It was a week before the Spartan army marched into Thebes, Luna had been assigned to loading extra weapons and rations into carts to be taken with them. She had sorted spears into bundles of twenty, as well as piled swords and shields into piles making certain that each armory cart had the same amount of swords, spears and shields. The rations were simply dried and preserved wheat stalks put into leather pouches to protect them from weather. Luna had spent the whole day doing this and was actually rather impressed with the Spartan weapons supply.There was another slave mare with her doing this job, and this mare wanted to talk to her about a certain something.
“Hey,” She said, “My name is North Star, What’s yours?”
“Luna,” She replied, “Nice to meet you North Star.”
“You know there’s a rumor going around about you.”
“Oh is there now? Care to elaborate?”
“Oh its just a little something I heard from a friend.”
“Will you tell me what this supposed rumor is?”
“Oh yes,” She leaned in and whispered in her ear, “That you and the master have been going at it.”
Luna recoiled,SHE KNOWS!!!
“So,” North Star pressed, “is it true? Did the master plow the plot?”
“W-what?! No I-I wouldn’t, how could I?” Luna fumbled her face turning red.
North Star was grinning widely, “He did didn’t he? Oh this is too good. You got into the masters bed.”
North Star started laughing uncontrollably in delight and Lunas face only got redder.
“If you tell anyone,” Luna threatened, “I will pull out your intestines and strangle you with them.”
“Don’t worry,” North Star said genuinely scared, “Your secret is safe with me.”
“Good,” Luna said before returning to work.
Luna got all her work done early as usual and was given permission to take a walk in the forest surrounding Sparta. So she went out via the east road and entered the underbrush. She examined the forest for a long time, taking in all of the details of the the tranquil place. Very soon she came into a clearing, the grass was growing a little taller here than in other parts of the forest. She stopped and her eyes widened.
There in the middle of the clearing was a green and purple dragon, it was heavily muscled and about five times her hieght and contained one hundred times her mass. The dragon turned to look at her.
“Luna?”
Luna stood there in shock, It knows my name?!
Fear got the best of her and she galloped away, she had to get back and warn her master that there was a drake in the woods.
“Luna wait!”
The drake took off after her and fast it quickly gained on her. Luna did not stop running she almost made it to the road. She heard the rush of massive wings beating and the snapping of several large branches. The sound reverberated like a thunderclap, loud enough for a deaf pony on the other side of Sparta to hear. Then the dragon landed on her and held a claw over her mouth to keep her from screaming. She tried to struggle but the drake held her firm. He bagan to bring her deeper into the woods. Luna struggled the entire time trying desperately to get away from the drake, it was all in vain. The drake continued to drag her ever deeper into the forest that she now regretted entering.
Leonidas heard what sounded like thunder, but it was too loud and it was a clear day so thunder was not possible. He located the direction from which the sound came, it was the forest and the same general area Luna had gone into.
“Excuse me,” he said to his strategists, “I must investigate that.”
They all nodded and he flew in the direction of the woods after donning his helm, he flew to the exact spot the sound originated from to find several trees snapped in half, and bipedal claw prints. He looked around more and saw that the deepest claw prints were around hoof prints too small to be any Spartan. The hoof prints stopped there and the claw prints turned around he took off in the direction the prints lead.
I hope I’m not too late
Spike had taken the opportunity, maybe he shouldn’t have but he did. Luna was struggling in his grip in obvious fear of what he had planned for her. He didn’t like scaring her, she was a friend of his so how could he? Still he held her firm and took her to the cave the others were in discussing their next move. The cave came into view and he saw Twilight sitting down at the entrance looking alert.
“Twilight,” he bellowed.
She looked at him and saw who he was carrying, her eyes widened in disbelief. She called to the others saying that Spike had her. Spike reached the entrance to the cave at the same time the others did, and Luna hung in his grip frozen in fear her ears folded back against her head.
“Bring her in,” Celestia said.
Spike entered the cave and laid Luna down at the back of it, she emmediately started scooting back against the back of the cave.
“Wh-what do y-y-you want?” Luna stuttered terrified.
“For you to remember dear sister.” Celestia said, she then nodded to twilight, “Do it.”
With that Twilights horn lit up charging the memory restoration spell making Luna flinch back. Luna continued to press against the back wall, and Twilight released the spell.
Leonidas approached a cave that was the seemed destination of the claw tracks, he slowed down and peeked inside. What she saw was a group of small ponies with one almost as big as he was and a middle aged bipedal dragon backing Luna up against the back wall. There were two unicorns, two Pegasi and to earth ponies, the one near his size was an alicorn as well. The purple unicorn then cast a spell on Luna that put her to sleep, at first he thought they killed her but then noticed that she was still breathing. He slowly drew his sword from its sheath and readied his shield for a fight, before he could leap out and attack Luna opened her eyes and the other alicorn knelt down next to her.
“How are you Luna?” She asked genuinely concerned.
Luna groaned, “Celestia?”
“Yes sister, how are you?’
“I-I don’t know, one minute I’m being kidnapped by a drake and cornered by a group of strangers then the next I can remember their names and everything else.”
Leonidas chose that moment to enter the cave. He hovered in the air and the group turned to look at him.
“What is the meaning of this?” He demanded.