Chapters Gorgeous hues of red and orange bled into deep violet as the sun set on the horizon. All across Equestria, ponies would be winding down, some enjoying the sight with their special somepony. Luna however paid no mind to the view, instead engrossing herself into her study. If it wasn’t for the final reading light fading from the sky, she might never have noticed it was time for her to raise the moon. Catching up on one thousand years of history and culture didn’t happen overnight, and at this rate Luna thought it might take another one thousand years.
Luna looked down at the infuriatingly fine print, squinting to try and discern any of the letters. But it was no use; she tossed a loose sheet of parchment in the pages to track her place. She walked over to the balcony, telekinetically opening the doors and sidestepping around her telescope. Taking hold of the energy of the moon as she must have done at least a thousand times since she returned to the castle, she focused her magic into making it rise.
What little red was left in the sky went dark, blues and blacks taking over; the sky becoming a void. Once again Luna’s horn flared with mystic energy. Tiny pinpricks of light coalesced, twinkling briefly before assuming their place in the sky. Luna looked up at her work that all but perfectly matched her starry mane save for the latter’s billowing in the windless night. She stood and drank in the presence of the night, in her own element once more.
She didn’t notice the door open behind her. “Your Highness?” the guard asked, “Princess Celestia has requested your presence for dinner,” Luna sighed, soaking it all in for a few more seconds, desperate to stall another of Celestia’s attempts to be closer.
“Tell my sister I shall be down shortly,” at that the guard gave a slight nod before retreating back into the hallway. Now that she thought of it, she was feeling hungry. Perhaps she could brave an awkward meal with Celestia in exchange for some food.
Luna strolled along the spiral steps down her tower, stained glass flanking her with patterns of famous constellations. The staircase opened up into a large hallway with dozens of guest suites lining either side. Luna recognized a few of the portraits from her books, but most of them were drawing blanks, even though some of them said they were over a thousand years old. A short walk brought her to another wing of the castle that housed the staff and dining halls. In the smallest of these sat Celestia and a feast fit for… well, royalty.
“Luna! Good evening, have a seat,”
“Sister,” Luna responded flatly sitting opposite the other princess. So far it looked like she made the right choice; there was more food than they could eat. And the deserts… not even Celestia’s mammoth sweet tooth could get through that much cake.
“So Luna, I hear you’re making great progress catching up with the present,” Celestia said while cutting herself a slice of pie.
This was what she was worried about. “And you wonder why some think you omniscient,” Luna deflected. “If you know the answer, ‘tis there a reason you need to ask the question?”
“I’m just making small talk,” Flashes of rage and darkness sprang to Luna’s mind, memories best left forgotten, but she felt she might never be free of them.
“’Tis my fondest wish that you would not,” Celestia, momentarily defeated, returned to her food. Luna looked back at the impressive spread, deciding on a simple salad for now despite the urgings of her stomach. Celestia had to be using some kind of spell to eat that much desert and never seem to gain a pound; all she ever seemed to do all day was eat cake and sit on her throne. Luna made a mental note to raid the royal archives for such a spell when she had some free time.
Several cakeless minutes passed. Desire mounting, Luna took a ripe banana instead. At that point Celestia decided to speak up. “I do have some business to discuss with you,” wonderful “I believe you’re familiar enough with the changes of the last thousand years to ease you back into helping run the kingdom,”
That was unexpected. “Entailing what exactly?”
“Representing the interests of Canterlot to begin with, but there is also law, the crown’s endorsement of various organizations and causes,”
“So… w-,” she stopped herself “I . shall take back the responsibilities that we once shared?”
“If that’s what you want,”
Luna stood from her seat, “I think I am going to retire for the night,” took a piece of cake and made her departure. She took the straight route back to her room, foregoing her usual after-dinner wanderings around the castle. She strolled into her room and listened for the door to click shut.
Giggling like a school-filly for the briefest of moments, Luna composed herself back to her normal regal manner. It took all her willpower not to hop up and down in joy at the thought. This was time for a celebration she rationalized, taking a huge bite into the sugary frosting covered cake.
This wasn’t how she expected things.
