Night’s Own Nightmares
By TheLemonTempest
Introduction
Night. The one time she ever felt safe, she had control over it and darkness was a part of who she was. She wrapped and shrouded herself in it when she was scared or upset.
Though right now she didn’t feel safe at all, she felt naked and exposed to all the evil in the world. At this moment the night gave her more anxiety then it did comfort. She still had control over it though, and she could feel all that happened in it, though this did not comfort her. She wasn’t alone...
“Who goes there?” Luna shouted in her most commanding voice, certain that whatever dwelled in her domain wouldn’t remain knowing that she; the Princess of the Night, accompanied them.
No response gave Luna shivers, not a single response, it was as if whoever was there was suddenly gone from existence. Luna began to shake with fear; the night seemed to be enveloping her into nothingness. She commanded the shadow to withdraw, but with no luck. Luna felt a terror she had never experienced before, only now did she finally take notice of her surroundings.
She was in the middle of nowhere, absolutely anywhere. She could see maybe twenty yards, after that, it was fog. The ground was grey and barren, the world around her dead and dry. A cold wind blew around her without making the slightest noise.
Luna began walking, her hooves making clopping noises that seemed loud relative to the dead silence. She saw nothing, nor sensed anything with the darkness around her. She began to feel as if the world around her was shrinking, the night was becoming smaller. Luna turned to see a wall of utter blackness coming towards her, darkness beyond her comprehension.
Luna ran for her life, she didn’t care at the moment what was happening so long as she was away from it. She felt the darkness shrinking, stealing her power, her identity. She ran harder, her legs ached and burned, her lungs filled with dust from the grey Earth beneath her.
The blue Alicorn wheezed and coughed, she felt as though she would die if the walls kept coming. “Wait, walls?” Luna turned to see two walls closing in on her, eating the planet beneath her.
Luna felt the ground leave from beneath her and she was suddenly in free-fall. Her eyes widened as brightness then darkness rushed past her in violent sweeps. Her eyes began to water, she tried to spread her wings but it was as if she was falling through a vacuum.
She fell and fell through the eternal abyss, all of her worst memories flying through her mind, all of her friends and ones she loved were dead. She fell further through the abyss. She heard a roar and saw white, foggy, glowing eyes and white teeth rushing towards her. She felt burning pain through her body and the world around her went black with a burning ache in her gut.
Luna bolted up in her bed with a scream, startling her sister outside on the porch. She was covered in sweat and her blood was pulsing with adrenaline. Her eyes wet and her breathing fast.
Celestia jumped up at the sound of her sister’s scream. She had been writing a letter to her student Twilight Sparkle. Celestia ran in the room to see Luna with her head between her hooves, her breath was shallow and shaky. Celestia knew about Luna’s trouble sleeping, ever since she had been transformed from Nightmare Moon into her beloved sister, she had not slept well.
“Nightmares again?” Celestia said with extreme concern in her voice. She had never been this worried about anything, and it was starting to take its toll on her.
Luna could do nothing but look up at her sister’s concerned eyes. Luna just sat there without a word to speak. Luna’s stress and anxiety over these nightmares had all but killed her spirits, she had tried to be fun and kind to the inhabitants of the city of Canterlot, but every time she did, it always seemed to end badly. Luna closed her eyes and lost herself in memory.
“We cannot believe thee!” Luna said down to the weather pony. She had been asking to help with the weather for several minutes now.
“Well,” the green pegasus began, “You really don’t have any experience or qualification to help control the weather. And, we don’t really except volunteers.” The pink-maned Pegasus was becoming nervous in the Princess of the Night’s presence, and her insistence on helping with the weather didn’t help, Luna continued to persist.
“We am the co-ruler of equestrian and we command thee to allow us to help with why weather work.” Luna commanded.
Luna saw Tropical Storm let down her guard let her stance loosen. Without asking, Luna walked by the pink-pegasus and into the weather control headquarters. She walked up to the cyan-colored pony at the front desk and cleared her throat.
Sprinkle Medley looked up casually. Then looked down at the newspaper she had been reading. She tapped her hoof on the desk firmly. The blue-green pony poked her head out.
“I am volunteering for the weather patrol today.” Luna said confidently. The pony behind the desk fumbled for a pass-card before giving it to Luna. Luna smiled the best she could and waited for more information.
“Fifth door, on the left, down the hall.” Sprinkle Medley responded while pointing a hoof to Luna’s right.
Luna turned and walked down the isle. Leaving the desk-mare alone once again.
