The Luna Shift

by GJT_Productions

Fancy and Shiny

Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor was now tending the unconscious Princess Luna alone in her hospital bed - Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas had decided to retire for the night several minutes after sharing his story, and Shining Armor was now expecting a night-long vigil watching the moon princess with only two Upper Class Guards posted outside the door for company.

It was very surprising, then, to hear a different and rather distinctive masculine voice coming from the outside corridor, and rather insistently at that: "No, it must be now, nurse! We're not going to take no for an answer!"

Shining Armor gets up from where he was sitting facing the quietly sleeping Luna and peeks around the door guards to see what was going on. He can see a pair of figures - unicorns, with one of them quite tall and slender - outlined in the dimly lit corridor, talking with who Shining had to guess was the on-duty nurse.

"I'm not buying your excuses! I can see the guards right over there." the masculine voice that had spoken previously was saying.

"Yes, but sir..." responded a female voice, presumably the nurse's.

"All of Canterlot saw what happened during that ill-conceived presentation! It's important they know whether she's doing alright or not."

"But Princess Celestia ordered that only members of the Royal Guard are to be allowed..."

"She's just saying that because she doesn't want the gossip rag reporters in here! Well, we're not gossip columnists, and we demand you let us see the princess!"

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The next words of the female nurse are preceded by an exasperated sigh: "Talk to the guards."

"Thank you." the masculine voice replies, followed by the echo of hoofsteps as the pair of unicorns approach. As the two approach, Shining Armor can recognize them - one stallion with a monocle glimmering in the dim light and one tall, thin mare with a light pink mane.

"Lieutenant Shining Armor. Perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised you're the one standing vigil over Princess Luna." the stallion speaks in his distinctively accented voice once he and the mare with him get within a few steps of the door to Luna's hospital room.

"And I shouldn't be so surprised you and Fleur are here, Fancypants. Oh, and it's Lieutenant Captain now. Princess Celestia put me in charge of the new night shift." Shining Armor replies with a smirk on his face.

"Well, I suppose she did one thing right in this whole mess... Can you tell the guards to let us pass?" Fancypants wearily asks. Shining Armor turns and gives a quick nod to each of the pair of guards at the door, which allows both Fancypants and Fleur Dis Lee with him to enter Luna's hospital room.

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"Oh my goodness!" Fleur Dis Lee gasps as both she and Fancypants get their first good look at the unconscious Luna in the hospital bed.

"Has she been like this the whole time since the accident?" a very distressed Fancypants asks Shining Armor.

"Afraid so. And nopony knows how long she'll be out for." Shining sighs out.

"We saw the whole thing happen... Had a feeling it wouldn't end well, that Princess Celestia was pushing things faster than they should've been pushed... we were right, it seems..." Fancypants replies, adjusting his monocle with his golden-colored magic.

"Of course she was being pushed too fast, but the Captain said Celestia was impatient and that he couldn't convince her to wait any longer..." Shining starts in a rambling explanation.

"It is true what they say. They are like us." Fancypants gasped out as he looked down at the sleeping Luna.

"I'm sorry?" Shining asks, a confused expression creasing his face.

Fancypants turns to face Shining with a grim determination before answering the question: "Shining, you don't understand. Even with our prestige, Fleur and I have never seen anything remotely like this before. After all, you know how carefully Princess Celestia cultivates her public image - even around us, she would never want to be seen like Luna is now."

"That's true." Shining agrees, nodding as he speaks.

"I understand we have to fight for Luna's future, but I also understand now that apathy is as strong an enemy as the others we face. And there is plenty of apathy to go around among the Canterlot elite."

"I've sure seen that behavior before - don't say anything about it, don't change your behavior patterns, pretend nothing is going on. But there's too much at stake here to remain on the sidelines! They don't understand that."

"Exactly. We're different than they are, so it has to be us to fight to her, because they sure won't! Do you remember when I first arrived in Canterlot, graduate fresh out of Oxford?"

Shining Armor lets out a chuckle before answering the question: "Goodness, that was back when Twily was still in diapers!"

"Indeed it was a long time ago, but I still remember it like it was yesterday..."

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Fancypants back then didn't have his coat, monocle or reputation, just dashing good looks and a sense of optimism. He had left his home of Trottingham to make his mark on the big stage of Canterlot high society. But despite his credentials as a graduate of Oxford and a colt of Braytish lords, door after gold-plated door had been slammed in his face - it seemed in Canterlot being a "pretentious foreigner" was grounds enough to be automatically shunned. Fancypants had never seen such an insular, self-centered group of VIPs before, and his disappointment was growing in proportion to the length of the day he had spent searching.

