To Fill a Void
Dreams and Disturbances

Darkness…
The infinite void…The endless expanse…
Precursor to creation itself, forerunner to all things…A force easily powerful enough to shape the lives of all within its influence, yet terrible enough to wipe them from existence in a single instant.

To be gifted with natural control over this power is not only a boon…but a curse. The few granted this ability are inevitably regarded with suspicion and shunned by even those closest to them, seen only as bringers of terrifying power…such is their fate.

“You…you know of this all too well…do you not?"

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“LUNA!”
Princess Luna’s eyes shot open as she reeled back from the sound of the deafening shout that had just snapped her back into reality. Taking in her surroundings, she quickly became aware that she must have drifted off into sleep without her own notice, a rare occurrence…even in her current condition. After recovering from the initial shock of her very rude awakening, she slowly glanced over in the direction of voice…to find none other than her older sister expectantly glaring at her with an obviously annoyed look across her face.

“Ugh, Luna…I fully realize that you haven’t had more than a few hours of sleep since this morning, however you could still at least attempt to keep yourself awake in the middle of an important court session.” Celestia sighed with frustration. “You should know that I need your consent in this matter if we’re going to get anywhere.”

Huffing and regaining her composure, Luna was quick to voice her own displeasure. “While the subject at hoof is more than important enough to have our undivided attention, you might have shown slightly more tact when you decided to wake us. It is not as if we had intentionally decided to doze off after all.”
The two rulers had been entwined in an important meeting since roughly eight in the morning, regarding the construction of more easily accessed trade routes to the newly rediscovered Crystal Empire. After being cut off from the rest of Equestria for so many years, the empire had been almost completely drained of necessities needed for the citizen’s everyday life since it’s resurfacing, and the single train line that ran to the city’s western border was clearly a less than plausible solution to the issue. Even with the urgency of the matter, the fact that it was nearly four in the afternoon easily showed that the lunar princess was less than pleased with her apparent lack of sleep.

“Besides, it is not as if the matter can even truly be discussed without the consent of Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. Seeing as they are now in full charge of the Crystal Empire, we see no reason to go into such great depth without them being here to agree.” Luna said, stifling a yawn.

Softening her expression Celestia looked over at her sister. “All the same Luna, it doesn’t hurt to have a plan put together beforehoof so that the two of them wouldn’t have to be kept away from the empire for any extended period of time.” She paused for a moment to take a sip of the tea that was placed before her. “Although, I do suppose we have gone over the subject quite thoroughly for the day. After all…drifting off like that that is fairly rare for you sister.”

Luna was in no position to argue with either of those points, the latter however did seem to raise some questions. While she had been completely unaware that she had even fallen asleep until Celestia had to begin shouting to wake her; the truly odd thing…had been the premise of what had occurred while she slept. While it was far too vague for her to clearly comprehend exactly what she had been witnessing, it had been obvious to her that the words she had heard spoken were not simply the product of her subconscious mind; they held a form of meaning behind them that Luna couldn’t quite understand. Somepony…or something had actually attempted to speak to her within her dream. Though she was no stranger to watching over the dreams of the citizens of Equestria, the thought of a being that was able to brush against her mind in such a manner had severely unnerved her.

It was obvious that Luna’s musings had caught the attention of her sister, as Celestia placed a hoof on her side, a worried expression written on her face. “Perhaps it would be best if you went and rested awhile before raising the moon tonight…you don’t seem to look well little sister.”

“Thank you for your consideration Tia, there are simply some strange thoughts on our mind that we must mull over…but we will be more than happy to oblige to a few hours of rest before the night.” Luna said, a smile on her face as she looked up at her sister.
“Very well then, I suppose I’ll be seeing you at the end of the day then. Just be sure not to oversleep.” Celestia gave her a slight smirk.

Luna quickly returned the favor. “Both of us know exactly who the heavier sleeper among the two of us is, and some slight sleep deprivation on my part isn’t about to change that.” Slowly rising to walk out of the room, she turned to face her sister. “However, that doesn’t mean we won’t find an occasion to pay you back for it.”

“Knowing you, I most certainly wouldn’t doubt that.” Celestia chuckled to herself as she slowly raised herself from the table.
Luna had just begun to head towards the doors of the main hall when she heard Celestia walk up beside her. “Luna, just remember…if there is anything that you feel you need to discuss, I would be more than willing to listen and help you in any way I can.”

Upon hearing these words, Luna’s face lit up with a genuine smile. No matter the simplicity of an issue, Celestia was almost always willing to lend a hoof to those in need. Even in spite of their rough history together, she was still working hard to rebuild the bridges that were burned between them.

Turning back towards her, Luna gently nuzzled her head against her sister’s neck. “We always appreciate your concern for us Tia, however this is nothing you should have to bother yourself with. A few stray thoughts are nothing that we cannot deal with on our own after all.”

Celestia returned the gesture to her younger sister before softly smiling at her. “Very well then, if you feel that it is simply a trivial matter, then I will leave you to deal with it of your own accord. Now please, allow yourself some rest before the night is upon us.”
Luna regarded her with a smile of her own and a “thank you”, before heading out into the main hall towards her quarters. While she travelled towards the stairs of her tower however, she still could not shake off the constant nagging in the back of her head regarding her earlier daydream. Normally she was no stranger to the many unusual occurrences that frequented her everyday life; however this particular happening had left her with little rational explanation. She quickly resolved to look into the matter as soon as she had rested enough for her job of raising the moon.

Although the princess attempted to make her way down the unusually long hallway as quickly as she could, she was however; still unfortunate enough to earn a few awkward glances from the guards that lined the hall as well as the occasional maid that would pass her.

Despite the fact that all the ponies in the castle greeted her with smiles and formalities, it was simple enough for Luna to see they were putting on a facade. Even though she had been present in Canterlot for quite some time since her return from Nightmare Moon, most of the ponies still regarded her with a fair amount of suspicion…much to her displeasure.
She had made every attempt to get out more during the day and try to become more comfortable with the city’s denizens. She had even gone so far as to begin conforming her outdated way of speaking to current societal norms, although she still took heavy use of the “royal we”.

“No matter how hard we try…we can never seem to gain their approval. It is not as if we haven’t tried our hardest in an attempt to fit in.”

After she was out of visible sight, Luna thought it simpler to teleport herself the rest of the way to her room, as to avoid any more unnecessary looks she might receive along the way.

Just as she was gathering the required energy to her horn, she heard a slight popping noise followed by a bright flash of light to her left. The all too familiar voice that stemmed from the occurrence immediately made Luna’s blood boil.

“Well hello there, how might this glorious afternoon be treating you princess?”

The princess let out an exasperated sigh and turned to face the source of the voice…only to find nopony there. “Discord…must you truly attempt to test our patience in such a manner? We are in no such mood to put up with your games, so the least you could do is show yourself.”

Much to her disdain however, the space around her still remained devoid of anpony besides herself. “Pffffft! I may be insane but I’m not crazy…I know more than well enough to not stand within line of sight when you’ve gone off on one of your little moods. Besides, as devilishly handsome as I am, I’m more than content with allowing only my beautiful voice to grace you.”

This comment was more than enough to make Luna’s face scrunch up in distaste; however, this did little to deter the chaotic prankster.

“I mean SERIOUSLY though, where do you come off with all these negative waves, huh? I’ve seen more cheer on an ambitious suicide mission thirty miles behind enemy lines.”

Luna let out a low growl as she felt an invisible claw pinch her cheek, which she quickly slapped away. “Why we are in a less than cheerful disposition is no business of yours Discord. Now if you will excuse us, we will be departing for some more pleasurable company.”

“Said company being?” Discord sang out.

“The silence of our room!” Luna was quick to retort.

Without another word she quickly lit up her horn and proceeded to vanish from the area, leaving a now completely visible draconequus floating in the hall, a sandwich in one claw and a slightly tipped bucket of water in the other.

“Bah! Luna was never as good a sport as Celestia has been all these years.”

A frown remained glued on his face as he tossed the bucket off into hall behind him, its contents freezing over directly beneath some unfortunate guards. “Ah well…fun as it may be, I suppose I don’t have to make her any more miserable than she is. After all, she could stand to say something righteous and hopeful for a change.”

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Reappearing in the hallway that linked to her bedroom, Luna gave herself a moment to cool off before proceeding any further. The day had already been started off on the wrong hoof, and with Discord’s untimely appearance, it had just gotten significantly worse.

“We swear, one of these days that insufferable conglomeration of idiocy is going to take a buck to the face!” Luna hissed.

She took a moment to allow her nerves to cool; she knew all too well that this was exactly what the chaos lord wanted from her. Slowly letting out a long stream of breath through her gritted teeth, she regained her composure and began making her way towards the door. Upon arrival, she stopped for a moment to address her two personal guards. Despite the few years she had been back, it had become all too routine to let them know when she would be resting and when she did not wish to be disturbed, the latter being something they took every step to uphold. The two bat-ponies nodded curtly before swiftly stepping out of her way and posting themselves at either side of her door.

“At the very least, the night guard is respectable towards us.” She thought grimly before letting herself inside. “Not that any weight resides behind that statement.”

Using her magic to shut the door behind her, she wearily stumbled over to the large bed-mat lying near the window. She lazily levitated her royal attire onto the wardrobe leaning against the wall before unceremoniously flopping backwards onto the soft mattress, a slight scowl painted across her face. The past few months had been increasingly stressful for the alicorn, with each day bearing down on her harder than the last. Between the constant royal duties she had to perform, the past major issues that had risen in Equestria, and the increasing need to attempt to fit in…it was times like these that made her feel more alone and secluded than she had ever been.

“We still just wish that we could simply find company in somepony that shares our own view of life…somepony that could appreciate us for who we are.”

A few minutes passed with her staring sadly at the wall in front of her before a loud yawn tore her from her doldrums, reminding her that she was still quite exhausted. With a sigh Luna flipped away from the window and shut her eyes, attempting to find solace in the few hours of sleep she could hopefully receive.

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Awareness slowly flooded back into Luna’s being as she slowly began to pull herself out of a dreamless sleep. Despite her attempts to shake off some of the initial weariness that followed her waking mind, she quickly found that the few hours had done little to alleviate her of the weight upon her being.

“By the moon…you would think as Princess of the Night, we would more than capable of sleeping soundly.” Luna quietly muttered to herself. “We have always had trouble finding restful sleep though, so it should come as no real surprise.”

Glancing out the window, Luna immediately noticed that the sun was slowly making its way down the horizon, indicating that Celestia herself was preparing to head in for the night. “We can only wonder if she might be burdened with the same troubles that we are…”

Levitating her crown back onto her head, she slowly made her way out the large window onto the balcony that overlooked the land surrounding Canterlot. Glancing to right, she was granted a view of her sister slowly descending back onto the balcony of her own tower, the last rays of the sun quickly disappearing behind her outspread wings. Luna simply rolled her eyes…Celestia had long held a flair for the dramatic that she commonly brought into effect during her duties involving the sun, despite the simplicity of the whole matter.

“Ever the show-off, aren’t you Tia?” She mumbled to herself.

Letting out a small sigh, Luna slowly closed her eyes and allowed her mind to slip into a state of peace. Her horn began to glow a light blue as she focused her essence into the celestial body that she held sway over, willing it to rise above the horizon and into the night sky. To anypony that would just watch idly, raising the moon or sun would most likely seem an impossible task, even for the most accomplished unicorns…the truth of the matter was entirely different, yet still quite unreachable by many. Raising the celestial objects had almost always been second nature to both sisters, not due to any degree of magical ability or skill, but instead due to the fact that they were inextricably tied together. To Luna, bringing the night was so simple; it could be described the same way as breathing. After she was satisfied she had raised it into a reasonable position, she gently disrupted the flow of magic and cut her connection with the moon, leaving it suspended high above her.

Luna stepped back slightly to admire the work she had done, gazing intently as the heavenly body illuminated the star filled sky.
“Tis a beauty many still take for granted.” She sighed. “Though we suppose that not everything can be appreciated in the same light.”

She was content to simply sit and watch the sky for a few minutes longer…until she was suddenly reminded of the enigma she had wished to pursue earlier that day; the mysterious voice she had heard during her unexpected daydreaming session. Taking a moment to consider that the night had only just begun, she decided there was plenty of time to delve into question of whom exactly had attempted to speak with her during her dream…and given the circumstances, she knew exactly how to start.

While she had considered trying out a few different options beforehoof, such as some advanced tracking and memory spells she had learned over the years, none of them had seemed as straightforward and simple as her first thought.

“Dream Walking.” She said softly. “That is undoubtedly the best way to track this strange occurrence.”

In all truth she couldn’t be more correct in her reasoning, obviously if this pony could enter dreams, than the same would hold true the other way around. Another reason for this method was the astral and mental echoes left behind during her own dream, as they would provide easily traceable links back towards their owner. Being the warden of the night did have its own noticeable privileges after all. She would still have to be extremely cautious though; while entering another being’s dreams was usually simple enough, it was dangerous due to the fact that a strong will or an equally strong nightmare could overpower her own being…and leave her trapped within another consciousness.

Kneeling down into a more comfortable position, Luna once more closed her eyes and began to let her mind drift. Her essence slowly started to pull away from her physical body as she began to carefully trace the echoes left behind by whoever had entered her dreams earlier. Oddly enough, despite the obviousness of the presence when it had actually brushed against her, Luna found the residual energy somewhat difficult to follow. Even though they were simple echoes, they were incoherent and lacked the cohesion of a purposeful attempt to communicate with her…almost as if it had been accidental. All the same, she focused more readily and was soon able to pick them up far more strongly as they strayed further from her mind and made their way out into the world itself, towards the mind of whomever they belonged.

Luna had begun to follow the energy for no more than a few minutes before she stopped abruptly, simply staring out into the direction it was emanating from. With a small gasp she immediately pulled her consciousness back into her body, which had gone deathly still from shock. Quickly jumping to her hooves, Luna brought herself over to the far side of the balcony and proceeded to stare out into the darkness, a look of grim shock upon her face. No matter how much she wanted to deny it, there was simply no way she could doubt it.

The energy she had followed, led directly to the one place she promised herself she might never have to return to again.

It led directly into the heart of the Everfree Forest…

Directly into the ruins of her old castle…

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“Darkness…”

“That is all that I remember of this wretched planet…”

“That is all that should remain…I am all that should remain…”

“So how can it be…that I yet feel another?”

Everdark

The Everfree Forest...

This vast, foreboding, and deadly conglomeration of nightmares stood as a testament to the fact that Equestria was not always the shining gem that its inhabitants and neighboring countries thought it to be. Truthfully, the Everfree once covered much of the central region of the country in the times that pre-dated even Discord’s rule, and was far more unbridled than it even currently could be viewed. It wasn’t until after the Elements of Harmony were discovered within the underground cavern deep within the forest that the two current rulers decided to build a small colony within the wood’s confines in an attempt to lessen its dark influence over the land. While the forest’s size was significantly reduced during their time there, the ruins that now stood in place of the colony served only as a dark reminder of the Everfree’s unwillingness to be tamed or stamped out. Truly it could be said with little doubt…that the Everfree Forest held a will of its own.

A thought that served only to further increase Luna’s growing list of doubts.

Exactly half an hour had passed by since the Princess had discovered the source of the strange anomaly that had plagued her mind earlier, each minute having been spent pacing across the balcony, trying to piece together exactly what course of action she should take in the matter. Already she had ruled out simply allowing herself to ignore it and attempting to move on, as not only would the ensuing conflict within her mind drive her to complete paranoia, but also the situation itself could merit a yet unknown threat to Equestria that could not simply be ignored.

She had also been mulling over other possible ways that the situation could be handled, becoming increasingly frustrated as each dead end would slowly bring her inevitably closer to the one course of action she hoped to avoid at all costs. Despite her best efforts though, Luna inevitably began to realize that undoubtedly the best way for her to deal with the problem…was to confront it herself.

“Stars above, is it truly possible that this situation could become any more cryptic than it already was?” Luna was quickly becoming annoyed at her lack of immediate answers. “It is not as if we can keep good conscience at the prospect of trotting headfirst into that cursed forest, not without even knowing what manner of phantasm has summoned us there.”

“All the same…we cannot simply turn our back upon this; the potential threat level is far too high. For all we know, Nightmare Moon might have been able to find some way or another to physically incarnate herself.” A shiver ran down her spine at that thought. Contrary to popular belief, her “other” self was not simply some malicious personality that had been brought about out of spite, but had instead grown into an actual separate entity over the course of Luna’s long imprisonment. It was unknown to all but a few, but the dark being was more than capable of being brought back…under the correct circumstances.

Turning her mind from the past, Luna hesitantly turned and headed back towards her room. “If we are to do this however, it must be done completely on our own. Tia cannot be bothered with such an obscure matter, nor would she find marching into the Everfree a plausible course of action. Asking for assistance from the Element Bearers would undoubtedly warrant unwanted attention from my sister, and I myself feel less than comfortable sending them back into that castle. As for Discord…” Her mind wandered back to the last “errand” the chaos lord had agreed to help with. “Discord would naturally just send things into further disarray than needed.”

“This may also very well be an opportunity to show our citizens we have only their best interests in mind.” Gazing through one of her windows, she took a moment to look down at the empty streets of Canterlot. "If we are capable of circumventing a potential threat completely on our own, then they would surely be able to believe that we bear no animosity towards them."

Her mind reluctantly set, Luna slowly made her way across the room and opened the door to address the guards. “Nightshade…Overcast, we would like to inform you that will be setting off to fulfill our duties for the night.” The two stallions stared up at her intently. “There should be no real issues, however if we are not back by the morning, it is of the utmost importance that you inform our sister immediately…understood?”

The two of them quickly nodded in affirmation but otherwise kept deathly silent to the statement…this alone told Luna that they were in absolute compliance. “Very good, you are both relieved and free to enjoy the night as you see fit.”

The both of them nodded once more before bowing deeply and turning to walk towards the tower’s staircase.

“Stoic as ever, it is not as if they couldn’t stand to at least verbally answer every now and then. Still, I suppose they do take great pride in their rank and position…best not to chastise them over it.”

Shutting the door and walking back into her room, Luna quickly decided to gather her cloak from her wardrobe before heading out. Normally her cloak was merely a thing of sentimental value, and not something she would wear on most outings. However, with the uncertainties of the current situation, it might serve her in ways yet unknown.

Turning back towards the balcony, she proceeded to stare out at the Everfree, a look of grim determination set on her face. However, the forest’s only response to this was the howling of a timberwolf pack and an unsettling stillness.

“That place truly is unnatural.” She muttered under her breath.

Luna took a good moment to make sure there was nothing she was forgetting that might help her in the future…the last thing she wanted to be was unprepared. Finding that there was nothing immediate that she could think of, she made her way to the edge of the balcony. Letting out a few ragged breaths, the alicorn slowly flared her wings out to their full length, and stretching them for a brief moment, propelled herself off the railing’s edge. As the blackness of the night quickly seemed to swallow up her dark form, one thought began to rip and tear at the back of her mind.

“What exactly are we getting ourselves into?”

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A somewhat uneventful half-hour had passed since Luna had reluctantly set off towards what she could only call a foal’s errand. A cool breeze had worked its way through the night air, so with her wing speed working to double the effect, the princess had been more than glad she had decided to bring her cloak. Over the course of the flight, she had attempted to keep her mind preoccupied from the stupidity of exactly what she was doing...to little avail. Finding no solace within her own mind, she simply decided to try her best at clearing her thoughts entirely, if only to keep herself from turning back. Before long however, she was brought back to her senses by the familiar smell of smoke, originating off to her left. Looking up, an all too familiar sight graced her as she found herself passing close to the edge of Ponyville.

Gazing off towards the small village, Luna couldn’t help but smile. While it held true that her first main visit to Ponyville hadn’t been met under the most pleasant of circumstances, and her first impression had been less than stellar, she still couldn’t help but hold a sense of affection towards the town and its citizens. She wasn’t quite sure as to exactly what it was, but whether she was visiting or simply passing over, there was always a form of tranquility and subtle peace that the village seemed to exude.

“Whilst we are in the immediate area, we suppose it would be counterproductive to not quickly gaze over the minds of our subjects.” She said, casting her thoughts out towards the town.

While she didn’t necessarily have the proper time to be thorough with her duty, Ponyville was quite far from the largest settlement in Equestria, meaning that she could sort through dreams much faster than if it had been most other places.

As she soon found, most of the population had already fallen asleep, with only a few still awake…not outstanding from these few being a certain lavender unicorn. Luna could only sigh at this. “Twilight Sparkle, for being one the most intelligent unicorns we have ever met…it is surprising you still lack the concept of a proper night’s sleep.”

This was nothing foreign to the princess however, as Celestia had informed her long ago of Twilight’s…tendencies. What did surprise her though, was the state of the other citizens, as from what Luna could glean, most of their dreams were…surprisingly peaceful.

Normally Luna found that on most nights she would come across a fair number of ponies that were suffering from some form of nightmare or another, yet finding a night where there was not so much as the slightest fear was almost unheard of for her.

After taking this into consideration however, she was all too pleasantly surprised at this turn of events. “While it is most certainly an odd occurrence, we cannot help but smile at a night that is devoid of nightmares.”

However, she was well aware that this small bit of relief was not about to last. As she proceeded to move further away from Ponyville and started over the familiar tree line of the Everfree, the small amount of solace she had found was quickly torn to pieces by the feeling of dread that the forest seemed to naturally exude. Glancing downwards, the princess found that she could make out nothing through the dense foliage that covered the ground, and even still…she could feel the hungry eyes of hundreds of different beings glaring up at her. All the while, the old and gnarled trees seemed to grab and reach out for her, as if wishing only to drag her towards whatever creatures lay below.

Forcibly pushing her doubts to the back of her mind and her eyes forward, she pressed her wings even harder than before, if only to be done with this as quickly as possible.

Even still, Luna was well aware that the forest itself was merely the prelude to what she must do, as she soon found herself staring down at an all too familiar landmark that morbidly towered over the tree line. Pumping her wings a few times, she slowly began to descend towards the broken structure, her eyes locked forward onto the aged stone.

Imposing as it may have been during its prime, the ruins now held an even deeper sense of dread to any that may have the misfortune to pass beneath it. The stone walls were coated with thick foliage that had slowly eaten away and decayed them, the windows that dotted the remaining tower were darkened and seemed to cast unseen eyes upon any below, and the full moon that hung in the sky cast an eerie glow that granted the grounds an otherworldly feel. In short, it was the one place no sane being would prefer to find themselves in the shadow of.

“Far too soon…This wretched place brings us no happy memories to speak of…not even for all the warm moments we had once spent within its walls. Those days may yet linger deep within us, however this ruin serves only as a foul reminder of that unspeakable night and the days that led towards it.”

Luna placed a hoof to her cheek as she felt a single drop of moisture roll downwards, stinging as it fell. She huffed angrily upon noticing this; it was bad enough that she could not conform to the current age, but that she could not simply let go of the past…was truly unacceptable.

She faltered briefly, but soon managed to somewhat regain her composure, a dark look still set upon her face. “No matter what we may find ourselves facing we must overcome it, this ruin is simply another enemy to defeat. We may yet be unaware of what has called us forth to this place, but it has provided us a challenge that must be surmounted. It can be our only hope that once we have discovered the truth behind all this…that we may yet walk away from these walls with a clear conscience.”

Though clearly shaken by her past, Luna forced herself to slowly but steadily push her way towards the steps of the darkened building, her hooves solemnly echoing against the stone. It didn’t take her long to make her way into what had once been the main entrance hall…a sight that only made her cringe. The moon gently shone down upon her through the destroyed ceiling, tattered banners that adorned the walls quietly flapped in the slight breeze, and a few old suits of full body armor stood grimly with their backs to the wall at full attention.

Luna hung her head. “This place has truly fallen far from the grace it once upheld.”

Stepping into the center of the room, she closed her eyes and began to once again track the residual echoes…all of which were now pulsing with much greater strength than they had before. While she realized that she was almost directly on top of whomever…or whatever had reached out to her, Luna could yet feel the energy tugging at her mind, directing her towards the tower that stood across from the ruined castle.

Luna grimaced for second as she realized exactly where the energy would be leading her, but she quickly stamped her fear back as her horn lit up with magic. “We have come this far in already, to simply turn back and leave at a point such as this would be pointless and unacceptable.”

No sooner had those words left her mouth than she had disappeared into a blinding flash, leaving nothing behind save for the cracked stone floor. Not but a few moments later, in another part of the castle, a similar flash made its way into existence, the light shortly illuminating the walls of the last room the princess wished to be. Yet the alicorn needed no light to recognize where she now stood, the dark remnants of her former self were still strewn about the floor. This place was the very spot of her exile and return…the castle throne room.

Pushing back her desire to turn and leave this place as quickly as possible, she forcibly calmed her mind and focused on the energy once again. She quickly noticed that the intensity here was immense, with the echoes pulsing to an almost lifelike pattern. A subtle scan of the surrounding area however yielded no presence whatsoever, much to her annoyance.

Hastily conjuring up the few detection spells she had memorized, she proceeded to redouble her efforts, taking it upon herself to search the room as diligently as possible. Minute after minute passed by, her horn glowed intensely and her eyes scanned vigorously, all in a desperate attempt to locate anything that may yield her a clue. Yet no matter where she searched, what spells she cast, or what course of action she took, there was absolutely no evidence to point out any being besides herself in the room, nor any other leads directing her elsewhere. The energy simply stopped on one point.

The platform where she had been purged of Nightmare Moon.

In that single moment, the princess realized that she had been led back towards the one place in Equestria that caused her the most pain, simply to find no answers as to why. The echoes, the voice, her mind could only put them out to be an elaborate ruse by some unseen force, a lure to bring her in…and watch her fall. This was the only conclusion the princess could bring to bear as she stood alone.

The wall of emotion that slammed into Luna was quick to attempt to overwhelm her, playing at her basest fears and nightmares, forcing her to relive every moment of her past. Everything up until this point she had been capable of suppressing, but this had finally left its mark upon her…it was the breaking point.

The princess hung her head low as tears slowly began to leak down her face, choked sobs soon finding their way past her lips. “Why…why are we cursed to forever relive the one true mistake that we made in our life? Was it…was everything we experienced…truly not enough? Are we doomed to be driven into madness…to have this cruel mockery play out before our eyes as punishment?!”

A barely subdued rage flooded through Luna’s being as she glared at the scraps of armor that littered the floor beneath her. Her horn began to gather energy at its very tip as she simultaneously charged her spell and gathered the pieces into a bunch. “To whatever damnable force stands idly watching our pain…we say no more! We will NOT allow our past to haunt us ANY longer! For all it’s worth, this piece of our past can simply BURN AWAY!” Her shouts resonated throughout the building as she let loose a torrent of magical energy directly at Nightmare Moon’s remains, the pieces quickly disintegrating into a black vapor under the tremendous output.

Much to her disdain however, the black fog soon began to slip down and phase through the floor. Noticing this, the princess let out an enraged cry as she violently slammed her hooves against the stone floor, desperately trying to destroy the demon that haunted her past with an unrelenting number of blows. The attempts soon proved futile however, as each hit began to weaken and grow softer. It wasn't long before she soon exhausted herself and collapsed onto the cold stone floor, fresh tears still flowing from her eyes.

“Damn it…Damn that infernal thing to the lowest pits of Tartarus.” She choked out.

Minutes began to creep by as the pain remained fresh within Luna’s mind. After a short amount of time she attempted to slow her breath and calm herself, wiping the tears from her face as she took in some deep ragged breaths. Despite being clearly shaken by past she had been forced to replay, her better judgment told her to overcome her emotions. “We will give our search one final effort, simply to be sure we are not mistaken.” She was just about to rise to her hooves when suddenly a sickening sound shattered the silence.

It was the cracking of stone…

“What in the name of…”

Whipping her head down, Luna had no more than three seconds to process what was happening before the floor beneath her all too suddenly burst apart into an endless black abyss that stretched ever downwards. Slapping her mind out of its sorrow induced state, Luna hastily attempted to get her wings working as she began falling towards the gaping maw.

Gazing up she noticed the small cascade of stone that had been dislodged behind her, and immediately attempted to push herself away from the approaching hazard...only to have her left wing struck by a piece of debris that had followed her down. Thinking quickly, the alicorn gathered up her strength to teleport back to the surface before she fell too far. She was proven too slow however, as another block of stone proceeded to strike her, before disappearing into the void below.

“AUGH!” A strangled cry escaped her lips as a sharp pain in the side of her head threw her senses into a jumbled disarray, dragging her away from consciousness.

The pain that followed her soon subsided into a dull throbbing, her vision beginning to blur and darken. Despite her best efforts to stay conscious, Luna knew that this was a battle she had already lost…and she had played a hoof in her own defeat. As she slowly succumbed to the darkness that pulled her down, she felt something prodding against her mind. Time began to slow around her, and something vast and obscure seemed to work its way into her rapidly fading awareness.

