Luna sat within her room staring out across Equestria. Ponyville lay at
the base of Canterlot and stretched out far before the Everfree forest
consumed all that was in sight save a few skyscrapers from Manehattan
that peeked over the trees at the very edge of the horizon. She enjoyed
her view of Equestria but it wasn't what she really loved to look
at. Luna turned her head up towards her beautiful night sky that was
adorned by brightly shining stars burning brightly from millions of
miles away just for her. The stars however were the only things out
tonight as Equestria had fallen silently into the night as it did
whenever Luna would raise the moon.
The normal chirping of the
crickets and the dancing of the lightning bugs were absent tonight and
it all seemed especially lonely.
Even after her sisters constant reassurance and kind words she still felt saddened.
"Dearest
sister, do not be sad. The night is very important to ponies all across
Equestria. It is the time when they can rest and recover from the day.
They need the night the most of all for this. You are very important to
all of Equestria, Luna. Don't ever forget that."
Why couldn't
some ponies come out and enjoy her lovely night? Sure there were always
things like the Gran Galloping Gala where ponies would be out until the
early hours of the morning talking and laughing and having fun but in
truth they were all inside enjoying those things and barely took to mind
any thought of glancing upwards at her sparkling friends.
Luna sighed. Even though she was now back home with her sister she still felt as alone as ever.
The
Canterlot castle was vast and Luna often found herself lost when trying
to explore. Her sister was always busy as well with important business
and frequently was not around at all when she needed her. Luna had even
tried talking to the Canterlot royal guards but they always seemed so
nervous around her and conversations often never progressed past hello.
Her one and only true best friend forever lay at her side as she always
had and Luna picked her up and cradled her.
"Oh Abby... I wish a falling star would come my way so maybe my wish would come true,"
The
red abacus remained silent as abacus' do but Luna still felt slightly
better relieving the tension from her chest. She stared far off into the
distant darkness and that was when she saw it. A falling star. A true
falling star, right from the sky itself.
But... Luna never remembered falling stars being rainbow colored....
The rainbow colored falling star crashed down from the sky into
Ponyville and Luna gasped. This were her chance! If she could get that
falling star then her wish would come true for sure!
"Abby!" she exclaimed squeezing the abacus. "Do you know what this means?"
The abacus was silent. She took the abacus and tucked it safely into a saddle bag that she immediately threw on her haunches.
"That's right. We're going to Ponyville!"
"Ow... not cool." Rainbow Dash mumbled as she pulled herself up off the dirt, her body aching.
She groaned and glanced up at the sky. Not a single sonic rainboom to
be seen for miles. Dash sighed. She was sure that she had it this
time... except for the whole misjudging how close the ground was. She
was so focused that she didn't have time to pull out of her dive. She
could only open her wings slightly and soften her landing but it still
hurt quite a bit.
Rainbow Dash had been sneaking off through
the night towards her secret training grounds as she did every night.
She needed to perfect the sonic rainboom. The first time as a filly was a
fluke and it only happened again at the Best Young Fliers competition
because Rarity was in danger. Dash felt like she would never be able to
do it on her own. But she was going to try anyways because after all if
she didn't perfect her moves soon then she would never be Wonderbolt
material. She prepped herself for takeoff, spread her wings and then
promptly fell to her haunches as pain ran across her back. She had
landed on her left wing slightly and now it hurt too much to even
stretch it out normally.
"Oh no," she gasped. "No, no, NO! This
CANNOT happen! I mean I have to practice for the Wonderbolts and
tomorrow I'm on weather duty and I promised to help Twilight dust the
top of her bookshelves and that I would deliver cakes for Pinkie Pie and
Rarity needed me to pick up an important package in Manehattan for her
and how am I going to get back to Cloudsdale?"
She began to
freak out and couldn't stop herself from rambling which in all reality
was absolutely not cool but this entire situation was NOT COOL AT ALL.
Maybe Twilight was awake. She was always reading all of those books so
maybe she had read something about pegasus first aid. Yeah! Maybe she
could use her magic to fix her wing. But as Dash looked around she
realized that she was a lot farther from Twilight's house than she
originally thought. By the time she got there Twilight would definitely
be asleep and she had told Dash the other day that she had important
Canterlot business to attend to this week. If she bothered Twilight she
might not be able to finish her work.
