Wish Gone Awry. Enter Equestria! Enter New Life!

"Alright, let's get those clothes off. I doubt you want them to get wet," Luna said as she stripped Julius, placing his clothes on a nearby shelf. "Here you go," Luna sighed as she lowered Julius into a warm, bubbly bath with a soft lavender-vanilla scent.

"Thanks, and you're right; wet clothes suck," Julius pleasantly sighed as he felt the water wash over him.

"I thought as much. On the times where I've had to wear formal caparison, it always felt awkward when wet," Luna commented as she turned around. "I'm going to go get something to help wake me up. You just stay here and relax," Luna told Julius as she left with a yawn.

"Can do," Julius sighed as he relaxed, sliding pleasantly into the water.

"I suppose that you want to wait until you are fully awake to discuss things?" Aloysia asked as she waited outside the bath.

"I'd be for the best. I'm still a little drowsy; I don't think I'd remember much of anything right now," Luna said as Aloysia helped guide her to her room.

"I figured; still, I have to ask," Aloysia sighed as the pair walked down the hall. "The three others really need to relax. Being as tense as they are isn't good for one's body," Aloysia told Luna as they approached her room.

"Heh, hearing you say that some creature needs to relax, it sounds odd. Considering that you are you and how you are," Luna chuckled as she opened the door.

"I relax; I just do so on my free time. While performing my duties, I take them seriously," Aloysia said as Luna again chuckled. "Really? After all this time, you still laugh at such things?" Aloysia tiredly sighed as she shook her head.

"Laugh at what things?" Pinkie Pie asked as the two entered Luna's room.

"Luna still laughs at some rather uncouth things. A habit that she has never gotten over," Aloysia told Pinkie Pie. "Honestly, Luna and Celestia are quite different than most would think. While after what Celestia did severed ties between us, I still kept tabs on her. Admittedly, personally, not professionally," Aloysia told the group, while Luna sat down to eat a light salad and drink her coffee.

"How so?" Rainbow Dash asked as she kept her eyes on Aloysia.

"If I told you that Celestia has played multiple games of Orges and Oubliettes, and when she can, she does some rather extreme things, such as jumping off high things and deep diving, would you believe me? She's been like that since, well, since she was a filly," Aloysia told the three.

"Yes, and you've always been the consummate workaholic," Luna said between bites of her salad.

"Well, one of us has to be. Besides, training and converting takes a lot of work and effort. Sure, you can convert others easily, but it's an exhausting process for me," Aloysia sighed.

"Converting what?" Fluttershy asked.

"Converting another being to one of the chosen. Contrary to what you may believe, the only beings in Equestria that are capable of such a conversion are Luna and me. Though there might be a few others who have learned the spell, even fewer have the mastery or reserves of dark magic to cast it. For myself, it's tiring; for Luna, it's not. Not exactly surprising considering that she made us," Aloysia explained.

"What, Luna made vampires, why?" Rainbow Dash asked with surprise as Aloysia scowled at her.

"Not intentionally," Luna said as she ate. "They were made to help me look over the dream realm. In order to allow them the access to the dream realm that I have, I had to imbue them with dark magic, this gave them many benefits, but it had some unintended consequences. One such consequence was that they could drink blood; considering the effects of blood on them, it's heavily controlled and not drunk unless required. A decree that I see fell out of favor," Luna said as she looked at Aloysia.

"After you were banished, the political situation was tenuous. Concessions had to be made to keep everything together. Relaxing blood-drinking and keeping our dream patrols to thestrals and chosen only were the most significant concessions. A few other minor ones had to be made, but they're mostly inconsequential," Aloysia told Luna.

"I'll have to go over that at some point. You know, the funny thing is, my sister would probably understand such concessions better than I," Luna said before taking a sip of her coffee.

"Believe me, that wasn't lost on me. I had a short laugh about that myself," Aloysia assured Luna.

"Wait, why do they need to drink blood?" Rainbow Dash asked as she looked at the two.

"The stories nowadays tell of a group of unicorns needing to sacrifice all their magic to help Starswirl raise the sun," Aloysia started to explain. "In truth, this is an embellishment. The unicorns did have to use a lot of their magic, though, so much that it completely drained them for a year. This magic was taken from volunteers, but it wasn't just given; it had to be drawn straight from their blood. Blood, being a vital fluid, carries a large amount of magical energy. We, the chosen, use a lot of magical energy; blood is simply one of the best ways of replenishing our energy. Before you ask, no, normal unicorns cannot draw magical energy from blood; that takes spirit magic to do," Aloysia explained.

"What, from what you've said, doesn't that mean that Celestia and Luna could also drink blood to gain a benefit?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yes, we could," Luna responded. "However, our reserves of magical energy are so great that we've never had to do such a thing."

"Well, there were the many times where you two tried to deal with Discord. I wonder, if the two of you resorted to blood magic, could you have beaten Discord without the elements?" Aloysia wondered out loud.

"I doubt it," Luna flatly said. "While dealing with Discord, I never really got the feeling that he was fighting us, though I did feel something off about him. I didn't really want to use the elements. I wanted to feel out the situation more. Sure, he was chaotic, but it was contained to a relatively small area, and we still don't know the long-term effects of the use of the elements. And then there's the fact that Discord will return someday; I fear all we did was delay dealing with the problem. And, if I'm right about Discord not truly fighting us, I fear all we may have done was anger him," Luna said as she finished her salad and coffee.

"From what I have observed from your encounters and from what you have told me, I agree with your assessment. Fortunately, such an occasion is something that I have been preparing the others for. Should Discord come back, and it is decided that the elements won't be used, you shall have the whole of the chosen standing ready," Aloysia told Luna.

