Death Unbound

The sound of hoofsteps on a hard stone surface and the unmistakable rattling of chains were the first things to alert me to my location. I was in a dungeon, chained to a wall behind a set of iron bars with weights places on my wings. At first, all I could feel was the biting numbness that filled my extremities. Eventually it wore off, replaced by a chill that nearly set my hair on end. I opened my eyes to see a very troubled Luna pacing the path outside my cell. I decided to look about me, seeing many key things I could use for escape.

"You could run," Said the princess, "or you could stay."

"Luna..."

"You could! I could try and make my sister more patient! I could hide you where only I could find you! I don't care what you have to do, just don't leave me!" She carried on, grasping at the bars with tears in her eyes.

I was surprised to tell the truth. I knew Luna wasn't as bad as her sister, but I had no idea just how much she cared for me. I was her caretaker when she was a filly until I was banished. When I came back, she was all grown up so I became the royal protector, a bodyguard so to speak. Over the years, I became distant, blaming the world around me for what I had lost, I got so far from society that I didn't see the signs of Luna turning into Nightmare Moon until it was too late. I assumed she would blame me for her hatred, though the more I thought about the past, the more I realized how she felt. I even remembered the first time I saw her taking notice to me at all

////

At the first royal ball I went to after my banishment, I found myself wandering the back hallways, not being in the mood to be cheerful. By stroke of luck, good or bad I had yet to see, I ran into Luna near the royal bedrooms. She was on a stepladder trying to balance a bucket of red paint over the door to her sister's bedroom. the top of the door was just out of reach and she was mumbling something about tall doors for small ponies. In her frustration, she lost balance and fell off the step ladder, landing on her rump a few feet below. She was dazed and didn't notice the falling bucket of red paint that was about to hit her.

"Luna, move!" I yelled, sprinting at her.

She didn't register what I had said until it was too late. She stared at the falling bucket and cascading paint as it came towards her. She recoiled, hoping it wouldn't hit her too hard. I was just barely fast enough, getting between the princess' prone form and the falling bucket just as it was about to hit her. It hit me instead, covering me in a thick red coating of paint. She opened her eyes slowly, looking up at me. As our eyes met, I could see a sudden flurry of emotions flow through her head at once, the most prominent being confusion and disbelief, however there were subtle instances of admiration as well.

I then realized that I was still standing over her form and that her face was red from something other than the paint. I turned and walked towards the window, paint dripping from my coat onto the already red carpet. I stood there for a solid minute, just staring at the full moon despondently, lost in memories long past.

"Why?" The princess finally asked from behind me.

"Its my job." I responded flatly.

"To get covered in red paint?"

"No, to protect you."

"Why?" She asked, forcing images into my head, images I wanted to forget.

"I don't have a choice. By the way, why didn't you use your wings or your magic to try and put the bucket up there?" I asked.

"This dress doesn't allow for flight and as for my magic, its been on the fritz for awhile, I don't know why." After a moment of silence, she asked, "Have I seen you before? You seem familiar."

"Yes, you have, but you were too young to remember much of anything."

"What's your name?"

"C-" I began.

"LUNA!!" Bellowed a new voice, as Celestia came barreling through the halls.

"Sister, how is the par-" She was silenced as she was brought into a deep embrace by her sister.

"I thought you were being attacked." Celestia said, breaking the embrace when she spotted me standing by the window.

"Crash Wrecker, I should have known. What happened here, were you trying to attack my sister? Did you suddenly turn into a pervert and decide to peek into her room while she was dressing, huh? To tell you the truth, neither of those things would surprise me." She said, getting closer to me with each word until she was growling into my ear.

"Actually sister, I-" Luna began before I cut her off.

"There was a bucket of red paint on a bookshelf, I ran into it, causing it to fall. Luna-"

"That's Princess Luna to you!" Celestia interrupted.

"Princess Luna, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was about to get hit by the bucket and get drenched in paint and I couldn't let her beautiful attire get ruined." I said, glancing over to Luna to see her blushing a bit. "So, I jumped in the way of the bucket and I got soaked in red paint instead." I finished, seeing that Celestia was not pleased with my answer.

