Celestia waited by the entrance of the Canterlot General Hospital, pacing back and forth while Helios waited off to the side. A fairly large crowd had gathered around the barricades that the Royal Guard had put together on short notice. Celestia ignored the whispers of the crowd and the loud questions that were being belted to her by the news ponies. She looked up into her crystal blue skies and looked for any sign of the scout team bringing Luna back to her. A small black dot appeared in the distance and gradually became larger. Celestia recognized the small band of Pegasi as they hauled something behind them.
“They’re here!” she yelled. She pointed to the doors of the hospital. “Helios, get these open and get the doctors out here!” Helios saluted and took off inside. A short time later a full team of doctors had emerged from the hospital along with Celestia's personal team of scientists from the palace. The crowd was silent as the small team approached. The two Pegasi pulling the makeshift bed descended rapidly while the other three held it stable for its rapid descent. The team landed and the crowd let out a collective gasp as the makeshift transport bed landed in the center of the circle created by the barriers.
Celestia looked at the figure lying on the wood slab and stuffed her foot into her mouth, so much so, she could taste the gold. The crowd was silent, with their mouth hanging open and others opening and closing. The paparazzi did not dare take any photos. The doctors from the hospital rushed over and transferred Luna onto a bed proper and wheeled her into the hospital. The large blue doors swung closed, leaving a more than stunned crowd and Princess. Celestia turned away silently and quickly followed the doctors into the hospital.
2
Celestia sat in a chair, watching through a large glass window over the operating room. Luna lay on the metal table as the surgeons moved swiftly and deftly around her broken body. Tubes, nodes, and a breathing mask ran to machines from her body. She turned away from the operation and closed her eyes. She inhaled deeply and released a few seconds later. She turned back around and looked down into the operating room. Earth ponies stared at the monitors, taking notes and the unicorns held scalpels and other cutting instruments within their magical grasps.
Celestia looked on as the doctors operated but she could not tear herself away from her sister’s gleaming silver leg. It stood out against her sisters blue body like a diamond in mud. The doctors worked around it, as they lacked the knowledge to understand what it was. Celestia watched on as the doctors cut and sewed Luna’s body, removing tissue and conducting several other operations that made her cringe. She felt herself becoming ill and walked out of the observation room and planted herself on a bench in the hallway. She rested her head in her hooves and wept.
She remained there for a long while before going into the restroom. She filled a sink and splashed the icy waters onto her face and dried herself. She stared into the mirror before her and gazed into her own eyes. They were red and swollen her elegant mane remained as it was, pristine. Her lips had a frown on them that would not change. The more she looked the more it became evident that she hated what she saw. The ruler of Equestria reduced to a crying foal because of the thing that had become Luna’s running buddy. Her eyes squinted, her nostrils flared heavily, and her body shook. She grunted and snarled like a bull before taking a large breath and slowing down her enraged heart. She repeated this until her mood had come back to that of the Ruler of Equestria.
She stepped out of the bathroom, her usual motherly smile on her face.
3
Alpha Bone sighed heavily as he took the blue mask from his face and threw it into the bio-hazard container. He removed the same color scrubs that encased his body and exposed of them the same way. He stepped out of the prep room of the surgical wing and planted himself on a bench. He wiped the sweat from his face and the remaining remnants of tears from his eyes. He stared at the floor rubbing his temples. He felt the bench shift slightly and looked over to see Field Dust sitting next to him. She didn’t say anything and just placed a hoof on his shoulder.
“How?” he whispered. Field Dust looked at him sympathetically and tightened her hoof’s position on his shoulder.
“How what?” she asked.
“How did all that happen?” he asked, pointing back to the surgery room. “She’s hardly recognizable.”
She could not answer and opted to remain silent and wrapped him in a light hug. “Oh, Alpha.” She hugged him a little tighter.
“Field, Alpha!” Field Dust let go of Alpha Bone and they both looked up to see Gene Splice coming down the hall. He stopped at the bench and looked at the two of them. “Hey, Princess Celestia wants to hear your report on that surgery Alpha," he said somberly, noticing Alpha's sorry state.
Alpha got to his hooves and groaned. “Right, I’ll be there in a bit.” He stretched out his neck and it gave a satisfying pop before his muscles shook for a split second. He looked back to Field Dust as he began to walk away. “Thank you.” Field Dust only nodded.
He entered the surgical observation room and sat down next to the Princess. He took in a large breath and released it quickly. The surgery chamber was now empty and devoid of life. All that remained there were the monitors and other necessary equipment. He looked up to the Princess, whose gaze did not leave that room. He could hear a raggedness to the Princess' breaths but payed no heed to it.
“Tell me Alpha Bone,” she said, “what did you discover?”
Alpha sighed, “Well, I can say that her anatomy is completely different than what we had previously believed.” Celestia nodded slowly. "She is equine in form but her internal organs are very similar but also vastly different from ours." He stopped and remained silent.
“Continue Alpha Bone. Do not spare me any detail,” Celestia said sternly.
“Sixty-five percent of her body was covered in scar tissue when the healing processes were completed.” Celestia shook subtly. “Her left eye is nearly blind and that leg…” he trailed off and became silent.
"Continue Alpha. What about her leg?"
“Her right leg is completely mechanical. It’s far beyond anything that ponies can create. Technologies of that level could be unattainable for another thousand years or more.” He huffed and looked up to the princess. “What happened out there princess?”
Celestia remained silent and stood up. “That Alpha Bone,” she began, “is none of your concern.” She took a few steps before stopping and looking back to him. “When will she wake?”
“Hard to know; it won’t be today or tonight. Of that you can be sure princess. But I must ask again, what happened to her?”
