Trus and Luna

by Trus

Epilogue

Epilogue

Stepping through a portal on to his next destination, Trus dropped from standing on two legs onto four.

His eyes slowly opened and his first view of the world around him was the first stars of the night appearing in the rapidly arriving night. Lamps were lit nearby so his vision of the rest of the world wasn’t drowned out in the shadow of that night. He sat down onto his haunches and calmly looked down at his hooves with his half closed, weary eyes. His mouth turned into a warm smile as he took a moment to take in how good it felt to be in one of his favorite forms.

He looked young and was full of energy from just having transformed into a new form, but he felt old and ever weary.

He could hear chatter a short distance away coming from the direction from where the light from the lamps was coming from. Around him stood tall, finely groomed hedges and he sat on cool, lush, trimmed grass. The air felt pure and clean through his nostrils. So much so, that he almost felt like he was missing something in each breath.

The air smelled sweet and full of all the lush greenery, along with the subtle hint of…cake?

“Hm.” He quietly hummed with a smile. He looked up towards the top of the hedges in the direction the lamp light.

He got onto his hooves again and with a certain unsettling, calmness that he had, he slowly walked his way around the hedges towards the light and the sound of ponies talking.

He soon realized the hedges were all part of a large maze and he was at the center of it. However, he found his way surprisingly easily with just some minor turns. This made him wonder if it was just for show and not for getting a person lost for the fun of it.

Upon arrival he noticed two guards standing with their backs to the maze just outside the entrance. They were watching a party of sorts. What it was for wasn’t apparent from his current position.

As the chatter was a good deal louder Trus decided to get a sneak peak at what was going on. He crept up to the edge of the entrance, right behind the guards and got a view of what seemed to be just a simple high society group event.

There were several tables of appetizers and cakes. A game or two of cricket was going on over to one side, tables with seating and ponies in them on the other while a stage with a crew of musicians were setting themselves up at the far end of the open area below the castle walls. Statues sat on pillars around the area in front of the entrance to the maze where some ponies were taking walks, just standing around or sitting while conversing with others. One other thing he noticed was that every single pony, whether they were a winged pegasi like Trus, a unicorn with their single horns on their heads, or one of the few earth ponies around without wing or horn, all were well groomed and all wearing some sort of fine attire.

Then he noticed, on the far side of the party, a large white, purple and golden castle. It looked like a collection of towers that had been fused together and domed with several different styles and designs that somehow all just flowed together. There even appeared to be a small vintage house sitting right in the middle of it and it too somehow just fit right in. The most impressive thing about it was that it was build off a ledge and stuck out like the bow of a ship!

He started to want a good look at the interior structure so he could see for himself just how sturdy it actually was. Something like that never seemed to last…

As captivating as it was, he eventually tore his view away from it to get a better look at the party itself.

He knew that he’d never be able to sneak into there, though he didn’t really care to do so that much, if at all. He’d stick out like a pile of confetti on a white floor, especially since his mane and tail still sported all six colors of the rainbow.

The guards suddenly turned their heads to one particular side as someone approached just out of his view.

He ducked back behind the hedges of the maze. Once hidden from direct view he kept watch through the holes in between the leaves of the hedges so he would be prepared if someone decided to take a look down through the maze.

The guards hadn’t seemed to notice him and they even resumed looking straight ahead once the one they had turned their heads to look at stepped in front of them. That pony turned out to be a tall deep blue alicorn with a mane and tail that flowed ethereally with a vision of the night sky in them both. Trus thought she was absolutely beautiful, except for the eye shadow that he barely make out due to the side of her that he could see being mostly in shadow. He had never been one to like the sight of eye shadow on anyone. The main thing that set her apart the most though, as he had seen many alicorns before and just hadn’t seen any others around this particular place yet, was that she wasn’t wearing any sort of clothing on her. Rather she wore black regalia with a single crest of a crescent moon on her chest piece that matched her cutie mark.

