Excitement! I'm getting this story VA'd on YouTube. Love guy man, his name is Dusky Novel and he's already getting voice actors together for it. I'll make sure to link it when it's ready! Apparently I'm voicing Star :D

I want to make this story not as heavy, as in character development. I planned out a bit more now and the two characters focused on this and next chapter should help develop the personalities of the two.

dont get any ideas. no shipping yet xD

No one has reviewed the previous chapter.

---

Chapter 6 - A Trip's Beginning

Luna felt the soft bed underneath her back shift as she came to, shuffling in her bed slightly. Her tail twitched as she opened her eyes, sleep blurring her vision. She reached up a hoof to rub it off, then shifted her eyes around to take in her surroundings.

She noticed she was in the hospital again. Luna remembered the moment she was shot by Celestia, the sheer power knocking her unconscious in a wave of pain. She tried to activate the muscles in her neck to lift her head up, but she grunted as a general soreness lanced through her stiff neck.

Instinctively she tried to cast a spell to fix the crick in her neck, but she felt the usual sensation of magic not working, and she sighed, shifting into the bed. The lights were already off, so sleep came rather quickly.

A luckily dreamless night followed, and Luna this time stirred to the lights on. She reached a hoof up to cover her eyes, rubbing them in the process.

There were some muted muffles of speech, and she felt her bed tilt upwards, bending up to help lift her head. Luna cringed as the twinge clicked away, and she once again let out some air when she felt the pain disappear.

There was a light purple mare with a clipboard floating in blue magic. She smiled as the bed stopped tilting, and started to speak. Unfortunately it came out all as a muffled sound, like her ears were in water.

When the nurse realized her words were upon deaf ears, she disappeared out of the door, the clipboard moving onto the end of her bed. A short amount of time a white stallion ran in, looked at the clipboard, swiveled his head to Luna, who smiled, then put the board down and walked out of the room.

About five minutes later, a familiar pegasus and alicorn entered the room, the pegasus looking surprised and the alicorn looking overjoyed.

Both of them lapsed into speech, the mumbling indecipherable to Luna's ears. The two wore big smiles, and they walked around to flank each side of her bed. Luna looked at Star, her forehead creased around her horn.

"I can't hear you," she probably meant to say, which it came out like, "I canh hea you."

Celestia stopped talking and nodded. Her horn illuminated and a small square appeared. Some text etched into the magic, saying, "You're awake extremely early."

Celestia shook it, the etching dissolving from the sheet, and wrote something else. "You were asleep a good day, and you were freaking out quite a bit. We had to restrain you for a few hours!"

Luna put a hoof over her mouth and slurred/chuckled. She remembered the memories rather vividly during her magical coma, but it wasn't like she had not been there to suffer the moon imprisonment. Her internal fight with Nightmare Moon was over, even though some of her still remained inside her.

Some sound began to bleed back into the world, the murky muddy noise replaced with the soft hum of the machines as they clicked and beeped. Star was speaking, and his voice was brought forward. "...aid," he finished, the sentence mostly cut off.

Luna hummed quietly, her slightly hoarse voice scratching up her throat. She opened her mouth and spoke, "I think I can hear now…"

Celestia brightened up. "That's great! Oh Luna, I was so so worried…" The white princess lost some formality as she rested her head on the edge of the hospital bed. "You were all thrashing and you were scared…"

Luna weakly lifted a hoof to place it on her sister's nose. "Look, it's okay now. I'll be better soon."

"But it was all my fault!" Celestia wailed, slumping to the floor, "I was the one that wounded you in the first place!"

Luna sighed, picking up a pillow and stuffing it over her face.

---

"Latitude fifteen degrees, Luna. It's pretty common knowledge."

"Yet you always surprise me, Shining Star," commented Luna as she dragged a quill against a roll of parchment. The studies had continued as normal after the incident, and Star had been progressing like wildfire.

The scroll had many things checked off like wayfinding, star mapping and planet identification. Luna had decided to give Star a short refresher since it had been a little while since previous topics.

