Crystal Wings

by Witching Hour

Chapter 3 - Dreaming

Luna sighed as she watched Witching Hour depart the castle grounds from her high vantage point, her own uncertainty becoming clear. It hadn’t been that long ago that her sister had started suggesting, with increasing strength, that she should take on a student of her own. Luna had put it off for some time, insisting she wasn’t yet acclimated to the new Equestria that Celestia had built without her…

“Stop thinking about that,” she muttered to herself, shoving the feelings of regret and failure back into the recesses of her mind. She knew quite well that dwelling on such problems would serve no purpose.

It had been Witching Hour’s unfailing optimism that had drawn Luna to her. The daughter of a well-respected earth pony herbalist and a unicorn brewer, Witching Hour took her father’s herb lore and combined it with her mother’s distillery skills to new levels of understanding and healing. Even seeing ponies on their worst days did not dim the bright hope that radiated from the unicorn filly, pushing limits but only after finding sufficient reason they could be pushed.

Hope was so integral to dreams, Luna had decided, so Witching Hour became her primary candidate in Luna’s mind. Indirectly, as was the Princess of the Night’s norm, Luna looked into the young unicorn. Witching Hour had a few acquaintances she accepted as peers, but otherwise devoted most of her attention to her patients. In the end, it was the striking similarity in temperament, but also the untapped magical potential in her inspirational abilities, that sealed Luna’s decision to select Witching Hour as her student.

Despite her confidence in her choice, Luna put off doing so until after Twilight Sparkle’s ascension. Part of her still hesitated, and wanted to see exactly how Celestia handled her student… She fleetingly recalled her sister saying something about how when the Crystal Empire is filled with hope and love, those are then reflected across Equestria. Again, Luna shook her head to dispel those thoughts. Those thoughts too served no use… If Witching Hour were meant to join Cadence in ruling the Crystal Empire, then that too would become clear without speculating on it.

The moon now risen, Luna turned to the other aspect of her duties; dreams. This was the main reason Luna had sent Witching Hour away with only vague answers and assurances. In the dreaming, Luna was far more capable of advising, and she was certain that Witching Hour’s dreams would be troubled.

Sure enough, her student was caught in a nightmare of failure. Witching Hour was horrified and pleading with her patient, Monkey Wrench, to not give up, but the light had gone from the pegasus’ green eyes and the battered remains of her yellow wings hung limply at her sides as Monkey Wrench walked through the doors of the hospital room into a bright light and vanished. Soon after, Witching Hour was surrounded by the patients she’d not been able to help - or those she’d inadvertently hurt in her experiments - and their families, a cacophony of their accusations echoing through the room. Her previous failures haunted Witching Hour, and even an image of Luna herself voicing her disappointment forced her into a small ball on the cold stone floor, her grey body shuddering from her whimpers.

“I just wanted to help…” Witching Hour sobbed quietly, not even looking up as a sudden wind and light dispersed the crowd of tormentors.

“Witching Hour…” Luna said, finally garnering the unicorn’s tearful attention. Watery blue eyes stared up at the princess incredulously for a moment before Witching Hour ran into Luna’s chest, sobbing.

“I don’t want to let her down! I don’t want to let you down!” she cried, hiding her face against Luna’s shoulder. Gently, Luna’s wing came to rest around Witching Hour’s shoulders, letting her cry a little while longer before drawing back a step and forcing her student to meet her gaze.

“Witching Hour, why in Equestria would you think you would disappoint me?” Luna asked softly, a reassuring smile twitching into place. Witching Hour cringed and looked away, sniffling as some wayward tears still leaked from her eyes to softly fall upon the floor.

“I- I-” she stammered, “I can’t heal everypony I see to… Even when the treatment should work, it fails… And they blame me for it…”

“And you blame yourself as well, don’t you, my hopeful student…” Luna stated gently, reaching out with a hoof to bring Witching Hour’s face back to look at her. Sniffling again, Witching Hour nodded, trying to hold back a fresh wave of tears.

“Don’t…” Luna said firmly, making Witching Hour blink, her confusion stymying her tears for a moment. “Don’t blame yourself. None can save everypony that comes to them… Not even my sister and I… Those you’ve let down may hold ill will but think of those you have helped, those you have saved…”

On Luna’s cue, the hospital room fills with all the ponies Witching Hour had healed: young and old, rich and poor; unicorn, pegasus and earth pony alike. All smiled and, instead of the discordant bombardment from her perceived failures, each said a few small but heartfelt words in turn.

