With a yawn, I roll over in my bed and look out over the balcony. My curtains have magically pulled themselves open to reveal the setting sun on the horizon, telling me that it'll soon be time to raise my beloved moon. With a quick stretch, I get out of bed and walk to my vanity mirror. Hmm... I still don't know how cosmic hair can have bed head, but I ignore the thought and begin brushing it out. Once done, I put on my necklace, tiara, and glass shoes before heading out to the main chamber. It's been two years since I was brought back from my imprisonment on the moon, and things haven’t been going as well as I had hoped. My speech has become more modern, and I've caught up on all the major historical events from the past thousand years, but that's it. My sister, Celestia, won't let me take on many of my royal responsibilities. She says ‘it's still too soon for me’ and that I ‘should take it easy for a little while longer’. Well, at least she lets me raise the moon every night. I walk out of my room and down to the eating chamber, where I find Tia reading a letter with a serious look on her face.

"Good evening, sister. Is that a letter from your student?" I ask as I take my seat beside her.

"Hmm… oh! Good evening, Luna. And yes; it seems there's a disturbance in Ponyville," she says as she sets down the letter and looks over to me. Of course something happened to Ponyville. It always happens to Ponyville.

"What's happened?"

"Nothing yet, but she says a creature she's never seen or read about has shown up - armed. Her friends tried to talk to it, but it would always either run or fight. That is, until it was knocked out. When they brought it back to her friend’s home, it was very hostile."

"Do they know where it came from?"

"She says it emerged from the Everfree Forest, but she doesn't think it lives there."

"How can she tell?"

"She didn't say, but I trust in her judgement." Hmm... this is strange, but not unheard of. Back in the day, Tia and I would get almost weekly letters speaking of monsters attacking towns and villages. Most were just simple animal attacks, but we dealt with it all the same.

"What do you plan to do about this?" I ask, intrigued by this occurrence.

"Well, I have a meeting with some government officials in ten minutes, so I was going to go to Ponyville after the meeting."

"Tia! Those meetings take hours; this could be a real problem and shouldn't be ignored!"

"Well, it's not like I can be in two places at once..." I lean forward and put on the biggest smile I can muster. "No!"

"Aw, come on, Celestia! We use to do this kind of thing all of the time."I complain as I nudge her side a bit. She rolls her eyes at me, holding firm.

"Luna, things are different now-"

"Did the creatures of this planet become tremendously stronger within the last thousand years?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, no, but-"

"And am I, or am I not, a princess of Equestria?" I ask as I straighten my back.

"You are, but-"

"So then, it is my royal responsibility to protect the subjects of my kingdom, and I, for one, think that's far more important than some boring meeting with some bureaucrats." In actuality I just want an excuse to leave the castle. There are days I feel these walls are closing in on me.

Celestia looks away and thinks for a second to herself before turning back to me and saying, "I could just send you to the meeting and go to Ponyville myself..." Shoot, I didn't think of that. Gotta think of something quick... hmm... oh!

"I could, but then we would have to spend pointless hours going over past meetings and prior agenda points, just to get me caught up!"

Celestia smiles and walks up to me as she says, "Luna, you know I think the world of you, but I don't think you’re ready to-"

"I am more than ready for something as simple as a creature disturbance, sister. I need to start getting more involved with the kingdom, you said so yourself. This is perfect: it's simple, public, and if anything does go wrong, I'll have your student to assist me. What’s the worst that could happen?" Please say yes. Please, please, please, please-

"Hmm, well... I am busy... and Twilight would be there to help... okay, I'll let you take care of thi—"

"YES! Thank you so much!" I leap up and give her a big hug before running towards a nearby window. I’m about to leap out, when Celestia's magic brings me back into the room.

"I think your carriage will be better than flying all the way to Ponyville. Don't you think?" she asks with a smile.

"Oh, right..." I say with a light blush. She levitates me over to her and sets me down so we’re face-to-face.

"Luna... just, please be careful, okay? I can't put my hoof on why, but I've got a bad feeling about this," she says with a worried look.

I look up to her and give her a confident smile before saying, "Don't worry Tia. I'll go, take care of things, and be back before you know it." With that said, I walk out of the chamber and head straight to the carriages.

The ride to Ponyville takes far too long, mainly because I’m far too excited. Not to mention we had to stop so I could raise the moon. Once Ponyville is in view, I turn to the guards flying the carriage and ask, "Can you please bring me to Miss Sparkle’s home?"

"Of course, princess," says the one on the left. After a few moments, we land in front of her tree home and I make my way to the door.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

After a few seconds, the door opens up to show Spike trying to wipe some frosting off his face with a napkin. "I'm sorry, but the lib—PRINCESS LUNA! Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you... uh, I was just... reading a book... and uh... please don't tell Twilight I ate all the cupcakes!"

