A sweet, spritely voice echoed in the ruins of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, reinforcing the mood of jubilant relief shared amongst those present there. The nightmare had ended, a new day of hope had dawned over Equestria.
"A party, a party! We'll throw a great big party in Ponyville, and everypony will be invited of course!" Pinkie Pie was exclaiming, bouncing around the room she was in with irrepressible energy as she spoke. Her antics tweaked smiles from the other fillies now marked as bearers of the Elements of Harmony with her - Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Rarity - as well as the ruler of Equestria herself with them, Princess Celestia. Even Princess Luna, released from the prison of "Nightmare Moon" minutes before, managed the briefest glimmer of a smile before her expression resumed the blank stare of the emotionally and physically drained.
"Now hang on a minute, Pinkie." Applejack interjects. "We need to get back to Ponyville first, before any of us can do anything."
"Applejack's right. We need to get back to Ponyville ASAP, but I'm not sure Princess Luna is up to the return trip." Twilight adds, concern creasing her face. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the shattered pieces of "Nightmare Moon's" armor evaporate into a black mist that then seems to dissipate into nothingness.
"Do you think you can walk all the way back to Ponyville, Princess Luna?" Twilight now turns and asks the recently liberated sister of Celestia. Luna does not respond verbally - the combination of emotional shock and her powers having been drained by the Elements of Harmony generally keeps the words caged in her mouth - but after a few moments gets up from where she was laying and gamely makes a try at walking. She has the energy to move, but her steps are slow and heavy, perhaps a little hesitant as well.
Twilight looks over at Applejack, who sadly shakes her head in response. "In this condition, she won't be able to keep up with the rest of us." Applejack concludes.
"So what do we do now?" Rarity interjects with the question on everypony's mind.
"Ummm..." Twilight verbalizes as she scans the room for inspiration. After a moment, she notices above the group a banner still hanging from its mounting, and using her unicorn magic gives it a remote-control tug. The banner, large enough for Twilight and all her new friends to stand on at once, slowly flutters down to the ground.
"What's that for?" Rainbow Dash asks, skeptically looking at the torn down banner.
"I have an idea." Twilight begins to explain, working as she speaks. "I'll tie a corner of the banner around four of us, and Princess Luna can lay down on it in the center. With four of us lifting, we'll be able to carry her all the way back to Ponyville."
"Will that old, rotting fabric hold her weight?" Rarity asks, not without good reason.
"I don't know, but there's only one way to find out." Twilight answers, carefully tearing each corner of the large banner using her magic into two strips that can be telekinetically tied together around a pony's midsection.
"I'll take the upper left corner. Applejack, you take the corner to the right of mine. Rarity, you get the corner behind me. Fluttershy, you take the last one." Twilight explains, already telekinetically manipulating the two strips of the upper left corner to tie around her midsection.
"Got it." Applejack affirms, moving to Twilight's right.
"Alright, just not too tightly on the knot now." Rarity states, moving behind Twilight.
"Me? Why me?" Fluttershy asks with unsurprising hesitation.
"Fluttershy dahling, Pinkie Pie is too excited right now to keep all four hooves on the ground and Rainbow Dash looks like she wants to play storyteller to the Princess. That leaves you to take the last spot." Rarity explains to the shy pegasus as Twilight begins tying the upper-right corner around Applejack's midsection.
"Oh... OK, I guess..." Fluttershy quietly trails off, reluctantly positioning herself beside Rarity on the corner of the banner diagonally opposite Twilight's.
As Twilight finishes with Applejack and looks behind her to tie Rarity to her corner of the banner, Fluttershy sees Pinkie Pie still bouncing around, talking about the awesome party she has in mind once they get back to Ponyville. She then turns to see Rainbow Dash hovering at Princess Celestia's eye-level, appearing to punch an unseen opponent with her forehooves as Celestia watches with an amused smile on her face.
