"It gets smaller as the night goes on," Luna said.
"Why's that?" Cres asked. "Shouldn't the moon stay that big all night?"
"Once it's directly above us, that's the smallest it gets, which is still rather large tonight. Afterwards, it gets larger again until morning."
"Why does that happen?" Cherry asked.
Luna laughed. "Even I can't answer that entirely," Luna said. "Some scholars say it's because there's nothing nearby to compare size while it's higher in the sky, but that just sounds crazy to me."
"Can't you control it's size?" Cres asked.
"To an extent, yes. But what you see now is about the largest I can make it." Luna opened the door leading to her study. "Anyways, it's about time to get some rest. We'll all be leaving early tomorrow morning."
Cherry was the first to enter. I followed, Ace right behind me, and Cres taking up last. As we left the study, I noticed Ace was no longer right behind me. He must have lingered back for some reason. I almost didn't notice a flash of light blue from the study. I figured it must be Luna closing off the balcony.
We traveled through the halls of Canterlot Castle to our room in relative silence. When we finally arrived, I noticed Ace still wasn't with us. I looked back down the hall we just came through, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. I began to worry a little, so I went back towards Luna's study.
I turned a corner, nearly there, when I ran into a midnight blue unicorn. She had a light blue mane and tail, with her mane being cut at the neck. Her light blue eyes looked at me as if she found a lost friend, but I didn't recognize her at all.
"Pepper!" she said.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" I asked, trying not to be too blunt. Before the mysterious mare could answer, Ace showed up beside her. For whatever reason, he had a belt around his body, sitting under his wings.
"I see you've met Stella," Ace said.
"Is this why you stayed back?" I asked jokingly. "To get a souvenir and talk to some mare you've never met before?"
"You could say that," Ace replied. "Actually, there's something I need to say to everypony. Can we head back to the guest room?"
"Sure."
"Great. You go on ahead and let them know. There's something I need to tell Princess here in private."
Princess? I noticed there were similarities between Stella and Princess Luna, so I figured that's where Ace was coming from in calling her that. "Alright," I said before turning around and heading back to the guest room.
I opened the door to find Cherry sitting, half asleep, on one of the couches. She woke up when I closed the door behind me.
"Couldn't find Ace?" she asked.
"I did, but he stayed back to speak with somepony else," I said. "He'll be here soon." I made my way over to Cres' room and knocked on the door. After a few seconds, Cres opened the door.
"Ace has something he needs to say to us all," I added.
Cres and I sat on the couch opposite Cherry. After a couple minutes, the door opened. Ace walked in, followed by Stella. Why she was still with him, I had no idea. Ace closed the door behind Stella.
"Who's that?" Cres asked.
"This is Stella," Ace said.
"Hi, Stella!" Cres said enthusiastically, waving a hoof.
"Hello, Crescent," Stella responded.
"What was it you had to say, Ace?" Cherry said. Everypony in the room looked expectantly at Ace. He looked around at each of us, possibly unsure of exactly what to say. He sighed, preparing himself for a speech.
"We're all going back to Ponyville."
What? After a day spent planning for an adventure, we're just going back? That didn't seem right. "What?"
"We've already made arrangements with Luna. We're heading back tonight."
"Why?" I asked.
"We came here to hopefully find something to help us speed up time. Why did we want that? So that we could see the perihelion. Now that that's passed, there's no point going after the Epochust."
"What about the adventure? Isn't that what you're always looking for?"
Ace looked down. That question hit him hard, I knew it did. "The guards are waiting," he said, before turning and exiting the room. Stella moved to where Ace was a moment before.
"It may seem sudden," she said, "but he has his reasons." After saying that, she exited after Ace. Cherry and Cres also followed. I was shocked at Ace's sudden change of heart, but I followed anyway. Part of me thought he was just joking, but he seemed so serious. Stella's addendum made it seem even more like this was legitimate.
We made our way through the castle's corridors by torchlight. We eventually made it to the courtyard, outside which a single pegasus Lunar Guard was attached to a cart. While difficult to tell at night, he appeared to be blue, with a black mane and tail. Luna was also waiting by the cart, presumably to see us off.
"It was a pleasure to meet you," Luna said. "Farewell, all of you."
"Bye, Luna. I hope I get to see you again," Cres said.
"Actually, I'll be in Ponyville next week. Some of our guards are leaving the force, and I want to see them off during their homecoming."
"Who's leaving the force?" Stella asked.
"Just a few older Royal Guards, as well as one of my own Lunar Guards," Luna looked towards Ponyville before continuing. "Get going, now. You wouldn't want to miss the festivities in Ponyville, would you?"
Cherry stepped into the waiting cart, followed by Cres. I wasn't sure what to think when Stella stepped into the cart after Cres.
"Are you coming with us?" Cres asked the new mare next to her.
"Yeah," she replied. "I heard Ponyville has the best parties in all of Equestria, and I wouldn't want to miss a big party like the one they're having tonight."