“This time, I won’t mess up, I’m going to do my best and for that become friends with the ponies of this Cloudsdale.” Luna thought confidently. As she walked down the hall she counted the doors on her left. One, two, three, four, five. Luna looked at the fifth door with an irrational sense of sudden dread. She walked into the room, relieved to find a locker room, there were spare uniforms handing on the back wall, her sense of dread diminished. She found a uniform for her size, and put it on. She walked out of the office to find ponies lined up at the far end of the hall.
“Alright team, today we have a light rain scheduled for Ponyville and the surrounding areas!” A high pitch voice called. Luna immediatly recognized it as being Rainbow Dash's. Luna quickly made her way down the isle to the crowd.
“Here we go,” Luna said hopefully as she too soured out into the open sky.
Most of the pegasi were already working at moving cloud around over Ponyville. They made very good time and were quite agile from Luna’s standpoint. Luna saw a cloud drifting near her. She grabbed on to it a started to slowly drag it down to the others.
Luna stared down at the clouds beneath her, she could tell them apart by shape but not by name.
“Think of how easy it would be to use magic right now.” A voice from in her head said to her. It wasn’t her thoughts though. She whipped her head around expecting to see somepony else, but nopony was there. The voice repeated itself, over and over again. Becoming louder with each repeat.
“Who is this?!” Luna scream-whispered to herself. Her frame began to list sideways as her wings were unable to get clear signals from her mind. Luna gave in; she summoned magic to cause a light storm around the town.
Shadows began to fall over the town as a large grey cloud took shape, much larger then what she had planned as a “light shower”. It grew larger and larger. The town began to plunge deeper into darkness. Luna panicked, she wasn’t the only one though, the pegasi who had previously been below her was now trying to disperse the forming storm.
“Oh no.” Luna said allowed. The voice that had been tormenting her had gone and her mind was now clear. She looked around her for something she could use. “I’m flying, there are no objects that just float.” Luna found herself pondering her catalog of spells she had stored in her mind. She remembered a “clear weather” spell she had learned from her sister more than a thousand years before. She hadn’t cast since then and she was uncertain of how well it would work.
Luna’s horn began to glow and a bright orb grew around it as she cast the spell. It became more and more charged with magic, humming and pulsing with energy. Luna discharged it and let loose a gust of wind that stunned her as well as everypony else flying in the area. Luna opened her eyes to see that the massive storm cloud was gone. Luna began to rejoice in her act to stop to storm. She then took notice of all that had happened around her.
The sky was empty, not a single cloud could be seen anywhere. The sun beat down on her, as there was no longer any shade from clouds. Ponyville had probably never seen anything like this before, and probably never would.
The rest of the weather ponies were I shock and disbelief, not completely at a loss for words but just purely amazed. Luna saw that what she had done probably hadn’t been “good”.
“Not again, please not again.” Luna hopelessly pled to fate that what had just happened wasn’t real, but it was, and that was that. She discarded her uniform and began to slowly fly back to Canterlot.
Luna opened her eyes again to see her elder sister still there, though she was now lying down beside her, her wing wrapped tightly around Luna. Luna’s eyes had completely lost their deep-teal hue and were now grey and empty. Her mane too had lost its glittering shine and flowing movement since she had returned from being banished to the moon.
“Luna,” Celestia began, “I’m becoming very worried about you; ponies don’t just have nightmares every night for no reason, especially the princess of dreams.” Luna just hung her head and leaned into her sister.
“If you want to continue to be the co-ruler of Equestria we are going to have to find a way to stop these, nightmares of yours.” Celestia stood up and began to walk to the other side of the room towards one of many bookshelves.
Luna finally spoke; “I do want these nightmares to end. But the only spell that has ever seemed to work for these is the one we have forbidden from use.
“But there doesn’t seem to be any other way dear sister. We have tried all we can over these past seven weeks, and from what we have learned, this problem is deep seeded and involved with your time as Nightmare Moon.”
Luna’s mind filled with memories of when she returned as Nightmare Moon. The memories seemed to defy reality, but they were real. Luna’s entire body gave a shake.
“I know you don’t want to do this Luna. But before we do, you have to let me see what it is you are dreaming.” Celestia said to her sister.
“The dream reading spell.” Luna thought. She was very nervous about her sister seeing in her dreams. Also, being the princess of dreams they had no idea of what the effects could be.
