Bittersweet Memories

First things first, a little background on who I am. I am Jenetar, a pegasus pony from Equestria. My dark purple colored body contrasts nicely with my bright orange eyes, or so I am told. I don’t know why, but my mane is always spiky and poofy. It sticks out everywhere, making me look like a pinecone with a face. I seem to have trouble with gravity. Whoever heard of a pony breaking the laws of physics? It’s black with purple highlights, and matches my short and spiky tail. I’m usually pretty emotional, and get startled very, very easily. I have no idea who my parents are, but I never cared. I live in a hut on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, with little more than a bed and a mirror. I had a nice view of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, but that was about it. I’m provided for by the princess, which I’ll get to in a second. With who I am out of the way, lets get on with it.

My life is perfect. Me and Luna are inseparable. When we were young, we would spend our time playing together, or helping each other with chores, or pranking each other and laughing over it for weeks. We’re best friends. She’s in charge with raising the moon every night, and I’ve become so used to sleeping in the day just to see her, I’ve become nocturnal. Her sister, Celestia, is princess of Equestria. We can do almost anything we want, and have no problem taking advantage of this. We never use our place among society to cause trouble, we both agreed that we don’t want a bad reputation. But we would run around the castle playing tag or hide-and seek, or get the guards to chase us around. We even got them to build a giant slide for us once. Being that Luna talks about me to her sister so much, Celestia always has food and supplies dropped off at my hut during the day. It’s usually pretty standard food, and I can’t complain. But once a week, she sends me a box of waffles. I bucking love waffles. I’ve only ever met her sister once or twice, so I don’t know her that well. But from what Luna tells me, she is strict, but kind. She doesn’t like when rules are broken, but always enjoys a good laugh. I almost wish I could meet her. But I spend all my time with Luna, so I don’t feel compelled to make any more friends. She feels the same way. Everypony sleeps at night, and I’m the only one who stays up to see her. She’s the only friend I’d ever need.

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One night, Luna comes flying toward me in excitement. I can tell she’s excited because she only rushes around everywhere when she’s excited. She gets to me, out of breath, and tells me about how she just learned that when she’s old enough, she will become a princess along side her sister! I start screaming and squealing along side her in amazement. It’s the best news she’s ever told me. I am the best friend of the soon-to-be princess of the night? It feels too good to be true. She says the first thing she will do is make me her personal body guard. When those words escape her mouth, my brain flinches, and my smile disappears. I’m going to have the responsibility of protecting the princess? This is both a dream and a nightmare. I feel so honored to be in such an important position, yet I feel anxious. I can’t defend anypony! I have fairly quick reflexes and can fly faster than a Wonderbolt (Luna talked me into racing a member after seeing how fast I could fly), but that’s it.

After a while of staring into space, Luna pipes up, “Jenetar? You okay?” Snapping back to reality, I say blankly, “...huh? Wha?...Oh yeah...umm, I’m fine...” Luna sighs, “Ok good.” She looks down at her hooves. I can tell something’s wrong. “Jenetar, I have some bad news.” I turn and face her, “What’s wrong?” She starts slowly with disappointment in her eyes, “Because I’m going to be a princess, I’m going to be spending all my time with big sister now, learning how to be a princess, so unfortunately, I’ll be too busy to spend time with you.” She looks down at the ground, with sadness in her eyes. She almost starts crying, when I put my hoof on her shoulder and say as optimistic as I can, “It’s okay, I understand! It’s great that you’ll be on your way to being princess!” She looks at me with teary eyes, “It’ll be for three years! I won’t get to see you for three years!” The smile fades from my face. Three years without play time? Three years without my friend? Three years without snack time, pranks, or anything? Three years? Alone?

She’s on the verge of crying, when I speak up, “It won’t be so bad! Besides, I’ll be thinking about you the whole time!” I’m fighting back tears, but I’m able to keep a friendly face so she won’t feel bad. She looks up at me with relief. “Oh, thank you so much for understanding! You’re the best friend I could hope to have!” She throws her arms around me and gives me a hug. I jump in surprise, but then wrap my arms around her too. “Sorry,” she giggles. “S’okay,” I reply.

