Fallen Eagle

Chapter II: A Moonlight Chat

Hello one and all and welcome to Chapter II of Fallen Eagle! I am so ecstatic and grateful that I now have 8 followers and 5 favorites to this story! I know it's not much, but I am happy to have that many early on. In this chapter, Cougar awakens in the middle of the night and cannot get back to sleep, so he decides to take a little walk to tire him out and help him wrap his head around why and how is in Equestria. Luckily for him, a certain Princess of the Night is on patrol and decides to help him open up a little. And an FYI, Luna is one of my favorite characters.

And to the guest review who asked 'Why does Cougar's tail have AK painted on when he was stationed in Florida?' An excellent question my friend. Sorry if I didn't make it clear enough in the prologue, but Cougar and the rest of Ghostrider Squadron were originally based at Joint Base Elmendorf/Richardson (JBER) in Anchorage, Alaska (where my grandfather was stationed at in his final days of serving in the USAF) when they were moved to Florida at the start of the second Cuban Missile Crisis. The Air Force didn't think changing the tail initials were a very high priority.

By the way my fellow readers, do you like only having Cougar do a first person point of view so you can all have a better sense of his internal struggles?

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(Cougar's POV)

Surprisingly to me, I actually slept pretty good. Probably due to how exhausted I felt from ejecting from my F-15 and then having the big reveal about being saved by talking ponies. My slumber didn't last very long however, for I woke up due to a slight tugging on my right hand. My eyes snapped open and my left hand immediately smacked down on whatever was yanking on my right hand. I looked over to see a poor nurse pony shaking from my hand smacking her hoof. "I-I ap-apologize s-sir," the nurse said and pulled her hoof away, "but the IV is empty and I was going to remove the cord from your hand," she explained and turned away in fear. My tongue briefly stuck out to moisten my dry lips as I opened my mouth to reply.

"No that's alright," I replied, "it's just instinct with how I was trained back on my world. I didn't mean you any harm," I apologized with a smile. "I'm sorry if I hurt you," I quickly added. The poor mare slowly turned around with fear in her eyes and slowly removed the needle from my hand. She went to leave, but I placed my hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, I don't want to hurt anyone or anything while I'm here, you just startled me," I kept apologizing and explaining. The nurse gave a weak smile and trotted out in a hurried pace. "Nice going Coug," I mentally cursed myself. My trust with these ponies was still extremely limited, but I still felt horrible for smacking a nurse on her hoof for doing her job.

My eyes drifted up to the clock only for a groan to make its way out of my mouth. "Only 2:34 in the morning?" I complained and laid my head back down. The faint glow of the moon shone through the window of the room and briefly shed light on the bed next to mine. Rainbow and her boyfriend (I'm guessing) were sound asleep, not together of course. I rubbed my eyes and swung my legs over the side of my bed. Again as I tried to stand up, a small twinge of pain radiated throughout my back. My top teeth bit my lower lip to keep a swear from making itself public while I rubbed my back. "Celestia wasn't kidding about me having to take it easy," I remarked as I slowly stood up and began to walk out the door. Luckily these ponies left my cargo pants on so I didn't have to double check to make sure my back door wasn't wide open. Untying the knot in the back, I removed the hospital gown and laid it on my bed before putting on my Air Force shirt and quietly opening the door and silently walking out. Going on short walks always helped me to get back sleep when said sleep would do its best to avoid me.

The hallway I strolled into was huge. The ceilings were at least twenty five feet high and there were about twenty foot windows all along the wall, allowing a brilliant white glow from the moon to illuminate the entire hallway. Taking in all the decor and statues, I rounded a corner only for my heart to freeze before jumping into my throat. About four pegasus guards were standing in front of a giant pair of doors. "Who goes there?" One of the guards flew up and landed in front of me. "State your business," he ordered me as a spear was produced from behind him.

"I'm the creature your Princesses brought here to heal and all I want is to take a little walk to help me sleep, alright?" I explained. The guard looked from me to back behind him where another guard nodded towards him.

"Very well, but stay away from these doors," his free wing gestured to where the other three pegasus guards were, "these doors are private and only Princess Celestia or Luna may enter," he explained.

"Understood sir," I instinctively saluted and turned away from the giant pair of doors. Obviously I was curious, but since I was grateful for Celestia and her friends for saving my life, I wanted to honor her privacy. But before I left, I turned back to the guard, "hey, which door is the exit to the balcony outside? I Just want to maybe walk a few laps around it to get tired," I questioned.

