“I’m sorry, but there is simply no way it can be done,” a man in a red robe said, shaking his head. Glen was standing beside Ethan in the man’s lab, her face was now turned down in a sad pout. “The optic nerves are completely dead, or at the very least far too dead for us to be able to connect anything to them.”
“Come on Rothchild, you’ve got to be able to think of something!” Ethan exclaimed, a touch of anger in his voice.
“No, no, I’m sorry, but there really is nothing I can do,” the balding man said with a sigh. “We’re using the newest technology that your wife sent us and there still isn’t a way to give her a new eye,” he told Ethan.
“But you built one for Twi-”
“It’s okay Ethan,” Glen said, cutting the man off. “If they can’t do it, they can’t do it,” she added with a small sigh. “Thanks for trying though...” she muttered in a lone tone of voice.
Ethan let out a sigh. “Wish there was more I could do for you Glen,” he said, shaking his head. Then he looked back up at Rothchild. “Thanks for trying Rothchild, say hey to Sarah for me next time she’s around.”
“You know, you could just say ‘hey’ to her yourself,” Rothchild said, raising an eyebrow at Ethan.
“Yeah... but I’m busy,” Ethan said, a bit of uncomfortableness sneaking its way into his voice.
“Right... she’s still mad at you for running off and staying away for three years, isn’t she?” Rothchild asked.
“Yep, still sour,” Ethan said. “Anyways, see you later Rothchild,” he added, pulling out a glowing scroll and throwing it into the air producing a portal which he quickly strode through. Glen followed suit, though her stride held a despondent tone to it. Rothchild sighed and turned back to his work.
The two emerged on the other side of the portal in the hallway outside of Glen’s room. The mare glanced up at Ethan and gave him a small smile. “Thanks for trying Ethan...”
“I said I would didn’t I?” Ethan asked her with a raised eyebrow.
“Yeah… you did… but I guess this trip was all for nothing,” Glen said, her face dropping down and a sad sigh left her lips.
Ethan frowned and then gripped her chin, moving her head up to look him in the eyes. “Stop that,” he said gently. “I’ve got something planned that’ll make you really happy.”
The mare gave him a puzzled frown. “What?”
“I’m making you a new battle saddle,” the man replied with a smirk.
Glen’s ears perked up a bit as she removed her head from Ethan’s hand. “Really?”
“Would I lie to you?” he asked her with a grin.
The mare smiled faintly. “No… no… no you wouldn’t,” she replied.
“Then there’s your answer,” Ethan replied with a wide smile.
Glen chuckled lightly, yet it sounded hollow. “Thanks Ethan...”
Ethan’s eyes widened a little and he looked at her in concern. “Hey, you okay? Everything here in Equestria going alright? If you want, you could always come and live in Vegas with me if you’d be more comfortable with it,” he asked her.
“What? No… I mean everything’s fine,” Glen replied, her voice snapping out of her moppy mood. “They’ve been taking care of me and fully accepted me… despite where I grew up. I even start training to become one of Twilight’s guards tomorrow and I can’t wait to show just how good I am,” she said, smiling a bit at the end. “So, thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll continue living here.”
Ethan grinned and ruffled her mane. “Awesome!” he exclaimed. “I’m so happy for you,” he told her. “I wasn’t really worried about you being discriminated against, but I was kind of concerned about you not fitting in well.”
“Nah, I’m doing fine,” Glen replied with a small shrug. “Both Princess Twilight and Luna have been very generous in showing me the ropes to this version of Equestria.”
“Oh really?” Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow. “Luna showing you the ropes eh?”
“Yeah, and teaching me how to use dream magic,” the mare replied. “So far, I’ve mostly used it so I can repeatedly beat Drek’s skinny ass and buck his balls.”
Ethan let out a chuckle. “That’s always a worthy pursuit, I know I enjoyed slicing him up” he told her, grinning. “Though I didn’t know that Luna could teach that kind of thing to anyone else.”
