She wanted to scream for help. But she had barely any energy left. She's been doing exactly that for three days now but to no avail. She was hungry, thirsty and so tired. There was more than one time when she felt like just giving up, lying down and dying.
How did things go so terrible? The Royal Wedding was supposed to be the greatest event of the whole year. Instead, Canterlot was invaded by a bunch of insectoid pony creatures, wreaking havoc and destruction on the entire city, foalnapping ponies and knocking down buildings.
This was how she ended up in this mess. All she wanted was a nice cup of hot chocolate, but then the invaders attacked. She didn't dare to leave the shop she was at and hid behind the counter. Unfortunately for her, the shop was brought down to ruins in the ensuing battle between the invaders and the superheroes of Equestria. She was grateful that they have once again saved the day of course, but she really wished they could try to not make such big messes while fighting crime.
She was beginning to lose hope. Her throat hurt from all the useless screaming and her whole body ached from all the rubble she's been trapped under. Nopony would find her in time before she succumbed to her wounds or died from hunger or thirst. Just when she was finally ready to accept her fate, she heard the rubble above her being moved.
"Where are you, ma'am?" A stallion asked from above. Despite her exhaustion, she manged to reply.
"I'm... I'm here... Please... Help me..." She stuttered weakly. She was sure the rescuers wouldn't hear it, but despite her almost inaudible voice, she started hearing more of the rubble being removed from above her in rapid succession as they began digging closer to her. Eventually, she felt the rubble crushing her chest being lifted off of her, giving her the chance to finally take a huge breath that was enough to fill her lungs with sufficient oxygen, before her eyes fell on her saviour, a dark brown earth pony firefighter.
"I found her! Come here!" He called out to his colleagues. Immediately, two pegasi flew over to their location and slowly and safely placed the injured mare on a stretcher. The earth pony saw that the mare was about to open her mouth, probably in expression of gratitude but he merely pushed his hoof against her lips. "Don't. Save your energy, miss." He said before the pegasi carried her off.
"Thank the princesses you were here." One of the firefighters told the stallion. "I still don't know how you managed to locate her under all that rubble but we never would have found her in time without you." The earth pony merely nodded in appreciation.
As the firefighters began to organise the removal of the ruins, the earth pony who located the distressed mare slipped away from the group without anypony noticing. He snuck into an alleyway before looking around to see if anypony was around. When he was certain there weren't, his eyes lit up with red light as his body began to change shape.
The firefighter uniform, the dark brown coat and the black mane began to blur away into nothingness and they were soon replaced by white, rocky skin and a long blue cape. Instead of the earth pony firefighter, there was now Jean Jeans, aka, the Lunar Hunter standing in the alleyway. Yes, a mere firefighter would never have found the poor mare in time. But with his telepathic abilities, it was mere foal's play to him.
"No matter how many times I see it, it never gets any less stunning." Jean turned to see none other than Twilight Sparkle standing at the other end of the alley, observing his transformation in awe.
"Impressive." The lunar commented. "Nopony has ever managed to sneak up on me before." Twilight just smirked and shrugged in response.
"Jean, you're talking to a master of stealth." She replied, waving a hoof dismissively. "No offense but I had more difficulty tracking down Killer Croc in the Manehattan sewers."
"None taken." Jean assured her. "I suppose I shouldn't expect anything less from the Batmare. Anyway, can I help you with something?"
"I was guiding the Royal Guard through the street. They're in the middle of their own rescue operations and I noticed you slipping away from the firefighters." Jean raised an eyebrow. Or rather, a bony growth he had in the place of his eyebrows on his hairless body.
"You noticed me? Even in my transformed state?" Twilight nodded.
"I'm also a master observer, Jean. Comes with being the world's greatest detective as they are so fond of calling me. And I know you from our shared work sessions during the wedding preparations. It's easy when you know the telltale signs. So what are you doing out here?"
"While the Changeling invasion may have been repelled, there is still much work to be done in Canterlot." Jean replied. "And as Princess Luna's aide, it is my duty to help anywhere I can." Twilight was still rather confused.
"Don't you think you would be of more help with your powers? Many of my new friends have been doing that."
"While it is true that my lunar physiology gifts me with several abilities ponies lack, I prefer to avoid using them whenever possible." The Lunar explained. Twilight's questioning expression softened into a sympathetic frown.
