Princess Luna chuckled to herself as she landed on the ground, few minutes of flying away from the castle.
“This was easier than I thought it would be.” she reflected on her escape from the castle under the cover of darkness. None of the guards saw her as she flew off.
Granted, Luna doubted she had more than an hour before somepony would have noticed she was gone, but still, a whole hour outside the boring castle!
“This is going to be the greatest day ever! Uh, night!” the alicorn princess corrected herself, but then the night again turned into day. “Oh whatever...”
She looked at the forest surrounding her. Luna knew that the Everfree Forest was dangerous, but she was a princess. She wouldn’t be scared of some nasty old woods.
With that thought in mind, she trotted into between the trees.
“Wow!” Luna sighed, gazing at the entrance to a very dark cave.
It was just like in one of the books her sister read her before going to sleep when she was younger. Luna remembered how there always in such caves, that there were treasures, and...
… and dragons.
Recalling that part of the bedtime stories made the alicorn princess quake in fear, but she quickly got a hold of herself.
“What are the odds of a dragon living so close to the castle?” Luna thought, annoyed by her moment of fear. “Still though, perhaps it’s not such a good idea to go inside...”
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Hearing a voice behind her, all of a sudden and without a warning, caused the Princess to scream and jump into air... only to realize that the one standing behind her was none other than Shadow Bolt.
“What are you doing here?!?” she asked the pegasus, angry that he scared her.
“I saw you leave the castle, and I thought ‘Gee, I bet she’s not supposed to do that’, so I followed you.” the colt replied, his voice dripping with amusement. “I would have caught up with you sooner, but I figured that I shouldn’t let the alarm off as well.”
“Well, that’s just...” Luna started but trailed off as she processed his last words.”... Wait, what alarm?”
“Duh, the alarm spell that sets off whenever somepony leaves or enters the castle through other way than the main gate.”
Luna’s eyes went wide.
“But... that’s just... how do you know about that?!” she asked shocked.
“Hellooo, a royal guard in-training, remember?” Bolt asked, pointing a hoof at himself. “Now come on, let’s go back before anypony realizes it’s you that is missing.”
“No.” Luna said, stomping.
Shadow Bolt, who has turned back, expecting her to follow him, glanced at her, surprised.
“What?”
“I said, ‘no’!” she repeated, this time louder. “I’m sick of that boring castle! I wanted to go for a little walk in the forest, what’s wrong with that?!”
“You mean, aside from the fact that this forest is crawling with dangerous animals?”
“Well then, it’s a good thing I have a royal guard with me, right?” Luna asked, as she walked into the cave. “Or are you...” the Princess added, turning back. “... a chicken?”
She knew that there were few worse insults for a pegasus pony than being compared to a bird, that aside from its name being an Equestria-wide synonym for ‘coward’, who couldn’t fly. Now he would have to go with her. Not that she was especially fond of his company, but it was either that, or he would probably go fetch some other ponies. It was bad enough that they were most likely searching for her right now.
“Just few more minutes.” she promised in her mind. “I will explore this cave, and I will go back to the castle, like a good filly.”
Luna returned her attention to the offended pegasus.
“I am not a chicken!”
“Then you will have no problem walking into this cave, and then escorting me back to the castle.” she told him, lightening up her horn. “I want to do something exciting, before I get back to that boring place, and have to...” Luna would continue to talk for few more moments, but she just then noticed that Shadow Bolt was gazing somewhere above her, his eyes wide as plates.
She turned around... and found herself face to face with a huge dragon.
Luna mind was blank. She continued to stare at the dragon, paralyzed with fear, not even realizing she should probably turn off the light, which was visibly infuriating the dragon even further. The Princess watch as the huge jaw opened, and noticed a flash of light in the depths of its throat, before she felt somepony grabbed her and threw her away.
As Luna felt the wall of the cave collide with her body, she managed to get a hold of herself, and fired a magical beam at where she last saw the dragon’s head.
The problem was that it was no longer there. The dragon lowered its head as it breathed fire where she stood moments earlier, so her attack hit the cave’s ceiling... and send a stalactite down upon the dragon, crushing onto its head entirely.
Luna averted her gaze, not wanting to see the horrific sigh of a dying dragon, and covered her ears to shield them from the loud shriek it ushered, but she soon found something even more terrifying…
…The burnt body of Shadow Bolt.
“Bolt!” Luna screamed as she run to his side.
He gave a weak sound, confirming that he was alive and conscious, which put the Princess a bit on ease, but that momentary feeling of relief vanished as soon as she got a better look at his injuries. While his body bore burn marks everywhere, the worst was his back, which was turned to crisp, and his wings, reduce to some barely recognizable appendages.
