> Spreading My Wings
>  by KingBoo687
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Rise of the Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you all ready, Lunar?”

The Prince of the Night smiled proudly and nodded, “You bet I am, Twily.”

The Princess of Friendship giggled, then brought forward her pad of paper and quill, “Okay, now if you're ready Miss Meridian?”

“I sure am, Your Highness,” the cheerful pony replied, “I can't believe that I'll be the first pony you tell all of this to, Your Majesty! It's truly an honor.”

Lunar smiled in response, “The pleasure is all mine. Frankly, I'm surprised that anypony was interested enough in writing a biography on me, considering what happened in the past.”

“That's what makes it more fascinating,” Meridian explained, “your past is full of adventures and historic events, like your coronation and the royal wedding. It is important to not lose details in history since history is vital; if we don't relay the facts, then history will be bound to repeat itself.”

Lunar rubbed the back of his neck softly, “Y-Yeah, and I think we can both agree that we wouldn't want all of my story to be repeated in the future.”

Meridian smirked, “Op-op-op, save that for the storytelling. I'll be recording all of our interviews, however long they may take. I want to get every single detail that you can share with me and, once the book is published, all of Equestria. This is your opportunity to let them all know your story.”

“And I'd love to hear it all again,” Twilight admitted, “it's been forever since we've reminisced about the past – literally.”

“Right,” agreed Lunar, looking towards Meridian, “where should I begin then?”

“Start from the beginning,” Meridian stated, “a brief recap of your childhood life will do just fine. When you feel that certain life events come into play, then go into more detail, okay?”

“Okay,” smiled Lunar, adjusting himself slightly.

Meridian nodded, then reached over to a tape recorder and started recording the conversation, “Recording has started, Your Majesty, so start by saying your name, age, and title.”

Lunar obliged and started speaking, “My name is Lunar Nights and I'm a unicorn-turned-alicorn that is one thousand five hundred and twenty-three years of age. My title in Equestria is Prince of the Night and it is my job to assist Princess Luna in duties within the Dream Realm. I am the husband to Princess Twilight Sparkle and owe her a lot in my life. This is the story of my life and my lifelong journey.”

“Tell us what your first experiences were growing up as a unicorn, Lunar,” Meridian said.

“I was born and raised near Ontneighrio, Caneighda as the son of my Pegasus mother, Lustrous Nights, and my unicorn father, Eclipse,” answered Lunar, “we lived in a small home in the province and I remember spending a lot of time studying my magic and being home schooled by my mother during the day when she was finished with her tasks as the weather pony for the Caneighdian weather patrol. I studied with her for years until her abrupt passing.”

“Would you care to tell us what happened around that time, Lunar?” Meridian asked, hoping that it wasn't overstepping her boundaries.

“Of course,” Lunar nodded, looking up slightly.

He began to remember far back to the time of his mother's death.





“Daddy,” Lunar asked his father, “where's Mommy?”

Eclipse's eyes started to form tears in them. Lunar was uncertain if he had done something wrong and, after approaching Eclipse slowly, began to twirl his front left hoof on the ground slowly. Eclipse looked down and shook his head.

“N-no...” He told Lunar.

Lunar looked up to Eclipse and wondered even more what was happening, “Daddy, what happened to Mommy? Where did she go?”

Eclipse wiped his tears away and pulled in his son for a hug. He rubbed Lunar's back softly and began explaining to him what happened to Lustrous as best as he could in a way that Lunar could understand.

“Lunar,” he said, “Mommy...Mommy is going to be doing a very special job up in the clouds.”

“When will she come back?” Lunar asked, hoping that it would be soon.

Eclipse bit his lip a bit and sighed slightly, “She won't be coming back, Lunar. Her job is taking her to heaven. She will be very busy up there now.”

“Can we see her then?” Lunar pressed on.

“Maybe one day,” Eclipse answered, feeling more tears form in his eyes, hugging his son once more.





“I was about seven or eight years old when Lustrous had passed,” Lunar explained to Meridian, “during the time she was in the hospital in Ontneighrio, Eclipse had insisted to the local school board to let me study in one of the classrooms since he could not teach me himself and we couldn't afford a private tutor to do so either. That lasted for a couple of months – two or three, I think – while Eclipse and I would visit Lustrous in the hospital each day after I came home from school.

“Right around Hearth's Warming, Lustrous started feeling more sick and became bedridden. The doctors told Eclipse and myself – insisted, really – each day that she would be better just after the beginning of the new year, so we both really kept our hopes up high for that. Unfortunately, it never happened and she passed away in her sleep on the eve of the new year.” Lunar felt a tear forming in his eye and quickly wiped it away, clearing his throat as well. “One of the few things I regret in my life was that I was never able to tell her goodbye. I never obtained closure when my mother passed.”

“I express my deepest condolences, Your Majesty,” Meridian retorted, wiping her eye as well, “it must have been hard to experience that.”

Lunar nodded, “I'll admit that the month or two following her death changed me and, if I'm being honest, made me a pony that I really don't know too much about, but when I finally returned to focusing on my studies, I decided to make a bold choice that Lustrous always wanted me to experience, if that makes sense.”

“What was that choice?” Meridian curiously asked.

“My mother was a pony that saw a lot of magic potential in me, despite being a Pegasus,” Lunar said, “one time, when I was five, I played around with my magic and impressed my parents when they saw me moving around a bunch of different things in our living room. Ever since that day, Lustrous tried enrolling me in Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns, but, me being the nervous wreck that I was as a youngster, I would toss out the applications anytime I saw them. That choice became much more clearer and easier for me to make after she passed. When I finally found the strength to do so, I filled out the application, with Eclipse's help of course, and sent it in to Canterlot.”

“What happened after that, Lunar?” Meridian wondered.

“Probably one of the best things to happen to me in my life,” smirked Lunar, looking towards Twilight in the process, “present company excluded, of course.”

Twilight giggled while Lunar looked up once more, remembering back to the days just before the entrance exam to Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns.





Lunar blinked a few times, then stared at the double-wide doors that separated him and Eclipse from the ponies that were to judge him inside the room. Opening the door with his magic, Lunar nervously stepped into the exam room and waited in the middle of it, bowing to the two ponies politely. The two ponies had clipboards hovering next to them and, as they glared down at Lunar, made him slightly uncomfortable.

“Go-Good morning, sirs,” mumbled Lunar.

The unicorn on the left cocked an eyebrow and looked away from his clipboard, “What was that, youngster?” His voice sounded as if he should be hosting events or gameshows instead of judging unicorns based off their skills in magic.

Lunar gulped, then spoke up louder. “G-Good morning, sirs.”

With silence falling throughout the room, Lunar began to wonder what he could do in order to make a good name for himself during the exam. Before he knew it, a door had opened up to his left and a cart was being pushed in front of him by another pony. Looking at the cart, Lunar saw some test tubes, beakers, flasks, and liquids inside most of the glass items. He looked a bit more to his right and saw that two flasks were empty of liquid.

“Umm, wh-what did you want me to do?” Lunar asked, nervousness rising once more.

“On the table are some liquids.” The unicorn on the right said. She used her magic on the pencil she had, using it as a pointer and pointing it at the beakers and test tubes. “Inside some of these test tubes and beakers is a liquid that can be controlled with unicorn magic.”

“Your objective is to distill the liquid that can be controlled with magic and place it inside the empty flasks,” added the male judge.

Lunar looked back to the cart again and began to work on separating the liquids. Encasing each test tube with his magic evenly, he lifted them all upwards slightly to pinpoint where the heaviest point in each of them were. Noticing that the second test tube from the left was the heaviest when compared to the four other test tubes, Lunar placed the others and started working on the second one. He prepared to separate the liquid that was mentioned earlier when he began hearing a different voice and hoofsteps within the room. Looking up from the table, he noticed who had entered.

“I'm sorry I'm late, you two,” the new voice whispered, “have I missed anything yet?”

“Not at all, Your Highness,” the judges delightfully responded.

“Lunar Nights was just in the middle of performing his entrance exam, Princess Celestia,” the female judge told her.

Realizing that Princess Celestia was watching him now, Lunar started to lose his concentration, causing his to drop the test tube and flask he was holding up with his magic, making them both shatter across the floor. The liquid inside the test tube began spreading around, forming a little puddle down by his hooves. Blushing a bit, Lunar looked down at the damage and then looked up to the judges, noticing that they were writing things down on their clipboards.





Lunar chuckled, then rolled his eyes playfully, “Needless to say, my entrance exam was going about as good as an out-of-control blaze.”

“That is quite interesting to hear, Lunar,” Meridian admitted, “but history books show that you did learn at the school. Are those books wrong?”

“Not exactly,” corrected Lunar, “while it is true that I did learn at the school, I learned and was taken under the wing of Princess Luna. You see, after dropping the test tubes, I began picking up the liquids with my magic and, thanks to my anxiety, started losing control of it.”

“How did you regain control of it?” Meridian asked, curious to know what happened. She briefly checked to see if the tape recorder was still functioning.

“That's the thing,” answered Lunar, “I never did. Princess Celestia was the pony that gave me control over my magic once more.”

“Fascinating!”

“If it weren't for her, I don't think I would've been accepted into the school,” Lunar continued, “she took me outside the exam room and started escorting me elsewhere. She wanted to talk to my father and I, telling us that she had a proposition for me.”





“You know,” Princess Celestia spoke, “you remind me of another pony about the same age as you.”

“I-I do?” Lunar replied, hesitating a bit.

Princess Celestia nodded, “She was a small purple unicorn. I recently sent her to Ponyville to continue learning from me there.” She started proceeding out of the room slowly. “Come along, Lunar...I want to speak with you and whoever else is here with you.”

Lunar blushed, walking alongside the tall, white alicorn towards the door he walked through originally. He tried to open the door himself when they got to it, but the princess opened it up with her magic instead and stepped aside, allowing Lunar to go through first. He looked up at her and began wondering if it were okay to leave first.

“Go on, Lunar,” she smiled, “it's okay.”

Exiting through the door, Lunar saw Eclipse and ran over to him, hugging him tightly. Eclipse smiled, then gazed up towards the towering princess. He bowed to her, addressing her properly.

“Greetings, Your Highness,” He beamed delightfully.

“Hello,” Princess Celestia responded, “you must be Lunar's father.”

“I sure am, yes.”

“I'd like to talk to both of you inside one of these rooms, if that is okay with you, sir,” continued Princess Celestia.

“Yes, of course,” answered Eclipse, looking down at Lunar, then back at the princess.

The princess smiled politely and began to escort both Eclipse and Lunar to one of the nearby rooms in the hallway. She opened the door to it and allowed the two unicorns to enter first. After she herself had entered into the room, she closed the door and locked it so that nobody would intrude upon them while she talked to them both.

Lunar glanced around the entire room and saw a bunch of desks and books in it. He felt happy inside the room and noticed that a lot of the books pertained to magic, some of which he had and some which he didn't. He turned back to Eclipse and the princess and smiled happily. Eclipse sat down in one of the nearby chairs, as did the princess. They both looked towards Lunar and exchanged his smile with a couple of their own.

“Lunar,” Princess Celestia started, “can you take a guess why I brought you here with your father?”

Lunar tapped his chin lightly. “Because I remind you of that other unicorn?”

“Well, yes,” giggled Princess Celestia, turning to Eclipse, “but it's something else I want to talk to you about.”

“And what was that, Your Highness?” Eclipse asked.

“Lunar?” Princess Celestia called. “Mr. Nights? Have...?” She trailed off briefly before picking up again. “Tell me: do either of you believe in mare's tales, such as the old 'Mare in the Moon' tale?”

“Well,” Eclipse began, turning to Lunar momentarily, “n-not exactly.”

“I do...” Lunar answered.

Princess Celestia focused her attention on Lunar for her next question. “Do you know what that story is about, Lunar?”

“Yeah,” Lunar replied informally, “the 'Mare in the Moon' is an old story that states that there is a mare trapped in the moon who goes by the name of Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon vowed vengeance on the land and promised to return one day, using the stars as her guide. She wanted to bring eternal night down to everypony and, well, that hasn't happened yet since it's currently sunny right now.”

Princess Celestia nodded, “You know your history very well, Lunar. I am very impressed.”

“History?” Lunar repeated. “But that's an old mare's tale...although I believe the story, it isn't true...is it?”

“Well,” continued the princess, pausing for an extended time, “let me ask you this, Lunar...can you name the princesses that there are within Equestria? How many do you know?”

“There's yourself, Princess,” Lunar stated, “then, umm...then there is Princess Cadence...I can't recall any of the oth-oh, there's Prince Blueblood as well!” He stopped and tried thinking of anyone else that could've been royalty. “I don't know anypony else that could be a prince or princess.”

“So you've never heard of the Princess of the Night then, hmm?” Princess Celestia inquired.

“I know that the Queen of the Eternal Night is Nightmare Moon, Your Highness,” replied the nervous unicorn.

Princess Celestia smirked, rubbing her chin with her forehoof slightly. “Tell me more about what you know in regards to Nightmare Moon.”

“From my readings,” responded Lunar, “I know that Nightmare Moon was a formidable foe for you, Princess. If I'm not mistaken, you fought her yourself and...had...to...” Lunar trailed off as he began putting two and two together.

“And what, Lunar?” Princess Celestia smiled.

“You trapped her in the moon...” He slowly answered. “Thus making the 'Mare in the Moon' tale...” Lunar began thinking about his response slowly. “Th-that can't possibly be a true story, Princess...did you really go against Nightmare Moon that long ago?”

Princess Celestia nodded, “I did. Do you know what was used to imprison Nightmare Moon inside the moon for the thousand years?”

“I believe they were called the Elements of Harmony, if I'm not mistaken,” Lunar said.

“Tell me about them, Lunar.”

“There are five elements that make up the Elements of Harmony,” explained Lunar, “Honesty, Laughter, Loyalty, Generosity, and Kindness. There are rumors of a sixth element, but those rumors, from what I've heard, were mostly false since there was no solid evidence to prove that a sixth element could even exist.”

“The rumors were true,” Princess Celestia alerted, “remember that purple unicorn I told you about, Lunar?”

Lunar nodded in response, “Yes, Your Highness. Did she have something to do with that?”

“She did,” continued Princess Celestia, looking at both Eclipse and Lunar, “you see, that unicorn's name is Twilight Sparkle. She was an extremely gifted unicorn when she enrolled here at my school, much like yourself, Lunar. Twilight recently found the missing sixth element – Magic – and used it and the other elements to defeat Nightmare Moon in an old castle inside the Everfree Forest recently. Do you know what happened next?”

Shaking his head slowly, Lunar admitted that he didn't. He then placed his hoof on his chin and remembered seeing a difference in the moon the previous night. “The moon did change appearance recently...”

“It did,” acknowledged Princess Celestia, “because of what Twilight Sparkle did. By defeating Nightmare Moon, she broke the curse Princess Luna was in for over a thousand years.”

“Princess Luna?” Lunar repeated.

“That's a name I don't really recognize, Your Highness,” added Eclipse, tilting his head slightly.

“That is because Princess Luna has been trapped in the moon for over a thousand years,” Princess Celestia told the unicorns. She smiled and continued explaining herself, “You see, Nightmare Moon comes from the subconscious of Princess Luna. I used to rule over Equestria a long time ago with Princess Luna by my side, but as she started to become a bit more jealous and let her emotions begin to get the better of her, she fell to the likes of those emotions and transformed into Nightmare Moon, trying to enact an endless night throughout the land by forbidding to lower the moon. It was then that I'd fought her and trapped her in the moon using the Elements of Harmony. Fast forward a thousand years and Nightmare Moon returns and the new wielders of the Elements of Harmony fight her and defeat her, breaking the curse that was held on my sister and returning her to the land.”

“Your sister?” Lunar repeated, confused when he heard them.

Princess Celestia nodded, turning to the door and using her magic to open it up. “You can come in now.”

Following the call, a new pony had stepped foot inside. The pony was a smaller, darker colored alicorn compared to Princess Celestia. Lunar noticed the alicorn and saw how she matched his height. The alicorn had had an azure colored mane and appeared to be as nervous as Lunar was presently. She stopped next to Princess Celestia and hid a little bit behind her mane.

“Lunar,” Princess Celestia smiled, “Mr. Nights, this is my younger sister, Princess Luna.”
> Under A Lunar Wing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That was the first time I'd ever seen Princess Luna,” Lunar explained, “and needless to say, I was stunned.”

“How so?” Meridian asked. “Care to explain further, Lunar?”

“Well,” continued Lunar, “it was like I was looking into a mirror that simply swapped my gender. I mean, granted that my name isn't that much of a difference between us two, but it was interesting to say the least that Princess Luna was almost exactly like me.”

“Rather,” interrupted Twilight, “you look almost exactly like her. She is older than you are, remember?”

Lunar chuckled, “You're right, Twily, like usual.”

“I try,” smiled Twilight.

Lunar rolled his eyes playfully, “Anyway, once I met Princess Luna, Princess Celestia suggested that I learn from Luna instead of herself since both Luna and myself are nocturnal ponies. I accepted – enthusiastically, if I may add – and proceeded to learn nearly everything I know about magic and the night from Princess Luna.”

“Fascinating,” admitted Meridian, “and how long did that last, Lunar?”

“For roughly three, four years,” Lunar said, “and that's when I moved to Baltimare.”

“How long did you live there?”

“A little less than a year,” replied Lunar, “I went there to map out some constellations that can only be seen in that area. Around the end of my time there, Princess Luna had sent me a letter and that was a letter that really changed my life for the better.”

“Do you remember what that letter stated, Lunar?” Meridian wondered.

Lunar smiled and nodded, teleporting the letter to himself with his magic, “I can read it all if you'd like.”

“That would be wonderful,” Meridian beamed, eager to listen to one of the final few things Lunar had received in his unicorn life.

“Excellent,” Lunar chuckled, unraveling the scroll and reading it aloud:

Dear Lunar Nights,

I trust that you are studying very hard right now in your pursuit towards your destiny. I am writing this letter to you in regards to the Star Swirl the Bearded journal, assuming you have read up to, if not, passed it at the present moment.

Lunar smiled and brought out the specified book, showing it to Meridian. “The final spell in this book was left unfinished. It is given out to specific ponies who may have a chance to complete it.”

He continued reading the letter, allowing Meridian to inspect the book:

The last spell in the journal was Star Swirl the Bearded's final spell. After many unsuccessful attempts at perfecting it, he abandoned the spell because he lacked the key motivation to perfect it, which was understanding friendship.

If you can recall, my sister had given a copy of this same journal to her former star pupil, Twilight Sparkle. She studied under my sister's tutelage for a couple of years before you started your studies. Princess Twilight Sparkle resides in Ponyville now, a town located not too far from Baltimare. I have arranged a meeting between you and Princess Twilight Sparkle. I want you to learn the wonders of friendship from her in the hopes that you too may be able to further your studies like she has.

Enclosed in this letter is a map to Ponyville. I expect you to travel there and learn the wonders of friendship. You have made me proud of all of your accomplishments over these last few years, especially in helping me overcome some of my own fears and help me start a school that even my sister is proud of. However, all of your accomplishments will be for nothing if you cannot learn how to make friends. If you learn the wonders of friendship, then I know you will be ready to continue on in your studies.

Warmest regards,

Princess Luna

“That was the final letter I ever received as a unicorn from Princess Luna,” Lunar told Meridian.

“This is incredible that you've been able to hold onto this after all of these years,” exclaimed Meridian, “how is it still kept in tact?”

“Twilight helped cast a preservation spell on it with her former pupil Starlight to keep it in that condition,” answered Lunar, “and I can't thank them enough for doing so.”

“So you received this letter from Princess Luna,” Meridian reiterated, “and then what happened? What did you do then?”

“Not wanting to disappoint anypony,” Lunar replied, “I followed my orders and went straight to Ponyville. As her pupil, I never wanted to disappoint Princess Luna and I always wanted to show how much learning from her meant to me. So, when I was sent to Ponyville, I packed up a few things and left bright and early the morning after I received that letter. When I got to Ponyville, I met Princess Twilight and was beyond impressed with her appearance. To put it simply, my knees were shaking the first time we had met and I grew very nervous.”

Twilight blushed slightly, “And I you, Lunar.”

Meridian giggled quietly to herself, “Love at first sight?”

Lunar began to blush as well, “You could say that, I suppose.”

He looked up and thought back to his time spent with Twilight as a unicorn.





“M-my name is, uh, Lunar Nights,” Lunar told Twilight, having a hard time saying it, “I, uh, I'm Princess Luna's star pupil and I'm, uh, here to see Twilight Sparkle.”

The little alicorn mare giggled, “I've been expecting you, Lunar Nights,” she explained, “I just wasn't expecting you to be so...” Twilight trailed off towards the end as she lost her chain of thought.

“So you must be Twilight Sparkle then,” assumed Lunar, “excuse me, you must be Princess Twilight Sparkle, Your Highness, correct?”

“I am indeed, Lunar Nights,” replied Twilight, “but you may simply address me as Twilight. You don't have to address me as Princess Twilight.”

“Thank you very much, Princess Twi...I mean, thank you, Twilight,” Lunar smiled, “and you may address me simply as Lunar.”

“Will do, Lunar,” Twilight giggled again.





“Our first encounter was an interesting one, to say the least,” Lunar admitted to Meridian, “we worked on our magic together and she introduced me to her friends. That was my first friendship lesson with Twilight and it went pretty well, I think.”

“It certainly did,” agreed Twilight, “and our subsequent lessons went just as well. I think my favorite time with you was when we spent the night in the Crystal Empire working on that spell with you.”

“I remember that one as well,” Lunar smiled, turning to Meridian, “we went to the Crystal Empire to get a better understanding of love in a friendship from Princess Cadence.”

“Please do elaborate,” Meridian beamed, eager for more. She checked once more to see if the tape recorder was still rolling and nodded.

“Where to begin...” Lunar chuckled, looking up once more.





“I had heard from Princess Luna that you were probably going to pay a visit,” Princess Cadence remarked, “the train must have come early today too. I was just on my way to go meet you both at the train station but, here you are.” She turned to Lunar and looked him over. “You must be Lunar Nights.”

“That is right, Your Highness,” Lunar replied, bowing to Princess Cadence in the process, “and it is an honor to rightfully meet you this time.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Lunar,” continued Cadence, “Princess Luna has told me a lot about you. Perhaps we can chat a little bit later about what you've learned.”

“That would be wonderful, Princess Cadence,” Lunar smiled confidently.

“Do you know where Shining Armor is, Cadence?” Twilight asked. “I need to ask him something about our parents' anniversary that's coming up soon.”

“Shining Armor is inside his room in the castle,” Cadence replied, “you can head in there if you want while I have a talk with Lunar here.”

