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Day 1 part 1: 'Sociable'?2,109 words
Day 1 part 2: Pentawhal?1,462 words
Day 1 part 3: Touch of Life.1,794 words
Evening 1 part 1: Tearer Terror.1,911 words
Evening 1 part 2: Hope is where the heart is.1,325 words

Day 1 part 3: Touch of Life.

Weak groans and moans rumbled from the graying sky above Ponyville, signaling ponies to start finishing their trades, businesses, and travels for the day. But to those little fillies and their ‘captive’ it didn’t matter at all. For a short while, the Crusaders pulled Luna along through the city; the young princess having a little trouble to keep her body under her umbrella’s shade despite the sun slowly dimming behind the sheet of clouds. Even so, Luna looked up to the sky curiously, unable to shake something off about it. “Where do ya’ wanna go princess?” Apple Bloom asked.

Luna snapped out of her thought and gave the three girls a soft smile. Her eyes shifted around the clearing of the city to notice what must have been the government building of this village judging by the size of it. “What of that area?” she gestured to the structure that seemed to be placed in the dead-center of the town.

“…The Town Hall?” Scootaloo checked with the princess if that was what she was suggesting. “Yeah, that’ll probably work. It’s probably going to rain soon, so it’s nice cover. Nice call princess,” the pegasus smiled and skipped along to the cover of the Town Hall.

“Yeah, good call,” Sweetie Belle agreed and joined with Apple Bloom with following Scootaloo under the building.

Another, louder grumble shook from the skies and brought Luna to look up at the growing grey. Her eyes softened while looking at the overcast created by the pegasi. However, she was shocked back to reality when she heard the calls of the three fillies she had been entertaining. Once she reached the cover of the Town Hall her umbrella furled back and was placed on one of the wooden columns. “Now children, where were we?” Luna asked to be sure they were paying attention.

“You were going to tell us about Star Swirl,” Sweetie Belle chimed in.

“Ah yes. Star Swirl the Bearded. A stallion of many wonders,” Luna recollected with a gentle stroke of her chin. “Many spells that you perhaps use or have heard about, Sweetie Belle, were most likely created by him or mastered by him.” The young unicorn gave an impressed look to the princess. “He was an honest pony; never once did he break his word or mislead my sister or myself… Never once…” Luna gave a slight sigh before straightening out and looking to her three fillies. “But enough of mine own prattling over his glory. You have come to hear a tale of his exploits. Now… let us see…” Luna delved into thought over what story she should tell. In no time at all her face brightened up.
“Eureka! I have just the one.”

The pale light of the cool night trickled through the small cracks and fissures that littered the wooden shell of the simple library. The somber chirps of the crickets in the stars’ presence remained the only sound that graced through the bark of the home. Within—

“Why is the house made of bark?” Sweetie Belle interrupted.

“Most of -if not all- trees are made of bark. Thus so, seeing as how his library-home was made from the hollow of a tree, the outside was indeed made of both bark and manufactured wood walls,” Luna explained.

“Wait… A library made out of a tree? You mean like Twilight’s?” Scootaloo asked.

“Not just like, dear Scootaloo, but is,” Luna corrected proudly. “Twilight Sparkle’s library is much older then Ponyville itself. Believe it or not, that library used to be a part of our Palace near our maze. However after Star Swirl’s tragic death and the semblance of Ponyville, my sister decided to move the library to this little town to serve as a means for the citizens to perhaps learn of ancient history or any other such teachings that Star Swirl left behind,” the princess carried on with her explanation, invoking a small awe from the fillies. “But I digress… let us press on with the story.”

Within the hollow, two ponies were awake in the dark of the night. One, a fair and elegant mare of a dark coat and celestial mane rested on a cushioned make-shift log with her wings curled up to her sides in an un-amused manner.

“Oh! Oh!” Apple Bloom sprang up and down with a joyous smile. “That’s you, ain’t it?”

“Perhaps, perhaps… But let us keep going to be sure.” Eager to continue her own story, Luna looked off to the distance at a familiar library to rekindle her memory.

The other, a more faded and physically diminished stallion garbed in a ridiculously over-the-top robe and hat conducted work throughout the home under the dim flickers of controlled candle light. Moments passed with the relative silence only being remedied by the small chirps of the crickets and the dull clicks of the stallion’s hooves against the wooden flooring. “Prey tell us, wizard,” the mare spoke up through the dim room. “Why dost thou insist on playing the nuisance onto our nerves?”

“Wha?” the three fillies wondered in a confusion.

“’Tis how one would say ‘why do you keep on being an annoyance to me?’ back in those years.”