Luna stared at the barely living colt in despair, not knowing what to do.
“Somepony, help!” she finally cried.
“What were you thinking!?” Celestia screamed at her.
The royal guards found them quickly - they followed the sound of the dying dragon, which was heard even from the castle, apparently - and brought Luna and, more importantly, Shadow Bolt back. The colt was currently tended to by few of the ponies that were taught medicine by Dr Horn. Luna on the other hoof, was in hers and Celestia’s bedchamber, getting scolded at.
“How could you just leave the castle like that, or trot into a cave with a dragon in it!?” her older sister continued.
Normally, Luna would try to somehow defend herself, or say something along the lines of ‘I’m sorry’, ‘I didn’t mean it’, or ‘I won’t do it again’. I always seemed to work when she set accidentally book on fire on something. This time, however, Luna didn’t bother with any of that. Not only because she knows this was all her fault, but also because Shadow Bolt was so terribly hurt.
So she sat there, on her bed, crying silently as her sister went on with the scolding. After few more minutes Celestia finally noticed Luna wasn’t paying attention at all, and was enough crestfallen as it was.
The younger princess felt her sister wing wrap around her, and she looked up to see Celestia gazing down at her with sympathy instead of anger.
With tears in eyes, Luna hugged her tightly.
“We don’t know if he’ll survive.” those words, spoken by the guard, awakened Luna.
She didn’t know when she had fallen asleep. In fact, Luna couldn’t recall even planning to go to sleep.
“I must have cried myself unconscious.” she thought as she perked her ears to listen better.
“What does thou mean?” she heard Celestia ask. “We know that thou skills aren’t as good as Dr Horn’s, but...”
“I doubt even the Royal Physician could be of much help, Princess.” the guard interrupted her. “We cleaned his wounds, casted few healing spells, appointed healing lotions and bandaged him up, but... his back was burned to the bones, Your Highness. I’m surprised he’s alive as it is. He might still pull off, but it’s unlikely, and even if he lives, he would be unable to move. The amount of damage to his spine...”
“Hush.” Celestia suddenly hissed, and Luna felt her move on the bed to gaze at her. She kept her eyes closed, and after few moments she heard her sister sigh in relief. “For a moment I thought she awoken. We shall continue this discussion outside.”
Luna waited to hear the sound of the doors being closed before she opened her eyes as sat up.
“Bolt is... dying?” she asked herself, before bursting into tears. “This is all my fault! If I haven’t left the castle, he wouldn’t have followed me, and if I wasn’t too scared to move away from the dragon...”
She continued to cry for several moments, before she decided:
“I have to do something about it!”
Luna whipped her eyes of the tears and started to think.
“There must be some way to save him!” she thought as she began to trot around. “I wish Dr Horn was back, he could probably find something in one of his... books...”
The little Princess was about to burst with excitement, but then she realized that if there was something to be found in those books, the other ponies would have already found it.
“Still, though, it’s not like I have a better plan...”
Luna sighed as she concentrated. She imagined the Royal Physician’s office, and how far away it was from her, and focused her magic through her horn, expended it around her whole body, and reached towards her destination.
There was a sudden ‘shish’ noise as Luna casted the teleportation spell. She shook her head, feeling dizzy after teleporting for such a long distance for the first time, and looked around at the books in the office.
At the many books in the office.
“Well, this will take a while...”
Luna growled as threw away another book.
“This is going to take forever!” she said to herself as she sat behind Dr Horn’s desk, annoyed and worried.
If this would take too long, Shadow Bolt would...
She stomped the floor angrily, trying to desperately push that thought away, and only partially succeeding. Luna was about to reach for another book, when she felt her left hoof... sinking? She glanced down and saw that part of the floor on which her hoof was pressed deeper into the ground.
“What the...” she was about to ask when she was startled by a rusty sound behind her.
Luna quickly turned around and saw one of the cabinets move, revealing a small, hidden room behind it.
“Huh?” the alicorn princess stared at the hidden doors. “Why would Dr Horn have a secret room like this? Wait... if nopony knows about this room, then maybe there are some books that they don’t know about, and maybe in one of them there could be something that could save Bolt!”
Having thought of that, Luna jumped up and flew over through the small entrance. There wasn’t much to see inside, just some strange ingredients and barely two books. Wondering if this was actually worth the effort, the Princess picked one and began to skim it over, searching for some healing stuff.
“This is it!”