“Princess Luna I Demand you banish this dreadful ruffian and throw him in a dungeon!” self-righteous unicorns like this… this… Shiny Powder, Glimmer Powder, Glimmer Sand? Something like that, seemed to make up too much of Canterlot’s elite.
Luna adjusted her position on her throne. The black glass and silver seat was set in front of a raised platform that held Celesta’s own, mirroring it in dark miniature. “You realize how ridiculous that sounds?”
“Nonetheless, this ruffian soiled my new dress!” the irate mare bit back “I’ll have you know it was made by the finest tailors of Canterlot and cost me over ten thousand bits!”
Luna racked her mind wondering how anypony could be so frivolous to spend that much on a single dress. Still though… “Is what this mare is claiming true?”
“I don’t know much about the costs of fancy dresses,” the accused replied.
Luna chuckled inwardly but kept her face a steely mask. “I am not interested in the monetary value at this time. Were you responsible for the damage to it?”
“Oh,” the brown stallion shuffled on the red carpet “I suppose I did… b-but it was an accident!”
Luna leaned back in her seat “Enlighten me of the situation then,”
“Well,” the stallion began “I work with the mail service, delivering packages all around Canterlot, and we had this big rush delivery. So there I was pulling the cart through the street, and I suppose I ran through a puddle and splashed this nice lady’s dress,”
Luna shook her head “’Twas raining yesterday. The weather team’s schedule has been posted around the city for a month. Why in Equestria were you wearing something like that just after rain?” she turned to one of the guards “Take her out of here, I am finished with her,” Luna took a deep breath as the mare spewed objections of her treatment. It was so much easier when she was Nightmare Moon. Any step out of place and she would smite them. None would dare bring such petty concerns to her for fear of their own destruction. Ah, but she was a changed mare.
The thought of attacking someone simply out of spite didn’t sit well with her anymore. Though she could understand how she could have before with mares like- Glimmer Dust, that was it- with mares like Glimmer Dust acting superior to all others and expecting somepony in Luna’s position to be their executioner.
Celestia walked through the doors, the guards saluting and Luna rising to meet her. “Sister,” Luna spoke. Celestia turned and gave her sister a concerned look as they passed each other, her sense of unease remaining with her as she strode to her seat.
Luna sighed as she strode through the double doors from the throne room, suddenly exasperated at the thought of the rest of the day. A young guard strode up to her “Your Highness, I have the updated schedule your sister requested for you.”
“What is your name?” Luna asked
“Y-your highness?” the guard stammered
“Your name. What is it that your friends call you?”
“Well- umm- I’m called Jack your Highness,”
“Jack,” Luna said with a smile lasting just an instant. “Leave it in my chambers. I am leaving for a stroll in the city,”
The guard began trotting after her “B-but your Highness!” he managed to call out before Luna rounded a corner. Jack ran up the hallway to catch her but found only an empty hall.
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Luna strode along the Canterlot street, focusing on the chill seeping through her skin and spreading through the flesh beneath. The cobbled streets echoed with the clip-clop of the ponies walking down them. Most stopped and stared in awe of the princess, some going so far as to kneel. The sky above was still overcast and gloomy from the recent rain, the weather teams preparing for the upcoming first snow.
Why had it seemed so easy before? She hadn’t had half of the responsibilities when she was younger as she did now, let alone what she did daily in the years leading up to her… incident. But all of it seemed so much, as if the day had been cut in half and no one had told her. Celestia had an odd sense of humor to say the least but Luna didn’t think she would go that far for a laugh.
Luna stopped and let out a long sigh. She just needed to get back into the swing of things. Dealing with stuck-up, self-centered, narcissistic nobles and their petty problems all day would have driven anypony else up the walls by now.
Nopony would have treated her like that in her full power, make demands of her , Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria. Anypony foolish enough would be smited from where they stood before they could think of groveling for forgiveness. With that she struck her hoof down to supplement her mental point. She looked down at the shattered pavement beneath her hoof, now filled with loathing for herself at her train of thought.
Why should I feel bad? She thought. Maybe that was how she should be thinking. When the elements had defeated her, her mind had been ripped asunder. Her darker thoughts had been unceremoniously and non-gently torn from the rest of her mind. A piece of her cut away from her for other’s benefits.