“What years were those?” Scootaloo pressed.

“I would say nearly 1005 years ago… give or take so and so.”

“Believe you me, Princess, if this could’ve waited to morning I would’ve gladly asked your sister for help,” the elderly stallion gruffly replied.

Once more a short silence befell the room while the elderly of the two shifted through old tomes with the aid of his magic’s grasp. The princess remained quiet while carefully watching the stallion from behind—

“Ohhhhh!” a chorus erupted from the crusaders along with sly smirks.

With a deep blush cutting across her dark complexion, Luna spat out frustrated. “Twas not like that! I swear it! I merely was studying his movements—“

“Woooo!”

“Cease those assumptions at once!” Luna snapped as the burning sensation crept through her whole body.

The girls only giggled and nodded for Luna to continue once the princess had settled her nerves.

“Will you be attending your sister’s summons in the morning?” Star Swirl asked in a flat tone.

The princess only found herself shrugging in a response in an act of indifference. “If you do plan to, you had better rest for then. You will only hinder your sister if you appear to her in an inattentive daze.”

“Oh, we thanketh thee,” Luna dipped her head in a feigned thankfulness, “where would we ever be without your wise advisement. Excuse us as we fight the urges of praising thee further.”

For once Luna interrupted her own story by clearing her throat with an ashamed look about her. “I wasn’t very respectful to those outside of the Royal Family in those days… Forgive me.”

“Ya’ don’t gotta apologize ta’ us princess,” Apple Bloom assured Luna with a sweet smile.

“Yeah. Nopony’s perfect,” Scootaloo agreed, “you’ve gotta grow up and learn from your mistakes and other junk like that.”

A gentle smile graced across Luna’s visage as she sighed contently. “Such wisdom from such small fillies…”

“Slander and dismiss me all you wish, princess,” Star Swirl replied void of any care as he shifted through another pile of books, “but know that if you do so I may neglect to continue work on your focal—“

“We jest ye, wizard,” the princess snapped in a hurried tone. “Please, do as ye wish and we shan’t hinder you further…” silencing her own self, Luna sunk against the warmth of the cloaked log and allowed herself to drift lazily into a slumber with the aid of the scribing of a diligent stallion working into the dark night.

“Thus we end this length of the story…” Luna concluded but saw that the three fillies looked less then pleased so she quickly corrected herself, “But know this! I only tell you this story so you may begin to understand the balance of our partnership. I assure you that I will tell you many a tale of my dear old friend Star Swirl.”

The crusaders brightened up at this and sprang to their hooves. “When can we hear another?”

Luna opened her mouth to speak, but burned with embarrassment when no words came out but instead a grumble deep from her stomach. She gained a collection of smiles from her filly friends before she looked away. “Perhaps it would be better serving of my time if I were to eat something first…” she admitted.

“No big deal! Come to my place and we’ll fill ya up!” Apple Bloom offered as she skipped along off away from the cover of the Town Hall along with her two friends.

With a grip to her umbrella and a nimble step off down the steps, Luna gave the three girls a thankful nod, ignoring the fact that her umbrella was still ferruled and the sky had become shrouded in a complete grey. “A splendid gesture young one. I will graciously take—“

Plop…

Her voice dried up at that little, wet touch against her nose.

Plop plop…

The chilling sensation tapped against her nose again, this time another plopping against her back. The three crusaders looked at Luna confused as she seemed to sink away into her own surroundings, noticing the discarded umbrella dropped to the ground beside her.

Plop, plop, plop….

One by one, raindrops fell across Luna’s exposed body and mane, patting it down while leaving small clinging remains against her fur. But the rain alone wasn’t what was streaking her visage damp as a small stream of tears began to slither down from her eyes.

“It’s raining again, Sister…”

“It is, isn’t it? You miss the rain, don’t you?”

“Miss the rain? Surely you jest. Rain is chaotic and sporadic. Who would miss rain?”

“Maybe a little mare that’s missed the touch of life?”

“The touch of life?”

“Yes Luna. The touch of the cold, the touch of another pony, the touch of the grass: the touch of life.”

“Preposterous. Rain is just water… nothing to be missed over 1000 years.”

The rain began to pour down on Sweetie Belle and her friends as they tried to fit under Luna’s umbrella opened by Sweetie Belle’s flickering magic and Luna who was letting her tears flow freely down her visage. The three looked up at the princess with some worry but also growing warmth as they noticed that despite the princess’s tears, a smile had began to show through the abundant rain…

“…I must admit, however, sister…”

“…I have missed feeling…”

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