“Yoohoo! Lyra, darling!”
Lyra jerked from her sleeping bag, startled by the intrusion upon her sleep. The first thing that grabbed her attention was that she wasn’t in the cramped quarters of Twilight’s tent the three travelers were sharing. The second thing she noticed was that she wasn’t even in the forest anymore. Rather, she was squarely set in the middle of a gray, featureless room. The walls were so far away she couldn’t discern where exactly they met the floor. The third thing she noticed was that, a few dozen hooves away from aforementioned sleeping bag, there was a draconequus hosting a tea party consisting of itself and some animated stuffed animals. Not only that, but it also appeared that it was waving her over to join.
Lyra tried rubbing her eyes vigorously to make the apparition go away. After a few seconds of eye-watering pressure, she removed her hooves to find that the scene was most assuredly there to stay for the time being. “That’s it. I’ve finally lost my mind.”
“On the contrary, dear, I have actually borrowed this portion of your consciousness for my little soiree. You see, I think we need to have a little talk. Please, sit with me.”
Lyra cautiously sat in front of the table, eyeing Eris suspiciously as a teddy bear reached across the table for the sugar bowl. "What do you want?"
The draconequus sipped daintily from her tea cup. "You see, my dear, we are both in a position we would rather not be given. I am stuck in your body, and you are housing a creature far beyond your intellect, which must be vexing to no end."
The mare ignored the slight as she patiently waited for the draconequus to continue. A quiet murmuring in the background caught her ear, and she noticed the dull gray of the room flickering slightly with color. Lyra flicked her ear idly and returned her attention to the table.
"Anyway, all I desire is your help to release me. Just help me with that and we can go our own separate ways."
The mare nodded slowly, her ear flicking again as the murmuring increased in volume slightly. What is that? Lyra rubbed at her temples and refocused on the draconequus. "And you are?"
The chimera tsked at herself. "Where are my manners? I am Eris."
"It's nice to meet you, I think."
"Likewise. Back to the reason I have brought you here. I request your help. I was injustly imprisoned in that brute Discord's body, and he used my abilities for himself. Thankfully, you gave me a conduit of escape, and I appreciate it. Now, I request only a tiny favor of you, and that is to find a way to release me from the spell binding me."
Lyra hummed a few bars of a tune as she thought. "How would I go about releasing you?"
Eris gave a shrug as she passed the tea kettle to a stuffed bunny. "Sadly, my captor wasn't kind enough to give me instructions on escaping the spell. Leyline, being the conniving cur he is, decided he knew better what to do with my magic better than I did."
The unicorn internally perked at the mention of Leyline, and her eyes flickered slightly as she recognized Eris from her dreams. Lyra drew in a breath to steady herself. As she did so, a small crack appeared in the floor of the room. The background noise and color changes concentrated on the crack, casting a faint glow from the rift.
Lyra squinted at the crack in the floor of her consciousness. Eris's voice went ignored as she rose from the chair and peered into the rift, sounds and light emanating from the gap. She peered into the crack, and Leyline appeared in the leaked scene, his huddled form in a dark corner of a sewer.
Eris finally looked over as she finished her monologue and her eyes widened as she noticed Lyra curiously poking her hoof into the crack in the floor. She bolted from her seat, her talons outstretched as Lyra found herself being pulled into the memory.
"No, don't—"
The dank air in the underways of the Everfree sewers sent shivers down Leyline’s spine as he huddled in a corner for warmth. He was covered in filth and scratches from head to hoof. A small bindle stick lay beside him, carrying only a few aged apples and a book.
Evil. Scum. Betrayer.
He squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to block out the accusations the voices in his mind leveled at him.
Liar. Criminal. Traitor.
Get out. Get out of my mind. Get out get out GET OUT.
“Murderer.”
“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!” He slammed a hoof into the wall, bellowing in pain as the stone refused to give under his assault. A dark chuckle came from behind him, laced with a seductive purr. Leyline turned, gritting his teeth at the spectral intruder floating behind him. “Eris.”
