A/N: Yeah Celestia was very out of character, but you get that. She only shows happiness in the show, but she was alone for a thousand years before Luna came back. Think about it. No matter how happy you may be or seem, you can snap or be depressed at anytime, like Pinkie Pie when she thought everyone was laughing at her.
Celestia is much the same as in her sister had only just come back from banishment and has already found a love, whereas Celestia has been around longer and hasn't. Sister jealousy is a crazy thing I hear.
Also, Luna was not very out of character. We don't really know what Luna's character is actually like, other than the 'Luna Eclipsed' episode, which she was dressed as Nightmare Moon. She was very loud, but sorry and apologetic. She also had a fun side and when she started to relax sahe had a great time and everypony accepted her. I also think she read about the Canterlot Royal Voice, and decided to use it.
The way i've seen people portray Luna is shy and quiet. Which is what I am doing, but as her character in this story develops, she learns to come out of her shell and become assertive. Tell me, if you were told your one love was banished from you country and that you could not follow, how would you act? Me? I'd certainly defend my love, at whatever the cost.
Anyways, I'm in the middle of a huge thunderstorm, and had to unplug everything, including the internet, so this chapter may be waiting to be uploaded for a while.
Enjoy chapter ten!
Chapter Ten: Alone and Broken.
I awoke to find myself lying face down in a puddle of mud. My belongings were scattered around me.
I looked up to see that the sky had big, black clouds and I could smell the moisture in the air.
After a quick surveillance of my surroundings, I discovered that I was outsideof the gates of Canterlot, possibly fifty meters or so. That ment that I was on the top of a mountain, most likely on a dirt track due to the mud.
I could vaugly remember what had happened. The only thing I remember was Luna trying to protect me and then nothing.
In the corner of my eye, there was a red object reflecting the glow of the palace, half buried in mud.
I struggled to get up. I discovered that I had a massive bruise on my chest and left thigh.
Limping over to the object, my heart sank. It was my guitar.
"NO!" I screamed "Nononono!" I was pulling it out of the mud, and saw that the neck had been snapped and three of the six strings were broken. I cried for who knows how long. It felt like hours. I had just lost the only thing that I had left that remined me of my family. It was the only thing left, besides Luna, that kept me from going insane. It had become a part of me, an extention of my body. I had never left home without it, and now its gone.
Pulling the guitar stap over my head, the guitar hugged my body unnaturally due to the break in the neck.
Picking up my scattered belongings clothes, I tore and tied a few shirts together to make a small makeshift bag which slung over my shoulder. It was pretty terrible, but atleast I didn't have to carry all my things in my arms.
A bolt of lightning stretched far across the sky, and soon followed some thunder overhead. Within minutes it had started to rain.
I had only gotten so far down the track before I needed a rest. I hobbled my way over to a tree and sat down leaning againt the base. My lungs were on fire, my head ached and my leg! I'd rather go through a whole day of magic lessons with Luna than this.
'Luna' I thought 'What would've happened to her?'
Ideas were racing through my head. Every single one was either of Luna being thrown in the dungeon, tortured or worse.
I was starting to panic, black was forming on the edges of my eyesight and before I knew it, I was out cold.
"Alright son. To survive in the wild, and who knows when you might be stranded out on the farm somewhere, you need to keep calm." Dad said.
I was eight, and dad was teaching me skills that, being a farmer, I would need to know.
So far he had tought me how to catch animals with a lasso, how to start a fire with two sticks and what sort of mushrooms you can and can't eat.
"Keeping calm is the most important thing when alone. As soon as you start to panic, your mind will start to play tricks on you"
I nodded as I took in the information.
"If you find yourself starting to panic, keep your mind on the thing closest to your heart" he started "No matter what, do not give up"
Dad held out his arms for a hug and I ran up to him to embrace him. The more I ran, the further away he got.
"Dad!" I cried, tears filling my vision "Dad don't leave me!"
I awoke screaming and yelling. It was morning, and I could feel the sun on my face. I saw the morning sky for the first time in a few weeks. It wasn't beautiful like I remember, instead, it was a dull yellow. There was nothing beautiful about it.
"It was just a dream Jackson, remember what dad said" I spoke outloud, knowing nopony could hear me.
I focused on Luna, and all the good times we shared. I imagined sleeping with her on her bed, her head on my chest with her warm breath creating a tingling sensation on my chin.
Almost instantly, I felt motivated. I tried to stand up, but was hit with a sharp pain in my leg. "Oh yeah" I said in frustration.
Using the tree I was leaning on, I managed to stand. Slowly, I limped back out onto the dirt tack, which was still a little wet from last night's rain. I started to follow the track down the mountain.
Now that it was day time, I saw just how high up I was. The track had a small picket fence following it all the way down, guarding anybody who was using the track from falling off the edge.
"Great" I said "Just when I thought my vertigo was no more" I was placing once hand on the mountain side as I hobbled down the long bending track.
