Chapter 1
Three months to the day. Three months had passed since Princess Luna’s arrival in Ponyville, summer’s long days were ending, and the leaves were beginning to turn. Autumn was upon Ponyville, and soon enough, winter and its long nights would grasp the world of Equestria.
Twilight Sparkle considered these last three months a success. Luna had become far more open and trusting of her new found friends. She and Twilight however, had bonded the most out of all of them, they were much alike, both introverted, Twilight just got Luna. They spent many nights looking out at Luna’s creation, the beautiful night sky filled with stars and the moon above. Twilight Sparkle, being interested in learning all things about the world and the sky, loved the night more than her friends. Luna had been taken aback by how much Twilight seemed to appreciate her night sky. A thousand years ago, Luna believed that ponies hated the night, and herself by extension, such feelings had driven the god-princess into losing her sanity, transforming her into the evil Nightmare Moon, and causing her imprisonment for the last 1000 years.
Many of the other ponies in Ponyville were still uneasy around the Princess, but this was merely because she was a princess, and Twilight reassured her that the more time she spent here. The more the denizens of Ponyville would warm up to her. Luna smiled as she looked up at her night’s creation. She was glad she had come here; glad she had friends, glad that she nevermore had to be alone.
…
Dawn. Fluttershy loved waking up at Dawn, watching the sun rise was beautiful, and her animal friends would be up not long after. A few hours of doing chores and taking care of sick animals who had sought her out, she was ready to be out and about in Ponyville.
It was still rather early; the clock had only just struck 0830. Not many Ponies were out and about at this hour. Fluttershy was however, surprised to see that princess Luna was out at the edge of town, looking up at the morning October Sky.
“Hello Princess Luna... Um, I’m not interrupting anything am I?” She asked timidly.
Luna looked back at her friend, “Hello Fluttershy, please, you don’t need to keep calling me princess, and no, I’m just admiring the day.”
“Force of habit,” Fluttershy said. This had been true, it had taken almost two months to get them to stop calling Luna ‘her highness.’
Fluttershy smiled. “Sounds wonderful, I was just going into town, would you like to walk with me? That is, as long as it wouldn’t be an inconvenience...”
Luna’s interactions with Fluttershy always went like this; the two of them were the most shy out of all their friends, it ended with both them taking care to make sure that they didn’t burden each other with unwelcome company.
Luna smiled with a hint of embarrassment. “Why thank you... I would love too! I mean, as long as you’re not asking out of obligation....”
“Of course not...” Fluttershy’s voice trailed off as she looked out into the distance. “Who is that pony?”
Luna looked out into the distance. A single grey coloured pony with an orange mane and tail was walking towards them, a colt, no less. No more than 10 metres out. Neither Fluttershy, nor Luna had seen this pony before. Who was he?
The colt walked up to the two mares, gave each a look and smiled. “Ponies! I made it...” he said before passing out on the ground at their hooves.
Fluttershy’s jaw dropped, nearly hitting the ground at the shock. “Come on! We need to get him help! Help me carry him!” She said in a frantic tone that was not common for the shy mare.
Luna nodded and the two helped each other lift the grey and orange pony off his hooves and carried him into town towards the clinic, Ponyville’s most reasonable facsimile for a hospital.
Several long hours of waiting for the colt to recover, having never left his side, Fluttershy began to yawn uncontrollably. She was tired, and it was nearly one in the morning. Luna looked at her tired friend, with a small frown. “Fluttershy, you look tired. You really should go home and rest.”
Fluttershy yawned again, “thank you for your concern. But I want to be here when he wakes up.” followed by another yawn. “Angel will have taken care of everything at home. So I can afford to wait.”
As if on cue, the colt’s eyes opened and he looked around, seeing the two mares that had helped him. He perked his head up, which got the pair’s attention rather quickly.
“Oh, you’re awake. I’m glad to see that you’re okay!” Fluttershy said enthusiastically, as she would have had this been a sick animal in her care. “I’m Fluttershy, and this is my friend, Princess Luna. What’s your name? Can you tell us what happened to you?”
The colt seemed wrack his brain, as if searching for words in a language he was unfamiliar with. “My name is... uh... Floppy... Disk, Floppy Disk, That’s my name. Floppy Disk, and well, I’ve been walking for the last two months... I seemed to have, misjudged the distance between here and my last stop, because... Well, I ran out of food eight days ago, and had the last drop of my water two days ago. I barely made it here. When I came across you two I had just reached the point where I couldn’t go any further... If you hadn't been there, I might have collapsed from exhaustion and died with no one knowing I was even out there.”
Fluttershy attempted to speak, but was caught by another yawning fit. Luna looked at her friend sternly. “Fluttershy, you’re exhausted, please, go home and rest. I’ll stay with our new friend and make sure he’s ok.” A look of horror formed on the Princess’ face as she realised she’d spoken rather sternly to her friend. “...I’m sorry.”
Fluttershy was about to protest, something uncommon for the mare, however another yawn interrupted her, and she decided that Luna was right. She was tired. “No... You’re right. I’ll go home and get some sleep. But I will be back first thing in the morning.”
Fluttershy departed from the room, making her way home. Upon reaching her bed, she laid down on it and was out like a light the moment her head hit the pillow.
…
Floppy Disk, FLOPPY DISK! YOU WALKED HERE FOR TWO MONTHS, AND THE BEST YOU COULD COME UP WITH WAS FLOPPY DISK!
Floppy Disk was screaming at himself. He’d chosen the dumbest name he could have used for interacting with these ponies. But they had seemed to accept it; he was stuck with it now.
“My lady, you don’t need to wait by my bedside, I would feel bad if you were up the entire night on my account.” Floppy said, a small, charming smile forming on his face.
“Don’t worry about me. The night is my job.” Luna said, returning his smile. “I spend most of my nights awake. You’re not inconveniencing me at all.”
Floppy wasn’t sure whether she was telling the truth, or merely being polite. In his personal experience, Floppy Disk had never known a pony to be honest with him. He was used to others telling him what he wanted to hear, it had warped his view of reality. He had no way of knowing if this pony was telling him the truth. He chose to give her the benefit of the doubt. Not something he often did, she seemed nice enough.
“Okay then. I hope you don’t mind if I sleep though, I need to build up my strength again.” Floppy said awkwardly with an equally awkward smile.
“Not at all, please, you need it. I wouldn’t want you to get worse if you felt obligated to stay up and speak with me.” Luna said.
Maybe she was sincere. Maybe she was more like him. Floppy couldn’t be sure, he quickly drifted back off to sleep. When the morning came, he’d find out for sure.