The majestic Alabaster Gates of the Ivory City came into view as the two of us strolled the city streets, I shrouded in darkness and Luna walking in plain sight. None of the ponies or guards in sight paid us any great mind as we walked the grey and red brick pathways. As we passed a group of ponies, gossiping among them selves about the day-to-day goings of the castle, Luna only resieved 'lip servise' as their way of paying respect, making quick bows and stating empty nothing to the Midnight mare before going back to their idolatries.

"Luna, my Dearest Princess, Thou hast no need to concern thyself with the likes of those not appreciative of thy night..." I whispered into her ear, my cloaked form trailing in her shadow. We were almost within spitting distance of the Gates when I heard Luna sigh.

"What use tis this role of ours if the ones we care for think naught of us but a figure head for our own sibling to role about in the dark... Thou hast naught just seen her pomposity... But been the center of it as well..." Luna's low dejected voice carried gently between our close space, not even becoming more than a whisper on the wind before it past beyond our range of hearing.

"Though that tis true, Dearest Luna... Though tis why naught a thing thy sister said causes us much ire... Dealing with politicians for most of our lives had hardened us to such a thing as that. Thou dost not but just talk with us and thou shalt find a semblance of relief from the arduous dealings of thy rule and family." I said with my ghost like figure appearing for a second next to her to smile, which earned me a gracious smile and a warm blush in return before I returned to nothing.

After we walked for a few more minutes we came upon the front city gates... 'Ori Albis' The "White Mouth" as it was called by the ponies. It was a large structure, an AT-ST could have safely traversed under its magnificent arches... It was that large. Seeing it put me in awe as I did not notice Luna start to get ahead of me. The Structure itself was a large Alabaster lined thing, looking more like the entrance to a cathedral than a gate... And where the walls were white the gates were an Obsidian Black, making for a striking contrast.

After pulling myself out of my reverie I took notice of Luna's progress and rushed after her. The two of us finally going beyond the city, very little fanfare upon our exit.

We began our small sojourn into the country side at a slow walk, taking in the sparsely decorated farm houses that dotted the area along with their various fields of corn, wheat, barley, and other various fruits, veggies, and nuts. Walking out of the Ivory City the roads were well paved with cobblestone and brick... But after a good hours walk the road began turning into a dirt covered mess, where in most places it didn't even exist.

Luna had adorned her normal Regalia; a lighter Midnight blue necklace like piece hung around her neck, with her mark emblazoned upon its large face, she also beheld a silver tiara upon her crown, just behind her horn; it itself had around seven gems upon its rise, with the largest siting right in the middle parallel with her horn. She also wore hardened Silver shoes upon her hooves which reached almost up to her second knee.

Along with her wardrobe change she had also had her hair braided up in the back, not all of it though, just enough to hold the rest in a fetching back due. Through our entire walk she had held her head high, making herself seem all the ruler that she indeed was, even when those passing her did not give her the benefit of the time of day... Seeing her in such a situation I decided to break the silence.

"Luna, Dearest Princess of ours... Dost thou wish to vent thy frustrations upon thy plebeian like subjects? Seeing as they delivers thou not thy deserved respect for defeating Discord and raising the sun for their continued benefit?" I asked, a hint of anger in my voice, though she knew it was not directed at her. She knew so for my force presence had enveloped her ever since we had left the city, covering her in a sense of praise, respect, reassurance, and love for how strong she had been during the whole farce of a march to and fro the city gates.

"Aye, Corpus... Tis not but a foul taste in thy mouth from dealing with such poppas beings such as them... They deserve not the title of Noble! Aristocratic dogs that they are!" Luna growled, her anger slightly baffled me at its intensity, though did not entirely surprise me... Being a master of the dark and such... "But the fact that they defy my rule in such a base way is almost on the edge of treason... All are supposed to AT LEAST show difference in stature when dealing with royalty, or just one of higher standing naught this farce of a reception We received when walking our very own streets!" She bristled and took a deep breath before continuing on.

