Chapter XVII

“Keep holding on to that feeling. Feel the air with thine feathers. Reach for it. Not too quickly, and not too slowly. Flow and roll with the currents. Thou art not bound by anything, be it gravity, nor any urging to move faster than thou choose to.” Luna says, reciting the words spoken to her by her own teacher in the use of pegasus magic.

A young pegasus colt stands a little away from her. His indigo mane hangs over his eyes a bit, and he stands with his emerald-green wings that match his coat outstretched and reaching out as far as they can go while slowly moving his wings up and down, his face is scrunched in concentration.

For several moments, nothing happens. But then, the grass around the colt’s hooves stirs from a slight breeze.

“That is it. Feel the air around thee and coax it under thine wings.” Luna tells him gently.

The breeze seems to wane a bit. “Not too forcefully. The air is fickle, and will simply slip through thine grasp should thou move too quickly. Coax it, guide it, but do not push it.” Luna tells the colt when it seems as if he is losing the wind.

After a few more moments, the grass stirs from the breeze again.

“Yes. That is it. Coax it. Guide it. And it shall lend thee its power of flight.” Luna tells the colt with growing anticipation.

The breeze grows into a stronger wind, and then the wind into a downward gust that pushes the grass down, and lifts the colt upwards. Luna holds her breath in growing joy and pride as the colt rises one hoof-length, two, and finally three before he opens his eyes. His eyes widen in surprise, and then glee before a burst of wind pushes him up another inch… and then he promptly falls flat on his stomach with his little legs and wings splayed out on the grass.

“Awwwwww!” The colt groans out in dismayed disappointment that his flight was already over.

Luna lets out a mirthful laugh. “Marvelous young Aurorus. Extremely marvelous! Thou managed to get off of the ground.” Luna congratulates him with a wide grin.

Aurorus stands up. “But… I was not able to stay in the air.” He points out, his ears drooping, showing his sadness at his perceived failure. Luna leans down and nuzzles the side of his face.

“Thou performed exceptionally well for one so young. Being able to reach out to the air is no easy feat on the first attempt, let alone managing to lift thyself up three whole hoof-lengths. Thou will be soaring through the skies in no time if thou keep up this level of progress.” Luna tells him encouragingly.

“Truly?” He asks with wide, hopeful eyes.

“Truly.” Luna answers with certainty.

“Okay! What is it that I must do then next, your highness?” He asks her, eager for the next lesson.

Luna giggles at his enthusiasm. She can see why her sister insisted she take up a student. This foal is absolutely adorable!

Luna blinks in surprise. “You have a daughter?” She queries.

Ditzy scratches the back of her head with a hoof. “Yeah. I’m sorry that I need to leave so soon, but it’s a weekday, and I need to pick up my little girl. And I’m probably going to have to leave early most other weekdays too, cause school doesn’t happen only one day a week and… yeah.” She explains awkwardly.

“O-kayyy. And?” Luna asks with a raised brow.

Ditzy blinks this time. “And, that’s it. I’m sorry. I probably should have told you about it sooner than just the last second.” She apologizes.

Luna waves a hoof. “It is fine Ditzy. I am simply surprised to hear you have a daughter. I did not expect it. If you need to leave early from lunch that is fine, it is unlikely I would be able to stop you from doing so regardless.” Luna replies with a shrug.

“Yeah, that’s true. Again, sorry about needing to ditch you right now, but I’ll see you tomorrow! Bye!” Ditzy says, placing some bits on top of the “check”, as Luna learned after their first meal together, to pay for their food. Then she takes to the air in the direction of the Ponyville schoolhouse… hopefully. Luna hopes that she doesn’t slam into any poles on the way like Ditzy said was a common occurrence.

Luna looks back down to her plate and begins finishing her sandwich, eating faster now that she isn’t focusing half of her attention on conversing with Ditzy.

Once she’s done, she sits back to allow her stomach to digest the recent meal, and also to simply observe the village around her and the ponies that live in it.

