Chapters Nathan lies on the floor bleeding out when he hears a voice calling his name, thinking that it belongs to his wife as he sings to his daughter. When the song ends, he feels relieved that she will be able to explore a world she never knew, happy that she managed to save him. His breathing slows as his eyes slowly flutter closed, hearing Shilo start to weep as he has one final thought before leaving his body behind, 'I wonder what shall become of me when my life ends, I only hope it is a place far better than this one is. '
Moments ago in a different dimension in the universe, somewhere on a peaceful planet called Equis... An unknown spirit's POV
A relatively young spirit watches the events through a crystal when she shakes her head, releasing a sigh thinking, 'What a sad thing for a world to suffer through, so many lives lost because of an epidemic of internal organ failures around the world, crippling it for several years. It would be horrible if something like that happened to our world, perhaps I should take precautions and bring somepony to help prevent that from happening here. Perhaps this Nathan deserves a better life, a second chance may provide just the opportunity he needs to have a better life. ' She looks to her child, the Tree of Harmony, and asks, "What do you think about mommy's idea sweetie?" She then listens to the young crystal tree as it rustles a few branches in reply, then giggles and says, "I do suppose it is a little bit of a risk, though I have every intention to lock that one away within him. However, I shall make preparations to bring him here, I really wish I didn't need to deal with Discord ever again..."
In Discord's realm of chaos, moments later
Discord looks upon Equina with a frown as he taps one hoof on a floating rock with his arms crossed across his chest saying, "It is not a pleasure to see you after so many years, Equina. Pray tell...what has you coming to me?"
Equina looks up at him and then says, "Hello...Discord. I can assure you I am not here by choice, but by necessity. I have been a bit curious about realms outside of our own universe, I have found a few but only one caught my eye with a rather sad history involving a race that lives there called humans." She then begins to tell him about the world she saw.
He listens with a frown on his face as she tells him about a world she has been watching for a while, about how a strange epidemic caused nearly every human life to perish.
She looks at the Draconequus and sees a spark of interest in his eyes and says, "I worry for the fate of the ponies that live on our world. If something like that were to happen here, there would be nopony to stop it and the races on this Planet would perish and become extinct."
As she finishes her tale, he raises a claw to his chin and says, "As much as I would enjoy the chaos that would cause, I don't find death very amusing. I will agree with you that something must be done as a precautionary measure, so what can I do for you?"
Equina sighs and asks, "What I am asking of you is to use your magic, and bring doctor Nathan Wallace's body here so I can return his life and soul to him. I will then ask that he use his knowledge to protect Equestria from whatever caused that horrible epidemic, will you agree to my request?"
Discord thinks on it for a moment, trying to figure out how he can get some entertainment out of this and snaps his fingers, creating a small red box that appears beside him, creating a leg with a hoof that bucks an idea into his head. His eyes roll backward until a lightbulb appears on the back of his eyes, making an audible ding as the bulb lights up. He smiles as his eyes snap forward, holding up a clawed finger saying, "Very well then, I will bring him here...on one condition though."
She sighs and hangs her head slightly, knowing that he would want something out of this request, and asks, "What is the condition Discord?" while fearing what the condition might be.
He claps his paw and claw together once, interlacing his fingers together saying, "Bringing someone's body from another dimension is simple, my condition, is that you have to grant him three wishes."
Equina scowls at him and says in annoyance, "I am not a genie!"
Discord chuckles and says, "I know that you aren't but you are able to do what I am implying. So what will your choice be, Equina?" he then crosses his arms and drums his fingers along his forearms eagerly.
She looks off to the side while considering whether she should agree to his condition or not, then finally says, "Fine then, it's a deal Discord. Now please do it before I change my mind."
He claps with glee and prances in place saying, "Oh goody, goody! Now let's work some magic!" and then rolls his arms up and shakes them back down saying, "Ahh...much better now." and snaps his fingers to bring the body to his realm, only to have nothing happen for a couple of seconds. He then pulls out a magnifying glass and holds it in the air and examines something saying, "Hmmm...how odd." another second passes as he then tosses the magnifying glass away saying, "Oh so that is why it didn't work, let's do it the hard way then..." He then quickly claps his paw and claw together twice, saying, "Clap on!"
Equina watches as a white hole shows up in his dark realm and spits out a body wearing a black, full-body suit made out of a strange material. She looks at the human closely to see that they are a little past their prime with light tan skin, off-green eyes, and greying black hair, shaking her head saying, "I really shouldn't do this but it would be unfortunate if he were to pass away as he guards Equestria against that epidemic...but I shall make him two and a half decades younger." She then casts a spell to temporarily heal the wound in his upper body and remove the aged appearance from his body saying with a sigh, "Now, I will restore the life and soul to his body."
Discord watches as she focuses on her spell, clapping silently while thinking, 'Oh, I'm going to have so much fun watching the chaos this one wreaks on the world. '
Nathan lies on the floor, feeling the pain in his body from where Rotti shot him. His eyes slowly flutter open and look around to see nothing but blackness and sits up slowly saying, "Sh-Shilo, are you here?" He turns his head around to scan his surroundings, but doesn't see her anywhere and calls out to her, "Sh-Shilo, Marni! Are either of you there?!"
Equina sighs and steps forth saying, "I'm sorry, but they are not here."
The doctor's head turns towards the feminine voice and asks, "Wh-Who are you and where am I?" then sees a pure white horse with a horn and a pair of wings, having a wispy, flowing, see-through, silvery mane and a pair of bright blue eyes and adds, "And what are you?"
She stands before him, looking down into his eyes saying, "I am Equina. I am what is known as an alicorn pony, and you are in a pocket-space dimension that belongs to an...aquaintance of mine. Let me clear up some of the confusion for you. I have been watching your world from afar, mister Wallace. You were on the stage, singing your goodbyes to your daughter Shilo when you died from your wounds. The fate your world has suffered makes me fear for those that live in the world I watch over, so I had you brought here, hoping that you would accept my request for you to use your skills and knowledge as a highly-skilled doctor to prevent that same thing from happening here. If you should accept my offer, I am prepared to grant you three requests. However, if you do not favor my request, I can return your body to where it was and allow you to move on to be with your wife."
Nathan slowly pushes himself up into a sitting position and rests on his legs while turning the offer over in his head, finding himself having difficulty in making a decision, he says, "Although I find myself wanting to be reunited with my wife, I honestly have no clue what I should choose..." then places his hands on his thighs to support his upper body.
Equina looks at him curiously and raises an eyebrow saying, "Well, even though they are not here with you in body, do you know what Shilo or Marni would want for you?"
He chuckles lightly as a small smile crosses his face and sighs saying, "I do...they would both want me to use my talent to help others in need."
She then continues to look at him curiously, saying, "What shall your answer be then, mister Wallace?"
Nathan smiles as he thinks fondly of his surviving daughter and his deceased wife, then takes a breath saying, "I shall accept your request."
A happy smile crosses Equina's face as she then brings her eyebrow back down saying, "Thank you, now what shall your three requests be? Do note that you can ask for anything, except to bring the dead back to life, ask for more requests than the three you have been granted, and can not ask for me to make anypony fall for you."
Needing to think about it, he slowly tries to stand up when he feels a sharp pain in his left leg where Luigi cut him and grunts saying, "Before I choose, could you treat my leg and tell me more about this world?"
She shakes her head slowly, saying, "I'm sorry but I will not do that, for it will interfere with my plans. Nor will I take the time to properly inform you about Equis because time is short, so you will have to learn what you can after you arrive. I will, however, tell you some basic information. Magic and sorcery are real, the only real difference between the two is how magic is used. There are four types of ponies, each of them has its own special magic, and every individual pony has their own unique talents. Now please, think of what you want your choices to be and tell me so I can send you on your way."
Nathan raises his right hand to his chin and places the side of his thumb under it, then rests his fingers over his mouth while he thinks it over with himself, 'I wonder what I should ask for... '
Internal discussion between Nathan's dual personalities
Repo appears inside of a dark space, wearing a black PVC leather jacket, a matching apron, and wearing a pair of gloves the same color and material as the jacket. In his right arm, he carries a black PVC leather helmet as he looks around at his surroundings when his other half shows up.
Nathan finds himself in a strange place and looks around the blackness surrounding him wearing a pair of square, black-framed glasses, a black silk vest with a black shirt having light grey speckles underneath it, and a pair of black trousers with a pair of black loafers. He then sees his other half standing in front of him with his black hair slicked back saying, "It is quite strange for us to see each other, don't you think?"
Repo looks at Nathan with a sneer and a dark chuckle saying, "It is indeed, but let's cut right down to the heart of the matter. The first request should be obvious, it would prove quite troublesome for us to guard this world if we were to eventually die in a few brief decades. After all, we will need to study the anatomy of whatever creatures call this planet home if we wish to offer them our services..."
Nathan brings his right hand up to his mouth in thought, pacing slowly as he thinks of a response saying, "That does have strong merit to it, but what to ask for with the other two..." he then pauses his pacing for a moment to look over at Repo and offers his idea saying, "Well, I would suppose that being able to use magic might prove useful."
Repo taps his fingertips on the side of his helmet and grins saying, "As do I, though if there were different classifications of magic, it would benefit our skills greatly to be able to use them all." Just then an idea occurs to him and smirks saying, "As for the last one, we can't perform our duties without our tools to perform the required services."
Nathan smiles and nods saying, "Quite right, though I don't know how we'd carry it all...unless..."
Repo finishes for him with a sinister grin saying, "Unless we would have our bag enhanced with magic to carry everything we would need...and more. "
Back in Discord's realm of chaos
He returns from his inner thoughts and removes his right hand from his chin then places it back on his right thigh, looking over to Equina then up at her face saying, "After thinking it over, I have come to a decision. As for the first request, I ask for immortality."
Equina sighs and asks, "I do not see the wisdom in granting such a request, what is your reasoning behind it?"
Nathan shrugs his shoulders and sighs dejectedly saying, "Well, my reasoning is that it would be disappointing if I were to die in a few decades, leaving your world vulnerable to said epidemic if I was not around. Keeping your world safe from it will be an eternal duty in itself."
She taps her right forehoof on the ground, taking a few moments to think it over before letting out a sighing groan, saying, "I am hesitant to grant that request, however, I do see your point..." She looks off to the side, hoping to find something that would provide evidence against granting it then turns back to him saying, "Very well, although I am hesitant to do this...your first request is granted."
He smiles and says, "As for the second request, I ask for the ability to use all types of magic."
Equina narrows her eyes and says, "I can grant you the magic that can be channeled by two types of ponies with horns, however, I will not let you use the magic that is inherent to some. Such as one's inherent magic enabling them to fly and walk on clouds, there's also the other's bodily strength."
With a brief, swift nod he says, "That is agreeable, it would be rather strange to see a wingless human in the sky, lounging on a cloud like an angel or even having the strength to reduce a mountain to gravel. Now, for the last request, I would ask for my surgical bag to be enhanced to allow it to carry whatever I would need to assist a pony in the event of an emergency. Would it be too difficult to include bringing all the tools and equipment I use as a doctor here, and placing them into the bag?"
She nods her head saying, "I shall grant that request as I find no issue with it, however, I will have to defer to the annoying acquaintance of mine about your tools and equipment." Looking to her left, she calls out, "Discord, come here."
Discord snaps his fingers together and rises up out of the floor in a lounge chair, snacking on some black seeds and saying, "You called for me?"
Nathan turns his head and looks at the strange creature standing a few feet away from the white Alicorn mare as he hears her say, "I did. Is it possible for you to use your powers to bring mister Wallace's tools and equipment from his previous world here, and then place them all into his surgical bag after I enhance it?"
The draconequus smiles and nods his head saying, "It is indeed, all I have to do is snap my fingers."
Equina then blinks and takes a breath saying, "Very well, please bring it all over including his bag so I can enhance it after I fulfill the first two requests." and begins to channel her magic into her horn, turning her head to face Nathan saying, "I shall grant you Immortality now, however, your wounds will heal like a regular pony's. If you receive a mortal wound and start to bleed profusely, you will enter a state of unconsciousness until it is treated and healed."
Discord watches her cast the spell with a smile, then waits a few moments before concentrating on Nathan's belongings and snapping his fingers. He then watches as everything appears off to the side of him, then looks over at Equina saying, "Done, now it's all on you. He then fades away into the darkness to watch how it all plays out.
She walks towards the bag and picks it up with her magic, then empties it onto the floor saying, "Apologies, I need this bag empty to be able to enchant it to have endless space inside."
Nathan watches as she casts the spell, then collects everything and puts it into the bag saying, "There you go, that fulfills your final request. Before I send you into your new world, I shall seal away that darkness in you within an unbreakable cage inside you to ensure the safety of this world's inhabitants. In a few moments, your injury in your upper body will return because I only healed you for a short time. After having said that, everything is ready. Enjoy your new chance at life, Nathan Wallace." then casts a spell to send him away.
Equina then returns to the cave she was in before to watch how his life unfolds, watching through a large crystal as he appears out of a bright portal in midair and lands in the middle of a field covered by deep snow. She then makes herself comfortable on the ground saying to her child, "The plan has been set into motion, let's see how things turn out from here, shall we?"
Somewhere in Equestria
Nathan lies on the ground, with his body face down in snow a foot deep. With a bit of a grunt, he pushes himself up off the ground and looks around to his right, seeing a few trees scattered around. He then turns his head to the left and sees a small glimmer of hope in the form of a few windows with light coming from within, when he feels pain coming from his abdomen that causes him to groan in discomfort. With his lower left leg useless and the bullet still inside, he has no choice but to crawl to the dwellings with the glowing windows and ask for help. He then looks around his body for his bag, finding the handles belonging to it a couple feet away lying on its side. Making his way to it on his hands and knees, he stands it up and zips it closed. As he places the handles on his left forearm, he begins to crawl toward the windows through the cold snow as the wind begins to blow in from his right.