As usual, she unconsciously rubbed a hoof against the circular scar on her chest. It was force of habit, and even when the stitches came out she always felt kinda uncomfortable. Nothing of the unfortunate sort had happened for about a month now, and she felt happy to be back teaching her student.

Honestly, she was more than happy, but still she felt shattered. Her life had been turned upside-down those fateful years ago, and she was still picking up the pieces.

But she was content for now, beneath her night sky with somepony who liked it nearly as much as she did. The young stallion had come to only like his studies even more, letting his head fill with the incredible information only one pony could bring to him.

Luna liked the feeling, the feeling that somepony cared. As much as her sister said so, she knew Celestia cared, but sometimes it didn't feel enough. Star had happily taken on the tough studies she had brought, and he was at her side when she needed it.

"Luna?"

Said alicorn blinked, pulled out of her silent prattle. "Yes?"

"You were kinda out of it… But I found Cerbes!" His sentence trailed into an exclamation.

"You did?!" Luna dashed to the large telescope and peered into it. Sure enough the red dusty surface of the planet was in visible sight, the rocky sphere sliding across the viewfinder. "This is incredible work, Shining Star! You did well!"

Shining Star himself beamed at the praise, happy to see that the difficult task was met with equal enthusiasm. He held back puffing out his chest and rubbed the back of his head with his hoof. "Yeah, thanks!" he said meekly.

Luna turned around, a grin plastered on her face. "You really do need to stop being so modest. Finding and tracking Cerbes is incredibly hard, especially through this kind of telescope!"

Star raised his eyebrows. "That wasn't what you thought at the beginning of this month, didn't it?"

Luna waved a hoof dismissively. "I was still recovering, and besides, I've come to enjoy teaching somepony. You know, I was actually against it completely before."

"I couldn't tell," Star said, rolling his eyes, "Look, I appreciate the gesture that you are becoming less strict with me, but I do enjoy these lessons. Could we continue?"

Luna's grin couldn't have grown wider as she nodded.

---

A light snort escaped from Star as a familiar light green coated mare shook him. "You're falling asleep again!"

"Wuh?" Star said, blinking sleep from his eyes as he lifted his head up.

"You must be staying up later and later like Luna does! I bet sometime you're gonna become an owl. You know, how they wake up at night and sleep during the day?" The mare quipped, chattering off.

"Yeah, but this couch is comfortable…" Star put a hoof down on the couch cushions laced with cloud, and pushed himself up, his wings groaning in protest as blood flowed into them. Star extended his right one and rubbed the bone, correcting some feathers.

Eventually the two had come to crash at Emerald's house, a small house (small for Canterlot) situated in the middle class part of town. The small double floored place was nice and cozy, perfect for the light lifestyle Emerald has.

"You know, you may wanna get some sleep during the day eventually, anyways. You wouldn't want to fall asleep at the night, right?" Star's eyes snapped open at the sentence.

Star rubbed his temple. "Oh, I forgot about that! I really hope Luna will be okay to go…"

Emerald didn't listen as she droned on, "Eh, but you'd probably fall asleep come the actual Gala, I mean the nobles are so boooring!"

Star put a hoof to her mouth, silencing her. "Just slow down, please. I just woke up and my feathers are all wrong again."

Emerald giggled and lit up her horn. "Why didn't you ask for my help then? Using hooves or your mouth must be tedious." With a simple tug Star's other wing's feathers straightened themselves out.

"Emerald, you have no idea of pegasi culture, don't you?" Star said, rubbing his feathers where Emerald used magic on them. "You know what… never mind."

Emerald peered at the light blush appearing on the stallion's muzzle and giggled. "Alright, fine. But it's hella lot quicker than your manual way!"

The two had grown to be great friends over the month, and there was at the most three days between the two seeing each other. Emerald always was interested in how lessons with Luna were going, and Star always liked to catch up on Emerald's studies. Emerald recently started attending something called 'correspondence university' where the actual classes were few and far between, and the projects were mostly done at home.

Star and Emerald had always enjoyed each other's company, as one would always help the other in a time of need. Star sighed as he thought about his teacher, Luna, and how similar his relationship with Luna was with Emerald. The two were kind of alike in an aspect.

