Moon's shadow

by Znegil

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Princess Celestia, Human, Twilight Sparkle, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Nightmare Moon, Romance, Original Character
Length: 23304

A human with a special ability comes to Equestria and befriends Luna. While they have an adventure their friendship gets tested but something new emerges. Thanks for all the good feedback for changes that got this story from 15pos/13neg to 130/23.

A human with a special ability comes to Equestria and befriends Luna.
While they have an adventure their friendship gets tested but something new emerges.

------------------------------------------------------
Thanks for all the good feedback for changes that got this story from 15pos/13neg to 130/23.

There is now a sequel to this story Know your enemy

Published 2015-12-24 05:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2016-05-14 23:34:26 UTC

2 Welcome

A headache, I had an extreme headache. I felt like my head could burst into pieces any minute now. Suddenly all came back to me... the car accident... my... death?

Did all these things really happen? If so, headache suddenly became something good, since you need to have a head to have a headache. In heaven I should not feel something like that, shouldn't I?

I decided to open my eyes so I could see for myself.

I was greeted by the sight of a metallic shining spearhead take up most of my field of view. This for sure wasn't my favorite way to wake up but it beats being dead by miles.

I tried a careful "Hello."

The spear flinched back a bit, giving me more sight for my surroundings, while I heard a surprised "It talks?"

What I saw now shocked me more then the spearhead did. Talking horses in armor and armed. TALKING HORSES!?

Now I was considering the possibility that I had survived the accident but was lying somewhere having severe brain damage.

"What are you?", the one who stood with his spear before me asked. I counted five of them.

They all looked pretty similar, horses in heavy armor, a horn on their head. Unicorns?

"What are you?", he repeated while I was looking around baffled.

"I... I am a human.", I answered confused. "Why are you horses? I'm dead and in heaven! But why are talking horses in heaven?"

The one opposite from me looked at me with a strange expression and backed away a bit. "We are ponies. As far I can see you're not looking dead to me.", he answered warily.

I saw another pony behind him reading and browsing through a book, a book that was LEVITATING BEFORE HIM!

"How does he do that?!", I shouted hysterical, pointing at him.

"What do you mean?", the pony answered with a surprisingly deep voice looking up from the book. He had dark green hair, a white stripe running through it.

"This book levitates!", I screamed at him.

He looked at me as if I had asked why grass is green. "Better restrain him.", he said to the other ponies and continued reading and browsing through the book.

Two ponies walked towards me while their horns started glowing more and more until finally... nothing happened. Unsure they withdrew a bit.

"Captain!", one of them shouted.

"I can't find anything on humans.", the captain said absorbed in the book.

"Captain Silver!", the other shouted again.

"What?"

"The spell has no effect!"

"Pardon?", Captain Silver asked surprised while he lowered the book to look at me.

He walked towards me, his horn glowing bright white while he was focused on me. After a few seconds and sweat on his forehead, the light of his horn faded and he looked at me in wonder. "How is this possible?", he mumbled.

"There is not need to shackle me.", I said, after calming down a little. "I will follow you without resistance."

I decided pretty quick not to anger anyone who aimed a weapon at me, no matter what creature they were.

They watched me distrustfully until Captain Silver came to a decision. "You will walk in front of us. Don't get to close to one of us, or you will look like a pincushion."

"I am harmless and won't cause any problems, believe me.", I tried to further relax the situation.

"Your teeth show you're carnivorous and I won't trust a carnivore."

"Just because my kind has the teeth of a carnivore doesn't mean we all eat meat.", I tried to defend myself, while I decided to conceal how much I loved meat.

"Stand up and go.", he said while looking at me in a mean way.

I did as he told me and carefully stood up. I noticed that the ponies backed up a bit, it seemed I was a bit bigger standing up then they expected. Their shoulders were about the same height as my hips, if they could stand on their hind legs, they would be about 2/3 my size.

Slowly I walked in the direction they showed me, four spears and one sword directed at my body.

I tried to sort my thoughts while walking, and at the same time taking in as much of this world as I could. It looked like morning to me the sun slowly moving towards its highest point. It all seemed pretty similar to my world, trees, grass, blue sky... apart from the talking equines, I could as well be in the countryside a few miles away from my home.

As a brown pony flew by, I stopped watching in awe as it disappeared towards the horizon. "You ponies can fly too?"

I only heard an annoyed murmur behind me. "Just go.", somebody said while he poked me with the shaft of his spear.

We had been walking around a mountain for half an hour when a huge city on the other side of it came into view. I saw small and big houses and even a giant palace. I expected them to live in small grass houses or something like it, not in a modern looking city,

another thing I better kept to myself.

"Blue Star.", Captain Silver shouted. "Run ahead and report to the princesses about this unknown creature we will bring."

One of the ponies saluted and ran towards the city.

We continued to walk at a slow pace. I was even more impressed as we got closer. The city had such clear lines and bold ideas, all buildings had been built to compliment each other, something you would see for maybe two or three buildings in my world, but here the whole city was build like that, it was breathtaking.

Once we reached the city I saw many other ponies being out on the streets, and I got a wide range or reactions from them, some seemed to be curious while others looked afraid. One filly even tried to touch me but was dragged back by their parents.

I felt like a circus lion dragged through the city, a curious sight but possibly dangerous.

After another half an hour we stood before the palace's doors, compared to the ponies these were absurd big. The guards opened them with their magic, which looked pretty impressive.

Once we walked through and my eyes got used to the lower lighting, I curiously scanned the inside of the palace. It looked like an antique store to me, countless fine old wooden furniture, polished for so long it seemed to shine itself. I tried to get a closer look at some of these, but Captain Silver always urged me to move on.

After walking through endless corridors, we arrived at a huge hall that was decorated with lovely plants and figurines. On the other side of the room, slightly raised, were two beautiful thrones on which sat the most breathtaking creatures I ever saw. I was led only a few steps before them so that I could see them in all of their glory.

Both were much bigger then all other ponies I had seen so far, they had both wings and huge horns. One white, with a colorful mane which seem to move in an invisible breeze, her being was calming almost something motherly.

The other one's fur was dark blue, and her mane looked like the night sky, it moved as well. Her body was something more delicate, and a mysterious aura seemed to surround her. Both emitted incredible power.

Under other circumstances, I probably had a hard time to avert my eyes from their divine beauty, but I was scared and at their mercy. I looked away and focused the floor.

Silver and his subordinates bowed down to them, and I hastened to do the same.

The white one rose took two steps towards me and looked at me with kind but curious eyes.

"Hello, I'm Celestia. Together with my sister Luna we are the protectors of this country and focus on the happiness and safety of its citizens. We have been told that you can communicate and that you possess an unusual skill.", she said in a soft voice.

I saw no fear in her eyes, only curiosity and kindness, I was quite happy about that. Then I noticed Celestia had no reason to be afraid of me, because she could impale me, with three quick steps, on her very long and pointy horn. I gulped at the thought and unconsciously took a step back.

"Please don't be afraid of me, I will do you no harm.", she said as she noticed my reaction. "What is your name and where are you from?"

I moved uneasily but tried to look calmly at her face.

"My name is Alex. I am a human from another world, but I'm not sure how I got here."

The other one... Luna stood up and stepped beside her sister.

"We are...", she cleared her throat, "I'm thinking we should first find out how dangerous he is, we can talk about the weather later." She glared at me suspiciously,  I winced slightly.

Celestia looked disapprovingly to Luna, but she sighed and said, "Luna is right in a way, that Captain Silver's magic had no effect on you is quite worrying."

I was worried about how they wanted to find out if I was dangerous. "Please.", I said with a slightly trembling voice. "I would never hurt anyone, I will not -"

"And I believe you.", Celestia interrupted me, "But it may be that you could harm us without wanting to. You don't need to be afraid I'm not going to hurt you."

Her calm voice and gentle eyes helped me to calm down so far that I no longer trembled.

"All right, I trust you princess.", I said. I knew I had no choice anyway.

"I now will try to lift you with my magic.", she said, and lit up her horn. Nothing happened. I watched as her horn glowed brighter and brighter until I had to close my eyes because it was too bright for me to look at.

After a few seconds, the brightness was gone, so I carefully opened my eyes again. Celestia stood still in front of me but was breathing hard, and sweat was on her forehead.

"Are you okay?", I asked, slightly worried.

"Yes ... yes, I need ... just a moment ... to rest." She sat on her throne.

Luna took with her magic one of the lamps of the wall and placed it in front of my feet on the ground.

"This is a permanently enchanted lamp which illuminates the room with its light, pick it up."

I carefully picked up the lamp. The moment I touched it, immediately it went out. I saw how Luna grimaced at the sight of it. I was not sure, but for a moment I thought to see fear in her face.

"Put it back!", her command was sharper than I had expected.

Carefully I put the lamp back to the ground, the moment I no longer touched it, it lit up again. I could hear several ponies in the room exhale relieved.

"What's wrong?", I asked, confused.

Celestia who had recovered replied: "It means that you do not destroy magic, but only repress it."

"But is it the same way when he touches a pony, or could he permanently harm us?", Luna interjected. "We can not let him run around if he is a possible risk to others."

Celestia sadly bowed her head.

I didn't like where this was going.

Captain Silver stepped forward.

"I volunteer for testing it, Princess."

"That's very brave and noble of you.", Luna said.

Silver stood next to me.

Celestia was restless in her chair.

"The risk indeed appears small.", she said. "But despite everything, I'm not sure if we should do that."

Silver bowed and said: "Thanks for your concern, but I as a guard have sworn to keep all population of Equestria safe from harm, and this is one way to do that."

Celestia nodded gratefully.

He turned back to me and looked at me prompting.

"But what if it causes you pain?", I asked him, worried.

He smiled wryly and snorted. "Do not worry big one. I've survived so much pain. Nothing of what could happen here is going to blow me away. And the alternative would be to lock you away forever."

"Thank you.", I said as it became apparent to me that he was doing me a big favor.

Still unsure, I slowly reached out my hand to him, bit by bit until I finally touched his soft fur. I expected that it would be rough as stubbles, but it was soft, almost fluffy. He did not respond to my touch. They all stared at him expectantly. Luna circled us as she watched closely.

"Nothing, I do not feel anything.", he said after a while.

"Nothing?", Celestia asked.

He focused for a moment before he replied: "Perhaps a very faint tingling."

"Try a simple light spell.", Luna asked him while still circling us.

Silver looked very focused for a moment before shaking his head. "I can't do it."

I pulled my hand back. "Try it now.", I said.

Just a moment later his horn shone a cone of light like I would have expected it from a flashlight.

"Well, he seems to be harmless.", Celestia said. "However, his passive ability is fascinating, and I would like to learn more about it. Please lower your weapons."

When I saw the guards put their spears in a relaxed position next to them, I exhaled deeply and was very relieved.

"There is one thing we still have to find out.", I heard Luna's voice behind me. I turned to look at her. When she came into view, I saw she was holding a sword in her hoof.

I looked at her in horror.

Then she stabbed me.

3 Luna

It was a strange creature which was brought to our throne room. The guard who had announced it gave us a description, but I had not imagined it this way.

His upper body was that of a Minotaur if you removed the horns and added each hand an extra finger, while his hooves looked more like the rear part of a griffon. It was quite large, but his body was hardly more massive than mine. It had torn clothes and looked confused and anxious.

But it was crucial that this creature could neutralize or destroy magic, something that made him extremely dangerous for us.

My sister was once again all about being polite and nice, instead of getting to the problem, at least we learned that he called himself a 'human'. What if this human did three quick steps and touched us, we would not be able to stop him with our magic and had no idea what effect he would have on us.

"We are...", I cleared my throat when I noticed that I had fallen back into our old language. "I'm thinking we should first find out how dangerous he is. We can talk about the weather later."

Fortunately, Tia understood that I was right and finally began to examine his influence on magic. My concern increased when I saw her magic, though she put all her energy into it, had no effect on him.

I had to test out whether he could destroy existing magic. I put one of the magic lights of our throne room in front of him and ordered him to pick it up. When he touched the lamp and it died immediately I saw my worst fears confirmed. I almost shrink back, but I didn't want to show fear.

"Put it back!", I ordered him.

As he placed it back on the floor, the lamp, contrary to my expectations, began to shine again. Although this was a good sign, it was no proof what his effect on ponies would be.

The human was confused and asked what this meant.

Tia replied: "It means that you do not destroy magic, but only repress it."

Of course, again she saw only the best possible scenario and was blind to how dangerous this human could still be.

"But is it the same way when he touches a pony, or could he permanently harm us?" I said. "We can not let him run around if he is a possible risk to others."

Fortunately, she understood that this was a serious threat and Captain Silver provided himself as a test object.

"But what if it causes you pain?" He asked him, worried.

I looked at him critically, but there was nothing untrue in his eyes or voice, he was afraid that he might hurt someone. He truly was a confused, anxious being in a strange new world.

