Luna's Unexpected Adventure

Chapters

Intrusions
The Plot Thickens
Work is Boring
Setting Out
Guitars Fix Everything
Adventure Awaits
Encounters
Of Train Rides and Spells
Deals and Dreams
Lines and Meetings
The First
Just Another Day
Canterlot Castle and Late Nights

Intrusions

Chapter Three

A hand clamped down on Luna's muzzle. Not particularly painful or forceful, but it was in a way that someone would do to another person by putting a finger to their mouth to shush them. Luna blinked, looking up and narrowing her eyes lightly. The pale woman chuckled, floating a foot off the ground with her knees bent back, "Just relax girl, it's all fine. Don't worry I'm not gonna do nothing."

Luna felt a growl come from herself, but with the little patience she had at the moment, she said, "If thy didn't want to cause some sort of malcontent then you wouldn't have attacked us and the portal with a tackle."

Opening her mouth to retort, but deciding to stay silent she simply grinned widely, leaning downwards and in Luna's face, gently bopping her nose. At this Luna's horn lit up to grab hold of the other woman and force her into the bed.

With a more decisive and demanding demeanor, Luna told rather than asked, "You shall tell us what thy name and intent be, knave."

Obviously not taking the Lunar Princess very seriously, the woman responded, "Marceline, and fun." The magical grip tightened as Luna narrowed her eyes. Just as that happened and Marceline grunted lightly, the door opened by a golden aura.

Clearing her throat, Celestia stepped into the room and looked over the situation in about three seconds. One, her Sister, Luna, was terribly annoyed and tired. Two, there was a strange, pale creature on the bed that seemed to be some kind of alien-like woman, and three, Luna was seemingly holding her body ransom.

Looking over to her sister with a rather terrifying calm expression, as little as it effected Luna nowadays, she asked, "Sister, would you kindly let go of this woman."

She seemed aghast, and did a double take between the two, "But she-"

Celestia cut her off instantly, "Would. You. Kindly. Let her go." With her tone slightly darkened, Luna decided she didn't want to embarrass either of them in front of their guest.

As soon as her magical aura stopped wrapping around Marceline very tightly, she shot up and let out a cackle, sighing and hanging upside down in front of Celestia, "Thanks Miss, what ever can I do to repay you?"

With a slight uneasiness she said, "Er, nothing, ma'am. I simply wish to know your name so we can converse better."

Marceline let another grin slip as she said, "The name's Marceline, I'm the Vampire Queen." As she said this, Luna groaned, her neck lowering as her eyes were half lidded with annoyance. Celestia looked over curiously, "Then why were you fighting with Luna? Practically you're sisters."

Luna let a quiet growl rise, "No, vampires are all fine and well but there's nothing similar. At all."

Sighing heavily, Celestia said, "My name is Celestia. As I said, my Sister here is Luna. I'm the Princess of the Sun, though many try more regal names, like regent. My Sister is the opposite as being the Princess of the Night..."

Stepping over quickly, Luna was in front of Celestia's face as soon as she finished her sentence, "Tia thou should stop giving this miscreant woman Marceline all about us!"

With a slight gasp, Celestia held back the urge to scold her sister, mostly, "Luna! You are being extremely childish. Please, ignore what she says at the moment she seems extremely irritable. It's especially annoying as you are treating your invited guest in such a terrible way."

Luna nearly yelled but, with a moment of reconciliation, she said, "...She isn't our invited guest she followed us through the-"

Marceline hopped in between the two, dangerously close to Luna with made her irritated state grow ever more great, "Yeah Luna, I mean come on you're the one who invited me here. It's the least you can do to be more accommodating." As Marceline talked her tone turned more realistic and less manufactured, it was difficult to understand and trust beforehand as it was completely obvious she was lying, but at this point her tone was sincere.

With a disapproving stare, Celestia stared at Luna. It wasn't painful or mean, not to mention it wasn't supposed to be anything but slightly playful, but Luna got the message. With a disgruntled grumble she said, "Marceline, We would be happy to make correct accommodations for thy living space while thou visits..."

Standing on her own balcony, Luna was preparing to lower the moon so her Sister could raise the sun, and Marceline was laughing and occasionally tuning her instrument. For all Luna could care, she could fly off. But, the fact that Marceline came from a different world, or possibly dimension itself, could cause many problems, so she had to get her back to the other world of Ooo.

With a sigh she tore herself away, albeit slowly, from the outside world and focused on her inside. Her magic began to build throughout her body and the aura spread around her form. The blue outline slowly seeped to her fur, and at this point it made her eyes open with white filling them. The full release of her magic was at hand, and the Princess of the Night then forced herself forward in the process.

At this point, the magic had become even more a part of her, it was almost her very being. The reaction, however, caused an out of body experience. With practiced ease she made her way across the Lunar plane, the stars lining the sky and shining moonlight from all around.

As her hooves clopped noisily, she eventually stopped. Taking a final look around, it was time to leave this sort of save haven. With her horn lighting up with a fairly brighter blue than what it would regularly be, the scene slowly changed, the stars and moon hanging in the sky heading to the horizon.

And, on her Sister's part, the sky began to turn red and orange, all the brilliant colors of sunrise. As soon as the Sun was in place, Luna nodded and turned back to where she came. Though she could leave at any time, an excuse was lovely to use, considering Luna loved being here. It was so calm and serene, Luna may have stayed here if she had a choice. And some friends, of course.

Finally activating her powers once more, she began to drag herself back to the earthly realm of Equestria. Finally, her body was let down, the show abruptly ending. What felt like perhaps an hour or longer was only a minute, and it left her feeling exhausted. With her putting the Moon to rest, as it would never leave her be until it was, she collapsed in her bed.

A voice then roused her slightly, "Oh Luuuna...where am I supposed to sleep? I'm tired too ya know."

Sighing, and mumbling, she managed to say, "Just get in the bed, Marceline..."

Within a few seconds the covers shifted, and a cold presence took a place beside Luna. Deciding to not care about it, her eyes remained shut and her head was still against the pillow. Within a minute she had passed out into the pillow, continuously mumbling like always.

Again, the voice of Marceline disturbed her. It must have been at least nine hours, as that was the only time she could almost ever wake up. That is, without force. Last time somepony had woken her with any kind of force, well, it was quite the mess to clean up. They had all the food they had brought to Luna splattered on the wall and themselves, as well as the windows being shattered.

However, a gentle nudge into her shoulder made her mumble something about five more minutes, but apparently Marceline would have none of it. She pressed an arm around her and did a makeshift hug. Continuing to grumble, annoyed, but eventually simply relaxed against her. Whatever the cause, it was simply the most comfortable position at the moment.

A chuckle that was right next to her ear, however, made it twitch. Another one, followed by the hot breath breathing over her ear said, "Oh Lunies, it's time to get up..."

After hearing the ridiculous pet name, Luna finally decided it may be indeed time to get up. Also, the feeling on her twitching ear and the slight blush that crept onto her cheeks wasn't exactly helping the matter. Yawning, she scratched her chest and neck, her wings fluffing out their feathers, "Hm...yes, yes, We're getting up."

Her eyes opened slowly and groggily, the light marks under her eyes telling the tale of obvious exhaustion. She really did not want to move whatsoever, but she didn't trust the person sleeping next to her. Standing up, Luna fully outstretched her wings, leaning so she could crack her back.

Another yawn left her before she finally looked about. The sun was going down slowly, and she almost thanked Marceline for waking her up before it was time. Leaving to the balcony, she uttered a simple, "Thank you."

As she stepped onto the decorative floor of the balcony, Luna was reminded of the cold tiles. Sighing internally, she raised her head up, her eyes closing as the magic slowly began to focus in and around her horn. At this point the Sun had already lowered past the horizon, or mostly. In either case, the Moon was becoming impatient with Luna. A tug on her magical essence was all Luna needed to know this.

With a few more minutes of concentration, the same process as beforehand began happening, her body gaining an ethereal glow as she entered the Lunar Plane. A calm swept over her and she remembered what it was like to be so calm. The feeling in of itself was an amazing load off of her shoulders. However, with her body hanging in midair, and her consciousness walking through the mist covered plane, Luna had only some time before it would be too long and she could worry somepony.

A wave of her horn and the magic was drawn from the Moon to call upon it's power. Many believed the Moon and Sun were just objects the Princesses controlled, when it was more like they were equals in a few ways. Though the Sun and Moon were, more or less, beings. Most of them was comprised of energy, which Luna and Tia used to raise and lower them. Just as with the Sisters, the Sun and Moon had a sort of sibling connection, and needed balance, lest the world fall into a dark descent.

Shaking her head a bit, Luna disbanded such thoughts, as they again brought the weight of a world and country on her shoulders. Opening her eyes, she watched as the moon slowly rose above the horizon and slowly make it's ascent to the sky. The stars began showing beyond the Moon, light in the area being dominated by the gentle blue glow.

Finally, she focused her magic once more as it forced her mind back into the body of the corresponding lunar mare. As soon as she was back she dropped down, sighing. Walking back into the room she noticed a few things. One of them was that the Marceline girl was playing an instrument. It looked like a guitar that was double edged, like a battleaxe.

This thought brought shivers and unwanted thoughts from the time that Equestria had need of those. The blood spilled and the things that the ponies would do in the name of "justice" or the Princesses, it was a very dark time indeed. The unification of Equestria wasn't as much of a fairy tale as some may have the fillies and colts believe.

Tossing the thought as far back in her mind as she could, Luna slowly walked up and sat, turning her head to the side lightly as Marceline started to play. It wasn't particularly fast, and it didn't have any vocals. It was slow spinning and built up to nothing. As much as Luna had it out for Marceline, she had to admit, the girl had talent in this category.

Not that it mattered. She'd have to return back to the other world tonight, "Ahem, Marceline?"

Marceline turned around with another devilish grin, slowing to a stop on her music, "Oh, hey. How's it goin?"

She opened her mouth to answer before closing it and brought a hoof to her mouth. What was it again? Ah, yes.

Clearing her throat she said, "It is fairing well. And I trust you are doing well?"

A nod was her only answer from Marceline, and Luna then said, "We must inform you that thou must be leaving this night. We will gather the materials needed, it shall only be a bit of time, perhaps an hour if we are slow or decide on flying."

Something along the lines of a look of confusion, Marceline asked, "So soon? I dunno, I wanted to hangout at least until sunrise."

Sighing, like she always would in a difficult decision, Luna retorted, "Yes, well, be that as it may you must have some sort of responsibilities back where you came from, not to mention others waiting for thy company. More than anything there's little you could do here.If you must do something, simply follow me while I go to get the items needed."

Marceline scrunched her face up a bit before nodding, strapping the guitar to her back. Luna stepped out onto the balcony, levitating her regalia over and lifting her hooves one by one to let it slip on, "You can fly, correct?"

She nodded, and Luna let a small smile slip on her face. Perfect.

Jumping off the balcony, she let the wind beat her face for a moment before she spread her wings, gliding only ten feet off the ground and onward. A mighty flap was all it took for her to raise a fair distance upwards. Marceline was behind her, floating lazily along with her.

A silence settled comfortable between the two. It wasn't mandatory, but it wasn't necessarily awkward. The two didn't have much to speak about, nothing that Marceline was interested in at least. In a few minutes they had neared the Everfree and Luna spoke quickly, "Marceline, I advise heavily that you stay close to me. More over, don't attack any of the creatures, simply tell me and I'll be able to arrange a quick speed."

Nodding in agreement, Marceline then dove down into the trees. Luna groaned in annoyance, giving a flap of her wings to stop herself midair. Little flaps were heard as Luna slowly lowered herself into the Everfree. Marceline was leaning against a tree, smiling, just as always, "Well come on Lunies, let's get whatever we need then."

It had been at least a half hour of another silence with occasional small snippets of a nonexistent conversation. Mostly doing of what they needed and how long it would take to use it. In that time, Luna had been tracking down a Manticore. It was, strangely enough, moving towards Ponyville. Ending up on the end of the forest, Luna saw that it was sitting behind Twilight's friend's house. Fluttershy, that was her name.

A panic gripped her as she slowly made her way over, creeping as silently as she could. Marceline took to floating above her, the normally rakish girl no longer making sarcastic comments on the situation and seemingly serious. Even she could understand the potential problems.

Luna looked it over once she was close enough, slowly reaching and plucking out a few hairs of it's mane. A grumble and low roar was heard from the sleeping beast, only for it to be silenced once more. Hard sleepers would save the day eventually, and Luna was thankful that this creature was so tired. Deciding it was best to warn Fluttershy, Luna walked around the building and motioned for Marceline to wait in the back.

Raising a metal clad hoof to the door, she knocked thrice, setting it back down with a rather loud clop sound. Within a few moments, the timid mare had opened the door, looking tired as ever. However, as soon as she saw the Princess standing in front of her door, she sputtered, then backed up a bit, looking downwards and not daring to look up to her hard eyes.

Rubbing her forehead with slight annoyance due to the half bow half retreat, Luna said, "Fluttershy, thou would be more accommodating if you would listen for a moment before treating me as if we weren't your friend."

Fluttershy then stopped her movements and looked up, speaking quietly, as always, "Um, I'm sorry Princess, if you...what do you want again?"

She then remembered the dangerous beast around the back, her own eyes widening a bit as she said, "We simply wished to inform you there was a Manticore sleeping behind your home..."

A giggle resounded from the yellow Pegasus as she responded, "Oh, that's Fluffy. He's a real cutie, don't worry. I'm fine. Have a-" A yawn interrupted her sentence, "-nice night Luna."

Nodding, though still confused, Luna bid her farewell and walked back around the corner, seeing Marceline sitting in the grass and seemingly tuning her guitar. She walked over and nudged Marceline with a hoof to tell her 'It's time to go', and she followed behind Luna. However, Luna instead turned around and headed around town, towards the Library.

It took a mere five minutes to get there, and as they did, Luna looked over her shoulder at Marceline who, again, was floating lazily behind her. At that moment, Luna noticed that the moonlight made the red guitar in her hands and the mostly casual outfit she wore gain a sort of shine to it. The different colors now present were quite the sight, it was like looking across a large ocean during the night.

Perhaps it wasn't beautiful, but it was still fairly surprising. Shrugging the thought off herself, Luna knew that thinking in such ways wasn't proper of a Princess.

Raising a hoof to knock on the Library door, it was soon answered by a tired Spike. He looked over Luna, then turned around, then back to Luna. He sighed, calling out into the Library, "Twilight, Luna's come to visit for some reason..."

He turned away to walk upstairs to Twilight's bedroom and Luna, as well as Marceline, let themselves in and closed the door behind themselves. Thankfully most of the town was asleep, so they didn't need to worry about questions with Marceline.

They both sat down, on the same couch but straying a good distance away from each other. After five minutes passed a somewhat surprised, but mostly worried Twilight came rushing down the stairs in a purple blur, "What is it? Did something happen? I wasn-wasn't expecting you over tonight Prince-"

Her words stopped dead in their tracks as Twilight looked on to the strange creature sitting next to Luna. Marceline smiled, waved her hand a bit and said, "Hey, what's goin' on."

Author's Note

Ha ha, man, I hope I didn't wait too long. Procrastination is a bitch, don't ya think?

Most of the adventure stuff will be going on a bit later, like the romance. For the most part I'm just shoving exposition down your throats so I can get headcanons and other such things out there.

Enjoy, I'll try to write the next chapter within a few days.

The Plot Thickens

Chapter Four

Twilight's jaw would've hit the floor, though her facial structure and bone mapping are unable to do such a feat. In either case she was still extremely surprised by the strange alien creature sitting on her couch. The fact that the Princess was sitting next to her was insanely confusing as well, not to mention Luna was extremely casual towards both of them. Stammering, Twilight then said, "I-er, wha-who-I, I don't..?"

The Princess, however, made a 'shush' sound to her so she shut her mouth, looking downwards. As much as Princess Luna always asked Twilight to not call her by such a official title, it was a moot point on Twilight, mostly because of her astute, and usually professional, personality cut off her more casual side of her personality.

Luna opened her mouth to speak and Twilight walked over with a quick pace, cutting her off, "But it's an alien or-or maybe it's some kind of mutant- um, no offence miss- wait, is it even a miss? I think it is, wait is it even sentient? I don't think it'd be wearing clothes if it w-" Immediately Twilight stopped her rant to look over to Luna and blushed slightly with a slight, nervous laugh, "Oh, er, sorry Princess, I sort, ah, of cut you off. Eheh."

Twilight stepped back, staring down at her hooves, obviously embarrassed, shamed, or possibly both. The only problem is that Luna knew exactly that. She wasn't Princess Celestia's personal protege without knowing her sister Princess Luna, at least enough to see the tells. Though the tells were usually just seeing if she was uncomfortable or bored, and perhaps even excited. The flip side of the coin also went alone with Princess Luna knowing Twilight, though she knew a bit more.

While most ponies would think, 'Hey Twilight, isn't it easy to see those things and emotions from ponies?' Twilight would simply answer no. All ponies and creatures alike have different facial movements, twitches and of course expressions for different emotions and thought processes. Though Twilight thought she should probably stop over thinking it and pay attention to the Princess talking. Wait, the Princess is talking?! I didn't even notice!

"-and that is where this strange woman, Marceline, is originated from. While exact details, we are unsure on those, but it is impudent to the point." Luna finished her apparently paragraph long explanation. Though Twilight stammered her sentence, she responded, "Could you perhaps repeat what you said, Princess? I wasn't paying attention." Another quick and nervous half giggle half sigh left her.

The Princess' expression then dropped to a deadpan version of it's normally controlled self. She stared at Twilight and cleared her throat a bit, sighing lazily, "Art thou certain we have to repeat the explanation?"

Rethinking over her wording, Twilight smiled lightly, looking back up to the Princess and said with slight hesitation, "Well, could you perhaps summarize what you said? If it's alright Princess, I'd hate to be not courteous towards you."

A small giggle escaped the Princess of the Night, one that Twilight hasn't exactly heard, almost ever if at all. Looking over, Twilight saw the same slightly blank-faced Luna and the snickering woman beside her, however, she saw another woman.

She shifted her head a bit, looking out the window behind the two. There, a secondary Marceline-like person smiled warmly, waving lightly towards Twilight, then ducking down suddenly.

Luna cleared her throat, getting Twilight's attention again, "Twilight, is something the matter? Do you wish us to go?"

Gasping lightly, Twilight gulped and shook her head furiously, "No! Of course not! Unless you want to, I don't want to get called a Princess napper. Not that I could I mean, you could probably overpower me if you wanted to, and I-okay, I mean, uh, no, I'd like you to stay. Ahem." Twilight scratched the back of her head nervously before returning a small smile, "Princess and friend. Just, give me a moment, will you please?"

A nod was her answer and Twilight took the time to thank them for their patience, then walked towards the door, her facade of calm melting off like a marshmallow off a stick. She quickly closed the door and moved around back to the window. As soon as she got near it however, an indigo glow enveloped her and tugged her downwards and forward.

Leaving little room to complain Twilight simply went along with the magic's tugging and ended up avoiding detection and behind the Library. As soon as she got there however, her eyes slowly widened before it seemed they would pop out of her skull.

"W-what in the name of Celest-!"

Luna waited patiently for the now strangely acting Twilight. While she was always nervous around the Princess herself, poor dear, she was absolutely losing her concentration at the moment. For whatever reason, Luna knew that something was up, possibly just the fact that Luna had come over in the middle of the night with an unknown creature to Equestrian society and introduced her to Twilight like it was no big deal.

But then again, she had met many a different creature back in the time of her traveling, and it wasn't completely odd to have an alien creature sitting next to her. Yes, it was odd, but it wasn't to the point that it was completely insane.
For quite a few reasons Luna kept questioning Twilight's story and her motives, but she then stopped herself. Why is it my place to decide what her motives are? Twilight is an astute young Unicorn, she'd never plan any sort of riff raff.

Sitting back up, and with a small smirk, she decided to relax against the cushions more. It was probably nothing.

Twilight continued trying to talk, though the hand clamped over her mouth prevented speech. Little more than murmurs escaped her lips as she tried to ramble on and on about what she was seeing at the moment. Then, a hushed voice spoke to her, "Twilight, calm yourself! It is just us- I mean, I, Luna. I've come to speak with you, if now is the correct time."

Taking her grip away from the exasperated mare, Twilight let her maw gape, staring at Luna. She gestured with her hooves to the Library, then to herself, then back a few times. At last they pointed at the Princess standing before her. However, one problem was that Twilight finally started to analyze that the Lunar Princess outside the Library had transformed into a pseudo creature like the woman in the Library now.

Firstly, the Princess looked like Marceline, if not shorter and having a cover of the same color of fur. Her top was a dark, deep blue color which stretched along her body and covered most of her legs. The tell tale signs of some sort of other clothing with light blue and black colors, strings and frills laid beneath the dress. Her wings were still there, as well as Luna's horn which let Twilight relax slightly.

More over, her face was more flat than a pony's, again, like the woman inside. What was her name? Marceline, yes. Looking downwards, Twilight noticed Luna was wearing a pair of rather casual looking pair of shoes on her feet. They didn't look like metal or glass or anything important so she disregarded them. All in all, Twilight had to admit that she may have preferred the Princess looked this way, it was rather...different.

Then again, ponies aren't always nice with different. Oh well.

Opening her mouth to speak again at a slightly slowed pace, "Luna?! What happened? When did- who did- wha-?!"

Another giggle. This caused a small pout to form on Twilight's face, which only made Luna get down on one of her knees, "Twilight, it is quite alright. We have used this spell many times by this point and-" Her eyes drifted to Twilight, and for a moment her expression dropped to that of the Princess inside, "-are not a changeling. So we suggest you stop charging a spell."

Twilight grimaced lightly, taking a small step back as she backed up into the Library with a light thud. She grinned sheepishly, "Sorry Princess, just, I try to not take risks."

Smiling warmly once more, the Princess responded, "It's quite alright Twilight. Now then, I have a simple task to ask of you before I return to ah...well, where we're from doesn't matter."

Looking at Princess Luna curiously, Twilight asked with trepidation, "...What kind of simple task?"

Yawning, Marceline had turned herself upside down and was hanging there with a bored expression on her face while Luna waited patiently. Another astonishing trait of Luna's is she has an amazing patience with even the largest annoyances.

The last time the Princess of the Night had lost her temper was...well, about a thousand years ago. The chances of this act bleeding back into her however were completely unlikely, and even so, Twilight and her friends would be with Luna the whole way back into a better state. A smile crept onto her face as she lifted her head slightly. Twilight and her friends.

It was a subject she gave much thought to whenever she could. It made her feel warm and happy inside instead of cold and hard. No one should ever have to suffer like that, and Luna always did her best to make sure of that, though sometimes it didn't seem like enough. Sighing, Luna decided to herself she was over thinking the matter and it'd probably be better if left alone. Mostly, anyways.

Still, back on a more happy thought process and leaving the other in the dust, the Princess started to think harder on Twilight and her friends. She held them dear, most definitely, and saw why her Sister saw cause for them to be friends. Without any friends or acquaintances really except for Tia, Luna may have...

A poke at her shoulder interrupted a dark thought, and Luna looked over with a curious glance, "Yes?"

Twilight smiled widely, taking a seat in front of the couch, "Sorry about making you wait Princess, I thought I saw something outside. It's fine though, just one of Fluttershy's critters."

