It's that time of the week again. Like always, post anything relating to the Princess of the Night.
Story archive: http://pastebin.com/He5X50m6
Last Moon-day: ain't in archive
It's difficult to find reasons to live when you wouldn't even be fit to serve her in any capacity.
>>25608323
NMM did nothing wrong
>>25608394
I gave up a long time ago.
>>25608398
I'm planning to let myself freeze to death when I visit Antarctica. It's a shame I won't be able to see the moon from there, I don't think. Anyone know any moon related puns I can die laughing to?
>>25608412
If everything is completely pointless, why bother killing yourself?
Just come with me and let the nothing consume you.
It is only when you lose everything that you are willing to do anything.
>>25608434
It's not that it's pointless. More that my projected future if I continue to live would be less preferable to dying.
That's a nice offer, but I don't think we'll be able to reach a meaningful understanding. The best joke in human history is believing we can understand each other.
>>25608474
Well then if you are filled with determination, do as you must.
I wish you the best luck..
>>25608498
I have very little determination left, actually. It doesn't take much strength to kill yourself, ironically. If I were stronger, I'd find reasons to live out my life. If I didn't care so much about failure and being honest with myself, maybe I'd be able to.
Luna has a use for all her subjects though. I'm sure she could find a disposable role for me so that at least my death would be somewhat useful. Though, the fact I'd rather die serving someone else points to how much of a problem this all is.
>>25608534
You remind me of myself a few years ago.
If you had a dying wish, what would it be?
Glory to the night, so say we, her children.
NLR, we live on in her glory.
Oh, I guess this is the real thread
>>25608323
>It's that time of the week again
Shit. I hate Mondays. Back to the lab again, literally
>>25608323
>ain't in archive
Really?, i shall remind you that there wasn't a moonday last week
>>25608323
Sup faggots.
Are moonfags kill
>>25612427
No. At least, I hope not. Haven't been here in a couple months.
Don't let the thread die, I've got green in a couple hours
>>25608534
>disposable
Could be worse,you could be stuck in one of the daytime raids.
>>25612920
Page 9 bump for green.
Has all the moonfags defected to /sun/?
LOYALS REPORT!better to be burned than turned
>>25614225
Still here.
What's up moon people?
Well, it's time to do this.
Blood Moon:
Part 1: http://pastebin.com/5ZaMuGnL
Part 2: http://pastebin.com/6gEku3M1
Part 3: http://pastebin.com/drhgWuqS
Part 4: http://pastebin.com/2b9p0m40
Part 5: http://pastebin.com/H41cny22
Painkiller:
Prologue: http://pastebin.com/5jzmYgSi
Part 1: http://pastebin.com/DqiX1Auf
I'll start posting chapter two in a few minutes.
>>25614225
I only serve the objectively best ruler
>>25614505
“What are they?”
>Your voice is breathy and hushed with wonder
>These creatures that now swarm the familiar landscape before you are like nothing you’ve ever seen
>Many of them are small, and they skitter about, looking like ants in the distance
>But some are tall and vast, moving slowly and shaking the earth as they do so
>“Elementals,” Celestia explains, eyes not leaving them
>“They were some of my mother’s earliest creations – her first attempts”
>“Before she figured out how to create flesh, she tried animating what was already in reach – dirt, stone, water…”
>“They have little intelligence to speak of”
>“For the most part, they hide, and until now I was never sure if they were truly what we might call ‘alive’”
“So they’re what’s causing all this crazy bullshit?”
>The sun goddess never tries to make you feel stupid, she just does it unintentionally by knowing everything
>“Oh no, Anon,” she shakes her head
>“As I said, until this moment I wasn’t entirely sure if they were sentient, but I am now”
>“Because the terror that stirred us has awakened them as well”
>“They’re afraid”
>>25614716
>When you look again at the lumbering bodies of stone, you realize that they follow no path to speak of
>They aren’t rising to attack the world
>They just mill about in confusion
>She’s right; they’re just as terrified as you are
“So what do we do?”
>If anyone in the multiverse knows what to do it’s her
>“What can we do?” she wonders calmly
>“Until this threat reveals itself for what it truly is – and I am quite certain we have not seen its final form – we cannot act with any sort of conviction”
>You can’t argue with that
“Okay, then onto some slightly more pressing shit”
“That giant, honking rock guy over there is about to stomp through Ponyville”
>It’s been years since you’ve walked around that town
>Twilight was once beholden to the place, but no longer, and as she drifted away from it, so did you
>Now it’s just a distant shape on the horizon presided over by a large – some would say awkward – crystalline palace in which she only occasionally lives
>But it was once your home – even if hardly anypony who lives there now would recognize you – and your heart still sinks into your stomach when you see it about to be trampled by a massive, unthinking creature
>“I do see that, Anon, however I have no cause for concern”
“Alright”
“Then you and I are very different”
>Even if you could get there in time – which you can’t – you’d be powerless to stop that giant, shambling thing from trampling your “hometown,” so you just watch as its rocky feet draw closer and closer to crushing the quaint, thatched shacks that populate your former hood
>>25614747
>Something catches the corner of your eye, and even from here you swear you can feel pressure on your ears
>It’s the quiet but massive sound a 747 would make if it didn’t have engines
>An airborne shape hails from the mountains to the northwest, chasing away your stricken expression as the enormous, winged creature dives toward the earth with reckless abandon
>Just a moment before the titanic stone elemental’s foot crushes one of the first houses on Ponyville’s outskirts, a massive, scaly arm shoves it back
>Two enormous, clawed feet hit the ground with an earth-moving impact as the dragon throws his immense self between the rock creature and the unsuspecting town
>The stone titan is great – were it to stand next to Canterlot Mountain, its head might reach the lower city – and already agitated
>It lashes out in fear and confusion, and you can almost feel bad for it
>Spike is a bit small – by comparison only, of course – but he’s fast
>And more importantly, he’s defending his friends
>He catches the rocky fist in his own, wings beating against the air for support as he absorbs the impact and then musters the momentum to thrust it away
>The elemental barely has time to stumble back before it’s torched by a massive blast of green fire
>It would take far more to actually destroy a creature of such magnitude, but that isn’t the intention here, and when the flame abates, you can see parts of it glowing with heat
>With the weight of a tectonic plate, the elemental staggers and then flees, chased away by a thundering bellow that says “fuck off” in no uncertain terms
>Spike then flashes a thumbs-up toward Canterlot
>You pretty sure even a dragon’s sight isn’t good enough to see you from down there
>But he knows she’s watching
“I guess you knew that was going to happen, huh?”
>>25614597
NMM is fuggin sexy mayn
>>25614845
>“Yes”
>“I trust my friends, Anon, and I trust them completely”
“I don’t think you understand what trust is, Sunny”
>She still gazes into the distance, but you can feel her full attention on you now
>“How do you mean?”
“It’s only trust if you count on someone without being sure what they’re going to do”
>She’s silent for a long time
>“Anon?”
“Yo”
>“When my sister awakens, I need to see her. This is not a dinner invitation that she can ignore or a teatime she can put off for next week; it is imperative that we meet immediately. Would you please tell her this?”
“You can count on me”
>“I know”
>“And in fact – were I anypony else – I would say that I trusted you”
>>25614863
>“Astra”
>“I’ve found you”
>In a flash of panic, you awaken, upright and dizzy before you’re even fully aware of your body
>You hear short, sharp breaths next to you
>You woke up because Luna did
>It’s only been six hours since you climbed into this bed next to her, and you’ve both been torn away from your dreamfield prematurely
>The sun is still up, but you could swear that the light of a double full moon still stains your retinas
>And a strange voice lingers in your ears, laced with anger and malice
>She looks at you, eyes wild and unfocused
>A capillary has burst in the left one, tinging it red
>Her ethereal mane is unkempt, flowing in many tendrils
>She has that lamentable look of someone who’s had way too much to drink and not nearly enough sleep
“Holy shit, calm the fuck down sweetheart,” you say, placing your hands on her shoulders
“You look like you’re about to blow a brain fuse”
>Luna presides over the world’s dreams
>She has the ability to walk in the mind of any creature upon this earth, so long as it slumbers
>It’s ironic, then, that she herself never actually sleeps
>Of course she must lay her body down to rest at regular intervals, but when her eyes close, she knows no oblivion
>She just wakes up on the other side
>Ever since she vested in you a part of her powers, you’ve gotten a taste of what it’s like
>Sometimes, you fall asleep here, only to find yourself awakening in the dream world
>But there are still interludes of nothingness
>Not for her, though
>At least not usually
>“Anonymous,” she whispers raggedly, her bloodshot silver gaze meeting your own
>“I had the most horrible hallucination”
>>25614897
>This isn’t right
>What last you remember, you were both sitting in your field of dreams and laughing together
>Things were finally starting to feel almost normal again
>The events of last night were becoming a distant memory, and you were once again reveling in your own private realm
>There was none of this terror
“Moons…when? And more importantly, where?”
>“Between,” she breathes, clutching at her chest as though she must hold her heart to keep it bursting through
>You have to stop yourself from mirroring the gesture
>Instead you rub your eyes and crack your neck, letting the mid-day sun warm you into consciousness
>This room used to be completely enclosed, but now it has a window through which light streams
>She doesn’t elaborate, and you embrace her, laying her down so that your heads share a pillow
“Talk to me”
>“I was neither here nor there,” she murmurs, staring through you
“Luna,” you implore, shaking her, “I’ve seen enough freaky shit in the past twenty-four hours”
“Please make some sense”
>She blinks and swallows hard
>“It was like walking in a haze”
>“I was…aware – to a certain degree – but I didn’t comprehend that it was just a dream”
>“She was smothering me, and I was powerless”
>“All of my strength and all of my magic amounted to naught”
>“I couldn’t breathe”
“I’m really hoping this is just going to end up being a joke about your sister’s giant ass”
>“Anonymous, be serious”
>It’s not a reprimand
>It’s a plea, half-panicked
>“For the first time in my life, I was powerless over my sleeping thoughts”
>“And I am so very afraid”
>>25614918
>You can see the desperate need for sleep in her eyes, but she’s confused and shot full of adrenaline
>Something in your mind is turning, and when it completes its revolution, you can practically feel the pins clinking inside your head
“Moons…you had a nightmare”
“A real one”
“That’s what it’s like for most people”
>She stares at some distant point in space many miles beyond your face, chest still heaving, eyes like dinner plates cracked with redness
>Her chin trembles slightly before she speaks
>“I always knew that ponies sometimes forget their dreams after they wake”
>“That they often don’t know that a dream is a dream”
>“‘Am I dreaming?’”
>“You’ve no idea how many times I’ve heard the question”
>“But I never imagined it was like that, not in my wild–”
>She trails off
>“I’ve no right to say that,” she breathes, falling silent and blinking deliriously
“Moons”
>You wrap your arms around her, and she’s rigid, her muscles showing no sign of unseizing as you kiss her neck
“Please don’t turn this into another reason to hate yourself”
>She says nothing, still quivering with tension, like a steel spring in your embrace
“Luna, it’s okay, I’m here”
>You can feel her nigh-indestructible engine of a heart punching you in the chest
“Do you want some water?”
>She shakes her head
“Do you want some beer?”
>She shakes it again
“Do you want a back rub?”
>She nods
>You sit up, gently rolling her onto her stomach and straddling her back
>She’s a slight little thing, but your weight is a comfort rather than a burden
>Even from a prone position, she could buck you through the ceiling if she wanted
>And the ceiling is made of rock
>You crack your knuckles
>Ever tried to massage a wound-up alicorn?
>It’s harder than it sounds
>>25614955
>You begin kneading the back of her neck, and similar to last night, it’s like trying to massage metal with skin stretched over it
>Your thumbs already ache, and you know you can’t do anything here
>It’s all about finding that key spot where your puny mortal strength can actually do some damage, and working from there
>Just below the base of her neck, your fingers are greeted with a consistency that feels slightly more like flesh
>With a small, painful “ah” she releases the breath that she probably didn’t know she was holding
>You try moving out to her shoulders, but they’re harder than diamonds
>You could grind at them until your fingers broke
>So you keep moving down, pressing against each vertebra, but nothing’s giving
>Until you reach the one right between her wings
>Aha
>You press down with your palms, but your bodyweight isn’t enough
>So you switch tactics, coaxing her wings into opening and then grabbing the base of each one, swiveling them in opposite directions and pulling on them
>Usually that makes her horny, but you’ll take anything you can get right now
>As you continue to turn her feathery appendages in gentle circles, you shift so that one knee is braced between them, pressing down on that one part of her spine that isn’t completely locked up
>The rise and fall of her breath is slowing down here and there with tiny groans, and you tighten your grip
>Then you yank like you’re trying to rip the arms off a tweaked-out grizzly bear, and the resulting pop is like a gunshot in the quiet room as you feel something give beneath your kneecap
>“Mmpf”
>There we go
>The keystone has been pulled, now it’s just a matter of doing the work
>>25615001
>You move up a notch, cracking it with a double-handed push and then kneading outwards, feeling the stone-like consistency rapidly melt into that of putty
>She moans indecently when you reach her neck, and you can feel her whole body relaxing now
>You massage back and forth between the base of her skull and her wing joints for minutes on end, until your arms begin to feel like jello
>You take one final walk down her back, past her wings and onward to her rear
>A short, sharp thrust of your weight right above her tail causes a final spinal decompression, which emits a solid “thunk”
>“Ummf…”
>One of her legs kicks involuntarily, but a couple broken ribs a few years ago taught you to stay far out of the way
>You squeeze her ass for good measure – eliciting a contented sigh – and then flop back down on the mattress, slightly winded
>Her eyes are half lidded, one being almost closed
>You try to kiss her, but her tongue is hanging out, so you opt for the cheek instead
>Her ears twitch, and her wings slowly fold back up as she smacks her lips
“Better?”
>She gives you a sleepy but adoring smile
>“If anything ever happens to me, dear heart,” she comments lazily, “you could make your living as an alicorn masseur…or chiropractor”
“Ehh…I only know three other alicorns, and I’d feel really weird about doing that to any of them”
>“Good point,” she yawns, turning to wrap around you in a four-limbed hug and bury her face in your neck
>You can feel her wetness grinding against your leg with a gentle, sleepy lack of urgency
>She pecks at your collarbone, and the only reason you aren’t ramming her into the headboard right now is because of your lack of sleep and the anxiousness that recent events have instilled in you
>You have a question, but you’re afraid to ask it for fear it might rile her up again
>So of course you do it anyway
“Moons?”
>“Mmm?”
>>25615024
“You said ‘she’ was smothering you – in the nightmare, I mean”
“Did you mean…”
>“No, Anonymous,” she says, head rising to look at you in a moment of semi-lucidity
>“I could never imagine that, in this realm or that of sleep”
“Then…was it the Tantabus?”
>She shakes her head slowly, and she climbs halfway on top of you so that you’re chest to chest and nose to nose, her forehooves draped over your shoulders
>Her silver eyes blink, searching for words
>“I created the Tantabus myself, and I knew it very well”
>“It was a facsimile”
>“It was what I thought a nightmare was supposed to be, and little more than a concentrated version of the same self-flagellation I used to engage in during my waking hours”
>“This dream…I’ve only experienced one other thing like it”
>The sun from the open window is harassing both of you at an uncomfortable angle, and her horn sparks, sealing the opening with a smoke-like black cloud that you haven’t seen in a very long time
>The room doesn’t go entirely dark, as she keeps her aura pulsing ever-so-slightly, illuminating just your faces and the silver streaks in her mane
“Yeah?” you prompt, your eyes relaxing but not wavering from hers
>“Madness”
>“I spent one-thousand years as an incorporeal essence of rage and envy within the confines of the moon, silently wishing to scream every time I felt my sister’s touch move me to begin a new night”
>“But how could I scream when I had no lungs to draw breath?”
>“It was like suffocating”
>You listen with rapt attention, drinking in the rare details
>“Were it not for my mother’s shards taking pity upon me, my shattered mind might’ve been ground to dust”
>“Regardless”
>You feel a slight disappointment that that’s all you get
>“I can’t say this feeling was identical, only unsettlingly similar”
>She finishes with a yawn, as though speaking of a distant memory
>>25615048
>You think for a moment, fingers tracing the feathers of one wing
>You’re sure her nightmare is connected to the strange events of this morning, but you keep quiet for now
>She hasn’t remembered anything yet, and you can’t bring yourself to inflict further anxiety on her until she’s gotten some sleep
>Her head slowly comes to rest again, nestled into your chest
>She’s got problems and the world’s got problems, but now is not the time to deal with them
>Still, you gave Celestia your word
>You must tell Luna to go to her
>However, you reflect as sleep takes you and your princess once more
>You don’t have to tell her here
>>25615066
>Your eyes open to a gently rolling green
>You wouldn’t even call them hills, more like knolls
>Yeah, knolls motherfucker, you just casually used that word
>Two hundred years of perusing Luna’s journal – often with a dictionary next to it – has expanded your vocabulary considerably
>The field stretches out infinitely in all directions – or at least it appears to
>You know that beyond the horizon are forests, mountains, and even great bodies of water, only as close or far away as you want them to be
>When you were younger, you sought to explore every corner of it, but lately you’ve been staying put in this – your favorite spot in any world
>Looking up, you see a sky of pristine clarity, salted with stars arranged into simple constellations, many of them constructed subconsciously during decades upon decades of quiet reflection
>But the sky is dominated by one celestial phenomenon, and every time you look at it, you feel like laughing
>Yet it also conjures a wealth of emotions that stretch back over lengths of time that possibly no other human being in the multiverse has weathered
>Two full moons
>One resembles that which watches over Equestria each night, the other looks much like the one under which you lived most of your old life
>The only thing from your homeworld you saw fit to conjure here
>They’re so close that their edges touch, surrounded by an arrangement of stars that form a comically suggestive mural in the sky
>Your princess sits next to you, and her eyes snap open without blinking even once
>Her gaze turns up, as do the corners of her mouth
>The joke is too old to get a full chuckle anymore, but she always smiles
>It’s part humor, part flattery, and part memory
>“It’s going to be time to redecorate soon,” she comments
“Nah, I like the feng shui we’ve got going here”
>She rests her head on your shoulder
>“Very well”
>There’s a stretch of silence in which you debate whether or not to voice your concerns
>>25615210
>Fuck it
>You don’t get this far by hiding your feelings
“Luna?”
>Your tone makes her raise her head and meet your eyes
“Do you remember what happened last night
>“It’s hazy,” she admits, “but I know the gist”
>“And I know I failed to do anything about it”
“Look, just promise me that when you wake up – I mean really wake up – you’ll go see her”
>“I think it’s inevitable, Anonymous”
>Silence overtakes this party of two, and you think of the promise you made to Twilight
>That together, you would fix them
>So you do the one thing you know will at least get the gears turning, and ask your princess to explain her feelings
“Why are you so…”
>You don’t want to say “afraid”
>That won’t get you anywhere
“…reluctant to see her, Moons?”
“It’s gotta be more than her turning into a paper-pusher”
“And if her being disappointed that you never talk to her bothers you so much, then why wouldn’t you just talk to her more?”
A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A.A. IT's HERE. HOLY SHIT.
>>25615243
>She doesn’t say anything just yet, but a gentle breeze picks up, just enough to move the air about and bring with it the smell of a perpetual summer night
>Her mane dances about, finding its way across your back and curling around you
>“That makes me think of a story, Anonymous,” she says finally, and your heart skips a beat
>“One that might answer those questions and others you’ve no doubt been entertaining lately”
>You look at her with both excitement and apprehension
>It’s been a while since the last story
>“Would you like to have a dream?”
>You’ve been with Luna for so long
>Or at least it feels that way to a human
>Yet you know so little of the past, but for the history books, and those rare details
>And her “dreams”
“Yes”
>Her silver gaze stares into yours, eyebrows knit slightly, accompanied by a wistful smile
>A single tear rolls down one cheek, and she catches it, touching her hoof to your lips
>It tingles when it touches your tongue, and you can only blink twice before the veil of this realm begins to peel back in a wash of silver light
>“Then dream you shall”
>>25615258
>Your body is no more – you are only a sight, blinded by an expanse of blank whiteness
>You feel no hands or feet, only the tingling of her tear and the coolness of her starry mane wrapped around your soul
>As in previous times, it’s the only thing that keeps you from feeling terror
>“There was an era I sometimes speak of”
>“When the world was still young and vast”
>Her voice echoes in your mind as it often does in the waking world, but it has no direction, coming from all sides and infinitely more commanding
>The blankness begins to resolve into colors, as though you’re emerging from a thick cloud, and suddenly you see it
>“The sky was just beginning to turn blue, still stained with crimson from my mother’s dividing”
>Beneath the mottled sky float clouds of many colors
>Below your slowly moving field of perception is a green valley that stretches so far you can only just make out the hazy mountains at its other end
>It is surrounded on all sides by jagged, rocky peaks that rise as high as Canterlot Mountain itself, but with none of its familiar gentleness
>Through the valley flows a great river, fast and wide
>Instinctively, you follow it to its origin, a waterfall that plummets from a cliff on the highest mountain
>“Before Equestria, the whole earth was our home”
>A figure stands atop the cliff, and as you draw closer, it is both familiar and not
>Celestia’s youthful self is still tall and regal, but there are noticeable differences
>The regalia you are accustomed to – including her crown – is absent
>In its stead, a great golden plate covers her chest, rising into a collar that encircles the base of her long neck
>Her mane is almost completely lacking its ethereal flow, as well as its color scheme – the light pink hair ripples more in the breeze than it does by magic
>Also, damn
>She’s thinner than she is now, but her body looks like it’s carved out of wood
>>25615298
>You know alicorn physiology better than possibly anyone on this earth who isn’t one – aside, maybe from the royal physician, whose practical experience still likely doesn’t match yours – so you’re one of the few living able to appreciate the amount of exertion required to affect this kind of lean hardness on a creature for whom things like jogging up a ten-story staircase or flying from one city to another don’t even cause an elevated heartbeat
>But even so, the most striking difference is her face
>True, it looks just the same in terms of features, but her jaw is hard set and her head held high, mouth turned down in contemplation
>Her eyes narrow as they gaze into the distance
>The sun above reflects off her unblinking eyes, and they gleam with steely brightness
>She squints towards a hazy dark patch at the valley’s far end, her head tilting to one side
>“And we sought to leave no corner of it unexplored”
>Celestia cranes her neck around to look behind and calls out
>>“Luna”
>She is joined shortly by a second figure, and could you feel your body right now, you’re sure your hand would slap itself over your mouth
>While the sun princess looks more or less identical to her present-day self despite a few obvious differences, the same cannot be said for her sister
>The younger alicorn is at least a full head shorter than she is now, as well as a full shade lighter
>Her short-cropped, cornflower-blue mane is tied back in a utilitarian ponytail
>Unlike her elder, she wears no armor, but instead a long, flowing black cloak, and a tunic of what appears to be leather with a thick, high collar which buckles tightly around her neck, adorned at its front by a blue gem that matches her hair
>Underneath the billowing fabric, you catch glimpses of two small saddlebags
>>“Yes, sister?”
