The Moon's Precious Little Star

"I swear, the universe must have it out for me!" Blueblood, the ninth, said to himself while watching his son and Orion sit in the prince's room and read. A little less than a year had passed since the elder noble came to Luna with his plan to introduce the two to each other, and very little had gone according to plan. When he had his son meet the prince, it took a while for the two of them to warm up to each other. It took so long that both Blueblood and Luna thought that the whole endeavour was a lost cause and that they were wasting their time. Thankfully, they were proven wrong on that front as the two of them just clicked one night, and now we're practically inseparable; unfortunately, this where everything that the noble was trying to accomplish blew up in his face. Instead of Orion teaching his son that remaining cooped up inside all the time wasn't all that great and going outside was more fun, Blueblood, the tenth, taught him that reading could actually be enjoyable when it wasn't only textbooks for school work. Now all they do is sit in Orion's room and read a varied assortment of books; Orion even began reading his school books with renewed vigour. While initially happy about her son's new reading habit and improved grades, princess Luna was less impressed with how much it impacted his sleep schedule. It was already had for a colt to sleep all day and awake at night, but now that he refused to sleep until he finished a chapter, the issue became so dire that the princess was forced to use a sleep spell on her son more than once.

"It seems that the universe has it out for the both of us," Luna stated as she walked up next to the noble. Like Blueblood, the ninth, she too had high hopes for this arrangement and believed that becoming friends was the best for them. The princess wanted her son to stop wandering the castle unsupervised, and while initially, that seemed to be the case, it soon changed when Orion got the brilliant idea to show his new friend all the "cool" things in the castle. It was still less wandering than it used to be since he spent more time in his room; it was also the most dangerous time to do so. Luna was constantly worried that some pony would break into the castle and abscond with her son. Thankfully that hasn't happened, and many of the changes to her son's behaviour were well received, well, all except for a certain griffoness, who expressed her displeasure almost nightly. No pony was quite sure what Galatea's dissatisfaction was about, though Luna figured that it has something to do with how much time Orion was spending with Blueblood reading instead of getting into trouble with her. Coincidentally, Galatea was sitting in the room sulking and feeling bad for the young griffoness; Luna walked over to the corner and sat next to her. "Are you alright?" The princess asked softly, to which Galatea looked up and faced the monarch before giving her a dismissive snort.

"Of course I'm okay! Why wouldn't I be? I'm a griffon; nothing bothers us," Galatea stated with as much confidence and bluster she could muster, though she didn't do an outstanding job in hiding the pained edge in her tone, which Luna picked up on easily.

"You don't have to be the tough griffon others expect you to be all the time when it's just you and me; you know that, right?" Luna asked, and almost immediately, Galatea looked away and started to stare at the floor again. Neither of them said anything for about a minute, and just as the princess was beginning to think that the discussion had ended and that she was wasting her time, Galatea spoke up.

"I don't know what to do! I know that it's selfish to expect Orion to hang out with me every night, but at the same time, I don't like him hanging out with Blueblood: he's boring!" The griffoness exclaimed, a little too loudly as her outburst drew the attention of the very poy she was bad-mouthing. Thankfully, Blueblood, the tenth, didn't seem all that offended by her statement and went back to reading after a few moments of glaring. "See what I mean! I just insulted him, and he only gave me a dirty look: no calling me out, no yelling, and especially no fight. Orion would never let that happen and would have put me in my place!" Though Luna was a little concerned about Galatea's views on her son, it wasn't her place to criticize her as griffons placed a lot of value on the strength of any being, and they believed that it was one's place to defer to any being stronger than you; even though griffons constantly challenged for a reversal of the position. What Luna could do thought was give the young griffoness some perspective in the hopes that she could come to an understanding.

"Galatea, you have to understand that ponies are different from griffons. Ponies aren't as confrontational due to our values on harmony and friendship, and while not all will do this, most would rather turn the other cheek than cause an incident." Luna explained while trying to sound as calm and wise as possible, but failed as her tone came off more annoyed and confrontational than anything else. When she realized how she sounded, the princess hoped that the griffoness failed to pick up on that and focused on what she said instead of how she said it; unfortunately, she noticed the tone.

"You say that, and yet here you are getting all flustered and annoyed that I can't understand why you ponies act this way. Why is it that you and Orion are so much different from others of this kingdom? Orion will yell at me if I say something that upsets him. and he even fights me when I push too far, beating me every time; that's why I listen to him... most of the time." Sighing, Luna rubbed the back of her head and looked Galatea in the eye.

