Cold is nothing more than the absence of heat. To say she was cold was to say there was no heat emitting around the vast abyss she found herself in. Not even her shell of body showed trace amounts of warmth. For all she cared, she might as well been frozen solid.
Princess Luna glanced around the unending abyss. It was so black, so colorless and void of life, that she couldn’t tell if her eyes were closed or not. She couldn’t even feel herself blink, nor could she hear her own heartbeat for that matter. Luna thought about bringing a hoof to her chest and check, but all signs of touch and perception had vanished as if she was born without nerves.
She tried to speak out, but there was nothing for her to say. Not that she couldn’t make words, but rather her voice escaped her. The massless waves of sound failed to create themselves, even though she constantly told herself to yell at the top of her lungs. But with no lungs to feel, how could she know they were there?
At last she tried her magic, but there were no leylines to grab on to. She tried to push her mana, to focus it, but she no longer knew how. Where her horn should have been she felt nothing, and as much as she concentrated, she couldn’t get her magic to work.
Luna tried to get a grasp on the situation. Right now she was cursed to be stuck as a conscious, bodiless form. Once she thought about it, just like the physical world, time itself seemed to no longer exist. A single thought could be as instantaneous as the flick of a switch, or it could drag on for eons. She simply didn’t know. She was a ghost, lost in the apparent chasm of limbo.
All she had were her memories. Luna thought back to her latest, and recoiled as they came unto her.
She was in the Samareah Desert of all places, having just heard of an archaeological breakthrough. Being a history fanatic, she had decided to go and check things out herself. It was an unusually hot day, even for a desert. She really should have worn a thicker sunhat and maybe some sunglasses. Luna chuckled; it was probably just Celestia’s petty revenge for skipping out on court duty.
On her lonesome, Luna trotted up to the outer edge of the rediscovered ruins. Numerous pillars reached for the sky, designed to uphold what was no longer there. What could have passed off as a roof millennia ago had collapsed, and its shattered remains littered the desert floor. Elsewhere in the ruins, other architecture carved from stone protruded from the sands wherever they could. In the space kilometers wide, various archaeologists, researchers, laborers, and scholars were already in and around the site, busily excavating and performing whatever their jobs entailed.
Luna walked into the dig site, and immediately noticed a fluctuation in the natural magic of the world. Residual and long ancient leylines hung loosely around her, making the area as frigid as the winter north. Luna glanced back up at the sun, its heat meaningless compared to the stray and cold leylines. She tried to connect to them, curiosity piqued, but for some reason she couldn’t, as if she was denied access. Looking around, the dozens of workers were busy doing their business. A few noticed her arrival and politely bowed, or at least acknowledge her in some way, but for the most part everypony was too preoccupied to notice her presence.
She smiled at the thought of not being drowned with praise. It was truly an annoyance, one that could not simply go away or be ignored, but today it mysteriously was. Luna gave an acknowledging nod to the few who approached her and trotted deeper into the ruins. A group of unicorns were combining their magic into a single teleportation spell, excavating large quantities of sand and likely sending it far away. A few magic theorists were huddled in front of an obelisk, doing their best to examine the untouchable leylines. A copper pegasus flew lazily overhead, barking orders below to a throng of earthy pony laborers.
One such pony was laying on top of a large stone slab, examining the weathered rock beneath him. Luna walked up to the tan-coated stallion. “Sandy Scribe,” she addressed from behind. The pony turned around and blew threw his blue mane out of his eyes.
“Ah, the Princess of the Night has graced us with her presence!” he said with a chuckle. “We’ve been expecting you, your Highness.”
“Please Sandy, we’ve known each other too long for formalities. Of all my little ponies, you should know that I would never miss out on an opportunity such as this,” she replied. “Now tell me, what have you uncovered?”
Sandy turned back to the stone he lay on, and with a duster he delicately brushed its surface. “Personally? Nothing much. I’ve just been documenting these runic symbols.” He pointed to one such marking etched into the stone and continued to brush some more sand away. Completely uncovered, she saw that it appeared to be a bold ‘X’. “Your Highness wouldn’t happen to know anything about this?”
Luna shook her head and began brushing some more sand aside, noticing the stallion had produced some charcoal and a notebook. “Forgive me, but I have not. Is there anything I could be of assistance with?”
He chuckled softly, and with the utensil held in his teeth he began to copy the symbol down. “Eager to work, I see? You do know we’ve got ponies here to do this stuff for you.”
Luna smiled. “It beats paperwork.”
That got another laugh out of the stallion. He was about to continue the conversation when a pegasus dropped down in front of them, kicking up sand as she landed. Luna identified her as the pony who had previously been above them, and the pegasus began shifting her long black mane out of her eyes.
“Ah, her Majesty of the Stars has decided to join us,” she began with a bow. “My name is Ink Ward, and I am the Overseer and head of operations here. How may I be of assistance?”
Luna kept up her smile and politely bowed herself. “I actually hope to offer my own services, Ink Ward. I am quite the enthusiast myself when it comes to history. Perhaps there is something for me to do?”
Ward took a step back in surprise. “Really? Huh. That’s the first time I’ve had a Princess under my wing, so to speak.” She nervously smiled and glanced behind her, deeper into the ruins. “Actually… there is something. We’ve recently come across a predicament in Sector Five-Seven, and maybe your Highness could be of some help there.”
“Augh!” Sandy suddenly groaned. “What’d I mess up on this time, Ward?”
The pegasus couldn’t help but snicker. “Nothing, surprisingly enough. Your maps were spot on as far as accuracy goes. It’s what we found that caught us completely by surprise. A way in, possibly.”
“Way in?” Luna commented.
