Dear reader! Whether you are new here, archive-reading and whatnot, or you are already someone who has been with us for quite a while, I would like to say a few words that I believe are best kept close to mind.
-This is an MLP quest. And more importantly, none of us are gratuitously cruel. So good things will happen on this quest, and I hope that enough good things have already happened to prove that.
-This is also a horror quest, so bad things will happen. Bad things might happen to good characters if you are not able to protect them, and you most certainly will not be able to intervene if you lack the tools to do so.
-And finally, this is a quest in which you jostle with powers greater than yourself, with all that it entails.
Please, do keep those things in mind as you go forward. But ultimately, this is also a quest in which it is hoped we all have fun! So if any of the above points is not exactly your cup of tea, or somehow make the experience as a whole "not worth it", then this quest might not be for you. Which is fine! Individual tastes are a thing, so don't think any more about it if you don't want to read anymore. And regardless, I hope you have a lovely day!
Readers should take their own mental health into consideration when voting and not subject themselves to triggering narrative elements like rape or constant mental torture of a friend just for the Greatest Good of a world that doesn't exist.
If those are fine for you or Regrettable is even more triggering, then GREAT! More power to you. But you aren't a bad or selfish person for picking the option that keeps the characters you've emotionally connected with safe. [REDACTED for spoiler warning]
This is a high intensity quest that doesn't hold back when it comes to horror and negative consequences. Take care of yourself.
Diplomacy would be better fitted with Grail, Winter is more about Beauty and Death, Stewardship.. ehh you can mix a few of them up depending on what you need
A Lantern-Seer would make for one hell of an auditor. Perhaps a bit eccentric, but once you get past the simplest mysteries that's common to all aspects.
Colonel-Followers for debt collection, of course.
Grail is more about seduction, of all sorts, I believe. Heart-followers are affable. Perhaps too affable.
I believe Winter probably would come close to CK2 Stewardship; people who align to it tend to be quiet, diligent, orderly, stoic sorts. Sometimes very not good with people. Sort of like technical support types who're great with machines but hate anything to do with the users.
Forge could fit too, but that seems a bit more towards making the money. Winter would fit better for managing what you have; Forge types can get a bit... instrumental.
Rule of thumb is that the 'sweet spot' for update length is between 2000 to 3000 words. Longer means that people have difficulty finishing updates in available free time - you need to be certain that your writing is good enough to have somebody put aside a quarter hour for reading alone, while most things shorter than 2000 words tend to feel incomplete.
this is a good point. Generally speaking shorter updates mean that the readers will read/answer more quickly, at the very least, while they might wait if the update is too long. If it's good though they'll read it anyway, though longer updates should ideally come with longer voting times.
Are there individual moments in which a pony's life changes forever? Can such a thing be truly pinpointed into a single point in time? Or are those moments, by necessity, the result of a long line of decisions and occurrences?
And what of the world? Do those moments exist for it? Are there moments in which the knots of HISTORY converge, and spear towards the future in a different direction?
If those moments exist, then this is surely one of them.
You are Princess Luna, and you feel… conflicted.
It is late in the night now, late enough for it to be almost morning, and you stand on your balcony looking down at Equestria, or at least the parts of it that fit within your view.
So much has changed, so many things have happened while you were… away. You recall the time when you could see the entirety of the pony kingdom if you just flew up from the Castle of the Two Sisters. The farthest settlements would not even reach beyond the horizon, and you could gaze at all of your charges, those you were meant to protect, from that singular point of vantage.
Or at least you think that's what you recall… you have the impression that you used to have that feeling, at least. But now, although your balcony is high on the side of a mountain, you can only see a small parcel of Equestria from your room.
You let out a conflicted sigh. "Your room", that's… a way to put it.
You wish you could feel angry, your wish that you had the right to feel angry, but you don't… you know you don't. The Castle of the Two Sisters is in ruins. You turned it into a ruin, as far as the history books go, much like you made a ruin of half of Equestria.
Yes. A ruin. You are not blind to the magnitude of your crime.
You sister tries to hide it from you, but you have enough memories from back then to know that some of the rivers and lakes that you gaze upon were not there before, and those do not appear in a mere thousand years. Not to mention certain hills, near and far, and an entire mountain range at the edge of the horizon that just seem unnaturally wrong. You know just how much destruction your duel with your sister must have wrought.
And that is just a parcel of your crime, the part of it that you committed against your people. Equally heavy in your heart is the labors that you have forced upon your own sister after that. Upon your beloved Celestia.
She was left behind, and it was up to her to clean up the mess. Rebuild the cities, care for the survivors, and carry the weight of the sun and the moon on her shoulders. She had to do all that so long ago, and for so long… And yet, for all the horrible things you have made her go through, she still loves you. She even had the care to have this room ready for you when you returned, something about her excitedness when she showed it to you telling you that it probably looks almost exactly like your old one.
So you know there are several things you don't have the right to do. You have no right to feel angry about any of this. You have no right to be ungrateful about anything you have been given. And you most certainly do not have the right to keep failing at your duties as you consistently have these past months.
"So why do we feel so…" you place your hoofs over the marble fence of the balcony, resting your head against your forelegs.
So why do you feel so wrong?
Despite your horrible transgressions, your sister (and your people, if she is to be believed) has welcomed you back with open hoofs. Equestria stretches and prospers far beyond the horizon. Even the dream realms are peaceful, with you needing but to intervene in a few dreams every now and then.
Everything is how it was supposed to be, isn't it? Everything is fine now… right?
"So why can't we help but hate ourselves?!" you bang a hoof against the fence of the balcony, hearing a small cracking sound.
You take a deep breath, trying to still your thoughts. Wrath will not do, you repeat inside your head, and neither will breaking anything, you think as you slowly take your hoof from the ruptured surface of the fence.
But the question remains. Why are you feeling like this?
You don't know. And that might be the cause of the whole problem, you don't know anything.
You are conflicted, your every day and every thought haunted because you have been made ignorant of what truly transpired.
Your sister insists that it is a mercy from the Elements of Harmony, and she refuses to go into any detail, saying that if the Elements think it wise for you to forget, then it is probably for the best that you do. But the fact remains that you have absolutely no recollection of what happened, what you did or why you did it.
You do not even remember how your life used to be before your return.
The very last memory you have is a vague recollection of you raising the moon and doing your duties, some nebulous gestalt of how you think your life was, over a thousand years ago. But after that, there isn't even a blank, there is nothing at all, just the blinding rainbow light of the Elements of Harmony that you saw before collapsing in the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters, a few months back when you finally returned. And the only things you have learned since is what some few fairy tale books are willing to teach, which amount to little more than misshapen folklores and puzzling holidays.
Not even a solid memory from your childhood remains, if you even had one. Only vague flashes of lessons from Star Swirl, several disconnected feelings and reminiscences, and a puzzling impression that your sister's mane was of a different color.
But that's just not fair. It's not fair that you don't remember.
And you don't mean its not fair to you, you don't deserve fairness after what you did. This thought tortures you because it's not fair to Equestria. It's not fair to your beloved sister.
You failed. You hurt those you were supposed to protect, you betrayed the pony you love the most, and in the end she was forced to stay behind and pick up the pieces. And now that you are back, everypony including her is acting like there was no harm in that. Like there is no crime for you to pay for. As if you were innocent.
And you don't even understand what happened to you. You can't even remember what you did, or why you did it.
You don't even know what was the source of your greatest sin, Every time you look at a mirror you just see a pony who might do it all again since you have no idea of what caused it.
And that thought terrifies you.
Sometimes you think it would have been better if the Elements had erased you, together with Nightmare Moon. Celestia seems to be doing just fine all by herself, after all. But sometimes, you think that this, these doubts and confusion, just might be your punishment after all.
You look down, not towards the land far below, but at your own hoofs.
"But sister says we will feel better, someday, so… at the very least she deserves that we try to follow her advice."
That is the last comfort you have, although you do not deserve any to begin with. At least, despite all of this, you still have your sister. You might not remember anything, you might not even remember yourself, but at least you know her. You will always know her. And though you might not deserve the warmth that you feel when you are by her side, you know your presence makes her happy.
So you will keep trying, for her sake if nopony else's.
An auspicious chime comes from the great clock inside your room, and you know it is time. You close your eyes and concentrate on your horn, as using it still feels slightly strange. Not as strange as it was on the first few days, you recall that you literally choked on your magic on your very first try after your return. But it still feels like there is something a bit muddy about it, like there is something dirty inside of you that you cannot force out or clean no matter how hard you try.
However, you know that you are able to do this much, without having to bother you sister that is. This is one of the duties that you can perform, even if imperfectly.
You struggle with your magic, feeling it rebel against your will, the nerves inside your horn flaring in pain as your energy tries to force itself through what you can only describe as blockages. You feel those same nerves tug and wince through their whole extension, from those struggling points in your horn to the tip of your wings and hoofs.