"And it was SO AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash was saying to the sun princess after finishing the fake boxing match. "There's a lot more too, you don't mind if I tell it all while we're on the way back, do you?"
"I don't see why not, Rainbow Dash. It's a long way back to Ponyville, after all." Celestia replies through a chuckle.
"Alright. Hey Twilight, how are we doin'?" Rainbow Dash now asks of the purple unicorn.
"Almost done... Fluttershy, hold your wings open while I do the tying so that I don't tie them down as well, OK?" Twilight states.
Fluttershy silently complies, holding her wings open while Twilight telekinetically works the two separate strips of cloth around her midsection, then double-knots the ends on top of Fluttershy's back. Except for a slight squeak Fluttershy made when the cloth was pulled tight around her, the entire procedure was conducted in silence. After Twilight was finished, Fluttershy tucked her wings in again, the cloth strips passing between them and her body as a result.
The pulled-down banner stretched between the four fillies, each one with a corner tied around them, and Twilight beckoned with a forehoof for Princess Luna to come in their general direction. Luna looks back at her sister, who gently waves her on with a forehoof, then slowly walks over to the side of the banner between Applejack and Fluttershy's corners.
"Everypony lay down so that the princess can step on." Twilight states, and on that command all four fillies lay down so that the banner once again was covering the cracked stone floor. Luna pauses, briefly blinking in incomprehension, then hesistantly steps onto the banner, turning so that she faces in the same direction the four fillies are facing.
"Now, on the count of three, we all get up at the same time. Ready? One, two, three!" Twilight states. The execution is clumsy (in part due to Fluttershy responding slowly to the three count), but the banner holds Luna's weight, and the knots stay knotted as well.
As Luna settles in, she takes some comfort in the symbolism of being carried by a representative of each Equestrian race (Applejack for the Earth ponies, Rarity for the unicorns, Fluttershy for the pegasi) with Twilight Sparkle, the primary agent of ending her 1,000 year nightmare, leading the effort. She also sees she is laying on the ying-yang-like "duality of the princesses" symbol - the mark of what she had once been and, perhaps just maybe, could be again.
"Are we done yet, Twilight? We're keeping the Princess waiting here, ya know." Rainbow Dash, now hovering beside Princess Celestia, impatiently stated.
"Yes Rainbow Dash, we're done here." Twilight replied, cracking a smile as she spoke. She then turned to the sun princess and her teacher of magic and asked her to lead the way back to Ponyville.
"No, my dear student, you are the hero of the hour. It is only right you lead the way." Celestia gently corrected. Twilight was briefly startled, but smiled and bowed her head in acknowledgement in accepting the honor given to her and her new friends.
"Alright everypony, stay in time with my march! 1,2,3,4! 1,2,3,4!" Twilight exclaims, stepping in a very professional marching pattern, and slowly but surely the unit of four fillies carrying Princess Luna begin moving toward the exit to the room. Pinkie Pie, aware she would be left behind, scrambles to catch up to them, leaving Princess Celestia and Rainbow Dash flying beside her to monitor the progress of the rest of the party.
"What's with the military manner?" Applejack asks Twilight out of curiously a minute later, after successfully navigating the staircase that lead into and out of the room they had been in.
"When you've lived in Canterlot for as long as I have, you tend to pick up habits of the guards, like marching to a beat." Twilight explains, which seems to be enough of an explanation to satisfy Applejack's curiosity. As Twilight spoke those words though, Celestia made an unseen smile.
There was a second layer of truth to the statement Twilight Sparkle made that only Celestia knew existed - Celestia rarely enforced Twilight using a professional march, much preferring the happy clip-clopping of hooves on tile or marble of a filly at play. Twilight had adopted the march - and "professional" demeanor that came with it - on her own to please the big brother she loved so much and the former fillysitter, Celestia's own adoptive niece, she shared so many fond memories with. Only Celestia could've seen it at the time, but the positive influences of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, in addition to those Celestia gave herself, were beginning to seep through and shine out to help others.
