Luna phased in and out of consciousness, never remaining awake for more than a moment. In one such moment she registered that she was in a small bed. So somepony had found her and taken her from the field, but where was she now? Before she could figure that out darkness took her again. Awake again, she could hear ponies scurrying about fussing over her. She felt something be being pulled tightly around the joint of her wing, a bandage? Another tug confirmed that it was indeed a bandage, so these were medical ponies. Darkness once again took her.
She with each round of consciousness she found, much to her growing frustration, that she was too weak to open her eyes and that she could only catch small snippets of conversation around her.
"She's is stable condition now, I'm going to go check on the other patient" came a female voice.
Darkness.
"Is she awake yet?" Celestias worried voice asked, she sounded as if she had been crying.
"I am afraid not your Highness"
Darkness.
"The townsponies are starting to suspect that something is wrong, it is still pitch black out there"
Darkness.
"They're crowding the gates. Princess you should make a statement, quell their fears"
"I will not leave her side!" The sun princess snapped.
Darkness.
"Celestia this is foalishness! You are the eldest, your magic is far more advanced, and you must lower the moon in her stead!" Starswirl the Bearded ordered the sun god.
"The moon is for Luna to control and no Pony else, I have no power over it" Celestia said with an air of defeat in her voice.
Darkness.
"Lulu, Lulu please wake up" Celestia pleaded.
Luna could feel her sisters hoof running through her mane.
"I need you Lulu"
Darkness.
Luna could hear her sisters gentle weeping. Her ear moved slowly to find where she was. Was she near the door? She must be for the sound was slowly getting fainter. She was leaving the room. She could sense an air of desperation and knew that she had to get up.
She opened her eyes halfway and the torch lit medical room met her eyes. The walls were plain and barren, but she had no time to focus on walls! She needed to find strength to move, move something! Try as she might she could not move a muscle.
With her sister’s hoofsteps growing ever quieter, Luna did the only thing she could think of. Her eyes fell on a vase and she focused hard to wrap it in her magic and fling it against the wall. The vase hit its mark, shattering with a loud clash.
Ponies were rushing to her side, Tia was among them. Good.
Luna winced as she shifted her uninjured leg under herself and pushed up so that she was sitting. A burning pain scorched through her left shoulder.
“Lulu!” Celestia exclaimed as she hurried to her sister’s side and tried to gently push her back onto the bed “You’ll strain your injuries! Lay back down!”
The moon princess battered her hoof away “No! My ponies need me!” she pleaded as she struggled out of the bed.
The gathered ponies cleared a space for her as she stood shakily of three legs. She winced as she began to hobble towards the window “I need to see it, my moon”
She was about to collapse, when Tia rushed to her side to stabilize her “We’ll do this together dear sister.”
They pushed open the window and leaned out. Below in the city they could hear the sounds of panicking ponies. With horns crossed they cast their spells that would move the great orbs in the sky. The moon was almost pushed from the sky as the sun rushed up to its rightful place. Cheers rose from the city as the balance was restored.
“How wondrous is it that on the one night they come out to see my sky, they panic and cheer when it replaced by your sky” Luna muttered with venom in her voice.
“What was that Luna?” the older mare asked.
“Nothing Tia, tis nothing” replied the younger as they sat down. She leaned against her sister and allowed herself a moment’s peace, but that was quickly shattered as a certain stallion came to mind. “Falling Star”
“What was that Lulu?”
Luna forced herself to her hooves “Falling Star, where is he? He was with me in the field, he” Luna fell silent when she saw that her sister would not meet her gaze “Tia? Tia what happened to him?” when she was met with silence she began to panic “Tia he saved my life! Where is he!?”
Celestia stood slowly and wrapped her wings around her little sister to try and keep her calm “Luna, he kept the mad ponies attention and kept his blade away from you, but he was just a Pegasus and he couldn’t keep going. The pair fought for quite some time and his wounds were terrible.”
“No! Oh Tia please don’t tell that he-“
“He hasn’t woken up yet” Celestia finished with a small smile “your friend is tough as a manticore, he’ll make it”
“Can I see him?” Luna asked quietly.
Without replying Celestia moved to her sister’s side to help support her weight and the two shuffled out of the room.
~ ~ ~
Luna’s eyes widened and her wings fell limp at her side as she gazed upon the beaten form of her dearest friend. Tears welled up in her eyes and threated to fall but she managed to will them away. She was the moon princess, the guardian of the night, she could not show weakness in open view of the ponies she ruled over.
She watched as the few medical ponies in the room stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the princess.
