Luna's mane blew in the soft autumn breeze. She took a deep breath enjoying the smell of leaves and smoke coming from the houses and trees surrounding the castle.
All around the castle ponies could be seen stocking up wood and food for the winter, and farmers in plains in the distance were working on their last harvest. The Pegasi were busy rounding up all the clouds to repurpose them into snow clouds. The first snowstorm was scheduled for next week, and many foals could be seen running through the brown leaves that lay in piles around the park.
As Luna watched the little ones her thoughts drifted to the fun she had with Jack during the summer, she had spent as much time as she could simply playing with Jack, he had even started speaking more. Something she was glad about was that Jack's tendencies to throw tantrums had subsided. She had secretly named that period "the terrible two's." Her son had grown grown quite a bit in the 8 months since she first adopted him, and the pouf of hair on his head had started to fill out and darken.
Luna remembered the day her sister had called a doctor over to run a physical on Jack. Luna cringed slightly as she remembered how nervous she had been about a simple checkup.
"Sister is this really necessary?" Luna whined as she paced outside the room that had been given to the doctor for the physical.
Celestia rolled her eyes at her sisters antics,"Yes." Luna gave her sister an unamused look and resumed pacing. "Honestly Luna, I do not understand why you are so nervous."
"I could say I am just worrying like any mother would," Luna sat down next to her sister. "But its not just that. I am scared Tia, scared that I will learn that there is something wrong with him. I am scared that I will learn that I am going to lose my son!"
Celestia could see the fear in her sisters eyes, a fear of the uncertain. Celestia knew she had to comfort her sister, but she wasn't sure how.
"Luna-" started Celestia, but was interrupted by the doctor announcing that he was finished. Celestia gave her sister a quick hug, and an encouraging nod as they entered the room.
"Ah yes Princess Celestia, and Lady Luna, I have good news! You have a perfectly healthy foal! Erm, human!"
"YES!" shouted Luna, as she hugged her sister and the doctor, smushing the poor fellow.
"Lady Luna... Cant.... Breathe...." gasped the doctor as he slowly turned blue. Luna released the stallion with a quick apology. As the doctor caught his breath Luna picked up her son in her levitation and moved him to her back. Jack hugged his mothers neck, giving a happy squee.
"So doctor, what else did you find out about Jack?" asked Celestia.
"Ah, yes. Well, hes definitely omnivorous, his dietary tract appears to be fairly sturdy, but I would recommend cooking any meats, also his body does not process plant's quite as well as our bodies do, so flowers and grass will not hurt him but they wont exactly provide nutrients either." The doctor took a second to flip through his notes before continuing. "Oh yes, we also estimated his birthday to be some time in January, and he will be 3 years old this January. There is one thing that we found to be very strange."
Luna's face dropped into a worried expression at this unexpected twist. "And that would be what exactly?"
"Your son is magically capable, and not just that! He has a massive mana pool for someone his age! However that's not even the most confusing part! Since he has no horn he shouldn't even be able to use magic! He's a magical impossibility!" The doctor blushed when he realized who he was talking to, using a cough to recollect himself. "Apologies Princess', I meant no disrespect."
"That is quite the dilemma, however we have some of the greatest magical scholars right here in the everfree." Reasoned Celestia, "surely they would be capable of finding a way for Jack to use his magic."
Luna nodded her head, her sisters words improving her mood greatly; surely the greatest mages in all of equestria would be capable of helping her son learn magic.
Luna smiled at the memory as she made her way inside, not only was it extrodinary to learn that other creatures outside of equus could use magic, it also meant Luna could teach her son all the things she herself had learned from her mentor, which also meant spending more time with Jack. As it stood she found her time spent with her son was declining as he had started language lessons with his private tutor; a mare by the name of Tender Hooves. Luna recalled how she had been less than thrilled with the prospect.
The morning had started wonderfully, it had been two weeks since the good doctors visit, and the weather was perfect; sunny but not too hot, with a cool breeze. Luna, Jack, and Celestia were enjoying their morning meal; omelette' for the princess' and scrambled eggs for Jack. During a lull in the conversation Luna decided to partake of a glass of water.
