The journey back to Wyndia was uneventful. The party was able to navigate swiftly and without the caution of ambush now that the enemy troops weren't a factor. It had taken them roughly a week to make it back to the griffon capital. Spitfire stopped them just at the border of the city; they still had to sneak their guests of honor out of the country without being spotted by guards. Trouble with that was they had no way to conceal them, but the Princess had an idea. She had left with Twilight Sparkle ahead of the group to secure a safe transport through the city. The Captain had no idea what she had planned, but since she couldn't think of a better idea she sat and waited. Below them, Wyndia was throwing a celebration for the victory. Cheering and songs could be heard from the hillside where they waited and hundreds of paper lanterns could be seen as they took to the sky above them.

"Captain?" Foxtrot called out to her.

"Sup?"

"If you have a moment Ma'am, I was wondering if there was something I could talk to you about."

"Sure thing."

"My orders Ma'am," He said casting his eyes down. "Now that we're done here, I'm supposed to report back and integrate with a new pack since my old one was, well you know. Killed off."

"Shouldn't be a problem, once the Princess gets back we'll get you to the wolf outpost."

"Well, that's not what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm not sure I should be integrated, I think I already found a new pack."

Spitfire cocked an eyebrow at him showing her confusion.

"You think you found a new pack?"

"Well Cap, that's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about."

Luna was pleased with their progress, she figured a week worth of travel on the airship and she'd be back to Equestria. She'd have to explain to her sister why she had left for almost an entire month, but she didn't mind driving Celestia up a wall every now and then. Besides, she had raised the moon on schedule the entire time so she knew she couldn't be too upset. Especially when she had helped stop the war and make sure her precious Twilight Sparkle was safe.

As the two mares made their way through the city to the castle they took in the sights of joy all around them. Griffons danced in the streets as husbands joined with wives after months of being gone. However all was not song and dance, amongst all the happiness there was something amiss, something that didn't mesh with the celebrating city.

"Princess?" Twilight asked. "What are the wolves doing?"

Princess Luna glanced around and saw that the wolf soldiers were not participating in any of the events. Instead they marched in packs through the city carrying supplies to and fro. It looked like they were moving out to more battlefields as if the war had never ended.

"I…I'm not sure Twilight Sparkle."

"I would think they would be celebrating."

"Indeed this is odd behavior," The princess agreed with her. "We shall inquire as to why once we reach the castle."

Twilight nodded in agreement as the two picked up their pace to the palace.

"Now's your chance," Applejack muttered to her brother. She had drawn the stallion to the side, away from everypony else to try and give her older brother a much deserved pep talk. He hadn't said one word to Fluttershy after he and the others had saved her. "Look she's over there all by herself. I'm tellin' ya Macintosh I'm sure Fluttershy would just love to talk to ya. Sure as apples ain't acorns! I'll even take one for the team and," She let out a sigh. "Talk to Pinkie Pie. All you gots ta do is just walk over there!"

"Nnope." Big Mac said fully against the idea of talking to the pegasus. Fluttershy was sitting on the grass watching Sonic and Rainbow Dash retell their fight with Metal to Rarity, each exaggerating more than the other.

"You mean you can put your life on the line to save the filly, but you're over here shaking like an apple tree in the wind at the idea of saying a few measly words?"

"Eeyup."

"Stop being a scaredy-colt," Applejack huffed as she positioned herself behind her brother, lowered her head and shoved him towards the pegasus. "Now GET!"

"Nnope!" Big Mac protested by falling to his haunches and propping himself back with his two fore hooves.

"Hhrrnnghh! Come on Macintosh!" the mare spat out through clenched teeth as she tried with all her might to move him, but found she couldn't budge him an inch. At the realization that he wasn't giving in she trotted in front of him and looked him in his eyes. "You really won't walk just ten lil' ole tiny steps and say howdy or nutin'?"

"Nnope." The stallion crossed his fore legs defiantly.

"Fine," Applejack scowled. Then a cruel smile spread across her face. "Have it your way. Fluttershy!"

The timid pegasus perked up at her name being called and turned to face the two earth ponies. She gave Applejack a smile to show that she heard her.

"Sugercube, would ya mind comin' over here for a spell?" She called out to her before whipping her head back to face her brother with a mischievous smile. The stallion had begun to break out in a cold sweat as the other mare began to trot closer.

"Yes Applejack?" Fluttershy said moving next to her friend.

"Why Big Mac here and I were just talking about how he fought tooth and nail back there to save your life. And how he'd just be beside himself iffa you lost just one of yer feathers."

