Luna felt an instant wave of relief at the sound of Neil’s voice. For one, he was still alive, which meant the spell was working; for another she could understand him. If there had been a language barrier she would have had to expend more magic just to understand him. Thankfully, her precious reserves did not have to be depleted any further.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you as well, Mr. Armstrong.” Luna’s voice grew stronger with each syllable. “I expect that you have questions about...” She waved a hoof around, “all of this.”
Neil’s smile didn’t fade as set the clumsy headgear on the cave floor, responding with, “Well shucks yeah, Ms. Luna; you have just blown decades of planning and research out of the water. As a man of science and a human from the planet Earth, you can bet I have questions.”
Neil’s voice was soft but strong, each word carrying a note of good nature. Luna instantly felt comforted and strengthened by it; in fact, she was feeling a little stronger. Why was that? She kept her attention on this man of science and human of Earth though. Luna took a moment to study his face for a moment. She didn’t know how to judge the attractiveness of a human, but Neil’s face carried wisdom in every line, his eyes glittering with curiosity and intelligence. His smile was youthful and infectious; Luna couldn’t resist smiling a little in turn at it.
“Well, Mr. Armstrong, if you don’t mind tarrying a bit, perhaps we could exchange questions and answers?”
The human’s smile faded at that, as if reminded of something.
“Well, I don’t have anywhere to go at the moment, with my planet missing and all.”
Of all the times to insert her hoof into her mouth. Luna’s mind scrambled for a quick yet appropriate response.
“I see. Perhaps you can tell me of your planet, and I can tell you of mine?”
Neil brightened slightly at that and began to speak of his home. Luna was surprised to hear about such a world. A world filled with millions of other humans like Neil, all of them different. Entire cities filled with buildings that could reach the sky. His world was filled with machines that could fly through the air or go into the water by harnessing different types of power. Crafts that moved faster than the quickest pegasus or strongest earth pony and moved for much longer.
Neil spoke excitedly about these machines, going into details on how they worked, to which Luna had to wave him on, saying they had no such things in Equestria, so she could barely understand the specifics. Neil then switched to talking about governments and nations. Neil's world had hundreds of countries of all different shapes and sizes, each with their own rulers. It was here that Luna had to interject with a question.
“Pardon my interruption Mr. Armstrong, but with so many rulers, isn’t there an abundance of conflict?”
A dark look passed over Neil’s eyes, and he grew quieter but continued to talk.
“Yes, we have conflicts. Wars even. Millions of men fighting and slaughtering each other at the orders of their leaders. The lines between good and evil become blurred then, and only the winner can say who was right and who was wrong.”
This didn’t seem like a subject that Neil would want to dwell on, and after hearing those few lines, Luna didn’t want to either. There had never been a conflict of that scale in Equestria; Luna and her sister had been more than enough to deal with any uprisings or disturbances. Even then, it was dealt with peacefully and without casualty. Usually.
This seemed a good time to explain Equestria to Neil, and so Luna decided to go into it with gusto, beginning with how Luna and her sister commanded the moon and sun. Almost immediately Neil interrupted with, “There is no way that is possible.”
Luna gave him a flat look, “You are with a magical pony princess trapped in the moon, who is letting you breathe in the cold vacuum of space, and you question whether or not my sister and I are capable of moving heavenly bodies?”
Neil had to good graces to flush a little and look embarrassed. “Err...yeah. Sorry, science got away from me there for a moment.”
Luna did a mental raspberry at her verbal victory. Outwardly, though she kept her regal manner. She may not be on Equestria anymore, but she was still a princess. Thankfully, since it was Neil, Luna didn’t think she would have to use that dreadful formal or royal Canterlot voice. All those “we’s”, “thee’s”, and “thou’s” were downright irritating, especially when she had to yell them constantly.
She decided to dive back into telling Neil of Equestria. As she talked, she watched Neil’s eyes grow larger and it seemed they were going to pop out. Apparently, on Earth they only had earth ponies, and they couldn’t talk. They didn’t have unicorns or pegasi even, though they had legends and myths about them. The same went for griffons, dragons, manticores, and all manner of creatures that resided in Equestria.
She explained how weather was controlled by the pegasi and how unicorns could use several types of magic depending on their special talents. Luna went on to speak about cutie marks, showing off hers, the crescent moon on a night sky. She explained it was because her talent was to move the moon; therefore, much of her magic was night-themed in appearance.
Luna would have gone into a more detailed explanation about magic, something Neil was really interested in, but she had to dissuade him much to her regret. She had to explain that her long imprisonment had resulted in her strength waning. This brought up a question that Luna had been expecting and dreading at the same time.
“So Ms. Luna, why are you here on the moon and not still in Equestria?”
This time it was Luna who had dark thoughts cross her mind, and she was fairly sure that Neil picked up on that. Nonetheless, Neil had spoken about things that bothered him, so it was only right that she did as well.
“Mr. Armstrong, I...” she began.