“Young one…you delude yourself.”

“No being can destroy the past they alone forged…”

The Unknown

Time…

What does it mean?

What purpose does it hold?

To the masses of beings that fill this creation…time is everything. They live by it, study it, follow it, and fear it.

However…what does time mean to one it has never touched?

Nothing…

----------------------------------

Deep beneath the crust of the planet, buried under miles of rock and stone…a lone being knelt, its eyes sealed shut in a dreamless slumber.

To any that may have had the rare opportunity to chance upon it, its deathly stillness and grave silence would have no doubt give off the impression of an obscure statue…while its actual visage would easily frighten away most any to see it. The entirety of its body was covered in a long black robe that had withstood the test of time completely unscathed, no distinguishable body parts could be seen through the dark garment, and no face could be made out behind the darkness of the hood that covered it. The entire picture could easily come off as a monument to the reaper himself.

This being was less than concerned with its morbid appearance however. The one single thing that it was currently focused on, was something that it could not immediately seem to explain. For the first time in countless millennia, awareness slowly began to fill the mind of the figure as it was slowly drawn from its ancient sleep. Over the course of the past day, it had begun to experience a strange sensation towards the back of its mind, a slight tugging that had slowly grown in intensity as the hours passed.

Towards the beginning it had paid the occurrence no mind, dismissing the sensation as a mere trick of the unconscious mind. When the pulling had begun to increase and become more clear however, the being slowly came into realization of a truth it had thought unable to take place since the passing of an age.

There was another sapient being present…

Painstakingly slowly and deliberately the figure rose, never faltering as it came up to its full height. What seemed to be a lifetime passed by as the cloaked being stood silently, simply gazing off into the darkness of its cavern. Abruptly, an unmistakably male voice cut through the silence…an ancient and empty, yet surprisingly warm tone to it.

“How is this possible?”

The lone question quickly faded off into the large cave, no response ever carried back to the robed figure. The silence did nothing to unnerve him however, as he quickly continued with his one sided conversation.

“I have slept in this cavern for an untold period of time since this world and its inhabitants were sentenced to their all too inevitable death. When last I laid eyes upon it, the surface was scarred and burnt beyond any recovery…so then how can any sentient being yet remain?”

Once again the question went unanswered as it fell into the silence. Glancing slowly around the cavern, the being came to rest his gaze upon the ground beneath him, a quizzical look hidden under his hood. “It would seem that if I seek answers, then I will have to attain them through my own means.”

Bending down on one knee, he slightly parted his cloak and reached a long slender arm to the floor. As his hand fell upon the stone, a small pooling shadow began to seep its way through his skin and into the earth below. Understanding slowly began fill his mind as he allowed his essence to scan the planet, taking in as much information as he could gather from its roots.

“Hmmm…from what I can make out, I have no doubt been down in this pit for the entirety of an eon. The surrounding area still yet bears the marks of the planet as I last saw it, but the rest…feels entirely alien. That is most strange indeed.” He mused, withdrawing his hand and rising again.

The entire world felt quite different to him indeed. In truth it was still stagnant as it had been during what he had assumed was its “collapse”, and yet…it was teeming with life. While their nature was yet unknown to him, he could feel each and every one of them pulsing to their own frequency. He couldn’t make sense of it at all, the energy he felt was not stemming directly from the planet itself, it was instead being provided by the inhabitants themselves. “How can it be, that the entire planet is being kept alive by its occupants…no race of sentient beings could hope to sustain both themselves and their world.”

He was just about to delve further into the matter in an attempt to make sense of it, when a sudden rumble reverberated throughout the cavern, shaking the ground beneath him. Whipping his head around towards the source of the noise, he was greeted by nothing other the stone wall behind him, a small scowl formed on his face as he stared at the rock formation.

“These caverns have gone undisturbed for millions of years; it’s not as if I can be expected to think that tremor was a natural occurrence. What makes it even more unlikely, would be the fact that it coincides so closely with my recent awakening…”

Striding over to the wall, he once again slipped his hand out through the gap in his cloak and placed it upon the cold stone. “Heh…I suppose it would do me well to venture forth into this newly inhabited world, however…the investigation of said tremor is currently a much more easily attained goal.”

Letting his eyes slip closed, he pushed his essence deep into the stone, the black shadow slowly encompassing a much larger portion of the wall. He remained perfectly still as the minerals that comprised the rock began dissolve and meld into his being, the structure absorbing into him. After a good ten feet of the wall had been blackened by his touch, he quickly removed his hand and stepped back a meter as the bedrock before him slowly crumbled away into a fine dust upon the ground.

“Well, I can’t say that was the most filling meal I’ve had in quite some time…however, it’s not as if I could expect some measly pile of earth to sate me.”

Looking up from the dust pile into the passage ahead, he was less than amused to find a series of tunnels laid out before him, each of them blocked by either a pile of boulders or a wall of their own. “Have I ever mentioned how much I despise mazes?” He groaned.

He was just about to test his luck with the passage on his left, when suddenly a dull thump issued from the wall to his right, immediately followed by a smaller tremor.

“Hmm, I suppose that’s luck of the draw if ever there was any. Judging from the sound of it however, it would probably be best to make my entrance in a rather hasty manner.”

Shifting his body into a sideways position, he moved himself a few feet away from the source of the tremor and leveled his left shoulder towards the wall. Immediately a shroud of black fog burst from beneath his cloak and covered his entire body, focusing on his left side. “For my own sake, I can only hope there’s solid ground beyond that wall...anything less would be most unpleasant.”

With those words, he worked himself into a headlong sprint straight towards the bedrock.

----------------------------------

Blood and darkness…

Two things that immediately greeted Luna as consciousness gradually began to draw itself back into her mind.

As she cracked her eyes open, she was quick to notice the entire area around her was pitch-black…not even a single form of light could be made out as she lazily looked out ahead of her. The second thing that registered with her, was the dull throbbing in her forehead. Slowly reaching a hoof up under her mane, she was quickly reprimanded with a sharp stinging sensation that made her wince. Pulling her hoof back, she could feel the texture of caked blood on her fur, along with a small fresh stream flowing down her head.

Groaning from the pain, Luna attempted as best she could to pull herself up off of what she could only assume was a stone floor. After stumbling a bit in the process, she soon managed to get herself back up onto all four hooves. Gazing around her, she tried in vain to pierce the darkness before her with her eyes alone, quickly finding it to be a futile gesture.

“Not the most pleasant of places we’ve woken, though we suppose we should be lucky to be in one piece…” she whispered to herself.

Grumbling slightly at her sore forehead, she quickly gathered enough energy and cast a simple illumination spell, a small orb of light popping into existence at the tip of her horn. However, she immediately stumbled back onto her haunches as she felt the spell drain her of far more magical energy than it should have. Shutting her eyes and taking deep breathes, Luna took a few minutes to recuperate, to avoid passing out once more. She was caught completely off guard by the drain that had been put on her and couldn’t find any explanation as to why it had taxed her so.

"Wh-what in the name of Equestria? We have never experienced such negative feedback to such a simple spell...perhaps our injury is somehow hindering our ability?"

Shakily rising back to her hooves, the princess opened her eyes once more…and was greeted by a sight she had never before come across. A massive cavern splayed out before her, its walls dimly lit by the small light source. From what she could make out by the light, the stone scaled hundreds of feet upwards before ending in a domed ceiling from which clusters of stalactites hung. Ahead of her the cavern pushed outwards into a large tunnel that pressed forward into the darkness, and behind her…a small chute could barely be made out, most of it covered by a mountain of rock and stone.

“By the moon…not in all our many years have we come across a natural formation such as this. It is somewhat reminiscent of the sketches that exist of changeling hives, however it lacks the telltale webbing and tunneling holes.”

Glancing behind her again, she was soon reminded of the grimness of the situation. “Truly the circumstances have taken a turn for the worst. Who could possibly know how far we have fallen, it could easily be hundreds, or maybe thousands of feet?” Taking a few deep breaths, Luna began to play through the possible solutions to the predicament. “Quite obviously teleportation is beyond a viable option to us, as without a proper estimate of our depth…we could come up miles short of our target. Also, with even the simplest of spells exhausting us in such a manner, such a hefty use of mana could prove to be extremely dangerous.”

The alicorn furrowed her brow in frustration as she attempted to reach her sister’s mind through their link…only to find that like her magic, it was dampened as well. Fear began to settle over her as she desperately searched through her mind, not finding any plausible solutions to her issue. She was just resolving how long it might take to lift the boulders one by one to clear her path, when a sudden sensation brushed past her cheek. Turning her head in the direction from which she had felt it, Luna stayed perfectly still, allowing it to gently push past her fur.

It was a breeze…

Craning her neck down the tunnel ahead of her, Luna stared intently out into the darkened pathway, trying her hardest to make out any form of natural light further down. For all the time she spent desperately hoping however, nothing but the black abyss remained before her. Forcing back a shudder, the princess reluctantly began to steel herself for the path she knew she must take.

“Never before have we had any reason to fear the dark, not once in our entire lifetime.” She stated. “No matter how unnatural this darkness may be, we must face it as best we can…no regret…no fear.”

As reluctant as she was, Luna soon began to trudge forward into the tunnel, her hooves echoing solemnly against the cold floor. The darkness began to close in around her, almost with a mind of its own as she made her way down the path, seemingly pushing against the small bubble of light she was surrounded by. The princess continued to press onward however, never breaking her stride as she went further in.

As she slowly made her way down the stone corridor, she could not help but notice a certain oddity about the terrain. The walls and roof the tunnel were rough and jagged, easily denoting them as natural. Yet, the floor of the tunnel was absolutely different, as it was almost completely flat and smooth.

The princess raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Natural formations are never built in such a manner, so then what could have done something such as this?”

She had been walking the passage for a good fifteen minutes now, contemplating how long the tunnels had stood, when Luna slowly began to notice a rotting stench permeating the air around her. It had started subtly and was almost barely noticeable; however by the time she had gone another thirty feet, it was completely overwhelming. Stopping to shield her nose with her hoof, she gagged a few times as she attempted to force the rotten air from her lungs.

“What in the name of Equestria is that horrible stench?!” She choked out.

That question was answered all too soon though, as she raised her head to continue down the path…and spotted the cause.

“Oh Dear Celestia…”

Corpses…at least ten of them, strewn about the tunnel’s floor.

Luna’s gag-reflex kicked in once again, as tried her hardest not to lose her lunch. The stench coming off the bodies, coupled with their ghastly appearance was enough to make even Discord retch. Vigorously pumping her wings to clear the air around her and taking in a good measure of it, Luna stared wide-eyed at the bodies below her. The corpses had obviously been down here for a good measure of time, the skin having been completely stripped from their bones and what little clothing they had in complete tatters.

The anatomy of the skeletons was unlike anything the alicorn had seen before. Glancing at one that was splayed out completely, she could tell that most of them were easily over five feet in height, with what she could only assume was a bipedal stature. They had no tails to speak of, their hind legs ended in oddly flattened elongated paws, and their forelegs ended in what Luna could only relate to as a Minotaur’s hands. The skulls of the creatures were by far the most grotesque, each having a flattened muzzle that allowed full view of a decayed smile with a few canines jutting out, the small empty eye sockets seeming to bore holes into her very being.

As Luna gazed down at the corpses, she could only begin to imagine what kind of creatures these could have been before their deaths. She could only guess from the clothing they wore that they were most likely sentient beings, but everything else about them seemed so foreign and alien. After a few moments though, she decided to continue along the path, not only to escape the horrid smell but also to leave the fallen in peace.

She had just begun to continue down the tunnel, taking great care not to step on any of the bodies, when a strange noise stopped her dead. Raising her ears, she remained perfectly still as the sound slowly became easier to make out…it was a slow rhythmic creaking. Almost immediately Luna’s fight-or-flight instinct kicked up to its highest level. Tensing her entire body, she slowly and deliberately began to turn her head backwards, her only hope being that she would see nothing besides the dead. As her gaze came to rest behind her, she let out a sigh of relief at the pile of skeletons still unmoving and silent.

“Oh…thank the stars above.” The princess sighed and turned back to continue towards the source of the breeze.

Only to be met by a gleaming skull staring intently four feet away…

A horrified gasp escaped the princess’s mouth as the gaunt creature reached out a bony arm while it began to lurch forward, its jaw slightly unhinged and hanging down at a sickening angle. Quickly backpedaling to put distance between the corpse and herself, she immediately dropped into a defensive stance, her horn lowered threateningly. “Thou shall come no closer foul creature. Know that thou stands before Princess Luna of Equestria, and no being, living…or dead shall bring harm upon us!” Luna stated as venomously as she could.

The only response was a terrifying bestial shriek that issued forth from the skull, followed by a wild swing at the alicorn’s face. Jumping back to avoid the strike, Luna quietly calmed her fear as she thought of a way to deal with the nightmare before her. “The drain put upon our magical reserves is far too much of a hindrance at the moment…even a single failed spell could allow this monster to have its way with us. The only viable option currently is to use our flight and superior reach to overpower it.”
Hastily dodging another hit thrown at her, Luna pressed her wings as hard as she could and shot forward, slamming into the corpse’s ribcage before doubling back to her original position. Staggering back a few good meters and falling over itself, the creature soon shambled back to its feet, a low distorted growl sliding through its broken jaw. A deep hatred settled in what was left of its broken shell as it stared emptily at the winged creature before it. Letting loose a vengeful shriek, it charged forward with arms outstretched, hoping only to tear the thing to shreds.

Luna stared intently at the raged filled corpse that charged towards her, her back now turned and her forelegs planted firmly beneath her on the ground. Just as the creature came within three feet of her, she pulled back her hind legs as close to herself as she could, and let loose a buck to its skull that would make even Applejack’s jaw drop. The crunching of bone tore through the silence as the face of the corpse exploded inwards, the force sending it flying back into the cavern wall with an audible thump. The alicorn didn’t even have time to catch her breath before a torrent of loose stone dislodged from the ceiling and buried the skeleton underneath, the ground shaking from the impact of the cave-in.

Looking up from the settling dust, the princess could see no trace whatsoever of the reanimated corpse within the rubble.
“Let us hope that we never have to go through an experience like that one ever again.” She whispered.

Giving a small sigh of relief that she had gotten through the whole ordeal unscathed, she was about to sit back for a moment to catch her breath before moving on…when her legs were grabbed by two bony claws.

Letting loose a terrified shriek at the touch and immediately stumbling forwards, Luna quickly broke free of the creature’s grasp, a bloody gash torn on her right hind leg. Falling to the ground with a cry of pain, Luna whipped her head up to the spot where she had been attacked.

A fresh wave of fear and nausea settled over her as she gazed at the sight before her, as the entire band of corpses were rising up from their prone positions to look down upon her. Her mind screamed at her to run as quickly as she could, however a fiery pain lanced through her body as she attempted to rise and flee from the band of undead nightmares, her wound tearing open all the more. Her eyes slowly shrank to the size of marbles as the grotesque horde closed in on her, the one in lead reaching out its arms toward her.

When suddenly…the cavern wall behind them exploded outwards.

A dense black fog began to slowly pool out from the hole and fill the area behind the corpses, obscuring everything from view. The head skeleton turned back to gaze at the strange occurrence, its head slightly cocked to the side. Suddenly and without warning, it was swiftly pulled into the fog by some unknown force, the body quickly disappearing from view. The immediate sound of breaking bone could be heard from within, followed by a sickening snap. Not but two seconds later, the now mutilated corpse came flying out the fog and landed at the feet of the others, it’s detached skull following closely behind.

One of the group looked down upon its now fallen brethren, and proceeded to charge wildly at the wall of vapor, only to be stopped short by something unseen and promptly shattered violently against the adjacent wall. By this point the other corpses had begun to realize that the black mass was more than capable of destroying them one by one, and had slowly started to coalesce into a crude formation that cautiously began to shamble towards the newfound enemy.

Luna stared on in grim fascination as a dark blur sped its way past the cloud and proceeded to clothesline two of the closest undead. The other five had little time to comprehend what was happening before the two skulls went flying off the necks of their allies, nor did they manage to see the dark robed figure come up directly behind them, sweeping the legs out from two more and simultaneously crushing both their faces.

When the remaining three finally managed to spot their attacker, they all immediately charged him, hoping to drag him down with their sheer dead weight. They all however, passed harmlessly through his body, two continuing onward into the cavern wall. The third was quickly grabbed by a hand at the back of its spine, and shortly pulled backwards into a fist that went straight through the base of its skull and out the other side.

The final two corpses soon recovered from their session with the wall and hastily spun around…only to be greeted by the flying bones of their ally. One of the two went stumbling back from the force of the limp body, falling over itself and letting out shrieks of rage. The other however, was lucky enough to be able to dodge the shower of bones, and leapt forward onto the unknown assailant.

A surprised grunt issued from the dark figure as it attempted to fling the corpse off itself. The undead however, wasn't about to have any of that, and deftly swung itself onto the figure's back, clawing and scrabbling with as much energy as it could muster. While doing so however, the corpse failed to notice its attacker quickly backpedaling towards the wall behind them... earning only a glance before it was shattered against the cold stone.

Rising from the floor, the final corpse was given a clear line of sight as its foe stood on the bones of its brethren, a mocking silence issuing forth from the recesses of the hood. With complete abandon, the skeleton sprinted forward with an almost unnatural speed. As it closed its grasp around its enemy however, it found nothing to grab. A low huff came from behind the skeleton’s back as a swift kick to its spine sent it flying against the wall once more. Before it had time to recover, an invisible force slowly dragged it back into the waiting grasp of its enemy.

Gazing down into the darkness of its enemy’s face, a single feeling wormed its way into what little consciousness the creature had left. All the hatred that had recently flowed out was slowly replaced by something it had not felt in centuries…fear.

A bone-chilling scream of terror broke the silence as the corpse tried desperately to attempt to free itself, clawing wildly at the arm of its assailant. The swift response to this was an even tighter grip against its neck, followed by three solemn words that rang out.

“Be at peace…”

A suffocating presence immediately engulfed the entirety of the corpse, cutting short its shrieks of fear as its bones turned a deep black, and quickly started to dissolve into the air. The space where the skeleton was held soon became coated in a dark vapor, not all dissimilar from the wall behind them. As the black cloud was gradually sucked into the hand of the tall entity, silence began to descend upon the cavern one more.

The air lay tense and still, as a full minute of dead silence passed by…

Luna lay back in the same position she had been when she fell. Her mouth slightly hung open, quick shallow breaths issuing from it. She had been in a slight state of shock for the past eight minutes now, from her near-death experience…to the display of violence she had just witnessed. She was so caught up in her mind, trying to comprehend exactly what had transpired, that she had completely forgotten about the dark figure that had happened to save her…until he was standing little more than a meter away.

Gazing up at the being in front of her, Luna began to hyperventilate as fresh memories of the recent violence resurfaced. Her eyes darted between the carnage laid out before her, and the single entity that had caused it.

Luna’s vision swam as she noticed a small step had been taken towards her. The strain on her mind increased twofold while every sense in her body screamed at her to flee as fast as she could, despite her now useless leg. In a struggle to block out everything that she could, Luna squeezed her eyes shut, simply wishing for the whole experience to end.

A soft voice echoed out into the silence, serving to cast the princess out of her grim musings. Her ears perked up quizzically at the source of the noise.

“Excuse me young one…are you alright?”

Introductions and Awkward Questions

A thick silence hung in the air as Luna stared up incredulously at the bipedal figure before her, not daring to speak a word. An estimated eight minutes had gone by since she had been approached by him, each moment becoming more awkward than the last.

“Excuse me…Miss?”

No response…

“I can understand you are probably very disoriented right now, and most likely in need of some form of assistance, but you’re going to have to speak at some point. It would be outside my bounds to assist you without your consent.”

Despite her mouth hanging slightly open, still no words formed.

Another minute passed, and an exasperated sigh escaped from beneath the hood. “Listen…I would be more than capable of standing around all day to wait for your answer. Simply because I have all the time in the world however, does not mean I would find any comfort in the concept of it.”

Slowly he began turn and walk back a few steps, before stopping a short distance away. “If you do manage to overcome your current…mental state, please don’t hesitate to speak up. I was looking forward the conversation after all.” Turning away again, he began his slow trek down the passageway.

Upon hearing these words, Luna’s mind immediately started to race, attempting to force her body back into her control. “This creature just saved us from an undoubtedly horrifying death, is offering to aid us in our time of need, and we simply let him waltz off with our mouth gaping open like a fish?!” Forcibly tearing herself out of her daze, she shook her head and called out down the tunnel as loud as her voice would currently allow.

“WAIT!!!”

As if on cue, the figure stopped mid-stride, his hood slowly turning to glance behind him. The princess quickly clasped a hoof to her mouth, realizing that her shout had unintentionally overstepped the bounds of “intense”. She could have sworn her heart skipped a beat as the being proceeded to spin around and walk back towards her at a leisurely pace, stopping a few feet from her.

Gazing down at the alicorn, he crossed his arms beneath his cloak and issued a single drawn out response. “Yeeees?”

Luna’s heart began to pump furiously as she stared at intently at the dark figure looming before her, her eyes desperately searching his hood in an attempt to pierce the blackness. Try as she may though, she could find no further indication of a living being beneath the robes than she could ten minutes ago. “Not even our illumination spell can break through the darkness. If we remember correctly, Sombra’s magic was capable of producing the same basic effect…”

“Ahem.”

The princess was given little time to continue her thoughts as the creature audibly cleared its throat, a slight tapping could be heard on the stone beneath the cloak. “Is there anything I can assist you with ma’am? I really would like to know, but as it stands I don’t want to be walking back and forth constantly. So please, do speak up...I promise you that I don't bite."

Luna could hear the obvious irritation of the being beginning to grow…it wasn’t going to deal with her indecision much longer. With a sharp intake of breath, and a mental slap to the face, she swallowed the lump in her throat and allowed her voice to squeak past.

“W-we…well we would um…like to…thank you…for what you did for us…”

The tapping on the ground immediately stopped. The air of irritation completely fell away as the figure stood absolutely still for a good number of seconds, apparently awestruck at the words she had spoken. As the moments passed, the princess began to get the feeling she had said something to insult him.

The silence was cut as the being slightly bent forward, its arm reaching out from behind the robes and bending just below its chest in what Luna could only assume was a polite bow. “Well, I can sincerely say to you…you are most welcome. It was really no trouble at all, Miss…?”

Luna gazed up in shock as she quickly realized that the creature was asking for her name. Under normal circumstances, she would have been less than hesitant to announce herself to any strangers who might inquire. This situation however, was quite different. “We know next to nothing about this creature, if we were to simply give away our position as a princess, who knows how it might react.” Despite her misgivings however, Luna was compelled to answer truthfully to this strange being. She felt that no merit would come from being dishonest to somepony who had been kind enough to save her life.

“Luna…You may call us Princess Luna.” She hesitantly answered.

Upon hearing these words, the figure’s hood began to slide back and forth as if scanning her, but quickly stopped after a moment. “Hmm, Princess Luna…As unique as it is lovely, to be sure. Given the circumstances, I am slightly surprised that you would be so open to give it to a complete stranger though.”

“Please though, you must excuse my deplorable manners, had I known I was in the presence of royalty I would have acted more appropriately.” Another bow was immediately given, as if to emphasize the point.

Luna gave the being a quizzical look as it returned to its full height; she was quickly becoming lost with its behavior. Only a few moments ago it had acted quite irritated with her, yet now it seemed to have completely forgone that and was actually apologizing to her, despite having done little wrong.

Following her better judgment, she allowed these thoughts to slip to the back of her mind for the moment, hastily coming up with a question of her own to keep the conversation from going quiet.

“T-Thank you kind sir, there should be no need to apologize though. Now…if we might be permitted to ask, perhaps you would be so kind as to tell us your own name?”

The figure gazed upwards for a few moments and a slight chuckle echoed through the tunnel. The alicorn scowled slightly at the gesture, confusion playing through her mind. “We don’t understand, have we said something humorous sir?” The creature slowly shook his head and the laughter died down.

“No, it’s nothing like that, I’m sorry princess. It’s just that…I’ve gone by far too many names to recall in my time.” A sigh worked its way from under the cloak, and suddenly the figure bent down to eye level. Luna’s eyes widened as it slowly reached up to its face, and calmly pulled back the hood that obscured it.

…

In all her years as princess, Luna had witnessed many strange things. First contact with the Griffon Nation had certainly been a strange experience, to say absolutely nothing of the Changelings, and of course…Discord himself. Even still, the face of the creature that was currently gazing back at her was a mystery all its own.

It had no fur to speak of, besides a short dark-blonde mane that fell back into its robes and covered most of its face. The eyes were almost impossible to see at first, yet she could barely make out two small green irises glinting in the light behind the mess of fur. She hadn’t meant to lock eyes with him for any extended period, though as those eyes stared back into her own, the princess could almost feel a tinge of sadness emanating out from them…something almost akin to longing. Tearing her gaze away from its eyes, Luna noticed that the creature had nothing close to a muzzle, its mouth pushed back flatly against its face, and only a small pointed nose sticking out above it.

“However, it would be impolite to ask for your name and give nothing in return. You may call me…Erebus, if you like.” The figure stated, a warm smile graced his face as he stared over at the alicorn.

As it introduced itself, Luna couldn’t help but return a smile of her own. Despite this being’s completely alien appearance, she could see that it held no true malice or ill intentions toward her. Pony or not, this creature was little different from herself…it was a living, breathing being, with a personality and feelings all its own.

“Erebus? We must say, that is certainly a…distinct name.” The princess slowly began to raise herself from the floor in an attempt to give a more formal introduction, but had the misfortune to forget about her injured leg. Immediately, a lance of fire spread out from the wound, fresh blood seeping out onto the stone. An audible yelp of pain was heard as she winced and hit the floor again.

A frown quickly formed on Erebus’ face as he looked down at the alicorn, visible concern in his eyes. Rushing forward, he knelt next to her prone form and tore a length of cloth from the bottom of his cloak. “Please excuse me princess, under normal circumstances I wouldn’t be one to invade your personal space.” He sighed. “If you’ll allow me just a moment, I simply want to tend to your wound quickly, and then I promise I’ll be out of your way.”

Despite his attempt to assure her, Luna still flinched as he reached out a hand towards her, instinctively drawing her leg back. The pain instantly doubled under this movement though, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut.

“Please…I can understand your hesitation, but I’m going to have to ask you to remain still for just a few seconds. I promise, no harm will come to you.”

The princess grit her teeth and winced as she felt a light touch upon the open gash, the burning sensation exploded in intensity under even the slight pressure and her vision blurred. Within seconds however, all the pain in the wound seemed to recede and dissipate, replacing itself with a cool numbness. Upon hastily glancing back, she was granted only a fleeting view of Erebus cinching a black cloth wrapped round the leg.

A wave of amazement washed over Luna as she shifted her gaze from Erebus, to the makeshift bandage and back. Her mouth hung open in disbelief as she tentatively moved her leg back and forth, feeling no pain whatsoever. Even with her eyes shut, she had neither felt nor sensed any indication of healing magic, nor did the cloth seem to carry an enchantment of any kind.

“You…how did you do that?” She asked, pushing herself back into an upright position. “How could you do that with no magic involved, we don’t understand.”

The frown remained glued on Erebus’ face while he pushed himself back against the wall of the cavern, a hand pressed against his forehead. “Listen…this whole situation is probably very confusing for you, so it would be best for me to not confuse you further with intricate details. You could simply say…it’s a…skill I’ve perfected over the years.”

Luna however, instantly picked up on the avoidance in his tone, and attempted to see if she could press him on the matter. “Why is it that we get the feeling you’re simply trying to hide something from us?”

He opened his mouth to respond, but was quickly cut off by the alicorn. “In all honesty, we would understand if there was something you didn’t feel comfortable talking about.”

Once again he attempted to answer, but Luna gave him no chance. “With that in mind, we would still prefer it a great deal if you would refrain from flat out lying to us, as trust is something we cannot afford to simply squander in a situation such as this one…”

The princess was just about to continue on with her small lecture, when a sudden clap of thunder issued and echoed out into the cave. Glancing up, she was greeted with the sight of Erebus standing flat against the wall, his left arm extended out with its fist embedded in the stone. His face held a slightly bemused expression as he gazed down at the alicorn, and proceeded to take advantage of the abrupt silence.

“I’m sure that you are in a perfectly acceptable position to assault me with a lifetime worth of well thought out questions...” He paused a moment to removed his fist from the wall. “However, you’re going to have to at least give me a chance to speak if you want any of those questions to be answered.”

The princess mentally smacked herself. “Well Luna…good job, you most certainly have made a good impression. First it takes you forever to say anything at all, and when you finally start talking…You can’t even stop yourself.”

