"It seems that my sister was quick to forget that I was involved in Discord's first defeat... 'You need to stay and watch the castle' She says... What's the point of having guards if one of us has to stay inside all the time!" Luna whined as she sat on the throne. Her sister, Princess Celestia, had gone to Ponyville to personally congratulate everypony who put a hoof in to stop Discord.
Soon the doors swung open and there came Princess Celestia and the Mane Six rushing in. Along with two royal guardstallions who we're carrying an unconscious stallion in a carriage. It was Leon. His coat was no longer the usual midnight black that it was. His coat was now a ghostly white along with a dark blue and it seemed to move around, as if it was a mysterious type of aura.
Princess Luna quickly got off her throne and headed over to everypony.
"What happened? Is Discord not defeated?" Princess Luna said confused about the situation. Twilight and the others began to ramble. All trying to explain what had happened.
"Relax, I shall tell her." Princess Celestia said as she waved the guards off, leaving Leon in the small carriage.
"It seemed that Leon here was affected by the Elements of Harmony..." Princess Celestia said with a sigh.
"Wait... then that means-" Princess Luna said as Celestia gave her a stern look.
"What does that mean??" Twilight said looking at the two Princesses.
"Nothing. It's fine. Now, Luna. Do you think you'll be able to help him?" Celestia said looking Luna in the eyes.
"Well you brought him to me for a reason, haven't you?" Luna said with a smile.
"I will need to go into the Catacombs though... And unfortunately I do have to bring him with me." Princess Luna said as she headed over to the throne room doors and stuck her head out.
"Can one of you fetch me my saddle?" She said to one of the guards as the others we're staring at Leon with a concerned look. He was shaking and still unconscious.
"Are you sure you'll be alright on your own sister?" Princess Celestia said to Luna as she approached Leon.
"That's not up for question, now is it?" Luna said as her horn began to glow. She connected her horn to the top of Leon's head. She was sitting there, focused with her eyes close for the moment as she quickly brought her head back and held it in pain.
"Luna! What happened!?" Twilight asked as the glow in Luna's horn went away. Luna looked at Leon's unconscious body and then back at the others.
"For some reason I cannot see into his dreams... I was prevented from doing so..." Luna said as she gave a look to Celestia and then back at Leon.
"There's no time for playing around. I need to go now." Luna said as one of the guards came in holding a beautiful saddle using his magic.
The guard equipped Luna with the saddle and tightened it. As he finished he bowed before her and she smiled.
"Thank you. You can go back to your post now." Luna said as she used her magic to carefully place Leon onto her back. Even as careful as she was, Leon was still experiencing horrible pain.
"Huh... Odd..." Luna said as she was carrying Leon with nothing but her back.
"What is it?" Celestia asked as Luna giggled.
"He's oddly light for his size, that makes things a whole lot easier." Luna said as she shot Celestia a wink and began to head out of the throne room.
"Now... If I'm not mistaken, the Catacombs are all the way down from the south tower..." Luna said as she began to make her way to the south tower stairs.
As she descended the stairs she looked outside the windows of the tower to see several ponies celebrating in the nearby streets as the effect of Discord's defeat.
"Wonder what they did with that piece of stone this time..." Luna said with a sigh as she descended further the beautiful scheme of the tower got darker and darker. Soon she had entered the level in which the Catacombs lie and it almost seemed like a medieval dungeon of sorts.
Luna had gone into a small corner where a bunch of barrels were located, some on their side with taps sticking out of them.
"Wow, I wonder if these actually have aged cider in them.... If so I'm gonna have one hell of a time laughter." Luna said with a giggle as she looked back at Leon.
"Poor thing... Don't worry. Drinks are on me if you survive." Luna said as she moved a few barrels to the side. There was one brick that was sticking out. Luna removed it and clicked a button that was lying behind it as she then put the brick back, but making sure that it was sticking out a bit.
A small opening appeared and Luna was barely able to fit through. Through the opening the area was alot more open and spread out. It was a large room in fact. A couple candles and torches lying around but Luna didn't need them. It seemed she didn't even need a magic spell. She was seeing in the pitch black caves perfectly. There were a few hallways connecting to the huge room. Two next to each other at the far back wall and one to the left wall along with another to the right.
She entered the hall on the back left of the room.
She soon entered a room with a large door. There were too panels in the floor on each side of the room. She went over to one of the panels and pressed her hoof on it. The panel went into the floor and then came up when she picked her hoof up. She looked around the room and found a small box in the corner. With her magic she picked up the box and placed it on the panel. She then headed over to the other panel and stood on it. The large door opened up slowly. With that, she headed through the door into another narrow hallway.
"It shouldn't be far now... I hope. It's been so long since I've been down here." Luna said with a sigh as she continued down the hall. Soon Luna came across a small flight of stairs that led into another room. The room had a dark feeling to it, as if something bad was going to happen. Luna soon heard an odd groan and froze up for a bit. Afterwards she felt a slight bit of movement on her back as she gave out a sigh of relief.
