Learning to see Luna, the story of Vivid Colour.

by Hope

Chapter 28. Capability

Princess Luna woke as the sun hung low in the sky over her country, turning every sheet of white marble into gold cladding across the city.

She stood from her bed, and strode out onto her balcony. It was quiet, only the earliest of risers waking while it was still so warm out.

It wasn't going to be a spectacular sunset, she concluded as she examined the clear skies with a critical eye, and the rapidly fading light. So long ago, she'd spent hours preparing countless perfect sunsets. Each one like a burial for her sister, whose name now only echoed in Bitain and the church of the sun.

"You fell so far, big sister," Luna said to the sun, sitting on a cushion. "And forced me to rise so high. It's truly a tragedy they could write countless plays of, if I allowed it."

She watched the sun lower slowly behind the mountains, and closed her eyes.

"If I felt like being dissected in the court of public opinion once again."

Standing and turning, Luna lit her horn and smoothly rose the moon, silvery mist flowing from her wings and horn, and left in hoofsteps on the floor. It all evaporated in moments, and by then she was dressed and leaving, flanked by two royal guards.

"Where is my assistant?" She asked softly.

"Still at the front, your highness."

"Right," Luna sighed, shaking her head slowly. "Run off without a plan… I'll need breakfast of some sort, something simple, brought to the infirmary."

"Of course, your highness."

The guard broke away to fetch the food, but as Luna approached the infirmary, a nurse stepped quite deliberately into her path.

"Your highness! You're… awake!"

Luna squinted down at the stallion, impatience stirring in her heart.

"It seems so. Have there been any developments?"

"Y… n…. We just need a little more time," the nurse squirmed under Luna's gaze, but did not move.

“Were there no developments, then you would not be standing in my way,” Luna said with a scowl. “Speak.”

“She is awake, but…”

Luna brushed past the nurse, who whimpered in her wake.

When Luna approached the Infirmary, she heard crying. Crying she recognized. She broke into a gallow, and skidded to a halt just inside of the doors, finding Vivid Colour curled up in the far corner, crying out and pushing the doctors away when they tried to get close, her horn unlit.

“Vivid!”

The unicorn flinched at the loud noise, and Luna approached more slowly than she’d been planning.

“Vivid?”

Her voice softer, Vivid didn’t recoil, but her ears turned towards her as the doctors stepped slowly back, clearly having lost control over the situation.

“C… c… can’t h-hear,” Vivid mumbled, her voice slurred terribly.

Luna could feel tears coming to her eyes as she sat in front of Vivid, and gently touched her hoof with her own.

After a moment of hesitation, Vivid moved her hoof to feel the leg, and then further up to feel Luna’s cheeks and neck.

“M-m-m-m-moon,” Vivid mumbled, tears streaming down her cheeks as she scooted a little closer.

Luna sniffled and nodded, wrapping Vivid in her wings and holding her close before looking to the two anxious looking doctors.

“She has incurred harm to her mind, hasn’t she?” Luna asked in a pained whisper.

“It… seems so,” one of the doctors whispered in reply, nodding.

The doctor stepped closer, and kept her voice low.

“These things… sometimes heal over time, your Highness.”

“Is she in pain?” Luna asked sternly.

The doctor hesitated, before looking to the other doctor.

“Let’s begin pain management, poppy puree, one dram for now, we will graduate if needed.”

They began assembling their supplies as Luna carefully and gently moved Vivid, one step at a time, back towards the patient bed.

Vivid settled back into her bed, but reached back out with one hoof until Luna moved under it, the hoof resting on her neck.

“Will she be able to use her horn?” Luna asked as the lead doctor approached and carefully applied a white liquid to Vivid’s tongue with a dropper.

By the expression on Vivid’s face, it didn’t taste particularly good, but she ate it dutifully.

“I’m not--”

“Let me worry about that,” Posey said softly as she stepped from the shadows of the room.

The doctors jumped slightly, but Luna just looked to the newcomer and narrowed her eyes.