Shaking his head, he swung off the couch as Emerald stood up from sitting on a small armchair perpendicular to the couch. She used her magic, lighting her horn to levitate a pair of saddlebags onto her back. Shifting them in place, she said, "C'mon, Star! Let's go now."

The two had planned the outing for a little while. With permission from Luna, the two were planned to go to multiple towns to visit and tour. Those included big names like Manehattan, which Emerald squealed over, saying something about hairdressers or something or rather. In return Star chose a city - Las Pegasus, a stallion's dream.

Star picked up the bulging bags from the table and slung them around his back, feeding his wings through the flaps to be able to fly.

Star shifted, feeling the weight. It felt similarly heavy to the saddlebags he wore to Canterlot the first time. He could probably fly in them.

There was a sound of metal on metal softly as Emerald removed a keychain from a small bowl beside the door. She hummed as she opened the door and stepped out into the day. Star followed suit, walking out onto the cobblestone streets.

Emerald shut the door with magic and locked it, the tumblers clicking into place. She tucked the keys into her saddlebag and sighed. "And thus begins our journey? Did you say bye to the princesses yet?"

Star nodded. "Luna was a liiitle reluctant to see me go. She'll be fine. I doubt that she would mind having a short break from teaching me." Emerald snickered at the comment.

That was something about her. Emerald always seemed so happy and full of laughs, as it was nearly second nature for her to giggle or chuckle when a witty remark was made. She did it so naturally, and the laughter never seemed forced.

Star always kind of wondered why, though. Maybe he should ask her on the train. That would help pass the night trip to one of the first towns on their stop.

---

Luna sighed, her head resting on a cushion as she watched the lights turn on in the city with the raising of the moon. Of course, she had no magic, so Celestia had to raise the sun and the moon every day and night.

Earlier that day, Star had asked to be excused from about a week of lessons. He said that he was going to go on a trip with a friend. Luna agreed, knowing that the mint colored mare was a good friend of his.

But again, when he left, Luna found herself normally waiting for him in the observatory, muttering something about being late.

That's how she found herself resting her head on the pillow, set on the armrest of a lounger in the room. She looked at the telescope, imagining the great smile upon her face bringing another pony success, and then let out another breath.

She felt a small ache, something she hadn't felt in a while. Possibly nearly a thousand years ago may have been the last time.

But alas, any effects seemed to have worsened going on.

So that night, Luna went to do something she had not done in an entire five weeks. She went to her spot in the garden, the wooden bench cold from misuse, and wallowed in her sorrows.

She knew that Shining Star, her friend, had helped her keep her depression at bay. The routine leaving her veins on the first night left her shaken slightly.

Luna lifted her head, staring into the sky. She had to be strong, and only one week without her student can't be so bad, right?

She put her head down, resting it on her metal-less forehooves. She then had a sudden idea, laying her head down and trying to get rest.

She didn't have to stay separated from her friend, after all.

---

Shining Star blinked his eyes open. He was in the Canterlot Palace, standing in the line with that noble in front of him. He remembered this moment, when he first met Princess Celestia.

Coming his turn, he walked into the throne room. Walking in he noticed something was off. The throne of Celestia had a lot more ornate gold on it, and four guard flanked her instead of two.

Feeling put off, Star walked up the plush red carpet to the princess.

"What are you doing here?"

Star was caught off guard by the sudden speech, and looked up to see Princess Celestia looking down at him. Her crown was weirdly larger, and her necklace was missing entirely. She stood and walked down the stairs to the pony, and that's when he noticed something else off.

Celestia's mane had a weird blue tinge around it, as if her mane was surrounded by something else. Within these little spots were bright specks of light, glittering as her mane endlessly flowed. They kind of look like stars/

Her cutie mark was also different, her original sun cutie mark replaced by a sun overlapped by a crescent moon. He cringed in fear as the alicorn halted herself in front of him. Her eyes were a very ruby red, and they had a fire that didn't seem to exist in the Celestia she knew.

"What does a commoner like you come to request of the queen?" Celestia said, her voice a lot higher pitch than it should be. It sounded less motherly and more commanding, her entire visage screaming wrong.