Judging by how the sun was, I decided that it must be atleast four o'clock.
I hadn't even made it halfway down the mountain, and by this time, I couldn't put my hunger off any longer.
Luckily, a few hundred meters down the track, I could see a small group of trees off to the side where the mountain was carved away.
As I got closer, The small group of trees became a dense forrest. "Looks like i'll be staying here for the night" I told myself "Hopefully theres something I can eat within"
I ventured into the forrest like a mad, hobbling monster. I was panting and soon I had to stop.
A squirrel had curiously found it's way up to me. It was only a few meters away.
"Hey little buddy" I wheezed, still catching my breath. I held out my hand, falm facing down, so he could see I was no threat.
My stomach growled, which scared the little squirrel off. "Well that sucks" I spoke outloud.
An hour had passed and I had managed to find three mushrooms, two of which were not edible.
I had eaten my mushroom, and had fallen asleep at the base of a tree.
When I awoke, it was night, but the moon shon brightly. I knew Luna would have done that to help me in anyway she could.
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. My vision slowly returned and my pupils dilated so I could see a little better. Infront of me sat the squirrel from before, but this time he had a pile of thirty nuts and a few mushrooms, which he nudged over to me with his nose. 'It must have taken him all night to find these' I thought as I held my hand out on the floor.
The squirrel ran up my arm to my shoulder, where he sat with perfect balance while I ate. I shared a few nuts with him and scratched behind his ear, which he seemed to enjoy. The nuts and mushrooms only did so much for my hunger before I dozed off to sleep again.
When I finally awoke from my dreamless sleep, I found that the sunlight was still the same dull yellow.
The squirrel had fallen asleep on my chest, and awoke when he felt me moving around.
"I have to get a move on little guy" I told the squrrel, not sure if he could understand or not.
I got up and slung my makeshift bag and guitar around my neck and set off for the track, which hopefully lead to Ponyville. Five minutes of walking, and I saw the squirrel again, standing in the middle of the track.
We just stared at eachother for a while before he came running up to me, dashed up my leg and found his way onto my shoulder. "You've been following me eh?" I asked, not expecting an answer. "Well I could use a friend right now" I told him and he rubbed his cheek against mine. I had a newfound hope given to me by this little guy.
Limping for another two hours, the squirrel had jumped off my shoulder and glided down to the ground. Turns out he was a flying squirrel, which made him about twenty percent cooler.
By this time, I was halfway down the track. I could make out Ponyville in the distance. I walked up to the picket fence and looked down, it wasn't a cliff at this part of the mountain, it was a steep hill. I was contemplating two decisions. 'Go down the hill and cut many hours off my trip or follow the track and play it safe?' I thought.
Ten minutes of thinking, I decided to go down the hill.
Carefully and slowly, I made my way down the hill on my backside. It had only been thirty minutes instead of what I had estimated to be a two hour trip to get this far down the mountain. The squirrel had positioned himself upon my head for the trip down.
I looked up to find him looking down at me, which made me chuckle.
I should not have done that. I had taken my eyes off of where I was going and I lost my balance. I started to roll, of which I smashed my forearm and head against a few rocks.
Within a matter of minutes, my body smashed against the ground at the base of the floor, chest first.
I was winded and couldn't breath.
I was panicking, as my body shut down to try and take the pain away.
I awoke in the afternoon sun. It burned so bright and hot, I wouldn't have a clue how I wasn't sunburnt.
The first thing I noticed was the seering pain in my left forearm, it was bruised and cut. I tried to move my fingers and wrist, but was soon rewarded with another hit of red hot pain shooting up to my brain.
Using my instincts, I took my bag off from my back and took out two of my last shirts and made a sling with one, the other was used to help tie a strong stick against my arm, which didn't go without a few choice words and tears.
Once my arm was wrapped tightly to my body by the makeshift sling, I noticed that my guitar was not on my back.
I looked around and had spotted it only ten meters away. Stumbling over to it, in more pain than I had been in before, I found that it was even more broken that it was when I started my trek.
The strap wasn't broken, only disconnected, but the red colour of the wooden base was scratched and cut, and there were cracks all around it.
Carefully picking it up, I slung it around my neck as the squirrel flew gracefully down and landed on my shoulder. As he did so, I let out a hiss of pain, as faster than I'd seen anything move, he was one the ground running beside me.
"I'm sorry mate" I started slowly, hissing at the pain throughout my body "I'm too hurt to be able to carry you.
I started to walk, by walk I mean hobble as best I could, down the track.
"Shouldn't have done that Jackson, you bucking idiot" I scolded at myself. How could I be so stupid?
Another few hours had passed and I only had a quarter of the mountain left. My body was aching and telling me to stop, but I pushed on. I eventually made it to the bottom of the mountain, and had come to a signpost with three signs. It told me that there were three roads, one led to Manehatten, which had the number '197'. Underneath the Manehatten sign, was another saying Fillidelphia - 153.
