Before me stands a breathtaking creature. It is an equine like the smaller pony standing a few feat next to me but larger. Its’ head comes to around my chest height but the large horn it adorns puts it at slightly taller than me. Two massive wings are flared out at either side of its’ body, slightly fluttering from its’ recent landing. It is wearing an obsidian black crown as well as a strange neck garment of the same colour. On said neck garment is a brilliant white moon. Most impressive of all are the mane and tail, a stunning recreation of the night sky, billowing in an unseen wind. The creature’s mere presence bestows a feeling of majesty and grandeur. There are not enough words in the dictionary to describe its’ radiance, so I use only one.

“Wow.” I gasp in shocked silence. My eyes slightly glaze over, and I bend down instinctively to get a better look. The knife strapped to my belt snaps me out of my trance with a painful reminder that I don’t own a sheath.

A small smile graces the pony’s face and I swear I hear a small giggle. “Thou art most kind. We are Princess Luna!” Her voice is fairly loud but not in an angry way, more like she can’t help it. Wait Princess? Ah shit, I was gawking at a princess. I quickly push my knife out of the way and manoeuvre onto one knee, with an arm on my chest and one on my back, in a royal bow.

“My apologies, Princess.” I quickly sputter out. I wonder if there is a death penalty for insulting royalty. “I did not mean anything by it.”

“We do not believe thou did anything wrong.” She says while she casually trots towards me. “But if thou wishes to make up for thy ‘mistake’, then thee can make it up to us by telling us thy name.” Once she is right in front of me she starts to look at my clothes.

“It’s Artemis… um… Princess? What are you doing?” She starts prodding the different items attached to my belt and going through the many pouches I have on my character. It is, to say the least, uncomfortable. ‘I don’t want to anger her, but she will anger me if she breaks anything.’ I think to myself. I glance towards the other pony who is too preoccupied in wrapping up his fallen comrades. ‘Has she even seen them.’

“That is a nice name.” She says absentmindedly. “Tell me, what is this small green pineapple?” A grenade is lifted out of one of the pouches surrounded by a cyan aura. I watch in awe as it spins to show itself at every angle to Luna. I quickly snatch it out of the air and the glow disappears.

“DON’T TOUCH THAT!” I shout in alarm, but it falls on deaf ears as the princess continues her search. She starts to pull at my clothing with her… hoof… how. Doesn’t matter. I slap the hoof away with a more powerful strike than I intended. “Can you stop, seriously.”

Luna backs away and bows her head slightly. Regret plain on her features. “Ah, we are sorry. We have never seen a creature like you and…” She glances over my shoulder to see the dead parasite and ponies for the first time. “What… happened here?” The presence of the dead does not seem to concern her as much as I would expect from royalty. Why is she here in the first place. My musings are interrupted by Slicing Steele.

“That thing,” he says with audible disgust, looking at the parasite. “It came out of nowhere and knocked me out, when I woke up both my ponies were dead, and it was charging towards me.” The commander looked stricken as he recalled the events that had led to this unlikely meeting.

“And how, pray tell, did thou survive.” Luna was visibly engrossed in the brief story. Her attention was fully on Slicing Steele, and she walked around me to look at him better. This, subsequently, gave me a face-full of magic tail.

“Well just as I was about to be crushed, that.” Slicing pointed my way before looking slightly embarrassed. Whether it was because he just called me ‘that’ or because I was currently trying and failing to escape the cosmos attached to Luna’s flank I may never know. “Um… Artemis, shot it in the eye.”

The princess turned back to me, finally releasing me from my hair-filled prison. “Thy assistance is quite appreciated strange creature!”

“Don’t sweat it.” With me saying that, Luna looks towards the sky as the Sun starts to set.

“We shall gather the fallen and return to Canterlot post-haste!” As she made her rather loud remark, the cyan aura from before lifted up the now wrapped up corpses of the two recruits. “The last train leaves soon and we have a Moon to raise.”

What kind of figure of speech is raise the moon. “I’ll be going then.” I state and once again try to walk away. I am once again thwarted, my legs grappled by the cyan glow. Then sensation is indescribable, like a mix between burning and freezing but neither at the same time. I decidedly do not like it and let out an, “AH, SHIT!”

The aura dissipates and another look of guilt crosses Luna’s features. “While we flew over this forest we observed a couple other beast we hast never heard of before, lest seen!” Steely resolve in her eyes. “You would be in danger.”

“I’ve dealt with parasites before.”

“Aha! So thou knows of the mighty foes, now taking thee back hast become most paramount!”

“You said you needed to hurry;” I counter. “Equines are far faster than I could ever be.”

“Then thou must merely ride on our back!” She beamed.

“Aren’t you supposed to be like royal or something. Wouldn’t that be… insulting.”

“It is of no concern to us.” She replies. “And many stallions would dream of—”

“I’M A GIRL! For fucks sake even in pony world I can’t have short hair.” My suppressed anger bubbling to the surface for the smallest thing. The ever-increasing stress from when I first failed to destroy that stupid parasitic heart is finally making itself known. My breathing starts to grow sporadic before I suck all my emotions back in and whisper to myself. “Can’t have a panic attack now; save it for later.”

Luna is looking at me with concern, so I try to smile. I don’t think she buys it. “It was more the voice that made us think thou was a stallion.” She states in an attempt to do… something. “Please let us take you to Canterlot, we may have just me thee, but we still wish to help.” A small amount of desperation is evident in the Lunar princess’s eyes.

I sigh. A big drawn-out sigh. “Fine. But I don’t want to go somewhere super populated.” I get the feeling I’m going to regret this.”

Luna looks like she is about to object when Slicing Steele rejoins the conversation. “How about this.” He breathes in before continuing. “We take Artemis to Ponyville. Both the recruits immediate families live there as well so I can hold the funeral service there. Meanwhile, you can call Princess Celestia over to discuss this situation. There, everypony’s happy.”

“That… is reasonable.” Luna admits in a considering voice. “And the Elements will be nearby too.”

“Then it is settled, Artemis.” Slicing says in a mixture of fake happy and over-it.

“Ponyville, that’s the best you could come up with.” I sigh with a bit of acceptance. At least that place doesn’t sound too hectic.

Author's Note

I swear whenever I write I sound like I'm high on every known drug (and a few unknown ones too). Like every character randomly shifts tone and I can't fix it. I suck with dialogue.

Anyway, I drew Artemis because I was bored and I felt like it. So now you get to know what she looks like. ~~Enjoy your Imgur link cause I couldn't get the embed to work.~~ I GOT THE EMBED TO WORK!!!

Hope you are enjoying the story. Thanks for reading and happy writing!!