Room For One More

"Scars last forever, Twilight. It is how we wear them that determine whether they heal."

Celestia

Celestia tucked Twilight into a bed that did not belong to her but was her home all the same. She blew out the candle on the nightstand and gently whispered, "Goodnight, Twilight. Sweet dreams," before turning to leave. Something stayed her hoof though. A longing, one that she hadn't felt in a long time.

Celestia stood over Twilight's sleeping form. She was so peaceful, the moment she closed her eyes she was asleep and off in a dream world that held no malice or suffering. She had escaped this world, even if only for the night and that was something special. Celestia found something remarkably unique about her even in all her long years of experience with ponies. Her student was incorruptible, unwavering and above all else, happy. Something Celestia had found herself envying more than once before scolding her reflection in the mirror.

She wanted so badly to just hold the unicorn in her hoofs, stroke her mane and tell her when she woke that she could fix everything. She felt a lump in her throat forming and she pulled her eyes away from the purple unicorn lying on the bed. She walked over to the balcony of Luna's bedroom and stared out across the Canterlot Valley with her sister.

"Celestia."

"Luna."

They didn't need to say anything more. A simple greeting was all they could bear to hear. They were immortals; words of comfort fell on ears made deaf by experience.

The valley burned, not from a forest fire or other natural disaster but from the fighting. Luna's keen eyes lit up with thousands of tiny pinpricks, flashes of light against mirror black pupils. Ponyville and other settlements had been caught in the middle of a three way battle for control of the valley. No matter who won this night, the two Ruling Sisters had already lost. They had avoided conflict for so long. Peace had been their enemy for once, softening them up and making them lazy and easy prey. Celestia and Luna leaned on each other, their eyes now scanning the forests and mountains to the south.

Hope now fell on seven young ponies, somewhere in the wilderness.

Room For One More

Chapter One: Coolness That Defies Gravity

One week prior.

Clouds looked different from above. It was something Rainbow Dash could never explain to her ground bound friends every time she went flying. Something about how the light caught the vapour in the late afternoon sun that made them shine like only she could see. Well, her and other pegasi.

Rainbow Dash was flying over the Everfree forest. While the air currents were no different here than anywhere else and any sensible pegasus would stay away from the area. Rainbow Dash had training on her mind and that made her both fearless and a little reckless. She was flying low over the forest, hoping for something to take to the air to give chase. She wanted to be surprised, to be frightened. Her line of reasoning was that if she could avoid hungry predators that leapt out of the dark forest canopy, then she could deal with anything when flying with the Wonderbolts.

The forest itself seemed to mock her with its stillness, its quiet canopy usually alive with birds and other less than pleasant animals was now devoid of life. Rainbow Dash glided a little closer to the dark green leaves, her eyes trying to pierce the blanket of foliage. Her heart pounding in her chest.

"Who flies up there in the sky, oh watch out for that bough for it will make you-

Rainbow Dash crashed into the tree. A loud hollow sound was heard and Zecora mused over whether it was the tree or the pegasus's cranium. Zecora held her head in her hoof.

"Sigh."

Rainbow Dash had got what she desired. She been scared stiff and in an attempt to both get away from the voice and see who it was had made her slam into a thick tree limb.

"Oooowwwww."

Hard.

That's a sprain. Ooohhh, or four.

"My my, Rainbow Dash, that was quite the crash."

Zecora sneered and helped the now thoroughly embarrassed pegasus out of the tree. She was tangled in the vines that were draped around the limb and had been dislodged in the impact. Rainbow Dash looked down at the group of zebras approaching her narrow to just one.

"Oh, hi Zecora..."

"What brings you to the forest floor? Come, let me show you to my door."

Rainbow made to protest but her wings would not allow it. Lances of pain shot through her every time she tried to move them. She hobbled and limped, then walked beside the zebra picking her way through the undergrowth. Zecora's saddlebags catching occasionally on a bramble or thorn causing the jars inside to clink. Rainbow Dash tripped on a vine that had snuck out across the ground. She was caught by an outstretched hoof and a grin.

"Heh, thanks. Hey, can you do me a favour?"

The zebra chuckled.

Always asking, rarely giving. I wonder how they keep on living.