Making his way west toward the dwellings despite the cold temperature and the chill of the wind, snow begins to fall from the sky and blow into the side of his face. He begins to feel the cold very slowly getting to his body when the snowfall becomes heavier, causing him to briefly lose sight of the dwellings.
Meanwhile, inside their cozy home, a middle-aged couple sit around the fireplace as the husband rubs his wife's growing belly with a hoof saying, "Oh I can't wait for our foal to get here, I'm glad we got plenty of wood to last us until the snow is taken away."
The wife then smiles and nuzzles her head into her husband's neck, sighing happily saying, "Me too dear, this is the best Hearth's Warming gift you could have ever gotten me this year." while placing her hoof over her husband's on her belly.
An hour passes by as the happy couple talk about what is to come when three slow, heavy bangs are heard on the outside door. The sound startles the husband and wife as he replies, "I w-wonder what that noise is, should I go check it out?"
The startled wife shivers a little and shakes her head saying, "No, it might be a timber wolf!"
Nathan finds some way to get into a half-sitting, half-kneeling position as he tries knocking again. As a few minutes pass by, the couple inside talk back and forth in hushed tones as he decides to try again. He bangs on the door again and calls out to those inside, weakly saying, "Can you...help me...please? It's...so cold...out here." He fights to remain conscious so he can tell them what needs to be done to fix him.
The husband looks at his loving wife and lays his right hoof on her right cheek and gives her a pleading smile asking, "Did you hear that honey? Monsters and evil beasts don't speak and certainly will never say please in a nice way. Whatever said that must really need our help, what do you say?"
The wife looks between her husband and the door, hearing a heavy thunk against the door which causes her body to jerk while looking at the door warily and saying, "W-W-Well...i-if you s-say so. I don't see any reason why we can't check it out, so go ahead and answer it, but be careful."
He smiles at her and rubs his muzzle against her affectionately saying, "Thank you, dear, that is another thing I love about you." and then kisses her before getting off the loveseat and heading toward the door.
She watches nervously with a smile as her husband stands behind the door, placing his hoof on the handle before applying pressure to the latch and pulling on the door a little. She says, "EEK" as something startles her by suddenly pushing the door up against her husband's body, and continuing to lean against it. She looks at the creature, covered in a strange material, and sniffs the air cautiously to get their smell.
The husband stands his ground against the door, managing to maneuver his head around to look at his wife and sees her smelling the air asking, "Well honey, what is it? What do you smell?"
The wife smells the air a bit longer, trying to determine if the creature is dangerous, and says, "I'm trying to figure that out, I don't recognize the smell coming from it." She is then surprised by the overwhelming metallic smell of fresh blood, and then gasps saying, "There's fresh blood, so I think that makes him dangerous."
He nods his head saying, "Okay then, I will get this door closed." and begins to push the door closed again.
Something doesn't seem quite right to her, so she gets up off the loveseat and heads towards the door saying, "Hold on dear, something is different here. I don't see this creature moving...at all. Let me get a closer look okay?"
The husband feels unsure about it but trusts his wife's sensitive nose saying, "Alright, but be careful, I have no clue what is on the other side of this door."
She walks up to the creature and gasps when she sees a pool of reddish liquid below him and quickly says, "Let go of the door, this creature is hurt! We need to get it inside, now!"
The husband backs away from the door and lets it open all the way, letting the creature lying against it fall to the floor as his wife uses her magic to pull the creature inside and out of the cold so he can close the door.
She carefully drags the creature inside and looks to her husband saying, "Okay dear, you can close the door now."
He closes the door and looks at the creature lying in their home, the light from the fire gives him a good look at what it is. He notices the creature has four limbs, a smooth, shiny furless coat darker than the night sky, and a youthful light tan furless coat with a black mane covering the top of its head. He then looks at his wife as she looks at the creature closely and asks, "What do you think it is honey, and why is it covered in blood?" Many more questions fill his mind but he holds them back, for now, to keep from distracting his wife.
The wife looks at the strange creature's strange coat, spotting a few things that seem to be holding it in place saying, "I think this may be a noble because it is wearing a fancy outfit similar to the ones that upper-class ponies do, let's see if I can figure out how to take it off..." Looking at one of the things holding part of it in place, she smiles saying, "Okay, these things here need to come off first because they are attached to the other. And those are just buckles that hold the main part on." then begins to figure out how to operate the strange devices holding the pieces in place over the upper limbs of the creature. As she discovers how to operate them, she smiles and pulls them off before setting them aside. Moving on to the main part of the outfit, she uses her magic to unfasten the buckles, freeing part of the outfit.
The husband watches as she continues to work on the outfit, managing to undo the buckles and discovering a new type of fastener that snaps together. When he sees her start to use her magic to try to pull off the top piece while holding him up, he steps in and uses his head to help hold him there saying, "Here you go honey, now you won't struggle so much when you try to take it off."
The two work together to pull off the remainder of the outfit, struggling for a little bit to remove the top part of the outfit. Managing to get it off of him, the husband holds the middle part around the outfit's neck in his teeth as his wife lifts the creature bit by bit to pull it out from underneath the body.
After getting the outfit off, the mare sees another outfit under it saying, "I can't believe there is another outfit under that one, that outer layer must have been worn to protect the inside layer." She then inspects the layer and discovers that it is a softer and lighter material, then uses her magic to lift the piece up higher to see where the blood is coming from, saying, "They have a bad wound dear, can you fly over to the castle and ask Star Swirl the Bearded for help while I do what I can to figure out where else they are injured?"
Unwilling to leave his pregnant wife at home with a strange creature, he stands his ground saying, "I will not leave you here alone with that thing in our home, we should move it outside in case it wakes up and wants to attack you. Only then will I go for help."
She shakes her head and looks at her husband with a stubborn look in her eyes saying, "You are overprotective, I understand and adore that about you, but this creature needs help or it will die. With this terrible injury, I highly doubt they can even open their eyes. Just look at how much blood they lost while knocking on our door, it is quite a large amount. If the creature stirs, I will put him outside okay? Just please go and ask for help before it is too late to help this creature."
The husband sees the look in his wife's eyes and sighs in defeat saying, "I know that look you're giving me, it means that you are set on something and whatever I say or do will not change your mind. Alright, just promise me you will protect yourself and our foal if that creature makes a move against you, I will be back in a bit. I love you, honey." He then goes up to his wife and kisses her before heading for the door and leaving the house, then closes it behind him and takes off for the castle to get Star Swirl's help.
The wife takes some pieces of fabric and lays them over the wound before putting a blanket over the creature, not really knowing what else she can do to assist the creature in staying alive and worries for it saying, "Please hurry dear, I do not know how long this creature can stay alive..."
She looks the outfit over again and sighs saying, "At least this is softer than what that piece was made of, it appears that these strips are holding the lower part up but the pieces at the bottom need to come off first."
Act I, Scene II: Decisions
Minutes pass by when he finally arrives at Star Swirl's castle, landing on the ground while the blizzard continues on and then bangs on the door with his forehoof.
Star Swirl is woken from a peaceful slumber when he hears some pony banging on the door and rises from his bed, then makes his way over to answer it saying groggily, "Now whoponyever could that be at this hour?"
When the door finally opens, the husband speaks quickly and says, "I'm sorry for waking you at such an early hour, but a strange creature is in our home and has suffered an injury. My pregnant wife insisted on me coming to get your help, can you please come with me back to me and my wife's home?"
The aged wizard blinks the sleep out of his eyes and asks, "Your pregnant wife is injured? Let's get going, lead the way."
The younger stallion turns around and races towards his home, then looks back at Star Swirl saying, "Thank you so much for agreeing to help us out, but my wife is not the one injured, the creature is."
He hears the stallion clearly this time as his cloak flaps in the breeze while he gallops after the expecting father, his eyebrows rise as he says, "Oh? There's an injured strange creature in your home with your pregnant wife? It's not hostile is it?"
The husband shakes his head and keeps running saying, "Not sure, but we saw how bad it was bleeding and doubted it could even wake up and move around."
Star Swirl follows the galloping pony, curiosity piquing his interest at there being a new creature in Equestria. He follows him for several miles when the storm finally starts to pass, saying, "It was rather dry this year, so I assume that the weather pegasi had to compensate with this nasty blizzard."
The husband chuckles lightly and blushes saying, "Yeah we did, but we didn't mean for there to be snow up past our ears. It will be around until well past Spring."
An hour passes when they finally reach their destination as the husband holds the door open for the hero, saying, "Here you go, sir Star Swirl."
The wife looks at Star Swirl and bows her head to him saying, "Welcome to our humble home, sir Star Swirl." She then looks at her husband as he closes the door and smiles, making her way over to him to nuzzle his neck, saying, "Welcome home honey, thank you for being so swift in your return. The creature still has not woken yet, but I have not been able to stop the bleeding. There seems to be another injury to the back of one of his legs." and looks to their honored guest and asks, "Sir Star Swirl, is there anything you can do for this poor, unfortunate creature?"
Star Swirl walks around the strange creature and takes in its strange appearance, staying silent while looking it over for a few moments before casting a spell to search the body for injuries. After the spell completes, he looks at the couple and sighs gently saying, "I have discovered that this creature is in fact, male, has a severed tendon and a small, circular wound in his abdomen. He is losing blood, but fortunately, there are talented healers at the castle that can heal his wounds. You have done a remarkable job of slowing his bleeding, so I have confidence that he will survive this. I will take him there immediately for treatment, I wish you have a strong and healthy foal this year."
She smiles and rests her head on her husband's shoulder while gazing at the father of her foal saying, "Oh you are so caring to everypony sir Star Swirl, please let us know when the creature wakes up because I doubt he is hostile because he knocked on our door and asked for help, even saying please. I do hope he survives and makes a full recovery, he seems like a nice creature even though his outfit is quite odd." and nuzzles into her husband affectionately.
The wizard nods his head and says, "I will be sure to do that miss, I do believe that he will make a complete recovery. I bid you both goodnight." then casts a spell to teleport both him and the creature to his castle. Once they arrive in the meeting room, he calls out, "Are there any healers here right now?!"
A chartreuse-colored mare gallops down the hall and into the room, breathing heavily saying, "Wh-what's wrong sir Star Swirl, are you injured!?"
He shakes his head and then looks at the creature saying, "No, I'm fine, but this creature is the one that really needs the help. See to it that he gets treated right away before he passes away from blood loss."
She nods her head and hurries off to get other ponies to help treat him, returning a few minutes later with half a dozen mares and stallions. With their assistance, they rush the creature away to the medical ward to start tending to his wounds.
Star Swirl looks around his empty castle and sighs, thinking, 'I hope that poor creature lives through the night, I have so many questions to ask... '
The next morning, in the castle's dining hall...
Star Swirl is about to take a bite out of a bread roll when one of the healers' assistants trots towards him with an exhausted look on her face and hears her say, "Excuse me, Mister Star Swirl, sir?"
He looks at her curiously and responds, "Yes, miss? What is it?"
The assistant smiles lightly and says, "I have good news for you, sir. The creature has made it through the treatment and they removed a piece of metal that was lodged inside of his body, although he is unconscious, he is expected to make a full recovery!"
Star Swirl smiles and sighs with relief saying, "That is very good to hear, when do they expect him to be awake to answer questions?"
She then sighs sadly and says, "I'm sorry sir, they cannot be sure. They say he could wake up at any time such as a few seconds from now to a few days or even weeks. Would you like for one of us to continuously monitor him and notify you the moment he wakes?"
He shakes his head saying, "Hmm...how about you set up a continuous shift, assigning a different assistant to relieve the previous attendant after a set number of hours?"
The assistant smiles widely at the idea inspired by hers and says, "That's a brilliant idea Star Swirl, sir! I will start figuring out the details right away and take the first shift!" then hurries off to come up with a schedule.
A day and a half later, in the medical ward
Nathan groans as he stirs awake, slowly opening his eyes to find himself in a white room and lifts his head, muttering in a low tone, "Where the bloody hell am I?"
When silence continues, he pushes himself up and hisses in pain. Reacting instantly, he reaches up to his chest with his left hand and feels bandages wrapped around his bare torso, looking down to see he is on a hospital cot and grabs the edge of the blanket that is covering him to pull it aside to see the rest of his body.
As an assistant heads inside the room to check on the patient, a smile crosses her face as she sees that he is awake and makes her way over, saying, "It's good to see that you're finally awake! Are you able to understand me?"
Sitting up on the cot, Nathan turns his head to see the strangest creature mentioned only in myths and fantasies while answering, "What?"
Approaching him at a steady walk, making herself appear as friendly as she can, she asks again in a kind tone, "I'm asking if you can understand me, sir."
Realizing that he isn't imagining it, he shakes his head clear of the shock and says, "I can, surprisingly." then asks, "Would you be able to tell me where I am, uhm, miss? You are female, correct?"
A slight giggle escapes her as she nods her head, saying, "I am a mare, yes." then says, "It's great that you figured out how to tell my gender." Returning to his question, she then says, "As for where you are, you are presently at Star Swirl's Castle in the Everfree Forest."
Unable to hide her curiosity, she asks, "Would you mind me asking who and what you are?"
Feeling sore, Nathan feels a cough coming on and raises his arm to cough onto. Once the coughing passes, he sees that he isn't coughing up blood and lowers his arm to support himself, saying, "My name is Nathan Wallace, and I am a human doctor. Would you be so kind as to tell me what you know about this world, my knowledge is quite vague after coming here at the whim of a higher being?"
Nodding her head with a bright smile at how he is a doctor, she says, "Of course! My name is Gentle Touch, I am a Unicorn of the pony race." She then spends a few hours telling him what she knows about the world and their race when she spots another assistant enter the room, turning out to be a Pegasus on second glance.
Hours later, the two assistants fill Nathan in on what they know of the world as he then asks, "You might not have the answers I seek, but could you share with me anything you know about anything that can ail someone outside of obvious wounds such as a broken leg, severed limb, burn or a laceration of any kind."
