Oldnew Luna

by arandompenguin

First published 3rd of June, 2012

Something has happened to Princess Luna that greatly weakened her, Twiluna

Twilight Sparkle is called to Canterlot Castle where something has happened to Princess Luna that has reverted her to a weakened state, she has to live with Twilight whilst she recuperates her magic.

Prologue: The Letter

Oldnew Luna

Prologue:

"Twilight?" The purple baby dragon asked the mare standing in front of him. The pony in question was staring out into space; her many thoughts were almost tangible. The dragon waved his hand slowly in front of the mare’s face, before sighing and resorting to clicking his fingers to gain her attention.

"Huh?" The purple mare said, snapping back to reality and looking about herself, confused for a short moment before taking in the scene. "Sorry, Spike, I was spacing out again, what were you saying?"

She lowered her gaze to the dragon as he cleared his throat before continuing, "I said that you just received a letter from Princess Celestia," Spike reminded her, holding out the letter in question to Princess Celestia’s prized pupil. Her eyes widened in response as she magicked the letter out of Spike’s hand, unfurling the scroll in the process. She started reading aloud:

‘My faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,

A matter of grave importance has occurred at Canterlot Castle that requires your immediate attention. You may be staying for a number of days so pack accordingly, anything you forget can be provided for you at the castle, so do not worry too much about it. A chariot will be sent to collect you exactly fifteen minutes after this message has been received. I await your arrival.

Yours Sincerely,

Princess Celestia’

Twilight was silent for a few moments as she re-read the scroll, turning it over to see whether there was anything on the back. She seemed deeply perturbed by the letter.

"You okay?" Spike asked her, obviously worried.

"Yes... It’s just that she doesn’t even explain what the matter is, or what is needed of me!" Twilight exclaimed, giving off a short sigh before continuing, "How am I supposed to prepare, if I don’t know what to prepare for?!" The lavender unicorn questioned, the frustration evident in her voice. Spike sighed in relief, fears instantly assuaged, even if he was still a bit jumpy from being yelled at.

'She’s simply stressed out by not knowing how to get ready; she’s not even scared,' Spike thought to himself. However, he remembered something that should be of greater importance to Twilight than what she had to do once she got there.

"Umm... Twilight? You know you've only got like, fifteen minutes before the chariot arrives, right?" Spike asked her. Almost instantly, the mare half-jumped into the air and rushed off to pack her bags, muttering a quick 'thanks' to her assistant. Within the first thirty seconds or so, she had pulled her saddlebags from the wardrobe and began piling in clothes, not really caring what colour they were, or whether she actually planned to wear any of them -- miraculously, however, she managed to perfectly fold each and every one without missing a beat.

She next turned to her personal bookshelf next to her bed, where she kept her special books; the ones that she was either currently reading, or were her favourites. She briefly debated which volumes to bring, then realised that the Royal Canterlot Library would likely have multiple copies of any book she desired. Mentally shrugging that dead-end off, she instead chose a single slender, velvet-bound book. It was her diary, where she wrote about her deepest thoughts and feelings, and kept sealed shut from any eyes but her own, by an enchantment.

It was her most personal possession, and for all of the sixteen years she had it she had placed several different and complex spells upon it—one of the hardest spells she had enchanted it with was when she was twelve, and had run out of pages. At the time, she was Princess Celestia’s protégée, much like the present, but was nowhere near the level of magical skill she had today.

Twilight had told Celestia she wasn’t feeling well and was going to stay in her room for a few days. Even though she felt admittedly guilty about lying to her mentor, she still persevered. She’d spent the first day finding the necessary spell from the spell books she had snuck out of the library. She then spent two days straight without food, or water, performing the spell on her diary.

The spell would mean it kept its original size, but never ran out of pages. Infinity spells, as they are called, remain one of the hardest spells to do, as they require a constant, if almost imperceptible, amount of magic to keep active. This meant that she had to always make sure she never used up all of her magic or the infinity spell would fail, shutting off all other spells on the book too, due to the way that they were linked. Twilight primarily wanted the security spell she had enchanted it with to remain active, especially after she caught Spike attempting to open it.

Even though she had placed a proximity spell upon it that would make it jump to the bookshelf closest to her, she also knew that it might exhaust her magic too much if it had to jump all the way from Ponyville to Canterlot, so she decided it best to just bring it along. Twilight placed the book beneath everything else in her bag, flung it on to her back and trotted to the library’s main room. She then proceeded to look for Spike; she had something to tell him.

"I’m really sorry, Spike, but you’ll have to housesit for me while I’m gone. There just isn’t enough time to find anyone else; is that alright?" Twilight asked him, biting her lip at the necessity of the question. But she took solace when she remember what little number of ponies actually came into the library on weekdays.

Spike nodded and turned back to the box he was sorting through. Twilight knew that Spike had already known this as he hadn’t packed anything, but she still felt as if she needed to confirm it. A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts and she glanced over at the door, before turning back to Spike.

"Well, goodbye, I guess," she said to her assistant, never sure how to say goodbye to somepony without it sounding awkward.

"See you, sometime," he replied absentmindedly, still focused on the box between his claws. Twilight knew that Spike was just trying to show he could handle himself, but the way Spike’s hand shook slightly belied his true feelings on the matter. Twilight smiled reassuringly at him and moved over to the door, opening it with her magic. There were two Royal Guards standing on either side of the doorway, ready to escort her.

"Ms. Twilight Sparkle, we are here to escort you to Canterlot Castle, upon the orders of Princess Celestia," The guard ponies stated in unison, their voices monotone and strict from years of training. She sighed, then nodded at each of them, while walking towards the chariot and upon reaching it hopping in, quickly settling into the lavish interior.

The guards turned back to the chariot themselves and jumped into the front, one taking the reins and the other sitting stationary in his seat. Even though the carriage only needed a single pony to pilot it, the Royal Guards always worked in pairs. Twilight placed her bag beside her and sat back in the seat, attempting to get comfortable. It was going to take a while before they reached Canterlot.

The carriage was a simple oak frame, it looked almost exactly like the one she had ridden in on her first trip to Ponyville, except it was a lot simpler and more worn. However, this chariot seemed to be infused with some sort of magic, making it fly a lot faster. Twilight could instinctively sense this to be Celestia's own, it had that sort of ever-maternal feeling to it, which Twilight remembered from her youth. She missed Celestia, and some guilty part of her was looking forward to what was ahead, just because it would be an opportunity to spend time with her beloved teacher. Twilight’s mood was tempered somewhat though with the unknown problems she faced at the castle.

She thought about how rushed everything was, she barely had time to pack, and she didn’t even have time to say goodbye to her friends. The events at the castle must be an emergency for there to be such short notice; usually ponies were given a minimum of twenty-four hours notice prior to being summoned to the castle. Twilight looked back at Ponyville, which was gradually getting smaller in the distance. She hoped that Spike would inform everypony of where she had gone, but even though she had forgotten to ask him, she trusted him and did not worry. On the horizon, Twilight could see Canterlot getting closer by the minute.

Chapter 1: The Bubble

Twilight was surprised when the flight took less than two hours, of course she knew that this was directly linked to Celestia's magic, 'the Princess wasn't kidding when she said I was needed immediately' Twilight thought to herself as the chariot began turning to face the length of the castle courtyard.

The second the carriage came to a halt, Twilight jumped out to stretch her legs. She left the bag behind; somepony would bring it to her room later. She looked around the gardens, nostalgia building up as she remembered her days as a filly, when she would sit in the courtyard for hours, just reading. Her memories were interrupted, however, by a bright, golden glow suddenly winking at her from one end of the courtyard, that heralded the arrival of the Sun Princess.

She walked gracefully towards Twilight, mane billowing out behind her, despite there being no noticeable breeze. All of the guard ponies bowed to the Princess, but Twilight ran straight up like an excited filly and leapt forward, clamping her forelegs around Celestia's neck like there was no tomorrow, with a wide grin plastered across her face. The Princess, obviously taken aback by this, stared on for a moment, but quickly pulled her protégée further into a heartfelt embrace, all the while smiling herself. Twilight could tell, however, that she was worried about something.

Standing there, it dawned on Twilight what she had just done, and she blushed profusely as she pulled away. It took a moment for the Princess to compose herself after this, rather intimate, moment with her mentee before she started talking, "My faithful student, how nice to see you again," Princess Celestia smiled, "if only it were under better circumstances," she added wryly, smile fading slightly. Twilight’s grin also lessened somewhat as they both acknowledged the seriousness of the situation.

"So, what is the emergency, Princess?" Twilight asked her mentor, who sighed deeply and turned around, so she was facing the way she had entered.

"Follow me, I will explain on the way," Celestia said, and started walking down the corridor, through a great set of double doors, Twilight quickly in tow.

"Before I explain what is going on, you probably would like to know why I didn't tell you the problem in the letter I sent," she added once Twilight had caught up. Twilight gave a nod in affirmation and Celestia continued, "You see, as your teacher, I am familiar with your habits and I knew that if I had told you what was going on, you would have likely overworked yourself trying to prepare for it, and I need you in peak condition for the task ahead."

Twilight nodded guiltily, knowing the Princess' words to be true. "So, what do I have to do?" Twilight asked.

"First, you must understand the problem, and I think the best way is simply to show you," Celestia replied, stopping in front of another pair of doors; Twilight had seen this door before, she’d explored much of the castle when she lived here, but it was a bedroom that no one ever used the last time she had checked. The two guards, who were standing at attention in front of the doors, stepped aside and bowed, whilst simultaneously opening the way to the grand bedroom they were guarding.

"What’s in here?" Twilight asked.

"This is my sister, Luna’s, room," Celestia replied, waiting for Twilight to walk in first. Twilight wondered why she had never seen Luna in her there before, but she then realised the reason and blushed. Luna was still on the moon when Twilight had lived here, and yet her room was still kept in top condition. The bed was always made; not a speck of dust was to be seen anywhere; and fresh flowers lay on the bedside. That sentiment hit Twilight as amazingly sweet, and she had to quickly walk into the room in front of Celestia to hide her now deeply crimson cheeks.

The sight that awaited her inside the room though, knocked all sentimentality from her mind, and replaced it with confusion, awe, and not a little fear. For hovering over Princess Luna’s bed was a sphere, constructed entirely out of magic. The deep blue colour made it instantly recognizable as Luna's own. It was so thick, however, that seeing clearly what was inside was next to impossible. Though barely visible, there was a silhouette of a pony thrashing around within it.

"Two days ago, Luna didn't show up to raise the moon, at first I believed that she was just late, and decided to sleep. An hour later though, the moon had still not risen, So my Personal Guard and I searched her out, fearing the worst; we found this,” Celestia pointed to the bubble, “My sister and I have a link as the two celestial alicorns, and also as sisters so I could tell that Luna was distressed inside there.

Normally, I would have been able to sense this from anywhere, but the bubble must have been muffling our link somehow, and I only felt it once I got close. Naturally, I attempted to break the bubble multiple times but to no avail. This is why I had to call upon you; I knew that you would be able to think of something," She whispered. Twilight nodded and turned away from Celestia to face the bubble. She stared at it for a good minute, deep in concentration while Celestia held her breath, hoping her student could think of a solution.

"Okay, I’m going to run a few tests, and it might take a while; I’m sure you have duties to attend to, I’ll be fine here," Twilight replied, already trawling through various possible solutions in her mind. Celestia nodded in reply.

"I will leave you to it then, good luck, my faithful student," The Princess of the sun said as she turned and walked out the door, closing it behind her and instructing the guards outside not to interfere.

Twilight sat down and looked up at the magical sphere, as her horn began to glow with a purple aura, tendrils crawled from the tip and probed the surface of the bubble; she could feel the magic and its owner. It appeared to be in some sort of self-defence state, whilst Luna seemed to be extremely distressed. She probed further, searching for a way to break the spell and free Luna from her own magic.

As the tendrils enveloped the bubble she could hear a faint voice in the back of her head, "Twilight Sparkle!" It seemed far away, yet very close, "It is I, Luna!"

Distress was obvious in her voice.

"Luna?" Twilight thought.

"Please, help me!" The voice replied, thick with worry.

"I’m working on it!" Twilight responded, pushing the tendrils further into the barrier and sinking them deeper into the surface, desperately trying to think of a solution. Hours later, or maybe it was just a few moments, they hit something solid, and Twilight understood.

Chapter 2: Frequency

The magic’s construction unravelled in Twilight’s brain, she knew what she would have to do to disable the magic, but at what cost? Each unicorn has a different frequency for their magic; this frequency gives them their unique magic colour and stops other ponies’ magic from mixing it up with their own. However, it is possible to change your frequency, but it is impossible to change it back.

Twilight thought about the consequences of tuning her magic to Luna’s. While it meant she could disable the bubble, it would mean that she and Luna would have their magic forever linked together. Every spell cast by one could be felt by the other, and while their magic levels would be combined, depleting the magic of one would deplete the magic of the other. Twilight sighed and considered whether to go ahead with this plan. She didn’t have to think long though, her sense of duty telling her which decision would be the one to make, for the sake of the princess, she would change her frequency.

The process for changing one's magical frequency is hard to complete for those with lesser magical abilities. Luckily for Twilight, she most certainly did not have lesser magical power. She thought back to Starswirl the Bearded’s scrolls on magic and remembered the steps for altering your magical frequency. First she would have to touch the magic of the frequency she wished to change to, this involved touching the magical bubble, and this is why you wouldn't be able to change back - your original magic doesn't exist anymore so you can't touch it. She hesitantly moved up to the bubble and touched it with a wince, expecting it to throw her back violently. She let out a breath of relief when nothing untoward occurred and went onto step 2; envisioning the colour of the magic of the frequency you wish to change to. She closed her eyes and thought about the dark blue colour of Luna’s magic. And then the third and final step. She touched her horn to the bubble and sent out a spark of her magic, at the same time keeping Luna’s magical colour in her mind. Suddenly the bubble spread out, enveloping Twilight and drawing her inside Luna’s nightmare.

Everything started out dark, not the dark of an unlit room, but the blackness a blind man has, so dark you feel like you’ll never see again. Twilight couldn’t hear anything besides her own breathing, it was ragged and unsteady. She was afraid to call out, hesitant of what would answer her call. She blinked a couple of times to assure herself that there really wasn’t any light, there wasn’t. She inched forward a few steps and hit her hoof on something soft, she pulled away quickly, protection spells running through her mind, ready to be released at moment’s notice. After what felt like days she calmed down a bit and once more edged forward, this time feeling out with her front hoof until it once more touched the soft, warm object. She felt along its length and found the texture changing from hair to feathers, was it a pegasus? She continued along the object until she built up a mental image of its dimensions, once she reached the top though she felt something hard and cold protruding out of the object, as soon as she touched it a glow built up, originating from under her hoof. Twilight jumped back about two feet, more scared of the glow then she was of the darkness. However, as the glow illuminated the object she stopped backing away, it was a familiar form. Princess Luna lay completely still, stretched out on the floor.

"Princess Luna?" Twilight asked hesitantly, in response the figure’s head raised up until it was facing Twilight, eyes still closed. Twilight’s breathing rate skyrocketed, Luna didn’t seem to be breathing or moving at all apart from the head, which was now facing Twilight. She held her breath, slowly backing further from the mare. As soon as Twilight moved back, a voice boomed out, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

"STOP!" That single syllable was enough to freeze Twilight in her tracks, at the same time Luna’s eyes flew open. These were not her eyes however; they were the elliptical pupils of Nightmare Moon. Instantly Twilight sprang into action, now that she knew her enemy she was not afraid.

"Nightmare Moon! What are you doing here?"
Twilight asked, now standing her ground against the mare that was Luna with the Nightmare’s eyes, Luna slowly rose of the ground until she was standing. She didn’t get up using her hooves though, it looked like she was falling, but in reverse. Luna now stood facing Twilight, looking down at the mare.

"Twilight Sparkle, is that you? What pray tell, are you doing here?" The figure said, in Luna’s voice, half between the old Canterlot speech and the modern dialect, “This is our Nightmare." Twilight was confused, torn between believing that her friend, Princess Luna, stood in front of her and that her old nemesis, Nightmare Moon, had returned.
"Who are you?" She asked.
"You don’t recognize your friend?" The other mare asked in a hurt voice.
"How do I know you’re the real Princess Luna?" Twilight asked, not lowering her guard.
"Who else could there be?" The mare asked, seemingly intent on answering all of Twilight’s questions with more questions.
"I don’t know, anypony I guess. You said this was a nightmare so anything could happen." Twilight replied.
"No, We said it was our Nightmare." Luna/Nightmare replied.
"What’s the difference?" Twilight asked. The other mare sighed and sat down.
"Let us tell about this place." The mare said, and started talking.

"You see, the Nightmare is all of our, sorry, my bad emotions amplified," She stopped with the half-modern-half-old style of speech and switched to plain old modern speech, "They can consume me if I’m not careful. One thousand years ago, when I first felt the Nightmare start to overcome me I brought myself here to fight against the Nightmare without endangering others. However, as you know, I failed and Nightmare Moon overtook me and attempted eternal night." Luna/Nightmare Moon gave a shudder in remembrance of the horrid event. "During my banishment it was greatly weakened and I managed to once more be in control of my body, however it has been in control for so long that tendrils of its existence still hold sway occasionally. When I felt the Nightmare return inside me I sent myself here and I created an impenetrable bubble that could only be broken with my magic. You see, the Nightmare has its own magic and cannot use mine so even if I did fail against it, the Nightmare would be trapped here.

Unfortunately I failed; the Nightmare is controlling my body, thrashing it about in the bubble. I am trapped here until we can overcome it." Twilight listened to her story quietly, unconsciously deciding that this mare was actually Luna. She continued to sit in silence after the tale had finished. The minutes were dragging on in silence while Twilight thought about what to do. Eventually, Twilight spoke, her voice full of hope.

"Princess Luna, if I combined my magic with yours, would we be able to overcome the Nightmare together?" Twilight asked. Luna’s brow creased as she thought up an answer.
"Interesting... That could work; the Nightmare isn’t that much stronger than me at the moment. However, the only way to combine magic is if our own individual magic resonated at the same frequency, and that’s irreversible if you do indeed change yours." Princess Luna replied, more to herself than Twilight. Twilight looked slightly guilty at the mention of changing magical frequencies.

"Umm... Princess?" Twilight interrupted Luna’s thoughts.
"Please, call me Luna, there is no need for formalities, at the moment the Nightmare is the princess." Luna replied, Twilight nodded and took this as an indication to carry on.
"Ok, Luna, I may have already changed my frequency to get inside the bubble..." Twilight said hesitantly, hoping Luna wouldn’t get angry at her. Luna froze and stared at Twilight in bewilderment.
"You’ve already changed your frequency to mine?" Luna asked incredulously, with a flash of the Nightmare’s demeanour, but she gave a shake of her head and was once more Luna. Twilight looked even guiltier than before.

"Yes." She replied, unable to look Luna in the face "I’m sorry princess! It was the only way to get past the bubble!" Luna’s eyes shot wide open.
"Please don’t tell me that you disabled the bubble...” She asked, staring straight ahead, not looking at Twilight.
"No I didn't" Twilight replied quickly. Luna sighed in relief and settled back into calm, "As soon as I changed my frequency it sent me here." Luna nodded and explained.

"That’s understandable, magic ties closely with your brain; ponies with identical frequencies usually have their dreams linked, as well as their emotions." Luna looked straight into Twilight’s purple eyes, "I sure hope you understand the implications of what you have done, there is no way to change your frequency back and you will be forever tied to me." Twilight nodded, already aware of what it meant.
"Yes, I know what this means, but it was the only way to help you." Twilight explained.

Luna sat silently for a while.
"I am... touched, that somepony would do something like this, for me." Luna said, her calm demeanour cracking slightly, showing some of the emotions lying underneath. Twilight felt these emotions as if they were her own. She had feelings of sadness, of hope, and of something else. Twilight decided that prying into Luna’s emotions wasn’t what either of them wanted right now. Twilight stood up, feeling confident.
"Well, now that I have my magic linked to yours, we might be able to use it to get out of here!" Twilight exclaimed as Luna’s demeanour once more became calm.
"Yes, let us do this." Luna replied, also standing.
Twilight felt Luna’s magic blossom and responded with her own magic, it was not the regular purple of her magic, and Luna’s was not the blue she was used to. Both of their magical glows came out as a dark violet colour. They both felt the magic of the other, and used this awareness to keep both levels of magic even and steady. The two mares unconsciously understood what they had to do, sending a beam of magic up into the air above them. The beams twirled round each other, eventually interconnecting to become a single beam that grew in intensity as both mares held their ground against the intense magic they were sending forth.

The shadows congealed into a point beside them, and they stopped their magic to see what was happening. The shadows rose up and formed into the familiar shape of Nightmare Moon.
"What do you think you’re doing? You hope to best me?" The Nightmare shouted in her over-confident tone that the citizens of Equestria knew and feared. Twilight and Luna stood their ground, knowing that together they could overcome the darkness.

"You won’t control me anymore Nightmare, with our magic we can, and will, defeat you." Luna was staring straight into the Nightmare’s eyes, they flashed with something akin to fear, but it was quickly replaced by the confident gaze of someone who knows they will win.
"Ha! Don’t make me laugh; even with this foal here you cannot hope to destroy me. I’m too deep into your soul." The Nightmare said, and both Twilight and Luna knew it to be true. Twilight took a step towards the Nightmare, drawing her attention.
"What do you want, you insignificant foal?" The Nightmare asked, glaring down at Twilight.
"We may not be able to completely destroy you Nightmare, but I’m linked to Luna now. I’ll provide my magic whenever it is needed and throw you down each time." Twilight said in a quiet, yet confident voice.

"Those are fighting words." The Nightmare uttered, charging up her magic, Luna took a step forward so she and Twilight were standing side by side.
They charged up their magic as well, the twin beams releasing at the same time as the Nightmare’s blue magic. The three beams met in the middle, The Nightmare’s beginning to push back Luna’s and Twilight’s beams. Their twins beams started to merge and fight back against the Nightmare, the glow intensifying so all three had to close their eyes. A massive explosion tore apart their makeshift battlefield, throwing the three ponies away, as if they weighed nothing. Twilight never touched the floor though, just as she was about to hit she disappeared from the dream realm and hit the carpeted floor of Luna’s bedroom, hard enough to knock the breath out of her.

"Oof!" Twilight grunted out as she crashed to the floor, she tried to rise but couldn’t move her body. Hoping she hadn’t broken anything, she contented herself with looking around the room. She saw the bubble had disappeared, and Luna was sprawled out on the bed, seemingly unconscious. Twilight could see her chest rise and fall regularly, and gave a sigh of relief, but there was something different about Luna. She heard footsteps from behind her; however, blackness was eating away at the edge of her vision. As she succumbed to unconsciousness she heard a soft voice speak.
"Well done my pupil, you did it." A smile played on the edge of Twilight’s lips and she blacked out.

Interlude: Extract from Starswirl the Bearded's book

Author's note: A couple of people asked me about the magical frequency theory I had, I thought about a couple of stuff and people came up with some ideas. This is an extract from Starswirl the Bearded's "A Beginner's guide to Magical Theory" written completely by Hay Hooves, I take no credit for this piece.

Greetings young unicorn! You are about to embark on an exciting journey of self-discovery. By the time you have begun reading this book you have most certainly experienced more than your share of magical mishaps. You may have snuck a cookie from the top shelf, or you may have blown up a neighbourhood vegetable stand to keep your mother from buying broccoli for supper. Whatever the case, now is the time to learn how your magic works and how to control it. In this first chapter we will cover the basics of how unicorn magic works and a couple exercises to help you learn more about your own magical talents. Well, let's not waste any more time, let's begin!

You may have noticed that when seeing other unicorns use magic, they give off a colored light, usually emanating from the horn. This is commonly referred to as a magical aura. Each unicorn has their own unique aura which is related to the colour that is emitted when a spell is performed. I have theorized that the reason for each unicorn having an individual frequency is to ease the transfer of power from the magical plane to our own, and our natural portal is built strong to keep that connection as stable as possible. Should you continue your studies into advanced magical theory you are likely to spend a great deal of time studying the relationship between the qualities of light emitted and the resulting magical endeavour. While my editors insist that young unicorns are not interested in the technical aspects of magic I hope you will indulge me in at least introducing some of the basic terminology to you, at the very least you can impress your parents with it.

In everyday conversation regarding magic it is common to describe a unicorn's aura in terms of colour or brightness. When distinguishing between the auras of two unicorns you may also hear ponies refer to the magical frequency or wavelength. None of these are entirely accurate, but none are technically incorrect; rather, all of these are a part of what makes up a unicorn's magical aura. At the time of this book's writing the most complete measurement we have for describing the individual unicorn's "frequency" is it's spectral irradiance. I hope that one of you reading this book will someday surpass this method as I have never found it entirely satisfactory, if you are interested feel free to find my book, "Third dimension of the spectral power distribution: Experimental theories on magical auras". Anyway, I hope you didn't find that too boring. Now that you have learned more than you may have wanted to know about auras, let’s discuss how they affect you.

One question I often get from young pupils, particularly those lacking raw magical power, is, "Why can't two unicorns make one big powerful spell?" Well, my dear fillies and colts that is where each of your different auras come in. It is an unfortunate reality that two magical auras cannot combine into a single spell. While it is rarely dangerous to attempt this, it has been known for the frequencies of two unicorn's auras to cause either interference or resonance that can have unpredictable results.

The next question is often, "Can I match their frequency?" The short answer to most is no, but for a select few, this is technically possible. I say technically because there is a method by which a unicorn can change the frequency of their aura, however this method is exceedingly complicated, requires a massive amount of power, and is incredibly dangerous. In order to explain the danger involved it would be easiest to compare your link to your magical skills to a bridge, a very solid bridge that connects directly from your mind to the magical source. As far as we can tell, there is no other way to access magic aside from our natural connections; therefore, in order to change your frequency, you need to destroy your own bridge, while simultaneously constructing a new bridge where another bridge already stands.

Failing in any part of this process could result in anything from complete loss of magic to death of yourself or the pony you are trying to match. Oh my, but this is getting grave for a children's study book, my apologies to any I may have frightened. It is unlikely you will ever need to concern yourself with this in any case, I am certain my editors will want to remove this segment but if I can help any of you by including this information, then I think it is worth the extra ink.

Oh, and just in case any of you were wondering, I have never met anypony who successfully altered their own frequency. In studying this phenomenon I learned that both princesses, Celestia and Luna, have seen it accomplished, but warned me against ever attempting it, apparently the cases which they witnessed led to some tragic tales. Should they allow me to chronicle and print those stories I shall add a cross reference in this book to further warn you youngsters against trying this yourself.

Chapter 3: In Dreams

Twilight opened her eyes, groaned at the intense light and splitting headache she had woken up with, and almost immediately closed them again. The nurse standing at the other end of the room noticed the groan and came over.
"How are you feeling, dearie?" She asked, taking note of her temperature and heart rate before opening one of her eyelids and shining a light on her eye, sighing in relief over her natural pupil dilation. After she had finished her tests Twilight finally responded to the nurse’s initial question.
"I’m fine... I think, aside from this headache." The nurse nodded in response.
"That’s understandable, you hit your head pretty hard, it’s a wonder why you didn’t get a concussion." The nurse replied. Twilight would have nodded but her headache prevented her moving her head more than about 5 degrees either way. The nurse quickly piled together some leaves from various jars on the medical table next to her bed. After pouring in some water she had just boiled with her horn she handed the cup over to Twilight who took it hesitantly, trying not to spill it.
"It’s a herbal drink that will help with your headache, dearie." The nurse said, "I’ll get someone to fetch the princess, she asked me to inform her when you woke up." The nurse walked to the door of the infirmary and spoke for moment with the Royal Guard posted outside the door before returning to another patient. Twilight took the time to look around the infirmary.

The main thing she noticed was the white, everything was a sterilised, clean white that burned her eyes. She looked out for Luna, hoping that she was okay. She wasn’t visible and Twilight gave a sigh of relief, settling back. She soon realised though that as a princess, Luna would likely have her own personal bedside doctor, and wouldn’t be brought to the infirmary if there was anything wrong with her. Twilight sat up again in worry, thinking paranoid thoughts. What if Luna was hurt? What if it was because of her? What if it was to do with her changing her magical frequency to Luna’s? This last thought stopped Twilight’s paranoid thoughts before they got out of control as it had in the past, her rational side once more taking command. If they had merged frequencies then technically Twilight should be able to feel whether Princess Luna was okay. Twilight closed her eyes and envisioned Luna, the dark blue alicorn with a flowing mane made out of the night itself. And nothing happened. What was going on? Why wasn’t it working? And then her questions were answered.

The Princess walked in, and went straight to Twilight.
"Twilight Sparkle, I came as soon I received word that you were awake." She said. Twilight looked up at her in surprise.
"Princess Luna?" Twilight asked, she looked different, she was no longer the height of Celestia, in fact she seemed to be even smaller than Twilight, and her coat was no longer dark blue, it was lighter than that. The biggest difference though was her mane, it was no longer the ever flowing construct of night, it was short and pale blue. She was still instantly recognizable as Luna though. Twilight thought back, she could swear she had seen Luna in this form before, and she realised she had, when the Elements of Harmony had defeated Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna was there in this form that stood before her now, she had always wondered why she looked like that back then but had never thought to ask.
"Were you expecting someone different?" Luna asked with a slight smile, coupled with a wince.
"Are you okay?" Twilight asked in concern, looking closer at the mare in front of her she could see that she favoured her right side, leaning slightly, she also supported herself against Twilight’s bedposts.
"I came... to thank you." Luna said, swaying slightly on her hooves.
"I think you need medical attention, Luna." Twilight said firmly, the nurse in the room was still attending another patient and had not even noticed that a princess was in the room.
"No," Luna replied, equally as firm, "I’ll be fine." She then collapsed to the floor. The thud of her body on the floor finally alerted the nurse to her presence. The nurse gave a gasp and ran over, just as Luna’s personal doctor ran through the infirmary door.
"Princess!" he exclaimed and ran to join the nurse who was sitting next to Luna and taking her pulse.

The nurse moved out of the way of the more experienced and skilled doctor and stood anxiously beside him, ready to oblige any orders. The doctor sat and looked down at the princess, who was breathing heavily, he too took her pulse. As he began to take more tests and note things down on a pad he kept beside him, the nurse moved in front of Twilight’s field of vision and Twilight sighed, too tired to ask her to move, the herbal drink must have been taking effect. She lay facing the ceiling as the doctor and the nurse conferred, they must have decided that the best thing to do was to move her to her own room and let her recuperate and sleep in comfort. As they loaded the princess onto a stretcher and wheeled her away, Twilight gave a huge yawn and closed her eyes, letting sleep heal her. She thought in her sleep and worked out why visualizing Princess Luna didn’t work, it was because she was thinking about old Luna, this was the new Luna. Or since she had been in the form before, she was the oldnew Luna. As she slept dreamlessly she heard a voice in the back of her head call her.
"Twilight Sparkle...." It called in a quiet and familiar voice.
"Yes?" She thought, wondering if the communication worked both ways.
"Join me please..." It replied, she felt its presence disappear and thought about who it could be, she didn’t have to think hard, it must have been Luna calling for her.

