25 Years later

Two forms were prone outside of a house. One was obviously taller in stature, but its black complexion masked its bulkier body. The other was a light purple color that also blended well, just not as well as the other.

"Princess, we have been doing this for five years. Albeit we haven't done this all at once and took breaks, but isn't it time you gave him up as lost?" The smaller one said.

The head on the taller one turned, showing that it had an elongated snout. "He waited for me for a thousand years twilight. Surely I can spend but a few searching for him."

Twilight arose, "but we have been all around this planet and so far not one has come close to being half the pony he was."

She turned to face the window that they were overlooking. "Most of these creatures, these, 'humans' as they call themselves, are complete idiots. Remember that one guy you approached. He started babbling in a random language, something about demons and horses I think. And that other guy. He heard your voice, turned to look at you and proceeded to feel you over like some marenizer." Luna shivered at the memory of the odd creature.

"Yes we, I mean I remember that. He was VERY interested in my wings and horn for some odd reason. Do they not have ponies on this planet or something?"

"Exactly! So why must we continue this foolish venture. Hearing about him from you, I want to meet him now more than anything, but five years is a lot of time Princess." The purple mare questioned.

Luna sighed. "Maybe you are correct. Still we, I wish to try this one last residence. He was the most promising of all the candidates." Luna resumed her view on the window with interest.

Twilight's face turned cherry red, her voice shrill. "You mean to tell me that this is the most promising person, and that you didn't try him first before going through the other 4976 stallions on this planet?!?"

Luna put her hoof to her chin, not turning from her point of view. "Hmm, I'm pretty sure it was less than that, but I lost count after 3586."

Twilight's mane turned fiery red and started waving on its own. The night became more and more bright as her fire man increased in size. "Twilight, turn off the light, I'm fairly sure the human is still awake!" Princess Luna turned around to face an inflamed Twilight. "TWILIGHT SPARKLE, CONTROL THYSELF!"

Twilight s eyes widened considerably at the admonishment from the princess. Fairly shamed she slowly laid down, the anger dissipating.

Luna's ears suddenly swiveled to meet a creaking noise. The door to the target house slowly opened to reveal a man. He scanned the outside till his eyes stopped where the two ponies were hiding. "Alright you two, you can come out or I can come in there to get you." The man shouted. Hearing no reply from the bushes he started counting. "1… 2… 3…okay you asked for it." He walked towards the bushes with a bat in one hand. As he got nearer he heard some rustling. Thinking his quarry was about to escape he quickly pulled back the hedge to reveal the two ponies somewhat cowering away from him.

Dumbfounded, his brain came up with an excuse to why a unicorn and a unicorn-pegasus were hiding in his front yard. "You cos players just keep getting weirder and more realistic costumes don't you. So what or whom are you supposed to be?"

Princess Luna regained her composure when it seemed as if the human was not hostile. "We are ponies hailing from the land of Equestria. I am princess Luna and this is Twilight Sparkle, protegee of my sister princess Celestia. We came here seeking a friend of mine. We were hoping that you might be able to help us find him."

The human put his hands on his hips. He didn't buy any of it, but the 'costumes' look so realistic that the possibility could not be ignored. "Well I still don't believe it fully," the ponies faces turned sad for a moment as he paused for 'dramatic' effect. "but, I don't 'disbelieve' it either. You two should come inside, at least for the night. Kinda cold out here."

Luna smiled while twilight was a bit astonished. This was the best greeting they had gotten while on this planet. Maybe they wouldn't go back to Equestria as empty hoofed as she thought.

"You… uh,  'ponies' comin?" They quickly joined him at his front door as he opened it. They followed him inside to a spacious room with cooking equipment in it. He turned on the lights and walked over to a closet space, opening it to reveal some human food stacked in it.

Now that the lights were on they could properly see him. He was 5' 7" with dark hair. He wasn't skinny or muscular that they could tell from human standards. He looked, well, average. When he turned back to them Luna almost squealed with delight. His eyes were a deep green while his face showed a genuine smile on it.