The pegasus gets what he is getting at and asks, "Oh, you mean the illnesses you can't see without using a spell or other instrument?"
Nathan waves a finger at her with a nod, saying, "Precisely miss, what all can you inform me about?"
The two tell him the few they know of, but are unable to provide anything further when they hear the door open and see Star Swirl the Bearded walk in with a doctor in tow. Bright smiles light their faces up as the first assistant says, "Good news sir Star Swirl, the patient is awake and a human doctor named Nathan Wallace."
As his eyes rise in curiosity, Star Swirl nods his head, saying, "Thank you very much for keeping him company, you two. I have a few things to speak to our new guest about, if you would kindly tend to your other duties."
Nathan watches the two mares make their way out of the room with nods and smiles on their faces as he watches the door close behind them, asking, "So, are you going to be treating me like a prisoner now?"
Chuckling, he shakes his head, saying, "Of course not, sir. I was just wanting to talk to you a bit about how you came to be here. Would you mind sharing your story with me?"
Deciding to answer his questions honestly, he still leaves out some details of his story in regards to his darker, other self. Starting his story out, he says, "Well, I was a very talented surgical doctor several years ago when the epidemic of organ failures hit, nothing I tried worked against it. By the time it was stopped, the human population swiftly went from over 6 billion to just over two million..."
His heart drops into his hooves as his sadness rises at hearing his tale continue, thinking, 'My heart goes out to the ones that went through that nightmare... '
Once Nathan reaches the end of the tale, telling him only enough to inform him he encountered benevolent beings of great power that had graciously offered him a chance at a second life, saying, "And so I thought of what three things I thought would be most useful and requested immortality, because it would be bad if the epidemic came here after I died of old age in a few decades. The next thing I asked for was to be able to use any magic, which she allowed , but not the special magic that some types had like flying or increased physical strength. The third, I asked for all of the equipment I owned and used as a doctor to be brought over, as well as being able to carry everything I would ever need inside my bag. After everything was done, I was sent on my way and dropped to the snow-covered ground amidst a blizzard..."
When the story comes to an end, he looks away in thought for a moment, saying, "It would be best for us all if we utilized your talent as a doctor... What do we need to do to allow you to help us ponies out?"
Thinking quickly, he says, "Well, for one...most importantly, I will need to study and learn everything I can about your equine bodies, meaning your nervous system, blood vessels, muscles, bone structure, internal organs, your blood types, and even how you fly and use magic. Speaking of which, I will also need to be taught about magic and how to use it."
Realizing the monumental task ahead of him, he nods and then says, "Very well, your studies in equine biology shall begin once you are healthy enough to care for yourself, once I am satisfied with your progress, we shall move on to your magic studies."
Smiling, he says, "I will not be a disappointment, I promise. For I must also further my knowledge in the medical profession."
Time passage
As Nathan makes a full recovery, he is given a room in Star Swirl's castle and studies the bodies donated to serve as research specimens to further Equestria's knowledge of their own biology at Star Swirl's request. It takes him only a year to memorize the makeup of the Equine race's three types and please his mentor, but it takes him twice that long in his magic studies to gain his approval. He then goes on to study in the medical profession, however, he is greatly disappointed by how infantile it is in development.
With no other options left, he learns Alchemy and sets out to explore the world, learning about various plants and animals for a few years until war breaks out between the ponies and the griffons. Utilizing what he discovered so far, Nathan makes a big impact as both a front line medic and a surgeon at a temporary hospital for the wounded, with a patient survival rate of two out of ten dying from their injuries.
However, as the griffons strike at the hospital numerous times, his other side comes out a bit and defends the hospital with a sinister look of glee on his face as he uses his special scalpels to slice up the griffons. His methods of defending the hospital earns him a new nickname, 'Knife Surgeon' which his gleeful laugh soon strikes terror into the griffons foolish enough to come near the hospital. By the end of the war, his rate plummets to nearly 0, earning him the Equestrian Medal of Valor for going above and beyond what is asked of his station.
Unfortunately, beyond his knowledge, all the blood, gore, and agonized screams cause heavy damage to a few of the bars of the cage imprisoning his other half, which makes Equina sweat nervously while fighting harder to keep the monster locked away and repairing the cage, praying that it will hold.
When his mentor asks him to return from his studies abroad to help a mare with a difficult pregnancy, Nathan provides what treatment he can throughout her remaining pregnancy. To his and the world's utter surprise, the foal is born as a nearly white mare with a multi-colored mane and tail, as well as having wings and a horn.
With the mare being unable to hold her filly for very long, she names her Celestia and passes her to Nathan before passing out from exhaustion and dehydration.
Sticking around to help the single young mare with her alicorn filly, six years pass as she winds up with foal again from the stallion that fathered Celestia while Nathan takes care of the quite frail dark blue pegasus mare with yellow eyes. The second pregnancy takes a great toll on her as she barely has the strength left to deliver her second filly when Nathan holds the cleaned filly towards her, swaddled in a pink blanket as he asks, "What do you wish to name her, Gally?"
Too weak to hold her own filly, she lies on the bed panting, saying, "I would hold her, but I don't have the strength left in me to do so, Nathan." Gathering what strength she has left, she turns to look at her caretaker with a weak smile, then looks at her filly to see a beautiful filly sharing her coat color. Cooing at how beautiful she is, she reaches forward with her muzzle to nuzzle her daughter affectionately so that she can imprint on her. When her filly opens her eyes to look at her, she sees the most beautiful light blue eyes that melt her heart, saying, "Oh my beautiful little filly, I think that I shall call you Luna." Exhaustion starts to try to pull her into slumber when she turns to her other daughter, saying, "Come say hello to your baby sister, Cece."
Celestia walks forth with a happy smile on her face and nuzzles her face against her sister's when the blanket comes loose to reveal that she is just a unicorn, making her cock her head at the sight and asking, "Why isn't she like me, mommy?"
With a smile, she chuckles weakly, saying, "Every pony is special in their own way, sweetheart, no creature is any more important than another regardless of what individuals may think. I am quite tired now, so can you stay with my caretaker until I can return home?"
Nodding her head with a smile, she nuzzles her mother affectionately as Nathan helps the foal learn to breastfeed, causing her to look away and make her way out to the hall, saying, "Could you not do that with me in the room, yuck."
Unable to help himself, Nathan chuckles and says, "You did this too after you were first born, Cece, it's a natural part of life that even you will do one day when you find someone special and have your own foal."
Trying not to hear him as an embarrassed blush colors her cheeks, she uses her wings and hooves to cover her ears, saying, "I can't hear you! LALALALALALA!"
It takes a few weeks for the mother to be well enough to return home, though she is never able to hold her filly for very long as her body grew weaker after her second pregnancy. Eventually, she has no choice but to relocate to the hospital and sell her home five years later as her strength further wanes, looking at her caretaker happily, saying, "Please take good care of my daughters for me, will you Nathan, and raise them as your own?"
More cracks appear in a few of the already damaged bars of the cage, greatly worrying Equina as she says, "No no no... please don't break, please don't break..." When the cracking stops, she sighs in relief, saying, "Thank god that the cage continues to hold, but I should try to repair it even further."
A few years pass as Celestia continues her studies under Star Swirl's tutoring when Luna begins her own studies with Star Swirl, with Equina making unseen repairs to the cage bars. The repairs to the bars slows to a crawl as they start to resist further treatment, causing Equina to wonder what else she can do to fix the issue.
When Celestia turns 16 and enters her rebellious phase, she lies on Nathan's exam table as he uses his fingers and magic to study and examine her body. With the season upon her, a soft moan escapes her mouth when his fingertips run along the underside of her wings near the base, saying, "Careful there, doctor, for you know that a mare's wings are extremely sensitive to touch during the spring estrus season."
Brought out of his thoughts and back to reality, he pushes his glasses back up, saying, "Hmm? Oh, right...apologies. You know how I lose myself whenever I study how your body works, which is quite fascinating really, because I have determined that your wings have magical channels running through them, though not as many compared to your horn."
The season passes as she makes romantic advances towards her guardian as her relationship with her sister slowly gets more distant, acting like Nathan is her father and always being around him during the off hours of her studies. Eventually managing to get some time alone with him, she has her first time with him after learning that he is immortal just like her. When she wakes up one morning weeks later to run to the bathroom to throw up, she fears she might be pregnant and races to get examined. It turns out that she is not pregnant at all, though is only sick with the flu. Greatly relieved to hear the news, she starts to think things through and decides it best to end her relationship with him.
End of time passage
As things get a little colder between the two sisters, things come to a head as Luna turns sixteen and runs to her guardian's side, hugging his waist while sobbing, "Father, Cece has just said that I wasn't like her at all and never will be that special!"
Nathan wraps his arms around the filly so precious to him and caresses the back of her head soothingly, saying, "Now now, Lulu don't you fret." Then pushes her head back a little and places his hand against her cheek, continuing, "For you are always special in my eyes, you are my most precious treasure. There is nothing that your sister can do that you can't, you are equal to her in every magical way."
Sighing at hearing that, she looks back at the sides of her body, then looks back up to him with a pout on her face, saying, "Yes there is...she can fly while I can't."
His heart breaks at her being so upset and pulls her close, saying, "That can't be helped, sweetie, so you will have to make up for what you lack with your magical studies."
Huffing and getting a desperate look on her face, she says, "There is only so much magical power that I can wield as a unicorn, isn't there something that you can do about that, dad?"
One of the bars breaks free and falls away from the cage inside Nathan, greatly alarming Equina as she tries in vain to put it back into place, muttering, "Please keep the monster locked away...please keep the monster locked away..."
A dark idea comes to his mind as he sits back and removes his glasses to clean them, saying, "Umm...well..."
A glimmer of hope appears in her eyes as Luna latches on to it, pleading, "What is it daddy, I'll do anything you ask me to do just to be my sister's equal! PLEASE HELP ME!"
Looking into her eyes, he sees how desperate she really is and sighs in defeat, then caresses her right cheek affectionately, saying, "There is one way, sweetie, but it is extremely painful and has never been considered before."
Wanting to hear her salvation, she eagerly nods her head, saying, "I'll suffer whatever I have to, to be like Cece! What is that?"
With her giving him puppy-dog eyes, he gives in and says, "Well, it would be a procedure considered most heinous and unforgivable, which involves surgically transplanting a body part from one pony to another, though it must be from a pony of the same blood type and having the same coat color." With a sorrowful sigh, he says, "With your incredibly rare blood type and coat, there's only one pony that could possibly help you...your mother. If she agreed to the procedure and let me remove her wings from her body to transplant them onto you, she would die and leave you and your sister behind forever. I strongly advise against attempting this procedure, as I cannot guarantee that it will succeed or you will survive, but your choices are your own, dear."
The news hits her like a brick and crushes her happy mood, causing her to pull out of his reach and then trot out of the room in a sullen and dark mood, saying, "I-I...I need to go brush my mane..." Roaming around aimlessly, she finds herself outside of her mother's private hospital room and knocks before entering, saying, "Mother, can we talk?"
The very skinny middle-aged mare is nearly skin and bones as she looks at her youngest daughter with a bright smile, saying, "Of course dear, close the door and lock it so we won't be disturbed." Once the door is locked, her daughter makes her way to the bed and asks, "Now what has my little Lulu feeling so blue?"
Unable to hide a brief smile at her joke, Luna sighs and says, "Well, you know how things have been between Cece and I?"
Nodding her head, she then listens to her daughter's story, shaking her head at the end, saying, "That sister of yours is being so mare-ish these days, that is much crueler than anything she has said before. So then what happened after that?"
She then tells her the rest of the story and asks, "Mommy, am I evil for wanting your wings for myself?"
Shaking her head and laying a wing tip on her right cheek, she says, "Not at all sweetheart, a little greedy perhaps, but that is not evil in the slightest."
Luna bites her lower lip between her teeth, thinking hard of what she wants to say next and then sighs, saying, "Even though it is extremely risky, I would like to try the procedure if it would finally allow my sister to treat me as her equal. What do you think about it mother, should I go through with it? I'm so scared that I will go to sleep and never wake up again..."
Pulling her close, she looks into her eyes and says, "I know that you are scared, sweetie, but so am I of never opening my eyes again. One thing that I will tell you now, is that every pony is afraid of something." getting an inspirational idea, she smiles and says, "It is up to us to get over that which scares us so we can move on with our lives, can you do one thing for me and find a way to help others work past their fears?"
Leaning against her mother, she nods, saying, "I will do that for you, mommy, but what about the procedure?"
Caressing her daughter's face lovingly with her right forehoof, the weak pegasus mare says, "I know I am not long for this world sweetie, but if I can help bring you and your sister closer together... Then I will do whatever is required of me to do so."
Smiling widely at her mother's answer, she wraps her forehooves around her mother and hugs her gently, saying, "Oh thank you mommy, I love you so much!"
After spending a little more time with her mother, their time together ends when her sister comes to spend time with her mother, putting her nose in the air, saying, "I shall let you have time alone with mom, be mindful of her condition so you don't cause her any stress."
Leaving the room without letting her sister say anything, she makes her way towards Nathan's room and finds him at his desk, looking over diagrams and other documents. Entering the room and closing the door, she climbs up onto his lap and sits down, laying her head against his shoulder, saying, "My mother has agreed to the procedure, when can it start?"
Wrapping one arm around her barrel, Nathan holds her on his lap, saying, "You're getting awfully big to be sitting on my lap, you know." Letting it slide, he runs his other hand up to her mane and caresses it affectionately as if she were his actual daughter, saying, "We must wait until I have the things I need, but you need to understand, that due to what you desire me to do...you cannot be put asleep. The reason for that is because your magic channels go dormant during a pony's slumber, and become active again when you wake. For the procedure to have a significant chance to succeed, you and your mother will need to both be awake for the duration of the surgery. Therefore, I have to create a particularly tricky anesthetic that will numb you and your mother to all pain, but won't put you asleep."