“It’s nice to see you again, my little mud pony. How have you been doing as of late? Besides, you know, killing Dulcet.”
“I didn’t kill her.”
“Of course you didn’t, dearie.” The draconequus waved her claw dismissively. “I would love to see you try to explain that to the authorities, though: ‘Oh, no, officer, I didn’t kill her. She was possessed by a spirit of chaos who was trying to bend me to do her discordant will. I tried to save my poor, sweet Dulcet, but I accidentally killed her instead.’”
Leyline choked up in anger, tears streaming down his face as he caressed a necklace between his hooves. The silver chain remained untarnished by its putrid surroundings. A small fire ruby, cut in the shape of a heart, glistened in the silver setting in the center of the chain. He rubbed the gem against his mud-stained cheek in a vain attempt to feel the warmth of its intended owner.
“I told you before, Leyline. I always win. You could have prevented this. I would have even made you a unicorn for your assistance. Instead, you not only chose to refuse me, but you insulted me while you did it. I cannot let such impudence go unpunished, you see. If I did, well, then everypony would think they could backtalk me. We can’t have that, can we?
“My offer still stands. I cannot bring back Dulcet. There are things even I cannot do. However, I can still provide you a horn. I might even give you a position as my lieutenant, if that is what you desire in the future.
“If you refuse again, I might have to move on to punishing your family. Wouldn’t that be a shame?”
The beige earth pony felt his mind crack. He cast another glance at the inscription on the back of the sterling setting: For my love, Dulcet Tones. Without you, I am nothing.
“You are mistaken, Eris.”
“Oh, am I?”
“You went too far. You took the thing that mattered most to me. You cannot twist my leg any more.” Leyline’s head snapped up to meet the mismatched creature’s eyes.
“What exactly do you plan to do to little old me, an insubstantial spirit? You aren’t a unicorn, remember?”
As a crooked grin made its way across Leyline's muzzle, he noticed a twinge of unease show itself on Eris's face. A faint glow grew in the pony’s eyes as he locked his gaze upon her. “You took my Love. I don’t care who or what you are. You will pay.”
Leyline shakily lifted himself upright. Right now, he didn’t care that he was an earth pony. He didn’t care that he couldn’t use magic. Rage consumed him as he pushed himself to his hooves, clutching the necklace close to his chest. He felt energy course through his veins as he focused his entire being on Eris. Is this what using magic feels like? As forbidden arcane knowledge tore its way through his mind, he saw white tendrils of light waft from his body before shifting to black, circling the ethereal draconequus and chaining her in place.
“What is this? What are you doing to me?”
“If you knew me at all, you would have realized many of the spells I have written are based very much on the soul snare spell.”
He felt sparks arc from his hooves to the ground as he focused his entire being on capturing the spirit of chaos and channeling her into the pendant in his hoof. Leyline watched with sadistic satisfaction as Eris tried in vain to escape the spell’s clutches. He noted with dim pleasure her howls of pain as the magic rent her from the air, funneling her into the piece of jewelry.
The grim smile marring Leyline’s froze as he saw the fire ruby start to form tiny cracks on the edges, the gem simply not strong enough to contain the spirit being trapped within its confines.
“No!” Leyline roared. “I won’t let you! I won’t let you escape again! You will never do this again!”
He changed the flow of the spell, rechanneling the spirit to flow into his own body.
It burned. His entire body felt like it had been dipped in acid. Tears continued to stream as he held the spell to completion, letting it break only when it was complete. He collapsed, the necklace in his hoof falling away into the flowing water of the sewer. Leyline’s body trembled as it tried to cope with Eris’s presence.
You will regret doing that, Leyline Tracer. As long as I am trapped here, I will make you suffer.
I don’t care. I will never let you roam free again.
Leyline passed out of consciousness, letting the burning sensation seep into his soul.
Lyra felt her consciousness forcibly ejected from the memory as it ended, her body tumbling across the floor of the gray room and coming to a rest at the foot of the small tea table. Eris loomed over the dazed unicorn, a cold expression etched into her face. Lyra feebly tried to push herself away from the draconequus to little effect.
