//------------------------------// // Chapter 16 // Story: Becoming one with the Moon // by ParaNomaly //------------------------------// Before anyone could say anything else, I quickly interrupted them. “Hold on, who's this Discord guy anyway? Is it the statue one that caused everything to turn into an acid trip?” Luna blinked and looked at me with a confused expression on her face. “Er… Yes, we don't know what an ‘acid trip’ is, but he is indeed the one who was trapped in stone.” She replied. “Stone, right. Couldn't you just… Break the stone with him in it?” I asked. Luna replied with a snort. “Believe me, if it were that easy…” Celestia spoke up this time with a shake of her head. “We don't kill our enemies. We imprison them in hopes of them being reformed.” “Nonsense, sister! He's beyond that! He's-” “Not beyond it.” Celestia glared at Luna, which the latter was about to reply, before Carl interrupted the soon-to-be fight. “Let's… Uh, not get into that stuff right now. We should focus on the task at hand?” She said, a bit timmidly. They glared at each other for a few more seconds before they both sighed, nodding their heads in agreement. “Right. We're getting off track. The point is, that if Discord did indeed send you here, he's the only one who can send you back.” Celestia finally said after the brief pause. “Why's that?” I asked. “Because he uses chaos magic, which is drastically different and much more uncontrollable than the magic we use. And he wields a large amount of it.” Luna clarified. “Well, why can't any one of us use ‘chaos magic‘?” Carl spoke up, leaning slightly forward onto the table. “Because it is simply far too uncontrollable and well… Chaotic for even Alicorns to use.” Luna replied once more. I wasn't exactly sure how a type of magic of all things was ‘too chaotic‘ to use, but before I could question it further, Carl beat me to it. “So what is he then?” She asked. “He's a draconequus, the only one of his kind. Thankfully.” Luna replied, muttering the last part. “They can wield huge amounts of chaos magic as if it was child's play. But can't use any other type.” Celestia continued. “Not that it matters, the only limit it has is the wielder's imagination. Only the Elements of Harmony had been able to beat his magic and trap him in stone.” Luna followed up, a frown on her face. “So let me recap this. You're telling us that there's nothing you can do to send us back?” I asked, a small amount of fear in my voice. Celestia hung her head slightly and nodded. “As far as we are aware, no. We can try to look for alternate methods, but…” “...But?” Carl asked. “But it is unlikely that one will pop up. We're sorry.” Luna finished. I opened my mouth to speak, but couldn't think of anything. Was there really no way back home? Will we be stuck here for the rest of their lives, however that lasts? I looked over to Carl, who seemed to be sharing my current thoughts on the matter. “We are willing to provide food and shelter, as well as anything else thou may require as long as thou wishes to stay at the castle.” Luna spoke up after a pregnant silence, a hint of sadness in her voice. Both me and Carl nodded, thankful for their hospitality. “Thank you both. I honestly wouldn't know where to go next if you two hadn't come along.” I said with a weak smile. Carl opened her mouth to say something as well, but she was interrupted by a sudden rumbling that shook the room, causing several dust and cement particles to fall from the ceiling on a few of us. “The hell was that?” I blinked as I held onto the chair out of instinct. Celestia looked around the room in surprise, just as clueless as we were. “An Earthquake?” Carl asked, doing the same thing as me. “Couldn't be, there’s no fault lines anywhere near Canterlot.” Luna said in a worried tone. “Volcano?” I followed up. “There isn’t a volcano around for hundreds of miles.” Luna shook her head. Celestia quietly stood up and trotted over to the stairs. She motioned for us to follow her with her right wing as she reached them. “Follow me.” Luna was the first to stand up and follow her, followed by me and Carl. We quickly trotted, or in my and Carl's case, tried not to fall as we raced to reach topside. “Stay inside the castle, and do not go outside unless it's absolutely necessary. Understand?” Luna commanded as she glanced back at us, to which we replied with a nod. `This escalated quickly.'I thought to myself as we continued to make our way to the top, half the time getting a much too revealing look at Pony behind, much to my contained embarrassment. Although, now that I think about it, Carl probably wasn't having much of a different experience in the