Children of the Moonprincess

by Calmsoul

4 - Journey

I lay in the tent with my hooves crossed behind my head, staring at the ceiling. Though I was quite tired, sleep eluded me. Too much had happened too quickly for me to properly process it. Now it kept me awake while my ruler and friend slept rather peacefully on the bedroll on the other side of the tent. I turned my head and watched Princ- Luna breathing slowly in her sleep. It seemed I still needed some time to acclimate myself with calling her just by her name. After staying awake for two nights in a row, leading a tiresome meeting with two stubborn ponies and getting a slight shock from remembering a past mistake that needed to be taken care of immediately, even she had been utterly spent. And she was an immortal alicorn with more power I could ever imagine. Not to mention she had teleported us to a place that would have needed many days of travelling by hoof to get to and almost died a few hours ago, if it not were for Princess Celestia.

Once again, my mind wandered back to the beginning of this journey...

I had never been teleported before and it was totally different from what I expected it to be. It was... almost dull. All I perceived of the process was a bright light. When it faded, the world revolved around me. I shook my head vigorously to get a clear vision again. When the spinning finally stopped, I took a look around. I found myself in a completely different place from where I had been a moment before. That was to be anticipated of a teleport, though. We had appeared on a small hill. Behind us lay plains of grassland. What awaited us seemed to be an untouched nature stretching as far as I could see. And with that I mean a dense forest everywhere. From what I could see, it was even thicker than the Everfree Forest. At least according to the pictures I had seen of it. I had no idea of where we had arrived, so I did the obvious.

"Princess Luna, where are we?"

Looking at the princess, I found her heavily breathing with her legs slightly bent. The toll of the past days were obviously getting to her. A moment later she straightened herself again, taking one last, deep breath. Then there was nothing left of the strain that she showed just seconds ago, but I knew her better than that. If she wasn't going to admit it soon, I decided that I would make her take a rest. That had worked once, so why shouldn't it now? Shooting a glance at Princess Celestia, I thought I saw the slightest frown on her face as she regarded her sister. She had seen it too. Great! She would surely support me when it came to that.

"We are at the very border of Equestria, Honeycomb. Beyond this point lies unknown land. Well, mostly that is."

Yes, on the outside she had indeed completely recovered her regal aura. As much as I worried about her, though, that remark still made me curious.

"What do you mean, mostly?"

"Well, there is no sentient being that lives out here. Only animals and beasts are roaming these lands. And as it is not a part of Equestria, it is left utterly alone. Even the weather is uncontrolled, much like in the Everfree Forest. I have been here before, obviously, but that was a long time ago and I'm certain that much has changed since then. That is the reason I didn't bring us any further by teleportation. I could not be sure in what circumstances we would have arrived."

"You brought those children to this place, sister?" Princess Celestia was not very happy with her sister's choice, if I interpreted her disbelieving voice correctly.

"You know my reasons, sister. I needed a place where they were left alone. This was the obvious choice."

"Alright, alright. I don't want to argue about this with you. It doesn't help us in the slightest. Too much time has passed since then to question you about it. So, what are our next steps?"

"I will take a look around to get my bearings. When I know where we need to go, I will come and get you." She turned around and spread her wings.

"Be careful, Luna. I don't want to see you harmed."

"Don't worry, Celestia. There is nothing out there that is able to hurt me while I'm in the air." With that she took off, leaving us behind to pass the time on our own.

I joined Princess Celestia in watching her getting smaller and smaller up in the sky.

"I hope we have not made a mistake in letting her go on her own."

That caught me by surprise. What did the Princess mean? She wasn't thinking that... oh...

"Don't worry, Princess. I don't think she will abandon us here and fly alone to her colony. She may tend to do things on her own from time to time, but I'm quite certain she really wants our help with this."

Princess Celestia sighed. "You are probably right, Honeycomb, I just worry so much about her."

I had to chuckle.

"What is so funny?"

"Of course you worry. She is your little sister, after all."

The princess simply smiled at that. Suddenly, something else came to my mind. While we had talked at breakfast, I had learned of the general situtation, but there still were many gaps that needed to be filled.

"Princess Celestia, while we wait... Could you tell me more about what happened back in the day? I want to know why we are here and maybe better understand Princess Luna's actions because of it."

"Of course I will. You need to know these things after all. Especially with the place to which we are heading."

We both lay down on the ground and she told me of Luna's plan and the colony she created.

It was not long after Princess Celestia had finished her story when Luna returned. We were still lying on the ground when her hooves touched the earth again. Slowly she folded her wings back to her body while trotting up to us.

"I hope I havent't kept you waiting for too long, but the land has changed more than I anticipated."

Princess Celestia relaxed visibly.

"I told you she would return." I whispered to her with a small smile. A second later I realized what I had said. "I'm sorry, Your Highness, I didn't mean to be disrespectful."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Luna." She tried to distract. "What have you found and where do we need to go?"

"The forest is much too thick to walk through and even if not it would take us several days to reach our destination. There is no other way, we need to fly the next part of this."

I gulped. That didn't sound good. "But, I can't fly." I stated the obvious. Being completely honest with myself, I'm not sure if I wanted to be able to fly either.

Luna's expression grew warmer as she sensed my distress. "Don't worry, you don't have to return home and neither do you have to wait here. You will travel with me." She turned to her sister. "Shall we go?"

Travel with her? What was that supposed to mean again? Oh well, probably I would find out soon enough.

