Author's Note

Sorry for so long between the last chapter and this one. Life gets busy but I haven't abandoned this because I love it.

The Days Go On

Holo and Taiga were just getting into bed when there was a quiet knock on their door. The two looked at each other confused, wondering who it could be. Slowly Holo opened the door as Taiga peeked from behind her.

“Steven, what are you doing here?” Steven stood in the door.

“I was getting ready for bed, but when Luna didn’t come in I got worried.” Holo got a worried look on her face, but Steven didn't look worried and kept talking. “Well, I went looking for her and found her.” Holo and Taiga relaxed.

“Where is she?” Taiga couldn’t help but ask. Steven got a big grin on his face.

“She fell asleep next to Princess Celestia in her room. Better than wake her up I decided that I would just spend the night here with you two, if that’s okay with you of course.” Taiga ran back to her bed and Holo smiled and let Steven into the room before closing the door behind him.

Luna opened her eyes and looked out the window. The sun was up. She walked out on the balcony and looked around for the moon. When she didn’t see it she turned around and went back into the room. She saw Celestia sprawled out on her bed and remembered that she had fallen asleep there the night before. She walked over and poked her sister. Celestia moaned and turned over.

“Tia, Tia.” Luna kept poking her. After a minute of poking Luna became annoyed at her sister. “Tia, TIA!!!” Princess Celestia jumped up.

“What is it!?” She looked back and forth repeatedly. Luna grabbed her to calm her down. Finally when she was awake she looked outside at the sun and then at Luna. “Did I do that in my sleep?” Luna shrugged.

“I don’t know, I don’t remember bringing down the moon, but it’s down.”

“Okay then.” Luna started toward the door.

“I have to go wake Steven up.” Celestia nodded.

“Yea, alright. I should probably get the girls up too. Don't want them getting used to sleeping in too often.” Luna left the room and went down the hall. Not a minute later she ran back into Celestia’s room.

“Steven isn’t in our room, and the patrols said they haven’t seen anypony all night.” Worry filled Celestia.

“What about the girls?” Luna shook her head.

“I didn’t check on them.” They both rushed out of the room and up the hall.

When they reached Holo and Taiga’s room Celestia stopped Luna from opening the door right away. Luna gave her sister an annoyed look. They listened and heard the voices of not only Holo and Taiga, but also Steven. They both relaxed and knocked on the door. The door cracked open and Holo peeked through.

“May we come in Holo?” Holo squinted at Celestia’s question.

“What’s the password?” Luna groaned. Celestia got down on Holo’s level.

“Is the password something we know?” Holo nodded, smiling. Holo’s eyes darted from her cutie mark to Luna’s. “Is the password the sun and moon?” Holo jumped surprised.

“That’s right!” She opened the door all the way. Inside were Steven and Taiga building a castle with pillows. Holo ran over to them and they closed up the door to the castle behind here. Luna’s mouth dropped.

“I didn’t even know that they had this many pillows...”

“Could the three of you come out here for a minute, we just want to ask you something.” Somehow the three foals appeared at the top of the castle. Luna was surprised.

“How is that even possible?” Steven answered smoothly.

“It’s easy, you don’t only use pillows. We had all night to figure that out.”

“Oh, so that’s why you weren’t in our room this morning.” Steven looked down, ashamed.

“Please don’t be mad at them, it was my idea. I saw that you had fallen asleep in Celestia’s room and I just though…” Luna quickly cut off Steven.

“No no, it’s okay Steven.” The three opened the castle and came out. Steven hugged Luna while Holo and Taiga hugged Celestia. Celestia giggled.

“Well good morning you three.” They answered in unison.

“Good morning!” When they finished their hugs Celestia moved on to another topic.

“Now we won’t be mad if you did, but did you three lower the moon and raise the sun?” Steven looked excited.

“Well we woke up and it was still night. I knew that it was supposed to be morning already so we decided to try and help.” Taiga jumped up and down.

“I helped! None of us could do it ourselves but together we could move them sloooooooowly.” Celestia and Luna looked at each other.

“That’s amazing, we’re so proud of you.” Luna nodded. The three ponies were beaming. “Alright then, who wants breakfast?” Despite apparently staying up most of night all three ponies were fully awake and full of energy. They bolted out of the room with Luna and Celestia following leisurely.

That night Holo and Taiga entered their room. Taiga was bouncing to her bed as Holo closed the door. As she turned around she caught a glimpse of something outside the window. But before she could look any closer it was gone.

“Taiga, did you see that?” Taiga stopped jumping on her bed and looked at Holo.

“See what?” Holo sighed. Taiga wouldn’t have seen it because she had her eyes closed while she was jumping of the bed despite being warned it was dangerous.

“Nevermind, let’s just get to bed because we don’t want to miss anything in our lessons tomorrow.” Taiga frowned.

“Fine.” She pulled her sheets over herself. Holo walked to the window and looked out. When she didn’t see anything outside she walked over to Taiga and kissed her on the forehead.

“Goodnight sis.” Taiga looked up at her before suddenly jumping up and hugging her tightly.

“Night Holo.” When the hug ended Holo went to her bed and crawled under the sheets, falling asleep right away.

The next morning Holo awoke to voices in the hall. She looked over to see that Taiga had opened the door and was looking out. Holo hopped out of bed and looked out as well. In the hallway were Luna and Celestia. Luna was trying to calm her sister.

“I have no idea what it could have been.”

“Are you sure that Steven was with you all night?” Luna furrowed her brow.

