Chapter 10: Moonlight

Beeps, soft beeps of an ekg stirred Luna awake, groaning; she slowly sat up, only to yelp and lay back down in pain, opening her eyes. She registered that she was in a white room ‘Canterlot?’ she thought, looking around to what she could see, she saw other ponies laying in hospital beds, with injuries she winced at, then her bandages.

“Ah you’re awake!” she heard a voice followed by a door close, looking at the owner she was surprised to see who it was.

“Dr. Radon? What’re you doing here, are we in Canterlot?” Radon gave a light chuckle and shake of his head to her surprise and stood behind her bed.

“You’re in Moonlight-” he then explained “-I came here to help-” he said, continuing with his explanation “-once the smoke was pointed out to me, i packed what i needed and headed here-” he sighed a glum look on his face “-i know what your sister wants with Moonlight and i for one don't support her crazed idea for wanting the lunar well.” wincing Luna sat up.

“What do you know of this well?” She asked, many sources claimed it to give ponies eternal life, others say it heals the grievous wounds, well that's what she heard.

Radon sighed, before he was a doctor he majored in history and he sure can tell the well isn't pony make. “The well isn't pony design-” he replied, he did get a good look at the well as many ponies were using it to help the injured “-but it does heal grievous wounds, though i think there's something far more to it”.

“Then we need to aaahhh” Luna winced in pain, her whole body flared up in the most excruciating pain she ever felt, Radon was immediately by her side as he helped her.

“Easy, easy your highness, you've been through a lot, you've just recently woke up after all!”

She panted looking at him in pain “how, how long was i out?”

Sighing he explained “you've been out for six hours, it's almost seven-” this shocked her, ‘seven hours-’ she thought ‘-is it morning already?’ she desperately tried to get out of bed, but screamed in pain as she moved ever so slightly “-whao Luna stop, you were in surgery for hours, you need to calm down!”

“But the moon!-” she protested “-i need to lower the moon!”

He continued stopping her “the moon can wait, you were critically injured when you arrived, nopony thought you survived!” his statement stopped her, ‘nopony thought i would survive? What's he talking about’.

Steadily he explained her injuries “you arrived with a broken wing, five broken ribs, two broken legs front and back, lower jaw fracture, left occipital bone fracture, second and third degree burns, five broken teeth, minor spinal fracturing. As for your organs: internal bleeding from shrapnel in your stomach, liver, kidneys, one of your ovaries and uterus, a collapsed lung and bleeding of your intestines, along with minor arterial bleeding in your broken hind leg.”

Luna just sat, slack jawed and mentally scoffed ‘luckily to be alive my ass-’ she thought ‘-i was damn near dead!’ she looked down at the many surgical scars she got. Yet the thought dawned on her, wouldn't a surgery this large be longer than six hours, unless, she shook her head, it couldn't be the well, unless it was, then the rumor was true, the lunar well does have healing properties.

Radon confirmed her mental suspicions “now i know what you're thinking, so I'll be level with you, yes it was the lunar well that healed your injuries. Somewhat. You still have nasty spots that give you pain, such as the broken bones, but the organ damage is healed, mostly. Fortunately your reproductive organs are relatively intact, even though they were hit with shrapnel.”

Radon could tell she was shocked, he couldn't blame her, he too was shocked after seeing the wells healing power and understood why the ponies of Moonlight safeguarded it. Yet the question remains why does Celestia want the well, she was after the west sure, but the well? She’s an alicorn and already immortal without the need of a pool of water, yet she’s after it like a dragon to gems. Yet being an alicorn herself she too is immortal, yet when she drank the water she felt not just her health but her power return. Both Radon and Luna were still curious as to why Celestia wanted the well, yet in hindsight, both didn't even know where the well came from, Luna was still curious when she first found it a millennia ago.

Minutes later Luna stood in the hospital lobby, where she was soon greeted by Spike and Daggerpoint, Luna embraced the dragon who was currently in tears, Daggerpoint explained to Luna he stayed by the dragon's side until she was discharged. She found out he was injured by the leader of the dark creatures, but he was more worried for her and how she kept phasing in and out of consciousness. It was when Luna caught sight of Spike's wound, he had a cast around his forearm, as it turns out Spike challenged the dark creature alpha and ended up with his arm being crushed by the things waraxe. If it wasn't for his scales Spike would have lost the arm, Luna looked over to daggerpoint and noticed he too took some beatings, most likely a few broken bones and by the looks of his hind leg being in a cast, has a broken hind leg.

