From the moment that she arrived back in her bedroom, Luna sat silently on her bed. She couldn’t even bring it about herself to fetch one of her books. And when the pain in her wing flared up again, she ignored it. Even as it started spreading through her side again. She locked her door and pretended to be asleep anytime somepony knocked, unable to face them in the state she was in. For as terrible as she felt, Luna wondered if it was truly wise to isolate herself as she was doing. This was always the way terrible things started. Even though Tiberius was still hanging from his bed, fast asleep, she felt as if at any moment that the things would come back to get her. Would it be the beast from the lake this time? Or something even worse? Or was she ever really alone?
The beast had told her something that terrified her. Somehow, it knew what she had said to Fluttershy, even though it was nowhere in sight. What if everywhere that she went, those awful things were always with her? Watching her. Waiting for the right moment to drag her down into their darkness with them. In that room with her right that second?
Luna jumped as she realized that she had been nodding off. Thankfully, the pain in her wing snapped her out of it. She looked around her room, ready to run away from whatever there was that came to face her. There was nothing. And once again the sun was being lowered from the sky. Tiberius was let out early to do his nightly rounds, and Luna watched the sun as it was half hidden by the hills beyond. Her wing started throbbing again as she watched the fiery reds of the sun, which blazed like fire on the horizon. She gasped at the sight and turned her back to it.
The rest of the night was spent waiting for them to come. She kept looking at her clock, watching the hours pass. It would be dawn soon, and it seemed that the night would pass without incident. Sweat beaded up on her forehead, and her heart began to race. It was already there. Somehow, it had followed her from the lake and was ready to attack at any moment. It was too much to bear. She had resolved before that she would face the devils, and was determined to see that through. Unwilling to enter her own bathroom still, she magically retrieved another glass of water and the other half of the pain pill that she had broken. She swallowed both, fighting the horrid taste of the pain pills and waited for them to take effect. The time passed, and she could feel that familiar sense of lightheadedness slowly creeping up on her.
“Well? Show yourself! I’m here! Where are you?” she called out to nopony.
Then, everything went silent. Not even the crickets outside chirped the temperature of the night. Outside, the sky began to lighten with a red-orange light. The night had passed without incident, just as Luna had hoped. But, when she looked at her clock she saw that the time was only five o’ clock. Hardly the time for the sun to rise at that time of year. Luna looked outside at the light, and knew that it was somehow looking at her.
The doors of her balcony opened on their own, and the curtains blew toward her without any breeze. Wisps of red smoke drifted in, flicking like flames as they did. They flowed around Luna’s hooves, accumulating as they bumped into each other, and began flowing up the wall behind her like a waterfall in reverse. Luna walked forth, and saw the light in the sky growing closer to her as she stepped out onto her balcony. One of the red wisps drifted toward her and took the shape of a chain with a hook. She swiped at it with her hoof, making it dissipate into nothing.
“Enough! Why won’t you leave me be!? You and your ilk!?” Luna shouted.
The answer was the light growing closer to her, and it was inviting her forth. To come into its warmth and let everything else go. Luna placed her hooves on the balcony railing, transfixed on the light. She was going to listen to it, and forget about everything. The pain. The long years of loneliness. It was all going to go away.
“Lulu!”
Luna was suddenly pulled back from the balcony and found herself faced with the worried stare of her sister.
“What on Equestria were you thinking!? You shouldn’t try flying with that wing!” Celestia said.
“I wasn’t trying to fly! I was just–” Luna trailed off when she realized that the world had changed back to the one she knew. In the distance, the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon.
“What were you trying to do?” Celestia asked, concerned.
“It was nothing. I– Did you pick my lock!?” Luna said.
“I used the spare key you gave me,” Celestia said, showing the key that Luna had given her. She watched as Luna walked back into her room. “Have you been taking your–”
“I don’t need my medication!!” Luna shouted, before collecting herself. “I… I took one and a half pain pills this time, instead of just one. I suppose it made me lose my head for a moment.”
“Sister, there’s a reason that doctors recommend only a certain dosage,” Celestia said, walking back in and locking the balcony doors behind herself. “Why don’t you come down for breakfast? It’s been a while since you’ve joined me for a meal.”
“I– Yes, please. Anything to get me out of this room,” Luna said.
The whole time there, she made sure to keep close to her sister. And when they got to the dining hall, Luna made sure to linger at breakfast, drawing out her orders to the wait staff, and sending back her orders to be made to her specific liking several times. By the time she was finished with breakfast, the sun had risen well into the morning sky.