"Luna, I think we should hire a tutor for Jack." Celestia put out.
"Sister, surely you jest!" Exclaimed Luna, but the force of her shout had caused the contents of her cup to vacate to the spot directly infront of her, which happened to be Celestia. while the sight of Celestia sitting dripping wet with wide eyes would have been considered hilarious, Luna was a strong willed mare who would never laugh at her sisters misfortune. For all of thirty seconds. Then came the snickering, which brought Celestia out of her shock.
With a nonplussed look and and a raised eyebrow Celestia only made Luna's laughing worse. Celestia grabbed her own glass in her telekinetic grip and threateningly held it over Luna.
"N-now now *ha* sister, let's not *snicker* do anything that we may have to *giggle* water down!" Joked Luna. Her mirth however was silenced when a glass full of ice cold water splashed upon her head. With a victorious smirk Celestia offered a warm towel to her shivering sister as she herself used one to dry her mane and fur
"Why do you think I need a tutor for Jack?" Luna asked her sister as she dried off. "Surely I can teach him!"
Celestia gave her sister a pointed look, "Are you sure about that? I feel that you would end up playing more than teaching. Luna, Jack is an intelligent creature not a pet."
"I love my son, I would never treat him like a pet!" Seethed Luna.
"I'm sorry, that was very harsh. Sister you make a great mother, but even you need help sometimes!" Apologized Celestia, "I just think it would be wise to hire someone to teach Jack and take care of him when you are busy."
"And who would you suggest? The nobles hate my son, and they have a large influence." Stated Luna,
Celestia nodded her head in understanding, after a short while she spoke again; "I think I have an idea."
"Thou cannot be serious." Complained Luna, "you put an advertisement out!?"
"Do you not think it will work?" Asked Celestia.
"Oh I'm sure we'll get plenty of candidates, the beggars and scoundrels will happily attempt to get into the royal pocket." Deadpanned Luna.
"Oh how your lack of faith disturbs me!" Joked Celestia, who received an unamused look from her sister. "I already took that into account, I made the advertisement anonymous, it says that a single mother is looking for a capable pony who can help take care of, and teach a young child. It also says that prior experience, or references are requested."
Luna silently admitted that the plan was pretty ingenious, if a little underhanded, but one problem was still prevalent at the front of her mind. "But won't they realize that it's for me if we call them to the castle for an interview?"
"I thought of that aswell, that's why the crown recently acquired a house just at the edge of the city." Explained Celestia, "I was thinking we could go in disguise to interview those who apply."
Luna nodded her head; "And when is the deadline for applications?"
"Next week"
A week came and went, and to be truthful Luna was feeling quite anxious. Even if she was still in disguise the thought of being around so many ponies was giving her butterflies. She was also worried she would fall asleep during the interview; there were roughly forty applicants that had made it past the screening process. She had also spent the previous day working on questions for the interview, the task had seemed simple, but the more she thought the harder it was to come up with questions that would be worth asking. She had done it in the end, but it had bit into her eight hours of sleep.
She took a look at herself in the mirror; as she was currently in the bathroom of the house that had been, "procured for royal business." Her disguise was fairly simple, but entirely misleading, her coat was changed to a stark white, her mane was blonde, and her eyes were green. And her cutie mark had been changed to an image of a canvas blowing in the wind.
A knock on the door brought Luna out of her thoughts. She opened the door to reveal one of her guards, who was disguised as a butler. The guard gave a crisp salute before addressing her, "Ma'am the first guest will be arriving soon."
"Thank you, I shall be down shortly." The guard nodded and turned to leave but before he could get far Luna called out to him, "pardon me but I forgot to ask for your name."
The guard almost tripped in surprise, but recovered quickly. "My name is Nightfire, Ma'am. Private Nightfire."
Luna smiled at the young stallion's nervousness. "Nightfire... Ah yes, I remember now, you are the stallion all the guards are talking about, youngest private in years I hear. I will say your skills are very impressive from what I have seen."
Nightfire rubbed the back of his neck "Thank you for the compliments princess. Though I woudln't believe everything you hear about me, the others tend to exaggerate."