Perhaps this outburst was merely the mental wound scabbing over.
Luna looked up from the street finally taking in her surroundings. She was far enough from the castle now that she could barely see ostentatious towers in the distance. The smaller buildings around her however were still just as flashy, if not more. She spied a building decorated with murals and icons of a bakery staring at her across the street. Maybe Celestia had the right idea. Copious amounts of sugar always made things simpler.
“Well,” the unicorn said, “She’s wouldn’t have been my first choice,” he turned away from the princess to watch the pink pony cartwheel by, leaving streamers in her wake. The entire main room of Ponyville’s town hall was slowly becoming filled with similar streamers of silver and deep blue, little sigils shaped like the phases of the moon hanging high from the rafters.
“Indeed she may be… peculiar, however I know from experience that her work is far greater than any you shall find from anywhere else in Equestria,” Luna responded as the pink pony summersaulted back the other way.
“I suppose. Then again, I’m not really the type to attend something like this often enough to know,” he turned back to Luna “If you don’t need me until tonight, I suppose I should take my leave,”
“Yes Ellipsis, you are released,”
“Your Highness,” Ellipsis said with a bow before turning to leave. He took two steps before stopping to think for a moment.
“Celestia’s apprentice runs the library in town,”
“Ah,” he said, beginning his exit again.
Luna turned back to regard the pink blur zipping back and forth across the room. Celestia had seen it fit to assign the castle’s historian as her secretary of sorts. It hadn’t been said directly but Luna had a strong suspicion it was in response to the disappearing act she had pulled the week before. Luna felt she had gotten past the need to do so, but Celestia was always one to keep all her bases covered.
Luna was pleased with the work Pinkie Pie had done so far. The way things were shaping up, this was going to be the best Winter Moon Celebration of the century. The fact that there hadn’t been one in over a millennia had nothing to do with it.
Pinkie’s two employers entered with the catering, each giving Luna a nervous bow as they passed by. Celestia had said they were skittish around royalty. Piles and piles of deserts and hors d'oeuvres of all shapes and sizes came with them. Here were apple tarts, there were berry scones, all the sandwiches and pastries and cakes.
“Oh my,”
Several hours passed as a steady stream of ponies bringing their part of the preparations. The musical entertainment was the last to arrive, the unicorn having only just finished setting her things up before the guests began to arrive. Luna stood by the entrance making a point of greeting every guest, and to be sure of five special guest’s arrivals with only one missing.
Luna took her leave to the main balcony, finding Ellipsis standing to the side of the curtains. “Your Highness,” he greeted with a bow of his head as Luna took a breath before stepping through the curtains and onto the balcony.
“Good citizens,” Luna began “For the first time in over a thousand years we are gathered here to celebrate the winter solstice. The longest night of the year. The height of the power of the moon. So be marry, and let this celebration be the standard to which all those of the next year are held to,” With that the hall was plunged into darkness as the sun set upon the horizon. The silvery glow of Luna’s horn shone through the shadows as the moon began to rise on the opposite horizon, bathing Equestria in the same silvery glow as one by one the stars twinkled into existence. The crowd cheered at the sight and the celebration officially commenced.
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Luna sighed at the din of the ponies chatting amongst themselves; the music had changed to a slower tune a while ago. She had enjoyed the party so far, the night still being young, but the night was so long this time of year, its lifespan so much greater it could be young for several hours still.
The secretary of sorts was still going on, telling her the who’s who of the party which was made up of a great deal of Canterlot's elite for being so far away from the city itself. Luna was growing weary of the party and decided to give the secretary of sorts the slip. He continued talking for a few minutes before realizing he was speaking to the empty air.
The Night Guard were easy to slip past, being more concerned about the comings than the goings, leaving Luna to wander the town trudging through the winter snow. Eventually she had walked to the edge of a large forest and decided to turn back… but something told her she should continue forward.
Luna followed the instinct a great distance before she realized she could no longer see the town behind her. Darkness prevailed as the stars and the moon were no longer visible through the thick canopy, but a small feeling in the back of her mind urged her forward deeper into the forest. Soon she found herself on the edge of a cliff, a rickety rope bridge the only way across, making Luna glad she had the ability of flight.