“Meh, she saids anypony can learn it, just no one really pursues it,” Glen replied with a small shrug.
“Well, I’m just glad that you’re fitting in and keeping busy,” Ethan said with a small smile. “Do you mind if I head home? I’m due back home anytime now.”
“Nah go ahead, don’t want to keep ya from your family,” the mare said with a small smile. “See ya next time.”
“Later Glenny,” Ethan said, ruffling her mane again before he pulled out a scroll from his pockets and stepped through the portal which closed behind him.
Glen’s smile slowly vanished and she walked into her room and let out another sigh. She then walked up to her bed and plopped herself on top of it. “Just my luck...” she muttered out. “I get a new home, friends, job, but the one thing I can’t get is a bloody new eye.” She sigh once more as she rolled onto her back. “If the universe had a voice… it would be laughing at me...” The mare closed her eye and tried to drift to sleep.
“Are you okay Glen?” Luna asked with a concerned frown as she looked at the brown earth pony who was trying to create the right flavor of beer. The mare’s demeanor was a bit sour as she failed over and over again just to maintain the image of the bottle.
“I just learned that getting a robotic eye would be impossible,” Glen replied as she continued trying to make a bottle of beer. “Something about my nerves being too dead...” One bottle held its shape for a good five seconds before it collapsed into a cloud of mist.
Luna let out a small sigh and walked over to give Glen a gentle nuzzle on the side of her head. “I’m terribly sorry to hear that Glen,” she said in a compassionate voice.
“Hmph,” the earth pony muttered out as she failed her seventy second time to make dream beer.
“Would you like my help?” Luna asked her in concern as she saw her student’s failures. “I could always-”
“NO I DON’T NEED HELP!” Glen shouted as she snapped at Luna with a harsh glare causing Luna to jump in surprise. The pony blinked blankly before letting out a strained sigh and brought up a hoof to rub her face tiredly. “Sorry,” she apologized to Luna with a low tone. “I’ve... just… had enough of everybody’s pity… on me...” she explained. “I’m going to be half blind for the rest of my life… there’s no point to keep reminding me...”
“I see,” Luna replied, sitting down beside the despondent mare.
The world around them shifted and they appeared sitting in a new location that Glen had never seen before. It was a massive plateau of grey stone and dust, the ground below them was dotted by huge craters, and in the sky overhead of them was a large blue and green planet. All around them the stars of the sky twinkled and blinked.
Glen’s eye was drawn and overawe by the view, her mouth slightly hanging open. “Where… where are we?” she asked, still looking at the starry sky.
“The moon,” Luna replied with a small smile at the mare’s expression. Then she patted the stone beneath them. “This is a spot where I spent nigh on two hundred years,” she continued as she looked at Equestria.
“Ah...” Glen murmured before she frowned. “Wait… you spent time up here, in real life?”
“Yes of course,” Luna replied, giving Glen a sideways glance. “What did you think?”
“I… I thought you just moved the moon… didn’t know you could live on it,” the mare said with a small shrug.
“Well... it was not exactly a voluntary stay,” Luna replied with a slight sigh.
Glen gave Luna a puzzled frown. “What do you mean?”
“You mean they have completely forgotten my actions where you come from?” Luna asked, surprise in her voice.
“Pfft, heck if I know,” Glen replied. “All I really knew about you before I got here is that everypony regarded you as a Goddess, you’d ruled Equestria during the war, and that you were on a lot of posters.”
Luna frowned. “Ah... well let us just say that I was very young and very stupid, as the young often are, and I was banished to the moon for a thousand years.... I just returned twelve years ago... and only then with the help of Twilight Sparkle.”
Glen raised an eyebrow at Luna for very simple explanation. “Well… at least you didn’t lose any of your body parts for your stupidness,” she commented, glancing back at view.