“Of course I’m sure. Steven did not leave the room, come to think about it he didn’t even wake up all night. I know because I woke up several times.” Celestia seemed skeptical.

“And what made you wake up?”

“I just didn’t sleep well. I was tossing and turning all night and several times I got up so I would disturb Steven.” Holo walked up to them.

“What happened?” Celestia looked happy to see Holo safe.

“I woke up in the middle of the night and I felt like somepony was watching me so I looked at the window and I saw something outside, but it was gone before I could see what it was.” Holo started to look nervous.

“I-i saw something outside our window last night right when we entered the room, but I couldn’t see what it was before it flew away.” Celestia looked with concern at Luna.

“We have to figure out what it is because I don’t want there to be any danger in this castle.”

“Don’t worry Tia, we'll be safe.”

Holo watched the guards outside searching the grounds and sighed. They couldn’t go outside until it was confirmed that there was no present danger to them. They sat in the royal library, waiting. Taiga was content reading the book that Celestia had chosen for her, but Holo couldn’t focus on reading. She walked over to Princess Celestia who was reading from a book and taking notes.

“Um, Celestia, where is Steven? I haven’t seen him all morning and I’m worried that something might have happened to him last night.” Celestia put down her quill.

“Holo, you heard as clear as I have that Steven is fine, Luna told us, remember? Though I am wondering why we haven’t seen him all day.” She got up from her seat. “Actually Holo, would you keep an eye on your sister for me? I’m going to go see Luna and Steven.” Holo nodded and she left the room. Holo looked at the book and notes Celestia had been taking, the book was on how to use magic and the notes were ways that she, Celestia, could help Taiga and herself learn magic. When she got to the end of the notes she paused and read the last one.

‘Maybe if Holo and Taiga become proficient at magic they could help me help Luna and Steven.’ She tilted her head.

“Help them?” Taiga called Holo.

“Holo, look at this.” Holo walked over to Taiga and looked at the book. It was a history book of Equestria for school ponies. Celestia had wanted Taiga to read it so that she could know a bit more about their new home. The place where Taiga was pointing was the section where Luna had turned into Nightmare Moon and been banished to the moon. Holo suddenly understood what Celestia had meant when she wrote that she wanted them to help her. Luna and Steven were probably unstable and Celestia wanted Taiga and herself to help stabilize them someday. Just then Princess Celestia came back in.

“Holo, Steven is fine. Luna is teaching him some magic in their room. Now I don’t want you two to be too far behind Steven so I think we should begin your magic training.” Holo and Taiga nodded and followed her out of the library.

Celestia taught them a couple things about magic and a few spells. Unsurprisingly they both picked up the magic very quickly, the same way Steven had. Not wanting to push them Celestia decided that they had learned enough.

“I think that’s enough for one day.” Celestia had to limit how much she taught them in a day even though she wanted to teach them all she knew. Luna did the same with Steven. Even though they could probably pick up everything that was put before them, Luna and herself agreed they didn’t want to cram too much at once into their heads. Celestia went to leave the room, but Holo ran up and stopped her.

“Um, Celestia, is there any way that I could see Steven? I know that Luna said he was fine and that you saw him, but I can’t feel completely at ease unless I see him personally. I just want to make sure that the thing we saw last night didn’t get to him.” Celestia looked her for a second. Holo had genuine worry in her eyes. Celestia smiled.

“Of course, I want you to feel as safe as possible given our current situation.” She looked over as Taiga who was still making a stuffed animal fly around. “Taiga, do you want to come and see Steven?” She dropped the stuffed animal right away and ran out the door with them.

Celestia knocked on Luna and Steven’s door. A muffled ‘Come in’ came from within the room. Celestia opened the door and the three entered. Steven and Luna turned to look at them. Holo and Steven's eyes met and ran to each other. When they closed the distance they hugged tightly,but it was only a few seconds of the two of them hugging before Taiga reached them and forced her way into the hug. Luna looked from the hug to her sister with a worried look on her face.

“I think we’ll give you three a minute. Come on Luna.” Celestia motioned for her sister to follow her out of the room. Once they were outside Celestia tried to calm her sister. “Luna, the guards haven’t found anything yet, but we aren’t even sure what Holo and I saw last night. It’ll be okay.” The worry on Luna’s face was replaced with confusion.

“What, no. That’s not why I’m worried.” Celestia sat down to listen. “I’m not crazy, right? I mean you saw that hug in there.”

“Luna, all three of them were hugging.”

“Not at first, you saw the way they locked eyes and both knew to run to each other. And this isn’t the first time something like this has happened.” Celestia looked away. Luna squinted her eyes at Celestia.

“What have you seen? Because I can tell you have seen something by the way you are acting.”

“Well, Holo is the one who insisted on coming to see Steven right now. And then there was the time, well…”

“Come on, what is it?!”

“Well, when I gave them their cutie marks Holo told me that Steven had told her how he got his and that they had tried to give her a cutie mark from him.” Luna was no longer furious and was tearing up.

“He never told me that, he tells me everything...” Celestia wrapped her wing around Luna to comfort her.

“It’s okay Luna, they’re just best friends.”

“No Tia, you saw the way they looked at each other.” Her sentences were broken up by sobs. “I don’t think I could take it if he… I don’t want to be alone, not again.” There was a sound behind them. They turned around to see Steven standing there by himself. Luna turned her face to keep him from seeing the tears. Steven came up beside her and looked her in the face.

“Luna, I would never leave you. I love you.” Steven pushed up against Luna’s side. Luna sniffled.

“Really Steven?” He nodded and they sat there for a while.