Living the Epilogue

by Juku

Chapter Three: The things that go clop in the night

"...Tia!" She nearly screams in anger to whom cannot hear, forced to retain the expression upon her face long after the realization. Slowly closing her muzzle, she keeps her eyes narrowed while craning her neck to look all around of no white corridor to be found. Closing her eyes, she lets out a snort to the very notion of her situation. "You lack the skills, dear sister, to pull the wool over my eyes in my very realm."

Closing her eyes once more, she slows her breathing letting out but a few light hums of inaudible mockery. With but a twitch of her one eye, she stops her humming as if to concentrate further, putting ever more into her breathing. "What did you do..."

Passing but a few minutes, stilled with her muzzle dipped down and wings elevated, she raises her muzzle almost as fast as her rising eyelids. Looking around, to and fro, below and above, she even flaps her wings in her ever growing emotional state. "What did you do!"

Of her yell, clouded only by the rising bits of sand to her foreleg stomp directly below, she takes none the answer in return. Staring down upon the ground of sand, scorched into vibrant reflection by the unrelenting sun high above, she begins to trot with light grunts directly up the dune before her. Flapping her wings a few more times, she growls once more. "When I get done your horn won't be the only thing needing a cream you..."

"...you..." Her voice trails like her hooves in the sand at the crest of the dune, finally able to take glimmer or what reaches as far as she can see upon the other side. Going as wide as they can be, she can do little other than simply stare upon the stain of creatures strung all across the sand. Softening her expression, she takes away her sight's focus for but a moment while letting them shift about in a downward stare. Inhaling sharply, she closes them once more while putting her best hoof forward with the full expanse of her wings, clenching her teeth in the process.

"This isn't..." Finally adopting a bit of worry both in tone of voice and facial expression, she speaks softly before moving back up a few clomps to look back over the crest, finding the expanse of sand as barren as naturally assumed. Shifting towards hesitation, she takes very small clomps even farther while bringing a wing up and forward with the squint of her eyes. "...but there is no where else I could be."

"Could always be going crazy?"

"Don't be absurd." She uses her other wing to flap towards the direction of foreign voice, still holding the other between her vision and that of the blistering sun. Holding herself completely still, she finally takes but the deepest of sighs. "You're so dead when I get out of here, Tia!"

"You really should be careful on what you wish for there, pony girl." The voice's words are deep but thoughtful, stilled only by the same shown of the winged dark blue pony with her horn raised high towards the sky. Moving forward just a bit closer with a long stride of clomps from below, the owner of voice gets just alongside that which seems abnormally distracted. "You know, you're kind of tiny!"

"What matter of....!" She turns her head but a flinch towards the deep voice, widening her own as her eye begins to travel upwards to the long muzzle breathing down upon her own. Keeping her wings as they were, she says nothing upon the giant equine now standing far too close.

"What? Did you just realize where you pfff!" The equine sputters out near the end to the hard impact upon it's nose, it's vision catching only a eyeful of dark blue feathers before smashed along the cheek by it's opposing twin. Eyes closed, he awkwardly attempts to waddle back just as an impressively strong blow comes to his mid chest, helping him backwards and and then onto his back.

"Feisty little thing..."

"We are Princess Luna, and we demand you state your presence!" She puts as much as she can muster in her voice, making her stance of bending upon all four legs all the more confronting. "We will not be intimidated by such abhorrent theatrics!"

"You'd think I'd be better at this by now, huh." He whispers to himself, still upon his back with all of his feet bent down in a relaxing hang. "I'm getting up. You'd better behave yourself!" Of no sooner does he roll upon his side that the explosion of sand near his muzzle indicate no heed to his warning. Laying as if too lazy to care of what is now pointed his way, "It's not going to work here, you know."

"Where is here!" Luna holds her muzzle down, eyes pointed towards that which lays before her lowered horn. "Answer, Nightmare!"

"Here is I."