Twilight would not be like the renegade student - Sunset Shimmer, who lusted for power and eventually abandoned Celestia to seek it in an unfettered manner - and that pleased Celestia to no end. Luna's long road "home", to return to being the sister Celestia once knew and loved so well, would be the first part of Twilight's own long road - the one that would eventually make her a princess and alicorn all her own...
LATER, IN PONYVILLE...
The unicorn Guard Lieutenant sighed as he stood inside the Ponyville Town Hall, listening to Mayor Mare addressing a restless, answer-seeking crowd outside. "Everypony, please be patient! As soon as we have information about the Princess and the fillies that went into Everfree Forest, we will give it to you! Just please be patient!" the Mayor's desperate pleas came amplified through the speakers.
Seconds later, Mayor Mare herself, now in a quite disoriented and frazzled state, retreated "backstage" to where the Lieutenant was uneasily waiting. He had yet to hear from the Pegasus he had sent to scout over the Everfree Forest, and he only had three other guards under his command currently - not enough for any effective form of crowd control. His commanding officer, the current Captain of the Guard Gibraltar, had given him this prestigious "milk run" called the Summer Sun Celebration, but nothing had gone right since Nightmare Moon's appearance, and now the Lieutenant was playing an uneasy waiting game along with everypony else.
"The natives are restless, I see." the Lieutenant comments, an attempt at lightening the mood that instead only produced a scowl on Mayor Mare's face.
"Lieutenant, this is no time for joking! I don't know how much longer I can keep that crowd under control! Too many strange things have happened today, things that need explanations that aren't coming." Mayor Mare snaps out.
"As much as I'd like to help you, Mayor, I am suffering the same information deficit you are. My scout hasn't returned yet, and sending for advice from HQ in Canterlot will take too long to get a useful response. I can't even set up an effective crowd control with the guards I have under my command currently. My hooves are just as tied as yours are right now, Mayor." the Lieutenant calmly replies.
The Mayor gives an annoyed snort and a cold stare over her glasses, but does nothing else before walking to a side window facing the direction of the Everfree Forest. She looks out ruefully at a sky now sun-lit after spending an unusual amount of time in darkness. Outside could be heard the quiet buzz of a large crowd in unease.
After several minutes, the crowd buzz suddenly spiked, prompting the Guard Lieutenant to take a peek outside. The Mayor, forgetting her spat with the Lieutenant for the moment, walks over beside him to see the source of the increased agitation: a Guard Pegasus trying to force his way through the crowd!
"Everypony clear a path!" the Lieutenant bellows out to the crowd before Mayor Mare can even react to the sight, and sure enough the crowd clears out of a lane just big enough for the guard, sweaty and tired from his efforts, to make his way to the stage where Mayor Mare and the Lieutenant are waiting.
"I've made contact, Sir!" the guard reported breathlessly, giving a salute to the Lieutenant as he speaks.
"Well don't just stand there panting, report!" the Lieutenant exclaims, both he and Mayor Mare waiting with baited breath.
"Yes Sir! Princess Celestia's party is currently only a few minutes out from Ponyville in the Everfree Forest. Besides the Princess herself, there was Twilight Sparkle and the other five fillies that went into the forest with her in pursuit of Nightmare Moon. Twilight and three other fillies were carrying an eighth member I could not identify on some kind of improvised stretcher arrangement. The Princess ordered me to tell both you and Mayor Mare to rendezvous with the party just outside town, sir."
"Before we leave, Guard, what else can you tell me about that eighth member? The one being carried by Twilight Sparkle and the others?"
"I couldn't identify her, sir, but the odd thing was she definitely had both wings and a horn - an alicorn, sir. Princess Celestia claimed it was her supposedly legendary sister, Princess Luna, but I had no way to verify that extraordinary claim. You'll have to see her yourself - I couldn't really believe my eyes or ears the whole time, sir."
