“She was your what,” Applejack asked as Rarity gasped.

“My shadow,” Princess Luna repeated.

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy all looked down at Luna’s hooves. “Um, begging your pardon,” Applejack said. “But your shadow is still there.”

“One can have more than one shadow,” the dark mare said with a smile. “It depends on the number of light sources there are.”

“That does make sense,” Rainbow Dash said, her face screwed up in thought.

“Ah can see that,” Applejack said. ‘But that doesn’t explain how Nightmare Moon came about.”

“Nightmare Moon was created by some well-meaning but misguided unicorns,” Princess Luna said. “They used dark magic to capture my shadow. Then they bound it to a golem.”

“The spell work they used was most impressive,” Princess Celestia said. “They only made one mistake.”

“Yes,” nodded Luna. “Since they were using dark magic, they needed to remove my emotions from my shadow. And they needed to keep their emotions out of their spell work. Since they did neither, Nightmare Moon was born.” The dark princess sighed.

“Is that important,” Applejack asked. “Keeping their emotions out, Ah mean.”

“Very,” Princess Luna said. “Dark magic is magic of the mind and emotions. If one isn’t careful, the magic will take over. Once that happens, you’ll be lost to the darkness.”

“H-has that ever happened,” a trembling Fluttershy asked.

“Sadly, yes,” came the answer.

“We. . . don’t like talking about him,” Celestia said quietly. “He was a brilliant stallion. He had such a bright future ahead of him. Until he submitted to the darkness. When he did that, he took and old ally with him.”

Twilight nuzzled Celestia as the other five ponies looked at each other. “We’re sorry Princess,” Rarity said. “We did not mean to bring up bad memories.”

“It is no problem,” Princess Celestia said. “When you live as long as we have, you’re bound to have many memories. Both good and bad. You just try to keep them from overwhelming you.”

Princess Luna brought Nightmare Moon’s armor closer to her. “Let us start back. I’m sure our captains are worried.” She looked at Twilight. “Your brother especially.”

“He better not be tied up again,” Twilight said.

“He’s a guardpony,” Rarity exclaimed. “Why would he be tied up?”

“He’s a little protective of me,” Twilight said with a blush.

“What do you expect,” Princess Celestia said. “You’re his little sister.”

“Let me get this straight,” Rarity said to Twilight as they exited the castle. “Your older brother is captain of the Solar Guard?”

Twilight nodded.

“Just when were you going to tell me about this,” Rarity asked. “I do love a stallion in uniform. They’re dashing and handsome. Not to mention they know how to treat a mare.”

“His special somepony agrees with you,” Princess Celestia said.

Rarity paused. “Of course, he’d have a special somepony,” she said. “All the good ones always have a special somepony.” She looked at the taller mare. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she.”

“Yes, she is,” Celestia answered.

Rarity turned to Twilight. “Do you have any other brothers,” she asked.

“Sorry, no,” answered Twilight.

Rarity slumped for a moment. “Oh well,” she said. She raised her head. “But there are still other available stallions in Canterlot.”

“That is true,” said Princess Luna. “If you don’t mind, I would like to learn about the rest of you. I already know about Twilight as she is my sister’s student. As the Element Bearers, you will be called upon when the need arises. I, for one, would like to make sure you’re well compensated for your time.”

Pinkie Pie immediately started talking about herself. The other four ponies needed some encouragement to start. But they too started telling the Princesses about themselves and their lives.

~ * ~

As the group of ponies approached the edge of the forest, Twilight suddenly stopped. For a moment, there was an alert in her vision. Her communications suite detected a message. An encrypted message on a subspace channel. Who sent the message, she didn’t know. It was an encrypted message broadcasted over a subspace channel. It couldn’t have been from any planet-based source. Equestria was just now starting to experiment with producing radio waves. Even the Minitours only had rudimentary radio. As from where, that was easy. The transmission was direction. She was on the edge of it, but she did catch enough of it to tell the direction. It was from the Everfree.

Twilight stopped and looked back. There was something going on in there. She knew it. Subspace messages just don’t pop out of nowhere, her systems told her. Someone had to have sent it. But who did? Nopony on the planet had any contact with beings who could have sent that signal. It was a mystery. A mystery that she had to figure out.

“Twilight!”

At her shouted name, Twilight snapped her head around. She found both princesses and her new friends staring at her. “Um, yes,” she said.

“We’ve been calling your name for a couple of minutes,” Celestia said. “Is something wrong?”

“Twilight often does this,” Luna said to the others. “Usually, she’s going on about all the possible outcomes of an event. No matter how unlikely the outcome is.”

“I’m getting better,” protested a blushing Twilight.

“Indeed, you are,” Princess Celestia said. “But why where you looking at the forest?”

“Oh,” Twilight perked up. “I received something called a subspace transmission.”

“Cool,” breathed Rainbow Dash. “Wait a minute. What’s a sub-space trans-mission?”

“Um, give me a moment,” Twilight said with her eyes unfocused. “There’s a lot of fascinating things in here.”

The group waited for a minute. Then another. And another. And still another. Princess Luna gave her sister a look.

Princess Celestia just facehooved. “Twilight Sparkle,” she intoned. “You are going to be late on your report.”

Twilight’s head snapped up. Eyes wide, she swung her head from side to side as she galloped in place. “Oh no,” she cried. “I can’t be late.”

Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity stared at the purple mare with their mouths hanging open. Fluttershy was peeking from behind Rarity as Pinkie giggled. As one, they turned to look at Celestia.

