Luna stood on her balcony, her warm breath turning into wisps of vapor as she exhaled.

Normally, people would wrap up with clothing at the barest hint of cold, but Luna revelled in the cold night - as she often wore what others would classify as summer clothing during these times.

Of course, Luna’s choices regarding her apparel drew more often than not curious looks… and every now and then the occasional rhetoric question: ‘Are you insane?’

The memories of such people questioning her caused Luna to chuckle mirthlessly to herself, as she reflected, ‘If only they knew how close I came to actually being insane...’, before she shivered from that dark thought - a shiver that travelled down all over her spine and her wings, them twitching nervously as the feathers ruffled, right before settling back into place.

Sighing, she leaned on the balcony railing - relaxing as the feeling of dread passed away from her - pushing forward and leaning harder on the railing using her arms as a pillow, watching the lights, which were glittering like stars, in the night… Canterlot’s night life shining like a beacon in the dark, like a mirror to her real stars.

Luna’s nighttime musings were interrupted bluntly by the sound of a woman screaming, immediately followed by a howl splitting the night.

‘Wolves!? Within the walls of Canterlot!?’ Luna questioned with alarm, feeling her heart beating heavily in her chest - right as she dove off her balcony into the night, attempting to follow the source of the scream and howl.

Spreading her wings, Luna glided rapidly down - approaching the area where she had thought she heard the wail. Looking rapidly around while flying, she managed to spot with the corner of her eye what she was looking for.

She back-winged to slow her descent as she was gliding too quick - landing gracefully on the ground as fast as she could, with a grace borne of millennia of experience in flight. On the street, Luna noted - with a grim realization - that the women and men stood motionless all over the place, horror and fear etched on their faces…

As they continued looking at the blood covered streets and buildings, ignoring her completely, while they remained in place, too numb to even avert their eyes.

Luna tried to keep her composure - and failed badly - as she also took in the full sight of what had her subjects frozen in place.

It was a brutal carnage all over the street, where severed legs and arms littered the ground, as well as the walls painted with what was most certainly not red paint and dirt.

Several seconds passed after her arrival that the smell finally hit her nostrils, almost causing her to heave, while for several of the witnesses, they all proceeded to run to a corner - to throw up at the grisly sight.

Luna couldn’t blame them, as she fought the nausea off like a princess… only because of her experience from her past as a warrior, she was able to keep her stomach contents where they belonged.

Once she had full control of her stomach, Luna’s lips curled into a snarl before growling to herself, “the Reaper will have to wait, looks like we have more pressing matters to take care off.”

Taking out her cellphone, she pressed the speed dial for the Captain of the guard with a little too much force - and working against her frustration, she barely stopped herself from pressing the button too hard and splitting her phone while at it.

She gritted her teeth, as the memory of her sister came to mind, teasing her with a grin on her face ever since the last time it happened to her. ‘Last time was enough for her to never letting me live it down.’ she thought to herself grimly as she forced herself to relax.

Luna grumbled to herself - as the stress of the last several days finally started getting to her - before hearing the Captain’s voice… to which all her patience crumbled apart, as she started giving him a curse-filled set of orders on the phone.

Adding to her frustration, was the fact that everything seemed to be falling apart at the seams, and the other, more important fact that she wasn’t getting any further with this whole investigation aiming towards the Reaper… and today, she also had to deal with why all of a sudden, all these new monsters unknown to her kind started showing up from out of thin air.

The resulting rant from Luna’s side, and her string of expletives to the bewildered Captain seemed to work… and Luna chose to ignore the ‘not so quiet enough’ utterance of the Captain, who under his breath said that “She needs to get laid” on the other side of her phone.

After hanging up, Luna waited on the newly redecorated street thirty minutes… and in the waiting process saw the arrival of the guards - plenty enough to actually be almost crawling all over the place.

The guards were working with focus, deliberately ignoring Luna to avoid her ire, as they proceeded with the routine of collecting evidence and cataloguing it all for examination.

While Luna watched with a glare at the proceedings, she paced from one end of the crime scene to the other… her footsteps increasingly becoming heavier with each circuit she completed as her patience ran thin and as she stomped the cobbled street… all while waiting for answers and a lead, just so she could find the perpetrator and end them swiftly. Soon enough, she was starting to fracture the cobblestone street with her steps - and the noise of the stones breaking and her frown collaborated to clear her path from any guards, them giving her a wide berth.