>>“I require sight,” Celestia explains
>Or at least you assume it’s an explanation
>You have no clue what the fuck she means
I want this.
>>25615321
>Luna thinks for a moment, then opens her left saddlebag with a teal aura and withdraws a small vial
>The day mare takes a drink from it and gazes once again towards the dark patch in the distance
>The younger sister tucks the vial back into her satchel with a clink that belies many others like it, and you think of the cabinet in your room stocked with so many unlabeled bottles and flasks
>>“What do you see?” she wonders
>The eldest is silent for a moment, and when she speaks, her tone is grave
>>“Nothing good, but it’s obscured by more than just distance”
>>“But what do you see, sister?”
>Luna closes her eyes, as though listening instead of looking, her cloak billowing just a bit more than the wind warrants
>>“The same,” she says finally, snapping them open
>>“This land looks peaceful, but it is sick in the soul. I do not wish to walk here, Tia – there is evil in this place”
>>“And that is why we must,” the white alicorn says simply
>>“Then I suggest,” Luna offers, extracting another vial from her bag and hoofing it over, “that we tread lightly”
>>“What’s this?” Celestia wonders
>>“A perfume of valerian and opium poppies,” the dark alicorn explains
>Her voice has an odd echo to it, and you realize she’s speaking inside her sister’s head
>You can only hear it due to your currently omniscient perspective
>>“Dab it about your neck”
>>“I cannot make you invisible in broad daylight, sister, but those who do look upon you might find they can’t quite remember what they saw”
>>“Very well,” Celestia says after doing as instructed, “now let’s tarry no longer”
>She takes flight, the sun catching her armor in a flash, followed by a trail of black and purple smoke
>You look back to watch Luna do the same, but she’s already gone, and you realize what the smoke is
>“We were travelers – wandering for the sake of wandering, looking for a place and a purpose”
>>25615354
>“And we had begun to find both, putting our adventurousness and strength to good use by helping those who needed it when we came across them”
>“The village we found twenty miles upriver feared this valley, for none who had attempted to settle here had ever returned. Many of their friends and loved ones had vanished in this place, sometimes in numbers”
>“And so, young and intrepid as we were, we sought to find out why”
>Celestia dives, her wings tucked in freefall mere feet away from the cliff face
>They only open to catch her just before she breaches the treeline in a sudden halt that would no doubt be suicidal for any pegasus
>As she slips through the canopy and glides the last few yards to the ground, you notice the sun on her flank
>The moment her hooves touch the ground, so does the nebulous black fog, and Luna rematerializes next to her, the dark cloud swirling about her until it takes the form of her cloak
>Before the enchanted fabric comes to rest over her body you note the crescent moon stamped on her own hindquarters
“Wait,” you wonder incredulously, “isn’t this way before Equestria?”
>“Indeed”
“So that’s before you two started raising the sun and the moon, right?”
>“Yes”
>She says nothing further, willing your attention back toward her past self
>The forest is deathly silent
>No insects hum and no birds chirp
>The only sound is that of the waterfall, distant and muted by the trees
>You can see just how aware the two sisters are of the unnatural quiet
>>“I do not like this at all,” young Luna echoes, her mouth unmoving
>Celestia doesn’t vocalize a response, instead sparking her horn with golden light
>Two objects materialize out of thin air on either side of her
>One is a helm that matches her body armor, and she magics it carefully over her head
>There are four holes atop it – two for her ears, one through which she draws her mane, and another just above the brow
>>25615381
>Below the latter is a steel blade with a ring right where its clip begins
>Her horn fits through this fourth hole and then through the ring, anchoring the wicked knife to it
>The second object is massive, and takes more time in its conjuring
>A long shaft of gold-tinged steel burns into existence
>At one end forms a heavy steel ball
>At the other at the other, an axe head of unwieldy proportions
>The enormous curved blade stretches nearly half the length of the weapon, almost touching the middle point of the handle at its end, and you know you’d be unable to lift the thing, much less wield it effectively
>Young Luna regards the halberd with a single raised eyebrow as her sister holsters it in a large ring on the right side of her armor
>>“Are you so eager for a fight?”
>>“Preparation does not necessitate enthusiasm, Lu”
>>“True,” the dark alicorn reasons, “but certain kinds of preparation belie it”
>She dons the hood of her cloak, and you note that it comes to rest against her head as though she had no horn
>>“You think you’re so clever, don’t you?” Celestia wonders with narrowed eyes
>Even under the hood, you can see Luna stick her tongue out
>The eldest sister cracks a small smile, eyebrow arched in accompaniment to a rough, roguish prototype of the expression you’ve become so familiar with over the years
>>“Let’s not dally, sister…more than likely, we have work to do”
>When they cease to speak, you’re once again reminded how quiet this place is
>If it were some kind of wasteland, you could understand
>But a forest this lush should not be so silent
>>25608427
Requesting this, but in a christmas bikini. Because Christmas in Australia is bloody hot.
>>25614225
I would never leave her. If anything /sun/ is defecting here.
BTW, how is /sun/ doing? Is it still a mess of shitposting?
>>25615468
you get to sunbathe while the rest of us freeze our asses off. Fuck you
>>25613303
Is this before or after P-51s
>>25615550
It sounds nice, but in reality we spend most of Christmas blasting the air conditioner. Additionally, I have never seen snow. That just doesn't happen anywhere near where I live. Even the Snowy Mountains only see snow for like, one week every year.
>>25615408
>The soft padding of their hooves against fallen leaves and the patches of grass which spring up in ever-more-frequent shafts of sunlight is unsettlingly loud, tempered only by the rushing of the river whose distance you cannot gauge
>When at last the canopy breaks, the valley stretches out in equal silence, bathed in light save for that cloud-shrouded murkiness in the distance
>The river – which you can now see is little more than a stone’s throw away – fills it with frothy echoes
>You can see the sisters’ ears panning and twitching back and forth, searching for any other sound and finding nothing
>Celestia dares not break the silence, but Luna mutters into her mind every so often, and she responds with almost imperceptible nods or shakes of her head
>For a long time they just walk, growing more wary with every step
>The grass grows a little taller, interrupted by patches of trees here and there, and they fan out, walking a few yards away from each other
>Ahead, atop a few gentle hillocks rises a tangle of greenery – a dense grove that obstructs the immediate view of their path, leaving only the surrounding mountains and that remote, impalpable darkness
>But the only signs of life are the vultures that circle the sky, far above whatever fell magic might infect this place
>Then Celestia’s head turns up sharply, and a fraction of a second later the stillness is split by a violent bellow
>The sound of leaves and twigs being crushed by hooves rapidly intrudes on your aural periphery, but it does not sound like the gait of any equine
>The crashing of branches and brambles joins it, and with another ragged howl, the source of the noise bursts through the thicket
>If your disembodied dream consciousness had eyes, they would be as wide as Celestia’s as it charges right towards her
>Though she is tall for a pony – which really isn’t saying much – this thing towers over her
>>25615488
Its not as bad as it used to be.
>>25615588
Snow isn't really that exciting desu
>>25615600
>It has the head of a bull and a torso that is a rough approximation of a man’s, with goat-like legs, and you recognize it as a minotaur, a creature whose likes you’ve seen more than a few of in your travels
>And this one looks pissed off past the point of sanity
>Luna – her tiny frame hardly visible in the tall grass – adopts a defensive stance
>But Celestia does not raise her weapon
>She simply steps out of the way, and the roaring creature barrels right past her
>It runs maybe twenty more yards before stumbling and collapsing in the bushes, making no attempt to stand back up
>You can see its back heaving with exhaustion
>The sisters lock eyes
>The youngest is utterly bewildered, but you can see the cogs turning in her older counterpart’s mind
>Before they can exchange words, there is a muted flash of emerald light from within the brush, and the sound of more hooves, this time a familiar four-legged gallop
>A pony trots into view, following the swath cut by the minotaur
>Though the beige unicorn stallion is rugged and battle-worn, he’s still a relatively normal-looking pony
>Yet they react with shock
>“The land that would one day become Equestria was not even on this continent,” Luna narrates, as if – or maybe very deliberately – responding to your thoughts
>“It was exceedingly rare for us to meet one like ourselves”
>The pony’s eyes flit between them, but he doesn’t slow down, making a beeline toward the fallen beast
>As if sensing his presence, the minotaur rights itself, standing and bellowing with all its might
>The sound is halfway between the mindless screech of a beast and the desperate battle cry of a man making his last stand
>When you take a closer look at the creature, he is a terrible sight to behold
>Yes, he’s intimidating, but clearly not what he once was
>You’ve seen enough of his kind to that they’re almost invariably large and muscular, but this one looks wasted
>>25615636
>Above his sunken stomach, ribs poke at the hide underneath his filthy copper-colored fur
>His coat is matted and his hair is long and tangled
>A wicked scar dominates the left side of his face, running across a damaged, milky eye
>The pony charges toward him without hesitation, withdrawing a rope from his pack with a viridescent magical glow
>Tied at its one end is a painful-looking chunk of barbed iron that resembles a large fishing hook
>He twirls it overhead in his aura before launching it toward the minotaur
>The bull-headed animal weaves, but the throw is expert, and the rope lands on its left horn, swinging underneath its outstretched arm and looping around and around until a cry of pain signals that hook has imbedded itself in flesh
>Arm now tethered awkwardly to its own head, it stumbles about helplessly
>It only takes one tug on the part of the unicorn to bring it crashing to the ground once more, the gust of air from its lungs sending up a cloud of dirt, dust, and grass
>You’re just getting ready to say “that’s that” when the minotaur rolls onto its back and – with a grisly squelch – rips the hook from its arm and staggers to its hooves once more
>You don’t know where this guy came from, but wherever it was, he does not want to go back
>He leaps at the pony, who only just evades being crushed by a hammer-like fist
>The stallion retrieves another rope and hook from his pack, but before he can put it to use, the massive beast crashes into the grassy earth yet again, bound by a set of translucent, blue-green shackles around its wrists and ankles
>Luna’s horn glows, freed of its concealing hood
>The stranger says nothing, removing something else from his satchel
>It’s a leather strap, which he hastily cinches around the minotaur’s mouth
>It groans, closing its wet eyes and succumbing to exhaustion
>>“Bind him,” the night mare instructs
>>“I cannot hold this spell indefinitely”
>>25615662
>Obviously prepared, the stallion produces shackles of a more tangible variety, cuffing the unconscious behemoth
>Once finished, his bright, emerald eyes regard the alicorn sisters with guarded curiosity
>His build and the numerous scars lurking under his coat suggest that he engages in this type of activity regularly, and indeed he doesn’t look at all shaken
>Luna returns his inquisitive look, but Celestia is stony and silent, wearing the expression of someone who is trying and failing to pick a lock
>>“Thank you, travelers,” he says finally, his voice a bit higher than you expected
>>“It’s not often we have passers-through in this place,” he continues, “and even less often are they anything but a nuisance…or worse”
>You recognize that he’s probably winded, but he talks like he doesn’t quite understand how to breathe through his nose
>Still, dude just took on a raging minotaur without a second thought
>He’s okay in your book
>The vultures circle tightly overhead, and you realize they must have picked up on the minotaur’s blood
>>“What are you called?” the young Luna wonders
>>“I have a few names,” the unicorn smiles, sitting down to catch his breath
>>“I know this fellow” – he nods his head at his fallen opponent – “and his ‘friends’ have a few choice words they like to describe me with”
>>“But you can call me Warden,” he finishes with a dip of his head
>>“That sounds more like a title than a name,” the alicorn comments
>>“It’s both, at this point,” he admits
>>“What is this place?” Celestia interjects harshly, her inflection odd and strained with tension
>She doesn’t look him in the eye, her head swiveling around as if searching for the missing piece of a puzzle
>>“I see you’re a bit confused…a bit on edge, but don’t worry,” Warden placates, “I’ll explain”
>>“This valley is deceptive”
>>25615709
>>“I wish it could be used for something happier than it is, but I have no control over that”
>He taps his chin with a hoof, but you get the sense he already knows exactly what he’s going to say
>>“Simply put, it’s a prison”
>>“Or at least it houses one,” he amends, pointing toward that black stain at the far end
>>“My kin and I make it our business to intern the dangerous and the wicked – to spare the world from their cruelty and madness”
>>“It isn’t a glamorous life, but it fills us with…satisfaction”
>>“A noble cause,” Celestia concedes slowly, “but why here? This valley could be a paradise; why sully such a lovely place with such a gloomy purpose?”
>>“Because,” Warden explains, “as you no doubt know having traveled here, it is far, far out of the way, and when these brutes escape”
>He nods again at the unmoving form on the ground
>>“We have time to catch them before they inflict any further harm upon the civilized parts of the world”
>The Evermare’s eldest daughter still looks skeptical, but you see her beginning to soften
>>“May I ask your names?” the stallion inquires innocently
>>“Luna Selena,” the young version of your princess proclaims, bowing and flaring her wings
>>“And I am Celestia Astra, second name my mother’s first” her sister adds with a cautious nod, eyes refusing to leave the stranger
>>“A pleasure,” Warden returns, bowing lower this time
>He wears the look of one whose suspicions are confirmed, and it does not go unnoticed, only unacknowledged
>>“Had we met under happier circumstances, I’d pour you a drink”
>>“However, I bear no bottles or flasks, only the unpleasant task of dragging this…thing back to where he belongs”
>>“I don’t suppose you’d care to help?”
>>“He’s a bit heavy”
>>25615740
>As if sensing his impending fate, the minotaur awakens, lids fluttering open
>Celestia’s head snaps toward him and their gazes meet
>The longer she stares at him, the more her eyes narrow and the corners of her mouth turn down
>The stallion looks back and forth between the two of them, a bit confused
>>“Under normal circumstances,” she tells Warden, “I would help you”
>>“But I’m afraid I cannot”
>>“And why is that?” he wonders nonchalantly
>>“Because your smile is false” the demigoddess breathes, the beginnings of a snarl forming on her lips
>>“And everything you just told me was a lie”
>There’s a metallic snap, and the shackles that bound the minotaur just moments ago now encircle Warden’s hooves
>“What is the mean–” his outrage is silenced as the leather strap completes the ensemble, pulled taut by golden light
>His own aura flares green, but dies quickly when her blade touches the base of his horn
>>“It seems you know of me, creature,” she hisses threateningly, “so you may be banking on the knowledge that I do not like to kill”
>>“But I will not hesitate to disarm you”
>>“Permanently”
>His struggles cease and he stands still, shivering slightly
>Luna looks a bit surprised, but otherwise unfazed, waiting patiently for some kind of explanation
>The minotaur snorts, opening his unbound mouth and looking around in bewilderment at the sudden turn in his circumstances
>Slowly, he rises, staggering to his feet and clutching his wounded arm
>Trickles of blood run down it, staining his copper fur and dripping at the elbow
>>“Forgive me,” Celestia begs him with a sigh
>>“Rarely have I met a liar so adept as this one”
>With a small shove, her axe makes a tiny bite in Warden’s horn, and he shudders
>The minotaur’s eyelids flutter, and his legs look like they might buckle
>>“You should sit down,” Luna tells him gently, trusting her sister implicitly
>>“Let me help you”
>>25615776
>The beast ignores her, gazing intently at the elder sister
>>“Give him to me,” he demands, finally speaking, his voice a deep, parched rasp
>He points a damning finger at the restrained stallion, who whimpers, all his courage gone in an instant
>>“I’m afraid of what might happen if I do,” Celestia replies earnestly
>The minotaur’s gaze bores into hers, even his ruined eye glaring daggers and glistening with wetness
>His whole body trembles with rage and his jaw quivers, mouth turned down and lips curled back
>His accusatory claw points at her now
>>“Unless you mean to kill me”
>His words are labored, each one scouring his parched throat like sandpaper
>>“You will not stop me”
>They stare at each other for a long moment
>Tears stream down his face
>Her eyes grow ever wider as she searches deeper into his thoughts
>Her breath catches in her throat, and her own cheeks becomes stained with rivulets of sorrow
>She lowers her weapon and steps back
>Warden squirms and thrashes as two great, muscular arms lift him off the ground
>His horn sparks, but a clawed hand wraps around it
>You can see the flesh blistering under the heat of magic, but its owner heeds not the pain
>With a wet pop the magic is cracked off at the source, and the splintered horn lands dead in the grass
>A muffled scream escapes the stallion’s bound muzzle, but it fizzles into a guttural moan as his neck is twisted further and further toward its breaking point
>You can see every cord and fiber resisting death as the minotaur grasps his body in one arm, using the other to twist his skull around in a lethal circle
>His shackled legs kick and spasm, beating any piece of his assailant within reach
>But the pounding of hooves against that hard-corded wrath is like shooting bullets at a freight train
>>25615792
>With a final, strangled exhale and a snapping of gristle, Warden is no more
>He is ruined, and yet you can see no relief in his executioner’s visage, only regret and disappointment
>Whatever unfathomable grief he caused the starving creature, this grisly act of violence has done nothing to assuage it
>The corpse hits the ground with a wet thump, and the minotaur gazes up at the red-stained sky and its multicolored clouds
>>“That wasn’t nearly as satisfying as I thought it would be,” he comments
>>“I don’t condone murder,” Celestia tells him, her voice tentative, feeling him out a bit, “but in this case, I don’t mind looking the other way”
>>“What are you called, sir?”
>>“My name is Willing,” he answers, giving no gesture of greeting beyond eye contact and a nod
>>“But among good company, I go by my surname”
>>“So call me Abel”
>If his middle name is “Nathaniel” or anything that starts with an “N,” you’re going to ragequit this dream
>The sisters bow
>>“This was not murder,” he continues
>>“It was justice”
>>“That,” the sun mare says, raising one eyebrow and turning her head as she looks up at him, “is a very dangerous way of thinking, and one I do not wish to fall into”
>>“Philosophy is the sum of experience,” Abel replies gruffly
>Celestia doesn’t hear him, instead looking at Luna, who is staring at the ground with increasing alarm
>Not the ground actually
>Warden’s corpse
>You notice, as she clearly has, that the blood – if that’s even what it is – trickling from his mouth is not red, nor does it flow like a normal liquid
>It oozes like sap, a shimmering, phosphorescent green
>All gathered watch with varying degrees of disbelief as the broken body begins to glow with the same pale emerald light
>The dirty beige of his coat is slowly disappearing, as if the hair is growing in reverse
>The skin turns black and hardens, taking on a leathery consistency
>>25615820
>>“What is this devilry?” the young alicorn hisses
>>“I don’t know,” her sister whispers, watching with similar disgust and fascination
>But you know
>You’ve heard many tales, and even see a few of them in your travels
>When the transformation is complete, an alien being lies before them, staring up with multifaceted, insectoid eyes and a fanged mouth frozen in an expression of desperate agony, despite its bindings
>>“What is this?” Luna repeats, her shocked gaze trained on Abel
>>“I’ll explain later,” he assures, “but right now we must get out of the open”
>>“Her eyes see far”
>>“Come with me”
>He starts toward the thicket from which he originally came, but then stops almost immediately, pausing thoughtfully
>Bending down, he grabs the carcass by a leg and then continues toward the overgrown tangle of trees and bushes
>The two mares share a glance and then follow
>>“What do you intend to do with that?” Luna wonders
>Abel turns and gives her a rough but almost apologetic smile
>>“I’m hungry”
>>25615834
>The sun is low in the sky, darkness fast approaching
>A strange fire blazes, a spectrum ranging from teal to blue in place of the normal warm yellows and oranges
>The wood from which it rises never blackens, which is a good thing considering the dangerous amount of dry brush that surrounds it
>A wet crack resounds through the small, well-hidden clearing in the thicket, and two sisters wince
>Abel sits in front of the blue-green flame on a recently-moved rock, prying the skin off of Warden’s severed leg
>A thorough cooking has given it a shell-like quality, and he breaks it apart in pieces and digs the black and green meat out from within, stuffing his face with reckless abandon
>A great trail of sticky grease runs down his chin and into his goatee, his chest and hands being fairly well-coated too
>Luna watches him intently, fascination and disgust pulling her expression in two opposite directions
>Celestia keeps her glazed eyes trained on the fire as one hoof cradles her stomach
>Her telekinesis absent-mindedly runs a whetstone over the blade of her halberd
> “What does it…taste like?” Luna wonders hesitantly, and her sister groans silently
>The minotaur pauses in his scarfing and taps his greasy chin
>>“I take it you don’t often eat other creatures, yes?”
>>“Rarely,” she confirms
>>“Still,” he continues, “have you ever been to the coast? Seen the ocean and the villages there?”
>She nods
>>“Ever eaten a crab?”
>>“Once or twice,” she admits, “but only for politeness’ sake”
>>“Well,” he says, using one claw to free a piece of meat from between two incisors, “it’s a lot like that. A great big, oily crab with rubbery flesh that tastes like the kind of mold that grows on old cheese”
>>“It’s an acquired taste”
>>25615970
>Celestia has been wilting further and further during the exchange, her grimacing muzzle now pointed toward the ground
>>“What is this place?” Luna prompts, both sensing the need for a change in topic and being the only one who still has no idea what’s going on
>>“That’s a good question,” says Abel, “and it shouldn’t be answered by a thirsty throat”
>>“I don’t suppose you’ve got anything to drink?”
>>“What do you desire?”
>>“Whatever you’ve got”
>>“I’ve got quite a few things”
>>“Just give me something, cow!”