But even if that was the case, that he had nothing evil in mind, he could still be dangerous. We had to know for sure.

I circled them, watching everything as he gently touched the captain with his hand.

"Nothing, I don't feel anything.", Silver said after a while.

"Nothing?", Celestia asked.

"Maybe a very faint tingling."

I ordered him to try a light spell, which failed as expected.

The human pulled his hand back. "Try it now.", he said.

Just a moment later silver could carry out his light magic as usual. My body relaxed, he didn't seem to be dangerous. He didn't seem to be malicious, and his remarkable anti-magic ability had no lasting effects.

'hE cAN sTILL bE dANGEROUS, wHAT iF hE iS iMMUNE aGAINST pHYSICAL dAMAGE tOO?', the darkness wispered inside me.

I was getting a worried again.

'hE cOULD aTTACK yOU aND tIA, tHERE wOULD bE nOTHING yOU cOULD dO aBOUT iT.'

'No, he doesn´t seem to be aggressive', I thought to myself.

'dO yOU wANT tO bE rESPONSIBLE fOR tHE pOSSIBLE dEATH oF tIA? bETTER bE sURE, hE iS fROM aNOTHER wORLD...'

I looked around for something suitable and discovered a decorative sword on the wall. I levitated it to me and took off my right shoe. I had to do this without magic. I took the sword in my hoof and lifted it. It was unusual for me to do such a thing without my magic. It must have been ages since I had tried to wield a sword with the hoof, but all I had to do is to give him a small cut.

"There is one thing we still have to find out.", I said.

He turned towards me.

I did thrust my sword forward.

When I saw the horror in his eyes, I realized how much I had misjudged the outcome of my action and knew I had made a terrible mistake.

4 Red

All I wanted, was to lightly prick his arm ...

Now I stared at the point where the sword had sunken into his chest, and blood began to turn his torn shirt red. I released the sword and shrieked back under his accusing glance.

"It shouldn't happen like ... I was just ...", I tried to explain myself.

Tia had been on his backside and could not see what happened, but she noticed that something was very very wrong and dashed around him. When she realized the extent of what happened she stared at us with wide eyes.

"Luna...", she whispered out of breath.

In panic I tried to use my magic to pull the sword out, tried to support him with it as he slowly sank to the ground, but of course all this showed no effect on him.

When I finally remembered why my magic failed I rushed up to him, he was lying on the ground. I leaned against his body and pulled the blade out as careful as I could.

The moment I touched him, my mane became a simple dark blue which quite normally was affected by gravity, I did not notice this.

I pressed my hooves on the wound, while his shirt was further colored red. Tears ran down my face and fell onto his body.

"I'm sorry, so sorry.", I whispered. "Please, please do not die."

In the meantime, my sister sent the guards for a doctor and now stood behind me worried.

"You have to press firmly against the wound, even if it hurts him." She said with a trembling voice.

I nodded as I pushed and heard a groan from him. My hair had fallen forward and covered most of my field of vision. I noticed incidentally that this was not normal behavior for my hair, but I was to fixated on pushing on that wound.

Suddenly a hand pushed my hair to the side so that I could see his face. He looked at me and said: "I know you did not want this to happen. I will be alright"

A doctor teleported in, and Tia informed him about the situation. She teleported a pressure bandage and other needed things from her storage and started to gently push me away so that she had full access.

"Please do not think bad of me.", I muttered as I made room and my mane got their magical properties back.

"This is only the second worst thing that has happened to me today." He replied, trying to smile but failed.

Tia pulled me away, so we weren't getting in the way and hugged me wordlessly. I was glad she didn't say anything, I could not answer at the moment, I just wanted to be held while I cried.

After some time the doctor came to speak to us, while a nurse sat next to the human.

"I've created a pressure bandage, which wasn't easy without magic, but fortunately I also teach Earthponies in first aid.  We brought in a mattress, a pillow, and a blanket.  Afterward, we carefully helped him onto the mattress. Since we can not levitate him, he should stay here for at least one day before we move him. I gave him a natural sleep remedy, and it seems to have the same effect on him as it does on ponies."

She turned to her patient and watched him for a moment while he was sleeping.

"I know nothing about the structure of his body, but he hasn't lost much blood, so I think he should recover quickly. But of course, a nurse will stay here to monitor him."

"Would it be okay if I did that?", I asked her.

"Of course.", she replied.

"But still a nurse will be waiting outside the room if he needs more help."

"Thank you, Doctor.", Tia said as she led the Doctor out of the room.

I sat down carefully beside the sleeping human. I had been so busy with my concerns that I had not even paid attention to his name. He seemed to sleep peacefully, but I could not look away from the big red spot on his shirt. I had almost killed him with my carelessness.

It was already noon, and under normal circumstances I would been sleeping for hours, if we had not received news of this strange being. Now that the adrenaline wore off my eyelids grew heavy. I laid down on the floor next to him and began to drift off to sleep. I wished someone was watching over my dreams as I did for others.

----------------- 0_0 -----------------

To open your eyes and see a sleeping pony princess, even a day ago I would have thought of this as a sure sign of insanity. I was now quite sure that this wasn't a dream, the pain in my chest felt to real. I was still lying on the makeshift bed on the floor of the throne room.

I looked closely at Princess Luna, she looked cute when she slept, hard to believe that she almost killed me if she had hit me a bit more to the right.

I was still trying to process what kind of a crazy world I now was a part of. Speaking intelligent ponies, some used magic and some could fly ... How much crazier could it get? I probably looked as strange for them as they did to me. And what about this "anti-magic" which I suppose to have, was it a product of the fact that I came from a world without magic?

I noticed Luna moved uneasily in her sleep and made whimpering noises. I wasn't sure what I should do, should I try to wake her up? What if this time she accidentally impaled me with her horn? I knew she didn't want to hurt me the way she did, but still... It was new for me to read pony faces, but I had noticed incredible horror and regret at hers when it all happened.

She moved still restlessly back and forth and I now also saw tears running down her cheeks. This was too much, I had to do something.

"Princess Luna.", I said carefully. No Reaction.

I carefully moved my arm to the side and tried to ignore the pain.

"Princess Luna.", I nudged her gently. She still seemed to be trapped in her dream.

"No, I'm not a monster.", I heard her whimper as her tears still ran down her cheeks.

"Princess Luna!", I started to shake her and noticed how her hair changed when I touched it. It ceased floating and changed to a simple dark blue.

She was startled and looked at me, through her long hair that covered half of her face, with eyes wide open. I let go of her and immediately her star-hair raised itself and floated out of her face.

"A bad dream?", I asked her with a weak smile.

Her eyes went briefly to my wound.

"How do you feel?", she asked concerned.

"Although it hurts a lot, it's nothing I couldn't handle, Princess."

She looked guiltily at the floor.

"I want to apologize to you with all my heart, not only for hurting you but also that I have misjudged you. The possibility of you being able to destroy magic was so terrifying for me I panicked..."

She fell silent towards the end.

"And please, just call me Luna. You are not one of my subjects, and I have not done anything that deserves respect from you, more like the opposite. I have not noticed your name since I had been focused on other things previously."

I looked into her expecting face, saw how much she was hoping for forgiveness. And even though I was in great pain, what good would it do me to be mad at her.

"Alright ... Luna, my name is Alex, and I know that you didn't want to hurt me in the way it happened and I'm not going to hold a grudge for it."

It felt a bit strange to talk with a princess like that, not to mention a talking pony, but she relaxed visibly after I said it. She sat up and was once again an impressive sight.

"Thank you, Alex, this means very much to me. How about we start all over again, you tell me how you ended up here, and I'll answer any question you have."

I looked at the ceiling, trying to organize my thoughts. Luna patiently waited until I was ready.

"In my world, there is no magic and a lot of what I saw here exists only in stories for us.  I do not know much about how I got here. I died in my world as I ..." I searched for words to fit her world. "... was struck by a very heavy, fast object. Before I was crushed something pulled me from my world, but it could not hold on. I feel towards a light, and when I opened my eyes I was in this world, and the spears of the guards were pointed at me."

I looked back at Luna. She seemed to think carefully about all of this information, from time to time she murmured something inaudible. I was curious how she would respond.

A minute had passed before Luna spoke to me: "It appears there could be some connection with your death and your appearance here, and I have a few theories about it, but I need some time in the library to investigate."

She paused for a moment.

"So you're in this world for just a few hours and don't know anything about the history of this world, myself, or other things?"

She looked at me in a way in which I could not read.

"Just what I saw on the way here, some of you ponies can use magic, some fly and you and your sister can probably both.", I answered truthfully.

I did not know why my answer made her look so happy. I carefully tried to sit up, but the pain was to much, so I quickly decided against it. I lay down again and looked at Luna, who was sitting beside me excited.

"Start with the basics, I am very excited about this world full of magic.", I told her.

"Well," she began and moved closer to me. "There are four types of ponies. Earth ponies which usually have greater physical strength, but no wings or a horn. Pegasus ponies that can fly but have no magic. Unicorns who can use their horns for various magic but can't fly. And then there are three Alicorns which possess both wings, as also a horn and related skills. These are Celestia, Candence and me, Luna the Princess of the night. I watch over the dreams of sleeping ponies and let the moon rise in the sky every night."

"Wait a minute, wait a minute.", I interrupted her. "YOU let the moon rise? It does not rise on its own?"

Luna looked at me surprised.

"No, it does not move by itself, I let it rise and my sister Celestia makes the sun rise."

I waited for her to say that she was just joking.

"What?", she asked as she saw me staring at her.

"You can't be serious. You move a celestial body with your magic? And where is the moon when it is day? And the sun can not possible move around the world."

"Alicorn magic is very strong. I can move the moon.", she sounded a little offended.

"I let the moon fly below the horizon back to it's starting point and moving the sun is not much different. If you do not believe me, in a few minutes it is time, then you can watch me. From this balcony, on the side of the throne room, I and Tia usually use our magic. "

She pointed to a balcony only a few steps away from me.

"Tia?", I asked with a grin. "Do you have a cute nickname too?"

She blushed, which looked more like purple on her and looked away. "No, I haven't."

I decided to ask 'Tia' later about it and let the topic of celestial mechanics go for now.

I tried it with a different theme. "You were not very surprised when I told you I'm from another world, does something like that happen often here?"

"More often than we may be fond of, it seems our world is a kind of magnet for other worlds. Even mighty Unicorn magicians have repeatedly created portals in other worlds, but the problem is you can not choose which world is on the other side and is there seems to be an infinite number. Me and Celestia have already visited other worlds this way."

She got up and went to the balcony. "It's time."

I eagerly watched as she stepped outside in the dusk, her beautiful Mane catching the last light of the day. She looked around the countryside that surrounded the city. The sun then disappeared completely, and I could slowly start to see stars while it got dark surprisingly quick.

Her horn lit up as she slowly lifted her head and the moon appeared brightly above the horizon. She pulled it up until it was fully visible well above the horizon. Her Horn faded, and she turned a bit towards me. At this moment, as she stood in the moonlight and smiled at me, she was the most beautiful thing I saw in all my life.

5 Darkness

The following day I was transferred to a bed in another room, close to the private rooms of the princesses. Luna told me it usually was for ambassadors from other countries visiting Canterlot. She visited me a few hours before sunset. I was surprised how much fun it was to have her company, she was in an excellent mood and told me a few funny stories, some of them involved Celestia and cake.

"... and she did not notice cake was hanging from her chin, like a beard, while she greeted the Griffin ambassador."

Luna was laughing so hard her wings had been shaking.

I snickered a while and tried to ignore the slight pain in my chest from it.

"You two are typical siblings, even though you are princesses... and ponies... and mighty magical creatures... wow it is still crazy to be in this weird world."

She smiled at me. "You look pretty weird to me too, and some things you told me about your world had been astounding."

My mood cooled down a bit, and I looked to the ground.

"Do you think I will ever see it again?", I whispered.

She went quiet and laid a hoof on my shoulder.

"You know...", she started. "I read a bit in the library today, and I think the only point in time and space, we could get you possibly back to, is exactly where you left..."

I let my head fall into my pillow. "In other words, I would die in that accident if I made it back to earth."

"I'm sorry to have no better news for you, but Equestria is a beautiful place with all kinds of species, you can find happiness here.", she tried to cheer me up but had no luck doing it.

---- O_O ----

I got up early today, at noon, that is pretty early for me since I am up all night guarding the dreams of my subjects. I wanted to read up some things in the library to see if my assumption was right about how Alex had come here.

On my way to the library, I got a lot of frightened and uneasy looks from ponies and the typical running filly, 'away from Nightmare Moon'. I couldn't blame them, it was only a month ago when the darkness in me wanted to bring eternal night to this land.

The Elements of Harmony blasted this darkness away and Nightmare Moon was gone... but I still felt some of this darkness in me, scratching at the door of my mind, begging me to let it in again.

