Luna paced around nervously outside of her tent. Daxx was inside, no doubt pretending that he had never left after their earlier conversation. It had been a short one, but enjoyable. He wasn't half bad to be around when the goal wasn't to extract information from the stubborn robot.

A hundred thoughts raced through Luna's head. Everything Alexandria had said made too much since now. Daxx had been doing nothing but running interference and now that Luna knew about her, maybe she would be able to get some answers. It scared her though. She had no idea how he would react.

Luna took several deep breaths before finally finding her nerve and entering the tent.

Daxx was sitting on the ground in one of the corners with his arms to his sides, legs tucked in to his chest, and his head had somehow lowered into his torso just barely. A small light blinked faintly on his back.

Luna cleared her throat. "Daxx," she called out.

In response, Daxx's head popped up and looked in Luna's direction. "Is there something else, Princess?"

"Yes," Luna answered. "We need to talk about our current situation, Daxx. I want you to know that I understand now."

"There has not been a development in the situation."

"I know this, but..." Luna sighed. They could only dance around it for so long, so she might as well say it.

"Everything you have told us has been a lie, Daxx," Luna claimed in a tone that seemed more sad than angry. "You have even attempted to discourage further questioning with what could be seen as indirect threats. "Killed and dissected?" Daxx, you make it sound as if we are your enemy. We are both in need, though. So please. Tell me the truth."

"All I can tell you, Princess, is that much of the info you seek is classified," Daxx responded.

"Daxx," Luna continued. "All I want is to help you and keep everyone safe. Please, you may see me as the representative of a foreign power, but do you not believe that we could be more than that? Couldn't we perhaps be friends?"

"While I appreciate the fact that you are willing to take this through unofficial channels, the fact that you believe I have lied to you shows that you clearly do not understand this situation."

"I don't understand?!" Luna suddenly exclaimed. Clearly this was just more deflection crap. Being told that she didn't understand things was not something Luna enjoyed. If anything, it made her angry, but she needed to remain calm. She needed to prepare for what was about to be said. "Daxx, I know far more now than you are aware."

Daxx just remained silent. Luna wasn't sure if this was meant to be a challenge or if she had caught him in a situation in which he didn't know how to respond. She was cautious, but continued. It was time. "Daxx, I know about Alexandria and..."

Daxx instantly shot up to his feet, his joints screaming out with a loud electric buzz as he did, clearly not being used to being forced into motion so quickly and so suddenly.

"I followed you after you were spotted by my guards," Luna lied. She didn't want anyone else being put in danger by this. This was her battle to fight, although she hoped that would only be metaphorical.

Before Luna could even continue, Daxx began to walk towards her from across the room. With each step, Luna began to feel more and more like something was going terribly wrong. In those few seconds, time slowed down for Luna and something that boiled down to her basic animalistic instincts went off and she knew in that moment she was in great danger. The fight or flight instinct that she didn't even realize she had guided her and without a conscious thought her horn lit up with a surge of magic, she took a ready stance, aimed, and fired.

The impact could have been heard for a mile onward and the bright flash that resulted from it was blinding to the point that Luna could see spots in her vision.

Daxx dropped to his knees as his body twitched. All sorts of sounds were made, including a high pitch and stuttering wail that sounded like a demon was tearing time asunder. Luna could only stare in shock at what she had done. After what seemed like an eternity, the tormenting noise stopped. Slowly, Daxx keeled over backwards. His left arm weakly reached up, swatting at nothing as if trying to extract a piece of the sky, before finally slumping over next to the rest of him.

Daxx twitched slightly as arcs of electricity ran across his body, before finally falling still. Silence filled the tent and all that was left was the thick smell of melting metal and the smoke that rose from the white hot spot still burning in Daxx's chest. Then there was a great boom from outside that seemed to rock the entire world.

It wasn't until she was being rushed out by her personal guard that Luna realized just how badly she had been injured.

Twilight pranced around anxiously in her tent as she tried to wrap her head around what Spike had just told her. "So what you're saying is that there is another one of them... here... in Equestria!?"

"Um... yeah," Spike confirmed. "Her name is Alexandria. You'd like her. She's really nice and she's a librarian."

Twilight's eyes lit up in a way that would have illuminated the entire tent had there not already been several candles burning. "You're joking!" Twilight exclaimed, getting way too close for comfort.

