//------------------------------//
// More Than It Seems 
// Story: Ponyville Gala 
// by Lunarus Solaris Nexus 
//------------------------------//

            The two children went on about all they'd done for about an hour, more than long enough for Princess Luna to catch her breath. Once she'd gotten them to stop talking about the hall of upside down mirrors and how it made no sense, she stood up and stretched her wings. She instructed the children to not stray from her and stick close. Gale could barely keep up as young as she was. Luna slowed up and allowed her to ride on her back while Astral stubbornly few on. Though a gifted flyer for his age, he wasn't accustomed to flying as far as they were. He gave up just before they made it but refused to ride on Luna's back.
Astral walked in behind Luna while Gale rode through the castle gates. Astral panted slightly as they walked. The castle was just as beautiful as it was at night. The path the children taken the night before was easy to see, decorated with fake cobwebs and spiders. It lead to the twin doors sat on at the end of the main foyer and up a set of stairs. Those lead to the throne room, the one place Luna and her sister had told Zecora to avoid decorating. It led to far too many places in the castle. If a child decided to wander they could easily get lost and remain so for a full day if unlucky enough. Luna's horn lit up and the doors opened with no difficulty at all. They swung open and the sight of the throne room, almost exactly as she'd left it a thousand years ago, appeared.
The window behind a balcony bridge let in light from the central garden casting an egg shaped mirror image of the mosaic on the red carpet. Astral pointed out the paths they took across the balcony opposite the thrones. Luna assured them they'd avoid taking the boring path and stick to her favorite places in the castle. After all, she lived here as a filly with her sister, it's the nature of children to find every small thing to make something out of. And Luna was not about to disappoint her two favorite foals in the world.



This was the best castle tour ever! Astral found a few little things in Canterlot that were cool but nothing like this place! A hallway that lead to FOUR slides and two trampolines. Passage upon secret passage that could send them anywhere in the castle, sometimes at random, a pipe organ that could make anything happen anywhere in the Castle and Gale's personal favorite, the spinning trap door that lead them to the old guard quarters. They had their own private reserve of mango trees under a greenhouse field for some reason.
Luna did have to break her promise of not following the path after that. Luna took them to the library for a sit down. She brought them towards the garden side of the library and pulled on a chair at the head of a long oak table. A section of the book cases near the middle of the table slid back to what Luna called her Quiet Room.
"It was once a panic room if case the castle came under attack." Luna began. "But Tia and I decided to make it a bit more comfortable. Eventually we used it to hide from Mother when we did something wrong as fillies."
Astral and Gale giggled. "So what are we doing here Auntie Luna?" Astral asked going to the window at the end of the small room.
"Well you two are…" Luna tried to think of something non-offensive to say while sitting down on the large couch. "So much fun that I need to sit down for a while, maybe read a book. I hear Ms. Twilight has been stocking the library with new ones. Maybe you can find one for us- me to read to you?"
"Okay Auntie." Astral said leading Gale into the main library. "Where do you think we should start?"
"Over there?" Gale said pointing towards a section labeled with A-C: Magical Mastery. on a plaque.
The Gears in Astral's head turned for a moment. He wasn't the best with words yet, not awful but not very good either, so he wasn't one hundred percent sure what was on that plaque other than the letters. He did think that maybe the kids section was under something else. How was Kid's spelled again? He answered his own question before thinking of what other words meant kids. Child….. Okay he wasn't sure of that one off the top of his head.
"Hang on." he told Gale as he spread his tinny wings and flew up to try and find the… K section of the library.
He ended up seeing four. And none of the plaques said "Kids" so their only way of fixing this was to walk around the whole library. They heard Luna poke her head out of the room once in a while to check on them but otherwise let them browse. She offered to help them find something but Astral insisted he could do it himself, Gale would've appreciated the help but was content to follow Astral for now. It wasn't until they got to the second half of the library that something did catch their attention. Though it wasn't a book.
Astral turned a full circle at the sound of whispering coming from somewhere. "Was that you?" He asked still trying to figure out the source of the voice.
"No." she said looking up at him hoping he'd have an answer.
"Did you hear it?"
"I think so."
The whisper came again but this time Astral could gain a direction, towards a book case. He couldn't quite make out what was said but it sounded faintly like somepony saying "Come here." Astral cautiously peaked around the shelf closest to the noise. It was against the wall of the section with no clear indication as to where the voice came from. He looked up and down the wall a few times but found nobody that could've made the sound. And he didn't hear any hoof steps or flapping wings.
"Find me children." the quiet stallion's voice called clearly from Astral's right.
Both pegasi's heads snapped to the right but found the emptiness that was there moments before. Only this time something felt more right about checking it out. The two started to move towards it when a much more familiar voice beckoned them.
"Astral, Gale, is everything alright out there?" Luna called, now stepping out of the room.
"Yes Ms. Woona." Gale answered. 	
Astral was just starting to move when Luna floated down behind them. "I called for you twice before. Are you sure everything is well children?"
"We're fine Ms. Woona."
Luna almost said it was good until she noticed her 'nephew' hadn't seemed to notice her landing. "Astral?"
The colt snapped to attention and turned around. He was much further down the book cases than he originally thought. "Yes Auntie?"
"Is everything alright Astral?"
Astral hesitated about telling her about the voice without a source. As much as Princess Luna could tell him about it, there was something intriguing in finding out what it was on his own. He made up his mind and decided to lie his little flank off.
"Yes Auntie, everything is fine." he said hiding his interest well enough.
"I'd hope so, we're going to be late for lunch."
"Okay Auntie Luna." Astral said as Luna lifted Gale onto her back with her magic.
The three started to make their way out of the library's lower exit to the throne room. Astral resisted the urge to look back to see if he could find the source of the disembodied voice in fear of Luna catching on. It helped that he was already formulating a plan to get back here and finding that voice. He knew it'd nag at him until tonight but he was just about willing to wait.