When she awoke it was in the afternoon, the setting sun giving of a gentle glow that rebounded around the polished room. Twilight smiled at the simple beauty of it and tried to remember what it was that she was meant to be doing. Oh, that’s right, she thought to herself, she was meant to join Luna. Twilight looked over at the nurse, certain that she wouldn’t let Twilight leave until she was feeling better. Luckily the nurse was occupied with a patient at the far end of the infirmary and had her back to Twilight. The purple mare quietly slid out her sheets and landed as softly as she could on the floor, she swayed slightly at having to stand up after about three days in bed. When she got her balance back, she slowly made her way towards the door, all the time looking over at the nurse, hoping she wouldn’t turn around. The Royal Guards at the door did nothing to stop her, not knowing that she probably shouldn’t be leaving the infirmary. As Twilight walked, more quickly than usual for her, over to Luna’s bedroom, she gave a sigh of relief at having gotten out of the infirmary without confrontation. The walk took about three minutes, and the whole time Twilight glanced each way to look out for anyone that would challenge her presence here. She was met with none, and made it to Luna’s bedroom where two more Royal Guards were posted outside. She gulped and desperately tried to think up a reason as to why she was here, she didn’t need to though as, upon spotting the mare, the guards stood to one side and opened the doors for her.
"Thanks." Twilight said gratefully and walked into the room. It was exactly how it had looked every day before now, the blue wallpaper matching the deep blue of the bed sheets with Luna’s moon cutie mark sown into the fabric. The only difference was the mare sleeping in the bed, her head was buried in a pillow and the only thing visible was the pale azure of her mane. Twilight could see the rhythmic rise and fall of the sheets and smiled to herself, content that Luna was okay.

Twilight stood for a few moments longer, just staring at the pony and wondering what she was supposed to do that she had joined Luna, sighing as her brain came up with nothing she trotted over to Luna’s well stocked bookcase and pulled out a long, slender leather-bound book. You see, one of the many spells that Twilight had placed on her book over the years, her personal favourite and one of the most useful was a difficult modification to a simple teleportation spell. It would search out the nearest bookcase or bookshelf to Twilight, make sure there was room for the book and teleport the book there. However, anything that the book held inside it that wasn’t on the book’s papers wouldn’t appear with it unless the book was in Twilight’s personal bookcase. This made it equally useful as a place to hide pictures she drew that she didn’t want people to see when she was away from home. Twilight set the book down on Luna’s desk, grabbed the nearest quill with her magic and began the spell to unlock the book. She held her breath, hoping her new magic would still work, she sighed in relief as the soft click heralded the unlocking of the book, along with the soft violet glow of her new magic. ‘The infinity spell I had on must have converted the magic on the book to my new magic as I changed’ She reasoned aloud, she then realised however that Luna had the same magic as her and so would be able to disable the books spells too. She blushed at the thought, thinking about the page she wrote about Luna and Nightmare Night. Calming herself down, she wrote about the feelings she had when she and Luna had fought Nightmare Moon together the other day.

‘My common sense told me to fear, I felt this fear but was not consumed by it. For beside me stood resolution and determination, and not a little hope. Together they overcame the fear, replacing it with the acceptance I felt, and the relief that was shared between me and Luna. I felt other feelings too, these feelings confused me, I wasn’t used to feelings like this. Feelings of being together, not of friends but of something... more.’ As Twilight pondered what to write next, she heard Luna roll over behind her and slammed the book shut, simultaneously locking it. She swivelled her head around and saw Luna still firmly asleep, but her head now poked out, looking as peaceful and as serene as the night sky itself. Twilight sighed, confused with what she felt within her, was it a side effect of the magic resonance? Twilight thought back to Starswirl the Bearded’s scroll entitled ‘A Beginner’s guide to Magical Theory’ and remembered how he had never seen a pony change their magical frequency first hand but had found out from the princesses that it often led to problems later on. Unfortunately it they didn’t expand on that and Twilight frowned, still unsure despite what the scroll told her. To clear her head she went and put her book away in the bookshelf and sat on the floor, pondering what to do next, after a few moments of silence, save for the steady breathing from both mares, she metaphorically slapped herself.

Of course Luna meant to join her in her dreams, not in her bedroom, after collapsing like that she would obviously still be sleeping. Mentally reprimanding herself for the mistake, she opened her mind wide to Luna and almost instantly got sucked into the dream realm they both shared. It was a strange experience, one moment you’re sitting quietly and the next you’re thrown into a world where the rules of real life don’t mean a thing. The weirdest thing is that while Twilight knew it to be a dream, it felt as real as the floor her body was on back in the waking world. Her dream self on the other hand was on a stone path that led to the Canterlot town square. While Twilight didn’t really know what Canterlot looked like very well, she could tell that this dream rendition was near-perfect, if not an exact replica of the real one. What struck her as strange was that it was night time, yet there were several ponies out and about, acting like this was the normal thing to do, even all of the shops were open. She walked into the town square, looking around and trying to find out where Luna was. As she looked closer at the ponies in the square she noticed how they all looked at the ground, even when greeting each other, they would never raise their heads. She wondered if it had something to do with the sky, she looked up and was instantly mesmerised. It was filled with all manner of stellar formations, the nebulae and quasars spinning across the universe in a spectacular intergalactic dance of god-like proportions. Her mind went blank with pure amazement at the sky, she wondered why no one was looking up, how could they not want to see something as breathtaking as this?

A soft voice pulled Twilight from her thoughts.
"Twilight Sparkle, how nice to finally get some time to talk." Twilight span round to the source of the voice, who was sitting calmly on her right, sipping tea in a cup which she held aloft with her violet magic.
"Princess!" Twilight exclaimed, walking over and taking a seat next to Luna on the bench she was on.
"Twilight Sparkle, please call me Luna, I have said there is no need for formalities, especially as we are now connected via our magic." Luna reprimanded.
"Okay Luna, but only if you call me Twilight, it’s only fair." Twilight replied looking over at the mare.
"Deal." Luna stated. They both sat there awkwardly in silence for a few moments, neither sure as to what to say or do. Eventually though, Luna broke the silence.
"I felt you perform magic just before you got here, what were you doing?" She asked. Twilight blushed, she had forgotten that Luna could feel when she used magic.
"Oh, it was nothing." Twilight replied, deciding she should change the subject, "How come nobody is looking up?" Luna sighed and turned to face Twilight, who was still staring at her.
"This is a personification of the idea that people fear me after what I have done previously as Nightmare Moon, even though we defeated her she affects me." Luna didn’t seem sad as much as she was resigned to the fact that this was inescapable. Twilight put her front leg around Luna’s shoulders hesitantly in an attempt to comfort her. She was reassured when Luna didn’t pull away.

The two mares looked up at the sky, enjoying the tranquillity and chaos of the night sky as it stretched across their field of vision. The other ponies in the square seemed to pay no heed to the two mares sitting together staring at the sky, they just continued about their business with their heads facing the ground. Some time later, Twilight realised she still had her front leg around Luna and slowly removed it, Luna looked over to Twilight and tilted her head. Twilight gave a slight blush, masking this action with a question.
"Luna, how come you don’t make the real night sky look as amazing as this?" Luna contemplated her answer for a moment before coming up with the satisfactory response in her brain and said it out loud.
"Well, the night sky you see above Equestria has too much meaning to me to have it like this, this is just my creative mind without control." Luna replied.
"What meaning does it have?" Twilight asked, trying to find the link between the night sky and Luna. Luna looked back at the sky and blinked, the view instantly changing to the night sky they were used to. Twilight gasped in amazement, she had felt the power that Luna controlled when she changed the sky. Even though in the dream realm she didn’t use magic, to change the entire night sky to something so specific is just stunning. Luna turned back to Twilight who was now staring at the sky, picking out certain constellations.
"You see Twilight, each constellation, each nebula holds a different meaning for me, almost all of these were made before my imprisonment and each one tells a different story." Luna said, gesturing with her front leg the entire sky. Twilight’s eyes opened wide and her mouth hung slightly open.
"Can... can you tell me about some of them." She asked quietly, obviously in awe at the power over the sky that Luna had.
"Of course!" Luna said happily, settling comfortably into her role as a teacher.

She zoomed in, through the stars, and arrived at a galaxy in the shape of a ring, an intense glow originating from the center.
"This is one of the first stellar creations I made, back when I was just a filly." Luna said, smiling at the memory, "There was a court jester we had, named Sombrero. Though he was there for the entire court he would always put on a special performance, just for me and it would always make me smile. One night, when I was still learning to control my powers, I attempted to create a constellation that would be in the shape of him in his costume he always wore. Unfortunately, I wasn’t that good at the time and the best I could do was a ring galaxy that had a super-bright star in the center. I still called it the Sombrero Galaxy after him." Twilight nodded, surprised that such a simple backstory could be the reason behind such a huge celestial body. This lesson of sorts carried on for hours, the two mares gradually settling down on the bench, getting more comfortable with each other's presence. Eventually though, Luna sat up straight, Twilight falling over as the shoulder she was leaning on moved away. Getting back up, Twilight looked at Luna, she seemed melancholy,
"And now Twilight, I’m sorry to say that it is time to wake up." Luna said, turning to Twilight. Twilight sighed and nodded her head, not wanting to leave this realm, but knowing that it couldn’t last forever.

The two mares woke up simultaneously, and Luna yawned and turned to the side. When she saw Twilight her eyes opened wide.
"You came into my room?" Luna asked, head tilted up to look at Twilight. Twilight blushed and lowered her head slightly.
"Yes..." She replied. Luna stared for a few moments longer before giggling slightly, covering her mouth with a hoof. Twilight looked back up quizzically.
"Well, you’re always welcome here." Luna said after her giggles subsided. Twilight smiled back, still blushing slightly, she noticed how different Luna’s voice was from her normal voice, it was a lot younger and lighter and made Twilight smile at the sound. Her thoughts were interrupted however, by a knock on the door.
"Enter." Luna said, now looking at the ceiling, unable to turn her head around far enough to face the door. The double doors were opened by the Royal Guards and in walked Princess Celestia.
"Oh good, you’re both here and awake." Princess Celestia said, the doors now shut behind her, the glow from the princess making Twilight lower her eyes which were still used to the night sky she was staring at just a few minutes ago. "I think some explanations are in order from all of us." Luna sat up slowly in her bed and turned to her sister,
"I agree."

Chapter 4: Explanations

Chapter 4:

Princess Celestia pulled the sofa at the side of the room with her magic and placed it carefully behind her before sitting down on it. Luna and Twilight stayed where they were, Twilight sitting on the floor and Luna sitting on her bed. Celestia looked at both of them in turn before speaking.
"Events have taken place that each of us only know part of. I think that if we each tell our stories then we each should be able to understand what has taken place here." Twilight and Luna nodded in unison, still silent.
"I think we should do this in chronological order, meaning that you," Celestia continued, gesturing with a hoof at Luna, "should go first." Luna nodded at Twilight turned to her, ready to hear what Luna had to say, even though she knew most of it already. Luna cleared her throat and began, eyes looking into the distance as she recounted what had happened.
"Well, you know sister that I can tell when Nightmare Moon is starting to overcome me and act accordingly, after my previous failed attempt to fight it within the confines of my mind, this time I sought a backup plan, in case I failed once more, I trapped myself within the highest level defence bubble I could manage and brought myself into my mind’s battlefield." Luna said this mostly to her sister as she knew Twilight had already heard this. "I thought that since it was weakened from my imprisonment on the moon I could defeat it, I was sorely mistaken." Luna hung her head slightly, ashamed at her mistake, she continued, "We fought against each other for, I don’t know how long, but the outcome was the same as last time, I was beaten and knocked into unconsciousness as the Nightmare took over. Luckily my bubble held, after all, it can only be broken via my own magic, which the Nightmare did not control. I’m not sure how long I was out for but I was awoken by the call of my name, I soon found out that the pony who had called me was Twilight."

Celestia put up her hoof for Luna to stop, she obliged and Celestia looked now at Twilight.
"Before Luna continues to tell us, or mainly me, what happened after she awoke in her mind I think you should tell her what happened beforehand, I would also like to know how you overcame her bubble." Twilight nodded at the Princess before turning back to Luna and speaking.
"Umm... I received the letter from Princess Celestia while I was in my Library, I can’t remember what I was doing at the time, but the letter told me that something had occurred at the castle that required my immediate attention, and that a chariot would arrive soon." Twilight skipped ahead a bit, missing out the packing and the chariot ride, "When I arrived at the castle Princess Celestia met me and showed me to your room where the bubble was. I let her leave and began to try and work out how to disable the bubble." Celestia leaned forward almost imperceptibly, eager to find out how her prized student managed to overcome a princess’s most powerful defense spell. "First I just sat down in front of it and sent out probes to try and find out if there was an easy way to shut the bubble down, I found none and had to push the probes deeper, as I sunk them into the bubble I found out that the spell was an extremely powerful one that could only be disabled by Luna’s own magic, I soon worked out though that Luna was otherwise incapable of doing this herself and I had to think up a more... unorthodox way of getting past the bubble." Twilight paused.
‘Yes?’ Princess Celestia asked patiently after the silence stretched on.
"I... I thought back to a scroll I had read, 'A Beginner’s guide to Magical Theory.'" Twilight said hesitantly, Celestia’s eyes opened wide, cracking the calm façade Celestia always had on. Twilight visibly winced from the reaction.
"Don’t tell me you..." Celestia said, Twilight nodded guiltily, "I trust you understand the implications of what you have done?" Celestia asked, echoing her sister's words from back when they were in Luna’s mind. Twilight nodded and Celestia gestured for her to continue, to say what she believed the implications to be. Twilight looked guilty and continued speaking.
"Well, I know that when you change your frequency to someone else’s it merges both ponies magic, and it is irreversible because you can’t touch your old magic to complete the process of changing your frequency. This magical link forever ties the two ponies to one another via their magic." Celestia nodded; slightly assuaged at Twilight’s knowledge, however there was something else that Twilight failed to mention.

"Twilight Sparkle, while you are correct in saying that your two magics will be merged, you must remember that it will also connect your emotions and feelings, as well as your dreams. This means that you will have a stronger link with my sister than even I have." Twilight nodded, but didn't mention how she and Luna had already shared a dream, thinking that it would be best to move away from this subject. Luna also blushed slightly, but Celestia didn't seem to notice. Celestia took a breath and continued.
"Ok, my faithful student, I will trust your judgement on this, I know you had my sister’s best interests at heart and if anyone had changed their frequency to Luna’s I would prefer it to be someone like you." Celestia said, Twilight sighed in relief, "And now, I wish for you to explain how you changing your frequency helped my sister and then I would like it if you," She looked over at Luna, "would go on to explain what happened after Twilight arrived in your mind." The two other mares nodded in reply, Luna slumping slightly, tired at having to sit up for any period of time. Twilight glance over at Luna, feeling the exhaustion that Luna felt, but knew that Celestia deserved to know what happened. She looked back to Celestia and began.
"I went through the three steps to altering your magical frequency, the touch, the thoughts and the spark and when I did I felt... something, and I got flung straight into Luna’s mind, everything was dark I had to sort of feel around with my hooves. I felt something soft and warm and jumped back, when I moved forward at felt further along the object, I felt something hard and conical. After I touched it, a glow spread from it and showed that it was actually Luna lying on the floor." Luna blushed at the thought of Twilight stroking her, "I called her name and she sort of rose up onto her hooves and her eyes opened, but they were the Nightmare’s eyes." Twilight finished, Luna frowned slightly, not aware of that fact, and continued where Twilight left off. Celestia and Twilight turned to her.

"I didn’t realise my eyes were those of the Nightmare, that’s why I was confused why Twilight thought I might be the Nightmare. After I proved to her that I was indeed Princess Luna, I explained to her what had happened, Twilight asked me how we might overcome the Nightmare together. I told her that it could be possible, but it would mean merging frequencies, I didn’t want her to do something that would change her life forever, and was surprised to find out that she had already done so. I had, of course, felt different when I woke up but put it down to having just been beaten by the Nightmare. I asked whether she understood the consequences of her actions, much like you just have. After being convinced she did we poured our magic together to draw the Nightmare out to fight. She arrived and I told her that together Twilight and I would defeat her. She scorned me, saying how she could never truly be removed from my psyche and Twilight stepped forward, ready to defend me." Celestia nodded approvingly and Twilight smiled, "Together we powered a magical beam at the Nightmare, defeating her, disabling my bubble and throwing us out of my mind all at once. I was unconscious before I landed." Luna finished and Celestia nodded once more, now looking at both of them.

"And now it is time for you to find out what happened whilst you were busy." Celestia began. "I was performing my regular duties around the castle when there was a massive explosion, everyone stopped and looked at each other, I immediately knew what was going on and rushed towards this room, I found Twilight lying on the floor, about to black out and you, Luna on your bed, safe, apart from you being in your current condition. I had Twilight moved to the infirmary to recover and I brought your personal doctor here to tend to you. Thankfully, I was told that neither of you had suffered from anything serious." Celestia finished, but Twilight still seemed slightly confused. Celestia noticed this and looked down to her student.
"You have a question Twilight?" Celestia asked, Twilight nodded slowly and turned her head to Luna, who was slumping still further.
"What is this form Luna is in?" Twilight asked, referring to the smaller, lighter coloured body. Celestia glanced over at her sister before replying.
"I was wondering whether you would ask about that, I trust you remember this form from when you defeated Nightmare Moon for the first time?" Twilight nodded in reply, "This form is a sort of fail-safe spell for monarchy. It draws power from their particular power, for instance with Luna it is the moon. The power will automatically transform Luna to this form to conserve power and to make it easier to recuperate. It activates when the monarch in question has spent almost all of their magic. However, from what I understand of what happened, Luna spent all of her magic in the battle against Nightmare Moon, and would have lost control of her power over the night sky to the Nightmare had you not have supported her. And so, before I continue I wish to thank you." Twilight blushed, hiding a smile. Luna also smiled graciously but could do no more as she was almost bent double now, exhaustion clear on her face. Celestia continued, glancing over at her sister and noticing her struggle, "I think we shall have to speed this up a bit and let Luna sleep, she needs her rest. The rest of this speech does not require an input from you sister so you may sleep, Twilight and I shall take this outside." Luna didn’t reply, she just slumped back onto her bed, neglecting the covers and almost instantly fell asleep. Twilight and Celestia stood simultaneously and moved towards the door as quietly as possible.

Once they were outside and the doors were closed Celestia continued with their talk,
"Now then, where were we? Oh yes, Luna’s form, I regret to say that this fail-safe is just that, a fail-safe. It is only to be used in an emergency when all else fails, and for good reason. This form conserves the left over energy that remains inside the monarch. However, since so little is left, it can take decades for them to be able to have enough power back to once more command their domain. This means that Luna cannot perform her celestial duties and I will have to cover for her." Twilight looked horrified at the thought of Luna having to spend decades in her weakened state. Celestia cut off these thoughts, "Do not fear my student, you see, I believe that because you and Luna have your magic linked then you can support Luna with your own magic and this process of her regaining her magic can be shortened to a few years at most." Twilight looked relieved that she could do something to help Luna. "This means however, that you and Luna must stay close for the duration of these few years, and since I can’t force you to leave your home in Ponyville, and since Luna has no obligation to stay in Canterlot now that I have to perform her celestial duties, she will have to stay with you in the library. I hope this won’t cause problems?" Celestia asked, Twilight was momentarily stunned, Princess Luna was going to live with her for a few years? It took her a while to realise that Princess Celestia had asked her a question.
"Oh! No, don’t worry there is no problem with Luna living with me!" Twilight replied hastily. Celestia nodded,
"I see, however at the moment though it seems Luna is too weak to even move out of her bed for long periods of time so moving her to Ponyville is out of the question for now. You will have to stay in Canterlot for a few days longer, at least until Luna is ready to move." Twilight nodded in reply, expecting this answer and replied.
"Ok, but can we teleport a bed into Luna’s room for me to sleep it in? I would feel better if we were in the same room." Twilight asked quickly, Celestia gave her an odd look before giving a quick nod.
"Follow me, we can teleport the bed that you were going to sleep in before you got knocked out." Celestia replied, turning around and heading along the corridor, Twilight in tow.

Three doors down from Luna’s room Celestia opened the door to reveal a smaller, but still huge, bedroom. Celestia took position on one side of the bed, Twilight took the other,
"Do you want to do it or shall I?" Celestia asked.
"I think it would be best if you did it, I don’t want to disturb Luna in her sleep." Twilight reasoned, Celestia nodded, approving this response, her horn glowed briefly and a golden glow enveloped the bed before it blinked out of the room.
"I’m going to go raise the moon and then retire to my bed. I think you should too." Celestia said, stifling a yawn. Twilight agreed, she was feeling tired too, despite being asleep twice today. They went their different ways at the door, Celestia turning left and Twilight going right. When Twilight got back to Luna’s bedroom and snuck quietly inside she saw that Luna was sleeping fitfully, shivering slightly. Twilight moved to the bed and pulled the covers that Luna had neglected to get under over the sleeping mare. Luna settled down quickly after that, making Twilight smile. She went over to her bed which was now in the opposite corner to Luna’s. Twilight got into her bed and sleep came quickly. With sleep came the dreams.

The dream was different from before, they were no longer in Ponyville, they were in Luna’s bedroom, yet there were no furnishing aside from a dark blue sofa which Luna was situated on.
"Twilight!" Luna said, smiling at the mare, "Join me please, this meeting will be shorter than normal, I’m feeling too tired. However, we still need to talk." Twilight obliged, sitting on the sofa, it was large enough for both to fit on the sofa but it meant that they were shoulder to shoulder, Twilight didn't mind though.
"What do you want to talk about Luna?" Twilight asked.
"Just about what happened after I fell asleep, I felt that you were shocked by something, can I ask what it was?" Luna asked, turning her head to the mare beside her.
"Oh, Celestia told me about the form you were in and that she thought that if you stuck with me for a few years then you would be able to regain your power. She told me that you were going to live with me for a few years, starting from when you were well enough to move about properly." Twilight replied. Luna nodded slowly, taking this in. Twilight could feel that Luna had some intense emotions but she hid them too well to distinguish what they were.
"Tell me Twilight, what is it like in Ponyville?" Luna asked after a pause. Twilight considered this for a bit before responding enthusiastically.
"You’ll love it there, there’s so much to do and it’s so much fun." Twilight said, smiling broadly at the thought of her friends. Luna gave a small smile in reply. Twilight settled into her role as teacher, talking about the various things to do in Ponyville and about each of her friends, Luna occasionally asked questions, usually asking for an elaboration on a concept she didn't understand, such as a sleepover, or to ask about a certain thing, such as the modern fashion. This conversation carried on for much less time than Luna’s star show and ended much too soon for either of their likings.
"I see..." Luna said after Twilight had explained the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness, the silence stretched on until they realised that they were both sitting there staring at each other. They simultaneously blushed and looked away.
"Well, I think we shall have to end it there," Luna said "Goodnight Twilight."
"Goodnight Luna" Twilight replied as Luna’s dream form slipped into some sort of sleep. Twilight sat there, Luna resting on her shoulder, snoring lightly for a few minutes before sighing as she too slipped from this shared dream realm.

Chapter 5: Student

When Twilight woke up it was mid-morning. She gave a huge yawn and rubbed her eyes, she was momentarily confused, not recognising her unfamiliar surroundings. However, Twilight looked to her left and saw a blue mare, still sleeping peacefully under her covers and remembered everything from the night before. Luna was going to live with her for more than three years as soon as she was well enough to move about. This thought still blew Twilight away, never in a million years would she think that a princess would live with her. She also remembered the dream meeting they shared last night, where Luna had got her to talk about Ponyville. Something didn’t add up though, why was she in Luna’s bed? She looked around the room and spotted her bed in the opposite corner, it looked like someone had just gotten up from it. Twilight used to sleepwalk back when she was a filly, but hadn’t done so in over a decade so it probably wasn’t that. Did she even get into her bed last night? She distinctly remembered doing so, so she must have gotten up at some point in the night and gone over to Luna’s bed, perhaps when she had entered their shared dream realm and sat on the bench next to her? Maybe her dreams were affecting her more than just mentally. Twilight thought through several more reasons as to why she was next to Luna before mentally slapping herself. 'You’re forgetting the point here', she thought to herself, 'you’re still in the bed'. Twilight blushed deeply and made to slide carefully off the bed without disturbing the other mare. Luna, on the other hand, turned over with a small groan, at the same time putting a front leg over Twilight’s shoulder and pulling her in tight.

Twilight’s blush reddened further but she didn’t resist, not wanting to disturb Luna, who now had her face buried in Twilight’s mane. Twilight tried levering Luna’s arm away from her and slip out but Luna held on tight and there was no way to get her to let go without waking her. Eventually Twilight gave up on trying to get away and settled back with a small sigh, knowing she would have to wait for Luna to wake up to move, and that an awkward conversation would likely follow. Twilight thought up excuses as to why she was in Luna’s bed but could only come up with saying that she must have sleepwalked, a feeble excuse and she knew it but she could think of nothing else. Twilight wasn’t sure how long she lay there for with Luna wrapped around her but as the time went on she began to realise that she didn’t really mind, it was quite comforting. No one had held her like this since she lived with her parents. As time wore on, nothing disturbed the silence apart from the soft, rhythmic breathing of the two mares and then Twilight came up with an idea.

If Luna could call Twilight to her dreams, would it work the other way round? Twilight gave it a go, opening her mind wide and calling out,
"Luna?" She waited for about a minute with bated breath before the reply came from the darkness.
"Twilight?"
"Can I ask you a question?" Twilight asked
"You already have, but I’ll allow another." Came the reply, Twilight could imagine the small smile Luna would have on with that reply. Twilight mentally smiled back before replying.
"Umm, can you move your left foreleg in the real world please?" Twilight asked, Luna wasn’t expecting a question like this,
"Ok, I guess I could, may I ask why?" Luna replied, her real life form’s arm releasing Twilight. Twilight’s voice became quiet as she explained.
"Well... you were sort of holding onto me and I wanted to get up without waking you." Luna gave a slight giggle.
"Ok, I won’t ask why I was holding onto you if you get me a glass of water, I might as well get up too." Luna replied after the giggle subsided. Twilight sighed, relieved that Luna wouldn’t carry on with the questioning. She pulled away from her mind and carefully maneuvered herself from the bed and made her way to Luna’s ensuite bathroom to fill up a glass with water. When she came back, glass of water held aloft via magic, Luna was stretching, seeming a lot better for her rest. Twilight handed the glass over and Luna took it graciously between her hooves, taking care not to spill it and took a gulp, followed by a much smaller sip. When she had taken her fill of the water she set it down on the small mahogany table at the head of her bed and stood up unsteadily.

Luna shook with the effort of standing up and threatened to fall, and would have had Twilight not darted forward to support Luna with her body.
"Thanks." Luna said quickly, focussing on her hooves, she hesitantly took a step forward, Twilight standing close by to catch her should she fall. The step was successful and was quickly followed by another, more confident, one. Luna walked all the way to the door before stopping, this short excursion leaving her breathless but triumphant. 'She certainly wasn’t a quitter', Twilight thought. Once Luna regained her breath she sat on the floor, and Twilight joined her, pulling open the curtains opposite them with her magic at the same time. Together they sat in silence, viewing the bright morning glare through Luna’s floor to ceiling windows. The light cast long shadows across the room, one from the bookcase cast a shadow that covered their eyes, giving them a clear view out of the window without being blinded. From their low vantage point, high up in the castle, there was no pony-made structures visible, all that could be seen was the Everfree Forest, stretching into the distance, the dew covering the trees giving off a shimmering effect from the morning sun.

The two must have sat there for over half an hour before Luna’s stomach grumbled audibly, making them both burst into laughter. As if on cue, Twilight’s stomach joined with the grumbling making them laugh all the more. After their laughter subsided, they wiped their eyes and stood, supporting each other as they rose.
"I think we should find something to eat." Luna said, leaning on Twilight. Twilight gave another small laugh.
"You think?" She replied and Luna joined in her small laughter, fits of giggles threatening to return. They slowly made their way to the door, Twilight taking most of Luna’s weight. Twilight opened the door before them with her magic and they moved to the doorway. The two Royal Guards posted at the door turned around and were surprised to see the princess up and about, albeit in need of support, but they did not try to stop them. They were probably under orders not to stop Twilight from whatever it was she was trying to do. Ever so slowly the two made their way towards the Dining Halls but turned left at the doors to get to the kitchen, they had consciously decided it would be better to eat in the relative privacy of the kitchens instead of the Royal Dining Halls where several important people likely were eating, all of which shouldn’t see their princess in this state.

Twilight once more opened the door ahead with her, or really, their magic since the frequencies were the same. Once they had maneuvered inside, having to squeeze through the door slightly, they were met with the gaze of a dozen servants who had looked up to find out who had entered the door. When the realisation that Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia’s prized student were the ones who entered, everypony sprung into action, cleaning surfaces and polishing floors, getting everything fit for a princess. This is exactly what Luna wanted to avoid though. She cleared her throat and spoke in a voice that was halfway between the Royal Canterlot speech and modern Equestrian.
"Calm down, we are just here to eat." The servant ponies stopped, seemingly momentarily confused as they had to switch between cleaning and cooking mode. If any of them were wondering why the Princess and Twilight were in the kitchens, and why the Princess was in her current form, and why she was being supported by Twilight, nopony asked. They pulled out a spare wooden table, not the solid oak of the dining tables but a simple pine rectangle, they then placed two simple wooden chairs, side by side, under the table before going back to preparing food. As Twilight and Luna moved over to the chairs and sat down a tawny stallion with a hazel coloured mane and a cutie-mark in the shape of a whisk walked up to them.

"May I ask what the Princess and Her Guest would like for breakfast?" He asked in a timid voice, obviously not used to dealing with royalty directly. Twilight and Luna looked at each other briefly, both of them sitting next to each other on the chairs, and tried to decide what they wanted.
"I’m not sure what sort of stuff they have here, you’re more familiar with the food so I’ll just have whatever you’re having." Twilight said to Luna with a shrug. Luna pondered this for a moment before turning back to the servant, who was looking rather annoyed that Twilight called their food ‘stuff’.
"We’ll both just have some toast thank you, lightly buttered." Luna told the waiting stallion. Twilight blushed slightly having thought they wouldn’t have anything normal, like toast. When the toast arrived, a few minutes later, both mares dug in with ferocity, tearing the toast with their teeth, as if it had murdered their families. They finished their last bite simultaneously.
"That hit the spot." Twilight said, hunger now taken care of.
Luna gave a nod, "Agreed." She said, hunger also dissipated slightly. Twilight turned to the blue mare and spotted a smudge of butter spread across the side of her face, likely the result of an overzealous munch.
"Luna, you have some butter on your face." Twilight told the Princess, who turned to face her.
"Where?" Luna replied, gesturing at her face for emphasis.
"Right here." Twilight said, touching to corresponding part of her own face as an example. Luna proceeded to wipe the complete opposite side of her face. Twilight laughed and picked up one of the napkins on the table with her hoof.

"Here, I’ll get it for you." Twilight said, leaning over and going to wipe the butter off, however, Luna started uncontrollably laughing over Twilight’s concentrating face, making Twilight smear the butter even more than it already was. Twilight burst into laughter and the smear spread to the other side of Luna’s face, they sat there laughing for over half a minute, Twilight continuing to smear the butter, unable to stop due to her laughter. Every single servant pony in the room had stopped what they were doing and stood there staring at the two playing like little fillies. The laughter was interrupted however by the sudden opening of the kitchen door and the entrance of one princess.
"Twilight! Luna! You’re he... What are you doing?" Princess Celestia asked, momentarily confused by the sight of her pupil apparently rubbing butter all over her sister’s face. Twilight and Luna both turned a deep shade of red and Twilight slowly lowered her foreleg.
"We were... eating breakfast." Luna replied, recovering before Twilight.
Celestia hid a smirk and replied, "Well, you seem to have missed somewhat, now come on, wash yourself off and follow me, there are some matters I need to discuss with the both of you." Luna accepted the damp towel one of the servant ponies had brought forth and wiped her face clean, drying it with an unused napkin. They both stood up, Luna once more supporting herself slightly on Twilight, Celestia looked slightly concerned at this, but said nothing, trusting them both to not overwork Luna when she was so weak. The trio made their way out of the door, Twilight and Luna still blushing slightly. The two shared a glance that made them have to hold their breath to stop themselves from bursting into laughter once more, they carried on shaking with the silent giggles as they made their way down the corridor together. Celestia led the way, oblivious to the muffled noises behind her.