I give a small chuckle before saying, "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I'm here to help Twilight with her... creature problem. Can you tell me where she is?"

Before he can say a word, I hear hoofsteps from behind, followed by a gasp and shuffling. I turn around to see Twilight and her friends Applejack and Fluttershy bowing, looking tired and out of breath.

"Ah, just the pony I wanted to see. So, I hear you are having some creature troubles. I am here to help. Where is this creature you wish to identify?" I ask as I approach them.

The three of them sit up and look nervously to one another. After an awkward moment of silence, Twilight says, "Well, you see... the thing is... we kind of don't know where he is."

"What do you mean? Didn’t you capture him and tie him down?" I ask as I look from guilty face to guilty face.

"Well, he broke free and ran away," Applejack tells me.

"Couldn't you stop him with your magic? Or at least find him with it?"

"Well, when I ran into him in town, he blinded me by throwing dirt into my eyes. And once he was gone I couldn't scry him, so we have no clue where he is," Twilight admits, bowing her head slightly.

"Do you have anything of his that I could use?"

"He did drop this," says Fluttershy as she pulls out a small piece of metal. I take it with my magic and look it over. I've never seen anything like before. It’s so... mechanical. It seems to be made for something with paws or claws to operate.

"Do you know what this is used for?" I ask, to which they all shake their heads. I charge my magic for the location spell while looking it over.

"What are you doing Princess Luna?" Fluttershy asks.

"I'm going to use a location spell to find him."

"But it won't work," says Twilight. "I tried it already. He's somehow un-searchable by my magic."

"I figured you would try to find him this way. But I think I have a loophole that will help us."

I begin to use the spell to search out around the area. The spell works by taking an energy reading from one object, and matching it with a reading somewhere else. Once I lock on to the energy field around the object I begin to read all the energy fields in the surrounding area. As predicted, it's nowhere to be found. I continue my search, but instead of trying to find his energy field, I look for a negative field. When somepony blocks their energy, it creates a negative field of their energy, making them nearly impossible to track if one were to look for the energy. After a few moments of looking, I think I find him over in the residential area of Ponyville. I levitate the object over to Twilight and turn towards his direction.

"Okay, I think I've got him. Now, I want all of you to wait here until I return."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Princess Luna?" asks one of the guards.

"I'm more than capable of handling something like this on my own. Plus, I don't want to overwhelm him with too many ponies showing up next to him. I'll only be a few moments." With that said, I flap my wings a couple of times before taking off towards his location.

The flight there was fairly quick; nothing out of the ordinary below. I find the location of the negative field and land on the roof of a one-story house. I take a moment to look around, to see if he has started to run out of the house or if he's still inside-

"So, you found me."

"Ahh!" I yell as I fall over, roll down the side of the roof, and fall straight to the ground, landing on my stomach. As I begin to recover, I hear a soft thud in front of me and look up to see a-

"Are you Okay?" he asks while standing over me, offering his left hand. I quickly stand up and take a few steps back to size him up. He stands well over six feet tall, with light-tan skin, short black hair, and chocolate brown eyes. He's wearing what seems to be black pants and blackened metal strapped around his legs and arms. His chest area is revealed, showing his muscular body. Underneath the forearm of his left arm seems to be his cutie mark, but it’s covered by his armor. What he does next surprises me: he pulls out something from his back, drops to his knees, and presents it to me.

"I surrender," he says, with a single tear rolling down the side of his face.

---

As I hit the ground, I do a quick roll forward and sprint away as fast as possible. I can't face judgement now; I need to get to Topaz; I need to make sure my friends are okay. I look back to see that they haven't started chasing me yet, so I charge up my magic and slam my hands onto my chest, sending white flames all over myself. A quick energy reversal spell should hide me for a while, or at least give me a good head start.

I come to a stop when I see a small town up ahead. The buildings are mostly one or two stories tall, and are all made with the same materials, which I don’t recognize. The roofs seem to be made of long strands of yellow material, while the walls seem to be made of... brown metal? I look back and see the three from earlier running out of the building and heading to the window I jumped out of. I could run and hide in the town, but I run the risk of being spotted again. But hiding in the town would give me a better chance of getting away... so, the town it is.

I make my way to the closest building and climb up to the roof to get a good view of the town. The buildings are built very close to one another. In the center of the town is a large, circular, three-story building. There are four major roads that cross with this building and head to various places. The one to my right is the closest to me, and curves away towards the red building I was just in; the one to my left goes straight towards the area with the dark columns that I awoke in; the road above that one heads towards a mountain that has some structure attached to the side of it; and the remaining road goes off into some open area with gentle hills rolling away.