"Is it your appearance?" She asked, not able to come to any other conclusion. "Are you afraid you will make them afraid? I suppose that's a reasonable concern, especially after the Changeling attack. But I'm sure they would quickly come around once they see your benevolence. Just like I have."
"I am not afraid to show my true self in public." Jean told her. "Even though I have never done that. It is just I don't want ponykind to become over reliant on my powers. And neither should my fellow heroes." Twilight finally understood.
"Supermare actually raised a similar concern." She replied. "But she finds it difficult to restrain herself. She believes ponies of power are responsible for using it to the benefit of the others. And set a good example to the rest of ponykind. And the others seem to agree."
"A noble notion." Jean nodded. "But good intentions can carry negative effects we wouldn't expect. If we're going to solve all of ponykind's problems, how will they ever learn to solve it for themselves?"
"Well, I cannot voice my opinion on that given my lack of powers." Twilight shrugged. "Perhaps you should discuss it with them yourself." The alien gave the mare a soft glare. "Don't worry, I haven't revealed your existence to them yet." Twilight said, throwing her hooves up defensively. "I know you requested that I keep it a secret and I will respect it. But I really think you should."
Jean cast his gaze down. When Twilight theorised that he was afraid to reveal himself to others, she wasn't completely off the mark. But like he said, it wasn't the ponies' reaction to his appearance that he feared. There was an internal struggle in him that he had to settle first.
"I don't think I'm quite ready for that, my friend. But I would be grateful if you carried my message to them. Their strong dedication to help the ones in need is admirable. I believe in guiding ponies and non-ponies alike to help themselves and each other." Before Twilight could reply, the Lunar's eyes widened as his telepathic senses picked up another situation. Only this time, it wasn't somepony who needed help. On the contrary, it was somepony who needed to be stopped.
"Did you say you were guiding the Royal Guard in the area?" Twilight nodded. "Then please gather a few of them and guide them to the other side of this alleyway." The purple mare didn't even ask questions and took off. Once she left, Jean closed his eyes and morphed his body into the shape of another royal guard himself before running out of the alley.
Once on the street, he immediately saw what he was looking for. A pair of earth pony stallions looting a ruined furniture store building. Jean glared. Vultures. Taking advantage of the chaos caused by the invasion to take other ponies' property. He was disgusted but he knew how to keep his emotions in check.
"Hold it right there!" The two stallions immediately dropped the comfortable looking sofa they were holding and turned to look at the disguised alien. They began to run but they couldn't have expected that their pursuer wouldn't chase them by conventional means.
Jean saw a piece of debris in the way the looters were running and used his telekinetic powers to levitate it into their path, tripping them both before running up to them and swiftly subduing the pair. Fortunately, he had the foresight to turn into a unicorn guard so the telekinetic trick wouldn't attract any attention even if there were witnesses.
"There they are!" Jean looked up to see Twilight approaching him with three guards who quickly took the two looters into custody. The disguised alien exchanged one last appreciative look with Twilight before departing.
'Do you see, Miss Sparkle? Ponies can do it themselves. If they are given proper guidance.' He thought as he made his way back towards the castle. On his way back, he kept watching the ponies working on the streets. Some of them were removing debris, others were already busy rebuilding the damaged infrastructure. The Royal Guard kept patrolling the streets to maintain order and the medical ponies were tending to the wounded.
While Jean's expression rarely showed any emotion, this sight put a small smile on his face. There was not one of those groups he didn't work with in the previous days. One day he helped the doctors by detecting the injuries inside ponies' bodies to help decide the proper treatment, the next day he aided the construction workers with some heavy lifting and fixing their damaged equipment, but the work he was most pleased with was aiding the rescuers to help locate and rescue trapped civilians in places where they wouldn't have found them in time, just like he did with that injured mare before.
Not all heroes needed powers. And while he had more than all of the seven warriors who fought off the Changelings combined, he preferred to only use them as an absolute last resort. He has always been a pacifist, which was why he didn't aid them during the fight. But the fact that he brought them together in the first place made him an undeniable part of their victory. Once the fighting was over and he was certain the team would be effective, he promised Twilight, the team's newly appointed leader that he would aid them in their future struggles and he had every intention of keeping that promise.
But when it came to the everyday struggles of ponykind, he was a firm believer that they should be able to handle things themselves. He hoped Twilight would be able to convince the rest of her colleagues to reduce the number of their heroics to the minimum necessary level. He didn't want ponies to become too complacent and forget how to handle their own problems. He saw the results of that firsthoof.
