Recovery Efforts

by Atekial

Rating: everyone
Tags: Dark, Sad, Princess Luna, Original Character, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 1304

When Luna begins to regres to the Days of Nightmare Moon, what will Celestia do?

Luna is slipping back into the days before Nightmare Moon corrupted her. To what length will everypony go to help her?

Published 2012-11-01 07:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-11-01 07:00:01 UTC

First Signs

Author's Note: To me comments and criticism make or break my drive to write, so im asking that you all give me your 2 cents as to what you think. Grammar is something I struggle with a lot and a habit of mine is to do long run on sentences. I know this chapter is terribly short but I assure you that the next one is going to be much longer. This is more of a pilot chapter than anything else, leading up to where the next one starts off. Ill update characters and rateing as I go along, though genraly it will be a Everyone/Teen rated fic. Ill probably do something along the lines of a few other authors on here and make a side story containing the gore(if any)/clop(planned but not much might not even make it).

Luna sighed, it had been a long night and her thoughts weighed heavily on her mind. Thoughts from before she became corrupted by Nightmare Moon had begun to resurface recently. While she was as strong as her sister, Celestia was a lot stronger with tricks of the mind. Having been on the moon for 1000 years hadn't helped. She knew Celestia wasn't lying when she said that ponies did enjoy the night, but she simply didn't see it. Being Princess of the Night, it is her favorite time of day. She didn't see many ponies out and about at night, and those that she did see were hurried in their movements, rushing from place to place as if evil creatures were lurking waiting for a lingering pony to pounce on.

While Equestria had its share of miscreants, there weren't many like that, and those that were either had to be unicorns, or very good at hiding for those that weren't were dealt with swiftly and harshly. Celestia was normally a calm and quite pony, but she had a temper that was the polar opposite of her norm, and her trigger was ponies like that. Those types of ponies were not tolerated and if there was even a whisper of one that caught the ears of a guard or of the Princess, a full scale investigation was launched.

The sound of hooves brought Luna out of her daze, a nuzzle confirmed her suspicion that it was Celestia.

"Luna, what is troubling you?"

Luna sighed as she looked to her moon, "Its nothing Tia, just thinking."

"Your a terrible liar you know."

"My lying is fine, your just able to see through it."

"Ive always been good at spotting lies. Applejack is the only other pony who rivals me in this. Your my sister and its not a matter of your voice that I can tell your lying, I can sense it on you. Now what is troubling you?"

"Its..." she ground her teeth in frustration, "Its nothing, I just need to figure a few things out is all." Luna closed her eyes, focusing on the moon and willed it to lower. Upon opening her eyes she saw that Celestia was similarly engaged as she raised the sun. Taking advantage of her sisters distraction Luna rolled off the edge of the balcony and dropped for a few seconds before spreading her wings and gliding off into the distance. Unknown to her, Celestia had watched her glide away.

Celestia stood frozen as she watched Luna fly away. She was scared. Scared that she would have to send Luna away again, frustrated that she couldn't connect to Luna like she used to. She stamped her hoof, splitting the golden shoe as a tear ran down her cheek. Lifting her hoof, the ornate shoe slipping off because of the split, caught the tear as it fell. Celestia glared at the tear before flicking away. She was angry at herself, angry that her first thought had been of sending her sister away again.

Celestia shook herself, attempting to rid herself of such thoughts. Blinking back more tears, she lifted her broken shoe in her magic, giving a silent curse at seeing that it was one of her favorite pairs. One of her first in fact, made by a pony eons ago out of a rare type of gold referred to as Rainbow Gold, for it shifted between colors as easily as a rainbow, and crafted with care and a level of craftsmanship that was hard to find now. Having come directly from an important meeting, she had worn them as that extra hint of formality.

With a sigh she strode out of the room, the shoe still in her magical grasp. A fleeting call of "Auntie!" gave her a start. She quickly darted around a corner and into a room at a speed that made the guards raise thier brows. The door swung shut just as her "stalker" confronted the guard as to where she had gone. He had been good at that, popping up in the oddest places to ask her for things.

Blueblood, even her mind grated out the word. He was one of those ponies. Celestia knew everything that he did thanks to a network of informants. Unfortunately for her, he seemed to be able to vanish off the face of Equestria at will, even with her spies, and a day after her returned another mare always came before her saying she had been raped by none other than Blueblood. It frustrated Celestia to no end that he could evade her spys, and he always vanished when she had important meetings she couldn't leave or avoid.

A few taps at the door broke Celestia out of her thoughts. A final fleeting one told her that she should stage a fake meeting of all the allied Kingdoms. The light-bulb above her clicked on. YES! I'll write and send the letters myself! That way there is no way that anyone can tamper with them! I'll let the leaders know that- another rap at the door.

Shaking herself, Celestia stood and opened the door, finally seeing that she had darted into a broom closet! She giggled to herself, I wondered why it smelled musty. The guard in front of her stood sharply at attention, "Blueblood has moved along My Lady." Spreading a wing slightly he pulled Celestia's shoe from underneath it and proffered it to her. Celestia nodded mutely as she took the shoe from him, her thoughts already back on the letters.

"If i may speak My Lady?" Celestia nodded again, focusing on him more. "My mother, Shining Silver, is a talented jewelry smith. With another shoe as a template, she may be able to restore that one to its former glory. If she thinks that she cannot, she will not even try to fix it for fear of damaging it more."

Without hesitation, Celestia slipped off the other three shoes and lifted them to the guard, "You may take these to her immediately. Tell her that if she can restore it, she can expect more business from me shortly. You are excused from duty until your mother has determined if she can or cannot restore them, and then to personaly bring them back to me."

The guard took each one gently, slipping them under his wings to hold them until he could place them in his saddle bags, before standing sharply at attention, "Yes Ma'am, Thank you Ma'am."

"You may go."

The guard bowed, uttered another thank you, before turning around sharply. As he walked away he smirked at the other guard who had been on duty with him, who rolled his eyes, before continuing to the armory to divest himself of his armor.

Celestia sighed, it felt odd to be walking around the castle without her shoes when she wasn't done for the day. Recalling her plan Celestia smiled, This is going to be interesting.