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.