Luna’s mind panicked, it was an unreasonable fear, why would she be afraid of some petty spell? Luna kept going on and on in her mind of all the things that could go wrong. What if the spell gave her a mental disorder? What if the dreams somehow transferred into her sister? The question went on and on into many things she dare not consider.
Luna forced herself to make a decision she had been avoiding for weeks. “Fine!! I’ll let you cast the dream reading spell on me!!” Luna cried in self-conflict and anguish, several voice cracks were scattered across her
Celestia nodded and lowered her head, her horn began to give off it’s golden glow. Celestia gently tapped her sister’s forehead with her horn. The world went black and Luna lost awareness.
“So, this is your decision?” A voice called from the darkness. Luna was standing in a grey rock-laden landscape, though, unlike before, it was not flat. The world seemed to bubble upwards around her as she moved, like she was walking in a hamster ball.
Luna felt her magic waning and the darkness around her closing. Though, her sight remained. Through the fog she could see the dark silhouette. Orange eyes and white teeth were it’s only features; its voice sounded like a beehive.
“You choose to fight me? You know you can’t win, I have won this fight before.” Luna’s ears rang on every syllable the creature made. Luna could see the creature when she didn’t look at it directly, though out of the corner of her eye it was still a hazy shadow.
Luna wanted to run, run for her life. Her hooves seemed to be glued to the rocky earth beneath her. Luna panicked, her eyes widened as the creature began to advance on her, bringing with it all the shadow and fog around it. Luna’s hooves finally freed and she burst into a sprint. Her wings flapped trying to find some lift. She couldn’t fly, nor could she run forever. She heard the sound of air rushing behind her. It was the world cascading into an abyss behind her. Holes began opening in the ground around her.
Luna ran and ran. Holes began opening closer to her as there was little room to run. She couldn’t think of anything else other than to run, her ears rang and her mind became hazy. She could feel the creature behind her; somehow, it was keeping up, and gaining on her. She could practically smell its breath over her shoulder; it reeked of blood and mold. It’s eyes shown so bright she could see nearly twice as far as she could before. She dared not look back. She suddenly felt as though she was falling, though not into the abyss, just onto the ground.
Her body lurched forwards and she skidded across the ground. Her coat had been drenched in sweat and the dirt around her was clinging to her coat. She now felt no more movement of her aching limbs.
Luna opened her eyes only to be greeted by a shadow with white teeth, though they were close enough now to notice that they weren’t completely white; they were stained heavily with blood. The, thing’s breath blew hard against her face and nearly caused her to gag. It began moving closer to her, taking small steps, she could see that it had two hooves; its back hooves were all but shrouded. Her stomach did a flip. Luna could only watch as the creature came closer, Luna wanted to move but she couldn’t. He legs seemed immobilized, they stung with burning pain.
The creature suddenly pounced on Luna, burying its teeth deep with her back; Luna felt her rip cage crack and an unimaginable amount of pain course through her entire body. The creature began thrashing her around, she could feel life slipping out of her body. Her vision became red and blurry; she felt blood running across her entire. She felt her wing break and she screamed aloud. Her attacker threw her like a ragdoll, shattering several more bones in her body. Luna lay there as life slipped from her body.
Luna awoke with a yell. She was covered in sweat and her entire body ached. She closed her eyes for several moments, holding back sobs of terror. She opened her eyes slowly. She saw her sister staring and her like she had seen a ghost. Her eyes were bloodshot and wet.
Luna only gave a look of guilt. Celestia walked over too her sister and lie down next to her. She wrapped her wing around her again, embracing her younger sister. Though it likely wouldn’t last forever, it definitely gave her a taste of how much she loved her sister.
Luna could only look at her sister with guilt for letting her witness those things. Luna tried to imagine watching her sister be mauled while she could only watch in horror. She closed her eyes again, trying to think of a time before these nightmares, or better yet, before she was Nightmare Moon.
Through all of her memories there was only one where she could actually recall details. She remembered her sister telling her that someday they would be leaders of Equestria. Celestia they patted her sister on the head and they walked through the ruins of their castle. Luna smiled at the memory for it was one of the few good ones she had.
“You know as well as I that the mind delve spell is forbidden.” Luna responded, disregarding her sister’s previous statement.
“Forbidden, but only without the consent of royalty.”
Luna’s eyes widened; she had been trying to hard to make excuses not to use the spell. Her sister was insistent, she had confronted Luna on this matter many times over the past week. Luna hung her head and reluctantly nodded.
Luna dreaded the idea of going into the strange realm within her mind. But what scared her most was being alone in the dimension.