On the way back to my hut, I decide to commit myself to training to becoming the greatest warrior pony Equestria has ever seen. I won’t let the princess down, let alone my best and only friend.

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A week passes, and it’s the most tiring week ever. Luna insists that we spend as much time as possible doing fun things and hanging out together, since it’ll be the last time we’ll see each other for three years.

But now she’s gone, and I know what I’m going to do. I’ll spend these three years training myself to become better at everything. I’ll work on my reflexes, speed, agility, toughness, strategizing; everything that would ever be important in protecting somepony. I know I’ll get lonely, but I can push through it if it means my best friend will be safe. My training activities are a bit eccentric, but they work. To train my speed, reflexes, and agility, I sneak into the local apple orchard and buck as many trees as I can, as fast as I can, before they fall in the buckets. Being that my reflexes and such are already pretty good, I can buck quite a few trees before the apples fall. Maybe ten or so. To build up my strength and stamina, I push storm clouds across the sky. Storm clouds are heavier than normal clouds because of all the water, so I can only do about five or six to about halfway across the Everfree Forest before I get tired. To get tougher, I hurl myself into a hill or the ground until I can’t take the pain anymore. It’s undoubtedly the worst one to endure, but I always tell myself that it might save Luna one day, and I keep going. All these things, plus the classic strength training of pushups, running, and thinking up imaginary situations for myself to solve, keep me busy throughout the nights. And all the while, I think about Luna, and how she’s doing. I constantly promise her that I will never let anything happen to her, as I drift off to sleep, watching the sun rise.

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Tonight marks two years. I’ve been training vigorously the whole time. Before, when secretly bucking the apple trees, I’d be able to do about thirty or so before they fell in the buckets. Now, I can buck the entire 4-acre field before they fall into the basket. I’ve decided to start training my eyesight and reflexes by bucking all the apple trees, then seeing how many of the apples I can hit before they fall to the ground. After the first few months, the family who owns the orchard got suspicious about a mysterious being who keeps harvesting their apples in the night. I wonder who that could be? I almost got caught once. They set up nets to try and catch me, but that was after about eight months, and I had trained enough by then that I ripped right through the net and crashed into a few trees. I was so scared of being discovered, I went right back to my hut and hid for the rest of the night. They’ve since given up trying to catch me which, for whatever reason, I can’t complain. Maybe they figure that they were getting their apples bucked for free, so why stop me? As far as toughness, after about a year, I smashed a hole into the hill I’d been practicing on. Ever since then, I practice on mountains. To date, my record is a crater about fifteen ponies across. The best part is, I barely feel it. Pushing storm clouds was probably the thing I most improve on. I used to push about five or six halfway across the Everfree Forest. Now I push sixty or so all the way across Equestria. My record for most pushed at a time was somewhere around ninety, but that was only for a short while.

About a month in, I decide to do some handicapped training. I tie my wings down and practice running, jumping, and other activities on my hooves, without the help of my wings. Now, I can run almost half as fast as I can fly (which is faster than anypony else I’ve ever seen can even fly), jump onto the roof of my hut, which is about ten times taller than me, and can make my way across the Everfree Forest without touching the ground at all. Aside from not using my wings, I’ve taken to blindfolding myself and worked on improving my other senses. I agitate various creatures to improve my alertness without my sight. The first time I tried it, I bumped into about every tree in the forest and got my plot kicked by a bunny. After two years, I can navigate myself through almost anything, and detect things I can’t see. I’ve almost begun to develop an ability to predict things, but I don’t believe in that kind of thing. The closest thing to it is magic, and I’m not a unicorn. As far as mental strength goes, I’ve put myself through so many scenarios and tests, I’m starting to think myself into paradoxes. I’ll wonder if I forgot to do something, then wonder if I was supposed to forget something, then wonder if I forgot to forget something, and so on. Once I get to that point, I just say “Ah, forget it,” and stop thinking about it. After two years, almost nothing frightens me. The only thing that I worry about is Luna. I always wonder how she’s doing, and constantly think about her progress as a princess. Being alone is really taking a toll on my sanity. I’m still perfectly fine as far as being civil and “normal,” but I talk to myself a lot. I even argue with myself sometimes. But I’m still perfectly capable of handling myself in front of others. I think. I’ve never talked to or even seen anypony since Luna left. I still sleep during the day and wake up at night, so I have no pony else to spend time with. I don’t care for anypony else anyway. All I want is Luna.