"I-I…" Star stuttered, "I have come as the student of Princess Luna."

Celestia stared at him with those red eyes, then suddenly burst into laughter, her chest heaving with the expulsion of air.

She wiped a tear from her face. "You lower ponies are all full of surprises, huh?" She craned her neck down. "And how do you know of my sister who was destroyed four hundred years ago?"

Star gulped. "What are you talking about? She's still alive, right? I-I got sent a letter saying that Princess Luna chose me as her personal student?"

"You're not kidding," stated Celestia, her brows furrowing, "but I thought I destroyed all record of her existence…"

The alicorn hung in thought, then suddenly exclaimed, "A-ha! I cannot let my secret be known… Be it well you say your goodbyes, pony." She lit up her horn and the guards moved into action, circling around Star and pointing their spears at him. They started prodding and jabbing as Shining Star dodged around them.

Suddenly he landed with an oof against… nothing. The hall had become but nothing more, and he was now sitting on a platform of nothing, with only the moon visible.

Small light shafts shone from said moon, and Star covered his eyes as a shadow came down unto him.

Reeling from the light, Star blinked and gasped in surprise at seeing his teacher standing, smiling at him. Suddenly she sprang forward, taking him into a hug.

Surprised at the gesture, Star hesitantly returned it, his eyebrow raised. He let go of her and looked at her with that look.

"Heh…" said Luna, "I guess it was a little hard to go by without anyone as a friend around…"

---

Emerald shook her head as she watched the passed out form of the pegasus snore softly, the sound reflecting off the short walls of the bedroom cabin. She sighed and pulled out a book, opening it to a ribbon bookmark and reading the contents inside.

The stallion caressed the cheek of his special somepony, drawing him in for a light kiss as his hoof trailed down to her shoulders. After a night with friends, they finally got peace and quiet to themselves.

Dawn broke apart from the kiss and gently nuzzled the cheek of her mate with her own. She spoke in quiet mumbles, the two sharing little quips of compliments as they leant against one another on the balcony of the tall skyscraper.

"Someday, I can imagine we would be here, many years later, and wonder, 'where did all that time go?' It's a nice feeling, because I would know I spent that time with you."

Emerald snapped the book shut, growling in frustration. She was sure she packed Daring Do and the Temple of Chaos, not this excuse of some novel. She looked at the cover, using the light from the cabin as help.

She stared at the cover and groaned as she flung the book onto the small nightstand, leaning into her saddlebags to search for her book. She felt another book and pulled it out, glancing at the cover. She smiled as she used her magic to open the page to the ribbon bookmark and continued the adventure she was reading.

Twisting left and right, Daring Do ran into a small cleft just as the large stone rumbled past, crashing into the abyss close below. Cautiously peeking out, Daring Do gave her wings a mighty flap and flew across the chasm.

Daring Do saw her prize in the next room she entered: The Amulet of Chaos was floating in between two dangerous looking spikes. Anyone without a keen eye would have their day end badly.

Using her wings to her advantage, Daring Do soared past the spikes, grabbing the amulet as the trap noisily clanged together, the metal fraying as the top spike speared the bottom one. Daring Do wiped the sweat off her brow and looked at the amulet. The ornate gold neckpiece gave off a small glow as it made a slight humming noise.

Suddenly, the ground started rumbling. Daring Do glanced and gasped as small stones began to fall from the ceiling. Seeing her exit, she dashed for it, only for it to slam shut as she got to it.

Trying to not panic, Daring Do frantically looked for an exit. A tiny hole in the corner seemed to be her only option. The hole would barely be enough to contain Daring Do and her equipment, and so she stripped her belt off, leaving the few tools she had left behind. If she wanted to escape for her life, she needed to leave, now.

Taking a deep breath, Daring Do squeezed into the tunnel, using her forehooves to drag herself along. The dark and musty tunnel seemed to lead up, with a tiny bit of light shafting through to the surface.

Daring Do crawled up the tunnel-

"Emerald?" Emerald snapped her head to see Shining Star had woken up, looking into his bags. He looked up and asked Emerald a serious question, although said mare would never let him get the end of it.

"Where's my book?"