Celestia lifted her head and Luna nodded in acceptance of her sister’s offer. Celestia held out her hoof. Luna grabbed hold and stood up; they two alicorns began to walk towards to door.
Being royalty they had to keep a professional attitude at nearly all times. They put on straight faces and proceeded out the door. The long marble corridor echoed with each of the hoofsteps. Celestia walked to a royal guard and said to not expect to see them for several hours. The guard asked why but Celestia told him it was confidential.
The two mares walked in complete silence. The corridors stretched on with intersections and archways here and there. They made a turn into the Canterlot Library. They continued down the long hallways, the walls stacked with books. They reached a metal gate that had a sign above it that read “RESTRICTED”. Celestia unlocked the gate with her magic and they walked through. They met yet another gate, tucked away between two dusty bookshelves. The sign above read “FORBIDDEN”. They were about to enter a room with the most dangerous and powerful tomes in Equestria. Celestia unlocked the gate. It made a crunching noise as it opened fallowed by screeching of metal.
Luna began to feel more comfortable, the darkness surrounding her made her feel livelier. Luna finally broke the long silence; “When was the tome last used? And what were its effects?” Luna inquired to her sister. The walls rumbled slightly and books shifted in their places. Celestia brought her hoof to Luna mouth.
“Do not dare speak her unless you are quiet about it.” Celestia whispered. The two mares glanced around the hall nervously, “Nor use any magic, the tomes in this room are reading them selves practically, the slightest use of magic will be absorbed into the scrolls.”
They came across a shelf with less books on it. Celestia blew off the dust on the tomes and grabbed a book of the shelf with her mouth. She beckoned her sister to follow her back.
They reached the gate and Celestia locked it, she dropped the book gently and let out a sigh of relief.
“You could have told me before we ventured into there of what we should and should not do.” Luna rasped.
Celestia picked up the book with her magic and the two continued all the way back to their room without another word. When they arrived, the sun had begun to set. Had they been down their for so long? It felt as though it was no more then twenty minutes, though it had been nearly the entire day.
Luna took a look at the sun setting, in sync with her sister, they moved their part of the sky: Celestia lowered the sun and Luna raised the moon. Luna was filled once more with energy. They sat down on the carpet and opened the book. The first words echoed in her mind:
“Help does not come without punishment from this book.”
Sound in the room seemed to seize once the book was opened. As Celestia flipped through Luna saw spells she never could have imagine. Most were completely incomprehensible to her as they were to Celestia. Many of them had warnings of use.
“Here it is.” Celestia said, she stopped flipping through the pages of the book, the page was labeled “Mind Delve”. There were several sub-categories for things like, fears, obsessions, and addictions. One of them was labeled “Nightmares”. It has two sub-categories; “Recent” and “Deep Seeded”, or at least that’s how it seemed to translate into modern words.
Celestia flipped to the page assigned to it, the book was massive and the pages were unreasonably thin. If not handled with care, the entire book would fall apart if one page were torn out.
Celestia lifted the book and began to read the tome silently. When she was done she carefully closed the book and set it aside. Her sister stood up and asked her if she was ready, Luna nodded. Celestia’s horn began to glow gold, it seemed to warp the area around it like a magnifying glass. Celestia released the spell and a torrent of magicka struck Luna. Luna lost awareness and the room turned to dust.
Night’s Own Nightmares
By TheLemonTempest
Chapter 1
Luna’s eyes opened, she felt as though she had been plunged in and then out of oil, but the feeling quickly subsided. Luna tried to recall what had just happened but with no remembrance to the past few hours. She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind and began to walk to the window. “Evening.” Luna thought contently. She cast her magic and raised the moon into its proper position. She wasn’t sure but she estimated that it should be a crescent moon.
Luna stepped out into the long corridor. He hoofsteps echoed loudly through the entire castle, she stopped and looked around. Nopony stood guard at any door. Luna couldn’t pick up on a single noise other than her heartbeat and breath. “Hello?” Luna called into the dark isle. She heard her voice echo back again and again. It seemed to repeat dozens of times before it was inaudible.
She began to trot down the corridor towards the solarium. It gave her a view of the heavens while keeping her indoors. She rounded the first corner where the solarium was.
“Wh-what?” Luna stared in disbelief, where the solarium had been there was a wall. She looked back at the isle at her surroundings. This was definitely where the solarium was. She walked up to the wall and knocked a hoof at it. It was solid marble. She backed up into the corridor and retraced her steps back to her room. She walked through the door to see the room still there. She quietly stepped around the room, inspecting the shelves and chests for some source of light. She knew that she could see in the dark, but somehow seeing things in the light made them more real, less dream-like.