Act I, Scene III: The Surgery
Having had a difficult time sleeping peacefully due to recurring nightmares at night for the past three weeks, Celestia walks down the halls to find her sister. Eventually finding her in the kitchen making pancakes, she sighs and says, "Ah, here you are. I was looking all over for you, I haven't been able to sleep at night for the past few weeks due to a recurring nightmare that won't leave me alone. I need you to get rid of it for me so that I no longer have to hear you and my mother screaming in agony while being butchered by a mad scientist with blood spattered all over the walls and floor."
Huffing in annoyance at how she demands her help, she turns her nose up at her and says, "With how you hath treated me sister, I would rather not, as suffering is good for the soul." Setting her sister's plate with 6 chocolate chip pancakes on the table with a clatter, she then trots out of the room, saying, "Get over your fears by yourself."
Sighing as she grabs a fork, butter, and syrup, she slowly digs into her food as flashes of the nightmares pop up into her mind. Wincing as she hears the blood-curdling screams of her sister as she pleads, "NO MORE! NO MORE, PLEASE!! IT HURTS TOO MUCH, LET ME DIE ALREADY!" When a strangely familiar male voice says, "Just endure it a little bit more my darling, we are almost to the end of the operation. You shall be my greatest success I ever achieved in my entire life, and will forever be my most beloved treasure."
The scene changes to flashes of her mother's butchered body bleeding to death and then to images of her mother's wings being sewn onto her sister's body, when she looks at a cold stone floor and hears the sound of her sister's screams which will forever haunt her memories. Blood slowly falls to the stone below and merges to form a river, which then turns into a tidal wave that washes her much older self away despite her attempts at stopping it.
Celestia opens her eyes and screams in terror, looking around to find herself in the kitchen with a plate of pancakes smeared in butter. Realizing that she fell asleep again, she feels something sticky on her face and wipes it off with a wing tip to find that it is butter. Groaning as she realizes her face is smeared with butter, she looks back down at her pancakes to see the sight of blood running all over them. Shaking her head to clear her vision, she looks back down to see the butter smeared on the pancakes. Having lost her appetite, she sighs and dumps them in the trash and heads to the washroom to get cleaned up, asking herself, "Just what in Equestria is going on here, why won't that stupid nightmare go away?"
In her dimension, Equina groans in frustration and slight panic, shouting, "Take the hint and figure out it is a premonition, you foal! Save your sister before it's too late!"
It takes a month for Nathan to have everything in place to begin the procedure in secret, including setting up a hidden place in the catacombs below to serve as the operating room. It is sunset when he moves her to the operating room below, laying her on a table within a hoof's distance from a second table as he then goes to pick up Luna and lays her on her own table, saying, "Last chance to change your mind about going through with this procedure, do you still wish to go through with it? Your mother will not survive this, you are aware of that, correct?"
On her belly and facing her mother before her, she takes hold of her hoof with hers and says, "I know, and have set my mind on this, please proceed, daddy."
Nodding his head, he takes a metal syringe then sticks the short needle into a vial of glowing blue liquid and sucks every last drop out of it, turning it upside down and then squeezes the air out of the syringe along with a tiny amount of the serum, saying, "Very well then, I am going to be injecting you with a very powerful anesthetic of my own design called Zydromine. You won't be able to feel any pain at all when I do start, and this serum also serves as a muscle relaxant."
As she tries to calm herself down a bit, she watches him approach her and feels something cold and wet scrub a spot on her neck. Opening her mouth to ask what he just did, the pain of the needle piercing her coat and penetrating the muscle surprises her into crying out briefly. Once the burning sensation of the injection fades away, she watches him fill the needle with another vial of the glowing blue liquid, asking, "How is that stuff made, daddy?"
Squeezing out the air inside, he moves to the weakened mare he's been taking care of for a few years now and caresses her neck affectionately with a gloved hand holding a new cloth wet with antiseptic, saying, "It is best that you don't know the answer to that, as it involves a rather dark method of alchemy combined with a bit of my magic. I am glad that I got to learn under Star Swirl's tutelage, though I wonder where he's gotten off to...he's never stayed away for more than a year at a time and it has been three years since last we saw him."
When he sticks the needle into her mother's neck, she winces in pain and says, "I wish I knew why he has not been around, I'm certain that my sister is concerned as well." Turning to her mother as she sees tears fall from her cheeks, she asks, "Mother, are you alright?"
Once the burning pain fades away, she sighs with relief and breathes harder than usual, saying, "I'm fine sweetheart, I just really hate injections that burn. You needn't worry about me much longer, for I will go to a better place, but a part of me will always be a part of you."
Holding her mother's hoof firmly to the bottom of hers, she watches Nathan put the syringe down and pick up a scalpel with a slight smile on his face, saying, "Alright, now it is time for the surgery to begin..." For some reason, the word surgery seems to echo through the room off the walls as her hoof begins to relax and lose her grip on her mother's hoof.
Inside her dimension
Equina watches the procedure with horror on her face as she watches Nathan cut the skin around the weakened mare's wings, holding her right hoof to her mouth as her wide eyes take in the sight of the shaved section being peeled back from the edge, saying, "If I am going to suffer the sight of this, then that foolish girl ought to suffer as well!" then shares her sight with Celestia.
Celestia finds herself in a dark space, unable to move around as she seems to be stuck in place and calls out, "Hello, Lulu, are you there?"
Calling out with annoyance and irritation, she shouts into the princess's mind, "YOU FOOLISH GIRL!! I GAVE YOU AMPLE OPPORTUNITIES TO SAVE YOUR SISTER, YET YOU FAILED TO HEED THE WARNINGS! NOW WATCH AND SUFFER WHAT YOUR FAILURE HATH WROUGHT!"
Cringing at the loudness of the shouting, she looks around to see no one around her when the area just in front of her starts to get lighter. Turning her head to see the source of the light, she looks upon a room built out of dark stone bricks kept meticulously clean and gasps at seeing her mother and sister both on metal tables, though her mother has sections of her coat cut and peeled back around her wings, shouting, "MOTHER, WHAT IS NATHAN DOING TO YOU!"
As the procedure continues on, Equina then says, "Your actions have left your sister desperate to receive any sort of approval from you, which you hath denied to her from the day she was birthed into this world. You shunned her for being different than you and couldn't bring yourself to consider her your sister. Being different should be treasured, not despised! This is a lesson you will have to learn by experiencing it...the hard way."
Her eyes are glued to the sight of their guardian cutting more of her mother's coat away along her spine and laying it back, followed by intricate cuts into the muscles beside the spine. As she observes the muscles being carefully dissected, she fights to keep the contents of her stomach down, saying, "N-No...I didn't mean for... I must go save my sister, let me-" but her words are cut off by a blood chilling scream that pierces her skull.
Watching her face screw up into one of pain, she forces her eyes open, saying, "You are too late, by the time you find them...it will already be done. Now listen to the cries of their souls and watch as your sister's body is altered just to receive praise from you, for I am none to pleased at how you failed to figure out I was warning you!"
Back in the hidden room
As Luna watches her mother's left wing get peeled away from her body and carried towards her, blood drips from the severed section with a portion of vertebrae sticking out of the muscle. When it is laid upon the wax paper, she looks up at Nathan's face through a black surgical mask illuminating his eyes in a soft, blue light. For some untold reason, a shiver of fear runs through her body as he cleans off the knife and lays it to the shaved section of her coat.
The strange sensation of the knife cutting through her skin is very unnerving to her, watching curiously as a vertical cut is made down the left side of her barrel. When her hide is peeled back, she watches Nathan set the knife down on a nearby cart after washing the blood off it. He heads to the cart where her mother's wing sits and gulps nervously, asking, "W-Will I be able to fly once this procedure is over?"
Pushing the cart over to Luna, he says, "It is too soon to tell, unfortunately, but I will know right away if this will work or not if your magic circuits connect to the circuits inside your mother's wings." As he picks up the wing and lays it against the same spot her mother's wing came from, he mutters to himself, "--Segments from where the tail connects to the spine."
Luna watches him trace an outline on her body, then begins cutting her muscles way rather delicately and laying them back against her folded hide. When he begins to split one of her vertebrae as cautiously as he can, she watches the split halves be laid down on the other cart. After making sure the area is free of bone debris, he takes hold of the wing and lays it in place beside her spine.
Nathan hums a tune to himself as he works tediously to ensure that he has the right nerve before attaching it to the nerve ending in her mother's wing, then moves on to quickly splice the wing's artery into the proper artery running down the inside of her spinal column. With little room to work, he manages to make it work as he starts to sing, "With a slice, and a shave...I bring your body closer to its most perfect imperfect state. Reattaching the severed ends to previously unknown ends is a favorite of mine, oh how selfish ponies can be..."
While listening to the creepy song, she lays on the table as he works to attach her mother's wing to her body when a burning sensation comes over her back, asking in a pained voice, "Is it...normal for my back to be burning like this daddy?"
Using magic to enhance his vision, he looks inside her body and watches as the magic circuits start to fuse to the new ends spliced to them, saying, "Fascinating..." Once he notices that her arteries, muscles and nerves are reconnecting by themselves, he says, "Utterly remarkable, little Lulu, your body is knitting itself back together as if this is how you were meant to be in the first place. There is a much more significant chance that you will be able to fly once your body recovers from this intensive surgery."
Tears slip from her eyes as she watches Nathan finish up with her wing, trimming her coat back to match the edges of her mother's coat so they fit back together seamlessly. Once one side is finished, she watches as Nathan stitches up the cut gently before taking the cart and his scalpel back over to her mother. Seeing her mother's head lying on the table, breathing hard, she smiles and says, "Look mother, your wing is now a part of me! I can feel the magic flowing into them!"
Smiling weakly at her daughter, she says, "I am so glad that one wing was accepted, but we are only halfway through the procedure." She then goes silent as she feels Nathan start working on her other wing.
Equina gasps as she thinks over how this is possible, asking herself out loud, "I just don't understand how this could be...Luna was born a Unicorn, not an Alicorn. Just what is going on?"
Just then, a sinister chuckle sounds within her dimension as a familiar voice says, "Awe...is the answer not coming to you, Equina? If it was any more obvious, there would be a snake right beside you about to strike."
Turning her head to find the snake, she finds a desert rattlesnake just behind her and blasts it with magic before it has a chance to attack her. Whipping her head back toward the source of the voice, unable to see it anywhere and says, "DISCORD, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW!"
Chuckling, Discord continues to speak into her dimension, saying, "Oh, what haven't I done? I've stolen the wings of an alicorn before birth, but now I find myself rather bored watching your ponies live in harmony... Therefore, I am going to go have myself a bit of fun at your expense..." then snaps his fingers and puts her into a cage where she is unable to use her magic.
Fuming mad at Discord, she shouts, "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS DISCORD, I SWEAR!"
As the surgery continues for several hours and closes in on midnight, the weakening mare watches her last wing be attached to her daughter's body. When Nathan comments on a successful surgery, she watches him carefully trim the area to be as seamless as possible when she coughs up some blood, saying, "Nate, come here once you are finished, I must talk to you."
Looking over his shoulder at her, Nathan nods his head, saying, "Of course, dear. I am sorry for taking so long with this, I just don't want our precious Luna to have a nasty scar as plain as day on her side."
The burning sensation heightens as her body begins to fuse the severed ends of the wing's magic channels, artery, nerves, and lastly, her muscles to her own body, breathing hard as it takes much longer for the burning sensation to fade away than it did the first wing, asking, "Is everything as it should be, daddy?"
Finishing the last few stitches, he enhances his vision with magic and examines the internal structure of the base of her new wings and runs his hand over the slightly noticeable bump in her spine where her wings join with the spinal column, saying, "Hmm...it appears that your body's healing ability took quite a toll to attach everything together, it seems to have exhausted almost all of your magic to have mended the cut muscles together along with the magic circuits, nerves, blood vessels, and even the bone itself. However, you have a bit of growing ahead of you as your other vertebrae will need to be larger to match the size of your mother's vertebrae. Now I shall let you say farewell to your mom before I send you off to sleep."
Turning her eyes to her mother, she attempts to lift her head, but can't as the anesthetic is still affecting her, saying, "I wish that you could survive after having your wings removed, mommy, it doesn't seem fair that only I get to say goodbye."
As tears fall from the weakening mare's eyes, Nathan gets an idea and says, "Now why didn't I think of that before...silly me." He then makes his way to the split vertebrae he removed from Luna, saying, "I can replace the vertebrae I took from you, however you will not be able to walk again as this vertebrae is too small for your adult spine. Would you like me to proceed?"
Not wanting to miss a chance to say goodbye to both of her daughters, she sighs out heavily, saying, "Yes, please do what you must to make that happen, for I wish to spend as much time as possible with you all."
Nodding his head, he uses his magic to connect the portions that came from Luna to her own body, saying, "This might be a bit intense for you when I attempt to magically fuse the ends together, but your body will be more or less complete with sections of your daughter's skin I had to cut away."
As Luna watches Nathan channel his light red magic to hasten the healing process, it takes nearly an hour to finish both sides as she looks upon her mother, saying, "Now we have more time together, I'm so glad mommy!"
Nathan looks at Luna's eyes as they start to get heavy with sleep, making his way over to her and lifts her head to slide a pillow under it, saying, "Get some sleep sweetheart, I will tend to you and your mother's needs in the morning." When they both close their eyes and drift off to sleep, he caresses the weakened mare's face tenderly, saying, "I will not be going anywhere for a good long while, dear."
When morning finally comes, Celestia bangs on the door to Nathan's room in the old castle and barges in once it opens, saying, "Where is my sister and mother at, you cretin!"
Nathan shuts the door behind her roughly, saying, "They are both resting soundly, do try to keep your voice down as they are recovering. If you have business with me, get on with it or get the bloody hell out of here."