Spike put a claw on Twilight's snout and pushed her back out of his face, trying to keep her calm and contain his own excitement at the same time. "Nope," Spike continued. "Turns out she's from the largest library ever constructed. Can't remember the name of the planet though. I think it started with an O. Onion something, maybe?"

"We have to go meet her!" Twilight nearly shouted. "There's so much she could tell us! I still have so many questions! Oh, this is going to be perfect!"

Spike had to grab Twilight by the tail to prevent her from running outside right then and there. "Twilight wait! You can't," Spike called after her as he was dragged along the floor. "Luna is talking to Daxx about it and if you want to keep his trust, you still need him to think that you didn't have anything to do with all this."

In an instant Twilight's expression went from one of pure and utter joy to one of absolute disappointment. "Oh, right. I guess I'll just wait in the tent then." She gave a half hearted laugh and smile, before turning around and sadly walking back to her bed.

"Hey, it's okay," Spike assured. "Maybe Luna's talk with Daxx will go great and you'll be able to talk to Alexandria in the morning."

Suddenly and without warning, the earth beneath them shook violently. A rapid gust of wind hit them, nearly knocking them to the ground and the tent itself began to collapse. All of this was accompanied by a deafening sound that made both of their ears ring.

"Twilight," Spike called out as he stumbled to his feet after having been knocked off his feet and into the table behind him. He couldn't hear anything other than the loud and nonstop ringing of his own ears. He called out again to the unicorn in front of him to make sure she was okay.

Twilight held her hooves against her head, trying to stop the painful throbbing and ringing. She could only barely hear Spike, but called back to him. "Spike, are you alright?!"

The two must have looked like a couple of mad ponies, yelling at each other from only a few feet apart. Despite this, they could only barely hear each other. It wasn't until they had waited about a minute that they could hear again, even though their ears still rang.

"What in Equestria was that?" Spike asked as he tried to pop his ears.

Alarms suddenly went off in Twilight's head as she was beginning to be able to think clearly again. Something terrible had happened was all she could assume. Without a second thought, she rushed outside, followed by Spike who was also beginning to catch on.

Outside, embers rained down from the sky like snow and there was some scattered debris from an explosion on the other side of the row of tents opposite from them. Twilight was startled when a flaming two-by-four landed only a few meters away from them. The greatest concern though, was the scene before them.

The ball of fire rose into the air, threatening to tear open the night sky and expose the oblivion between their world and the next. The blaze below quickly grew out of control and the royal guards rushed to get rain clouds over it before it could spread. The skyline formed by the next row of tents glowed orange and it seemed as if night had been turned into day.

"Dear Celestia," Spike muttered under his breath, before finding himself racing after Twilight as she took off in the direction of the danger.

When they arrived on the scene, the fire was quickly shrinking as the guards worked tirelessly to put it out. They were both able to express sighs of relief when they saw that Luna's tent had, in fact, been untouched. The fire was limited to only a large tent used for storage, which had been completely decimated, and a few surrounding tents toppled by the initial shock wave.

Most ponies who attempted to investigate were turned away by the guards. Upon showing her lanyard, Twilight was allowed in and directed to the medical tent to see the princess. Medical tent, as in a field hospital. Yet again, Twilight felt her heart drop into the depths of her stomach and all she and Spike could do is run as fast as they could to find Luna.

"I cant even begin to tell you how lucky you are, Princess," the doctor began to lecture as he looked over his clipboard. "Another inch to the left and you probably wouldn't have the bottom half of your leg."

Luna didn't seem to be listening. She just stared at the floor with a guilt-ridden expression on her face.

"I'll be honest with you," the doctor continued. "You're going to need to stay off of it for a few days and there's going to be a very noticeable scar, but..."

"Is anypony else hurt?" Luna asked in a hushed tone that was filled with sorrow.

The doctor flipped through the papers on his clipboard only to find nothing, before looking to an officer who's armor was covered in soot.

"There are a few ponies with very minor burns," the guard stated. "It's nothing a little aloe wont fix. Other than that... well, everyone is just spooked. This has all been a little more excitement than anyone really expected."

Luna sighed in relief.

"Your majesty," the officer continued. "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly happened? The noise scared everypony half to death and the machine has a hole melted in its chest the size of a grapefruit."

"I don't know," Luna said, her voice full of shame as she wasn't even able to look at the pony in front of her. "I really don't know. I just... I lost control of the situation."

"He tried to hurt you, didn't he?"

Luna just shrugged.