Luna walked by herself to the royal library, her injured wing hanging limply by her side. As she perused the shelves, she glanced out the window to the view of the royal gardens. The gardens were always a place that she loved to go. When she was a filly, she pretended that she was a fearless jungle explorer, hacking her way through the plants from around the world. She often got into trouble with the garden staff for that, but she never cared. Even as an adult, she smiled at the memories of running from the enraged gorilla king and rescuing her sister, before she was sacrificed to a tribal god. Then, it was in one particular corner of the garden that she found the remnant of another god.
The pedestal where Discord’s statue once stood rested in its usual place, the rubble from his release still intact. Luna thought back to the first time that he was released, remarking how incredible it was that a simple disagreement was what fueled his escape. Such little things gave such power to allow calamitous things to happen. Like turning your back to an evil thing.
Luna shook her head when she remembered that. Once upon a time, she heard such a thing during her fillyhood. She couldn’t believe that some ponies still believed those old superstitions from so long ago. But, nopony ever told her that she would ever be facing such evil.
She picked a stack of books to read and took her seat by the window with the garden view. When she took her seat, Luna pulled out a book from the middle. She looked at the title and rolled her eyes. Somehow, she had chosen a book that Celestia had once given her when she first arrived back at the palace from her banishment to the moon. It was a book that compiled the history of Equestria. What the average laypony referred to as a ‘legend.’ Things like the return of Nightmare Moon, the pony of shadows, Lord Tirek, and many others. It made Luna think that ponies had to update their history lessons, since so much fact seemed to be relegated as a fairy tale. Simply for the fun of it, she started flipping through the pages.
There it was. All of the things that ponies should take just a little bit more seriously. For if they had, things might have been prevented. Then, she saw a picture that made her quickly flip the pages backward until she found it again. There was an image of a cemetery, where a creature that looked like a large, half-skeletal pony with cloven hooves eating a mare who had come to pay her respects at the grave. All around, there were more of the creatures crawling from hellish, glowing holes in the ground.
She couldn’t believe it. Somewhere, some other time, somepony had experienced such a thing. They must have. How else would such a thing be recorded? Luna carefully examined the page, looking for any detail that might offer her a clue. She could see nothing but the horrors depicted. The very same that she experienced. Quickly, she read the facing page.
There wasn’t much there. It was a story about a pony from long ago who was rich beyond belief. One day, he was accompanied by a bird that was so ugly that nopony could guess its species. Ever since it came to him, he would get whatever he wanted. If he wanted a new cape, it was brought to him. If he wanted the favor of a mare, she would be irresistibly drawn to him. If he wanted land, the owners would simply pass away, leaving him to acquire it. One day, a young colt found out his secret and began to blackmail him for favors. One night later, the horrible bird came for him. But, the colt was prepared. He had made his own dark pact. A way to keep the rich stallion in line. He summoned his own demon to attach itself to him, and torment him for the rest of his days, until he took his own life. But, there was no part that told how or if the summoned demons were sent back to where they came from.
It was no coincidence. Luna flipped back to the front page and scanned the publishing information. There was none. She noted the name of the author, then looked at the library catalog to see if there were any other books that she had written. There were none. Luna then looked at the price sticker on the back of the book and found the name of the seller: ‘Ink Blot’s Best Books.’ It was the best chance that she had.
Without even bothering to put the other books back, Luna hurried out of the library with that one book, made a short stop to collect a saddlebag and stepped out into the morning streets of Canterlot.
A griffin sat behind her desk, reading the magazine that she had bought at the roadside stand where she bought her breakfast. And for the first time that morning, somepony entered her shop. And what a surprise visitor it was.
Luna stepped into the little shop, awed by the sheer number of books that such a small place held. Rows and rows of books lined the sterile shelves, which gleamed from ceiling to floor. And so neatly organized as well. Fiction and nonfiction. Romance and fantasy. Biology and astronomy. All arranged by the author. This was going to be easier than she thought.
“Welcome to Ink Blot’s, Your Highness,” the griffin said.
As if Luna hadn’t heard her, she walked straight to the history section, where she looked for more books by the author of her own.
“Need help finding something?” the griffin asked.
“Hm?” Luna asked, looking sharply over her shoulder. “Oh. Erm, no thank you. This shop is so well organized that I know exactly where to find what I need. Thank you anyway for the offer.”
The griffin nodded and returned to her magazine. Just as she spit out the gum she was chewing and reached for a new stick, Luna came trotting over to her.
“Excuse me, but do you have any other books by this author?” Luna asked, presenting the book she had brought with her.