"Just… Move…! Sky damn you!" you throw your patience to the wind, and force three times as much magic as you would need for this, using brute force in place of finesse. The moon practically shines with magic, the subtle glow around it increasing into a shockwave as you fling it down the horizon.
The effort leaves you panting. In anger, not exhaustion. But panting you are regardless.
Another failed setting of the moon. Another show of disappointment from "Princess Luna". You grit your teeth at the dark horizon, feeling your pulse rise as you realize that, with this, you will have finished the night without having done a single thing correctly. Again.
As you look to the horizon you feel a surge of energy heading towards it, its pulse elegant like a symphony while yours was a roar of anger, and you know that your sister is raising the sun from her own balcony, not far from you.
You almost feel her energy reaching out slightly towards you, like a comforting hoof.
But you do not care. You watch your stars being snuffed out by the coming light for a while longer, and make your way back into your room. Maybe in a dreamless sleep you will find a semblance of peace.
[Luna has failed in her task, and this has affected her. She will receive a "-5, Frustrated" debuff for the remainder of the night.]
You cover yourself in your blankets, the smell of the concoctions used to clean it still feeling unfamiliar to you, even after these past months, and close your eyes.
You feel a pair of hoofs shaking you, the sensation distant and numb.
"Luna…! Wake up sister…!"
Distant, yet insistent. Enough for your body to give up on ignoring it, despite your mind's protests.
"Luna!"
"Huh? Wai…" you blink at the dark-blue ceiling of your room, that is currently being eclipsed by something large and white, "Sister…?"
"Finally. You know, you are supposed to be the Princess of Dreams, not the Princess of Sleeping," you hear a gentle laughter.
But your mind is still too numb to process whatever she meant by that. Your pillows still feel too soft and warm around you.
"Why do you wake us, sister…" you finally say with a slurry voice, while you spy at your room's clock from between the embrace of your pillows, "t'is not even midday, sister mine… We must sleep…"
You hear her sigh, the kind of sigh that you know to be serious, even after being away from her for so long. Your mind immediately sharpens, and you are already shaking your head awake before her smile totally disappears from her face.
Your sister is conflicted. You see it as clearly as you would feel your own turmoil.
"Luna, there is… there is something I would like to talk to you about," she seems to be in deep thought, as if unsure of how to say something, "although I am not sure if…" but she hesitates once more.
"Thou hath never been one to pick thine words, sister, and you know that is even less needed with us," you say to her, shaking the last of your drowsiness away, an encouraging smile softly appearing on your lips, "please sister, you may confide in us anything."
One of your hoofs goes towards hers without conscious thought, but you see her doubts finally giving in at that.
"You are right Luna" she says, taking a deep breath, "and what I would like to talk about with you is… about back then."
You are taken a bit by surprise, in truth you were not expecting this. After all you have asked her about this subject many times before, albeit to no effect, for she would not reveal to you the truth about what had taken over you. You have asked her about it, pleaded to her, begged even. You have felt rage and impotence at her adamant decision not to reveal you anything, and even vented such feelings on her once. But in return, she would always ask back that you trust in the Elements of Harmony, then she would plead, then she would beg. Her emotions growing with your own whenever you attempted to breach that topic.
And in the end, after you had given up on your queries, she would always apologize.
Those had been puzzling experiences, for you could see that, somehow, those questions would hurt her as well. In the end she would always embrace you, and ask that you forgive her for not giving you any answers. And deep down you could feel through the bond that you share, the one that runs deeper than magic, that she felt pain in denying you as much as you felt for being denied.
So you had given up on asking or searching for answers, accepting the agony of your ignorance as a form of punishment. Coming to terms that the mockery that is your perceived "innocence" is but a burden you will have to carry forever.
But here stands your sister, right now, offering those answers freely.
You can see the conflict in her eyes. She must have given this a great deal of thought, and this surely is not being easy for her.
However, mystifying as this situation may be, you can't help but feel some sort of warmth in your chest. You have no idea why she had denied you those answers so far, but something deep inside you whispers that it is because she is trying to avoid something. Stop something from happening.
Many times, during sleepless days, you have wondered that maybe she was doing this because she thinks you are too weak, that she is protecting you from something. Maybe, you thought many times already, she fears that you will turn into a monster again if you remember.
But you also know that she can feel your struggles. And maybe, just maybe, her love for you has finally won over her caution, and she has finally decided to set you free from your doubts.
You will show her, you will prove to her that you are strong enough to remember what happened, that you are strong enough to stand by her side as her sister. You will prove to her that she can trust you, and that she needs not coddle you as a mere younger sibling. You can, and will, help her carry the weight.
You are not a monster, and you will never be one again.
"Oh sister, we can't express how much we…" you look into her eyes, and you can see reflected back at you your same doubts and fears. And you instantly know that she is thinking the same thoughts, fearing the same fears, and that both of you have arrived at the same conclusion.
The two of you nod at each other. No words are needed.
"The memories of that time are deep within you, Luna. The Elements of Harmony may have locked them away, but they did not erase them," she speaks, her tone a mix between soothing and serious as her horn starts to glow, "you will have to dig deep for it. But if you truly wish for it, then I am sure you will find them."
She touches your horn with her own, the two of them resonating with the strength of the bond you share.
"Open yourself to me. I will show you."
She places a hoof over yours and looks into your eyes with a trusting smile, before the light of your horns becomes so bright that you can't even see each other.
You feel her prodding at your memories, gently, and you allow her in. But she is merely showing you the direction. She will accompany you every step of the way, but it is you who must brave the darkness.
[Princess Luna is Entranced, she will receive a +10 bonus on her next attempt]
Open yourself to us. We will show you.
Down we go.
"Lu… Luna…? Luna…"
You feel a pair of hoofs shaking you, the sensation distant and numb.
"Luna…! Wake up sister…!"
When a surge of memories comes to you. A conversation between you and your sister, a flash of light as your horns touched. You wake with a start, sitting upright in an instant.
"Ouch! Horn! Be careful!" your sister jumps back at the sudden prodding in her leg.
But you are already standing up on your bed and looking around, your eyes not believing what they see.
"Sister of mine, is everything well…?" Celestia asks you, a mix of curiosity and worry in her voice, "thou sudden movements has us a bit worried."
Your ears almost spring up at that. You do not remember when was the last time that you have heard your sister use the Royal We.
"Celestia, thou art…" you turn towards her in surprise, and your eyes finally settle at her properly, the feeling of surprise within your mind tripling when you see it.
You notice that her eyes are nearly level with yours, only slightly taller, and that her mane and coat are covered in a tone of pink. Your mouth nearly hangs open as you realize that her calm, collected and mature expression is… nowhere to be seen.
Your sister is… young. Everything around you is…
"Thou art… in all honesty weirding us out, sister of mine," Celestia looks at you with confused eyes, but quickly shakes her head and gives you a shrug.
The Celestia you know does not shrug.
"As it may be, we have come to warn you that we shall soon set the sun, although we did not expect to have to wake you. Now if you will excuse us, we are tired from the day," she says, exiting your room before you can answer.
You can barely contain your excitement. In fact, you almost stop your sister from leaving, but you are too busy recovering from your shock to be able to call for her before she closes the door.
"Was everything… like this?" you take in the scenario around you, with more attention now, and you fell it. Your mind is slowly filling the blanks, drawing in form the deepest parts of your subconscious, the details becoming sharper as if some sort of veil is slowly being pulled from deep within your mind. "Yes… this is how everything was… This room looks so much like the one where me and Celestia were, when she did her magic, that…"
The idea finally snaps inside your head.
"Of course! We are in a dream!" obvious as it is in hindsight, that last idea finally connects in your head as you recall what just happened. As your mind finally makes sense of the conversation you had with your older sister, and that flash of light, followed by your waking up here right after.
Celestia must have put you in a dream so you could remember your past, so your mind would open itself more easily. Your heart starts racing at the prospect of finally learning about what exactly transpired one thousand years ago. But you quickly calm yourself, an instinct borne from an affinity with traversing the dreams of ponies warning you of a great care you must have.
You are in a dream. And that being the case, it is imperative that you do not disrupt it, or else you might wake up, and your chance be lost. You still your excited thoughts and calm your beating heart, you must tread with care now.
After all, you do not want to leave this dream until you learn what you desire.
Correct.
You nod to yourself, more focused now.
So… you are in a dream, and this dream seems to be formed from your own memories. They are your own memories if you are interpreting this correctly, since you can feel the world change slightly as you give it more attention, feeling more real with each passing moment.
If this is truly so, then you must retrace your steps. You absolutely will not follow through, of course. You will never again betray your sister, not even in a dream like this. But if you live through those moments again, if only you witness what transpired in your past that made you do such a thing, then surely you will learn what happened.
"But we do not even remember what we used to do…" you ponder, murmuring to yourself, "what actions should we take that might lead us in the correct way…"
The answer comes to you, suddenly, in the form of a soothing sensation.
