Martha made her way down the hall of the little old farmhouse, the aged wooden floorboards creaking as she set foot on them. Upon reaching the end of the short walkway, she stopped at the door in front of her and gently pushed it open, looking towards the bed in the center of the room and its sole inhabitant.

It was a young man, very tall and handsome, with short, brown hair and slightly tanned skin. He lay in the bed, fully clothed and seemed to be extremely restless. He tossed and turned over and over again, mumbling in his sleep as he did so. After some time, he stopped stirring, but still continued to mutter incoherently.

The old woman felt pity bubble up in her stomach as she watched the obviously perturbed young man suffer in his dreams. She closed the door gently and made her way back down the short hall and into the rather spacious living room. An aged, rather portly man sat in a recliner, watching the softly glowing television before his eyes. As Martha entered, he looked to her, his own concerned expression matching hers.

“How’s the boy doin’? he asked, shutting the television off as his wife took a seat in the nearby easy chair and sighed a little.

“He’s tossing and turning like there’s no tomorrow, and he won’t stop mumbling in his sleep.” she replied, taking off her glasses and pinching the bridge of her nose gently.

“He sure was upset when I found him.” stated Otis, looking away from his wife and recalling the events that had transpired the previous day, “Just kept sayin’ he’d lost her...”

“Lost who?” inquired Martha.

“I think he said it was... Vinyl. Whoever that is.”

“Maybe that’s his girlfriend he was talking about last time he was here.” suggested Martha, replacing her glasses and looking to Otis who glanced back in her direction.

“Maybe... That’s a rather odd name for a girl though, don’t ya think?” asked the old farmer, scratching the stubble on his chin.

“Well, you know how names go nowadays.” said Martha, “I’m sure that ‘Vinyl’ is about as socially accepted now as Betty or Bob was back in our day.”

“That’s entirely possible... But it still don’t answer the bigger question here, the one I know both you and I’ve been thinkin’ about all night.”

“How’d he get here?” Martha finished.

The elderly couple looked away from each other once more and contemplated the question at hand. Oddly enough, this wasn’t the first time that the young music producer had suddenly appeared on their little Kansas farm. Almost a year ago, Otis had heard some sort of disruption and wandered out into his field to find the tall young man laying there, unsure of how he even managed to get there himself. Last time, however, he was much less disturbed...

“What’re we gonna do, Otis?” asked Martha, drawing her husband’s attention once more, “We can’t just let him back out in the world like this. With as emotionally disturbed as he seems, he’d stand absolutely no chance of making it!”

“Well,” Otis began, glancing down the hall towards where Josh was staying, “we’ll do what any good Christian folks ought to. We’ll take him in for a bit, at least till he’s decided what his next move’s gonna be.”

Martha nodded and glanced out the window at the slowly lightening sky. Upon glancing at the clock, she noticed it was a little past seven in the morning.

“Wow,” she said, rubbing her eyes, “we’ve been up all night, haven’t we?”

“Well, I suppose we’d better get some shuteye then.” Otis said, standing up and making for their room next to Josh’s at the end of the hallway, “If we’re gonna help him at all, we’d better be well rested.”

Martha nodded and slowly stood to join her husband as the two made their way back to check on Josh for a second before heading to their own bedroom. Staying up all through the night to keep an eye on the producer afforded them the luxury of easy sleep, but their unexpected house guest was still suffering the loss of his love in the form of uneasy and disturbing dreams. Josh’s mind was still haunted by the beautiful face of his marefriend as she cried and begged for the princesses of Equestria not to take her lover away, a plea all in vain as he was violently torn away from her and the world he had come to call home.

The bright, golden sun began to rise over the little town of Ponyville, bathing the village in its warm and comforting light. Luna, the Equestrian princess of the night, would normally have taken this time as her cue to return to her home in Canterlot to sleep and prepare for the next evening. Yet, the royal indigo alicorn still sat on a small cloud outside the home of Octavia Philharmonica, peering in through the upstairs window at a cream colored unicorn mare with a shaggy blue mane and tail as well as a black connected eighth note tattooed on her flanks. The fur on her face was heavily matted and her already disheveled mane was even messier than normal. This particular mare, known as Vinyl Scratch, had spent almost the entire night crying heavily over the loss of the absolute love of her life, her human coltfriend, Josh Daniels.

