Chapter 2
Twilight groaned as she slowly came to. She had a killer headache and her body seemed to ache a little bit everywhere, thanks to sleeping in a weird position. Rubbing her hoof against her head, she looked about the area and noticed they seemed to be in the Everfree Forest. But as her memories returned she realized that this was not likely the truth. Slowly Twilight stood up and noticed her two friends, Applejack and Rainbow Dash, were still around and unharmed.
Sighing, Twilight moved over to them and tried to wake them, but it seemed both of them were still stuck fast asleep thanks to Luna's spell. Twilight realized the blue Alicorn was nowhere to be seen. Looking around she moved to check to see if they were truly alone, but before she had gone too far Twilight ran into a large magical barrier. She could tell it was made by Luna, but it was too powerful for her to break without aid from another Unicorn.
Twilight sighed and laid down on the ground. There was nothing she could really do till either one of two things happened. The first being her friends waking up, in which case maybe she could figure out a way to break the barrier holding them with their help. The second being Luna returning and releasing them, though that could take a long time.
But to Twilight's surprise, only a few minutes after laying down Luna trotted up. Twilight blinked getting up and walked over to where Luna was going to enter. Luna touched the barrier with her horn causing it to fall and break apart with the sound of shattering glass.
"Well hello, Princess Luna," Twilight said, giving her a light glare.
"Hello again, Twilight, sleep well?" Luna asked, looking slight annoyed. Whether it was from the glare, or something else, Twilight could not tell yet.
"I would have if you had laid me down properly! But that doesn't matter now. What is going on and where are we?" Twilight asked rather angrily.
"I guess I should explain better now that we have time to actually talk, but first I must wake those two," Luna said, sighing as she moved over and used a spell to wake the other two sleeping ponies.
Once they were awake and ready to listen, Luna spoke, "Well, as you three already know, we are or were heading to another world. And as you can guess, we already have entered into that world."
"But why are we here to begin with, and for that matter, why are we here for Nightmare Moon?" Applejack asked confused.
"I will start from the beginning," Luna said sighing.
"The beginning, as in when you were sealed?" Twilight asked.
"Not so far back. It started a few years before I was released from the sealing to return home. I was at my wits' end mentally. At the time, Night was still very dark and evil. Normally, during my years of banishment, she would only come to torment me about every two years or so. But as we got into the last few years of our banishment, her attacks increased in both amount and strength," Luna said, a sad look in her eyes as she thought back to that time.
"But couldn't you banish her or something yourself?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"No, while I was banished, much of my magical power was sealed. And since she was made from my own magic to begin with, I could not actively do anything to physically harm her, though the same was true for her attacking me. But this did not stop her from using mental tactics to get at me. So as the time grew closer to our release, my resolve to be the one to return started to weaken increasingly more. But before I could fully break, something happened that I did not expect," Luna said, her sad look slowly changing to a small smile.
"A young one appeared on my side of the moon, he looked much like the apes we know of but with much less fur. He, like me, was dealing with a rather harsh time and had been wishing for a friend to be with. And during the night, as he slept, he had somehow used magic to partly teleported himself to my home on the light side of the moon. When I say partly I mean he looked rather like a ghost, yet I could touch him and he me. It was rather interesting to say the least, our first meeting, as neither one of us was very sure the other was truly real. But we took comfort in each other and, surprisingly, Night stopped her attack that day," Luna said, a smile showing on her face.
"Wait, you said your side of the moon, are you saying Nightmare did not stay near or with you?" Twilight asked.
"No, she never did, nor did she really want to. When we split it caused us to represent the two sides of the moon. I took the light side, Night on the other hand took the dark side. And before you ask, it was because of her mental link with me, by being born from my magic, that she could talk with me whenever she wanted, even if she was on the other side of the moon," Luna explained.
Twilight nodded, gaining a thoughtful look, "It makes sense as all magic has an opposite. Creation magic and destruction magic are the best known examples of this fact."
"Indeed. Anyway, though he was quite the shy little boy no thanks to his relatives he soon was cuddled into my side and we talked and got to know each other better. That was quite fortunate, because when he awoke in his own world he took me with him. The next night, we didn't touch; that was a long day for us both. After that we made sure to touch when he began to feel his body awaken." Luna said a small smile forming on her face.
"But that first day, I escaped from the moon for the first time in nearly a thousand years, though as little more than a ghost, like he was on the moon. Fortunately, because otherwise I would probably have crushed him in his "bedroom"," Luna said, first smiling then looking a little angry.