Rainbow Dash sighed and looked around. She was quite close to the Everfree forest.
"Maybe Zecora..." She shuddered, her sentence cut off.
The
Everfree forest? At night? No way. And in any case Zecora still
unnerved her a bit. Dash sighed and looked up into the night sky. The
darkened deep blue of the sky was speckled by the bright shining stars
that illuminated Ponyville slightly in their glow. The faint wind across
her mane and the rustling of leaves in the trees was quite pleasant and
the night sky was so beautiful.
Well it was until something smacked her straight in the head.
"Abby!" she heard a distant voice cry before something else fell to the ground with a loud thump.
"Awh..." Dash groaned as her vision returned and she picked up the strange red thing that had fallen on her.
"What the hay is this?" she said as she examined it.
"Careful!" the voice cried again before somepony ran up to her and snatched it away.
"Abby are you okay?"
The pony began checking "Abby" closely before tucking it back into her
saddle bag. Rainbow Dash could barely make out who this pony was until
the clouds shifted in the wind and let the moonlight shine down,
illuminating Ponyville.
Princess Luna!
Luna
became flustered as the pony bowed to her. She didn't know what to do or
how to react so for a few long arduous moments it was slightly awkward.
Luna hated it when ponies bowed to her. She felt ashamed for her
actions as Nightmare Moon and felt like she didn't deserve anypony's
praise or admiration. Finally the pony stood from bowing and Luna felt
relieved, her face losing its flush.
"Princess Luna did you just fall out of the sky?"
Luna instantly became flustered again.
"Well,
yes. I don't really fly that often so I'm not very good." Luna hung her
head in embarrassment What kind of alicorn princess couldn't fly
properly?
Being trapped in the moon for a thousand years didn't really help either.
"So..
what are you doing out here so late at night, Princess Luna?" The blue
pony with multicolored hair asked, her hooves digging at the ground
slightly.
"Oh I um... I saw a falling star and I was just
looking for it," Her voice was quiet. "You wouldn't happen to have seen
it would you?"
The blue pony seemed to think for a moment and it was then that Luna noticed her wings.
A pegasus pony down in Ponyville so late at night? She felt confused.
"Hmm..
no I haven't. See I was off to practice some cool moves but I fell all
the way from Cloudsdale. I haven't really seen much other than the
ground tonight." The blue pegasus laughed.
"You fell from Cloudsdale?" Luna spoke, taken aback.
"Heh, yeah. The clouds weren't perfectly pushed together in one part and it was dark so I couldn't see so... here I am."
It
was then that Luna recognized the pegasus pony. She was one of Twilight
Sparkle's friends, an element of harmony! Luna suddenly felt very
uncomfortable. What must this pegasus think of me after what I did as
Nightmare Moon? But the pegasus with the rainbow mane didn't seem
unnerved at all and instead asked Luna another question.
"So Princess Luna, what was that thing that fell on my head?"
"Oh, Abby is my abacus."
"Aba-what now?" Rainbow Dash was thoroughly confused.
"Uhm... it's used to add and subtract things." Luna said, unable to truly explain what an abacus was.
"Oh
I see. So why are you carrying it around with you?" Rainbow Dash
questioned. It seemed strange for a pony to be carrying something like
that with them in the middle of the night.
"Abby is my best friend. She's always been with me."
"Sounds
like you need to get out more." Rainbow Dash laughed. "You should come
down to Ponyville more often, you're quite funny."
Luna once
again found herself flustered. Go down to Ponyville? She would be so
nervous to walk the streets. What everypony must think of her...
"Hey
Princess Luna," she seemed to speak confidently. "You wouldn't happen
to know of any medic ponies that would be up this late, would you?" Her
voice trailed off a bit.
"Medic ponies? Why are you looking for a medic pony...uhm..." Luna couldn't quite remember her name.
"Oh I'm Rainbow Dash, remember?"
That's right. Rainbow Dash; The element of loyalty.
"I sort of need one," Rainbow Dash said. "See when I fell from the clouds I landed on my wing and now I can't exactly fly."
Luna nodded and thought for a moment before perking up. "Well, I could always heal you."
Rainbow Dash looked at her curiously. "You could?"
