Chapter 2
A Quiet Stroll Through the Everfree
Anypony could to tell you that walking through the Everfree Forest, especially alone, was scarcely a sound idea. Nopony more so than Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, who had already engaged in several precarious situations within the forest, took a healthy amount of caution while approaching its boundaries or traversing its domain.
That being said, Twilight considered herself somewhat of an accomplished adventurer of the Everfree Forest. While not being the most physically adept or experienced mare, she had solved that problem the same way she solved most of her problems, with books. After a previous encounter with with one of its inhabitants in which she was petrified, she had endeavoured to read as much as she could about the Everfree Forest and the many dangers that lurked within.
It is armed with this knowledge that Twilight Sparkle began her journey to the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.
Departing from Zecora's house at a reasonable pace, Twilight set off back towards Ponyville. It was an unfortunate but unavoidable detour, as she was unwilling to try her luck at stumbling through the forest towards where the Castle was situated in the hopes she would find it. Maybe if Pinkie Pie was with her she might have tried her luck. That pony had a knack for being exactly where she wanted at exactly when she wanted. Even if sometimes she had to break a few fundamental laws to do it.
Regardless, a blind romp through the forest would be an unwise decision as there was already a perfectly good path to the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters that she, as well the rest of her friends, had found on their way to find the Elements of Harmony with which to confront Nightmare Moon. Besides, there was little point enduring what would most likely be severe heartache to forge a new path when a reasonably safe and pre-used path already existed.
By the time Twilight had finished justifying her delay as a necessary evil, she had already walked back to the edge of the Everfree, so it was quite a simple task to find her wanted entrance back into the forest and continue on her journey. As Twilight walked, she reflected on all the things that had happened since she had come to Ponyville. It was strange to think that Equestria had been saved twice by nothing but friendship (and a little bit of magic).
It was not long until Twilight came across a cliff face that she remembered well. It was the first time of that night covered morning that Twilight and her companions had come into serious peril. In fact, while she thought about it, it was arguably the most dangerous thing that had happened to them while in the Everfree on that occasion, barring their confrontation with Nightmare Moon.
Feeling slightly nostalgic, Twilight decided to forgo the easy route and follow the same path to the base of the cliff as Applejack had done. She walked to the edge of the cliff, looking down and scanning the face of it and she saw the first of the step like protrusions and instantly vanished in a burst of purple and white. Reappearing on the first of these steps, Twilight looked down again to see the second and then teleported to it. This continued several times until she had reached the bottom.
As Twilight walked on, she contemplated the circumstances of her first decent down that cliff, by free falling to a possibly messy end, and the current ones, an easy few instant geospatial matter transmissions. She preferred the current one.
Twilight quickly passed through the next obstacles that had previously hindered her entourage on this road. As she passed over the river, she kept a look out for that Sea Serpent she had met once before but he seemed to be absent, much to Twilight's dismay. She had very much wanted to speak with him again after their last short exchange.
Finally arriving at the Ancient castle gates. Twilight retrieved a pre-packed compass from her saddlebags to plot a course. Examining the position of the sun to reaffirm her path (because you can never to too sure), Twilight set forth on the final legs of her quest deep into the Everfree Forest.
Twilight had been walking for well over an hour now and was beginning to worry that she was lost. Stopping to check her compass once again, she marginally adjusted her bearing and continued in what she hoped was the direction of the 'Weeping Tree'. Zecora had not told Twilight neither the distance the tree was from the ancient castle's gates nor how long it would take to get there. She hadn't even described what the tree would look like! How would it be distinguishable from the rest of the forest, which was quite literally, a collection of thousands of similar looking trees? Was the 'weeping' figurative? Was this tree hunched over or had grown in a peculiar manner which would give the impression it was crying? Or was it a tree with airy branches and droopy leaves, like a Weeping Willow? The only clue she was given was to 'travel north and travel straight'. The longer Twilight thought about the subject, the more irritated she became.
"Non-specific instructions are no less irritating when given in in rhyme" she grumbled.
Looking ahead, Twilight was brought out of her reverie by a peculiar sight; a pond at the base of a rather large tree, reflecting the light with a dull shine. The closer she got this to this pond, more disgusted she became with the water within it. Even at her reasonable distance from it, she could see a foulness in the light brown water, a testament to the chaotic mess that was the Everfree forest. As Twilight closed the gap between her and the tree, her eyes remained on this pool. A pool, oddly, not of water she realised, but tree sap. It was thick and it's texture reminded her of honey but Twilight had severe doubts that it had a similar taste.
Seeing that this was something worth being logged for further research, Twilight collected a small sample of the sap. She then pulled out a journal from her saddlebags and began to analyse the strange phenomenon.
"I wonder where this sap is flowing from? I can't imagine too many trees could survive the loss of such a substantial amount of fluid."