In his disappointment, he was focused on the gleaming beauty of Canterlot Castle. According to what he had read, the castle was the seat of Equestrian government and home of its ruler, Princess Celestia. Perhaps he could petition the princess for a few rooms in the castle...?

His train of thought was abruptly interrupted by his head knocking with another pony's. He stumbled back a few steps, then blushed heavily as he involuntarily went onto his haunches to avoid tripping over himself. The pony he had knocked heads with, a blue unicorn stallion with a neatly-combed darker blue mane, was gingerly rubbing the side of his head with a forehoof while another unicorn, a mare with a light grey coat and a mane striped light grey and purple, comes up beside him.

"Goodness dear, are you alright?!" Fancypants hears the unicorn mare ask the stallion beside her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." the stallion replies, wincing a bit while still rubbing the site of the hit.

"Are you hurt, sir? I'm terribly sorry about that, I wasn't looking where I was going and I didn't see you there! It's a good thing I didn't poke your eye out or something more ghastly!" the young Fancypants was saying, talking rapidly with blushing cheeks as he uses his unicorn magic to pick up the suitcases he had been carrying before the collision caused him to drop them.

"Well, it doesn't look too bad..." the unicorn mare comments as she looks at the point of impact, now a smouldering red against the blue coat of the stallion.

"Are you lost?" the unicorn stallion asks of Fancypants.

"I just arrived from Trottingham. I'm trying to find a place to stay - the hotels think I'm too high-class for them, the upper-class residences won't take a 'foreigner' even for just a few days, and I was wondering about whether I could petition Princess Celestia for a few rooms in the castle." Fancypants sheepishly explains to the other two unicorns.

The other two unicorns exchange glances, then a few whispered lines Fancypants can't make out. Finally, the stallion tells of a "country estate" at the base of the mountain from which Canterlot extends out of and offers Fancypants temporary housing with them there.

"Oh I'd be most grateful, Mr...?" Fancypants responds.

"Night Light. Technically, the full title is 'Night Light, 4th Earl of Canterlot Valley', but we've learned it's not a good idea to use those titles anywhere but in formal gatherings. I would advise you to do the same." the stallion answers.

"Of course. My full title is 'Fancypants, 5th Duke of Shearwood', but you can just call me Fancypants."

"Alright. This is my wife, the 'Right Honorable Twilight Velvet'." Night Light states as he gestures to the mare beside him. "We were in Canterlot for a day trip, but our little filly ran off and we've been chasing after her ever since. That's our colt over there, trying to get her out from behind the stalls."

Fancypants turns and sees a unicorn colt who shares his general white-with-blue-mane-and-tail color scheme, preteen in age if he had to guess, looking around various stalls as a small purple shape dashes between them, giggling and getting various dirty looks in the process. The colt was constantly apologizing to the stallkeepers in what seemed to Fancypants a very strange accent - not like anything he'd heard back in Trottingham, that's for sure.

Finally, the colt's horn starts glowing with a magenta-colored magic, and after a moment a magenta-colored "bubble" is psychokinetically dragged out from behind a stall. Contained inside the "bubble" is a purple-coated filly, only 2 or 3 years old, squealing with delight as she tumbles around in the "bubble".

"Got her!" the colt proudly proclaims as he trots over to his parents, psychokinetically bringing the little filly in the "bubble" with him.

"Good job Shiny!" Twilight Velvet exclaims in equal parts pride and relief.

"Mom, don't call me that in public!" the colt exclaims in indignation. Fancypants quickly suppresses a snicker.

"Now dear, you know we love you when we call you that." Twilight Velvet answers.

"Yeah yeah yeah... who's this?" the colt asks, pointing to Fancypants as he psychokinetically moves the "bubble" he's controlling in front of Twilight Velvet so that she can grab the little purple-coated filly contained inside.

"His name is Fancypants. Fancypants, this is my colt Shining Armor. The filly is Twilight Sparkle, and she's quite the hooffull!" Night Light explains.

"I can imagine!" Fancypants responds through a chuckle, looking at the young Twilight's glee-filled face.

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"Man what an interesting time that was. All the stories you told, the tea parties, even dancing all formal like!" Shining Armor chuckled out in the present.

"Yes, I suppose if there was one thing I could be faulted for, it's that I didn't know when to stop! Fleur helped me with that when we started courting." Fancypants responds, Fleur nodding to show the truth of his statement.