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Tonight is the night. Tonight, I get to see my best friend. Three years have passed since she left, and my wait is over. The last year has been constant work for me. I’ve progressed a lot since two years. After bucking and hitting so many apples, I’ve done the entire 4-acre field of trees. I got bored with it, so I learned how to do it blindfolded. I may or may not have the ability to predict the near future after all, or maybe I just got so good at strategizing, I know how things will happen. Whatever it is, it seems unreal to me. I can push up to 130 storm clouds across Equestria, and have pushed up to 160 at a time. To scale, ten storm clouds is approximately the weight of a house. As far as handicaps go, I’ve traveled across the Everfree Forest, jumping off of every tree only once, without touching the ground. I’ve also defeated a Manticore blindfolded. It wasn’t easy, but my sense of hearing allows me to use some sort of echolocation. My pain tolerance amazes me sometimes. I’ve bored holes into the mountain I practice on so many times, it caved in on itself. I still feel pain, but it’s almost nothing compared to what I used to feel. The only downside to my time alone, I’m starting to go crazy. I constantly talk to my reflection like it’s a completely different pony, and I swear it talks back. My arguments with myself have gotten so bad, I once beat myself senseless over whether the supply box from the princess was brown or beige. I just hope that seeing Luna again after so long will restore my sanity. She’s all I have.

“JENETAR!” she screams as she flies at me. Apparently my loss of sanity also increased my tendency to get startled, because when I hear Luna scream from almost right behind me, I shriek at the top of my lungs and fly through several clouds. After I collect myself, and after several fits of laughter from Luna, I go back down and give her the biggest hug I can. After hearing a crack from her shoulder, I realize I have to tone it down a lot. “Owowowowowow...” she winces. I gasp, “Ohmygoodnessohmygoodness, I’m so sorry! Are you ok?!” She lets out a sigh, “Ahhhhhhhh. You have no idea how much that spot had been bothering me!” I let out a sigh of relief. “Whew! I’m glad I didn’t hurt yo-” I barely finish the sentence when she squeezes me as tight as she can and begins crying. “I missed y-you so m-much, Jenetar!” she sobs. I feel tears running down my back, and soon enough, I feel them running down my own face. “I m-missed you t-too.”

For what feels like forever, we sit there embracing each other, crying our hearts out. Many tears and sniffles later, we let go of each other and sit down, looking each other over. I get my first real look of her. She’s become beautiful in just three years; taller and more refined, as if she had used the entire three years using magic to make herself prettier. She’s the size of a normal pony now, but we’re the same size, so I guess I had grown just as much. She’s the first to speak. “Oh my goodness! You grew up a lot!” I blush a little before stuttering, “You l-look o-older too.” I’m still dumbfounded about how graceful she’s become. She immediately begins asking me questions. “How have you been? What have you been doing? Did you talk to anypony else while I was gone? I’m so glad to see that you’re doing ok!” I begin to answer them, still transfixed on her elegance. “Umm...I’ve been ok. No, I didn’t talk to anypony else, since everypony still sleeps at night. I’ve be-” “You still sleep during the day? That’s so sweet!” Luna’s interruption catches me off guard, and I nearly dent the rock we’re sitting on in surprise. “Oops!” she giggles. “Are you ok?” I dig myself out of the cloud I flew into and sit back down. “Yep! Just a little jumpy, that’s all.” Luna laughs, “Wow, I remember you used to get scared really easily, but now it’s even worse!” She doubles over in laughter, and I begin laughing too. I didn’t find anything funny about getting scared like that, but seeing her this happy again after all this time makes me want to laugh, too. After we gather ourselves up again, I continue my story, trying to ignore the heavy breathing I hear behind us. “Anyways, as far as what I’ve been doing, I’ve be-DUCK!”