“Twilight is a very studious student,” Princes Luna said as her sister blushed. “She hates being late for anything school related.”

Suddenly, Twilight stopped moving. “Wait a minute,” she said. “I don’t have a report due.”

“Twilight,” Celestia said. “We are waiting on you to tell us what a subspace transmission is.”

Twilight blushed. “Oh, uh. It’s a non-magical way to send messages over vast distances faster than anything else. Even magic.”

“This, thing, can send messages faster than magic,” Celestia confirmed with a vaguely shocked look on her face.

Twilight nodded.

“Just how ‘vast’ are these distances,” Luna asked after a moment.

“We don’t have the words to express how vast,” Twilight said. “These beings can talk to beings across the distances between stars.”

Princess Luna’s mouth dropped open as she slowly sat. Princess Celestia focused on Twilight’s face. The others had varying expressions of puzzlement on their faces. Except for Pinkie. Her smile was just as big as ever.

“The stars are far apart,” Rainbow Dash asked. “I thought they were lights in the sky that Princess Luna made.”

“Yes and no, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia said. “About half of the stars we see are put there by my sister. The others are not. She did not put the constellations there. They’ve always been there. Sailors around the world use those to navigate by. Because they never change.”

“It’s not just sailors,” Applejack put in. “Explorers do it too. Granny Smith will tell ya her pappy sometimes used the stars to travel. They couldn’t always travel during the day.”

“Luna was ecstatic when she discovered that our little ponies used her stars this way,” Princess Celestia said. “Too bad Nightmare Moon never did. Things would have been different if she had.” She poked her sister. “Come on. We don’t want the guards worrying any more than they have been.”

“What,” Luna said, startled. “Oh, yes. Let us continue. But about that message.”

“Yes,” Twilight said.

“Any idea who sent it? It would be nice to have contact with ponies from beyond the stars.”

“No. It was encrypted,” Twilight answered. “But it did come from somewhere in the forest.”

“That is a problem,” Celestia said. “Since it came from the forest, I’d like to know how they got here.”

“What do you mean,” Rarity asked as Luna’s eyes widened in surprise.

“There is a, barrier let’s say,” Luna said. “You can’t see it, but it surrounds everything you can see in the night sky. It separates us from everything else. Our mother, Faust, wanted it that way.”

“She never told us why,” Celestia said.

“So, yer sayin’ somethin’ from beyond the stars is in the forest,” Applejack asked. “Somethin’ that shouldn’t be here because of somethin’ yer mother did?”

“That is correct,” Celestia said.

Eyes wide, Rainbow Dash asked, “That barrier is still up? At full strength?”

“Yes,” Princess Luna answered. “The barrier has shown no sign of weakening for all the time it has been up.” She turned to Twilight. “Are you absolutely sure that message came from the forest?”

Twilight nodded. “I am.”

“Then as your princess,” Luna said. “I formally ask you to find the source. Whatever it is, we need to know. Somehow it got past the barrier.”

“You can count on me, Princess,” Twilight saluted.

“I’ll inform your friends in Cantorlot of your new assignment,” Princess Luna continued. “Now, we just need to find you a place to live while you do this.”

“That’s easy,” Celestia said. “She can stay in the Golden Oaks Library. The librarian recently retired, and the living space is open.”

Princess Luna gave her sister a look. “A library,” she said. “You want to put Twilight in a library?”

“I get to live in a library,” squealed Twilight as she excitedly hoped up and down.

Celestia looked at Luna. “Forgot who we were talking to, didn’t you,” she said.

Luna hung her head and nodded.

Rarity stepped forward. “Excuse me,” she said. “But are you honestly asking Twilight to live in a library while she investigates this, uh, tranz-mission thing?”

“Yes,” Celestia said. “In Cantorlot, Twilight would have moved into the royal library if the librarians had let her.”

“It’s true,” Luna said. “I’ve never seen a pony so in love with books.” She stopped for a moment to look at the prancing purple pony. “I and my sister have curled up with a good book every now and then. And I’m sure you five have done the same.” All but Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. “But Twilight takes it to extremes. She has been known to create forts out of books. And woe any who try to dismantle it before she’s done.”

“Let me tell you about the Night of the Filly,” Princess Celestia said.

Twilight stopped prancing and stared at Celestia with wide eyes. “Princess Celestia, no,” she cried. “Please don’t tell them about that.”

The others looked at each other. “Okay, now we gotta here this,” Applejack said for the group.

“Well, it started like this,” Princess Celestia said with a smile. Twilight groaned. She knew there was no stopping it now.

~ * ~

Princess Luna had raised her moon, bringing forth the night. Ponies across the land were laying down their weary heads. Others were getting ready to start their night. In the Castle of the Two Sisters in the Everfree Forest something was also rising.

The black puddle of goo hadn’t evaporated like the princess and Twilight had thought it would. Instead, it congealed into a gelatinous glob. As the moon ascended, it mounded. Slowly the mound changed shape. Until, near midnight, it held the shape of an alicorn filly.

The filly’s physical features nearly matched those of Princess Luna. Even down to her cutie-mark. Any who saw the two side-by-side would instantly believe them to be mother and daughter. The eyes of the filly were closed even as she slowly breathed.

At the stroke of midnight, slit-ed eyes opened.

Author's Note

And here's chapter 3. As always, thank you for reading this. Hopefully I've continued to entertain you. Don't know when the next chapter will be, as usual. Guess as to what will happen in future chapters are welcomed.