Luna wasn't sure what she should've done. She was surrounded by ponies that she had met before, but had never really been able to get to know. Needless to say, she wasn't completely comfortable at parties. Pinkie Pie had insisted that she throw a welcoming party with the whole town invited. Sugarcube Corner was completely packed. It was so filled up in fact, that some ponies had to stay outside. Pinkie compensated for that by making sure that the outside of the bakery was heavily decorated and set up for partying as well.
The Princess of the Night sat at a table, occasionally returning greetings from ponies that had wanted to meet her, but she didn't do anything more than that.
"Is something wrong, Luna?" Twilight asked the elder alicorn, who sighed.
"I am… not entirely sure about this whole 'vacation' thing," she admitted. "I know Celestia is merely concerned for my well-being, but I simply cannot seem to relax at all." The lavender alicorn gave a questioning look. "I… have this feeling that… something bad is going to happen. I cannot quite explain it, but it is there."
Twilight giggled. "It may be just the stress of your royal duties," she said. Luna nodded halfheartedly. "Come on, Luna! I'll show you some games. Remember how much fun you had playing those party games on Nightmare Night?"
The elder princess nodded again. "Yes. I suppose."
"Then let's go!" Twilight then led Luna throughout the party, showing her every game that Pinkie had set up. The dark blue alicorn reluctantly participated in the games, some of which were just like the ones she had played the last time she had come to Ponyville, and some she hadn't even heard of until she had returned to Equestria after her thousand-year absence.
Time passed quickly as she finally really joined the party. She managed to mingle with the other ponies, and gradually grew more comfortable with all of them. Eventually, however, she returned to her original seat, but was now accompanied by several other ponies, with whom she laughed and shared stories.
Twilight couldn't help but feel a certain pride swell up within her. Luna had quickly and easily managed to open up. The purple alicorn gave a proud smile as she sipped some apple juice.
"How's Princess Luna doing?" asked the voice of Fluttershy from behind.
Twilight faced her friend and said, "She seems to be doing all right. It's been a year since she's come back to Equestria, but she's still not fully accustomed to what the world's become so far."
"I hope she manages to make more friends than just us and the others," Fluttershy stated with concern for the Princess of the Night. "She must've been so lonely until we talked to her last Nightmare Night."
"I wouldn't worry too much if I were you two!" Rainbow Dash said as she jumped into the conversation. "She's a princess after all. I doubt there's anything that she can't handle on her own!"
"Maybe you're right, Rainbow," Twilight admitted. She looked out a nearby window. "The night sky sure is pretty tonight."
"Night sky?" inquired a voice that made the young princess jump out of her seat and fall clumsily to the ground. Twilight turned to see none other than Luna standing over her.
Blushing in embarrassment, Twilight said, "Y-yeah. The stars look great, don't you think?" Curious, Luna looked out the window, but her expression was more scrutinizing than admiring.
"Something does not seem quite right," she said. She turned to face the crowd of partying ponies and said, "Excuse me, does anypony have the time?"
A brown stallion nearby nodded and said, "It's 5:30 in the afternoon, Princess."
"5:30…" Luna parroted quietly, her expression becoming a bit more confused. "At this time of year… it should still be daylight out right now."
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.
"It should still be daytime right now," Luna explained, "but it is dark out, and it is summertime. Celestia knows that the days during summer should be longer." She suddenly grew a concerned look. "Something is wrong. Twilight Sparkle, where is your dragon friend? I need to send a letter to my sister, just to make sure that everything is all right."
Twilight nodded her understanding and called Spike over. When the baby dragon arrived before her, the purple alicorn said, "Spike, Princess Luna needs to send a letter to Princess Celestia. Think you can do that?"
"It would be an honor!" Spike replied. "I'll just go get you a quill and some paper, and you can-" Suddenly, he belched, green flames shooting from his mouth and quickly taking the form of a letter.