latter department. We reached the top of the stairwell shortly after, just as another rumbling shook the palace, almost causing me to lose my balance. Which I quickly regained after using Carl as a quick stabilizer, much to her annoyance. Whatever was happening sure had riled up the ponies, as we all heard panicked screams coming from outside the castle. They were mostly muffled by the thick walls, however. As we passed through the first set of doors, the atmosphere of the castle finally started to sink in. Ponies in formal suits and maids were running around everywhere, while the guards attempted to maintain order. Albeit pretty poorly, in my opinion. I glanced over to Carl, who was trying to peek out one of the smaller windows that exposed the view of the city. And then over to the Princesses, who quickly rushed down the rather spacious hallway. I ran after then for a second, before stopping and quickly taking a glance back at Carl. Who was still by the window with squinted eyes trying to look outside. “Carl! Come on!” I yelled over the chaos. “In a second! I think I see something!” Was her reply. I bit my lip and turned my head over to where the Princesses had ran off to. They were almost at the end of the hallway, and then back to Carl. “The fuck should I go with? Ah, fuck it. Bros before hoes.” I turned tail and went back over to Carl. I stopped at her side and glanced out the window. “Dude, come on! What the fuck are you even looking at?” I squinted my eyes and tried to look through the window to the outside. “I swear I saw something flying out there.” Carl replied, still trying to spot whatever she had seen. I looked over at her incredulously. “Half of the ponies in this damn cartoon world can fly. Hell, we can fly. You can't be-” Before I could finish, Carl flicked me in the nose with the tip of her hoof, which caused me to take a step back and rub my muzzle. “I'm not an idiot, dipshit. It was far larger than any normal Pony. Like a dragon, actually. I briefly saw it before it disappeared behind some of those skyscrapers in the distance.” She replied as she glanced over at me. I glared at her as I rubbed my nose a few more times. “Dragon? Hmph. I wouldn't doubt it in all honestly…” I mumbled as I set my hoof back down. From the crazy shit we've both seen, dragons didn't sound very far fetched anymore. “Exactly! I was waiting for it to come out the other side, but it never did. I'm guessing whatever it was landed behind them.” Carl glanced over at me one last time before fully turning her body to face me. “We should probably go after the Princesses now. They couldn't have gone far, right?” She said, looking in the direction where they had gone. Which was stiff filled with panicking ponies. I sighed. “Should done that from the beginning, but… Yeah, let's go.” I quickly turned around and began to trot down the hallway, waiting for a few seconds for Carl to follow suit, before I broke out into a full gallop. Surprisingly, I managed to not look like a complete idiot and managed to maintain my balance and run decently. With Carl not far behind. Far above Canterlot castle, a small creature unnoticed by most hovered in place. Its body covered by a large, black cloak, hiding any further features apart from its seemingly humanoid body. It looked down upon the castle with dark, eerie green eyes. Which were the only feature that stood out in its almost pitch black face. It was originally tracking four targets a day prior. But now, there were two additional ones that had appeared overnight. It was tricky to tell, but they were identical to the original ones. A smaller, green creature, which closely resembled a goblin, clumsily flew over to the figure. It's little wings struggling to hold the fat little body off of the ground. It seemed impossible for it to be capable of sustained flight. But of course, it flew anyway. Because it didn't care what Ponies thought was impossible. “M-master, we're ready go on the plan. But we can't get the f-four of them. We don't have enough-” The little green goblin started, stuttering slightly, before it was interrupted by the larger, ominous figure. “Get the closest ones to the east side of the castle. They're the easier ones.” It replied in a deep baritone voice. “Wh-What if they fight back?” It stuttered out. “I trust that they shall be quickly subdued before the other pair are even aware of that is going on. Do we have the vials?” He asked, his menacing voice causing the goblin to shake further. “Y-Yes, my liege! They're ready!” The figure began to chuckle to itself. “Yes, good. Now go, and bring them to me.” He commanded. “R-Right away!” The Goblin sped off, leaving a trail