Luna smiles contentedly from watching the townsfolk of Ponyville go about their day. Weather ponies push clouds around in the sky. Merchants and famers are selling their wares and produce. And then there’s just the ponies walking around at sedate and comfortable speeds, some looking like they’re heading somewhere, and others in nowhere in particular. Some walk alone, such as a brown Earth Pony with a darker brown and spiked mane, and others walk with friends, like that purple unicorn with that black and yellow-striped drago-.

Luna’s head snaps back to where she was looking, eyes widened in shock. What she sees turns her blood to ice.

It’s Baelor. And he’s here.

Right. In. Front. Of. Her.

“Twilight,” Baelor says, grabbing the purple unicorn’s attention. “I really don’t think it’s a good idea to be asking Rarity to change your dress for the Gala like you are. She put a lot of work in to get it finished as fast as she did and it seems a little-.”

*Thoom* Both Twilight and Baelor jump in surprise from the hollow boom that came far to their right. They look to where they heard it and see a restaurant with several tables and chairs set up outside. One of the chairs looks to have been tipped over. A disgruntled waiter walks up to the chair, sets it back up, and grabs the bits that are lying on the table.

“What the hay was that?” Twilight asks.

“Uh… I don’t know.” Baelor responds.

After a moment, they both shrug. Another day in Ponyville.

The wind whips past Luna as she takes evasive action and banks hard in the air, changing her upwards flight into a downward one. ‘No no no no no no no no no no no no no.’

She hits the ground running and bursts into a full-pelt sprinting gallop down the streets of Ponyville. ‘No no no no no no no no no no no no no.’

She throws her body to the side through one alleyway between buildings. ‘No no no no no no no no no no.’

She slides under carts and vaults over tables. ‘No no no nono no no no no no no.’

She kicks off the ground taking to the air only to hit an overhanging sign and go tumbling through the air. She crashes into the grass-covered ground. Luna grunts in pain and scrambles to her hooves and whips around to face the threat behind her.

A few ponies in the streets stare at her with surprised eyes, but there’s no sign of anyone pursuing her.

Luna pants hard, staring at the town with confusion, not comprehending that she isn’t in danger.

‘Wait, what am I… doing?’ She asks herself.

The townsponies continue to stare at her, waiting for her to move or say something. And it’s at this point that Luna realizes she just stampeded through an entire town of ponies as if the demons of Tartarus were right on her tail. Luna blushes in embarrassment and shakily walks away, rounding the edge of a building and separating her from the many gazes of the other equines.

Luna walks across the grass-covered ground. She idly guesses that it’s the beginning of some kind of park that ponies can visit for picnics within the limits of the town, but she’s not in the mood to think too much on it. Mostly because she just realized how stupid she is.

‘I knew I was forgetting something about this town. Tia told me it’s where her personal student decided to live after she and the other Elements cleansed me. Why didn’t I realize that this is where he was living as well?’ She numbly thinks. She stops to sit under the shade of a tree. She stares at the grass, unmoving.

‘Damn it!’ She curses mentally. Why does a place that’s so perfect, so full of joy, be so perfect for her to finally be happy again, have the one thing she fears more than anything else hiding in its depths?!

Her thoughts are interrupted by an orange blur streaking past her.

“Hi!” Scootaloo says happily to her.

“Oh… hello little one,” Luna says quietly to the orange filly. Luna takes a breath to compose herself. “Scootaloo, correct?” Luna asks.

“Yep, that’s me.” Scootaloo tilts her head. “I never learned your name though.” She says to Luna.

“My name is Starflight. It is nice to meet you.” Luna tells her politely.

Scootaloo grins. “Hi Starflight. So watcha’ doin’?” She asks Luna.

“Um… I am sitting… and thinking.” Luna tells her, taking a breath to focus her mind.

“What are you thinking about?” Scootaloo asks.

“You’re certainly inquisitive. Do you always go out and question strangers about their inner thoughts?” Luna asks with an amused smile.

“Nah, not really. But you just did a major wipeout and then kinda walked it off, so I’m thinking whatever you’re thinking about might be cool.” The filly says.

Luna arches a brow. “Cool?” She asks, unfamiliar with that specific lingo.

“Yeah, like, are you thinking about new types of tricks or something? Is that why you crashed earlier, because you were trying a new trick? Or were you trying to wing it?” Scootaloo asks excitedly.