How could they, who had been told their whole life how horrible Nightmare Moon was, trust me, knowing what I had been? How could they trust me if I didn't trust myself. I guess this was the reason I was now happy Alex has appeared. He was the only one in Equestria who could look at me without seeing my dark shadow.

I sighed and bought me a coffee to wake me up before I entered the library. I spend about four hours there, reading the books I was looking for but found no happy news for Alex.

'bUT tHIS wAY hE wILL hAVE tO sTAY, aND yOU wON´T bE aLONE'

"But this is selfish.", I whispered. I refused to let the darkness in my mind. "I have to bring him this news..."

As I arrived in his new room, he was sitting up in his bed and looked much better than yesterday. I was very relieved to see that.

I decided to lighten him up first and told him a few funny story's, but eventually he asked what everyone would ask in his situation... how he could get back home again.

I explained to him with a heavy heart that he would not survive getting home, even if we would find a way to sent him there.

I tried to paint him a happier picture here in Equestria, but I felt his heart break from this news.

"Please know that Tia and I will be here for you, helping you to find your place here and to make friends."

I brushed through his hair using my hooves, trying to calm him down, while I felt the slight tickle of temporally losing my magic.

6 Garden

It had been more than a week now since I had been wounded. Luna and Celestia visited me every day to see how I did and to keep me company. I used the opportunity to get Luna's nickname from Celestia... 'Lulu' ... although she told me not to use it if I didn't want to spend more time in bed healing.

For the second day in a row, we walked together through the royal gardens. It was beautiful, full of flowers, nicely trimmed bushes, and fountains. The princesses loved to walk through it together because there were no other ponies or guards in it, they could be less like princesses and more like loving sisters.

It was a beautiful sunny day without any clouds, on earth it would be a happy coincidence, but here I knew Celestia had put the sun there and the pegasi were responsible for the weather. What a crazy world this was, crazy but beautiful.

"Such a nice warm day.", I told them. "I almost free of any pain." I saw Luna wince and lower her head.

Celestia must have noticed it too. "Sister, Alex told you many times before he isn't mad at you, please don't be like this."

She put her wing around her little sister's body and nudged her face.

"I feel great Luna, just watch."

I slowly started to circle my arms like a windmill and almost tripped over a shovel laying on the ground while doing it.

"You know I have forgiven you for that accident. You had been such great company for me this week."

Luna got some of her smile back on her face.

"Thanks, it's not like I hadn't fun together with you, your so different than anypony here."

"...and an old lady like you shouldn´t be so touchy.", I said smiling.

"WHAT!!!"

I laughed and started running. Luna came quickly after me.

"I GET YOU FOR THIS!"

As I looked back, I saw Luna rushing after me and Celestia standing there with a big grin.

I ran around bushes, changing the direction as often as I could, I knew Luna was much faster on a straight way. I cut around two more corners and hid behind a big earthpony statue.

I tried to be totally still but had problems to suppress a little giggle. I sat there for maybe half a minute and almost believed I got away, as I heard Luna laughing ABOVE me. I looked up and saw her hovering over me with a big ball of water. She must have gotten it out of a nearby fountain. It was the first time I saw her flying, I totally forgot she could do that.

"Sorry...", I started to say, but Luna released the water from her magic.

+SPLASH!+

I heard Luna and Celestia laugh while I was coughing and dripping wet.

"You should know better than to tease a lady about her age.", Tia said with a huge grin.

"Yeah, she got me.", I said laughing while Luna was laughing too. I just was happy I got her in a more joyful mood.

After a while of laughing, me and Luna trotted towards the castle to get me in something dry,

while Celestia walked at a slower pace.

We made half the distance as we heard a scream from Celestia. I looked back and saw her in a black cloud of dust or something. Only a split second later a black ball hit Luna and exploded into another black particle cloud that covered both of us. Luna's hair stopped floating. I was shocked and didn't know what was going on.

Four unicorns in black cloth appeared from another side of the garden, one had a blazing red long mane. The three others used their magic to levitate Celestia towards them, while he came towards us.

I looked to Luna, she was just standing there. "Do something!", I shouted.

"I am trying, but my magic doesn't work!", she screamed.

I was grabbing a nearby shovel and was running towards the enemy. He saw me approaching and smiled while his horn was lighting up.

"Pathetic.", was the word he said as he fired his beam right into my chest.

The beam was hitting me, but where it touched me I felt absolutely nothing from it. But I was pretty sure he felt something as my shovel hit him in his surprised face.

+WHAM!+

I heard Luna galloping from behind. He stumbled a few steps back.

"Retreat!", he shouted.

Luna just ran past me on a collision course with him as he teleported away, the other did the same taking Celestia with them.

Luna skidded to a halt and looked around in panic.

"Where is Tia! TIA!"

Here face was full of fear, and I guess I didn´t look better. Tears started to stream down her face.  I did let go the shovel and hugged her.

"We will find her, we will."

7 Inside

"Where is Tia! TIA!", I screamed as loud I could.

Tears streamed down my face, and I was trembling with fear and HATE.

'tHEY tOOK yOUR bELOVED sISTER aWAY, lET mE hELP, lET mE kILL tHEM!'

They took my sister. They took the one closest to me. I WANTED to kill them for this.

My heart was beating faster and faster.

'yES! yOU wILL nEED mY pOWER, i wIll hELP yOU!'

I felt a fire raging inside me, a fire I wanted to set free to burn the world.

"We will find her, we will."

I felt someone close to me, a good friend.

'He is here for me, he will help me.'

I started to calm down a bit and focused back to the world around me.

'nO! yOU nEED mE tO...'

I locked the darkness out. It couldn't help me anyway now that my magic was blocked. Or was its magic so different that... No, I shouldn't think about it.

"Thank you Alex.", I said while I embraced his hug. He had no idea how much he helped me at this moment. What could have happened...

----O_O----

"Thank you Alex.", she said. I felt her body stop shaking and hugging me back. It was a bit painful with my injury, but I couldn't care less for that at the moment.

"We gather all information we have, get help and make a plan.", I told her while stroking her mane.

"Yes, let's do it this way. Get into some dry clothes while I read about these magic blocking particles in our private library, you know the one down the hall of our rooms? Meet me there."

She dashed away while I went to my room. How could such crazy things happen to me, wasn´t it enough to be stuck in this strange world?

As I reached my room, I opened the closet and looked through the clothes that had been made for me. Celestia had told me a unicorn mare named Rarity made these for me from the measuring the nurse did on me.

I should thank her someday for that because every single piece of them fit me better than any clothes I had back on Earth. Some were a bit to colorful for me, but they look great anyway. I chose light brown pants and a deep red top. The underwear was quite 'different' from anything I ever saw before. That shouldn't be a surprise since Rarity only had my measurements and no idea how my body worked. In dry clothing again I left the room on my way to the private library.

As I approached it I heard a lot of curses from Luna, some of them made me blush. I entered it and saw how she tried to climb a bookshelf, but hooves were clearly not made for such activity.

"Luna let me help you."

She turned around and was happy to see me. I wasn't used to seeing her with straight hair.

"Oh good, your here. I found the books I searched for, but there is one I can't reach. We never made this private library thinking we could end up without magic. Can you get it?"

"Couldn't you just fly up and get it?", I asked confused.

She sighed. "Magic isn't just what we do with our horns, the strength of earthponies and the flying ability of pegasi is partly magic too." She spread her wings. "Without it, these can't create enough lift to let me fly, not even close."

I never thought about it, but it made sense, a pony's body should be far too heavy for wings. I walked towards her.

"I get it for you. Hands are great for climbing... I didn't know you had such a colorful language."

Her face turned into a deep purple shade and she looked to the ground.

"Just get the book, it's 'rare Mountain plants'.", she said and gave me a little hit to my head using her hoof.

I started climbing and searched a row about ten feet from the ground. After a minute I found what I was searching for. Carefully I came back down.

I laid it on the table next to the other books Luna seemed to have read already. She quickly flicked through the pages searching for the right page.

"Here it is.", she said pointing to a picture in the book.

I moved next to her and looked inside. It was a black and purple flower and looked like a withered rose, the words 'midnight shadow' standing next to it.

"What does it do?", I asked her.

"This flower is considered extinct. It's pollen blocks magic of all sort just by touch. If you inhale some of it, like we did, this effect lasts quite a while."

"How long does it last?"

"It says around a week for unicorns and pegasi. Alicorns tend to get poison and harmful substances faster out of their body, so it could be faster... but maybe not, magic can be unpredictable."

I thought about all the information she told me.

"If it was taught to be extinct and with this amount of pollen used in the attack... this must have been planned for months."

She began pacing up and down the room. "Yes... and this flower was so rare because of its unusual growth conditions. It only grows in very high altitude, below freezing temperature, but needs much sun while doing it. The only place it was ever found, was the mountain of Canterlot."

I looked out of the window, up to the white peak of the mountain that Canterlot was built on, it was extremely high.

"Ok.", I said, "So someone built a kind of greenhouse on the top of the mountain and planned this for months, but why?"

"I don't care. I will get up there and get my sister back! She has to be up there and I don't know what they plan doing to her. You will wait for some hours to tell them I'm gone but won't tell then where I went, if anything happens Cadence can take charge here."

"Are you crazy? You have an army you could command. You can't fly or use magic! Why should you do this?", I shouted at her.

"No pony will ever die again because of me.  Unicorns can't teleport to places they don't know and try to imagine what happens when pegasi circle this mountain and get touched by midnight shadow!"

"It is still crazy, and you can die up there, we have to find another plan.", I tried to calm her down.

"I DON'T HAVE THE TIME!

If something's happens to me, Cadence will be a better Princess anyway. Equestria doesn't need me. It was fine all the time I was away.

THEY ALL HATE ME ANYWAY AND NO ONE WOULD MISS ME!"

For a moment she looked scarier than anything I saw in all my life, then she fell to the ground crying.

8 Team Blue

"THEY ALL HATE ME ANYWAY AND NO ONE WOULD MISS ME!"

For a moment she looked scarier then anything I saw in all my life, then she fell to the ground crying.

I was incredibly confused from all this, but the sight of Luna crying was about to break my heart. I lowered myself down and tried to comfort her by putting my hand to her neck stroking it slowly. Her fur was incredibly soft.

"I think there is something you should tell me because I can't see how anyone could ever hate you."

It took her a few moments to calm down enough to talk. Then she began to tell me her story, the story of Nightmare Moon.

How she always was in her sister's shadow. How she felt like no one appreciated her night and she got more bitter over time until the darkness inside her transformed her into Nightmare Moon to bring eternal night. And how she was stopped only by the Elements of Harmony, twice.

I won't lie, that was a lot to take in. I was sitting in front of her, just staring at her for half a minute.

"Celestia had you banned to the moon for 1000 years?", I asked in disbelief.

She nodded slowly.

"But that's worse than death, how could she do something like that?"

She winced as I said that.

"She had no other choice, if she hadn't she would be dead, and Nightmare Moon ruled Equestria.

"But 1000 years..."

I looked at Luna and tried to imagine her as a powerful supervillain, I couldn't.

"Well...", I had trouble to sort my thoughts and feelings.

"Let's do this bit by bit.  You have changed, I only know you for a week, but you are a very kind and caring being. I am sure other people... other ponies will lose their fear over time when you just go out there and show them. I don't fear you. You are a great friend to me."

I stood up smiling at her.

"And there is another thing, your sister brings the day, big deal. It's the same thing every day, big yellow ball in the sky. But your nights, the changing moon, the arrangement of stars... it is breathtaking to me every single time I look at it. At first I could not believe you are making all this, but I looked at it every night, it was always different and always beautiful."

She stood up herself with a little smile on her face.

"Your right, days are overrated. Thanks for your kind words and your friendship, it means a lot to me."

Then her smile faded. She continued in a much more serious voice.

"I know you think it crazy for me to go and save my sister alone, but please think about it. Why would it be okay, if other ponies died for us, why is our life worth more then others? We lived a long time already, and there are many others who could do our 'job'.

I know our army and guards would die for us, but why should they? Why should any foal lose on of their parents to save me or Tia? Please, just do as I said, give me a headstart, so our guards won't know where we are, it is better this way."

I was trying to bring up some points against the words she said right now, but... I couldn't find any. I wished leaders back on earth had the same mindset.

I surprised her as I pulled her into a hug.

"This only proofs that you are as kind and caring as I said, don't ever forget that."

I felt all muscle tension leave her body as she just enjoyed my embrace. It took some time before we broke our connection, it just felt much to good.

Now it was my time to be serious as I looked at her.

"But I refuse to play the role of a piece of paper to bring your guards a message. I will come with you."

She looked at me in surprise.

"No, you shouldn't..."

"Or I will alert the guards right now."

She stared at me for a moment, then her expression went soft.

"Thank you."

After sharing this moment, I was back to business.

"I have a white jacket and wooly hat Rarity made for me, it should keep me warm enough. Find some warm white clothing before we go. Do you know where we could get some mountaineering equipment?"

