Chapter Four—Wherein Luna is introduced to the town. Sort of.

When I finally made it back to Twilight's library, the last bit of sunlight had faded, and the moon felt like it was watching me as I opened the door and made my way inside. Twilight and Spike were already in bed, so I had to waste no time with idle pleasantries. I happily sighed and went to find a place to rest my weary and battered body.

When I finally sat down, but thankfully before I could get comfortable, I heard a knocking at the door. Hoping it was Rainbow Dash to tell me she had a change of heart, I made my way to the door.

It was Luna. Look, I know I made the offer to the poor lass to come and talk any time, but really? She obviously didn't have any other friends, if she came to talk to me two nights in a bloody row. I reached over to grab my coat and joined her outside.

"You'll have to excuse me if I walk a bit slowly and stiffly," I told her. "I'm battered and bruised from two encounters with overenthusiastic torturers today."

"That warrants some explaining, I believe," she said with a small smile.

"There are three wee lasses here that are looking to score their cutie marks. Their curiosity upon meeting me quickly turned into a desire to experiment upon me. To that end, I was today put in a cart upon a tall ramp, pushed down, and left to roll until one of them was able to catch up and 'rescue' me. I know this reference won't mean much to you, but they remind me of the three stooges. Poor lasses can't hardly do anything right, and they always manage to screw up more extravagantly when they're dealing with someone else. In this case, I was that someone else, and I was dumb enough to sit in that cart for them three times, and only once did they manage to catch up to me before I hit a rock and tumbled out."

"Foals will be foals, I guess. I think it's kind of cute that you're helping them out, though. Twilight doesn't have you running errands all day?"

"Thankfully, no. Most of the time I'm left with free time, unless she asks me to help."

"That was one of your mentioned encounters. What about the other?"

"I had to ride bareback on a rampaging and flying mare as she did her best to dislodge me with all her might."

"That… also warrants a bit more explanation."

"I don't know how much you know about Twilight's friends. In every group there is at least one prankster, and Rainbow Dash is one in this group. She took it upon herself to lift me up and try to drop me in a pond for a perceived slight upon her. I wasn't expecting to be dropped, so I managed to barely catch myself on one of her legs and pull myself up. She tried to dislodge me. It didn't work and I finally managed to talk sense into her long enough to get me on the ground. Then she lost that sense and decided that it would be awesome to have a 'sky rodeo' with me as the main victi—er, star."

"A sky rodeo? Who is allowed to participate, and what are the rules?"

"I don't know, and the only rule I'm concerned about is the one that involves saving the human before he falls to his death."

"You actually agreed to it? I'm surprised at you!"

"I agreed to it under the condition that she could get enough pegasi interested in it. I rather doubt that she'll be able to, thank God. Most of them probably haven't seen a human, and wouldn't want to be ridden by one if they had. Good riddance to that, too."

"What, you didn't enjoy your time up there?"

"I might not be opposed to the idea of riding one as they flew regularly, just from point A to point B. Trying to hold on as they kick and buck is a bit more than I'm interested in."

"It sounds interesting to me."

"If you can ever find a spell that will turn you into a human, be my guest."

"I meant for the pegasus. It would be a fun test of skill."

"You are not making me any happier that I agreed to it, even if it was under such an improbable conditional."

"I'm sure you'll survive, if she gets the support. And I'm sure I or my sister could find a spell that would, if nothing else, make you fall a lot slower."

"A spell that was made to work on ponies, who have a bit more mass and a very different shape than me. I'll be risking a lot just letting Twilight revitalize me in between rounds. I'm going to ask her to experiment tomorrow with the various aches and pains I have now."

"If you want, I could try now."

"If you heal me now, I'll have to get new aches and pains for Twilight to experiment on before the actual event happens, unless you're planning on showing up to see it and can heal me there instead of Twilight."

"Me, miss my favorite human get thrown about? Wouldn't miss it for the moon."

We were nearing a fountain. I sat on the edge and told her to try if she wanted.

She smiled and lowered her horn to touch me lightly on the arm. A very concentrated black orb pulsed out of the tip of her horn and into my arm. All my muscles froze up for an instant, and my eyes were seeing white. When I was able to see and feel again, I found myself thrown against the statue in the fountain, smoking lightly. My entire skin felt like it was on fire. I opened my mouth to scream, but the burning sensation left as soon as it came and I instead let out a discontented warble. I noticed that, at the very least, all the pain was gone.

"What… what did you do?" I managed to stammer.