Luna listens to the filly in amusement. Her energy and interest in Luna does not seem invasive. On the contrary, it feels downright endearing. And Luna feels herself drifting back in time to when she first felt like this. In all honesty, the only way this could match it completely would be if the filly asked-.

“Can you show me?”

This breaks Luna out of her reverie. “I beg your pardon?” She asks in startled surprise.

“I was wondering if you can show me some of the tricks you were thinking about.” Scootaloo answers with an eager grin.

Luna tilts her head to the side slightly. “Well, I was not actually thinking about tricks,” Luna tells her.

Scootaloo’s expression drops a little.

“But I see no reason why I could not show you some things.” Luna adds with a smile.

“Really?!” Scootaloo exclaims in excitement.

“Yes, really.” Luna answers. “Now step back please. I need some room for this.” Scootaloo practically leaps backwards and plants her flank onto the ground at her instruction. Luna nods and then closes her eyes.

In all honesty, Luna has no idea what she is going to do. But she promised this filly a show, and she does not plan on becoming known as a liar this day.

Luna suddenly flares her wings out and rockets into the sky with a single flap, spinning as she ascends upwards. She lets herself fall back and falls back down in a nosedive and pulls up several meters from the ground.

What follows isn’t exactly spectacular by any means in Luna’s mind, simply several random dips, rises, rolls and loops thrown together without much thought put into what to do next. However, upon glancing down at Scootaloo, Luna can see that the filly’s enjoying it greatly, and this gives Luna a feeling of joy.

Luna contemplates a thought in her head. ‘Hm… perhaps she’d like this as well?’ She thinks.

Luna pulls up short in her forward flight to hover for a moment with her wings flared outward and her body arched forward.

And then she disappears from view to appear in mid-flight further to her right, then left, and then continues to blur in and out of sight at random points in the sky, using the wind to move from different points at blinding speeds and only stopping briefly enough to be seen by Scootaloo on the ground for barely an instant.

Finally, Luna vanishes one final time only to appear in a burst of wind a few hoof-lengths off the ground in front of the orange filly. And then Luna gently touches down to the grass.

“Woah!” Scootaloo exclaims in surprise from Luna’s sudden appearance.

Luna chuckles at this. “Did you enjoy that little one?” She asks.

Scootaloo beams up at her. “Yeah! That was cool… but,” Scootaloo tilts her head in puzzlement. “how did you do that thing at the end? You were poofing from one spot to the next and it kinda looked like something a unicorn might do with their magic.” She asks.

“Well, that was me moving very fast from one place in the sky, to the next. It took me a large amount of practice with both my physical skills, as well as magical ones to be able to manage it.” Luna explains simply to the filly.

“Magic? But you’re a pegasus.” Scootaloo points out. Then she leans sideways to check that Luna has wings, and when she sees that she does, looks back up at Luna questioningly.

Luna giggles in amusement. “All creatures posses magic Scootaloo. And while unicorns have an easier time accessing theirs, any pony can cast their own magic if they know how. Most pegasi and earth ponies use their own brand of magic unconsciously without even realizing it most of the time. Earth ponies’ strength and pegasus flight are the most common forms that they do so. But it is not the only way for them to use it. Not by any stretch of the imagination.” Luna explains to Scootaloo.

“Huh… cool.” Scootaloo replies.

“Yes, it is very ‘cool’, young Scootaloo.” Luna replies with a smile, trying out the new use for the word.

“Well, I think I should head home now,” Scootaloo says after a second of thought. Then she sighs. “I’ve gotta get my homework done for tomorrow.” She says with a complete lack of enthusiasm.

Luna titters. “We all must heed our responsibilities,” She states, feeling only a twinge of guilt for putting off her own work of becoming acclimated to the modern world.

“Bye Miss Starflight! See ya around!” Scootaloo tells her while speeding away on her scooter.

“Goodbye!” Luna calls back while waving her wing.

But then again, her excursions to this town can still technically be considered learning. ‘Cool… certainly an interesting way to be used in modern day slang.’ Luna thinks to herself with a smile.

Which then fades when she remembers who she’d encountered before Scootaloo distracted her.

Luna shivers.

