Remember the Moon

by Leviathan

One Problem at a Time

A strange presence became apparent in front of Paradise. A mass conglomerate of some green substance had appeared. There had been no warning, no aura emanating from Paradise, the mucilage goop simply appeared. It was globular in form, with texture comparable to a thick paste. Not knowing its purpose, I took to the skies, avoiding tit altogether. With nature no longer being an issue I was confident I had the advantage.

The being teleported exactly to where I was and smashed a blunt object against my flank. It had predicted where I was going to be perfectly. I was sent spiraling downwards, managing to barely catch myself before Paradise charged at me, an insane passion burning within its eyes. She brandished her skeletal hoof as if it were a weapon.

It had punched me. Why a being powerful enough to command the elements of wind and fire resorted to such an unrefined approach was beyond.. Then I saw the edge of her weapon. A strange aura surrounded it. It was a dark aura. Not the type of dark aura that surrounds my spells, but a more sinister darkness.

Even the air around the appendage was strange. Almost as if it was bending inwards, towards the leg, being absorbed by some unseeable thing...

Stars above, I knew exactly what this thing was. It wasn’t an elemental, or even a being summoned from Tartarus. It was an Ethereal being, as I had suspected, but a rare and deranged one. Even for the Ether. One I had only read about in a book in the Library of the Night. Paradise, this strangely temperamental monster, was an Ectoplasmic Phantasm.

They were mythical monsters that feasted on the magic of ponies through the division of their cellular structure. They would create small, controlled, dimensional rifts and bring living souls towards the rifts in order to eat away at their subconscious minds. These rifts usually took the appearance of off-putting images, covered by an indescribable aura.

And the rift, in this case, was formed around Paradise’s blunt, skeletal leg. So that would explain why the monster was charging at me flailing its limb wildly. It also meant that one appendage was far more dangerous than any spell. Once a being is sucked into the rift, they are left to rot there until a Ethereal Phantasm lent mercy. The real question, though, was why I was not transported upon the first hit. Had the creature held back in order to further toy with me?

This creature would just take me into some sort of distorted reality, and feed off of my mind, my power, my strength, my will, while all I would be able to do was suffer. Paradise truly had been toying with me earlier; this was the Phantom’s true attempt at destroying me. But, I would not make it an easy conquest.

I let my form fall into a nose dive, trying to gain enough speed to perform my next move. I could see that Paradise was gaining on me, despite my increasing momentum and initial velocity. Paradise was a few feet away from me, tailing on me, its leg outstretched and reaching for just one touch. I could practically feel its maniacal smile and voracious eyes piercing through me.

I could tell that its full attention was on me by this point, which would hopefully help my little trap. The earth was within reach. I shut my eyes tight and cast my spell, hoping my magic would not fail me. I felt a rush of nausea and faint tingling in my limbs. My teleportation spell succeeded. I opened my eyes and scanned my surroundings. In the rushed manner in which I had cast the spell I could be anywhere within the battle field. I had not had time to target a specific spot during my transversal.

About ten feet below me was Paradise, recovering from her collision with the ground. She was Dazed and Confused for hardly a nano-second, but that was all I needed. Brilliantly illuminated shackles enclosed around the form of Paradise. A spiraling tendril, created from the ashes of burnt stars(in my minds eye, at least), wrapped around the form of the beast. It extended up to the tip of its head and engulfed its horn. This would serve to hold her magic at bay. Only for a moment, though. (Authors Note: Fun Fact: Well, Actually just Fact: In technical terms a moment is 90 seconds!)

By all extents and purposes I had restrained Everfree, the Phantom, mongrel, the soul-feaster, with simple aerobatic tricks. I noted that I had to pour a significant amount of energy into the shackle which held her rift-torn, flesh-ridden, charred skeleton limb.

The rift energy that it was emanating threatened to engulf my entire spell, which is an incredible feat. I am quite powerful, after all. As for the creature creating this destructive energy, it sat calmly, seemingly apathetic to its own vulnerability.

