Well. This took a while to write. Damn, I think it might be even longer than the last one.

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 3: Elements of Harmony; Part 2

"Seize her! Only she knows where the princess is!" The guards present flew at Nightmare Moon. She glared at them.

"Stand back you FOALS!" Her eyes started to glow, and she struck the Pegasi down with bolts of lightning. They fell to the ground, and mass pandemonium broke out within the crowd. There were ponies running every which way, trying to get somewhere safe. Laughing manically, she enveloped herself in her starry mane and flew out the door. Rainbow finally broke free of AJ's grasp and pursued the wisp.

"COME BACK HERE!" I looked to Twilight, who had a determined look on her face. Without even saying anything to me, she charged out the door. I rolled my eyes, and chased after her.

Honestly, Twilight can run at pretty insane speeds when she has a reason. Panting, I finally reached the doors of the library, where I knew she'd gone. Walking in, I saw her franticly looking through book after book. "Elements, Elements, ELEMENTS… Uhgh! How can I stop Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony!?" Even though she was talking to herself, I went to make a sarcastic remark. Before I could, I was pushed aside by a speeding rainbow blur and sent tumbling into one of the many book piles scattered around the floor.

"Ow…" Shaking off the dizziness I felt, I looked up to see Rainbow confronting Twilight.

"AND JUST WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY?" She was hovering closer and closer to Twi, causing her to back up nervously. "And how did YOU know about Nightmare Moon, HUH? Are you a SPY?" She was suddenly jerked backwards by another pony tugging on her tail, AJ. She sighed.

"Simmer down sally, she ain't no spy." Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy followed AJ inside. She looked at Twilight. "But she sure knows what's going on, don't cha Twilight?" All five of them stared at her intently. I walked up beside her and gave her an encouraging nudge. She sighed.

"I read all about the predictions of Nightmare Moon. Some mysterious objects called the Elements of Harmony are the only things that can stop her… But I don't know what they are; Where to find them; I don't even know what they do!"

"The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide." I turned to see Pinkie across the room, looking at a book on one of the shelves. Twilight's eyes widened as she dashed over to her, knocking her aside in the process.

"Where did you find that?!" Pinkie happily bounced past her as she spoke.

"It was under E!" Twilight looked like she wanted to facehoof. I snorted to prevent laughing.

"Oh." She opened the book, and flipped through the pages till she found what she was looking for. "There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known. Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. The last known location of the five Elements was in the Ancient castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. It is located in what is now known as the Everfree Forest." Twilight closed the book and put it back where it was. Looking at the other five ponies present, I saw that they were all shaking. I went to look back at Twilight, but she was already gone. I turned to Applejack.

"Can you guys lead me over to the entrance? We need to catch her before she goes charging in on her own." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then nodded.

"Yes, we can't let her go in there on her own, she'll never make it by herself." She looked at the others. They looked like they had mostly gotten over their initial fear. "Come on ya'll, we've gotta hurry!" And with that, she dashed out the door, myself following close behind.

We caught her just as she made it to the entrance. She looked moderately frightened, and I probably should have thought about that before tapping her on the shoulder. She squealed, whipping around faster than I thought possible. I got a hoof in the face for not thinking that through. She kept her eyes shut, crouched over with her legs over her head.

"OW. Twi, it's just us." She slowly looked up, opening her eyes just enough to see me rubbing my aching cheek. Her eyes widened in realization, standing up and dusting herself off. She winced a bit when she saw what she had done.

"Oh… heh… um…. Sorry…?" She looked past me to see that the others had come with me here. She looked a bit confused.

"What are you all doing here?" Applejack smiled.

"Why do ya think? We're comin with ya!" Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I appreciate the offer, but no. This is something I'd rather do on my own." AJ just continued smiling as she walked past Twi towards the entrance.

"No can do sugarcube! I ain't about to let any friend of ours go into THAT spooky forest alone!" The others followed behind her. "We're stickin to you like caramel on a candy apple!" Pinkie grinned.

"ESPECIALLY if there's candy apples in there!" She happily hopped over to follow the group. Twilight sighed. Only she and I remained. She looked at me.

