Somber's Story: End
Discord was defeated at last, but our job was hardly over. The chaos spirit had played with the planet so much that, lacking his influence, it quickly threatened to destroy what was left. Only with the help of a great many other intelligent ponies and more magic than has been amassed since was it stabilized. It still took dozens of us—I and my sister included—years to fix the damage or invent workarounds where it could not be repaired. And in those years, I found, things had changed alarmingly from the time before our solitary work.
-----
“Turkmaneistan has ‘requested’ to join the Empire, sister,” Luna muttered, crumpling the missive in disgust. “And Sheikh Ilasamed has mysteriously vanished under unknown circumstances... just like King Yarrow and President Alamo.” The missive was flung into the corner to join a small pile of other reports.
“Something is certainly rotten in the Empire,” Celestia affirmed grimly. “That marks three in the last month.” Without realizing it, a hoof made its way to her mouth as she thought. “But what could prompt Somber Rays to change his attitude so dramatically? He was never a proponent of subjugation...” Her voice trailed off thoughtfully.
“Somber, for all his strengths, was never a mental mage, but it cannot be a coincidence that he visits a ruler ‘in peace and fellowship,’ and then shortly thereafter their nation ‘requests’ to join the Empire, and the sovereign disappears from sight. So either Somber became a mental master secretly,” Luna mused, “or...”
“It isn’t dear King Somber anymore,” Celestia completed her thought. “Which I find more likely... Ray would never fall so far after fighting Discord’s tyranny for so many years.”
“I agree,” Luna said with a nod. “It seems too devious of a scheme for Somber Rays to devise.” She grimaced, “Somber was never a genius.”
Celestia continued gravely, ignoring Luna’s bluntness. “If he has truly been replaced, as seems possible, whatever is masquerading as him is an adept at the art, however, as well as being a shapeshifter.”
Her sister remarked. “So what creatures could defeat him so quickly, other than Discord himself?”
“I can think of nothing that could,” Celestia replied. “And that worries me.” She lifted her crown off of certain petrified bird’s talon. “For Discord has surely not returned—everypony would know if he had.”
“Perhaps, in light of the Empire’s gestures towards peace and reconciliation, we should do the same,” Luna said mockingly. “What say you to seeing our good friend after the time we’ve spent secluded away?”
“I think it would be a delightful change of pace after so many years fixing things,” Celestia answered, a wicked grin spreading across her face. “And I’m sure he’d be happy to see his two closest and most powerful friends after such a long separation, yes?”
“Oh, indeed!” Luna’s grin, if anything, was even more predatory. “I think he—or whatever is pretending to be him—would be very happy indeed.”
-----
In hindsight, confronting a suspected imposter and possible monster in the very heart of his power was not the best idea. Had we been smarter or more circumspect, perhaps this whole ordeal might have been averted. But we were anxious to discover the problem and cut to the heart of it, as it were.
The dispute ended... poorly, to say the least.
-----
The vacant room, dusty from several days of disuse, flashed with light as the solar diarch teleported in with a pop. She swayed drunkenly, coat scorched and blackened, a swathe of her mane missing. It took her a few seconds to realize that her sister had not returned alongside her. “Luna!” she called frantically. “Luna?!”
Her sister appeared, but instead of the customary pop and flash of teleportation, the spell squelched as it vomited forth its battered occupant. The moment her hooves touched the floor, she groaned and fell, one leg wobbling and bending in far more spots than usual.
Celestia rushed, as best as she was able, to Luna’s side, and lit off a diagnostic spell. Its prognosis wasn’t good: there were multiple fractures throughout her leg. A normal pony’s bones might well have been disintegrated under the stress.
Though Luna would recover... eventually, it would be months before she would walk even with the best care Celestia could give. It would take years or even decades to recover her former agility. For all intents and purposes, she was now dead weight in the fight against the newly-revealed Nightmare Accord.
“You were only a second behind me!” she cried. “How did you get hurt so badly?”
Luna’s teeth were gritted shut so tightly that Celestia feared they might shatter. “The shield,” she growled. “Threw me into a wall at a few hundred miles an hour just as my spell took. Another half-second and the rest of me would have hit, too.”