It is almost like you are listening to a melody, but sweeter, deeper within your soul. You are feeling, of course, a great magic spell taking place, you are feeling the power of a single pony moving the very heavens.
But in all of Equestria, you alone are feeling something much more beautiful. You are feeling the love of your sister in motion.
"But of course… thank you, sister of mine. Once more you show us the way," you say out loud, hoping that Celestia is listening, from where you know that she stands at the side of your bed. You can almost feel her horn against yours, the soft sensation of her mind gently guiding yours even now.
You walk towards the door that leads to the balcony, at the far side of your room. And the whole world seems to open itself before you.
"We didn't remember how beautiful it was…" you whisper, your voice trembling with sentiment.
The sun is setting on the horizon, its slow descent painting the sky a brilliant orange, lengthening the shadows as if the world itself was closing its eyes to sleep. An entire town stretches around you, structures of wood and stone that by every right should be simple and rustic, but that were clearly made with love and hard work. Large streets paved with hoof-crafted stone go in every direction, occasionally ending in small parks with beautiful greenery. Commercial stands from which ponies are just now leaving speak of commerce and progress, at the same time timid and vigorous.
A feeling of warmth spreads in your chest, and you feel heavy with emotion. So this is how it was like. Everywhere you look you see hope and promises for a better future. Even the Everfree Forest is there, in the far distance, surrounded by great monoliths that pulse with gentle unicorn magic, signature of your mentor. The forbidding wild forest kept as tame as a walled off park.
The scenery feels incomplete, however. The purple night sky is empty and slowly becoming darker, but even that fills you with a long-forgotten happiness, for you know what comes next.
You force your hindlegs into a mighty upward leap and spread your wings as soon as gravity starts to claim you, while you focus your concentration on your horn. And as naturally as you might move your own hoofs, the moon follows your movement, appearing in the opposite side of the horizon and slowly taking its place in the firmament of the world.
You shout in joy towards the night sky, laughing as you haven't laughed in as long as you can remember, entire constellations appearing over your head for every second of joy that you feel. This is what you were borne to do, this is where you are meant to be.
You look down, and the entirety of the pony kingdom is visible to you. All of it is bathed by the light of the moon, and all of it is within your reach, under your watchful protection. Not even the farthest settlements, those small and faraway beacons of candle-light, need to fear the night, for they are under the protection of its Princess.
Equestria might be large and intimidating, its scars running deep from the recently ended madness caused by the God of Chaos, as much as that might have been years ago. Its dark forests and high mountains might be populated by terrible creature, and the pony kingdom might be tiny when compared to all the dangers that surround it.
But Equestria is also the birthright of ponykind. They need not fear the coming days for you and your sister are here. The two of you, together, will ensure that ponies reach that bright future. No matter how long it takes, she shall be their nurturing beacon in the day, and you shall be their watchful guardian in the night.
This is what you had forgotten, you realize as you take a deep breath, filling your lungs with the cool air of the night. This is what every pony feels, when they fulfill the calling that is written in their cutie marks. This is the joy that fillies feel for the first time when they earn theirs.
This is happiness.
You thank your sister, profusely and deeply, for allowing you to remember all of this. For allowing you to be here, right now. This might be but a dream, a faded memory from long ago, but you know that once you wake up your mind will be at peace. You have finally remembered who you are, and what you are meant to do.
And of course, you realize as well, you know where to go now. The next step in remembering is so obvious that you feel like a fool for not realizing it before.
Eclipsed by the full moon, you focus on your horn again, feeling the magic inside every last sleeping pony resonate in return. And as naturally as one might cross a door, you send your consciousness into the realm of dreams, that shining beacon of peace
This happiness is the happiness you felt every night, when you picked up the torch of responsibility from your sister. This feeling of accomplishment, of being there for Equestria, of being there for your dear sister, is what you have been missing every single day ever since you have returned.
Remembering it, remembering your duty and who you are, was the first step. Now, you take the next.
[Princess Luna is further Entranced, she will receive a +20 bonus on her next attempt]
Down we go.
You feel that you are going deeper now, and the image of a long and dark corridor stretches before you. Doors, locked by heavy chains, flanking you as you advance.
They are each an individual memory, you know, and they are each shut tightly behind multi-colored padlocks of many curious designs. One seems to be made of ruby, shaped like an apple, another has the complexion of a diamond about it. But why are there so many of them? Why are so many of your memories, hundreds, perhaps thousands, locked away?
There is somepony walking right behind you, lighting the way for you. That pony is tall and wise, and you immediately recognize it as your sister. That light, you know, is the golden light of her horn illuminating the path before you, casting away the shadows from that dark corridor and giving you the courage to press on.
Even though the light of her horn seems to remind you of the light of a Lantern.
Even though that Lantern seems to be giving off shadows, as if it is covered by Moths.
"Lu… Luna…? Luna…"
You feel a pair of hoofs shaking you, the sensation distant and numb.
"Luna…! Wake up sister…!"
You open your eyes, confusing memories from a few moments ago vanishing like a mist, the cold and hard reality of your room settling in its place.
"Luna please, you must wake up!"
Your eyes snap open, and you feel a slight burning sensation of tiredness from them. You have bangs under your eyes, you know, and the more you concentrate on the rest of your body the more you realize how weak you feel.
But above all else, you feel annoyed. And your feelings make themselves clear on your face as you glare at your sister.
"What is it, sister of mine? Can you not see that we were focused on our duty?" you snap at her, your voice slightly hoarse, "what cause do you have for bothering us?"
Your sister brings her hoofs away from you, backing off slightly, her expression an equal mixture of worry and sorry, and you feel annoyed at that as well. You know that she worries greatly for you, and that she has good reason for such worries.
And you feel annoyed at yourself for giving her cause to worry. "Annoyed at yourself" being the words you elect to use, in place of the more adequate "angry".
"But sister…" she says, sitting on the ground and trying to think of how to convey her feelings, "you have been at it for too long. We know it is so. Thou have been dream-walking since the last eve, and barely stopped but to raise the moon. It is nearly morning already, and as we wake up to raise the sun we still find you at it!"
"And what of it, sister of mine?" you retort, standing up from your sitting position and heading to your balcony, "is guarding the dream realms not my charge and duty? Is it wrong that I watch over the dreams of our subjects?"
Your answer is aggressive, and you can see your sister back off slightly at it, a tinge of hurt marring her expression as she hears your words. But you also know that she is somewhat… right.
You have been at it for too long.
There is something wrong with the dream realms, with the night as a whole. You feel it whenever you look at the skies, as if something is wrong with the empty space between the stars you place there, no matter how many new constellations you create to fill the void. You sense it whenever you patrol the dream realms, a maddening and unexplainable impression that you are being watched following you wherever you tread, keeping you on edge.
You experience it with your own eyes, in the form of the increased raids from the dangerous creatures of the wilderness. Monsters attacking settlements and small cities as if possessed, as if they are running away from something greater and more threatening than themselves, overwhelming militias and the small detachments of guards that you are attempting to found.
"But Luna…" you hear her words, her tone almost that of a whisper, "we worry for you… With each passing day your health suffers. Great as our subjects might think we are, the two of us still have very real limits, and we know that thou are fast approaching your own…"
But you will not burden your sister with that knowledge. She needs not to know of your plight.
No, watching over the night and guarding against its perils is your obligation. Your dear sister already has too much to worry about, as the cities grow larger and the need for order and guidance grows greater. She may have been borne for it, the sun in her flank may be the undeniable indicator that she is meant to guide and nurture, but you are her other half and you know her well.
You know that even her light has its limits, and by the love you have for her you will not allow anything else to be a further burden on her.
The fact that the dream realms also become greater, and that the borders between the pony kingdom and the perilous wilderness becomes more extensive, is your problem alone.
"We beg of you, beloved sister. At least sleep for today. Let us know that you at least allowed yourself to rest… please? For us…?" you hear her plead, but you shake your head in denial.
You do this for her, you think to yourself, hardening your expression much to your sister's sorrow. She already carries the weight of half the world on her back.
"Leave us be, sister of mine" you say, making it clear that you will not yield to her, "you have a kingdom to run, and subjects that await your light."
You sit at your balcony and focus on your horn, beginning the gentle descent of the moon towards the horizon with its glowing magic, making a point of ignoring Celestia as she dejectedly looks at your back. You can feel, even though you do not see it, that she tries extending a hoof towards you, but stops at the very last moment.
And that causes your heart to ache greatly.
It is only after you hear the door to your room being closed that you allow your expression to soften, and that you allow the sadness you feel, both yours and hers, to make itself known.
However, you still believe that your decision is the correct one. And with that, you walk towards the focusing circle you have in the middle of your room, the one from which your sister just woke you up, and send your mind back into the realm of dreams.
