Remember the Moon

by Leviathan

A Lesson on Mesmerism

Six thralls. All of them ponies. Decomposed ponies. Three were unicorns, two were pegasi, and one was an earth pony. They formed a semicircle around me and I could not help but feel trapped. Trapped by ponies who were likely my subjects at one time.

Both my wings and my magic were subdued, but I had full control over my legs. I suppose there had not been enough slime to condense over both the pinions on my wings and my legs. So, that meant all I could do to take control of the situation was flee.

There was no possibility that I would be able to overpower six ponies at once without the use of my magic. I blew away a clump of hair dangling in front of my face.. It no longer bore the image of the Night sky. Now it is was a lifeless cobalt. It had lost the lifelike qualities it usually wore and instead hung off my head, sterile and drab.

Contusions, cuts, bruises, lesions, burns, and the rift mark were all present on my skin. My tail was hanging limply, dragging through the dirt, picking up the minuscule silica particles, and lifting them into the wind. My boots had lost there normal sheen, having been dirtied by battle.

I looked to be the type of mare who would retreat. The one who would make a tactical decision to flee from confrontation in order to survive. I looked weak, wretched even. But I had a purpose. And that is all one ever truly needs to carry on.

I stood, my legs ached with the impact of the fall, but still I stood tall. I was a head taller than each of the skeletal golems, individually. I swallowed the sense of trepidation clawing its way up my throat and looked to those ponies. No, former ponies. Now, now they were just puppets, drones created for a singular purpose. Paradise summoned them to produce a trenchant effect upon my mind. They were there to screw with me.

I stared at the creatures for a brief moment, weighing my options. To my left there was a gap between one of the pegasi and unicorns that could serve to let me escape this little circle. To my right was the earth pony, sitting in solitude, though, I thought it best to avoid him. He appeared quite strong, his bones being thick and large.

Dead ahead of me were the two remaining unicorns and one pegasi. The unicorns stood side to side, evidently corroborating with each other. The pegasus floated above them, poised in an attack position, completely at the ready. The fact they were consumed by ethereal flames was just a little threatening as well. Just a little bit.

My best course of action would be to make a mad dash for the aperture on my left. The circle closed a bit more. My opening shrinks with it. Freedom became just a bit more distant with it. I remained calm despite the menace presented by the inexorable golems. It was to better to be faced against them rather than faced against Paradise. I feigned to the right, trying to trick the earth-pony golem.

Instantly, he made a quick move forward as if trying to grasp at me. He extended his arms outwards and opened his mouth wide. I could see two long, slivers of white protruding from the mouth of the golem. Apparently this pony had been of a vampiric nature in his lifetime.

I instinctively hurdle to the left, my feint having successfully confused the unicorn, but not having fooled the pegasus. I ended up clashing my shoulder against the pegasus while her unicorn companion watched with, what I can only assume was, incredulity. The pegasus was surprisingly muscular and the wings she possessed were, no doubt, an advantage.

Still I managed to throw the pegasus into the oncoming group of three golems, momentarily confusing them. The burns I sustained from the struggle were easily ignored. I took a step back. As I did I saw the unicorn I had neglected earlier charging some sort of spell while her jaw clicked. I recognized the spell almost immediately as a paralyzation charm. It would only take her a half-minute to charge the spell completely.

At the same time the vampiric earth-pony charged at me. It was no surprise that he moved at a slightly faster speed than myself. Vampiric ponies had often been described as possessing supernatural strengths. I probably would have been surprised by the existence of vampires had it not been for the library. Still the knowledge was of little comfort.

In an instant he was upon me attempting to bring his front hooves down on me. I rolled under his form in order to trip him at the hind-legs. The heat that radiated off of his form was unlike anything I had ever felt before. The flames felt as if they pierced more than just my skin, more than just the outer layers. He fell into a short stumble as I made contact with him, but regained his footing rather nimbly.

Once again he pounced on me, this time ignoring any type of dramatic flair. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that the unicorn had completed her charm and was now taking aim. In one brazen move I wrenched my entire body into the earth-pony, and spun him into my grip. It was obviously an unexpected move for me to grab him as he just did not react.

However, there was a rationale for hugging a vampire. Well, one rather than attempting suicide. The paralyzation spell had been fired at me, but I my impromptu mediocre plan came into affect then. I released the earth-pony and lightly shoved him, unbalancing him enough so that he could not gain his footing in time to avoid the spell.

It struck the beast dead in its chest. It fell to the ground, toppling over like a weighted stone. His entire body was frozen in the off balance position. It would have been comical had it been under different circumstances. It was good the earth-pony was down, it appeared to have been the strongest of the lot. And the most vicious.

The ablaze unicorn showed no signs of having even noticed her folly. Her complete attention was on me. She was focused on me. Too focused...the piercing stare I was affixed with paralyzed me. My senses dulled, and in their place was a strange sense of emptiness and enervation.