"Let me guess; you're coming too." I laughed and ruffled her mane with my hoof.

"Twi, I'm Celestia's student too. This is my responsibility as much as it is yours." I gave her a small hug. "Plus, after all this time of knowing you, you're like a little sister to me! It's my duty to protect you." I gave her a cheesy grin before trotting into the forest to catch up with the rest of them.

We walked through the forest, the girls chatting with each other to fill the silence. "So… none of you have been in here before?" Rarity shook her head.

"Heavens no! Just look at it! It's dreadful!"

"And it ain't natural; folks say it don't work the same as Equestria." Twilight looked at her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rainbow took this as an opportunity to have some fun.

"Nopony knows… You know why?" She slowly took steps towards Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy. Knowing what happens next, I moved a good twenty feet away from the girls. AJ scolded her.

"Rainbow! Quit it!" She ignored AJ and continued on with her prank. The three other ponies backed up nervously.

"Cause anypony who's ever come in… Has never… come… OUT!" The three of them jumped out of fear. Of course, just after Rainbow finished her sentence, the floor of the cliff broke off, sending the four flightless ponies helplessly tumbling down the steep slope towards their doom. Luckily, I had stepped just far enough away to avoid falling. Dash and Fluttershy raced to save whoever they could. In the meantime, I ran down the slope as quickly as I could without slipping myself. I used my magic to help keep a foothold. The two Pegasi had managed to grab Rarity and Pinkie, and Applejack had grabbed onto a branch with her teeth. Twilight almost slid off the edge, but had managed to hold onto the edge. AJ saw that she was about to fall, and let go of the branch, slowly sliding to where Twilight was about to fall. Before she did, AJ grabbed her by the hooves, saving her. Applejack almost fell in the process, but I used my magic to grab her by the back hooves. She gave me a thankful smile, and then turned her attention back to Twi.

"Applejack! What do I do?!" Even with all her strength, there was no was AJ could pull Twilight back up. Glancing up, she saw Rainbow flying into position under Twi. She looked back down at the purple unicorn.

"Let go." Twilight looked at AJ like she was insane.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" She shook her head.

"No I ain't. I promise you'll be safe."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!"

"Now listen here! What I'm sayin to you is the honest truth. Let go, and you'll be safe." One plummeting and screaming Twilight later, we sat at the bottom, Rainbow bragging about how she saved Twi.

"And once Pinkie and Rarity were safe, WOOSH, me and Fluttershy loop de looped around, and WHAM! Caught ya right in the nick of time!" Twilight sighed.

"Yes Rainbow, I was there, and I'm very grateful, but we gotta-" She was interrupted by the roar of a very large manticorn. "A MANTICORN!" It blocked our way through, and looked quite angry. "We've got to get past-" I covered her mouth with my hoof. Before any of them could just rush in and get themselves hurt, I'm going to stop this right here.

"All of you, wait." Five ponies and one large manticorn looked at me with puzzled expressions. I turned around to face a small yellow Pegasus. "Fluttershy? If you would." She seemed to get what I was hinting at, and nodded gratefully. She floated down to the ground, and trotted up to the manticorn. It looked down at her, and started to get angry again. It went to smack her out of the way with its gigantic paws. The ponies beside me all gasped and turned away, expecting the worst.

"Shh, it's Ok." Surprised, the manticorn looked down at her, not moving. She came closer, nuzzling its other paw in a motherly way. It calmed down, holding out its hand to reveal a huge thorn stuck directly in the center. It whimpered. Fluttershy looked at it with concern. "Oh, you poor, poor little baby." Rainbow looked at her incredulously.

"Little?"

"Now, this might hurt for jusssst a second." She pulled out the thorn with her teeth. The beast responded by lifting her up in its arms. It released a loud roar of pain. The others watched with fear.

"FLUTTERSHY!" To their surprise, it started licking her and purring in happiness. The worry that they were feeling dissolved into relief. The threat gone, we walked past the cooing beast, who was placing Fluttershy down. I stopped and waited for her to catch up. She smiled at me.

"Thank you for stopping them. I just didn't want anypony to get hurt."