Ward nodded. “Some found hieroglyphs suggest we’re actually standing atop the roof of an enormous temple. If this were to hold any ground, we would have to find a way inside. Now, I think we might have just found one.”
“This I got to see,” Sandy said with a wicked grin as he stood up.
“I as well,” Luna said simply.
Ward spread her wings and took to a low hover. “Follow me, then. S 5-7 is on the other side of site.”
A gray unicorn had his ear to the sandstone floor for the longest time. A crystal orb of pure amethyst floated beside him, and he would occasionally tap it against the stone surface, channeling mana into and out of the sphere. Unsatisfied, he stood up and let the crystal roll across the surface of the stone. His frown only deepened as it moved about.
“Got anything?” a green pegasus asked, an opened book spread out on the ground in front of him.
“I don’t know,” mused the unicorn. He slowly followed the crystal as it rolled away. “Hey Ellipsis, anything in that book tell you how thick this floor is?”
The pegasus scowled. “I told you before, Props… There is nothing. You are supposed to be the master at architecture; finding any details about this structure is your job! That’s what you have the little magic sphere thingy for.”
“But I’m not the brain, jeez. You’re the smart guy with the book. How about you stop smiling at your stupid flowers and pick the darn lock?”
“You think I’m not trying?” Ellipsis looked insulted. “This thing is nearly impossible! You try deciphering some language as dead as Moonwhinny!” He looked back down at the backwards markings, random sigils, and incomprehensible runes that were etched into the floor. “Heck, I can’t even manipulate the leylines that makes up this thing’s tumblers! This thing is so complex; a unicorn like yourself should be doing this, not a pegasus. All I do is write down every combination in the hopes one is right…”
“Guys, calm down for goodness’ sake!” A tired earth pony screamed in frustration, rolling around on the floor in her state of boredom. “I mean, come on! We all know the easy solution to this problem.”
Props picked up his crystal and Ellipsis looked up from his book, both of them staring at the female pony. Ellipsis quickly trotted over and almost smacked her across the face. “For the hundredth time, Flame Squirt, we are not going to blast our way in! You can’t just blow everything up!”
Her crimson coat now slightly resembled a dark brown from rolling on the dusty surface for so long. “Then why was I told to bring so much dynamite?” she groaned.
“Ask the Overseer, wherever in Tartarus she is.”
“Over there,” Props casually stated, pointing to the other side of the ruins.
The three of them turned towards Ward, who was just barely flying above the ground at a slow pace. Behind him, Sandy Scribe was shifting with his saddlebags, trying to scratch himself beneath the strap that crossed over his back. But trying to do so while walking proved to be impossible, but that didn’t deter him. Props raised an eyebrow at seeing, much to the satisfaction of the tan earth pony, the saddlebags get encased in a midnight blue aura and lift off his back. His second brow rose upon noticing the alicorn who was doing the magical feat.
“Her Lunar Sovereignty!” Props yelped in surprise, immediately bowing. Flame Squirt and Ellipsis quickly realized this and followed suit.
Luna rolled her eyes. So many titles, it seemed like new ones were being made up every day and to no end. “Hello, my little ponies,” she greeted, prompting the three of them to stand back up.
Ward lazily drifted around. “Somepony mind telling the Princess and myself exactly what the current situation is?” she asked, her question coming out as more of a demand.
Ellipsis ruffled his wings and returned to his book, glancing between it, the floor, and the other ponies. “Eh… Remember that lock I told you about? Well, it’s unimaginably complex.” He pointed a hoof at the various markings in the stone to support his claim. “Half of these I haven’t seen before, and the rest are all written in the deadest of languages. Props, however, could help me ease the process if he told me what I’m up against…”
Props took a moment to glare at the pegasus before speaking. “The thing is, I really don’t know, and I do not like the results I’m getting.” He dropped the amethyst sphere and they all watched it roll across the floor until it came to a stop. He trotted over to it and pressed it into the ground with a hoof, before finally picking it back up. A tiny spark registered from within the orb. “Same thing every time,” he sighed.
“Props,” Ward got closer to him. “Tell us what you found.”
“I really don’t think this is a temple,” he said with a nervous chuckle. “No structure in recorded history, no matter how old, has good reason for a roof a kilometer thick.”
Although Luna looked mildly unimpressed, she was just as surprised as the others. Only, she didn’t emphasize it by nearly unhinging her jaw. “What do you suspect this is, then?”
Props kicked at the floor and scowled. “Honestly? My guess is a prehistoric bunker of some sorts; maybe a tomb? I mean, why else create a room so far underground? Part of me thinks that what’s down there is a small, natural cave system, but I can tell it’s too symmetric for that to be a possibility. It’s been manually hollowed out for sure.”
Ellipsis distastefully looked at the jumbled heap of etchings in front of him. “That’s it. My attention span is too short. Squirt! Explosives! Now!”
A maniacal grin spread across the earth pony’s face, but much to her disappointment Ward intervened before she could get anywhere. “Now wait just a minute. We are not blowing a hole straight into this thing. One: we would likely destroy the rest of these ruins and all of their untold history. Two: we don’t want to cause the room to cave in on itself.”
“Do we even know if anything is down there?” Sandy chimed in.
“Not a clue,” Ward quickly deadpanned. “This is still an ancient city, just look around! But the hieroglyphs we deciphered depict something is underground. We just don’t know what. But that’s the adventure, ain’t it?”
An unnerving silence from the six equines quickly followed, all of them glancing around at each other awkwardly. Luna however looked beyond them; at the dozens of workers and researchers milling about in the background, still uncovering the surface of the ruins. Her eyes wandered down at the stone beneath her hooves, and a small smile formed on her face.