While Princess Celestia levitated their saddlebags back to their respective owner, Luna settled down on the ground and looked over her shoulder back at me. "Hop on and we will move out."

Startled, I backed away several steps. "You can't be serious! I... I will fall off! And I can't... I..." I had to sit back on my haunches. My legs trembled furiously and my eyes were shot wide open. How could she propose something like this?

"Are you alright, Honeycomb? Are you afraid of heights?"

"No... no, I'm not afraid of heights but..."

"But?"

"But you are a Princess! I could never ride you like some carriage!"

Luna chuckled and Princess Celestia smiled at me. This wasn't funny! As her personal assistant my duties, among many others, were to remind the princess to retain her dignity. And this simply wouldn't do.

"Don't be silly, my friend. There is no one here who could see me. And it is my decision who I let ride on my back. So please, don't hesitate and climb up."

She kept smiling at me as I, grudgingly, walked up to her and climbed up on her back. "You don't happen to have a seatbelt I could use, have you?"

"What are you mumbling up there?"

I sighed. "Nothing, let's go."

I tried to make myself comfortable on her back, which wasn't easy. Sure, she was almost twice my size, but her barrel was quite slender and not that much longer than my own. On top of that I had to make sure not to restrain her wings in any way. Jumbling her control over those appendages midflight was not something I wanted to experience firsthoof. When I finally had found a posture I could settle down in, I slung my forehooves around her neck so I could hold on to something. As soon as I had done that, I felt the muscles under my belly tighten and a second later Luna broke into a gallop to gain the speed she needed to bring my additional weight into the air. Surprised, I closed my eyes and tightened my grip. After the bumpy run that shook my body for good she finished with a mighty leap and flapped her wings long and hard a few times to gain altitude.

Only when most of the shakings from the take-off had faded and Luna had settled into a steady and smooth glide I relaxed a bit and opened my eyes again. We were high above the ground, gliding swiftly over the canopy of the forest deep below us. Looking up I found the clouds still quite a way above us. Princess Celestia flew a few meters to our left. When a gust forced Luna to flap harder, and thus shaking me again, I latched back unto her neck, trembling.

"Are you sure you are not afraid of heights?" She asked concerned.

"Yes, I am," I grumbled back. "It just feels as if I am slipping down every time you flap your wings and that makes me nervous. I like to have firm ground beneath my hooves, even when I'm way up high. Must be my earthpony heritage speaking."

Instead of a response, Luna's horn started to glow. A flap of her saddlebags lifted and, to my astonishment, I saw only blackness beneath it. Before I could think about this phenomenon though, a rope appeared out of the blackness and the flap closed again. Afterwards the rope slung itself around Luna's and my barrels and knotted us tightly together.

"You really have a seatbelt afterall..."

"I'm glad you're feeling better."

Now that I felt somewhat safer, I finally got to appreciate the view around me. Only a few clouds adorned the sky and much of my vision was filled by a deep blue. The sun stood high in the sky, noon just about an hour behind us. Below us the wind transformed the dense canopy into a waving sea of green; still stretching as far as I could see. Given how high we were flying that was quite a distance.

For some time I simply savored the scenery but when I got my fill of it, I turned back to Luna. How should I phrase this question? I decided to start with something simple.

"Princess Celestia told me what you did a few thousand years in the past."

The muscles below me stiffened slightly. I'm sure it would have been more pronounced had we been on the ground, but flying needed a certain amount of flexibility to work. Or at least I assumed as much, I'm not the one who is a specialist in this kind of thing, even if my daughter is a pegasus. But what did this reaction mean? Was Luna angry? Was she scared? Was it a mistake to bring this up? It was too late to budge out of it now, however, so I finally asked what I wanted to know.

"What I'm wondering since then is, how did you get all those children out of Canterlot without getting caught?"

Luna snorted. "I used magic of course..." As she began to recount the events from a distant past, Princess Celestia tilted herself slightly to the right so she glided nearer to us. She didn't know this, too, I presumed.

"It took me several weeks to refine the rough plan I had presented to Celestia so much that it could finally be realized. For the most parts at least. As you know, I had no final solution to keep the children supervised and thus I created the time bubble around their new home. It was just intended as a workaround, but as always those remain the longest."

"That is what I don't get. Why did you pursue that plan any further in the first place? Your sister had rejected your proposal and if I'm informed correctly, she was the highest authority back then. Additionally, you knew by then it was not a good plan."

"You are quite correct, of course. I cannot say for sure what drove me, but every night for the first week after Celestia's rejection I dreamed about the colony again and again. About the happy time all those children would have there. Some of the ideas for my plan came to me during those dreams. I knew deep inside me, that this was important. Important for me, important for Celestia and very important for Equestria. It's not like I didn't see the flaws Celestia had shown to me, but I thought they were merely some small obstacles. Just think about them for some time and they would dissolve themselves more or less on their own."

I tilted my head to the side in thought. "Dreaming the same stuff for a whole week? Isn't that pretty odd, especially for the Princess of Dreams?"

"It is. Again, I have no explanation for it. I think all those homeless children really got to me and I felt I needed to do something more to help them. Anyway, after I had solved all the issues that prevented the execution of my plan, I went about the city to find as many homeless foals as possible. While doing that I visited several orphanages as well and found some foals that were not very happy with their lives there either. So I decided to take those as well. It weren't so many that I had to revise the plans for getting them fed, but it surely were a few. I memorized all of their sleeping places and then went for the kill."

