Luna walked through the forest, not caring if she made noise. This wasn't the Everfree Forest, it was simply a forest. Specifically, it was the Dark Star Forest. Luna wasn't completely sure how she would teach her newfound friends anything, or how she would learn anything. Was she supposed to just walk around until she found something? That was what the case appeared to be, though Luna couldn't tell what was special or important in these woods; she wasn't sure what all was here. As Luna was lost in thought, she almost fell into a hole.
"Princess Luna!" Twilight cried, grabbing Luna's tail with her teeth and pulling back. Luna watched the hole retreat from her hooves as she was pulled back to a safer proximity. "Thank you, Twilight," Luna said. She peered down the hole.
It was massive. The hole could easily fit Sugarcube Corner inside and still have a little extra room around the sides. The hole was also very deep. Very deep. Luna couldn't even see the bottom.
"What's a hugemongous hole like this doing in the ground?" Pinkie Pie said, turning her head every which way in order to inspect the intruding hole in all directions.
Applejack marched up to the hole and said, "Well, I ain't quite sure, but I do know that we're gonna hafta get to the other side. Our only problem is: How?"
Twilight sat on her haunches and thought for a rational explanation. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and flapped her wings. She soared across the hole and landed on the other side. Rarity glared at Rainbow Dash. "Oh yes, that's a wonderful idea, Rainbow Dash. There's just one itty bitty problem: the rest of us do not have wings!"
Fluttershy said quietly, "Um..." and flapped her wings. Rarity groaned and rephrased, "Ok, the rest of us besides Fluttershy do not have wings!"
Luna cleared her throat and stretched her wings. Rarity groaned in exasperation and said, "Never mind!"
Twilight looked around for something to help them get across. She spotted a tree with strange vines hanging from it. "Princess Luna, do you know what these are?" Luna walked up to Twilight and gazed at the tree.
"I-I think so... I believe this is an Everlasting Tree. It has only one vine, and that vine extends for forever. It's pretty thick and very wide too.... Perhaps we could use this to help us across," Twilight grinned. "Exactly what I was thinking," she said.
Twilight and Luna used their magic to lift the vine and toss it across. "Hey, Dash! A little help please?" Applejack called up to the blue pegasus. Dash saluted and flew down after the vine, which hadn't made it to the other side. Dash flew back to the other side, the vine in her mouth. She spit it out into the grass and stepped on the end to make it stay. "All aboard the Vine Line!" she laughed. Everypony rolled their eyes and giggled. Princess Luna went across first, then Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity. Fluttershy flew along beside them.
Luna made it to the other side and hopped off the vine. Once everypony was off the vine on the other side, Dash let go of the vine. It slung back to the tree and recoiled itself around the branches. The seven ponies continued on.
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Celestia was keeping tabs on her sister by her magic. She flipped furiously through the pages of the book she was currently reading, hoping to find the answer to her question. The question was, "Where can I find the entrance to this hidden place called the kingdom of Syrrad." Unfortunately, she was getting no luck.
The only answer she had found so far was, "The kingdom of Syrrad can only be found by those who look during the night," That was not the answer she had been hoping for.
Celestia groaned and tossed the book aside, in the "Not Helpful" pile. So far, that book was number 53. And all 53 books were now in the "Not Helpful" pile. She decided that she had better and more important things to do, so Celestia called in one of her servant ponies and said, "Look through these books and see if you find anything about the location of the kingdom of Syrrad. Her servant pony had no other option than to agree, so he wearily started looking through the books in Celestia's massive library.
Celestia, meanwhile, walked out onto her balcony. She let the warm sun wash over her. The warmth made her feel cozy and protected. From what Celestia had experienced in the night when she'd had to raise the moon herself, with the cold chill and solitariness that enveloped her during the darkness, Celestia was glad she'd been given the responsibility to be in charge of the sun. It was much brighter and a lot more cheerful. But Celestia wasn't feeling cheerful at all. Instead, Celestia felt hollow and empty inside. She hated to admit it, but she kind of missed her sister.
