The Grand Galloping Gala. The biggest and most majestic gathering in the entire kingdom of Equestria. All its most regal subjects from far and wide attend the annual promenade in the interest of high society.
Although, this year, the society was far from its usual grandeur.
"Hey everypony! Ready to par-tay!?"
Pinkie Pie leapt up onto the stage and began kicking as if doing the cancan, drawing scowls and murmurs of disapproval from the gathered ponies of higher birth. She leapt down and joined hooves with a surprised stallion, spinning him into an involuntary dance that nearly dislocated his shoulder and ruffled his mane before dropping him on the spot and rushing over to do the same to his date.
"Come on, guys, it's a party! We're supposed to dance!!" she squealed.
The air rippled in the corner of the room, a concealed figure shifting in place as she watched. A faint smile passed over the blue pony's lips, vanishing almost as it appeared, before she turned and slipped out of the grand hall. She filed down a hallway, sticking to the wall so as not to bump into the partygoers scattered throughout the castle. She followed the wall, slinking through the marble corridors to a large, blue door, and silently slipped inside.
Luna dropped her concealment spell once inside, seeming to materialize out of thin air, and trotted over to her bed. She dropped herself onto it, not particularly upset in her mannerism, and rolled onto her back, staring at the starry sky spattered across her ceiling. The cool blue light of her bedside lamp made the air peaceful and calm, the sounds of the festivities below all but silenced by the soundproof atmosphere at the outer edge of the room. For a moment, the world was quiet.
"Luna?"
Luna opened her eyes. She let out a quiet sigh and turned her head to a vanity at the wall near her bed, landing her eyes on a carving of her sister that protruded from the mantle of the mirror.
"Yes?"
"Why are you shut up in your room like this?" the carving asked in Celestia's voice, its mouth opening and closing like a puppet's as it spoke. "You're missing the whole gala."
Luna sighed and sat up. "I've been around. It's not very interesting..."
"Luna," the carving sighed, "I know you're not used to crowds yet, but you never will be if you don't try. You're a princess; it's our duty to be sociable."
Luna made a face, reaching behind herself and pulling a little stuffed dragon into her arms. "I don't want to..."
The carving was silent for a moment, drawing Luna's focus back to it, before it murmured something inaudible.
"Where are you?" Luna asked quietly.
"I'm in the foyer, greeting our guests," the carving answered. "Twilight Sparkle is here too. You really should come down and meet her, I know you'd be the best of friends."
Luna scowled at the carving and hugged the stuffed dragon tighter. "Twilight Sparkle..." Luna muttered. "Can't you talk about anypony else? All I hear you say now is 'Twilight Sparkle this' and 'Twilight Sparkle that' and 'Oh, you really must hear what Twilight Sparkle said in a letter today'..." Luna looked away from the vanity out a window. "...What's she got that I don't...?"
The vanity opened its mouth, but said nothing for a second or two. "Luna...Are you...jealous of Twilight?"
"Maybe I am!" Luna shot back, throwing the stuffed dragon at the vanity and silencing her sister. The carving was quiet, unmoving, and Luna turned away from it. She crossed her arms, clenching her jaw as tears formed in her eyes.
"...You still have anger your heart," Celestia sighed. "After all these years...I can't break through to you..."
Luna bit her lip, trying not to cry, and clamped her eyes shut. She sniffed quietly, trying not to let Celestia hear her, but the effort was in vain.
"Oh Luna..." the carving said sadly.
Luna wiped her eyes again, sniffing quietly, then set her jaw and sat up straight, looking out her window at the moon.
"...It's because you don't trust me, isn't it?"
She could almost see Celestia twitch, even half the castle away. "Luna..."
Luna nodded. "It's because my magic hasn't fully recovered and you don't know what I'll do when it does. You don't want to take the risk of me trying to take over again."
Celestia was quiet.
"...I don't want to lose you again," the carving said quietly, almost too much so to hear. "Whatever darkness took you away may still be there, and every day it seems more likely that it is. I don't want to have to send you away again..."
Luna shuddered, the thought of returning to the moon sending a chill up her spine, and lowered her head. She knew Celestia was right, that she was only looking out for her little sister, and it was comforting to think about, but it did little to quell her jealousy. She sat still, sifting through her thoughts, then turned back to the vanity with a nervous expression.
"If I come down, do I have to let people see me?" she asked quietly.
"Oh Luna," the carving chided with an audible smile, "I suppose not now, but soon."
Luna nodded, a faint smile passing over her face, and stood up from the bed. She started toward the door, then paused, an idea flashing through her mind.
"Hey Tia?" she asked, stepping closer to the vanity.
"Yes Luna?"
"You said Twilight was really good at teleporting spells, right?"
"...Nice to see you again, have a wonderful time," the carving murmured. Obviously greeter duty was starting to pull her thoughts away from the spell. "I'm sorry, what did you say, Luna?"
"Twilight's good at teleporting, isn't she?" Luna asked again.
"Oh, why yes. It's one of the first advanced spells I taught her," Celestia said, almost making the carving nod proudly.
Luna flashed the vanity a sly smile. 'That's how I'll impress her...'
"Tia, what side of you is she on?"
"She's at my left," the carving answered. "...Why do you ask?"
Luna stepped back from the vanity with a grin and spread her hooves out on the floor. "Get ready to be impressed, Tia. I'm gonna teleport all the way down to the foyer."
Celestia paused in the middle of greeting someone. "Luna, don't try it."
"I can do it!" Luna protested, "You'll see!"