“Overseer Ward, I think I see why you brought me over here.” Her words caught the pegasus’ attention and they turned to face each other. “Let me take a look at this ‘lock’. Perchance I might be able to break it.”
Ward grinned and stepped aside, as did the rest of the ponies, although Flame Squirt was still sporting a disappointed frown. Luna trotted up to the patch of stone where Ellipsis had described the lock, and sure enough she picked up on the magical residue straightaway. An unfathomable infinity of leylines reached out of the stone’s markings, and unlike the others all around her, these ones openly offered themselves. Without hesitation Luna’s horn lit up in a shroud of sparkly blue, and she began to curiously manipulate the leylines.
“Oh, yes, this is Moonwhinny,” she ran a hoof across one of the etchings on the ground. “Fortunately, I have long been knowledgeable in this olden language.” Luna continued her concentration, going off of the marking’s instructions by picking away at the leylines until she found the correct strands and connected them. She slowly trotted around the area, keeping her eyes on the symbols.
“Hmmm. It appears as though it’s several wordings lain on top of each other,” she mused aloud, continuing to connect the right leylines with one another.
“These sigils,” she pointed out, “are of a time long forgotten. Before my seat on the throne, even. I haven’t seen these particular ones in centuries.”
With a quick spark of magic, she lit up the runic symbol and its outline began glowing an ominous shade of violet. Luna chuckled, still connecting leylines nonstop. “The mechanism isn’t complex per se. Rather; it’s an astronomically large amount of simpler ones interwoven with each other. Although easy to undo, it would be an extremely time consuming process. Very clever indeed.”
“Gotta be something valuable down there then, right? If it takes so long, whoever built this probably assumed they could stumble across whoever tried to break in.” Flame Squirt commented from the side. “I mean, why else put so much effort into hiding something?”
“Most definitely,” Luna said with a nod. “A single unicorn could spend several years unraveling this, a hundred might be lucky to do so in a few months. If given the time, I could potentially get the job done in two weeks.”
The only unicorn in the vicinity gaped. “Sweet goddess, my benevolent Princess! I know you are more powerful than any other pony in magical capabilities, but those numbers!”
“I move the moon,” Luna shrugged and then mischievously smiled. “It appears as though ‘Tia might be taking care of Equestria by herself for the rest of the month,” she spoke softly to herself. “I’m sure she won’t mind.”
She reached out into the literal wall of leylines and grabbed several hundred loose strands, and began the search for their counterparts.
“Princess Luna, how are things going?” Ward asked, trotting up to the sitting alicorn with a blanket wrapped around her torso. In front of her, Luna felt the reassuring shivers of leyline after leyline connect to each other. Albeit relatively slow, she was progressing at an impressive speed.
“Fair,” she said calmly. “I do believe I can give a time estimate, if you wish to know.”
“Would it be a burden to ask?”
Luna chuckled. “Not at all. I believe there is just less than six million to go. Three more days and I should hopefully have this finicky puzzle solved.”
“Very well,” Ward acknowledged. “I hope you are still finding time for the moon, your Highness.”
“Of course,” she was quick to respond. Her eyes glanced upwards at the heavenly body sitting against her blanket of stars. “Part of being an immortal alicorn is the curse of eternal insomnia. Sister and I have never slept since we were born unto this world.”
Ward looked around the excavation site, the only source of illumination being the Princess’s horn. The night’s campfires were already put out and the workers gone to sleep. Besides Luna, she might have been the only one awake. “Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but are you cold, Princess?”
Luna’s eyes wandered from the sky back down to lock, where she was still busily connecting leylines. “There are no such things as stupid questions, Overseer Ward. There are only stupid ponies, and they are the ones too afraid to ask them.”
Ward smiled. “I thought I asked that you drop my title when we talk?”
The Princess giggled. “I will as soon as you do the same for me.”
“Alright then, Luna,” Ward said while withholding a yawn. “I really should have asked this days ago. Are you cold?”
“No Ink Ward, I am not,” she said nonchalantly. “Again, it comes with being an immortal. I am unaffected by temperature, nor do I necessarily require to breathe. Although proper nourishment is not necessary either, it’s quintessential if I wish to keep my energy supplied. Plus, I like the taste of cake.”
“Interesting tangent,” the pegasus mused. “Then perhaps you’ll humor me with this.” She reached for the sky blue blanket wrapped around her body and slowly undid it. She brought the fabric around and startled Luna as she placed it over her withers. “I guess you could say it’s a psychological thing. The desert is a cold place at night, and seeing a prominent figure such as yourself without warmth is sort of disheartening.”
Luna stopped picking apart the runic lock for only a second, before quietly resuming. She telekinetically reached for the blanket and pulled it in tighter. “Thank you, Ink Ward.”
“Just doing the kind thing, your Highness,” Ward said with a grin, turning back around to return to her tent. “Have a good night.”
“It already is,” Luna whispered, nuzzling the soft material of the blanket. “It already is.”
She looked over her shoulder briefly to watch Ink Ward lazily fly away. Her gaze slowly wandered back to the daunting task in front of her. Although she was succeeding, it was a meticulous process. She had spent the better part of the past ten days picking apart the ancient puzzle, breaks being few and far between. With the exception of tending to the moon, she was only interrupted on three occasions.
The first was a letter by her dear sister, delivered via pegasus messenger. Celestia, although understanding, was not afraid to show her dissatisfaction in having all of Equestria dropped on her back. Apparently ‘Tia already had plans on how she would make up for it, and Luna smiled at the thought. She’d love to see her sibling try.