Luna’s heart began beating faster as she finally found something. There is a recipe for a potion that is supposed to cure every possible wound.
‘But be warned:’ it was written under that: ‘this potion can be only applied to a pony that is on a verge of death. If drunk by any other, it will result in death.’
“How is that supposed to make sense?” she paused to reflect on that, but quickly brushed it off; Shadow Bolt was on the verge of death. “Let’s see the ingredients... perfect, everything is here! Now all I have to do is... wait...” Luna paused again as she noticed the last thing mentioned at the very end.
Her eyes went wide.
“An...” Luna gulped, horrified. “... an unhatched baby dragon?”
‘After mixing everything else, and have casted all the required spell, the potion will need one last thing: the content of the fertilized dragon egg. Just add it to the mix as if you were making an omelette. No further action is required. The substance produced so far will do the rest. The potion would be ready to be drunk by the pony. Warning: depending on the cause of near-death, one of the various side effects might appear.’
“I would have to... kill a... a baby?!” Luna asked herself. “No, I can’t...”
“But this is the only way to save Bolt!” another side of her consciousness interrupted her with a whisper. “Surely, it would be alright, right?”
“No, it wouldn’t!” she argued with herself. “It’s bad enough that I killed that... dragon... I can believe I did that to it...”
“It tried to kill me, and caused Bolt to suffer, he deserved that! And this one wouldn’t be even aware of what is happening... It’s either a life of my fellow pony, and a friend for that matter; or some half-formed lizard, that if it were to would grow up, would be a nuisance at best for ponies.”
Luna realized (albeit reluctantly) that the second voice had more of a point than the first one.
“Shadow Bolt is dying because of me.” she said out loud. “If saving him means I have... to do this... then so it shall be. But... where would I find a dragon egg?”
“If I get caught this time, I will be confided to my room for all eternity.”
That was what Luna thought an hour later, after she finished making the potion - right up to the part when she was supposed to throw in an unhatched baby dragon, that is. The few spells she had to cast was really difficult to pull off, and at some point, she considered to ask her sister for help, but decided against it.
“This is all my fault. I will not burden my sister with an act of taking the life of a baby.”
Despite how hard it seemed, Luna did managed to cast those spells in the end. She was, after all, and alicorn. Even if she was still seven, she had a higher magical potential than a regular unicorn, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch.
This, however, would be.
Luna planned to go back to that cave. She figured that her best bet of finding the dragon egg was laid within a small hope that this dragon she accidentally killed was a female, and had just laid eggs.
It was so unlikely, she wanted to cry.
But even putting aside the fact that she would have to find the egg, the priority was getting away from the castle. Bolt mentioned that the only way to not set off the alarm spell while leaving was to go or fly by the main gate. Luna knew it would be useless to try and teleport - other protection spells, caster by her father, prevented to teleport in or out the castle. It was possible to teleport inside of the castle though, and for Yellow Flash to completely ignore it; although Luna wasn’t sure if it was because he casted that spell, or was it that he was so skilled in the use of the teleportation spell he couldn’t be affected by any magical ward. So somepony like Luna would have to try to go through the main gate, and that would mean passing by few guards, which would be certainly impossible to do in the daylight.
So she decided to do so in the cover of night. But unfortunately, nopony could count on Discord to make the day or night right when the pony needed them most. And because of that, Luna would have to force the night.
The Princess of the Night was about to rise the moon for the very first time.
She took a deep breath. Luna was told many times before to not try to move the moon until she was ten. It was the same age her sister moved the sun for the first time and earned her cutie mark, although by accident. Everypony then assumed that since Luna, born a month or so earlier, was an alicorn and had dark colored coat as well, was destined to move the moon, and was supposed to do so when she reached the same age as Celestia. Not only because it would seem appropriate, but also because moving something as large as the celestial body required a lot of magical energy, even if it happened to be pony's special talent. Luna recalled how her sister mentioned how she was exhausted after the first time she brought about the day. Trying to do essentially the same feat being three years younger than Celestia... didn't seem to be the best idea Luna ever head.
Then again, none of the ideas she had today seemed to be good.
She glanced around for the last time, making sure there was nopony near her hiding place in the gardens near the gate, took another deep breath, and concentrated. Luna focused all her magic in her horn and reached out to the moon. It was... very far away, further than she expected, but she managed to reach it. The small princess then carefully expended the magical energies, from the small touch, to a grasp.
“It's more taxing than I expected.” she realized as she felt a drop of sweat run down her cheek. “And I haven't even begun to move it yet!”