"No, Luna," Celestia said quickly, "There's a ward against teleportation in the castle. Don't try to-"
Luna shut out her sister's warning and released her mental hold on her magic, letting it flow up the fluting of her horn and set it ablaze with a deep violet glow. She formed an image in her mind of a rune, the one she had learned represented teleportation, and visualized that image flowing from her mind up to the tip of her horn, making it flicker as it registered the desired spell. Then she focused on the foyer, on the top of the ornate staircase that lead into the rest of the castle, and placed a circle off to the side of the stairs where she thought no one would be. Then, all her preparations made, she imagined a circle around herself, bridging the two places in her mind, and let released her magic.
"Luna, do you hear me? Don't-" Celestia started.
Bang!!
Celestia fell silent, still holding a guests hoof, and looked over her shoulder. Both Twilight and the gust noticed her sudden distraction and looked up at the ceiling where she was focused, frowning as they failed to notice whatever it was she was looking at. The mare in front of her winced, glancing at their hooves, and slowly pulled hers away while watching to make sure she didn't offend the princess before trotting off to join in with the rest of the festivities.
"Princess?" Twilight asked, stepping in front of her and following her gaze. Celestia's eyes remained fixed on the ceiling, her expression unreadable. Twilight glanced over her shoulder at a new group of guests coming up the stairs and anxiously pawed at Celestia's front leg, snapping back to the foyer.
"Wha...?" she asked distractedly before focusing on Twilight. "Oh, Twilight..."
"Is everything alright?" Twilight asked quietly, sensing that something was not.
Celestia blinked, shaking herself out of her stupor, and put her usual smile back where it belonged. "Oh, yes," she nodded, stepping forward past Twilight to greet the newcomers. "Everything will be just fine."
Twilight frowned as Celestia gave her guests their greeting and sent them off to her left, and stepped closer to her.
"But...it isn't now, is it?"
Celestia remained frozen in place, keeping her eyes on the door, then let out a quiet sigh and turned a somber expression to her pupil.
"As soon as we're done here I need your help with something..."
* * * * * *
Luna opened her eyes slowly, the bright burst of light from the teleportation making it hard to see for a second. She blinked once or twice, then jumped and looked to her left, excited to see the look on Celestia's face.
"See? I-"
Luna stopped her sentence dead. Celestia was nowhere to be seen. She blinked, confused, then looked to her right. The foyer was empty, not a single visible pony obscuring her view of the polished marble floors and walls. Luna frowned, turning around completely, then straining to look out the window that hung above the entrance to the castle to see if her sister had gone outside.
"...Tia?" Luna called down the stairs, flinching as the word echoed back to her. She looked around again, the echo bringing to her attention that the band in the grand ballroom had evidently stopped playing. Luna took a step toward the door to the ballroom, straining her ears, and felt herself shiver as she realized that the voices of party goers had also fallen silent. She took another step, the sound of her hoof clicking against the sleek white floor echoing quietly.
"...T-Tia?"
Luna gulped quietly as she made her way over to the door to the ballroom, her eyes scanning its surface in nervous confusion. It had been open when she saw it last, or, at least, she thought it had. 'I was on the other side of the room...maybe it just looked like it was open...'
She stepped up to the massive double doors and stopped, suddenly unsure what to do. This was where the party was being held for the most part, so it stood to reason that there would be someone inside that would know where Celestia was. What didn't stand to reason was the fact that, even when pressing her ear to the door, Luna couldn't hear any sound coming from inside.
'That's so strange...' she mused, straightening up. 'Maybe...there's been an accident? Oh I certainly hope everyone's alright.' She flinched. 'What if Tia got hurt?' She flattened the side of her face against the door again, worried. 'What if they're all in shock because she...slipped and broke her leg? Or worse! Oh my...What do I do?' Luna pulled herself back from the door, nervously bringing a hoof to her face, and looked back down the hall for somepony who might be able to help her. She gulped again, seeing no one, and turned back to the door. She hesitated, her hoof still raised to her face, then slowly reached out and pushed on the great door.
The doors, perfectly weighted as they were, yielded to Luna's effort easily, sliding open with a prolonged creak that sent chills up the little blue alicorn's spine. She shifted her weight as the door opened, keeping herself hidden behind it as long as she could and scanning the inside of the room as it came into her field of view. The chills continued as Luna saw the grand ballroom appeared to be empty, all the visible space in the room left with not a single pony in sight. She turned her head, following the edge of the door, then flinched as a figure came into view. She nearly let out a surprised yelp, but realizing who the familiar form belonged to put her fears at rest and she stepped forward into the ballroom with a relieved smile on her face.
"Oh, Tia," Luna sighed, starting to walk toward the alicorn in the middle of the room, "I thought something..." Luna slowed, the emptiness of the room finally asserting itself in her mind, and she looked around herself in all directions to find that not a single other pony was in the room with them. She frowned, looking back at Celestia, and gulped as she realized her sister was just standing there, right in the middle of the room, facing away from her.
Silent.
"Tia?" Luna asked quietly, taking a step closer. "...T-Tia? ...Are you okay?"
Click.
Luna flinched, looking behind herself, and felt herself shiver as she saw that the door to the room had drifted closed. Another shiver ran through her body as she remembered its weight, and the creak it made when it moved. One would have let her hear the door closing before it was shut completely.
The other would keep it from closing on its own.
Luna gulped and turned her body back toward Celestia, still watching the door. "Tia, what's going on? I'm scared"
Luna looked ahead of herself and fell silent. Where Celestia had been the moment before now stood a pink pony just shorter than Luna herself, her hot pink mane and tail falling behind her like ribbons. Luna gulped, terrified and confused by the unfolding events of the evening, but a sudden spark of recognition took the edge out of her fear.