"Tis not the fault of ignorant Stallions and Mares, but the benign cyst that exits within my own household... But alas We could never fault our sister for her undertakings... Though she dost naught know my hindered presence upon her brighter duties... IT still pains us." Luna let out a pained sigh as all her frustrations were let out in the sun... and given to me to look upon with unsullied eyes.

"Thou sayeth that Celestia burdens thou without her knowledge, correct?" Luna nodded as I continued, "Then fight to be naught but a shadow over her, naught the other way around." I could tell that my words had definitely intrigued my friend and companion, making her quirk her head to the side in intrigue.

"What dost thou mean by this, Dearest Corpus?" Luna inquired, her voice slightly taken with reservation.

"What we mean Dearest Friend Luna, Is that thou should work to either become an equal to her in thy own. Working to better the kingdom in thy own way that is dramatically and irrevocably distinguished from thy sisters own way, marking it as thy own hoof in the rule per say." Luna gave me a weird smile before giggling and giving me a passionate nuzzle.

"Thank thee, Dearest Corpus... Thou dost know aught of the heart and how to mend such a broken item." Luna murmured into my ear as she pulled away from the right side of my face, leaving me with a bright blush almost as deep as hers, though she could not see it. I grinned, like a mad man after seeing his experiment come to fruitation, and quickly wrapped my arms around Luna in a warm embrace.

"EEP!" She squealed as I hugged her close to my chest, making her blush even more at the close contact.

"NO... Thank Thee... Dearest Luna... Thou hast given us a reason to live and breath on this planet thou lives on..." 'And even a reason to love again...' I thought to myself as I let go of the red faced blue furred alicorn.

"Umm..." was all she could say as she blushed even more as I chuckled slightly at her speechlessness.

"Let us be gone dearest Luna... It is not to much farther." I said, a smile still on my face as I began again my journey to my ship.

Twenty minutes later, and a small ruckus between two farmers and a sheep, wee had made it to the edge of the forest my ship was supposedly in.

"Thou art ready Luna?"

"Aye, Corpus we art indeed..."

At that we walked into the forest and into a world of wonder. The trees were far brighter and colorful here than anywhere else; bright shades of blue, green, yellow, pink, orange, red, and teal lined the forest ceiling. Flowers, leaves, and even the bark were this menagerie of colors.

"Quite the place... isn't it?" I whispered out as I let my camouflage drop, the shadows falling away to reveal my eight foot form. My clothing from earlier still wreathed my tall frame as I walked over to stand with Luna as she laid her eyes upon the sobering sight before her. She was to busy taking in the magnificence in front of her to hear my words, so taking that into question I stayed silent and waited for her to come too.

"It... It's... Beautiful... How did we not know aught of this place before? Or even see its majesty when we rescued thee?" She whispered just loud enough so that I could hear her, by no doing of her own.

"Tis naught what one sees when it is first there... But what one sees when it is still there the next time..." I replied as I walked over and placed a comforting hand on her left shoulder, making her flinch slightly at the unwarranted contact. She then turned slightly and gave me a warm smile before walking on into the forest, with me trailing a step behind her... My hand never leaving her shoulder.

The pathways in the forest were large and well trodden, to a point, and were quite well furnished with benches and memorials to some of the locals that had put effort into the recreational areas of the forest. We even passed a single grave that displayed the burial sight of the Forest recreationist's resting place, a MR. Golden Heart of Ivory City... Lived to be 88 and was lived on by five boys and three girls and many grand children His wife's name was also emblazoned under his; a Mrs. Tender Heart of Ivory city, lived to be 89 and had died only a few months after the husband.

After paying our respects we continued on at random for a while, looking at the flora and just having a grand time. Though we moved at random I still was keeping our path headed in the direction of my ship, though only slightly.

Next we found a bench, it had a plaque on it that stated a gift was given by a family called the 'Duchy of Sparkle' back in the year 12,162 of Discords era, The 12th of Agustus, just over a year or two before my arrival. It was now 12,163, The 10th of Lorum. There we sat and talked for a few minutes about the days happenings and what had been on our minds before we just fell into a comfortable silence.