"Still Shining, you have to understand. Your parents were the only ones that were ever nice to me when I first came to Canterlot. It helped me determine my purpose here - to be the model of class, etiquette and good taste. To treat my fellow ponies the way they deserve to be treated. And you are as much a product of that value system your parents hold as you are a result of their union. Same with your sister. I believe in you, even if there are many who do not or would rather stay on the sidelines." Fancypants speaks honestly.

"Thanks, I really need that." Shining replies through a smile.

"I know you have fire on your back as well as your front. Fleur and I will do what we can, but not even we can convince everypony that your cause is the right one to support. You know of whom I'm talking about."

"Those pesky pegasi lead by Aten. They've gone on the attack, and the Captain has been forced to shuffle several of their number into my shift. Nothing good will come of it." Shining replies with an annoyed snort.

"Why Celestia has been accommodating to them as much as she has is an action I simply cannot understand! Why wasn't it quashed early instead of letting it grow into this?"

"I wish I knew. Celestia was content to simply deny their charges until they started holding rallies in the statue garden. Something about her attitude changed when that happened, but she's never explained what. The Captain's tried to get an explanation, I've tried, Cadance has tried... nothing. Celestia just clams up whenever the subject is brought up."

"Unbelievable! Nothing about that behavior makes sense!" Fancypants exclaims. Shining gives a nod of affirmation - indeed, until a certain draconequus was unleashed upon Equestria nothing seemed logical about the behavior patterns of Celestia or Aten and his supporters on the "affirmative action" subject.

"Well, I suppose we've done all we can here then. Please keep in touch. And most of all, be vigilant Lieutenant Captain. All Equestria counts on it!" the monocle-wearing unicorn states, he and Fleur giving slow salutes. Shining returns it, then gives a determined nod.

Fancypants and Fleur turn and take their leave, Luna's shallow breathing and the steady beep of the heart monitor being the only sounds left in the room once their hoofsteps fade away. After a moment, Shining Armor sighs and trots over to the room's window overlooking Canterlot.

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Through the window is a view of the moon Luna had managed to raise at perilous cost, its beams of light streaming down upon a Canterlot generally peacefully sleeping away. In the near distance were the gleaming towers and walls of Canterlot Castle, looking as beautiful as ever on the outside but with Shining knowing of the changes occurring within. On the edge of the field of view, if you squinted, the lights of Ponyville could be made out, and Shining's mind involuntarily wandered into speculation about his sister.

Was "Twily" up late reading an exciting new book, with Spike snoring peacefully beside her? Was she observing and charting an undimmed moon? Was she with some of her new friends at a late-night party? Or was she fretting over planning for the next month, as she sometimes did? So many unanswerable questions that gnawed at him, that provoked the kind of protective concern all good big brothers had for their younger siblings. He yearned to help, but also understood that this was part of his special little sister growing up...

Shining's speculation was interrupted by a low moaning sound reaching his ears. He turns and sees Princess Luna rustling under the covers as she lay in the hospital bed. He moves to the side of the bed and sees the heart monitor beeping away the same regular pace it had been before. Was she finally waking up?

There is another low moan and Shining Armor sees Luna roll to one side, then the other. She returns to being flat on her back and her eyes slowly open. In the low moonlight of the room, her cyan irises seem to shimmer like a pair of jewels.

"Your Highness?" Shining quietly asks, causing a slow turn of Luna's head in his direction.

"Most wonderful stallion, we knew we could depend on thee. Receive our royal thanks for thine quick action." Luna quietly answers, a single happy tear trickling down her cheek as she lays awake in the hospital bed.

Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor is immediately overwhelmed by a wave of relieved joy, and it takes all his Royal Guard discipline to prevent it from coming out in liquid form as he looks back at the smiling Princess Luna...

Author's Note:

(This chapter was inspired by http://the-wizard-of-art.deviantart.com/art/Afternoon-Tea-423708349)

Comments

[Starfall13]

Nice!

[dawn seeker]

um you should remove the link it leads to nowhere all i see is: The page you were looking for doesn't exist. other than that it is a really good chapter

[dawn seeker]

for those who can't get to the page here is the LINK

[Burnasius]

And... Luna kisses Shining Armor. Oh the drama, the forbidden romance AND the Guilt trips!

[ChakatFirepaw]

So Velvet was in the government, I wonder how high she got, (it's probably not like Canada, where 'Right Honourable' does tell you).

[redmar]

Perhaps Discord's chaos magic was making it harder for Luna to move the moon than it shoul have been on top of the other things mentioned in this chapter.
Discord: I'm not telling and maybe I don't even know.