Luna looked up at the great structure and memories flooded into her mind. In her mind she didn’t see the ruins in front of her, but the castle that had stood in its place so long ago. She ran through the main doors and marveled at the immaculate red carpet on the ground, the stained glass windows polished to a shine, the white marble pillars so smooth you couldn’t find a scratch with a magnifying glass. The hall that Celestia had modeled her throne room after stood in front of her in all its glory. She strolled up the stairs to this castle’s throne room, came up from the stairs and saw the memories flow through her mind. She saw- she saw…
Her world was plunged back into the dark of night. The moon shining high above her, the tree canopy unable to reach so far and the roof long since collapsed. She walked forward slowly; grief of the memories’ fleetingness consuming her and the night’s chill enveloping her. Luna looked up, strange midnight blue objects sat in front of her looking somewhat like torn cloth. But their texture was-
A deep growl sounded from behind her chilling her to her bones. Luna turned towards the noise spotting two glowing yellow eyes staring at her from the top of the staircase. She calmed herself and took a step back from the stairs.
The animal leapt towards her.
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.
The horizon was a blurry mess behind the thin veil of fog. Every aspect of the day could only be described as damp, from the hazy sky blurring out parts of the sun to the grassy mass of muddy ground. The massive weather system of clouds and fog had come out of the Everfree Forest and weather teams across Equestria had decided it wasn’t worth dealing with for the minimal disruption it caused. In fact it had reduced their rain quota for the next month.
“Not much further now your Highness,” the guardstallion said for what seemed like the hundredth time. Luna strained to see the line that separated the earth from sky but sighed at the futility and sank back to a sitting position in the chariot.
Luna still had trouble when she tried to fly. The wound across her back had refused to close even now. The royal physicians were baffled by it and it didn’t bleed as a wound like it would be expected to. They had eventually released her as it didn’t seem to be life-threatening. They had instructed Luna as to how to keep the mysterious gash clean and infection free and left her to her former routine, though changing a bloody wrapping every night for the past month had to be added.
As if Celestia would have let her go anywhere alone again anyway. Luna thought. As if she were made of glass and would shatter at the slightest breeze. As if there were vicious creatures hiding behind every corner, and every tree, and every bush, and every blade of grass. As if Celestia herself weren’t a pretentious, high and mighty, self-righteous-
“Your Highness,” the guardstallion said, snapping Luna out of her thoughts. The envoy was descending towards a large area of farmland. The land wasn’t flat like most farmland though. Instead it was made up of shelves carved out of the rocky hills that covered the area. They landed in front of a group of ponies with an older looking Earth-Pony stallion at its head. Luna let her anger seethe under the surface and put on her best royal looking face.
“Princess Luna,” the old stallion began, “Thank you for coming all this way to hear of our woes,”
“Indeed…”
The old stallion stood uncomfortably for a few moments, fidgeting in the soggy grass. “Yes… well…would you care to step inside?” he asked, pointing with a nod of his head to a small series of building along the walled side of one of the great stairs.
Luna strode past him without any indication of hearing him other than the direction she was heading in. The guards filed in her wake, the bewildered old stallion receiving only a shrug and an equally confused look from the hind guard.
The inside of the building was no surprise after seeing the outside, both being made of simple wood, though one wall was actually the carved stone of the shelf. The furnishings consisted of a long table in the middle of the room, a series of chairs around it, and the makings of a kitchen along the far wooden wall.
Luna took a seat at the head of the table with the guards flanking her. The old stallion squeezed past the armored ponies and sat on the other end. The rest of the crowd peered through the doorway, catching a glimpse of royalty.
“You see your highness, our not so little farm hasn’t been doing too well for awhile,” Luna merely stared the old pony down. “We know what’s wrong though,” he began again after a few moments of awkward silence “We haven’t gotten any real rainfall for months. This drizzly weather is the most water we’ve had for so long and it wasn’t evensupposed to happen, I don’t think we can afford to keep our land if this keeps up,”
One of the guards decided against her better judgment to look up at her princess. Luna remained sitting there stoically as if she were an artisan sculptor’s masterpiece; her mane’s gentle flowing in a non-existent breeze the only thing that made her seem the least bit alive.