“Whoa there Ms. Luna, I don’t mean to interrupt you, but do you think you could stop that?” His face held a sheepish smile on that broke some of the tension in the cavern.
“Stop what?” Luna was quite perplexed at his request. Did he want her to stop talking? It was the only thing she had been doing.
“The whole Mr. Armstrong thing makes me feel old. Just call me Neil.”
“Oh, okay, but then I must insist you must call me Luna. It would only be fair.”
“Seems fair to me, Luna.”
“Very well then, Neil. Should I continue with my story?”
“By all means.”
Neil’s quiet smile made a particular feeling pass over Luna, but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was or what caused it. She brushed it aside as she took another deep breath and proceed to tell her story again.
“I was jealous of my sister, to put it in the simplest ways. Our subjects would play and dance under the rays of her sun, but later they would hide indoors and sleep under the light of my gentle moon. Any time something would go bump in the night though, I would be the first to be blamed. My sister tried explaining to our subjects that I only controlled the moon, not the night and everything in its shadow, but our ponies were timid and jumped at every shadow.”
Luna sighed at the memories; they were not pleasant to recall at all, but she continued.
“Eventually, it got to the point where I started resenting everything. I resented my sister for having the love of our kingdom and controlling the object of their affection. I resented our ponies for loving my sister so much and blaming me for everything when they did not even try to understand me. I resented the moon for not being as wonderful as the sun. Most of all I resented myself, for feelings all of this...resentment towards everything.”
“Eventually that resentment turned bitter and changed into anger. I struck out, mostly at my sister. I refused to lower my moon to make way for the sun. I wanted to force everypony to acknowledge me, praise me, and love me. In my mind, it had all made sense, but I could not be more wrong. I see that now, but then...in the past, I was blind.”
Luna paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts and looking to Neil. He was quiet, his smile gone, and his eyes were completely focused on her. He was serious, and he looked so focused and intent on Luna’s past. It didn’t matter if he was the ugliest human on Earth; right now with that expression on his face, Luna thought he was the most handsome being in creation.
Again, that feeling crossed her chest, and she felt confused once more. Neil noticed the change and was about to speak up, but Luna silenced him with a hoof and small but sad smile.
“My story is almost finished. My anger transformed me into something unsightly, a dark and insidious creature that came to be known as Nightmare Moon. My sister and I would battle over the control of the heavens; I would rampage across the land, and she would try to stop me. It was a stalemate until my sister used her trump card on me; the most powerful magic we knew of. The result sent me here, where I have been ever since.”
Luna paused again, feeling the tears starting to form around her eyes. Why now? She didn’t want to cry in front of Neil again. Luna struggled to hold back the traitorous tears.
“Neil, it took me a while to realize it, but I don’t think I have ever hurt my sister so much than when she had to banish me here...”
She couldn’t hold it anymore, and a wracking sob escaped her, and she was about to throw her head into her forelegs when she was suddenly swept up into something smooth and white. Neil had taken her head and neck into his arms and was embracing her. It was too much for Luna.
She started bawling, tears flowing uninhibited down her cheeks, making a river into Neil’s suit. Choking sobs would steal her breath, only to bring on a fresh wave of tears. She hiccupped, gasped, and wept in the embrace of that strange man from Earth, who only held her in silence not letting go or pushing her away even once.
Eventually, Luna’s sobs grew quiet, with only the occasional hiccup and sniffle punctuating the silence. It was that Neil spoke, stroking her head again as he did so.
“If there is one thing I know about family, is that no matter how bad you mess up, if you are honest and earnest, they will always, and I mean always, welcome you back with open arms.”
Luna sniffed again, lifting her head slightly from Neil’s suit.
“But I messed up so badly...Celestia probably will never forgive me.”
“None of that never talk. I’m sure your sister forgave you long ago. Shoot, I’m willing to bet she never blamed you in the first place.”
Luna turned her head up towards the human. “How do you know?”
Neil merely shrugged at that. “Just a hunch.”
Luna let her head fall back against Neil’s suit letting those thoughts sort themselves out in her mind. It would be just like her sister to be that way. That was one of her most endearing and irritating traits after all. Why had it taken it so long for her to realize that? She let out a soft chuckle at the thought, pulling herself away from the human.
Neil let Luna go, a look of concern upon his face.
“Are you feeling better now?”
Luna nodded, wiping the last of her tears away with her forelegs.
“Yes Neil, thank you. I’m sorry for my... emotional outburst, but thank you.”
As they broke their embrace, that strange feeling that had been stirring within Luna shifted again, and Luna could feel some of her old strength returning. She was about to mention it to Neil, when the human jerked his hand to his head, his face growing serious.
Caught off guard by the motion, Luna was only able to open her mouth slightly before closing it again. Upon taking a closer look, Neil was touching something in his ear. It looked to be one of those pieces of technology that Neil had mentioned. Luna was able to think about it for only a few seconds before Neil turned his attention back to the princess.
