> The Epochust
>  by GoldenChozo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1: The Approaching Perihelion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The light from the sun made it's way into my room, and landed on my face. I woke up instantly from this, as I did every morning. Although this day started out no different from others, it felt somehow special. I felt as if today would be significant in some way.

I got out of bed and looked at a mirror that was in my room. The mare that stared back was Peppermint Splash, a mint green pegasus with golden eyes, a blue mane and tail, and a peppermint with water splashing as her cutie mark. I looked at myself from several angles before I was satisfied and moved on. I reached for and put on a couple bracelets sitting on my nightstand before heading out for the day.

I wasn't going anywhere in specific; just walking about and enjoying the day. I passed many ponies, most of whom were so caught up in their errands that they gave me little notice. There seemed to be a great deal of activity, though. Many shops were having special sales, and many ponies were taking advantage of that.

I looked up at the many pegasi flying above Ponyville. There seemed to be some major activity up there, as well. There were high-flying races occurring. Three pegasi in particular were clearly dominating the current race.

Zephyr Lane, at the tail of the three, was doing surprisingly well keeping up with the other two. All that could be seen of her was a pink blur, with the occasional blue and purple from her mane or tail visible. Just ahead of Zephyr was Thunder Dasher, leaving a light blue trail behind him. Taking the current lead was Rainbow Dash, leaving rainbow trails that were quickly replaced by Thunder's blue trails, which in turn were broken up by Zephyr.

"Hi, Pep!" Somepony said, which made me aware that I wasn't even moving. I looked around to see Crescent Delight coming up next to me. Crescent was a navy blue mare, with a violet mane and tail with streaks of blue in them, and light blue eyes. She always loved the moon and hoped it would come close, and her cutie mark is a star surrounded by a crescent moon because of this.

"Morning, Cres," I replied to her. "How are you today?"

"I'm excited for the perihelion tomorrow night!" Cres said, barely containing her excitement.

"Perihelion?" I questioned. "What does that mean?"

"It's when the moon comes closer than usual," Cres said. I could see now why she was so excited about it. "It hasn't happened in over a millennium."

"Is that why all the shops are having sales?" I asked.

"Of course," Cres nodded.

Before the conversation got any further, there was the loud sound of somepony crashing into a tree. Cres and I both looked ahead to see Thunder Dasher on the ground. I ran up to him, followed closely by Cres. Thunder's silvery-blue eyes looked right at us as we came up to him.

"Are you alright?" Cres asked him. "That sounded like a pretty hard hit."

"I've been worse," Thunder muttered. He didn't appear to have any marks on him from hitting the tree.

"Let's get you home so you can recover," I said, pushing myself under his wing to lift him. Cres got on the other side, and we managed to lift him with his cooperation. We slowly made our way to Thunder's house, eventually getting him there. We carefully set him in his bed.

"Thank you," Thunder said to me and Cres. There was something about the way he said it, coupled with the fact that he had no marks on him, that made me think he planned to crash so we would do that. We left Thunder to recover to see what else the day had in store for us.

"Was it just me, or did it seem like Thunder intended to crash and wasn't hurt at all?" I asked Cres.

"I had that same feeling," Cres said.

"Why would he do it, though?" I asked, more to myself than to Cres. I had an idea, but I decided to keep it to myself.

After about ten minutes of walking around and talking, we ran into Ace Doughty. Ace was a brown pegasus with light green eyes, and a light red mane and tail. His Cutie Mark was a golden lion, representing how courageous he actually was. Ace loved adventure, though he didn't get to go on too many very often.

"Hey, you two," Ace said to us. He then looked at Cres and said, "So what do you think of the coming perihelion?"

"I wish I could speed up time so I could see it sooner," Cres said excitedly.

"We could always ask Twilight at the library," Ace said, chuckling a little. "If anypony knows a way, she does."

Cres seemed more excited than she had in the past hour. "Do you really think so?" She said before galloping full speed towards the library. We both stared at the location that Cres was just in moments before.

"I didn't think it was possible for her to go so fast," Ace said, breaking the silence.

"Should we follow her?" I suggested.

"Might as well."

We began trotting in the general direction of the library. Along the way, we passed a truck with an image of Vinyl Scratch, better known throughout Equestria as DJ PON3. There were several ponies who appeared to be building a stage in the Ponyville town square.

"Do you think they're here because of the perihelion tomorrow night?" I asked Ace.

"Of course," he responded. "It hasn't been so close for over a millennium. It's a once in a lifetime sight."

"I can't wait to see it, it has to be amazing."

We continued the trip to the library in silence. There may have been no conversation, but I enjoyed it. As we made our way down the path, I noticed that there were long lines to many of the shops. It seemed like this perihelion was very special indeed, since it was a few hours before noon and the shops were packed.

When we finally made it to the library, we could see Cres on her way out and talking to Cherry Sundae. Cherry was a light cream-colored earth pony with a pink mane and tail. She ran the dairy shop, and so her Cutie Mark was that of several ice cream scoops in a bowl.

"The Princess has been gone for that long, so she can do it again for the first time since before she was imprisoned," Cres was explaining to Cherry.

"So what did Twilight say?" Ace asked.

"She said she could get us access to the Royal Canterlot Archives," Cres said. "The Starswirl the Bearded section is where they keep time-based spells and such."

I looked around at the others, seeing two pegasi and two earth ponies, before saying, "But none of us are unicorns. How are we supposed to do a spell?"

"She said there would be more than just spells," Cres said. "There may be an object or something that we can use."

"How do we know this?" Cherry asked. She didn't seem too keen on going if there was a chance that there was nothing that we could use there.

"We might as well find out," Ace said, ready for adventure.

Just then, the window opened, and out popped a little purple dragon. He held up a scroll, blew an emerald fire onto it, and the flame went off in the direction of Canterlot. What just happened seemed very odd. None of us had ever seen it before.

Spike the dragon then turned to us and said, "You know, I don't see what's so special about this perriheelon. The moon's closer than normal, so what?" Seeing the look that Cres had on her face, it's no surprise that Spike instantly went back in and shut the window.

A moment later, Spike opened the window again. He opened it just enough that he could get his message out without Cres being able to reach him. "The Royal Guards will arrive this evening to bring you to the castle," he said nervously before quickly shutting the window again and latching it.

There was no turning back now; we were going to Canterlot Castle. I was nervous, not knowing what to expect. Cherry was also clearly shaking with fear of the castle. Cres didn't seem mad at Spike anymore, and was excited that she would be closer to seeing the perihelion. Ace, as always it seemed, was ready for the coming adventure, even if it was just a short-lived one.
> 2: Arrival at Canterlot
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Waiting for the Royal Guards to arrive, Ace and I went to the pegasus races above Ponyville. Crescent and Cherry decided to visit some of the shops to take advantage of the sales since they can't fly. We were to rendezvous at the library when the evening came so that we could be picked up by the Guards.

It wasn't too amazing seeing only Rainbow Dash or Zephyr Lane win, so the officials made them drop out of the races for a while. Thunder was able to join us, but he didn't race. Zephyr also joined us, taking a seat next to Thunder.

"Nice racing out there, Thunder," Zephyr said. "You were doing well until you crashed."

"You weren't too bad yourself," Thunder replied. He then looked down out of embarrassment from his crash landing.

"So, will you be going back into the races?" Zephyr asked.

"Not right away, my wing is too sore to fly fast," Thunder said. "What about you?"

"They banned me because I was doing so well," Zephyr said, looking almost proud towards her cutie mark, which was a light blue wing that appeared to be moving fast.

"I was wondering when that would happen," Thunder said with a slight chuckle.

I then noticed that Ace was no longer next to me. I didn't even realize he left. While Thunder and Zephyr were still talking, I looked out at the group that was about to race next. Ace was among them. He had apparently slipped out without anypony noticing and entered the race.

The shot signaling the start of the race sounded. As the racers began their laps, Zephyr looked over to where she thought Ace was. Her chartreuse eyes scanned all around where he should have been. She noticed that Ace had gone out to race, but there was no way out of where he was without being seen.

Dumbfounded, Zephyr asked, "When did Ace even get out there?"

I was too caught up watching the race to answer. Ace had taken an early lead, and he was doing a good job maintaining it. He was doing well until a black pegasus by the name of Fyrefly clipped him, and Ace stumbled to fourth. He wasn't able to regain the lead, and finished with a rather impressive third place.

Thunder, not wanting to miss anymore races, went out to join the next one. The shot sounded, and Thunder sped well ahead of all the others. Ace, maintaining second, tried to pull ahead as fast as he possibly could. He surprisingly managed to catch up to Thunder.

Ace was behind Thunder for most of the race. When it was nearly over, Ace pulled up a little, raising himself higher. He folded his wings back and curved downward, pulling ahead of Thunder. Thunder, not wanting to lose, tried to tackle Ace away. Ace avoided Thunder entirely, and Thunder fell back a little. He was unable to catch up to Ace in time, making Ace the winner.

"Are you going to race, too?" Zephyr asked me.

"I don't think so," I said. "I don't like to race."

"Alright, that's fine," Zephyr said. "I think I'd like that better, because then I'm not the only pony who isn't racing."

We both started laughing. Thunder and Ace were on their way back to us. They appeared to be out of breath, which was no surprise considering how fast they were going.

"You two did an amazing job," Zephyr said. "Especially you, Ace. I didn't think you would be able to keep up with Thunder so well."

"You can blame my sore wing for that," Thunder said.

"It can't be that sore if you were still able to go so fast," Zephyr said as she poked Thunder's wing. When Thunder didn't appear affected by this action, Zephyr continued, "See? Nothing's wrong with it."

"That's because it's the other wing," Thunder said. Zephyr went around Thunder and poked that wing. Thunder instantly unfolded his wing at this, which any pegasus would do if there was a sharp pain in their wing. He carefully folded it back to it's proper position. Zephyr poked it again, with a lesser, but similar, result.

"Enough of that," Thunder said, attempting to keep his wing away from Zephyr.

"Sorry, didn't think you were serious," Zephyr said. "So I take it you won't be racing anymore today?"

Thunder was making his way to the edge of the cloud. "No, I'm going to wait until my wing stops hurting." He then jumped off the cloud, heading down to Ponyville.

"What about you, Ace?" Zephyr said, turning to Ace.

Ace, who was still slightly out of breath, said, "Probably not."

"But the current race is the last one that I have to miss, and I really want to race with you."

"Well," Ace pondered for a moment, "I guess I could go for one more." Ace went back down, followed by Zephyr, to be in the next race. I looked out to see that I had a clear view of the race. I could see Ace and Zephyr lined up at the start, easily distinguishing them from the crowd.

The shot sounded. Zephyr took a clean lead. There was a considerable distance between Zephyr and Ace, but it was much less than that between Ace and the rest of the racers. Ace was slowly gaining on Zephyr, and also climbing higher as the distance dropped.

Ace, hoping to pull the same maneuver, folded his wings and curved downward. He came up very close to Zephyr, but she was able to maintain her lead. Ace tried ascending again, but when he shot back down, he didn't have enough time to pass Zephyr before she crossed the finish line.

Ace, having done more racing than he intended, was coming back over to me. "I think it's about time we get to the library," he said to me.

"Nice job, Ace," Zephyr said as she came up behind Ace. She put up her hoof towards him.

"You too, Zephyr," Ace said, returning the gesture.

"Do you plan on racing anymore today?" Zephyr asked.

"No, actually we were just about to leave," Ace said, nodding his head towards me.

"Alright, see you around," Zephyr said. She then went to take a seat to watch more races.

It was, of course, nearing evening. Ace and I flew down to Ponyville, landing near the library. Cres and Cherry had already found their way back and were waiting for us. It looked as if they never actually had a chance to go shopping, since they didn't have anything with them.

"Couldn't get into the shops in time?" I asked Cres as Ace and I landed.

Cres shook her head. "They all closed because they ran out of stock. Even Cherry's shop wasn't safe from running out."

"Turns out my older brother, Chocolate, forgot to place an order for extra shipments," Cherry added with a laugh, and we all joined in.

"So what did you do?" Cres asked as the laughter had died down.

"We went to the pegasus races above Ponyville," Ace said.

"You should've seen Ace racing, it was amazing," I said. "He beat Thunder and almost beat Zephyr."

"I didn't think anypony could beat those two," Cherry said. "I didn't know you were that fast, Ace."

Ace looked towards the ground. "It's not something I usually want to talk about," he said.

"Don't worry about it, Ace," Cres said, putting a hoof around him, causing him to smile.

"Here come the guards," Cherry said, pointing to what appeared to be two Royal Guards with a cart attached to them. They landed right in front of the library. Ace walked up to them.

"We have arrived to retrieve four ponies," One of the Guards said.

"That's us," Ace responded.

"What are your names?" The Guard asked Ace.

"Ace Doughty, Peppermint Splash, Crescent Delight, and Cherry Sundae," Ace said, looking around at us as he named us off.

"Very well. If you two earth ponies would please enter the cart," The Guard said to Cherry and Cres as the Guards turned to allow them in. The two earth ponies followed their directions. The closer of the two guards sealed the carriage door after Cherry stepped in. "You two pegasi can fly alongside."

We took off, Ace on the left side of the carriage and me on the right. The trip was short, but it felt like it lasted forever. At each passing moment, time seemed to slow down further; the exact opposite effect we were going for. Once Canterlot finally came into view after what felt like a few years, it seemed to stay the same distance away.

We finally landed outside the castle gates. Cherry and Cres dismounted the carriage and we all followed one of the Guards in. The other Guard flew off with the empty cart to somewhere behind the Castle. The Guard we were following led us into the castle, taking us through various hallways. Eventually, the Guard stopped outside a door.

"Unfortunately, both Princesses are currently away," The Guard told us. "Princess Luna will arrive within a few hours to raise the moon. She has elected to speak with you on your matter tomorrow. Until then, you may stay here." He then pushed the door open to reveal a guest room, which we were to stay in.

"Thank you," Ace said to the Guard.

We all followed Ace into the guest room. It had two couches surrounding a table in the center, and had six doors lining the walls. Behind each door was what appeared to be a small bedroom; more than enough for each of us. The Guard closed the door behind us. Cherry went to one of the couches and took a seat. Cres took a seat right next to her, while Ace and I sat on the other couch.
> 3: Nightmares
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I don't think we should be doing this," Cherry said.

"Don't worry about it," Ace said. "We'll just see if the Princess can help us. And if not, then we can be on our way back to Ponyville."

"Well, yeah, but--"

"Don't you want to see the perihelion?" Crescent interrupted.

"I can wait to see the perihelion if it means leaving the castle as soon as possible," Cherry said, sounding a little worried.

"It won't hurt to see if the Princess can help us," Ace said. "We can be back home tomorrow afternoon at the latest."

"I suppose..." Cherry finally agreed.

At that moment, there was a knock at the door. "Dinner," said a voice from beyond the door. Ace went up and opened the door to reveal two unicorns carrying a small buffet with magic. None of us realized how hungry we were until that moment. The unicorns entered the room, heading straight for the table between the couches.

They set their mini-buffet on the table. They took off all the lids to reveal various assorted foods; more than I could ever remember seeing all at once, and certainly more than I could describe. We all ate what we could, and the two unicorns brought everything that remained back out with them.

"I'm going to bed now," Cherry said. She got up and walked to one of the corner bedrooms, closing the door behind her.

"I am, too," I said. Full and tired, I went off to the opposite corner bedroom. It was a larger room than I expected, with a rather large green and purple bed in the corner. The walls were a combination of suns and moons all around, and the ceiling had a sun with a crescent shadow on it. Other than that, the room was a bare dark purple.

I took off my bracelets and set them on the nightstand. I then climbed into the bed and got comfortable. Unfortunately, the window in the room faced North over Canterlot, meaning I wouldn't be awakened like I was used to. I pushed that though aside, as the bed was very comfortable. I fell asleep almost instantly.

I could hear crashing sounds. I got up and looked out the window. There was smoke obscuring my view of the city. What I could see, however, appeared to be creatures flying around. There were small creatures and large creatures all around in the sky. The large ones had moments where they cast a glowing streak through the smoke in front of them.