of dust in its wake. As soon as it left, he looked back down to the castle. “Soon, you will be the one begging for mercy, pests.” Back inside the castle, Carl and David had stopped by a near a large pillar in the now empty throne room. Both panting and resting against said pillar. “I think… I think we took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.” David panted as she moved her foreleg up to her forehead and proceeded to wipe away some built up sweat. “Y-Yeah?... You think?!” Carl responded, even more winded than David. They had spent a good fifteen minutes running after the Princesses, had only succeeded in getting lost in the process. Asking the Ponies, even some of the Royal Guard, had been less than successful. With neither of the two groups aware of the location of the two sisters. “This is your fault! You just had to go look out some fucking window instead of following them!” David growled as she glared at Carl, who replied with a glare of her own. “And why didn't you keep following them?!” “I had to go back for your dumbass so neither of us got lost! But noooo, you decided to take your sweet fucking time!” David argued back. “Oh yeah, and I'm sure you stopping to grab something to drink at the kitchen helped us find them faster!” “I was dehydrated you dumb sack of s-” Unbeknownst to the two bickering ‘sisters’, they weren't alone in the room. Far from it, in fact. Over a dozen pair of glowing purple dots stared at them through the shadows. “Okay, let's just… Calm down. Fighting isn't getting us anywhere.” David grunted as she rubbed her eyes. “We could wait for them here, right? If they really needed us I'm sure they would have fetched us a while ago.” Carl inquired, now having sat down and rested her back against the white marble pillar. “I… I guess?” Was David's reply as she mimicked Carl's position. “Let's just take a breather and try to head back. It's probably nothing anyways.” Carl dismissed with a wave of her hoof. “I dunno, man. You shouldn't tempt fate.” “Hmph. I mean, what's the worst that can happen?”Carl shot back with a fatigued chuckle. David reached over to Carl with one her hooves and bonked her on the horn, causing a hiss of pain to come from her. “Ow, what the hell?!” Carl snarled as she held her horn. “If anything bad happens from here to the end of the day, it's your fault.” David replied. “Come on, you don't really believe that if you say that something bad happens, right? If something does happen it was gonna happen regardless of you saying it or not! It's just a bunch of coincidences! Nothi-” Carl was cut off by David, who bonked her again on her long horn. “Ow! What was that for?!” “To shut you up, obviously.” “Why you…!” Carl began to reach over to David with both her hooves, no doubt trying to do the same thing she had done to her. As the most likely unwelcomed audience continued to watch the scene unfold, they decided to act now while the Alicorns were seemingly distracted. From the shadows, six small figures, almost as small as an average mare, leaped out towards the two, who were caught completely by surprise. “Carl, move!” David shouted as she ducked, a bottle of purple vial passing above her head. Carls eyes widened as she quickly tried to stand up, only to fall down flat on her face. “Shit! What the-” She began as she tried to pick herself up, only to have a bottle smash into her muzzle. The purple liquid quickly spread from the impact point, giving Carl only a second to open her mouth, most likely to scream, before it quickly grew to encompass her head completely in a thick layer of the fluid, and a few seconds later her entire body. Leaving her immobilized. David's eyes widened in shock as she backpedaled away from the scene. She looked over to the culprits and quickly narrowed her eyes. She opened her mouth, no doubt to insult them, but didn't get a chance as the small creatures began throwing more bottles at her, prompting her to dive to the side as best as she could from her position. David concentrated and stopped some of the crystal bottles with her magic, holding them for a split second before sending them flying back at the Goblins, some of which shrieked and began flying erratically to avoid getting hit. They certainty hadn't expected to have their own projectiles thrown back at them, if their reaction was anything to go by. “Come get some, you green little cunts!” David taunted as she got up on her hooves and began to slam them all against the walls, intercepting the bottles before they came too close. Soon, it became a one sided battle, in favour of the Human turned Pony. Soon enough, they found themselves thoroughly defeated, with most