Moonlight Terror

It had been a night worth celebrating in Ponyville and throughout Equestria, with Nightmare Moon forever gone the summer sun celebration had an extra kick to it, every pony in Equestria was partying, non-more so than Pinkie Pie and Ponyville!

The Elements of Harmony were all sat at a table along with Celestia, Luna and a few guards so that nothing gets out of hand and to show that whilst this is a celebration she still wanted to make things look serious.

After the celebrations took place it had become nightfall and Luna decided to leave, she felt out of place mingling with the local ponies, she felt alone despite everyone being joyous for her. “I think I’m going to call it an early night sis, I’ll see you tomorrow at breakfast” Luna said enthusiastically to Celestia, hiding her true thought on the matter.

“Whatever makes you happier Luna,” as though she knew how Luna felt, “Just stay safe” she said with a hint of concern in her voice. She turned to a guard sitting next her, “May you escort Princess Luna back to Canterlot?” Even though he was asked, he knew he didn’t have a choice.
He gave a slight nod and ran to catch up with Luna, “Can I help you?” Luna asked, sounding confused to see the guard trot up to her enthusiastically and stare. The guard had a dark green coat, with a pair of sparkling blue eyes and a soft, well-kept brown mane, he looked like a young guard, but perfectly capable to fend for himself. He had a look of innocence on his face, and that he is happy he is doing what he wanted.

“Oh er, Princess Celestia ordered me to escort you back to Canterlot castle” The guard stated enthusiastically, clearly looking forward to escorting her all the way back to the castle. Maybe he could get to know her? Become a friend of the royal family? Or even become a Prince! All these thoughts bounced around the young guards mind.
They started walking to Canterlot slowly, Luna wanted to take the stroll slowly, it had been so long since she had been here, she wanted to soak up everything she could now.

“Typical Celestia, she rarely ever lets me be alone” she stated, with a hint of frustration in her voice.

“One would have to assume she just wants to keep you safe, especially after all that’s just happened”, Luna turned around and looked at the guard, who wanted to take back what he had just said in a worry that she will be mad at him.

Luna laughed at the guard quitely, “I guess so”, her spirits suddenly became higher than they were, thanks to the nervous pony following her. “What is your name?” she asked nicely.

“My name?” He asked confused

“Yes, you do have a name don’t you?”

“It’s Jack” He had never been asked his name by anyone anywhere near as important as the Princess.

Luna chuckled again at the nervous pony, she had never been in direct contact with anyone like this for over 1000 years, it was such a relief to her to have found someone she could talk to and not feel out of place.

***

They spent about 30 minutes talking to each other, about family, what’s changed over the last 1000 years of Luna’s absence, and what it was like to be trapped on the Moon over thousands of years.
Luna got restless and wanted to get home quicker, as a Unicorn Jack could not fly with Luna, so she had to remain grounded whilst he was escorting her, the only to get to Canterlot quicker was through the moors. “How would you feel taking a shortcut through the moors?” Lunar asked Jack, she felt like she wanted to adventure a little bit, and that'd be the closest she could get.

“The… The moors?” Jack suddenly became startled and scared.

“Yes, what’s so bad about that?” She said inquisitively

“Apparently there’s a monster that roams the moors, surely even you have heard of it?”

“I have, and it’s just an old Mare’s tale, if you want to be had a go at by Celestia for leaving me to go through the moors alone” She said, impatience growing inside her. Jack took head of the advice and decided to follow her.

***

It was dark on the moors, the grass was unkempt and there was a permanent, thin layer of fog that hugged the surface of the grass.

“It’s a beautiful full moon out tonight” Jack said, whilst lost in his own thoughts, looking up into the night sky.

A bizarre noise came out of the darkness. “Did you hear that?” Jack asked, his voice suddenly became nervous.

“Yeah I heard that” said Luna, even her voice had a hint of worry.

“What was that?” asked Jack, looking around with his eyes peeled open, with Luna looking behind them.

“It could be a lot of things” replied Luna, reassuring herself that there is nothing that lurked in the darkness.

They continued walking whilst looking around to try and see if they could find what the source of the noise was, but they could see nothing but darkness all around them.

They heard the noise again, but this time it was louder, closer. Although it no longer sounded like a muffled noise, but a roar from an animal, but not like any animal they have ever heard of. Both of them now looking worried “I vote we hurry up and get back to the Castle” implored Jack, doing his best to hide how scared he was, even though it was not working.

“Yeah” Luna gave a worried answer, along with an assertive nod. They quickened there pace across the moor, their eyes darting around to see if they can find whatever it is that is playing with them.

The thing in the darkness roared another time, this time fainter, but still ever present “What in Celestia’s name is that?” Jack asked, even though he knew Luna did not know, nor did he expect a response.

“We should just keep moving, the quicker we move the faster we can get to the castle” ordered Luna, who had a small voice in the back of her head telling her to fly off and leave Jack. They had quickened to a slow run, in order not to become too tired, should the thing show itself to them and the need to sprint would arise.

The thing let out another growl, whatever it was it was right in front of them, both Luna and Jack looked dead ahead, knowing the thing was somewhere in the darkness in front of them, neither of them able to look away, in case it appears, it growled again, but from somewhere else, the frightened ponies backed up, “It’s moving, it’s circling us,” He stood in front of Luna to protect her, the thing growled again, “Ah fuck”, his voice trembled, not making any attempt to try and hide his fear.

