Luna awoke gradually, dimly aware that dusk, her early alarm, had come. Feeling no great urge to move quickly, she sat still and surveyed her surroundings. Entwined with her was Zecora, still slumbering. The green and yellow mist that had choked the area the night before had cleared while she slept. Small land animals and chirping birds were slowly returning to the area, but she had felt no danger while sleeping, so evidently most of them were still afraid of this place. That, or possibly afraid of the magic circle of silver dust that surrounded the two of them. Luna thanked Zecora for the foresight, who responded by twitching a leg and snoring.

Then there was the lake. At its shore, the body of her apprentice, Thin Mint, still rested. There must have been another way. Maybe Celestia could have helped, or Twilight Sparkle? But instead I charged in and knowingly took a pony's life. Was I angry? Guilty? Full of righteous fury? She couldn't even remember feeling anything except the adrenal rush of letting her power loose, then the depression at hearing the last words “I hate you,” from somepony who had cared about and trusted her. She had ended a great danger here in the Everfree Forest, to be sure, but she found herself doubt-ridden and brooding anyway. “Curses,” she said, with a melancholy sigh. None of her fellow Palatins de la Nouvelle Lune had brooded quite as much as she did in the early days of chivalry, but she considered that her right. She founded the order, so the weight of their actions always stayed with her to some extent. Perhaps, in time, she should bring the organization to life again? Whether Celestia wanted to admit it or not, recent events proved that Equestria did need warriors, and exceptionally virtuous ones at that. From what the Princess of the Night had observed of modern ponies, she did not think virtue would be hard to find. Celestia had treated their ponies well in that regard. It was finding those with the strength and will to perform great deeds that was the problem. In any case, Luna, and perhaps one other, would have to be enough for now. Once she resolved her business at the palace of the royal pony sisters, and in Ponyville, she would have to start her plans and battles in earnest. Come what may, she looked forward to the fight, even in her current anger and despair.

Some time during her brooding, she realized that Zecora had woken up, and was watching her. Zecora’s enigmatic closed-mouth smile sprang instantly to her face. It was becoming less and less enigmatic each time Luna saw it, but in a way she hoped it always continued to have at least a little bit of that quality. Zecora’s voice had that mysterious edge as well as she groggily greeted, “Qaratabi sadati.”

Luna smiled, much to her surprise. “Many thanks yet again,” she said, disentangled her body, and stood up, stretching and shaking the stiffness out of her muscles and joints. “It was thou that saved my life last night, was it not? How?”

“All I did was use a mystic brew,” she said, “which gave you the strength to pull through.”

“But I felt thy mind.” Luna dug at the ground with one hoof, intently watching the hole she was digging. “Thou wert with me.”

“The Everfree Forest is abundant with the powerful and strange,” Zecora explained, “provided one is educated on what to change. In the capital of my home nation, I received the very best in education.”

“Well, I think...” Luna paused, stopping her scratching at the ground, but not looking up.

Zecora lifted up her bags and tied them to her sides once again, glancing over at her friend to indicate that she was still listening.

“I know thou hast a home here, and a life, but... I would like thee to travel with me. Not forever—I would not ask that— but for a brief span, at least. We could accomplish great things together...” Luna finally raised her eyes. Their severe redness only intensified the fiery resolve behind them.

“To tell you a secret,” Zecora replied, “I was going to do that without you asking it.”

“Oh, thou mischievous sneak,” Luna shouted delightedly as she grabbed Zecora and jumped up with her. The Princess hugged her new-found friend over both shoulders ceremoniously, then unceremoniously dropped her, not realizing that, in her excitement, she had started flying in place unconsciously.

“Ow,” Zecora put it briefly.

Luna apologized profusely, but could not help laughing during and after the apology. Neither could the one she had dropped. Their fit lasted much longer than the amusement alone would have suggested, and before long they were just doing it to let all the tension and pain out. When they were finally done, Luna spoke up again. “I am greatly pleased to hear that. However, I must complete a couple of tasks before I go, and... I would like to perform them alone. Canst thou make it home safely now?”

“I can,” said Zecora, dusting herself off from the drop. “But you will not like the way. I will have to resort to sorcery, as some might say.”

“About that,” said Luna. “May I... watch it?

“That does not make much sense. I thought you could not allow it in your presence?”

“I spoke hastily out of fear,” the Princess replied, shaking her head. “It is obviously something that is a great part of thee, so I would see it, with thy permission.”

“Well, it would not be right to hide,” Zecora said as she opened up the pouch that contained her masks. She pulled out a large black one. For holes, it had small eyes, but big lips and big nostrils. Around its edge a mane of coarse black hair was pasted. “Here, the soul of an ape named Moussa is inside. In life he was a brawler without peer, and also a great drinker of beer. But are you sure you want to see? I can do this out of sight just as easily.”

Luna nodded without hesitation, so Zecora shrugged a little, untied her sacks, then held the mask up to her face. She closed her eyes and focused, and after a few seconds her body jolted as the wood of the mask grew out into sharp splinters, which pierced her neck and trapped it like a vise. She dug her hooves into the ground, shaking and closing her eyes tighter, but did not utter a sound. The black wood continued to grow and spread over her body, and as it passed it caused her form to twist and bend with crunching and cracking noises. Her spine became more upright, her front legs became giant paws, and her size more than doubled, mostly with muscle and bone, but also with a thick layer of hair. The hair was black in normal sight, but to Luna's vision, it was also interspersed with white stripes, just like a zebra's coat. The face was the last part to transform. Zecora's eyes appeared to recede a great distance from Luna, and replacing them was a pair of wild yellow ones. Her mouth was stretched into a grin that displayed her fearsome fangs, and her wrinkled snout huffed out a breath of hot air as the process completed. Only at that moment did anything magical appear to happen to Luna's supernatural senses. Her puzzlement was nearly as great as her regret at seeing her companion go through so much pain.

