The next day, Redcross checked her stitches once more, wiping at them with a damp cloth that she presumed was soaked in an antibacterial from the way it stung her flesh whenever it touched one of her wounds. However, unlike yesterday, the nurse proceeded to do this to every wound, rather than just checking on the ones on her arm. In so doing, Luna found herself marveling at how she'd managed to live without Light or her Ghost's healing.

This only brought up a rather unfortunate observation: she smelled. Specifically, she smelled like sweat and gunpowder and rotten wood and blood, mixed with campfire soot and bog water and dirt. She felt bad every time Redcross came into the room. So, with a piece of paper, she drew her request and showed the nurse.

Redcross nodded happily, pulling the sheets down to help her get up. It was at this point that Luna realized just how fucked up she was. As she shifted her weight, pain exploded from her wounds, making her yelp in surprise and hold perfectly still until it passed. Redcross stared in concern, but Luna offered a weak smile of reassurance. She had dealt with similar pain before. Granted, she'd died or been healed very quickly afterwards, but she had indeed faced pain of this magnitude.

It took twenty minutes for her to get out of bed, at which point, Redheart began guiding her out of the room, step by step. Every time Luna stumbled or flinched from the pain, Redcross was there to keep her on her feet. Another ten minutes of this, and Luna made it to a room with a large shower. It was certainly lower than those in the Tower dorms, but she'd make do.

For a moment, she waited for the nurse to leave her to her devices. But after a moment of the pair of them just awkwardly standing there, the nurse seemed to realize something, and approached the shower, turning it on and warming the water for her. Once she was satisfied with it, she returned to Luna and guided her to the shower, allowing her to test the water herself.

After turning the water up some, she gingerly removed her gown and stepped in. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she felt the grime and dirt wash away in the hot water. Her muscles relaxed in the heat, pain dissolving away like salt in the ocean.

Then began the struggle of actually scrubbing the stubborn bits and getting the stink of near-death off her. The nurse offered her a washcloth and a bottle of soap, which she gladly took. From there, she washed her arms and chest first before trying to wash her legs. When she tried to bend to get at her lower legs and feet, however, she discovered quite painfully that she was nowhere near healed enough to be able to do that. The pain lashed out at her, tripping her face-first onto the wet tiles.

The nurse helped her get back up, much to Luna's embarrassment at needing so much. This time, she sat down before trying again to greater success. After that, she used a bottle of what was presumably shampoo to wash her hair.

Once finished, Redcross gave her a towel to dry off with and a fresh hospital gown. With her aching muscles relaxed from the hot water, and the simple euphoria of being clean, the trip back to her room was significantly shorter and less painful.

No sooner did she lie back down in bed did Sparkle appear with another pony. The stranger was an incredibly feminine white unicorn, with a well-maintained curly purple mane. Around her neck was a measuring tape, and on her muzzle was a set of reading glasses with red frames. The mark on her flank was a trio of diamonds, which prompted her new nickname: Diamond.

Sparkle proceeded to draw on a piece of parchment, taking a moment as though trying to recall something. She showed Diamond the image, and upon her approval, passed it to Luna.

The image showed what she figured was her armor in a state of incredible disrepair, followed by the simple picture of a needle and thread, and a set of clothes similar to them, but as far as she could tell, not armored.

She nodded in understanding, moving to step out of bed. Immediately she was reminded that she should definitely be resting, or at least have some painkillers. As she stood, the unicorn smiled and her eyes gleamed with a strangely warm calculation. Luna raised her arms as Diamond took her measurements.

Another few ponies entered just as she laid back down, all unfamiliar. Two pegasus ponies, and two normal ponies. She sighed, waving away her hopes of a chance to relax before attempting once more to learn the local language.

The first normal pony was just pink. There was no other way to describe her that felt as accurate. Sure, she literally bounced like a fresh Guardian into the room rather than walked in, and sure, she was talking faster than some auto rifles she'd used, but the truly defining factor for this pony was just Pink. And so, Pink became her nickname.