The unicorn was trying to lace me into an elaborate and vexing hypnotism spell. Dammit! If I had my magic I could easily reverse the effects of her spell! Now I would have to rely on sheer will-power to over-power this spell. A feat which was basically impossible.

The only good side to semi-psychotic reality manipulation is that once this thrall delves into my mind I should, in theory, be able to draw some sort of information from her mind. Perhaps that could give more information on Paradise, break this mare’s connection with me, and give me the means to save my own life.

I was in a black haze. My vision was always good in the dark, but it appeared that my surroundings were in fact, black. A unicorn appeared ahead of me. She looked large and imposing, towering over my peculiarly small stature. She took a step towards me. I braced myself and held my ground.

This type of hypnotism was advanced and complex, but easily disrupted. All the spell required to be broken was to find a flaw in the reality. Not a flaw like the fact that I was too small to be me, but a flaw as in a crack in the spell. An inconsistency in the environment. Hopefully that wouldn’t prove too hard judging by the relative absurdity of the setting. Likely this pony had made some kind of crucial error on my mental biology.

I had never actually experienced or performed this spell myself (surprisingly), so any attempts at escape would only be guided by my readings. The only downside to these escape attempts was that you were still trapped in the reality created by the sorceress. In other words, I wasn’t a player so much as pawn.

The giant pony took another step towards me; instinct took over and I took three steps back. The giant form lunged at me, leaving me only a minimal amount of time to avoid the strike. I leapt above the sight of the lunge, intending to fly over the giant pony. This was an excellent method of escape, and likely it would have worked too, had I been in possession of wings...

I ended up crashing onto the head of the beast. Apparently it didn’t like that, as it immediately whipped upwards in an attempt at knocking me off of it’s head. I clung to the ears of the creature and held on for dear life. I was lacking my usual strength and spell-casting ability, however, and was dislodged (or rather, flung) from my position on the massive form.

My impact with the surface of the black haze was met with no sound or collision vibrations. My eyes spun, but I gathered myself nonetheless. I hadn’t been able to fly over the creature. I couldn’t fly. I didn’t have wings. And there was the flaw. This was going to be an easier than I had premised.

I focused intensely on the flaw, duly noting the details of my wings in my mind. My eyes were hardly slits I was creatively thinking so much. To my surprise, no strange feelings overcame my body. I blinked my eyes open and stared around the area in a forlorn frustration. Nothing had changed.

The haze was still present, the gargantuan unicorn was still collecting itself a small distance away, my vision still claimed the area was black, and my wings still didn’t exist. But how could that be? I had found the flaw, the error in the computations of the zombified unicorn.

So why had I not crashed back into reality and through the personality of this golem? I checked myself over and was met with quite a shock. It was true that I didn’t have wings, but that was not the only difference.

My coat was now a dull tannish-brown, all of the flowing hair which had once been my flank now reduced to a rug of coarse and matted fur. My cutie mark had changed from the symbol of a Moon to that of a fork and a knife. My tail and mane were no longer flowing with starlight and mysticism, instead they were a restrained shade of beige that would humble sand.

I glanced down at my hooves. The caps of my knees were rough and patchy. Tufts of hair stuck out in every direction, showing either a lack of aptitude or willingness on part of the groomer. My hooves, which were usually a lighter shade of azure that contrasted well with my coat, were now brown. I was not wearing my boots.

They were plain and simple brown hooves. They did not bear the marks of history. They did not show the underlying spirit of the Night that lived within me. They did not bear the grooves left by a thousand years of wandering the Moon. They did not demonstrate Luna.

No, these were the hooves of a farm pony. Worn, but not marked by battle or hardship. These were the hooves of a pony who lived simply. They were the hooves of a mare who had settled upon simplicity and basic happiness, rather than daring adventures.

This was truly a stroke of brilliance on part of the caster. To change my entire being in order to avoid my finding a flaw in my original body. Simply brilliant. In fact the idea sounded quite familiar. I believed there was a mention of some mare who had conjured up the idea. What was her name?

My thought process was broken by a loud growl. I looked up in time to see the monster charge me. I tried casting a spell, but I had momentarily forgot I was an earth-pony. The beast was upon me within moments. My stupidity would now cost me my life. Or rather my inability to sufficiently adapt.

The beast pressed one hoof on top of the body I was inhabiting and stared down at me. The hoof in question was far larger than mine and covered form from tail to the neck. All it had to do was place a little pressure and my mind would be crushed. Or whatever happens to ponies in psychosomatic battle scenarios.

Still I could not absolve myself of my curiosity. What was that pony’s name who had formed that idea and spell? I could remember a little bit about her, but her name just seemed to escape me. Something occurred to me just then.