"I healed all your physical impurities," she told me.

I checked my body over quickly. I was missing the small collection of scars I had picked up in my life. They were from nothing big, just accidents and a surgery, but I liked to occasionally lie about how I got them. I also noticed that I was missing the occasional rheumy cough that I had spent all my life with.

"I don't know why it hit you so hard," she continued. "You must have had a lot more wrong with you than just aches and pains!"

I continued checking over my body. All the missing skin around my fingers was back—just a nervous tick I have, picking at it. The slight arthritis I picked up due to my genetics appeared to be gone, as my habitual knee ache was gone. My nose was no longer half clogged. I couldn't even feel the phlegm that was constantly at the back of my throat. As she said, I appeared to have been fixed of each and every physical problem.

When I was able to get over the shock and see that she was still looking at me, concerned, I managed to flash a weak grin. "Don't worry about me, lass. Just trying to sort out what all you actually did to me. Trust me when I say that it's a lot more than you know."

"Magic is a wonderful thing."

I didn't answer. I tried to get to my legs and managed a shaky stance. I picked my way off the frozen fountain and got my feet back on the dirt. Before she could say anything else, I hugged the princess around the neck. Holy shit, she's really soft! Her flowing hair was like silk and her wings were like velvet.

I could tell she wasn't expecting a hug. When I let her go, she still had a look of surprise on her face, and her wings were flared.

"You removed pains I've had for so long that I didn't notice them anymore. I figure that was justified," I told her.

"How do you… stop noticing pain?" she asked, her wings slowly lowering.

"It's like breathing or blinking. It's just something that's always there, and becomes normal for you. You don't notice that you're always blinking or always breathing until you stop to think about it. The pain I was carrying was constant, so I eventually phased it out. I had to actually concentrate to see if I could feel it anymore."

"Humans are very, very odd."

"How do you know that it isn't just me that's very, very odd?"

"Because I'm pretty sure if what I said wasn't true, you wouldn't have said what you just did."

"Odd is relative. I'm surprised there aren't plenty of ponies that are hiding pain like this as well. Applejack's grandmother is old and has a bad hip. You can't tell me she's not in some kind of pain because of that."

"I've… I've never really thought about it like that. I just know that I've never felt much physical pain. I never thought that it might actually be common…"

"You also don't spend much time around the regular ponies. If you want to rule your subjects, you need to know them. It would also help if they knew you more."

"And you expect me to come to a festival designed around fear of me—or rather, Nightmare Moon."

"When better?" At her look, I tried explaining, "Let the people see you as you are in contrast to what they fear. You've yet to cause me any manner of harm, and you don't even look the same as Nightmare Moon anymore." Though admittedly, I could barely see Luna in the weak light. And I had never seen Nightmare Moon. The only reason I knew is because Twilight mentioned it in her ramblings about the festival.

"As I said, Navarone, I will think on it." She readied her wings again, and again I stopped her.

"You know, you didn't tell me anything about your day. Or rather, your night. Or when you were practicing talking."

She lowered her wings and said somewhat coolly, "You are correct. I did not."

"Friendship is about give and take. You don't have to tell me anything, of course. But I will listen if you want to."

She looked at me for half a minute, and finally said, "I will answer a question or two."

"Who have you been practicing talking with?"

Ponies are truly terrible, terrible liars. Every one of them I have seen tell a lie—the very small number of them—has so many tells that you know automatically when one is lying. And the funny thing? Not a single one of them notices. A pony can lie to another pony all day long and unless the one getting lied to can obviously tell the other pony is lying by looking at evidence, they'll always believe each other.

I have abused the hell out of this.

Anyway, I just put that in there to explain how I immediately knew Luna was lying when she said, "My other friends."

"You don't have to lie to me. Mind, you also don't have to tell me the truth. I won't judge you either way."

She sighed. "My servants…"

I nodded slowly. "Come on by the festival, princess. We'll find you some ponies to talk to."

I think she smiled. I know she flew off.

I feel yet another intermission is in order, as I should probably take some time to explain my sleep schedule. In short, it was all kinds of fucked up at the time. Basically, it was, like, six AM to two PM, but it also fluctuated. I'd often wait until I was completely exhausted and then try to sleep, and make sure I woke up early to stay virtually exhausted.

It was painful, and I was not at my best. And in case you're wondering, it honestly didn't help with the dreams. I just like to tell myself it did. The only thing that stopped me from making more alcohol was lack of resources and avoiding hypocrisy.

I figured something was going to give, soon.