Erebus had obviously caught that Luna was reprimanding herself, as he stood there chuckling at her look of embarrassment. The alicorn’s cheeks began to turn a shade of crimson as the laughter continued, causing her to whip her head away.

“Oh come now, don’t start up with that attitude. Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I last had the pleasure of holding a good conversation? I certainly wouldn’t want this chance to be ended by something like this.” His laughter quickly died down while he attempted to lighten her mood.

“Tell you what…You remove that frown from your face, and I’ll go ahead and answer as many questions as you like. Does that sound fair enough to you?” He held out his hand towards her, his teeth flashing in a large grin.

Luna was still embarrassed at herself, but this soon fell away as she huffed and rolled her eyes. “Very well, so long as you at least keep your answers truthful for us, we certainly wouldn’t mind lessening the tension.” She hesitated for a moment, but lightly dropped her hoof into his grasp.

Erebus’ smile grew even wider as he gently shook it a few times. “Well then, if that’s all settled, why don’t you go ahead and pick yourself a question. Before you do that though, how about we get you back on your…hooves.”

“Yes, we do believe that would only be proper.” The princess grinned sheepishly as she glanced back at her leg. After giving it a few small flexes, she decided it wasn’t going to change much more and reluctantly pushed herself up onto all fours. Surprisingly, she found that she could still feel none of the pain as her weight shifted onto the injury. Granted, her side was still sore, but it did little to deter her from slowly rising up to her full height.

Disbelief still fresh in her mind, she was quick to voice her first question. “All right then, first off…how did you heal our leg so easily? While we are quite versed in sensing it, we detected no magical energy whatsoever.”

Shaking his head a few times, Erebus glanced over at the princess. “If you’re that invested in learning how, then it was simple enough really. I never did heal it, nor did I use any magic in the process.” This earned him a confused look, to which he shrugged his shoulders at. “What I did, was simply draw the pain out of the wound and absorb it. The rest was just a makeshift bandage to stop the blood flow.” He explained dryly.

Luna took a good few seconds to stare at him wide-eyed, her mind desperately trying to make sense of what he had said, before shooting out a nice slew of questions at him. “You...you did WHAT?! How in Equestria are you capable of doing such a thing? Just exactly what kind of creature are you anyway?”

Erebus calmly collected himself for a moment, and politely answered. “I absorbed the pain from your leg. No reason to fly up the wall about it, it’s an ability I’ve always naturally possessed...and it’s not a particularly unique one at that. As for your other question…” He trailed off for a moment, before starting back up. “Well how about we turn this little survey into a two-sided conversation?”

Taking a moment to calm herself, the princess soon nodded her head. “All right then, but you first must still answer our own question. What exactly are you?”

An awkward moment of silence settled upon the two as Erebus nervously shifted his gazed up at the ceiling and mumbled to himself, his eyes were squeezed shut as if struggling with something. Clenching a fist and sucking in a sharp breath, he finally broke the silence. “I can clearly see there’s no way around this question…and while it won’t be a pleasant subject, it goes without saying that you’ll learn eventually. Therefore, if you’re truly that interested in knowing...” He paused for a brief moment. “Well…how familiar are you with…humans?” The word was nothing more than a whisper as it slipped past his lips, as though he was afraid to speak it.

A look of shock worked itself onto Luna’s face as the word fell upon her ears. She had heard that word many times before, but never outside of ancient stories and obscure historical texts. Throughout her younger years she had always been fascinated by Equestria’s mythology, always studying it intently whenever she could. To her it was an escape, a place filled with so many mysteries and amazing things, that it gave her a sense of reprieve from her everyday life.

So you can only imagine her reaction when she realized that standing only a few feet from her…was a living breathing piece of it.

“You-you’re…a human…? You mean to say you’re a real live human being?” She quickly became flustered at this piece of information. “By the moon…h-how can you be though? All the legends distinctly point to them being extinct…”

“That’s because they all but are.”

Erebus’ remark immediately tore Luna from her amazement, causing her to gaze over at him in confusion. He obviously noticed this, as he gave her no time to voice a response.

“They were wiped out. Annihilated. Cleansed from existence.” He swept his arm over the pile of bones behind him. “This is all that’s left of them… a few mindless corpses, driven on by nothing but twisted instinct. I can honestly say though…that I amount to even less than them.” His tone was flat and dry as he continued. “But before you get all sympathetic, thinking that I'm just gonna pour out my life story…just please don’t”. He took a moment to lock his gaze with her own, a look of pure apathy in his eyes. “Listen...it’s just…a bit of a sore subject okay? I would prefer that we keep away from it…if at all possible.”

The princess stood motionless, completely taken aback by what he had said. She couldn’t even begin to fathom what was going through his mind. “To lose one’s entire race…To simply lose everything you have ever known, and not even care?” It was something truly unthinkable to her, but it was becoming blatantly obvious that pressing the matter would gain her nothing. “Better to let him open up to it of his own accord.”

Putting it behind her, Luna hastily decided to change the mood. “If it is a subject that unsettles you, then we would be none the wiser to let it go here and now. We too have pieces of our past that would be better left unsaid.” She allowed a small smile to come to her face. “Now then, we believe it is your turn to ask us a question, is it not?”

“Thank you princess…I appreciate your patience towards the situation.” He lightly returned the smile. “However, I do believe you mean three questions. After all, you did go over the limit yourself when you flew off the handle.”

“All right then, we suppose that’s only fair. We may have…overreacted, just a little.” She said, laughing slightly.

“Alrighty…to start off, how about something simple? It's my guess that you certainly didn't make your way here of your own accord. So then princess, would it happen to be that you’re searching for a way out of these caverns?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

The question caught the alicorn completely off her guard, causing her jaw to drop slightly. Out of all the things she had expected him to ask, this had never even crossed her mind. “Well, w-we hadn’t considered…asking for your help, but yes…we would like nothing more than to return to the surface.”

“Hmm, in that case…” Erebus walked a few paces past Luna and turned towards her, cocking his head down the tunnel. “I hope you don’t mind walking while we talk.” His mouth cracked open in a wide grin.

Luna stared at him hesitantly. “You are sure you don’t mind taking the time to escort us?”

He simply scoffed at her the statement. “First off, you still don’t get to ask a question yet. Besides, if I don’t want to stay down in these caves anymore, I highly doubt that anyone else would…you included.” Suddenly his grin turned smug and he began to take a few steps forward. “That is, unless you would rather make your way back all by your lonesome.”

Upon hearing those words, Luna’s eyes went wide, and she wasted no time to catch up with him. “Hehehe…no I didn’t really think so.” Casting a glance sideways, he threw out his second question. “Now that we seem to be on track, perhaps you might be willing to indulge me as to what exactly you are? I’m getting a pretty good idea, but it’s lacking solid support.”

Luna was about to give him an awkward look, but quickly remembered the circumstances. “There’s no telling how long he’s been down here, he likely has no knowledge of the current state of the world.” She decided to come across as plainly as possible.

“We are a pony, good sir.”

Erebus slapped his hand to his face and groaned. “You could be a tiny bit more specific than that you know…”

The princess snickered and grinned at him. “Don’t go blaming us, we simply answered what you asked…but we suppose we could.”

She cleared her throat before starting. “The pony race consists of five subspecies; the Earth Ponies, Pegasus and Thestrals, Unicorn Ponies, Crystal Ponies, and the Alicorn subspecies to which we belong. Alicorns are, in all honesty, the ancestral line from which all the current groups have grown. For many generations, Alicorns have been considered responsible for leadership of our entire species.”

Erebus’ hand remained glued to his face. “Tch…Of all the strange things to happen to me, this might just top it all.” He let out a deep sigh. “I wake up after the whole of an eon and everything’s being run ancient mythology…ponies no less. Ah well, I suppose there could have been worse things to come back to.”

“From your tone, we can only take it that your own time was quite dissimilar from our own.” Luna stated.

“I suppose that depends on what you can consider my time, but even still…yes. You could say that mythical equine beings didn’t tend to govern nations…or talk for that matter.” His hand slowly slid back into his cloak. “Now then, here’s my final question. You’ve already quite clearly confirmed that you are a princess, as I have been addressing you. Yet, I cannot help but wonder as to why a princess such as yourself is wandering the darkest parts of this world. Surely your superiors would rarely allow you to leave their sight, would they not?”

Luna gave herself a moment to put her answer together. To her it was obvious that Erebus considered her part of a monarchal royal family, which might have been true…a few millennia ago. “We are afraid you are mistaken sir, as Equestria has not been run by a monarchy in quite some time.”

Erebus paused slightly to consider her words. “Not a monarchy eh? Hmmm…” His head perked up. “As uncommon as it might be, I can only assume you’re part of a diarchy then?”

Luna nodded. “That is most certainly correct, we are but one of two rulers that have governed the country for generations, the other would be our sister, Princess Celes…” The alicorn abruptly halted her explanation as something familiar brushed past her face. Up till now she had completely forgotten about the wind currents that periodically came through the tunnel.

She paused midstride and looked up at the human. “Hold a moment…do you happen to feel that?”

Erebus stopped as well, his brow furrowed in confusion. He stood perfectly still for a few seconds, before shaking his head and turning back towards Luna. “Yes princess, in fact I do feel that. That…would happen to be a draft.” He raised his index finger matter-of-factly.

Luna took a good moment to glare at him. “We realize what it is, what we need to know is where it came from.”

“I swear, your sense of humor just tends to up and leave whenever it feels the need to.” Erebus shrugged through his cloak. “I suppose you haven’t been paying attention to where you’ve been walking, have you?”

In fact, the alicorn had been all too preoccupied with the current conversation to look ahead readily. However, gazing down the tunnel, she could make out nothing besides the pressing darkness. Erebus apparently noticed her confusion and tapped her lightly on her shoulder.

“Perhaps you might not need to strain your eyes so much if you doused your light.” He suggested.

Giving a small huff, Luna cut off the spell she had been holding for the past hour and allowed her eyes to adjust. Slowly she began to make out something she had been completely oblivious to. Down the passage, about twenty meters forward, a dim white glow flickered in and out of existence. Looking closer, she soon noticed something else she hadn’t…the tunnel itself began to open up into large cavern where the light was based.

The princess was snapped out of her inspection when she noticed that Erebus had started towards the mouth of the cave, moving at a steady pace. Reluctantly, she quickly moved to catch up with him, still unsure as to what lay ahead.

As the two made their way towards the end of the passage, Luna’s anticipation began to get the better of her, the silence wracking her nerves. She was just about to ask Erebus what exactly the source of the light was, when suddenly, the darkness around them was replaced by a low fluorescent glow. Blinking her eyes to clear her vision, Luna’s mind almost ceased to function as she stared at the sight before her.

The two stood on the edge of a steep precipice, spanning hundreds of feet above the ground of a massive cavern. The space itself was unlike anything Luna had seen before, expanding outwards for miles and miles, with no visible end in sight. The sheer size of the cavern began to beg the question of how the princess had managed survived her fall to begin with. The one thing that left her completely awestruck though, was not the age old cave…but what was contained within. Below them, spanning out over nearly the entirety of the space…was a sprawling metropolis the likes of which the alicorn had never laid eyes on.

“E-Erebus…what exactly…i-is that?” Her jaw hung open as she stared out incredulously at the sight before her.

Erebus gazed down indifferently at the massive city before him, arms crossed beneath his robes. Without even bothering to face the alicorn, he solemnly answered her question.

“That, Princess Luna…that, is humanity’s final accomplishment…”

Stepping forward a few paces, he swept his eyes over the ground, searching for something, before stopping next to an oddly smooth patch of stone near the edge of the cliff. With a swift motion, he waved his arm over the spot before him, as if wiping something unseen from the floor.

Luna gazed on intently as a low rumble issued from the spot beneath the human; her mind was awash with confusion. Her bewilderment only served to double as slowly, a short metal pedestal rose out of the ground before him.

Erebus tapped his foot impatiently, staring down at the platform before him. After about fifteen seconds, a faint static was heard and a faded blue keypad sprang to life above the pedestal, flickering slightly. Reaching his hand out, he moved his fingers in a blur over the screen, occasionally pausing when it began to flicker.

The princess looked on, her mind attempting to process what exactly was happening, but was brought back to reality when she began to make out another rumble, this time coming from below the cliff.

Apparently satisfied with his work, Erebus waved his hand over the console once more, causing it to slowly die out and return to its spot within the stone. Walking over to the edge of the cliff, he turned and motioned for Luna to follow him.

“Please excuse my silence princess, but I doubt you would find any meaning in my words even if I was to explain.” He stated.

Luna gave a defeated sigh and looked up at him. “Speaking as we have no idea what you just did…it’s safe to say that you’re correct.” She paused. “…However, might you at least tell us what we’re standing around here for?”

Her question was immediately answered however, as a large metal platform rose to the edge of the cliff, and came to a stop directly in front of them.

Stepping forward, Erebus turned back to the alicorn and shrugged. “Princess, sometimes you’ve gotta go down…to come up.”

Through Dungeons Deep and Caverns Old

Princess Luna’s mind was in complete amazement.

She had outlived many denizens of not only Equestria, but also its neighboring countries. She had witnessed many strange and wondrous things throughout her lifetime, even having the misfortune of treading through life’s darker paths. However, even with all the vast knowledge she had collected over the years, the sight that lay before her had caught her completely off guard.

Many years before her banishment to the moon, Luna and Celestia had both personally overseen the beginning construction of Canterlot. Originally, with the dwindling resources that they possessed, they had planned for the capital to be much smaller than it currently was. However, as it stood today, Canterlot was one of the largest and most grand cities on the face of the planet. There was many a time when Luna had simply stood out on her balcony to take in the atmosphere of the gleaming capital. Even still, the city before her was quickly putting her own to shame in many ways. In terms of size, it was undoubtedly at least four times larger than the capital, and still she couldn’t see the whole of it. Unlike Canterlot, which had many different levels and walls, the entirety of this city was based entirely off of the cavern floor and had one massive wall running the entire perimeter. Making up the bulk of it were thousands upon thousands of buildings, the likes of which were completely alien to Luna in design and material. Silver towers gleamed in the low light, rising high above her and dwarfing even the tallest of the capital's towers. Alongside these giants stood many differing smaller buildings, all diverse and varying from residences to businesses. However, what drew her attention the most was not the buildings themselves, but the object they were all based around. Directly in the center of the city, reaching up all the way to the ceiling of the cavern was a massive spire, spanning miles upwards and giving off a glow that lit up the whole of the city. Try as she might to comprehend all of this, the alicorn’s mind simply couldn’t process all the information...truly she was left at a loss for words.

This was a fact that her fellow traveler had been more than grateful for…while it had lasted.

“This is, without a doubt, the most incredible city we have ever seen! Truly, to think that such a wonder has been hidden away for so long! Beneath our very hooves no less!” Luna was truly ecstatic over the whole experience.

Erebus on the other hand, was doing the best he could to keep himself collected. They had since been making their way through the deserted city, and Luna’s incessant questions on the architecture had been enough to drive anyone crazy. He had already gone over the use of titanium in their building materials a few times now, and he was afraid she might start asking the origin of human housing structure.

“Listen…I’m sure this is an extremely amazing experience for you.” He deadpanned. “I'm also sure that you'll have a million stories to tell when you get out of here. Just please be sure to not go around touching everything. Remember you were pretty impressed by that gate as well…and it almost vaporized you.”

While actually coming down to the city, the princess had been completely terrified that the lift might simply break off the cliff face due to its age. Yet ever since the platform had dropped them at the entrance of the ancient city, the princess may as well have been bouncing around like a young filly. So naturally, when they came across the massive and ornate security gate, she had been all too eager to rush up and “inspect” it. She was however, unaware that that the city's security measures were still in place and operational. Therefore, had Erebus not realized and quickly intervened, the alicorn would be nothing more than free floating particles in the air.

Despite this being her second near death experience in the course of a few hours, Luna had been far less traumatized this time around. “Oh come now, we can understand that there may have been some form of protection that we were unaware of, but surely you jest when you say that it would have killed us.”

This earned her a harsh glare. “Princess…I don’t know what you may have learned about humans, so let me take a moment to say a few things.”

He gently stooped down to eye level. “They were no mythical fairy tale beings, they didn’t live in perfect harmony, and they were more than a little cautious to strangers at their doorstep. If it meant their own safety, then many humans were quite indifferent to the welfare of others. They were incredibly paranoid, and took every precaution necessary to further their own lives. They were also incredibly technologically advanced, even for their young age as a species; their advances in science were almost terrifying at times. Now…put those two traits together…and you end up with a security perimeter that delivers quite the kick. To be more specific, an electrical field more than powerful enough to reduce you to ash.”

Luna visibly flinched at this statement. “Oh…we didn’t mean to…we understand. We were merely caught up in the excitement of being able to witness a place such as this.”

Erebus took a moment to calm himself before speaking again. The two of them were still a few miles off from the only means out of this wretched place, and personally, he didn’t want to have to reprimand the princess every five minutes. Despite the oddness of the situation, Luna truly was the first bit of sentient contact he had been presented since the passing of an age…first impressions were something he couldn’t afford to mess up.

“Listen…it’s all right princess, seeing as no harm came to you. Just please; don’t touch anything without my consent first. It’s apparent the whole city still has enough power to stay operational, so it’s quite possible every defense grid across the board is still a threat.”

Luna nodded in confirmation. As much as the city had piqued her interest, she didn't want to purposely throw herself into unnecessary danger. “All right then, we understand. Though we do happen to have a question now…if it’s all right.”

The human gave a slight shrug. “So long as it isn’t something off topic and obscure, then you can ask any question you feel like…to an extent.”

The princess decided to take the affirmation as best she could. “Well, you just did happen to say that the city is in fact still using a power source to run its ‘technology’. Yet, what we don’t seem to understand is how any source of energy could not only power this entire place, but also continue to do so for so long without exhausting itself.”

“Princess…that would actually be quite an excellent question.” Erebus lightly chuckled. “You see that stupidly large spire out ahead of us?”

Luna quickly nodded. “Respectfully, there isn’t really a way to miss it.”

“Respectfully?” Erebus gave himself a good moment to laugh over that. “Princess, it’s not as if you’re going to insult me if you put it bluntly. I personally find it much more amusing when things are put straight to the point.”

“At any rate, that thing would be the answer to your question.” He stepped forward and pointed up at the tower. “I won’t bore you with any in-depth technical details, but the basics are that the spire acts as a rather hefty source of power for the entire city.”

Luna raised an eyebrow at this. “What you are saying is…that building supplied an entire populace with energy? We still don’t quite see how that works.”

Erebus shook his head slightly. “Like I said, I personally didn’t want to go into details, but you’re clearly misunderstanding something. The spire isn’t just some massive building or guard tower…it’s a piece of technology in itself.”

“I’ll try to keep this as simple as I can.” He continued with his explanation. “At the center of the spire lies a machine that humans referred to as a reactor core, which generates the energy for the city. Originally it was designed to be a fusion reactor, which would harness the same reaction that is capable of powering the sun.”

Upon hearing that, Luna quickly cut him off before he could continue. “Humans may have been able to control power of that magnitude simply through technology?!”

However, Erebus had clearly been expecting this kind of response, and started up his counter before she could deliver another. “In theory…yes. In theory anything is possible through some means, but that’s beside the point. The point is that they didn’t, as it was far too costly in their current situation. So, instead of spending billions on a project that would exhaust them of all their needed natural resources, they decided on a slightly more efficient method. Instead of trying to create potentially unstable energy, they opted to use a currently unexploited form of power…the spire draws it's energy off of the core of the planet itself.”

Luna took a few seconds to mull this fact over before responding. “There is something we cannot understand. If they were to use the core of the planet as a source of power, would that not be detrimental to the planet itself?”

“Quite the contrary.” Erebus began. “While it might seem like using the Earth’s core was a poor idea at first glance, the power it provided far exceeds even the needs of a city this large. I’m not exactly sure what changes the planet went through during my absence, but over a normal lifespan, the core would have kept running for another six-point-four billion years before its death.”

“At any rate, that would be the answer to your question.” He looked over at the alicorn. “It’s also the answer as to how we’re getting out of the Batcave.”

Luna gave him an awkward glance. “Are we to assume that is the name of these caverns?”

Erebus suppressed a snort at hearing this. “For your own sake…just disregard you ever heard that.”

Though obviously confused, the princess decided not to question this. “Alright then…might you at least let us know how the spire correlates with our means of escape?”

“Most certainly.” The human pointed up at the tower. “The spire was undoubtedly the city’s main provider. Not only did it provide them with the energy needed to power their tech, it was also their tether to the outside world, allowing them to ship supplies between the city and the surface. In short...it’s basically a larger version of the lift that brought us down to the gates.”

“So we take it this spire will deliver us to the surface then?” Luna asked.

“Assuming the lifts are still operational. Otherwise…I’ll have to get creative.” Erebus answered. “At any rate, they still should be the most workable out of anything else here. The spire was always kept under the highest maintenance; to lose its functionality would have been disastrous.”

The princess began to think those last words over as they continued down the deserted street. “He makes them sound so reliant on this technology, as if their lives depended on it. What could have driven humans to build such a city underground in the first place? Did something happen to the planet itself?”

She gazed up at the many buildings above her. Despite this city apparently being ancient, everything still seemed so pristine and fresh, as though it all had been frozen in time. Were it not for the fact that they were the only two beings within the city's confines, the entire place would almost seem as normal as Canterlot itself. "It's as if all the citizens that lived here simply vanished into nothingness. How could something such as this have transpired?"

Though these questions nagged at the back of her mind, Luna knew better than to question Erebus too heavily on his history. Since stepping into the city he had seemed tense and on edge, delving into his human past would only serve to aggravate him even more so. She resolved instead to ask him about his abilities she had witnessed.

“Erebus?” She asked, looking up at him.

“What can I do for you princess?” He returned the glance.

“Well there’s something that’s been nagging at us for quite some time now…” She paused to consider her words carefully. “If it isn’t too much to ask…might you be willing to explain how you were able to fight off those corpses, and how you truly healed us?”

A scowl quickly set onto Erebus’ face, and his stride faltered for a moment. Luna noticed this and immediately attempted to change the subject.

“Please though, it’s nothing you have to trouble yourself over. If it makes you uncomfortable to speak of it, then please pay it no mind.” She hastily said.

Erebus merely shook his head and calmly answered her. “It’s alright princess…no harm done. It isn’t a subject that makes me uncomfortable; in fact I’m quite open about my abilities.”

Looking down, he removed a hand from his cloak and began slowly flexing his fingers. “The main issue I have with speaking about them…is getting the listener to comprehend.” He retracted his hand and sighed. “I do suppose I owe you an explanation though, and it shouldn’t be all that difficult for you to understand.”

Gazing over at the tower they were closing in on, he lightly smiled. “At least this way, I’ll be able to go the rest of the distance without any more questions on human history.”

“Alrighty then, I suppose I should start this off basic. I believe you said something about magic earlier didn’t you?” He asked.
It took Luna a few moments, but she soon remembered this. “Ah yes, it was when you tended to our wound.” She glanced back at her leg. “Over the course of our life we have been able to learn a few spells of healing, but many of them are quite exhausting for the caster and take at least a few minutes to even start, even for somepony as powerful as an alicorn. So when you were able to abate the pain so quickly, it was quite the mystery to us.”

“Exactly…the two methods are quite dissimilar from each other in most every sense.” He pointed out. “What you refer to as magic is also known as mystic energy or mana. It’s a form of energy that exists outside of the normally applied elemental energies such as fire or water. Instead it is a force that links directly with creation itself, allowing for the application of reality manipulation, but can only reach as far as the wielder’s own potential.”

In truth Luna had heard something along these lines before, as it had been discovered by a few well known scholars throughout her time. However it was still fascinating to learn that humans may have had an even deeper understanding of magic.

“Now then, the abilities that I myself use are something a bit more difficult to understand.” He continued. “Just now you probably noticed that I mentioned the primary elements. Well, where my abilities stem…is somewhat the same. Tell me, do you know anything about the abstract elements?”

The alicorn thought for a moment before answering. “Yes, I believe so…you mean forces that don’t correlate directly with nature, such as harmony and chaos…correct?”

Erebus allowed a smile to light his face. “Exactly! Forces that, under normal circumstances, wouldn’t be given a physical form. The two you pointed out, as well as time and space, and light and dark. All of these and more fall under that category of abstract concepts, and therefore affect the physical and spiritual plane in a completely different way than normal elements.”

Luna took this all in. “You mean to say that your abilities stem from one of these forces?”

“I would have thought the dark cloud that appeared when I made my entrance would have given it away. Not only that…but I’ve noticed that you yourself seem to exude some of the same energy.” Erebus stated.

This immediately hit a nerve for Luna, as she now knew exactly what he was speaking of. Normally she would attempt hide her darker powers under her control of the moon, as she was still recovering from the Nightmare Moon incident.

Whipping her head up towards him, she quickly put out her response. “You…h-how do you know about that?”

Erebus was quick to notice her change in tone and demeanor. “Oh, excuse me princess…I didn’t realize that this was a touchy subject for you. I can drop it here if it makes you feel any better…”

“No, it’s…fine. We just have a bit of a dark history when it comes to those abilities.” She sighed. “We may just be able to learn from this experience, please continue.”

Erebus gave her a somber look. “If you’re sure you feel alright with it, then I'll take your word for it.”

“Now from what I can tell, you’ve already gathered that my powers revolve around the manipulation of darkness and shadows. You’ve no doubt witnessed the destructive potential it can bring to the field, as I showed during that little quarrel.” He brought a fist out of his cloak. “Though I will admit, the end result was more a product of simple close quarters combat than anything else.”

Luna wasn’t about to go and doubt the human on this, as she had seen him splinter the bones of most all the corpses. “What about the final one? It seemed as if you burned it to ash.”

“Not exactly…” Erebus bent over for a moment to pick up a small rock on the city’s street.

“You see this stone?” He held it out before her. “Well this stone is, at its very core, a part of the infinite web that makes up all of creation. Everything with a predefined form, be it physical or spiritual, is a part of this web.”

He held out his other hand, a small black orb appearing above it. “This…is dark energy. Every shadow or dark place you have ever witnessed or stood in is comprised of this selfsame energy, though in different varying states. Though this energy may be able to appear within creation, it is actually its polar opposite.”

“Now then, when a part of creation comes into contact with volatile dark energy…” Holding the stone above the orb, he dropped it towards it…only to have it immediately dissipate into black particles upon contact. “It ceases to exist, and therefore serves to expand that darkness.”

Luna looked on in mild horror at this. Not even as Nightmare Moon had she used her powers to completely destroy a being’s essence.

Erebus collapsed the sphere and glanced over at her. “While it may seem that this would only serve as a destructive application, it can be put to use in beneficial ways.” He pointed at her leg. “One example would be the tending of your wound. As darkness can absorb anything born of creation, that rule also applies to abstract concepts…such as pain.”

“In short...while it can be quite the destructive force, it can also be extremely useful at times.” He stated.

Luna glanced up at him. "So then, were many humans capable of such feats?"

"Heaven forbid...I'm afraid that humanity gave up on supernatural and occult practices many years before my birth." He shook his head. "Those that did possess such ability would have never been open to the public about it."

The princess took a moment to think this all over. "Forgetting about magic? How could any species simply give up on something such as that?"

He glanced upwards. “As much as I’m sure we both enjoyed this delightful conversation though, I suppose this would be a fine place to end our little lesson.”

Luna was about to ask if something was wrong, until she looked up. Sitting a few meters ahead of her was the base of the massive spire itself. Gazing up at the giant tower, she could only help but feel minuscule in comparison.

“Oh…We suppose that’s a good enough reason.” She said flatly.

“Indeed it is.” Erebus stepped towards the tower and gestured for the princess to follow him.

Walking up to a cargo door on the spire’s side, he proceeded to wave his hand over an indent in the wall. In a similar fashion to before, another terminal blinked into existence beneath his palm, on which he began working his fingers across at lightning speed.

As her companion was working on his task, Luna took a moment to gaze back on the city behind. Almost the moment she turned around, she noticed at least a dozen different flashes of movement speed from her line of sight.

Taking a few steps back towards Erebus, she quickly got his attention. “Erebus…I think that there’s something out there watching us.”

Keeping his attention focused on his work, he gave the princess a short answer. “Yes I know, it’s nothing you should worry yourself over though. It’s just a few of our friends from before.”

Luna’s eyes widened as she heard this. “If there are more of them, how can you be so calm about all of this?”

Erebus just gave the alicorn a small sigh. “If they were any immediate danger then I would have already gone and dealt with them. As it stands though, they have absolutely no intention of coming anywhere near me. After all, the dead may be mindless…but they certainly aren’t witless.”

A shiver went down Luna's spine regardless. Despite the words of her companion, the thought that they were being stalked the entire duration of their travels...was unnerving.

He gazed down at the princess. “At any rate I’m already done, so we’ll be leaving them behind permanently.”