Luna
nodded again and explained to Rainbow Dash that while she was
imprisoned on the moon for a thousand years she needed a way to pass the
time so she learned to hone her magical ability for quite a few
different things. Rainbow Dash seemed a bit reluctant after the mention
of her imprisonment but she couldn't be stuck with a hurt wing all
night.
She carefully stretched out her injured wing for Luna and
closed her eyes tightly in preparation. Luna breathed in a bit of cool
night air and then began to focus as her wings spread outwards and her
horn began to glow a faint purple slowly becoming brighter. Rainbow
Dash's wing began to glow as well as Luna began to mend it. Dash had
expected it to hurt and thus had prepared herself but Princess Luna was
being very careful and gentle and within moments her wing felt as good
as new. Luna sighed slightly as the magic left her and her horn ceased
to glow and smiled slightly towards the pegasus who was now stretching
out and rotating her wings in a most peculiar fashion.
"Sweet, I
can fly again!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she bolted up towards the sky
and then back down again, spinning and floating the air seemingly
effortlessly. She landed next to Luna and then quickly embraced her with
a high pitch squeal of thank you.
Rainbow Dash suddenly backed away from Luna and apologized.
"I'm sorry Princess I just got so excited... heh." She rubbed the back of her head with her hoof in embarrassment
But in the deep blue darkness of that evening she couldn't see the extent of the blush that had consumed
Princess Luna's cheeks.
As the pegasus began to sway the conversation in a different way Luna couldn't make out the words that she spoke.
Luna
suddenly realized how cold the night air really was and how she wanted
once again to be embraced by the pegasus whom had felt so warm against
her. At first she didn't understand the feelings that she felt. She
wished her sister was there to help her but she knew in the back of her
mind she would only bear witness to her sisters signature smile and a
few kind words about needing to find herself.
But how was she supposed to find herself when she didn't even know what feelings she was experiencing?
Was
this friendship? Did she finally have a friend? Was this what it felt
like? A million thoughts flooded Luna's mind and she felt excited and
embarrassed all at once. Being on the moon was... torture for her. She
had been deprived of interaction with other ponies for a thousand
years. This was the first time that somepony has hugged her other than
her sister for all of those years. There was nothing that describe the
feeling of loneliness that Luna had felt as the cold dark moon held her
small form.
"So do you think you're up for it Princess Luna?" Rainbow Dash asked grinning.
"Yes,"
The word escaped her lips before she could even think about it let
alone realize what Rainbow Dash has even been talking about.
At
this moment she felt as if she could only say yes to the rainbow maned
pegasus. She only wished that her body hadn't failed her so that she
would know what she just agreed to. But Rainbow Dash piped up again
excitedly quickly answering her question.
"Great! Let's go then. Your first super awesome flight lesson begins now."
Wait, what?
And
before Luna could realize what was going on Rainbow Dash had grabbed
her hoof and they were off through the night sky faster than anypony
could have flown. Luna's precious star friends rushed past her yet grew
closer as they ascended higher. The clouds before them began to part and
Luna was able to see that they were heading towards the very edge of
Equestria itself where the mountains that bordered the land turned into
valleys that sloped off into the great oceans. As the two ponies began
to descend Luna once again looked skyward and her eyes widened slightly.
Just then, out of the corner of her eye, Luna had seen a single streak
of starlight as it streamed across the sky.
"Was that..." Luna
began but Rainbow Dash couldn't hear her for her words were so soft
spoken. Rainbow Dash leveled off along the ground and set Luna down
softly.
"Isn't this place great? I come here all the time to practice." Dash said.
Luna
had been so busy staring up at the sky that she didn't notice where
they had landed. It took her a minute to form the words to describe the
view that lay before her.
The valley seemed to stretch out into
the distance forever and beautiful waterfalls lines the high slopes that
surrounded the two ponies. The water glowed in the moonlight and lit up
the valley in it's entirety. It wasn't bright like sunlight but it was a
soft glow reminiscent of the starlight that Luna adored.
"This is... so amazing. The water is so pretty. Why does it glow like that?" Luna asked.
"I'm
not too into the whole science thing but I thought Twilight would find
it cool so I brought her back some. She told me that there are some sort
of..." Dash seemed to be searching for the word. "Oh yeah, luminescent.