The old stallion picked up that he wouldn’t get a response. “We know we’re the only thing out here that needs the rain, all our neighbors being quarries and what have you, and we realize that the nearest weather reservoir has us so out of the way, but this is our very livelihood ,”
Luna finally moved, arching one of her eyebrows, “Is that it?” she asked.
The old stallion looked bewildered, “Y- yes Your Highness?”
Luna stood from her seat, “’Tis no reason I can see to devote Equestria’s precious resources to organizing something like that to such an insignificant speck of dirt,” She began walking toward the exit.
“Please Your Highness! Please reconsider!” The old stallion leapt from the table and rushed towards the princess “Please, this is our livelihood we’re talking about!”
Luna glanced back towards him, “Find another way to make your bits,”
“But Your Highness, this is our home !” he said inching closer to her
“Guard,” she called.
One of the guardstallions moved up in front of the old pony. “Please step back sir,” he said with pity in his eyes.
Luna sat in her bath back at the castle. Accursed mud had gotten everywhere after her brief time outdoors. Such groveling that pony had done she thought staring at the gilded marble tiles covering the walls of the room. A light haze filled the room just like the world outside, but as the outdoors had brought chills the room was saturated with warm steam.
Everypony wanted something from her she thought as she stepped out onto the tiled floor. She reached out with her magic, grabbing a towel to dry herself off. Whether it were nobles, or merchants, or groveling-dirt-farming peasants, or Celestia her-royal-self , everypony wanted her to fix something. She winced slightly as her towel rubbed across her wound the wrong way. Especially Celestia, the precocious-
Fire raced across her back. The great gash seemed to erupt in acid pain that radiated across the rest of her body, venom swimming though her blood. Luna collapsed to her knees, teeth gritted and tears streaming down her face. Her jaws held tight and prevented any scream from escaping. Her breaths came in quick gusts through her teeth as the muscles in her diaphragm began to cramp up. She began to try and stand again. Try to call out for help.
The venom reached her heart and exploded, her chest feeling as if there should have been a gaping hole there now. Her back arched and her lungs filled to their bursting point with a great gasp.
Every muscle in Luna’s body tightened in pain; the odd squeak was the only part of her screams that escaped. Though her eyes were clenched shut her other senses became tenfold more sensitive. Everything around her took on a sharpness and detail that always went unnoticed by those not giving things their undivided attention. She could hear conversations coming from across the castle as if the speakers were standing next to her. She could smell the aroma of every meal in Canterlot. She could taste every coppery drop of blood that had begun to flow into her mouth.
She could feel every nerve in her body scream in agony as they were torn apart.
The muscles of Luna’s lower jaw grew as they tore, threatening to rip it from her skull. The bones fared no better against the teeth expanding in them and becoming long and jagged, grinding everything around them into dust. Her head began to seem heavier as her ears expanded as if they intended to fit a head twice the size of hers.
Luna’s head dropped, instinctively trying to curl her body into a ball to shield her from what normally could only be coming from an attacker. She attempted to step towards the door, to call for help, to escape the torment.
Her legs gave way from under her, the foreleg muscles ripping as the bones they were attached to began to elongate. A sickening crack came from her thighs, bones shattering from tension of muscles twice their size pulling on them from every angle at once. Luna’s once gently flowing hair began whipping around and fraying as if caught in an invisible hurricane. New muscle rippled along her back and radiated from the great gash still unhealed. Skin tore and mended as everything below it expanded. Sharp bone shot along Luna’s wings while large ragged feathers sprung up to fill the gaps giving the wings over twice their original size.
Luna stamped her now comically small looking hoof in front of her, trying to gain traction to crawl forward as it began to grow to a size more suited to the limb it came from. The fissures of her skull split open and filled the empty space quickly, but still feeling like molten iron poured into the head. Her neck twisted at an unnatural angle, one side of sinewy flesh growing faster and pulling harder. Luna stopped struggling and lay there for several motionless moments.
A dark furred beast stood from the spot that Luna had fallen, bloodlust filling its glowing yellow eyes.
A deep animal growl sounded from the depths of The Beast’s throat. It took one tentative step with its new legs. Its head whipped around, taking in its new surroundings until it spied an open window. The Beast lunged toward it finding the frame to be smaller than its new huge body. Still it struggled against the carpentry causing great cracks to form where minute weak points had been.