A small padlock and a key caught her eye. She picked them up and inspected them. She found herself to be more confident when she was using her magic on something. The lock was silver. The key was black and blue and partially transparent. She tried the key in the lock. It sprung open. She pulled out the key and set them down.
Luna’s attention was taken from her new toy when her ears suddenly began ringing. She dropped the lock and key and turned around. Her ears began ringing louder. She heard hoofsteps outside in the corridor. Her ears perked upright and she listened closely. It was difficult to hear anything over the high-pitch ring, but she could still hear the hoofsteps. Luna shook her head and stepped into the darkness.
The high pitch squeal in her ears began to grow in intensity. She couldn’t see much in the dark corridor; she faintly made out the silhouette of a pony slowly walking towards her in the light given off by her horn. “Who goes there?” She called to the stranger. The pony kept on walking towards her.
As the pony came nearer into view she could make out that the figure had the build and posture of a colt, he seemed to be wearing armor. “Guard, explain where everypony is and what is happening.” Luna demanded. The ringing became louder as the pony neared her. She felt that something was very wrong and began to wearily backed away: the ringing in her ears began to quiet as the distance between the two ponies grew. She felt her flank his cool stone, she turned around and saw she was at a dead end.
Her ears suddenly began to ring with rapidly rising volume. She haden't been looking away from the stallion for more then a moment. She turned her head to see the guard running full-gallop towards her. She turned her body to move out of the way. Luna felt a blow to her side, her body knocked up against the marble wall. Her head banged against the hard stone. Luna felt a throbbing pain in her head and her shoulders. She stood up to see the colt standing in front of her; fighting stance.
Luna summoned illumination. The colt was Flash Sentry. He had the orange coat and blue mane. Though it didn’t seem to be him anymore. His eyes were gouged out leaving only bloody black holes. His coat was a faded orange and was covered in grey dust. His mane was streaked with dried blood. Luna stared in terror as he began to advance on her again. The ringing in her ears was so loud, the world seemed to tilt and her vision was doubled. Luna jumped to her hooves and ran past the colt, as she did the ringing in her ears became deafening. She lowered her head and spread her wings to gain more thrust. Her left wing screamed with pain and shot back to her sides.
“My wing! My wing is injured.” Luna though. She began to panic, but she didn’t stop running. The ringing in her ears began to quite until in was a dull hum, but she still didn’t stop. She kept on running, she passed rooms and halls without looking at them. Her legs told her to stop, they began to ache and throb. The ringing had completely gone now and she finally stopped running.
Luna looked around at where she was; she was in the dining hall. The hall was empty except for the light layer of hard dust on everything. A glint of blue and silver caught her eye. She began to lean towards it, the pain in her wing screamed at her and she stopped. She summoned her magic and started to lift the object, no, objects up. It was the key and lock she had found in her room. “How did they get here?” Luna thought in awe.
She set the key and lock down and forced herself to sit straight, she needed to inspect her head and wing. She stood up from her chair and walked out of the kitchen. The medical wing was nearly fifty feet down the isle. She assumed she could make it there without a hitch and began walking down the corridor. Her hooves echoed loudly down the entire hall. Her head and wing throbbed with pain every time she moved them.
She became more and more paranoid the closer she got to her destination. She had started to pick up on that when her ears rang it meant something was trying to hurt her. She couldn’t hear anything except her breathing and hoofsteps. She knew she was safe but that didn’t give her much comfort. She started to trot briskly as she neared the medical wing. She sighed with relief as she walked through the large wooden double-doors. Her ears remained silent.
Luna began to walk down the hallway of the more contemporary part of the palace. She stepped into an examination room and closed the door. The entire room reeked of blood and tasted of dust. Dust flew into the air as the door closed. Luna coughed, she tried to keep it in. Each cough caused her to stretch her wings slightly, eliciting small squeaks of pain with each lung spasm.
She opened the door back open and spread out her good wing. She began to flap, the dust in the room rushed for the door as the strong gusts of air pushed from her good wing. Luna stopped flapping and looked at the room, it was still dust but not as much as before. She walked over to the wall and flicked the light switch, the bulb flashed and the made a breaking noise. She was left in darkness again.
Luna summoned illumination and though back to Flash Sentry, no that wasn’t Flash Sentry anymore. She continued to go ever what to do when she remembered she had magic and she could just summon a light.
