Luna's Secret World Redux

Luna’s Secret World

Chapter 3

Understanding and realizations

Written by: Azurekaryu

August 17, 1008 PN

Twilight shot up in an instant, quickly observing her surroundings. She remembered what had happened to her earlier that day, the spiders, the cave, the cold. Everything.

She noticed immediately that she was in a cave, with noticeable differences distinguishing this one from the last. This narrow cave was much smaller than the previous in width, probably only able to accommodate five or six ponies lined shoulder to shoulder. Immediately after the recognition of the cave, the unicorn realized she had thrown off another Aether blanket when she shot up from the rough, freezing cave floor. This one was bigger than the last, and as she finished observing that she noticed the mare on the other side of the room sleeping peacefully.

The mare was slightly larger than herself, and was covered by a navy blue cloak. Twilight was unable to observe any details of the mare other than the color of her coat, a slightly lighter shade of blue when compared to the cloak concealing a majority of her body. Even with the cloak covering the body of the mare, Twilight was clearly able to see that she possessed a very slim, toned body that exuberated beauty. Twilight maneuvered to the side to get a glimpse at the mare’s face to try and Identify the mare. As she moved, she noticed the cloak, a simple dark blue, looked a lot like her own did, and the first thing that Twilight noticed as she came to face the mare was the dark blue mane with sparkling stars inside the larger part of her mane, which was surrounded by a lighter and slightly transparent blue.

Wait...

“Princess Luna!” The lavender mare yelled in surprise. As soon as she saw the mane she was absolutely certain of the identity of the mystery mare that saved her life. Luna jumped up from her resting position in surprise and quickly drew the blade that was previously sheathed underneath the robe covering her middle, and immediately pointed it towards the only other living thing in the room. The tip of the blade fell only inches from Twilight’s face and she gasped in surprise, taking a defensive step back.

Twilight remembered. Now everything came flashing back. She went into the everfree, armed with her two weapons and the cloak that currently resided on the pony… no Princess before her. She was wandering in to investigate an extremely powerful magical surge that the mare in front of her had been the source of. Twilight was sucked into the spell and forced to perform the extremely complex spell matrix, using what she guessed was most of the magic she had available and the weapon currently being pointed at her was indeed her own. The runes carved into the silver-looking Fachium blade with the velvety red streak erratically forged down the center of the blade. Twilight also noticed that Luna had, attached to her left foreleg, the Fachium crafted gauntlet with runes inscribed all over the cylindrical object that also belonged to her.

Well, now that I’m safe and with Luna, we should be able to get back home tonight. Twilight thought to herself.

Luna quickly gathered her bearing and noticed the being she was pointing her spellsword at was actually the owner of the weapon, and she lowered it immediately, concerned for the well being of the mare both mentally and physically.“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry Twilight, It was a natural reaction, are you hurt at all!?” The navy blue alicorn asked, genuinely concerned. Twilight's eyes were wide and mouth slightly agape, both from the surprise of who shared her presence and fear of the sudden jump at her with a blade near her face, but she recovered quickly,

“Yes yes! I’m sorry Princess, I didn’t know you would be here with me, please forgive me!” Twilight responds, bowing down to the princess.

Luna blushes at the gesture and quickly says.”Please Twilight, do not bow for me, nor call me Princess, I wish that you would think of me as a friend and not a ruler.”

Twilight jumps back up and responds “Yes of course Luna, my apologies. It has been a while since we last spoke.”

“Yes it has, too long if you ask me. I was not expecting you to be awake so soon after the… events earlier today.” This line caused a miniature flashback in Twilight’s mind of the red legged arachnids surrounding her, even from above. This quickly brought up another thought in her head, remembering that when Luna had saved her from the spiders, she flew upwards into a different cave, and not another mountain. This gives her the fear that the vicious things could still be a threat to herself and the princess, and sparked a bit of fear, causing her to look deeper into the cave.

“Do not fret my dear, the Red Legs will not bother us up here so long as we don’t provoke them. They reside within the hearts of mountains like these, why they attacked you I’m unsure. Those creatures do not hunt for anything during the day, you must have alerted them to your presence somehow.” Thinking back, Twilight realized the only time she could have possibly provoked them was when she tripped.

She blushed and said quietly, “I tripped…”

Twilight’s ears flattened, feeling like the princess was disappointed in her.

“Do not fret Twilight, it was my fault for not being with you when you awoke.”

Twilight looked up and realized it was about time for her to say thanks. “Thank you, Luna, for saving me. I didn’t think I was going to make it out of there. I was terrified.”

The dark blue mare nods in response, a slight smile on her face turning to a more serious frown. “So, Twilight. I’m sure you’re questioning where we are and why you woke up in a cave in the side of a mountain located in the middle of a pine forest covered in snow at this time of year.”

Speaking of snow, Twilight was getting quite cold. She looked around the cave to locate the sparkling aether blanket. She found it and levitated it around herself, warming up almost instantly.