The second instance was one of a forceful explosion. Apparently Flame Squirt had used a bit more dynamite than necessary to blast open a stubborn blockade of stone. Her plan had backfired horribly when a nearby obelisk was added to the pile. Fortunately nopony was hurt, but it got Luna wondering exactly why explosives were on site anyway. Ink Ward was starting to ask herself why she had hired the pony in the first place.
Lastly, there was a brief windstorm that blew in from the east. The sands it carried reburied parts of the ruins, setting back advancements by a few days. Luna stopped with the leylines to put up a force field to stop things from getting worse, and that took at most two hours.
Luna smiled again, realigning the blanket so it sat cozily over her body and engulfed as much of it as possible. She glanced back up at her work, and although she could not see herself pull at the leylines she could definitely feel it, and this particular strand was bothering her. Try as she might, she couldn’t find where it connected to. It just seemed out of place.
She almost squeaked in surprise when suddenly the mysterious strand was yanked in the opposite direction. She very quickly relinquished her grip on it, and soon after the leyline vaporized itself never to be seen again. Luna gawked at the impossibility, continuing to do so as more and more leylines were ripped from her grasp and met similar fates. Even the ones she hadn’t touched yet were beginning to disintegrate.
Stumbling to her hooves, Luna stepped back and gave a wide berth to the scene unfolding in front of her; or rather, the scene disappearing in front of her. Faster than it would take her to connect two strands even, the leylines were fading away from existence. What she speculated would take her three days to accomplish was quickly happening in minutes, and without her apparent influence.
Luna took more steps back as the sigils and other runic markings lit up like fireworks. The entire color spectrum danced in front of her like the aurora borealis, except this one was jagged and clumsy. She swallowed a lump in her throat as the symbols appeared to manifest into the air, for lack of better word. Shapes that could only be called the symbols themselves drifted aimlessly, vibrating in a kaleidoscopic array of colors.
For some reason she found herself wrapping the blanket around her even tighter, continuing her cautious backtrot. The scene was unparalleled, and in all the times she’s lived, nothing could be used to describe what was happening. For the first time in centuries Luna was starting to feel a sense of dread; she was actually terrified. Just when the thought of running away decided to finally enter her mind, the display had ended. The last leyline was plucked from the lock, and with it the spectacle had died as if it never happened.
There was only a moment’s pause of an eerie, dead silence, before everything went black and she screamed.
Light did not exist wherever she found herself standing. The atmosphere was cold and dry, to the point where it felt as though the air itself was cracking. Luna took in a deep breath, and her lungs were immediately assaulted with dust and grime.
Out of impulse she flared her horn, basking her surroundings in a midnight blue. Luna took immediate notice in the fact she was in a small chamber, not much larger than the average train car. In the center of the room was what she thought was a simple pedestal, with an onyx box perched atop it. She cautiously trotted over the pedestal, and a closer inspection revealed it was carved from the floor.
Looking down, she noticed Ward’s blanket still wrapped around her neck. But that wasn’t what alarmed her. Luna glanced around the room, her midnight aura lighting up the walls and the word etched into them. A single word, repeated again and again, occupied every square meter of space. Not even the ceiling or the floor was spared from the chaotic, jagged, horribly scratched engravings.
“Nightmare,” Luna read. As soon as the word escaped her lips she immediately closed her mouth in surprise. Her voice was no longer the sweet tone her ears had become accustomed to. This new one was like velvet and couth, and it gave weight to massless waves that carried it. It was her tongue that spoke, but it felt as though something else was laid over it, something fowl and tainted.
Luna gulped and turned towards the onyx box in the center of the room. She could clearly see the single black diamond it was carved from, and she could feel the raw magic emanating from within. What sent chills down her spine was that it was unlocked.
“hELLO aGAIN, pRINCESS lUNA,” spoke a long forgotten enemy from deep within her mind.
“Nightmare!” Luna suddenly screamed and then stumbled in shock at the sound of her own voice returning.
The voice inside her head chuckled. “oH, yOU rEMEMBER mE? wELL tHEN, iNTRODUCTIONS sEEM uNNECESSARY nOW, dO tHEY?”
“Where are you?!” Luna yelled, taking a defensive stance in a corner of the room. Her horn lit up and sparked with lightning, preparing to attack given the chance.
Her answer was accompanied with another laugh. “dO yOU nOT rEMEMBER wHERE wE aRE?” Nightmare asked. “eVEN aFTER aLL tHOSE eONS, i wOULD hAVE tHOUGHT yOU sTILL kNEW wHERE yOU iMPRISONED mE.”
Luna bared her teeth. “There is no way this is Alfalfis. That island was lost to the sea tens of thousands of years ago!”
“fUNNY tHING aBOUT bEING tRAPPED iN a bOX: tHERE iS a lOT oF tIME tO bUILD uP a sPELL. wHILE a dESERT wAS nOT mY iNTENDED dESTINATION, nOR dID i wISH tO bRING tHE wHOLE iSLAND wITH mE, iT wAS oNLY a mATTER oF tIME uNTIL i wAS uNCOVERED. nOW lOOK wHERE wE aRE!” Nightmare’s laugh echoed through her head once more. “aLTHOUGH, i nEVER tHOUGHT yOU wOULD bE tHE oNE tO pICK tHE lOCK sET bY yOUR dEAR sISTER.”
Luna flinched. “Celestia had good reason to restrict me from knowing where she disposed of you!” she spat. “One less pony to worry about…”
“aND lOOK wHERE tHAT gOT yOU…”
“No matter!” Luna hissed. “As long as you are in this room you shall not escape! My absence will surely alert the archaeologists, and ‘Tia will be coming to save me and we will eradicate you once again!”
“That’s what you think,” Luna spoke again in that voice that was not hers. “There is always a way out. After all, you, or rather I, just picked the lock. Remember?”