After a while the three of them were discharged from the hospital, true they still felt pain from their injuries, but after explaining the need to return to Canterlot and assess the injured, the staff let them go. Assessing the injured was an understatement, upon opening the doors, Luna soon understood why the hospitals were full, ponies of all ages, refugees of Applesprig, aided the injured of their fellow townsfolk. Foals at the age of six too helped by delivering water to the ponies who needed it, Luna soon spotted Bloodheart the twenty seconds medic and currently she had her hoofs full. Daggerpoint sighed sadly, Radon earlier gave him the assessed numbers earlier, he just wanted Luna to see this, to let her know what happened when she was unconscious.

“How-” Luna began only for Daggerpoint to interrupt her and give her the estimate.

“Two hundred and forty-five wounded-” he replied, only to look at her sadly “-the death toll is greater than that!” He motioned for her to follow, with Luna urging Spike to stay put.

Venturing behind the hospital, Luna's mouth dropped, covered in various blankets, cloth and black bags was a thirty by ten row grave estimating a total of three hundred dead. Both she and Daggerpoint soon began to walk amongst the body bags, she never knew there were this many, he looked back to her and spoke in a somber tone.

“Roughly three hundred dead-” he replied, wings flapping overhead drew their attention to the sky “-pegasi going to and from Applesprig risked their lives to collect what dead there are, some never come back.”

Luna looked down, sighing “so few return-” she said looking at the bags “-has, has the mayor said anything?”

Daggerpoint sighed “mayor Nebula hasn't said much, in fact he wants to speak with you your highness, whereas I'm needed to speak with the militia captain here. He says there's a great concern regarding Applesprig and Moonlight. He too requests to see you afterwards.” Luna nodded and the two went back into town, Spike stood on the steps of the hospital, watching ponies helping the many wounded that came from Applesprig. He shook, remembering the first creature he fought and killed with his fire, looking down at his arm. He was ill prepared for his second encounter and almost ended up losing his arm, fortunately his scales took the brunt of the creature's axe strike, but the impact alone painfully broke his arm.

He soon watched Luna return, going up to her, he could clearly see the concern on her face “Luna what’s wrong?”

The princess sighed “I need to speak with the mayor wants to speak with me for some reason, but (sigh) this doesn't make any sense, there was no warning, we thought there were few in number. It appears we were wrong-” spike just stood there listening, he got that the mayor needs to see her, but this other mumbling he isn't aware of, she looked down at him aware she was talking out loud to herself.

“I'm going to see what the mayor needs-” she said turning to leave “-do what you can to help these ponies, I'm not sure how long I'll be.” she finished trotting off towards the town hall.

The town hall wasn't as far as she thought, it was in the town square where the lunar well stood, it's been ages since she laid her eyes on it, the well was a large shallow pool of crystal clear water. In the center stood a large column with what appeared to be a pedestal with four tines meant to hold or grasp something, not far behind the well stood a large mirror, roughly the size of Celestia herself. Why the mirror was there she didn't know, but a strange feeling called to her when she first laid her eyes on it, not only that, she felt strong residual magic within not only the mirror, but the well and the column too.

Reaching the town hall she looked up at the building. It was a two story brick building with a bell tower on the left side of the house, outside were several shacks for tools and weapons. To say the least it was better kept than the Sunfalls town hall, that town hall being made of wood, was falling apart from the inside, the ponies of the town should consider using brick next time. Walking up the stairs two guards stepped aside and opened the door for her bowing, once inside she was amazed at the interior as well, the place looked more like a mansion than a town hall. With little to no windows, the place was lit by torch and candle light, unlike Equestria using electricity the western coast was more traditional in the sense of using a calm candle light, or oil lanterns. As usual, just like Sunfalls, a receptionist desk stood in the center of the hall, trotting she admired the interior décor of the building. Paintings of past mayors and equestrian countryside lined the walls, while on the floor were pots consisting various flowers, ranging from red roses, to lavender and the infamous black lily or black rose. Making it up to the desk, the stallion was hard at work shuffling documents, or signing ledgers, clearing her throat, she startled the poor colt, looking up he greeted.

“Welcome to Moonlight town hall your highness, my name is Ink Splot, or just Splotty if you like. Do you have an appointment with the mayor?” the stallion replied, he was a unicorn stallion with a black and white spotted coat, his mane was brown and his cutie mark resembled a broken fountain pen.

Stepping up Luna informed her “I was told he wanted to see me!”

