My Little Evangelion
Prologue
The Lost Age
Anyone who knew her would hardly describe Twilight Sparkle as nocturnal. Most assumed that the dutiful and studious young mare would sleep early, and rise early as well. However, Twilight's closer friends knew the lavender unicorn would often spend the late night hours with her nose firmly placed within a book, or otherwise stargazing. Again, few would ascribe the pony as being susceptible to such flights of fancy.
This night however, Twilight found no such enjoyment. One week earlier Twilight had received a letter from Princess Luna, co-regent of the country of Equestria, the contents of which were a great contributing factor to her current anxiety.
I'm finally going to find out what that strange letter was all about Twilight thought, I don't know if I'm relived, or if I should worry even more... Twilight ruthlessly severed that train of thought before it lead her somewhere horrid as it typically did. Ever since her breakdown several months back, which had resulted in her casting a want-it-need-it spell to terrible effect, she had started working on controlling her rather severe control issues. She took pride in making improvements to her mindset, but found herself occasionally slipping into old behaviors best left forgotten.
Moments of great shock were typically the impetus of these episodes, such as the recent visit from her future self, and more recently, the letter she had received from Princess Luna. Twilight thought back on the letter, replaying its contents once more in the hope she could divine the Night Goddess' intentions, however fruitless the endeavor had been before.
“Dearest Twilight Sparkle,
We address this letter to you with the hope that it finds you in good health. Unfortunately, though we wish it was merely a social reason for our correspondence, we must admit that something is greatly troubling us. We wish to meet with you in person to discuss this matter, furthermore, we must request that you do not, under any circumstances without my permission, inform anyone of our meeting. This is doubly so for the other element bearers. If this is too troublesome, than please burn this letter and remove its contents from your mind.
If you do wish to meet with us however, please send us a reply as soon as possible detailing when it would be appropriate to visit, and make arrangements for any guests currently at your place of residence. We cannot stress this enough, our meeting must be a secret! Clandestine, as the “hip” ponies now say. We can allay some concern right now however, this is not a matter of the safety or fate of Equestria, rather something to do with our imprisonment and subsequent absence from society following my cleansing.
Again however, if you find this arrangement disagreeable, please disregard this letter in the manner We have instructed, otherwise We will look forward to future correspondences form you.
Regards,
Princess Luna.”
Twilight had obviously responded almost immediately to the letter when she had received it, singling out an entire day in her carefully laid schedule to make room for the royal visitor. It was now almost three hours past midnight, and Twilight, who had spent the entire day waiting in the main room of the Ponyville Library alone after sending Spike to Rarity's boutique and her pet Owloysius to Fluttershy's cottage, was beginning to wonder if the princess was even going to show up.
I wonder if she's alright? Twilight's worry started to get the better of her, I know we’ve only met a couple of times, but that letter was obviously written by someone under pretty severe stress... This time Twilight couldn't hold the speculation at bay. Maybe whatever it is that's bugging her is making her late, but why wouldn't she just go to Celestia about this then, I mean I'm still learning and Celestia's got at least a thousand years of experience, so I doubt that there's anything I could help with, so logically this is something she wants to keep Celestia in the dark about, but why would she want to keep her sister in the dark about something, could it be that it really does have something to do with the fate of Equestria? Is there some kind of revolt happening that's threatening the crown? Is Nightmare Moon coming back? She did say it had something to do with her banishment... Speculation was consuming her thoughts, her now frantic pacing making her oblivious to the sudden surge of magic in the room as something invisible teleported in.
"Is Discord coming back? Is the revolt trying to harness Discord's power? Is the revolt trying to harness Nightmare Moon's power? IS THE REVOLT TRYING TO HARNESS BOTH OF THEIR POWERS?" Twilight was about to enter panic mode when she bumped into something in the middle of her living room, distracting her from her frenzied thoughts with a start.
“Art thou alone Twilight Sparkle?” A familiar voice sounded.
“Princess... Luna?” Twilight asked.
“Please answer the question Twilight,” the voice said, this time with more force and urgency.