The last sign was the one I was looking for. It read 'Ponyville - 14'.
I didn't know what sort of measuring system the ponies used, so I hoped it wasn't far.
I didn't get very far before the lack of water was taking it's toll on my dehydrated body. I must have been hobbling for atleast ten minutes before I had colapsed in the middle of the road.
When I awoke, I found myself in a room, laying on a bed.
"You're finally awake" I heard a voice call from left left side. I tried to turn my head but soon found that when I did, a shot of pain surged through my body.
"I suggest you down move, dear. Your body needs to heal" the female voice said. The pony moved closer to the side of the bed and leant over to get a better look at me. She was a bright white earth pony with a light pink tail and mane.
Her mane was tied in a ball at the back of her head, which was accompanied by a white nurses cap, which had a red cross with four hearts in each corner. Her mane was short and dropped slightly over her face, but not enough so she couldn't see. Her cutie mark matched the symbol on her hat.
She would have had to have been as cute as Vinyl. "I am Nurse Redheart" She said in a soothing voice "I'll be your nurse for your time here, and will be at your side whenever you need me" She let out a smile.
"Thankyou Nurse" I smiled back "Uh, may I ask you a question?"
The nurse smiled warmly "You may"
"How long have I been here?" I asked.
"About a week" She replied "I've enjoyed every second. It's an honour to work on a new species, let alone a prince!" she said in a giddy voice "Tell me if I do anything.. wrong. Nopony has worked on a, as you say, human before"
"A week?" I said, but my smile turned into a sad frown as my tears started to return.
"May I hug you, prince?" she asked "I hate seeing ponies so sad, and hugs seem to cheer everypony up"
I lifted my right arm, as the nurse wrapped her head around my neck and I cried into her mane and coat. She was so soft, I'd never thought a ponies coat could be anything like this.
"I'm n-not a prince a-anymore" I managed to stutter inbetween my sobs.
"Why? What happened?" Asked the nurse in a consoling voice "Let out all your tears"
All the pain that I had kept in these past few weeks rushed out through my eyes. The truth was, I missed home. Sure here was good, better than my world infact, but the ponies weren't humans. I cried for my parents, for my guitar, for Luna and Celestia. I told the nurse what happened at the castle, and what happened over the past few days. She momentarily brought back her head back and her eyes met with mine. Her blue eyes were filled with tears. "Thats.. thats horrible!" she told me as she yet again embraced me in another hug "I t-think Celestia over reacted" she managed to say.
We were there for atleast another hour and my tears were all dried up. I couldn't cry anymore, but I could still sob.
I turned my neck over to the window, it hurt so much, but I could see my quirrel friend standing on the window sill. I asked the nurse to open the window and as she did, the squirrel jumped through and landed on the bed beside me.
"This was the squirrel that I told you about" I said "If not for him, I probably would have gone crazy" As I confessed those words, I rubbed his ear.
The nurse smiled "Well it's getting late, I'll let you rest" she said.
"Uh, Red? If I may call you that?" I asked.
She blushed and beamed a smile "You may".
"Well, I was wondering if you could pass on a message to Twilight Sparkle for me?" I asked weakly. I was so tired.
"Sure can" she smiled "What would you like me to tell her?"
"Could you tell her to come see me here? I need to talk to her" I replied.
"I will tell her as soon as possible" She smiled.
I smiled back at her, holding out my arm for one last hug, which she quickly, but gently rushed over to embrace.
"Thankyou" I whispered into her ear, just as I fell asleep.
When my eyes opened, Red was sitting in a chair next to my bed, alongside Twilight Sparkle, who was crying.
"I suppose you told her what happend then, Red?" I looked at them both and smiled.
The nurse nodded and Twilight rushed up to me and hugged me "Oh Jackson, I'm so sorry! I've never seen the princess act like this"
"It's okay Twilight" I told her.
"You wanted to see me?" She asked, wiping away her tears with a forehoof.
"Yes" I started "I need you to send a letter to Luna telling her where I am, and to come in a few days once everything starts to calm down"
Twilight nodded "Is that all?"
"Should be" I replied, and Twilight galloped out the door like she was being shot at.
"Good afternoon Jackson" Redheart said with a smile on her face.
"Good afternoon Red" I said with a wink, which made her blush. "Hey, um, once i'm well enough to get up and about, may I take you to lunch? I have to thank you for everything you've done for me"
"I'd love that, but just as friends, right?" She asked with a confused look on her face.
"Ofcourse, after all my heart lies with Luna" I replied "But i'd like to be better friends with you"
"As would I with you" She smiled "Now, I'm going to go and get you some lunch, I'll be back soon" she said as she hugged me and left the room.
The squirrel had falled asleep by my leg.
Even though I was broken and hurt, there was still hope.
A/N: Alrighty then! Google search Nurse Redheart MLP if you don't know what she looks like.
Thanks for reading.