Luna vs. a Tiny Italian Car

by totallynotabrony

Chapter 14

August 26, 2015
Having nothing else to do, we’d stopped setting our alarm clocks. At least this trip offered us that: no responsibilities past saving Celestia. It was a very big responsibility, but it was the only one we had. Giving so few cares about everything else was liberating.

It was a nice lazy wakeup, the sun coming through the motel room curtains. Maria’s eyes were half-open, watching me as I turned to face her. I moved a little closer.

I raised my head a few inches to check if Luna was watching from the other bed. She wasn’t there. Maria saw my expression and rolled over to see for herself.

Maybe she hadn’t wanted to wake us when she came back. I first checked outside the room and then the car. No Luna.

This hadn’t happened before, and I wasn’t sure whether we were supposed to be worried or not. Then, we turned on the TV. Louisville was on fire.

Well, okay, only a few buildings, but you know how the news is. The anchorperson speculated that the unusual red and blue lights shown in a shaky cellphone video were electric sparks.

Maria and I glanced at each other. Three minutes later, the car was packed and we were headed south.

“Why in the world did Tirek go for Louisville?” I asked. “Chicago or even Indianapolis are larger cities.”

“Or Columbus or St. Louis,” added Maria.

“The magic of bourbon maybe.” It was a weak joke, and neither of us laughed.

We drove in silence for a few minutes. I turned onto I-69 towards Indianapolis.

Maria pointed at a bus with a splashy advertisement on the side. “It says they have free WiFi onboard.”

“Nice.”

She grabbed my computer from the back seat and jacked in as I slowed down to shadow the bus.

Surfing the news sites, a few more facts came to light. Whatever had happened, it began about an hour ago. The area was being cleared now, which probably meant those on the scene had decided the danger was over.

Based on what we’d seen so far, Tirek was probably already gone. I wondered how long it had taken for Luna to fly all the way to Louisville. We’d seen that certain ponies were capable of going supersonic, but no way to know for how long or how aerodynamic an alicorn was.

And speaking of alicorns, we’d have to somehow find Luna in a city of a quarter million.

However, as we rounded Indianapolis at extra-legal speeds, she found us. Maria’s phone rang. Since it was the only phone we had, we’d paired it with the car’s Bluetooth. I hit the button on the steering wheel to answer the ringing coming from the speakers.

An electronic voice asked, “Do you accept a collect call from-”

“-Princess Luna of Equestria-”

“-and all associated charges?”

“Yes.”

There was a click and Luna hesitantly asked, “Hello?”

“Luna, where are you?”

“I am in Louisville.” She said it Lewis-ville. She paused and after a moment found a street sign to read.

Maria set the GPS. I asked Luna, “What happened?”

“I found Tirek. There was a battle.”

“We saw. It’s on TV.”

Luna did not reply, seeming to gather her thoughts first. I said, “So how did it go? It sounds like you demolished a few buildings.”

“I managed to surprise him and he was forced to fight, vice retreat.” Her voice was flat.

“Well, that’s something.” I tried to put a positive spin on it. She’d gotten a piece of him this time.

I heard her breathe, but she said nothing.

“How did you make this call, anyway?” I asked.

“The instructions are printed on the box.”

“Oh.”

We lapsed to silence again. Maria asked, “Are you okay? Hurt?”

“No. I...I mean, I am not okay.”

My fingers tightened on the wheel. “Okay, just hold on. We’ll be there in about half an hour.”

Carrot Top had once claimed that collect calls were free for you and cheap for them. I didn’t know what the phone bill was going to say, but whatever the charge was, it was worth it to stay on the phone all the way there. Luna only communicated with single words, but stayed faithfully by the phone.

We tore into the street where she’d led us and screeched to a halt next to what had to be one of the last phone booths left in North America.

Luna, being quadrupedal, didn’t fit inside. Though, when she hung up the phone and exited the booth, it was almost as if she’d been transformed like Superman - or maybe the opposite of that.

Everything drooped. Her ears, her mane and tail, her eyes. I’d asked her earlier, but when I got out of the car, I asked again, “What happened?”

Luna didn’t answer. Maria asked, “Is Celestia okay?”

