Luna awoke to Celestia standing over her bed. “Sister, come on I have found something!” Celestia said excitedly as she tapped Luna’s muzzle. Luna grumbled and rubbed her bleary eyes as she sat up.

“What in the world are you waking me up for? I don’t need to put the moon up for another…” she looked towards her clock, “FOUR HOURS?? Oh, this had better be good sister or so help me—” She was cut off by Celestia shoving a parchment in her face. It had so many scribbles on it that it may have been a spell at some point, but now it looked like a foal’s drawing.

“This is the way to bring Star Strider back! Look! There are parts from conjuration spells, summoning spells, and portal spells all combined in one! This is how we do it!” Luna pushed her sister off her bed with more than enough force as Celestia flopped on the floor. ‘Hey! I thought you would be excited to see it too!”

Luna got out from under her covers and lifted her royal crown and adornments onto her. “Okay, but I thought we were going into the realm of chaos to fetch him back instead of just summoning him.” Celestia was already cutting her off.

“No, we needed the scrolls to do that originally, but by reading his other spells, we can use the scrolls to combine the spell and summon him directly here!” Luna scratched the back of her head,

“But the whole reason we were going was so we could get just Star Strider without the Lichen, won’t we summon the monster back too?” Celestia paused a moment as though she hadn’t considered that yet.

“No, I don’t think so. This spell is extremely specific. It is bound to his soul directly. The portal that opens from the chaos scrolls should only be manifest to the target and nothing else. I think we can do this without going into Discord’s realm.” She tossed her mane back as though she was trying to prove she was better than Discord. Luna yawned and pointed at Celestia.

“But we don’t know that. Anything could go wrong, and we bring that monster back with him, right? Isn’t it safer just manually getting him?”

“But the chaos realm has too many dangers to account for. We could lose vital time, information, the scrolls themselves, everything if we go in. If we just summon him back, worse comes to worse we deal with the monster the same way Twilight and her friends have in the past. The way we have in the past. We may be on the verge of retirement dear sister, but we are not past our prime.” Celestia winked at Luna as though she intended something more. Luna reddened but regained her focus.

“Fine, but can we at least wait until I’m not exhausted? I don’t want to fight a monster when I can barely see straight.”

“Fine you little foal, get some rest and in the night, we can try it out.” Celestia swayed her way back out of the room and closed the door with her magic. The only problem now was that Luna was too excited at the prospect of success to sleep.

Luna finished raising the moon to its full glory and turned down from her balcony. She wandered the halls to Celestia’s room and opened it to find her sister hunched over a table writing on a scroll.

“Who are you writing?” She asked as she leaned over the table to investigate. Without looking up, Celestia responded; “Twilight. I’m telling her we figured it out and will be trying the spell in an hour in the hedge maze.” Luna scrunched her nose up.

“The hedge maze? Why would we go to such a dreary place?”

“Because no one uses it, and if we do summon this Lichen back, maybe it’ll get lost in the maze and we never have to deal with it.” Luna shifted uncomfortably. Celestia seemed too eager. Too unrestrained. Too unlike herself. What if something did go wrong? So wrong that it ruined the world. Again. All Luna kept thinking was how old she was. How long it had been since there was constant peace. How many years it had been since she hung up her crown and didn’t intend to reclaim it in the evening. The last time she took the backseat was when she had become nightmare moon. Letting her evil alter-ego have her way was a lot easier than doing it herself. For hardly the first time, Luna felt tired. But this was a tired that refused to go away. One more problem. Then you turn it over to Twilight and you can breathe. This one will even go off without a hitch! Then its as simple as hugging an old friend and heading to sunny shores. Luna gazed at her sister as she sent the scroll off with magic.

“Celestia, may I ask you a question?” Her sister turned to her, a look of perplex crossing her face.

“Sure, my dear sister. Is something wrong?” Luna shifted again and looked down to the tiles.

“Have you ever loved? Or been loved?” Celestia looked even more confused than before.

“Luna, you know we have the guards for a reason, of course I have.” But Luna was raising her hoof up to stop her.

“No, ‘Tia, I mean Loved. Shared joy with someone. Felt as though you could settle down forever with someone and not worry about what comes tomorrow. Have you ever been in love?” Celestia suddenly cast her head down and looked sadder than Luna could ever remember. She closed her eyes as though she was holding back tears.

“My dearest sister, I have tried and failed many a time. It is something I cannot master and seem to lose every time I try.” Luna’s heart sank as she heard her sister’s heart gushing to her. “When you were on the moon, I tried to fill my time with suitors, stallions, mares, anything that could make me feel something again. Twilight was the closest I have ever been to loving something in millennia. Every time I start to try, something comes up or gets in the way or my student is ready to leave Canterlot to explore the meaning of friendship and life on her own.” A tear traced down her cheek as she spoke. She quickly wiped it and looked back up at Luna. “But why ask this now? This is hardly the matter at hand.” She suddenly seemed to have switched to anger and frustration. Luna backed up a step and began to explain.

“Because I’m tired ‘Tia. Surely you feel it too. All I want is to rest. And I want to rest in the arms of a stallion I love and who loves me. I don’t want the meaningless physicality, the objectification, the fighting, contempt, any of that. I just want to be held. And I haven’t had that. I’ve had everything a pony could want, except love. So really, I have nothing.” Now it was Luna’s turn to be crying. Celestia walked forward and embraced her sister as she sobbed into her fur. She stroked her head as she comforted her.