Luna didn’t comment and instead drapped one of her wings over Glen and pulled the smaller mare a little closer to her, warming her from the astral breeze that was beginning to blow over them. Glen glanced at the wing that was pressed up against her before looking up Luna who smiled at her before returning her eyes to the horizon.
"I always came up here to think,” Luna said after a few minutes of silence. “To... reflect... on my past mistakes… I let a demon into my head and I nearly got my sister and everypony in Equestria killed due to my own self-inflicted stupidity in an attempt to destroy the sun... so Glen... when you think of your mistakes try and remember that there are worse things.”
Glen glanced down as her mind wander in thought. “I guess...” she murmured. “I should’ve been killed instead of getting my eye gouged out… so… at least I’m still alive...”
Luna gave her head another nuzzle and a beer appeared in front of Glen, floating in the air before the mare. “I for one am immeasurably happy about that particular fact,” the alicorn said in a soft voice.
The mare smiled lightly as she pluck the beer bottle out of the air and took a small swig of it. “Thanks… for cheering me up,” Glen said, glancing up at Luna, her smile growing a bit.
“It is my pleasure my little pony,” Luna said, smiling, giving her another warm nuzzle. “Your happiness means a lot to me.”
Glen chuckled a bit as she took another swig of beer. “Hehe… who knew a goddess would become my friend...” she mused to herself.
Luna let out a chuckle of her own. “So, are you feeling better now my little pony?”
“Yeah… I feel a lot better,” Glen replied, a pleasant smile growing across her muzzle.
“Excellent,” Luna said with a wide smile. “Perhaps you would like to resume your studies, or are you content to simply sit here?”
Glen ponder the thought before shaking her head. “Nah, I’m up for some lessons,” she replied.
Luna got to her hooves and smiled. “Well then, let us begin once again with your drink...”
Celestia sat in her sitting room, looking over the newest bill that the so-called ‘nobility’ had proposed. Twilight was off holding morning court, the role that she took occasionally when Celestia had had a particularly bad day in court the day before. The eldest alicorn was alone, a half eaten slice of cake at her side. Every few moments she glanced over at it, and then just as quickly turned away; she would not give into that temptation at the moment.
That was when Luna walked into the room, a bright expression on her face. Celestia looked up as she entered and shot her sister a smile.
“Ah, hello there Lulu, I expected you to still be asleep,” Celestia said with a smile. “I know how much you are enjoying teaching Glen how to use dream magic.”
Luna raised an eyebrow at her and her magic opened up the blinds, allowing the noonday sun to spill through.
“My dear sister, I believe you have been working on that piece of legislation for entirely too long,” Luna said, a wry smile on her face. Celestia blinked blankly once and then let out a gasp.
“Oh dear... I’ve been working on this for the last thirty six hours...” she looked down at the bill once more and saw that it had devolved into an endless string of circular logic as she checked and rechecked different problems with it.
“Sister... you raise the sun, how could you have been working for thirty six hours without realizing it?” Luna asked her with a small frown.
“I... don’t really know,” Celestia admitted with a simply confounded expression on her face as she rubbed her eyes with her foreleg and pushed herself away from the table. “I suppose I was running on automatic.”
“Must have been,” Luna agreed with a shake of her head at her sister’s poor judgment.
“Was... there something you wanted to see me about?” Celestia asked, stifling a large yawn.
“Yes, there was actually,” Luna answered, a small blush on her face. “Tia... how do you make somepony realize that you’re ‘hitting’ on them if they’re completely oblivious to it?”
Celestia couldn’t help herself, she burst out laughing. “What? You of all ponies having trouble with something like that?” she asked incredulously.
“Glen has yet to respond to my advances in any way,” Luna said, snorting indignantly at her sister. “I am almost ready to stick my pl-”
“Luna dear,” Celestia interjected. “Perhaps Glen is just ignoring you.”
“No... it isn’t that,” Luna said, frowning deeply. “Else I would have noticed and halted my advances... no, she is simply oblvious.”
