//------------------------------//
// First [Mis]Steps 
// Story: Luna's Student 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

"...and that's the entire history of Equestria. Have you memorized all of it? Well, anyway, we don't have the time to go over it a third time, Celestia will probably already be annoyed that I kept the night going for longer than usual. But finally morning is here, and we can begin our quest to find an appropriate pet for you!" Luna turned towards Blueblood.
Blueblood didn't answer. He just stared ahead, his eyes wide and with some rather prominent eye bags underneath them, his mouth slightly opened. He then fell to a side with a thud.
"Is everything okay?" Luna asked, moving closer.
Blueblood remained silent. His eyelids slowly moved to close themselves, but as he was about to fall asleep the collar Luna had made him wear zapped him back to his senses. He mumbled something unintelligible and rolled back to be on his hooves, slowly getting back up. He looked at Luna with the same distant gaze he'd worn for the majority of the night. He then fell to the side again, and the scene repeated itself.
Luna rubbed her forehead with a hoof, a frown on her face. "I can't believe you're this tired already. And we're only halfway through! I mean, I could let you sleep now, your sleep pattern should be properly switched, but how are we supposed to find your animal if you sleep during the day?"
Blueblood fell once again.
Luna looked at his body. "Okay, fine, but only this time." A small ball of energy detached itself from her horn and entered Blueblood's head.
The stallion shook his head, suddenly aware of what was happening once again, and looked up at the alicorn. "Couldn't you have done that sooner?"
"Well, you see-"
Luna was interrupted by a letter materializing in front of her, accompanied by a flash of golden magic.
"Excuse me for a moment, would you? Sorry, the formalities of being a Princess." Luna grabbed the letter in her magic and began to read it, her expression shifting from one of confusion at first to a devious smile.
"What does it say?" Blueblood asked, trying to get a look at it.
"Nothing much, really. My sister says that she's sorry for leaving me inside a coffin, and she asks me to not turn into Nightmare Moon and start another war over it. She says she'll bake me a cake if I lower the Moon right now."
Blueblood took a moment to think. "So what are you going to do?"
"Lower the Moon, of course," Luna replied, looking at him.
"But could you not ask for more?"
Luna tilted her head to the side, confused. "What do you mean? What could there be that is more than a cake?"
"Money? Power? A promotion for your student? Fame? Giving a pair of wings to your student? Territories? Making your student an alicorn?"
Luna shook her head. "A cake is better than that, Vlad."
Blueblood smacked his head with a hoof. "How about two cakes?"
Luna perked up as she heard that. "Wait, you mean I can ask for two cakes?"
Blueblood's hoof slowly travelled down his face, and he looked at Luna. "Well, yes. If she's asking you to lower the Moon and offering something in return then it's clear that you're the one with the power to decide if what she's giving to you is enough."
Luna thoughtfully stroked her chin. "So you're saying I might even be able to ask for three cakes?"
"You might even ask for unlimited cak-"
"Oh, what am I saying, two cakes is already a lot." Luna wrote something on the scroll and sent it back to her sister.
Blueblood was about to speak again, but he was interrupted by a new letter appearing between him and the alicorn.
Luna picked it up and unrolled it. "She says she accepts!" She threw the letter behind her and jumped on Blueblood, hugging the unicorn. "Thank you! As a reward, I will allow you to eat some of the cake."
A new letter appeared, and Luna picked it up, letting go of her student. She assumed a guilty-looking expression and her horn glowed with magic once more. Likely to lower the Moon, although Blueblood had no way to tell, since he'd been stuck there for more than a whole day at that point, the only source of light the candles in the room.
"Well then, now that that's settled I believe we can start our quest!" Luna exclaimed.
Without further warning, Blueblood found himself being magically transported to the surface once more. Not having slept at all during the previous night, his digestive system was in a rather unstable condition, and the only reason the event didn't cause him to throw up was the fact that he hadn't eaten anything in the past day. That and the fact that his brain was mostly focused on how the way he'd suddenly found himself in broad daylight was making his eyes feel like they'd been set on fire.
"What a lovely day, wouldn't you agree?" Luna asked, staring into the distance.
The only answer were the unicorn's muffled cries of suffering as he laid barely conscious on the grass.
Luna turned around. "Come on, I know the grass is comfortable but we need to go looking for your animal."
A small dog moved closer to Blueblood, licking the unicorn's face. The stallion stared at the animal. "I think I found one. Can we pick this one? He likes me already."
"That dog?" Luna picked the animal up in her magic and brought it closer to her face, examining it. "No," she said, and the dog was unceremoniously launched away.
Blueblood got up. "Why?"
"Why?" Luna said, staring at the unicorn. "Because my student deserves far better than a mere dog. You need a legendary creature, something mysterious and exotic that will put even my sister's phoenix to shame. Like a falip!"
"What is a falip?" Blueblood asked.
"I have no idea," the alicorn replied, "I encountered the name of the species once in a book, with no further explanation given, and never found it elsewhere. Clearly a creature about which so little is known is perfect for you. We shall name him Akran!"
Blueblood looked back at Luna. "Why Akran?" he asked, unsure of whether or not he wanted to know the answer.
"It was the name of a legendary warrior," Luna replied, looking at the horizon.