Twilight felt like Luna didn't really need to be leaning on her but she didn’t say anything, she didn't mind. It was pretty fun trying to walk along like that anyway. Once Celestia had reached a corner of the corridor with a bench she sat Twilight and Luna down on it and stood in front of them, multicolour mane flowing impressively despite the complete lack of a noticeable breeze.
"I trust Twilight has informed you that you are going to live with her, at least until you are strong enough to once more take up your celestial duties?" Celestia asked, starting of the conversation. Luna nodded in reply and Celestia continued, this seemed like it would be a very one sided conversation.
"Well, I wish to know your reaction to this, as well as a rough estimate for when you believe you will be ready to leave." Celestia said. Luna glanced at Twilight before continuing.
"Well, initially I was shocked but it makes sense, I have no problem with it, actually I think it would be a nice break from the life of a princess, something I believe you should have sister. You have already had to endure my side of the celestial duties for a thousand years, it seems a burden to do it once more, even if it is unavoidable." Celestia nodded.
"Yes, it is quite... displeasing, however there is no other alternative, and once more I wish to say that I’m glad that out of all of the ponies that could be tied to my sister, I’m glad to say it is my prized pupil." Twilight acknowledged this compliment with a slight lowering of her head. "Now then, can you give me an estimate of when you believe you will be ready?" Celestia continued.
"With Twilight’s help, I think that I will be ready tomorrow." Luna replied, Celestia nodded and turned to her pupil.

"Now then, Twilight Sparkle, there is something I need you to do." Celestia said to her student, Twilight raised her gaze to meet her mentor’s.
"What is it?" Twilight asked, ready to perform any task for her teacher.
"I wish for you to take a gap from your studies on friendship, while you will still be learning, I want you to stop writing your reports for the duration of Luna’s stay." Twilight was stunned, this was not what she was expecting, "You see, I wish you to focus on the task at hand, which you cannot do if you are bound by your weekly reports, also, there is more." Celestia elaborated.
"M-More?" Twilight asked, not prepared to handle more drastic changes in her life.
"From this moment on, I will no longer be your teacher, the reason I sent you to Ponyville wasn’t just to make friends, you are now an adult, and I have taught you all I can. However, there is still more to learn, you may not know this, but Luna is actually much smarter than me, I know more of the customs and laws, but it was always Luna who knew everything there was to know about magic. As of the moment you leave Canterlot castle, your tutorship will be transferred over to my sister." Celestia finished, Twilight sat silent, Luna also seemed stunned by this news, she had never taken on a pupil before, much less one that had already received tutoring by Princess Celestia. Celestia looked concerned at her student’s reaction, she knew that this was big news that she was laying down and she didn't want to scare her pupil. Twilight stared at the floor in silence, not moving apart from her chest rising and falling with her breath.
"Twilight, you have to believe me that I am doing this to benefit you, if I felt that there was absolutely anything else that I should teach to you, that Luna couldn’t do even better, I wouldn’t hesitate to help you, but there isn’t. And remember, this isn’t a total cut off from me, we can still communicate by letters and meet up occasionally." Celestia said, trying to calm down Twilight, it seemed to have worked a bit, as Twilight gave a slight nod and replied.

"I know, it’s just... even though I know you’re doing this for my own good, it feels like you’re abandoning me..." Celestia nodded, understanding her student’s pain.
"I am not abandoning you, think of this as your graduation to higher education." Celestia said the best thing she could think of, and it worked. Twilight perked up at the mention of graduation, and raised her head to the Sun Princess.
"Graduation?" Twilight asked, Celestia nodded. Twilight gave a slight smile, "Umm... Can we be left alone for a moment, Princess? I just need some time to work things out." Twilight asked. Celestia nodded and turned to leave.
"I will see you tomorrow then." Princess Celestia said, more like a friend saying farewell to another friend, than a teacher telling her student to meet her tomorrow. As soon as the Princess left Luna spoke up.
"Do you wish for me to leave too?" Twilight shook her head,
"No, I’m meant to be looking after you, just because I have some problems, doesn’t mean I should ignore my main mission." Twilight replied, Luna nodded and leant on Twilight’s shoulder, placing a foreleg around her neck and pulling her in tight.
"You know, I’ve never taken on a student before, so I guess this will be a learning experience for both of us." Twilight didn’t resist the foreleg and gave out a sigh.
"It’s just so sudden, I wasn’t expecting any of this when I woke up a few days ago, planning my itinerary for that day. That one letter has just changed everything." Luna gave Twilight’s shoulder a rub sympathetically. A single tear ran down Twilight’s face, ignored by the both of them.

"Come on, let’s go for a walk, it’ll help clear your head, it always does for me." Luna said, standing up, more steady than she was that morning.
"Are you sure? Don’t you need to rest?" Twilight asked, but stood up anyway.
"I’ll be fine as long as you support me." Luna replied, and the two set off, Luna leaning against Twilight as they walked. As they wandered aimlessly around the castle, they talked about magic, Twilight quickly found out that Luna was indeed knowledgeable in this subject. Every question that Twilight asked, Luna answered in terms that Twilight could understand. The longer they talked, the more Twilight realised that Luna would be a better teacher than Celestia, and even though she would miss her old mentor, at least she was in good hooves. When the sun fell, and the moon rose over the horizon, they started to make their way to Luna’s bedroom. The two Royal Guards that seemed to be permanently posted outside her doors opened them as they approached, and the two mares nodded gratefully at them before stepping inside, the doors closing behind them. Twilight led Luna over to her bed, and Luna climbed in, drawing the covers up,
"Thank you, Twilight, for all of your help." Luna said before falling into sleep. Twilight smiled, not sure whether to be happy or sad, after everything that had happened today. Revelations that had shaken Twilight to her very core, but it was tempered with... Luna. She had spent the whole day with her and discovered that she really enjoyed it. Luna was the sort of mare that the more time you spent with them, the more you liked them. Twilight walked over to her bed and climbed in; falling asleep with thoughts of Luna still in her mind.

Chapter 6: Moving

The night was dreamless, both shared and private. Twilight arose from her bed, actually her bed this time, and stood, drawing out a massive yawn. The curtains were still open from when Twilight had opened them last morning, and judging by the height of the sun in the sky, it must have been about midday. She looked over to Luna’s bed in the opposite corner of the room, only to find it empty. Luna wasn’t lying when she said she would be moving about tomorrow. Twilight could hear the sound of running water coming from the ensuite bathroom, and could smell the faint scent of lavender in the air. Twilight decided to let Luna shower in peace, and instead went over to her bookcase, and pulled out the familiar slender, leather-bound book. She set it down on Luna’s writing desk, and sat herself down on the accompanying chair. She looked at the book, wondering if Luna would notice she was using their magic, or if the shower would distract her. Taking a risk, she produced the necessary spell for unlocking the tome, and sent it onto the book. There was a slight click as the security spell was disabled and the book opened to a new page. Twilight pulled a quill out, and dipped it in the black ink pot using her hoof, not wanting to risk using more magic. It had been a while since she had last had to use her hoof to write, 15 years in fact, back then she couldn’t even do a simple levitation spell, ever since she learned how she had been using it for writing, perfecting her control and writing style.

This hoof written paragraph that she hastily wrote out however, looked like it had been written by a filly, Twilight gave a slight sigh, knowing that this would have to do, and re-read her work to see if it made sense, not that her rambling usually did.
‘Over the past days, I’ve felt so many things that I’ve barely felt before, and those times that I had were few and far between. Most prominently, I’ve been having confusing feelings for Princess Luna.’ She crossed out the word 'Princess', remembering how Luna didn't want to be called that and wishing to respect that, even in a piece of writing that Luna hopefully would never see. The writing continued, ‘The feeling started out small, the sorts of feelings I had around my friends back in Ponyville, feelings of acceptance, gratitude and an air of belonging. With Luna however, I feel warm whenever we are together, our feelings are linked but she hides them well, I’m not whether she feels these same things, or whether it is just a side effect of the magical frequency link, or something entirely different. I feel...’ The paragraph ended there, as Twilight unable to continue, not knowing how to describe what she felt, all those foreign feelings. She briefly reflected on how her newest writing was actually more coherent that what she usually wrote, and the irony that what she felt was more confusing than anything she had felt before. Twilight heard the sound of the shower being turned off, and quickly shoved the book back into the bookcase, locking it quickly it in the process.

Twilight pretended to look at Luna’s books whilst she waited for Luna to emerge, which she did. She had a towel wrapped around her mane, and was still slightly damp, and that smell of lavender still permeated the air.
"Ah, Twilight, you’re up." Luna said, stating the obvious. Twilight turned to face her and smiled slightly at the mare.
"Yeah, I was just looking through your books, you have quite a few interesting ones." Twilight said, not lying as she had actually looked through Luna’s bookcase before and noticed a few books that were almost certainly the originals of famous books, such as The Life of an Eccedentesiast which was an autobiography, by the second Gryphon Prince.
"Yes, however I’m sure it is nothing compared to that entire library that you look after." Luna said, reminding Twilight how today was the day that Princess Luna would start living with her, she was momentarily taken back, still amazed by the fact. Luna noticed the dazed expression on Twilight’s face.
"You okay?" Luna asked, looking concerned at the younger mare. Twilight shook herself out of the daze and back to the present.
"Yeah, I’m fine... When are we leaving?" Twilight asked, revealing the source of her thoughts.
"Oh, so that’s what it is, I think we’re leaving at noon, that’s in just under an hour by the way. Also, if anyone should be nervous about this, it should be me; after all, last time I was in Ponyville, things didn't really turn out too good." Luna replied, removing her towel and hanging it next to the hearth to dry out. Twilight blushed at the fact that she hadn’t even considered what Luna thought of this move to Ponyville, some friend she was.

"So... I guess we should get packing then." Twilight said after the silence started to lengthen. Luna nodded and pulled out a small suitcase from her wardrobe with her mouth.
"Yes, that would probably be best." Luna agreed and set about piling in her most precious items: books, pictures etc. And of course, some clothes. Twilight turned to her small bag that she used as a suitcase and realised how she hadn’t even opened it in the time she was here, she didn't even know how long she had been in Canterlot castle. She mentally calculated it, she had arrived and been knocked out on the same day, been unconscious for about three days, spent yesterday with Luna, and then there was today. That made five days here and, she hadn’t even gotten around to opening her suitcase, yet more has happened to her in those past five days than the past five months. Twilight sighed quietly and went over to Luna to help her pack. With Twilight’s organisational skills, Luna was able to fit in much more than she previously thought, even managing to pack in a few books which Twilight mentioned that she didn’t have at the Library.

After their packing was complete, they still had over a quarter of an hour left until it was time to leave for Ponyville. Neither could think of anything to do, so they just sat together, leaning on each other's shoulders, and stared out of the floor to ceiling windows opposite them. The sun was high in the sky and shone brightly over the forest, seeming both still and yet bustling with life. As they sat, Luna tried to read Twilight’s feelings, and saw that Twilight’s feelings were too confusing to read, perhaps she was trying to hide them?
"How are you feeling, Twilight?" Luna asked, hoping the direct approach would yield greater results.
"Honestly? I don’t know... I’m not sure whether to feel happy or sad, so much has happened, and each event left an impression on me, but none seem to tip the balance one way or another." Twilight replied. Luna nodded, realising that Twilight was not trying to hide her thoughts, she really was confused.
"I know how you feel." Luna stated simply, not caring to elaborate. This time it was Twilight who nodded in reply. As the silence stretched out, the two mares were content with sitting quietly together, the only sound being the rhythmic breathing of the two ponies, and the occasional bird caw. All too soon it was time to go.

"Well, I guess it’s time to go." Luna said, standing up with a small groan. She grabbed Twilight’s hoof with her own, and hauled her up.
"Thanks." Twilight said, collecting her suitcase. Luna went over and got her own suitcase, and together they trotted out of the door. The Royal Guards that usually stayed stationed at their post outside of Luna’s bedroom doors instead followed the two mares as they walked in silence along the corridor, each thinking their own thoughts. Twilight was thinking of what would happen once they arrived in Ponyville, she would have to tell her friends but was not sure how they would react, apart from maybe Pinkie, who would want to throw a party, and unfortunately that probably isn’t what a recuperating princess wants. Luna, on the other hand, was thinking of her sister. She still felt guilty for once more piling her duties onto Celestia, even though she knew it couldn’t have been avoided, she was also thankful to Twilight, if it wasn’t for Twilight it wouldn’t be Celestia wielding the moon, but the Nightmare.

The two were so absorbed in their thoughts that they didn’t even realise they were in the courtyard until Princess Celestia was right in front of them.
"Ah there you are, I trust you are ready to depart?" She asked. The other two mares nodded, still deep in thought. Celestia frowned at this, concerned at the contemplative looks on both of them, perhaps she should have allowed a few more days for them to work things out. Unfortunately there was no turning back now, and so she led them over to the awaiting carriage and they followed. As they got in, Celestia said her goodbyes to each pony in turn. First up was Twilight, she looked up at the princess with sorrow in her eyes and Celestia bent down, nuzzling Twilight’s neck.
"Farewell Twilight." Celestia said, no longer referring to her as her pupil.
Celestia stood back up and Twilight climbed in, "Goodbye Celestia." Twilight replied, no longer calling her a Princess, they were more friends than anything else now. And then Luna walked up to her sister, suitcase in tow, and she set it down at her feet to embrace her big sister.
"Goodbye sister, don’t worry Twilight will look after you." Princess Celestia said.
"It’s not me I’m worried about..." Luna replied before pulling away from the embrace, picking her suitcase up once more and climbing in next to Twilight. Even though there was enough room for four ponies on the seats, Luna still sat against Twilight. As the carriage set off Celestia waved to the two, and continued until they were out of sight.

Twilight let the wind rushing past clear her mind as she leant against the mare beside her, feeling the warmth of being this close warm her up and cheer her up slightly.
"I wonder if my friends will be there to meet us." Twilight said, voicing her questions as there became to many to keep locked up. Luna gave a slight shrug, moving Twilight along with her shoulders.
"As far as I know, nopony knows that you're arriving today." Luna added. Twilight nodded at this logical reply, mentally chiding herself for not coming up with that answer herself, of course nopony knew she was coming back today. They probably didn’t even know she was gone as Twilight was prone to staying locked away inside her library for days on end, researching something or practicing a particularly difficult spell. Perhaps it would be better if no one knew she was coming back, it would allow Luna some time to settle in without being overcome by other ponies. Twilight leaned to her right to get a view over the side of the chariot and Luna fell with her, still leaning on her shoulder. They both giggled, the laughter growing in volume as Luna struggled to pull herself back up, and failed, falling back on the other mare. Eventually the laughs subsided, the two mares content on lying there together.
"I’ve really enjoyed these past few days, despite everything it has been... fun to be with you." Luna said to the violet mare underneath her.
"I think so too, Luna..." Twilight replied.

The chariot seemed to be going slower than it was when it was bringing Twilight to the castle, so it was at least another five minutes before Twilight could see Ponyville approaching in the distance.
"Hey look, there’s Ponyville." Twilight said and Luna pulled herself up using the top of the seats, she looked over the edge to try and get a view of the place she would be living in for the next few years.
"It’s a lot more... colourful than it looks at night." Luna said the first thing that came into her mind, Twilight nodded, remembering how she had been slightly dazed by the barrage of colours that met her when she first arrived in Ponyville. The chariot seemed to be skirting the main city, and following a more circular route to get to Twilight’s tree library, supposedly to make a more covert entrance. Another minute or so and they would arrive at Twilight’s, and now Luna’s, house. The two mares spent the minute in silence, once more sitting up, and stared at the library as they gradually got closer. Once they were close enough that they could make out the windows of the tree, the chariot began its descent. It touched down not three metres from the door, as silent and as softly as a leaf falling from a tree.

As they touched down the both of them stood simultaneously, picked up their suitcases and departed from the chariot. The two Royal Guards that had sat stationary in the front of the chariot now looked at their previous passengers and saluted smartly before taking off back to the castle. Luna glanced over at Twilight and let her lead. Twilight smiled reassuringly at her before moving forward and opening the door with her magic.
"Sorry, the library is closed today, please come back later." A voice rang out from the kitchen, a young male voice. Silence followed his call and the source of the voice revealed himself to be Twilight’s assistant, Spike.
"I’m back." Twilight said, stating the obvious.
"Oh! Twilight, it’s you, I thought it was someone looking to borrow a book." He ran forward and embraced Twilight before noticing the pony behind her.
"Princess Luna! I didn't see you there, you look... different..." Spike trailed off, no longer hugging Twilight and instead staring at their new guest.
"Yes, you are Spike?" Luna asked, stepping into the library and closing the door behind her.
"Yeah, erm, nice to meet you Princess." Spike replied, obviously not used to talking to princesses.
"It is nice to meet you too, but please call me Luna, I’m going to be here a while and it would be awkward if we were so formal all the time." Luna said as Twilight began to unpack her stuff.
"I see, so Luna, how long are you going to be here?" Spike asked, wondering when he could get back to being his normal self instead of this awkward state he was in.
"Well... I would guess a few years, more or less." Luna replied, this was obviously not the answer Spike was expecting, his eyes opened wide but managed to hide most of his shock. Twilight had finished unpacking her bags, and was now looking around the library to see what sort of state Spike had left it in, surprisingly it was rather well kept.
"A...A few years?" Spike asked, thinking he had probably heard wrong.
"Yes, it’s kind of complicated." Luna replied, Twilight walked back over to the other two.

"Come on, let me show you where you will be sleeping." Twilight said, leading her over to the spare bed she had used during the sleepover with Rarity and Applejack. Spike walked out of the front door of the library, presumably to go to the market or some other shop.
"This is your bed, my bed is just opposite, there’s also a bookcase right next to the bed incase you want to store your books or other stuff." Twilight said, knowing that everything was pretty self explanatory, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say about it. Luna nodded dutifully and started unpacking her possessions onto the empty bookcase next to her bed.
"Ok, I’ll leave you to it, I’m going to grab something to eat, do you want anything?" Twilight asked, walking back to the kitchen.
"No thanks." Luna said, as she continued to pull items out of the suitcase. Twilight nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. As Luna placed her stuff onto the bookcase she realised that it wasn’t entirely empty, there was a slender, leather-bound book that she hadn’t noticed before. She stopped unpacking and picked it up, immediately noticing the locking spell upon it, it seemed easy enough to unlock, the only problem was an ethical one, this book was obviously private, and wasn’t meant to be seen by anyone. On the other hand though, why had Twilight left it there if it was so important to her? There was no title on the cover, and seemed more a journal than a novel, eventually Luna’s curiosity prevailed, and she unlocked the book quickly and opened it up. The book’s pages fluttered by before arriving on an empty page, she turned a few pages back and saw what Twilight had written.

It was indeed a journal, but was set out weirdly, it seemed like a diary but it didn’t record events, but feelings. She read the most recent entry,
‘Over the past days, I’ve felt so many things that I’ve barely felt before, and those times that I had were few and far between. Most prominently, I’ve been having confusing feelings for Princess Luna.’ She was confused slightly by the crossing out of her title, perhaps it was because she said she didn't want to be called Princess? She was more concerned, however by the notion that Twilight had confusing feelings for her. She read on, hoping things would be explained better, ‘The feeling started out small, the sorts of feelings I had around my friends back in Ponyville, feelings of acceptance, gratitude and an air of belonging. With Luna however, I feel warm whenever we are together, our feelings are linked but she hides them well, I’m not whether she feels these same things, or whether it is just a side effect of the magical frequency link or something entirely different. I feel...’ The writing ended, Luna blushed at what she had just read, it seems like Twilight felt for her, more than she let on. Luna knew that while the magical link between them would strengthen the feelings, it would not have caused them. This meant that these were Twilight’s own feelings. Luna thought of the implications to something like this, would Twilight ever say anything about it? Or did she plan on keeping it a secret? Her mind though, quickly turned from questions about Twilight to questions of herself; did she feel the same way back? Luna pondered this for the longest time, before confirming what she already knew, Luna did feel the same way back.

So what now? Luna asked herself, the question repeating itself over in her mind and remained unanswered. Eventually Luna came to her senses and relocked the book, placing it back where she had found it and making it look like she had never even looked at it. Just as she had finished and had gotten back to her unpacking, Twilight came through the kitchen doors holding a daffodil sandwich on a plate with her magic, and walked back to Luna. She looked at the bookcase, surveying how Luna was doing with her unpacking.
"I felt you perform magic whilst I was in the kitchen, what were you doing?" Twilight asked, she didn't seem angry or surprised, just curious.
"Oh, it was nothing..." Luna replied, echoing Twilight’s words from just a day ago, Twilight nodded, not satisfied with the answer but not wanting to pry. She continued looking at the bookcase and spotted the leather-bound book, she turned quickly to the other mare. Luna’s eyes betrayed her.
"You read it." Twilight said quietly, more a statement than a question, Luna nodded slowly and they both blushed deeply.

Chapter 7: Discovery

“You read it...” Twilight repeated, still blushing. Luna looked guiltily at the other mare.
“I’m so sorry... I couldn’t help myself, and I know that doesn’t mean what I’ve done was right but...” Luna stopped, unable to think of anything to say.
They stood staring at each other in silence until Twilight spoke once more, “How much did you see?” Twilight asked eventually. Luna was slightly relieved at this, she hadn’t seen all that much, only the last page. For a moment her curiosity piqued, she wondered what else there was in the diary before she cut off those thoughts, her curiosity was the reason she was in the situation she was in.
“Not much, only the latest entry.” Luna replied, unfortunately it just made Twilight blush even more for some reason.
“The latest entry?” Twilight asked for confirmation, Luna nodded once more and Twilight’s blush deepened, Luna’s curiosity was now bursting to know what else there was inside, and why reading only the last entry was worse. Perhaps she wouldn’t get the full meaning if she only read the latest entry?
“Since you’ve already read it, I might as well come out with it.” Twilight said, “That last entry is the only one where I talked about my... feelings for you, all of the other entries had to do with other things, like what I felt when I saw Applejack stop a stampede, for example.”
“Oh...” Luna replied. The silence once more began to build up, neither moving at all apart from the occasional blink.

“Are you angry Twilight? I would completely understand if you were, what I did was not good by any means.” Luna asked after the awkward silence got too much for her, Twilight shook her head.
“No, I’m not mad, I would have been curious too. I’m just unsure of what to do now... I didn’t expect for you to find out this way.” Twilight replied, lowering her head. Luna nodded.
“Well how about I answer you?" Luna asked, a small smile playing at her lips.
“What do you mean?” Twilight replied, raising her head once more.
“The one you wrote, about whether I felt the same way.” Luna said, Twilight’s eyes opened wide, wondering what Luna would say next. Her question was answered by Luna pulling her into an embrace, still Luna felt the need to put it into words.
“Yes, Twilight, I feel the same.” Luna said squeezing the other mare, Twilight squeezed back.
“I feel... relieved and happy and kinda scared at the same time.” Twilight confided a few moments later. “I’m not sure what to do, I’ve never done anything like this before.” Luna took a deep breath of Twilight’s hair and replied.
“Me neither, I guess we’re going to have to learn more than just magic in our lessons.” The two sat there in each other’s arms for an indeterminable amount of time, neither thinking about anything other than that they didn’t want to pull away ever.

They were interrupted however by the library door opening suddenly, the two pulled away and saw Spike walk in, thankfully looking behind him at the five ponies that followed him in. A smile broke out on Twilight’s face as she saw her friends enter her house, she went over to them, trying to stop her blush with some success. Luna stayed back in the bedroom, still thinking over what had just happened.
“Girls! How nice to see you.” Twilight said to the ponies who greeted her back, variations of “Welcome back!” and “Hi!” hit her from five mouths at once.
“Come take a seat, I suppose you want some explanations.” Twilight said, the five mares nodded in unison and took various places around Twilight’s living space. Twilight herself took a seat on an armchair that faced the other seats.
“Where should I start?” Twilight asked once everypony was settled down.
“Well, I’m not sure of what everypony else knows, but I know nothing, Spike just told me that you were back, I didn’t even know you were gone to be honest. So I think you should start at the beginning.” Rainbow Dash replied from her perch on the side of the sofa, Twilight nodded and set about explaining the events of the past few days, neglecting to mention what had just occurred though, they didn’t need to know that just yet. She went through the receiving of the letter, the bubble, the talk with Celestia and the fact that Luna was now going to live with her for a few years.

“Ok, lemme get this straight sugarcube, Princess Luna’s here?” Applejack asked, looking around for any sign of the night princess after Twilight had finished with her explanation. As if on cue, Luna stepped out of Twilight’s bedroom into the main living area.
“Ah, there you are, Princess! Ah’m sorry, didn’ see you there.” Applejack said. The other ponies greeted her too, rather more formally than they did with Twilight, Luna waved her hoof at them, silencing their words.
“Please, call me Luna. Since I’m going to be here a while it would be awkward if we were so formal all the time.” Luna said, slightly uneasy at being around so many ponies. Five heads nodded together following Luna’s words, Pinkie’s head nodding the most enthusiastically.

“Oh my gosh Luna! You know what this means? A Party!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing up and down on her seat, immediately Twilight shook her head.
“I’m sorry Pinkie, but Luna is supposed to getting better, and we both think that it would be better if she avoided any exhausting activities, so that means no parties for a while.” Pinkie looked slightly crestfallen before almost instantly perking up again, as was her way.
“Okie dokie! As soon as you’re feeling better, we’re gonna throw the biggest party you’ve ever seen!” Pinkie said. Luna nodded in reply, hoping that she could avoid that for as long as possible, she wasn’t exactly the biggest party animal.
“Well, I’m sure you’ll take good care of your guest darling, we should leave you now and give Luna sometime to get settled in, and it’s nice to have you back again.” Rarity said, standing up. The other ponies agreed, rose, and made a beeline for the door.
“Remember Twilight dear, if you need anything just give Rarity a call, I would be more than happy to help out a member of royalty.” Rarity called from the doorway.
“And come visit Sugarcube Corner too!” Pinkie called from behind Rarity.
“Sure thing.” Twilight replied as the door closed behind them.

Luna went back into Twilight’s room to continue sorting out her stuff and after the go-ahead from Twilight, continue reading Twilight’s diary.
“You’ve already read the most embarrassing part so there’s no point why you can’t read the rest of it.” Twilight had said. Twilight went on a search for Spike, who had disappeared during her conversation with her friends. He was found in the kitchen surprisingly enough and was making some sort of drink.
“Hey Spike, I just wanted to thank you for looking after the library whilst I was gone.” Twilight said to the dragon.
“Oh, it was no problem.” Spike said dismissively, turning back to his now finished drink and taking a gulp.
“Ok, well thanks anyway.” Twilight said walking back to her bedroom to check on Luna. It was now evening, her explanation must have taken longer than expected, she would probably have some food and go to sleep, after checking up on Luna, of course.

Luna was sitting on Twilight’s bed, staring at Twilight’s bookcase, looking through the books that Twilight deemed most important at the time. There were several books that were re-prints of important books by famous ponies from history. Twilight took a seat and Luna turned to her.
“Hey Luna, how’s it going?” Twilight asked.
“Fine, your friends are very... enthusiastic.” Luna replied turning back to the bookcase, Twilight followed her gaze.
“Yeah, they’re good friends.” Twilight said, spotting the book that Luna was staring at, it was one of Twilight’s note books, this particular one was on Discord’s chaos magic.
“Would you mind if I read some of your note books, since I’m meant to be your teacher now I think I should find out where you’re at.” Luna said.
Twilight nodded in response, “Sure, I’m going to make some food, you want some?” Twilight asked, standing up once more. Luna nodded distractedly, already a few pages into Twilight’s notes. Twilight walked back into the kitchen to find Spike curled up asleep, she smiled at the gently snoring dragon and levitated him over to his bed with her magic.

The violet glow that enveloped her assistant reminded her of Luna and she found herself thinking about what her lessons would include, which she presumed would be starting tomorrow. She thought about the different subjects of magic that she knew about whilst she worked, tossing salad and chopping vegetables. ‘Perhaps she’s going to teach me about celestial magic, it’s supposed to be drastically different to normal magic.’ Twilight thought to herself as she carried her now completed salad back to the bedroom. Luna was lying on her bed, book suspended above her head with magic, occasionally turning the page. Twilight spooned some of the salad into a separate bowl and set it beside Luna who picked it up with her hooves.

“Thanks.” Luna said, still focussed on the book, she appeared to have finished reading Twilight’s notes on Discord and was now avidly reading about her notes on dragons, complied from Spike, the dragon migration and her own encounter with the dragon that was snoring smoke over Ponyville.
“K.” Twilight replied feeling tired all of a sudden, she climbed into bed and ate her salad slower than normal, thinking through the various events that had occurred, and what the future held. She focussed mainly on the slender, leather-bound book that had caused so much fuss. Eventually, after finishing her salad, she heard the sound of a book falling, she sat up and looked at Luna’s bed opposite her and saw that she must have fallen asleep whilst reading, the book now laying over her face. Twilight stifled a laugh and went to go lift it of the mare’s face, before deciding to join her in the land of dreams.

She was asleep almost instantly, the blackness stretching out across her vision as she fell into the dream realm. She didn’t even have to call for Luna or vice-versa, she just appeared into their shared realm. The realm looked as different as each time before, she appeared to be atop a tree that was so tall it overlooked the entirety of Ponyville, she recognised the view as the exact one she had during the chariot ride over here, presumably that was where Luna got the landscape from. The tree had a flat top, lined with leaves, it must be some form of Redwood judging by the height and the shape of the leaves, however she was unable to categorise it, her knowledge in dendrology was sorely lacking. She saw Luna sitting on a wide horizontal branch that stuck out over the edge of the ‘floor’ and was wide enough that it made a sort of platform. Twilight walked over and sat beside her.
“You probably don’t know this, but I used to be terrified of heights.” Luna said, keeping her eyes fixed on the horizon, Twilight was confused.
“But, you have wings...” Twilight said.
“True, but I’m not that great a flyer, I always preferred to keep to the ground, the only problem was that I absolutely loved the view you had from such a high place as this. When was younger I decided to conquer my fears, I brought myself to the highest tower in the castle and slept on top of it, when I awoke I was no longer afraid of heights.” Luna replied, Twilight nodded in reply to her backstory of the place. She had to agree, the view was spectacular, despite the natural fear of their height.

“I have a question.” Twilight said and Luna turned to her.
“Ask away.” Luna replied.
Twilight cleared her throat before continuing, “How come Celestia asked me to help you, isn’t she more powerful than me?” Luna thought up her answer.
“You see, there are five main categories of magic: the regular magic that unicorns use, celestial magic that only alicorns can use, flight magic that pegasi use, muscular magic that the earth ponies used and the final magic that has been lost for millennia, elemental magic. While my sister is gifted in her celestial magic, her regular magic isn’t all that great, she believes that you have greater power than her, which is one of the reasons she initially took you on as her protégé.” Luna said, “I think for your first lesson we should begin on the different categories of magic.” Twilight nodded, she had known about pegasi, earth pony and unicorn magic, but had heard only small references to celestial magic, and no mention at all of elemental magic, she was looking forward to her lesson. Now that her question was answered, Twilight sat back with a yawn.

She was going to talk about what had happened earlier that day, but thought better of it, thinking that she would let it sit a bit more before bringing it up once more. Noticing her yawn, Luna stood and turned to Twilight.
“I think we should end it here, we’re both tired.” Luna said, Twilight nodded and rose to her hooves just as Luna faded away into her personal sleep. Twilight was about to leave but something occurred to her, she walked over to the edge of the branch platform and looked over the side, she was certainly far up. She had never had any dreams that were lucid enough for her to try something like this and this dream seemed perfect for an experiment like this. She took a step back before launching herself off the edge, she fell like a stone, legs splayed out as the wind rushed past her. Initially she felt the rational fear of falling from a high place but it was soon replaced by the rush of adrenaline and exhilaration of something extreme as this. She had never felt so alive, ironic since this is the sort of thing that a pony would die from. Only at the last second did she consider what would happen once she hit the ground, the thought passing through her mind too quick for her to do anything about it. As she hit everything turned black and she recognised the black expanse of the area between the shared dreams and her own sleep. She slipped into her own sleep, head still spinning and body shaking from what she had just done.