"It's no problem. That's what friends do, right?" She nodded, still smiling. I looked ahead, and noticed that the others were getting farther away by the second. I nudged her. "Come on, we don't want to get separated. Let's hurry up."

"R-right." We quickened our pace to catch up with the group.

After we'd managed to catch up with the five other ponies, all seven of us had continued our trek deeper and deeper into the forest. Rarity wouldn't stop complaining about everything. "Ugh! My eyes need a rest from all this icky muck!" I rolled my eyes.

"Deal with it. It's a forest. What else do you expect?" As we continued to walk, it got darker and darker, almost to the point of pitch blackness. "There, now you don't have to see anything. Happy?" I used my horn to illuminate our immediate surroundings. We still managed to continually bump into each other. I heard a loud squish. AJ groaned.

"Oh, wait. I think I stepped in somthin." Almost immediately afterwards, a loud squeal was heard from Fluttershy. Applejack looked at her. "It's just mud." Turning around, she noticed what the yellow pony was actually screaming about. The tree behind her had a dimly lit face on it, with a gaping mouth and gigantic spiky teeth. All of the girls started to look around, seeing more of these evil looking trees. Cue screaming ponies. They backed into a circle, screaming. I just looked at them like they were crazy, but didn't say anything. They finally stopped when laughter was heard. Pinkie stood in front of one of the trees, giggling. She made strange faces, as if to mimic the tree. This only caused her to laugh more.

"PINKIE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? RUN!" I looked at Twi with a blank expression.

"You do know they're just trees, right?" I looked at the rest of them. "Please tell me that I'm not the only one who realizes this?" I was ignored. Pinkie looked back at us.

"Oh guys, don't you see?" Somehow; don't ask me, because I don't have ANY CLUE; music started to play out of thin air. Pinkie started to sing.

"When I was a little filly and the sun was going dowwwwwn,"

"Tell me she's not…" She appeared out of nowhere, startling all of us.

"The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frowwwwwwn," Rarity sighed.

"She is."

One song about laughter later…

Even though Pinkie's song was completely ridiculous, I couldn't help but laugh along with the rest of the girls. After we finally pulled ourselves together enough to continue on, we started walking again. Still giggling, none of us noticed the raging river in our way until we had almost fallen into it.

"Huh. Well, who's going first?" I could swear that Pinkie was about to volunteer, but she was stopped before she could by a loud wailing noise coming from a little down the river. Going to investigate, we found the source of the noise. Flailing around in the river was a gigantic sea serpent, crying and despairing. Twilight walked up to him.

"Excuse me sir, um, why are you crying?" He looked at us.

"Oh, I don't know. I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when this tacky little cloud of black smoke just whisks by and tore half of my beloved mustache clean off! And now I look simply horrid!" He collapsed backwards, starting to cry again, and splashing the seven of us with a wave of water in the process. I shielded myself with my magic to prevent my clothes from getting wet.

"Oh give me a break…"

"That's what all this fuss is about?" Rarity gasped.

"Why of COURSE it is! How CAN you be so insensitive?" She walked up to the despairing serpent. "Why just look at him, such lovely luminescent scales." He sniffled and looked at her.

"I know!"

"And your expertly quaffed mane!"

"Oh I know, I know!"

"Your fabulous manicure!"

"It's so true!"

"All ruined without your beautiful moustache!" He covered his head with his arms and wailed.

"It's all true! I'm hideous!"

"I cannot allow such a crime against fabulocity go uncorrected!" She came closer to him and ripped off one of his scales. He cried in pain.

"What did you do that for!?" She raised it up like a sword, and used it to cut off her tail. The serpent fell over in an overdramatic fashion. Rarity used her magic to lift up the sheared tail, and combine it with the serpent's cut mustache. He looked at it and was overjoyed. "Oh! My Moustache! It's wonderful!" Rarity smiled.

"You look smashing!" Twilight walked over to her.

"Oh, Rarity! Your beautiful tail!" She closed her eyes and turned towards us.

"It's fine my dear! Short tails are in this season! And anyway, It'll grow back…" Twilight looked over at the river, and noticed it had calmed down.

"Oh, we can cross now!" She started to wade across, but was lifted into the air by the serpent. She now stood on his back.