“You have such hope for the future, my young student… But you must also have the will to achieve those hopes…” Luna continued. “The only true failure is one you do not learn from, Witching Hour… And each time you could not help one pony, you used that knowledge to help another. As long as you continue to do so, you will never truly fail.”

“But what about Miss Monkey Wrench?” Witching Hour asked, her tears now gone, replaced by a worried and fretful expression. Despite Luna now having control of the dream, the yellow pegasus with heavily bandaged wings appeared in the hospital bed. Witching Hour looked at her patient, who seemed to be staring contemplatively out the window into the moonlit night and oblivious to the pair watching her.

“There is always a chance of not succeeding, young Witching Hour… But the only time we have truly failed is when we stop trying out of fear of losing… When we lose our hope, we truly have nothing left,” Luna said softly. “You still don’t see how you revive the hope in those who thought they had none…”

The scene reversed at Luna’s silent command, only stopping when Witching Hour as she’d appeared in the room before entered with her clipboard. The scene played briefly, stopping at the moment after Witching Hour had insisted that Monkey Wrench would fly again. “Look closely at your patient, my student… Look in her eyes… And tell me what you see,” the princess suggested with only a hint of firm command. Heeding her mentor’s words, Witching Hour approached the bed, peering at her patient’s dark green eyes.

Just moments before, those eyes had had been virtually lifeless, caught in the grip of despair that she would no longer fly, stripped of what defined her as a pegasus. Now though, after hearing Witching Hour’s firm assurance that she would fly again, Monkey Wrench’s eyes held just a small glimmer of life - not a large one and nowhere near enough to say she believed her doctor completely. It was as if Monkey Wrench dared not -

“Hope?” Witching Hour murmured in quiet surprise before looking back at Luna for confirmation. Her mentor merely smiled, beckoning Witching Hour back to face her.

“Hope,” Luna confirmed. “Even if you cannot do as you say and help Monkey Wrench fly again, she will know you tried. And if possible, you will learn from the failure, try again, and perhaps succeed. I do not call you my hopeful student because you have hope for yourself… I call you hopeful because you have hope for others, and give it to them freely. Do you understand now?”

Witching Hour’s response was almost too quiet to be heard; “I do, Princess Luna… I do…” Luna smiled down at her before lightly pressing her muzzle to Witching Hour’s forehead, just below her horn.

“Dream of success, my student…” Luna said quietly near the unicorn’s ear, before all faded into the dark of slumber.

Author's Note:

PHEW!!! That was a struggle and a half! Luna was very hard to write, but I hope I've managed it somewhat well. Also, TREAT! I almost tripled the word count compared to the other two chapters!

Eventually, I'm probably going to merge this in with Calm Wind's Wonderverse. I've recently been reading the 'cannon' works for that AU, and I positively adore them! I still have some bumps to iron out, but I have a story coming together, I think.

I think the next chapter will be leading to the procedure itself, and if I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I'll add an epilogue. As always, thank you for reading! Please comment with any helpful hints or tips you think I could use!

Comments

[ConningOfficer]

I'm glad you persevered, because you did a good job of characterizing Luna in this chapter, and as a result, you got me to understand your two protagonists much better!

Now, for a bit of impromptu musing: Dreams grant us our fondest wishes and place us before our most feared terrors, but they are not the real world. This mystery and this dual life characterizes Luna and would seep into any student that she would take.

Witching Hour is overtly characterized as an optimist and as a perfectionist, but to fixate on failure shows (to me) inexperience and insecurity. I look forward to seeing how Monkey Wrench and Witching Hour help each other grow under the watchful eyes of Princess Luna!

[Witching Hour]

5895882
Thanks so much for the review! I'm glad I presented a better understanding of my OCs, and gave Luna a better showing.

You are correct that fixating on failure can indicate insecurity and inexperience... But one of the perils of being a perfectionist is also being firmly convinced that nothing she does is good enough; read, insecurity. I know this rather well, as it's something I struggle with myself. Even when I'm doing well, I'm constantly afraid that something will go wrong... For Witching Hour, this is compounded by the rampant depression-causing aspects of being a doctor - every decision she makes can mean survival or death. This is also exemplified in Rarity's character - but again, it's not a life or death situation she deals with.

Anyhow! Thanks for continuing to read! I hope you enjoy Chapter 4 as much as, if not more than this chapter!

[Calm Wind]

I wasn't kidding when i said i was hilariously far behind in your story but im trying to catch up now

This chapter was adorable, i could almost feel the warmth of Luna's words to Witching. Very well done, im excited to keep going

[harts fire]

vary good.