“Sounds good,” smiled Twilight as she disappeared inside the Crystal Castle, leaving Lunar alone with Cadence.

“So,” Cadence began, turning to Lunar in the process, “the infamous Lunar Nights, star student of Princess Luna...I can sense a great amount of care and affection towards a certain somepony you know...somepony you met mere days ago, no less.”

“You're good,” chuckled Lunar, feeling himself blush in the process.

Cadence giggled in response, “I'm the Princess of Love, Lunar. I can see this easily.”

“So who's the somepony that I have a great amount of care and affection towards?” Lunar challenged, half-knowing that Cadence knew the answer already.

“The very special somepony you show much care and affection to happened to be the last pony that walked through those doors behind me, on her way visiting her older brother and my husband,” answered Cadence.

“You're really good,” Lunar praised.

“Like I said earlier, Lunar,” continued Cadence, “I know these kinds of things and, simply only letting you know, you both seem like a perfect match together.”

“That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Your Highness,” Lunar replied, twirling one of his hooves on the ground.

“Please,” Cadence smiled, “call me Cadence. Save the formalities for Princesses Celestia and Luna.”

“Right.”

“What did you want to talk about with Twilight?” Cadence asked.

“I, uhh...” Lunar found it hard to explain to Cadence how he felt about Twilight, though Cadence had a thought herself.

“You want to proclaim your love to Twilight, but aren't sure of how to do it, sound right?”

“Right on the nose, Cadence,” Lunar chuckled.

“Come, Lunar,” Cadence smiled, “let us both take a walk. I have something important to tell you along the way.”

With that being said, Cadence led Lunar down one of the crystallized streets. Following alongside her, Lunar prepared to have a chat with the princess. Cadence smirked, looking up towards the brightly colored sky, then back down towards Lunar.

“How much do you like Twilight, Lunar?” Cadence asked.

Lunar gulped, blushing slightly once more, “Uh...a-a lot, Cadence...”

“What exactly do you like about her?”

“What isn't there to like about Twilight?” Lunar smiled, “She's smart, funny, charming, innocent, beautiful, petite, and caring of her friends and everypony...”

“And now, describe yourself before and after meeting Twilight.”

“Before meeting Twilight,” Lunar began, looking down slightly, “I was a shy, independent unicorn that refrained from making contact with anypony else as much as I could. After meeting her, I learned that that wasn't the way to go. Twilight has taught me and has been teaching me the ways of friendship and has brought out my true potential.”

“What do you mean?” A bewildered Cadence asked.

“I now know that friendship and being social is one of the many joys of life,” answered Lunar. “Had Twilight not shown me that or had Princess Luna not sent me to learn from Twilight, I would be back in Baltimare only reading, studying my books, or focusing on my work.”

“I'm sure two ponies would love to hear that from you themselves,” Cadence told Lunar.

“Twilight and Princess Luna, right?” Lunar guessed.

“Precisely,” nodded Cadence, “and perhaps you should tell Twilight your true feelings for her.”

Lunar blushed once more, “Do you think she'll feel the same way back?”

“Lunar, love isn't about thinking,” Cadence advised, “it's about feeling and doing. If you think about it, you'll start getting plenty of negative moods and reactions that will put you down. But, if you feel confident that she'll feel the same way and do ask her, then there's only one way to find out.”

Lunar took Princess Cadence's words of wisdom into consideration. He thought that he was overthinking the entire process and, turning around, proceeded back to the castle, thanking Cadence in the process.

“Going to tell her?” Cadence asked.

“Precisely that, Princess,” Lunar replied.

“Then allow me to accompany you and show you where she is,” smiled Cadence.

Guiding Lunar back towards the castle, Cadence smiled, confident in Lunar's ability to tell Twilight how he was feeling. Once they were inside, Cadence led Lunar immediately towards Shining Armor's room. Once they were outside it, Cadence turned to Lunar and motioned towards the door.

“This is Shining Armor's private room in the castle,” she told Lunar, “Most likely, Twilight is in there as well.” I'll get Shining Armor to leave the room, leaving only you and Twilight to talk about how you both feel.”

“Thank you, Princess Cadence,” Lunar acknowledged, watching Cadence open the door to Shining Armor's room, revealing him and Twilight talking to each other.

Cadence entered into the room and approached Shining Armor, kissing him on his cheek. She pulled herself back, softly asking him if he could assist her with something elsewhere in the castle. Shining Armor gladly agreed to help Cadence and proceeded to leave with Cadence. Prior to leaving, Cadence turned around towards Lunar and winked at him, closing the door behind her and leaving Lunar alone with Twilight.

“I wonder what that was about...” Twilight smiled.

“I don't know,” Lunar replied, losing himself inside Twilight's beautiful lilac colored eyes.

“So...” Twilight continued, slowly losing her chain of thought as she stared back into Lunar's eyes.

“Uh...Tw-Twilight?” Lunar began.

“Yes, Lunar?” Twilight responded.

Lunar blushed and gulped once more, “Umm...there's something I've been wanting to tell you, Twilight.”





“That was probably one of the most nervous points in my life,” admitted Lunar to Meridian, “because I didn't know how Twilight would respond to my proclamation.”

“It was certainly something that I wasn't expecting,” Twilight smirked, “I thought you would've done that when we returned home, not while we visited Cadence in the Crystal Empire.”

“A surprise is a surprise,” Lunar chuckled.

“What did you do next?” Meridian wondered. “I mean, you're both together, so the feelings were indeed mutual.”

“After she said yes to me,” Lunar explained, “we told Cadence what happened and, honestly, most of the rest of the day is a blur to me. We did something before the sun went down and, once it did, Cadence and Shining Armor led us to a spare bedroom. Twilight and I then used much of the night trying to finish the spell. I think she showed me what would happen if it was casted in its incomplete status, right?”

Twilight nodded, “I did, and boy, was your face priceless.”

“What did the incomplete spell do?” Meridian asked, again checking to see if the tape recorder was still recording the interview.

“It swapped my cutie mark,” answered Lunar, “when she casted the spell, I had her cutie mark.”

“You see,” Twilight added, “when the spell is casted without its final component, ponies and their cutie marks get switched around. Their destinies get mixed up and the only way to reverse it is by completing that spell. For the sake of the schools that Celestia, Luna, and myself run, I cannot explain how to complete that spell.”

“I understand,” Meridian acknowledged, looking back towards Lunar, “so after everything was set in stone, what did you do?”

Lunar chuckled, “Realize my destiny.” He looked back up once more.





“So, friendship means what to you?” Twilight asked Lunar.

“Like I said earlier,” Lunar replied, “it is magic to me and I am blessed that you showed me the true light of way towards it. Without it, I would still be an independent pony, living alone, which I now know is not the true path that I should have been on. Now I know that making friends, meeting acquaintances, and being social are all just a few of the things that shape a pony into being a better, brighter, more likable one.”

“Very good, Lunar,” Twilight smiled.

Spending the night together, Lunar and Twilight were laying together on one of the crystallized beds inside the Crystal Castle. Books were strewn about the room as the moon was positioned high up in the night sky. The two ponies had spent nearly the last five to six hours trying to figure out the incomplete spell. Twilight knew the answer to it, but all she could do was help guide Lunar in one direction without providing any discrete 'yes' or 'no' answer to questions he may have had.

Closing one of the books, Twilight yawned and looked towards Lunar, whom was yawning as well. Both ponies were very tired and were on the verge of going to bed, but Twilight insisted on trying one final time for the night.

“And what does it mean when you're together with your friends, Lunar?” She asked him.

“Together,” continued Lunar, “I am one with my friends. All of us, we come together, and together we are friends; one friend, truly united by all the common bonds and problems that we all share.”

“Excellent,” beamed Twilight, looking even more eager now, “and when the marks of friends' destinies are made one?”

Lunar chuckled at Twilight's eagerness, then answered her question, “There is magic without end!”

“Now cast the spell,” Twilight told Lunar, “cast it, and you will be able to further your studies!”

Lunar smiled happily and surrounded his horn with his aura, concentrating his magic to it, “From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled. From all of us together, together we are friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end!”

Correctly casting the spell, Lunar began to feel a white light shine from inside his own body. The light began to engulf his entire body and reached out to engulf Twilight as well. He felt magic blasting out of his own body and tried to contain it, but was teleported away before he could do anything. Lunar looked around and tried to determine where he was teleported to, but couldn't manage to do that; he had no idea where he was.

Looking around once more, Lunar started noticing some constellations and memories of his life, the high points of his years alive. He spotted one memory of his old home in Caneighda playing with his mother and some of his toys and smiled. Looking elsewhere, he spotted the moments when he started learning from Princess Luna in her school. He saw the moment he met Twilight, saw when she said 'yes' to his question he had prepared for her, and saw all of his accomplishments lining up on both his left and right sides.

“Are these...moments in your life?” A voice spoke.

Lunar turned around and saw Twilight walking up next to him. He was shocked when he saw her, thinking that he was here by himself. Smiling at her presence, he turned back to face each of the memories.

“These are,” he answered, “these are my most memorable moments I've experienced in my life.” He pointed to one frame. “That's when I enrolled in Princess Luna's school,” he pointed to another, “and that's when I met you and all the others about a week ago,” he pointed to one final frame, “and that's when we became a couple, my dear Twilight.”

“And you can add one more to that memorial basket,” another voice said.

Turning around, Lunar noticed that the voice had belonged to Princess Luna. Happy to see her, Lunar ran up to his mentor and gave her a hug.

“Luna!” He happily shouted. “Where are we? I don't understand...”

“You have made me proud, Lunar Nights,” Princess Luna began.

Lunar grew nervous. Luna never used his full name when they spoke unless something big was happening or about to happen. He started to feel his hooves grow a bit weaker, looking at Luna some more, confused still.

“Throughout the years,” continued Luna, “I have watched you grow into a smarter, brighter, more compassionate, devoted, heart warming unicorn. Your studies have brought you here and you managed to do what only one other pony could do before.”

Twilight blushed slightly as Princess Luna finished her sentence. Luna noticed and nodded to her, using her magic to bring forward the book that contained the unfinished spell.

“You created magic that only one other pony, Princess Twilight Sparkle here, has managed to do thus far,” Luna stated. “By casting that spell, you have proven to myself that you understand friendship to a valiant extent. You have come such a long way, and I've watched since your very first day, seeing what you have done, where you have gone, and seeing what you will eventually do. You have proven that you're ready to move on in your studies.”

While Luna flared her wings out to Lunar, he grew slightly more confused.

“I don't understand,” he replied, “what do you mean?”

As soon as Lunar finished his question, a grey blob poked out of his chest and started revolving rapidly around him, pulling Lunar up into the air. Lunar became surprised as he was being lifted into the air on his own and watched as the grey blob moved faster around him, eventually releasing a bright light on him and making some changes to his body.

When the spectacle ended, the blob left Lunar on the ground. He looked around once more and noticed that Luna and Twilight were nowhere in sight; he was back in the crystallized room he and Twilight had been sharing. A bit dazed, Lunar stood up and approached a nearby mirror. Remembering that he felt some changes happen to his body, he wanted to see what had actually happened.

Standing in front of the mirror, Lunar inspected his front heavily, noticing that there wasn't much of a difference outside of height. When he turned to his side, he was stunned to see a set of wings along his body. Jumping slightly, he rubbed his wings to see if they were indeed real.

“Are these...actual wings?” He asked himself.

Astonished to see wings now, Lunar tried flapping them and tried flying, but didn't know how to control them. A door opened up behind him, causing him to turn around and spot Princess Luna and Twilight standing before him. They both housed smiles upon their faces and Twilight ran up to Lunar, embracing the new alicorn in a hug.

“Congratulations, Prince Lunar Nights,” Twilight told Lunar, kissing him on his cheek.

Lunar found a bit more confusion, “Prince?”

Princess Luna smiled, then nodded her head towards Lunar, “Since I've taken you under my wing, you've shown plenty of times the characteristics of a true Prince – kindness, understanding, leadership, devotion, and, most recently, compassion. Because you've shown these characteristics and have been able to execute and master them perfectly, you have proven that you are able to finally move on in your studies.”

Lunar looked back at his wings, then towards Twilight. He felt both happy for his accomplishments and sadness, considering what this now meant for him.

“This means that I won't be your student anymore now,” Lunar replied grimly, looking down in the process, “doesn't it?”

“Not in the same way as before, Lunar,” answered Luna, “I'll always be here to help and guide you, but now it is your task to share what you've learned with all of Equestria.”

“Sounds similar to what Princess Celestia told me,” Twilight giggled softly.

Lunar chuckled quietly, then turned once more towards Luna, feeling a tear begin to form in his eye. He approached his mentor and embraced her with a hug.

“Thank you, Princess Luna,” he said, “for everything. I don't think I would be standing here if it weren't for all that you've done for me.”

“You're quite welcome, Prince Lunar,” Luna responded, exchanging the hug with one of her own.

“I presume now that there will be a coronation for Lunar,” Twilight spoke up, “right Princess Luna?”

“Precisely,” answered Luna, pulling herself from Lunar, “I shall go and tell my sister about this accomplishment and set up something with her. Hopefully we can have your coronation within a few days.”

“Do what you need to do, Princess Luna,” smiled Lunar, looking back at his wings, then at Twilight, “I have some learning that I need to attend to.”





“So it was at that point that you became an alicorn,” Meridian nodded, “interesting.”

The tape recorder clicked, which dragged Meridian's attention away. She smirked, then reached over for her spare tapes. Looking to Lunar, she apologized for the little delay.

“Think nothing of it,” Lunar replied, “funny how it ended right at that moment.”

“A perfect point to take a break,” Twilight agreed, “did you want anything to drink, Meridian?”

“Oh, no-no,” Meridian smiled, “that's perfectly fine, Princess Twilight. Thank you for the offer, though.”

“Of course,” Twilight responded, “how about you, Lunar? I'm going to grab a cup of tea, did you also want some?”

Lunar shook his head, “No thank you, Twily, but I will take a cup of water, though.”

“As you wish,” Twilight giggled, excusing herself from the room.

Lunar sighed contently, then glanced towards Meridian, watching as she swapped the tapes and made sure the new one was rewound all the way. Meridian looked to the prince and smiled, wanting to know more about events he had mentioned prior.

“How long would you say you've studied with Princess Twilight?” She asked, checking the tape briefly.

“Not too long,” admitted Lunar, “maybe about a week or two, but we did a lot of late night studying and lectures. That period of time is really rooted into my head; I enjoyed everything about that time.”

“Off the record,” continued Meridian, “do you sometimes miss being a regular unicorn? Or would you say that being an alicorn is much more satisfying?”

Lunar chuckled, “While I do have those moments where I miss being a unicorn, I wouldn't trade being an alicorn for anything in the world. I mean, if that were the case, then neither of us would be speaking at this moment.”

“You have a point there,” Meridian nodded. The tape recorder clicked once more and pulled Meridian's attention away, “Perfect, all set now.”

“Shall we wait for Twilight to return?” Lunar wondered. “That way there's less interference in the audio when she does.”

“We shall,” acknowledged Meridian.

“So tell me,” Lunar smirked, “what made you want to do an biography on me?”

“To tell you the truth,” answered Meridian, “of the ponies that are of royal descent, you're one of the more fascinating ones.”

“How so?”

“Well,” said Meridian, “not much is known about you. We know from pony history of pretty much your banishment and not much else. Princess Luna's star student and Princess Twilight's husband, but what else does the Prince of the Night have to offer, right? And what better way to get an answer than interview that pony himself?”

“I suppose you do have a point there,” admitted Lunar, “and, if you'd like, I'll explain how I passed my time while I was banished.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Meridian smiled, watching as Twilight walked back in with the drinks, “ah, perfect timing.”

“Have I missed anything good yet?” Twilight wondered.

“Not yet, Your Highness,” Meridian answered, “we were just about to continue.”

“Excellent,” Twilight beamed, giving Lunar his cup of water, sitting back down.

Meridian looked to the prince, “Ready to continue?”

“Ready,” he said.

Meridian nodded, then pressed the record button on her tape recorder, proceeding with the interview, “So, Lunar, tell me about your coronation. How did that go?”

“Ah, the coronation,” Lunar chuckled, looking up slightly, “how I remember thee...”





“...my star pupil, doing many a great thing since I took him under my wing,” Princess Luna recited, “he's made me very proud over the years. Since my return and transformation back from Nightmare Moon, he has taught me how to cope with feelings and emotions better than I knew before. It is because of him that we are all here today. So, without further ado, allow me to introduce to you, the citizens of Equestria, to him. Fillies and gentlecolts, allow me to present to you for the very first time: Prince Lunar Nights!”

Standing in the hallway, waiting for his cue, Lunar was nervous, but prepared himself. The guards standing on either side of the doorway that separated him from Princess Luna and the ponies there experiencing the coronation heard their cue and, using their magic, opened the door slowly. Looking back and forth towards each of the ponies that lined the room, Lunar walked in slowly, followed by the sound of a horn behind him. Reaching the end of the aisle, he stood at the base and turned around to face the ponies once more, flaring his newly developed wings towards them. He saw his father and step-mother and smiled happily at them, then he noticed the empty chair next to his father and felt content. He requested that a chair be empty next to his father and closest to the aisle, stating that it would represent his deceased mother.

Turning back around, Lunar began to proceed up to the altar and approached Princess Luna slowly. Behind her stood Princesses Celestia, Cadence, and Twilight, as well as Shining Armor. Standing before Princess Luna, he saw that she only housed bright smiles on her face.

“You have made me proud, Lunar,” Luna told him, using her magic to reveal a crown to him. She placed it atop his head as he tilted it down for her, “Now I want you to share my pride all over Equestria, Prince Lunar Nights!”

Nodding, Lunar turned back towards all the other ponies, receiving an excruciating amount of cheers in the process. He looked over towards his father and step-mother, focusing mainly on the empty seat and pointed to his crown, then to each of them.

“This is for you,” He mouthed to them, Especially you, Mom. Thank you for believing in me while you were around.

Soon after, Princess Luna took Lunar over towards a balcony. Stepping out onto it, Lunar saw that thousands of ponies had lined throughout the streets below them. He started to wave at the ponies as they cheered, being guided to the railing by Princess Luna.

“Now it's your turn,” Luna exclaimed, “go on, say something to them.”

“Right,” replied Lunar, clearing his throat as the crowd got enormously quieter, “not too long ago, my mentor, Princess Luna, requested that I go search for the benefits of having friends. Prior to me doing so, I really had no friends and never really considered friendship as a valid option. My daily routines just required me trying to further my studies and make Princess Luna happy and proud of my achievements and accomplishments. Now, I stand before all of you, not as a lonely unicorn with no friends, but as an alicorn that has touched the lives of some ponies and one who has had his life touched by many ponies himself. I can honestly say that if it weren't for the assistance I've received from the ponies I've met along the way, I would not be standing here before you right now. So, I just want to say thank you, not just to the friends that have helped me further my studies, but to everypony as well. Thank you for everything.”

Turning from the crowd, Lunar was greeted with a hug from Twilight. He noticed that tears were falling from her eyes, so he proceeded to gently wipe them away for her with his hoof.

“Thank you for all you've given to me, Prince Lunar Nights,” smiled Twilight, kissing Lunar on his lips softly.

“Thank you for everything you've done, Princess Twilight,” replied Lunar, returning Twilight's kiss with one of his own. He looked over towards Princess Luna and gave her a hug.

“You've made me so proud of you over the years, Lunar,” Luna told him, hugging him back, “and there comes a time where everypony has to let their own go into the world themselves, whether they are star pupils or children to parents. I must do the same and let you go into the world to do good. I may not be your mentor, but I will be here to help and guide you if you need me to.”

“Thank you for your guidance, Princess Luna,” Lunar said, “thank you for everything that you've done for me over the years. I promise that I will not let you down and that I will help make Equestria a better place...” He pulled Twilight over with his wing very gently and chuckled a bit, “Especially with her by my side.”

“Oh, Lunar,” Twilight giggled.

“Always remember how you got here and where you came from,” Luna continued, “and always remember that you have done good to everypony, Lunar. Now go...go out there and make a difference.”

“With pleasure, Princess Luna,” Lunar obliged.
> My Little Fazpony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“After that day,” Lunar explained, “I pretty much stood with Twilight here in Ponyville and have ruled alongside her for most of our time together.”

“Fascinating,” Meridian admitted, “and what had you both done during the first few months of your time as an alicorn Prince?”

“Honestly,” answered Lunar, “not much. There was a brief period of time where I held a job at a pizzeria that briefly had a Ponyville location.”

“Oh, yeaaaahhh,” Twilight nervously chuckled, “I remember that. That was...an experience.”

“What happened there?” Meridian wondered, “It sounds like it didn't go as well as you may have hoped for.”

Lunar shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck softly, “You could say that, I guess.” He sighed softly for a quick moment, “Here we go.”





Walking along the streets of Ponyville, plenty of ponies had turned their heads over to both Twilight and Lunar. This was one of the first times that the ponies of the town had seen both alicorns together and they could both see the headlines appear in front of them: Royal Couple Confirmed?

Recently coming to terms with his new wings, Lunar found them nice to have, though he had yet to try flying with them. Lunar hugged Twilight close to his body under his wing as they continued to walk towards the newly opened establishment. When they saw it, they noticed that the building was very large and had lived up to its chrome stature that the Ponyville Express had reported on previously.

“Freddy Fazpony's Pizzeria,” Twilight read as her and Lunar reached the front doors.

“An...interesting name for a giant corporation such as this,” Lunar admitted, opening the door for Twilight, letting her in first.

An employee had opened up the secondary doors to the building and introduced and greeted both of the alicorn ponies.

“Welcome to Freddy Fazpony's Pizzeria!” He chimed.

“Hello there,” Twilight acknowledged.

“Table for two, I'm assuming, Your Highness?” The employee continued.

“If that's okay with you,” giggled Twilight, nudging Lunar lightly.

Lunar smiled, then nodded towards the employee for the table for two request. He escorted the two ponies towards a larger-than-normal table and handed them both a couple of menus, leaving them be for a while. When the employee left, Twilight and Lunar both looked around the building and admiring the quartz modern design of the building.

“Pretty, isn't it?” Twilight commented.

“It's tough to pull off a quartz design,” Lunar agreed, “tough and bold.”

“I'm pretty sure it is,” Twilight replied, “Rarity would love the design of this place.”

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Lunar smiled, finally turning his attention to the menu, “A lot of pizza-related choices here.”

Twilight laughed quietly to herself, “Obviously, Luny. It is a pizzeria after all.” She spotted a subsection entitled 'pan pizzas' and made her choice as to what she wanted to eat. “I think I'll get this Sicilian pan pie,” she stated, “how about you, Luny?”

“I'll probably get the same thing, Your Highness,” Lunar joked.