“Alright,” Twilight said, “I sent Spike off to Rarity's for the night, and I've cancelled all my appointments today and told everyone that I had some fairly important business to attend to, so no one's coming, especially since it's now three in the morning,” Twilight finished, accidentally allowing some annoyance into her voice from the lack of sleep.
The formerly invisible figure dispelled the shroud shielding her from sight, revealing the regal form of Princess Luna, her ethereal mane dotted with stars as it flowed in a non existent wind, and her wings neatly tucked at her sides completing the majestic image.
I have to find out what that spell is, Twilight thought as she lowered her head to the ground in deference. Maybe I'll ask her about it later, but right now I need to get to the bottom of this, preferably before my imagination runs away with me again.
“Please, Twilight, refrain from such gross displays of worship, we are friends after all, are we not?” Luna lightly scolded, trying to lighten the mood, and succeeding to a degree.
“Of course Princess,” Twilight answered, bringing her head up from the bow and bringing herself face to face with the kindly smile of the Princess, “you seem to be doing really well actually, your language has improved a lot since the last time I saw you,” Twilight joked, for now taking the Princess' lead in the conversation.
“Why thank you Twilight, and you're right, We've actually been doing much better since Nightmare Night. We suppose that a night devoted to scaring oneself was probably not the most opportune time to reintroduce ourselves to Equestria,” Luna chuckled at herself, teal eyes sparkling with mirth. She took a breath before she resumed speaking. “Also, we bring some fairly big news from Canterlot,” Luna said, taking another deep breath to soothe her nerves. “Celestia has decided that we're ready to return to our duties as a full sovereign of Equestria,” she finally said quickly.
“Whoa, really?!” Twilight exclaimed, that's a shocker, she thought. The shock wore off fairly quickly, replaced with joy showed by a wide smile.
“That's awesome Luna! I'm so happy for you! You must be so excited for this!” Twilight said, practically jumping with happiness for her friend. Was the letter just Luna wanting to get the secret off her chest then? Twilight thought. That actually kinda makes sense, she was probably just worried and didn't want to bug Celestia about it.
“Are you feeling nervous though? Is that what that letter was about?” Twilight asked. She immediately regretted it when she saw the Princess duck her head as the atmosphere changed from friendly and warm to sombre near instantaneously.
So much for stalling... Luna thought bitterly, looking up and locking her gaze with Twilight's dark purple eyes before beginning to speak.
“Though my impending reinstatement as regent is part of the problem, it is not the reason for our visit, or our, er, my distress.” Luna stopped, thinking about her next words very carefully before staring again. “Tell me Twilight Sparkle, both before and after my banishment, have you ever seen the other side of the moon? The “dark side,” as they call it?”
The question caught Twilight off guard. Where did this come from? she thought. “Now that I think about it, no, actually. Before I could always see your seal on the moon, no matter where I was, and now whenever I go stargazing I always see the same craters and valleys in the same places no matter what angle I look at it from, so I guess I've kind of seen the sides, but never the dark side like you said.” Twilight replied after careful thought.
“I can tell you right now Twilight Sparkle, why that is.” Luna said, keeping her voice low as if something was trying to listen in on their conversation. “It is because the moon is bewitched.”
Twilight's brain stalled for a moment when she heard that. “I- I don't think I heard that right Princess, could you repeat it please?”
“It is as I have stated, the moon is bewitched to always have the side we see facing the Earth, as well, the spell that is doing this has been in place for at least four thousand years.”
That sent Twilight's mind reeling, Four thousand years? How is that even possible?! Celestia and Luna are only three thousand years old! It's not possible! “B- But-”
“How is that even possible, is what you're probably thinking, am I correct?”
Twilight nodded dumbly, mentally noting that Luna had completely dropped the formal tone she usually had, signalling that whatever she was telling her was intensely private.
“This is where my banishment comes into the story.” Twilight perked up when she heard this, paying even closer attention then before.
“When Celestia sealed me into the moon, she didn't put me in some cage, or just leave me on the surface, when she used the Elements of Harmony on me I was torn apart. Twilight, I could feel the very atoms of my body being taken apart piece by piece,” Luna stopped and collected herself for a moment before continuing. “It was agony on an unimaginable scale, and when it was over I was the moon Twilight. My physical form was fused with that of the moon, and my soul rested within it as it would with any normal body. Of course, I could do nothing during this, as the Elements had stripped me of my power and sealed it within four stars.”