“That wasn’t an intelligent move on my part, was it? I should probably look where I’m going.”

I was not quite prepared to unleash my final spell just yet, however. I wanted to learn more about this Ethereal creature. The library had not given me anything but myths on the subject. Which is saying something when dealing with an omniscient library that had existed for all of time. Perhaps I could reason with the creature as well. There may be a chance to enrich the Canterlot Archives with crucial information, in case a being similar to this one were to come to the land of Equestria. There was also the matter that it claimed to originate from Equestria. That could not possibly be true...could it?

I bit my lip. Once again it bled. I was, and am, the type who draw courage from pain. The throbbing sensation that passes through my lower lip is a comfort, something that reminds me of my mortality. “I know what you are.” My voice was low, and hardly a whisper. It was a bit intimidating now that I knew what my opponent was.

“Say it. Say it out loud.” Its tone became shallow and more than a bit melodramatic. The loud, thunderous boom which had encompassed it earlier was now a faint whisper.

“Vampire.”

“Wait, what? No, I ju-”

“You’re an Ectoplasmic Phantom, a Wraith of the Ether. Your something that was born from the rift energy created by the Ether, and something that feasts upon those unlucky enough to be caught in the rift. You’re a carnivore.” This thing was putrid, despicable, disgusting, and in my mercy.

I was actually hoping that my sister would arrive late so that I could torture this thing. I wanted to make it suffer. I wanted to show it what real pain was. If any of the myths regarding Ectoplasmic Phantasms were true than it deserved it. This thing should not have existed in the first place.

“A carnivore, indeed. And I’ve already touched upon you once, Moon Princess. You’re absolutely soaked in rift energy. That one insignificant blow I dealt to you was not quite so insignificant. Even now the restraints holding you to this reality are splitting. A few more hits and...poof. So in a word, HA-HA!”

I looked over my body. Just as Paradise said there was a peculiar blemish on my flank, in the exact location I had been struck. It was a small odorless, colorless, semitransparent spot marking my body. I reached out to the strange thing, trying to grasp it with my magic.

I could not even locate it, let alone explain its presence on my being. Was this rift energy? Perhaps after all had been said and done it could studied (by me of course). “Do you mean this small spot, this...inconsistency?”

“Oh, my dear Princess Luna of the Moon, it is sooooooooo much more than one tiny inconsistency. You bear witness to something few to no mortals have ever seen before! You are viewing the remnants of my kingdom! That minuscule dot is a pathway to the rift! A land with so much glory, a land bathed in insanity, a land soaked in the glory of pure madness, a region equated by not even the Ether, the place from which I come, and the place that will serve as your tomb.” Its voice echoed with a hollow passion that suggested that this was a rehearsed speech. One it had given more than once.

I was not, however, impressed. “If you plan on engulfing my aura and transporting my entire being through a dimensional plane, than I suggest you use more energy than this.” This thing that marked my body was not a threat. If rift power was in anyway similar to my power (which it would have to be to transport me across dimensions) than this speck was giving off quite a low amount of energy.

“Well, well. It appears you’re capable of snarky comments as well as outdated magic. Still, that shall not deter me from insalting you! I meant eating you. Or at least I think I did. Maybe I meant dancing? No, that wouldn’t make sense...erm...perhaps I meant inflate? No, now I just sound insane. Although I might inflate something a little later now that I’ve thought about it...did I already ask you if you could dance?”

Paradise’s inane ramblings were cut short by the increase of gravity around it. I was a bit sick of hearing its chatter. It would not kill something so powerful as Paradise, but it would be agonizing. That was my goal at the time, to torture the thing.

I cast a simple cooling spell on the air. I could not help but shiver at the effectiveness of the spell. The temperature decreased at a rapid pace, allowing me to pluck moisture out of the air and form a spell. My horn glowed brightly as a ball of icy blue light formed on the tip. The color contradicted my normally dark color palette.