"Oh…I see," Fluttershy said as she blushed, looked at the ground, and dug circles in the dirt with hoof.

"Yep," Applejack confirmed as she elbowed her friend in the chest then jerking her head in another direction "Oh would you look at that," She said loudly. "I should really talk to Pinkie Pie." Then she quickly trotted away leaving them staring awkwardly at each other.

"Umm," Fluttershy finally said breaking the odd silence. "So…you were…If you don't mind me asking that is, really worried about me?"

Big Mac began to scrape at the ground as well, "Eeyup."

Twilight Sparkle couldn't bring herself to be happy. She was in the Wyndian Royal Library, pulling a large cart and grabbing all manner of history books with her magic. Luna and herself met with Lord Graywing and gave their report of the victory in the woods. The griffon king was so pleased that he had no problems agreeing to Princess Luna's request. She asked if they would allow Twilight Sparkle to fill up a cart with books from their library. Any other time and she would be elated at the idea of bringing home a cart of new books, but after seeing that Midnight Tracer hadn't been their when they had confronted Metal, she had been too upset to care. Spike and Big Mac had avoided the topic like the plague and Twilight barely knew Foxtrot. She had assumed that Princess Luna came at Spitfire's request after that fateful night and she didn't want to broach the subject about his unknown fate with her. She tried to shake the thoughts and focus on trying to get the most useful books that she could. She collected dozens regarding Wolf, Griffon, and much to her surprise Pony history, that she could only assume predated the books in the Canterlot library. She took note of a collection of books on the shelf titled Canine Conflicts and grabbed several of them including the Draco-Canidae War, Coyote Uprisings, and various others. Finally she reached the end of the history section and stopped dead in her tracks.

She couldn't believe it; the griffons had a section of their library dedicated to Star Swirl the Bearded. Twilight swallowed hard at the sight, not only did they have books written by the most powerful unicorn to ever exist, but they had hundreds more books than the Canterlot archives did. Twilight immediately set about yanking every book that she didn't recognize off the shelf. She pulled them off by the droves until the cart began to strain under the weight. Once she was sure she could carry no more she turned around and headed back to regroup with the Princess and her friends.

Princess Luna bit her lower lip as she peered through a large wooden door. After their audience with Lord Graywing she had sent the young Unicorn to retrieve some books to help sneak in the hedgehogs. However, since she knew that would take some time, she decided to say hello to an old friend. Using her magic she had slipped past the stationed guards and now stood at the entrance to Prince Fenrir's chambers. She had nudged his door ajar to peer in and saw him speaking to another wolf that she guessed to be an advisor. After a few exchanged words, the other wolf bowed and headed to the door to take his leave. Luna quickly transformed into thick starry mist and hovered against the ceiling to avoid being seen.

The advisor pushed the door fully open and stepped out as she flew in and rematerialized into her proper form behind him. The Prince was still facing away from her, hunched over a table that he was examining in deep thought. A smile grew on her lips as she thought to leap and scare him. She crouched low and prepared to spring at him.

"I could smell you when you first entered the hallway that led to my door," He said without turning in a voice that sent a sharp chill up Luna's spine. "What are you wasting my time with now?"

Luna's smile quickly dropped at his tone and she stood tall once more. She shook off his comment and put a smile back on her face. "You always were the best at hide and seek, you always could beat my sister and I. It's good to see your skills haven't deteriorated after all these years. Do you remember back that far? Those summer days and nights that Celestia watched over us?"

"Yes, I…" the wolf king then scratched roughly at his neck. "No, and even if I did, such a thing doesn't matter. What is it that you want with me?"

Luna took a step back as she was hurt by his words. She knew coming here would be painful for him and was willing to try to make amends. "I was merely coming here to thank you," she said trotting beside him. He cocked his head to look at her, and instantly Luna was lost in his storm grey eyes. She saw his strong muzzle tense as his lips drew back into a snarl showcasing deadly white teeth as he growled, low and angry, snapping her out of her trance. "Uh, yes…" She recovered. "I wanted to thank you for sending wolf bodyguards, they were essential in keeping my mares safe."

"I read the report your Captain had written up. She touched lightly on the death of several wolves, but did go into a good deal of praise on the one surviving member."