The second normal pony seemed far more grounded, judging solely by the way she carried herself. She had orange fur with a blonde mane, tied loosely with a red hairband near the ends of her hair. On her head sat a comfortably-worn Stetson. The mark on her flank was a trio of apples, leading to her nickname: Apple.

Above Apple, the first pegasus she noticed seemed to be whining at Sparkle, which was met with a bemused frown. She was blue in color, with a rainbow mane. Before she could observe further details, said pegasus rapidly approached from the air. Instinct took over, making Luna yelp, grab the pegasus by the neck and fling her across the room where she was luckily caught by Sparkle. The winged-unicorn scolded Rainbow, before letting go.

Then she noticed the second butter yellow pegasus, who was hiding behind Sparkle and peeking out from behind her luxuriously long pink mane. Upon realizing Luna could see her, she yelped and hid once more. While Luna didn't think she was too scary without her armor, she did have to remember she was an alien to them. She dubbed this final pegasus Shy.

The day only got weirder from there.

Pink bounced over to her with a manic smile, a nervous smile on Sparkle's face warning her that something she might not like might be coming. However, Sparkle breathed a sigh of relief when from absolutely nowhere, Pink produced a perfect cupcake, topped in blue frosting. Luna looked at the cupcake, then at Pink, then back to the cupcake.

"She pulled that from absolutely nowhere, right?" Luna asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, she did. I checked," Ghost chirped.

Luna cautiously took the cupcake and inspected it closely before taking a bite. The effect was immediate. Her eyes widened as beautiful sugary sweetness filled her mouth. Sweets were often rare in the City, and most Guardians had sweets only during holidays like Festival of the Lost, or the Dawning. And even then, the sweetness of this treat was beyond all of them.

"Holy shit is this real sugar‽" Luna asked as she looked back at the cupcake. Before waiting for an answer, she finished the confectionery in one additional bite.

Pink, satisfied with this reaction, skipped back into the small crowd. Next to approach was Apple, who offered her a small picnic basket, which she found to be full of apples and apple-based treats, including a glass bottle of what looked to be apple juice, and a freshly baked apple pie.

In reply, Luna plucked a fritter from the basket and gave it a bite. A smile crawled over her lips and she had to resist the urge to let her eyes roll back in pleasure. She reached out and patted the pony, making her blush and bashfully kick the ground.

At this point, Shy had managed to steel herself enough to cautiously approach, her head low and looking up at her to gauge her reaction. Luna offered her a gentle smile, reaching slowly with her hand, offering it palm up as though greeting a cat. Seeming to understand, Shy smiled and approached a little more readily, inspecting her bandages.

"Fun as this is, I was hoping to learn your language before the meet-and-greet?" Luna said, picking up her notebook and starting to draw.

The picture showed Sparkle and Luna talking to each other, with Luna's speech repeated a few times, first in the English alphabet, then in the ponies'. She passed the picture to Sparkle, showing mild confusion to pose the image as a question.

——————————

"Alright girls, I know you all wanted to meet Violet, but she still needs to learn Equestrian," Twilight said, looking up to the alien in question and nodding to her. "You can visit later. I promise she's not going anywhere anytime soon."

Thankfully, protest was minimal as Applejack rounded everyone up and pulled them along. Now finally alone, Twilight pulled out a small foal's book about the alphabet. Violet sighed in what seemed like defeat before shaking her head and opening it to the first page. She spoke carefully, "A."

Violet paused for a moment, calculating quietly in her mind before she attempted it for herself, "...eigh?"

Twilight suppressed a giggle. "A."

"Eh!"

"A."

Finally, Violet got it right. "A?"

"Yes!" Twilight exclaimed. "A!"

And that was when Violet tilted her head, looking at her with curiosity. Twilight tilted her head back at Violet, expressing her own confusion. Frustrated, she tried to draw a picture.

The image showed Twilight's face in close-up, on one side nodding, then on the other shaking her head. Beneath each were a few of Violet's letters. Then it clicked.

Yes... No...? Yes and no? Wait, yes and no! That's actually a way better approach! Teach the most practical words first!

Twilight nodded her head, "Yes."

"EE-ess?" Violet attempted. "EE... E... Ye-yes... Yes?"