>Luna’s head jerks back
>Her brow is furrowed, but there’s a hint of a smile on her face
>Abel bites his lip and rubs the back of his neck
>>“My apologies,” he says hastily, “there are certain Tauric idioms that don’t ah…translate well into other cultures”
>>“If you happen to have any mead, I’d be grateful”
>Luna nods bemusedly and opens one of her packs, rummaging through it
>As seconds and then minutes tick by, the minotaur watches with increasing bewilderment as she digs and digs, and you begin to suspect that – like many of Luna’s possessions – her saddlebags give a steadfast middle finger to the laws of physics, a notion that is confirmed when she finally produces a flagon that is twice the size of the bag itself
>>25615992
>Abel swiftly uncorks it and empties half the contents in one gulp
>He wipes his mouth with a greasy hand and offers it back to her with the other, his arm trembling slightly
>The wound near its shoulder has gone unattended
>A steadily drying river of blood runs down to the elbow
>Luna takes a deep draught and then hoofs the flask back
>Celestia silently refuses the same offer
>Abel takes another great pull and then sets his drink down, looking slowly back and forth between the two mares who sit on either side of him
>>“Before I say anything else, I wish to thank you both”
>>“I’m not a bull who puts much stock in sentimentality”
>>“But my heart beats strong, and I thank you from the bottom of it”
>>“I would rather die than go back to that place, and it is only because of you that I didn’t have to pick one or the other”
>>“Your gratitude is not necessary, but it is appreciated,” Celestia tells him, apparently recovered from her queasiness
>>“What place?” Luna presses
>>“Ah, yes,” Abel coughs, clearing his throat
>>“Now I will answer your question”
>He takes one more drink before proceeding
>>“You were wrong about one thing, Astra,” he begins, turning to the elder sister
>>“Please, call me Celestia”
>>“Not everything he told you was a lie, Celestia”
>>“This place is indeed a prison, yet it houses no criminals”
>>“Well, there are surely a few,” he amends, “but if so, the punishment they receive is not for their crimes”
>>“There are quite a few names for Warden and his kind”
>He picks another piece of flesh from the leg and chews as he talks
>>“They live here and there in the dark, damp places of the world, and if you believe you’ve never encountered one before, you are wrong”
>>“You just didn’t know it”
>Realization flits across Celestia’s features
>>“I am blind to them,” she breathes mostly to herself, eyes swimming with memories
>>25616021
>>“His thoughts clouded my mind, and I’ve felt it before”
>>“My people call them faeries, and the Zebras call them night crawlers in their own tongue,” Abel explains
>>“Some call them dragonfly ponies or changelings”
>>“They are wretched things by nature”
>>“They will steal you away and take your place, just to feel your family’s love”
>>“The forests of the north – the place where I was born – are home to many of them, and when I was growing up, more than a few children in my village were taken by fae ponies, who would live amongst us until they were found out”
>>“But they’re a cowardly people, and they would always give up their captives when we threatened them”
>>“By and large, they’re more frightening in legend than in person. Most of them aren’t much more than a nuisance”
>>“Most,” Celestia interjects softly, giving voice to the implication
>>“But not all,” the minotaur finishes, completing the thought
>>“These ones…they’re a different breed”
>He falls silent for a moment, needing to put the next part perfectly and gathering the words
>His dead eye doesn’t always close all the way when he blinks, and he itches at it
>>“Why take one person and send a single changeling to infiltrate a family when you can just take the entire family?”
>>“Or the entire village”
>He snorts, clenching his fists
>>“That thing you see there,” he points toward the dark end of the valley even though it can’t be seen through the trees, “is Tartarus brought to earth”
>>“They take anyone unfortunate enough to fall under their sight, and as far as I know, no one has ever escaped”
>>“No one except me”
>>“If it weren’t for you two, I’d be unable to say even that”
>>“How did you get out?” Luna asks, her voice laced with sadness but driven by curiosity
>>“I’d rather not talk about it,” Abel says, draining the last of the mead
>>25616066
>>“Regardless,” she continues, “it’s fortunate we just happened to arrive here on the day of your escape”
>Abel chuckles mirthlessly, tossing the empty bottle over his shoulder
>>“No, you didn’t”
>>“I climbed out of that slimy pit over a month ago”
>>“A month? Why are you still here?”
>>“Oh, I’ve found many ways out of this valley,” he admits, rubbing his eye again, “but I cannot leave”
>>“My wife, my son, and my brother…we were captured together, and they all perished in that vile hive”
>He speaks of his family without emotion, as though they’ve been dead for a very, very long time
>>“But there are many others like them who still live, and I have spent the last few weeks at this very spot” – he points at the ground – “trying to think of a plan to free them”
>>“Then Warden found me…and you saw the rest”
>The little clearing goes quiet but for the breathing of its three inhabitants and the crackling of the unnatural fire before them
>The sun is setting, and the clouds thicken above, taking on hues of orange and purple
>>“Sister”
>Young Luna breaks the silence
>>“We have the loyalties of the zebra tribe to the west, and the fisher griffons on the coast, do we not?”
>Celestia gives a concessional nod
>>“I can move swiftly on my own,” the night mare says confidently
>>“Give me three days, and I will fly upriver and raise a militia that can wipe these faerie creatures off the face of the earth”
>>“No”
>The day mare has been relatively silent for a while now, but when she looks up, her eyes look through her sister
>She gazes into infinity and all the questions it brings
>>“I have seen his memories, Lu”
>She tilts her head toward Abel
>>“And I do not wish to see such things ever again”
>>25616123
>The trees are thick, and they limit the sky
>The clouds grow denser, and they blot out what little is left of it
>But as the sun bows behind the mountains, a small patch of the heavens remains unobscured
>And the stars sparkle against her eyes in the twilight
>>“We don’t have time to raise an army, little sister”
>>“People are suffering every moment we wait”
>>“This ends tonight”
>Abel gives his endorsement with a nod and a grunt
>The two alicorns lock on each other, and Luna raises her chin
>>“Very well,” she nods
>>“Then give me a few hours to prepare”
>>“This will not be easy”
>>“No, it won’t” Celestia acknowledges
>>“But this is why we came here”
>>“And it will be right”
>As her sister wastes no time in opening her packs to prepare potions and spells, she turns to Abel
>>“I’m going to ask you a question to which I already know the answer, dear minotaur”
>>“Will you not stay behind and rest?”
>>“Will you not let your wounds heal?”
>He chuckles
>>“It is good you already know the answer, because frankly, I am tired of speaking”
>He unrolls the bandage that Luna gave him earlier when he was too hungry and thirsty to care about his injuries, and begins to cinch it tightly around his arm
>>“Besides, you will need a guide”
>>“The faeries’ keep is more treacherous than you could possibly know”
>>“And they are without mercy”
>He lifts the bottle of mead and then remembers it’s empty, a fact which puts a grim expression on his face
>>“I know your type, Astra, and it worries me”
>>“Celestia, please, and what do you mean?”
>>“You’re afraid to kill”
>>“I am not afraid,” the alicorn corrects, and you can hear a hint of indignation
>>25616154
>>“I am seven-hundred years old, my friend, and I have never encountered a situation that couldn’t be solved without resorting to murder”
>The minotaur shakes his head, chuckling
>>“There it is again”
>>“To you, killing and murder are one in the same”
>>“Because you’ve never encountered true evil”
>The future princess remains silent
>The last bit of daylight finally vanishes, and he stares up at the gathering clouds, his nostrils flaring as he sniffs the air
>>“You couldn’t have picked a more perfect night,” Abel says, words punctuated by the clink of flasks and vials as Luna hastily hones her own weapons on the whetstone of her mind
>>“The moon is new”
>He draws another deep breath
>>“And it smells like rain”
I wonder if this thread has any sunfags lurking.
>>25616220
I know there's one.
The real question is:is he /fit/ yet?
>>25616179
>An assault in the dead of night
>As you watch through the torrent that pours from the sky, it occurs to you that you’ve never seen an alicorn run before
>Like, really run
>They always teleport, but doing so now would give them away
>Luna moves with such speed that her mane and tail – despite being soaked through – whip through the air behind her
>Her cloak billows, unaffected by the water
>The towers of the changelings’ keep stab at the sky above
>Organic spires that resemble wasp’s nests stand atop steel, brick and mortar, and you realize the foundation is not of their own craft
>The fortress that forms the base of the structure was built by somebody else, but now it belongs to them
>It strikes you that this young version of Luna is the perfect scout
>She’s small, quiet, evidently fast, and most importantly, she can relay messages to any party with nothing but a thought
>Before you even have time to think, a lone changeling meanders out from around a corner
>His bluish eyes don’t blink as raindrops pound against them
>Without a moment’s hesitation, Luna hits him with a full-body tackle, and you can hear a snap as they roll three times in the mud
>On the third she somersaults forward and continues her silent dash, stride unbroken, unlike the changeling’s neck
>You realize that even back then, Luna’s admiration for her sister never equated to following her code of conduct
>The front entrance to the keep is shut tight, occluded by an iron portcullis
>She slides to a stop, sticking an indiscernible black object to the center of it
>>25616299
>Her horn sparks with the barest of light, and whatever the thing is, it begins to pulse with a glow that would be hard to notice even on a clear night
>Under the cover of this storm, it is all but undetectable
>She turns around and backtracks, skidding around the side of the fortress and making for a nondescript spot in the rocky cliff face that cradles it
>Behind a jagged boulder and some rotting trees lies the opening of a narrow, hidden tunnel
>After one final scan of the surroundings – hurried but thorough – you hear her unspoken call
>>“Come”
>>“Now”
>After just a few minutes, mud-muted hoofsteps signal the arrival of the rest of the party
>Celestia’s wet hair is plastered to her helm, her weapon fastened to her back
>You begin to wonder why she of all people carries such a thing
>Abel follows close behind her
>His right hand is wrapped around the base of his own armament – a crudely-fashioned bludgeon, carved from the trunk of a small tree
>One end is thick and heavy, the other ends in a point whittled to vicious sharpness
>When they reach their scout, all three huddle behind the rock, their gazes panning about uneasily
>>“We have one hour,” Luna whispers
>>“I hope you know what you’re doing”
>>“Trust me,” Abel says solemnly
>There is no trace of humor or cockiness in his voice
>Celestia is quiet
>With a collective nod of agreement, the three enter the foreboding passage before them
>The day mare goes first, the minotaur follows her, and the youngest sister brings up the rear
>>25616325
>Inside, it’s pitch black until Celestia’s horn flares
>Her warm, golden light reveals a rough chasm that you’re not sure whether to peg as a natural formation or a deliberate creation
>Luna’s magic sparks as well, encircling her sister’s horn
>She then throws her hood over her head, hiding the glow and rendering herself a pegasus to the eye
>The tunnel descends, curving to the north, and as it does it slowly widens
>Uncounted minutes pass, and you can see the silent tension mounting among the three companions with each second
>Then Celestia stops abruptly and the other two nearly crash into her
>Just before her hooves, the floor suddenly drops off into a pit deep enough that the light doesn’t reach its bottom
>She opens her wings, not wanting to risk the snap and flash of a teleportation
>It’s close – their tips touch the walls on either side – but she jumps without hesitation
>Halfway down the chasm shrinks, and she has to tuck them in, making for an ungraceful landing
>Abel climbs after her, his clawed hands and hooved feet having no trouble finding purchase on the rock
>He’s done this before, and more than once
>Luna remains at the top, watching their tail until both of the others are on solid ground again
>She herself descends in an incorporeal billow of black smoke
>Though this vision is carefully constructed, you can’t feel what they’re feeling
>But you can hear the hot, musty humidity in their labored breathing
>You can see the smell in the taught expressions on their faces
>This place is like a rancid sauna
>The walls are wet and sticky with grime, and through them run pulsing tendrils that look like veins of fluorescent blue and green
>This cavern is much wider, and the trio finally has room to breathe
>Even if they’d rather not
>>25616415
>The minotaur takes the first step forward, but clips it short
>A high-pitched scream reverberates from deep within the hollow ahead, cut off just as abruptly as it begins
>Celestia’s chest rises and falls rapidly as she drinks in the disquieting ambience
>Her young self lacks the immaculate composure you’re used to, but her expression is stony and her eyes like steel
>She removes her halberd from the holster on her back and hovers it at her side
>Luna’s head tilts forward ever-so-slightly, the blue-green glow of magic that surrounds her sister’s horn thickening
>>“We need to move,” she urges with a whisper
>More unsettling noises echo in the distance as they proceed, making their ears twitch
>The shouts and cries are carried on a low, phased rushing sound, like static from a television funneled through a glass tube
>Their cautious hoofsteps sound uneven, sometimes hitting rock and other times squishing against whatever damp filth coats the ground here
>But their pace quickens out of necessity, and after a moment the tunnel makes a sharp left turn
>The veins in the wall thicken in both size and frequency, and the source of the rushing noise is revealed
>Water from the river above works its way down into this subterranean network, forming a shroud at the passage’s end that completely obscures whatever lies beyond save for the light
>A pale green radiance that dances and flickers off the stone and the three faces as it filters through the liquid
>They stop when they reach the waterfall, having no idea what lies behind
>>25616467
>After a moment of silent deliberation, Luna opens one of her packs to retrieve a telescoping spyglass made of brass, one end of which she uses to breach the falling veil
>She puts the other end to her eye, and you can tell from the wide, slow arcs in which she moves it that the room beyond is vast
>When she finally puts it away and looks back at the others, she’s shaken
>>“How many?” Celestia wonders
>>“Only five,” her sister replies
>The day mare nods
>>“Quickly and quietly,” she says
>Luna assents wordlessly and then turns to the minotaur
>>“Abel, there’s a ten-yard drop…”
>>“Don’t worry about me,” he cuts her off gruffly
>>“Time is ticking,” the night mare reminds
>>“Let’s go”
>>25616286
>emoticons
I thought you were better than that.^:)
>>25616490
>In the glowing grotto beyond, green tendrils snake up to the ceiling, where chitinous, cocoon-like pods hang, emitting the sickly light that bathes the entire place
>Celestia bursts through the waterfall with Abel in her wake
>He lands hard but firm as she dives at the first changeling to turn its head, knocking it out with a single jab from the balled end of her weapon
>Before the others even have time to react, there’s a flash, silent but blinding, and the room fills with dark purple smoke
>You hear the thump and crack of wood against carapace as the minotaur dispatches another one of them
>The next one might not’ve even known he was dead as Luna reaches out of the haze to snap his neck from behind
>The last two charge side-by-side at Celestia, their horns sparking
>She releases the magical hold on her halberd and spins on a forehoof, her back legs kicking it like two pistons
>The flat of the blade slaps one changeling into unconsciousness, its handle taking the other’s legs out from under him and sending him skidding to a stop before the alicorn
>A sharp blow to the temple sends him the way of his fellow
>Before the weapon touches the floor, that golden glow enwraps it again, and it returns to its owner’s side
>She holsters it and kills her magic
>This chamber is bright enough that her light – and Luna’s concealing spell – are no longer necessary
>She spares a quick upward glance as the smoke begins to clear, regarding the glowing sacs that hang from the ceiling among black stalactites
>>“These ones are eggs,” Abel comments, casually examining the green blood on his club
>>“We best leave them alone”
>He turns
>There are many holes and channels leading out of this pit in different directions, but he homes in on one of the largest ones
>The clatter of hooves and the buzz of insectoid wings begins to echo in the distance
>>“Come,” he hisses, “the vault is this way”
>>25616709
>They hurry through the opening and round another sharp corner
>Luna once again trails behind, and just before she disappears around the bend she takes a final look back
>Scores of blue, multifaceted eyes gaze at her from many dark holes
>They weren’t quiet enough
>>“Gods damn it,” she breathes, opening her saddle bag once more and retrieving a large flask that looks to be made of steel
>Etched on its side is the image of an equine skull and two crossed bones
>Atop its neck is a metal stopper held in place by no less than three clamps, which she hastily undoes
>She turns her head away and holds her breath
>The contents pour like syrup, and she splashes the liquid all about the entrance to the tunnel, finally dropping the bottle and magically digging through her pack, no longer concerned with being spotted
>The next thing she digs out is no mysterious arcane weapon
>The metallic object is both familiar and unfamiliar – a lighter
>You’ve never seen one this large or this rough-looking before, but it’s still recognizable – like a very crude version of the silver zippo you used to carry many years ago in your old life
>You wonder why she needs such a thing; surely she knows a plethora of spells that can produce fire
>She ignites it and takes it in her aura, hovering it above the noxious oil that soaks the floor
>She dashes after her companions with great haste, leaving it floating behind
>Your vision follows her as she overtakes Abel and her sister, nearly running up the wall when she rounds the corner
>>“Run!” she barks as she passes them, and both put on a burst of speed
>She glances back repeatedly
>Abel can’t match their immortal swiftness, and Celestia stays with him, but the buzz and clicking of mandibles is growing louder
>>“Tia!” Luna cries desperately
>The sun mare grabs the minotaur in her aura and throws him on her back, his mass no burden to her
>>25616761
>Her hooves pound against the stone hard enough to chip it with each stride as she catches up to her sibling
>With a final glance back, Luna’s horn goes dark
>A chorus of shrieks is eclipsed by the billowing rumble of flames as blue-green alchemical fire chases the two alicorns through the damp passageway, forcing their pace and illuminating the path ahead
>Even your incorporeal vision is warped by the heat that lashes at their manes and tails, burning their ends into frizzled brown ribbons
>Abel chokes and holds on for dear life as Celestia accelerates, her hooves shattering the rocks they strike
>Most of her mane clings to her helm with sweat, but its ends flail in the heat
>Luna’s legs cannot match her sister’s clip, and she dissipates in a black and purple flash, racing ahead as a cloud of smoke
>The tunnel ends, and with a flare and turn of her wings, Celestia redirects her momentum to the left, sliding out of the path of a column of multicolored flame that erupts from it
>The sharp turn finally causes the minotaur to lose his grip, and he hits the ground with a thump and a groan
>>“Are you insane?” the eldest alicorn demands when her sister reincorporates next to her
>Luna opens her mouth to retort, but she doesn’t get the chance
>Her gaze falls upon the cavern before her, and her mouth just stays open, jaw growing ever-more-slack
>A wetness that has nothing to do with the sting of heat forms in her eyes
>>“Old gods…”
>>25616790
>The only light is that of the glowing green tendrils that weave in and out of the gray stone like ancient tree roots, but it’s all that’s necessary
>In the sudden silence, you can hear a slow, rushing pulse emanating from them
>The eerie yet smooth landscape of dark rock and organic hideousness that your eyes – and theirs – have grown accustomed to is rent by jagged, rusted iron
>Cages
>There are cages everywhere
>They hang from the ceiling in droves amongst the stalactites
>They are shoved in corners and stacked on top of each other all over the cavern floor
>There are cells carved into the walls, sealed by iron bars that do not attach to hinged doorframes, but are anchored into the ground
>Hundreds of eyes of all colors and shapes stare at Abel and the sisters
>Wide and bloodshot
>But not a word is spoken
>There is no sound but the slow drip of poisoned water, and the scuttle of chitinous things crawling in the distance
>Luna looks to her right, into the nearest cage
>The creature appears to be a zebra, but it’s covered in so much dirt and grime that you can’t be sure of its species, let alone sex
>You thought Abel looked ragged and starved
>This filthy, trembling thing looks like a corpse buried for a week, dug up, and then reanimated with just enough will to stare blankly into the distance
>Celestia’s chin quivers and she keeps blinking as she peers into this gallery of dark, shivering forms
>Her gaze rests on no one particular thing
>Glazed pupils reflect the green light from all directions, and she scans them like a field of stars
>>25616817
>>“Save your sadness,” Abel tells her and her sister in a loud whisper
>>“They know someone’s here”
>>“We have to work quickly”
>Luna physically shakes off her emotions, but her elder sibling remains rooted in place
>>“Tia, come on, we don’t have much time”
>>“Tia!”
>Even when shoved, the great alicorn doesn’t move
>Her head continues to pan slowly back and forth
>>“Get her up and let’s go,” Abel hisses, heading for a nearby passage, club at the ready
>>“Wait,” Luna calls, holding up a hoof and then gesturing at the room
>>“Where are you going? Help me with these bars!”
>The minotaur turns around, ears agitated by the growing buzz that reverberates from the chemically-charred cave at their rear
>>“No,” he says, shaking his head
>>“We can do nothing for these ones”
>Without another word, he disappears into the next tunnel
>The night mare stammers and stamps her hoof, expression furious and confused
>>“Luna,” Celestia breathes, body still rigid
>>“They all want to die”
>>25616849
We're about 1/3 of the way through, so I'm gonna take a break
>>25616849
>A loud snap reverberates through another small, fluorescent cavern
>A muffled cry follows
>It comes from a creature whose likes you’ve never seen before
>Well, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but while you recognize it as a griffon, it’s not like the ones that inhabit the Equestrian continent
>Its feathers are jet-black like a crow’s, as is its body, which resembles a panther more than a lion
>The catlike back is covered in long, open wounds
>Luna narrows her eyes and raises a hoof towards it, not breaching the shadows
>>“No pain”
>She turns her gaze on the changeling, who is readying his lash once more
>>“Know pain”
>The whip cracks again, but this time its bearer screams, dropping it as the glow from his horn suddenly fizzles out
>A thin, oozing line runs across his leathery back, though it was never struck
>He has no time to recover before a blow to the side of the head sends him sprawling
>The griffon’s shackles clink open, and she – you can tell it’s a she – slowly rises and turns to her rescuers
>>“Abel?”
>Her tone and expression are suspicious, as though she can’t trust her senses
>He just nods curtly, and she seems to relax
>>“You came back?”
>She has a thick accent that you don’t recognize, but the sisters’ ears turn subtly forward, and you can tell they do
>He just nods again
>>“No time to explain,” he says, dismissing the implied question with a clawed hand
>>“If you know the way out, go, otherwise hide – we’ll be back”
>>25617167
>>“I don’t think we should come back this way,” Celestia says, hovering her weapon over the unconscious changeling
>>“No choice,” Abel counters gruffly, pointing to a wide stair on the left
>>“That’s the way to the surface”
>Skittering and shouting echo from the passage the trio just emerged from
>>“They’re already onto us, and we’ve got about fifteen minutes before the entire hive knows we’re here,” Luna reminds
“If they don’t already”
>She looks to the minotaur to guide them
>Just as he’s beginning to move, he stops himself and turns toward Celestia, grasping his bludgeon by the thick end and raising it so that the spike at its other hovers above her head
>She steps back in surprise just before he brings it down, piercing the changeling’s neck and showering her in sticky green blood
>>“If you leave your enemies alive,” he snarls, jamming a finger in her muzzle
>>“You murder your friends”
>Without another word, he sets off down the next tunnel at as rapid a pace as caution allows
>The griffoness, apparently confident in her own abilities, bounds up the stairs on feline paws
>>“Tia, let’s go”
>The sun alicorn blinks and then gathers herself
>As she follows, she spares a final glance at the bleeding changeling
>Dawn is approaching
>>25617196
>With an abruptness not normally found in natural formations, the passage they follow opens into a vast cavern with no floor
>It reaches high, but infinitely more deep
>A thin, stone bridge arcs from their hooves to an opening on its far side
>Below there is nothing but unmeasurable distance, further obscured by mist and that ubiquitous green glow
>Without hesitation, Abel dashes across, the sisters having enough room to follow him on wing
>He charges through the rift on the other side, and they follow
>Before the alicorns’ hooves even touch the floor, he’s already delivered a killing blow to an unsuspecting changeling
>Dozens of blue-green eyes fix on him, and all is chaos as screeches and the blur and hum of insectoid wings descend out of the crevices above
>Bright flashes light the air with smoke and confusion as Luna vanishes in a turn of her cloak
>Chitinous hooves hit the floor at a gallop while the drone of wings grows louder as more and more of them emerge from the cracks
>A golden glow fills the hazy hollow, and in a burst of light that seems like the sun brought to earth, the first wave is blown back by a concussive surge of magic
>But it doesn’t stop the swarm
>Another golden glint of a more metallic nature flits through the dark, and the balled pommel of Celestia’s halberd sweeps through the air, knocking back a dozen of the faerie-winged creatures
>She releases it from her aura for just a moment and flips it over her back, letting the flat of the blade smash two more into unconsciousness
>Her magic grips it just long enough to pop it into the air, and she wheels around and kicks it in a more powerful version of the move she pulled earlier, bowling them over in droves
>You wondered why a mare who refuses to kill would carry such a weapon, and now you know
>Her precision keeps the blade from touching her foes
>But it’s there if she needs it
>>25617263
>The halberd trips yet more attackers on its magically-fueled return to her
>It tumbles over her back again, guided by her wings, and the axe head anchors itself in the ground as she releases the next massive stunning spell that she was buying time for
>Luna flits in and out of corporeality, leaving smoke, distractions, and fallen assailants in her immaterial wake
>Abel fights with none of the finesse of his comrades
>But he is strong, and full of rage
>He swings his club with brute force, breaking backs and crushing skulls
>He gouges eyes with his clawed fingers and his powerful bovine jaws snap at any limb within reach
>The sisters fight to defend
>He fights to maim and kill
>As many as possible
>Celestia’s horn charges once more, and a final jolt of golden force stuns the last of them
>As the dust begins to clear, your ears and theirs are met by a sound you would never have expected down here
>Cheers
>>“Abel!”