Princess Celestia blinked. "I think we should work a bit more on your conversation skills later, sister. That was an... odd... choice of words."

"If you say so, we shall do that, but let me finish first. I wanted to take all the children at once. For one to save time and at the same giving fewer opportunities to be discovered. So I faced the problem of getting about fifty foals out of the city without being seen. Each and every version I played through in my head bore the possibility to be accidently seen by someone. In the end I decided to fly them out by using some moon-magic."

"Moon-magic?" I asked nonplussed. "I've never heard of that."

"It would have surprised me if you had. Moon-magic is something only I can use. It is the magic that connects me with the moon and, among other things, keeps it on its path across the sky after I raise it. In this case I used it to make the children float on beams of moonlight which I then pulled through the sky behind me. It was the least subtle plan I came up with, but in the end it worked."

"But Luna, that's impossible. I would have felt such a massive burst of moon-magic in the middle of the night. It would even have roused me from my deepest sleep. And all the guards around town and at the castle would have seen you and the children."

"Oh, Tia! Do you think I hadn't thought about that? I'm not inferior to you when it comes to making plans work the way I want, you know? Of course I knew you would be on to me immediately, so I called out to the stars to help me."

My ears perked up. This was getting weirder by the minute. "Wait, the stars? I thought you controlled them. You create the night sky after all, so why do you have to call to them for help and not just use them the way you need?"

"You see, I do control how the sky looks, but the stars themselves are... stubborn. They are not sentient per se, but I can't make them do anything they don't want. Creating a beautiful night sky has much to do with persuasion. Bringing out the stars the way I want is a mixture of working with nobles and herding sheep."

I had to chuckle at that. "Isn't that the same thing?" Both princesses joined in on the chuckle before Luna resumed speaking.

"Only that the stars are not as presumptuous as the nobles, yes. However, as a 'thank you' for tending to them as I am, they granted my wish and channelled their magic through me to put all of Canterlot under a sleeping spell. Even Celestia was unable to resist. The magical nature of the sleep even prevented her from sensing my moon-magic. So, with a song on my lips I committed one of the most stupid failures of my life."

The sarcasm–or was it cynism?– of that last sentence made me wince. What Luna did in the past had been pretty bad, all things considered, but it tore me up nonetheless to see how hard the whole situation hit her. She had fallen silent again.

We flew on in mutual silence, all of deep in our own thoughts, until the afternoon was over and the evening was approaching at last. It was still quite early and I thought we had some more hours of flying ahead of us, at least, when I felt Luna wobble under me. I leaned to the side to take a look at her face. What I saw troubled me deeply. Her eyelids were drooping and her head was sinking low every once and again. She was just short of falling asleep in mid-flight. Fear gripped me as I imagined tumbling down to the ground clinging to an unconscious Luna.

I shook her neck with my hooves still slung around it. "Come on Luna, stay awake! Let's get down to the ground, then you can take a nap, but for now concentrate on my voice!"

Turning my head I searched for Princess Celestia, finding her a short distance behind us and to our right, I called out to her. "Princess Celestia! We need to find somewhere to land immediately! Luna is going to pass out soon!"

I waited for her to fly towards us, but she didn't budge from her course. Fear gripped me. Princess Celestia hadn't heard me. I turned back to Luna and started to shake her, but it was too late. My stomach lurched as Luna tilted completely to the left under me. One second I floated there in the air high above the ground, the next I was tumbling down to my death. The air roared in my ears as it rushed all around me. I was tumbling head over hooves, the blue of the sky whisked away by the green of the leaves. The strain got too much for the rope that tied me to Luna's back and we drifted apart as it came loose. After just a short time she was nothing else than a dark blue speck flashing up in the chaos around me as we were falling faster and faster. I heard someone cry out in fear. A piercing scream that shattered me to the bone. A second later I realized the one who was screaming was me. I didn't want to die. I wanted to watch my children grow up and lead a happy life. I wanted to fall asleep in the hooves of Autumn Leaf at night. The wall of green grew nearer and nearer until it consumed all of my field of view. Then I felt branches scraping my body. A blinding flash of white light was the last thing I perceived.

Slowly, my eyes fluttered open again. Everything was spinning around me and all I saw was a green wall in front of me. With a cry I jumped up, eyes shot wide. Only to slump down the next second with a searing pain shooting through my left side.

"Everything is okay, Honeycomb. You are safe. Lie down and relax."

Princess Celestia's voice registered in my mind as I came down from the shock I just got, thinking I was still falling to my death. "What happened?" I asked weakly.

"Luna lost consciousness in mid-flight. You both were already falling seperately from each other when I saw what happened. Of course I immediately flew over and tried to catch you, but you broke through the canopy and hit several branches before I could finally brake your fall. You got a blow to your head that rendered you unconscious. After that your left side hit a larger branch that snapped under your impact, but broke one of your ribs. I mended the bone with my magic and applied some ointment to ease the rest of the pain, but you should rest until tomorrow. I hope you are not hurting too much." She closed her eyes and her head sunk in what I supposed was shame, according to the words she then spoke. "I am sorry I was not there for you when you needed me. We promised to keep you safe on this journey and still you almost died on our first day out. If you want, I can get you back to Canterlot."

"I'm fine. Don't beat yourself up over it, Princess. I knew this wouldn't be a walk in the park." Something else was more important to me right now. "How is Princess Luna?"

