//------------------------------// // Day 280320 // Story: 1000 Years // by DekaSkittalz //------------------------------// After what feels like an eternity, the world of static white light that envelops my vision finally gives way to something different. This something happens to come in the form of a static view of a garden expanse, with a castle off to my left, and a gate to my right, leading to what looks like a village from what I can see from my point of view. ’Where the hell am I now? First I’m wandering for four days… then some fucking rejected muppet lookin’ thing yeets me four days into the future…’ Then suddenly it all comes back to me; millions of thoughts and memories surging through my head. 186880 days of petrified solitude. At least, thats how many it’s been when I last had consciousness… no clue how long I’ve been out for. That was a helluva black out; first time I’ve actually had something of a dream too. All in all… not bad. Except the whole part where I wake up here… what a drag. Well. let’s take a look around, shall we? Last I remember, Scorpan got fucking speared and Tirek got sent to who knows where. Must have been some other dimension or something, seeing as this place is still standing. Pft… some other dimension. Wish they could do that for me and send me home. Wherever home is… at this point, I doubt my home is still standing. It’s been far too long… for all I know, the planet could be destroyed by the sun or a comet or something by now. I’m just another missing person that’s left to fade with time. I don’t even remember what home is or anyone there anyways… so know what? I don’t want to go home. I don’t know what I want beyond freedom from this stoney prison, but I don’t want to go home. Who knows what will happen. Right! Looking around. Well… more like gathering what I can from one point of focus, as I still can’t shift my vision. To put it simply, the place looks different; in a negative way. It’s… hard to explain. Everything just has a darker feel to it. The gardens look gloomy, with various plants dying or dead. Judging from the many dirt patches, the gardeners are doing what they can to replace the dead ones. Past that, the courtyard sports many cracks along its cobblestone, and quite a few stick up at odd angles where they should be flat across the ground. The school across the way seems almost derelict. Seems like it’s still active, but the standards seemed to really drop, as if the staff just stopped caring about seeming presentable. It’s still clean, just… falling apart. Did something happen to Starswirl? I doubt he’d let the school get like that. Over the top of the school, I can see the trees of the surrounding forest. They’re a lot closer… like… a lot closer… I used to be able to see the tops of the tall trees. Now I don’t think I even see halfway up the trees. And the wood itself just seems almost black and ominous; not nearly as warm and inviting as I remember it. To the leftmost of my vision, I see the castle itself. And even that doesn’t seem to have escaped the gloomy nature of the rest of this place. The pristine white now a more subdued dark grey, with a lot more vines and such growing up the walls. The cracked steps leading up to the main door, an- hold the phone. Are those guards outside the door? That’s new. Haven’t seen that since the war with Sombra. But then again, back then guards were everywhere. Either way, the fact there are guards there is a bad sign. Something else I notice is that Starswirl’s tower seems quiet. That’s… very strange. Wonder if that old bastard finally kicked the bucket. To the rightmost of my vision, I notice there are guards at gates as well, along with the gates being actually closed instead of open, like they usually are during the day. Even the gate seems to have vines intertwining with it. Strange… All in all, the place just seems way more dark. Like it’s not even ponies that live here anymore. It feels… almost like home. Which is strange, because I don’t even remember home. I just… get the feeling it was like this. Not perfect all the time like Equestria usually is. Gotta say though, this is kinda creepy, considering this IS Equestria. It shouldn’t be like this. Ah, here comes Luna; maybe I can glean something from her. Man, she looks like shit. I mean, she looks like her normal regal self, but I can see right through it. She takes her time walking over towards me, each step seeming heavier than the last; her expression shows clearly that she’s deep in thought. When she finally gets here, she plops down on the ground and leans back against a tree. She goes through a series of motions, a satisfying and resounding series of cracks and pops following each one. After she’s done, she lets out a breath she’s been holding in the entire time, and does a small breathing routine, and finally opens her eyes and looks up at me. ’finally done there princess? Man, what the hell’s got you so stressed out?’ “It’s… been a while. 50 Years now? I might be mistaken.” ’50 years? You’ve ignored me for 50 years? Why the hell would you go and do that?’ She lets out a sigh and looks down. “It’s been 50 years since Starswirl disappeared. I still can’t believe it.” ’...Oh “Sister had a statue made in his honor… and while its a nice thought, I still feel its too soon. But, to ponies like us, 50 years would seem like nothing, wouldn’t it?” she lets out a small forced laugh. “Sister… she’s... been wearing on my nerves, to say the least. It’s not even her own fault if I’m honest. But I can’t help but be cold towards her. I… regret it, but at the same time, I don’t. Strange, isn’t it?” ’Very strange. Why the hell are ya hatin’ on your sister? I have more reason than you. You better not be being petty over some stupid shit!’ “Either way, I digress. That’s not what I came to tell you. When I picked up where Starswirl left off on his research, I thought I’d never complete it. I still haven’t, but I think I just hit a major breakthrough. Progress has sped up rapidly since the discovery I made. I won’t bore you with the details, else we’d be here all day; and while you have that kind of time, I’d much rather spend it trying to continue Starswirl’s research. Suffice it to say, I think I could have you out of there within 300 years!” she says with a bit more happiness than I’d think that time frame would warrant. She drops her smile and sighs to herself. “I know it doesn’t seem like that big of a breakthrough, but before I didn’t even have a time frame! I used to just toil away day by day, hoping something would come along to give me an end goal. But it finally has! Now I KNOW I can get you out of there. I know what I have to do, I just… need more time. There’s a lot that needs to be done, and It took me the entire month just to get it all down into writing so I don’t forget it. I could get you out of there sooner, but I can’t just abandon my duties as a princess. Maybe it’ll be sooner than I thought, depending on how long it all takes, but 300 years is the most time I estimate it will all take.” At this point I’m somewhat stuck in my own thoughts. Well, I always have been, but I mean it a bit differently this time. ’She actually found a way? Holy shit, that’s fucking awesome!’ sucks about Starswirl; I wanted to ask him how he lived so long. Though she didn’t say he died… said he disappeared. Didn’t say how either. I’m sure she phrased it that was for a reason… still though; that doesn’t explain why everything is so different. Luna’s been acting cold towards her sister as well. They usually seem closer than any other siblings I’ve ever seen; wonder what’s got her so mad at her. “Ah, sister, there you are. I thought you might be here.” ’God, that voice… I wanna stab the owner.’ Luna for some reason looks like she wants to as well, but quickly hides the look behind a neutral mask. Celestia walks into my peripheral with a statue of what looks like Starswirl floating next to her in her magic. “Good evening Celestia.” Celestia motions to the statue of Starswirl with a small pained smile. “I figured I’d let you have the honors; he was a closer friend to you than he was to me.” Luna nods indifferently, and takes the statue from her sister in her magic, and makes a show of looking around for where to put it. Eventually, she settles on somewhere to my right that’s out of my view. After which, she turns back to Celestia and nods. Celestia walks up to her sister and pulls her into a hug, one that Luna takes a moment to return. When Celestia pulls away, she gives a curt nod, turns, and walks away. When she is fully turned away, Luna gives her sister a mild scowl. ’Whoa now, easy girl. If looks could kill, your sister would be dead.’ She lets out a defeated sigh and just decides to sit in silence with her eyes closed. It’s getting pretty dark out. It’s been so long I start to think she might have fallen asleep sitting. After about an hour, she finally opens her eyes and takes a deep breath through her nose and lets it out through her mouth. She repeats this action a couple more times, before turning and starting to walk away. Something stops her though. Something that confused me as well. Whispers. She turns back around and looks in the direction it came from. “Nopony except staff are permitted on castle grounds at this hour. This is a law punishable by jail time. I’m feel generous, so show yourself and I’ll let you go. Fail to do so, and I’ll personally ensure your consequences are far worse.” ’Damn, she don’t play around.’ Honoring the princess’s request, the pony hiding reveals themself. Except… it’s not really a pony. It’s a shadowy form that resembles a pony. And it didn’t come out of any sort of hiding, it just sorta formed itself in front of Luna, taking on a similar shape to her. “Good evening Princess. Lovely night that you undoubtedly worked so very hard on, isn’t it?” ’Trying to butter her up? I already don’t like you.’ Luna for her part gets in a very defensive stance. Seems she doesn’t trust this individual. “What does a shadow like yourself want.” she snaps. The shadow for its part merely laughs. “You act as if shadows are not already everywhere. Besides, if I was here to cause harm, I’d have already done it, wouldn’t I? You and I both know shadows aren’t the most… talkative sort.” Luna seems to lessen her defensive stance a bit, but is still on guard. “While this is true, what makes you the outlier?” The shadow tilts its head in mock thought, not really possessing any facial features to portray any sort of expression. “Is it truly so hard to believe that not all shadows are evil creatures? You gave the thestrals a chance, why not me? Are you not the ‘Mother of the Night’, as they call you? A symbol of opportunity for those not fortunate enough to be simply born a normal pony?” Luna doesn’t budge an inch. “While those are all true, I know shadow’s aren’t one to be so easily trusted. Especially when I fight against your kind in the dream realm each and every night.” The shadow sighs, and hangs its head. “Yes, they are quite simple minded. What I wouldn’t give for even an ounce of their savagery. Being a creature that isn’t meant to be burdened by intelligence, surrounded by your own kind who can’t understand a simple concept other than attacking anything on sight that isn’t its own kind, is very daunting.” Luna cuts her off before she can say anything else. “Stop with the sob story. What do you want.” The shadow just looks at her blankly. It’s impossible to tell what they’re thinking, as there’s no expression to read. “Very well, I’ll get right to the point and hope this will convince you I’m not here to cause trouble. I overheard that you were trying to free the entity that resides within that statue over there.” she says as she motions towards me. Well now, this is interesting. At this, Luna perks up a tad. “I might. What’s it to you?” The shadow looks at me. “Would offering my assistance be enough for you to trust me?” “Why would you want to help me? What do you know about him?” Luna questions. “Only what I heard just now. Three hundred years seems like such an awfully long time. The two of us working together, or even just me working when you are not, would surely cut the time down significantly, wouldn’t it? You even said you already have all the steps in writing.” The shadow states. “This is true… but you’re going to have to do more to prove to me your true intentions. If you are genuine, I’ll apologize later, but I’m sure you understand my hesitation.” Luna retorts. The shadow stares at Luna for a second before turning and walking away. “Fine then. I was just hoping someone such as yourself could understand. Being one with the night yourself and all.” Luna looks conflicted, but takes the bait. “What does being one with the night have to do with anything?” The shadow stops. “It has everything to do with this. You know the creatures of the night and how they are. You understand the terror they can cause. But you also know the wonders and beauty the night can bring. Something most others don’t seem to grasp. They should though.” she turns and faces Luna, walking towards her. “You work tirelessly each and every night. Defending your citizens against creatures like me, creating a wondrous night for all to observe and be in awe at, running the nation, and your research towards this.” she states, motioning towards me again. “But what do they do? They retreat indoors, and hide away! They sleep all throughout your beautiful night, and work and play in their precious sunshine. You and I both know, nobody appreciates your work!” she was getting louder and louder as she kept talking, but stops and takes a calming breath. “But I do~! Having lived my entire life in the world you create each and every night, I know how hard you work. I only wish to help you Princess. I was hoping you’d give me a chance. But I guess I was wrong.” she finishes and turns to walk away again. This time, Luna lets her get a bit farther before stopping her once more. “Wait!” she calls out. The shadow stops again. “...Yes?” God, I can almost hear the cheshire grin that would be on her face if she had one. “...What’s your name?” The shadow turns back around, and I swear, I can almost see a fucking grin on her faceless head. “They call me, Nightmare Moon.”