Luna stepped out of the bathroom and walked down the hall, with Nightfire walking on her left. "Young Nightfire do not discredit yourself, I have seen you train and you truly are a natural."
"I have never seen you on the training fields, and no offense but if you had been on the field I would have noticed." Stated Nightfire.
Luna gave an understanding nod. "That would be because I watch from my balcony, I used to oversee all the recruits training. Before my sister gave command to the generals, that is."
"You used to be in the guard?" Asked Nightfire, "I never would have thought you to be the fighting type."
"It's true, I used to command the Equestrian army, though that was nearly a hundred years ago." Stated Luna mirthfully. "Don't let my looks deceive you, I was a skilled combatant. Though I haven't practiced in recent years. Nowadays since everything is so quiet I barely have anything to do, nightmares are few and far, and everyone tends to sleep when I am awake, so having a social life is nonexistent..." The conversation trailed off into an uncomfortable silence.
"I'm sorry for pushing my personal problems onto you private, I guess I will wait in the living room. When the first guest arrives send them in please." Said Luna as she turned to enter the room.
"Princess Luna, I..." but the door shut before Nightfire could get anything else out.
Luna felt bad for closing the door on Nightfire, but she needed some time alone.
It had never really fully occurred to Luna just how much she had lost over the years; she had lost her job as the leader of Equestria's army, and the generals who were supposed to report to her rarely even asked for permission to do training activities, much less ask her how she wants her army trained.. The only way she would even be allowed to monitor her troops was from her balcony.
Time had taken her closest friends, and would continue to do so long into the future. Luna realized that one day Jack would die aswell, outlived by her long until his bones were dust. In that moment, something inside Luna broke, she felt angry, she was still sad but Luna also felt anger, anger at her sister for taking away her troops, anger at her subjects for ignoring her night. But mostly anger at herself; for being too weak to save her friends and too weak to save her son.
Though her body was calm, in her mind Luna was raging. She cursed her sister, and her own immortality. She screamed in her mind as hot tears seeped from her eyes. Her rage dulled and her heart ached, she knew that there was nothing she could do, so instead Luna moved forward. Locking away her grief and her anger, Luna instead vowed to spend as much time with Jack as she possibly could.
Wiping her eyes Luna felt that a weight had been lifted from her, walking over to the door she let Nightfire know that she was ready for the first candidate. With a small smile on her face Luna sat in her comfy chair, grabbed a cup of tea, and went over her questions in her head
"Truly this day must only be capable of getting better." Luna said to herself with a small giggle.
"How do you feel about omnivores?" Asked Luna. The mare infront of her wasn't all that extraordinary, if she was honest. Luna had already decided that the mare had zero chance of being a caretaker. But she continued the interview just to be polite.
"Well, I think anything that has to eat animals to live must be a monster." Said the oblivious mare.
'Nope' thought Luna
"Are you okay with meat? It will be served from time to time." Luna said, she had high hopes for the stallion in front of her, he had made it pretty far without any serious complications. Turning her attention back to the candidate she found a worrying difference.
'He hadn't always been that shade of green had he?' Thought Luna
Luna could not believe her subjects! Several hadn't even shown up, but the ones that had were either such wimps they wouldn't even make it a day, or were bigoted racists!
'That was a waste of several hours, I wonder how Jack is doing.' Thought Luna as she stood from her chair and moved over to the door. Sticking her head out she found Nightfire sitting next to a caramel colored pegasus mare. The two were deep in conversation, and not wanting to interrupt the two, Luna decided to head to the kitchen.
The kitchen was nothing luxurious, white tile backsplash and wooden countertops gave a very warm and clean feeling to the room. After creating a beautiful rose-daisy sandwich, (which Luna had not brought from the royal kitchens at all,) she decided to enjoy her lunch outside. Going out the back door Luna found a comfy porch chair and sat facing the beautful meadow. One of the advantages of having a house on the outskirts of the city was that you could enjoy the beautful landscape. As Luna simply relaxed and let herself unwind, she realized just how calm the world seemed when she wasn't stuck in the middle of the city.