What is she going to do?

Bealor’s presence in Ponyville changes everything about the warm and accepting village that Luna’s come to appreciate greatly in only a few short days. No matter how hard Luna might try to hide and avoid him, in such a small location, he’s bound to discover her. Not to mention his ability to sense fear around him. He’s capable of feeling the subtlest waves of killing intent to the point that he can evade even the trickiest of attacks and feints in the midst of combat. He can perceive exactly when his opponent’s focus wavers and strike out against their weakest point in their defense at the drop of a bit. Picking out Luna’s fear of him in a crowd would be foals-play when it comes to his sensitivity built up over the centuries of combat he’s fought against her.

And he is relentless. Luna attempted to flee from him once while on the moon. She didn’t even manage to take one step away from him before he’d hit her with a nearly overwhelming amount of lightning. His sensitivity to fear also means that as soon as Luna’s intent switches from ‘fight’ to ‘flight’ there is no opposing force of intent to hold his back. Even when Baelor’s over a dozen meters away, he’s engaged with you. The only way to keep him back is to exert your own killing intent against his. Running is not an option when dealing with him.

In hindsight of this deep-rooted fact that Luna concluded long ago, she feels exceedingly foolish for attempting to do just that when she first saw him in the market a few minutes prior.

Luna sighs in reluctance. There is only one thing she can do. She will meet him in the same way she’s always met him in the past.

Head on. With equally relentless force.

I’m sitting at a picnic bench with my face planted onto the table in front of me.

‘Ugh… this isn’t working. The only one who’s actually going with Rarity’s original design is Trixie. Thank God for small miracles. But at this rate, the events of the show are going to play out exactly the same as in the show.’ Baelor ruminates to himself.

I exhale a deep breath in a sigh. Sometimes, having this knowledge of the future is a blessing… and other times like this, it’s absolutely no help whatsoever.

I mean, sure, I know how things will go if left unchecked. And sometimes it feels as if there’s a better way things could go. But that doesn’t mean I know how to change it without upsetting the final conclusion too much. And like now, as an example, it also doesn’t mean my attempts to change things will be successful.

I close my eyes. With everything that’s happened recently, what with returning from the moon, the dragon, Trixie getting ready to leave, and my excursion to Morrigan’s world, I feel the need to rest my eyes.

‘Just for a few minutes…’ I resolve to myself.

Before I can drift off though, I feel a spike of fear in the distance approach from the air. I blink my eyes open and look up in time to see a light blue pegasus mare with a darker blue mane land, and walk up to me.

I furrow my brow in confusion. Who is she? I can understand why she’d be nervous of me; I’m a dragon. Who wouldn’t be jittery approaching one? But that just begs the question of why she’s gathering up her courage to come over to me in the first place.

Finally, she stops a few steps away from the bench I’m sitting at.

“Can I help you?” I ask her after a few seconds of her not doing anything.

She looks at me for another second before taking a breath through her nostrils and then opens her mouth to speak. “Baelor, we need to talk.” She says.

One second passes. Two seconds. Three. And then her familiar voice registers in my mind and my eyes shoot wide open.

Luna can see it in his eyes. He knows it’s her. He recognizes her voice and now it is the time of reckoning, whether it be for Baelor or Luna herself is still unclear to her. But Luna steels herself to be ready for whatever comes next.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!” Baelor screams and takes off running away from her as fast as his long legs can go.

Luna blinks. She was not ready for that.

“H-HEY!” She calls out indignantly. Luna takes off of the ground and begins pursuing the fleeing dragon.

Luna manages to catch up to him fairly quickly, her wings carrying her forward faster than his legs are carrying him…

*THOOM*

Luna sputters and coughs out the dirt that was flung into her face from Baelor kicking off of the ground just in front of her.

She regains her bearings and flies to catch back up to him again. This time, it is much more difficult to catch up to the fleeing dragon, with each of his strides pushing him forward in a blur that she can barely follow with her eyes. Nevertheless, Luna pushes on, wings flapping to generate powerful winds behind her to aid in her pursuit. She follows Baelor even as he jukes and strafes to the sides in an attempt to shake her off.