“The Nightmare has corrupted even the Heart?” Celestia lamented. “Together, we could barely match it without the heart assisting. Now, the Heart is at its bidding, and you are unable to help!”
Luna protested, “I am still able to fight! I will be whole in no time!”
“No, sister, you won’t,” Celestia said sadly. “Your leg is broken in dozens of places—right now, it has about the consistency of gelatin. It would flop like a noodle if you tried to move.”
Luna’s eyes widened at the absurd, yet true, comparison. “It’s that bad?” Her only reply was a nod.
“To think that Somber had voluntarily given part of his soul to a Nightmare in the name of protection... I would have never thought it, and that surprise was very nearly our death.” Celestia said, slumping down to sit besides Luna. “Things do not look good. If we could not match him, what could? The Elements, perhaps, but... if we failed, and he discovered those...” she shuddered. “No, that is not an option. What such a monster could do with that kind of power I can only imagine.”
“If we cannot match him, we will have to summon something that could.” Luna looked pointedly towards the statue in the corner. “A being not unlike him.”
“And have it simply take over? That is a terrible idea, sister!” Celestia exclaimed.
“What if,” Luna said slowly, “It could be controlled? Like... say... with a voluntary contract?”
Her sister froze, staring at her with wide eyes. “You cannot be serious.”
“What other option do we have?” Luna demanded. “Somber controlled it for decades, and he was not a master of the mental arts. Surely I could do better than he!”
“Perhaps,” Celestia retorted, “Or maybe you would simply turn into a worse tyrant! Pride goeth before a fall, sister. Do not think that you could contain a spirit so powerful as Accord. Somber may not have been a mental master, but his will was iron.”
Luna smiled tiredly. “But we do not need a Nightmare so powerful as Accord, do we? The Heart turned the tide. We were holding ourselves—barely, yes, but holding. If we had just a little more power—and the element of surprise, we might just pull it off.”
She chuckled blackly. “If we win, we can worry about the other later. If we lose... well, it won’t be a problem, will it?”
Celestia sighed. “This is bound to end poorly, Luna. You know this.”
“Maybe, but this puts off the problem at the least,” she replied. “And I can handle it. Truly.”
Celestia groaned. “You’re set on this, aren’t you?”
“Do you have any ideas?” Luna asked acerbically. When her sister opened her mouth, she cut her off. “Besides war?”
Celestia shut her mouth.
“Then, yes, I am. If you could kindly get the circle ready?”
-----
With the aid of the spirit of vengeance, (that would be me, you ungrateful filly!) we defeated Nightmare Accord—at the cost of the capital city, vanished into the abyss.
I did last longer than Somber Rays, in the end—several centuries, in fact. But slowly I weakened, and...
Well...
Eventually, I was close to losing control entirely and I knew it. I was sent away as a... precautionary measure, you might say. There was a chance that Nightmare Moon—(me!)—hush!—would be destroyed or evicted completely, but that obviously didn’t happen.
Also, I was sent to the wrong moon. For being "prepared," my sister was obviously not prepared.
-----
Luna coughed. “Is there water in this structure?” Wordlessly, Neil handed her a glass, and she gulped it thankfully.
“That sounds so ridiculous and improbable... it might be true.” Michael shook his head. “Was your life a storybook?”
“Actually, there were a few made of our adventures,” Luna said, preening just the smallest bit.
“Of course there were.”
The heavy door thudded, and a face peeked through the porthole, one none of them recognized. He placed a piece of paper on the door.
It read, ’15 hours ‘til ‘Lulu. Wish you could come, but quarantine is still in effect.’
“Lu...lu?” Luna squinted at the piece of paper, taped to the outside. “What...”
“Honolulu,” Buzz said. “City in Hawaii, one of our states. It’s a big island, lots of ships.” He sighed. “Too bad we can’t leave this thing for a week.”
“That is one thing which confuses me,” Luna confessed. “Why are we all under quarantine? No one is sick.”
“Precautionary measure, in case you have some kind of bug that kills humans rapidly. Don’t want to spread space influenza across the States.” The doctor nodded in agreement.
He cleared his throat and spoke for the first time, having remained silent all these hours. “I’m actually supposed to take cheek swabs of all of you and culture them in different petri dishes. Just in case.” His voice was soft and breathy, an odd combination for a male.