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"This water is so pretty!" Pinkie exclaimed, wading through the water of a lake. Colorful lights were shining on the surface. They did not come from any specific thing in the air around them; in fact, it seemed as if the colors had no producer at all, they were just... there. Luna smiled as she swam through the milky water. The water cut around her and created beautiful designs with the colors. "Come on, Pinkie. We need to get through this lake. I think I see something glowing over here," she called.
Luna waded onto the bank and shook herself dry. As she waited for her friends, she suddenly saw white. She was standing alone, with emptiness around her..
There was nothing there, only white color. Luna turned around frantically, searching for her friends or any sign of life at all in all directions. She saw absolutely nothing. Luna cried out, "Where am I? What's happening?" A voice whispered to her, "You are nowhere and everywhere, young filly. You will live your life like this if you continue your actions,"
Luna looked around hopelessly. "What am I doing wrong?" The voice replied with, "You are intruding your sister's rule. If she had known you would try to steal her spotlight once again, she would have sent you back to the moon!"
Luna shook her head slowly. "No... Celestia isn't that cruel! I made a mistake before! I admit to wanting complete control, but that was over 1000 years ago! I'm not trying to take Celestia's rule, I'm only trying to teach ponies that the night is a wonderful thing as well!" Luna couldn't believe that Celestia would send her back to the moon. She hadn't done anything nearly as terrible as what had happened 1000 years ago.
The voice chuckled and said, "Silly little filly. You have yet to learn how jealous ponies can be," The landscape faded to darkness.
"Luna?" Luna could hear Twilight say, but she couldn't see the purple unicorn. She realized her eyes were closed; she had fainted.
Luna opened her eyes and sat up. The other ponies moved back away from her. "Princess Luna, are you ok?" Twilight asked, an anxious look in her eyes. The others had the same expression. Luna nodded slowly. "Yes, girls, I-I'm fine," Applejack and Rainbow Dash helped her up.
She thanked them with her eyes and said, "Ok, girls. we need to continue. I think I saw that glowing over here somewhere," Luna slowly walked away.
The others followed her, looking around for any sign of something glowing. Luna gasped. "What is it?" Fluttershy asked nervously.
There, in front of Luna, stood seven cats. They were all a different color, and they were all glowing.
The biggest one, which was obviously the mother, was dark blue. The six other kittens were purple, pink, yellow, orange, light blue, and white. The colored cats ran to the pony with its corresponding color.
Fluttershy nuzzled the little yellow kitten and said, "Oh, you're so sweet! I think I'm going to call you Daisy," The kitten purred and rubbed against Fluttershy's leg.
Twilight gently suspended the purple kitten in the air in a bubble in front of her with her magic. "Your name will be Scholar. You're such a cute kitten!"
Rarity hugged the white kitten. "Oh I know exactly what I will call you! Your name is Grace!"
Applejack smiled at the little orange kitten. "I'm gonna name you Sugarcube," the kitten jumped on Applejack's back and purred.
Pinkie Pie giggled and said, "Your name will be Cupcake," The pink kitten jumped around, exactly like Pinkie.
Rainbow Dash looked at her kitten and said, "Hmm... wait a minute," she whispered to Twilight, who smiled and started on a spell. Her horn glowed, and there was a bright flash. Suddenly, Dash's kitten had wings sprouting from its back. The kitten stared at its newfound limbs, astonished. Rainbow Dash said, "Now you're 20% cooler! Your name should be... Sonic Rainboom! In honor of my two Sonic Rainbooms! I think I'll just call you Sonic though," Sonic jumped up and did little twirls in excitement.
Luna's cat slowly approached, looking extremely nervous. "Hello, little girl," Luna said softly. The cat purred and trotted towards Luna. Luna let her crawl onto her head and smiled. "I think I'm going to call you Eternal," The cat snuggled into Luna's mane, resting her back against Luna's horn.
The ponies, with their new little pets, continued on their walk, unaware of the strangely green and smoky light wafting through the woods, slowly coming towards them.