"Both my son and I are outliers among the denizens of the kingdom. First, you have to remember that Orion isn't a pony, and while I have raised him like one, his species obviously evolved to be hunters muck like you griffons. Secondly, I don't know why I have such a different disposition from other ponies, but it doesn't mean that others of my kind need nor should act like me and that you are going to have to get used to that." Luna stated, hoping that she managed to get thought to the young griffoness. A silence descended upon the two as Galatea thought over what the princess said to her, and while she didn't want to accept it, she couldn't deny that luna was right. "Getting back on topic, I'm sure that if you went over and talked to Orion instead of sulking in a corner, he would be happy to oblige your request to play." Nodding her head, Galatea stood up and walked over to the prince.

Sitting at the table in the middle of his room, Orion was wholly engrossed in his book. It was a fictional retelling of the princess's battle with the tyrant king Sombra. Where the real conflict was relatively uneventful, with both Luna and Celestia bursting into the crystal palace and blasting him with the elements of harmony: this was exciting. The entire conflict was extended by quite a bit. Instead of the conflict being over in an instant, the book makes it last for several years, dozens of excursions into enemy territory, hundreds of brutal battles, victories and defeats. It all ending in an epic confrontation between the princesses and the tyrant king that lasted for days, finally coming to a close when in a desperate move, Celestia channelled all the power of the elements into herself and drove her horn through the evil unicorn's heart. This was his second time reading this book, and it still managed to entertain him just like the first time. The prince was so absorbed in his reading that he failed to notice Galatra sit next to him; he only realized that she was there when she tapped his shoulder, making him jump. Seeing Orion jump the way he did, the griffoness couldn't help but laugh at him and thought the prince wasn't happy about being startled like that; he to started to laugh after a few seconds.

"That wasn't funny!" Orion stated, rather unconvincingly through his laughter. Galatea just laughed harder at this statement, even falling onto her back and rolling around on the floor. From across the table, Blueblood stared at the scene with a confused expression on his face. He looked over to where his father and the princess were standing for answers, but all they did was shrug their shoulders. Returning his attention to the prince and Griffoness, Blueblood saw that they had stopped laughing and were now wrestling as Galatea was trying to take the book from Orion.

"Come on! Hand over the book, will you; you've already read that once and don't need to reread it." The prince pushed Galatea away and tried to sit on the book to keep it from her, but the griffoness was having none of that and tackled him off of the chair before he could get a good grip to keep himself rooted to the spot. Blueblood stood up and looked on with worry as his friend was knocked to the ground. His concern turned to further confusion as he saw that the two had started laughing and were no longer interested in what happened to the book.

"You two are strange," Blueblood, the tenth, said, drawing the attention of the prince and griffoness. Feeling a little awkward under their stares, the little noble sat back down and tried to shrink into his chair as best he could. Looking between themselves and Blueblood, Orion and Galatea chuckled before getting up and dusting themselves off.

"I'm surprised that it took you this long to realize this," Orion stated with so much mirth that it almost came off as smug. Blueblood snorted with disdain at the comment, but other than that, he didn't say anything and went back to his reading. Without warning, the prince ripped the book from Blueblood's magic and set it down on the table, much to the young noble's chagrin. "You know what? Galatea's right; we've done very little but sit in my room and read for the past few weeks reading. How about we go out and do what Galatea want's for a little while?" Blueblood opened his mouth to protest, but before he could utter a single word, the griffoness slung her front leg around his neck in a light headlock.

"Come on, don't be such a foal, aren't you supposed to be a colt?" Galatea asked, and the little noble nodded his head. "Then why are you acting like a scared little filly?" Now, normally, a comment like that wouldn't have fazed Blueblood, But for some reason, when it came from the beak of the griffoness, he felt his blood boil as his temper flared up to meet the challenge. Slipping from the headlock, Blueblood stood up and looked Galatea in the eye. "Oh, is the little noble growing a spine? Dies he want to beat up the big mean gwiffion?" She asked with a baby voice to mock him. From the other side of the room, Luna and the older Blueblood looked on with concern, hoping that things wouldn't devolve into a fight as there was no way a pampered noble colt could take a griffon, even if he had magic at his disposal. "Come on, then, take a swing at me: I dare you!" Galatea demanded, but before Blueblood, the tenth could do what she asked of his, and the older ponies were forced to step in, Orion got between the both of them.