Huffing with annoyance, she says, "You have no power over where I can go in this castle, and my sister and I are both princesses. You can't tell me who I can or can't visit!"
Grabbing her and dragging her to a chair, he sits down and lays her across his lap, saying, "What did I tell you about your voice?" then brings his hand up and back before bringing it down full force on her rear, making a sharp smack ring out through the room as he does it several more times.
Her tail hikes up at being scolded and spanked, surprising herself at learning she likes to be punished and cries out as her rear really begins to burn from the spanking, saying, "I'm...I'm sorry!"
Nathan brings his hand down upon her backside again as her coat turns a shade of red, saying, "What did you say, I didn't hear you."
Breathing heavily as she starts to sob, she says, "I'm...sorry for being a bad girl...papa."
Spanking her one last time, he says, "Much better, now you've learned your lesson." then feels her whole body shudder underneath him as she squirts over the palm of his hand and goes limp. Turning his gaze to her face, he grabs a fistful of her mane and jerks back on it, causing her to let out a naughty-sounding moan, saying, "What kind of disgraceful princess finds satisfaction in this kind of thing?"
A silly post-orgasmic smile crosses her face as she stares up into Nathan's eyes and says, "A naughty one...I'm a bad princess papa, so please punish me more." then uses her magic to pull his head down to hers and kisses him deeply for a moment.
Once he can pull away, he shoves her off his lap roughly and says with a huff, "I will certainly do that later, but not now and certainly not in this room as I have to tend to your mother's and sister's needs. Do you wish to help me, or did you come to annoy your sister again?"
Lying there sprawled out on the floor, she sighs and looks away in shame, saying, "I just wanted to make sure that my mother is alright."
Nathan sighs and places his right arm over her back and under her belly, saying, "How sad it is that your sister was just an afterthought after all. You really are such a spoiled and ungrateful princess, you know that?" then takes her to where her mother is lying on the bed, closing the curtain behind them, saying, "Your mother made it through just fine, as did your sister if you care at all. Due to the procedure, your mother will never walk again, but will continue to live out her days if her body allows it. I will be quite busy with tending to both of their needs, which means I will have limited time to see other patients."
Looking upon her mother's frail form without her wings causes her heart to ache at how she will never get to fly ever again, drawing a sad sigh from her as she says, "You take care of my sister, and I will tend to my mother's daily needs. I do not wish to see her any time soon for what she chose to do to our mother..."
It takes a year and a half for Luna to make a recovery and be able to start working on strengthening her back muscles again after being waited on by Nathan, working on her exercises with him in the room with her, saying with an annoyed huff, "I am just glad that you finally learned to stop making me food with cabbage in it, especially since that dreadful night where you fed me cheese and cabbage."
Nathan chuckles as he recalls that night, saying, "I am sorry for doing that, I spent a couple hours bathing you with a sponge as well as cleaning and sterilizing the room after your...explosive episode." Running his right hand along the barely visible indented scars, he smiles fondly and pulls Luna's head towards him and kisses her on the forehead, saying, "This has to be my finest work ever, Little Moon. The scars are only visible in the right light and you have to know where to look in order to see them at all, it would take one chance in a hundred thousand for any other pony or creature to notice the slight lines indented in your skin. I will always treasure you and treat you as my own flesh and blood, should you ever need help, daddy is always here for you sweetheart."
As Nathan pulls her close in a hug, she wraps her new wings around his back along with her forehooves and nuzzles her nose into him, taking his scent in and letting it soothe her, saying, "Thank you for my new wings..." Feeling comfortable around him, she then lets her barriers down and says, "I love you, daddy. I'll always be a good little daughter for you."
Holding his hand behind her head against his shoulder as her mane floats around his hand, he feels complete inside and looks out at the beautiful night sky, saying, "Many silly ponies don't fully realize how beautifully you bring the night to them, your sister's sunrise just can never compare. I will always do whatever I must to keep you safe, sweetheart."
Smiling widely at the praise, she nuzzles against him further and feels herself accept him as her new parent, letting herself drift off to sleep in his arms to go deal with the troubles of her subjects, whispering happily, "Daddy..."
Act I, Scene IV: The Monster
Author's Note
Apologies for a fatter chapter, just had to bring this scene to its best point before starting the next one.
Act I, Scene IV: The Monster
Time passage
As things between Luna and her sister grow even colder, the two stop seeing each other until they are forced to work together a couple centuries later to defeat the Draconequus Discord.
Years later, their mother passes away after contracting Cholera, which spurs Nathan into action as he has his lover Celestia make immediate changes to how the ponies live their lives. Once she does so and sends letters to the neighboring countries on how to treat and prevent the spread of the disease, Nathan dons his plague mask and leaves the castle to wander the world again a couple decades later as an outbreak of smallpox hits Equestria hard with Typhus causing great suffering among the Crystal Ponies.
Rarely ever taking his plague mask off, Nathan spends a few years in the Crystal Empire, studying their bodies and the magic they wield. When the ruling princess's mother dies from a rare case of Scarlet Fever, the princess discovers that she is with child.
After learning he is going to be a father, Nathan does everything he can to keep the room as sterile as possible around her. Occasionally having to threaten the scared Crystal Ponies away from her door by slashing the air with his long scalpels, shouting, "Back, BACK you frightened wretches! Are you trying to kill your last living princess with the diseases that you carry!"
However, once the baby is born a light pink alicorn with a multicolored mane and tail, the mob of sick ponies grow more desperate to see the newborn and perform a Crystalling. Left with no choice but to fight to safeguard his child's well-being, he hears a horrible coughing come from inside the room which causes a cold, bone-chilling rage to take over his body as the cage within him begins to break apart and allow the monster within a bit more freedom. Turning back to the ponies trying to push past him to see the baby alicorn with a sinister scowl upon his face, Nathan shouts, "You mindless wretches just killed the last members of the royal line, now pay the price for your crime!" then uses his scalpels as tools to murder the mobbing ponies.
As she hears terrified screams from outside her room, she sets her daughter down and hastily grabs a piece of parchment and a quill, writing a letter after having a vision of Princess Celestia from the far future and lets it dry a bit before rolling it up, sliding a white ribbon over it with a spot of ice blue wax over it bearing her personal seal. Holding her daughter one last time, she swaddles her in a pink blanket and casts a protective shield over her, saying as tears fall from her eyes, "I know you won't ever remember me, my sweet little Cadence, but I hope that wherever and whenever you wind up is a much better place than today...I love you and hope that the Crystal Empire endures until you are ready to rule it." Charging a magic spell into her horn, she casts it upon her daughter to send her upon the currents of time, praying that she arrives in a time of peace where outbreaks are a thing of the past.
Crammed into the group of frightened and desperate ponies, Autumn Gem tries her best to get away as she starts to hear the sound of metal slicing through the air and striking the crystal coats of the ponies around her. When the ponies struggle to turn and run away, the little filly only 5 years old, watches as a two-legged figure clad in black and wearing a plague mask towers over her, using a long surgical tool to slice through the throat of her mother. Blood sprays from her mother's throat and coats the little filly's pretty light blue coat red with blood, however, the horror is not over yet as she watches the hero surgeon that once saved her father's grandfather's life during a griffon raid on a battlefield hospital repeatedly slash her father's throat and decapitate him.
Watching her father's head bounce and stop at her hooves, she pisses herself in terror as her father's dead eyes stare up at her in wide-eyed fear. A wet, squelching noise catches her attention and makes her look up to see her former hero pointing the tip of the blade straight down at her as blood drips off the scalpel's tip, making her take involuntary steps backwards before turning around screaming bloody murder and shouting, "MONSTER!!!" then running away as fast as her little legs can take her.
Watching the little filly run away after the others calms him down as he turns around and heads back in to find that his daughter is nowhere in sight and asks, "Where is our precious daughter, my love? Did you put her down in her bassinet for the night?"
Coughing again, Princess Arellia turns to see her love covered in the blood of the ponies outside, shaking her head mournfully and saying, "No, dear." then sighs regretfully and says, "I am sorry to break your heart like this, but I used my magic to send her onto the currents of time to wherever and whenever they may take her. You will not want to hear this, but I will have you hear it anyway. Our daughter would have a much higher chance of survival wherever she winds up than she would if she were to stay here to be raised by you or I."
Nathan's heart breaks at hearing that, taking him several moments to gather his thoughts before speaking, saying, "I fear that you may be correct with all the troubles cropping up these days and the outbreaks. However, my heart still wishes that you would have let her stay here."
Weeks pass after the last crystal princess succumbs to the Yellow Fever, causing Nathan to force treatment upon the ponies who are now terrified of him and cower in the darkest corner of their homes to hide from him. Once the outbreak is quelled and the crystal ponies are safe again, he leaves to return to the castle where his precious Luna and his lover Celestia are.
Once he is back at the castle, things calm down as Nathan and Celestia continue their tryst behind closed doors. Just over a decade later, Celestia learns about the Crystal Empire falling under the rule of a tyrannical unicorn calling himself King Sombra. Forced to work together again to fight him, they succeed at the cost of the Crystal Empire being banished from existence.
A few decades later, Celestia races to the bathroom one morning with the sudden urge to throw up. When her bout of sickness passes, she brushes it off as something bad she ate last night and then goes about her duties, learning about the outbreak of a new disease through a report. Making her way to her lover's chambers, she closes the door behind her and casts a privacy barrier, sitting on a chair beside him with her hind legs laying across his lap, saying, "I have received disturbing reports of a new disease spreading across Equestria like wildfire, and I need you to investigate it and put an end to it."
Placing his right hand upon her hind legs and runs it up and down her pastern and cannon, asking worriedly, "Is it widespread organ failures? I must know more details, as it means life or death for Equestria."
Taking the report out, she then reads off the description, saying, "No. The description so far is that the victims first experience fever, headaches, and vomiting, along with strange bulges appearing in one area on various places of their bodies which are surrounded by a dark discoloration of the skin underneath the coat of fur."
Staring at the wall with wide eyes, he takes his glasses off with his left hand, saying, "Dear god...it's the Black Death."
The report falls from her magical hold as she blinks her eyes and asks nervously, "What do you know of this disease?"
Setting his glasses on the desk and pinching the bridge of his nose, Nathan sighs audibly and says, "I know that it will kill those who catch it and don't get treatment for it quickly enough, though I have never dealt with the disease before as it's presence in the world was nearly non-existent. Well, it was almost completely gone after the epidemic of organ failures struck that killed several billion people. In terms of diseases and epidemics to worry about, I would place organ failures at number one with the Bubonic Plague...or the Black Death as it was nicknamed in times long past as a very close second, claiming around twenty-five million to fifty million people. The reason for it being the second-most worrisome disease is because we had antibiotic medication that could cure it if you caught it. However, here ...you don't have the advances today that we humans did. In light of that, I have to resort to a remedy used in the ancient days that I haven't the slightest clue if it actually works against the Plague."
Celestia's eyes widen fearfully as she asks, "M-Millions died from it? How soon can you have a sample of this tonic ready?"
Thinking it over, Nathan says, "About three weeks until it can be tested."
Due to feeling under the weather as she starts throwing up regularly, the solar princess takes herbal potions to fight whatever is making her ill. However, weeks pass by as Nathan dons his plague mask and wide-brimmed hat once again, then heads out to test the Four Thieves' Vinegar.
Holding her head down over the toilet as she throws up again, Celestia waits for the bout to pass with her flank resting on the ground as her naturally flowing mane hangs lifelessly against her neck, groaning, "Ugh, when will this stupid illness go away? Its not as if I'm pregnant or anything..."
When her left hoof brushes across her teats, her hoof freezes in place as she notices how much bigger her nipples have gotten, saying, "Wait...what is this?" Her eyes slowly widen a bit as she feels around her teats, knowing that they are bigger than they should be, which alarms her and tells her that something else is responsible for her condition. As she runs her hoof along her upset stomach and massages it gently, the idle comment she made earlier finally registers in her mind, making her mumble, "Oh no...it couldn't be, could it?"
Her eyes widen further as she anxiously goes through what she knows what about the symptoms of pregnancy, saying, "There's the obvious signs of missing the heat cycle, increased sensitivity in the teats, always feeling sick and throwing up. What else did Nathan's study of ponies say about the signs of pregnancy..."
It comes to her a moment later as she taps a hoof on the toilet, saying, "Right, there's always feeling exhausted and then there's the constant changing of the mare's emotional state, but let's think of what the signs are for the following weeks to be sure..."
Getting up onto her hooves and pulling the chain to flush the toilet, she walks away, saying in a scientific tone, "Lets see, for the next week of pregnancy, there was... feeling more affectionate towards others, an increased desire for sexual relations or finding their partner more attractive than normal. What about the week after that..."
As she teleports to the library, she hurries over to one of the shelves and pulls out the book he published under his alias, Dr. Clean Health, she heads to a reading nook and reads through the section about pregnancy. Something draws her attention to the mirror across from her, looking herself over in the mirror, asking herself, "Have I gotten fatter?"
Getting out of her chair, she raises her wings and turns toward the mirror. Looking at herself straight-on, she doesn't see much of a difference in the sides of her barrel. However, when she turns sideways and looks herself over, she gasps in shock at seeing a slight bulge in the shape of her abdomen, saying, "Um...that is too far back to be belly fat..."
Really worried now, she turns back to the book to read more about her lover's study of pregnancy in ponies, saying, "So, increased anxiety during week three. Week four has cramping in the pelvic region and feeling full, possibly feeling bloated or gassy, along with the chance to feel nauseous. During that week, there's also avoiding foods I usually loved, which may result in making me want to vomit at trying to eat them. Another possible sign for that week is tenderness in my teats and nipples, as well as my teats being larger than normal and having to 'go' much more often than usual, and some spotting."