"Allow me!" He made a bridge across for us, so that we didn't have to get wet. She smiled, and hopped across, the rest of us following close behind.

After a boring half hour of walking, our destination was finally in sight. Twilight gasped, and smiled. "There it is! The ruins that hold the Elements of Harmony! We made it!" She started to gallop towards it.

"Hold on Twi! Wait for us!" We ran after her. She turned back to look at us while still going.

"We're almost ther-WHOAAAAAA!" Looking at us, she didn't notice that the bridge was out. Rainbow saved her from falling off by grabbing her tail.

"What's with you and falling off cliffs today?" I laughed a little at her remark, but was silenced by Twi's glare. The rest of the group caught up to us as we stood at the edge of the cliff.

"Now what?" Rainbow just looked at Pinkie.

"Duh." She flapped her wings a little to get her point across.

"Oh yeah!" She flew down into the mist, grabbed the ropes, and went to go and tie them to the poles on the other side. I turned to Fluttershy.

"Hey, do you think you could carry me over there? I need to make sure of something."

"Um… I can try…" She put her arms under mine, and flapped her wings as hard as she could, managing to get about two feet off the ground. She slowly started to go forward, and I tried to use my magic to make it easier on her. By the time we made it to the other side, the Shadowbolts had already made their offer to Rainbow. Fluttershy fell to the ground, panting from exhaustion. I dashed over to Rainbow.

"Rainbow!" She turned to look at me. She seemed confused.

"Leo? How did you get over here?"

"Fluttershy carried me, but that's not what I wanted to tell you. Don't listen to them! They're lying! They aren't even real!" She raised her eyebrow, and went to say something, but was cut off by the lead Shadowbolt.

"No! Shut up! Let her make her own decision!" She crashed into me at high speed, causing me to tumble backwards, nearly off the edge. I managed to grab a hold of the string she hadn't tied yet. Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Leo! I'm coming!" She went to come grab me, but the Shadowbolt stepped in front of her.

"NO! It's us, or him!" She just pushed the grey Pegasus aside.

"ARE YOU CRAZY? HE'S GONNA DIE! WHATS WRONG WITH YOU?!" I lost my grip on the rope and started to plummet into the foggy depths. Just when I thought it was all over, I felt something grab me by the arm. I stopped falling, and instead did just the opposite. I looked up, and saw a struggling Rainbow Dash pulling me up from my certain doom. She dropped me back on the side where the girls still sat, concerned. She landed, panting. The girls rushed over to us.

"Leo? Rainbow? What happened? The fog was too thick to see through!" I looked at them and gave them the short version of what had gone on. They were surprised that any pony would go so far as to try and kill another pony. After they had finally calmed down, Rainbow finally went and fixed the bridge, and we were able to cross. I can't help but think of how close I was to dying. I need to make sure that never happens again.

"Come on Twilight, Isn't this what you've been waitin for?" We had finally made it. We stood inside the ruins, looking at the things we'd come so far to get.

"The Elements of Harmony! We found them!" Fluttershy and Dash flew up to the stone orbs, and lifted them one by one down to where Twilight stood. "Careful… Careful!"

"One, two, three, four… there's only five!"

"Where's the sixth?"

"The book said that when the five are present, a spark will occur to make the sixth one appear." Rarity looked at Twi.

"But what IS the sixth element?" I answered on instinct.

"Magi-" I was stopped by Twilight, who clamped a hoof over my mouth. Applejack looked at the two of us suspiciously.

"Wait Twi, let him finish! He was sayin something!" I shook my head.

"Nope, I wasn't saying anything. Nothing at all. Can we move on?" AJ walked closer to me. She stared right into my eyes.

"I can tell you're lying. It's beyond obvious. What are ya hidin from us?" Damn Element of Honesty. Dash intervened, pushing AJ away from me.

"Give the guy a break AJ. He'll tell us at some point. It doesn't need to be now." Applejack continued to look at me for a moment longer, and then sighed.

"Fine." She looked back to Twilight. "What were ya sayin Twi?"

"Alright. Stand back, I'm going to try something, and I don't know if it will work." AJ nodded.

