//------------------------------//
// Chapter Nine 
// Story: A Journey Unthought Of 
// by Hustlin Tom 
//------------------------------//

After the others had left to go to their own homes, Twilight put Spike to bed and ushered Bon Bon, Lyra, and I out.  It was dusk by this point, and the town of Ponyville was dark.  Bon Bon and Lyra led me, Lyra with her magic grasping my hand, and Bon Bon with her voice.  We had reached the outskirts of Ponyville as the moon began to rise.  It was a quarter moon, just barely radiant enough that I could see my way and the silhouettes of my two caretakers.  We had made our way to their cottage.  I told them to go ahead and bed down for the night, and that I was going to spend some time looking at the stars.  When I turned back to look on the moon again, I suddenly noticed a tiny speck clouding my sight to the slivered sphere.  It was too dark to be something like a crater on the surface.  No, there was something in the sky.  Something far up.  I then realized that the aforementioned speck was slowly getting larger and larger.  

Rather than fear, I was filled with a sense of wonder, as a pony flew down from the sky and came to a graceful cantering stop right before me.  This pony was much different from all the others I had met and seen.  Her coat was a deep shade of blue; close to a dark purple color.  Her mane and her tail appeared to be streams of glowing ether, as if the cosmos itself were placed on her as a tapestry.  She wore glass-like shoes, almost like those described in the stories of Cinderella.  Her wings were large, and I was quick to note she had a horn as well.  

She made eye contact with me, which was easier for her then for other ponies, because her eyes were level to mine even though I was standing.  She looked me up and down and walked around me, inspecting my every detail.  She carried in her walk a statement of regality; she was meant to be respected, and, if need be, feared.  

She came around to my face once more; her face was blank.  “You are not of this world.”  

She spoke it as a statement of fact rather than as a question.  Her voice was lower than other ponies I had heard, but it was not unpleasant.  It carried with it a tone I could only describe as ancient, though she looked to be only in the youngest stages of adulthood for a horse.  

“You are not a dumb animal; your mind speaks volumes to me.”  

She can read my mind? I thought to myself. 

“Yes.  I sensed you from above; you are different from these ponies, but you hold a strange familiarity to me.  Tell me this: What art thou?”  She commanded firmly. 

I summoned up as much cordial language as I could.  “I am known as Adam the Human.”  

“What be thine intentions for this land of mine?”  

“Only to live as peaceably as I am allowed too.”  This seemed to please her.  

“If I may ask, who are you?”  

Standing even taller than before, she spake her titles.  “I am Princess Luna, keeper of the Moon, guardian of all dreams, and the sister of Princess Celestia.”