“Hey! What the heck is going on?!” A female voice calls out to Luna from her side.

Luna looks to her right and sees another sky blue pegasus mare, but with a rainbow mane, keeping pace with Luna with her own flapping wings.

“What’re you doing to Bael? Huh?” She asks crossly.

“Nothing! I just wanted to talk! He then started screaming and running away and I’m trying to catch him!” Luna defends herself. Then curses under her breath when she realizes she took her eyes off her target. She looks back to see that he’s not in front of her anymore and she pulls up short in the air to try to locate him.

‘There!’ Luna finds him off to her left, sprinting for all he’s worth to get away. She blasts off after him with another burst of wind.

“You sure that’s all that you did?” The other mare asks her with suspicion as Luna pursues Baelor, still managing to keep pace with Luna through her own flight efforts.

“Yes!” Luna answers in exasperation of the mare almost distracting her again.

“Okay then, I’ll see what I can do to hold him up. Just hang tight for a few secs. Kay?” The rainbow-maned pegasus tells her.

“What?” Luna exclaims. But the other mare is already breaking away from Luna’s side in the air.

Luna shakes her head and keeps up her pursuit of Baelor, idly contemplating and then discarding the idea to push him into the air with a measured air blast.

Five seconds later, Luna hears a surprising sound up ahead.

“HaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” The rainbow-headed pegasus plows into Baelor’s side and sends them both skipping across the surface of a lake to Luna’s left

Luna halts in mid-air and hovers over the water, waiting for one of them to emerge. And she’s rewarded with a face-full of lake water when Baelor bursts upwards out of the lake in an explosive geyser of liquid.

“GYAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” The pegasus mare holds onto Baelor’s waist for dear life as he rockets away once again.

Luna shakes out the water from her mane, and then sets her gaze on Baelor with irritation. ‘Okay, that is enough!’ She thinks.

Luna gathers energy in her wings and focuses on the path she thinks Baelor is taking in the air. She starts up the energy flow in front of her and then shoots forward like a bullet from the force of her created slipstream.

Luna slams into Baelor’s side mid-air and sends all three of them careening down into the forested canopy of the woods below them.

Several painful collisions with tree branches and other foliage later, and Luna lands heavily on top of Baelor, who then began struggling from underneath her and violently pushes both mares off of him with a yell. Luna corrects herself in the air and notices he’s about to start running again.

“THAT IS ENOUGH!” Luna shouts out in the Royal Canterlot Voice. She un-transforms herself back into her alicorn self and then grabs Baelor in her magic to stop him.

Luna feels it an instant after that. The wave of fear slams into her soul and Luna realizes her mistake when Baelor rips through her magic hold with a blast of red energy. Baelor’s switched tactics from “flight” to “fight.”

Luna’s eyes widen in fear of this. “Baelor wai-.” She skids on her hooves after a wind-powered dodge with her wings just barely in time to avoid a bolt of lightning. She has to back-step rapidly because Baelor’s on her in an instant with lightning surging off of the talons on his wings.

“Ba-.” Luna avoids a close call with one wing slash. “I’m sor-.” She can barely get out as she retreats from Baelor’s wild swings. “Plea-.” She trips over a root and her back slams into a tree.Two blinding white talons fall on her like guillotines. “AAAAAHHHHH!!!” Luna screams, closing her eyes in terror.

The blow never comes.

Luna slowly opens her eyes to see Baelor’s talons shakily hovering over her head, no longer charged with electricity. Baelor is breathing heavily, with eyes staring straight into hers with what Luna can only assume is wild panic still lingering within, but fading quickly.

Baelor slowly pulls his wing-talons away from her face and takes several trembling steps away from her. After he’s put some distance between them, he hesitantly sits down and looks at his feet, his eyes still wide and unfocused.

Once he does Luna gasps out loud and takes several lungfuls of air. She forgot to breath!

The silence that descends on them, as they try to regain their breath, is thick.

“Faust’s fat flanks in a funhouse! That was freakin’ intense!” Luna jerks her head to the voice and sees the rainbow-maned pegasus mare sitting off to the side with a look of intimidated awe at the two of them.

Luna furrows her brow at that exclamation. She’s never heard that one before.