"W-where... W-where...?" The injured pony said as he couldn't even lift his head up to look around. His head stay rested on Luna as he darted his eyes around at what he could barely see.
"Relax, don't spend any energy on talking." Luna said as she continued forward into another small hallway. The hallway lead to a large room with a strange altar in the middle. A book was on a podium in front of the altar along with many tall candles.
"Here we are..." Luna said with a sigh as she carefully set down the wounded pony onto the altar.
With a spell she lit all of the candles at once and headed over to the book on the podium. Leon was unsure of what was about to happen. He tried to move but his body was in too much pain to let him. Luna took a deep breath and began to read out of the book. It was some type of ritual
"Gods from above. Equestrian Deities. And the holy beings from the other worlds alike. Lend your power to this diminishing soul as he clenches so hard onto what little life he has left... Tenebres. Infundante." Luna said as she looked over to Leon. He soon began to float into the air and a mysterious dark smokey aura surrounded him. The strange aura was then absorbed into his body and he was set on all fours on the altar. There was a small pause and then Leon gave a spine chilling toothy grin followed by a disturbing laugh.
"Oh it was too dreadful being nothing but a husk. But this... Being alive has never felt better!" Leon said, still laughing a bit.
"Arkanodos" Luna said out of the blue giving Leon a firm look.
"What?" Leon asked giving Luna a confused look.
"Does that name mean anything to you." Luna said staring into Leon's eyes.
"Should it?" Leon said as he hopped off the strange altar.
"I guess not." Luna said giving out another sigh of relief.
"So... Let's do a bit of a walk and talk. Follow me." Luna said as she headed into the hall and made her way back towards the castle.
"When you were struck. What did you see?" Luna said looking at Leon as he walked at her side.
"When I was struck...." Leon said thinking to himself as the two came across the ominous room from before.
"Oh yeah... those bastards decided to have some friendly fire!" Leon said gritting his teeth as he rushed towards the second doorway. Only for it to shut suddenly, as well as the one they just came from.
"What the..." Leon said as he looked around the room. Soon the strange dark smokey aura was emitting off his hooves.
He picked his hoof up and began to examine it. It was somehow familiar to him... Too familiar.
"Shit... Get ready!" Leon said as he was soon tackled down by one of the mysterious creatures of darkness.
"What are these things?!" Luna said as she took a step back and charged up a spell. Then she fired a bolt of magic at the one assaulting Leon and then at another which was charging her.
Leon quickly got up and charged at one of them, tackling it and then striking it in the face a couple of times. Defeating that one as he grabbed another that was charging at him. Luna was taking out several on the other side of the room but then got grabbed from behind. It didn't have her long though as another's body slammed into it and the two both were defeated. She then shot another bolt of magic behind Leon and got one that was coming from behind him.
That seemed to be all of them for now. Leon looked at his hoof and the strange aura was gone. He sighed as the door leading at swung open. Leon nodded and headed out of it with Luna.
"Darkness..." Leon said walking alongside Luna.
"Darkness...?" Luna repeated curiously.
"Yeah... I saw nothing but darkness. I was walking for what seemed like hundreds and thousands of years..." Leon said as he began to laugh.
"Death... or well.. Near death is alot more boring then I thought it would be." Leon said as he continued walking.
"Well... what do you expect it to be...?" Luna said curiously.
"Sorta like a movie.... You're the only one watching. And you see your life play before you. Step by step, minute by minute... Like that thing they say about your life flashing before your eyes. Except longer" Leon said as he looked over at Luna.
"One thing that is good though. I know I'll have a huge movie." Leon said with a laugh.
"What do you mean by that?" Luna asked, giving him a curious look.
"Because I don't plan on dying anytime soon." Leon said with a smirk as they came across the exit of the Catacombs.
Luna sealed the entrance and looked the barrels used for covering it.
"Oh yeah, lend me a hand and carry one of these." Luna said as she picked up one herself.
"What for?" Leon said as he picked it up with ease and held it on his back.
"We're gonna celebrate." Luna said with a giggle as she began to head up the stairs.
"Celebrate what?" Leon said as he followed her closely.
"Many things" Luna said as she headed up to the top level and began to head down the hall way.
"This way." Luna said in a quiet voice as she opened a door and headed in. Leon followed close behind. It seemed to be a heavily night-themed bedroom. It was Luna's bedroom.
"Set the barrel down in the corner." Luna said as she set her own there and headed out onto the nearby balcony. She used her magic and brought up the moon. She was a little late to this due to Leon, but she didn't mind. She then came in and gave Leon a smile.
"Let us begin." Luna said as she got a couple of fancy mugs and filled them up.
"What to celebrate first..." Luna said with a giggle as Leon took his mug of cider.