"There he is!" I look back and see Twilight running towards me. I turn and begin running down the roof, only to stop when she flashes in front of me. Before she can do anything, though, I lunge off the roof and continue my run down the dirt road. After a few seconds, she flashes in front of me again, only to have me jump over her and continue on. I run for a bit longer until I feel myself get engulfed in an aura field. I look back at Twilight as she starts levitating me back to her. I quickly grab a handful of dirt and throw it at her face, blinding her instantly and breaking her concentration. Once I drop to the ground, I quickly run a bit further before turning down between two buildings and cutting behind them. The backs of each building are fenced off from one another, and lead to the center of the town-

"‘Ah gotcha now!" I look to the left to see Applejack running towards me, leaping over fence after fence along the way. I quickly turn to the right and run away from her. The fences are barely a meter tall, so they're easy to jump over while running. After a while, I look back to see Applejack keeping pace with me. What is she planning? She could’ve easily caught up by now... When I look forward, Twilight appears before me, forcing me to turn left down an alley. I stop immediately when I see Fluttershy blocking the exit. Twilight and Applejack quickly run up behind me, blocking the entrance.

"There's nowhere left to go, Miles. Just come back to the farm with us quietly, okay?" says Twilight.

"Sorry, can't do that." I turn to Fluttershy and walk towards her.

"U-um, p-please stop?" she asks weakly. I continue approaching her.

"You stay away from her, ya hear?!" yells Applejack from behind. I continue to approach.

"U-uh, p-please... um..." I'm now standing directly in front of her.

"Please move," I say calmly.

"O-okay." I can hear some groans coming from down the alley as we walk around each other, never looking away from one another. Once I'm past her, I quickly exit the alley to the right. The building I'm next to has an open window, so I jump through and hide beneath it. I can hear the three of them running by, arguing with one another.

"Why would you just move for him, Fluttershy?" asks Twilight.

"Well... he did say please..."

I wait until their footsteps fade away before looking around the room. It's a simple room, with cream yellow walls, and a green couch with a small table in front of it in the center. To my left is a stairway, and further down is a doorway that leads to another room. On the wall to my right is a fireplace with what looks like a calendar pinned up. I should go upstairs, get to the roof, and get out of here, but I keep thinking about that calendar. After several minutes of debating with myself, I finally just go to it and look it over. The text looks like glyphs of various pony-related objects, but the numbers are the same. Half of the days are crossed off; apparently today is the 24th... That doesn't seem right. I take the calendar down and look at the front. After reading it over, I drop it...

"4132... no... no, that can’t be right!" I begin to panic. I hear some shuffling upstairs and jump back out the window. Once out, I run down the road. That can't be right; ponies probably use a different time system. Yeah, that's probably it... I hope...

As I'm running, I notice that the dome - or whatever is up there - is starting to change colors. Earlier it was bright blue, with a massive golden orb. Now it's a dark blue with golden rays coming from the distance. I decide to climb up a building and rest for a while. I haven't seen my pursuers for a while, so after a five minute break, I'll head out.

I wake up later and look at the clock on my phone: 7:30. Dammit, I went to sleep for an hour... Oh well. At least no one found me. I look up and - I don't believe my eyes! The dom—area above, has turned black and is covered in millions of little white lights in every direction. In the center hangs a massive orb that glows white. This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! I can't wait to tell Dolum and the others about... oh, right.

It can't be the future. I refuse to believe that everyone I’ve ever known has died. But, I can't shake the feeling that it’s true; that I'll never see my friends again; that I left them behind and wasn't there for them when they needed me the most; that I failed them-

My train of thought is interrupted when a pony lands next to me. She fits the description of what a pony should be: fairly tall, wings, horn, and energy hair. She’s dark blue, and her backside has a black spot with a white crescent. I look into her eyes, and... they are an amazing light teal color.

"So, you found me," I say calmly as I lay back.

"Ahh!" She falls over and rolls off the building. I quickly go after her and leap off the roof. I land in front of her and offer her a hand.

"Are you okay?" I ask as she gets up and backs away while staring at me. Hmm... Maybe I should just surrender. It would let me meet this princess and find out if it's really the year that calendar says it is. But if I do that... what if it's wrong? They'll kill me! ... But if it is the future, do I want to live? Well, the best I can hope for is that they hear my side of the story and just imprison me for a while. I reach for my revolver... and it's missing! Must have fallen out when I was on the run. I pull out my rifle and drop to my knees. I present it to her, hoping I'm not making the biggest mistake of my life... and hopefully this isn't the end of my life.

"I surrender."

Next Chapter: Chapter 9 Judgement Estimated time remaining: 86 Hours, 31 Minutes