A Moon and World Apart

by Evilhumour

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Sunset thought of what Cadance had told her as she started to pack for her trip to Ponyville. It seemed that Cadance was certain that Princess Luna would be making a return, and that Celestia was set on having both Sunset and herself in Ponyville. Did that mean Celestia knew her sister would appear in Ponyville and wanted Sunset there to help out?

In either case, she would have to trust Princess Celestia and do her best not to jump at shadows. Not again...

She shook her head at that ugly memory, the lowest point of her entire life. As long as she lived, she would do her best not to repeat those mistakes ever again. The fact that Celestia had forgiven her for what she had almost done just reminded her that she still had a long way to go before she could take a proper role by Princess Celestia's side like Cadance was already doing, let alone even thinking of becoming a princess again.

Though if she did take an official role by her teacher's side, hopefully it would not be in the morning as she hated waking up early. Ironic, given who her teacher was and how Celestia was quite literally responsible for starting everypony's day...

It didn't take her long to pack stuff for several days; mainly getting out a few books out to cross reference what the ponies in charge of the preparations should be doing as well as making sure that Cadance would take care of Ray for her. This wasn't the first time she'd had to watch over the little leopard gecko while Sunset was out on an overnight (or longer) trip, and she knew how much he meant to his owner.

Finally, she was all ready. Placing a hoof against her pet's terrarium, she whispered a quick "You be good now" to him before saying her goodbyes, then headed out towards the pegasi hanger for her ride into Ponyville.

She stared at the different guards moving to and fro, with a small cluster of Cadance's own 'guards' hanging out near their own corner. Like everything else, Cadance had taken strong measures to end the streak of taking on only day ponies, having personally hired several thestrals for the role. Though she hadn't done them for token representation; each one had been personally sponsored by Cadance through their guard training and any that had messed up were shown far less mercy than any other potential guard.

It had worked, to everyone who wasn't a bigot's pleasure. The higher standards that Cadance had enforced proved to most of the guards that they could trust the night ponies to do their duties, and trust other night ponies that they encountered in their job.

"Ready to depart, ma'am?" Zephyr asked as she climbed into his and Soft Breeze's carriage.

"Mhm," she replied as the two took to the air. It was a true show of their skills that they could fly in tandem despite their wings being completely different varieties, one set feathered and the other leathery flesh like a bat's. Not that they appreciated being compared to certain bats, most of the time at least - even if they did have some things in common with them. She'd seen thestrals who took considerable pride in the fact that they'd mastered the use of sonar to the extent that they could avoid any obstacle in their path without ever once opening their eyes in the process, though that mostly happened in parties where the drinks had been flowing for some time. She gave a mental snort at the memory of the one she'd gone to of that sort. As she recalled, the thestral making the demonstration had begun it with the phrase "Hold my beer and watch this" and ended with the desperate need to repair Celestia's study and bribe Philomena to not rat on any of them or explain why she needed to rejuvenate.

That was also the party where she'd vowed to make sure that alcohol would never be an issue for her. She'd already reached legal drinking age, but at Celestia and Cadance's separate urgings, she'd paced herself from that night onwards, only having a few glasses during a twenty-four hour period at most (and the stronger the variety, the less she'd had of it). And afterward, seeing how some of the attendees started acting as they got drunker and drunker, she'd put her natural talent with magic, fire-based magic in particular, to use in order to work up a spell that could boil the alcohol right out of the target's body and sober them up in an instant without hurting said target in the process, which endeared her to several of of the guards when they found out about the spell she created. She'd also privately vowed to never let herself get to the point where she needed to use it on herself.

Looking out the carriage's windows, she watched as they flew towards Ponyville, smiling at the scenery.

If things went as she thought they would, this Summer Sun Celebration was going to be an experience to remember for a long, long time.

---

Twilight had left the donut shop with Vinyl, both going their own ways. Her friend was off to meet with Shining to go over their plans in Equestria while Twilight headed off to the sixth dome for her own job.

Taking a hoverpad towards the tunnel to the science dome allowed her more time to reflect on what Luna had asked of her. By the time she reached the entrance of the tunnel to the dome, she still hadn't made up her mind.

She let her mind drift away from the topic for the next two hours as she concentrated on the work she'd been assigned to do for Orion's navigation drive, engine and other core machinery. It was like music for her soul; everything made sense and followed a logical point. Even if she couldn't really explain it to everypony initially, Director Crystal Lace had grown to trust her decision and actions. As much as she loved her research and lessons with Luna, she just loved getting lost into a good machine, figuring out how it worked and how to improve on it.