"Maybe, that depends on the story you have to tell of how you got here and how you fell."

"Can you- ow! Can you not tell anyone I flew into a tree?"

Zecora laughed aloud this time, Rainbow looked on in equal parts fright and shame.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up. Very funny."

"My lips are sealed, perhaps you should try practising next time in a field. Is that not what you were doing? Whenever I see you, you are always looping and corkscrewing. Training for something, chasing a dream? Even now I see your eyes gleam. The pegasus guard? No, the Wonderbolts for which you train hard."

"Yeah. Wait, you know the Wonderbolts?!"

Zecora's house beckoned them closer and Rainbow dash was helped through the door. The zebra disappeared into a different part of the hollowed out tree she had made her home in. Masks and jars filled with churning potions did little to ease Rainbow Dash's pain or worry. Despite having made peace, this was probably the first real conversation she'd had with the zebra. And she knew about the Wonderbolts. There were questions that needed answering.

Zecora returned with a fairly generic looking first aid kit from Ponyville hospital. She pulled out some bandages and began wrapping an incredulous looking Rainbow Dash. Zecora looked up from immobilising Rainbow Dash's wings.

"What, expecting a potion or a flash of light? There are some things you ponies got right. Sit still and do not move if you ever expect to improve."

"Well, that and... I was kinda hoping to get home soon."

"Do not worry, Rainbow Dash, for I will get a bed where you can, until you leave, rest your head. It is my suggestion you do not travel the forest at night, dark things prowl in the absence of the light."

Rainbow Dash's wings were pulled tight against her body and she winced. Bruises that had been quieted by adrenaline and will power were now making themselves known. As brash as she was, she didn't want to intrude anymore than she already had and ask for more.

Zecora, however, was a better judge of character then Rainbow Dash knew and got up to get a jar. Zecora brought it over and laid in on Rainbow Dash's back. It was wrapped in dark fabric so she couldn't see what was inside.

"What's that fo-"

A giant spider crawled out of the jar and drove its inch long fangs between her shoulder blades. She screamed-

"AAIIIEEE"

-and tried to buck it off. She shot straight up into the air and ran around the room. Zecora started to laugh and explain but her breath caught in her throat as Rainbow Dash bumped her spice cabinet. It teetered, leaned and then settled. Zecora let out a sigh of relief.

I swear if one more thing of mine is broken, well, it is best if it goes unspoken.

Rainbow Dash finally collapsed in a heap of limbs. Her rear was limp and dragging behind her as she tried to crawl away with her front hooves.

The spider, having been startled by the jostling of its home, had leapt out of its jar to tell off whatever had woke him up. He had tripped however and landed fangs first onto some poor pegasus who he had then tried to apologize to, in spider language of course, but had only succeeded in making her more afraid. Thoroughly mortified, he muttered one last awkward apology and wandered off to a corner of the room where he now sat, brooding about his frightening appearance.

Zecora would never understand the pony folk who's reactions were always quite the joke.

Rainbow Dash glared up at Zecora who loomed over her with a hoof covering her smirk.

"What was that for?!"

"That was a spider indigenous to the Everfree who's venom the effects of which you can surely see. Rest, it is helping with the sprain."

Rainbow Dash rose to give the zebra a piece of her mind. Well, she half rose, her haunches remained on the floor. Try as she may, she could not move her rear legs.

"What did you do to me?! I can't move! What if I can't ever move again? You've crippled me!"

"Mmmm, and the pain?"

Rainbow Dash frowned and looked back at the bandages containing the mess of bruises and sprains. She couldn't feel a thing.

Zecora hoisted the pegasus onto her back and laid her down on a bed across the room. She pulled the covers over her and smiled a warm and caring smile. One Rainbow Dash hadn't thought possible.

"Sleep. In the morning you will be both healed and able to fly."

Zecora's toned deepened ever so slightly.

"Where you will say your goodbye."

Rainbow Dash frowned.

Did she sound lonely?

"Hey, Zecora."

The zebra looked back into Rainbow's purple eyes.

"So how do you know about the Wonderbolts?"