Dragons? Attacking Canterlot? It didn't make any sense. Why would dragons attack Canterlot if they haven't been provoked? And what were so many dragons doing in the area? Aren't dragons territorial?

Territorial... That must explain why they were attacking. But still, why so many?

"Pepper?" I could here from behind my door. I opened the door to find Ace standing just outside.

"Ace, what's going on? Why are there dragons attacking?" I asked him.

"Dragons?" Cherry said as she walked up accompanied by Cres. "Is that what's happening?"

I moved away from the doorway and gestured to the window. Everypony went to get a look at what was happening outside. As they were all looking, a dragon had sent a fireball in the direction of the castle. It caused a very loud rumbling sound followed by an unfortunate reminder that the castle is precariously positioned on the face of a cliff.

"We need to get out of here," Ace said as the dragon sent a few more fireballs towards the castle.

A guard had broken down the door to the guestroom. "You four, follow me. Quickly!" he snapped. We ran to the door and followed him through the labyrinthine castle. We turned seemingly at random, having to backtrack constantly because of rubble filling the halls. When it appeared that there was no way to the main exit, the guard broke through a nearby window.

What he didn't predict was that it was on the third floor. He blindly jumped, thinking he would land softly. Needless to say, he didn't. Cherry was clearly horrified by the mess that was the guard below, even backing against the far wall to get away from the window. Ace grabbed her between his hooves and flew out the window. I did the same with Cres, barely managing to stay airborne with her.

"Put Crescent on my back," Ace said as I mad my way down. "I can carry her and Cherry back to Ponyville."

I set Cres on Ace, and he took off with both of them. A dragon had shot a fireball right where Ace was a moment before, which disoriented me a little. When the smoke in front of me cleared, Ace was nowhere to be seen. He must have achieved enough distance to be safe from the dragons. At least, I hoped that was the case.

I spread out my wings to prepare for takeoff. As I lifted them, a few stray bits of the castle that a dragon had broken off managed to land directly on my right wing. I could hear the bones crack as my wing shot out in recoil. The sheer pain was enough to render my wing unable to support me in flight.

I noticed that everypony had managed to escape Canterlot, leaving me alone in this crumbling city. I had to try to figure a way out on my own.

There were three ways in or out of Canterlot. One was by flying yourself, which I couldn't do with a shattered wing. One was by guard escort, but there were no guards alive in the ruins of Canterlot. The final way was by old trade route. That was my only ticket out. I didn't know exactly where to go, but it couldn't be hard to find, since it had to be somewhere along the cliff.

I went to the side closer to Ponyville first. No trade route. Just my luck. I had to go through the entire city to find the other route. I ran as fast as I could to try to find it. I eventually hit the cliff side that the other edge of town hung on. Nothing. Nothing? There had to be a trade route going through a tunnel in the cliff, then.

As it turned out, there was only one street that went into the cliff. I went straight for it. Although all ponies had left already, there were still several dragons. One of them must have seen me and shot a fireball towards me. It missed, but it hit the overhang above the street. It collapsed, completely blocking the street. My last chance out, taken away.

Most of the dragons had left by this point. Only one was left. It didn't seem to notice I was still there, to my relief. It was just flying around, trying to cause as much damage as it possibly could. It must have liked this place and wanted to set up a nest, but it had to remove all traces of previous ownership.

It clawed at the castle relentlessly, but all it did was knock more rubble down. He eventually managed to find it's weak point. He shot a fireball right at the point where the castle connected to the cliff. The castle began to tip over even more precariously. Satisfied with this result, the dragon shot another fireball, causing the castle to collapse. The castle fell right on the city of Canterlot.

Unable to support this shift in weight, the ground began to shake. I noticed that the cliff seemed to be rising. No... Canterlot was falling! And I was stuck here. There was nothing I could do but wait for it to hit the ground. I couldn't help but think that we should have paid attention to Cherry, that we shouldn't have come.

My thoughts wandered over all of my friends in Ponyville. Ace and Crescent... Cherry and Zephyr... Thunder... They would never see me again. I couldn't help but think of this as Canterlot fell. It was a strange sensation, being in a city as it literally falls to dragons. As suddenly as the attack had started...

"Pep?" A familiar voice echoed quietly...
> 4: Equestria Historia
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Pep, wake up!" The familiar voice said.

I woke up to find Crescent shaking me.

"Are you alright, Pep?" Cres asked.

"Yeah, just a bad dream." I said. I could tell that I was breathing rather heavily. I quickly tried to stop that.

"You were thrashing around pretty badly," Cres continued. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine." I repeated. I got out of bed and put on my bracelets.

"What was your dream about?" Cres asked.

"Dragons attacking Canterlot," I said, reliving it vividly. I put my right wing out to examine it. I could feel remnants of pain in it, but thankfully it wasn't actually shattered.

"Don't take it seriously," Cres said, putting her hoof around me. "There aren't any savage dragons left in Equestria. I don't think we'll have to worry about it."

"I hope not..." I sighed.

We walked out to find the table covered with a breakfast buffet. Ace and Cherry were already eating, so Cres and I joined them. I didn't eat much, since my mind was still stuck on my dream. It felt so real. I tried to put it out of mind as much as possible, but it was harder than I expected.

"So what happened in your dream, Pep?" Cres asked, snapping me back into reality.

"Well," I started, "dragons came and attacked Canterlot. You three had managed to escape, but the dragons trapped me here. They completely destroyed the city, even detaching it from the cliff it's on. Before Canterlot hit the ground, Cres woke me." When I finished, they all just stared at me.

Cherry, who was scared enough just being in Canterlot, pushed away the food she was about to eat. Clearly, she couldn't think about dragons attacking while we were here. She got up from the couch and went into her corner room. I got up and followed her to make sure she was alright.

When I opened the door, I saw her curled up on the bed. She looked up at the noise the door made when I closed it behind me. It looked as if she was trying as hard as possible not to cry.

"You doing okay?" I asked her.

She put her head back down.

"Hey," I said, starting to move towards her. "Don't worry about my dream."

Cherry curled herself tighter. I climbed up onto her bed and laid down next to her.

"Don't worry. We'll be back home in just a couple hours," I said, putting a wing over her to try and comfort her.

"It's just..." Cherry's voice wavered as she put her head back up, "I didn't want to come here at all. And then you mentioned..." Cherry's sentence cut off as she curled up again.

It slipped my mind when I said it before, but Cherry was deathly afraid of fully-grown dragons. A quiet "Oh..." came from my lips when I realized what had actually scared her. I tightened my wing's grip around her.

"I'm sorry," I said, "I forgot about that," in an attempt to avoid saying 'dragon' again in front of her.

"It's... It's okay." Cherry sounded reassured. "It's fine." She pushed my wing off of her and got up. I climbed up after her.

"Thank you, Pepper," Cherry said. We walked back out and returned to where we were seated before. The food had been taken away, but there was still a guard at the door.

"Now that you're all here," the guard started, "if you could please follow me." He turned and walked out.

We did as we were told and followed him out. He led us through the confusing hallways with ease, even bringing us up a floor. We stopped outside a dark purple door, one that had a crescent moon on it. The guard knocked on the door.

"You may enter," came a voice from beyond the door.

The door opened, and the guard gestured for us to go in. Ace led the way, and we all followed closely behind. The room was very spacious. Similar to the door, the room was covered with black and dark blue. There was a desk near the wall, backed by a large stained window representing Princess Luna raising the moon. Around the corner, there were bookshelves with a lot of books in them. There was also a glass door on the back wall, through which I could see what appeared to be a balcony.

The desk had piles of books on it. I paid it no mind at first. It wasn't until they were enveloped in a light blue aura and then magically moved out of the way that I realized what they were concealing. When they moved, they revealed a majestic looking dark blue mare whose mane and tail flowed out brilliantly with the appearance of the night sky. I noticed her horn was also glowing light blue, meaning she was the one who moved the books.

It was none other than Princess Luna! We all came to the realization within a second of her moving the books away. As a result, we were all bowing before her in little more than five seconds.

"No need for that," The Lunar Princess said, slightly amused. "We're all equals for the moment. Might I ask your names?"

"Of course," Ace said as we all stood up. "I'm Ace," he motioned to himself. "And there's Crescent," he pointed to Cres. "And Pepper," he pointed to me. "And finally Cherry," he said, turning to give the Princess a view of Cherry.

"Glad to meet you all," the Princess said, looking to each of us in turn. "And if you could please call me Luna, I would appreciate that."

"Of course, Luna," Ace said.

"So, I've been informed from Twilight that you four are looking for a way to alter time, correct?" Luna asked.

"Of course! We want to see the perihelion!" Cres burst out from nowhere, causing the unsuspecting Cherry to jump.

Luna chuckled. "Well, I'm glad you feel that way, Crescent."

Cres, having just been called by name by the one pony she truly looked up to, could no longer contain her excitement. Cherry had taken to moving away from Cres for her own safety.

"Anyway," Ace continued, "is there something you can do to help us, like a spell or something?"

"Spells focused around time in that sense can't move ponies forward through time, only back," Luna said. Cres stopped bouncing when she heard that.

Luna continued, "However, there is something I can do to help. Follow me" Luna got up from her desk and walked over to the other end of the room.

At this end of the room, around the corner from the door, there was a bookcase lined with dictionaries. They weren't exactly alphabetized; the middle shelf had the letters C, E, H, O, P, S, T, and U. Those specific dictionaries were then enveloped in Luna's blue magic. They were rearranged to spell something, but before I got to see what, they had disappeared with the rest of the shelf.

Behind where the bookshelf should have been was a small alcove. There was almost nothing in there but a few books. The only thing that stood out was a stand with an ancient-looking tome sitting on it. The tome's title appeared to have been Equestria Historia, though I wasn't entirely sure what that meant.

"This," Luna said, "this is the original history book of Equestria. Very few ponies like you ever get to see this, let alone be told of it's existence. This is where all of your myths and legends come from. I was given this book by one of my father's scribes shortly after his departure. It's written in a forgotten language, with only myself and my sister, Celestia, able to understand it."

We were all silent, trying to get every visible detail of the tome into our minds. Even Cherry couldn't help but show curiosity after Luna mentioned what it was before us. Then one minor inconsistency dawned on me.

"Luna?" I asked. "If that book is the origin of legend, then why haven't I heard of any legends of things that influence time?"

"That, Pepper," Luna replied, "is because this tome has more history and accuracy than any legends you may know. Not every detail recorded in here went on to become a legend, but the ones that did appear to have changed over time.

"Now, the reason I have brought you in here is because there is a section for time manipulation. Allow me to find where it's at..."

Luna flipped through the pages of Equestria Historia carefully with her magic. She stopped occasionally, having a somewhat nostalgic look in her eyes as she did. After a moment, she finally stopped on one page.

"Found it," she said. "Now, as I've said, this book is written in a forgotten language. For that reason, I will read to you what it says." Luna cleared her throat.

"For ages, there has been a temple dedicated to what is known as the Epochust. The temple itself is guarded by three trials, each testing different skills. No pony has been able to complete the trials and make it back alive. Slowly, over time, the temple was forgotten, and exists outside of Equestrian borders.

"Little is known about the Epochust itself. It is believed to grant the mythical title of Time Guardian to those who reach it. The appearance of the Epochust is unknown, as is whether or not it actually exists. The Epochust itself is guarded too heavily for any pony to reach it alive."

Luna closed the book. "There you have it," she said to us.

"Are you really going to send us on a quest for something like that?" Cres asked.

"I'm not sending you," Luna replied. "If you choose to go, I will not stop you. But if you wish to return home, I can call for the Royal Guards to escort you. Now my question is, are you willing to go?"

Ace was the one to answer. "Yes," he said.

"I don't want a quick answer. You should really think it through." Luna said. She walked out of the alcove and to the door of her study. "If you could return to the room you're staying in, I'll visit later to get an answer from you." She opened the door to allow us out.

***

We had spent most of the afternoon trying to come up with a decision. We were still a little unsure as to if we should do it when we heard a knock at the door.

"The Princess has requested your presence," the Guard who had knocked said. We followed him back to Luna's study.

"I trust you've come up with a decision by now?" Luna asked us.

"We have," Ace answered. "Cherry didn't want to come to the Castle in the first place, so we'll let her go back to Ponyville. The rest of us will go for this Epic... whatever it is."

"Very well," Luna replied. "Before you leave, however, there is something I wish to show you." Luna then walked out onto the balcony. "If you could please come out here."

While none of us thought about how long we had taken to decide before, we saw now that it was clearly quite a while. It was already evening.

As Celestia was currently out of Equestria, Luna had to control both Celestia's sun and her own moon. Her horn glowed a brilliant light blue as she faced west, her eyes closed in concentration. The sun answered Luna's request, slowly drifting below the horizon. The stars began to show themselves as Luna turned eastward.

Luna's magic became brighter while she lowered her head. She slowly came up as the moon peeked over the horizon, bathing Equestria in it's pale glow. I could tell that the moon was larger than usual, and with more size came more beauty. The perihelion was definitely a spectacle worth seeing.

Luna's horn stopped glowing, but she was still radiant in the light of her moon. I noticed Ace had put his wing around me, though I didn't mind at the time. Crescent, who was usually the most energetic of us, was evidently speechless. Even Cherry seemed to be enjoying the serenity of the perihelion.
> 5: Stellar Allies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time is nothing short of cruel. Going back to the guest room after witnessing the perihelion, I intended to lay down in my bed for a few minutes. Once those few minutes had passed, however, the room was much brighter than I expected. The lower part of my right foreleg was numb, since I laid on it without removing the bands around it. Things weren't going well right from the start, but I figured that meant the bad things for today were already out of the way.

I got out of bed, stretched a little, and looked at the mirror. My mane was also clearly against me that morning, as it didn't want to cooperate. After a few minutes, I gave up and went into the main room. Ace and Cherry were already awake, the former having his back to me. Cherry noticed me limp trying to keep weight off of my now sore foreleg.

"Are you alright, Pepper?" She asked.

"I'm fine," I answered honestly, "Just a little sore." I pulled the upper bracelet up a little further to reveal the marking it had spent several hours drilling. "Turns out it's not a good idea to sleep with bracelets on."

Cherry was clearly a little more cheerful after seeing the perihelion. It was a relief seeing her laugh despite her struggle with fear yesterday. Her joy wasn't disrupted as the breakfast buffet arrived. I decided to go and wake Cres up so she wouldn't miss breakfast.

I knocked on the door of her temporary room, but there was no response. I tried again, getting with the same result. I opened the door and entered. The bed was empty. Instead, Cres was perched on the windowsill, sleeping against the window.

"Cres?" I said quietly as I poked her shoulder with a hoof. She mumbled something incoherent, and adjusted slightly. Unfortunately for her, the adjustment she made unbalanced her and nearly sent her right down to the floor. She would've hit the floor if I hadn't been right there to catch her.

"...just a little longer, mommy? I'm tired," Cres said automatically in her sleep. I smiled a little, a mischievous grin as I was thinking of ways to use that against her. I brought her over to her bed and set her down, carefully covering her with the blankets. She adjusted herself to a more comfortable position.

I assumed she was the way she was to gaze at the perihelion as long as she could. There was a problem with this theory, however; her room was right next to mine, and therefore also had a north-facing window. I figured I wouldn't think about it for now, and just ask her when she wakes up later. I made my way out of her room to see Ace and Cherry looking towards me from their seats.

"Is Crescent coming out?" Cherry asked when she saw me close the door behind me.

"She stayed up a little too late last night," I replied with a laugh. The other two followed suit, and we were all too caught up in laughter to see the door open behind me.

"What's so funny, Pep?" I jumped as Cres addressed me only because I didn't realize she was there.

I turned around to face her. "Nothing, my daughter," I said, and I struggled to withhold a laugh at the last two words.

"What?" Cres asked, confusion showing in her blue eyes.

"Don't worry about it," I said, starting for my own seat on the couch. "Though, would you mind telling me what you were doing sleeping on the windowsill?"