“And what about the job application?” Twilight smirked. “Bet you won't last at least a week.”

“We'll see about that, Princess,” Lunar chuckled, “I'll probably ask for that as soon as- Ah, here he is now.”

“Good evening, Prince Lunar and Princess Twilight,” the waiter smiled.

“Please,” Twilight butted in, “you need not call us that.”

“If you insist, ma'am,” the waiter continued, “my name is Sir Cawthon, the owner of this fine establishment and industry, and I'll be-”

“The owner?” Lunar repeated.

“Precisely, Pri-err, sir,” Sir Cawthon answered, “I'll be serving you both personally tonight.”

“So, if you're the owner of this incredible establishment,” Twilight spoke, “that means you also handle the hiring processes, correct?”

“Indeed I do, ma'am,” Sir Cawthon smiled in response, “why do you ask?”

“Well,” began Lunar, “I was thinking about trying out a job here, y'know, to see how this place really is.”

“If that's the case, Prince,” Sir Cawthon continued, looking over to Lunar, “I would be glad to hire somepony such as yourself.”

“Oh, excellent!” Twilight beamed delightfully.

“I hope you don't mind working as our night guard though, Prince,” Sir Cawthon said.

“A night guard?” Lunar repeated.

Sir Cawthon nodded, “That is the last position open that we need at this establishment. Other locations have their night guards and different positions open and available, but the nearest location from here is in Manehattan.”

“And that's a bit of a hike from Ponyville,” Lunar stated, looking towards Twilight.

“So are you still up for it, Prince Lunar?”

Twilight smiled, “It's okay with me if you want to try out the night guard position. You are nocturnal after all.”

Lunar smiled in response, then paid his attention towards Sir Cawthon. “I'll take the job, Sir Cawthon.”

He seemed delighted in Lunar's choice, shaking his hoof in the process. “Alright! You'll start tonight, if that's okay with you.”

“Most certainly,” acknowledged Lunar, “I'll just aid this little one home first, then I'll start working, Sir Cawthon.”

“Okay,” he replied, “and please, do call me Scott.”

“As you wish, Scott,” Lunar spoke.





“We finished up our meals and, after I walked Twilight home, I made my way back to the restaurant to start my shift.”

“What exactly were your duties there, Lunar?” Meridian asked.

“Not die,” Lunar chuckled, halfway joking in the process, “because that was my main concern.”

“Beg pardon?” Meridian wondered. “Did you say 'not die?'”

“It was an interesting experience,” Twilight admitted, “and while I was sad the restaurant closed not too long after it opened, I was not going to miss the nights Lunar and I spent in that office.”

“Do you mind explaining, Lunar?”

“Not at all,” Lunar smirked, “and believe me, it sounds unusual and it was, but it actually happened.”





Inside the office in the back of the restaurant, Lunar was looking around and noticed a couple of unusual items on the desk in front of him. Scott turned to him and told Lunar to take a seat in the chair provided. Obliging, Lunar did so and continued to wonder what the items in front of him were for, asking Scott about them.

“Well,” started Scott, “the item on your right are the cameras for the joint and the object towards your left is an empty Freddy Fazpony mask.”

“What for?” Lunar wondered.

“The cameras are meant to monitor the animatronics that are kept here.”

“Animatronics?” Lunar repeated. I didn't think technology like that was even possible yet.

Scott nodded, “Yup, and they are the pride of Fazpony Entertainment and are super kid friendly. They are allowed to walk around during the day and mean no harm.”

“So why do they need to be monitored?” Lunar spoke, looking at the cameras briefly.

“This specific set of animatronics haven't been given a proper night mode yet,” explained Scott, “so they tend to wander around during the night.”

“Wander around?” Lunar repeated, putting the cameras down and staring at Scott.

“Yeah,” Scott confirmed, “but they mean no harm.”

“So what is the mask for then?” Lunar asked, lifting it up with his magic.

“That's for you to put on, should anything come into your office.”

“They come in here?” Lunar cautiously asked.

“They aren't supposed to,” Scott eased, “but in case they do, you can just put the mask on like so,” he put the mask on in front of Lunar, “and eventually, whatever wanders in will eventually wander its way back out.”

“So...how many animatronics are there?” Lunar wondered.

“Let's see...” There was a long pause before Scott answered the question. “There are ten of them, although one doesn't move and another one shouldn't move as long as a music box is kept wound throughout the night.”

“Music box?”

Scott took the cameras from Lunar and tapped on one of the buttons, changing the camera vision on the monitor. He pointed to a box that said “tap to wind music box,” and let Lunar know that there was a music box wired remotely to be wound up and keep one of the animatronics at bay.

“...as for the others,” he continued, “they aren't affected by the music box.”

“Okay,” Lunar said, feeling a bit uneasy now.

“Don't worry about a thing,” Scott assured Lunar, “they are tied into local databases and can detect a predator from a mile away. They won't hurt you if you don't hurt them.”

“By 'them,'” hinted Lunar, “what exactly are we talking about?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” continued Lunar, “what type of animatronics are they all? Are they different? Are they the same? Which ones are more aggressive? Which ones are more passive?”

“A lot of questions for a royal pony,” joked Scott, looking towards the clock, “it's almost time for me to leave, but I'll answer that one last question you had. The animatronics include: Freddy Fazpony, the furry and friendly Earth pony and the face of this fine establishment, Chica the Pegasus, a very attractive Pegasus pony, Bonnie the Bunny, an...interesting character, Foxy the Griffon, the fastest of them all, then there are the newly designed animatronics.”

“Those you just mentioned,” spoke Lunar, “they are...?”

“They're the older models and they shouldn't move around throughout the night,” answered Scott, “They're in the 'Parts and Services' room right now as spare parts for the newer animatronics.”

“Why's that?”

“Well, they were from the old owner of the corporation and they've been in service for many years,” Scott chuckled, “I've decided to retire them and use them as backups.”

“Seems like a legitimate reason,” acknowledged Lunar.

“Precisely.”

“So if they're out of commission,” continued Lunar, “who are the animatronics that I'll need to watch over?”

“Those that have the same name,” Scott smiled, “aside from the last one.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well,” Scott said, “you'll be looking over what I call Toy Freddy Fazpony, Toy Chica the Pegasus, Toy Bonnie the Bunny, Mangle, or as she's officially known, Toy Foxy the Griffon, and Balloon Filly. They are all the animatronics that are currently in commission and would be the ones moving around throughout the night.”

“I see.”

“Any more questions?” Scott asked.

“Uh, not at the current moment, no,” replied Lunar.

“Well,” continued Scott, starting to leave through the back exit, “your shift starts now and I wish you the best of luck,” he chuckled, then continued again, “but you'll do fine, I just know it.”

“Thank you,” smiled Lunar.

“Okay, your replacement will be here at six to take over for you,” Scott told Lunar, “goodnight and I'll speak to you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, Scott,” Lunar said, watching him leave through the back door. He turned to the cameras and started to work.
> My Little Pony: :yonP elttiL yM
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That was actually the last time I saw Scott,” Lunar said, “after that, it was just recordings, which got weirder and weirder as the nights went by.”

“Do you remember what any of those recordings said?” Meridian asked.

“Kind of,” admitted Lunar, “They were all generally the same – explaining how the restaurant worked, the nature of any rumors that were on the rise at the time, and, eventually, how the restaurant would have to close because somepony used one of the suits in the spare room.”

“Used the suit for what exactly?” Meridian pressed on.

“They were used to kill other ponies,” Lunar stated, hanging his head down low, “how something like that operated under our noses still bothers me, honestly.”

“There was nothing that we could've done about that, Lunar,” Twilight told him, “by the time they were found, it was a lost cause.”

“What happened to those ponies?” Meridian wondered, steering away from the normal interview questions she'd prepared.

“That's the thing,” answered Lunar, “nopony knows. To this day, it isn't certain what happened, when they happened, or how it happened. The smell of decaying bodies was what eventually gave it away.”

“Decaying?”

Lunar nodded, “The bodies were stuffed into the suits.”

“Dear Celestia,” Meridian gasped, “that's awful.”

“We probably would've suffered similar fates if we hadn't survived ourselves,” Twilight exclaimed, “I saw those animatronics and had a feeling that they weren't acting right, even with my limited knowledge on the subject.”

“They would crawl throughout the building at night and would try attacking us,” Lunar added, “They got to a point where we had to barricade ourselves with our magic, and even that almost failed. They seemed to act normally once the clock struck six in the morning, but there were too many close calls for us. We had to leave the building on our last night there because of an animatronic ambush.”

“Sounds scary,” Meridian consoled with Lunar and Twilight.

“It certainly was,” admitted Twilight, “and that was the last time we tried doing something bold like that.”

“I wouldn't say the last time, Twily,” chuckled Lunar, “remember, we did travel to an alternate dimension because of haywire magic.”

Twilight blushed a bit, “If only you hadn't gotten sick that day.”

Lunar rolled his eyes playfully, “Don't throw me under the carriage, Twily. This is a biography about me, you know.”

“What happened to cause that?” Meridian continued, making sure her tape recorder was still going.

“When Twilight here got sick suddenly,” explained Lunar, “she started experiencing magic outbursts that, as you know, no unicorn or alicorn can control.” He chuckled again, then looked up.





“Rainbow,” Twilight started, closing the door to her home behind her as the rainbow-maned Pegasus stepped inside, “how come the Pegasi rounded up all these storm clouds?”

“Yeah, how come? And why didn't you ask for help?” Lunar asked.

Sulking slightly, Rainbow Dash answered the two alicorns. “Apparently, we missed a scheduled rain date, which was supposed to be for yesterday.” She kicked her right front hoof out of frustration. “Those boring old councilponies Cloudsdale has really ruined this day.” She turned to Lunar and Twilight and continued, “And I didn't ask for help because one, we all know I'm too awesome for help, and two, I didn't need the help.”

Suddenly, thunder roared loudly outside the house, followed by lightning tearing the sky into two. The ponies jumped at the sudden sounds and looked back towards each other.

“Well,” Applejack started, “looks like we're trapped here 'til this here storm blows over.”

I guess so,” Twilight agreed, “I don't think anypony wants to travel in this kind of weather/”

“You know what that means, right?” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “Slumber party!”

Just then, another strike of lightning pierced the sky, striking a nearby electrical cable and cutting the power to all the neighboring homes, leaving everyone in the dark.

“Well, that's just great!” Spike sarcastically shouted. “Now I can't finish sweeping the floors!”

“Chill out, Spike,” Rainbow Dash replied, “this is the perfect mood to tell scaaarrryyyyy stories!”

“Count me out,” Spike answered, “I've already seen enough scary stuff today.”

“Really?” Twilight sarcastically asked. “Like what? Care to share your experiences with us?”

“I don't want to bring it up,” Spike responded.

“Sounds like somepony is too scared for his own scales,” Lunar teased.

“No!” Spike shot back, defending himself. “I'm just tired, y'know?”

“Sure, Spike,” Twilight smirked, nudging Lunar slightly.

“Whatever,” Spike said, walking out of the main room and down one of the hallways, “now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bed. I'll see you all in the morning.”

“Goodnight, Spike!” Everyone rang in unison.

“Goodnight, everypony!” Spike answered as he walked up a flight of stairs.

“So,” Rainbow Dash continued, “who wants to hear a scary story?”

“Why not?” Twilight said. “There's no harm in a little story, right?”

“Yeah, Rainbow,” Applejack added, “Let's hear what 'cha got for us.”

“Okay,” Rainbow Dash frighteningly said, “but be warned, this will probably be the most scary story you've ever heard! Mwah ha ha ha!”

“Good luck with that,” challenged Lunar, “I don't get scared easily.”

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Hold on, Dash,” Twilight said, looking towards Lunar, “you don't get scared easily?”

“Nope.”

“I'm breaking up with you,” Twilight sternly told Lunar, joking with him.

Lunar, taking the bait, hugged Twilight closely. “No! Please! Anything but that!” Deep down, he knew it was a joke.

Twilight giggled, as did the other ponies as they watched Lunar closely hug Twilight. “It's okay, I won't leave you.” She cuddled up next to Lunar closely.

“Now,” Rainbow Dash smirked, “the super scaaaaarrrrryy story!”





“Rainbow Dash told the story and, when she finished, we all went to bed for the night,” Lunar said, “but the storm was still brewing up outside, and it was a powerful one.”

“Was it that strong?” Meridian asked.

“It was,” answered Lunar, “it actually broke open the window to the room we all were sleeping in during the night and, since Twilight was closer to the window than the rest of us were, she felt the bulk of it.”

“I hadn't felt that sick in years,” Twilight said, “and controlling the outbursts was extremely hard. I mean, obviously unicorns and alicorns can't control it, but trying to keep myself from sneezing was tougher than I had anticipated then.”

“What did you do to combat it?” Meridian wondered.

“We fed her some soup and tried keeping her warm since the wind from the outside was frigid,” Lunar replied, “but it didn't work out since she sneezed and the built-up magic sent us to an alternate dimension; a dimension that was the opposite of ours.”

“An opposite dimension?” Meridian repeated. “What do you mean by that?”

“It's kind of a long story,” Lunar chuckled, “here goes nothing.”





With yet another sneeze, Twilight's horn caused the room to glow an extremely bright white color. The other ponies had all taken shelter behind some of the furniture in the room. Spike joined the ponies in hiding, but it was of no use as a large magic spell made its presence known to everyone. When the blinding light finally dissipated, the group of friends took a long look around to see that their surroundings had changed drastically.

“Wh-where are we?” Fluttershy cautiously asked, looking around at the surrounding shrubs and scenery.

“Ah ain't sure...” Applejack answered.

“Where are we, Twilight?” Pinkie Pie wondered.

“I-I'm not sure,” replied Twilight.

The surrounding area was dark and ominous looking. The sky, full of dark gray clouds, looked as if it would pound the land with heavy rain at any second, with thunder sounding just about every fifteen seconds or so. There was a little hole in the clouds just large enough to see both the sun and the moon. There was half of each up in the sky; the left half was the sun and the right half was the moon. Huge dark trees surrounded the small path the group had arrived on.

“Stick together, everypony,” Lunar advised, “we don’t know who or what could be about there.”

Everyone crept closer together, forming a tight circle all around. Lunar and Twilight had started glancing around, trying to find something familiar to them, if anything. The group had no idea as to where they were but had seen the lights of a town not too far in the distance, and had decided to seek shelter there. Off they went, but not after a dark, ominous figure flitted away from the group into the safety of the surrounding darkness and into the woods. Fluttershy heard this sound and crept behind Rarity.

“Wh-who’s there?” She quietly asked, revealing a tone of fear in her voice.

Rarity turned around upon hearing the question, noticing that there was nobody else in sight. She helped ease Fluttershy's nervousness and fear by resting a good on her back.

“Darling,” Rarity stated, “why there appears to be that nopony else is here.”

Fluttershy cowered up even further, shakily raising a hoof and pointing at a nearby bush.

“Th-there’s s-something in there!” Fluttershy squeaked.

Looking over towards the bush, everyone tried to spot what Fluttershy had seen, but nobody could see anything. After a while, some leaves began rustling about forcibly, which caused Rainbow Dash to bravely confront whatever was hiding inside the bush.

“Come out of there!” Rainbow Dash ordered. “I mean it!”

Whatever was in the bush moved about once again, rustling more leaves about. It still did not come out of its hiding spot, however.

“Come out of there!” Rainbow Dash shouted, louder than before. “This is your last warning!”

Lunar stepped in front of Rainbow Dash, flaring one of his wings in front of her. “Allow me, Dash,” he told her. Rainbow Dash grunted, but allowed Lunar to proceed. Standing strong, Lunar gazed at the bush and started to speak in a formal manner. “By order of Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, I, Prince Lunar, order you to stand away from the bush!”

The bush rumbled and moved about for a quick second. Finally, a light, azure colored hoof came out of hiding, revealing itself to everyone else. Eventually, an entire pony stepped out from behind the bush, smirking evilly towards the group.

This pony, a Pegasus pony more specifically, was almost the same exact color as Rainbow Dash. The only difference between them and Rainbow Dash was their mane color. Rainbow's was (obviously) a rainbow color, while this pony's was a pure, jet black color. They had the same colored fur, the same sized wings and wingspan, and almost identical cutie marks. This pony’s cutie mark was a black cloud with a yellow lightning bolt, to go with Rainbow Dash's rainbow colored lightning bolt.

Rainbow Dash looked in a daze as she stared into this Pegasus’ cerise colored eyes, tilting her head in awe.

“Who are you?” She cautiously asked.

The Pegasus tilted their head, mirroring the way Rainbow Dash tilted her own head.

“Oh, I could ask you the same thing, Rainbow Dash,” the unknown pony replied.

“How do you know her name?” Lunar objected.

“Come now, Lunar,” the pony continued, “we know who you all are.”

The group of friends started to feel uneasy about the current situation. Moving forward, Rainbow Dash demanded to know this pony’s name.

“Fine,” replied the pony, stalling the situation even more.

“Well?” Rainbow Dash called impatiently. “Who are you?”

“My name is Blackout Crash,” they answered, “And I know very well who you are, Rainbow Dash!”

Upon saying that, Blackout Crash bolted away, leaving a sonic rainboom behind her, only instead of it being a rainbow, it was pure jet black.

“C’mon!” Applejack barked. “Let’s go git her!”

Without missing a beat, everyone followed Applejack’s suggestion and rushed after Blackout Crash despite not knowing the area all too well. They entered a nearby town shortly after chasing her for a while and started to feel slightly more nervous, seeing how the town resembled Ponyville in almost every way imaginable.

“Where are we?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Ah, Ah don’t know…” answered Applejack.

“It looks a lot like…like Ponyville?” Pinkie Pie said.

“But how is that possible?” Fluttershy responded.

“I don’t know, Fluttershy…” Twilight replied.

The group of friends slowly walked around, noticing that there were a bunch of places they recognized – Sugar Cube Corner, the Quills and Sofas store, Carousel Boutique, among others. As they walked through the town, they each kept their guards up high. They did not know what happened or where they traveled to, but the ambiance that trickled down around each of them made the situation more horrifying and frightening. Moments later, they had heard some sinister laughs not too far from where they were. Everyone backed into a circle, with Spike being surrounded in the middle.

“Who's there?” questioned Rarity.

A sinister voice, sounding identical to Rarity's English sounding voice, answered back.

“Why so serious, Rarity?”

Rarity looked around, ranging her view from doors to the roofs. She started growing fearful and frightened because everywhere she looked, no one was there to be found. Looking down from the roofs, she noticed a unicorn standing in front of her. This unicorn looked exactly like her, same mane color, same styled mane, same colored eyes, same coat color. The only difference between this pony and Rarity was their cutie mark. Rarity's was three gems. This pony's cutie mark was a palette with a paintbrush.

“Who are you?” Rarity asked, checking out the details this pony had in their mane.

The unicorn laughed evilly as they answered the upper-classed pony. “My name is Ragity! And I know all about you, Rarity.”

Rarity jumped back, “How do you know me?”

Ragity forbade to answer Rarity's question. Instead, she looked elsewhere.

“We all know who you are!” Another pony answered.

Looking over towards where the voice originated from, the mane six saw another pony, who resembled much like Applejack. This pony had the same mane color, but their mane was styled up in a bun. This pony had an apple as a cutie mark, resembling Applejack's triple apple cutie mark. They were in a purple dress, something Rarity was idolizing from afar.

“Who in the hoof are you?” Applejack asked.

This pony laughed, revealing an upper-class stature. She looked away while answering the hard working earth pony.

“You may address me as Fancyvain, Applejack,” They answered.

“Where in Equestria are we?” Twilight wondered.

“I'm not too sure, Twilight,” Lunar replied.

Almost on cue, another pony spoke up and addressed Twilight and the gang.

“We know who you are!” Another voice said.

Everypony turned towards the new voice, which belonged to a pink earth pony. This pony was a lot like Pinkie Pie, same mane color, coat color, everything. The only differences between this pony and Pinkie Pie was the mane style and the cutie mark, a piece of cake on a plate, whereas Pinkie's were three balloons.

“Oooh,” Pinkie Pie said, admiring the pony in front of her. “Who are you?”

The pony laughed evilly while answering the spastic, party-loving earth pony.

“I am Cakamena!” They roared.

“Cakamena?” Pinkie Pie repeated.

Cakamena grunted, “Yes! Why must everypony repeat the name!?”

“Oh, boo-hoo-hoo!” Another voice said, “You gonna cry Cakamena?”

The group again turned their heads to face the unknown pony.

“Who are you?” Fluttershy cowardly asked.

“I am Bitterfly!” They answered.

This pony had a pale yellow coat, much like Fluttershy's, along with a magenta colored mane, with one black strip running from top to bottom through it. Bitterfly's cutie mark was a tulip and she had a long flowing tail, resembling Fluttershy's long tail.

“Well now, what do we have here?” A new voice sinisterly beckoned.

Lunar looked over towards this pony, noticing several key features that were similar between him and this pony.

“I take it that you're my doppelgänger?” Lunar questioned.

“How dare you refer to me as your doppelgänger!” The pony roared in response, obviously offended by Lunar's comment. “You're my doppelgänger!”

“Impossible,” Lunar continued, “for you look like me and everything.”

The pony chuckled, “Alas, you look like me! You're in my world now, so you're my doppelgänger!”

Ragity grew restless, “Oh shut up, Lunar Eclipse!”

Lunar Eclipse grew even angrier. He shot a mean look at Ragity and threatened her verbally. “That's Prince Lunar Eclipse to you, Ragity!”

“Tell somepony who cares!” Ragity responded. She paid attention to Twilight and the gang once more.

The six lookalikes stood in a straight line with Ragity at the left end and Bitterfly at the right end. The mane six, Lunar, and Spike stood in a line across from the lookalikes, with Twilight on the left end and Pinkie Pie on the right end.

Lunar Eclipse stepped forward a bit and, raising a hoof in the process, formerly introduced the five other ponies.

“Feast your eyes on the Elements of Disharmony!” Lunar Eclipse smirked. “I'm your worst nightmare, Prince Lunar Eclipse.”

“The Elements of Disharmony?” Rainbow Dash repeated.

“Yes,” answered Blackout Crash, “the Elements of Disharmony.”

“We are your counterparts to the Elements of Harmony,” Ragity added.

“If you are our counterparts,” Twilight started, pausing to sneeze, “where's my counterpart to the Element of Magic?”

Blackout Crash spoke up, ignoring Twilight's question, “I am the Element of Betrayal.”

“I am the Element of Dishonesty,” Fancyvain added.

“I am the Element of Sadness!” Cakamena menacingly said.

“Cruelty!” Bitterfly added.

“And I'm the Element of Selfishness!” Ragity concluded.

