We walked through the moonless night for quite some time, the only thing that illuminated our way had been the glowstones we carried. It was hard to tell exactly how long we traveled without any point of reference. Luna's colors blended with the night so well, sometimes I had the illusion her glowstone was flying through the night alone.
I used this time to think about my situation. It was crazy enough to end in this world instead of dying in that car crash, but now I had confessed love to a pony princess and fought against an evil unicorn... maybe this all was just a crazy dream.
Something brushed against my cheek and pulled my out of my pondering, it was the tip of Luna's Wing.
"Hey, what are you thinking about Alex?", she asked.
I had decided to be honest with her, since she was my girlfriend I should always try... girlfriend... pony-girlfriend... marefriend... whatever.
"So many crazy things had happened to me in such a short time, I'm afraid that ... maybe this is all just a dream."
She stopped and came close to me, her face showed sympathy and a little bit of worry.
"Well...", she started. "As an expert on dreams I say your not dreaming. What you felt all this time would be to intense and real for a dream."
"... the magical pony princess said.", I mumbled.
She moved even closer and her lips inched towards mine, I pursed my lips...
She bit my nose.
"Ouch!"
"Real enough?", she asked and then kissed the tip of my nose.
She looked directly into my eyes.
"Listen, I saw this many times before, ponies who pondered if they were dreaming all the time and while doing that, wasted their lives. What difference would it be if this was all a dream when it feels real to you. I need you here with me."
I pulled her into a hug and felt her heartbeat where our necks connected.
"Your right, this all feels so real to me and even if it were be a dream, I don't care and don't want it ever to end. It's just so different to anything I experienced before, so I will need some time to get used to it."
"I make sure to help you with that.", she whispered to me.
'oH gAG, rEALLY?'
Was there... no I must have imagined that.
...
After what had seemed like forever we saw Canterlot in the distance, illuminated by its street lamps. Only a few minutes later we encountered guards patrolling. They appeared happy to see us, Celestia in particular, but kept a distance and had their spears in a 'ready to strike' position.
Celestia spoke to them:
"Emergency password: Timberwolf
secondary password: chocolate cake"
The guards relaxed and lowered their weapons.
"Princess, we are happy to see you're back unharmed", the leader of this group addressed Celestia.
"Everything is fine now, we will soon inform the public what happened. What actions had been taken while we were gone?"
"After both princesses had vanished, we carried out the emergency plan your highness presented months ago, we brought your student Twilight Sparkle to the palace to coordinate the search."
Celestia nodded.
"Very good, we will return to the palace now to get everything back to normal as soon as possible. Please make sure we don't have to answer questions on our way there, the official answer to all will be: 'Everything will be fine soon'."
The guards saluted and lead our way towards Canterlot.
Very few Ponys walked on the street, the ones who spotted us tried to get close but got gently pushed back by the guards while they got told that 'Everything will be fine soon'. This sentence in combination with the sight of their princesses unharmed was enough to calm everypony down.
It took maybe half an hour to reach the inner rooms of the palace. As we entered the throne room I noticed a lavender unicorn in front of a map of Equestria, lots of notes and markings had been scribbled on it.
She looked up as we entered and her face lid up.
"Princess Celestia", she shouted and ran towards Tia who layed a hoof around her and hugged her gently. "I was so worried, what has happened?"
"Alex, meet Twilight Sparkle my best student and one of the Elements of Harmony."
I remembered what Luna had told me about the Elements and how they defeated Nightmare Moon not long ago.
"Nice to meet you."
"Likewise."
Celestia turned towards the guards.
"Please leave the room and make sure we will not be disturbed."
The guards left immediately.
Once we were alone Celestia started to tell Twilight everything in great detail. As she got to the part when I declared my love for Luna, Twilight looked at me in disbelief, while I took this moment to start a conversation with Luna.
"Well... after we are rested from this adventure... would you like to go on a date?"
Luna could not hide a slight blush.
"I would like that, we deserve some relaxing time after all this."
Meanwhile Celestia ended her tale of what had happened.
"Now we have to come up with a convincing story for Equestrias inhabitants.", she said.
"Why not simply tell the truth?", I asked.
"I don't want to give others ideas about 'midnight shadow'.", Celestia answered. "And I don't want my citizens to be scared, so we come up with a nice calming story."
"Ok, I can see your point."
There was silence for some minutes.
Luna spoke up: "Well, we can use the old 'star formation does something' story... like... there is a star formation, that appears like this only every 300 years, that's weakens alicorn magic."
Twilight nodded.
"That sound good, but 500 years would be better, the records from this time are really sparse, it makes it harder to disproof."
"But how do you explain your absence from the castle?", I asked them.
Tia smiled.
"That's easy, Luna and I went to our old castle in the Everfree Forest to do some research in our old library, so we could better predict the time this state would last. I used this excuse before."
They all nodded, I was surprised how good liars they all were... well it was for the greater good, right?
"Well then", Celestia finally said. "Twilight please write this all down and give it to all Newspapers to print... and make the years not such a perfect number, make it... 523 years, and add it should be back to normal within the next three days."
"Yes princess."
Before she walked out she came to me.
"Princess Celestia mentioned you in her letters, you are so fascinating. Can I ask you later some questions about your home and your race?"
"Sure, just come by."
She beamed with a huge smile before she left the throne room.
Luna yawned.
"I think we all should get some sleep.", she said.
I agreed and left for my room. I did not even undress and fell asleep almost immediately after I laid down.