Finally coming free of the interrupting window frame, The Beast found itself free-falling from the high tower it was just birthed from. It spread its great wings and took a single mighty flap. The countryside outside Canterlot stretched before it.
A hunting ground like no other.
Ginger Flake stopped again to adjust her harness. The new parts still chaffed in all the wrong places, forcing her to stop every few minutes to adjust it, and making this trip one of her longest. It would be another hour or two before she would even see Canterlot. Stupid, she thought to herself. Why hadn’t she just decided to tough it out and pack the camping supplies like Silver Note said? She could’ve been warm, or at least asleep by now.
She kept trudging on. The last thing she needed was to be stuck in the middle of nowhere with a full mail-cart and nothing but her own head for company. Every step dug the cart further into her sides, the clop, clop, clop of on the worn path beginning to echo inside her head. By now she could barely see her hooves in front of her face. She sighed and unhooked the harness, then went back to the cart and dug around for a lantern and some matches.
Little sounds of wind flowed through the previously still night. Ginger looked up at the sudden noise but saw nothing in the blackness. The sounds of rushing air died as quickly as it began and returned to her task. She took the matches in her mystic grasp and struck the head of one on the side of the box. Little fizzles came from the tip, but the match refused to light.
Stupid match.
She pulled out another and struck it. This one didn’t even spark. “Aaugh,” she groaned, furiously rubbing the match against the little phosphorus strip. But nothing happened. Ginger brought the matchbox as close as she could to her eyes, trying to read the fine print in the glow of her magic.
“Expired,” she read, “Figures,” then tried another match. Then another. And another. Why hadn’t she just learned that fire charm like Silver said? Down to her last match she carefully drug the little stick across the strip. A tiny insignificant glow appeared on the end, so dim it wouldn’t have been visible if it wasn’t pitch-black. Carefully she opened her mouth wide and gently breathed life into the tiny flame, slowly growing to engulf the tip. She shoved the flame into the lantern and smiled at her little victory. Lantern creating a small bubble of light in the sea of darkness, she eased back into the harness, painfully aware of her still tender sides. She doubted it was too much farther from-
She was suddenly tumbling end-over-end; the cart was spinning and carrying her with it. The lantern fell from her grasp and smashed into the ground, plunging the world back into darkness. The cart landed with a great crash and she slammed into the ground with it. Ginger slowly shook the stars from her eyes back into the sky before looking around. She could hear something, a deep growling noise from the other side of the cart. She struggled against the harness, unable to see anything. The bright light from the lantern had ruined her ability to even slightly see in this dark.
The straps came loose and she ran as fast as her legs could carry her away from the cart and the noise. She thought she could hear the rush of moving air, but in adrenalin and panic she barely noticed. The road under Ginger’s feet turned to grass and dirt a long time ago but she kept running in any direction she could, sure that she was being followed. But fatigue began to take its toll and she had to slow down before stopping altogether.
Ginger Flake stood panting for several moments before she finally caught her breath. She lifted up her ears and listened closely, but heard nothing. ”Heh, it’s just in your head… monsters… like anything like that would actually be this close to Canterlot,” She turned and started to head back towards where she thought her cart was. She tried in vain to remember how long she had been running. It seemed to take hours in the pitch black of night, all the while the sound of moving air rushed behind her. She would have passed by the cart completely if she hadn’t tripped over some of its debris.
Ginger looked up, seeing two bright yellow eyes glowing back at her. The noise started to come from right beneath them. She tried to scoot backwards, screaming; The Beast was already on her though, ripping and tearing at her. Lightning shot up her legs, the thing biting and ripping to the bone, leaving deep furrows in the gleaming red and white. It ripped and tore up into her stomach, viscera tossed haphazardly into the grass.