"Come on ya'll, give her some space, she needs to concentrate." She led the others out the door, but I stayed with Twilight. She didn't protest, so I guess she was Ok with it. She leaned over in concentration, and her horn started to glow brightly. Suddenly, a night blue wisp flew past me, pushing me back a few feet. It started to form a whirlwind around the elements, creating a tornado. Twilight was so busy concentrating that she hadn't even noticed.

"TWILIGHT!" She opened up her eyes.

"Huh?" She realized what was happening. "Aah! THE ELEMENTS!" She looked at me. "Leo!" I nodded. We both jumped into the whirlwind just as it disappeared. I felt the same feeling I get every time I use Teleportation magic. Everything was black for a few moments, and then I found myself somewhere else. I was a little dizzy, as a long teleportation tends to do that to you. Shaking it off, I found myself standing next to Twilight. She stood there, in a stance ready to charge. I stood up and mirrored her stance. Nightmare stood across the room, in possession of the Elements. She looked at Twi incredulously.

"You're kidding." Twilight pawed at the ground. "You're kidding, right?" Her horn started to glow, and she charged straight at the Lunar Mare. I didn't really have a choice but to do the same. Nightmare growled, and then proceed to charge straight at us as well. Just before Twi and Nightmare collided, Twilight disappeared, and then reappeared on the throne, next to the Elements. Nightmare was confused for a moment, which gave me the opportunity to take out my excess anger. I leaped into the air, and slugged her right in the nose. She staggered back a step or two, only dazed for a second or two. She then turned to face me, pure rage in her eyes. I felt magic envelop my entire body, as I was lifted in the air, and then thrown against the wall like a ragdoll. Unimaginable pain surged through every part of my body, as I fell to the floor. I didn't pass out, but I thought I might at any second. My hearing went in and out, and my mind tried to convince my body that it, in fact, had not died, and could stand up. When I finally managed, I saw Twilight standing in the center of the room, her head down, and Nightmare with the shattered elements at her feet. I put every ounce of effort into getting over to Twilight. My hearing came back just in time to hear the voices of ponies that I was more than overjoyed to hear. Rainbow, AJ, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy rushed into the room, wearing concerned expressions. Fluttershy saw me limping over to Twilight, and came over to help me. I think she said something, but I wasn't really listening to what ANYONE was saying at the moment. She put my arm around her shoulder and brought me over to where the others were. I sat down next to Twilight. Not trying to move anymore, I could actually focus on hearing what she was saying. She was coming to the end of her speech, the element shards circling around the five ponies behind us. Nightmare was starting to look worried. "You still don't have the sixth element! The spark didn't work!" Twilight shook her head.

"But it did! A different type of spark! I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you. How much I cared about you! The spark ignited inside me! The moment that I realized that you all… ARE MY FRIENDS!" I was temporarily blinded by a white light. Looking up, I saw the sixth element floating above Twilight's head. It was so mesmerizing that I almost didn't notice the same element floating above MY HEAD. Twilight looked at me in complete and utter confusion. "Wait, why are there SEVEN ELEMENTS?!"

"Twi, just go on with what you were saying, we can figure this out later." She seemed to be deep in thought, but she pushed it aside and continued on with what she was saying. "You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the... the spark that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth… and I suppose the seventh element; The Elements of Magic!" I watched as the shards circling the five ponies behind us formed into jeweled necklaces, fitted onto each of them. I felt a huge power rise up inside me, one that I couldn't control. I closed my eyes, and felt something being placed on my head. I passed out.

I awoke to an aching sensation in my head. Surprisingly, that was the only thing that ached. I was able to stand on my own, and all of the pain seemed to have just vanished. "Uugh… My head…" I turned back to the girls to see that they were starting to come to. Applejack looked from pony to pony, examining them.

"Everypony alright?" She then looked at me. "Especially you, Leo. What happened while we weren't here? How'd ya get hurt so badly? And how do ya seem better now?"

"I suppose in the same way Rarity's tail grew back." Fluttershy looked at Rarity.

"Oh, rarity, it's so lovely!" The white unicorn seemed to barley contain her glee.

"I know! I'll never part with it again!" I tapped her on the shoulder. "Hmm?" I pointed to her chest.