"Enough, you two! This is my room, and I say that there will no fighting, at least not for real." Almost immediately, the noble and griffoness went quiet and looked down at the ground with shame, which was rare for Galatea as she seldom felt bad for the actions she took. "Now, I want you two to apologize to each other."

"What? I didn't do anything; it was all her!" Blueblood whined, to which his father stood up to chastise his son for his foalish behaviour, but before he could say a single word, Orion beat him to it and cut him off.

"I don't care; I want you both to apologize!" Letting out a tired sigh, both Blueblood and Galatea stepped around the prince and apologized to each other. " Now, give each other a hug." With their eyes growing wide with surprise, the noble and griffoness looked between themselves and the prince. At the other end of the room, Blueblood, the ninth, also looked on with shock, while Luna did all she could not laugh as not to give away that her son was messing with them. Feeling like they were trapped, the little noble and griffoness reluctantly took a step towards each other. They were seconds away from hugging when the prince could no longer keep his composure and burst out laughing. Immediately realizing that they were being pranked, Blueblood and Galatea looked at the other and nodded their heads in silent agreement. Seeing the looks on his friend's faces, Orion didn't waste a second and took off running and bolted out the door, with his friends hot on his heels. Unable to contain herself any longer, the princess burst out laughing, soon followed by a hearty chuckle from Blueblood, the ninth.

Moving as fast as he could, Orion ran through the halls of the castle to escape the fury of his friends. Unfortunately, that was much easier said than done, as even though he towered over most creatures that made up the kingdom's citizens, one of them had wings, which evened the playing field by a large margin. The only reason the two of them hadn't managed to catch the prince yes was due to his headstart. No matter how hard he tried to lose them, Orion was unable to shake his pursuers. He would turn down halls at random in an attempt to escape, but due to how much time he had spent with Galatea exploring the castle, she knew the layout almost as well as he did. If the prince wanted to lose the pair, he would have to do something that Galatea wouldn't predict he would do: something that he was forbidden from doing under any circumstances.

Orion bolted up and down the halls, turning corner after corner, all the while narrowly dodging Galatea's attempts to grab him when he slowed down to round a corner. Eventually, he managed to reach his destination that was the lunar gardens. Given the many ponies wanted to take the prince away from the castle, he was forbidden from ever entering the lunar gardens without one of the princesses or a substantial escort. Since many of the plants in the lunar gardens needed the light of the moon to grow, it hung off the side of the castle, so any pegasus could swoop down and grab him, or a unicorn could teleport in and out before any pony knew what happened, not that Orion was thinking about that in his panicked state. As soon as he entered, the prince pressed his ear to the door and listened as his friends ran by, not even suspecting for a second that he had lost them. Backing away from the door, Orion let out a sigh of relief, thinking that he was out of danger: that was until he felt a presence behind him. Spinning around, he expected to see one of the night guard thestrals and that he would have to explain himself, but much to the young prince's shock and horror, it was a pony he had never seen before.

"It seems it's my lucky night. To think that I would find myself before the little prince all thanks to a whim," the strange pony said to himself, barely paying attention to Orion as he stared up at the night sky. Knowing full well that he was in danger and that he had to get away from the unicorn, Orion started to slowly back away from him and towards the door. As soon as the prince took a step, the stallion's head snapped in Orion's direction. "And where do you think you're going, hmm? Do you believe you can get away? Thinking you can run back inside and to the princesses for help?" The stallion asked with a dark chuckle. "No, young one, you can't escape your fate, so why don't you come along quietly?" Having far overstayed his welcome, Orion turned and bolted for the door; unfortunately, the young prince didn't get very far as the unicorn fired off a bolt of magic, that when it struck the prince in the back of the head, it made him feel incredibly tired. Almost immediately, the spell took effect, and Orion felt his entire body begin to go numb, which in turn caused him to lose his balance and fall face-first onto the cobblestone path. "Come now, little one, did you think that was going to work? You should say goodbye to this place, as it will be the last time you are ever going to see it." That was the last thing Orion heard before the spell kicked in full, and everything went dark.