The Lieutenant and Mayor Mare exchanged glances after hearing the report, the Lieutenant raising an eyebrow at the Mayor.
"Lead us to the rendezvous point, Guard. Hopefully, we can get some answers we seriously need right now." the Lieutenant orders.
A FEW MINUTES LATER...
"Incredible. Absolutely incredible!" the Guard Lieutenant was saying.
The Guard Lieutenant and Mayor Mare were staring, jaws agape, at Princess Luna. Both of them, along with the Pegasus Guard that had given the report, had rendezvoused with Princess Celestia's party just outside of the town. The bearers of the Elements of Harmony stood proudly off to the side as Princess Celestia herself did the debriefing for the Lieutenant and Mayor Mare. If it wasn't for the shyly staring Princess Luna beside her sister, the story of the challenges and triumphs of the six fillies would have been utterly unbelievable.
"Mayor Mare, are you prepared to address the citizens of Ponyville?" Princess Celestia asked after a minute's silence.
"Yes, Your Highness." Mayor Mare replied with as much confidence as she could muster, which was to say not much at all.
"Then do so now. Twilight Sparkle, you and your friends go with the Mayor. Take my sister with you. I have something else for the Lieutenant and his guards to do." Celestia orders.
"Yes, Princess." Twilight Sparkle affirms, leading the other fillies in following the Mayor back into town. Princess Luna, after a moment's hesitation, steps after them, leaving Celestia alone with her guards.
"What's your status report, Lieutenant?" Celestia asks as soon as everypony else had left to return to Ponyville.
The unicorn Guard Lieutenant gives his status report: "Besides the Pegasus here I sent to act as scout, I still have three others to pull the chariot. When... 'Nightmare Moon' first appeared, Mayor Mare ordered them to attack her and they got knocked around as a result. Fortunately, it seems only their egos got bruised. Right now, I'm having them acting as escort for the Mayor and others with her."
Celestia nods as the Lieutenant gives his report, then speaks again: "I'm going to be in Ponyville for the remainder of the Summer Sun Celebration, which will be a few hours yet. The Pegasi can manage the chariot and the rest of the festivities on their own, so I'm ordering you to deliver the news about what happened in the Everfree Forest to the Captain in Canterlot. Time is of the essence, Lieutenant, so I'm authorizing your use of the Emergency Relay System. I will write down the message to be passed along to the Captain. Understood?"
"Perfectly, Your Highness." the Lieutenant answers, giving a salute as he speaks.
"Good. Take a letter, my sister has a long road home yet." Celestia states with a smile.
"Right away, Your Highness."
The Emergency Relay System, intended for use of highest-priority dispatches, consisted of a string of guards that normally patrolled a route between Ponyville and Canterlot. When the system was activated, the message would be passed, relay-race style, as fast as possible up that route to Canterlot. It was in this way that the first news reached Canterlot of Princess Luna's return and the triumph of Twilight Sparkle alongside her new friends.
This news, the first steps of Luna's "long road home", provoked a wide spectrum of reactions. Just about everypony was confused and surprised by Luna's return, many were suspicious of her, others saw an opportunity to exploit, yet others looked with compassion on Luna, a few even pitied her! This variety of reactions reflected cultural fault lines within Canterlot society and the Royal Guard force itself - fault lines Luna's presence would soon split wide open as the status quo became irrevocably overturned.
Luna's "long road home", the quest to recover once again the princess of the night that maintained harmony and protected Equestria beside her sister, would test the character of many a pony. It would pit the noble against the base, the chivalrous versus the manipulative, those of mighty character versus those of no character. The triumph in the Everfree Forest wasn't an end, but a beginning - the beginning of a whole new series of trials and triumphs within Canterlot alongside Twilight Sparkle learning of the magic of friendship in Ponyville. These coming stories, the Canterlot Chronicles, will detail these trials and triumphs for all to see...