And some deeper part of you remembers this, some part of your consciousness that you cannot rightly identify recognizes this moment. Something was wrong, and you knew in your heart of hears that it was of the utmost importance that you found out what. Some great and terrible shadow was approaching, and you knew that you had to bend your every effort in order to find it.
[Princess Luna is Troubled, she will receive a +30 bonus on her next attempt]
Down we go.
Deeper now. Darker now.
The shadows around you are a physical thing at this point, almost as if they are a barrier in itself. You know that you would never have gotten this far without the light of your sister's horn, coming from behind you. You know that you are getting very close now.
The doors that flank your path, much like the shadows, grow larger and heavier, tightly shut with more chains and with more of the locks now. Some are even sealed with two or three of them, where before there would only ever be one, and you see the patterns growing more clear. The apple-lock next to the lightning-lock, the diamond-lock giving of itself to strengthen the butterfly-lock and the balloon-lock. The five crystal symbols repeating themselves in their lock-shapes, keeping the chains tight. Warding against those terrible and foreboding doors.
You think you hear noises coming from behind them.
You think the noises might be screams.
"Lu… Luna…? Luna…"
You feel a pair of hoofs shaking you, the sensation distant and numb.
"Luna…! Wake up sister…!"
You practically jump back from the focusing circle, eyes wide with shock even as a pair of hoofs tries to hold you in place.
"Lu, sister dear, it's allright!" you heave, struggling against that grip for a moment, until you finally recognize that lightly pink mane and the worried voice of your sister.
You are back in your room, you are awake.
You are trembling.
"Here Lu, everything is fine now," she brings you into a hug, the warmth of her coat making you realize that you are covered in cold sweat, "we are here with you, you are safe."
You feel her hoof gently stroking your back, her own fear and tension at your state diminishing as you calm down.
But as your memories grow clearer, and you realize just what she has woken you up from, another emotion quickly comes to the fore of your mind.
"Why hath thou woken us, you fool?!" you push your sister away, making her fall on her back, the surprise in her face second only to the hurt in her eyes. "Have we not told you before not to disturb us so?!"
"But sister dear," she starts as she stands up again, her tone small and defensive, her voice confused, "you were having a nightmare, we… We felt it! T'was almost as if you were in danger and-"
"And thou thought it best to intervene?! Thou trust not your own sister to fulfill her duties?!"
You have no patience anymore, you feel exhausted.
It has been weeks now, since you realized what is wrong, what has been haunting your every moment with a sense of dread and impending ruin. And it has been weeks now that you have tirelessly attempted to locate the root of said problem, the cause for said dread.
Something is wrong with the dream realms. Or rather somethingwrong is within the dream realms.
You do not know what it is, and the dream realms have grown vast and complex with the passing years. But you have seen the signs. There is something large and… abhorrent stalking the corridors of ponykind's sleep, some fumbling violation of everything that should be, trespassing in its halls. It leaves scraping marks against the cutie-marked doors and a not-smell of decay wherever it passes. But you have not yet managed to track it.
Or at least, you had not managed to track it until this very night.
The recollections and recent memories continue to return to you, even as your sister continues to gaze at you, speechless and worried, with eyes both confused and hurt. But you have no time to worry about it, not as you recall that…
That's right, you had just found it.
You have found the thing, that dark and perfidious creature. You came upon a dream-door whose markings were recent, and you made haste to follow its trail.
But, you remember, whatever it is that you were pursuing also has an intellect of sorts, even if animalistic and instinctual. You remember that the paths you followed were long and confusing, that it knew it was being followed, and in return was attempting to throw you off from its scent. Backtracking and going several different directions, trying to scurry away from you.
You remember that it also had its eyes on you, now, and that your pursuit had turned into a mutual hunt. You were stalking and being stalked, searching and being searched for. And you had very nearly found your prey.
Until your fool of a sister woke you up, that is.
"Curses of stars and sky…" you finally say as you remember all of it, "we almost HAD it, sister. We would have been successful, if you had just not interrupted us!"
"Thou almost had what? Please Luna we beg of you, tell us!" she grabs your hoofs in her own, and you can almost see the threat of tears in her eyes.
You sister is terrified. Terrified that her beloved younger sibling has been overextending herself for far too long now, and refuses to tell her the reason. Terrified that perhaps she is failing her dear sister, somehow, by virtue of not being able to help her. Terrified because she feels, through the bond that you share, that something great and heavy has been burdening you, and she does not know what it is.
Terrified that you have been pushing her away, that you are obsessed with something and that she is not there for you, even though she is trying her hardest to be.
But you are too tired to realize it. Too exhausted to know what to do. Too close to your quarry to give up right now.
For you have finally found it, and it will escape unless you return immediately. You know it.
"You have not slept in… we don't even know how long!" she continues, "you barely eat, or speak to anypony! You spend every waking second on the dream realms and… you won't even tell us why…!"
She hugs you once more, tighter than before, even putting her wings around you as if afraid that you will disappear if she lets go of you.
You know all of that, you can feel all of that clearly, because she is your sister, and there is nopony else in all of Equestria that you know so well, or that knows you as well as she does. Much like how you know that you will fall asleep if you but close your eyes, that your exhausted mind might just give in and doze off right here, if you are not careful.
And how you wish to do it, to have just a tiny bit of rest right here, in the safest place in all of Equestria: within the embrace of the one who loves you the most.
You snap your eyes open. You very nearly did.
"Luna, please, just listen to us and… Luna…? Luna?!"
You hear your sister's voice almost as if she were at a great distance from you, growing desperate as she realizes that your horn is beginning to glow, and that you are reaching with your magic towards the focusing circle that surrounds the two of you.
"Sister, please! Don't! We want to help, please let us help y-!"
You force your mind to cross to the other side, sheer willpower dragging your consciousness, even while your feelings, rationality and even your exhausted body begs you not to.
You open your eyes in the dream realms. Alone. This is a place into which your sister cannot follow you.
And whatever warmth that you were feeling from her tight hug, whatever fear that you were hearing from her voice, departs from you in an instant. Your senses become sharp as you focus on your surroundings.
You are back in the hunt.
The dream realms look like the inside of a castle, only without a roof. Corridors of hoof-crafted brick stones run in every direction, interrupted every now and then by pleasant courtyards and gardens with marble fountains. There is nothing to be seen if you look up, though, only an endless and starless blackness.
The not-stench hits you immediately, and everywhere you look there are signs of the thing's passing. Cutie-marked doors are covered in deep gouge, as if something had greedily attempted to force them open, and even the walls surrounding the doors seem to have been put under strain or suffered blows.
You spread your wings, more out of alertness than anything else, and gallop towards one of the doors. A quick and worried inspection reveals that it has not been breached, but you dare not breathe a sigh of relief.
The thing, whatever it is, is growing bolder now, perhaps even hungrier. Its attempts to invade the dreams of ponies are becoming more aggressive, and you shudder at the thought that it might succeed. So far you have only found its tracks, not the beast itself, but you dare not imagine what sort of harm it might cause if ever it manages to invade a pony's mind.
You follow the trail left by it as you head deeper into the dream realms, the trail of harmed doors and forced hinges, of broken fountains and violated walls.
Until you see it. Not the quarry you have been tracking, but your eyes fall upon the one thing that you have been dreading to find all along. On the very end of a dream-corridor stands an opened door, half torn open by wrongly-shaped claws, pulled clear from its hinged by twisted limbs and terrible strength.
You fly towards it, your heart pounding at the thought that somepony might be in great danger due to your failure, knowing that right now something that you do not even know what is has managed to invade the very dreams of one of your subjects.
You rush towards the door and cross it through the hole left behind by the creature, without a single thought or care for your own safety.
But your exhausted mind is all too tired for you to notice that the door lacks a cutie mark on its front. The sharpness of your attention is too dull, from weeks of hunting, for you to remember that the thing you have been pursuing had been waiting for this moment all along. For you to remember that it had also been hunting you back all along.
It does not cross your mind, as it would have if you had been more alert, that the creature you are pursuing could very well be tireless. That, although mindless and impulse-driven, the creature had shown you all the signs that it is very intimate with the concept of malice.
The "trail" had been a trap, a path of destruction made by design rather than mindless instinct, in order to guide you here, to make you worry. It had been waiting for this moment, for you to make a mistake, for you to return to this long and arduous game of cat-and-mouse with a sense of urgency, with just a little more recklessness.
Not even half of your body is through the hole on the "door" when the splintered opening closes around you like the teeth of a predator.
You let out a soundless scream as it tears into you, fangs that are not fangs piercing your dream-flesh, limbs that are not limbs digging into your very soul.
After that, there is only darkness.
You remember now. You remember everything.
The quarrels that you had with your sister, as you shouldered your problems. The certainty that this was an issue that you alone had to resolve, that this was a creature that you alone had to face.
After all, how could you have thought otherwise? This was your duty, back then. This is still your duty, even now.
This is what you were born to do.