After a few seconds a loud groan was heard from two large metal doors as they slowly parted back into the wall, revealing a significantly smaller room behind them.

“Um…Erebus, is this what we’ll be taking up to the surface? It does seem a tad bit snug…” Luna wasn’t all too eager to be squeezed into the confined space.

The human apologized to her. “As much as I hate to admit it princess…yes. Most of the other lifts aren’t in operable condition, or are completely disabled. Also, this particular lift will be able to get us topside much faster than the others.”

Luna gave him a confused look. “Why is this one so much faster?”

Erebus stepped through the door and began inspecting the interior. “This meant to be a high speed cargo lift, designed for quick access to supplies in times of need.”

Stepping inside, Luna quickly noticed that she was already feeling cramped.

As Erebus tapped a few keys on the lifts console, a smaller door hissed into place over the open hatch, as well as the larger cargo doors creaking back into place. “Princess, I’m truly sorry about this if you happen to be claustrophobic.”

Luna knew this wasn’t the issue, but she still wasn’t thrilled. “Oh that’s nothing you should have to worry about.”

“There would also seem to be another issue…” He said with a frown.

The princess didn’t much like the sound of that. “What kind of issue?”

The human glanced around the compartment one more time. “Any humans that did happen to ride with the cargo were required to strap into a safety harness…upright. No offense, but your posture isn’t going to do us any favors here.”

Looking up at what she assumed was the harness, Luna could immediately agree with him. “At the very most…that would only throttle us.”

“Well…there isn’t much way around this dilemma, is there?” Erebus sighed. “Princess…I’m extremely sorry about this…but you’re going to have to lie down on the way up.”

Luna’s mind immediately began protesting at that idea however, she wasn’t seeing much any other alternative. “Oh…stars above…”
Erebus put his hand up to his face. “Alright, hang on for a moment…” He began pacing back and forth. “There is one other way; however it’s still quite dangerous.”

While the princess didn’t particularly want to subject herself to unnecessary danger, she also didn’t want to lie down on a high-speed metal death trap. “We’re listening.”

“Luckily for you, these lifts do in fact happen to have slightly adjustable safety harnesses, most likely for young adults and such.” He walked over and proceeded to do mess with one of them, bringing it down a good couple of inches. “It isn’t exactly optimal, and will probably be even less comfortable, but if you sit as upright as you can and allow me to secure the straps tightly, you should be…relatively safe.”

Taking the straps between her teeth, Luna tested them with a few harsh tugs…they seemed secure. “If this is our alternative, then we'll be much less reluctant to take it.”

“That’s what I assumed you would say.” Erebus proceeded to walk over to the wall console. “I’m about to activate a twenty second delayed startup. Before I do that I want to go over some details with you.”

He stooped down to look the alicorn directly in the eyes. “Alright, just listen to me closely. When we actually start moving, it’s going to be quite sudden, whatever you do…try not to fall unconscious. During the ride up, it’s going to be ten minutes of nonstop pressure, whatever you do...try not to fall unconscious. Throughout the entire ride, your blood is going to rush straight to your feet, whatever you do…try not to throw up.”

Luna had absolutely no time to voice a protest to this, as Erebus quickly tapped the console and the entire room was washed over with a blood red light.

“Princess…eighteen seconds now, please get situated so I can lock your safety harness.” He said flatly.

Her eyes widening, Luna quickly got herself into a comfortable sitting position as her companion tightened the straps around her, before moving back and locking himself into place.

Looking up at Erebus, she noticed he not only had one of the safety straps around his torso but also a hand grasping a support strap above him. “What we wouldn’t give right now to be a few hooves taller…”

“Eight seconds, just try to let yourself relax.” Erebus stated.

Though the anticipation did little to calm her nerves, Luna did her best to allow her mind to slip without letting go of consciousness. However, in the back of her mind she could still see the seconds ticking away.

“Five.”

“Four.”

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One…”

Luna had one brief moment to gaze up at the human across from her. From the looks of his face…he had fallen asleep…

“Buck…”

Half a moment later, Luna’s body exploded.

The experience was unlike anything the alicorn had ever been through. She could hear nothing, only see red and black, and it felt like a fully grown dragon had decided to lie on her. Put literally…it was as if somepony was trying to push her very soul out of her body through sheer force.

As the seconds went by, her vision began to swim and her mind proceeded to go blank. Despite the entire situation, one thought remained glued in Luna’s mind.

“What have we gotten ourselves into…?”

A moment later, her stomach lurched…and she passed out.

----------------------------------

When Dead Eyes See the World

Life is strange.

In fact, life can be downright disturbing at times.

Now you might think that after a few million years of living it, that it would start to lose that quality.

Unfortunately, you would be all too sorely mistaken.

These were the thoughts that currently happened to be plaguing the mind of a certain black robed character, as he stood almost motionless with his back to the wall, waiting patiently for his newest companion to return to consciousness.

Quite surprisingly, patience was actually not one of Erebus’ strong points. Indeed, even after laying dormant for many an age, he found that his anxiety was an issue that almost always got the better of him more often than not. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that he was currently nearing his wits end due to the boredom.

“Well, things just keep on getting better, don't they?” He said to no one in particular. “I mean, it's one thing to sleep in a cave for an entire era, but sitting in a hole for over an hour with nothing to do but play with rocks…that’s just way more fun.”

He took a moment to gaze around the small area that they were currently in. Since the cargo lift had finally ended its ten minute ride upwards, the human had unsurprisingly discovered that the princess had in fact passed out somewhere along the way, but luckily had not lost the contents of her stomach as well. After forcibly removing her from the now damaged straps, along with a few fruitless attempts to wake her, he finally resolved to simply lay her down in the cavern just outside the lift and wait for her to come to. Of course, the whole prospect of waiting had seemed less painful when he was still unaware that the cavern’s exit was barely ten yards away.

“You know…this is almost like one of those weird lucid dreams that people sometimes have.” He took a moment to let out a bored sigh before continuing his little rant. “I mean here I am sitting with an pony princess who just happened to come along and wake me up. Now I wind up at a point where I can literally smell the world outside…only to not be able to see it with my own eyes.”

With a quizzical look on his face, he slowly lifted his hand to his mouth before biting down on his palm. The pain alone was barely enough to even register with him to begin with, but the small stream of blood that dripped off his hand was more than enough to put his suspicions to rest.

He sighed and began sucking on the small wound. “Nope, this was probably too weird to be a dream in the first place.”

Then again, Erebus wouldn’t really know, he couldn’t dream.

However, as the minutes continuously went by…the concept of dreaming was beginning to become more and more appealing, even if only to find some form of alleviation for his boredom.

Gazing down at the pony before him, he couldn’t help but assault his mind with a fresh wave of questions. Truly who was this Princess Luna, and how did she correlate with his recent awakening? While it was true that she held a small amount of the self-same power that he possessed, that didn’t seem to be close to the full picture.

Crossing his arms beneath his cloak, he quickly found himself focused on a currently more pressing question. “What am I going to do with myself in this new age?”

Indeed, this was something that had failed to give his undivided attention to. It was clear that he knew next to nothing about the state of the outside world, or how it might be affected by his presence. Quite truthfully, the only tether he currently had to the current age was this small blue pony.

“Heh…Well my future certainly looks as sunny as can be.” He chuckled to himself. “All the same...maybe things will be different this time around.”

Just at that very moment, a soft groan happened to tear him back into reality. Looking back at the alicorn before him, he silently rejoiced in the fact that she was finally regaining consciousness. Peeling himself off the cave wall, he took a step forward and knelt down but otherwise retained his distance…he tried to keep some respect for other’s personal space.

The princess began to slowly open her eyes, a pained and disoriented expression painted on her face. Erebus could only imagine how uncomfortable sleeping on a stone floor for an hour could be for a creature with wings, even if he had taken the time to try and keep her out of that situation.

After a few moments of blinking the sleep out of her eyes, Luna panned her head back and forth before stopping abruptly on the black shadow looming before her. “For the love of Equestria, you nearly gave us a heart attack Erebus!”

The human internally shrugged. “Well then, so much for keeping my distance.”

“Well, I tend to have that effect on people…it would seem that now applies to ponies as well.” He gave her a smug look. “I take it that the princess was able to catch up on her beauty sleep then?”

This remark earned him a particularly peeved glare. “You know, it is not as if we find any enjoyment in the concept of passing out in the middle of some cave that nopony has ever heard of.” She gave off a small huff. “Truthfully, we thought that we might have simply imagined the whole experience.”

Erebus took a moment to chuckle at that remark. “Yes…well I’m pleased to tell you that you’re not the only one with that train of thought.”

“Yes, we were only expecting as much.” The princess began rubbing her forehead as she took in the rest of her surroundings. “Would we be correct in saying that the lift did in fact take us to the surface then? This certainly looks little different from the tunnels we were in just a while ago.”

“Well then, obviously your eyes haven’t had the proper time to adjust correctly.” Taking a hand out from beneath his robe, Erebus gestured behind himself.

Luna gave him a confused look before straining her eyes into the cavern beyond. What she soon noticed almost immediately merited a rather energetic response.

“Is-is that light? Are you saying that we’re finally through with this nightmarish place!?” The Princess all too quickly jumped to her hooves. However, she failed to take into account her body’s current disorientation, and nearly fell face first into the ground.

Swiftly noticing that Luna’s legs weren’t about to support her anytime soon, Erebus was quick to put himself between the princess and the floor.

Picking her back up while being careful not to touch her wings, he slowly steadied her against the side of his leg. “Careful there princess…the ride you took to get here hasn’t been one of the easiest, and it wouldn’t do you any good to go ruining a pretty face like that.”

Luna began to blush slightly at his comment. She knew that he meant it only to help her feel better, but it wasn’t often that somepony gave her a compliment like that.

“Oh…of course, but please forgive us…it is our fault for not paying attention to how truly exhausted we were.”

Keeping her supported against his side, Erebus glanced down at her leg momentarily. “Truth be told, I’m surprised that you’re able to stand up at all…much less so quickly. To be completely honest, my little stunt with your leg isn’t exactly a permanent fix, and when combined with everything else you’ve been through…well you’re certainly sturdier than I’d have guessed at first glance.”

Luna gave him a small grin. “Yes well, we have always been told that we can be incredibly stubborn when we feel the need.” Motioning down the tunnel, she added. “All the same…you wouldn’t mind if we could both put this cave behind us for good…would you?”

Her companion chuckled slightly. “Heheh...No, I wouldn’t mind in the slightest princess. I merely wanted to be sure that you were in well enough condition to travel before we actually started to get going.”

Deciding to test this, Luna took a tentative step forward, faltering slightly but otherwise keeping her balance. “We believe that we should be alright for the most part, but your support would be very much appreciated…should the need arise.”

Erebus began to slowly walk in step beside her. “Not an issue in the slightest princess. I would be more than happy to oblige.”

As the two started to make their way down the final stretches that made up the tunnel, the light that had painted the stone walls soon began to grow ever brighter in intensity, and as they rounded one last bend, the cave seemed to end and open up so abruptly that it may as well not have existed in the first place.

Immediately, they both found themselves thrust straight into the middle of a symphony of wildlife. The stone floor they had just traversed was completely unrecognizable from the endless sea of grass that now lay before them, unkempt and littered with all different kinds of bushes and vines. Hundreds of ancient and gnarled trees loomed over them, their branches swaying in a cool breeze. Far above them, the moon hung gracefully in the night sky, casting its brilliant light down through the darkened canopy of the Everfree.

Erebus and Luna simply stood frozen, completely awestruck by the sight before them.

“Stars above…we…we never thought that we could ever actually feel any form of relief in laying eyes upon the Everfree Forest.”

Luna gazed up at her partner, who was in turn gazing out at the forest with an unflinching stare.

The princess raised an eyebrow at him. “Erebus, what is it? Is something wrong?”

Erebus took a moment to remove his hood before looking down at the alicorn, an energetic smile upon his face. “Princess…you can’t even begin to guess how wrong you are.”

Staring up at the treetops, he slowly inhaled a long breath through his nose before letting it loose once more through his mouth. “This place…I can’t even begin to describe it. All the different smells, the lighting, the unbridled wildlife, and even the simple grass beneath me…I’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

Walking towards one of the closest trees, he placed his hand against its side. Ever so gently, as not to cause harm, he merged the smallest parts of his essence with the tree's own, using it to link himself to the rest of the area. His mind raced as he gazed out into the night, gathering all he could from the forest's natural leylines. Owls silently kept watch from atop their perches, smaller mammals scurried from one hiding spot to another, and strange packs of unknown predators silently moved throughout their territory.

"Amazing, truly this is amazing. This place is ancient, yet it still holds so much energy and life within itself."

A wave of regret began to course through him as he lifted his hand away from the bark. "How could they have let it degrade to the point that it did?" He whispered. "How could we have been so foolish and blind?"

Luna frowned in confusion. “What do mean that you’ve never experienced anything like this before? Are you truly saying that you’ve never once experienced nature in your entire life?”

She could have sworn she saw the man’s smile falter as he answered her. “Well…yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. While I’m sure I can understand where your confusion is stemming from, you have to remember princess…I’ve lived underground for all of my years. This whole ordeal is as exciting for me, as the city must have been for you.”

Luna stared up at him, her mind at a standstill. "To never once be able to experience the natural world? How could anyone that has ever lived hope to survive in such a manner?" As she continued to mull over these thoughts, she soon found herself pondering a far more important question.

"Erebus, might we ask you something?"

The human looked over at her. "Of course princess, what is that you want to know?"

"Well...we know that you haven't had any contact with the world for some time now, and you obviously aren't quite up to date with the current state of things. Therefore we have wondering...where exactly do you plan to go from here?"

Erebus shifted his gaze around the forest, taking in his surroundings. "Princess...I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that question. If what you've said is true, and humans are naught but mythology in this age, then I'm afraid it would be unwise for me to appear among your kind unannounced."

The princess took that into consideration. "Yes, it does hold true that your appearance would cause a bit of a stir among the masses. However, as royalty, we know a way that we can amend that issue with some relative ease."

"Princess, I'm honored that you would take my well being into account...but I'm afraid I simply can't ask something like that of you." He shook his head. "It would be disrespectful to take of advantage of your hospitality in such a manner."

The alicorn simply scoffed at this statement. "Oh come now, it would disrespectful of us to simply let you wander around the world all by your lonesome. Besides, you aren't asking to begin with...we are offering."

Erebus glanced down at her nervously. "You're sure then...you're sure that your people wouldn't mind having me among them?"

Luna smiled up at him. "Why of course not, we can easily arrange with our sister to have you welcomed into Equestria with open hooves! After you have taken the time to escort us, this is the least we can do for you in return."

Her companion took a moment to think this over. "Well...I suppose there wouldn't be very much sense in rejecting a proposal such as that, especially given my current situation. Also, I suppose I'm still not quite done escorting you...am I?"

"That is quite the excellent way of putting it! We're sure that when all is said and done, fitting in with everypony else should be no issue for you at all." The princess continued to smile up at him.

"I just have one question for you princess."

Luna cocked her head. "What exactly might that be Erebus?"

The human put a hand on the back of his head. "Would you be so kind as to direct me towards the place I'm escorting you to? I'm afraid that I'm out of touch with the lay of the land."

Almost immediately Luna's mind drew a blank.

Under most normal circumstances, if she found herself traversing the Everfree, she would have brought some form of pathfinder with her. Whether this pathfinder was an actual pony or a simple map didn't quite matter, it was simply crucial to have some way of finding a path out of the forest. Unfortunately for Princess Luna...bringing a map had been the one thing that had slipped her mind.

Luna glanced up at the trees around her. "Well...umm...it should be...north?"

Erebus brought a hand up to his face. "You don't know your way around here either...do you?"

"Well, it is slightly more simple to find our way when we can simply fly over the trees." The princess grinned sheepishly. "However, given that our wings are currently too sore to fly..."

"Yes...I suppose that would put a stop to that plan." Erebus took a moment to ponder over the situation. "Princess, you said that our destination is to the north...correct?"

"Indeed, Ponyville lies directly on the border of the Everfree Forest, and beyond that lies Canterlot."

"Ponyville...Canterlot?" Erebus decided to lay those thoughts aside for the moment. "Well then, that works towards our advantage. Once the morning comes, it shouldn't be all that difficult to find markers that can help us discern which way north is."

'Well, we suppose that would currently be our best option...unless." Luna's eyes lit up as she remembered her link with her sister. As she closed her eyes and attempted to reach out to her though, she found that she still could not find any coherent connection. A scowl set itself upon her face as she attempted to gather some form of energy to her horn...only to find that she was still experiencing a damper to her spellcasting.

"Why in Equestria is this still happening to us?"

Erebus raised his eyebrow questioningly. "Unless...what Princess?"

Luna gave off a defeated sigh as she answered him. "Nothing...pay it no mind, we were merely mistaken about something."

Her companion gave off a shrug at this. "Very well then, if you say so."

He gazed down at her. "With that out of the way though, I suppose it would be best if I found found a place to set up a camp for the both of us then, correct? After all, I don't think that it would do us much good to go around traversing a place such as this in the dead of the night."

The princess nodded her head at this. As much as she okay with the dark of the night, she still was far from okay with running around the Everfree while it was pitch black.

Spinning himself around to gain a quick scan of the area, Erebus eventually came to rest his eyes on a small clearing, nestled between some trees. "Hmmm...how about that little clearing there Princess? From what I can make out, it seems relatively spacious, as well as being clear of most brush and debris."

Luna glanced nervously over at the circle. "Are you quite sure about that Erebus? It doesn't seem to offer much in the way of cover. If it isn't too much to ask, perhaps we could find another spot.?"

Erebus shook his head. "Now Princess, I might not know much about the great outdoors, but I know enough to realize that it wont get that much better than a few shrubs. Besides, as I said before, wandering around would most likely be ill-advised. Unless of course...you would rather go spend the night in the cave?"

Luna's eyes went wide at this statement. "No, that's uh...quite alright...the clearing should work out just fine for us."

"Alright then, come on and let's go have a closer look." Her companion chuckled lightly as he slowly led her towards the circle of trees.

Upon arrival, Erebus let out a sigh of contentment. "Look at that Princess, you had yourself worried over completely nothing. The grass is more than comfortable enough to lay on, there are no rocks or roots that could cause a problem, and the surrounding brush is more than sufficient as a source of cover. All in all...it looks pretty damn good from where I'm standing."

While all of what Erebus said was true, Luna couldn't help but be a little hesitant about spending the night in such a place. "Yes, given the current circumstances we must simply have to make good with what is offered to us. All the same, we cannot help but feel quite exposed in a place such as this."

Her companion nodded his head at this. "I'll agree that it's not exactly an optimal location, but all the same you shouldn't have to worry. I'll be keeping watch throughout the night, and I'm quite sure that I can "discourage" any inquisitive beings."

Setting herself down near the side of a large tree, Luna cast a worried glance up at Erebus. "You can't mean to say that you'll going the entire time without rest, can you? While we can understand that it would be best if watch was kept throughout the night, surely you yourself would require some form of rest, would you not?"

Erebus just shrugged at this. "Princess, I've been asleep in a cave for longer than your species has existed. While I appreciate your concern, I'm sure it would do me far better to not close my eyes tonight...I'll be far too interested in what's around me."

He leaned himself against one of the nearby trees. "With that said, it's best you get comfortable princess, I would say that it'll be another few hours before the sun begins to rise."

"Yes...and she's going to be wondering where exactly we ran off to." Luna thought as she did her best to cover herself with her cloak, the cool air of the Everfree starting to work itself through the trees.

As the frigid air continued to blow past her though, the princess found herself fighting an uphill battle. Despite the fact that her cloak was constructed of rather thick material, and that it covered most of her body, she found that it was doing little to alleviate the icy breeze.

She gazed up at her companion. "Erebus...do you think that the two of us might able to get a fire started? We're afraid that the weather isn't going to let up anytime soon."

"You're probably right about the weather, but I'm afraid that a fire is out of the question Princess." The human pointed a finger out towards the surrounding trees. "You might not have noticed, but there are a fair number of different creatures watching us even now...and that's with the lights out. If we were to get a fire going, it would undoubtedly draw in far more unwanted attention. Not only that, but the local flora is far too overgrown to light a fire safely...one stray ember could set this place ablaze."

Luna scowled slightly upon hearing this. While it was true that she had to agree with what he had said, this only served to worsen the effect the cold had upon her.

"It is quite alright then, we should be able to make it through the rest of the night just fine." She did her best to avoid shivering as she said this.

Her best was not good enough however, as Erebus quickly noticed.

Rolling his eyes and smiling slightly, he slowly walked over to the alicorn. "Well, you certainly weren't lying when you said that you were stubborn."

Pulling an arm out of his cloak and bringing it up to his hood, he slipped his head beneath the scarf that connected his garb, and deftly pulled the entire robe off his body. Holding it before Luna's face, he said. "Here, this will help to keep you warm until morning."

...

The princess simply stared up at him wide-eyed, trying to take in the sudden change in scene.

Before this moment, her human companion had been an almost complete mystery, with his attire giving him an otherworldly and detached feel. As Luna stared up him now, it was as if he was someone completely different. This was after all, the first live human to ever be seen on the face of the planet.

As she had guessed, his upper body was mostly reminiscent of what she knew of minotaurs, albeit somewhat less bulky, but otherwise a similar comparison. Covering most of his chest was a dark blue garment that seemed mostly similar in make to his cloak, reaching up to just below his neck. Encasing this, was a segmented crimson chest piece, giving off a metallic sheen in the low moonlight. Covering his legs, was apparently the selfsame cloth that covered his upper torso, reaching about halfway down. The other half was firmly secured in two armored boots, providing cover all the way around.

Glancing at his arms, she saw something that had previously slipped her notice. Hidden behind one of his bracers, almost barely visible in the dark, was the end of jagged scar, leading up a good portion of his left arm. Despite the many times he had gestured or used his arms for any other reason, he had always attempted to make use of his right arm unless he required both. It was only now that the princess realized the exact reason for this.

"We can understand that he may wish to keep his wound concealed, but with him being so deliberate about it, could there perhaps be some deeper motive?"

Her thoughts were cut short as Erebus shifted his arm to a different angle, once again obscuring the wound from view.

"Um...hello, you still there Princess?"

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she hesitantly answered. "B-but...your cloak, surely you need it...do you not?"

Erebus took a few moments to stare at her, completely dumbfounded, before breaking out into a small fit of laughter.

"Hehehehe...that's uh...hehe, that's pretty good. Don't worry Princess, I understand where you're coming from on this one." Shaking his head slightly, he continued. "No, contrary to popular belief, my robe isn't permanently fused to my body. While it's true that I prefer to keep it on my person at all times, and I probably look completely different without it. All the same, should the need arise, I will in fact remove it."

He continued to dangle it before her. "Now then, do you want to take it or not?"

Luna hesitantly reached out a hoof towards it. "What about yourself though...surely you will begin to grow cold as well?"

Erebus simply smiled as he laid the large cloak out on top of her own. "I'm touched by your concern Princess, but I assure you that I'll be just fine. During my own time, I was normally put under duress by harsh environments...the wind should be of little concern to me."

Almost immediately Luna noticed the difference. The instant the cloak touched her fur, the wind simply seemed to cease to exist...quickly replaced by a dull warmth that the fabric seemed to exude.

Erebus grinned as he noticed the expression on her face relax. "Quite the handy little robe isn't it? Just don't go asking me what it's crafted from, as even I can't say...it was passed on to me many years ago."

As he turned to walk back towards the tree he was using, Luna called out to him. "Excuse us...Erebus?"

Turning back towards her, he answered. "Is there something that you need Princess?"

The princes shook her head. "No, it's nothing like that. We just...we simply wanted to thank you."

Upon hearing this, a genuine smile lit up the human's face. "Please, think nothing of it. It's more than enough knowing that I was capable of aiding you Princess."

Leaning up against the old tree, he crossed his arms and turned his head towards her. "Now then, I think it would be best if you got yourself some rest that isn't a byproduct of you passing out."

Luna scoffed at this. "We'll have you know that we could easily stay awake throughout the entire night, if we so pleased." She did her best to stifle a yawn.

Erebus just chuckled. "I'm sure that any other time you could, however...that doesn't seem to be the case as of now. You've had it rough for a little while now, so just try to get a few hours of sleep...so I won't have to carry you in the morning."

Despite rolling her eyes, Luna knew he was right. "We may be the Princess of the Night, but we suppose that what we have been through would exhaust almost anypony."

Staring up at her companion, she found him idly twisting a leaf between his fingers, slowly examining each side. She couldn't help but smile at this. "Very well, best to leave him to his own devices...no doubt he'll have much to keep himself occupied."

As she laid her head on her hooves and gazed out tiredly at the grass, the warmth of the robe seemed to wash over her entire body. Though she wondered as to whether or not the fabric may be enchanted, her body began to relax ever further, slowly lulling her deeper and deeper towards sleep. Until finally, she allowed her eyes to slip shut, drifting off into a peaceful blackness.

...

"Young one...there you are."

----------------------------------

Darkness.

Emptiness.

Princess Luna could not make sense of where she currently was.

She could see nothing.

Hear nothing.

Feel nothing.

"What is this place?" She asked, attempting to turn herself around.

However, try as she might, she found that she could not make her body move in any direction. Her entire body felt leaden and unresponsive, and her thoughts seemed detached and hazy, forcing her to focus harshly on whatever she was trying to move. As she continued to struggle to see, a distinct realization began to dawn upon her.

"We are moving, there simply is nothing to see...nothing here at all. This place is nothing but darkness, stretching onward infinitely."

Slowly spinning herself in a circle, this was quickly confirmed to be true. No matter where she looked, or how hard she attempted to pierce the black veil...the scenery never changed, and the darkness never lessened.

Standing there amidst the nothing that surrounded her, Luna began to contemplate why she had been brought here. "Surely this is no dream, as we would easily be able to identify it as one. No, this is something vastly different...something that should not be."

As she was sorting through her thoughts however, she began to develop a strange feeling at the core of her being. Her muscles began to tense up as she realized what exactly this feeling was.

Something was watching her...

Her ears folded back as she backpedaled and rapidly shifted her gaze around the area, desperately attempting to find whatever was observing her. As she continued to move backwards however, she found her path abruptly blocked by something behind her. Whipping her head back at the source of whatever had touched her, she found absolutely nothing to be there, just the same as it was before.

"This makes no sense...what exactly is going on here?"

No sooner had she formed these thoughts, than a dull gray light began to peel away the darkness, temporarily blinding the princess as it enveloped her.

Squinting her eyes against the sudden illumination, Luna did her best to try and make sense of what was happening. After a few moments of blinking and rubbing her eyes with her hoof, what was laid out before her slowly started to become a much clearer picture.

The princess found herself in a forest. A forest, which by the looks of it, was very much reminiscent of the Everfree. However, there were quite a few differences between the two, all of which Luna could easily pick out.

To start off with...all of the trees were dead. Their branches were devoid of any leaves that hey might have bore, and the bark on their trunks was peeling and decayed, revealing many different cracks throughout the wood.

The same held true for the ground that she stood upon. While it held true that it was still quite overgrown with grass and weeds, the wild green blades she had just been resting upon were far dissimilar from the drooping brown ones that cracked and broke beneath her hooves.

A thick mist hung in the air, obscuring much from her immediate sight. Although she attempted to clear away some of the fog with her wings, she soon found that she could make no discernible effect upon it, it was as if the mist was capable of stilling the very air itself.

Looking up towards the sky, she found something more that she could not explain. While the light that illuminated the area was quite reminiscent of the moonlight she knew so well, there was no visible source to the dull lighting. Whether hidden behind the fog, or simply nonexistent...she could not tell.

Glancing behind her, she noticed that she had backed into a large black tree, just as decrepit as the rest of its brethren. "Ah, so that's what it was...thank goodness. For a time, we thought that we had actually backed into something more lively. Now then, we must still find out the nature of why we were drawn to place, as this all still makes so little sense."

She had just resolved to to wander the premises to see if she might find some form of answer, when out of the corner of her eye, a looming black shadow caught her attention.

Her eyes widened as she ever so slowly turned her head towards the source of the shadow. Her gaze came to rest upon a giant dark figure, covered from top to bottom with a seamless and flowing black robe, obscuring all details from her sight.

As she stared up at the figure, completely horrified, something happened that she least expected...a voice issued forth. A smooth and calm, yet powerful and ancient voice that seemed to cut through the very air itself.

"Well met...young one."

The figure's imposing image, coupled with its powerful voice immediately caused Luna's body to shake.

The being remained completely still as it continued to address her. "Oh come now, there is no reason for you to fear...I assure you wholeheartedly that I mean you no harm, Princess Luna."

The alicorn's head snapped up at this remark. "Y-you...you know who we are?" She asked shakily.

"Indeed...there is much that I know, and I know much of you...little princess."