Twilight remembered that on the night of Nightmare Moon's escape, four stars had aided her. So they weren't normal stars, they were pieces of her...
“By then I had been completely corrupted by Nightmare Moon, but there were times during my thousand year imprisonment where I became... lucid, shall we say, and during those times I could only focus on the unbelievable wrongness of how the moon was. Frozen in it's current position.”
“Pardon me for interrupting,” Twilight said carefully, hoping the Princess wouldn't be too mad that she cut into a fairly emotional story for her. “But I was wondering, how did you not notice this spell before, I-I mean you are the moon goddess...”
“I understand your confusion, Twilight, the nature of this spell was unknown to me as well until my banishment. Until then I had always thought that it was just the way the moon was. Ever since I was unsealed I've been slaving away in the Canterlot archives, trying to figure out who or what, cast that spell.”
The implications of what Luna was describing boggled the mind.
“I-I...” Luna started before trailing off, considering her next words carefully before sighing. “I've clearly taken enough of your time Twilight Sparkle, I should probably take my leave.”
Twilight could easily tell that the Princess was still hiding something. Having had first hand experience with friends who declined help until their problems practically consumed them, she decided to press Luna, however dangerous the maneuver would be.
“Luna, I don't think we're finished talking,” Twilight said, steeling herself for a fight.
“Excuse me?” Luna replied.
“Luna, there's still something bugging you, I can tell, and you don't have to hide it from me okay?”
Luna seemed to be caught off guard for a moment, before she narrowed her eyes and glared at Twilight.
“You presume much Twilight Sparkle. Tis a dangerous thing to do with a goddess.”
“I know, but I'm willing to risk it because I can't stand seeing my friends hurting.”
“This is for your own good; Twilight,” Luna stated with more force.
“I can determine that for myself, Princess.”
“It's a horrific sight, I can't show you without scarring you...”
“Princess, I've seen the effects of Discord's magic, I doubt that there can ever be something more horrifying than that,” Twilight said. “I mean, I don't want to brag, far from it, but I'm the Element of Magic, I've beaten Discord and Nightmare Moon, and I'm Celestia's protege, I think I'm qualified to know these kinds of things, and besides, you wouldn't have come to me if you didn't need someone to talk about this to.”
“Twilight...”
“Luna, I'm your friend and I'm always here for you, okay? It doesn't matter what's going on, that fact isn't going to change, so believe in me like I believe in you, alright?”
“Twilight, don't mistake me, I'm truly glad to have you as a friend, and I confided in you because I truly, deeply trust you and your judgement, but what I saw has the potential to scar you, and I've hurt so many ponies already I can't stand the thought of hurting you as well.”
“Luna, I might not be ready for this, but I couldn't live with myself if I let you suffer through this alone. Besides, if there's one thing I've learned from my time in Ponyville it's that you can never really be prepared for everything that's going to happen, and that when bad stuff does happen it's better to whether it with friends.”
“You make a valid point Twilight, but I'm still not sure if I can do this to you. The sight haunted my nightmares for months, Twilight.” Luna pleaded.
“Then I'll deal with it,” Twilight said resolutely. “This is eating at you Luna, I could see it from that letter, you need to talk to someone about this; and you came to me; so I'm going to do everything in my power to help you. Got it?” Twilight finished, clearly not going to broker a negative response.
“Clearly I have underestimated your persuasive abilities; Twilight,” Luna sighed with a rather grim smile. “One last chance, are you sure you want me to show you?”
“Absolutely, Princess.”
“Very well.”
Luna's horn began to glow with power, first casting what appeared to be a spell for protection underwater, before casting her teleportation spell. Twilight could feel herself starting to fade away, and as the Alicorn Princess' teleportation magic took hold of her she began to feel a pull, that feeling was normal. Everything that followed however, was not. It started with the sudden weightlessness she felt when the teleport ended, and a night sky as far as she could see.