"You shouldn't have done that." Eris's fanged maw filled the terrified unicorn's vision, and she felt her stomach give a sickening lurch as a searing pain tore through her mind.
Lyra bolted from her sleeping bag into the nearby woods, her stomach threatening to purge itself the entire way. As the mare reached the edge of the campground, she felt a dim flash of magic and she ran smack into, of all things, a toilet. Lyra silently thanked and cursed the spirit of chaos residing in her as she refunded her meal from earlier into the porcelain plumbing. As Lyra finished her purging and reached for the handle out of force of habit to flush the vomit she made the unfortunate discovery that this particular Toilet of Chaos and Disharmony™ was, in fact, a bidet.
The unicorn coughed and sputtered as she was shot in the face with a stream of water from a place where the water is not meant for your face. As she staggered away from the foul porcelain fiend, Lyra wiped at her face with a foreleg, only to have it come back bloody. She felt a thicker trickle of fluid making its way down her chin as she noted that she had bit her lip hard enough that her fang tore through the fragile skin.
"Are you well, Lyra Heartstrings?"
The unicorn pushed herself back to her hooves, shaking. She wiped the blood from her lip again, feeling her new fang graze her foreleg. She tried to respond to the inquiry but nearly collapsed as a new wave of nausea pushed through her body.
A wing descended over Lyra's back, supporting her as her stomach tried to heave again, although she was already completely purged from before. Lyra could only vaguely feel Luna's presence, providing support as her body trembled with pain and illness.
After what seemed like an eternity, her heaving ceased. The princess continued to hold her upright as she feebly made her way back to the campfire. Lyra reached the edge of the fire and collapsed there, shivering. Luna silently disappeared into the tent, returning with a canteen, a mug full of water and a towel to wash away the toilet water. She offered the cup to Lyra who snatched it eagerly. It was quickly used to rinse the acidic taste from her mouth. The towel followed soon afterwards, quickly run across the unfortunate mare's face to dry it.
"Thank you," Lyra croaked weakly.
Luna nodded. "You are most welcome." She sat next to the unicorn, staring into the embers of the flame as it burned.
The two ponies sat there for a while, letting the sounds of the night pervade the silence between them. Lyra would cast a glance at the princess next to her, trying to find a hint of emotion in her impassive face.
"What's keeping you awake?" Lyra finally ventured.
Luna's expression cracked just enough to show a hint of amusement. "This is my domain. I would be a sad princess indeed if I were not awake to keep watch over my charge. Also, Twilight Sparkle appears to suffer from sleep apnea, and I can't sleep when such a racket is occurring next to me.
What is more concerning, though, is the fact that you are also awake at this hour. What troubles your sleep?"
"Just a nightmare."
Luna furrowed her brow, apparently unsatisfied with the answer. "It was more than that, was it not?"
Lyra gazed resolutely into the fire a moment longer. "Yeah." She eased herself so that she was laying on her back, positioned so she could watch the night sky without straining her neck.
"Would you like to talk about it?" Luna followed suit, matching Lyra's odd posture with a little difficulty.
"Not really."
"Very well." The two mares gazed at the starry void, letting the silence fill the space between them a while longer. Lyra noted that Luna was still diminished, her ethereal mane nowhere to be seen. In its place was a more normal style, composed of light blue locks that curled at the end.
As Lyra idly played connect the dots with the stars, she noticed a streak of light bolting from the heavens, right over their heads. A shooting star! Before she could make a wish, though, she heard the alicorn next to her give out a pained yelp.
"Are you alright, princess?" Lyra looked over and saw Luna right herself with a powerful flap of her wings, landing in a ready position.
"Did you see where that star went?!"
"I think it went—" The princess of the night bolted in the direction where Lyra had started to point, not bothering to let the unicorn finish her sentence.