"I... What?" Cres looked confused while the rest of us tried to stifle our laughter.

"Just forget about it," I said, brushing against her playfully. I then took my spot and began to eat. Cres put the conversation aside and did the same.

Time passed on, and we all had our share of food. The leftovers were taken away, and a Lunar Guard remained at the door. He was a blue pegasus with a black mane and tail. He told us to follow, and waited for us to obey before continuing. It wasn't the same path we took to Luna's study. Instead, he took us to the entrance of the castle, where a cart attached to a pegasus Royal Guard was waiting.

"Any pony who wishes to leave, you may do so now," The Lunar Guard said. This was where Cherry was supposed to leave. Cherry tentatively moved towards the cart before Ace stopped her. He wrapped his hooves around her neck and held her for a moment. When he let go, I did the same. Then came Cres.

Cherry was at a loss for words. "Be safe," Cherry finally said, trying her best to withhold tears. 

"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine." I hope.

Cherry stepped into the waiting carriage, which promptly took off towards Ponyville when she was secured in it. We all waved to her as she left. I couldn't help but feel bad for her, since she was most likely going to be bombarded with questions regarding what the rest of us are doing.

"This way, please," the Lunar Guard said. We followed him through the castle to the familiar dark blue door which privatized Luna's study. We entered to find Luna in conversation with another Lunar Guard, a full black pegasus this time, sporting the same armor as the blue pegasus.

"Nighthawk?!" Came Cres' surprised voice as she rushed over to the new pegasus. He instantly wrapped her in his hooves and wings when she attempted to tackle him.

"It's been too long, Crescent," Nighthawk said with a drawl.

"I take it you two know each other?" Luna asked them, smiling.

"Before I moved to Ponyville, I lived here in Canterlot. Nighthawk was my neighbor and best friend. He was the only colt who didn't make fun of me for my obsession with the moon." Crescent practically buried herself into Nighthawk's embrace, even pushing through the discomfort that his armor brought on.

"I'm glad I could bring you back together," Luna continued. "Nighthawk and Darkfire there," She motioned to the blue pegasus, "are two of my best Lunar Guards. They will accompany us for awhile on our journey." Us? Our journey?

Ace was just faster than I was at this realization. "Luna, are you coming with us?" he asked.

"Of course," Luna replied. "It's been a long time since I've gone for an adventure. Besides, I've got my two best guards to look after us, and I've even worked out a disguise." Her horn began to glow, which spread around her whole body. There was a bright flash of light that forced me to look away.

When I looked back, Luna was gone. In her place was a midnight blue unicorn, glowing with the same aura that Luna was just seconds before. Her mane and tail were light blue, with her mane cut halfway down her neck. Her cutie mark was just a crescent moon, which appeared to be faintly glowing beyond the magical aura. When she opened her eyes, they were glowing light blue while the aura collected at her horn. As the aura subsided, her eyes faded to teal.

"Luna?" Ace said.

"Call me Stella," the new mare replied, sounding much more like a filly than I'd expected.

"But Luna, what about your royal duties?" Darkfire asked.

"I haven't relieved the regent of power since my return," Stella replied. "I'm sure she can handle a few more days." Darkfire was clearly still skeptical with Stella's plan, but he kept further inquiry to himself. "Now," Stella continued, "if we leave soon, we can make it to Whinniesburg by nightfall. We can rest up for the night there. I've already packed up supplies that should last us for three days. Are you all ready to go?"

"As ready as we'll ever be," Ace said. "Let's get going."

"Very well," Stella said. Her horn started to glow again, and after another bright flash, we were at the northern exit of Canterlot, the one that leads around the mountain down to the ground below. Stella led the way down, followed by Ace and Darkfire, with Crescent, Nighthawk, and myself bringing up the rear.

***

We'd been following the path for a few hours. By now, Darkfire and Ace were leading the party. Stella had fallen back and was walking alongside me. We had taken a break and stepped off the path for lunch, but that was several hours ago. The sun was on the verge of setting. I was about to suggest we take a break and set up camp for the night, but then I noticed something in the distance. It appeared to be a faint glow. I thought I might be going mad from hunger, but then I noticed the glow was coming out of the window of a house.

We reached it just as the sun fell below the horizon. There was a sign that read "Welcome to Whinniesburg" on the side of the path.

"Here we are. Whinniesburg," Stella said. She led us through the town, the moonlight doing a great job of lighting the place at night. The streets were mostly empty. We stopped in front of a hotel, which appeared nearly empty as well save two attendants, one mare and one stallion.

"Hello, and welcome to Whinniesburg Hotel," the mare said.

"I'm Silver and she's Summer," The stallion continued.

"We would like to stay a night," Nighthawk said.

"Of course," Summer said. "If you three fillies could follow me." She started to a hallway and turned, waiting for Stella, Cres, and me to follow, which we did. I heard Silver ask for the others to follow him, but I didn't see which way they went. Summer opened a door and allowed us in. "If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask. You can almost always find me or Silver in the lobby," Summer said before closing the door behind us.

The room was mostly bare. There were seven beds, each with a nightstand next to them. Behind every other bed was a window, moonlight filtering through each one. Moonlight...

"Luna?" I asked.

"Please, call me Stella," Stella responded.

"Sorry, Stella? If Celestia's currently away from Equestria, and you're here, then who's controlling the sun and moon?"

"We've entrusted our niece, Cadance, to take care of that. Aside from the perihelion last night, she's been in control of them. She's also our regent while we're both away."

"So was Cadance also the one who allowed us to come to Canterlot Castle?"

"Twilight knew Celestia was out of Equestria, but she must not have realized that I was as well at the time. She sent the letter to me, and I alerted the guards to your arrival. Cadance only knew you were coming, and she knew I was almost back in Equestria. She decided to allow me to speak to you myself upon my return." Stella caught herself building a formal tone, and cut it instantly. "She knew it was more in my domain anyway."

"What do you mean by that, Stella?" Cres asked, finally deciding to join in on the conversation.

"Well, something that Equestria Historia doesn't mention is that the Epochust chamber was guarded closely by the Lord of the Moon, my father." Stella paused for a moment. "He personally guarded it, so we didn't see much of him. We found out after his demise that he had slowly been corrupting the Epochust so that it would fall under control of any who controlled the moon."

"Like you," Cres said.

"Yes. But from what we gathered, his corruption was what caused his demise. He literally poured his power into the Epochust to make sure it was under Lunar control. He... must have put too much..." Stella just fell silent at the memory, shaking slightly. Even after so long, she still clearly wasn't over it. I put a wing around her to try and comfort her.

"You don't need to tell us if you don't want to," I said quietly.

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't see your Princess breaking down like this," Stella said, trying to fight back tears.

"Right now, you're not our Princess. You're Stella," I said, unsure whether they were the right words. They seemed to be working, though. Stella just sat there, taking in these words under the comfort of my embrace. "And you need friends to help you through your troubles."

"It's just... My father..." Stella couldn't get out a full sentence. By this point, Cres had joined in and had her hoof around Stella. "I want to know what happened... What really happened... Why he..."

"What's past is prologue," Cres said, "and the past needs resolution. There's no way to change what did happen, but there's always what will happen. We'll figure out what really happened to your father when we reach the Epochust." That seemed to do it. Stella stopped trying to hold her tears back.

After an unknown time passed, Stella was finished. "Thank you," she said before escaping to one of the beds. Cres and I got into the beds right next to Stella's. We knew we had to head out in the morning, so it was better to get as much sleep as we could tonight. Ace, Darkfire, and Nighthawk were probably already asleep, since they didn't know the grief Stella had tried to hold off for millennia. I set my bracelets on the nightstand and closed my eyes, ready for whatever tomorrow brought.
> 6: While in Whinniesburg
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun peeked through the window, causing sunlight to shine on my face. This woke me up as always, but something was different. The room was a different shape, size, and color than my room. Then I noticed Stella sleeping peacefully in the neighboring bed. I remembered that we weren't in Ponyville, but instead we were in Whinniesburg.

Cres and Stella were lucky. Stella didn't have a window over her bed. There was a tree outside, and it happened to cast it's shadow right on the window above Cres, shielding her from the fate I just met with.

I reached for my bracelets on the nightstand, and accidentally knocked one onto the floor. The result was a rather loud metallic clang. Stella shot upright at the sound, looking around frantically.

"Sorry," I said quietly to Stella as I climbed out of bed. I picked the bracelet back up and put it on with the other one.

"How long have you been awake, Pepper?" Stella asked while she got out of her bed.

"Just woke up."

"We should probably get Cres and the colts and be on our way," Stella made her way over to Cres and shook her lightly to wake her. I wouldn't have thought it necessary, considering my bracelet is a pretty decent alarm clock. Cres stirred and slowly came to.

"Morning already?" Cres asked. "I swear I just went to sleep five minutes ago."

"That's how I felt yesterday morning," I said. "At least the tree let you sleep longer than I was able to."

"Where are you going, Stella?" Cres noticed Stella was trying to slip out of the room.

"Get the colts, then we can be on our way," Stella replied. "You coming?"

We followed her out of the room and into the lobby, where we found Summer sitting behind the desk. "Good morning," she said to us. Nighthawk had already made his way into the lobby, where he sat waiting for us. Although he wasn't wearing his armor, he still managed to somehow cover his cutie mark, so I still didn't know what it was. Cres instantly took the seat next to him.

"Are Ace and Darkfire awake yet?" Stella asked Nighthawk.

"They left not too long ago with a local mare," Nighthawk replied. "She said she needed help with something."

"And you didn't go along?" Stella asked.

"I stayed behind to wait for you three, let you know where they went."

"And where did they go?" I asked.

"I'm... not too sure, actually," Nighthawk looked slightly downward as he said this.

"Lila?" Summer said unexpectedly. "She owns the local botany shop. She commonly comes here to find stallions from out of town willing to lend a hoof. Her shop is right down the street."

"Thanks," Stella said. She led the way out onto the street and followed Summer's directions. Sure enough, a short distance down the street, was Lila's Botany Shop. It was, more or less, just a booth. Behind it was a greenhouse, in which we could clearly see Ace and Darkfire helping a violet mare which must be Lila. Stella walked up to the open doorway and tapped on the glass.

"Can I help you?" The purple mare asked at the entrance, where I could see her clearly now. Her curled mane and tail were a darker shade than her coat, with streaks of a lighter shade through them. Her eyes were light blue, and dark freckles were visible on her cheeks right behind them. Her cutie mark was that of a lilac bud backed by a fully bloomed lilac.

"We're here to pick up our stallions," Stella responded, noting that they had stopped what they were doing to see what was going on. "The ones you just enslaved earlier today," she added.

"Can't they stay a little longer?" Lila pleaded. "They've been so helpful this morning."

"Don't keep them too long, we need to get going soon."

"Well, I'm actually getting a delivery this afternoon, and I was hoping they could help me until then."

"I suppose we could stay in town for an extra day," Stella turned to Nighthawk and Cres. "Any objections?" Nighthawk and Cres both shook their heads. Stella looked at me, and I shook my head as well. "Then they can stay for now."

"Do we not get a say?" Ace asked from inside the greenhouse, assorted flowerpots on his back.

"Nope, now get back to work, you two!" Lila jokingly snapped at Ace and Darkfire. "Could you help, too?" She added, looking at Nighthawk.

"I guess I could, now that we're not in a hurry any more," Nighthawk responded, entering the greenhouse. Lila lingered back until Nighthawk was well out of earshot.

"Nice group of stallions you've got yourselves," Lila said quietly to us. "I'm especially liking that blue one. Which of you mares is he with?"

"Darkfire?" Stella replied. "He's actually the only one available. If you want him, he's all yours."

"Will you be coming back to town anytime soon?"

"We weren't actually planning on returning to Whinniesburg. We could possibly arrange a time for Darkfire to return here."

"Stella!"

"Yes, Crescent?" Stella was starting to adopt her formal tone, but she seemed to realize her mistake after Cres called her name. She dropped her formal voice afterward with her response.

"We can't just arrange a date for Darkfire like this, especially without talking to him about it first."

"Right, I'm sorry," Stella apologized, then turned back to Lila. "We're not just going to leave Darkfire here. If you were to move to C-- Ponyville, then you could probably see a lot more of him." The stress she put on Ponyville, after almost saying what I assume was Canterlot, appeared to make Lila suspicious. She didn't have time to dwell on it, however, as a short series of loud crashes sounded from within the greenhouse.

Darkfire had apparently tried to use his wings to carry more flowerpots than he actually could. About half of the pots slid off of his wings, and a third of those pots broke on the ground. He looked down at the mess he made, his wings still outstretched with several flowerpots on them. He noticed Lila running up to him, and tried to apologize.

"It's quite alright, dear," Lila said to Darkfire, "it was bound to happen. I'm impressed with how long it took for the first pots to break today." Lila started for the storage shed at the back of the greenhouse, but stopped when she noticed the broken bits of the flowerpots were enveloped in a light blue aura.

"It looks like you could use the help of a unicorn, as well," Stella said, her horn glowing with the same blue aura. She brought the flowerpot shards to the shed, accepting Lila's gratitude as she went. The fading of the blue aura told me that she dropped the shards somewhere in the shed, most likely in a garbage bin inside.

***

A once unused table in the greenhouse now had a couple hundred flowerpots, each one filled with a special soil that helped plants grow. We all chipped in to help, and afterward the seven of us went to a nearby restaurant for lunch while waiting on Lila's delivery to arrive. We returned to her greenhouse just as the delivery arrived. It was just a small wooden crate, about as tall as any of us.

"What's in it?" I asked.

"Various seeds," Lila said. "I'm sure you're familiar with lilacs? Well, I've always wanted to grow some here in the greenhouse, but there's nowhere to plant a bush. A florist from Manehatten managed to cross some certain flowers, and came up with a seed that grows just the bushels of lilacs without the actual bush. I asked her if she could send me some seeds, and as you can see, she agreed."

"How many lilac seeds did you buy to get a crate this big?" Cres asked.

"Actually, around a week ago, some thieves broke into the storage shed and stole about half my supply of seeds," Lila explained. "I called in an order for all the seeds that were stolen, which were sent to the florist I mentioned before. She added in her lilac seeds and redirected the shipment here."

"Why didn't you contact the authorities about the thieves?" Stella inquired.

"Well, there are no local authorities here in Whinniesburg. What we're supposed to do is contact the Canterlot Royal Guard. I sent a letter out a couple days ago, but I haven't heard back since." Lila looked a little disappointed before adding, "But it's fine, I've got the seeds that were stolen, plus a little extra. It turned out alright. Anyways, you mind helping me bring the seeds into the shed?"

Nighthawk opened the crate to see large bags of seeds, the lilacs that Lila mentioned right on top. He took out two of the large seed bags and carried them on his back to the storage shed. Ace and Darkfire did the same. Stella magically lifted the rest and brought them to the shed.

"Again, thank you for your help," Lila repeated. "Do you think you could come back this evening? Have dinner and some friendly conversation?"

"I see nothing wrong with that," Stella said.

"We'll be here," I finished for her.

"Great, see you tonight, then."

We left for the Whinniesburg hotel, exploring various booths and exhibits along the way. One such exhibit was a magic show led by a blue unicorn, wearing a purple hat and cape, who constantly referred to herself in the third person as The Great and Powerful Trixie. We all unanimously agreed that she was nothing more than a showoff, and that there were better unicorns back in Ponyville. She apparently heard us.

"You think you can find better unicorns than the Great and Powerful Trixie?" she said as she stood up on her back legs and fireworks shot up from the stage.

"Yeah. We've got one right here," Nighthawk said, lightly hitting Stella.

"Get up here, you." Stella didn't hesitate at the chance to put this showoff in her place. As soon as she was on the stage, Trixie continued, "What's your name, filly?"

"They call me Stella."

"Well, Stella, do you think you're better than the Great and Powerful Trixie?" More fireworks, which were caught by a magical blue aura.

"I don't need to think so, I know I am." The crowd gasped as Stella morphed the fireworks into the shape and color of her crescent moon cutie mark before letting them fizzle out.