They bowed a moment before the pony in charge, a pale yellow earth pony stallion with a chestnut mane and a bundle of herbs for a cutie mark, turned to Luna “You shouldn’t be up and about yet princess, your wound was quite sever and I fear you may have hit your head” he advised.
The princess paid him no mind “How is his condition?” she asked.
“What?”
“The Stallion who saved my life, how is his condition?” she asked again, sounding more demanding.
The pony clued in and cleared his throat “The good knight is in stable condition. He hasn’t woken up yet, though from the severity of his wounds and the amount of blood he lost that isn’t all that surprising” he said in a low even tone “his wings are of current concern to us, mainly the right one. Deep gashes, broken bones, many feathers were ripped out and as for the left one it had been pulled from the socket and will not be usable for quite some time.”
As the stallion went on the urge to scream and cry grew ever stronger. “Leave us” she commanded, cutting off the medical pony as he went on about broken ribs.
He blinked “What was that Princess?”
“I said, leave us!” this time her command was punctuated with a small burst of magic causing lightning to flash outside and a loud stomp of her hoof.
The medical ponies, thoroughly startled, if not a little frightened, rushed from the room.
“Do you not think that that was a bit much Luna?” Celestia scolded as she looked down at her younger sister.
Luna ignored her scolding’s “You as well dear Sister, Leave us” she whimpered hoarsely.
The sun god’s eyes narrowed “What? Did you just order me to leave, little sister? You have no right to order me to do anything! I should be dragging you back to your bed and ordering YOU to stay there and rest!” anger flashed through her voice.
Luna turned and gazed into Celestias eye’s as tears slowly began to trickle down her cheeks “Tia, please. Leave us a moment” she pleaded.
Celestias anger melted away at the sight of her sister’s tears. Her dearest little sister who since her coronation had done her best to seem so strong, so stoic, so like their father, was breaking down. The white mare bowed her head and backed out of the room. Luna wanted to remain strong in her eyes, and Celestia would grant her that wish.
The door closed with a small push and Luna and Falling Star were alone.
Slowly and with quivering hooves, Luna approached the bed and gave her friend and saviour a closer look.
His sides barely moved with each breath he took, pressing against the bandages that covers his chest and sides. His right wing was bandaged up as well and bound tightly to his side while the other was held in a sling. A sheet was draped over his flank and hind legs to keep him warm so Luna examined his forelegs. The leg that his blade was grafted to was also wound in bandages while the other leg was bruised but otherwise fine. Bandages covered the left side of his face and Luna dreaded what sort of damage could lie beneath them. A few stray strands of his pitch black mane hung loosely over his closed eye and with a gentle hoof she brushed it aside.
Without thinking Luna buried her face in her friends mane and sobbed “Why!? Why did you have to do that!? Why couldn’t you have run! You could have been killed!?” she cried as her tears soaked his mane. She took a few deeps breaths “What would I do if you were taken from me, Star? You’re the only friend I’ve ever had! If I lost you then, I’d lose myself to!” she dissolved once again into quiet sobs.
Luna flinched as a wing weakly draped over her shoulders. Her head snapped up and she gasped to see her friend smiling at her, his uncovered eye half open.
“Hey there, Daydream.” His eye scanned over her “You look horrible” he said as he moved his wing slowly and wiped the tears from her face.
“Star” she said quietly “You’re-”
“I’m alright Luna, what about you? Did that mad pony hurt you anymore?” he cut in softly.
Luna sat back on the floor and rubbed her shoulder with her hoof “No, you kept him distracted long enough for the guards to get a head start”
The stallion nodded his approval “That’s good to hear. I’m glad you’re safe, but still, I acted too late, you are injured. Please forgive me”
She shook her head “There is nothing to forgive, you saved my life, Star” she replied as she laid down on the stone floor. It was cold, and rather undignified, but she didn’t care.
They lay there in silence for what seemed like ages. No more words needed to be shared, both knew the others thoughts, relief and joy that the other was alive. It was so peaceful, lying in the quite room with not but the sound of the ponies in the city drifting into the room, carried on the wind.
But it was not to last.
The sound of several hoofsteps grew rapidly loudly, and with them, the rage filled voice of the archmage Starswirld the Bearded “Why did not a soul think it wise to tell me that she had awoken!?” he bellowed.
“Sir, we thought it need not to be said, what with the moon lowering and the sun rising”
“Of course it need be said! I assumed that some foalhardy Princess had listened to me and taken matters into her own hooves!” the bearded pony snapped.
“Starswirl, please! Leave them be!” Celestia pleaded “The knight may not even be awake yet! Allow him to rest, I beg of you! He has earned that much!”
