“Are you sure about this, highness?”

To Princess Luna that was a question that hardly needed an answer. It was her position, nay her very essence to guard Equestria and it’s citizens against threats from without and within. After her lengthy recovery from both the Nightmare possession and using the Tantabus as a method of self flagellation, Luna had thrown herself into her royal position. The last few years had been peaceful. Boringly so, to be truthful. Most of her time was spent in the Night Court as a patron of the arts and taking the few petitioners that wouldn’t make day court.

She was thankful to leave the general governing to Celestia and slowly integrate herself into the more military side of things instead. Even with that, life in Canterlot was so incredibly boring with the same things day in and out. So yes, Luna was decisively sure about what she was doing. It protected her ponies and gave a bit of desperately needed excitement to her life. Thinking through her words and forcing the thrill out of her voice, there was only one thing to say.

“Yes, exceedingly so. We... I need to do this for our ponies. The creatures are probably in a delicate place after the other one was assaulted, so all of us will be on guard anyhow.”

With a bow, the pony left Luna to finish her preparations. It was rare that the Princess wore her full barding, in this case opting for a smaller set. Gently placing the solid platinum emblems of office into a lined wood case, Luna turned to an ancient chest nearby. Under the flickering torchlight in her tent, the iron banded chest certainly looked to bear the weight of ages. Closing her eyes and focusing on the memory, Luna ‘poked’ several places within and out of the chest. Each prod causing a small click to fill the tent, before a final rasp of a lock springing free. Ever so gently her magic lifted the lid as light burst forth from within.

Deep blue light filled the tent, shining out through small gaps here and there as if there were a miniature sun contained within. It had been so long since Princess Luna had opened the chest that held her relics from the Age of Discord. The heavily enchanted chest essentially contained her personal armory of ensorcelled accoutrements. Every item within was made out of a shard of pure Octiron, the only of their kind on the planet. As her magic caressed and lifted the iridescent peytral, engraved runes began to flicker and illuminate. Firmly in her grip, the color settled on a glossy silver with thousands of runes engraved in the surface. Without a second thought, Luna clipped it in place with her magic.

The entire encampment went silent when Princess Luna stepped out of her tent wrapped in what looked like pure starlight. It wasn’t bright or overpowering, but dim light flickered and flowed over the armor that she’d deigned to wear. From hoof to cannon and elbow to withers, thin plate covered her pelt. Even a small plate covered her muzzle to crest without impeding the flow of her mane. Yet the rest of her was seemingly unarmored but she seemed not to care as her magic settled a small set of runed bags over her flanks.

From nearby campfires an assortment of unicorns from the guard assembled at some unseen gesture to wait on her command. Others departed at a canter to head deeper into the forest to meet other groups surrounding the clearing. A cart had already been brought forward with the strange object reclining on it, note and royal seal applied. Clearing her throat, the Princess began to speak. Her voice was loud enough to carry through the small camp, but soft enough to not be heard past it.

“Scientists, Guardsponies, I thank you for being here, serving your country in ways that we’d never envisioned when Equestria was founded. We’ve all seen what happens when these visitors are attacked and the devastation they can bring. While we can’t fix the damages done by the wild creature that attacked the owners of this craft, we can at least attempt to preserve any relationship between them and Equestria. As Princess Twilight would say, there is probably so much we can learn from them, and them from us. It is our duty to try to see that through.”

“You’ve all received your orders, some already carrying them to other groups. For those here, I trust you’ll follow them to the letter. I, and I alone, will carry this object to the middle point of the field between us and our visitors. Any pony violating that, even if there is a threat of bodily harm to me, will be subject to severe disciplinary actions. On the other hoof, if we are right you will all be forever enshrined in the history books. Luck be with us all, and thank you.”

With that, the camp began to disperse to their preassigned tasks leaving Luna largely alone with the object. For the first time since she’d pulled the object from the heavens, it was doing something. What it was doing, she had no idea. Within the transparent section midway through the shaft of the object, machinery was moving around. One of the small dark circles had spun to face her as Luna lifted the pillar. Thankfully some enterprising pony had figured out how to fold the large golden wings, so it was significantly easier to manage. The object was still difficult to grip in her magics, fighting her to stay aloft but manageable.

With every step toward the clearing, the runes on her armor brightened as they accepted the flow of more and more magics. Over a dozen channeling gems filled the bags across her back, their matching stones held between the assorted unicorns throughout the various camps. All of them had magic pouring into them and transmitting to their brethren held by the Princess. That way she could focus solely on the object while her subjects powered the shield as one.

Luna ignored the thin red lines that crossed her body as she steadily walked past the strange machines in the woods. Her sole focus was on keeping the pillar upright in the air next to her. Not that Luna would mention it to her ponies, but she was also trying not to trip and go muzzle first into the dirt. That would not be a regal first impression after all. Princess Twilight had done that when meeting King Goldhorn the first time, and Luna was set on not following that mistake on a larger scale.

Brilliant light flowed into the clearing around the Princess as she crossed the treeline. To her senses, everything nearby was radiant from the ambient mana. It curled, flowed, and drifted in the air before getting drawn into the shield to reinforce it. Tendrils of magic quested over the terrain in front of Luna’s hooves, telling her exactly where to step without needing to look. Every movement was calculated or so she thought.

For just a heartbeat, the shield around Luna wavered and rippled as if under obscene pressure by an unseen hoof. Moments later it happened again increasing the mana draw from the gems to compensate before the flow simply ceased. She knew that meant that something had happened to the unicorns powering the gems but not what. Steeling herself for the stress to come, Luna split her focus on powering the shield and carrying the pillar. Panic nearly overtook her as multiple spots on the craft opened to reveal weapons pointed directly at her and what was probably the locations of several guard camps.

All she could do was stop and hope that raising a hoof in a placating gesture would do… something. Long seconds passed as Luna watched red beams pass over the treeline, decorating them with a thin grid of color for a moment as if searching, before the light disappeared. A forgotten breath eventually forced it’s way free from the Princess, turning into both a sigh of relief and appeal for oxygen.

The weapons were watchful, yet not firing. That at least gave Luna some hope as she gingerly stepped forward again. Just a few at a time, she inched closer before setting the object gently on the ground. After making sure the note and seal were facing the right way, Luna nodded deeply at the craft before making her way back toward the treeline.

Once she was past the glowing red lines, Princess Luna dispelled the shield and teleported back to the encampment. For a fraction of a moment, there was an unfamiliar pressure against her fur as she teleported, but it was written off as a mixture of stress and adrenaline. To say that Luna was excited after her excursion into danger was an understatement, but you’d never hear the guards talking about how she was fidgeting and dancing that evening after sharing a mug of ale with her citizens. The ponies would also not expect the ever watchful AI to be carefully going over gathered data in anticipation of her owner awakening in a few short hours. Next Chapter: 13. Open Your Eyes Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 19 Minutes