"There is a shop near the marketplace where we can get this stuff. I don't have any white clothing. It is not my color at all."

"Well then look inside your sisters closet, if we don't want to be seen in the snow, we should cover your body with light colors as much as we can."

"Let's meet at the front gate in half an hour and try to act normal.", see said with a nod and went to Celestia's room.

...

I got all the warm clothes stuffed in a backpack together. We had to get the rest of the equipment in the shop Luna talked about.

I stood next to the gate and was chatting with one of the guards about unimportant stuff. After some minutes Luna came strolling down the hall, saddlebags equipped and whistled in the most unnatural way possible.

"Are going for a walk with the princess?", he asked me.

"Yes, I feel much better, so we decided to walk not in the garden but through Canterlot today."

"That's good to hear, its beautiful weather today. Greetings Princess."

"Hello Greenleafs, nice to see you. We will be away for a while."

The guards saluted, and we walked past him and outside the castle.

"You should see the size of Tia's closet, it is HUGE..."

...

After some time we reached the market.

Luna spoke to me with a giggle.

"I think this is the first time I am here, and people don't stare at me, thanks for being more interesting than me."

I was well aware of all the stares. I still wasn't used to it.

"You're welcome."

"Alex, you should go to the shop and buy the mountaineering equipment, it would be suspicious if I would buy something like that. Meanwhile, I will buy rations for our trip. Here take this gold."

She gave me a pretty big bag of bits.

"Ok, but please no hay based things, fruit, bread or cake would be nice."

She showed me a big smile.

I was pretty sure she thought back to the moment I tried hay Casserole some days ago.

I sighed and went to the mountaineering shop.

...

I looked around as I entered the shop, they had pretty much equipment for every possible outdoor activity, from simple things like hiking to more adventurous like diving.

After a while of looking around, I found a wall filled with climbing irons, ropes and climbing harnesses.

A sales pony looked curious at me.

"I am not sure we have something here that would fit you. If you don't mind, what are you?"

"I'm a human and my name is Alex, it is nice meeting you."

I held out my hand, and after a little hesitation and a look he shook it.

"I want to try climbing next week, together with a friend, so I need some equipment. A rope is a rope, and the harness seems to be very adjustable. The climbing irons look like the one problem to me."

I took a closer look at them, they had different kinds. Some looked like the shoes Celestia and Luna used to wear, others like simple horseshoes, all of course with nails under them.

I had an idea.

"Could you nail the simple ones to my shoes and some gloves fitting me?"

I took off my shoes and held them in front of him.

He thought about it.

"I guess it should work... Come back tomorrow to get them."

"How about a lot of bits extra for getting them now... I... this is my last day in Canterlot and my train will leave soon."

I brought the big bag of bits into view and jiggled it.

"Very well, but this will be a lot extra."

...

Twenty minutes later I left the shop with everything I needed. Luna was waiting not far from me. I walked over to her.

"Why did this take so long?", she asked impatiently.

"Well, I'm not really 'standard', we had to make some changes. I bought you 'big stallion' size for harness and climbing irons."

She gave me a look.

"Oh come on.", I continued. "You know quite well you are much larger than any other mare, so I went with my sense of proportion, it should fit."

"Ok, your right. Let's get moving towards the mountain. Some ponies gave me strange looks for not using my magic while shopping... What happened to your shoes?"

I looked down at my socks.

"I show you once we reach the mountain."

We did not know a ransom letter was brought to the castle just a few hours later.

9 Cold and warmth

I was very worried, we had climbed this mountain before when we were young, but without my magic and flight, there was very little room for error.

"Have you been climbing before?", I asked Alex.

"Not like this, back in my world I did some climbing indoors, it was like an artificial rock and very safe. But I know the basics."

'He only knows me for about a week, I nearly killed him by accident, but he risks his life helping me. He is such a good stallion... human...'

In the time they had been together, he was losing his oddness to her bit by bit. His body wasn't strange to her anymore.

'I love that he doesn't show fear for me being a princess or ... the thing I was before.'

'...wAS bEFORE?'

I shivered.

'If I had him back then, things could have been different. I trust him with my problems, and he cares about my feelings. And every time he touches me, his hands feel so nice and warm on...'

"So, do your hooves feel anything if you're standing on snow?"

I shook my head.

'Focus Luna, your sister is in danger'

"So that's a 'no' Luna?"

Now I noticed he had asked me a question.

"Sorry, what was your question?"

He looked a bit puzzled.

"Are you all right? I just asked if you feel anything in your hooves when standing on snow."

"Yeah, sorry I was just thinking about something. No, we have no nerves in our hooves, so I don't feel a thing. But on the backside of a hoof, where it connects to the leg, is a pretty sensitive spot, if snow is high enough to reach it, it can be unpleasant."

"Soooo you would be ticklish there?", he asks with a grin.

I stopped surprised.

"I think it wouldn't be wise to be next to my kicking hooves if you would tickle me.", I answered returning his grin.

He thought about that.

"Well I will find some other spots, my fingers can tickle you a hundred times more than any hoof, they been made for this. MUHAHA"

He made his best impression of an evil laugh, holding his hands up and wiggling his fingers.

There was a strange warmth rushing through my body.

I quickly decided to move on and not look at him for a while.

---O_O----

Luna was acting a bit weird lately, but I was pretty sure it was because of the stressful situation.

We had left Canterlot far behind, always going upwards towards the steep part of the mountain. We had been walking for about two hours now and reached the snowline. I opened my backpack again and put on my warm white jacket. I had started to wear my new mountain boots right when we left the streets of Canterlot.

Luna opened her saddlebag too and got herself dressed. It looked like she found quite a lot of things in the closet of her sister, after some minutes she looked like a white ninja.

A white winter dress covered most of her body. Her head was under a white hat with little yellow suns on it, and a white scarf covered her face except for her eyes. I wondered, where under all this, she had tucked away her hair. She adjusted the climbing irons to her hooves, they did fit pretty well.

"I have to say, I am really impressed. You look like some assassin... except the little suns."

"Well, maybe I am if they did anything to Tia."

The way she said it my hair stood on end.

...

After two more hours we reached the hard part, from here the snowy terrain got really steep and dangerous.

"We should now use the rope to tie us together!", Luna shouted.

The wind had gotten stronger since some minutes.

I agreed, I put on the harness both on Luna and me and connected them using the rope. After this I started wearing my spiked gloves.

---O_O----

After Alex had connected us with the rope, we moved on. The sun would set soon, and that worried me.

He stopped and addressed me.

"I have a question, if both you and your sister are without your magic, how does the sun move right now and what happens when nighttime should start?"

"Celestia doesn't need to use her magic all the time of day, she just raises the sun and gives it enough magic to move through the day. So the sun will set in maybe an hour, but there will be no moon and only a few natural stars out there, I normally add a lot for effect... and tomorrow... without a sunrise there will be no day."

'wELL, tHAT dOESN'T sOUND sO bAD..'

'Shut up'

"How will we see in the dark without your moon?", he asked.

"I bought glowstones at the market, they have a permanent enchantment that gives them a faint glow. Normally they are for decoration. Once our eyes have adjusted to the darkness these will help us. There is another thing, around sunset we should reach a small hut built for mountaineers, it is right before the hardest parts of the mountain, so ponies can rest before it. We will do the same, we will rest there and try to sleep for maybe three hours, we can't save her if we die trying."

"Ok.", was all he said as he walked on. I was hoping we would reach it as planned, my legs started to hurt. Oh, how nice it would be to fly right now.

----O_O----

Finally we reached the hut, we had slipped several times in the past few minutes, but our rope connection and climbing irons always had saved us from sliding to far. We stumbled towards the door while the glowstones showed us the way, they were just bright enough to see. I opened the door for Luna and entered after her. We both sat on the floor breathing heavy.

Finally, after some minutes I was able to speak.

"Well, we made it so far, not bad for a team that's average age is around 550 years."

"I would kick you if I had the power to do it. But how about you massage my hind legs as punishment, they burn like fire."

I crawled over to her.

"Ok, I can do that, anything if my legs can rest."

She was lying on her side while I lifted the winter dress up to get access to her hind legs. The muscles in her legs twitched randomly because of the strain they had endured, sweat was glistening on them. I used my fingertips of one hand to carefully squeeze them, while the other hand brushed downward along them. I heard some happy humming from Luna as her muscles started to calm.

I took a good look at her legs, while I continued to knead them. They look so perfect and her fur was incredibly soft. Luna moaned as I put more pressure on the now loosened muscles.

"Your fingers are sooo good at this... mhhhh your should make a business out of this", Luna said happily.

The feeling of her fur, the sounds she made, the incredible smell of her sweating body mixed with some other smell I could not identify... I started to sweat, but not from the effort I made massaging her. I felt light-headed.

I had to force myself to stop and crawled a few steps back.

Luna made a disproving sound as the massage ended.

"Over already? But thanks a lot, I feel so much better now."

I laid on my back panting.

"I... you know... I'm just so tired, let's sleep. Next time I massage you as long as you want."

She stretched her legs.

"Mhhhh, that was great I will come back on this offer.", she purred. "But you're right, let's keep each other warm and sleep a little."

She scooted over, laid her head in my lap, feet next to my head and extended her wing over my upper body to keep me warm.

Once again her scent and her body close by had an influence on me. I tried to think calming thoughts but...

Luna opened her eyes with a surprised look.

"Are you...", she started.

"Itismuchbetterforyoutolayyourheadonmychestitsmuchsofter!", I interrupted.

She looked at me for a few seconds that felt like hours for me, then she wordless changed position to lay on my chest. She had a little smile on her face as she closed her eyes again.

I was pretty sure my face was twice as bright as our glowstones. I closed my eyes trying to get some sleep too while avoiding to think about the soft princess next to me.

10 Closer

As I woke up Luna's face was before me, looking into my eyes.

"Is... is everything alright?", I asked.

She blushed a little, taking her eyes off me.

"Sure, you just looked so cu... peaceful while you were sleeping."

She looked so mysterious in the light of our glowstones, mysterious and beautiful...

She stood up and searched through her saddlebags.

"I have tasty hay.."

I huffed.

She turned around.

"Strawberry pie, no hay."

She presented the pie with a huge grin.

As I looked greedy at it, I noticed how hungry I had been.

"Relax, you can have the whole thing, I have another for me in the bag.", she said and put it in my hands.

While she went through her bags again, to hunt the other one down, I bit right into the pie. I was a little piece of heaven, it was so juicy and fluffy.

"Thees if soo gud", I tried to say with my mouth full.

"Yes, it is.", she answered smiling while taking smaller more reasonable bites than me.

We ate for some minutes. My stomach was so happy to be filled again.

"Let's get going.", she said and equipped the climbing irons again.

Once both of us were ready to face the mountain again, we stepped outside into the snow. Of course it was still a dark night without a moon and that would not change for a few days.

"Ponies will worry when they look up to the sky.", I started. "Did you explain these things in the letter you left behind?"

Luna stopped walking.

I looked at her.

"Tell me you haven't..."

"I was under enormous stress because my sister got abducted!", she shouted. "So excuse me for forgetting something..."

"But..."

"My writing with my mouth would be unreadable anyway!"

I decided it would be best to not say anything at all.

We had walked on for five more minutes before she spoke again.

"I'm sorry, okay. I am easy to annoy at the moment."

"That is very understandable in your situation..."

We trudged through the snow.

As Luna said before, this was the hardest part of the mountain. It was incredibly steep, and many areas seemed to be nothing but ice. Without our climbing irons, we wouldn't had a chance here.

We alternated the front position while we walked, right now I was in front as Luna slipped on the ice. She slid downwards and her climbing irons did not provide enough traction to stop her moving body, the rope tensed and she started to drag me along as well.

The ledge was quickly approaching as I searched my surroundings in panic. Finally I found a solid ice surface...

I turned and ran towards Luna to give the rope some leeway, then before reaching her, I jumped to the right. While I landed hard on my stomach, I forced my spiked gloves as hard as I could into the ice. Agonizing pain went through my body, but I stopped us from sliding over the ledge.

I heard Luna shout my name, while I saw the world through a red haze. It was to painful for me to move. Luna's voice was very close now, I turned the head towards her. She looked at me very worried and tried helping me up. I managed to rise slowly, despite the pain,

but as I stood upright again I felt something warm running down my skin.

"Oh no...", I whispered.

"What is it?", she asked giving me a worried look.

I opened my winter coat. I felt the cold storm pushing against me, my eyes glued to the red spot which started to spread on my shirt.

"You're bleeding!", Luna shouted. "If I only had my magic, I could help you."

I looked at it for some seconds. It wasn't gaining much in size. I carefully lifted my shirt to look at my wound. It had opened again, but not all the way, only one-third of it. I dressed again.

"It isn't very big, just give me a couple of minutes so the bleeding can stop."