Twilight told me there were luminescent creatures in the water like
tiny sprites. They glow in the dark so that's why the water is lit up."
Rainbow Dash grinned.
Luna was amazed. She had never heard of
creatures that glowed before. She smiled to herself. This was the kind
of beauty that Luna had been wishing she could find in her darkness.
Something that maybe somepony would enjoy. She glanced back at Rainbow
Dash who was in the process of stretching her body and wings. Rainbow
Dash seemed to enjoy being out at night even if it was just for
practice. At least there was one pony that Luna now knew of.
"You
should probably stretch out before you start flying Lu- I mean,
Princess Luna." Rainbow Dash corrected herself. She had almost forgotten
that Luna was of the same stature as Princess Celestia.
"Oh,
alright," Luna said shyly. "And you can call me Luna if you like." Luna
began to mimic what she had seen Rainbow Dash doing but she felt a bit
silly.
"But you're a princess of Equestria. I can't just not
address you as princess. That would be... uncool of me." Dash seemed to
stumble over her words slightly.
"Well...," Luna blushed
slightly. "Would you like to be my friend? If we were friends you could
address me as Luna, right?" Her head lowered slightly as her hooves
shuffled the dirt beneath them.
"Psh, we're totally already
friends." Dash said confidently. "So then Luna, you all warmed up and
ready to fly?" Dash had lowered herself on her forehooves with her wings
prepped and outstretched to her sides.
"I uh..." Luna looked around, avoiding Dash's gaze.
"Oh
come on, it's not that hard. You'll do great. Just try it." The
encouragement from Rainbow Dash made Luna feel a bit confident in
herself. Though, she still felt nervous. Her daring flight from
Canterlot to Ponyville had been quite unnerving. Luna had at first
thought that she would graciously float along ground level to her
destination but a sudden updraft sent her high into the sky. She could
only panic and descend as slow as her beating wings would allow until
she finally fell the last few feet to the ground. Luna wasn't exactly
looking forward to a repeat instance. Her wings snapped shut tightly
against her body thinking of it. Rainbow Dash sighed.
"Are you really that scared Luna?" Dash's voice was soft.
"Only
slightly." Luna lied a bit. She was very scared. She didn't want to
fall again but she also wanted to learn how to fly properly. She was
torn.
"Hm..." Rainbow Dash began to think. She hovered in the
air around Luna one hoof resting under her chin and the other across her
chest. Dash then perked up and clopped her hooves together. "I got it!"
"I know a way that you can fly without using your wings." she said.
Luna was now thoroughly confused. How was she going to fly without her wings? It was impossible.
"What you need is help, Pinkie Pie style." Dash said with a grin upon her face.
Pinkie...Pie?
Luna found herself lost in translation.
What does pie have anything to do with flying?
And why in Equestria would pie be pink?
Flying High Without Wings
Rainbow Dash had escorted Luna home
that night so that Luna would be able to get some sleep before her
next lesson. Luna hadn't slept much at all though because she was too
busy wondering what pink pie would taste like. Perhaps it was some
sort of fruity flavor. Luna placed Abby upon her bookshelf. She
didn't know what she was in for today and after last night she
worried that she might break her dear friend so today Abby stayed
home.
Luna made her way through Ponyville
that afternoon with her saddle bag stuffed full of bandages and
various other first aid. A pony could never be too careful,
especially when the circumstances were unknown. Luna had also decided
that day to strip herself of her princess decor and opted instead for
a purple cloak. She didn't want to feel too out of place. She also
didn't want to make other ponies feel uncomfortable hence the normal
sort of clothing that she chose if you could call a cloak mid day
normal.
Ponyville was busy as ever as ponies
were rushing about to prepare for an outdoor festival. Everypony had
something to do or somewhere to be and many passed by Luna without a
second glance. As Luna trotted through Ponyville she enjoyed the
sounds of ponies laughing and chatting, the sounds of birds singing
and the smells of fresh baked breads and morning bucked apples in the
air. Luna couldn't resist the look of the delicious apples that lay
upon carts in the streets and so she decided to try one. Picking an
apple from the stand Luna handed her two bits to the yellow earth
pony who thanked her kindly for her business. As Luna bit down into
the juicy apple she suddenly came face to face with Rainbow Dash who
loomed upside down in front of her. Luna let out a surprised yelp
almost dropping her apple.