To be honest, while it was extremely weird and kind of worrying, she hadn’t thought about it that much. Being chased by what Luna called the Red legs was what she had been focusing on. But now that she had brought it up, she was very curious and thirsty for answers. Not only about their location, but also why the alicorn was wielding the weapons and cloak that Luna had given her. “Now that you say it, yes I am very curious to know where we could possibly be. Also, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you carrying the weapons you gave me?”

“You have a right to ask Twilight, these are yours after all.” The Alicorn proceeded to take off the sword and gauntlet with her magic, leaving the cloak on for now. “I will get to that soon, however it would be best to go through the story first.” Luna levitated the sword and gauntlet to Twilight's hooves.

Twilight took it as incentive to pick it up and put it on. She put the sheath and blade on her her right side and cast a very simple spell to keep it there. Normally, the cloak would do it for her, but Luna was still wearing it, probably to keep her warm. The pause in conversation was reaching an awkward point, so Twilight took the initiative. “So where are we anyway, and how did we get here? It’s way too early in the year to be snowing, I’ve never heard of a place that started this early.”

Instead of answering any of her questions, the alicorn asked one back. “Tell me Twilight, what do you remember before waking up in that cave?”

“I remember that I was investigating a very strong magical surge that originated in the everfree. It was close to midnight so I decided to bring along with me the equipment you had given me. I had to walk quite a ways to locate the source of the extreme magic buildup but after a while I found a clearing with massive arcane circles engulfing the whole thing, and you were at the center of it. I presume you were casting a very powerful spell so I did not want to interrupt, so I sat and watched in awe. Then the runes and arcane circles lit up very bright near the end of the spell and I was somehow… sucked into the spell. I had no choice but to put all my magic into keeping it going, and I thought I was going to fail and kill us both if the spell failed… but from what I saw of the inner workings of the spell it was a teleportation spell, but I’ve never seen a teleportation spell so complex and power draining. I assume that’s what has happened now. We teleported very far away, perhaps even the other side of the continent?”

Luna listened intently, and now that she had her suspicions confirmed, she replied to Twi, much more serious than earlier. “Yes Twilight. That was indeed a form of teleportation, and I’m so sorry that you were sucked into this and since you are here there are many complications.”

Complications? Twilight thought to herself. She was both confused and a little bit worried. Had she messed up really badly by investigating the burst of magic? Was the princess mad at her? Disappointed?

“What do you mean by complications pr-Luna?

“We have gone much much farther than you think my dear. I’m so sorry once again. I should have been more cautious.”

“Luna, how much farther could we have gone? Perhaps to another continent? The other side of the planet?”

“No, Twilight. We have gone to a different world entirely.”

What does she mean a different world? literally, that isn’t even possible. There is no way that we could be living and breathing on a world other than our own. It’s impossible, and there’s no spell in existence that can teleport you such a distance! Twilight refused to believe that was possible.

“A… different world? As in not Equis?”

Luna tilted her head slightly towards the ground. She didn’t want to tell the mare opposite of her the truth, but she knew she had no choice. They were going to need to get to know each other pretty well.

“Yes Twilight. I know it may be hard to believe but let me explain to you what the spell we cast did exactly.” Twilight was a little panicked now, but was still mostly rejecting the idea of a possibility of teleporting to a different planet. Her mind was running wild with questions and theories, but she thought it best to let the princess talk.

“The spell that I had set down was one that no living being has knowledge of. Not even my sister. It was a large scale teleportation spell that drains me of most of my magic. It consists of two parts, the setup phase and the execution phase. The setup phase consists of me completing what is called a star bridge. I’m sure you have heard of these in the myths of mine and Celestia’s origin?”

As soon as Twilight heard starbridge what she thought was impossible suddenly became a bit more plausible. She was too stunned to talk, but she nodded in recognition.

“I have to complete the aligning of the stars, and after that is when you were sucked in. Two minutes of straight channeling magic into the runes to start the teleport sequence across the galaxy. Twilight, you were sucked into it unbeknownst by me and dragged through the starbridge onto a planet nopony was meant to know of but me. You came with me to my own secret world and I’m so sorry it had to be you. I should have taken more caution.”

Twilight was able to comprehend the information she was getting, but why Luna seemed so sad and foretelling was unknown. “Well, if we could get here, than we can get back too, right?” Twilight was ninety nine percent sure that this was a yes, after all, if it worked the first time it should the second.

“I’m sorry.” Were the only two words that came out of her mouth. By now her head was entirely pointed to the ground, unable to continue with words for the moment. I really messed up. I don’t know how she is going to handle this. I don’t know what’s going to happen to her mentally and especially down on Equis. My sister and Twilight's friends will panic surely. They will look for months. Luna had already accepted the fact and understood why they wouldn’t be able to make it back.

Twilight on the other hand had her thoughts shattered and worries expanded with just two words. I can’t get back? What about spike. What about my friends? Celestia? Ponyville? What about the elements of harmony? Will they be an option if they are needed to repel evil again? New questions entered her mind as panic took over. They won’t even know where I’ve gone. They’ll think I’ve left them! They will hate me forever for disappearing!”