She spoke with some ponies who had been following her. He couldn’t make out her voice against all the other chatter of the party though.

As interesting as she seemed he was already getting bored of all the sneaking around parties that he didn’t feel like attending.

He tried to duck his head down a little to get another view of the castle. However he couldn’t get any good views through the hedge.

He thought to himself. There’s no way I’m getting there through the party, but if I can find a way around… He looked back towards the direction of the center of the maze. I could probably take off in the center of the maze without getting into trouble. He smiled and made a quiet chuckle towards himself. What am I talking about? It’d probably be better to see if there’s some way to get a tour. Still, I’ve never been inside Canterlot castle… He looked back towards the party. Not really anything too interesting going on here.

He got up and started walking back into the maze…

He took a few extra turns along the way to the center finding a few little interesting things to look at, such as a small area with a single tree and a small pond.

The center of the maze was a large open circle that had many pathways leading into it. Once he had reached it he looked up and stretched his wings… And then he folded them back up and sat down as he took in a good look of the stars above…

He started searching them trying to see if there was any difference in the stars in this reality than in the other alternate universes he had been to.

After a little while he came to the conclusion that everything seemed to be the same except that four stars seemed to be missing and… hold on. Why is the mare in the moon missing?

Normally when he looked at the moon he would see the shape of the head of a mare in it whenever Canterlot castle was around. That is, unless the world was an entire wasteland, but everything was lush and green and there wasn’t a single sent of waste, rust or sense of radiation in the air. The only other times he had seen the moon without the mare were times before Canterlot castle existed. He hadn’t even seen the other castle unless it was in ruin and surrounded by an extremely deadly Everfree forest.

He knew the story, the story of two sisters fighting and of one them getting sent to the moon. And he knew the one he had actually met once in a dream so long ago was the one that had been sent there. For the life of him though, because it had been so long ago and because dreams can be very vague on the details, he couldn’t remember what she had looked like beyond being tall, dark, and an…

An alicorn…

He looked back towards the party…

Could it be…? …I’ve wanted to see her again, but… How long has it been since then for her? …What could I even say?...

He started to pace. I mean I’ve heard of dream walkers in this universe but… “Hey I met you in a dream once…!”

Pffffffffffffffffffff…

He still felt mentally exhausted and now his mind wanted to run a million miles a second…

He stopped and looked up at the stars. There he saw the moon again… He stared at it hoping that somehow this moment wasn’t happening and at the same time he was getting so very excited that it might just happen!

You’d think I’d have thought about it more…and what I could say. But…how do you even think about the meeting of someone that inspired you to care about your friends again...?

He sat there almost surprised his thoughts had stopped.

He felt tears starting to push themselves out of his eyes, so he shut them. That just made them sting so he opened them again and laughed pitifully as he kept himself looking at the moon…

His thoughts went back to the alicorn he had seen back at the party. That may not even be her… He thought… It might be, but I may just be getting emotional for no reason… He looked down and made a single laugh.

…if that’s the case then I guess it’ll just be funny to walk up to some random person and find out that they’re not who you think… I’d laugh afterwards anyways…

He looked back at the party.

So no harm right…? Then what do I say?

He must have spent over an hour trying to convince himself that he’d be alright emotionally, as well as thinking about what he could say and what he could do to show it was him if she needed reminding.

He knew that he had proved himself to her before by showing her an effect he had once had when he got injured. Problem was that he had gotten rid of that effect, who knows how long ago.

Eventually he had come to the conclusion that all he literally had to show that it was him from her dream was himself and the memory of their first and last meeting.

He had walked back to the entrance of the maze and back to the party. To his surprise there were several other ponies that had joined in during the time he had been away and many of them weren’t wearing anything fancy if anything at all really.

The guards were still there, but this time he just didn’t care. Since there were ponies out there now that weren’t wearing anything either he decided to just walk right past them.

They glanced at him, but they didn’t bother him otherwise. He walked out into the middle of the crowd searching it for the tall dark alicorn that may or not be the alicorn he couldn’t remember the name of, but who he had once known.