"I think she was talking about the necklace, not your tail…" Fluttershy nodded.

"It looks just like your cutie mark!" After close examination she smiled, and pointed to Fluttershy's necklace.

"So does yours!" Looking down at it, she gave a small gasp of glee. All the girls did the same, examining their newly acquired piece of jewelry, so I figured I should do the same. Lifting it off my head, I saw that I now was in possession of a smallish crown, about the size of Twilight's tiara. Unlike the other elements, I saw that it was a night blue color, instead of gold. The gem, like the girls' elements mirrored that of my cutie mark, a pink six pointed star. When I was done, I placed it back on my head. Twilight looked over at me.

"Now that the crisis is over, we need to get the most pressing matter at hand… How can there be seven elements of harmony?"

"I think I might have an answer to that." I know that voice anywhere. Looking over at the window, I saw that the night had finally ended, and daytime had arrived. A bright ball of light came in through the open hole, and I had to close my eyes to prevent blindness. When I opened them back up, there stood none other than the Princess of the Sun. Every pony in the room bowed down in respect, excluding myself and Twilight. That kind of stopped for us a while ago. Honestly, I don't think I ever did. The purple unicorn's face grew into a big smile.

"Princess Celestia!" She went over to her, and nuzzled her affectionately. I just gave her a smile and a small wave.

"Hello, my faithful students. I see that everything turned out alright." Twilight looked at the Princess.

"But you said that it was just an old pony's tale!" The Celestial Mare shook her head.

"I said that you needed to make some friends, nothing more." She looked over at me. "Leo, I know why both you and Twilight are the Element of Magic, at least I'm pretty sure that I do." I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh really?" She nodded.

"Yes, though I have to do something before I tell you." Her horn started to glow, and released a shockwave in all directions. Everything around us started to slow down. I saw a falling drop of water freeze in midair. Celestia, Twilight, and I seemed to be the only things unaffected. Twilight looked back and forth, extremely surprised and confused. Her mouth was wide open. She turned to Celestia.

"Did you just… stop time?!" The Princess smiled and nodded.

"Yes, I stopped the flow of time in a somewhat large radius around us. I don't think it would be good for Leo's secret to get out, do you?" Twilight understood.

"Good point…" Celestia looked back at me.

"Now, as I was going to say; The reason that both of you are the element of magic is because, well; simply put, you were actually born a pony." My eyes widened.

"WHAT?! That's not possible!" She shook her head.

"But it is. You were born as a pony, and furthermore, the Element of Magic. You were originally supposed to be the Element of Magic, but somepony; I don't know who, transported you to the human world when you were only a foal. Because the element no longer existed on this plane, the spirit had to find a new bearer. Only extremely powerful unicorns can possess such power, so it took home in the other most powerful pony in Equestria; Twilight. When Twilight earned her Cutie Mark and her true power was fully released, by some inane chance, you wound up back in our world. The cutie mark that both of you have represents the Element. The reason that each of you only has a mark on one side of your flank means that each of you holds half of the Element inside of you." Wow… Well, this is news to me. I looked at Twilight, who seemed to be shocked into silence. As I turned back to Celestia, I noticed that something was wrong. She looked to be in pain.

"Celestia, is something wrong? You don't look so good." She winced, before turning to me.

"It's nothing serious, the spell that I'm using takes an almost overwhelmingly large amount of energy to sustain, and it's taking a toll on my strength. I'm not sure that I can keep this up for even a minute more. When I resume the flow of time, I'll give your friends an explanation that doesn't include your past." Even though my mind was still reeling from what she had just told me, I decided to just push it off till later, like I tend to do with most things that hurt my head to think about. I nodded to her. She closed her eyes, and a bright flash of light forced me to close mine as well. When I opened them, I saw that the flow of time had resumed. Five confused ponies were looking back and forth at the three of us, not understanding how we were in completely different places than we were less than a second ago. Celestia laughed at their confusion, and then proceeded to calm them down. She explained to them the same things she had told Twilight and I, excluding a few details about myself. They nodded as she spoke; glad to have some sort of explanation for all of this. Not a minute after she was done, we heard a loud moaning noise come from across the room. Turning my head, I saw that Luna was starting to wake up. She opened her eyes, taking in the scene before her. She looked confused.

