Luna learns the hard way that you have to be REALLY careful about what you wish for, because you just might get it.
This is a crossover with the 1986 Jim Henson film, Labyrinth. Yes, THAT Labyrinth, with David Bowie and goblins and glitter all over the place.
In general, it is a very SIMILAR plot to the film, but with many, many, MANY significant differences to keep consistent with the characters and their personalities.
Also, Twilight is a filly. I'm doing this as a take-off-ish-sort-of-thing of my roommate's (Chatterjoy) story, To Be Young Again, and I do have Filly Twilight's POV alternating every chapter or so, like she does, but I might add more than just 2 POVs.
It had been a long struggle since Twilight accidentally turned herself into a filly. There was never a boring moment, and very rarely was there a quiet one. And no matter how hard she tried, Celestia would always get worn out from watching the little filly, and when that inevitably happened, she passed the responsibility to Luna for the night.
But that particular night, Celestia had not been worn out yet when she asked Luna to watch Twilight.
“But, sister, it is still early!” the Princess of the Night complained. She had been awoken from a rather lovely dream by having the filly gently plopped upon her back.
“I know, and I have lots of work to do today,” Celestia said. “With the combination of her and the nobles, it'll be a miracle if I'm still awake by dinner.” And with that, Luna was left with her charge.
After only a few seconds of Luna awkwardly staring at the filly, Twilight began to wail at the top of her lungs. Nothing Luna did seemed to please her. Funny faces didn't work, feeding didn't work, she wasn't even wet. It was like she was crying for the sake of crying.
“Oh, why art thou upset?” she asked Twilight. The filly's answer was simply more crying. Then Luna looked over to her window, and realized what time it was. She was late for her nightly duty of raising the moon.
With a hint of panic in her gait, Luna scooped up the crying filly with her magic and rushed as gently and calmly as she could to the top of her tower to raise the moon for the night. She was so focused on her task that she didn't even notice that Twilight stopped crying until after she had finished with the moon.
“Methinks thou just likes to see Us panic,” she told the filly as she flew back to her room, more gently than she had left it.
Expecting Twilight to behave for the majority of the evening from then on, Luna made the mistake of putting the filly back onto her bed. Upon touching the sheets, the filly began to wail once more.
“Must you insist on being difficult?” Luna said, right before groaning into one of the pillows that Twilight knocked off the bed in her tantrum.
“What must We do to ease your troubles?” Luna asked Twilight, as if the filly would answer.
“No!” Twilight shouted back. Luna gave a puzzled look, and so Twilight just kept shouting that word over and over, as if repeating it would make Luna understand what she wanted.
“I wish I knew what you were trying to tell Us!” Luna half-whined to herself. The results were almost uncanny.
“No ni-ni!”
Luna jumped a bit. It was almost like someone else had put those words into the filly's mouth, just because Luna asked for it. She had to be sure.
“What did thee tell Us?”
“NO NI-NI!” Twilight shouted again, followed by a long stream of “no”s and crying.
Luna, now confused as to why the filly was protesting bedtime, looked outside to see that it was, in fact, eight-o-clock. She could have sworn that she just rose the moon mere moments ago, but those moments had quickly turned into over an hour.
Twilight continued her crying, and Luna felt like she would snap at any moment. The filly simply would not listen to reason. No amount of stories or lullabies could calm the crying filly down.
In a last moment of desperation, Luna muttered under her breath, “I wish I knew what to do to get some peace and quiet at last!” She had not expected there to be a reply whispered inside her mind.
Wish the filly away.
The very idea that such a thought could even enter her mind scared Luna. Yes, the wailing was annoying, and she did take away precious time that could be spent either re-adjusting herself to the era, or catching up on much-missed times with her sister, but surely that was not enough reason to wish away the filly. That, and if it did come true, then Celestia would kill Luna, banish her to the moon again, or worse, take away her cake privileges.
But, Luna thought to herself, it's just a silly wish. It can't possibly come true. There was no harm in saying silly words like that, right? If you don't mean it, then it can't possibly come true, right? Even if the tiniest part of your heart did mean it?
“I wish,” she started, testing the words, making sure that nothing would happen. “I wish,” she tried again, still hesitant.
The grim, concentrated look on Luna's face scared Twilight, and the filly began to scream louder than ever before. That's what drove Luna over the edge. She shut her eyes and shouted with her Royal Canterlot Voice.
“I WISH THAT SOMETHING WOULD TAKE YOU AWAY RIGHT NOW!” Then, everything went quiet.
Luna opened her eyes, fearing what she would see. She was right to fear. On the bed where Twilight had been previously screaming, there was now an empty bed. No filly, not even signs that there had ever been a filly in the first place, no trace of magic to see if she had teleported somewhere. Just an empty bed.
After a long pause of taking in the eerie silence, Luna finally managed to muster out some words.