As she reads further along, she subconsciously pulls out a piece of paper and starts making a checklist of all possible symptoms and make check boxes for having experienced it, experiencing it, or haven't experienced it yet. Pulling her head out of the book and going through the list so far, she mumbles to herself, "Morning Sickness, check. Constant need to pee every half hour, check. Food Cravings, check."
Taking her time to go through the book worries her even more as the listed symptoms continue to match up with how she is feeling or has felt, she glances at the list as she starts encountering symptoms she hasn't felt yet, saying, "I don't like what this checklist is showing me..."
Once she completes the checklist, she looks it over thoroughly and theorizes that she might be about sixteen or seventeen weeks along if she was pregnant, causing her heartbeat pick up as she recalls the scanning spell she learned from her mentor. Preparing to cast the spell on herself, she mumbles to herself, "Please reveal to me that I am just suffering from a strange illness..."
Gathering her courage, she casts the spell and scans herself, finding not one heartbeat...but two . The scan further reveals the foal growing within her, causing tears to form in her eyes as she drops the spell and lets her head fall on the desk with a heavy sigh. Placing her hooves and wingtips over her eyes in shame, she bangs her head against the desk and groans out, "Oh bollocks how utterly careless I have been to not realize that Moon Tea is does not prevent a mare from getting pregnant! I'm such a stupid mare for not taking further precautions..." Not letting herself sink into desperation, she returns the book to the shelf and grabs the book beside it, titled, 'The mare's guide to a wonderfully miserable pregnancy' by the same alias Nathan has.
She spends a couple of hours reading through the guide and sighs, saying, "I'm three weeks into my second trimester and I'm off to a horrid start already...I must go gather the things I need to ensure this foal is healthy." Casting a glamour to alter her appearance on the outside, she then casts a protective barrier around herself and teleports to the nearest apothecary as she tucks the book away into her personal storage dimension.
As Nathan administers the trial tonic, it proves to be somewhat effective as he sends word to Celestia to have more of it created. By the time more are available for other plague doctors such as himself to administer, thousands of ponies have already died to the terrible Black Death.
The tonic is not as successful as he wishes, however, so he is forced to create and try other tonics to cure ponies that catch it. It takes several months for him to have a small breakthrough as he then makes his way back to the Castle of Two Sisters to begin the lengthy process of creating trial doses. When he arrives back at the castle, he makes his way to his lab and removes his plague mask then enters the room to find his precious Little Moon curled up on his cot and heads over to her. Setting aside his mask and his gloves, he lays his hand on her neck, then starts running it over mane and enjoys how her soft, silky mane flows underneath his bare hand and says, "Daddy's home Lumie, how's my little girl been?"
With the sun still high in the sky, Luna yawns and then stretches her body out, turning her tired eyes towards her adopted father. As she recognizes who he is, she wakes up instantly and leaps up from the cot. Knocking him over backwards with her forehooves over his shoulders, she then wraps them around the back of his neck and kisses him lightly on the cheek before nuzzling her head against his, saying, "Oh father, you've come home at long last! I've missed you for so very long, please tell me that you are here to stay for awhile..."
Nathan pulls away and sees tears well up in his daughter's eyes, moving his right hand from her neck and towards her cheeks, saying as he wipes them away with his thumb, "Awe, what troubles you, my sweet daughter?"
The tears continue to fall from her eyes as she sobs, "I have been trying many things to get my subjects to love my beautiful night, but nothing I do works." She then leans into his hand and asks desperately, "Do you have any ideas or know of anything that will help? Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated."
Wanting to do everything he can to help her through her suffering, he caresses her cheek, saying, "Ah Lumie, it pains me to see you hurting like this. Your subjects know in their hearts that the night is eternal like the day, the cycle between the sun and moon repeats forever. Night is a peaceful time for renewal and relaxation, allowing the ponies to rest and gather their strength once more to prepare for the toiling that will come when the day begins again."
Finding relief at hearing that, Luna curls up on top of her adopted dad and remembers that he did not answer her question and asks again, "You never answered my question daddy, are you going to be around for awhile?
Nathan then sighs and says, "I'm sorry sweetheart, but the Four Thieves Tonic has not been as successful as I had hoped, so I have to put my hopes on a new breakthrough I had and pray that it has better results."
Sighing, Luna gets up off of him and kisses his cheek, saying, "I heard of the victims falling to the plague reaching well past three thousand, I shall leave you to work. I wish you all the luck in the world papa."
He watches his little moon make her way to the door, saying, "Be sure to always have your protective shield up, I don't know what I would do if I were ever to lose you. Fear not, Little Moon, for things are always darkest before the dawn."
After hearing what her lover just told her sister, she changes her mind about going in to share the news with him and teleports back to her room with the protective shield around her.
It takes Nathan a month and a half to finish his tonic before donning his plague clothes once more and heading out into Equestria, searching for those in the early stages of the disease to test its effectiveness against the horrid disease.
Once he begins administering the potion, he notices a much better result as six out of ten victims survive and begins having it mass produced. However, as it starts to be taken by the masses, it earns a nickname for itself, ironically called 'The Blessing' as it gains a reputation of either curing the plague or killing the one who takes it within an hour.
By the time the changes are made, several months pass by as the Black Death fades away. However, the damage has been already done with three hundred thousand ponies having died with only fifty thousand left alive, with the majority of the survivors being mares and stallions being far harder to find.
Several months pass as Celestia creates a new flag for Equestria, as an attempt to bring her estranged sister closer to her. With her due date a few weeks away, she grows more fearful for her daughter as the death toll takes the lives of so many foals. When her water suddenly breaks, she hires a team of doctors and assistants under the condition to undergo a spell of forgetting to deliver her foal as she cannot bring herself to tear her lover from his duty to the citizens and ensuring the threat from the Black Death has officially passed.
Sixteen hours pass by as she holds her beloved filly in her hooves, looking upon her brilliant amber coat with a fiery crimson mane and tail having a brilliant yellow stripe through them. Rubbing her nose across her little unicorn filly, tears of joy fall from her eyes at how beautiful she is and says, "Oh my little Sunset I am so happy to be your mother, I will be sure to teach you everything I know."
A year after Sunset's birth, Celestia finishes embroidering her filly's baby blanket as she recalls the fight she had with her sister a few weeks ago and shakes her head thinking, 'Just what is going on with Luna these days? Of course we can't make the night longer, it would have negative effects on life in Equestria. '
Two years pass as Celestia keeps Summer's birth a secret from her subjects when there is a sudden outbreak of measles among the small foals, claiming many lives over the span of a couple months which scares her enough to make her think of how she can save her daughter.
As she lays her daughter down to sleep in her crib, she has a foalsitter sworn to secrecy watch her as she heads down to the throne room to hold court.
End of Timeskip
When Luna watches her sister enter the room, she walks out from behind the throne, saying, "NOT another step..." then watches as she looks down at the floor instead of at her and continues, "Do you seriously expect me to just sit idly by while they all bask in your precious light ?"
Celestia continues to idly listen and look at the floor in disinterest while her sister continues her tirade, glancing up at her when she shouts angrily in the royal voice to see her stomp her front hooves and destroy the podium. As a crack races up the wall, causing the stained glass window to shatter and show the sun hanging in the sky, she watches as Luna raises the moon to block out her sun and cast night across Equestria.
After finally coming up with a treatment to cure measles, Nathan makes his way back to the castle while looking forward to getting to spend some time with his precious Little Moon. As he nears the castle, he watches a beam cut through the roof of it and causes one of the towers to collapse. Fearing for his adopted daughter and his lover, he runs towards the castle entrance as fast as he can.
As she dodges another of her sister's attacks, she returns to the ground in a spot where Luna's attacks will not endanger her filly, saying, "Luna...I will not fight you, but you must lower the moon as it is your duty!"
When Nathan reaches the rope bridge, he watches Luna chasing her sister through the air around the castle, saying, damn children...can't they ever just get along?" then is about to teleport to the top of the castle's roof when he watches a blast from Luna's horn knock his love out of the sky with a pained scream.
Hurriedly walking over the bridge planks, he is forced to restrain his speed to a fast walk or risk snapping the ropes holding the bridge up. When he reaches the other side though, he then starts running towards the doors to stop the fighting.
Coming to moments after hitting the floor, Celestia rises to her hooves and sighs heavily, then turns to the hidden compartment, saying, "I apologize, but you have left me with only the option to use them..." and uses her magic to call up the elements hidden below.
Throwing open the doors, Nathan watches Celestia fly up through the destroyed ceiling shouting, "STOP! STOP THIS AT ONCE YOU UNGRATEFUL SQUABBLING BRATS!" As the magic glow around the two grow brighter, he tries again and shouts up to them as loud as he can, "DON'T YOU DARE CAST ANOTHER SPELL OR I WILL SHOW NO MERCY IN PUNISHING THE BOTH OF YOU! MUST I BRING OUT THE IRON MARE?!"
His words fall on deaf ears, however, as he watches a rainbow streak head towards the moon and cause a shadow to appear on the face of the moon, mumbling, "Noo...not my precious Lumie." then begins to break down and sob at his daughter being taken from him.
Finally making progress at damaging her cage, Equina watches as Luna's banishment cause critical damage to one of the cage door's hinges keeping the monster at bay inside Nathan's mind, saying, "No...don't you dare break!" and fights harder to get out as she hears the sound of metal being twisted at an agonizingly slow rate.
Once Celestia returns to the destroyed throne room and returns the elements to their places on the mechanical platform she constructed to hold them, she watches them turn to stone immediately. She is unable to have a chance to worry about their loss, however, as she hears sobbing coming from inside the throne room and turns her head to see her lover on his knees and elbows with tears falling from his eyes to the floor below. Glad to have someone to share her sorrow with, she approaches him, saying, "I am glad to see you are in good health, my love." Swallowing her grief and keeping it from making her choke on her words, she says, "Something terrible just happened and my sister left me with no choice but to banish her."
Nathan hears only empty words from her lips as he then says, "Do you really expect me to buy that pathetic excuse, Celia? That you had no other choice but to get rid of your own sister? No, you know the truth, but convinced yourself to believe a lie."
All the frustration and grief break past her grip and whirl around inside her, muddying her ability to think rationally as she then calls out, "YOU ARE THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR MAKING MY SISTER TURN OUT LIKE THIS! THEREFORE, THE BLAME FALLS SOLELY UPON YOU FOR FAILING HER AS OUR ADOPTED FATHER!"
The sound of twisting metal gets louder as she hears a new crack appear in the severely weakened top hinge as Nathan abruptly stands up and says, "I did whatever I could to help her, it was always you who failed to acknowledge her for being different! You started this whole mess, so accept the responsibility for your actions when she was first born!"
As the first hinge snaps, the door wobbles on the last hinge and the lock holding it sealed as Celestia's anger rises dangerously when Equina says, "DON'T YOU PLAY THE BLAME GAME YOU SILLY MARE!"
However, Celestia fails to hear her words due to her raging anger as she stomps and shouts, "IT WASN'T ME THAT PERFORMED THE SURGERY, WAS IT! YOUR ACTIONS ROBBED OUR MOTHER'S ABILITY TO FLY!"
The sound of twisting metal starts again as Equina hears dark laughter coming from the monster within the cage, hearing, "Very very soon, I shall be freed."
Renewing her efforts to be free to try fixing the cage once more, she turns around and uses her hind legs to kick the weakened section in two of the bars, saying, "NOT IF I CAN HELP IT, I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO ROAM FREE AMONG MY WORLD WHILE I STILL DRAW BREATH!"
Lost in her grief and anger, she recalls the promises he made to her and her mother, saying, "All you've ever told me...every word...WAS A LIE!"
Those words trigger a memory to rise to the surface, causing the hinge to burst apart and skitter across the ground in numerous fragments as Equina finally gets a hint as to why the cage is falling apart and shakes her head, asking, "What is it about you that has so much power over him?"
Celestia's breathing becomes ragged as she fights to regain control of her emotions, finding herself preparing to say something truly hurtful and never able to take back. Trying her hardest to keep it back, she hears some female shouting into her head, causing her to wince as she hears, "DON'T YOU DARE UTTER THOSE WORDS OR I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!"
Equina manages to open a hole slightly big enough to squeeze through and manages to wriggle the front part of her body through as she hears Celestia think toward her, hearing, 'I know how hurtful these words are, which is why I'm doing everything I can to keep them back until my emotions are back under control! '
Having diverted her attention away to respond, her grip on the words slackens a little bit. That little bit is just enough to allow the words to start coming up her throat as she finds herself saying, "Didn't you say that you'd protect us, didn't you?"
As Nathan relives his last moments with his daughter Shilo, he replies and says, "Oh I tried, I tried..."
Her control begins to falter as the flow of emotions surges and starts to overwhelm Celestia, causing the next words to go free, saying, "Through pain and surgery is how you help us, isn't it?"
Ignoring the pain of the jagged ends poking against her painfully, she manages to squirm and wriggle her wings past the points and scream to Celestia's mind, "DON'T LET YOUR CONTROL FALTER ANY FURTHER OR IT WILL BRING DOOM UPON THE WORLD OF PONIES!"
Finding new strength, she manages to drag the words back as she feels her emotions building up once more inside her. When they suddenly coalesce and swirl together, she feels something new be formed inside her mind as she hears something speak with her own voice, saying into her mind, 'What pathetic weakling calls upon the supremely powerful Day Breaker?! Respond at once or feel my wrath! '
Celestia pulls her attention away enough to respond, 'I did not summon you, so return from where you have come. '
Enraged at being commanded by anyone, she bellows angrily, 'HOW DARE YOU EVEN THINK TO GIVE ME A COMMAND AS IF I AM A MERE UNDERLING! NOW SUFFER FROM MY FIERY WRATH AND BURN AWAY YOU PATHETIC MORTAL!!' then makes herself appear in an empty space and calls forth her fire while looking for whoever summoned her.
She finds herself in a dark space before a twisted image of her surrounded by fire as she is forced to dodge a beam of pure fire, saying, "You are inferior to me in every way, my twisted other self, so return to the form from which you were created!"