The ground around my hooves froze over and light bits of snow began to fall from the atmosphere below Paradise’s barrier. If I had been more observant I may have wondered how Paradise was able to maintain the barrier when I had its magic restrained.

A beam launched off the tip of my horn and headed straight towards Paradise. The pace at which it moved was lightning fast; air was reduced to steam around the blindingly white streak of light. A small swirl that looked appeared to be ice circled the beam, giving it a tint of blue.

It struck Paradise with a force. The creature was kept in place by magical restraints, which were, unsurprisingly, frozen and fractured. Paradise herself appeared to take the blunt of the energy, having no way to actually prevent the assault. I could not see through the thick haze of icy steam that arose from the blast, but I imagined that the area of Paradise’s body that had been burned earlier were being chipped away by the force of the beam.

After the initial impact and following destruction, Paradise laid ahead of me, unable to move. It stared up at me. What had been left of its mane was now gone and it sat a bald monstrosity. Marks of frostbite were evident all over its body, the entire left side of its face appeared to have frozen over. Areas of it body that had exposed bone had been encased in ice. Fitting that such a monstrous persona found itself an abomination...even when in the company of Nightmare Moon.

Slowly the casings of ice broke away. I saw Paradise’s leg twitch. Its eye lid appeared to move behind the arctic skin. In a matter of minutes I watched Paradise bring itself to a kneeling position. The smile it had worn earlier had become perverted due to the affects of the glacial blast.

The left side of the face had been frozen into a perverted half-grin that looked as if it where going to burst. It was perturbing, to say the least. The right side was masked with an indifferent frown. My beam had not terminated the demon. Which was quite, quite shocking. To survive one full on blast from somepony of my strength was impossibly improbable. To survive a second was inconceivable.

“Well I must say that I don’t like this make-over. It is just far too...frigid. I’m amazed that you had the power to unleash yet another attack similar to the one from earlier. Perhaps I should just stop being amazed, eh? You’ve deduced what I am, that shows you are some sort of scholar, as well as a powerful magician. You’re no ordinary pony, obviously. There is probably something much more substantial I can deduce about you from this, isn’t there? But in all honesty I would very much rather kill you at this moment in time. So, unless you wish to speak, I do believe it is my turn to act, Miss Luna.”

Something seemed...off. The comedic and sadistic edge which had been a part of Paradise’s regular rhetoric was gone. Now its voice seemed cold and detached, the manner in which it held itself was elegant yet aloof, the insane eyes which had plagued me were now still and focused. This being had changed. Being erratic, volatile, and insane was one thing, but being able to completely alter your attitude to a state of pure indifference was borderline schizophrenic.

But the eye on the left half of its face was still fixed in that insane manner, throwing off any momentous effort it had pulled together. Half of its face was fixed in that manic grin which screamed the very essence of instability. The eye on the left half of her face had undergone some metamorphosis and was now a sickening shade of red as opposed to the azure it was earlier.

The way in which it came at me was almost business-like. It took a few firm steps which turned into a casual but determined stride. I instinctually took a step to try and avoid contact with that skeletal limb. I immediately felt my hoof sink into a thick, gooey paste.

I whipped my head around in time to see the sickly-green globular substance that from earlier covering my hind leg. I struggled against it, but that only seemed to make it spread up my hind leg faster. It wasn’t long before all four of my hooves were drawn into the substance.

“Wh-What is this strange corporeality substance in which I am emerged!?” I could hear the panic in my voice. It seemed Paradise had as well for her contemptuous eyes seemed to flicker faintly for a moment.

“That is a cog in my ‘broad strokes’ master plan. It is a substance I created that will hold you steady while I transport you to the rift. It will also repress any type of unicorn magic. It filters through Equestrian magic regularly, making sure that any and all of those sub-atomic particles are smothered while remaining completely alive.” Its response was a deadpan, as if my imminent death and the creation of a new element capable of such things were simple and second-nature.

I could feel all four of my legs held firmly by the strange sub-solid substance. I tried repetitively to repeal the effects of the green slime, but to no avail. My magic had truly been subdued.