'That's...that's that pony from earlier...' she thought, running her eyes over the silent mare in the middle of the room. 'She was there...back in the old palace...with Tia...' She steadied her hooves on the ground and wagered a half-step closer. 'One of Twilight Sparkle's friends...'
The pink pony remained still, facing in the opposite direction just as Celestia was. Luna hesitated, her hoof hovering above the floor for a moment, before taking one last step closer, placing her a good five yards behind the statuesque mare. She took a second to breathe, still very frightened by the situation, before quietly clearing her throat.
"Hello?"
No response.
"...You're the pony from earlier, right? You were trying to dance with everyone?"
Silence.
".....Where's your dress? It was pretty..."
Something resembling a slow, deep breath echoed through the ballroom, making Luna flinch. She shuffled a few inches closer to the pink pony, looking around the room, before stopping and focusing on her again.
"Um...is the party over?"
The pink pony's ear twitched. Luna gulped, edging backward as the pony's head turned to the side, her wide eyes and smile just coming into view before she suddenly stopped.
"Over?" she asked quietly, making Luna flinch.
A whisper off to Luna's side made her jump, looking around in the direction it had come from to find herself still alone with the flat-haired mare in the middle of the room. She blinked, squinting at a little light that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, then looked around with widening eyes as she saw that the little floating orbs were suddenly everywhere. She looked toward the center of the room, about to ask what they were, to find that the pink pony had disappeared, and let out a whimper as one of the little balls of candlelight drifted past her face. She backed up, trying to distance herself from the cluster of floating lights, then squeaked as she backed into something and whipped around to find herself face to face with the wild eyed pink pony.
"The party has yet to begin!"
The room went dark, blinding Luna. She covered her face, the abrupt change to total darkness stinging her eyes, then pulled her hoof away and felt her sore eyes shoot open, her blood freezing in her veins.
The world was illuminated with a dark, harsh shade of red. The walls had all changed, the once polished white marble coated with splashes of black and red that pulsated as if alive. The majestic décor had become twisted and macabre, the golden statues that stood atop the pedestals in the corners of the room broken and bent at odd angles and colored as though they were real ponies that had met some terrible demise. The pillars that filled the sides of the room had become what looked like towers made of ponies, both whole and in pieces; full bodies, random organs and limbs, and skeletal protrusions jutting out from the fleshy columns at all angles.
But the most sickening sight of all was what had become of the orbs.
Each ball of light erupted into a ghostly, transparent flame that engulfed the form of a pony. Luna recognized many of them as the party goers she had seen earlier while watching from the corner of the room, but now they had all been twisted and mangled. They were brutalized corpses, wandering around the room and conversing with each other in guttural moans and other unintelligible sounds that made Luna's skin crawl. She shook her head, eye's wide and watering, and jumped back as one of the bloodied ponies walked by her face, shrieking as she bumped into another that seemed to give some indignant and pompous retort in its choked sounding babbles.
"No, I, oh! I-I'm sorr- AHH!! Oh dear, I-I...I..." Luna whimpered, trying to get away from the twisted guests. They seemed to be going about their business, casually chatting with each other in squawks and growls, as if nothing had changed. Luna tried to shrink, tried to avoid touching them and quickly made her way toward the wall of the room next to the door she had entered from, quickly turning to face it once she was there and clamping her hooves down on the sides of her head, staring at the bloodied wall with bulging eyes and a racing heart. She struggled to get her breathing under control, rocking slowly as she shifted her hooves to cover her ears and drown out the awful sounds of the deathly ponies around her.
"It's not real, it's not real," she mumbled, tears starting to stream out of the sides of her eyes, "None of this is real. I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming, I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming..." Luna started to choke, her throat stinging and vision blurring as her panic continued to increase. "Oh Tia, please let me be dreaming..."
She shut her eyes tight, whispering the phrase to herself until she began to trip over it. The noises of the room seemed to grow louder the more she tried to shut them out, the atmosphere growing thick and heavy as if the room itself were shrinking. The walls felt as if they were closing in, crushing Luna into a little ball as she sat practically screaming at the doorframe that she was dreaming. The phrase began to collapse on itself, not really coming out as words so much as a stream of frantic crying, until Luna had completely emptied her lungs and took a deep breath to begin the string again...but stopped.
She opened her eyes. Her hooves let up the pressure on her ears. She blinked, pushing a final tear from each eye, and slowly sat up.
The room had fallen silent.
Luna gulped quietly, hesitantly turning around, and clenched her teeth together to keep herself from making noise as she found all eyes focused on her. Her wide eyes darted back and forth between the rotten eyeballs and empty sockets of the assembled ponies that stared back at her. Her first thought was that she might have concerned some of them with her screaming. Maybe they were just regular ponies that looked scary. But the more she saw of the faces that had her in their sights, the more she saw they hadn't a care for her in their minds. Their eyes, even the ones that were whole and undamaged, seemed lifeless and dull. They were looking directly at Luna, but they weren't really seeing her.
"It's not polite to make such a ruckus when people are trying to have fun."
Something moved at the back of the room. Luna's eyes shot toward the obscured figure as it weaved its way through the mass of ponies toward a break in the crowd, her breath growing shorter as the creature slipped between the corpselike party goers until it finally came into view. Luna froze up, her shivers stopping, and felt her breath catch in her throat.
