A Very 'Grey' Trail

by Crimson Twilight

Chapter 3, Let The Hunt Begin!

Moon Dust had never slept as good as she had last night and never had she felt so energetic. Normally Moon wasn't a morning person, but that might just have been because she'd never truly slept well. That was what she thought until she removed the blinders and was bathed in sunlight. I guess I'm still a night person, well at least I'm rested up. Moon jumped when a knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

"Miss Dust, Princess Luna, and Celestia wishes you to come. Please follow me–" Panic quickly rose in Dust at the statement.

"I didn't do anything wrong! I promise!"

"–to the dining hall." And just like that, she had embarrassed herself before even getting out of her room. Just great. Thankfully Luna wasn't here to see mee... She wasn't able to finish her train of thought before she noticed Luna smirking behind the servant that had come to get her.

"I do believe our decision to come here paid off." The smirk on her face had evolved into a grin. "I believe we are even now, don't thou think so, too?" It didn't have the effect Luna expected. Instead of a groan, Dust wore a menacing smirk.

"I believe that Princess Celestia had something to talk about, don't you think it's going to be fun." All Luna could do was to swallow hard. She lost her hunger at that moment, not wanting to bring Dust and Celestia together, but it was already too late.

---

Breakfast was Tartarus for Luna. Celestia didn't seem to know the meaning of privacy and personal space, no, she had to tell Dust about all the embarrassing things she did as a filly. Celestia seemed to enjoy telling the stories as Moon was to hear all the cute and adorable things Luna had done, like the time with the cookie jar war, was Luna had tried to declare war on Celestia for eating the last cookie. It was even more adorable than it sounds. The Woona incident was too, way too funny, though Luna didn't seem to think so.

Breakfast had felt like it had been even longer of a wait than when she was banished to the moon, which if I have to remind you was one thousand years of the same. But as the banishment had ended so had this terrible morning. Not wanting to delay anymore, Luna picked Dust up in her magic and made a quick trot trying not to seem rushed, and failing miserably at it. "Hey! Let me go!"

"'Tis time to get going, don't thou think? Or, hast thee forgotten thy brother already?" Moon Dust lowered her head before looking Luna in her eyes, wearing a small blush and a genuine smile.

"You're right, I've just forgotten how it feels to have fun... Thanks for reminding me." It didn't take long before the smile became a grin, "I did enjoy spending time with you last night." She ended with batting her eyelashes causing Luna to blush furiously.

"H-hast thou go-gone insane? W-we did n-no s-such thing!" Moon couldn't hold out letting lose a giggle, which quickly turned into laughter. "We do not enjoy thy jokes! Hast things changed this much, 'tis unacceptable!"

"Heh, sorry but I'm not sorry. I'll try to not go with too many sex jokes, but no promises!" They paused to calm down before Dust continued, "But you are right in that we should get going. I'll let you have a free one later, though the 'offer'"– she gave Luna a seductive wink–" still stands, just tell me." And brushed her tail against Luna, who was yet again blushing madly.

"Right–" she coughed, trying to get the pictures out of her mind, "Where were we? Ah, yes, you were telling us about thou and thy brother, wasn't thou?"

Dust was going to say that that wasn't what they were talking about but wasn't able to disobey Luna with the stare she was giving her. She gulped and began, "W-well me and m-my siblings used to play, but one night we found Gray, as I later came to call him, as a nymph, hurt and exhausted. We brought him home so that he could recover. We had never seen an Alicorn nym-foal before as we live quite remotely. We told our mother about it, and after a while agreed to let him stay with our clutch. Since nopony came looking for him after a month we adopted him. He never remembered his real parents and began at first to think that we were his real family. Of course, he did realize that we weren't rather quickly, but for us, that wasn't important. One day I came looking for Gray in our bedroom, Shadow, one of my brothers had asked for us to join him, all I found was a note from Gray saying that he had left. That was three years ago." She let out a sad sigh before finishing, " The rest you already know..."

Luna lifted Dust's head with her hoof, "Fret not child, for I shall help thou. And we shall not rest until we find thy brother." She gave her a friendly smile before continuing, "We promise on our honor as a Princess of Equestria that we shall find him! One way or another."

They walked out through the main port where two guards stood, ever so vigilant. They saluted before opening up allowing access to the two mares. One was a Unicorn and the other a Pegasus. Moon flickered her tail causing both of them to look away, their faces tinted red. Both mares giggled slightly. "Fine, it might be somewhat funny, to see our guards for once loosen up a bit, it truly is something rare."

"Maybe you should try? Nopony would expect it! We could prank your sister!"

"Ha! Thou wish I were to do something so out of character our sister would think a changeling had replaced us!" Moon's face lit up with panic and laughed trying to hide it, but failing so.

"Haha, yes... So–, what's a changeling. Never heard of them before, nope! Say where did you hear about them?"

Luna looked at Dust suspiciously. "During the channeling invasion, do you no remember?"

Her tone full of confusion, she asked, "Changeling invasion, when did that happen?"

"It was just a couple of months ago. Why wouldn't you know, if I may ask?"

"Oh... Right, well, I came to Equestria just a month ago, I was in the Griffon Kingdom at that point. It's really a mess since they lost that artifact of theirs. What happened during the invasion, they don't sound like the guys that would just invade if they could simply switch you out with one of their own? Huh, strange."

"Ah, that would explain why you didn't know about it, but there's something thou art hiding or is that a lie?"

"W-well... Fine yes, but I'd rather not talk about it and shouldn't we look for my brother?"

"Fine, we shall discuss it later. But you will have to tell us the whole truth then, understood?"

"Yes, Luna..." They walked down the street until they reached the outer wall of Canterlot, where Luna bought two train tickets. "Where are we headed? Luna?"

"Ah, forgive us, we were simply thinking. As for where we are headed, we're going to Fillydelfia."

---

Two ponies in cloaks were looking at the train leaving. "Do you think that was what I think it was?" Said the Earth Pony stallion.

"Yes, it has to be..." Answered the Unicorn mare.