A Change Of Heart: Luna’s Gaze

by The Royal Equestrian

Chapter 10 Kindred Spirits

Douny was walking through the Palace halls, he had just gotten over a meeting with some delegates of the new Kaiser from the New German Empire. It was a tiring conversation between them but they had eventually found a middle ground for a new trade agreement. But now he was going to relax in the Palace gardens.

As he continued to walk through the halls however he started to notice that they were getting ever so slightly darker and darker. He could have sworn it was mid-day. Eventually, the darkness became so thick and misty that he couldn't see anything which started to worry the King. This continued until he started hearing whispering from the shadows.

"Who's there!" Douny shouted with authority in his voice, which only got a giggle from the shadows which made the man pull out his flashlight. Which helped but didn't do much, only being able to see around 12 feet in front of him.

"Don't you remember us?" The shadows whispered barely audible to the panicking King. "We are the culmination of all your sins and misdeeds."

"Get away from me." Douny tried to demand with a shaky voice, taking a step back reflexively.

"We know all that you have done, you can't escape us." The shadows said giggling to themselves.

At that Douny booked it down the hall taking as many turns as possible to hopefully avoid whatever the hell was after him but the voices only grew louder and louder in response. Until the man fell to his knees. He didn't know what kind of magic this was but he begged for it to end.

"Douny."

"Get out of my head." He demanded.

"Douny."

"I said get out!" He ordered, raising his voice.

"DOUNY!"

"I SAID GET OUT OF MY DAMN HEAD!!!" Douny said with his eyes open. Noticing a red and white blur in his vision surrounded by darkness. Blinking his eyes he noticed it was the red thestral from the other day.

"What are you doing here Scarlet?" Douny said groggily.

"I saw you tossing and turning out here, then you started talking and I came to help." Scarlet Blaze said, looking at the human with worry. "Why are you out here anyways It's Nightmare Night I thought you were going to be spending it with Twilight?" The thestral added.

Well, that explains the decorations around here, Douny thought to himself. "We got into a fight. Look, I really don't want to talk about it." Douny said, looking away from the armored bat pony.

"I'm sorry to hear that. But if you need somepony to talk to, I'm always here." Scarlet Blaze reassured the human.

"I'll live." The man added coldly.

"That may be true, but even the toughest of us need help from time to time," Scarlet reassured again with a hopeful look that earned a sigh from the downtrodden human.

"I'll think about it." He said just before one of the loudest shouts he has ever heard in his life came from his left.

"CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE WE HAVE GRACED THY TINY VILLAGE SO THAT THOU MIGHT BEHOLD THE TRUE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!!!"

With that, there was only one reaction the red thestral had. "Oh for buck sake." As he face hoofed.

"What the hell was that?" Douny said, looking to Scarlet for an answer.

"That was Princess Luna, which means it's going to be a very very long night helping her." Scarlet Blaze said before he left. "I'll be seeing you. I have to get some things prepared." He finished as Douny waved him off.

A part of Douny wondered why Luna was here. He could understand joining her subjects in this `Nightmare Night` which he could only assume was like Halloween, but coming to such a tiny town seemed like a weird choice to him. But what did he know, perhaps she was only here to keep a closer eye on him? But that seemed far-fetched considering the pony she sent would have been more than enough to do that. But that's none of his business he assumed so he lied back down and continued to get more rest.

🌙

After about an hour or so Douny woke up from his short rest to the sound of… sobbing. Well, that was weird, he had chosen this alleyway to sleep specifically because it looked the most abandoned. So why was someone here, not only here but crying. He chose to get up from the large box that he was sleeping in to check the situation out. Imagine his surprise seeing Luna of all ponies here. He felt a ping in his heart at the state she was in.

She was practically balling her eyes out with the number of tears he saw falling in front of her and from the clear look at her back she was slumped over with her wings dangling to the ground. Her sobs only added to the heartbreaking sight. Douny not knowing exactly what to do instead of acting on thought acted on impulse, walking over to the blue alicorn in an attempt to comfort her the action from the human caused Luna to jump not knowing anyone was there.

"Who goes there?" She asked, choking back her sobbing.

"It's only me Princess, It's me Douny. I believe we met in one of my nightmares but I have no idea if that was real or not." Douny said half-joking at that last part to try to brighten up the mood which seemed to go unnoticed by the lunar Princess.

"Twas real to be sure, but why are thou here, twas our understanding that thou were with Twilight Sparkle," Luna said, trying to choke back more sobbing, becoming a tad bit calmer.