Twilight smiled at this. "A letter from Celestia! Maybe this'll explain why she made it dark out so early today." Luna nodded her agreement as the younger mare opened the letter and began to read it:
"To whomever it may concern,
"You most likely do not know of us, but we know of all of you. You who worship and frolic in the hypocritical rule of the sun. We have your princess. She is weak, as her subjects have become. Let free our mistress, and your princess shall be spared.
"Yours, Lord Necros of the Knights of the Dark Moon"
As she read the letter aloud, her expression contorting into a look of horror, everypony else stopped whatever they were doing, all their faces matching Twilight's. "W-what is this?" Twilight asked. This had to be some kind of sick joke! "Luna, do you know anything about this?"
"I…" Luna hesitated, suddenly feeling incredibly nervous. "I do not. But…" She trailed off, looking anxiously at the townsfolk gathered around her.
Seeing this as a cue of sorts, Rainbow zipped around the room and the area outside, saying, "All right, everypony, party's over! Time to pack it in!"
"Aw! But it was just getting good!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed in disappointment as all the ponies, save for the Mane 6, Spike, and Luna, left for home.
Luna, still feeling very uneasy, took a deep breath and said, "Perhaps your library has something akin to an answer as to who these 'Knights of the Dark Moon' are, Twilight. Shall we go?"
Twilight, with an expression that was a mix of confusion and suspicion, nodded in agreement. She announced to her friends that they were going to the library, and they all headed off.
-o-
Luna used her magic to flip through the pages of the book on the desk in front of her. She and the others were combing the library for whatever information they could dig up. The whole while, Twilight seemed to be keeping an eye on Luna for some reason.
Rainbow Dash tossed aside a book in frustration. "This is pointless! We're not gonna find anything! For all we know, there might not even be anything here about these Knights or whatever they call themselves!"
"Simmer down there, Rainbow," Applejack advised calmly. "We don't wanna jump into this whole thing without bein' prepared. Remember when we faced folks like Discord, the changelings, and that Sombra feller? We were hardly what Ah would've called prepped for that." Rainbow snorted in response, but said nothing to argue.
"Applejack's right," Twilight said. "Whatever we can find would certainly be a big help. Luna, are you sure you don't know anything about these guys?"
The night princess stopped reading her book and said, "Well… the name does sound… vaguely… eerily familiar. Almost as though I might've known them personally at some point. It may just be déjà vu though, because there are many groups throughout this land's history that have gone by fairly similar titles."
Just then, Pinkie Pie shouted, "Hey! I think I found something!" She held up a book with a black cover that had an image of crescent moon emblazoned on the front. Immediately, Twilight took hold of it with her magic and opened it to read through it.
"'Dark Organizations of Ancient Equestria'?" she read aloud, confused by the odd title. "I don't remember this being anywhere in the library. Where did you find this, Pinkie?"
"It was in the wall behind that bookshelf over there!" the pink Earth Pony said, pointing a hoof to a bookshelf behind her, where there was an opening on the highest shelf.
"This place is just full of surprises, huh, Twilight?" Spike stated rather matter-of-factly.
The purple mare flipped to the table of contents, and surely enough, she found the name that she was looking for. She quickly flipped over to the page regarding the Knights of the Dark Moon and began reading: "'The Knights of the Dark Moon were an organization bent on bringing eternal darkness to Equestria and the world. They possessed unbelievable dark magic that could only be countered by pure, radiant light. Not much is known about the group itself, or its members, but what is known for absolute certain is that they served and worshipped-' oh, no…" Twilight stopped reading and looked up from the book. "This isn't good."
"What is it, Twilight?" Rarity inquired worriedly.
"The Knights of the Dark Moon… they were the servants of…"
"Of who?" Rainbow Dash asked impatiently.
Twilight gulped and looked over to Luna. "They served and worshipped… Nightmare Moon…"
-o-
Yeah, this chapter doesn't seem very... well, good to me. Oh, well. I hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.