I jump on top of her as a Manticore leaps over us. It lands on the other side of us with a thud. “Wha...how did you...?” Luna begins to ask. I tell her in a more serious voice than I thought I would ever talk to her in, “Luna, go hide. I’ll handle this.” She begins to protest. “But, Jenetar! What if you-” “NOW.” I almost shout. I feel horrible. The first time in three years we see each other, and this is how I treat her? No, no. This is for her protection. If she hates me for treating her like this, I’ll feel better knowing that I did my best to protect her. “But...but...okay. Just please, be careful.” I hear her duck behind a rock, but then she peeks her head over the top of the rock. She just wants to watch, and I can tell she isn’t seen. If she wants to see what I can do after all this time, then I’ll show her. I walk calmly over to the growling Manticore. I’m not afraid of it at all. I hear from behind me, “Jenetar! What are you doing?!” I have no time to comfort her. The Manticore lets out a ground-shaking roar and swings its massive paw straight for my head. “JENETAR!!”

Three years of training come into focus as the Manticore’s paw comes to a shattering halt against my head. I feel Luna wince and look away, even through the impact. But I stand completely still, letting the Manticore’s paw come to a dead stop on my head. I hear a crack from its wrist. Then a painful roar. Then a gasp from behind me. I let out a slight chuckle. I impressed her. It feels good knowing that the three years of training are already starting to pay off. She hasn’t seen anything yet. I back up, then fly forward and ram my front hooves into its stomach. It doubles over in pain. I fly up past the clouds, and bring all my weight onto its back. The moment I hit it, a huge crater appears where it had been laying. I hear its spine shatter, but no sound from the its mouth. I killed it. My first act as a bodyguard is done. I trained harder than I thought. I didn’t know its wrist would break just from hitting me. And if I’d known that I could break its spine, I wouldn’t have started so high up. I just killed a Manticore to save my best friend. Three years was worth it.

I hear Luna get up from behind the rock. From the way she’s breathing, I can tell that her mouth was wide open. “J-Jenetar...did you...did you just...” I slowly trot over to where she sits in awe. I could wait for hours while she composed herself, but I want to tell her what I really have been doing for three years before I get interrupted again. “Luna,” I begin, “these past three years I’ve been training. Training to become the greatest protector you could ever ask for. Every night, I would think of you and how you were doing. I would go out and work my hardest, just because I knew it would keep you safe.” When I get through spilling my story, she just stares at me. I suspect that she was expecting me to have been too busy having a life to worry about her. If that’s what she thinks, she’s wrong. I had thought about her. Every night, when I went out to train, I thought about her. Not a night went by I didn’t worry about her. And here she is, trying to contemplate everything. When she finally gets through thinking, tears form in her eyes. “You’ve been doing all of this for me? For three years?” I go over to embrace her. “Of course. I wouldn’t have forgotten about you.” She continues to cry, and I continue to hug her. “Thank y-you so m-much! Th-thank y-you...s-so m-m-much...” At this point, she breaks down and begins sobbing hysterically. “I missed you so much!” At this point, I can’t take it. I start sobbing too. “I m-missed you t-too.”

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After a week of nonstop company, Luna tells me about her progress so far on becoming a princess. She tells me all about her studies and lessons, which all seem immensely boring, but I’m happy for her for finding them all so interesting. She tells me that her initiation ceremony is in one week, and she wants to present me as her bodyguard when she is given the title. I feel honored. No, I feel ecstatic. I’m going to be presented in front of everypony as “Jenetar, the royal bodyguard.”

