Shadow pushed open the door to Starswirl's chambers and gingerly stepped inside, "Starswirl," he called as he wove his way around stacks of books, scrolls, strange tools, and potions, "Starswirl, are you in here?"
"heh?" he heard the wizard reply from somewhere deep in the stacks, "Eh - yes, yes, I'm back here. Hold on just a moment and I'll be there."
Shadow looked around at the table he'd stopped near as he waited for Starswirl to wander back out of his bookshelves. He couldn't even begin to fathom what most of the odd implements and strangely colored liquids were. He nudged a shiny silver ball with his hoof slightly.
"Best not touch that too much," Starswirl said as he seemed to suddenly appear at Shadow's side.
"You startled me," Shadow replied, "You're not wearing your bells today."
"No," Starswirl said as he picked up the silver ball and put it into a box, "No... they... I would have stopped wearing them years ago ... but well Lulu," he cleared his throat, "I mean Princess Luna, loved them... and now... now I just..."
"I know," Shadow said softly as he put a hoof on his old friend's shoulder, "I know."
A grey silence filled the room for a moment before Starswirl cleared his throat, "So, young colt, what brings you to my dark and dusty library on such a beautiful night? Hmmm?"
"I want to know," Shadow said after a moment, "I - is there any way - can you help me get to Luna? Give me wings or teleport me or-"
"Whoa there," Starswirl interrupted and took in a deep breath before continuing, "I have been working on a spell to give an earth pony wings, but it only lasts three days and they're made of gossamer and dew, they'd never last the journey... and besides she's not there... not like you think..."
"What do you mean she's not there?" Shadow asked as he furrowed his brow, "Celestia said she banished her to the moon."
"Yes - she did," replied Starswirl, "but... it's not that she is on the moon... or even in the moon... come here," Starswirl lead Shadow to a window and pulled back a curtain, "Do you see how the moon is different now? Not as it was before... before?"
Shadow looked closely at the moon. He'd been reluctant to look up at it, for fear that he'd never look down again, "It's - it's her... the moon has her silhouette."
"Yes," replied Starswirl, "Precisely."
"I don't understand," Shadow said and the confusion showed clearly on his face, "Is she on the moon or not?"
"She is," Starswirl paused and considered his words, "She is fused with the moon. She and the moon have become one and the same thing."
"How is that possible?" Shadow asked, "Even with magic... something like that..."
"Is unlikely," Starswirl interrupted, "but not impossible - not impossible with the strongest of magic - The Elements of Harmony."
"Harmony?" Shadow snorted, "What wonderful and glorious elements that separate lovers," he said sarcastically.
"There was no other way," Starswirl pleaded, "It's clear in the prophecy that the elements would bind the princess to the moon, that moon's power would weaken the thing that had taken hold of her, that after one thousand years something referred to as 'the time between day and night' will gather the last bits of magic needed to free her from the curse. It's in an ancient language, so it's a little hard to grasp completely..."
"I don't care much for prophecies," Shadow replied.
"No I don't suspect you do right now," Starswirl replied, "I heard about your argument with Princess Celestia. You know there was nothing else she could do. She could not allow the world to be cast into night forever. Every pony would freeze and starve."
Shadow was silent and stared at the moon for a long time before finally speaking again, "So there is no way for me to get to the moon and even if there was - it would be no use. She would not be there in any way that I could be with her. We'd still be apart."
"Yes," Starswirl said quietly, "that is the way of it."
"Is there anything in the prophecy about me?" Shadow asked with an air of hopelessness to his voice.
"No," replied Starswirl, "No there is not."
"No hope for me then?" Shadow chuckled bitterly.
"No hope?" Starswirl asked, "I think you've got that wrong."
"Huh?" Shadow asked.
"You're not in the prophecy," Starswirl continued, "That means that yes, it's not your 'destiny' to reunite with Luna, but it also means that it's not your 'destiny' to be forever apart either. You have no predetermined fate. You can make your own. You have, if nothing else, hope."
"How am I," Shadow asked, "to reunite with somepony who won't return for one thousand years? Who is the very moon I look at? There's no distance I can cross to be with her again. And the time..."
"Time?" Starswirl said thoughtfully, "yes time... you have to find a way to travel... across time... but how... hmmm... there's the time travel spell I created -"
"Time travel?" Shadow asked.
"Hmm?" Starswirl looked up from his thoughts, "Yes, but... it doesn't work... it sends you back, but you can't change anything. Everything happens as it did... always..." there seemed to be a deep sorrow in those words, "What else ..." Starswirl mumbled as he disappeared into his stacks of books.
Shadow was left with his thoughts for a while as Starswirl searched through his books, "Starswirl," he called out after a time, "I - I remember my mother telling me about some ponies that had been rescued from changeling cocoons... that they had been imprisoned decades earlier, but had not aged... is there any truth in that?"
"Eh," Starswirl called out from within the rows of books, "I remember that... yes... in a way it's true... but those ponies... they weren't themselves anymore. It seemed as if all the feeling had been drained from them. They had to live in a special caregiver home for the rest of their lives. They were... hollow."
"But it kept them alive?" Shadow questioned.
Starswirl poked his head out from around a shelf, "Don't you go getting ideas like that. There's another way and I'll find it."
"Of course," Shadow said, "I'll - I'll leave you to research in peace."
"Stop in anytime you need someone to listen," Starswirl said as Shadow left and closed the door.
"That young colt is aiming for trouble," Starswirl said to himself, "I'd best do what I can to keep him out of it."