“So, where's the counterpart to the Element of Magic?” Twilight asked once more, sneezing in the process.

“We don't need your precious magic counterpart!” Blackout Crash sharply said.

“Frankly, my dear,” Ragity continued, pointing at Twilight, “your counterpart is no longer able to use magic anymore!”

“We broke off her horn!” Cakamena added.

“You what!?” gasped Twilight.

“You heard us,” Ragity continued, “we broke off her horn! Moonlight Twinkle is no longer able to use magic!”

Moonlight Twinkle must be my counterpart, Twilight thought.

“And now, we're gonna have to take you to go meet Solar and Satellite,” Bitterfly said, “the rulers of Equestria.”

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow Dash challenged. “Just try and make us!”

“Wrong choice!” Lunar Eclipse smirked, trapping Rainbow Dash in a magic force field.

“Now,” Cakamena added, “unless you want to end up like Rainbow Crash here, you'll follow us and do exactly as we say!”

Twilight hesitated, looking at her friends, especially Rainbow Dash. She wanted to retaliate and save Rainbow Dash, but was stopped by Lunar; her Lunar.

“Let me go, Lunar!” Twilight spoke out.

Lunar ignored Twilight's request and advised her that retaliation was not a wise decision at the current moment, given the ponies surrounding them all.

“We need to think with our heads, Twilight,” Lunar said, “acting through emotions is not a wise decision right now.”

“But they have Rainbow Dash!” Twilight continued.

“Get me out of here!” Rainbow Dash pleaded.

“I know, Twilight,” Lunar responded, “we'll get Rainbow Dash back and have our chance for revenge. We just have to be patient and wait for the right time to strike back.”

Twilight groaned, obliging to Lunar's comment. She turned to the Elements of Disharmony and surrendered herself to them. “What do you want from us?”

Lunar Eclipse smirked evilly, moving next to Ragity, his wife. “Come with us. Oh, and don't try anything funny…we have your numbers, peasants.”





“Meeting somepony that looked exactly like our friends, let alone myself, was something that really blew my mind,” admitted Lunar, “but, at the time, that was the least of my worries. The main problem we had to overcome was trying to free ourselves from our capture and find a way home to the Equestria we knew.”

“The fact that we were led to the dungeons in their version of Canterlot really proved to us that just our presence was an issue for them,” added Twilight, “the fact that they even heard about us is astounding.”

“That’s something I’ve always thought myself, Twily,” agreed Lunar, “and I can’t even tell how they knew about us or the Elements of Harmony.”

“So they took you to an alternate version of the Canterlot Dungeons,” Meridian said, “and then what happened? How did you manage to escape their clutches?”

“Well,” answered Lunar, “while we were in the dungeon cell, we met another unicorn by the name of Moonlight Twinkle. Much like ourselves, she had been imprisoned by the ponies we ran into.”

“Moonlight Twinkle?” Meridian repeated.

Twilight nodded, “From what she told us, she was a student to Concord, whom was the ruler of that version of Equestria. She tried to save him when he was trapped and imprisoned by the evil rulers Princesses Solar and Satellite, but had her horn broken off while she was on her quest.”

“Because of Solar and Satellite,” Lunar continued, “the Elements of Harmony in that world had become corrupted and became the Elements of Disharmony, which, in turn, corrupted their users.”

“How did you decide how to plan an escape?” Meridian wondered.

“We used our wits and knowledge that Moonlight and Thistle, her helpful dragon assistant, and planned our escape accordingly,” answered Lunar, “We staged an outrage in the cell and, when it grabbed the attention of the guards, they came inside and tried to stop our friends from fighting. Moonlight, Thistle, Twilight, Spike, and myself all took the opportunity to escape undetected and went searching within the castle for those who were responsible.”

“Solar and Satellite,” Meridian said, “right?”

Lunar nodded, “When they left the throne room to check on the others, we charged into the room and began fighting Cakamena, Ragity, Fancyvain, and Lunar Eclipse. We probably would have won that fight too, but when Solar and Satellite returned with our friends in their grasp, they casted a halting spell on all of us, approaching Twilight and myself menacingly.”





“It seems we've reached an impasse,” Solar said slyly, creeping up towards Twilight and Lunar.

“What do you mean?” Twilight replied, eyeing Solar as she walked from her left to her right.

“Tell you what,” continued Solar, stopping in between Twilight and Lunar, “I'll release your friends and return them to your world on one condition: you work as our slaves for the rest of eternity!”

“I'd never agree to that!” Twilight snapped. She looked to her friends whom were in Satellite's custody. “My friends and I are strong and they know I'd never succumb to something so dangerous as that. We are strong together. We will find a way to defeat you!”

Satellite smirked and stepped forward, glancing at Solar, then at Lunar, “Well then, shall we, sister?”

“We shall!” Solar replied, grimacing at Twilight.

The two regal sisters then shot beams of their powerful, dark alicorn magic towards Twilight and Lunar, hitting them both severely. Twilight cried out in pain, as did Lunar, as the beams hit them both. All their friends could do was helplessly watch in horror as both Twilight and Lunar endured the pain. After a few seconds, the sisters stopped their attacks and looked towards the battered alicorns.

“Now, let's try this again!” Satellite said.

“Work for us and we'll release your friends!” Solar boomed.

Through her pain, Twilight got up and stared into the eyes of Solar.

“No!” She screeched.

“We'll never surrender to the likes of you!” Lunar protested, not looking up from the ground. He was breathing heavily at the current moment.

“Again?” Satellite asked Solar.

“Again,” Solar answered. The two diabolical sisters shot beams of dark alicorn magic once more at Twilight and Lunar.

“Twilight!” The remaining trapped friends gasped. “Lunar!”

“Stop hurting our friends!” Pinkie Pie cried, slamming her hoof against the bubble shield Satellite had trapped them in.

Twilight and Lunar both screamed out in pain again. What Solar and Satellite were trying to do was turn one of the alicorns on themselves, becoming the opposite of what they truly were and corrupting them, in other words. Twilight and Lunar both did their best to try and fight against the magic but it was starting to become unbearable now. The beams stopped once more as Solar and Satellite proceeded to ask the question once more, releasing Twilight and Lunar from the halting spell as well. Battered, both ponies collapsed to the ground.

“Are you willing to work for us in exchange for your friends' release?” Solar barked.

Twilight stumbled to get up, falling back down a few times. She pushed herself to stand back up and show the two evil sisters that her determination outweighed their intentions and, ultimately, managed to stand back atop her own hooves. Looking into Solar's cold red eyes once more, she answered the question asked to her.

“No...” Twilight said, collapsing on the ground once again.

“It;s settled then!” Solar shouted as she and Satellite shot two more beams of magic towards Twilight and Lunar.

“Twilight!” The others cried again. “Lunar!”

The beams hit Twilight and Lunar head on, grounding them both permanently. Twilight shut her eyes, trying desperately to endure the pain being given to her while Lunar did the same.

“Stop!” Rainbow Dash yelled, bashing herself into the bubble shield, trying to break it.

“That's enough!” Moonlight added.

“Yeah,” Applejack continued, “y'all have proven yer point!”

“Stop it!” Rarity screamed.

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie both screamed out in horror as they both watched two of their closest friends be tormented by the dark beams of magic. Rainbow Dash was soon joined by Rarity and Applejack in trying to break the shield that was holding them back from helping Twilight and Lunar, ramming into it, kicking it, and blasting it with magic. It was hard work, yet they all carried on, hoping that they could break free and help their friend away.

Within minutes, the three ponies had worked themselves to pieces, but still they kept at it. Twilight and Lunar were still being blasted at by Solar and Satellite, who seemed to be gaining power the longer they struck the royal couple. It was only a matter of minutes, if not, seconds, before it would get to either Twilight or Lunar, either killing them or forcibly making them turn on themselves. With one last effort, Rainbow Dash plowed through the shield, shattering it and causing Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie to fall to the ground.

Applejack and Fluttershy ran in front of Twilight and Lunar respectively, while Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all charged towards Solar and Satellite. Applejack and Fluttershy were briefly shot with the magic beams, being saved by the other three after they rammed into Solar and Satellite, knocking them from their concentration. By stopping Solar and Satellite, the ponies freed Moonlight, Spike, and Thistle from the halting spell that were keeping them bound to their locations.

“How dare you!” Solar shouted.

“How dare you for blasting our friends!” Rainbow Dash shot back.

“We'll teach you to mess with our friends!” Pinkie Pie snapped.

“Applejack, Fluttershy,” Rarity said, “take Twilight and Lunar to a safer place! We'll handle these monsters, though I hope not to get a hoof dirty in the process. Go!”

Applejack and Fluttershy nodded. They helped Lunar up onto Applejack's back, then Twilight before moving out. The two ponies were very heavy, but Applejack handled heavier loads in the past from her family's Apple Bucking season. Fluttershy led the way away, along with Moonlight and Thistle, as Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie all stood back and fought Solar, Satellite, and the Elements of Disharmony, buying time for the other ponies.





“When we finally woke up,” Lunar explained, “we were in an entirely different room. I didn't really know how we got there, but I was happy to finally be out of harm's way for the time being.”

“What did you do there?” Meridian asked.

“We didn't spend that much time inside the room,” answered Lunar, “since Twilight's magic burst teleported us once more, at least according to our friends. She sneezed and we were transported back to the Equestria we knew – this Equestria. I woke up on a chair inside Twilight's home and rubbed my head a lot. I remember experiencing such a pounding headache and then looking at Twilight collapsed and perched upon a table. We used our available time to come up with a plan on how to get the others back and save that Equestria too, but nothing could come to mind.”

“It was at that time that we decided on asking Princess Celestia for her advice,” Twilight said, “since she's been around long enough to have some advice on really anything.”

“We left for Canterlot and made our way to Princess Celestia,” Lunar continued, “and when we finally reached her and explain our situation to her, she was baffled by how it sounded as well.”

“She did however know of a spell that would allow us to travel back to that dimension,” Twilight stated, “and it came in handy. I casted the spell and transported all of us back to the alternate Equestria.”

“We were standing in between our friends who risked their lives for us and the evil alicorn sisters,” Lunar exclaimed, “and we used the determination to pull through and let us win our inevitable fight against our alter egos. It was hard, but standing alongside our friends was something that made me feel like we couldn't possibly fail, almost like it provided an amazing sense of comfortability.”





“I have returned!” Twilight shouted, staring at Solar and Satellite heavily. “And with the help of my friends, we will defeat you!”

“Oh, how cute,” Solar laughed sarcastically, rolling her eyes in the process.

“We may be slightly outnumbered,” Lunar added, standing next to Twilight, “but our determination will ultimately lead to your downfall and restoration of this world!”

“You must be dreaming,” scoffed Lunar Eclipse, “do you really think you could defeat us? That's a good joke!”

Solar turned to Ragity, telling her to go retrieve the Elements of Disharmony.

“Right away, Your Highness,” answered Ragity.

Twilight and the others stood aligned from left to right in front of Solar, Satellite, and the Elements of Disharmony bearers. Moonlight, Thistle, and Spike all stood close by while the others stood across from their altered self. Once Ragity returned with the five shards that made up the Elements of Disharmony, she gave them to their respective holders.

“Betrayal!” Blackout Crash shouted upon receiving her Element.

“Cruelty!” Bitterfly added.

“Selfishness!” Ragity said.

“Dishonesty!” Fancyvain continued.

“Sadness!” Cakamena concluded.

Standing next to their other fellow Element holders, side by side, the bearers of both the Elements of Harmony and the Elements of Disharmony stared blankly at each other, more specifically, their counterpart, waiting for the other to make a move first. Solar and Satellite stood close by as they were preparing themselves to help out the Elements of Disharmony, just in case something were to go wrong.

Fed up with waiting for something to happen, Rainbow Dash flew towards Blackout Crash and managed to knock her down onto the ground. Meanwhile, Ragity started attacking Rarity with her own magic, shooting beams towards Rarity. Twilight and Lunar both took care of Bitterfly while Pinkie Pie dealt with Cakamena. Applejack charged towards Fancyvain, who refused to fight, for fear that she'd stain the expensive-looking dress she was wearing. Fluttershy, although desperately wanting to help her friends, hid in shame for assuming she would be of no help at all.

Twilight sent a beam of her own alicorn magic towards Bitterfly, successfully hitting her mark. Acting quickly, Bitterfly rose onto her hooves and charged towards Twilight, whom had teleported away just in the nick of time. Upon teleporting to her destination, Twilight and Lunar combined their efforts and sent over a conjoined beam of alicorn magic energy towards Bitterfly. Now containing more power, Bitterfly couldn't find the strength to stand back up after being stricken by the magic, staying grounded as she endured her pain.

Solar and Satellite, who were overlooking the entire fight, saw Bitterfly and Blackout Crash be defeated as if they were nothing. They also saw how Fancyvain refused to fight.

“Come, sister,” Solar shouted, “let us help them out! They need it!”

Solar and Satellite then started charging towards Twilight and Lunar, only to be stopped by two beams of magical energy, one white, one a very dark indigo, hitting them. Twilight turned around and saw that the two beams of magic came from Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

“Princess Celestia,” Twilight sighed happily, “thank goodness you're here.”

Celestia smiled, “No problem, Twilight.” She turned to her sister, “Come, Luna, let us help the ponies out.”

Twilight smiled back, then faced Cakamena, who was giving Pinkie Pie a run for her money. Twilight charged at Cakamena, who managed to jump out of the way at the last second, tripping Twilight over in the process.

“Twilight!” Pinkie Pie called.

“Look out, Twily!” Lunar added.

Twilight looked up as she saw Cakamena preparing to kick off her horn. She rolled out of harm's way at the last second and stared angrily at her.

“I'll teach you to mess with my Twilight!” Lunar angrily shouted. He then sent over a powerful beam of alicorn magic towards Cakamena, whom couldn't handle the strength of it and collapsed to the ground.

Solar and Satellite were displeased with how the Elements of Disharmony performed and, with Lunar Eclipse, stood in front of the collapsed villains.

“Charming,” Solar smirked, “those pitiful ponies couldn't finish the job.”

“So let us finish what they started,” Satellite laughed.

“And we won't fail!” Lunar Eclipse shouted, casting a wave of dark magic around the room.

The room became shrouded in pitch black following Lunar Eclipse's spell. Twilight and company became nervous since they were unable to see where Solar, Satellite, and Lunar were. They began to create the illusion that they were everywhere in the room, when in reality, they were hovering above the others.

“Take this!” Lunar Eclipse yelled, casting a powerful set of dark spells on Twilight and Lunar.

Princess Luna observed the spell and casted a massive defensive shield over everyone. Princess Luna smiled, then proceeded to face Lunar Eclipse.

“Predictable,” Luna said. She flashed her eyes a bright white color, then revealed Solar, Satellite, and Lunar to the rest of the group.

“Great,” Solar smirked.

“Exactly,” Princess Celestia remarked, casting a powerful halting spell on Solar, Satellite, and Lunar Eclipse.

The three evil alicorns grunted, trying to escape the clutches of Princess Celestia's magic. Princess Luna smiled, then proceeded to help her sister by casting a backup halting spell on the three alicorns as well.

Solar, Satellite, and Lunar Eclipse were all left helpless as they were being held down by Celestia's and Luna's magic. Twilight and Lunar, holding hooves, casted a powerful, joint spell on Solar, Satellite, and Lunar.

“Noooo!” Satellite shouted.

“It can't be,” added Solar, “it just can't!”

Some time later, both Solar and Satellite had vanished and the Elements of Disharmony appeared to look different as well as Lunar Eclipse. One notable difference was Cakamena's mane style; now it had matched Pinkie's mane style perfectly!

“Ugh,” Ragity groaned, “wh-what happened?”

Moonlight and Thistle ran over to all their friends, knowing that they had been transformed back into what they once were.

“Oh, Scarcity, Greybow, Fancyjane, Curebug, Party Cake, Lunar!” Moonlight called, wiping a tear from her eye. “Y-You're all alright!”

“Why, whatever do you mean?” Fancyjane asked.

Moonlight looked at Thistle, smiled and winked at him, then back at Fancyjane.

“I'll explain everything later,” she answered.
> An Astronomical Experience
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“After we saved the Elements of Disharmony in that realm,” Lunar said, “we helped Moonlight and Thistle save Concord and restore him to the throne of Equestria. The Elements they had were restored as well and turned back into the regular Elements of Harmony for them too. It was a win-win for everypony involved.”

“That sounds incredible,” Meridian smiled, “have you seen those ponies since then or no?”

“Unfortunately no,” admitted Twilight, “it takes a lot of magic to transport from one dimension to another, plus our royal duties have kept us from doing such a thing for quite some time now.”

“I would love to see how they have been though,” Lunar added, “it's been far too long. Maybe one day.”

“What happened after that, Lunar?”

“Not much happened for quite a while after that whole ordeal,” said Lunar, “I got used to my wings, learned how to fly properly, and performed my royal duties to the best of my abilities. The next major thing that would have happened to me would have been when I taught the magic of friendship to a pupil of my own. Twilight had been teaching and mentoring Starlight Glimmer for about a year at that point when Princess Luna told me that she sent somepony to learn from me.”

“From you?” Meridian repeated.

Lunar nodded, “I was quite surprised myself when I first heard that. Of all the ponies in the world, Princess Luna told me that I had to teach friendship to another pony, over even the Princess of Friendship. I was extremely nervous about doing such a thing, honestly.”

“That's putting it nicely,” giggled Twilight.





“I wonder if that would be a good–,” she heard, “but then again, what's the perfect first lesson she should learn?”

Following Twilight's lead, Starlight and Pinkie both peeked through the doorway to the library and were watching Lunar as he paced back and forth as if something were bothering him. Twilight stepped into the doorway and called out to Lunar while Starlight and Pinkie stood behind her. Lunar turned around quickly and blushed a little bit, watching as Twilight walked closer towards him.

“What are you doing, Lunar?” Twilight wondered.

Lunar gulped, then paid attention back to the sheets of paper that were spread across the table in front of him. He tried to answer Twilight's question, but found that finding the right words to use was astronomically harder to do presently. Twilight stepped up next to Lunar and noticed the sheets of paper, glancing quickly between each of them. She noticed that they all appeared familiar to her.

“Are these my friendship lessons for Starlight?” Twilight asked, turning to Lunar. “What do you need them for? You already know a lot about friendship.”

Hearing what the papers were, Starlight and Pinkie also entered the library and approached the table, standing on either side of Twilight and Lunar. Lunar, finally finding the right words to explain himself, let them know what he was doing.

“Princess Luna is sending somepony here to learn about friendship from me,” he said, looking through some of the lessons once more, “I just have no idea what I should do first since I don't know about friendship nearly as much as you do, Twilight.”

Twilight took note of how uptight Lunar was feeling and offered some suggestions to him, “Well, what do you remember about your first lesson?”

Lunar blinked, “My first lesson? Of friendship?”

Twilight nodded, “If I can recall, I had you introduce yourself to our friends on your first day. I had a similar experience, though it just so happened to be that our friends were in charge of different things in the Summer Sun Celebration that year. Plus,” she turned to Starlight, “do you remember how I started our lessons?”

Starlight smiled, “You had Sunburst and I rekindle our friendship. That was my first lesson, right around the time the Crystalling was set to happen.”

Twilight continued, “Exactly,” she turned back towards Lunar, resting a hoof on his side softly, “even Discord's first friendship lesson from Fluttershy was that he felt broken and lonely after having his only friend walk away from him. Once he got a taste of what friendship truly was, he didn't want to give that up.”

Lunar thought for a second before speaking out again, “So, the first lesson can be anything, really.”

“Right,” Starlight agreed, “and I think this would be a good opportunity to see what that pony likes to do.”

“Like a party?” Pinkie Pie hopefully asked, reaching over for her party cannon.

Twilight giggled, “Perhaps, Pinkie, but what I think Starlight means is that when you share a common hobby with somepony else, that can snowball into something bigger in the future.”

“Our bond was and still is magic,” Starlight said, “even if our first lesson had nothing to do with actual magic, Twilight did show me what the magic of friendship can truly do for one another, even after not talking to Sunburst for years, at that time.”

Lunar rubbed his chin lightly, “Princess Luna did say that this pony she's sending was very enthusiastic about her night.”

“Sounds like a certain somepony I know,” Starlight smirked, nudging Twilight playfully while quickly glancing towards Lunar.

“You can use your knowledge and interests of the night to connect with this pony,” Twilight suggested, “and then, when you both do connect, lessons will typically show themselves to you rather than you finding them, as I've come to learn with by mentoring Starlight.”

“I am pretty good, aren't I?” Starlight giggled lightly.

A round of laughs went around the four ponies shortly thereafter. Feeling a bit better about the situation given to him, Lunar decided to first develop a connection with the pony first before deciding on what to do afterwards.





“Finding the right lesson was hard,” admitted Lunar, “but, luckily for me, I have a pony by my side that really helps ease my mind.”

“Aww, Luny,” Twilight smiled, blushing a bit.

“So what was it that you did with that pony?” Meridian wondered, “Umm...what did you say their name was?”

“Her name was Astral Flare,” answered Lunar, “and our first lesson involved mapping out constellations in the Ponyville nighttime sky. Princess Luna told me that she enjoyed being outside during the night very much and, following the advice that Twilight had given me, I decided to do something we both could enjoy together.”

“Sounds reasonable,” said Meridian.

“I thought so too,” agreed Lunar, “and when she arrived, that's just what we did.”





“Astral Flare,” Twilight smiled, watching as Spike left through the castle doors, “allow me to introduce you to my pupil, Starlight Glimmer, and the Prince of the Night, Prince Lunar Nights.”

“It's a pleasure to finally meet you,” Lunar smiled, “I heard of your arrival from Princess Luna herself.”

“Th-the pleasure is mine,” Astral responded nervously.

“Hey there, Astral,” Starlight beamed, “I can't wait to share some memories with you.”

“Me either, S-Starlight,” added Astral.

“Lunar here is a nocturnal pony like yourself,” Twilight explained, “Princess Luna said that you enjoy her nights more than the day. Was that correct?”

Astral nodded, “Yes, Prin- I mean, uhh, yes, Twilight.”

Twilight giggled, then turned to Lunar, “You want to tell her what you did before you earned those wings?”

Lunar smiled a little bit more, paying attention towards Astral, “I used to map out some of the constellations that were above Baltimare before I came here. Studying magic under Princess Luna's wing was an incredible experience, but I think it would be fair to say that I wouldn't be standing here today if it weren't for the hard work, determination, and slight pushing of not only Princess Luna, but Twilight as well. It's their doings that helped me realize my own destiny.”

Astral's eyes grew wide with intrigue, “So you like the night sky too? Do you still have your work?”