The Unicorn nodded “alright-” he said getting up “-I'll be right back!” Leaving behind some doors, Luna waited for the stallion to return with the mayor. It took awhile, but evidently he came back with said mayor.

“Ah princess Luna-” he replied bowing “-its nice to finally meet you, please, please come in to my office so we can talk” he said ushering her in, looking back he spoke to his receptionist “hold all my other appointments please” he said closing the door behind him.

Sitting down behind his desk, Luna sat in the chair in front as the mayor started, he was a light blue unicorn with a yellow mane, his cutie mark resembled that of a nebula. “So like I said, it's nice to finally meet you!”

Luna nodded “and you Mr. mayor, but why did you call me here anyway? Has something happened?”

Nebula sighed “I'm not going to lie your highness, but the attack on Applesprig not only cut off our food supply, but also separated us from the rest of the militia” Luna grimly nodded, “there's more-” he began “-before you woke up Daggerpoint informed me of their leader”. She raised her hoof, stopping him.

“I know, I met him!” Nebula looked at her shocked, their meeting was interrupted when Daggerpoint barged in, a look of worry present on his face.

“Your highness, you need to see this!” The two looked at each other, standing up, they went out to see what was going on.

Worry pressed the leaders of the militia, upon arriving at the situation Daggerpoint mentioned, both Luna and Nebula stared at the map of the western coast with worry on their muzzles too. Looking down at the map, one wouldn't make heads or tales of it, but in the thousand and so miles of land the west held, one could clearly tell the lower quarter of the map shouldn't be red in illumination magic. Luna's concern paled in comparison to the militias, for one Luna just got back not too long ago, secondly, Applesprig was meant to be the west's hope for getting food, now it's gone. However what worried them the most was not just Applesprig, but the fact the illumination magic was slowly expanding on the map, which meant one thing, the dark creatures were on the move.

“We have to act!” a militia captain replied furiously, many of the officers agreed with him, even daggerpoint, but there was on problem, how many more were there. Many claimed to have seen another group within the forests nearby and if that's the case another attack could be imminent, which means they had to be ready for what's to come. A pegasus soon landed by the table, he was out of breath and worried.

“Sergeant what's to report” the captain barked, causing the sergeant to salute.

“Sir the creatures are on the move, but they’re leaving the town, only a few corrupt animals remain!” This worried the council, if the enemy’s leaving then it was one of two reasons, another attack, or retreating, they hoped it was the latter. That's when Luna spoke up.

“Captain, I think it would be wise to not only prepare defenses, but also allow-” she bit her lip, nervous on what she was going to say next “-equestrian forces to help defend Moonlight”. Right on que, her suggestion of equestrian forces sparked an uproar, they’d soon rather die, than allow outside help from their enemies.

“QUIET” once silenced, everyponies eyes were drawn to Nebula “princess Luna is right, we need military aid for this, now i know many of you have grudges towards equestria, but Luna wouldn't of suggested this, if she wasn't thinking about her ponies first. If we don't stop this threat here in Moonlight, then the west along with all of Equss will fall, we have a common enemy and we need to look past our differences. I know Luna asks a lot, but we need help.” ponies thought it over, some just shook their heads and left, their bitterness overpowering them, whereas the rest stayed, eager to help not just the west, but all of equestria.

Moonlight was hard at work, not with just the injured, but now with defenses, in a surprising notion to the western ponies, the equestrians helped put up fortifications around the town. Seeing this the ponies held on to a small hope that this would bring their two societies together, of course some would claim it to be survival and not friendship that would bring the two together. Many on the other hoof didn't care and saw the need to evacuate the town, those who did were seen as cowards, but equally called those who stayed suicidal and insane. Luna on the other hoof only cared for one thing, the protection of her ponies and the need to protect the town, true she didn't want the well in her sisters hoofs, but that's neither here nor there. Right now she’s making sure Moonlight is ready, she doesn't want another Applesprig, these creatures have taken far too much, that ends here.

Raising the sun proved to be more difficult than she thought, for one she was used to raising the moon and her sister the sun, secondly being injured did not help in the slightest. ‘Come on’ she thought, its seven in the morning which meant the sun had to be at a certain height and lifting the sun felt like a marathon, she winced when she felt a pop in her back ‘oh shit, that's not good’ but it wasn't her spine, but her mussel. Luna panted after raising the sun to its correct height, other than having a hernia say hello, she stood up, only to be greeted by Nebula.