“Rainbow… why’d you tackle me into a lake?” Baelor murmurs out, drawing Luna’s attention back to him.

Rainbow tilts her head at him. “Uh, cause you weren’t stopping? I needed a way to slow you down and get you to talk to,” Rainbow points a hoof at Luna. “-Night…mare… Moon? Huh, that actually explains why you were running.” Rainbow says with a contemplative hoof to her chin. Luna frowns at being called her alternate form.

“Her name is Luna.” Baelor says.

“Hm? What?” Rainbow hums.

“Her name. Is Luna. Not Nightmare Moon. Don’t call her Nightmare Moon.” Baelor tells her with a blank voice. Luna blinks in surprise at this. It almost seems as if Baelor’s defending her.

“Why?” Rainbow questions.

“Just don’t, alright? She’s Luna, and the nightmare is over now. So just let it go.” Baelor tells her, now looking more stable with his breathing.

Rainbow frowns at Baelor. “Do you remember when she blasted a hole in you with lightning?” She asks.

“Rainbow Dash!” Baelor snaps at her.

“Okay! Okay. Fine, I won’t call her Nightmare Moon.” Rainbow Dash relents. She ruffles her wings in irritation. “So now what?” She asks.

Luna sees Baelor let out a patient sigh. “Rainbow… would you mind leaving us alone for a bit, please?” He asks Rainbow.

Rainbow Dash stares at Baelor for a moment. “You’re not going to try to run away again, are you?” She asks him suspiciously.

He rubs his brow-ridges with the claws on his front foot. “No, Rainbow, I’m not going to run away again. I just panicked is all that happened. I’m calm now, so I’m not going to run. Now can you please give us some privacy?” He asks her again.

Rainbow stares hard at Baelor for a bit more. “…Alright. I guess I could stand to take a nap after that quick workout. But I’ll be sleeping lightly till Bael comes back.” Rainbow says while looking pointedly at Luna, to her surprise.

“Rainbow. Leave.” Baelor tells her.

“Alright. See you later Bael.” Rainbow says.

“See you.” Baelor responds. Rainbow Dash takes off and flies out past the forest canopy and into the sky above. And then Luna is left in the forest alone with Baelor.

“Element of Loyalty should be called the Element of Mistrust.” Luna overhears Baelor mutter under his breath.

“It is… natural… for her to be suspicious I would harm you in some way. Considering what happened to you the last time we were together.” Luna points out.

“And yet I’m the one that almost carved an “X” in your skull.” Baelor says self-loathingly.

Luna winces. “That was not-.”

“Don’t!” Baelor interrupts her. “Don’t defend me. I could have killed you. Again. I almost killed you. Again. It isn’t okay. So don’t try to convince me it is.” Baelor tells her with slumped shoulders.

Luna stays silent. And that silence is met with Baelor’s silence. And their silence melds with the forest’s silence. Everything is silent.

“So I’m guessing Celestia told you where I was, and you’ve only just now managed to work up the courage to come confront me. Am I right?” Baelor asks her after several seconds.

Luna blinks at his deduction. “No, actually. She did not specifically tell me where you resided. I just noticed you in town while I was disguised.” She answers.

Baelor stares at her for a moment before answering. “…And why were you in town?” He asks her, surprisingly not questioning whether she was lying or not.

“I… stumbled upon this town while flying a couple days ago and found a reason to return several times after.” Luna answers, choosing to not mention Ditzy.

“…Okay then.” Baelor says simply.

The silence returns again. However, Luna can hear some bird song in the distance being started up again, the avian critters apparently deciding that disturbance caused by Baelor and Luna earlier is not an immediate danger to them.

Luna decides that she needs to break the silence between them this time. “I believe… we both have something to say to each other.” She states.

Baelor looks up at her. “Yeah. I think we do.” He replies.

More silence. Then Baelor takes a deep breath. “I’m sorry.” He tells her, voice soaked with regret.

Luna mimics his long breath. “I as well.” She answers with equal regret.

The both of them simply sit there contemplating each other’s apology as the birds sing their songs of the forest around them.

“That did not feel anywhere near enough.” Luna states.