“Hey Props, have you seen Princess Luna?”
The unicorn picked up his crystal ball and looked around for whoever called his name. He quickly snapped to Ward who trotting up from behind. “Isn’t she back in S 5-7 picking the lock?” he asked, mildly confused.
“That’s just the thing,” Ward said with a worried look. “She isn’t. I checked on her last night and she was there, and she still should be for the next couple days.”
“Maybe she’s taking a break?” Props suggested, absentmindedly dropping the crystal back onto the ground. It rolled aimlessly on the stone floor before coming to a stop at the foot of an obelisk. “I mean, she is the Princess. She can do whatever she wants.”
Ward shook her head. “You and I both know the only reason she would stop is to raise the moon. Besides it’s midday right now, in case you haven’t noticed yet.”
“She stopped when half of Sector Four-Two was blown up,” he jabbed. Hearing the insult, Flame Squirt popped her head out from behind a nearby wall with clenched teeth.
“Hey! It’s not my fault we used too much dynamite! You’re the one who told me forty sticks should be enough!”
“Fourteen. I told you fourteen,” Props corrected. “Now thanks to you, instead of two meters of solid rock we had to sort through two days’ worth of rubble!”
“Will you two shut up?!” Ward screamed at them, stopping a hoof in emphasis. “This is serious! Princess Luna is missing!”
Props rolled his eyes and trotted back over the amethyst sphere, kicking it across the ground to where it wedged itself in a pile of sand. “Like I said, she’s probably taking a break. You worry too much, Ward.”
“She wouldn’t just vanish without telling anypony!”
Props sighed. “Well, maybe she told Ellipsis? Besides herself, he’s the only one on site who knows about that kind of stuff.”
As if on cue, the pegasus flew down beside the small gathering and landed unsteadily. His worn book was clamped firmly between his teeth until he unceremoniously spat it out onto the ground. “Ink Ward, we got a problem…”
“Let me guess,” Props sneered in a joking tone. “Princess Luna is missing?”
Ellipsis stared at him blankly. “Well, yes,” he said matter-of-factly, receiving a deadpan look from the unicorn. “But that’s not the big issue here…”
“What’s worse than the Princess disappearing?” Ward interjected.
“That the lock is gone?” he was quick to retort, but was met with expressionless faces for a reply. He reiterated, “By that I mean there are no traces it even existed! All the sigils and markings are completely wiped, and all that’s left is smooth stone. It’s like it was never there to begin with.”
“That’s impossible!” Ward quickly denounced. “Princess Luna told me herself she still had three days left.”
“Don’t believe me?” Ellipsis defended himself while unfolding his wings. “Then let’s get going. I’ll show you…”
“Ink Ward!” a new voice cried out. The Overseer brought a hoof to her temple and sighed as Sandy Scribe came trotting into view. “We got a problem!” The earth pony continued to shout, panting for air as he quickly joined the rest of the ponies.
“What is it now, Sandy? I think we got bigger issues right now,” Ink Ward sighed.
“Doubt it,” he swiftly countered. “Listen, we have to stop Princess Luna from breaking that lock!”
Before anypony could correct or scoff him, Flame Squirt spoke up. “Why’s that?” she asked.
Sandy dropped his saddlebags to the floor and began shifting into them. “I was in Sector Nine decoding some more hieroglyphs and found this,” he answered, pulling out his notebook and opening it for all to see. “I really don’t know how else to explain it: this is Alfalfis.”
“I think this whole situation’s getting to everypony’s head,” Props continued to rag. “There’s no way this is Alfalfis. That island was pulled underwater thousands of years ago. Besides, there are no records to show the place even existed. It’s just a children’s story; something for a mother to read to her foal before bedtime.”
“Except it’s not!” Sandy defended, stopping a hoof on the ground in emphasis. He swiftly started flipping through the notebook for more proof to support his claim.
“How’d the story go again?” Props chuckled, sitting on the ground and playing with the amethyst sphere in his aura of magic. “Ah yes, I remember now. At the end of the Dream Era some millennia ago, Equestria had its first civil war for whatever reason. There was the alicorn diarchy, and they were up against a dangerous new enemy, some sort of spirit known simply as the ‘Nightmare’ and it had the power to ‘control a pony’s mind.’ Apparently Alfalfis was the spirit’s capital city or something, and after decades of moral distress and destruction in Equestria, the Princesses brought the fight to the Nightmare.”
“Yes,” Sandy picked up the conversation. “The Princesses used some new weapon to imprison the Nightmare in the land she corrupted, and together the sisters forcefully submerged the island miles beneath the ocean so she could never escape.”
“Yeah, pretty much that,” Ellipsis added. “Now where are you going with this, Sandy?”
The earth pony pointed to a spot in his notebook, where he had copied down one of the hieroglyphs; a unicorn’s head sticking out of the inner curve of a crescent moon, with an elongated horn and cat-like irises. “I found this marking engraved on an obsidian column, and I know for a fact it’s the same one found on the statue of Eris in the Royal Gardens.”
“Wasn’t Eris the name of the host pony Nightmare was said to have possessed?” Ink Ward commented.
“Yes!” Sandy acknowledged. “But Eris was an earth pony, and Nightmare was said to have left a fourth of Equestria in ruins under her hoof! Imagine what would happen if Nightmare possessed Princess Luna, an alicorn!”
