//------------------------------// // Into Others // Story: Equestria Down // by Ultimus Pendragon //------------------------------// Twilight’s head nearly was smashed into the wall as spit flew out her mouth. “All you had to do to was finish him; to put and end to that unfortunate chapter in Equestrian history, to be the one to bring about change!” Luna shouted at Twilight, her tear-stricken face no longer resembled any regality as she was fueled with anger and sadness. “You had one job, and you couldn’t even do that!” Spike walked over to his friends, intent on breaking them up. Whatever emotions Luna felt were moot in trying to get her point across. Seeing the former Princess be reduced to a pile of rage and anguish did little to warrant his sympathy at the moment. He, along with Twilight and Sunset thought she had perished anyways. “Princess Luna,” Twilight chocked, Luna’s hoof cutting off some air as she fought swallow the spit that pooled in her mouth. She had to tell her something to calm her down. “I-I-“ “-Shut up! Stopping the invasion of Canterlot was foal’s play, doing away with Sombra; a simple feat for you, even going and getting your crown from Sunset Shimmer and besting the Sirens!” Luna growled, wanting nothing more than to curb stomp her within in an inch of her life. It would be a small price to chip away at the insurmountable pain and punishment she had to endure. “Why was this time any different?!” “I tried m-my best,” Twilight argued, not wanting to use her magic less she ends up making the situation worse. “That is a load of horseshit!” Luna shouted, spit flying from her mouth and hitting Twilight in the face. “If I didn’t know any better, I would Celestia’s biggest mistake was-OOF!” Sunset Shimmer managed to pull Luna away, wincing when one of her hooves struck her in the cheek, causing her to grit her teeth and nearly force Luna to the ground, struggling and flipping her over like a rag doll. Luna sensed her intent and fought to make things bad for Celestia’s former student if she continued down this path. Jabbing her hoof into Sunset’s midsection and attempting to catch her with a wild hoof in an arc, Sunset hissed, nearly trying to bite Luna before her hoof came back, catching her and forcing her to the ground. Twilight slumped down to ground, coughing and soothing her sore throat, the words that Luna said sinking and making her think about how she. . .was right. She should be mad, she should be upset, she should. . .but she was not. “Release me!” Luna shouted, suddenly feeling the change in pressure as she was hoisted up and laid down to the ground, Spike’s claw wrapped firmly around her neck as he pressed his weight into her, making getting up difficult. “Before l-“ “-Before you what? You know that using your magic needlessly will drain you faster, and contrary to what you might think; Spike is stronger than what you may think.” Sunset smirked, dusting herself off and nursing her swelling cheek. Buck, Luna sure could hit hard. “How about you calm down and talk to us for a second instead of attacking us?” “Only if ‘Twilight gives no bucks Sparkle’ did the right thing, none of us would be in this predicament; Equestria would be healthy, the magic of Friendship would still be here, and Celestia wouldn’t be dead!” Luna roared, Spike pressing his claw deeper into her back the more that she tried to get up. “Why have you come here in the first place?” “To get answers; we hoped there would be a spell or any information to try and stop Tirek,” Twilight muttered, approaching the downed mare. Even without looking at her, Twilight could sense Luna’s malice from a mile away. If that alone could kill, Twilight would be better off just jumping off of a cliff. Luna laughed, her laughs echoing and filling the air. They couldn’t possibly be serious, could they? Any semblance of hope ebbed away with Twilight failing to do what Celestia groomed her to do; the one thing that mattered more than anything else. “There is no way to stop Tirek; he has ravaged the entirety of Canterlot Castle and all of the hidden or otherwise conscious items that he deemed a problem. We stand divided. And there is no way that you can fix this,” Luna’s voice was nearly a whisper. “And why are you here? Where were you when Twilight fought Tirek? Why didn’t you seek us out or-“ Sunset paused at Luna exhaling a swift breath at her. Luna slowly shook, the muscles and veins bulging and shaking. Sunset Shimmer did had quite the sharp tongue, even more so than Twilight at times, and even Spike with his sarcasm. “Because, Sunset Shimmer; in his twisted and all powerful mind spawned a worser fate than death; confinement.” Luna said, relaxing when she spoke about her eternal punishment. “With my sister being dead, I am without family, and was forced underneath Canterlot to live in a prison of sorts.” “What do you