“What’s the plan?” Luna asked in a hope that he could think of something

“What plan?” Jack responded, looking at Luna with a blank face and worried eyes.

“Let’s just keep walking” Luna tried her best to think up of something, but it was all too much for her to take in, “it’s just a lovely stroll on the moor, tra la-la la-la. Isn’t this fun?” Luna tried to motivate herself and Jack in any way she could, even though the tone in her voice did anything but motivate them, anything to try and escape from this nightmare. They both set off slowly, in case they run into it.

The thing let out a quite mumble, but it was enough to let the two frightened ponies know where it was “It’s right in front of us” exclaimed Luna.

“You think it’s a dog” asked Jack, taking a wild stab in the dark as to what it may be. Luna shook her head slowly, Jack was too fixated on the area of darkness directly in front of them to notice her responce. The thing roared again “Celestia damn it, what is that?”

“Maybe it’s a sheep dog or something?” Luna knew it wasn’t like anything she had ever heard of. “Come on turn slowly and let’s keep moving” Jack was too fixated in front of him, so Luna gave him a slight nudge to get him to follow her.

“Nice doggy” Jack tried to keep his spirits up, trying to think of anything to get his mind off it. “Good boy” Luna pulled Jack closer getting him to focus on running away.

“Come on Jack, walk away”

“Walking away. Yes, here we are, walking away” Jack’s breathing had increased, the look of panic written on his face as he walked as quickly as he could. Jack turned his head to check if he could find anything.

“Can you see anything?” Asked Luna, with hope that he cannot see whatever it is that is following them.

“No” He replied bluntly. The thing roared yet another time.

“Sounds far away” Luna tried to calm herself with the thought.

“Not far enough” nothing could take what might happen to them off of Jack’s mind. “Come ooooon” Jack tried to urge Luna to go faster by nudging her slightly, he did not care if she was royalty, anything to try and get them out of there. They began running in any direction apart from where the roar was coming from, which was from the direction of the castle.

“But Jack where are we going?” Luna’s voice was now filled with fear, the speed they were running was now becoming a sprint.

“I don’t know I’ll tell you when we get there” Jack only had one thing on his mind, and that was to get out of the moors, even if he walked into the Everfree forest, anything was better than this.

“Okay cause….” Both Jack and Luna were cut off by their own screams as Luna fell over, thankfully it was just a hole in the ground.

“You really scared me you silly pony” Commented Jack, reaching to pull Luna back up, both of them had a massive look of relief on their faces, thay laughed as they locked hooves to get back up. This was what they needed to lift them up.

But before Jack helped Luna up, something came out of the darkness and tackled Jack to the floor, Luna shot back up and looked for a moment as this monster bit deep into Jacks neck, tearing his body up, leaving holes where blood began leaking out. “Oh Celestia help, please, Luna get this thing off of me!” Jack implored, his voice screaming in pain!

Luna was already gone, her wings working like never before, she could hear Jack screaming for her, for any help at all. Even if she could help, what could she do? His wounds were so bad that if she did manage to kill whatever that thing was she would never be able fix those wounds, nopony could. Tears stared building in Luna’s eyes, but she could not cry, she was trying to get away too much.
“HELP IT’S KILLING ME!” Jack’s voice was screaming louder than ever before, in a hope that Luna, or anypony, could hear him and save him.

Eventually Luna slowed down “Jack…” she whispered under her voice, she quickly flew back, hoping to arrive in time to save him. However, with one last scream the shouting stopped, Luna knew what had happened but refused to believe it until she saw him.
She got back to the where it had happened. She looked upon Jack’s body with a look of refusal and sadness, a tear ran down her cheek.

Jack’s green coat was now covered in blood, his body was a mess of holes, his face barely recognisable, blood stained the surrounding grass. Luna wanted to crawl into a ball and cry beside Jack, ‘You stupid mare Luna, why did you leave him’ She tortured herself with this thought.

Suddenly she saw the thing running at her, roaring to intimidate. Luna had to act quickly, she turned to run as fast as she could, but it was moving fast, like nopony, like nothing, she has ever seen before. Luna stretched her wings and began to fly upwards, but the thing leapt up and bit her on the on the bottom of her right hind leg, she screamed in pain and kicked it off, the thing fell, Luna didn’t bother looking back, she just wanted to get back to the castle.

***

It had been an hour of flying until Luna eventually reached the castle, she climbed through her old bedroom window. Her room was still neat and tidy just how she left it, save for a few scrolls laying on her desk, her walls were dark violet, with a bed made with silver, and a dark blue covering. A large oval mirror took up most of the wall in front of her bed. She expected to be greeted by dust, and lots of it, but Celestia made sure that the room was to be cleaned, in case she ever got her sister back.

She planted her head on an old pillow and began to cry loudly, the thought of Jack and what just happened refusing to go away no matter how hard she cried. Her crying became so loud that Celestia could hear it as she arrived back from the celebrations.

Celestia burst through Luna’s door, “Luna! What’s wrong?” her voice ridden with concern as she saw her sister crying uncontrollably.

“Jack………Thing…….Attack…….Us……Dead….” Celestia could not work out what her sister was saying, Luna was in a state of massive shock and began hyperventilating heavily, Luna eventually collapsed to on the bed, her leg leaking blood onto the bed.

“GET ME A DOCTOR NOW!” Celestia screamed down the corridor to get someone to help her sister get to the royal Infirmary.