“Princess Luna, another crowd outside of the castle.” A guard reported to her. Nightmare Moon currently inside her study room.
“Let them in, we are expecting them.” The guards don't know any announcement is made. It feels out of place when Princess Luna expecting a random crowd. But decide to not question it.
Nightmare Moon goes to the courtroom. She orders her guard to guide them to the courtroom. Arriving at her throne, she silently waits for them. Nightmare Moon is not the type of pony who thinks ahead of what will she going to tell her ponies. Nonetheless, composing herself should be of help.
A guard came to the door, getting ready to open it. All he is waiting for is a signal from his princess. After sometimes Nightmare Moon finally gives him the signal to open the door. A crowd of ponies flood inside the courtroom. Not all the ponies are from a well-off families. Fortunately, none of them insult each other. But it still can’t be helped to stay away from the stink.
“Princess Luna, we are here answering your summon.” One of the ponies inside decides to lead the other and asks his princess because of the silence. Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna summon them from the dream. This is urgent, and they have a strict category in which ponies they want to summon here. It only cost them magic power, so it’s not a problem if one ignores the fact that it is lacking in courtesy.
“Thank you for coming here from our short notice. You are here because there is one thing we want to tell you about.”
“Is this about the blessing your majesty gave to us?”
“What makes you think like that?”
“I discussed with some of my friends, and all of them said they don’t need to eat anymore. But for me, hunger still exists. I don’t want to doubt your majesty's blessing.”
“A doubt is only natural when something is wrong, my little pony. Continue.”
“Yes, in front of the gate, I also confirm it with ponies here. And all of them report the same thing. That they still feel hunger.”
“Excellent. It is always good when somepony is sharp and knows ahead of what is happening. But, not everypony is like that, and still needs more explanation. Do you mind if I explain from the first place?”
“Of course, Princess.”
“Thank you. Now, two-third of our total population come to us, asking for our blessing. Of course, we are giving it without discrimination. All the ponies who come to us will receive blessing without exception.”
“...” The crowds give their princess their utmost attention.
“Among the two-third ponies, a fourth of them don't receive our blessing. That is because they are attuned to the sun's magic. The truth of our blessing is, we are borrowing magic from the moon.”
“You are here now, so we can ask for your forgiveness in our lack of power.” Nightmare Moon lowered her head. She wants to bow and show her ponies how regretful she is.
“Please raise your head, Princess. You don’t have to lower yourself for us.” The ponies here are confused and feeling weird. They don't like their Princess lowers herself for them.
Nightmare Moon finally rises and sees her surroundings. Weird, none of them is angry. Nightmare Moon thought to herself. The category ponies in here are only two. One is ponies who are attuned to the sun's magic. And two, ponies who are loyal to Princess Luna. The reason for the latter is because this is urgent and they don’t have much time left.
“Of course, we have some reserve food for all you to use.”
“Thank you, Princess. But there is a more important question.”
“What is it?” What is more important than getting you fed, honestly. Nightmare Moon is confused about her subjects.
“Are you doubting our loyalty to you?” Ponies nod their head, suggesting that they are asking the same question.
Ponies here are thinking that, if they are loyal to Princess Luna, they should have attuned to the Moon magic. If they are not, then they are not loyal. Where even this idea come from? Nightmare Moon asks herself. It is understandable given that this is a new concept for the ponies.
“Of course not. You are my loyal subject.” Nightmare Moon never doubts how loyal it is her subject to her. This is probably the most powerful thing a dream walking can do. That is, determining if somepony is loyal to her or not.
“Thank you, Princess.” Ponies show relief on their face. “Then, can Princess do something about it? Like, make us attuned to the moon magic?” This time around, ponies don't have much hope but ask anyway.
“We don’t like to see it as a problem. Because saying it is a problem is the same as saying your soul is not normal or a problem. It's that your soul is unique. Forgetting about ethical or moral reasons, modifying your soul could be dangerous.”
“So there is a way?”