The next day found me in another small adventure, this time with the resident dragon.

"Navarone," Spike started, "how do you get mares to notice you?" Oh God.

"That is a loaded question, and it's one that I'm not sure how to answer," I replied. We were out in the middle of a field, looking for some kind of alchemical supplies or something for Twilight. I wasn't really paying attention when she told us what to do; I knew Spike was, and she wrote it all down anyway, so I figured we would be fine.

"What's a loaded question?" he asked.

"A question that, in this case, is something that I can't answer without getting in some kind of trouble. I'll do my best to answer it, but follow any of the things I tell you at your own peril. First things first: Have you tried telling her how you feel?"

"I've made it as obvious as possible! I've done everything she's asked, even the really nasty stuff, I always show my love and adoration on my face and it's always evident in my voice, but she still doesn't seem to notice!"

"Spike, for the most part, women are very, very bad at picking up stuff like that. A lot of times, when a guy likes a girl, he'll do all sorts of big things to impress her. She never notices, or just thinks it is kindness. On the flipside of that, when a girl likes a guy, she does all sorts of little things to impress him. He never notices. Both sides have very different methods of showing affection and love for the other, and because of that both sides have a hard time telling when the other likes them. Your best bet to make her notice is just telling her straight up." Look, I've never had a girlfriend. I have, however, seen way too many romantic comedies, and I figure I can look at everything they do in movies like that and as long as I do the exact opposite, I should be fine.

"So you're suggesting I just… tell her how I feel? Won't that feel awkward?"

"Yes, it will. But—and don't take this negatively—it'll also quicken the process. If you tell her straight up you like her and she snuffs out your hopes, you know you don't need to waste any more time on her. If you've done all you said you have for her, by now she either feels the same way or she probably never will." I won't lie, I know who he's talking about. I'm also pretty sure she knows, and I'm pretty sure she's using him because of his affection. Rarity isn't necessarily a bad person, but she is somewhat manipulative. With all her workload, though, I do kind of understand it. I figured this would be a good way to cut Spike off her leash, though.

"If she says she isn't interested in me, what then? What if it's somepony I need to work with often?"

I decided to tease him a bit about it. "Don't tell me this girl is Twilight."

"What? No! It's Ra—I mean, this is all hypothetical!" I smiled.

"In that case, if she says she isn't interested in you, just drop it. Feel free to help her if you want, but just note that you'll probably never be able to make her feel the same way you do about her. It's a painful thought, I know, but it's also the truth. Besides, how long do dragons even live? And how long until you're fully grown?" I could tell I hit a bit of a soft spot, and I immediately regretted the words. "Don't worry about it, man. Even if this girl isn't the one for you, you'll find one someday. Besides, you haven't even asked her yet!"

"I think I would feel too nervous to ever ask her that…"

I almost made the cardinal mistake of relationship helping. I almost offered to ask her for him. My mouth was open and the words were forming before I managed to strangle the words away. I disguised the sound with a cough.

Much good it did me. "Navarone, you think you could, I don't know, maybe ask her for me?"

Well, shit. "Before I answer that, I want to tell you a few things. First, that's basically the cardinal mistake in relationship planning, and it could go one of a few ways with about an equal chance of each happening. Possibility one is complete success. I ask her and she answers. Possibility two is partial success. I ask her and she refuses to answer, because I'm not asking for myself. Possibility three is partial failure. I screw up somehow and ask her in a way that makes it seem like I'm asking about her opinions toward me instead of toward you, and she answers that way instead. Possibility four is complete and total failure. Don't ask me how it happens, because I don't even want to think about it, but it ends with you banned from her presence forever and me as her eternal slave."

"Those don't seem very likely."

"And this doesn't seem very hypothetical."

"…Okay, but you have to promise not to tell anypony about it. The last pony I told blabbed it to somepony."

"I don't tell secrets, lad. If I did, I would have told Rarity a long time ago that you liked her. I honestly don't know how she hasn't figured it out, or if she knows and is just waiting for you to make a move."

"Okay, the secret is—wait, what? Did Twilight tell you too?"

"Dude, it's incredibly obvious. I mean, I don't do relationships at all, and I figured it out as soon as I saw you near her."

"But… but… what?"

I saw an interesting chance to get out of work I wasn't planning on doing anyway. "If you really want me to go ask her, you'll have to finish this work yourself."

"On second thought, I think I'll just keep to my method, and hope for the best…" Well, it was worth a shot.

