The only light on the balcony was the soft blue glow from her horn as Princess of the night, Luna, slowly and gently lowered the moon behind the peaks of the distant mountains with a small smile on her muzzle. She enjoyed the way the moonlight gave the hills some life, not too bright but enough to be pleasant on the eyes. The tower giving her an amazing view, one she often wished to share. Celestia was on the other side of the palace, raising the sun at that moment, and that's where all the ponies were. Guards, maids, and servants all took a small break to watch in awe as the alicorn raised the sun...yet they never came to watch Luna lower or raise the moon. She had requested once...only to be told they were far too busy…recently she had demanded it but the ponies had stood beside her shaking in fear from the royal canterlot voice, and so she dismissed them in guilt.
She gave a small sigh as the last of night creeped away to make way for the day. Now is the time when ponies would start to walk and talk, do their shopping and go to school, all while she would be resting to take over for the next night. Celestia often told her how envious she was. How all the tough duties were during the day, how she avoided civil wars weekly, dealt with foreign ambassadors, dealt with titles and festivals, and the like. None of that happened during the nightly hours yet Luna often wished they did, just wishing for something to happen to show the ponies she was important. She was equal to her sister. Why wasn’t she able to show it?
With a quick turn she walked back into her blue and silver coloured room and crawled into her bed, resting her head on her front hooves as her night sky mane slowly moved on its own. She would fall asleep, wake up and raise the moon, and be the only one to enjoy it and the twinkling stars. Just like every other night before. This was the pattern of things and she could see no way of changing it now. She closed her eyes and drifted off into a dreamless slumber.
She woke up to the knocking on her door, rubbing her eyes and putting the crown back on her head she cleared her voice and loudly called out.
“Thou disturbs my slumber, what purpose brings thou to these chambers?”
A small maid poked her head in, she was shaking slightly and gulped. She gave a quick curtsy before speaking up in a voice hardly louder than a whisper.
“Y-You have slept in P-Princess...the moon needs to rise…”
She looked out at the balcony and nodded, getting up. She looked at the maid and forced a smile despite knowing the answer to her question already.
“Does thou wish to watch the moon rise?”
She shook her head. “I-I’m sorry but I need to rest to get ready for cleaning the guest ward tomorrow to prepare for the ambassadors from Saddle Arabia..s-sorry princess..”
“Tis fine my loyal subject…” she turned away as the maid trotted off, instead heading to the balcony to do her task of casting nighttime upon the land. As much as she felt under appreciated she loved raising the moon, it caused a wave of energy to wash over her, the constellations in her mane to brighten even slightly, and her eyes to glow like fireflies. Flying into the air and going higher and higher to match the moon, the stars and constellations on her mane and tail started to glow and once she was high enough she did a small spin causing a ripple of light to spin out from her body.
Landing back on the floor she looked up as the light wave reached the dark sky, and soon the stars started to make themselves known. She could see the big dipper, Aquarius or better known as ‘the pony with the water jug’, and the ursa major…
Speaking of ursa majors she had better go and scout for any beasts of the night willing to attack the sleeping ponies. Timberwolves, vamp ponies, werewolves, and the like. She help a lot of them in distaste as they made ponies dislike the night more than they already did. Stretching her wings she stepped off the balcony and started to glide through the forest, only flapping once in awhile to stay airborne. She would patrol the forests border, make sure that no critters decided to step out of line. They hardly ever did, and would turn tail when seeing her meaning she had plenty of free time. She slowly landed by the river and laid down, tucking her legs under her body. Local fireflies flew about, ignoring the princess as they lived their normal lives. She raised her front right hoof and watched as a few landed on it. How could ponies not enjoy this beauty? It wasn’t far at all! All one had to do was step outside their door!
Luna narrowed her eyes and gave a small snort. Were they not capable of such a thing? Were they terrified that the mere sight of the moon would cause them to drop dead? That the oh so scary princess of night would whisk them away to horrors unimaginable? She shook the bugs off her hoof and stood up, pacing. It wasn’t fair! The more she paced the angrier she got, tail lashing out behind her, ears pinned flat against her head, and lips pulled back into a snarl. It reached the point where she stomped at the ground and cried out in her canterlot voice.
“TIS NOT FAIR!”
And there was a sound, a response so quiet she nearly missed it.
A whimper.