"Long story short, me and her got into a fight, and I chose to leave so she wouldn't have to waste time telling me to leave." Douny stated, looking back to Luna who was now looking at him.

Part of him wished he didn't look at her, her face was soaked in tears, her makeup was smeared down her cheeks and muzzle, and her ears hung down like a beaten dog. The sight alone made Douny's own face bleed with empathy. Which Luna was quick to pick up on.

"We shall be fine Mr. Douny O'Whelan, twas nothing to concern thyself with." She choked back trying to give a stoic smile but failed miserably which only made Douny walk over with his box and take a seat next to her.

"Would you like to talk about it, I hear from a lot of other ponies that it helps" Douny said, looking at Luna with a hopeful smile. He was going to make this better he thought, he can't just stand by and watch something like this happen. Whatever was going on it wasn't small like Luna said it was.

Luna paused for a second, this creature she barely knew wanted to help her. But the question is should she open up about her strife especially to a stranger, one not even from this world. Perhaps her assumptions about him were wrong. There was only one way to find out but she didn't know if she had the strength to do it. Until she decided to force herself to take that chance.

"We… tried to open up to our subjects, after our actions as Nightmare Moon. It seems they still hate and fear us."Luna started choking back even more sobs as the tears almost started up again. "Ever since our return we have tried to earn their forgiveness and love but tonight has only proven one thing to us." Luna continued.

"What would that be?" Douny added as gently as he could.

"No matter what we do, our subjects will never accept us after what we have done. The worst part is that we don't even blame them for we know all too well what we had brought upon their ancestors, and we are left to our own guilt every single day." Luna answered with her tears coming back in full force this time.

Douny understood her, probably more than he even realized. With all he's done his world still hated him for it, the only reason his Empire stayed together is because of the fear invoked into all of his enemies. All the cities he burned down, all the people he murdered, and it left him with little wonder why he so thoroughly hated himself. Douny was caught out of his stupor with a question that blindsided him.

"Does… does thou hate us too?" Luna said choking on her sobs and she looked down to the ground in front of her not able to look the man in the eyes.

Douny was silent for a moment trying to process that question. When he did he finally responded. "No of course not, I mean I can't hate someone I just met," Douny said, trying to raise her spirits for what he was going to say. Which didn't work again which he mentally slapped himself for.

"I'd also be a hypocrite if I hated you for that." He started giving a sigh before he continued. "I'm no saint either, my nightmares are a constant reminder of that. I… I fought in a war I thought was righteous, but it only fueled my hate and anger. The things I did, the things I saw I regret. I was a murdering, slaving, tyrant, no better than a rabid dog who needed to be put down." Douny said with self-hatred. "But because of how cruel my world is it allowed me to live, the gods never stopped me and no one I fought was able to put me down. As much as I now wish they did." Douny finished with venom in his voice, with hatred in his eyes directed towards himself.

To Douny's surprise, Luna wasn't disgusted at him, from what he could see the emotion was sympathy mixed with relief if he was reading it right.

"We are sorry to hear that, but we know that thou are not like that now thou wouldn't have helped us in our time of need if thou were," Luna added, giving him a sad smile.

There was that look, Douny didn't know how to feel about it, nor did he think he deserved any sympathy or pity for what he had done. It's no different from giving pity to a monster in his eyes. But a small part of him wanted to hold on to this.

"I guess not but in my eyes, I'm a monster." The human finished looking towards the wall in front of them.

"Perhaps thou were, but we would like to believe that thou hast changed." Luna said getting up from next to Douny. "Come, we are heading back to Canterlot, and we'd like a friend to accompany us."

Now Douny really didn't know how to process that information, sure he had helped her but could he afford to take that kind of risk again. After a few seconds of debate he chose to follow her. This wasn't his old world anymore he reasoned, so there was no reason to hold on to those old ideas and rules anymore.

With that, the two went back to Luna's chariot to make their way to the crown jewel of Equestria, Canterlot.

🌙

"So what can I expect when we get to Canterlot? I've heard that it's the capital of Equestria but beyond that, I don't know much about it." Douny asked looking over to Luna, he had to say her mane was even more for the lack of a better word magical in person than back when he met her in the dream. It almost looked exactly like the night sky with some stylized flair.

"Tis a wonderful city filled with all manner of ponies thou shall enjoy thy time there if thou shall choose to stay." Luna said with a smile all signs of her crying gone as she cleaned herself up before going into the chariot.