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It’s the most outrageous organized event I have ever witnessed. Everypony in Equestria showed up in their best clothes, and are all gathered in the massive courtyard to witness the ceremony. I, being a bit shy in front of crowds, decide to watch from behind a cloud. I had just picked out a good spot to put one, when Luna stops me and asks me to be her escort onto the stage. It seems pretty embarrassing, but if it makes Luna happy, then I’m not going to refuse her. She’s dressed up in a beautiful flowing gown, and I, against my will, was put in a tuxedo. I was never one for fancy outfits, but I have to think of Luna. No, I don’t have to. I already am. The ceremony itself is pretty boring; it’s all mostly “blah blah blah blah blah” from Celestia, with the occasional “blah blah” from Luna. Sooner or later, I’m jolted out of my doldrums when the entire crowd erupts in cheering. Luckily, even though it startles me pretty good, I don’t make too much movement or break anything. Once the audience quiets down, Luna begins her acceptance speech, which is only a few words. “I, Luna, promise to watch over the night, and pledge myself as Princess of Equestria.” Everypony begins to makes the loudest noise they can, and I can’t tell what it is, but I assume it’s applause. I watch as Celestia puts the tiara on Luna’s head, and everypony cheers even louder. I’m too busy holding back tears. I’m so proud of her. She finally became a princess. I must have forgotten about her promise, because I’m surprised when she holds her hoof up to silence the crowd.

“I am so honored to be your princess, and I would like to use this opportunity to make my first action as royalty.” Luna shoots a glance over at me with a warm smile, then continues speaking. “Being a princess, I know that I will need protection. That is why I would like to take this time to appoint a royal bodyguard.” My heart skips a beat. I had kept it in the back of my mind that she would appoint me as her bodyguard, but I wasn’t thinking about it. Now that I am, am I really ready? Do I really have what it takes to defend her from anything? What if she gets attacked by somepony with more training than me? No, no, I am ready. She wouldn’t entrust me with her safety it if she doubted me at all. “Throughout my childhood, I only had one friend. Because I brought out the moon at night, there was only one pony who stayed up to spend time with me. He was my best and only friend. When I took three years to study, I felt awful for leaving him alone. I thought about him constantly and worried that he would forget about me.” Hearing this, about how she thought about me all the time, a smile spreads across my face. Even with everything she was busy with, she still bothered herself over me? I get teary-eyed as she continues. “But after those three years, I learned that not only was he using that time to think about me, he was using his nights to get ready for me. He knew about becoming my bodyguard, and started to practice for it. I felt so honored that he would not only think about me every night, but train himself for me.” I’m on the edge of crying my eyes out. To hear her say how proud she is of me in front of everypony in Equestria makes me want to run over and give her the biggest hug I can. I stop myself by thinking of how embarrassing it would be to both of us, and also about how I’d probably hurt her if I wasn’t careful.

Luna continues with her speech, “And that is why I would like to appoint my best and only friend, Jenetar, as my royal sentinel.” I can’t tell if the crowd is still there, or if Celestia is still standing behind Luna, or if I’m still in the castle. I can only focus on Luna, standing there looking at me with the proudest look on her face. I walk up to her, still in disbelief. For a moment, there’s nothing but Luna, but I start to become conscious of my surroundings again. I begin to hear the faint roar of the crowd of ponies, Celestia appears in my peripheral vision, and I can begin to see the outline of castle walls. My mind is in denial. I can’t take it. I force myself so come back to reality, as I speak with pride, “I accept.” Luna pulls me into a hug, and to my surprise, Celestia comes over and gives both of us a hug. I am the bodyguard of the princess of the night. I don’t know what to think. So I don’t. I just let myself be embraced by the two princesses for what seems like forever. After a while, Luna whispers in my ear, “I thought you would like the word ‘sentinel’ better,” with a small giggle. She’s right. It certainly is a cool word, but it wouldn’t have mattered to me either way. I now have the responsibility of keeping the princess safe, and I know I won’t let anything happen to her.

I hope I’m not wrong.

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It’s been a year since Luna became princess, and I became her royal sentinel. Nothing ever happened to endanger Luna directly, but every so often, she sends me off to defend ponies from nighttime dangers, such as attacks from wild animals too dangerous to be rid of by the regular royal guards, or getting rid of storm clouds too heavy for anypony else to move. Once, I had to defeat an Ursa Minor. I woke up in my bedroom later, with both princesses at my side and two broken legs. They explained how I had saved the town, but had to heal until my legs were better. I vaguely remember knocking the Ursa unconscious, and as it was about to fall on a group of ponies, I remember pushing them out of the way, a snap, pain, and blackness. I was confined to my bed for a week, but practically everypony in Equestria came to visit me. I was asleep for almost all of the visits, because they all came in the day, but I would always wake up at night to a pile of flowers and cards from various ponies, thanking me for saving their lives.

