//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 REVISED 
// Story: A Journey Unthought Of 
// by Hustlin Tom 
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After having said our goodbyes to Twilight and Spike, Fluttershy, Bon Bon, Lyra, and I made our way back to our respective homes.  As we walked toward the outskirts of town, the lights inside the many houses we passed went out, and that's when I noticed the ambient light still around us.  I looked up at the night sky through my shroud to see the stars blink into life one after the other, creating designs of wonderful and infinite complexity.  "Incredible," I exclaimed in awe as they continued to appear.  

"What?" Lyra asked as she looked up towards where my mouth should be, "What's incredible?"  

"The stars," I replied matter-of-factly, "Look at them!"  

The three ponies glanced up as they continued walking.  

"They certainly are beautiful tonight," Fluttershy mused with a smile, "Princess Luna must feel very inspired!"  I literally stopped in my tracks as I thought about what she had said for a moment, then walked briskly after them when I realized I had fallen behind.  By the time I caught up to them, Fluttershy had already said her goodbyes and was trotting off to her cottage.  

"So wait," I exclaimed, then paused for a bit as I continuing thinking over what had sounded absolutely ludicrous to me, "You're telling me that what you guys had said earlier about your Princesses raising the sun and moon was true?"  

Lyra looked in my general direction curiously, "Well, yeah!  What did you think we meant?"  

I shrugged to myself, "I dunno. I thought it was a metaphor or something!"  

Bon Bon glanced up, "Sooo who raises your sun and moon?"  

The strangeness of what she had asked overcame me for a minute, but I put it aside after a little while: different universe, different rules after all, "No one does: they just move through space like they're supposed to."  

Bon Bon scoffed a little, "Well, that's certainly odd."  

Irony, I determined in that moment, is a peculiar but funny thing.  

By the time we arrived at the cottage the last light of the daylight skies had completely left the horizon to be replaced by deep azure and purple.  There wasn't a cloud in sight as far as the eye could see, and the stars danced.  The moon looked as if it was set to completely rise within the next few minutes.  I couldn't help but stare at its amazing light.  Back on Earth, I could rarely ever glimpse the stars from the inner city because of the light pollution.  More times than I could count the lights in the sky were typically airplanes or helicopters flying overhead, while a solitary moon watched on.  Now, however, the entire sky was populated with lights, so many that I couldn't even begin to think where to start counting them, even if I could count them all.  

"You know what," I said as my two hosts approached their door, "I think I'll stay out for a little bit; I never really got a good show like this where I'm from."  

Bon Bon shrugged then yawned deeply, "Suit yourself. I'm headed to bed!"  

"Same here," Lyra chimed in as she rubbed her eyes a little, "Good night Adam!  Be careful not to be seen."  

"I'll be sure too.  Good night you two!"

As they entered the house I turned to look back towards the now celestial-lit horizon.  With no large sources of light coming from Ponyville, one could see for miles around by just the moon's illumination.  No matter how much I kept looking, the sight never became old.  I walked a little ways from the house and sat down in the middle of the field, all while remembering to remain concealed.  As the minutes passed the stars seemed to swirl in front of me, like partners on a ballroom floor, each in synchronous tempo as they revolved around the moon, their master of ceremonies.  Suddenly I noticed a dark spot fly across its pale white surface.  I frowned a little as I thought about it.  Craters don't just appear on the moon; there was something up there.  I shrugged after a moment's thought; it could just be some night owl pegasus flying around, appreciating the night's sky like me, just from a bird's eye view.  I then realized that the speck was slowly getting larger and larger.  

As I watched, a large pony descended on deep azure wings.  I also noticed in amazement that there was a horn on her head: there wasn't any doubt at all that this was one of the ponies the others had called 'alicorns'.  Her coat was a deep shade of blue; close to a dark purple color, and her mane and tail appeared to be streams of glowing ether, as if the cosmos itself were woven into her hair like a tapestry of light.  She wore glass-like shoes, almost like those described in the stories of Cinderella.  A crown of obsidian sat on her head, and a ceremonial yoke of similar color hung around her neck onto her chest.  A crescent moon of clear diamond sat inside that yoke, and the same insignia adorned her flanks as her Cutie Mark.  She flew overhead without a sound, then gracefully banked into a tight curve above the cottage.  Gliding to the earth below she finally touched the ground, and with a canter came to stop not but thirty feet away from me.  