"A legendary warrior that did what, exactly? Because I have never heard of him. And I don't recall you mentioning him as you went over the history of Equestria."
"Oh, he was likely not from this world. But I'm sure he was a great hero. Why would such verses have been written about him otherwise?" Luna turned back towards Blueblood.
"Verses?" the unicorn asked, confused.
"Indeed. I found them in a small book when I visited Shining Armor and Cadence. It was kept together with a weird metallic-looking disc with a drawing on a side, which I assume was a representation of what he looks like. Now that I think about them, he definitely wasn't of this world, since they mentioned eight suns. But that's not important, what's important is that it's the perfect name for your falip." Luna began to march away.
Blueblood began to follow her. "May I ask why it's the perfect name?"
"Because I have decided that it is," Luna replied without turning back.
"But didn't Princess Twilight get to choose the name of her pet for herself?" the unicorn asked, struggling to keep up with the taller pony's pace.
"And we all saw how that turned out. I will not make the same mistakes my sister made in granting too many liberties to my student." Luna began to walk faster.
Blueblood had to almost run to keep up with her. "Princess, where exactly are we going?"
Luna stopped, the unicorn coming to a halt a few metres ahead of her and almost falling on the ground. "You see those mountains in the distance?" she asked, raising a hoof to point it at the horizon.
Blueblood looked in the direction she was pointing at. "Yes," he said, noticing the mountains Luna had mentioned.
Luna began to walk again.
Blueblood remained frozen in place for a few moments, and once he went back to following the alicorn he had to run in order to catch up to her. "Wait, you mean we're going there? Why?"
"To find your falip, of course."
"But I-But why there? And can't you just teleport us there?" Blueblood found it increasingly hard to speak while having to keep up with the Princess.
"It would be pointless to just go there, Vlad. This is about the journey. We have no idea of where the falip might be, so we need to look for it through all of Equestria, and beyond if necessary." Luna began to walk even faster.
"You mean we have to walk there?" Blueblood asked, rapidly running out of breath.
"Not only do we have to walk there, Vlad, we have to cover as much terrain as possible and carefully search for the creature's hideout. Of course, we have no way of knowing what its hideout looks like, so we'll have to check every possible nest and burrow. We might run into some dangerous animals, but it'll serve as great combat practice for you, and as an occasion to demonstrate more of the ability Tiberius grants me."
Blueblood's tired, sleep deprived, untrained and almost starving body fell to the ground with a thud, its owner having lost all motivation to continue.
"So, while on the road, I think we could test what you've learnt. Go ahead and repeat the entire history of Equestria," Luna said after having walked for roughly a hundred metres from where Blueblood had fallen. After numerous seconds of silence she looked at her side and noticed the unicorn was no longer with her.
Blueblood's body spasmodically thrashed on the ground, unable to fall asleep but too weak to move.
After a few minutes of walking back, Luna finally found her student. "Well, what are you doing here?" she asked.
Blueblood's eye was the only part of his body that moved to acknowledge her presence, the unicorn too weak to even speak.
Luna sighed. "How am I supposed to teach to someone who can't even go a full day without food, sleep and water? We'll never be able to catch up to Twilight if you waste time with such trivial activities like eating or drinking or sleeping."
Blueblood didn't move.
Luna tilted her head to the side. "Are you still there?" she asked.
Again, no movement was visible on Blueblood's body.
Luna began to chew on her lower lip. She gave a small kick to Blueblood's body, and she received no reaction. She began to nervously look around. "You!" she called, addressing the first pony she saw. "Come here!"
The unicorn walked up to her.
"Do you know how to check if a pony is still alive?" she asked.
The unicorn nodded.
Luna pointed a hoof towards Blueblood, lying on the ground.
The unicorn moved closer to check Blueblood's breathing and pulse. "He's alive, Princess."
Luna sighed in relief. "Thankfully, I won't have to blame you for murdering him."
The unicorn looked at her with a puzzled expression, but before he could say anything Luna and Blueblood disappeared in a flash of light.
The cook gave a puzzled expression as the limp body of a white unicorn materialised over his table, Princess Luna standing at his side.
"Feed him," the alicorn simply stated, pointing at the blonde stallion. She then walked out of the room, but stopped once she'd closed the door, noticing a presence in the room.
"Hi Luna," Celestia greeted her sister as she saw her walking out of the kitchen, "I see you are no longer angry at me for leaving you there in that coffin. Thank you for not starting a civil war. I'll have those cakes ready by tomorrow, I promise."
"Yes, yes, of course," Luna said, not paying much attention to the other alicorn but nervously glancing back at the room she'd walked out of.
Celestia cocked her head to a side. "Sister, what were you doing in the kitchen?"
"Nothing!" Luna squeaked, jerkily turning her head to look straight ahead.
"Oh," Celestia said, getting up, "then you won't mind if I take a look inside, right?" She walked up to the door. "Could you move out of the way?"
Luna's instincts took over and her body went rigid, her eyes rolled back, her breathing and heartbeat stopping.
Celestia slapped her. "Luna, please. What are you hiding?"
Luna nervously glanced left and right, then straight into her sister's eyes. In a fit of panic, she teleported inside the room, grabbed the food, Blueblood and the cook, and then teleported away.