Not Alone

An armoured hoof scratched a line into the powdery ground, adding to a rather impressive tally that stretched into the distance. Three hundred sixty three thousand, one hundred and seventy four. An ebon mare with a nebulous star-filled mane thought to herself. Days. She looked into the sky, seeing Equestria framed by the stars above her. Since I was banished from my own kingdom.

Nightmare Moon was not an impatient pony. Her remarkable sanity after nearly a millennium of isolation proof enough of this fact. Regardless, the days did tend to drag on, in spite of her efforts to distract herself. At first, she had raged. The first several years of her imprisonment were directly responsible for the rather impressive number of craters currently scattered across the lunar surface. When her head had cooled to the extent that she realized that destroying her own celestial object wasn't the best way to achieve her goals, she had turned to scheming.

And she had schemed. She had made countless plans, considering every possible scenario for her inevitable return. Ideally when the date came, she would be greeted by the sight of her loyal subjects returning her crown to her. She knew however, that she would be far more likely to be met by her sister's army, if not the Monarch herself. She had designed and refined for several mortal lifetimes, meticulously ironing out every insignificant flaw she found in any of her plans.

When she was confident in her chances of success given the chance to battle again, she realized that she was left with nothing to do. The burning rage that had led to her imprisonment was long spent, and the burnt husk had spent its remaining hatred on envisioning multitudes of imaginary Celestias failing in their efforts to ensure she would not rise a second time.

She kicked a rock. It had once been part of a grand castle- now nothing more than dust on the wind. She was in the middle of contemplating the several grand structures she had constructed out of the countless stones scattered across the lunar surface when she spotted something on the horizon. Blinking to make sure that is was not a trick her eyes were playing on her, Nightmare wondered if her mind had finally broken from the isolation. Deciding that it was not going to vanish as mysteriously as it had appeared, the alicorn began to move towards it.

As she came closer to it, she was greeted by a most peculiar sight. A cloth was laid over a flat patch of ground, near a strange cylindrical object supported by three legs firmly planted in the dust. A stack of paper was also present, alongside a quill and inkwell apparently warded against the vacuum much like her physical form was.

She knew this had not been here before. Nightmare was familiar with the entire surface of the moon, and had been in this area not a week before. The alicorn retreated a short distance and laid down. Whoever or whatever had made this would almost certainly be coming back, and she was not about to waste this opportunity.

-x-X-x-

Earlier that week, Canterlot was full of activity. Ponies across the city were frantically trying to complete their tasks for the day. A young Twilight Sparkle tore through the hallways of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, her two-toned mane and tail tailing behind her. A light sheen of sweat was visible on her lavender coat, and frustration was evident on her face. With the Summer Sun Celebration the next day, everypony was occupied by preparations for the festival. This meant that every room, hallway, and isolated corner was currently occupied by ponies trying their best to make Celestia's own school look its best for the Princess.

While Twilight herself was no stranger to pleasing the Princess, she only wished that the other ponies could do it a bit more quietly. After all, the fact that the Celebration was tomorrow didn't change the fact that there was a project due in two weeks time! Twilight came to a stop as she reached the library doors. The unicorn knew that in here she would find the peace and quiet that she had been denied all day. The mare slipped inside with practised ease, the door swinging shut silently behind her.

She quietly sighed in relief as the scent of ancient paper wafted over her, the atmosphere of the library quickly working to relieve all the tension that the frantic day had built within her. The librarian by the door recognized her with a small smile and returned to his reading, knowing from experience that this young mare would not be causing any problems. Project in mind, Twilight made her way to the astronomy section, hoping to find a book on the subject of the positions and movements of the stars. The unicorn frowned as she saw that the shelves had been picked clean, likely by ponies who had arrived and left while she was in the middle of her after-lesson session with Celestia.