I read a lot, and I never really thought about time passing in books. But when I decided to write up this journal, I ended up really thinking about it. An hour working in silence, digging through leaves, is a long, long time. Odd how stuff like that doesn't end up in your perspective until you actually have to live it.

After that hour, I decided a different approach. "Well, maybe human women are different from ponies."

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe stuff that would work in my world wouldn't work here. I don't know, I've never thought to try it. I don't even know how interracial stuff like that would work here, nor do I really want to know." I mean, the cockatrice had to come from somewhere. "You'd honestly be better off asking a pony. A male pony, not a female one. A male pony that's in a stable relationship."

"I don't actually know many stallions. Twilight doesn't hang out with them and I don't get out of the library much. The only one I know is Big MacIntosh, and he's not in a relationship."

"I've noticed that, too, actually. Have you ever met Twilight's parents? If nothing else you could ask her dad."

"He'd probably assume I was asking to try to get Twilight to like me, though!"

"What people think doesn't usually matter that much. Let him think what he wants, as long as he gives you the results you need. If he doesn't want to help you, assure him it's for one of her friends, or something."

"I don't know…"

"What's the worst that could happen?"

"I get banned from her presence and Twilight's dad becomes her eternal slave."

The rest of our search passed with us thinking of increasingly random and off the wall possibilities of things that could happen if someone botched a relationship. It was pretty amusing. One ended up with the guy exiled to another continent, one ended up with him almost dead and then in love with her sister, one ended with the guy going through a complete and total hell only to realize he never really liked her in the first place, and one ended up with the girl saying yes on accident and then being completely passive aggressive for the rest of the relationship.

That night, Princess Luna didn't stop by. I figured she was trying to take my advice and making some friends among ponies. I was rather doggedly not taking hers, and doing my best to stay awake as long as I could.

Nothing really interesting happened the next day, aside from Twilight somehow removing all the hair on one of my legs, and turning the hair on one of my arms white. I don't know what she was trying to do, as she never told me, but I don't think it worked right.

And dammit, my leg was cold…

Since the rest of that week and the one after were mostly boring, I figured I would skip ahead to the festival.

I was lying on a patch of moss outside of Fluttershy's house when night fell. I had a bunny over my eyes, blocking out as much of the light as I could. Twilight was pacing back and forth, jingling with every step; she was wearing some costume of a wizard or something, and it was covered in bells. Fluttershy was watching Twilight with increasing nervousness, occasionally darting her eyes to the sky. Every time a bit of wind rustled the leaves or a cloud passed over, she flinched and whimpered.
Fluttershy, as I'm sure you might have been able to guess, was not a fan of this festival. She doesn't like scary. And if she didn't have Twilight's guarantee that Luna wouldn't hurt her, she would be locked in her house.

Night fell. Luna didn't show up.

"M-m-maybe she decided not to c-c-come!" Fluttershy stuttered. I imagined she was looking at her door hopefully; my eyes were still covered by a warm bunny that was twitching slightly in its sleep.

"Nav said she would think about it, not that she would actually come. I hope she does, but I don't plan on waiting here all night."

"She'll be here," I said. The bunny flinched.

Fluttershy squealed when she heard my voice. The bunny looked up, allowing me to open an eye. Nothing happening. I closed it again, and the bunny, seeing the same thing, fell back asleep. "Sorry," Fluttershy whispered. "I thought you were asleep."

Not a second after that, though, a large cloud formed overhead, and a loud clap of thunder sent the rabbit jumping away in terror. I opened my eyes and saw a pair of demons descending from the skies.

Fluttershy straight up fainted. Twilight openly gaped. I just stared.

It didn't take us long to discern that the demons were pulling a chariot. And once we realized that, we discovered that Princess Luna was in the chariot. That is totally badass. As it turned out, the 'demons' were actually ponies with bat wings. Luna's night guards, I later learned. They were dark grey with purple armor. The crest on their helmet looked reptilian, and stood straight up like a mohawk. And then I saw their eyes: Light amber, reflecting light, with cat-like pupils. The chest-piece of their armor met together with a blue stone that looked like another cat eye. They were, as I said, completely badass looking.

Twilight was still gaping when the chariot landed and Luna stepped off. I got to my feet and lightly tapped Fluttershy with my foot. She lightly groaned. It's going to be a long night.