Luna brought her wings up from under her winter dress and used them to form a tiny dome around us to protect us from the chill.

Luna looked at me with a mix of guilt and sadness.

"I should never allowed you to come with me..."

"And how exactly do you think you could have stopped me from helping you? I would never had you go alone."

She smiled a little and looked into my eyes. I couldn't read her expression, maybe she...

Then she kissed me.

I felt her lips on mine, so soft and different than anything I experienced this way before, her fur tickled a bit. It was just a few seconds, but...

Luna blushed and retreated a bit without opening her wings still protecting us.

"I... I am sorry, I don't know why I did this...", she said.

"I... I don't mind... it was quite nice", I replied. I was pretty sure my face was red as a tomato.

---O_O---

I saw blood spreading on his shirt.

"You're bleeding!", I shouted. "If I only had my magic, I could help you."

'i cAN hELP, 'mIDNIGHT sHADOW' cAN'T sTOP mE, I AM THE NIGHT!'

'I have to help him, I can't let anyone ever die because of me again, maybe it is better this way, maybe I can control her... a bit... somehow...'

'yES, wE cOULD wORK tOGETHER, wHY nOT, lET uS tRY.'

'If there isn't any other way... "

"It isn't very big, just give me a couple of minutes so the bleeding can stop."

'What?'

'wHAT?'

I looked at him. He was right, it wasn't as bad as I thought. I used my wings to protect both of us from the icy wind. It broke my heart to see him wounded again, only because he wanted to help me.

"I should never allowed you to come with me..."

'He helps me so selflessly, despite knowing what I did as Nightmare Moon'

He said something, but I was lost in his eyes, I couldn't focus on anything else.

I kissed him, while my eyes were still focused on his. I read surprise in them, but no rejection. His mouth was a bit smaller than mine, but his lips had an interesting texture...

I felt so warm inside...

I broke the kiss, I didn't know how long it had lasted. I felt ashamed for what I did. It wasn't okay I took advantage of such a good friend.

"I... I am sorry, I don't know why I did this..."

'wHAT iN tARTARUS wAS tHAT?'

'Get lost!'

I banned the voice out of my conscious mind, at least for now.

"I... I don't mind... it was quite nice", he replied with a wry smile and blushed.

"Let's just rest a bit before we move on, this isn't the best place for... pretty much anything."

We just sat there quietly for some minutes.

11 Plan

There was awkward silence between us as we sat in the snow. My bleeding had stopped within only a couple of minutes, but we rested a little longer.  I tried a little small talk while my head was racing because of what had happened before, a kiss... It was crazy how much a single moment could change everything. But still, she wasn't even the same species as me...

"Alex..."

But these feelings I had some minutes ago did not care about how different she was...

"Alex!"

"Wait, what?"

She looked at me a bit worried.

"Is everything all right?", she asked.

"Sorry, I spaced out for a bit. What did you say?"

"I asked if it would be ok for us to move on, I worry for Celestia."

I stood up.

"Of course, it will do no good for anyone if we sit in this snow much longer. Let's go. What do you think how far we still need to go?"

She looked along or path.

"I guess maybe two hours, we should try to be as quiet as we can, the element of surprise is pretty much all we have on our side."

I nodded and started to move again while I tried to ignore the pain in my chest. I pushed away all the questions in my head and focused just on the task before us. A small mistake could cost our lives.

We made our way through the snow without speaking another word. I just put on foot before the other.

Snow crunched under our feet.

*crunch*

*crunch*

I lost all sense for the time passing, and since we had no moon to observe, it felt like we walked forever through this snow.

...

*crunch*

*crunch*

I almost walked into her, because I had not realized she stopped.

She was hunched behind a snowdrift, so I sneaked next to her, as good as I could in this snow.

I saw a large plateau near the peak of the mountain, at least 500 feet in diameter with several trees. It was illuminated by what seems to be glowstones too, for that reason it could only be spotted from a close distance. Pretty much in the middle of it, Celestia was chained to the ground, sleeping. She looked ok, but as Luna she was an unusual sight without her flowing hair.

I saw two unicorns standing on both sides of the plateau searching the sky, behind them something black in the snow. I could only assume it to be 'midnight shadow'. I could not see the other unicorns. Maybe they were behind some trees, or in the small white tent I saw a couple feet behind Celestia.

"Looks like they are well prepared for an air attack.", I whispered to Luna. "You were right, an air attack against this place would have been very risky and many could have lost their life."

"I know, but that is our chance.", Luna whispered back.

"You mean that they don't expect someone to do this crazy stunt we did to get here?"

She turned to face me and smiled.

"Yeah, nobody else would do this stupid thing."

"But we need more of a plan than just 'Element of Surprise', let's check our options, Luna."

I carefully peered over the snowdrift.

The hardest part would be getting to the plateau without being spotted. There was a very open space between us and the plateau itself

only a few other smaller snowdrifts could give a little cover. Once on the plateau, the few trees could help us a little, but we still had to take on at least four unicorns, only two of them visible to us right now. My sight came to rest on the balls of midnight shadow.

"Maybe we can even the odds a bit, the midnight shadow could take away their magic too.", I whispered with a grin.

"I like this idea.", she replied.

I thought about it a little longer, and then I was ready to tell her my plan.

"Ok, the critical thing is to get to the midnight shadow, so we can use it against them. Since I have the best chance of not being seen, I move in first and try to..."

"Why do you have the best chance?", she interrupted me.

"You are pretty good camouflaged, but there are bits of blue fur showing sometimes you move, I am less likely to be seen. I know you want to help your sister, but let's try out best chance, we only have this one."

"Fine... go on."

"Ok, I try to get to the midnight shadow without being seen, but once I reached it, you need to come too. You are stronger then me, and I am pretty sure if they can't use their magic, they will have little chance against the furious princess of the revenge, even without your magic."

She nodded determined.

"You get the midnight shadow and I kick their lights out once they lost their magic, let's do it."

12 Night

Well, to make a plan is easy, to do everything like it was planned would be the hard part.

I peered cautiously over the snowdrift Luna and me were hiding behind. I had to find the perfect moment to cross that open space between us and the plateau itself.

The two guards in my sight, on opposite sides of the plateau, had been focused almost exclusively on the sky to fight back a possible pegasi attack. It was hard to see more in the light of the glowstones that illuminated the plateau, but it would also make it easier to sneak up on them.

After a moment I started to move slowly around the snowdrift, low to the ground on my arms and legs. I was really happy for my spiked gloves, not only did they provide excellent traction, without them my hands would be blocks of ice right now. My eyes darted from one guard to the other while I moved closer and closer.

I had crossed half of the open space as one of the guards moved, his head turning in my direction. Immediately I let myself fall flat on the snow. I tried to breathe as little as possible while my heart was racing.

I waited for maybe a minute, but I didn't hear any shouting. Very careful I started to lift my head from the snow again examining the situation. Both guards stood in their positions again watching the sky. I started to slowly move again, always trying to keep both unicorns in sight.

The left of them stood only a few feet away from a small tree. I decided that would be my best chance. I moved towards this tree, hoping it would provide some cover for me.

Luckily I made it there without another dangerous situation and crouched behind it. I carefully made a fake snowdrift to the other side to give me a bit of cover, if the other guard would decide to turn around.

From this position I had a better view over the whole plateau, I noticed a row of plants behind the tent. They looked like the "Midnight Shadow" we saw in the book back in Canterlot. Still, I did not notice other ponies except the two guards, so I expected the other in the tent. Celestia was chained to the middle of the plateau and was still asleep, and seemed to be unharmed.

I peeked around the tree. The guard was still focused at the sky. I slowly crawled to the pile of black balls of Midnight Shadow behind him, it must have been at least twenty of them. I took three of them and moved back into my cover.

I gave a signal to Luna so she would try to reach my spot.

While she was on the move, I examined the balls, they were very brittle and held together just so. The pollen shimmered in some very dark purple, not much, just enough not to be called black.

Luna did a great job and moved more stealthy than I had expected, after a few minutes she arrived at my spot.

"We should be relatively safe here, at least for the moment.", I whispered.

She looked to sleeping Celestia, her face was full of concern.

"We have to make it.", she whispered. "Tia is such a kind and loving pony. Equestria needs her."

"Equestria needs both of you.", I replied. "In time they will love you as much as they do love her."

She looked unsure but gave me a smile anyway.

"Ok.", I whispered to her. "Let's try to take out both guards at the same time, if we are lucky, the others are asleep and won't notice. I take the one behind this tree."

I gave her one of the balls of Midnight Shadow. She nodded and started to move towards her target while I moved around the tree.  I picked up a rock about the size of my fist and slowly inched closer, the stone in my left hand while I had Midnight Shadow in my right. I thought about how much easier this would be if there wasn't snow on the ground.

I was very close to him when he finally seemed to hear my steps in the snow. As he turned around his eyes widened in surprise, maybe he had thought one of the other unicorns had walked up to him. He opened his mouth to shout, and I stuffed Midnight Shadow right into it. As he closed it again on reflex, he bit my hand but also the ball exploded in his mouth, a particle cloud streamed out of his mouth while he started to cough. Only a second later my rock hit him right between his eyes and sent him to the ground unconscious.  I only got a small cut on my hand and turned to see how Luna was doing.

"Intruder!", the unicorn screamed standing in a cloud of Midnight Shadow fighting Luna.

I turned to look towards the tent and saw Celestia awaken and standing up halfway.  I decided to trust Luna to defeat her enemy and started to run towards the tent.  Just a second later another unicorn came out of the tent and sprinted towards me shooting a beam from his horn. Luckily the results had been the same as last time I got hit by one, nothing.

He stormed towards me anyway, his horn pointed at me like a lance. But he did underestimate Celestia, she used the little leeway she had in her chain and kicked him in his head hard as he passed her. His lights went out immediately as he fell into the snow. I threw my last ball of Midnight Shadow on him, just to be sure he would not be a problem later.

Another unicorn stepped out of the tent, this one had a blazing red long mane, I remembered him, he was the one who tried to capture Luna in the royal garden.

I started to run towards him.

He used his magic to levitate the cloud of Midnight Shadow, from my last throw, over the cliff. He shot a beam at me but wasn´t surprised as it didn´t show any effect. He looked behind me searching for a target he could harm.

I tried to be between him and Luna while running so he couldn't shoot her, while he started to sidestep to get a better angle on her. He shot a few beams intentional missing me by inches to hit something behind me, I had no time to turn my head to look if he hit anything.

As I got real close to him, he used his magic to throw a rock at me, and I could evade it only by an inch. I tried to tackle him, but his standing was much to good, so I was just falling to the ground in front of him. He kicked my head as I tried to stand up and sent me back to the ground. He stomped hard on my head, the snow under my head took away only little of his force.

"NOOOOO!", I heard Luna scream.

"Die, pitiful creature!", he shouted as he stomped on my head again.

My vision went blurry as the pain ran through my body, I almost lost consciousness. I wanted my body to move, but I had no control over it.

I noticed he jumped up a bit, to crush my head with a final blow.

Just as he was midair, he was hit by a bright beam of light. He screamed in a way I never heard from a living being before, while his body disintegrated until there was nothing left of him.

It was scary to see life wiped out of existence in this way, even when my life was saved because of it.

"No... please no...", I heard Celestia's voice, hardly loud enough to understand her.

I was laying on my back looking at the dark sky and tried to stay conscious, the cold snow helped a bit.

I wasn't prepared for the evil grinning dark blue face that came into my vision, a creature I only knew because I was told about her yesterday.

"hELLO, i tHINK wE hAVE nOT bEEN iNTRODUCED tO eACH oTHER."

13 Trust

My attempt to knock out the unicorn stallion without him noticing me failed. He was surprised enough to not deflect the ball of Midnight Shadow, but he could defend himself very well against my attacks. His shouting must have alarmed anypony else here, I thought, but had no time to look around. He didn't seem to have much experience in none magic fighting, nor did I, but I could exploit my bigger body size and the reach coming with that. I could hit him a few times to the head while I heard some beam hitting the snow quite near to us. Finally I knocked him out.

'aT lEAST sOME aCTION!', I heard the voice in my head but ignored it.

I turned around to look how Alex was doing, just in time to see him running straight into a big unicorn stallion and falling to the ground in front of him... unfortunately on the other side of the plateau.

'yOU cOULD nEVER gET tHERE iN tIME'

I winced when he got a kick to his head as he tried to stand up again.

'lOOKS lIKE yOUR lITTLE fRIEND iS iN tROUBLE, yOU kNOW... i cOULD hELP hIM wITH mY mAGIC.'

'I can't trust you at all, maybe he gets out of this situation'

In terror I saw the stallion stomp on his head.

"NOOOOO!", I screamed.

'i pROMISE i wILL sAVE hIM fROM tHIS sTALLION'

I panicked, there was nothing I could do to help him. I couldn't let him die like this.

"Die, pitiful creature!", he shouted as he stomped hard on him again.