"We shall not fall for such riddles of game." Etching but a bit closer, "You may have changed your approach. Altered yourself for further mockery of ourselves. But you can never change what you are to us!" only to breathe even harder from her declarations. "Answer!"

"You know, back then, had you used even a fraction of the fury your showing right now I may have tried to kill you." Keeping himself entirely relaxed even as the other stabs forward in feigned threat. "That was a compliment, you little firecracker."

"Your mere presence is an insult." Relaxing her eyes but a bit. "If you wish to compliment, then vanish and never return."

"Here is I, and only I can be here. If you wish for me to leave you be, all you need to do, is ask."

"Even pushed back to the farthest reaches of our mind, would never be far enough. Chain and shackled, you would always be at the forefront of our worry and concern. There is no where within us for the likes of you, our truest regret to anything that we may have offered world."

"Still unsure if you want me to leave or..."Silence!"

"We shall not fall for the same trickery. We shall not set you free upon the world to once more reign torment upon those who live there." Rearing her head back and away. "We can only consider that our most recent confrontation with that of lesser quality has somehow riled you awake."

"Lesser quality?"

"If we must remain in slumber until our sister can summon the Elements to seal you away once more, then so be it." Clomping back quite a bit, ending only with her rump landing upon the gritty sand. "We may be powerless, but you cannot leave without word that we shall not usher."

Continuing with her defiance, she finally takes in what had first caused her to revert to that of lesser emotional states. "Just what did you wish to accomplish by taking such a disproportionate mockery of a proper stallion? Small eyes, long muzzle, and matching what flows from above your hooves by what also flows from neck and tail." Shaking her head with mock laughter. "Did you think being so large would frighten us?"

"What did you mean by what you said earlier?" The misshaped stallion rolls over into a more comfortable laying position, giving his head a good shake from all the sand working their way. "All that stuff about nightmare, being woke up by that... lesser quality one from earlier?"

"I refuse to play these games, Nightmare."

"Was it something like yourself, but a bit more black in shade?" Taking notice to her light twitch.

"A little bigger as well. Loud booming voice of seething malcontent?"

Giving a small smile to the questioning expression in return, he first pulls one foreleg forward in order to plant his hoof upon the sand, lifting himself up a bit as the others all slowly take their place to his towering presence. Doing a little kick to all of the sand held within his heavy feathering, he notices the return of tension upon that which has also risen to all fours. "Do I look like Nightmare, to you?"

"I said I refuse to play...!" She went down fighting, if that makes you feel any better about it." He finishes what she had started, letting his rear plop down upon the sand much like that across the way. Waiting until her eyes suddenly widen, "Yeah."

Rising to her hooves, much to the tiresome expression sent her way, she hunches down once more.

"I'll hit back this time, so you know." Tilting his head just a bit, "But I'd rather get a few things out in the open first."

Readied in posture, she says nothing but keeps her unwavering eyes on the stallion with ears pointed forward.

"I need to get out of here." Taking a deep breath that leaves faster than it came. "Mind helping me out?"

"No." Showing more tension between her eyes. "I have seen what you would do to all who dwell here."

"Hey, we weren't the ones who went and tried to kill your little friends." Giving but a bit of snap to the point of his muzzle her way. "Contrary to what you may believe I'm not actually here of my own accord. I've got a job to do and you're keeping me from doing it."

"All the better, then." Taking heed from what little emotion she can take from it's expression. "Answer is still no."

"Well, what if I apologize for bashing you in the head with my shield?"

"The answer would still be... Wait..." Only to shrug her shoulders. "No."

"How about if I apologize for calling you a bitch when you blasted me through those trees?"

"..." Forced now to struggle under her stern expression, as an inner rage only barely remains contained. "No."

He sighs once again, albeit much slower in rise and fall. "You really are a bitch, I guess."

"Excuse me!?"

"I said your pretty mean." Rolling his shoulders to the best of his ability. "Haven't even given me a chance."