"I don't really have anywhere else to go so I don't mind staying in Canterlot, though I don't know where I'd stay." Douny said, watching the land beneath them as they flew.

"We'll arrange a place in the castle for thou to stay free of charge, though in exchange we'd like to ask something of thee." Luna responded, a tad embarrassed at what she was going to ask.

"Sure, I have to make it up to you somehow for taking me in." Douny said looking over to Luna and noticed her embarrassed face.

"Can thou teach us to speak in modern Equestrian? We know our manner of speaking is very outdated." Luna asked.

"Well I don't know what the Equestrian language is but I can help and I'll try my best." Douny agreed to which Luna seemed relieved.

"We thank thee, it will not be difficult, thou are already speaking modern Equestrian." Luna said with a smile.

Douny couldn't help but smile back, though he did find it a little funny that English and Equestrian are the same languages. Perhaps this place won't be as bad as he thought.

Once they made it to the foot of the castle Douny found himself tired. He would have just asked Luna if there was already a place to sleep for him until she offered a small tour of the castle. He agreed to go on the tour, mostly since he didn't know anything about the layout of it and didn't want to find himself getting lost one day and needing to holler for help.

As they entered they found themselves in the throne room after first getting through the sizable grand hall. Which was decorated with a fine whitewash on the inside and some very intricate gold inlays, with some of the inlays even being made out of silver or platinum that made the shape of a crescent moon. There were also decorations on short pillars with potted plants with their vases having pictures in them that the human could only assume were historical or mythology that he knew nothing about.

The throne room was even more spectacular to Douny; the room had the same whitewash and gold inlay pattern but had stained glass murals depicting what must have been large turning points in Equestrias history, which made more sense to him considering how expensive it must have been. The thrones were just as decorated as the room was, though he did find it weird that there were two of them, but perhaps this country ran off of some kind of diarchy. Which would explain the banners on the walls, one being themed around the moon, most likely to refer to Luna's rule, and one that was solar themed which he could only guess had to refer to another unknown ruler to him. Either that or just some very interesting design choices.

"This is the throne room, during the day thou can find us here, as well as our sister." Luna stated with much more energy than she had hours ago.

"I was just going to ask about that, I noticed that there are two thrones, is your sister a ruler of this country as well?" Douny asked, looking over the room taking in its majesty.

"Yes, our sister is the other half of the diarchy, she controls the sun, much as we control the moon. We'd love to have thou meet her but we're sad to say that she has long since retired for the night." Luna explained, slightly disappointed that her sister wouldn't be able to meet her new friend.

"That explains the decorations, I have to say this place puts all the palaces, and castles I've been into to shame." Douny said, turning back to face Luna properly. "Perhaps I could meet your sister tomorrow, it would be a good excuse to get a good idea about how this world works considering how new I still am to it." Douny finished, putting his hands into his pockets which also reminded him that he really needed to clean them the first chance he got.

"We agree, we shall inform our sister when she wakes up, until then however would thou wish to continue the tour of the castle grounds?" Luna asked. Seeing no reason not to continue the tour the human nodded and followed Luna out of the throne room.

The rest of the tour went by relatively uneventfully, aside from a few questions like how long has Canterlot been around, what some of the murals meant, and a few others. Two of the rooms that caught his eye the most however were the dining hall and Luna's own bed chambers. The dining hall was the largest the man had ever seen it was easily 32x20 feet in diameter but it could also be much larger, not to mention how heavily decorated it was, sure it wasn't to the level the throne room was, but the dining hall was no small testament to the Equestrian's eyes for intricate design. The same could be said for Luna's bed chambers, it wasn't very large only a bit bigger than a master bedroom, but what it lacked in size it more than made up for in design the roof was a beautiful constellation of the night sky, and the floor was made up of a rich royal blue velvet. The walls were made of some kind of insulating stone that had been painted a lovely shade of blue a few shades lighter than the floor, and it had a beautiful array of platinum inlays of star constellations with the centerpiece being a beautiful looking moon.

It wasn't long after that when Luna showed him where he would be staying, it was an amazing room. It was decorated similarly to the walls in halls outside of his room though the bed was much bigger than he imagined it would be. Luna explained that they have delegates of all kinds of species so they needed to have larger or smaller beds to fit that need, and they had a minotaur bed to spare for him. Which they both chuckled to themselves about how much larger the bed is, even compared to what the human would need. Though it also did scare him a little seeing how large a creature from this world could truly be. It was a shock alone to see that Luna was closest to his height of most of the creatures here her height being around 5.8 to 5.10, but from what this bed could show a minotaur could be easily 10ft. Not only that but it shocked him to learn that there were minotaurs in this world and they were intelligent.