Trixie recovered quickly from her unnoticed shock with a laugh. "It'll take more than that to outshine the Great and Powerful Trixie." Her horn glowed as she brought back the shape of the crescent moon, altered the color to a light blue, and traced the shape of a star-tipped wand with her horn. She then merged them together into a shape that I assume matched her own cutie mark. She touched the suspended pyrotechnics with her horn, and it dispersed over the crowd in a shower of harmless cyan sparks, making them go wild.

Stella, entirely unfazed by her adversaries move, took the next step up. She conjured more sparks, this time the color of her midnight blue coat, and morphed them into the shape of a full sized unicorn body. The marionette reared up, preparing to fight.

Trixie accepted the challenge by summoning her own persona. A sky blue unicorn borne of sparks materialized in front of her, preparing itself for battle. They both fought diligently before they rammed headfirst into each other and exploded, sending a multitude of sparks to shower the crowd.

"I must say, Stella, that you're nearly as good as the Great and Powerful Trixie!" A roar erupted from the crowd, followed by chants of Stella's name from the crowd. "I will call you my equal. Won't you come back soon?"

"I'm flattered by the offer, but my friends and I are leaving town tomorrow." The audience gave protest, but Stella stepped down from the stage and came back to us. We went straight back to the hotel, so as to get away from the crowd of ponies who were suddenly fans of Stella.
> 7: To the Edge of Equestria
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun was nearing it's resting place on the horizon, and the horde of crazy fans seemed to have disappeared. We took this opportunity to get to Lila's greenhouse unnoticed. For the most part, it worked. Either Trixie had another show currently going, or her fans were too loyal to her to care for Stella any longer.

Lila was sitting on a bench near her greenhouse waiting for us. She stood up and joined us when we neared her, leading us in a direction we hadn't been yet. She led us to her home, which wasn't too far from her greenhouse. It had many other plants in it, which perfectly accented the floral patterns that covered her walls. Lila set up a feast for us in her large dining room, Stella conjuring extra chairs and extending the table slightly so we could all join in. Immediately after the feast, Stella reversed the magic before we started out.

"Leaving so soon?" Lila asked, watching us file out, only Stella, Ace, and myself left in her house.

"We actually have somewhere to go," Stella said, "and we need to leave before the sun rises in the morning. That way we can make it before m--" She cut off, realizing she was halfway to calling it her night. "Before night can come," Stella put extra emphasis on night to make it sound like a simple stutter, but Lila didn't buy it.

"There's something about you..." she hesitated a moment, collecting her thoughts. "You're similar in appearance... Tend to put on a formal tone... And can I safely assume you were about to call it your night?" Stella hung her head slightly, causing Lila to have a moment of shock as she realized her assumption was correct.

"I see you figured it out," Stella said, closing the door and shutting the blinds so that it was impossible to see inside the house. "You're much too sharp to be an average botanist." Stella's form was encased in a light blue aura, and she slowly morphed back into her usual form as princess of the night. When the aura faded from Luna's body, Lila dropped into a bow. "You may rise." Lila did as instructed, though she still hadn't fully recovered from her shock.

"What are you doing here?" Lila asked after recovering from her shock, completely unaware of how that may have sounded.  "I mean..." she stopped when Luna cut her off.

"As I said previously, we have a matter to attend to. We stopped in Whinniesburg because it was the most convenient town to stop in, and we stayed longer to fulfill your request."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hold you back or anything."

"It's quite alright," Luna said consolingly to Lila. "There's no particular time that we need to arrive by."

Lila gave a sigh of relief at hearing that. "Where are you going, If I may ask?"

"Right now, we're heading to the northern border of Equestria. That's where we'll separate and go our different ways."

"And you came all this way with just a group of ponies from Canterlot?"

"Ponyville," Luna corrected. "And don't think I was oblivious to the dangers along the way. Nighthawk and Darkfire are actually two of my best guards, so there's nothing to worry about." By this point, I began to wonder what those two and Cres were doing and whether or not they realized we're no longer with them. Lila had fallen silent at the revelation, particularly by the fact that Darkfire was a Lunar Guard, I assume. Luna took this to mean that she was done interrogating, and began transforming back into her Stella disguise.

"Wait," she said as Luna was halfway through her metamorphosis, "one last question."

"What would that be?" Ace asked in place of Luna, as she was mid-transformation.

"Can I come along?"

Ace fell silent and looked to me, hoping I could help with this decision. Fortunately, Stella's transformation had complete by this point, and she took it upon herself to answer.

"No," Stella said plainly. "It's probably not for the best to bring civilians along with us."

"But you've got three civilians from Ponyville already with you," Lila countered.

"That's because this matter is their own!" Stella sounded much more angry than she should have, and Ace dropped his head as he realized it was ultimately because of him that we're here. I instinctively wrapped my wing around him to help assuage that feeling of guilt, and he responded by pushing deeper into the embrace.

Lila seemed to be defeated until she realized she still had an ace to play. "You said yourself that I'm much too sharp to be a simple botanist. Well, this is a chance for me to be something more."

Stella realized her own folly after it was pointed out. She stopped to think about Lila's statement. "Very well," she said after a moment. "We'll come by in the morning before we depart to pick you up." Lila tried her best to hide her enthusiasm, but she still let a smile slip. "And sorry for yelling a moment ago," Stella apologized, moving towards the door. "This disguise has a separate personality than my own, some bits of which I'm not entirely proud to admit myself."

***

We went back to the hotel for the night. We ran into Darkfire along the way. Apparently, the others were wondering where we had gone, but they managed to get back to the hotel before realizing. Stella filled them in when we returned regarding Lila, being careful so that Silver didn't learn of our plans. The sun went down and we went to bed for the night.

In the morning, the hotel had a free breakfast. We helped ourselves to some of the food provided, and set out. We stopped at Lila's greenhouse to find her giving some last minute advice to her replacement. She saw us coming, and hastily finished her tutoring.

"Goodbye, Vi!" she called out to her replacement, a younger indigo mare with a dark purple mane and tail. She turned to us and added, "That's my little sister, Violet. She's always wanted to run the greenhouse on her own."

"Makes sense," Darkfire said. He, along with Nighthawk, had a renewed air of authority wearing their armor again. There were very few other ponies at this early hour. I figured they must come out at sunrise, as the moon wasn't even touching the horizon to signal dawn yet.

We exited Whinniesburg through the north gate. There was a fork just outside; one path leading straight on, and one veering off to the right. A sign posted between the two said the left path led to the Northern Equestria Border, while the path to the right led to a town called St. Hoovers. Without hesitation, the black and blue Lunar Guards led us down the left path, to the edge of Equestria.

The journey went on with little conversation. Lila tried to spark something, but gave up and continued in silence. I couldn't help but notice that the amount of trees seemed to drop as we went on. I almost felt sorry for Nighthawk, the dark-colored pegasus that he was, as Celestia's sun neared it's apex.

I also noticed that the horizon appeared to be gradually falling. I almost thought I was seeing things until we came close enough to see over that horizon, over the cliff in front of us. There was a plain below, and a side path down the face of the cliff leading to the plain. The major sight, however, was the massive temple.

It was a large building built entirely out of what appeared to be sandstone. How ancient pony civilizations managed to do it was beyond me. Around the large temple, there appeared to be three large pillars. The pillars were half the height of the central building, and rather thin compared to it as well.

"This," Stella said, "is the edge of Equestria. What you see before you is the Temple of the Epochust. You see each of the three pillars? Those are the ends of the three trials. I'm not sure myself what these trials have in store, but do be careful. And make sure you visit each one.

"While I cannot directly join you, I can do this." Stella began to glow her signature light blue, covering her entire body with a near-blinding, yet elegant, radiance. Her backside seemed to rip open, and out sprouted large wings. The rip appeared to spread, splitting her entire body in half. The glowing form of Luna stood between the two halves of the former Stella. Luna backed off and stopped glowing save her horn. The still glowing halves of her shell reformed, and faded back to the appearance of the Stella we know.

"As I said, I cannot directly join you," Luna continued. "For now, I can shed Stella and send her with you. She's the same as you remember her, just with a little less princess in there."

"Luna..."

"Don't worry, Crescent, I'll still be with you through Stella. You'll have my blessing all the way through these trials.

"One other thing," Luna continued. "Nighthawk."

"Yes, your highness?" Nighthawk responded diligently.

"Stay with them and aid them in the trials. I do wish to see them all again safe," Luna finished with a smile to us, which seemed to calm Cres, who appeared close to breaking down at any moment.

"I wouldn't give them up even at your orders," he responded, finishing the calming of Cres by placing his hoof around her neck and smiling at her.

"Now then," Luna continued, "Darkfire, Lila, let's be on our way."

"Actually," Lila said just after Luna turned to leave, "I was wondering..."

"Yes?" Luna said patiently, turning again towards Lila.

"Well, I came with you here hoping to go abroad, study some of the plants that grow outside Equestria."

"As you can see, this isn't the place to study plant life," Luna motioned to the plains that surrounded the temple.

"I can see," Lila replied, sounding almost too disheartened.

"Tell you what," Luna said. "Why don't you come with us back to Canterlot? We can arrange plans to send you abroad. I'm sure Darkfire would be more than willing to accompany you, isn't that right?"

"Yes!" He responded hastily. "I mean, of course."

Lila's elation was obvious. "You'd do that?" she managed to ask.

"I'm not one to drag you from your home, at your request I might add, to shatter your spirits. Now then, let's return to Canterlot." Luna turned and led the way back down the path, Darkfire and Lila in tow.

"Goodbye!" I called out after them.

"Farewell, Pepper," Luna called back. "And farewell to the rest of you as well."

As they left, Stella seemed to come to consciousness. Her eyes opened slowly, still radiating the light blue color. As the color faded, something in her eyes was different. They were no longer the teal they were when she was Luna. Instead, they were light blue, the same color as her magic.

"Hey, guys," she said in a different voice, slightly higher and lacking a regal note. "When do we get going?"

"Right now, Princess," Ace said. I assume he called Stella 'Princess' because she was literally shed from the Princess of the Night.

With that, Ace made his way down the path on the cliff face. Nighthawk followed, as did the rest of us. We were forced into a line, as it was a precariously thin path. It did it's job, however, and we made it down relatively quickly. I then wondered why we didn't just fly down. Nighthawk could carry Cres, Ace carry Stella, and we would've made it down in half the time. Regardless, there was a sign at the bottom of the cliff, so it wasn't entirely a waste.

"Peregri, sequitur statuto viam ad fornicem. Ire per, et incipiunt primum iudicium de Epochust," Ace read the sign aloud. "What did I just read?"

"Let's just follow the path to the first pillar," Cres suggested. "I see an archway over there."

"What other choice do we have?"
> 8: Trial of Combat
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Periculum subire certamen esse et permanere viribus," Cres read off the arch.

It looked like nothing more than a decrepit old archway. We passed through as if it were nothing, but once we were through, I realized what it signified.

Three trials must be completed. We just began the first.

Flames rose to form a ring, cutting us off from the arch we just passed through and even the pillar that we were heading for. The ground in the center appeared to be growing, as if a large bubble was making it's way up through the dirt. The bubble burst, revealing several mysterious creatures.

They were pony-like, except they also appeared to be part insect. They were all black, having insect-like blue eyes. They had very large fangs. All four of each of their hooves appeared to be covered with holes that went straight through. They had horns, so they were apparently capable of some type of magic. They also had torn insect wings in the place of regular wings.

One of them came up to me, looking curiously at me. It appeared to be very skilled at magic, for it transformed into a regular mare. It may not be very good, for the mare had an appearance that one most likely wouldn't find in a place like this. She had a mint green coat, with a blue mane and tail. Her golden eyes reminded me of a certain pony, as did her peppermint cutie mark.

The creature had transformed into me!

I backed away out of fear, and the doppelganger put on a sly smile and advanced. It lunged at me, but it was knocked askew by Ace. The unexpected blow caused it's transformation to fade away. Stella put up a magic barrier to keep all the creatures at bay.

"Princess," Ace said, "can you use your magic to make us glow?"

"Yeah, I think so," Stella replied. "Why?"

"Because these... things... can only copy so much. Did you notice that the clone of Pepper didn't have any bracelets?"

"Right, and so with my magic, we can identify who's with us and who's not."

"Exactly, Princess. So can you do it?"

"I'd have to... break the barrier," Stella said while struggling to maintain her barrier against the creatures. "Everypony get in close."

We did as she said. Stella released her magic to focus on lighting us up. There was a wave of light blue, followed by a soft glow of the same color emanating from each of us. We each had a light blue aura surrounding us. Stella's barrier shattered, and the battle was on.

Nighthawk and Stella jumped right into the fray. Cres and I backed off to the side, with Ace right in front of us. He had his wings spread so as to keep us covered.

Stella, as a unicorn, had little trouble in combat. She was somewhat off to the side, using her magic to pick up one creature and use it as a weapon against others that attempted to go near her.

Nighthawk was putting his skills as a Lunar Guard to great use. I don't know where it came from, but Nighthawk was clearly wielding a sword. He was slicing through these creatures like they were nothing.

These strange creatures. Whenever they took a fatal hit, they broke apart into little black squares. Most of these squares just dissipated, but always one from each creature remained floating around the field aimlessly.

The creatures kept reappearing exponentially. Nighthawk was barely challenged, but Stella was beginning to run low on magic. She collapsed, exhausted and drained of magic.

"Princess!" Ace yelled out, but it was too late. The creatures that she was trying to take out brought her into the hole at the center of the ring.

"Aish!" Nighthawk called out, the sword in his mouth slurring his speech. With his hooves, he unsheathed another sword and threw it towards us. It stuck in the ground in front of Ace, who picked it up and ran in to assist Nighthawk. For a pony who had never used a sword before, Ace was doing a decent job keeping the creatures at bay. It helped that he could near-perfectly mimic some of Nighthawk's simpler techniques, even adding his own unique twists to some of them.

The number of creatures slowly decreased, meaning we must be nearing the end soon. Eventually, it was down to just one. Nighthawk simply cut through it to, hopefully, end the trial. The square that lingered, along with the rest of them from the other fallen creatures, began to move erratically towards a central point above the center. The hole in the center patched itself with a mysterious orange force field. The aura that Stella put around each of us also began to fade away, indicating that she was beyond recovery.

The black squares combined into what appeared to be a portal. From the portal, more black squares shot out onto the force field. They took the form of what appeared to be a larger version of the creatures. After the cascade of these squares ended, the portal disappeared, and the form changed to a similar color.

Rather than the blue insect-like eyes, it had more pony-like eyes that were red. It also had a short dark green mane, as well as a tail of the same shade. It was much larger than any of us, even larger than Princess Luna. It had even more holes around it's hooves, as well as several on it's oversized horn.

"You dare trespass on our land, and eradicate our people?" The creature called out.

"Who are you?" Ace asked.

"I am Metamorphus, King of the Changelings. And you," he looked around to all of us as his horn started to glow red, "shall pay for your actions." The beam hit Ace directly, sending him flying away from Metamorphus. He hit the ground unconscious, his sword sliding to a stop next to his limp body. The large Changeling laughed as I ran to Ace.

I ran over to make sure he was alright. His wing was slightly misshapen, and his chest was charred. I looked back up to see Nighthawk deflecting every shot Metamorphus threw at him. One shot managed to skim off Nighthawk's sword and burn through the backside of his armor. I finally caught a glimpse of Nighthawk's cutie mark, a yin-yang.

After a few more unsuccessful shots, Metamorphus took notice of Cres, who was too scared to move at all. I realized what he was going to a split second before he did it. He sent a burst of magic directly towards Cres. It would have been a direct hit were it not for the fact that I jumped in front of it before it hit her. It hit my wing instead, making it shoot out in pain. A large scar remained where the magic hit me, and I was unable to fly.

Metamorphus' attempt to hurt Cres seemed to cause Nighthawk to snap. Something in his eyes said he was going to kill anypony and everypony he could find. The first pony to cross his line of sight was King Metamorphus. Nighthawk stomped, which caused a shockwave that shattered his armor. With his sword still in his mouth, he disappeared. Several gashes that appeared along Metamorphus' body told me that Nighthawk was going too fast to be seen, and using it to his advantage.