Luna brushed of the sweat and, feeling that she had now the moon within her grasp, she began to move the celestial body. At first, nothing was happening. Despite the energies she was sending, Luna's magic wasn't strong enough to even budge the moon, let alone move it to change the day into night.
“I have to move it!” Luna screeched at herself in her mind. “If I don't, I won't be able to sneak out of the castle, and Bolt will...”
The moment the small alicorn thought about the dying colt, she felt... something...
“Wha... Is it... Yes!” she thought as she realized the moon began to move.
Now knowing how more or less this worked, Luna send through her horn not only magic, but her desire to save her friend and concern for him.
“I'm doing this for my friend... to save his life... for my friend...”
She continued her mantra for few more moments, as the moon, slowly, very slowly even, began to hover over Equestria. As soon as Luna felt it right above her, she opened her eyes – having only now realized that she kept them closed – and was welcomed by the dark of the night.
“Yes! It worked!”
If it was during any other circumstances, Princess would have spared a moment to gloat on accomplish similar feat to her sister being three years younger, but now time was of the essence. Not paying attention to how tired she was, Luna jumped to the air and flew over to the main gate. She flew between two royal guards, both of who were starring at the sky, discussing how odd it was for Discord to change the time of day at this hour, and not paying attention to her. It was past nine pm., and apparently, the insane draconequus slept at this time – which meant the night would stay for few more hours.
Luna beat her wings fast as soon as she was out of earshot of the guards, wanting to get back to the cave as soon as possible. It took less time than she expected, and soon she found herself near the same place Shadow Bolt saved her from the dragon's flame, a feat that he could still pay with his life for.
Princess Luna landed on the ground, and did her best to ignore the sigh of the dead dragon... or the smell it was producing. She spared few moments to take few deep breaths and glanced at the moon she just raised.
It was beautiful. She and her sister tried to look at it and the stars few times – which was never easy with Discord as a neighbor – but it never struck Luna just how beautiful, how magnificent and regal the moon looked. There was something... soothing in its light. Gazing at it now made her feel confident that her poorly planned plan would work.
“Hey, wait a second!” she thought as she averted her gaze from the moon to her flank.
There it was! Her cutie mark! A crescent moon on a dark purple background! Luna was about to start jump up in the air happily, until she remembered why she raised the moon in the first place and what she was doing here.
“I can celebrate later.” she decided as she steeled herself and trotted over to the cave.
The Princess of the Night spared a moment to look at the dead dragon. The stalactite had pierced right through its skull and the end of it was sticking out from its throat. Luna barely stopped herself from vomiting after taking good look at this sigh, which was so horrific that she began to feel sorry for the dragon.
“No!” the thought in her head immediately put an end to this feeling. “It burned Bolt and tried to kill me! It deserved this!”
Luna shook her head and trotted past the corpse, deeper into the cave, lightening her horn as she looked around. It didn't took many steps until the light created by her magic reflect from something. Knowing that dragons had usually kept jewels in their caves, Luna wasn't surprised when she saw mountains of them. She made a mental note to return some other time her and take a better look at them. Right now she was searching for...
“An egg!” the small alicorn exclaimed as she run up to it.
Luna couldn't believe her luck – although, considering how little of it she had today, it seemed fair – as she regarded it. The egg was a bit smaller than a dragon egg should be. Luna could easily pick it up with her hooves.
“Maybe this dragon was sick or something?” she thought as she continued to gaze at it. Luna began to doubt in what she was planning to do. “Can I really do this? This is a living being I'm holding; a small, unhatched, defenseless baby dragon. Can I really... kill it? Isn't it bad enough I killed its mother?”
“She tried to kill me. And Bolt could still die. It only fair that this egg should pay for its parent crime.”
“But it was my fault to begin with.”
“It would die anyway, without its mother to take care of it when it hatches.”
Luna sighed. She had come this far with this plan – if it meant saving Shadow, she would do this.
Getting back to the castle was surprisingly easy, even with this egg. As soon as Luna was within its borders, she teleported back to Dr Horn's office. It was still empty, for which she was thankful. The small alicorn spared a moment to worry for the Royal Physician and her father, but quickly stopped, knowing there wasn't anypony that could possess much of a threat to him. She focused on the potion instead.
Luna crept closer with the dragon egg to the cauldron she prepared earlier. Now that she was about to actually do it – actually killing an innocent baby dragon – she found herself lacking the resolve to go through with it again.
“This is for the best.” she told herself as she closed her eyes and took few deep breaths. “This dragon has no future anyway, but Bolt can.”