Twilight was woken most unexpectedly by being dropped onto Woona's bed. How rude of Caregiver to do that, when Twilight had been having such a nice dream about a land filled to the brim with toys and candy. She would just have to tell BOTH Woona and Caregiver how much she disliked being woken, but Caregiver had left the room already, so she had to scream as loud as possible.
Woona kept trying to do things to make her stop crying, but that was not what she wanted. If Twilight couldn't get back to sleep, then NO ONE would be allowed to go back to sleep. That was all there was to it.
Then Woona did something unexpected. She picked Twilight up with her magic, and flew up the spiral stairs at a rather fun speed. Twilight liked this a lot, and let the Dark Princess continue this action without any noises to distract her.
When they reached the top of the spirals, Woona lifted up the moon with her magic, and flew back down the spirals once more, but at a slightly slower speed. This was also fun, and Twilight happily awaited what other games Woona would think up next, but then Woona put Twilight on the bed. Twilight didn't want that! Not after all this fun!
“NO!” she told Woona. Surely that would get the message across, but Woona didn't seem to understand. How could she not understand such a simple demand? Twilight would simply have to tell her again, and so she kept saying “no” until Woona finally said something back.
Twilight didn't know what it was about what Woona said, but it put a new word into the filly's mouth, one that would surely get her message across this time. She tried her command again.
“No ni-ni!” These words seemed to surprise Woona, and when she said something with a puzzled look, Twilight repeated her newly found phrase, to make sure that Woona understood.
But she did nothing! Woona did absolutely nothing! How could she do nothing after being given such a simple, understandable command? This saddened Twilight, and she cried again, fearing that she would have to go to sleep again.
The filly was crying so hard that she almost didn't hear when Woona shouted something, with a new word that Twilight had never heard before. It was an easy word, and easy to remember, but she didn't know what it meant. But after hearing Woona scream, Twilight no longer knew where she was. All she saw was shiny things and magic.
The Goblin King sat on his throne, bored as usual. What's the purpose of power when there's nothing to use it for? But his boredom didn't last for long today, for he heard those all powerful words.
“I wish.”
It was an easy wish, a rather boring wish. People make wishes all the time, and he has to choose whether or not they deserve being granted, but this was a land where he had hardly ever dabbled in. Perhaps this one would be fun.
He granted the wish, allowing an adult.... pony? Did he just grant a pony's wish? Well, he's seen weirder, he had to admit. Anyway, he allowed her to understand the intentions of a baby- or would they say filly? Probably filly. They were ponies after all.
But then the fun wish came. The one that always starts fun adventures and crazy happenings, where people, or maybe ponies, discovered new things about themselves. At least this one didn't expect him to act like he was lovesick for them. It was always tedious when hormone-riddled teenagers had those kinds of expectations.
“Luna, I came as fast as I could!” the Sun Princess exclaimed as she slammed Luna's bedroom door open. Luna hadn't actually called for her, but her Royal Canterlot Voice had brutally torn Celestia from her much needed nap.
Inside the room, all the elder Princess could see was Luna staring, dumbfounded, at her bed. The younger sister was speechless. Upon the bed, there was nothing.
“What happened?” Celestia asked with a stern voice.
“I- I,” Luna stuttered. “I didn't mean what I said!” She cowered before her sister.
“Oh, you didn't?” replied a mysterious, third voice from the window. The sisters both looked to see the Goblin King, in his human-fae-whatever, over-glittered glory, with that smug look written all over his face.
“Jareth,” Celestia said, since Luna was obviously too frightened to talk. “What have you done with Twilight Sparkle?”
“Oh, is THAT what that little purple filly's name is?” He decided to prance about the room before sitting himself on the bed, getting glitter everywhere in the process.
“Yes,” Celestia replied, with her masterful poker face, remaining as calm as possible. “And I can assure you that whatever punishment you plan on putting Luna through for wishing her away, I can do worse.”
“I'm sure you could, Your Royal Rainbow-i-ness,” he said. “But then you still wouldn't have your little filly back.”
“Goblin King,” Luna finally managed to stutter out. Both he and Celestia looked at Luna, as both had almost completely forgotten that she was in the room also. “Where. Is. Twilight?” To this, the Goblin King chuckled.
“I have a friend watching her right now,” he said. “She's really talented at learning magic, so I had to keep her away from me before she started learning my skills.”
“Aww, did the poor widdle Gobwin King get beat at his own game by a widdle bitty baby?” Celestia said.
“I DID NOT!” he shouted like a schoolchild warding off a bully. “I simply didn't want to risk it, seeing as she was staring at my magic crystals with some intensity.” Both princesses gave him a disgusted look, and he corrected himself by producing one of his magic crystal balls in front of them. “THESE! THE ONES I USE TO WATCH OVER MY KINGDOM!”
“So,” Luna interrupted her sister's amusing trolling of the Goblin King. “What must We do to win Twilight back?”