Another scream echoed through the street close by, to which Luna’s head swiveled with a snap in its direction - the speed so quickly that the witnesses felt like they had gotten whiplash from just watching her - before moving, running as fast as she could towards the sound… kicking up dust and more than one cobblestone dislodged from the ground in her passing.

To those who saw her pass by at that time, felt as though she was gliding, as she rushed through the street she drew her sword hastily.

Heart pounding so fast that a normal person would have died from the stress she was putting her body through, she dove into an alleyway - where Luna heard clattering, the sounds of snarling and a whimpering woman emanating from it.

She spotted her target - a huge bipedal, digitigrade, grey furred wolf-like creature - which was hunched over a woman, who was trying desperately to crawl backwards away from it.

Luna wasted no time charging in at the abomination - her armor appearing in a flash of her magic - as she slashed at its back, feeling the resistance of its tough hide as a dull pain in her arms from the resistance.

As her blade cut through its tough hide - and dug into its soft flesh - it let out a roar of pain. As the beast roared, it turned swiftly and back-handed Luna away - the fist of the beast winding her - as it connected with her abdomen, sending her flying onto a nearby wall, fracturing it.

Luna fell to the ground as she unstuck herself from the wall due to her rebound, grunting with gritted teeth as she felt the results of her back and head’s intimate acquaintance with the wall.

Luna returned to her feet, feeling queasy… and unsteadily she readied her sword, wobbling as her vision blurred and began to affect her equilibrium. The pain on the back of her head and back caused Luna to wince, as the pain grew more acute - along with the feeling of blood running down her back and from her head - causing her to deeply worry as she faced the beast.

The creature charged at her, swiping with huge claws at Luna - to which she danced around to dodge and weave around the beast’s attacks, despite her failing sense of balance - barely escaping with minor scrapes and nicks.

Luna, as she dodged its last attack, sliced in anger cutting its right arm off in retaliation as she growled at her opponent, who did the same to her.

The beast roared loudly in pain, as half the creature’s right arm parted company from the rest of its arm, leaving a blood-gushing wound where the two parts had once met.

Luna panted loudly, before blinking and shaking her head, to clear the dizziness that was growing with each passing moment.

In rage, the armless beast charged again - its jaw open wide - as it snapped at Luna trying to bite her. Acting quickly thanks to past experiences, she intercepted the beast’s mouth with her sword and cleaved through its head.

Luna continued panting, with her whole body shaking from the strain of staying on her feet, she huffed even as her heart threatened to jump out of her chest from the stress…

And she knew that would be the least of her problems, if she didn’t get medical attention soon.

Luna fell to her right knee using her sword to hold herself up, roaring in defiance “no beast shall fell me!”

Three more of the giant creatures lazily louped into the moonlight, whose sight caused Luna to curse loudly as she tried to regain her breath.

Turning her sights to where the victim once was, she realized that the woman they had been targeting apparently ran away during the chaos… to which Luna was silently grateful for, as she was struggling to fight even at this point.

Growling, Luna stood up again under the strain, gritting her teeth even as more blood spilled from her wounds… all while the creatures watched her, then turned their heads to the direction the fleeing prey went - which was all that Luna needed.

Flaring her wings, Luna flew towards them, decapitating one of them cleanly in her passing as the others growled at her - now fully focused on her, as they realized that she still presented a threat to them.

“I told you I will not fall!” Luna roared at them as she readied herself. “You will not leave here alive!” She shouted again in rage, as she charged the remaining beasts - them leaping in opposite directions in order to confuse her and leave her open to a counterstrike. Still, Luna hamstrung the one retreating left - eliciting a yelp from it - and stabbed it through the head as it fell to the ground.

Luna was struck into another wall again, this time letting out a hiss as she heard a sickening crunch and felt a lance of pain shoot down her wings and into her back, before crying out loudly in pain, “gaah!” before collapsing to the ground… where she felt herself being picked up around the neck, only for the creature to began slamming her around on the ground like a rag doll at first, then slamming her into a wall repeatedly for good measure.

Luna, in pain from the fractures and internal bleeding, while bleeding profusely from her outer wounds, glared defiantly at the beast as it had her in it’s grip…

The beast’s rancid breath wafted over her face, only for the creature to roar in her face - spit and other unpleasant things flying out - causing her to wince in disgust. It lunged forward to bite her neck off… but was cut off as a bolt penetrated its temple.