I finally got a good look at Luna, too: The moon was out fully, and Luna seemed radiant in its glow. She was much taller than Twilight, and her horn was much larger. Around her neck was some manner of black necklace, with a half-moon featured in the center. She seemed to be wearing some kind of light blue slippers, though that might have just been her hooves. On her head was a tiara of similar color and design as the necklace. Her eyes were a light turquoise. And her hair and tail seemed to flow in the night sky, moving of its own volition.

"Well Princess," I said, "you surprised the hell out of me. Nice ride. It's going to scare the shit out of ponies, though."

Princess Luna looked down at Fluttershy, and then up to me. "I will work on finding… more accommodating transportation." She shifted her gaze to Twilight. "Twilight Sparkle. I hear you have some manner of plan?"

"Navarone, you already know all this. Try to help Fluttershy while I explain it to the princess."

I knelt down next to the catatonic Fluttershy and tried shaking her. "Fluttershy, it's time to wake up." She muttered something. I poked her in her side. "If you don't get up, I'm going to find out if ponies are ticklish." Nothing.

As it turns out, ponies are ticklish. And Fluttershy is very susceptible to it. I had her giggling and squealing in no time. I stopped. "Now, are you going to faint again?" I asked.

"Not if it means you'll tickle me again!" She suddenly looked terrified. "Are the demons gone?" she asked, trying to huddle against me.

"They weren't demons. They were Princess Luna's servants."

She started stuttering something about Nightmare Moon.

"No, not Nightmare Moon's servants. Princess Luna's servants. You have Twilight's word they won't harm you." She wasn't impressed. I sighed. "Would it help if I offered to protect you, or something?" She nodded weakly. I rolled my eyes. "Fine. I won't let Princess Luna hurt you."

I stood and offered her a hand. She gave me her hoof and I helped her up. As soon as she saw Luna, she held on as tight as she could. Despite not having fingers, mind. I pried her hoof off my hand, and she immediately huddled as tight against me as she could. I sighed again, and put an arm around her.

"Princess Luna," Twilight said, "this is Fluttershy." Princess Luna held out a hoof. Fluttershy jerked back and Luna got an unpleasant look on her face. After a reassuring squeeze from me and a small look shared with Twilight, Fluttershy shook hooves with her. Progress.

"I have heard much about you, Fluttershy," Luna said. "Would you care to show me some of your nocturnal animals?"

That perked Fluttershy right up. Any chance to talk about her animals drove most fear out of her. She fled from my arm and took the princess in hand. Or hoof, I suppose. They walked around Fluttershy's menagerie of critters.

Twilight and I looked at each other. "Long night?" I asked.

"Yep." We shared a sigh. "But if she got Fluttershy on her side, the rest should be fairly easy. The ponies back in Ponyville know what kind of pony Fluttershy is. It should all go well enough."

No plan that ever should 'go well' has run into Pinkie Pie and survived. She is a magnet for trouble and has no real manner of impulse control. She's like a furby.

The four of us were walking back into town when we ran into Pinkie Pie and a large squad of kids. Fluttershy was still talking our ears off about some manner of animal or something; I try not to pay attention when she starts on about them.

Mind, Pinkie Pie knew the princess was supposed to come by tonight. She knew that, and she knew what we were trying to do with her.

As soon as she saw us, she screamed something about Nightmare Moon and bolted. The children ran with her. Dammit, Pinkie.

I was rubbing my temple, Fluttershy was looking flustered, Princess Luna was looking depressed, and Twilight was looking confused.

Twilight finally said, "I don't understand. She was…" She sighed. "Pinkie Pie. Nav, can you go figure out what she's doing?"

I was the odd one out of that group anyway. Or rather, one of the two odd ones. It made the most sense to send me.

The thing is, I had no idea where they may have gone. I pushed my way through the crowd of curious ponies that had formed around us. Twilight began saying something or another to the assembled masses. I walked on.

I bumped into Spike and Applejack not long after I got out of the crowd. Spike was dressed as a… dragon. Well, why not? Applejack was dressed as a scarecrow, or something. Me, I wasn't dressed as anything. Waste of time, though Rarity had offered to make me something. They pointed me off in the right direction. I made a pointed reminder that Luna isn't supposed to be scary.

It didn't take me too much longer to find Pinkie and the group of kids with her. I had almost caught up to them when a massive bolt of fucking lightning shot down and hit the ground between us. They ran off squealing again and I stood my ground, trying to blink the after-image from my eyes. Lightning isn't something you just see and dismiss. I was partially blinded for a few minutes, and the full after-image didn't depart my eyes for a few days. After the thunderclap stopped echoing in my ears, I heard a very Rainbow Dash-esque laugh, and was barely able to make a dark figure zooming off into the night with a rainbow tail following it.