“None of that is necessary,” Luna declared. “I can simply cast a sanitizing spell.” Without asking for permission, she lit her horn, a glowing field sweeping across the small space. Everyone, alicorn included, suppressed a shiver at the tingling.
The soldier woke from his sleep in the corner, waving his weapon vaguely in the direction of the ceiling. “Bwhuh? Wazzat?”
“There. All sickness-causing creatures have been killed,” Luna said smugly. “Can’t do that with technology, can you?”
The doctor shrugged. “Not yet. Now, I’m sure that your... spell... worked just the way you intended, but I’m going to have to insist on a cheek swab. If nothing grows in 12 hours, maybe, just maybe, I can get us let out.”
He smiled, also a first. “Which would be a great change from being stuck here in a week, no matter how interesting the conversation.”
Neil sat back. “Wouldn’t it be nice to have our first appearance in Hawaii?” He threw a smirk at Luna. “All the adoring crowds—and the alien hunters?”
“Hunters?” Her ears flattened. “Why would your government allow those with weapons into the crowd?”
Prod at her introversion taken far too literally, Neil placed palm on face. “Never mind. Lots of people wanting to see you, meet you, take your picture—take pieces of your hair, even... that’s what I meant.”
Her eyes shrunk to pinpricks. “How many?” she whispered.
Buzz said blithely, “An awful lot. The whole city, plus anyone who can make it there, will be as close as possible. Plus news crews. Make it a few tens of thousands of people in person, and millions on the television."
Luna swallowed thickly. “Joy.”
End Splashdown. The story will continue (After National Novel Writing Month) in Accommodation.
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"'Lulu". YES
I really enjoyed Nightmare's one line in this chapter, a whole lot
5201609 I would disagree with you as he still building the world up and giving equal attention to the characters at a reasonable pace.
A sanitizing spell? Well the big problem with that is there are many microbes and such we need to be healthy. And no one repet the line "all sickness coursing", it isn't that simple. Many of those same helpful microbes can kill you in to large amounts, E.coli is a good example.
Oh well. Not Something I won't over look for the sake of the story.
5207835
True. In fact, some microbes that are necessary for life for some species are lethal if they get into the systems of others.
5207835 E. coli specifically seems to usually be harmless but has harmful variants. If Luna only killed harmful variants, then they should be fine eating their poo, but still not need a stool transplant. I suspect your point is still valid, but E. coli is not an example.
5207943
E.coli is a persistent problem because it lives in the intestines of pretty much every mammal on the planet, but you body and other microbes keep its numbers in check. It douse however get into food stock where it grows exponentially, and if reintroduced into the body in such bloated numbers it can overwhelm the bodies countermeasures.. Its why the young and elderly are the primary victims of E.coli.
Although I am certain there are many, many many strains of E.coli the events above are the main reason E.coli is a pertinent problem.
On another note, there is no logical reason Luna would not get sick at sum point likely very soon. the number one rule when travelling far from home is do not drink the water. It is the fastest way to introduce a large number of foreign microbes into your body, and that will make you sick, and Luna is on a completely alien world. Again something I'm willing to overlook for the sake of the story , I really don't want it to get sidetracked again.
As we could see in the show and comics. Dark magic and Nightmare are two different things. Sombra wasn't possesed by Nightmare but was corrupted by dark magic. Luna wasn't corrupted by dark magic but was possesed by Nightmare. As we could see in comics Nightmare is fast and doesn't need few centuries to posses someone but few days. Nightmare doesn't work through corruption. She is looking for uncertain and troubled minds and when she finds one she bring those fears to surface with nightmares and then persuades the victim that she will help or that she needs help. The persuaded victim then open it's mind to her and she takes control and the victim falls to dream like state.
Sombra under control of Nightmare wouldn't shatter to pieces after being hit by crystal heart. Nightmare is different life form and wouldn't be hurt by love magic because her host isn't corrupted by dark magic and Nightmare doesn't use dark magic but magic of her host. Dark magic evidently doesn't react good to love magic.
If it's the end, why is it marked incomplete?
5208185 Unless they're being given distilled water.
5208185 I've wondered how that would work. Luna did not evolve to kill off Earth pathogens, nor did Earth pathogens evolve to live inside Luna. It's obvious that viruses wouldn't infect her. It's less clear in the case of bacteria. The bacteria would definitely not do anything designed to hurt Luna, but it's possible that it might produce a chemical that just happens to be poisonous to Luna.