As the night princess watched the gentle rise and fall of the distraught mare’s chest, she felt nothing but guilt tug at her heartstrings. Her carelessness in the Canterlot Statue Garden had seemingly lead to such a sad sight. All she’d meant to do was vent her frustration over her sister’s insane plan to introduce Josh to Equestria in the hopes that the loving and tolerant natures of the ponies there could change his cynical and emotionally destructive ways. Though the night princess had initially disagreed with it all, she was heavily surprised to see that her sister’s intuition had not only been correct, but that Josh had decided to return to Equestria and stay with the love of his life, the pony she was now watching sleep.

Both she and her sister, Celestia, princess of the sun, had received an urgent letter from Twilight Sparkle saying she needed their assistance in a matter concerning the human and another hateful pony by the name of Filthy Rich. The princesses were both well aware of the situation with Josh in Ponyville, from Filthy’s newfound crusade against him, to his imprisonment, and everything in between. Though initially they believed that the issue would handle itself and ponies would never see Josh the way Filthy does, the two alicorns finally resolved that the situation was more than out of hoof now, and must be dealt with as soon as possible. The sisters showed up at the trial when the time finally came for it at the behest of Twilight, and helped defend the wrongly persecuted human. After all, what better defense could Josh have than the rulers of Equestria themselves?

However, neither of them expected Filthy Rich to be able to rile up the crowd like that against one innocent individual. Luna was so flustered and so caught off guard by what was happening that she barely had time to talk her sister out of her actions before she used her magic to send the human back home to earth and thus cause an incredible amount of heartache for his friends and lover. Immediately after Celestia sent Josh back home, she rushed out of the room and headed for her chariot, tears trailing down her face. Luna followed close behind, barely able to comprehend what she had just seen. Just as the ivory alicorn reached her guards, however, she ordered them to take her back home, leaving Luna in Ponyville to help the distraught group of mares back in the courtroom.

And that is how Luna found herself outside Octavia’s house, keeping watch over Vinyl as she cried and dealt with the reality of her new, lonely existence. Not once had the night princess left her spot, simply choosing to keep an eye on the emotionally disturbed unicorn so she didn’t attempt anything drastic.

“I’m so sorry, Vinyl.” she said quietly, the guilt in her heart increasing one thousandfold as she watched the uneasily sleeping mare.

Before too long, she noticed the sun’s continued rise and felt it was time to return to Canterlot at last to rest for the day. Making sure Vinyl was still asleep, she sent away the cloud she had been resting on and made the short flight back to the golden city of Canterlot and its royal castle. Alighting atop one of the balconies nearest the throne room, she made her way inside the giant gilded doors and immediately saw her sister sitting at the head of the room on her magnificent throne. The regal mare had her head hung low in sadness and her eyes were closed. Luna approached as carefully as she could, knowing full well that Celestia hadn’t slept well that night.

“I see you managed to raise the sun for the day.” she stated as she finally approached her solar sibling, “And on only a few hours of sleep too.”

Celestia didn’t respond at first, instead just continuing to sit there in sadness. Luna looked at her sister with a deeply concerned face and prepared to try and say something in an attempt to liven up her mood somehow. She was cut off right as she opened her mouth.

“How is she?” asked the ivory alicorn, raising her head and opening her eyes as her sister closed her mouth once more.

“She’s... well, I knew she’d be fairly distraught, and I’d worried that she may do something horrible...” replied Luna, trailing off a little, “But she’s safe, at least.”

Celestia said nothing to that, not even making a gesture to acknowledge her sister’s words. She merely sighed and lowered her head again, closing her eyes as she did so. Luna looked at her unbelievably depressed sibling for some time after that, unable to find any words that could possibly help the situation. She’d not seen Celestia like this since the last of their closest friends died thousands of years ago. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Luna finally spoke, drawing Celestia’s attention back.