'tHIS iS yOUR oNLY aND lAST cHANCE tO sAVE hIM fROM dEATH!'

I looked at my sister a last time. I was so sorry for taking this path.

All my mental barriers I had so carefully constructed while she was weak, to keep 'her' from ever gaining control over me again, I removed them all. I gave up all defense and surrendered.

'Do it...'

Instantly she washed over my helpless mind with the power of a tidal wave.

Now I was the small voice again, the small weak voice just watching how her body was used.

I felt her gathering immense power focused toward the red haired unicorn stallion, she wanted to be back with a bang.

Blinding light raced towards the stallion and hit him mid-air as he jumped up to finish Alex. He made a terrible sound as he disintegrated and was wiped out of existence.

I could only watch, as she passed a terrified Celestia and walked to where Alex was lying in the snow.

"hELLO, i tHINK wE hAVE nOT bEEN iNTRODUCED tO eACH oTHER."

----O_O----

"No, that can not be.  Luna that isn't you."

I was in shock seeing her like this, she looked so dark and scary, her appearance had lost all kindness.

"wELL, lUNA iS nO mORE, sHE gAVE hERSELF tO mE sO i wOULD sAVE yOU fROM dEATH."

'No! Luna, why did you do this, why for me?'

"i rEALLY hAVE tO tHANK yOU, nOT oNLY fOR bRINGING mE bACK, bUT tO eNSURE mY rEIGN oVER eQUESTRIA aS wELL. cELESTIA iS hELPLESS aT mY hOOVES, i cAN kILL hER wITH eASE."

I was surprised to notice villains really do love to monolog. It gave me the opportunity to gather a bit strength again and get into a squatting position.

"oNCE sHE iS dEAD, iT wILL bE eASY tO gO bACK tO cANTERLOT aND dESTROYING tHE eLEMENTS oF hARMONY, i sAW wHERE cELESTIA lOCKED tHEM iN."

She looked at me directly and gave me an evil smile.

"yOU hAVE tO dIE tOO oF cOURSE, yOUR aBILITY iS a bIT aLARMING."

"Luna, I know you are in there. You have to be strong and fight her, Equestria needs you, your sister needs you."

"lUNA iS nO mORE yOU fOOL!", she said while walking towards me.

I knew if I were standing right now, I would be slightly bigger than her, but she looked huge to me at this moment.

And suddenly in the face of death and doom for Equestria, everything was clear to me, all the feelings and thoughts that had been tangled in my mind, I saw them all so clear.

"I need you.

I love you Luna.

Please come back to me."

I saw the surprised face of hers, then different feeling started to appear in fast sequence. I saw enough of Luna in it to give me hope that I was right and that there was hope in what I was about to do.

I jumped towards her, she horn lid up on instinct to keep me away, but that didn't work of course. I locked my arms around her neck, and I started to kiss her deeply. She tried to use her front legs to kick me away, but I was to close to her, without the support of all her legs she tumbled with me to the ground.

All I did was holding on as much as I could, thinking of Luna while kissing her. Her sharp teeth cut my tongue so I could taste my blood, while my eyes were locked on hers, searching for a change.

Finally she stopped struggling, and a light blue glow radiated from her body. Her kiss got soft and loving while she changed back into her normal self. Neither of us broke this kiss while we lay together in the snow. Never before had I felt so close to another being.

After what felt like a happy eternity our lips finally parted.

"Thank you for believing in me.", she said.

"Everything I said was true Luna, you will never have to feel alone again, I will always be there for you... if you want me to...", I said.

Suddenly I was less sure if she felt the same way, she was a pony princess from another world, we couldn't be more different.

"Oh, I would like this very much.", she said smiling and my heart leaped with joy.

Celestia coughed slightly.

"I don't want to interrupt you two, but maybe you could unchain me, and we could tie up the other three before they wake up again."

I had a hard time averting my eyes of Luna's face.

"Oh yeah, sure."

I walked over to her and looked at the chain while Luna started to tie up the others.

I examined how I could unchain her when she leaned close to me and whispered: "Thank you for what you did, my sister is everything to me."

"I feel the same way towards her...", I answered.

There was no way to break this chain, so I searched the tent for some minutes before I found a key ring.

Luna had tied up the remaining stallions and stood next to Tia hugging her.

"I hope it is one of these.", I said approaching them.

After some attempts she was finally free.

I looked down the mountain.

"To bad your magic isn´t back yet, it would make getting down much easier..."

She gave me a peck on the cheek.

"I found something way better here than magic."

14 Tears

We dragged the three bound unicorns inside the tent, so they wouldn't freeze to death before someone would arrive to arrest them. We threw a ball of Midnight Shadow in it, just to be sure.

After we had used the rope to link us three together we started to descend the mountain. I tried my best not to stare at Luna all the time while she was walking before me.

We walked in an awkward silence for quite some time.

Tia finally broke it.

"I never knew Nightmare Moon was still inside you, sister."

I saw Luna freeze on the spot. It had been on my mind too, but I was to afraid to ask it, I knew my trust was very precious to her.

Luna slowly turned towards us.

"I... I'm sorry for hiding this from you... and you too Alex. After the Elements of Harmony had defeated Nightmare Moon, the evil inside me was very weak, but it didn't vanish forever, I knew it would always be a part of me. I created mental barriers to keep it from ever gaining control over my body again."

She sat in the snow, shivering. I could tell it wasn't because of the cold, to talk about this was hard for her. I sat next to her and put my arm around her.

"It's ok. I'm here.", I whispered to her.

She smiled and leaned her head on my shoulder.

"But it got back its strength in little time, it started to whisper to me, trying to lure me, to influence me, it used my fears against me."

She looked into my eyes.

"But it knew very well, it would never be able to take over again... only if I would give it the control myself... which I did to save you."

I stroked her hair.

"And I'm very thankful for that.", I responded.

"And it was ok to risk the life of everypony in Equestria?"

I think my heart stopped as I saw the sadness in Luna's eyes, tears started to run down her face. I held her closer while the wind felt much colder all the sudden. She turned toward Tia.

"...W...what?"

Celestia looked at her in a mix of anger and sadness.

"You risked the lives of thousands as you unleashed Nightmare Moon."

"But I couldn't let him die!", Luna cried.

Celestia untied herself.

"Sometimes the right thing is not what we want it to be."

She turned away and started to walk down the mountain herself.

"Everything worked out!", I shouted after her. "Nobody died!"

"Is it wrong for me to be happy for only once!", Luna cried.

I saw Celestia wince, but she walked on.

I sat in the snow with Luna and comforted her as much I could.

"I'm sure she didn't meant it like that."

She looked up to me, tears in her eyes.

"She is right, I'm horrible, I nearly destroyed Equestria."

I brushed her cheek with my hand.

"You did it to save my life and sacrificed yourself for me. You had no time to think about everything and acted on instinct. Do you wish you had decided another way?"

I softly kissed her lips, and she leaned into it. I wiped her tears away while our kiss lasted and was surprised when she parted my lips with her tongue and searched mine. I hummed happily while I felt her love. It was quite some time before we broke our kiss.

"I wouldn't trade you for the world.", she said with a smile.

"I love you too.", I answered while my hand run through her hair. "I'm sure Celestia will understand if we talk to her again, she has to rest in the mountaineer's hut if she wants to get down safely. There we can talk to her."

"I sure hope she will, sometimes she can be very stubborn.", she said sighing.

I helped her getting up, and we started walking toward the hut, my hand rested around her back.

We didn't talk much while we stomped through the snow, I guess we both thought about how our next conversation with Celestia could play out.

After two more hours, we finally arrived at the hut, it was still dark of course, like it would stay until Celestia got her magic back. We hesitated to enter, I took a deep breath, pushed the door open and walked in. I was very surprised to find a crying Celestia before me.

15 Sisters

As I entered the hut, I was surprised to find my sister crying before me. She was always the strong one. I never saw her cry since we had been fillies.

"Tia... what...", was all I could say.

She looked up to me.

"I'm so sorry for what I said. I knew you never had bad intentions doing it. I have to think about my subjects for every decision I make. I made so many sacrifices for them... it just felt not fair to me when you just chose the thing you wanted. I'm sorry that I had not been a better sister to you."

I felt so much sympathy for my sister. I sat next to her and wrapped my wing around her body.

"Is all right, you always look out for me."

Tia was still crying.

"I could have prevented Nightmare Moon if I understood your feelings better back then."

"I hid my feelings and didn't want to talk about them. It wasn't your fault.", I replied to her.

"I never wanted to banish you Luna, if it had been just about us back then, I had rather died that day then to banish you, but I had to protect all of Equestria that day. I am so sorry."

Her head was resting on my front hooves while she cried. I stroked through her mane when I suddenly realized what she wanted to hear, what she was waiting for more than a thousand years.

"I forgive you, Tia. You had no choice and made the right decision. I forgive you."

She looked up to me her eyes still full of tears, but her eyes showed something happier now. Her body relaxed as she pulled me into a hug. It must had been a huge burden that my words now lifted from her. I looked at Alex who had a warm smile on his face and tears in his eyes. I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the warmth from my sister's body and the happy sounds she made.

After some minutes I broke the embrace. Tia kissed my cheek and whispered "thank you" in my ear.

Alex spoke up, "We should get some sleep to get our strength back, we have quite some distance to travel before we reach Canterlot."

Celestia stood up and wiped her eyes using her wings.

"Your right.", she said.

I looked at Alex and coughed.

"We... we could share our body heat again... just to be more comfortable."

His gaze wandered from me to my sister, blushing a bit.

"I would like that...", he finally said and laid next to me. I noticed Tia's big grin and blushed a little. I spread my wing over his body after he laid his arm over my back. He lightly rubbed my coat, and I sighed happily while I drifted to sleep.

-----O_O-----

As I opened my eyes, I saw Luna's face right before mine, sleeping peacefully. She looked much more relaxed than I ever saw her before, her face was so beautiful while it showed a happy smile. I carefully brushed aside her mane so I could study her face even better, I felt her soft fur under my fingertips, and she hummed happily in her sleep.

"You two look cute together."

Celestia's voice surprised me. I had forgotten she was there.

"But if you ever hurt her in any way, I will send you to the surface of my sun."

She said this without anger in her voice, it wasn't a treat, it was a promise for something to happen.

My hand rested on Luna's cheek.

"I understand.", I answered without looking away from Luna. "I will do my best to keep her from any harm."

The room was silent for the next few minutes.

"If you want to go to a date with her, she likes to eat in the 'silver horn', because you can sit under the night sky there."

I turned to look at Celestia.

"I'm very thankful for that."

"She deserves to be happy. She had enough sorrow in her life.", she said with an encouraging smile.

Luna started to move, and I quickly withdrew my hand from her muzzle. She stretched her wings and feet.

"Mmmmhhh... that was a lovely nap, maybe I should sleep on the floor by default."

"I think it was more about your company then your place to sleep.", Celestia teased.

Luna blushed for a second before she blew a raspberry.

"I think someone is jealous.", she teased Tia back.

"What? I'm not... how...", Celestia stopped herself and smiled. "I guess you won this round."

I had seen the two sisters tease each other like this before, when they walked through the royal gardens, away from all their subjects. This time it felt a bit more serious, but I was smart enough not to get caught between the two most powerful beings of this world. I was very relieved as both of them seemed to calm down.

"Well then...", I started, and both turned to me. "I guess we should move on."

Celestia nodded.

"Yes, your right. Everyone in Equestria will worry why the sun does not rise. They could draw the wrong conclusions from it."

She made a great effort NOT to look at Luna.

If Luna noticed it, she showed no sign of it. She secured the saddlebags to her back and walked out of the hut.

"Let's go then."

16 Canterlot

We walked through the moonless night for quite some time, the only thing that illuminated our way had been the glowstones we carried. It was hard to tell exactly how long we traveled without any point of reference. Luna's colors blended with the night so well, sometimes I had the illusion her glowstone was flying through the night alone.

I took all this time we had while walking to think about my situation. It was crazy enough to end in this world instead of dying in that car crash, but now I had confessed love to a pony princess and fought against an evil unicorn... maybe this all was just a crazy dream.

Something brushed against my cheek and pulled my out of my pondering, it was the tip of Luna's Wing.

"Hey, what are you thinking about Alex?", she asked.

I had decided to be honest with her since she was my girlfriend I should always try... girlfriend... pony-girlfriend... marefriend... whatever.

"So many crazy things had happened to me in such a short time, I'm afraid that ... maybe this is all just a dream."

She stopped and came close to me, her face showed sympathy and a little bit of worry.

"Well...", she started. "As an expert on dreams I say your not dreaming. What you felt all this time would be to intense and real for a dream."

"... the magical pony princess said.", I mumbled.

She moved even closer and her lips inched towards mine, I pursed my lips...

She bit my nose.

"Ouch!"

"Real enough?", she asked and then kissed the tip of my nose.

