The first time they met, the Great and Powerful Princess Luna of Equestria was but a century old- a mere toddler, compared to the rest of her family.
Taking a stroll in the palace gardens, she felt terribly bored. Her sister Celestia was whittling away the hours with her betrothed, Lord Discord, and her parents were busy in their meeting room with two strange earth ponies.
Hearing a sharp bang behind her, Luna turned around quickly and bared her small fangs at the newcomer. His hair slicked back, a sooty brown coat- a mere earth pony.
"Pray tell what thou are doing in the Queen's private Gardens?" asked Luna formally, insulted at his casual gaze.
He laughed, and sat down.
"Simply resting my backside amidst the view of the younger princess."
Luna sat down gingerly next to him, and flicked an ear back.
"If my guards were to find thou, a mere commoner lounging around unaccompanied with the royal princess, they would tan thou backside, never mind sit upon it."
He laughed, a cheeky drop of sunlight upon Luna's ears, and strode back to the open doors of the palace, where two earth ponies in strange robes awaited. Luna's parents were with them.
"By the way," he shouted, "My name is-"
"I never did tell you my name."
His voice shone over the bustling crowds of the first Grand Galloping Gala, held in the honour of Luna's sister, who was casually dancing with a young unicorn. Most of the colts' eyes were following her, along with her husband of two weeks, Lord Discord.
Stallions and mares mingled together, a throaty hum of conversation flitting towards the King and Queen sat on their gold thrones, whilst Luna had hidden in a dark corner, playing with the shadows as Chrysalis sifted her way through the laden dessert tables.
Luna smiled, watching her mane coil and twist in the thin breeze. She was still getting used to her new look, of a deeper inky coat, and a mane that seemed to hold the very galaxy in it.
"Why not keep that little treasure to yourself? Mystery and power is in a name, of course."
"You have changed your course of speech."
"Naturally. Father demands of me to change with the times, in order to become a current and popular ruler."
"Well, you can address me as the Doctor, if you please. Care to walk?"
He offered his shoulder.
Luna nodded, and they snuck off into the waiting darkness.
"Do you tire of your sister's antics?" He queried politely.
"I do not offer an opinion on Celestia's behaviour. No one much cares for my opinion."
"I care."
They had stopped by a glade underneath the balcony.
"You look beautiful in that dress, Princess, a fine sight compared to my view of you all those years."
Her dress, a black frothy concoction of smoke and danger, had made her feel pretty, until Celestia had rudely muttered that she looked like Chrysalis after a few ales. But his comment made her feel that glow, somewhere deep.
"That's rather forward, Doctor."
He smiled, and looked at the grassy floor.
"It has been too long since we last talked, princess."
"A few centuries, perhaps. At my age, time whistles by till you scarcely have the breath to remember your life."
The doctor nodded, and looked at his hindquarters, that held his new cutie mark- a time turner.
Has the new ruler been decided between the two of you?"
"The favoured Sun-Child has won over me, yet again." Luna strode over to an innocent potted plant, and blasted it to smithereens. Her glassy eyes resembled the charred remains of the flowers.
"It does not matter that I am the one who looks after the young, the children, the dead, the moon. It does not matter that I am the one who protects our civilisation from their fears, that I am the one who shapes millions of ponies' personalities like the waxing and waning moons of the universes that I care for. All that matters is the bouncy, bubbly Tia, with her pink mane and long legs, the poster girl for our monarchy to reign supreme."
The Doctor looked at her.
"I wish to court you, Luna."
He strode over to her, and looked deeply into her bright blue eyes.
"I-I am already betrothed to Prince Sombr-"
Forgotten in a kiss.
Luna sighed, perhaps for the fourth time that hour.
She had tried so hard with the moon that night, making her treasure appear almost bloated with the light it held. Her stars twinkled brightly amongst the inky splodge of sky, a plethora of galaxies and nebulas swirling in and out of the very seams of the universes.
Yet no one in Equestria had spared it a second glance.
Luna shifted her feet, blinking away the crocodile tears pooling in her large eyes. She had rushed the other moons and stars in the universe just to spend time on her most favourite- but none save herself had spared a second glance before tucking themselves hurriedly into their warm beds.
A whirring noise distracted Luna from her depression.
"Luna!" a warm voice greeted her, nuzzling her cheek slightly before plonking himself down next to her.
Ah. Of course. The Doctor.
"Hello, dear sir." She greeted him with a rough voice.
Frown lines perched themselves upon the Doctor's brown face.
"Pray tell what troubles you, darling?"
Luna stood and opened her magnificent wings, gazing towards the dark sky.
"Do you ever wish you were another pony?"