“Posey hasn’t left her chambers in years,” she said sternly.

“When I saw you last, I told you that it was my fault that Clover stole the metal,” she said with a sad smile. “I still feel that is true.”

Luna cast a spell, which swept across Posey harmlessly, and Luna relaxed, looking back to Vivid.

“You.. can help her?” she asked softly.

“I might,” Posey sighed, approaching a little closer. “I can try. But I make no promises, your highness.”

“An attempt is better than none,” Luna sighed, spreading one wing to gently brush against Vivid’s mane, which draped from the bed in dirty tatters. “Do what y--”

“M… moon?” Vivid mumbled, barely even moving as she spoke, the medicine leaving her numb.

Luna moved, putting a hoof on Vivid’s cheek, letting her know that she was present.

“Have… go?” Vivid tried to ask.

Luna looked to Posey, who stepped closer, and lit her horn.

It had been so long since Luna had seen the mage use her magic, and she’d trained herself so much in isolation, that it barely looked like unicorn magic anymore. It was a colored mist with tendrils that appeared spontaneously around Vivid’s horn as well, and seeped gently into it’s spiral.

Then Vivid’s blind gaze focused on Luna, and she smiled a little.

“My moon…”

“I am not leaving,” Luna said quietly, mouthing the words slowly.

Vivid frowned, and for a moment Luna thought that she hadn’t understood.

“W-win the w-w-war,” she insisted.

That, Luna understood clearly. Vivid wasn’t begging her to stay, she was commanding her to finish what she’d started.

A guard trotted into the infirmary, carrying a tray of food on his back, but immediately stopped and fell quiet as he noticed the situation.

“I can’t leave you alone here,” Luna whispered, tears starting to blur the edges of her vision.

Vivid reached out slowly, carefully, and put a hoof on Luna’s chest, smiling through her own tears.

“Go. C… C… come b-back sssoon.”

Luna carefully moved even closer and wrapped Vivid in the gentlest hug she could manage, half on the bed as she held her, and after a few minutes, Vivid had fallen asleep, and Luna stepped away, clearing her face with a napkin offered by the doctor.

“I’m going to be returning to the front,” she finally told Lyra quietly. “Protect her while I’m gone?”

“Always, your highness,” Lyra promised, standing a little taller.

Luna looked to Posey, who was releasing her magical grip on Vivid’s horn.

“And you will work with her, do what you can to help her communicate and regain her skills?”

Posey nodded as the last of her magic faded, and she smiled. “I am confident that she can regain some use of her magic, your highness. Focus on winning the war. We will be here when you return.”

Luna strode out of the infirmary, and everypony conscious in the room relaxed a bit once she was out of earshot, Posey looking more grim as Lyra rubbed her eyes.

“How long have you two been awake?” Doctor Ascelia asked sternly, walking over to them with her head held high.

“No longer than you,” Lyra retorted with a grin, as the other guard rushed off to try and give Luna her breakfast.

“Oh hoh, you wish to compare endurance with a doctor, please,” Ascelia huffed, smiling just a little. “Both of you, get some sleep. Lady Vivid will be sleeping for a good while, and you won’t be useful to her while she is asleep.”

“I’ll post a pair of guards at the doors for now,” Lyra said around a jaw-cracking yawn.

“And I’ve already put a spell on Vivid, so I should know when she awakes,” Posey sighed.

“And none of that,” Ascelia growled. “No more spells without my knowledge. I’m the doctor here, now shoo, the two of you. Off to bed.”

Once they were gone, and the guards were posted at the doors, she returned to Vivid’s bedside. The other doctor stepped out of the office, looking worried as he joined her.

“She will recover, won’t she?”

Dr. Ascelia’s stern expression faded to just concern.

“We should not speak of recovery,” she whispered. “Just speak of function. That…. Shall be our goal. To stand, to trot, to speak easily, to use her magic. Consider the Court Mage lost to the tides of battle, and now… a chance to save a civilian.”