Chapter one. Intruder.
Princess Luna. The princess of the night. The second in command to Celestia.
That's the how she was known. As the princess of the night, she had the labor to adorn the sky with the lights of the night: the stars, the moon. However, something bothered Luna since she came back.
She was alone in the moon, back again when she was Nightmare Moon.
Alone. In the infinite darkness.
In here, she saw many couples, asleep in their bedrooms together. They seemed so happy of being together. And that made her somehow jealous.
That day, Luna woke up to do her night shift. She rose the moon and adorned the sky as she saw it perfect. It didn't take her too much to do that, for she was an expert doing that for quite a time. Just a couple millenniums, she thought.
She got out of her room to go to the throne room. She had to attend to her royal business. However, turning in a corner, she got in front of her elder sister.
"Oh, Luna. Good evening." Celestia greeted her with her usual maternal voice.
"Good evening, elder sister."
"Going to the throne room, I guess?"
"Yes, we are. We are going to take care of the kingdom."
"Of course, Luna. I trust you will do the best for our kingdom."
Celestia continued her journey to her royal chambers. Her day shift was hard and dutiful, Therefore, she had to rest.
Luna continued her journey to the throne room, stopping to see the moon in the sky. She wondered what her life's purpose was.
The night shift on the throne room was boring. Nopony ever went there at night. However, she had another task at hoof, which was far more fun than sitting in the throne.
She stood up and went toward the window.
"Princess! Where are you going?" One of the guards caught her attention.
"We shall go in a night flight. We want to ensure that our people are okay."
"As you wish, my princess."
Luna took on flight to watch over her dear ponies. She could see the dreams of most of them. Some of them had magnificent dreams. Very much pleasant to say at least. Other ponies had nightmares. Such horrible nightmares.
These ones was the ones she interrupted in. Changing them into a more pleasant dream.
She never liked to cause such nightmares on her people. And she'd do everything she could do for them to have good dreams.
It was in one of those nightmares that she caught a strange image.
It wasn't exactly what you could say a normal nightmare. This one was of a distant land. One that she hadn't seen in a very long time. And that was concerning. Only two ponies in all the land could have such a dream like this one. However, Celestia was too far for her to catch her dream. Also, she hadn't dream about this for a very long time.
The other one who could remember this land was herself. But she wasn't asleep in first place. And in second place, she could control very well, to say at least, the way she dream.
If it wasn't Celestia or Luna, then... who was it? Luna started to fly toward the source of the dream. Finally, leading her to the edge of the Everfree forest.
As she went deeper into the forest, she could feel the source of the strange dream becoming stronger, a signal that she was getting closer to whatever was having this dream. Finally, she spotted the source of the dream, just behind a tree next to her. What she saw was something she never thought to find here... again.
A bipedal being was in front of her. Four extremities, with only a part of what she knew as mane covered his head. His body wasn't covered by fur, but instead of that, he wore some kind of weird clothes. His face didn't was like hers. His mouth wasn't as long as hers. Instead of hooves, the creature possessed something resembling like Spike's claws on the top and in the low part, he had something that Luna found to be fake foots.
Luna had seen this strange beings once before... in a book. However, it was uncountable eons ago this kind of being had lived upon this lands. The only one who could know something about this strange creature was her sister, Celestia.
She thought about taking him to her sister. However, she was asleep at this moment. If she didn't asleep well, she'd be unable to lift the sun. Therefore, she had to wait until tomorrow.
She thought about leaving the creature there... that was until she saw a red liquid going down his arm.
Upon a closer inspection, she realized that the creature was harmed deep in his arm. He even was covering his arm with his other arm.
His eyes opened a bit, revealing a pair of eyes that Luna couldn't see clearly beneath the shadow the tree gave to him. He only gave her a short gaze before passing out again. Luna could see his pain expression in that moment. It was clearly for her that the creature wouldn't survive the night if she didn't do anything for him.
She took him on his back and flew off toward Canterlot. She could feel some of the red fluid on her fur. She got more and more concerned for the well-being of this creature.
The creature opened his eyes. Inspecting the place he was, he noted that he wasn't anymore in the forest, but in a huge room, where he was in a huge bed. In his body, some bandages where upon his seriously injured arm.
He turned to see around and saw a strange shadow watching him from a certain distance. It was watching his arm. He suddenly recognized that shadow. He saw it in the forest. However, he only caught a glimpse of that shadow.
Both of them saw each other for some time, before the strange shadow started to head toward him. Showing itself at the light of the moon, it appeared to be a horse. A pony, to be exact.
He saw the other... compliments of the pony in front of him. It had a horn and a pair of wings at its side. He suddenly felt uneasy for what this pony would do to him.
The horn of the pony started to glow up for a few moments, enveloping a small cup with a glow of similar color to its horn's. Instantly, the cup levitated in front of him. He watched it for a few minutes before picking it up and took a taste. It was a tea, apparently a lemon flavored one.
The pony gave him a smile, at the same time he drank it up. He saw this and returned her the smile. He put the cup at a little table at the side of the bed. He turned to see the pony, who kept still in the same place for a long time.
Finally after several minutes, he got up from the bed. He almost fell when he tried to stand, being saved by the pony, who quickly went after him to stop him of falling. Few more minutes of waiting and he would have hit the floor.
He gave the pony a smile. And the pony, turning its head to him, returned him the smile. Once again, he tried again to stand and walk, now having help.
After a few minutes, he could stand and walk by himself. The pony smiled all the while he practiced and mastered again the walking.
Both of them watched each other for a very long time. What was only minutes felt like years, while both of them felt some kind of connection between them.
"... Thanks." The bipedal creature said at least.
Suddenly, Luna heard those words coming from the bipedal. All the while he had been in there, she thought that he may be mute. And now, he was talking.
At first, Luna didn't understood what he said to her. Therefore, she only made a confusion expression on her face.
"... Thank you for... taking care of me... I assume you were the one who put these on me." The bipedal said as he pointed the bandages on his arm.
Then, Luna understood what he was saying. It didn't was Equestrian, though. The bipedal spoke in a different language that she didn't heard for quite a while.
When or how she learned the bipedal's language, she didn't know. However, she answered to him.
"... We are grateful for thou to be healthful." Luna said as he got surprised by the fact that the pony in front of him could speak.
Once again, both of them stayed in there, looking at each other while wondering what would happen next. It was the bipedal who spoke first. With a smile on his face, he turned toward her.
"... My name is John..."
"We are known as Princess Luna. Pleased to make you acquaintance."
He opened his eyes wide as he heard the word "princess". He watched her, as he discovered a small crown next to her horn.
"... you're... a princess?"
"Yes, we are."
"... alright... so, your highness-" he said as he bowed to her. "... could you tell me where i am?"
"Of course we can. Thou are in the great and peaceful land of Equestria."
"Equestria? Where is that?"
Luna was surprised by that question. She always lived in here, and she knew that almost every inhabitant in the planet knew about this land. Therefore, she could only make an obvious conclusion.
"... thou are not from this land. Where does thou have come from?"
John thought about it for a few seconds. Where did he came from? He only found a few words to describe what he could remember.
"... I... I-I don't know."
Luna got even more and more curious about this strange being. He didn't remember anything about himself.
With more reason, she would have to wait until the next day and take care of this creature.