeed, and it was only through his help that the three of them were able to pluck a star from the heavens themselves. He only agreed after learning that it was meant for the Princess, though, and in exchange, he was asked to return in three days time with an offering of her own.

This adventure, though small, forged a powerful friendship between two pegasi that would become exemplary of the bond between Lunar Knights.

Trixie folded the page and sighed. "Looks like that's it. This entire section... a lot of this book is actually about these so-called 'Lunar Knights.'"

Twilight's stared at the illustration of Silvergale and Shooting Star. "Luna said that this book was important. Do you think that they might have been... her knights?"

"Oh, probably," scoffed Trixie. "Even if they were, that makes them a thousand years old. At least! They're long gone." She tossed her mane a bit. "I guess even wish-granting ponies can't last forever."

"I guess," murmured Twilight. She stared at the histories again and tried to get back into her reading mode. But the gears in her head were already turning. Questions were being formed. Why would Luna want to point her to these old children's stories? There had to be something more to them, especially if she was willing to even lend her memories of her old friends.

Trixie shut the cover and tossed her mane. "I don't know how you can just read and read like that. I'm going to get one of those barley shakes." She then gave a rather rude bump to Twilight's flank. "And I'm bringing you, one, too. Honestly, dear, you could really use some more meat on those bones of yours."

The purple unicorn made an indignant squeak and hid herself further in her book, refusing to come out until the rude obnoxious totally not personal space respecting unicornleft her presence. And then she flipped to the index of the history and began to scan it.

"Lunar Knights... I wonder if there's something in here for them."

# # #

As long as it may have seemed to many of the working ponies, the day was drawing to a close. And anyone who was anyone- and then some- found themselves crammed into the downstairs of the intercity boarding home. Aurora, Twilight and her friends, and many others could hardly resist the festivities.

"Who do you think that is?" Aurora asked Axel. He pointed his wingtips over the crowd. Axel loomed upward and squinted.

"Which one? There's a whole flurry of them."

"The blue one with the wings."

"You mean Dash?"

"No, no... with the eyebrows."

"The wall-eyed dame?"

"Oh, give me a... stand still, you." Aurora braced the unicorn steady and promptly scrambled up onto his back.

"Ow, hey! What's the big idea? I'm not into you like that."

"Just stuff it and hold still." Aurora braced himself on his friend's back and wobbled a bit before he could get a clear view. Several ponies turned and laughed a little at him but it didn't stop him.

Axel grumbled and scuffed the carpet. "Couldn't you just have used your wings?"

"Suppose so." Aurora grabbed Axel's ears and pointed him towards Luna, who seemed to be chatting it up with one of Pinkie's friends. "Her, there. Isn't that Luna?"

"Eluna," Axel muttered, pointing to the banners which read Welcome, Aurora! all of which had a hastily scribbled and Eluna!at the end. "Completely different person you're thinking of."

"You're off your rocking horse." Aurora rubbed his eyes. "Well she certainly seems to be having a good time."

Having finally had enough, Axel gave a brisk toss of his mane and promptly tossed Aurora onto the floor. "Whatever you say, mate. Maybe you ought to take some notes."

Aurora peeled himself off the rug and fluffed his wings out. "Are you saying that I can't cut loose?"

Axel tapped him on the shoulder and laughed. "Maybe."

"Interesting." The pegasus smiled. "Alright. First one of us to get a filly to dance with 'im wins. Deal?"

Axel gave a keening look over the crowd and then nodded. "Alright. You're on."

The two of them pressed into the crowd. It wasn't Manehattan or anything, but Aurora was so used to spacious skies and ponies somewhat sensitive about their space that it felt like the whole world was standing next to him. He tried to find a friendly face in there, one that might have matched best with him, but he kept getting distracted by the constant bumps and motions and more than once muttered a sorry as he stumbled across the room.

His unicorn friend did not waste much time, apparently, as Aurora soon heard him extending the invitation. "Would you give me a dance? Just a quick one."

Aurora hopped up to see him propositioning a perplexed Cocoa.

"I don't know. What's your game, Axel?" she wondered, lifting an eyebrow.

"It's to make Aurora lose a bet."

Cocoa laughed and tossed up her hoof. "In that case, sure."

Aurora flapped above the other ponies for a few moments and shook his hoof. "Oh, come on now. That's just not fair!"

He heard a mill of laughter as he fell back into the pile of ponies and couldn't help a little chuckle himself. Now that he'd lost good and proper, maybe he could one-up the unicorn somehow. He peeked through towards where he'd last seen the princess- if that was even the princess to begin with- but she was gone.

The music thrummed from the record as he hopped up. Someone dimmed the lights and now colored spots spun around the room. When he'd given up all hope of finding her, he saw a moon-graced flank moving towards the doorway.

