The curiosity building in her had been well past set in for over an hour, but that was just today. Luna had been hiding out in her room for weeks now, hardly ever coming out. She had been caught sneaking out a few times though and flying off to who knows where, but why? Twilight let these things roll around in her head, trying to figure it all out.

"I'm sorry Celestia, but I just don't get it." She finally said, "Luna's behavior is basically that of stubborn teenager now and I just can't seem to figure out why. I'm sorry."

Celestia nodded to her once most faithful student with a heavy heart and sighed. "It is quite alright, Twilight. I did not bring you here expecting answers. At the bare minimum I was just hoping to have a second opinion."

Twilight's inner psychiatrist fumbled around with her thoughts, making her come up with a few rather simple conclusion. "Maybe she's going through some sort of stress, something could be on her mind, or she simply is just acting out because she's feeling a certain way."

Celestia put a hand to her chin and let it sink in for a moment. "So it would all boil down to the fact that something is troubling her?" She asked, turning her head from Twilight to face her sister's bedroom door.

Within the confines of the dark room was a blue alicorn mare with a mane that would reflect the night itself. She wore all black clothing, which consisted of a pair of shorts, a tank top and vest, a collar, and a single glove on her right hand. She laid on her stomach in bed, thinking about what she could do about her predicament.

However, she found her thoughts being interrupted by the sound of her door opening. She rolled onto her back with an annoyed grunt to face whoever dared to enter her sanctuary without her permission. Much to her surprise, she found herself looking at a purple alicorn mare wearing a dark purple woolen dress and black leggings.

"Princess Luna?" Twilight quietly called out into the nearly pitch-black room, feeling slightly unnerved. "Are you in here? I just wanted to talk to you really quick, if that's alright."

She didn't really want to talk to her, but she didn't see the harm in it either. Honestly she was feeling rather lonely, so having Twilight around for company would probably feel pretty nice. "I am here. You may enter." Luna sat up and used her magic to turn on the lights, allowing Twilight to be able to see her surroundings.

"Thank you." Twilight said, approaching the night princess's bed. "May I?" She asked, earning herself a confirming nod from the dark alicorn. With that she took a seat on the bed and put all of her attention on Luna.

"So," Luna started with crossed arms, giving the young alicorn a rather stern glare and causing her to shrink slightly. "tell me Twilight; What is it that brings you to my chambers?"

She thought about what to say, doing her best to make this easy and not come off in a way that would make Luna get defensive. "Well, Celestia and I have noticed your recent change in behavior and-"

Luna cut her off mid sentence, pressing a finger to her lips to silence her. "And nothing. I am perfectly fine and any changes in behavior you see are clearly a misunderstanding." She stated, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself of this rather than Twilight.

Twilight could see that Luna was clearly using this as some sort of mental defense mechanism and could tell that something truly was bothering her; but what? She reached up and slowly removed Luna's fingers from her face. "Please, we just want to help you. I'm sure if you told us what was wrong then-"

"I said I'm fine!" The night princess bellowed in anger. Why couldn't this mare just see that she didn't want to talk about it? She wouldn't be able to help, she doesn't even understand...but maybe...

Twilight rose to her feet and started walking away looking defeated. She wanted to help her, but there was no point in fighting. All it would do is either make her worse, or make her do something irrational, or out of spite. Luna's rage was feared by all and for good reason. That poor guard will never be able to walk again after, what had been dubbed, The Taco Incident.

Luna wanted so badly to just let it end there and let Twilight leave, but the better side of her wouldn't allow it. "Twilight, wait!" She called out, making the small princess stop and turn to face her. "I'm sorry, I'm just- I've just been...I don't know." She sighed and curled her legs up to her chest, holding them in place with her arms and resting her head on her knees.

Twilight walked back to the bed, but this time decided against sitting. "Princess, whatever it is you can tell me. I promise I'll do everything in my power to help you. You can trust me." She said, smiling down at the upright, fetal positioned mare.

Luna lifted her head and looked at Twilight. She knew she could trust her, hell this was the pony that saved her from being stuck as Nightmare Moon for the rest of her life. After taking a deep breath, she decided it was time to spill. "I've just been so...lonely. I mean, I know I can speak with the guards, or you, or even my sister, but it's just- it doesn't feel the same."

Twilight tilted her head in slight confusion. She was a smart pony and definitely wanted to help Luna with her situation, but she wasn't quite catching onto the meaning of her explanation. "I'm not sure what you mean. Are you looking to spend more time with us? Are we not around enough?"

"It's not like that." Luna began, trying to figure out how to word what she was trying to get across. "I've been out of the loop, I haven't had...well any suitors." She watched Twilight's eyes widen and immediately knew what she was assuming. "No, not that, nothing like that! What I meant was that I'm not feeling satisfied romantically."