“We would ask you to not get your hope to be high. The answer is, yes and no. Yes, we can change a soul. No, there are no willing test subjects.” Of course, this whole soul modifying thing is the idea Nightmare Moon made on the go.
“We are willing.” Ponies nod with each other.
“Didn’t we tell you how dangerous it is?”
“I guess, Princess did say that.”
“Then why?”
“Because we trust our princess that much.”
“No! This is not something you can decide as if to decide what for dinner. This can even cause death. Worse yet, it can even make your soul scatter!”
“Well, we can come back here in few days if that makes Your Highness feels better. Though if the answer is the same then it’s not necessary.”
“That is true… How many of you are willing to give your life to us?”
“I’m willing.” One and another ponies gathering here says the same. Some of them are silent, but one can see determination from their eyes.
Nightmare Moon doesn’t expect this, neither did Princess Luna. They did only invite those that are loyal to themselves. But to the point of willing to giving one life, these ponies are fanatics.
“Very well, we will fulfill your wishes.” Nightmare Moon says, which earns her a bright smile from the crowd. “But, if we deemed this to be too dangerous, then we will stop it.” Ponies' expressions become complex hearing this. They want to have a chance to change 'side.' But their Princess rejects it as it is deemed dangerous. They can't help but feel disappointed. Though, they understand their Princess's concern and be grateful for it.
Nightmare Moon then discusses with them what they want to do in the future. Well, it’s Princess Luna's turn to make a plan.
=======================================================================
“I know this is common sense, so needless to say, but catching is way more difficult than kill them.” Nightmare Moon says to Princess Luna. In front of her is a dozen of manticores inside cages. The crowd now follows Nightmare Moon and sees the process of her catching manticores. Some of them go home to continues their activity.
Manticore is a ferocious beast. It has the body of a lion, a scorpion's tail, and a pair of dragon-like wings. It also fed on ponies, often leaving no remains, not even bones or clothing. The beast needs about ten ponies to subjugate, and that is not mean the ponies will back without injuries. Princess Celestia makes rule one day to stop manticore subjugation.
This is because one day, a group of ten ponies gets wiped while fighting with a manticore. The Princesses don't want any more casualties, so they investigate it themselves. It's finding out that there is another manticore nearby that is attracted to the fight. Let alone two manticores, fighting one manticore is already dangerous for a group of ten.
Another reason is that manticores don't climb the wall of Everfree Kingdom. Nopony knows about it, nor any research has been done since. But it is hypothesized that the ponies' population is scaring them. It is a fortune that manticore is not an intelligent creature nor a social creature.
Nopony knows why the manticore population spiked, nor where it even comes from. Once upon a time, Everfree Kingdom is a peaceful kingdom. There are no manticore or any beast that poses threat to ponies. But everything changes when Discord the Lord of Chaos comes. Everypony can be sure that Discord correlates with the manticore. But they still not sure if Discord causes it to happen.
“Alright everypony, as you can see here, we already capture a dozen of manticores. Before we start to experiment on them, we warn you that this is going to be gore too much.” Nightmare Moon hopes ponies that have a weak mind would leave. Also, she hopes with this, those fanatics will change their mind. Though, it would be a lie if she said she is not curious if it can be done.
Nightmare Moon waits for ponies to leave. She then gets closer to the first manticore. Her horn glowing. Then a tendril of magic flies toward the manticore. She smoothly invades the manticore mind space. This process wouldn't be as easy if the victim has a higher intelligence or higher soul quality. She doesn’t exactly know what to look for. For now, she decides to look at something that she believes resembles a soul. After all, it’s not a pony but a beast.
After some time, she thinks she finds it. A soul is an intangible object. It looks like a ball that emits light. In the past, when Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna visit Cherry Blossom, her souls also look like an orb. her soul looks like a pony is because of Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna's influence. Every soul is unique. Each of them has different frequencies. There is no such thing as conjoined souls ever recorded. Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna are the only ones of their kind.