>Many voices call his name
>The cages that line this expansive chamber have actual doors
>Probably so their occupants can be regularly taken out and beaten, you realize
>The creatures within are disheveled from abuse and gaunt with starvation
>But they are alive in more than just the physical sense
>Zebras, minotaur, and dark-colored griffons dominate them
>It makes sense, as they are – from what you’ve gleaned – the majority of the local population
>But there are other, rarer beings as well
>An Arabian equine
>Several large, shaggy yaks
>Even a dragon, still young enough to fit in one of the small enclosures
>Unfortunate passers-by who have spent more time in this valley than they ever intended to
>They are not like the first ones you saw in that dreadfully silent room
>They grasp at the bars and peer through them eagerly, hope, curiosity, and even smiles on their faces
>Other than a few nods, Abel ignores them for now
>>25617311
>His eyes dart worriedly over the scores of dead and unconscious changelings
>>“We have to find the key,” he tells the sisters, “there’s only one”
>>“Nevermind that,” the sun alicorn grunts as she tears the door off one of the cells with her magic
>Two prisoners taste their freedom with hopeful caution
>An older-looking minotaur female, and a skinny, young male, barely a bull
>She clings to him anxiously, and you realize they are mother and son
>As you observe the rest of the captives, it begins to dawn on you that the cellmates are not just arbitrarily thrown together
>There are families here
>>“Luna,” Celestia shouts, “help me get these open”
>The shrieking and scuttling from the direction of the bridge tells them they have mere seconds to do so
>>“There’s no time, Tia,” Luna says in a harsh whisper
>>“Guard the entrance”
>>“I need to concentrate”
>As her sister takes a defensive position by the door without hesitation, she magics open her right pack and withdraws a delicate little object
>A small metal skull – an alicorn’s, if you’re not mistaken – from which stems a thin, brass shaft
>As she turns it in her magical grasp, you can see hundreds of miniscule, intricately-crafted telescoping pins that emerge from it in all directions
>The craftsmanship is identical to that of the spyglass she used earlier, as well as being reminiscent of a few disused tools you catch glimpses of when Luna opens her potion cabinet
>The screeches and clatter become louder
>She inserts the skeleton key into the lock on the nearest cell door
>>“Hurry, Lu”
>>“You mustn’t rush me, dear sister”
>Luna’s words are gracious enough, but the edge in her voice and the sweat that sticks her mane to her temples contrast with them sharply
>>“Then I will,” Abel growls
>>“Work quickly”
>>25617361
>Her eyes stare at some indeterminate point in the distance as soft – but impossibly rapid – metallic clicks emanate from within the keyhole, and you realize that while her tool is elegant and her magic dexterous, she’s just bruteforcing it
>From your vantage point, you can’t see the other side of the bridge, but when Celestia and Abel’s postures lower in preparation, you know their time is almost up
>With a slow breath, Luna’s eyes snap back to cognizance and the quiet clicks cease
>But instead of turning the key, she withdraws it
>She studies the configuration of the pins for a few long seconds, turning it around and around in her aura
>Then she closes her eyes and her horn flares
>With a resounding clack of bolts, every single lock in the vast cavern snaps open simultaneously
>The cheering almost drowns out the sound of charging hooves and buzzing wings
>Almost, but not quite
>Just as the prisoners are beginning to push past the barred doors, a shriek fills the cavern, and in a golden flash, the first changeling is struck by the pommel of Celestia’s halberd
>This place was clearly designed to be difficult to escape
>The small archway through which the two sisters and their guide originally entered is the only way in or out, and just beyond it is that thin, treacherous bridge
>This structural isolation is now both a blessing and a curse
>There is no way for the enemy swarm that hovers outside to force its way through all at once
>They can barely enter two by two, and those who do fall instantly to the sun mare’s blows
>They gather outside, hissing and spitting as they peer in with their dead, insectoid eyes, but after half a dozen are dropped within a few seconds, they think better about trying to enter
>Celestia stands rigid, weapon at a threatening ready with a menacing snarl on her face, but you know her well enough to see the anxiety and frustration tugging at her young self’s features
>>25617414
>This is exactly what they didn’t want to happen
>With another spark of her horn, a thin wall of bright light spreads across the entrance and she lowers her halberd, turning around
>Her hair still sticks to her helm
>The forelock that emerges from underneath the front of it clings damply to her forehead
>They’ve been out of the rain for a while, and you realize how humid this place must be
>Luna stares at her, clearly at a loss
>Abel’s expression is grim, and you have no doubt he’s ready to die right here
>But the weighty slump you can see in her shoulders comes from all the unfamiliar faces that peer at her through the dim, green glow that pervades this place
>Her minotaur companion is hard – maybe he was born that way, maybe this is what the world made him, but regardless, he’s a fighter like her and her sister
>These disheveled people of many races that look at her with expectant hope are not warriors
>And yet the odds they face do not paint the picture of a battle that can be won without casualties
>At least not if she follows her rule
>With each passing moment that their stares weigh upon her, you can see that long-held principle beginning to erode
>Just kill them
>You can practically hear her thoughts
>Just kill these repugnant, cruel things, and then none of these good people will have to suffer anymore
>Hell, all she needs to do is hit them with a stunning spell
>Technically, the blood wouldn’t be on her hooves, but on the bottom of the pit below
>With a sigh, she looks back toward her magical barrier and the slavering horde of faerie ponies that hover just beyond it
>>“Lu?”
>>“Yes sister?”
>>“You’ll have to guide them,” she says, “I’m going to be occupied for the next few minutes”
>>25617459
>The night mare nods in assent, and despite the fact that they aren’t looking at each other, the understanding is implicit
>Celestia holsters her weapon and takes a deep breath, her horn beginning to glow
>Then she exhales, and the shield drops
>With a shock and a flash, she dives through the archway, blasting her attackers back and taking flight in the cavern on the other side
>Another pulse releases an even larger stunning spell, and nearly the whole lot of the changeling horde is slammed against stone walls
>Broken bones and concussions send many of them plummeting into the murky pit below
>But they don’t fall far
>A golden glow ensconces each individual form, and Celestia hovers in place, eyes closed in focus as she suspends every single one of her foes – conscious and unconscious – in the air
>>“Go!” she shouts, face screwed up in concentration
>Luna mutters something that you don’t quite catch
>You can’t make out what she’s saying, but her expression does a fine job of conveying the exasperation that her volume doesn’t
>The prisoners are all too eager to leave, and the more intrepid among them start towards the thin bridge
>The cloaked mare halts them with a hoof
>Her eyes are narrowed and her gaze turns upward as she counts under her breath
>She closes her eyes, and suddenly the whole cavern grinds and shudders as a deep roar echoes down from the keep above
>Rocks and dust fall from the ceiling and cracks race through the walls
>You could swear you see the ambient green glow flicker in and out like an electric light
>Celestia is startled and nearly loses control of her spell, but she quickly recovers
>>“Going a little overboard with the pyrotechnics this evening?” she wonders raggedly as beads of sweat begin to form on her brow
>>“Better safe than sorry,” her sister calls back
>>25617520
>>“Apparently we have different understandings of what that means, Lu,” she says, rolling her eyes as much as she can while engaged with her magic
>>“Now go,” she shouts, “get these people out of here”
>>“Come with me,” Luna calls to the crowd
>>“Go quickly and don’t look down” she says, pointing toward the bridge
>>“If you fall, I will catch you”
>Abel takes the lead, and the motley assortment of minotaurs, zebras, and other, stranger creatures follow him across the precarious stone arch that connects the two sides of the cavern
>Those fortunate enough to have wings – the griffons and the young dragon – fly across and wait on the other side
>As you saw on your way in, there are two passages there
>The one through which they entered, and the stair leading up to the surface
>The hum that comes from both tells you that stealth has gone out the window
>The whole hive knows something is up
>Suddenly, the noise turns from ambient to loudly present
>The buzz of insectoid wings and the clatter of leathery hooves drown out the panicked cries of the prisoners as another slew of changelings gallop from both directions
>A burst of orange and yellow spellfire lights up the drab darkness as the dragon unleashes his breath, incinerating the attackers that descend from the stair
>You hear a guttural shout and a series of wet thumps as Abel swings his club, cracking the skulls and breaking the legs of the attackers that charge in from the other passage
>The bug-like creatures continue to swarm in
>Bolstered by another explosion of dragon flame, those prisoners who have safely crossed the bridge meet the assault with reckless abandon
>You know they are not warriors, and they have no weapons, but this is a life and death fight in its plainest form
>Tooth and nail, hoof and claw
>>25617549
>A stricken Celestia watches the skirmish, her magical faculties already tied up to their breaking point
>Flashes of light and explosive snaps dazzle your vision, and the air fills with smoke
>From within the murk, Luna’s magic – a laser-like beam of blue-green light – carves a path through the onslaught of fae ponies descending from above
>Their broken bodies tumble down the stone stairs
>With a bellow and a resounding crack, the minotaur caves another changeling’s head in
>>“Abel!” Luna calls to him through the obscuring haze
>>“Go!”
>She points up the stair
>>“Take them!”
>He nods, but something catches the corner of his eye
>Celestia grips the changelings with all her might, but those few who remain unhurt are beginning to struggle against her
>The cavern rumbles periodically, unsettled by the explosion from above
>The last of the former captives are still making their way across the bridge
>Abel’s gaze falls upon a pair of minotaurs that you saw earlier
>The mother and the son
>Despite Luna’s reassurance, they fear the fall, walking slowly and staring down into the abyss below
>The young minotaur looks up just in time to see one eager changeling free itself from the sun mare’s golden glow and barrel towards him
>The night mare is occupied, not even noticing
>Abel drops his weapon and runs
>Minotaurs are – at least to your eye – very oddly proportioned creatures, so the burst of speed he puts on surprises you
>With a cry of pure exertion, his cloven hooves leave the ground, propelling him over the great chasm like a rocket
>He intercepts the changeling in a full-body tackle that sends him plummeting to his doom
>Then all hell breaks loose
>>25617600
>Celestia’s magic stops Abel from falling to his death, but in rescuing him, she releases the changelings
>The broken ones fall, swallowed by the darkness below
>But the conscious ones shake off their disorientation and dive toward the bridge
>The creatures who still stand on it panic, several of them falling
>She catches them as well, and levitates all her charges to solid ground
>She drops them roughly, refocusing her magic just in time to blast back an attacking swarm
>Luna appears to have cleared the stair for now, while her minotaur friend wastes no time in getting up and continuing to beat back the steady influx of assailants coming from the other tunnel
>“You go,” he calls to her between blows, “take them up! There will be more on the surface!”
>She looks around anxiously
>He won’t be able to hold them off for long
>Celestia is still in the air, weaving and dodging around the vast cavern, tailed by some very pissed-looking changelings
>But it seems she’s conscious of the exchange
>Turning on a dime, she dips under the bridge and then arcs back up, causing her less-agile pursuers to scatter
>She lands next to Abel, and another powerful burst of golden light knocks back the attackers and buys them all some time
>“Go, sister!” she shouts through the smoke and the pale green light
>Without a moment’s hesitation, Luna motions for the prisoners to follow her, leading them up the stair as quickly and quietly as possible
>The only ones that remain behind are those helping the elder alicorn and the minotaur stave off the onslaught
>That dragon may not be full-grown, but he’s still a big motherfucker
>He stands at the base of the steps, swinging his spiked tail back and forth in wide, powerful sweeps that stop anyone thinking of pursuing the escapees dead in their tracks
“Wait a sec,” you say, speaking for the first time in a long time
“You just left”
“How are we seeing this right now?”
“You weren’t there”
>>25617635
>“You’re right, Anonymous”
>“I never saw it first hoof”
>“But I was there when she relived it every night for many years after”
>“It is clearer in my mind than many of my own memories of that night”
>Strike
>Strike
>Kick
>Stun
>Celestia is faster and more agile than any mere mortal could ever hope to be
>But every blow is mitigated by that principle
>Thou shalt not kill
>“Go!” she shouts to the last remaining prisoners, “get out of here!”
>The escape has been made
>All they need to do is fall back and not get killed in the process
>Abel is her opposite
>He fights with anger and vengeance
>His teeth tear at ears and his fingers gouge eyes
>He aims the spike on the end of his weapon straight for the heart
>Together, they form a wall of blows that no changeling can penetrate
>They are alone now, slowly giving ground and ascending the stairs as they fight
>A sudden shrieking, grinding noise puts a hush over the mêlée
>The minotaur spares not a moment’s attention, using the distraction to take out several more opponents
>But the sun mare looks up, realizing they have bigger problems
>Cracks rush through the rock above like spidery veins, sending jagged shards plummeting to the floor
>A boulder large and sharp enough to cleave her in two is deflected by magic at the last second
>She retreats up the stair, and her horn flares
>>25617695
>Layers of overglow immediately ensconce it, and a hot, gold light permeates the collapsing ceiling
>>“Abel!” she cries, “let’s go!”
>But the minotaur is incensed
>He’s gone berserk
>He swings his club in a graceful arc, incapacitating no less than five changelings, then brings it down on every one of their heads, splitting their skulls open in a wash of green blood
>Celestia retreats further up the stair, and another cloak of shimmering light enwraps her horn
>You’ve only seen magical exertion like this one other time in your life
>When your princess challenged the power of the Goddess
>She opens her mouth to shout again, but no words come out, only a scream – long, loud, and defiant
>She fights the will of the earth itself, but it’s a losing battle
>Her horn goes dark but immediately blazes again, and you hear the distantly-familiar sound of a gunshot going off in reverse as she teleports herself and her friend out of the fray
>She is weak, and only takes them mere yards, just beyond the falling stone
>The entire cavern collapses, crushing most of the changelings into oblivion
>But a few make it out, and they rush straight for Abel as he hits the ground hard, disoriented in the wake of his magical transportation
>They attack without mercy, goring him with their jagged horns and biting him with sharp teeth before he can regain his faculties
>>“NO!”
>In an explosion of desperate light, Celestia casts another stunning spell, but in her current state it’s barely enough to knock them off their hooves
>With a guttural scream, she raises her weapon in her weakened grip and swings
>A changeling’s severed head hits the floor with a thump
>Another collapses as his leg is taken off
>She cleaves one cleanly in two
>They are terrified and routed
>But the only way they have to run is up, toward her sister and the prisoners, and you can see that realization in her eyes
>>25617772
>There are only three left, and they don’t flee far before she grabs them with her aura in a final blaze of magical exertion
>Her legs falter – possibly with exhaustion, or possibly with remorse – and she snaps their necks
>All is silent, and she falls to the ground
>Her hooves scrabble against the steps as she lurches toward the minotaur, but he is beyond help
>>“Astra,” he wheezes as she reaches him
>>“I’m so sorry,” she whimpers, tears streaming down her cheeks
>>“There’s no time to be sorry,” he breathes, pausing to cough up a bubble of blood
>>“Kill her”
>Fear and confusion crease her brow
>>“Kill the queen, or this will happen again”
>Her mouth tries to say “who?” but he cuts her off
>>“I lied to you, and I am sorry”
>>“My wife, my son, and my brother still live”
>>“They live in that chamber full of broken wretches that wish to die”
>>“I hope it collapses and kills them so that we might all be reunited in the afterlife”
>His chest rises and falls rapidly in a death rattle
>>“You are irredeemably good”
>>“But you must kill her”
>>“Destroy her, so that nobody will suffer like this ever again”
>Celestia opens her mouth once again to respond, but she would be speaking to no one
>In a last shudder, the light of life leaves Abel’s eyes
>All she can do is cry, and cry she does
>For him
>And for her useless, broken rule
>>25617811
>The rain pours down outside the gaping hole that has been blown in the front of the keep
>The iron portcullis has been rent to ribbons by a magical explosion, and the former prisoners spill though it, tasting wet freedom as they dash out into the downpour
>>“Where is Abel?” past Luna wonders, not being privy to the haunting dreams her sister will have for years to come
>Celestia’s teeth clench in agony
>She communicates all she needs to with a simple shake of her head
>Luna wilts
>>“Go, Lu,” the eldest alicorn says through hot and sticky tears that are whipped back by the wind drifting in from the outside
>>“Get them out of here”
>>“There is something I need to do”
>>“As usual,” Luna smiles sadly, “you underestimate all but yourself”
>>“They are free, but I am not yet”
>>“I must follow you, sister”
>The dragon’s fire cooks any changelings that dare challenge the escapees
>The prisoners are out of their hell
>Unlike the future sun princess’s conscience
>But she has her sister
>They ascend another set of stairs with heavy hearts, traveling into the core of the hateful keep
>As they rise, they notice something peculiar and unique to this place
>Sculptures of changelings and other things
>All around them are intricately-carved statues of the creatures that crawl through these chasms
>And depictions of their victims
>Luna passes a sculpture that appears to be broken
>It’s a gryphon, but the head is missing
>Then she looks closer at it, and you see the detail in its severed stump of a neck
>The shredded flesh and protruding vertebra depicted in stone look as though they would’ve been cut with a dull saw
>This was made by someone who was looking at the real thing
>>25618018
>They proceed cautiously, but it seems there’s no need
>The stairs go up and up, and the higher they ascend, the quieter it gets
>No screeches or skittering from the shadows
>All is silent
>Except for that tapping
>Tap
>Tap
>Clink
>It speeds up and slows down seemingly at random, filling the dark passage with an echoing staccato
>Luna’s ears twitch as they draw nearer to the source
>Her tail flicks back and forth
>Celestia’s expression is blank, stony, and very familiar
>That’s the face you know
>As they continue up a number of steps that the perceived size of this fortress simply does not warrant, the tapping becomes more and more even
>Rhythmic
https://soundcloud.com/dwk-319911693/lucillas-lullaby
>Tap
>Tap
>Clink
>Tap
>Tap
>Clink
>Then, suddenly – yet quietly and gently – a voice joins it, melodious and ethereal as it reverberates through the empty halls, accompanied only by the tapping and the soft, green glow of the tendrils that snake through the walls
>>“Rest my child, upon a bed”
>>“Of dust and stars, lay down your head”
>Both sisters stop dead in their tracks
>>“The sun and moon will always rise”
>>“I know this as you know my eyes”
>Celestia’s breath catches in her throat
>Luna’s eyes are wide and shimmering
>>“Rest now”
>>“Rest now”
>>“I’ll give you all the best now”
>>“Rest now”
>>“Rest now”
>>“In crimson light caressed now”
>>25618071
>The lyrics dissolve into humming that follows the same tune
>They don’t quite look at each other
>Their faces remain fixed in the direction of the song
>But their eyes dart sideways, and you can tell they’re sharing some sort of psychic exchange
>Celestia mutters something that you can’t hear, and they continue on, gaits still cautious but now much more hurried
>They’re forced into a sharp turn as the stairs end and the passage leads to a room in what must be the highest spire of this keep
>That climb was not nearly enough to wind two alicorn demigoddesses
>The way they’re panting must mean this place is impossibly hot
>Their mouths hang open and their eyes water
>Everywhere else you’ve seen has had those green veins creeping through the walls
>But here, they are the walls
>Thick, glowing, organic trunks of some material halfway between flesh and wood
>They pulse and roil like upset intestines
>And all around the circular room are sculptures
>In the center of it is the source of the tapping
>And the song
>A great mare rears toward the ceiling, many yards tall, her mane flowing behind her with impossible length
>Her eyes sparkle like gems, as do the red stars in her hair
>But she doesn’t move
>That great mane doesn’t billow
>Judging by the state of the two daughters, if it was real, it would be wet and sticking to her back
>That is, if hair made of dust and stars could do so
>Her left foreleg is unfinished, still embedded in unshaped stone
>But it is slowly being freed by that rhythmic annoyance
>>25618121
>Tap
>Tap
>Clink
>Because at her base – diligently working with a hammer and chisel – stands a thing, and that thing’s ears twitch and turn backward as it sets down those tools with a pair of appendages quite rare on this earth
>Hands
>Hands with the longest, thinnest fingers you’ve ever seen
>The sisters’ probing expressions tell you that they have no more idea what it is than you do, but that it certainly isn’t whatever they expected
>Four hooves clack gently on the floor as it turns around, and after a moment, you see its face
>You want to ask Luna what in god’s name this thing is, but you don’t
>The large, bright-gold eyes are flecked with the same green that permeates this place
>There is black where white should be, so all but the shimmering irises nearly blend in with changeling skin
>They stare down a gently-pointed equine muzzle
>Their lids blink inquisitively, batting long lashes
>With a skeletal index finger almost the length of your arm, the creature brushes aside a lock of lavender-purple hair as it examines the intruders
>The texture of its nearly floor-length mane is unsettlingly reminiscent of the present-day sisters
>But instead of billowing, it climbs
>Spidery curls crawl up its cloudy expanse, dissipating at the top
>The thing cocks its head to the side and squints, as though peering through a haze
>One eyebrow arches up toward its jagged horn
>Then it speaks
>>“Is it really you?”
