From one world to another
Chapter 7

‘So this is what Princess Luna looks like.’ I thought as I saw her start walking into the rapidly bowing crowd. I had seen her before on art, pictures, and an occasional memory orb or video, but never in person like this. I also had mixed feelings about this. On one hoof, she seemed to be kind and caring enough, and I also felt sympathy for her, since we both had rough periods of our lives, with Luna’s being her banishment and mine being the more bad parts of my adventures in the wasteland. On the other hoof however, I was staring at the pony who would bring Equestria further into war in the future, turning it into something similar to a military dictatorship.

I banish these thoughts as she comes closer, her cape somehow dissipating into a swarm of bats, revealing her royal jewelry the the rest of her body. She then stops in the center of the crowd, looking around us one final time before talking.

“CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!”

‘CELESTIA TEATS! MY EARS ARE ON FIRE’! I could barely hear myself think as Luna continues speaking in the Royal Canterlot Voice.

“WE HAVE GRACED YOUR TINY VILLAGE WITH OUR PRESENCE, SO THAT YOU MAY BEHOLD THE REAL PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT! YOU SHALL HAVE NIGHTMARES NO LONGER, BUT INSTEAD A PONY WHO DESIRES YOUR LOVE AND APPRECIATION. TOGETHER WE SHALL CHANGE THIS DREADFUL CELEBRATION INTO A BRIGHT AND GLORIOUS FEAST!!!”

It was then however when Pinkie pie decided to interrupt and misinterpret this. “Did you hear that everypony! Nightmare moon says she’s going to feast on us all!” With this she and the kids around her ran off screaming in fright.

‘Wait a second. Nightmare moon? Luna isn’t nightmare moon, at least not anymore! Although I guess it’s been less than a year since her release, so the fears going to still be there I suppose.’

Luna looked at the fleeing ponies, shock and worry on her face. “What! No children, no! You don’t have any reason to fear us! Screams of delight is what your princess desires, not screams of fear!” With that she brings her hoof down, cracking the road and making a nearby mare squeal like the mouse she’s dressed. Looking around, she spots the mayor in her rainbow afro clown costume. With determination visible on her face, she walks over to Mayor Mare until she stands directly above her and proclaims “Madame Mare, thy princess of the night, hath arrived!”, pointing her hoof at the mayor, which caused her to cower in fear.

“What is the matter with you?” She asks, confusion on her face as she points at several other ponies, all of them resulting in cowering away from nigh- I mean the princess. Dammit, now I’m starting to think of her as nightmare moon. She immediately became frustrated with this. “Very well then, be that way! We won’t even bother with the traditional royal farewell!” She said as she walked away, heading back in the direction of the statue.

I glance over and spot the half dozen guards that escorted her staring at her and us, faces of sadness or anger stretched across their faces while some of them face hoofed or shook their head. I myself felt a twinge of anger go through me. Didn’t these ponies understand that it was just Luna?

I was awoken from my thoughts when I see Twilight worriedly trot off after Luna. Seeing this and the fact that no one else was going to help her, I ran up to Twilight and followed her. When she saw me coming, she gave me a questioning look.

“You’re not the only one who knows that she isn’t Nightmare moon and that she could use some comfort. Heck, maybe me being dressed as an old Lunar guard will help.”

She gave me a warm smile and a quick thank you before continuing to go back to the statue, with me right next to her. Unknown to anyone however, a pair of wary and cautious eyes were watching us, or more specifically me, as we walked out of sight.

After another walk to the statue

“Princess Luna!” Twilight called out as we entered the clearing with the statue, seeing Luna sitting near the base of it. “Hi, my name is-”

“Starswirl the bearded, commendable costume, you even got the bells right.” Luna complimented, receiving a huge grin from Twilight. So that’s who Twilight’s costume was based off of.

“Finally! Somepony who gets my costume.” She then noticed Luna looking at her with a bit of uncertainty and apparently decided to try introducing herself again. “Uh, I just came to welcome you to our celebration, my actual name is-”

“Twilight Sparkle” Luna interrupted again, bringing a worried face to both Twilight and I. “IT WAS THOU THAT UNLEASHED THE POWERS OF HARMONY UPON US, AND TOOK AWAY OUR DARK POWERS!” She proclaimed as she slowly rose into the air, dark clouds circling behind her like she did when she arrived.

“And that was a good thing right?” Twilight asked.

“But of course! We could not be happier! Is that not clear?”

“Well it kind of sounds like you’re yelling at me.”

Before Luna was able to respond, I decided to make myself known. “I think that’s the ‘royal canterlot voice’, wasn’t it traditional back before Luna was banished.”

“It is, my little pony, it’s tradition to use that much volume when addressing our subjects.” Luna exclaimed, before taking a closer look at my costume and frowning. “Are you one of our guard, I don’t think I’ve seen you before, and I know that no unicorns were in the escort I had.”

I shook my head. “No I’m not princess. I’m just dressed as an old lunar guard. Although I was told this was actual lunar guard armor.”