mean?” Spike asked. Hmmph. It did make sense that he would be as dull of knowledge as when he was a baby. “Due to a spell cast on this place; I am unable to leave the proximity of the caverns.” Luna said, closing her eyes. In her opinion, banishment to the moon for a millennium was far from tame than this. It was more of a literal prison where she constantly was surrounded by all the things she had essentially grew up in grew into over the years; what her and Celestia built. And what the significance of having all that be gone meant when she was the only of the two to witness the destruction. Twilight stopped her next thought. Trapped? For how long? And was Tirek’s magic that strong? “What? H-How have you been surviving for however long you’ve been down here?” Sunset gasped, wondering how Luna hadn’t died from starvation. “I will tell you. . .if you release me,” Luna appealed to Twilight for the moment, hoping that she would be willing to put the small issue to the side for the moment. “I will not apologize for voicing the facts that we both know to be true; one of us has to take account for her actions, and that by us, I mean you.” Twilight sighed, knowing Luna was right, but only just. There were a few things that Luna got wrong and assumed rather than fact-checking with her, but she could tell that in her rage and pain that Luna was not trying to be the best of listeners right now. At least not until she calmed down. “Spike.” Huffing and letting her up, Luna growled at Spike wanting to wipe that smug grin off his face. If only she had her full power. “I will not attack; I am simply just-“ “-Emotional, I think we all are guilty of that, Princess Luna. But we need to find a way to help make things right. You understand that, right?” Spike asked, hovering over to Twilight and keeping a wary eye on her. Twilight nodded her head and spoke. Spoke about that day, and her own account of events. “Things were going smoothly, we had prepared for the attack the best we could. Cozy Glow, Sombra and Chrysalis all at once fueled by the magic of other races were too powerful. If only we could have secured Grogar’s Bell, and we would have had a chance.” “You underestimated them. We all have, but that power combined with them possessing most of Discord’s Chaos Magic, the Alicorn Amulet, as well as the poisoning the Crystal Heart’s power did little for our defenses!” Luna shot back, remembering the battle from the accounts of others, as well as her own. The battle endured for days before they fell. And her punishment began the moment Tirek took Celestia from this world. “What was I supposed to do? Let them destroy Equestria?” Twilight asked, hoping to find a way to get the world back to how it was. “They did that anyways! Whether you let them or not, they still did! Why? Why? Why would you lay down your arms, and bend to their will?” Twilight’s tears almost fell to the ground, the cold feeling on her cheeks making every second feel like an eternity. She didn’t even know how bad things would get; to what lengths Tirek would go to claim his prize, and how much he made her suffer. “He had the girls and Starlight hostage. They-“ Luna stomped a hoof, quieting her for the moment. “-Already resigned to the fact that they were, indeed not going to make it,” Luna solemnly accepted the reality. “ They understood the risk of the greater good, and looked their end in the face with the smile of a hero, not caring that their time may have come prematurely, but that they fought with everything that they had and they were content enough with that until the last second.” “Twilight could handled it differently, sure,” Sunset agreed but tried to find a bit of a silver lining, if any. It definitely was a hard choice to make in the position she was in, but there had to be some leeway given. “Her friends told her to forget about them; that completing the mission was the only thing that mattered; their lives were supposed to be sacrificed on the altar of peace if it meant restoring Equestria, but instead it was a waste since Twilight could not finish the worse of the worst off!” “They were my family!” Twilight shouted, pain in her voice as she sobbed with every word. Her heart sped up, her mind began to boggle, and the weight of seeing them be taken away from her made it all the more worse. “I would have given anything to ensure that they live! I would rather it be me than them! That’s my regret!” “Hnnngh!” Luna head butted Twilight, causing her to stumble back as Luna held her head in her hooves, paying her broken and pathetic face no mind. She couldn’t talk; she sat around and just let it happen without any inkling of the consequences afterwards. Luna did, however. She attempted, she bled, she flailed around, even when she was taken to the point of no return. It was the matter of principle for her versus anything else. “They wanted