“Heh, sorry about that Luna. Oh hey
Applejack!” Dash said, turning towards the yellow earth pony that
was adorned by a tri apple cutie mark.
“Well hey ther' Rainbow Dash. What
ar' ya up to today?” Applejack said.
“Me and Luna here are going to have
some flying lessons today. Heading over to Sugarcube Corner to pick
up some supplies from Pinkie Pie.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Yer
goin' to get supplies from Pinkie? What's goin' on in yer head that
ya think that's a good idea?” Applejack paused for a minute.
“Wait... Luna? As in Princess Luna?” The yellow earth pony stared
at Luna who had now pulled the hood up fully on her cloak seemingly
trying to disappear inside of it.
“Erm... would you mind not letting it
slip that she's here AJ?” Rainbow Dash said as she hovered up and
landed next to Luna, covering her form slightly with her outstretched
wings.
“We're just hanging out so she
doesn't want to draw to much attention.”
Applejack seemed to be making a strange
face that resembled something between concentrating and a glare.
“Well... ya'll better be careful with whatever ya end up doin'. We
dun wanna upset Princess Celestia cause somethin' happened to her
dear sister cause of you Dash.”
“Oh no... It's quite alright.” Luna
spoke up softly. “My sister knows I'm out and she's glad that I'm
no longer stuck in my room all day. She would probably even laugh if
I came home injured.”
“She would laugh at you for being
injured?” Applejack said suddenly worried.
“Well, no not at the fact that I'm
injured but because she could see that I was trying to have fun and
that would make her happy. When my sister is happy she tends to
laugh.”
“I see...,” Applejack said warily,
eyeing the purple alicorn. “Well I reckon that ya'll better get a
move on if ya wanna catch Pinkie Pie before she gets all caught up in
baking for the festival.” The earth pony turned her attention back
to her cart and began to fix the placement of the apples so they sat
perfectly. Luna was very tempted to buy another. The first had been
so delicious. She then remembered the last half of the first apple
and quickly ate it, enjoying the flavor once again. These apples were
better than the ones that her sister had flown into Canterlot. She
needed to remember to buy some before she went home tonight.
“See you later then Applejack. Come
on Luna. Were off to Sugarcube corner.” And with that Rainbow Dash
took off flying through Ponyville.
“Hey! Wait for me!” She yelled as
she trotted after the blue pegasus as fast as she could without
drawing attention.
She hung her head and caught her breath
once she caught up to Rainbow Dash. The pegasus had landed next to a
sweet smelling shop in the middle of town and now as Luna caught her
breath she suddenly felt hungry again. Luna looked up to say
something to her friend but she only got as far as opening her mouth
for Dash was gone.
“Eh...” It was the only thing she
could manage to say. Luna looked frantically around and then caught
the last glimpse of a rainbow mane disappearing into the pink colored
shop. Luna liked how the shop seemed to resemble a ginger bread house
but she didn't take too much time to observe it before hurrying in
after Dash.
“WELL HI THERE PRINCESS LUNA!” A
pink pony exclaimed, jumping right in front of Luna.
“Ahh!” Luna screamed.
“Pinkie what did I say about it being
a secret?” Dash's voice was aggrivated.
“Oh! Hehe silly me.” The pink pony
laughed. “Hi there Princess
Luna,” she whispered.
Rainbow Dash put a hoof to
her face and shook her head then sighed. “Luna this is Pinkie Pie.
She's going to help us out today.”
Luna remembered the
completely pink pony. She had been the element of... laughter. That's
right. It was somewhat befitting of her Luna decided as she watched
the pink pony bounce up and down around the room. Luna blushed half
embarrassed and half nervous. How was she going to make friends when
she kept feeling so out of place among other ponies? If only her
sister was there to give her some advi-
“HEY LUNA!” Pinkie Pie
exclaimed catching Luna off guard again. “Can I be your friend too?
Can I? Can I? CAN I?” The pony grew progressively closer to Luna
until they were almost nose to nose.
“Uh...” Luna said,
baffled and unable to form words for the expecting mare.