Now, where could she be going...?he wondered, and could hardly resist. The sudden shift to club-like atmosphere made it easy enough to slip away without notice- perhaps the same thing she had taken advantage of. By the time he got out the window, he could only see her shadow as she took to the air. Aurora smiled over his shoulder and sighed towards his friends.

"Sorry, you lot, but I'll have to leave you for a bit."

# # #

Aurora followed Luna into the sky, up and out of Ponyville. He swooped silently above the clouds and strained his eyes trying to keep track of her. It was easy to stay out of sight, but she was fast and intent and several times he thought he lost her. It was almost like chasing a ghost.

Luna landed, eventually, near a mountaintop not too far from the village. It was an odd little plateau, and Aurora couldn't shake the fact that he'd seen it before. But there wasn't much more there than a polished round of obsidian buried in the dirt. Luna sat in front of it and lowered her head.

"A thousand years and you're still stuck up there," she said, letting a little laugh. "In a way, it's kind of like I'm still imprisoned too."

Aurora settled behind a small set of bushes and crept a little closer, ear perked. He felt his camera bump about at his neck and for once resisted its call.

"No, that's not fair," Luna continued. "I've regained my freedom, and yet..."

Her voice began to shake, a little. Aurora forgot himself for merely a moment and leaned forward, enough to snag his wing on a branch and cause quite a ruckus. Luna whipped back and stared at him.

"You followed me?" she asked, shortly.

"No," Aurora fumbled, trying to hide his camera. "Yes. Maybe. It's not what it looks like."

The princess raised an eyebrow at the pegasus and his camera. "What is it, then?"

"You seemed distraught at the party," he said, tugging the camera strap against his neck. "I wanted to make sure you were okay. I... I don't know. I didn't think things all the way through."

She stared as long and hard as she could but it broke down into a small smile eventually and she turned back around, this time facing the night sky. "You remind me of someone, you know that? Just a little. An old friend of mine... from a long time ago."

Aurora shook off the loose leaves and twigs and stepped out onto the plateau. "How long?"

"Longer than anypony should have to worry about." Luna drew her hoof over the smooth surface of the stone. "I believe his name was..."

"Silvergale?"

Luna glanced over her shoulder and laughed, leaving the pegasus flustered. "You like faerie tales, don't you?"

Aurora looked at the dirt and scuffed it with a hoof. "Oh... yes."

"So did he. It's kind of funny, really. You want to be so much when you're young. Want to save the world, win the fillies over, think you can do anything. And you can.

"But there are prices to pay. Friendship is strong, but our paths pulled us apart. I didn't see them for years, before everything went wrong. And even though everything happened the way they did... my friends went to save me. Without a second thought. What did they get for their selflessness? The same imprisonment that I suffered."

Aurora folded his wings and closed his eyes, but soon felt the touch of Luna's nose.

"I shouldn't be telling you this. When I'm here, my thoughts just kind of come rolling out..."

"Can they come back?" Aurora wondered.

"Yes. I believe so. My sister and I are doing everything in our power, but it's such a daunting task. I don't know how long it will take..." she trailed off and shared a glance with the colt. "I know you want to ask me. I can see it in your eyes. It's okay."

Aurora swallowed and even with permission couldn't bear to look up at her. "What was it like? Being Nightmare Moon."

For a while Luna didn't answer. He thought he could hear her, pacing around the ridge and then he thought she'd left. But he heard her laugh somewhere close.

"Honestly? It's kind of absurd. Being the big bad you always read about in storybooks. What was it Pinkie Pie called me?" She gestured both hooves skyward dramatically. "Queen Meanie! Oh, I totally was. Faerie tale villain. Me. Can you imagine?" She batted her eyelashes.

Aurora smiled. "Not really."

"I know! But that's what happened. I thought I had all the power in the world, but I kept getting buried under responsibilities, and no one would treat me like a normal filly, and my few good friends were scattered to the edges of the world, and... it was just too much.

"You know the rest. I'm glad that my sister... that Twilight and her friends did what they did. Took the nightmare away. It doesn't feel good. But I'm glad."

Aurora shivered. It was hard to believe that so recently, the young- well, so she seemed- princess in front of him was the harbinger of darkness. And even the parts of him that he hated... he couldn't imagine them being ripped out, forced away. Even trying to pretend it he felt a little hard pit in his chest, his heart pounding.

And Luna still had that serene smile. He opened his mouth, closed it. Every word that fell out of his brain seemed stupid, childish. In the end he settled with, "I want to help you, somehow."

"You already have," she said. "But if there is something you could do for me, I would not mind the favor."