Luna kept her gentle smile on her face as she said, "Ah, well, back to the matter at hand then, Twilight." The Unicorn nodded, scooting up a bit closer like a filly ready for story time before bed.

Then, the Princess began her tale, "We shall sum up the story then. We, Princess Luna, had gone to another...world, we suppose thou could'st call it. However, it was not one we had visited before. More over, it had very comical others there as well as strange looks. But after spending quality time with the inhabitants and sharing information, we had gone to leave and the girl Marceline tackled us into the portal and-"

Marceline looked over sharply, a small, confident smile, "I thought I was your guest, Lunies?"

Gasping, Twilight said, "What?! 'Lunies'? What kind of name is that? Princess Luna why is she calling you by pet names?" Said Twilight quickly, Luna retorted with, "Well, We're not exactly cert-"

Once more, seemingly for the hundredth time that night, Luna was cut off by Twilight with yet another ramble, "Oh, oh no. Is she close to you or something? Like, how close? Is that even possible?! Oh sweet Celestia, cross universe couples, how is that even possible! Marceline, Princess please tell me that isn't true and that I'm just crazy, I mean I know I'm crazy but-"

This time, Twilight was cut off instead by Marceline letting out a chuckle, leaning next to Luna and taking hold of her shoulders, craning her head just above Luna's shoulder and said in a sultry, yet playful tone, "Heh, you don't gotta worry Twilight, let me tell you it's completely possible."

Confused noises came from Twilight as she tried to comprehend the situation, looking between the two, a blush rising to her cheeks as her pupils shrank slowly in size. Luna felt her own cheeks slowly rise with color, as well as her own pupils dilating slightly as she retorted rather loudly, "What?! Marceline don't be ridiculous- Twilight we promise you that isn't true at all, Marceline is trying to make you befuddled, please disregard her statement."

Twilight shook her head, nodding as she ran a hoof over her forehead and sighed in relief, "Oh, good. I mean- you know, I'm just thankful that I'm just crazy, eheheh..."

Marceline backed off of Luna flying around them both lazily, "Man, you two are so boring right now. I mean, yeah I understand I gotta go or whatever but I was just playing around, you don't have to get all touchy Luna." And Marceline had faked quite a well done tone of being upset.

Groaning quietly, Luna regained herself and sighed heavily, "Marceline, we came for the ingredients to the potion, nothing more. You must calm thy self until you return to your home. Now then Twilight, what we need is a dragon scale, nothing large or overbearing, something we may carry with our hooves, not bigger than a pebble."

A slow nod came from Twilight as she rose a hoof to her mouth, "Hm...well, I don't think Spike would appreciate it, but I'll see if I can get one from him, maybe one that he was shedding anyways."

Smiling once more, the Princess nodded once, "That would be perfect, Twilight. We shall wait here for it then." For a few moments Twilight was silent, before she responded, "Er, well, it could take a day, maybe two..."

Something in her voice made Princess Luna almost question her, but deciding to leave it be for the time being, she shrugged, "That will be...a slightly troublesome time then. We can wait, we think. Marceline?"

Looking up at the Vampire Queen, she was simply floating about and answered without even batting an eye in their direction, "Yeah, sounds good. I get to relax over in this place for a while, seems exciting yo."

She felt like grimacing at her grammar, but decided to ignore it. Luna looked back down to Twilight, gave her a curt nod and got up, her magic tugging on Marceline, "Good night to you Twilight, I'll be heading back to the Castle now..."

Marceline got the message and sighed, letting out a long winded, "Finally!" And followed her quickly out. Twilight attempted to give a small bow but Luna had already flapped her wings out of the Library and she sighed, falling to the ground and shutting the door with her own lavender magic. Just then, a knock was on the window, and as her tired eyes looked over, she saw the other Luna waving a few times before turning around, followed by a flash.

It was going to be a long night, reasoned Twilight as she stepped upwards to her bedroom.

Author's Note

I did it, finally. Jeez, crunching out these chapters while waiting for inspiration is like waiting for the pizza guy to get to your house, you're pretty sure when he'll be there but it's like get the fuck over heeeere already.

I hope you enjoy, as always, I tried my best.

Work is Boring

Chapter Five

A light ticking sound was, almost, the only disturbance in the silence of Luna's room. A book was levitated in front of the Princess of the Night, surrounded by an indigo glow, as always. A pair of half-rimmed glasses adorned her face as she was also holding a feather pen, and a few pieces of parchment on the desk below her head. For the most part, a princess' life is nothing to be adorned, while yes they do get loved and cherished, not to mention pampered, it can be quite frustrating.

The main reason for this, or at least for Luna as she didn't know how her Sister dealt with such annoyances, is due to the immense amount of paperwork that they must do almost every day. One of the few times they have off is Saturday, and even then they're too busy sleeping to do much else. On the times that Luna did get her time off, she went into the gardens to relax and have a walk around, perhaps went to watch a motion picture, it all depended on her mood.

Thankfully, today was Friday, so when she woke up tomorrow she'd have the day off. For whatever she chose to do instead of getting a maid or some other servant bringing papers to her room, usually stating redundant things such as how important it is to have regulation bathroom sizes. While an important decree or some other law did come her way at times, Luna was more or less extremely bored throughout the entire affair. Don't even get her started on her Night Court...

But, it is the price everyone must pay with Royalty, Luna decided. She would love to take a vacation, but many ponies were still uncertain about her, so it was almost her duty to try and prove herself, not that she needed to for the important ponies to her like Celestia or Twilight and her friends. The main problem were the nobles. From what Luna could tell, they have no power other than words and 'Royalty'.

Just the fact that the pompous little idiots thought they could boss around other ponies because they are rich unnerved Luna to such a degree, she would punt them all out of Equestria herself. However, Tia knows exactly how Luna feels, and obviously stops her from doing so. Mostly. Whenever the Princess gets a chance, she always tries to debunk the facade of royalty put on by the nobles.

All part of a kingdom, Princess Luna summarized. It wasn't always pretty, it wasn't always kind, but things had to be done for a reason. Even when the things to be done are regulation bathroom sizes.

Luna's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden burst of laughter. Looking behind herself with a mild expression, she saw Marceline nearly inches away, and floating above her, trying to stifle her laughter, "Ho, oh my god. That's too funny, regulation bathroom sizes? I'm sorry but really, that's just..." Another fit of laughter left the Vampire Queen.

Growling quietly, Luna turned back around, trying to focus on the ticking of the clock, it always helped her calm for some reason. Perhaps it was the fact it was calm, collected, and kept moving forward. Almost like Luna, or how she was a majority of the time.

After a few more random papers, a stomach then growled. Confused, Princess Luna raised her head up a bit, her face scrunching up a bit as she looked back to Marceline, "...Why have you not told us you were hungry?"

The look of laughter died almost immediately as she got a mostly blank face, or rather neutral one, "What do you mean? I'm not-" Yet another sound from her empty stomach sounded in the room. Looking back up to Marceline's face, Luna cleared her throat, "You were saying?"

With a small flip in midair, the Vampire Queen landed beside Luna, "Look, I really don't wanna bother you if you're busy, just get your work done and then we can talk."

Glancing outside through the open balcony, the Moon was nearing the horizon, which made Luna scratch her chin, "Well, it is nearly daybreak, and I'll be asleep the whole day without the world ending, so we think thou should tell us what it is you seek for sustenance."

She opened her mouth to reply, probably in a nonchalant manner, but Luna instantly said, "No."

With a slight look of defeat, Marceline sighed over dramatically and said, "Well, I'm a vampire, so what do you think I eat?"

Without a single thought Luna responded with the simple answer, "Blood."

A small chuckle escaped Marceline before she said, "Well, I can, but I tend not to. Here, you see this curtain?" Marceline lifted up a velvety, red curtain, and seemingly had trouble to have it in her hands. About to respond, the Vampire Queen stopped Luna in her tracks and sunk her teeth lightly into the fabric of the curtain. Within a few moments, the effects took place and the whole curtain started to lose it's color, turning a grey color.

Eyes slowly opening, the Princess' shocked face was probably what made Marceline smile, or perhaps it was getting something to eat. In either case she pulled away once it was all gone and sighed, floating on her back as if on a pool, "See, told ya it was weird. Anyways, yeah."

With a few moments to collect herself, Princess Luna said, "So you drink the pigment red then?" A nod was her only answer as Marceline floated backwards.

She watched her for a good minute before turning back to her work, eyes scanning her book to read and work on the random papers at the same time.

For about a half hour the room was dominated by the sound of the old, wooden clock against the wall. Then Luna spoke up, "If you could eat so easily, why did you not do it beforehand? We would've allowed thee to eat, we assure you."

Something like a first time, at least for Luna, a glimmer of responsibility was present in Marceline's voice, "Because I know I've been a pain in your royal behind and I'd rather not get in trouble in a place where I can't run away from. Not to mention I wasn't even that hungry, you'd know if I was."

A bit taken aback by the way Princess Luna heard Marceline speak, she simply nodded and said, "Alright, then...simply tell us if you need anything more, Marceline."

And with that small encounter, Luna turned back to her work and began writing out her signature and other such things, and silence dominated the room once more.

A yawn came from Luna's tired body, but her mind was still more than active at the moment. In fact it was racing. She knew she wouldn't be asleep all day tomorrow, she would have to look after the Vampire Queen. Bringing bad tidings to her new friends in the land of Ooo wouldn't be the best way to reintroduce herself.

However, her mind was also the fact that Marceline was fairly silent, and now sitting on the bed while looking downwards. Setting the paperwork and pen down in it's ink, Luna stood out of her chair and pushed it back in, trotting over to the woman slowly, "Marceline, is something troubling you? You've been rather quiet."

She slowly looked up, a regular look on her face, just as always, "Huh? Yeah, I'm cool, just a bit worried about some stuff back at my home, don't worry about it, it'll be fine." A rather quick answer left her, so Princess Luna decided it'd be best not to push for information. Whatever it is, she probably doesn't want to think about it too much.

Walking to the other side of the bed, Luna laid down in a heap, however, just as she did, a familiar tug on her magic made a heavy sigh leave her. Standing up to go to the balcony, she began charging the spell once more, just as she did every day.

Luna then found herself in a comfortable bed, seemingly just after she had cast the spell. She sat up quickly, looking around with a slight panic gripping her. The room was white, or at least tried to be in a way. An IV was hanging loosely with nothing hooked into it and a bandage was around the base of her horn. She slowly got herself up despite the small amount of fear, and also because of the aching pain in her whole body.

Taking off outside the room as quickly as she could, Luna ran out of her room into a corridor. Outside, her Sister, Tia, was sitting in a chair while she talked to what seemed to be a nurse. And, much to Luna's relief, Marceline was beside her Sister and sat cross legged in midair. Something inside her wanted to ask how no one had asked anything, but she had more important things to ask.

She took a few steps towards them, only to notice that her footing was off slightly, and so did the nurse. She trotted over in a hurried pace, making sure that Luna didn't fall flat onto her face. Tia had also gotten up with a worried look, walking over to Luna. Marceline followed shortly behind her Sister, watching Luna carefully.

Despite Luna's semi-quiet retorts, the nurse worked her into her bed once more. Luna sighed, rubbing her forelegs due to the aching feeling. The nurse said something to Celestia, and she then nodded, so the nurse trotted off. Luna assumed it was something about being alone with her sister.

Both Tia and Marceline stepped up to Luna, Marceline sitting down at the foot of the bed as Luna asked in a slightly raspy voice, "Sister, what happened? We remember casting the spell but we-"

Celestia took hold of her sister's hoof with her own, saying calmly, "It's alright Luna, do not worry, we took care of the Sun and Moon, nopony even noticed what happened."

Sighing with relief, Luna then let her head fall back into the pillow, then asked, "Thou didn't answer our question, Sister, what had happened?"

Stepping up slightly, Marceline said in response, "You started the spell thing, but apparently something happened and I guess just as you were completing it, you just collapsed on the balcony for some reason. You wouldn't wake up and I went to go get your sister."

While giving Marceline a bit of a look, Celestia then looked back to Luna, "Indeed, you had passed out due to overexertion of your powers, your magic was still there, but not very much of it."

Luna swore under her breath, hitting the bed lightly, and Celestia took notice immediately, "Sister, it's nothing to be ashamed of. From what I know you've been very active since you came back, you've been overworking yourself far too much and-"

Interrupting Tia, Luna retorted, "But you've been able to take the harness of both celestial beings for a millennium, yet I cannot control one for three years!" Her voice cracked slightly due to her almost-yelling, and Marceline shrunk back a bit, realizing it was a conversation between sisters, not her AND the sisters.

Celestia replied with a sigh, "I know, but sister I've had time to get used to both, you haven't moved the moon for years, you cannot expect so much of yourself. Give yourself time, ever since you got back you've been working your flank off in order to prove yourself to everypony, and don't say you don't, because I know you too well to not see you're lying."

Her ears splayed back slightly, looking to the side, "If it's what we have to do in order to gain back our respect for the subjects then we must do it, it's the only way for others to trust us as they did before...thou knows, Sister."

For a good minute, Celestia looked Luna over. A concerned expression mixed with motherly worry was something resembling contemplation, and she looked to Marceline, and said to Luna once more, "My sister, I'm sorry but there is little I can do to reassure you that kind of trust from them. But you must know, many still trust you unconditionally sister, it isn't going to change by working yourself into a hole, Luna."

She tried to respond in some way, but in the end Luna simply wanted to disagree to disagree, for no other reason did she have to disagree. With an annoyed sigh and slightly more aggravated tone of voice Luna then asked, "Then what would you have us do while we get used to using our powers?"

Thinking for a moment, Celestia turned and said with a small smile, "Go on a vacation, Luna."

It had been five hours. Five hours of back and forth bickering of Celestia and Luna, Celestia arguing it was for the better and Luna saying it would make her look lazy and unfit. Both of them, however, annoyed Marceline as she sat in the room, tuning her guitar.

"-but it will make us look as if we cannot hold our own in the form of being a Princess-!" For the thousandth time, Celestia said, "It will help you relax so you aren't so overworked, Luna! Even I have taken vacations, and yes I do still raise the Sun and or Moon, but it still helped to simply know I had time to myself, everypony needs that Luna, even you."

Luna groaned and said in a slightly whiny voice, "But Tia, we-"

Celestia interrupted her immediately, "No buts, you're going on a vacation Luna, trust me, it's for the best of your interests. It isn't better for a Princess to pass out on her balcony and get taken to the hospital."

With that said, Luna sat back, realizing she didn't have much of a say. Huffing, Celestia then smiled giving Luna a nuzzle, "Trust me with this, sister. Don't worry about the kingdom or it's ponies for a few days, perhaps a week. Everypony needs a few days to unwind and calm themselves."

Luna didn't respond other than a small nuzzle back and a, "I know, Sister..."

As soon as Tia left, Marceline floated above Luna and said, "Rough day, huh?" Luna simply turned her head over, closing her eyes, "Thou will still be leaving in a few days time, Marceline. But because off circumstances thee will have to come with us."

A wide grin splayed on Marceline's face as she raised up, clasping her hands together, "Ho boy, this is gonna be fun..."

"...more like a nightmare." Said Luna, mumbling under her breath as she fell asleep, as did Marceline shortly after in a chair next to the bed.

Author's Note

Woo hoo, two in a row. Can we go for a triple kill? Who knows. So yes, vacation time, oh boy. I hope you all enjoyed, the next few chapters will have some more characters coming in to hang about or other things, who knows, I'm pretty indecisive a lot of the time. I must also say the vacation will be a part of the story, but nowhere near all of it, so stay tuned!

Setting Out

Chapter Six

Celestia was sitting in her room, drinking a soothing cup of hot tea. While usually her day was overwhelmed with near disabling levels of work and her tolerance would usually run on thin ice by the end of the day. About the only things that truly got her relaxed were, well, relaxing in general, and sleeping.

Not to mention binge eating a bit of cake, but as Celestia raised a hoof to her mouth to hide a smirk, she decided no one needed to know about that. Though she did suspect her sister, Luna, knew something of it. Although, Luna was more of a inside pony, so it came no surprise to Celestia she enjoyed all manners of boardgames and a drink every now and then. Not that she was addicted in any way, but every month or few months a bottle of wine would go missing from the Royal Wine cellar, and Celestia would find a grouchy Princess of the Night with a screaming headache, literally, the next morning.

As hard as she tried to hide her habits, Celestia knew more than Luna may think...

...and of course she took precautions to make sure they never get out of hand, like watering down the aged wine, and those that had higher alcohol contents. She smiled to herself.

Sadly, the day was only half over, and she assumed Luna and Marceline were sleeping, talking, arguing or all three. She shook her head, somewhat unaware to the not-so-simple situation that was coming hereafter.

Luna was laying on her bed, attempting to get a small amount of rest while she could. However, each time she did, another small creak and movement came from the woman beside her. Marceline, while not having much etiquette in terms of speaking or most manners, she definitely didn't have any while having another person in the bed.

She was rolling around annoyingly, yawning loudly at times and kept hitting Luna on accident only for Luna to separate them both with her magic, or try to, and fail with a small grunt. Her horn wasn't nonfunctional, just extremely hard to use. It seemed her constant use of magic the past few days with high end spells caused Luna's horn to resent any spells, or most with any real power behind them.

While the Princess of the Moon continued to try and sleep, she couldn't help but wonder what Marceline was doing when she rose out of the bed, as she assumed a vampire would. That word still bothered her, 'vampire'. She remembered making such creatures long ago when Luna wanted more subjects to respect and appreciate her night as they did now, however, they usually referred to the 'gift' as a curse.

She could understand easily why they did that so, as it's rather annoying not able to go out into the sun or do anything during the day, almost. Though the increased strength and speed were good, it still came at too many prices to actually become good. Much to Luna's relief though, Celestia had cured most of the vampires of their ailments and made sure they could adjust again by giving them new names and lives. However, some of them still have attributes and powers of one, while not having the hunger of blood.

The 'hybrids', as ponies called them, were not well known and very docile so it wasn't a problem. Still, it bothered Luna.

And somewhere in the distance, a certain pink Earth pony giggle-snorted.

What bothered her even more at the moment though was what Marceline was doing. She'd been moving around the room as far as Luna could tell, but not doing much. With a rueful groan, Luna cracked her eyes open. What she saw made no sense for a few moments, before she opened her eyes wider.

Marceline was floating around the room, not taking things but simply looking over almost everything she touched, some of them being artifacts that Luna would rather not have touched. Does she always act as a curious child? Thought Luna as she slowly pushed herself up, only to realize Marceline now held a book. It was a brown, generic-looking golden bound book.

It was her own diary, and Luna felt herself get an immediate shock before she said quickly, "Marceline, what art thou doing touching our personal items?!"

The Vampire Queen looked up, smiling sheepishly and setting it down, "Oh, sorry to wake you Luna, I was just uh, lookin' around. Trust me I wouldn't look through your diary, I swear." A look of uncertainty crossed Luna's face as she sighed.

Waving a hoof towards the bed, "Just come to bed Marceline, we'll be heading out on our...'vacation' tonight, towards Ponyville. It shall be a quaint place to wait while the concoction and items are collected."

Groaning with obvious fake annoyance, Marceline slipped into the bed effortlessly, lifting the covers up due to her floating instead of actually laying down.

Deciding it was good enough, for the time being, Luna turned on her side that was facing away from her acquaintance and laid her head down, yawning as she curled up against herself and the blanket in a rather cute fashion before letting sleep take herself.

When Luna awoke, Marceline's loud snores still rung throughout the bedroom, so she felt a smile tug at her lips. While Marceline wasn't a bad person, per se, just childish at times. Thankfully she knew when to act serious, though she was thinking herself in circles trying to generalize how Marceline acted.

Standing up on her two frontal hooves, she stretched them forward, then came her back legs, which did the same, only backwards this time. She walked about her room, looking over certain things and containers to make sure all of her belongings were safe and sound, and all she needed would be on her work desk near the door.

After spending ten minutes gathering supplies, a small pile of seemingly random items sat on her desk, and careful measurements of the items needed to make the potion were in a small, brown knapsack. She tied it tightly, hanging it off her saddle bag which she had put on mere moments ago.

Next, she quickly took out an empty pot, or rather cauldron, and hung it on her person as well. Smiling, she was almost ready to go, now was to find things she wanted to take with herself so the week, or weekend more or less, would be more enjoyable.

Luna meandered around the room, grazing around the area to find things she would like to take. She left her regalia, as they weren't needed for the time being. However, she did take a potion for the trip itself and anti-venom and put them in her saddlebags. While she doubted that they'd need something for health, you could never be too careful, and something happening to Marceline would be even worse.

Then, Luna remembered Marceline's rather strange appetite, and looked through her drawers. She kept a lot of old clothes, and the ones left from so long ago were still there, mostly. Just hidden below all the new dresses and gowns, not to mention a large bathrobe big enough to fit two of Luna in it.

She took some random pieces of clothing that were shades of red, and deciding to make it less awkward, she took a pair of scissors from the bathroom, which even that strained her magic, as she used it to snip the sleeves and straps off the fabric in order to avoid the awkwardness of saying something along the lines of, 'Here, have our clothes!'

Shaking her head at the thought, she closed her saddlebags after setting the scissors into them as well. While they weren't full, she wasn't going to be gone long, so it wouldn't matter. Looking out the window, Luna saw that the moon was already high in the sky, which made a strike of guilt hit her like a bolt of lightning. She made her Sister, Tia, raise the moon again.

Grumbling to herself, realizing she would be doing none of that her whole trip away, and she wouldn't have a travelling partner while she was away after Marceline left, she decided to make some plans with another pony. Tia couldn't come with her, and Twilight would be busy, though being Luna, she'd send a letter never the less to be certain. She did say it'd take a few days after all, and she was certain that Spike could handle himself for a small time.

Then, once Marceline was sent back, they could spend a few days and nights together, maybe go for a walk about. An unbidden smile came to her lips as she looked over to the framed picture on the drawer of Twilight and her friends, the six ponies who made her whole without Nightmare's influence any longer.

While she didn't see anything special about them just in a picture, when in their presence something felt just inherently good about them, the air around them, the sky above and grass below. Wherever their hooves set place, a sort of calming wave or good will follows through, and no matter the challenge it seemed that the six ponies could overcome anything, no matter the difficulty.

What perplexed her about their traits is the ability to simply be so nice in the first place. While Equestria may not look it at times, it can be a cruel place from the view point of the poor and sickly. The thought that her Sister hadn't paid too much attention to them shocked her greatly, and if she had the mind to, would probably overthrow Celestia herself.

However, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and these were the moments where that phrase was used to it's fullest extent. It wasn't a good thing, but it's what Celestia had to do to keep peace in the general areas. Then again, she was rambling on about her problems more than she had to, and she'd been staring at the picture of Twilight and her friends for a few minutes now and simply thinking about other things.

With a shake of her head, she walked over to Marceline and poked her with her hoof. Not a sound.

Another poke, a small mumble, and with a small shake Marceline slowly began to open her eyes to allow the moonlight to penetrate her sleep. With a long and loud yawn she stopped floating and sat up, her hair a mess and eyes having dark circles under them. As Luna raised a hoof to speak, Marceline shushed her and got up, floating off towards the bathroom and closing the door. How quaint. Though, how Marceline even knew where the bathroom was is yet to be known, other than intuition.