"Hopefully, it doesn't come to that. From what my sister and I have experienced with Discord, if he were serious, the whole of the planet could be in grave peril. Fortunately, he seems to be more akin to an oversized child than an evil despot," Luna sighed as she stood up. "Aloysia, come up with your training plan. I have something I have to do, something that I've been putting off," Luna sighed as she walked back towards the bath.

"Will do," Aloysia said as she sat down at a desk and started to rummage through some papers.

"What 'cha looking for?" Pinkie Pie asked as she bounced up to Aloysia.

"The training documents for new chosen ones. Julius fits comfortably into one of the general categories," Aloysia told Pinkie Pie as she rummaged through the desk. "I really need to organize this at some point," Aloysia sighed. Walking down the hallway, Luna sighed as she mentally prepared herself. Walking into the bath, Luna slid into the water.

"Enjoying the bath?" Luna asked as she let herself relax in the water.

"It could be a little warmer, but I've always taken hot showers. Sure, dermatologists say it's bad for you, but I live in a place where it's either winter or almost winter all year round. Take that and add biblical rains, and screw the dermatologists; I'm treating myself with a hot shower, damn the consequences. Other than that, it is very relaxing," Julius said as he relaxed against the edge of the bath.

"I get it. The ponies of the Crystal Empire were the same way. If I remember, they had some of the best mountain hot springs," Luna said as she leaned against the edge of the bath. "The bath should be relaxing; it has healing herbs added to it. Anyways, we need to talk," Luna said as she looked at Julius.

"I don't like the sounds of that. What about?" Julius asked as he looked at Luna.

"About the past," Luna said as she gathered herself.

"Look," Julius sighed, "I know I said I'd tell you more about the history of humans, but Celestia probably should be here for that," Julius heavily said. "Especially with what I'm thinking of telling."

"I'm not talking about that; I'm talking about my past," Luna told Julius.

"Right, the thing you've been hiding, that somehow, I've been referencing, or something like that, correct?" Julius asked as he turned to look at Luna.

"Yes, that," Luna said with a heavy breath.

"Look, if it's that hard for you, you don't have to tell me. I'll be fine with not knowing," Julius assured as he placed a hand on Luna's withers.

"No, you should know," Luna heavily said. "So, a long time ago, things got bad between my Celestia and me. Things between us kept getting colder and colder until, eventually, we fought. During that fight, I became consumed by my spirit magic, becoming something else, a being called Nightmare Moon. Celestia ended up using the elements on me, resulting in me getting sealed in the moon for a long time," Luna told Julius.

"Geez, I've heard of some bad sibling fights; hell, I've had a few before, but sealed away? Like, not just grounded, but full-on sealed, right?" Julius asked as Luna nodded back. "I'm guessing that led to all the problems between the thestrals and the rest of Equestria, right?"

"Along with other problems, yes. Only recently have I returned to Equestria, roughly four months ago. I'm still getting my bearings on things," Luna told Julius.

"Wait, so you were sealed for a long time. You came back and were still out of things. Then I came along and," Julius started to trail off.

"Pretty much, yes," Luna confirmed.

"Oh," Julius said as he looked down, "I'm a dick."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked in some confusion.

"I picked you up while you were vulnerable; you just don't do that," Julius said while looking down.

"It's OK, don't worry about it. If anything, I kind of did the same thing to you," Luna assured Julius.

"Yeah, but I wasn't sealed. I still had family and, well, ummm, I guess you could call them school friends. Ummm, friends who you are only friends with at school, or work or something like that," Julius said while stammering over himself. "Either way, I still had other people," Julius said as he shook his head clear.

"Maybe, but either way, don't worry about it. Aloysia and a few others from our past suggested that Celestia and myself find somecreature. So it kind of works out," Luna assured Julius.

"Well, if you say so. Still, I'll feel at least a little bad about that for a while. I'm guessing that whole sealing thing is what the thestrals were talking about by the great betrayal or something like that?" Julius asked.

"Yes, though the rest of Equestria calls it something else," Luna confirmed.

"Hmmm, I still get the feeling that I'm missing something," Julius hummed in thought. "How did things get so bad? I mean, you don't just seal your sibling away; there has to be something more. At the very least, there should have been signs," Julius said as he thought out loud.

"You're right about there being signs, but Celestia and I were always too busy with our obligations to really spend any time with each other. I had to deal with the beasts and monsters that threatened Equestria, as well as dealing with the dream realm. That's a part of why I made Aloysia and the rest of her kind so that I could have some free time. But even then, Celestia had to deal with the nobles; they took up nearly all of her time," Luna said as Julius looked right at her.

"You said nobles?" Julius asked as he looked firmly at Luna.

"Yes. They always went to my sister. Celestia was dedicated to maintaining the order, so they gravitated toward her. Meanwhile, I tried to enact change, but they didn't seem to like that. Honestly, despite all the time that has passed, Equestria has hardly changed. Sure, a few changes have happened, but nowhere near the changes that I wanted," Luna explained while Julius rubbed his eyes.

"I've heard enough," Julius heavily sighed. "I swear, the nobility are behind the rift between you and your sister. I know this is a different world, but I've seen the same thing happen in my world," Julius angrily sighed.

"Yes, some of the thestrals think the same thing. And while I'll admit, it does have some merit; there's no evidence of such a conspiracy. Though, should such a thing be proven, well, it'd be an easy case of high treason. But, surely the nobility wouldn't try anything like that," Luna slowly said.

"I hope you're right, but I'm not holding my breath. In my experience, the nobility are two-faced twats. But I'm a bit biased there," Julius admitted as he relaxed.

"I hope so too, though, in a weird way, it'd be comforting," Luna said with a bitter smile.

"I get it. I guess I should tell you and Celestia about our past now, but that can wait until after this bath. Seriously, this is a relaxing bath," Julius said with a contented sigh as he relaxed into the bath.