She stopped dead, ears perking towards where she could have sworn she heard the sound. She sniffed the air and slowly made her way towards a pair of bushes by the riverbed. She smelled...apples?
She used her magic to slowly moved the branches aside and had to do a double take on what she saw.
Hiding in the bushes was a tiny little foal. She looked soaked to the bone, her pink mane and tail clung to her body. Her light yellow fur did little to provide warmth as Luna could see she was shivering. She crouched down and used a wing to cover her face and Luna saw that instead of the normal feathered wings of a pegasus there were in fact, bat wings….bat wings.
Bat ponies were thought to be extinct! Luna had tried to stop it best she could but there was little to be done. The fear of vamp ponies caused many to turn on the bat winged equines. Though bat ponies and vamp ponies both had bat wings and prefered the night that was where the similarities ended. But alas many thought better safe than sorry and hunted them down to only a few. To make matters worse was the fact the bat wings were a recessive gene that hardly ever showed due to the issue it had to contend with earth, pegasus, and unicorn genes. No...Luna could have sworn she saw the last of the bat ponies much to her dismay yet here one was, looking utterly terrified.
This foal didn’t have the ghostly white fur of a vamp pony, crossing out that possibility. Beside the filly was a half eaten apple, further indicating she did not feast on the blood of innocence. Luna took deep breathes and let out the quiet voice she used in the dreams of sleeping foals.
“Why does thou hide? I shall not harm a fur on thines body.”
The only response she got was a whimper.
“Where art thou parents? Family?” Still nothing.
Luna got up and looked around the scene for any clue of the location of the filly’s caretakers. Judging by the fact she was yet it could be assumed she had either crossed the river or been washed down here. She slowly looked across the river and shook her head, there were caverns that way, no way she could have crossed that at her age.
She looked up river, deciding that was her best bet. She went back to the bushes and tried to usher the child out. After talking and promises did nothing she used her magic to pull the apple closer, the foal let out a whine and tried to stop her via wrapping her wings around the fruit. When that failed her yellow bat like ears dropped. Luna looked at the apple and slowly used her magic to make a small cut on the non eaten side, making some of the juice leak out. The foal's nose twitched and she slowly got up, Luna gave a smile feeling proud that she managed to get this far. She slowly backed up, taking the apple with her. The foal went to follow but stopped at the bushes edge, torn between the meal and the security of the shade. After a minute of internal struggle she slowly and cautiously went up to the fruit, not moving her eyes off of the princess. Luna lowered the apple so the yellow pony could dig in.
“What is thous name?”
The filly paused and looked at Luna, and only then did the alicorn's eyes widen. This pony was a lot younger than she had initially thought.
“If you don’t mind….would you be okay if thou joined me in the sky?” no response so Luna had to hope she understood her.
Judging by the scream she did not.
Luna had only lifted her a centimeter off the ground with magic but the filly was acting like she was dangling over the castle's roof. With her being unable to understand her Luna figured her best bet was to show her she meant no harm so she waited tell the child had calmed down before slowly going higher, stopping at screams.
The process repeated for a while before they were high enough for Luna to move forward and scan the ground below. She kept the foal close, under her wing where she could feel the filly hiding her head in the blue fur. She certainly was a shy one…
She paused and squinted, was that..fire in the distance? She slowly landed in the bushes beside the clearing.
“Stay here..okay?” she put the filly in the bushes and slowly walked out. There was the small ruins of a shack, still in flames. Outside the door were two bodies..bat ponies, killed by pitchforks. She took a few steps back and looked around, preparing for a fight but none came, the aggressors had ran off. She hissed in frustration. These innocent ponies were killed, either they had put their child in some sort of escape boat or she fled into the river herself and got washed away...either way there was no home for her to return too…
She headed back to the foal and laid down, raising a wing for the filly to rest under. It took a bit of coaxing but soon she was snuggled up against her side. She would likely need to take her to an orphanage during the day and hope for the best. But that could wait, for now she needed comfort.
“You’ll need a name…” She had no means of finding out so she would need to think of a new one. She looked at the child at her side and paused. The cool breeze made pink strands of mane flutter in the wind….flutter… “How about fluttershy?’ the filly looked up and blinked but said nothing else. Luna smiled and levitated the filly.
“yes...Fluttershy will do nicely.”