Every night spend with Luna is been better than the last, and I can’t ask for anything else. But Luna can. She becomes upset that everypony would relish and enjoy the day Celestia brought, but would sleep and ignore Luna’s night. I can do little more than be there for her, willing to listen to her as she gets her feelings off her chest. She always says that I’m the only thing that keeps her from despairing, which makes me feel that much more needed. She feels like the less important one compared to her sister, even though they’re supposedly both equally important. She gets angry, vents on me, then calms down and remembers her importance. But I worry that each time, she gets angrier and angrier. I worry for what might happen were she to suddenly snap. I just have to do what I can, and hope that day never comes.

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I foresaw this coming, but I’m not prepared. Luna became so jealous of her big sister, she had begun to despise her. She would often come to me with a heavy heart, talking about how inferior she felt. But I never thought she would go this far. One night, she had harbored so much anger and jealousy, she refuses to bring down the moon so Celestia could raise the sun. I don't know what to do. I’m not sure whether or not she’s justified or not, and think it might be because she hasn’t matured as much as Celestia yet. But after thinking it through, I would do the same thing. If somepony else was more liked and respected than me for a reason I had no control over, I would feel the same way as Luna. Celestia takes Luna aside to try to reason with her. Out of curiosity, I hide behind a cloud and eavesdrop on their conversation.

“Luna, please! You must!” “I don’t have to do anything!” I can tell Luna’s angry. I feel horrible. I had made a promise to protect her, but now, she’s in more pain than I could imagine. Which is saying a lot. “Luna, why won’t you lower the moon?” I can tell Celestia is trying to be reasonable, but it seems to be useless. “Why should I?! Everypony is all happy during the day, but when I bring the night, nopony cares and goes to sleep! Why should I be second to you?!” I hear her turn away from Celestia in frustration. None of this can be happening. I never thought that the sweet and loving Luna I once knew could become this upset. I feel her getting more and more angry, but something is different. I can't tell what was happening, but when I look over the cloud, I see her, but it isn’t her. It looks similar to the Luna I know, but taller, the size of Celestia, and the colors are darker and there’s a small suit of armor. Her mane and tail changes from a cool blue to a dark, wispy cloud. I’ve never seen her like this, nor have I heard of anything like what I’m seeing. But I know who it is. It’s no longer Luna. It’s Nightmare Moon.

She flies off in a cloud of purple smoke, leaving Celestia alone on the clouds. Celestia lets out a sigh, along with, “Then you leave me no choice, sister.” She flies off towards the castle. But instead of entering the castle, she passes it, flying towards the Everfree Forest. I realize she’s heading towards the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. I don’t care what she was doing, I have to talk to Luna. I find her sitting on a cloud, staring up at the moon. “Luna, what are you thinking?” I ask her in confusion. “I am done being second!” she barks. “It’s time for these ponies to experience the night! Forever!” I stare at her in complete shock. I’ve seen her angry before, but this is a new level. She’s let her negative feelings define her, until she became anger and jealousy itself. “But don’t worry, Jenetar,” she continues in a calmer voice. “No matter who I become, you will always be my best friend.” She pulls me into a hug, and almost hurts me. This Nightmare Moon form she’s in must make her stronger, because she’s never been able to hurt me by squeezing me before. I take a moment to let things settle in, then return her embrace. No matter what she looks like, she’s still my princess and best friend, and I will defend her like always.

Right?