of them unconscious and stuck inside holes in the walls, created by their own bodies. David scanned the group of Goblins with a glare, and eventually levitated a still conscious one up to her face. It shook in fear as it tried to comically run away while being held in the air by telekinesis. “Who are you people, and why the fuck did you attack us?” She stopped herself and glanced over at Carl, who was still immobilized by the purple substance. “And what did you do to hi-er… Her?!” David growled. Before the Goblin could say anything, one of the crystal bottles suddenly dropped on David's horn, causing her to lose focus and take a few steps back. She tried to reach up in panic with her hooves to try and get the substance off, but it was futile. Soon, she was trapped in it just like Carl. A taller Goblin, easily reaching the side of Celestia, dropped down from the ceiling and glanced at the two fallen Alicorns, before glaring at the smaller, trembling Goblin on the floor. “You idiots had one job, and still couldn't pull it off? I'll see to it myself that you’re stripped of the rank you clearly don't deserve. Now, get your comrades out of the wall and let's skedaddle. Time isn't our ally right now.” It said with a gruff, commanding tone. The smaller one quickly got to its feet and shakily saluted its commanding officer and began to pry its fellow Goblins off of the walls, while the larger one picked up both mares on the floor with little difficulty. Soon, the only traces of the skirmish left were the holes in the wall. Fifteen minutes later, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were standing in the throne room, along with dozens of guards that were currently cleaning the place. A group of Elder dragons had attacked the City, destroying dozens of buildings and injuring over a hundred Ponies before being driven away, and in one case, taken down by the Royal Guard. “I've had guards search the entire castle, and there isn't a single trace of them apart from… Well, this.” Luna gestured over to the numerous holes in the wall. Celestia shook her head and took a step closer to one of said holes. “I can only sense the lingering presence of your magic here. And since you were with me the entire time, we can safely assume this was David's doing.” She said, glancing over the fractured pieces of marble on the floor. “Yes, but… They were clearly fighting something here. And since they're nowhere to be found… I think whatever they were fighting must have won.” Luna stated, worry slowly creeping into her voice. She looked back over at Celestia. “Can we track them?” Luna asked. Celestia closed her eyes as her horn began to shine. It stopped a moment later as she sighed and shook her head, opening her eyes as she looked back at Luna. “I can't seem to sense them anywhere.” She whispered. “Something must be blocking their magic.” She shook her head. “We have to find them! They couldn't have gone far!” Luna declared and stomped her hoof, cracking the floor underneath it. Celestia nodded her head, a determined look on her face. “Agreed, they may not be us, but they still have Alicorn magic. Whoever took them likely does not have any good intent.” Luna suddenly looked a bit nervous, but held her stance. “Y-yes, that is why we must go find them this instant!” Before Celestia could question her, her horn began to glow and she teleported elsewhere. Celestia was left alone, pondering her sister's sudden nervousness, which was not lost to her. She shook her head as her horn began to shine. A second later she teleported away after Luna. Darkness. That's all I saw once I came to. I tried to move my limbs, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't. My chest had little space to expand and contract, making it hard to even breathe. It felt like my entire body was covered in a extremely tight straight jacket. Which to say the least was very uncomfortable. Thankfully I didn't mind tight spaces that much. But last time I checked, Carl had claustrophobia. “Sucks to be him. Or her, whatever.” I thought as I tried to open my eyes, only to be greeted by a purple layer right in my eyes, causing me to blink  uncomfortably. It was a miracle that thing hadn't gone into my eyes. It had, however, gone everywhere else apart from my eyes and nose. I couldn't even hear anything apart from my own heart beat. I began to try and struggle against my purple prison, but to no avail. It didn't even budge, the thing might as well been glued to my skin for all intents and purposes. Instead of trying to focus on breaking free after my first failed attempt, I began to try and focus on my few remaining senses. I could feel myself being