Walking around the left side of the tree, she noticed a odd arrangement of markings. WIth a slight gasp she noticed that the markings were in the shape of a highly disfigured face.
"That's unusual" she remarked, jotting down her thoughts in her notebook.
Twilight inattentively stowed her notes away and started to scrutinise the face more closely. It was an eerie experience. The tree looked… unholy. Corrupted. Depraved. Its face forever twisted in a visage of pain and crushing sadness. The trees eyes were two black pits that seemed to absorb the light around them. Liquid amber flowed freely from its them, slowly making its way down the grooves it had abraded out of the bark. It represented an unending torment, a cycle of betrayal, loneliness, hate and regret. The sight of this tree was almost unbearable for Twilight but she was unable to tear her gaze away from it, struck with a morbid fascination. The cruelty of this fate, to be always stuck in eternal anguish made Twilight shudder. The sight was heart wrenching and it almost made Twilight feel physically ill.
Suddenly, she could take no more. Twilight shut her eyes and violently shook her head. Facing the ground with her eyes still closed, she took several deep breaths and started to walk around the tree. Twilight knew she would feel uncomfortable with that face staring anywhere but directly opposite her so she endeavoured to get as close to the its antipode as she possibly could.
Feeling an acute desire to leave this tree far behind, Twilight opened her saddlebags and probed them with her magic. Taking hold of her compass, Twilight removed it from its compartment and set it flat in the air. Unamused, she noticed that she was already facing due east.
" ' Then eastward bound you'll surely be,' huh?" she remarked dryly.
Twilight proceeded in this direction and the forest quickly transistioned into a small clearing. She could feel there was a magic presence in the air, it was spread throughout the entire field. This had to be it.
"I finally made it." declared Twilight, surveying the land for her plant of interest. Spying a flower bed at the far end of the glade, she galloped up to it, laughing triumphantly. As she approached the border, Twilight noticed a resounding truth about the verse given to her by Zecora.
"This is amazing! The Moonflowers are exactly how Zecora said they would be! I have to write this down!" she gushed, writing equipment already scribbling at a blistering pace. She wrote notes about the field and everything in it not just the Moonflowers, all the surrounding flora could be vital to her studies. It took the better part of twenty minutes to jot down every last detail that she could find. Lastly she started to roughly sketch the flowers and plants. Twilight was no Marechlangelo but she was a decent artist, she had read a book on the subject after all.
Now it was time for the bit she had been so eagerly anticipating, a magical responsiveness test. Twilight was giddy with the thought of her new discovery. This was something that had, in all likelihood, never been tried! She may be the first Unicorn to ever magically inspect this undocumented species of flower. Flipping over to a new page in her notebook, wrote the words 'First Magical Examination of the Moonflower'.
"Now, the first magical contact. Ohh, I wish I had Spike here to help me record this!" she lamented.
Focusing herself, Twilight slowly let several thin tendrils of magic out towards the nearest Moonflower. The magenta wisps of energy creeped forward and latched onto the flower's stigma. Then she felt it.
Twilight started to back away, "Something's wrong… "
The Moonflower started to draw more magic from her than she was giving it. Panicking, Twilight frantically tried to sever the magical connection and to her horror, found that she couldn't. The thread of magic she had first sent out was becoming an intense stream. Twilight could feel her magical reserves lessening as the stream grew thicker. If it continued to increase at this rate for much longer the flowers would have no magic left to take from her.
She knew what happened to Unicorns whose magic was exhausted and she had no intention of becoming comatose or dying. Twilight tried to run, to turn away, to stop, anything!
"I can't move!" she shrieked, "This is not good, what am I going to do! What am I going to do!"
"Alright Twilight, calm down, you can get out of this. Take a deep breath and stay calm." Twilight reasoned with herself.
"The Moonflowers must have used some form of immobilisation spell, probably a muscular paralysis, when I started to channel magic into them. Possible mediums would include--" Twilight's words died in her mouth as she noticed something, a something that looked like she would not enjoy. The small plant in front of her started to glow and shiver violently.
Using the the power it had siphoned from Twilight, the Moonflower released a powerful burst of energy, shooting out powerful bolts of magic towards all its neighbours. Purple streaks raced from flower to flower until the entire field was glowing with the lightning arcs of Twilight's stolen magic.
The stars that flowed off the Moonflower petals so delicately before were now waterfalls of white. They pooled onto the ground creating rivers of twinkling light. If Twilight wasn't in a situation of life and death, she may have found them very beautiful.
Just before Twilight was drained of what she would describe as a 'reasonable' amount of magic, the original Moonflower that had so greedily drank that portion of magic, abruptly cut its drain on Twilight, its thirst seemingly quenched. Finally released from the flowers iron grip, Twilight stumbled back with relief. Sitting down heavily, she took in deep gulps of air, trying to control her furiously beating heart.