The aquamarine unicorn hauled herself to her hooves to try and follow the princess before thinking how futile it would be to try to follow behind on hoof. Several minutes passed as she paced nervously in front of the fire, wondering if she should fetch Twilight and tell her she had lost Luna.
Just as Lyra was about to go wake Twilight, she heard strained wings flapping near the camp. Luna appeared over the treeline, clutching a misshapen hunk of metal between her hooves a little smaller than a beach ball. The lunar princess swooped in heavily, dropping in front of the fire with a solid thump while gingerly cradling the fallen star.
“Oh, Julianos, are you alright?” Luna sobbed to the star. “I’m so sorry I let that happen to you. I have been trying to get your brothers and sisters all patched up since I returned. I was going to get to you a couple days ago, before I was captured. Please forgive me for not doing it sooner.” The alicorn hugged the shining lump of metal, rocking it in her hooves as she sat on the log next to the fire.
Lyra watched the princess coddling the star with a baffled expression. “Uh, Luna, what are you doing?”
“Tending to Julianos, of course.”
“The star is named Julianos?”
“Yes." Luna looked briefly to Lyra, her expression carefully masked. "Is there something wrong with that?"
"No, not at all." Lyra slowly ventured, "Why did you have to find it?"
Luna gave the minty unicorn a dirty look. "I didn't want to leave him stranded out here, alone. When I came back, I quickly realized quite a few of my stars had lost the strength to stay in the sky and had fallen to Equus. I made a point of going out to find all my fallen stars. I want to someday figure out how to restore them to their former glory."
Luna laid her head on the metal hunk as she talked, ears slowly drooping to the sides. "So far, I have found many craters, but very few stars. I don't know where they have gone, and it pains my heart to think that they are still lost out there.
What continues to vex me is the question of what happened to them. Surely they haven't been collected by others, have they? You wouldn't know anything about it, would you, Lyra Heartstrings?"
Lyra tried to swallow the lump that suddenly blocked her throat. She wasn't sure how Luna would react to the fact that star metal was highly desirable for metallurgy, but she was sure it wouldn't be positive. Unfortunately, Luna noticed her sudden reticence on the subject. The lunar princess narrowed her eyes. "You know, don't you? Tell me what you know."
The unicorn scuffed a hoof on the ground. "I don't know exactly what happened to all of them. I do know that star metal is often used for armor and weapons because it is light and strong."
Luna's tail flicked angrily. "Armor?"
"It also has great resonant abilities, and some of the best musical instruments and enchanted tools in the world are made of it."
A persistent twitch marred the princess's face. "Instruments?"
The unicorn desperately wished for an opportunity to escape, but none presented itself. "A-and sometimes it is used to make high quality jewelry."
Luna stood, her mane and tail nearly reverting back to their ethereal state in her rage. "Do you mean to tell me that my children have been used as nothing more than baubles and playthings for some pretentious old foals?" she whispered as her voice quivered with barely restrained fury.
Lyra couldn't keep from whimpering in response. Luna quickly restrained herself, bowing her head as she sat back down on her log opposite the frightened unicorn. "I apologize. It isn't your fault that such a gross misuse of my charges has occurred. I just can't believe that they are gone.” The alicorn’s ears drooped. “Allan, Rhodes, Amadeus, Damian, Orphenie, even little Lisa... all turned into nothing more than earrings and bracers."
The unicorn nodded quietly as Luna covered her face with her wings, quiet sobs punctuating the silence as the nocturnal princess hugged Julianos close to her chest. “Oh, my poor children.”
“Children?”
Luna’s tear-streaked muzzle peered through a gap in her feathers. “Every star in the night sky, I made. My stars are the closest thing I have to children.”
Lyra gasped and looked to the night sky. As the broad expanse of stars filled her vision, she found a new appreciation for the crying pony before her. Nights spent stargazing, looking up and trying to count the stars in the sky. Camping trips held under the face of the Mare in the Moon as the constellations shone with all their glory. “You made the night sky?”
