Ch. 1: The Next Morning
Chapter 1: The Next Morning
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Celestia woke up with even more pain than the previous morning. Out of a sense of automatic motions, she reached out to the sun and lifted it on its way. She had to for the sake of her kingdom. She wasn’t going to make her country suffer just because she was in pain. Still, why did every little noise have to be so loud today?
“Sister?” Celestia called. Her jaw ached and her ears burned but her task required her to speak.
“Luna, are you there?” she asked while wincing from every bodily ache.
“I’m sorry,” replied the voice of Luna, “She can’t come to the phone right now. May I take a message?”
The elder sister lifted her head in confusion. Her eyes opened blearily and bloodshot. Despite an uncomfortable cracking noise that came from her neck, she turned to face her younger sister. Said sister was standing a few feet away from the bed… or so Celestia thought.
“Okay, terrible joke,” said Luna while shaking her head, “My bad, Princess.”
“Princess?” echoed Celestia, “Luna, you are aware that we needn’t use titles when talking to each other.”
“Well, technically speaking, I’m only in the body of Luna,” her sister’s voice and mouth replied, “It still doesn’t feel right to call you without the proper title of authority.”
In spite of her pounding headache, Celestia raised her eyebrow still confused before asking, “Luna, what are you talking about?”
‘Luna’ took a deep breath and audibly exhaled before speaking again, “It seems subtle hints aren’t working. So I’m just going to spell it out for you. I am a person that currently resides inside Luna’s body while her mind has gone dormant.”
Silence followed as ‘Luna’ let her words sink in. The gravity of her words slowly processed in Celestia’s half-awake mind. The unbelievable reality made the elder sister open her eyes wide. She completely forgot about her aches in the face of this new information. She immediately jumped off the bed into a defensive stance.
“Who are you?!” she demanded, “And what have you done with my sister?”
“Simmer down, your highness,” waved not-Luna dismissively, “Luna is simply dormant right now. In a few minutes or a few hours, she’ll return and I’ll be asleep.”
Celestia wasn’t convinced and inquired, “Are you from the same place as the spirit that controls my body at night?”
“Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not,” answered not-Luna in an uncommitted tone, “But I can assure you that I don’t take pleasure in his tasteless form of entertaining himself. Wear your body down until you’re too tired to resist. Honestly, that’s a most clichéd plan if I’ve ever heard of one.”
“So you do know about it,” confirmed Celestia.
“Bits and pieces,” admitted not-Luna, “I do not know his identity. But I can easily surmise that he takes a childish approach with his language.”
“So why are you here?” asked Celestia. To this, not-Luna looked away briefly before returning ‘her’ gaze.
“Frankly, I’m not entirely sure myself,” ‘she’ said with a sigh, “Maybe fate decided to use me as another one of its pawns in this massive game of deity chess. In any case, I want to help both of your majesties.”
“Help?” echoed Celestia, “What kind of help do you mean?”
“Help deal with that bothersome mind that uses your body as its toy, of course,” answered not-Luna in a tone that made her think her meaning was obvious.
“How pray tell do you intend to do that?” asked Celestia.
“Well for starters,” began not-Luna taking a step toward the currently unpossessed princess, “Curaga.”
‘Her’ horn glowed in a soft glow of midnight blue before altering to an equally soft shade of green. Unprepared for a magical duel, Celestia found herself at the mercy of whatever spell that this invader had cast. She squeezed her eyes shut expecting unrelenting pain as the green glow swirled around her entire being. But there was no new pain. In fact, her previous pains started to feel alleviated. Within moments, the external signs of fatigue and weariness faded from her body along with the green glow.
“W…What did you just do?” asked the solar princess with wonder in her voice.
Not-Luna panted as she replied, “Well, I’ll be… darned. Healing… magic… really works.”
“Are you all right?” asked Celestia.
“Don’t… worry… about me,” said not-Luna between breaths, “Just… tell Luna… I’m sorry… for using… so much… of her… energy.” With that, ‘she’ fell to the floor on ‘her’ side.
