Luna was no stranger to death. She had witnessed the demise of her parents at an early age and had been raised amid a devastating war against a Tyrant God of Chaos.

She had grown up and was thrust upon a throne she was never prepared to mantle. She had worn the hats of both a liberator and a conqueror as she fought to rebuild a shattered nation and unite its desperate ponies.

Luna had commanded entire armies into deadly wars, she had led the responses against plagues and had personally executed condemned criminals.

And as the years crept by, Luna had been forced to watch as every friend she had ever made withered and died, losing their battle against the relentless march of time.

No, Luna was no stranger to death at all. In a certain way, she had been moulded by it.

One would think that for a pony as old as Luna, who had grieved and lost as much as her, at a certain point, there would be nothing left to give. Yet, death and suffering had a way of hollowing out a pony, of killing a little piece of their soul.

The emotional wounds always healed with time but the scars never faded, not truly. And Luna still carried the scars of all those that she killed and had died under her protection.

That was what Luna felt like as she surveyed the ward of the clinic. As though a piece of her soul died.

More than a hundred ponies lay wounded in cots lining the walls of the hall. Lacerations, burns, crush injuries, smoke inhalation and more. Afflictions of all types had been levelled against the innocent town by the marauding pegasi. Some of them were almost healthy enough to be released, some of them beyond hope of recovery and dozens more ponies lay dead in the morgue.

‘I have failed them.’ Was the only thought that ran through Luna’s mind.

She hadn't been fast enough, strong enough or clever enough to keep them from harm. Through her negligence, countless ponies perished and even more had their lives torn apart.

The logical, pragmatic part of her brain told her that there was nothing more that she could have done but logic rarely held sway over matters of the heart and Luna’s heart felt heavy with the loss of all the lives that might have been saved, if only she had made better choices.

The former princess's internal lamentations were interrupted as she felt a pony brush up against her side.

“For every pony laying in one of those cots, you saved ten more from joining their fate.” Nurse Loving Care comforted as she gave the taller mare a sympathetic look. Her eyes had a certain ‘knowing’ about them, as though she could see through Luna’s grief and self-loathing.

‘Did she feel the same way when her patients died?’

The soothing words did help somewhat. After spending a century keeping others at arm's length, having another pony empathised with her was comforting.

Luna just wished that she could do more help. For all that she claimed to be a magical prodigy, she was terrible at healing magic. It never came as naturally to her as so many other fields of the arcane had. Yet, with so many ponies laying injured and the meagre clinics of Valley Dale overwhelmed past capacity, she dearly wished that she had put in the effort into learning the tricky and difficult discipline.

Letting out a melancholic sigh, Luna turned towards the nurse. “Where is her room?”

There was nothing more she could do for these ponies. However, there was still one pony that she could still help.

“Poor dear…” Loving lamented with a sorrowful tone. She pointed a hoof at an adjoining hallway to the left. “My husband and I have a house that connects to the back of the clinic. We originally treated you in one of our guest rooms before enough beds became available to move you into the main ward. Wind Scale is staying with us in the other guest room.”

Luna nodded and took a step towards the hallway but her legs almost gave out from under her as a shock of pain ripped through her chest. She stumbled briefly but leaned against the wall to stop herself from collapsing. Her chest throbbed around the area of her still-healing wound.

“Oh, my word!” Nurse Loving explained before rushing to help stabilise Luna on her hooves. “We need to get you back to bed. I told you that you needed more time to recover, Starry.” She gently chastised.

As the spasm of agony left her chest, Luna took a moment to steady her breathing. She had mostly healed from her injury but the Quellium Poisoning that had seeped into her flesh still seized with pain if she strained her pectoral muscle the wrong way. It would fade with time as her body naturally filtered out the toxins but she would simply have to endure until that happened.

“No, no, I'm fine,” Luna said as she pushed off against the wall and lurched back to her hooves.

The nurse resolutely shook her head. “I must insist that you return to bed, Starry. It's deeply concerning that your injuries are causing convulsions and spasms. It could be a sign of sepsis or potentially poison from the arrow. We need to keep you under observation.” She gripped Luna’s leg and tried to guide the alicorn back to her room. However, due to the former princess’s physical size, strength and weight, the nurse couldn't budge her the slightest.

Ignoring the mare, Luna started to walk towards Windy's room. Loving Care huffed in frustration at being brushed aside but quickly trotted to catch up to Luna, positioning herself at the alicorn's side to support her in case of another convulsion.

Thankfully, Luna's journey avoided any further incidents and she soon found herself outside of a pale wooden door that led to Loving's guest room.

Throughout the walk, the nurse's expression had slowly morphed from irritated exasperation to concern, as though she realised that Luna’s confrontation with the young filly was inevitable but feared for the emotional well-being of one or both of them.

“Just be gentle… please.” The nurse cautioned as the former princess’s hoof hoovered above the doorknob. “She has been through a lot.”

Luna nodded in acknowledgement of the warning before taking a deep breath and opening the door.

The room inside was dark and gloomy. The candles were extinguished and the blinds were drawn. However, due to the night alicorn's natural night vision, she had no difficulty seeing the filly who was curled in a ball on the large, queen-sized bed.

Having been woken by the creaking of the opening door, Windy groggily squinted and blinked at the tall, dark figure silhouetted in the doorway. The blinding light from the hallway prevented her from seeing who had disturbed her.

“I already said that I wasn't hungry, Nurse Loving.” The filly groused at her assumed intruder.

Instead of replying, Luna simply stepped forward out of the bright illumination of the doorway into the shadowy room.

It took a moment for Windy's eyes to adjust to the dark, before widening in shock and surprise as she recognised the mare standing before her. “Starry?” She exclaimed with no small amount of disbelief and wonderment. “I saw him shoot you. Nurse Loving said you might get better, but I didn't think…” She trailed off as pinpricks of tears began to form in her eyes. “I thought that…”

Luna simply walked forward and sat on the edge of the bed next to Windy. The young pegasus still looked as though she didn't quite believe that Luna was standing before her, as though the disguised alicorn was a desert mirage or a hallucination brought on her grief-stricken mind.

Not knowing how to comfort the filly with mere words, the former princess reached out and enveloped Windy in a tight hug.

The filly didn't react at first but soon latched onto the mare who had risked everything to save her and her mother with a strength that seemed to defy her small frame. Luna felt Windy's chest heave with silent sobs.

The alicorn wanted more than anything to wrap her wings around the young pegasus as a mother would.

But, Windy's mother was dead and Luna would make a poor substitute. She kept her wings firmly at her side.

Author's Note

The past few weeks have been very difficult for me. I've had a very close family member die while also having to contend with midyear exams. Its resulted in me having a very low appetite for writing.

This is a very short chapter that have written so far but I suppose that something is better than nothing.

Hopefully, I'll have more for all of you soon as I get back into the swing of things.

Thanks to all of you for staying patient.

Big thanks to my beta-readers:
https://www.fimfiction.net/user/424717/Themiei

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