By the time she'd left for the day, she'd managed to reaffirm to herself what she had to do, and headed back to the other dome for the last piece of advice before she made her decision known.

Once she'd reached her intended destination, Twilight knocked on the door. A minute later, it opened, and Moondancer looked at her in surprise. "Twilight?"

Twilight looked a little sheepish. "Hey, Moondancer. Is this a good time, or am I..."

"Oh, come on in!" Moondancer moved out of the way. "I didn't expect to see you again today," she remarked as Twilight stepped into her friend's apartment, and then looked around.

"You're still getting ready for that party you invited me to, aren't you," she said.

Moondancer looked startled as she closed the door. "You remembered?"

"I'm a lot of things, but deaf isn't one of them," Twilight told her. "I just didn't say anything about whether I'd be there or not because..." she sighed. "Well, I wasn't exactly sure I was up for it. You know how I get around large groups."

"I know; not everypony is an extrovert and that's okay," Moondancer told her. "I had to ask though."

Then she smiled. "So what's up?"

"This morning, Director Luna asked me to take part in an important mission for her," Twilight told her. "And I don't know what to say. I was hoping... well, that you could help me decide."

Moondancer looked at her for a moment, then went to sit down on her couch, beckoning Twilight to come sit with her. "What is it?" she asked.

Twilight sighed. "She wants to send a couple of us to Equestria, to reach out to them and see what they're really like as people. And she wants me to be one of them."

Moondancer's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked.

Twilight nodded. "And I don't know if I should!" she admitted. "I mean, I know it's important, and the fact that she'd trust me to get involved... it's a big responsibility. But I have all my studies here, and... and ponies who care about me," she said. "I don't want to just run off and leave you, or my parents behind. This isn't just visiting another dome, it's going to a whole other world. And if something goes wrong, we might never be able to see one another again, and I don't think I could cope if that happened, not to mention how you would feel, and..."

Moondancer raised a hoof. "Twilight, calm. Down. Take a deep breath, and another, until you're feeling better. That's it," she said as Twilight did as she was told. "Keep it up."

Twilight breathed, and did some stretching motions with one hoof, until she was breathing evenly, then looked at Moondancer gratefully. "Thanks, Moondancer. I needed that."

Moondancer nodded and smiled. "Twilight, I know you. Sometimes I think I know you better than you know yourself. That's one of the reasons I've always been there for you, to try and help you better yourself and not just let you wear yourself out by concentrating on everything besides your well-being."

Twilight smiled back. "And your help has kept me out of more trouble than I can remember," she said. "But Moondancer... I'm still scared. What if I make the wrong choice and mess things up so badly that... that Director Luna blames me for ruining any chance of Equestria and the Lunar Republic reconciling and banishes me away forever?"

"Twilight, you aren't perfect, but even you couldn't mess things up that badly unless you were actively trying," Moondancer told her. "I have faith in you. If you think you can handle this without working yourself into a nervous breakdown in the process, then go for it."

Then she rose from her couch. "Now, come on. You don't have to be back at the Head Director's office right away, do you? Want to help me finish setting things up for this evening?"

Twilight nodded. "I have to be back later to tell her of my decision, but I can spare a few hours."

"Great." Moondancer's horn lit up as she began pulling a few things out. "Let's get to work."

Then she glanced at Twilight. "And Twilight? If Luna did, for whatever reason, decide to banish you to some backwater hole-in-the-wall... I'd be selfish and give up my life here so I could banish myself to wherever you were too, and spend the rest of my life there instead so you wouldn't be alone."

Twilight was too startled to reply before her friend turned around and walked away to get more supplies.

When she'd finally had a moment to calm herself, she followed after Moondancer, who turned back to see her. "Hey," she said softly. "Moondancer..."

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for being my friend."

Moondancer smiled. "You're welcome, Twilight."

---

Pinkie Pie smiled as she pronked along Ponyville's main street, so very eager for the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. So far, everypony was doing a fantastic job in setting up for it, and she just knew this was going to be an extra super-special one.

In fact she had several unique twitches telling her that she would need to plan several parties very soon and that Ponyville was going to get some very interesting visitors.