"Turn back around, past the infirmary and it's the first door on your left," the guard replied. I looked back from where I came and nodded a thank you. I soon found myself on the outside of the windows on the balcony, basking in the moonlight. The night air was cool and relaxing as I did what I came outside for: Walking laps. The view of a city down below, was to die for. Even though a good majority of the lights were out, I could faintly make out the silhouettes of the buildings in the distance. My feet stopped waking and refused to move as I leaned on the concrete railing, overtaken by the beauty of this night.

A gentle breeze flowed past me, but I barely noticed. Forgetting all the harshness and negativity of the past 24 hours, I was absolutely lost in what was feeding my eyes before me. I was so lost, that I failed to hear the sound of wings flapping and hooves clacking onto the concrete behind me. "Hello, young Cougar," a gentle voice remarked, making me nearly fall over the railing, "what are thou doing outside, shouldn't thou be in thy hospital bed recovering?" She asked with a smile as she folded her wings in. The dark blue alicorn walked up to me before standing beside me as I caught my heart. "I apologize, did I startle thou Cougar?" She apologized.

"Just a little bit," I replied while pinching my thumb and index finger close together.

"My apologies," she said again and rested one of her hooves on the concrete railing. I waived it off as my heart rate got under control and I sucked in a deep breath. "So, what are thou doing out of bed?" Luna questioned curiously.

"A nurse woke me up by accident while taking the IV tube out of my hand," I explained, "so to get back to sleep, I decided to take a little walk throughout some hallways until I saw this balcony. The view of the city below is absolutely beautiful. I haven't seen a view like this since I was a child," I told the dark blue Alicorn Princess.

"Hmm, yes the view is quite breathtaking from here," Luna remarked. I looked up from the city to the night sky and again got lost in the sight.

"The night sky is probably the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life. I've always admired the twinkling stars against the inky blue sky," I whispered. Luna's hoof dropped from the railing and dropped onto the ground.

"I thank thee for the kind compliments young Cougar," Luna thanked me.

"What do you mean you thank me?" I asked, completely confused as to what she meant.

"I am the Princess of the Night, I raise the moon at dusk every night and I lower it at dawn every morning. The night sky took me quite awhile to get right, but the sky felt so empty with only the moon occupying the space, so I created the stars to give ponies and other kinds something to admire besides the moon," Luna delineated.

"Wait, you raise and lower the moon, every day?" I asked. I couldn't believe someone could actually do that, then again, I was rescued by talking ponies and Alicorns, so I shouldn't be getting so surprised.

"That is correct, and my dear sister raises the sun at dawn every day and lowers it at dusk every night," Luna said as her horn glowed and a table with two chairs appeared in front of us, "please sit down so we may talk further," she asked nicely. Still feeling wide awake, I pulled a chair out for Luna and then one for me. "Thou are quite the gentlecolt," Luna complimented.

"Thanks," I replied, trying to get the hang of the different Lingo.

"So dearest Cougar, who raises and lowers the moon and the sun in your world?" Luna questioned. I swallowed, still marveling in the fact that the moon and the sun didn't move on their own in this world.

"Well Princess, nobody does," I began to explain, "you see, in my world, our moon orbits our planet, meaning it raises itself every evening and lowers itself every morning. In turn, our planet orbits our sun, so it raises itself in the morning and lowers itself at night." I purposely didn't explain about planet rotation since I was afraid she would start asking questions I couldn't explain. Let's just say science was not my strongest point in High School.

"Fascinating," was the only thing Luna could say at my explanation. It was then I remembered what Luna told me earlier about my nightmare I had, so I decided to pry into that a little harder.

"If you don't mind me asking Princess," I began, "what did you mean earlier when you said you entered my dream?" I questioned.

"Oh I do not mind at all Cougar. Along with raising and lowering the moon, my duties as Princess of the night also include becoming in charge of citizen's affairs during the night and also protecting my subjects from their nightmares or sharing advice with them in their dreams. Not long after we brought you here to heal you, you began to show symptoms of a nightmare, so I entered it to protect you," she explained. "Many times I have had to enter dreams of my subjects to make them feel better or to prevent them from making a terrible mistake."

"Wow, that's amazing," I remarked and setback on my chair.

"Tell me young Cougar, who watches over your dreams in your world?" Luna politely asked me.

"Just like with the sun and moon, no one does your highness. If we have nightmares, we wake up and handle it our own way. I would listen to my favorite song or just tell myself that my nightmares cannot hurt me, though different people had their own ways of dealing with them." Again, Luna's face was of complete surprise and shock.