"Why yes!" Luna quickly exclaimed now that she finally had common ground to speak to him on. "The young pup, Foxtrot was it? Oh that's what we called him anyway. If it hadn't been for him we would have never known about the ambush in the night and the way he tracked the-"

"I said I read the report," he interrupted harshly causing her to shrink away. He took a deep sigh and turned to fully face her. He stood roughly one and half hands higher than the alicorn, not quite as tall as Celestia but enough that she would have to look slightly up to face him. "Still your team managed to bring down the monster that has plagued these lands. Your actions may have saved thousands of more lives. This war has drawn the wolves away from the dragon hunts for far too long. Congratulations and thanks are in order." The wolf prince extended his paw to the princess of the night.

Luna looked at his paw, somehow seeing this token of civility seemed to break her spirit far more than his harsh tones. She shook her head at the gesture. "Fenrir, has it been so long?" As she began a tear rolled down her face. "I know that I was away, locked away by my sister for a thousand years. But even while I was there I had always believed you wouldn't change…but there is something different about you."

Fenrir dropped his paw as he frowned at her words. "That I wouldn't change?!" There was a good deal of malice in his voice. "I stood with you when your own people had forsaken you, I adored your night! Then you changed into that…That THING!"

Luna felt herself crack on the inside as she knew he referred to transformation into Nightmare Moon. She looked down at her hooves in embarrassment, not noticing the prince had begun to scratch furiously at his throat.

"I stood before the Dragon King and begged him to spare you, Lord Graywing wanted you dead Luna! Had it not been for that old unicorn giving Celestia the Elements of Harmony so she could send you to the moon…well you wouldn't be standing here."

"I admit to the mistakes I made, but I promise you I don't even know why it happened. It just seemed like one day I just grew so angry and I don't know why. Then I was that monster Nightmare Moon." Tears now streamed from her face but she looked up when she heard a thud. She looked in surprise to see that Fenrir had fallen on his haunches and was scratching vigorously at his neck with one of his hind legs. He looked like some kind of wild dog that was itching at an angry flea bite. "Fenrir? Are you…okay?" Then she noticed a thick worn-leather collar that was fastened about his neck tightly.

Suddenly his scratching fit stopped and with a couple deep breaths the prince rose and regained his composure and looked at Luna with a puzzled look on his face. "What were we just talking about? You know what? It doesn't matter." He said dismissively as he turned away to face the table which Luna saw had a map with various locations highlighted on it.
"I would have liked to congratulate you for putting an end to this war, but I need to prepare strategies for several dragon hunts, this war has made us fall behind and I intend to keep their numbers in check. Please leave and shut the door behind you."

A confused Luna wept, turned, and trotted towards his doorway stopping briefly to say her final goodbye's to him. "Every full moon I have ever raised…to this very day, was for you! Do you even remember why?!" Then she hurried out of the room, slamming the door with her magic and exiting the castle to join the others on the hillside.

Fenrir once again scratched at his collar before slamming his fist hard on the table, splintering the wood beneath his strike.

"Comfortable?" Rainbow Dash chuckled as she dumped more books on top of Sonic.

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up," he responded. The hedgehog was more than a little annoyed at the situation. He was scrunched beneath a mound of heavily bound books, crammed next to a non-operating Metal Sonic and to make matters worse Foxtrot had also climbed into the back of the cart. The mares were all pouring the books that Twilight had brought back from the library to cover them, giggling the entire time.

"Now you're sure you wanna go through with this pup?" Spitfire added tossing more books in the cart over the partially covered wolf.

"Eeyup." He said with a grin as he mimicked Big Mac's country drawl causing the stallion to roll his eyes.

Spitfire looked at the others, shrugged, and dumped more books on the wolf.

Once the three of them were completely buried, they hitched Big Mac up to the cart. Princess Luna had arrived shortly after seeming despondent but eager to leave. She wasn't pleased when Spitfire broke the news that they would be smuggling a wolf out of the country on her ship, but wasn't opposed to any help she could get. She knew full well the upcoming fight would be tough; an extra sword certainly couldn't hurt. Plus his heart was in the right place, coupled with her ordeal with Fenrir she held very little concern as to what they would think about her doing this. So with her blessing, they made their way through the city, and through the shipyard guards without any hassle. The griffons standing guard had no desire to sift through all of the books and they were able to get the cart in without any issues. Once aboard, the airship was given the all clear and the team set off westward across the ocean.

