Clip Clop Clip Clop, Clip Clop Clip Clop, Luna's hooves beat a nervous rhythm against the cold sterile floors of the ponyville hospital. Every so often she'd break out of her nervous pacing to glance at the small electronic clock hanging above the desk, much to the annoyance of the Nurses in the room who had sat listening to her incessant hoof beats for the better part of two hours.

Eventually she gave up on pacing and say down on the small chair they had for waiting ponies, and she lost herself in the drones of various hospital activity...

Her mind wandered, for a time, from the various duties she had left to her sister, to the exact moment she received the news, she had been sitting upon the royal dais, listening to the droning and pointless blathering of the petitioners coming to seek a favor of the hierarchy But she was only there in body, as her mind was floating midst a paradise of memories spent with her marefriend...

Twilight Sparkle...the mare who had saved her...

The night she returned was...hazy at best...she remembered small flashes of light and various garbled and diluted voices, most she assumed, screaming at her. And then she remembered rushing through the Everfree forest setting traps for her soon to be saviors the dark, now decrepit castle she once laid her head down to rest in every night, and finally the confrontation. She had been inside the Nightmare at the time, cradled by slowly curling darkness as she rest in the middle of her subconscious hearing naught but weak distortions of the current events.

But...that Changed when she saw a bright flash, too bright for even her uncovered immortal eyes, and when she pulled her hoof away, she saw a white figure faintly tinged with the spectrum of the rainbow along it's edges. She had at first shied away, expecting some harsh sentence from fate itself to fade away into the dust; but when she didn't feel the expected slap, or harsh sting of words she gazed up. The figure had a hoof extended towards her, and even thought the energy creature was faceless, she sensed an aura of kindness in it, one that it exuded to the point one could almost physically sense it. She firmely grasped it's extended limb, and her world faded to white.

The next thing she knew, she lay midst gently smoking shards of her former armor, and was being asked by her sister to re-take her position.

She had, of course, accepted, and had stayed in Canterlot the next year or so, regaining strength after the defeat of her darker side, and thus her, were stripped of their power. During that time, however, she had a rather unexpected correspondence with her sister's student, Twilight Sparkle.

She sighed and rolled the name over in her mind, her pen pal, then her best friend, then finally marefriend... everwhere she looked she saw Twilight! The clocl reminded her of the mare's insanity with due dates and puntctuality, the floor of her need for organization.

Even the little scraps of paper on the secretary's desk reminded her of Twilight! And just like that she was brought back to the start of it all; they had started off as most pen-pals would, as she learned from her sister, with the somewhat awkward beginnings of probing each other to find common ground. But from then on the tentative bond only strengethened. The young mare, the same whom she later realized was the template from which the entity that freed her was copied from, and her had much in common. They soon became the best of friends, and eventually their bond helped found Luna's decision to go to Ponyville on her own Holiday.

Twilight was a bit...startled of course, to hear the very outdated mode of speech from a mare whom had just jumped off a Gothic chariot that looked the part for a funerary service, before the small cloak she wore jostled and became a small swarm of bats. But, after a while she helped her to integrate into society more, and Luna truly began to enjoy the event.

Right before she left she gave her friend a small, affectionate kiss on the brow, and promised to arrange some sort of get together soon. She was, after all a princess and could change her schedule a bit if it so met her needs. And meet they did, from small, parties, to theater viewings, to 'just hanging out' at the Library; the talented unicorn and her had sampled much of Canterlot and Ponyvilles' delights together. And thus Luna came to realize her true feelings, she had been acting all the time from simple want of friendship; but that seed had grown into a lust for the other mare, to lay next to her and to hold her close. She wanted to feel Twilight there with her every night she could, and set out to acquire the mare's heart.

It had admittedly...taken awhile, she had previously been friends with her for a few years, garnering time and experience with the youthful pony; slowly and subtly, so she though at least, dropping hints about her goal. But apparently the clues weren't so subtle, as weeks worth of plans were dropped in a moment, as soon as she arrived she asked the younger mare if they could privately talk. Understandably Luna was nervous, but after walking into the library and talking it out with her, they both agreed to it, and the relationship started in full.

They began to dote on one another;and, as couples do,purchased small trinkets and gifts for one another, ranging from a small charm to guide one to the other should they ever need to, to a elegant silver wrought pair of earring that she had specially ordered with their cutie marks as charms, a symbol of them being a part of a cohesive whole.

Things had proceeded smoothly for a time, each one trying to outwit the other in a little game to outshine the other show of affection, each trying to find new ways to show their love; they were always one upping another in clever ways, ranging from simple surprises, to small dinner reservations at a restaurant, and then again to the creation of an entirely new constellation to commemorate their anniversary. They both knew they didn't need to try to one up each other, but they both felt the need to express to one another just how much they wanted, maybe even needed the relationship. But no one objected, Luna's sister, Celestia herself commented more then once about how adorable the two were together, much to their embarrassment But they had gotten her back at the reception with their bawdy jokes concerning making her an aunt.

She slowly resurfaced from her memories to look around the hospital for changes, which, besides a few staff switching shift and two ponies arguing over whether or not the get her a more suitable chair, of course suitable being them trying to put her on a throne or something equally gaudy and unneeded. Throne...there was a word that brought her back to only a few hours ago, when she knew she had to come here.

She had been on her and her sister's throne, thinking pleasantly about her lover while she waited for someone to come to her court; of course this used to bother her, but she was receiving love from a much more powerful source now.

However, during her prance through her memories she felt a sharp lance in her hoof, the one she had put the charm to locate Twilight on. She knew what it meant, but also knew she must try to finish the court, even if she knew no one would come to petition, so she hid her anxiety behind the mask of clinical detachment. But inside, she could barely sit still for want to alleviate her stress, and as soon as it came time to let her sister take the throne she quickly explained the situation to Celestia and flew off towards her love in Ponyville. Eventually feeling the tug of the charm pulling her towards the hospital.

And here she sat, waiting for the news on what had happened, and what was happening.

Words could not express the dread she felt as a nurse step into the waiting room and trod over to Luna, wearing a somber look all the while. The nurse explained to her what had happened; in a complete accident her Marefriend had been stampeded by a herd of frenzied cows, whom had been scared by a nearby predator. They didn't know if she would make it or not, as she had a few broken bones and she internally bleeding, from what they guessed if she got here any later her chances of survival would be about zero.

Luna...didn't take this news well... and sat back down with a heavy plop, eyes glazed and mind scrambling to process what was happening.

Until eventually the doctor walked out and gestured for her to follow him...

That night, no one in Equestria was safe from the wails of the mare of the night...