Your sister is meant to guide and rule, to nurture and provide, to gently illuminate and provide warmth. It is her burden to make order and prosperity. Yours, on the other hand, is the duty to keep watch, to ensure the safety of the lands. To ensure the safety of her.
And even if it wasn't… you still couldn't have subjected her to it. She may be your older sister, but you know that she is too soft for certain things. You recall her fears in your battle against Discord. You remember her panic, as much as she hid it well from your subjects, when Star Swirl disappeared together with his companions, after his fight against a creature of darkness.
She may be strong and confident, she may be extremely powerful, but she is also… your sister Tia. And as much as you are the younger sibling, you will not allow anything to hurt her, no matter the cost.
Yes, you remember everything. That was exactly what was going on through your mind, and…
No… you remember almost everything. There is one final secret that has yet to reveal itself, but you feel now that you are falling towards it, almost as if you no longer have a choice in this.
[Princess Luna is Frightened, she will receive a +40 bonus on her next attempt]
Down we go.
You finally reach the end of that great corridor, the doors by your side growing heavier and bound with more chains as you went further and further. But a final door stands before you, at the end of that dark place, twice as tall as you are, large and oppressive.
You know that something is locked on the other side of that door, and though you have no idea of what it is you know that it is in there for good reason.
You think about hesitating, you think that something is very wrong and that perhaps you should not be here. You think that perhaps the Elements of Harmony did this, all of this, for a good reason, and that as much as your sister's love might have convinced her to bring you here, perhaps it is you who should agree with her now, and simply head back.
But the comforting hoof of your sister reaches your back, and you know what you must do. She will be here with you the whole time, lighting the way and keeping the darkness at bay.
Although her hoof feels like the bark of a dark tree, and her touch is cold like the wind of night. Although the shadow of her foreleg, cast by the Lantern-light of her horn, is longer than it should be, in a different shape of what it should be.
Your focus your magic on the tip of your horn, and direct it towards the great lock that binds the chains. Up until now the padlocks have all repeated themselves, on the doors that have thus far flanked you, they have all shared the same symbols. An apple, a butterfly, a balloon. Shapes that make no sense, but at the same time feel familiar.
But this final lock is unique, and you know that to be a sign of great importance. It is shaped like a six-pointed sparkle, surrounded by five smaller images of itself. It is shaped like magic, and like the grand project that Harmony has for the whole world. It is shaped like the future, delicate and precious, yet full of potential.
And you know that forcing that lock open will be a great transgression.
But you must know. You simply must.
You force your magic deeper into the lock, forcing its delicate mechanism from the inside out, demanding it to yield under your pressure.
And you hear a click.
"Lu… Luna…? Luna…"
You feel a pair of hoofs shaking you, the sensation distant and numb.
"Luna…! Wake up sister…!"
You open your eyes, seeing for a moment the image of your sister on top of you. But something is wrong.
"Sister…? What are you doing here?" you shake your head, the movement tiring and sluggish. You look around and realize where you are, "we are in the dream realms, sister of mine… How did you even get here?"
There is a heavy sensation in your head, as if something large is holding you by the mane, as if something wrong is stuck to the back of your head.
But Celestia doesn't answer you, she merely gives you a smile as if you had just made a joke or a cute remark, and simply nods for you to follow her.
"Come sister dear, there is something you must see."
Your mind is still in a haze, your vision swimming slightly as you get up, but you follow her.
You are sure that her mouth didn't move as she spoke, just now.
"Sister, please wait for us…" you try to say towards her back, your body growing weaker with every passing hoofstep, your voice becoming smaller as your breathing grows more labored, "we are not… feeling well, and…"
Your sister trots ahead of you, her steps light and confident, getting farther away from you. It reaches the point that you barely cross a corner, and you only see her tail making a turn around the next.
Was her tail not supposed to be pink? Or colored like an aurora borealis? Had her tail always looked like… that?
Until you finally catch up to her. She is sitting in the middle of a courtyard of the dream realms, looking up towards the endlessly dark sky. You nearly collapse by her side, but with a last ounce of your strength you manage to sit down next to her.
You are looking down, your mind hazy, your breaths short and choked.
You feel very sick.
"Look Luna, look!" your sister's energetic voice, a stark contrast to your own state, calls for you, "up there in the sky, can you see it?"
"See what… beloved sister…?" you practically heave the question back at her, but you look up anyways. As much as the movement seems almost impossibly tiring, as much as it causes your back to protest and ache, you still direct your eyes upward.
And you freeze.
"Do you see it now Luna?" she asks with glee, almost shaking with joy "have you finally realized it?"
You always thought the sky above and around the dream realms was just an endless sea of nothing. Like the night sky without any stars, or like an endless ocean without any life.
But how wrong you were, all this time.
You become paralyzed in fear, your already numb mind completely freezing when you finally see it.
The darkness, the endless forever that surrounds the dream realms. It is solid.
It is something.
"Oh Luna, you see it!" the thing by your side hugs you with joy, but you almost do not notice it. Your eyes fixed at the impossibly large scale of the darkness that hangs above your head.
It might be further away than the most distant of stars. It might be that it will never reach you, not in a million years, but it is still there.
It is still, and it has thoughts, eyes, and an endless hunger.
And it is looking back at you.
And another realization strikes you, like cold water dripping on your back, making its way into the feather of your wings.
The glow of the dream realms might be less than a pinprick for it, being too far away and weak for its light to ever truly reach it and be reflected back so you could see its true shape, although perhaps that is a mercy. But it is still the only light that you can see anywhere, perhaps the only light that exists in all of creation.
Perhaps it is the last light that exists in all of existence. And no matter how small and weak it might be, the fact that it is the only one… makes it a beacon.
"Yes Luna, that's right," it whispers inside your head, a loving mockery of your sister's voice, "your world's light… Its call is so irresistible…"
You realize without knowing how, you understand it in an instant. Every dream, every song, every thought of love and hope, it is all reflected here in the dream realms. Every colt and filly borne into a loving house, every new cutie-marked door that appears and starts emitting its own light, every new corridor and avenue and courtyard in the dream realms.
Everything makes the light stronger. Every single effort from you and your sister just serves to makes Equestria more visible.
As if you are raising a lamb just for it to be slaughtered.
As if you are planting a tree, just for it to be consumed by worms.
"And now that you have let us in, Luna… we will be together forever," the voice comes from all around you. Wrong now, deeper now, less like your sister now.
And only now do you begin to realize that something, some spawn from that infinite malice, is right by your side.
Only now do you begin to feel how her skin wriggles against your coat of fur, how her mouth seems to open until way past the end of her neck, how she seems to have so many eyes.
"Forever."
You feel that the wriggle of its body is growing more frantic, rubbing against you, forcing its way into your skin.
You would have moved away if you could, forced your way out of its embrace, ran or flied away as fast as your hoofs and wings could take you.
But you cannot. But your body simply does not feel like it is yours anymore.
A splitting headache flares inside your head.
The memories are so strong now, so overwhelming, that you almost forget that they are memories at all. You almost feel as if you are living all of it again.
Everything is going dark.
The very last thing you do remember, from back then, the very last thought you had in that moment, was of severing your connection with your sister, that bond that you share that runs deeper than fate and stronger than love. You would have felt pain in that if it hadn't been a split-second decision, but you had to do it. Like burning a bridge to fend off an invasion, although you were left in the wrong side, like blowing up a mine shaft after digging too deep and finding something terrible, although you were still far under the ground.
You knew in an instant what had just happened to you. You did not rightly comprehend it, but you knew all the same. And you absolutely could not let the same fate befall your sister. You could not let that thing crawl its way into Celestia, through you.
The very last thought you had, as you cut yourself off from the one thing you thought you would never lose, was that you had to protect her.
[Princess Luna is Terrified, she will receive a +50 bonus on her next attempt]
Down we go.
The door bursts outwards as soon as the lock is opened, a tide of darkness spewing out from it like a great river. It catches you fully, and you feel yourself being dragged deeper into it.
You try to look behind you, to scream at your sister for help, but her light is nowhere to be seen, snuffed out in an instant. You do not even hear the flap of insect wings as she blends away into the darkness, still watching with her many eyes, dancing away from the thing that was behind the door, heading towards a safe distance.
You feel the darkness hot against your body, against your mind, like a fluid that is neither water nor fire. You feel it like a prayer of malice spoken a thousand times over a thousand years. You taste it like an endless and primal hunger. You see it as an endless loop of decay, something which is never truly dead, but that is always becoming deader.
You drown in it.
The other doors, every single one of them, burst open as well, their own locks failing and breaking. Every single memory, every single thought and recollection, all of them are freed from their bindings. All of it engulfs you, surrounds you. Enters you.
The most horrible part, however, is that all of this feels familiar.
"Lu… Luna…? Luna…"
You feel a pair of hoofs shaking you, the sensation distant and numb.
"Luna…! Wake up sister…!"