As she slept dreamlessly she heard a voice in the back of her mind, now recognisable as Luna.
“What did you just do? I felt you feel intense fear, but it changed to some sort of adrenaline rush.” Luna asked fearfully.
“I just threw myself off the tree...” Twilight replied guiltily.
“You... threw yourself off the tree?” Luna asked confusedly.
“Yes, it was like nothing I’ve ever done before, that sort of thrill you only get from something dangerous, I’ve felt something like it when battling someone or something much greater and stronger than me but this was so much more intense.” Twilight replied in rush.
“I see... This is interesting, I’ll have to do some research.” Luna replied after a pause, “I’ll leave you to your sleep now.”
“Ok.” Twilight replied, wondering what Luna found so interesting as they went back to their separate sleeps.

When Twilight awoke, Luna was already awake and about. She climbed out of bed and stretched, accompanied by a massive yawn. Luna was in the kitchen having just made some toast for the three of them, Luna and Spike were already about halfway through theirs. Twilight sat down at the spare seat and started eating.
“Morning Twilight.” Spike said between mouthfuls.
“Good morning Twilight.” Luna said a moment later.
“Morning.” Twilight replied, focussing on her food. Having finished her toast Luna looked up at Twilight.
“I was wondering, when would you like your first lesson?” Luna asked. Twilight quickly finished her slice before answering.
“Anytime really, I have nothing planned for today.” Twilight replied.
“That’s weird, I swear I saw you wri-” Spike said before Twilight hushed him with a look.
“Okay, how about we start as soon as we clean up here.” Luna said collecting her and Spike’s plates. Twilight nodded and picked up her own plate, and after a quick wash of all three they went back to the library proper. Luna took place on the armchair that Twilight sat in the day before to explain to her friends, Twilight took a seat opposite her on the sofa. Spike went to the front door.
“Applejack asked me to write some stuff down for her, so I’ll be back later.” Spike called before closing the door, not allowing any time to reply.

Luna turned to her new pupil and began the lesson.
“So, in our dream last night I mentioned the five categories of magic and today I think we should start by going into depth on all five, starting with unicorn magic.” Luna said, Twilight nodded and Luna launched into her explanations, Twilight taking notes on everything she said.
“Unicorn magic is focussed in the horn of unicorn and is the most powerful of the three main types as it allows manipulation of objects instead of just the pony. Then there’s Pegasus magic, this is focussed mainly in the wings and allows the pegasus to fly despite their disproportionate wings, it also gives wings amazing dexterity and strength, allowing pegasi to use their wings for more than just flying, in fact back when things weren’t all peaceful, pegasi used to fight using their wings as well as their hooves, it was terrifying to watch yet amazing to behold. The third of the three main types of magic is the Earth pony magic, this is focussed mainly in the muscles and gives earth ponies increased strength, stamina and speed, however since everypony is just a variation from the original earth ponies, each pony hold a small part of this magic, this allows us to pick up objects with our flat hooves and lift heavy objects with our teeth.” Luna stopped to allow Twilight a chance to finish writing down notes, after she had Luna continued.

“There are two more types though, the first is alicorn magic, as a sort of amalgam between the three main types of pony we alicorns have magic from all three types, though to a lesser extent than one who is just a pegasus, unicorn or earth pony. However, alicorns have a separate type of magic that is unique to each and no one is really sure where it is focussed. Wherever your power is centred around though, is usually the domain you control, even though alicorns can control other domains to a lesser extent. For instance, my domain is the night sky, and my sister’s is the daytime sky, yet she can still raise the moon if she tries though it is much harder. And then there is the fifth and final type of magic, elemental magic. Any pony can use elemental magic, though the secret has long since been forgotten, it gives the user complete control over the elements, that’s fire, water, wind and earth. While each type of magic can give some sort of rudimentary control over the elements, not to be confused with the elements of harmony, which are completely different and I’ll likely have a lesson on them later. Unfortunately, no one has been able to control the elements in this way since before the reign of Discord, it is the only type of magic that is focussed outside of the body, which is why anypony can do it, all I know is that it requires the pony to tap into nature itself.” Silence followed Luna’s words, save for the quick scratch of Twilight’s quill.

Once she finished Twilight sat back, Luna looked at her expectantly.
“Any questions?” Luna asked. Twilight pondered this a moment before answering.
“Yeah, what happened to elemental magic, how come it was forgotten?” Twilight asked eventually.
“Well this is before my time but there was some sort of ‘ritual’ style thing needed to evoke the elemental magic, the process was written down and is in the royal library but nobody, not even the library's top cryptographers have been able to decipher what it says.” Luna said. Twilight nodded and noted something else down.
“Ok, that was my only question, thanks.” Twilight said, closing her newest notebook and setting the quill down. Luna nodded and stood up.
“I’m going to get something to drink, do you want something?” Luna asked.
“No thanks, I’m just gonna write some more notes down and then I was thinking that maybe we could go out?” Twilight asked.
“Sure, that seems like fun.” Luna replied, walking to the kitchen. Twilight sat there with the notebook in front of her and reflecting on the fact Luna was indeed knowledgeable, she had learnt so much in her first lesson, but why couldn’t she stop glancing up at the blue mare? Even when she was focussed on her writing, her eyes were drawn to the face of the mare that had sat in front of her. Twilight gave a sigh and shoved the thought away, she was going out to town with Luna soon and she had to prepare.

Chapter 8: Astronomy

Chapter 9:

Twilight went to prepare for her outing with Luna, that meant writing a list of what to do whilst she was out. Prepping her quill and paper, she began to write out what she needed, essentials like milk and bread but some other more obscure items; lens polish, lubrication grease and a blank business ledger, all needed for the aspiring astronomer, which Twilight was. Lens polish to clean the intricate array of lenses compiled to allow Twilight to view distant stars, lubrication grease to keep it sliding smoothly and the blank ledger to note down anything, along with its coordinates in the sky. List complete, Twilight walked back to the main living area to find Luna sitting patiently on the chair, waiting for Twilight.
“Sorry, I was just making a list.” Twilight said and Luna stood up.
“No need to apologise, preparedness is a virtue.” Luna replied walking up to the other mare, together they walked to the front door and exited, list now tucked safely away in Twilight’s saddlebag. The library door swung slowly shut behind them.

The walk to the town centre took under five minutes, the two mares walking in silence for the entire time, neither knowing what to say. Once they arrived at the market, Twilight removed the list from her saddlebag, even though she had it memorised, and read the first item on the list.
“I was thinking that we should have some lunch first, and then do the shopping, that way we don’t have to carry everything around with us while we eat.” Luna said from beside her. Twilight replaced the scroll before replying.
“Sure, that sounds like a good idea.” She said, knowing that once they sat down together they would have to talk about what had happened the day before. “Where do you want to eat?” Twilight added a moment later.
“Well... Didn’t your rather enthusiastic pink friend ask us to come to ‘Sugarcube Corner’?” Luna replied after failing to think of an a proper answer.
“Sugarcube Corner it is.” Twilight stated before setting a path to the Cake’s shop, Luna keeping pace beside her. The bell hanging above the door heralded their arrival as they stepped into the shop, Mrs Cake walked out from behind the counter to meet her customers.
“Ah, Twilight, how nice to see you, and who is your guest? She looks familiar, but I can’t place my hoof on it...” Mrs Cake said, peering intently at the mare beside Twilight in an attempt to work out who she was. Twilight glanced at Luna, unsure whether she would want to be revealed as the princess. Luna gave an almost imperceptible shake of the head and Twilight turned back to Mrs Cake.
“It’s nice to see you too! This here is... Moonlight, she will be staying with me for a while.” Twilight said, if Mrs Cake noticed the slight pause Twilight made she didn’t say anything.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you Moonlight, I’ll let you two get settled and decide on what you want, just call if you need anything.” Mrs Cake replied, Luna nodded in greeting, not trusting her voice to be different enough not to give her away.

The two mares were the only customers in the shop, Twilight wondered where Pinkie was, and Mr Cake, as Luna sat down, Twilight turned back to Mrs Cake and voiced her question.
“Mrs Cake, where’s Pinkie and your husband?” Twilight asked, Mrs Cake looked up from the glaze she was spreading over a bun.
“Oh, there was this pastry convention over in Manehattan, me and my husband go every year but Pinkie was so keen on going, and she had been looking after my babies so well that we decided that she should get to go in place of me, so here I am, holding up the fort. Oh that reminds me! Be right back!” Mrs Cake replied, rushing out of the shop and down the road. Twilight watched her until she had disappeared before returning to Luna and sitting down opposite her at the two seat table.
“So, I guess it’s just us...” Twilight said, Luna nodded.
“Moonlight?” She asked, as Twilight stifled a giggle.
“It was the first thing I could think of.” Twilight said, suppressed giggles threatening to rise. Luna sighed.
“I guess it will have to do...” Luna said, they sat in silence for a moment more, Twilight’s giggles growing stronger until they had almost burst out of her mouth, but Luna beat her to it. The previously po-faced Princess burst into laughter, setting Twilight off too. Their laughter was tinged with hysteria though, the hysteria one has when they are completely out of their depth and is trying to mask their emotions.

As their giggles subsided, the two mares breathed heavily for a few seconds, out of breath from the intense laughter. Once she had regained her breath, Luna decided that they should have a talk whilst they were alone.
“I think that we should have a talk now that we’re alone.” Luna said, once more serious, Twilight read the situation, and she too became serious, the two mares sitting straight in their chairs.
“This is about the other day isn’t it.” Twilight asked, Luna nodded in confirmation.
“Yes, while neither of us have done anything remotely like this before, we both know how serious this is.” Luna elaborated, Twilight nodded and Luna continued.
“Not only are we both mares, while I don’t really wish to be known as one at the moment, I am a princess, and this could cause a major stir if released at the wrong time, and to the wrong people, I think we should keep this hushed for now, I can’t think of any time in history when there has been a... mare and mare relationship involving royalty.” Luna explained, struggling to find a word to describe their relationship, which had barely even started and was already rife with confusion and secrets.
“I agree, however, I think we should release it to trusted friends, individually, over some time so we can deal with them one by one, instead of having a huge flock of ponies assaulting us with questions which frankly, I don’t even know the answer to.” Twilight replied.
“You’re right, we should find out more about our relationship before we tell others about it.” Luna replied, and silence followed her remark, neither knowing what to do. The silence grew more awkward until Luna broke it with a question.

“So, when did you find out your... feelings for me?” Luna asked, struggling to meet the other mare’s eyes without blushing in a way most unbecoming of a princess. Twilight frowned slightly, thinking back to when she first found out her feelings were more than just those of a friend.
“Well, when you became my friend back on Nightmare Night, it felt different from my other friendships, but I put it down to you being a princess, I don’t think I realised it was what it was until after you rushed to the infirmary, despite your state and thanked me.” Luna nodded slowly and came up with a truthful reply.
“I have felt love before, having lived over a thousand years, it would have been a sorry existence had I not, so I knew almost immediately what it was I was feeling, but I was scared. I didn’t know if you felt the same way, so I did not want to destroy our friendship for my own selfish gain.” Luna replied, hurt entering her words as she spoke of the past, old wounds resurfacing and Twilight felt them as her own. She stood up, surprising the other mare who was deep in thought, and without a word sat down next to the Princess, foreleg snaking out around the blue mare and pulling her in close.
“I’m scared too, I don’t know what to do and it scares me. I’ve read books on the subject but, all of them say that it is best learnt through experiences, unlike anything I had ever learnt before.” Twilight said in a whisper, fears threatening to overflow, it was clear Twilight was the sort of unicorn that feared not knowing more than anything else and now she couldn’t know unless she found out for herself. Luna slipped her own foreleg out of Twilight’s hold around her neck and placed it around the mare, the two leaning on each other’s shoulders for mutual support.

“So, what should we do now?” Twilight asked after an indeterminable amount of time later.
“Well I don’t know about you but I’m hungry.” Luna replied, turning to face the mare beside her.
“Yeah me too, do think we should fi-” Twilight’s words were cut off by Luna's muzzle pressed to hers, it was the inexperienced kiss of somepony who had never kissed someone this way before, but it was a kiss nonetheless. It was enough for Twilight’s heart to stop for a moment as they felt the passion that they shared and hungered for more, soon though they broke apart, knowing that they should stop before somepony saw, or it got too extreme. The two mares no longer had their forelegs around each other and instead sat facing each other on the chairs they occupied, cheeks turning a bright shade of red.
“I...” Twilight began but was once more interrupted, but this time by the re-entrance of Mrs Cake, the two mares at the table simultaneously swung round to once more face the table before Mrs Cake could see them.
“Sorry I was gone so long dearies, I had forgotten to get some more diapers, are you two ready to order?”
“Yeah.” Twilight replied, recovering first.

After they had finished and paid for their meals, the two left to buy the equipment Twilight needed. They walked in silence once more, but a slight smile played on both their faces, revealing their true emotions. They bought the essentials first in the market, going from stall to stall to purchase the food to sustain them. As they passed one stall Twilight looked past it to the other row of stalls of produce, and saw her assistant, walking with Applebloom. It was just for the briefest of moments, and when Twilight looked again they were gone.
“What is it?” Luna asked quietly, still not trusting her voice.
“It’s nothing.” Twilight replied, pushing the thought out her head, she had bigger things to worry about than her assistants personal life. They carried on walking, now heading for the rather obscure shop ‘Stargazers’ ever since its opening a few months ago, Twilight had been a regular customer.
“What’s this shop?” Luna asked as they walked up to the front door, the store had no distinguishing features, save from the sign displaying the store’s name so many ponies passed the store by without a second thought. Twilight had discovered it when she was wandering around town and she had forgotten the pegasi had scheduled a torrential downpour for that day, she took shelter in this shop and instantly fell in love with astronomy.

“This is an astronomy shop, I need to get a couple of things here.” Twilight replied, opening the door with a hoof and entering. Luna nodded, not knowing what astronomy was, but not wanting to speak until she saw who was in the shop. As it turned out, there was no-one in the shop, just a note on the counter saying ‘Gone for the day, if you need anything just take it and leave the money on the counter.’ This was written in a long, flowing script that would be almost unreadable, had Twilight not read it aloud. Luna thought about how everyone was so trusting here in Ponyville, or maybe that whoever ran this store was crazy. She started to lean towards the ‘crazy’ idea as she looked around the shop to see the range of apparatus dotted around the shop, a myriad of brass and glass blended together, refracting the light from a small candle on the counter, aside from the candle it was pitch black and the faint scent of incense permeated the shop. As Twilight wandered around the shop, intent on looking for certain items, Luna sidled up to her.
“So, what is astronomy?” Luna asked in a quiet voice, not wishing to disturb the silent peace of the shop, but curiosity getting the better of her. Twilight stopped her search to turn the blue mare silhouetted against the darkness.
“You don’t know what astronomy is?” Twilight asked, confused that the source for her hobby wasn’t aware it existed.
“No... Should I?” Luna replied, searching her memory for the word, she was sure she had heard it mentioned before but had no idea what it was.

Twilight shook her head and sat down in front of the mare before beginning her explanation.
“Basically, astronomy is the study of the night sky.” Twilight said Luna looked confused.
“Ponies study my sky? For what reason?” Luna replied, sitting herself in front of Twilight.
“Because ponies hope to find reason behind the celestial bodies.” Twilight explained.
“I see, do you mean reasons like the ones I actually have for them?” Luna asked.
“No, the reasons that we astronomers search for are more personal to us than to you, we look for relaxation and knowledge, mapping paths of stars or searching the depths of the sky for some unknown nebula for example. Astronomy is not only relaxing to do, it is an interesting subject that I have been following for some years now.” Twilight told Luna who nodded slowly at her newfound knowledge.
“So... people look at my stars to relax?” Luna asked eventually as she processed what she had found out.
“Yes.” Twilight nodded, Luna chewed her tongue as she mulled this over.
“I am... happy, that some ponies appreciate my night and I would like it if you would teach me about astronomy, it would be nice to view the night from a different perspective.” Luna said, standing up, Twilight rose with her and nodded once more.
“Sure! That would be great, morning lessons on magic and nightly lessons on astronomy.” Twilight replied, and so it was set, Twilight would learn magic and magical theory from Luna in the day and at night, when the moon has risen, Twilight will teach Luna astronomy, Twilight thought it was quite odd to be teaching the Princess of the Night about the night but she didn’t complain, she loved sharing her passions, though her other friends didn’t really take an interest.

Twilight and Luna searched around the shop for a further ten minutes before finding the items needed to keep Twilight’s astronomy equipment in check. They left the coins on the counter and left the store, Twilight’s saddlebags now full, the walk back to the library riddled with giggles as the two mares shared stories from their past.
“...but it was actually the potato!” Luna finished and they burst into a new round of laughter, just as they arrived at the wooden door to their house, opening it with her hoof the two walked in to find Spike on the sofa, looking like he had been sitting there all day. Twilight thought back to the market and as Luna carried the saddlebags into Twilight’s room, Twilight walked over to her assistant.
“Oh hey Twilight.” Spike said as if he had just noticed her there.
“Hi Spike, how was your day looking after animals with Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, Spike shrugged.
“It was okay I guess, the animals were pretty tame.” Spike said, Twilight nodded.
“Okay then, see you round.” Twilight said, walking to her bedroom and shutting the door behind her. Luna was sitting on the floor, the astronomy items Twilight had bought strewn in front of her, she picked up each one individually, as if trying to determine their use just by the look and feel of it.
“I think there’s something Spike’s not telling me.” Twilight said, Luna looked up from the lens polish she was examining.
“What makes you say that?” Luna asked.
“He was supposed to be accounting for Applejack.” Twilight said, Luna nodded, apparently having heard the short conversation through Twilight’s open door, which was now shut behind her.
“Well, he’s growing up and everyone deserves a little privacy, I’m not saying you should completely ignore it but you should keep an eye open.” Luna replied after a pause, collecting the three items and standing up, Twilight nodded, knowing what she said was logical.

“I don’t suppose we could start our astronomy lesson? I’m eager to view the sky from your perspective, I’m so used to seeing my own reasons behind every star.” Luna asked.
“Sure, it’s just starting to get dark so while we wait I’ll introduce you to the equipment I use.” Twilight replied, turning around and heading up to her telescope.
“You know, it feels so weird to see the moon rise without me controlling it.” Luna said as they walked, Twilight nodded in reply. Once they reached the telescope Twilight walked her through the various tools; telescope, astrolabe and a small portable sextant. By the time everything was explained to Luna, the moon had risen in full and Luna was itching to get a look through the telescope. Twilight sat her down in front of it, and gave her a coordinate in the sky that would show her Venus, in its transit in front of Jupiter. Luna gasped at each discovery, never before seeing her own creations in this way, recording events in the blank business ledger. As she panned around the sky, Twilight talked her through various astronomic terms and what sorts of things she could find in the sky tonight. When their lesson finished, it was just pushing the early hours of the morning, Twilight let out a massive yawn that they both ignored.
“This is astonishing, I never knew any of this before, you have books on the subject, I presume?” Luna asked. Twilight grinned, she had a whole section devoted to it.
“Loads.” She replied, leading her to the library proper and showing her the book case stocked on books and tomes on astronomy, Luna took no time picking out a book and sitting down on the sofa to read it. ‘Might as well read up on magic while I’m at it, see if I can find anything more on that elemental magic.’ Twilight thought, setting off in search, a minute later she found what she was looking for.

It was an old book, dust caked on in a thick layer, dusting it off she found it was entitled ‘On the History of Magic’ there was no author’s name written on the front or anywhere that Twilight could see, so she had no idea from what age it was from or whether it was trustworthy, she decided to give it a try though. She sat herself beside Luna and began reading, the two mares sitting in silence. As it grew colder Twilight magicked a blanket around their bodies, leaving their forelegs out so as to hold their books. The night wore on, sky gradually tinting the red of sunrise and the two mares slept, heads resting on each other, wrapped in a blanket. The books lay on the floor, dropped after sleep claimed them.

Chapter 9: Elemental

Twilight awoke and took in her surroundings, she saw the bookcases and realised she had once more fallen asleep on her sofa, it wasn’t her first time and likely wasn’t her last. The thing that was different about this time was the blue mare resting on her shoulder, mane tickling her neck. Twilight smiled at the sleeping princess and stifled a sneeze that Luna’s mane had caused as it snaked up to Twilight’s face. Twilight pulled a hoof out from under the blanket, and wiped Luna’s light blue mane out of her eyes to look out the window. Judging by the light levels Twilight guessed that it almost mid-morning, her regular waking time after sleeping late. She gently eased herself out from under Luna’s head, laying her down gently so as not to wake her. Repositioning the blanket to cover Luna’s body in full, Twilight walked to the kitchen to prepare something to eat. Spike was nowhere to be found, after searching around the library she decided that he must have gone out for some reason. She was about to do a spell that would show her where he was when she remembered Luna’s words from the previous day, about how she shouldn’t pry into Spike’s personal life too much, he was growing up, and needed his space and privacy.

Twilight gave a sigh and went back to the kitchen, returning to her previous task. She fried two eggs in a pan, placing them onto two plates and bringing them out into the main living area. The smell of Twilight's cooking woke Luna, she initially struggled, unsure of her whereabouts but soon realised that she was in Twilight’s library and calmed down, removing the blanket from around her body she saw the cause of the smell in front of her on the table. Twilight was sitting opposite her on a chair and was already digging into her egg. Luna rubbed her eyes.
“Good morning Twilight.” Luna mumbled, still half asleep.
“’Morning.” Twilight replied, ‘for the Princess of the Night she certainly falls asleep early.’ Twilight thought to herself, finishing up her eggs. Luna stretched and began to eat her food, Twilight cleared her plate away while she waited. When she walked back into the room Luna was looking at her.
“Say, where’s Spike?” Luna asked, having finished her egg. Twilight gave a shrug and put Luna’s empty plate into the sink in silence. Luna was slightly concerned at her student's/friend's/something more’s silence but put it down to concern for her assistant, she thought that the sooner she started her lesson the better, at least it would distract her.

“So, I was thinking about starting our lesson now, what would you like to learn?” Luna said as Twilight sat down opposite her once more. Twilight perked up, remembering the book she was reading the night before.
“Oh yeah! I was interested in that elemental magic you mentioned, and I was looking for some reference to it yesterday, when we fell asleep reading on the sofa, I found something in one of the books that I think you should have a look at.” Twilight said in a rush, standing up, picking up the book from the floor and sitting herself back down next to Luna, in one fluid movement. Luna shuffled along the sofa slightly to get a better look at the book, and also slightly because she wanted to be closer to Twilight. Twilight opened the book and flipped through pages until she got to a diagram that took up the entire page, it was a black and white pen drawing, it was extremely intricate and they could tell that whoever had drawn it had an excellent eye for detail. It detailed a circle, split into four sections, each with a background of one of the four elements of fire, water, earth and wind. Each circle had a small piece of text, and upon closer inspection Luna saw that the text, whilst still being readable, seemed to be written in some older form of Equestrian. Taking a read she discovered that each text pertained to a location, though she couldn’t work out what the location was.

“Have you worked out what each text pertains to?” Luna asked after re-reading each section.
“No... I kinda I fell asleep.” Twilight replied sheepishly.
“Not a problem, now I know what our lesson will be focussed around.” Luna replied, setting the book down on the table in front of them.
“Can you get some parchment and a quill so we can write down possible locations? I think they’re very important, I’ve never seen this book before though, can I ask where you got it from?” Luna asked.
Twilight replied whilst walking over to her desk and retrieving the materials. “Well, I had found reference to a cave where a sorcerer, from back before the time of Discord, had hidden his unpublished works from the destruction that Discord wrought with his coming in another book. The book was brought in by a pony, who I suppose was a descendent of the sorcerer, and had recently found the book in his basement along with several other old artefacts. I trekked to the cave where I thought it was, and discovered it was blocked off by spell which was actually pretty easy to disable. This book here was in the chamber that was there, I brought it back and attempted to read it, but that was around the time when I was going to the Grand Galloping Gala, and I didn't get any time to read it, or have any incentive to until yesterday. I was just skimming through it and found this diagram, but then I fell asleep.” Twilight replied, setting the quill and parchment down next to the book on the table.

“I see...” Luna said, processing the backstory that she hadn’t expected. When Twilight once more sat beside her she began.
“Ok, I’m not sure how long this will take, I think it would be best if we did one first, and investigated it, before moving onto the others.” Luna said, Twilight agreed. They both looked down at the text in front of them, the one over the fire background. ‘Where water flows over uneven earth, steep will be the path, clouds may block your way in their independent dance across the sky, cave shelters the path of fire where stone shows face.’ They read, and re-read. Twilight had the quill poised above the parchment, ready to write out possible locations.
“Any ideas?” Luna said, from her tone Twilight guessed that she too had some ideas about where it may be but was doing that thing that teachers always do when they want to see what their pupils can come up with on their own.
“A couple...” Twilight said, not sure where to start.
“Ok, talk me through them.” Luna asked, settling comfortably into her teacher role once more.
“Well, it says that the clouds doing an independent dance, so I‘m guessing that it’s in the Everfree Forest, and then it says the way will be steep, so I’m guessing it is going to be on the side of a mountain, and the only mountain where the clouds are lower than the peak is the very mountain I had climbed with my friends to stop the dragon, however I think it is in a different cave, the only thing I can’t work out is ‘where stone shows face’.” Twilight replied.
“My thoughts exactly, I think that particular sentence though may be referring to an actual face, perhaps a carving?” Luna pondered. Twilight nodded.

The two spent the entirety of the morning working out more specific places for the cave to be on a map of the Everfree Forest that Twilight had got from the top shelf of one of the bookcases. They had managed to pinpoint three different locations where the first of the four locations could be.
“Hang on, before we do anything about this I have to ask, are you feeling up to it?” Twilight asked, turning to the mare next to her.
“I appreciate the concern,” Luna replied smiling back at Twilight, “but I think that I am mostly physically healed, it is my magic that I must recuperate, and besides, I have you to help me, don’t I?” Luna replied, smile turning to a sly smirk that Twilight couldn’t help but smile back at, even if she was slightly peeved at Luna’s disregard for her own safety.
“Ok, I trust your judgement. We should probably leave as quick as possible, though it would be nice to prepare some more, the pegasi have a storm on the way, the faster we get into the forest the better. I bet Rarity could help us.” Twilight said, standing up and pulling Luna up too.
“If you say so.” Luna said, she pulled in Twilight for a quick, awkward hug before releasing her with a blush. Twilight didn’t resist and returned the blush.
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist...” Luna said, Twilight grinned at her.
“It’s okay, it was nice.” Twilight replied, they stood in silence for a few moments more, unsure as to what they should do now. Eventually, as the silence wore on, they both unconsciously decided they should get going.

The walk to Rarity’s shop took slightly longer than if Twilight were alone as the two spent the entire walk talking in hushed tones, about what they hoped to find there and what sort of protections there may be. They almost walked straight by the door, distracted as they were in their conversation. It was obvious to Twilight by now, that Luna definitely knew her stuff when it came to magic, able to tell her how to disable every spell she could come up with, as well as telling her a few she had never even heard of. Twilight stopped abruptly, having realised they were at the shop, Luna took a few steps past the door before realising her companion had ceased movement and turned back to face the door.
Twilight rapped sharply on the white wooden door in front of her and almost immediately a voice called out in reply, “Come i~in!” Came the voice from somewhere within the boutique. Twilight opened the door with her hoof and stepped inside, Luna right behind her, Rarity walked out from a back room.
“Ah Twilight and... Moonlight was it? You know you don’t have to knock to come in! I’m always open to customers, not that I only think of you as customers of course!” Rarity said, setting down the fabric she was holding and giving Twilight a quick hug, it was a different hug than the one she had just shared with Luna, Rarity’s hug was just a friendly greeting, Luna’s was something... more.
“Thanks Rarity, we came here for... Wait, how did you know about Moonlight?” Twilight stopped, confused with Rarity’s knowledge, Rarity let out a slight giggle before replying.
“Oh you know gossip travels fast around here, and a new pony is big gossip, especially when she bears a strange resemblance to a certain princess, don’t worry though, your secret is safe with me.” Rarity replied. Twilight’s confused expression was replaced by one of gratitude and mirth.
“Thanks, Rarity.” Twilight replied.

“The reason we came here was about a sort of expedition Luna and I have planned, to help with my tutelage.” Twilight asked. Rarity nodded, knowing immediately what it was that Twilight was asking for.
“So what sort of conditions do you expect darling? Nothing too dangerous, I hope?” Rarity replied.
“Nothing too bad, but we need some stuff, like a tent for one thing.” Twilight asked, slightly guilty at having to ask Rarity so much.
“I did create a sort of outdoors wear a couple of years ago, including a tent, unfortunately most ponies don’t stray far from Ponyville so it wasn’t exactly successful. I’ve kept it just in case though, and you’re welcome to take it, I know I certainly won’t be using them.” Rarity said with a light titter. Twilight smiled at her, glad that she didn’t have to get Rarity to make everything from scratch.
“I’ll just bring them out for you two.” Rarity added, turning and walking back to the room she had just emerged from. Twilight glanced over at Luna and smiled, Luna returned the smile and was about to say something when Rarity walked back in, piles of material held aloft by her magic. She set them down in front of the two mares and then packed them into the saddlebags which she passed to Twilight and Luna.
“Thanks Rarity.” Twilight repeated once more.
“Think nothing of it darling, I’m always willing to help a friend in need.” Rarity replied, Luna thought that she too should express her gratitude.
“I too must thank you, Miss Rarity.” Luna said quietly, not used to speaking to other ponies much. Rarity waved a hoof dismissively.
“I did say I would be honoured to help royalty.” Rarity said with a smile, Luna returned it timidly.

“Ok, well we best be off now, we need to get a few more things before we leave and then we’ll be gone. I don’t suppose you could tell the others where we’ve gone?” Twilight asked.
“Certainly, but it's a bit difficult to tell them where you're going, when I don't know that myself, dear.” Rarity replied with another slight titter. Twilight blushed guiltily.
“Oh yeah, we’re going to the Everfree Forest, we may be a few days.” Twilight told her.
“I see, well take care you two, I couldn’t bear to see anything bad happen to you. And remember, your secret is safe with me, but the truth can’t be hidden for long.” Rarity said, walking back to a blueprint she had on the desk.
“Bye.” Twilight said, Luna nodded in farewell and the two left, Twilight thinking about Rarity seemed to be talking about more than Luna being a secret princess. Also, Rarity is exceptional at hiding her feelings when she needs to, but as a long time friend Twilight could tell that Rarity seemed nervous, she wondered whether it was concern for her or for Luna's condition, or both.
“Just the food and drink to pack, and we can get going.” Luna said as they walked back to Twilight’s tree house, interrupting her train of thought.
“Yeah...” Twilight said distractedly, thinking about what her friends reactions would be to the two of them.

Chapter 10: Camping

Twilight opened the door with her hoof, nowadays she was averse to using her magic for more mundane uses and relied mostly on her hooves. She put this down to the unconscious feeling that she needed to conserve her magic to help Luna. The two walked into the library and Luna immediately headed for the kitchen to pack some food and drink into her saddlebags, Twilight walked over to Spike, who was sitting down on the sofa. His face had a slight red tinge to it and the book he was holding was upside down, Twilight noticed all of this but decided to let Spike have his secrets.
“Hey Spike.” Twilight said. Spike set the book down and turned to her as if he had just noticed her there.
“Oh hey Twilight, I thought you and Luna had gone out.” Spike replied, his reddish complexion lessened slightly, since Twilight hadn’t asked him about anything yet.
“We did, we’re gonna go out again though, on a small expedition, so we may be gone a few days and had to pack some provisions.” Twilight replied.
“I see.” Spike replied, obviously willing them to leave again.
“So... we sort of need you to house-sit again for us.” Twilight said, reluctant to have Spike look after her house, he wasn’t exactly the cleanest of creatures, but since he did a good job before she was willing to ask him once more.
“Sure.” Spike readily agreed.
“Okay, thanks again Spike!” Twilight said walking to join Luna in the kitchen, wondering what it was that Spike was doing before they arrived.
“No problem.” Spike called nonchalantly, the relief clear on his face as he picked his book book back up, the right way up this time.