Celestia frowned. “Well... you could just let this take time, I know that you prefer to leap from one pony, or cat, to another, but perhaps you should focus on just pursuing Glen,” she suggested.
“I... suppose I should try that,” the younger alicorn said, still frowning. “It has been... quite some time since I was in a committed relationship...”
“Before your banishment,” Celestia agreed.
“Yes...” Luna said, nodding her head. “I... thank you for your council sister.”
Celestia smiled at her sister. “You’re very welcome Lu-” she was cut off by a loud yawn. “-lu,” she finished lamely.
Luna chuckled. “It appears that you should be making an appointment with your bed Tia,” she said.
“Most likely,” the elder alicorn agreed as she began to make her way over to her bed. “Would you be a dear and look over that bill for me?”
“Of course, I will plunder their estates for all that they’re worth,” Luna said, smiling evilly.
Celestia shook her head and rolled her eyes before she settled down beneath the blankets. “Have fun with that sister.”
“Oh I will,” Luna replied before she disappeared, leaving Celestia alone to sleep.
Glen was on her second lap of twenty around the courtyard. This was her second rotation through the physical conditioning section of the training to be Twilight’s guard and she was beginning to get a bit tired. It wasn’t as if she wasn’t used to running, she’d done plenty of that when running for her life in the Wasteland and the Tournament. It was more of the constant and ongoing running the drill sergeants were making her and other ponies to do. Though on the bright side, she was one of the few ponies who still had the energy to finish all twenty laps.
Her legs pounded the ground beneath her as she keep up a moderate speed, her chest fully expanding in and out to keep air flowing through her lungs, and her eye focused on the track in front of her to make sure she didn’t run into anypony. One lap went, and another as Glen ran round and round.
Her mind then began to wander a bit into the events of last night. The lesson Luna had focused on after their talk had been an interesting one. It had involved not the art of dream creation, but instead the art of dreamwalking itself. Luna had guided Glen with her wing and taken her from pony’s dream to pony’s dream, all the while describing how to stay hidden within the realm. Luna had also taken steps so that the identity of the dreamer remained unknown to the mare.
It was very fascinating to see what other ponies dreamed of during their sleep. Going off on thrill seeking adventure, flying, lots of flying, and sometimes even having romantic dinners with somepony they had their eye on. For the most part, Glen had a-
“MS. STONECUTTER, GET OFF THE TRACK!” the voice of the drill sergeant rang in the mare’s ears.
Glen was jerked out of her state of thought and came to a stop. Her head glanced over and look over towards the sergeant to see all the rest of the ponies were already line up except her.
“You ran your laps, now get your flank in line now!” the sergeant order her.
Glen mouthed the word ‘what’ before it clicked with her she’d finished her laps but was so lost in thought that she’d kept on running. “Uh, yes sir,” the mare said as she quickly strided towards the line with the other three trainees.
“Now that your warm ups are complete it’s time to move on to the real training,” the sergeant said, walking back in forth in front of them. He was a well built pale blue unicorn with a darker blue mane. “This is where you prove whether or not you have the strength to survive in Princess Twilight’s guard,” he continued. “Unlike either the Solar Guard or the Lunar Guard we of the Dusk Guard are expected to follow our Princess into battle in a variety of locations on this world, or on any other.”
He stomped his hoof and the field before them was transformed from the pleasant green grass from before and into what to Glen’s eyes reminded her greatly of some of the more war-torn parts of the Equestrian Wasteland. Stretching out before her was a narrow maze of trenches with wooden boards strewn here and there, bridging gaps while long strings of broken barbed wire hung here and there.
“To that end, we have elected to create mockup of the Princess’s most common battlefield,” the stallion went on. “In order to become one of her guards you must prove yourself effective at navigating these trenches and avoiding the traps left behind for you. Fear not however, even an explosion to your face will cause little pain, however, you will be frozen until the end of the exercise.”