It leaned forward as it continued. "In fact, I have been waiting to speak with you for quite some time now."

Luna slightly shied away from its sudden advance. "Who exactly are you...if you are someone that knows of us, then perhaps we know of you?"

The figure simply shook its hooded head at this. "There is a chance that you would know of me, as there is a chance that many know of me...however, even if you do, you would find it difficult to recollect. As for who I am...I am no one of consequence."

Luna quickly became puzzled at his answer, but the being continued before she could respond.

"Now then, might I ask that you join me for a short stroll? It would do little good for me to have called you all this way, simply to waste time on idle conversation."

While it was true that upsetting the being was currently the last thing on Luna's mind, she was finding it difficult to ascertain his motives.

"Hold a moment, while it is true that we were curious as to why we were brought to this place...how can we be sure that we can trust you?"

Returning to its full height, the figure gave her a simple answer. "I'm afraid you can't, as you currently have no firm reason to do so. However, I know enough about you to hope that you might give me the benefit of the doubt...if nothing else."

Though she didn't enjoy the thought, she knew that this figure was correct. If what it said was true, then it could very easily be the being that called out to her from the very beginning. With this in mind, she wasn't about to let her only opportunity at answers simply fall away.

She glanced up hesitantly. "Very well...we will listen to what it is you have to say, so long as you answer any of our own questions."

The figure seemed to consider her words for a moment before answering. "On any other occasion, I could very easily consider your words presumptuous...however, I suppose the fact that you stand here now is enough reason to allow your questions. Come now...walk with me."

Even as she began to step forward, the princess shrank back at his words. "We know not what or who this being is, but it is obvious that it commands authority. With that in mind, it would be best that we think carefully before we speak."

The figure began to slowly walk down a a small dirt path leading through the forest, following a few steps behind, Luna asked. "You said that you were the one that called us to this place. With that in mind, was it also you that reached out to us within our dreams?"

The being kept his head straight as he strode forward. "I am afraid that I while I know of what you speak, I had no part to play. What you speak of, was in fact a product of the one you currently travel with."

Luna's eyes widened as it said this. "Erebus? How do you know of Erebus?"

Her words made the figure stop mid-stride to look down at her. In that moment, a bone chilling sound issued forth from its hood. A slow, deliberate, and hollow laugh that made the alicorn's fur stand on edge.

"Erebus? Is that truly what he is being known as in this age?" It slowly shook its head. "To this day, that one never fails to amuse me."

"Now then, I shall answer your question in time. First, do enlighten me on what you yourself know about your companion."

The princess cautiously glanced upward. "Very well, but we are afraid there is not much that we might be able to tell you. Throughout our journey, Erebus has been less than outgoing about his past."

The being nodded. "That is all I needed to hear, as I certainly expected nothing less."

"What then was the point of asking us?" Luna questioned.

"Simply so that I might be sure. I find that he can be quite...unpredictable at times." It responded.

Motioning with its head for the alicorn to follow, it began continuing its way down the path. "Now then, I believe you inquired as to how I myself know of your friend. Well then, I shall be more than willing to enlighten you."

"The one you know as Erebus has a long and rather complicated history. I myself have been present with him throughout every moment of it. You might say that the two of us have known each other for our entire lives."

"If nothing else, the two share appearance quite closely." Luna thought to herself. "If you have known him for so long, are you in some way connected?"

"Indeed we are, inextricably and by bonds stronger than blood itself. Throughout the ages, I have watched over him, followed him, and protected him to the best of my ability." It took a moment before continuing. "Although now, he has resolved to deny not only our presence, but also our assistance. He cannot learn to simply set aside his harsher past with me, even when it causes him pain to carry with him."

"For this reason princess, I have called you to speak with me." It gazed down at her. "You are here, so that you might succeed where I am unable."

"What exactly do you mean by that?" The princess asked nervously.

"What I speak of, is that I wish for you to watch over him in my stead." It answered. "I would ask that you offer him aid in times when he most requires it...even if he does not wish it."

Luna wracked her brain trying to make sense of this. "Why would you ask this of us though? What makes us stand out from any other that you might have chosen?"

"Yes...I expected that you might ask that of me. The answer is simple...you and Erebus share a unique bond."

The princess stared up at the figure, awestruck at what he had just said. "What exactly is meant by that? If we know almost absolutely nothing of him, how could we possibly share any form of connection with him?!"

"Peace young one, there is no reason to raise your voice, as I shall answer your questions in due time. Simply walk with me, and be calm." It continued forward. "Do you not remember your dream, and the voice you heard?"

"Yes we remember, in what manner does Erebus connect to that?" She asked.

"During his long slumber, his subconscious mind was actively reaching out, doing anything it could to draw the attention of another being. The reason your mind was able to connect with these attempts, is due to the residual energies within you."

Luna scowled as she tried to make sense of this. "He told us that we are both capable of manipulating the same energy, but we found no reason to believe that was the reason behind all this."

The being nodded. "That is only a part of the larger picture. The true reason you and he are connected in such a manner, is not merely because you share the same power...but because both of you gained your abilities from the same direct source. No other wielders such as the two of you even exist."

"How is a thing such as that possible?" Luna asked, desperate for answers.

"I am afraid that I cannot say, even with my knowledge of things. Workings such as this are rarely coincidence, with this being even less so."

Gazing out ahead of them, the figure sighed suddenly before turning back to the alicorn. "Despite your many questions, I am afraid that my time with you is brief, and I must make haste. Tell me young one, will you listen to my request?"

The princess almost began to protest, but quickly thought better of it. "Yes...we will hear what it is you have to say."

The being bent down slightly, an action that seemed quite awkward to Luna. "You are most gracious for lending your time under such cryptic circumstances. Now then, please listen closely to what I am about to say."

"In the coming future, Erebus will come back into contact with the world...but not the world he once knew. Within your own world, there will situations that he may not fully know how to cope with. When mixed with experiences from his past, the situations that arise could have unprecedented effects upon him."

Its hood dropped, in an almost solemn manner. "Once, I was the closest thing to family that he could ever consider, but now that he refuses to acknowledge me, I find myself in a difficult situation. For his sake princess, please promise me this one thing...promise me that you will watch over him where I cannot. Promise me that you will do what you can to assist him, no matter how deeply he might deny your help. Please promise me...that you will be a friend to him, when he is most in need of one. Finally, promise me that you will not speak of this meeting to him...I fear that my attempt to assist him...would only anger him."

Luna gazed intently into the darkness of the figure's hood, her answer already set within her mind.

"Yes...we promise you that much. We may not know much of you or Erebus, and we may still have many questions that might be left unanswered. All the same, we understand that Erebus is very much alone in this age, and that he will require someone to help him along his way. With that said, we will accept your request...to see that he is not left alone in the days to come."

Slowly the black figure rose to its full height once again. "Thank you young one...truly and most sincerely. You have a kind heart, and the strength to show it. I know now for sure that I leave him in good company."

"Now though, I am afraid that our time together has come to a close. I have important tasks that require my full attention to complete. With that said, I will return you to the place from where you came. I pray that in the future, we might be able to speak again perhaps."

Luna nodded her head at the mysterious figure, still slightly confused at the strange situation, but somewhat glad the whole ordeal was finally at an end. "Very well then, it was certainly a pleasure to be able to speak with you, if not an unexpected one."

"I assure you, the pleasure was all mine. Until we meet again...little princess." It responded.

With those words spoken, the entire landscape begin to dissolve before Luna's eyes, replaced by the same dark void she had seen not long ago.

Within seconds, the darkness enveloped her entire being, dragging her back into unconsciousness.

...

"As it once ended...so it begins."

Towards the Dawn

"I remember you all too well, Princess Luna. So then...how is it that you truly could not remember me?"

"We were close once, closer than most could ever hope to be. In fact, one could easily go as far to say that we were one in the same."

"So, has our bond truly happened to dwindle so low...or am I just simply that forgettable?"

"Perhaps...just maybe...you're simply afraid of the dark."

----------------------------------

"AAAAAAAH!"

Princess Luna woke all too suddenly, her scream tearing through the once peaceful dark.

Her eyes went wide as she lay on the grass gasping for air, small beads of sweat slowly coming down her face.

From the moment that the unnamed stranger had parted company with her, and the black maw had slowly consumed her form, she had spent what seemed like an eternity within the confines of the crushing void. During this time, she had found herself unable to move, breath, or even make coherent thought. Had it not been for the alicorn's connection to the moon, she feared to wonder if she might have awakened at all.

Indeed, with the dawn rapidly approaching, Luna's inherent bond with the moon had luckily been capable of returning her to consciousness. A fact that she was currently more than thankful for.

"Thank the heavens that the morning is so close, had we not been required to lower the moon...we shudder to think of what may have happened."

As she continued to calm herself, she began to think back to what the shrouded entity had called her forth to speak of.

"How can we hope to trust the word of a being such as that? It was against even naming itself to us...to speak nothing of the situation it left us in upon its departure. Still though, what it mentioned of Erebus certainly tells us that the two are connected in some manner, but how exactly?"

As she continued to silently question her situation, she began to take in her surroundings. Glancing around the clearing, she soon found that everything was as it should be since she had fallen asleep. One thing that did catch her notice however, was that Erebus was absolutely nowhere to be found.

Nervously glancing from side-to-side, she quietly called out. "Hello? Erebus, are you there?"

"I'm right here Princess."

Her heart rate quickly doubled at the sound of a sudden rustling in the trees above her. Gazing upwards, she was surprised to see her human companion sitting up on one of the branches. With a soft thud, he dropped himself onto the grass, before gazing intently at the alicorn.

"Is there something the matter Princess? I don't think that I've ever seen someone sleep quite so peacefully, yet wake in such a violent manner." He held a look of concern in his eyes.

Luna glanced up at him as he said this, her mind wandering back to what she had promised. She knew that she couldn't tell him of what had transpired during her sleep, but she still found it nice that he cared about her well-being.

"Oh Erebus, we didn't mean to disturb you. Please, it's nothing that you should have to worry yourself about, a minor problem really, basically nothing at all."

Erebus raised an eyebrow. "Are you quite sure about that Princess? It certainly didn't sound like it was nothing at all."

The alicorn shook her head quickly, trying to change the subject. "While we appreciate your concern for us, we assure you that it was nothing...merely a nightmare, that's all. It makes little difference at this point anyway, as we must be awake so that we might lower the moon for the dawn."

The human's face suddenly changed from concern to confusion as he heard this. He stared at her with a slightly incredulous look before speaking.

"I-I'm sorry Princess, I'm not quite sure that I completely understand what you just said. You woke up just now so that you could...lower the moon?"

Luna stared back at him with an almost equally confused look. "Why would he find such a thing so strange? To raise the sun and moon...such a practice has been required in our world for longer than we can remember. So then why does he find our words odd?"

"Erebus, in the current age it is necessary that celestial bodies be raised and lowered on a regular basis. Surely...surely in your own time, there was someone that was required to fulfill this task as well...was there not?"

Gazing up at the moon, Erebus sighed and shook his head. "No Princess, it was pretty common knowledge that both the sun and the moon were able to rise and fall naturally. While it is true that I never was able to witness this act myself, such a fact was simply a natural part of the world that far predates human history."

Leaning his hand against the nearby tree and returning his gaze to Luna, he continued. "From everything I've taken in so far, it's clear to see that the world as you know it is far dissimilar from the world that humans once knew. Everything, from the landscape, to the inhabitants, to even the natural laws...they seem to strictly disagree with one another. With that being said, I myself should be honored to be able to experience such a vastly different world."

Stepping forward, he knelt down beside her, an embarrassed grin on his face. "You uh...you wouldn't mind if I was to watch as you lower the moon, would you?"

As Erebus continued to gaze over at her, Luna couldn't help but find herself giggling at the look of anticipation he currently held in his eyes.

"If looks could ever kill us...he seems more excited than a young foal on their birthday."

"You know Erebus, you really needn't ask us as if this was something private. While it is true that it is not a common occurrence to watch us or our sister raise the sun and moon, it is something that both of us take pride in doing."

She smiled up at him. "So no, of course we wouldn't mind if you watched us."

He gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry for appearing so hesitant, I still wanted to make sure if it was alright with you before possibly intruding on something that you consider private."

Luna nodded in affirmation. "We certainly appreciate the notion, but it's quite alright. In fact, your company would be more than welcome."

As she began an attempt to rise, the princess quickly noticed that something was amiss. There was a certain weight covering her, something that felt unnatural. Gazing down at herself, she noticed the long black robe that was still laid over her, however...it was heavier than she had first remembered it. A shudder ran through her body as she remembered the smothering darkness that had engulfed not long ago.

"Erebus, we would like to thank you for allowing us to borrow your cloak for the night. It would seem that the air has warmed up considerably though, so we would like to return it to you."

Her companion nodded as he reached towards the robe. "I trust that it did a good job of keeping you warm then?"

As he placed his hand around the fabric however, an odd look caught in his eye, and a puzzled scowl began to form on his face.

"Yes, we found that it was quite warm..." Luna noticed the look on his face. "What is it? Is there something wrong?"

Erebus scrutinized the cloak for another few seconds before huffing and shaking his head. "No, there's nothing wrong princess. I thought that I'd remembered something for a moment...something distant. Whatever it is though, it seems to have eluded me."

Luna internally gasped as she silently hoped that this had nothing to do with her recent encounter.

She quickly decided to change the subject. "Erebus, you wouldn't mind helping us up, would you? We're afraid that our leg is still too sore to fully support our weight."

"Of course Princess, I'm always more than willing to lend you hand until we can get you some proper medical attention for that wound."

Moving himself around towards the wounded leg, Erebus slowly helped the princess up, doing his best to to keep her stable. Kneeling down, he partially removed the makeshift bandage to examine the wound.

"Hmm, this isn't going to do either of us any favors. While the blood flow has certainly stopped for now, and the wound is doing it's best to heal, it's obvious that any prolonged travel will send it straight back to square one."

Placing his hand on the gash, he quickly numbed the area again, before cinching the cloth as tightly as he safely could. "There we are Princess, that should keep you in order for the time being. Still, it would be best if we found a settlement sooner rather than later."

Luna nodded as he said this. "Indeed, that would be for the best. With that said, it would do us good to have some more viable light to navigate by."

After a brief moment of searching, she was able to find a small opening between the many trees, just large enough to give her a clear view of the moon. Motioning with her hoof, she asked. "Erebus, if you would be so kind as to help us over towards that spot, we would be very grateful. When we arrive though, we would ask that you give us some degree of space while we work."

The human glanced over to where Luna had pointed. "No problem at all Princess, I didn't think that you want any distractions to begin with."

Luna quickly shook her head at him. "Oh no, it isn't that we would find you distracting...at least not in the way you might think. Our job is something that comes quite naturally to us, and it actually requires very little application. The only issue is that...well...we aren't used to being observed as we raise the moon."

Erebus nodded as he led the alicorn over to the clearing. "Ah, so then what you're saying is that you're just shy around others?"

The princess quickly became flustered as she tried to defend herself. "Why that is the most ridiculous thing that we have ever heard! We have been a princess for many centuries now, and as such we have absolutely no reason or grounds to be shy around our many subjects!"

Chuckling slightly, Erebus did his best to apologize. "Please Princess, forgive me for what I said. I meant nothing by it, and I had no intention of attacking your pride."

An embarrassed frown still on her face, the princess grumbled something incomprehensible, before stepping out ahead of Erebus and sitting down in the small ray of moonlight. Gazing up towards the sky, the princess began to slow her breathing, opening herself to the connection she shared. Her horn began to glow a soft blue as her natural energy began to build up. Reaching out, as she had so many times before, she slowly started to guide the moon down towards the horizon.

Erebus stood off to the alicorn's side, his eyes intently set on the celestial body as it slowly descended out of view. Just as the moon was nearly out of sight, a brilliant glow began to engulf the darkness of the early morning. The moon was completely blotted out as the sun slowly began to make its way over the horizon. The human was soon forced to place his before his eyes in an effort to block out some of the harsh light.

Luna gave out a sigh as she saw the sun rising into the sky. While it held true that she would be hard pressed to explain to Celestia what had happened, it was still a relief that her sister would at least know that she was alright. Before she could continue down this train of thought however, she was brought back to reality by a soft gasp off to her side.

Gazing over at Erebus, she found him squinting up at the low morning sun, a look of wonder set upon his face.

"Hmm, we should have expected as much. After all, this is the first sunrise that he has ever been able to witness, so it makes sense that he would find it awe inspiring. All the same though...it would seem that our sister continues to outshine us."

Slowly making her way back towards him, she asked. "It's quite beautiful, isn't it? After all, with this being your first sunrise, it must no doubt be an amazing experience for you, correct?"

Lowering his hand from his eyes, Erebus answered her. "Well, I can't lie when I say that this indeed a first time experience for me, and it was quite a magnificent thing to witness. All the same, I have to say that it was all a bit too bright and flashy for my tastes...I kind of preferred the cover of night, to be totally honest."

Luna gave him a confused look. "But, we saw the look on your face...you looked completely awestruck. So then, how is it that you can be so forthright about the whole thing?"

Erebus chuckled lightly. "Ah, yes I can see how you might be confused about that. Make no mistake, I found the sunrise quite spectacular, as I already said. What I truly found amazing however, was simply the fact that you were capable of freely controlling a celestial body with almost no effort required...that's a feat that I never thought I would be able to witness."

The princess wracked her brain as he spoke these words. "Is he truly so difficult to understand? He seems to take great interest in something, only to move on to another point, as if the first thing wasn't even there."

"Now then Princess, shall we get to..." Erebus cut himself short as he noticed the look that Luna now wore. "Is there...something wrong Princess?"

A defeated sigh escaped Luna's lips. "That's it, it's easy to say that we've given up at this point."

The human cocked his head at this. "I'm not sure I understand, what exactly are you referring to?"

The princess rolled her eyes. "There is simply no understanding you is there? You are by far the largest mystery that we have ever stumbled across. You have given us almost no background as to who you are, you're attention is shifting on an almost constant rate, and despite the fact you've found yourself in an entirely new world...you seem capable of writing everything off as if it were completely normal. Please excuse us for all this, but with the lack of information you've given us, it's a complete wonder to us as to how you can even function in such a an odd manner."

An amused grin began to form on Erebus' face as the Princess continued to go on about him, quickly earning the human an exasperated reprimand.

"This is exactly what we are talking about! Would you please be so kind as to explain to us what is so humorous?"

Erebus sighed lightly, the grin still on his face. "I'm sorry Princess, I'm not purposely attempting to upset you. You see, the thing is...this is far from the first time that someone has gotten all worked up over my 'strange' tendencies. To be completely honest, I got called out on this kind of thing so much, that it's simply something that I've come to expect over the years."

He walked over to the princess and knelt beside her. "If you're looking for an answer as to why I'm like this, then I'm afraid I can't give it. This is simply my natural state of being, as it has been for most all my life. I suppose you could just say that I'm capable of understanding and coping with different things far more easily than other beings, allowing me to quickly adapt to even the most ridiculous situations at a moment's notice."

Luna gave him a confused glance as he finished. "We're sure that you can tell that answer left much to be desired. Still, we understand your desire for privacy...therefore, we shall simply leave this as it is. We should know better than to prod around for answers, when you have already told us otherwise."

Erebus took a moment to think before responding. "Listen Princess, I know that you probably can't make heads or tails of all this, and I respect that you know your limits...despite the many questions that you must have. Therefore, I think that it would do us some good if we came to a bit of a compromise."

"Exactly what kind of compromise do you speak of, Erebus?" Luna questioned.

Her companion shrugged slightly as he answered. "Well, I understand that isn't the most ideal way to solve our issue, but I believe that it should alleviate most of your questions, for the most part. For the remainder of our journey, I will allow you to ask me most any question that you can possibly think of."

Luna's mouth dropped slightly at hearing this. "Wait, what exactly do you mean by that? You mean to say that after all this time, you will finally be willing to answer all our questions...simple as that?"

Erebus shook his head. "Nope...you see that's where the compromise comes in.While it's true that I will allow you to ask me any question that you would like, I never said that I would answer them all. The catch is that I will only pay attention to, and verbally answer, questions that I feel won't be any actual danger to my personal privacy. So then, does that sound like a fair deal to you, Princess?"

The Princess stared up at him incredulously. "Well It's certainly a step in the right direction, but whether or not it's fair is hardly the question at this point. What has us far more intrigued, would be this sudden change of heart that you've had. We mean...not but a few hours ago, you were completely against the idea of giving us information about yourself. With that said, why would your standing on that matter change now?"

"An acceptable question, so hopefully this will be an acceptable answer." He said, returning to his full height.

He let out a long sigh, before gazing back at the alicorn. "The answer is as simple as this...I've come to truly like you Princess."

Luna shook her head in disbelief. "W-what...what exactly...did you just say?"

Erebus immediately noticed the blush that was forming on her face. "Oh no, nothing like that! Goodness no, I wouldn't want you to go around thinking that I have that kind of mindset."

"Heaven forbid...best that I don't get her believing that we're going down that road"

Lightly shaking his head, he continued. "The point that I'm trying to get across is a bit more simple than that. What I'm trying to say is, that I've come to like you as a friend. More specifically, you've started to gain my trust...and that isn't something that can be written off as an easy feat. You could say that I'm...well, I'm a bit shy to be honest."

Luna eyed him suspiciously. "You can't truly be serious about that, can you? From the moment that we met you, you've been extremely outspoken, despite your need to remain silent about your past. How is it that you could call yourself shy?"

"Yes, I probably wouldn't believe it either, especially if I was in your position." He gave the princess an embarrassed grin. "All the same, that's just the way I've been for most of my life. I've just always found it exceedingly difficult to warm up to most anyone that I meet. I guess that I'm just a bit of an introvert at heart I suppose."

Stretching and gazing up at the sun, he quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, now that we've gotten all that sorted out, I think that it's about time I found something to give a clear direction of where we should be heading."

The Princess brought her hoof up to face in a frustrated manner. "You know, despite giving us the privilege to ask you any question that we feel like...you're still quite adept at worming your way out of answering them in the first place."

Her companion gave her a small grin. "That's what I do best, and it may just be another reason that I'm still alive to be speaking with you."

Spinning in a small circle, he picked out one of the Everfree's larger trees that he could find, and set out for it. "Hmm...this should do just fine." With one deft movement, he jumped up towards the lowest branch and steadied himself, before propelling himself onward to the next one. In a matter of seconds, he had managed to bring himself past the treeline, and given himself a clear view of most of the surrounding area.

Straining her eyes up at him, Luna called out. "Erebus, what exactly can you see from up there? If you can give us a landmark, we should have a much easier time of all this."

Erebus gazed around for a few more moments before responding. "Well, I can't say there's very much to see from here or anywhere else for that matter, it's pretty much just treetops for miles."

Continuing to search, he finally managed to notice something that caught his eye. "Hey Princess, I think I found something. It's difficult to make out, but it kinda looks like a stone tower...off to my east for the most part. Does that give you any idea of where to go from here?"

Luna grimaced slightly as she heard this, it gave her no amount of comfort to know that she was still so near to those ruins. Clearing the thoughts from her mind, she answered. "Yes, that should be more than enough to go by. If you can come back down, we can explain where to go from here."

"Alright then, I'll be down in just a moment." He responded, swinging himself back down onto the grass.

The princess waited until he had made his way back over to her before beginning. "Now then, speaking that you said you saw the tower towards the east of our current location, we believe for the most part that if northwest from here, than we should eventually find our way onto one of the paths that runs out of the Everfree."

Erebus eyed her inquisitively. "So then, for the most part...we're still running somewhat blind?"

He took a moment to think. "No, that should still work out just fine. So long as I know for certain that we aren't headed in the complete opposite direction of where we should be."

Luna gave him an apologetic look. "We're sorry that we can't be more helpful to the situation, Erebus."

The human just smiled and shrugged. "Don't worry about it Princess, this isn't the exact worst situation that we could find ourselves in at any rate. Also, you're being more help than you might care to realize."

"Now then..." He gazed off into the direction that should start heading...and found a wall of foliage. "Hmm, well that doesn't exactly work in our favor now does it?"

He glanced in the alicorn's direction. "Looks like we're going to be encountering some rough terrain for most of this journey, I hope you're okay with that."

Luna rolled her eyes at him. "Of course we aren't okay with it...however, we should know better than to expect a a well kept path all the way out here."

Erebus chuckled lightly. "Good to see that a little nature isn't going to deter you. At any rate, if you just keep towards the back of me, I should be able to clear away most of the foliage before it even has a chance to bother you. Now then, shall we begin this little trek of ours?"

Luna gulped as she stared out into the forest. She knew that nothing she could do would help to alleviate the issue ahead, but all the same, she knew that it was an issue she would be facing regardless.

"Yes, we are as ready as we're ever going to be, Erebus."

Her companion smiled and lightly patted her shoulder. "We'll be just fine, Princess. In a couple of hours, you'll look back on all this and laugh about it."

Luna gazed up and returned the smile. "In a place such as this, one can only hope."

Moving forward to the wall of brush, the human attempted to move the many vines and branches out of the way...to no avail. He scowled for a moment, just staring at the wall, before sighing and pulling his hand out of his cloak.

"When life puts an obstacle in your path..." Immediately, a familiar black fog encased his hand, slowly shifting and pulsing. With one swift motion, he brought his hand down across the foliage, each time in a different direction. In a matter of seconds, nothing remained of the wall that had blocked their path.

Luna cleared her throat up at him. "Now then, was that really necessary?"

Erebus drew his hand back into his robe. "Hey, don't go getting on my case about it. It wasn't about to move from any other means, now was it? You know, when you live in an era like I did, you learn to come up with a solution at a moment's notice...subtle or otherwise."

"Very well then, we won't complain about it." The princess thought for a moment. "Although, now would be a perfect time to exercise that compromise you made up."

"Well well...not wasting any time on that, now are we?" The human shrugged and nodded. "Alright then, what is that you'd like to know, Princess?

Luna thought her words over carefully before speaking. "Over the course of our time together, we've noticed that you always refer to your era containing harsh environmental conditions. If you would, we would like it if you could elaborate on these hazardous conditions, as we would like to know what the planet was like before our time."

"Hmm, that's a good question...but where to begin?" He ducked under a low lying branch. "Well, I suppose we could start with fact that I lived underground for most all of my life. Subterranean conditions are...unpredictable at best, and lethal at their worst. The city was normally kept under controlled and protected environments, but the caverns themselves could be quite dangerous."

The alicorn cocked her head at him. "In what manner exactly?"

Erebus shrugged. "Too many to name accurately. If you worked out in the caverns, you would always have to be alert of structural integrity, as the methods used to clear stone could easily cave in an entire tunnel. Temperatures could rise and fall without any warning, from temperate, to boiling hot, all the way to below zero. This is of course, only to speak of some of the natural dangers that we faced...to speak absolutely nothing of the internal conflicts that could rise within the city."

"You mean your own people would cause issues as well?" Luna asked.

"The better question is, when didn't they? You see, it turns out that when you take what's left of the human race and stick them in an underground city, you end up needing a rather strict government to keep everything in working order. After awhile, someone is going to find problems with that government...and pretty soon, you get a bunch of humans fighting over something completely meaningless." He nodded. "So yes, they caused a great number of issues."

Erebus stopped to help the princess over a fallen log, before the continued down the overgrown path. All the while, the princess doing her best to imagine what her companion's world was like.

Daring to make a bold move, she asked him. "Certainly humanity did not willingly choose to live underground for all their years, so then...what exactly happened to cause them all to abandon the planet's surface?"

Halting momentarily, Erebus wiped his hand across his face, before gazing down at the princess, a sober look on his face. "I suppose this is your planet now as well, therefore I see no reason to remain silent about this subject, as dark as it may be." He sighed and continued into the forest. "There was a time when humans once populated the entire planet, all with differing religions, ethnicities, and opinions. Peace was nothing but an ideal, and one that was losing its grip upon upon humanity. Over time, the world slowly spun into chaos, and into a war that would spell the end of an age. The planet was completely engulfed, its surface scarred beyond repair, by weapons powerful enough to affect the world for millennia after their use. After all was said and done...there was almost nothing left to look upon."

He remained silent for a full minute before speaking. "I'm sorry Princess, this just isn't something that I feel I can talk about in good conscience."

Luna lightly tapped his side. "It's quite alright Erebus, we can't begin to imagine the scale of what could cause a planet to nearly die in such a manner...and after seeing your own reaction to that...it would be for the best if we simply let it drop at that. We see now why it is that you wish to keep your past hidden away from others."

Erebus nodded gently. "That was a poor explanation all the same, but it's not something I speak of lightly. Also, it is only one of many reasons that I prefer my privacy. Perhaps now, we might talk about something of a lighter tone?"

The princess shook her head in affirmation. "Yes, that would be for the best we believe."

