The next day, after Selene and Luna had finished collecting supplies, they sat down returned to the lounge. Selene was humming a happy tune as she munched on some carrots, Luna sat next to her deep in thought.
Establishing the garden had required a great deal of energy, but the end result was plenty of food for both of them. The restorative magic that healed the soil should have been permanent, but when Luna had stopped in this morning she detected the tiniest bit of decay. While nothing was yet visible, the garden and everything in it had started to suffer from the same degradation that seemed to affect everything here.
The amount of degradation was very small, almost undetectable, but it was present. Luna could have done nothing and it would be years before even the weakest plants would have been unable to grow, but the fact remained that whatever was affecting the rest of the planet had spread. Instead, a quick burst of magic reversed the effects, but she made a mental note to continue to check on it. Now that she knew what to look for, the decay stood out like a sore thumb. It surrounded her completely, affecting everything except herself. Even the Ascension, and Selene were affected. Thankfully the amount of decay was still very low, so Selene wasn't in any immediate danger, but if nothing was done, eventually it would kill her. Luna would have plenty of time to try to determine the source of the problem.
"I want to think you again for the garden Luna, I think it's going to make a huge difference for us," Selene said, putting down her book and looking at the pony. "I still don't really understand how your magic works, but it certainly is effective."
Luna's ears swiveled towards Selene at the sound of her name.
"I just can't get over all the things magic can do, and to think, your entire world is filled with it. Equestria must be so different than Earth."
"From what I have read, of Earth, it is not as different as you would imagine. The day to day lives of most ponies are very similar to that of humans. At least humans of your past, we don't travel the stars."
An idea struck Luna. She could easily show Selene a magical projection of Equestria. She raised her head and her horn lit up with a pale blue glow.
Selene gasped, in the center of the room, an image started to form. It looked almost like a holographic display. The image was encased in a glow that matched the one on Luna's horn, slowly it began to sharpen, until she could make out details.
A jet black canvas appeared, then slowly points of light started to pop up upon the scene. Selene realized that she was looking at outer space. More and more stars sprang into existence, until the scene was full. Then the view started to turn as if a great camera was panning down. Selene realized she was looking at a solar system.
As the view drew inward, it passed planet after planet, until it slowed down and settled on a yellow star that reminded her of Earth's sun. Then the view resumed its course, going further inward until it passed what looked like a moon. Finally it stopped on a small blue and green world that looked very similar to Earth.
"This is the world of Equus, Equestria is located on the largest continent... there," Luna said, pointed to a spot on the planet.
"It's beautiful," Selene said, looking at the planet before her. Something was wrong though, she rubbed her forehead and tried to figure out what was bothering her.
"Luna, can you back that up?" she asked. "So I can see the whole solar system again?"
Luna concentrated for a moment and the view shifted to show the entire system.
"That's not... right?" Selene said, scratching her head.
"This right here is your sun," she said, pointing at the star. Moving her finger inward to Equestria, she asked "Why is it circling the planet?"
"Equus is unique in all the cosmos, it is the home to two powerful immortals. Eons ago, Equus was a harsh and unforgiving world, it was only through the magical abilities the natives that life was able to survive it's harsh. The two immortals saw much potential in these early ponies and decided to take physical form. They used their magic to seize control of the heavens, and rearranged them to transform Equus into a paradise. The eldest of the two, Celestia, holds the sun in her grasp raising it each morning to start the day."
"Humans used to have theories like that, where Earth was the center of the solar system, I think it was called the geocentric model, but really the sun doesn't rise, it just looks like that because your planet is rotating."
"No, Selene, I know that is how things ordinarily work, but as I said Equus is special. Celestia raises the sun each morning, I have seen her do it many times before," Luna said.
"Wait, you've actually seen this Celestia before? I assumed from your story it she was some sort of mythical goddess. Ancient humans had figures like that, I think the ancient Egyptians even had a sun god, named Ra."
Luna paused for a moment, one thing her sister had always been adamant about was not making claims of godhood. Regular ponies feared the divine and it would make the two sisters unapproachable. Luna who never had been very approachable to being with hadn't seen the point, but now that she had a friend she didn't want to frighten her away.
"We... she is quite real. You have seen me use my magic to move things, is it that hard to believe a powerful pony could move the sun?"
