Tales of the Empire

The sun was just setting over the gardens of the royal Alicornian Imperial Castle. The young Princess of the night, Luna, was practicing her magic. Of course. She had her mentor present and being thirteen years old, her magic needed some work. Her mentor was an old alicorn stallion. Called Thunder Darkhoof, by the Emperor and other members of the imperial family. Court wizard Thunder Darkhoof, to everyone else. Many including Young Luna's father, who was a Lord in the court, had questioned why such an old mentor was chosen to teach young Luna.

**Flash back, eight years prior**

"So Thunder, you know your task?" Questioned a large Alicorn wearing ,rather, regal attire.

"Yes, your majesty, my son also knows his own mission" Replied an old, weak looking Alicorn. Clearly not the case if he is the court wizard.

"How did he take the news?" Questioned the royal.

"The fact that he was chosen, by you, to lead a large portion of the Empire's army. Brilliantly. If you mean that he will never be able to have a normal childhood. I think it's best he doesn't know that part yet" Replied the old stallion, visibly and audibly saddened by the last sentence. Visibly, because a few tears crept down his cheek coupled by a long glance down. Audibly, Because he dropped his volume throughout the last sentence.

**Present**

On the grass of the garden, two young colts were playing the Alicorn version of catch, in other words, they were using basic element spells to enchant a ball then using a levitation spell to throw it back and forth to each other. Luna was at the same time charging a very powerful spell. She had seen Thunder cast it earlier that day. It looked easy enough and she was determined to impress her mentor. What she didn't know, however, was what the spell was for. Oh well, It can't be that bad, right?. Soon enough, she felt a large amount of pressure build up in her horn. The spell was ready, or at least it felt like it. She cast the spell. for the first few seconds things were going fine. Then she lost control, and her head began flailing around due to the spells enormous strength. Luna soon noticed something new about the spell, it hurt alot, she fell to the floor, screaming in pure agony. The pain was unbearable but she very soon forgot, she had fallen uncouncious, and her life flashed before her eyes. Her time spent with her sister, Celestia, was hard to watch. She saw her sister playing catch with her. She saw countless training sessions with her mentor. She saw her uncle, the Emperor, smile at her for being brave during the manticore incident when she was nine. You'd think that being a princess, meant a life without regret. Right? Wrong. for there were two things that the princess of the moon regretted. One of them was casting the spell, she knew that it could be dangerous and her mentor told her not to try it, but she was a thirteen year old philly, 'You know what they're like, tell them not to do something and off they go to do it the second you take your eyes off of them.' She remembered the day her mother said that, Luna and Celestia went off into the woods and interrupted the training of some soldiers in order to look for berries, the officer laughed it off and told his men to help. The other thing she regretted was, Cloud Nova, her mentor's son. Cloud had saved her once, she had slipped and hurt her leg, she screamed of course, It hurt, she looked up and saw that she was surrounded by Timberwolves. Cloud then jumped over a log and stood between her and the biggest Timberwolf of the pack, then he turned his head and look at her and said 'run'. She did, well, she tried, she had to limp quickly because of her leg. Some guards found her and took her back to the castle where she explained what happened, she told them that Cloud was there and might need help, then one of the guards opened the door. In limped Cloud, his legs were bruised and small cuts were on his face but he still stood there with that goofy smile of his on his face. Her uncle walked in and laughed. Soon enough everyone in the room started laughing including Luna and Cloud, that was the first time she had heard him laugh. Something changed though. Her horn began to glow and so did Cloud's, they both had blushes redder than apples on their cheeks. However as quickly as it started, it ended. Cloud shrugged it off. Luna however knew something about what happened. Right then and there. She fell in love. She fell hopelessly in love with Cloud, now she'll never be able to tell him and it's all her own fault.