The sun was on the horizon and the clouds looked like wisps of pink cotton candy. This was not lost on Twilight as she glanced out the window. She wondered if her friends were seeing what she was seeing. A slowly darkening sky that was hiding the land in long shadows. Or, to her, the darkening of one world and the revealing of another. Twilight Sparkle, while a student of the Princess of the Day, was no stranger to staying up late for the night.

This night in particular was special. Twilight had heard rumours, mostly from her regular, if a little formal, correspondence with Princess Celestia that Luna had finally gotten the hang of the night sky after so many years out of practice. Twilight was excited to see what the Princess of the Night could do with her own sky.

Seems a funny coincidence that I was given a telescope sent from an anonymous source in Canterlot. I've heard I have fans and I suppose saving the world twice has earned me some gratitude but this telescope is brand new!

Twilight hummed to herself as she scratched a pen across a piece of parchment, detailing out what sections of the sky she was going to study. Spike finished cleaning a large midnight blue telescope. She smiled, remembering the day it had come in the mail. The grey mailmare, what was her name again? Ditzy? Derpy? She had delivered it to her door wearing a care free smile. She was doing well for herself. Most of the talking had died down and now she was settling into Ponyville nicely. Twilight had even heard she was getting a promotion soon.

"Spike, is everything ready for tonight?"

Her dragon assistant sighed and grinned at himself in the mirror finish on the telescope.

How many times had she asked that?

"Yes, Twilight."

"Do we have the-"

"Parchment and quill for recording what we see plus extras for taking a letter, to both Princesses, and the extra extras should the extra's be destroyed."

"Oh, right. Wait, do we have the-"

"Picnic basket full of four apples, two bottles of cider, a small sack of gemstones and a chocolate chip and banana muffin for Derpy Hooves who passes by the hill we've picked out to watch the stars tonight on her way home from work."

"And the-"

"Wait there's more?! What did I forget? I used that checklist you gave me. Checked it three times."

"Spike, relax. I was just joking with you."

Spike scowled at her for a moment before breaking into a smile. He picked up the picnic basket before heading out the door. Twilight carefully levitated the telescope and followed Spike through a dark but serene Ponyville. The village took on a different appearance in the night and it wasn't just the muted colours and dark alleyways. Ponyville was definitely a day time town, being populated mostly by farmers, but to Twilight it just looked sublime in the night. She was afraid of all the dark corners and shadows where her imagination went wild with frightful fantasies but she couldn't help but gape at the wide open night sky. She had heard about big sky country and having lived in the city for most of her life, seeing the night sky extend horizon to horizon was breath taking.

Even after all this time in Ponyville. It still surprises me.

"Come on, Twi! You can look at the night sky once we get to the hill!"

Twilight giggled and caught up to him.

Sorry for wasting time looking at the night sky. We have sky watching to do!

They walked to the edge of town to a large hill that had a view over all of Ponyville. She could clearly see Canterlot glowing in the night like a lantern calling her home. Twilight squinted, picking out the palace lights and finding the old tower she used to call home shrouded in darkness. In fact, it was the only part of the city that wasn't lit up. She heard that Luna had reclaimed it as her own again. She wondered what her bedroom looked like now.

"Hey, Earth to Twilight. You going to use that thing or not?"

"Oh, right!"

She put her eye up to the lens and brought it to focus on a star. She gasped. It had so much more zoom then she was used to. She could clearly see the star in every detail. So much that it hurt her eye. She blinked a tear out and noticed another dial on the side of the telescope. Experimenting, she turned it and gasped again. It dimmed the star's light until it was just like looking at the moon. She could see the surface of the star, watch it boil and explode. She sat like that, her eye straining to take in more detail then was physically possible. Suddenly, her vision went dark.

"Hey, Twilight Sparkle!"

Twilight jerked and hit her eye on the lens.

"Ow! Hi, Derpy."

The grey mailmare stood in front of her telescope, smiling pleasantly.

"What are you doing here so late? I thought I was the only one still out tonight."

Twilight sat down on her haunches and huffed. Derpy wasn't the most intelligent mare in the world but she was certainly the sweetest. Twilight looked up into her eyes. Well, her eye. One of them was studying the night sky.

"I'm studying the sky. Luna's really outdone herself this time. Look!"