5210676 If Luna can eat Earth food (and she kinda has to) then her body is likely to be a suitable host for at least sum Earth bacteria. Now I adaptably don't know much about how exactly Bactria damage there host, I do know that none of them are inherently designed to. They need a host to survive, so killing that host is inherently a bad thing (in most cases).
What was my point? Oh right, bacteria aren't designed to hurt us, is gest works out that way sometimes. Has for how things will go with Luna I can't say, There are so many variables and absolutely no precedent for comparison.
5210780 Why does luna have to eat Earth food? She survived fine on the moon.
5211072 Umm good point... I hate magic, undoing the laws of biology. Grumble grumble grumble.
5211340
I'm amazed I bothered to read any of this
So, this isn't 'our' Luna but one from a fairly distant parallel version of Equestria, where Sombra was tainted by some kind of non-corporeal creature called 'Accord' (possibly Discord's diametric opposite?) and Luna is acting as its jailer.
Now it's loose whilst Nightmare Moon appears to be partly integrated with Luna again. It will be interesting to see where this creature tries to go and whom it tries to corrupt. I have a feeling that humans may be partly immune because of our lack of innate magic. unfortunately, it means anyone it can control must necessarily be magically strong.
Interesting ending
5217127
Luna made a deal with another spirit (the spirit of vengeance) in order to destroy Accord.
The historical references are intriguing there. But the story its now something entirely your own and different. Seeing more interests me still.
A pretty good story right up through chapter 11. After that, it sort of went "splat."
Why the bleep is this marked "complete"?
It ends halfway through, not even with any kind of closure.
5374253
Nightmare Moon can rotate planets or shove a moon around in orbit. Why on earth would a just-barely-supersonic bit of lead do all that much to hurt something incredibly old, knowledgeable, and powerful? The fact that it actually managed to do any damage at all attests to the fact of just how effective bullets are at killing things.
5296209
If you'd read the author's note, it was because of the madness known as NaNoWriMo.
5485750 Seriously?
5485762 yeah, for realzies! Alien from a distant planet with crazy impossible powers, and when hit by a bullet it just crumbles!
Like this:
5485837 Your kidding, right.
5487103 You can't tell?
5487633 Well, do you think it's bullshit?
5488015 Honestly its less bull than moving 7.34767309 × 10^22 kilograms of rock across the sky everyday. Or the sun, which is 1.989 x 10^30 kg! And then if we assume that magic is like gravity and other forces that work at a distance, then the force put out would be divided by distance squared! Assuming equestria's sun is similar to ours, and Celestia orbits it around their planet (worst case senario) it would take 4.842790585x10^53 newtons for Celestia to move the sun around in the sky. And she doesn't even break a sweat! Normally I'd argue that inertia would make that manageable, but then there are times when the sun is completely stopped, turned around, or just plain messed with throughout the show! (NMM, when Twilight tries to raise it, Discord, etc) So, in summary, my bullshit meter is already burnt out by the sheer amounts of power these ponies supposedly have.
Note: originally this comment had all the calculations I used to find how much energy Celestia uses, but it got way too long so I cut it out.
5488105 Ok then.
5529265 .......Really?
5387515 hey i ahve to ask when the land on the moon it was 1969 and it was 3 yrs away when pong was made for the people of the usa.
are you going to make a story where luna play video games of old!?
6429104 What you did there, I see it. fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/001/b/5/clapping_pony_icon___princess_luna_by_taritoons-d5prurt.gif
As with the other two, cute. Very cute.
A like and fave coming in hot.
5529294 your profile picture. The best one.
7210935 Thanks!
Interesting take on the Nightmare.
9854894
A full-sized horse weighs in the neighbourhood of thousand pounds or more. The armour is the least of the weight.
I've just crossed this off my ages-old reading list, so here's a quick review (including the previous two installments).
Some points:
Overall: Lovely premise. Some good light-hearted execution through the early and middle parts. Doesn't quite stick the landing... and sad that it's not finished in the sequel. But I'm glad I read it.
11177050
We don't talk about McCarthy