Lunar chuckled, “I certainly do, though admittedly, it hasn't seen much volume since I became a prince of Equestria. Perhaps that could change tonight.”

“I would love to do such a thing with you tonight, Prince,” Astral beamed excitedly.

“Please,” Lunar smiled, raising his hoof towards Astral, “Lunar will do just fine. I'm gonna go out on a hunch that Twilight already said this, but in case she didn't, you can leave the formality to meeting and engaging with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. It feels weird to have others call me by my title.”

“Of course,” Astral nodded.

Lunar then turned to Twilight and Starlight, “I'll see you both in a little bit. I'm going to go out with Astral and see what we can discover together.”

“Enjoy yourselves,” Starlight replied.

“We'll see you later,” added Twilight, nuzzling Lunar slightly, “when you return, we'll have some coffee together before going to bed.”

“Sounds good, Twily,” Lunar delightfully responded, turning back towards Astral, “shall we start our cartography together then?”

“I can't wait!” Astral eagerly shouted, walking alongside Lunar out of the Castle of Friendship.





“I took her to a hill that really overlooked a lot of Ponyville and we mapped out some of the constellations on the empty maps I prepared for us both,” Lunar explained, “and that's where I really got to know just what kind of pony Astral was.”

“And what kind was she?” Meridian curiously asked.

“A pony that reminded me a lot of myself, honestly,” admitted Lunar, “like how I'd lived my life prior to becoming an alicorn. I learned a little bit about her past while we were alone together – her father abandoned his family and her mother had passed away a short while before meeting Twilight and myself – and really came to understand why she liked studying the night sky; it provided a distraction for her.”

“Fascinating,” said Meridian.

“When we were finished for the evening,” continued Lunar, “I took her back to the castle and into the library, where we met Starlight and Twilight, and we continued talking there, uncovering a bit more about why friendship is important to the stability of Equestria.”





Twilight smiled, sitting down in her own chair inside the library, adjacent to Lunar and across from Astral, “How did the friendship lesson go?”

Lunar sat down next to Twilight and smirked, “I think it went pretty well. Wouldn't you say so, Astral?”

Astral blushed, “I-I guess so? It didn't feel like one, though.”

“And that's the beauty of them,” said Twilight, “they usually don't feel like lessons once you get the hang of them.”

Astral sat down across from Twilight and adjacent to Starlight. She took a sip of her coffee and smiled, impressed with the flavor the coffee had. Starlight closed her book and smiled.

“So, Starlight,” Twilight spoke, “how long have you been studying friendship with myself, would you say?”

“Probably about a year or so now,” Starlight answered, “it's impressive, honestly, how fast time flies by.”

“What did you do before meeting Twilight?” Astral wondered.

Starlight blushed slightly, twirling a strand of her mane with her hoof, “Well, I guess I can go into details about that; we're all friends here.”

“Precisely,” smiled Twilight.

“And there's no judging here,” added Lunar.

“And that's what I love about being given a second chance by you, Twilight,” Starlight mentioned, “it really is nice to see somepony do something like that to another pony.”

“It's my pleasure, Starlight,” Twilight said, “friendship is something that everypony should fight for.”

“And that's something I've had to learn the hard way at first,” Starlight stated, turning to Astral.

“What do you mean?” Astral asked.

“Before I met Twilight,” Starlight explained, “I ran a town on the far outreaches of Equestria. It was very secluded and nopony really ever bothered us, minus Tirek when he went around and stole magic. In that town, ponies would come and I would discretely convince and manipulate them into giving up their talents and living a life that was devoid of special talents and cutie marks in general.”

“Really?” Astral replied, intrigued by Starlight's explanation.

Starlight nodded, “I used my magic to take their cutie marks and replace them with an equal sign. I lived in that town for years and, when I finally met Twilight and her friends, I was reluctant at first, but pressed forward with my mission to show Equestria that cutie marks are nothing but a cause for pain. I thought that if I could take Twilight's cutie mark, I could show Equestria that even a princess like her was willing to give up what made them special.”

“What happened next?” Astral asked, taking another sip of her coffee.

“Well,” continued Starlight, “Twilight and her friends managed to convince the other ponies of the town to go after their cutie marks and eventually ran me out of the town and into a maze-like cave system that I used to get away.”

“Sounds rough,” Astral said aloud, thinking that she didn't.

“That's not all,” Twilight commented.

“It's not?” Astral responded.

“Nope,” Starlight smirked, shaking her head, “you see, after what happened, I followed Twilight and started studying her a little bit in secret, trying to see if I could use something of hers against her. When she was giving a lecture to the ponies in Princess Celestia's school, I came across an old spell from Star Swirl the Bearded that involved time travel. Combining it and rewriting the spell slightly, I managed to go back in time myself and make it so that anypony who used and casted the spell would send me back as well.”

“That's incredible,” Astral said in awe. She didn't think it was possible for a unicorn to travel back in time and began wondering of the infinite possibilities she could have if she knew that spell.

“So,” continued Starlight, “I used the spell to send me back to a specific point in Twilight's history.”

“What was that?” Astral wondered.

“A race at a flight school in Cloudsdale,” answered Twilight, turning to Astral, “you see, my friends and the friendships we've developed over the years are quite unique.”

“How so?”

“During that race,” Twilight exclaimed, “our friend Rainbow Dash performed a sonic rainboom. If it weren't for that rainboom, Rainbow Dash might not have been able to defend Fluttershy's honor, Fluttershy might never have discovered her love for animals, Applejack might never have realized that she belonged on her farm, and Pinkie Pie might never have decided to leave hers. Our friend Rarity has an impeccable sense of fabulosity, and that's something that can be traced back to the rainboom. Even more, it might be hard to even fathom what my life might have been like had it not been for the rainboom that occurred. The rainboom allowed me to unleash my full potential and enroll in magic school.”

Lunar smiled, then looked towards Astral, “It's not often that a pony and their friends can trace a single event in their past that affected them all in the long run.”

“Right,” added Starlight, turning back towards Astral as well, “and when I went back in time to change the outcome of the race, I successfully did so and watched as Twilight's future changed as well so that her friends never met.”

“You did?” Astral asked.

“A few times actually,” Starlight answered, “remember, I wrote the spell to bring myself back as well, and Twilight did that a number of times, but each time, I changed the race's outcome.”

“What happened then?” Astral questioned. “I mean, clearly things are normal right now, right?”

“Right,” Twilight said, “and since I had never met a pony with such magical capabilities as Starlight, I had to convince her to stop on her own accord. I showed her what would happen to Equestria had the rainboom never happened and,” she turned to Starlight, “I think we can both agree that it wasn't great.”

“Not one bit,” agreed Starlight, turning to Astral, “and that's why I thank Twilight for giving me a chance and teaching me friendship. She could have easily said no and banish or punish me in whatever way she thought fit because of what I did to her and to her friends, but she didn't do anything like that. She knew that my previous experience with friendship was bad, but she was willing to help work with me to make me see the positiveness in making friends. I have her to thank for that.”

Astral nodded, then rubbed her chin softly. Lunar smiled, offering his take as well.

“I owe Twilight everything in regards to friendship as well,” he told Astral, “like I told you, if it weren't for her,” he flared his wings out to show Astral, “then these two wouldn't be here right now. Again, friendship is a powerful thing to have in our lives. It creates lifelong relationships with ponies we care about dearly and they help make Equestria a safer place.”

“I suppose so,” Astral said, thinking back to what Twilight said earlier about a bad futuristic outcome, “do you mind if I see what exactly you were referring to when you said that the future wasn't great if the rainboom never happened?”

“I suppose that would be okay,” Twilight obliged, using her magic to show the image she showed Starlight once.

Surrounded by an interesting color aura, Twilight, Starlight, Lunar, and Astral were all brought to where Twilight and Starlight once stood. Astral looked around and wondered what she was looking at, cocking an eyebrow slightly.

“There's nothing here,” she finally stated, turning back towards Twilight.

“That's right,” Twilight confirmed, “in the future, Equestria becomes, well, nothing.”

“I'm not sure I understand,” Astral retorted, “how can that be possible?”

“I asked the same thing myself,” Starlight admitted, “when I first saw this, I didn't understand either.”

“I let Starlight know that the friendships I created and molded are important to the stability of Equestria,” Twilight explained, “and why it is like that, I am not sure myself. It just so happens to be the case.”

“But what would make one group of friends so important to Equestria?” Astral asked instinctively. “I don't believe that can possibly be the case.”

“Well, Astral,” Twilight started, only to be cut off by Lunar.

“Do you mind if I take this one, Twily?” He asked her.

Twilight giggled lightly, “Okay, Lunar.”

Lunar smiled, then started answering for Twilight, “Let me ask you this, Astral: Have you ever heard of the Elements of Harmony?”

Astral nodded a bit, “I read about them when I was younger, in a book called Ancient Artifacts of Equestrian History.”

“Tell me what you know about them,” Lunar said.

“Well,” Astral started, “from what I remember from the book, there are six elements in the world, but only five of them are known – kindness, generosity, loyalty, laughter, and honesty. The sixth is a mysterious element that nopony has seen in years.”

“Hmm,” Lunar pondered, “how long ago did you read that book?”

“Umm, h-had to have been five or ten years ago?” Astral answered, unsure of the exact time since she read it. “I'm not sure when. Why do you ask?”

“Because that's not entirely true anymore,” replied Twilight, “the sixth element is my element: Magic.”

“The Element of Magic?” Astral repeated.

“Yup,” Twilight smiled, “that element appeared to me when I heard my friends coming to my aide when we went up against Nightmare Moon a long time ago. That, however, is a story for another time.”

“Okay then,” Astral said, looking around again.

Lunar continued explaining the answer to the earlier question, “So, one group of friends is vital in Equestria. In this case, when Starlight altered the timeline, the Elements of Harmony were also affected, meaning that they were never found and Equestria was left defenseless when problems started to show up, like Nightmare Moon and King Sombra.”

“Still,” thought Astral, “seeing such an extreme case is odd. Seeing this is almost like getting struck by lightning or having your wings clipped; it just seems extremely unlikely.”

“While it is true that disrupting a friendship at random wouldn't necessarily lead to this exact moment,” admitted Twilight, “it is true that with fewer and fewer friendships in Equestria, it will get weaker and easier to invade, possibly even resulting in the return of the Windigos.”

Astral nodded, then took note of this important and powerful image while Twilight reversed the spell, bringing their normal surroundings back to them. Twilight looked to the clock and yawned a bit.

“Wow,” she giggled, “it sure is getting late.”

“It is,” Starlight agreed, “I think it's time I hit the hay.”

“Same here, Starlight,” Twilight smiled, turning to Astral, “it was great having a chance to talk to you about this sort of thing.”

“Likewise, Twilight,” Astral replied.

“Goodnight, everypony,” Starlight yawned, rising from her seat and heading for her room, “see you all in the morning.”

“Sweet dreams, Starlight,” Lunar smirked.

Starlight chuckled, “I'll know if you step hoof in my dream, mister.” She exited the library and went to her room.

Astral looked towards Lunar, “I guess it's time I get going too.”

“You have your own place you're staying in here in Ponyville?” Lunar wondered.

Astral shook her head, “N-not exactly. I was gonna stay in one of the hotels nearby.”

Twilight rose from her seat and smiled, “Well, since you are learning from Lunar, we could provide you with a room of your own here in the castle. It's large enough where there is extra space for other ponies. I can show it to you tonight since Lunar has to get ready to perform his nightly royal duties.”

Astral blushed slightly, “A-are you sure, T-Twilight?”

Twilight nodded, “Of course I am. Come on, I'll show you to your room.”

Astral smiled softly, “Th-thank you, Twilight.” She turned back to Lunar and waved to him, “Thank you for tonight, Lunar. I can't wait to see what will happen tomorrow.”

“Likewise, Astral,” Lunar replied happily, “get some rest and I'll see you tomorrow. Sweet dreams now!”

Following Twilight out of the library, Astral was being guided to her room for the night, smiling to herself buoyantly.





“I remember going into the Dream Realm that night and seeing all the dreams of everypony there, mostly my friends at the time,” Lunar said, “I met Princess Luna there, we spoke for a while since she wondered how the experiences were going for the first day, and then I went about my normal duties, entering the dream of a young pony who was experiencing a nightmare.”

“As far as duties go,” Meridian started, “could you explain in detail what it is that you do in the Dream Realm, as you put it?”

“Of course,” smiled Lunar, “my duties are to assist Princess Luna inside the Dream Realm and assist with ponies having nightmares. If a nightmare goes unchecked, there is a possibility that said nightmare could dangerously impact a pony's psyche. Prior to my ascension to the throne, Princess Luna would focus solely on the ponies who were experiencing horrific nightmares. Since I've been crowned a prince, we both help anypony who may be having a nightmare, no matter how small it may be. There are days where a lot of ponies are experiencing nightmares, but often times, we have enough time to dedicate to any one pony at any one time.”

“Interesting,” Meridian beamed, “and that's your main royal duty, correct?”

“Correct,” nodded Lunar, “any other duties I'm assigned are done with Twilight by my side.”

“Going back to your pupil,” Meridian said, “what did you do that night? Was it different or uneventful?”

“It was different,” chuckled Lunar, “but I wouldn't say 'uneventful.'”

“How so?” Meridian wondered.

“Well...” Lunar replied, looking up in the process.





“...and that's why it can be hard, but rest assured, things will get better in the long run.”

“How are you so sure of that?”

Lunar smiled, “Better things start with positive attitudes. It's hard, but simply smiling genuinely can be the difference between making someone's day. Positive thinking, as silly as it sounds, can really go a long way.”

“I guess so. But how do I begin?”

“Start by waking up and telling yourself that today will be a good day,” Lunar advised, “then things will become easier, especially as you do that more often.”

“Thank you for helping me, Prince Lunar. I'll do just that!”

“Anytime, my little pony,” chuckled Lunar, exiting the dream of a young colt.

Reentering the void of the Dream Realm, Lunar sighed contently, satisfied that he was able to help ease the stress that they were feeling. He looked around for another pony that may be experiencing a nightmare, spotting Luna in the process. He saw that she had a worried look on her face and approached her, wondering what the matter was.

“Everything okay, Princess Luna?” He asked. “You look like you've seen a ghost.”

“Come with me, Lunar,” Luna replied, taking his hoof in the process, “there's something that I wish to show you.”

“Whoa!” Lunar exclaimed, surprised with how quickly Luna was taking him. “Where are we going?”

Luna found Astral's dream once more and told Lunar to enter into it. Obliging, Lunar entered into Astral's dream and looked around. He noticed that Astral was inside a home, presumably her old home, and was sobbing to herself. He wanted to go over to check on her, but Luna forbade that with her magic, holding him back for the time being. Lunar looked back and wondered why that was the case, questioning Luna about it.

“Wait and see,” Luna told him.

Lunar tilted his head out of confusion and looked back to Astral. She was wiping her tears away with her hooves and looked towards the blood stains that were on her body. She started shaking and tried her hardest to come to terms with what had happened, but couldn't find strength to do so. Lunar looked back towards Luna and wondered what had happened.

“I've never seen such pain in a dream before, Lunar,” Luna told him, “have you?”

Lunar shook his head slowly, “I haven't. What happened before this?”

Using her magic, Luna showed Lunar what happened before he arrived, up until the point where the doctors told Astral what happened. Lunar immediately understood what happened and thought back to what Astral told him during their friendship lesson earlier in the night.

“She unfortunately passed away some time ago,” Lunar recited, looking to Luna grimly, “this must have been what happened when Aurora passed away.” He looked back towards Astral. “Dear Celestia...”

“Perhaps it would be best if you take things from here, Lunar,” Luna suggested, “it might be unconventional, but lessons can happen at any time, even in the Dream Realm.”

“I'll try my best, Princess,” promised Lunar as he watched Luna leave back into the void.

“I don't want to be alone,” Astral sobbed, wondering what she would do now that she was on her own.

Lunar nodded to himself, then allowed his magic to take over his voice, echoing throughout the room. “You don't have to be alone; not anymore.”

Startled by the new voice, Astral looked up and wiped her eyes dry again, “Huh? Wh-who's there?”

With a bright light filling the room momentarily, Lunar made himself visible to Astral and approached her slowly. Astral sniffed a bit as a result of her sobbing and looked down a bit. Lunar took note of this and continued forward.

“Prince Lunar?” She asked herself. “D-does this mean that I'm dreaming?”

“Precisely, Astral,” confirmed Lunar.

“But if I'm dreaming,” continued Astral, noticing her blood-spattered hooves had become clean now, “why don't I wake up then?”

“Sometimes we can worry about a thing so much that fear can make us feel like we're trapped inside a nightmare,” Lunar told her, using his magic to erase the nearby surrounding area, “these things are not real. The emotions felt inside of our dreams might be exerted from real events, but that does not mean we have to replicate them.”

Astral looked down again, “How much have you seen then?”

“I've seen enough,” answered Lunar, looking towards Astral and approaching her slowly, “tell me: is there something that you're deeply afraid of?”

Astral shook her head slowly; she decided to lie to Lunar for now.

Lunar rubbed his chin lightly, sensing that something wasn't right at the moment. “Are you sure about that?” He used his magic to bring Astral back inside the kitchen from earlier. “Because I can think of one or two things that could fill the void the question provided.”

Astral gulped, then came clean, “I-I'm afraid of being alone. I...I'm sorry I lied.”

“I understand,” Lunar replied, “and I probably would've done the same if I were in your horseshoes.”

“You would've?” Astral wondered, surprised to hear Lunar admit that.

“You see,” continued Lunar, “when we're afraid to show signs of weaknesses, ponies often times hide them from revealing it to others. Your phobia is nothing more than mind games you're playing in order to trick yourself.”

“I, umm, I'm not sure I understand,” Astral said.

Lunar smirked, “We're all afraid of something, Astral. Admitting that we're afraid isn't showing weaknesses. In fact, it shows how strong we really are since we can admit those fears.”

“But it feels bad knowing that you're all alone in the world,” Astral responded, “that's mainly why I focus solely on my work now. It gives me something to distract myself from the consistent loneliness that I experience day in and day out.”

“True,” agreed Lunar, “but you haven't been alone this entire time. You did get sent via royal order to learn from me, and something tells me that if it weren't an order, you probably wouldn't have shown, am I right?”

Meekly, Astral nodded, “Friendship just hadn't had the same effect on me as it had on you, Lunar. You wouldn't understand if I just told you my story.”

“Maybe not,” continued Lunar, “but those thoughts and experiences are locked into your subconscious, are they not?”

“I-I guess so?” Astral quizzically replied, wondering what Lunar was doing.

“Dreams are similar in that aspect as they are locked into a pony's subconscious,” explained Lunar, “which means, that if you'd like to show me those experiences, I can bring them and project them for us to see. That's up to you to decide, however, and I won't force you into doing something you're not comfortable doing.”

Astral wondered for a moment, but ultimately decided that it would be okay to show Lunar some of the experiences she had with friendship as a filly, feeling that it would offer a better explanation than one she could've given herself. Lunar nodded, then used his magic to bring forth one of Astral's memories, projecting it so that they could both see it.

“This was when I was a filly of about four or five,” Astral stated, “and I was in the local kindergarten that Whineysota had. Mom was still getting over my father leaving her and I didn't really know better at the time, often asking her when he'd come home. I was maybe seven or eight before I realized that he wasn't coming back. Here, however, I had my first experiences with friendship.”

Lunar nodded and looked around the room they were in. It was a small classroom inside the kindergarten center Astral mentioned earlier and there were a bunch of colored drawings lining up along the walls as well as other items. In the middle of the room stood about fifteen fillies and colts, watching as the teacher was writing something on the chalkboard in front of them.

“Alright, everypony,” the teacher beamed, “since you've all been wonderful today, the next twenty minutes will be free time! Remember to keep our inside voices on at all times, okay?”

“Okay, Ms. Daisy,” the children responded in unison.

Ms. Daisy smiled, “Have fun then, everypony!”

Lunar noticed the fillies and colts scatter across the room and spotted the filly version of Astral. He saw that she was playing with some blocks by herself and wondered why that was the case. The adult version of Astral pointed to a group of three ponies to the left of the filly version and started explaining what was about to happen.

“Those three were the most popular ponies in the whole class,” Astral said, “and whatever they did was considered cool. It sounds dumb, but we were kids and that's usually how it goes at that age.”

“What happened then?” Lunar wondered.

Astral continued pointing to the group of three and answered Lunar as they rose from their seats, “Those three never liked me and would constantly pick on me.”

“Look who's all by herself,” one of the ponies laughed, looking at filly Astral.

“Weave me awone, pwease,” the filly whispered.

“You're a loser!” Another one of the ponies teased.

“Ye-yeah!” The final one added. “Lose-tral!”

“Stwop, pwease,” the filly cried, “Mwiss Dwaisy!”

Lunar cocked an eyebrow and saw what Astral meant now. Looking to the prince, Astral rolled her eyes and explained further.

“That,” she said, “that right there is what I had to deal with day in and day out for over ten years. Ten years! That's the reason why I never gave friendship a second thought because it never cared for me! You have no idea what it's like to experience something like that on a consistent basis, Lunar.”

“Perhaps not,” Lunar admitted, using his magic to make the vision fade away, “but I think I can attempt to relate to the feeling of being alone.”

“I'd doubt it,” Astral spoke under her breath, “with all due respect, Lunar, but friendship isn't really something that could heal these wounds.”

“I know,” Lunar replied, “but they can help patch them. Allow me to show you something from my life. This goes back to before I became an alicorn, before I met Twilight, before I met Princess Luna, before I enrolled in magic school.”

Lunar used his magic to again change the area once more. This time, he showed Astral something from his childhood. Astral noticed the surroundings and wondered what was about to be shown to her. In the middle of a small room was a young unicorn colt, a past version of Lunar. Astral cocked an eyebrow, but continued to watch.

“As a younger colt,” Lunar explained, “I was very interested in magic and I remember always wanting to get better at it. This is the day I learned I had a gift, as my parents called it. We lived in Caneighda and had a lot of different books on magic.”

The young colt used his magic to move a bunch of different items in the room around: books, the coffee table, some small ottomans, and some other things. When they heard a commotion, two other ponies entered into the room, surprised by the strength of magic the colt had.

“Those are my parents,” Lunar told Astral, “my mother, Lustrous Nights, was a Pegasus and my father, Eclipse, was a unicorn.”

Lustrous Nights approached the younger version of Lunar and asked him if he had actually moved the objects on his own.

“I-I-I-,” the young colt responded, clearly being nervous about any consequences for playing with his magic.

“Lunar,” Lustrous spoke softly, approaching the child and wrapping her wings around him, “it's okay, Luny...you can calm down now. You're not in trouble or anything.”

“Your mother used to call you Luny too?” Astral noticed.