Metamorphus, unsure of where Nighthawk would attempt to land a fatal blow due to his sporadic movement, put up a barrier just in time. Nighthawk appeared right in front of Metamorphus' face, the barrier all that stood between Nighthawk's sword and Metamorphus' neck. Metamorphus smiled as he realized it was his turn to strike.

His smile disappeared as a loud crack echoed within his barrier. The point where Nighthawk's sword was touching began to crack from the stress it was withholding. The crack spread farther and farther until it finally met itself at the back of the barrier. With a loud sound similar to glass breaking, the barrier shattered. Metamorphus was unable to retaliate before the sword pierced his neck.

"You..." the Changeling King started, but he was unable to finish before the severity of the injury took it's toll. Nighthawk pulled the sword from his neck. Metamorphus stumbled a little before falling, lifeless, onto the forcefield he never left. The force field disappeared, as did the ring of fire, and the Changeling King's lifeless body fell into his people's nest.

Nighthawk looked back at me and Cres. He walked over to us, casually cleaning his sword on the grass as he went. When he reached us, he raised the sword, murder still visible in his eyes. I looked away, putting my face into the ground, hoping that it would somehow save me.

There was the sound of a sword hitting the ground. I looked up to see that Nighthawk was no longer in front of us, but was instead pinned to the ground by Ace.

"Stop, Nighthawk!" Ace yelled. "We've defeated all the enemies. We can move on."

"Get off of me," Nighthawk said quietly, kicking Ace off. He picked up the sword and raised it again.

"You swore to protect us," Ace said, causing Nighthawk to stop. "And now you're going to turn back and kill us, kill Pepper and Crescent."

The murder in Nighthawk's eyes faded as he realized what he was about to do. He slowly lowered his head and sheathed his sword. They both disappeared when the sword clicked in the sheath. "You're right," he said. He knelt down beside us before continuing, "I'm sorry."

Ace grabbed the sword that Nighthawk had loaned him and returned it. Nighthawk did the same thing with that sword. I stood up, helping Cres up as well.

"Pepper, your wing!" Ace exclaimed.

"As long as Cres is okay, I'm not worried about it." I said.

"What happened?"

"She jumped in front of Crescent to protect her from Metamorphus' attack," Nighthawk explained.

"He attacked Crescent? Is that why you suddenly went murder crazy?"

"Yes," Nighthawk said as he looked down.

"Then why would you turn around and try to kill her yourself?"

"Stop arguing," I interrupted. "We've already lost Stella, and the last thing we need is to start fighting among ourselves. The trial's complete, so let's get to the pillar and continue." I indicated the pillar, which now had an opening in it.

Cres made it to the pillar first. There was something written on a sign by the entrance.

"Recitare Hoc reserare deinde iudicium," Cres read. A flash from within the pillar revealed more engravings within. Cres stepped in to read them. "Ego ipse ut tributum ad Epochust."

None of us expected the center of the pillar to fall. It landed right on Cres, crushing her and not leaving a trace. I stood there, shocked at what I had just witnessed. I couldn't believe it actually happened. Blood seeping from under the center confirmed that it actually happened.

Cres is dead.

I sat there, staring at the blood. I didn't even look away when there was a flash to my right. I silently mourned the loss of Cres as her blood continued dripping through the crack. I thought about what had happened. We lost two during the first trial alone. If these trials get progressively harder, or even if they're just as difficult, then there's no way we would make it to the Epochust.

"We need to continue," somepony said from right beside me. The sudden voice reminded me that Ace and Nighthawk were still next to me. Ace was right, we needed to continue, regardless of who we've lost.

There was a path leading directly to the next pillar. Ace started along the path. I followed reluctantly, not wanting to leave the site. Nighthawk didn't move, tears falling from his face. Ace went back to him.

"We need to move on, Nighthawk," Ace said. "Crescent it gone, and we can't bring her back by sitting around."

"We also can't bring her back by continuing," Nighthawk replied.

"We can, actually." Nighthawk seemed to perk up at hearing this. "Do you know what we're going for?"

"I recall Princess Luna saying this was the Temple of the Epochust."

"Right. And do you know what the Epochust is?" Nighthawk shook his head. "It's an object that allows those who reach it to manipulate time. If, no, when we make it to the Temple, we can get the Epochust and turn back time to before Crescent, or rather Stella even, died."

Nighthawk got up and started down the path, towards the archway signalling the start of the next trial. "Then what are we waiting for?" he asked rhetorically. "Let's go."
> 9: Trial of Wing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alis volaret in iudicio animae vestrae et honorem."

We passed under the arch, expecting something to change drastically for the trial. We weren't disappointed. Massive chunks of earth flew up, leaving a hole the size of Ponyville in it's wake. The chunks broke apart, some relocating to the edge of the trial grounds to create barriers. The remaining chunks swirled above the hole.

A sign right next to the hole read, "A substitutum ut vocavit equum impotens fuga."

"We're gonna have to fly," Nighthawk said, examining the fresh chasm closely. "No other way around or through it."

"Just one problem," I said, before turning to remind them of my burnt wing.

"I can carry you, that shouldn't be a problem," Ace offered.

"No," Nighthawk chimed in, "this course clearly asks for our fullest potential. Pepper's injury, while admirable in origin, definitely puts us at an impasse."

"Besides, I'm not the best flyer anyway," I said. "I probably couldn't make it through this course." I looked back at the sign, noticing one word in particular. "Substitutum... Doesn't that sound like...?"

"Substitute," Ace finished for me. "And you could possibly call for a skilled flyer to substitute for you."

"I'd call for Zephyr to substitute for me," I said, expecting that to activate something.

Nothing happened.

"Substitutum Zephyr?"

That appeared to do something, as I felt a strange sensation and my vision began to warp.

***

For whatever reason, I was laying on the ground. I lifted myself up to find that I was in an unfamiliar territory. There was debris flying around, there was a giant hole, and the area seemed to be enclosed. There was a sign by the hole that said something I didn't understand.

"Zephyr?" I looked around to see who called my name. Standing next to me were two stallions, Ace Doughty and an unfamiliar black pegasus.

"Ace, what's going on? Where are we?" That was the first question that came to mind.

"Remember when I wasn't able to race anymore because I had to leave?" It was several days ago, but I recalled exactly what he was talking about. "This is where we went."

"But where's Pepper and Crescent?" The black pegasus seemed to wince at the name Crescent.

Ace hesitated a moment before answering, "Well, this is a test of sorts. One for pegasi. We were allowed to call for substitutes during this one. Crescent switched out for a close friend of hers, which is Nighthawk here." He indicated the black pegasus. "And Pepper called for you to substitute. She sustained an injury during a previous test, a burn to her wing."

"I suppose that makes sense. What caused Pepper's injury in the last test?"

"It was a combat based test, and Pepper got the injury trying to protect Crescent." It didn't seem right, a fighting test that Pepper and Crescent willingly entered. Even for Ace, that seemed a little far fetched.

"So how are things back in Ponyville?" Ace asked.

"Great. Thunder's been acting a little differently, though, since Cherry returned and said you guys weren't coming back soon. I think he might like Pepper or Crescent, and he's heartbroken at their sudden departure."

"Well, when you get back, you can let him know we should be back soon. There's only one test after this one, and we'll be home free."

"That's great," I said. "So what are we doing, flying over this hole?"

"That's our best guess," Nighthawk said. "As you can see by the sign, we don't know exactly what we're expected to do. We can only guess."

"That makes sense. When do we start?"

"We can start anytime."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" I took off and flew straight over the chasm. There was extreme turbulence, but it was possible. The debris constantly built up on my wings, but it wasn't anything a large flap wouldn't take care of.

I looked back to see if Ace and Nighthawk were behind me. Nighthawk seemed to breeze through like it was nothing, but Ace was struggling. He nearly hit some of the larger bits of debris, and he could barely maintain a good pose. I fell back to try and help him out.

"Ace!" I called out, barely audible over the gale. "Keep it together!"

He looked at me and said something, but I couldn't tell what. I noticed a rather large piece of debris coming up from behind him.

"Watch out!" I yelled, pointing at the boulder approaching him. He turned just in time to see it before it knocked him unconscious. While the winds carried him easily, they weren't very reliable on getting over the chasm. His unconscious body managed to find a low point where the winds stopped altogether, and he fell down the chasm.

"Ace!" I instinctively flew downward, against the current rejecting me. I traced the path he took before falling, and found my own way under the winds.

It's difficult to find a brown pony in a large chasm with brown adorning the walls. The fact that there was debris floating violently above didn't help, as it blocked out a lot of light. I folded my wings in the hope that I would follow the same starting path that he did.

As I fell, the temperature around me rose. I also began to take note of a particular glow coming from the bottom of the chasm. Against it, I could see the silhouette of a pony. Ace! It had to be.

I flapped my wings to orient myself in a way that would bring the least resistance as I raced to catch Ace. I faced directly downward, front hooves directly in front of me to keep me oriented against the resistance. My wings hung back, so as to also help me keep balance. The glow emanating from the bottom was getting brighter, and I realized what it was.

Magma. This made me even more determined to get to Ace before he hit. I couldn't let him die like this, especially since he only missed the boulder because of me. I could feel the resistance in front of me building up, and I realized I was probably going near the speed of sound.

I flapped my wings, hoping that would give me enough speed and power to break the sound barrier. It apparently worked, as I no longer felt any resistance in front of me. Instead, I felt a force propelling me faster towards Ace. I angled myself downward, working out a way to use this force to help me out. I started heading towards the bottom of the chasm under the start, silently praying to Celestia that I could pull this off.

The heat was still rising, and the magma loomed ever closer. Finally, I was level with Ace. I pulled out my wings so that I could curve around. It worked, but it was very costly. The magma below came closer and closer, making everything around me appear black. I almost couldn't breath due to the heat, and I felt sweat evaporate instantly.

I kept a constant angle downward, hoping that I would catch Ace with enough room to pull off the rest of my plan. I changed angles occasionally to speed my approach towards him. I was finally in a position where I could reach him. I slowed myself so that I could go over him, and sped up to regain lost ground. I reached out to catch him.

I had him. I wrapped all four of my hooves around him to keep in an aerodynamic form. I began the curve to ascend, but it didn't appear that it would be enough room. The magma level was nearing.

I was about to have a really hot splashdown when I tilted my wings to help speed up the curve. It seemed to work, and I was now flying parallel to the magma, mere feet above it. Taking advantage of the speed gained from the sonic boom, I pulled upward. I didn't even flap my wings, just kept them slightly tilted so as to continue the ascent. I noticed the far edge of the chasm was coming up. I managed to hit the point of the curve that allowed me to fly straight up as I nearly hit the wall. We were less than a foot from hitting the wall. Any overhanging rocks would cause us to fall right back down, with no easy way of recovering.

It became difficult to see as I made my way higher, away from the bottom of the chasm. It was getting colder, yet I was still sweating from the heat below. The speed boost from the sonic boom began to waver, and I once again felt resistance. I was still climbing rather quickly, and decided to take advantage of this momentum to make it to the top. I flapped my wings as hard as I could, hoping it would be enough.

And it just barely wasn't. I could see the top of the wall, almost reach it, but the resistance, coupled with the gravity and fatigue, caused me to stop. Fortunately, Nighthawk was right on the edge waiting for us. He saw us fall back down from the aforementioned combination, and jumped down to help. He was clearly strong, as he lifted both of us no problem.

"Ace, Zephyr, are you alright?" he asked.

"We're fine," I said. I was too exhausted to let go of Ace. "He fell, so I went and got him."

I must have been close to going unconscious myself, as it was getting difficult to see.

***

The brief spell of dizziness finally relented, and I found myself wrapped around an unconscious Ace. While I didn't exactly want that moment to end, the injured wing that I was laying on bid me to do so. I got up and looked to Nighthawk.

"Did we finish the trial?" I asked, realizing that we were on the other side of the chasm.

"Almost," he said, indicating the hollowed pillar in front of us.

"What happened to Ace?" I asked.

"From what Zephyr said before you came back, Ace fell, and she rescued him."

"Why did Ace fall?"

"I don't know, I didn't see it."

Ace finally regained consciousness, and he tried standing up.

"Ace?" I asked. He didn't even look at me. "Ace, can you hear me?"

He looked at me, noticing I was saying something. He put his hoof up to his ear and tapped it a couple times, then shook his head. I took that to mean he had gone deaf.

"Regardless, let's finish this trial," Nighthawk suggested. I went up and read the sign.

"Recitare Hoc reserare deinde iudicium."

A flash shone inside the pillar, and I realized what had to happen. Nighthawk stepped in and turned back to look at us.

"Thank you for letting me accompany you during this journey. Seeing Crescent again, it gave me something to fight for. Now that she's gone, there's nothing left for me here." He pulled out one of his swords and threw it to Ace. "You'll need this more than I will."

"Nighthawk, you can't--"

"Farewell," Nighthawk interrupted me. He turned around. "Ego ipse ut tributum ad Epochust." He looked upward, his eyes closed, and whispered, "I'll be there soon, milady."

I looked away. Knowing what to expect this time, I tried my best to withhold tears. A loud crash indicating the center had fallen broke that self restraint away. Ace put his wing around me to try and comfort me.

"We can't stop now. We need to finish. For Stella. For Crescent. And now for Nighthawk, too." He had apparently regained his hearing enough, for he said that at a normal volume.

"I know, I just... I can't..." I was unable to speak properly. Instead, I just melted into Ace's embrace.

After an unknown amount of time, he removed his wing from around me. "We need to go," he said before helping me up. Another path directly to the final pillar was visible as the dirt wall cleared away from it. There was another archway over the path. On the arch was more of this strange writing.

"Unum extremo iudicio probatum amet sedet ante. Postea domum Epochust aperietur."

What Ace said earlier was right. We can't stop now. We need to complete this last trial, for Stella, Cres, and Nighthawk. But one particular thought kept running through my mind. There was still one of these sacrificial pillars, and it was down to two of us. If either of us died during this coming trial, the entire quest would have been a waste.
> 10: Trial of Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Experiri tua magicis abilities in hoc ultimum iudicium, iudicio magicae."

After passing under the arch, I felt a strange sensation along my back. It burned at first, but the burning subsided and I felt a breeze go right along my back. Something I had never felt before... I looked back to see what happened, shocked to find that I didn't have my wings. I looked at Ace, who had the same problem. Then there was a sharp pain in my forehead.

The pain forced me to look downward and close my eyes. It started out as a very sharp pain, but then it started twisting. The pain was great enough that I could feel it going outward away from my forehead, into the air above my face. As quickly as it had started, the pain was gone. I looked up to try and see what had happened, and saw what appeared to be a horn.

"Pepper...?" Ace began. I looked to see he had the same condition.

"We're... unicorns?" I finished the question for him.

I didn't have too much time to think about it, for the ground started to shake. It must have been signalling the start of the final trial, but what could it be? Would we be able to pull it off, even though we don't understand how magic works? This would be a great time for some advice from Stella, the only unicorn who entered the trials with us. Unfortunately, she was dead, and we had to complete the trial on our own to bring her back.

The sacrificial pillar, which was closer to the arch than the other two previously, began to distance itself as a fissure ran in between us and the pillar. It separated, leaving a giant rocky canyon in it's wake.

Ace was already experimenting with his magic, moving pebbles to try and get a feel for levitation. I tried the same.

"I think I know what we have to do," Ace said eventually. He braced himself, and began to lift large rocks up. He brought them together to form a bridge across the canyon. After the last of the rocks were in place, he released his magic. He took a step forward to cross the bridge, but I put out my hoof to stop him.

"Wait," I said. I kicked a small pebble onto the bridge. It rolled along to about the middle. Nothing seemed to happen.

"See? It's fine," Ace said. He made to get onto the bridge until a slight shift along the bridge stopped him. The bridge began to collapse under the weight of the pebble, starting at the center and spreading to each end. "Or maybe it's not."

"Think about it," I said. "It's too simple. This is the last trial, so why would it be easy?"