With Twilight’s help, Luna quickly packed in the necessary sustenance for their journey and closed their saddlebags back up.
“Got everything?” Twilight asked.
“I will check once more.” Luna said, she seemed to have the same need to triple check things as Twilight did. After the recheck, Luna was satisfied they had everything needed, and they departed from the kitchen and headed towards the front door of the tree library.
“Thanks again.” Twilight said, looking over at Spike.
“Thank you, Spike.” Luna said a moment later, Spike waved his hand dismissively. Twilight noticed how whenever Luna spoke to her, she had no problem speaking in the modern tones and colloquial terms yet whenever she spoke with others she suddenly becomes more formal.
“Really, it’s no problem, I’ll look after the house.” Spike replied, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts, and the two mares left together, saddlebags full and ready. As soon as the secret couple were gone, Spike stood up, letting his book fall on the floor, he stood in silence until he was sure they weren’t coming back. Spike visibly relaxed and called out.
“Okay, it’s safe to come out now, they’re gone!” He called to the library, a small yellow filly with pink hair and a bow clambered out from her hiding place, behind one of the large oak bookcases around the library.

“Phew, that was darn close, glad ya heard ‘em coming when you did, or that would have been mighty awkward.” Applebloom said, stretching her limbs out from having been cramped away behind a bookcase.
“Yeah, unlucky we decided to come here just as they did.” Spike said.
“Or lucky, if they found you weren’t here, they would’ve become suspicious to say the least.” Applebloom replied, stepping closer to Spike.
“I guess so.” Spike admitted.
“Now come on, get what we came here for and we can get going too.” Applebloom said, Spike nodded, and collected a small shoulder bag from beside his bed. The then two left the library, putting up a notice on the door stating the library was temporarily closed. Unbeknownst to either of them, their departure was seen by Luna, who was standing beside Twilight. A stallion had run past, accidentally knocking Twilight’s bag off and spilling its contents everywhere. The stallion had apologised, but had explained how he was a doctor, and he really needed to get going. Twilight had nodded, knowing the doctor’s job was too important for Twilight to get angry over him rushing past. Twilight had refused Luna’s offer for help and was bent down, packing the items back into her saddlebag. So Luna had been looking around whilst Twilight cleared up.

‘I guess that explains what Spike was doing in secret.’ Luna thought to herself, ‘How cute; I can’t tell Twilight though, Spike should tell her in his own time.’ Luna continued in her head, the thought of the young pair made her think of her own secret relationship with the very mare she was standing beside. There was no doubting that she wanted to be with her, but to keep it a secret seemed like a bad idea to her, as it meant that when others found out, and they would find out, they wouldn’t have found out in a way where Twilight and herself could explain everything to them, and they would likely jump to the worst conclusions. Luna’s thoughts were interrupted, however, by Twilight standing up suddenly, saddlebags once more packed and ready, the checks complete.
“Ok, let’s get going.” Twilight said, Luna nodded in reply and they set a route for the Everfree forest.

“So according to our map, it should take us a minimum of two days to reach the first possible location, so we’ll need to find a place to set up camp at some point.” Twilight said about an hour into the Everfree forest, both of them were on high alert, especially Twilight, who had had many bad experiences in the forest. So far, however, their walk had been mostly uneventful, they had walked in silence mostly, apart from the occasional question whether the other was okay, and every time the reply had been the same, ‘Yeah’ or, ‘Yep’ or just a grunt in confirmation.
“Okay, by my reckoning it should be somewhere in an relatively open area, then there’s less incentive for the forest dwelling creatures to leave their territory, and we have more escape routes.” Luna replied, Twilight nodded at her logical answer. She had let Luna set the pace, thinking that she would probably go slower than her due to her condition, and she was sorely mistaken. Luna was deceptively quick and set a fast pace that Twilight had trouble keeping up with, even with her smaller strides she seemed to cover more distance with less effort, ‘It must come from walking around for over 1000 years, you pick up a few tricks.’ Twilight thought to herself as they forged on.

Luna, on the other hand, was still pondering whether or not she should tell Twilight about Spike and that young filly, sure it may put Twilight’s mind to rest, but then it could compromise Spike, and she didn’t want to ruin someone’s relationship when her own was still so fragile. However, if she didn’t tell Twilight, then she may find out in a most awkward way that could just make things worse. Luna was surprised by how much of Spike’s relationship she could apply to her own with Twilight. She contented with telling herself that she would inform Spike that she knew of his relationship, and that he should tell Twilight before she found out in a less favourable way. Luna mulled that decision over as they continued walking, ‘Does this mean that me and Twilight should come out with the truth as soon as possible?' She searched for an answer for an indeterminable amount of time, the walk becoming monotonous, one hoof after another, she was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice the forest fall dark, previously the foliage meant the forest was in a state of perpetual twilight, but it was well and truly dark now. Twilight stopped and put a hoof on Luna’s back to tell her to cease, Luna complied without thought and turned back to Twilight.
“I think we should rest for a while, it’s too dangerous to travel in the forest at night, we were lucky to not meet anything in the daytime.” Twilight said, snapping Luna out of her reverie. Luna looked around to take in their surroundings, they were in a small clearing, the moon not yet visible above them in the gap in foliage.

The floor was littered with pine needles that would make the perfect layer, in which to set their tent down, it would help keep their important heat in during the night, and the dead leaves meant they would be able to hear any approaching creatures.
“Okay, let’s set up camp here, then.” Luna said, setting her saddlebags down on the floor. Twilight followed suit and pulled Rarity’s tent from on the of the bags, it seemed easy enough to set up and with Luna's help, it was quickly compiled into a recognisable shape. Luna pulled out a portable cooker and set it down, before rising to her hooves.
“These pine needles will work well as kindling, but we need some bigger sticks, and rocks. After the two ponies had brought together the necessary materials for a campfire and it was lit with a quick spark from Twilight, the two mares sat next to each other close to the fire, in the now cool night air. Twilight set a pot of water over the fire, and brought it to the boil, before adding some rice. Luna sidled closer to Twilight for warmth.
“Twilight, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I think that once we get back from this expedition, we should start telling ponies about us, if they find out on their own, I don’t think they would be happy about us hiding a secret from them, especially one as big as this.” Luna said slowly, trying to make sure that Twilight knew that it was entirely up to her. Twilight was silent for a moment, taking the time to spoon the rice into two bowl and pass one to Luna. Twilight sat back down next to Luna and held her bowl up to her face thoughtfully, the hot steam bringing some feeling back to her cold face.
“Yes, I agree, but who do we tell first? I don’t think I could handle telling a lot of ponies at once, so we’ll need to do it one by one, but who first?” Twilight asked, leaning slightly on Luna.

Luna leant against Twilight in return, supporting the other mare and vice versa.
“Well, I’m pretty sure Rarity suspects something, I’m not sure if she truly knows though, so maybe we should start with her?” Luna replied after a pause where she tried to think of all of Twilight’s friends and which would react the best.
“Yeah, I thought she might suspect something.” Twilight agreed and the two mares settled into silence, eating their rice with wooden spoons, initially they jumped at every sound, but as the night wore on, they became accustomed to the night sounds from the forest, and began to appreciate the tranquillity of the area, the moon was now visible above them and the two smiled at the serenity of the situation. Luna thought about telling the other ponies about the two of them and felt as though a weight had just been removed from her chest, ironic since Twilight and her had now finished their rice and Twilight was resting her head on Luna’s chest as they both lay down on the pine needles staring up into the sky at the expanse of stars stretched out above them. Eventually as it grew colder and Twilight let out a huge yawn, they decided it was time to get some sleep. The campfire was left burning to keep potential predators away and the two retired to the relative warmth of the tent. There was only one sleeping bag, but it was a double, and the two climbed in next to each other, perfectly content with sleeping in such close proximity. It wasn’t long before they were both asleep and dreaming.

It had been a few nights since they had shared their last dream, and Twilight felt a slight rush of excitement as she looked around and saw she was in their shared dream. This night it had taken the form of Ponyville, but something was wrong... It was night-time yet there seemed to be a yellowy glow coming from the distance, as she made her way towards it she remembered the route as the way to get back home, confused she sped up slightly and trotted towards her house, once she saw it she realised what the glow was coming from. Her house, her beautiful tree-house was on fire, the flames licking up from the building and black smoke, almost invisible against the night sky, billowing from every orifice of the tree. The worst part was not the house though, it was the ponies around it, they held lit torches aloft and cheered for the burning building in front of them. Twilight gasped and backed away, fearful for her life even though she knew it was a dream, she bumped into something and span, muffling a scream with a hoof, once she saw that she it was Luna she relaxed slightly and hugged her, scared and confused.
“Luna! What’s going on? They’re burning my house down!” Twilight questioned quietly, not wanting to draw attention to the two of them.
“As sure as light has dark and day has night, so dreams must have nightmares.” Luna replied calmly, hugging Twilight back and relaxing her further.

Twilight broke away and turned back to their house.
“What does it mean?” Twilight asked, face illuminated from the flames and the single tear at the edge of one eye reflecting the burning tree. Luna immediately knew she was referring to the nightmare.
“Well, nightmares are just your fears personified, perhaps if we found out what it was they were shouting, we would be able to piece together what this is all about.” Luna replied, obviously no stranger to nightmares.
“Don’t you have any ideas? This is your nightmare.” Twilight asked, afraid to get closer to the mob.
“I’m afraid this is your nightmare, I just came here after feeling your fear, you must face it yourself, but don’t worry, I’ll be here to support you.” Luna replied, Twilight nodded and gave a small sigh, steeling herself before creeping closer to the crowd to pick up on what they were shouting. As she got close enough to make out individual voices she heard cries of ‘Mare lover!’ and ‘Princess!’ interspersed with general grunts of anger, Twilight quickly retreated, and reported what she had heard back to Luna.

“So what do you think this means?” Luna asked Twilight even though she knew the answer.
“I think... I think it’s about me and you, that this is my fear that people will hate me, hate us, once they find out about our relationship.” Twilight replied, looking deep into Luna’s eyes for confirmation.
“Very good, now that we know the fear it will be much easier to deal with, but that is a mission for another day, wake up Twilight, it will be dawn soon.” Luna replied fading out without another word. Twilight had no idea how she knew that, but trusted her implicitly. Pulling herself from the dream realm, she found herself back in the real world, face pressed into Luna’s mane and the faint smell of lavender permeating her nostrils. Luna awoke simultaneously, and rolled around, finding herself face to face with Twilight.
“Good morning.” Luna said with a smile, Twilight returned the favour. Their lips met quickly, neither deciding it consciously. This second time it was a lot more passionate, all of their fears and emotions left them as they kissed, no thoughts entering their minds, but those of the mare in front of them. They broke apart simultaneously and smiled at the other.

Chapter 11: Findings

They both unconsciously decided they were going to stay in the sleeping bag for a while, enjoying the warmth of each other a little longer, before having to face the harsh, cold world outside of their tent. Twilight thought back to the nightmare she had the night before, remembering the crazed angry look in the villagers eyes, in her friends' eyes, as they burned her house to the ground. She shuddered slightly, remembering the fear she had felt, and Luna pulled her in tight.
“It’s ok Twilight, it was just a nightmare.” Luna said, instantly realising the cause of the other mare’s discomfort.
“But it felt so real...” Twilight replied, knowing her fears were irrational, but there was nothing she could think to do to stop them.
“Everything seems real in a dream, for most the only time you realise it’s a dream is when you wake up.” Luna replied, ever calm and knowledgeable, calming down Twilight with her words. “And besides, you know the people of Ponyville, they wouldn’t hate you for what you lo- like.” Luna continued.
“Yeah...” Twilight replied, shaking her head to clear unwanted thoughts. Fears assuaged for now, Twilight gave a sigh and wriggled out of the sleeping bag, Luna quickly following suit. They stretched their limbs out, before opening the door to their tent and shielding their eyes from the glare.

The campfire they had made the night before was just glowing embers now, a faint orange glow against the harsh white of the morning sun. Twilight lightly kicked the last few embers out, and she and Luna began to pack up their campsite. After the necessary checks have been performed and the ash had been dispersed, Luna deemed the area close enough from what it was like when they arrived to continue on. Twilight pulled the map out of her saddlebag with her magic, the familiar feel of power returning to her.
“I thought that we should perform a locational spell, to see whether we were on track.” Twilight explained, focussing on the necessary spell in her mind.
“Good idea.” Luna replied and she too focussed on the spell in her mind, their collective magic pooled together and pouring into the map in front of them. A bright violet arrow, the exact colour of their magic, appeared at a point on the map, about halfway between Ponyville and their first location. However, the way forward was mostly uphill, and thus would probably take longer than their first day of travelling. Twilight and Luna simultaneously stopped their combined spell and the arrow faded away. Luna seemed exhausted, even from such a small spell as this. Twilight noticed, and her expression changed to one of concern.
“Are you ok?” Twilight asked, Luna nodded.
“Yeah, I’m fine, we should hopefully be able to get there by nightfall if we hurry.” Luna replied, changing the topic. Twilight decided to push her concerns away for now, if Luna was in need of help, she would ask for it.

Twilight put the map away, and they set off in silence without looking back. Luna took an early lead, her hooves able to pick up on the most stable places with ease, Twilight lagged behind slightly, less physically fit and more susceptible to tripping. As the gap between them grew, Twilight had to call out, quietly of course, so as not to attract unwanted attention.
“Luna?” Twilight said to the mare in front of her, slightly obscured by foliage and shadows. Luna stopped and turned to face Twilight, a look of concern adorning her face.
“You okay back there?” Luna replied, equally quietly.
“Yeah, it’s just that I’m not as fit as I used to be, not that I was ever fit.” Twilight replied with a slight laugh, tempered with a small wheeze of exhaustion. Luna smiled, concern leaving her face. It had been about 4 hours of walking by Luna’s reckoning and she unconsciously decided that they deserved a break, it must be about lunch time anyway.
“Okay then,” Luna said, turning around fully, “let’s take a break at the next clearing.” She continued, Twilight nodded, and the two began to walk once more. Luckily for Twilight, it was only about five minutes more before the trees suddenly stopped, leaving about 5 metres between the tree line and the river that cut across the landscape. Twilight welcomed the refreshing flow of water and quickly, without thinking, jumped in. The resulting splash managed to get Luna soaked too, and the two broke out in uncontrollable laughter. The light sound seemed out of place amongst the strangely deadened sounds of the Everfree Forest, but for that moment, the two didn’t care.

The laughter slowed down after a while, Twilight breathing heavily. Surveying the scene, Luna saw that she somehow was more wet than Twilight. She gave a half-sigh-half-laugh and pulled one of the spare blankets that had been packed and offered it to Twilight. Twilight stepped out of the water, and graciously took the makeshift towel from Luna, she was about to ask why she didn’t just use magic, but just before she opened her mouth she remembered the spell they had cast earlier. It wasn’t even that hard a spell, but Luna seemed exhausted by it. Stopping herself from worrying too much, Twilight finished drying, and moved onto Luna, rubbing the blanket over Luna’s body. Just as Twilight began drying her face, Luna tried speaking, the result being an indistinguishable muffled speech.
“What was that?” Twilight asked, moving onto Luna’s mane.
“I said,” Luna replied indignantly, “I can dry myself, you know.” Twilight laughed once more.
“Yeah I know.” Twilight added, not giving any more explanation. Twilight found herself thinking how much easier Luna’s mane must be to take care of, now that it wasn’t that long, dark flowing construct from before.

Luna didn’t seem all that happy that Twilight was drying her, at least not on the surface, but she didn’t complain further, and allowed Twilight to finish her task before putting the blanket back into her saddlebag. Luna sat herself down on the driest bit of ground she could find, Twilight quickly joining her.
“We’ll just take a short break, I hope to reach the first destination by nightfall.” Luna said, pulling out some nuts and an orange to share from the other saddlebag she had carried. Twilight nodded in reply and took her share from the nuts. They ate in silence, it was a comfortable silence though, that of two ponies that find themselves completely at ease in each other's presence. All too soon it was time to get moving again, the orange peel was buried in the ground after they were done with it, and they stood, the area once more the way it was when they found it. Save for the patches of water on the dirt near the river, but there wasn’t much they could do about that. The pair readied themselves for the long walk ahead, saddlebags adjusted for maximum comfort and minimum chafing. They set of in the desired direction, Luna once more taking point.

After walking for some time, Twilight noticed the trees appeared to be more sparse and thinner, foliage letting through odd splotches of light from the sun high above. Luna quickened her pace, eager to get out the forest, and Twilight followed suit. The trek got easier, roots no longer threatening to trip them up at every step. Eventually the trees turned into bushes and the ground started to rise. Luna stepped out into the sun, shielding her eyes with a hoof, whilst they became accustomed to the sudden onslaught of brightness. Twilight trotted up beside her and copied her motions. Luna raised her glance to the structure in front of them, it seemed easy enough to climb, not really getting very steep until near the top, and they wouldn’t need to climb that far anyway. She turned to her student.
“We should be able to get to the first location by nightfall, then we can set up camp. I think we should explore tomorrow though, it’s not safe around here at night, even out in the open.” Luna said, lowering her hoof but still squinting slightly. Twilight nodded in reply, and the two looked back at the peak, reinvigorated and ready. Luna mentally calculated the fastest, safest and easiest route up the mountain to the point marked clearly on their map. After she had completed her mental mapping the way they set off, now walking side-by-side, as opposed to Luna taking point.

The path up the mountain was a cinch compared to the forest walk, the ground was worn smooth by millennia of erosion, yet remained rough enough that they had a firm grip. They made steady progress, pacing themselves now that they knew their destination was close. Eventually, the bushes became odd patches of grass, and the air got thinner. Then, after hours of walking, they reached the cloud barrier. There in the Everfree Forest the clouds floated past them, condensation wetting their fur as they continued their trek. Twilight feared they would get lost or disorientated in the cloud, but Luna stayed steady, leading them both along their path. A temporary reprieve came, when the cloud they were in floated past, allowing the sunlight back in. Luna stopped to reassess the situation, Twilight stopped beside her, and wiped some water from her face.
“Not much further Twilight, and then we can rest.” Luna replied, she seemed to almost be in a trance, seeing something that Twilight could not. Twilight didn’t question her, sticking to her earlier idea that if Luna needed help, she would ask. Twilight nodded in reply, and they began moving again. Luna increased the pace slightly, the air getting colder as the sun got lower in the sky.

Twilight spotted something a little ways along their path and pointed it out to Luna.
“Is that it?” Twilight asked, motioning to the formation they were nearing. It was made out of the mountainside, and seemed to be a natural formation of a rudimentary pony’s face, apparently untouched by anything.
“I believe so...” Luna replied, walking the last few steps up to the rock and examining it closely. “Yes, this is our destination.” She added, turning back to Twilight who nodded in reply.
“We should set up camp then, it’ll be dark soon.” Twilight added, pulling her saddlebags off and stretching her tired limbs. Luna too pulled off her bags and pulled out the tent, which was assembled in minutes by the pair. Twilight didn’t realise how hungry she was, until Luna pulled out some more dried fruit and nuts and lay them out on the floor. Her stomach grumbled and she dug into the food, but still leaving some for Luna. Luna smiled at the mare in front of her and stifled a giggle, knowing how hungry Twilight was. Since she was an almost immortal alicorn, she didn’t really need to eat, but it helped sustain her and was, of course, tasty. She ate the rest of their food with Twilight, and the two cleared their stuff into the tent.

It was now truly dark, the sun long since past the horizon, and the moon lazed high in the sky, Twilight and Luna had spent the last few hours since they had sent up the tent and eaten, enjoying the rest and the spectacular view the mountain offered. In front of them lay the Everfree Forest, endless waves of green stretched out to the horizon, it was breathtaking to see how far they had travelled. It reminded Twilight of the dream she had shared with Luna, where they were high up on the tree, overlooking Ponyville. However, the memory snapped her back to the dream she had the previous night, the nightmare. Twilight shivered unconsciously, and Luna drew her in tight, Twilight could tell that Luna knew what Twilight was worried about without any need for any explanation.
“I guess we should retire.” Luna finally said, standing up and removing her foreleg from around Twilight’s neck. Twilight nodded and stood too, the nightmare still playing at her mind, she wasn’t sure she could face her fears. It wasn’t like any other fear she had to overcome before, this was a lot more personal, and she knew that if she didn’t overcome it, everything would come crashing down around her.
“Don’t worry, I’ll be there for you.” Luna said as they clambered into the sleeping bag, and closed their eyes, readying themselves for the nightmare ahead.

Ponyville faded in from black, the colours taking form around Twilight into their familiar shapes. It seemed to be exactly the time that Twilight and Luna had left the nightmare the previous night. Twilight looked around her and reasserted herself with her position, she found herself behind some bushes, behind the crowd that was still shouting at the flames burning the library down. Luna faded in beside her, calm and ready, which was more than could be said for Twilight. If there was a problem she could usually have overcome it with some study and practice, but when the problem was in your own mind, and you’re so far from the library, how can you overcome it?
“Calm yourself Twilight,” Luna said, noticing the other mare’s intense discomfort, “now that we know the problem, it is a fairly simple process to stop the nightmares.” Luna continued quietly, trying not to draw attention from the mob. Twilight sat down and listened intently, ready to do what it takes to overcome the nightmares.
“The good thing about this nightmare is the vividness of it, the really bad nightmares are the ones where it seems like you’re viewing it, but can’t do anything about it, those are the hardest to get over. However, since you can control this one, it is actually quite easy to stop it. You simply have to get that idea, the one of the villagers hating you for what you are, and quench it. Stand up to the crowd, show them that you’re not afraid, and they will fall. This is your mind after all, you control this land, not your fears. You just need to take it back from its clutches.” Luna explained in quiet, calm tones that made perfect sense to Twilight, who stood once more. Twilight took a deep breath to clear her nerves.
“I’m ready.” Twilight said.

She marched out to the crowd, head held high, tremble barely noticeable. Twilight pushed through the crowd, and stood in front of her burning house, before turning to them. She hesitated as the glares hit her head on, her best friends hatred burning into her, but she dispelled it, there was no turning back now.
“Friends, this is not what you’re like, you would never hate me for what I love.” Twilight said to the now quiet crowd. Silence followed her words, the only noise was the crackling of the flames behind Twilight, silhouetting her against the fire. It seemed like she was winning, the flaming torches and various other weapons began to be lowered, ponies faces turned to that of guilt. Just as the nightmare Applejack was about to speak up, something happened. Twilight felt it as a familiar wave of energy that coursed through the entire landscape and settled on the crowd. As one, the ponies faces turned back to angry, weapons raised and they began to advance on Twilight. She was frozen in place, this wasn’t how things were meant to be go, they were supposed to be backing off! Twilight was still paralysed, jaw slightly open, but no sound came out. Just as the first of the ponies, Mayor Mare, reached Twilight and raised the wooden plank she held aloft with a hoof, Luna tackled Twilight. The two rolled away from the flames and the crowd.
“Wake up! Now!” Luna shouted as she picked up Twilight and shook her, Twilight obliged, slipping from the dream realm just as another wave of energy passed through the land.
The two woke up simultaneously, breathing heavily and chests heaving. They lay in silence, regaining their breath, until both Twilight and Luna both recognized the energy and whispered its name.
“Nightmare Moon.” They uttered together.

Chapter 12: Dark Side of the Moon

They continued to lay there, as Twilight got her breath back, and for once Luna had no logical, calm words to comfort her. It was all she could do just to stop herself from shuddering at the memories of her imprisonment within her own mind, brought about by the reappearance of the Nightmare resurfaced. Luna decided she needed something to distract her from her thoughts, and wriggled out of the sleeping bag. Twilight looked concernedly at Luna as she left the tent. She had always been the calm voice to Twilight, able to console her even through her own fears. After a minute or so, Twilight decided that it would be best to leave Luna to her thoughts, and give her some time to think things through before she would try and help. Twilight too wriggled out of the sleeping bag, and left the tent. Luna was sitting on the ground, a breakfast of sorts laid out. There were two cupcakes and a leather flask of water set down, Luna nodded in greeting to Twilight before digging into her cupcake. Twilight nodded in reply and joined her.

Breakfast was a silent affair, as was putting away the tent with both of them absorbed in their thoughts. It wasn’t until everything was cleared away, and their saddlebags went through the various checks, that Luna finally broke the silence that had fallen.
“Listen,” Luna began, Twilight raised her head to look at her, “I know we both have a lot to think about, but here we are at the first location, so we can’t be worrying about the past. We need to explore.” Twilight got the impression that when Luna said ‘past’, she wasn’t referring to last night.
“Yeah, you’re right, let’s investigate this place.” Twilight said, getting more animated with each word, the prospect of finding out about magic nopony had seen for millennia excited her. Luna gave a grin at her student’s enthusiasm. They stood together, standing by the stone face on the side of the mountain.
“I guess first we need to find the cave.” Luna said.
“Yeah.” Twilight replied.

The book wasn’t very specific about how close the cave was to the stone face, but the pair were hoping that it was pretty close by; they wanted to be in and out of the cave in time to get moving away from the location. They decided to move through the bushes first, the cave would be most likely hidden from view. Twilight grabbed a stick from nearby with her hoof, checking to see whether it was thick and sturdy enough to help. Satisfied, Twilight and Luna carried on away from the face, occasionally knocking back the stray branch threatening to block their path or trip them up. Eventually, Twilight made a swing at a thick branch in front of them, only for their stick to carry on through the bushes, instead of being knocked back by the mountain. Twilight and Luna shared a quick glance, before moving forwards with renewed vigour. They cleared out the majority of bush in the way, revealing a black hole in the mountain. A smile broke out on Twilight’s face, this whole journey seemed sort of rushed, and she had no idea what her friends would think, but it would all be worth it to discover some ancient magic that was lost for years.

Luna noticed the emotions on Twilight’s face, and she too let out a small smile, for the enthusiasm Twilight had. Unfortunately, she knew that this could all be a false lead.
“Remember Twilight, this might not even be the right place, let’s not get our hopes up.” Luna said as they entered. Twilight nodded, seeing the truth in her words, but deep down she could feel that this was the right place, there was something in the air that told her. Twilight’s horn sparked, getting back into the feel of magic after having relied solely on her hooves for a few days. But as sure as the sky was blue, Twilight’s horn lit up, its glow illuminating the cave in front of them. They could see that this was a simple enough cave, just a central area with no other tunnels leading off from it. The ceiling was about twice Twilight's height, and small stalactites hung down, occasionally dripping on the floor. Twilight tentatively took a step forward, not sure what to expect. There was a shallow pool of water on the floor, that had presumably leaked in through the ceiling, over the thousands of years this cave had existed. Luna followed Twilight into the cave, both stepping into the water together.

No sooner had they stepped in, when a pulse of magic spread out from the water beneath them. Surprised, the pair jumped out of the water, just as the water set alight, burning down until there was just the stone floor beneath. There was no heat from the flames though, Twilight and Luna feeling no change in temperature, despite their close proximity to the fire. They stood, stunned, once the fire had burnt out. It was only when Twilight realised that her magical light had gone out, that she began to slowly back away from the darkness of the cave, to the relative safety of the outside world. But the cave opening had disappeared, they were trapped in the complete darkness. No matter how much Twilight tried, she could not relight her magic, every time her horn failed to respond. Luna too tried to ignite her magic and was equally unsuccessful. The pair backed up against the stone wall, neither giving anything an opportunity to sneak up behind them, not that they could see something, even if it was standing right in front of them.
“You okay?” Luna’s voice called out from beside Twilight.
“I think so, you?” Twilight replied.
Luna nodded before realising that there was no way that Twilight could see it, “Yeah, I’m fine.” Luna said.

There was silence in the cave whilst Twilight tried to build her magic for one huge burst, but Luna broke the silence.
“You know, I’m actually kind of afraid of the dark...” Luna whispered guiltily, sidling up closer to Twilight for comfort. Twilight stopped her concentration, and turned towards the source of the voice, giving out a small laugh.
“But, you’re the Princess of the Night.” Twilight replied, pointing out the obvious.
“Yes, but it is never truly dark at night, there is always some glow from the moon or stars, or from ponies’ houses, I’m afr-” Luna cut off, noticing a small glow from the opposite end of the cave, as it slowly intensified, Luna could see that Twilight too, was enthralled by the light. Eventually it got to bright to stare directly at it, like a magnesium flare, the two ponies shielded their eyes with a foreleg. As suddenly as the light appeared, it vanished. However, they were no longer in complete darkness, there was light filtering in from behind them. Luna spun around and discovered the entrance to the cave was back. At the same time, Twilight moved towards the point where the glow had materialised. Illuminated by the faint light coming in from the entrance, Twilight could see there was a small metal object. It was in the shape of a quarter circle, but the edges were ragged, as if it was blown apart, the round edge though, was almost too smooth to have been made by hooves. Twilight hesitantly picked it up, and inspected it, noticing the engraving of a flame upon both sides.

Twilight turned around, object still held aloft with a hoof, and she put it into her saddlebag in an outside pocket. She walked back over to Luna, who was sitting at the entrance, looking quizzically at Twilight as she approached.
“What did you find?” Luna asked, hope reflected in her tone. Twilight pulled the object back out and passed it over to Luna silently, letting her examine it for herself. Luna took it and stepped out of the cave, back into the light to get a better look.
“I see...” Luna said, “I think we may be onto something.” She passed it back to Twilight, who then put it into her saddlebag. Luna turned and moved back out of the bushes, back to their campsite. Once Twilight had joined her, she broke out into a wide grin.
“I think we’ve found it, the first one mentioned in the book,” Luna said, Twilight too grinned, euphoria building over their accomplishment, “And look, the sun hasn’t moved at all, time must have stopped whilst we were in the cave, that’s some intense magic in there. If we hurry now, and walk through the night, we should be able to get back to Ponyville in the early hours of the morning.” Luna gestured and the sky, and indeed the sun was in the same position it was when they had entered the cave. Twilight nodded excitedly.
“Let’s go!” Twilight exclaimed, and the two set off with renewed excitement, their sense of achievement at finding the lost magic artefact fuelling their walk.

Luna powered ahead, back through the forest, taking the route they had walked just yesterday. Twilight managed to keep up with Luna the entire time, even though her mind was full of thoughts on the object in her saddlebag. With that one object, it had not only proved that the elemental magic did exist, but also made the entire trek worthwhile. The walk back took a lot less time than their initial one out to the cave, and Luna’s predictions were correct. Just as the moon reached its pinnacle in the sky, the Everfree Forest suddenly stopped, leaving them with the view of Ponyville in front of them. A small grin appeared on both mares' faces as they moved silently through town, back to Twilight’s library. Twilight’s good mood dimmed slightly as she remembered the nightmares she had faced, and the one she would almost certainly have tonight. And with this memory came a remembrance of Nightmare Moon herself.

Eventually the two arrived at their destination, the tree housing their library. Twilight opened the door and let Luna into the threshold first, before walking in herself. They moved through the darkness to their room before turning on a small lamp beside Twilight’s bed. Twilight pulled out the small metal object almost reverently, and placed it down on the table between their two beds.
“It’s late, let’s get some rest and examine this tomorrow. You did well.” Luna said, sitting down on Twilight’s bed.
“Thanks, you too.” Twilight replied absently, a small look of concern on her face. Luna read Twilight’s face and emotions.
“Listen, I know you’re scared about our nightmares, I am too, I never expected Nightmare Moon to come back. But I’ll be there beside you, and we’ll be able to defeat her again, don’t you worry.” Luna said, rubbing a foreleg on Twilight’s shoulder comfortingly.
“Yeah... I guess.” Twilight replied, slowly nodding her head. Luna nodded back, and slowly rose to her hooves. Just as she began to walk back towards her own bed, Twilight put a hoof on her side.
“Wait... Do you think you could sleep here, next to me, tonight?” Twilight asked, loath to admit her fear, but knowing that this would help. Luna gave a small smile before turning around fully to face Twilight.
“Of course.” Luna replied and the two clambered into Twilight’s bed. As the night drew on, both mares fell into sleep.