“No, it didn’t. And I doubt we’ll be able to say anything that will feel like enough.” Baelor surmises.

“… So what do we do?” Luna asks him hesitantly.

Baelor looks to his feet in thought. “Keep on living our lives, I suppose.” He guesses. Baelor stands up slowly. “If you ever feel like talking, I guess, just find me. You seem to know where I live.” He says before walking in the direction of town.

Luna feels as if there are a thousand different things she wishes to talk with him about right now, but she has no idea how to vocalize them. So she can do nothing except listen to Baelor’s retreating steps.

But she does manage to think of one question that started niggling in her mind. “Baelor.” She says. He stops and turns to look at her. “Why did you tell your friend, Rainbow Dash, to not call me Nightmare Moon?” She asks.

Baelor looks away and looks as if he’s thinking. “Because I know being called that hurts you.” He answers. Luna’s eyes shoot wide open in shock. He was defending her?

“That… makes it sound as if you were defending me.” Baelor says nothing to this. “Why?” Luna asks.

“Because you were sent to the moon for a thousand years for trying to cause eternal night. That was your punishment, stacked on top of dealing with me for the entire time. You’ve paid for your crimes a thousand times over already.” Baelor says.

“Why does that have to do with why you defended me?” Luna asks him.

“You are not Nightmare Moon anymore. That part of your life is over now. And since it’s over and you’ve paid the price for it, you shouldn’t have to keep paying for it every time someone new comes across you.” He tells her.

“Baelor. Why?” She asks him, growing frustrated at him not answering the question she’s asking.

He turns to look away from her. “You have as much right to be happy in life as anyone else,” He answers. “What’s going on between us is just that. Between us. I’m not going to let others be dragged into our problem. And I’m also not going to let them waltz in like Dash almost did either.” His answer makes her numb with its profoundness.

And in her numbness, Baelor takes his leave. Luna only just manages to come out of her thoughts in time to see his tail disappearing behind a distant tree before he’s completely out of sight.

She sits there for a few more moments before taking flight up through the trees and turning in the air to head back to Canterlot, her thoughts going over Baelor’s parting words. ‘A right to be happy… as much right as anypony else?’

Author's Notes:

... done.

"Are things okay now between Woona and Bael?"

No Pinkie. Things aren't okay between them. They're better... I think... but they're not okay.

"Awwwwwww."

"Well this chapter certainly took a while to come out."

You know what! I'm sorry this took so long you guys, but this is how my life works! Stuff comes up, I don't have as much time to commit to writing, my braincells get used for other stuff, and so I just don't write as often even when I do have free time. It's what happens, and I'm sorry if you guys don't like it.

"Jeez, what's got you so wound up today?"

I had Writer's block, for TWO MONTHS! On just one line of text!!! THIS LINE OF TEXT!!!

“Really?!” Scootaloo exclaims in excitement.

I don't even know why I got stuck here! I just slammed into a titanium wall of Writer's Block for no reason! I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY SCOOTALOO!!!!

"Okay... Falx wanting to bite the head off of a filly aside, is there anything else of note to discuss here?"

"Bael mentioned someone named Morrigan earlier in the story!"

She's the Displaced he visited a couple chapters back. I figured I could just give you the story he visited and then my crossover partner can just post the chapters with Baelor in them when he gets the chance.

"But you didn't tell us which sto-oh I see what you did just now."

Eh, I'm lazy and impatient. You guys have been waiting for news for a while now so I'm just gonna give it to you, and then put the direct chapter links in later when they're up. I'm also going to start putting in a list of different stories I've done crossovers with in the title page now that I've done more than one.

And that's pretty much everything of note out of the way. What's next?

"Hmmmmm..."

Pinkie Pie? Something on your mind?

"When are things going to start being fun again?"

Which kind of fun?

"There's more than one kind?"

Well, yeah. There's the fun you like that's probably parties and games and then there's the kind I like where-

"Yours isn't anything inappropriate for fillies and colts, is it?"

What? No. Well... maybe? What's your opinion of violence?

"It's not nice to be violent. And you should try to be friends instead."

Then my kind of fun is incredibly inappropriate for children.

"Quote of the century everyone!"

Shut up Ictus.