To make sure she gets it right, she pulls the soul out of its body. Ponies can’t see a soul. Souls are everywhere in the world. It will accompany you when you eat, sleep, or even taking a bath. Of course, they are different souls. After all, a soul doesn’t have consciousness, so it’s not going to stalk ponies.
A glowing orange ball comes
out of the manticore’s chest. Nightmare Moon then brings the orb in front of the ponies. “This is what we called the soul.” A sounding gasp can be heard from the ponies and Princess Luna’s loyal guard. All the ponies that gather in here loyal to Princess Luna. This is to prevent a leak of information.
Nightmare Moon giggles a little seeing ponies gasping for this revelation. This reminds her of the old days when Princess Luna kick Nightmare Moon out from her body. How long has it been since then? Nightmare Moon is feeling nostalgic. Nightmare Moon keeps silent and lets ponies see it closer.
When the soul is pulled out, a rapid change can be seen in the manticore’s body. Its dragon-like wing getting smaller. Its scorpion tail is also getting smaller. This change is happening until it looks like a different species. It doesn’t have wings, not even a stump on where it was seen. The tail looks like a lion’s tail. Other than anatomy, its coat color also changes. From orange, it slowly changes into a dull gray color.
Nightmare Moon pulls the soul and draws their attention toward the cage. “And this is what will happen if you take somepony soul from their body.”
An exclamation of amazement heard from the ponies. “Wow, this looks like a lifeless doll.”
“Amazing isn’t it?” Nightmare Moon follows along with their exclamation.
“Is it still alive?” One of them asks.
“Pretty much. Even if it looks like that, Its inside still works fine. Its heart still beating, pumping life all over its body. Its lungs still taking life from outside its body. The brain still regulates organs function. Such as, how much heart beating, or how many lungs taking in air. But this brain lack consciousness.”
“Lack of consciousness? But I see it blinking now.”
“We have limited information about this.” Nightmare Moon says honestly. “There is no record everywhere. But we believe that blinking is an automatic response from the brain.”
“What will happen if we don’t put the soul back?” Another pony asks.
“Good question.” Nightmare Moon draws attention toward the soul. “Without the body, the soul will be leaking its energy. The soul would become smaller, turning it into a scattered soul.”
“A scattered soul?” Some pony can’t help but ask when she heard some new word.
“Again, there are no records or prior information about the soul. It's the name that we decide ourselves. Many souls are flying around us. But they are too weak to be perceived by ponies. We call them scattered souls.”
“Is this what happens to us when we died?” Some pony else asks.
“Yes.” Seeing somepony dies is nothing new for Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna. So they have plenty of experience of what happens after somepony dies.
They also notice that soul is not bounded by time and space. One time Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna decide to capture one of the deceased soldier’s souls. Without any sign of an intruder, the soul is gone from its special containment. They call it special, but in actuality, it is a common glass container.
From this accident, Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna hypothesize about two things. One is to use a made body to capture a soul. But their technology is too poor to make this. Cloning technology is still too far for them. Let alone cloning, they do not even have any research on the pony biological body.
Another hypothesize is, there is a secondary dimension where the high-quality soul is gathered. Nightmare Moon not going to explain any of this, for she also has very limited knowledge about this.
Nightmare Moon then draws their attention to the body. “Without the soul, its body would have two different scenarios that could happen. One is a scattered soul to occupy it randomly. Another is the body is developing its soul.”
Nightmare Moon decides to let the ponies talk with each other for a while. She also answers questions patiently. After all, there is nothing to hurry of. The other manticores also no longer ferocious and keep silent. Probably they decide to accept their demise.
“Princess Luna, what would happen if another soul from another species lives?”
“The body will change to be like the soul. For example, if a pony’s soul lives this former manticore body, it will change into a pony.” Nightmare Moon explains.
“Princess Luna, I want to try.” Ponies can’t rise their hoof to volunteer, they can only voice it.
Nightmare Moon has another plan if there is no volunteer. First, Nightmare Moon’s soul will transfer to the body. Princess Luna will stay and use illusion spells to make their bodies change to a dull gray. There is a reason why it’s not Princess Luna who transfers to the body. It is because one can’t immediately use a spell after the acquisition of the body. It’s not going to be easy to explain why her coat color is changing.