"She is umharmed, but still unresponsive." Princess Celestia nodded to a tree under which Luna lay slumped onto her side, still out cold.

"So, we are down in the woods, am I right?" Just now I realized the moisture I felt earlier was actually coming from a patch of soft moss the Princess had laid me down on.

"Yes, we will spend the night here. It is almost time for me to lower the sun and bring up the moon, if Luna hasn't woken up by then."

"Is it safe to stay here? I remember some talk about wild animals..."

"Normally it would not be considered safe. But I have placed a barrier around us that will hold until morning. It doesn't reach far, though, so you should stay within sight."

"I will keep that in mind, Princess." A cool breeze let me shiver a bit in the early evening air. "I hope it doesn't get much colder, or we will be freezing tonight."

"Ah! Thank you for the reminder..." Her horn lit with the trademark golden aura. A moment later some kind of rolled up fabric floated out of her saddlebag. Curiously I followed its way to an open patch of grass that was free of undergrowth and tree roots. Once there, it began to unfold. A few moments later a fully fledged tent, big enough for at least six normal ponies was standing in the middle of this endless forest.

"You should get some rest now. I will stay awake and look out for any trouble while you two take some rest."

"Thank you, Princess." I yawned. Then my belly rumbled rather loudly. No wonder. We only had breakfast today and that was quite some time ago. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Before I go to sleep, I need something to eat. You don't happen to have some food in those strange saddlebags of yours?"

"Do not worry, we have enough food for at least two weeks. Although I would recommend just something light after the shock you went through. Furthermore, may I ask what you mean by strange?"

While Princess Celestia got out some sandwiches and a bottle of water, I shifted my posture to lessen the burden on my injured side a bit more. "Well, what's not strange about them? They aren't much bigger than most saddlebags you can buy in Canterlot, sure, but that tent roll you pulled out of it would barely have fitted inside even if it was the only thing that rested in there. The bags, though were not even bulging the slightest regardless of the unfitting form of the tent. Moreover, you seem to have somehow stowed away several first aid supplies and food rations in there. Those sandwiches are not even an tiny bit squashed. And earlier today, when Luna pulled out the rope, I got a glimpse inside her bag. Until now I cannot even begin to describe what I saw."

I took the sandwich that was still floating in the air before me into my forehooves and started eating while waiting for an answer. The waterbottle already rested at my side. Her expression had changed from curiosity to wonder and finally to amusement while I was listing my observations.

"You are quite the astonishing mare, Honeycomb. You have worked pretty hard the last few days, barely slept last night–if I am correct–tumbled alsmost to your death, awoke from an hour long unconsciousness mere minutes ago and still you have enough energy left to observe even small hints from your surroundings. You don't happen to be related to Princess Twilight, are you?"

A slightly exasperated sigh escaped my mouth. "No, I'm not. Princess Luna already asked me the same question yesterday. You can thank my parents for my organizing talent." With slight sarcasm creeping into my voice I added, "As for the energy left... that award goes to my children who keep me on my hooves. Those adorable little terrors can be more straining than a week worth of working for your sister on some days. You evaded my question, though." I observed.

Princess Celestia chuckled her trademark chuckle again. "Please excuse me, that is a habit I am trying to break out of for over a thousand years now. To answer your question–those bags are enchanted with a powerfull spell that enhances their carrying capability multiple times while at the same time remaining light enough to carry around even if you stuff them with a whole clutter of things. On the downside, the spell is tied to the caster of the spell. While you could use it like any other saddlebag when empty, in it's current state you wouldn't be able to lift it even with your earth pony strength as it contains half a library worth of items."

"Sounds neat. I could have used one of those when Silver Streak and Morning Hue were just a few months old. You need to have a household worth of stuff at hoof for foals of that age when you are going out of the house." After downing half the contents of the waterbottle I stood up with a grunt and started to walk away from our campsite. "Please excuse me for a moment, Your Highness, I will be right back."

"You should not walk away on your own, Honeycomb. While I secured our camp with several spells, they reach not very far. Beyond them are all kinds of creatures that could harm you."

Looking back over my shoulder I gave her a hint she should very well be able to get. "You have to look after Luna and trust me, you don't want to be anywhere near me when I do what I am about to do. Neither do you want me to do this in our camp. Don't worry, I will be fine. Can't be much worse than the Everfree Forest and I once had to trek through that by hoof. See you in a minute."

It seemed Princess Celestia had got my hint as she blinked at first and then grimaced; letting me go without another comment. A few minutes later I came back to the camp feeling quite relieved.

"I brought some firewood so you can keep yourself warm tonight." Having put down the wood in the middle of our improvised campsite something occured to me. "Where is Princess Luna?"

"I put here to bed in the tent. You should join her now. Have a good night, Honeycomb, and thank you for the firewood."

"Thank you, Princess. See you in the morning." I walked over to the tent and slipped through the entrance flap. Luna was sleeping to the right side of the entrance. Beside her lay a second set of bedding just waiting for me to lay down. Avoiding to make my ribs hurt again, I cautiously lowered myself down and tried to get some sleep.

I was not very successful. After recapitulating all that had happened today my mind fixated back on Luna and my changed relationship with her. Me? Friends with a princess? However should this work? There were whole worlds separating us! I was a simple earth pony mare, she was the ruler of all of Equestria–and I worked for her. Was it recommendable to be friends with your boss? Then there was the age difference. Huh, what an euphemism! She was thousands of years old, I was just a newborn foal–if at all–compared to that. Sure, I liked her, but then again there were many ponies who liked the princesses. That was not enough to call us friends.