I continued my search. I figured if I followed some leads on who was giving out the most candy, I could find them pretty easily. So I started paying attention to conversations. It took me a few minutes to sort through the unimportant conversations and pick up the piercing shrills of children. Cheerilee. I had heard that name before, it was the name of a teacher or something. But I had no idea where she lived. Back to wandering.

Thankfully, Pinkie Pie is always incredibly noticeable wherever she goes. It didn't take me long to find her again. Nothing impeded my access to her, and I pushed through the gaggle of kids surrounding her, to find myself face to face with a bloody chicken. After a look, I realized it was Pinkie Pie in a chicken costume. Yup, that's Pinkie Pie for you.

She broke into a smile when she saw me, though. "Navarone! I thought you would be with Twilight and the princess. What are you doing away from them? Or… Or are they hiding nearby, waiting to eat one of us?" The kids looked alarmed at that, and began fruitlessly searching the shadows.

"I thought we had been over this, lass," I said. "Luna is here to make friends. Your fear-mongering and running away with a gaggle of children is not helping."

"But sometimes being scared is fun!"

"Not for the person that you're scared of. Seeing all of you run away screaming cut Luna pretty deeply. She regrets what she became. How is she to go about making friends if every time she tries, ponies flee?"

She hmphed, but thought about it for a few seconds. "Fiiiine!" I nodded and turned to go. "Wait, where are you going?"

I turned back to her. "Princess Luna wants to make friends with these ponies. If she wants to do that, it's best that I'm not anywhere around her. I wasn't involved with any part of Twilight's plot, so I was planning on just sitting back and watching it all unfold from somewhere away from everything."

"Don't you want to make friends with the ponies, too?"

"Not particularly, no." So I told Luna I would try. I say a lot of things. Some of them are true. "If you need me, I might be around. Then again, I might not."

Of course, it's harder to shake Pinkie Pie than that. She continued following me, and with her came the group of kids.
I can be stubborn, too. They all watched as I scaled the wall of a building and lay on the straw roof, eyes to the sky. "You're no fun sometimes, Nav!" Pinkie Pie yelled up at me. The only thing I'm missing is a warm bunny.

From most of the accounts I heard, the night went swimmingly. Luna apparently took my absence well enough. Pinkie Pie handled herself well. Twilight's plans went off without too many hitches, though Rainbow Dash did her best to be a nuisance.

Me, I almost fell asleep on the roof a few times. The occasional thunder from Rainbow Dash kept me awake, thankfully. When most of the ponies had returned to their homes, I descended and landed right next to a light purple pony.

"What were you doing on my roof?" she asked, looking at me with restrained fear.

"Hiding," I answered. "Good night, ma'am."

"Wait," she said. I stopped. "Hiding from what?"

I waved my arm at some of the remaining small groups of children. "Them," I said. "They're afraid of me. So on a night like this, when the main objective is to have fun, I find it is best if I stay out of the way. I shouldn't ruin it for everyone else."

She nodded slowly. I saw she was no longer afraid of me. "Anypony willing to put the enjoyment of others above their own wishes can't be bad. I'll talk to my students about you. Now, I've seen you here and there, and I've heard rumors about you from my students. But what exactly are you?"

"I'm a human. I suppose you are Ms. Cheerilee?"

"That's me. So what's a human?"

"A race of mammals that lives in another dimension remarkably similar to this one. Twilight accidentally summoned me."

"I… see." I don't think she did. "What's your name?"

"Navarone."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Navarone." I nodded, and went on my way. I made it back to Twilight's library with no other interruptions.

There, I was met with a bit of hate. "Where were you all night, Nav?" Twilight demanded.

"On Cheerilee's roof, apparently. Pinkie Pie knew where I was, if you had needed me."

Twilight snorted. "Thankfully, we didn't. Princess Luna handled herself well enough. No thanks to you."

"Twilight, you want her to be accepted. I am not accepted. It was for the best that I not be around for this. I think my part was done well enough just getting her here."

"Nav, sometimes you're just so… ugh!" To be fair, that is a pretty accurate description. "What if part of the plan was to get you accepted as well?"

"I'm fine with being an outcast, actually." I had never been picked up and shaken like a ragdoll before. I don't suggest it; it was not enjoyable. "Feel better?" I asked when she set me down. My head was reeling and I could barely stand.

"Much. I'm going to bed."

I went to bed as well; I was bloody tired, dreams be damned.