“Wait!” exclaimed Celestia. She ran over and shook her sister’s body, “I still have questions!”
Luna’s eyes opened as her voice said, “Ugh, what… happened?”
“You just used healing magic on me, remember?” reminded Celestia after moving her hoof away.
“Healing magic?” was the response, “But Tia, we don’t recall doing anything of the sort.”
“Luna, is that really you?” inquired Celestia.
“Who else would we be?” asked Luna raising her eyebrow in confusion.
“Well,” started the elder sister, “It seems that you now also have a ‘spirit’ that dwells within you.”
“What?!” jumped up the younger sister in a heartbeat, “Oh no! What trouble did it cause you while I was unconscious?”
“It… didn’t,” answered Celestia slowly, “In fact, it wanted to apologize for using up your energy.”
“Using our energy?” echoed Luna before holding up a hoof to her head, “‘Tis no wonder we feel drained. How dare a fiend to use our magic for some unknown menacing deed?”
“Actually, it’s because it used your magic that I don’t feel pain this morning,” pointed out Celestia.
“What?” stopped Luna before thinking back, “Wait, earlier thou didst sayeth, er… you did say that we- I used healing magic. Was that the other mind then?”
“So I gather,” confirmed Celestia.
“What do these other minds want with us?” asked the younger sister before clarifying, “You and I?”
“I couldn’t say,” said the elder shaking her head, “All that this new mind said was that it wanted to help us deal with the mind that uses me at night.”
“How exactly did it say it would do that?” wondered Luna with uncertainty.
“Well, it kind of blacked out before it could explain in more detail,” sighed Celestia.
“Wonderful,” muttered Luna before wiping her face with a hoof, “So we are expected to just trust this new entity and hope that it can figure out a way to handle the first. Is this really our best plan?”
“Do we have another choice?” asked Celestia rhetorically.
To this, the younger sister remained silent.
---
Even though she had just woken up, Luna felt exhausted. She decided to retire to her quarters for the daylight hours as she usually did. Celestia hadn't objected to this decision and went to attend to her own responsibilities. In the back of her mind, she felt much better than she had the last couple of days. She had energy to spare just like the sun that she guided through the sky. She was almost sad that the afternoon hours had arrived so soon.
She was reviewing a few documents concerning more recent legal matters when there was a knock at her door.
*Knock* *Knock*
"The door's unlocked," Celestia said without looking up.
"Um," was the muffled reply from the other side of the door, "Okay, let's see. Just concentrate on the handle..."
Celestia could have sworn she heard a succinct buzz happen after that mutter.
*Phbpt*
"Whoops, wrong kind of concentration," said the muffled voice, "Oh, wait. I know!"
The door slowly opened into the study and Celestia looked up to see her visitor. It looked like Luna's teeth were nudging the handle down as she entered. She kind of looked awkward turning with the opening door. Needless to say, Celestia was a little baffled at the sight.
"You know you can just use magic to open that door, right?" asked Celestia while chancing a small smirk.
"Yeah, well, I'm going to need a lot more practice before I can do that," was the response.
Something wasn't right here. Luna had had a vast time of life to master the simplest of spells. Celestia had even seen her perform basic object manipulation over a million times in the past. Why would she say something like that? Unless...
"Luna?" questioned Celestia.
"Actually, it's me again, your highness," replied Luna's voice.
"Oh," said Celestia in realization. She thought to herself for a moment before asking, "What should I call you? It seems kind of rude of me to constantly refer to some pony as 'you'."
"That's a good question," responded not-Luna as 'she' looked to the side for a moment. 'She' then looked back up and proposed, "How about Nebula? That sounds like something a body of the night would be called."
"Why? Don't you have an actual name for yourself?" asked Celestia.
"Yes, but my real name wouldn't make much sense here," answered 'Nebula'.
"Erm, okay then... Nebula," paused Celestia still not entirely sure what to make of the spirit possessing her sister, "I'd like some straightforward answers if you don't mind."