Princess Luna was not having a good week to put it mildly. Ever since the Changeling invasion put her sister and captain Shining Armor out of commission, she had to take on every single task in Canterlot. And most of those tasks of course were related to the rebuilding of the city and tending to the wounded civilians. And combining that with her duties in the dream realm, especially with how the amount of nightmares have skyrocketed since the attack, meant that she was very, very busy.
She was currently sitting in her sister's study, looking over more of the damage reports and signing documents, granting parts of the city their requested costs of the rebuilds from the royal treasury. Which were surprisingly much lower than she expected. No doubt that had something to do with the superheroes who fought off the Changelings sticking around to help.
She still remembered when her aide, Jean Jeans, her old friend from the moon approached her with the odd request to invite them to the wedding. He quickly detected that Cadance had been replaced by an impostor and caught wind of the imminent Changeling invasion as well, but he also knew that the Royal Guard and perhaps even the princesses would not be able to stand against their full might. No. They needed an alliance of the most powerful superpowered ponies in the land and his gamble paid off richly. Luna hated to admit it, but they would be lost without them.
She was snapped out of her thoughts by somepony knocking on her door. "Enter!" She called out and the door opened to reveal her trusty aide, Jean Jeans in his usual daytime appearance.
"Good day, you're highness." He greeted formally, but Luna merely waved him off.
"My friend, there's no need for that." She smiled warmly. "We have known each other for a time inconceivable to mere ponies. I think it is safe to say we have reached first name basis."
"Sorry." Jean apologised. "It's getting hard to separate my roles as your friend from the moon and your royal assistant." He then noticed the documents on Luna's desk. "More reports?" The princess nodded.
"And repair fund requests. It still angers me how many ponies tried to embezzle us by requesting far more money than they actually needed. But thanks to your advanced telepathic skills, we managed to see through them." Her compliment was genuine, but it still made Jean frown.
"I'm always happy to help, but you know how I feel about you relying on me too much. Your magic is perfectly capable of doing that too."
"True, but your telepathic skills are natural and thus far more efficient. Besides, I don't like violating my subjects' minds even if they hold nefarious thoughts." Luna went back to the documents and signed another one before placing it to the pile she already filled and moved on to the next one. A very sad frown grew on her face as she read, which troubled Jean so much that he went to see what it was. He wished he didn't. It was a death report.
"Another soul lost to senseless violence." Jean spoke with immense sadness, which Luna shared.
"Fortunately, there were very few fatalities during the invasion and even those were mostly accidental from the likes of falling debris and explosions." The princess said as she began to write a condolence letter to the poor pony's family.
"The Changelings themselves haven't actually killed anypony then." Jean noted, causing Luna to frown in disgust.
"Why would they have? They needed them alive to drain them of their love! Disgusting parasites!" She snarled. Of course, Jean also wasn't pleased with the actions of the Changelings, but Luna's anger surprised him. She was usually calm and collected, but then he remembered what they did to Luna's sister, niece and would be nephew-in-law.
"How are Celestia, Cadance and Shining Armor?" He asked. Luna's anger turned to sorrow as she thought of their condition.
"Tia and the Captain are still recovering from being taken captive by the creatures, but Cadance by far had it the worse. She is still comatose from being trapped inside that pod for so long. Not to mention being so malnourished and the exhausting mental draining they put her through. It seems like the Changelings were particularly interested in her, though given that she is the very embodiment of the thing the Changelings seek to obtain from their prey, that's hardly surprising. The physicians are unsure when she will wake up. Or if she will." She explained gravely. Jean put a hoof on her shoulder in support.
"I'm sure she will. Princess Cadance is a strong young mare, full of life. Not to mention she's an alicorn. From what I have gathered, they don't go down easily." Luna looked up at her friend, but her glum expression didn't change.
"Is clairvoyance also among your unending list of superpowers?" She asked rhetorically, but Jean answered anyway.
"I'm afraid that is one skill I do not possess. But I know my friends and I have strong faith in them." He maintained his smile and he was finally able to lift the Princess' spirit a little.
"I don't know what I would do without you." She said in gratitude, but her words caused the lunar's smile to fall.
"I know and that worries me deeply." Luna shook her head.