“Tia, I have to know why. Why did you do this? Did you even-”

“Please, Luna. I don’t want to talk about it right now...” replied Celestia, still with her head down and a somber look on her face.

“I just need to know.” said Luna firmly, “You know you can’t avoid discussing this forever.”

“I’m well aware, Luna,” Tia replied weakly, unable to keep a slight hint of annoyance out of her voice, “but now’s not a good time.”

“It’s as good a time as any, sister.”

At those words, Celestia’s head shot up, surprising Luna with her movement and the glare that she was giving her. The dark princess actually backed away from her sister in fear as Celestia looked towards her with angry tears in her eyes.

“What is your bucking issue, Luna?!” she spat at her indigo sister, actually raising off her throne and approaching the mare, “Do you think I wanted to do that, that I wanted to tear apart two individuals who were so deeply in love?! Are you somehow convinced in your little head that I found any sort of sick pleasure in that?!”

Luna continued to back away as Celestia advanced on her, the anger never leaving her stare as she did so.

“Well, I didn’t! But what was I supposed to do?” she shouted as Luna crouched low, her ears pressed against her skull as she looked to her angry sister, “I had no choice! It was either I send him home where he can be safe, or I leave him here and force him to face the rage of the ponies in that room!”

Celestia’s enraged voice began to falter and shake as sadness overwhelmed her regal form once more. Eventually, she heaved and collapsed to the ground, tears of absolute frustration she’d been fighting back flowing fast and free from her violet eyes. No longer able to contain herself, the alabaster mare collapsed to the ground and began to sob openly. Luna rose slowly and watched her normally composed and poised sister lose herself right there in front of her.

“I d-didn’t w-wanna do it!” wailed Celestia from her position on the ground, “I’m s-so sorry to them b-both... I’m a f-failure...”

“How could you possibly be a failure, Tia?” asked Luna, approaching her sister’s sad form and gently rubbing her back, “You brought together two individuals and allowed them to fall madly in love with one another.”

“I c-couldn’t protect them...” said Celestia, sniffling a little before continuing, “And what’s worse, I allowed such hatred and intolerance to manifest itself in my own kingdom. I could have stopped it the whole time and d-done my duty, but I failed...”

“No kingdom’s perfect, Tia.” said Luna gently, leaning down to look her sister in the eyes, “You know that better than anypony.”

“I know, Luna. But to have this happen in a world where we hold love and tolerance in the highest degree...”

“It is... extremely unfortunate...” admitted Luna.

Without warning, Celestia stood once more and walked unsteadily towards a nearby window, staring out of it at the slowly rising sun she had placed in the sky only hours previously.

“Filthy Rich did more than just shame us yesterday, sister.” said Celestia, not taking her eyes off the glowing orb in the sky, “He showed me just how far we fell in our duties as the rulers and protectors of this land. Not only could we not save Josh from this in time, but we’ve also let the horrible ideals of Filthy Rich spread throughout Ponyville.”

“You could have protected him.” said Luna simply, joining her sister once more at the window, “Just send him to another place in Equestria so that Vinyl and his friends could find him again and cast a spell to protect them.”

“If his friends can find him, so can Filthy, whether I cast a spell or not.” replied Celestia solemnly, “This whole thing would just happen all over again, and that’s the last thing we’d need.”

Luna opened and closed her mouth, unable to find the words she needed. After some time of struggling to find her tongue, she finally relented and gazed out the window along with her sister.

“What’re we going to do now then?” she asked, not taking her eyes off the scenery before her.

“We keep an eye on them both and pray that one day, everything can be alright.”

With that, Celestia turned and returned to her throne, not saying another word. Luna simply stood and watched her for awhile before determining she wouldn’t get anything more from the sun princess. She decided to retire for the day as normal and slowly made her way down the hall towards her darkened, lunar themed room. After removing her normal royal regalia, she climbed into her large, violet star-spangled bed and prayed a silent prayer for the human and pony, hoping deep down that somehow, in some way, everything would be alright.