"'Tia, can I come in?" Luna spoke quietly into her sister's bedroom door. When no answer came, she knocked on the door again and spoke a bit louder. "'Tia, are you there? I just want to talk to you for a minute." There was still no answer from inside, so Luna softly turned the knob and pushed opened the door.

To Luna's surprise, a cheery fire burned in the fireplace, giving a welcome warmth to the cool evening. Three large, soft couches were arranged around the fireplace, and Celestia sat upon one furthest from the door, perusing a large piece parchment by the light of the fire. Luna walked inside to stand behind the nearest couch before clearing her throat, hoping to draw her sister's attention. When Celestia continued to study the parchment obviously, Luna spoke up again.

"Celestia," she said with a bit more volume than before. Celestia's head snapped up and she gave a soft gasp.

"Luna," she said in surprise, "I'm so sorry, I didn't hear you come in. Are you alright?"

Luna raised a brow at the question, but smiled at her sister. "I'm fine Celestia; I was here to check on you actually."

Celestia blushed a little at the memory of yesterday's argument, but gave her sister a half-smile of her own. "Oh, right. I'm doing fine Luna, why don't you join me?" Celestia patted the empty spot on the couch next to her before turning her attention back to her parchment.

Luna moved to sit next to Celestia, looking over at what was holding her sister's attention. A very detailed map was spread before her. She recognized it as one of her sister's; mapmaking was one of Celestia's older hobbies. The Evergreen forest was a small cluster of drawn trees in the middle of the map, and the surrounding landscape was drawn with agonizing attention to detail. Large sections were blank however, and three faint circles were drawn over some of the blank portions.

Luna sat next to her sister in silence, not wanting to speak first. Celestia pretended to study the map, but Luna could tell her mind was elsewhere when she stared at the same point of the map for several minutes. The crackling of the fire was the only noise to be heard. Luna opened her mouth to break the silence, but Celestia spoke first.

"Luna, I want to thank you."

Luna turned to stare at her in surprise. Celestia looked at the map for a few more seconds before turning to look in Luna's eyes. Luna's mouth opened and closed a few time as she tried to come up with a response.

"Y-you want... to thank me?" she managed to say. "I don't think I did anything worthy of thanks."

Celestia gave Luna a warm smile. "No, you did do something; you made me realize that I can't stay here like this. I need to leave."

"Leave?" Luna looked at her, stunned. While the two sisters were able to leave at any time they wanted, Luna and Celestia had spent their whole lives in the tower. "Where will you go?"

"I don't really know to be honest," Celestia replied, then turned back to the map. "All I know is, Discord is out there, and it is up to me to find him."

"And what then? What if he doesn't want to go home?"

"Then I'll just have to stay with him, wherever he is."

Luna hesitated before asking her next question. "What if he—" she swallowed audibly. "What if he does need to be stopped?"

Celestia sat still for a moment then turned and looked in her sister's eyes. The intensity of the warring emotions burning in Celestia's eyes made Luna draw back slightly. "I'll do whatever is necessary," she said, but the confidence of her words was weakened by her wavering voice. Celestia only saw doubt on Luna's face. "You don't think I can do it?"

"To be honest, I don't know; and I don't think you know either. That's not what I'm worried about though. How will you stop him on your own? You'll need the Elements to even have a chance, and you only have three."

"I can resonate with all six Elements. I've done it before, remember?"

"Yes I do. I also remember that it almost killed you. I'm not about to let you sacrifice yourself when it isn't necessary." The two sat thinking for a moment before Luna spoke again.

"I'll go with you; the two of us together can find him."

Celestia smiled at her sister. "Aren't you forgetting something?" Luna looked at her blankly. "Starswirl?" Luna's eyes widened in memory of the young unicorn.

"We can bring him with us," Luna started, but Celestia cut her off.

"He needs a stable home, Luna. If we can't give it to him, then we need to find one for him."

Luna sat quietly for a moment, then smiled as a plan came to her. "Funny you should mention finding him a new home."

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Starswirl gave me his mother's journal to read, he said there were some things in it I might be interested in. Turns out, his mother wasn't unprepared for what happened with the guard. She had been planning to take him from the Unicorn Kingdom for a while; she just wasn't expecting things to happen so suddenly. From what I gather, she was planning to take Starswirl north, to the 'home of her ancestors'. She also refers to it as the 'golden woods'."

Celestia looked thoughtfully at her map. "The Golden Woods," she said softly, brushing a hoof at the faint circle farthest north.

"Exactly," Luna said in excitement. "Starswirl also thinks that if his mother made it out of the city, that's where she would go."

"So you want to take him north to find the Golden Woods, where even if his mother isn't there, then at least there will be some family to leave him with?"

"Yes, and once we find him a place to stay, we can go and find Discord. Not a bad plan I say."

"It is a good plan," Celestia admitted, and Luna smiled widely. "But—" Luna's face fell slightly. "We need to make sure it's okay with him. We agreed to take him in, we can't just abandon him."

"I don't think we'll have a problem there, he was the one to give me the journal. I think he wants to go just to see if his mother is there."

"Well then," Celestia stood up, and Luna stood with her. "I'll start preparing to leave, you go talk to Starswirl."

"I'll talk to him in the morning, it is getting rather late. I think he's already gone to bed."

"That reminds me," Celestia said with a slight frown. "How is he doing?"

Luna's face fell, her excitement gone as her shoulders slumped down and she sighed. "Not well; he had another nightmare last night, but he still won't talk about it. I even tried giving him a sleeping potion, but I think it might have made it worse since he couldn't wake himself up."

"Hopefully these dreams will fade in time."

"Hopefully," Luna agreed, but hope was the furthest thing on her mind.

Author's Note

Been busy this week so only a short chapter.
Comments and feedback appreciated.