When Luna entered Hendrick’s house, the lighting was moody and dark, as if ignored by the owner of the building. Her mind filled with worry about what could have happened to cause it. Hendrick was, after all, widely known to be a supporter of the changeling, the leader and only reason he was still alive. Luna knew that that had been thrust upon him, that he hadn’t wanted to choose that path, but all those angry ponies didn’t.

She looked back at the door to the building, loose and swinging, unlocked and ajar when she had arrived. Her heart filled with desperation, but she knew that rushing into a bad situation would only make things worse. The house was quiet, so either the struggle was over, hadn’t existed, or had yet to occur. In all three of these possibilities, running through the house like a maniac would only end badly.

She lit her horn, the deep blue glow of her magic disguising itself against the walls, imitating the shadows of moonlight. Her hooves began to emit a dark purple smoke and she let her magic fade. Taking a careful step forward, her hoof came down unheard even to her own ears. She might’ve smiled at her skill, were not the situation so possibly dire.

She lurked in the building, unheard and unseen. With slinking steps that took her through every room, her mind recalled the layout from the house warming Hendrick had held not long ago. Each room, kitchen, parlor, living room, dining room. One after the other, they all proved to be empty and quiet, and for a moment, a dim hope began to start that perhaps she had overreacted. After all, they were only mad at the changeling at this point, and Hendrick had been so helpful to everyone in the town. There was no reason for them to attack him.

Yet, still, she had a disturbing feeling that fluttered in her heart, keeping her from ever truly feeling at peace. Not until she knew Hendrick was safe, not until he was alive and smiling and reassuring her that everything was okay, would she stop being on edge. Until then, she would keep her silent steps and her cautious demeanor.

Room after room proved clear, until only one room remained, and Luna had saved it for last in hopes that she wouldn’t need to check it. Hendrick’s bedroom was located on the opposite side of the house from all the other rooms, and she had purposefully worked her way around it. She didn’t want to wake him abruptly from much needed sleep, should her worries prove baseless. The princess had intended to visit him earlier in the day, of course, but a letter arrived from Shining Armor about several issues that needed to be addressed back at the castle and they had ended up taking more of her time than she would have liked.

There was a faint hope that this was one of the nights when Hendrick would be awake into the night, as he did on occasion need to finish up some last minute work for Front Page. The very last thing she wanted was to wake him up. She had looked through dreams before coming and hadn’t seen his in the tangle of threads anywhere in that realm, so she suspected it might work out after all.

Instead, she found herself sneaking through a quiet and still house with possibly nothing wrong at all. It hadn’t quite been the night that she had planned, to say the least. Still, perhaps Hendrick would be in his room, awake, and they could have some iced tea from the fridge. They could talk about how his therapy had went, and he could show off what he’d learned, and she could laugh, and they could enjoy the night until Hendrick had to go to bed and Luna had to go to the castle, both of them waiting for their next meeting. Simply wanting to be with each other.

Those thoughts were dashed when she saw the bedroom door ajar and heard pained, heavy panting from inside.

Immediately, Luna cast a detection spell. It was vague—it needed to be to keep low visibility—but it told her that there were two bodies in the room: one prone, the other leaning against the bed. Determined and fearing the worst, she swung the door open with a burst of magic and jumped through the threshold, casting a shield around herself, a shield that she immediately dropped when she saw what was waiting for her.

Shining Armor lay out cold on the floor, and Hendrick had himself pushed against the bed, his body tense in reaction to her sudden arrival. “Howgoesthewatch!” he shouted and sputtered immediately when he saw who it was, his entire body still tense but clearly devoid of any energy to do much else.

“Wha—Hendrick?!”

“Answer the question. How goes the watch?!”

She looked at the body of the unconscious captain near her hooves and it slowly began to dawn on her. “All’s calm and good, Hendrick,” she said, realizing that it was. For both of them. Hendrick’s shoulder slumped and relief filled his eyes as his muscles loosened their hold. “All’s calm and good,” she repeated before sitting next to him, wrapping a wing around his shaking form.

She turned her attention to the body on the ground as Hendrick’s shivers died away. She lit a very basic, very simple spell and dropped it on the form. A suffusion of blue emanated from the body and the white fur and familiar traits of Shining Armor slowly died away until all that remained was the black and green husk of a changeling. Both ponies stared at it, silence drowning out all the other noises of the night, with thoughts on why it was here and what it had been hoping to accomplish.

Luna broke the silence as she broke her stare away from the unconscious changeling. “Are you alright?” she said at last, more than slightly angry at herself for not asking sooner.

Hendrick offered a half smile to ease her guilt before he spoke up. “I’m fine. Neither of us had weapons, so it was mostly hitting each other with hooves. Which, of course, still hurt, but I’ll heal from a bruise a lot better than I will from a cut.”

“So then…” Luna glanced at the phony, “what happened?”

“Well, imagine my surprise when Shining Armor shows up at my door, telling me that Celestia had made her judgement on the changeling’s life when, not even a few hours earlier, I had seen her for a brief moment at the castle and how heavily wracked with torment she was.” He heaved himself to his feet with the help of Luna, then interrupted his story. “Do you have any binding magic for him? Don’t hurt him, just make sure he can’t run away.” Hendrick winced at a tone that had started to leak into his words, then looked into Luna’s eyes. “Please. Sorry.” She gave him a half smile to reassure him that all was forgiven, then she bound the changeling with some proper blue chains.