"You came and attacked our subjects in the middle of the night!" Unwilling to hold back what no longer need be contained. "You attacked me and somehow infected my mind with your poison to which you dare ask for pardon to your crimes in feign to commit even more?!"

"I was testing you, to see if you were worth a damn." He trots over through a long stride that forces her to put that much more in her own. "You came barreling through the night to defend what would of already been dead, had it been only on you. You put on your best show of force, and act offended when I called your hand?" Repeatedly lifting his muzzle up and down as he closes in. "But that's not what pisses me off the most."

"And what would that be?" She continues to awkwardly clomp backwards, weary of any upcoming words of trickery.

"I really, and I mean really, reaaaaaa..." Rolling his head until his muzzle hangs at high noon, "...aaaally need to get out of here."

"Acting like a foal won't change my mind, you annoying little..." Growing in anger to a smirk sent her way. "Quiet!"

"If I tell you why I need to get out of here, would it help?"

"Yes!" Catching her tongue too little too late. "No!" Bending her ears back to his invasion of her personal space, "I said no!" she whips forward the highest arch in her wing to no avail, his large muzzle coming just up and then past her own. "I'm warning you..."

"Anger." His tone, while filled with grit still carries a softness that seems to give her pause. "You let it carry you, like the wind. You think of me as an threat, and if so, you would be ever so right." Feeling the tension build once again. "But you are not what I seek to devour."

"Then what do you..."

"I am no righteous being. I am prone to fits of rage, holding a grudge, and can little see the difference between retribution and vengeance." Taking heed to the space still occupied next to his own. "You think that we sought to invade, when in truth we were only in pursuit. Something has found it's way into your home. We are here because we lost ours to the same that wishes to do now onto yours."

"Why should I believe you?" She keeps her eyes strained forward, slowing her breathing while solidifying her tone. "How can I?"

"You have a choice to make, like I have made so many times over, to the accountability you alone shall be forced to bare." Etching his muzzle so close to her upright and pivoted ear, his breath causes it to twitch. "It shall lay in wait, until the first slumber. Only one will wake up."

"Then, it is as I feared." Pulling her head away in order to look into his blackened vision. "You seek to take control of me, like she did once before to the shame and regret that that I can do nothing but carry alone." Softening her expression a bit more. "I have a question, then."

"Ask."

"Do you feel remorse, for the lives that you take in the name of whatever you wish to call your quest for vengeance?" Showing nothing under his direct, but continued stare in silence. "Do you feel the pain, in the taking of the most sacred of homes of those who might heed your call?"

"You misunderstand, little firecracker." He gives no reaction to the light flinch to his chosen nickname. "I am not here to take over your home, in either sense considered. I already have what I sought from here, and now, I need to leave in order to do the same out there."

"You... were after Nightmare?"

"I was originally placed here for when the stallion would be taken, and in turn, attempt to take hold of you. Since they are aware of our presence, they will take and bolster themselves through only the fittest in your world." Thoughtfully raising his brow. "But things changed."

"The father is infected?" Finally letting her eyes soften into ever growing worry. "My sister is carrying me to the room where they are."

"If she is like you, then it will go for her, instead. I am no longer dormant, and it will not take the bait that I had set."

"If what you say is true, and if you say you are here to help us, then let me wake and warn her." Lifting her muzzle to the sudden rise in her chest. "I swear if no trickery lays in wait, I will converse with my sister of your offer in assistance to this supposed blight upon our lands."

"We are both trapped here unless you release me from your bindings, or erase me from within them." Letting his eyes blink ever so slowly to the widening of her own. "I told you that you would have to make a choice, one that you will be held accountable."

"You're asking me to risk releasing something influenced by Nightmare herself, that might not be whom he says he is, or risk having you been telling the truth and putting not only my sister but all of my subjects at risk?!" Jerking her head to the words. "That is no choice to be had!"

"More of a gamble, I know." Sound off but a few mocking chuckles. "And even if I have told the truth so far, does not mean that I've been honest about the entirety of it all. You may very well regret setting me loose, even if you do end up saving your sister and country."