Thinking some more, some of the more memorable situations between us came to my mind. Sending her to bed that one night had been the first time I did something that was not my duty, strictly speaking. I smiled at the memory. Yes, she might be this mighty alicorn, but still I had the power to send her to bed like I did with my own filly at home. Was this a normal or even an expected behavior for a personal assistant to the princess, or was it the first sign that our relationship went into a whole new direction?

The next thing that floated through my head was an evening some weeks ago. I had arrived a tad late for work, fuming over the reason. When Luna found me in my office were I was setting up the final schedule for the night while mauling several quills and berating the ink wells, she closed the door behind her and sat down in front of my desk, waiting silently. She told me later it took me several minutes before I finally became aware of her presence and turned beet-red immediately. By that time I had given her a most thorough summary of modern cusses and swearwords, or so she claimed. Granted, I got quite carried away that day. Then she simply asked calmly, "Do you want to talk about what is bothering you?"

At first I sat there dumbstruck, then I stuttered some unintelligible syllables. Before breaking into a rant again. Autumn Leaf had cancelled his promise to fetch our children from some friends after work because an old buddy of his had called for the first time in many months and they were heading off to some bar after quitting time. His message reached me just as I was heading out to work. The day hat been strenuous enough starting with my son getting home late from school. As he had to walk his little sister home that day, she had to wait for him and was quite grumpy when they got home. The lunch I had prepared had gotten cold by then and their bickering hadn't stopped the whole time I was heating it again. After setting them straight and getting them to eat in relative silence I had just enough time to prepare their bags for the visit they would make that afternoon. Consequently that was delayed, too, and the time I needed to get ready for work was cut short as well. When I was finally heading out for work I was barely on time. That meant, on a normal day, I would have left some time ago and thus have missed Autumn Leaf's message.

After I had blown off my steam, Luna stood up, walked arround my desk, embraced me in one of her wings and asked if I was feeling better. When I nodded we had talked about it some more and then started our workday in earnest. She had never reprimanded me for being late or losing my temper the way I had. When I got home early the next morning and entered our bedroom, I just stood a few minutes beside our bed and watched Autumn Leaf without any expression on my face. He was snoring horribly, reeking of cider and he lay splayed out all over the bed so that I barely had room to squeeze myself in. Then I broke into a gentle smile, silently thanked Luna for her help and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Afterwards I cuddled myself into his outstretched wing and immediately drifted off to sleep.

A few other events played themselves before my inner eye as i remembered them. Yes, those had been acts of friendship not just a close working relationship. I liked that feeling but I still wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do.

For now I decided to go with the flow and see how it worked out. Maybe I would get a chance to talk some more with Princess Twilight about the matter.

Finally my head was free and I could get some much needed sleep.

Back in Canterlot, Nightstar was once again walking through the corridors of Skyfall Orphanage. As he passed Candytuft's room he stopped and pressed his ear to the door. Nothing. At least, she was not crying again. Cautiously he opened the door, trying to avoid any noise that could wake the filly that was hopefully sleeping peacefully. Poking his head inside, he took a look around. With a sigh Nightstar opened the door, stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. Candytuft was sitting on her bed, leaning on the windowsill with her forehooves crossed and staring at the night sky.

"Hey, little one, you should be sleeping," Nightstar said gently while walking up to the bed. "Are you still worrying about Princess Luna?"

A slow nod was the only answer.

"Headmaster Willow Wind told me what happened the other day and..."

"It's not her sky."

He blinked. "What? What do you mean?"

Candytuft turned around and gestured with an outstretched hoof at the sky. "The stars are not as sparkly anymore and the pictures are all wrong." Her lower lip started to tremble. "And it's all my fault. She is so angry that she doesn't even want to do any starpainting anymore." Crying, she sank down on her bed.

"Oh, sweetie..." Nightstar walked up to her and pulled her into a hug. She had rings under her bloodshot eyes. Clearly she had gotten much too little sleep. "Stop blaming yourself, it wasn't your fault. Princess Luna is a very busy pony. Probably she just didn't want to be late for dinner. Now get back under the covers, you really need to sleep."

"Are you sure?" Candytuft asked doubtfully, sniffling pitifully. Fiddling with her blanket, she tried to get comfortable. After a minute of getting tied up more and more in it, Nightstar finally sighed and tucked her in properly.

"Will you stay with me?"

Nightstar smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Candytuft, I can't. I have work to get back to."

"But I have nightmares and I don't want to be alone!" Her eyes started to water again.

"Alright, I will stay until you are asleep and I will come back later to make sure that you have no nightmares, but only if you will go to sleep now. Think you can handle that?"

"Uh-huh. Thank you, Mister Nightstar."

"You know me, always helping you squirts. And now – close your eyes."

It took some time, but finally Candytuft's breath started to calm down as she drifted off to sleep. Waiting five more minutes for good measure, Nightstar got up and prepared to leave. He turned around one last time to look out of the window at the sky. Nothing seemed wrong to him, just the normal night sky. Then something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. Turning his head to the disturbance he looked at Canterlot Castle. Through a big window of one of the large halls a purple light flashed every few seconds in an erratic manner. Huh, they must have some sort of party up there... I wonder what the occasion is...