“I need to get back to the surface. I think my partner is trying to reach me.”
“Partner?” Luna then remembered the other being that had come with the craft was well. “You mean the one that struck you?” Remembering the scene caused a small flourish of anger to rise within her. What was with these emotions?
“He was upset. It isn’t every day you see your planet vanish before your eyes. Besides, it’s been a while, and he doesn’t know about you, so he must think I have a death wish or something.”
Luna was about to make a comment about seeing her own world vanish several times, but thought against mentioning it. She decided along another track of thought that had surfaced.
“How do you hear him? He is still on the surface.”
“Oh, that.” Neil pulled out a small object from his ear, playing around with it for a moment.. “This is a communication device. Usually I can hear my team on it, but I’m fairly sure being under several tons of moon rock is interfering with the signal.”
Luna could only think of one thing to say. “Oh.” Technology was strange and wonderful indeed.
“It’s been dead for a while, but now I’m picking up all sorts of noise and feedback on it. Probably means Buzz is trying to reach me. So how about that lift?”
“Returning you will be easy enough, but would you mind visiting later perhaps?”
Neil smiled at that request, “Not a problem, we might be here a while, so I might as well bring Buzz, as well, so he can get acquainted with our new friend.”
Friend. The word struck Luna like a heavy blow upside her muzzle. At the same time, things began to click into place with that word.
“We’re friends?” Luna muttered dumbly, but Neil mistook the question with a look of confusion.
“Yeah. At this point, I say it’s safe to say we’re friends. You have to be the strangest friend I have ever had, though, and I know some strange characters.”
Luna laughed at that line, and Neil smiled as well. Luna had to wonder if he was doing that on purpose. She had scarcely met the creature and here it was, making her laugh.
“Very well, it’s official. We are friends.”
“Good. Now that we got that cleared up, could you send me back to the surface? Don’t want to keep Buzz waiting.”
Neil picked up his helmet off the cavern floor and was about to reattach it to his suit again when he paused and looked to Luna again, a hint of humor in his eyes.
“Next time I come down thought, I would greatly appreciate it if you didn’t use such a…sudden method to bring me down. They weren’t lying about having your life flash before your eyes.”
Luna could only chuckled before nodding.
With that, Neil placed the helmet over the suit and with a twist and snap, refastened and resealed it. He made a curious motion with his hand as he curled the digits into a ball but left the thumb sticking straight up. Luna wasn’t sure what it meant, and tried to duplicate the motion with a hoof. It had less than stellar results.
Still, it seemed to satisfy Neil, and he dropped his arm and waited expectantly. Her horn glowed brighter as her magic enveloped him and lifted him slightly and she released another tendril of magic into the collapsed tunnel, reopening it. With less effort than she expected, she lifted Neil through the tunnel. The trip only took a few moments, and Neil was back on the surface again.
Luna reopened her other sense and looked upon the surface. Neil had taken a long look back at the tunnel and then made his way back to the craft, moving in that awkward bouncing shuffle. She watched him until he reentered the craft and closed its hatch behind him. For the moment, she was alone again.
Wait. That wasn’t right. She wasn’t alone. Not anymore. She had a friend.
Luna closed the tunnel once more and her other senses go dark, wanting to be alone with her thoughts.
“Friendship is Magic.”
Luna recalled the words her sister loved to speak on and on about, and until that moment, Luna had never realized what she had meant, even when her sister had tried to explain it.
“You see sister, true friendship is something that cannot be bought, sold, or even traded. It is a pure force that connects the hearts of people no matter how far apart they are, and when the need arises, it will give strength to the weak, warmth to the cold, and makes the impossible more than possible to achieve. That’s it’s magic, it’s power, and it makes it one of most powerful forces in our existence.”
Celestia’s word’s echoed in her head.
“I understand now sister.” Luna whispered to herself, “I’m sorry…”
As she spoke she felt that budding surge of strength, but this one was more familiar, like the warmth of the sun’s rays on a cool day. It felt like a sister.
“Celestia…” Another tear fell across her cheek.
As she said it, more of her sister’s words came to mind.
“But the power of friendship is not a force that can be captured and controlled. You can't capture and control friends, so the power of friendship can not be abused. With making friends you also have to know about losing friends. Friendship is knowing when to let go and how to welcome them back. It’s something that at times requires sacrifice and sometimes will cause hardships, but true friendship is worth it and will endure through the toughest times and longest distances.”
The tear fell from her cheek to land softly on the cave floor.
Neil. He wasn’t from the moon. He probably had family, other friends. A world with all those marvels and creations, and yet here he was stuck on the moon with an irritated man and a trapped princess. Neil was a good man, but Luna highly doubted he would decide to stay here, if he had the choice, though Neil didn’t have that option right now.
Luna felt the growing power within her and then looked at her prison wall, right where she knew that the hidden planet Earth would be. She had the options, though.
She would send them home.