While she collected her self, Twilight failed to notice that all the magical arcing had become more concentrated. The Moonflowers had formed several groups and no group shared any magic with another.
Each of the Moonflower groups shot a beam of focused magic towards the centre of the flower patch, the point where they joined became a bloated sphere of energies. The lake of stars that was beginning to edge its way across the field began to swirl. Drawn by the this display of power, the stars started to emulate the magic and made their way inwards, following the still active magic flow. They twirled along each of the beams with frightening speed. Never straying from their course, the stars splashed against each other with brutal force, the spray of the impact was swiftly drawn back inwards, towards the centre of starts that had begun to collect. This continued until all of Twilight's magic had been depleted from the Moonflowers and absorbed into the ball of clashing starts, eventually the settling down into an ever spiralling constellation.
The miniature galaxy spun around lazily for several seconds before it rumbled loudly and violently spat a torrent stars straight down. When they impacted with the ground, the stars started to take shape, filling an invisible mold only they could see. As they poured down, an armoured hoof started to form, followed quickly by three more. Long, graceful legs were cast soon after. As they formed, they flickered to a deep midnight blue and started to darken, settling on an almost black. The stars began fall more rapidly and a chest and flank were forged onto the statuesque figure, now imposing and powerful. It was while the start of the pony's head was being moulded that Twilight realised just who was being assembled in front of her. She watched in shock as the final pieces of starlight zoomed into their place, the point of a sharp horn.
"No… That's not possible…." Twilight whispered.
The figure shuddered as her finishing touches flashed into existence, a heavy necklace and sleek blue helmet. The sky darkened as grey clouds blotted out the sun. Lightning flayed the sky and the faint wind turned cold and biting. Before her, in all her terrible beauty, stood Nightmare Moon.
"You can't be here! We cleansed you from Princess Luna, you don't exist anymore!" Shouted Twilight in distress. 'Nightmare Moon can't be here!' her mind was a flurry of thoughts, 'What am I going to do? I don't stand a chance with out the Elements. I have to escape, I have to warn Princess Celestia!'
The Nightmare's gaze turned towards Twilight, cerulean eyes gleaming with a frigid light. Giving a sultry laugh, Nightmare Moon addressed her beloved subject; "Hahaha, I don't exist? I see, well then—" flaring her wings, she disappeared. Just as suddenly, Twilight felt one of her heavy wings draped across her back, pulling her into the Alicorn's warm embrace.
"We'll see if I can't change your mind then, shall we?" Nightmare Moon purred into her ear.
Twilight was frozen in terror. Her muscles contracted sharply as she stood rigidly in Nightmare Moon's smothering grasp. The Nightmare's mane of liquid night gently enveloped Twilight. It was soft and silken, Twilight could feel it serenely blow in the cosmic winds. It felt like a warm breeze that fluttered against her coat, refreshing, relaxing. Twilight's eyes fluttered and her head started to lull as she began to feel an overpowering fatigue seeping into her. She was exhausted, too tired to be awake. This seemed like a good place to sleep…
"No!"
Twilight flared her magic around her, force of the impact pushed Nightmare Moon away. The Nightmare dissolved into a cloud of thick smoke and slithered away, reassembling herself several meters in front of Twilight.
"Oh my, a little sensitive are we? I wonder what ever is the matter?" she smirked coyly.
It was then Twilight realised she was completely outmatched. Escape was impossible, attack would be suicidal and that only left her one avenue. One she was not sure she could accomplish, diplomacy.
"Nightmare Moon! How did you escape the Elements of Harmony?"
"My escape? Well, a mare has her secrets." she replied evasively.
Twilight's eyes narrowed, "Why are you here?"
Raising an eyebrow, the Nightmare laughed lightly, "Why am I here? Did you not summon me or have you already forgotten?"
"Summon you?" Twilight answered hesitantly, "My magic you mean? How could that have summoned you? I didn't cast any spell, let alone a summoning ritual."
"If you aren't aware of the true nature then you are more foolish than I had first anticipated. I had expected perhaps some cretin to enable me but not Celestia's little pet. I have no time for someone who is the same as her little sun devotees."
"That's not true, I've enjoyed nighttime as long as I can remember. Just last week I attended a meteor shower that Princess Luna created. I can sympathise with you actually, even before I knew of the you and the Elements of Harmony I often used to get in trouble with my parents when I stayed up all night to watch the stars. I often wondered why other ponies never noticed how beautiful they are, it made me sad, in a way."
"You claim to adore the night? Then, Twilight Sparkle, join with me. I will ensure that Celestia's transgressions against the hours of darkness are rectified."
"What do you mean?"
"Surely, my dear, you can't be so unaware. I know nothing has changed over the last 1000 years, our subjects still do not love our night as they do the day."