"My bet is she's fooling you with some kind of illusion magic," Selene said, laughing. "Look, I get that you can do some cool things with your magic, but moving a star? That's impossible."
The insult directed towards her sister, intentional or not, cut Luna deeply. Celestia was the most kind and honest pony she knew.
"If you do not want to see my world, I will not continue," Luna said with a growl, her horn dimmed and the image faded away.
Selene stopped laughing, she hadn't meant to cause any problems, she just thought the concept of a star being moved around was pretty funny.
"I'm sorry Luna, I didn't mean to upset you, why don't you just start from the Equus?" she asked.
"Very well," Luna's horn lit again and the image returned.
Descending into the atmosphere, and centering on the largest continent, the scene before them continued to move ever closer to the surface. It passed through a cloud and Selene gasped. Before her eyes, hundreds of winged ponies flew back and forth over a city made of clouds. A great coliseum was in the center of the city, with cloud roads shooting out in every direction. Some of the ponies were walking along the roads but most of them were flying to and from smaller cloud buildings.
Rainbows cascaded off the sides of the city like waterfalls, teams of ponies pushed large clouds to and fro. Selene stared in wonder, nothing she had seen before could compare to this.
"How do the clouds stay like that?" she asked.
"The same innate magic that allows pegasus ponies to fly, allows them to shape clouds, and control the weather. A magical field holds the cloud in whatever shape the pony chooses, unless it is disrupted by a great enough physical impact, or another pony reshapes it."
"Wait, you can control the weather?" Selene asked.
"Yes, ponies mold their environment to better suit their needs, observe."
A light blue pegasus flew up to a cloud, grasping it with her hooves, she pulled off a small piece of it and then maneuvered it over a small garden floating amount the clouds. She then hopped on top of the cloud and began to jump. Water rained down on the flowers below.
Selene just stared in awe without saying anything.
The view continued to shift down past the cloud city, underneath lay vast areas of farmland, as far as she could see. It moved alone until she could see a green forest with a small city in its center. Thousands of ponies, Earth, Unicorn and Pegasus made their way around a large open air market in the outskirts of the city.
A large statue of a Celestia was in the center of the market. It towered over every pony who passed. Luna's heart ached when she saw the statue, reminding her how badly she missed her sister.
"Hey, that statue is like you, wings and a horn," Selene said, pointing at it. "How come I haven't seen any other ponies that look like that?"
"That... that is my sister," Luna said, sadly.
A large castle came into view, hundreds of armored ponies stood guard on its battlements. Banners with two alicorns circling a sun and moon flapped in the wind. Suddenly the image faded away. Selene looked up and saw Luna laying on the couch, her head down low and her ears folded downward. Tears bubbled up in her eyes, dripping down her muzzle.
"I'm sorry, I can't go on," Luna said with a sniffle. She buried her head beneath her hooves and started to cry.
"I'm sorry Luna, I shouldn't have brought it up," Selene said, resting her hand on Luna's back.
"It is not your fault... I did not leave on happy terms, but it was my own actions that caused the problem."
Selene moved over and placed her hand on Luna's back.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.
For a few minutes, Luna said nothing. Finally the tears stopped and she looked up.
"Many years ago, I fought my sister, I thought neither she nor anypony else cared for me, and in my anger I lashed out at her and tried to take control of her domain. She pleaded with me to stop, but I ignored her, my jealousy of her had driven me insane. In my insanity I had turned down a dark and evil path, and I was a danger to her and everypony else. When I refused to yield, she was forced to stop me, and then I was banished, sent far away by a powerful spell."
"Was that her castle?" Selene asked.
Luna nodded.
"It was ours, we were supposed to rule Equestria together, as equals, but that wasn't enough for me," she said, filled with shame.
"Wait, are you royalty or something?"
"Yes, I was one of the two ruling princesses."
Selene said nothing but her eyes widened.
"During my banishment, my hatred of her only grew, I blamed her for everything, and when I returned, I seized control again. I thought I had found a way to counter her magic, but she was ready for me. She sent six ponies against me, while she remained in the shadows. I believed myself more than a match for her underlings and attacked them, but they wielding an ancient artifact of great power. With it they were able to cast a powerful spell upon me, for a brief moment, I resisted, but it took all my power. It was then when I was distracted by their attack that she struck. I tried to flee, to teleport away, but something went wrong and I ended up here. My magic was almost depleted, which is why I was so weak when you first found me. I have been recovering ever since."