“Again, there is no way this is Alfalfis,” Props denounced, swirling the crystal orb in the air. “How in the world did an entire plot of land miles underwater appear buried beneath mounds of sand in the Samareah desert, thousands of miles inland from where it was rumored to have been submerged? Why are there no historical records of the place? It makes absolutely no-”
The rest of his sentence was lost to a sudden chaos that pierced the air. A thunderous crack that would put lightning to shame had shattered the sand-laden atmosphere, tossing sediments and dust about like a sandstorm. Everypony who was unfortunate enough to be caught in the open instinctively dived to the ground, as their coats were bombarded with stinging maelstrom, and those already in cover did everything they could to shield themselves. After slight hesitation, Props threw up a basic spell to cover himself and his friends, just barely being able to keep it alive under the consistent peppering.
Feeling the abrupt sandstorm at last die down, Props dropped his spell, panting for breath. However, a haze of dust continued to linger in the air, restricting eyesight by no more than several meters. The light of the sun above was able to pierce the veil, and suddenly it was no longer cold. Long forgotten heat suddenly rained down on them from above.
After a moment’s silence, a stunned Ellipsis broke the stupor everypony found themselves in. “Was that an earthquake?” he said dumbly.
“That wasn’t my fault!” Flame Squirt was quick to defend.
“That time it was not,” answered a new voice. The five ponies, still in the process of recomposing themselves, turned towards the sound of the voice. Through the haze of sand that lazily clung to the air a tall and dark silhouette manifested. Cyan eyes, as sharp as the horn that protruded from the stranger’s scalp, pierced through the veil with a fiery intensity.
“Her Deity of the Moon!” Ink Ward sighed in relief, “You’re alright!”
“Not quite,” replied the alicorn. She let loose a shrill laugh as she spread her wings, blowing away the dust and sand around her. Again the ponies covered their eyes from the gust, and turning back towards the alicorn they stared in utter disbelief.
The pony standing before them was not their Princess. Her coat and wings were stained an onyx black, and her dark violet mane flickered like a blanket of stars. The alicorn was clad in an ornate, silver armor that made up a neckpiece and helm. However the Lunar Seal, the distinctive name of Princess Luna’s cutie mark, was embezzled onto the neckwear and also made up her own cutie mark, standing raised against a splotch of violet.
The stranger took a step forward. “Although, I do like that suffix. ‘Nightmare Moon’ has a nice ring to it, do you not agree? It is certainly better than Nightmare Eris.” The apparent Nightmare Moon released another chuckle. She opened her wings, inspecting them with a smile of satisfaction. “Not in my wildest imaginings did I even consider an alicorn as a host being an actual possibility, let alone one of the famed immortals. Earth ponies are such pointless creatures.”
Flame Squirt and Sandy Scribe flinched from their position on the ground, the later resisting the urge to mutter an “I told you so.” Ink Ward, frightened beyond the ability to stand, glared at the bright fabric that the alicorn had refitted into a scarf. She took notice of her dissatisfaction. “Oh, this?” she taunted with a despicable smile, bringing the blanket in tighter against her skin. “A good friend gave this to me. Do you like it?”
The pegasus seethed. “What did you do with our Princess?!” Ink Ward spat at the entity.
“Nothing, really. Your Luna is still there,” she reassured. “I have not done a thing to harm her. Oh no, not a thing. At least, compared to what will happen to her wretched sister, and anypony else who stands in my way!”
Nightmare Moon laughed once more, the waves of her voice tearing the atmosphere apart. Her horn lit up in an anarchic form of cobalt, atomizing a crater into the desert as she teleported away.
Princess Celestia floated down onto a nondescript cloud, taking another opportunity to survey the scene. Thick, black columns of smoke rose from the countless fires burning across Equestria. Half of the nation was in ruin, the rest in a state of emergency, and the being responsible continued to elude and taunt her. Even though it should have been early morning, the moon hung high in Celestia’s sky, eclipsing the sun and casting the world below in eternal shadow.
From her perch she observed the Dream Valley, previously named in honor of those lives lost during the conquest of Nightmare Eris, ablaze with wild fire. She knew the grass would regrow, and new trees could always be planted, but the fire continued to rage. Numerous ponies, despite the constant danger, did their best to combat the flames by whatever means they could.
“Futile attempts, really,” a long despised voice said from behind.
Celestia’s ever-flowing mane, which had previously resembled calm and tranquil waters, quickly changed into the menacing licks of flame. The golden armor wrapped around her torso erupted with unabated magic, shielding herself while simultaneously firing off a bolt of lightning. Nightmare Moon dodged the attack with ease and reappeared in front of the Princess.
“Celestia, do you not know sisters should never fight each other?” Nightmare Moon teased before diving out of the way of another attack.
“You are not my sister, Nightmare!” Celestia cried out before giving chase. The possessed alicorn sped towards the earth below at blinding speeds before pulling out of the steep dive almost at the ground level. Celestia followed, copying the maneuver perfectly. The two sped across the Equestrian landscape, taking shots at each other and dodging every one.
Nightmare Moon suddenly flared her wings, drastically losing airspeed and coming to a near still hover. Celestia overshot and passed right underneath Nightmare’s wing, barely dodging the kick that would have shattered her abdomen, and rolled into a defensive stance on the ground.
“Come on, Princess. Our last encounter was more fun than this!” Nightmare Moon yelled with a manic laugh before charging the alicorn. Celestia’s armor lit up again, the six encrusted stones blinding in light. A physical wall of leylines rose out of the ground, absorbing the spearhead attack and delivering an electrifying one their own. Nightmare Moon yelped in pain before recoiling off the barrier and shooting back into the sky, Celestia once more in pursuit.
“Do you really think that is enough?” Nightmare Moon said, withholding another laugh. “It took both you and your sister to simply imprison me last time. Now, I am your sister!”