It took a few minutes, but eventually the sound of a shower was heard, at least one turning on. Knowing that Marceline would want to have something to eat, most likely anyhow, Luna walked over to the other curtain that hadn't been drained of color and used her magic to pull it loose.

Luna began to fold it into a neat little square so that Marceline could unfold and refold it as she drank away the color, or perhaps it'd be a simple one-go situation. In either case, Luna loved being prepared instead of being caught off guard, almost like Twilight, but not to a level where she'd enter a mild psychosis if she wasn't ready.

Sitting at her work desk, she began shuffling through the paperwork, opening drawers and putting them in their proper folders and niches, as she wasn't going to be here for too much longer, and she'd rather not give anypony an easy way into her things. Locking the desk's contents tight, she put the key under the lamp in the small space that was carved out for it long ago.

Just as the lamp was put back in place, carefully, Marceline came back out with her clothes on. Just as she opened her mouth, Luna handed her the smooth cloth and smiled, thus she then closed her mouth, but not before uttering a thank you.

As Marceline drank her fill of the red tint and looked over the few things she had, Luna finally decided it was time to get a move on. She opened her closet and took out a tent, of course folded enough so she could carry it, and attached it to her saddlebag. She nudged Marceline, who then set the curtain on the desk haphazardly and followed her out, hovering behind her as always.

Just as Luna set foot outside the castle, she looked around, then took out the potion she had put away in her pack and gave it a small swig, and almost instantly, her form shrank downwards slowly until she was just an inch taller than the average pony whom only had a horn.

However, her cutie mark had been replaced by a symbol of a wand with three stars around it and a small swirl of what she assumed was magic, her coat had also turned a light blue, as well as her mane changing to a somewhat darker version of the new coat with white streaks flowing through the hair that seemed to shrink into a somewhat simple hairstyle, her tail becoming the same colors, only a bit messy.

Blinking a few times, Luna's blue eyes shifted to a purple hue. Once it was complete, she stretched her jaw a bit and sighed, her voice less demanding and harsh, now sounding a bit nasally, if she had to describe it, and younger. She looked to Marceline whom had simply watched the strange change, "Come now, Marceline. We have to go on our way before anypony sees us in this way."

And with that, the two set off out of Canterlot, taking some back alleys and other such hidden ways to get to an easy means of not being seen and walking towards the Everfree, though Marceline mostly floated.

However, just as they left the city, Luna remembered something she had to send, and pulled out the letter with her now light blue magic, and with a flick of power that tinted her mask of magic purple again, it was sent in a blaze of green fire to Twilight's assistant, Spike.

No doubt she'd have a nice reception to the town, after all, the potion almost assures a pony that they will be incognito for as long as it lasts.

Author's Note

Blah, I know it's been almost two weeks but I kept procrastinating and couldn't pull myself together to write. I finally got it out, it's short but hey, I'll have more, this is just to tide you peoples over.

Have a nice day/night/evening.

Guitars Fix Everything

Chapter Seven

A gentle breeze blew over the leaves and other such flora of the dark, and usually a strange, or perhaps common creature dashed through the grass, or from tree to tree. A few birds scattered from the side of a tree when the crunch was heard as a few more followed, the hooves of a certain pony making quite a bit of noise.

Luna, disguised as a random Unicorn, was walking through the Everfree while keeping a keen eye out in case anything decided it wanted to get a meal, or attack. Marceline was hanging back a bit, mostly unbidden in terms of moving other than when she wouldn't pay attention and hit a tree branch with a quiet thud.

Sighing, Luna looked up to the sky and saw the moon was closer to the horizon than she would've suspected, while it wasn't horrendously close, the point was that she wanted to get somewhere to camp before she got almost too tired to carry on. She whistled to Marceline, a short and stout call to tell her to keep up.

Within moments, Marceline was at her side once more, the look on her face obviously bored as she looked her guitar over, which the Lunar Princess quickly said, in a hushed whisper, "Remember, do not play thy instrument, it could cause any matter of creature to attack us, and we cannot defend ourselves very well at the moment."

Marceline responded with a nod and a small grunt of annoyance. It was no surprise Marceline wasn't extremely patient, but the fact that she was so impatient truly did make her absolutely riveting company. Luna turned her neck slightly, bending it downwards which made it give a small crack and a audible sigh of relaxation.

There were always little rustles in the bushes and trees, but she tried to pay them no heed. Of course she wasn't being stupid about said noises, she still tried her best to spot any trouble before it came close, but worrying about every little thing would cause her to become paranoid, and paranoia could cause her to get herself or Marceline hurt.

Eventually, she slowed to a stop, looking around, the surrounding area more of a clearing. The trees parted, letting the gentle glow of the Moon caress Luna's fake form, as well as Marceline's. Turning to her companion, Luna asked, "Does't thou wish to spend the night in this clearing so we will not have to travel all the way to the home of Twilight Sparkle?"

Not the best in terms of words and etiquette, Marceline simply responded with a shrug of her shoulders and a bored tone of voice, "Sure, whatever."

Luna's face contorted for a moment to one of annoyance before she sighed, reluctantly annoying the less-so yet apparently royal woman. She sat down, her magic levitating the tent out as she pulled the string out from around it, letting it burst open and push a few fallen leaves away.

The tan colored tent was flat due to not being set up, and Luna quickly got to work, or would have, but forgot to remember to bring a hammer or something to set the nails in. She turned to Marceline with a sheepish smile, "Erm, well, as it turns out, we do not have the proper tools to set the tent. Does thou have one to spare?"

A shake of her head was all Marceline had to say, and with a grumble, Luna's horn lit up against as she took hold of the nail. It would most likely hurt a bit, but she'd be able to rest after four are set it. A grunt game from her as the nail was slowly pushed into the soil, and once it was all the way in the aura around the top, which was the only visible part, dissipated as she moved to the next one.

The simple process went on until the fourth one, in which on half way in, Luna's horn began to ache worse by the second. Another quarter and then Luna fell onto her stomach, a few beads of sweat going down her forehead as she gasped. It wasn't permanent, and she'd be fine after some rest, but she wanted a tool instead for a reason.

In a fairly quick fashion, Marceline rushed over and began to kneel down beside Luna, a light concern obvious in her voice, "Luna, are you alright? Do you need something?"

Shaking her head, Luna sighed, slowly standing herself up again, "No, no we're fine, no need to worry. Simply over exhaustion of our magic takes time to build itself once more."

Marceline looked towards the offending nail and, with a shapely rock she picked up, she hammered it into the ground. It didn't take much, and she doubted that the Princess would be able to do even that, so she nudged Luna into the tent, with the Princess of the Night giving quiet protests of being the more 'responsible' one of the two.

Inside the tent, it seemed to be only slightly larger than on the outside, and there were three bedrolls. Luna half-collapsed half-laid down onto one of them, the saddlebag being slipped off and set to the side by Marceline's careful and pale hands.

Looking outside for a few moments, Marceline decided it didn't matter much right now and zipped up the tent door, knowing she'd be going back soon, so it was little to worry about, hopefully.

A blue mare, shockingly looking like Luna's disguise, trotted through the mostly empty field. Where was she going, you may ask? Well, the field itself was uneventful, but the, usually, sleepy town up ahead was not. While it would take another day or so to get there, Trixie was making her plan.

One of the grandest plans of them all, and it revolved around Twilight Sparkle, though not how it usually does.

She smiled to herself, talking in third person like always, "Trixie shall try a different approach to her earlier plans. Yes, indeed, she shall be successful this time around, for she is the Great and Powerful Tixie!"

Her hooves were raised into the air, as if fireworks or cheering crowds were around her. She then realized how silly she seemed, and, with a blush of embarrassment she took to trotting at an even pace, avoiding all the malicious-looking valleys and mountains.

However, no matter how long she forced herself to walk, the moon was a nagging reminder of what time it was, and how heavy her body was whenever she took a simple sit down. Trixie groaned lightly, annoyed at the implications of her tired body. Not only would she be at the town much later than she expected if she continued on after resting, but Trixie had spent too long planning to just stop.

After another half hour of walking, she finally fell forward, her front hooves over her head and her body splayed a bit on the cool grass. Perhaps simply finding a comfortable place for rest would be a good idea. But, because of her sometimes irrational behavior, Trixie had simply ignored the almost-necessity to bring a tent. How could anyone expect the Great and Powerful Trixie, of all ponies, to find an inn to stay at!

Not only was it irritating to try and go find one, it would demean her ego below it's dangerously high levels, and that she just couldn't have. Well, she wouldn't have it, if she didn't absolutely need sleep at that very moment. With a begrudging body and mindset, she turned herself around and walked off towards a small roadside motel type of housing she had passed about an hour ago. Funny, they had offered to help, but she of course refused.

At some point, Trixie knew she'd have to deal with her ego, especially when she went to go see Twilight, it always led to her downfall. But for now, she treated herself as well as she wished too. But only for now.

With a triumphant smirk, over what she had no idea, but Trixie continued on her way towards the motel with an air of confidence about her.

Celestia's sun made it's slow ascent up above the horizon, the beams of light shining against a random tent in the middle of a forest. The Princess grumbled and turned on her side, still fast asleep, but the feeling of heat was coming from a different source other than the two arms wrapped around her, as well as the semi-cold body against her back. Marceline, however, was fairly awake, small lines under her eyes as she yawned, slowly unwrapping herself from Luna's body and sat up.

Looking around the tent, she saw nothing quite important to look over, or be worried about, so she elbowed Luna lightly. As much as she was worried about the Princess, she knew that worst comes to worst, they go back to Canter-whatever it is and get her checked out by a doctor, or her sister Celestia.

In either case, Marceline then moved over to the saddle type thing and began to look it over, making sure it wasn't harmed in any way. As she looked through the random assortment of items, she did happen to find the red cloth, cut up and seemingly especially for herself.

Looking over to Luna, the blue Alicorn's body beginning to stir, she sighed with a bit of unhappiness due to being a bit of a burden on the Princess of the Night. Taking up the red cloth she separated a small rag from it and put the rest away into the pocket, drinking the pigment out of it slowly.

At an extremely slow pace, Luna began waking herself up, she stood on her front hooves, however shaky as they were. Looking around just as Marceline did, once she didn't see a fault she collapsed onto the bedroll again and yawned, her eyes seeming extremely tired, no matter the fact they slept at least eight hours, which is more than she usually got.

Luna shook her head a bit to get her head not-so ready to pass out again, and she did the same for the rest of her body slowly. The large wings fluffed out slightly, Princess Luna stretching by placing her frontal hooves forward and pushing her back hooves backward. A slightly loud 'crack' resounded as she did so, showing the fruits of her stretching.

Sitting up, finally, Luna looked over to Marceline with half-open eyes, "Good morning to you, Marceline."

While her usually royal tone was now diminished, as she was both generally tired and she had failed to not exhaust herself once more. Thankfully it wasn't to the level of when she was on her balcony, or she would've possibly been hurt badly, or at least her magic would've been damaged.

Marceline offered a small nod in answer and put the now almost white cloth into the little pocket satchel on the saddle. Luna was about to use her magic to levitate the potion over to herself, but stopped herself and instead asked Marceline, as she was closer, "Marceline, could you reach into our satchel and find the potion we use to disguise our royal appearance?"

With a shrug, Marceline said, "Sure."

After a few minutes of bumbling about, and reaching into the wrong pockets and not exactly understanding Luna's sometimes slurred speech, Marceline eventually found the clear-looking bottle and handed it to Luna. Uncorking it, the Princess downed a little gulp, her muzzle scrunching up for only a moment.

The changes began once more, this finally waking the Princess up from her not very deserved sleep.

Standing up, now able to without puncturing the tent, she unzipped the tent door and walked out, yawning once more but in a different voice, her mane and tail obviously messy and not very well kept. Of course, they're better than they were beforehand when she hadn't changed, but Luna didn't care much for aesthetics, that was mostly her Sister's job.

Calling over the Marceline, she sighed, "Come now Marceline, let us get a move on, the faster we depart the easier we will arrive to the nice little hamlet of Ponyville."

Marceline came out of the tent with the saddlebag, quick to move under the shade of a tree, holding it under one arm and gently setting it against the ground, "What about the tent, are we just going to leave it here?"

Looking back, she then made an 'Oh' noise and silently began pulling the small spikes out of the ground, letting the tent deflate. Marceline snickered lightly but Luna didn't care much, simply wishing to get this chore over with. As soon as the tent collapsed, she took the little almost plastic-like spikes and put them in one of the many pockets of her saddlebag, the tent itself being rolled up with some effort.

Holding it in place with her hoof, a tired Luna asked Marceline, "Could thy use the string to tie the temporary shelter so we need'st not to buy another?"

Blowing a bit of hair out of her eyes, Marceline just floated over, taking the string and began to wrap it tightly but make a simple knot so it wouldn't be hard to undo.

As soon as this was over with, Luna pulled it up and set it in her saddlebag, she then requested once more, "Could you kindly set this on our backs, we simply can't at the moment..."

With a sigh of fake annoyance, Marceline moved over and picked it up, with some effort as it proved to be heavier than it was before somehow, and set it on Luna's back. As soon as it was in place she took off on a slow pace of walking, Marceline taking a moment to catch up, but only a moment.

After a minute they had settled on a semi-slow pace down through the Everfree, Marceline having to intentionally avoid the sun's harmful rays. It took Luna a half hour, almost as they reached the edge of the Everfree, to notice this and stopped, looking Marceline over, "You're avoiding the light, so we can only assume...wait, does the light bother you?"

A laugh come from Marceline, however it only lasted a few seconds before she deadpanned at her, "No, of course not, it's not like I'm a vampire or anything."

Luna then smiled a bit and turned, she continued on her way, "Then there's no use for us to worry. Come on then."

Grumbling to herself, Marceline let her slight ego get the better of her and she didn't respond, until they passed Zecora's home and the trees began to become much more sparse than the middle of the woods, and she eventually had to begin stopping and going around the sun bathed areas in order to avoid the painful burning.

Marceline attempted to gain Luna's attention on the matter, but she continued smiling, a bit smugly, acting a bit childish as she decided it was payback for her snooping around in the Princess's room. Finally, Marceline had to make a quick jump to the left, knocking into Luna, whom wasn't steady on her hooves in the first place. She fell forward and on her side, a small yet steep hill welcoming her descent.

Or it would've, if Marceline hadn't quickly let her guitar hang from the sash and taken hold of Luna's back hooves. A yelp escaped her as she frantically yelled at Marceline, only a few octaves away from the Royal Canterlot voice, "Marceline! Pull us up this instant!"

Fright was indeed in her voice, though Marceline had no idea why she was so scared when there was just a small, albeit steep hill. Other than that, there were just some flowers, weird blue flowers. Though, she didn't understand, Luna most certainly did as her frontal hooves flailed about uselessly.

A smile crept up on Marcelines lips as she said in a slow, teasing tone, "Oh, I don't know, the sun is getting in my eyes, I might just forget for a second..."

Gulping, Luna tried her best to look at Marceline, but failed and let her head hang downwards, "Marceline, thou does not understand the predicament, those flora are magical and they can cause strange things to happen to a pony's body please you must not-!"

A quiet, "Oops" left Marceline as she hovered downwards a bit to stop the fall from being too painful and let go of Luna. She let out a loud yelp, a few grunts, and then a large gust of air left her lungs. Immediately, she stood, looking around the flowers and absolutely horrified. Well, not absolutely, but it was on more of an 'Oh sweet mother what will happen' sort of way.

Marceline floated down, careful to avoid the said flowers and snickered at Luna, whom looked up with a pout and slight glare on her face. She jumped up, grabbing Marceline's legs with her front hooves and pulled her down into the flowers with herself, the Vampire Queen's base guitar slipping out from her strap and landing safely in the brush. Marceline then gasped and they both rolled about comically, one trying to escape and the other trying to get her almost buried in the blue flowers.

Eventually they ended up out of the patch, Marceline giving one final shove and Luna landing on her back just a foot away and a bit dazed. They both stood up, looked at each other, and huffed. Luna reached into her bag and pulled out an umbrella, handing it to Marceline, "Here, thou may use the device to keep the sun off of thy form."

Wordlessly, and with a bit of frusturation almost visible in the air around them, they continued forward, both of them having a bit of dirt on their hair and fur, or in Marceline's case, clothes and skin.

Luna knew they'd have to reverse the effects, though it might not have an effect on Marceline, it certainly would on Luna. Perhaps Twilight knew where to get the herbs and such. Moving forward, Luna decided that it would be a very long day.

A purple cape with stars on it was swaying a bit in the wind, the Library now in sight of the Great and Powerful Trixie. She smirked, making her way towards it with confidence around her like bees to honey.

As soon as she walked up, she heard a small commotion inside, and chuckled lightly to herself, deciding it would be absolutely amazing to pop in unannounced and surprisingly. She cleared her throat, ready to say, or rather yell her opening, her magic taking hold of the door as it suddenly flew open. Even though it was already a bit open, she still pretended as if she blew it off it's hinges and hopped inside, extending her forelegs in the air, "Behold, it is the Great and Powerful-"

Twilight's voice rang out, with a tinge of worry and a metric ton of confusion, "Trixie?"

Sighing, Trixie went back on all fours and said, "You know Twilight, you could at least let Trixie finish her opening before-"

Finally actually taking a look inside the home, Trixie saw two things that confused her, and shocked her. One, there was an bipedal alien floating in the air with a guitar of some sort, staring at her with some shock and holding an umbrella. Two, there was another her who had her jaw open wide in shock, small guttural noises escaping her as she apparently tried to make an explanation.

Twilight, Trixie, and Luna all looked at each other with forms of slight fright and extreme confusion. Immediately though, the real Trixie tackled Luna to the ground and nearly proclaimed, "Changeling!"

However, she only got to the point of, "Changel-" before a loud 'thud' was heard, and her unconscious form fell on top of Luna's, the back of Marceline's bass having smacked her on the top of the head just hard enough. Twilight was aghast, the door slowly shutting by the end of Marceline's guitar as she cleared her throat and said, "So uh...what's up?"

Author's Note

Aha, ho ho, my attempts at comedy are absolutely hysterical are they not.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, took a bit to get done and it's not perfect, but I tried. Trixie will be a recurring character, there will be more than one relationship *cough cough* and there will be more than one person or two people being followed at times. It's all a matter of time, my friends.
In the mean time, stay tuned, and have a nice morning/afternoon/night!

Adventure Awaits

Chapter Eight

Trixie's head pounded with pain, a somewhat unusual sensation as she usually bought or talked her way out of problems that could cause it. Groaning, she attempted to sit up, but was halted by the fact she was tied to a chair. Finally opening her eyes to scream at whomever had done this, she met eyes with the double that had taken her place inside Twilight's home just moments before. Or was it hours?

It took a minute or so before Trixie realized that since her cape and hat were gone, she looked exactly like the double except for the bruise on the back of her head. She drew in a deep breath and began to call out, "Help! Somepony, there's a Chan-"

A piece of cloth was wrapped around her mouth area as she kept on screaming, also making her throat hurt from exertion. The other Trixie, which was actually Luna, had her ears pinned down as she winced at the loud noise. A snicker was heard behind Trixie's field of vision, not from a voice she knew, "Really, 'Somepony'?"

Then Twilight's familiar voice spoke up with annoyance hinted in it, "Now is not the time, Marceline. Seriously, just, don't."

As the two others talked, Twilight and Marceline walked out and sat on a couch that was in both Luna and Trixie's view. Trixie tried to plea with Twilight, as if they were in danger, but it mostly looked like she was screaming curses at them, and Luna looked over to Twilight with a kind smile, yet it was tainted annoyance.

Standing up and walking over to Trixie, Twilight took her head and said in a quiet, but stern tone as she looked into her eyes, "Don't scream, kick, or curse. Or I'll have to gag you again."

Deciding to untie the makeshift gag, Twilight regretted it immediately as the blue Unicorn began doing all three of those at once, and then Twilight did the final one for a few more minutes. They all sat in silence for Trixie to finally run out of juice, and once she did, she breathed a bit heavily and sighed as Twilight took the gag off, again.

Instead of screaming the curses however, she simply muttered to herself and grumbled, Twilight rolling her eyes and sitting back down, looking between the two, "Alright, Trixie, I'm going to let Luna speak first."

Raising her head and eyebrow in confusion, Trixie asked, "What? That...pony isn't the illustrious Princess Luna, that is impossible!"

Her face deadpanned as Trixie spoke, Luna getting obviously annoyed, "Trust us, Trixie Lulamoon. In either case, yes, we came to speak t-"

Interrupting her explanation, Trixie lurched forward to try and, even though it was futile, headbutt the disguised Princess. She then fell forward onto her nose and yelped lightly in pain. Twilight's face lit up with worry and she enveloped the chair in magic and set it back up. Marceline stifled her laughter.

Luna cleared her throat, speaking once more, "As we were speaking of, we came to speak to you, Twilight, about coming along a camping trip with me and my...associate, whilst we take a small 'vacation' for ah, medical reasons."

Twilight nodded, listening silently as she then sighed, looking over to Trixie and saying, "Okay, now you talk."

Trixie smiled, and, with a dash of her usual flare, said, "Trixie came to talk with you as well, Twilight Sparkle. And when Trixie got here, she thought that you were in trouble with changelings. Also, why is it Trixie and her are tied up?"

She opened her mouth to speak but closed it, then shrugged as she said, "Firstly, I'm the one asking the questions and- actually, sorry, I'm getting to into this but uh, where was I, oh yes. I just wanted to, it sounded interesting?"

The way Twilight spoke made it sound like even she didn't know why, making Trixie blow a hair out of her eye, "Fine, but what questions are you speaking about, you haven't asked a single thing from Trixie."

Mouthing a silent 'Oh', Twilight then got up and looked between the two, "Okay, uh, Luna! I- er, I mean, Princess Luna. Or- never mind! Point is, why are you disguised as Trixie?"

Luna giggled quietly at the way Twilight struggled a bit to talk to Luna, both a bit forcefully and in a courteous manner. She then replied in a calm tone, "We wished to be not noticeable by the populace of the towns and subjects, but it seems that we were mistaken. It's likely the potion had us turn into Trixie once more because it's the form I took the night before, and so the disguise was tuned to my magic and the potion. For lack of a better explanation, it chose a form I already had so that it wouldn't take as long and it was the most available."

Trixie was lost in Luna's explanation, but Twilight was listening intently, "Really? I didn't know those potions were made anymore, I thought ponies stopped making them for the reason of ponies being called zombies. Well, I mean, there's a lot of other reasons but...why am I even explaining, you of all ponies should know." Twilight face-hoofed and laughed a bit awkwardly to herself before it trailed off with a slightly worried look as she rubbed her shoulder with her hoof.

Luna, smiling as warmly as she could with the headache inducing situation, began to speak, "Well, indeed, we would know more of it than most modern ponies at this time, which is how we made it."

Clearing her throat loudly, and after it didn't get their attention, Trixie took in a big breath of air, puffing out her cheeks, but the heavy breathing from none other than Trixie was what got their attention, afraid she was going to start screaming again. As soon as they turned around again, Trixie blew the air out of her mouth with a gust of air and smiled, "Now that you're focused on Trixie again, she must ask, can she actually speak with you soon, as she is getting anxious and she doesn't need to hear a history and science lesson in the same thirty minutes."

Trixie's impatience made Twilight get an irritated look on her face as she walked over and said in one of the most fake displays of anger anyone in the room would ever see, "Be quiet, or else my uh...partner...will...do stuff!"