"Why haven't you found him yet!?" Luna snapped at the thestrals that bowed before her. "It's been three months since he went missing, and you've found nothing!" The guards didn't respond, for there was nothing to say; they had failed not only the prince but their princess as well. When her guards didn't answer her, Luna stood up and, without a word, left the throne room, slamming the for behind her as hard as she could. Once the furious monarch was out of the room, the bat pony guards silently begged the princess for forgiveness for their failure.

Luna stormed through the castle, scattering every pony she came across as none of them wanted to incur her wrath. It wasn't a very well kept secret that the prince had gone missing. Mostly thanks to Luna's inability to control the royal voice when she was in a bad mood and because many ponies managed to spot Shadow leave the castle: the princess only sent him out when things were beyond dire. With many spotting, the night guard's head scout out and about, many of the castle staff began inquiring to the guard about what happened. Not even thinking about the consequence, the day guard was more than happy to divulge information about the prince's disappearance. Armed with this knowledge, some of the ponies in the castle cheered that the prince was gone and that Luna had suffered a "defeat" at the hooves of the righteous, exposing their affiliations with Celestia's cults. Those ponies didn't stay employed for very long, though, because as soon as their words reached the ears of the solar monarch, they were fired on the spot. Inevitably, these ponies complained about their termination, citing suppression of beliefs, but their complaints soon died on their tongues when Celestia told them they were lucky she was only firing them and not vaporizing them on the spot. Thankfully, most of the staff showed some concern for Orion's well-being, having grown accustomed to seeing him run through the castle halls with his friends close behind. While most of the staff showing concern was a good sign that Luna and her son were accepted, it did little to improve the lunar monarch's mood. Luna was so focused on finding her son; she barely reacted when a pony other than a guard talked to her, even when they offered to join the search parties.

Reaching her room, Luna nearly tore the doors off their hinges when she opened them and almost did it again when she slammed them shut. When all this was over, she needed to remember to replace those from all their abuse. It had been a brutal few months for the princess of the night since from day one of her son's foalnapping; she refused to sleep until he was found. It took all of Celestia's political acumen to convince her sister that she needed rest or she wouldn't be any help to her son when the time came to rescue him. Even then, Luna slept as little as she could, only resting for an hour or two before getting back to the search, any second she wasn't searching, she felt like she was wasting time. Every night the princess took to the skies and scoured the land for any sign that would lead her to the foalnapper that took her son. Even the most minute and inconsequential would have been enough for the mistress of the night, and yet she hadn't found a single clue. Flopping onto her bed, Luna buried her head in her pillows and fought with everything she had not to cry. As night after night passed without word on her son's whereabouts, Luna found it harder and harder to reign in her emotions, All she wanted to do was lar it all out and cry her heart out, but she wouldn't allow herself to do so, as she had told herself that she would only cry when Orion was safe and sound. The real problem, though, was Nightmare Moon; the worse Luna felt, the stronger her corrupted self became, and she could feel her struggling to take over and go on a rampage. On more than one occasion, the princess caught her eyes shift to become the Nightmare's draconic ones.

The princess's musings were interrupted when she heard the doors to her balcony open. Thinking that it was an assassin sent to kill her while she was emotionally drained and distraught, Luna sprung from her bed and faced the intruder with her horn alight, and yet there wasn't any pony there.

"I apologize for the intrusion, my princess, but I have knowledge that must be relayed to you," A voice suddenly said to Luna's left. In most cases, the average pony would have jumped and screamed at a mysterious voice talking to them from the shadows, but since Luna was familiar with all her guards' cadences, she turned and faced her head scut with a stern face. How he managed to slip into her room and appear beside her so easily was one of those mysteries she would never know unless Shadow decided to tell her, but Luna was sure that he intended to take his secret to the grave.

"You could have just knocked. If you were still standing at the door, I could have blown you to pieces." Luna reprimanded in a deadpan tone; not that shadow seemed to care or understand as he simply stared back at her with a blank expression.