"Hey I know it's kinda late, well actually it's 1 in the morning so I guess that means it's early heh. But you guys want some food or something? I don't know what ponies eat or anything, but I have some cereal that might make a good substitute. Or maybe some vegetables in the fridge.  Ain't a lot but it gets me by. Name's Stan by the way, nice to meet you."

Both mares decided to go with the vegetables since they were more familiar with the food. As they sat at the table, well as best as a pony could sit, Stan stared at the two mysterious 'ponies' at his table. He had come to the point where he believed that they were in fact equines. No costume was that realistic, nor comfortable for a person to act without doing something. "So… you two like escapees from a lab or something?"

Twilight gasped. "What? Of course not! Why would you think such a thing?"

"Well your just… odd. I've never seen anything like you before." Stan shrugged. "Can't blame me for being surprised can you?"

Twilight was about to respond but Luna beat her to it. "No of course not Stan, but what do you mean you've never seen like us before? Don't you have ponies on this planet?"

"Well yeah we have ponies." Twilight interrupted him. "Then why are you so surprised?" Luna glared at Twilight causing her to sink a bit lower in her chair. Stan continued. "But they don't talk, have wings or horns and aren't as colourful."

Stan noticed the fatigue and dirty coats of his two guests. "Wellp it's late, how about you two head to bed, I'll clean up here and tomorrow you two can go searching for your friend." He got up to grab the dishes when he saw a purple glow encircle them, lifting from the table to the counter. He looked at twilight and saw a similar glow.

She noticed his stares and smiled. "You have been so nice to us I thought it's about time we helped you out."

Stan kept staring in amazement. "Sooo… how'd you do that?"

"Figures, we hadn't seen your species use magic so you obviously wouldn't know what it is. Well it is where a unicorn focuses the energy inside him/her. After that they form it into a spell that will be triggered by the brain then using that spell as a base and the horn as a focal point…" twilight was cut off by a hoof from Luna. "Excuse her, she has a tendency to lecture about things."

Stan waved a hand dismissively. "It is of no concern. She was merely trying to teach me something using a unnecessarily large amount of words. I don't mind."

Dishes went quickly thanks to the help of the two magical ponies staying with him at the moment. When he first saw them his gut reaction was 'call animal control!' But something inside him slowly overcame the base fear and allowed him to show some kindness. His choice had certainly payed off. Like every bachelor he hated doing the dishes.

He sat back in his chair. "So who are you looking for specifically?" Stan asked.

Luna quickly turned and stared at him intently before countering with a question of her own. "Stan, why are you helping us? We have countless humans" - "4976" twilight whispered. - "and not one has been as kind as you. Why?"

Stan leaned forward to stare at the two 'supposedly' mythical creatures sitting in front of him. "That my dear ponies, is the question of the century." Twilight opened her mouth. "No twilight it's just a figure of speech.  Humans are naturally aggressive, so when we find something we don't understand or that looks hostile," He motioned with his head the horns on top of the ponies’ heads. "we tend to react in hostility. However there are rare cases, such as myself, where a human is born more compassionate than normal. I won't lie, my first reaction to you guys was to call someone to contain the 'animals', but for some reason I stopped myself." He smiled at the two across the table. "And it seems it turned out alright at the end. Now, who are you looking for again?"

Luna hesitated, "A pony named Star Fire." Stan froze; his eyes gained a glassy look as if he was in a trance. Luna gasped and turned to twilight. "It has to be him!" She whispered. She squealed softly. After 1005 years she finally got to see her long lost love again.

Stan shook his head in confusion. "What just happened?" He looked up to find a pouncing pony hurtling towards him.

"STAAARRRRRR!!!" Luna cried. Stan was caught unawares and was unable to dodge the attack. Luna wrapped her hooves around his torso, snuggling her head into his neck.

They sat on the floor, Luna on top on Stan. She continued snuggling him, while he sat uncomfortably bearing it. 'Apparently this pony is mad.' he thought. Without the ability to rise he just decided to let the pony vent her feelings. He could escape and make her come to her senses after she released him.