He paused for a moment to allow them all to survey the field before speaking again. “So, who would like to go first?”
The other three ponies stared at the blood strewn wasteland of trenches with fear and anxiety while Glen causally looking down at the maze with a thoughtful frown, her mind already mapping a path through it.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” the stallion suddenly exploded. “DO YOU NOT WANT TO BE THE PRINCESS’S GUARDS?!”
The other ponies looked between one another, silently waiting for one of the others to take their place. Glen rolled her eye. “I’ll do it,” she said with a small shrug.
“Finally!” the sergeant roared. “Get out there Stonecutter!”
I’m getting a bit tired of your yelling, Glen mentally remarked as she walked to the entrance of the maze. To her surprise... the moment that she stepped into the maze the feeling of the wasteland came rushing back to assault her senses. The reek of something that was slowly decaying, the sounds of screams and gunfire, the metalic taste of iron and even the sun above seemed to dim into a brown haze.
It was very realistic… a bit too realistic… to the point that Glen knew this a very good fake. You made it look so shiny and pretty, it’s hard to call it an ‘accurate’ recreation , she commented in her mind.
Glen started forwards down the path she’d seen from above and began to make her way through the twisting maze of barbed wire, broken, desecrated bodies, and even a few bear traps scattered about hidden beneath pieces of wood. As she did she picked out the telltale signs of tripwires and pressure plates, each of which connected to either a grenade bouquet or a trio of rigged shotguns. Of course, Glen either stepped around or dismantled all of these with little effort.
Man… does this take me back, Glen thought to herself. It’s like I’m traveling through a hallway designed by a heavily paranoid pony. The traps are so simple to see and walk over.
As she thought that, Glen suddenly felt her foot crack through a small wooden plank set into the ground and her forehoof sank deep into it.
“GRENADE!” Somepony shouted and Glen saw the shape of one of the fragmentation grenades that Ethan had used during the tournament ping off the ground and roll a little past her.
Had to open my big mental mouth, Glen remarked as she yanked her hoof free and bolted away from the grenade, taking cover behind a corner. The grenade exploded behind her but Glen suddenly found that she had a new problem. Standing over her was a tall man drenched in gore and wearing an outfit covered in spikes. In his hands was a large combat shotgun which was even now zeroed in on her forehead.
“FUCK!” Glen exclaimed as she pushed herself to the side, making the shotgun pellets miss their mark. The mare then rushed the man, pivoting on her foreleg and delivered a powerful buck into the man’s legs.
The raider, for that was obviously what it was, Glen could tell even though it was a different species, let out a shout of pain as he collapsed to the ground. Glen didn’t hesitated as she moved up to the raider’s head and brought one of her back hooves slamming into his face.
The raider’s skull cracked with a satisfying crunch and Glen watched as the raider’s body slumped dead in front of her. Giving a short nod and delivering one final kick to the skull, the mare moved on without a second glance back.
As she moved on through the maze, the traps became far more insidious and the enemies more dangerous.this continued until Glen rounded a corner and walked straight into a group of seven heavily armed raiders. She barely managed to escape from them when she was suddenly faced down by a giant... green man-like creature with what appeared to be a high tech hammer running straight at her.
She ducked under the blow, and bolted around the creature and away from it.
“WHY THE HELL DIDN'T THEY GIVE US SOME SORT OF WEAPON!” she shouted as she galloped.
“ME EAT YOU!” the creature bellowed at her as it ran after her.
Glen grunted her teeth as she ran, only to realize she was heading straight back to the group of raiders who were currently running towards her. Then an idea click in her. A thin smile curled at the edge of her lips. “You’re hungry eh? Well why eat one pony when you can eat a buffet of raiders!?” she yelled at the creature. Her hooves began to propel her faster at the raiders. She then zigzag left and right around the raiders’ legs, avoiding running in to them or being grabbed by they grubby hands.