Celestia charged, her horn pointed straight and her wings beating at unheard speeds. A cone of white light exploded around her as she went faster than she even thought possible. “You are not my sister!” She cried out again. “You are not Luna!”
Her horn pierced Nightmare Moon’s spine, and the alicorn cried out in anguish. Just as Celestia fired off another spell, Nightmare Moon threw up a force field around the two of them. A chaotic explosion of black and white forced the bubble containing them to expand, almost to the point of bursting. Once the fire inside calmed the magical shield fizzled away, leaving two badly scorched immortals
“Y-You…” Nightmare Moon stuttered, looking directly into the death glare Celestia was bearing. “You just tried destroyed me; your sister and yourself… Why? Did it not cross your mind what your precious subjects would do without a ruler?”
“This is not the Dream Era from eons ago,” Celestia spat. Her enchanted armor gleamed in energy and charged up another spell. “You might have her body, but you are not Luna and you will never be. Our subjects do not need us; Equestria does not need their Princesses to survive. We made sure of that this time!”
Celestia’s wings gave a mighty flap and she rushed her adversary again, horn sparkling in divine light. Nightmare Moon put up another barrier just in time to block the blow, the resulting force throwing both alicorns apart. “If Equestria does not need you, then why are you still around?” she asked dumbfounded by the sudden change in motives. “What stops you from simply ceding the throne?”
“Because Equestria does not need the likes of you,” Celestia heckled. “You live off the negative emotions of others, to the point where you even infiltrate their dreams.”
Nightmare Moon snickered. “You will never be able to stop that.”
“Perhaps not,” she admitted. “But I can stop you from destroying their lives. I will protect my subjects and their land by whatever means, even if it costs the life of their Princess. Luna and I took that oath long ago!”
Celestia attacked again, becoming nothing more than a visible streak of light. Nightmare Moon was prepared for her rapid acceleration this time, dodging the bout and delivering a hoof onto her neck. The Princess shuddered from the blow and dropped out of the sky, barely recovering above the earth. However Nightmare Moon was right behind her and the dark alicorn grabbed Celestia’s midsection at speed, driving her into the earth. Dirt and rock upheaved from the violent force, exploding outwards in every direction.
Nightmare Moon pinned her to the floor of the freshly made crater, a hoof forcing down on the Princess’s neck. “You say you would kill your own sister, just to keep the lives of these worthless ponies?” Nightmare Moon said in mild disbelief. Celestia snorted and tried to free herself from beneath the alicorn’s weight, but she was halted when dark magic encompassed her body, restricting her movement. “But I know immortals cannot be killed, my naïve little Princess. Squirm all you want, you will be imprisoned for millennia to come as I once had. These ponies are scum, and all of Equestria will know of an eternal night.” She cruelly smiled, brushing a hoof through Celestia’s mane. “I think your horn would make an admirable trophy, do you not agree?”
Celestia continued to try and fight, even while trapped under Nightmare Moon’s spell. “You’re right about one thing,” Celestia hissed, confusing the possessed alicorn with her smile. “Immortals cannot be killed. But as I said before, you are not Luna!”
Completely oblivious to what was happening below her, Nightmare Moon glanced at the dented armor around Celestia. The powerful gems inside suddenly pulsated, releasing all their built up magic at once. Nightmare Moon jumped back to try and avoid the spell, but it was too late. A glistening bubble of magic enveloped the possessed alicorn, trapping her.
Nightmare Moon desperately beat at the casing. “What did you do?!” she demanded, trying to cast a teleportation spell but to no use.
“As much as I would love to eradicate you myself, unfortunately I am too weak. So for the time being I’ll just imprison you, again,” Celestia calmly stated, standing back up.
“Ha!” Nightmare Moon scoffed. “I can only be trapped for so long. I escaped before, and I will do so again!”
“Only because I don’t have my friend this time to help,” Celestia said mournfully, taking off the damaged armor. It landed on the ground in a heap, continuing to glow pearly white. “Next time however, I’ll make sure the Elements of Harmony are used properly. That way, you’ll be gone for good.”
The two alicorns were silent for a long while. The silver bubble continued to shine, however the gems in Celestia’s discarded armor started to pulsate wildly and at a vast array of colors. Nightmare Moon stared at the technicolor display. “There’s nowhere in Equestria you can keep me locked away,” she said dryly.
Celestia smiled. “But the moon isn’t on Equestria.”
The possessed alicorn looked up to the solar eclipse, which by now was already starting to pass. “This body is ageless,” she said with a frown. “I will return as Luna once again, and the night will reign supreme.”
“You will never be Luna,” Celestia stated. “Even with your power and influence, my sister is stronger than you can ever hope to be.” As soon as the words left her mouth the light spectrum itself shot out of the Elements of Harmony, piercing into cocoon of magic and enveloping Nightmare Moon. The possessed alicorn was silent as the ribbon of light closed around her and vaporized. The ball of magic stubbornly stayed put however and the Elements continued their glow, and Celestia sorrowfully faced the hardest part of the spell.
Collapsed onto the ground, Princess Luna looked up from within the bubble of magic, her sapphiric coat glistening in the reemerging sun. She gave a cautious prod at the casing before trying to forcefully push at it, but when nothing happened she began to show signs of worry. Celestia slowly approached her confined sister, her head drooped low.
“Luna...” she tried to begin, but the rest of her sentence failed to take shape.
Luna looked up to her sister through the wall of magic that separated them. “Celestia...” she gulped, suppressing a trickle of tears. “I... I-I am so sorry. Everything that I did-”
“You did nothing wrong,” Celestia hushed her. “This was all Nightmare’s doing. If anything, I am also to blame for keeping for keeping the location of Nightmare’s tomb hidden from you.”