“The usual thing,” the Goblin King said. “Solve my Labyrinth, no magic, no wings, not like they'd work in my realm anyway. Thirteen hours, and all that jazz.” Then, Luna brought her face right next to Jareth's, and she had this look that screamed anger.
“Bringeth. It. On.” She thought for a moment, and added, “Glitter Boy!”
Twilight found herself in a room made of many clay blocks. She sat in the middle of a circular indent in the floor, which was in front of a really funny looking chair that was covered with a really sparkly looking blanket that looked a lot like Woona's mane. She wondered if it tasted as good as Woona's mane.
Just as she was about to taste it, a strange pair of hooves pulled her away from it. These were strange hooves indeed, as they weren't round like hooves were supposed to be. They were too flat,and they each had five wiggly things extending from them. Was this pony sick or something?
The thing the strange hooves were attached to scolded her. It had a really deep voice, so it must have been a boy. But his mane was too fluffy to be a boy. But, he did have a lot of sparkles coming off of him. That's what she would call him. He had to know his name, and so Twilight told him.
“Spackle!” But then Spackle gave her a bad face. He said something that felt very stern, and Twilight did not like this mean voice he kept using with her.
“No!” she told him. He was NOT allowed to be that mean with her.
He seemed to understand, because he put her down with a bunch of funny-shaped thingies that kept playing with her. They were fun. He called them something, something that was kind of easy. She wanted to try this new word on the thingies.
“Gob!” This made Spackle chuckle. Good, Twilight thought. She liked it when others made happy noises.
Then Spackle pulled out something round and shiny out of thin air, and he began to play with it, looking into it. Twilight wanted to see what he was looking at, but the gobs were so fun that she didn't want to leave them. She would simply have to make her own shiny round thing.
She focused, and tried to do exactly what Spackle did. Eventually, she managed to have her own shiny round thing, and inside of it, she saw Woona, Caregiver, and herself. The gobs all “ooh”d and “aah”d at her accomplishment, but Spackle did not like this at all. Why would he not like it? Then he picked up Twilight, and with a burst of more sparkles, Twilight found herself in a new place.
Here, there was another creature like Spackle, but it had longer hair, and a gentler voice, so Twilight figured it had to be a girl. He called it something easy to learn, and handed the filly over to the new thing. Twilight wanted to try out the thing that Spackle had called her, to make sure it was right.
“Sawa?” Then the thing smiled at Twilight. Sawa must have been right, and Twilight was happy at all the things she was discovering in one day.
But then Sawa began to argue with Spackle. Why are they angry with each other, Twilight wondered. Spackle left in a poof of glitter, leaving the filly alone with Sawa.
Now that Jareth KNEW he was dealing with ponies, he had to be more careful. Last time he granted a pony's wish, that pony got banished to the moon. Then again, that was a thousand years ago. He'd had more practice with his magic since then. It wasn't so much the wish-maker he was worried about, or the purple unicorn-pegasus-thing that they'd wished away. It was the ruler.....
He'd known Celestia for a while now. He'd made it a point to acquaint himself with all the rulers of all the kingdoms he could, especially the ones where magic existed. But this ruler, this one he did not like one bit.
He was about two hundred years younger than her, and she always seemed to have the upper hand against him. That, and he could never make up a good, embarrassing nickname for her, where she had a trunkload of them for him. He hated losing, even at nicknames.
But at the moment, he had to figure out what to do with the filly. Good thing he thought about it, too, because the purple thing was about to make a meal out of his favorite cloak.
“No,” he told it. “We do not eat my things.”
“Spackle!” it said.
“Great,” he said with a groan. “Even YOU are giving me nicknames.” Then he thought for a minute. “You must have some connection to Celestia.” He put the filly down with his goblins, and gave them a few simple commands.
“Goblins,” he told them. “This is under our watch for the next thirteen hours. Try not to break it.” They began to play with the filly, and she responded to their excitement by calling them “gob”s. He had to admit, that was adorable, and he couldn't resist a chuckle.
He produced one of his crystals to entertain himself with. In it, he saw the memory of the last wish he had granted for a pony. It was a young one, but he remembered her well.
“I wish to be stronger than my sister” she said. Jareth looked over at the white Alicorn in the castle.
“Are you crazy?” he shouted. “This is the GODDESS OF THE SUN!” But she had wished, and he had to grant. The results were not pretty.
He was pulled from his memory by his goblins “ooh”ing and “aah”ing at something. He turned to see the filly playing with a crystal that he definitely did not simply leave lying around. This was a bad sign. What if she learned the wish-granting magic as well?
He scooped up the filly, and did the only thing he could think of on such short notice. He poofed right to the bedroom of his most famous former-runner, Sarah. Naturally, she did not like the idea of caring for a purple pegacorn, but when it called her “Sawa,” her heart melted, for the filly at least.
Before the argument about the morality of “kidnapping” a filly got too heated, Jareth remembered he still had to give the usual speech to the unfortunate wisher. And so, with another poof, he was in the land of ponies for the first time in a thousand years.