you to forget about them; that’s how you could have honored their own sacrifice. . .but instead you let them perish with no viable reason. And that-“ Luna walked away from Twilight, not wanting to look at her for the moment. She couldn’t. “Is a capital offense.” “But Princess,” Spike cleared his throat after seeing a stern look from her. “My bad; Luna. We may just have a chance, but only if we work together. Surely-“ “-You wish for me to join my sister, is that it?” Luna asked with a tongue of venom. Of course; a murderer always returns to the scene of the crime to ensure there were no witnesses, if only to cover up their tracks. “As thrilling as that may sound, I would kindly decline that offer.” “We wouldn’t be sending you to any danger, we would-“ “-Please, Twilight. I know that behind that barely regal appearance lies a social, high-strung train wreck who’s intelligence is overshadowed only by her need to adhere to precise deadlines and plans. . .I will not be your tragedy, nor will you treat me as one.” “Then why? Why stay alive if you won’t help us at all. What point is there is doing anything if you will just stay here in the caves of Canterlot?” Twilight’s mind fought to make sense of what compelled Luna to be this way. She knew she was hurting, but figured a mare as old as her would still try and fight in spite of whatever was in front; with or without Celestia. But this was difficult to pinpoint. “I have my own reasons. . . Twilight here must atone for her sin; only then will I know peace and help.” “And what the buck is atonement for her? Are you saying you want her to follow the same route as the girls and Celestia?” Spike’s magic began to flare, embers beginning to form at his feet and claws. Luna shook her head, sitting against a wall and sighing. Things were simpler when they thought she was no more. “That is up to Twilight to decide as she fights to find any way, if there exists any to help make things right. And I would not know where to start.” The look on Sunset’s face almost resembled that of Maud on a bad day as she simple stared at her. She couldn’t believe it. Princess Celestia, the older of the two, almost always had a plan of some sort, be if small or large. Luna also did from time to time, and between the both of them were hundreds of years, and even more, and the best she could think of was. . . Nothing? “But you and Celestia were princesses, with plenty of years of experience. How could you not nothing to suggest?” Sunset asked, walking closer to her Luna kept her head down. “Was that all a lie?” “Sunset!” Twilight scolded. “She has a point, Twi.” Spike agreed, his mind on more or less the same wavelength. “Nothing of a 1,000 years can help us?” Luna clicked her tongue, knowing that question would soon come, and she honestly wanted to shy away from it, but the more that she did, the harder it would be to get the words out. “In a time of relative peace, there can, and oftentimes there is, just that. Peace. Until Discord, not much else had been done that we didn’t account for. And even more recent events had admittedly been handled by Twilight and her friends.” Luna said, circling a hoof on the ground as her ears dropped. This would be the nail in the coffin. “We are not as all knowing or benevolent as you think; at least my sister was not. I. . .need not remind of what I went through, do I?” Luna’s small glint of shame was felt through her own eyes reflecting into Twilight’s. Spike was tired of going in circles. He had to get this straightened out. “So there’s nothing you can do?” “There actually is a lot I can do, but to what extent it will be useful in restoring Equestria is completely up to your judgement, should I decide to help.” They really had come for nothing, then. “But if you must know about your earlier question,” Luna seemed to brighten up a tad. “I haves survived on water from a nearby pond. . .and my own mane for sustenance.” “Come again?” Sunset flicked her ears, making sure she heard correctly. “You ate-“ “-My mane, yes. That’s why I am as small as I am, compared to my sister. It is the same way I managed to survive my banishment to the moon.” Luna ate her mane? How. . .did that work? “Is that healthy?” Twilight asked, genuinely curious to every aspect of how that worked. “Somewhat, but I am able to change it what I want to taste; it merely gives me enough energy and essential vitamins and minerals to help keep me where I am. It also consumes a very minuscule amount of magic so, there’s no real worry and my mane always grows back in a few days.” “And how does that work? Where does it come from?” Twilight wondered. She has heard of slightly more weird things, but this was something else. Luna shrugged. “Magic.” Twilight shook her head, wanting to laugh, but knowing that any explanation would remain subpar to actual experience. “Now that is horseshit.”