"Dearest Luna... We have a... Revelation for thee, concerning our being the only one from our universe being here..." I suddenly stated, drawing a confused glance from Luna. She was sitting less than three inches away from me on the large bench, still adorned in her daily royal attire, laying out similar to a sphinx. This gave her a very regal look when she abruptly fluffed her wings and addressed me.

"What dost thou mean, dearest Corpus? We were under the impression that thou was indeed the only survivor..." Luna's slightly hurt tone caught me off guard, making me cringe at the thought of not having told her sooner. Her slightly fluster wings, along with her posture and attire, set me up to receive the worst saddened gaze I had ever seen, and in my long life that's saying something.

"Our reasons for doing so Luna were not out of deceit or of any such concept, our dearest princess... My friend was somewhat forgotten by me until such time as we decided to go on this expedition for our ship. When thou hast finally met him... Thou will have come to know why we kept such knowledge from thee... Even if unintentionally." My words seemed to have disillusioned any ill feeling my esteemed royal friend had towards me upon hearing of my half-assed apology. She still had a air of disappointment about her, but it no longer held the venomous feel of contempt along with it. She gale a small sigh and gave me a slight condescending look and going back to watching the leafs flutter about in the air around us with their rainbow of colors.

"IF, thou art ready Corpus, it would be prudent for thou to continue one thy way..." Luna suddenly snapped at me, drawing my attention and slightly confused ire. She then brought her legs up to her side and tucked her wings in before gracefully climbing off the bench and giving me an even glare.

"If thou hast willed it of us, so shall it be." I replied and got to my feet and strode past her in a stride and a half. Once over taking her I continued my meter and a half pace, quickly making her know she had pissed me off with her attitude. I passed many trees and bushes as I made Luna walk at a high trot, just trying to keep up with my much longer legs. She may have been an equine, but I had endurance and much longer legs on my side... and maybe a little rage had leaked into my muscles to try and push me on, but I didn't care.

After a few more minutes of walking, or in Luna's case running, we made it to the clearing from all those months ago. This section of the forest was much different from the rest of it... The leafs were all a uniform dark green and the bark of the surrounding trees were a sickly dark grey, almost black, color. The bushes around the clearing were leafless and bare of any other hint of life save the dried up forms of some small berries. In the center of the clearing was a large tri-angular structure. At one end was a large bulbous thing with a fine come out of it along with two smaller bulbous things sticking out at from a couple feet below it. The rest of the shape was covered in small bulbous things that dotted its surface, along with a large 'hole' on the right side of it that had been filled with vines and leaf matter.

Well, at least that's what all Luna had seen when she first saw it, what I saw was the leaf and vine covered shape of my supped up Delta 7 star fighter and the absence of my droid counterpart... It seems that the cockpit had been sealed and that nothing else had been tampered as I went about wiping off the vines and leafs. As I wiped it down I could hear the small gasps come from Luna as she laid her eyes upon the biggest piece of alien tech she would pry ever see in her near life time... Though for the future years she may very well see something rather spectacular, or devastating...

"This...is amazing corpus... We have not seen such a thing as this in all our years... Does this manner of machine still work?" Luna said once I had finished clearing the refuse from my black ships surface. The color of its hull was there for all to see; it was covered in a mat black that detailed all the panels and surfaces of the ship, even a special one way paint had been applied to the cockpit for complete black out. Upon its black surface one could pick out smallish white dots, each one about the size of your thumb. These small dots simulated the back drop of space as the ship flew about it, tricking the eye into see nothing but stars as it raced about to kill its prey.

It was the perfect killing and reconnaissance machine, at least when it had its designated droid pilot with it.

"If thou thinks this is something, then thou might want to wait and see our friend... Without him this thing might as well be a giant paper weight..." I chuckled at her perplexed look, making my smile widen and actually reach my eyes for the second time that day.