"Fair enough, but what do we do then?"

I looked around to see what we could use. I noticed two rather flat boulders off to the side. I tried grabbing one of them with magic and lifted it. "Grab the other boulder," I said as I lifted the first one, flat side up, over the canyon. Ace seemed to catch on and lifted the other boulder.

I jumped onto Ace's boulder, expecting him to jump onto mine so we could levitate each other to the end. Instead, he jumped onto the same one. I realized where he was going, and realized that my idea was actually impossible to pull off. I moved my boulder closer to the other end, close enough that we could jump onto it. We jumped across one at a time, and continued the motion further and further across the canyon.

"There's still one more pillar left."

I looked at Ace, wondering what he meant by that.

"There's two of us left," he continued, "and one of us will have to die at the pillar."

"Maybe we can figure something out when we get there," I suggested.

"I don't like this," Ace said. "The position that we're being put in, forcing us to choose which of us will watch the other die and go on alone." Ace's boulder, which we were currently standing on, began to waver as Ace's concentration went elsewhere.

"Ace!" I yelled, snapping his concentration back to supporting his boulder. "Just don't think about it now. We need to focus on the current task."

"Right, I'm sorry." He was silent for a moment. Then he said, "Thunder's worried about you."

"What?" My boulder wobbled a little, but I caught it right away.

"Zephyr said so," Ace continued. "And while I'm not one to spread gossip, she also mentioned that he has a crush on you."

Though Ace appeared angry, I was strangely flattered. I didn't know what to think of this revelation.

"Pepper," Ace said, alerting me to the face that he was on his boulder while I hadn't jumped from mine yet. We continued further in silence for a while.

Finally, we made it to the end. I jumped off my boulder, followed by Ace. A loud and prolonged splash from the bottom of the canyon indicated the terrible bridge had finally finished it's descent. We dropped our boulders and realized then just how much magic we had consumed. I felt very dizzy. After an unknown amount of time, I finally collapsed from exhaustion.

***

I just transformed into Zephyr. The trial hadn't been completed yet. Ace was explaining that Nighthawk was Cres' substitute, and that Zephyr was mine. We went through the trial, Zephyr saving Ace in an amazing way. Nighthawk brought Zephyr and Ace up to the end of the trial when Zephyr's sonic boom ran out. My vision began to swirl.

I noticed I was flying towards Ponyville much faster than I thought possible, even for a Wonderbolt. I came to a very hard stop, one that would kill an average pony. Upon stopping, I was looking down at Thunder.

I watched as Thunder walked along the street, looking around for his lost friend. A flash from behind him made him turn around. Zephyr was lying on the ground. Thunder went up to her.

"Zephyr," he said, "are you alright?" When she didn't respond, he tried to shake her awake. When she finally did awaken, Thunder asked, "What happened?"

"Remember when those four left? Ace, Crescent, Peppermint, and Cherry?" Zephyr asked, standing up.

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, they're doing some sort of tests. They were doing a flying test, and they could call for substitutes. Peppermint wanted me to substitute for her."

"What test were they doing?"

"Something to do with flying. Crescent had a friend of her's substitute, since she can't fly on her own."

Thunder looked confused. "Why did Pepper need a substitute? She's a pegasus, can't she fly on her own?"

"That's what I thought," Zephyr continued. "But Ace said she injured her wing in a previous test."

"What? Is she alright?" Thunder looked genuinely concerned.

"Yeah. Those tests are brutal, so just an injured wing should be considered lucky." Zephyr looked at herself to make sure she wasn't injured from the debris. "Ace said she was protecting Crescent, anyway."

"What were they doing in that previous test?" Thunder asked.

"According to Ace, it was a fighting test."

Thunder still looked confused, appearing deep in thought. "I just can't imaging Pepper or Crescent fighting anything. Even for Ace, that seems a little exaggerated."

"That's what I thought," Zephyr said. "One more thing. Ace said they were almost done. They have one test left before they're able to return."

"That's awesome," Thunder said. "Why didn't you stay with them through that last test?"

"The substitutes were only for that one test apparently, so after Nighthawk brought me to the end, I blacked out and woke up here."

"Nighthawk?"

"Crescent's substitute," Zephyr said. "You know, since she can't fly."

"Right..." Thunder thought for a moment. "So what was the test like?"

"Well, it started out fine. Nighthawk and myself had no trouble getting through, but Ace was struggling a little. I fell back to help him, but when he wasn't looking, he was knocked unconscious by some debris. He fell into the giant chasm we were flying over. I went down to try and save him.

"I managed to set off a sonic boom before being able to catch him. I used the lack of resistance to try and curve around and fling myself back out. I caught Ace, and barely managed to pull up before hitting the bottom, which was nothing but magma. I wasn't quite able to make it back out with the momentum I had. Nighthawk saw me come close and fall back down. He jumped down and brought us both up. Then, I woke up here in the street."

"Wow, that does sound brutal. I'm glad you made it back alive," Thunder said, putting a hoof around her neck. She smiled at the gesture and returned it.

"Me too," she said.

I began to distance myself, moving back into the direction I came from, but not turning away from the scene I just witnessed. Even at an unknown distance, well beyond Canterlot and even Whinniesburg, I could still clearly see Thunder and Zephyr.

***

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I no longer had a horn, and I was again laying on my bad wing. The pain caused me to roll over instinctively. I thought about what I just saw while unconscious. Was it real, or just my imagination? And despite Thunder's crush on me, he didn't seem afraid to pull Zephyr into an embrace. She didn't hesitate to return it, either.

They have one test left before they're able to return. That sentence echoed through my mind. Zephyr must not know that Crescent was already dead, or that one of us still had to die.

Something stirred behind me. I slowly looked back to see Ace getting up. He had also returned to his pegasus form. I climbed onto my hooves.

"We need to finish this," Ace said, standing up and heading towards the now open pillar.

"Wait," I said, causing Ace to stop and look at me. "What happened during the second trial?"

"Well, I don't know." Ace answered. "As I said, I was unconscious during most of it. Zephyr apparently saved my life. Why do you ask?"

"When I passed out, I saw what Zephyr did. How she saved you. She pulled off a sonic boom to save you, which was probably what impaired your hearing."

"Sounds like that would do it," Ace remarked.

"And then I saw her return to Ponyville and tell Thunder what happened," I continued. "Did you tell her Cres was still alive? That all of us are going to get out of here alive?"

"I didn't want to worry her," Ace said. "If she knew that Crescent was dead, she would probably have second thoughts about doing the trial. She most likely couldn't handle the truth."

"She mentioned to Thunder that we would all be coming back soon," I said. "Now everypony is going to think we're all alive and well, and that they'll see us again soon."

"But they will," Ace said. "Once we get the Epochust, we can bring back everypony that died here today. We can return to Ponyville, even bring Nighthawk and Stella along with us to introduce to everypony."

I hadn't thought of it like that. I was too caught up in thinking Ace had lied to Zephyr, and that lie had spread, to realize the truth behind it. Even then, nopony would even remember it except for Ace and myself, since we'd be going backwards in time. "I suppose you're right," I said after thinking about it.

We continued down the path towards the pillar. I knew that only one of us could go on, and one of us had to die. I couldn't stop thinking about it. If Ace died, I would have to finish the quest on my own. I didn't know what to expect ahead.

But on the other hoof, if I died, Ace would have to go through the same thing. He could probably handle seeing me die, no matter how much I hated to think like that. He could figure out whatever is left, and bring us all back.

I went up to the pillar. "Recitare haec verba, et reserare cubiculum Epochust."

"Pepper..." Ace began.

"I've made my decision," I said, stepping into the pillar.

"You can't!"

"Don't try to stop me."

"No, Pepper, I--" I cut him off by kissing him. I knew how I felt about Ace. One last thing to do before I die, out of the way. I didn't want the moment to end, but I knew it had to at some point. I broke away and looked him in the eyes.

"You're much stronger than I am," I said. "Whatever's ahead, you can handle better than I can. Get the Epochust. Make it so that none of this happened. Make it so that we're all alive again." I stepped back into the pillar. "And if you can, find out what happened to Luna's father. I promised her we would find out, and I don't want to break that promise just because I'm dead."

Ace just looked at me. He appeared to be trying as hard as he could to hold back tears. He knew that he couldn't stop me. He knew I was right. He looked away, aware of what was about to come. I turned around to read the inscription.

"Ego ipse ut tributum ad Epochust." Time seemed to slow down as the center of the sacrificial pillar began it's descent. I closed my eyes, praying that Ace could handle whatever was ahead. I braced myself as the pillar continued it's short journey down.
> 11: Change of Plans
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It gets smaller as the night goes on," Luna said.

"Why's that?" Cres asked. "Shouldn't the moon stay that big all night?"

"Once it's directly above us, that's the smallest it gets, which is still rather large tonight. Afterwards, it gets larger again until morning."

"Why does that happen?" Cherry asked.

Luna laughed. "Even I can't answer that entirely," Luna said. "Some scholars say it's because there's nothing nearby to compare size while it's higher in the sky, but that just sounds crazy to me."

"Can't you control it's size?" Cres asked.

"To an extent, yes. But what you see now is about the largest I can make it." Luna opened the door leading to her study. "Anyways, it's about time to get some rest. We'll all be leaving early tomorrow morning."

Cherry was the first to enter. I followed, Ace right behind me, and Cres taking up last. As we left the study, I noticed Ace was no longer right behind me. He must have lingered back for some reason. I almost didn't notice a flash of light blue from the study. I figured it must be Luna closing off the balcony.

We traveled through the halls of Canterlot Castle to our room in relative silence. When we finally arrived, I noticed Ace still wasn't with us. I looked back down the hall we just came through, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. I began to worry a little, so I went back towards Luna's study.

I turned a corner, nearly there, when I ran into a midnight blue unicorn. She had a light blue mane and tail, with her mane being cut at the neck. Her light blue eyes looked at me as if she found a lost friend, but I didn't recognize her at all.

"Pepper!" she said.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" I asked, trying not to be too blunt. Before the mysterious mare could answer, Ace showed up beside her. For whatever reason, he had a belt around his body, sitting under his wings.

"I see you've met Stella," Ace said.

"Is this why you stayed back?" I asked jokingly. "To get a souvenir and talk to some mare you've never met before?"

"You could say that," Ace replied. "Actually, there's something I need to say to everypony. Can we head back to the guest room?"

"Sure."

"Great. You go on ahead and let them know. There's something I need to tell Princess here in private."

Princess? I noticed there were similarities between Stella and Princess Luna, so I figured that's where Ace was coming from in calling her that. "Alright," I said before turning around and heading back to the guest room.

I opened the door to find Cherry sitting, half asleep, on one of the couches. She woke up when I closed the door behind me.

"Couldn't find Ace?" she asked.

"I did, but he stayed back to speak with somepony else," I said. "He'll be here soon." I made my way over to Cres' room and knocked on the door. After a few seconds, Cres opened the door.

"Ace has something he needs to say to us all," I added.

Cres and I sat on the couch opposite Cherry. After a couple minutes, the door opened. Ace walked in, followed by Stella. Why she was still with him, I had no idea. Ace closed the door behind Stella.

"Who's that?" Cres asked.

"This is Stella," Ace said.

"Hi, Stella!" Cres said enthusiastically, waving a hoof.

"Hello, Crescent," Stella responded.

"What was it you had to say, Ace?" Cherry said. Everypony in the room looked expectantly at Ace. He looked around at each of us, possibly unsure of exactly what to say. He sighed, preparing himself for a speech.

"We're all going back to Ponyville."

What? After a day spent planning for an adventure, we're just going back? That didn't seem right. "What?"

"We've already made arrangements with Luna. We're heading back tonight."

"Why?" I asked.

"We came here to hopefully find something to help us speed up time. Why did we want that? So that we could see the perihelion. Now that that's passed, there's no point going after the Epochust."

"What about the adventure? Isn't that what you're always looking for?"

Ace looked down. That question hit him hard, I knew it did. "The guards are waiting," he said, before turning and exiting the room. Stella moved to where Ace was a moment before.

"It may seem sudden," she said, "but he has his reasons." After saying that, she exited after Ace. Cherry and Cres also followed. I was shocked at Ace's sudden change of heart, but I followed anyway. Part of me thought he was just joking, but he seemed so serious. Stella's addendum made it seem even more like this was legitimate.

We made our way through the castle's corridors by torchlight. We eventually made it to the courtyard, outside which a single pegasus Lunar Guard was attached to a cart. While difficult to tell at night, he appeared to be blue, with a black mane and tail. Luna was also waiting by the cart, presumably to see us off.

"It was a pleasure to meet you," Luna said. "Farewell, all of you."

"Bye, Luna. I hope I get to see you again," Cres said.

"Actually, I'll be in Ponyville next week. Some of our guards are leaving the force, and I want to see them off during their homecoming."

"Who's leaving the force?" Stella asked.

"Just a few older Royal Guards, as well as one of my own Lunar Guards," Luna looked towards Ponyville before continuing. "Get going, now. You wouldn't want to miss the festivities in Ponyville, would you?"

Cherry stepped into the waiting cart, followed by Cres. I wasn't sure what to think when Stella stepped into the cart after Cres.

"Are you coming with us?" Cres asked the new mare next to her.

"Yeah," she replied. "I heard Ponyville has the best parties in all of Equestria, and I wouldn't want to miss a big party like the one they're having tonight."

"It's no trouble if she rides with you, is it?" Luna asked.

"Not at all," Cres said.

"Then you better get going. Darkfire, whenever you're ready," she directed at the Lunar Guard at the front of the cart. He nodded and took off, pulling the three with him. Ace took off after them, as did I.

While flying slightly behind Ace, something caught my eye. He wasn't wearing that belt just because he could. Instead, he was using it to strap a sword to his side. Where he got that and why he had it, I don't know, but I intended to find out.

"Ace!" I called out. He responded by falling back to fly alongside me. "Where'd you get the sword?"

"It was a gift from the retiring Lunar Guard," Ace said.

"You met him?"

"Yeah, Stella introduced me to him."

"Did he say something that made you change your mind about the adventure?"

"No," Ace said harshly. "It was entirely my decision."

"Why did you change your mind, then?"

Ace hesitated for a moment before answering. "I felt I shouldn't drag you and Crescent into something like what would have come."

"Then why did you turn back yourself?"

"It's not an adventure I can do by myself."

"That's why we wanted to go with you, so you--"

"Just shut up!" Ace shouted, cutting me off. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Ace, this isn't like you. What happened?"

"I wish I could answer that, but I can't." Ace flew ahead to catch up to the cart.

"Ace!" I called out to him, but he ignored me. I tried to speed myself up, even doing what Ace did during the races yesterday. "Ace, answer me!" I said to him when I was right beside him. He responded by flying faster than I possibly could, passing the cart and going well out of sight.

After a few more minutes, the Lunar Guard landed with the cart. I tried searching over the crowd to hopefully find him, but to no avail. I landed a few feet from the cart, all passengers already unloaded. The Guard took off to return to Canterlot. Cres and Cherry walked up to me.

"What happened to Ace?" Cherry asked. "We could hear you two shouting."

"I'm not sure, he wouldn't tell me," I said.

"It would be best to just forget about it," Stella said, coming up beside Cres. "What happened to him is between us and Princess Luna. We can't talk about it."

"You mean he told you?" I asked.

"He didn't have to; I was there."

"What?" The three of us all said in unison.

"What happened to Ace?" I demanded.

"I can't answer that, and neither can he," Stella said.

"Why not?"

"There would be a severe penalty on both of us if we mention it. Even Luna couldn't tell us what would happen."

"And this... unspeakable event affected Ace's temper?" Cherry said.

"It appears that way, unfortunately," Stella said.

"So, something made Ace hot tempered, and we can't know what it is?" Cres asked.

"Why aren't you easily angered like Ace?" I asked.

"Ace is angry because he can't tell you," Stella said, turning to leave. "I'm sure he would gladly explain things if he could." Stella left, easily lost in the crowd despite her rather unique mane color. I looked at the two ponies still standing in front of me.