“You’re kidding right princess? Of course we can go back. WE got here after all.” Twilight’s state of mind deteriorated quickly from only slightly worried to very panicked. She was breaking down. She couldn’t believe what she was being told, but she knew the princess would not lie to her. This made it much harder to cope with and tears formed at the corner of her eye. She knew that star bridges were only open for a short amount of time and only lined up after many years, sometimes decades.

“Twilight. This is going to be very hard on you, but it is not going to be possible for us to make it back. Neither of us have the magic available to us to teleport back by the time the bridge closes?”

“Why? HOW COULD IT NOT BE POSSIBLE TO DO WHAT WE’VE ALREADY DONE ONCE?” Twilight started yelling loudly. Why she wasn’t sure, it seemed like the right thing to do. She didn’t really know what she was feeling. This has to be a dream.

Luna’s eyes widened slightly and she quickly responded to the shouts. “Twilight don’t yell! The arachnids could hear!” Luna said in a loud voice but hushed tone. She took a couple of steps towards the panicked mare and kept alert, listening for any noises other than those of the two mares.

Twilight was sobbing profusely at this point. The information hit her hard and very quickly. Her hind legs collapsed and her flanks fell to the floor, hitting the freezing cold stone hard enough for her to feel it, but she didn’t really notice. All her pain was in her head at the moment. After only a few moments her forelegs fell too, and she was able to catch her head by crossing her two front legs before they hit the ground. She lay there and sobbed.

After a few moments Luna was convinced nothing heard the yells from the poor mare in front of her. Luna walked over to Twilight lay down next to her, extending a wing underneath the cloak she adorned to wrap around the crying mare. She took it much harder than I expected. It was a lot quicker than I thought. “Shh, it will be alright Twilight. We are safe and that is what is important right now. Shhh”

Twilight felt the wing wrap around her even through the magical cloth currently wrapped around her. She was still weeping and not thinking clearly, but the warmth from the mare next to her gave her something to latch on to. She leaned closer to the mare and sobbed into Luna’s coat, wetting it at the sides.

Luna allowed the mare to do so was happy to lay there with her. It went on for a few minutes before the sounds of sniffling and crying halted into a smooth and regular breathing, alerting her that Twi had fallen asleep. Good. It is best that she let it out now, when we are safe than later. She will be calmer the next time she wakes up and we will be able to talk.

Luna was by no means happy. The mare had a lot to think about. She herself would probably recuperate in time to make it across the starbridge, but was certain Twilight wouldn’t. It had already been five days, so Celestia and Twilight's friends would be looking, at least for Twilight. Celestia knew that Luna was going to be gone for a couple more days, but with the disappearance of both of them suspicions would rise and the guard was probably searching for her as well.

I don’t know how well Celly will cope if both myself and her student disappear like this.. Luna knew that the mare was already stressed especially with dealing with the tensions between them and the griffons. There was a chance that if herself and Twilight didn’t make it back that Celestia would panic and shut down too. She had already lost Luna once, and again, but this time because of an unknown, might be too much. Especially since now Twilight was gone with herself.

Luna had two options. The first was that she stay here with Twilight. Enjoy the rest of her ‘vacation’ and realize that there was nothing they could do to get back to Equis. If she did this, she would certainly need to find a civilized place. Perhaps one of the pony kingdoms on this continent had become stronger since her last visit and they could stay with them. Luna hoped legends of her still existed within the pony cultures today from her last visit more than a thousand years ago. It would give her power and insurance of her and Twilight’s safety.

There was another option however. This was the cold hearted, but more responsible option.

Luna was certain that her magic would be powerful enough to make it through the bridge before the ten days it was open would be over. That would mean leaving Twilight her in a world she had never seen or heard of before with no knowledge of how to survive of what to do. Twilight would certainly be killed within a few days of Luna abandoning her.

Luna would be able to play off her disappearance as unrelated to her ‘vacation’ and get back to ruling with her sister and helping her and Twilight’s friends cope with the loss. Luna looked down to the mare she was thinking of abandoning and thought instantly.

No. I can’t.

The mare was pushed up against Luna, and even thinking of leaving this incredible mare alone hurt her heart. She would never forgive herself and would not be able to live with the grief of letting one of her greatest, most caring friends die because of a stupid mistake she made herself.

Even thinking about Twilight alone in a cave like this, on a freezing continent during winter brought very strong emotions to bear. Her eyes wet slightly, but she didn’t get farther than that.

I’m going to stay here. With Twilight. We are going to stay here together. We can make it through the seven years we need to get another opportunity to go home.

That was it. Luna had decided she was going to live the next seven and a half years of her life with the mare that was frightened and confused, laying right next to her. They would become amazing friends, and Luna bet that Twilight would get to know more about her than even her sister, and the same goes for Luna knowing about Twi. Luna would be able to stay with and teach her previous student even more, perhaps even with magic’s that Celestia had never even mentioned to her before. Luna would help her with her blade and gauntlet as well. She would have a student again, and for the first time in a very long time, a very good friend as well.

That doesn’t sound half bad.