You wake up, gasping for air in panic with the sensation of drowning still fresh in your mind. You crawl away from your bed as fast as you can, the very covers around you feel like they are squirming and crawling over your skin.
"Luna?! What's wrong? What happened??"
The sensations stop all at once. You are in your room, it is night, and Celestia is looking at you while extremely worried.
You look around, shuddering, taking in the scenario around you.
This is real.
Celestia is right here.
You are awake.
"Luna, what happened?" she asks gently, walking towards you as if careful of how you might react, "what is the matter with you sister?"
You pass your hoofs over your body.
There is nothing heavy crawling at the back of your head.
You are not bleeding.
You are awake.
"Its ok Lu, don't worry," she finally realizes just how scared you are, and moves closer to you, "whatever happened, it's all better now". She hugs you, gently, passing a hoof on your back, "Shh… its allright, sister is here…"
Celestia is white, and larger than you.
Her fur is warm against yours, and you feel her heartbeat against you ear.
This is not a dream.
You are awake…
You hug her back.
"By all your stars, Luna, your body is cold and you're shivering. Whatever happened? Did you have a… nightmare or something?"
You calm your breath, eyes closed against the warmth of your sister's body. She keeps stroking your back, and eventually you manage to answer her with a slight nod from your head.
"Don't worry then, I'm here with you. We will always be together…" she whispers into your ear, and you feel yourself slowly calm down at that.
"At least, for the next thousand years, right?"
Until her hug becomes tighter, so tight that you can barely breathe.
"C… es… tia?" you open your eyes wide in shock, not even managing to properly utter an answer, your breath being squished out of your body.
But when you look up, you see that the thing hugging you is not Celestia, and you are not in your room.
It is something with too many limbs, and too many eyes, and too many teeth.
And before you can scream, they all dig into you, and your body flares in pain.
But they dig deeper than just your flesh. You can feel that they don't just rend at your body and slice through your bones, they are also entering you. Becoming you.
And you in turn are becoming it.
You feel as it drinks from your panic, and bathes in your fear. You feel as it exults in your essence, for your essence is far greater than that of regular ponies whose dream-doors it greedily lusted for.
After all, you were never a pony to begin with.
You are much greater. You are a creature of order, your flesh born into this world by choice, obeying its laws of entrance by birth, and of departure by death. Your soul smells of the outside, of the void between the lights, of the very thing it eternally aches to consume with never-ending thirst. It drinks deep from your mind's memories, then your body's sensations, then the very cornerstone of your soul. It sees the purpose for which you entered the world, and the light that invited you inside, and the mission that you accepted, and the covenant that you have made with it. It licks greedily the marrow of your very being as it sees in there the echo of that thing, that music that grows with every light-born thought of mortals, that nascent beacon in the never-ending darkness.
It sees the light of Harmony, the shining core of this world, reflected in your essence, it sees the marks of the pact you made with it.
And oh, how it causes the creature to want.
The visions grow deeper with every passing moment, and far, far more horrible. You see the black emptiness from which the thing was borne, and the aftertaste of the dying light which fueled its birth. You feel its lust, its un-physical need to burrow into the heart of the world and reach for Harmony and its light and its music.
Its need to consume it, to make it deader and deader, but never truly dead. To make it like itself.
[Princess Luna is Horrified, she will receive a +60 bonus on her next attempt]
Down we go.
"Lu… Luna…? Luna…"
You feel a pair of hoofs shaking you, the sensation distant and numb.
"Luna…! Wake up sister…!"
You wake up already struggling, throwing your hoofs up in an attempt to shove them away from you, crawling through the floor to gain distance from the thing you know is not your sister.
"Luna silly, why are you running?" the thing says with glee, its voice splitting with two new tones with every word it utters, until you are hearing a chorus of deep, guttural tones, "did anything happen, dear? Did you have a bad dream?"
You look around horrified, your heart beating in your chest and your throat dry. Everything looks the same, every last part of your room. Even Celestia looks utterly normal.
Except for the smile on her face, and her voice. That horrible voice that shakes you down to your core.
"Calm down Lu," the thing calmly walks towards you, "why don't w-?"
"YOU. ARE. NOT. OUR. SISTER!"
You focus your magic on your horn, and a moment later a great beam of pale moonlight explodes out of it, ramming the thing through the wall, and blowing up a large hole on the side of the castle. You stop the magic only several seconds later, heaving, shaking. Your hindlegs collapse behind you, and you sit down involuntarily, shaking hoofs going to your face as you try, and fail to…
"Lu…" you hear that voice, Celestia's voice, in the distance.
Oh stars, no…
"Luna…?"
It sounds like its coming from all around you. The sky outside the castle is pitch black now.
"Luna…", the voice seems closer now.
Everything seems to be pitch black now.
"Luna…!"
You can't even see your own hoofs anymore. You can only feel the tears coming down through your face, and hear your ragged breath.
"Wake up sister…!"
The voice is almost upon you now. You hug yourself, closing your eyes although it makes no difference.
"Wake up," you hear a whisper on your ear, and feel somepony hug you from behind.
You expected it to be violent, you expected the claws of some great thing to grab you and squeeze the life out of your body, but it didn't come like that. Perhaps it was even worse, for you perfectly recognized that feeling.
The worst part of it is that you know that its Celestia's hug. You recognize that size, and that warmth, and the way that she crosses her hoofs over your chest as her mane slightly covers your face.
Except that it isn't.
"Why did you do that sister… Why do you hurt us…? Don't you recognize us? It's me, Tia, your dear sister…!"
And the words that it whispers are the same words you know that your dear sister shouted at you, over a thousand years ago, after you first struck against her.
The thing, you know, is already deep inside you. Whatever it had of animalistic before, it now has of malicious intellect. It has learned from all of your memories, and it is now as intelligent as you are.
And you know, deep inside of you, that it wants to have its sadistic fun with you.
You can't even hear your own sobbing anymore. There is only that thing's breathing, now.
And you know it is smiling.
The ground gives beneath you, or perhaps it never existed in the first place. The only thing you know is that the grip it has on you is a lot tighter now.
And that you are falling.
And the thing grabs you by the hindlegs and drags your down, deeper and deeper into the abyss that is itself. You try to scream but you feel you are choking, that thing around you is not air, it burns your lungs with the searing sensation of tar whenever your breathe it in. Although you know that you will never really suffocate or drown.
And you feel the thing's teeth bury into you, its bones made out of black nephrite or some other black crystal, sucking out all of your light with its very existence. It feeds on your body greedily, always finding a new place to pierce, always aware of a new way to elicit suffering and to take from you. Although you know that you will never truly bleed out.
And you feel the thing empty you of all heat, to the point where you cannot even remember what it feels like to move anymore. You don't even know if you have a soul, or if you ever had one. You are not even sure if you are thinking right now. Although you know that you will never freeze.
And it does all of that to you, and more, over and over and over again. And you remember that this is what was like during every single conscious moment while on the moon. Your energy always being drained, but never truly over, your soul always dying, but never truly dead.
For there is no final death while within this thing.
And you regret so very much that you remember it now.
[Princess Luna is Traumatized, she will receive a +70 bonus on her next attempt]
[Princess Luna has lost one sanity point. Nine remain.]
Down we go.
"Lu… Luna…? Luna…"
You feel a pair of hoofs shaking you, the sensation distant and numb.
"Luna…! Wake up sister…!"
You hear laughter. A horrible, disgusting laughter in your sister's voice.
There is not even any pretense anymore. The thing is enjoying every moment of this.
And you are powerless to resist.
"Get up sister dear, get up!"
Your hoofs move underneath you, your body jerking into motion without your conscious command. You feel a horrible itch, a maddening discomfort as if every single muscle within your body had been replaced with… things.
Wriggling things. Disgusting things.
Decaying things. Dying things.
But not dead things.
You can only watch from your own eyes as you clumsily get out of your bed, every movement alien and wrong. You can only cry as the things force you to breathe in miss-matched heaves.
You can't even whimper in fear as your body drags you towards the disturbing image of Celestia. Her expression leaking with malice, her smile too long and too cruel.
She takes your face in her hoofs looking you deep in the eyes, and you don't even have the control to look away. The wriggles, too, are behind your eyes, and they are keeping your stare fixed an unyielding.
You wish you could cry more, at least then maybe your vision would blur.
"Lu, beloved sister," she whispers, keeping your chin up with a loving hoof, "do you want to see what it will be like when more of us get here?" she asks, fangs showing up in the smile of a pony that is about to deliver the punchline of a joke.
You beg her, you scream at her, you implore for her to stop. You implore yourself to stop, wishing your mind would just shut down, wishing that you would die right here. Anything for this to end.
But your body does nothing like that. Instead, you see your vision jerk up and down in a wobbling "yes".
And she takes you by the hoof, leading you towards the balcony as an older sister might guide her younger sibling.