"You're telling me that nopony watches over thy dreams at all?" She questioned.

"Kind of," I decided to have a little fun, "there is this movie where someone enters random people's dreams and well, he kills them," I cracked a small smile. "His name is Freddy Krueger."

"How gruesome!" Luna exclaimed, "why would thou create something so evil?" Luna shook her head back and forth.

"Because, that's how some of my species liked to spend their time, watching others- eh never mind," I wanted to tell her, but I didn't want to scare her of how my species behaved most of the time. Luckily for me, she refused to hear any more of the dream murderer. "Princess, I have to be honest with you, I may be calm right now, but I still don't really know how to react to being a new world," I admitted, "and I'm not worried about not being accepted by everyone, heck I'm still shocked you and everybody that saved me is alright with me being here. "It's just, this is so strange seeing another species other than mine being the dominant one. Everything is upside down to me and to top it all off, I'm still confused as to how I got here and how I am still alive."

"Do not fret, I went through the same thing young Cougar," Luna replied.

"Excuse me?" I replied.

"Well first off, I was locked away for a millennia and when I returned, the speech patterns had changed, behaviors and customs had changed. It took me almost a year to get the hang of the newer lifestyles," she told me, "second, what do you mean you do not understand how you survived?" Luna leaned closer to me. I let out a long and loud sigh before attempting to explain.

"When I ejected from my jet, there were 20Gs of pressure being exerted onto my body. Some pilots are lucky enough to escape with a broken arm or leg. Sometimes if a pilot is not sitting in the correct position, their bodies could be put under too much pressure and it can kill them. And I injured my back because of how I was sitting, but even if that didn't kill me, I should've drowned from crashing into the ocean, but I somehow missed the entire ocean and wound up here," I explained as bet I could.

"Perhaps it was a saving grace from forces beyond on even my comprehension, or because you showed humility and tried to sacrifice yourself, you were blessed with a second chance," Luna offered.

"If that's the case, I'm going to do my best to embrace it," I remarked. "But, I'm terrified Princess. I don't have a clue if I will even fit in here. I'm mostly worried about causing a panic from your subjects and ruining your, Celestia's and Twilight's reputation as Princesses. And plus, who is going to take me in?"

"My sister and I can if you are willing," Luna replied with sympathetic eyes and patted my hand with her hoof, "you are scared and that is normal, but with time you will learn to accept friendship from anypony and our world can learn to accept you."

"That might not work Princess. No one here has ever seen a creature such as myself and if word got out that you and your sister are housing a dangerous new species, I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me, I've been through that too much in my life," I let out.

"Well, you have the rest of the night to relax young Cougar. Tomorrow you will be released from the infirmary and meet with my sister, Twilight and the rest of the elements of harmony," she smiled and got up from her chair.

"I am willing to embrace my second chance and prove that I am capable of sharing living quarters with somepony," I attempted to use the local terms, but found it very weird to say. "I do not wish to harm anypony Princess and I will work to the bone if that's what it takes to find a house to stay in."

"Very well, now sleep on it Cougar, you have a busy day tomorrow," Luna touched her horn to my forehead and I suddenly felt extremely tired. "Oh, and if you ever need anypony to talk to, just close your eyes and call my name," she advised and took off from the balcony. I watched her groggily as she flew upwards into the sky and disappeared in a quick flash.

"Did I just, make a new friend?" I asked myself. Thanks to Luna though, I shook it off because I was suddenly tired, so I walked back into the castle and found the infirmary. The nurse whose hoof I accidentally slapped earlier was refilling the IV bag near my bed and started shaking when I re-entered the room. "Hello nurse," I grinned, "I am still very sorry about slapping you earlier, can we please start over?" I extended my hand out.

"O-o-okay," she trembled and shook my hand with her hoof.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Nu-nurse Candy Striper," she replied.

"Thank you for taking care of me," I bowed my head slightly and held the door open for her as she left. As I was about to fall asleep, I heard some mumbling behind me. I saw Applejack whispering to herself, but also shaking slightly.

"G-granny Smith, couldja please shut that winda? It's gettin' a lil chilly in here," she wrapped her arms around her torso. My eyes fell upon the coat rack where my helmet and flight suit was. I grabbed the flight suit and laid it out over her like a blanket. It was obviously too long for her, but it fit around her just enough. I wrapped the sleeves around her neck and she snuggled right into it.

"Goodnight, Applejack," I said before tossing my shirt onto the nightstand next to me and climbing back into bed. I could've sworn I heard Luna's voice wishing me a good night's rest before I shut my eyes.

End Chapter II