Luna’s nod was almost hidden by her wings. Lyra had to strain to hear the whispered response. “They are the closest thing I have left to family, besides my sister. I put a little bit of my spirit into every one when I made them. I was so alone when I made them. It was just me and the empty night sky. I just wanted to share the night with somepony who wasn’t me, even if they were of my creation.”
The lunar princess hugged the misshapen sphere in her forelegs all the tighter as she spoke. “They comforted me through so many hard times. My sister was always so loved and adored and had plenty of advisors and confidants waiting at her beck and call. Me? I had an empty night court, with only a few sleepy guards for company. I hardly even existed in the eyes of Equestria, only acknowledged when there was a crisis that Tia couldn’t handle alone.”
Lyra had quietly retrieved her instrument sometime during the story, strumming carefully at the strings as Luna spoke.
"They weren't enough, though. When I first made Polaris, it nearly caused an uproar. Ponies feared the new light in the night sky, and they called my dear Polaris a 'harbinger of doom.' They complained and hid for their lives every time I made a new star, isolating me more. To combat the isolation, I would make new stars. On and on it went, and I started making constellations in the sky, naming them and bringing them to life.
"I ran out of space in the sky after Sombra's defeat. I would sit out every night, talking to my stars and listening to their quiet voices. My guards thought I was insane. They couldn't hear the stories my stars would tell, so they just saw their princess talking to the sky. Eventually, they told my sister of their concerns. Tia didn't understand either when I tried explaining it to her. I tried introducing her to them, and all she did was say ‘Luna, you can’t keep doing this. You are scaring ponies.’
“I finally snapped when they unveiled the new throne for my sister at the first Summer Sun Celebration. We had been sharing the princes’ old throne ever since our ascension into our rules as Regents of the Sky. It was divided perfectly in half, one side a tribute to Solaris, and the other to Nocturne.
"I had mentioned the idea before of getting a new throne that we could share so we wouldn't be using our mentors' throne, but I thought the idea had been turned down. I was shocked on the dawn of the Celebration to find they had indeed taken the idea into consideration. However, the throne was solely for my sister. When I asked them about it after the festival, they said I would use the old throne for the time being.
"I was outraged, outraged at the fact that they were pushing me aside and making me use an old throne meant to represent both day and night. I was so angry that when I went outside that night and poured out my wrath at the night sky, I frightened my stars into silence. I couldn't hear them, and it broke me. In my despair and loneliness, I went on a flight. I flew until I collapsed, exhausted, at the gates of Tartarus. There, I could hear the voices of the imprisoned whispering to me, threatening death and torture if they ever managed to escape their chains. It was comforting, in a way, to hear any voice that acknowledged me.
"In the midst of the promises of pain, I eventually picked out one voice who called to me in soothing tones. He whispered twisted words of encouragement, stroking my ego and spitting curses against all others. He played my fears and loneliness to his benefit, and offered me a deal that I readily accepted.
"I flew back to the castle. It was almost time for the dawn, and as I flew into the palace, a guard called out 'Luna has returned!' Tia bolted over to me, wrapping me in a hug I never felt as I stood there, mind bent by the spirit possessing me. 'Why didn't you tell us you were going to leave?'
"I..." Luna's voice faltered, but she straightened her spine and continued the tale, nary a quiver in her voice. "I shoved her away, and said 'Don't pretend you care about me. No one cares about Luna.'
"I called upon the spirit for power, and he responded, taking hold of my body and warping it into a form of strength and darkness. 'But Luna I am no longer! I am your worst Nightmare! I will be feared and respected! If I cannot come out from your shadow, Celestia, I shall BE the shadow!'
"I broke free and slaughtered my way through the castle until I reached the throne room. My mentors' throne was still there, waiting the approach of dawn so it could be stowed away for Tia's throne. I smashed it to rubble, right in front of my sister, who had followed hot on my heels. She cried out 'Luna, stop!' but I was implacable in my rage. Her throne was behind it, ready to be rotated into place on the dais. I lunged at it and brought my hooves down, but it wouldn't break.