The pink pony meandered to a lazy stop in the open section of floor, watching Luna with dark smile. Her coat had become a sickly shade of scarlet, her mane and tail now burgundy, and the whites of her eyes and her teeth were both pitch black and seemed to be melting or leaking darkness down her face. Glowing little red dots were all that remained in the black pools of her eyes, and looking directly at them made Luna's body suddenly feel cold. They were quiet, watching each other, all the other ponies in the room remaining dead still as if not to distract them from each other. The once pink pony giggled, a normal sounding noise that under such abnormal circumstances came across as horrifying. She tilted her head slightly to both sides and a wave of movement seemed to flow through the room; that is to say, not the macabre ponies scattered around her, but the very room itself. The pillars and statues seemed to come alive, their various heads turning in sickly jerking motions to look at Luna, several of the loose body parts of the columns falling to the ground as the blood stained skulls twisted themselves loose to shift their gaze. Luna scooted herself backward until she touched the wall, then jumped away from it with a suppressed squeal as she felt it undulate against her skin. The entire room, probably the entire castle, had suddenly come to life.
And it had its sights set on the little blue alicorn.
The dark pony giggled again, drawing a laugh-like murmur from the crowd at large, then started toward Luna at a snail's pace. Luna gasped, backing against the wall again before jerking away from it. All the ponies in the room began to shuffle forward, dragging broken and twisted limbs toward the princess, following in the wake of the floating monster that seemed to be in charge of the dark world Luna had fallen into.
"G-GO AWAY!!" Luna screamed, scrabbling backwards as far as she could without touching the wall. "STAY BACK!! PLEASE!!"
She waved her forelegs in front of her in a frantic attempt to stave them off, looking around in a panic for any means of escape. She landed her eyes on the door beside her, momentarily feeling silly for having forgotten about it, then shrieked as one of the large statues in the corner of the room clambered down from its post and began to hobble toward her with the rest of the crowd. She scrambled to her hooves, leaping toward the door, and slammed her shoulder into it. To her horror, however, the door would not budge. Luna reared back and slammed her hooves into the heavy door, pushing as hard as she could, and began to panic again as it refused to heed to her efforts.
"NONONONONO, LET ME OUT!!!" she screamed, shooting a glance over her shoulder at the approaching mob. The dark pony let out another little giggle that sent chills up her spine and made the pillars begin to unravel, their individual parts dropping to the floor and dragging themselves into the crowd toward her. Luna stopped pushing and flattened herself against the door, beating furiously at it and screaming at the top of her lungs. "LET ME OUT!!! LET ME THE HAY OUT OF HERE!!! PLEASE!! HORSEAPPLES LET ME OOOOOUT!!!!"
The dark pony let out a full forced laugh, the sickeningly cutesy sound cutting through the air like a razor and making Luna scream. The princess slammed her hooves against the door, her eyes locked on the fast approaching specter, then with a final loud shriek threw herself against the massive sheet of bloodied gold and wood. Suddenly, the door flew open, throwing Luna off balance, and sent her tumbling forward out of the ballroom and into the cavernous, dark pit on the opposite side. She screamed as she fell, what little dim light the ballroom had to offer fading to utter blackness as she careened down into the dark.
The echo faded slowly, the door hanging open to the infinite expanse of black that extended from the hellish ballroom. A blood colored face appeared over the lip of the pit, peering down into the blackness, a dark grin twisting its mouth. The figure lifted its head, the mob of death and decay behind it reacting violently to the motion, then turned and started a leisurely walk through the sea of collapsing ponies as its followers began to fall apart. The open door began to fade in color until its surface was a shade of black that matched that of the darkness beyond it, the shadow of emptiness spreading inward and consuming the walls and floor in the dark pony's wake. Soon the darkness overtook the blood colored pony, surging forward to consume the room and plunge it all into a black darker than a moonless night.
"Now the party begins..."
Luna woke suddenly, snapping into a sitting position. She looked around, quickly getting to her hooves, and felt her forgotten panic beginning to well up inside her again. The palace was gone, all of the familiar world was gone. In place of her home she saw a line of trees on either side of her, far off in the distance. Between her and them was a massive, black chasm that gaped hungrily at her on both sides of a thin, grass covered stone path that extended as far as she could see in either direction. The dim light of the featureless sky made it difficult to see beyond a certain point, adding to the little blue alicorn’s paranoia.
Luna’s breath was shallow and fast, little white puffs of steam forming from the heated air she exhaled. She started to inch backward from one side of the sheer cliff she stood upon, only to squeal and scrabble forward after almost stepping off the other side. She took several deep breaths, lacing a hoof over her chest, and closed her eyes, trying to regain her composure.
“Get a hold of yourself, Luna,” she snapped, slapping a hoof down on the walkway. “This is no way for me to conduct myself! I’m a princess! It is my time!” she announced, looking up at the dark sky. “All I need do is...fly over to that forest and...”
Luna unfurled her wings, holding them poised for flight, and bent her knees in preparation for a jump. She shifted her hooves slightly, wiggling her rump in anticipation, then extended her legs and started to move forward before quickly stopping herself with a startled gasp. She scrabbled at the stone beneath her hooves, desperately trying to stop herself from tipping over the edge of the path, then hunkered down on the walkway and looked back at her wings. They felt...strange. Numb. Almost as if they did not exist. Luna winced as she tried to move them again only to find that they would not respond to her will. She closed her eyes and flexed the muscles at the bases of her wings, but only manages to make them sore instead of numb and quickly abandoned the effort. She frowned sadly, looking back at them, then turned her focus back to the trees ahead.