“Minus a couple of missing enchantments, but still a greatly maintained set. Thank you for dressing up as one. Tell me, what is your name my little pony.”

“My name is Littlepip, princess Luna.”

“Then thank thee Twilight and Littlepip for supporting and believing in me.”

“It’s no problem princess. In fact, why don’t I help you try to fit in more. Littlepip, can you head back to town and try to calm everypony down?”

“Sure Twilight.” I responded, feeling slightly left out but still ready to help.

“Alright then, I’ll see you later Littlepip.” Twilight says before turning back around to talk to Luna. After saying a quick goodbye to them, I go ahead and walk back to town, thinking of how I could calm everypony down.

One hour later

‘Well, hopefully this works.’ I thought as I trotted through the crowd. When I had arrived back in Ponyville, everypony was nearly ready to start a panicky riot. Luckily, I had managed to calm them down and told them about Twilight and I talking to her. While this seemed to calm everypony down somewhat, they were still scared of her, I could see it in their eyes. What made it worse was that I couldn’t find Pinkie pie and the kids with her, which meant that they would still likely run away screaming, bringing others into it.

I wipe my forehead with my hoof as I sit down on one of the park benches, listening to the music coming from a nearby stage. Leaning back, I sighed in relief as I relaxed into a comfortable position. Thought: ‘I might just lie here for half an hour or-’

“HEY YOU!!!”

I was jarred from my relaxation when somepony yelled right next to me and slammed their hoofs onto the bench. Looking over in annoyance, I saw that one of the lunar guards was glaring at me. “What do you think you’re doing wearing that armor!”

“What do you mean?”

“What do I- WHAT DO I MEAN!?! That armor belongs to the lunar guard of old! They were great and skillful warriors of the night, and the fact that an inexperienced civilian like you decides to wear it is disgraceful! It wouldn’t be bad if it was fake and a costume, but that armor is definitely real! So undress from that armor or else I’ll-”

“Corporal Quick Strike! What in the name of Tartarus are you doing!” We both turned and looked at the direction that the yell came from. What was there were the remaining five lunar guards that I saw with the escort. At the front of the group was a very pissed off thestral wearing a set of armor different from the others, which made me assume that this was the commander. This was confirmed shortly after when he started speaking again.

“Why are you harassing this pony here girl, we’re on an escort mission, not a ‘terrorize the populace’ mission.”

Quick Strike hastily stood at attention and responded. “Sir! I-I sorry sir, but this pony here is wearing pre-nightmare lunar guard armor, and seeing an inexperienced civilian wearing it made me snap sir!”

The commander glanced at me for a moment before looking back at Quick Strike. “This better not happen again Corporal. Now, return to the chariot.”

“But sir, what about the traditional fight for the ho-”

“Now Strike!”

“Yes sir.”

With that, Quick Strike casted one final glare at me before stalking off to the nearby chariot, mumbling all the while. The commander then turned his attention to me. “Sorry about that miss. Quick tends to be hot tempered when something annoys her or pisses her off, so she doesn’t think rationally and just charges in. Her name isn’t just for her quick attack moves after all.”

Seeing that he was alright, I gave him a quick smile and responded. “It’s alright, we all have mistakes from time to time. My name’s Littlepip by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Littlepip. I’m Commander Glancing Shadow, leader of the therestal squad of Princess Luna’s elite task force, the Night’s watch. With me is Sergeant Sharp Quill, Corporals Fast and Iron Hoof, and Private Nightingale.” He said, pointing to each of them as he said their names. When he stopped, he looked at my armor. “I’m surprised that people still have these around. Most of them would’ve rusted up or at least shown signs of falling apart by now.”

“Well I actually bought this from a collector recently, who had bought it several years ago from a museum, so that would explain why it’s in good condition. By the way, I have a question. What was Quick talking about involving a traditional fight.” At that, the commander looked a bit sheepish, putting his hoof on the back of his head as he looked slightly away. “Whenever something serious comes up between two therestals, one of them can duel the other to solve the issue. It’s usually over something serious or honor bound. She probably just did it because she wasn’t thinking about it, damn I am going to give her a serious talk once we’re do-”

“I’ll do it.” The entire squad looked at me in disbelief, with Fast Hoof doing a spit take with the water he was drinking. Sharp Quill and Nightgale gave me looks of uncertainty, Iron hoof a neutral stare, and Glancing a concerned look.

“Littlepip, I don’t think you should do that. Usually those fights are between warriors, and while Quick was being irrational, she did have a point. You are a civilian, if we were to fight like that it would be bad either way. You win and people will lose faith in the Night’s watch and the lunar guard as a whole. You loose and we’ll be ridiculed for picking a fight with a civilian and we’ll lose trust. Do you even have any combat experience?”

“Too much commander. Also, we’ll fight in a secluded area, so the results won’t be public. Just let me grab some gear from my tent and I’ll meet you all back here for the fight, alright.”

He looked conflicted for a moment before sighing and agreeing, letting me run off to grab my gear.