"I've often wished to be a cat."
She chuckled slightly, watching his smiling blue eyes look towards his box.
"Hey, Luna. Come with me."
The Tardis was purring in the company of the Doctor's chosen one, gliding and swishing through space at a speed only the royal family could even think of processing.
A loud tapping echoed from the metal floors as the doctor rushed to and fro, choosing objects to show an amused Luna.
"Hey Luna, this one can tell the temperature in Saddle Arabia, and this one can open any tin can from Earth instantly, and this one make the Mars Rover do the Robot dance, and this one make a brilliant cup of tea, and this one makes you-"
"Let me look!" laughed Luna, showing off her fangs as she had all those centuries ago.
Suddenly, a beeping noise sounded from the Tardis' console.
The Doctor, without warning, grabbed Luna by the mane and opened the door to the Tardis.
Shrieking instantly, Luna found herself drawn to the beauty of her universe. Sparkling stars winked in the black velvet of the sky, galaxies swirling the universe to a mirage of cream and darkness,
The duo was speechless.
He was always changing.
Different features every time she clasped eyes on him, but he was still the same Doctor. Still her childish stallion that flitted through her stars saving the mares and stallions her father had created.
So entwined, yet pushed further and further apart by Celestia and her demands.
"Luna!" the harpies' shriek ran right through her. Inside the great hall of the palace, where they both had entered, her cawing echoed off the glazed marble and shining oak.
"What is it, Celestia?"
"Raise the sun for me. I'm tired from watching Mi Amora and Blueblood."
"Well, you will have your "momentary indiscretions". I doubt Mama and Father would enjoy seeing your brats disturb the balance of power." growled Luna grumpily. She had been awake all night watching her Selene Court, and raising both the sun and the moon was a hindrance to her busy schedule.
Celestia smirked, and whipped her rainbow mane behind her sparkling white coat.
"Then why was I chosen as the Lead Ruler? Maybe because I'm the more powerful, the more beautiful, the more...everything, really, dear. Now hurry up."
"Shut up!" Luna rumbled fiercely, glaring at Celestia. Year's worth of anger and hate had started to bubble up inside of her.
Celestia's smirk grew.
"Tell me really, who watches your moon and your stars? Apart from your pathetic self, of course, and not to mention that scruffy earth pony who seems to be your only friend. No wonder Sombra decided to break from your betrothal."
Luna thought of the Doctor. Brave, fierce, a screwdriver stuck between his teeth and a smile in his heart.
"Tell me, Celestia, have you ever wondered why Mama gave me the power of the stars?" Luna strode causally up to Celestia, watching her smile edge down to a glare of distrust.
"Maybe because the stars are nothing but the suns of other galaxies. "
An echoing silence built up in the marble palace.
"That's right, Celestia. I am the ruler of the suns. You think you have more power than me? Tell that to the millions of stars you see above you, foolish mare."
"Let the doctor save you now, sister of mine."
It was cold. Oh, so cold.
Her very talent, the child born in the sky at the moment she came into life, had become her prison. The craters of the moon sank into one endless haze of grey and black, boring her gaze into tearful frustration.
That whirring, so familiar, was the only sound to Luna's ears.
"What are you doing here, Doctor?"Her back turned to him.
He grinned, that happy, carefree smirk she thought was hers.
"To rescue you, of course!"
Snarling, she opened her wings and glared at him.
"It would be better for you to leave me be."
"But, Luna-"
"LEAVE!" She roared, before dissipating into smoke. The Doctor knew she was still there though.
She was trapped.
Oh, memories.
It was Luna's first Galloping Gala since returning back to Equestria. She was pleased to see Celestia had mellowed in the thousand years she had been gone.
Yet there was still a cold glint in her eyes every time she looked at the Mistress of the Moon.
The raucous behaviour had increased tenfold since the arrival of the fool Twilight Sparkle and her ménage of idiots known as her friends. Luna missed the times where elegance and class had taken precedence at her families' gatherings.
"Hello, Princess."
Her doctor.
She turned to look at him, her mane twisting in the breeze as it did all those centuries ago.
He had changed again. His brown coat and floppy fringe had changed to dusky fur and a shorn mane flicked back carelessly. His blue eyes, the same as always, were focused on her though.
"I'm afraid your niece tried to accost herself on me earlier."
"That is Cadence for you. A mirror image to her mother."
And like that, the wall tumbled down.
"I never stopped loving you, Luna. There's never been another mare for me, darling."
"You've changed again, Doctor."
"My love for you hasn't."
They both smiled at the cheesiness of his lines.
"I think I want you to call me by my real name, Luna."
And the two strode off into the waiting darkness, tails entwined.