“Even under all that sand, I should have recognized Alfalfis,” Luna said with a frown. A chill ran up her spine as a surge of possessed memories tried to enter her mind, but she was somehow able to hold them back. She looked around and saw the Elements of Harmony, charging in a veil of white light. “Can you, uhm, help me out here?” she said weakly, poking at the bubble of magic that contained her.
It took several seconds, but Celestia shook her head. “Forgive me Luna, but when I cast this spell, I had to make sure Nightmare could not escape. There is... There is nothing that can be done to undo it.” As soon as she finished her sentence her fallen armor flickered in light, as if the Elements were confirming any doubts.
The two alicorns went silent, both lost in thought and doing their best to withhold their emotions. Luna wiped her eyes and slowly gazed upwards as sunlight rained down on her. The moon was already out of the way of the sun, and the burning body regained its control of the sky. Celestia glanced up as well, and together they watched a disgusting blemish appear on the lunar surface: the mark of the Nightmare.
Luna uselessly poked at the wall of magic around her. “So, what happens now?”
“I bound Nightmare to the moon,” Celestia said slowly. “For only a thousand years, however. I’ll be sure though the Elements of Harmony are used rightly next time, and we can destroy Nightmare once and for all!”
Luna flinched at her sister’s sudden outburst, taking notice in the miniscule streaks running down her eyes. Behind her, Celestia’s crumpled armor and its infused gemstones lit up in a kaleidoscope of colors. “I’m going to the moon too, aren’t I?” she almost didn’t want to ask.
Celestia didn’t respond, instead opting to stare at the ground between her hooves.
The silence was confirmation enough. “You did the right thing,” she complimented.
“I was thinking too fast,” Celestia denied. “If only I thought things through, then maybe I-”
“You did the right thing,” she interrupted. “I hold no resentment, Celestia. If it helps, I would have done the same if you were in my situation.”
Her sister faintly smiled at the dumb joke, wiping her snout. “You still have two weeks of court duty to make up,” she added.
“Noted,” Luna said with her own smile. “I’ll survive, as you will you, my dearest sister.”
A twinkle of light blue caught Luna’s attention and she looked down at her chest. Beneath her midnight neckpiece, a patch of blue fabric stuck out. Luna slowly pulled Ink Ward’s blanket out and held it to her neck, wrapping it delicately around like a scarf. Looking back up, she swallowed a lump in her throat as the Elements of Harmony exploded into a vast array of colors. A rainbow ribbon of pure light shot out of the crumpled armor and met Luna head on. She didn’t feel a thing as the magic tore her apart, bit by bit, until she disappeared from the world for a thousand years.
Luna was abruptly brought out of her musings by a wave of nausea. The undying abyss surrounding her started to suffocate, almost to the point of claustrophobia, and instinctively Luna gasped for air. Much to her surprise, something soft and fuzzy forced its way into her open mouth, causing her to gag. Shrouded in darkness, her senses began returning in the most unsettling of ways.
After several attempts of trying to spit out whatever entered her mouth, she finally realized it was straw. Greatly confused, Luna twisted around in what must have been a pile of hay for some sense of direction, before unceremoniously falling out and landing face first onto a stone floor. Blinded and dazed, she tried to stand up but quickly toppled back over as another wave of nausea hit her.
“This isn’t the moon,” Luna pondered aloud while running a hoof through what must have been groves in a cobblestone floor, almost jumping at the sound of her own voice. She slowly chewed at the hay already in her maw and sniffed at air, where her nostrils were met with the scent of rusted metal and burning coal. The air was hot and muggy; nothing like the cold, airless atmosphere hypothesized to be on the moon.
Still on the ground, her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light of the room she found herself in, and the first thing she saw was a massive cobblestone forge only meters away. Red light escaped through cracks in its walls, signifying that somepony was here recently. The building itself was built with aging planks of wood, stained black from the soot of the forge. Luna once more tried to stand but her legs refused to comply, confining her to the floor.
The sound of metal clanging against metal barely registered in ears. Beyond the walls of the building she was in, the muffled clinks were occasionally accompanied by some odd sort of yell. Luna slowly glanced across the workshop and saw what she could from the floor. A workbench sat to the left of the forge, with recognizable but terribly crafted tools hanging above it; they were simply too misshapen for a pony to use properly. What lay on the other side of the forge couldn’t be seen, but to her right there was a door. Again, the craftsmanship was disfiguring. Most every door was large enough for two ponies to walk through at once, but this one was too narrow and far too tall.
Nonetheless, she took her surroundings for the message they provided. “Celestia’s spell must have misfired,” she told herself with a faint smile, at last swallowing the wad of hay. “This surely is not the moon.”
The pitter-patter of hoofsteps on hardwood caught Luna’s attention, but something about them made her pause. Even though the sound clearly was not coming from the same room she was in, most likely on the other side of the wall, she could sense some form of unfamiliarity with them. The sound a pony makes when trotting always has the same pattern to it, no matter how fast or slow that pony is moving. But this foreign noise was clearly not following that rhythm, and to her it felt as though the stranger was hoping.
“Hello?” Luna called out, doing her best to stand back up, but her energy was almost completely washed away. “Is anypony there?”
The hoofsteps stopped as the words escaped her lips, and a minute or two passed before they picked back up again, albeit a lot slower. Wood groaned as Luna heard the pony move around, closer to the doorway that led into the room she was in. The handle twisted slightly before the wooden door creaked open into the forge.
Clinking metal resonated in the background as Luna held her breath, not daring enough to so much as gasp at the strange biped that entered the room, or at the bladed weapon held in its paws.
Written by, RazgrizS57
Special Thanks to, TheBrianJ, PropMaster