Twilight mentally prepared herself, ready for the view of her friends burning down her house, but it never came. Instead, she found herself in a grand hall, like none she had ever seen before. It wasn’t lavishly decorated in bright royal colours with candles burning from hundreds of chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Instead, dark grey and navy blue banners hung down from the gothic style stone walls, complete with stained glass. The entire hall was illuminated by some unseen source of light that muted all colours. And there, at the front of the hall, where Celestia and Luna would sit in their thrones, was an onyx throne, twisted into violent shapes, and upon that throne sat Nightmare Moon. She sat regally, darkness seeming to billow out from behind her as she stared out across the hall, and straight at Twilight. Luna slowly faded in behind Twilight, she took in her surroundings and Nightmare Moon at the front of the hall.
“This is worse than I thought...” Luna whispered, struggling not to shudder at the sight of her nemesis. Nightmare Moon slowly and gracefully got down from her throne and walked towards them with deliberate steps.
“Welcome to your Nightmare.” She said as she neared them.
“What do you want Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asked defiantly, taking a step forward, “Even if you do beat us, which you won’t, there’s no way you can achieve eternal night, the other elements of harmony will be there to stop you.” She continued, slightly shielding Luna with her body.

Nightmare Moon reached them and stopped to guffaw, “Eternal night? That’s what you think this is about? No. This isn’t about that any more, this is about revenge.” Her eyes seared with suppressed rage, “I wish for you to suffer as I have.” She paused and her eyes narrowed, “If I can’t have the night, I’ll make you fear it instead.” Nightmare Moon continued in a quiet voice that packed more venom than all of her rage and anger combined. The castle around them vanished, leaving them in darkness, the only thing visible was Nightmare Moon herself, standing haughtily above them. Then, she too faded from view, her laugh ringing out from all directions and lasting far longer than it should have. The pair moved closer to be side by side. Luna unfurled her right wing and wrapped it around Twilight, more a comfort for herself than for Twilight’s benefit. Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated, but it was like the cave, her magic would not flow. She pushed harder and was only rewarded with a pain in her horn.
“My magic isn’t working...” Twilight breathed, a pause later Luna replied.
“Nor mine.”
“What should we do?” Twilight asked, fear tingeing the edge of her voice.
“I don’t know...” Luna replied, fear rather more evident than Twilight’s. The pair fell into silence whilst Twilight tried to think of a solution and Luna tried to control her breathing.
“We need to wake up.” Twilight eventually said, she could feel the motion of Luna nodding her head beside her. However, no sooner had she uttered those words did a glow appear behind them.

Luna withdrew her wing from around Twilight in order to spin around, Twilight copying her motions. Up above them was the moon, much larger and darker than normal, but still instantly recognizable as the moon. The moon sat in the blackness unmoving, the light illuminating the land around them. This light did not bring comfort though, instead it felt like an omen of ill things to come. Luna suppressed a shudder once more.

Chapter 13: Telling

Twilight stood, frozen, as she mentally devised a plan to wake them up, before any harm could befall them. Luna too was trying to come up with a solution, but she was constantly looking around, wary of their environment. The ground was smooth cobblestone stretched out indefinitely and with no landmarks. The only source of illumination was the Moon, which cast an eerie glow over the land that managed to mute all colour, Luna’s normally pale blue mane looked almost gray. In her mind, Twilight went through everything that would normally wake somepony up from a dream, however there was nowhere to jump off in order to wake up from falling, or any source of water to make them wake up that way.
“I've got nothing.” Twilight sighed eventually, moving out of her frozen state, and casting her eye over the area. Luna nodded slowly, still lost in her thoughts.
“Most methods of waking somepony up include something in the corporeal world, but we don’t have anything.” Luna eventually said, “However, there is something a narcoleptic mare once recounted to me many years ago. She had a great imagination, and often suffered from lucid dreams, coupled with her narcolepsy she had to work something out to wake herself up.” Luna explained, eyes glazing over as she remembered the memory.

“Once she found it out, she realised it was actually surprisingly simple, it revolves around tricking your brain into exiting the dream. It’s a two stage process, the first part being to keep telling yourself over and over again that you are in a dream. A lot of the time, this step alone would be enough to wake you, but I doubt that will be the case here. The next step is deceptively simple, you must blink.” Luna explained.
“What?” Twilight asked, not anticipating that instruction.
“Yes, have you ever noticed that you never blink in a dream?” Luna asked, Twilight shook her head, “Well you normally don’t since you don’t need to in a dream. However, if you have enough control over yourself in the dream, you will find that when you blink, you open your eyes in the real world, thus waking yourself up.” Luna finished, Twilight nodded, realising that she hadn’t blinked at all in the dream.
“Unfortunately, since you never blink in a dream, it requires a certain amount of control over yourself to overcome your natural state of not blinking.” Luna told her.
“I see.” Twilight said, as she began thinking to herself how she was in a dream, she could feel the grip the dream held on her, weaken slightly. And then it came to the blink, no matter how hard she tried, her eyes would not close, even though she was pushing as hard as she could she couldn’t get herself to blink.

“You may wish to hurry Twilight.” Luna said quietly, pointing skywards, Twilight stopped trying to blink momentarily, to take a look at the sky. In the time they were standing there the moon had doubled in size, and it was rapidly growing.
“It’s going to hit us isn’t it.” Twilight stated, not really posing it as a question, Luna nodded, “What’ll happen when it does?”
“Well, suffice to say there is a reason your body forces you to wake up when you dream you’re about to die, and I doubt this dream will let us do that.” Luna said, waiting for Twilight to blink out of the dream. Twilight turned her thoughts back to the dream and blinking, but it was fruitless.
“Come on, you can do it!” Luna encouraged her student, Luna herself could simply leave the dream with a blink, but she wouldn’t leave Twilight behind. Luna took a glance and the sky and paled, the Moon was nearing, it almost filled the entire sky now. “Quick!” Luna exclaimed.
The Moon moved in, an earth shaking roar started up as the Moon entered the atmosphere of their area, yellow flames licking across the surface of the Moon, as it soared towards them.
“Twilight!” Luna shouted, still not wanting to leave Twilight behind, but self preservation won, and Luna blinked out.

Luna sat up with a gasp, and Twilight quickly followed suit, the two took a few moments to regain their breath before reviewing just how close they had come.
“I could feel the heat of the air in front of the Moon.” Twilight eventually said, shuddering as the adrenaline left her system.
“We cut that rather fine.” Luna agreed, “I’m hesitant to face that again.”
“Same here.” Twilight replied. She got out of the bed and opened the curtains, letting in the late morning sun filter in and illumine her room.
“Well, we should probably get studying that elemental magic artefact.” Twilight said after a yawn and a stretch.
“Yeah...” Luna replied hesitantly, “Hey Twilight? I was wondering, shouldn’t we tell some ponies about us?” Twilight turned to face Luna with a quizzical look.
“You want to tell everypony?” Twilight asked. Luna shook her head hurriedly.
“Oh Celestia no. Just some of your most personal friends, the other Elements of Harmony mainly, out of everypony, they should be the first to know.” Luna elaborated, Twilight nodded, knowing that they would have eventually had to come out with it.
“I think I know who to go to first.” Twilight replied after a pause.

Twilight knocked on Rarity’s Boutique with her hoof, the sound echoing slightly inside the building.
Rarity’s voice trilled from inside, “~Come iiiiin~” Twilight took a deep breath and opened the door, the pair walking in together.
“Oh Twilight!” Rarity exclaimed as she walked in from the back room to see who her customers were, “And Princess Luna too! How nice to have you back, I trust the tent performed well?”
“Please, just Luna, and yes, the tent worked great, thanks.” Luna said, not comfortable with people addressing her as Princess.
“Well then Luna, it was a pleasure to help out, your mission was successful then?” Rarity replied.
“Yeah, we found the cave on our first try.” Twilight said, not elaborating further.
“I see, I assume you came here for more than just to say hi?” Rarity asked, sitting herself down on one of the waiting chairs in her front room.
“Well, yes.” Twilight replied, sitting herself down opposite Rarity, Luna joining her. Once they were all settled Twilight began.

“You’ve probably noticed this, you’re perceptive when it comes to things like this, but me and Luna sort of... like each other, and we thought that we should tell ponies before it became too out of hand.” Twilight hesitantly explained to Rarity. Rarity nodded slowly, before breaking out into an elegant grin.
“I had my suspicions, and you two are perfect for each other.” Rarity said happily, whether it was for Twilight’s relationship or her own confirmed suspicions, neither Twilight nor Luna could tell.
“You don’t mind?” Twilight asked almost fearfully, nightmares playing at her memories, Rarity lost her grin and frowned slightly.
“Of course not, why ever would you think that?” Rarity asked.
“No reason,” Twilight answered with a small grin of relief, “Anyway, we best be off.”
“I see, well have fun and good luck with your confessions.” Rarity replied, standing back up and waving them out of the door. Once they were out of the boutique and the door was closed Luna turned to Twilight.
“See? There was nothing for you to worry about.” Luna said.
“Yeah, I guess, now that we’ve told the pony who we thought may have already known, who next?” Twilight asked.
“Well I reckon your assistant should know, seeing as how he’s living with us and all.” Luna replied with a grin and the two set off back to the library.

They found Spike in the kitchen when they returned, preparing a quick sandwich.
“Hi Spike.” Twilight said, drawing his attention.
“Oh hey guys, when did you get back?” Spike said, digging into the sandwich.
“Last night, but we had somepony to meet this morning.” Twilight replied, “We need to tell you something.” Twilight continued.
“What?” Spike asked, muffled slightly by the food in his mouth.
“We just wanted to tell you that me and Luna sort of like each other...” Twilight said. Spike stopped.
“But, you’re both mares.” He replied, stating the obvious.
“There is nothing wrong with that.” Luna replied slightly defensively.
“Yeah.” Twilight agreed. Spike nodded in reply, processing what it all meant.
“Well, since we’re all confessing things here I guess I should probably tell you that me and Applebloom sort of like each other too.” Spike said after a pause. Twilight looked taken aback while Luna nodded in affirmation.
“You and Applebloom?” Twilight asked, Spike nodded. “Right...” All three stood there awkwardly, none of them knowing what to say or do. Eventually Luna broke the silence.
“Well, I guess we’d better be off then.” Luna said.
“Yeah.” Twilight agreed.
“Bye.” Spike replied. Twilight and Luna quickly left the room and the library, making their way towards town.

“So, who next?” Luna asked, Twilight pondered the question, who should they ask next? She reckoned Fluttershy and Applejack would be alright with it, Rainbow Dash would probably laugh and not really care, but Pinkie Pie would almost certainly try to get them to celebrate, something she really didn’t want to do right now. On the other hand, if she didn’t tell Pinkie she would definitely find out on her own, and the version she finds out about may not be entirely truthful, or she may host a surprise party and tell everypony...
“Pinkie Pie.” Twilight declared after a pause, Luna was surprised.
“And how did you come to that conclusion?” Luna asked, as they changed course for Sugarcube Corner. Twilight explained how she thought it would be best to get it into Pinkie that they didn’t want to celebrate, before she threw them a surprise party.
“That seems logical.” Luna agreed, just as they reached the door to Sugarcube Corner.

Twilight opened the door with a hoof and the pair entered. Mrs. Cake was stationed behind the counter whilst Mr. Cake was baking something in the kitchen.
“Hello there Twilight, and... Moonlight, was it?” Mrs. Cake greeted them.
“Yes, and it is nice to see you too.” Luna replied formally whilst Twilight nodded in greeting. “Have you perchance seen Pinkie?” Luna asked.
“Ah yes, she went over to Fluttershy’s house to deliver some buns she was hoping to feed a sick bird, and Fluttershy didn’t want to leave the bird alone, so we sent Pinkie off to deliver.” Mrs. Cake answered.
“Oh okay, thanks.” Twilight replied, “Well, goodbye.”
“Goodbye!” Mrs. Cake replied cheerily as they left and headed towards Fluttershy’s cottage.
“I guess this is a good thing, now we can tell both of them together.” Twilight said as they walked. They travelled in silence, Twilight formulating what she was going to say once she got there in her mind, while Luna considered whether this was actually a good idea. She knew that Spike and Rarity had reacted well, but this Pinkie Pie seemed too irrational to keep it a secret, it was too late to turn back now though as they walked along the path to Fluttershy’s cottage.

Twilight knocked on the door, hoping that Pinkie was still there, they hadn’t seen her on the way over here, so she assumed that Pinkie should still be around, but knowing Pinkie Pie anything was possible. The door opened, and they were greeted by the sight of a certain pink mare who then let out a gasp.
“Twilight! You’re back! And Luna too!” Pinkie exclaimed, opening the door wide, and positively bouncing with joy as they timidly entered. Fluttershy was sitting on the floor with a small sparrow, small bits of bread being fed to it.
“Come on sparrow, you need to eat a bit more.” Fluttershy said in a quiet voice to the bird, too intent in her caring to notice her visitors. Twilight and Luna stood patiently, watching Fluttershy while Pinkie explained how Fluttershy had got her to break up the buns into small pieces for the sparrow to eat. Eventually, once the sparrow had eaten his fill, she put him on a cushion by the window to rest and turned to face the trio by the door.
“Oh, hi guys.” She said timidly.
“So how come you’re here?” Pinkie asked, hopping over to stand next to Fluttershy and address Twilight and Luna. Twilight explained to them her relationship with Luna.

“You know what this means?” Pinkie began, Twilight tried to stop her,
“Pinkie...” Twilight began, only to be cut off by Pinkie exclaiming.
“A PARTY!” She bounced, excited to no end about the prospect.
“Pinkie. No.” Twilight said forcefully, knowing it was the only way to get Pinkie’s attention. Pinkie seemed to deflate slightly, and stopped bouncing. It was rare for someone to outright go against her plans for a party.
“But... why?” Pinkie asked confusedly. Twilight decided to tie it to something Pinkie knew about.
“You remember Cranky Doodle?” Twilight asked, Pinkie nodded, “You remember how he wanted to be left alone after you found the other donkey for him?” Another nod from Pinkie, and then she got it.
“Ohhh!” Pinkie said exaggeratedly, “Okay then, I can wait.” Twilight sighed in relief.
“I think that’s the best we’re going to get.” Luna whispered to Twilight, who nodded in agreement.

All through the conversation Fluttershy stood silent, content for others to talk without her but now Twilight turned to her.
“What about you Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, Fluttershy visibly winced at being addressed, and seemed to compress into herself slightly.
“Well... umm... I think that it’s great for you two, I hope you two are happy...” Fluttershy replied, petering out towards to the end, to the point where no one heard her last few words.
“I see, well I guess we’d be off.” Twilight replied, giving up on trying to get Fluttershy to talk. Pinkie let out a grin and tapped the side of her snout, symbolising that she was going to keep the relationship a secret, at least Twilight hoped that was what it meant. Luna opened Fluttershy’s cottage door and let Twilight out, following her right after.

“Well, four down, two to go.” Luna said with a smile, this was going better than expected. She had to respect Twilight’s friends on taking it all in their stride. Twilight on the other hand was thinking about their relationship on a different level, ‘Does this make it official then? If we’re telling ponies then I guess this is official.’ Twilight frowned unconsciously as the next question came to her mind. ‘What is Celestia going to think?’ She pondered that as they walked along, Twilight leading them towards Sweet Apple Acres. Before they could get there though, they were cut off by Rainbow Dash zipping down and landing in front of them.
“Hey guys, Pinkie just told me something and I was wondering whether it was true or not. She said that you were on your way to tell Applejack so here I am.” Rainbow Dash explained in a rush. Twilight was taken aback, Pinkie had already started telling ponies? And how did she know where they were going?
“Umm... What did she tell you?” Twilight asked, wondering if Pinkie had kept to the truth.
“Well that, you and the Princess were sort of, you know.” Dash replied, uncharacteristically embarrassed. Twilight gave a sigh of relief.
“Yes, it’s true.” Twilight confirmed.
“I see...” Rainbow said, “Well, congratulations I guess.” She finished awkwardly and made to fly away but Twilight called her back,
“Wait! Rainbow, can you tell Pinkie not to tell anypony else please?” Twilight asked, fearful of how many ponies Pinkie could have told during their walk to Applejack’s house.
“Yeah, sure.” Rainbow Dash replied, flying away hurriedly. Luna frowned slightly at her departure while Twilight wondered why Rainbow was acting so embarrassed, normally she would be wholeheartedly unbashful.

They set off again on their original path and arrived at the barn quickly. Twilight, for the third time that day, knocked on the door and waited for a reply.
“Over here, Twilight!” A call came from behind the pair, they spun round and saw Applejack waving at them from the edge of the plantation. Twilight set off towards her and Luna followed.
“Hey guys, nice to have you back, whatcha need?” Applejack asked amiably.
“Well, I just wanted to inform you about something.” Twilight said, thinking how this never got any easier, no matter how many ponies she told.
“Well, inform away!” Applejack replied with a laugh.
“It’s that, me and Luna sort of, like each other.” Twilight said, Applejack looked quizzical, not anticipating this, but she was a down-to-earth pony and quickly got over it.
“I see, well I give my congratulations to the both of ya!” Applejack replied with an honest smile. Twilight and Luna smiled in return, grateful for her understanding.
“Thanks.” Twilight replied,
“Thank you.” Luna joined in.
“Well, we must be going, going to be dark soon.” Twilight said as they waved goodbye, and left the orchard. Applejack waved them away.

As they walked back to the library, the sun set, casting a reddish hue over the sky, before disappearing, the Moon rising from the opposite side of the world. They walked in silence, Twilight happy with her confessions today, glad that she had told ponies before things got too out of hand. Luna was still stuck on the thought of Rainbow Dash, ‘Why did she seem sad with their relationship, even though everyone else was so happy?’ Her thoughts were dispelled, however, by the arrival at the tree. They discussed what to do as they entered. They talked in whispers, for Spike was already asleep, curled up in his bed.
“I think it’s too late in the day to examine the artefact, what do you want to do?” Twilight asked as the door closed behind them. Luna blushed slightly.
“Well, I think we should start living up to our newfound reputation...” Luna said quietly, Twilight didn’t understand.
“Wha-” She began, but was cut off almost instantly by Luna, as she pressed herself against Twilight, heartfelt passion fuelling the moment.

They weren’t sure how long they stood there for, locked together like that, it could have been just a few seconds, or it could have been years. They pulled away simultaneously.
“Heh.” Luna said with a grin.
“You need to give me some sort of warning next time.” Twilight replied, returning the smile.
“I did try, you just didn’t get it.” Luna said in faux frustration and the two burst in to silent giggles. After they had faded away, Twilight once more asked Luna what to do.
“How about some astronomy, it’s a great night.” Luna replied, glancing towards the telescope eagerly. Twilight let out a small laugh.
“Alright then.” Twilight replied, and they climbed up to Twilight’s telescope.

Chapter 14: Terror

The astronomy lesson was brief, both feeling tired after an entire day of walking around town. That wasn’t to say it was bad though, Luna thoroughly enjoying learning about something that she knew so well, yet knew so little about, and Twilight was enjoying her role as teacher, glad that somepony was taking an interest in her knowledge. Halfway through their discussion into the change of course from Sirius, in conjunction with Betelgeuse’s movements, Twilight let out a massive yawn, cutting the conversation short. Luna couldn’t help but giggle at Twilight as she stood with her mouth open for several seconds. However, Twilight’s yawn had elicited a duplicate from Luna, which finished at the same time as Twilight’s, allowing them both to burst out laughing together. They struggled to keep their voices down as the sight of the other attempting to stifle their giggles made them laugh harder.

Eventually, after they had calmed down, they both decided it was time to get some sleep. As they walked back to Twilight’s bedroom Luna let out an involuntary shudder, memories of the previous night’s nightmare haunting her, even in her awake state. Once they entered the room, they unconsciously agreed that they should probably sleep in the same bed, not that it would do anything for them in the dream realm, but it would provide some small comfort. Twilight clambered into the bed and lay down facing her bookcase before curling up. Luna smiled and got in behind her, neatly wrapping herself around Twilight, so close that she could smell her hair; it was a familiar scent. ‘She uses the same shampoo as me.’ Luna mused with another smile, before leaning in close to Twilight’s ear and whispering, “Goodnight Twilight, and remember: Blink.” Twilight gave a nod in return and closed her eyes, Luna quickly following suit. In time they hesitantly surrendered themselves to the realm of sleep.

Instantly, Twilight knew something was wrong, the dream was not the ultra-vivid scenes of before, but instead it felt as though she was disconnected from the sights, like she was looking through the eyes of another pony. It was like the dreams she had had prior to changing her frequency, the ones you can’t control. Experimentally, Twilight tried to swivel her head to the side and failed, not even able to move her eyes. The only thing she still had control over was her thoughts. Slowly, Nightmare Moon faded into view, shadows clinging to her as she stepped from the darkness, and looked her straight in the eyes before looking at something to the right of Twilight.
“Nightmare Moon!” She would have shouted, were she in control of her body, but she couldn’t even glare at her. Twilight’s thoughts must have shown in her eyes though as Nightmare Moon proceeded to laugh her haughty laugh.
“Twilight Sparkle, and Princess Luna.” Nightmare Moon stated with venom, making the word ‘Princess’ sound like an insult. Twilight’s dream self’s head moved of its own accord, turning to the right to show her Luna, who seemed to be in a similar state of inactivity.

“Congratulations on that little blinking trick of yours, I had forgotten about that one.” Nightmare Moon continued, “However, you both know as well as I that it only works if you have control over your body, something I fully intend to keep from you!” Another laugh. ‘Twilight!’ A voice called out, from the back of Twilight’s mind, ‘Luna!’ She called back. ‘I don’t think she knows about our mental link, but there is no way I know of to escape this dream, we must wait for it to run its course, but unless Nightmare Moon elicits pain, we have no way to shock ourselves out from this realm. We’ll have to endure.’ Luna explained. ‘That’s what I was afraid of...’ Twilight said. Whilst they had been conferring the scene in front of them had changed from pitch-black to the barren land from the previous dream, sans the moon.
“And now I present to you, revenge.” Nightmare Moon said, relishing the moment before fading away with a laugh.

Throughout the dream, Nightmare Moon exposed their deepest fears, and twisted them in ways no sane pony could have imagined, before forcing them upon the pair. All they way through, Luna kept up a constant stream of comforting, encouraging words through their mental link, despite them both being in a state of near pure terror. Nightmare Moon obviously had the intention of keeping them in their mental torture for as long as possible, and never once resorted to using violence of any kind. Finally dawn came, and both Twilight and Luna could feel the world tugging at them to awake. Nightmare Moon scowled and whispered, the words coming clear into their heads and resounding longer than normal.
“Farewell... for now...” Nightmare Moon faded away with the nightmare and the various objects of terror.

They awoke as if from a normal dream, shaking off the shackles of sleep, and stretching various limbs with their accompanying groans. However, the nightmare could not be held at bay for long, and soon the memories of the dream reinstated themselves with a vengeance, paralysing them for an indeterminable amount of time. Once they were released from its grasp, Twilight wiped her head, wiping off the cold sweat and the tears she hadn’t known she had cried, Luna following a similar routine. Twilight grabbed Luna, and pulled her in tight for a hug, as she tried to stop the tears with some success. The warmth of their embrace slowly got them out of their terror-stricken state enough so that they could leave the bedroom. Though they no longer were holding each other, the two mares still walked side by side, close enough that their sides rubbed against the other’s comfortingly.
“We need something to distract us.” Luna stated, calm voice betraying little of the fear inside. Nightmare Moon’s mental torture was more powerful than any normal torture could be, fears overpowering pain any time.
“I agree.” Twilight replied, her voice cracked slightly as she spoke, and she gave out a small gulp to clear her throat.

The answer was an obvious one, the elemental artefact. Twilight collected the metal shard from the table between the two beds, and brought it with her as the pair made their way to the main living area. Luna sat down and picked up the artefact, inspecting the surface, the rough edges and the inscription, whilst Twilight busied herself collecting various magical apparatus. When all the necessary (and a few unnecessary) pieces of equipment were together on the table, they began. As they performed various tests, checking the age, testing the strength of the magic etc. Luna thought about the nightmare. She knew that they needed to find out how to stop Nightmare Moon and her nightmares, and that examining the artefact was just procrastination, but a look at Twilight’s face and inside her emotions told her that she should leave it for a while, and let Twilight relax in their study of the ancient magic.

Spike awoke about an hour later and saw Twilight and Luna in full science mode. He gave a sigh, knowing after years of working with Twilight, that when she got like this is was best to keep out of her way, so he went to go prepare them some breakfast. It seemed to him like Luna shared this work ethic with Twilight as she too was working away on various tests, and neither even noticed him waking. He fried a couple of eggs and set them on a small table next to their workspace, making sure he made a clink sound so that they would actually take notice of the food. Twilight glanced towards the eggs, and lifted them with a spare hoof before placing it down on a small space at the edge of their impromptu work table, at the same time giving Spike a small, distracted nod of thanks and greeting. Luna also gave a slight nod, and they gradually ate the eggs, all the while absorbed in their work. And eventually, at around 2pm, they finished the tests and collected the data they wanted. Results seemed positive.

Luna sat with the pages of notes in front of her, the apparatus now sitting unused on the makeshift work bench and Twilight sat beside her. The princess flicked through the pages, skimming over the rough, hastily scribbled results, until she reached the neatly laid out tables of data with conclusions written underneath. This was the third time she had read through, but she wanted to make sure that there was as few errors as possible, especially when dealing with a magical artefact so old. Satisfied that all was in order, Luna placed the notebook down on the table, and finally they allowed themselves to relax, letting out matching sighs of relief that the work was over.
“Nice work Twilight, now let’s sum up some results shall we?” Luna said, slipping into her newfound teacher role.
“Sure,” Twilight agreed, her brain sifting through the masses of data she remembered in order to get the most relevant pieces, “The magical artefact is made of plain iron, polished to a sheen and coated with a magical layer that keeps it in good condition and protects it from any harm. It dates back over two and a half thousand years ago, long before the reign of Discord. The magic contained within is not only the most powerful I have ever seen, but it seems to be a completely different type of magic, which explains why we weren’t able to detect the intense magic inside just by being near it. This is in accordance with the book’s description of the elemental magic being a completely different brand of magic from the other four branches.” Twilight said in her dictation voice, almost as if she were giving a lecture.
“Excellent.” Luna replied with a smile, Twilight smiled back, the feeling she got whenever Princess Celestia had told her she had done well resurfacing, but this time it was Celestia’s sister evoking the emotions, and she realised just how much she missed her old mentor.

The thought must have shown on her face, or she was just very predictable, because Luna immediately knew what was wrong.
“I know you miss Celestia, but remember she did what she did with your best interests at heart.” Luna said, stroking Twilight’s mane softly with a hoof. Twilight nodded, she knew this, but she still missed the old days. Luna had an idea of how to cheer Twilight up.
“Listen, we’ve just rediscovered the ancient elemental magic, don’t you think that warrants an audience with Princess Celestia? How about we send her a letter asking for a meet up?” Twilight perked up, it had only been about a week or so since she arrived back in Ponyville but in that time so much had happened that it felt like a year, she would most definitely like meeting up with Princess Celestia again. A grin broke out on Twilight’s face.
“We’ve just rediscovered elemental magic,” Twilight affirmed with herself, “we’ve got a letter to write.” Luna gave a small laugh at Twilight’s enthusiasm, and pulled the quill and paper towards them.
“Spike?” Twilight called out, there was no reply, “I guess he’s gone out.” She didn’t give it much thought though, the idea of meeting up with her old mentor playing on her mind. Twilight resigned herself to writing her own letter, she usually didn’t mind writing letters by herself since she had good control over the telekinetic spell used to hold the quill, but she was extremely reluctant to use magic as of late and so picked up the quill in her hoof.
“This is going to be messy...” Twilight muttered.

‘Dear Princess Celestia,

Princess Luna and I have made an important discovery and wish to be granted an audience with you in order to discuss it, as well as other matters which we wish to talk to you about.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle’

“Horsefeathers...” Twilight muttered in a low voice to herself as she crossed out that last line. Considering the letter in front of her, she crumpled up the entire scroll and re-wrote it, this time with the words ‘Yours faithfully, Twilight Sparkle’ at the bottom. Luna pretended not to take notice. When Twilight was finished she handed the paper to Luna, she watched as the familiar, yet unfamiliar, violet aura engulfed the paper and sent it on its way. Even this small teleportation spell which she must have used hundreds of times seemed to exhaust her, though she tried to hide it.

The reply came whilst they were just finishing packing away equipment, appearing in front of Twilight in a burst of light that almost caused her to drop the microscope she was carrying, but luckily she held on tight. Twilight put the microscope into its box and carried the scroll back to the main library area, where Luna was wiping down the table. Luna turned and saw Twilight walking towards her with the scroll in her mouth, and put the cloth she was holding down, turning fully to face her.
“Have you read it yet?” Luna asked, Twilight shook her head.
“I wanted to read it together.” Twilight replied, Luna nodded her head. Twilight unrolled the scroll and held it in front of her so that they could both see it.

‘My Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I would be delighted to meet with you. I have cleared some time for tomorrow around noon and I will send a chariot for you to come and meet me at the Castle. I would offer to come down to meet you in Ponyville, but I suspect having both princesses there will cause quite a stir. I look forward to our meeting.

Your friend, Celestia.
N.B. Hello sister’

Initially, Twilight was surprised by the informal tone of the letter, but it was quickly replaced with pride when she read ‘Your friend,’. Luna gave a smile at her sister’s last line.
“Nice, but I think we should prepare a proper report, before showing our results to Celestia, I doubt she would want to read some scrappy notebook.” Luna said, after they had re-read the letter. This snapped Twilight out of her reverie, of course they needed to write a report!
“I forgot the report!” Twilight exclaimed, embarrassed at herself. The report was one of the most important parts of any discovery, or rediscovery in this case, without a well written report there was no hope of it being considered by the scientific community as a valid result.
“Then let’s get to it.” Luna agreed, collecting some more paper from a cabinet. As they got writing Luna turned to Twilight.
“You know that when we meet with my sister we’re going to have to tell her about us?” Luna asked.
Twilight nodded slowly, “Yeah, I was just thinking about that, I have no idea how she’ll react.” Twilight admitted.
“Me neither, I’ve never known of a royal that went with... somepony of the same gender, however Tia constantly informs me that times have changed, and different things are perceived different ways now, I just hope this is one of them.” Luna replied. They sat in silence for a few moments, both of them pondering Princess Celestia’s reaction, but work called to them and they quickly got back to writing. Though they knew they had to tell ponies about their relationship, they both silently agreed that they should keep the nightmares to themselves, it was a battle they had to face together.

Chapter 15: Report

Twilight and Luna had spent the afternoon working on the report, it would have taken less time, but as they were writing by hoof, they had to be especially careful in their movements or the words would be nigh on illegible. As the sun gradually set, the two read through the report for the third time, eliminating the majority of the errors with a swift strikethrough and a careful rewrite of the erroneous word above it. Once their need for a check was sated, they set the report down and stared at it, the accumulation of their work, their journey and their research all down on paper with a hardback cover and a neat title on the front, ‘The Rediscovery of the Ancient Elemental Magic Part 1’ and then below it, ‘A report by Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna’. The title left it open for a continuation for when, or if, they found the other parts. Twilight let out a smile, now that the report was finished, the main part of their work was complete and ready for presentation. This would be the first time, however, that Twilight had presented anything this major to the princess, on the other hand it was the first time she would ever present it alongside another princess.