“GREAT! Here have some
of these. I just baked them~” Pinkie cooed as she held out a plate
of fresh baked cupcakes. The cupcakes were hot and straight out of
the oven. The scent was amazing. The white cake topped by hoof
whipped pink frosting covered in sprinkles made Luna's stomach
rumble. Graciously Luna took one of the cupcakes and had herself a
bite.
These. Were. Amazing.
She quickly gobbled it
down and then caught herself and blushed. She felt very un-princess
like for stuffing her face as she did but the two ponies only
laughed.
“Yeah, Pinkie Pie's
cupcakes tend to have that effect.” Dash laughed as she bit down
into a cupcake of her own. “So Pinkie you going to let me have the
supplies or what?”
“Right! I almost forgot.
They're outside in the back. Come on!” Pinkie Pie said as she
hopped her way through the shop and out the back door. Luna only
stared with slight bewilderment. This pony was quite...strange.
Luna and Rainbow Dash both
followed silently until the light adjusted Luna's vision and her jaw
dropped.
What in Equestria was that
contraption?
The hot air balloon stood
tall next to Sugarcube corner with a basket attached underneath, it's
heat radiating on Luna's coat. Dash had already taken off and was
flying around it, inspecting it and Pinkie Pie was bouncing around
the balloons base.
“Isn't this great,
Luna?” Dash yelled down to her. “Now you can get used to flying
without working up a sweat!”
“It's my super special
high flying slow soaring hot air balloon. It's super duper amazingly
fun!” Pinkie smiled.
Luna remained with her
mouth agape. Did Dash want her to... get into this thing? She didn't
have words to express her discontent with the situation. The looming
hot air balloon made Luna weak in the knees. 'I would rather fly on
my own than get in there,' Luna thought. And on top of everything the
hot air balloon was a bright, vibrant shade of pink perfectly matched
to the coat of the hyperactive mare. 'Oh Celestia... what have I
gotten myself into?'
“Come on Luna,” Dash
yelled. “Get over here. You can't hang out in the doorway all day
with a face like that.” Rainbow Dash chuckled a bit.
Luna got a hold of herself
and trotted over cautiously. She wanted very much to make Rainbow
Dash happy and to spend time with her new friend but the balloon made
her knees feel shaky. She wasn't too sure about the idea of flying
lessons anymore. She caught her thoughts. No, making friends was
something she wanted to do for a long time and she wasn't about to
let some stupid balloon get in the way of that. Maybe...
“Hurry up Luna!” Dash
called again as Pinkie Pie began undoing the weights holding the
balloon down. Luna sped up her pace considerably and managed to jump
in just in time before the balloon ascended upwards into the clouds.
She could hear the cheers of the pink pony below her and the laughter
of her pegasus friend that soared above but as Luna lay in the basket
having fallen in she could only see the sky above her floating
closer. Luna felt a weight on her chest. The lingering feeling of how
the situation was a bad one held tight to her form. She curled up
inside the basket hoping to make herself feel a bit safer. It was all
she could do at the moment for the sounds of the cheers had quieted
and the laughter had stopped. The sound of the passing breeze was all
that Luna could hear and it scared her to think that she was now all
alone in the sky.
She gathered up a bit of
courage after all she couldn't remain hiding in the basket forever.
She needed to stand up and slowly she did, her knees steadying. And
then she found herself without words.
The view was marvelous.
The rolling hills led off past the Everfree forest and Luna was able
to see more of Manehattan than she ever could from her room back in
Canterlot. Ponyville lay beneath her still busy with many a pony
rushing about setting up decor for the celebration. They all looked
so small from such a height. Looking upwards towards the clouds Luna
caught glimpses of Rainbow Dash as she cleared out the clouds for
Luna's trip. Luna smiled. It wasn't so bad as she first thought it
would be. Maybe she could have fun after all.
Luna squinted. 'What's
that...?' she thought as something in the distance began to approach.
“It almost looks like -,” she began but stopped as she froze up
with her eyes wide.
Luna and her sister locked
eyes momentarily as Princess Celestia passed by Luna's balloon atop
her stallion pulled coach. She sheer bewilderment of her sisters
expression made Luna turn bright red in the cheeks. The glance was
only for an instant as her sisters coach took off into the distance
past her but Luna knew instantly that her sister would never let her
live this down.
'I knew this was a bad
idea...' she thought as she slowly sunk to the bottom of the basket
once more.