"I have word on where the young prince is being held, and I thought that you would want to know right away instead of adhering to common decency." Immediately any anger or frustration Luna felt towards the thestral vanished, and she rushed forward and began shaking Shadow, asking him over and over when her son was. Disappearing in a puff of black smoke, Shadow reappeared a short distance away, out of the princess' reach and melded into the darkness around him; the only thing that allowed Luna to know that he was still there was his red eyes. "Please, princess, I know you want to find the prince as soon as possible, but I can't tell you anything if you don't allow me to speak," Shadow stated as reverently as he could. Feeling like her guard was scolding her like she was a filly, Luna pinned her ears back and gave him a sorry smile before she took a deep breath to calm herself down. Once she felt a little more composed, the princess asked the shadow bound thestral to continue. "He's being held in an abandoned building in a town on the other side of the Everfree forest. From what little I could gather from the ponies that live there, the building is the headquarters of some foalcon group that takes foals from their parents all across the kingdom to sell them on the black market." Once the guard finished relaying his report, Luna felt her stomach drop and her blood run cold. Almost immediately, the princess' mind ran rampant with thoughts and images of her son, helpless and broken as sick ponies raped him for their own amusement. It took her a moment, but the mistress of the night was able to reign in her rogue thoughts, and once she did so, she was consumed by a burning rage. If these ponies think that they will get away with this, then I'm going to teach them a lesson they'll never forget. Without a word, Luna turned and left the room, leaving the scout to look on with confusion, all the while, in the back of her mind, Nightmare moon cackled maniacally.

Sitting in a cell, Orion stared up at the ceiling and watched drops of water as they fell between the stones, not like there was much else to do, plus it kept his mind occupied so as not to think about the things these ponies did to him. The young prince had no idea where in Equestria he was, nor did he have much in the way to tell time, so he had no idea how long he had been here; it could've been weeks or months, there just wasn't a way keep track. The last thing that Orion could remember before waking up in this cell was trying to get away from a strange pony as he charged a spell; unfortunately, the prince couldn't remember any details about his assailant, so he was unable to pick him out from the myriad of ponies that came and went from the cells. Further down the dimly lit hall that made up the cellblock, Orion could hear the sound of other fillies and colts sobbing to themselves, many of whom made it rather hard for the prince to keep his mind off of where he was, but no matter how hard he wanted to, Orion couldn't blame them. Many of them had been trapped in the cages like animals for years. If he hadn't nearly died once already, Orion would most likely be in the same mindset as the others, but thankfully, he was much stronger than that, even though the thought of being here for years still terrified him. Not only would he be away from any pony that cared for him, but there was also nothing else for him to do but wallow in his own misery. Of course, that wasn't the worst thing that could happen to you in this place; the worst possible outcome Orion could think of was for one to succumb to the "lessons" these ponies "taught" them. Orion felt a chill run down his spine at the thought of the "lessons" he received: especially since he's seen the results first hand. Colts and fillies who accept these "lessons" break; what once made them a pony no longer existed; now they only exist to receive the "gifts" the older ponies give them. Like the other sane colts and fillies, the prince was forced to watch as one of the broken ones turned and presented themselves to one of the stallions or mares, all the while shaking with giddy excitement. The mere sight of it made the prince want to vomit.

Shaking his head, Orion put those thoughts to the back of his mind and tried to think of something else to preoccupy himself with so he didn't drive himself into a depression. Just as the prince was beginning to wind down, an older pony came into the cell block and smacked the bars with his cane, yelling at the wailing colts and fillies to stop crying and shut up. The prince remembered him from his "lessons," and from what Orion could tell, he was in charge of this group as all the others deferred to his opinions and decisions, not only that, but they also treated him with a severance that went father than simple ideological support. From the corner of his eye, the elder stallion saw the prince looking at him and flashed him a sleazy smile that made Orion's skin crawl. All the prince could do was hope that the old stallion to move on and go back to the main room; unfortunately, luck wasn't on Orion's side as the ageing stallion walked up to the cell.

"Good afternoon, young one. Oh, I'm sorry, but there's no way for you to tell time, is there?" There was a pause to allow the prince to answer the question, but instead, Orion defiantly remained silent. The smile that was on the stallion's face immediately disappeared and changed to a disappointed frown. "Still being defiant, I see. After our last lesson, I was hoping that you would have come to see things our way, but I guess that was a little too hopeful on my part. Not that I'm blaming you, the princesses did raise you the wrong way, and it's our job to correct that." Seeing the look on the old stallion's face, Orion realized that he had made a mistake in not responding and let out a defeated whine. Trying his hardest not to cry and give this sick pony more pleasure, Orion braced himself as he heard the cell door open, knowing full well that he was about to receive a "lesson." Thankfully, the old stallion didn't get all that close to him as the building shook, and a series of explosions went off overhead, taking his attention from the prince. "What in Tartarus was that?" The elder asked no pony in particular as another explosion rocked the building.