He found a blue pegacorn on the floor trembling, and unfortunately, Celestia, but at least she hadn't noticed his presence yet.
“I didn't mean what I said!” said the blue one.
“Oh, you didn't?” he said.
“Jareth,” Celestia said. “What have you done with Twilight Sparkle?” Well, now he can't name this baby after himself for the thirteen hours he got to “watch” over it.
“Oh, is THAT what that little purple filly's name is?” He said as he pranced about the room, hoping his glitter would piss Celestia off. She remained surprisingly calm.
“Yes,” Celestia replied, almost as if she were in a meeting of political matters. “And I can assure you that whatever punishment you plan on putting Luna through for wishing her away, I can do worse.”
“I'm sure you could, Your Royal Rainbow-i-ness,” he said, glad that he finally figured out a halfway decent nickname for Celestia. It wasn't as embarrassing as the ones she had for him, but it would have to do for the time being. “But then you still wouldn't have your little filly back.”
“Goblin King,” the blue one finally repied. “Where. Is. Twilight?” Jareth couldn't silence his chuckle as he finally realized that this was not the first wish he had granted from this pony.
“I have a friend watching her right now,” he said. “She's really talented at learning magic, so I had to keep her away from me before she started learning my skills.”
“Aww, did the poor widdle Gobwin King get beat at his own game by a widdle bitty baby?” Celestia said. He HATED when she chastised him like a child. She may have been two hundred years older than him, but it did not mean she could keep treating him like a child. He was eleven hundred years old, for crying out loud!
“I DID NOT!” he complained.“I simply didn't want to risk it, seeing as she was staring at my magic crystals with some intensity.” When both of the ponies in the room gave him disgusted looks, he realized how wrong that his choice of words sounded. To try and defend himself, he procured one of his crystals. “THESE!” he shouted. “THE ONES I USE TO WATCH OVER MY KINGDOM!”
“So,” Luna said. “What must We do to win Twilight back?” She was still using the royal We? How old fashioned. Quaint, but obsolete.
“The usual thing,” Jareth said. “Solve my Labyrinth, no magic, no wings, not like they'd work in my realm anyway. Thirteen hours, and all that jazz.” Then, Luna got WAY too close for personal comfort, and she looked worse than Celestia when he tried to have her trip on a goblin and into a fountain.
“Bringeth. It. On. Glitter Boy!” Great. Even LUNA was making fun of him.
The evening had started out to be a relatively normal one for Sarah. Toby was sleeping over at a friend's house for the weekend, her father and stepmother were planning a romantic weekend alone, and Sarah was going to finally have some quality time between herself and her research paper. What she had NOT planned on, however, was a certain blast from the past to poof into her room holding a purple baby unicorn-pegasus-thing.
Sure, this was hardly the first time since she beat him that Jareth asked for her to babysit the children that got wished away every now and again, but usually they were at least humanoid. This was just plain ridiculous. Technicolor, she could handle. Baby horse thing, that was different.
“So you speak horse, now, Goblin King?” she asked as he handed the filly over to her.
“Actually, it's a pony,” he corrected her. “And when will you stop calling me 'Goblin King,' and start calling me 'Jareth?'”
“When you earn the respect of a first name basis,” she bluntly stated. The filly stared up at her with its purple eyes, probably trying to comprehend what a human being was.
“So, Sarah,” Jareth said. “I need you to watch this thing for thirteen hours, probably a lot less. This perso-PONY, has had to deal with me before.”
“You mean you would grant somebody's wish twice?” she said, looking down at the poor filly with concern.
“Sawa!” the filly said. After the initial shock of a talking horse wore off, Sarah couldn't help but to grin at the filly.
“It's been a really, really long time since I granted her last wish,” Jareth said. “I'd thought she'd learned her lesson.”
Just as Sarah was about to say something back, Jareth conveniently remembered that he still had to give the wisher her task to win the baby back with. With a poof of glitter, he was gone. Sarah looked down at the filly in her arms.
“You know,” she said. “Some people just need a crystal ball to the face.”
Outside the ever sparkling walls of the Labyrinth stood the Goblin King and both of the Princesses of the day and night. This was not their first time in Jareth's kingdom, but they certainly hoped it would be the last time they had to because of a wish. Celestia sent a glare to Luna, threatening her silently of the doom she would face should she fail, or ever attempt to make a jealous wish again. The Princess of the Night shuddered at the thought.
“Alright, Starry Night,” the Goblin King said, knowing that they would not get that reference. “You know the drill. No flying over the walls, no teleporting, or other magics that would aid you in any way other than levitating, and no Royal Canterlot Voice.” Celestia looked confused at the Goblin King's choice of words.
“The last time she used 'The Voice' in my Labyrinth, I had to repair six walls, three houses, two goblins, and re-feather a particularly poor chicken.” The Goblin King shuddered at the word “chicken”. The thought brought back horrible memories of revolt and siege.