Twilight put a hand to her chest and took a few deep breaths. "Okay, that's...holy Celestia, you scared me there for a second." For a minute there she was starting to think that Luna was coming on to her. Not that she wasn't attractive or anything, in fact she was probably one of the most beautiful mares she had ever seen, she just didn't roll that way.

Luna sat quietly, not completely sure where to go from here. She had finally told somepony what was bothering her so...now what? "What shall we do then?" She asked, hoping this would lead somewhere good.

"I'm not sure." Twilight replied, causing Luna's features to fall. She quickly took notice of this and tried to correct the error. "But, I'm sure we can figure something out. How about I go talk to Celestia and see if there's anything we can do?"

After leaving Luna's room and making her way to the throne room, Twilight found Celestia and explained what was going on with Luna, telling her everything she had been told. "So what do you think we should do?"

"Well, there is a number of things we could do, but Luna is picky about these kinds of things." Celestia began, "Before she was banished, she and I had many suitors literally lining up to take us out. I took most of the offers that were given to give everypony a fair chance. However, Luna was not amused by her suitors. The way she would point out their flaws, it was as if she was looking for reasons to not like them."

"Do you think that maybe she just didn't find the right one?"

"I think she just wasn't giving any of them a chance. They had to be perfect and none of them were even close in her eyes."

"Isn't there something we can do?" She asked, desperate to find a way to help Luna.

Celestia took a brief moment to think about this. She wanted to help her sister, but the only thing they could do felt just plain wrong to her. "There is one thing I know we could do, however, I am not very comfortable performing this."

Twilight's eyes lit up with several different layers of curiosity. "What is it?"

"I do know a spell that alicorns used to use in circumstances like this." She explained. "I've never done it, considering it morally wrong, but it's something. This spell was used to find who that alicorn would deemed as perfect in it's eyes and tear them from their home, forcing them to their location."

Twilight became heavily interested in this spell. She'd probably never do it, but it was fascinating regardless. "How does it work?" She asked, wanting to learn more about the spell.

"It would open up a portal, one with the capability of reaching from where we stand now to the other end of the universe. When the spell is cast it is used with a telepathic link to whomever wishes to use it. With that link the portal will be able to see what that pony would consider an ideal suitor and pull the closest match it can find to them."

"That seems...like a pretty unorthodox way to find somepony you love."

"It is. Not only that, but it's not like the one retrieved was guaranteed to love them back."

"What would they do with them then?"

"They were either kept as slaves or sent back through the portal, but the portal will only remain open for seven days. So, more often then not, they were kept."

Suddenly, the metaphorical light bulb over Twilight's head flickered on. "I have an idea!"

Celestia, Luna, and Twilight were all gathered around in one of the castle's storage rooms. This one had been recently cleared out so there would be more than enough room for them. Celestia understood very well what was about to happen, Luna however did not. which prompted her to be the first of the three to speak up.

"Would somepony mind telling me why we are in a storage room?" She inquired, "I do not see how being here is going to accomplish anything."

Twilight showed off a cocky smile, being more than proud of her idea. "Oh you'd be surprised." She said. When she first thought of this she thought it was moderate, but after Celestia confirmed that the idea was actually really good her head inflated a bit. (No, not literally...jackasses)

Luna looked over at her sister, who merely nodded at her, making her attention go back to Twilight before questioning her further. "I'd like to go back to my room as soon as possible, so how about we make this quick. Why are we here?"

Twilight didn't like that Luna was trying to be so distant, but that's what they were here to fix and she wasn't going to let it ruin her mood as she explained the plan. "Celestia has recently informed me that there is a particular spell that was used for alicorn's to find ponies who might be of a certain interest to them."

Luna flinched slightly, surprised that anypony even remembered that spell existed. Hell, even she had forgotten completely about it. "Are you saying that you intend to use this to help me?"

"Yes, but it's a little more complicated than that." Twilight began. "As you know, the portal will remain open for one whole week, that's seven days for our, quote unquote, guest to make a decision."

Celestia stepped forward, entering her sisters line of sight. "We will use this spell to find you your perfect match and bring them here. But if at any time, before the seven days are up, they wish to leave, we will allow them that freedom." She explained, still not entirely sure about doing this, but she was going to leave this decision up to her sister.

Luna couldn't believe what she was hearing. How was Celestia just going to allow something like this? She wanted to argue against it, but for some reason was finding it very difficult. Her mind kept wandering back to thoughts of how lonely she was and how she so desperately desired some sort of romantic companionship. What should she do?