The officer sighed. "Luna," he said. "We both know that you wouldn't have acted unless he gave you a good reason to do so. If he tried to hurt you, then you have every right to defend yourself no matter what planet he's from."

"I know, but... it wasn't supposed to happen like this. I didn't mean to kill him. It was only supposed to be a stasis spell. It should have just put him into suspended animation. Then I could have at least explained myself."

"So it didn't go down like you planned," the officer pointed out. "What did happen then?"

Luna just sighed before looking back up to her officer, the pony she knew as Stratus. Her friend. She shook her head. "It's my fault," she began. "I did something I shouldn't have, something foolish. It was far to soon and yet I was so eager to get answers that I rushed in without taking the proper time or consideration. I'm a damned fool."

"You can't be that hard on yourself."

"But it's true," Luna continued. "I told him something I shouldn't have. I revealed that I had discovered secrets that he was attempting to hide and when he heard that, Daxx made a move. I don't know what came over me, but in that moment I think I realized what I had done and I- I- I just reacted, okay?"

This is when the tears came. Luna tried her best to not let them free, but it was no use. "I'm a failure," she muttered between sobs.

Stratus felt his heart sink. He took off his helmet and placed it on the ground, before sitting down next to Luna on the treatment table. "That's not true," he said as he put a hoof around her. "Luna, you were gone for a thousand years. I can't even begin to fathom how you must have felt when you returned. The fact that you found the strength to get up every morning and do all the things that your position demands, despite being in a time completely foreign to you is astounding. On top of that, you have you're nightly duties. You operate on less sleep than anyone else on Equestria and work so hard to protect her. You are anything but a failure."

Luna wiped away her tears and managed to regain control of her nerves. "It's a necessary sacrifice," she said.

"Maybe so, but it's still incredible."

Luna just gave a sad, but hopeful smile and looked back to her friend. "Thank you, Stratus," she said. I have had great fortune to have a friend as good as you."

As Luna's uninjured hoof fell into his own, Stratus felt his body rise in temperature suddenly. He smiled at her. "Well, my rank does give me the great privilege of spending more than a fair share of my time in your company."

Luna returned the gesture and smiled back up at Stratus. "So it does, Major," she said in a tone that was far more positive than the gloomy mood that had taken her only moments ago. "So it does." The two just sat in silence for a moment with nothing around them but the warm feeling of each other's company.

"You know, Luna, I-"

"Princess Luna!" Twilight suddenly yelled as she burst through the entrance at the other side of the tent.

Every muscle in Stratus's body tensed up and he quickly found himself jumping back to his hooves to stand at attention as if nothing had happened.

Luna sighed. "Hello Twilight Sparkle," she greeted tiredly. "I am very glad to see that you are unharmed."

Twilight ran up and skidded to a stop in front of the princess and her officer. Her joints ached and her lungs burned. With every exasperated inhale, Twilight found that she was far more out of shape than she had ever truly realized. She took a moment to catch her breath and attempted to speak, but coughed just about every other word.

"Please, Twilight, calm yourself," Luna said. "I need not anymore casualties tonight."

"I'm sorry Princess," she finally sputtered. "It's just that-" She was cut off by another series of coughs.

"We heard the explosion!" Spike suddenly proclaimed. "We saw the fire and the smoke and came running as fast as we could."

Twilight pointed to Spike, whose dragon lungs gifted to him by evolution had allowed him to recover much quicker than Twilight. "Yes, that exactly," she said, before taking several more deep breaths. "Side note, Rainbow Dash was right. I need to start doing cardio."

"Well, it is good that you are here," Luna said.

"What about you though," Twilight asked. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Luna held up her hoof that had been treated and wrapped. "Tis but a flesh wound," she joked.

Twilight and Spike both sighed in relief.

"Princess, I believe this would be a good time to bring the Element of Magic up to speed," Stratus said. "I think it'd be best if we started from the beginning."

Luna nodded. "Of course, Major." Luna thought for a moment as she tried to come up with a way to explain what had just transpired over the course of the last twenty minutes. She had screwed up. She had screwed up momentously. She knew this and had it not been for the support from the ponies that cared for her, the guilt would have already drowned her. The true challenge did not come from trying to explain this though. The truth of the matter was that in all honesty, she had absolutely no clue what happened after firing her spell. Everything had happened so quickly and despite accidentally having possibly killed Daxx, it would seem that it was still somehow deflected.

This confusion is not what scared Luna though. What scared her was this.

What were they going to tell Alexandria?

Author's Note

Alexandria gonna be pissed.