When Princess opened her eyes, there was no longer doubt in them. She lifted the egg with her magic over the cauldron, and… cracked it open.
Despite all that she told herself, how she was sure that this was right thing to do. Princess Luna still immediately averted her gaze the other way, so she wouldn't see it. She would not see what would haunt her forever anyway. As she heard the... contents of the egg drop into the cauldron, she covered it with a lid. Luna glanced at it, while strange hissing noises began to build up inside of it. For a moment, she could swear she heard... a cry.
Luna vomited in the middle of the room.
The chambers in which the bandaged form of Shadow Bolt laid were empty, which suited Luna just fine. She panted slightly as she appeared next to him; between all that she did today, she was dead tired.
“I will rest in a moment.” she promised herself as she noticed that the doors were slightly opened. “Makes sense that they would keep an eye on him.”
She moved closer to the pegasus. Even she, a foal, could tell that he was close to death – his shallow, weak breaths made that clear. Knowing that the time was of the essence, she lifted the bottle to which she poured the potion up to his mouth. Luna carefully tilted back his head a little and, praying this would work, let the black liquid drop into Bolt's throat.
Princess knew it had some effect as soon as she poured the entire bottle. Shadow began to shake violently, and there was some dim light emanating from him. Luna backed away, not knowing if this was supposed to happen.
“What is going on in here?!?” A voice boomed behind her suddenly.
Startled, the alicorn princess quickly turned around and saw Dr Horn standing in the doorway. She found herself at the loss of words as the unicorn passed her and tried to hold down Shadow Bolt.
“What did you do?!?” he asked. “What was in this bottle?!?”
Luna was about to answer this question – although she wasn't sure how exactly – when as sudden as he began, the pegasus colt stopped shaking.
“What... what happened?” Luna heard him ask.
“Did... did it work?” she asked, wondering if the shocked expression on the Royal Physician's face was a good sign, as she moved closer to him and the colt she tried to save.
What she saw almost made her back away.
Shadow Bolt was sitting and removing his bandages. That wasn't, however, what made her react that way. In fact, that was a good thing. No, it was what he looked like under those bandages that caused that. His skin and coat grew back, and had a darker shine to them than she recalled. His wings not only did not regain their feathers, but... changed completely, resembling bat's more than pegasus', or...
... or dragon's.
“'... some of the various side effects might appear'.” Luna recalled as she looked at somewhat different pony that she remembered.
Shadow Bolt brushed his shadowy mane and gazed at the two other ponies. Luna almost cringed at the sight of the yellow eyes with iris like a cat's. She calmed herself and spoke:
“Bolt? How... do you feel?”
The pegasus tilted his head and after a moment replied:
“Fine, I guess? What happened? The last thing I remember is that... dragon...”
“He's fine!” Luna thought as she felt tears begin to form in her eyes. “He's fine, he's fine, he's fine, he's fine!”
She briefly noticed Shadow Bolt's confused glance... before she realized that Dr Horn was practically piercing her with his gaze.
“I want to talk with you in private, Princess.” he hissed.
“What in Tartarus were you thinking?!”
Luna cringed as the Royal Physician screamed at her inside his office. The doctor spared few minutes to examine the formerly dying pegasus, and confirm that he was indeed fine, before he discharged him and then he almost shoved Luna back to his office.
“Do you have the slightest idea of how much what you have done goes against the very nature of this world?!? Putting aside the law of Equestria, of course!”
“I know it was a...” Luna paused as she searched for the right term. “... a bad thing to do, but...”
“'A bad thing to do'?!?,” Dr Horn interrupted her. “You took the life on an innocent!”
“... but Bolt was dying; Because of me!”
Hearing that, and seeing the tears in her eyes, finally calmed the unicorn down. He panted as he shifted his gaze from Luna to the cauldron that she used to prepare the potion that saved Shadow's life.
“Is... Is Bolt going to be alright?” the alicorn princess asked him, still concerned for her friend.
Dr Horn sighed as looked back at her. It hit Luna then just how... old he was; Old and tired.
“Yes, yes he will.” he said in a surprisingly gentle tone. “He will look like the lovechild of pony and dragon for the rest of his days, but other than that, I suspect he will feel better than ever.” suddenly growing more serious, doctor moved closer to her. “Now listen to me, Princess. Never, ever mention to anypony what you did; I will tell everypony you just used some rare plant or something for this. Secondly, never go and do something like this ever again. Got it?!?”
Luna immediately nodded, but in case of the second part, she was lying. She knew that what she did was right to do, and she knew that if she ever found herself in such situation, she would always chose to follow what her heart told her was right to do.