She looked directly into my eyes.

"Listen, I saw this many times before, ponies who pondered if they were dreaming all the time and while doing that, wasted their lives. What difference would it be if this was all a dream when it feels real to you. I need you here with me."

I pulled her into a hug and felt her heartbeat where our necks connected.

"Your right, this all feels so real to me and even if it would be a dream, I don't care and don't want it ever to end. It's just so different to anything I experienced before, so I will need so time to get used to it."

"I make sure to help you with that.", she whispered to me.

'oH gAG, rEALLY?'

Was there... no I must had imagined that.

...

After what had seemed like forever we saw Canterlot in the distance, illuminated by its street lamps. Only a few minutes later we encountered guards patrolling. They appeared happy to see us, Celestia in particular,  but kept a distance and had their spears in a 'ready to strike' position.

Celestia spoke to them:

"Emergency password: Timberwolf

secondary password: chocolate cake"

The guards relaxed and lowered their weapons.

"Princess, we are happy to see you back unharmed", the leader of this group addressed Celestia.

"Everything is fine now, we will soon inform the public what happened. What actions had been taken while we were gone?"

"After both princesses had vanished, we carried out the emergency plan your highness presented months ago, we brought your student Twilight Sparkle to the palace to coordinate the search."

Celestia nodded.

"Very good, we will return to the palace now to get everything back to normal as soon as possible. Please make sure we don't have to answer questions on our way there, the official answer to all will be: 'Everything will be fine soon'"

The guards saluted and lead our way towards Canterlot.

Very few Ponys walked on the street,  the ones who spotted us tried to get close but got gently pushed back by the guards while they got told that 'Everything will be fine soon'. This sentence in combination with the sight of their princesses unharmed was enough to calm everypony down.

It took maybe half an hour to reach the inner rooms of the palace. As we entered the throne room I noticed a lavender unicorn in front of a map of Equestria, lots of notes and markings had been scribbled on it.

She looked up as we entered and her face lid up.

"Princess Celestia", she shouted and ran towards Tia who layed a hoof around her and hugged her gently. "I was so worried, what has happened?"

"Alex, meet Twilight Sparkle my best student and one of the Elements of Harmony."

I remembered what Luna had told me about the Elements and how they defeated Nightmare Moon not long ago.

"Nice to meet you."

"Likewise."

Celestia turned towards the guards.

"Please leave the room and make sure we will not be disturbed."

The guards left immediately.

Once we were alone she started to tell Twilight everything in great detail. As she got to the part when I declared my love for Luna, Twilight looked at me in disbelief, while I took this moment to start a conversation with Luna.

"Well... after we are rested from this adventure... would you like to go on a date?"

Luna could not hide a slight blush.

"I would like that, we deserve some relaxing time after all this."

Meanwhile Celestia ended her tale of what had happened.

"Now we have to come up with a convincing story for Equestrias inhabitants.", she said.

"Why not simply tell the truth?", I asked.

"I don't want to give others ideas about 'midnight shadow' and I don't want my citizens to be scared, so we come up with a nice calming story."

"Ok, I can see your point."

There was silence for some minutes.

Luna spoke up: "Well, we can use the old 'star formation does something' story... like... there is a star formation, that appears like this only every 300 years, that's weakens alicorn magic."

Twilight nodded.

"That sound good, but 500 years would be better, the records from this time are really sparse, it makes it harder to disproof."

"But how do you explain your absence from the castle?", I asked them.

Tia smiled.

"That's easy, Luna and I went to our old castle in the Everfree Forest to do some research in our old library, so we could better predict the time this state would last. I used this excuse before."

They all nodded, I was surprised how good liars they all had been... well it was for the greater good, right?

"Well then", Celestia finally said. "Twilight please write this all down and give it to all Newspapers to print... and make the years not such a perfect number, make it... 523 years. And write it should be back to normal in a few hours."

"Yes princess."

Before she walked out she came to me.

"Princess Celestia mentioned you in her letters, you are so fascinating. Can I ask you later some questions about your home and your race?"

"Sure, just come by."

She beamed with a huge smile before she left the throne room.

Luna yawned.

"I think we all should get some sleep.", she said.

I agreed and left for my room. I did not even undress and feel asleep almost immediately after I layed down.

17 Curiosity

I woke up from a long slumber and the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was purple.

"Oh good, you are finally awake, I have so many questions to ask you.", Twilight announced happily towards me.

I shrieked back a bit.

"Wow, you're not losing any time. How long have you been waiting here?", I said before yawning.

Without warning she was right next to my face and looked into my mouth, using her hooves to prevent me from closing it.

"Yes, definitely carnivore... interesting arrangement."

"Twhilhight...", I used my fingers to poke her and to remind her what she was doing. She let go immediately.

I stared her down.

"I am not an experiment Twilight, ask me before you want something from me or I will get angry."

She averted her eyes and looked to the ground while blushing.

"I am so sorry. I get carried away sometimes when there are new things to learn. I have been a secluded bookworm all my life and made my first real friends only a few weeks ago."

I was surprised to hear that and felt a bit sorry for her, especially when I saw tears appear in her eyes.

"Hey, everything is fine," I said, "just take it easy and we can be friends too."

She looked up to me with a wry smile.

"Thanks, I will do my best to make my research like a normal conversation."

And she managed to do so. We talked for the next two hours about earth, plants, animals, human evolution, politics and much more. It was a fun conversation between friends, with little jokes in-between.

...

Twilight was silent for some minutes now. Normally she interrupted me all the time with different questions.

"Is everything alright?", I asked her.

Her eyes darted from side to side, she avoided looking at me.

"I... I have a favor to ask...", she finally spoke up.

I was curious.

"What is it?"

"Well... you are a totally new species for us, no one has ever seen your kind before. Soooo... I would like to draw you in detail, for the book I am going to write about your species."

"Why not, you can do that.", I answered, wondering why she made a big deal of this.

Her hoof scraped in circles on the floor before her.

"Well... I know you said that you are not comfortable without clothes..."

"You want to draw me nude?!", I asked a lot louder than I intended too.

She flinched.

"It is very important for science, please.", she begged using these big pony eyes to her advantage.

"Can't you just..."

"Please, it is normal for our race to be without clothes, it is no big thing for us.", she continued with eyes as big as saucers.

I knew I could not withstand this look much longer, so I decided to at least get something in return.

"Ok... you can do it, but I want something in return.", I announced slowly.

She jumped up and down in joy.

"Oh thank you, what is it that you want?"

"I don't want to be totally lost about what would feel good to somepony, so I want to know all about... the sensitive spots of an alicorn mare."

If we been outside at this moment, even the lightest breeze would have knocked Twilight over, and I would have never expected such a red face when you are covered in purple fur.

Twilight opened her mouth and closed it again.

"You...", she started. "I can't... I haven't..."

"Come on Twilight, if I come into a 'special situation' I want it to be a pleasant experience for her. I'm dealing here with wings and horns, body parts I never saw before. I'm afraid to hurt her in any way."

"I'm not experienced in this interactions as well...", she mumbled avoiding to look at me.

"But you told me how you love to read and learn things. I can't believe you never been interested in learning more about this topic. Please, help me to give her a good time."

She huffed.

"You will promise me to stand completely still as long as I want you to, so I can draw you."

I held my hand up.

"I promise."

A few more seconds passed.

"... okay... wings have a strong muscle connecting them to a pegasi body, it is known that..."

Twilight taught me all about wings, horns and a mare's body she knew. After a moment she lost her uptightness, and her joy of teaching took over. She tutored me for about half an hour. I was pretty sure I knew more about mares now than I ever knew about women.

The last illustration Twilight had projected before me using her magic faded away.

"Now it is your turn, get undressed.", she said while a sketchbook and pencils floated towards her.

I was hesitant, but we had a deal. So I undressed, stood nude before her and tried to act as casual about it as possible.

"Interesting, your ... private part does not retract inside your body like stallions do."

I looked to the ceiling.

"Yes, that's right, could you just go on with it to draw and not stare to much."

"How could I draw you without looking at you? Now stick out your arms to both sides and spread your legs a bit."

I did as I was told.

After about 10 minutes in that pose under the inspecting look of Twilight, while she was sketching me in detail, a blue pony princess stormed into the room... she never been the one to knock on doors.

"I thought about our date and we could...", she trailed off and stared at the situation.

I sighed, it was one of these days...

I tried to take down my hand to cover myself a bit but got yelled by Twilight to hold the pose immediately.

"Now this is interesting.", Luna said with a smirk.

Twilight faced Luna.

"I do a scientific study about his race."

"Do you mind if I attend for a moment?", Luna asked.

"Not at all.", Twilight said.

"A lot.", I mumbled under my breath not audible to them.

"I said don't move.", Twilight reminded me.

I was confused, I did not move a muscle, what did... oh, I felt something was moving.

"I have no control over it when Luna stares at me.", I answered red headed.

"Okay, I have to draw it in both conditions anyway.", Twilight said and moved closer for a better look.

"I think I leave now.", Luna said with a huge smile. "There is a funny story I want to share with Tia. I believe your book about humans will be a fascinating read, can you reserve a copy for me?"

"Of course princess, I will make you an individual copy as soon I will have finished it.", Twilight beamed and looked very proud.

Luna left the room giggling while Twilight continued sketching my body.

18 Inside again

As I woke up next morning, I hoped the whole 'nude sketching' had been only a dream.

Wait, I could see the sun outside my window, so the sisters seemed to have their powers back, at least Celestia.

I entered the dining room to have breakfast with the princesses and to my relief both of them used their magic.

Luna greeted me with a big smile.

"Oh Alex it is you, I nearly I didn't recognize you with all this clothing covering you."

She giggled, and Celestia had problems to hide her big grin too.

"You seemed to be very interested in my lack of clothing.", I tried to counter.

There was the slightest blush coming to her cheeks, but she answered approvingly: "It is surprisingly exciting to see something you like, but it's hidden all the time. Maybe I should start to wear more clothing to keep you interested in what is underneath."

I started to sweat as a picture of Luna in sexy underwear appeared in my mind.

Celestia coughed.

"The Grand Galloping Gala will be in two days.", she said obviously wanting to chance the subject. "Will you two attend?"

I changed my attention to Celestia.

"Twilight mentioned it yesterday, she and her friends will attend and are very excited to experience it for the first time. It sounds fascinating."

"I don't know...", Luna muttered. "I still don't like to be in large crowds, I get to many strange or even frightened looks. I thought about using this time to have a date somewhere else without so many others around."

'yOU wILL nEVER bE aLONE wITH hIM'

"Luna, I heard Nightmare Moon's voice in my head, did you hear her too?", I asked her confused.

"I learned to ignore her most of the time, but yes she spoke, what did you hear?"

"You will never be alone with him.", I repeated.

"How is this possible?", Luna asked.

'nOW tHIS iS iNTERESTING'

"She said: Now this is interesting.", I repeated.

"But why can't I hear what she says?", Celestia asked.

'mAYBE yOU nEED tO kISS wITH hER tOO, oR eXCHANGE oTHER bODY fLU...'

"If I concentrate, I can mute her, but it takes a lot of my concentration.", Luna explained with glowing red cheeks.

I guess I didn't look much different because Celestia asked: "What was it she said?"

I decided to rephrase that.

"She said Luna and I have a special connection."

Luna exhaled very audibly.

I knew this all bothered her a lot.

"How about a nice walk in the garden together after our breakfast.", I ask her.

She seemed hesitant but nodded after a few seconds. We had a very quiet meal together.

...

We walked side by side through the garden. We did not speak at all for quite some time.

"It is very exhausting to have her muted all the time.", she finally decided to say.

I looked in her beautiful face. "Then don't. We can just ignore her.

Relax and let's just enjoy this lovely morning together."

It was very visible for me as the strain left her body.

'sO, yOU tWO tHINK iT wOU...'

I kissed her cheek softly.

'...ASY tO iGNORE mE?'

"Wait a minute...", I said.

'i wILL mAKE yOU lIST...'

I touched her neck with my hand. Her hair went straight and normal again, losing its magic through my touch.

"I think we have found another very pleasant way to shut her up.", I told her.

She did understand immediately and beamed of joy.

"Thank you for shutting her up, you don't know how good it is not worrying about her."

She used this euphoria she was feeling to kiss me for several minutes. This made me daring enough to massage one of the pleasant spots of her wing I learned from Twilight. She hummed happily into my mouth.

After a few happy moments she asked: "Where did you learn this?"

"Well, I made Twilight pay for that nude drawing of me, she had to teach me about spots of your body that would make you feel good in one way or another. I thought about giving you a massage after our date to try out the other 14 spots. This one was just easy to reach."

"I looking forward to that.", she said with a sexy growl and started to kiss me again, this time with a lot more passion than before.

19 Happy

Finally, the day of the Grand Galloping Gala arrived. Yesterday I went to the 'silver horn' to book a table. They seemed very confused to see this strange creature book a table to eat with the princesses of the night. I also bought some blue and white flowers that matched very well to her coat color and did some other preparations as well.

