Moonlight Terror

Luna opened her eyes to the sight of bright lights seeming to swarm around her. Everything seemed blurry at the edges. Her eyes tried to adjust but the world around her refused to come into focus. Nothing seemed solid as if she were in some sort of spirit world and vague memories nagged at the edges of her mind. It all seemed familiar these memories of…

The Moon.

Luna Started to bolt upright only to be stopped by the tearing pain in her sides and on her back. Her body clenched at the newfound torture of the movement, letting only half her pained scream out. She laid back down in an attempt to stop the pain and was met by bedding that could only be rivaled by her own or her sister’s.

Pain finally subsiding somewhat, Luna tried to take in her surroundings. It seemed like some kind of medical ward but it had the flourish of a high-class hotel. The floor was a white marble that looked like it was regularly polished and every door and window was hiding beneath an arch with a trim of incredibly dark expensive-looking wood. The general air of the place almost seemed like it was the royal palace.

“Princess Luna! You’re awake!” came a voice off to her side. She looked over to see a young stallion in a nurse’s uniform. “Don’t move, I… uh… stay right there, I’ll be right back,” he clearly hadn’t been in this job for very long.

“Wait!” Luna called out as the nurse was running towards the door “Where am I?”

He skidded to a halt “The Medical Ward in Canterlot Castle,”

So she was in the castle after all. No wonder she didn’t recognize the room, she hadn’t been in this wing since she was a little filly. Not to mention anything Celestia might have done to it in the millennia Luna had been gone.

The nurse barely had the doors open before he ran through them. Luna caught a glimpse of two honor guards outside the doors and wondered if they were there to keep others out, or more likely, to keep her in. A bright flash of anger surged through her. What right did Celestia have to order her around or control what she did? Considering how long they had both been alive, Celestia could barely be thought of as the elder sister. Besides, this kingdom was as much hers as it was Celestia’s and…

Luna sighed as her rational mind began to take over again. And she had been making a mess of the responsibility Celestia had been giving her so far.

Luna sat there contemplating her own actions for several minutes before Celestia herself came walking through the double-doors. “Luna!” she exclaimed “Are you alright?”

“I am fine,” she responded.

“Ellipsis said you disappeared and then several hours later one of Twilight’s friends finds you gravely injured at the edge of the Everfree Forest,” she said quickly, taking a sharp breath “What happened?”

Luna closed her eyes and tried to remember. “I had left the celebration to walk around the town for a short while before I came upon the forest,” she said “I had a… feeling that I should enter, I do not know why. However, it somehow led me to the old castle a-and I was exploring the ruins when some sort of beast pounced on me from behind,”

“A timber wolf?” Celestia inquired.

“No. Well, maybe. No… ‘twas alone, too large, and the body structure was completely different, though it did seem to behave as if it were one,” Luna explained.

“How big was this beast?”

“’Twas my size at the least, perhaps yours,” Luna turned her head towards one of the windows. The sun was shining directly through them, and unless Celestia had moved the ward to another wing the windows should have been facing west. “How long have I been unconscious?”

“The better part of two days here, maybe more before the guard found you”

“Two days?” Luna exclaimed, trying again to bolt upright in her surprise. The stabbing pain stopped her halfway up and she fell back down.

“They say you should try and move as little as possible until you’re better healed” Celestia explained “I’ll have them send down some of your personal effects down here until you’re well enough to return to your own bed,”

Luna lay there panting slightly as Celestia turned and exited through the doors. Luna spotted the two honor guards again. The flash of anger was a mere air of annoyance this time, though it lasted much longer. She turned to regard the window after a while and watched the dainty Canterlot snowflakes flow down to the ground. In Canterlot even the snow was just so and had a haughty air to it.

Luna thought about her life for the near future, laying here in this bed until the sun itself froze over. Or when she recovered, whichever came first. Despite having been unconscious for what was apparently several days, right now all she seemed to want to do was sleep.