Marceline burst out laughing at the display, Trixie snickered for only a few moments, and Luna deadpanned. A thousand years away didn't do much for one's sense of humor.

Twilight looked over to Marceline, "But Marceline, it's supposed to be an interrogation, we have to act tough and rude...!"

Marceline nodded in understanding, wiping her eyes a bit, "Yeah, I know, but it's too funny to see you try to be both of those, I'm sorry but-" Another fit of laughter.

Huffing, Twilight looked back and rolled her eyes, "Never mind her, just, yeah, one minute though. No but seriously, just, forget Marceline's even here, I'm pretty sure Luna lied to me and won't tell me the truth about her anyways. I-I, well, don't be rude but-"

All three of the others said in unison, at least, almost, "We get it Twilight."

Stepping behind both of the tied up ponies, Twilight muttered to herself, "...don't be...so annoying..."

After the two ponies were free they looked each other over, Luna deciding to set the mane into a laying down, straight position so they could tell the difference from more than just words or clothes. Trixie immediately looked around the immediate vicinity for her cape and hat, finding them on the floor. Folded of course. She picked it up with her magic and got them on quickly.

Twilight was sitting on the couch, with an irate look on her face, waiting. Luna walked up and asked, "So Twilight, do you wish to come with us, then return so that Marceline can get the appropriate materials to leave? After that we must still stick together, however."

Considering the options, Twilight didn't see a reason she couldn't go with Luna. After all, she isn't in the best condition, and Marceline might need help to take care of her. Sighing with a bit of irritation, she realized that Trixie would have to come with them, as she was extremely insistent, and when she isn't, she isn't in the area.

Speaking in a mostly calm tone, Twilight proposed, "If Trixie can come along too," Twilight looked to Trixie with a very unamused expression, "and if she can try her best to not annoy every one or try to cause trouble, I'd love to."

A wide smile was on Trixie's face, while Luna's expression went to a neutral one, "Alright, we suppose this is agreeable. Let us leave after-" Her stomach then grumbled, "-lunch."

This made Twilight realize she'd had such a perfect morning. Especially when a Princess disguised as one of her not-so friendly acquaintances woke her up waiting outside the door, making her try to make her go away with a fairly high irritation for a few moments, only for the real Trixie to burst through the door, then get knocked out. Oh, today was just perfect.

The table was set with several sandwiches while Marceline floated near the table, relaxing. Twilight pressed Luna for information, but she wouldn't budge and merely kept saying, "She's an acquaintance. She's only visiting. She's a vampire."

Once most of them were done with their meals, mostly anyways, Trixie took Twilight's hoof and tugged it like a bored child, silently telling her to come along with her as Twilight rolled her eyes and excused herself, "If you'll excuse me Princess. Marceline."

Two nods were her response due to one of their faces being full, and so Twilight followed Trixie out the kitchen and up the stairs. Once they reached a step or two from the bedroom so they were out of earshot, Twilight asked, "Okay, what do you want Trixie? I don't want to seem rude but you've bugged me for a while today, why is it so important we're alo-"

Putting a hoof to Twilight's lips, which made the purple Unicorn jump a bit at the physical contact, she said in a slightly hushed whisper, "Trixie...has something to ask of you."

A bit of a realization came to Twilight. Secret conversations, something to ask of me? Not to mention how she surprisingly hasn't tried to challenge me yet. Oh Celestia, I've read too many books.

Due to Twilight's pupils shrinking ever so slightly and go a bit rigid, Trixie paused her speaking for a moment, but then continued regardless, "...As she was saying, Trixie wishes for you to consider..."

Her tongue was twisted and it became a bit hard to speak clearly. Nervousness claimed her mind, an almost unfamiliar feeling, as she gulped. Twilight leaned in a bit so that she could hear Trixie clearly.

Trixie's mouth was dry as she forced the sentence from her lips, "T-Trixie was wondering if you could help her get friends!"

Twilight's shock was taken down about five notches as she blinked, saying, "Oh...I uh..." Then regained her composure. It was still surprising, but it wasn't what she was thinking Trixie would say. Shrugging, but then catching Trixie's slightly disappointed stare, she smiled back and laughed awkwardly, "Oh, uh, of course! I'd love to help you!"

Trixie then smiled and said with a sigh of relief, "Oh, good. Trixie's seen how, well, nice that friends are to have. She simply wants her own friends so that she need not worry about being hated by ponies she thought liked her..."

Immediately, a pang of guilt and sadness struck a chord on Twilight. It didn't all make sense, but she could see why Trixie did what she did. It was to get attention, obviously something she needed more than anything because she never had any most of her life, so she tried to take it instead. It was blatantly obvious now that Twilight thought about it for a moment, and she definitely felt bad, if only for a moment, for tearing her ego down in their first encounter.

Putting a hoof around Trixie as a sign of good hearted nature, which surprised Trixie herself, Twilight smiled, "Don't worry, I...well, just know that even if no pony wants to be your friend- which I doubt, of course! But even if, I'll still be your friend. Alright?"

A silence overtook the private exchange, an almost blank stare enveloped Trixie's expression for a few minutes, this only lasting until she gave a large, genuine smile and hugged Twilight with both of her frontal hooves, and tightly, "Oh, thank you so much! You will not regret giving Trixie this chance, she promises you!"

Coughing lightly, Twilight wheezed out, "Trixie, I...can't...breath."

Luna was laying in her hooves on the table. She wasn't tired as much as she was just bored. Marceline had finished her food and begun tending to her guitar and sometimes playing a small chord, as per usual. However, after about five minutes and a few coughs, Twilight and Trixie came downstairs. One of them looking fairly happy and the other rubbing her throat a bit.

Looking up, Luna opened her mouth, only for Marceline to interrupt her, "So, when are we gonna get a move on?"

Twilight grumbled a bit before she put on a smile and said, "In a few minutes, I have to write a letter for Spike since I let him sleep in today. How he's still asleep I will never know. Maybe that should be his special talent."

She gave a small giggle to her small joke, which no one else understood or cared too much about. Trixie turned herself right around as soon as Luna gave her a bit of a glare, so she plopped down on the couch in the living room. Twilight pulled an ink vial, a quill and a piece of paper out of a drawer, causing Luna to ask, "Does't thou keep writing supplies in every room Twilight?"

Twilight then quickly replied, "Yes- well, not every room, I mean I don't have any in the bathroom. That'd just be silly!"

Within a minute the letter was written in the neat and tidy handwriting and Twilight levitated it out of the room as she stepped out, walking upstairs and into her bedroom. Spike was laying in his bed peacefully, curled up and oblivious to the insanity that had occurred recently.

Placing the note in a small niche in Spike's bed, she walked back out and closed the door slowly with a sigh.

Trotting back downstairs, knocked her hoof on the wood floor to get everyone's attention and said, "Come on, let's go." Levitating the saddlebag onto her back with ease, Twilight started out the door and the other three followed, Marceline hoisting the guitar around herself again and pulled the umbrella out to keep the sun off of herself.

Taking a small detour, Twilight realized the town probably would either react badly or want to throw a party for Marceline, and probably react badly to the double vision Trixies. They walked along a dirt path towards some hills, past Sweet Apple Acres, and over a small river with little trouble.

However, no matter how far they walked, Luna kept getting annoyed each time Trixie made eye contact with her, or even spoke. Not to mention when she complained. Marceline floated silently, at some points poking the members of the small group and flying back to her spot to pretend she didn't do anything. Twilight knew that not only was the rest of the day going to be annoying, but at night she was going to begin screaming into a pillow.

Why does she always get stuck with this crap? It was almost as if someone had it out for her.

Author's Note

Here's chapter eight, and the TENSION BUILDS.

I realize it's nothing amazing, but give it a while and drama, as well as action will come eventually, I promise you.
Have a good night/evening/morning/afternoon!

Encounters

Chapter Nine

The group continued it's slow stride away from the town and into a small field, a valley on the other side. The planned campsite was in there, and because it was a valley they wouldn't have to worry too much about cover from wild animals. A cave or even small niche would probably be fitting enough to have them sleep. A thought popped up in Luna's head, making her wonder if the tent would be big enough to fit all five of them, only to shrug it off a future problem, if it would be.

The prairie was calm and quiet, other than the occasional small talk by one of the members, or one of them messing with another. They all came at complete random, but annoyed Luna all the same. Why she was so easily annoyed, she could pinpoint in a moment's notice. All the things happening recently have been nothing but stressful.

Which made a small, if not slightly soured grin come to her face. A vacation is supposed to be calming and happy. While it wasn't exactly unhappy, it wasn't relaxing in any sense. The only time she relaxed was when she slept the night before, which she was still getting used to. At the moment, her eyelids drooped a bit as she yawned. An occasional misstep took place due to her tiredness.

However, she continued trotting, usually following the others behind. If she didn't, she'd wake up sometime early in the morning in the middle of a field, and with some sort of poison joke effect on her. This made her eyes bug out a bit as one of them twitched. The Poison Joke. She forgot to ask Twilight about it.

Cursing under her breath, she decided to see if it would be bad enough to head back the next morning, and even then, she'd just go with Twilight to her zebra friend's house. Still, it'd probably be annoying in some way, she isn't very good with jokes in this day and age, especially those that ponies seemed to get so angry about, while others laughed it off.

She, once more, was guilty of not paying attention and bumped into Marceline's hanging legs with her nose and jumped backwards a bit due to the sudden feeling of something touching her face. The vampire woman looked back, her face and body shadowed by the umbrella, "Oh, hey there Lunies."

Grumbling under her breath, Luna lowered her head and continued letting everyone move ahead of her to try and avoid any unnecessary interactions due to being tired of the day thus far.

Marceline, on the other hand, was happier than she would've been bored out of her mind at her house. She didn't have much to worry about, the few things that she did could manage a few days without her, though it was starting to bother her a bit more. She was planning to do stuff with Finn and Jake the next night. Or, well, she was planning on breaking into their house and scaring their pants off, but it was still something.

Camping wasn't necessarily one of her largest likes, but it wasn't terrible. Not to mention she at least owed it to Luna to go with her plans. Not that she had tons of choice, but hey, it could be worse.

Moving along in silence, now that was a mood killer. No one talked, she assumed for a reason, but decided it might be best to leave it be for now. Knowing these ponies as well as she could at the moment, she thought that they were just all really irritated with how the day's turned out recently.

Maybe she should help Luna unwind some day. Or rather, some night. She'd rather not be caught outside in the sun, it's not the most pleasant feeling to have your skin burning, she should know after all.

Trixie scoffed at Luna's obvious irritation and inability to hold herself together. While it wasn't her place to judge Luna, still, what kind of Princess gets lost in thought so many times per day? It made Trixie question Luna's mental health and ability to do more advanced tasks. Of course, if she said any of this, she'd probably be blasted to Tartarus within moments, so she decided to keep herself silent.

Something Luna apparently had trouble doing.

It'd been another hour of quiet walking with the occasional small talk before they went into the valley, Trixie walking with no real worries as Twilight and Marceline looked behind, in front and around themselves to find any sort of trouble before it found them. Luna was half asleep and nearly falling over every time she faced a minor obstacle. No matter how long anyone tried to help, she'd always shove them off and tell them she's fine.

What crawled up Luna's nose and died? Thought Twilight as she sighed, the sun getting a bit closer to the horizon almost every minute it seemed. However, this was just when she left the house, and it was every thirty minutes or so that she'd check it. Sadly, at this angle, she couldn't due to the valley shrouding them in shadows.

A cough came from Trixie as she noticed Twilight almost feverishly looking to the west every few minutes. Was she really obsessed with Princess Celestia? She cleared her throat and asked, "Trixie wishes to know, why is it you seem so entranced by your mentor's sun?"

Twilight looked back and smiled a bit, "Well Trixie, you see-" Her face fell, revealing a fairly irritated glare, "-Shut up and don't question me. It's called trying to figure out the time."

A snort came from Trixie in response to Twilight's response, which made Twilight sigh heavily, asking without even turning around, "What is it Trixie."

The sentence that Twilight seemed to barely utter with even a slight addition of her normal perkiness made her become a bit crestfallen, her tone tinged with slight sadness, "Well, you realize you could just use a watch or something like that, correct?"

Then Twilight stopped, craned her head to look behind them, and look back forward. She did this a few times, the group watching her with slowly growing concern as she facehoofed with the one that was held idly above the ground, "Of course, one of the biggest things I would need, and I forgot it."

Marceline tugged on her ear a bit, making Twilight jump back a bit at the sudden tug as Marceline said, "Well, we can see the night sky just as fine as we see the day one. I don't think we'd need one."

Groaning, Twilight turned herself towards where they came from, "I'm going to have to go get it, I'll teleport back to the library and come back here, but my magic might be a bit dampened because of how far this is and just teleporting that distance in general, so when I get back make sure I don't fall, or at least break anything."

Marceline tugged on Twilight's ear once more, reminding her that she was holding it, "Nuh-uh, I'm not gonna watch after all three of you. Not happening, I wasn't planning on having children just yet." She snickered, a small grin on her face.

All three of them looked to the Vampire Queen with varied looks of irritation. Trixie's by far was the angriest, but Luna's almost serene expression is what scared her the most, making her let go of Twilight's ear and back up a bit, "W-Well, what I meant to say is that I wasn't planning on having children just yet, and, and, I'll gladly watch over you three!"

She laughed a bit nervously, but Twilight then replied, "Isn't that a contradiction?"

The pale girl turned to her and was about to ask what she meant, but Twilight could tell what she was going to ask. Well, it was either 'What's a contradiction?' or 'What was the contradiction?'. The lavender mare answered quickly to the unspoken question, "You said, 'Nuh-uh, I'm not gonna watch after all three of you. Not happening, I wasn't planning on having children just yet.' Then you corrected your last part of the statement with 'and, and, I'll gladly watch over you three.' Adding the correction and the regular sentence together would contradict itself entirely, 'Nuh-uh, I'm not gonna watch after all three of you. Not happening, I wasn't planing on having children ju-'"

Twilight's explanation, in which she actually started to enjoy herself, was cut short by Trixie lightly bonking her on the head, which Luna then nudged her a bit in a sign to not interrupt the ranting mare. She knew it'd be a headache if they all got questioned again.

Just as Twilight began to speak again, in the formulated way she does, Marceline clamped a hand over her mouth, saying quickly, "We get it. It's. Fine. Go get the watch. We'll be right here."

Twilight smiled to herself and nodded, her horn lighting up as Marceline pulled away, only for Twilight to disappear in a flash of light seconds later.

They all looked at each other awkwardly, all except for Luna, who instead sighed in annoyance, her brows knitted slightly as she felt a headache begin to grow.

Just as suddenly as she had disappeared, Twilight reappeared and stumbled a bit, knocking the already unstable alicorn in disguise over, the two in a small heap as they both looked about ready to pass out right then and there. Marceline and Trixie looked at each other.

"I'm not carrying them." Said Marceline quickly.

Trixie retorted in an almost yelling voice which made Marceline wince due to the volume, "Trixie is not carrying two ponies along with their luggage, she needs to keep her form well and not in pain!"

Marceline grinned maliciously, "Oh really?"

The only conscious Unicorn nodded, "Her horn becoming a bit alight, "Yes, Trixie will most definitely not doing so!" This time her voice raised in volume.

Ooh, scary. Thought Marceline as she slowly began to raise her hands to her hips, as if being a cowboy in a shoot out.

They both stood still, Trixie glaring daggers and Marceline remaining fairly calm and happy.

"Nose goes!" Yelled Marceline as she touched her hand to her nose. Or she would have, if a light blue magic hadn't enveloped her hand and kept it from touching.

Trixie grinned leisurely as she slowly put a hoof to her muzzle, but just as she was about to she saw that Marceline's other hand had gotten there fairly easily, "You realize I have two hands, right."

Struggling on her four hooves, Trixie groaned a bit, taking slow and shaky steps while carrying the two ponies accompanied by two surprisingly heavy saddle packs as Marceline whistled, floating carefree and spinning the umbrella with her finger, "A-At least take t-the packs, Marceline!" Begged Trixie, her spine feeling like it could, and would, snap any moment.

Marceline floated to her effortlessly, grinning like the Cheshire cat, which she didn't even know what or who it was, making her stop a moment and pit a finger under her chin, considering the strange thought. She had no idea where it came from, but a loud yelp and thud brought her back to reality. Trixie was staring up at her with a exasperated facial expression, almost begging.

She just couldn't resist something so adorable looking. With a "D'awww", Marceline bent down and worked the saddle packs off the two passed out ponies and attempted to carry them as if they were back packs, which proved to be fairly hard because they aren't backpacks. Obviously.

Trixie slowly pushed herself up again, panting a bit with a light blush on her cheeks from carrying so much for about an hour. They both continued along the path, Trixie having to collapse in intervals of ten minutes. However, at the third time Marceline's goody goody side came out and she landed next to the mare, "Look, lemme help you with those, each of us will-"

However the stubborn mare would have none of it, getting a look of determination as she pushed herself up for the fourth, or fifth, time. She panted a bit, sighing as she spoke in a strained tone, "No, Trixie can...Trixie c-can help. She will...help Twilight and her friends."

The sudden onset of her reluctance to give up led to a taken aback Marceline who was only in the state for a few moments, she then screwed her face up a bit and reached to take one of them, particularly Twilight.

Stubborn, stupid or just plain loyal for the moment, Trixie saw her movements and made a somewhat weak shield to stop her. Twilight could break through it easily, as could many others. But she didn't know if this woman could even use, let alone manipulate magic.

Gawking, Marceline complained, "What's wrong with you, I'm just trying to help you! You're not going to be any help to them by passing out too!"

She grunted in response, continuing on her way as she responded, "Trixie will do what she can, she's...done bad things before, but...that c-changes now..."

Marceline sighed, rubbing her forehead. She tries to help the annoyance, and it decides to be annoying anyways. Amazing, "Fine. I'm going to go ahead and make sure there's nothing around, be careful and call for me if you need anything, understand?"

"Who suddenly made you in charge?" Asked Trixie, her usual ego taking a bit of the reign back.

She grinned widely and answered in a sing-song voice, "Meee~"

Groaning lightly, Trixie just muttered, "Whatever." And continued on her way, leaving Marceline to grin like an idiot and move head to make sure there was no danger.

And that's when Trixie thought she heard something. Not just anything, it was like bushes rustling, and not very close either. But that's what bothered her. Looking around, she didn't see anything. Yet.

It wasn't the fact that she heard it rustling- well, sort of, but it was mostly that it wasn't close. Which meant that somepony, or something, was near them. And it was trying to watch, not attack. She looked towards Marceline, and as she did she could have sworn she saw something with dark skin, fur, or something else.

She attempted to call out to her, but Marceline looked back, saw no problem, and turned back around. Trixie couldn't muster up the strength do do much else other than say her name, in between gasps. She really had pushed herself way too far, she wasn't strong physically in any means.

By the time she got the words out, "Marceline...something's here!" Marceline was already half of a quarter mile away, but she did catch most of what Trixie had said.

Something's here? What is she talking about? Looking around her surroundings, Marceline felt herself listen more to the environment, keeping her senses alert. A rustle of a bush here, the sound of hooves walking there. Something was definitely up, even if she couldn't see it.

Suddenly, a green blast of magic bolted out from the slopes and trees, barely missing her. Marceline took her bass axe off of her back and dropped the umbrella, but just as Marceline did, she hesitated and remembered Luna's words as she repeated them to herself, "Don't hurt anything..."

That hesitation costed her more than a moment, another green blast, this one smaller and more attuned, hit her square in the chest. It made her feel instantly exhausted, her arms drooping as she fell to her knees. She gave a look to a distraught Trixie, who was looking towards a possible bush to hide in and Marceline. Just as she was unloading Twilight and Luna into said bush, Marceline gave a small shake of her head, and Trixie was about to retort but stepped back.

Three black chitin covered creatures with bright, blue eyes approached Marceline as she fell, face first, into the dirt. The three grinned, or as close as they could come to with the strange features and their insect-like wings, and two worked Marceline onto their backs and began to buzz off, literally, in a eastern direction, towards Froud Valley.

She didn't have much else to do. On one hoof, she just let three Changelings make away with her only, or previously only, conscious party member. With not much else to do, she approached the last area where she was in. All that was there was the umbrella and her strange guitar axe. However, the saddlebags where nowhere to be found, which meant they had no supplies.

Luckily, they could head back to Ponyville within a few hours, but it was almost night, and more of those things might be around. Trixie decided to herself it would be a better idea to go into a cave, somewhere unseen. She went back to the two unconscious ponies and slowly hefted them onto her back, the small rest of walking enough for her to gather her strength to go maybe another twenty minutes before burning out, physically anyways.

After an hour of pain, falling down and being on the verge of tears, Trixie dragged the two into the cave, Marceline's two items levitated by her as she set both groups of objects down inside the little dent in the valley's wall. She sat, panting, before she heard the same noises as before. They must have seen her.

Looking back to Twilight and Luna, she gulped. She wouldn't have any help in this, and a Changeling is a powerful creature. Looking back to the cave entrance, she concentrated her magic, gasping lightly as it began to flow, a somewhat thin barrier forming on the outside, protecting them from the elements and whatever lay outside. At least for now.

A Changeling rushed, perhaps seeing her exertion, but ran horn-first into the barrier Trixie made. She allowed a small smile on her face, about to move back, but the Changeling growled, got up and began to charge it's own magic. Looking to the night sky, Trixie guessed one of the others would be awake soon enough. Charging her own magic, she began to feed to the barrier, thickening it as the Changeling began to swipe away at it.

It wouldn't stay here forever, and if it did, Trixie knew they'd all be taken. But she couldn't bear the thought of being shoved into a vile cocoon to feed these things. Whether or not they needed it for survival, she needed to concentrate. And she sure as Tartarus wouldn't let them get a hold of either of her friends. A new look of determination grew on her face as she began to sweat.

Twilight's eyes opened slowly as she mumbled to herself, a cold feeling all around other than a warmth at her side. That spell had really taken it out of her. Then again, it felt as if something interfered, and it didn't feel good. Finally opening her eyes and yawning, she looked over to the sound of fizzling magic. And a sight she never though she'd see was staring her dead in the face.

Trixie was sitting in front of their small hole, feeding her magic as her eyes were closed. She was sweating bullets, and her horn fizzled every now and then. From what Twilight could tell, she'd been up all night making sure the barrier stayed up. From what? She wasn't sure, but she was going to find out.

She got up, slowly walking over and whispered, almost in disbelief, "Trixie?"

The mare opened her eyes, the shield flickering for a moment before she closed them again, gritting her teeth a bit, "N-No, it's just another trick!"

A very worried look took residence on Twilight's face as she trotted over, placing a gently hoof on her shoulder, "Trixie, Trixie look at me."

There was nothing behind the shield, but Trixie didn't know that. For all she knew, it was a trick, and two changelings had tried to trick her tired and muddled mind before. She wouldn't have it. But a hug from behind made her break her concentration and low magical flow, the already flickering barrier dissipating immediately.

Twilight sighed after taking Trixie into a gentle hug. Sometimes it's what a person needs to calm their crazed nerves. However, driven by adrenaline and anxiety, Trixie shook a bit, a sigh escaping her before she sniffled. Twilight moved the near-limp mare over to a wall and set her against it, Luna blinking awake slowly with a groan.