She glanced around, turning her head this way and that, before walking aimlessly about, idly looking about as she did.  My nervousness began to increase: it was entirely possible that the something she was looking for was me.  I began to breath through my nose to avoid making too much noise, and I stayed absolutely still.  She stopped dead in her tracks.  Her mane and tail continued to move in a nonexistent breeze.  Her ears twitched slightly.  I was beginning to sweat.  I covered my nose and mouth with my hands just to be sure she wouldn't hear my breathing.  She didn't move: her ears just kept twitching.  Finally fed up I mentally grumbled to myself, Come on!  Why won't you just fly away?

The mare slowly turned on the spot, and her eyes met mine with an unnerving stare that pierced straight through my shroud.

Because I know you are here, an imposing feminine voice declared in my head.

I quietly cursed to myself in fright.  I hurriedly tried to stand up, but in my rush I accidentally stood on my sheet and yanked it off of myself, leaving me completely visible and unprotected.  I cursed again.

"Fear not," she hurriedly said aloud as she approached, "If thou art afraid of malcontent or cruelty upon our part, verily, we mean no ill will to you if thou would be peaceful."

I stared at her for a long few seconds before I stammered, "W-What?"

She thought back on her words, and then gave a small sigh, "My apologies.  My intention in speech was that I meant you no harm."

"Oh," I replied, still slightly afraid but now more confused than anything else, "Well that's good."

The alicorn mare approached me, "I sensed you in my realm not but a few nights ago.  Your mind is just as different from my subjects as is your form: mercurial, dark, and full of pain."  She took a few steps closer, and I nervously took a step back, "Your dreams show of places that have never been, of things unseen and unimaginable, of things not in this world." She then stood still, her gaze again cutting through me, "You are not of this world."

I was dumbfounded by all the things she had said, but finally I stupidly exclaimed, "You can read my mind?"

She nodded, "Indeed I can, for I am Princess Luna: keeper of the night, guardian of all dreams, and co-ruler of Equestria.  Now answer me this: who and what art thou?"

I had to admit, the way this mare carried herself was intimidating: she exuded power like I had never seen, and her bluntness was a little off-putting.  Still, I wasn't about to let her think that I was some doormat that she could just walk over.  I rolled my shoulders in a slightly exaggerated manner, then crossed my arms and looked her square in the eye, "My name is Adam, and I'm a human being.  I'm a wanderer, and I come in peace."

She arched an eyebrow imperiously, "Peace?  Your thoughts are caught up in turmoil about much everything under the sky, including yourself.  Such an erratic imbalance of thought does not inspire credulity."

I looked at her in confusion, blinking slowly as I did.  Finally understanding why I wasn't replying, she gave a small sigh, "I don't trust you: you're unpredictable."

"Then I suppose there's one way to prove myself to you," I replied, and I tapped my temple three times, "Dig deeper.  Just mind the few good things I have in here, alright?"

She silently looked at me for a few seconds, gauging I suppose what I had said, perhaps determining if she was comfortable with what I had volunteered to let her do.  Whatever the case, after a while I began to sense alien thoughts within my head, probing, searching for any falsehoods or evil intentions on my part.  On compulsion I wanted to fight the invading influence, if there even was a way to do so, but instead I realized there was something else I could try.  Communication is two ways; perhaps it was the same with thoughts.  Visualizing the influence of the plucking sensors as they sifted my brain, I reached around them, pulling on what I imagined to be the wrists of their hands, and blindly following them along their reach back to their source.  I knew when I succeeded because I felt myself floating in a vast dark space with no walls, ceiling, or floor: it was just a swirling blackness that hung all around me.  

Suddenly there was a rush of memories that were definitely not my own.  

Swords clashed.  

A deep wailing had passed my lips, as had insane and cruel laughter.  