dragged somewhere. The surface was most likely stone, if the feeling was anything to go by. I could hear muffled talking. Although I couldn't make out what they were saying, it definitely sounded like multiple voices all around me. They sounded close. Extremely so. Most likely the ones dragging me along. I let out the best sigh I could possibly pull off under the given conditions and closed my eyes. “I hope this doesn't become a common thing. I HAVE to try and learn how to properly fight with magic.” I thought. God knows how much shit I could do with magic. I mean, Luna can move the motherfucking moon, right? Who knows what else she could do, and by extension, what I could do lf properly trained. Another ten minutes passed rather uneventfully. It looked like we had entered a cave during that time, since the small amount of light that passed through the hardened liquid quickly vanished, leaving me in complete darkness, even when I had my eyes open. I felt myself stop moving shortly after. The floor underneath me had changed from a rocky one to a smooth, metal-like one. I still couldn't hear anything, however. I tried to move once again, to no avail. It was still too strong. There was no way I could get out of it without some outside assistance. As I did so, I felt something being slid onto my horn, making me grimace in discomfort. It didn't hurt, but it did feel incredibly tight, even more so than the purple stuff. Suddenly, I felt the substance around me begin to loosen slowly. I was able to start moving my forelegs slightly within the minute, and after five, most of my body was free, with my neck and head being the final ones to be freed. As soon as my mouth was free, I took a big, desperate gasp of air, before letting it all out in a sigh. I did it a few more times before settling down to a normal breathing pattern. Well, as normal as it could be under the circumstances. I blinked and tried to sit up. Once I did so, I glanced around my surroundings. I was in a large, bronze colored cage, with bars surroundings all sides. Beyond them, bedrock surrounded it. There was a large gate a few meters away from me, and the inside was completely dark. The only light were torches on the outside. I felt something cold and wet under my hooves as I sat. I looked down and noticed a large puddle of purple liquid under me. “Ugh, is that the thing that was on me?” I thought to myself in disgust as I got to my feet and backed away from the puddle. It smelled godawful too. “Ew..” I muttered under my breath. As I looked myself over, I noticed my entire body was still covered in a thin layer of the stuff. I wasn't able to see it due to the darkness. But now it was entirely visible. I raised my hoof and looked at it. The fluid dripped down from it as if I've just had a shower with it. I grimaced once again and shook my hoof, trying to get it off. It didn't seem to work. It continued to fall as if it had an infinite supply. I squinted my eyes slightly and brought it closer to my face, noticing something. Weird. It had tiny specs of blue in it, and it seemed more pink than purple. Before I could speculate any further, I heard something metallic hit the gate a few times, causing my ears so rotate towards the noise as I raised my head to look towards it. Behind the gate was a large, green centaur, looking at me with an unsettling grin. “Well well, if it isn't the Moon Princess herself.” “Well, fuck me sideways and call me your mom…” I thought. Was I really just kidnapped because I was confused with the Princess? Not that it's a hard thing to do, but still. “No. No no no, you've got it all wrong! I'm not the one you're after!” I stuttered as I took a few steps away from him. From my point of view, the dudes biceps could probably bend steel with little effort. He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “Uh huh. Do you think I'm stupid, bitch? You're even more pathetic now than before.” With that, he walked off, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I stood there for a couple of seconds, staring at the spot where the Centaur had just been, before letting out a sigh and rubbing my head. “Fuck me. Of all things to turn into, why did it have to be someone important…” I murmured. To be fair, if I had a choice it would have totally been a Dragon. That shit must be so much more exciting than being a Pony. I slowly walked over to the gate and hit my head through, which was surprisingly rather easy, given the space between the bars. I then proceeded to look both ways, only to be met by two sets of corridors, which turned a corner not too far from my cell. If were to try and escape, I'd have nowhere to hide judging