Music was playing on the stage now and there was a fair bit of dancing going on in front of it. More tables had been placed out next to the ones that had held the appetizers and cake. The cake was still there, but the table it sat on as well as the new ones were now covered with all sorts of green food on them.

He didn’t see her.

That is, until the end of the song that was playing when she stepped up on stage to make an announcement.

She stood in front of a microphone and said to the crowd, “I hope you are enjoying the night of the Summer Sun Celebration everypony. We come here to celebrate the longest day of the year and I like to think you are celebrating it with me as the day of my return from the moon as well.”

There were some enthusiastic cheers!

“Thank you!” She said with a wide smile. “Some of you may also know that this day is also the hundredth anniversary of that event!”

There were some more cheers!

“Thank you, thank you so very much! I would like to commemorate this night with a song that I wish to sing for you on this night, the night of the Summer Sun Celebration one hundred years from the day that I returned to the land of Equestria!”

There was a loud cheer from the entire crowd and the crowd stomped their front hooves against the ground!

When the noise all settled down she began to cry! “Thank you! Thank you everypony! It is so good to know that you still appreciate me and still stand by me! Without further due I will sing for you!”

There was one more cheer and the ground was pounded again. Then when the crowd was done she began to sing!

Trus stood still during the entire song marveling at the three things going through his head. One, was that she most definitely was the one he had met before, though he still couldn’t remember her name and he had yet to hear it. Two, was that he remembered her being so sad and troubled over something she had done that had gotten her sent to the moon and yet there was, at very least an entire crowd cheering for her! Three…He loved her song… It was beautiful and full of appreciation. The words and melody all faded out of memory with everything that was going though his head, but he could remember the theme and meaning behind it clearly…

When her song was over he kept his eyes on her and walked over to her.

There ended up being a line, but he waited with his nerves quaking.

When he finally got up to her and it was his turn to talk to her he looked up at her all nervous as she smiled back at him ever so sweetly from all the greetings and well wishes she had been getting.

He opened his mouth and said something all the while feeling the bravest and yet meekest he could remember ever feeling. He was in complete awe at her and even if she didn’t remember him he knew he’d be happy having seen how happy she was now.

“Hi…I’m Trus… I met you some time ago and I don’t know if you can remember me, but…I believe you were on the moon when it happened and it was in a dream.”

She was still smiling, but it was clear she was confused as she tilted her head slightly to the side.

“We became friends… and I don’t know what to say.” Her expression turned pensive. “It’s alright if you don’t… I’m just glad…I’m glad you’re happy now.” He smiled up at her.

She looked down at him not seeming to be making sense of what he was saying.

After a few seconds had passed his smile widened and he felt it was time to let the next in line say something. “All well. Have a good time!”

But before he could turn to leave she took in a sudden deep breath and reached out to him. “No, wait.”

He stopped and waited. And hoped…

“What…” She said. “What was the name of that constellation? Or the light’s in the night sky? What were their names?”

Joy and excitement filled his heavy heart. He knew the answer to both of those questions! “The constellation is called the Big Dipper and the lights were called two things, the Northern lights or an Aurora Borealis!”

She stared at him in shock. “It’s you… That…” She put a hoof in front of her mouth and laughed nervously “Aurora Borealis!”

What?

Some of the ponies behind him seemed to be getting annoyed at how long he was taking.

“What did you say your name was?” She said dropping her hoof, moving in closer and looking excited!

“Trus…” He said. “And uh, I kinda forgot your name too…”

The End~

Author's Note:

Took me so long to write this whole thing... I'm so glad I finished it!
It may not be all that great of a story, but it's definitely one that I will be able to enjoy on multiple readings. There are very few things that I like to read and exceptionally less things that I want to re-read. This little story of mine being one of the few. So I am very, very glad I finished it!
Oh and thanks to the one person who left me a positive comment some time ago! I don't get many of those and it helped me out a fair bit!