She looked at the walls to see blotches of purple. They were wet and smelled like blood. Luna averted her eyes from the disturbing sight. She tried to direct her attention to the mirror hanging on the wall. It was covered in dust and not reflective. Luna once more spread her right wing and lightly flapped the dust away. She sat down and began to inspect her injuries.
Luna spread out her left wing slowly; it burned with pain as she did. Finally it was at full extent. She opened her locked eyes to see it. Some of her feathers were twisted and broken, her wing bent at a downward at the base. It was dislocated it an extremely bad position, luckily though, it wasn’t broken. She turned to face the mirror again to inspect her head. She had a small streak of blood through her hair and eyebrow. She lifted of her crown and spread her mane apart. There was a small gash in the top of her head; her crown must have done this when she hit her head against the wall earlier.
Luna opened each pantry one at a time with her magic. Luna started searching for something to clean her wounds. She found alcohol and gauze and took them out and opened the bottle, she began to dab her cut with the gauze dipped in the alcohol. It stung as she did but she kept at it. She then started wrapping the gauze through her mane and around her head. It was definitely one of the most difficult places to cover with a bandage. She tore the gauze and set it aside. She hadn’t done too badly, but it was good enough for the minority of her wound.
Luna then turned her attention back to her wing, which obviously needed to be snapped back into place. She didn’t know why but she got the feeling that there wasn’t anypony else who would help her or do it for her, for miles.
Luna groaned in anticipation of the pain there would be. Her wing felt like it was being stabbed, she finally made herself do it, reluctantly. Luna summoned her magic and took hold of her wing. Rarely did she touch herself with her magic, it felt strange and plastic. She though back to all the things her sister had taught her when she was young, this being one of them. Luna clenched her eyes shut and willed her magic to move her wing.
Luna felt and heard her wing crack. Luna let out a scream of pain; she buried her face in her mane. It hurt so much. The pain slowly turned into an intense ache. She lifted her head out of her mane and turned her head to look at her wing. It was no longer in its downward angle but straight. She let out a shaky sigh of relief confident that she had relocated it correctly.
“What am I doing here? Why is the world so gloomy? Where is everypony?” Luna asked herself out loud. Her eyes were locked onto the floor, which was splattered with drops of blood, she hoped it wasn’t her own. She lifted her head up and reviewed her wing in the mirror. It was definitely fixed she reassured herself. She continued to scavenge the room of supplies; she found a bottle of water, some energy bars, a saddlebag, several more rolls of gauze she had somehow missed.
When the room had been cleared she stepped back out into the hallway. She took in a deep breath of the fresh air. She began slowly walking back to the dining hall; she was still paranoid and scared but her wing kept her at a moderate pace.
He attention was quickly taken by the sudden sound of a drop of liquid. Luna’s ears shot up and she turned around, the noise was coming from behind her. The noise continued, one drop after another. *Pip* *pip* the noise went on. Luna’s heart began to race as her ears began ringing faintly. Her eyes widened and she braced for the worst.
Nothing happened. She stood there for what felt like five minutes and nothing had changed. She started to become annoyed that nothing was happening. She took a step forward, still nothing. She took another, and another. The ringing didn’t become louder and the dropping stayed the same. After several more steps she turned around and began walking away from the noise, if it wasn’t changing she didn’t see any need to fully investigate it.
She walked down the isle away from the noise and the ringing in her ears began to go away, along with the dripping noise. Luna felt relieved as she rounded the final turn into the dining hall. Everything was how she left it, just the key and lock. She trotted up to the table and placed the key and lock in her saddlebag.
The outside world was nothing but darkness. A thick fog had settled over Canterlot. Luna backed away from the window, how long had she been gone? It must have been slightly more than a half hour. She walked back to the table and sat down.
“This is bizarre, none of this makes sense. Is this some sort of dream? No, if this were a dream I would know after asking myself, this is real.” The though of all of this being “real” gave Luna a sudden shot of fear. “If something really bad happened to me, I wouldn’t be able to wake up from it, this was reality. I’ve narrowly escaped being killed already, who’s to say that something else might happen?” She turned back to look out the window again but was faced with a wall barely two feet away from her.