“O...Okay...” she said quietly. “Still...nothing to fear...I-I’ll just...telepo– “ She stopped the thought short, the memory of what happened after her last attempt at the spell flashing through her mind, and shivered. “Oh dear... Well...how far down can it be?” she asked aloud, poking her head over the side of the cliff. “I’ll bet I could...climb down there and— AHH!!!”
Luna rolled over herself away from the edge of the cliff, jumping to her feet once she had righted herself, and almost backed off the opposite side. She looked back at the other chasm and screamed again as she found the pink pony from the ballroom standing on the side of the cliff behind her, her pitch black eyes and beady red irises watching the princess with a sinister grin. Luna shied away from that edge as well, looking over the first, and found the pink pony there again, closer than before.
“Come play with me!” the pink nightmare demanded, making Luna squeal and stumble to the other side to once again find her closer than before. “Play!!”
Luna screamed and started to run, following the narrow path she had been placed upon. The bubbly giggle of the pink nightmare tickled the back of her neck and made her shriek again, doubling her efforts to escape the dark pony behind her. The wind stung as it whipped past her face, her breath streaming out in thick white clouds that were torn away from her face by the speed of her mad dash. She looked over her shoulder, hoping desperately to have put some distance between them, but found to her horror that the giggling specter was practically on top of her, seeming not to move at all while Luna ran in place in front of her. Luna panicked and turned her focus forward again just in time to notice a stone statue approaching her at break-neck speed. She yelped and slammed her hooves to the ground, leaning back to try and stop herself before hitting a bump in the path and flipping forward and tumbling and rolling into the base that the statue was set upon.
Luna was quiet, unmoving for several seconds, then let out a groan and started to untangle her limbs and push herself to her hooves. She paused, her eyes snapping open, and looked up. The dark pony was gone. She hesitated before glancing to either side, then turning to look around herself as she stood up. For a moment, she was still, but quickly remembered the pain in her side and wings and allowed herself to focus on them instead. She rolled her shoulders and neck, her sore wings folding at her sides.
“Why is this happening?” she asked quietly upon finishing her stretch. The dark world around her answered with faint whispers from the distant woods, making the princess shiver and back herself against the statue’s base behind her. She sighed, taking a few seconds to try and calm down then looked to either side. The narrow cliff extended in a circle around the statue’s base, offering the only alternative path to the one she had taken to arrive there. Luna sighed again, standing up straight, and started to carefully make her way around the stone pillar, keeping her head up for fear of finding herself face to face with the little pink nightmare if she looked over the cliff’s edge again.
‘Keep it together, Luna,’ she coached herself, catching herself at the cliff’s edge and shuffling closer to the pillar. ‘Just a little further...’
Luna continued shuffling around for a moment or two before stopping. She looked to her left, frowning at the little blank plaque set into the stone pillar, then looked to her right. The empty chasm extended to the line of trees on the horizon. She stared for a few seconds, unsure of something, then hesitantly looked forward and started shuffling again. She kept going for longer this time, trudging around the circular platform of the statue for almost a minute, then stopped again. She looked to her left, then her right, then behind herself, panic beginning to take her over once again.
‘Where did it go?’ she asked herself, inching closer to the pillar. ‘Where...oh, Tia, no...’
The path leading to the circular platform had vanished, leaving Luna stranded on the little circular island in the middle of the black ocean around her. She sat down with her back to the stone, cradling her head in her hooves.
“This is not happening,” she said aloud, her voice cracking. “This...This is not happening. First I can’t fly, now I can’t walk...what am I going to lose next?”
Something clicked, making Luna jump and instantly regret the question. The sound of stone scraping against stone filled her ears, the echo reverberating through the darkness around her and erasing its source from her mind. She looked around herself, raising her hooves defensively in front of her face as she tried to figure out where the noise was coming from. Slowly, a block of stone pathway rose out of the black sea in front of her until it was level with her floating island, then stopped with a loud thump. Luna eyed it suspiciously, leaning out over it to look beyond as another block of walkway rose up behind it. Then another. Before long, the path had nearly rebuilt itself, stretching off into the distance before the blue princess, offering her the only escape from her tiny platform. Luna narrowed her eyes at it, thinking, then planted her rump on the ground and crossed her arms.
“I see what you’re doing,” she announced aloud, her voice echoing. “You’re trying to lead me down the path to another ridiculous scare! Well I’m wising up to you, you little pink freak, and I’m not moving from this spot!” she said defiantly, finishing with a hearty “Humph!” and a flick of her hair.
For several seconds, all was silent. Luna sat patiently, inwardly anxious as to what would pop out at her next but holding her ground. The darkness around her was still, thick with an air of anticipation. Luna cracked an eye, glancing around herself as the atmosphere around her became palpably dense, and realized with an edge of worry that the light breeze that had permeated the world since her arrival had come to an abrupt halt.
“Where the hell did the path...Oh god...”
Luna frowned and looked to her right, listening intently as the crackling sound of rocks shifting underhoof snaked around the stone pillar she was backed against to her ears. She shifted on her hooves, turning to face the approaching whatever-it-was as it continued to approach around the huge rock pedestal. She took a step backward, rising into a crouching position, and quietly swallowed a nervous lump that had formed in her throat.
“Fuck, why is this happening? What did I ever do to—“
A face peered around the pillar, checking to see that the way was clear, and found itself staring straight at Princess Luna. Both bodies froze momentarily before the newcomer yelped and disappeared back around the pillar.
“SHIT! GET AWAY!! WHATEVER YOU WANT, I DON’T HAVE IT!!”