Following that, a vast expanse of red. Everywhere there was red. All around her in every direction the colour spread. It was a vibrant, angry shade that practically glowed with its own fury. Worse, within the oxygen bubble created by Luna's protective spell, the stench of copper assaulted her nostrils, and she could feel her hooves staining with the mud-like substance whenever she took a step. Why would something on the moon be wet? I guess it makes sense considering there's nothing here to take the moisture away, but, what is this stuff anyway? Twilight's brain began putting the pieces together. The red colour. The copper smell. It has to be a coincidence... She tentatively put her hoof to her mouth and licked.
It tasted like blood.
To her left she could see some mountains that were the moon's proper silver colour, meaning that the vast sea of red she was standing in at least had a definable boundary, however small that consolation may have been. Th-this can't be r-right can it? This makes no sense! What the heck is this?! Why would somepony do this?! There's GOT to be a reason, right?! Twilight thought.
A few feet away Princess Luna was watching Twilight's reaction with some apprehension, mentally comparing it to her own reaction when she came to this place just a scant three days after she had been freed. Luna watched the mare look about frantically before she calmed somewhat, gazing with a more steady eye, but Luna could still tell that she was confused, with more than a little fear mixed in as well. She's going to have questions, I should be ready. Consider it princess training Luna, she told herself.
“H-hey, u-um Luna?” Twilight questioned in a quiet, tiny voice as unsteadily walked toward the Princess. “Th-this is just some prank by Discord r-right? I mean he's been around for a while, there's probably stuff he's done that hasn't been found yet, right?”
“I wish I could say that it was Discord's doing, I truly do, but this was made without his chaos magic. Whatever created this and cast this spell, did so without his aid.” Luna replied. It broke her heart to see the fear in the poor mare's eyes as the statement sunk in.
Twilight was grasping at straws now, trying to find a way to explain, or deny what was rapidly becoming a horrifying truth.
“Luna. What is this stuff?”
“It is blood Twilight. we are standing in a bloodstain several kilometers long and wide.”
Twilight felt her stomach revolt and her knees go weak as she realized the truth.
“Take me home Luna.”
“As you wish.”
Luna's horn glowed once more, and immediately after she teleported the two of them back to the Ponyville Library, Twilight vomited on the floor.
“I'm sorry Twilight, I-”
“Don't,” Twilight interjected. “I was asking for it I guess, but now I see why this was troubling you so much.” She closed her eyes and tried to take a deep breath, but could only shiver uncontrollably as the sea of red stretched in front of her eyes one more, as if the image had been burned into her retinas.
“Twilight; if there's anything I can do-”
“Stop,” Twilight interjected, taking a shaky breath before continuing. “I think all I need right now is a very long nap.”
Luna looked on piteously as Twilight blinked and tried badly to suppress another shiver of fear.
“Twilight, I can stay if you wish, I...” Luna trailed off as she quietly waled up to the terrified young mare, giving her an affectionate nuzzle. “I know I needed somepony to comfort me after I returned the first time...”
Twilight paused before nodding and shakily made her way up the Library's stairs to her bedroom, Luna following, and both deathly silent. Both mares tried to make as little noise as possible as they climbed into the purely functional bed, and huddled underneath the violet blanket. Both fell into a restless sleep after some time, Luna's upper right leg protectively splayed across Twilight's body.
For the most part, Luna slept soundly, keeping close to Twilight to give warmth and comfort.
The gesture was useless, however, as Twilight's body violently quaked in fear, her mind a prisoner of itself as it paraded the blood sea before her minds eye over and over again.
The nightmare had begun.
Here we go. First fanfic ever, a veritable cornucopia of wooden dialogue and purple prose, way too ambitious for my writing level, and like all good plot bunnies, it refused to leave me alone until I wrote it.
I won't pretend it's a masterpiece, far from it, so honest critiques and reviews would be much appreciated, as would constructive flames. I'll try to keep up with comments and answer questions as long as the answers don't get too spoiler-y, so ask away.
Just to be clear, this fic will include elements of both the Neon Genesis Evangelion TV series and Rebuild of Evangelion/Evangelion New Theatrical Edition.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and associated characters are owned by Hasbro, DHX media, and Lauren Faust.
Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rebuild of Evangelion/Evangelion New Theatrical Edition and associated characters are owned by Studio GAINAX, Studio Khara, and Hideaki Anno.