Twilight motioned for her to take a seat next to her and look through the telescope. Derpy obliged and after figuring out which eye to use, she gasped.

"Woah! Would you look at that!"

"What do you see?"

"A binary star system with two O class stars orbiting each other perpendicular to the galactic plane... amazing."

Twilight eyes widened in shock.

The more you know, eh?

Derpy looked down at Twilight and held the lens in place for her to see it as well. Just as Twilight got close, however, Derpy spun around and knocked the telescope with her tail, sending it spinning on its tripod.

"Oh my gosh! I forgot! I was supposed to read Dinky and Sparkler a bed time story tonight! Sorry, Twilight. Duty calls!"

She shot off into the air and raced home to fulfill a mission more important to her then life itself. Be there for her children.

Twilight watched her disappear among the houses in Ponyville's residential quarter and she sighed. She was a little clumsy at times but she was a loving mother of two. Twilight couldn't fault her for being in a rush. Poor thing, having to raise those two all by herself. She looked at Spike who shrugged and bit into her muffin. Twilight rolled her eyes at him and went back to the sky.

Twilight put her eye back to the lens but had to take a second before she grasped what she was seeing. She was looking at a swirling mass of stars now. She looked on intently, memorized by the slow revolutions. Lights blinked in and out of existence and they all danced in a black void.

Hmmmm. No stars behind them, this can't be the sky.

She slowly zoomed out to see a ring of purest cyan fire. The flames roiled and danced along a line separating the black void and the purest white.

Luna blinked and Twilight jumped out of her skin as she leapt backwards and landed on her backside.

"L-Luna?"

She put her eye to the telescope again to see Princess Luna waving shyly. Twilight robotically waved back, still unsure what to make of what see was seeing. Princess Luna's mouth moved before she stopped and thought a moment. Then she traced her hoof through the air and wrote out in large silver letters,

"Twilight Sparkle, pray tell what brings you out this night?

Enjoying the stars with your perspicillum?"

Twilight smiled at the archaic term and wrote down her own message on a piece of parchment.

"Yes, and they're called telescopes

nowadays."

Twilight put her eye to the telescope again to see Luna looking embarrassed. She began writing again.

"Sorry for my usage of such a dated term. I am still learned the quirks of this age's language. I was pleasantly surprised when I learned it had not changed greatly over the centuries but to my dismay it had changed enough to make it difficult to communicate effectively."

Twilight nodded and thought up of eight ways to summarize what Luna had said.

"I think you just need a little more experience talking to ponies. I find that there is no better way to learn a language then by speaking with those who are fluent in it."

Luna squinted and then pulled out a tiny pair of opera glasses and Twilight realized she'd written too small.

"Yes. Yes, this solution works most adequately. Wouldst thou mind if we continued-"

Luna paused for a moment before continuing again.

"-chatting?"

Twilight beamed and scratched out in large friendly letters, "I'd love to."

"Most excellent!"

"WAH!"

Twilight jumped back from the telescope to see Luna standing in front of her.

"P-Princess? That was... fast."

Luna's ears drooped.

"Oh, you didn't mean tonight. Right... another time?"

Spike looked at the Princess for a second before digging out a bottle of cider and offering it to her.

"Well, you're here now aren't you?"

Twilight recovered from her astonishment enough to speak.

"I'd love to talk to you, Luna. I wasn't expecting it to be tonight simply because I figured it would take you longer to get here. "

"I am not constrained by most laws of physics... or magic for that matter."

"Well, would you like to sit down?"

The Princess of the Night beamed and lit up like a star, her body shining a silvery light that reflected off of Twilight's eyes. Like a spark.

Spike yawned and checked his watch.

"Hey, Twilight, I'm going to head home. It's way past my bed time. G'night, Twilight, G'night Luna."

"Goodnight, Spike."

As Spike trundled off down the hill Twilight thought about all the times she'd forced him to go to bed in his youth. Times had certainly changed and she giggled and turned her attention back to Princess Luna who had been waving him goodbye.

"So, what did thou want to discuss first?"

Twilight held a hoof to speak but frowned and put it back down.

What to talk about... Where do we have common ground? Aha! The night sky.