The griffin looked at the cover and her eyes went wide. She took it in her talons and started flipping through the pages.
“You seriously have this? It’s, like, a hundred years out of print. How’d you get your hooves on it? What am I saying? You probably got ancient books out the wazoo,” the griffin said.
“I would think so. Except that I haven’t been able to find another book by this author? Do you know any?”
“Sorry. But, that’s kind of a tall order. Even in a place like this.” She stopped when she saw a certain page. The one that Luna recognized all too well. “So, that’s where it comes from…”
“What? Where what comes from?” Luna asked, realizing then that she sounded too eager.
“You don’t know? It’s kind of a famous painting. A lot of creatures think it’s cursed,” the griffin said.
“Why would they think that?”
The griffin smiled behind her desk, as if Luna had just said some magic word that brightened her whole day.
“What do you know about Anathema?” she asked.
“I know that it pertains to curses,” Luna shrugged.
“Well, it’s fitting enough, because that was the name of the painter. Like, you can go to a bunch of museums and see copies of her work on display. This one in this book is one of her more obscure works, but you can still find it around,” the griffin said. “Anyway, a lot of ponies were really impressed with her work, because she always painted what she saw. Like, she made a lot of really cool landscapes. And there’s this one of a dragon swooping down on her from the sky. The ponies say that she painted that one in record time, before the dragon ever got her.”
“I’ve never thought painting could be so dangerous,” Luna said.
“Yeah. But, like, she made it that way,” the griffin said. She looked down to the picture in the book. “The story goes that Anathema had a friend. Like, a witch, or something. They wanted to do something together that would make the ultimate painting. And…well, take a guess what happened next.”
Luna looked at the hellish scape that was depicted on the page, then looked at it more closely.
“This picture… It looks familiar. Do you know where this supposedly happened?” she asked, even though she felt she knew the answer.
“Story goes that it was in the old Canterlot cemetery. It’s, like, a half hour flight from here,” the griffin said, before taking a look at Luna’s bandaged wing, “Oh, yeah. Sorry, Princess. It’s more like an hour walk. If you think you’re up for that, you can get started now.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Luna said, trying not to sound frightened. “Is there any more to that story?”
“Story?” the griffin asked. “Oh. Right. Yeah, so they got out of there okay. But, after that everything changed. Everypony in their village started getting sick. Like, real, real sick. High fever. Boils. Swollen glands. All that good crap. Everypony who got it was dead in, like, two weeks.”
“How awful,” Luna said, quietly noting that she would have still been on the moon while this happened.
“Yeah. Word has it that not even Princess Celestia was able to do anything about it. I kinda believe that, because if she could have done anything she probably would’ve.”
“But, what happened to Anathema and her friend?”
“What do you know? They got blamed for the plague and were run out of town. Some sources say that it was somepony else who lived in town, but I don’t really buy that. It just seems like Anathema would have tried to shift the blame from herself, or something,” the griffin said. “In the end, that whole town died. Everypony there was cut off from the rest of the world to keep them from spreading the sickness. All that’s left of it is the cemetery that the town got converted into.”
That cold feeling of dread crept into Luna’s skull. What was once a vibrant, bustling town was now a place that ponies dared not to go. And she had been there on that dreaded night.
“If you don’t mind me asking, how do you know all of this?” Luna asked.
“Huh?” the griffin said, looking back up from her magazine. “My grandma told me. But, that was when I was really, really young.”
“And, who is your grandmother?”
“She’s the caretaker at the old cemetery. At least, she was. Before she died. Her name was Dusty.”
And again, that feeling of evil dread chilled Luna to her core.
“That’s a very interesting story,” Luna said. “It’s just unfortunate that I won’t be able to learn more of the subject. Alas, I must be going. Pity. I would have liked to read more from this author.”
“I’ll look out for some more stuff you might like. Have a good one,” the griffin said as Luna left.
It was still hours before noon when Luna arrived back at her bedroom. Her mind was whirling with questions about what had happened. She now knew why what happened did. Now, she needed a way to stop it. She needed to know more about Anathema, and what she had done. What more there was to dig up and use to end the torment that plagued her.
There was a loud crash on her balcony that made her jump.
“Tiberius!!” Luna shrieked, expecting that her pet had finally knocked over one of the statues or marble planters.
The simulated tree shook as Tiberius jumped from the branch he was hanging from and landed on the bed with his fur on end.
A low, painful groan sounded from the balcony. Luna looked out the glass door, and was shocked at who she saw lying there.