Gazing out into the seemingly endless forest ahead of them, Erebus sighed. "Hmm, this may turn out to be a longer day than I anticipated."

----------------------------------

Canterlot stood quiet and still.

Even with the morning sun slowly making it's way further into the sky, the city's streets remained empty, save for the occasional guard that would make a round.

Nestled in a darker corner of the city, a lone nightclub stood, most of its remaining patrons silently making their way back to wards their respective residences. Among this batch of differing ponies, a pair of armored thestrals began to shuffle their way out onto the streets, one barely even capable of doing so.

"Dammit Overcast! At least attempt to pull a bit of you're own weight, cause you've got another thing coming if you think that I'm going to carry you all the way back to the barracks."

The guard known as Overcast lazily glanced at his companion. "Pfffft! Don't you go telling me to pull my own weight ya pansy. Every single one of us here knows exactly how many times I pull our asses out of situations...isn't that right, Nightshade?"

Nightshade rolled his eyes. "Yes, sorry that I blatantly forgot that piece of information. Now tell me again, do you do the pulling before or after you get dead drunk?"

Overcast seemed to consider this for a moment, before scowling at his friend. "Bah! At least I can say that I know how to have a good time! All you ever do is just sit at the bar and stare at me all night, as if that doesn't send out a warning."

"Ugh, I watch you all night to make sure that you don't get into trouble...Celestia knows someone has to do it. Besides, you should know by now that I don't go anywhere near alcohol."

Overcast scoffed. "That should prove how much of a pansy you are, any real stallion would up there ordering a few drinks and looking out for a nice mare. Ya know, like that one that I was chatting up...until you came along to drag me out of the building."

A sigh escaped Nightshade's mouth as he heard this. "Are you sure that's how it happened? From what I remember, You attempted to flirt with the mare, and I dragged you out of the building after she kicked your stool out from under your wasted ass."

Overcast nearly fell over as he attempted to respond. "Yeah, sure, whatever...not like it matters now anyway, plenty of better looking mares in that place at any rate."

Nightshade brought his hoof up to his face as his friend stumbled over. "You do realize that you're going to have an amazing hangover later today, right?"

"That's what the barracks are for...moron. All I'm gonna do until night hits is one thing...sleep." Overcast gave him a stupid grin.

Nightshade just shook his head. "Yeah, now let's see if it's possible for you to make it there without passing out."

The pair had barely taken another step before a pair of guards in golden armor came racing down the street towards them.

Taking a moment to catch their breath, one of the guards asked. "You two, you are the night guards that were assigned to Princess Luna last night, correct?"

Nightshade quickly answered before Overcast had a chance to speak. "Yes, we were assigned to the Princess last night, until she personally relieved us from our posts. What is the reason, is there an issue of some sort?"

"We can't exactly say, we were simply told to come and find the both of you, and bring you to Princess Celestia immediately." The pony responded.

"Princess Celestia wants to see...us?" Nightshade's eyes went wide as he heard this. Speaking as the night guard received their orders directly from Princess Luna, finding oneself in an audience with Celestia usually never had a good reason.

Glancing at Overcast, he heard him grumble something incomprehensible, before groaning. "Well Nightshade, I take back what I said...I think that my hangover hit a lot sooner this time around."

As the two began to follow the pair of guards, Nightshade had only one thought on his mind.

"Where is Princess Luna when you need her?"

First Impressions

The morning sun hung low in the sky, its radiant beams shining down through the stained glass windows of Canterlot's throne room. Celestia sat at the far end of the long room, her face completely serene despite the troubling thoughts that were currently making their way through her mind. From the moment she had woken up, a small storm of doubts of questions had been plaguing her being, keeping her in a constant and rather uncomfortable state of worry.

Then again, her sister was currently missing.

How could she not be worried?

"Princess Celestia?"

The alicorn snapped out of her musings at the sound of her name. Glancing down the hall, she noticed one of her guards standing at the edge of the now open double-doors, patiently awaiting her her response.

"Yes, is there something that you need to tell me?" She questioned.

The pony glanced at something behind him before nodding. "Yes Princess, the two guards that you asked asked to see are here now. Would you like me to have them both sent in?"

Celestia perked up her head at this. "That would be wonderful, please send them in immediately."

The guard nodded and bowed before disappearing behind the large doors, reappearing a few moments later with two Lunar Guards in tow behind him. From the moment the two thestrals entered the room, Celestia could tell could easily tell that they were obviously quite uncomfortable with their current situation. One of the two wore a barely suppressed grimace on his face, his eyes squinting harshly in the light of the brightly lit room. The other, while doing his best to keep himself composed, was still nervously glancing between his companion and the alicorn herself. Making their way across the room, the two stopped in front of the throne where the princess sat, bowing low before her.

"Good morning to the both of you, I'd like to apologize for bringing the two of you in on such short notice." A warm smile graced Celestia's face as she spoke.

The thestral to her left raised himself back up and responded. "Good morning to you as well Princess Celestia, and please, there is no need for you to apologize. After all, it is our honor and duty to serve the royal family whenever we are needed."

"I appreciate your understanding on the matter." She gently gestured to the other guard. "Though it would seem your companion may not be quite as pleased to be here."

Nightshade lightly sighed as he glanced over at his friend. "He just...had a long night is all, under normal circumstances he can't seem to keep quiet."

Overcast shot him a glare, which he promptly ignored. "But surely Princess you don't need to be concerned with such minor inconveniences. Is there something that you needed us both for?"

Celestia nodded. "Yes of course, I'll not drag this out any more than it needs to be. I merely would like to ask you some questions regarding your duties last night with my sister."

Nightshade was slightly taken aback by this. While it was rare for the Night Guard to have dealings with Celestia at all, he had never known the Princess to go asking about her sister's nightly business.

Keeping his composure in check, he warily answered. "Of course Princess, we will gladly answer any questions that you might have. Although there may not be much that we can offer in the way of information. I'm loathe to be so blunt on the matter...but I'm afraid that Princess Luna relieved us both from duty almost immediately."

Celestia's expression betrayed nothing, but Nightshade could pick up the slight hint of confusion in her tone. "Hmmm, so then...she gave you no indication of what she might be doing throughout the night?"

"I'm afraid not." The thestral replied. "The both of us only saw her long enough to be told that we were free for the rest of the night."

Nightshade paused, considering Celestia's shift in tone. "It might not be my place ask Princess, but is there something about Princess Luna that is troubling you?"

Upon hearing this, the Princess turned decidedly sullen. "Yes, I'm...I'm afraid that there is. I can't say anything for certain at the current moment, however...Luna has been missing from Canterlot for quite some time now."

She paused momentarily, as if mulling something over. "Normally this isn't anything we should have to worry about, as my sister tends to go off on her own quite frequently. This time is different though, this time I cannot help but feel something has gone wrong."

Nightshade bit his lip ever so slightly as the Princess spoke. The confusion he had originally detected had been replaced with visible worry. "Princess, what exactly do you mean by that? Is Princess Luna in need of our aid?"

Celestia lightly shook her head. "I can't say anything for sure right now, as I have been unable to contact Luna through any means I know...and that is what worries me most." She took in Nightshade's expression. "It is obvious that you both have an equal stake in this matter, and I could use any insight that you might be able to provide."

The thestral was swift in his reply. "You needn't even ask Princess, the both of us will not hesitate to aid you in locating Princess Luna. I myself am personally willing to set up a search party immediately in order to locate her."

The Princess allowed a slight smile to grace her lips. "Truly I have every respect for your sense of loyalty, I assure you that it is greatly appreciated. All the same though, it would be wise to exercise patience in this matter."

Noticing the look of concern on the guard's face, she continued. "I have already dispatched sentries to most of Equstria's larger settlements, as well as sending messages to a few friends. If any information happens to come up, we should know rather quickly."

Despite these words, Nightshade took only little comfort in them. "Princess, I understand your wisdom on the matter, but should this not be slightly more urgent?"

Celestia slightly raised an eyebrow at this. "I am not unsympathetic with what you are feeling, but do not be so quick to judge my sister as helpless in this situation."

"After all...I'm sure wherever she may be, she is well prepared for anything laid before her."

----------------------------------

"We really weren't as prepared as we should have been for this ordeal."

Princess Luna groaned to herself as she nearly tripped over a slick rock embedded in the stream she was crossing. She glanced ahead a few feet to catch her companion rolling his eyes in amusement.

"So I've heard...for about the fifth time now." Erebus shook his head lightly. "You know, sometimes you simply have to take things as they're handed to you. Although, I suppose in a sense, that terminology wouldn't exactly apply to you."

It was Luna's turn to roll her eyes. "Your words have a special talent for making a mind run itself in circles, as we cannot tell if you were just now mocking us or trying to be considerate."

Erebus chuckled, stepping back to help the alicorn across. "Well, I could say that I've had time to practice over so long, but talking to myself should hardly count as that much."

Stepping out of the cold water, Luna replied. "Hmmm, well not everything requires practice to master. Anyways, you're not going to say that you enjoy this forest, are you?"

Erebus raised an eyebrow quizzically at this. "Oh, are you saying that you aren't finding this enjoyable?" He adopted a smug grin as he continued. "I can say without a doubt that this is quite accommodating. I mean, just feel that smothering humidity, or how about the dense foliage that always sticks you full of thorns...and let's not forget about these huge swarms of bloodsucking insects that tend to follow you everywhere."

He spread his arms wide and took in a deep breath. "Yep, I tell ya Princess, it just doesn't get more invigorating than this."

The alicorn looked up at him with pure annoyance written on her face. "You are treading on extremely thin ice right now...just keep that in mind."

Erebus did his best to contain his enjoyment in the conversation. "Please forgive Princess, it's just that...your just so much fun to tease. After so long by myself, please allow me just this much."

"Also, you hopefully shouldn't have to deal with this place much longer. As far as I can tell, we're making excellent time, and keeping a rather steady pace." The human scratched the back of his head. "Although...it's difficult to tell anything right now without any proper lay of the land."

"We should consider ourselves quite lucky." Luna replied. "I've heard tell of ponies that, without proper guidance, never find their way out of this forest."

Erebus snorted softly. "Hmm, such a charming way to lighten the mood."

Luna sighed. "Sorry, we don't mean to be so pessimistic. This place just tends to give off a sullen atmosphere, on top of how long we've been hiking...we're just a little drained is all."

Her companion stopped, turning back to gaze down at her. "No it's alright, I understand Princess."

Erebus looked behind him, staring out into the path of trees and foliage that still blocked most of their view. He knew that despite the good pace they were keeping, the Princess wasn't in optimal condition for long treks.

"This is going to be more difficult than I'd like it to be, isn't it?" He turned back to the alicorn. "I can't place the blame on her though. To be honest, I'm surprised she's doing so well despite her injury...not to mention the fact that she hasn't any food to speak of for almost a full day now."

"Princess, why don't we both just take a few moments to rest?" He propped himself up against the side of a tree. "It's still quite early in the day, so it's not as if we need to be anywhere in a huge hurry."

Luna graciously obliged, gently lowering herself onto ground. "We appreciate your consideration Erebus, and we're sorry that our condition is such a hindrance to our progress."

Erebus simply waved off her final remark. "There's no need to place any blame on yourself Princess, what's done is done. When the unexpected happens, we simply have to deal with consequences. Besides, this simply allows us more time talk with each other. For instance, you could tell me a little more about the forest itself."

The Princess looked a little surprised at his request, but marked it down as idle curiosity. "Well, normally the Everfree is a subject that most tend to avoid entirely, but we can understand the interest you have."

As the Princess spoke, her companion casually placed his hand up against the side of the tree beside him. While he was indeed interested in these woods, he was also seeking to fulfill an alternate objective. Imposing his essence upon the surrounding area, he hoped to not only learn more about the forest itself, but also the correct path that should be taken.

Keeping his eyes upon the alicorn, he replied. "Hmm, I hope that you won't mind discussing exactly why this forest is such an avoided topic? After all, besides the minor inconveniences, I haven't noticed anything all too out of the norm."

Luna laughed lightly at this. "So says the human that explicitly stated he'd never experienced the outside world. That aside though, the Everfree forest is a place that most ponies consider unnatural. The forest is one of the oldest known landmarks in all of Equestria, with much of the area remaining completely unmapped."

Gesturing out around her, she continued on. "On top of the unpredictable landscape that the woods provide, the local flora and fauna are among some of the most strange and deadly creatures known to us."

Erebus continued to scan the environment as he listened. While it was true that he was now intrigued about the local wildlife, he opted to pass over most of it, in favor of finding any trace of the settlement that the Princess had mentioned earlier. Pushing his mind out even further, noticed something that immediately piqued his interest. Out behind him, a little more than a mile out, the landscape took an all too sudden change in scene.

"Hold on a second, are those...apple trees?" He kept his face composed despite his sudden confusion. While he quickly figured that these were being tended by some of the locals, it was simply surprising how suddenly the forest shifted in scenery. "Well, it's at least good to know that we're closer than I had hoped to be."

Opting to keep his discovery to himself as not to raise suspicion, he quickly shifted his attention back to Luna's last comment. "Would you mind explaining what exactly you mean by strange? I've seen a few of the rabbits around here, and they don't seem any stranger than most household pets I knew of."

The Princess adopted a somewhat more serious tone. "We can assure you Erebus, there are creatures in this forest that have terrified ponies for many generations. Many of the predators here tend to draw a fine line between reality and the unnatural."

"Well Princess, I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that, but I suppose I'll just have to take your word for--." Erebus paused mid-sentence, his mind inadvertently brushing against something he had failed to notice.

Luna immediately noticed his hesitation. "What's the matter, is there something wrong?"

Quickly focusing his attention on what he had come across, Erebus' eyes widened as he noticed that, whatever this was...it wasn't by itself. A wave of anxiety passed through him as he strained his eyes into the surrounding foliage, the sensation drawing him into a heightened sense of awareness.

Cautiously, he made his way over to the Princess, keeping his movements deliberate. "We're being surveyed Princess, very closely I might add. I'm going to ask that you stay close to me, but do your best to monitor the treeline, I can only keep track of so many things at one time."

Luna looked up nervously as her companion took on a more defensive posture. "Do you have any idea how many of them there are?"

"I'm afraid that I can't put any reliable number on that." Erebus knew that was a blatant lie. It was true that these creatures were difficult for him to directly identify, but he could still sense each of them, tallying up a decent total of seven. "What I need to know, is exactly what we're facing up against."

Almost on that cue, he was rewarded with one of the most intriguing sights he had ever come across. What Erebus could only describe as a mass of animated branches and twigs, assuming an unmistakably canine form. The strange creature could have easily passed off as a woodworking project, were it not for the low growls that it was currently issuing, as well as the sickly green light that passed for its "eyes".

Shifting his focus to his peripheral vision, Erebus quickly noticed that these were obviously pack creatures. The remaining number of them had followed their comrade, and were already forming a makeshift perimeter around the two travelers.

"I'm hoping that you might have an idea of what these things are, just maybe Princess?" The human cautiously shifted his footing, testing for any reaction he might gain.

"Timberwolves...magically sustained nature spirits. They're one of the more common predators that roam the Everfree, but that makes them no less dangerous, especially in packs such as this."Luna lowered her horn threateningly, although she knew she was in no real condition for combat.

"There's no real way to escape from situation, so I'm afraid it's going to come down to a fight." Erebus quickly gazed over at the Princess. "I'm not going to doubt your ability Princess, but that wound is going to make you a priority target. If you can defend a frontal assault, I should be able to stop most of the others."

The alicorn nodded, knowing there was little other choice for them. "We've had to deal with Timberwolves before, this isn't going to be the worst situation we've been faced with."

"Good to hear that she keeps up confidence in tense situations, an admirable quality indeed." Reassured by this, Erebus decided to test the ring of wolves surrounding them. He readied his fists whilst keeping them hidden beneath his cloak, a tactic that had lowered the guard of many an adversary, and took a slight step towards the closest wolf.

The resulting effect was almost instantaneous. The instant his foot moved, the canine lowered itself into a defensive stance, growling and snapping at him. At the same instant, he noticed two of the wolves behind him begin to stalk forward, keeping their approach as stealthy as possible. Predicting this much, Erebus stomped his foot backs towards the two with deliberate force, causing them to jump backwards, clearly frustrated.

"As much as I thought, not all of them are going to attack us. The three I'm dealing with are going to bait me away from the princess, the one she's facing is likely to just stare her down until their plan fails, and the rest are simply there to prevent our escape should we attempt it." With this in mind, he knew that he would have to deal with all of his three at once. Glancing towards the ground, he noticed a few decent sized stones beneath him. Keeping his eyes trained on his adversary, he knelt down and picked up two of the small objects, keeping his hand hidden all the while.

Keeping his head forward, he called back. "Listen Princess, no matter what might happen back here, I want you to keep your eyes on that wolf in front of you at all times. Do not attempt to assist me, no matter what you think."

"We take it that you have a plan of some sort?" The alicorn called back.

"Ya, or...something to that degree...we'll see how it turns out." Taking a step towards the lone wolf, Erebus immediately noticed the two behind him reattempt their same move. Continuing to antagonize the one he was facing, he waited until the duo was within a few feet of him. As soon as he was sure he wouldn't miss, the human spun around on his heel, lobbing the two stone missiles at the wolves. Each projectile made it's mark, making a sharp rap upon impact. Quickly following this Erebus surged forward, feigning an assault on the now disoriented wolves, watching as the single wolf charged his exposed back.

Digging his foot into the ground, he stopped himself short and flipped around, shooting his hand out of his cloak. The wolf was stopped dead as it bit down onto the bracer on Erebus' arm. It gave off a yelp as it realized that it was doing no damage, and it attempted to let go and retreat, only to have it's face smashed by the human's free hand.

Taking the heavily injured canine in his grip, Erebus attempted to launch it at it's confused allies...only to find that they had recovered faster than he had expected. The wolf flew out of his grip as he found himself knocked to the ground by two wooden blurs. Immediately, one of them attempted to go for his exposed neck, while the other was attempting to chew on his shoulder. In that brief moment, Erebus noticed that the wolf he had dropped had been knocked into Princess Luna, knocking her off her balance.

"Shit, this is far too sloppy on my part." Noticing Luna's wolf moving forward towards her, he quickly threw up both of his arms, locking his grip around both of their skulls. Digging his fingers in, he clapped his fists together with all his force, effectively smashing the two wolves heads into each other.

Ahead of the human, Princess Luna internally cursed. She knew that the timberwolf in front of her would make no hesitation to attack, hence her companions explicit order to keep all of her attention focused on keeping it in its place. When the struggle behind her broke out, she made every effort to ignore the yelps of pain and sounds of combat, keeping her eyes firmly planted on her current adversary. For the time being, her focus had paid off, with her glare sending a clear message of challenge to the predator. Just when she thought that the fighting behind her had caught a break however, a limp wooden body stumbled into her side, knocking her off balance and breaking her focus on the wolf.

The predator immediately took advantage of the fact that its prey was clearly vulnerable, dashing forward toward the alicorn's exposed neck. Luna had little time to think as the wolf charged her, though she knew that there was only one current option. With no time to aim any form of spell at the wolf, and her wing still incapable of flight, she grimaced and pushed all of her current strength into her back legs. Despite her being off balance, the alicorn's effort had just enough force behind it to propel her out of the predator's trajectory...while ripping her wound open even more than it had.

Behind her, Erebus was just about to flip himself back onto his feet, when he noticed one of the wolves go flying over his head. Quickly picking himself up, he turned back to the Princess, only to notice her lying on the ground, a steady stream of blood pushing through her now useless bandage. He quickly realized that, despite her being caught off guard, she had somehow managed to throw herself out of harms way, wounding herself all the more in the process.

Disgusted at his own stupidity, Erebus let out a growl at himself, before turning to face the final wolf. The wooden creature returned his gaze with a snarl of its own, readying itself to charge forward once again. Before it could even make its way forward however, the human had rushed forward, closing the distance between them in seconds, before delivering a brutal kick to the side of its wooden skull.

The sheer force of the kick sent the creature flying headlong into a nearby tree, the wolf violently shattering into pieces upon its impact. The remaining wolves quickly began to realize that their intended prey was easily far more of a threat than they were as a pack. Erebus watched readily as the one of the wolves sniffed at the pile of shattered branches, before letting out a low keening whimper, slowly backing its way back into the forest. The other wolves, noticing their ally's retreat, hastily followed its example back into the woodline, letting out light whimpers as they disappeared.

Erebus sighed as they vanished from his sight, a slight pang of regret tugging on him. He knew that it wasn't any fault of theirs to go hunting, and it pained him to have to kill and injure these creatures simply because of their natural need for food. He was quickly reminded of the reason behind his need for violence as he turned back towards Princess Luna, a fresh wave of regret settling upon him.

Rushing over the alicorn's side, he immediately began to assess the severity of her injury, keeping his voice level as not to alarm her. "Princess, are you in any major pain? Did you receive any other injuries during the struggle?"

Luna looked up at him with a small smile. "Please don't work yourself into a panic, the effect you gave us earlier still hasn't worn off quite yet, we still can't feel any pain in our leg." Her expression turned apologetic. "We should be thanking you though. Had it not been for your quick thinking, our clumsiness might been our undoing."

Her companion shook his head, his face becoming serious. "No Princess, there is absolutely no reason to put you at fault in this situation. I underestimated my opponents, I couldn't adapt quickly enough to a non-human adversary, and my own lack of experience could've nearly led to a much more grievous injury for you. I'm afraid that only I am to blame for this unsightly mishap."

Luna frowned slightly as Erebus began to redress her leg. "Perhaps...we were both at fault in this situation? Surely you cannot be so harsh upon yourself, can you?"

Erebus sighed , keeping his eyes fixed on his work as he replied. "Listen Princess, I appreciate the forgiveness that you're offering me here, I really do. However, what good would come if I forgave myself in this matter, what lesson could I possibly learn from that? " He shook his head. "No...should I pride myself on anything at all, it should no doubt be my skills in defensive arts. If I let such a mistake go unpunished, than I will have degraded one of the only things in my life that I held somewhat highly."

The Princess ultimately decided that it would be pointless to challenge him on this matter. "Judging by the little that we know about him, it is becoming obvious that he was some form of warrior by profession, or something of the like. It would be foolish of us to argue with him about this, even if we are only attempting to console him."

Erebus finished with the work he had been doing. "I'm afraid there isn't much I can do in this respect, and that will make the rest of this journey...problematic. The wound is much worse than it was before, and it will severely hinder any form of movement for you as it is. I've done most everything that I can, redoubling my efforts with both the bandage and making sure you feel no pain, but that will not fix the issue."

He looked away, murmuring something incoherent before continuing. "To put it bluntly...I can't stop the bleeding, not entirely at least. The wound isn't beyond repair, and the flow of blood has been halted substantially. Even with my temporary solutions though, you'll lose a lot of blood if I don't get you out of here soon. We desperately need someone certified in the field of medical care, and safe to say, I'm not that someone."

Luna looked down at her leg, noticing the much larger cloth that now covered it. "What then would suggest we do? Surely Ponyville cannot be much farther from where we are now, but if my wound truly prevents me from travel, then getting there will be twice as difficult."

"Unfortunately, what you just said proves to be all too true." Erebus replied, rising back to his feet. "Currently there's only two options in this situation, one of which I don't like, and both of which you won't like. The first of which is to leave you in this spot while I go out and attempt to gather aid from this town that you told me about. I'm almost completely opposed to this, as not only will be leaving you here alone, but I'll have to convince the populace to help me in the first place."

He paused momentarily. "The second option...is for me to carry you all the way there."

Luna's ears perked up upon hearing this. She stared up at the human, an almost dumbstruck expression on her face. "We will put all of our faith into the first option you voiced, and there will be no discussion on the matter."

She continued on before her companion could even begin to reply. "Remember that you just spoke of your own pride, and know that our pride would be beyond repair if you even consider doing what you just said."

Erebus sighed, knowing he had just lost a battle that he couldn't even begin. "Very well Princess, I'll respect your wishes on this matter, against my better judgment."

The alicorn huffed. "Better judgment or no, we would only be caught dead being carried into Ponyville."

"An outcome that we would both prefer to avoid no doubt." Erebus shrugged. "If your mind is truly made up though, it would best if I left as quickly as possible. Time is not on my side right now, and prolonging my departure will only make the situation worse than it is. I'll still voice my concern though Princess...leaving you here alone seems like a horrible idea."

The Princess nodded in reply. "It is true that this option is less than preferable, the second is simply out of the question." She perked up. "We are not defenseless though, and should anything attempt to attack us again, we will be willing to fight."

Erebus returned the nod. "Alright then, if you're so certain, then I'll be off. " He walked over to the treeline, stopping to continue. "Just try to promise me...that you'll still be in one piece when I get back."

Luna laughed jokingly. "Oh please Erebus, try to save some of that worry for yourself. After all, you never know what you might come across out there."

Erebus just rolled his eyes as he began jogging into the dense brush. "I'm sure that whatever I happen to find out here, I'll be able to take care of it."

----------------------------------

"Well, I think we can all agree that "Author" is most definitely off the cutie mark list."

Sweetie Belle crumpled up a piece of parchment, tossing it into a small pile that had been growing behind her.

To her left, Apple Bloom groaned in frustration before taking her friend's example and discarding her own parchment.

Behind the two fillies, Scootaloo just stared blankly at her own slip of parchment. "Ya...you know, I think this is just one that we weren't exactly cut out for. Weird, this one seemed a lot easier when we looked at it on paper."

The Cutie Mark Crusaders sighed in exasperation as they checked off their latest dead end in the cutie mark department. The three had met up at their official clubhouse earlier in the day, to come up with a few new options on what they could achieve their cutie marks in. Between their last attempt and a few other cast-offs, the trio had currently exhausted their supply good ideas.

"Hmmm, sometimes I think that our ideas get even harder with each new one." Apple Bloom looked over the list of old plans with a somewhat a annoyed expression.

"Well you're never going to get your cutie mark thinking like that." Scootaloo replied. "I mean, if it was really that hard be an author, then Twilight wouldn't be nearly such a bookworm now would she?"

Sweetie Belle chimed into the conversation. "Yep...except that's what you said before we even started to try writing in the first place."

Scootaloo sighed as she realized that she had defeated herself. "Still, it can't be all too difficult...right? We could always keep it as a backup and come back to it later."

Sweetie Belle just shrugged. "Whatever the case, it's over our heads for now. On top of that, I'm fresh out of good ideas for now. What about you two, have you got anything new?"

Scootaloo put her hoof up to her chin, pondering the question for a few seconds before shaking her head. "Nope, I'm dry on cutie mark plans myself. Hey Apple Bloom, have you got anything in mind?"

The young earth pony shook her head in disappointment. "I really wish I could say that I do, but I'm just as stumped as you two. I've been running my brain in circles trying to think up any kind of good ideas."

Suddenly, she perked up, a cheerful grin on her face. "Hey, why don't we all just take a small break for now? I'm sure that after we get a bite to eat, and just let our minds cool off for a bit, we'll be able to come up with some amazing ideas!"

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo immediately jumped at notion of getting some lunch. It was well past breakfast when they decided to try writing a bestselling novel, and the mention of food had quickly roused them from their stupor.

With their minds made up, the three friends hastily cleaned up the small pile of writing tools they had been using. When they satisfied that their clubhouse wasn't in complete disarray, they climbed down out of the treehouse and were about to make their way towards the Apple Farm.

Before they could start down the small path, Apple Bloom's ears perked up, straining to hear an odd noise that they had happened to catch.

"Hey girls, hold up for just a second." She placed a hoof up next to her ear. "You two didn't happen to hear something weird just now, did you?"

The two fillies looked at each other with confused expressions, but nevertheless, they followed their friends example. Straining their ears against the soft breeze, the two listened in vain for anything out of the ordinary.

Scootaloo raised an eyebrow ever so slightly. "Are you sure you didn't just imagine whatever it was? I couldn't hear much of anyth--"

She was cut short by Sweetie Belle's hoof against her mouth. "Shhhhh! Just listen Scoots, I think that I can hear it too."

Scootaloo gave her friend an annoyed stare until she removed her hoof. She then redoubled her previous efforts, listening twice as hard for whatever this odd noise was that had eluded her. A minute passed by, and she was just about to give up again, when an extremely queer noise happened past her ears. The pegasus once agin raised her eyebrow as she slowly began to make sense of the noise.

"Hang on a second, just now, was that...whimpering?"

Apple Bloom nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, at first I wasn't sure what to make of it either. After a while though, there was no mistaking it."

"It's coming from over in the Everfree Forest." Sweetie Belle eyed the trees nervously. "What exactly do you think might be causing it?"

Apple Bloom shook her head. "No idea, and personally I'm not too keen on knowing. Just about anything out there could have made a noise like that."