>>25618157
>The multitonal whisper is delivered between two long fangs that resemble most changelings’, but a bit more delicate
>>“How do you know that rhyme?” Celestia demands, ignoring the question
>The creature clasps its hands together, and all the macabre beauty of its face is split apart at the middle by a hideous smile
>The wide grin stretches from ear to pointy, elfin ear, revealing many dagger-like teeth, green either by design or age
>It doesn’t matter which; the effect is the same regardless
>But despite how ugly it is, there is joy in it
>>“Oh, it is you,” she says, ignoring the alicorn’s words in turn
>Her voice is deep and melodious with flamboyant affectation
>>“Welcome to my humble home, my dearest sisters!”
>>“What a joyous reunion this is!”
>She spreads her arms wide and walks toward them on four hooved legs attached to what resembles the abdomen of a praying mantis with an almost human-like torso at its front
>The way she sways her body back and forth makes your skin crawl
>She receives her response in the form of Celestia’s blade pointed at her nose and murderous stares from both her “guests”
>>“I don’t know what kind of twisted dementia rots your mind,” the sun mare snarls, “but you are no sister of mine”
>>“Indeed,” Luna assents
>The changeling’s head lolls to the side, her grin growing wider as a high-pitched titter escapes her throat
>She waves a limp-wristed hand at Celestia as though she’d just told a terrible joke
>>“Oh, you’re just like her – so serious, so emotional”
>>“You even look the same”
>>“But so tiny”
>She’s two heads taller than the eldest alicorn, and towers over the youngest
>>“And you must be Selena,” she simpers, ignoring the weapon shoved in her face and bending down to address the latter
>>“Are you old enough to talk yet?”
>>25618208
>Luna’s eyes blaze with the fury of however many moons equal a thousand suns
>>“If you speak to me like that again,” she says slowly, “I will wear your face as a sleep mask”
>>“Only kidding, only kidding,” the changeling assures with another high-pitched laugh
>She turns around without the slightest hint of trepidation and walks lazily back in the direction of her statue
>>“When you’re as old as I am, everyone just seems so young”
>She shouts the last two words fervidly, her arms spread wide, gaze toward the ceiling
>>“Do not talk to us as if you know us, you hideous freak,” Celestia spits
>The creature pauses mid-step and straightens her back
>>“Hideous freak?” she wonders
>Though she’s turned away, you can see she’s tapping her chin
>Then she looks back over her shoulder, like you or anyone might
>But her head keeps turning
>Luna swallows hard and Celestia takes a small step back
>The changeling’s head completes a full about face, her visage still split by that jagged, green smile
>“Now, now,” she titters, “if I were a hideous freak, could I do this?”
>When she sees the revulsion on their faces, her head whips around into its correct position and she throws it back in a long, hearty cackle
>She turns her outlandish body around properly, wiping a mirthful tear from an eye with a spindly finger
>>“I’m just joking,” she explains, “I can’t actually do that”
>>“But if you wish to call me names, you might as well call me the right one, so – since you don’t seem to know me as I know you – why don’t we start this glorious occasion with an introduction”
>She places a hand to her chest, and bows her head while maintaining eye contact
>>“I am Lucilla”
>>“Lucilla Aphelia”
>>25618269
>She genuflects enthusiastically with a manual flourish, touching one knee to the floor and holding the position for a long moment
>>“And,” she continues, “I am delighted to finally speak to you”
>>“I came here to slay you, not converse with you,” the sun mare growls, baring her teeth
>>“Well,” Lucilla chuckles, standing back up and whipping her head to the side to produce a loud, wet crack, “congratulations on thus far accomplishing the precise opposite of your goal”
>Despite her words, you can see Celestia rapidly losing her conviction
>Though she still holds her halberd close, this strange creature has disarmed her in a different way, tempering her wrath with curiosity and something else you can’t quite make out yet
>>“What are you?” she asks, her tone still commanding but touched by a genuine need to know
>Luna just stares
>>“I,” Lucilla says, the single syllable spoken with the haughtiest pride, “am the reason that you are not the hideous freaks”
>Her eyebrows arch, smile as disconcerting as the finger she points at them is damning
>Celestia is incensed
>>“Do not play cryptic with me,” she shouts, rising to her full height as her eyes begin to glow
>>“I am Celestia Astra, first daughter of the goddess whose name I bear, and I will not be toyed with by the likes of you, wretch”
>She’s levitating a few inches off the ground, and a violent wind whips through the windowless room
>The green light that pulses through the walls flickers
>Lucilla yawns and brushes a strand of hair off her face
>Every so often, one of the curls that crawl up her mane doesn’t dissipate, choosing instead to hang around her horn and over her eyes
>>“Please, my dear,” she entreats with another lazy wave of her long fingers, “don’t sully our first meeting with such egotistical ramblings”
>>25618316
We're at roughly the halfway point. I need a couple hours of sleep. I'll be back soon
>>25618543
great work man, can't wait to see more
>>25618543
>>25620266
I want to give her cheeks a light squeeze as I'm trying to get her out!
>>25620273
>>25620266
Would they feel soft?
>>25620337
That is a pretty drastic change in attitude
>>25620495
It's just the initial shock, that's all. Not like there's any rush.
Thank god my safe space is back
>Middle of the night/early morning hours
>Virtually no moonfags
Did something happen while I was away?
>>25620721
No, we're here.
>>25618316
>For the first time since you’ve seen her, she frowns
>That wide mouth turns down and pulls her entire face with it, revealing green veins around the edges of her eyes
>Her brow furrows and her slitted pupils contract in a menacing expression of impatience
>>“And if you really think you are the first daughter of the goddess,” she snaps, stretching her neck toward them, “then you have been woefully mislead”
>Celestia is angry
>Luna is not
>Her one forehoof hovers in the air, quivering at the ready
>But whether it’s ready to charge or turn tail and run, she can’t seem to figure out
>Yet just as quickly as it came, the menace in Lucilla’s expression and posture disappears
>Her mouth arcs back upwards into that Cheshire smile
>>“I want to show you something,” she grins, rubbing her hands together
>>“So you can see what we are”
>She turns and walks around the nearly-finished sculpture, beckoning with a finger
>It’s not far, but the warm, wet haze that hangs about the room swallows her as she rounds the great chunk of stone
>After a glance and another inaudible back-and-forth, the sisters follow very, very slowly
>>25620921
>The glowing green grotto is steeped in misty heat, but it has a quality you’re very familiar with
>It looks lived-in, and you feel a sudden onset of unexpected emotion
>Luna’s room – your living space – is always being cleaned by servants
>Everything has its proper place, and whenever you leave and return, order has always been restored
>But that isn’t the case here
>The floor is an uneven carpet of dust and rocks from what you figure must be years of stonecrafting that number in the hundreds
>If not the thousands
>All around sit unfinished works
>A few tables – strewn with personal possessions and arranged with no thought for order – stand against the walls
>One is made of wrought iron, but another just a few feet away from it is made of wood, and it reminds you of the heavy desk you used to sit in front of every night in your past life
>There is one spot on the wall where the green tendrils abate, revealing stone
>There are shelves carved into it, housing a modest collection of books
>Or at least it’s modest by today’s standards
>For its time, it’s probably the equivalent of a library
>There are tools everywhere
>Picks, chisels, and hammers litter the place, some bearing the scarred shine of recent use, others rusted to hell and likely untouched for centuries
>However alien, it feels reminiscent of Twilight’s castle or your old apartment, and you feel both guilt and disdain at the wistfulness that wells within you
>Whatever else it might be, this is a home
>>25615488
The last couple threads have been promising. At least, I wasn't depressed and horrified by them.
>>25620938
>The alicorns examine it warily
>Their heads remain pointed toward their “host,” but their eyes sweep in wide arcs, taking in the organized chaos
>Nonchalant and unbothered as ever, Lucilla leads them to a particular corner which bears a shroud of dusty disuse impressive even for this place
>In it stands an object just slightly taller than herself, covered by a large, ragged cloth
>>“Tell me, young Astra,” her raspy voice prompts, shattering the silence
>>“Have you ever wondered why you’re so perfect?”
>Celestia’s eyes narrow, but she doesn’t speak
>>“I’ve been making sculptures for longer than you’ve been alive,” the changeling explains
>>“Many of my old works are lost or turned to dust”
>>“But I’ve always kept this one”
>With a sharp pull, she whisks away the cloth to reveal the thing underneath
>>“It’s my self-portrait,” she beams
>Past Luna peers at it intently, scrunching up her nose
>Her sister only glares
>The statue is coarse and bulky, sharing none of the others’ detail and polish
>But its shape is familiar
>A small, rough-cut prototype of the enormous mare in the center of the room
>>“Have you looked in a mirror lately?” the night mare wonders, her brow creased and her mouth turned down
>>“The portrait,” Lucilla explains primly, strolling around the thing with an examining eye, “lies in the concept, not the subject”
>>“I am getting very tired of exchanging pleasantries,” Celestia growls
>>“Oh please, my dear,” the changeling titters with a wave of her spindly fingers
>>“If these are ‘pleasantries,’ then why are you being so thoroughly unpleasant?”
>She snaps the last word, jerking her head toward the alicorn, whose blade rises threateningly
>She pays it no mind, sinking back into her lazy drawl as she completes her circle of the statue and stands next to it
>>25616220
Always.
>>25620964
>>“You both know what it’s like to hone a skill, yes?” she wonders, but it’s not a question
>One finger traces over the rough – sometimes jagged – edges of her work, and a far-off expression crosses her face as she continues
>>“To achieve perfection, we must fail many times, mustn’t we?”
>Her eyes look beyond the pulsing, green coils of the walls
>>“This was the tenth sculpture I ever endeavored to carve”
>>“I wasn’t skilled, but I had just enough experience that some boldness had crept into me, and I wanted to try something just a little more grand, even if it might not work out”
>>“I mean, one doesn’t create something like that,” she points to the unfinished – but thus far immaculate – statue that towers in the center of the floor, “or like you,” she turns her gaze on Celestia, “without leaving a wake of imperfect attempts”
>>“By necessity, you never met her”
>>“But you must know, because you are her”
>>“You hear the echoes of her being”
>>“Like a lullaby”
>>“And they tell you”
>Luna’s eyes are full of hungry curiosity, and the last of Celestia’s aggression is holding at a slow boil
>Seeing their eagerness, the queen splutters and covers her mouth with a hand, waving the other one at them manically
>>“Oh! Oh! Go ahead!” she giggles
>>“You simply must’ve figured it out by now!”
>>“I don’t play guessing games,” the sun mare says icily
>Lucilla’s fingers are long enough so that even when she clasps them together at her chest, one can still reach up to tap her chin
>>“You know, Celestia Astra, I was going to say that you’re not nearly as empathetic as I imagined you”
>>“But who am I to talk?”
>>“Anywho, we could talk about this disaster” – she gestures toward her experiment of a body – “all night – or at least I could”
>>25615488
It's so-so.
>>25620988
>She pauses to cackle, and while it sounds cracked, you can’t help but notice that it isn’t bitter
>>“But the big mistake here lies under the surface,” she explains, wiping away a tear
>>“The Evermare had so much love”
>>“She had so much to give, and there was no one to receive”
>>“Not without going mad or being vaporized, or both”
>>“So she made me”
>>“And believe me, I can take it”
>>“More than that”
>>“I need it”
>>“But something just wasn’t quite right”
>>“I was made to take, take, take”
>>“To always be hungry, so that I would always need her”
>>“But this thing that I need…”
>>“Well, that’s all it is – something I need”
>>“She forgot to tell me how to give it back”
>>“She created a thing that wanted love, and that’s it”
>>“It doesn’t change me like it does the rest of you, but my goodness, do I want it”
>>“I need oodles of it just to maintain my sanity, which – let’s be honest – is something of a cosmic in-joke,” she titters, flicking her wrist
>>“‘Oh, that Lucilla,’ they say”
>>“‘Fighting to keep something she never had in the first place’”
>>“I’ve lost my mind, sister”
>>“And every time I get close to holding it down and forcing it back into its place”
>>“I realize it never had a place to begin with”
>>“Because I am this”
>She rests her hands on the roughly-hewn statue of the world’s creator and closes her eyes
>As though touching it soothes her
>>“A necessary failure on the road to perfection”
>>25618071
Oops, I think I had this song listed as private. I fixed it, soif anyone is reading this, they should be able to access it now
>>25621003
>Luna’s eyes are wet, and you don’t have to wonder why
>You’ve spent enough long, tearful nights with her to know that she believes herself to be something similar
>The penultimate attempt
>The very failure that enabled her corresponding success
>The part that was left over
>But the ultimate is having none of this
>The great, white mare straightens, and the tears that stream from her eyes do not fall for any present
>>“I’ve been waiting on you for aeons,” Lucilla continues after a moment
>>“Because you made me”
>>“And I believe you can fix me”
>>“What did you do?” Celestia hisses, her entire being trembling from words to hooves
>>“What is this place?”
>>“You are so beloved, young Astra,” the changeling whispers, seemingly ignoring the questions
>>“Look at you”
>Her voice is breathy and reverent as she waves a hand across the beautifully-fashioned form in front of her
>Your parsing of the scene gives you pause as the realization that’s slowly been ascending the sublevels of your consciousness finally reaches its destination – something you’ve always known, but never really thought about
>Celestia and Luna were not born
>They were crafted
>For various reasons
>>“Wearing golden armor and bringing righteousness wherever you walk”
>>“Scouring this fledgling world for hurts to assuage”
>Those long fingers ball up into fists as best as they can
>>“Even if you weren’t creation’s darling, you would still have her”
>One of them breaks formation to point at Luna
>>25621045
>>“To adore you every second of every day”
>>“You don’t know what it’s like to be cast aside”
>>“You don’t know what it’s like to starve”
>>“What have you done?” Celestia demands again
>>“I did what I needed to,” Lucilla spits, but her indignation is not the product of painful memories
>You get the feeling she’s only angry because she doesn’t understand why her sister is angry
>>“You tortured and murdered people – families – for no reason,” the alicorn fumes, her chest heaving
>>“You don’t understand,” the changeling says, hands out and palms up as if she’s physically presenting her explanation
>>“I was left alone,” she reiterates
>> “Alone, confused, and so very, very hungry”
>>“Mother succeeded in creating something that she couldn’t hurt”
>>“Something that could withstand her presence”
>>“The irony was that she couldn’t stand mine”
>>“That I hurt her”
>>“Suddenly, I had only myself to rely on, so I took what I needed from this world”
>>“Cruelty holds no intrinsic value for me; I’m not some fetishist who touches herself to the sight of blood or the sound of screams”
>>“But love is a tricky thing”
>>“It’s hard to get, and even harder to understand”
>>“Occasionally, what I see makes perfect sense, yet other times it seems like a form of insanity that makes my own deficiencies look like a head cold”
>>25621056
>She taps her chin, eyes on the ceiling for a moment before she continues
>>“When I was young, thin, and more inclined to wander, I once broke into the hut of a zebra to escape a cold night”
>>“He was a healthy specimen, and he tried to fight for his land and possessions, but even that smaller and scrawnier me was stronger than he, and he fled”
>>“Then,” she counters herself with a different inflection, leaning thoughtfully on the figure of her mother, “not too long after, I did the same to the burrow of a diamond dog”
>>“It was filthy and hardly warmer than the outside, but it was all I could find”
>>“She was no bigger than a zebra, and I was even a bit older and stronger”
>>“Yet that night it was I who fled bleeding into the cold”
>>“So, what was the difference?”
>>“The stallion lived alone”
>>“But the bitch”
>>“She had two pups huddled against her in that hovel”
>>“And for a long time after that, I thought I understood what love was for”
>>“Until I came to this place”
>With a flourish, she opens her arms to indicate the citadel as she continues to stalk around the coarse rendition of her maker
>As her circle passes close to the crawling organic glow of the walls, the sickly light briefly illuminates a hide crisscrossed by a chaotic lattice of scars
>>25621110
>>“I honestly don’t know where it came from or who made it,” she admits
>>“The construction outclasses most of what the young world had to offer”
>>“But whatever luck delivered such a secure and secluded structure to the griffons who lived here when I found it – cousins of the fishers from the coast – finally ran out with my arrival”
>>“They’d been living in this valley for generations, and it gave them everything they could possibly want”
>>“Rabbits and mice in the forests, fish in the river, and green grass all around”
>>“I doubt trouble found them often, but when it did, they retreated from their nests into this fortress”
>>“I know this because they did so when I decided to make this land my permanent home”
>>“By then, I was no longer that malformed nymph who famished in the darkness and shivered in the cold”
>>“I was more than I am now”
>>“My body was lean and hard from wandering the world, my army of progenies prodigious”
>She flexes a spindly, humanoid arm, and you realize just how menacing her tall, wiry frame would be with some muscle and youthful vigor
>>“They didn’t stand a shadow of a chance, but they all died”
>>“Every last one”
>>“Even though they didn’t need to”
>>“No,” Celestia breathes
>>“They didn’t”
>>“But that didn’t stop you, did it?”
>A sudden bark of laughter escapes Lucilla’s throat
>>“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” she chuckles, waggling her finger at the alicorn
>>“I’m saying that most of them could’ve escaped”
>>“At least back then, when I hadn’t given as much thought to sustainable food sources”
>>“But they laid down their lives to the last protecting the young, the old, and the sick”
>>“All the ones who couldn’t flee”
>>“The ones that don’t matter”
>>“And it made me realize I truly knew nothing about love”
>>25621123
>>“Up until then it seemed so simple to me”
>>“I thought it was a weapon that could be used to win fights”
>>“A powerful stimulant that turns the weak into the strong”
>>“But that night”
>>“It seemed like nothing more than a tax levied on the strong by the weak”
>She shrugs with an offhand smile
>>“I just don’t get it”
>>“That’s because you’re completely insane,” Celestia explains with a narrow-eyed hiss
>>“Funny,” the changeling grins, examining her claw-like fingernails
>>“That’s exactly what I thought about them, and what I think about all of you”
>>“But”
>She whips her hand around, raising an index finger
>>“I was not so blind as to overlook the truth that night presented me”
>>“That love – this thing that I need – blossoms with suffering”
>>“Its true power doesn’t manifest until it is put through trials”
>>“You withstand so much pain for your cherished ones, and that strength is my nourishment”
>>“That potency is an adequate substitute for the affections of a goddess”
>>“And there comes a point when…”
>Her eyes are slits as she tilts her head, fingers curling as though grasping at her own thoughts
>>“When that reflexive struggle for self-preservation finally fades away in a quiet decrescendo”
>>“And you want to die, but you still do not seek death”
>>“You still fight”
>>“Because of the love”
>>“Because you endure for those dearest few”
>>“And that”
>A shudder that very well may be an orgasm worms its way from her shoulders all the way down to her ethereal tail
>>“Is when the love becomes perfect, and most delectable”
>>25621146
>>“You’re mad!”
>The young, pink-haired Celestia screams this declaration raggedly into the darkness
>>“Don’t you see?” Lucilla wonders, spreading her arms as if everything she’s saying should be painfully obvious
>>“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you”
>>“I’ve been waiting all my life for you to fix me”
>There is an explosion of light
>Celestia has been holding back all night
>Reigning her power in to avoid causing real harm
>When she finally broke and killed those changelings, she was drained and barely able to lift her weapon
>And more importantly, she didn’t want to kill them
>Now her strength has returned, and she wields it with abandon as her magic burns white hot, blasting a beam of energy bright and thick enough to be the sun’s plasma brought to earth
>She seethes, wings flared and hooves digging into the floor as her feather-light body struggles to remain in place against the cosmic force of her rage
>The entire keep seems to rumble in your vision as her legs tremble with both exertion and emotion, once again pushing her magic to its very limits
>Luna takes a step back, eyes wide, and you can see her throat clench, stopping her chest mid-rise
>Your own breath catches as five glowing layers of gold enwrap the sun alicorn’s horn simultaneously
>Her hair separates into tendrils that whip about violently in the wake of Astra’s might
>Her eyes shut tight, wringing out tears that evaporate in the heat of spellfire, but she does not relent
>Her teeth are clenched so forcefully you wonder how they don’t all explode and shower room in organic shrapnel
>With a stone-shattering stomp of her hoof, a sixth and final pocket of overglow springs to life around her great white horn
>Her jaw unclenches in a cry of defiance as the amount of energy she’s channeling begins to cause her physical pain
>But the assault goes on for what seems like several solid minutes more
>>25621181
>Only when her legs are on the verge of buckling does she finally yield
>Reverberating, the din of her spell dies with its light, but her ragged scream rings for just a moment longer
>The air swirls with vapor, the foul dampness of this place turned to reeking steam in the heat
>>“Sometimes,” Celestia’s abused throat croaks as she stares straight ahead to evade her sister’s gaze, “a broken thing can’t be fixed,”
>She exhales, and even in the hot fog you can see her scalding breath warp the air
>>“Sometimes you just throw it away and get a new one”
>The corners of her mouth turn down and her nose twitches
>>“And sometimes, you find you didn’t even need it in the first place”
>The mist is thick, tinged green by the light from the walls
>But the wet confusion in Luna’s eyes has nothing to do with it
>This young Celestia – while much less-polished a persona than her modern counterpart – is still undoubtedly reserved
>This is the first time her sister has ever seen such a display of emotion
>Such a loss of control
>The future moon princess’s brow creases, and her mouth opens and closes several times before she draws a shallow breath to speak
>>“I”
>>“Am”
>>“So”
>>“Jealous”
>>25621295
>It is not she who breaks the silence, however, and both alicorns’ heads jerk back, their gazes refocusing
>As the visually – and no doubt respiratorally – oppressive moisture in the air begins to thin, Celestia’s eyes dart about, searching in disbelief
>The creature known as Lucilla Aphelia stands right where your sight last left her, head tilted, spidery hands clasped at her cheek, and that now-familiar grin on her face
>>“I would give anything for magic like that,” she comments wistfully with a skyward glance
>She takes a step forward
>Her hands do not move but for a long index finger that taps her horn
>>“This is little more than an ornament,” she explains
>>“I can change my shape if I try, but not even with the ease my children can”
>>“Sadly, much like love, I can absorb magic, but never wield it properly”
>>“Speaking of which”
>She swivels the same finger so it points in Celestia’s direction
>>“That didn’t work”
>The sun alicorn bears her teeth, but it seems to go unnoticed
>>“Try it again, please,” Lucilla continues genially
>>“I truly appreciate all this effort on my behalf, Astra,” she chuckles in an almost convincingly affectionate tone. “Why doesn’t our younger sister lend her talents as well? Together, I’m sure you could succeed”
>>“I am not trying to help you,” Celestia snarls, stance wide and low as she attempts to recover from her fruitless exertion
>>“Oh?”