"Elder! We've got trouble; the day and night guard are raiding the building!" A pony explained between panicked breaths as he burst into the cell block.

"How did they find us?" The old stallion asked, and all the other pony could do in response was to shake his head.

"I have no idea, but the processes themselves are leading the charge, and from what little came back from the response teams, the Lunar one is cutting through our forces like they were nothing!" The second the elder unicorn heard that the princesses themselves were here, all the colour drained from his face. He knew that there was little chance for their security teams to repel both the night and day guard, but there was always a chance: Unfortunately, the princesses destroyed any and all hope of that small miracle happening. The only way the decrepit stallion could think of to allow his organization to survive was to sacrifice the security teams and order them to hold off the princesses as long as they could, so the more influential members might escape. The old unicorn gave the pony at the end of the hall those exact orders, and without hesitation, he saluted before leaving the cell block. Once the other pony was gone, the elder turned to face the prince, who had a smug smile plastered on his face.

"I wouldn't be so smug about this, young prince, for I worked far too hard to get you away from the princesses, and I'm not about to let them take you back so easily." The smile fell from Orion's face as he felt darkness overtake him.

"Where is my son!?" Luna yelled at the half-conscious stallion held aloft in her magic. The second the princess of the night entered the building, she began cutting a bloody swath through the forces that rushed to repel her and her guard, with many of them barely being able to stand before her for a second before being cut down like the animals they were. The few that didn't immediately expire didn't fare that much better as they had to deal with Luna's more than aggressive interrogation tactics, all the while barely managing to hold onto consciousness. Not even her sister's words were able to reach the lunar Alicorn as she rampaged through the building, and even though Celestia felt sick to her stomach as she watched her sister fall deeper and deeper to the dark voice in the back of her head, she could do nothing but sit back and watch it happen. The few times she tried to calm her sister down, the solar monarch found a blade pressed against her throat as Luna wouldn't allow any pony to stand in her way when she was so close to her son, not even her own sister. The only thing that Celestia knew that would quell the rage burning through Luna was for Orion to be found as soon as possible and ordered the day guard to double their efforts, not that the security forces made that task easy. Celestia feared that, at the rate they were going, Luna would give into Nightmare Moon's temptations before they could find Orion, and that was one thing the solar Alicorn could not allow.

"Princess Luna, we've spotted the prince! He's being carried away from the battle and through the building by an older unicorn stallion," Dark Lance stated as he ran up to the two monarchs. Without missing a beat, Luna dropped the pony she was shaking down for information and sped past her captain of the guard, paying no heed to their calls for her to wait. Once her sister was out of sigh, Celestia let out a sigh and helped Dark Lance up after Luna bowled him over in her hurry to get to Orion.

"Are you alright, captain?" Celestia asked, and the thestral, after looking himself over, nodded his head.

"Yes, princess, I'm fine, but I'm more worried about princess Luna being on her own without an escort."

"I fully agree, captain. She's not in her right mind at the moment, and I'm worried that she might end up doing something she would regret, lead the way," Celestia said to the captain, who gave her a quick bow before galloping down the hall after Luna. Celestia followed closely behind the thestral as worry began to build up in her core, telling her that something would go wrong if they didn't catch up to her.

Regaining consciousness, Orion felt himself bounce up and down at irregular intervals, letting him know that he was on some pony's back. Slowly and carefully, the prince lifted his head in such a way as not to give away that he had woken up and looked around as best he could. Orion couldn't see all that much from his position, now who it was that was carrying him, so he took a calculated risk and lifted his head a little more to see that the old stallion had slung him onto his back. The decrepit stallion was making good time and wasn't moving like he was near his death-bed, but more like he was in his twenties and was in the best shape of his life. How is he moving this fast, insist he ancient? Not even Galatea can move this fast while carrying me, and while I know she's much younger, she still has the advantage of being a griffon, plus she can fly!" Feeling movement on his back, the old unicorn looked over his shoulder and saw that Orion was awake, and when the prince looked up, the foalcon gave him a smug smile.