He made a mental note to ask about what other creatures and intelligent life there were in this world. But that would have to wait until tomorrow, his body was aching for a proper rest after today, and definitely a shower. Luna was probably just trying not to be rude considering how bad he smelled to himself. With that, he began to look around and found the door to his bathroom.

Making his way into the bathroom he noticed it was mostly all marble when it came to the stone, which he liked the look of. Taking off his clothes he noticed that he was still wearing the bandage from the hospital. Taking it off revealed that his shoulder, though still heavily scarred, and wasn't at risk of infection anymore which Douny took as a plus. Though looking closer at his body revealed other scars, cuts here and there, some from knives, most from gunshots that got a little too close for his liking. Nonetheless, he was happy to get cleaned up after the weeks he had been skipping a shower. Perhaps if he asked he could get a razor to shave the beard he had been growing since his arrival.

After taking a shower Douny went through his bag, checking if he still had everything. Confirming that he did, he got into bed to lie down, though he didn't go to bed just yet, instead choosing to process the events of the last few hours. From everything that happened between him and Twilight, his oddly vivid nightmare, he would have to make a note to ask Luna about that one, to his unlikely second meeting with Luna. Though he still didn't know about being friends with her, he hardly knew her. But he guessed that would all come in time, for now, sleep called him, and he was all too willing to answer that call.

🌙

Douny woke up to the sound of knocking, making sure he at least had some pants on. He grabbed his button-up shirt and his slacks and put them on as he made his way to the door. Standing in front of him was an armored pony whose armor appeared golden at a glance but in reality, must have been a highly brightened polished brass. The armored pony wasn't holding a weapon either but instead cleared his throat.

"Mr. Douny O'Whelan both Princesses Luna and Celestia would like you to join them for breakfast." The pony who Douny now assumed was a guard spoke, giving a slightly unsettled tone to his voice. Probably due to Douny being little over twice his height.

"Alright you can lead me there, let me just get my clothes on before I go." Douny said, as he started walking back into his room and buttoned up his shirt and zipped up his slacks, and got his socks and shoes on after. Once he was done he then walked out into the halls with the golden armored guard to make his way to the dining hall. Imagine his surprise when they moved over to a much smaller room that wasn't much bigger than a standard dining room on Earth.

"HAZA our friend Douny comes to meet us at last!" Luna cheered, raising one of her forehooves into the air.

"So this is the new friend you have been telling me so much about Lulu." The white alicorn which Douny assumed must be Celestia said, who was giving him a curious look. She seemed to trust him enough to be friendly with him, no doubt due to his meeting with Luna the other night, but still held a caution towards the human, which Douny saw as fair, to her he must have seemed strange. Not to mention what his now dirty clothes must make him look and smell like.

This alicorn looked like the polar opposite of Luna, instead of having a blur coat and stary mane. Had a pure white coat, a bright blue, pink, and green striped mane that flew in an invisible wind much like the blue alicorn next to her. She also had motherly magenta eyes which right now held a slightly suspicious look directed towards the human. Her jewelry was nothing to scoff at either being made of pure gold with some type of purple gems.

"Hello there Princess Celestia, and good morning Luna," Douny replied, giving each of them a small bow.

"There's no need for all of that, any friend of Luna's is a friend of mine, though I don't know if I caught your name, please tell us about yourself," Celestia said, motioning her hoof towards the empty seat in front of them on the small round table, which Douny moved to set in but found it slightly smaller than he'd like.

"Well, my full name is Douny Kornelly O'Whelan, I have been in Equestria for around 1 and a half months now, and I am honestly not sure about what I'm going to make of myself in this world yet." Douny openly admitted, choosing to leave out the part where he used to be a King, he didn't want to get into that, and frankly, he didn't want to be treated any differently because of his past.

"I see, though I must ask, if we could find you a way back would you choose to?" Celestia asked, giving the human a curious look."Not that we don't want you here, should you choose to stay we would be more than happy to let you become a citizen."

"Honestly, not really I don't think I'd have much to go back to. I lost too much to think about going back and having to rebuild from nothing." Douny stated as he looked up to meet Luna and Celestia's eyes. "If I have to rebuild my life anyways, I'd rather do it here and have a fresh start than back home where people are cruel." He then finished

"We thought you might say something like that. Though I am sorry to hear of your troubles where you come from, you have my sympathy." Celestia said, with a sad look in her eyes. Luna seemed to also share though her's seemed much deeper for lack of a better term.