The wind brushed through their feathers a little and the sound of leaves shaking was a little like rain. Luna rolled her shoulders back as if letting some drape fall to the ground and trotted back to the edge, priming her wings. "We should get back to the party. Pinkie may put up a fuss if we're missing for too long."

"Oh, yeah." Aurora said, fidgeting with his camera. "Can I... get a picture first?"

Luna pondered this for a while. "Alright. But only if you get it like this."

When she turned around, she was wearing the moustache glasses square on her snout. Aurora's mouth hung open a little. Then he shook his head, laughed, and snapped a photograph. Luna scarcely winced at the flash.

"I'll write something nice about Ponyville's mysterious visitor," he mused. Then they both took flight.

"Oh, yes! I think I'd love to do this again... it would be nice if people remembered me."

# # #

Aurora did the polite thing and came back a steady ten minutes after Luna did. Just to spare the other ponies any of their conspiracies. And when he did trot in it was almost like he'd never left. Piles of ponies were crammed from the sofa to the ceiling, getting their groove on even as their energy dwindled with the night. The pegasus drew up some punch and quietly wondered if their living room would be occupied with half of Ponyville more often that not.

"And where were you off to?" Cocoa asked. She and Axel had somehow managed to creep to either side of him before he could notice. He leaned back and together they watched the crowd at work.

"Just getting some air," said Aurora.

"You were gone nearly an hour." Axel lifted his hooves and clopped them together sideways. "By air you totally mean getting a right snog on with some filly, right?"

Cocoa somehow managed to hit them both in one stroke. Aurora gave her a pleading look, but she did not yield.

"Nothing like that," he insisted. "I was just chasing more stories."

"Oh, no," said Cocoa. "I know what happens when you start sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."

Axel almost mouthed snogging but Cocoa shot him another dirty look.

Aurora tugged his camera against himself defensively. "You'll see when the story makes print tomorrow." Then with a dramatic twirl of the strap he secured it again and aimed himself at the crowd. "I guess this is my party. Try to live a little."

Cocoa spat something unintelligible after Aurora but the two of them joined him anyway. And still he was amazed how many ponies they could cram into such a narrow space, especially when they were dancing and trotting wide enough to cover half of it themselves. Ponyville ponies were, he decided, a group of ponies who were quite comfortable being in close quarters. It's probably the pink one's fault, he thought, and considered an editorial before the groove caught his think train and kept him for the better part of the hour.

And then each passing minute left another pony apologizing and laughing before stumbling out and back, one would assume, towards their beds. More floor and less sound. Even the three friends began to unwind after a while and drifted back towards the couches.

One, Aurora noticed immediately, was occupied by Luna who had fallen asleep in the middle of them. Her glasses had slipped off of her nose and tipped back and forth with the motions of her breath. This naturally attracted the concern of Twilight, who gave a worried look. Her friends drifted over soon after.

"Do you think it's okay for her to sleep all night?"

"Sure it is," Applejack cut in. "She's out on 'royal business' after all, and she's gotta tend to her needs."

Twilight still fussed over the snoozing princess. "I guess she has someone on retainer, but... still. It doesn't seem proper for her to stay here. On a couch."

Aurora gently cleared his throat. "Well, technically this building is just assigned to us by the city, and that makes it a government building. I think the common room is technically... well, what I mean to say is that it would be alright."

"You wouldsay that, wouldn't you?" Axel chuckled. "Still, I don't have a problem with it. Cocoa?"

"Huh?" The filly rubbed her eyes. "Oh, you won't catch me complaining. So long as no one is stealing my bed."

Twilight rubbed her temples. "Fine. But I'm staying with her."

Aurora blinked. "I... don't see anything wrong with that."

Applejack clopped her hooves together. "I reckon we're all tuckered out but we may as well make it one of them fancy slumber parties."

"Well, we've already had the party." Pinkie giggled. "All that's missing is the slumber!"

Everyone agreed. Aurora was surprised at the enthusiasm with which a bunch of strangers decided to crash in their living room, but he certainly didn't mind it either. Their chatter made a pleasant background while he cobbled together photographs and worked on the articles for the next day's paper. Even Axel and Cocoa seemed happy enough to stick around even though they didn't have work to do. He barely, barely managed to make it through his coaxing story of Ponyville's star moustached visitor before promptly clonking with his head on the parchment.

The colt didn't dream that night, though he had the sneaking suspicion that he should have... and there was one blank scroll that he'd set aside that he could not simply remember the cause for.

Some Days Later...

"Spike, wake up! I need you to send this!"

"Nnnh... Twilight? What time is it?"

"I'm so sorry to wake you, but the Princesses need to see this. I've found it!"

"What? What did you find?"

"It's hard to explain, but I found a spell. I think it can bring them back."

"Bring back who?"

"The Lunar Knights."