Shrugging, he silently made his way out of the room and returned to his office. Pulling out some paper and a quill, he wrote a report for Willow Wind as an official addition to bring it with him to his meeting with her in the morning. Candytuft needed help.

The next morning I woke to a fimiliar scent. After my sleep addled mind was kind enough to remember where exactly I was, I shot up to a sitting position. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes I stuck my head out of the tent in search for the source of that delicious smell. Finding Princess Celestia tending to a small cooking fire I stepped out of the tent completely and walked over to her.

"You brought coffee? Oh sweet Celestia, thank you!"

"It seems I can not remember you ever taking a taste of me, so how would you know that I taste sweet?"

I felt the heat rising in my face as I flushed deeply. "I... I didn't mean... it was just a spontaneous... oh, ponyfeathers..."

Snickering, the Princess rose to her hooves. "Stop apologizing, it was just a joke. Help yourself to some coffee, while I go and try to raise Luna."

Nodding meekly, I reached for one of the cups standing by the fire, ready to be filled. With a trembling hoof I poured myself some of the strong brew and cautiously took a small sip. Mmmh, just what I needed to calm down and get fully awake. Hearing some commotion from behind me, my ears swivelled to the source of the noise. It seemed I was not the only one who had to deal with cranky ponies in the morning.

"Just five more minutes, Tia..." I heard Luna mumbling.

"We should get going soon. I thought you wanted to get to the colony as soon as possible?"

"Yes, but not so early in the morning. Hey! Stop pulling at my blanket!"

As I turned around, Princess Celestia emerged from the tent with Luna's blanket in her mouth. Luna must have had some trouble standing up in the tent as it shook violently while she grumbled to herself. When she finally came out of the tent, I shoved the fresh cup of coffee into her hooves that I had poured for her while her sister had put away the blanket. Luna blinked, first at the cup, then at me. "Drink up, sleepyhead, we're burning daylight here!" Feeling quite chipper after a good cup of coffee and remembering the conclusion I came to last night, I tried a new approach to this unusual friendship.

"Did you notice our subjects are getting quite cocky lately?" Luna asked her sister before taking a sip from the cup. She closed her eyes as a visible shudder went through her body.

Princess Celestia laughed. "That must be your leisure ruling. Personally, I prefer the iron hoof method, you know." Luna just shot her a death glare.

We ate breakfast over some chit-chat before breaking camp and heading out once again. Like yesterday, Princess Celestia strapped me to Luna's back, but took extra care to make a more durable knot, not wanting to repeat yesterday's events. Soon we were up in the air again.

Candytuft was sitting alone in a small wooden hut on the playground behind the orphanage. She had gotten some sleep last night but not as much as she would have needed. Consequently she was still tired and mopy. The main reason she had hunched up in there, though, was her still guilty conscience. She heard the clopping of hooves coming in her direction but paid no further attention to it as it were just two of their caretakers walking along.

"Have you read the newspapers this morning?"

"No, was there anything interesting to read?"

"It had an official note in it, stating that the princesses left Canterlot on some last-minute notice and that Princess Twilight would take over their duty for the time being. I don't know what to make of it, though."

"Princess Twilight? Isnt't she awfully new to this sort of thing? Besides she's quite young. In fact, she's younger than me. I don't know, if that was a..."

The two ponies had walked on and were now too far away for Candytuft to hear them anymore. Wide-eyed she stared after them. All her fears came crushing down again, tenfolded. She hadn't just scared Princess Luna that evening. She had scared her so much, that she fled from the city, Princess Celestia probably out to bring her back–or worse–to banish her again as punishment for her misbehaving!

She started to cry in despair. What had she done?

"...and when Morning Hue rounded the corner of our house, she stumbled over the paint bucket. Her fur was completely drenched in that ugly green color Autumn was painting our garden shed in." Rolling my eyes I thought again of the clash that green had made with her orange-red fur. Luna and I had been talking about our families the last couple of hours. Well, it was mostly me talking as Luna had not that much of a family life. Though she had thrown in some tidbits about her sister and a few stories about the scholars she had taught over the years.

"Oh, my... wasn't your daughter a pegasus?"

"Indeed she is. It took quite some work to get that paint out of her feathers without totally ruining her wings. But as Autumn Leaf was the one who was responsible for putting the paint in the middle of the path, he readily volunteered to clean her. As a pegasus he was more proficient at it than me anyway. Besides, if he hadn't volunteered by himself, I would have made him 'volunteer'."

"That poor girl. She must have been quite upset... What are you laughing about?"

"You should really join us for dinner sometimes so you can get to know all of them. Morning Hue thought it was funny and pretended to be a living paintbrush. As soon as she got back on her hooves, she squeaked happily and threw herself at the wall of the shed. We decided to keep that imprint of a filly pegasus and just drew a yellow circle around it to include it into the painting."

Luna chuckled. "I would be very happy to get to know your family, Honeycomb." Then she turned serious again. "For now, though, we should find a place to land and set up camp."

"What? Isn't it far too early for that? It's just past noon."

"I know, but we actually reached our destination."

That got me wondering. Looking around I only saw what I had seen since we started flying yesterday–a seemingly endless forest with a small hill or rock sticking out of it here and there. "Are you sure? I don't see anything special."

"I am sure. The trails of magic lead to this point."

"What trails are you talking about? I can't see any magic around here."