She looked around, obviously taking note that there was no bookshelf anywhere near where we currently were. I could almost see it click in her head as to what really happened. She glared at me, beckoning me to follow her back to the party as Luna went about her business, calling a cleaning crew to pick up her failed prank.

"You know, it doesn't take the Element of Harmony to see that you lied there." She said, not making eye contact with me.

"Yeah, I know, but it still took you awhile." I said.

"I know she was trying to prank me with that bucket of paint, so why lie about it?"

"It's my job." I said for the second time in ten minutes.

"To lie to your princesses?"

"No, to protect them, even if it means from the wrath of each other." I answered smugly before excusing myself to wash up.

////

I came back to my senses, looking around again to notice that some time had passed. Luna was now sitting just outside my cell, her head hung low. Behind her was a large wooden marionette. It looked to be dragon-like with some subtle characteristics of an ape. Its round head had an engraved cross on the front, intricate designs like vines texturing the whole body. Its forearms were split, the tops and bottoms were wooden but there was a thin strip of metal running along until it reached the elbow. On its palms, metal plates that connected with the strips on either side of its forearms. The metal was decorated with swirls that all seemed to end in the hole that was in the center of its palms. I stared at it for awhile, entranced by its craftsmanship until I realized what it was.

"N-no! You can't do this to me! You don't even have a proper reason to do this! I saved the Elements of Harmony along with an entire town! That's a good thing!" I began to yell, hearing my voice echo off the walls.

"I-I'm so sorry...it was either this or death and I couldn't let you die...not again..." Said Luna, still not looking up.

I calmed myself, realizing why this was to be my punishment, "Abandonment of duty, mass murder, threatening nobles, anything I left out?" I asked.

"Yes, threat of war." Said Celestia as she entered the room.

"How did I do that exactly?" I asked.

"You took Ponyville under your control by force." Said Celestia simply.

"Oh, right I forgot about how I saved a town full of ponies by erecting an impenetrable barrier around the town as well as telling them to be on lookout for more crazies." I said sarcastically.

"What you did doesn't matter, what matters is what you're going to do." She said, looking over to the lifeless wood marionette.

"Ha, you say that like I have a choice in the matter!" I said, looking for the fastest way out of the chains that held me to the wall.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luna's horn glow and suddenly I was outside my cell standing beside her. Celestia didn't seem surprised at all, looking from me to Luna and back. In a flash her horn was charged and she fired six spells. Luna was going to summon up a shield, but there wasn't enough time. I shoved her out of harm's way and took all six spells. One hit my left forehoof, piercing right through it and pinning it to the right arm of the marionette. I saw what she was doing way too late.

One by one my limbs were pierced and pinned to the marionette's own, each spell causing a searing pain that spread throughout my entire body. I tried to struggle, but it made the pain unbearable. After around five minutes of me screaming in   pain, Celestia finally walked up to me, her horn glowing yet again.

"I-I will find you, and I...will...kill...you!" I growled between pained grunts.

"You can't kill me if you don't remember the reason for it. Your morality won't let you." She said, stopping five feet in front of me.

"Sister, you can't do this! He saved the Elements of Harmony, the only things that can save all of Equestria from this unknown menace!" Pleaded Luna.

Celestia either didn't hear, or didn't care because she went ahead and blasted me with all the force she could muster. The beam hit me and pain more intense than anything I had ever felt before coursed through me. I felt like I was being torn in two, probably because that was what was happening. Everything that made me who I was got absorbed by the wooden statue behind me, while my body and any other organic matter is left behind in a smoldering heap. Once I was absorbed, I would wake up suspended in midair, only the blackness to keep me company. I would stay like that until I lost myself, until I forgot who I was. Only then would I be allowed to live the rest of my immortal life through the eyes of the golem I would be imprisoned in. That is the life I was destined to now lead, and I couldn't do anything about it, again I was powerless in losing myself.

"Celestia! I swear by the unholy sun, the envious moon, and all the known universe, I WILL KILL YOU!" I bellowed before finally being consumed by the darkness.