Ginger struck out on instinct with as much might as she could, connecting somewhere near The Beast’s glowing eye. The Beast merely growled louder, but it gave Ginger time to move away. She tried to run, but her torn legs gave out sending her to the ground. She scooted back further, trying to see the glowing eyes in the darkness, but nothing was there. She moved further back, trying and failing to replace her organs in her abdomen, tears streaming down her face; a single thought running through her mind. I wanna go home, I wanna go home, I wanna go home…
Two yellow eyes opened in the darkness, starting towards her. Now she could make out gleaming fangs in the darkness, dripping in anticipation. She screamed as much as her lungs could before the fangs closed onto her throat. The Beast shook back and forth once before snapping its head back, tearing away flesh. Blood poured down in a wall along her front and drowning her in her life-force. The Beast roared, sending blood mixed saliva flecks onto Ginger’s face. But she didn’t register any of it as the cold and the black engulfed her.
Glass-filtered morning light drifted down upon the figure sleeping soundly upon its bed. Luna had the sensation of floating, resting comfortably there on her bed. All was well with the world and an overwhelming feeling of content filled her every fiber of her being. The whole of the universe was the haze of dawn in that room and she would be more than happy to stay there until the end of time. Her eyes opened slightly as Luna’s mind woke fully, demanding the same of her body before the stagnation of idleness claimed it.
Luna rose from her bed and stretched with a restfulness she hadn’t felt in millennia. She took in a deep breath and pondered for an instant about the metallic taste that filled her mouth. Her brow furrowed in thoughtfulness, she looked down at her legs, finding them specked with flakes of mud. Confusion flashed through her thoughts. Surely she had bathed the night before, she could swear she did.
Vivid memories of doing the same actions the night before flew through her mind as she washed the troublesome brown specks from her fur. Luna turned to look in the mirror on the wall to be certain she had rid her back of mud. What she saw took her by surprise though, the great gash along her back that had been a constant in her life for the last month had faded away. It was reduced to a white pencil-line scar only barely visible when she pulled the fur away from it.
Luna shook the astonishment from her mind as she returned to her bedroom to retrieve her accessories. After all, why look a gift horse in the mouth?
A faint silvery glow engulfed the onyx jewelry as it flew across the room to the princess. Luna gave a quick glance into the mirror to be sure everything was straight and bounded off to meet her day with vigor, all but prancing down the steps. Just like every morning since he was assigned as Celestia’s not so secret eyes and ears, Luna’s Impromptu secretary was waiting for her in the hall at the base of the tower.
“Your Highness,” he greeted her “Your sister has asked me to obtain your final verdict on how to deal with the rain situation,”
“The what?” Luna asked.
“The farm…” Ellipsis elaborated “The one you visited yesterday?”
Luna stood pondering her hazy memory of the day before. “Farm… yesterday, I was…”
Ellipsis stood awkward in the silence for several moments. “Your Highness?” he began.
“The farm!” Luna exclaimed as everything snapped back into focus. “Yesterday we visited that dreary farm near the quarries. ‘Twas an exceptionally dreary place with all the fog, and ‘twas exceptionally sad with the poor tale they gave. Ellipsis!”
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“You are to go down and speak with the Pegasus in charge of the Canterlot weather team. Have them allocate the water necessary to provide for that farm. Take it from what is scheduled for the city if you have to. Our reservoir has been full for some time and the need of those farmers is paramount over the scenery for the city’s privileged,”
Ellipsis paused for an unnoticed instant. “Uh, yes; Your Highness,”
Luna started again down the castle hallway, the spring back in her step. Two guards standing at the doorway to the tower turned to each other with confused looks before turning their gazes to Ellipsis and the exiting princess, the former merely shrugging in his own perplexity.
Luna quickly left the three ponies behind, giving them no second thought, and walked into the dining hall Celestia had insisted they take their meals together in. Upon mystically opening the doors however, she was greeted with a sight she thought she would never see. Ever-punctual Celestia wasn’t there. Luna’s normally stoic face was now the resting place of a slight smirk at the thought of finally one-upping her sister.
Luna walked around the table to the far seat that Celestia would typically sit in so she would be pointed towards the entrance. Luna was relishing the mental image of Celestia, always planning things so thoroughly that she seemed almost all-knowing, slinking in late to breakfast to see Luna giving her a taste of her own medicine.