My encyclopedic knowledge of erm...knowledge was quite vast, and I would never, not ever, fail to recall the name of a pony. Especially one who had made a contribution to a scientific field such as magic. It was as if this knowledge was being suppressed purposefully.

Then perhaps that was this pony. Perhaps the illusionist was in fact whats-her-name! That would make sense. It would prove why the spell had that added flare and why I couldn’t remember that damned mare’s name. I just had to think. I just had to dig past the constraints and restrictions set and find my mind within this hazy prison of...my mind.

The pressure on the hoof increased a little, once again bringing me back to reality. Darn it, what was that mare’s name?

“Tangerine?” My question was met with added pressure.

“Vinewhip!” Once again my exclamation was met with pressure.

“Shrubbery!?” One thing I don’t like about mortal bodies: they breath so freakin’ much. And pressure makes it so hard to breath.

“Moby Dick!” I think these ribs are starting to crack.

“Earth Gossip?” More pressure.

“ZOSO?” These regular ponies really feel pain.

“Ice Veins!!!” Instantly the hoof started to- just add more pressure. Dear Tartarus, this thing must’ve thought I was going to burst into candy.

“Spell-binder?” Maybe it was the lack of oxygen (or whatever you breath in black hazy dreamlands) but it seemed like the pressure eased up a bit.

“Hypnotizer?” Again just the slightest feeling, but it was definitely there, a slight decrease in pressure. And I thought I saw a glint of confusion in the beast’s eyes.

“Sedater!” Have you ever tried smothering yourself with a pillow and screaming HELP at the top of your lungs? Well this was about the same predicament.

“Tranquilize!?” The pressure lightened significantly. So the name had something to do with sedation.

“Etherization.” It was a familiar name now. She had formed the college of Hypnotic related studies after all. She was a co-founder of the Manehatten school: Sciences of the Mind. This thing had been suppressing the name for some reason, leading me away from it. There was a flaw there...maybe.

The monstrous pony began to shrink. That did not mean it let the pressure on my chest decrease any. It took mere seconds for it to become the size of a normal pony. A unicorn in fact. A grey-coated unicorn that fit well into the background.

She opened her mouth slowly and spoke in a hollow voice that sounded like it had not been utilized in centuries.

“That’s my name...” Her voice trailed off and left the impression her statement had been a question.

“Yes, that is your name. You’re a unicorn who has been enthralled by a malicious being. You disappeared a long time ago.” I had not the energy nor the time to ease her into the idea of her own death.

“What? Where exactly are we? Who are you?” Her voice was light and dainty, words stringing together like a thin line of molasses.

“There is a creature: Paradise. It’s a vicious monster that has enthralled your body. That body has cast a hypnotic spell on me. I am currently trapped within the confines of my own mind and being tortured by you, or rather, a interpreted mosaic of your conscious personality.” I tried to summarize the events as they had happened, although that proved difficult with the amount of pressure this unicorn was putting on my form.

“Perhaps if you stepped off of me I could explain better?” The last bit was said with a cynical voice that was more than appropriate considering the situation.

“Ah, yes, of course.” The pressure on my chest was removed completely as the unicorn took a step back. “So according to you I am currently being being strung along as a puppet?” Her voice was not disbelieving surprisingly. I expected just a bit of denial. After all, this had to be a bit sudden.

“Yes, in a struggle against me, in fact. One I am particularly eager to get back to. Now I need to ask you a few ques-”

“Just hold off for a minute. You still haven’t said exactly who you are.” The delicate voice took on a sharp overtone.

“I am Princess Luna. I am overseer of the Night and co-regent of Equestria.” My voice leaked impatience. It was rather unfortunate when a will-less pony had cast a spell on me, but now a living consciousness was keeping me captive.

“I take it that I’ve been gone for a while then, eh? From the last that I can remember Equestria didn’t have centralized rulers, it was just a network of trade-routes and small encampments.” She heaved a long sigh. “So that means I’m dead, then?” She looked down on me curiously.

I merely stared back up at her. It’s hard to tell a pony they’re dying, but to tell them they’re dead is nigh impossible.

She blinked a few times and released another sigh, though this one was far heavier. “I can’t say it’s a surprise really. What else would be my fate after being attacked by a creature and sucked into some other dimension?” There was no element of sadness to her voice, which just made the scenario that much more gloomy.

“Yes, and it is a fate bound to befall me if you do not assist me in overcoming the creature.” I was really quite desperate at this point, my royal demeanor beginning to fall away similar to the way a cookie crumbles.

“What will happen to me if I help you, though? What happens if that creature dies?” She looked me dead in the eye.

I could not tell this pony. I could not tell her that the instant I vanquished the creature enthralling her that she would die. True, her body was already dead, but it seemed her mind had carried on. “I do not know.” It was a lie.

“Will my mind fade away, along with my enthralled body?”