"Thank you, Celestia. But enough feeling sorry for myself I'm interested in you and your sister Luna?" Douny asked, now taking his turn to give a curious look to the two sisters.

"Tis a long story, one of which we don't have time to tell. But shorten it, we raise and lower the moon, and rule one half of the diarchy, and our sister Celestia raises and lowers the sun, and rules the other half of the diarchy." Luna explained, with disappointment on her face, obviously wanting to recount the history of her and her sister.

"Though this does lead us into a question, me and Luna were thinking about," Celestia said, looking back over to the human. "We were wondering what kind of job you might want to pursue now or in the future?" Celestia then asked, seeing Douny mull it over in his head.

"I was wondering, considering I used to be a fighter by trade if I could join your military?" Douny asked, which raised an alarm for Luna.

"Douny thou does not need to go so far to show thy loyalty for thou has already shown it by helping us last night." Luna protested, looking over to the human with concern.

"I understand that, but I don't think I'd be good at much else in a world like this, I'd rather just become a defender or law keeper than re-learn a new skill," Douny explained, to which Luna seemed to understand though didn't seem to like the idea too much.

"If that is how you feel then the simple question is, which branch would you prefer?" Celestia then asked, with a questioning look as if she was shocked by his choice in career path. "We have the Solar guard led by myself and my Captain Shining Armor. Or the Lunar guard which is led by Luna, and her Lunar priest, Scarlet Blaze. There are other branches but we will talk about those if or when you served long enough in either branch." Celestia explained, holding that same look from before.

"I think I'd prefer the Lunar guard, mostly because I know the leadership of that branch better. No offense Celestia." Douny answered, look at the alicorns.

"Then it is settled, we can start whenever we make your equipment, or whenever you're ready, whichever you prefer," Celestia replied, still curious about the human's choice to join the guard forces.

"I think I'd rather hold off for at least a day or two. I'd still like to get to know you and your sister better, and I doubt I'd have many opportunities to chat during training." Douny answered, rubbing the back of his neck as he did so.

"Then I think that's everything. I'm sorry to cut this short but my sister and I still have duties for today. We could meet back up at lunch if you don't mind." Celestia said, giving the human a smile.

"Sure though I'd like to get my clothes cleaned, and perhaps a new pair of clothes," Douny answered, slightly embarrassed at the state of his garments.

"We have already got extra clothes for you to wear, our sister told us that you seem to prefer wearing clothes at all times. They should be back in your room." Celestia added, her smile growing ever so slightly.

"Alright, then I'll go back and clean up and get changed. It's been nice talking to you both." Douny added as he got up to leave, with the two sisters saying their goodbyes as well.

It was a good meeting Douny admitted, noting that he would have to get used to a new form of combat, but he was lucky to have taken a few HEMA classes (Historical European Martial Arts) a few years back, so he wouldn't be entirely blind in sword fighting though not nearly skilled enough to go in as is. He was curious about Celestia though, she seemed to be more received than her sister in some ways, almost as if she was calculating everything at the start. He couldn't blame her, he was an outsider to this world, but it's how she opened up a bit more at the end that threw him for a loop. That's just something he would have to stow in his back pocket for later; however, now was time for him to get cleaned and dressed for the meeting at lunch.

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading this new chapter, this one came out sooner then I had expected, This has also come out along side one of my few one shots I plan on doing so keep an eye out for those when they come out.

I hope to see you next time.

SPOILERS
Chapter 11 Hail The New Night Guard

Comments

[Wickedkingken]

welcome back and great chapter

[DivineCross]

Is he going to manufacture more rounds for his gun?

[AgentKorpsman]

"I think I'd prefer the Lunar guard, mostly because I know the leadership of that branch better. No offense Celestia." Douny answered, look at the alicorns.

Plus it is better trained than the solar guard.

[AgentKorpsman]

11532721
Oh I hope so. And introduce the arm of modern firearms to the world

[f0st3r21]

She knows he’s had a falling out with her sister’s pupil, yet she invites him into her home and even shows him her bedchambers in exchange for a few words of understanding? Something seems a little off. Either MC is playing a long game with the ponies’ nativity or Luna’s really trusting. And she’s right to sense a red flag about his request to enlist. He’s spoken enough about his past despite the vaguenesses to make them wary about him and a military position.