"Anyway, as time went on, our friendship grew. Soon though, Night made her move. She had seen through our bond how the boy was being mistreated, as well as his magical potential," Luna said, when Twilight interrupted.
"But didn't you say she could only talk to you through your bond?"
"I, or we, have always used some mental arts, like appearing in dreams, but while I was quite apathetic after our banishment, she busied herself with exploring our link. Though I was not aware of it then, by that time she could easily see through my eyes." Luna answered.
"And though she held no love for him at the time, she did see an opportunity to use him. She created powerful nightmares for those that hurt him, to improve his life to win him over to her side. It worked partly as he did start liking her."
"Wait, did he not realize how dangerous she was?" Applejack asked confused.
"I think he did, but the idea of another friend was too much for him to willingly turn down. But it certainly made Night quite confident that, if it ever came to a choice between me or her, he'd choose her, because she had helped him more directly. And she surely took every opportunity to point that out to me," Luna said, sighing and shaking her head.
"That doesn't really sound like somepony we should save," Rainbow Dash huffed.
"That was then, almost six years ago. A lot can happen in six years, dear, and a lot did. We found out many things about this world, from the magical side of it hiding from the non-magical side, to the lack of true harmony in this world. As it was, during the two years before school he worked his way into Night's heart and started helping her with something even I had never realized before," Luna said.
"And what was that?" Rainbow asked.
"Growing up. You see, by all rights, Night was born the same day we were sealed in the moon. As such, she had never known love, kindness, or friendship. She had my old memories, yes, but it was like looking at someone else's photo books. They just didn't hold the same meaning to her that they did to me. This boy provided those emotions and slowly her heart was changed." Luna said, smiling fondly at some of these memories.
"So she became good then?" Twilight asked.
"In a manner of speaking, yes she did. Yet while she became good, it was only towards people we cared about and became friends with. To all others she was either indifferent or even hostile, depending on what you did around her. Then, about a year before it was time for our return to the world of ponies, our young friend, Harry, got enrolled into a school for magical users. It is called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and happens to be the place we are nearby currently," Luna said, pointing her front left hoof off through the forest in the direction of Hogwarts.
"I guess you taught him a lot during that year," Twilight said.
"Yes, it was for many reasons the happiest time of my life during my time being sealed, Night's as well. But then came the time for us to return," Luna said with a heavy sigh, before continuing, "Young Harry was distraught to hear that I would likely be unable to return, perhaps not or even have a way to communicate with him once I had left if the bond with Night would break. But even more so when he learned the same would be true for Night, if the plan Night and I had come up with failed."
"He begged me not to go through with the plan, but sadly there was no other option. The magic Celestia had woven the day she banished me would pull me back to her world, whether I wanted to go or not, and Night with me. But let me explain the plan in some more detail. When we returned Night would play up her part as the evil villain and as such would make all the ponies work to stop her. Then when they came with the Elements of Harmony we would use the magical output from them to form a portal to this world. We did not need a rune to set up this portal as the magic that would be used would be more than enough to make up for the lack of a rune to direct it fully. Then when Night returned she would keep Harry safe and happy till I hopefully could return and bring them both home to Equestria," Luna explained.
"And thus you tested us to see if we could use the elements to, help you," Applejack said, remembering that from before.
"Yes, and as you can tell, it worked. Nightmare was returned to this world and I stayed in Equestria. Celestia never suspected a thing, till recently when I started researching space and time magic. It was not until I started looking through spells that used chaos magic to summon creatures from other worlds, that she realized I had been hiding something rather big from her. But, by then it was too late for her to stop me as I had found and designed the spell and rune you saw, to let me travel worlds," Luna said, sighing.
"Let me guess, she said she needed to talk with you soon and you freaked out?" Twilight said rather logically.
"Well… yes. By this point It had been almost half a year since I had noticed the bond between me and Night had been severed by something. And after that long, I was not about to let anything stop me. So stealing the Elements of Harmony seemed a rather small thing if it let me do what I needed," Luna said as Twilight finally noticed for the first time that Luna was looking rather worn down, with bags under her eyes.
"And when you say almost anything, what do you mean?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I will leave that unanswered," Luna said, not wanting to admit just how far she would have gone.
"I see," Applejack said, sharing a slightly worried look with her two friends.
"I would not have actually harmed anyone if that is what you are thinking," Luna said semiannoyed.
"We never said anything about harming anyone," Applejack said quickly.
"Yes, but you were thinking it," Luna said glaring, "Anyway, that leaves us where we are now."