Luna was shocked as it dropped her… grabbing its head in shock, the beast pulled the bolt from its head - where through her hazing sight Luna realized that the bolt contained a needle instead of a bolt head, and had a empty glass container along the shaft with an inertia-sensitive plunger.

The beast fell to it’s knees, dropping the syringe bolt, roaring and whimpering as it clutched its head… falling on its back, rolling left and right as it clutched its head with both claws.

Luna, too shocked from the sight, managed to observe how its veins bulged and dilated quickly - showing silver lines following its blood vessels and veins…

‘So the content was liquid silver…’ Luna thought drowsily as she saw the liquid metal seeping from the head wound of the felled beast as it struggled to live through the damage done to it. The beast’s heavy ragged breath filled the air as it suffered from spasms before letting out a final death rasp, its body stilling completely.

Luna, in the meantime, sucked in air greedily, while looking as quickly as she could under her circumstance with her eyes for the one who felled the beast… if not to thank them, at least find out about these creatures, and what they were doing in her nation.

“You’re a trouble magnet, aren’t you Lulu?” came a familiar voice… one to which Luna groaned in pain and exasperation, as she turned her sight towards the area the voice had came from.

Up, on top of a roof, stood a familiar figure holding a crossbow in her hand… and Luna watched how the Reaper jumped down from the top of the nearby two story building, as if it was a step ladder. Luna used all her strength to glare at her while on the ground.

“Worry not, mein Fraulein! I won’t bite!” the Reaper said to her humorously, chuckling at her own joke.

“Why do you keep helping me!?” Luna demanded petulantly after gathering some strength to speak out loud.

“Well that’s simple, I...” The Reaper started before being cut off by a stern masculine voice.

The owner of that voice ordered the Reaper, “Halt, criminal scum!” to which Luna rolled her eyes at what the guard had said - while it seemed to her that the Reaper found it humorous, as she started chuckling, she stood up but not before planting another kiss on Luna’s lips.

The guard immediately started shooting the Reaper - all his shots hitting their target, while gaping holes appeared in her body from the impacts as it faded into shadow…

The Reaper dissolved into giggling darkness, as her features almost disappeared… only for her to turn around to face the guard, two red slit pupil eyes and a large inhuman grin on her otherwise black featureless face… only for The Reaper to condescendingly wave at them, as she flowed into the shadows on the floor.

The guard stood there gaping at the scene he just witnessed… to which Luna rolled her eyes again, as she felt herself come down off the adrenalin high.

“Don’t just stand there gaping like a fool! Help me up!” Luna ordered the guard, snapping him out of it, picking Luna up and grunting under her weight.

“If I hear any weight jokes or you drop me, I’ll drop you! Understand?” Luna demanded before grumbling in a subdued tone about her last few nights.

Hours had passed since her late night’s foray into what’s outside that placid isle of ignorance… and Luna was annoyed grievously, as she currently laid in a hospital bed - with her whole body aching, and to make matters more annoying, she was now under watch from the Guard to stop her from leaving the hospital room before her appointed time.

She had found that out after prodding the nearest guard for information, who nervously answered her as to who was the one who ordered it…

Apparently, her sister - bless her heart, the worry wart - had almost issued a royal decree forbidding her from leaving the palace and the royal infirmary, but Twilight had managed to talk her out of it.

‘I can’t believe she almost issued a royal decree to keep me in this blasted hospital room! And had put me under house arrest so I wouldn’t be in danger!’ Luna grumbled internally, shifting on her bed as she tried to get comfortable. “I am not a fragile flower!” Luna burst out loud after her irritation had built up from being unable to find a comfortable way to rest.

A passing nurse shushed her sternly with a finger over her lips. Luna leaned back sheepishly smiling as the guard next to her said,

“If you’re not, how come you’re in here?” The guard snarked back to her outburst… and Luna immediately decided that this guy was an idiot of the highest order. With her mind set, Luna turned to glare at the offending guard… who immediately realized by the look that got plastered on his face, that it was at this moment that he knew he’d fucked up.

Luckily for him, and before Luna could say her part, he was saved on the nick of time by Twilight Sparkle, who brought refreshments into the room in the middle of the exchange. The guard visibly relaxed, sighing in relief, as Twilight said to her boss, “Luna, I am glad you’re okay,” before laying her tray down in front of Luna and helping her sit up.