I glanced forward and saw a beast, slightly bigger than myself, body marred with scars, burns, and freezer burns, the wings of the creature were frozen in place, the pinions irreparable. What had once been a green flank and autumn mane were just tatters, like a torn cloak. The beast looked upon me, eyes void of anything but hunger, each pace this being took closer left my mind moving that much faster. Everfree’s purposeful walk only caused me frustration.

My legs were constrained by the slime, not to mention my magic. The slime only reached up to the kneecaps of each of my legs. I flap my wings furiously against the ground attempting to break away. Nothing. My strength was not enough. How I wish I had spent more time exercising my physical attributes rather than my mental ones.

Still I flapped my wings harder against the ground, and I could feel it. I could feel my life and strain I was under and I knew, that was something I am not willing to give up just yet. I could hear the clop of my opponents hooves. I did not want to die. I still had a purpose in this world.

I still had a story to tell. I had history to pass on. I had a monster to slay. I could not leave until those deeds were done. So then what could I do? What was there left to do but flap my wings in a panicked fury, living on a blind faith that adrenaline would give me enough strength to break away.

My wings beat so fast against the ground I could feel my heartbeat. There was an slip-up. Some of the slime loosened. Quickly more of it shot up my leg to compensate and restrain the pinion on my wings, but it is too late. A good amount of the slime fell away and I sailed through the air distancing myself from the flood of goop.

Some slime still endured and remained on my legs, restraining them to nothingness while I was air-born. I look down on Paradise to see it stare up at me in a supercilious fashion. Ironic, considering I was literally looking down on it. Then it happened.

Then something unfortunate happened. The slime on my legs scurried up the length of my spine in one fluid motions. It covered my wings before I had the chance to blink. In an instant it solidified, sending me hurdling towards the earth. Luckily, the fall was not so high as to injure me. Double luckily, I had the fortitude of an earth-pony. It was nice being an alicorn.

I landed with an unimpressive thud. I waited for the slime to switch places, once again, but it never happened. My wings remained clipped. I did, however, have full control over my legs and hooves, which was a relief. My magic was still being suppressed, though. Hopefully that was a temporary affect. Another sensation came over me. I turned my head to stare at the source: my wings. The thick, adhesive slime had hardened, becoming a semipermanent part of my wings.

Paradise turned to me. I got up. “You will not be rid of me so easily, mongrel!” I spit the words out, well aware of how vulnerable I was in this situation.

A small, self-satisfied smile crossed Paradise’s face. Instantly the remains of six creatures erupted from the ground. They put themselves together as if they were a jigsaw puzzle. Upon their...completion...I could see that they were ponies.

“These are my pets. My un-dead sextuplet. All six were once powerful ponies who I defeated in combat and...enjoyed. All of them expressed abilities of a similar magnitude to yours. Let us see if you can defeat all six, shall we?” Its voice had a sardonic ring to it.

So this Paradise being could summon as well? That did not bode well. Wonderful, I was now faced against an unbelievably powerful Ethereal demon that may have killed off some of the most powerful ponies to ever live. Also I was facing said ponies. Just splendid...

“I would rather be sure of your capabilities, Miss Luna. Let us see if you’re resourceful without magic and flight.” In a hazy flash the skeletal golems caught ablaze.

The fire was bright and prominent on all six. Each wore a different color: violet, white and purple, orange, red, pink and yellow, and pinker. They surrounded me, making a small circle that kept me boxed in between them.

One problem at a time...

Comments

[Shadowbolt Captain]

1886018 I meant every word. It is definitely one of the best stories I've read on this site.
and on a completely different note, how do you get the names to appear instead of these numbers?

[Leviathan]

1889380

If you're clicking the comment reply key it shows up as a set of numbers while creating the reply. Once you actually post the comment it should convert it to something like >>...

And if you're not clicking the comment reply key it's located in the top right corner of each comment. From my perspective each comment you post ends up just fine. Each one so far has had that >>Leviathan.