"I guess I should have known the sleep spell wouldn't keep you knocked out for long; it's not this first time that has happened. There's more to you than meets the eye, young Orion, and I can't wait till we find out together." Not liking the sound of that, the prince reacted as fast as he could and tried to push himself off of the unicorn's back, but no matter how hard he pushed, he couldn't get up; it was as if some force was keeping him pinned down. "Please don't make things harder than they need to be, Orion. We are going to be spending a lot of time together when we get out of here, and I would rather not have to do anything that might ruin that wonderful body of yours," the stallion stated with a tone that made the prince's skin crawl and stomach churn. As the elder continued down the hall, Orion could hear the sounds of battle overhead grow more and more distant, causing any remaining hope that his mother would rescue him to wither and die.

Just as the prince was about to lose all hope, a dagger shot out of the darkness and struck the old stallion in the leg. With a cry of pain, the ancient foalcon fell flat in his face, which in turn caused him to launch the prince off of his back. Still feeling the after-effects of the knockout spell used on him, Orion couldn't feel his arms or legs, so he could not brace himself as he fell to the floor. The prince closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable pain he knew he would feel, and yet after several seconds where he should of his the ground; he didn't. Thinking that one of the old unicorn's companions had caught him, Orion began to thrash around to escape, but he quickly stopped when he opened his eyes and stared into a pair of familiar red irises.

"I'm glad to see that you are safe, my prince," the dark thestral said with a warm smile. Upon seeing the thestral scout, Orion found he could not contain his emotions and began crying, burying his head in the bat pony's chest. Given Shadow's affinity for darkness and his already anti-social behaviour, he was unaccustomed to this sort of situation, so all he could think to do was awkwardly pat the prince's back and tell him he was safe. No matter how much he tried, Shadow couldn't get the prince to calm down, and he continued to cry his heart out. It seemed that there was nothing the bat pony could say to get the prince to stop crying, and just as he was beginning to think he was going to be here forever, Shadow saw the princess come around the corner. Shadow barely had time to let go of Orion and get out of the way before the princess collided with her son and wrapped her legs around him protectively. Over and over, the princess begged her son for his forgiveness for letting him get taken, and no matter how much he told her it wasn't her fault, she wouldn't listen. The Lunar monarch promised her son that nothing like this would happen again as she wouldn't let him out of her sight. The reunion of mother and son was interrupted when a bolt of magic struck the princess's side, blasting her into a wall. Letting out a vicious snarl upon seeing his princess hurt, Shadow turned and faced her assailant and charged with sword drawn, determined to end the old foalcon's life. With blade raised high, the thestral prepared to strike the decrepit pony down; unfortunately, he wouldn't get the chance as the unicorn conjured a shield around himself that easily repelled the bat pony, throwing him down the hall and rendering him unconscious.

"What a touching reunion, but aren't you all forgetting something?" The old unicorn asked with a cocky sneer. "Years, it took me years to create this group, and you ruined everything!" The ageing stallion emphasized his anger by kicking the unconscious princess in the ribs as hard as he could. "You and that whorse of a sister have been a thorn in the side of many ponies, and I think it's time we were rid of you two." Orion watched in horror as the old stallion took hold of Luna's sword and held it over her neck like an executioner. Poised and ready to strike down the princess, the unicorn savoured the moment for a few seconds before swiftly raised the sword and brought it back down. Crying out, Orion did something that no pony thought he was capable of and inadvertently let out a pressure wave of pure magic at the decrepit stallion, blasting him into the wall with a sickening splat as he flattened against it. Feeling all the anger and pain he felt over the past few months bubble up, the prince didn't let up and continued his assault. Even as bones snapped and organs ruptured, the prince didn't relent and only stopped when he felt a pair of hooves wrap around him.

"Orion, that enough now. It's alright; he can't hurt you now," Luna comfortingly whispered into his ear. The anger and desire to see the Unicron suffer vanished immediately, and all that was left was the sadness and emptiness. Once again, unable to control himself, Orion buried his head in his mother's chest and began to cry. At that moment, Celestia and the rest of the guard came around the corner, and upon seeing the state her family was in, rushed to them and embraced them. The three of them stayed like this until the prince cried himself into unconsciousness. The second Orion fell asleep, Clesita helped her sister up and gently placed her nephew onto her back before facing the night guard captain.

"I trust you have everything in hoof here, Captain?" Celestia asked Dark Lance, who nodded his head and bowed before issuing orders to the other thestrals under his command. While the thestral captain was giving orders, the lunar and solar monarchs began taking the young prince home and away from this nightmare he suffered through.