Luna shot to her hooves. That wasn’t there before. She turned her head back around to look at the other walls around her, but they remained. She turned back around and the wall was literally wrapping itself around her. The mare jumped back with a yelp. She kept her eyes locked on the wall with the occasional glace at the other walls. Her ears began ringing and she made a beeline away from the wall down the hallway to the front of the castle. The ringing in her ears shot from a small hum into a loud screech every few seconds, it was draining her concentration and coordination. The double doors that led outside came into view. Luna dared to look behind her; the wall had begun to slope upwards, in an inverse way. The wall was literally above her and behind her. Luna felt her adrenaline kick in and she took off looking straight at the door.
Luna counted down the distance in her head. “Four, three, two, one.” Luna jumped at the door and threw it open with her magic. She landed on hard ground outside and quickly closed the door. She lay on her side panting. Her injured wing lay limp behind her, as did the rest of her body. The world came back into focus as the ringing in her ears finally died. The ground around her was grey, barren dirt, she could faintly make out the sideway shape of buildings across the road. Luna forced herself to stand up; she positioned herself in an awkward stance. She stared at the ground for a few moments. The violent throbbing pain in her wing turned into a dull stabbing. She lifted her head up and looked across the street.
“I don’t know, I just don’t know.” Luna said to herself. She had no words to say to describe what was happening. Luna looked back at the ground; it was rocky, grey, and dry. Her attention was brought to the road when she heard hoofsteps. Luna’s ears swiveled in the direction of the sound. As soon as she did it was gone.
“Better keep moving.” Luna told herself. “We shouldn’t linger anywhere for too long.” Luna caught herself saying “We”. She only guessed it was from being locked with Nightmare Moon for a thousand years. She cursed at herself for having not yet dropped the habit.
She lifts the lock out of her bag and began fiddling with it. She began locking the key through the loop of the lock and then proceeding to pick the lock with her magic. She felt her anxiety begin to tone down as she did.
The city seemed to resist being seen by her. Everywhere she looked the fog seemed to move to obstruct her sight. Luna stared at the ground for it was all she could see clearly. Luna began pondering what could have caused this to happen to Canterlot. She though of places she could find answers, every thought involved going back to the palace.
Her mind, it was a blank slate. The air smelled of smoke and her wing ached. She needs to leave Canterlot. She begins to trot towards the train station. She knows there will be no train but is the easiest route out of this god-forsaken city. She begins to lose herself in thought.
“Nothing here can be real, can it?” Luna thinks to herself. Her thoughts are interrupted by the ground suddenly turning rough and rocky. She looks down in front of her and sees an abyss. Luna’s eyes widen and she stops walking. It was as if a giant had torn the world into pieces and she was on a fragment.
“But, what, when.” Luna stutters. She turns around, and begins to walk away and think of something else to do.
“Don’t panic about this now, if you panic we will get lost. Find somewhere to rest.” Luna walked back into town and steps into Joe’s Donut Shop. The building is empty, she sits down in the nearest booth and lets her body slump down in a nervous pose. There is no noise, the world is completely silent, and there isn’t any audible sound that Luna can hear.
Luan began to look around her at the shop, the shelves were empty and there is nothing on the counter. She looked out the window at the semi-black darkness.
Luna’s skeps a beat. The sound of an air raid siren began to rise and fall through the city. Luna looks out the window and sees the blackness turning into a dark red, red like blood. She ears began to ring dully again, softly but slowly rising in volume. Luna mind raced and as she tried to create a plan, she knew she needed the hide if the sirens were bad. Her thoughts drew blank, she took her second option witch was to listen to her body. Run.
Luna ran to the back of the store and shoved the back door out of her way. She stepped into an ally. She could see a fire escape above her on the building adjacent to the shop. On her left was a narrow staircase leading to a door at the bottom. Farther to her left she could see the fog becoming thicker and darker, turning from its previous dark haze to a completely red mist. Her senses were overwhelmed, her ears filled with the sirens, her wing burning, her eyes filled with a lack of light, and the air smelled of blood. She ran to the staircase as her last option and with a final look over her shoulder stepped through the door.
Luna coughed and flapped her good wing to blow the dust away.
Luna commanded her horn to summon light. The once smooth cement dark alley had turned into red bricks, caked with mold and ash. She flinched and cowered under the walls presence, its looming enormous presence. It reached up sever meters before being lost in the mist. She looked in front of her at a long brick hall, or alley, since she could see no ceiling she had no way of knowing.
Luna began to walk forward, each hoofsteps sounding resonating for several seconds. The world around her was deafeningly silent. She continued down the, alley. Luna found herself at an intersection, all directions were the same, the only discernable difference was it’s relative position to Luna. Luna’s ears began to ring forcing her into panic mode. She chose the way to the left, the ringing in her ear stayed the same. She continued to gallop, her steps echoing in an infinite rhythm.