I hear the faint flapping of wings. Celestia is coming back. But she looks a little shinier. I look closer, and I see her wearing a large crown with a star-shaped jewel on it. I hear Celestia yell from afar, “Nightmare Moon, because of your refusal to honor your vow to keep the balance of night and day, I hereby banish you to the moon!” Wait. What? I must be hearing things. I could have sworn Celestia had just threatened Luna. Fear rushes over me, followed by adrenaline. No way anything will get to Luna, not while I’m alive. But before I can react, Luna pushes me aside. I’m... I don’t know what I am. So much is happening that I can’t take in. Luna’s horn begins glowing, and she fires a bolt of magic at Celestia. I sit in shock. Did Luna really just attack her big sister? Or did Nightmare Moon? Was it still Luna? Then I remember her words, “As long as I am alive, no matter who I become, you will always be my best friend.” It’s her, alright. She’s in there, and she attacked Celestia. Luna had just attacked her big sister. Celestia raises some sort of shield, and shoots a magic bolt of her own. Time slows down. Everything I’m thinking about disappears. I concentrate on the only thing that matters. There’s a bolt of magic heading straight for Luna, my princess, my best friend. My instincts kick in. I feel my body move for me. I fly in front of the bolt just before it hits Luna. The impact sends me flying into her, leaving us both laying dazed on top of a cloud. I had taken pain tolerance training. I thought I was practically invincible. But this… It feels like a unicorn rammed its horn through my body a thousand times at once. I can’t see, but I feel Luna at my side.

“JENETAR! NO!” she yells. Celestia begins to speak, “Nightmare Moon, I hereby banish you to the moon for one thousand years!” I try to move, to protect my princess, but the pain of the magic keeps me paralyzed. “N-no... L-Luna...” I try to call out to her, but I can’t say anything more. I hear the increasing hum of magic, then I feel something. I feel better, healed. It’s like I never got hit with any magic at all. Before I can get up, Luna gives me her final words: “Wait for me.” I realize too late what’s about to happen. I turn around just in time to see Celestia fire a giant beam of magic as Luna. This is different though. It seems like the crown she’s wearing is helping her. I look back at Luna, and she gives me her last smile. In that smile, I see everything we’ve ever done together. I remember the first time we met, when Celestia found me and introduced me to Luna. I remember the first time we played together. I remember the first time she laughed after scaring me. I remember the first time I stayed up all night just to be with her. I remember her face when she told me about becoming a princess. I remember waiting for three years just to see her again. I remember the first hug she gave me when we finally met again. I remember how beautiful she looked in her dress when she became a princess. I remember how she purposely used the word “sentinel” just because she thought it would make me happy. I remember her visits every night for the week I was recovering after the Ursa Minor incident. I remember comforting her when she became resentful of Celestia. All leading up to tonight, right now, when I see my best friend, my Luna, for the last time. I watch as my princess is enveloped in a whirlwind of magic, and when it fades, she's gone. I stare at the spot she last stood, and I notice the moon had flashed slightly. I look up and see a portrait of Luna in the moon. She’s gone. She’ll spend the next thousand years imprisoned in the moon. And it’s all my fault. I was supposed to protect her. I should be the one in the moon. I failed.

Celestia just leaves. No words, no comfort or new assignment. She just leaves me. I sit there on the cloud, with more mixed feelings than I ever knew existed. My only friend, my entire life, is gone. I sit right there on the cloud, and cry. I cry for hours. I cry for Luna, for being banished to the moon. I cry for myself, for not being able to save her. I cry for our time together, and for our last moments together. I cry, for us. In the midst of all my thoughts, I remember her final words: “Wait for me.” I wonder what she meant. I cry at the thought of being dead before I could see her. I’ll be alone for the rest of my life. Or maybe...

I stop crying. I stop thinking. I remember the spell she used on me as she spoke to me for her last time. I remember feeling better, but was that all it did? What did it really do? Wait. Suddenly, I know. I don’t know how, but I know exactly what she did. She used her final moments to grant me a thousand years of life, so that I may not only be alive for her return, but the same age. She had paused my biological clock for a thousand years, just so one night, we would be able to meet again, and continue being together. Once again, I cry. It’s a different cry. I cry for the fact that I will be waiting for not three years, but one thousand. Three years seemed like a blink of an eye afterwards, but during those three years, each night seemed like an eternity. Now I have to wait for a thousand years? It’ll be torture. I would lose my mind before a year had passed. But at the same time, I’m crying in happiness. Luna cared about me so much, she used her last opportunity to grant me another chance to see her again. I will not die, I will wait. I will stay here, and wait for my princess to return. This is how I will serve her. Even in her absence, I will remain loyal to her. I will endure one thousand years waiting. Waiting for my princess to return. For my only friend. And when she comes back...

I will avenge her.