//------------------------------// // Ch.2 10/14/1010 Escaping // Story: Only shadows of the past... // by Phoenix Quill //------------------------------// Nightmare Moon had howled until her voice became so damaged that she could not even manage to whisper. The pony of the moon silently looked about her, "So thirsty, I must find water." she cast a spell, hoping to collect the moisture in the air into enough water that she could drink, "Come on, come on! WORK! the spell's power intensified as she poured all her strength into it, only for the spell to fizzle out, the air was perfectly dry and could not produce any water at all. She breathed deeply and fell to her knees as she recovered from the failed spell. The air was so thin that it took almost an hour for her to recover. "Alright, there is no water to be siphoned from the air. Perhaps I can find a lake, or even be able to dig a well. Every sentient being knows if you dig deep enough you will find water." And so, Nightmare Moon set out in one direction and hoped to find a source of water. ________________________________________________________________________________ It was three days later. Not lunar days, it was still light out where she was. However, the shadow on the moon's horizon has grown closer to her location. The only way she could tell that days as she knew them have passed were by looking back home, and seeing Equestria has passed by three times. She was exhausted. There was no water to be found anywhere. No plants to forage food from. And nothing to give conversation, or offer help. The dark alicorn had taken to talking aloud to herself lately, just to hear something other than her hooves trotting on rocks all day. "Well no food, no water, and to be honest with myself I am bored. There has to be a way off this fucking rock!" Nightmare Moon looked around herself and saw nothing different from here, or thirty miles behind her. "Alright Celestia, this was amusing at best. I'm out of here." She closed her eyes, and began to weave a teleportation spell. She concentrated with all her might on the location of Castle Ever Free. "Once I come back, the first thing I'm going to do, is quench my thirst. THEN I'm going to sate my hunger. Finally, I will crawl into a bed and sleep for about a week. And when I finally awake, I will find Celestia and enact my righteous vengeance upon her!" She released the spell, and disappeared off the face of the moon. Her eyes opened, and Nightmare saw that she was back in her own room at Castle Ever Free and smiled brightly. "YES I did it!" She galloped across the ruined room and reached for a vase of flowers, hoping to drink the water and have a quick snack afterwards. "I'm STARVING!" Her mane shot forward and began to wrap around the vase. A sudden pop filled the air causing Nightmare Moon to blink in surprise, when her eyes opened, Nightmare found that she was back on the moon. Nightmare Moon blinked, and looked around her, as if doing so would change the situation she found herself in again, "What happened? I was back! That wasn't even five seconds!" She cast the spell to try again, and once more appeared in Equestria. Before she could even move a muscle the teleport undid itself and she was once again upon the moon. The mare stared off into the horizon and growled to herself, "Fine. If I can't teleport off this blasted rock. Then I'll just fly back!" She spread her wings and leaped off the surface, flapping as hard as she could in the direction of the planet above, "This is it, I can do this. Just fly as fast as you can, and once you find that there is no air to move any more, just let the momentum you built up drift you back home." Her wings flapped as hard as she could force them to as she accelerated to just under the speed of sound. A mach cone began to form around her body, but as she left the atmosphere the cone dissipated and she began to free float to the planet ahead, "Alright, at this speed, I should reach the ozone layer in about an hour, just hold out until then." There was no air to breathe, but this fact did not seem to phase the immortal pony as she drifted through the blackness. The dark princess's mind began again to plot what she was going to do upon her return, "First find some water, then food, then sleep, then revenge. I'll send that stupid sun bringing foal to the surface her precious sun and see how SHE likes it. Wait a moment, am I slowing down?" Her rate of speed was indeed slowing down, as if something was trying to pull her back. She began to flap her wings and move her legs to fly, or gallop onward in space, despite the fact that there was nothing to grab on to, "No no no no no no no no NO! What is pulling me?! Nightmare's course began to reverse, not slowly but quickly, the moon pulled her back to its surface like a rodeo pony would lasso a bull and force him down. "What spell could possibly cause this?" She entered the atmosphere of the moon so fast that she created a sonic boom. She flapped her wings and made an attempt to use magic to levitate herself, anything to stop her descent to the ground. As she fell, she cursed the name of Celestia, and vowed to destroy the Elements of Harmony if she ever saw them again. She fell to the dust and rocks and created a new crater. That is when she realized something, and as she coughed she could not help but say it aloud as if to confirm her thoughts into reality, "There is no escape." ________________________________________________________________________________ Two hours later she finally stood up to assess her situation, "Teleportation would just send me back, fly away and I get pulled back, there MUST BE A WAY!" That is when it dawned on her, "The moon may be my prison, but the stars... perhaps they may give me enough power to escape permanently." Her horn glowed as she called out to the four stars that were closest to her, and patiently waited for them to come to her aid. _________________________________________________________________________________ Celestia rested in a simple tent as she and the mass exodus of ponies from Everfree made their way to the mining city of Canterlot, with hopes to build a new capitol there. She suddenly awoke from her deep slumber as she felt a subtle shift in the flow of the night sky. The princess left the tent, and stared up at the stars. She searched for what could have possibly changed. Nothing looked different, but she could feel it nonetheless, four stars were slowly on the move. She galloped through the field of tents, searching for somepony that could help her. Finally reaching a blue tent she opened the flap and roused the pony sleeping within, "Starlight! Arise, we are in need of thee at once!" The pony snapped awake instantly and looked at his princess, "Your Highness, what's wrong?" The Princess grabbed him with her magic and pulled him outside, "The stars are on the move, we need you to get your best prophets gathered as soon as you can to find out what it means!" As the Princess lowered Starlight to the ground, he eyeballed the sky and noticed no difference. "Your highness, forgive me but I can not see anything on the move. My eyes are not as strong as yours. This is going to take a telescope, and time to find what is moving, where its going to and how long before it effects us." Celestia nodded as she tried to calm herself down, "Very well, as soon as we arrive at Canterlot we will see if the city has a telescope thou might use. If not, we shall have one made for your prophets." Starlight bowed low before the princess, "Please rest, Your Majesty. You have been through a lot, and there is a long journey ahead." Celestia nodded politely back. "You as well." Starlight trotted back to his tent as Celestia turned back to hers, "For the sake of my ponies, I hope this doesn't mean what I think it means."