The alley stretched on and on, it had many turns and she felt she was going over paths that were no longer there, like taking three rights and never crossing the first path you were on with an intersection. She continued down, occasionally hearing a scream far in the distance. She grew more and more scared with each turn she rounded.
The high pitch ring in her ears grew and her eyes darted anxiously. She began swiveling her head around to search for her pursuer. And there, on her left was a mangled pony, its spine exposed and blood flooding the floor behind it, bone penetrated through the skin over every joint of its body. Its eyes were white and glowed foggily. As soon as she made eye contact with the monster it smiled, revealing lips that were torn back to her ears. Its teeth were razors and were tainted with blood.
Luna spun around and ran the opposite direction; the echoes began to fade as the walls around her closed in, she could now see a ceiling. In front of her she could see a metal door. Luan threw herself against the door, it flew open and she slammed it behind her. She leaned against it, after a moment she heard and felt the banging of hooves on the metal door.
The room she was in was a small box, around 7 feet in diameter. Luna’s mind raced for a plan, she quickly levitated the key and lock out of her bag. She looked at the door; there was a ring on it and another just next to it on the wall. Luna forced the lock onto the two rings and snapped it shut. She slowly backed away from the door making sure it would hold. Luna stepped away from the shaking door, growling and screaming came from the other side.
Luna looked at the walls, there was a ladder above her on the ceiling she leapt up to in and began to climb. She heard metal scraping on rock beneath her. The door had broken. She began to climb faster, the ringing in her ears had been going on for so long that she almost completely tuned it out. Her mind began to ache and burn. Things like raising the moon didn’t bother her because she had cast the spell thousands of times. She hadn’t summoned a basic spell like illumination more then a dozen times in the past millennium. She had never had any need to. And in her panicked state she had used up much of her magic.
Luna reached the top of the ladder into a small plaza. The space was filled with chain-link fences forming a kind of maze; the creature beneath her seemed to be having difficulty climbing the ladder. The smell of rotting flesh hit her nose, she swiveled her head around.
Luna nearly gagged; the wall that the ladder had ended next to was covered with bloody, torn apart, bodies of ponies. Luna quickly turned away and lowered her head, holding back illness from the horror her mind had just absorbed. Luna’s stomach did flips it had never done. She began to run away from the wall and the screeching. Luna suddenly felt more ill than before, ill in the way of feeling hot and cold at the same time. The air around her felt warm but sharp like ice.
She heard a yelp and the sound of the creature behind her squealing, as if it was being tortured to death. The cries quickly ended with a crack. Luna stopped; the world around her suddenly became a large panorama as she felt her eyes dilate. She felt a looming presence behind her.
Luan turned around. The black creature let out a roar, a demonic roar. The creature was radiating a grey smoke, it made Luna cough, her eyes watered. The animal opened it’s mouth to reveal nothing but blood stained teeth, blood poured out of it’s mouth onto the ground, the blood quickly spread into a large puddle that was soon around Luna’s hooves.
Luna desperately wanted to run, but her legs would not move. Luna felt like the darkness around her was crushing her. She had no more comfort in being in the dark, now it only brought her fear of the monsters it seemed to bring. Luna’s legs felt as they were melting and becoming part of the puddle of blood now surrounding her.
Luna’s lungs burned and she tried to scream, nothing came out but a choked gasp. The monster was now within spitting distance and her legs still would not budge, she was going to die, this would be it. Luna began to cry, she squeezed her eyes shut. She began to breath deeply and slowly; time seemed to slow with it. She opened her eyes to be met by teeth. Luna found her legs mobile and turned and ran.
Her blood was pulsing with adrenaline, her legs moved independently on there own now. She soared across the plaza in between the fences, she caught a doorway against a cinder block building in the corner of her vision. Luna made a beeline for the door way and jumped through.
Luna’s eyes caught a glimpse of a wall coming straight for her, Luna spread her wings to stop her before she rammed her head into the wall, her left wing screamed and she lost control in it. Her right wing caught air and turned her sideways, she slammed into the wall.
Pained roared like a river in Luna’s mind her left wing felt like it had daggers embedded in it. Luna collapsed next to the wall, the pain paralyzing her. Luna ears twitched as she heard the sound of sirens rising and falling through the city. She felt the ground beneath her moving, like ants were crawling around on it. The sirens died out and Luna lost consciousness.