>>“I’m trying to destroy you”
>>“Oh…”
>Lucilla straightens her back, tapping her chin as she considers this for a moment
>Her brow slowly creases and her smile fades
>Her eyes narrow as they fix unmovingly on her “sister,” and her ear twitches
>>25621473
>A dark blur of motion is punctuated by a strangled cry, and suddenly, the white alicorn’s hooves dangle above the floor
>Her wings beat and her forelegs kick against the wiry arm whose hand now encircles her neck
>Those blows could shatter your bones, and yet Lucilla doesn’t so much as blink
>>“Well,” she spits, drawing Celestia’s face so close that they’re nose to nose
>>“That’s not very nice, is it?”
>Wet choking and a grimace are all she receives in response
>In another snapping motion, her unoccupied hand catches the hoof that attempts to strike her chin
>She doesn’t let go, and with an expression of disdain that turns her features so far down they might be melting, grasps it firmly and twists hard
>You hear a wet crack that sounds like an artillery shell shattering a water-logged tree trunk, and despite her cinched throat, the young sun mare’s scream rattles the very walls of the dank grotto and the countless sculptures and tools that populate it
>You weren’t even sure if alicorn bones could be broken, but now your doubt has been laid to rest in the most gut-wrenching way possible
>Her left foreleg hangs limply at her side, dislocated at the shoulder
>Wells of blood are just beginning to spring from the numerous places where her bones – split to ribbons by the torsion – have perforated the skin
>Celestia whimpers and chokes in the changeling’s grasp
>Rivulets of agony mat the soft down of her cheeks, but her eyes are wide, and they flit about desperately
>>“Maybe you don’t quite understand what I am,” Lucialla hisses, tightening her grip on that quivering alabaster neck
>>“You never knew mother”
>>“Your understanding of her is but echoes and lingering memories”
>>“You never knew her eyes”
>A far off look crosses her face, and she stares through her victim, fingers unconsciously constricting further
>>25621481
>Celestia can no longer breathe
>>“Her slightest touch shattered bones and flayed hides”
>>“Her gaze melted minds”
>>“The raw magic radiating from her being could do the same to flesh”
>>“She was incomprehensible to all that she’d created, and any mortal who stood before her suffered all-consuming madness…and, quite often, death”
>>“And then she made me”
>>“Not just to withstand her presence, but to live and thrive in it”
>>“So”
>Her eyes snap back from the aether to stare severely into those of her trembling sister
>>“Do you really think your little light show is going to intimidate me?”
>Celestia blinks hard, vision drifting in and out of focus as suffocation begins to overtake her
>Her eyes keep rolling back in their sockets, but every time she forces herself into lucidity you can see her terror, and you know beyond all doubt that this is the first time in her life she’s ever felt completely helpless
>All of her unparalleled magical potency amounts to nothing, and though she is immeasurably strong, Lucilla’s physical might outclasses her own a thousandfold
>She is but a ragdoll in the hands of this violent, pitiless miscreation
>You suddenly feel very tired
>>“Tia…”
>It’s just a murmur on the edge of your perception
>You had a long night
>Now, in sleep, you’ve only found a longer one
>>25621486
>And through the whole thing, your attention has been focused on Celestia
>Directed toward her, no less, by the orchestrator of this vision
>But your mind is tuned to that voice
>You hear it when you wake and the she greets you good evening
>You hear it all night, even when others don’t
>It whispers you to bed at daybreak
>And it chatters happily in your dreams
>You haven’t really heard it in young Luna until now, when that single utterance of sadness finally connects this quick and clever young mare with the alternately fun-loving and pensive princess with whom you’ve spent every night and day of the last decade
>Throughout this entire recollection, the small alicorn with the cornflower-blue mane has proven herself as competent and decisive as her sister, arguably more so
>And yet now, as Celestia’s predicament grows ever more dire, she rests on her haunches, staring blankly at the scene before her, mouth open, brow cinched tight
>You know that look
>Once, when you were a boy, you got into a fight with this other kid at school
>It wasn’t even that big of a deal, you just slapped each other around because he tried to gaffle your juice box
>Your father came to pick you up, and when the other kid’s dad – who was a drunk prick – showed up, he started some shit
>Your nine-year-old self was amped to see your pops put both these punks in their place
>Then the kid’s dad took a swing
>Right in the jaw
>Pops went down like a sack of bricks
>His glasses broke when they hit the pavement
>The glasses you used to play with when he would read you bedtime stories
>And that you would steal along with his shirts, so you could make your mom laugh by pretending to be him
>>25621500
>The look on Luna’s face is an exponentially more tormented echo of the same one that crossed yours all those aeons ago
>At least you knew your father would be okay
>Luna never even had a father
>Nor a mother in any concrete sense
>There was no wise elder to welcome her to this world or show her how to live
>She didn’t have a parent to watch over her
>To make her feel safe
>To nurture and protect
>She was not eased into reality by birth and the natural cycle of life
>She was thrust into awareness with a sharp mind, a million questions, and nobody to answer them
>But she always had big sister
>Big sister, whom, the more you learn about their past, the more you’ve come to suspect is older only by a few heartbeats
>Big sister, who filled that role of the guardian as best she could
>Who took responsibility for her other half, because she was the only one able to
>Who grew up tough, proud, and uncompromising in her morality, and sought to do for others what she’d done for her only family
>And so, like a newly-minted quadriplegic – or a kid watching his dad get his ass kicked – Luna just stares, unable to parse what she’s seeing
>Because there is no strength or pride in those strangled gasps
>And big sister’s trembling, bleeding leg is her moral code rendered in flesh
>>25621510
>>“You know,” Lucilla ponders, scratching at her chin
>>“I wonder if my lack of magical ability isn’t simply a physical handicap”
>Her fingers creep up her forehead and scuttle over the bony protrusion that juts from it
>>“This horn is so malformed and gnarled,” she explains
>>“It’s nauseating to look at, really”
>>“Do you have any idea what it’s like to have something that makes you want to vomit attached to the top of your face?”
>>“I like looking up”
>>“It’s one of my favorite directions”
>>“Yet every time I do, there’s this wretched thing blocking out the center of my view, which is the best part, because it’s what I’m…you know, looking at”
>>“But yours is just lovely”
>The spidery digits trace the spiraling grooves in Celestia’s horn
>>“We should switch, little sister”
>>“It’s the only way we can understand each other”
>A bony thump followed by a gasp and wet spluttering signals the sun mare’s reacquaintance with solid ground
>She drinks in the air gratefully, but her eyes remain plastered open, fixed on the changeling
>Lucilla reaches up and grabs her own horn
>She pulls, eyes fluttering for a moment
>Could you feel your physical form, the sound you hear would bristle every hair on your body
>Like a suction cup made of bone being popped off an uncooked steak
>>“There,” she says, spreading her fingers and offering the twisted spike with her hand
>There is surprisingly little blood, but the few droplets of ichor that creep down her forehead and stain her palm glow a bright, neon green
>>“You’re insane,” Celestia breathes again
>>25621521
>It’s not an accusation this time
>There is no anger in her voice
>Only fear, sorrow, and a tinge of awe
>>“Yes, we’ve established this,” Lucilla drawls boredly, rolling her eyes as a sticky rivulet of sap-like blood slowly oozes between them
>>“Now, give me your horn”
>The sun mare slowly shakes her head
>She struggles into an upright position, broken leg clutched to her chest by a wing
>>“There is nothing I can give you that will make you well,” she says simply
>Lucilla arches an eyebrow and grits her teeth
>She touches her chin, and her gaze turns toward the ceiling in contemplation
>Despite her irritation, you’re almost sure you can see the corners of her mouth twitch up for a moment at the newly-unobstructed view
>Then, just as quickly, they turn down – far down – bringing her face with them so that you can once again see the viridescent veins in the blacks of her eyes, which follow suit, snapping back down to bore into Celestia’s
>>“You,” she hisses, jaw clenched and unmoving, “are being very, very difficult”
>>“And it is starting to make me angry”
>She stomps a forehoof and begins pacing back and forth, hands twitching and gliding, fingers spreading and curling in time with her words
>>“I’ve dreamed of this moment my entire life, and you are ruining it,” she fumes, fists shaking
>>“You scour the land, sea, and sky for unfortunates to help and problems to fix”
>>“Why won’t you help me?”
>>“Why won’t you fix me?”
>>25621530
>>“Because I can’t,” the alicorn says in response to the accusatory finger quivering just inches from her nose
>Her chest jumps with a sharp inhale, and she sniffles as her tears run unchecked
>Just when she needs her strength the most, the events of the night begin to catch up to her
>She barely stifles the sob that rides on her next spasmodic breath, and her eyes shut tight, squeezing out cascades of wetness
>When they open again, all of the sadness in this world and those beyond has been coalesced into a point and molded over her face like a mask
>With a spark of her still-recovering aura, she brushes a few wet strands of hair back under her helm
>>“I am not mother,” she laments, and you note the absence of a possessive
>>“I don’t have the power or the answers you seek, and I’m sorry”
>>“I’m so very sorry”
>>“Please,” she entreats, bowing her head in defeat
>>“Just let us go”
>The hideous Cheshire grin she receives in response tells her she’s not going anywhere
>A plaintive groan escapes her throat as an impossibly-strong hand once more wraps around it, yanking her again up to its owner’s eyelevel, upsetting the mutilated leg clutched against her chest plate
>>“Let you go?” Lucilla giggles
>>“Maybe, but not until you give me what I want”
>She grips the stricken demigoddess’s alabaster horn with her other hand, heeding in no way the blade anchored to it, her smile a rapidly-waxing crescent moon of sickly color
>>“Let’s start with this”
>There is a flash of golden metal and a sound like an axe cracking through an old and heavy branch
>Lucilla howls in pain and rage
>Celestia crumples to the ground again, the changeling’s hand still clinging limply to her neck
>>25621544
>The incensed monster bellows with incoherent fury, clutching the stump of her left arm, which now terminates just below the elbow
>Before she can even articulate her ire, she’s forced into a hacking fit of coughs by the noxious, syrupy liquid that splatters her face and chest, clawing at her eyes as it burns them
>>“How dare you!” she shrieks at Luna, who stands before her, face contorted with wrathful loathing
>Her sister’s halberd and an unstoppered steel flask levitate in a teal glow on either side of her, and you recognize the skull and crossbones etched into the bottle
>Lucilla rises to her full height – no less imposing for her injury – and reaches toward the youngest alicorn, stare murderous
>>“You will both suffer for th-”
>>“Die,” Luna says
>A single spark from her horn lands on the spidery hand advancing toward her
>In a scorching flash that singes the young mare’s cornflower-blue forelock, the creature known as Lucilla Aphelia is replaced by a towering column of alchemical fire
>The only part of her body not engulfed in flame is her severed hand, which writhes and twitches as though it were still attached
>Celestia shoves the vile thing off of her, forcing herself upright and staggering away from the heat that warps the air around her
>The sound of snapping, billowing flame and blistering, crackling flesh is accompanied by an otherworldly shrill that feels like it’s rattling your brain inside your skull
>Both sisters go rigid, their ears turning back, faces grimacing
>The sound dies, and you figure the creature making it is close to doing the same
>>25621554
>Then it returns even louder, ragged and filled with rage as the living fireball charges at the young memory of your princess
>Luna – her moment of righteous fury now past – stands unmoving, staring agape at what she’s done
>The agonized spectacle keeps her rooted in place
>The mad queen’s remaining hand – billowing with flame – rises, and though Luna snaps back to reality, it’s far too late to dodge the blow
>Just before the hand falls, there is another wet thump, and the golden halberd – ensconced in the like-colored aura of its owner – imbeds itself in Lucilla’s chest, splitting her torso in half
>She stumbles, grasping at it and pulling desperately, refusing to die
>But the sisters have bought themselves more than enough time
>>“Luna! Run!” Celestia screams, hobbling toward the stairs
>She’s too weak to teleport
>Prying her eyes and ears away from the flames and shrieks, the night mare follows at a gallop
>When they reach the passage that leads down and out of the courtroom, she pauses, digging into her saddlebag and retrieving several more bottles of the napalm-like liquid, as well as something else you recognize – a lump of black putty, just like the one she used to blow the gate
>She sticks it to one of the bottles, then tosses all of them toward the flames
>Her horn flares, wrapping herself and her sister in a pale light which builds in intensity, culminating in a flash just as the roar of detonating explosives meets your ears
>>25621559
>In a second blaze of light, the Evermare’s daughters are reunited with soft grass and moonlight
>But the night is bright, illuminated by the tower engulfed in unnatural flame
>The light dances off arcs of black smoke as the burning debris from the explosion reaches toward the sky and then descends to earth
>They’re out of its reach – but only just – and as they stare in collective numbness at the inferno of blue, green, and black, smoldering chunks of rock and metal begin to strike the ground just a few feet before them
>Luna sighs with exhaustion and relief, but Celestia remains stiff and shivering, wing wrapped around her ruined leg
>Silence falls, interrupted only by the patter of small debris and the distant hiss and crackle of slowly-dying fire
>>“Tia?”
>There is no reply
>The mare in question’s stony gaze remains fixed on the dancing light and billowing ash
>Her face is blank – lacking any expression of emotion – and you realize that if the corners of her mouth were turned up just a hair, it would look exactly like the one you know so well
>>“Tia?”
>Not so much as a blink
>A blue hoof reaches toward the rigid, quaking muscle of her back
>>“Sister?”
>She stands suddenly, swatting it away with her wing
>A flurry of movement ensues as her weakened magic tears at the straps that secure her chest plate – ripping them off, buckles and all – and she writhes her way out of it as though it were suddenly trying to eat her flesh
>Once freed, she levitates it before her, teeth gritting and overglow flickering with exertion as she uses the last of her strength to crush the aureate metal into a ball, which hits the dirt with an unceremonious “thunk”
>>25621569
>Her shallow, manic breaths rise in volume as she rips the matching helm from her head, and you wince as haste scrapes it against her horn and takes some of her hair with it
>It floats before her, and as she looks at it, her lips curl back in a snarl and each breath sounds louder and more ragged
>Her tears are so hot that ribbons of vapor rise from her cheeks in the cool night air
>As she stares at the expertly-crafted barbute – which you don’t doubt she made herself – every exhalation becomes a growl of mounting intensity
>With a roar she wheels around and kicks, the impact producing a sound like a mallet striking sheet metal
>She stumbles for lack of a leg, but remains standing
>The collapsed golden helm rockets into the night, landing somewhere in the wreckage of the keep with a distant clank
>Her cry does not falter as she turns her head skyward
>Not until it terminates in a raspy sob
>But her lungs refill themselves sharply
>>“Why would you do this?” she screams at the pale eye
>>“Why?” she demands again
>Her only reply is the twinkling of stars
>>“I renounce you!” she bellows, staggering again as the earth-cracking stomp of her one good forehoof nearly throws her off-balance
>>“I forsake your name!”
>>“Tia…”
>>“May it never be spoken again on this earth!”
>>“Tia, please,” Luna entreats
>>“You’re hurt”
>Her sister’s head whips around, and she balks as two blazing purple eyes struggle to focus on her, wild with wrath
>That tiny flinch is all that’s needed to cool the sun goddess’s ire, and the great white mare wilts, slowly coming to rest on her haunches
>>“I’m so sorry, Lu”
>>25621582
>Her hoarse whisper ends in a sniffle
>>“I’m so sorry”
>>“Tia…”
>Any uncertainty on Luna’s part evaporates, and swiftly but gently she is at her sister’s side
>>“You did nothing wrong”
>Her brow cinches as she finally touches the tautness of her sibling’s body
>>“Nothing at all”
>>“But I didn’t do anything right, either,” Celestia breathes
>>“What a fool I’ve been, Luna,” she laments, sight boring into the ground
>>“Treating this world like a playground”
>>“Galloping about and playing dress-up”
>She prods the crumpled remains of her chest plate
>>“I am no great warrior”
>>“No deliverer of peace or bringer of justice”
>>“I’m a silly little filly who thought she could bully everyone into playing nice with a big, scary axe that she was terrified to actually use”
>>“Abel was so very right”
>>“I never knew true evil”
>>“But she’s gone, Tia,” the younger mare reassures
>>“She’s dead, and she’ll never hurt anyone ever again”
>>“We did bring peace”
>>“We did bring justice”
>>25621602
>Luna recoils as Celestia whips her head back and laughs
>You’ve heard that sound before
>Harsh and cracked
>When she finally forces composure back on herself, the expression she casts on her sister is pained, but full of purpose
>>“You say I did nothing wrong, dear sister”
>>“And that may be true”
>>“But neither did Lucilla”
>>“How can you say that...?”
>>“Because she was a victim”
>>“A victim of a thoughtless creator who made her without care and tossed her aside in much the same way”
>>“And so, just as she said, she did what she needed and took what she needed”
>>“Her madness was the fault of her maker, not herself”
>>“All this time, I thought mother had a grand vision for this world”
>>“A vision I was put here to bring to fruition”
>>“But now I know she was the same as I – lost”
>>“Without direction”
>>“A fool”
>>“The only difference between us is the cataclysmic power behind her mistakes”
>>“I am glad that monster is dead, but only for her own sake”
>>25621619
>>“As for me, I’ve found a scorpion in my house, and though it is crushed I can only wonder how many others there are that I haven’t seen yet”
>>“You heard her, Lu”
>>“She was one attempt in a series of many”
>>“One failure among countless others leading up to myself”
>>“The greatest failure of all”
>You know Luna wants to say something
>To refute such a blatant falsehood
>But she lets her sister speak
>>“This world is afflicted”
>>“Afflicted with a sickness that I have no doubt just seen one small symptom of”
>>“There are others out there like her – true evils that bring sorrow to all they touch”
>>“And I must destroy them”
>>“Not because I’m a warrior”
>>“Not for justice”
>>“But because I am responsible for the sins of my mother”
>>“Because there is no one else to do it”
>>25621630
>>“I am going to find them, Lu”
>>“I am going to find every last hurt she inflicted upon this world – every thoughtless mistake she made – and I will right them, or crush them if they cannot be fixed”
>>“And when they are all gone, I am going to make a place for us”
>>“I will conquer kingdoms and topple mountains if I have to”
>>“I will rend the very foundations of the earth until I have carved out a place that is safe”
>>“Where nothing like this can ever happen again”
>>“Where all is smiles and sunshine, and nothing else”
>She lets out a long, shuddering sigh and wipes at her eyes
>The night air has begun to dry her mane, and her pink locks ripple in the breeze
>Or so it seems
>The grass and the trees are oddly still
>>“I cannot ask you to do this with me”
>>“It is too great a thing to simply ask”
>>“So I beg you, little sister”
>>“Will you please follow me?”
>Luna’s cheeks are wet
>But her delicate features turn up in a great and unwavering smile
>And when she touches her big sister’s face, you can see that unconditional confidence soothe the elder alicorn’s entire being
>>“There is nothing I would rather do...”
>She closes her eyes in resolution just as the sun’s first light begins to breach the horizon, and your vision goes dark
>>“Than help you bring good to the world”
>>25621640
Okay, I'm going to sleep. Goodnight guys, I'll post the rest tomorrow.
>>25621666
You deserve it, take as much rest as possible 'ctpn.
>>25621666
Liking all the backstory and world building you've been doing (changelings are always welcome in a story). Also really hoping to see more of Anon interacting with others. His talk with Twilight last chapter was great.
>>25608323
Luna is the most powerful Alicorn Princess.
She canon defeated Celestia, completely overpowered her in the NMM timeline because no elements. That means that without the elements Celestia literally CAN'T beat Luna.
Luna is the strongest, so what was she doing during the changeling invasion then? What was she doing when Celestia was getting her ass handed to her?
>>25622385
Sleeping, because the invasion happened during the day.
Happy 2 years anons. Didn't do anything this year for obvious reasons. Keep on praising the moon.Keep up the good work with the green everyone. Looking forward to see more from DWK as well.
>>25622385
Do note that there were timelines in which NMM did NOT end up ruling meaning that there were cases in which Celestia still managed to defeat NMM. NMM only succeeded once.
Have a nice thread, faggots.
>>25623564
What a messy eater.
>>25615587
For the sake of making it look like the better option, pre-Mustang.
>>25623920Night FighterBump
>>25623298
You should leave. You've already stirred shit in one thread don't be doing it in another.
>>25625210
Pardon? I haven't posted in any other threads. I just came back a few days ago for moon.
>>25621640
>You gasp back into consciousness
>Normally – as much as you can use the word “normally” to describe something that only happens once in a blue moon, as it were – she coaxes you out of these dream sequences gradually
>First into your field, then here
>This time, she rips you straight into waking
>She’s already awake and upright, looking entirely sober, and you wonder just how many hours the harrowing night you just witnessed took to retell
“Goddamn,” you rasp, clearing your throat with the exclamation
“That was the most fucked-up thing I’ve ever seen in my life”
>“If it wasn’t, I would weep for you, dear heart”
>You rub your eyes and steady your breathing, mulling over everything you’ve just witnessed
>There’s so much information to process, but one thing sticks out to you more than the others
>Even more than the filthy, shivering forms of those hopeless prisoners
>Or the mad cackling of that sociopath
>Celestia
“She was…”
>You trail off, but she intuits your train of thought perfectly
>“You may be wondering why I showed you this”
>“How it answers your question”
>“That night was the catalyst in a series of events which – over millennia – would shape two things:”
>“The Celestia you know”
>“And Equestria itself”
>You believe the first one without hesitation, the second raises questions
“But, what about–?”