As the battle breaks out inside her mind for dominance, Equina watches in horror as her change in focus allow the words to crawl back up her throat, screaming, "CELESTIA...NOOOO!!!"
After defeating her twisted self a few moments later, she returns her focus to her body and finds herself saying, "DON'T HELP US ANY MORE, DEAR. YOU ARE DEAD DEAR, IN MY EYES! I HAVE NO FURTHER USE FOR YOU DEAR, I RELEASE YOU. OH HOW I HATE YOU, GO AND DIE, MONSTER!"
Equina's eyes widen with horror as she hears the cage explode, allowing the door to fall to the floor with a loud bang followed by a dark, sinister, and maniacal laugh, saying, "I told you that I would be free. Now that I am, I shall make you pay..." then fades away into the darkness before her, letting his last words echo around her, saying, "I'll make you all pay..."
The sounds of the crickets' nightly chirping, the hooting of the owls, and every other peaceful sounds of nighttime stop in an instant as a chilly wind picks up and blows through the wrecked castle. The chilly air causes her mane to blow a different direction as barely audible whispers dance throughout the slightly eerie breeze, causing her to rub her ears to see if she is hearing things when her eyes notice how the shadows seem to shift ever so slightly whenever a faint cry of fear drifts past her ear. As a low fog begins to seep into the castle and drift around her, an uneasy chill crawls up her spine when she hears Nathan stand up with a low chuckle. Turning towards him as the fog gets thicker and heavier, she asks uneasily, "Wha-What's so funny, we just broke up?"
Returning to a standing position, he brushes himself off, saying as ghostly echoes repeat his words, "Didn't we build a house and home, didn't we?"
The creepy sensation and sounds send her spine tingling as she takes a step backward for the first time in her life, hearing him continue, "Didn't we raise you all alone, didn't we?"
Nathan's dark side remains in control and makes his body take a few steps towards her, saying, "Then you took her from me, stole my Luna. You're to blame!" He then glances at the ground for a moment, asking himself briefly, "Have I failed my daughters?" Then looks up at his ex and says, "Then let the father die...and let the MONSTER RISE!"
Act I, Scene V: Bloodbath
Author's Note
This is the end of Act 1, hope you all enjoy it!
Act I, Scene V: Bloodbath
Celestia backs up and feels herself hit a wall when she watches his face transform from the loving father-figure she once loved and cherished slowly morph into a face that makes her want to hide under her bed. As he continues to approach her, he puts his gloved hands to his hair and slicks it back, then pulls a pair of long-handled scalpels from his outfit. The sight somehow terrifies her beyond capable thought as he draws closer and raises one of the scalpels into the air to attack her.
Fighting to free herself, Equina manages to finally get free at the cost of leaving a nasty gash in her flank and shouts, "PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST HIM CELESTIA OR HE WILL GO AFTER YOUR DAUGHTER!"
Unable to react in time, she watches him start to swing his scalpel towards her and squeezes her eyes closed to prepare for the pain. When she hears a sharp and swift 'shring' of the scalpel cutting through the air, she pisses herself in fear as tears slip from her face as she starts to sob.
Intentionally making a cut on her throat deep enough to leave a scar, the dark entity scoffs and says, "Death is too good for you..." then grabs her by the throat and lifts her up effortlessly, then slams her back against the destroyed podium, saying, "What you deserve...is punishment, and suffering is good for the soul..." Then rips the hand away crushing her throat and leaves her to fall to the floor in a heap and storm towards the throne room doors.
As she curls up on herself, never feeling so scared of the world before, she feels herself shrink down to the size of a little filly and cries out, sobbing, "Momma...where are you momma? I'm so scared!"
Sighing as Celestia's mind fractures from fear, she speaks into her mind and asks in a loving tone, "Celestia, would you like me to use the spell that was used once before to send a foal into the currents of time to a much safer place?"
Nodding her head as sobs tear their way out of her, she cries out, "Please! Please send her away somewhere safer, there are too many monsters outside!"
Using her magic, Equina makes herself appear before Celestia as the throne room doors slam shut with a resounding boom, though one doesn't stay closed and vibrates partway open. Laying her right hoof on her withers, she begins to lovingly stroke her mane, saying, "Very well, I shall take on your appearance and dismiss your foalsitter before sending your daughter on her way."
Nathan makes his way to his castle lab to pack up his equipment, saying, "Tonight...we are betrayed...make Celie pay...at the Gala, tonight."
Taking on Celestia's form, Equina adopts her voice as well and asks, "Do you wish to accompany me to your daughter's room, or do you wish to stay here?"
Gathering her courage through her sniffles, she rises to her hooves and says, "I will lead the way and dismiss her, there's a challenge for her dismissal to be accepted."
Following along, she makes herself invisible, saying, "Very well, lead the way then."
When the dark entity returns to his castle lab, he packs everything up and heads to his hidden lab as he can feel the day several hours away from nearing its end. Pulling out his other plague mask, he then sets it on the table as dark inspiration comes to his mind. With a grin he pulls out some tools to adjust the mask's appearance, he melts silver down and shapes it into tiny, flat, razor sharp teeth while altering the beak to make it seem angry and snarling. He then takes his time to carefully pop the eye lenses out and tracing their shape and thickness on a piece of paper, then searches around for what he has on hand for rubies.
It takes him an hour to find the proper rubies to serve as new lenses, using fire and magic to mold the rubies into the proper shape and thickness before carefully popping them back into the sockets where the clear lenses came from. With the ruby lenses in, he turns the silver toothed plague mask toward him and enchants the lenses to allow him to see his surroundings at night. However, once the enchantments take hold, he notices that the enchantments make the lenses have a magical glow to them.
Standing up and making his way to a mirror, he holds it up and looks at it with a sinister smile, saying, "This will do quite nicely..." Putting it down on the table, he heads to where his black leather uniform that was issued to him by GeneCo's founder, Rotti Largo, to serve as a repo man. Looking at the outfit stirs his memories, he notices the company's patches at the top of each glove and tears them off then tosses them into the fire.
As he then starts to get dressed in his suit, he starts to hum a tune to himself. Once he has everything on and his surgical instruments with him, he picks up his mask and starts putting it on when he starts singing in a sinister tone. Picking up his hat, he makes his way out of his hidden lab and grabs his enchanted bag, then heads out to meet the ponies on their way to the Gala.
The video does not belong to me, all rights belong to the creator!
Replace Nathan's verses saying opera with Gala, for his part's relevance stops before 1:10
Unable to witness the events while out of her dimension, Equina follows little Celestia up to her room while invisible. Entering behind her to hear the foalsitter ask about why she is so small, she hears her dismiss her worries as just a temporary state due to her emotions being so low at the sudden disappearance of her sister and having to defeat a new foe calling herself Nightmare Moon. Smiling at how skillfully she avoided telling too many details, she hears the foalsitter say, "When the sunset leads to moonrise."
Without missing a beat, Celestia say, "The setting moon shall end the day and give way to the start of another."
With a smile and a nod, the foalsitter gathers her things and makes her way out of the room, saying, "Goodnight, Your Majesty, I shall see you again soon?"
Shaking her head with a sad smile, the little alicorn says, "I'm sorry, but I will be taking care of my daughter now that I will have ample time to spend with her, thank you for your diligent and faithful service, Star Twinkle. I shall make sure you get paid well for tonight."
Nodding her head with a smile, the slightly off-pink mare with a midnight blue mane and tail says, "Alright then, I wish the both of you the best of luck in these difficult times. Are you going to attend tonight's Gala in the Grand Ballroom?"
Shaking her head, Celestia looks over at her daughter, saying, "Even though it is here at the castle, I will have my assistant attend in my place as I wish to spend tonight with my beloved little filly here."
When the foalsitter leaves the room and closes the door behind her, Equina lets her invisibility pass and walks up to the beautiful little unicorn, saying, "You gave birth to a pretty filly, Celestia, and I can sense a great potential within her if it can be guided along the right path."
Using her magic to carefully lift her daughter up out of her crib, she nuzzles her nose against her and blows a raspberry against her cheek playfully. With the filly being about a third her size, she can't really hold her too well and kisses her just below her horn, then looks up at the tall alicorn, saying, "Let's send her off to a better place so that she can have a chance at a life without the fears of the dark times around us." Before handing her away, she looks into her filly's cyan eyes as tears start forming in her own and says, "Sweetheart, I wish that you could stay here and be raised by me, but things are way too dangerous for one such as you. So I must sadly send you away for a better chance at happiness, goodbye...my little shimmering star."
Taking the crying filly clinging to her light pink baby blanket from Celestia's magic, she raises her up with hers and channels her magic for several long seconds until she disappears with a flash and a pop. With the room falling silent again due to the spell taking Sunset Shimmer away on the currents of time, Equina turns back to a miserably sobbing Celestia lying curled up in her daughters crib, saying, "You must do what you can to return to your former size, there is a monster out there and your subjects are in danger."
Not wanting to do anything but grieve right now, she sniffles and sobs, "Can't I just have a day or two to grieve over what I lost?"
Sighing sadly, she nods and says, "Very well, but do not waste a second more once 48 hours have passed, for the monster you unleashed will cause much more devastation than you could ever fathom." then lets herself return to her dimension and leaves Celestia to her grief.
Making his way out to the bridge, the dark entity spots the four guards watching the bridge in their golden helmets. Figuring out how to take them out without raising the alarm, he walks up towards them and secrets two throwing scalpels from one of his belts. Once the guards are in range and watch him curiously, he swiftly throws the scalpels at the closest pair of guards and watches them collapse onto the ground.
Approaching the fallen guards, he slits their throats to ensure they are dead before tucking them away into his bag and starts to cross the bridge as he spots glowing horns in the distance. Once he reaches halfway, he stops and calls out, "Excuse me, I seem to have gotten stuck between one of the planks, could either of you come here and assist me?"
The two guards furthest from the castle at the far end of the bridge turn their heads and see a doctor standing in the middle of the bridge, then turn towards each other as the guard on the right nods her head, saying, "I'll go, keep watch for the incoming guests."
As the pegasi guard makes her way to him, he waits for an opening as she gets close and leans her head down to look at the bridge. Seizing the opportunity, he leans over her and draws a long-bladed scalpel. Moving his right arm around her neck, he holds his left hand above the back of her neck and prepares to cut her throat.
Not seeing where he is stuck, she starts to lift her head up and opens her mouth to say something when she feels a sharp pain in her neck as something cuts across it. Attempting to shout for help, all that comes out is a wet gargle. As her eyes go wide in fear when she finds herself unable to breathe or shout for help, she tries to fight to get away as she notices her vision starting to fade, thinking, 'Please, someone help me! I don't wanna die! '
Once the guardsmare stops struggling and collapses onto the bridge planks, he stuffs her body into his bag and quietly makes his way across the bridge to murder the final guard.
Equina watches with tears flowing from her eyes at what Nathan's dark personality is doing, fully knowing that Celestia is not capable of doing anything at the moment when she checks in on her and sees her bawling her eyes out inside a silence barrier. Sighing and left with no choice but to watch the horror unfold until Celestia is back to feeling herself again, she says, "Oh Celestia, I wish that I could feel sorry for you right, but you are getting your just deserts for letting this dark personality out of its cage."
When he sneaks up behind the last guard, he swiftly places his left hand around her horn and jerks her head backward swiftly while cutting across her neck deeply. While her eyes go wide as he stares into hers, he hears her trying to scream and soothes her, saying, "Shh...just relax and it will be all over soon, I swear on my doctor's honor."
Once she dies and goes limp, he drags her across the bridge and places her beside the blood on the planks to make it seem from afar that she died from a disease. When he is done, he pulls out a torch and lights it so that the approaching ponies can spot the body and the bloody planks, then ties it to the bridge and heads to the far side as guests make their way to the castle.
When the first pony gets close enough to see the doctor, he asks in a posh, noble accent, "Just what is going on here, what are you doing here, doctor?"
The dark entity then calls out in a loud voice, "As you can clearly see the pony lying on the bridge, she has died from a new and devastating disease yet to be named. After examining the body, I have determined that her internal organs started to dissolve due to whatever was ailing her."
Backing away fearfully with wide eyes, he prepares to run away and shouts, "Is it contagious, how quickly does it spread?!"
Hearing what the doctor said about the new sickness, a pregnant mare prepares to run away screaming and raises one leg, shouting, "ARE WE IN DANGER HERE? DO WE NEED TO RETURN TO OUR HOMES FOR SAFETY!?!"
Raising his arms to calm the ponies, he says, "Don't panic just yet, everyone. After having scanned the body with my magic, I can say with certainty that the disease is spread through contact and not the air. However, it runs its course in three hours give or take if you should ever contract it, and there is no known cure...AT THIS MOMENT...but our best doctors are currently working on finding one. In order to remain healthy, I shall lead everyone to the castle's Grand Ballroom down a different path free of contaminated blood. So please wait here until everyone has arrived as a safety measure, after all...isn't there safety in numbers?"
As the first two ponies nod and answer, saying, "Yes." the gathered ponies all make themselves comfortable as best they can without getting too dirty, when another speaks up, saying, "Yeah, we'll wait as long as possible to avoid another outbreak of the measles or Celestia forbid...the Black Death!"
It takes an hour of waiting around until all the guests arrive as the dark entity waits another half hour to be certain no one else will show up late and ruin his plans, saying, "Alright, apologies for making you all wait for so long, but it finally seems that everyone is with us at long last. Please rise and follow me towards a safe passage through the ravine."
The ponies sigh in relief at finally getting to attend the Gala and rise to their hooves as the doctor ties a sign around the two posts reading, 'NO ENTRY' with an image depicting a sick pony dying from a disease. When he starts heading towards the left side of the cliff further away, they follow him and head down a path big enough for two ponies side-by-side.
