"THEY ALL HATE ME ANYWAY AND NO ONE WOULD MISS ME!"
For a moment she looked scarier then anything I saw in all my life, then she fell to the ground crying.
I was incredibly confused from all this, but the sight of Luna crying was about to break my heart. I lowered myself down and tried to comfort her by putting my hand to her neck stroking it slowly. Her fur was incredibly soft.
"I think there is something you should tell me because I can't see how anyone could ever hate you."
It took her a few moments to calm down enough to talk. Then she began to tell me her story, the story of Nightmare Moon.
How she always was in her sister's shadow. How she felt like no one appreciated her night and she got more bitter over time until the darkness inside her transformed her into Nightmare Moon to bring eternal night. And how she was stopped only by the Elements of Harmony, twice.
I won't lie, that was a lot to take in. I was sitting in front of her, just staring at her for half a minute.
"Celestia had you banished to the moon for 1000 years?", I asked in disbelief.
She nodded slowly.
"But that's worse than death, how could she do something like that?"
She winced as I said that.
"She had no other choice, if she hadn't she would be dead, and Nightmare Moon ruled Equestria.
"But 1000 years..."
I looked at Luna and tried to imagine her as a powerful supervillain, I couldn't.
"Well...", I had trouble to sort my thoughts and feelings.
"Let's do this bit by bit. You have changed, I only know you for a week, but you are a very kind and caring being. I am sure other people... other ponies will lose their fear over time when you just go out there and show them. I don't fear you and you're such a great friend to me."
I stood up and smiled.
"And there is another thing, your sister brings the day, big deal. It's the same thing every day, big yellow ball in the sky. But your nights, the changing moon, the arrangement of stars... it is breathtaking to me every single time I look at it. At first I could not believe you are making all this, but I looked at it every night, it was always different and always beautiful."
She stood up with a little smile on her face.
"Your right, days are overrated. Thanks for your kind words and your friendship, it means a lot to me."
Then her smile faded. She continued in a much more serious voice.
"I know you think it crazy for me to go and save my sister alone, but please think about it. Why would it be okay, if other ponies died for us, why is our life worth more then others? We lived a long time already, and there are many others who could do our 'job'.
I know our army and guards would die for us, but why should they? Why should any foal lose one of their parents to save me or Tia? Please, just do as I said, give me a headstart, so our guards won't know where we are, it is better this way."
I was trying to bring up some points against the things she had said, but... I couldn't find any. I wished leaders back on earth had the same mindset.
I surprised her as I pulled her into a hug.
"This only proofs that you are as kind and caring as I said, don't ever forget that."
I felt all muscle tension leave her body as she just enjoyed my embrace. It took some time before we broke our connection, it just felt so good.
Now it was my time to be serious as I looked at her.
"But I refuse to play the role of a piece of paper to bring your guards a message. I will come with you."
She looked at me in surprise.
"No, you shouldn't..."
"Or I will alert the guards right now."
She stared at me for a moment, then her expression went soft.
"Thank you."
After sharing this moment, I was back to business.
"I have a white jacket and wooly hat Rarity made for me, it should keep me warm enough. Find some warm white clothing before we go. Do you know where we could get some mountaineering equipment?"
"There is a shop near the marketplace where we can get this stuff. I don't have any white clothing. It is not my color at all."
"Well then look inside your sisters closet, if we don't want to be seen in the snow, we should cover your body with light colors as much as we can."
"Let's meet at the front gate in half an hour and try to act normal.", see said with a nod and went to Celestia's room.
...
I took all the warm clothes and stuffed them into a backpack. We had to get the rest of the equipment in the shop Luna talked about.
I stood next to the gate and was chatting with one of the guards about unimportant stuff. After some minutes Luna came strolling down the hall, saddlebags equipped and whistled in the most unnatural way possible.
"Are you going for a walk with the princess?", he asked me.
"Yes, I feel much better, so we decided to walk not in the garden but through Canterlot today."
"That's good to hear, its beautiful weather today. Greetings Princess."
"Hello Greenleafs, nice to see you. We will be away for a while."
The guards saluted, and we walked past him and outside the castle.
"You should see the size of Tia's closet, it is HUGE..."
...
After some time we reached the market.
Luna spoke to me with a giggle.
"I think this is the first time I am here, and people don't stare at me, thanks for being more interesting than me."
I was well aware of all the stares. I still wasn't used to it.
"You're welcome."
"Alex, you should go to the shop and buy the mountaineering equipment, it would be suspicious if I would buy something like that. Meanwhile, I will buy rations for our trip. Here take this gold."
She gave me a pretty big bag of bits.
"Ok, but please no hay based things, fruit, bread or cake would be nice."
She showed me a big smile.
I was pretty sure she thought back to the moment I tried hay Casserole some days ago.
I sighed and went to the mountaineering shop.
...
I looked around as I entered the shop, they had equipment for nearly every possible outdoor activity, from simple things like hiking to more adventurous like diving.
After a while of looking around, I found a wall filled with climbing irons, ropes and climbing harnesses.
A sales pony looked curious at me.
"I am not sure we have something here that would fit you. If you don't mind, what are you?"
"I'm a human and my name is Alex, it is nice meeting you."
I held out my hand, and after a little hesitation and a look he shook it.
"I want to try climbing next week, together with a friend, so I need some equipment. A rope is a rope, and the harness seems to be very adjustable. The climbing irons look like the one problem to me."
I took a closer look at them, they had different kinds. Some looked like the shoes Celestia and Luna used to wear, others like simple horseshoes, all of course with nails under them.
I had an idea.
"Could you nail the simple ones to my shoes and some gloves fitting me?"
I took off my shoes and held them in front of him.
He thought about it.
"I guess it should work... Come back tomorrow to get them."
"How about a lot of bits extra for getting them now... I... this is my last day in Canterlot and my train will leave soon."
I brought the big bag of bits into view and jiggled it.
"Very well, but this will be a lot extra."
...
Twenty minutes later I left the shop with everything I needed. Luna was waiting not far from me. I walked over to her.
"Why did this take so long?", she asked impatiently.
"Well, I'm not really 'standard', we had to make some changes. I bought you 'big stallion' size for harness and climbing irons."
She gave me a look.
"Oh come on.", I continued. "You know quite well you are much larger than any other mare, so I went with my sense of proportion, it should fit."
"Ok, your right. Let's get moving towards the mountain. Some ponies gave me strange looks for not using my magic while shopping... What happened to your shoes?"
I looked down at my socks.
"I show you once we reach the mountain."
We did not know a ransom letter was brought to the castle just a few hours later.