"I need to make sure Chocolate didn't mess anything up too bad," Cherry said, heading towards her house.

"Maybe we should track down Ace," Cres suggested. "I'll go see if he went home. You should fly around the crowds to try and find him." I nodded in agreement and took off.

I noticed several ponies with red manes. About half of them had horns, and a third of the remaining ones didn't have wings. Using that logic, I narrowed it down to three. One of them had a long mane, and another had a blue coat. That left one option. I drifted down to see if it was Ace.

Fortunately, there was enough space to land beside him. It wasn't Ace. Instead, it was a pegasus with a similar red mane and tail, but a red coat rather than brown. His eyes were a bright orange. His cutie mark was that of a golden flame.

"Hi, Pepper," he said. "What's up?"

"I'm looking for Ace. Have you seen him, Byrne?"

"No, I haven't. Sorry."

"That's all right," I said, preparing to take off again.

"Pepper!" A call from behind bid me to stop and check it out.

"Hey, Thunder," I said to the pony approaching me. "You haven't seen Ace, have you?"

"I saw him flying home not too long ago," Thunder said. "Why, what happened?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," I said. "I should probably get back to Cres. She went to check for Ace at his house." I made to take off, but Thunder stopped me.

"Don't worry about Ace. Crescent can probably handle whatever his problem is." He retracted his hoof. "Enjoy the night, as it's not likely we'll ever see another perihelion."

I could see what Thunder was saying, and he was right. I'm sure Cres could find some way to get Ace to say what happened. And as for the perihelion, it hasn't occurred in over a millennium. Even though Princess Luna is back, it's not likely to occur again for another century. Certainly nopony alive today other than the princesses would see another. Why not enjoy the once in a lifetime experience while it lasts?

"I suppose you're right," I said to Thunder, almost obviously uncertain. Thunder responded by chuckling.

"Leave Crescent to worry about Ace," Thunder said. "Let's go see what we can do here tonight."

He set off to do just that. I followed, hoping whatever was available tonight would take my mind off Ace. Another thing came to mind, however. What if Ace was just as irate to Cres? I silently prayed that Ace wouldn't hurt her. I wanted to make sure she was okay, but at the same time I didn't want to abandon Thunder.
> 12: Perihelion
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville looked completely different from what I remembered. I'm not sure how they managed to set up in a two-day time frame, but there were games and other various attractions everywhere. Foals were enjoying themselves on some of the rides available. There were couples everywhere enjoying each other's company. Part of me hoped that others wouldn't see me with Thunder and assume we were just another couple, but another part felt it wouldn't be so bad.

Thunder stopped to examine one game in particular. There were cups spread around in a square. The center cup had a small bowl on top of it. I had seen something like it before. Land a ball in one of the cups, and you win a goldfish. I've never seen the bowl in the center before, though.

"Um... Hello," Fluttershy said, appearing from the side. She appeared to be the one in charge of the stand.

"Hi," Thunder returned.

"Would you like to play?" Fluttershy asked.

"I could go for a round," Thunder said.

"Two bits for a round, if that's okay with you," Fluttershy said. Thunder gave her two bits, and she gave him five ping pong balls.

"Would you like me to explain the game?" she asked.

"No, thanks," he replied. He tossed the first ball, and it bounced off of a cup and off the table. Two more followed along, hitting cups in different regions. The fourth ball hit the bottom of a cup and bounced right back out.

"That one was really close," Fluttershy commented. Thunder appeared deep in concentration. He tossed the final ball. It landed right in the center bowl.

"Looks like you won the grand prize," Fluttershy said. She went behind the stand, hidden from my view. She returned after a few seconds with a cute black bunny. Seeing what Thunder had won, I wanted to go a round now, just so I could get a bunny of my own. "Congratulations," she said, handing the bunny over to Thunder.

Before I could give my bits for a round, Thunder held the bunny out towards me. "For you, Pepper," he said. I reached out for it, allowing it to hop on my hooves. It rubbed it's cheek to mine as it passed before climbing onto my back. It curled up into a ball and fell fast asleep on my back. I gave Thunder a quick hug, careful not to wake my new bunny.

"Her name's Daisy," Fluttershy said. "And it looks like she likes you. Take good care of her."

"I will," I said. I couldn't hide my joy if I wanted to. Daisy was the cutest thing I have ever seen. I watched her as she slept on my back. I didn't notice that Thunder disappeared until he came back to get me.

"You know, there's much more to do tonight than just this," he said. He turned back and began walking towards another activity. I followed him closely, Daisy sitting on my back.

I noticed he was leading me to something I was unfamiliar with. The first thing I saw was four ponies split into teams of two tossing something at each other. Closer inspection revealed they were tossing bean bags, and they were aimed at a board propped up on one side. Each side had a board, and each board had a hole near the upper part.

On one side, Applejack and her older brother, whose name I didn't know. On the other side, Stella and Cherry. Stella and Cherry alternated throwing a bag onto the board between the Apple family until they each tossed two. The Apples did the same to the board between Stella and Cherry. Some bags stayed on the board. Some went into the hole. Some touched the ground, but they were removed immediately.

They repeated the pattern several times, each time a scoreboard in the back was updated. Stella and Cherry finally managed a score of 21, and the match was called.

"Up for a round?" Thunder asked unexpectedly, reminding me that he was next to me. I figured I had learned enough from watching Stella and Cherry versus the Apples. I nodded, and he led the way to the board the Apples occupied moments before. The scoreboard was reset.

"Pepper!" Stella called out. "Glad to see you're enjoying the night rather than questioning Ace."

"Thunder convinced me," I said. "I'm sure Cres can handle Ace."

Stella tossed over a bean bag, which landed on the board. "Even so, we would all probably be better off if we just forgot about it." Cherry tossed over one of her bags, which slid off just enough to touch the ground. Thunder took it off the board and placed it beside it. They each threw another, Stella's landing on the board and Cherry's landing in the hole.

"I'll go first," Thunder said. He tossed one, which landed in the hole. I tossed one, and it slid off the top. Thunder threw another, which hung halfway into the hole. I tossed again, and knocked Thunder's into the hole. The scoreboard was updated, showing that we led 7-5.

Daisy didn't want to be left out. At her request, I let her toss one. It landed right in between the two boards. After that, Daisy decided not to try anymore. The game lasted a few minutes, the final score being 17-22.

"Go again?" Cherry said. We both agreed for another round. Instead of one more, we ended up having many more. We won some, but lost the majority of them. At some point during the sixth match, Daisy managed to sneak under the opponent's board. Stella pulled her out with magic after she tried to drag a bean bag into the hole.

"I'm done," I said after countless rounds. I don't know how much time passed, but I could tell that what Luna said was true. The moon really does get smaller as the night goes on.

"I'm done, too," Stella said. "What should we do next?"

"I think I'm going to head home," I said. I was actually pretty tired, and I still had to get Daisy settled in. "I'm just going to pay Fluttershy a visit first."

"I'll come with you," Thunder said. We went back to the activity Fluttershy was running.

"Oh, hello again!" She said upon noticing us.

"Hi," I said. "I was just wondering. Do you have a bed or something for Daisy to sleep on?"

"Um, no, I don't," Fluttershy replied. "But my friend, Rarity, can make you one."

"Great, where is she now?" I asked.

"She's, um, out of town. She should be back tomorrow, though."

"Alright, thank you. Looks like you're sleeping with me tonight," I said to Daisy. She responded with a cute squeak and a smile.

I started on my way home, Thunder right beside me. "I didn't think I would, but I enjoyed spending the night with you," I said to him. "How's your wing?"

"It still hurts if I move it too fast," he said, stretching it out. "But other than that, it's like nothing even happened." He folded his wing back up. "And what did happen... may not have been entirely accidental."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well," he stared, hesitating a little, "I saw you and Crescent walking. That distracted me a bit, and Firefly bumped into me. While I could've easily recovered, I decided not to, since I was heading right towards you."

"So you meant to hit me?"

"No, just catch your attention. And I may have exaggerated my pain a bit. Don't get me wrong, my wing actually did hurt. But I could've easily walked home on my own."

"Then why didn't you?" I asked, even though I had an idea of what he might say. He stopped and hesitated some before answering.

"Because I wanted you to hold me, Pepper," he said, "and I knew you would probably leave me alone if I could walk."

And it was true. I would have left him. After hearing this revelation, though, I'm glad he feigned his pain. I pushed against Thunder, and he put his wing around me. Daisy jumped onto his wing and curled up on his back. We continued onward to my house.

When we finally arrived, I saw Ace about to knock on my door. "Ace?" I called out.

"Pepper," he returned. "Can we talk?"

"Can it wait till morning?" I asked. "I'm pretty tired right now."

"I guess it can," he said. "Good night."

"You too," I said before Ace walked away.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then?" Thunder asked.

"Of course," I said. "Good night, Thunder." I slipped out from under his wing and opened my door. Daisy jumped from Thunder's back to mine.

"Good night, Pepper," he said before walking off. I shut the door behind me and went to my room. Daisy jumped right onto my bed and made herself comfortable. I climbed in and did the same. Daisy pushed herself under my hoof, to which I did not object. I slowly drifted off to sleep, the events of the night still fresh on my mind.

I was watching the race from Thunder's perspective. He looked down and saw me and Cres walking. Firefly knocked him off course. He started to stabilize, but instead dropped. He landed on his back. Instead of his wing hurting, it was his hoof. The pain didn't recede as I woke up.

I was so tired that I forgot to take my bracelets off. Gently pushing Daisy away, I took them off and set them on the nightstand. They left a mark on my hoof. I pulled Daisy back towards me, which caused her to stir. I really should remember to take my bracelets off next time, I thought to myself.
> 13: Solving the Riddle
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Even though it was only one day, it felt like forever since I woke up to the sun through my window. At some point through the night, Daisy had managed to slip herself under my wing. I lifted it to wake her, which worked perfectly. She climbed off of me and onto the nightstand to examine the lamp. She bumped into my bracelets, causing one to drop to the floor. The sound of it hitting the wooden floor scared her. She jumped right back to the bed, knocking down the lamp in the process. She cowered between my hooves as the lamp crashed to the floor.

"Careful, Daisy," I said, climbing out of bed. I picked up the bracelet and put it on, along with the other one still on the nightstand. I cleaned up what I could of the lamp and threw it in the trash. I fed Daisy and prepared to walk out the door. "Don't break too much. I want to be able to recognize my house," I joked to Daisy. She responded with a salute and continued eating.

I closed the door behind me. I figured I would try and find Ace first, so I set off towards his house. I managed to run into him and Stella about halfway.

"Ace!" I said. "I was just looking for you. What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I wanted to apologize for my outburst," he said. "I was frustrated, and I took it out on you. For that, I'm sorry. I left to try and calm down."

"It's alright," I said. "I'm sorry, too."

"What for?" Ace asked.

"Stella mentioned you were frustrated because you couldn't tell us something, and I kept asking about it."

"You don't need to apologize for that."

"Didn't it make you even more frustrated?"

"Well, yeah. But I shouldn't have been frustrated in the first place." It was a fair point, one that I couldn't dispute.

"It's probably best if we all just forget about it," Stella added in. Ace nodded in agreement. While I was still curious as to what it could be, I agreed as well.

"I need to get going now," Ace said. "The boss won't be happy with me if I'm late again. You two have fun," He said as he started to walk away.

***

It had been a week since we returned from Canterlot. I tried to forget about Ace's strange decision and the unknown reasons behind it, but it was proving difficult. It was always partially on my mind, even during the most unrelated of conversations. As the days passed, I learned to ignore it, but it was still there.

Daisy is in the process of mentally mapping out my house. She's still startled by loud noises, even if she caused them. Thankfully, she hasn't broken anything else besides the lamp, which was replaced. I managed to get a bed for her, which is a little over the top thanks to Fluttershy's friend, Rarity.

I noticed something in the sky. It looked like a carriage similar to the one that picked us up for our trip to Canterlot. I took off flying towards it, but stopped when I realized I left Cres behind. I went back for her, and we both ran to the plaza, where it appeared to land. Stella was already outside the carriage when we got there. Ace landed beside her not long after we got there. Oddly, nopony else even seemed to care about the situation.

There were four ponies inside. The first to step out was Princess Luna. Behind her was a white earth pony, an orange unicorn, and a black pegasus. They each bowed in front of her.

"You have served in the Royal and Lunar Guard well. On behalf of my sister as well as all of Equestria, thank you. Farewell, Chrysoberyl, Blaze, Nighthawk." Each of them stood up as Luna called their name. "May you find success in your future." Only Chrysoberyl and Blaze managed to get away, as Nighthawk was tackled down by Cres.

"Nighthawk!" she yelled cheerfully.

"I didn't expect to see you here, Crescent," he said, still partially in shock.

"I take it you two know each other?" Luna asked, smiling.

"We were best friends when we were younger," Nighthawk said, finally standing upright. "We were neighbors in Canterlot before I joined the Royal Guard. I heard Crescent had moved away, but I had no idea that it was the same town that we're being released in."

"Well, I'm glad I could bring you back together," Luna continued. "Now, there is something that I must speak to Ace and Stella about. So if you two could come with me." She started walking away. Ace and Stella looked at each other before following. It was only me, Cres, and Nighthawk left.

"So why didn't you ever mention Nighthawk?" I asked.

"I didn't think I'd ever see him again," Cres answered. "Would you talk about Ace if he suddenly left and was never seen again?"

"Okay, I see what you mean."

"Nighthawk, this is Peppermint Splash. She's my best friend from Ponyville," Cres introduced. Nighthawk held out his hoof, which I put mine to.

"Nice to meet you," He said. "I'm Nighthawk, but I'm sure you figured that out already."

"Nice to meet you, too," I said in return.

Nighthawk was a very dark grey pegasus with a black mane and tail, and blue eyes. His cutie mark was that of a yin yang. He had metal braces around all of his legs. That curiosity that I had been trying to repress for the past week suddenly broke free as I remembered something Ace had said.

"So it was you who gave Ace that sword?" I asked.

"You mean that brown pegasus that the Princess called away a moment ago?" Nighthawk responded. "I've never seen him before." A very cryptic answer that confused me slightly.

"But, Ace said he got the sword from the retiring Lunar Guard. That's you, isn't it?"

"Right, but I would only give away one of my katanas if I knew I was about to die. Clearly, I'm still alive." I was completely lost. Somepony had to be lying. I decided to give Nighthawk the benefit of the doubt, as he at least doesn't try to hide stuff.

"Then are you missing any swords?" I asked, knowing full well that any more questioning would be useless.

Nighthawk lifted his wings to reveal two sword sheaths exactly like the one Ace had. He looked at both of them before answering, "Nope. They're both right here."

"I saw Ace's sword, too," Cres said. "It looked just like that. Where'd you get yours, Nighthawk?"

He closed his wings to hide the swords again. He looked down and said, "That's not something I want to talk about." He looked at me, with a very solemn look on his face. "But I will say this: If Ace has a katana like mine, then he may not be as good as you think."

"What are you saying?" I asked, actually scared of what he might say.

"Just be careful around him." He walked away, leaving me and Cres behind, completely confused.

"Does he mean..." Cres started, "Ace is bad?"

"And if the sword's an indicator," I added, "what does that mean for Nighthawk?"

"No," Cres said. "Nighthawk isn't a bad pony."

"I would like to agree, but think about it. Ace has a sword like Nighthawk's. Nighthawk didn't want to say how he got his, but he said that Ace might be bad if he has a sword like his."

"No. Nighthawk was part of the Lunar Guard. Maybe he got his swords from raiding an enemy base, and Ace is secretly with that group."

"But he was a Lunar Guard, not a part of the army. Even if that were the case, wouldn't he have told us where he got the swords?"

"I... but..." she stammered. She had nothing to counter what I had said. Instead, she just sat down.

"I know you haven't seen him in years. He could have changed during that time. Just be careful around Nighthawk until we can figure out what's going on."

"I suppose you're right," Cres finally admit. "I'm going to try and find him." And she walked away in the direction Nighthawk went. I decided that I should try to find Thunder, as I hadn't seen him all day. I started coughing before I left the plaza, but I paid it no mind, as I had been coughing for the past four days.