Luna smiled at Twilight, before she surprised Twilight with how agile she still was despite her injuries as she brought the girl into a deep hug, “You’re the best, Twi!” Luna exclaimed with great glee as she shook the girl in her arms gently from side to side, before letting her rearrange the bedsheets from Luna’s bedding that had gone out of place from Luna’s outburst… While Luna kept watching her slender figure work at it.

Once ready, and with a hum of satisfaction, Twilight placed the tray back in front of Luna with her magic, upon which was a bowl of steaming hot oatmeal porridge and a glass of mango juice.

“Twilight, how did you know I like mango juice as opposed to orange juice?” Luna asked, narrowing her eyes at the now blushing girl fidgeting at her place.

“Oh? Humm… I asked your sister what drinks you liked - and aside from alcohol and coffee, this was the only healthy drink you liked.” Twilight responded with a small smile after a brief pause.

Luna watched her carefully for any signs of deceit as she gave her answer, but she found none. So, Luna relaxed in her place, and began to dig into the food presented to her… only to realize that it was still steaming hot, and so as the spoon entered her mouth, she remembered one pertinent piece of information…

While she laughed at the freezing cold blizzards of the north while others froze to death… she was utterly, absolutely rubbish with heat. To which the palace finances attested to during the summertime. And so, the hot porridge scalded her mouth, causing her to flinch and drop her spoon from the surprise - the spoon which Twilight caught in her magic, her face split in an amused smile.

Luna crossed her arms and pouted like a petulant filly, to which Twilight giggled at and said playfully to her in a sing-song voice while gently chiding her, “Remember Luna... you have to blow on hot food first,” as Twilight proceeded to blow on the spoonful of oatmeal porridge. “Ahn!” Twilight said to Luna playfully as she brought the spoon to Luna’s mouth, as Luna’s cheeks heated up while giving the girl a half-hearted glare, who seemed to be clearly enjoying some sort of revenge from her ‘Interview.’

Luna turned her head to the side and up, continuing her petulant behaviour… and Twilight frowned, deep in thought about how to deal with Luna’s behaviour… until a metaphorical lightbulb went off in her mind, as she took the spoon with the porridge - making sure Luna was watching - which she was out the corner of her eye.

‘What is that woman up to?’ Luna groused internally while observing Twilight’s actions.

Twilight took the spoonful of food into her mouth, and stalked towards Luna with an evil smirk on her lips. Luna, unaware of her assistant’s plans, immediately turned around to accuse her of taking her food - only for Twilight to capture her open mouth with her own - kissing the lunar diarch. Luna’s eyes shot open wide at the forward gesture, but noted with increasing embarrassment that Twilight was using her tongue to feed her with the spoonful of porridge she had taken, any thoughts she had previously screeched to a halt due to this fact.

Luna was speechless as she swallowed the food in her mouth, her blushing face mirroring Twilight’s… Until Twilight noted that she had just in fact kissed her boss and Princess, that her face became even redder as she dove into a prostrating bow, begging for forgiveness for her forward actions.

Luna stared at the woman incredulously as she rattled off insane punishments and apologies, only to let out a boisterous laugh at the woman prostrating herself before her.

“I am not going to ‘punish’ you Twilight, not for you treating me like any other person,” Luna reassured her as she playfully flicked the girl’s nose as she rose to meet her eyes. Luna noted that Twilight’s head was bowed down, and even her ears where crimson red as she clutched the hem of her skirt with force.

‘She’s quite adorable, but those lips felt familiar, I must have another taste, without food this time,’ Luna thought to herself before leaning forward, cradling the blushing Twilight’s chin in her right hand as she lifted it slightly, leaning slowly as she closed her eyes…

Unfortunately, just as their lips connected, the guard in the room collapsed in a puddle of his own blood, breaking the spell and causing Twilight to back off from Luna while blushing profusely.

“I’ll go inform your Sister that you are okay!” Twilight said flustered as she ran out the room, Luna turning to glare at the unconscious guard in the corner for ruining her fun.

Author's Note

for those worried about the fics I promised do not worry, Even goddesses need love is about three quarters done. Guided by the light is waiting for several edits for the latest chapters.
as for Love thicker than blood I am currently suffering writers block for that story, but fear not as soon as I get past it I will get it done asap.