Slowly, they made their way towards the kitchen as Hendrick continued his story. “Anyway, so that set up some flags for me. Because as she certainly hadn’t made a decision when I saw her before, and even if she had made a decision after I left, I suspect she would’ve been tortured by it for a few days before admitting it was the correct one. That’s just who she is.” Luna found she had to agree with this deduction. He stumbled slightly, and she quickly steadied him.

“After all that trouble of learning how to walk, and now I have a bruised rib,” he said idly. “Guess I’ll have to ask Front Page for tomorrow off. Oh, wait, before I forget, can you send a message to Cadence? Tell her to check Shining Armor’s closet. I think that might be where he’s at.” Luna nodded, deciding she could question him about that deduction later. Her horn lit up and a brief burst of magic shot into the air, passing harmlessly through the roof on the way out. “Thank you. I hate to make you do this for me, like I’m an old helpless man.”

“It’s fine, Hendrick.” Luna was quick to try and relieve his fears.

“It really isn’t, though.” he responded immediately, a determined tone haunting his words. Luna decided to let the conversation die.

“Right, so, anyway...” He seemed to be growing annoyed with his own story, more out of being tired than out of anything else. “Blah blah blah, I asked him the question, he said ‘Oh, okay. Nothing bad happened, anyway.’ We got in a fight and now I’m acting like a wounded gazelle on the Serengeti. I think that means you’re all caught up.” He shook his head and a yawn escaped his lips. “I guess that means the adrenaline is wearing off.” He looked around the room quickly, then detoured away from the kitchen and towards the living room where a plush couch awaited him. “Can you do me one more favor, Luna? Can you make sure nothing tries to kill me while I’m asleep?”

“That depends. Did you get hit in the head hard by that changeling?” She said, sudden worry of a concussion entering her mind.

“No, it was mostly hits on the center of mass for both of us.”

“Then yes, Hendrick, I’ll make sure you aren’t disturbed.”

“Thank you so much, Luna,” he mumbled, his mind bumbling around as brains are wont to do before they give up and let the owner rest. “I love you,” he said in his delirium before he fell asleep. Unfortunately, this meant that he missed the burning red blush that immediately met Luna’s cheeks.

Shaking off the burning in her face, Luna turned her attention to Hendrick. His body was covered in blue as she examined the wounds he suffered. He’d been right about the bruised rib, but his entire barrel was covered in blunt wounds as well. Smaller and less important, certainly, but no doubt painful.

She put into work some of the basic medical knowledge she had learned from the nurses. It was more of a delay for actual treatment, but it ensured his wounds and pain wouldn’t escalate while he slept.

Next, she set up an unfiltered security spell on the building and a second, more focused one, on the changeling. If anything entered the house, anything at all, she would know. The same basic idea went for the changeling; movement was recorded as magical impulse and sent straight to her.

She secured the home, locking all entrances, and double-checked each of them before she sent a message to her night guard that she wouldn’t be able to hold court tonight. The reason was left unsaid, but she suspected that they knew why all the same. Throughout the majority of the night, she rested, ever awake next to Hendrick. She checked in on Blue multiple times that night with magical reconnaissance and relayed messages, but each time, she was told that nothing had happened, which was a relief.

Luna and Hendrick had come to an unsaid agreement, in the brief time they’d been awake together, that the reason the changeling had taken the place of Shining Armor had to have something to do with Blue. Nothing else made sense. What the reason was, though, neither could guess.

As dawn began to approach and Luna felt her own need for sleep rising, she began to wander around the house, always checking in with the sleeping Hendrick. She double-checked on the changeling and found him still unconscious in Hendrick’s room. Surprised he hadn’t woken up at some point during the night, she wondered just how strongly Hendrick had hit him to keep him out cold for an entire night.

Unfortunately, both beings who could answer that question weren’t able to at that moment, so it was simply another mystery for now. She closed the door behind her on the way out, renewing her spell on the chains as well as the security before she left.

Minutes before dawn, Luna closed her eyes. She felt the pull of Celestia, asking and suggesting at the same time, and she felt the closeness of the moon on her soul. In simultaneous agreement, the sisters shifted the ruling body of the sky and let the moon keep track of the opposite side of the world.

She sighed as she returned to her body and made to take a step. She forgot, however, just how disorienting it was when she wasn’t in a familiar room after she moved the moon. So, instead of moving forward with a careful stride, she instead ran into an armoire that had been standing nearby. Nothing broke, luckily, but a small blue box did tip off the top of it, landing at her feet and springing open as if by some mysterious force.

Inside, she saw a dazzling ring, sapphires lining a silver hoop in resplendent clarity. She almost choked on something that wasn’t there, having been completely taken by surprise. Hurriedly, she clicked it closed and put it back in its hiding spot, pretending that she hadn’t seen it at all. When she entered the living room again, she saw Hendrick slipping off the couch and onto the floor.

“Have a good sleep, Hendrick?” she asked politely.

“Perfect.” He smiled. “I hope the night passed without any trouble?”

She nodded and excused herself, stating that there were a lot of things she needed to catch up on and wishing Hendrick the best of luck at the hospital. He replied happily and wished her the best of luck with her errands before she was out of the door. The whole thing felt rushed, but polite, and Luna suspected that Hendrick wasn’t at all put on edge by her demeanor. The last thing she wanted was to make him feel like now he had to propose.

Back in his house, however, Hendrick went about his morning routine. The first stop of which was to look at a small blue box on top of an armoire. Immediately, his face fell and his eyes went half lidded. He looked at the box, slightly depressed. It was off center and had been turned around the wrong way. “Dangit,” was all he said before he went about the rest of his practice as normal, slightly distracted by the nagging need to decide what he was going to do now.