You look down from the balcony and realize that you are in the dream realms. But what you see is all the more horrible for it.
"You know, we already are in the dreamlands. We always have been," she says, her voice a perfect resemblance of your sister, only wrong, "but those that come first are too small and frail. Your very sight destroys them, before you even notice they are there. Your very presence dissolves them, like a bonfire might evaporate drops of a light rain."
You see it, all of it. The dream realms, its light so dim that the strain to see through the darkness is almost painful. Every single door, every single dream, covered in those horrible things. Great and small, long and thin, tearing down at doors and extinguishing the light within shortly after, ten more emerging from where one entered.
"But those are the little ones, the weak ones. As numerous as dust in the air, present in every corner of creation, heading towards any source of light no matter how small."
You see one, dropping down from the endless darkness. The thing is like a perfect black mixture of crystal and flesh. It is invisible, you see, against the backdrop of darkness because it reflects no light. You only notice it when it is between you and a dimming door, far in the distance.
"And this is all your fault, you know? This is all on you. Every moment spent cultivating dreams and hope, all of it. It just makes everything more brilliant. It just makes the light grow stronger."
It splashes against the ground of the dream realm like a rotten fruit falling down from a tree. If those things are impossible to notice due to the sheer darkness, then how many of them are right outside of the dream realms? How long have they always been there, floating in the darkness, and you never noticed?
"And as the light grows stronger? Well, it just calls for larger and larger of us of course. Until those like myself arrive, those that can resist your sight without being destroyed, those that can touch you without burning away."
Your vision is blurred with your tears now, although that almost no mercy. You can still see the lights dim, you can still hear her voice.
"Oh, I know. Why don't you join the fun?" she asks.
And before you can understand what she means, her hoof is on your back.
And you are falling down from the balcony, screaming a bloodcurdling scream inside your mind, tumbling towards the open jaws of the things underneath you.
[Princess Luna is Traumatized, she will receive a +80 bonus on her next attempt]
[Princess Luna has lost one sanity point. Eight remain.]
Down we go.
"Lu… Luna…? Luna…"
You feel a pair of hoofs shaking you, the sensation distant and numb.
"Luna…! Wake up sister…!"
You don't even move anymore. You know that as soon as you try to, you will realize you can't. You know that as soon as you breathe, you will realize that it is not air around you. You only look towards the nothingness in front of you. The only movement in your body being that of tears welling up in your eyes.
Waiting.
"C'mon Luna, wake up! Today is a very special day!"
Celestia's voice comes closer. Your whole body is so stiff with fear that you don't even shake anymore.
"Do you know what day it is?" she is right next to you now, "that's right! Right now you have just began your second day on the moon!"
With a smile on her face, your sister pulls the covers from over your body, and for a moment you almost think you see your room around you.
You feel a pair of hoofs shaking you, the sensation distant and numb.
"Luna…! Wake up sister…!"
You wake up-
- - -
- - -
- - -
THE HISTORY OF THIS WORLD HAS BEEN CHANGED, STRANGLED OUT OF ITS PATH BY WILL AND HOOF.
This world's future is now totally divergent from canon.
But Histories do not change without consequence, it always causes everything to tumble around it like a house of cards, into a new configuration.
The ripples of moments like these always reach far into the future, as well as into the past. A History is not a straight line, and time does not move in a single direction. Nothing will ever be the same.
The aftermath will follow shortly. As will your choices.
well, suffice to say, i think that was a pretty good first try at waking a demon, also good on us for managing to divert history into something much Darker, very good
although I suppose there's a good chance of the dream inside a dream being the same text being repeated on loop... I've yet to read it, but I'm calling it now!
You become paralyzed in fear, your already numb mind completely freezing when you finally see it.
The darkness, the endless forever that surrounds the dream realms. It is solid.
It is something.
"Oh Luna, you see it!" the thing by your side hugs you with joy, but you almost do not notice it. Your eyes fixed at the impossibly large scale of the darkness that hangs above your head.
It might be further away than the most distant of stars. It might be that it will never reach you, not in a million years, but it is still there.
It is still, and it has thoughts, eyes, and an endless hunger.
And it is looking back at you.
And another realization strikes you, like cold water dripping on your back, making its way into the feather of your wings.
The glow of the dream realms might be less than a pinprick for it, being too far away and weak for its light to ever truly reach it and be reflected back so you could see its true shape, although perhaps that is a mercy. But it is still the only light that you can see anywhere, perhaps the only light that exists in all of creation.
Perhaps it is the last light that exists in all of existence. And no matter how small and weak it might be, the fact that it is the only one… makes it a beacon.
"Yes Luna, that's right," it whispers inside your head, a loving mockery of your sister's voice, "your world's light… Its call is so irresistible…"
I'm pretty sure we're trying to do the exact opposite of bringing back the Nightmare. We don't like the Alicorns for the very good reasons outlined in this update; Harmony makes us a target, and Moth is all about hiding.
Luckily, Luna is likely to be... sympathetic with our goals after this, so to speak. (Perhaps less so with our methods.)
I'm pretty sure we're trying to do the exact opposite of bringing back the Nightmare. We don't like the Alicorns for the very good reasons outlined in this update; Harmony makes us a target, and Moth is all about hiding.
Is it not the best way to destroy your enemy, is by getting them to destroy themselves, if we bring back the nightmare, the two will fight, and the elements will be brought, gives us some leeway to influence some things, besides if we hide in their conflict they won't see us, they will be too focused on each other
The benefit is that she's aware of all of those horrible monsters now, and so can start banishing them again, and direct her efforts in this manner. In addition, as adherents of Moth, of hiding, we're in a position to offer her answers for her suddenly very large troubles.
It absolutely sucks that she had to suffer for it, but strangely enough, despite this essentially being an offensive measure on our part, I still feel like it was both necessary and understandable.
I guess that's how a cultist is supposed to feel, but, if anything, I trust in the cult more now. I'd want Luna in it, absolutely, because she can probably let us do a lot of things more nicely than we'd otherwise have to, but I wouldn't vote to leave.
Is it not the best way to destroy your enemy, is by getting them to destroy themselves, if we bring back the nightmare, the two will fight, and the elements will be brought, gives us some leeway to influence some things, besides if we hide in their conflict they won't see us, they will be too focused on each other
First, the 2.1k post alert was a filthy lie. That was a LOT more than 2.1k words. Sneaky, sneaky.
Second, I don't recall having seen nested spoilers used this way before, and I gotta say, masterfully done. It a rare and delightful treat to see someone using the form of an SV post to enhance it's substance.
Third, the one part of this update that I'm kinda meh about:
[Princess Luna is Entranced, she will receive a +10 bonus on her next attempt]
I don't know if it makes the most sense for modifiers like Entranced, Troubled, etc. to provide a bonus for breaking out of the dream.
I mean, it makes perfect sense that it gets easier and easier with each roll - it just feels like typing that to Luna's reaction isn't ideal. Sadly, I don't know if there is there a good way to change that; I like way having the previous mood in the roll emphasizes said mood, and switching it to a more generic bonus (e.g. +20 (repetition)) doesn't seem particularly great. So maybe the way you did it is the best option, even if it doesn't quite fit?
That said, one thing that I think you definitely should change was that both the first dreams left Luna "Entranced". It doesn't fit elegantly with the rest of the dream, where her mood changed with each iteration (until the last, but at that point she had reached a stable pattern of the dream basically repeating itself.) This one has an easy fix; instead of "Entranced" and "further Entranced", I would use "Entranced" and "Enthralled" (perhaps in reverse order, depending on whether you want to emphasize her getting caught deeper or less deeply). If you don't like "Enthralled", other options include "Engrossed", "Transfixed", "Beguiled", or some other near-synonym.
So... I've noticed a few big, very important things, and this is one of them. Worms confirmed? Oh god, we're so fucked. Even the Hours have difficulty killing those things. The Colenol is famous for being able to kill one on his own. Yikes.
EDIT: Sorry, that's the Lionsmith, not the Colonel, though given their rivalry I wouldn't put it past the other guy to do it too. Especially since he's apparently invulnerable.
You are much greater. You are a creature of order, your flesh borne into this world by choice, obeying its laws of entrance by birth, and of departure by death. Your soul smells of the outside, of the void between the lights, of the very thing it eternally aches to consume with never-ending thirst. It drinks deep from your mind's memories, then your body's sensations, then the very cornerstone of your soul. It sees the purpose for which you entered the world, and the light that invited you inside, and the mission that you accepted, and the covenant that you have made with it. It licks greedily the marrow of your very being as it sees in there the echo of that thing, that music that grows with every light-borne thought of mortals, that nascent beacon in the never-ending darkness.
It sees the light of Harmony, the shining core of this world, reflected in your essence, it sees the marks of the pact you made with it.