The lavender Unicorn sat in front of Trixie, eyeing her carefully, "Trixie, what in Equestria happened?"

Trixie looked up, and Twilight felt her heart ache for her new found friend, and possible savior. Her eyes were glistening with tears, on the verge of sobbing as she stuttered out, "T-Trixie tried to help, b-but Marceline told her n-no..."

That's when Twilight's ears perked up, looking around the cave. Marceline was nowhere to be found, and then she had another thing to worry about, "Trixie, what. Happened."

With a sniffle, and a single tear escaping her eyes as Luna saw the scene, simply watching, stunned. Trixie let out a shuddering sigh and began to explain, "T-Trixie was c-carrying you and Luna while M-Marceline carried the bags, a-and she...she w-went ahead to make sure it was safe and...I h-heard them, but I c-couldn't say anything because I...I-I-I was too weak..."

Now, being Twilight, the hypochondriac that she is, widened her eyes and gulped, a feeling of dread like an iron weight in her stomach as she asked, as gently and measured as possible, "What were the things and what happened after?"

Looking up, Trixie began to speak again after attempting to gain control of herself and failing miserably, "T-They were Changelings, and t-t-they took Marceline away, I ha-had to take you two here and...p-put up a barrier, they were out there for half of the night...I..."

Finally, Trixie felt herself shake as she let a few more tears fall, "Trixie tried, Twilight! I really did! I just wanted to be a good friend a-a-and help you! I couldn't do anything!"

The sudden outburst of emotion, from anyone like Trixie, no less, was unexpected by both Twilight and Luna. The Princess of the Night crawled over, her own facial expression both down trodden and frantically worried. Twilight had nothing more to say, or ask, and in honesty it was somewhat impressive Trixie help up against even one Changeling. With a deep sigh filled with remorse, anxiety and worry, Twilight took Trixie into her hooves and hugged her tightly.

Trixie shook against her, meagerly hugging her back as Twilight felt her shoulder become wet, muffled sobs coming from the utterly destroyed mare. While it was somewhat uncalled for, the raw emotion from the shock, the staying up and exertion, not to mention being an utter wreck in terms of anxiety apparently, Twilight could understand why Trixie was so broken.

All she could do was gently pat her back as Trixie tightened her grip, whispering soft little phrases into Trixie's ear to reassure her that it was alright and that she did her best.

Luna, on the other hoof, was checking around outside. She didn't hear or see anything strange, and it was barely into the morning at the moment. If they moved quick enough, they could get to Marceline within a day, maybe a day and a half. But for now, she would let the two mortal mares beside her resolve their emotions as best they could. Emotions, such troublesome things...

Author's Note

Woo, Chapter Nine! And a new record on words. I hope you all enjoyed! Also, don't worry, it won't always be this sad, but this is just a sad moment.

I hope you all enjoyed, have a nice morning/night/evening/afternoon!
P.S I'll be adding official chapter titles instead of 'Chapter [number here]', as fancy as that is.

Of Train Rides and Spells

Chapter Ten

It'd been at least an hour of Twilight embracing Trixie as the blue Unicorn drifted in and out of consciousness, utterly exhausted. About forty-five minutes into the hug, she had stopped crying and muttering about how she failed her only, and first, friends. Though she didn't say it, Luna could infer rather easily that she was also frightened.

Being nearly exhausted of energy and seeing Changelings isn't exactly the most comforting situation, but Luna could think of a few others. Like being trapped on the moon for a millennium.

With a hoof rub to her head, the Princess disregarded the thoughts. She didn't need to scowl and let them broil, though once they got to the Changeling hive, or one of them, she'd have to keep herself calm. Slowly getting up and going to Twilight, she said to her, in a hushed tone, "We shall be outside and checking the parameter around our temporary camp site. Once you both are fit for travel, come out."

Twilight nodded, Trixie readjusting her head, a little yawn coming from her. With a blush of embarrassment, Twilight looked back to Luna and said, "Once I get her in a position she can get around, or at least rest comfortably, I'll go out."

Not even bothering to respond, Luna walked out. A little breath that Twilight was holding in released as the Lunar Princesses hard gaze averted from her. Perhaps it was just the annoyances building up and stress of the situation that was supposed to be her vacation that made her upset. For all she knew, Luna was just in a bad mood in mornings.

Looking around the area, Luna's careful eyes, as young as they seemed in the disguise, could detect just about anything moving. Her ears flicked a it at the sound of something moving, and turning left, her body tensing up, she saw a couple rabbits that came out of their burrow.

Sighing, some of the stress flowing out like her breath, Luna was about to attempt to send something, almost anything, to her Sister so that they could get the Royal Guard to help them. But just as she was about to, a stinging sensation radiated from her horn, a shiver moving quickly along as she rubbed at it's base. Apparently, though she had just rested, her magic was still finicky.

That's when she saw the color of her hoof. It was blue. Not the blue that she was used to, but it was now the lighter shade, that Trixie was. She jumped back a bit in surprise. Luna had expected the potion to have worn off before she woke up, possibly when they were being carried. Luckily it hadn't when the Changelings were about, that would've been a whole mess and then some.

Still though, the fact she couldn't even prepare the spell confused her greatly. Looking towards a rock, she focused on it, the rock gaining a faint outline of light blue magic, lifting off the ground. A smile caressed her lips as she saw that her magic was at least still there. Directing her attention to Twilight and Trixie, a thought entered her head.

Perhaps I could see if I can prepare the spell to enter the Dream Realm? It was a long shot, but it should have some reaction even if she could only prepare it for a moment. Brushing the mane out of her eyes, she stared at Trixie intently, her horn feeling as if it would do the spell. However, this ended as a jolt of electricity ran through her, causing her to jump into the air and her mane to frizzle, her eyes opening widely. Her clenched teeth relaxed as she nearly fell over, shaking her head rapidly.

Apparently she couldn't use any spells that Trixie couldn't. Another rub to her forehead as a slight headache bothered her even more. She would ask how the day could get worse, but it was already pretty terrible, having to go and fetch a person who wasn't even supposed to be here, then return her back to her normal realm within a few days. And that's just the biggest problem on her list.

Her main one was how often Trixie seemed to deviate from their plan. Sure, the Changeling incident, she couldn't help more than likely, being how weak she was. At least, compared to an Alicorn such as herself. The few that were bothering her happened to be when she suddenly ''needed'' Twilight for an unprecedented amount of time. Not only was it annoying, but it slowed them down by an hour or longer.

If she just haven't come in the first place, they wouldn't have to bring as many things, or spent so much time at Twilight's home. They could have been gone within a half hour or shorter time. This brought a bit of anger towards the young blue Unicorn, Luna turning herself around and sitting, putting the growing anger on the back burner for now.

After a minute of Luna doing this, Twilight came up behind her with Trixie laying on her back, her front hooves draped over Twilight's sides. With a sheepish grin, Twilight said, "It's the best I can do, and she isn't that heavy. So what's the plan Princess?"

A facade of the normal "perfect" Goddess came upon Luna as she smiled warmly, "Well, we could head to Ponyville once more, or go for Marceline. We could also travel back to Canterlot, if thou'st think it would be an applicable idea."

A smile graced Twilight's features, never mind her frazzled mane as she saw the mask that Luna had worn, for her sake, "Well, we could talk to Celestia. From what I know, she's been wanting to make contact with the Changelings for some time, in the least violent manner for some time!"

Luna had to resist a small scoff, but of course Twilight would be so informal with her mentor. It's not as if she was her Sister or anything. Still, her smile only faltered for a moment, too quickly retrieved for Twilight to notice, "Well, it might be better to get help from her. If we do go, we think that one of us may have to remain behind, case and point, either us or Trixie, due to our similar appearances, the Changelings, and Poison Joke not too long ago..."

Twilight waved her idea away with a small giggle, "Don't worry, Zecora has a remedy to take care of Poison Joke effects, you'll be fine in a little while once we-"

Clearing her throat, Luna responded, "Well, Twilight, the problem is the fact that this is a vacation. We cannot live on a vacation if there are ponies bowing to us and giving us praise over the simplest of things, especially news reporters, do not even get us started on the matter..."

"Oh, right..." Said Twilight, confirming what she heard. Twilight then sighed, "Well, I'm sure we could explain what happened, let's just avoid Zecora's hut then and get on a train to Canterlot."

Once more, Luna clarified a problem, "But then they'd be suspicious about two of the same pony getting on the train."

Twilight then smiled. It was a smile that dripped with slight malice, as well as her usual strange, scheming look to it. Even though Luna was in a bad mood, it made her smile nervously, her pupils shrinking a bit, "What is thy strange staring for, Twilight? It is uncomfortable when you look at us in such a manner. Cease at once."

"No, absolutely not! We will not do this plan, it is utterly hair brained and ridiculous!" Exclaimed Luna as they walked to Ponyville, already about halfway there by the time Twilight had finished explaining her "brilliant" plan.

Twilight giggled, surprisingly light hearted after what happened with Trixie, "Of course you would say that Luna, you're the one that gets the bad end of the deal. Don't worry though, I'll use a sleep spell so that we can wake you up on the train when we get close, or when we get to Princess Celestia."

Groaning and facehoofing as she continued to walk along, Luna retorted, "But it is completely foalish! Thou'st wish we stuff ourselves inside a bag, which, pray tell why, thou hast withheld how we will do so. And more so, thy hope of this ludicrous plan is't that we do not get spotted, or suspicions raised by our loyal subjects? It's tomfoolery!"

Thinking for a moment, Twilight shrugged, "Now that you've summarized it all, along with a few hurtful insults to my brilliant plan, do you feel any better about it?"

The way that Twilight accentuated the word 'brilliant' made Luna's temptation to blast the Unicorn into next Tuesday apparent. Only to herself, of course. She was very good at keeping her temper, and if not, then mildly grumpy, "NO!"

However, her voice, though an octave lower than the Royal Canterlot Voice, rung true in expressing her dislikes of the plan. Immediately, Twilight's ears tilted back a bit due to the sudden yelling as she smiled nervously and backtracked, "Right, right, then uh- How about we put Trixie in there instead? I mean, she's already asleep and-"

For a moment, about a half of Luna's anger showed it's ugly head. She watched Twilight with careful, calculating eyes and an expression that, to an untrained eye, would see a strange calmness. Of course, the Unicorn knew better, and saw the annoyance, impatience and most of all, frustration as Luna walked up to Twilight, staring her down, "Twilight Sparkle, we do not appreciate such innate annoyances from you of all ponies. We wished simply to have a nice, calm evening and a few days of peace and quiet."

The sternness in Luna's voice reigned past her fake form's vocal cords, and if Twilight wasn't looking to the disguised Alicorn, she wouldn't have mistaken her for Trixie for even a moment. Though she knew that the Lunar Princess wasn't done, she attempted to open her mouth and beg forgiveness. Mostly due to Luna getting extremely irritable from Twilight being so care free and joking. She stood straight, comprehensive about how Luna was going to proceed and to a point, fearful.

Putting a hoof on her chest, which almost dared Twilight to talk out of line, she continued, "We are not finished. Then we had to endure so many setbacks, we were almost a day late. Even more so, our party was joined by a pony that is such an inconvenience, as much as it is painful to say, that we wish they'd have left us be. Our 'friend' Marceline, who does not know the dangers of this land, has gone missing. Your new found companion, as it were, exhausted themselves to save our lives while we had overworked ourselves. We hast been told to go on a vacation, and yet we are forced to go trudging after somepony we barely even know. Then thou, in all of thy wisdom, comes to us and begins to jest with us while thou carries thy broken and battered ally on thy back, conversing on idiotic plans of hiding in luggage bags?"

Gulping, Twilight lifted a hoof, as if to step back, but her limbs felt cemented into the ground while Luna gave the harsh speech. Even with the potion, it seemed that portions of Luna's form still remained, including her Royal Canterlot Voice, if not less loud, and the ability to freeze anypony in their place if she got angry. And boy, was she angry. The comments she made definitely tore down the mood that Twilight was attempting to put up, and it most certainly hit her hard when she mentioned Twilight's friend Trixie and her 'wisdom'. While yes, she was probably just blowing off steam, it hurt none the less.

Luna continued her rant after a moment of staring at Twilight, her expression changing to that of slight anger, though Twilight knew better, "More over, does thou hast the simplest idea of how soul rending this small event will be? Not only could it cause more problems between the shaky truce between Changeling and Equestrian empires-" Wait, what? When did Queen Chrysalis make any sort of agreement with Luna and Celestia? Twilight ignored the thought and compromised to ask later as the Princess took a second to collect her thoughts, "-Which only serves to bring more destruction of trust and ability to live in peace, thou stands before us, talking of 'plans' and other such idiocy! How doe'st thou feel, knowing that thy jests are making fun of treaties and possible peace? Does thy mind have any such thought to explain thy actions, disconcerning the fact your friend was in tears not long ago? Do you!?"

The rant left Twilight with her mouth half open and her irises shrunk a bit, and Luna with a glare and frown on her face. Something about what just happened made Twilight not only fear the Princess, but feel much lower under her. More than usual. She was always courteous around the two royal sisters, but to hear one of them list off the problems of the past week, and then begin disgracing herself due to how she seemed to lose the importance of what was happening.

For what seemed like the second time, the first being when Trixie began balling in her hooves, Twilight felt dread like a lead weight in her gut. It wasn't a question on Luna's sincerity anymore, now it was a question to her. Do I really have any idea what's going on with this? Am I just making matters worse?

Just as Luna began the rant, she ended it and pulled her hoof away.

Then, she felt the anger just grow more. It didn't worry her, as she has had a lot of anger to be built up over her time, even recently. Not only has Luna withheld her anger, she nearly packs it into a nice, tight little jar inside herself in order to remain calm. Twilight just had the misfortune of tipping that jar and cracking the lid open.

She doesn't deserve this, thought Luna, as she looked between her retracted hoof and Twilight. At that very moment, the authority and frustration vanished, as well as something that the Princess couldn't figure out for the life of her, though it certainly felt familiar.

Taking a small step back, she let out a light breath and said, in a hushed tone, "We are...sorry for this outburst, Twilight. We are just upset with how our situation has been pertained to what was meant to be a relaxing time for us..."

Even after the almost whispered apology, Twilight took a second to take in everything that was shouted at her. After a minute, she came back from the gears in her head turning, albeit slowly. After she came back to the land of the living, metaphorically of course, she realized she'd just frozen up and imagined a few scenarios of being launched off of the planet, locked in a dungeon, or locked in the planet, in a dungeon.

It took a bit of courage for Twilight to speak up as she asked a somewhat obvious question, "Why didn't you...tell me about the state of things before?"

Without answering her, Luna turned and started moving once more, waving Twilight along. She complied, following behind the Night Goddess as she spoke, "Because we had not seen reason to involve thee in that particular matter of the problems at Canterlot. My Sister did not want me getting involved either for...various reasons."

A sour feeling rose inside Luna while she explained, but this only heightened Twilight's curiosity as she asked, timidly, "Well, i-if it's...no trouble...what is the reason?"

The Princess did not answer her question, and simply continued moving, the feeling growing the more she thought over the sequence of events that brought about such reasons. Many ponies would wish to know them, but out of the interest of herself and her public appearance, she decided to not answer Twilight's question.

This caused Twilight to continue to wonder why the Princess was so tight lipped about the situation on the Changelings. She'd spoken with Celestia on them, and while she did offer some insight, she still didn't mention any sort of negotiations. Still, Celestia had definitely been more informational than her friend Luna. But, reasons were reasons, and pushing her right now wouldn't be a good idea.

They continued their walk in silence, Luna silently wondering how she was going to approach her Sister while Twilight thought of another plan, one not so strange this time around.

Just as they passed Twilight's house, Luna waited on the back of the building as Twilight walked in with Trixie on her back, rummaging through some items to get some smelling salts. After a few minutes of coughing from the stench, Trixie was awake, but only half conscious, and Twilight had to lead her around in her drowsy and barely thinking state.

Through a small series of events, Luna had begrudgingly decided to go along with Twilight's idea, at least partially. She would go on the train as well, but a different one. Since two trains usually ran to Canterlot, it was no surprise she greatly liked the idea of going on a separate train instead of being stuffed in a bag.

Just as they neared the station however, Luna held Twilight up and she had to lean Trixie against a wall, telling her to stay put. Going behind a building, Luna said, with trepidation, "Being as it were, we will have difficulty going to Canterlot as is, but being there, it is impossible to avoid attention. What thou hast to do is use a spell to temporarily destroy the effects of the potion that I drank and, hopefully, the poison joke as well, as it reacted with the drink."

A smile found it's way on Twilight's face as she asked, curiously, "Okay, that's fine. I don't...know that spell though. I read the book it's found in, 'Advanced Dispelling Mechanics, volume two', but I couldn't really...get it right. Last time I tried was when Pinkie accidentally made a love potion and put it in Rainbow Dash's birthday cake..."

Twilight's smile faded a bit as her eye twitched, her pupils shrinking. Suddenly, she was back when Rainbow had taken a bite of the cake, seemingly normal for a few moments, as everypony seemed to be after eating. Twilight had refrained from eating the treat, not wanting to until she was sure that Pinkie didn't put anything in it, which she does when it's a private party with her friends. Nothing dangerous, but always insane.

That aside, she remembered, vividly, when suddenly everypony's eyes locked onto each other, Pinkie diving behind cover and returning with a pot on her head and an overturned table, waving around a rubber spatula. Then, the room was a blur, her five friends, plus a few other ponies, one of which with an electric blue mane and bright red eyes which grinned down at her with a predatory smile.

Not only was it a fluke that they all seemed to take effect at the same time, but it was also a fluke that the one pony, she believed that was named Octavia, dragged her out of there with only a hickey, a light bite mark on her left fore leg, a bit of saliva on her forehead, and a lot of unconscious ponies in the store that would be extremely confused. She still wondered how in the world Pinkie saw everything before the others, but it probably had something to do with the backs of her mane and tail twitching violently.

She shuddered. Dark times.

However, Twilight was brought out of her flashback by Luna's concerned voice reaching her, also lightly tapping her shoulder, "Hm? What? Oh, sorry! I just...stuff. So, what uh, what's the plan for me to learn it?"

The Princess studied her for a moment, slightly concerned for the Unicorn's sanity due to her mumbling things and twitching, before suddenly coming to. With a shake of her head, she decided to tell Celestia later, "A-Anyways, the point is that we can give you some of our knowledge of it, but..."

Twilight's lips formed an 'o', her eyes widening as she realized what Luna was saying. While it wasn't all that common for ponies to transfer knowledge in such a way, it only works if both ponies have the ability to cast said spell, but it was very...intimate looking.

Gulping nervously, Twilight said, "S-So you're saying we have to..." A blush formed on her cheeks as she trailed off.

The Princess laughed awkwardly, nodding, "Yes, we must touch our horn to yours and transfer it through a few moments of magical, and physical contact. And, thou must also give us some sort of information for it to work properly."

Not only was Twilight blushing and looking stunned, but the Lunar Princess was refusing to meet her gaze, a slight blush of her one on her cheeks. If anyone had seen this, they certainly would have gotten the wrong idea.

With a small flourish, a small light on the end of Luna's horn was seen, the same color as her magic would normally be. Begrudgingly, Twilight stepped up to her and leaned her forehead forward, looking down as Luna did the same, about two seconds of contact being made.

Something like an electric shock ran through both of them as a gasp came from Twilight, she stepped back once it was complete. Luna shot her eyes wide open. This definitely dispelled our sleepiness. Thought Luna as she rubbed at the base of her horn, the stinging returning for a few moments.

Twilight shook her head, the blood flow to her cheeks slowing down and coming to a halt as she calmed, sighing. Luna remained much more tactful, turning and walking towards Trixie with Twilight right behind her.

But as they neared the corner, they found that Trixie was waiting against the wall, seemingly a lot more awake then beforehand. She looked to them, a solemn look on her face, and Twilight knew just about why. She put a hoof around Trixie, giving her a light hug, "Don't worry, we're gonna get her back, remember, you did the best you could."

"Yeah..." Muttered Trixie as she then shut her mouth, contemplating.

The Night Princess had received a hooded cloak to wear so the three could get to the train station, though only Twilight went in to buy tickets. Incidentally, the clothing only made her look more suspicious, but Twilight simply decided to let her think she was being stealthy. After all, she looked adorable with the thing around her. Not that anypony will ever hear me say that. Twilight told herself.

Trixie clamored onto one of the trains, Twilight following after saying goodbye to Luna, and arranging to meet up behind some buildings in Canterlot's outer area to use the spell, as Twilight would build it up and see if she could get it right along the train ride. Luna then waited on a bench for the train that would come shortly after Twilight's.

Once on the train, the conductor began to ring the bells, calling, "All aboard! Train is leaving the station!"

Twilight yawned lightly, looking to Trixie, who buried her face in her hooves on the table between them. She looked absolutely disheveled, disoriented, dis-everything. It made Twilight sigh, leaning forward and gently putting a hoof onto her's in an attempt to help her friend.

Meanwhile, as the train left, Luna took her hood off, no longer needing it now that the train had left, and waited patiently, if not irritably, for the next one.

It had been two hours since the train left, Luna only a half hour or so away from them, as Twilight watched Trixie carefully. It seemed that she was still torn up a lot by not being strong enough to save her friends, just like Twilight does. A small realization, whether it was right or wrong, dawned on Twilight.

Trixie looked up to her. She tried to beat her, if not to impress her, then to one up the lavender Unicorn and feel accomplished. Perhaps there really is a more deep seeded issue than just not having friends? Twilight thought to herself in silence, not sure how to approach the situation. On one hoof, it was Trixie, an arrogant show mare who seemed to desire nothing more than publicity.

But on the other...it was Trixie. The same Unicorn who nearly fizzled herself out of magic the night before protecting her friends, who almost begged Twilight to help her, and who Twilight held crying, in her hooves, sobbing about not being fast enough, good enough, strong enough.

Her thoughts trailed off, and before she had a chance to stop herself, she asked quietly, "Trixie, why are you so...upset?"

The blue Unicorn, her face relatively normal other than looking tired, sighed and said, "Why do you think, Twilight?"

Oh no, not another rant. Just as Twilight began to wonder how many ponies she managed to make angry per day, she was interrupted by Trixie glaring at her for a moment and then laying her head back down.

Leaning her head against the window, she sighed inwardly and spoke quietly to herself, "Gonna be a half hour..."

Author's Note

Now that we're getting the story really moving along, I'm getting really excited for the more fun parts of it. I hope you all enjoy, have a good morning/day/evening/night!

P.S I might have to change to the 'Mature' rating for later chapters the way this is going, gee.

Deals and Dreams

Chapter Eleven

The Lunar mare had long since discarded her disguise, her hood lowered as she sat back comfortably, enjoying the trip as best she could. The many problems still raced around in her mind, and Luna wondered if she could fix this entire mess without having to confront Chrysalis.

Not that they weren't trying to make friends and put what happened in Canterlot behind them, but she's always had a knack for telling when others are lying to her. Mostly it had to do with learning how to analyze facial movements, little acts, such as scratching one's nose or something along those lines. Of course, she wasn't always correct.

Still, it came in handy. However, the Changeling Queen had mastered how to show none of these signs. It only happened when she wanted it to happen so she could confuse Tia on Luna herself being suddenly very up front and a bit aggressive.