30 minutes later

We were in a plains a couple miles out of town. We had cleared out a little area and set up for the fight. I was now facing against a preparing Quick Strike, who was equipping two short swords. I myself had brought with me my zebra sword and combat knifes, with the former being in my Lunar scabbard and the latter being in hidden sheaths on each of my fore hoofs.

“Alright, I’m ready.” Quick called out as she stood opposite of me, looking at me as if she was evaluating me. While she had calmed down considerably and even apologized, we all decided to do the fight anyway.

Glancing Shadow stepped up between the two of us, giving each of us a calm look before he started setting the rules.

“Alright, here’s how we’re going to do this. You can use anything you have at your disposal unless it’s very harmful or lethal. No attacks that will cause serious or fatal injury. Stay away from the town. Finally, no teleporting or flying up to over a few hundred feet.

If Littlepip wins, then she gets to keep the armor on and do as she wishes with it. If Quick Strike wins, then Littlepip has to take off the armor and never wear it again, although what else she does with it is up to her. Are you two ready?” We both immediately nodded.

“Alright then. Three. Two. One. Fight!” He yelled as he stepped out of the way.

Quick wasted no time as she lunged at me, trying to get the first strike. I barely reacted in time, avoiding her lunge and grabbing her in my telekinesis before she could turn around, throwing her away. She flew twenty feet before stopping herself, giving me a glare as she took out one of her short swords. Seeing this, I drew my own sword and held it before me in my magical grasp as she started to charge again.

Instead of dodging, this time I held my ground, my blade meeting hers she she nearly slammed into me, only stopped by the force of our swords clashing and her stabilizing herself. I then levitated out one of my knifes and made a stab at her with it, causing her to throw herself back. She did a backflip in the air before landing herself on the ground before me and immediately lunging forward again with both swords out. Grunting, I intercepted one of her swords with my own, dodging the other before using my knife to block it.

For the next few minutes we clashed like this, with Quick charging me and me blocking her, then sending an attack of sorts against her and causing her to fall back, where the cycle starts over again. However, as she charged me this time, I had a plan to break it. She flew downwards at me, both swords above her as she started to bring them down in an arc. Instead of blocking, I dodged to the side, causing her to overstretch and bury her swords into the tough ground. Seeing an opportunity, I slashed with my knife, creating a deep cut within her right shoulder before she flew away, only one of the swords in her grasp.

As we paused there looking at each other, I saw the gears working in her head as she stared at me them at the cut I made. Before long, she exploded into anger as she charged me, releasing a battle cry in the process. This sudden move surprised me, and I wasn’t able to get out of the way in time as one of the swords cut across the side below the armor in a thin cut, letting the blood slowly pour out of it.

Grunting, I turned to face her and barely managed to block her thrust with her short sword before magically throwing her away again, throwing her into her other sword, which was still in the ground. She quickly got up, taking the second sword out of the ground and holding it before her. I then realized that this fight wasn’t going to end soon.

45 minutes later

“HHHHHHYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” I yelled as I threw Quick into the ground, waiting for her to get up. I waited for a couple of minutes until moving up, checking her. She was still breathing normally, and even though she had multiple cuts, bruises, a couple of slightly bigger injuries, and was knocked out, she was alright.

“Littlepip wins!” At that a few of the guards cheered as Fast hoof walked over to Quick to check her while Glancing made his way to me. “Well you won. Guess you get to keep the armor. Where did you even learn to fight like that by the way. That was enough to earn you a higher position in the army or guard, maybe even become one of the Night watch or the Solar Sentinels if you work hard enough.”

“Thanks, I mostly taught myself through training and experience in combat. I’m an… avid explorer I suppose, so I get into quite a few situations.” Glancing nodded and looked like he was about to say something else before Fast Hoof spoke up.

“Well damn, teaching yourself how to fight is better than I thought. It looks like Quick will have to take it easy for a week to heal up. Heck, if you had beaten her up any more, she might’ve needed medical attention at an infirmary.” He finished as he wrapped some bandages around one of her cuts.

“Hold on.” I say as I run to a small bag a had left a little ways away, remembering something I had brought. Opening it up, I rummaged through it for a few moments before finding what I was looking for. With a triumphant look on my face, I levitated over two healing potions, levitating one to Fast as I uncorked the top of the other. “Get her to drink it.” I told him as I started drinking mine. Before I was even finished, I could see the cuts starting to seal up and the bruises begin disappearing. After getting over his initial shock, Fast lifted the other potion up to Quick’s muzzle, slowly getting her to down the potion. Her face grimaced in pain before relaxing as the potion did it’s job.

“After everything I’ve seen from you so far, I’m not gonna question that.” Glancing mumbled as we started walking back to Ponyville, Quick being carried by the Hoof brothers.

Author's Note

There's a new chapter done! So things are definetly being done differently from the show, so don't complain about that in the comments. Also, in case any of you were wondering, Sharp Quill and Nightgale are both mares. Decided to say that since I didn't mention their genders. The remaining genders of the thestral squad should already be in the story somewhere. Well, that's all for now! Don't forget to like, favorite, and comment down below! I'll see you all in the next chapter or update.

Stay determined folks!