Fortunately, everypony here is volunteering. But the princesses still going to choose one among the guards here. The guards don't voice their want to volunteer, but they want to protect the citizen from danger.
Another reason is, they don't want to transfer themselves to the body. An alicorn soul would make the body explode. That is how strong an alicorn's soul is.
“Silver Shine, do you want to help us with this?”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Silver Shine doesn’t show it, but he is feeling happy inside.
“Good, please walk and get closer to the cage.” Silver Shine listens to his order and walks toward the cage.
Nightmare Moon then attaches her magic into Silver Shine’s soul. At that moment, Silver Shine shivers. A look of fear can be seen on his nuzzle. He then lowers his head to the ground in front of Nightmare Moon, as if he wants to worship her. This spectacle confuses everypony here. Nonetheless, ponies still follow and lower their head.
Let alone the ponies and the guards, Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna are confused too. What just happened? Nightmare Moon thinks. Nightmare Moon doesn't have this kind of experience in the past. All she ever do is intruding somepony else mind space to absorb the nightmare plaque. They never grip on a soul like this.
“Rise.” Silver Shine slowly stands up followed by the others. But he still doesn’t dare to raise his head. “Look at us.” Nightmare Moon demand. She could see the fear on his nuzzle. This pains her, but she still has to endure. “How do you feel?”
“I… am not sure. Feels like a part of me is gripped by something… So this is what we called soul. What makes me, me.”
“…” Nightmare Moon keeps silent and listens. But this doesn’t explain his fear. Or is it? Nightmare Moon thinks to herself.
“That is not all. Forgive me for what happened, Your Highness. The fear I’m feeling is from the other side of the thing that gripes my soul. It’s like looking into an insurmountable being. It’s more fearful than being killed.” Silver Shine is a senior guard. He has to experience life or death situation.
Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna finally understand. Nightmare Moon’s soul grows into twice its former size. It could be said, there are three alicorns simultaneously giving Silver Shine pressure.
Alicorn is higher in life hierarchy compared to a unicorn, pegasi, and earth pony. Let alone three, one alicorn is enough to give pressure to a pony. This reminds Nightmare Moon of pain. Tremendous pain when she is experiencing ascension in life hierarchy. “It was painful.” Nightmare Moon mutters
“Indeed it was.” Princess Luna reply.
Though, Nightmare Moon not going to explain any of this. “We understand your situation, this is nothing to be shameful of. Even more, we think you are the only pony that can withstand it.”
Hearing this, the other guards provoked. “Princess, let me try it too.” The guards voicing their desire. Silver Shine indeed a senior and many guards respect him. But that not going to prevent them to try their luck to get approval from their Princess.
Nightmare Moon complies with their wishes. In the end, all the ponies have fainted. Only Nightmare Moon and Silver Shine standstill. “What just happen.” Nightmare Moon asks herself. Tonight is full of surprise for her.
After some time, ponies starting to awake. It takes some time more for them to remember what happened. The guards then swarm Silver Shine. “We pay respect to our senior!” Newfound respect is born inside the guards. Though, they still remember Silver Shine is a humble and friendly pony. So they say it with a joking tone.
“Get lost!” Silver Shine can’t help but feeling happy inside
Nightmare Moon lets them be, she waits before she continues. “Silver Shine, do you still want to do this?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Very well.” Nightmare Moon then grips on Silver Shine’s soul again. A dark blue orb comes out from his body. Silver Shine’s soul now outside of his body. His body is changing at a visible rate. The coat from dark blue turns into a dull gray color. Its wing also retracts as if it doesn't have wings in the first place.
Nightmare Moon then brings the orb toward the former body of manticore. Slowly, the orb lives inside of the body. The body is changing at a visible rate. The anatomy of a lion changes into the anatomy of a pony. The body slowly grows its wings, the wings of pegasi. Its body coat turns into that dark blue color.