"Yes!" Twilight smiled and nodded again. "Yes!"

Violet smiled, miming writing and saying, "Yes?"

Twilight took the pencil and wrote the word beneath its proper image. "Yes."

Shifting gears, Twilight pointed to the second image. "No." She shook her head to confirm. "No."

"Nho? No... No?" Violet seemed to be rolling with the momentum now that she had a single word to work with.

"Yes!" Twilight said, confirming the pronunciation. "No!"

Immediately, Violet smiled, offering the pencil and image once more. Twilight wrote the word beneath its proper image.

From there, Violet began to draw quite rapidly, dozens of smaller images, accompanied by words spelled in her own alphabet. For each image, Twilight deciphered what Violet was asking the word of, and taught it. When it came to verbs, she didn't bother with conjugations in the interest of simplicity. Instead, she gave the infinitive form, vowing to teach the conjugations later, when conversation was a far less daunting task.

And such began a binary dawn. Yes and No began the first steps towards understanding. With positive and negative, Twilight watched with a mix of pride, wonder, and glee as Violet began to peel away at the language barrier. Violet kept intricate notes in her language on everything she was learning, going over each drawing and the written language with ink to ensure the graphite from the pencil didn't smudge and become illegible.

Eventually, their studies came to a close as Violet's stomach growled in protest. She blushed and removed a pair of apples from the basket and offered one to her. "Apple?" she asked.

"No. You apple," Twilight said, putting her hoof up to push the apple back to her. "Your apple."

"You-uor?" Violet played with the syllables on her tongue for a moment, trying to calculate the movements of her mouth. "Yo-re? Your?"

"Yes, your," Twilight smiled. Violet smiled and wrote that down. "See you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow," she said before crunching into the apple.

Twilight finally left the room, heading back through the hall towards the stairwell. She was still taken aback by Violet's approach to the problem of the language barrier. Thinking back, her own thoughts of what classified as the basics weren't really all that basic. The alphabet, while indeed consisted of the most basic bits of the Equestrian language, was nowhere near practical for a being that needed to learn how to talk to ponies and understand and be understood. The alphabet was way more complicated, with twenty-nine1 things to learn, rather than just the two Violet had suggested. Had Violet had to quickly learn another language before?

She was roused from her thoughts by Nurse Redheart just before she reached the stairwell. "Twilight! How are things going with teaching Violet Equestrian?"

"She's a quick study, and her approach to it is nothing short of genius," Twilight replied. "I was going to start with the alphabet, but she got frustrated before we even made it to B."

Redheart giggled, "I probably would too! But what was her alternative?"

Twilight pulled out a piece of parchment and drew the Yes and No that Violet had drawn, showing it to her.

"Yes and no?" she asked softly.

"The alphabet is twenty-nine letters," Twilight explained, "but 'yes' and 'no' are just two words. It's a much simpler jumping off point!"

"But isn't the alphabet the most basic thing to learn in Equestrian?" Redheart asked.

"If you want to learn to write in Equestrian, then the alphabet is the most basic you can get," Twilight answered, shaking her head. "But Violet doesn't need to write Equestrian, she needs to speak it! 'Yes' and 'no' opens up a huge portion of the language super quickly, with the added benefit of allowing her to understand when I'm trying to correct or confirm her pronunciation."

Nurse Redheart's eyes widened slightly as she put the pieces together. "Asking and answering questions...!"

"Yes and no answers," Twilight said, nodding to her. "If we ask in the yes-no binary, we can figure out everything from how she got here, to what kind of magic she used that messed her up so bad, to if she's injured and where."

"And Violet's the one who suggested this approach?" Redheart asked.

"Yeah," Twilight nodded. "Nothing short of genius."

Nurse Redheart smiled. "Well, I'm going to check on her and try to talk to her myself. I'll see you tomorrow, Twilight!"

"See you tomorrow!"

And with that, Twilight finally headed home, composing a letter to the princesses in her mind about the breakthrough today.