Then nothing, utter oblivion.  

From zero sensory input rapidly came total over-stimulation: a burning rainbow's light, which then bound me like cold shackles of iron.  Imprisoned until I had learned the error of my ways, harming nopony.  

Suddenly I became aware of the merged consciousness I had become part of, and I remember something important: I wasn't a pony, and there was nothing protecting me from her.  I remembered her, the demonic black horse.  Then memory became reality as I sunk deeper into the darkness, and she was there with me, or rather I was there with her, deposited before her presence.  I finally understood the correlation: the princess and the monster were one.  I now had a name for the dread I had felt, and it was Nightmare Moon.  She looked at me from her place within the blackness, defining it, filling it, and giving it substance, and she smiled in mock happiness, "Oh, it's you again!  Did you miss me so much you dropped by to make a house call?  It's only fair I suppose; I stopped by yours."

I snapped back to the real world, gasping deeply for air and trying to hold back a whimper that would turn into a scream.  

"By all the stars in the sky," Princess Luna exclaimed in horror as she looked at me, "What hath thou wrought?"  

"I," I stumbled over my words after a few minutes of just breathing, "You-"  

"Thou didst not heed my words," she said, anger, guilt, and shame oozing off of her, "I trust not a tumultuous mind, especially my own."  

Through the new memories I'd found one defining detail emerged, and I clung to it.  She was forgotten by her people at one time, just like me.  She was struggling with a world she didn't know, and coping with things she had seen, felt, and done.  Though there was quite a lot separating us, those things that were similar clung to my conscience, and my heart ached for her.  Having only scratched the surface of who this mare was, I knew she had to be feeling responsible for what I had seen, embarrassment at having her consciousness just as naked before me as mine had been to her, and reopened emotional wounds for what she had done and had wished to do.

"Don't feel bad," I finally declared, "I chose to look where I shouldn't have."  

She glanced away, not responding at all.  An awkward silence passed between us.  

"I like your night sky," I exclaimed, floundering for any way to connect with her.  

She cautiously looked back towards me.  "Dost thou-" she started, then she cleared her throat, "Do you really mean that?"  

"I do."  

She gave a broken smile, "My thanks to you, vagabond, for your kind words."  

I nodded a little in return, and then I cautiously tried to say the words I thought she'd need most, "I know you're feeling guilty, and it just keeps weighing down on you.  What matters, though, is that those who care about you most have already forgiven you.  Why not share with them in their belief?  I've met other ponies, and they know you're making strides towards atonement.  Join with them: believe you can be forgiven."

Her face became melancholic, and once again she turned away, now to look out over the waving grove and fields below us.  “There is no forgiveness for what I tried to do,” she said in monotone.  She then gazed up to the moon and stars above, “I abandoned my true duty for my own desires.  My destined task has been returned to me, that of raising the moon and caring for the astral bodies, but I am adrift; without cause or meaning.”  

She then thought about what she had just confessed, and then in bewilderment turned to look at me.  She scrutinized me intently for a while before she spoke again, "Why am I speaking of these things to you, vagabond?  I've not spoken of this to a soul, not even my sister, and yet I converse freely with you?  What powers have you?"  

"Maybe it's because I'm a stranger that you're able to talk about it so easily: if I have no idea who you really are, I don't have any expectations on what to think about you?" I paused, then shrugged a little as I shook my head, "Or maybe it's just because we were sharing minds; I don't know."  

The Princess ruffled her wings a little as she thought to herself for a moment, then she slowly turned on the spot and began to walk away.  "I've found no fault in you, Adam the Human," she declared regally, "You have my blessing to roam these lands in peace."  She spread her wings to fly, but before she took off she looked to me with a small, appreciative smile, "I'll also take into account what council you've offered.  I accept it with sincerest gratitude."  

With her peace made, she briskly flew away, her large downy wings flapping to gain altitude as she went.  As I watched her shrink into the distance, I heard her voice in my head, now much softer and kinder than when I'd first heard it, If ever you'd seek my aid, call my name, and I shall come swiftly.