Lunar blushed slightly, “I used to have a lot of anxiety as a colt. Mom calling me Luny would calm me down a lot.”

“I wed the wittle spell in the book,” the young colt finally said.

Astral smiled softly, “That's cute.”

“I did have trouble with some R's and L's when I was younger,” Lunar chuckled.

“You know I'm not a unicorn,” Lustrous continued, “but even I could tell that that was some sort of spell, Luny.”

“Weally?”

Eclipse approached the two ponies and nodded, “Not even I can control that many things, Lunar. You have a gift.”

The young colt grew excited, “Can I open it, pwease?”

Astral giggled to herself once more, “That's adorable.”

“It's not that kind of gift, sweetie,” Lustrous told the young colt.

Lunar smiled softly and used his magic to teleport him and Astral to a different moment in that time, “You get the idea. I had a pretty good relationship with my mom and my dad.”

“Where are we now?” Astral wondered.

“Well...” Lunar began, trailing off as he motioned his head towards a set of doors to his left.

“Daddy,” the young colt called, “where's Mommy?”

Eclipse's eyes started forming tears. The young colt was unsure of what was happening, so he approached Eclipse and twirled a hoof on the ground nervously.

“Am I in twouble?” He asked Eclipse.

Eclipse shook his head, “N-no...”

“Daddy,” the colt continued, “what happened to Mommy? Where did she go?”

Eclipse wiped his tears away and pulled in his son for a hug. Astral looked towards the adult version of Lunar and saw as his eyes were closed, hoof wiping a tear away himself. Lunar used his magic to make the images disappear, looking towards Astral in the process and explaining to her what happened then.

“You see,” he started, “right before Hearth's Warming that year, my mom, Lustrous, started feeling sick and was left very weak. She spent a lot of time in the hospital near Ontneighrio and I remember Dad taking me to visit her every single day when I came home from school.” He cleared his throat briefly, sensing that he was choking up a bit. “Sorry about that. Anyways, the doctors told us that she would be okay and that she would be home just after the start of the new year. Dad and I used that as hope while we watched her be unable to really move on her own behalf. Those final few days were some of the heaviest ones of my life. That was the last time I ever saw my mother.”

Astral felt heartbroken. She looked at Lunar and, reaching out, proceeded to hug him. Lunar returned the hug with one of his own and continued explaining to Astral why he showed her what he did.

“I never got to say goodbye to my mother,” he said, “like you. I never got that closure, exactly like you. I could have ended things right then and there, but I didn't.”

“How'd you push past that?” Astral wondered.

“Remember my dad telling me how I had a gift?” Lunar asked Astral. “Or my mother explaining to me how she saw that the spell I casted was 'some sort of spell?'”

“Yeah?”

“Well after that moment,” continued Lunar, “my mom tried signing me up to attend Princess Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns, but every time I saw the application, I would throw it out. When she finally passed, I decided to fulfill her dream of me attending that school, though it took a bit of time for me to find the strength to do so. Dad always told me that she would've been proud to see how far I'd come. I went, enrolled, got accepted, and passed my entrance exam on a lenient technicality that I'll explain another time. I studied for a few years under Princess Luna's wing and, eventually, when Twilight helped me achieve my wings, I specifically requested that a seat be set aside next to my dad during my coronation ceremony. That seat represented my mother and was the closest to the aisle, which was the closest seat to me. My father and step-mother took the two seats next to the empty one.”

“So you-”

“I do what I do because I know my mother would be proud to know that I'd done it,” Lunar interrupted, “I didn't have any friends growing up, but studying magic and, eventually, friendship is what allowed me to get to where I am today – here with you talking about how friendship can change the lives of ponies. I know you don't have a great history with it, but I can tell you that friendship is indeed life-changing. If you don't take my word for it, at least take Princess Luna's word or Twilight's word for it.”

Astral looked down and wondered if what Lunar was speaking was really the honest truth. She closed her eyes tight and bit her lip slightly.

“But what if I fail?” She hesitated to say.

“Then you just get right back up and try again,” Lunar told her, “the fear of failure isn't necessarily the failure of fear. Our past does not define us, Astral, because our past is not today. Everyday is a new day and offers new opportunities for us to expand and better ourselves, that's why it's called the present. Yesterday's history, tomorrow's a mystery, but today will always be a gift. Use that gift to make a difference in the life of somepony, even if it's yours.”

Astral opened her eyes once more and looked towards Lunar, tears of happiness in them. She hugged Lunar once more and promised that she would give friendship a chance, in honor of her mother.

“Wonderful,” Luna smiled, entering into the dream with Lunar and Astral, “this is exceptional news, Astral, and a choice that will lead to many wondrous things in your life.”

“Th-thank you,” said Astral, wiping her eyes dry once more.
> A Lunar Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“After that,” Lunar explained, “things between Astral and myself were fine – I taught her everything about friendship and she eventually returned home to spread what she learned and practice it too. We used to talk a lot and she'd send me letters weekly, but those stopped once I, well...”

Lunar stopped as he found finding the right words hard to say. Meridian wondered what the matter was and politely asked the prince if everything was alright. Lunar nodded, smiling meekly at Meridian.

“Sorry,” he sighed, “it's just, we're nearing the point of my life where everything went haywire.”

Twilight noticed Lunar having a hard time and rested one of her hooves along his back, rubbing it softly. Lunar looked to Twilight and smiled a bit more, but still looked down.

“It's okay, Lunar,” Twilight told him, “it's all old news and won't happen again, I will guarantee that.”

“Remember, Lunar,” added Meridian, “the purpose of this biography is so that history won't repeat itself again. Princess Luna suffered similar fates and you, in the most literal way, followed in her hoofsteps, but you recognize the error of your ways, much like the princess, and you are doing your hardest to not let that incident define who you are.”

Lunar sighed once more, then nodded, “You're right. It's just hard to talk about. This will really be the first time I've talked about this in detail since it's happened.”

“Take it slow and easy, Lunar,” Meridian encouraged.

“It'll all be okay,” Twilight added.

Taking a deep breath, Lunar nodded slowly, then looked to Meridian, “This is how it all happened.”





“There is a great evil coming,” Luna explained, “and there won't be much I can do to help you...”

“I don't get it though,” Lunar sighed, looking down a bit, “How can I be the great evil? I've never done anything remotely bad before in my life, you know that.”

“I sense that your horn is developing dark alicorn magic,” alerted Luna.

“Dark alicorn magic?” Lunar repeated.

“Precisely,” continued Luna, “normally, an alicorn would complete the development of their own alicorn magic first. Dark magic shouldn't be developed until late in an alicorn's life.”

“But,” protested Lunar, “you telling me this can offer a way for me to stop this, right?”

“Dark magic is different between alicorns and unicorns,” Luna explained.

“How so?”

“Well,” said Luna, “for one thing, it's much easier to remove the dark magic for regular unicorns. As for alicorns like ourselves, it's a bit trickier. Myself, for example, was corrupted by dark magic and, like you know, became Nightmare Moon. Once corrupted, it will be very hard to save you, seeing how the Elements of Harmony are no longer with their respective holders and back inside the Tree of Harmony.”

Lunar felt a tear forming in his eye and quickly wiped it away, looking back at Luna, “I-Is there anything I can do to stop this from happening?”

“All that I can tell you is to stay strong and fight it as best as you can,” Luna sighed, feeling grim, “you will notice a change in your behavior – I don't know what you'll do or what you'll become – and you will start seeing a change in the way you perform magic.”

“Will it continue to happen if I continue casting spells?” Lunar wondered, trying to come up with a way to eliminate the corruption from happening.

“It will continue to happen, regardless if you cast spells or not,” Luna spoke heavily, “and, simply putting this out there, but you need your magic in order to perform your royal duties.” She neared Lunar and stared into his eyes, placing a hoof on his chest softly. “All I can say is that I believe in you, Lunar. You are strong enough to not fall, trust me. You are a strong pony, stronger than anypony I've ever met in my lifetime. I wish there was something I could do to help you out, but this is something you will have to deal with by yourself, as much as I wish you didn't have to. But you can do this, don't be like me. Don't become corrupted. Don't turn into a colt version of Nightmare Moon. Please, don't do any of that. Think about the happiness you bring to everypony: myself, Princess Cadence, Princess Celestia, your parents, and, most importantly, Princess Twilight. Think about them and the happiness you have brought them.”

Just then, the void Princess Luna and Lunar were in was starting to collapse. Luna started walking backwards into the void while Lunar tried reaching out for her, hoping to get more answers. Normally, Lunar would be able to follow after Luna, but since this was his own dream, Luna made sure he couldn't with her own magic. Unfortunately for Lunar, the void had collapsed on itself and Lunar woken up in the waking world in a startle, alerting a sleeping Twilight next to him.

“Are you okay, Lunar?” Twilight asked, rubbing her eye gently with her hoof.

Lunar looked over to Twilight with heavy eyes and contemplated whether or not he should tell the pony that meant the world to him what was slowly happening to him. Twilight could tell that something was bothering Lunar and, getting up from her spot on the blanket underneath them, approached Lunar slowly, hoof extended out to him.

“N-No,” Lunar heavily spoke through a gasp, “no...”

“I only want to help you, Lunar,” Twilight claimed, continuing to approach him.

Backing up into the tree trunk next to them, Lunar quickly glanced back and forth around him, trying to not make eye contact with Twilight. Continuing to approach him, Twilight held out her hoof as a sign of extending her help to him. Lunar calmed down slightly, looking down at Twilight's outreached hoof and finally taking it, holding it and walking back to where they were laying down together.

“Luny,” Twilight spoke softly, “what's wrong? You're acting different than usual.”

Lunar was uncertain how he should respond and looked down, sighing slightly. He still contemplated whether to tell Twilight the truth or not. Twilight saw this and rubbed Lunar's back softly with one of her hooves.

“Shhhh,” Twilight quietly sounded, “it's okay...you can tell me, it's alright...”

“I...I just had a bad dream, that's all,” Lunar lied, deciding that it was best not to alert Twilight in any way.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Twilight calmly asked, moving her hoof from Lunar's back to his own hoof now. “If you talk about it, it releases the images of that dream and you'll be less likely to have it in the future. I believe that's what you told me before, right?”

“I...it was...” Lunar gulped, looking into Twilight's loving eyes, getting drowned in them and completely forgetting about his sure corruption. “I dreamt...I dreamt that we, umm, that we had a big fight and that you wanted to leave me for somepony else...exiling me to someplace else as well...”

“It's okay, my prince,” Twilight spoke, looking back into Lunar's eyes, “that is a dream that will never come to pass. I'll never do anything like that to you and, should we ever get into an argument, I'm sure there isn't anything a little talk and compromise can't fix.”

Lunar falsely smiled at Twilight, who managed to buy the smile for the time being. Nuzzling her with his muzzle, Lunar happily obliged to her comments.

“I am so lucky to have you as my marefriend, Twily,” Lunar spoke, “I do hope that you know that.”

“I do, Lunar,” Twilight giggled, “and I feel the same way about having you as a coltfriend.”





“So that was what started my frenzy and worries about how and when I would change,” Lunar sighed, “I'd never been that afraid of anything before in my life and, to be honest, other than losing Twilight, I've never been that afraid of anything since.”

“What were the first signs you noticed that showed you were changing?” Meridian asked.

“I guess it would be the race I had against Rainbow Dash and Applejack where I noticed something was wrong with me,” answered Lunar, “I like competition, being a sports pony and all, and I hate to lose, but that race was the first time I'd ever actually cheated.”

“Cheated?”

“I used my magic to give myself an unfair advantage,” explained Lunar, “and it caused a huge gap to form between myself and Dash and AJ. I didn't recognize it while I was doing it at the time, but I did notice afterwards after they told Twilight what happened. From there, things got a little bit more out of control.”





“Hello there, my Princess,” Lunar smiled, “how are you doing?”

Lunar received a cold shoulder from Twilight as they walked through the main hallway of the castle. He was a bit shocked and ran up next to her to see what was wrong. Walking down one of the other hallways, Lunar noticed that Twilight had begun picking up her pace, so he matched her new pace in order to keep up with her.

“What's wrong, Twily?” Lunar asked calmly.

“Don't call me that,” Twilight replied.

“I just want to know what the matter is,” continued Lunar.

“You know damn well what the matter is!” Twilight snapped.

Lunar was surprised. Twilight had never spoken to him in such a tone before and he grew worried, continuing to defend himself by denying what had obviously taken place earlier in the day.

“I really don't know what you mean, Twilight,” he told her, “I don't know what the matter is.”

“Oh,” Twilight sarcastically scoffed, “the cheater doesn't remember what he did?”

“I–”

“How can you just stand there like that and lie to me?” Twilight asked, some tears beginning to run down the side of her face.

“But–”

“How could you do that?” Twilight cried, looking away in the process.

“What–”

“I thought you loved me...” Twilight squeaked between her sobs.

That claim managed to shut Lunar up permanently as he stared directly into Twilight's beautiful eyes. At that moment, he realized that his honesty and his good nature was starting to turn on itself and that he was beginning to turn into a different kind of pony.

“Twilight...” Lunar whispered.

Twilight shook her head slowly and began walking away. “Don't talk to me,” she said through her tears, “I don't want to talk to you right now or see you right now either.”

She ran off to her room afterwards, leaving Lunar alone in the middle of the hallway with a stunned look on his face. He fought back some tears, then opted to go to his own room and lay down. Lunar needed to cool off desperately, and by being alone, he would be able to do just that.

Entering into his room, he made sure that he would not be disturbed, asking Spike to hold all of his visitors for the time being. He wanted to be alone and made sure that that would happen no matter what. Spike obliged to Lunar's request as he entered into his room and locked the door behind him, standing in the center of the room and facing a nearby mirror to look at his features and appearance.

Prior to becoming an alicorn, Lunar was about the size of Princess Luna, about a few inches shorter than she was. Since becoming an alicorn, he grew slightly taller than her and, the more obvious item, a pair of feathered wings, something he had started to question now.

Without these wings, Lunar thought, I was a simple unicorn with simple, controlled magic. Now that I have them, I have uncontrolled dark alicorn magic that's slowly developing me into an entirely different pony.

Approaching the mirror and looking more closely at himself, Lunar noticed that he was a bit taller than he usually was and that his mane now had sparks within it. He noted that, earlier in the day, he was slightly shorter and the sparks were not present in his mane either. He studied the new features within his mane for quite a bit of time before sighing heavily, punching the crystallized wall in front of him, cracking it around his hoof slightly. It hadn't caused any pain to Lunar, but he could see a little bit of blood running from his hoof. He ignored it, then walked over towards his bed and collapsed atop of it, staring up at the ceiling.

Lunar's room was one that resembled his personality perfectly. His room was very dark colored and had a number of astrological signs printed throughout the walls. There were bookshelves filled with the latest books on astronomy that are in his room as well, not to mention a model of the sun and moon on top of one of the bookshelves.

Lunar looked over towards the bookshelf and stared at the model of the moon for what seemed like hours until his attention was finally drawn from it. A knock came at the door and Lunar opted not to answer it. That stood to be the case until he found out who was at the door knocking.

“Lunar?” Twilight called. “Are you in there?”

“What do you want, Twilight?” Lunar rudely replied. He cracked his neck, then straightened out his tone and attitude. “I mean, uhh, what's wrong, Twilight?”

“C-Can I come in?” She asked quietly.

“Yeah, sure,” sighed Lunar, “why not?”

He got up and proceeded to walk towards the door. Unlocking it, Lunar opened it up slightly and peered his head out of the door, making sure that Twilight was all alone before letting her in. Once she was inside his room, Lunar immediately closed and locked the door, facing her in the process.

“What's wrong?” Lunar asked.

“I wanted to ask you that, Lunar,” Twilight said, approaching Lunar slowly, “what's going on, Lunar? What's the matter?”

Lunar gazed down into Twilight's beautiful violet eyes, then sighed heavily once more. He opted for telling Twilight the truth because the truth would hurt less than a consistent lie would.

“Princess Luna visited me in my sleep when we were in the park before,” Lunar began, “she told me that my dark alicorn magic was forming at an alarming pace and that this was unusual for an alicorn at this point.”

“What did she say to do?” Twilight asked out of shock.

“That's the thing,” replied Lunar, “she said that there's nothing I can't do to stop this from happening and that it will continue no matter what.” He felt a few tears form in his eyes and run down the side of his face while continuing. “I-I'm turning into a pony that I'm not and that's why I'm acting the way I've been before. I don't mean any of this, really. It's just that my dark magic is making me do this. I know I cheated in that race, really, I do. But I didn't do that...my dark alicorn magic that's forming did that...”

“But,” Twilight responded, tears forming in her eyes, “if you're becoming...this...this dark pony, then...” She trailed off, unable to finish what she wanted to say.

“Twilight,” Lunar boldly and seriously spoke, “I want you to show no mercy if we are face to face with each other. You will not harm me, nor I you. I want you to give it your all if you have to fight me. Promise me that you will show no mercy...”

Twilight looked into Lunar's eyes and quivered, “I-I can't do that, Lunar.”

“I need you to do that, Twilight,” Lunar continued, “you're a strong pony and can do this...please...for me...”

Twilight still looked into Lunar's eyes with tears rushing down the side of her face. Reaching out to her, Lunar wiped Twilight's tears away gently and kissed her on the tip of her muzzle. Twilight quietly sobbed, then promised that she would do her best through her sobbing.

“I'm sorry, my beautiful Princess...” Lunar cried with Twilight.





Lunar lifted himself and approached one of the nearby windows, watching as the sun started to set in the distance. He hadn't realized how long the interview had gone on for and found himself to be quite surprised. He wondered mostly what the end result would be and wondered if the biography would be successful in finally letting other ponies know who the real Lunar Nights was. He turned around and glanced towards Meridian, giving him a nod after she replaced the tape and inserted a new one.

“All set, Lunar,” Meridian told him.

“Thank Celestia,” Lunar joked, “the tension of what happened next is killing me.”

“Well,” continued Meridian, “I'm ready when you are.”

Lunar turned to Twilight, “You ready, Twily?”

“To listen to how bad you'd become?” Twilight smirked. “Oh no, I'll never be ready for that, again.”

Lunar rolled his eyes playfully, then returned to his chair, “Well, here goes nothing, yet again.”





Out in the middle of a field far away from civilization stood Lunar. He fled his home and said his goodbyes to Twilight earlier in the night and made it a mission to not bring harm to anyone if and when he felt his change finish. 

He landed in a field after flying for quite some time only because his strengthening dark magic started taking away his ability to fly. Pushing himself beyond his limits, Lunar began to run in the same direction he previously flew in. Eventually, the moon reached its peak in the sky and was lighting the way that Lunar had wanted to go. He ran for quite some time and, after a while, started to feel a piercing headache, which made him begin to slow down. The headache was hurting Lunar very much, but he pressed onward, determined to be as far away from civilization as possible.

Minutes passed by while Lunar kept running. Eventually, he came to a stop when the headaches started becoming unbearable. He collapsed on the ground and started holding his head tightly, feeling like it would explode if it weren't being held. He shouted out in pain and could feel the dark magic assume control over his body, beginning with his mind.

“For Celestia's sake!” Lunar cried. “Get out of me!”

“And why would we want to do that?!” The dark forces inside Lunar asked cockily.

“Get out!” Lunar shouted. “Get out! GET OU-OW-OUT!”

“That would be rather pointless now,” the darkness menacingly spoke, “seeing how we've made ourselves feel quite at home inside this putrid body of yours!”

“I swear on my life if you do anything to anypony–”

“What will you do, tough guy?!” The darkness interrupted. “Within another five minutes, we'll be the ones who will be in complete control of this body!”

“I shall not let that happen!” Lunar defended, trying his hardest to fight back against the dark forces that were corrupting him more rapidly now.

“But it already has!” The darkness chuckled.

“What do you–AHHHHHHHHH!”

The darkness began sealing Lunar's fate and started to take control of his body. Lunar tried very hard to push the darkness out of his body, but the more he fought back and resisted, the quicker the transformation became. He cried out in pain as he began to feel his body grow slightly. He could feel his teeth grow and reshape themselves into fangs and he also felt his mane flow in the nonexistent wind. Within minutes, Lunar's psyche was thrown away as the darkness assumed total control over his entire body. As much as he fought back at this point, there was absolutely nothing he could do but hope for a miracle to happen, which even he thought was highly unlikely to happen now.

Lunar could hear the darkness laughing maniacally as he struggled mightily against it, finally breaking to give up. He sat back and prayed for a miracle to happen and could only think about how Twilight and the others would react to him being a corrupted, self-centered psychopath.

“I finally did it! I finally took over control! I must say, though, that his old body was quite feeble and frail. I'm glad we got to change that as we pleased to match our liking. Reminds me of the body we formed when we took over that worthless princess, Princess Luna!”

Lunar sighed inside his own body and felt hurt that any such insults would be thrown around. He wanted to do something about this, but given how weak he was compared to the dark forces that were in charge now, that was out of the question. He thought more about Twilight and hoped she would fulfill her promise if they met now.

“Hmm...what's this? Are these...are these memories? Is that–? That's Princess Twilight! Oh, how deliciously evil! You were one of Twilight's closest friends and now she'll witness first hoof your new power!”

Lunar felt his new wings flap and begin rising his body into the air. The dark forces turned in the direction towards Ponyville and, wings being tucked in now, Lunar blasted off towards the town. He smirked slyly and shouted out loud now.

“Hopefully my magic can do something more than defeat Twilight!” The dark forces made Lunar shout.

Lunar felt his body stop and turn towards the moon. The dark forces used the new magic that had formed to cast a spell on the moon, which was beginning to set. The spell kept the moon risen high in the sky and kept it from being controlled by anyone else, blocking the sun from shining in the process.

“It's my night now, you weak princess!” Lunar yelled at the sky, aiming those words to the absent Princess Luna. “My night! My body! My power, and there is NOTHING you can do to stop me now!”

Bringing in storm clouds, thunder roared following Lunar's declaration, providing some excellent filler in the background. He took advantage of the thunder roaring and proceeded once more towards Ponyville, hoping he would run into Twilight first.

When he finally arrived in Ponyville, Lunar started to charge up some of his newfound dark alicorn magic and unleashed it on some of the nearby homes. He cackled to himself and continued his onslaught of attacks on the innocent ponies below. Accompanied by some thunder and lightning, Lunar felt as if nothing could stop him now. Once he saw Twilight and their friends, he stopped and hovered above them all.

“We may have failed previously,” Lunar told the group, “but this time, we will make sure that our night lasts forever!”

He shot some magic at the ground, making the others jump out of the way. Twilight felt some tears form in her eyes while Rainbow Dash stepped in front of everyone, prepared to defend her friends no matter what.