"It's no trouble if she rides with you, is it?" Luna asked.
"Not at all," Cres said.
"Then you better get going. Darkfire, whenever you're ready," she directed at the Lunar Guard at the front of the cart. He nodded and took off, pulling the three with him. Ace took off after them, as did I.
While flying slightly behind Ace, something caught my eye. He wasn't wearing that belt just because he could. Instead, he was using it to strap a sword to his side. Where he got that and why he had it, I don't know, but I intended to find out.
"Ace!" I called out. He responded by falling back to fly alongside me. "Where'd you get the sword?"
"It was a gift from the retiring Lunar Guard," Ace said.
"You met him?"
"Yeah, Stella introduced me to him."
"Did he say something that made you change your mind about the adventure?"
"No," Ace said harshly. "It was entirely my decision."
"Why did you change your mind, then?"
Ace hesitated for a moment before answering. "I felt I shouldn't drag you and Crescent into something like what would have come."
"Then why did you turn back yourself?"
"It's not an adventure I can do by myself."
"That's why we wanted to go with you, so you--"
"Just shut up!" Ace shouted, cutting me off. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Ace, this isn't like you. What happened?"
"I wish I could answer that, but I can't." Ace flew ahead to catch up to the cart.
"Ace!" I called out to him, but he ignored me. I tried to speed myself up, even doing what Ace did during the races yesterday. "Ace, answer me!" I said to him when I was right beside him. He responded by flying faster than I possibly could, passing the cart and going well out of sight.
After a few more minutes, the Lunar Guard landed with the cart. I tried searching over the crowd to hopefully find him, but to no avail. I landed a few feet from the cart, all passengers already unloaded. The Guard took off to return to Canterlot. Cres and Cherry walked up to me.
"What happened to Ace?" Cherry asked. "We could hear you two shouting."
"I'm not sure, he wouldn't tell me," I said.
"It would be best to just forget about it," Stella said, coming up beside Cres. "What happened to him is between us and Princess Luna. We can't talk about it."
"You mean he told you?" I asked.
"He didn't have to; I was there."
"What?" The three of us all said in unison.
"What happened to Ace?" I demanded.
"I can't answer that, and neither can he," Stella said.
"Why not?"
"There would be a severe penalty on both of us if we mention it. Even Luna couldn't tell us what would happen."
"And this... unspeakable event affected Ace's temper?" Cherry said.
"It appears that way, unfortunately," Stella said.
"So, something made Ace hot tempered, and we can't know what it is?" Cres asked.
"Why aren't you easily angered like Ace?" I asked.
"Ace is angry because he can't tell you," Stella said, turning to leave. "I'm sure he would gladly explain things if he could." Stella left, easily lost in the crowd despite her rather unique mane color. I looked at the two ponies still standing in front of me.
"I need to make sure Chocolate didn't mess anything up too bad," Cherry said, heading towards her house.
"Maybe we should track down Ace," Cres suggested. "I'll go see if he went home. You should fly around the crowds to try and find him." I nodded in agreement and took off.
I noticed several ponies with red manes. About half of them had horns, and a third of the remaining ones didn't have wings. Using that logic, I narrowed it down to three. One of them had a long mane, and another had a blue coat. That left one option. I drifted down to see if it was Ace.
Fortunately, there was enough space to land beside him. It wasn't Ace. Instead, it was a pegasus with a similar red mane and tail, but a red coat rather than brown. His eyes were a bright orange. His cutie mark was that of a golden flame.
"Hi, Pepper," he said. "What's up?"
"I'm looking for Ace. Have you seen him, Byrne?"
"No, I haven't. Sorry."
"That's all right," I said, preparing to take off again.
"Pepper!" A call from behind bid me to stop and check it out.
"Hey, Thunder," I said to the pony approaching me. "You haven't seen Ace, have you?"
"I saw him flying home not too long ago," Thunder said. "Why, what happened?"
"That's what we're trying to figure out," I said. "I should probably get back to Cres. She went to check for Ace at his house." I made to take off, but Thunder stopped me.
"Don't worry about Ace. Crescent can probably handle whatever his problem is." He retracted his hoof. "Enjoy the night, as it's not likely we'll ever see another perihelion."
I could see what Thunder was saying, and he was right. I'm sure Cres could find some way to get Ace to say what happened. And as for the perihelion, it hasn't occurred in over a millennium. Even though Princess Luna is back, it's not likely to occur again for another century. Certainly nopony alive today other than the princesses would see another. Why not enjoy the once in a lifetime experience while it lasts?
"I suppose you're right," I said to Thunder, almost obviously uncertain. Thunder responded by chuckling.
"Leave Crescent to worry about Ace," Thunder said. "Let's go see what we can do here tonight."
He set off to do just that. I followed, hoping whatever was available tonight would take my mind off Ace. Another thing came to mind, however. What if Ace was just as irate to Cres? I silently prayed that Ace wouldn't hurt her. I wanted to make sure she was okay, but at the same time I didn't want to abandon Thunder.