>>25626795
>“I know you’ve seen your fair share of Hearth’s Warming pageants, Anonymous”
>“It’s a lovely story to tell the foals, and there are no lies in it except those of omission”
>“This land was indeed settled long ago by earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi who wished for a new start, and they did indeed unite and form the first city where all three tribes lived in harmony”
>“But,” she bows her head, eyes closing, “that’s all it ever would’ve been – the city of Equestria”
>“A bastion of reason in a world full of strife”
>“The simple fact is, what you see before you now – the empire which stretches from sea to sea, where all is sunshine and smiles – was conceived, designed, and raised from the dust by one mare”
>“My sister”
“And you”
>“No, my love, and this is not self-deprecation”
>“I was there, and I helped in any way that I could, with all the loyalty and passion my soul is capable of”
>“But the vision was hers, and hers alone”
>“And so was the price paid”
>With a sigh, her silver eyes open – wet and shimmering – and they find yours
>These tears are ancient, yet undiminished
> “There were more like that abomination”
>“Mother’s failures”
>“We sought them out and destroyed them”
>“It was our purpose and our plan, and it was good”
>“But Tia…”
>>25626828
>It’s the first time she’s ever used the sobriquet when speaking directly to you
>“Each one – and the atrocities they committed – was the weight of a world on her heart”
>“She grew weary, and told me she needed to rest”
>“And so we focused on the other part of her plan: to make a safe place”
>“The grief from centuries upon centuries of seeking out the most vile things this world had to offer had only strengthened her resolve to create a home, and she broke bone and stone to make this place”
>“She rent the foundations of the earth, just as she said she would”
>“She moved mountains – namely the one on whose peak we sit right now”
>“I never understood what exhaustion and guilt can take away from a person until I witnessed it first hoof, and I didn’t realize until it was too late just how responsible she felt for Mother’s mistakes”
>“She saw them as her own, and the empire she endeavored to create was her atonement to the world”
>“She lost herself in it with remorse and abandon, and no part of her soul was too precious to sacrifice upon the altar of her vision”
>“With each step toward paradise, a little more of the sister I knew slipped away”
>She sniffles, and you wrap your arms around her
>“And in her hour of greatest need – when the work was done, but the Celestia I loved clung to this world by only a thread – I failed her”
>“I was lonely, I was confused, and my jealousy over the praise she received had driven me past reason”
>“I lashed out with all the anger that those terrible things I’d seen had seeded in me”
>“And when I finally returned from my exile, I barely knew her”
>“I was only here for an eyeblink before I separated us again”
>“And on that night ten years ago, when I saw her once more, I realized there was nothing left”
>>25626874
>She shudders, and you pull her closer, kissing her on the temple
>“I don’t care, Anonymous”
>“I don’t care that we couldn’t extinguish all the evil in this world; we certainly accomplished more than anyone else ever did”
>“I don’t really care if my sister would rather wear a crown than wield an axe”
>“But in this Princess Celestia that all adore, there is none of the companion that I once had”
>Her voice threatens to crack
>“No passion”
>“No heart”
>“Just a distant gaze and a plastic smile”
>“The mare who rules this land is not the same one who vowed to forge it”
>“My Tia is gone, and ultimately, I am the one who destroyed her”
“Moons…”
>“I’ve cultivated enough sense not to shoulder all the blame for it, but there was a time when she could’ve been saved, if only I hadn’t been so blind and selfish”
“Luna”
>You hold her face in your hands, directing her gaze into yours and smiling
>Her tears run hot, and yours aren’t far behind
“I would bet my life that she feels the same way about you”
“That she hurt you, and now she can’t figure out how to bring you back”
>“Anon, I–”
“You’re going to go see her anyway, so just say something. Please, can you do this? For me?”
>Her eyes beseech you to let it rest
“Please”
>She sighs
>“Very well…but first I will sleep a little bit longer. That dream taxed me, as you could probably tell by the rude awakening”
>>25626901
“Do you mind flying solo? I really don’t feel like going back right now”
>“Of course not”
>Despite her words, a flicker of disappointment crosses her beautiful face, and you instantly change your tune
“Never mind, let’s go back to sleep,” you say, lying back down
>“Oh please, Anonymous; I am not a little filly who’s scared of going to bed alone. Shoo, go see your friends”
“You sure?”
>“Yes, just make sure – if you decide to wander – to meet me at the palace after sundown. I’d like you to be with me when I see her”
“Aye aye, cap’n”
>She stretches, cracking her neck and then lying down
>You give her a kiss on the cheek, but as you draw away she wraps her legs around you and goes for the real deal
>You sure as hell don’t protest, but when she starts trying to swallow your tongue you pull away
“Hey, we just made a bunch of plans, and this is gonna screw ‘em all up”
>She furrows her brow, thinking for a moment
>“Fair enough, but I expect you to perform your husbandly duties later tonight”
“We’re not married, remember?”
>“I’m still the co-ruler of this land; if I say we’re married, we are”
“Well, that was sudden”
>“Do you object?”
“Nope”
>“Good, now get out; I’m tired and you’re arousing me”
“‘Kay, see you soon”
>You give her one last peck as her eyes close
>And without so much as a blink, she leaves the waking world
>The past twenty-four hours have been some of the strangest of your life, and that’s saying something
>Time for breakfast beer, Anon
>>25626948
>“Hey, Anon”
>You run through the dream again at hyperspeed
>“Yo! Anon!”
>In less than a day, your understanding of Luna and Celestia’s past has completely changed, and you need some time to sort it all out and draw conclusions, hence your current course for Barleywine’s place
>Suddenly a pair of forelegs wrap around your neck from behind
>“Hey, asshole”
>Her breath is hot in your ear, and it’s followed swiftly by her tongue
“Eww get off me!”
>You grab her by the legs and toss her down the dimly-lit passage – the tunnel that runs from Luna’s quarters to the main hall is one of a small number of places in the catacombs where windows still haven’t become a thing
>With a few flaps of her wings and some nimble hoofwork, she comes to rest in a seated position a few feet in front of you, svelte body on obvious display and a big, cunty grin on her face
>“You smell like a mare’s ass,” you tell her, wiping at your ear with the napkin you always carry in your back pocket
>Prism wiggles her eyebrows, smile only growing wider
>“That’s cuz I’ve had my face in one for the past two hours”
>You grimace, redoubling your efforts to wipe off her spit
>“Easy woke up in the middle of the day all freaked out again, but I calmed her down,” she says with a wink
“You are a cuntface in every sense of the word”
>“C’mon, Anon, a little mare-inade every once in a while does wonders for your complexion…I’m sure her grace coul–”
“If I want your input on my love life, I’ll be sure to let you know”
>>25627094
>“Well, my input is always here if you want it, sweetie”
>“And my output, because I know you like that, too”
>She gives you another wink
>You shake your head sadly
“You were such a sweet little filly”
“Why can’t we have her back?”
>“Because my mom died, I hated my father for no reason, and I ran around with a real bad influence”
“I’ve changed, you can too”
>“Have you?”
“Prizz, I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, okay? What’s up? Why are you even out here?”
>“Look,” she says, all the levity suddenly draining from her expression, “I just wanted to say a couple things, okay?”
>Her brow actually furrows
>You take a step forward and kneel down so you’re at eye level
“What’s up?”
>“First of all, thanks for what you did last night”
>“I don’t know what was happening, but Easy’s already a basket case”
“Takes one to know one”
>“She couldn’t handle it like the rest of us. If you hadn’t calmed her down, I don’t know what I would’ve done…”
“Wait, Prizzy”
>You reach out and brush away her long bangs – pitch black save for a bolt-like shock of white that runs through them
>Her eyes – a sunburst of green, yellow, and blue – had drifted toward the ground, but they snap back up to meet yours
“You actually have feelings for her, don’t you?”
>>25627107
>“Nah…she’s just another fuck”
“Is she?”
>“Hey, if you don’t want me to pry at your self-image, at least return the favor”
“Alright,” you concede, “fair enough. Anything else?”
>“Uh, yeah, hi”
>She makes a disgusted face and waves at you
>“I’ve been back for two weeks, dipshit. Where’ve you been?”
“Man, I just had this conversation with someone else last night”
>“I’m not surprised,” she tells you matter-of-factly, “you’re a shitty friend, and you barely remember that anyone other than you and Luna exists unless we remind you”
“Wow, thanks. I really hadn’t experienced any profound moments of self-hatred yet today”
>“That’s why I’m here,” she beams, smile coming back faster than lights after a blackout
“Whatever. Wanna get breakfast?”
>“I dunno,” she ponders, “I just had a lot of taco salad”
“Well, I know you want a beer,” you reason, “so come along anyway”
>“Oh, yeah”
>“I’ve got some messed up stories to tell you, man”
“I would expect nothing less”
>>25627118
>Thirty minutes later, you’re pleasantly buzzed
>But you’ve cut yourself off so as not to fuck up the royal meeting later this evening
>You don’t doubt that Twilight will be there in the same capacity as you – more in fact, seeing as she’s a princess as well – and if you’re lucky, some headway might be made in two matters: figuring out whatever cosmic tomfoolery is currently plaguing your homeland, but more importantly in the recently-formed plan to help mend the sisterly bond between your respective paramours
>Prism, however, has imposed no such limits on herself
>“It was like a fountain, Anon,” she explains as she swallows another large strip of steak without even attempting to chew it, washing it down with a good half mug of ale
>The catacombs are the only place in Canterlot – or Equestria for that matter – you know of where meat is readily available
>A remnant of the nocturne culture which was once its lifeblood
>The only ones who seek it out are yourself and the original residents – your very drunk friend, for example – who grew up eating it
>“I literally almost drowned”
>She downs the other half of the previously-mentioned ale
“It’s great you didn’t, but if you had, at least you would’ve died doing what you love most”
>“Yeah, sure…so how have you been?”
>You exhale slowly through pursed lips
“Dece I guess, but shit’s been going down. You saw for yourself”
>“Nah, forget that. How are you?”
>She emphasizes the last word
>>25627135
“Well, I’m actually happy, despite the world going to shit”
>“Yeah?”
>She bangs her mug on the table, putting a few dents in the lacquer
>Barley – who’s a few yards away serving some actual customers – frowns and makes that flicking gesture with his hoof that you know the meaning of all too well
“Me and Luna have b–”
>“Luna Luna Luna,” she drawls boredly
>“That’s all you ever talk about”
“Well, she’s kind of the love of my life, you know?” you shrug despite knowing better, a smile tugging at the corners of your mouth
>“You’re so gay,” she groans, rolling her eyes
“Says the world’s most prolific carpet cleaner”
>“Hey, I offer rod-polishing services as well”
“Riiiight…and when was the last time you did that?”
>“Oh, I dunno,” she says, turning her gaze toward the ceiling and propping her head up with a hoof
>“Maybe a hundred and ten years ago?”
>You concentrate very hard on cutting your own steak
“I don’t want to do this again, dude. The princesses are meeting later, and I’ve gotta be there”
>“Oh sure, Anon, you’re soooo fucking important, aren’t you?”
“I don’t have any power and I don’t make any decisions, but she does, and she needs me”
>>25627147
>Her jaw hangs open for just a moment before she catches herself and closes it, and she notices that you notice
>“What is it about her that makes you such a little bitch?” she demands, thumping her mug on the table again
>“Does she squirt fortified wine or something?”
“Hey, that’s your princess you’re talking about, not to mention my wife”
>“Oh shut the f–wait, what?”
>“You guys aren’t married”
“That’s what I said, but according to her, we are”
“I guess we’ll have some kind of ceremony eventually, but I’m not really in a hurry and I don’t think she is either”
“It’s all just a formality”
>“Hey!” Prism shouts, turning her head and slamming her mug down again
>“Where’s my refill?”
>“Where’s my money?” Barleywine calls from some indeterminate point far to your right
>“Come over here,” she hollers back, “I’ll show you exactly where it is!”
>“That ain’t worth nothin’!” he retorts, voice even more distant
>“Not what I meant!”
>His final rejoinder is inaudible to you, but – judging by the intense facial scrunch – not to her
>You sigh
“Prizz, just calm down for fuck’s sake”
>“I’m calm,” she says, voice cracking on the second word, “we’re just sitting here talking about how much you love Luna and the undoubtedly amazing wedding you’re going to have. Why wouldn’t I be calm?”
>>25627168
>“If I seem emotional, it’s just because I’m…
>“So happy for you”
>She says it with a smile, but her tone drags it through broken glass
“Why do you always do this?”
>You drain the backwash from the bottom of your own mug, contemplating another refill, but decide against it
>“Why do you always pretend like you don’t know why?” she fires back immediately
“Why do you always pretend like there’s a chance?”
>Just then, Barley finally trots up to the table with an enormous pitcher full of ale
>He tilts it to refill her mug, but it’s snatched away from him with a splash
>“Oh no you don’t,” he growls, swiping a hoof at it, “you aren’t drinking all of that unless you pay for it”
>She grins indecently and flicks her tongue all around the edge of the pitcher now clutched to her chest
>“I swear,” the stallion threatens, eyes blazing at her
>Prism takes a short pause from smiling to hock a great wad of spit into the beer
>“I swear to Luna, Celestia, and the old gods,” Barleywine growls
>“I don’t care if you’re a mare”
>“If your dad wasn’t my oldest neighbor, I’d pound your face into the ground”
>“If you want to pound my face,” she says, licking slowly at the errant trail of drool on her chin, “you don’t need daddy’s permission”
>You know for a fact she’s never called her father “daddy” to his face once in her life
>She just does it at times like this for that extra-special touch
>“There’s something wrong with you,” the brewer says simply, walking away
>She turns back to you with a very self-satisfied look
“That’s fucked up, man,” you say, pulling some bits out of your pocket and setting them down on the table
>>25627185
>“Don’t pay him,” she huffs, face twisted up in utter disgust, “he’s a dick. Besides, do you really think your alcoholic ‘wife’” – she makes air-quotes with her hooves, almost spilling the pitcher in the process – “would let this place go under?”
“Right, yeah, the guy who gives you free booze and lets you keep coming back to his bar – despite the fact that you screw him over constantly and happily – is a dick”
>“Oh, you’re such an adult”
>She rolls her eyes
>“Maybe you really have changed”
“Not nearly as much as I’d’ve liked”
>“Please stop, you’re turning into a loser”
“If I had realized what hanging around me would do to you, I would’ve stayed so fucking far away you wouldn’t even know my name”
>“Oh right, because you’re the center of the universe, and everything happens because of you”
>“Anon”
>“I watched my mom die when I was twelve, and then literally later that week, I woke up as a pegasus instead of a nocturne”
>“I don’t know what the fuck my cutie mark is”
>“Now throw in two centuries worth of daddy issues”
>She takes a long slug from her pitcher
>“This train was heading to crazy town whether you were on it or not, and at least when you were on it, all that other bullshit didn’t matter”
>“So shut the fuck up and stop acting like you’re deep just because your druggie friends died and your girlfriend ate shit to save a bunch of people”
>“Everypony’s life sucks”
>“You used to get that”
>>25627206
>You reflect that once, a long-ass time ago, Luna said something much less acidic to you, and it nearly ended your budding romance
>It bit you so deep that you almost lost faith in her
>But the only thing that stings about these words is that they don’t hurt at all
>There’s no faith here to be lost
>You were so close to hope last night
>When you saw the way she looked at Easel
>But you don’t let that kind of thing spend too much time in your headspace anymore, because – as with all good things in her life – she will search relentlessly for a way to destroy it
>A year from now, you’ll both be sitting at this same table, drinking this same beer, and having this same conversation
>Because that’s just how it goes
>A reddish flare of light catches your eye, and your gaze is drawn to the horizon on display through the window beyond your friend and the slowly-mounting bustle of the catacombs
>Celestia lowers the sun, letting it linger behind the clouds, bathing Equestria in hues of red and gold
>She’s been taking her time lately, but it’s still almost night
“I gotta go, dude”
“I’m sorry”
>“Bye,” she says, not looking at you
“Take care of yourself”
>She has nothing else to say to you
>For now
>Without another word, you get up and leave
>The moon is about to rise
>>25627229
>As you walk through one of the narrow passages that runs between the catacombs and the castle proper, smoothing out the blue silk of your suit and making yourself at least somewhat presentable, you ask yourself a question that has been plaguing your mind for the past ten years
>Why did I do this to them?
>Twilight
>Prism, Nova, and their entire family
>Even Celestia, you suspect
>They all cared about you, and still do, even though you abandoned them
>And it’s possible that the more important question might be why that’s even the case
>“Finding yourself” came at the expense of hurting your friends
>And it’s not like you found much other than a better attitude
>Nova, fortunately, was never even angry with you
>Things just picked right back up where they left off
>Twilight didn’t seem to be at first, yet you’re realizing that’s not true
>But she was the first friend you ever made in this place, and she’s family in all but blood
>That hurt will be healed, because you know it can be, and you will make it so
>And because she wants to move on and be happy
>Prism is the only one who hasn’t even begun to mend
>On that night ten years ago, they were all waiting to welcome you back with open arms
>Except her
>You didn’t even think about it at the time – you were so happy to see familiar faces, and the events that took place shortly thereafter expunged any concern from your mind for a long time
>Not for the first time, you wonder what you would’ve felt if you’d returned to find Luna laughing and talking with an old flame
>If the first time you saw the lover you’d spent decades dreaming about and longing for, she’d been with someone else, sharing the smiles of a joyous reunion
>>25627254
>It would’ve destroyed you and made you hate life
>You would’ve begged her over and over again to come back to you
>You don’t know if you’d ever be able to let it go
>But now is not the time for these thoughts
>With a sigh, you shift your mental gears just as the passage straightens out and you see a faint white light in the distance
>You hear a quiet but distinct echoing in the back of your mind that grows louder with each step you take
>She’s already there, and now she knows you’re coming
>Time to do this
>>25627259
>You enter the throne room
>Or rather, Luna enters with you at her side
>Her face is all business – she didn’t even say anything when you met outside – but she brushes against your leg briefly yet firmly as she strides forward, taking the lead
>“I’m glad you’re here, dear heart,” the gesture says without words, spoken or projected
>In her wake, you detect an intoxicating combination of elderflower perfume and poppies, under which lingers the undefinable, addictive scent of her body
>The night has just begun, but it’s already made you think too much, and you struggle not to feel tired
>That faint taste of her aroma only underlines your burning desire to fall asleep with your face buried in her neck, caressed by her hooves and that wonderful smell
>You try to scrub the thought from your mind, but you know it’s too late
>It’s already been heard, judged, and catalogued by the white alicorn who occupies the elaborately-constructed seat at the end of the long hall opposite the one from which you just entered
>She’s dismissing the pony who you know to be the current captain of the royal guard
>The mare salutes as she trots past your princess and toward the exit, but it goes unnoticed, or at least unacknowledged
>The sisters’ eyes are locked, and that familiar tension already pervades the room
>To the right of the eldest princess sits Twilight, upon a smaller seat of her own
>It looks much like the one in her castle in Ponyville that you haven’t – and you suspect she hasn’t – seen in years
>Celestia keeps her very close, and Twilight lets her
>There’s nothing in that place but memories of happier times
>>25627280
>Emerging fully from your own thoughts, you realize that Nova is absent, as well as the sun mare’s usual advisors, and you begin to wonder exactly what the nature of this meeting is
>“Tia, what is happening?”
>Your princess bypasses their normal method of communication and speaks aloud
>“Good evening to you, too, Lu”
>The alabaster demigoddess rises and descends the ornately-carpeted steps before her throne, expression unreadable as ever
>Twilight remains seated
>This is no polite little dinner or tea party, and you can tell she feels as out of place and superfluous as you do
>You make a beeline for her and sit down on the stair next to her chair
>Her brow is furrowed, and while her eyes are locked on Celestia, you see a deep worry in the few brief glances she spares you
>“Sister,” Luna says sternly, her volume bordering on excessive, “do you have any idea what’s going on? My house quite literally went mad last night. I’m having dreams I can’t control. What is this?”
>“Those things were not limited to you or the catacombs,” Celestia explains
>Though her eyes reveal nothing, her smile disappears
>“I felt them, and so did the rest of Equestria…and the earth, I suspect”
>“There is a cosmic force at work here, and I can see neither its source nor its intent”
>She pauses as they finally meet a few feet in front of the throne, sitting down informally but never breaking eye contact
>“But my bones ache with fear”
>“I feel as though I’ve forgotten something…” she breathes, looking far beyond the castle walls
>“Like a memory from a past life,” Luna finishes for her
>They stare at each other, and you witness something that you’ve never seen before in your unusually long stay on the plane of the mortal
>They look lost
>>25627307
>Neither of the alicorn sisters has a single answer for the other one
>Neither has a theory to propose
>Celestia is the first to shake it off
>“In any case,” she says, “I’ve had Twilight call Cadance and our allies; they will be here soon, and at the very least, we will be as prepared as we can be”
>Your princess winces visibly at the mention of the only alicorn not present, but says nothing
>You know why
>The crystal heart is broken
>The avatar of love ceased to be such with the death of her own
>Their attempts to salvage her have always failed
>They share another glance and words you don’t hear
>“Luna”
>The eldest breathes her younger sibling’s name uncertainly
>Her expression does not falter, but other parts of her do
>The sight of the most powerful being you’ve ever known shifting uneasily makes you do the same
>“I don’t know what’s happening, but I am certain that very soon this threat will reveal itself”
>“And I need to know that I can count on you”
>Your thoughts flit back to the two young sisters you saw in the dream, and you realize that such words would never need to be spoken between them
>“What makes you think you can’t, dear sister?” the youngest asks, eyes narrowing
>Celestia is not one for sighing, but you can see her chest rise and fall pronouncedly
>“When the time comes, I need you to be…compos”
>>25627327
>Wrathful echoes stir in your head
>Those lips you know so well curl back in a snarl
>But surprisingly, Luna remains fairly calm
>“I have no time for a lecture, Tia,” she says boredly
>“Of course,” her sister nods, that tiny smile returning
>“You have a busy schedule”
>She says it with such sincerity that you can’t figure out if she’s even being sarcastic
>Twilight doesn’t look sure either
>But Luna knows
>Yet once again, she surprises you with calm
>“Indeed”
>“My schedule is quite full, just not with things you think are important”
>“I have friends”
>She puts a lot of emphasis on the last word
>“Nights to enjoy”
>“And a lover to attend to”
>She smiles, eyes flitting in your direction
>No, Twilight’s
>“Completely unrelated, but do you know what starts to happen in the dreams of a mare who hasn’t been touched in a dozen months?”
>Twilight stiffens next to you, and you can practically feel the heat radiating off her face
>Her defenses don’t work when she’s asleep
>“It’s quite a show”
>A scowl is slowly creeping onto your face
>You don’t like the person Luna becomes when she’s with her sister, and you realize something that Twiggs probably figured out a long time ago
>They bring out the worst in each other
>>25627347
>The connection and understanding they share has been poisoned
>It used to be an unbreakable bond of kinship and affection that armored their hearts against the hurts of the world
>But now, it’s just a way for them to hurt one another
>Very slowly, Celestia closes her eyes and takes a deep breath
>“I’ve said everything I needed to say”
>Her tone is practiced and serene
>“I hope I can count on you, sister”
>“At least in this matter”
>“Now, feel free to alleviate yourself of my presence”
>Luna opens her mouth, but someone else speaks
>“No”
>You’ve been so fixated on the sisters, and they on each other
>Now, Twilight reasserts her presence in all your minds with the single forceful syllable
>She stands, descending the steps of the dais, and you swear you can see her legs trembling
>She inserts herself between the two eldest alicorns, eyes wet with anger
>“I have had enough of this”
>Her legs are definitely shaking now
>“You”
>She prods Luna in the chest with a hoof, and the night mare nearly jumps back
>“How can you say something like that to your big sister? And how could you say something like that about me?”
>“Twilight, I didn’t m–”
>“No,” the youngest princess halts her
>“I don’t want to hear that you’re sorry. Somepony’s always sorry about something, and guess what”
>She draws a shuddering breath
>“It’s made this whole family a sorry affair”
>>25627375
>“Twilight…”
>Celestia’s soothing tones attempt to calm the wrath directed at her sister, but she only succeeds in turning it on herself
>“And you,” Twilight glares at the great white mare
>“You just keep on pretending nothing’s wrong”
>“You just keep on pretending to be shocked that your dinner and tea invitations always get turned down”
>She gestures toward Luna
>“Can you blame her for not wanting to see you?”