Luna remained frozen for a second more before letting out the breath she was holding onto with a confused frown. “Whatever I...?” She lowered herself onto her rump, staring at the spot the face had disappeared, then blinked as a spark of realization flashed through her mind. “Wait! Are you stuck here too??”
The unknown creature, which had taken to quiet whimpering, fell silent. Luna tilted her head, leaning forward slightly to try and see it, before the thing leaned out from around the pillar again with an anxious frown.
“Y-You’re not one of them?” it asked meekly.
Luna studied the unusual creature’s face for a moment before stepping closer. “No.” She stopped, eyeing the unusual beast suspiciously. In all her years, before and after her banishment, she’d never seen something so oddly shaped as whatever this mostly hairless creature was. “...And neither are you?”
“Would I be scared shitless of them if I was?” the creature asked somewhat harshly, then caught himself. “No, I’m not.” He sighed and stepped out from behind the pillar entirely, resting his back against it and head in his hands. “Ugh, what’s going ooon?” he groaned.
Luna looked him up and down, taking in his clothes, his scale-less talons, his hairless face, and his unusually small and rounded ears. He continued to massage his face for a moment before letting his arms fall at his sides and lifting his head to meet Luna’s inquisitive stare, taking a few seconds to look her over as well.
“...Have I been drugged?” he asked after a brief silence. “This is...this is some kind of hallucinogenic fantasy, right? I mean, what even are you?” he asked, motioning to Luna with one hand, “A unicorn? ...With wings?”
Luna’s curiosity and fear fell away at his question. “I am a princess,” she corrected him sternly. “Princess Luna! Ruler of the night! And I am an alicorn, thank you.”
The newcomer gave her another once over, then shrugged. “Okay,” he sighed, facing forward, “Horse princess. Never heard of that one before—“
“PONY princess,” Luna snapped, stomping a hoof on the ground and making the newcomer jump. “And just who or what are you that gives you the right to shrug me off so nonchalantly??”
“Human,” the young man said, slightly nervous again, “My name’s Daniel.”
“Well, Daniel,” Luna huffed, “You would do well to remember your place when speaking to royalty.”
Daniel narrowed his eyes at the blue princess, standing up from the pillar, but said nothing. Luna faltered, realizing her tone, and shied slightly from Daniel’s glare. Daniel held his gaze for a moment more before looking forward at the path that extended away from their platform. He stared at it for a few seconds, then sighed, shoved his hands in his pockets, and started off on the path.
Luna flinched. “Where are you going?”
“The exit, hopefully,” Daniel shrugged. “...oh, your highness.”
“Wait!” Luna shouted, making him stop in place. “It’s a trap! It has to be!”
“Well there’s nowhere else to go, is there?” Daniel sighed angrily, looking back. “Unless you can fly us out of here.”
Luna winced, reflexively tensing the muscles around her wings. “...I can’t fly right now. I don’t know why...”
Daniel nodded. “Of course not...” He studied Luna for a moment, then turned back to the path. “Well, your highness, unless you know another way, I’m following this path.”
Luna’s head snapped up, her eyes wide, and opened her mouth. She held it in place, floundering for words, then flicked her eyes sideways at some distant howling sound before returning them to Daniel’s back. She hesitated only a second more before jumping up and galloping to catch up to him, standing up on her hind legs as she did and spinning him around to face her. Daniel let out a gasp as he twisted around on his feet and found himself eye to eye with Luna, who was taller than him standing erect.
“Yo-You can’t!” Luna stuttered quickly. “Leave me! Don’t leave me alone here!”
Daniel stared at her in shock, his hands raised submissively at his sides, then slowly reached up to peel her front hooves away from his shoulders.
“Alright,” he said quietly, trying to remain calm. “Just...don’t yell.”
Luna blinked as she realized that she had, and quickly removed herself from the young human, adjusting her tiara and clearing her throat before straightening up.
“Yes, well...um...shall we?” she asked, motioning to the path.
Daniel cocked his head to one side, narrowing his eyes at something beyond the blue pony, then raised a hand to his chin.
“Y’know...that statue looks a lot like you...” he mused.
“Statue?” Luna asked, turning around.
Luna’s breath caught momentarily in her throat. What she’d thought was a nondescript pony in some artistically quirky pose was actually a larger than life stone likeness of Nightmare Moon, rearing up on her hind legs with wickedly sharp teeth in her open mouth. Luna frowned, stepping closer to the statue. ’This looks like the statue from the old palace in Everfree...’
Daniel looked back and forth between Luna and the statue, rubbing his chin, then cleared his throat and snapped Luna out of her thoughts. “Relative of yours?”
Luna frowned at the statue and turned away. “No. No it’s...it’s a long story...” She looked up at his confused expression then glanced sideways and started walking. “I don’t feel comfortable here now. Let’s get moving.”
“Alright,” Daniel agreed quietly, looking at the statue over his shoulder one last time as he turned to follow. “So, do you have any idea what’s going on here?”
Luna shook her head. “No. I thought it had something to do with...er, something I did at a party, but I don’t know how that could have brought you here as well.”
Daniel slowed slightly. “Wait, I was at a party too,” he frowned. “I was at my frien—“
“Did you say...party?”
Daniel and Luna both froze, their eyes bulging. They remained still for several seconds before Luna gulped and slowly turned her head to look behind them, Daniel following her lead shortly after. For a moment, neither could determine the source of the eerily voice, but a quiet crackling sound drew their attention up to the head of the statue, which had turned to face them with a sudden, jerking motion. It’s eyes lit up, first a cool blue similar to that of Nightmare’s actual eyes, but then a dark, sickly red.