——————————

That night, Princess Luna sat at her balcony, staring up at the night sky. It was something of a nightly ritual to now that she'd returned from her banishment. To her, looking at the moon was no different than looking at one's own scars and remembering the pain of them. Up there was trauma. Pain, grief, sorrow, hatred, left behind in the deep black.

Satisfied that the scars were only just, she returned to her chambers, preparing to enter the Dreamscape for the first time since the night she was forced out. To say she wasn't nervous about entering once more would be a lie. For all of the breathing techniques, for all of her self-assurances, she knew that Violet had the power to forcefully eject her, and she knew it'd be painful if it happened again. But all she could do for now was prepare.

The clock struck twelve. With almost mechanical precision of movement, Luna settled down on her bed, reaching out into the aether with her magic. She closed her eyes and stepped otherways.

Once in the Dreamscape, she found herself relaxed. After all, this place was her domain. The realm of dreams was where she was strongest. She could perform magics of unprecedented precision or power with no more effort than raising a hoof. Changing the very laws of magic was foalsplay to her here.

Once more she saw the burning black star of Violet's dream. Once more, the black flames threatened to pour into nearby dreams. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She needed to remain calm. Rushing in like last time would only serve her ill. With another breath, she dove into the dream of the alien.

Metal surrounded her on all sides. Up, down, and all around her, metal walls, metal doors, metal ceilings, metal floors. From where she was on one side of the room, she could see metal doors lining the walls of each floor of the strange complex. In the center, suspended by massive cables, was an important-looking hub room. Up on that hub-room's roof was a single cloaked figure. Its armor was similar in style to Violet's, but the figure in question had a horn upon its head. The sounds of Violet's weapons echoed in the complex from somewhere further down this walkway. As she turned to look, she saw only a trail of corpses of alien creatures that bore no resemblance to her.

There was a loud snap, followed by five more in rapid succession. She turned and saw the cloaked figure holding onto a cable attached to the hub room with one hand, and the same weapon Violet used in the other. The figure's face and horn were entirely made of metal. Down they went, speeding with gravity to the bottom of the complex. She heard Violet's weapon again, snapping her back to attention. She rushed forwards, gliding along the path of death, catching up with Violet, finding her slaying even more of the creatures, their own weapons firing projectiles at her.

A wave of light and magic pulsed through the complex, through the walls as though they weren't there. Violet froze in place before screaming and abandoning precision and finesse in favor of raw destructive power. She swapped weapons to a massive tube on her back, which she figured was likely a shoulder-mounted cannon. She was almost correct. Violet blasted doors apart with what was essentially fireworks made for war, shredding anything in her path with her strange purple magic if it got close.

She blasted the last door open and ran with anger at another of her kind, a male with black hair, wielding the weapon of the horned figure in a taunting manner. Around him was an entourage of four-armed creatures much larger than himself. She could have taken him down easily. Luna knew Violet's capacity for destruction, even without weapons.

But Violet stayed, kneeling before the horned one, holding him in his dying moments. Tears filled Violet's eyes, and the dream around her faded once more, leaving her to cry in the dark.

Luna took a step forward. Her hoofstep echoed in the darkness. Violet looked up with grief staining her face. And in that moment, Luna wrapped her wings around Violet, pulling her into a warm, comforting embrace. She cried for a long time.

Luna lit her horn once more, and they were in Violet's hospital room. Violet was no longer in armor, and Twilight was there. Notes on the Equestrian language were sprawled out over her bedsheets.

"You are safe here," Luna said. "I will protect you."

Violet smiled and hugged her again.

Luna stepped out of the Dreamscape feeling exhausted. She didn't normally have to use so much magic to enter a dream, but Violet was quite full of surprises, pleasant or otherwise. Perhaps these were repressed memories, relived in her sleep when she was at her most vulnerable. Both events she'd witnessed were certainly traumatic, and would be the type of memory one would not want to think about much.

But for all of Violet's violence, one detail of the first dream didn't make sense.

What was with that scent?

Author's Note

1: In this story, the Equestrian language has separate characters for the phonetic sounds sh, ch, and zh.

Dialogue in Equestrian while in Guardian Luna's POV will have ~squiglies~ around it.