The super mutant met the raiders and soon an all out brawl was going on behind her. Glen glance back, her smile fully grown as she slowed down to a walk, breathing heavily. “Have fun colts,” she remarked in a small chuckle as she continued her way out of the maze.
It looked like she was getting near the end as the sound of helicopter wings roared out overhead and a black metal craft touched down at the exit of the trench from within which exited a man in black power armor carrying a green plasma rifle.
“Oh you’ve got to be fucking kidding me...” Glen stated flatly.
The man in power armor brought up his rifle and focused on Glen.
“Oh fuck it,” Glen said as she galloped at full speed and past the power armored man who let out a surprised ‘what’ as she did so.
At long last, Glen emerged on the other side of the maze... and was somehow standing directly in front of the drill sergeant, the other three recruits were sprawled on the ground to the side, covered in cuts and bruises.
“Well done Stonecutter,” the sergeant told her, giving the mare a nod. “You’re done for the day,” he then turned to the others. “The rest of you will continue until you either get it right or are physically unable to!”
Glen raised an eyebrow at the three recruits who all let out a collective moan and she turned and started back to her room.
“That was some impressive running, my little pony,” Luna’s voice suddenly said from her right.
“Hmm?” the mare hummed as she glance to her upward right to see the lunar princess walking next to her. “Oh, thanks,” Glen said with a small chuckle and smiled. “It’s one of the few things that everypony in the wastes needs to master if they want to stay alive sometimes.”
Luna nodded. “I can hardly say that I’m surprised. Though it has always been my thought that Twilight is a bit too sadistic with her mazes... the amount of waiver forms that ponies who attempt to sign onto her guard must fill out is truly impressive.”
“I can imagine,” the mare agreed. “Being able to face that sort of threat and have no weapon to fight back...that’s just insane.”
“I have spoken with Twilight in length about it and according to her, it is to teach them how to think on their hooves, how to be more intelligent, and to make them experience helplessness in order to temper their hearts for a real battle,” Luna explained with a small shrug. “I cannot say that I approve, but her guards are well equipped to handle the Wasteland at the very least.”
“Does she even take her guards to the Wasteland?” Glen asked.
“To be honest, I don’t believe she does,” Luna replied. “She simply wishes them to be prepared on the off-chance she needs them.”
“Sooo… they’re basically being trained to fight in an environment that they never going to be in?” the mare stated.
“Essentially,” Luna nodded. “Of course, the things she teaches them here are still useful in Equestria. A guard never knows when they’ll have to fight their way through a constrained environment full of enemies... the changeling invasion years ago taught us that much.”
“I guess that makes some sense...” Glen murmured before shrugging. “Still, the next time Twilight wants to run me through course like that, I’m bringing my battle saddle.”
Luna let out an amused chuckle. “I see, and pray tell where will you get that from?”
“Ethan’s making me a new one,” Glen replied with a small smile. “Lost my original back in Drek’s hellhole so Ethan offered me to make brand new one based on the one I had.”
“Ah, that sounds like him, yes,” Luna said, nodding. “He is a surprisingly thoughtful man once you get past his... everything.”
“Heheh yeah,” Glen agreed. “Though sometimes I still think he’s a bit insane...”
“With all that he’s been through, who wouldn’t be?” Luna replied before shaking her head. “Anyhow, I was just checking in to make sure that you were taking the training well. I’m on my way to my office so that I can finalize this bill that Tia was working on... honestly why she doesn’t just give them to me I don’t know... I’m much better at paperwork then she is.”
“Okay, see ya around then,” Glen said with a small hoof wave goodbye.
“Goodbye Glen, I will see you tonight, eager as ever I’m sure,” Luna replied with a chuckle before she walked away down the hall, her tail swaying ever so slightly as she did so. However, Glen’s eye was focused downward, half closed, she was already in the middle of a thought that had popped up into her mind.... a thought on what her new battle saddle was going to be like.