”I...love...parties...” The stone beast wheezed, its head titling with every forced word. Black fluid began to pour from its eye sockets as the red glow seemed to radiate out and around the statue’s body, sending a cascade of glowing cracks down its form and loosening it from its fixed position. Luna and Daniel both edged backwards as the red seams began to vent hot air before the bubbling black began to leak out from within the statue’s core, steaming as it hit the relatively cool air of the night.
“I’m not really feeling comfortable here either now,” Daniel whispered, inching backward at pace with the princess.
“How shocking,” Luna commented sarcastically before the statue’s head snapped toward her, making her freeze on the spot.
”Where do you think you’re going?” the stone behemoth asked, lowering itself into a standing position. Wisps of red leapt from its back and into the sky, tainting it with a dark scarlet color and eliciting a deep, wailing howl from the trees far beyond the pit that surrounded them. The statue grinned, making pieces of its lower jaw fall away and the black ooze pour out of its broken face. Luna shuddered, stepping backward as the statue moved a hoof over the edge to step down and toppled forward into a heap. Another howl drew Daniel’s attention away from the statue as he stepped back with a wet sounding squish, then looked down in horror to find that there seemed to be blood seeping out of the cracks in the stone walkway.
“Luna?” he asked quietly, his eyes stuck to the ground. “Luna, let’s go.” He took a few more steps backward, still focused on the ground, then looked up to find Luna frozen in place. “Luna?”
Luna gulped, fixed on the spot by the sight of the shattered statue struggling to lift itself onto its hooves, bubbling pitch streaming out of its broken form and over the sides of the land bridge into the darkness. The statue’s eyes, all the while, remained locked onto the little blue alicron, its face twisted into a broken smile as it tried to speak without a mouth. Finally, the pieces had rearranged themselves enough to fix the stone behemoth’s face, and it let out a deep, gurgling laugh that made both Luna and Daniel’s blood run cold.
”Don’t go yet,” it gargled, manically struggling to stand. ”If you did that, you’d miss...the...”
“PARTY!!”
A sticky black mass exploded out of the statue, swirling up into the air before taking the shape of a pony and lurching forward to slam its hooves onto the thin walkway. Luna screamed as the tar fell away to reveal the massive scarlet nightmare beneath and fell over herself trying to run backwards away from it. Daniel stumbled forward, pulling Luna to her hooves, then jumped back just as a giant hoof slammed into the ground in front of him, splashing them both with pitch and blood. The giant pony cackled, its deep voice echoing loudly through the darkened pit and reddened sky, and finished extracting its lower body from the remains of the Nightmare Moon statue.
”WHY ARE YOU RUNNING!?” the pink giant howled, trying to get a good footing on the path. ”YOU’LL MISS THE PARTY!!”
Luna and Daniel bolted down the thin walkway, panting heavily and doing their best to ignore the blood their heavy footfalls splashed onto them. A loud roar cut through the air behind them, but neither dared look back at the platform. They could hear it coming, the thunderous galloping of the once pink pony as it started to chase after them. Crackling booms shook the path as the massive black and red pony struggled to remain balanced on the narrow path that its prey sped away from it on. Suddenly, another loud crack echoed out through the dark, making Luna glance back just in time to see the platform they had started on crumble and fall sideways into the black ocean around them, the block of path just in front of it quickly following suit. Her eyes bulged and she faced forward again, redoubling her speed.
“Run faster, Daniel, the bridge is collapsing!!” she screamed, nudging his shoulder with her snout before rushing ahead of him.
“OH FUCK!! WAIT!! WAIT FOR ME!!” he called, trying to push himself to go faster.
The giant pony let out another roar as it finally seemed to balance itself, quickly starting to gain on the two fleeing prisoners of its dark world, the bridge meanwhile accelerating in its collapse. Luna stretched her neck forward, pressing her muscles to their limits to keep ahead of the pursuing beast, and glanced to her side to see Daniel starting to fall behind. She winced, glancing over her shoulder to see the dark pony bearing down on them and the cracks made by its mighty hooves spreading out ahead of it toward them. The bridge was starting to collapse beneath it, its disintegration spreading faster than it could run. Within seconds, the ground beneath their feet would begin to crumble, and they were no closer to escaping. Luna grit her teeth together and looked forward just in time to notice the upcoming gap.
“JUMP!!” she shouted to her side, not waiting for an answer.
“Wha—SHIT!!” Daniel exclaimed, noticing the gap as well.
They both lowered their heads, leaning forward to give themselves as much speed as they could before reaching the edge, then took to the air, flying across the gap in the bridge and landing with ungracious stumbles on the other side before getting back up to speed. The beast behind them let out a third roar as it leapt from one collapsing land bridge and onto the next, smashing its edge on impact and setting the stretch of rock tumbling into the pit just as it had the last. Luna and Daniel both chanced a look back at it before focusing on the road ahead, each silently cursing the beast for being able to jump. In moments, another gap presented itself, and they leapt across to the other side, losing distance as they stumbles before starting to run again.
The terrain began to change. Sections of the bridge rose above the flat stretch while others dipped below it, all the while maintaining the perfect straightness and squareness of its edges. The two runners had no time to wonder at this though, as every change in the terrain made them lose just a bit of momentum, and every gap made them more fatigued. All the while, the great scarlet monster thudded along behind them, tearing the path beneath its feet to shreds and totally erasing any chance of turning back.