“And I understand the 'no teleporting' rule, and the 'no flying' and 'no magic', as that would be cheating,” Celestia said. “But, I must know, why can you teleport and fly and do all of that, but Luna cannot?”
“You see, Count Cake-u-la,” Jareth explained. “It's my Labyrinth, and I know the way it changes. Luna does not, and teleporting could be potentially dangerous. Flying is not a reliable cheating source, because the walls are self aware, to a point, and have developed defenses, such as spontaneous growth, to prevent trespassers and cheaters. And 'no magic', is because most of the people that run my Labyrinth are quite plain, mortal, and untalented in anything other than wishing up trouble. Letting Luna use magic is unfair to those other runners.”
Luna giggled at the nickname that Jareth had given to her sister. Celestia glared once more at the younger Princess, silently telling her the fate she would face should she ever bring it up again.
“In any case,” Luna chimed in. “We better get started.”
“Yes, we should,” Jareth said. “Misty Mane.”
“Feather Phobiac,” Luna replied. Celestia responded to this with uncannily realistic chicken noises, causing Jareth to slightly jump in his boots and freeze on spot.
The new place that Spackle had left Twilight in was all sorts of interesting, and Sawa seemed to enjoy Twilight's games, or at the very least, played along. But, the filly was beginning to wish that Sawa would stop chasing her so that she could explore this new place thoroughly, and without any interruption.
It was then that Sawa began making bad noises, the kind that Caregiver would use when she was upset with Twilight. The purple filly did not like when anypony made those kinds of noises, so she buzzed back to Sawa, and her bad face got less bad, but still wasn't quite good. The filly felt bad as well, because she didn't know how to make Sawa's bad face go away.
Twilight started saying Sawa's name, trying to get her bad face to go away, but Sawa only sighed, and walked to a new room in the place. Twilight, curious as ever, followed her.
The new room was dark. There was a very low table, lower than the ones in Caregiver's home, and it was covered in a clear, hard sheet. Sawa had slumped herself down in a chair and grabbed a small rectangle. She hit a button on it, and across the room, a black box lit up with many colors and made sounds. Twilight had never seen such a device before. It was hypnotizing to say the least. It made Twilight completely unaware of any events around her that did not directly involve her.
Without warning, Sawa stepped in front of the magic box, and Twilight craned her head to try and see the pretty colors moving around, but then something new, but familiar showed on the screen, and Sawa sat back down.
Rather than hearing talking coming from the magic box, there was music. It was an oddly familiar tune, but the filly didn't know where she knew the tune from. Then she saw ponies! This surprised her the most, because not only did she see other ponies, but they were ponies she recognized. She saw Soft, Rawr-y, Dash-y, Puffy, and Apple. This pleased her, and she said their names aloud, so that Sawa knew who they were. But then she saw Woona, and Caregiver as well! Was this magic box a way back to home?
The filly walked up to the box, and started calling Caregiver and Woona's names, positive that they would hear her, but they made no attempt to take her back. This made Twilight sad. Did the Caregiver not want her anymore? The very idea made the filly begin to cry, and the box went black again.
This caused Twilight to cry more. She missed Caregiver. But she soon forgot that when Sawa picked her up and began to rock her, singing a gentle song. It didn't make Twilight sleepy, but it told her that at least somepony here knew how to care for a filly.
“Okay, so I just have to take care of this technicolor filly-pegasus-unicorn-thing until the runner beats the Labyrinth, or until the thirteen hours are up,” Sarah told herself, half sure that she was capable of such a task. “Can't be that bad.”
Boy, was she wrong.
First, the filly was hungry, and Sarah had next to no idea what horses, or ponies as Jareth had insisted, were supposed to eat. She tried mashing some carrots, but the filly wouldn't touch it. Oatmeal was apparently out of the question as well. It wasn't until she tried applesauce that the purple pony-thing actually ate. After that, Sarah had enough babysitting experience to know to burp the filly, so that was rather painless, except for the squirming and stronger-than-it-should-be kicking that the tiny thing managed to muster.
Fortunately, the filly did not need to be changed just yet. Sarah dreaded the moment that came, knowing that babies of any species don't take to well to anything that's not their mother changing them. She also dreaded the kick that filly could produce, if simply squirming was enough to leave a bruise or two.
She had given up on trying to contain the filly mere moments after Jareth left. The filly constantly buzzed her wings to move around, and if Sarah grabbed her, then the filly would simply teleport out of her grip, giggling the entire time. “At least glitter is not a side effect of her teleportation,” Sarah said.
Whenever Sarah babysat, even for Jareth's “charges”, she always made it a point to NEVER let any of them go upstairs. It's not that the upstairs was dangerous, just that it was so much easier to keep track of them when they were within earshot, and downstairs had a significant lack of doors that always came in handy for any emergencies. That's why Sarah started to get frustrated when the filly began to buzz up the stairs.