Once in the air, Luna retired to her quarters, removing her crown, her decorative breastplate and her horse shoes. She collapsed on her bed and exhaled deeply. She covered her face with her fore hooves as she couldn't shake the feeling of sorrow that churned in her stomach. She quickly grabbed a pillow and covered her head tightly trying to smother the feeling away. She had defeated the monster in the east and brought an end to the war. She knew that her sister, who might be mad at first that she didn't say anything, would be pleased. She had talked at length with the one called Sonic about the problem, he was actually optimistic that they might be able to stop the monster. He planned on trying to turn him back into his regular form without much effort! She should be overjoyed at the way things were turning out. Still every time she closed her eyes she found herself cowering under the Princes' furious glare.

There was knocking at her chamber doors.

"Ugh," she complained from under the pillow. Then with a sigh she shouted at the door. "Who goes there?"

"Princess," the muffled voice of Twilight Sparkle came from the other side of the door.
"It's me, Twilight."

Luna gulped, she had actively avoided the purple unicorn as much as possible, but she knew talking to her was bound to happen sometime. So she might as well get it over with.

"Yes, come in."

The young unicorn slowly pushed open the door and approached with a worried look on her face. "Princess Luna there is something that I really must speak with you about."

"Yes Twilight there is," The princess sighed not noticing Twilight's confused look. "I understand that you and Midnight Tracer were growing rather close. I suppose if someone has to tell you what's really going on here, it should be me. I want you to know though, that I had my reasons for not being honest with you about-"

"Princess," Twilight interrupted her by raising a hoof; her eyes had grown sad at the subject. "I'm not some little filly that you have to protect from the truth. I know about Midnight Tracer. I know everything."

"Twilight you must understand how sorry I am then tha-"

"I really just don't want to know the details of how he died."

"What?!" Luna questioned abruptly.

"When he didn't join Spitfire in the woods when you all came to save us, I knew he must have fallen. I try not to think about it, just that he…he gave his life for a noble cause that I must not let go to waste! I figured Spitfire contacted you to inform you that your stallion had fallen. I figured you then rushed to aid us in our final battle."

"Uh, umm…Yes! I traveled as quickly as I could!" Luna awkwardly tried to recover. "I'm so sorry for your loss Twilight, I'm sure you will find another stallion out there that shares the same passion for history one day."

"I suppose that's true Pri- Wait!" Twilight's head cocked to the side as she raised an eyebrow. "How did you know that I loved talking with him about history?"

'HORSEAPPLES!' Luna thought to herself as she realized her careless slip of the tongue. "Well, you see…" Her eyes darted around the room and spotted Spike who had accompanied Twilight standing at the door. "Spike told me!" As the words left her mouth Spike quickly waved his hands over his head in a NO pattern. Twilight turned around causing the dragon to pretend like he was scratching his head. While Twilight's attention was on Spike the Princess leaned so Spike could see her and glared angrily at him. She then raised a fore hoof and pointed at him, then back at herself, then brought her two fore hooves together and made a snapping motion, indicating she would break him in half. This gesture was followed by a running of her hoof over her mouth signaling for him to keep his mouth shut. Spike saw this, gulped hard, and nodded at Twilight confirming that he had told Luna about Midnight Tracer. "Yes, when I came to aid all of you, Spike had informed me of your feelings for him." She explained nervously.

"That may be, but I'm not sure I'm comfortable talking about this right now…If it's okay with you princess?"

"But of course."

"The reason I came here was to show you this," Twilight announced levitating a parchment to the princess. "I wrote a letter to Princess Celestia informing her of our victory and our return. She sent me this letter almost immediately and it has me worried."

Luna's eyes quickly scanned the length of the parchment and the first thing she noticed was her sister's perfect calligraphy was missing. Then she raised an eyebrow in concern as she read its contents.

You must turn back Twilight. You must return to Wyndia and seek protection with Lord Graywing. You must turn back now.

"This, this can't be right," Luna said nervously as she quickly moved next to Spike, who was still standing right outside the door. "Spike, I need a parchment and quill."

The young dragon obliged and the Princess snatched it and wrote furiously on the paper. She quickly levitated it back to Spike.

"Send this to my sister at once please." She told him. Spike obliged and blew the letter into magical dust. Minutes passed that seemed to drag for hours and then suddenly he burped back out a letter. Before he could even grab it, Luna snatched it with magic, unrolled it and quickly read it quietly to herself. Once finished she rolled up the parchment and without bothering to put on her royal garb she began to gallop towards the bridge.

"Princess," Twilight yelled starting after her now growing concerned. "What did she say?

Luna turned and looked back at Twilight; the princes had a terrified look on her face as a cold sweat had developed on her brow.

"We must return to Equestria as swiftly as possible!"