"The night sky looks beautiful tonight. I can see that you've really gotten the hang of it again."

Luna smiled and sat down next to Twilight, looking up at her work.

"Really? Because I spent hours just getting the stars right and I actually noticed some changes in the stars since... I last made the night sky. Look at that star, over there."

Twilight put her eye to her telescope and followed Luna's hoof and it took the Princess of the Night a second to realize Twilight needed the telescope to see her work in full detail.

No wonder ponies don't enjoy the night as much as the day. They can't see it! I shall decree that all households should have access to telescopes and other such arrays so they can all enjoy the night sky! FOREVER!

Twilight looked over at Luna and rolled her eyes.

She has that regal I'm-going-to-take-over-the-world look in her eye. Oh well, it's cute.

"That star you mentioned. It's amazing!"

"No other pony has ever been as excited as I see you now about a star who's light dims every six seconds."

Twilight almost couldn't believe her ears.

"Of course it's exciting, Luna! It means there is a celestial body-"

Luna nearly choked on her cider but regained an air of dignity.

"Please do not use that term to describe a planetoid, Twilight. It conjures up most horrible images to the mind."

That was lost again immediately.

"PRINCESS!"

Twilight's face went bright pink and they both burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry, I have been reading up on this Age's humour and I read that lewd jokes about those we know are most effective at eliciting mirth."

Twilight shook her head, still trying to quiet her thoughts.

"No more about your sister please! Or anyone I know!"

Luna held up her hooves in defeat. A smile still played about her lips.

"I read that was the whole point of the joke, thou does not want to hear such things but enjoys them anyway. It is absurd to think of our friends that way normally and so when presented with a situation where we are forced to think of them in such a way, we laugh. Absurdity is the basis for all humour after all-"

Twilight was probably the only being in existence who could spend forever listening to someone lecturing her on the mechanics of humour. But as it was, her body couldn't.

"-and that is what is so funny, Twilight. Twilight?"

”ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz..."

"Oh."

Being a mare of good manners and great power, she gently teleported Twilight and her things to her home in the library. She carried the sleeping mare up the stairs to her room and laid her down on her bed next to her assistant who was fast asleep already. Luna smiled and her horn glowed slightly.

So this is what Celestia keeps talking about.

She cast a spell for good dreams and quietly exited the tree, making her way home with a spring in her step and a flutter in her wings.

It had been so long since she'd just flown anywhere. She could have teleported home but tonight was too good to waste indoors. She rose and climbed the sky until she was at the topmost ceiling of the world. Equestria spanned out in every direction. The Canterlot valley and mountains, Ponyville, the cities by the coast and in the desert, the islands Equestria had claim to but were still contested. Gryphonia to the north, Zebrica over to the far west. To the far east were lands Equestria was still only now just discovering.

She and her sister knew that they were there but had never had the time or resources to explore them. Steaming jungles and strange forms of life. In fact, one such expedition had been turned into a series of adventure novels with a mare battling the elements in search of treasure. Having met the inspiration and laughed heartily over the adaptation with her, Luna knew that the readers of Daring Do were missing a great and different kind of story.

Luna landed on the balcony hours later and she stretched her wings out. She hadn't flown for that long in... well since she was last on earth. Luna shook out her wings a little more forcefully then usual and knocked over a small statuette on her bedside table. It fell off the table and shattered on the floor.

Luna cursed and walked over to the tiny heirloom that was older then most of Canterlot. It was a gift from her sister. One of her own treasures she'd inherited from a friend's long lost collection. She wasn't worried about the heirloom as much as she was dreading telling Celestia it was broken.

Even she couldn't fix it with magic. It was a small stone carving with her own cutie mark and Celestia in harmony with one another. On it was inscribed,

A token of old times and good memories,

Star Swirl, The Bearded

The problem with fixing it was that had been enchanted to null magic. A curious spell Star Swirl had discovered that was in of itself, anti magic. Luna recalled Star Swirl explaining it to her once. She only remembered the warm chair she had been sitting in and the crackle of the fireplace. Then her sister waking her up.

He had given it to Celestia and whispered something in her ear that Luna either didn't remember or didn't hear at the time. She swept it up as best she could and tried gluing it together for the rest of the night.