Of course, she was also a very hard nut to crack. Her Sister would never use any sort of spells to attempt to force information from the Queen, but Luna wasn't so sure they could trust what they heard. Sure, Chrysalis had learned from her last encounter that she was definitely not the best out there.

Still, there was a lingering feeling of uneasiness for Luna whenever in her presence. Mostly it was because the Changeling Queen seemed to focus on her more than her Sister. Figures, she simply wishes for us to be thrown into a cocoon as our Sister hast been none too long ago.

Though this thought brought a small smile to her face as she remembered how Tia had taken a cold shower for three hours after being stuffed inside one. It made a small giggle come from her, thinking of how she finally had something to tease her Sister about. At least, something recent.

Of course, the cocoons themselves can serve a darker purpose of something that Luna dubbed conversion, and though Chrysalis hadn't done something like that in a long time, she wasn't afraid for her Sister. For what it was worth, Chrysalis was desperate, but not that desperate. Not to mention the two Royal sisters couldn't be changed in either case. Well, not fully anyways. The worst it would do is turn their fur black, leave them very hungry, plus extremely upset with whomever had the misfortune of being around.

Still, this does't not mean it would not hurt. Commented Luna, to herself of course. She was still about an hour away from Canterlot, and decided to grab some shut eye. It was rare that she got a chance to, so Luna figured she may as well.

She was about to set up a sort of timer with her horn that would connect to her magic, but then realized she didn't have the power, nor time, to do so. Instead, she took a simple route and gently nudged one of the stallions in the booth to her left. He stirred a bit, not asleep but definitely thinking to himself, "Whass'at?"

His accent left a small grimace on her face, but she discarded it and gently asked, "Hello. We were hoping that...you...could wake us once this train reaches Canterlot, we need to take a rest." Her words were a bit forced, attempting to sound more casual and modern instead of something torn out of the medieval ages. Which, in all fairness, she may as well have been.

The stallion, whom had an orange coat and red mane and tail was slumped a bit. He looked up and cracked a wrackish grin, nodding, "Sure thing miss, I wouldn't turn down such a beautiful mare as yourself."

His voice was tinted with, no, dripping, with flirtations. However, it was wasted on Luna, as she knew all to well how ponies did such things. She smiled, nodded, and said politely, "Thank you, sir. We will be certain to return such compliments later, but we are very tired."

Though she may as well have rejected him, Luna decided she would give him the benefit of the doubt, and he smiled brightly, nodding and laying back, going back to his original position. The Princess did the same, except she laid against the window and closed her eyes, intending to sleep her way to Canterlot.

As Luna slipped into her subconscious state, she was immediately aware of her surroundings. Such things happen when you are the Princess of the Night, especially when you can enter and control other ponies's dreams. Looking around the familiar, and almost blank dreamscape, she saw that her form here was her normal, regal appearance. With a flick of her horn, she made it change once more, back to the petite-looking mare with a light blue mane and tail, as well as a lighter shade of coat.

She always loved being in such a state of mind, and, to a point, body, It filled her with a younger vigor she no longer had at her current age. Which she still couldn't keep track of very well, sadly. It was her Sister who kept track of that boring nonsense. Suddenly, an apparition of Celestia appeared in her dream.

Of course it would though, even if she was thinking of it even offhandedly, it still took effect here. With a few swift thoughts and a small wave of her horn, the scene was of the observatory, where she used to spend most of her time. That is, until Tia took a personal student under her wing.

She wasn't resentful of Twilight, as Luna herself wasn't...present when the room was secured. However, in this dream, it was as she left it before she had temporary departed. The draperies were the lavish blue that she always adored, the light blue streaks running along it's embroidered edges.

Luna took them into her hoof, feeling the softness at their touch. It was a pleasant feeling, one of home. Looking out the window, she saw the night. Her night, shining brightly for all the ponies to see. Turning back, she saw the large volumes of books were still stacked high, but not as many. However, many more scrolls of ancient spells and maps adorned her walls.

This little place used to be a sanctuary for the Princess, a place where she could escape the troubles of the day. In fact, she used to lock this door with a binding spell so that only she and her Sister could enter. Looking towards it, the door held no doorknob, which was for a reason. It was only meant to be teleported into, which made Luna a bit upset that Tia had ruined a perfectly good enchantment.

In either case, she turned towards what the purple mare had changed into a living quarters. At least, during her early years. It's changes were drastic, as it was originally Luna's inscribing workshop. Or, for what ponies called it in this day and age, a work room.

Stepping into the seemingly ageless room, she saw that some of the details were missing. Shaking her head, she turned her attention to the table she spent ages at, the other things didn't matter as much, but still. Taking her rightful seat at the desk, she saw her old ink quill, and an empty scroll.

A nostalgic feeling began to come to her. She remembered how long she spent cooped up in here, Tia always baiting her out with the promise of food and other such necessities. Luna wasn't always a very social pony, or princess for that manner. But for what it was worth, her scribing tools and scrolls were what mattered a lot to her. While, yes, she would never forget about her Sister's subjec- Or, rather, her Sister and her subjects.

Shaking her head a bit, she cleared her thoughts of the unpleasantness. She'd rather not deal with any sort of nightmare, they were a pain to subdue. Especially that one. It wasn't even something she had to explain to herself, lest she tease the ideas a bit more. Focusing back on her scroll, she noticed that it was unfinished.

Now this is a nightmare. Princess Luna said to herself, a small grin on her face as she played it off as a joke. She then used her magic to lift the quill. Perhaps she could attempt to do this while she waited? After all, it had been a while since she went into this part of her dreams, which meant this scroll was from some time ago.

Even more safer than the actual observatory in the castle, she had been able to weave her dreams as a sort of safe haven in her mind. She could leave unfinished work, and come back whenever she pleased. The dust on the scroll was her own mind's way of telling her that it'd been a long time, and with a small blow of cool air, she began looking it over.

Strange. Then again, I was always a stickler for transformation and creation magic.

The scroll laid out in front of her was about half way finished, or at least, that's what she could infer from about half of it being taken up. A small candle lit the room, and she began to read it over.

Magical Formulation of Personage

If one was to take thee's spirit, would thy body follow? Surely not. This ideal is preposterous, and hast been proven this far into our research. As far as we can know from what we hath seen, it does't not work in this manner. However, what if one were to take the essence of some such being, and move it out of the body it was currently hosted inside? Perhaps, if our theory is correct, there may be a feasible way for the previous statement to work, but in reverse. Perhaps, if we need'st be so bold, if an entity were taken out, would a body follow? Surely, if not, it would simply slink back into whatever host it had found beforehand, or fade away into the void. While the last option is least favorable, the likelihood of this event taking place would be extremely unlikely. In the event it did, the effects could be catastrophically dangerous to the entity, but maybe not the host them self. In either reasoning, the after shock of what would happen could ruin the plan that we have put so much effort into, and we intend to-

This wasn't good. Something was wrong. The words, especially 'we' and 'our', they seemed...different from the rest. They were almost printed harsher, as if Luna had attempted to put a sort of message into it for whomever would read it. Not to mention that this scroll had stated several things having to do with 'entities', and she was almost sure what, or who, it was talking of.

Still, she attempted to keep her mind off the subject. Thinking of it would only make it worse, so she decided to stop reading the long, drawn out summaries and ideas, only skimming them and looking over the small diagrams.

What she did see was that everything seemed to be so neatly written and made, but it had a sort of sketchy feeling to it. Something in Luna's gut told her that this was a very calamitous thing, not to be trifled with. She stopped reading, setting her quill down. This was not something she wanted to finish.

With a flourish of her horn, she rolled up the magic scroll and set it a ways away, in a small pile she would put the rejected ones, or just plain badly done ones. Or she would have done, if the damned thing would move.

Every time she tried to move it, it simply sat there, the magic dispelling each time she tried to. However, after enveloping it with her magic, she was able to detect an extremely strong enchant on the scroll, which actually stopped her from doing anything but writing on it.

Whatever had put it on the scroll didn't want Luna removing it from her dreamscape, which meant it knew how to weave the dreams as well and force a reality on a situation. This was not something easily done, and the only ponies who even had an idea of this place were her Sister and Starswirl.

Then, she let go of the scroll and stepped back. There was only one other pony.

The sound of hooves clattering downstairs made her turn her attention to it, but then she heard a voice. Her own voice.

It was shaky, unstable, and not anywhere nearly as composed as she liked to be. It was talking out loud, and Luna knew that the voice was reciting what she had seen on the scroll after only a few sentences. The voice continued, gaining a low pitch and eerie feeling, the uneven voice getting high pitched at times, and at others returning to a droll.

What in Equestria is happening here!? Thought Luna. This was one of the few times she didn't have very much control over her dreams, and she was fairly certain why. She just didn't feel like dealing with it at the moment. But no time like the present.

The room behind the doorway was now a hallway to a brown, wooden door. It was beaten and had some chips missing, but that was natural. Especially for where she was going. Moving out of the room, she eagerly left the mad rantings of whatever insanity had claimed her that night.

Stepping into the room, she looked to the right, then to the left. The right hallway was blocked by a wall, and she dared not tread there. Not only would it possibly bring more problems, but she didn't want to deal with that right now. Turning to her left now, she began walking down the brick and limestone hallway with quick steps. She knew what was coming, and mentally prepared herself. As for emotionally, she was always ready.

Her hooves found themselves, as strangely as it was, in a small dungeon cell. Dreams worked strangely, especially the more...diverse side of hers. Inside of it, the lamps on the outside barely lit it, shadows threatening to break out at any moment, held back by a light.

The sound of rustling chains was heard as a figure that Luna knew all too well came out of the blackness, most of herself hidden still, a small smile on her face, "Hello, Luna. Just the Alicorn mare I wished to speak to."

Whilst Luna prepared to sleep and closed her eyes, Twilight and Trixie, or at least Twilight, as she was the only one with her head up, could see Canterlot approaching in the distance. It would only be about twenty minutes or less before they reached the station.

Looking to Trixie, Twilight still sighed, not annoyed or angry, but simply sad. She didn't know what to do. The mare was so upset with, what seemed like everything. It also wasn't like her to not know what to do. Twilight always knew what to do! At least, in most cases. Okay, maybe not most cases, but she already knew that!

Turning to the matter at hand, Twilight decided to attempt to talk to Trixie again. Not many ponies were in the train car with them, only one or two, and they were both asleep. Slowly reaching over, she nudged the light blue Unicorn. The aforementioned Unicorn raised her head, raising an eyebrow at Twilight, who merely looked with a concerned expression, "Trixie, if you need to talk to somepony, I'd be glad to help you, I mean, what are friends fo-"

The mare grumbled and rested her head on her chin, watching Twilight, "Really. Well, Trixie is sorry for sounding unbelieving, but she doubts that you can help her with this problem, Twilight. For very specific reasons."

Quirking an eyebrow, Twilight was now curious. Reasons? What reasons?

Instantly, Twilight felt her 'therapist mode' engage as she leaned forward, almost muzzle to muzzle with Trixie, "I'm your friend, Trixie. At least let me try."

The sincere sounding words that came from Twilight made Trixie's ears flick. She didn't like being rude, well, not entirely. She didn't like being difficult, honestly. But Twilight was the one who made her difficult, so she wasn't simply going to drop everything and pretend as if the day had been completely normal. And yes, Twilight had held her while she cried, in her most vulnerable state. When she lost the mask that she had to use.

Immediately, Twilight saw her eyes beginning to shimmer, wetness growing on them. She quickly shushed Trixie from whatever she was about to say, scooting over and patting the seat next to her, "Come over here, please. I can't stand you being so upset! It's driving me nuts, and I can imagine it's not very nice for you."

Slowly, and somewhat regrettably, Trixie got up and moved around to Twilight's side of the booth, sitting next to the purple mare. Instantly she was taken into a light hug, not as tight and secure as the one in the cave, but a hug none the less.

Twilight simply smiled warmly at her, "Trixie, just because you did something a day ago, a month ago, or even years ago that hurt somepony, it doesn't make you a bad pony."

A sniffle came from the former showmare. Looking to Twilight, she asked, quietly, "Why is this always about what Trixie had done, or failed to do...?"

This broke Twilight's perception of the problem. What was her problem! She had a whole speech prepared about what a bad pony was, and how Trixie wasn't in a number of ways. Quickly, Twilight began analyzing what had happened throughout the day, searching for something that could even mildly upset Trixie. She came up with nothing.

With nothing to show for her quick efforts and slight panic, she sighed and said, "Because it's all I can think of. Because when I think of Trixie, and her problems, it's all that...comes up. I don't...know a lot about you, in all honesty..."

The truth was, Trixie wanted that. It's not that she didn't want friends, or she didn't like Twilight, but maybe it was for the better if she remained in the dark of her problem, and of some of who Trixie was. Not that it was particularly bad, but it wasn't anything Twilight couldn't have already guessed.

With a sigh, Trixie decided to simply lean against her and enjoy Twilight's warm, breathing body. She was thankful for Twilight being honest, and not trying to come up with something silly. It made her glad that Trixie chose her as a friend. The word still resonating within her. Friend. It was a strong word for a pony like Trixie, and it meant a lot more than Twilight might think.

Friend. A pony, something to be held close to you. Something you can trust and depend on to be there, in the warm, sunny days or the cold, stressful, or even cruel ones. Friend, the pony that would tell you everything was alright, even when it wasn't, just to see you smile again. Friend, the word that bound two ponies, griffins, whatever they may be, together in a trusting, unforgettable companionship.

Sure, maybe she didn't know too well what a friend was, she never had one, or at least, not a good one. But as she was held in Twilight's soft embrace, she felt her tears begin to dry. Twilight was her friend, she was all of those things. She had accepted her when Trixie was at her weakest, and was able to stand her when Trixie was at her highest. This pony cared for Trixie, and Twilight cared for her.

In fact, Trixie more than cared for her. The thought made her chest feel bunched up and light, a tint of rose being splayed on her cheeks. It made her trip from her home in Fillydelphia have more meaning and depth than just to get friends. Perhaps Trixie...loved her?

The two Princesses, technically anyways, had been staring each other down for a minute before Luna finally spoke up, "We see that thou wanted to attract us so we could converse. What is it you want? We will not be making another petty deal with the likes of you."

A light laugh came from Nightmare, one would not expect from such a being, but Luna simply watched her sternly as Nightmare addressed her, "Oh, Luna. You know that even if I wanted to, I can't do the same gig twice, as it were. Plus, wasn't it you who wanted to take over Equestria?"

The Princess snorted, rolling her eyes, "Oh yes, also the part where you almost forced us to change into thee and do battle with our very own Sister!"

Nightmare sat back a bit. Not disturbed by Luna's outburst, just sighing as she responded, "Luna, you realize, I had to, per our contract? Not to mention that I'm not actually stuck here, you just like imagining me in bindings in order to feel in control of me."

Scoffing, Luna retorted, albeit a bit angrily, "Yes, yes. But It's how our subconscious works, we cannot change it. In either case, you wanted to discuss something. It must have been somewhat important to open the mental link."

Then, Nightmare looked where Luna had come from, only to stare back to the Princess's expectant eyes, "Well, it must be obvious. I put that scroll there for a reason. Though, not to do anything bad. It was meant to frighten you a bit if anything. Anyways, my point is-"

Gasping, Luna immediately realized and almost screamed in response, "No! We cannot allow thou to get a physical form! Thy powers are extremely dangerous, and we will not have any more destruction on our shoulders!"

Nightmare took a step back. She expected this, honestly, and for what it was worth, she deserved what she got. To a point, she did influence Luna, but...she did regret it. Getting the poor little sister stuck on the moon, alone, wasn't the best thing. Not only that, but she immensely underestimated Celestia's powers.

But again, she would try a calm approach. Sure she wasn't the nicest thing, but she had a plan, "Here, let me put it this way. If I'm out there, I won't be in here. If I'm not in here, I won't be out there and attempting to make deals with others in turn for other things, as I did with you a thousand and some odd years ago."

Luna's compulsion to attack the being before her was growing, but she sighed and sat back, considering her proposition for a little bit as she said, "We will...consider it. We will also speak with our Sister in order to get her opinion on thy proposal. In the time before then, don't try anything, or thy shall destroy any hope of such things."

Her tone was harsh, but not angry. Like she was reprimanding Nightmare for what she did, as if she was a filly who stole something small and unneeded. Luna turned around, taking one last look at Nightmare before walking away. There were a lot of things that the Princess regretted, and this was one of the larger things. The main issue is that sometimes, Nightmare was being serious, and meant to possibly be better. But she couldn't take her word. All she knew was betrayal and pain from the creature, and she simply felt an intense hatred for her.

However, Luna's more forgiving side told her that it really wasn't all Nightmare's fault. Sure, something terrible happened, but Luna made the plan, the contract, and the choice. It was all her fault that Nightmare became such a terrible thing. Of course, it was always dark, but it was never known on such a large scale, until that fateful night.

And with a sigh, the Lunar Princess felt the world begin to degrade. Apparently, she had just made it to Canterlot, as she heard the same stallion from before gently nudging and calling to her, "Time to wake up, I suppose..."

Twilight and Trixie had been waiting patiently behind a comic store in the lower areas of Canterlot, both slightly annoyed with the time Luna was taking. They were both also sitting against a wall, trading little stories between each other, attempting to enjoy their time together as best they could.

And then Luna stepped out into the ally, or at least, the disguised Luna, and she smiled, "We are ready to begin, yes?"

Author's Note

And that's it for Chapter Eleven! I hope you all enjoyed, I stayed up until 5 in the morning writing it, eugh. I need a better sleeping schedule. So yes, Trixie and Nightmare, oh my! Will Trixie's love be returned by Twilight, and will Luna go through with the deal? Also, what will they all do about Chrysalis? Well, eventually you'll find out. I have no idea honestly.
Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed, have a good morning/day/evening/night!

And remember, all comments or ideas are very welcome, especially when it comes to characters or critique!

Lines and Meetings

Chapter Thirteen

A clatter of hooves sounded through the hallways of Canterlot Castle, though Twilight of course tried to quiet the sounds. She followed the path of the Princess only a little bit ahead of herself, making it remarkably easy to find the room Luna was walking to. Surprisingly, it was a fair distance from Celestia's. Sighing, she watched Luna trot away silently, though most likely brooding, before arriving to a door. Twilight quickly stopped, as not to startle the Princess, and Luna walked through them. As they closed, Twilight stepped up to them.

The extremely finely made, rich mahogany doors seemed almost ancient, though most certainly cleaned and well kept. The only sign of their age was the occasional bump of some sort of filling in the cracks. Lining around the doors and strange, silver-like metal seemed an almost blue color, carving out shapes with it's contrasting color to the brownish door.

Slowly, Twilight let her hoof raise and knock on one of them. Three times, she knocked, and during them, she could swear she heard something of a shuffle, someone maybe trying to get rid of something quickly. Twilight, tentatively, asked, "Uhm...Princess Luna?"

"Yes?" Came the, of course, well refined and confined voice of the Princess of the Night. Knowing better, Twilight quietly inquired, "Princess, are you...okay? Can I come in?"

A moment of silence, before, "Why does't thou wish to join us in our quarters. In the middle of our night."

Oh. This sounds a bit bad. Wrinkling her muzzle a bit, Twilight didn't enjoy how it sounded like some cheesy romance story right now, "Well, you seemed like you were upset, and I just wanted to see if I could-" Twilght was cut off mid sentence with a resounding, "No. We are fine, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight stood there for a moment, not too sure how to proceed. Pushing this any further could result in Luna simply becoming frustrated with her for budging into their business, but leaving would not help Luna in any way. Or maybe something more, Twilight thought to herself.

Then again, she never said to leave, "Princess, do you want me to go?"

Silence. Twilight waited a minute or two, then another couple. No sound except what she assumed was Luna shifting in either her bed or some sort of seating, "Do you want me to come i-"

"No! We...mean no, we would appreciate it if thou did not come into our quarters." Luna answered quickly. Well alright, if you don't want me to come in, how can I stay here?

Rubbing her head a bit with her hoof, Twilight asked, "Princess, your room has a bathroom, right?"

A small 'Mhm' had been heard beyond the door, making Twilight slightly confused. May as well say it while I can, Twilight reasoned, "Well could I stay in there and just...talk to you?"

The door she was speaking through got an indigo glow around it's edges, slowly sliding open to reveal Luna's room. The lights were off, save for the bathroom's lights, and the door there was open as well. It was nearly impossible to see anything but that, but Twilight could spot the lump in the bed, just to the center of the room. Without another thought, or time to make one, Twilight trotted to the bathroom and sat on the rather comfortable rug that adorned the floor.

Surprisingly comfortable, Twilight thought. Before she did much else, a small bean bag-like chair laid itself next to her, which she took to quickly. The warmth of the bathroom was surprisingly also room temperature, so she was mostly comfortable, and Luna began to speak in a quiet voice, "Twilight, does't...thou ever get into arguments with thy older sibling, Shining Armour?"

Twilight got a small smile, deciding to crack a joke, "Well, no, of course not, everything always hunky dory."

No dice. Twilight chastised herself for sounding like a fool. Trying once more, she said, "Of course, I mean, we don't get into major arguments that often if at all, but..."

"We see. Well, if thy sibling had, at some point, not only disregarded but also insulted your idea for a solution to a rather queer problem, what would'st thy reaction be to such...anger?" A hint of sadness broke the constant royal and upper class tone of her voice. More so than the usual, slight dip.

The unicorn's head cocked a bit to the side as she attempted to piece together what had happened between Celestia and Luna. Though, not wanting to seem rude, she answered with a drop of curiosity, "More than likely, I'd get angry too, and we would have to separate ourselves for a little while to...cool our heads?"

Silence dominated the airwaves inside the room for a unprecedented amount of time, leaving Twilight to simply sit and think about what she'd seen and heard from Luna. The Princess was, below all those calloused layers of royalty and proper acting, just a pony. And like any other pony, or living thing, she needed some form of love, something to keep her from feeling alone.

While loneliness was not Twilight's forte, as she rather preferred isolated times to herself, she did need her friends most of the time to keep her from becoming a recluse. They kept her on her hooves, sure, but more than that, gave the interaction she never knew that she even needed. More over, Twilight realized much of her want and need to study came from the fact that she had little else to do that was entertaining.

With the slight introspection done with, the unicorn was snapped back to reality by the sound of a slightly worried Princess Luna, "...Twilight, art thou feeling well?"

Shaking her head, Twilight responded quickly, a tad too hurriedly as she had slurred her words a bit, "Hmmyes, yes I'm fine! Sorry Princess, I got stuck in my thoughts..."

The mare smiled sheepishly, feeling her cheeks warm a bit in embarrassment. The display would've probably made Luna either roll her eyes and smile or facehoof while smiling, but she was quite a bit out of sight, so Twilight felt even more ridiculous. With a small grumble to herself on trying to pay attention more, Twilight asked, "So...have you thought about what I said Princess?"

Luna nodded, though Twilight couldn't have possibly even caught the movement slightly, so she simply said, "Yes, we...did think on it, Twilight Sparkle. And as much as the disagreement is some measure more serious than some debate between siblings, we thank thee for thy input. It is simply...tiring, is all."

There was a small release of breath, as if decompressing, at the end of Luna's sentence. Twilight groaned inwardly, realizing she was getting nowhere, she took a risk, "Princess, I realize we don't always get along, but I was around when you sort of...stormed out of Celestia's study, you looked and sounded so upset...I just want to help, and I guess I'm not gonna get anywhere without just saying it. So there you go. Please tell me what happened?"