“No, no little pony-thing!” Sarah had cried out when the filly had almost reached the top step. When the filly turned around to look at her, it had reminded Sarah of the way Toby had turned around to look at her when she fought for him. She had to fight back a couple of fearful tears. It felt like the Escher room all over again, except this time, it would be someone else's baby at stake, and that felt worse than having put her brother in danger.
“Sawa,” the filly said. This did melt Sarah's heart again, but it quickly began to freeze over in fear again as the filly was still at the top of the stairs. She didn't calm down until the filly buzzed her way back down the stairs, hanging her head slightly, her own way of saying “sorry”, Sarah supposed.
Sarah needed to relax, so she walked to the living room, comforted by hearing a tiny “clippity-clop” of little hooves behind her. After comfortably slumping herself into an armchair, she turned on the TV, and the filly was instantly hypnotized.
“Works every time,” Sarah said.
As the filly watched the mind numbingly hypnotic news that was already on when Sarah turned the TV on, she noticed something familiar about the filly. The wings and lack of a mark on her flank had thrown her off, and she'd been to concerned with caring for the filly to notice, but perhaps it was possible. Knowing the kind of trouble Jareth attracts, it most likely was.
Sarah walked over to the TV, and pulled out a DVD from her secret compartment. It had to be secret, because Toby certainly wouldn't watch it, and her parents would be mortified to find that their daughter was reverting back to childhood. It was her guilty pleasure, she supposed. When she plugged in the DVD, the familiar tune played, and the filly was fascinated in a whole new way.
“Puffy!” the filly shouted upon seeing Pinkie Pie.
“Well,” Sarah thought, “she is pretty puffy.”
“Rawry!” Rarity was on screen, being dramatic as usual.
“That's one way to say it,” Sarah giggled.
“Apple!” Applejack, naturally.
“Almost there,” Sarah encouraged, knowing there was no way for a baby to pronounce “Jack”.
“Soft!”
“I guess Fluttershy is rather soft.”
“Dashy!” That one caught Sarah off guard.
“I'm surprised you can articulate that.”
Then the filly started trying to get into the TV. Then Sarah realized that they must not have television in her world. But it surprised her when on the screen, rather than the Mane 6, it showed Princess Celestia.
“Tia!” the filly cried. “Wan' Tia!”
Sarah realized that the more she let this play, the more the filly would beg to be with Princess Celestia, which Sarah could not do, no matter how much she wished. She turned off the TV, and picked up the filly, and sang gently to her, trying to calm her down.
“Hush little filly, don't say a word, Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird.” True, Sarah's singing voice was not great, but it worked to stop the filly from crying, at least. That would simply have to do, for now.
Luna quickly trotted through the Labyrinth, not being so fooled by finding the entrance or “invisible walls” having run it once before. She wasn't willing to let herself get into a gallop, though, lest she miss something important that would come in handy later, as such things would always happen in the Labyrinth. Even as she thought about her brilliance at remembering such details, she refused to let her guard down, ever suspicious that Jareth would not make it any less difficult a second time around.
After two or three hours, she had made what appeared to be relatively good progress, but looks were deceiving in the Labyrinth. The castle appeared to be right in front of her, but if she turned left then right, it would seem to be to somewhere else. Sometimes the Labyrinth would make her think that she had lost her senses.
It would have been better, had she not been accompanied by an unwanted companion, although sometimes, there were several, depending on the light.
Shadows make terrible travel-mates.
“Turn back,” they would say. “You don't need the filly.”
“Go back now,” said another. “Go live a quiet, happy life with your sister.”
“No,” Luna would tell them. “We need to get Twilight back.”
“But then you'll never have any time to yourself,” a shadow would say back. “Or with Celestia.”
“Go away!” Luna covered her ears, trying to block out their voices, but they were all inside her head. Nothing could make them go away.
That's the thing about shadows. They're like bad thoughts. They'll never stop following you around. You might forget about them after a while, but when they show themselves back again, you will never forget about them.
Luna tried to push the shadows out of her mind the best she could. Ignoring them was probably the best course of action, anyway. Unfortunately, it appeared that these shadows would not leave her mind until a distraction did it for her. She couldn't be, that lucky, could she?
As her chances would have it, she did run across a small band of arguing creatures, right as the shadows were at the peak of making Luna want to strangle a two dimensional figure. Describing the creatures would prove to be more of a challenge than solving their arguments, though. The tops of their heads only reached up to Luna's knees, and they had very leathery, wrinkly skin. Other than that, Luna was at a loss on their appearance.
“It's mine!”
“No, it's mine!”
“It's obviously mine.”
“No it's not, it's his!”
The Moon Princess was unlucky enough to have come across the creatures in some seemingly important debate on the ownership of something, although Luna could not see what it was. It was also just her luck that all four of them were blocking the way.
“Pardon Us,” she said, trying to be brief and get past the creatures as quickly as possible. The creatures ignored her, still enraptured in their debate.