“She is alive.”

“So what’s wrong?”

Luna paused so long I thought she hadn’t heard. She took a breath. “Tirek has taken my magic.”

My spine involuntarily arched as chills went up it.

Luna wouldn’t meet my eyes, so I had to trade glances with Maria. On a scale from one to the end of the world, I’d rate it pretty bad.

My hyperbole is better when I’m not freaking out.

Maria asked, “What do we do?”

That, finally, got a reaction from Luna. “We will continue to do as we have: pursue Tirek.”

“Staying the course is what got us - you! - into this situation,” I argued.

Luna flinched and I instantly felt guilty for saying it, though not quite regretful. I thought it needed to be said.

Seconds passed. Maria looked up and down the street and said, “We should go before anyone wonders why we’re parked illegally and standing around this old phone booth.”

A solid plan. Luna, head still down, obediently got in the car.

“Where are we headed?” I asked no one in particular.

Luna’s stomach growled.

“When was the last time you ate?” I asked. She didn’t reply, but if it had been dinner the night before, that was answer enough.

I spotted a Chinese buffet. I glanced at Maria and she nodded.

The place was nearly empty as we walked in on an early lunch. I asked for a quiet booth.

When Luna went for the plates, I saw frustration go across her face as she stared at them. Realizing, I picked one up for her.

When we were gathered around the table, I began asking questions.

“Can you get your magic back?”

“Perhaps.”

“What do we have to do?”

She vaguely tossed her head, staring at her noodles.

“You have to give us something.”

Luna looked at me for the first time that day. “So when I am in charge you dispute my plan, and when I am broken you look to me for guidance?”

Point taken, if a little unfair. “As always, we’re here to help you. But we can’t do that if we don’t know the full situation.”

Luna looked at the table and took a deep breath. “It was foolish of me to attack Tirek directly. I may have been able to defeat him in a straight battle, but engaging him in close quarters allowed him to work the only power he has: taking it from others. And now he has the magic of two alicorns.”

She paused, and added, “At least I can say that Celestia fell while I still am still free.”

“Why does that matter?”

Luna looked up sharply. “Have you not noticed? Do you not believe her to be the superior sister?”

Well, when she put it that way. “Celestia is older and more experienced.”

Luna snorted. “I have no lack of reminders.”

“Surely she wasn’t the kind to rub that in your face.”

“She had no need. I embarrassed myself regularly.”

Princess Luna? Really? “How?”

“‘Did I miss anything?’” she spit. “I slept through the changeling invasion.”

“Well, you’d probably been up all night…”

“Nopony thought to wake me up!” It wasn’t the Royal Canterlot Voice, but what it lacked in volume it made up for in intensity. Luna went on, hissing her words. “Am I really such an afterthought that when Canterlot was under attack nopony thought I could be useful?”

She took a breath through her nostrils, teeth clenched. “If I called on Twilight, Cadance, and the others to go after Tirek, they would shunt me to the side and handle the matter themselves. Not a one of them takes me seriously. Why should they? Equestria got along fine without me for one thousand years.”

It took me a little while to put together my next words. “If Tirek overpowered Celestia, what makes you think that she could save you without help? You know she’d call the Elements of Harmony.”

Luna closed her eyes and let out a long sigh. “I know. But...can I not come out of this with any dignity?”

“We could be risking the fate of the universe just so you can look good,” Maria pointed out.

Luna’s face twitched, but she said very delicately, “I am aware. It hurts to admit when you are wrong, and after holding the same belief for one thousand years it becomes a very difficult thing to shake. But even if I wanted to, I cannot contact Equestria without magic.”

More spine chills. We were on our own.

Comments

[Chicago Ted]

Now I wonder if Tirek used this:
nasignews.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/louisville-slugger-museum.jpg

[Alaborn]

I don't think a Fiat could go fast enough to to make it from Indianapolis to Louisville in half an hour. It would be more like an hour and a half.

[totallynotabrony]

6360317 My intention was that they were somewhere south of Indianapolis, though I don't know how well that came across in the text.

[Alaborn]

6360332 You said rounded Indianapolis, which to me sounded like they just got off I-465 onto I-65 South.