“I don’t know.” It hurt to lie, but the truth would burn so much worse.

“Please, don’t lie. If I can help you survive than I am more than willing to. I’m already dead physically, anyways.” Her tone held a somber authority over me.

“That is quite noble of you.” In truth, it was noble in comparison to the rest of pony-kind. Even if there was no possibility of survival most would not choose to die, even if it meant another’s survival.

“Yeah.” She glanced away. She gave pause for a moment. “Exactly how many years has it been since I was here?” She, once again, was inquiring as to where she was. The subtle way in which she did so proved her marvelous intellect.

“I was born four-hundred and thirty-two years after your disappearance. Since then it has been millennia.” I could see her eyes visibly widen at this statement.

“You uh...you bear the age quite well,” Was all she managed to sputter out.

“Thank you. Now then, the first thing I need to know is how you came into contact with the creature.” I stared at her for a few moments.

“Well according to you I disappeared. That much is true. I was out for a Midnight walk in the forest-”

“The large, aboding forest that had all the strange plants and animals, correct?” I had to make sure it was Paradise Grove that she had been attacked in. It might provide a reason as to why a rift wraith was bound to that particular area.

“Yes, and a monster attacked me.” She deadpanned. I forgot important ponies dislike being interrupted.

“Was this creature able to speak?” That was also a rather important question.

“Actually, now that you ask, it did manage to babble insane and inane nonsense for the duration of the time I spent trying to fend off its attacks. So I suppose it was not so much a monster as some sort of demonic spirit. Either way, its abilities far exceeded my own and it had me subdued in less than an hour.” There it was.

“That is all I needed to hear, thank you. I do need another favor, however.” It was going to be a difficult request to make. It was inevitable that I have to ask the mare for help in getting me out of this entrapment of my own mind.

Sadly that also had its own lasting effects. As soon as this reality dissolved and I was brought back to control this mare would cease to exist. She would be forcibly extracted and, in every sense of the word, “die.” Something this expert hypnotist would, undoubtedly, be aware of.

“And what would that be?” Her voice was silky.

“I-I must ask that you erm...help me...”

“Help you what?” Something about that delicate voice just made my heart combust. Knowing what I would say next made that melted pile condense, shatter, and combust again.

“I uh-Ahem” The cough I let loose was very fake, but it is quite difficult asking somepony you consider a subject to kill themselves. Finally the intellectual and practical side of my being bested the emotional side and I formed the words I needed.

“Can you help me find a fault in the lining of my mind?”

The expression on the mare’s face broke me. Realization of reality. Why did the helpful ones have to die. It was always the helpful ones who died. Always.

The reaction that immediately followed her expression was quite unexpected. Laughter. Not the nervous laughter of a courageous pony who is doubting themselves, but the debilitatingly hearty laughter that one only heard from an insanely happy pony who had just heard a good joke.

“Princess Luna, nothing would delight me more. But I must tell you, this is not your mind.”

I curled my nose upwards. It probably was not noticeable from my position laying on the ground, though. “What!? Who else would this mind belong to!?!”

All I received was a knowing smile from the pony above me. The smile a teacher gives to a pupil. “This place is riddled with faults, my dear. And I can see them all. Do you know why that is?”

“No, but you have not answered my question-”

“It is because I am looking through the eyes of the right pony,” continued the mare as if I had not interrupted her. “You have to perceive the world from every angle, view all sides of an argument, soak up all the aspects of a problem, to be able to pinpoint the facet in which the solution is located. Otherwise advanced mesmerism will consume you.” She waved her hooves around to emphasize points.

It was quite obvious she was treating this like a lecture, something she had likely done many times. “That is true, but I am afraid that I do not understand. What exactly do you wish me to see?” I stood up on my hooves and faced the mare. I stumbled a bit. This body was awkward. Are all regular pony bodies this awkward to move?

The mare once again laughed, only this time it was right in my face. “This is my mind, Princess Luna. The enthralled form of myself used my rift-bound mind to trap you. All you have to do is expand your vision. Look at the world through my eyes.” She paused for a moment to allow her eyes to connect with mine. They were a deep hue of purple, a wonderful purple. “Let me help you a little bit.”

Her horn sparkled for a brief moment before a faint vapor wrapped around it. A thin line began to trace through the black haze. It reached me and struck me in between the eyes. I could feel perspective magic flowing through my non-unicorn veins. It is odd experiencing the effects of magic when you yourself posses none. A very distant feeling. Yet...warming. Quite odd indeed.

The world around me began to fade away. The black background turned into that of green orchards and sloped hills. There were white cracks blanketing the ground everywhere. Some were small others were large. They exuded long streaks of light and were quite broad. Whenever I diverted my attention to studying my mind became hazy. They were flaws.

Flaws broad enough for a pony to slip through...