Holding a torch in his hand to guide the way as he uses a subtle spell to fill the ravine with a low-lying fog, he says, "Mind your steps in the fog or you will trip and slide all the way down to the bottom and ruin your outfits!"
After hearing that, they slow down and space themselves out a bit as a mare says, "Thanks for warning us, doctor, you're a life saver!"
Equina watches with bated breath as the dark personality leads the ponies around the twisting ravine in large circles, saying, "Please realize that it's a trap, somepony..."
Eventually, the ponies lose sight of the doctor and wander around aimlessly to find him while a few startled shrieks are heard, making a few of them nervous when one of the mares shrieks and shouts, "NOT FUNNY DOCTOR, COME ON AND LEAD US TO THE GALA ALREADY SO WE CAN ENJOY OURSELVES."
Another mare shrieks, but then starts laughing, and calls out, "WATCH YOURSELVES EVERYPONY! THE DOCTOR'S BEING A RIGHT TRICKSTER, HE IS! MY FLANK JUST GOT GOOSED!"
As she watches fearfully as the ponies get picked off one by one, laughing each time one of them cries out in fright, she stomps a hoof on the ground, shouting, "STOP LAUGHING AND REALIZE THE DANGER YOU'RE IN YOU FOALS, DON'T YOU REALIZE HOW FEW OF YOU ARE LEFT ALREADY?!"
Once he has enough bodies to display in the Castle's Grand Ballroom, he casts an illusion upon the two pathways up to either side to hide them from view and makes way back up to the bridge to retrieve the guard's body and clean the blood off the bridge. Hopping over his fake sign, he approaches the dead mare's body then puts her into his bag with the five hundred party guests and snuffs the torch before putting it away. Using a spell to remove the stain, he reenters the castle quietly to begin clearing it of the remaining guards and staff.
Equina stomps her hooves helplessly as she shouts, "SOMEPONY PLEASE SEE WHAT HE IS DOING AND WARN CELESTIA!!"
As if to answer her prayers, Star Twinkle finishes bathing and gets dressed to report for duty, leaving her chambers in her maid's outfit and makes her way down the halls when she hears a sharp 'shrinng' followed by somepony collapsing onto the ground. Making her way towards the sound, she hears a door creak open around the corner just ahead along with a pony saying, "What was that-" but is cut off, making a gargling nose before a dull thud is heard. Trotting forward and turning the corner, she comes face to face with the sight of a doctor wearing a plague mask with red lenses and having a snarling beak with sharp, silver teeth. Her eyes also notice that there are at least six bodies lying in the hall, two of which have their innards lying on the floor in heaps. Reacting instantly, her eyes shrink to pinpricks as she throws her head back and screams bloody murder, shouting, "GUARDS, PRINCESS CELESTIA! THERE'S A MAD DOCTOR ON A MURDER SPREE!"
Grinning at another idea coming to him, he jogs up to the screaming pegasus mare and knocks her out with a swift punch to the head and then returns to put the bodies into his bag. Picking her up and putting her on his shoulder, he heads down to the kitchen. When he arrives, he lays her down on the table gently before binding her hooves together and securing her wings against her body, lastly tying her mouth shut as he leaves her there to go fetch what he needs from the dungeon.
When Star comes to again, she opens her eyes to find herself up in the air when excruciating pain suddenly registers in her wings and hips, causing her to scream out in agony, "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH, IT HURTS!!! PRINCESS CELESTIA HELP ME PLEASE!"
Locking herself in her room, bawling her eyes out, Celestia finally quiets down to sobbing miserably as she hears one of her favorite classical songs start to play rather loudly. Slowly being brought out of her depression, she checks the clock to find that it is nearly midnight. Figuring out that she has been crying for six hours, she sighs at knowing she should eat something and makes her way to her door.
When she exits her room, however, she hears only silence and the song. Making her way down the halls, she reaches the stairs to find a couple of guards asleep on their hooves and clears her voice, saying, "Just what do you think you two are doing!?" When they don't answer her, she stomps up to them and lifts their heads up with her magic. Once she sees that their throats are cut, the chilling realization hits her that they are dead , causing her to gasp and step back quickly while asking herself out loud, "Just what is going on, why are these two guards dead?"
Needing to figure out what is going on, she heads down the stairs to find another dead guard lying in front of the stairs in the corner with a maid at the foot of the stairs with a silver tray with apples scattered across the floor and a shattered jug of orange juice forming a puddle down the last two steps. Walking down to check on the maid, she jumps away with a brief scream when she sees that her head is nearly severed from her body and her insides are spilled on the floor. Tears worm their way from her eyes as she knew this maid, saying, "You must have seen who did this and tried to fight, then flee...but why would someone go after a maid?"
Celestia then hears a faint scream echo down one of the halls and begins to chase it to find the pony it is coming from. Making her way down the passages of the castle, finding more castle servants and guards dead wherever she turns, her heart sinks towards her hooves as tears continue to fall from her eyes, saying, "No...please don't tell me they are all dead!"
However, as she checks the rest of the castle while hearing the song start to play over again, she learns that a great number of them are not where they should be. Following the screaming, she hears a familiar voice and gasps, shouting, "STAR! I'M COMING TO SAVE YOU, HOLD ON AND FIGHT BACK!"
Relieved at hearing the princess's voice, she looks behind her to see that she is suspended in the air on meat hooks through her wings with a rod jammed through her body in front of her hips. With the rod secured to the chandelier by chains, she turns her head to face forward and shouts, "I CAN'T, I'M SUSPENDED IN THE AIR BY MEAT HOOKS AND A ROD! MY WINGS ARE USELESS, PLEASE GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!"
Racing past her dead servants and guards, she arrives at the Grand Ballroom where the Gala should still be in full swing and shoves the doors open to reveal a scene she would haunt her for the rest of her life. Looking around the room, she sees blood splattered everywhere and running down the walls as intestines are draped around the room's ceiling like streamers. As she walks further into the room, she sees the party guests' bodies posed around the room, with some of them dancing together and others on a stage holding instruments as if they were playing them. Noticing that there are guards stationed around the room, a closer look shows that they too, are dead and posed with either swords or spears in one of their hooves or in their sheaths. Turning her eyes up to look at the chandeliers, she sees several body parts attached to the elaborate design of each of them. Her back legs tremble as her eyes start to go wide with fear, but snaps herself out of it and shakes her head to be rid of it, saying, "Hold on Star, I will get you down, so please keep your eyes on me the whole time."
Doing as she is told, she nods and looks down at the princess, whimpering at seeing the dead guests and guards posed around the room with her tail between her legs, saying, "I..I wanna move to Canterlot... this castle is too scary."
Carefully getting her wings off the hooks, she slides the chain loops off the ends of the rod and lowers her to the ground, saying, "So do I...I need to remove the bar, this will hurt a great deal."
After removing the bar, Celestia uses what magic she can to stop the bleeding and asks, "Can you walk at all?"
Unable to fly with her wings, Star gets up onto her hooves shakily and tries to take a step. She stumbles and falls, but gets up and tries a few more times, causing her to shake her head, saying, "I'm sorry, Princess Celestia, but I-I cannot...will I ever be able to walk or fly again?"
Shaking her head, she says, "I'm sorry, I do not know the answer. Let's get you to Canterlot so that a doctor can tend to your wounds."
At the mention of the word doctor , she scrambles back and away from Celestia, screaming, "NO, I DON'T WANT ONE OF THOSE MONSTERS TO LAY A SINGLE APPENDAGE ON ME!"
Confused, Celestia says, "But only a doctor can properly treat your wounds, surely you can-" but is cut off from saying any more.
Pissing herself in terror her eyes widen to the size of dinner plates as her entire body trembles violently, screaming, "IT WAS A DOCTOR THAT DID THIS TO ME!"
Stepping over to a rope, the dark entity chuckles in his dark corner and says, "Since you both wish to leave, I guess it's time for the party favors..." then pulls it off the hook and lets it go, looking up to the ceiling to watch his final presents fall to the floor all around them.
Unable to keep themselves from looking, the two mares watch as large balloons fall towards the floor. When they hit the floor and burst apart, blood and organs come spilling out as hooves and other body parts rain down upon them.
Watching with a grin as blood drenches them both and a heart lands upon the tip of Celestia's horn, it spears itself on it when the two scream in horror. Chuckling darkly, he then strolls past them and towards the doors, saying, "You best leave now before the ghosts get you..."
Celestia stops screaming at the sound of the familiar voice as Star stops screaming as well, turning her head to see her ex lover and adopted father wearing a plague outfit with glowing, ruby red lenses, and a snarling beak filled with tiny, silver teeth. Attempting to blast him with her magic, she finds herself unable to summon her magic for some reason as she finds herself shrinking even smaller. When he turns his head to look at her, she finds herself sniffling before throwing her head back and screaming, "MOMMY! WH-WHERE ARE YOU MOMMY! I'M SCARED!"
With a sadistic grin of satisfaction on his face, he then laughs and says, "Oh your suffering is just beginning, Celie..." and strolls through the doors to vanish into the night to think of what to do next.
The two mares eventually do leave the castle as a toddler-sized Celestia uses several teleports to reach Canterlot, with the princess leaving a sign on the front doors into the castle reading, 'DUE TO A RECENT ATTACK BY NIGHTMARE MOON, THE CASTLE IS IN RUINS AND HEREBY ABANDONED. TONIGHT'S GALA IS CANCELLED BY PRINCESS CELESTIA'S DECREE.'
Meanwhile, Nathan wrests control from his personality and leaves his hidden lab, making his way to the ravine with a lit torch. Upon reaching the bottom, he holds the torch high and occasionally calls out, saying, "Can any of you hear me at all, call out!"
One of the ponies still down in the ravine hears him and looks around, finding the distant torch and calls out, "Oh there you are doctor, we were worried that you left us here to starve!"
Shaking his head, he says, "Apologies for making you think that, but I was called away for a bit. I just came back from the castle and found out that tonight's Gala has been canceled due to an attack that occurred a few hours ago, carried out by the frightfully powerful Nightmare Moon."
A mare in the group huffs and says, "I've never even heard of this Nightmare Moon pony, do you know anything about them?"
Nodding his head, he answers, "I know a little, but I saw the fight between Celestia and the strange Alicorn. Apparently, she is quite strong, strong enough to knock Celestia out of the sky." His tale enraptures the ponies' attention, earning gasps all around as even more arrive to hear and finishes, saying, "Though knocked unconscious from the high fall, she was not down for long as she retrieved the elements from their hiding place and returned to the sky. Facing down the twisted mare, she used the elements to banish her forever to the moon. Pray that she never returns, or else..." and pauses for dramatic effect, creeping towards the mare that huffed. Looming over her suddenly, he shouts, "she'll shroud the land in eternal darkness!"
The unicorn mare shrieks and falls over backwards, causing a few of the others to giggle afterwards at her when the doctor helps her back up. Blushing from the excitement coursing through her, she coughs to recover her composure and says, "Then, well...I hope she stays banished forever." Turning to the others, she says, "Let's head back home everypony, tonight's fun is over."
Getting an idea, the dark entity takes over again and raises one hand into the air with his right forefinger extended into the air, saying, "Let me share with you one more tale before you go, one I saw with my very own eyes..."
Turning around to face him once more, they make themselves comfortable and listen intently as they hear him continue while glancing over his shoulder in the castle's direction.
Continuing on, he says, "After Nightmare Moon's attack, however, I walked amongst the ruins of the castle. Everywhere I looked, there were ponies lying everywhere. As I went up to each of them to check if they were alright, but discovered...their throats were all cut. I then wandered through the rest of the castle, seeing dead ponies wherever I turned. When I arrived at the Grand Ballroom, my eyes could not believe the horror I saw. Dead ponies were everywhere, posed in such a way to make it seem they were enjoying the Gala to the fullest. Guards were stationed around the room, with spears in their right hooves, or with swords sheathed at their sides. Dead musicians were on stage, posed into holding the instruments they played as if in the middle of a song. The party guests were stationed either dancing together on their hind hooves, grabbing a snack at the buffet table, or standing off to the sides having conversations. None of them were moving at all, yet I could hear music playing, the muttering of conversations, and the clattering of silverware and utensils being used."
The young unicorn mare that fell over backwards listens to the story with wide eyes as she breathes softly while the doctor walks around them, unaware of her tail hiking way up and flagging, softly thinking, 'More, more! I'm so close now... '
Spotting the mares flagging tail in the corner of his lenses, he keeps his attention on the group and says, "I then turned to leave when I heard a plate fall to the ground and shatter, causing me to spin my head to the left to see what it was. I came face to face with a full length mirror that showed horrifying sight of me in my outfit soaked head-to-toe in blood, still dripping wet off the tips of my gloves. When the music suddenly cut out and stopped, I turned my head to see that the bodies were gone and the room was just in ruins. I then turned back to look into the mirror, but it was gone as well..."
Now aware of her flagging tail, but is unable to lower it as she is too aroused by the story when she notices the doctor standing right behind her tail, watching through a haze as he kneels down and places one knee against her rear. Ready to tip over the peak, her tongue presses against the side of her cheek, thinking, 'Come on...just a little bit more... '
Preparing for the end, he rests an arm across his knee and asks, "Now I must ask you all... Were my eyes playing tricks on me, is the Castle of Two Sisters haunted, or..." then slowly slides his arm off his knee and lets it hang towards the ground, preparing to suddenly reach up to the excited and overly aroused mare's sides as he finishes, asking, "am I a vicious killer?"
Barely able to see anything through the haze, she looks up at the two red dots when she hears him shout, "RAAAWWWRR!" and slap his hands onto her sides, which sends her screaming over the peak as she gushes and squirts all over his leg. Once her muscles stop spasming out of control, she races away screaming as the others follow after her.
Standing back up, he watches them run away screaming and laughing with a chuckle as he hears the young mare cry out, "Oh Nightmare Night, what a fright, let's go find something good to bite!"