A shocked face had broken the mask of indifference. Luna stirred up, sitting up and looking to the bathroom, the light providing just enough light to see Luna's outline if Twilight looked close enough. The Princess quickly said, her voice having an underlying suspicion and timidness, "Twilight..."

More so than anything, Twilight scared herself into thinking within moments that Luna was upset with her. Immediately she spoke up again, trying to remedy a situation that needed none, "O-of course, I was just...passing by, you know, I just...overheard..."

A quiet air, thick with worry from Twilight settled for a brief period before Luna spoke again, "No need to feel threatened, Twilight, we simply aren't used to others displaying even the slightest knowledge of our more personal matters."

However, after the short conversation, neither mare said anything. Both were simply laying down in their respectable areas. It didn't take long before Luna heard the pony inside her bathroom snore, telling her that she had passed out. She can't stay up all night, silly mare, Luna mused to herself. She silently flicked her head a bit as Twilight's body blipped away with a teleport spell, placing her comfortably in her bed. Leaning back in her bed, Luna felt her eyelids hang, wishing to close.

Perhaps it is time to sleep. Luna slowly laid herself down, doing her best to get comfortable and in a position that wouldn't make her neck hurt.

The sun shone brightly over the grassy lands of Equestria, giving a pleasant look to just about everything. A midnight blue Alicorn sat atop her balcony, a bag packed behind her, though set aside, as she no longer needed it. The pot of the substance was, however, being broiled slowly in the kitchen, so she would be ready to send Marceling home once they got a hold on her.

Turning around and walking out into the hallway, Luna moved to the castle doors, her Sister and Twilight waiting for her. She inquired with only the slightest hint of worry, "Where is't Trixie? Is she not coming with us?"

A simple shake of a head was her only answer from Celestia, who walked towards the chariot which landed just in front of them. Twilight elaborated further, "She needs rest, and I don't think it'd be fair to bring her there personally, I thought it would be okay to leave her in the room. And only in her room."

Chuckling lightly, Luna got into the chariot, taking a seat opposite of her Sister. As Twilight got on, she looked between the two and sat on Luna's side, the small and minuscule detail registering somewhat on the elder alicorn's face in the form of some distress.

The three ponies remained completely silent along their trip, with Celestia occasionally asking the pegasus drivers how much longer it would be. Luna looked blank, not really registering the cold winds lapping at her fur as she simply stared down, letting her mind fade to other matters. Twilight avoided eye contact with Celestia, not wishing to spark a debate with her, and Celestia herself was nervous about confronting Twilight, especially in her sister's company.

Before long, the weather became somewhat more arid, though with the winds moving through the open canopy, it was a fair temperature, not to mention being fairly high up. Twilight got up and trotted slowly, carefully, to the railing and looked over, seeing a large expanse of desert and, strangely, jungles popping up every now and then, though it was more like a small oasis from the harsh weather. Somepony, probably Luna, had told her the trip would last about an hour or two.

How long had it been? About an hour, I think, Twilight sighed inwardly, leaving the standing point and sat back down where she had before. One of the guards called back, surprising Twilight, "Brace yourselves, we are heading below a storm line."

Without time to react, the chariot suddenly dipped, though not enough to be anything more than some sliding. That sliding however was not stopped for Luna, and she nearly slammed into Twilight. Technically she did, but Twilight put her hooves out to hold her in place, both of them compacted slightly against the wall. Snapping out of her small daze, Luna scooted backwards, giving a small apology with a nervous smile.

A giggle caught Twilight's attention, coming from the white alicorn. Luna also heard it, both of them looking up, catching Celestia attempting to stifle her small bit of laughter. Waving her hoof a bit, she said quickly, "I'm sorry, just, it was a little funny."

Twilight was about to roll her eyes, but Luna merely signed in resentment, her horn lighting up, pulling a rope mechanism hung on the wall, a leather cover pulling over them. Almost as soon as she did, the sound of rain hitting said leather was heard, surprising Twilight but causing Luna want to sleep even more. It was one of her favorite pass times, after all.

Something shook Luna's shoulder, which she bat away with a murmur. It would not go away however, and just as Luna was about to grumble and yell at it, she heard Twilight's voice, "Princess Luna? It's time to get up..."

The rain? It'd stopped. That or they were inside. Slowly sitting up, Luna rubbed her groggy eyes, yawning as she attempted to pat her hair down a bit. A large bump ran through the chariot, causing Luna to bite her tongue and yelp lightly, Celestia raising an eyebrow in question, Twilight doing the same.

"We bit our tongue." Luna said simply, sitting back and rubbing her jaw a bit. The canopy was no longer active, and the walls around them were black and resembled the chitin she was all too familiar with. Great, we're already here, she said to herself.

After just about another minute, the chariot slowed to a stop, all three ponies disembarking rather quickly. The two pegasus drivers looked soaked, but happy they made it here without much complication. The three walked past, each giving a small thank you to them before Celestia passed, giving them a tip of a few bits for the trouble of the storm.

Their hooves rang out at each slightest contact due to the small amount of noise, the echos seemingly going on forever. There were other sounds, but none as loud as the two large double doors opening for them, a changeling greeting the foreign princesses and their friend with a small bow. Twilight felt uneasy about being so close to them, but the mare decided to simply ignore it, she was with the princesses, what could go wrong?

"Hello, Lady Luna and Lady Celestia. We are pleased to see you again, as am I personally." Said the changeling in a rather polite manner. Celestia was the first to reply, "Thank you, Mazer," Turning behind herself, she gestured to Twilight, "This is my student and friend, Twilight Sparkle. She's no Princess, but I'd appreciate if she's treated just the same."

Mazer nodded, moving one of the doors open more for them, the Princesses moving in one after the other. Twilight smiled to the changeling, albeit nervously, and he, or she, smiled back. Genuinely. You know you have a problem when you can't display emotions more real than a Changeling, Twilight said, her somewhat biased view on them slipping in for just a moment.

As Twilight walked in, the word 'surprised' would be an understatement to her reaction. The walls were beautiful, if she were to be honest, donning large pillars and arches of the same black material, as well as what she assumed to be stone bricks. A very gothic style, the few statues that she could recognized depicted several large, female looking Changelings, which she assumed to be Queens.

Much as she would imagine, the whole kingdom was buzzing and busy, just like a bee hive, though she did catch something that looked like a bar, a store, even a mall. While it all seemed more young and less advanced as Equestrian society, it certainly wasn't anything too bad.

Twilight snout stopped her thinking as it poked Celestia's behind, having been walking without noticing where she was going. Twilight quickly backed up and apologized several times before Celestia told her it was quite alright, though the alicorn's face had gotten a slightly red tint for just the slightest moment.

Another pair of double doors, this time to a large, spiraling building she assumed to be a castle, opened. One of the more steriotypical Changelings greeted them, looking almost like a butler or maid, letting the three in without a word. Instantaneously, she heard the voice of one of the most vicious rulers in Equestrian history, "Well, this is quite a nice surprise. How are you...three?"

Looking to her left, she saw Queen Chrysalis, sitting back in something like a throne behind a table of several foods, though it seemed mostly for her as nopony else was around. Celestia was about to speak up, but instead Luna did, "We have reason to believe you took one of our friends while'st we were out on a trip, someone not exactly...a pony."

A slightly surprised look took residence on the Queen's face, before it fell and she smiled, obviously trying to brown nose her way out of this, "Oh, who? I have no idea who you're talking about."

Luna got aggravated, and with a small glare Chrysalis sighed, "Fine, fine. I was trying to lighten something called a 'mood', but I guess not. We realized she was one of your friends once one idiotic drone told me that there was a small group of ponies with her, so I've kept her asleep until you came to get her. I was too busy to deliver her myself and I didn't want to risk waking her up."

The instant spilling of information took Twilight off guard, and she wanted to put up a wall and say the Queen was lying, but really, she had no reason to. If what Luna and Celestia had said was correct, Queen Chrysalis would be nothing more than a playful liar for now because of the treaty, though Twilight hoped against hope that it would stay that way. A small part of her questioned if she could be considered a racist for being so biased towards them.

While she wondered, Celestia asked, in a more polite manner, "Where would Marceline be?"

The Queen thought for a moment before clapping her hooves, a servant coming from a door behind her, "Hetts, can you show Celestia and Twilight to Marceline? She's in the medical house, and if not there, check the left most guest room downstairs."

"Yes M'lady," Hetts replied, he gestured for them to follow as he walked out the door to the left, holding it open with the glow of green magic. Celestia left shortly, and Twilight took a moment to sort everything before following.

Luna and Chrysalis stood in the room, alone, and both felt a small tug of a smile as Chrysalis said, "So, do you like being in a room with me, or am I reading this wrong?"

The Lunar Princess rolled her eyes, taking a seat, "Don't be coy or smart with us, Chrysalis, We need not your witty commentary on the situation."

The Queen scoffed a bit, "Why is it every time I try tot make anything funny or even remotely better than it was, you always have to shoot me down instantly?"

Mockingly, the Princess simply said, "Because We hate thou, and thou'st knows We hate you, yet thou persists."

Crossing her back legs, the Queen simply raised one of her eyebrows, giving a cynical look, "Of course you do. I hate you too, Lulu."

Hearing the nickname only drove Luna more, making her bicker more. The Queen got a kick out of how easily Luna was irritated, and she could even literally taste it, though she never did like spicy food. Deciding the best course of action would be to get eating like she had planned before they arrived, the Queen bent down and took up one of the many assorted plates of food, hers mostly taken up by cake, and took a fork to it.

Luna soon followed suite.

Author's Note

Ha ha wow, I think I may be forcing this just a tad. Oh well, the more I do it the more practice I get.

So, there's this chapter now. We're getting past the whole changeling thing about now, so we'll be moving onto the next arcs, there will be two actual arcs at the same time as well!
Thanks for reading, have a good afternoon/day/evening/night/morning!

The First

Chapter One

The moon hung from the sky, an invisible string slowly nudging it into place, one that was held by the Princess of the Night. As the moon made it's way to the center of the sky, Luna let out a long sigh, a small headache beginning to form. It wasn't that she always had negative effects from raising and lowering the moon, but it was more or less when she was distracted by something which stopped her full focus.

And this something really was...well, something.

Luna stepped back into her plush room and onto the carpet, closing the balcony doors with nary a thought, having it been second nature at this point. With a small smile, she could finally relax and do what she had planned to in the first place. Her hooves moved towards her fluffy and inviting bed before she stood for a moment in thought.

"We wonder..." she thought aloud, "...Well, we do have the whole night, and we would have a couple hours before I shalt have to be back here to cause nary harm."

Causing any kind of panic or suspicion was something Luna desperately did not wish to do, so, with another sigh of slight discontent, she sat at her work desk, her horn lighting up faintly with an indigo glow and opening several drawers.

After a few moments, the paper she was looking for raised out of the third one and she made a small sound of approval, setting it on the desk.

Quickly, she unrolled the parchment, it having been so old, she had to be at least somewhat careful with it, though she could easily just make it again, it was a bit of work. Even for a princess.

The strange markings on the paper came into view, though the Princess could read them fine, considering how long she's known them and learned from them. After looking over the various circles and dots, as well as lines and flourishes, she found what she was looking for.

A small, empty and void circle with nothing inside of it. A grin found itself growing on her face as she got up to retrieve the necessary materials to use such a spell.

Winter Dust was in his maid outfit, using his magical horn to levitate the mop to wash the nearly polished floors. While it wasn't the most amazing and glamorous job, he knew that it leads up to better things, at least, that's what his parents told him when he was younger.

Winter was about to enter the kitchen when they heard shuffling and the moving of dishes and such inside. Was it a thief? No, most likely not. Perhaps a hungry maid or cook whom just came to get something to eat. What ever the cause, he gave a heavy sigh and pushed the swinging door open, moving into the kitchen with little grace.

He nearly dropped the mop and the bucket he was carrying, but to his credit he was able to keep it levitating. The slight shock was because of Princess Luna, looking through various cupboards and the fridge. She didn't seem to notice him, to entranced by what ever she was looking for.

A couple containers were set on the counter, and from what he could tell, one was a container of sulfur, another one baking powder, and some other foreign black substance, it looked fairly like water, just...the color was different. One pot was out, something mixing in it and before things got too out of hand, Winter cleared his throat.

Luna froze for a moment, a couple, thankfully empty, pots falling to the floor. She turned to look over at Winter, and he immediately regretted the action. Maybe she'd fire him, at best, or put him in a dungeon? He shuddered to think what might happen before she smiled at him, "Ah, good! We will need somepony to put these many pots and pans away, we shall continue our work."

Winter opened his mouth to speak, but a multitude of pots and pans were placed on his back so he could carry them. She nodded in approval then trotted off, the several containers and the pot with the mixed substance in it floating after her. He grunted, his pupils shrinking before he fell to his face, the noisy pots and pans falling around him. He sighed, almost happy there wasn't a mess, then the bucket fell onto his face, the mop bopping the bucket and making his head ache.

Just then, the door creaked open again and Winter quickly sat up, removing the bucket from his head. There stood another maid, a mare. She stared at him, wide eyed, he stared back with the same expression. She simply said, "Clean this up before Celestia sees it."

She then left him alone with about twenty pots and pans, and his mane and coat soaked. He huffed, slowly getting up and putting the utensils and such away, shaking himself to attempt to get the water out of his coat. This was one of the worst days he's ever had here.

Luna was sat at her work desk, concentrating on working with the materials at hand. While she would normally have a couple more things, mostly to do with manticore hairs and a small scale of a dragon, it would have to do. It would also make where she ended up quite a surprise, so she wasn't entirely unhappy.

After working and mixing, as well as taking a single hair from her ethereal mane and dropping it into the blue and bubbling concoction, she allowed herself a large smile. It worked.

The Princess of the Night quickly got up and set the put of hopefully non-volatile fluid under her work desk, walking into the bathroom to clean the remnants of the fluids and powders from herself.

After a deliciously warm and relaxing shower, Luna's mane was being dried by a floating towel, returning it to it's more flowing shape as she smiled. The substance was right under her desk, as it should be. It was levitated with no effort onto the desk as Luna looked it over once more. It had simmered for long enough on it's own and it's bubbling property and resorted back to a dark blue liquid, nearly the color of her coat.

She nodded her head, nearly dipping a hoof in it before jumping back, noticing her regalia. While it most likely wouldn't get scratched or harmed, and she wasn't a terribly materialistic, but she would rather not make the servant's jobs harder than they already are.

Luna set them under the drawers, turning back to the fluid. She slowly dipped a hoof into it, a familiar suction feeling gripping at her limb as she felt her form lose a bit of it's shape, turning thinner and changing form, slowly seeming nearly paper thin. The sensation wasn't painful as much as it was just very strange, as if her whole body was falling asleep but her mind was still active, also the fact that her nerves were alight with tingling sensations.

Eventually however, she began to lose her true cohesion and slowly began to be sucked into the concoction head and hoof first. A small yelp was muffled by her finally entering the liquid with her head, her whole body consumed within seconds.

Darkness surrounded her vision, the sound of rushing wind moving past her equine ears and mane, it losing it's cohesion and becoming more of a normal styled hair. However this was caused by her "falling" through the darkness. Just like before, only in reverse, her body slowly began to form back to how it was when she touched the potion. Her body began to become whole again and the sensations slowly began leaving her body, only being left with a sense of vertigo.

An urge to vomit overtook her for mere moments before the Princess finally found solid footing. Mostly solid, anyways. Her eyes opened, showing she was "standing" on the side of a tree house. Comically as you might imagine, she got a worried look before finally plummeting to the ground with a loud thud.

"Urgh...our head hurts as if we hit it with a carpenters tool..." She slowly sat herself up, wiping her wings off. Then she got a look of the surrounding area.

It was...pretty similar to her own home place. For a moment she doubted she had gone anywhere, until she heard a rather strange, boyish voice talk to her behind some sort of surface, "Go away Ice King, I'm too tired."

Blinking, Princess Luna turned around and watched as a door opened, revealing a orange dog with rather strange white and black eyes. He yawns loudly, his arms stretching about two feet before smacking his lips, his eyes still too squinted, or close, she couldn't tell, to see her clearly.

"We are afraid that thy crown is not of one for ice, nor are we a King."

Jake was absolutely exhausted. Not that he could always just nap because naps are awesome, but mostly because he was out for two days dragging Finn around Ooo to try and fine the mystical Eye of Hastiness. Whatever it was for, Jake didn't really care all that much but Finn loved going on adventures, and so did he! But there was a line somewhere.

That's when he heard the voice, definitely not Ice King. Or at least, it didn't sound like him. In fact it sounded really pretty, not to mention kind of old time-y. Slowly opening his eyes, Jake was greeted by the sight of a really weird looking unicorn. He looked the supposed female over a bit, opening his mouth to speak only to close it again. He repeated the process three times before saying, "Gimmie a second."

Jake slowly closed the door, walking backwards as if on rewind. He walked back into the kitchen, setting the coffee pot back in it's place as well as the cup, pouring the contents back into the bowl. Then he stretches his legs to get upstairs, going back and laying in his bed.

Suddenly, he shot up in his covers, "Finn there's a unicorn-pegasus-horse thing outside the door that talks like a really old person!"

Finn, in turn, shot up as well, falling face first onto the floor, letting out one of his trademark battle cries into the floorboards. Luna, on her part, was sitting at the front door rather politely as the chaos happened in the house. Finn wriggled around on the floor before hopping up onto his feet, still in his cocoon-like sleeping bag and saying, "C'mon Jake we gotta be all official with this business!"

Finn then burst from the sleeping bag, screaming in victory. He then wiped off his clothes and coughed, looking over to Jake who was asleep. He then playfully whacked Jake on the head, whispering, "Jake if you don't get up I'll eat your pancakes."

Within seconds Jake was standing beside Finn, "You better not eat my pancakes man!"

He laughed in response, "Nah man I'd never eat another man's pancakes. That's just warped up."

Jake nodded with a smile, his tail wagging slightly as they both stepped out to the kitchen, Jake beginning work on the pancakes as Finn slowly creeped towards the door, holding his sword behind his back.

The door opened, much to Luna's relief as she said, "Oh, good. We thought that ye had decided to stay in thy sleeping chambers instead of saying even a 'hello' to-"

Luna was cut short by the boy making an extremely feminine like scream, turning around slightly and saying, "Hey Jake, you were right!"

A voice responded, apparently Jake's, saying, "Yeah man I told you, I'm not crazy!"

With a chuckle, he turned around and discarded his sword to the side carelessly, "So what can I do ya for miss?"

"Well..." Luna thought a moment. These people seemed extremely eccentric, not to mention full of energy. It'd probably be smart to simply ask for, what she assumed was, his name, "...firstly we must inquire, what is the name of yours, stranger?"

Smiling, both warm and welcoming, Finn said, "My name's Finn, I'm a human and that old poop over there is Jake, he's a dog!"

Luna looked behind him to spot Jake, then shrugged slightly and held her hoof out to be shook, "Our name is Princess Luna, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Finn the human."

Author's Note

I realize that this chapter is pretty short but I just wanted to put out exposition before I really start the story and keep it going.
I also realize that I probably won't portray the characters right in a multitude of ways but hell, I'm trying. I swear.
Also please note that this will all not take place in Adventure Time, there'll be other places Luna visits, usually unpractical and completely random, because I'm both of those things as well as unspecified in terms of comedy writing.

Just Another Day

Chapter Two

Luna was sitting, well, sitting was rather hard with the fact that her behind was not exactly easy to place and sit on the couch, but none the less she was trying her hardest and occasionally moving about on the couch to get comfortable. Finn was sitting next to her and kept poking her wings which elicited a sigh and a 'Stop that' from her, in which he would for five minutes before doing it again.

This went on for about fifteen minutes until Jake walked in with three plates of food, one in each hand and the third on his head. Two of them had bacon pancakes, which made Luna tilt her head a bit in confusion at the strange food, and the third had just plain pancakes. Jake took his seat in between them, shooing Finn away with the promise and smell of bacon pancakes to his other side.

Setting his own plate down, Jake stretched his arms up and took hold of the third plate of food, handing it to the Princess, "Here ya go Princess!"

For what it was worth, the two were childish but still charming, in their own way. It was sort of funny to see the way they acted with each other and how they over reacted to every little thing, and some things they were very 'mellow' about. That was the word, right? Mellow? Yes we believe so...

Luna finally came back to reality from her thoughts with the plate of delicious looking pancakes under her muzzle. She thanked Jake and took it up with her magic, an indigo glow going around the plate.

"Whoa! That's super cool. Is that you doin' that Princess?" Luna nodded in response to Finn's question. His voice cracked mid-sentence and it made Luna chuckle lightly. The boy couldn't be even in his twenties yet. Perhaps not even seventeen. Strange how there were no older people around. She decided to ask.

"Tell me, Finn the human, where-" She was cut short by his laugh, "You can just call me Finn, Princess. It's just a title, nothing really important."

Clearing her throat, she continued, "Tell me, Finn, where art thy elders? Should you not have someone whom has more ages old to be looking after you?" Another laugh resounded, this time from Jake.

"Oh, Princess," he responded, his mouth full before swallowing the food, "I am the person who looks after him, kinda anyways."

With a small nod, Luna decided to start eating her food. While Jake and Finn ate pretty dirtily, and not like a dog but still doing mouth full after mouth full, the Princess of the Night had taken careful bites of the pancakes. Not that they were dangerous in any sense, just the fact that she liked seeming more proper than she knows that she can be. More like she knows she is, but with a smirk she continued eating the food, knowing that no one had to know this.

After a minute of almost silent eating, disturbed by Finn and Jake being somewhat noisy with their meals, they finished and Finn took both of the plates, as with Luna's and rushed off, doing a back flip into the kitchen. Jake turned to Luna and asked, sort of bluntly, "So what are you anyways Princess?"

Sighing, Luna cleared her throat, ready to prepare some sort of speech on magic and the like, "We are Princess Luna, the Guardian of the Night, as an opposite element to Sister's Day. We are one of the Alicorns, a Pegasus and an Unicorn put together, if you will understand better this way. Though We can surely say that most Unicorns cannot be a fair comparison to Alicorns, at least usually."

Jake watched as she spoke, royally instead of the more friendly way she had before and nodded as she finished, "I see," The silence was almost physical as he smiled, "Nice to have you Princess! It's not every day that a Princess comes along to hang out at six in the morning!"

Finn poked his head out of the doorway and added, "Well, I mean, Princesses come over all the time dude, being heroes and junk it's kinda why we're always out adventuring."

Looking over, Luna's ears perked up slightly, "Heroes? So you two are defenders of the populaces of thy kingdom?" Jake responded with a nod and added, "Well, there's a bunch'a kingdoms. There's the Candy Kingdom, Fire Kingdom, Marshmallow Kingdom, Ice Kingdom...though the last one is really bland and boring. But the snow is fun to mess around in."

"Huh." Was all Luna could say in response. Say what you will about royalty, but they didn't always have finesse in terms of words. Jake and Luna both stared at each other. You could say that they were soul searching with each other, that the two had some sort of connection in between themselves. It was as if two minds had come into one that would become something so amazing and overwhelming to the very fabric of reality it could shatter any barriers.