"That is, becaue you are no alicorn. Here, let me show you..." Luna's horn started to glow as her eyes glowed white. A second later a dark blue... mist?... laid itself over my vision. I blinked a few times to get the strange feeling away that accompanied the effect. Reopening my eyes, I took a look around and gasped. All around us in the air were glowing lines, twisting and twirling their way through the sky. They merged somewhere on the ground in a big, glowing orb of arcane power. Before I could take in all of it, though, my vision turned normal again.

"Sorry, that spell is quite exhausting, but I think you get the idea of what led us here."

"That was amazing, Luna. Thank you for letting me experience this. Do you see the world always in this way?"

"Only if I consciously want to. It would be terribly distracting otherwise. Just think of all the magic in Canterlot for example."

"I see what you mean. So, when you flew off yesterday after teleporting us..."

"... I searched for traces of that magic to get a bearing of where to head, yes. I had to fly quite a distance before I found just the faintest glow in the air and I had to go further still to be sure that it was what I was looking for, but it ultimately led us to this place."

Luna angled herself to the front and slightly to the left, letting us descend in a wide swooping curve to the ground. We touched down not very far from one of the rocky outcrops I had seen from above. Princess Celestia had not been far away and landed right behind us.

After the ropes holding me were untangled, I jumped down from Luna's back and thoroughly stretched my legs. It was not the most comfortable way to travel and I was already looking forward to the end of our journey. It was honorable of Luna to let me ride her like that, but my whole body felt as stiff as if I had slept out in the cold the whole night without any protection.

"Ah, that's better. So, what are we going to do now?"

"As I was saying, we should set up camp for now."

"But you said we arrived where we wanted to! So, shouldn't we go on? Though, I can not see anything out of the ordinary here..."

"We have one last step to take to get to my colony, but for that we have to wait for the night to arrive. So I suggest we get as comfortable as possible and relax a bit before we have to head off."

Waiting for the night to arrive? It sounded sincere enough, but I was asking myself if Luna was just stalling, because she was afraid of what she would find. Her fear was not exaggerated. Even if she had a spell slowing down the time for the children, an eternity had passed since she had last visited them. Luna had walked over to her sister and was now whispering into her ear. Was everything alright? Why was she not telling me? Was she not trusting me after all? Nonsense! Yes, I was her friend, but that didn't mean she had to tell me every single thing. It was quite okay for her to have things she couldn't tell me. Even more so as she was the ruler of Equestria. There definitely were some things that only the princesses knew of. Still, there was some nagging doubt in the back of my mind that would not vanish.

After we set up camp we had a light meal of vegetable soup and some brilliantly sweet apples for dessert. On my request it turned out they were from Sweet Apple Acres of Ponyville, a treat that the princesses indulged themselves in quite regularly and I certainly understood why. Those apples were purely delicious! After the meal I decided to take a nap to be rested for tonights activities. Besides, I wanted to maintain my sleeping cycle as much as possible. It had been hard enough to convince my body to adapt to the daily routine that came with being the assistant of the Princess of the Night.

A gentle nudge to the cheek woke me several hours later. As I opened my eyes, I saw Luna's face above my own.

"It's time to get up, it will not be long before we depart."

Yawning, I rose from the patch of grass I had been lying on and stretched once again. The sky was turning slightly red as the sun was nearing the horizon. While I was asleep a fire had been ignited in our makeshift campsite. Several corncobs on sticks resided around the fire slowly roasting away. The aroma wafted up to my nose, prompting my belly to rumble loudly. The left corner of Luna's mouth turned upwards and her eyes got a slight sparkle. Before bowing deeply before me.

"Dinner is served, Your Sleepiness, we await you at the table." I harrumphed at her.

"Sleepiness my flank. Stop working such ridiculous hours and I will stop being sleepy over the day," I retorted in mock anger.

While we ate, Princess Celestia let the sun sink below the horizon and Luna pushed the moon into its rightful place. Afterwards we gathered up our gear and headed off. Without speaking a word we trudged through the underbrush of the forest. It was pitch-black under the cover of the trees towering above us. Only the light that shone from the horns of the princesses cast some light on our way and kept me from stumbling over rocks and roots. The path we took was still not an easy one as these were lands uninhabited by any thinking being. Just some animals resided here but we followed not even one of their trails. We had to take turns in our path to circumvent obstacles too big to get through or over. After just a few minutes I was utterly lost, but Luna, who was walking in the front, seemed to know exactly where to go. Probably she followed one of that magic lines she had shown me earlier.

About an hour into our walk, the trees abruptly thinned out around us and a few steps later we stood in the open. Right before us towered an enormous rock formation. In fact, it was just a huge black blob, but in Luna's dim hornlight I could perceive some big boulders. That must have been the outcrop in whose neighborhood we had landed today. If so, we had been incredibly slow navigating that forest. We had not landed that far from it.

"This is not good. It is far too dark. We will need some moonlight to move on." If I understood Luna correctly, apparently the same thing that had kept me from seeing anything of the rock, was now going to forestall our progress. A thick layer of clouds obstructed my view of the night sky and kept the moon from shinings it's light down to us.

"This place may have uncontrolled weather, but our weathermagic still works. I will fly up and bring some of your light into this night, Luna, while you will try to find the entrance."

Luna looked sceptical. "You want to mess with the weather? Are you sure? The last time you did that was well before Discord ruled over Equestria. Do you think you still know what you are doing?"