"It had been bound to my sister, so it was reinforced by her magic. No matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't break. The power of the sun held strong. I collapsed in front of it, a quivering, snarling, sobbing mess.
"There was a moment where the silence almost freed me. Tia sat behind me, ready to reach a comforting hoof to me, when an overambitious guard charged me, swinging his pike. He was turned to ash where he stood, and I became a maelstrom of retribution.
"I leveled all of Everfree city that day, killing hundreds and driving away thousands more with the strength of the spirit possessing me and bolstering my own power. I forced my own sister out of the ruins, casting runes of destruction to keep everyone away from my domain.
“As the summer waned and fall followed behind, I gained strength as I fed the spirit my anger and the natural procession of the seasons further empowered me, while Tia’s might diminished. I further strengthened myself by keeping the moon in the sky, feeding off the fear and panic of the populace as the sun wouldn’t rise. I gained followers to my cause for various reasons: fear of being overtaken, greed, ambition, desire for power. I used them to protect me while I cast a spell over the broken city to keep my sister and her forces from overtaking me. As far as I know, remnants of the spell still linger, so strong was my anger against my sister while casting it. I had the spell bound to the city, but I do not remember how...
“The spirit gained ever more control over me in the six months before my fall. We plotted and schemed together, cursing and spitting on Tia’s unbroken throne as it mocked our efforts to dispatch it. We couldn’t even move the thing, no matter how hard we tried. Finally, we decided to wait until the winter solstice, when our power would be the greatest over Celestia, and use ritual magic to break it. We had realized that her throne was now tied to her. If we broke her throne, she would fall soon thereafter.
“Winter drew near and the spirit and I prepared ourselves for the ritual. The day of the ritual, though, something unexpected happened. Tia found her way into the broken remains of the castle, carrying with her the Elements of Harmony. She begged me to stop, pleading for the return of her beloved sister.”
Lyra was perched at the edge of her log, her hoof barely tapping at the strings of her lyre as the story pulled at her, Luna orating with perfect diction. She was jolted from her rapture, though, as Luna’s voice broke, a tear spilling down her cheek.
“I will never forget the look on her face as I responded. To this day, I don’t know if it was the spirit talking or me, but I glared at her from the incantation circle and said ‘I have no sister.’
"For the next thousand years I was imprisoned on the moon, trapped in a Nightmare of my own creation. The spirit, sadly, was stronger than I, and locked me away. I was trapped within my own body. Still, I fought back against the creature sharing my vessel. We drove each other to the brink of madness as we battled each other for control. In the end, the creature won. I was mentally shackled, nearly extinguished.
"The spirit paid a high price, though. As we fought, I filled its thoughts with inane babble. I sang meaningless songs repeatedly. I whispered pointless drivel in its ear, snippets of rhymes being my weapon. Even as I was being crushed, I could feel its thoughts fall to shambles.
"As I was locked away, I felt a whisper of hope from none other than Polaris. His voice carried through the void and whispered, 'Hold fast, dear mother. We are coming to save you.'
"My children came for me. After all my outpouring of rage and grief and my subsequent turn to darkness, they kept faith in me. They unlocked my body's prison and sent me to Equus at just such a time when there were six fillies who were strong enough to stand against me and free me.
"The first thing my sister did when she carried me home was she took me to the throne room in Canterlot, just as the sun was due to set. She said to me, 'Luna, I have waited a millennium to give this to you. I'm so sorry you had to wait.'
"As the dais rotated in place, I saw my throne. They were planning to give it to me on the winter solstice, on my birthday, the day I was banished."
The alicorn bowed her head, a tear plopping on the soft earth in front of the campfire, the fire itself reduced to smoldering coals. She took a small breath, wracked by an escaped sob. "Whatever you do, Lyra Heartstrings, don't let this thing consume you."
Lyra nodded quietly, unsure of what to say to comfort Luna. She shuffled closer and timidly nuzzled at the princess as she sobbed in front of the dying fire, the fallen star still clutched in the princess's hooves.