"But I..."

"But like I did with Nightmare, I am doing with you. I have never taken someone by force. To do that means that the other is entirely absorbed, as material, and not even part of their personality is saved in union." Looking her once more in the eye. "I would like to think that one such as yourself, having experienced this sort of thing before, would understand what will happen if your sister loses her fight."

Looking down, Luna stares intently upon the grains of sand that lay down upon and all around her submerged hooves. Narrowing her eyes, only to soften them just after, she shifts between several fold before finally settling on something a bit more confident and stern.

"You said just like with Nightmare, you're asking, correct?"

"Correct."

"That means she agreed to this?"

"Agreed would be a rather strong word, perhaps." His own, giving rising doubt across the way. "She gave me a criteria through which if met, she would agree to such terms that I set forth for her." Rolling one eye up in consideration, "But yes, she agreed to let me work for it."

"Then I want your word, upon a name that if true, you should at least feel down to your very hooves." Luna hardens her eyes, as if in preparation for confrontation, along with her posture. "Promise upon Attendant Primrose that....!" Of words, drowned out by the sudden whirlwind of sand catching any and all in it's pelting fury, forced to use her wings to shield her eyes and muzzle while hunkered down against the drag.

"While I am quite impressed by how well you've caught on..." His words, bolstered to almost thundering levels even against the howl of wind and sand, containing a serene calmness that serves only to heighten the foreboding sense of dread. As the wind begins to equalize to the cloud of dust and grit, a vibrating stomp is enough to send away any concealment made from a cemented memory.

Standing before the Princess, in her most inner realm, is the very same large equine as before. White mane and tail, two tone coat of black and white in rounding pattern, along with heavy white feathering coming from above and all the way down onto the sand from all four hooves. Almost as if disappointed from expectations never met, she begins to lift that which heavily weights her down.

Looking down, she flickers her eyes wider to the water like movement of the sand streaming past her front hooves. Craning her neck to her side, she widens them even more to the unmoving mane that had flowed freely through the weightless air. Feeling but another vibrating stomp, she catches just in the time the lack thereof in movement from the one before her. Beginning to feel an ever rising pressure, she grunts in opposition to what wishes her to bow down onto her very abdomen, unable to concentrate as the light begins to fade.

"I must ask that while I do promise, I must also demand that you never mention that name so casually again." Seemingly now clenching his teeth hard enough to cause his teeth to grit against each other while letting only the deepest of agitated growls escape through. "I have this insurmountable urge to kill you right now, several times over."

"I can hear her when you speak." Luna makes through heavy breath in observation, if in defense to the very thought. "And yet you haven't."

Still struggling against himself, showing the strain with the jitter of his head when trying to force it down and away from she who stands before him. Of but a few more growls, and hard scuffs with his front hoof, does he look back up once again like that from across the way now free of her struggle. "...that was risky, firecracker. If you die here then so do I and so does she, even if only two of us might of given a damn."

"There lives not a single pony, griffon, minotaur, or dragon alive or dead who could do what that name can to Nightmare." Plopping her rear back down in the same, as if no longer threatened by anything at all. "The worst reaction was the only one I needed to see."

"You had one hell of a mean woman inside you." He admits, plain and simple.

"And now, so do you." She returns in kind.

"You don't seem particularly worried of that."

"What may set you free shall also shackle you." She tilts her head before looking away. "We may not know exactly how to deal with you, but we do her." Turning back to stare into his eyes. "Through me she was given life, and through me she found shelter when gleamed of it."

"I like that." Unable to hide the smirk growing on the corner of his muzzle, his form already beginning to fade like that of the world all around them, much to his only audience's slight confusion. "Just don't look too much into it, okay? It's something off the list she gave me."

"List? What list?!"

---

"P-princess! Something just came out of Princess Luna!" an unfamiliar mare yells in fright. "What is that!"