'Maybe I will keep this house as a place for Jack and I to come sometimes,' thought Luna as she finished her most delectable sandwich.
Luna hadn't really realized how long she had been sitting in the warm summer air, but it had been long enough to worry Nightfire, as he had come rushing out of the back door. This had startled the slightly sleepy princess who proceeded to gracefully fall off her chair like a startled cat.
Nightfire had apologized for several minutes even after Luna had told him it was okay, but he stopped when she finally questioned him as to what was wrong.
"Well nothing is wrong m'lady it's just that it has been sometime and Ms. Hooves was wondering when you were going to interview her, so I went to check on you and I couldn't find you soipanickedandranaroundthehouseandigotreallyscaredbecauseithoughtyouhadbeenkidnappedandithoughtyoursisterwasgoingtokillmeandiwasohsoworried" the stallion took a deep breath, "And I'm really glad you're okay princess."
Luna had a hard time processing all that she had just heard so she decided to ask the only question that she could formulate.
"Who is Ms. Hooves?" She asked.
"Oh she's the last candidate. She's the caramel colored pegasus , surely you saw her on your way to the kitchen?" Answered Nightfire, which snapped Luna out of her stupor.
"Ah yes! I will see to her now. No need to keep the poor mare any longer than we have too." Luna would be lying if she said she was looking forward to the interview, most likely the mare wouldn't even make it halfway through her questions before something disqualified her.
"You are Ms. Tender Hooves, correct?" Asked Luna.
"Yes."
"Ms. Hooves, do you have any prior teaching or care taking experience?"
"Yes actually, I worked as a nurse for two years, and I taught at a preschool for a year."
Luna's eyebrows found themselves slowly inching upwards as the interview progressed. This one mare had made it farther than a majority of the other interviewees.
"Ms. Hooves, are you comfortable working around omnivores?"
Luna found herself holding her breath, as most ponies had failed this criteria.
"Yes, actually. I used to work as a maid in the royal castle, and I would often find myself around gryphon dignitaries. They are exactly like ponies really, I don't understand why they have such a bad rep honestly."
In her mind Luna was shouting for joy, however her only outward expression of her feeling was a warm smile.
"Excellent, are you okay with working around meat then? You may even need to handle some."
"That should be fine, I have actually taken on a taste for fish, something a gryphon dignitary shared with me on a date."
'YES YES YES!' the party had started in Luna's mind; as far as she was concerned Tender Hooves was already hired.
"Well Ms. Hooves, I must thank you for your time, however," Luna dropped her voice into a foreboding tone. Causing Tender's face to drop, "I must inform you that your chances of getting hired are... extremely high." And just like that Luna returned to talking normally. "Now how soon can you start working?"
"..." Tender didn't respond, her eyes were wide and Luna was worried she had gone too far and broken the mare, but her fears were unfounded as Tender's face stretched into a wide smile.
"Oh thank you so much! I promise I will do a good job, you won't regret hiring me!" Tender jumped from her chair and hugged Luna but let go quickly when she remembered that she was hugging her boss. "Sorry about that."
"It's quite alright Ms. Hooves, I understand your excitement. Just don't make it a common thing." Said Luna as she stood from her chair.
"Of course ma'am. Also you can just call me Tender, Ms. Hooves makes me sound old."
"Of course, if I can just have your address, I will send a chariot to pick you up tommorrow. I think it best to let you go home and get some sleep now." The interview had taken a fair amount of time and the son was close to setting, not that Luna was any rush to get rid of Tender but she did need to get back and raise the moon.
The two walked to the front door, where Tender and Luna exchanged goodbyes, after she departed Luna removed the illusion spell from herself. Walking back into the living room she found Nightfire sleeping on the couch. Poking the stallion on the muzzle she found him to be deep asleep. Deciding to leave him be Luna wrote a quick note explaining the situation and also informing him that he was free to stay in the house, or if he chose to leave he could lock up the doors.
Stepping out the back Luna spread her wings and took flight into the sunset, not long after the sun set and the moon rose into place, shining brightly in the starry night.