"How about we go in order. To the defeat of Discord." Leon said holding his mug up.
Luna giggled and held up hers as well. The two then took a drink. Leon having a sudden shudder.
"Whoa... That's strong... How old is this?" Leon said looking into his mug.
"Hmm... 6... 7...."
"That's not that bad."
"...Thousand years..."
As Luna said this Leon resisted spitting the drink out in shock. Instead her forcefully gulped it down and looked at Luna in amazement.
"That's insane..." Leon said as he took another drink. Luna did as well.
It was surprisingly sweet but had an insane kick to it afterwards.
As the two finished their mugs Luna smiled and filled them once more.
"Now what do we celebrate...?" Luna said with a giggle as Leon thought to himself.
"You saving my ass?" Leon said with a chuckle as he held his mug up.
"Seems fair enough." Luna said with a laugh as she held hers up and the two began to drink.
"You know... Ever since I returned. Ponies seemed to have been keeping their distance from me... Even my own sister at times." Luna said with a sigh as Leon gulped some more cider down and took a peak at Luna.
"How so?" Leon said heading over to Luna.
"I made a huge mistake that's put a scar on my past... And ponies have been looking at me funny ever since. And you don't really mind. You're the first pony to treat me like another in so long." Luna said as her head sunk and she stared at the ground.
"Hey. We all fuck up sometimes. Some in bigger ways then others. But nopony is perfect. The thing that differs is how you deal with the mistake... If you learn from it... If you understand it... And what you can do to make up for it. That's what makes you better. But if you sulk and loath over it and let it eat you up. It'll just make things worse. Not only for yourself, but the ponies around you." Leon said as he picked up Luna's head and looked into her eyes.
"You're the last pony I expected such words from..." Luna said with a laugh as Leon rolled his eyes and walked away.
"Fuck you too" Leon said heading over to the cider and getting himself another mug full.
Most of the night went normally. The two had a few more drinks and laughs. But unfortunately the two began to hit there limit.
"Heh What... do you call *hic* a boring pony who can move the sun...?" Leon managed to say to Luna. Luna had no comment on the cheesy joke and began to laugh a little.
"What would t-that be..." Luna said as she continued to giggle. Leon beginning to laugh a bit as he tried to push the punchline out.
"S-s... *hic* Sun butt..." Leon said as the two broke out in hysterical laughter. Moments later the door flung open and there stood Celestia with a little bit of bed head.
"Ayy! It's sun butt!" Leon said aloud as Luna punched him in the side.
"S-shush!! She'll hear you!" Luna said as she gave Celestia a gentle smile.
"Why are you too drunk? HOW are you two drunk!?" Princess Celestia said looking at the two as Leon began to laugh once more.
"Hey... We're not drunk.... *hic* I'm drunk!" Leon said with more hard laughter and nearly falling over.
"Thanks Luna. You prevented him from dying and now you're going to kill him with alcohol... Classic." Celestia said as she face-hoofed.
"We're fine... Right beautiful?" Luna said looking at Leon. Then grabbing his face and looking him in the eyes.
"I'm beautiful... You're drunk. Go home." Leon said laughing once more as Luna nodded and got up. She then headed towards the doorway of her room.
"Where are you going?" Celestia asked looking at her.
"I'm drunk, I gotta go home.." Luna said as she headed out of her room and down the hallway. Moments later she began to yell out.
"Celestia!! I'm home!!" Luna said as she did a 180 degree turn and headed back to her room.
Luna headed into her room and climbed onto Leon's back.
"I'm tired..." Luna said as Leon fell over.
"Me too..." Leon said as the two were now laying down. Luna wrapping her hooves around Leon as if he was a teddy bear.
"Ugh..." Celestia sighed as she left the room, coming back moments later with an ice pack.
"Sorry for this..." Celestia said as she used her magic to pick up Leon and bring him to her.
Leon said nothing as he stared into her eyes. Moments later and he began to laugh.
"S-sun butt...." Leon said as him and Luna began to laugh hysterically.
Celestia hit Leon on top of the head with the ice pack and knocked him out. Cold.
Celestia set his unconscious body with the ice pack outside of Luna's room and left Luna to sleep on the floor with little reaction to what happened.
The next morning Luna was sitting on her throne rubbing her head and groaning a bit.
"That's what seven thousand years of barrel-age will do to you." Celestia said with a chuckle.
"I barely remember anything after the fifth drink..." Luna said with another groan.
"I'm surprised you were able to survive three of them." Celestia said looking over at Luna.
"But, back to the serious business..." Celestia said giving Luna a serious look.
"He didn't have a reaction to his name... But I know it's him..." Luna said with a sigh.
"Are you sure?" Celestia said as Luna looked her in the eyes.
"I'm sure..." Luna said as she gave out another heavy sigh.
[End Of Chapter]