“Silver Shine, can you hear us?”
Silver Shine’s eyes slowly open. It takes another minute to regain consciousness. “Yes, Your Highness.”
Nightmare Moon opens the cage. “How do you feel?”
Silver Shine walks out of the cage. He tries to get used to his new body. “I’m feeling great. I think even stronger than before.”
“That’s interesting. Though it can be understood because a manticore can easily best many of ponies.” Nightmare Moon tries her best to not sound ridiculing. Fortunately, none of the ponies here thinking they are being ridiculed.
“Silver Shine, come and try to buck us as hard as you can.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Silver Shine indeed very loyal to Princess Luna. But that doesn’t mean he will follow orders blindly. Nightmare Moon always tries her best to make sure her subject is not afraid to sound their opinion.
Silver Shine distance himself from Nightmare Moon. He then runs as fast as he could toward Princess Luna while preparing to buck her.
“Luna, please help me with this.”
“You know you don’t have to be too formal right?”
“Right, okay, okay… Luna go! Defense up!”
Princess Luna’s eyes twitching hearing this. Nonetheless, she still getting ready for her spell. Ponies usually conjure an all-around barrier. But it’s different for Princess Luna. She conjures two circles of barrier six inches in diameter. She can arbitrarily move this barrier.
This stunt is not only for show-off purposes. An alicorn body can easily withstand this kind of attack. But, it’s taboo for a guard to attack their Princess. This barrier can somewhat ease this taboo. Because the attack is not directly touching the body.
As for why it has to be Princess Luna. Because if it’s Nightmare Moon who conjures the barrier, it can easily shatter by this kind of attack. That is if the attack connects with the barrier. Nightmare Moon can’t move her barrier as nimble as Princess Luna did, nor predict the attack pathway. To solve this problem, she can conjure an all-around barrier. But it’s still can shatter more easily. This would not be good for their image.
Silver Shine arrives in front of Princess Luna. He put his front hoof to his right as a pivot point, and let his hind body get carried by momentum. Princess Luna then moves her barrier to connect it with Silver Shine’s hind hooves.
Princess Luna can make her barrier to not move even a little bit upon impact. But this would hurt Silver Shine. Instead, she uses the barrier to slowly dampen the attack.
Silver Shine then stands up and standstill. Seemingly lost in thought.
“I think I mess up.”
“What did you do?”
“I try to move the barrier to dampen…”
“Wait, dampen? Is that necessary? Aren’t your barrier suppose to be indestructible?”
“Well, yes, probably you are the only pony who can break my barrier.” There is a fun paradox circulating ponies. Indestructible barrier against unstoppable attack, which wins? Nopony knows.
“Ohh? Am I too strong, are you just too weak?”
“Nightmare Moon, after your attack breaks my barrier, it lost its power and has no impact on me.”
“… fair”
Princess Luna rolls her eyes. “Anyway, I dampen his attack so he doesn’t hurt himself. So instead of bucking an unmovable wall, he bucks some sort of pancake wall.”
“Sounds like it will taste good.”
“Probably.”
“You should learn to make a better comparison.”
“Okay, now you try it.”
“Instead of bucking an unmovable wall, he bucks some sort of waffle… dammit.”
“See?”
“Okay, okay. Look, Silver Shine regain his mind.”
Silver Shine never doubts his Princess to completely negate his attack. It needs around hundreds of thousand such attacks to threaten an alicorn. Not only raw power, but she even masters such technique. Isn’t this would be dangerous?
Wait, Is switching souls is something all alicorns can do, or it’s exclusive to Princess Luna? Silver Shine is thinking all kinds of things in his mind. In short, he afraid Princess Luna’s power would attract jealousy and fear. Not from himself, or everypony that loyal to her, but from everypony else.
Princess Luna knows how her power can attract jealousy and fear. She, with Nightmare Moon, tries their best to hide it. But of course, nopony is perfect. This is including the almighty Princess Luna. She also could make mistakes. This is one of the reasons she wanted to get rid of Nightmare Moon as soon as possible.
