Moonlight Terror

Luna awoke in the ruins of the old castle, her neck felt stiff from sleeping on the hard stone surface. Her eyes were dried out, with red veins surrounding her pupils. Everything that had happened seem to have blurred into one big dream, she still did not know whether to believe what Jack had told her, despite seeing Zecora in her mangled state.

“GAAAH!” Luna jumped up and screamed, seeing Jack again, his coat no longer the lovely soft light green it was, but instead a darker, more rotten green that seemed to be slowly peeling off, leaving more of his skeletal figure visible around his wounds, the flesh still clinging on to what little life it had. His wounds were no longer blood red, but darker, dried up patches of flaky skin. “You are NOT real!” Luna remarked, confident that this was all a part of some sick, twisted dream

“Oh don’t be such a putz Luna.” Jack said, looking rather happy for someone who is un-dead. Luna did not look as surprised as the first time he showed up unexpectedly.

“What do you want?” Luna asked impatiently, wanting to get the conversation over and done with quickly, so she did not have to keep dealing with him.

“I just wanted to see you Luna.” His face was looking cocky, he sounded full of himself.

“You’ve seen me, now go away!” Luna stared into Jack’s eyes, hoping he would leave, but she knew he had something to say and was not going to leave until he had spoken.

“I’m sorry to be upsetting you Luna,” his voice was sincere “but you don’t know what’s going on do you?”

“Actually yeah I do, every full moon I’m going to grow larger in size and start a mass murder spree.” Luna’s voice had a slight hint of sarcasm.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Jack was shocked that she had come to terms with it, not picking up the sarcasm.

“And that I killed Zecora two nights ago.” Luna’s voice became serious.

“Well, actually,” Jack’s voice became mischievous. “She was a victim of the same weremare that got me.” Jack said, looking smug, seeming to get joy from Luna’s distress.

“But the dreams…” Luna mumbled

“Those were passed down with the curse; it’s something that rarely happens. I guess.” Jack explained, happy to help, as he always had been.

“But the hair and the blood…” Luna was confused, trying to take in what he was telling her.

“Oops…” Jack placed a hoof over his mouth, his eyes darting to the sides.

“You’re one sick bastard, you know that right?” She asked rhetorically, she felt so angry with Jack, had the opportunity arisen, she would have killed him herself.

“Honestly I would have thought you knew your moon cycles better than this,” Jack’s voice became patronising, “there hasn’t been a clear full moon since the day I was killed, have I thanked you for that already?” his tone became sarcastic.

Luna felt stupid that she hadn’t remembered it was only a half moon two nights ago. “Go away Jack, and get out of my life!” Luna felt her pride damaged by the trick he played; she took up a defensive pose, lowering her head, ready to pounce.

“What are you gonna do? Kill me some more?” his face had the obvious expression of sarcasm written all over it.

“If you’re not careful!” Luna was growing impatient with his games. “Why was he doing this? I thought he was not happy to be upsetting me!” Luna wanted Jack to answer these questions, but she kept them to herself instead.

Jack’s face suddenly became serious, “Tomorrow is a full moon and the Pegasus are not planning on a cloudy evening. You are going to turn into that same monster that attacked us. You are going to kill innocent ponies, stop being so stubborn and kill yourself Luna, before it’s too late.” Jack remained serious, Luna knew what he wanted her to do, but she could never kill herself, even if she wanted to.

Luna looked down at Jack’s hooves, pieces of flesh and bone were missing. “Are you really dead?” Luna was horrified by the sight of Jack.

“What do you think?” Jack countered Luna’s question with another.

“I think you’re just another part of my imagination. I think I’m going crazy, that this is all part of a bad dream.” Luna shook her head, looking past Jack.

“Celestia damn it! You gotta believe me Luna.” Jack insisted.

“That what?” Luna took a sarcastic tone “Tomorrow under the full moon I’m going to turn into some sort of blood crazed monster and start killing everypony? Bullshit!” Luna could not believe she had just swore, but she was so angry at Jack she did not know what else to say. “Especially after you lied and tricked me into believing I killed Zecora!”

“I never lied to you, I would never lie to you, I just thought you would kill yourself with guilt, so we can all get out of this mess, nopony else getting hurt.” Jack started to reason with her, but Luna was having none of it.