“It isn't your night!” Rainbow Dash snapped, glaring at the corrupted prince angrily.

“You dare challenge us?” Lunar laughed, mocking Rainbow Dash in the process. “You simply must be joking!”

“The only joke here is you!” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“So be it then,” answered an angered Lunar, casting another beam of dark alicorn magic towards the group of friends.

“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” Twilight screamed, pushing her friends out of the way just in the nick of time. Landing hard on the ground, Twilight glanced around to see if anyone sustained any damage. “Is everypony alright?”

“I'm fine,” said Rainbow Dash, “just annoyed at him!” She pointed towards Lunar in the sky.

“It isn't his fault, Rainbow,” Twilight replied, nearly about to cry.

“Then whose is it?” Rainbow Dash responded.

“The dark forces inside of him,” Twilight cried, wiping her eyes dry of tears.

“What do ya mean, Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“Princess Luna came to him in a dream and told him that his dark alicorn magic was forming at an unusually fast pace,” Twilight answered, looking up to the corrupted prince, “and, as far as alicorns go, they usually form their regular alicorn magic first, then their dark magic much later on in their lives. It's just that the dark magic is never supposed to be as severe as his is right now.”

“Is there anything we can do to help him?” Fluttershy quietly asked.

Twilight shook her head ruefully, “I fear that it may be too late to help him out.”

“That's no way to speak, Twilight,” Applejack told the emotionally destroyed princess.

“There isn't anything a good old heaping of friendship can't do to help us out, Twi!” Rainbow Dash added.

Twilight looked to her friends for encouragement, but deep down, she knew that all hope was lost for Lunar without the Elements of Harmony to help them out. Still, she found enough determination and confidence to get herself up and formulate a plan.

“We need to get to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna immediately,” she advised her friends.

“What for?” Pinkie Pie asked.

“If we can't use the Elements of Harmony on my Lunar anymore,” continued Twilight, “then getting the most powerful ponies to help us do what we need to do is the next best thing because, if you remember from when I faced off against Tirek, with their combined magic, plus Princess Cadence's alicorn magic, that is nearly as powerful as the magic in the rest of Equestria.”

“So if we can get Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to help...?” Rarity began, trailing off towards the end.

“Then we might formulate a magic that is just as powerful as the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight finished.

The plan seemed like a long shot, but the six friends agreed that this is what they should do, seeing how Lunar's dark alicorn magic was far stronger than they had previously anticipated. They each ran off to find Celestia and Luna as quickly as possible, while the corrupted prince watched on.

“You can run, little ponies,” he laughed, “and you can hide, but we will find you and we will terminate you!”

Twilight heard what Lunar's corrupted self said and couldn't help but slow her pace down slightly. She began to shed a couple more tears, thinking back to all the fun moments both Lunar and herself had shared since they met each other. It was tough on Twilight, but she knew what she had to do, even if it meant sacrificing a lot.

She cried heavily on the inside as she continued to track down Celestia and Luna with her friends. She knew that, as she replayed each of her memories over and over in her head, that this would probably be the final time she would see Lunar for a very long time.

Up ahead in the distance, she could see the reflecting manes of Celestia and Luna. Rushing up to the two regal sisters, Twilight explained the entire situation to them and their plan, hoping that they would agree to help out.

“I'm sorry for what has become of Prince Lunar, Twilight,” Celestia said, offering her condolences.

“But, we will do all that we can to help you out in Equestria's time of need,” added Luna.

“I think there's only one option we have,” Twilight spoke, looking in the direction of where Lunar was – in front of the moon – then looking behind him.

Celestia and Luna both looked as well and immediately understood what Twilight was referring to. Looking back at Twilight, whom was being supported by her friends now, Celestia explained the consequences of what was going to happen to a shaken up Twilight.

“Princess Twilight,” she began, “this will be a tough decision for you to make, but if we go through with what you plan to do, we won't see him for a long, long time.” She turned to Luna and thought back to when she herself had to do the same thing to her younger sister, then began fighting back some tears of her own. “Your friends probably won't see him ever again and when he returns, there's no telling what may happen.”

“I know,” cried Twilight, “but it has to be done...”

“Then we haven't a moment to spare,” continued Celestia, placing a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, comforting her as best as she could.

“It is MY night,” the rogue prince shouted towards the scrambling and frightened ponies below him, “not Luna's night anymore!”

Twilight could hear Lunar's comments and couldn't help but shed a few tears as she, Celesita, Luna, and all her friends slowly gathered around her, forming a semi-circle around Lunar. Looking down at the group, all Lunar could do was laugh.

“Well, look at who we have here!” He shouted at them. “If it isn't Twilight Sparkle and the gang! I see you've also brought Luna and Celestia with you as well. I hope you don't mind, Luna, but this is my night now and I'll be taking it all from you! And as for you, Celestia, your so-called precious sun will never shine in the sky again!”

“You will not prevail, Lunar,” Celestia replied.

“Oh, I doubt that, Celestia,” Lunar smirked. He then sent over a sinister beam of magic as a warning sign to the ponies, only to have it be redirected somewhere else by Celestia herself.

“We do not wish to bring you harm, Lunar,” continued Celestia, “please just work with us.”

“Funny,” Lunar chuckled, “because I plan on bringing harm to all of you!”

With that being said, Lunar curled into a ball and started to cast a powerful wave of dark magic, scattered out all around him. Eyes glowing white, Lunar uncurled himself from the ball position and scattered his hooves out in all four directions with the wave of magic spreading out in each direction. Twilight was too hurt to do anything, but did manage to be protected by Celestia's own protection spell. Twilight looked up at the rogue alicorn, knowing that the Lunar she knew was long gone. Shedding a few more tears, Twilight looked towards everyone else and knew that it was now or never if they wanted to defeat him.

“So then everypony get into a formation!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

The friendship that crafted the mane six together all began to touch each other and wrap around themselves. The Elements of Harmony may no longer be with them, but it is their friendship that keeps them together with them. The rogue prince noticed what was going on between the six friends below him and tried to break them apart by having powerfully dark alicorn magic rain down on top of them, but Celestia and Luna forbade that by casting protection spells on the six friends, keeping them out of harm's way.

Tears rushing down the side of her face, Twilight thought back once more to the good times she shared with Lunar in the time that they knew each other. She thought about the friendship lessons she had with him, the amount of friends he's made during his tenure in Ponyville, the games of chess she's played with him, the good times, and even the times of peril they've shared together. Twilight looked into Lunar's eyes and thought back to the night before he became an alicorn and all the studying they did together in order to accomplish the feat. She thought about how she helped him fly, giving him a few pointers along the way, but most of all, she thought of their proudest moment together: his coronation ceremony. Nothing was more perfect than that ceremony and she thought back to it, replaying the scene over and over in her head.

“I'm sorry I have to do this to you, Lunar,” Twilight cried, forcing her eyes shut, “but this is for your own good.”

The magic of friendship – touched by each of the ponies below – helped shine a light onto Lunar, who grew angry and tried to fight back by firing a beam of dark energy over towards the six friends, trying to break them apart once more. Celestia and Luna were both still holding Lunar down as best as they could while the magic of friendship was being summoned.

Lunar tried hard to break free from Celestia's and Luna's grip, but it was to no avail as he was pelted with the magic of friendship within seconds. The magic shot him straight back towards the moon and did not stop until it reached the target. Up in the sky, a white light shone itself, followed by a white ring that briefly surrounded the moon, then vanished. Looking up, Twilight knew that this was the final time she would see her strong stallion for a while as she now looked at the moon, whom was now looking back at her.

“I'm sorry,” Twilight sobbed.

Within moments, Twilight was surrounded once more by her friends, Celestia and Luna included. They all offered their condolences and hugged Twilight as she wept over the loss of her prince, Lunar Nights.
> A Night to Forget
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That was the last thing that happened to me during that time,” Lunar explained, “after that, I spent a millennia on the moon. Ironic, wouldn't you say? The student literally replicated the life of the teacher.”

“What did you do to pass the time by, Lunar?” Meridian asked.

“At first,” replied Lunar, “I counted the rocks that were on the moon. That got boring very quickly, trust me.”

“Anything else you noticed that was different there when compared to here?” Meridian continued.

“Time moved by kind of quicker, I noticed,” answered Lunar, “I used my time there to really gain control over what happened to me, eventually forcing it into submission during my century's long battle. I've gained–”

“Pardon my intrusion, Lunar,” interrupted Meridian, “but is that still part of you?”

Lunar nodded, “It is.” He blinked his eyes and showed off some red, hazy smoke coming from his eyes now. “See?” His voice was now echoed and sounded more demonic now. “We've allowed each other to coexist.” Lunar blinked his eyes once more and the smoke dissipated.

“That's very interesting,” Meridian commented.

“All alicorns have to have control over their dark magic,” Lunar said, “with enough convincing, anypony can technically fall victim to those dark forces. Unicorns also have this kind of dark magic – just look at King Sombra – but the likelihood of them becoming corrupted and turning is extremely unlikely. For alicorns, it takes a little bit more time to gain control over, that's why it isn't something that usually develops in one later on in their life cycle.”

“When you saw that the time was coming for you to return,” continued Meridian, “what did you do to prepare yourself?”

“Honestly,” Lunar replied, rubbing the back of his neck softly, “nothing. I spent most of my time perfecting my alicorn magic and gaining control over the other forces inside me. I've learned spells on my own, and learned how to tap into the dark forces, as you previously saw, when I need to.”

“When you did come back,” Meridian spoke, “what was the first thing you noticed that was different?”

“This castle was one of the first few things I've noticed when I returned,” answered Lunar, “I forgot this castle existed when I returned and, when I saw it, I confused it with the castle in the Crystal Empire. I approached it and was treated to a most interesting greeting.”

“Interesting how?”

“Hehe,” chuckled Lunar, “interesting, interesting.”





“Is that the Crystal Castle?” Lunar asked himself, noticing the large spires of the castle from beyond the trees.

He flew over towards the castle and dropped down to the ground slowly, touching base with his hooves. He staggered over to the front of the castle, still getting used to walking once more, and was stopped almost immediately by a strong looking guardpony.

“Halt!” He shouted towards Lunar. “State your name and business!”

“M-my name is Prince Lunar Nights,” Lunar answered sheepishly, “don't you recognize me?”

“There is no such prince by that name in Equestria!” The guard continued. “What is your real name and what is your business with Princess Twilight Sparkle?”

“Princess Twilight?” Lunar repeated. “This castle is Twilight's?”

“State your name and business!” The guard yelled, holding up a spear at Lunar.

“Whoa, whoa!” Lunar frighteningly spoke, shuffling backwards a bit.

Just then, the front doors had begun to open. A pony stepped out from inside and, looking passed the guardpony, Lunar tried to determine who the pony was, but couldn't tell because of how dark it was. The guard, meanwhile, turned around and acknowledged the pony walking out of the castle while still holding the spear towards Lunar's neck.

“Going home for the evening, Miss Rarity?” He asked.

“Rarity?” Lunar repeated. How's that possible? She shouldn't be alive...unless the flow of time isn't the same there as it is here.

“Most certainly, kind sir,” Rarity answered. She noticed the spear being held up to Lunar's neck and asked the guard a question quietly, but still loud enough for Lunar to hear. “Who is this pony we have here?”

“He claims to be a prince,” the guard replied, “a prince by the name of Lunar Nights.”

“Lunar Nights?!” Rarity screeched, moving out of the way and stopping next to Lunar. She looked him over before continuing to talk.

“R-Rarity?” Lunar asked before she spoke.

“Sir,” Rarity told the guard, “would you mind removing the spear from Lunar's neck?”

“But he is a threat to Princess Twilight!” The guard continued, shoving the spear a bit closer to his skin.

“No he's not,” defended Rarity, “he's a prince. He's the pony from the legend of the Colt Trapped in the Moon. You have heard of that story, haven't you?”

The guard cocked an eyebrow, pulling the spear away slightly, “This is the Trapped Colt?”

Rarity nodded, “Yes, now if you could be so nice as to take the spear away, I'll gladly explain everything to you, darling.”

“If that is what you want, Miss Rarity,” the guard softly spoke, “so be it.” He then removed the spear from Lunar's neck, allowing him to stand back up straight.

Thank Celestia, Lunar told himself.

“Are you alright, dear?” Rarity asked Lunar, placing something over his back, something that felt much like feathers.

“Uh, y-yeah,” Lunar replied, “R-Rarity?”

Rarity smiled in response, “I see you remember me, or at the very least, my ancestor.”

That explains one thing, thought Lunar, “Your ancestor?”

“I'm not the same Rarity you knew, darling,” continued Rarity.





“That was something that blew my mind when I first met her,” Lunar chuckled, “not only was the first pony I became familiar with following my return Rarity, but she was an alicorn too.”

“I'm to blame for that,” Twilight admitted, “it was my idea to insert the alicorn gene into their parents. My best idea? Probably not, but...”

“But,” continued Lunar, “it does beat having to say goodbye eventually to those that are close to you, Twily.” He reached over and rubbed her back softly with one of his wings.

Twilight nodded, “The feeling of loss kept draining my energy, honestly, so I figured that if the descendants of our friends carried that gene, then the likelihood of their offspring becoming an alicorn at birth would increase.”

“Science is so amazing,” Lunar smirked, “isn't it, Twily?”

Twilight blushed slightly and giggled, “Eeyup.”

“So what happened next, Lunar?” Meridian wondered, pressing forward with the interview.

“Well,” continued Lunar, “Rarity led me back inside the castle she walked out of and towards the throne room. She had blindfolded me, but guided me nonetheless.”





“How far are we from...wherever it is that we're going to?” Lunar asked.

“Not too far now, Prince Lunar,” Rarity replied, slightly pushing him to the right a bit.

“Are we inside the castle?” Lunar guessed.

“Maybe we are,” Rarity giggled in response, “maybe we aren't.”

“I'll take that as a yes,” Lunar boldly chuckled back.

“Let me ask you something, Prince,” said Rarity, pushing him a bit more to the right now.

“Please,” responded Lunar, “call me Lunar. I don't really deserve the title of 'Prince' at this current moment.”

“If that is what you wish for, Lunar,” answered Rarity, giggling more in the process, “so be it.”

“Thank you,” Lunar obliged, “now what was it that you wanted to ask me?”

“I want to know how things were between Princess Twilight and yourself.”

“What do you mean?” Lunar asked.

“Well,” continued Rarity, “I want to know how it was dating somepony of royalty, Pri...I mean, Lunar.”

“It was fantastic,” Lunar responded, immediately being brought back to the plenty of happy memories he shared with Twilight.

“What did you two do,” added Rarity, “if you don't mind me asking, dear.”

“It's okay,” Lunar answered, being pushed a tad to the left in the process, “I don't mind. Where do you want me to begin?”

“Begin from where you two first met,” Rarity told Lunar.

“Okay,” Lunar said, smiling in the process, “just know that you're in for a long story.”

“Don't worry,” exclaimed Rarity, “I do fancy longer love stories.”

“Good,” Lunar smiled brightly, “well, I originally was a unicorn colt that resided in Baltimare for a few months while I was a student of Princess Luna's long, long ago.”

“Is that so?” Rarity asked, pushing Lunar to the left a bit more, opening a door in the process.

“Yes,” answered Lunar, “well, one day, I was sitting in my home, catching up on my studies, when Princess Luna sent me a letter referring to one of my books.”

“Which one was it?”

“It was one of Star Swirl the Bearded's spell books,” said Lunar, “I'm certain that Twilight brought up his name before, correct?”

“Right,” Rarity told Lunar, “a bit frequently, too.”

“So you know of him then, right?”

“Yes I do, dear.”

“Well,” continued Lunar, “this one particular book had a spell that was left incomplete. Twilight received a copy from Princess Celestia, I received one from Princess Lunar, and I can only assume that Princess Cadence has a copy for herself if she ever adopts a star pupil herself.”

“Indeed,” Rarity said, “but why was this particular spell left incomplete?”

“It was left incomplete because Star Swirl didn't understand friendship the way Twilight did,” Lunar replied, “nor did I at the time.”

“So what happened?”

“Princess Luna told me in the letter mentioned earlier to take the book and travel to Ponyville to enlist the help of Princess Twilight Sparkle with my way of friendship,” explained Lunar, “but she purposely left out what Twilight looked like and left me in the dark, so to speak, looking for Twilight when I arrived here.”

“Then what happened after you met Twilight for the first time?”

“I was awestruck,” smiled Lunar, blushing a bit, thinking back to when he first laid eyes on the beautiful, purple colored mare with her lovely lilac colored eyes, “her mane was beautifully kept. Her eyes melted my heart, as did her smile and laugh...her voice – dear Celestia, her voice – made me weak in the knees...she was perfect in every way of the definition.”

“That's so amazing,” Rarity spoke, sounding a bit breathless in the process.

“She was amazing,” replied Lunar, “but...she probably won't forgive me for what I've done to her before my banishment.”

“Oh, I don't know about that,” said a new voice.

Lunar felt his ears shoot up sky high as soon as he heard that soft, soothing voice. He immediately knew whose voice it was that penetrated his eardrums.

“P-P-Princess T-Twilight?” He stammered. “I-Is that you?”

Rarity kindly removed the blindfold from Lunar's eyes, stepping to the side politely. Blinking a few times, Lunar focused on his vision and looked straight ahead of him, spotting the pony resting atop of the throne. His heart melted when he saw Twilight and, almost instinctively, ran over to her.

“Oh, Twilight!” Lunar cried. “I've missed you so much!”

Twilight smiled, lifting herself from her throne and rushing over to see Lunar, “I've missed you too, Prince Lunar!”

Lunar grabbed Twilight with his two front hooves and hugged her and held her close to him tightly, but not too tight. Twilight did just the same to Lunar as she collapsed her head onto his shoulder and buried her face into her neck, crying tears of joy in the process.

“My little Sparkle,” Lunar whispered, “I've finally come home...”

“And I've waited for you to come home for such a long time, my strong and handsome prince,” Twilight replied in a muffled tone, but in a tone that Lunar could understand.





“I still think back to that moment in time and still get goosebumps,” Twilight giggled, “it was really a magical one, especially after waiting all those years just to see you again.”

“I'm sure Twilight could explain what she did during that time alone later,” Lunar smirked, “but once I returned, my main concern was why I was still being considered a prince.”

“What do you mean?” Meridian wondered.

“After falling to those dark forces inside me,” said Lunar, “I didn't think I was worthy of being considered a prince, let alone having a share in these wings. I betrayed Equestria, my friends, and Twilight by doing what I did.”

“Buuut,” interrupted Twilight, “you are a prince of Equestria, as per Celestia's and Luna's orders and decrees.”

“I'm getting there, Twily,” chuckled Lunar, “don't worry.”

“If you say so,” smirked Twilight.

“Twilight let me know that I earned my right to be a prince of Equestria,” Lunar explained, “and that by proving to Princess Luna that I could take on the responsibilities of being one as well. As it is with all alicorns, we aren't responsible for what happens to ourselves magically. Our dark magic makes us do unusual things. Like I mentioned earlier, I followed in the direction of my mentor too literally.”

“Quite interesting,” Meridian replied, “if I do say so myself.”

“Very much so,” agreed Lunar, “and after Twilight explained to me why I was still a prince, she explained to me why Rarity was an alicorn and that her other friends had similar features.”

Meridian chuckled, turning to Twilight, “So you were just making alicorns left and right then, weren't you, Your Highness?”

Twilight blushed slightly, “Let's just say that making it all the way through those years without Lunar was harder than I originally thought. Plus, saying goodbye to my friends so often was starting to take its toll on me, so I just did what I thought was best. We still have yet to see how that decision plays out.”

“Lightning Dash,” Lunar smirked, “Rainbow Dash's bloodline, Reticent, who's a descendant of Fluttershy, Orange Apple, who comes from Applejack's family, and then there are the obvious ones, Rarity and Pinkamena Pie, whom we really just call Pinkie since, you know.”

“Charming,” commented Meridian, “how they're similar in names.”

“And it was a fun time getting to know those ponies like it was the first time around,” Lunar laughed, “and that whole ordeal came after the biggest decision of my life.”

“Biggest decision?” Meridian repeated.

Lunar pointed to the ring that was surrounding Twilight's horn, “That biggest decision.”





That night, Twilight and Lunar had laid down together on Twilight's bed, the first time in a very long time that either had done such a thing. They spent nearly the whole night talking to each other and reminding of each other of their wonderful past, steering away from the one blemish they've experienced together.

As the night progressed, Twilight yawned more and more. She wanted to sleep, but her body kept her awake for the entire night. She looked over to Lunar, smiling very brightly, as Lunar did the same. Twilight kissed Lunar's lips softly while Lunar wrapped his hooves around her soft body, gently pulling her towards him. She continued kissing Lunar slowly and lovingly, fueled by the long-locked passion she had for him. Lunar returned the favor, kissing her emotionally upon her beautiful lips, driven by even more passion for her presence after his banishment. Wrapping their wings around each other, they both started to lose themselves in memories while keeping each other warm.

“Tell me that we'll be together forever, Lunar,” Twilight whispered to Lunar, resting the tip of her muzzle along the tip of his.

Lunar smiled and kissed her muzzle lightly, “We'll be together forever, Twily.”

“I love you, Lunar,” Twilight beamed delightfully.

“I love you more, Twilight,” replied Lunar.

“Lunar?” Twilight continued, pressing closer to his body.

“Yes Twilight?” Lunar answered in a bassy-toned voice.

“I want to start a family with you,” she told him, locking eye contact in the process.

“I've always wanted to start a family with you, Twily,” admitted Lunar, “ever since I got my wings and we've ruled together, I wanted to start a family with you. I have a hunch that you would be a phenomenal mother. I have a hunch that you would be a phenomenal wife.”

“Wife?” Twilight repeated.

Lunar nodded in response. He understood that while they did things together prior to returning, they've done so as a royal couple, coltfriend and marefriend. Since he returned, he wanted to take their relationship to the next level and dedicate his immortal life to making Twilight very happy.

Twilight wiped a tear from her eye, smiling a bit more in the process. “How long have you felt like this, Lunar?”

“Since before my banishment, my love,” Lunar answered.

“I've...I don't know what to say, Luny,” Twilight said, having trouble finding the words to describe how she was feeling.

“Then allow me, my little Sparkle,” offered Lunar, holding both of her front hooves with his front hooves, “Princess Twilight Sparkle, will you marry me?”

“Oh, Lunar,” cried Twilight happily, “yes! Yes! Yes, of course I'll marry you!”





“And that was the biggest decision of my life,” Lunar smiled, “and knowing that she said yes to that question made things feel so much better. It reinvigorated my passion to what life was all like.”

“And a congratulations on that decision to you both,” Meridian said, “and how were things following that?”