I ran into Stella shortly after getting out of the plaza. She was alone, which was odd. "Where are Ace and Luna?" I asked.

"Ace is looking for you, and Luna had a few things to discuss with the mayor before leaving," she answered.

"You were with Ace when he got his sword, weren't you?" I asked, the curiosity gaining strength due to the progress made on finally figuring out what was wrong with Ace.

"Well, no. I wasn't with him when he got it, but he told me Nighthawk gave it to him. You've met Nighthawk, right?"

"Yeah, and he said he'd never even met Ace."

"Well, Nighthawk may deny it, but it's actually true. He did give Ace the katana, but he doesn't remember."

"So, Ace stole it from him, then? But why isn't Nighthawk missing either of his swords?"

"You're looking at this the wrong way," Stella said, oddly calm. "You witnessed Nighthawk give it to him, but you also don't recall it."

"But I was with Ace when Luna raised the moon during the perihelion, and he didn't have the sword then. When he didn't return with us, I went to look for him, and found you and Ace. He had the sword then."

"Again, you're looking at this wrong. Remember what Luna read to you that morning?"

"Barely. It was about the Epic... something." I didn't think about it at all since we left, part of forgetting the entire thing. "But how do you know about that? You weren't there."

"I'll get to that later. The Epochust, correct? Remember what it does?"

I shook my head, as I actually had forgotten what Luna said. I coughed a few more times. I could tell that the cough was getting worse, so I decided that I would just head home after I was done talking to Stella, and find Thunder tomorrow.

"Well, the Epochust grants those who find it a certain power pertaining to time."

It started to come back together now. "Right, I remember now. It gives them the ability to alter... time..." And it suddenly started to make sense. As I pieced it together more and more, my coughing got progressively worse. "So, we already went?"

"Correct," Stella was smiling, clearly glad that I was figuring it out.

"But what... what about you?" I said between coughs. "I don't remember seeing you before the perihelion." There was some liquid in my throat, I could feel.

Stella looked around to make sure nopony was listening. "I was Princess Luna. She separated from me so that she could return to Canterlot while still able to keep an eye on all of you."

"So, you... made it to the... Epochust? But what about me... or Crescent?"

She looked grim. "You both died. The temple required three sacrifices to gain entry. Crescent unknowingly became the first. Nighthawk was the second, but he gave Ace his sword before doing so. I was captured during the first trial, but I escaped with the help of Luna. I made it just in time to see you give yourself in as the final sacrifice."

I was feeling nauseous hearing this story. I coughed a few more times. When I pulled my hoof away, I noticed it was stained red. "Pepper, are you alright?" Stella asked, noticing the blood as well. More blood came out as I coughed uncontrollably. It spattered on the ground between Stella and myself. I could barely keep my balance, I had my wings out to assist me.

"Pepper!" I heard Ace yell. "Princess, what's happening to her?"

"Luna was wrong," was the last thing I heard before I collapsed and the world faded to nothing.
> 14: Over Before it Began
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It gets smaller as the night goes on," Luna said.

"Why's that?" Cres asked. "Shouldn't the moon stay that big all night?"

"Once it's directly above us, that's the smallest it gets, which is still rather large tonight. Afterwards, it gets larger again until morning."

"Why does that happen?" Cherry asked.

Luna laughed. "Even I can't answer that entirely," she said. "Some scholars say it's because there's nothing nearby to compare size while it's higher in the sky, but that just sounds crazy to me."

"Can't you control it's size?" Cres asked.

"To an extent, yes. But what you see now is about the largest I can make it." Luna opened the door leading to her study. "Anyways, it's about time to get some rest. We'll all be leaving early tomorrow morning."

Cherry was the first to enter. I followed, Ace right behind me, and Cres taking up last. As we left the study, I noticed Ace was no longer right behind me. He must have lingered back for some reason. I almost didn't notice a flash of light blue from the study. I figured it must be Luna closing off the balcony.

We traveled through the halls of Canterlot Castle to our room in relative silence. When we finally arrived, I noticed Ace still wasn't with us. I looked back down the hall we just came through, but he wasn't anywhere to be seen. I began to worry a little, so I went back towards Luna's study.

I turned a corner and almost ran right into Ace. Beside him was a midnight blue unicorn with a short light blue mane and tail. Both of them looked pretty somber for some reason.

"Ace," I began, "what's wrong?"

"Ace, are you sure you want to do this?" The unicorn asked.

"Yes, Princess," Ace answered. "Let's get back to the guest room, Pepper. I'll explain everything there." Ace walked down the hall towards said room.

"I'm Stella, by the way," the unicorn said as she passed me to follow Ace. Ace led the way to the room we where we were staying.

"Alright, listen up, everypony!" Ace said after he opened the door and entered the room.

"Who's she?" Cres asked, pointing at Stella.

"I'm Stella," she responded.

"Hi, Stella!" Cres said enthusiastically, waving a hoof.

"Enough of that," Ace interrupted. "There's something I need to say." Ace paused, all eyes on him. He was likely thinking of how to say what he was about to. "You all just came back from witnessing Luna raise the moon for the perihelion," he said after a moment's hesitation. "Not us. We just came back from next week."

"How is that even possible?" Cherry asked before either me or Cres could.

"You remember that excerpt Luna read to us, was it, this morning? About the Epochust?"

"Of course," Cres answered. "We're heading out tomorrow. We just decided that before sunset."

"Actually, we're not," Ace said. "We've already gone."

"But we leave tomorrow," Cres said, sounding just as, if not more, confused as before.

"I know. Cherry left for home before we set out. Luna decided to come with us, and became Stella."

"So that's actually Luna?"

"I was Luna," Stella corrected. "She changed her appearance to what you see here. When we reached the border of Equestria, she shed the disguise, which resulted in me."

"Does that make you Luna's husk? Are you hollow inside?" Cres asked, more excited now than confused. She went up to Stella and proceeded to poke her in the side several times. Stella's face clearly showed disapproval of Cres' actions, and she stopped upon seeing it. Cres smiled nervously and backed away slowly.

"Anyways," Ace continued, "we went to the Temple, where we needed three sacrifices."

"Wait," I said. "If Cherry left and Stella joined, then doesn't that only leave four? How did two of you make it through?"

"We brought a couple Lunar Guards along with us," Ace answered. "One stayed with us, while the other accompanied Luna back to Canterlot. The point is, you all chose to be sacrifices. Well, after Crescent, that is."

"What?" Cres asked.

"None of us blamed you. Nopony could've guessed that pillar was a sacrificial altar. Nighthawk was devastated, though, and he was the second sacrifice.

"The point is, we got through the trials, and opened the temple. We made it to the Epochust. And with it..." he trailed off. He lifted a flowerpot from the table and dropped it. Before it hit the ground, Stella had teleported right in front of me, her hoof outstretched and touching me. I jumped back, scared by her unexpected teleportation. She moved in front of Cres, who didn't appear to be moving at all. Once Stella touched her, she flinched.

"I know you didn't like me poking you, but that was just mean," Cres said.

"It had nothing to do with that," Stella said, moving on to Cherry, who was also motionless. She reacted much the same when Stella touched her.

I realized I never actually heard the flowerpot hit the ground. I looked to where Ace had dropped it, expecting it to be smashed on the ground. Instead, it was in the exact same position as it was just before Stella scared me. It was just... floating there. I would normally assume a unicorn was holding it up, but there was no magic around the object.

"...The ability to manipulate time," Ace finished. He looked as if he was ready to drop dead at any second.

There was a strange sensation going around the timeless room. The room was suddenly filled with a white haze. It began to swirl around and converge in on a central point. A flash of light, and the mist had materialized into the form of an old alicorn. The alicorn's body was glowing white. His mane was flowing on an invisible wind, similar to Luna's. He appeared as if he were a ghost, as it was possible to see through him.

"Tu prodidit fiduciam," the alicorn said slowly. His voice was very deep. "Ut vitae nunc foris versantes."

"What's he saying, Stella?" Ace asked.

"We're all gonna die," she responded, half in shock.

"Dissentio," a female voice said. There was a swirl of blue magic, which materialized into Luna. "Haec mannis erit incolumis."

"Non intercedere, virgo," the mysterious alicorn said. "Nisi fata velis impertiri."

"Principem ac Nocte, illos esse, liberabitur."

"Tunc, loco illorum, peribit." The alicorn somehow seemed much more serious than before. Luna, however, seemed surprised at what the alicorn had just said.

"Non facere quod!" Luna yelled frantically. "Ego praeesset nocti, et sic dominabitur Epochust!"

"Ego Dominus Nocte. Virtus melior tua." This appeared to set off something within Luna.

"Pater...?" She quietly asked.

The alicorn, however, was unfazed. "Si te filiis tuis parcetur."

"Ego volo, pater," Luna said after a moments consideration.

"Luna, no!" Stella cried. "Don't do it!"

"I'm sorry, but I can't let anything happen to you," she responded. "Even if that means giving my life to protect you." Once I figured out what was about to happen, it was too late. The alicorn dispersed into white magic. Luna closed her eyes as the magic enveloped her. "Farewell," she said before the magic again dispersed, this time bringing her with it. The flowerpot crashed to the floor.

"Stella," Ace began slowly, "what just happened?"

"She just gave her life to protect us," she replied.

"That's what I was afraid of," Ace said. "This is my fault."

"Don't blame yourself, Ace. There's no way you could have known that would happen."

"Can't you just roll time back to before that happened?" Cherry asked.

"I wish I could, but that happened outside of time," Ace said. "Turning time back now would be a one-way ticket to an alternate reality in which Luna doesn't exist at all."

If Luna's dead, then it would probably be for the better if she never existed. That way, Ace wouldn't be held responsible for her death. Even if he felt guilty enough to tell somepony, they would never believe he killed somepony who didn't exist. "So it's a choice of living in a time when we're responsible for the death of a princess, or living in a time where she doesn't exist?" I asked. I immediately regretted saying it, as I realized how horrible an idea the latter actually was.

"I don't think she's dead," Stella said. That was reassuring, but it made me feel even worse for thinking of abandoning this reality.

"What makes you say that?" Ace asked. "We just watched her die."

"She's immortal. The only way she could possibly give her life for something is if she's being held captive somewhere forever."

"The statues..." Ace thought aloud. "Those must be previous ponies who gave away the secret. That's why they all looked horrified. We need to go and save Luna!"

"We can't just walk right into the temple, though," Stella added. "Remember the trials?"

"Right." Ace thought for a moment. "After the last sacrifice, you flew straight to the temple's entrance from the first trial. Maybe we can bypass the trials entirely."

"But the entrance was sealed. It only opened after the three sacrifices were already dead."

"Would it be possible to break through the door?" Cherry suggested.

"That's an idea," Stella said, "but what if it doesn't work? What then?"

"Then we go through the trials. Capture several changelings and use them as the sacrifices."

"I suppose that could work. But what if--"

"We'll figure it out along the way," Ace interrupted. "We'll never get anywhere if we only look at possible failures."

"Okay," Stella said, defeated. "Should we get ready now?"

"I think we should prepare tonight, and set out in the morning. For now, can you teleport us all to Ponyville?"

"Not all of us. One of us would have to stay back."

"Alright, you stay back and round up all of the retiring guards. Tell them that Luna's missing, but try not to alert the entire Royal or Lunar Guard. We'll meet up in the morning at the start of the road to Whinniesburg, just outside Canterlot."

Stella nodded in agreement. She took a stance, ready to cast a powerful spell. Her horn began to glow with a blue aura. With a blue flash, the room disappeared. A few seconds later, the blue faded. While we were indeed in Ponyville, we were at the same altitude as Canterlot, well above the town. I instinctively unfolded my wings and began flapping them, just to avoid falling. Ace appeared to do the same thing.

For Cres and Cherry, however, the same could not be said. They didn't have wings, so they just fell. Ace was able to catch Cherry. I was at least able to soften Cres' landing. Ace put Cherry down and landed next to her. We were somewhere in Sweet Apple Acres, judging by the apple trees everywhere.

"So, what do you want us to do, Ace?" Cres asked.

"I want all three of you to stay here and let us deal with this," Ace replied.

"We want to help!" I said.

"And I don't want you to get involved," Ace threw back. "I've been through these trials. They're not something you should have to go through."

"What about you? We're not gonna let you do this alone," Cherry added.

"It's my fault Luna was taken in the first place. Besides, I won't be alone. I'll have Stella and at least three Royal and Lunar Guards, as well as a few other ponies that I know can help."

"And what makes you think we won't be any help?" I asked.

"Because you weren't much help last time. Crescent didn't do much at all, and was the first to die. You weren't much help until the last trial, when it was just the two of us. Even then, you still died at the end. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find several ponies." He flew away, leaving Cherry, Cres, and myself lost among a sea of trees.

"Why aren't you going after him, Pepper?" Cherry asked.

"Because I respect his decision," I answered. "If he doesn't want us involved, that's fine."

"Don't you want to help save Luna?"

"I do, but I think Ace is right. We probably wouldn't be very helpful."

"Can't you at least tail him to see who he's taking with him?" Cres added.

"That is a good idea. I'll do that." I took off to the sky. I flew in the general direction of town. Unless Ace intended to recruit one of the Apples, that's where he likely was. I flew around town for a while, but I couldn't find him anywhere. The other two had managed to get out of the farm, so I landed next to them.

"Who's he bringing?" Cres asked.

"I couldn't find him," I replied.

"Well, we'll find out who he took soon enough," Cherry added.

"Yeah, but by then it's too late to say goodbye," Cres said.

***

I was barely able to get to sleep last night. I couldn't stop thinking that Ace was about to leave for good, and I'd never see him again. I woke up before sunrise, and decided to stay up since I probably wouldn't be able to get back to sleep before the sun actually did come up.

I stepped outside, the cool, early morning air helping clear my mind. I looked at the moon on the horizon. It was just as large as when Luna had lifted it last night, though it was a different experience seeing it from Ponyville rather than Luna's balcony. I saw the silhouette of somepony fly across the moon. Once they weren't against the moon, I could make out a brown coat.

It had to be Ace. He said he would meet Stella at sunrise, so it would make sense for him to move out before then. Something else I noticed was that he was flying alone. He said he was going to bring a few more ponies from Ponyville with him. He must be going to meet them. I took off after him.

He landed near two other pegasi; a blue one and a pink one. Ace turned around, about to take off, when I landed in front of him.

"I told you no," he said harshly. "You're not coming with us."

"I understand," I replied. "I just wanted to know who you were taking with you."

"Really?" His tone seemed to cool down. "I'm just bringing these two along." He motioned to the two other pegasi; Thunder and Zephyr.

"Only pegasi? Wouldn't that put you at a disadvantage?" I asked.

"Yes, actually. But these are the only ponies I trust will do what they can. Besides, Stella's a unicorn, as is one of the ponies I asked her to find, Blaze. That should at least help to balance things out."

"So why these two, and not me?" I asked, careful not to make Ace angry again.

"Well, you're not very strong physically, you're not a great flyer, and you're certainly not good with magic." While true, it still hurt to hear, especially from Ace. With little left to say, I wrapped my hooves around Ace.

"Come back safe," I said. I moved on to Thunder. "All of you," I added as I embraced him too. I finally hugged Zephyr goodbye.

"Don't worry about us," Thunder said. "We'll be fine."

"We'll bring the Princess back, you'll see," Zephyr added.

"Goodbye, Pepper. We'll see each other again soon. I'll make sure of it."

Ace took off. Thunder and Zephyr were right behind him. They flew straight towards the moon, leaving their silhouettes against the perihelion. I watched them until they disappeared, leaving the ground below me covered in tears. I didn't doubt what they said, but I couldn't help but think that I'd never see them again.

I watched the moon as it set. For a moment, I could swear I saw Luna. It was as if she was letting me know that everything was going to be alright, and that she was watching over her saviors. I silently prayed that she was. I got up and began to walk away. By now the moon was halfway below the horizon, and the sun was rising.


The End...?