“Nopony else would get hurt? Don’t you think my death wouldn’t upset almost everyone in Equestria, especially had it been through some sort of suicide…” Luna tried to reason back but Jack soon interrupted.

“Wouldn’t you rather them be unhappy over something they will eventually get over, or would you rather they die and become like me. And I’m not having a good time here, just look at me.” Jack came over as aggressive, even though he did not want to.

Jack suddenly became serious again, “You’ve got to take your own life.” He said sternly, with no emotion, hoping that she would eventually listen to reason.

Luna shook her head in disbelief, “I will not accept this, go away!” Luna ordered him, even though she had no power over him as she once had.

Jack rolled his eyes, no longer in the mood to try and convince her that she is a weremare. “Oh just one more thing,” Jack looked sad as he looked to the ground, “Could you bury my body in the Canterlot Castle gardens?” Jack looked up at Luna, with an expression of sadness written all over his face.

Luna nodded humbly, even though she was mad at Jack, she still felt guilty for leaving him on the moors to die. She turned to look at Canterlot Castle, “I’ll do it tonight, so I have the cover of nightfall…” she turned to face Jack, but he had disappeared from sight, Luna looked in all directions to see if she could spot him, but he had gone completely.

Luna started walking to the moors; she needed a good long walk to try and think things through, to come to terms with what just happened. The walk would be long enough to ensure that the darkness of the night would cover the moors, and that she could take the body to the gardens and not be caught.

***

Night had arrived as Luna walked through the moors, recalling everything that had happened on that night, trying to picture a path to Jack’s corpse, if it was even still there.

She saw something in the distance, she was tempted to use her magic to light up and check whatever it was she was looking at was Jack, and the real Jack at that, but she did not want to attract any unnecessary attention so she refrained from using her powers.

She walked up to whatever it was she saw, she saw a hole in the ground, stepping over it. She had recognised this hole as the one she stepped in before Jack was attacked, which means that Jack’s corpse must have been nearby.

She stepped to the left and looked to the floor. Jack’s body laid there, dried up and lifeless. Tears began welling up in Luna’s eyes, remembering what a sweet pony he had been; a lone tear ran down her cheek and landed on Jack’s corpse.

“Surreal isn’t it?” Jack whispered into Luna’s ear, she had not flinched as he spoke, almost expecting him to show up. “How do you think I feel? Seeing myself as a dead corpse?” Jack did not look to be in the same mischievous mood he was in back at the castle ruins. Jack leaned into Luna, “Come here, I have something to show you.” Jack gave an excited smile as Luna began to follow him as he walked backwards.

Luna followed Jack hesitantly, but allowed it to happen. They stopped when they reached another corpse, this time the pony had suffered from a fall of a great distance, her neck was broken and her bones mangled.

Luna looked at the dead Pony in horror, “Recognise her?” Jack asked, still fixated on the body.

“That’s… That’s Derpy!” she always had something a little off about her, even in the few moments they had met during the party after Nightmare Moon had been defeated. Luna fell to the floor crying, “Why did you show me this?!” Luna yelled at Jack, wanting an instant response.

Jack took a second to respond, knowing that Luna wanted an instant answer. “She was the last weremare before you, she was the one who killed me and turned you into the monster you are going to become in less than 24 hours, and there’s only one way to stop it. Kill yourself, just do it before you harm others.”

“Stop telling me this, you sound like a broken record.” Luna had gotten back up, wiping the tears from her eyes. Jack showed off his black teeth as Luna walked past him to gather Jack’s body. “You should count yourself lucky that I decided to bury you in the garden as you wanted.” Luna did not face him as she talked.

Luna tried to hoist Jack’s body on her back, gently balancing it to make sure it did not fall off during flight. Luna spread her wings and flew off into the distance. Jack watched as Luna flew off into the darkness, “Beware the moon at night Luna!” he yelled, as though he was trying to help; he knew she was not listening, even though he was in clear earshot of her.

***

Luna reached the Royal Garden, it was empty, and all the workponies had done their job and had gone home to their families for the night. None of the guards were around; they never were around the gardens unless there was a royal party that occupied them.