"So it does. So what are your plans now and how can we help you?" Twilight asked.
"Twilight, you cannot be serious! She stole the Elements of Harmony, basically kidnapped us, and you're asking how we can help her?" Rainbow yelled out, taking to the air in her shock and amazement.
"Not to be mean, sugar cube, but I have to agree with Rainbow here. Why should we help her?" Applejack asked confused.
"Because you two are forgetting some rather important points that matter a lot if we wish to leave sooner rather than later. One, Luna is the only one that knows the spell and rune to get us back to our own world. Two, she is also the only one that currently knows the locations of the Elements of Harmony. And lastly, and most importantly, she did this all for two friends she loves greatly. Don't tell that if I was in this same situation you would not do the same thing to help me," Twilight said, glaring at her two friends.
"Well… I well…" Rainbow Dash fell silent as she realized this was all true.
Sinking to the ground, she walked over and looked Luna in the eye, before sighing and looking down at the ground. Applejack came over and nuzzled her head against Rainbow Dash's neck and smiled at her multicolored friend. Rainbow Dash looked at her before looking at Luna again and sighed again, looking slightly embarrassed and annoyed.
"I will help as well. And, well, I'm sorry for being mean," Rainbow said.
"Agreed, on both accounts," Applejack said.
Luna looked happy and rather relieved that she would not have to deal with fighting them and saving her friends at the same time. She smiled as they gave her a group hug. Then, as they took their spots again, Luna said they would first be getting some real rest. It was still rather late at night, and while Luna was used to staying up all night, she had been up for almost two days straight without rest after Nightmare Night, preparing for this spell.
After Twilight and Luna replaced the protection barrier, and a warning from Luna to not explore the forest without her, the group was once again off to sleep, curled up close together to ward off the cold autumn night. Luna was asleep right away and the others followed soon after, even though they had already slept a few hours.
The next day, Luna was woken by Rainbow who looked rather perky and happy considering what had happened last night. When everyone was awake, Luna led them to a few berry bushes and mushrooms she had noticed last night while returning to the clearing. After a short breakfast, Luna got them together so they could head out.
"Okay. Follow me, and don't stray too far from the group. This forest is in many ways worse than the Everfree Forest," Luna said as they wove their way through the woods.
"How can there be something worse than the Everfree Forest?" Rainbow asked.
"I am sure you have all seen Timberwolves before?" Luna asked, answering the question with one of her own.
"I have," Rainbow said, nodding as she took to the air to fly along just above the group.
"Yup," Applejack said.
"Read about them and seen pictures," Twilight said.
"There are creatures in this forest that are just as bad to face if not worse, and in greater numbers. To be honest, the Everfree Forest is not really dangerous, as there is only the Timberwolves that really pose a danger to most normal ponies," Luna said as they walked, casting her gaze around to see if anything was near them.
"I guess I can agree with that," Twilight said, thinking about it.
"But everything takes care of itself there! Plants, animals, monsters, they all can handle themselves without pony help. That isn't normal!" Applejack said.
To her surprise Luna laughed slightly at this before she spoke again, "You have grown up in truly peaceful times. If you actually look back far enough in history, you will notice that at one time no one took care of anything other than the plants we ate to live. It was only within the last five hundred years or so that we got to the point of controlling nearly every aspect of the year."
"You mean the seasons, weather, animals and plants all used to do their own thing?" Rainbow asked surprised.
"Yes, though we started working on controlling the weather and seasons even farther back," Luna said, remembering those days when it would snow or rain without reason.
"That must have been a rather crazy world," Applejack said, thinking over what it would be like to grow food in a world where the weather could not be predicted down to the minute.
"No. It had its own balance and harmony, much like this world," Luna said with a small smile.
"So where are we going?" Rainbow asked, noticing the trees were thinning out, allowing them to move in a straighter line.
"We are headed up to that castle, my friends," Luna said as they rounded a rather large tree.
In front, running for hundreds of feet, were flat grasslands with a huge lake by a large hill. But then they saw what was built on the hill; their mouths fell open in surprise. It was a castle, but it was well beyond anything they had ever seen. It outsized the royal castle in Canterlot easily, as the main hall could probably house the whole royal castle, though without its spires. But those were easily dwarfed by this castle's towers, which even without the hill seemed to rise hundreds of feet into the air. It also had an air of mystery hanging about it that made it look even more impressive.
"My friends, welcome to Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Luna said.
Looking up at the castle towers, knowing inside one of them were two of her closest friends, she quietly said to herself, "Harry, Night, I have finally come to bring you home."