"This is going to be the best Summer Sun Celebration ever," she giggled to herself as she started to think what they would like for cupcakes. Maybe vanilla, chocolate, tabasco... then she got combination of twitches and shakes, and shook her head. "Maaaybe be a little careful about who I offer that one to," she remarked to nopony in particular. "Don't want to gum up their works." Then she perked up. "But I bet I know one pony who'd love them!"

"Hey, Pinks!" a voice called from overhead, before Rainbow Dash came down to hover over her. "How's it going?"

"Just thinking aloud!" Pinkie chirped. "Gotta get ready for the big party this week!"

Rainbow Dash chuckled. "Yeah, know the one," she said. "I got cloud duty that morning, make sure the skies are clear."

"No worries about that," Applejack said as she walked past. "As much as Ah've seen ya sleeping in my trees, there ain't no pony better clearing them clouds than you."

"Tch." Rainbow Dash waved it off. "Yeah, I could clear the skies in ten seconds flat from a sleeping start."

The other girls laughed. Braggart she may be at times, but when it came to weather work, Dashie always backed her words up with actions.

Moving that out of her mind, Pinkie continued to think on what cupcakes she should make when she heard the flapping of wings and saw the outline of a carriage coming down from the sky.

Comments

[technofan]

Very pog

[notAperson]

And here, we, go.

[nighters]

hmmm I wonder if starlight gonna play a role? I feel that mare had a hand in celestia need for divining into other verses and being horrified by what happen to them?

[Dorath]

Hmmm ... Celesia hasn't found Magic or Twilight yet (and she knows about Twilight!), Luna has two Elements among her ponies, one of which is Twilight ... I wonder if Sunset will turn out to be an Element?

[Comickook]

Great job on this latest chapter. Greatly enjoyed the work that went into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Really enjoyed Sunset's reflections on the preparations and the bit with Zephyr (if only because it shows that Fluttershy is definitely in Equestria) as well as Twilight's dialogue with Moondancer (as Twilight was explaining why she didn't respond to Moondancer's mention of the party sooner and Moondancer reminding Twilight to calm down and do slow breathing exercises as Twilight is explaining how nervous she is about this journey to Equestria) and the scene with Pinkie and Rainbow in Ponyville (which means Applejack and Rarity are probably two of the ones on the Moon [since it would be appropriately thematic for Celestia to have both the Pegasi and one of the Earth ponies and Luna to have both the unicorns and the other Earth pony] - unless I am seriously over-thinking this, which is entirely possible. Of course, speaking of over-thinking it, it has now stumbled on to me that this could actually be a "three canon Element Bearers, three relative newcomers" sort of deal, so I am ALMOST definitely over-thinking it THERE).

But anyway, definitely looking forward to the next chapter.

[SpikeSmolder fan]

Oh boy, looks like things will be starting up next chapter!

[AnoneMouseJr]

10777311

the bit with Zephyr

Different Zephyr, actually. This was a thestral with that name (and it's his only name, not a shortening of a two-word one), not a pegasus.

WordOfGod is that Fluttershy is still down in Ponyville though.

(which means Applejack and Rarity are probably two of the ones on the Moon

Um... Applejack was right there in that last segment.

Until next time...
Anon e Mouse Jr.

[Comickook]

10777389
Thanks for the corrections. Serves me right for skimming (sheepish grin)

[Asolem2]

She'd seen thestrals who took considerable pride in the fact that they'd mastered the use of sonar to the extent that they could avoid any obstacle in their path without ever once opening their eyes in the process, though that mostly happened in parties where the drinks had been flowing for some time. She gave a mental snort at the memory of the one she'd gone to of that sort. As she recalled, the thestral making the demonstration had begun it with the phrase "Hold my beer and watch this" and ended with the desperate need to repair Celestia's study and bribe Philomena to not rat on any of them or explain why she needed to rejuvenate.

Sounds like quite the party

She'd also privately vowed to never let herself get to the point where she needed to use it on herself.

Better to have it and not need it, than need it but not have it

It was like music for her soul; everything made sense and followed a logical point. Even if she couldn't really explain it to everypony initially, Director Crystal Lace had grown to trust her decision and actions. As much as she loved her research and lessons with Luna, she just loved getting lost into a good machine, figuring out how it worked and how to improve on it.

Sounds like this Twilight is more attuned to Science than she is to Magic

Pinkie Pie smiled as she pronked along Ponyville's main street, so very eager for the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration. So far, everypony was doing a fantastic job in setting up for it, and she just knew this was going to be an extra super-special one.

If nothing else, it's gonna be a memorable one