In the afternoon Celestia teleported with me to Rarity's boutique because of a 'fashion emergency'. Rarity was a very sweet and pretty mare who offered to help me after she heard about my date with Luna. I thanked her from the bottom of my heart for her help. Twilight agreed to bring my suit over this afternoon. So everything was set for a beautiful evening, I was well prepared.

...

Twilight arrived after lunch and trotted in my room with a big smile.

"Hey Casanova, are you nervous about today?", she asked while she carefully levitated the suit on top of my bed.

"I am well prepared, but yes, I am a bit nervous. What about you and your friends, you have a big night too."

"I think the most nervous is Rarity since she hopes Prince Blueblood is her true love. I'm just looking forward to spending time with Princess Celestia and talk about all the things I learned."

I looked at the suit.

"Wow, this suit looks great."

"Try it on, let's see if it fits, Rarity could do some last minute changes if something is wrong."

I took the suit from the bed. The fabric was very smooth and cool to the touch. It was in a mix of dark blue and black, once again inspired by Luna.

Twilight stared at me, waiting for the result.

"Would you mind to turn around?", I asked her.

"Really? Is there anything new to see?", she asked laughing but turned around anyway.

It was a fantastic result, a perfect fit. Back at home at suit like this would be 3000 Dollars or more, Rarity's payment idea was: "Next time you are in Ponyville, come by and tell me a bit about the fashion where you came from, and have a good time darling."

"Wow, you do look real good in this.", Twilight commented.

"Thanks, Rarity is a genius, please tell her that, and that I'm so happy with it."

"Well, got to go now, I have to get ready myself.", Twilight said. "To bad you don't see how I look tonight."

"I bet you will look great too, you are such a pretty mare. Maybe you too will find your true love tonight."

She had an expression on her face that I could not read.

"I don't think so.", she mumbled and left my room.

...

It was finally evening. The gala would start in about an hour, and we wanted to be out of the palace by then. So I knocked on Luna door all dressed up with the flowers I had bought for her.

As her magic opened her door and gave me a full view, I was absolutely speechless. She was in a light blue dress, not far from the color of her hair, it had little diamonds on it sparkling like stars. Her mane and tail were in a braid. I didn't even know she could do that with the floating hair she had.

"You look breathtaking.", I was finally able to say.

"You too, my love.", she responded and kissed me. "Thanks for these lovely flowers."

We went out to the restaurant before the palace got crowded.

...

The restaurant had a lovely ambiance, we sat face to face while we both ate pasta dishes, we even fed each other some in this lovey-dovey way.  I noticed the looks we got as a very odd couple, but I didn't mind.

"There is one thing I don't understand.", I started. "If I am 'anti-magic', why could I hear Nightmare's voice in my head, isn't that magic too?"

She thought about it for a moment.

"Well, your body does resist magic, but maybe your mind doesn't. I don't know for sure, but I really don't want to talk about her."

"Sorry Sweetheart.", I apologized with a kiss to her, that attracted glances at us.

After that we had a walk in her moonlight, we walked to a little lake nearby where I had prepared a picnic basket. We lay in the grass, and she explained me the meaning of all the stars we could see, sometimes she made them twinkle to draw my view to the right one.

----0_0----

tHEY tHINK bECAUSE oF hIS sTUPID aBILITY tHEY cAN sHUT mE uP?

iTS tRUE, hE dOES iNTERFERE wITH mY sLOW pATIENT mETHOD oF cORRUPTION,

hE gIVES hER tO mUCH sUPPORT, bUT tHIS iSNT mY oNLY oPTION tO aTTACK.

----0_0----

After quite some time the basket was empty, and the stars had been explained.

"Didn't you promise me a massage?", she asked with a seductive glance.

"I was hoping for you to say that.", I answered with a grin. "We should go to my room, Luna. I may have prepared something."

So we walked back to the palace and used one of the side entrance to get to my room unnoticed except for the guards.

I had covered my bed with blue petals, and it was surrounded by red candles.

"Would you please light up the candles for me?", I asked her, which she did in an instant.

"Now I have to undress you.", I continued. "This beautiful dress would be a hindrance for what we are about to do."

I slowly slipped off her dress which produced an exciting sound as it brushed along her coat.

I kissed her neck.

"Would you lie on the bed, belly down my love.", I whispered in her twitching ear.

As she did, I felt the heat radiate from her body.

I started to massage her back and wings with particular attention to the spots I knew.

----0_0----

iT wILL nEED aLL mY pOWER, bUT iT wILL gIVE mE cONTROL oVER tHIS bODY fOR a fEW hOURS,

bEFORE i fADE aWAY fOREVER...

bUT tHAT iS mORE tHEN eNOUGH tIME tO gET tHE fORBIDDEN bOOK,

aND wIPE lUNA oUT oF tHIS bODY.

lETS wAIT fOR tHE mOMENT wHEN hER dEFENCE iS wEAKEST...

----0_0----

After some minutes of massage Luna's body started to heat up from it. She glistened in the candlelight as she begun to sweat and an unbelievable sexy scent came from her body. This combined with her moaning put my willpower to the test, while she seemed to be in absolute peace at this moment.

----0_0----

nOW!

20 Hate

"Wait, are you trying to seduce me? You're moving way to fast for me. Get your hands off me!"

He got off my back and looked confused.

"I only... I didn't...", he stammered.

I stood up and moved towards the door. "I think I should go now. We will talk about this tomorrow."

"Wait, please, I didn't want to do anything..."

The door closed behind me. I hated to use her stupid voice, but it made it all so easy. Next, I only needed the forbidden book, and she would be gone forever. The library was my next destination.

----0_0----

I was flabbergasted, what had happened? I sat down on the bed.

I thought Luna wanted me to move further... What could I do to make this right again? I laid down and thought about good ways to apologize to her.

...

'Alex help me'

I heard a voice in my mind, like before from Nightmare Moon, but it was different this time.

'Alex help me, please'

"Luna, is it you?"

'Nightmare took over my body, she is on her way to the library.

She is searching for a book to destroy me'

"So your sudden change of mood... ok, I'm on my way."

I ran as fast as I could.

----0_0----

I had to remind myself to be as quiet as possible in my search for the book. Celestia would be hard to kill if she suspected anything and I couldn't take her by surprise.

I walked to the library entrance. A guard stood in front of it.

"Oh princess, so late around here?", he asked.

I had no time for small talk.

"Is the library locked?", I asked him.

"No princess, but I'm guarding it, no one could..."

"gOOD fOR mE."

I magically sealed his mouth and nostrils and lifted him from the ground, he struggled helplessly in the air. After he had gone limp I waited some extra seconds, just to be sure, I will choose new guards anyway. I entered the door to the library and tossed him into a corner.

I searched the walls and found what I was looking for, a wall without a shelf. I approached it and focused my magic on pushing against it, slowly but with much force. After a few seconds bricks gave in and the bricked entrance reappeared. Once the dust had settled, the smaller room behind it showed about six shelves of books.

"tIME tO mAKE tHIS bODY mINE."

----0_0----

I ran through the corridors toward the library. My heart was racing.

'Hurry'

The library came in sight, and the door was open. I slowed down my pace and tried not to be heard. Once I entered I saw a guard laying in the corner, it wasn't hard to see that there was no life left in him. The light of burning lamps came through a forced opening in a wall at the end of the room. I sneaked close enough to see through.

I saw Luna, no Luna's Body, possessed by Nightmare Moon. She stood behind a growing pile of books as she searched for the one she wanted. She noticed me within seconds.

"yOU aGAIN? dIE yOU fOOL!"

She wasn't stupid, instead of using magic directly aimed at me, she shot the books toward me, with the speed of cannonballs. I jumped to the side to evade them, while they blasted holes in the shelfs behind me.

I peered around the corner and brought my head quickly back again. A book impacted where my head was just before.

'She searches more books while she keeps you under fire'

I knew there was no time for any other plan than a frontal attack, so I inhaled and ran around the corner. To my surprise she didn't throw any more books, she just stood there smiling as I ran towards her.

I had to knock her out somehow, I had... why was she still smiling as I ran towards her, she couldn't use her magic directly against me.

I closed the distance. I was close as she lowered her head...

... and rammed her horn through my chest...

... I felt it exit on my back.

I screamed in pure agony.

'Alex!'

"i cAN uSE mY hORN tO kILL yOU wITHOUT aNY mAGIC yOU fOOL!"

She turned her head from side to side to enlarge my wound. I felt the blood ran down my body.

...

But I felt something else ran through my body too. I grabbed her horn as strong as I could in front of my chest and behind my back.

"wHAT aRE yOU tRYING... wAIT, wHERE gOES mY eNERGY?"

I grinned while blood filled my mouth.

"Your energy is magic stupid... and you know what my body does to magic."

Her eyes widened in fear. She rammed me against the shelf again and again to lose my grip. I felt my arm break behind my back, it lost its grip and flapped around while she continued, but I held on with the other arm.

Her attacks got weak, but so did I.

We feel to the ground together. Her head red because of my blood.

"yOU sTUPID bASTARD, hOW cOULD ...", her head went limp,I felt all the energy was drained.

Only a moment later her eyes opened.

"Alex, no please."

Tears streamed down her face as she carefully removed her horn. The blood continued to leave my body.

"In sorry Luna...", it was hard for me to speak. "I wished we had more time together. I will love you forever."

"No, you can't die!", she screamed. "I will heal you!"

She shot different beams at me, but of course, nothing could do anything.

"It's... it's no use... you know that.", I told her using all my strength for it. "... please... just hold... me a last time..."

She wrapped her hooves around me, crying.

"We will... always... have... our sp... special... connection...", I whispered.

...

...

...

"Our connection!", she screamed. "Your body resists magic, but your mind doesn't if I bypass it through your mind..."

Her horn lid up like a thousand suns, and I felt a tiny warmth coming from my head and spreading trough my body.

The blood flow got a bit weaker,

bit by bit,

but I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore...

I couldn't...

...

...

21 End

I opened my eyes...

I was blinded by the light...

I was in bed. The sun was shining through the window. Luna lay next to my feet.

I carefully used my hand to examine my chest. I couldn't feel anything unusual there, much better than the giant hole there was before.

Luna woke up by my little movements.

"I must be dead. I can see a beautiful angel.", I said smiling.

"I don't know what an angel is, but I take beautiful.", she responded. "I'm so happy your awake again."

"How much time has passed?"

"Three days, magic channeled through your mind has only a fraction of the power a normal spell would have, me and Tia had to cast spells for hours to keep you alive."

"Is Nightmare really gone?", I asked.

"No more voices or things I have to fight against, I feel free for the first time.", she smiled and looked so peaceful.

Then she looked nervous all the sudden.

"Everything ok?", I asked her.

She nodded and took a deep breath. She looked me straight in the eyes and said: "I want to marry you and spend our life together."

I was speechless.

"I... I... are you sure, we never even had a successful date together."

She had tears in her eyes.

"I am sure you fool, and this is not an acceptable answer to a proposal."

Tears came to my eyes too.

"Of course I want to marry you, there is nothing I ever wanted more."

She came close and kissed me with passion, hugging me hard.

After some moments she just laid her head on my shoulder and stayed in this embrace for minutes.

"And someday maybe have a family.", she whispered in my ear.

"Wow, this is possible?", I asked back.

She kissed me.

"There is a spell we use for couples of different races. The baby's get characteristics from both parents, but the race is the one of the mother. And since I now know a way to bypass your ability..."

I cried some more.

"We will be a great family."

We announced our wedding plans the same day.

You can find the sequel "Know your enemy" here: Know your enemy

1 Death

It was a beautiful sunny day, as I drove back home from work. I was in high spirits and had no idea that I was going to die that day.

I don't even know if the truck driver or I were to blame, for smashing into my driver's side at full speed.

The moment he hit my car neither of this questions mattered anymore, nothing mattered anymore. All my senses were so sharp and clear in that brief moment. Everything seem to be in extreme slow motion.

As the truck hit my car, I saw how the door bend slowly toward me.

I heard the metal scream and watched the window shatter.

I saw light refract in the glass shards forming tiny rainbows.

As all this glittering and screaming chaos crawled towards me, I had one last thought: 'Death shouldn't be this pretty.'

The moment I got hit there was no pain, but I knew my life was over...

Just a blink later, I felt something on my shoulder and got suddenly pulled away. Everything disappeared from one moment to the next and was replaced by a shimmering colorful void.

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. I could not move either.

I wasn't even sure that I still existed.

Suddenly I heard a surprised sound from that thing and it lost its grip on me, even after reaching out again to grab me, it could not hold on to me. His surprise turned into anger as I fell back, and moved further and further away from him.

I lost any reference to time, maybe all of this took years or the fraction of a second. I fell towards a shining light until I finally was enclosed by it.