Of whom is to be concerned, finds it absolutely difficult to open her eyes, moaning out a hum to her futile struggle to summon enough strength to do anything but. Forced to listen, she hears far too much, too quick, making it only possible to latch onto only the closest voices.

"Evacuate the entire hospital!" Comes the voice of one audibly offset Solar Princess. "While it's distracted, get my sister...!"

"Hey little white pony. Any chance you know where this one's sister is?" The low grit of it's voice sending a shiver, as if ironically waking up to a nightmare, causing that which writhes on the hospital bed just behind to do so even more. "Wait... pearly white coat... sherbert mane..."

"Are you the one who dares attack my sister and our little ponies?!"

"Ah, good, it seems the stallion down there is one tough son of a bitch. Still hanging in there." Looking down upon the stallion, cradled by the shivering body of another on top while one of much smaller proportions peeks out but one frightened eye from underneath. "All here, huh."

"You will not come one hoof closer to them, abomination!" Turning her head while keeping her eyes up towards the much larger beastly mockery of her own kind. "Luna! Luna, answer me, please?" Flaring her horn even brighter, "I will not allow you any closer!"

The large equine, staring down upon the stallion twitching as if running in a dream, gives only a few slow blinks before turning towards Luna's sister. Seemingly paying little heed to the ever increase of golden light emitted from her horn, he shakes his head with a sigh. "That's it?"

"If you think I would...!"

"Ah, I get it now. You've been at the top so long that you've become bloated and lazy." Nodding his head as all around him, everything pony or otherwise, begins to float off the floor. "Does not bode well for you all, at all. Nor do I have the time to tell you why."

Drifting up ever so slowly, the Solar Princess loses but a brief moment of concentration to the confusion of her attempts to fix what she does not understand, failing again and again while the walls begin to creak and whine to the upending pull. Refocusing her efforts, she sends a beam of magical energy directly into the muzzle of he who stands in origin, gaining only the look of her surprise to it's continued bloody smirk.

"So how about I just show you!" His yell, almost concealed by the riveting shatter of tiles and edge of a bed, managed to get through just as the Solar Princess is hit by a rising unseen object the same moment she is violently pulled back down. As all that once continued to rise afloat begins to fall back to the floor, she who be taught but a lesson hurls up through the wall and towards the darkened night sky outside.

"Nnnngh... N..Nnnno...Wh..." She who now struggles upon the far back floor, still physically pacified, mumbles loudly.

"Don't mind her." He whips his head towards behind him, "Or her." only to nudge it towards the missing wall. "We have more important matters to attend to." Looking down to the mare who can only bury her muzzle in the side of her sleeping mate. "He's dying, so you know."

"Please leave us alone!!"

"I can't. But I'm not allowed to touch him until he's something else." Flickering his ears to the distant but quickly encroaching magnitude of clops. "When you were attacked in the forest, he was infected. That infection is slowly eating away at all that he is, until there nothing left so it can take over." Blowing hard on the top of the mare's head to force her to look up. "Hey, do you want to save him or not? I don't have much time."

"W-well I-I-I..."

"What is it with you ponies? Back on Earth all I had to do was say I could save him or her and they sometimes even threatened me for wasting the time to ask!" Holding a look most undignified to the empty space that once served as a wall. "Damn, the bitch is coming back."

"H-how can..."

"You tell me to save him, and I will. But he might not remember you." Doing the must subtle of etches of his head towards the filly underneath. "Or her." Slowing his breathing and his voice. "It will depend on what he held onto the longest. But you will still at least have the chance."

"T-then do it!"

"Already did." Letting his eyes focus on the one still looking up to him, giving but a slow wink in place of further words. Clopping backwards but a few, he turns to take one last look to the one who seethes with anger while still upon the floor, exchanging but a shrug to a stare. Walking towards the door, he meets chest to muzzle dozens upon dozens of room filling guardponies, of each and every one passing right on through in their determined but confused frenzy to capture an assailant long since having moved on.