“Very well. Oh, and don’t ask about what happened to Luna. As I said before, it’s none of your concern.” She stepped out of the room and the door slammed behind her.
“That princess is why I’m worried.” He stood up and left the room as well, trailing far behind the princess.
4
Dark Heart, Captain of the Lunar Guard, stood inside Luna’s hospital room. The beep of the heart monitor and the life support apparatus the only noise in the room. She closed her eyes and moved her ears in several directions, locating any and all noise around the immediate area. She opened her eyes and sat down on the chair in the corner of the bland room. She picked up a paper and read the headline.
PRINCESS LUNA ADMITTED TO CANTERLOT GENERAL: EXTENT OF INJURIES UNKNOWN
She threw down the paper and stared at the Lunar Princess, the sun’s rays burning her sensitive eyes ever so slightly. She stood up and closed the curtain. The sun’s light still came inside, illuminating the room greatly, but was no longer very intense. She sat back in the chair when a knock came from the door.
“Come in!” she called from her position. A nurse carrying a clipboard came into the room.
“Excuse me but it’s time to check the Princess’ vitals,” she said. Dark Heart gave a nod and let the nurse go about her routine work. She watched the nurse move around the bed jotting down notes and looking back and forth between the monitors and the clipboard.
“How is she?” Dark Heart asked.
“She’ll be okay. Her vitals are looking good and are getting stronger.” The nurse left the room without another word.
Dark Heart began to sit when the door opened again, without a knock. She looked over with an icy glare. The door opened fully and she saw a white head appear followed by the rest of the new visitor’s body. Dark Heart bowed as she saw Celestia enter.
“Princess,” she said politely.
“I’m here to relieve you for the remainder of the day Dark Heart.”
Dark Heart looked surprised. “I’m sorry Princess but as the captain of the Lunar Guard I cannot abandon my post.”
“You would defy your Princess?” Celestia asked suspiciously. “Whom, may I remind you, has a sister who is possibly on her deathbed and has a country to look after. And you would defy that princess?”
Dark Heart’s face fell. But, she quickly regained her composure. “I’m sorry Princess but yes I would defy that princess, I take orders from the Princess on that bed,” she said sternly, pointing to the bed in the room.
“I see.” Celestia turned and walked back to the door. “You have a either a very brave heart or a very foalish one, Dark Heart.” Celestia exited the room and closed the door behind her.
Dark Heart sat down with a harrumph.
5
Celestia entered a small room before the entrance to the laboratory. White lab coats lung on the walls and blue masks lied in a box on a small bench. She placed a coat over her back and poked her wings through and placed a mask over her nose and mouth and stepped into the laboratory where Petri Dish, Alpha Bone and Gene Splice were working. They were all clad in white lab coats and wore blue masks over their mouths and noses. Gene moves to the left, Alpha to the right, while Petri remains still and seated in front of his microscopes jotting down notes. She walked farther into the lab and stopped near Petri’s station.
“How is the research going?” she asked, forgetting to announce herself prior. Petri jumped slightly and the others jumped slightly as well.
“Oh, princess,” Petri panted, “please don’t do that when were in the middle of something this important.”
“Forgive me Petri Dish. But, please, fill me in on your progress.”
“Well your majesty,” he said sitting on his stool, “we have been conducting some tests and found out things about Princess Luna that are purely Science Fiction, yet are existent in her body.”
“Elaborate if you please,” Celestia asked kindly.
Alpha Bone stepped forward and placed a tray carrying several vials of blood and placed it on a table next to him. “For one, we found that her anatomical structure is equine in form, as I told you before, but her internal systems are not nearly equine,” he explained almost flatly. Celestia raised an eyebrow. “For example, a normal pony has two lungs that bring air to the bloodstream via alveoli in the sacks of the lung. Princess Luna’s respiratory system is the same save for one detail, she has an extra lung that is fully integrated into her system and is fully operational.” Celestia’s eyes did not widen but they betrayed her curiosity.
“How did you discover this?”
Gene Splice came forward his time and stood before the princess. “When a unicorn scans a body for injury or damage they find only what they’re looking for, if they know what they’re looking for. Because we didn't know the full extent, the scan we performed revealed the things we were looking for and then some.”
“Precisely,” Alpha said, “on top of the extra lung we found that her bloodstream was nearly devoid of the third cell we discovered a while back. However, the most recent samples taken sometime after her surgery to make sure her body was reacting well to the treatments, we discovered that they were indeed present and growing in number.”
“Her body can make more?” Celestia asked.
“Yes it can. There is another organ we discovered, we named it the Manufactorian Corcillum. We can’t examine it very closely lest we harm Princess Luna in the process but from what I’ve seen of it, it creates and disperses the Third Cells into her body. Much like bone marrow makes the White Blood Cell.”
“Fascinating.” Celestia pondered for a moment. “What of her right leg and its structure?”
“As I said before, it’s many years ahead of pony capabilities. It connects to her skeletal structure directly, meaning that the leg in its entirety is made of the same materials running the same mechanics.”
Celestia mulled this over for a while. “Could her entire body be comprised of the same materials?” she asked.
“I don’t see why not, but it would have appeared on any and all medical scans that were done during her lifetime.”
“So it’s a recent addition then?” Celestia asked.
“Maybe, but if it didn’t appear before than it’s either that or it was designed to appear as bone instead of metal.” Gene said this time.
Celestia nodded and remained silent as she turned back to the door. “Keep me posted on your progress. I will check back in after I’ve raised the sun in the morning.”
“Time for the moon eh?” Petri asked.
“Indeed, it is time for the night to come.”