“Your highness-” he began “-some of the ponies were wondering what happened in Applesprig and are asking you to give a speech” he watched Luna’s face contort in surprise, slowly she nodded.

“It's high time things change. Gather everypony in the square, it’s high time I explain what happened and what I'm planning to do!” he nodded and left to do his task, what she was going to say would change the course of equestria and its future.

Ponies murmured amongst each other in the square, curious as to what the princess had to say, in front of the town hall's entrance stood a podium and at the door were two guards, one equestrian, the other militia. Next to the podium stood Spike, the dragon looked back at the door with worry and curiosity as to what Luna had to say. Standing next to him was Nebula, though he was more calm than worried, but overall was still curious.

Minutes later Luna exited the building, gasps erupted from the crowd, Luna's bandages were off, revealing the scars and recent injuries done to her in Applesprig. Speaking In the Canterlot voice, she began

“My fellow equestrians, what you heard today was an attack, but not from Celestia, mercenaries, or bandits, no, this attack was brought on by those bent on destruction, a race of dark creatures bent on ending all life. We won't let them, my injuries may be saveer, but not as much as my sisters, who was nearly assassinated by one earlier yesterday-” gasps erupted from the crowd, many of the militia hated Celestia, but knew deep down Luna wanted to save her, but hearing she was almost killed shocked them. “-which is why I'm asking all for unity, the loss of Applesprig is heartbreaking, but these things thrive on our sorrow, our pain and our conflict. I ask that you set aside your hatred for Equestria, my sister and others, because now we fight for not only our homes, we fight for our lives, our friends, families and our nation. TODAY WE FIGHT FOR EQUESTRIA AND FRIENDSHIP!” cheers erupted from the crowd, tears falling from their eyes knowing that for once harmony is coming to Equestria.

Nebula gave a smug grin “that was a hell of a speech” he said congratulating Luna.

She nodded “thanks, but i fear it's not over, i need to head back to Canterlot and speak with the advisors and council, it's time to change the name of the calendar age from the Celestial age to the Equestrian age. On top of all that I need to redirect the defense forces, if this threat is withdrawing from Applesprig then they do it to regain their strength, as of this moment, we’re at war.”

The thought of war terrified everypony, upon giving another speech, she ordered those who wished to leave evacuate to San Palomino and head further east. Once done she requested officers to send messages to any nearby settlements to send as much aid as they could to Moonlight, she knew these dark creatures will return, when she didn't know, but she wanted to be ready.

Much was done in Moonlight, but Nebula knew Luna had business elsewhere, seeing her off he and many of the officers now under the command of Daggerpoint wished her well. With Spike on her back, the two gave the town a final farewell, spreading her wings she took off towards Ponyville, where the real adventure and real answers began. However a thought occurred to her, one that plagued her mind, is spike ready? Looking back she drummed up a conversation.

“So? How’d that mission I sent you on turn out?” she asked, curious as to what Spike found out, or what happened while she was out.

There was silence for a moment “it was fine for a while, then it went downhill, but we managed to gather the Intel you were after!” Luna raised a brow to this, she was ever more curious as to what they found, but that was just the start, the warm up. The real reason she needed to speak with him was much more important.

“Spike, there's something else I need to ask of you.” By now Luna was sweating bullets and Spike could tell, he heard it in her voice.

“What's wrong?” the dragon asked, curious as to what made Luna nervous.

She sighed ‘here it goes’ “the Lunar court in Sunfalls, deemed it was time for me to search for a midnight prince, that it was time for the lunar coast to officially be called a free state of equestria. In other words i love you spike. Will you be my Lunar prince?”

The question caught the dragon off guard, yet it felt right, but it wasn't the only thing that happened, he felt a tinge, a tingly feeling in his stomach, the same feeling when he first met Rarity. Yet could he, just the thought of the fashionist brought the tinge he felt to a surge, yet he started to get it now with Luna, is it, is it love? Does he love Luna? Biting his lip he had to answer, he had to and he knew what he had to say.

“So? Will you?” she asked, her heart quaking, not certain on what he was going to say, but from him taking so long, she began to feel her heart breaking.

“Yes…”

She looked back surprised, “what?”

“...I’ll be your prince!” he finally said.

Author's Note

I don't own the rights, i only own the oc's in the chapter, so what do you think, can spike go through with the thought of him being Luna's prince and what did they find in the Intel, what's operation fallen prince all will be told in the fanfic the western Lunar crisis. To note the next chapter will take some time to be typed out, which is why I'll be posting The western Lunar crisis next, Enjoy.