“Following that night,” Lunar continued, “I met back up with Princess Luna and told her everything. We caught back up, got to talk about what she's done since the last time she's seen me, and everything. When Twilight and I finally woke up the next morning, she decided that it would be a good idea to introduce me to her friends, like I said earlier, and that was a very intriguing time for me.”





“Good morning, everypony,” Twilight cheerfully smiled, watching the five other alicorns enter into the room. They all seemed to be a bit tired, probably since it was early in the morning.

“Good morning, Twilight,” each of the five responded.

“You're all probably wondering why I've called you here so early in the morning,” continued Twilight.

“A little bit, Twi,” a teal colored alicorn stated.

“Well,” pressed Twilight, subtly pointing towards Lunar, “this alicorn here is the reason why.”

“What's he done, Twilight?” An orange-yellow alicorn asked, southern accent present in her voice.

“Well, Orange Apple,” Twilight smiled, flashing her white-toothed smile, “he's actually somepony who is very close to me.”

“How so?” A minty colored alicorn asked.

“Let me ask you all of this,” Twilight replied, “did any of you notice the lack of markings in the moon last night?”

Slowly, each of the ponies gave a different variation of the answer “no.” Cocking her eyebrow and smirking slightly, Twilight improvised the situation, asking each of the alicorns if they knew about the legend that was associated with Lunar.

“The Colt Trapped in the Moon,” Rarity called.

“Exactly, Rarity,” Twilight obliged.

“Everypony knows that legend,” the teal colored alicorn from earlier stated.

“But that's just an old mares' tale,” a pink alicorn claimed.

“Not exactly,” Twilight remarked, again pointing towards me.

“Don't tell me this alicorn is the pony from that legend, Twi,” Orange Apple said.

“He most certainly is, Orange Apple,” confirmed Twilight.

Upon confirmation, the five alicorns all stared at Lunar boldly, except for Rarity. The remaining four seemed skeptical of Lunar and his presence. The teal alicorn approached him and stared deep into his eyes.

“So,” she spoke, “you're the colt from that story, huh?”

Lunar simply nodded in response.

She smirked, “Not much of a talker, are ya?”

“Au contraire,” Lunar replied, “just ask Twilight herself. I'm not who you think I am.”

“What do you think we think you are then?” Orange Apple called from behind the teal alicorn.

“I believe that you all think that I'm a villain; a menace to society,” answered Lunar, “am I not right?”

“Not really, darling,” responded Rarity.

Lunar was shocked, “Really?”

“Darling,” continued Rarity, “didn't I tell you the story of what happened after that fateful night all those years ago?”

“Not all of it,” Lunar said.

Twilight cut in before Rarity explained herself, “I'll leave you all together. I have to attend to some of my duties for now. I'll join you all later on.”

“Okay, Twilight,” each of the alicorns smiled.

“Alright, Twily,” added Lunar.

"Alright,” she continued, turning to the other five alicorns before leaving, “be good to him now. I've waited a long time to see him again.”

“Oh, we will Twi,” the teal alicorn smirked.

Twilight smiled brightly before exiting the room promptly, attending to some of the royal duties she had for the day. Lunar turned his attention towards the other ponies and smiled sheepishly. He noticed the teal alicorn gazing heavily at him again and chuckled nervously.

“You seem to like Twilight,” she said, “don't you?”

“You could say that and then some,” answered Lunar.

“Then some?” Rarity repeated.

Lunar nodded, “Precisely.”

“Somepony loves Princess Twilight!” The pink alicorn smiled, bouncing up and down in place.

“Very much,” acknowledged Lunar.

“Have you asked to marry her yet?” Rarity asked him. She seemed hesitant to ask him that question, but she forced it out regardless.

“I have,” smiled Lunar.

“Ooh! What did she say? What did she say?!” The pink alicorn was very spastic right now and reminded Lunar of how Pinkie Pie used to act. Putting two and two together, he could tell that this pony was one of Pinkie's descendants.

“She said yes,” Lunar beamed, “but there's one slight problem.”

“What's that?” Orange Apple asked.

“I don't have a ring for her yet...” Lunar admitted softly.

“Fret not, dear,” Rarity said, “for I shall help craft you one specifically designed for her.”

“You will?!” Lunar spoke, hopping up and down eagerly.

Rarity smiled and nodded, “That's what friends do for each other, darling.”

“You have no idea how much this means to me, Rarity!” Lunar thanked.

“Consider it a gift from me,” she smiled, though it appeared to be a false smile.

“Thank you so very much,” Lunar said again.

“It's no problem at all,” repeated Rarity, “let me get started on it right now.”

Rarity then started to exit the room while the others gathered around Lunar, gluing their attention towards him. Looking over towards Rarity, Lunar noticed that Rarity had said something under her breath, but he could not hear it. With the other alicorns surrounding him, he opted to approach Rarity on the subject at a later time.

In the meantime, Lunar was answering all sorts of questions that the ponies had for him, which ranged from his life with Twilight to what he did while he was banished. He answered each question as best as he could without giving away specific details regarding him and Twilight.

As the day went on, Twilight eventually joined Lunar and the others once more. She smiled upon entering the door, promptly noticing the progress Lunar had made with each of the ponies. They all opened up the circle that was formed and allowed Lunar to approach Twilight. He embraced her in his front hooves and kissed her lightly on the tip of her muzzle, turning back to the alicorns he had befriended. Twilight broke the rapidly induced silence first.

“It seems you have earned and established friendships with each of them,” she told him, looking ahead towards her friends in the process.

“So it seems, Twily,” Lunar replied.

“Good!” She responded. “We've established good progress so far.”





“With things getting busy now that there was a royal wedding to plan for, I found that time flowed a bit slowly then,” Lunar said.

Meridian sat back a bit, “What do you mean?”

“Rarity insisted on making that ring that's on Twilight's horn for me and after reconnecting with Princess Luna,” explained Lunar, “we focused on trying to set things up in Canterlot for Twilight's dream wedding, using her dreams as an example and a template.”

“I knew that was you inside my dream that night,” chuckled Twilight, nudging Lunar playfully.

“Princess Luna and myself made sure to recreate things exactly how they appeared in her dreams in the halls in Canterlot,” Lunar smiled, “that was a bit of a challenge, but one that we were both able to handle, nonetheless. While we were doing that, Celestia had sent Twilight by herself to Saddle Arabia to keep her busy with the delegates from there while we kept preparing everything. When everything was finished, I did my duties for the night and waited until the next morning to really get one last glimpse at an unmarried Twilight.”

“Luckily you weren't successful,” smirked Twilight.

“It's true,” agreed Lunar, “I wasn't, but while I was waiting up at the altar for you, my hooves were shaking vigorously. I'd never been more nervous about anything in my life than at that moment.”





As the orchestral music started to play, Lunar lit up brighter than a candle as he watched the door, awaiting for it to open up and reveal Twilight to everyone in the room. Lunar was very eager for the ceremony to get underway and also was feeling a bit impatient, though he did not show that. When the door finally opened up, standing in the center of the doorframe was Princess Twilight Sparkle.

Lunar smiled and blushed slightly as he watched Twilight closely. She was wearing a long, elegant, and beautiful flowing wedding gown, which dragged behind her as she slowly approached the altar. Her mane was done up and flowing beautifully as well. At that moment, Lunar felt like the luckiest colt in the world, watching as Twilight got closer to him. She smiled at him, starting her ascent up the stairs of the altar and stopping next to Lunar. He smiled brightly at her, as did she, as they both turned to face Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the officiators of the wedding.

“Fillies and gentlecolts,” Princess Celestia began.

“We gather today in celebration of the coming together of not only former star students of ours,” added Princess Luna, “but a prince and a princess as well.”

“Together, they have overcome many a task,” continued Celestia, “and have proven that love triumphs over evil.”

“Much love exists between these two ponies,” smiled Luna, “much care, happiness, love, and compassion.”

“It is because of their love that we are here today,” Celestia said.

“And it is because of them that we join as one and celebrate their love throughout Equestria,” concluded Luna.

Turning, Princesses Celestia and Luna both started levitating the rings in front of both Twilight and Lunar, rings that were meant to be put around their horns. Lunar turned to Twilight and started to read aloud his vows to her.

“Princess Twilight,” he began, being as formal as possible, “with this ring, I promise to always love and cherish you, to protect you, and to keep you as happy as possible. With this ring, I give you my heart, my life, and my morale. It is through you that I strive to be as great a pony as I possibly can be. It is because of you that makes me a better pony. It is because of you that I live each and every day to the best of my existence, and it is because of you that I love my past, present, and future.”

Upon completion of the vows, Lunar placed the ring around Twilight's horn, solidifying his place with her. Now it was Twilight's turn to read her vows.

“Prince Lunar,” Twilight smiled, being formal as well, “with this ring, I promise to love you and to cherish you. I promise to keep you happy and I promise to do my best with our lives. It is through you that I feel a happiness I've never felt with nopony else and it is because of you that I try to be the greatest pony possible. I love you with all of my heart and promise to keep it that way for the rest of our lives.”

Twilight, who had a small tear falling from her eye, placed the ring around Lunar's horn and stepped back. Lunar smiled at her as they both turned back towards Celestia and Luna.

“Princess Twilight,” Celestia smiled.

“Prince Lunar,” added Luna.

“We now pronounce you mare and colt,” the two finished together.

“You may now kiss the bride,” Celestia cried happily.

Lunar smiled, then wrapped his hooves around Twilight, bringing her closer to him and kissing her with all the passion he had inside his body. The kiss lasted no longer than a few moments and, when they pulled away from each other, they turned towards the enlarged crowd and started walking back down the aisle together. Cheers and congratulatory signals were given as they made their way through the center aisle and out of the church. Lunar turned to Twilight and kissed her one more time before leaving the church, as did she.

“'For the rest of our lives,' huh?” Lunar repeated.

“You knew what I meant, husband,” Twilight chuckled, kissing Lunar's cheek again.
> Too Many Problems
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Things after that were normal as can be honestly. There was a long period of time where the most eventful thing we did was really just our royal duties. Our honeymoon was in Neighagara Falls and we really enjoyed ourselves there. When we returned, we went back to doing things together and as a couple instead of on our own. The only thing that either of us did on our own was my duties in the Dream Realm.”

“When was the next momentous occasion for you, Lunar?” Meridian asked politely.

“Our daughter, Starry Nights,” smiled Lunar.

As if on cue, Starry Nights entered into the room quietly and noticed that the interview was still going on. She smiled softly, then sat down next to Twilight, whom started to rub her back softly as a result. Lunar noticed this and smirked.

“And she took after a bit more like her father,” he mentioned, “though she has her mother's magical abilities.”





As Twilight began to develop a belly for her child, she found that performing her royal duties was becoming more and more of a difficult task to achieve. Eventually, she was grounded in her bed with Lunar dealing with most of the duties on his own. When available, Twilight had her friends help her out and take care of her a bit. It was a lot of work, but both Twilight and Lunar looked passed them and towards the future for the end result: a family.

Twilight sighed greatly in her bed, exhausted from carrying her child for the last several months, but she was still very happy with her life. Lunar would also help Twilight feel better after his royal duties were complete. He was very excited to welcome in the new child to the family, whom was due any day now. Things have been long for the royal couple and news was spreading around like wildfire about the new baby.

Lunar smiled and rubbed Twilight's belly once more, feeling the baby kicking inside. He was happy about becoming a father and looked at Twilight. Twilight smiled happily as well, enjoying both the feeling of Lunar rubbing her belly and the baby playfully kicking inside of her.

Soon enough, both ponies fell asleep for the night and rested up. The night was very long and tiring, especially for Twilight, who was having her own problems trying to stay asleep. Waking back up, Twilight looked out the window and stared up towards the star-filled night sky, watching as the infinite amount of stars shined brightly. It was at that moment when Twilight figured out a name for the little foal.

“I'll call you Starry Nights,” she whispered to the baby, rubbing her belly softly.

Moments later, Twilight began feeling pain from inside her body. She screamed out in pain and woke up Lunar in a start. Lunar looked over and asked Twilight if everything was alright.

“Ugh,” grunted Twilight, “I th-I think the baby is coming, Lunar!”

“Right now?!” Lunar gasped.

“YES!”

“We need to move now!” Lunar called, helping Twilight out as they began to make their way towards the hospital.

The time was almost near to welcome the new royal baby to the world.





“We waited and waited for hours on end until Twilight finally came through the hospital doors with the newborn filly,” Lunar said, winking at Starry Nights playfully, “and she was quite a hoofful to raise growing up.”

Starry Nights blushed, “Oh please, it's not like I was that hard to deal with.” She twitched her wings slightly.

“Joking aside,” continued Lunar, “Celestia and Luna quickly arranged a ceremony to reveal Star to the ponies of Equestria. She was given her crown and received a lot of cheers from the ponies she was shown to. When she was old enough to finally control her magic, we enrolled her in the school nearby. That was a big challenge for both myself and Twilight, certainly, but it was a bigger one for Star. Being an alicorn is a cause for some extra and, sometimes unwanted attention.”

Starry Nights felt her blush grow a bit, “Sometimes it was very unwanted. I never minded when Discord came around.”

“Yeaaaah,” Lunar chuckled nervously, “Discord.”





At school, Starry Nights was a bit of an outcast because of her title and appearance. It wasn't often that the school would come across a young alicorn princess – in fact, they have never come across one – so the other schoolponies teased her about it, especially her subpar flying abilities. Starry Nights often came home and questioned why she was different. Twilight never liked hearing that question, nor did Lunar, but they always answered their daughter the same way.

“You're special, Starry,” they told her, “you're a princess, you know.”

“How come other ponies don't have both a horn and wings?” Starry Nights asked.

“Because very special ponies have both of them,” Lunar said.

“And you're our special little pony, Star,” smiled Twilight.

Starry Nights felt happier after hearing her parents' response. She hugged them both, then left to go play in her room. As for Lunar and Twilight, they began talking amongst themselves quietly. Twilight sighed slightly, looking at Lunar with heavy eyes.

“I'm worried about Star's happiness, Lunar,” she admitted to him.

“Why's that?”

“I feel as if she's being picked on for being an alicorn,” explained Twilight, “this is the fourth time this year she's questioned about her appearance.”

“You're right,” he agreed, “but that's what kids do. They're curious about others.”

“But enough to pick on them?” Twilight protested. “We don't know how it felt like; we both grew up as unicorns.”

“Right...” Lunar answered.

“Should we talk to the class about the rarity of alicorns in Equestria?” Twilight wondered.

“I mean we could,” Lunar replied, trailing off at the end.

“Buuut...”

“But what would that bring to Star?” Lunar continued. “She would just be picked on more for being different.”

“Maybe the children need to come to terms with the differences,” Twilight said, “we need to help Star...I want her to have a happy childhood.”

“So do I, Twily,” added Lunar, hugging Twilight, “I just want the best for us all.”

“I know, Luny,” giggled Twilight.

Lunar blushed, “So you wanna walk Star to school tomorrow and we talk to the teacher for a class discussion?”

“Sure thing, Prince,” Twilight winked.

“Alrighty, Princess,” Lunar chuckled, kissing Twilight on her cheek.

“I see somepony is affectionate,” smirked Twilight.

“You started it,” Lunar laughed.

“Oh did I now?” Twilight responded, kissing Lunar on his cheek.

Lunar smirked, kissing Twilight on her lips. Twilight giggled, then pulled away from Lunar, staring at him lovingly.

“Gotta work for them, big guy,” Twilight winked.

“Oh alright, Princess,” Lunar chuckled.

The two lovebirds laughed some more and went to their room for the night, laying down on the bed and falling asleep quickly. When the next day came, Twilight and Starry Nights walked together to the school while Lunar went ahead and flew to the school, asking the teacher to give a small lecture to the class on alicorns in Equestria. Agreeing to the lecture, Starry's teacher thought it would be a wonderful idea for the fillies and colts to understand the rarity on alicorns in Equestria.

As more children began flooding the room, they all started discussing amongst each other how cool it was that an alicorn prince was watching their class. A couple of the fillies came up to Lunar and said to hello to him, to which he returned the favor, smiling and waving back in the process.

Eventually, Twilight showed up with Starry Nights and walked into the classroom together with her. A couple of the children started snickering and pointing at Star, making her feel uneasy and sad on the inside. Twilight noticed this and used her wing to rub Star's back. This made Star feel a bit better, but not much. As soon as Star left Twilight to sit down at her seat, the teacher, Sunny Delight, stepped in front of the class and made a very important announcement.

“Okay class,” she smiled, “today we're lucky to have our very own Princess Twilight Sparkle and Prince Lunar Nights come in and discuss the rarity about alicorns in Equestria.”

“Ooooooh!” The students rang in unison.

“I want you to pay close attention to what they have to say, okay?”

“Okay, Miss Delight,” answered the students.

Sunny Delight turned to Twilight and Lunar, smiling at them, “Whenever you're ready, you two.”

“Thank you, Miss Delight,” Twilight replied, “good morning, fillies and colts.”

“Good morning, Princess Twilight,” the children replied.

Twilight flared her wings, “Who can tell me what these are?” She pointed to her wings.

“Ooh! Ooh!” A small, yellow unicorn was eagerly raising her hoof in the air.

“Yes?” Twilight asked, pointing to the yellow unicorn.

“Those are wings!”

“Very good!” Twilight praised.

Lunar stepped up, “Now who can tell me what this is?” He pointed to his horn.

“I know!” An orange earth pony shouted.

“Can you tell me?”

“That's a horn!”

“Very good,” smiled Lunar.

“Now,” continued Twilight, “what type of ponies have horns?”

“Unicorns have horns and Pegasus ponies have wings!” A green Pegasus called out.

“That's right!” Lunar stated.

“And what type of ponies have both?” Twilight asked.

The children in the classroom laid silent. Not a single pony wanted to answer, despite knowing the answer since they were accompanied by one almost daily. After a while, Twilight smiled, then gave the answer.

“Alicorns are the ponies that have both a horn and a set of wings,” Twilight explained. She saw a pink unicorn raise their hoof, so she called out to them.

“Why do alicorns have both?” They asked.

“That's a good question,” praised Twilight, “alicorns have both a horn and wings because they have been born with them. When a pony is born as an alicorn, they are usually related to somepony of royalty. It is their job to look over all the other ponies in the land and help balance everything across Equestria.”

“But what about you, Princess?” Sunny Delight asked.

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“Well,” continued Sunny Delight,” in our books, you appear to have been written as a unicorn who became an alicorn.” She turned to Lunar. “Same goes for you, Prince.”

“We were indeed unicorns at birth many years ago,” Lunar explained.

“But,” continued Twilight, “there is another way a pony can become an alicorn, and that is through years and years of vigorous studying.”

“It's harder than it sounds,” Lunar added, “Princess Twilight and myself are the only two ponies to have been transformed under those circumstances.”

“Can I study with you, Princess?” The pink unicorn from before asked.

“Maybe one day,” smiled Twilight.

“So, children,” Lunar said, “alicorns are very important to the structure of Equestria. They provide much stability to our fine kingdom.”

The two royal ponies stood by in the school for the remainder of the day, watching the little ponies learn and play together. The little ones now understood more of alicorns and now appreciated Starry Nights a little bit more, albeit not much more. This type of relationship followed Star for most of her academic career.

When Star got older, she and Discord would play around when Star finished her royal duties. By the time she got to high school, she was mostly an independent pony, resembling much like how her mother used to be before Twilight gave friendship a try. Discord knew of this and would spend a lot of time together with Star, who'd known of the draconequus' past as well.

While she was in Ponyville conducting and completing a few tasks for Lunar, she noticed Discord and his usual antics, laughing to herself slightly. Star liked Discord's sense of humor, even if her parents didn't.

“Hey there, old guy,” Star laughed, “how've you been?”

“Oh, y'know,” replied Discord, snapping his fingers. He appeared as an elderly pony in front of Starry Nights, “Hangin' in there, kiddo.”

Star laughed again, “Oh, Dip-cord, you always know what to do to make me laugh.”





“Needless to say,” continued Lunar, noticing that Star was hiding herself inside her mane now, knowing where the story was going, “after a long while with Star, we managed to work with her on controlling her emotions so that she wouldn't turn out exactly like this old pony here.”

“Interesting,” Meridian smiled.

“And that's all there is to know about me,” Lunar finished, stretching out his wings briefly, “that's my life story and, regardless of how it happened, I'm happy with how my life has turned out so far.”

“Thank you, Prince Lunar Nights,” Meridian replied, “thank you for everything you've shared with us.” She clicked the tape recorder so that it was no longer recording everything. “I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to fulfill my requests. If everything goes well, then the biography should hit the shelves within a month or two.”

“That sounds wonderful,” smiled Lunar, “and I appreciate you coming here and being interested in my past. I don't share my past in full detail often, but I figured that if there's ever a good time to have ponies learn about the real me, now's as good a time as ever.”

“This is going to be a good thing for you, Your Majesty,” Meridian beamed, “and, if you'll excuse me, I have to work on moving this interview over towards paper.”

“Might I suggest a title, Meridian?” Twilight smirked.

“And what might that be, Your Highness?” Meridian responded.

“Spreading My Wings,” Twilight offered.

“Hmm,” Meridian thought, “that could almost work.” She collected her things and bowed to the royal family. “Thank you again for your time, everypony.”

“Thank you, Meridian,” each of the alicorns called back.

As Meridian left the castle, Star rose and looked to her father, blushing once more in the process. She knew what he did, and she wanted to let him know how much that meant to her.

“Um, D-Dad?” She called.

“Yes, Star?” Lunar spoke.

Star twirled one of her hooves on the ground bashfully, “Th-thanks for skipping over my, umm, my temporary lapse. I really appreciate you not throwing me under the carriage.”

Lunar smiled, approaching Star and resting a wing along her back, “Star, if there's anypony who knows how bad a momentary lapse can be, it's me. I know your past is your own and there's nopony that can change that. Whether you're ready to talk about it or not is all on you, but I have faith in you, Star. You're a strong pony since you take after your mother mostly.”

“With my father's intellect,” Star joked, nudging Lunar slightly.

“Hey,” chuckled Lunar, “I'd trade my intellect for your mother's magic abilities any day of the week.”

“She is something special,” Star said, “isn't she?”

“You don't know the half of it,” Lunar replied.

“Actually,” giggled Star, “I think I do now.”





A couple months later, Lunar received a copy of the biography in the mail. Attached to the package he received was a letter from Meridian, thanking Lunar again for all the time he provided for her while the book was being made.

“Star,” Lunar called, “Twily! The biography is here!”

Taking the book out of the wrapping it came in, Lunar opened it up and smiled happily, sighing contently.

He read the title page, “Spreading My Wings: The Untold Life Story of Lunar Nights, Prince of Equestria, by Meridian Journo.”