“That was worth the hurt,” Zecora said along with another, closer voice, which was guttural and boisterous, “because now, great strength I can exert.”

“It...” Luna stammered, staring up at the gorilla that towered over her. “It does not seem so to me. That looked as though it caused thee great distress.”

“I will heal in an easy way,” the voices said, the body brushing the comment off with a wave of a huge paw. “You won’t even notice it after a day.”

“That is not what I meant...” she trailed off, then hopped up into the air and used her dark wings to hover in place at eye level with the gorilla. “There is nothing to be done for it now though. Tell me truly, thou art still Zecora, correct? The zebra I cherish is still in there in some way, is she not?”

“We are the same being in this form,” he said as he scratched himself. “Into each other, we transform. Moussa is what is seen on the outside, the body in which we reside. I am still present, so please, do not lament.”

“That sounds... extremely familiar,” said Luna, a familiar, nauseating feeling of corruption rising up from deep inside her. “We have more in common than I could ever have imagined. And thou canst simply remove the mask, whenever thou wishest?”

“I can do so, but only because I am a such a pro.” The gorilla flashed a smile that was simultaneously funny and threatening. “And that is quite true. If these spirits disliked me, a struggle would ensue. It is a struggle I may win, but if I fail they could take my skin.”

“This is such dangerous magic,” said Luna, putting her front hooves on his massive shoulders. “How didst thou come across it?”

“I will tell you another time,” he said, patting her on the back as gently as possible. “For now, I would like to go rest and clean off this poison grime. We can also complete our preparations and ease our frustrations.”

“Yes, that is a good idea. But first, how should we address thee? I do not think it would be wise to call thee 'she' and 'Zecora' when around others, but I also do not want to get used to knowing thee as anyone but her.”

“Zecora is an excellent name in my humble view,” he said, rubbing his chin, “but using ‘Moussa’ would be the best thing to do. At least, that is so in company. Out here, I’ll always be Zecora to thee.”

Luna thought she had run out of tears last night, but her eyes still found enough water to well up slightly. She came in for a hug, the two shared an incredibly-size-mismatched embrace, and then Luna settled back onto the ground. “Meet me in Ponyville, shall we say, three nights hence?”

They agreed on the date, and then Moussa hoisted Zecora's supplies easily over one shoulder and walked back into the woods. He waved goodbye, and Luna was left alone... with the corpse of Thin Mint.

She turned and walked to the edge of the lake where it rested. Mint did not look at peace at all. Catching a glimpse of herself in the water, neither did Luna. Her mane had split ends and tangles all over it, distorting the flow of the nebula there. Her eyes were completely bloodshot, and her coat was a frazzled mess. Fortunately, her wound had completely healed, leaving no visible trace, and she had regained some of the energy she had spent on all her spells, particularly the difficult healing one she had tried to use on that wolf.. She briefly wondered what he was doing now, and hoped her mercy had not been a mistake. It had been before. Then again, she thought, looking into the dead, black eyes of her erstwhile pupil, lack of mercy had been a mistake in the past as well.

“Thou art not a true sea pony,” Princess Luna said to her, “but I shall commend thy spirit as one. I hope it is what thou wouldst have wanted.”

She found a nearby tree and pushed it over, completely uprooting the tall evergreen with barely more than a grunt. She raised one of her hooves, conjured, and bound a magical blade of fluid moonsilver to it. With her tool's melodic hum echoing across the expanse of the lake, Luna cut through the tree's bark as easily as running a hoof through water. After approximately half an hour, with the sun almost under the horizon, she had hollowed out a crude canoe from the tree. She carried it back to the lake, gently lifted up Mint's body, and laid it inside. After a prolonged stare, she gave the boat a hard shove. When it came near to the center of the water, the Princess raised a hoof and slammed it back down furiously. The grief in her spirit, and in her accompanying cry of rage, was enough to conjure a small cloud and a bolt of lightning out of nothing. Nature itself bent to perform her funeral rite. The bolt struck the canoe with a bang of thunder that sent the creatures that had wandered to investigate the area scrambling for cover. It was enveloped in fire quickly. As it burned, the sun set completely.

Luna closed her eyes and lowered her horn, bringing forth the moon with a gentle nudge instead of a mighty push like last night. It was full, and would be nearly so for a few more days, so its bright light mingled perfectly with the reflection of the red flames in the water. Satisfied that the task was done, she beat her wings and took to the sky. She did take one more look at the site of the pyre before heading onward, and it was even more beautiful from this vantage point. The moon and fire made it look like a giant red eye staring up at her. She turned from its gaze with both relief and shame, then began her flight back to the ruins of her castle. I shall add thee to the list of those I shall dedicate my conquests to, she promised.

Less than an hour's flight later, she had reached her destination. An unmistakable figure stood atop the palace's tallest remaining tower, searching the sky. Before Luna could react, Princess Celestia, resplendent in her perfectly-groomed white coat and multi-faceted mane, spied her approach. Celestia waved, but even from this distance, Luna knew what her face would look like. She would be looking at her kindly, but not happily. She fully expected to be hearing some variations on the word “disappointment” soon. Resigning herself to her fate, the Princess of the Night landed next to her sister, straight into a stance very fitting for royalty. She folded up her wings crisply.

“You look terrible,” said Celestia, in a tone simultaneously humorous and concerned.

“Thou hast no idea,” Luna replied, with very little humor in her own tone.