"I can't really say that's absolutely true." Scootaloo replied, a troubled look on her face. "I mean, I've heard a lot of noises come out of that forest, but none of them have ever been like that. I can't say exactly what made it, but it sounded like it was in a lot of pain."

Apple Bloom eyed her friend suspiciously. "Scoots, you're not about to suggest that we go find whatever made that noise, are you?"

Sweetie Belle snuck her way into the conversation. "I don't know Apple Bloom, after all, Scootaloo does have a point. For all we know, there be somepony out there in some kind of trouble."

Apple Bloom just shook her head in disbelief. "We could be in a lot of trouble if we decide to go in there. We could get attacked by Timberwolves, or a Manticore, or...who knows what else."

"Oh come on Apple Bloom, you know most predators don't come out till it's dark. Besides, it didn't sound too far off, we wouldn't even be going that far from the farm." Scootaloo let a small grin grow on her face. "Or are you just saying that you're scared to go?"

Apple Bloom's expression went flat. "Yes...yes I am, but I know darn well that you are too. If you're both set on going though, I really suppose that I don't have much choice in the matter."

Scootaloo's grin grew wider. "Just wait, if we go save somepony out in the Everfree, we could get our cutie marks no problem!"

Apple Bloom sighed. "Poor decisions aren't the best way to earn cutie marks ya know." She looked up to see Sweetie Belle climbing out of the clubhouse with something in tow. "What's that you've got there Sweetie?"

The unicorn turned around to lift up the telescope she had just grabbed, before placing it into a small saddlebag she had also picked up. "I got to thinking while you two were talking. If we do happen to find something out in the forest, it might be better if we didn't have to get too close to it. So I decided to go grab this, just so we have less chance of running face-first into danger."

Apple Bloom mentally shrugged. "Well, at least somepony was thinking straight in this situation. Not that this really makes it any better."

She sighed and began to follow after Scootaloo, who was already standing at the forest's edge. "For the record Scoots, I blame you if anything horrible happens to us in there."

The pegasus just giggled as the three of them slowly made their way into the darker foliage. "Come on Apple Bloom, sometimes I think you worry too much."

"Let's just get this done and over with already." Sweetie chimed in. "The quicker we find out what this thing is, the quicker we can get out of here and not have to worry about it."

None of them could argue with that statement, and for the most part, the three agreed to keep the talking to a minimum throughout their hike. As they slowly began making their way deeper into the forest though, the silence only helped to make the atmosphere more tense.

The tall trees began to blot out the light of the midday sun, and eerie shadows danced across the grass. The fillies began to eye the surrounding foliage nervously, almost as if waiting for something to come charging towards them, eyes red and fangs bared. Despite their anxiety though, nothing ever came, driving their anxiety to higher levels.

Apple Bloom's ears were working frantically, desperately trying to catch any glimpse of the sound that they had previously heard. Despite her best efforts though, only the sound of their own hooves could be made out, stepping quickly across the soft ground.

Glancing over at her friends, she whispered. "I really don't think that we should have come in here, everything's just...wrong."

Scootaloo kept her voice as brave as she could, despite her obvious anxiety. "We're in the Everfree, what exactly did you expect, gumdrops and ice cream? This place is as wrong as they come, no matter what part of it you're in."

Apple Bloom just shook her head. "Normally I would have no problem agreeing with you on that point, but not this time. The forest is normally filled with all kinds of wildlife, but not now. I haven't seen so much as a glimpse of any kind of animal, not even the tiniest sound."

Sweetie Belle bit her lip nervously. "She really is right you know, the forest is still as a rock right now...not even the wind is blowing anymore. I...I think that we should start heading back to the orchard."

Scootaloo looked back and forth between her friends, apprehensive expressions on both their faces. "Ugh...fine we'll go back, but ya know, we seriously could have been on to something here. I mean it's not like we really even went too far in."

Apple Bloom gave her friend a smile of relief, more than happy that they could leave the forest behind. "Don't worry Scoots, I'm sure it was probably nothing all that important anyway. For now, let's just focus on making it back to the farm."

As she and Scootaloo turned to begin the trek back however, they noticed that Sweetie Belle still hadn't moved an inch, her back turned to them. They were just about to call out her, when she turned her head just enough to see them from her peripheral vision. They both saw that she had her mouth tightly shut, and was slowly shake her head back and forth. With a deliberate slowness, she raised her hoof and motioned for the both of them to come over to her.

When they returned to their friends side, she whispered to them as quietly as possible. "Please, keep your voices as quiet as you can. I need one of you to grab the telescope out of my saddlebag and look out there." She pointed directly out ahead of her. "I could have sworn that something big was moving through those trees, but I can't be sure."

Scootaloo glanced nervously at the spot that Sweetie Belle had mentioned, before reaching her hoof into the bag and pulling out the retractable telescope. pressing her eye to the looking glass, she cautiously swept over the aforementioned area, keeping her hoof as steady as she could. What she saw looked no different from the rest of the forest, with a few spread out trees, and a number of small bushes littered about.

She was about to question her friend's claim, when something happened to catch her eye. Focusing her gaze, her eyes widened as she began to make out what she was looking at. A huge, dark, looming figure slowly rose from behind one of the bushes, its features completely obscured by the cloak it wore.

Scootaloo almost jumped out of her skin when Apple Bloom tapped her on the shoulder. "So, is there something actually out there? Come on Scoots, let me take a look."

The pegasus didn't say a word as she shakily handed the telescope over to her friend, her eyes still glued to the spot where the figure stood.

Apple Bloom gave her a confused look, before raising the device to her eye. Almost immediately, her jaw went slack, and she nearly lost her grip on the telescope.

Sweetie Belle quickly became nervous at the reactions she was seeing. "W-what exactly is it? Is it some kind of monster or something?"

Scootaloo just shook her head silently. "I don't know what it is...and I don't think I want to know. Apple Bloom, what's it doing now...is it coming this way?"

"I don't really think it knows that we're here, it's just...standing there." Apple Bloom kept her gaze fixed on the creature, determined not to let it out of her sight. She immediately tensed up as it suddenly began to move, but relaxed as it noticed it wasn't coming towards them. She grew somewhat curious as she saw it walk up to one of the trees, unsure of what it intended to do. Her curiosity was quickly replaced with a sense of dread when she noticed it reach out to the tree with what she could only describe as a claw. It wasn't the odd appendage that truly shocked her though...it was the fact that it was drenched in a crimson coating of blood.

Forcing herself to continue looking at the gruesome sight, she urgently whispered to her friends. "Girls...we need to get out of here...now."

She was about to urge them on again, when she noticed the creature stiffen. Her pupils began to shrink as she watched it slowly turn its body, almost in a deliberate fashion. She had only a full second to see the dark shell where its face should have been, before she dropped the telescope and ran screaming back towards Ponyville.

It only took her friends a split second to understand her message...and quickly follow her example.

----------------------------------

Out past the dark trees of the Everfree, the small town of Ponyville was just as lively and unassuming as it could be. The sun shone down peacefully as various ponies went about their daily routine. The streets were filled with the usual bustle of each day, as ponies tended to market stalls, sat down at restaurants, and just enjoyed idle conversations with each other.

Despite this day seemingly being like any other, two of the local populace stuck out from the rest, like dead plants in a garden.

"So Nightshade, do you want to go over again the exact reason why you were so hasty with dragging us out into the countryside?"

Nightshade couldn't help but groan at Overcast's comment. "For the last time Overcast...I didn't drag you out here, you willingly decided to come along with me when you found I was going. Probably in some attempt to prove that I wasn't above you or something."

"Besides, it's not like you should question coming out here in the first place." He continued. "If you had any real pride in your position as one of Princess Luna's royal guards, you would realize that we don't need a reason to be searching for the Princess in question."

Overcast rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine...no need to go all high and noble on me. I'm just a little peeved that we're out here in the middle of the day, walking towards the damn Everfree Forest...on Princess Celestia's orders."

While disgruntled by his friend's attitude, Nightshade knew that Overcast had good reason to be in a bad mood. Earlier that morning, Princess Celestia had received a rather lengthy reply from a student of hers, who was quite concerned by the fact that Luna's whereabouts were currently unknown. Apparently, this young unicorn had noticed the Princess pass over her home the previous night, heading in the general direction of the Everfree. With this newly found information, Celestia herself had decided to pay a rather subtle visit to Ponyville, or at least...as subtly as her entourage of brightly armored guards could make her. Naturally, Nightshade had jumped at the chance to aid in finding Princess Luna, and Celestia had been quick to answer his enthusiasm. Now he and Overcast had been given orders to begin a sweep of the Everfree's border.

A task that even he was less than thrilled to carry out.

Making their way out of the town's confines, the two thestrals gazed up at the looming trees that marked the forest's edge. Nightshade swallowed hard as he gazed out into the line of brush.

Overcast smiled nervously as he noticed his friend's reaction. "So...ya still feeling like your uh...pride is doing a lot for ya now?"

Nightshade gripped his spear tighter. "Shut it Overcast, you're just as guilty as I am in this situation."

He gazed down at the haft of his weapon with an annoyed look. He wasn't opposed so much opposed to the polearm itself, as he was against the limited selection of defense they had been given. In truth, he was quite skilled in use use with spears and lances, and usually found himself training with them whenever he could. However, when Princess Celestia had told the two that their involvement would have to capitalize on the downplay of their defensive armament, they had been hesitant to go marching into the Everfree. While they had been granted the use of their own specialized style of spears, they had been denied most everything else, from axes to claw-blades.

A fact did not sit well with either of them.

"Alright, let's just go and get this over with, alright?" Overcast did his best to hide his anxiety. "We go in, find the Princess, and get our tails out. Should a couple of timberwolves so happen to get in our way...then we make some firewood. Simple and easy as picking up mares, alright?"

Nightshade glanced over at his partner with a raised eyebrow. "Somehow...that last comment didn't sit all too well with me. What do you expect to do if we come across a manticore, huh?"

"Do you really even have to ask me that question?" Overcast scoffed. "If we run into one of those walking deathtraps, we fly away as quickly as possible and tell Princess Celestia we couldn't find jack shit."

Nightshade just shook his head in dismay. "You were right about that, I really shouldn't have asked. All the same it's not as we..."

Overcast gave his friend an odd look as he stopped mid-sentence. "Um, hello...Nightshade? You were just about to give me a snide reprimand on what I just said, right?"

"Hush up Overcast, this really isn't the time." Nightshade leveled his spear out into the thick foliage. "Do you happen to see those mass of rustling bushes perchance?"

The other thestral looked at him like he was completely crazy. "What in the name of Equestria are you going on about?" He craned his neck to get a better view of the forest. "I don't see anything, except for the sheer stupidity of what you just asked me."

Nightshade growled and knocked his partner's helmet with the haft of his spear. "That's because you're not even looking at where I pointed you damn cloudbrain." He once again motioned to the spot he had before. "Look right there, and tell me you don't see something making a beeline straight towards us."

Overcast grumbled to himself and attempted to fix his helmet, dropping his own spear in the process. "Jeez Nightshade, no need to get your wings bunched up. I still say you're just imagining whatever this is. I mean really, I doubt anything that comes charging headlong out of the Everfree would want to get mixed up with two armed ponies."

He was just about to reach down and pick his spear off the ground...when three small fillies came charging out of the trees and knocked him on his ass.

Nightshade couldn't help but slap his face with his hoof. "Classic Overcast, he never could manage to keep his eyes on what was ahead of him."

The small trio had managed to pick themselves off of Overcast, and were just about to continue speeding their way into Ponyville, when Nightshade quickly placed his hoof out in front of them, a quizzical look on his face.

"Woah now, just hold up for half a second girls. Would any of you like to elaborate on why exactly you're running out of the Everfree Forest at such high speeds?" He pointed down his companion, who was slowly picking himself off the grass. "I suggest you tell me the whole truth of things, as I'm sure you don't want to have to explain things to my partner here."

All three of them glanced nervously between each other with terrified looks on their faces, until one of them, an earth pony spoke up. "Darn it Scootaloo, I just knew that this was gonna get us in trouble."

The group's pegasus, apparently this "Scootaloo", quickly countered. "Hey, this isn't completely my fault! You could have stopped us if you wanted, or just said no!"

Nightshade was slightly amused at the two bickering with each other, as he found it almost comical. However, he quickly grew impatient as the two threw blame back and forth. He was just about to silence the two himself, when the young unicorn screamed out.

"There was a monster out there!!"

The scene quickly became quiet as Nightshade took in that piece of information. Given the current list of wildlife that he knew resided within the Everfree, that word could have equated to a great many things. The other to fillies began spitting out information before he even had time to question though.

"Yeah, there was some kind of big horrible monster in there!" The pegasus blurted out. "It was huge, and covered in these dark and scary robes."

Nightshade's list of relatable creatures immediately diminished upon hearing this. "Huge and covered and robes? Well that certainly doesn't fit any kind of animal I would know."

The earth pony quickly chimed in. "It had these claws that were covered in blood! And then...and then it looked right at us, but it had no face!"

Nightshade was quickly becoming worried about the filly's description of this creature, and was beginning to wonder if they simply were making this all up.

Suddenly, in complete unison, the three of them cried out. "And it was following us back here the whole time!!!"

Nightshade's eyes immediately widened, and he gripped his spear even tighter than before. Glancing at Overcast, he questioned him. "What are your thoughts on all this?"

Overcast gave him a sarcastic glare. "What I think...is that these girls are throwing us for a complete loop. Seriously though, what they described is purely something to try and scare us. Any second now, I bet one of their friends is gonna pop out of those trees in a Nightmare Night costume."

Almost on queue, the bushes behind them once again again began to rustle around, as something slowly made its way towards them. The three fillies quickly scampered farther behind the thestrals. Overcast just shook his head in complete annoyance, turning to face whatever it was with a face of stone.

Nightshade however, was far more hesitant. He leveled his spear ever so slightly in the direction of the disturbance.

"For once in my life...I sincerely hope that you're not wrong about this Overcast."

----------------------------------

Erebus had pondered quite a few major questions in life.

Many of these questions were extremely philosophical, and open to large amounts of maddening debate. So usually, he just came up with his own answers and didn't give a damn what anyone else thought about it.

Right now though, he was pondering one of the greatest questions in his overly long lifespan.

"Why am I chasing three small ponies through a forest that seemingly was spawned from hell itself."

Of course...he already knew the answer.

From the moment he had left the Princess where she was, he had been racing through the forest towards this town that Luna had mentioned. All the while, another question had been nagging at him. How was he going to explain his story to a bunch of ponies that had never seen the likes of a human being in their lives, much less one with a more imposing image such as himself.

For a short time he had questioned whether he should simply find the pony that looked most like a nurse or doctor and straight up carry them back to the Princess. However, he quickly pushed that thought from his head...first impressions were important at a time like this.

He became so preoccupied with his worrying over how he would get the ponies to trust him, that he soon noticed that he had lost track of which direction he was running. With minor frustration he had stopped all forward movement, and absentmindedly placed his hand on a nearby tree, trying to find his bearings as quickly as he could.

As he was just about to continue on his way, his essence tap managed to reveal something that struck him as odd. A small trio of equines, obviously children from their stature, had managed to sneak up on him. At first he considered simply pretending to be oblivious to their presence and continuing on his way.

Soon though, another thought crept its way into his mind. If these young ones came from the town, then they could undoubtedly take me to someone that could aid the Princess."

With that in mind, he decided to slowly turn himself around, as not to scare the children, and attempt to gently call out to them. Before he even had a chance to remove his hood however...

The three of them ran screaming in the opposite direction.

Erebus groaned to himself as he now found himself slowly jogging after the small trio. "Looking back on those events, I probably could have been a bit more subtle in my approach. For one, I could have removed my hood first. I mean seriously, the kids were probably scared shitless of me."

He had lost sight of the kids, and began to wonder if they had simply stopped short and hid somewhere in the forest. He considered using another essence tap to locate them, when he noticed a stream of light pouring in through the trees ahead of him. A small smile graced his face as he realized that he was finally at the forests edge.

Slowing his pace to a walk, he lifted his hand to push a patch of low branches from his path, and stepped out into a grassy clearing. The sun was much brighter outside the forest, as he found that he had to lift his hand to his eyes. He was so preoccupied adjusting his eyes to the harsh light, that he almost failed to notice the glinting spear that was only a few feet from his body.

With a puzzled look, he took in the sight that lay before him. The three fillies that he had chased were nowhere to be seen, probably running off to the town that he could now visibly see. That wasn't what held his attention however, instead it was the two odd looking ponies that lay before him.

Both of them wore suits of armor, shaded in varying levels of purple. At face value, the two might have looked completely identical, were it not for their completely different expressions.

One of them wore a dumbfounded look on face, as if he had just witnessed a whale grow wings and fly away. His spear was pointed harmlessly at the sky, and for the most part, he didn't seem to understand any of what was going on.

In contrast, the other seemed like he was the more competent of the two. Despite his obvious look of surprise, his spear was actually leveled at Erebus' body, and he seemed to be ready to use it, should the need arise.

For a solid minute, the three of them just stood there, staring each other down, neither being sure what to make of the other. Until Erebus decided that he had seen enough, and took a cautious step forward.

Almost immediately, as if broken from stasis, the two ponies snapped into action, bringing themselves into fighting stances and moving their weapons into defensible positions.

The more competent of the two spoke up, his voice slightly wavering. "Hold there creature! Stay exactly where you are, and don't even think about moving, lest we use force."

Erebus raised an eyebrow at this statement. "You have got to be kidding me...right?"

The other pony was apparently startled by the fact that Erebus was talking to them at all, but didn't seem to take kindly to his statement. "What's that supposed to mean huh? Do you think that the both of us can't handle you...whatever you are?"

The first pony quickly responded. "Don't antagonize it Overcast, you're just going to make the situation worse than it is."

The one named Overcast ignored his warning. "Shut it Nightshade! Sometimes I really get sick of your incessant nagging, you know? If this thing thinks that a warning from the Night Guard is a joke, then I'm not about to let it just walk away with that in mind."

At this point, Erebus was starting to grow impatient. "Listen, I didn't mean to insult you or whatever you're going on about, but I seriously don't have time for this."

He was just about to take a step forward, when Overcast interrupted him. "Well good for you, because neither do I!"

With one swift motion, he thrust his spear at Erebus' lower body, trying to hit what he could only hope were his legs.

Erebus, while somewhat surprised that an equine creature could move so deftly with a polearm, wasn't about to have a spear in his foot. Tracking the movement of the blade, he quickly spun his body in a complete circle, the gleaming steel just narrowly missing where his foot just was. As soon as the blade had planted itself in the ground, his other foot came back around and planted itself firmly upon the blade in question.

Overcast's eyes widened when the weapon was wrenched from his grasp by the weight of Erebus' foot. He had only a moment to contemplate what was happening, Before the human reached forward, and grabbed him by a chink in his armor.

Not wanting to truly hurt the pony, Erebus was about to lift him up and toss him into a pile of nearby bushes, when he noticed the pony called Nightshade, from his peripheral vision.

Nightshade, who had quickly picked up how badly the situation had turned, had hastily sprung into a defensive maneuver. Gaining some space from his target, he had taken to the air in a tactic that fooled many of his opponents on the training ground. Taking careful aim, he hurled the spear as hard as he could, before propelling himself forward just behind it. The hope was, that even if the target managed to evade or block the spear, they would be completely exposed for the following body slam.

Erebus however, quickly managed to see through the simple tactic. As the spear came within striking range, he once again twisted his body, making sure to keep his grip on Overcast. He reached out and grabbed the wooden haft as it passed harmlessly by him. Without stopping to even consider his next move, he twisted his body back to where it originally stood, spinning the spear to the position he required. Nightshade had little time to rectify the error of his plan, before the flat end of the spear came crashing down on his helmet, immediately knocking him to ground.

As quickly as the skirmish had started, Erebus had ended it. Both of his "opponents" were incapacitated, and he was in complete control of the situation. Dropping the spear at his feet and picking up Nightshade in exchange, he lifted both of the ponies up to his face briefly, before lightly tossing the both of them into the pile of brush beside him.

He sighed as he walked past the two of them. "I mean the both of you no offense in the slightest, truly I don't. As I already said though, I don't have time for this."

He had walked no further than a few feet, when a harsh beam of sunlight shone itself directly into his eyes, forcing him to bring his hand up to face once more. The sunlight did not subside though, despite his best efforts to lesson it. He was just about to bring his hood back up onto his head, when another beam of sunlight came and struck on the arm.

Searing away some of his skin.

Immediately, Erebus shifted his defensive tactics, coating his eyes in a layer of darkness in order to better see what was attacking him. Despite this, he had little time to react to the second blast of sunlight that struck him in his chest. Though his cloak absorbed the energy, the sheer force of the attack was enough to force him onto his knee.

Looking up, Erebus was was greeted with what he could only describe as the most radiant pony he had ever seen in his life...literally. The tall equine, which nearly reached his own height in full, was gazing down at the human with expression that spelled out just how enraged she currently was.

With a powerful feminine voice, she issued out a warning that was a clear as the sky above them

"So long as I stand here, you will never touch my ponies again."

Light and Darkness.

Two primal elements, precursing all others.

While they unknowingly support each other, these forces have waged a struggle older than time itself.

The reason behind this endless war is far beyond the scope of most being’s comprehension.

Understandable or not, it is ever clear that these two are rarely found in peaceful coexistence.

Therefore, it stands to reason that Erebus was about to have a rather unpleasant day.

"That was . . . rather painful, to say the very least." Erebus gazed down at his singed skin, a look of vague disappointment on his face.

"It's safe to say that I haven't received a wound like this in quite some time." His frown slowly grew in intensity. "I shouldn't have received the wound at all, though. These little mistakes are really starting to get on my nerves."

He glanced up at the brilliant glow that stood before him. "Maybe it's about time I got to rectifying that issue."

Keeping himself on his knee, Erebus quickly ran over a few possible scenarios, trying to determine the best way the situation could play out. He had already had the misfortune of feeling some of his assailant's wrath, and while he was confident that he had been struck by worse things in the past, he was still uncertain as to the full extent of her power. His only other option was to attempt to talk his way out of the current circumstances . . . something he was less than adept at doing.

Not wanting to deal with unknown variables however, he soon found himself pushed towards the latter option. "Undoubtedly, my fist is far more powerful than my words, but all the same, I suppose I can at least try to let diplomacy win this one out.

Firming his resolve, Erebus slowly began raising himself off the grass, making sure to keep his eyes forward. "Hey, Ms. Shiny! I'd just like to say that I'm sorry for whatever I might have done to deserve this second degree burn. However, I'd also like to say that I'm a little bit pressed for time at the moment. So if you could go off somewhere and blind someone else, that would be greatly appre-"

"Be silent!" The pony's voice was sharp as a blade, effortlessly cutting the human off. "I do not appreciate being spoken to in such a blatantly dismissive tone!"

"Yeesh!" Erebus cringed ever so slightly. "I don't exactly appreciate having my eardrums blown out. At this rate, her voice is worse than anything else she'll throw at me."

"You have terrified our young, assaulted our guards, and yet you would have the nerve to simply walk into this town and act as if you've done absolutely nothing?" The expression she gave bordered on disgust. "You are sorely mistaken if you believe that I will simply allow you to continue on your way."

"Actually I'm just a little sore," Erebus whispered, his patience starting to dwindle. "So then, it would appear that we've come to an impasse. Tell you what: since I'm still in a somewhat sociable mood, how about I let you name off what you'd like me to do in this situation?"

The equine's glare never faltered as she answered him. "I will only ask this one thing of you: I want you to leave this place immediately, never enter the town, and return to wherever you may have come from. Comply with this, and I promise that I shall harm you no further."

"Hmmm, I get the feeling that might conflict with my interests." Erebus took an educated guess as to the answer for his next question. "So, mind telling me what happens if I simply refuse and walk right past you?"

Shaking her head slowly, the pony quickly confirmed his guess. "If you are foolish enough to attempt such an action, than I will have no choice but to forcibly remove you . . . myself."

"Well then, it would seem that diplomacy has failed . . . or maybe I just failed at diplomacy." Erebus began silently contemplating what the pony might be capable of. "Either way, I'm afraid that I will be making my way past you, with or without your consent."

His face scrunched up in contemplation. "Damn . . . if it was only a little darker out, I could probably bypass this situation entirely. However, even without the ability to shadowstep, I can still bolster my potential speed to the point where she would never be able to run me down. "

Taking a step forward, he had just resolved to speed his way past her . . . when the ground before him violently exploded.

"That was merely a warning, and the only one that I will issue." The pony's horn was still lit brightly, volatile energies barely repressing themselves. "Should you lack common sense, you will find that I can easily teach you some."

Beneath his cloak, Erebus slowly clenched a fist, his frustration slowly beginning to boil over. “Dammit! She's not even going to let me move, much less work myself into a running start!"

"Fine then. I suppose that's how it is." Smoothing out his composure, he gave his answer. "You know, you should already be aware that you went past the point of warning when you decided to fry my skin." He defiantly took a step forward. "Therefore, it's common sense that anything goes."

He had only a moment to glimpse his adversary's glare intensify, before she lowered her head and let loose a brilliant beam of sunlight towards him. As he gazed at the blinding attack, a moment of doubt went through his mind, nagging at him as he wondered how differently the situation could have gone. It dissipated as quickly as it had come though, being replaced with a reluctant resolve. Despite the failure he had just suffered, he wasn't about to let another so easily overtake him.

"What's done is done. If this is how things have turned out, then I'm not about to start crying over it." He traced the beam as it began closing towards him. "All that aside though...I really hate to have to do this."

Bringing his foot back into a more stable stance, Erebus whipped his hand out of his cloak, placing it directly in the beam's path. A pained growl escaped his throat as the attack impacted against his palm, beginning it's work of burning away his flesh. Apprehension almost overcame him as he noticed the pure intensity of the beam, the output threatening to break him before he could react. Biting back the searing pain, his body began setting up it's most basic, yet powerful, defense. The attack almost instantly became null as he rapidly acclimated to the boiling energy, the stream of particles starting to break and dissipate against his palm.

Throughout the many years he had lived, Erebus had rarely ever considered his inborn abilities to work for anything more than a destructive nature. While he was quick to realize that the void had many different applications, he had immediately resolved to pin it to its true purpose. So when he had discovered that his body was capable of incorporating darkness into an adaptive shielding, he was initially hesitant to keep the ability active. However, upon finding that the the defense's degree could simply be reduced to a benign level, he had decided to keep it running at all times.

A fact he was currently more than gracious for.

Despite his defense being in place, Erebus knew he had only equalized the situation. "She'll almost immediately notice that I'm negating the attack. If I plan to gain any control over this, then I'm going to have to incapacitate her as best I can."

Deciding a straightforward approach, Erebus quickly shifted his tactics, hoping to catch the pony off guard. Grasping outward, the shield began to intertwine with the attack, latching onto the stream of plasma and slowly began to absorb the immense output of violent particles. After he was sure that he was capable of sustaining the crude link, he locked the energy in place, using his own essence like a vacuum to keep the attack rooted.

Looking up, he saw that his attacker had just noticed the sudden shift in balance, her eyes twisting in a look of confusion. The confusion was soon replaced by surprise as she attempted to cut off her attack, only to find that the energy could not be stymied. Taking advantage of her sudden confusion, the human slowly moved his foot forward, almost slipping backwards in the process.

“Hmmm, she certainly isn't going to run out of power any time soon." Despite the fact that the energy was currently feeding him, Erebus found that the force behind it was too immense to simply outright erase. Grinding his teeth, he began to force himself forward, his mind set on making his way towards the equine.

Foot by foot, he began to inch his way forward, each step gaining him more ground than the next. Gazing up, he redoubled his efforts as he noticed the pony trying desperately to escape his grasp. Moving within a few feet of his target, he reached his hand towards her horn, determined to cut off her power at what he believed was its source.

"Alright then, I think it's time to bring hostilities to an end." His fingers moved within a foot of the pony, ready to render her offenses null. At that moment, a sudden ripple went through the beam, causing Erebus to slip over the particles as they began to coalesce and pulse.

The human's eyes widened as he noticed the effect this was having on the energy. "There is no way that she just . . ." He had no time to finish his thoughts before the attack burst and erupted outwards, creating a small nova between the two combatants.

"You are not going to get away from me that easily!" Erebus pushed himself forward with all his strength, lunging through the small explosion. However, his heart quickly sank when his hand grasped nothing but empty air, his target nowhere to be seen.

He tensed up as he noticed a bright flash of light appear directly behind him. Spinning around, he raised his hand up in expectation of another energy attack . . . only to catch two golden horseshoes to his chest. Before he could go falling head over heels, Erebus slammed his foot into soft ground, determined to not lose his balance.

Stumbling back a few paces, he took a second to assess the damage before regaining his composure. While his natural shielding had to be manually adjusted to stop heavier blows, his chestplate had no such limitation. He sighed in relief as he noticed that the durable armor been more than capable of defending him, with no visible damage to itself. The blow had been far more powerful than he'd expected, and, had it not been for the light garment, he could have easily suffered a serious injury.