“Excuse Us,” she said again, this time trying to walk through them, but that proved to be pointless.
“You could just fly over them,” one of the shadows told her. She ignored the shadows, well aware that this was probably a test of some sort.
“What seems to be the problem here?” Luna asked the creatures. The authority in her voice finally caught their attention. This was quickly followed by all four of them trying to explain the situation and justify their ownership of the object they were arguing over, at the same time.
“One At A Time!” Luna commanded, doing her best to not use the Royal Canterlot Voice. With the shadows getting on her nerves and these creatures being non-cooperative, Luna's tolerance level was quickly running thin.
“Well, excuse me!” said one of the creatures, and three of them went back to arguing over the object.
Luna had just about had it with these creatures, but one of them walked up nervously to her, and tried to explain the situation.
“Well, um, miss,” it began. “You see, Bogsnout there thinks that he ought to have the loose brick because he saw it first. Lintwax there thinks he ought to have it because he could use it to fix his chimney. And Dripwash thinks it should be his because it came off of his house.” After a moments hesitation, the creature chimed in its opinion. “I think that it should go to Lintwax.”
It was a puzzling situation, indeed. Luna may have even found the answer, if it weren't for the fact that the shadows decided to join in on the argument as well.
“It should definitely go to Dripwash, then.”
“No no no, it should go to Lintwax. He has the better reason.”
“Finder's Keeper's, I always say. Give it to Bogsnout.”
All the chatter, it was driving Luna mad. She tried being diplomatic with the shadows, saying “please, please stop this,” but that didn't work. In fact, it made things much, much worse.
“Ah, lighten up, Nightmare Moon,” one of the shadows said. That was the last straw.
“NEVER CALL US NIGHTMARE MOON!” Luna shouted with a Royal Canterlot Voice loud enough to be heard to kingdoms well beyond the Labyrinth. Unfortunately for her, she was not the only one with a final straw to be pulled.
“Did I not instruct you specifically never to use the Royal Canterlot Voice within my Labyrinth?” Luna spun around to face the Goblin King, who was looking royally angry, and rightfully so.
“What will you do to Us?” she asked, attempting to seem haughty. “Take some of our time away?”
“Oh no,” Jareth said with a smug attitude. “Much worse.” He produced a crystal, and with a few waves and a tap to Luna's horn, the crystal transformed itself, wrapping around the horn until it became a small, silver ring at the point where it begins to form out of the head.
“This will prevent you from using ANY magic at all, including levitation of yourself and other objects around you.” He began to fade away, leaving behind a residue of sparkles, but before he had completely disappeared he had one thing left to say.
“Good luck using your hooves.”
Then he was gone, and so were the creatures.
Not sure if Canterlot Voice or hangover (GoblinVision)
Jareth sat precariously on his throne, bored out of his mind again. If nothing was going wrong, then he had no reason to intervene in Luna's challenge. A quick peep through his crystal also showed that Sarah was having no problem with the filly, either. Much too boring to spy on.
He wanted so desperately to have something to do, but even breaking out into song seemed dull and uninspiring at the moment. No amount of dancing or goblin-kicking could cure his boredom. He would just have to be content with staring at a wall while trying to get comfortable. Why did he have his throne made circular in the first place?
Jareth eventually got bored of that, too, and like a teenager with internet access, he revisited the same scene he declared boring only minutes ago, to see if something had changed. Indeed, something had changed, as the Princess of the Night had shadows surrounding her, talking to her. The crystals did not allow him to hear what was being said, but the sight in itself was rather sad. Poor Luna looked like she wanted to murder those shadows. So those are one of the challenges the Labyrinth has decided Luna should face? It would be interesting to see how they play out.
Watching Luna talk to shadows also got boring just as quickly as one would expect. In fact, it was almost too quickly to think that Jareth was even capable of an adult attention span. One would assume that his focus length was just as long, if not shorter, than a goldfish. Yes! That must have been it! The Goblin King had the attention span of a college senior!
He had decided that it was time for a walk. He vaguely remembered walking past a tiny village of miniscule Goblins, and touching a brick. It had fallen out of whatever structure it had been part of, but that was of little concern to Jareth.
The fresh air had been a nice change of pace. He really would have to stop cooping himself up inside his castle, but what if he missed an interesting wish? One wish a day, though, he had usually said. It wasn't that it took too much energy to grant more than one, it was more along the lines that he didn't like making more than one mortal enemy per day. This mental chat along with the walk was very pleasant, and he would certainly have to try it more-
“NEVER CALL US NIGHTMARE MOON!” Great.... that's another four goblins with insurance to pay. Unfortunately for Jareth's eardrums, he could tell that Luna was just around the corner.
“Did I not instruct you specifically never to use the Royal Canterlot Voice within my Labyrinth?” Lucky for him, Luna didn't turn around until after he had finished poking his finger through his ears, trying to get the ringing to go away.