He glanced over at twilight helplessly. She just shrugged in return and made a hugging motion. Reluctantly he put his arms around Luna. At his touch she grasped tighter, pressing further into his neck. "Oh Star… I've missed you so much." She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. She noticed a lack of recognition upon his face and sobbed even more. "You don't remember do you? Well you remember some things," She rose to her hooves. "just not me." She took one last glance at him, wiping away the tears with one hoof. "Come twilight, we best be getting back to our… my, sister."

Twilight was slack jawed at the sudden turn of events. “B…but princess, didn’t you say that he was the one? Why aren’t you…” Luna turned to look at her. “That is all twilight sparkle.

Stan watched them leave, perplexed by what just happened. “Aren’t you going to at least stay the night?

Luna stopped, followed shortly by Twilight. Without looking over her shoulder she replied, “Yes, that would be nice.”

“Alright, if you ladies would just follow me upstairs I will show you your accommodations.”

Stan rose and walked up the stairs to the floor above. “I don’t have much in the way of beds, but twilight can sleep in the guest room across from mine. Luna you can just take my bed for the night. I'm going to go crash on the couch.”

“You do not need to give up your bed to me.” Luna opened the door to Stan’s room. A large bed sat on one end. It looked large enough for two people to sleep in comfort together. “The bed looks big enough for us both. Why are you going to degrade yourself to sleeping on the couch?”

“Well…” Stan scratched his head. “It’s not proper for a male and a female to sleep in the same bed together before they are married or are in love.”

Luna looked downcast. “Oh… alright then.” She trotted towards the bed.

Stan sighed deeply. This mare was truly something. If what he heard in the conversation was true, she waited a thousand years for her love. Then when he disappeared she gave up another five to look for him. She was definitely the best mare a stallion could ever wish for. “If you would like I can stay up here and keep you company. Would you like that?”

“Yes. Yes I would, thank you Stan.” She replied.

Luna got into the bed and lay down on top of the blankets and sheets. Stan figured undressing would cause to many questions, so he just climbed into bed beside her, making sure to put a decent amount of space between them.

The hour passed peacefully and the two fell asleep.

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Stan woke up to moaning and whimpering. He looked beside him and saw the dark mare that he had taken into his care tossing and turning with nightmares. He brought her close and tried to comfort her. The mare started thrashing a bit at his embrace. Suddenly a melody surfaced in his mind. Seeing no alternative he started to sing to her.

For a thousand years I’ve waited here for you

Waited every night

For I thought you were the answer to my life.

Luna won’t you cry for me,

I'm as lonely as I’ve ever been.

I am forced back into the start,

Is there any way to fix a broken heart?

At the end of the last line the troubled princess stopped squirming and started to quiet down. He smiled, it seemed as though his impromptu song had calmed her enough to release her from the dreams that haunted her. For some reason though, he could not shake the feeling that the song was very familiar. He tried focusing on sleep, but the mare beside him started to stir again. She grasped him tightly, eyes closed, expression sad. “Star, please don’t leave me! I don’t know what I would do without you!” She sniffled before continuing. “Promise me you’ll never leave me, promise me that I will always be with you. Please? I don’t know how much longer I can last with the emptiness that is within my heart.”

Stan was dumbstruck. Apparently she was still dreaming and apparently living it. Sleepwalkers can be very dangerous sometimes. They can get so absorbed into their dreams that they forget what is real, and what is not. If you awaken a sleepwalker from their dream, they could react in a way that was similar to their dream. Luna started to whimper and slight movement caused discomfort since her hooves were wrapped tightly around his waist. “Promise me.” She whispered.

Deciding there was no harm in letting her mind go to rest he promised. “Shhh, shhh, I promise Luna, I will never leave you, I will always be with you.” He stroked her man some more and she calmed down.

Suddenly her horn became aglow with the same blue light as before. Not sure what he should do, Stan just sat and watched as her horn moved closer to his forehead.

“Lovers, forever and always.” She whispered, as her horn made contact.

Stan felt a searing pain in his head. IT was excruciating, as if his entire being was being bound with strong cord. He almost cried out in the pain, but as quickly as it came, it vanished.

He stared for a moment at the lovely blue mare sleeping peacefully next to him. Then for some inexplicable reason, he pushed back her man and gave her a slight kiss on the forehead. Smiling to himself, he slowly drifted back into a deep slumber.