“A knight!? What sort of knight leaps to the defence of his ruler only after she has be struck down!? No, not a knight, mark my words Celestia if I have my way he will not be a knight by days end!”
Luna stumbled to her feet just as the door burst open and Starswirl stormed into the room.
“Princess Luna! What in your father’s name do you think you are doing out of bed!?”
Luna shrank back “I only wanted to visit the Stallion who saved me!” Luna said as she stood taller. She had to stand her ground.
“Save you? Save you!? Young princess I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing happened because of that useless Stallion you allow to tag along behind you!” The mage raged.
At this Falling Star lifted his head “Archmage, if I may. I regret that I was unable to defend her from the first strike, but this was because-“
“I was on my own” Luna butted in. She would not allow her friend to be punished for this “I was stressed and upset so I flew off on my own. When that pony attacked I thought that I was done for, I am not learned in the arts of offensive, nor defensive magics” she shot a glare to her tutor, laying the blame for this fact on him “that ‘Useless Stallion’ as you so called him, came to find me” There was a flash beyond Luna’s eyes as her anger grew “He put himself in harms way to save Us and nearly DIED doing so, and you would do well to remember that lest you incur Our wrath!” she spat. All through this she had been moving ever closer to the mage and was now almost nose to nose with him.
“Luna that is enough!” Celestia snapped.
The moon princess blinked as if she had just woken up and slowly back up “Forgive me dear sister”
Celestia nodded softly “Now, let’s calm down everypony and take a moment to clear our heads” Celestias words washed over them all like a calming blanket.
“May I speak, Princess?” Falling Star’s voice seemed loud in the sudden silence.
“You may” she replied.
“I would like to request a transfer of guard.” He said calmly.
Celestia moved closer and tilted her head “A transfer? But you requested to be a night guard”
“Situations have changed, Princess” the knight began “I wish to be transfers from the night guard, and in fact all guard duties”
Luna looked to her friend, her eyes filling with despair. He wished to leave her?
Celestia stood taller “All guard duties? Then pray tell Falling Star, where is it that you wish to be transferred?” she asked with a small smile, her mind already working out his reply.
“I wish to be the personal guard of Princess Luna, if you would allow me”
Luna made to speak but the sun princess rose a hoof to silence her “And why should I allow this?”
The grey stallion winced as he shifted on the bed and moved the blanket to show his cutie mark. It had appeared when he had passed the entrance exam to the knights academy. A blue shield with two crossed swords behind it. The centre of the shield had been blank. Had been was indeed the word to use as the centre of the shield now depicted a crescent moon.
Starswirls eyes were wide “It changed” the mage was stunned “In all my long years I have never seen such a thing happen”
Falling Star nodded “cutie marks show all of Equestria our special talents, they also in their own cryptic way depict our destinies. Destinies change Princess.” His eye narrowed with the determination of his next words “and my destiny has changed. The fates no long say that I should defend any old mare or colt. It is my destiny to protect the life and honour of the moon! So please, Princess. Allow me to follow my destiny”
There was a long silence before Celestia replied “Do you vow to defend her with your life and honour?” she asked “do you vow to stand by her side, no matter the cost to your life, or the fate of the land?”
“I vow to defend the Moon Princess Luna with my Life and my honour. No matter the fate of the land, or if my duties should cost me my life, this is my vow”
Luna stared at her friend in awe as her sister swore him in as her shield. The thought scared her a little, he could die because of her carelessness, but that didn’t seem to faze him at all. In a matter of moments he went from the colt she had played with as a filly, to the stallion that would defend her in her marehood.
Silence fell heavily on Luna’s ears. She could see lips moving but she could hear no words.
“He will be Our guardian?” the voice in the mist echoed around her “Good strong stallion. Let us see just how well he can keep Us rooted in the light of the sun”
Sound rushed in on her again, causing the young princess to sway. What did she mean rooted in the sun?
Celestia moved next to her sister “Come Little Sister.” She said softly “Lets get you back to bed so that you can rest up.”
Luna looked up at her sister with a dumbfounded gaze. She suddenly felt very sleepy. She leaned against Celestia and waved lazily at Falling Star with her wing as she was ushered out of the room
~ ~ ~
It didn’t take long to reach Luna’s bedroom “You seem well enough to stay in your own bed now” she said as she helped the moon princess into bed “get some sleep, Lulu”
“Sleep sounds good, Tia” Luna replied as she slowly drifted off.
The sun princess smiled “You can sleep all you want, I’ll come to wake you when the moon needs raising and lowing. Till the night, dear Sister”
The last thing Luna heard before sleep pulled her away the latch of the door softly clicking into place.