from what I was seeing. I pulled my head back and grunted. Escape was out of the question without some outside help. And I had no idea what these fucks wanted with me anyways. The only thing left to do was wait. I backed up a few meters from the cell entrance and sat down. I tried to think about what to do while I waited, and eventually I settled for trying to get the stuff off somehow, and not because I wanted to around with it for the sole purpose of entertainment, I swear. I looked myself over. My body was still covered in the stuff from horn to toe-.. Er, hoof tips? My usual floaty hair was stuck to my neck and back, unmoving. And my tail was stuck onto my lower back/ass area, which made me shudder when I sat down. I'd rather leave the explicit details out, but it was… Enlightening on a few things, to say the least. Speaking of back, my wings were stuck to my sides, and trying to open them barely worked. They did open slightly, but all the feathers were stuck to each other, and to my sides. “If these guys don't have a ‘come off’ button for this shit…” I bitterly said. It would be a major pain in the ass to get it off of me, since I'm basically covered in a coat of fur. And fur plus stickly shit was a recipe for bad times and major headaches. I continued to mess around with my myself, and no not that way, for a good while. It seemed like my captors liked to take their sweet ass time to do whatever they had planned. Not that I wanted to find out, mind you. But I wanted to see these chuckle fucks face to face, and tell them a few not so nice things. Unbeknownst to me, however, was the fact that they were rather busy with another group of Ponies they had also taken prisoner. Inside a large, dark cavern, barely lit by the dozens of torches scattered on the ways, lay a throne. A dark obsidian colored one decorated with numerous bone-like protrusions coming out of the sides, and the top. Which upon closer inspection were actually horns from all sorts of species. Namely Pony ones. Upon said Throne sat a large, Centaur shaped figure, covered in armor as dark as the night. With star like twinkles that faded in and out, much like the mane that belonged to the Princess of the Night. Its head was covered in a Spartan style helmet that matched the color scheme of the armor. The large beast grunted as it looked down upon a sole, small Goblin. Which held a scroll in its tiny little claw, and was trembling in fear. “Speak” He said, his voice echoing throughout the cavern like thunder. “M-my lord, the Princesses and the Elements have been captured and imprisoned. W-what now?” The Goblin stammered. “Now we wait. Without their most important Ponies, Equestria will either fall, or be severely weakened. Other nations will likely prey upon them soon enough. And even their so called allies will be powerless to stop it.” He grunted, his voice unwavering and certain. “B-but what about the prisoners, M’lord? W-What shall we do with them?” The Goblin asked nervously. Even though their Lord never truly killed or harmed them. His presence alone was enough to make even his top lieutenants nervous. “They are no threat to us. But make sure they stay alive and relatively unharmed. They are vital for the next phase. Other than that, I do not care what my commanders decide to do with them if they grow bored and restless.” He waved him off, figuratively. His body stayed as till as a stone as he spoke. “Y-yes, M’lord” The Goblin saluted and ran off elsewhere. Leaving the Centaur alone. He appeared motionless from the outside, but from the inside he was deep in thought. It all seemed too easy to him. He had certainly expected more of a fight from the Alicorns. The Element wielders were rather defenseless without the Elements themselves. So taking care of them was easy enough. The Royal Guards were distracted by the Dragons he had sent to terrorise Canterlot, and were likely not much of a threat. The only one that could have been a remote threat was that Prince, but he proved to be rather incompetent, if the reports were anything to go by. He was sure everything that was threat to his plans was taken care of. But he still had a gut feeling there was something left. Perhaps it was the other two identical magical signatures one of his lieutenants had reported. He had written it off as a mere illusion spell they had used to try and trick the Dragons if they were after the Princesses. But the behavior his elite squad had reported did not match the personalities of said Princesses. As he continued to dwell on the matter, he had failed to notice the two magical signatures that where headed towards his base. Along with hundreds of smaller ones.