The two other princesses watched as Luna went through this mental war with herself. Twilight being the first to offer some words of wisdom. "We don't have to if you don't want to. We can just-"

"I want to see them first..." Luna commented out of the blue. "Celestia, you know as well as I that before the individual is yanked over to us that I will have a mere few seconds to observe them. I wish to take advantage of those few seconds and if I don't like what I see then we disable the portal immediately."

Celestia nodded, it wasn't what she was hoping to hear, but this was Luna's choice and she would respect that. "I agree to your terms." She stated plainly, reaching a hand out to her sister. "Shall we?"

Luna took Celestia's hand and held it tight. In order to perform this spell it must be cast by an alicorn onto another alicorn. The older sister closed her eyes as her horn started to become consumed by a bright, golden hue that made her head shine like a small sun.

Luna soon became engulfed by the same colored hue and looked up to see a small portal opening just above her. She could feel her link with the portal growing the further it opened, spilling all of her wants and desires into it and feeding it the information it needed. Once the portal was about the size of a full-grown stallion it stopped and an image started to appear

It was difficult to see at first, but soon it became clearer and the night princess gasped in shock. Through the portal she saw what appeared to be a bipedal creature that was moving in a very odd manner. It was almost like it was struggling for its life. "Is he dying?" She asked herself, earning shocked expressions from both Celestia and Twilight. "You have to bring him here, hurry!"

The forest was dense with trees and wet leaves. The sound of rain and thunder echoing in the distance as a storm tore through the area. Also within the forest came the sound of feet striking the ground, breaking a combination of both leaves and twigs. Two humans could be seen sprinting through the trees, one ahead of the other.

The human in the back was a darker female with brown hair, wearing a black military combat suit and holding a nine millimeter pistol in her right hand. "Stop or I'll shoot!" She yelled to the person running in front of her.

"I'll stop running when you stop being a cunt-odactyl!" Came a more masculine voice, belonging to the individual up ahead. This particular human was dressed much like how you would expect a convict to look. He wore a pair of black shoes, some old blue jeans, and an unbuttoned short sleeve blue shirt over a white T-shirt. On his back was a single-strapped brown backpack and his hands donned a pair of black finger-less gloves. His hair was short and blond and he lightly tanned skin.

As he ran the woman behind him fired two shots in his direction, intentionally missing. "I said freeze, dirt-bag!"

"And I said fuck you, bitch!" He shouted to her before finally coming up on a clearing and being forced to stop. "Holy shit!" He shouted, stopping just short of a cliff. He leaned forward to see if there was a way down, but sadly that trip would be very muddy and likely lead to a few hundred foot swan-dive straight into the raging waters below.

Damn... He thought to himself. That would have sucked.

The woman behind him came to a halt, holding her gun up only a few feet from his head. "Hands up, now!" She demanded, taking an internal sigh of relief when he actually complied. She walked up behind him, grabbing a set of hand cuffs strapped to her side. "I told you I'd catch you, Ryan. You can't run away from me forever."

"It wasn't you I was running from, it was the death-sentence. But, seeing how I'm a little fucked right now, how about you do me a solid and just pull the trigger." He said as his eyes scanned the area for anything he could use to escape.

"Sorry, buddy," She started, grabbing one of his hands and pulling it behind his back, "but I'd rather watch you suffer. I know the needle of death thing doesn't scare you, but just the fact that you've finally lost is enough to get me off. And I plan to ride it out for as long as I can."

Don't do it.

Ryan took one last glance at the edge of the cliff. "Sorry sweetheart, but I never lose." He quickly used his free arm to elbow the woman behind him, breaking her nose the second he made contact.

Don't do it!

The woman stumbled and took a step back, giving her almost-prisoner more than enough of a chance to execute his plan of escape. The only part that sucked about it was that if it didn't kill him, it was gonna hurt a lot.

Goddammit!

Once he knew he was free from her grip he took a few steps forward and jumped, letting gravity do the work for him. He looked down and stared at the fast approaching waves beneath him and closed his eyes.

Ryan's body hit the water with a loud smack, the shock of the impact causing him to twist and contort in pain. Worse than that, once he hit the water all of the air in his lungs was forced out, causing his body to instinctively suck in what it could. Being a few feet under water while this happened didn't make it any more enjoyable either.

He could feel the liquid quickly filling his lungs, causing them to burn and feel heavy. He tried to swim up, but his body was in too much pain. The most he could do was wave his limbs around like he was some sort of rag doll.

Fuck...this is it for you.

Why did you jump?

How stupid are you?

Did you really think you would survive this? That you were gonna get away?

You're an idiot.

"Fuck you too, brain." Which is what he would have said if he weren't currently drowning.

He eventually lost his mobility and let the waves carry his body. As his vision finally started to fade away he could have sworn he had heard a voice. Not like the one in his head, this one was clearly more...feminine...What are they saying?

"You have to bring him here, hurry!"