"It is like eating cake, you don't unlearn it over the time."

"Especially if you are eating cake every day, sister."

Not that again. I rolled my eyes. "You two are at least as bad as my children, you know? Don't you think we should move on?"

The Princess flexed her neck. "You are quite right, Honeycomb." And just like that she took off in a flash. I followed her white form with my eyes as long as I could but just after a few seconds I lost sight of her. Moments later a hole was punched into the clouds and I could see some stars sparkling in the sky above them. Faster than I had ever seen before, the clouds vanished clockwise in a circular motion. Princess Celestia was spiraling outwards farther and farther until ther were no more clouds obstructing my sight. I never before saw the sky be cleared anywhere that fast. Had it been her who had invented weather magic? With a thud she landed beside us again; shaking me from my awe-induced stupor. I closed my mouth and shook my head to gather myself.

"That felt good. I should do that more often in the future." She didn't even sweat.

"We certainly have more light now, but I still don't see anything that would point us to our next destination."

"Then look closely now, Honeycomb." Luna pointed her horn at the moon and concentrated. A single beam of moonlight broke free of the celestial body and made its way to one of the larger boulders before us. Something sparkled inside the beam but I couldn't place it. Everytime I concentrated on one of the sparks it vanished. Then my attention was pulled to the boulder. In astonishment I realized it slowly got more and more translucent. After a minute it was gone completely to reveal a dark passageway that led deeper into the rocks. Only a few steps into the passage were visible before the darkness swallowed everything.

"The colony is beneath the surface?"

"I told you I found a safe place for them. There is a cavern down there that serves as their home."

She couldn't be serious, could she? I was unable to wrap my mind around this and suddenly I felt my anger rising. All the time these last few days I had felt so close to her. We laughed together, we chatted about family and we even survived a plunge to our death together. What she had just told me, though, lit a fire inside me; a fire that had the potential to burn me and the one who caused it to ashes. How could she have done something like this, it was so unlikely of her but... I couldn't contain it any longer.

"You burried those children in some sort of cave? I thought you had their best interest in mind but this is just torture!" I think Luna wanted to say something, but I was not quite finished yet and cut her short; pacing back and forth while giving her a piece of my mind, my tail swishing furiously through the air behind me. "You left them down there on their own. Even if you slowed the time they were alone for several days in some dark hole in the ground without being able to light a fire, that would have burned their oxygen. Just sitting around in the dark. Was that your plan of a grand new colony? I can't believe you were able to do something like that. It sounds like something Nightmare Moon would have done, but I really did expect better of you! I-"

"Honeycomb!"

I stopped in my tracks. It was no shout, but almost a whisper. It hadn't come from Luna either. It was Princess Celestia who had stopped my rant. My head spun around to her. She stood at the same place she had landed a few minutes ago. She stared at me intently but not angry, as it seemed. Her head lifted a bit and her eyes wandered from me to Luna. I followed her gaze. Luna stood there, unmoving, expressionless, only a single tear rolling down her cheek. It hit me. Deeply. I took a step back, but retained my angry stare, still furious. The emotions were fighting inside me. Then Luna began to speak. Her voice as steady as ever despite the tears that were now rolling down on both sides of her face in streams.

"As I said before, I know I did something terribly wrong and I will do everything to make up for it. I don't even blame you for shouting at me as you don't know what really awaits us and thus came to the wrong conclusions. You will understand soon enough, though. But one thing I have to say and I will tell you this just one time, Honeycomb. Never compare me with that monster ever again."

Without waiting for an answer she turned around and vanished into the passage. No threat, no shouting. Just that piercingly calm statement. Trembling, I looked at Princess Celestia who just motioned for me to follow Luna as she would bring up the rear again. Trembling and gulping down a thick glob of something very unpleasant in my throat I followed Luna into the black hole that seemed to be swallowing me to never let me out again. It would have been something I deserved for my actions. I'd like to blame it on my motherly instincts to protect children, but that would have been too easy. I meant what I said, but I realized that I had gone too far. In my blind rage I had said things I would never have imagined I could. This had been probably one of the shortest friendships in the history of friendships.

After stumbling through the darkness for half an hour in complete silence we finally stopped. The tunnel had been quite narrow. I would have had a hard time squeezing around either of the princesses at some points and I feared to imagine what would have happened if we needed to turn back for some reason. Before us in the passage was a black wall. Ripples moved over it, as if someone had thrown a rock into a pond.

"This is the last barrier we have to pass. Behind it lies a small cave with another tunnel that leads to the main cavern. Follow as soon as I step through the wall and don't linger too long."

But instead of stepping through the wall, Luna just stood there with her eyes closed. A moment later I heard a soft humming that soon turned into a melody. What was all this about? After humming some more, she lifted her head, eyes still closed, and–to my astonishment–started to sing.

"Come little children, I'll take thee away,
into a land of enchantment..."

As she continued singing, some sort of mist rose all around us. It slowly encompassed our bodies and emanated a pale glow. The song was beautiful, but terribly sad. I felt my eyes starting to water. At the same time her voice calmed me down so much that I thought I would fall asleep at any moment. Somewhere down the third verse, Luna slowly started to walk forward. Mesmerized, I followed her.

Stepping through the black wall was almost indescribable. There was no resistance and I felt only a numb tingle all over my body, just like a leg gone dead.

When we emerged on the other side, I was brought back to reality in an instant.

"Halt thy movements if thou wish to live!"