"Something about her spell confuses me though, it did not seem to be designed to do me any harm. I think it was an attempt to magically cure my insanity as it was only after I arrived here that I truly recognized what I had done. Before then I believed myself to be just in my actions, but now I realize they were the actions of a petulant foal, having a temper tantrum because I was not getting what I wanted. Now I desire nothing more than to return, apologize for my errors and lay myself at her mercy, but I fear that my wickedness will have cost me any hope of redemption."
Luna lowered her head again and started to sob. Selene started rubbed Luna's back and then reached around Luna, giving her a reassuring hug.
"I can't speak for your sister, but since I found you, you've been nothing but kind. I didn't want to admit it but the food situation was getting pretty severe, if you hadn't done what you did, I'd likely have starved to death in the next few months."
Selene reached down and lifted Luna's head, and looked into her eyes.
"You didn't have to make those plants grow, you didn't have to help me gather food or water. You could have easily killed me and taken my supplies, but you didn't. You went out of the way to help me. Those aren't the actions of an evil person... er pony. Maybe you once were, but if that's true, I think you've changed."
The two sat quietly for a while, Selene holding on to Luna, comforting her as best she could. Eventually Luna stopped crying, and thanked Selene. She still wasn't sure what would happen if she returned to Equestria, but Selene's talk had given her a small amount of hope.
"I didn't want to bring it up while you were crying, but did you say you tried to teleport away?" Selene asked.
"Yes, but something went wrong. I was not concentrating on my destination, but even so a blind teleport should not have taken me to another world."
"You can teleport? Like disappear and reappear in another place?"
"It is a fairly complex spell, but not all that difficult."
"Can you demonstrate?"
Luna's horn started to glow and in a burst of light she vanished from the room.
"Luna?" Selene reached forward to where Luna had been sitting, half expecting the mare to simply be invisible.
A moment later there was a loud pop and she reappeared. Selene jumped backwards and landed on the floor. A glass of water from the mess floated next to Luna, she gave it to Selene.
"I thought you might like a drink."
Selene just stared at the glass for a minute before shaking her head.
"Every time you tell me about magic, I don't believe you, and then you turn around and do some impossible thing," she said while pulling herself off the floor.
"If you can teleport from one planet to another, can't you just teleport home?"
"It is a bit more complicated than that. For one, the greater the distance, the more magic I need, and while I have recovered enough to teleport short distances, I still do not have enough magic to leave this world. Secondly, I do not know where I am. I share a... a magical bond with my sister, I should be able to feel her presence, no matter what the physical distance is between us, and I do not."
"Maybe you traveled... into the futureeeee," Selene said waving her arms into the air.
"No, I know time magic and it was not what brought me here," Luna said. She didn't want to mention that it wouldn't matter how far in to the future she had gone, Celestia would still be around, and the bond was eternal as the two sisters.
"I was joking, don't tell me that ponies can time travel as well."
Luna said nothing.
"Well?"
"You said not to tell you."
"Great, now I'm never going to know if you're serious or not," Selene said with a frown.
"There is one possibility, that I had not thought of until you told me about your ship. When you spoke of the dimensional drive, it made me think. The spell to open a portal to another dimension is similar to a teleport spell but requires a great deal more magic. It is possible, however unlikely, that I was thrown into another dimension."
"As far as I know, humans have never found another dimension with life before. The dimensions we use to travel are completely empty, no stars, no planets, no life. There are theories about other dimensions with life, but humanity have never found a way to get to them."
"There is a way I could find out. I would need to return to where I first entered this world and examine the remnants of the spell that brought me here."
"Well, let's do it then, how far is it?"
"About a day's journey south of here," Luna said.
"We'll have to go tomorrow then, it's too late now."
"You do not have to come with me."
"I can't let you travel that far alone, what if you get lost, what if you get attacked by another pack of bone wolves?"
"A pack of bone wolves, no matter how large, has long since lost the ability to threaten me," Luna said with a laugh, her horn glowing brightly.
"You have a good point," Selene said. "I'm still going with you though, we'll head out tomorrow morning. With all the food we have now, we can afford to take one day off from gathering supplies."
Selene and Luna spent the rest of the evening exchanging stories about humanity and Equestria. Before they went to bed, they finalized their plan for the morning.