"So, erm, what happened after that?" Spike asked, shifting in his seat. As the conversation continued, his eyes grew more and more accustomed to the soft glow and Spike could more easily make out the shapes of bookshelves and Luna's star-patterned bedspread, as well as the mare herself. She had taken on a contemplative look, her starry mane

"Equestria shut off, the planets that would become the Bureau continued their war for some time, eventually driving the Vergla planet to split from the rest much like we did. Eventually, the anti-Bureau forces were pushed back to just one half of the Revan planet, and they formed an uneasy truce for a time, before war broke out again." Luna paused.

"Huh, okay. What do you want Twilight and me to do, then?"

"Now you know about the forcefield," Luna replied. "You know that there are worlds beyond, including many alicorn brethren and sistren of mine and Celestia's. You know that war is happening on the Revan planet and, I must tell you, the conflict once more is rising. Unfortunately, Scootaloo's arrival on the Kindred planet has done little to allay the tensions—on the contrary, it seems that both the Bureau and the Revan rebels have started to take notice of the filly."

"Hoboy," Spike breathed. "Bet she doesn't know what she's gotten herself into."

"I doubt it as well. In all honesty, I wouldn't know all of this if I hadn't succumbed to the Nightmare."

"Oh?" Spike said, raising an eyebrow.

Luna nodded. "When I gave in to my dark side, I declared to my sister that I would collapse the forcefield and enter Equestria into the war with the Bureau, eventually planning to take over and rule all with an iron hoof."

"...Yikes."

"So you can see why Celestia might banish me to the magical projection of Saros, our moon. Although our planet does indeed have a moon, the construct I raise and lower each night instead acts as a sort of miniature prison, yet one that strips a pony of her hatred and delusions for the time she is imprisoned. It was there, whilst spending decade after decade thinking alone about the past and my future, that I grew tired of the loneliness and decided to reach out to somepony... a dear friend with whom I had lost touch." Luna's lips curved.

"From... outside? One of the alicorns?" Spike asked.

Slowly, Luna nodded. "It turned out I had not been forgotten, despite our isolationism and the poor terms on which we had last spoken—I was able to reach out to one of my oldest friends, Argent. Yet as I told him of my blight and punishment, he kept me updated on the goings-on of the outside world. At first, it was of how he assisted his brothers in leading the Kindred planet and the Bureau... until Aureate disappeared. Argent kept running the planet with Aeneus for nearly a year, but then he made his own leave to search for his brother. And then, from then until recently, I had not heard from him."

Spike frowned. "That must've sucked... finding an old friend just for him to disappear like that."

"I do not begrudge him for that," Luna replied. "He had his reasons. And the more time goes on, the more it seems like he did the right thing."

"Erm... why?" Spike asked.

"Spike, I... I must confess, Argent hasn't told me everything. But the forcefield... the war... the divisions between us... there is a great deal of unrest throughout the system, and a great deal of disharmony. Even without the things he's told me, both Celestia and I had felt uneasy at the growing surge of... something not quite right." Luna paused. "We all need to work together to stop this... but the only way I'm ever going to be able to convince Celestia to lower the forcefield is if the war on the Revan planet ends. Only then can we hope to work with Argent and, hopefully, the Bureau."

Spike gulped. "I'm gonna be honest—that's... a tall order."