A much louder noise than Twilight had made echoed through the room from the closing door, heralding the arrival of a group of mares her age. She frowned slightly as she heard their voices, as they were not even trying to keep quiet. Twilight didn't know if the librarian said anything to them, because she had moved to a distant corner of the library as soon as she heard hoofsteps start to move in her direction. She would deny being afraid of her classmates if asked, but would admit to feeling awkward when included in their conversations.

She knew it was normal for a mare her age to start taking an interest in stallions, and to start putting extra care into her appearance. Twilight just didn't understand why her classmates spent so much time discussing it. She usually excused herself from these conversations at the earliest opportunity, and did her best to avoid them in the first place. Not paying much attention to where she was going, she slipped into an alcove she had not noticed on any of her previous trips into the library to avoid entering the sight of her peers.

Twilight looked at the single book on the shelf she found herself facing and stifled a sneeze as some dust found its way into her nose. This area had clearly not been cleaned recently. For lack of anything better to do, Twilight enveloped the book in her magic and blew the dust off the cover. No title greeted her, only a picture of the moon, the numerous craters and Mare strangely absent. Her curiosity piqued, Twilight opened the book to a random point. Pages full of antiquated hornwriting greeted her, confirming that the book was very old. Twilight idly wondered how it had escaped notice for so long.

Examining the book as a whole, Twilight noted that the book was very well constructed for its age. The pages didn't feel loose in their bindings at all and the ink was surprisingly visible against the paper. Bringing the book closer to her horn she felt a weak enchantment surrounding it, protecting it against the effects of time and neglect. The mare wondered who would have put this much effort into making a book that would last forever only for it to be forgotten.

Sliding the book into her saddlebag, Twilight edged back out into the main area of the library, her classmates having departed while she was examining the book. Having not seen the mark of the library on the cover, Twilight decided that it wouldn't hurt if she did her own examination of the book before turning it over to the librarian. With luck, the image on the cover was relevant to the contents and she could use it to finish her project without waiting for somepony to return one of the other books.

Her irritations replaced by growing excitement, Twilight began the journey back to her home.

-x-X-x-

It was a journal. But not just any journal. If she was correct, it was the journal of a noble of incredible status. She had suspected that the book was old, but she hadn't expected it to contain a record of what appeared to be the very first Summer Sun Celebration, even if the book called it the Equestrian Festival for some reason. Twilight wondered if the author of the book was a political rival to the Sun Princess in ancient times. Celestia's name came up more often than any other, usually alongside some form of criticism.

The book contained more than simple personal feelings on politics. Information on the Moon and Stars made up the majority of the information in the book, which delighted Twilight to no end. She silently thanked whoever the author was,  doubting that any of the other books from the library paid this much attention to every individual light in the sky. Twilight turned to another page and her jaw dropped.

The page she was looking at was covered haphazardly in arcane symbols, evidence of the hard work of a spellmaker. Twilight let her eyes wander over the symbols before skipping ahead to the end result. Looking at the layered symbols and mentally breaking the array down, Twilight identified spells of transport and preservation, with the counter spells and fail-safes woven in alongside them. Realizing what the spell was for, Twilight turned her eyes skyward.

Somepony had devised a way to safely bring an individual to the moon.

The thrill of discovery burning in her heart, Twilight grabbed her own journal and held it alongside the mysterious one as she charged her horn. The spell was clearly intended for either a team of unicorns or the princess herself if the amount of magic she was channelling right now was any indication, but Twilight noted with no small amount of pride that it didn't seem to be above her abilities. A bright light filled the unicorn's room for a moment, and she disappeared.

-x-X-x-

Opening her eyes, Twilight took in her surroundings. She was standing on a plain of dust and rocks, the barren landscape stretching out before her. Deciding there was nothing of interest in front of her, Twilight looked up. The stars were clearly visible to her, filling her entire range of vision as she looked higher. Excited by the prospect of being able to see the stars so clearly whenever she wanted, Twilight excitedly opened her journal to copy the spell into it.

She facehooved when she realized she had forgotten to bring any ink. Lighting her horn again, she let her previous spell complete its purpose, returning to her room on the planet above.