"Wha-What happ-" Her eyes widened in realization. All the memories of Nightmare Moon flooded through her head. She struggled to get up. Celestia walked closer to her.

"Luna, I-"She was cut off as Luna rushed full force into her older sister. The ponies besides me stood in a readied stance, prepared to protect the Princess if needed. But the sight they saw wasn't what they had expected. Luna had her forelegs wrapped around Celestia, head buried in her chest. And she was crying. Celestia was in shock at first, but then relaxed, and rubbed her sister's head in a comforting way. The mane six just stood there, looking on both in shock and confusion. After a little bit, Luna started to quiet down, and she looked up at her older sister.

"I'm so sorry… For everything… this is all my fault… I let the anger and darkness consume me… I could have fought it off, but out of petty bitterness, I instead embraced it. A monster was born. It took control of me, locked my consciousness away in a pitch black void. I've seen what it did, what it tried to do, and how much hatred it had for everything. It would even kill ponies to get what it wanted. I had no control over what it did with my power, my body, none at all. I sat there… for so long… Time itself lost its meaning… In that void, there was no light, no ponies, just… nothingness. I've learned from my time there. I still love my night, but eternal darkness is not something that I consider good anymore. The day is just as important as the night, and vice versa. I promise, on my life if I have to, that this will never happen again. Just… please… forgive me…" She closed her eyes. Celestia looked at her with sadness, so much sadness. She nuzzled Luna affectionately, looking at her with loving eyes.

"Luna, I could never hate you… no matter what you do… you're my sister, and nothing will change that. Of course I forgive you." She returned Luna's embrace. Looking at the ponies next to me, I could see that they were all smiling, happy for the two Celestial Princesses. Pinkie pulled out a handkerchief, as she started to cry. Hopefully they were tears of happiness, but you never know with Pinkie. No less than a second later, her disposition changed entirely, becoming her bright happy self.

"Hey! You know what this calls for?" I grinned, and the others just smiled and rolled their eyes. "A PARTY!"

We had made our way out of the Everfree forest, and had been given a warm welcome as we arrived back in Ponyville. Most were confused about Princess Luna, as most ponies didn't even know that Celestia had a sister, but she was happily accepted after a brief explanation. Pinkie had somehow arranged the party in less than a few seconds, which, even for Pinkie, is completely baffling. I was currently sitting at a table with the mane six, eating a delicious slice of cake. The party had ended a few hours ago, and we had headed over to Sugarcube Corner to just be alone. Ponies kept flocking up to us trying to ask questions about random things, and both Fluttershy and I had been getting nervous. I don't mind being around people, but being the center of attention wasn't on the top of my priority list. We had rushed over to the candy decorated building, and ran inside. Pinkie had locked the door, and eventually the crowd had dispersed. Now, we were just taking an opportunity to relax. I was tired beyond belief, and the others weren't doing too much better. We'd been up for a good two days straight at this point.

"So… what do you guys want to do now? I, for one, just want to go home and sleep." I shoveled another piece of cake into my mouth. "If any of you have a better idea, I'm all ears." They looked back and forth at each other. None of them said anything, so I took the silence as a no. "Well then, I'll be heading over to the library." I yawned. "See you guys later." I stood up, and walked out.

Opening the door to the building in the tree, I flicked on the lights. The place was sparkling clean, despite the crazy party that had gone on earlier. I shrugged. Pinkie probably used her logic defying powers to clean it up. And I'm not going to question the ways of the pink pony, just be appreciative. I slowly worked my way upstairs, into the bedroom. There was only one, with two beds placed inside. Twilight's stuff sat on the floor next to hers. I didn't have anything to bring in the first place, save for the clothes on my back, so I wasn't surprised to see nothing beside my bed. I slipped off my sweatshirt and jeans, leaving on only my white t-shirt. While I wear clothes in public, I don't mind being undressed when I go to bed. After I had folded them and placed them on a small side table. I plopped myself right onto the comfy fabric of the bed. So… Tired… I drifted off, no more than five seconds after lying down.

Reviews are Appreciated! ;D