Also this. Yes, the Alicorns are from outside Equestria, it seems, but more importantly--Harmony isn't. Or at least it's been there a lot longer. That's a problem unless we can find some way to hide the light of Harmony itself, because suspect killing it might make the Worms stop looking at us, but cause a whole lot more problems. Actually, I wonder if Harmony might actually be a bit of the Glory, stolen or seperated from its original place in the CS cosmology and without the Mansus and Woods to protect it. Since we know the Worms come from the Void, which is below the Mansus while the Glory is above. It might also explain why the Mansus is weakening, since it's maintained by a constant leaking of Glory, and if the Glory is lesser, that leaking is lesser, and so on...
Two things here: One, fuck our Master is strong, and I can't wait to hit the same level as him. I'm also really curious if that is a max Moth, or if we can surpass him. Questions for later, I suppose. The second, however, is about this.
The first of these is about where we stopped learning things that were truly important, or at least that couldn't be intuited without explicit confirmation. If Luna hadn't failed that, or the subsequent one, we wouldn't have even been in danger of her losing Sanity, or the Worm/Nightmare apparently breaking out of the locks Harmony put on it--which is a problem, we might have to deal with that--and definitely seems like a case of succeeding too well. We might want to be wary of things like that later.
Also, Luna needs hugs. Like, all the hugs. I vote we build Heart to absolute maximum so we can give her super hugs. Also Moth so we can teach her how to hunt the Worms better. We were like, level Two, and danced around them with more ease than Luna could. Imagine a max level Moth Cultist with all of Luna's power. The Nightmare would never have happened. Lantern could probably help too.
THE HISTORY OF THIS WORLD HAS BEEN CHANGED, STRANGLED OUT OF ITS PATH BY WILL AND HOOF.
This world's future is now totally divergent from canon.
But Histories do not change without consequence, it always causes everything to tumble around it like a house of cards, into a new configuration.
The ripples of moments like these always reach far into the future, as well as into the past. A History is not a straight line, and time does not move in a single direction. Nothing will ever be the same.
One reading, as suggested here, is that we are somehow responsible for this. I.e. originally we were in the Canon world, and then we did something, and hey, EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE NOW.
I don't like this reading. I mean that both in the sense that I don't want it to be true, and in the sense that I don't think it lines up with what we've been told so far. First and foremost, this ritual just don't seem like the sort of thing that could rewrites history. I would imagine that would use a Secret Histories affinity for one thing - and for another, it would take a hell of a lot more power than we saw put into it. Further the symbology of the dream itself doesn't match. We see the Lantern being mentioned repeatedly at the start of this update, which is much more consistent with revelations, not changes.
A second reading is that this is the equivalent of an Author's Note, saying "this is the divergence point". The explicit mention of "canon" lines up with it being an out-of-character statement by the author rather than something in-character. On the other hand, the note mentions history changed "by Will and Hoof"; that suggests something going on in-story rather than fiat changes.
A third reading is that the change in question isn't in the nature of reality, but rather Luna's knowledge of it. In other words, we now live in a world where Luna knows about the Nightmare - and that means canon is firmly off the rails. Here, we ARE responsible for the change. Though as a caveat, in this reading, I would imagine that "canon" would have ended up with Equestria eaten by Nightmare eventually - so to put things poetically, the canon rails were actually leading up to dropping us off a cliff, and just because it looked pretty before that point doesn't mean it was on track to anything good.
One concern I have for this third reading is that the note mentions effects rippling back in time; and I'm not sure what that would mean here.
A fourth reading is that some OTHER ritual yanked us into this Nightmare scenario "by Will and Hoof", and that we are just seeing the consequences. I don't think I buy this one; seems a bit too out-of-nowhere.
Also Moth so we can teach her how to hunt the Worms better. We were like, level Two, and danced around them with more ease than Luna could. Imagine a max level Moth Cultist with all of Luna's power. The Nightmare would never have happened. Lantern could probably help too.
"You know, we already are in the dreamlands. We always have been," she says, her voice a perfect resemblance of your sister, only wrong, "but those that come first are too small and frail. Your very sight destroys them, before you even notice they are there. Your very presence dissolves them, like a bonfire might evaporate drops of a light rain."
"And as the light grows stronger? Well, it just calls for larger and larger of us of course. Until those like myself arrive, those that can resist your sight without being destroyed, those that can touch you without burning away."
The ones that got Luna were the BIG ones.
The ones we avoided? I strongly, strongly doubt that they are of the same scale. Frankly, I suspect they are more like the tiny ones that Luna's very attention burns away.
I think it means that by pinning down the past, other possibilities can't come into play anymore; i.e Luna-corrupted-by-Sombra or Luna-did-it-by-her-own-free-will might have been equally valid, but now they're impossible.
So, I'd really like to know what is meant by this.
One reading, as suggested here, is that we are somehow responsible for this. I.e. originally we were in the Canon world, and then we did something, and hey, EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE NOW.
I don't like this reading. I mean that both in the sense that I don't want it to be true, and in the sense that I don't think it lines up with what we've been told so far. First and foremost, this ritual just don't seem like the sort of thing that could rewrites history. I would imagine that would use a Secret Histories affinity for one thing - and for another, it would take a hell of a lot more power than we saw put into it. Further the symbology of the dream itself doesn't match. We see the Lantern being mentioned repeatedly at the start of this update, which is much more consistent with revelations, not changes.
A second reading is that this is the equivalent of an Author's Note, saying "this is the divergence point". The explicit mention of "canon" lines up with it being an out-of-character statement by the author rather than something in-character. On the other hand, the note mentions history changed "by Will and Hoof"; that suggests something going on in-story rather than fiat changes.
A third reading is that the change in question isn't in the nature of reality, but rather Luna's knowledge of it. In other words, we now live in a world where Luna knows about the Nightmare - and that means canon is firmly off the rails. Here, we ARE responsible for the change. Though as a caveat, in this reading, I would imagine that "canon" would have ended up with Equestria eaten by Nightmare eventually - so to put things poetically, the canon rails were actually leading up to dropping us off a cliff, and just because it looked pretty before that point doesn't mean it was on track to anything good.
One concern I have for this third reading is that the note mentions effects rippling back in time; and I'm not sure what that would mean here.
A fourth reading is that some OTHER ritual yanked us into this Nightmare scenario "by Will and Hoof", and that we are just seeing the consequences. I don't think I buy this one; seems a bit too out-of-nowhere.
I think it's most likely the third option. We haven't changed anything, except that now Luna knows the Worms exist and has at least some idea of what they are. Also her sanity got a little bit dinged up, but we can probably fix that. The thing is, however, that as any good SI/fix-fic/whatever-the-fuck-kind-of-fanfic-you-want-writer will tell you, knowledge is everything. One guy knows one thing different about one limited situation and they take one small step in a different direction. Then they take one more step, now that their situation is, again, slightly different. And then again, and again, until just five or six steps go and now you're standing halfway across the street and the car meant to run you over misses. Then you go on to cure cancer and someone you saved with that solves World Hunger, and soemone they saved creates cold fusion... You see where I'm going with this? Even just the barest bit of knowledge, the smallest butterfly--or Moth, as the case may be--flapping its wings, changes everything. And we just set a pretty damn big Moth flapping. Luna will be obsessed with this now. And we're going to help her.
I don't think we can equate the things we danced around to the thing that got Luna.
If we believe what the Nightmare said in the dream then there are different tiers of Nightmare:
The ones that got Luna were the BIG ones.
The ones we avoided? I strongly, strongly doubt that they are of the same scale. Frankly, I suspect they are more like the tiny ones that Luna's very attention burns away.
Mm, fair point, though the way they were described in our experience, I expect they were at least some ways up the scale. As I recall they were pretty fucking big and not microscopic enough an entity who is at home in the dream realm would miss it. Honestly, the Nightmare might be weaker, given it was one of the first of the stronger ones to show up, implying it was only a few steps up the scale.
Actually, @BirdBodhisattva since we were witness to all this, could you compare the strength between the thing that got Luna and the ones we saw currently hanging out in the Dreamlands? Before we get into a big argument of what-ifs, at least.
The funny has been, in my experience, used as a decent substitute by representing panicked laughter. At least on things that are cleary not funny. This probably counts.
Ok, I am not up to date with cultist simulator lore as I just started playing on monday after binging the quest. That said, if these worm things are atracted to the light of dreams, I an slightly concernes that even without them, the Woods borders the dreamlands and have the Glory represented as a sun.
We were like, level Two, and danced around them with more ease than Luna could. Imagine a max level Moth Cultist with all of Luna's power. The Nightmare would never have happened. Lantern could probably help too.
Ok, I am not up to date with cultist simulator lore as I just started playing on monday after binging the quest. That said, if these worm things are atracted to the light of dreams, I an slightly concernes that even without them, the Woods borders the dreamlands and have the Glory represented as a sun.
Mansus propably has the Hours protecting it.
And the Woods are the domain of some Moth-aspected ones, so I assume the Woods can hide the light of Glory.