>“Can you blame her for avoiding somepony who just sits there with a fake smile and acts superior?”
>“How can she have any faith in herself when you don’t?”
>“Tw–”
>“NO!”
>Her shout and stomp make all present jump
>“I’m sick of excuses; I’m sick of apologies”
>“You both know exactly what you’re doing”
>“You’re the oldest things on this planet, but you behave like children”
>“If you both acted even a fraction of your age, this would all get better”
>“We could all be happy again”
>She falls silent, sniffling as her anger finally deflates and she sinks into a seated position
>Nobody tries to speak
>“I’ll see you later, Anon,” she finally says
>There’s a lavender flash, and she’s gone
>>25627401
>You’re pretty sure her plan to fix the royal family did not involve losing her shit and yelling, but you can’t blame her
>You have a few things to say as well, but it’s not your place
>A very uncomfortable silence fills the vast hall
>Everyone avoids eye contact, especially the two mares
>Finally Luna’s gaze meets your own, and you nod
>She doesn’t speak, but her expression and the chaotic whispers in your head tell you everything you need to know
>She turns and leaves, gait slow, and her hoofsteps echo through the long chamber until she finally slips through the exit
>The door shuts with a quiet thump that is magnified a hundredfold in the silence
>You’re conflicted, because though she needs you right now, so does Twilight
>“I envy you, Anon”
>The sun princess finally speaks without turning around
>You wonder why, which is all you need to do
>“Because whomever you choose to go console first, the other will understand and think well of you for it”
>“Yours is a type of dilemma I wish I could experience more often”
>She makes a slow about face, but doesn’t look at you as she ascends the stair and sits back down in her seat
>You keep your mouth shut and your thoughts as neutral as possible
>You get up, but you don’t go far, instead choosing to take Twilight’s chair, which is barely big enough to hold you
>You just sit there with her for a while
>“You don’t need to stay here on my account, Anon”
>“I’m a grown-up”
>She actually smiles a little as she continues to stare straight ahead
>>25627436
“Princess Celestia?” you prompt
>Very slowly but curiously, she looks over at you
>“Anonymous”
>“In all the years I’ve known you, you’ve never called me that”
“Look, I’ve never asked you for something, but can you do one thing for me, please?”
>You can practically feel her probing your psyche before she answers, but you keep the thought diffuse and unformed
>“Of course,” she says after a moment
“Please, just…be good to Twilight”
>“That’s something I cannot do for you, Anon,” she says solemnly, and your heart sinks
>“But I will do it for her”
>“I’ve let my thoughts consume me lately, and she has suffered for it, I know”
>“I just never quite realized how much”
>“But that will be no longer”
>“On this, you have my word”
>Her eyes are resolute, and you wonder if maybe this encounter isn’t a total loss
>At least something might begin to heal
>“I would ask something similar of you, Anon, but I don’t need to”
>“I know we are not as close as we should be, and I know you think I pay you little mind”
>“But I’ve always been able to depend on you to make my sister happy”
>“Especially when I cannot”
>“And for that, even if it might not be apparent, I love you”
>“You are part of my family – however strange and damaged it may be – and I’m glad for it”
>There’s no point in trying to hide your emotion, she feels even what she can’t see
>“And I hope that when you have things to say, you feel it’s your place to do so”
>>25620805
That's not a fUCKING ADMIRAL'S COVER
>>25627462
>You realize she’s responding – whether consciously or not – to your thoughts earlier
>“Because your place is here, as long as you should want it”
>Cautiously, you reach toward her
>You can feel the tension radiating off her body
>But if she had a problem with it, she would’ve stopped you before you started
>When your hand finally comes to rest between her wings, you can feel that tautness relax just a little, and you wonder exactly when she was last touched by anyone at all
>The closest thing you’ve ever had to a “moment” with Celestia was when you came to confront her after Luna died, and it wasn’t exactly happy, only illuminating
>Suddenly her muscles cinch right back up, and you start as the mountain moves again
>You’re mostly used to it, but every once in a while it catches you off guard
>When it’s done, your hands are back in your lap, and she looks as tense as she did before
>You’re just beginning to come up with a good “well, see ya later” type speech, when two things happen
>You remind yourself she knows what you’re thinking, so you can just leave
>And a pony enters through the door at the other end of the room, precluding you from doing so
>Calla Lily, the guard captain you passed on your way in
>“Your highness?”
>“Calla?” the princess wonders, “what are you still doing here? Go home to your husband”
>“There’s something you need to see,” the captain says, stepping fully into the chamber
>You note she’s not wearing her uniform
>The way she bypasses pleasantries turns Celestia quiet as she drinks in all the information she needs
>As she does, her eyes grow ever wider
>In the time it takes you to blink, she’s gone
>You didn’t feel a teleportation
>Is she running?
>>25627662
>Celestia may be faster than any mortal, but Calla isn’t, and you follow her as she dashes after the princess
>Still, you’re no cross-country runner, and despite their size, a pony running at full gallop is hard to keep up with
>You don’t have to run for long though
>Once you’re off the palace grounds and get onto a main street, you see a slow trickle of guardsponies filtering in one direction
>The gate
>Canterlot, of course, has many gates, docks, and even several tunnels leading into it, and technically the gate you’re referring to is the south one
>But anyone who lives here just knows it as the gate
>You follow the guards, trying not to stand out too much
>Which is hard when you stand out a lot
>After a few minutes, you’re in sight of the train station, which is alive with bustle, even at this time of night
>Six parallel sets of tracks run in a spiral down the mountain, bussing ponies to and from this massive station, through which the vast majority of those coming to or from Canterlot pass
>You feel a twinge of agoraphobia as you look at the sea of ponies
>Normally, on the rare occasion that you’re in the lower city, you’re with Luna, so everyone makes way
>Though it’s night, and the crowds are thinner than they would be in the light of day, it’s so much more open, crowded, and urban than the warm hominess of the catacombs
>And it’s not moving like it should be
>Most of the citizens are chatting in hushed tones
>A semicircle of stern-looking guards keeps them away from the gate itself, which, oddly, is closed
>The two massive oaken doors are shut
>It’s honestly a ceremonial structure more than anything – almost everyone comes in on the trains, which go directly to the station – but it’s still technically the city gate, and there are always sentinels stationed there
>>25627706
>Rather than try to force your way through all those bodies, you take a detour up the steps of the station
>Though the place has changed a lot in the past century, you used to know it like the back of your hand when you and Twilight were still living in Ponyville
>It’s essentially a massive pavilion that arches over the tracks, with two series of platforms for travelers to disembark – one inside the city wall and one outside, the former being for cargo and Equestrian citizens, the latter being for anything or anyone having to go through customs
>The guard stationed at the door between the two lets you through, and you rush down the stairs that lead from the outer platforms to the gate – normally a thoroughfare for shutter-happy tourists
>Your eyes don’t even search for Celestia, she’s right there, accompanied by Calla and a handful of guards
>But you’re not looking at her
>On each side of the city’s closed entrance are sheets
>There are three on either side, and it doesn’t take you long to realize what they are
>Normally, there are four sentinels stationed here, but considering recent events, the princess obviously saw fit to up the number
>Now the six guards lie under shrouds, and though the cloth is black, the damp spots tell you all you needed to know, and more than you wanted
>But even they are not the sight to which your eyes are drawn
>The sight on which the sun goddess’s eyes are fixed as you finally reach her side
>Standing in front of the gate is a great mare, rendered in stone
>She rears toward the sky, the dusty red gems that adorn her mane glistening in the moonlight
>>25627741
>She is ancient and the stone is weathered, covered in many places by moss and lichen
>Except for her left foreleg, which looks clean and polished, as though only recently carved
>Celestia’s eyes flit back and forth between you and the mare as she pieces together your understanding of it
>You can almost feel her digging through your synapses
>When she finally looks you directly in the eye, your anxious, shallow breathing stops
>Her well-practiced serenity is gone
>Her cheeks look almost wet, her brow is knit, and that little smile is replaced by a mouth that hangs slightly open
>Her eyes are wide
>“Anon,” she breathes so hot you can see it, “go get my sister and Twilight. Do it now”
>You nod, taking one last glance before you go, and you finally see what she was really looking at
>The thing that precludes all doubt
>Imbedded in the stone mare’s chest is a weapon, streaked with fresh redness that must belong to the guards that lie dead around it
>It’s as old as the statue, and rusted to hell
>But there’s no mistaking the great blade and gold-tinged steel of Celestia’s halberd
https://soundcloud.com/dwk-319911693/sunshine-in-my-dreams
>>25627783
And that's all for now. There was more I wanted to do - another song I had planned and a lot more illustrations - but I figured it had taken long enough, and this thread needed some green.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarborough,_North_Yorkshire
It's a place to park your Lunas.
>>25628001
>off by one
>>25628001
Meanwhile, her sister is hitting the seafront pubs, fish & chip shops, arcades, and souvenir shops. Including this place:...while her mane has turned pinkish-grey.
>>25628028
At least Luna's power level is OVER 8000.
>>25628001
>Scarborough
What Luna likes to play in one of the arcades there:
>>25628136
>>25628104
Oh thats neat, the fudge place is right next to the cock shop.
>>25627821
Good shit.
>>25627821
>some green
dude that was most of this fucking thread at this point. Holy shit did you deliver it. Now I need to catch up and read it all.
Which moon is best moon?
I guess this can fit here
Anyone bored enough to write some green?>>25629920
>>25627821
and what glorious green you have given. Really interested to see what you do with Cadence in your story. I always see her and Luna not getting along, probably due to the whole not being at the wedding thing.
Luna's bit in the new holiday comic was a nice surprise. Shame she and her sister were more or less not a part of the current main arc.
>>25627516
Stay mad.
>>25634499
They had another appearance in the comic? How was it?
>>25630567
>>25631311
>>25632147
The fucking hooves every time jesus christ
>>25616248
I am really, really starting to hlikeyou.
>>25614505
Just finished Blood Moon. That was some good shit. Hit right in the feels too.
Time to start PainKiller.
>>25636591Let me know what you think
Would you get in bed with her? Keep in mind horses produce a lot of heat.
>>25628001
Luna approves
>>25637587
Of course.
>>25627783
>Lucilla
Oh shit nigger
>>25635622
bleh that's believable.
>>25637981
>Keep in mind horses produce a lot of heat.
Are you saying that like it's a downside?
>>25637981
Yes.
>>25637981
>implying this is a bad thing
>>25639909
>>25637981
If she's ok with her thighs and cheeks acting as a hot dog heater, then yes.
>>25636620
Is painkiller a sequel of sorts to blood moon? Are they related at all or is it just a completely new story? Just want to make sure.
>>25640954
It's a sequel.
>>25640975
Okay great! Thats what I was thinking.
>>25640975
Oh nice, I didn't know that. Time to get reading.
>>25640954
yeah, it's a direct sequel
Crosspostin from AiE a couple weeks ago.
http://pastebin.com/N5sBgKZR
>"Anonymous?"
>Luna's cheerful voice echoes off the hard concrete floor of the garage.
"Under here, Lulu."
>Her hooves rapidly make their way toward you.
>As you look up, her bright eyes peek through what little space there is between the engine and radiator of the Superbird.
>"What are you doing down there?"
>You knock on the oil pan of the motor, making a hollow sound as it is nearly empty.
"Changing the oil in the old girl. General tune up stuff while I have it parked for the winter."
>Too impatient to wait, you put the drain plug back in, tightening it before you slide yourself and the nearly full drain pan out from underneath the car.
>"I still find it odd you insist on parking it until spring. Tia hates winter, Canterlot hardly even gets below freezing."
>You shrug as you pull yourself up off the hold floor, wiping your hands on an old rag.
"I didn't do much for maintenance during the summer and fall, because I'm so used to doing it in the winter. Old habits die hard."
>Luna sighs, sitting down in front of you.
>"I was hoping for some excitement this afternoon. Today has just been so.... dull."
>You look at her, frowning.
"Well, if you want excitement, you just managed to sit in a puddle of oil."
>She stands up quickly, turning to look.
>"What? I do not see anything."
"That's because it's all right here."
>You goose her on the black markings of her rear, making the mare jump and squeal.
>She turns back around and playfully tackles you back to the floor, grinning.
>"Gah! You're terrible!"
>You just laugh at her in response as she lays down on top of you.
"I can't help it you fall for that every time."
>Her smile grows mischievous at this point.
>"Well I'm not letting you back up now."
>You kiss her on the nose.
"I'm not complaining. Might look a little awkward if someone were to walk by, though."
>She mulls over the thought, before standing up and helping you to your feet.
>>25644198
>Ruffling her mane with your hand, you bend over and pick up your tools.
"So, what do you want to do this afternoon for 'excitement?' I got the rear end torn apart on this thing, so this is out of the question."
>She peers over to your side at the car, then back to you, completely lost.
>"It looks in one piece to me, Anon."
"No, the differential, the axle in the back. I have that tore apart, I wheel hopped it really bad earlier this year, I want to make sure I didn't hurt any of the rear gears."
>She continues to just stare.
"Long story short, we can't go flying through the countryside in this thing."
>You hear her gasp, and as you look up, her eyes are lit up.
>"That's it, Anon! We should go flying together!"
>You shake your head, playing dumb.
"I can't fly, Luna."
>She prances around you, ignoring your obvious tactics.
>"Oh come on, Anon. It will be fun!"
"Luna, I'm too big for you."
>She stops, rolling her eyes as you continue to stall.
>"Anon, I've told you many times now. You aren't too big to ride on my back. But if it will make you feel better, I can always shift myself to a larger size, like I have in the past."
>Out of options, you have no choice but to tell her the real reason you don't like the idea.
"Luna, I'm afraid of heights. I don't think it's a good idea."
>Her expression of minor frustration turns to one of sympathy.
>"You've never mentioned that before. You're serious, aren't you?"
>Nodding, her face suddenly lights up again.
>"Then we just have to help you get over your fears this afternoon."
>Dammit.
"No. I am perfectly fine with my reasonable fear of high places and flying, thank you very much."
>She sticks her lower lip out, pouting.
>"Please?"
>You cross your arms.
"No."
>[Please?]
"Why do you think asking me telepathically is going to make a difference?"
>[Pleeeaase?]
"You aren't going to stop until I say yes, are you?"
>She shakes her head.
"Luna, I love you, but you are such a brat."
>>25644206
>Between insisting on washing up and getting something to eat, you do your best to stall for time.
>Unfortunately, it only adds up to a total of an hour.
>"Are you ready, Anon?"
>Luna smiles as she heads towards the balcony of her room.
>You continue to slouch on her bed, not budging an inch.
"No."
>She turns back round, disappointed.
>"Come on, what is there to fear?"
"I dunno, maybe falling off, dropping thousands of feet to my death could be the issue."
>"Anon, we've already found out you share my gift of the phoenix. You can't die."
"Well, I might smack the ground and NOT die."
>She rolls her eyes, growing impatient with you.
>"I promise to be careful and take it slow. I want to help you overcome your fears. But to do that, you must face them head-on."
>Sighing, you pull yourself to your feet.
"Fine, fine. Let's get this over with so I have time to get through the trauma before dinner."
>Luna focuses, her body glowing as her form twists and grows larger, until reaching roughly the same size as her sister.
>"Just to make sure you are comfortable, and not worrying about me."
>She kneels, and you begrudgingly hop onto her back.
"Just take it easy, please?"
>"Of course, Anon."
>She stand and walks over to the balcony.
>You take this pause to hold on tight to her neck, as you feel her muscles tense.
>Without warning, she leaps up and over the balcony, putting both of you into a swan dive.
"Luna, I said take it easy!"
>You can't hear her with the onrush of wind past your ears, but you can feel her giggling.
>After a few moments of freefall, her massive wings open, the deceleration pressing you into her body.
>Leveling out in a glide, Luna begins to flap her majestic wings, rapidly gaining altitude.
>Tightening your stronghold on her neck, you don't dare to look down to see how high up you are, as you catch your breath.
"You call this easy?!"
>>25644211
>"Mmm, no. But in order for you to overcome your fears, we must face the worst case scenario of your fear, the root of it all."
"You couldn't just tell me that was your plan?!"
>She turns her head, smiling.
>"If you knew what my plan was, it wouldn't be that scary, would it?"
"Luna, when we land, I'm going to kill you."
>She erupts in laughter, abruptly pulling up and over, until you are both flying upside down.
>Instead of feeling gravity shift to pulling you away from her body, you feel no change.
>The blue alicorn seems to sense your confusion.
>"Anon, as long as I have the ability to fly and my magic, you cannot fall off."
"So basically, I'm super-glued to you?"
>"An interesting way to look at it, but yes. In a sense."
>Allowing yourself to relax a bit, you loosen up your deathgrip on Luna's neck, sitting more upright.
>The two of you roll back over, moving along at a leisurely pace at this point.
>"I take it you aren't quite as terrified as you were?"
>You reach up and scratch her behind the ear.
"No, this isn't too bad."
>As if on cue, she tucks in her wings, throwing the two of you into a deep dive.
"Well it wasn't bad!"
>"You seem comfortable in the air in a calm flight now, so I figured it's time to put the rest of your fears to bed."
>You growl.
"What happened to taking it slow, Moonbutt?"
>"I seem to recall somepony not taking it slow in my first ridealong in his vehicle."
>She turns her head again, giving you a sly wink.
"So this is about returning a favor?"
>"Not at all."
>Luna's wings stretch out again, acting as a massive airbrake to slow you to a stop.
>"I am merely showing you how much control I have, to assure you nothing will happen to you up here when you are with me."
>"I thought I heard yelling coming from up here."
>You and Luna continue to hover, turning around to the direction of the voice.
"Hi, Celly."
>"Sister? Aren't you supposed to be in the throne room?"
>Celestia's graceful wings flap slowly, as she just chuckles.
>>25644215
>"Well, yes. It's been a very quiet day once again, so I decided to go for a stroll. Until hearing the two of you causing a commotion, that is. What are you doing?"
>Luna speaks up, her voice filled with excitement.
>"We're working on Anon's fear of heights and flying!"
>Tia seems surprised.
>"Anon, I didn't know you had a fear of heights."
>You shrug.
"It never came up in conversation, I guess. I have to say though, I'm a little bit more comfortable with it, with Luna."
>You stop yourself.
"At least, when she's not showing off."
>Celestia's eyes dart to her sister, smirking.
>"Luna would never do that, I'm sure."
>Jutting her chest out, Luna shakes her head.
>"I would never do such a thing."
>With a giggle, Celestia turns away.
>"I thought so. Now, race you back to the castle!"
>With that, Celestia pins her wings back, diving toward Canterlot.
>You have just enough time to wrap your arms around Luna's neck before the two of you plunge into a dive after her.
>But rather than fear, your heart beats with excitement.
>You lean into Luna's body, trying to streamline yourself as much as possible.
>"Now you're getting into the spirit of it, Anon!"
"Don't let her win, Luna."
>As if fueled by your words, Luna pushes herself to go faster, her wings flapping in a fury.
>Celestia doesn't stand a chance, and as the two of you whoosh by, you take a moment to wave at her.
"See you at the castle!"
>"After all these years, you still don't have the speed to match me, sister."
>Celestia lands not long after you've hopped off Luna's back.
>"I thought I had a chance with you having some extra weight with you. Clearly I was mistaken."
>Luna nuzzles you as you ruffle her mane, her breathing subsiding to calmer levels.
>"I take it your fear has subsided somewhat?"
>Smiling, you nod.
"Definitely more comfortable, though I won't say I won't still be nervous for next time. But that was pretty cool."
>>25644223
>The three of you head for the castle, the two sisters no doubt looking for something to drink.
>As you pass by the garage, you remember something you found earlier when cleaning up the Superbird.
"Hey Luna, I was cleaning out the inside of the car earlier, and I found an old book under the seat. I don't recognize the writing at all, I assume it's yours?"
>Luna steps awkwardly, nearly falling flat on her face.
>"I... probably, yes."
>That's certainly an odd answer.
"What is it?"
>She clears her throat, as all three of you have stopped walking at this point.
>"Your loss was.... extremely difficult, as you can imagine, Anonymous. I regret to say I was willing to turn to rather.... forbidden methods to bring you back. It is likely fortunately the idea did not work."
>She looks around to avoid eye contact, clearly embarrassed.
"You mean like necromancy?"
>Celestia's eyes go wide, as Luna gasps.
>"You have heard of such a thing?"
>You shrug.
"Well, yeah. I mean, it doesn't technically exist where I'm from, but it exists in legend."
>The two exchange glances, before Celestia speaks up.
>"We definitely need to discuss more of your world at some point in time. You seem to know a fair bit about magic, despite its lack of existence."
"Sure. Trust me, this is all just as odd to me as it is to you."
>Your small group resumes your stroll back into the castle.
"Speaking of me being gone, what did I miss as far as the interrogation? Did we learn anything?"
>"You really don't remember anything from that day?"
>Luna turns her head to you with intense curiosity.
"No, I really don't. Is that bad?"
>"I do not think it is an issue, Anon. It is just different. You see, whenever Luna or I rise again, we can remember what happened. Not to mention remembering the pain of the flames of rebirth."
>Luna shudders.
>"Consider it a blessing, Anonymous. Perhaps your mind has blocked it out."
>>25644227
"Okay. Anyways, back to the original question?"
>"Right. It seems the prisoner we have is somewhat important. While nopony really knows the internal workings of the changeling's social structure, the one we have is among the first born to Chrysalis. Unfortunately, the only other information we got before your... incident, is something we had already heard. Chrysalis does not want you dead."
"Sooo, what does she want?"
>"Your power. Or perhaps more specific, Nightmare Moon's power contained in you. She doesn't know what it is as far as we can tell, but you certainly made an impression on her when the two of you met."
"That sounds just as bad as wanting me dead. Of course, the death scenario would be a lot better now with what we know."
>Luna playfully bops you with a wing.
"Just saying. "
>>25644233
Thanks
save bomp
>>25644233
Great work man
>>25628001
>>25638184
Aren't all of these type of parks called Luna Parks or is that just in german?
>>25646232
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_Park
Bump
>>25647695
What's up with the thousand yard stare?
>>25647695
>>25647829
>WOW I am so bored
>This sucks
>Could be eating cake
>Or watching a show about cake
>Wonder what Anonymous is doing
>Lol look at Lulu pretending to be all interested in what Twilight is saying
>Urr oh yes verily sparkle we hath observed what thou did there
>"Fuck, this is boring."
>Woops, I said that out loud instead of thinking it
>>25647829
More like thousand year stare.