"No, not your powers. Your friendship. My sister always said friendship is magic but I never quite shared that sentiment. Only now I see how right she was. If only there were more of your kind on the moon during my banishment, perhaps your combined good influence may have completely purified me before my release." She joked, but she failed to improve the mood of her friend. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories."
"It's alright." Jean replied. "The extinction was a spontaneous process. By the time we first made contact, I wasn't sure if there were any other survivors." He then walked to the study room's window and somberly stared out on it. "I was all alone. Roaming the endless barren lands of the moon for what seemed like an eternity. I thought it would drive me insane." Luna nodded.
"I felt the same." She said before joining her friend at the window. "Being sealed inside the moon with only that damnable Nightmare demon to keep me company. Fueling my desire for power and vengeance. Listening to that for almost a millennium made me nearly completely give in to its influence and allow it to fully consume me. When we first made contact I felt like I had a true companion again." She then turned to him with a soft smile." You saved me from the clutches of my monster. You have my eternal gratitude for that."
"As you have mine, my friend. You have saved me from the maddening loneliness. Though an unimaginable tragedy had befallen us both, it brought us together and I am grateful for that."
"You know, you never really told me about your species before." Luna said curiously. "What was it like. An entire civilisation on my moon without me knowing about it sounds so fascinating!"
"I'm afraid I've not much to tell." Jean shrugged. "Compared to the standards of my species, I'm still extremely young. Our average lifespan is measured over a hundred thousand pony years. The Extinction began way before my time, I don't even remember my family." This revelation shocked Luna. She didn't know how she could ever live without Celestia by her side.
"That is horrible!" She gasped. "To not know one's own family... I can't even imagine how that would be like."
"You are the first real family I ever knew." Jean replied, turning to her with a smile. "And I hope I will be able to form a similar bond with Equestria’s defenders during our future endeavours. Come what may, Equus is my home now, but..." His expression suddenly turned into a frown and he redirected his gaze at the sky. "But is it strange that I long for a world that I've never known?" It was Luna's turn to put a supportive hoof on her friend's shoulder.
"You wish to know your roots. Where you came from. That is perfectly natural." Jean wasn't entirely convinced though.
"I have spoken with Twilight Sparkle earlier today." He said. Luna's eyes narrowed upon the mention of the broken horned unicorn's name.
"The Batmare." She said with barely contained disdain, much to Jean's confusion.
"Given your fascination with the rest of Equestria’s heroes, why such hostility towards her?"
"She keeps sticking her nose in my state affairs." Luna replied. "She thinks she conceals her investigations well, but few remain hidden from the eyes of the Princess of the Night."
"Anyway, she speculated that my reluctance to aid ponies with my powers publicly is based on my fear they would reject me due to my appearance." Luna was about to reassure her friend about the absurdity of that suggestion, but he wasn't done talking. "She was half right. I am afraid, but not of ponykind's rejection. I'm afraid that I don't fit into this world."
Luna was flabbergasted. She had no idea Jean felt that way. The lunar stallion looked down at the city through the window and watched the crowds of ponies going around their duties in the rebuilding city.
"I wonder if Supermare ever feels like this. Do I really belong among these ponies?"
"You do." Luna told him firmly without the slightest hint of doubt. "You're as much of my little ponies as anypony else. You fit in with me Jean and to me, that is enough." Jean looked up at her, not sure how to reply. He still had his doubts, but Luna's reassurance did feel good. Though before he could say anything, another series of knocks interrupted them.
"Enter!" Luna called out and the door was opened by a guard.
"Excuse me, your highness, but a new prisoner transport is arriving at Belle Reeve in half an hour." Luna sighed.
"That is one resource we're never going to run out of. Criminals. Thank you for informing me. I'm on my way." She was about to leave the room but when she reached the door, she turned back to Jean.
"And as for you, please take the rest of the day off. You must be exhausted after all of your... helping today."
Jean nodded. Though exhausted wasn't really the right word. Troubled was more fitting and he could have used some rest to clear his mind. He quickly gathered Luna's documents and put them in order before leaving for his room.
But when he was about to close the door, he got the feeling that somepony was watching him. He looked around but couldn't see anypony around and he couldn't even detect an observer with his telepathic abilities.
Finally convincing himself that his feeling was wrong, he left and locked the door. But had he extended his telepathic search to the outskirts of the castle, he would have noticed an invisible presence on the streets below the castle that looked up at the exact same window he's been staring out on with a pointed stare. A pointed stare with slightly blazing red eyes.