The image only sated her for a few minutes as her stare lowered from the door to the food in front of her. Surely this was the same hall? Yes, she had traveled across the castle enough in the time she had been back to learn of all the minor changes that had been done to the structure. Surely Celestia hadn’t decided to change the hall where they would eat? Perhaps as a joke to see Luna sit there for hours waiting for her breakfast? But the food had been set out, what would such a prank accomplish then?
Luna disregarded decades of etiquette lessons and began her breakfast without her sister. If it wasn’t a prank of some odd sort than Celestia would surely understand. She kept the thought in her head as she dug into the food, perhaps over doing it a bit without Celestia there to eat the other three-fourths. Luna waited several minutes more before finally giving up on her sister and leaving. She decided to take the long way around to Celestia’s room, cutting through the main hall.
A glance to her side saved her from half the trip as Luna spotted her sister in the throne room speaking to one of the guards.
“… Indeed Your Highness,” Luna caught the guard say “I would concur with the report’s description of ‘mauled’,”
“And you’re sure you have the area contained?” Celestia inquired.
The guard put on a reassuring tone “If it is still within ten miles of the area I have no doubt in my mind that the rangers will find it,”
Celestia sighed and looked unrelieved “Thank you Lieutenant” she said, causing the guard to quickly flourish a salute and exit the room.
Luna passed the guard half way through the room and was greeted with a grave bow, though the guard did not stop.
“What is the trouble sister? You missed our breakfast,” Luna stated.
Celestia looked into her sister’s eyes, “There’s been a death on the road outside the city,”
“’Tis very unfortunate, but what is so important about an accident on the road to warrant your attention?” Luna inquired, furrowing her brow.
Celestia shook her head, “This was no accident. It was an attack, by some sort of creature,”
“Still…”
“I believe this is the same creature from the forest,” Celestia clarified, “And I intend to catch it,” she added with a stamp of her hoof.
Luna’s world spun as The Creature landed on top of her, the two of them tumbling across the floor. She kicked out at where she thought its body should be. The Creature recoiled at the blow and Luna took the opportunity to roll clear of it. She rose to her hooves and turned towards it, focusing her energies into a magical blast.
Luna fired, but The Creature moved to the side at the last moment, running towards her. The blast illuminated The Creature for a split second revealing a four legged creature with huge fangs gleaming with saliva or blood, the color was unclear.
Luna began to gather her power into another blast but The Creature pounced on her, hooves smashing into her side. Her world erupted into pain as she felt its fangs sink into her back behind her left wing. The Creature shook its head back and forth, tearing muscle and skin. Luna spasmed in pain and kicked out, knocking one of The Creature’s legs from under it.
Luna ran, taking to the sky through the large gap where the ceiling should have been. She angled herself back towards town but the torn muscles on her left side screamed in flaming agony. Her left wing seized up and she spun down, crashing into the canopy, gnarled branches not so much slowing her fall as adding to it when they refused to break.
Luna lay on the ground for several moments, a new sharp pain exploding in her side where a branch had imbedded itself into her stomach. She hazily turned to see The Creature running through the halls toward the entrance. Panic taking control of her, she stumbled toward the bridge turned away and bucked the support as hard as she could. Every part of her body screamed in protest. The support came free, tumbling over the edge and taking its brother with it.
Luna turned to see The Creature waiting on the other side, staring at the fallen bridge. She began to move away, slowly walking back towards the town when she heard the galloping of hooves. She turned to see The Creature jump and come flying towards her. It landed with a thud on the edge of the ravine, its fore hooves scratching at the ground as the rest of its body hung over the edge.
It began crawling up.
Terror overtaking her, Luna ran as fast as her legs would take her. She dared to look back and was met with the sight of The Creature’s glowing yellow eyes loping after her. A thick wet patch began to flow across her back and down her left flank, its source beginning to feel colder. She continued to gallop faster than she thought she had ever before, not taking heed of the branches in front of her and leaving large scratches along her sides and face.
She ducked under a branch and saw moonlight shining up ahead. She ran for all she was worth and came out of the forest into a blanket of snow.
Exhaustion and blood-loss finally claimed her. She collapsed in the snow, darkness enveloping her and the cold claiming her. The edge of her hearing heard the barest whisper of a voice, softer than it should have been even fading into unconsciousness like this.
“Oh my. Umm… umm... are you o- okay?”