“Nightmare Moon, you seriously need to own a body.”
“Awww, you want to get rid of me?” Nightmare Moon can’t make the face unless she wants to embarrass herself in front of her ponies.
“I’m being serious here.”
“Right, but where could we find such body?”
“I’m tempted to get one of the dragons.”
“Torch, huh...”
“Right, him. I think the reward is enough to justify the risk.”
“No.”
“You know, all this mess is caused by you.” If only Nightmare Moon stops being nice, maybe ponies wouldn’t need to see their power to switch souls. Princess Luna can’t help but sigh. “You are a stubborn pony.”
“I may be stubborn, but you're just as stubborn for sticking around. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
after Princess Luna tells Nightmare Moon about Silver Shine’s power, she called him. “Silver Shine.”
Silver Shine snap out. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Congratulation, you now can fight one on one with a manticore.” Silver Shine keeps his face straight. but his sparkling eye is not left unnoticed by Nightmare Moon. “But don’t get your hope up yet.”
Silver Shine then calm himself after hearing this. He has been hoping to help ponies to clear out surrounding the kingdom. This way ponies would have a bigger place to cultivate crops. With this power, he can finally fulfill these wishes. Though, he knows how important it is to make this a secret, so he doesn’t dare to ask for it.
“Experimenting on ponies never be a good thing. Usually, the thing we give you ponies is a completed product that has been tested countless times in the lab.” Nightmare Moon is skipping lab experiments and moving straight to pony trials.
“And tonight, we make an exception because you ask us. But, we have a bottom-line.” Silver Shine finally understands. Ponies are undoubtedly willing to sacrifice for their Princess. But that doesn't mean the Princess herself willing to receive it.
“Because of the ‘faint’ accident, the time is getting late and we suggest for you to go home.” Because it always night, telling time is not as easy. Pony usually bring a pocket watch to themselves.
After all the ponies are gone, Nightmare Moon talks with Silver Shine. “Silver Shine, now you are our personal guards. The reason for your transfer is to keep in contact with you. That way, we can check your condition and quickly take action if something bad happens.”
“And also, try to take care of your former body.” Nightmare Moon point to the dull gray body. “We suspect it still needs nutrition. Though, currently, we don’t have anything to enable us to do that. For now, we will infuse it with our magic once in a while.”
“For the manticore’s soul.” Nightmare Moon approaches the floating orange orb. “We will seal it in our body temporarily. Dismissed.” The guards scatter and do their job. Nightmare Moon then pulls the soul toward her. Inside the mind space, Princess Luna getting ready to seal the manticore. After sealing the soul, they both continue their work somewhere else.
After one week of constant observe, Nightmare Moon, come up with a few conclusions. One, the body constitution and power revert back to what Silver Shine formerly has. This process is not fast, but it still at a visible rate. Until now, Silver Shine still has a fraction of the manticore’s constitution.
Two, the digestion system of both manticore and a pony is very different. Manticore is carnivorous, whereas a pony is an herbivore. Nightmare Moon is surprised by how truthful Silver Shine is. If somepony expressing their craving for meat will, undoubtedly, be shunned by others. And Silver Shine did like that to Nightmare Moon. Though Nightmare Moon nor Princess Luna do not find it weird, rather it’s fascinating to them.
Three, there is no noticeable change with the soul itself. It can be said that the act of switching souls is safe. Though, it is a theory that needs to be proven right. So, one can’t say that it is completely safe.
Nightmare Moon also invites the ponies back. The onlooker is as important as the experiment itself. Nightmare Moon then continues with the experiment. It’s too much gore to tell what happens. Though, there is a noticeable success on the last manticore. It’s no longer has wings, and its tail is no more that of a scorpion but looks like that of a lion.
Princess Luna getting motivated because there is proof that it can be done. But Nightmare Moon refuses because it feels wrong from an ethical stand view. Even if she refused, it will be a lie if she is not interested to see a less intelligent kind of pony.