Princess Luna put her hoof around Twilight’s neck and pulled her in close.
“Nice work Twilight, I’m sure Celestia will find this great.” Luna said, rubbing Twilight’s shoulder reassuringly.
“Yeah, I think we should show her this, before telling her about us.” Twilight agreed with a smile, Luna gave a small laugh in reply that turned into a yawn. Luna gave a shudder at the memories that were conjured by the tiredness. Now it was Twilight’s turn to give a shoulder rub of encouragement.
“Come on, we need the sleep if we’re going to talk with Celestia, and besides, we’ve done it once we can do it again.” Twilight said. Luna nodded and gave Twilight a quick, unexpected kiss that made her blush before standing up. Luna led the way towards the bedroom and they hesitantly got into bed. There were no comforting words this night, both knowing the horrors that awaited, and they both knew that no amount of words could lessen them.

Darkness came, and along with it came a new night of horrors. Nightmare Moon appeared to be pacing herself, letting the fear of each horror fully take its toll on the mares, before moving onto the next one. Luna attempted to keep up the comforting words to Twilight, but they ran dry, Luna choking up as fear enveloped her mind. The night passed, and the sun arose; and with it came awakening. They took longer to recover this time around, Nightmare Moon’s passing comment reverberating around their minds, promising horrors to come.
“I’m not even started yet...” Nightmare Moon had stated with a malicious grin, as the waking world took the pair away from her. Once they had shaken the nightmares off, they set about with a new resolve, feeling slightly better in the knowledge that the nightmares held no sway over them in the daylight. Then of course, there was the matter of meeting up with Celestia later in the day. They had woken around mid-morning thanks to their exhaustion from the prior day, and so only had a few hours to freshen themselves up enough to be presentable to a princess. Even though it was likely going to be an informal meeting, it would still be a meeting with royalty, and even other royalty should be appropriately clean. Twilight was still brushing her mane back from its unruly state, when a sharp rapping on the door interrupted her, their carriage had arrived.
“Coming! Hang on a minute!” Twilight called back, swiftly finishing with the brush, she certainly didn’t want to be tardy. Luna met her in the main library area and together they went to the door, where two royal guards were waiting for them, strangely reminiscent of when Celestia had called Twilight to the castle before to help Luna, but now Luna was here with her.

Luna spent the chariot ride leaning up against Twilight, pointing out various places in Ponyville that they flew over and asking about them. She had her head close enough to Twilight’s, that Twilight didn’t need to shout to be heard, but eventually they passed over Ponyville and their view below became swathes of trees, so their conversation turned to other things. She wasn’t sure how, but Twilight found herself stroking Luna’s mane as she rested her head against Twilight, staring up at the sky. Twilight looked down at Luna, who had a faint smile on her face, like that of somepony who was thinking of other things, and not of the world around her. They were nearing the castle, as it could now be seen in the distance, Twilight decided that it would be best to bring her back to reality. She leant down and planted a quick kiss on her forehead, Luna sat up in surprise before giving out a small blush and a quick glance at the stallions at the front of the chariot, luckily they were staring resolutely forward towards Canterlot castle. Luna looked back at Twilight, who had a mischievous smile on her face, seemingly very pleased with herself, Luna decided she would have to return the favour. She gathered Twilight up, and firmly pushed herself against the other mare, who in turn let out a small involuntary moan. They were almost at the castle, and the royal guard not driving turned back to check that their passengers were alright, he found the princess and the other princess’s prized student locked together in an embrace. He quickly span back around the face the front, a blush on his face, certain that he had caught them doing something they shouldn’t be.
“What is it?” The driving pony asked, unable to turn around without crashing.
“Nothing.” The other replied quickly, cutting off the conversation, the driver gave a shrug and focussed on their upcoming landing.

Luna pulled away before anypony down below could see them, knowing that even though they planned to tell ponies, the best way to do so probably wasn’t to demonstrate. Their landing was smooth, and the two mares in the backseat quickly climbed out of the chariot. There was another royal guard to meet them in the courtyard. Presumably, Celestia was already at their meet up location.
“Greetings Princess Luna and Miss Twilight Sparkle, I’ve been sent to escort you to the private dining hall where Princess Celestia is currently waiting your arrival.” The guard declared in a formal voice and without waiting for a reply, he swiftly turned 180 degrees to face the exit and began to trot away, expecting the two ponies to follow. Luna and Twilight glanced at each other in a bemused way, before following after the pony guard. The walk took them to an area of the castle that Twilight wasn’t familiar with, and judging by the guards posted at regular intervals, it was probably a place that not many ponies could go. The guard leading them took a sharp left turn and abruptly stopped, the two ponies following behind him almost smacking into his armoured flank.
“We’ve arrived.” The guard stated redundantly, before stepping to one side to allow them access. Twilight and Luna nodded their thanks to him as they entered, he shut the door behind them with a bow.

The room was sparsely decorated with simplistic designs placed on the walls regular intervals, small sun symbols that glowed softly. There was a varnished oak table that sat in the centre of the room, it had room for no more than four, and it was obvious that it was not a royal hall in any sense of the word, it looked more like a normal citizen’s dining room. Princess Celestia was sitting calmly at the far side of the table, a pot of tea set in neatly before the mare with her cup levitating in front of her. She took a small, regal sip and set the cup down, taking a look at her visitors. Celestia broke into a warm smile and greeted them, it was just the three of them so Celestia was sitting a lot more informally than normal.
“Sister! And Twilight! How nice to see you once more.” Celestia greeted them genially. Twilight and Luna took seats on the opposite side of the table and greeted her back.
“Nice to see you too Tia.” Luna responded with a return smile.
“Erm, hi princess.” Twilight replied awkwardly, not sure how to address Celestia anymore.
“Please, just call me Celestia, there’s no need for formalities.” Celestia said with a raised hoof and Twilight was reminded of Luna when she was in the defence spell bubble.
“Okay then, hello Celestia.” Twilight said, unused to the wording. Celestia gave an encouraging smile in return.
“Now then, I understand you wished to talk with me?” Celestia asked, the pair nodded, Luna bringing their report out of her saddlebag and setting it on the table between them.

Celestia picked up the handmade report and flicked through it,
“Ancient elemental magic? You sure have been busy, I knew that under my sister’s tutelage you could achieve great things, I never thought you would do something on such large a scale, especially not in the space of a week.” Celestia said with a slight laugh as she skimmed through the tome. Twilight and Luna let out matching guilty smiles, that wasn’t all they had accomplished in that week. Celestia finished reading and set the book down.
“Well, I must say that I’m impressed, I don’t suppose you have the artefact with you?” Celestia asked, glancing at Luna’s saddlebag, Luna gave a proud nod and handed the metal shard over to her sister who examined it much the same way that the other princess had, looking long and hard at the surface, the rough edges and the inscription. When she was satisfied she passed it back and asked them another question.
“So what are you going to do with it.” Celestia asked, Luna and Twilight froze, they hadn’t thought about this. Scientists had a tendency to forget about what they planned to do with their results, they put all of their focus on the results themselves, making sure they were both valid and reliable before they even considered what the results could be used for, that was the case here. Eventually Twilight spoke up.
“Well uh, I guess we’ll try and locate the other three parts, and connect them back in order to fully study them.” Twilight said, Celestia gave a nod, expecting that answer.
“Okay, but remember that Luna is meant to be recovering and you shouldn’t exert yourself too much.” Celestia replied with a pointed look over at her sister. Luna defiantly grinned back, and Celestia rolled her eyes, Twilight was amused at their antics, she never thought that they would act like siblings around each other, but apparently they did.

“Now then, did you just wish to talk to me about your findings, or was there something more?” Celestia asked, this was the moment that they were waiting for, how would Celestia react?
“Yes, we -” Twilight began, but was cut off by the arrival of a cook carrying a tray with his magic who set it down, bowed and exited.
“Ah, lunch. You can tell me whilst we eat.” Celestia said, tucking into the small sandwiches laid out on the silver platter with relish. Twilight took a sandwich, but didn’t eat it while Luna took small nibbles at hers, both of them nervous about the news they were about to bring.
“Right. Well there was another reason why we came here. We wished to tell you something about the two of us...” Twilight trailed off, Celestia looked up from her sandwich.
“Is this about the magical frequency bond you have? Is it affecting you?” Celestia asked concernedly when Twilight stayed silent.
“No, well yes, but that’s not we wanted to tell you. It’s more of a, uh, personal matter.” Luna supplied, Celestia nodded at them to continue, still eating her sandwich, but now with a look of worry on her face.

Twilight swallowed to clear the lump in her throat before continuing, Luna giving her an encouraging nod.
“Well, Luna and I have, err, developed feelings for each other.” Twilight said hesitantly, not looking Celestia in the eyes. Celestia choked on the piece of cheese and watercress sandwich she was chewing on, and spent about half a minute coughing. Both Twilight and Luna stood to help her, but she held up a hoof and waved them back to their seats, her other hoof hitting her chest to dislodge to foodstuff. It eventually came unstuck and flew out of her mouth, landing rather un-royally on the table in front of her, she looked disdainfully at it, before collecting it in a napkin, and throwing it into the bin behind her with her magic. The offending sandwich bit dealt with, she turned back to her sister and her protégée who were looking at her expectantly and nervously.
“Well, that was rather unexpected.” Celestia replied, before breaking out into a wide smile, “But it was welcome news, I really can’t think of anypony better to accompany my sister than my personal protégé, or vice versa!” Celestia told them happily, she suddenly seemed several years younger, Luna smiled back, and Twilight released the breath she didn’t even know she was holding. “So tell me, when did you discover these feelings?” Celestia said, leaning forward conspiratorially, looking for all the world like a regular mare gossiping with her sister and friend. Luna answered the question, and set into the story of how she and Twilight had realised and revealed their love.

Together they spent the majority of the afternoon chatting about mundane things that were forgotten quickly, but at the time seemed hugely important. They told each other stories, and shared around rumours and laughed at jokes, but eventually it was time to get back home.
“Well, I must be off, I’ve cut down on my duties a lot as it is.” Celestia admitted with a sigh, it was obvious that she longed to just take a break, but knew that she couldn’t.
“I’m sorry Celestia, I wish I could help.” Luna said consolingly.
“No, it’s not your fault, it was Nightmare Moon.” Celestia said, standing up to leave, Twilight shared a glance with Luna, but Celestia didn’t notice.
“Farewell, it was nice meeting up with you again, I hope we can do it again sometime.” Princess Celestia said opening the door to the room.
“Goodbye sister.” Luna said.
“Bye Prin-, uh, Celestia.” Twilight called, Celestia gave them a regal wave and departed. Luna gave a sigh as her as her elder sister left.
“Ponies don’t appreciate just how much work she does for them.” Luna said sadly.
“Yeah, but did you see how happy she was when she told her about us?” Twilight said excitedly, emboldened by Celestia’s enthusiasm.
“Yeah.” Luna replied with a smile, but inside she was thinking about the future, though Celestia had asked them about their relationship, it was mostly to find out how it had happened and who else they had told, they had talked nothing of what future plans they had. This got Luna thinking, what did they plan on doing? Her thoughts were cut off, however, by a royal guard walking in, the same one that had escorted them here.
“I have been ordered to escort you back to the chariot which will take you back to Ponyville.” He stated in a clear, stoic tone that offered no option for rebuttal. The mares nodded, and got to their hooves, before following him out of the room and towards their waiting chariot as the late afternoon sun cast its golden rays over the land.

Chapter 16: Fight Back

Twilight and Luna spent the chariot ride back in a companionable silence, sitting in the centre of the back seats and leaning on each other.
“That definitely went better than I had expected.” Luna said partway back to their Ponyville residence as the sun dipped below the horizon, the red sky darkening to a royal blue.
“Yeah.” Twilight agreed, thinking back to how happy Celestia had been, like she hadn’t had anything good happen in a long time. She guessed that was actually probably true.
“I just feel sorry for, ponies don’t appreciate just how much work she does for them.” Luna continued, in a rather more melancholy tone, “And I wish I could help out.” She neglected to add on ‘especially after she had already taken over duties for a millennia previously.’ though they both knew that was what she was implying.
“Like Celestia said, it’s Nightmare Moon’s fault.” Twilight reasoned, Luna pulled away from Twilight before looking straight into her eyes. Twilight almost fell over sideways but managed to right herself, Luna looked forlorn.
“That’s the thing, Nightmare Moon is me.” Luna said, Twilight was taken aback.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked, a slight frown of confusion appearing on her face. Luna let out a sigh and began her explanation.

“This may get a little complicated, and I apologise but it really is quite complex.” Luna forewarned Twilight who nodded in reply. Twilight had presumed, like many others had, that Nightmare Moon was a separate entity that was within Luna’s body.
“Most ponies assume that me and Nightmare Moon are separate beings, and for a while that was true. My imprisonment though, that was when it changed. Nightmare Moon always was stronger than me, there is no disputing that, but the moon saps your energy. The earth is where our magic stems from so if you are taken away from that, you start to weaken. Since Nightmare Moon was in control of my body during my millennium away, she was greatly weakened but much too stubborn to give up the body. However, even in her weakened state I was no match for her, I had to devise a rather more unorthodox method of beating her, for the good of the Equestrian citizens. If she had kept control I almost certainly would have been overwhelmed with no hope of getting back control.” Luna continued.
“What did you do?” Twilight asked as Luna kept silent, obviously fighting the memories that were brought back to the surface. Twilight was reminded of herself when she decided to change her frequency, she did it for the good of somepony else, no matter what the cost. Luna took a gulp and continued.

“I had to... combine with her. Not in a magical sense that you and I have, but in a more existential way. You see, if I did that then Nightmare couldn’t just expel me from the body the way she did before, on the other hand it would also mean I couldn’t fully get rid of her either. That’s where the elements of harmony came in, they pushed Nightmare Moon out of the body, allowing me control once more, but due to our ‘connection’ she was not completely destroyed. It is in this way that I mean that Nightmare Moon is me, without her I would die, and vice versa.” Luna explained, Twilight was shocked to say the least, she had presumed they could just banish Nightmare Moon from Luna and she would be ok, but now she saw that wasn’t the case.
“I see...” Twilight replied slowly, digesting the new information, “But connection or not, we still need to find a way to stop her. I don’t know how much more of her nightmares I can stand.” Luna could see what she was saying, though she was more used to Nightmare Moon’s nightmarish ways and methods of terror, she was still being worn down by the nightly onslaught of fear installed upon them.

The chariot moved in to land and Luna and Twilight glanced at the incoming ground simultaneously, noticing the slowly growing shadow the chariot cast in the rising moon’s light. They shared a look.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Twilight asked, Luna returned a small smile.
“I hope so.” She replied. The two ponies jumped out of the chariot just as it touched down, quickly bade the guards farewell and hurried inside the library, ready to get to work. Twilight found a small note on the table closed to the door and picked it up, noticing Spike’s scrawl.
‘To Twilight,
I will be sleeping round at Sweet Apple Acres, I have decided to tell Applejack about me and Applebloom. I hope your meeting was fun and I will see you tomorrow.

Signed, Spike the dragon.’ Under which there was some sort of squiggle which Twilight assumed was a signature. She smiled at the letter, glad that he was ready to tell ponies. Luna looked at Twilight quizzically.
“Spike’s gone to Sweet Apple Acres.” Twilight explained at normal sound levels, Luna nodded and started lighting some of the candles around the room.

“So, what do you think?” Luna asked, wishing to confirm that she and Twilight were on the same wavelength.
“I was thinking something along the lines of projection magic.” Twilight replied, Luna smiled.
“Exactly.” She replied. Though the moon had risen, it was still not that late as they were nearing winter now and the days had started to shorten. They spent about an hour or so working out which spells to cast and at what specific time in order to maximise their effectiveness. They were all fairly high level spells and since they would both have to cast them in order to see the projection, Luna would be absolutely exhausted from the effort. This meant that whatever happened after that was down to Twilight.

Their plan was simple in theory, but would likely prove extremely difficult, they were going to do an advanced form of dream projection that actually brought the dream into the real world for a short time, in that time they planned to best Nightmare Moon and banish her, not from Luna’s body, but into the dark recesses where it would take extreme effort and time to get out from, time they planned on using to form some sort of defence/attack method. There was only one visible problem about their plan, how to beat down Nightmare Moon? Even though she would be in the corporeal world in a temporary and weak body, she would still be strong, probably too strong for Twilight alone to face whilst she was concentrating on the other spells that had to be kept going to keep it in their world. They sat debating how they might go about overpowering Nightmare, each prospect put forward put down after they saw the several holes in the plan. That was until Twilight thought of something completely different.

“The elemental magic...” Twilight whispered, the though suddenly appearing in her mind.
“What?” Luna asked, not having heard her.
“The elemental magic!” Twilight repeated, the idea made so much sense to her, there was no way that Nightmare Moon could hope to beat the ancient and long lost magic of the elements!
“No.” Luna said firmly, Twilight lost her smile, confused at the reply, “It’s much too dangerous, not only have we not tested its abilities yet, but it’s not even whole! We don’t know how much damage it could wreak.” Luna elaborated. Twilight stood angrily.
“Do you have any better ideas?” Twilight replied, an edge to her voice. Luna faltered and instantly Twilight relented, slumping back down into the seat, all anger forgotten and sadness replacing it.
“I’m sorry... it’s just that I really hate these nightmares, I can’t stand anymore of them. I... I don’t know how much more I can take.” Twilight replied sorrowfully, not looking Luna in her eyes. Luna drew her in close and gently stroked Twilight’s mane with a hoof, nuzzling her neck at the same time.
“It’s alright Twilight, I’m just scared for you, you were my first real friend, and my first mare-friend, I couldn’t stand to see anything happen to you. But you’re right, there is no alternative and the longer we wait the stronger she will grow, it must be tonight.” Luna said soothingly before pulling back, Twilight was still turned away, ashamed at her anger.

Luna grabbed Twilight’s face and turned it towards her own, staring deeply into her eyes for emphasis.
“Now listen. I forgive you, and right now we have some work to do.” Luna said before kissing Twilight. They shared the passionate moment and for that small time, all of their fears, regrets and emotions were lost to the world as they lost themselves in each other. But it was short-lived, they had something that needed to be done, and there would be no more delays.
“I thought I said to warn me?” Twilight asked in faux anger, belied by the small giggle she involuntary let out.
“I did!” Luna insisted, “You still didn’t get it.” They burst out laughing, that was probably one of the things they both liked about each other, their ability to forget their problems to enjoy themselves.
“You need to learn to be less subtle.” Twilight said after the laughter had faded away. Luna nodded in agreement, large grin still plastered across her face, but they soon stopped the fun, knowing that they should not delay the business attending.

Twilight quickly collected the shard of the elemental circle, the one with the fire inscription.
“So what shall I do with this?” Twilight asked, unsure how to use the fire magic within without destroying Nightmare Moon.
“I may have an idea,” Luna said, “contrary to popular belief, princesses do in fact need to breath, the reason I survived on the moon was because we were in a sort of stasis that kept me alive, so I think that you could use that fire magic to create a vacuum around Nightmare Moon, weakening her enough so that you can banish her with the prison spell.” Luna explained, Twilight nodded, in theory that made sense, but in practice... well things didn’t really go so well in practice.
“I see, so are you ready?” Twilight asked, holding the elemental artefact in one hoof.
“Ready when you are.” Luna replied with a grin before settling down on the couch, the first stage of their plan. The nightmare should activate with one of them asleep and once they were woken up the real fight could begin. Twilight performed a quick sleeping spell to put Luna instantly into REM sleep before setting herself up next to the sleeping mare, ready to pull her out a moment’s notice.

Inside the dream Nightmare Moon was unaware of the plan unfolding around her, thinking that she had control over the situation. Nightmare Moon stood ready, waiting for when Twilight appeared, but as time wore on and Twilight failed to show up she turned to Luna.
“It appears that Twilight has decided she would be safe staying up,” Nightmare Moon let out a laugh that penetrated the land, “she’ll have to succumb to sleep soon, there’s no point on fighting it. I guess we’ll have to start alone then. Just like old times eh?” Nightmare Moon said unhumourously, sliding back into the shadows. Before she could fully disappear though, Luna sent out a message to Twilight.
‘Now!’ Luna called, Twilight reacted instantly, pulling Luna out of the dream and back into the real world at the same time as casting a conservation spell to keep the dream in place. Luna quickly adjusted to her awakened state and pooled her small yet powerful reserves of magic with Twilight’s together casting the next spell. This was the hardest spell of the lot that had to be cast and this was where it could all go wrong, the dream harmlessly collapsing back into itself as it failed to materialize. But the magic held and slowly the familiar nightmare faded into the library, Nightmare Moon staring with shock in her eyes as she found herself in the corporeal world.

Nightmare Moon attempted to speak, presumably to ask what was happening and how they would fail against her, but she was in her weakened, temporary form and so any sound she made was not heard by any of them.
“Good luck.” Luna grunted with effort as she collapsed back onto the coach, completely drained. Twilight felt the pressure of the spells moving squarely onto her and forced herself to stay calm. She kept the conservation and projection spells going as she held out the elemental artefact, almost as if she was giving it to Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon squinted suspiciously at the metal object, not knowing what it was.
“Cmon.” Twilight whispered as she closed her eyes and focussed on the metal shard in her hoof. She felt the metal heat up, almost burning to the touch, but she held on, putting all of her available focus onto the artefact.

She felt something click in her mind, the previously unused branch of elemental magic now open to her, but only the fire elemental magic of course. She instinctively controlled the magic, making it bend to her will as she used it. A hollow fireball, hotter than the surface of the sun, burst forth from the shard, enveloping Nightmare Moon and completely sucking all of the oxygen from within. Twilight collapsed, her legs giving way under the heat and power of the elemental magic. She knew she had to turn it off quickly or it would completely destroy Nightmare Moon, and by extension, Luna herself. Twilight wrestled with the magic in her mind, and for a moment it seemed like she was losing, the power too strong and uncontrollable for her, but she regained her focus and the fire disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, leaving Nightmare Moon lying unconscious on the floor, her breath ragged and most of her fur singed from the flames that had licked around her.

Now came the most important part of the plan, the actual banishment of Nightmare Moon. Twilight got together the last dregs of her magic and formed the prison spell, aiming it straight at the unconscious Nightmare Moon and fired, the spell closing over her unmoving form and slowly fading her away, leaving their nightmare landscape in place until Twilight too blacked out, the conservation and projection spells failing as the darkness consumed her vision, slipping her into a welcome dreamless sleep.

Chapter 17: Relaxation

Twilight awoke to the sound of crackling. She blearily opened her eyes, squinting against the orange light. Once she was properly adjusted to the brightness she cast a look around the library. A shiver ran up her spine, a familiar and unwelcome sight greeted her. Where she had banished Nightmare Moon the night before, and where she had utilized the fire elemental magic, there was a roaring fire, the flames swiftly consuming the surrounding furniture and literature. Twilight jumped to her hooves, backing away towards the relative safety of the corner. She was on the wrong side of the blaze though, the only exit to the library on the opposite of the obstacle in front of her and already it was too large to hope to get through without at least second degree burns.

Spells ran through Twilight’s mind like wildfire, none of them relevant or sticking around long enough to be of any use to her. She had flashbacks to the nightmares she had suffered before, the ones of her library burning down and the mob outside her doors, and now it was happening in real life! Twilight was asphyxiating as the flames licked towards her, burning up the oxygen around her and the smoke clogging her throat. ‘Twilight!’ a welcome voice called out from the back of Twilight’s mind, Twilight quickly responded hoping Luna was ok. ‘Luna! Where are you?’ she sent out, the reply came almost instantaneously. ‘Wake up.’ Luna’s voice was calm and commanding and stopped Twilight in her tracks. Wake up? What did she mean? Twilight couldn’t get a straight thought out so decided it was probably best to listen to the voice in her head. She blinked.

Twilight awoke to the sound of breathing. She blearily opened her eyes, squinting against the morning’s light. Once she had properly adjusted to the brightness she saw the pony in front of her. Twilight had fallen unconscious on her back, staring up at the ceiling, but her view was now obstructed by a certain blue mare looking down at her concernedly. Luna broke out into a smile once she saw Twilight awaken and quickly pulled her to her hooves.
“It was just a dream.” Luna told her comfortingly as Twilight remembered the flames inching towards her.
“What happened with Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asked as soon as she was able, hoping that their attempts had been successful.
“Banished.” Luna confirmed, drawing Twilight into a hug, “You did great, thank you.” But Twilight was still confused.

“Then... what was that nightmare?” Twilight asked, Luna pondered her answer for a moment before replying.
“I think it was just a common nightmare, brought about by various stimuli such as lack of air when sleeping, uncomfortable sleeping position; or in your case, stress.” Luna answered with a pointed look at Twilight.
“Well, I guess I have been working a bit hard this past week.” Twilight said sheepishly with a small grin. Luna shook her head, accompanied by a quick roll of the eyes.
“Listen, we need to take a break.” Luna told her, it wasn’t a request, Twilight nodded in agreement, a break would be nice. She wanted to plan an itinerary for the day but Luna quickly stopped her.
“No, let’s just go out, make it up as we go along.” Luna said firmly, Twilight was taken aback, she never went out without a plan, but she begrudgingly agreed.
“Ok...” Twilight replied, Luna gave a smile and they stood up. Twilight quickly grabbed a saddlebag and filled it with a few necessities and they left.

Twilight didn’t like this, she hated not having a plan, she just felt so vulnerable. But if Luna wanted it then she guessed she would have to follow along with it. Luna seemed to be in charge of their relationship, she was almost always the one to start things off and the one who would comfort her when she needed it, she thought that made sense though, Twilight trusted Luna with this sort of stuff more than she did herself. Luna seemed to have the general layout of Ponyville town down despite only having been there a hoofful of times as she swiftly led the pair towards one of the restaurants dotted around the centre. It was still morning, but late enough that Luna guessed they could have a sort of brunch at the restaurant. When they entered they saw that there was only one other patron, an old stallion lazily dozing in his chair at the back end of the restaurant.

They sat themselves down next to each other in one of the booths and Luna picked up the menu, holding it between them so they could both see it.
“You can have whatever you want, I’m buying.” Luna told her, gesturing with her spare foreleg the items on the menu for emphasis.
“You sure? I don’t mind paying.” Twilight replied, but Luna wasn’t having it.
“No, you’re already allowing me to live with you, the least I can do is help pay.” Luna said her spare hoof now waving firmly from side by side with her words. Twilight nodded and turned back to the menu in front of them. Eventually the only waiter on duty walked over to their table, a notepad held aloft with his magic.
“May I take your order?” The waiter asked looking at his notebook.
“I’ll have scrambled eggs on a scone, please. Oh, and some orange juice as well, please.” Twilight said, she turned from the waiter and looked at Luna expectantly.
“I’ll... I’ll have the same please.” Luna replied, she was obviously unsure of the food around here after living her entire life with posh foods.

The waiter quickly jotted down the order and read it back to them for confirmation, which they provided. He looked up for the first time.
“Will that b-?” He began, but his eyes fell on Luna and he stopped. “Princess Luna?” He gasped, both Twilight and Luna quickly hushed him.
“How did you know it was me?” Luna asked, she knew that she wasn’t exactly putting on a disguise but she assumed that since almost everypony in Ponyville had seen her on Nightmare Night they would only know her regular form. The waiter seemed flabbergasted but managed to answer.
“I saw you at the parade of your return after Nightmare Moon was defeated.” He replied, still staring bug-eyed at the princess, he was obviously not used to meeting royalty.
“Were you not at Nightmare Night?” Luna asked quizzically, the waiter shook his head.
“N-no, I was away in Manehatten.” He replied with a slight nervous stutter. ‘That explains it.’ Luna thought. Twilight was looking back and forth between the princess and the waiter, unsure what to do to help.

“Well there’s no point in trying to hide it then.” Luna sighed, “Yes, I am Princess Luna, however it would be greatly appreciated if you could keep it a secret, I’m living here, uh, undercover as it were.” Luna quickly told him. At the mention of ‘secret’ and ‘undercover’ the waiter grinned, let out a huge theatrical ‘Oooh’ and tapped the side of his muzzle with a hoof conspiratorially, much the way Pinkie had done when Twilight and Luna had told her about their relationship. Luna returned the smile in a rather regal way, her old ways of acting around the citizens coming back to her.
“I see, I’ll leave you too it then, your order should be ready in about five.” The waiter continued, he gave them an exaggerated wink and left them in order to relay their order to the cooks, though not before confirming that their secret was safe with him.
“Well then...” Luna said after the waiter had left as she settled down into the cushioned bench.

Twilight was giggling softly to herself, obviously trying to hold back.
“What’s so funny?” Luna inquired, Twilight managed to stop giggling long enough to whisper;
“That waiter’s face.” Twilight replied, remembering the exaggerated facial expressions the waiter had on when he had talking with Luna. Luna frowned.
“Twilight! It’s rude to laugh at other people.” Luna said firmly, Twilight stopped, but Luna burst out laughing too and Twilight joined back in, “I guess it was rather amusing.” Luna said after the laughter had subsided. A quick glance over at the counter of the restaurant showed them that waiter still standing there, peering intently at them, wondering what they were laughing at. However, they caught his eye and he quickly trotted into the kitchen. This evoked another round of laughs from the two mares.

They chatted idly while they waited for their food to be ready, talking of various things, magic mainly though, Luna displaying her obviously great intellect. However, they never strayed to talk of the future nor of any plans, they wanted today to be a well deserved break from all that. Eventually their food arrived, the waiter setting down the food in front of them with a bow.
“Please, just pretend I’m a normal pony.” Luna said wearily, it could get annoying having everypony bow down to you.
“Yes Princess.” The waiter replied.
“And call me... Moonlight was it?” Luna continued, looking to Twilight for confirmation, Twilight gave a nod in return. “Yes, call me Moonlight.”
“Yes Moonlight.” The waiter repeated dutifully and left them alone. Luna gave another sigh as the waiter once more disappeared into the kitchen.

They ate their meals undisturbed, it was too early for the lunch rush, the staff were all located behind the closed doors of the kitchen and the stallion at the back stayed unconscious. They continued their small talk as they ate, occasionally stopping for a drink or whatnot. Eventually they finished and Luna sat back with a satisfied sigh, Twilight looked at her with a smile, glad she was enjoying their break as much as she was. Twilight noticed a small bit of egg on the side of Luna’s face and made to wipe it off with a napkin. Luna turned to Twilight just as she reached over, the tissue going straight into her mouth which she had just opened to say something. Luna spat it out and fell into uncontrollable laughter, Twilight grabbed another napkin and attempted to wipe off the egg once more but Luna’s laughter made it hard.
“This is the toast all over again!” Twilight blurted out randomly, focussed on trying to get the offending food stuff off of the other mare’s face. This just made Luna laugh all the harder at the absurdity of Twilight’s words. Finally, Twilight got it and triumphantly squashed it up in napkin, looking very pleased at herself.

Luna wheezed to a stop, all out of breath and cheeks hurting from the laughter.
“That felt good, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.” Luna admitted, still smiling, Twilight returned the grin. It was now around midday and other ponies would be arriving soon so the staff had left the kitchen, prepping the place up for the awaited customers. The waiter came over to their table.
“Would you like anything else?” He asked, back into his formal voice that he had greeted them with, he seemed to have calmed down.
“No thanks, this was fine thank you.” Luna replied, the waiter nodded and gave them the bill which Luna paid with the bits she kept in her saddlebag, along with a generous tip.
“Th-thank you.” The waiter stuttered, gathering the money and moving swiftly back behind the counter.

“Why did he look so surprised? Was I not meant to tip him?” Luna asked once they were outside and walking once more, Twilight snorted.
“It was fine to tip him, but I don’t think he expected that much, you gave him about twice his normal monthly wages.” Twilight replied, Luna gave a blush.
“Oh.” She replied, she guessed she had been a bit overboard with her tipping. They walked with their sides touching with a slight lean into the other pony, it was the moving equivalent of holding hooves and earned them a few odd looks as they walked by, but no one seemed outrightly angry or suspicious so they continued.
“So where are we going now?” Twilight said after the silence began to stretch out. Luna shook herself out of her reverie and took in her surroundings, they were just exiting the main town centre and were on their way down a cobblestone path that would take them to ‘Ponyville Park’ as the post they passed proudly presented.
“The park.” Luna replied, Twilight nodded.