"That's not true," argued Twilight, "many ponies love your night! They even created a science to study it, called Astronomy."
Nightmare Moon gave a snort of derision, "To study it? Then they do not understand. The night is art, it is dynamic, it is emotion. It has become stale and lifeless under the Sun's guiding hoof."
"Princess Celestia tried her best! She taught me about the night and I know she cares for it as well!"
"My sister, Celestia? She loves my night?" Nightmare Moon laughed mirthlessly, "What farce is this? You presume to stand before me and proclaim Celesita's adoration of my work? No, Twilight Sparkle, you are wrong she does not love the night."
"She does! I remember when Princess Celestia would take me out on her balcony after my studies, we would sit down and look at the stars! I remember her teaching me about the constellations and astral navigation. We used to sit under the Moonlight and talk. It was a special time for her, I could tell!"
Nightmare Moon said nothing. She just stared at Twilight with her icy blue eyes. The silence drifted on, Twilight started to become worried. 'What if I said something wrong, maybe I went too far?' she thought. Nightmare Moon finally broke the stillness. She began to advance somberly towards Twilight, each hoof step deliberate and slow. As she walked her astral mane and tail started to expand. It quickly grew and started to engulf Twilights vision, shrouding her beneath it. The same feeling of drowsiness that had almost taken her before now had Twilight completely in its grasp.
As Twilight started to drift off, she heard the Nightmare, her voice deep and melancholy.
"I will show you her love for the night."
Luna fled across the Castle gardens, beyond into the forest. It didn't matter where she went, as long as it wasn't here.
Luna had pleaded to Celestia to extend the night, not for long, just a week or two. Just enough so the ponies beneath could admire her night as they did Celestia's day. It wasn't too much to ask, was it? Apparently it was. Celestia had lectured her on the 'need for balance' and that 'many crops relied on the sun to grow and flourish'. Celestia seemed to think that she did everything that was vital for the kingdom, that she was the important sister that gave life and nourishment and Luna was the dunce. A fool, playing with her toys. And where was Celestia now, when Luna needed her? Up on her gilded throne, benevolent and genial to all who bask in the sun.
Her subjects cared nothing for her. Her love for them was wasted, they didn't appreciate the efforts she put forth to conjure the delicate night for them. Luna's masterpieces were wasted on them. Wasted on her. Celestia got everything she wanted from her 'little ponies'. Things that Luna rightfully deserved. The night was no less brilliant than the day; it was alluring and mysterious, tranquil and passionate. All the things the sun was not. Though it appeared nopony but her seemed to notice that.
As she ran, Luna came across a small clearing with an old oak tree. It was a gentle old tree, rocking to and fro with the wind, a happy visage was imprinted upon its trunk. The magic of the Earth had seeped into its roots over many years, it happiness of the sun, the water, the air had become a smiling face it displayed proudly. The feeling of joy to spread to others.
Slowing to a steady walk, Luna stepped forward to observe this tree. Luna saw the tree's expression and she hated it. Why was this tree so happy when she was not? How could it have to audacity to show that face in front of her, Mistress of the Night. Is it because it loved the sun? The sun that gave it warmth, gave it life? That it did not need the night? Is that why it was so pleased?
"How dare you." She started, " How dare you mock me! I am a Princess! Ruler of Equestria! Your happiness is false! A lie! You sit there oblivious to all! My efforts are wasted and you do NOTHING! YOU ALL DO NOTHING! I will let you know my pain, I condemn you to my life! A life of anguish and suffering! You will never smile again!"
Using dark magics, Luna's corruptive thoughts reached out towards to ambient earth magic and twisted the tree. She poured into it her pain, her anger, her frustration, her hate, her spite, her malice. Its bark became dark and scarred. The smile which had once happily sat upon its face was warped into a painful grimace. Its branches were drained of their vigour, no longer possessing the will to reach skyward, drooped down limply, no longer swaying with the wind. It's eyes, once bright and gleeful, were drained of life. They no longer saw cheerful tomorrow but a terrible world, devoid of colour and meaning. A world of death and pain.
It understood now. The sadness it felt, the treachery it had undergone, the life it had lost. The tree started to weep bitter tears.
Luna glared at the tree. "Now," she said scornfully, "Now you see. This is the verity of the world. Your friends are a lie, their real intensions are shown through their betrayals. Now you can see the world as I do. You will never smile again."
A/N
Luckily I said, 'no promises'. Sorry for the sizeable gap in chapter releases but as I said, this comes second to Uni. On that note Mid semester exams were… fun…
On a different note however, I'll try and put more effort into getting a prereader/editor or someone of the sort before now and the next chapter.
I may or may not try to convert Luna's Past into Old English/Elizabethan. Still deciding whether or not it would be worth it.
Also, I am aware that amber is not formed from tree sap but just go with me on this, it's a magic tree.