Suddenly, a stretch of straight path came into view. Luna and Daniel leapt toward it, thankful at first, but Daniel lost his balance. Luna quickly offered him a stiff wing, pulling him upright as they continued to run, then folded it back at her side and turned her focus to the path ahead. An earth shattering thud announced to them that the beast had landed on their stretch of path, but this time something was different. Daniel looked back as he ran, looking at the giant, then at the ground, then swore and pushed himself as hard as he could to go faster, patting Luna’s side to indicate she do the same.
“The ground’s weaker here!!” he yelled over the rush of air between them, “It’s already falling apart!!”
Luna glanced back at the path behind them, then snapped her head forward and focused all her remaining energy on running. The cracks in the ground shot out ahead of the dark pony, spreading forward and downward through the bridge and quickly overtaking the two fleeing victims. One last smash from its massive hooves and the entire bridge began to collapse, the ground sloping downward beneath the giant pony as it fell apart. Luna and Daniel stumbled slightly as the cracks suddenly surged outward, making the stone beneath them weak, but recovered and continued running as it began to fall away behind them. The dark pony roared in frustration as it raced to stay ahead of the collapsing ground, already running at an angle as the earth fell away beneath Luna and Daniel’s feet.
The next gap came into view suddenly, but it was not so welcome a sight as the two runners had hoped.
“Oh god, how are we gonna make that??” Daniel shouted, looking around for some alternative to the massive space that separated their stretch of land from the next.
Luna bit her lip, fatigue clouding her mind, and gave one last glance back at the collapsing ground and stumbling nightmare before snapping her head forward and forcing open her wings with a hiss.
“Get on my back!” she ordered, angling her head down for speed.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME??” Daniel screamed, “We’re practically the same size!! How the hell are you gonna—“
“GET YOUR ASS ON MY BACK, DANIEL!!” Luna shrieked, slowing just enough to be at an even pace with him.
Daniel winced at her back, then glanced back at the enraged giant behind them, then threw an arm over her shoulders and leapt into the air, landing with his stomach flattened against Luna’s back. Luna grunted as the extra weight hit her, slowing a little, but forced herself to keep running. ’Please, please, please work!
Time slowed to a crawl as Luna took her final step on the crumbling bridge before pushing off of the ground and raising her stiff wings above her head. The giant pony let out a deep, guttural roar as it tried to mimic the jump and felt the ground beneath it give out, completely losing its support and flying straight into what little of the bridge remained upright. Luna felt the shards of stone pelting her rump as the giant pony crashed through the single block’s width tower that constituted all the remaining bridge. She felt the air swish by her as the giant pony made a last swipe at her as it fell. She felt the strain on her wings as she tried to flap them, just once, to give them the lift they needed to reach the other end of the gap. Daniel looked up from her back, the feeling of gravity suddenly clenching his stomach, and his eyes widened as he saw the edge of the next platform quickly rising above them. Luna struggled to flap her wings, throwing them down once, twice, three times, but to no avail. She clenched her eyes shut, flattening her body vertically, and braced for impact.
Luna slammed into the edge of the other bridge, wheezing as the impact knocked the wind out of her, then yelped as she started to slide backward into the pit. She scrabbled at the ground with her hooves, kicking randomly for a foothold, before slipping backward only to catch herself with her front hooves over the edge. Daniel, on the other hand, was knocked off balance by the landing and tumbled backward off of Luna’s back, only to catch himself by her ankles. He yelped in surprise, looking down at the pit beneath him, then scrambled to dig his feet into the wall to support his lifeline above. Luna came to a stop, just barely holding onto the edge of the new land bridge, but felt her grip starting to wane.
“Daniel!! Daniel, let go of my legs!!”
“WHAT!?”
“I can’t hold—“ she started before slipping some “My tail, grab my tail!!”
Daniel hesitated briefly before letting go of one of her ankles to grab onto the flowing, star filled tail that dangled by his face, than releasing the other. Luna slipped more as his weight shifted, hissing as she felt the strain on the roots of her tail, but managed to dig her hind hooves into a crevice in the stone. She shifted her grip on the stone ledge, bettering her hold on it, and started to pull them up and out of the semi-darkness of the pit’s edge.
Drip drip
Luna paused, opening her eyes. She stared at the ground in front of her, at the two little drops of black, before slowly sucking in a dry and shaky breath and lifting her eyes. Another droplet of black dripped out of the big, black eyes that hovered just in front of Luna’s face, the face around them curled into a sinister and taunting grin. Luna’s breath stopped, the tremors of fatigue in her muscles coming to a halt as the face in front of her slowly registered in her mind. The scarlet coated pony giggled quietly, straightening up, and lifted a hoof ever so slightly off the ground, holding it in front of Luna’s face.
”Need a hoof?” the dark pony asked quietly.
Luna stared up at the hoof that hovered before her, her mind becoming totally blank. After several seconds, her lungs forced themselves to expand, taking in the air she’d deprived them of in her stupor and breaking the hypnotic hold the sudden appearance of the nightmare had had on her. She glanced up at the dark pony’s face, taking in her icy, bemused smile, then down at the hoof again. She gasped as she slipped, almost falling, but held fast to the edge and looked back up at the extended hoof. After several more seconds of debate, Luna shifted her weight onto one hoof and reached out with the other to accept the dark pony’s offer.
”Gotcha.”
Luna blinked. The movement was so fast she didn’t realize what had happened at first. But soon the sting in her left hoof and the pull of gravity spelled out in neon that the dark pony had slapped her occupied hoof out from under her and sent her, and Daniel, tumbling backward into the dark...