The walk to the park took a couple of minutes and the entire time they didn’t see any other ponies, they guessed that since it was a school day in the middle of the working season most ponies would be busy working and not have much time to be going to the park. This suited the both of them, neither one the sort of pony that liked crowded places. Twilight did feel a little guilty at having to close the library for another day, but she consoled herself in the fact that ponies barely ever came to the library anyway. They found a nice spot that was in the shade of a large oak that still let them have a view of the sky above. They lay themselves down on the grass, staring at the sky. They each held one foreleg above their eyes to block the sunlight. With the other hoof they grasped the spare hoof of the other. ‘This is what this sort of relationship is meant to be like.’ Twilight thought with a smile, trying not to think of the many books she had read on the subject and instead trying to do it as natural as possible. While they rested, unbeknownst to them there was another couple in the park, Lyra and Bon Bon sat together on a park bench away from them. Lyra pointed Twilight and Luna out to the other mare.
“See? I told you we weren’t the only ones.” Lyra said triumphantly.
“I never doubted you.” Bon Bon replied with a roll of her eyes.

Twilight and Luna lay there for hours in the companionable silence, content with just holding each other’s hoof and staring at the great expanse of blue stretched out above their heads and each with a faint smile on their faces. Eventually Luna climbed to her feet with a small groan, releasing Twilight to stretch her limbs, an action which Twilight quickly joined in on, lying still on the floor for several hours can make anypony feel stiff.
“Come on, let’s have an early night tonight, one hopefully free of nightmares.” Luna said as they made their way back to the library. Twilight nodded in affirmation, they hadn’t had a normal night sleep in days and an early night would do a world of good.

When they entered the library they found Spike rearranging a couple of books which had been out of place on the bookshelf. He turned around to face them.
“Oh hey guys you’re back.” He stated redundantly.
“So are you.” Twilight replied, equally redundant, “So, how did it go?” Twilight continued, referring to Spike’s sleepover at Sweet Apple Acres. Spike nodded his head slowly.
“Not bad, I think Applejack took the news pretty well, she did pull me out of the room and spoke to me in a scary voice. She was all like ‘Now you look after her, ya hear? I don’t want to hear anything about you hurting her or anything, do ah make mahself clear?’ but yeah.” Spike responded with a slight shudder.
“Oh Spike, Applejack just wants her sister to be safe, I’m sure it’s just a big sister thing.” Twilight responded, “And well done, you were very brave to do that all on your own.” Spike smiled in pride.
“So, you guys want anything to eat?” Spike said.
“No thanks, I think we’re going to pack in for the night.” Twilight responded.
“Suit yourself.” Spike replied, giving a polite nod to Luna before turning and entering the kitchen. When they entered their bedroom, even though they knew that Nightmare Moon wouldn’t be there to torture them in their dreams they climbed into the same bed instinctively, as though it were the natural thing to do, and for all they knew, it was.

They surrendered themselves to sleep quicker than normal, there was no hesitation to enter the realm of the dreams and with Luna wrapped around Twilight comfortably, they both slipped into unconsciousness swiftly. Twilight waited nervously, a small niggling sensation at the back of her head telling her that this wasn’t going to be good. But a familiar scene faded into view and dispelled those thoughts. She found herself atop the Redwood looking over Ponyville, the leaves tightly packed to form a ground of sorts. She felt the breeze blow against her skin and smiled the view of Ponyville at night putting her at ease. The lights from various windows down below creating a complex, indiscernible pattern of illumination through the entire town.
“You chose here?” A voice said behind Twilight, she turned around as saw Luna, silhouetted by the moon, standing there with a smile on her face, Twilight gave a shrug.
“I like it up here, it’s peaceful.” Twilight responded with a return smile. Luna walked over to the large protruding platform branch and waited for Twilight.

Twilight moved to stand beside Luna and looked out over the land. Luna turned to Twilight.
“I’m going to kiss you now. Ok?” Luna went for the less than subtle approach. Twilight’s smiled widened.
“That’s fine with me.” Twilight said, and Luna drew her in. Now that Twilight knew it was coming she could fully appreciate the passion shared between them at that moment, they lost themselves in each other as Twilight held Luna’s sides and Luna gently stroked Twilight’s mane. What seemed hours later, but was probably just a few seconds, they pulled away, a faint smile on their lips. They sat themselves down on the branch and stared out across the treetops and houses, leaning on each other and heads touching.
“Thank you.” Twilight said, putting all of her emotions into those two words.
“No, thank you.” Luna replied, equally emotional, all of their unsaid feelings passed between them to be shared by both as they continued to sit, the moon silhouetting them against the night.

Chapter 18: Picnics and Planning

Since it was a dream, the moon stayed in position, having no reason to move from its place amongst the astronomically correct stars. They chatted to each other as the night wore on, Twilight teaching Luna of the various astronomy titbits she had on the vast expanse of stars, galaxies and other astral objects. At the same time, Luna told Twilight stories of the stars, painting her history across the night-time sky.
“You know, it’s weird, our roles have like, reversed.” Twilight mused during a lapse in the conversation.
“How so?” Luna inquired.
“I mean, I was meant to look after you, and you were meant to teach me, but it’s ended up the other way around.” Twilight explained. Luna chuckled at the thought.
“Yeah, things have really changed in a really short period of time.” Luna replied. “However, there’s still so much more to do, even though Nightmare Moon was banished to the depths of my mind, she is still present and likely working her way out, and I doubt she would fall for the same trick again.” Twilight nodded, the banishment was not the end, it was merely a delay.
“No. I wouldn’t”

Twilight and Luna span around simultaneously, there atop the tree behind them was a mare. She stood against the night, the ethereal royal blue mane and tail blending in with the night and the polished armour glinting evilly in the moonlight. They jumped to their hooves, Luna taking stance a pace or so ahead of Twilight and slightly in front of her, as if acting as a shield for the other mare.
“Nightmare Moon!” Twilight declared redundantly, “How did you get here?”
“The same way my dear counterpart did.” Nightmare Moon said.
“The magical link?” Luna spoke up, Nightmare Moon nodded with a grin.
“But... What about the banishment?” Twilight asked, fearful that their banishment had failed and Nightmare Moon was here to extract further revenge upon their near-broken minds. Nightmare Moon let out the sort of laugh some might give to a foal who has asked a particularly stupid question.
“That little banishment did not stop me from entering dreams, it merely prevented me from controlling them.” Nightmare Moon said, dismissively waving an iron-clad hoof.

Twilight was still frowning in puzzlement.
“Why did you never appear before?” Twilight continued her questioning, still keeping her guard up. Nightmare Moon let out another laugh, it was the same laugh that would have struck fear into their hearts just a day or so ago. Now though, against the backdrop of the calm night, in the relative safety of Twilight’s dream, it didn’t seem so scary.
“I never had any inclination to.” She replied with a small shrug, content with only explaining the bare minimum.
“So you have one now?” Luna asked, knowing that it would be a simple matter to expel Nightmare Moon from the dream if needs be.
“It just so happens that I do.” Nightmare Moon replied with her sinister smirk, “I came to warn you actually, because I’m such a nice mare. You see, that little trick you had going with the fire elemental magic? That won’t work a second time, not because I’ll be expecting it, which I will, but due to the tiny, insignificant fact that it would kill me. And I’m sure you know what that means.”

Luna stood resolute, she knew that they would have to change tactics, but she didn’t have any idea it would be for this reason.
“Is that everything?” Luna asked, chin jutting out defiantly against their tormentor.
“Why yes, I do believe it is. I’ll leave you two lovebirds to your dreams. Oh! And remember that my banishment won’t last forever. I’ll see you soon.” Nightmare Moon said, flashing them a smile that showed off her fangs before slipping out of the dream. Once she had disappeared, Luna flumped to her haunches with a harrumph.
“Well, that’s put a damper on my night.” Luna said frustratedly, Twilight stepped forward so she was once more beside Luna.
“Yeah, think we should head off then?” Twilight asked, Luna gave a nod.
“Goodnight, Twilight” Luna said, fading out with a sigh. Twilight grimaced at the thought of Nightmare Moon and the prospect of having to come up with a new way to beat back Nightmare Moon before the dream realm faded to black around her and she slept soundly thence forth.

Twilight awoke with the sunlight in her eyes and she instinctively raised a hoof to shield them. She let out a silent yawn and looked over at Luna. Usually they woke up at the same time or Luna would wake up before her, but today Luna was still sound asleep, a soft snoring sound emanating from under pillow Luna had atop her head. Twilight let out a smile at the sight and quietly slid out of the bed so as not to wake Luna up. Twilight pondered what to do, it was still too early to make a start on breakfast, so what else could she do? Her eyes slid around the room, looking for something to occupy her whilst she waited for Luna to wake up. Her gaze fell on upon her bookcase, in particular a slender, leather-bound book. It had been much too long since she had written in it but better late than never.

Twilight pulled the book out and set it down at her desk, moving onto getting together a quill and ink. She prepped herself up to writing paragraphs to make up for the time she had missed, but when it came to summarising all of the feelings that spanned across the week, she had no idea where to start describing them all. She stared at the blank page for several moments, pondering what she could possibly write. Eventually she contented with a simple, three word sentence that accurately summed everything up. ‘I feel conflicted.’ Twilight sighed at her rather inadequate writing but tiding everything away none the less. Just as she slipped the tome back into its regular resting place Luna gave a small groan that was mimicked in the pillow on her head. She rolled over, the pillow falling off, and she groggily opened her eyes.

“Morning Twilight, you’re awake early.” Luna stated with a yawn, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“Morning.” Twilight replied with a smile, stepping away from the bookcase.
“So, what do you think we should do today?” Luna said once she had stretched her limbs with a satisfied groan. Twilight pondered the answer, what did she want to do?
“Well...” Twilight began, “Yesterday was amazing and all, but I think we should try and get back some sense of normality. As much as I would love it, we can’t just relax every day, and we are supposed to have duties whilst we’re here.” While Twilight referred to the both of them, she was directing the ‘duties’ part mainly at Luna, and they both knew it.
“Yeah, I guess I have been slightly lax on my teachings.” Luna said with a small nod, “And now that you mention you, I did have something that I wanted to teach you.

Due to Twilight’s level of magical ability, teaching her wasn’t as simple as being like ‘Here’s a new spell, go practice it.’ At her level it was all about the theory. This may seem boring to most but was actually quite fun for those more academically minded, or those adverse to actually performing magic for some reason or another. Luckily Twilight was both of those and found Luna’s lesson very enjoyable. Luna was a keen teacher with an in-depth knowledge of the subject and was able to answer each of Twilight questions (of which there was a lot) with relative ease. It was also good for Luna that magical theory hadn’t changed all that much over the millennium she had been away. It was one of those subjects which didn’t really change, but just had more added onto it as time wore on, much like mathematics.

Luna finished her talk on defensive transmogrification, a magic Luna hoped Twilight wouldn’t have to use as it is nigh on impossible to change back. She looked out the window and gauged it be just before midday.
“Ok, let’s finish up for today, it’s almost noon. What do you want to do now?” Luna asked. Twilight finished the sentence she was writing and closed her notebook.
“Why don’t we...” Twilight began before trailing off.
“Twilight?” Luna said, looking at Twilight concernedly when she failed to continue. Twilight shook herself out of her reverie and looked at Luna seriously.
“Luna, what day is it today?” Twilight asked, Luna told her. Twilight jumped to her feet.
“Horsefeathers! I can’t believe I forgot!” Twilight exclaimed, busying herself about the library, quickly brushing her mane and putting away her study stuff.
“Forgot what?” Luna inquired, watching on with a confused expression on her face.
“The picnic! Every week me and my friends get together for a picnic at Ponyville Park,” Twilight explained, “and it happens at noon!”
“Am I coming?” Luna asked, not bothering with subtlety, at the best of times Twilight would struggle to notice it, and now seemed not to be the best of times. Twilight stopped in her tracks, she hadn’t thought of that, what would her friends think if she just brought somepony else to their picnic? On the other hoof though, she couldn’t exactly just leave Luna behind.

“Erm... I suppose so.” Twilight replied slowly, mulling over hypothetical situations in her mind, Luna nodded. “So... Are you ready?” Twilight asked, there wasn’t actually much she needed to do to prepare for the outing, it wasn’t her turn to bring the snacks. Luna nodded once more.
“I would understand it if you didn’t want me to intrude, this is obviously something of great importance to you.” Luna said, nailing the cause of Twilight’s unrest instantly, not that it wasn’t obvious though. Twilight shook her head firmly.
“No, you’re going to be here for years with me, they should get used to you being around, not only that but we haven’t seen them for a while now and it would be good for you to get to know them some more.” Twilight explained.
“I see, and yes, I’m ready.” Luna said. They left the library, Twilight still mentally berating herself for forgetting their get together.

Luna on the other hoof, she was thinking of Twilight’s words, in particular the ones about her being here for years. It wasn’t that she was shocked by the news, she had already known it, it was that she didn’t know what would happen after those years. Even when Luna regained her powers of the night-time sky, she would still have that magical link with Twilight. She knew that she would have to take back her duties when that time came, but what of Twilight? It was possible for two linked ponies the live apart but it would greatly weaken them, much like being on the moon. Twilight would have to leave Ponyville if they were to stay together as the majority of Luna’s royal duties required her presence at the Castle. Twilight wouldn’t like it, it would mean leaving her friends and her life. But she must have known that she would have to go back to Canterlot at some point, after she had finished her study in friendship. This train of thought lead her to think of her sister’s ideas. If this entire situation didn’t happen and Twilight had finished her research into friendship, would Celestia still have given Twilight Luna as a new tutor? Would they have discovered their feelings? Or would they have stayed just friends? Luna’s introspective questioning was cut off though by their arrival at Ponyville Park. She realised she had been silent for the entire walk and glanced guiltily over at Twilight, but she seemed as caught up in her thoughts as Luna had been. Luna decided that she would need to have a discussion with Twilight, no matter how much they hated it, they needed to sort out the future. And then there was still the question of Nightmare Moon...

Twilight led Luna over to a section off the one side of the park with practised ease, they obviously always met in the same spot. Luna wondered if there was something special that had happened in that spot. There was so much of Twilight’s past that she didn’t know, and even more so the other way around. Twilight could already see her friends seated around the familiar tree, chatting to each other.
“Hi guys.” Twilight said in a friendly tone. They looked up and warmly greeted their friend, followed by some rather more formal greetings for Luna.
“Erm, hello.” Luna said awkwardly as the pair sat themselves down on the sheet laid out on the grass.
“So you finally turned up, thought you hate being ‘tardy’?” Rarity asked jokingly, she didn’t seem accusatory and Twilight smiled good-naturedly.
“Yeah, I guess we lost track of time.” Twilight replied, referring to herself and Luna.
“Oh, so you been spending some o’ yer alone time with your mare eh?” Applejack said with an exaggerated wink. Twilight blushed a deep red.
“No! Luna was just teaching me.” Twilight explained quickly.
“Ah’m just joshing with ya.” Applejack chuckled and Twilight’s face lost a bit of its hue, though not all.

Luna observed each of them in turn as they continued their friendly chat. Applejack and Rarity were the main speakers in the group, heading the conversation and asking questions to keep it flowing. Twilight talked a fair bit too, though she rarely asked anything. Rainbow Dash was sitting back and relaxing, occasionally chipping in with the odd comment. Then there was Fluttershy, she sat silently, occasionally sipping her tea, though she didn’t seem to take part in the talking and was content just to sit and listen she was still smiling and seemed to be accepted as a valid member of the conversation.
“Luna?”
Luna looked over at the source of the voice, snapping herself out of her observations.
“Hmm?”She replied.
“I asked whether you would like some tea, Your Majesty.” Rarity repeated herself to Luna, holding out a cup.”
“Oh, yes please, and please, call me Luna.” Luna said, taking the offered cup.
“Yes Pr-, uh, yes Luna.”
“Thank you.” Luna replied to both the tea and the use of her preferred addressment.

They all sat silently as the tea was handed out, save for a few ‘Thanks’ and the return ‘Your Welcome’s.
“So... What is it you do at these picnics?” Luna asked as the other mares stayed silent.
“Ah, mostly just chatting really, catching up with each other.” Rarity explained, Luna nodded.
“That reminds me! I was gonna ask where it was that you two went on that trip o’ yours.” Applejack added, the other mares nodded along, not many of them knew where they had gone for their journey for the other elemental magic artefact, aside from Rarity that is, and she probably didn’t have much details. Twilight turned to Luna.
“Do you want to tell them or shall I?” Twilight asked.
“I don’t mind.” Luna replied.
“Ok, you can do it then.” Twilight told her, settling into a more comfortable position. Luna nodded, knowing that Twilight was trying to get her to bond with her friends some more. She looked around the circle, all eyes were on her, even Rainbow Dash’s who had spent most of their time staring at the sky under a pair of sunglasses. However, since she was still wearing them it was hard to tell what she was actually looking at. Luna cleared her throat and told them of their journey through the Everfree Forest and to the cave on the mountain, neglecting the nightmares of course, Twilight and her both agreed that should be kept between them.

“Phew, sounds kinda spooky that cave, and I don’t much trust that Everfree Forest neither.” Applejack told the congregated ponies after Luna had finished talking. Luna gave a nod in reply. Now that everypony knew the story behind their quest of sorts, they placated themselves with talking amongst themselves, Luna occasionally adding something to the conversation and the other ponies accepting it easily. For one of the first times in her long life, Luna felt among friends.
“So tell me, how is the relationship going?” Rarity asked, always eager for gossip.
“Oh it’s going fi-” Twilight began, but was cut off by Rainbow Dash suddenly propping herself up and speaking.
“Ugh, do we have to talk about that?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Now Rainbow,” Rarity replied without missing a beat, “I know you were never one for romance but that was rather rude, even for you.”
“I know, it’s just... Listen, just forget I said anything.” Rainbow Dash said, flopping back onto her back frustratedly. Rarity frowned at her.
“Is there something wrong?” Twilight asked, Rainbow shook her head resolutely.
“You know you can tell us anything dear.” Rarity reminded her, Rainbow Dash slowly got back into sitting position.

“It’s stupid.” Rainbow Dash told them, but continued anyway, now that she started she didn’t want to stop, “It’s just that...” She turned to Twilight, “I’ve always had a crush on you Twilight!” Rainbow Dash blurted out, immediately clapping both hooves over her mouth. Twilight leaned back in the shock that was apparent on her face. She was the only one. Twilight noticed that and her visage turned to one of confusion.
“Wait... How come you guys don’t seem surprised.” Twilight asked.
“Well, Rainbow isn’t exactly the most subtle of ponies.” Rarity replied, there were some nods from the other ponies.
“I... I don’t know what to say.” Twilight said, turning back to Rainbow Dash, who still had her sunglasses on, but she could see a single tear running down her cheek. Rainbow Dash, shook her head.
“It’s ok, I knew it would never happen,” Rainbow Dash sniffed, “and... and I’m happy for you, I just wanted, no, needed to let you know, ya know, get it off my chest.” Twilight nodded and gave Rainbow Dash a consoling hug.
“There’s plenty of better mares out there Rainbow, don’t think I’m the only one for you.” Twilight whispered to her, Rainbow Dash nodded, before taking a deep breath. She seemed to have calmed down now and sat back in her place, taking a Fluttershy-esque pose that told everyone that she was ok, but wanted to be left alone.

“Right. Well, I best be off, farm’s a-waiting for me.” Applejack said finally, rising to her hoofs, tipping her Stetson in their direction and heading off without waiting for a reply. The rest of the ponies gave each other their farewells and left.
“You ok?” Twilight asked once it was just her, Rainbow and Luna alone.
“Yeah... I just need to sort my thoughts out, you go on guys.” Rainbow Dash told them, Twilight nodded in reply and she and Luna made their way back to the library. When they arrived Luna sat Twilight down on the couch and got a quill and notebook out.
“Twilight, we need to think long and hard about this.” Luna said, setting down the supplies and taking her seat next to Twilight, a serious, determined look on her face.
“About what?” Twilight asked, it was just turning to late afternoon and the breeze ruffled her mane softly.
“The future.” Luna told her, Twilight bit her lip and nodded, she knew that they would have to do this one day.

They spent the rest of the afternoon and the evening discussing the future. They sorted out things like what Twilight would do once Luna regained her astral powers, if they would go ahead with getting the other elemental magic pieces, when they would tell the people of Ponyville that they had a princess living among them, and what to do with Nightmare Moon. On that last note they decided that against all previous promises, they would have to involve somepony else, namely Princess Celestia.
“I hate having to get my sister to do something else on top of all the work she has to do already.” Luna said, but she knew that if anypony could help them, it was her.
“I know what you mean, listen, let’s sleep on it, see if we still feel the same way in the morning.” Twilight said, Luna nodded at the reasonable suggestion and they tidied up the paper and quills, setting them on Twilight desk for later reviewing before climbing into Twilight’s bed, which now housed both of them. Luna slept with her forelegs wrapped around Twilight’s stomach and her nose nuzzling Twilight’s neck. Twilight fell asleep with a smile on her face.

For all of their talk of the future and things to come, neither of them made mention to their relationship, they didn’t know what would happen to it in the future, and they planned on keeping it that way.

Chapter 19: Help

They dreamt in the night, the realm becoming the mountain where they had found the first of the elemental magic pieces. As always, the moon was high in the sky and there were no clouds, allowing them a view over the Everfree Forest, the leaves on the trees fluttering gently in the night-time breeze. It was an uneventful night, they said nothing to each other and just enjoyed the companionable silence that fell between them as they sat side by side, surveying the trees stretched out before them. Eventually, sleep called to them in proper and they bade each other farewell, each caught up in their respective thoughts. Twilight thought of her future, namely what would happen when Luna regained her natural powers and would need to go back to Canterlot to resume her duties from her sister. Twilight knew that she would have to go along with Luna, there was no questioning that, she was just wrapped in thoughts of having to leave the friends she had found here in Ponyville, it was the first time in her life that she had felt socially accepted. Luna on the other hoof, was absorbed in thoughts of her sister, of their need to pressure her further with the news of Nightmare Moon. However, she truly believed that with Princess Celestia’s help they would be able to do something about her evil counterpart in a more permanent way.

They awoke earlier than usual, Luna rolling over and falling off the bed, taking Twilight with her. Twilight awoke to the sound of a grunt and a muffled ‘Ow’. She sleepily manoeuvred herself off of the uncomfortable object under her, only then finding the other mare on her back, rubbing her muzzle with a faintly irritated expression on her face.
“Whur?” Twilight mumbled nonsensically, blinking a couple of times to wake herself up fully. Luna turned to face her and smiled.
“Remind me not to hold on so tight when I sleep.” Luna told her, stretching her limbs and climbing to her feet.
“Sure.” Twilight replied with a grin as she realised what had happened, she then followed suit and stood.

“So,” Luna began, getting straight to the crux of the matter, “have you thought further about including my sister in all of this?” Twilight guiltily nodded, while she had thought about it, the majority of her thoughts went towards her own future.
“So what do you think?” Luna asked.
“I think it would be best if we did ask for help, I mean, we’ve tried ourselves and only managed to delay the problem.” Twilight said, Luna nodded in agreement, she had been thinking the same things.
“I see, then let’s get the letter together.” Luna declared and the pair of them went into the main room where the notebook and quills were still out from their previous night’s planning. They knew that Celestia was awake at this time as the sun could be seen slowly rising above the horizon, casting a red glow over the skies.

They ignored breakfast, focussing completely on the wording of the letter, they had to make sure it conveyed that the matter was urgent without having Celestia worry too much. Once they were satisfied with the outcome, Luna sent it along the magical pathway that she and her sister shared for private messages to each other, it would make sure to get straight to Celestia herself, much like Spike’s link. The spell, which previously exhausted Luna last time she had used it, merely winded her slightly. ‘Maybe she’s regaining some of her magic.’ Twilight thought, which led her back to her imaginings of when Luna was back to her full power, but they were guiltily dispelled when a reply arrived. The well-known seal of Celestia was upon it and the familiar cursive writing adorned the inside of the letter.

Twilight wondered how Celestia had replied so quickly until she actually read the scroll. It was just a two word sentence that while reassuring was certainly not what they expected, or really hoped for:
‘I’m coming.’ It read, and that was all. Twilight and Luna turned to each other with matching slight frowns upon their faces before re-reading the sentence several times and turning it over and over to check if there was anything that they missed, there was not.
“Perhaps we made it seem too urgent?” Luna reasoned. A thump from outside on the balcony drew their attention away though. They ran up past the telescope and onto the balcony where a certain familiar alicorn was perched.
“Greetings.” She said simply, stepping past them and regally entering the library. Twilight and Luna followed her back inside as she walked over to the most comfortable chair in the library and sat herself down facing the table.

“Come and sit.” Celestia told them in a way that managed to seem friendly and at the same time commanding, only a millennium of practice could have mastered that. Twilight and Luna took place opposite Celestia on the couch they had sat last night.
“Umm, hello.” Twilight began.
“Hi Tia.” Luna added.
“Hello to the both of you.” Celestia leaned forward slightly, “Now then, I understand that you called me here to discuss urgent business.” It wasn’t a question. Celestia looked seriously at them, no trace of the happy smiling face that talked with them just a couple of days ago, this was the face she put on when discussing war.

“Yes.” Twilight began with a small gulp, “It’s about Nightmare Moon.” Celestia face darkened.
“She returns?” Celestia asked.
“Yes, well she returned several days ago, just after we reclaimed the first of the elemental pieces.” Luna explained.
“So why are you only telling me this now?” Celestia asked, a flash of confusion appearing on her face, but it was banished before anyone could tell if it was ever really there.
“Well, we knew you already had so much to deal with, we didn’t want to burden you further.” Twilight explained with that guilty expression returning to her face.
“I see.” Celestia said, she smiled slightly at her former student to reassure her that she wasn’t angry before continuing, “I want you to tell me everything, omit nothing.” Luna nodded and began telling their tale. She told Celestia of when Nightmare Moon first appeared, the blinking trick, the inescapable torture and their attempted banishing.

When Luna finished talking, Celestia leant back, closing her eyes in thought. Twilight and Luna stayed silent, watching the sun princess’ face for any indication that she had a plan of action. Eventually she opened her eyes and let out a regal smirk.
“I have an idea.” Princess Celestia told them, Twilight let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding. “However, it is complex and most likely very painful, it is also temporary, though hopefully more permanent than your attempts.” She cast a look over at her sister for confirmation that she was ok with this, Luna nodded at her.
“What do you propose?” The moon princess asked.

“From what I understand of you and Nightmare Moon, you have separate consciousnesses that are connected to one body, right?” Celestia began, Luna gave another nod, “Well, I propose that we perform a bit of ‘advanced cognitive disjunction’ for the first bit.”
“You mean...” Luna said.
“Yes. I think that if we use that magic on you it could split your two personalities, we could then insert the one of Nightmare Moon into a temporary body while you build back your magic enough to take her back inside you.” Celestia continued.
“I never would have thought of that...” Luna replied, awestruck at the seemingly simple solution, though of course it would be a temporary one, Nightmare Moon would probably not be able to withstand being separate from the body she was connected to for much for than half a decade at the most.
“Yes, ponies rarely think of a solution which would harm them is some way in the process.” Celestia explained, “And yes, this will hurt a lot.”
“I understand, what do we need to do to prepare?” Luna inquired.
“Since the spells required will be so difficult, I believe we need:” Celestia listed off several items needed for the spell to take place.

For the entirety of Celestia’s explanation Twilight was silent, willing just to sit and listen to her former mentor’s plan, however once Celestia listed the objects needed to help them with the execution of said plan, she jumped to her feet, searching around the library for the various things. Twilight arranged the apparatus in the set manner she had memorised from her studies, along with some help from the two princesses. Whilst she did this, Celestia talked to her sister about the ramifications of performing such a spell in a case like this, along with calculating chances of success. However, Luna was willing to go with the plan and sat still, the apparatus surrounding her and ready for the magical input.

Luna took a deep breath and steeled herself for the pain that was sure to follow. Twilight quickly leaned in and planted a kiss on Luna for reassurance, Luna looked up at her and drew her back in for a more passionate, long lasting one. Celestia stood awkwardly, not sure where to look.
“Thank you Twilight.” She eventually broke in, Twilight pulled away with a blush on her face, Luna smiled mischievously. “Now then, I trust you are, maybe familiar isn’t the right word, but you know the spells we are going to perform?” Celestia asked. Twilight nodded, they would have to perform three spells in quick succession to make this work, one to split the consciousnesses, one to create a temporary host body, and one to input Nightmare Moon into it.
“Then we shall begin, these spells will weaken you Twilight, make sure you rest after this.” Celestia told the unicorn who nodded in reply, the necessary spells already running through her mind. “Ready?” She directed this question to her sister.
“You know I am.” Luna replied, taking a deep breath that belied the fear beneath her calm exterior.

Celestia initiated the casting by directing her magic into the first of the items, a crystal sphere placed in front of Luna. The beam spread from the ball, engulfing the blue mare on the coach and getting absorbed into the bits of apparatus around her, this gave the general shape of an orb to the magic. Now Twilight kicked in with the first of the spells, powering it through the orb and straight into Luna, this was shortly followed by an increase in magical flow from the both of them as the other two spells were cast together. Pained yelps came from inside the bubble but Celestia and Twilight forged ahead, the magic flowing quicker and quicker from their horns until it cumulated into a bright glowing ball. The ball imploded, the flash momentarily blinding them so that they did not see the magic get absorbed into Luna and her body duplicate to leave two Lunas laying unconscious on the sofa.

When the spells were complete Twilight fell to her rump and Celestia staggered slightly.
“Well done.” Celestia said, catching her breath slightly and wiping her brow.
“You too.” Twilight replied, rather more winded than the princess, “How do we know which is the real one?” She continued once she had mostly regained her breath.
“Now here’s where I’m not sure, I can’t do any mind probing for a while, her mental state is too fragile for the moment, she needs to get used to being the only mind in her head once more before I even attempt anything like that.

One of the Lunas on the sofa groggily sat up, rubbing her head with a wince. Twilight darted forward past Celestia and swiftly pecked her on the check. The Luna stopped rubbing her head and turned to Twilight with a smile.
“Thank you Twilight.” She said, but Twilight was frowning and ignored her, instead turning to Celestia.
“It’s Nightmare Moon.” Twilight said, immediately the Luna jumped to her feet, anger clear on her face, but promptly fell over, her body too weak to support her. Celestia nodded and cast a magical cage around ‘Luna’.
“I trust you.” Princess Celestia told her.
“Thank you Celestia, for everything.” Twilight said, Celestia gave a nod.
“I will take care of Nightmare Moon, make sure she is secure, farewell.” Twilight nodded and Celestia made her way to the door, Nightmare Moon in tow, mouthing words that couldn’t be heard through the cage. At the door Celestia turned around and faced her protégée.
“Twilight?” She said quietly, Twilight looked up from her gaze at the real Luna.
“Hmm?” She replied.
“I miss you.” Celestia told her.
“I miss you too.” Twilight said, but she had already departed, the door closing behind her.

Next to Twilight, a groan sounded. Twilight looked back and saw Luna sitting up, rubbing her head with a wince. Twilight darted forward and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. Luna stopped rubbing her head and looked at Twilight with a smile, before pulling her over for a passionate embrace.

Sequel

Author's Notes:

There are a few people that have done their bit to help me with this story, even if they didn't get through the whole thing, they were a massive help and thus should be listed below:

- Proofread 15 chapters: ultra1437
- Proofread 3 chapters: Brony2893
- Proofread 1 chapter: UmberRose

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- Helped with fixing the actual storytelling of 2 chapters: Wasteland Wanderer