Gazing up, Erebus saw the bright equine standing where he had just been a few moments ago. Her breath was shaky and her horn was giving off a few small sparks. It was obvious that whatever maneuver she had pulled at the last minute had been somewhat taxing on her.

“It's highly doubtful that she's at her limit, considering the level of exertion that a stunt like that would require. If I can limit the amount of fighting that we have to do, I think that would benefit the both of us."

Taking into account his adversary's level of power, he decided to give diplomacy one more go. "Hey, that was pretty impressive you know. It's pretty rare for me to use that technique, considering the potential damage that it can cause. Even with that in mind, I didn't think that anyone was capable of escaping a pure vacuum, much less being capable of instant teleportation on a moment's notice."

The pony stood her ground, her guard never faltering as she responded. "So then you used a void to tether me to my own spell? I'll admit that I was quite confused as to the nature of your attack. I wasn't suspecting you to use such an obscure manner of defense, much less the ability to employ it so efficiently."

A smirk crossed Erebus' face. "Well don't go giving me all the credit here. I certainly wasn't expecting you to send a feedback pulse off your attack's own particles. That was very creative thinking, considering the stress you were just under." He brought the more urgent matter back to the front of his mind. "However, none of this changes the fact that you're still impeding my progress on something highly important."

Lifting her head ever so slightly, the pony raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps you would be so kind as to explain what that matter might be?"

Erebus pointed out towards the Everfree. "Well you see, if you don't allow me to pass, I'm afraid there's going to be rather lengthy consequences for a certain blue princess out there."

The pony's eyes immediately went wide, and her horn began to glow bright hot. "You . . . what have you done with my sister?”

Erebus flinched at her sudden shift in demeanor . . . then did a double take upon hearing her final word. "She's Luna's sister?! I mean, the Princess told me about a Princess Celestia, but goodness, I expected that the two would look a little more alike!" He then took a moment to consider the crown upon her head. "Oh . . . I suppose that should've been a dead giveaway."

"Right then. I uh . . . probably could've worded that last bit a little better."

Shaking his head and waving his hands vigorously, he quickly attempted to defuse the situation. "Now just hold on a damn second, there's no need to go and blow a fuse! Rest assured that she's just fine, absolutely no harm done to her. In fact, she was so kind as to tell me a bit about you Princess Celestia."

The Princess continued to glare at him. "Then I hope she told you just how protective of her I am! You say that she's not been harmed, and yet you were just going on about consequences."

Erebus grimaced at his own bit of stupidity. "Not by me, I promise you that much. I would have absolutely no reason to harm your sister, I swear on my life!"

"Then perhaps you'd be willing to share why you're currently covered in blood?" Celestia was quick to fire back.

Erebus raised an eyebrow at that, taking a moment to think over exactly what she meant. "What in the world is she talking about? I'm quite sure that I'm not covered in . . . oh." Gazing at the arm he had been using to defend himself this whole time, he noticed that it was coated in a thick layer of drying blood, no doubt from tending to Luna's wound.

Well, once again Erebus, you've utterly failed at visual cues."

"Well, you see . . . I . . . uh." Erebus began to slip over his words as he tried desperately to convince the enraged princess. In his anxiousness, his eyes drifted ever so slightly, Celestia disappearing from his view for merely a second.

"Shit!" His eyes snapped back forward as he realized his mistake all too late. He was only capable of catching the fading glimpse of a bright flash, the princess now nowhere in sight.

A visible scowl settled onto his face as he scanned desperately for Celestia. This whole ordeal was wasting precious time, and his own ineptitude was to blame for bringing about the situation in question. He knew that if he didn't end this madness now, the only creature that had bothered to offer him aid . . . was going to suffer.

Adrenaline spiked through his system as he an audible pop issue from behind him. His mind screamed at him to forgo defense as he whipped himself around. "This has gone on for far longer than it needed to! I'm putting a stop to this, now!"

Erebus’s arm shot forward in a blur as he anticipated Celestia's next course of action. As if on cue, the white alicorn flashed into sight directly in front of him. What he didn't expect however, was the fact that she was set ram him at full speed. Celestia's eyes went wide as the human immediately secured a grip on her neck. However, this did nothing to stop her full on charge directly into his torso.

Using his grip on the princess, Erebus swiftly shifted himself out of reach from Celestia's horn, but was unable to keep his feet from being swept out from under him. Despite currently having a hold of the alicorn, he knew that this advantage would be moot so long as she was carrying him backwards.

Gazing backwards, Erebus was quick to notice the large oak tree that the two of them were heading towards, the distance closing rapidly. It didn't take a genius to figure out what the princess was planning to do, and with that in mind, Erebus wasn't about to let it happen. Slamming his feet into the ground, he found that Celestia wasn't intent on giving him any ground. His boots slid over the grass, and were quickly torn out of any divots that they dug, easily cementing the alicorn's determination.

Dull rage began to blossom in the human's mind as his feet scrabbled wildly over the ground. Thinking back to Princess Luna, still currently abandoned in the Everfree, the anger grew to a steady boiling point. Tightening his grip on Celestia's neck, he let all of his building rage explode outward in one single moment.

His eyes narrowed as his hand suddenly turned jet black, all of the darkness that he could gather coalescing into a single point. He once more slammed his boots into the ground, simultaneously pouring all of the gathered darkness into Celestia.

The reaction was immediate.

Celestia's eyes shrunk down to pinpricks as the cold void coursed through her body's systems. Although not potent enough to completely destroy her nervous system or cause any permanent damage, Erebus knew that it would still be more than enough to wreak havoc on her motor functions. This was confirmed as the alicorn's body went limp, quickly losing any momentum that it had been carrying. Using his literal foothold on the ground to bring himself to a halt, the human breathed a sigh of relief as he noticed that the tree was a few mere feet away.

He was about look back at the princess, so as to assess any damage that he might have inflicted upon her, when a sudden sensation caused him to freeze. Gazing at his grip on the alicorn's neck, he saw something that he wouldn't have thought physically possible.

"There is no possible way that she's capable of moving." Erebus stared, awestruck, at Celestia's tensing neck muscles. "What I just did should have kept her numb for ten minutes at the very least!"

He continued to gaze on in surprise, when a flash of movement tore him from his stupor. Looking down at Celestia's face, he noticed the bright glow on her horn, burning brighter with each passing second.

"Oh no, I have had it up to here with you!" He physically shouted. "If this is what you're going to bring me to . . . then fine!"

Before she had a chance to charge her attack any further, Erebus grabbed the princess with his free hand, and wrenched her off the ground. Spinning himself around, he was just about to slam the alicorn into the side of the oak, when a frantic scream tore him from his anger induced state and stopped him cold.

He had only a fraction of a second to catch a glimpse of a blue alicorn before Celestia released her spell point-blank into his face.

Princess Luna gently tapped her hoof on the soft ground, a look of pure complacency written on her face.

Erebus had been gone for less than a half hour as it currently stood. All the same, the princess was finding that the lack of anyone to speak to was quickly becoming disconcerting.

"We can only hope that Erebus finds no trouble with the local ponies," she began to muse. "We can only imagine the kind of situations that he might find himself in, especially with how little he knows of the current world."

A small chuckle escaped her throat as she realized how mixed up her priorities currently were. "Here we are, slowly bleeding out in the middle of the Everfree Forest, and we spend our time contemplating our partner’s possible predicaments."

Glancing back at her leg, she could easily see the small stream of blood that had long since bled through the bandage. "To be honest though, it is slightly more difficult to be concerned when we can't even feel the pain of the wound."

Despite the lack of feeling in her leg, she was not completely detached from the sense of urgency. She might not be able to move or feel her leg, but she knew that the steady loss of blood was going to begin affecting her soon enough. Without knowledge of the full extent of the injury, she was not sure how long she would be able to remain conscious.

Luna suddenly raised an eyebrow in thought. "The chance is slim, but perhaps we might be able to gather enough magic to stem the flow of blood."

At the same time, the thought occurred to her that a failed attempt might simply weaken her further. "The risk is certainly present, but with the near certainty that spell will fail anyway, there's no real harm in at least trying."

After debating both sides for a few minutes, Luna decided that it would be more fruitful to at least give the plan a shot. Erebus would most likely be back soon enough, so either way wouldn't matter much. However, with how much he had already helped her, the princess felt that she hadn't been pulling much of her own weight.

She couldn't help but frown at her own lack of contribution. "To leave this all up to Erebus seems somewhat selfish on our part. If there is anyway that we can help the situation, then we would foolish to not at least attempt it."

Gazing back at her leg, Luna slowly began to tap into her magical reserves, simultaneously searching her memory for the most simple healing spell that she could find. It wasn't often that she found herself using medical spells so she wasn’t very well-versed in them, but she was still capable of using them, should the need arise.

"Alright then, time to see just how difficult this is going to be." Concentrating on the wound, she released a miniscule amount of energy, preparing herself for the drain that she knew would follow behind it.

A drain which never came.

Luna almost broke her concentration as she noticed how little effect the spell had on her. Up until this point, even the most basic of spells had easily left her almost completely exhausted. Her face twisted in confusion as she began the spell again, this time putting slightly more energy behind it.

The outcome was exactly the same.

"This doesn't seem to make any sense." Luna's mind raced furiously in an attempt to piece all of it together. "How is it that a simple illumination spell can leave us gasping for breath, yett something as intricate as healing magic has no effect on us whatsoever?"

Deciding to push her luck, Luna's mind became more and more flustered as she continued to pour energy into the wound, the flow of blood slowly beginning to taper off. Within moments, the blood had completely stopped, disbelief racing through the alicorn's mind. Reaching back towards her leg, she was able to remove the makeshift bandage, now coated a dark shade of crimson. Though the fur around the wound was stained the same as the cloth, she could still clearly see that there was no trace of the once visible gash.

Despite the major questions that were plaguing her, Luna did her best to remind herself what a positive thing it was. "While it's true that this is certainly confusing, perhaps what happened to us was merely a temporary effect? Surely we didn't expect that we would lose our magical abilities forever. Besides, if we are capable of using our magic now, than we should be able to simply move to Ponyville on our own, without Erebus having to worry any longer."

Thinking about how long he had been gone, a moment of indecision went through her mind. "If he were to come back looking for us though and we weren't here, that might just make the situation worse than it was. Still, it feels like a large waste to simply laze about on the grass, not when we have the chance to do something."

Luna brought back to mind that Celestia was still unaware of her whereabouts. "It certainly wouldn't do any harm to contact our sister. No doubt that she's beginning to worry over us."

Apprehensively, she reached her mind out towards Celestia, still unsure whether her link had been restored or not. Her doubts were soon alleviated though, as within seconds she felt the familiar touch of her sister's consciousness brushing against her.

A small smile tugged at her lips. "It's good to see that some things are starting to look up again."

Before she had time to even attempt communication though, she found herself pushing up against a mental barrier, completely unable to make contact. Her smile fell as she once again attempted to talk with her sister, thinking that perhaps the first attempt had simply been a fluke. When this failed as well, though, a brand new wave of questions quickly began to prod at her mind.

"That does not sense; Celestia has never shut me out before." Luna raised an eyebrow in confusion. "In fact, the only time that she's ever put a mental shield at all is when she's actively engaged in combat. That being said, there hasn't been an adversary with enough raw ability to warrant such defensive measures, not for some time now."

"So then, what could possibly be causing her to act in such a . . ." Luna's eyes slowly widened as sudden realization dawned on her.

"No . . . by the the stars no. There's no actual way that she could possibly be . . ." A feeling of dread began to set in as she shook her head in disbelief. Despite knowing the low chances of her sister actually meeting with Erebus, there was little other cause for Celestia to be worked up into such a defensive state.

Quickly raising herself off the ground, Luna found that she couldn't fully support herself, and stumbled back down into a sitting position. Looking back, she groaned as she remembered her leg. Despite having healed the wound herself, the numbing effect that Erebus had placed to seal off the pain was still there, effectively keeping her leg from being used in any form.

"Damn it! This is not the time for setbacks such as this!" She began gathering energy into her horn. "If what we believe is true, then Erebus may have just gotten himself into an irreversible situation."

Using the small amount of the link with Celestia that she could access, she locked herself onto wherever her sister was located. The link itself was quickly formed, but lacked full cohesion, cutting her chances of actually coming up next to Celestia. Completely disregarding whether or not her abilities were fully restored, Luna brought the last bit of needed energy into her horn and vanished from sight.

Without warning, the princess was violently flung out of her teleportation spell, her body nearly flying into a nearby tree as her new location instantly came into view. Her breath caught in her throat as she furiously flapped her wings, trying desperately to gain control over her momentum. With some amount of difficulty, Luna managed to bring herself to a stop before quickly glancing around in an attempt to catch sight of Erebus or her sister, neither of which she could find.

"Something is not right here; we know that we performed the spell hastily, but it still should have brought us at least within sight of her." The princess couldn't help but feel that the spell had been abruptly halted.

Forcing the question from her mind, she had just resolved to try the spell once again when she was interrupted by the sound of shouting. Perking her ears up, she quickly noticed that the noise was coming from directly in front of her, just beyond the treeline. Doing her best to support her rear leg, Luna slowly limped her way through the thick brush, keeping her face low to prevent branches from hitting her eyes.

As she pushed her way past a final patch of bushes, Luna hastily looked up and was greeted by a disturbing sight.

The ground around her hooves was littered with small holes, the grass charred to the point of death. Glancing to her right, she was able to make out the outlines of two of her guards, who despite seeming to be fine, were currently sprawled out in the middle of a large bush. By far the most shocking part of the scene was what was happening to her left. Luna’s eyes widened as she attempted to process exactly what she was looking at.

Standing beside a large oak tree was her sister and Erebus, the both of them locked in a furious struggle with each other. Luna could see that Erebus currently had Celestia in a tight grip, and was attempting to keep her horn away from his torso. Celestia, on the other hoof, was attempting to wrench herself free, all the while charging a spell on her horn. A spell which, by the looks of it, seemed to be quite powerful.

Luna was in sheer disbelief that Erebus was still standing, much less capable of keeping Celestia at bay for as long as he had. It went without saying that her sister was an extremely adept wielder of magic, as well as a powerful opponent in physical competition. When she had reason to be truly angered, however, Luna had known her to be capable of deterring adversaries through her presence alone.

Amidst all of the chaos going on around her, Luna did the only thing that she could currently think of to do.

She screamed. Loudly.

"Stop this, all of you!!!" Luna just barely restrained herself from using the full Royal Canterlot Voice.

In that exact moment, Celestia released the spell that she had been preparing, and the two were absorbed by a blinding flash of light.

The attack lasted less than a few seconds, but Luna was still forced to shield her eyes from view, lest she be temporarily blinded. Her mind raced as she blinked the brightness from her eyes, desperately hoping that she had not come too late to prevent the worst from happening. As her vision began to clear though, she saw something far more shocking than what she had imagined.

The both of them were completely unscathed . . . for the most part.

The two were now standing about seven feet apart, each with a slightly dazed expression on their faces. On one hoof, Celestia had no noticeable wounds on her, but was obviously fighting hard due to the fact that she was visibly exhausted. On the other hoof, Erebus did seem to have a few burns covering his body and cloak, but otherwise seemed no more fatigued than Celestia currently was. In fact, the only thing that seemed to have suffered any real damage was the large tree they had been near, now charred completely black.

"Luna?"

The princess was torn from her musings by the sound of Celestia's voice. Shifting her gaze, she could easily see the confusion and frustration that was written on her sister's face.

"Luna . . . are you alright? I was almost certain that something terrible had happened after I lost contact with you." She paused to catch her breath. "Why didn't you just let me know where you were going last night?"

Luna did her best to fight off a pang of guilt. "Sister we . . . we know that we should have informed you about last night, but we simply didn't want you to worry unnecessarily. We simply had no way of knowing that we would have been delayed for so long, otherwise we would have told you immediately."

Celestia shook her head solemnly. "How can you simply call all of this a delay? Do you even realize how many ponies were worried for your safety, myself included? After what happened here with this . . .creature . . . I could only fear the worst."

Luna knew all too well that her decisions were her own, and not even Celestia should be able to question them. With the atmosphere of the current situation however, she also knew it would also be better to not make tensions any higher. She was about to offer her sister an apology, when a familiar voice cut her off.

"Hold on now . . . I may not be one to enjoy intruding on a personal conversation, but you should know that any blame here shouldn't fall on Princess Luna. I mean, if anyone is at fault here it would probably be me." Erebus tried his best to keep his tone calm.

"You have no right to even speak of my sister!" Celestia's frustration quickly began to boil over. "I still have no reason to even begin trusting you in any way!"

Luna's temper immediately flared at her sister's outburst. Erebus had done nothing but help her up to this point, and she wasn't about to let Celestia treat him like some common criminal.

"Celestia! Did you ever stop to think that maybe you have no right to speak to him in such an obviously belittling tone?!" She slammed her hoof into the ground for added emphasis.

The Solar Princess stiffened at the force of Luna's reprimand. "Do you have any idea what actions this creature has taken against the ponies here, as well as myself? I have no understanding of how you can just stand up and defend what he has done."

"That 'creature's' name is Erebus, and it would do you well to remember that." Luna pointed over at the human. "We'll have you know that he has done nothing but help us for the time that we were missing, and were it not for his aid, we would not be here now. Perhaps, if you had taken the time to simply talk with him, you might have reached a different conclusion about him."

Erebus cleared his throat to catch the two alicorn's attention. "Princess Luna, while I appreciate you standing up for me in this matter, I'm going to have to say that I'm not without blame. Looking back at my actions, I'll admit that my impatience probably clouded my better judgment here."

He exhaled deeply before looking at the both of them with an apologetic expression. "It's definitely true that Princess Celestia can be quite stubborn in some regards. However, I can also tell that she was only doing what she deemed was the best way to deal a potentially hostile situation. She's obviously very protective, and, well, I wasn't very thorough in my attempts to negotiate with her."

A long moment of silence hung in the air as the three stared at each other with uneasy expressions, each of them not completely certain what course of action to take in this odd situation. After a few moments of shooting awkward glances at each other, Erebus finally decided to speak up and break the growing tension.

"So . . . uh . . . maybe it would best for all of us if Luna and I began to explain exactly what happened on our end. Princess Celestia, I have no doubt that you'll understand everything by the time we get to the end of our little story."

Upon hearing this, Luna's eyes immediately lit up. She was just about agree with the suggestion that Erebus had put out, when she was stopped short by a distinct sound meeting her ears. Gazing towards the origin of the noise, she was horrified to see exactly what it was.

About a foot from where Celestia currently stood, the large oak tree that she had inadvertently damaged was creaking and groaning. The unmistakable sound of splintering wood was soon accompanied by visible shards of charcoal beginning to break off and fly away from the center of the tree. Luna didn't even have time to shout a warning to her sister before the oak split down the middle with an audible crack.

Her breath caught in her throat as she saw the large trunk come crashing towards Celestia, time seeming to slow all the while. By this point, the white alicorn had turned to notice the object and was just starting to scramble out of the way . . . all too late. Off to the right, Luna saw that Erebus had noticed the danger as well and was already moving to intervene. However even with his early reaction, she knew that he was too far back to aid her sister in time.

That is, until he appeared directly in front of her.

In the course of that one lingering moment, the human was just barely able to slam into Celestia's side, effectively knocking her out of harm's way. In doing so however, his own ability to cast himself away from danger was rendered completely ineffective.

A moment later, the full force of the falling tree crushed him flat to the ground.

"Erebus!" Luna cried out to her companion, desperately hoping for any kind of response.

The alicorn stood completely dumbfounded, her mind an utter mess of jumbled thoughts and questions. In the short span that everything had happened, she had little time to begin processing it all. Despite her confusion however, she knew that she had to help her friend before anything else happened to him. Kicking her mind into gear, she began limping her way over to where her sister currently lay.

"Get up Celestia, you have to help us move this!" Luna prodded her sister with as much urgency as she could muster.

Celestia, who was just now picking herself off the ground, was apparently just as confused as Luna had been. An expression of astonishment was written plainly on her face, and she seemed to be having difficulty finding her words.

"Luna . . . I . . . what just happened?" She slowly shifted her gaze between her sister and the human.

"What just happened?" Luna shook her head in disbelief as she repeated her sister's question. "While you were caught up in your own defensive beliefs, this 'creature' just so happened to save you from being crushed! That is what just happened!"

The Sun Princess couldn't seem to find much sense in her sister's words. "Why would he do that? What good reason would he have to save me?"

Luna let out an annoyed groan before pushing her way past the white alicorn. "We don't have time to satisfy your own self-centered questions, Tia. The only thing that you should see is that someone was kind enough to help you when you were in danger. That alone should enough for you to do the same!"

Taking a quick glance at the human's inert body, Luna was able to gather that he had been knocked unconscious from the impact. At the current moment however, she was more concerned with removing the trunk itself and tending to him afterwards. Attempting to pull the tree off him with magic, she quickly became frustrated as her magic once again slipped out of her reach as it had before.

"Damn it all, why should this happen now?!" Failing to even perform a simple levitation spell, Luna searched desperately for a safe way to physically remove the trunk. Despite her analyzing though, the only way that she could see would be to roll it off, which could potentially injure him far more.

Luna gazed around frantically, looking for any possible alternatives, each passing second tearing at her mind. She was just about to slam her hoof into the ground in frustration when a soft yellow glow caught her attention. Gazing up, she was surprised to see the trunk gently being levitated off of Erebus' body.

"Celestia?" She whirled around just in time to see her sister finish moving the tree away from the human, a troubled look on her face.

"Don't even start right now Luna." Celestia raised a hoof to stop whatever her sister was going to say. "It's obvious that asking questions right now isn't going to do any good for anypony. With that in mind, I won't question you right now either."

She sighed in an exhausted manner and looked Luna dead in the eyes. "Listen . . . this is what's going to happen here. I am going to summon my guards, they are going to tend to your wounded guards, and then we are going to transport . . . Erebus . . . back to Canterlot. Nopony is going to hear of this incident, is that perfectly clear?"

Luna knew that Celestia was being overly cautious about the whole situation, and while she wasn't particularly fond of taking orders from her sister, she still knew that it was the best course of action for Erebus at the moment.

"Yes sister, it's quite clear."

"Oh, and one more thing sister," Celestia had taken only a few steps before she turned back towards Luna once again. "When we get back to Canterlot . . . you will have a lot of explaining to do."

Harsh sunlight shone down over Equestria, slowly waging a small war against the many grey clouds that had appeared to dot the sky. The resulting shadows that had formed over Canterlot's streets had brought about an uneasy feeling of calmness for the city and its citizens. This feeling served as a stark contrast to the heated events transpiring elsewhere within the city walls.

"Stop avoiding the question, Luna! We could start to sort all of this out if you would just tell me why you ran off to begin with."

Princess Celestia sighed in mild frustration. Since she had returned to the city with her sister and their "guest", she had begun to question Luna in an attempt to figure out exactly what had happened. Much to her dismay, however, her little sister's stubborn nature was making it increasingly difficult to sort anything out.

"Why should we have to explain our nightly activities to you?" Luna retorted in annoyance. "We are more than old enough to justify doing as we please during our time of responsibility."

"That is enough, Luna!" Celestia stamped her hoof to help solidify her point. "If you're going to make such claims then you should know enough to be responsible in this matter."

"Why is it that you think I'm attacking you here?" She began to pace around slightly as she continued. "I have all the faith in the world in you Luna, so it's not as if I need you to justify your actions, but I need you to understand the position I'm in currently. What with your sudden disappearance, fillies running around terrified, and our own royal guards being tossed aside like ragdolls . . . I'm truly at a complete loss here."

Celestia paused for just a moment to regain her composure before she walked back over to her sister. "Please, Luna. I trust you more than anypony else I know, but please just tell me what is going on here."

Luna bit her lip, clearly struggling with the fact that Celestia was making complete sense in everything she said. "You . . . you promise that you won't judge us for any of our decisions?"

Celestia reached and placed her hoof on Luna's side. "Not in the slightest; you have my word."

Luna refrained from eye contact but nodded lightly. "You are right. We suppose you do have a right to know, after all. We're not quite sure what to say though; the whole story would be rather lengthy."

Celestia smiled encouragingly. "Why not just keep it simple, then? Start from the beginning, and simply leave out anything that you believe to be extraneous. We can leave any of the smaller details for a later time."

"Alright then; from the start." Luna's eyes shifted nervously back and forth. "Do you remember earlier that day we had seemed distracted, as if something was on our mind at the time?"

"Yes, I remember." Celestia nodded. "I had hoped that some rest would do you some good and help to clear your mind. What of it though?"

"At the time, there had been a voice that called out to us. Though we were unsure as to who it was, its message was too direct to simply ignore." Luna continued. "Admittedly, resting only served to pique our interest even further, as we found that we could follow the voice through our dreams."

"And it lead you towards the Everfree Forest?" Celestia questioned.

Luna nodded in affirmation. "Directly towards our old castle. With everything being placed as it was, we could only assume that Nightmare Moon had somehow returned."

She cringed slightly, dreading her sister's response, but became somewhat confused when nothing came.

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Yes? Then what?"

Luna gave her a confused look. "You mean you're not angry with us?"

The white alicorn simply shook her head. "I already promised you that I wouldn't be the one to judge your decisions, didn't I? If anything, I'm slightly disappointed that you didn't at least let me know where you were going, in case something like this happened. At the end of the day though, you're more than old enough to make your own choices. If you believed that this matter was your's to deal with alone, then I have no right nor privilege to pass judgment upon it."

Luna's confusion lingered for a few moments longer, but soon subsided. "We are . . . glad that those are your thoughts. We suppose we should continue then?"

Celestia merely smiled and waved her hoof for her sister to go on.

"Very well then. After we had managed to make our way to the source of the voice itself, we found that it was . . . well . . . we found nothing." Luna sighed, recalling the pain that she had felt in that moment. "There was an accident, and we managed to get ourselves stuck in a situation that might have been the end of us."

"What kind of accident, exactly?" Celestia cocked her head.

Luna, not wanting to worry her sister too much, decided to leave out some of the finer details. "We happened to . . . fall into a rather large underground cavern. At the time, our wing had been injured so that we could not fly back to the surface."

"So then why not simply use your magic to teleport back to safety?" Celestia questioned.

"We are not exactly sure ourselves." Luna thought back to her own confusion on the matter. "It was as if something was hindering our magical ability. As it was, we were hardly capable of casting an illumination spell."

The Sun Princess sat motionless for a moment, deep in thought. "I . . . see. That is quite concerning. How then did you manage to make your way back to the surface?"

Luna's response came faster than expected. "We're sure that you already know the answer to that particular question, don't you Tia?"

Celestia nodded lightly. "Yes, your - ahem - unusual new friend. Luna, I'm still not sure what to make of him as it stands. He did save me from that tree, I will not deny. When I stood against him though, the power he employed was unlike anything I'd encountered before. The only word I can use to describe it is . . . nauseating."

"Surely, Tia, you cannot see him as an enemy!" Luna pleaded. "That whole affair was a misunderstanding! If you simply were to speak with him calmly, then he could easily show you his good intentions."

"Luna, you know that I trust you completely, it's just that . . ." Celestia sighed in exasperation. "Let me ask you this . . . do you trust him enough?"

"He's saved both of our lives and done nothing but prove his good intentions as far as we have seen." Luna nodded. "Please sister, as you would any other, just give him a chance."

Celestia remained silent for a time, weighing everything to this point. "Sister, I can only hope that you understand my caution on this matter. However, I know that you're right, he deserves a fair chance to explain himself to me under a more peaceful scenario."

"Don't count on it happening right away though." She continued. "From what the medical staff has told me, the injury wasn't serious but he showed no sign of regaining consciousness anytime soon. We'll go and visit him, but he might still be recovering."

Almost immediately, Luna drew her sister into a tight hug, a wide smile on her face. "Thank you Tia! We sincerely thank you! We can most certainly assure you that your trust is not misplaced."

While slightly surprised by her sister's sudden display of gratitude, Celestia was quick to gently return the hug. "My trust is in you Luna, where it is never misplaced. With that in mind though, I'll never be able to make my own judgement if I can't even walk out the door."

"Yes, of course!" Luna lightly stepped back, realizing that she had been somewhat overbearing.

"No need to worry yourself sister." Celestia laughed softly as she walked across the room and pushed open the double doors, Luna following closely behind. She paused for a moment to regard the two sentries that had been posted outside, before beginning to make her way down the castle's corridors.

As the two slowly passed down the halls, the Sun Princess couldn't help but inwardly frown. It wasn't like her to not take Luna's judgement seriously, and she had faith that her sister had not been lying to her. All the same, a small tinge of doubt began to worm through her thoughts as she continued forward.