"Now, if you would be so kind as to come out Grr, there's no need to hide from my friend here... She won't hurt you, not unless she wants me to spank her..." I then gave Luna a pointed, yet seductive, glare and turned my gaze from her shocked and flustered form back to a set of thick bushes on the other side of my ship. The bushes then started to rustle and move as a dark green shape made its way out from behind the bushes, trailing some of the vines and such that had been once present on my ship.

"Good day Grr, how's it been my friend?" I asked as I walked around the ship and knelt before the droid. G-R stood at about the and a half feet tall and his R frame was covered in a thin layer of dark green fauna, the vines looped up and over his arms and around his circular half come.

"Brrr uoop... Dring ba daruurr... Beep bing bing zrring..." 'My lord... What the fuck... Where the hell have you been you ass!' The droid barked at me in binary... Quite artfully too, he was more than a little pissed. Especially as he then popped open his utility arm and proceeded to zap me several times with his arc welder.

"GOD DAMMIT!" I yelled as several hundred volts of electricity ran through my veins and sent me careening to the ground in a heap of twitching limbs and cries of pain.

"GRRRing Bing Beep Tweet Bing Dwon pip mroan brrrup zzzzip rrrrribr" 'You deserved that you chipper ass hole! You left me out here for a whole months worth of rotations and never even thought to check on me! You're lucky I don't shoot you as well!' Let it never be said that my companion didn't have a mouth on 'im... There was a reason I love that droid as a brother... And sometimes a son.

"Corpus!" Luna shouted, coming close to her canterlot style shout she had preformed once before on me.

"Don't!" I shouted, "It's fine Dearest Luna, he just decided to give us a piece of his mind after I left him here for a damned month... Which he just reminded us that he could have shot me instead and been done with it..." My last comment made Luna go pale faced before sitting down and looking at me and my friend slack jawed and wide eyed.

"breed, dew bop pip durg ring bing zzzzip, worp mmmmring..." That's right, now... What the hell took you. I've been sitting here keeping your damned ship working for a month now and you finally show up out of the blue, what gives?' G-R prattled on, leaving me almost no room to talk as he proceeded to rip me a new one. His anger and down right pissed attitude being evident to all, even the innocent Luna could tell his emotions.

Once I finished shaking the tingling sense out of my limbs I got up and dusted myself off, giving G-R a condescending look. I then bent down and wrapped the devious little bastard in a friendly embrace. Which elicited a dejected whir from my long time friend.

"It's good to see you too my friend... And... I'm sorry for leaving you alone out here for so long... It was not the most... Responsible thing I could have done." I sighed out sadly, giving off a few dejected chuckles as I embraced the plant covered astromech. I then quickly released him and ripped all the caked on refuse from his chassis, rendering his, slightly rusted, silver and dark green paneling. I then took note of the astonished looking Luna standing behind me, just gaping at such an off the wall reunion.

"Dearest Corpus... How does one not beat thy friend for such a thing as inflicting unknowable amounts of pain upon them upon reuniting with them... For thou seems to have reacted... rather abnormally to this situation..." Luna, despite her earlier aggravations was slightly awe struck and angered by what was going on before her; a non organic creature had just gone and berated her friend, shocked him, berated him again, and then got a massive hug from said friend... all in the span a few seconds.

"Murrr breep doow doop pop beep booow... Bing bing pip bip pip bing..." 'Master... What the heck's up with the Equine figure behind you... And why are you and it speaking in such an archaic form of basic? It seems rather redundant...' G-R warbled out in an annoyed fashion, one that even Luna could plainly understand.

"Ugh... How bout we get the hell out of here and I'll explain every thing?" I moaned out, not liking where this might go... Seeing as G-R is supposed to be a Sith droid... Things were gong to get a little hectic...

"Bring..." 'Fine...' G-R relented after a few seconds of hesitance.

Author's Note

we are getting closer to our highly M rated moment with Aurora.... SO just hold yer horses! XD I hope you all enjoy this small tedious chapter, it kind of sets up a few later things! Have fun!