"I don't mind at all, Princess," smiled Nebula.
"Actually first, could you please just call me Celestia?" the respective princess asked, "It feels uncomfortable hearing my sister's voice refer to me as Princess."
"I only meant to show respect," pointed out Nebula.
"Then could you respect my wish to be called by name?" asked Celestia.
Nebula chuckled, "Fair enough, Celestia. So, what do want to ask me? I'll answer anything I can to the best of my ability."
"What exactly are you?" started Celestia, "And how are you... er, in Luna?"
"Like I said before I'm a person," answered Nebula assuming a no-nonsense face, "I don't know how I'm inside Luna's body and I wish I did know so that both of us could at least be at ease about that."
Celestia sighed, "Well, that doesn't explain much. Let's try a different angle. What is your motive? Why would you want to help Luna and I?"
"Can't a guy just give out of the goodness of his heart?"
"I suppose so- wait... You're a colt?"
"Er, yeah," answered Nebula rubbing the back of Luna's neck with her hoof, "You could say that."
Celestia raised her hoof to her face and massaged a building headache, "I have lived for several millennia and yet this is the first I have encountered such a circumstance."
"Anyway," said Nebula resuming his serious tone, "I guess there is another motive. I just can't stand people that have way too much power yet treat it like a toy. It's why I never liked beings like Discord or Light Yagami."
"Light who?" interrupted Celestia returning her eye contact Nebula.
"Never mind," waved Nebula dismissively, "Not important right now. What I'm trying to say is... uh-oh."
"What? What's wrong?" asked Celestia with concern.
"I can... feel her coming back," said Nebula suddenly shaking as if he was nervous.
"I beg your pardon?"
"I'll... t-try to... contact... y-you... l-later," shivered Nebula. Suddenly Luna's head hung limp as well as her wings. Miraculously, all four of her legs still stood firm underneath her.
"Wait, Nebula!" exclaimed Celestia.
---
Luna raised a hoof to rub the sleep out of her eyes. As she looked up, she was surprised that she was standing. She was also confused that she was somehow in her sister's study.
"How did I get here?" she wondered aloud.
"Luna?" asked Celestia.
"Tia? What... happened?"
"That other presence in you just talked with me again."
"It did? Did it tell you anything new?"
"Yes," nodded Celestia, "It seems to have a pet peeve against entities that use power in childish ways."
"Childish ways?" responded Luna while tilting her head, "Like what?"
"Obtaining too much and then playing with it like a toy. He even mentioned his dislike for Discord."
"I suppose any pony that is peeved by Discord isn't all bad- wait. 'He'? As in a colt?"
"That was what he said."
"Oh, that's just wonderful," groaned Luna in sarcasm and a face hoof, "A colt inside me. As if I didn't have enough things the public could interpret the wrong way about me."
"Welcome to my world," pointed out Celestia.
"Uh, good point," commented Luna sheepishly after realizing that she shared a mutual situation with her sister.
"So," redirected Celestia, "It seems he can't control you for a full half of the day like the presence in me can. His timing seems haphazard."
"In other words," said Luna thoughtfully, "Just me going to sleep won't be enough to bring him out. The hours that he'll assume possession are at best completely spontaneous."
Luna sighed while taking a seat, "Which means we may never figure out his true goal or how he intends to accomplish it."
"On the bright side, he did say he would contact me later."
"Maybe we could try to force information out of the other presence in you," suggested Luna, "See if he knows anything."
"I'd advise against that," frowned Celestia, "If he didn't say or know anything about this new presence before, then he most likely won't cooperate in telling us anything now."
A long pause filled the next moments between sisters.
"So what shall we do now, Tia?"
"For now, just keep monitoring me after I go to sleep. Keep the my other presence in check. Wait for further details from your other presence."
"Is it morally acceptable to assume these other minds as our own?" wondered Luna.
"I honestly don't know what else to call them," answered Celestia shaking her head in defeat.
The battle of the minds had just begun.