Then again, Luna and Jake both saw that there was an impromptu staring contest in order, so that theory is ground into dust. Jake narrowed his eyes as Luna let a small smile form on her lips, the ability of her's to far outlast any mortal in the art of the staring contests. While before they used to be done for competitions on property and money, perhaps even lives, but it took Luna some time to realize that this was not the way it was. Not that she couldn't figure it out, she just liked messing with Tia.

Yet another thing no one else had to know.

Finn walked back in, taking off an apron and looking over, seeing the intense eye battle going on. He gasped loudly, slowly slinking away from the doorway and disappearing behind the wooden door way. Jake's eyes slowly began to tear up, his eyes shimmering, Luna's remaining particularly resolute.

Finally, he blink for nearly only a nano second, but Luna had caught the sudden movement, raising her hoof into the air, "We are victorious!"

"Aw, man. Darn it, that's the fifth time a Princess beat me at staring contests!" A small giggle escaped Luna, sighing as she readjusted herself, looking just as proper as ever once more. Finn walked in and raised his hand up in the form of a high five to Luna, but then remembered that she had hooves, not hands. With a confused look, he scratched his chin.

Luna saw the obvious confusion and smiled, holding her hoof almost straight out, saying, "We know of what we can do to celebrate the glorious victory. Where I come from, it's called a hoof bump."

Finn smiled, preparing his own arm in such a way, "Well we call it a fist bump. Aw yeah!"

They both met and made laughed as they hoof bumped, Jake grumbling as he slouched on the couch. After another minute the laughter and jokes had subsided, Finn sighing as he plopped down on the couch, "We should take you to see Princess Bubblegum, she's so awesome! I'm sure she'd love to get a chance to talk to an alien!"

Luna shrugged in response, "We have a few hours before we must return back to our quarters, and what's more, our home."

With a spring in their steps, Jake and Finn launched off the couch and out the door, "Come on Princess, let's go!"

Simply letting a small smile on her face as she got up, walking out of the door and closing it behind herself with the magic. And so, they were off to the Candy Kingdom.

Finn back flipped past the gate, Jake stretching around to go under, than above him only to snap back into his original shape and walking beside him, both of them laughing hardily. Luna, on the other hand, walked at a somewhat slow pace as she admired the world. The trees and flora seemed to have different shades and different creatures, which made Luna ever more curious.

Once she passed the threshold of the gate, she picked up her pace and walked behind Finn and Jake as they walked to a large tower in the center of the Candy Kingdom. Once more her attention was taken by force as she saw that not only were inanimate objects candy here, but so were the people. It was a rather funny idea, if only it didn't bare a grim outcome of being eaten. The main point of this, however, was that she then bumped muzzle first into a candy structure.

Backing up and rubbing her nose, she realized they were in the center of town and she just ran into the front door of the tower. Jake snickered and Luna slowly looked back with a gentle smile and wide eyes, while this look should normally seem harmless, for some reason Jake stopped immediately, staring back and laughing nervously. The eyes looked dangerously neutral. It was as if she was transmitting threatening, albeit playful, words to Jake.

Then she giggled and turned around, her face relaxing as she came face to face with Peppermint Butler. Well, she stood a few feet above him, as she stood about one head above Finn, but he looked up and opened his mouth to speak only for her to say, "Hello, Sir. We have come to converse with thy Princess, may we enter?"

He simply stepped to the side as soon as he saw Finn and Jake, eyeing them through narrowed eyes. All three of them rushed up the stairs as soon as Peppermint Butler was out of view.

Princess Bubblegum was upstairs tinkering with completely random chemicals to try and create a mixture that could give her the power to travel to different planets. Through the power of science!

Finn burst through her door, as well as Jake as they both raced over to her, talking at rapid paces at the same time, "Princess Princess Princess we found another Princess and she's really awesome and-"

Bubblegum, on her part, simply shushed them, delicately dripping a drop of the viscus green fluid into the purple fluid. It spontaneously exploded, sending sparks everywhere, but doing little to no damage. Coughing from the smoke, Bubblegum waved it away and asked, "What's up Finn?"

Finn smiled and responded, "It's another Princess, Bubblegum!"

Finn and Jake stepped to the side to reveal a somewhat shy looking Luna. She had bent her head down a bit, either to not hit the doorway or because she would rather not be seen, it was unknown. At least, to anyone but her.

Bubblegum, slowly looked over, gasping in awe.

Then she collected herself and held out a hand, straightening her clothes, "Princess Bubblegum, pleased to meet you! But who are you, exactly?"

Luna slowly reached out with a hoof and shook her hand slightly, smiling, "Our name is Princess Luna, we are grateful to make your acquaintance, Princess Bubblegum."

After a few moments of awkward introductions, the two Princesses began talking, and eventually got into a somewhat heated conversation on the topic of science and culture. At some points it was history, but who was listening? Certainly not Finn and Jake, as Finn began to tease Jake, "Dude, she totally scared your pants off man."

Jake retorted with a small snort, "Whatever, I don't wear pants anyways."

"...and that's pretty much all I can think of in terms of the biology of the regular Candy citizen." Bubblegum finished off her sentence, finally taking in a few deep, and needed, breaths.

Luna smiled and said, "That is quite the interesting way of bringing life. While you seem to focus on science, we usually focus on more magical methods. For the most part our race is quite extremely magical. Not to mention experts."

Bubblegum 'hmm'd a bit before smiling widely, "Do you think you can show me a spell or two?"

She mulled the idea over, and decided showing her some low level spells couldn't hurt. With her horn glowing, she levitated a few of the items in the room, twirling them in a circle with little to no effort. Bubblegum had somehow gotten a random sketch pad from some random place and began writing down notes, her eyes wide in amazement, "There's magic here too but it's so cool to see other types!"

Luna then set the objects down neatly, a bubble forming around herself of a dark blue or indigo color, herself walking forwards but ending up going upwards. The other Princess seemed to truly enjoy the show and clapped her hands, "That's absolutely fascinating! You have to tell me how that works!"

Setting herself down, Luna dispelled the bubble and made a slightly disgruntled face, sighing, "Doing so would take more time than we have to remain in this place. After another hour of time we must hurry back to our home with post haste."

Princess Bubblegum responded slightly childishly, "Aw. Are you certain?"

Responding with a simple nod, Luna then sighed heavily for the second time, "We are sorry, Princess Bubblegum. It is simply the rules."

Nodding, Princess Bubblegum asked, "Will you be back tomorrow or some other time?" Luna nodded, then added, "Well, it is possible, but the concoction we had created has a tendency to throw us to different, random lands each time of usage."

Bubblegum 'hmm'd again, before asking, "Is there a way to perfect it? Maybe using your own magic to influence it."

Luna shook her head, saying, "Nay, doing so could cause an unwanted side effect of teleporting to a random area as well. It could also harm our horn, and then we couldn't get back to our home."

"Well is there a way to perfect the potion so you can choose where to go?" With a few moments of thinking, and remembering, Luna nodded, "Indeed, but we would need the hair of a Manticore and a scale of a dragon. The kind from our world, that is."

With a slight tinge of sadness, Bubblegum asked, "Will you be back though? Eventually, at some point?"

Smiling slightly, Luna said, "Yes, at some point. Don't worry, Princess Bubblegum. At some point we may converse more over our different cultures and sciences. However for the time being we must go. Farewell now."

Finn removed himself from his 'intense staring contest with Jake and put it on hold, asking, and still not blinking, "But I thought you said you had an hour left, what gives?"

Yawning lightly, Luna responded, "Well, it took most of the night to make the potion and it shall take thirty minutes to prepare the spell. It'd be an hour 'till we left, not until we had to go. Now then, goodbye."

And with that, Luna stepped out of the balcony and jumped off, her wings unfurling as she glided off, back towards Finn and Jake's home, where she had been before hand. However, a certain unknown Vampire Queen had seen her exit and raised an eyebrow at the Alicorn, "What's this now? Ho boy, this ought to be fun.."

Concentration. This was a pivotal point in the spell. If she lost it for more than a few seconds, she'd risk losing the spell, and she certainly couldn't do that. It would take a bit of time until she could recover the lost power due to the high amount needed for it. And most importantly she had to be back in Canterlot before sunrise, then she could at least sleep in after lowering the moon, and that would be the last reserves of her power before she passed out in an almost comatose sleep state.

Not that it was a problem, this state, in fact it was very relaxing. She was just an extremely hard sleeper.

Suddenly, a spark of blue spewed from her horn, alerting her that the spell was finished. With a final push and feeding of her power the portal back opened, right in front of her, looking like a large gap in the fabric of space and time. She trotted into it, or would've, would it not have been for the sudden pale-skinned girl diving into it, and in turn, taking Luna down onto her flank and tripping her.

Luna yelped as the portal closed, both she and the strange woman suddenly appearing in Luna's bedroom, right at her work desk.

"Dang, that was crazy. Last time I saw something like that was a long, long long time ago." The pale woman sat up, rubbing her head.

Looking down at her, Luna's eye twitched slightly. And her night was just so perfect.

"Who in the name of Mother are YOU?!"

Author's Note

Augh, I really tried to crank this one out before midnight, and I did it! Yay~!
I hope you enjoy, and again I must say that I realize I may not portray some characters correctly, so I'm open to constructive criticism for future chapters.
G'night everyone.

Canterlot Castle and Late Nights

Chapter Twelve

Twilight smiled, and with a nod, she gave a small flourish as her horn lit up within a few moments. Trixie sat where she was, watching with even more bated breath than before. The lilac unicorn's horn then began glowing brighter, and even more so, the area under Luna's hooves shown a mostly translucent purple as she gave a small gulp. Not that she didn't have faith in Twilight, she just didn't have enough to share, per say.

However, before she could give a thought on deciding not to do this, the purple rose in a nearly instantaneous motion, hiding Luna from view. It wasn't any real spectacle, though it did produce enough light for the alleyway to look not so dreary and more menacing than anything.

In about ten seconds, it was already over. Twilight gasped lightly, her front hooves sliding a bit forward before she righted herself. Looking up to see if the spell worked, she got a small grin. The Lunar Princess finally had back her regal form, and she sighed, the magic which was holding her in place having already dissipated. Taking a step forward, Luna let only a minuscule smile find itself on her features as she began trotting towards the castle, saying as she passed the two, "Come now, we must make haste to the Castle."

Celestia was walking to the dining hall, one of her royal maids following behind her as they chatted, "...but yes, I do enjoy speaking with guards and servants. I have no inclination as to why you would think otherwise, Miss."

The pony beside Celestia, in an admittedly embarrassing maid outfit was more of a stallion, and he cleared his throat, "Um, Princess I'm...not a uh, mare..."

The Princess came to a halt, turning to them and looking them over. The stallion had a faint blush on his face, and Celestia began to see the resemblance. Strange, she thought, How did I not notice before? Clearing her throat, Princess Celestia then responded, "My apologies, I didn't...well, I usually don't see anypony but mares in those outfits. More over, you have a...feminine body, and ah, your voice isn't..."

With a shake of his head, the stallion replied, a bit shakily, "I-it's fine Princess, I just...when I started working here, they thought I was a mare too, and then there was the whole thing about the others telling me that there were no more outfits for males..."

Celestia widened her eyes by something like an inch or so, before turning to walk forward and gaining a small grin, though she hid it from the stallion for his sake, "I see. They must have been playing they're practical jokes on you, my little pony. There are more than enough outfits for a stallion as yourself to wear. Come, let us continue our walk."

The pony quickly picked up their pace to meet with Celestia as they neared the dining hall, "Oh, um, Princess I really shouldn't be going here, it's not time for food yet a-and..." There were a few words mumbled, which Celestia couldn't hear. Her ears flicked slightly.

"What was that?" Celestia inquired, curious. The stallion simply sighed and said, in a timid voice, "My name's Winter D-Dust, your highness." He gave a quick bow before continuing, though Celestia didn't see it anyways.

Smiling, though more in her trademark heartwarming and gentle way, the Princess opened the door with her magic and held it for Winter, "It is a very nice name, Winter. Please, after you."

His jaw would've fallen off if it wasn't attached to his skull, and Winter simply said, befuddled, "But Princess, I can't, it's not time for me to eat yet and this is-"

Hushing Winter Dust with a small clearing of her throat, before continuing on in a slightly quiet tone, "Yes, well, I may just need your help should there be something to clean."

However, Winter Dust seemed to not want any of it and quickly ran to the door, holding it open for Celestia instead, though she was still holding it. Celestia would've said how futile it was, but the poor thing was just trying to be curtious, and honestly she was almost pushing him to be a blabbering mess.

Sighing lightly, the Princess of the Sun walked into the dining hall, bidding a small 'Thank you' to Winter Dust as he said, automatically almost, "M-my pleasure Princess."

Just as he was to step out into the dining hall, albeit very slowly and trying to be quiet as possible in fear of something terrible being alerted to his presence, Winter suddenly got pushed aside as Twilight ran through the door. Figures, he thought to himself.

Looking over, if only for a brief moment before being hugged tightly, Celestia noticed a lavender mare that she knew very well giving her a warm embrace, before backing up a few hoofsteps and saying, "Princess, it's good to see you again."

Fully turning around, Celestia saw that her sister, Luna, was walking in with another pony in tow. Trixie, she mentally noted. Normally the Princess would give the pony her evil eye for doing what she did, but at the moment she seemed fairly concerned and not so Great and Powerful, so Celestia decided to ignore it.

Luna began to speak, just about interrupting Twilight's next sentence, "While we would love to make introductions my dear Sister, we have to make haste, and speak to thou in thy private chambers, or somewhere in which we may not be disturbed by the general public."

The tone was a usual I-mean-serious-business one that Luna dished out constantly, almost at least, and Celestia gestured to the table in the middle of the room as she trotted over to take a seat, "Then come dear Luna, join us for some dinner. You must be starving to come here in such a hurry. Wait."

Celestia counted the several ponies in the room. Which, right then, was the problem. There were only ponies, and the Marceline girl was nowhere to be seen. The Princess sat, watching her sister Luna approach and take a seat opposite of her, "So, we see that thou'st noticed. Indeed, Marceline is...for lack of a better phrase, kidnapped."

All five of them were sitting at the table, eating awkwardly while everyone listened to Luna and Celestia speak about what they were to do. Of course, Trixie wasn't much hungry and more conflicted with her own thoughts and emotions, while Twilight just sat there and enjoyed having both Princesses near her. Winter wasn't so much sitting and eating as walking about and not really paying much attention to what the regal ponies were saying. Not that he didn't care, but it simply wasn't his business.

After discussing who, or what, took Marceline, the two sisters began talks on what to do in the first place, "You do realize, Luna, if we were to go and get her in a calm and dealing manner, everything would turn out fine. It's nothing short of saying that she was a friend, not some wild animal with a striking resemblance to ponies."

In turn, Luna nodded slightly, and after swallowing a bit of the food in her mouth she asked, "Indeed, and while things would be nice if they would turn this way, the Queen of Changelings seems to have a very disturbing habit of lying, Sister. How shalt we know if the liar isn't using her skills?"

Leaning back a bit, and in a calm manner as always, she said, "Then we simply use the anti-disguise magic that Shining was testing before the negotiations. It's nothing that will harm the normal Marceline or a Changeling impersonating her. Not only that, but, no offence sister, you seem to just have a deep seeded hatred towards the Changelings, perhaps more or less their-"

Before she could finish, Luna cut her sister off abruptly, "It is not as thou says, dear sister. It's simply the fact that we enjoy considering all...variables, before moving forward. Secondly, the Queen most likely will not approve of the fact that we did those experiments at all."

Wrinkling her nose up a bit, Celestia replied after a moment, "Well, hiding it from her would simply make matters worse. Plus," the Solar Princess looked across the table in a quick sweep, catching Twilight and Winter's gaze, before turning back to Luna, "If she wanted to break the deals and treaties, she would have by taking our places, Luna. Somepony of high importance, at least."

Having almost neatly wrapped up the problems, Luna simply sighed a bit heavily, rubbing her forehead slightly, "We know, Sister. It is simply the fact that...bah, we will tell thou in more private terms." Waving her hoof dismissively, not to any of them, simply in a small act of annoyance.

Seeing the signs that Luna was nearing the point in which they get into mindless arguments, Celestia gave a forced smile and said, "Well, I'm simply glad that we got that straightened out. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to my chambers. Luna, please show Twilight to her observatory room, as renovated as it has gotten. Trixie, you're welcome to stay here, or somewhere else if you feel the need to."

A slightly aghast Trixie nodded silently, already brimming with excitement over being able to sleep in a castle, and in the Canterlot castle no less. Twilight gave her mentor a small hug and friendly nuzzle, bidding her good night as she walked to the door. Luna looked to Celestia and opened her muzzle to say farewell, but Celestia simply nodded, got up, and walked out. She sat there for a moment, her mouth hanging open before closing it and going to Twilight, "Come, Twilight. We shall show thou to thy quarters."

Winter quickly dashed out the room with the empty and half full plates, bringing them down to the kitchen so he could wash them. A small crash was heard, which brought Trixie out of her small daydream. Shaking her head a bit, Trixie looked to the door as Twilight's voice called out to her, "Trixie, you coming?"

Scrambling up a bit, though straightening out her trotting and pace once she was at the door, Trixie began towards where the other two ponies were waiting.

Celestia's study was quiet, as usual. The only sounds were the clock ticking, the occasional shuffle of papers and a feather pen writing on parchment. Half rimmed glasses adorned Celestia's face, and though she didn't like to admit it, she usually had to wear them while reading documents. Being alive for a couple thousand years doesn't exactly help your eyesight, Celestia mused to herself.

A soft knock of a hoof sounded on the door, and the Princess looked up. She sighed, dragging a hoof down her face slightly as she worked her jaw a bit, putting on a small smile. Setting the pen and work down with her magic, her glasses also floated off and onto the desk, folded.

She quickly put a brush to her hair, levitating it along to seem more orderly as she spoke in her usual, warm voice, "Come in."

Celestia's sister slowly stepped in, giving the elder a small look of half open eyes, annoyance, and exhaustion, "And good night to you, Tia."

The facade adorning Celestia quickly dropped, and she set the brush down, leaning on her desk a bit, "Not to be rude, Luna," That was a lie, "But what is it?"

Twilight, personal protege of Celestia, lay awake in her bed. Or rather, her old bed. It almost didn't fit her, but for now it worked. With a light sigh, she turned on her side, sleep not exactly coming forth to her just yet. It was plainly obvious why, but she didn't care to think about how long she was asleep for.

Looking up, Twilight was looking through the window and, with a small grin, slowly crept out of her bed. Maybe some late night astronomy will help me sleep, Twilight half pleaded and half thought to herself as she took a seat on a cushion. A shiver ran up Twilight's spine, the cushion fairly cold as it was, but disregarding the cold temperature, she used her magic to slowly tilt the telescope sight downwards, leaning forward.

Somewhat settling her head against it with one eye open, she began adjusting the knobs and such on the side, looking around the dark blue and purple sky, the bright white stars shining brightly. Twilight felt herself recede back to her own little world, one which she remembered and loved greatly. It was a better place, though of course her life was good, it was simply more to her seclusion-like style.

A complex, if not small place, almost like a library full of subjects, but not miles long. It's shelves lined with groves of knowledge, all of which Twilight had collected. It calmed her in more than one sense, most definitely because it was knowledge and calmness. Perhaps having a place to just sit, read and learn was something of a personal wish for Twilight. In either case, she continued slowly drifting to this place, and felt a smile spread on her muzzle.

Just as Twilight glimpsed the Orion constellation for the third time, a sound disturbed this perfect state of mind. More than just a simple sound, it was one she always tried to fix and detain, and this sound was something like a yell. Of course, it sounded as if another was returned, this time from a different voice. Both sounded familiar, yet different to her ears.

Twilight leaned back, her left ear flicking a bit as the voices quieted down a bit, but she had most certainly heard it. And more than anything, it sounded like somepony was quite angry, and it surprised the lilac unicorn greatly when she realized it sounded so much like her loving mentor, Celestia.

Having slipped out of the observatory, thankfully not waking Trixie, Twilight made her way down the well known halls to her mentor's study. The castle was dark, not eerily so, but only a guard her and there, as well as perhaps a servant rushing back to their quarters or performing duties was her only real companion.

Of course, they passed quickly after excusing themselves, Twilight simply nodded in response. She was thoroughly intrigued, as well as worried, why Celestia sounded so strangely angry. Never before has Twilight heard her angry. Yes, yes, threatening, but not angry. It wasn't inviting, and it wasn't even gentle. Instead it was harsh, laced with poison and wanted to cut deep, which was nothing like the Celestia that Twilight grew up knowing.

As she turned a few corners and arrived at her destination, the sounds were most definitely behind the door. Leaning against it slightly, Twilight put the left side of her head against the door and listened as best she could, though she couldn't hear the voices clearly anyways. One wasn't...distressed, really, but more angry like a pony being bullied into a corner.

The other was easily describable, the best way to put it was a bully. Just rude, uncalled for comments, annoyed with whomever was in there and it, again, most certainly was not the gentle, kind and loving pony she knew. Hoofsteps moved towards the door, and Twilight quickly moved to the edge of the door, hoping the pony coming out didn't see her.

Princess Luna trotted out, rage and sadness deep in her eyes as she simply moved away briskly, an angry voice saying after her, "Can I have one mature conversation with you, without you walking off like a filly in a huff!"

Agonizingly slowly, Twilight slowly stepped around the corner, coming almost face to face with the pony who, most likely, just yelled at and hurt Luna. Celestia didn't notice the lilac unicorn for a moment, but she then looked down and saw her. At first, Celestia's mouth hung open, and Twilight stared on. Her mane was a complete mess, and a light pink, no longer radiant or flowing like it would usually. The eyes that Twilight couldn't help but look into had dark circles under them, looking tired and over worked.

Princess Celestia cleared her throat and reached out a tentative hoof, "Twilight, my dear student, I-"

A step back from the Princess, as Celestia's heart was gripped like a vice in cold fear. Twilight's eyes narrowed slightly, looking behind where Luna retreated, then back to the subject at hoof, a look of disbelief plastered there. The voice was calmer and collected, but...Is it all some kind of mask?

Again, the Princess tried, "Please, I can explain, just-"

A simple question, though with many implications, interrupted her, "Why?"

Once more, the Princess froze. The gaze held by Twilight was powerful, holding many questions. More than anything, it was filled with confusion and, worst of all, hurt. Slowly, Princess Celestia lowered her hoof, hesitantly looking away. Of course she was the one to, as she just didn't want to take the emotional strain for the moment.

"Twilight...I-" Celestia began, doubting her words from the intense argument from before. However, as she looked to the spot the mare was standing, only air remained, as the unicorn walked towards where Luna had headed to. Her eyes watered up slightly, threatening to spill over but she shut them letting out a breath. Opening her eyes again, Celestia stared longingly out the door before shutting it with a slight slam, trotting to her bed and collapsing in it.

The Princess pulled the covers up, burrowing her head into the pillow a bit, Why is it that I keep making these mistakes?, she thought to herself.

Author's Note

And there's chapter...something? I don't recall right now, it's almost 11 on a school night, WOO HOO!

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. And yes, it's meant to be sad and such, I've been wanting to get this point out there for some time now. Will this be the basis for everything now? No, of course not. Sorry it took so long for this piece-a-crap chapter, though I can't promise any better.

Have a good morning/night/day/evening!