“I know, my dear sister. I know. I am tired too.” She lifted Luna’s sobbing face up to look at each other. “But all good things come in time. Maybe love is in our next chapter of life. Once we set Equestria up for Twilight as we make our exit, we may brush by the arms of those meant for us. But we must finish this chapter to start the next, and I feel it is very close. Can you hold on just a little longer my little sister?” Luna wiped her eyes as she choked back a few final sobs. She nodded and fell into Celestia’s embrace a little more.

“Yes, but promise me we finish it quick, okay?” She chuckled softly as she stopped crying.

The three princesses gathered in the center of the maze with all the scrolls they could carry. The stones for the ritual had been put in place and the journal lay in the center of the three. They talked over their individual parts of the spell so many times that they could recite it backwards. Celestia had them gathered for one final talk before they commenced their spell.

“We hope that we don’t bring the Lichen back. We hope we bring back Star Strider in the first place, but we need to prepare for the worst. If the monster comes back, we have our backups?” Twilight pulled a scroll out and began reading.

“Magical barrier: check. Rune traps: Check. Three magical alicorns with the power to blast the grove into a pile: Check. We got this Celestia. We’ve planned for almost everything.

“Yes, but it’s the almost part that worries me.” Luna cut in.

“We don’t have time to think of every failure that could happen. I think it’s best if we just start and work as it goes. Are we all ready?” Luna nodded back to Celestia. Twilight put on a face of confidence and nodded as well. “Very well, let us begin.”

The three alicorns paced off to their respective zones of the grove. They cast their magic with so much power that the hedges began to bend backwards. In the center, just above the journal, a small, dark, fluctuating orb appeared. It looked like the way Discord’s terrain looked, so they knew they were doing something right. Celestia stamped her hoof, the signal to up the power. The three blasted ever harder, beginning to shear off parts of the hedge from the blast. The small orb grew larger, and the journal began to shake. Celestia stamped again for more power, and Luna let out a grunt of effort as she put her whole body and mind into the spell. The Journal was absorbed up into the orb and it grew to the size of a pony. In fact, it began to take the shape of a pony. Luna looked up in the midst of her maelstrom and felt excited as they saw progress. The form was becoming more defined now. A hoof there, the mane sprouting out, even an eye appeared for a moment. The three ponies concentrated as they sweat through the spell. It felt as though something was fighting them. And hard. They pulled back as the force seemed to draw them in. Footing began giving way for Celestia as she struggled to keep up. All three of them were grunting loudly as they held their ground and cast the spell. Suddenly, the world seemed to go deathly silent as the magic combined at once and then let out the loudest bang any of them had ever heard. Luna was thrown back against the now-toppled hedge wall which helped to soften her fall. Good thing we are here after all she thought as she detangled herself from the branches and leaves. The other two followed suit and regathered towards the center. A large crater now existed where the journal had been and laying in the center of it was a curled-up pony who looked to be passed out. Twilight was the first to descend the crater walls as she galloped towards the stranger. Just before she reached him, he stood up to suddenly and looked around quickly. He was huge. Even by stallion standards. Rockhoof had competition as the stallion appeared to keep growing as she got closer.

“STAY BACK”

A thunderous voice shook the ground they ran on and all three ponies stopped and readied their horns just in case. The strange stallion turned to look at all of them. He rested his eyes a moment on Twilight before turning to Luna and Celestia. His look softened as he saw them.

“Ah, Celestia, Luna. The princesses of the land I presume. Thou hast surely ascended to the throne that my student crafted?” He spoke with an accent somewhat familiar to Rockhoof’s, but more proper, well refined. Luna and Celestia glanced at each other with confusion.

“How knowest thou our names?” Celestia asked as she switched to the more formal and ancient mannerisms of speaking.

“It would be in thy interests to stand down, no harm nor fighting may come to this place yet so long as I have determined the sanctity of your presence. Seest thee the creature I hath imprisoned? Lest it hath escaped from our clutches yet again and reigned more havoc upon this land.”

“Uhhhh hi, mister… big guy. I’m Twilight? And if you wouldn’t mind cutting me in here just so I…”

The stallion whipped around back to Twilight and narrowed his eyes.

“This one, I do not know. No vision hath visited me proclaiming thee. Tell me, child, how hast the gift of immortality been placed upon thy shoulders? And how am I to trust thee?”

Twilight reared back and began shaking with fear. This stallion not only was huge, but also had the voice that could topple mountains. She slowly began to back up as he approached flinched as he lowered his eyes to be level with hers.

“Because she saved my life!” Another voice joined. The stallion turned to see Starswirl up on the ridge of the crater. “And because I trust her.”

The large pony again narrowed his eyes upon the newcomer, but quickly stood back and softened his gaze as he recognized the old stallion. “Starswirl? My boy is that you?” He took a few cautious steps towards the ridge. Starswirl nodded and started down towards the four ponies. He strode up to the stallion with no fear and clasped the foreleg of the massive pony.

“Indeed, old friend. It has been a long time… Star Strider.”

Author's Note

Here it is. The OC for the story's namesake. Don't worry about all the 'thee' and 'thou' speak, it's mostly only in this chapter. Nearly done with writing the story as this chapter is published, so expect more chapters sooner. As stated in the description, this story is on the longer side so I hope you're around for the haul. 60,000 words and counting!