Luna used her magic to get a shovel that was carelessly thrown on the ground. Luna gently put Jack’s body onto the floor. Luna began to dig, silently crying to herself, wishing she had never taken that shortcut.

When she felt the grave was big enough, Luna placed him into the grave; she took her time to take the hoof his lifeless head was resting on away. She had only just realised that his eyes were still peeled open; she gently took her hoof and closed his eyes.

Luna then began to cover up the grave, taking one, long last look at Jack, the real Jack. As she finished filling the grave up, she dug up some flowers from a nearby flowerbed, she placed the flowers on top of the grave.

Jack was watching from a distance as Luna did all this, he felt like showing up and saying something, something that would eventually push her over the edge, but he couldn’t. Not after watching that. He began to sob quietly, unable to cry, he let out a series of quiet whimpers.

***

Luna had awoken from her sleep, she felt horrible, the memory of burying one of her closest friends played on her mind. She knew it would stick with her forever; or at least an average ponies’ lifetime to forget.

Luna looked out of the window, “The moon is rising already?!” she was shocked that she had been asleep for so long. A note had been slid underneath Luna’s door. Luna read the note, wondering what it said.

“Dear Princess Luna,

You have been invited to a party that’s being thrown just for the hay of it! Everyone has been invited but it just wouldn’t be the same without you!

See you at the Party,
Pinkie Pie”

Luna considered the invite, although she took what Jack had told her the morning before seriously and decided to be cautious. “I’m sorry Pinkie” Luna whispered to herself, as though somehow Pinkie could hear her.

Luna was getting restless and lonely as everypony from the castle had left to attend Pinkie’s party. Save for a few guards that were hanging around in the guards’ quarters.

Luna had a personal fridge in her room, just in case she got hungry and did not want to go all the way down to the kitchen. She looked in, the fridge filled with small snacks and chocolate bars, “Not hungry” Luna told herself, sounding confused, she had never felt full up without eating this long.

She paced around the room, continually remembering that Jack had told her what was going to happen on this fateful night. She tried reading a book, getting a nap and even attempting to write poetry, but she was filed with energy, she was restless.

Luna walked to the window, the full moon clearly visible in the night sky. “Looks like this was all one big nightmare after all” Luna chuckled to herself.

Luna’s chuckles did not last for long, she hit the floor holing her head tightly. “AAAH IT HURTS, CELESTIA DAMNIT. I’M BURNING UP!” Luna screamed in agony, her body began to sweat uncontrollably. She had never felt pain like this before. She felt every muscle in her body tear, every bone break.

She slowly raised her hooves to her face, they grew in length right before her eyes, it felt as though someone was stretching her skin, it felt like it burnt, her bones cracking and breaking whilst snapping into place at the same time. Her muscles were stretching and tearing. “PLEASE. HEEELP MEEE! PLEAAASE!”

Luna fell onto her back, screaming in agonising pain as her hind legs started to stretch and grow, “PLEASE HELP ME! J… J… JACK!” Luna pleaded from the pain, not knowing who else to scream for. “I d… didn’t mean to call you a b… bastard Jack.”

Luna’s mouth suddenly started to extend from her face, her pupils had shrunk to a small dot. Her teeth began to slowly grow, becoming ever sharper, the nerves inside her teeth twisted and tangled. Her ribs had begun to distort, they snapped off, grew then reattached themselves. Her royal garments had torn off. Her shoes pinged off, smashing the glass mirror.

“AH… AH… AAAAAH!” She let out small screams as she tried to catch her breath. Her horn started growing outwards; tearing the skin it grew from. She closed her eyes tightly, and then opened them, screaming as she does, as a surge of pain came from her wings, her eyes no longer had any colour, but they were completely black, surrounded by a dark yellow glow.

Luna’s screams of pain had become a loud roar as she got up, her wings still growing. Whatever it was Luna turned into, she was not in control of it; she was locked within this monster. Jack was right.

The thing let out a huge roar, it could easily be mistaken for Luna, but it clearly was not anything like the Princess. It took a look outside of the bedroom, its sights locked onto Cloudsdale, it leapt through the window, smashing glass everywhere.

Two guards broke down the room and rushed to the window, “We might have a bit of a problem.” One guard whispered to the other as they both watched the beast fly off to Cloudsdale.