“What will you do to Us?” she asked, trying to use a high-and-mighty voice with him. “Take some of our time away?” What did she think he was? Repetitive?
“Oh no,” Jareth said. “Much worse.” With a bit of flare, he made a crystal, which turned itself into a ring that would seal the unicorn's magic, that conveniently wrapped itself around her horn in a nice, showy manner. He couldn't help but smirk a little.
“This will prevent you from using ANY magic at all, including levitation of yourself and other objects around you.” Perhaps that would teach her a lesson. He was starting to leave when he had just thought of the perfect farewell-phrase, as well.
“Good luck using your hooves.” Take THAT, stupid shout-happy Princess.
Now that her magic was sealed, Luna had thankfully gotten rid of all but one of the shadows. The straggler seemed to be a remnant of the Labyrinth's magic, but as long as she ignored it, then it ignored her as well. Why she would subconsciously summon shadows to taunt and tease her, she had no idea, but at least by preventing her from using magic, Jareth had kind of done Luna a favor.
Twists and turns everywhere, and yet the castle never seemed to get any closer. Perhaps this was another magic that Luna would not understand. Or maybe it was just because the way the Labyrinth worked was not something that you could simply pick up a book and read about in Equestria. Luna considered penning the inevitable tome herself when-
“GWAR!” The roar sounded from just around the corner. With a shout that loud, Luna wondered why Jareth didn't punish his own subjects for shouting like that.
Luna cautiously turned her head around the corner, trying to get a glimpse of the mighty creature that made the sound. Much to her surprise, the creature was not large at all. In fact, it was about half of Luna's height. Its shape was much like a mixture between an ape and a dragon, but it had no wings. The monster's tail was adorned tastefully with spikes that lined up the creature's spine, although you'd barely notice them through all of its fur. It wasn't so much hairy as it was fuzzy, rather reminiscent of carpet, a muddy-brown colored carpet.
Luna tried to think with herself, what was the best way to calm a brutish creature? But then she remembered, in this land, the brutish are the most gentile, and the most insignificant are the most dangerous. Perhaps it was just cranky, she hoped.
“Excuse Us,” Luna said, trying to be gentle while dodging the creature's flailing arms. “Excuse Us, but why art thou crying?”
The creature sniveled for a moment, and looked at Luna curiously. “Us?” it asked.
Luna was still not used to modern language, but she supposed it would be confusing. Once the creature spoke, it did sound vaguely like a child.
“I meant to say 'excuse me.'” With a calmed sigh, she continued, “But now, why are you crying?”
By then, the creature had stopped its ferocious sobs, but it knew it had to answer. “Chryssa is lost.”
“Chryssa?” Luna asked. The creature pointed to itself. “Oh, YOU are Chryssa.” Luna desperately wanted to help the poor creature. “Where do you live?”
“Chryssa lives in big city by castle.” PERFECT!
“Well, Chryssa, it just so happens that w-I am going to the castle,” Luna said, slightly triumphantly. “Why don't you come with me? I'm sure we'll find your home together.”
“Okay,” Chryssa said. The creature wiped her face with her paw, and stood up to follow Luna like a little duckling. Luna couldn't help but to smile a little. It warmed her heart to know that she was helping someone who needed it.
This time, when Luna turned the corner, the castle appeared to be straight ahead, of course, not without a few twists and turns on the way.
Now that he had solved the source of the problem, Jareth had to check for any issues that Luna's use of the Canterlot Voice might have caused. You could never tell how the Labyrinth's denizens would react to anything, anymore.
What he did find were two of the stranger creatures that the Labyrinth had started making recently. They were rather short, as the tops of their heads reached to his shoulders, and covered with fur from head to toe. The tails were more reptilian in design, but still furry, and they had plated armor-like spikes jutting from their backs, right about where their spines would be, extending down to their tails.
“Has anything happened here?” he asked.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the male said. “After that massive shout, we seem to have become separated from our daughter.”
“I see,” he said. So this is what my Labyrinth is planning. “Does she know her way home?”
“I'm afraid not, Your Majesty,” the mother said. “What if something happens to her?”
“You have nothing to fear, madam,” Jareth said. “Currently, someone is running the Labyrinth. I'm sure that your daughter has become part of some plan to help the runner.”
“But, Your Majesty,” the father objected. “She is but a child. She could get hurt!”
Despite the parents' objections, Jareth knew better than to interfere with the plans the Labyrinth had for its runners. Though, he couldn't make the citizens understand that they were merely pawns for the Labyrinth's need to teach a lesson. There had to be a way to calm their fears, even if it did involve a half-lie.
“I can promise you my word that she will be safe,” Jareth said. “I will personally see to it that she returns home safely.”
His act of kindness brought the mother to tears, and the father thanked him greatly. He didn't like lying to his citizens, he was usually very blunt, but the Labyrinth doesn't like its plans to be interfered with. He would watch, but only from afar.