//------------------------------// // Ch.3 11/1/1010 Snapping // Story: Only shadows of the past... // by Phoenix Quill //------------------------------// Luna sat as still as Discord did outside the window. She poured all of her attention to the book before her, The truth about dark magic, and its uses. As she read on, she could not help but feel as if she was being watched. She did nothing other than perk her ears up and try to listen for any confirmation of her suspicions. "Hello, Luna. I see you have taken to my advice. Luna scoffed as the page turned, "We have done no such thing. We are simply amusing ourselves in our spare time." The voice suddenly came from Luna's left, and she looked out the window out of habit, only to see the the black alicorn in the reflection instead of her normal self, "You can not lie to yourself Luna, tell me, what are you thinking about?" Luna swallowed, "Perhaps if we were stronger, if we could become more like our sister, to be able to do anything, certainly the citizens of Equestria should take an interest in meeting their Princess of the Night." The shadowy reflection shifted, "Good, good, you show a hunger for knowledge. It is important to want to be more than what you are. The black alicorn paused to lick her fangs idly, causing Luna to shiver at the sight of them, "Perhaps you might even be able to give your sister some time to herself." Luna's eyes flashed brightly at the thought of being so helpful to her sister, "You really mean that?" The darkness smiled back at her, "Absolutely. Across the library, the Night Guards stood watch so still one could assume they were made of stone and placed there for decoration. There names were Swift Strike, and Thunderhead. Thunderhead had been in the guard for five years, while Swift Strike, was his subordinate under training. "Sir?" The sound invaded Thunderhead's ears like a shout, he turned his eyes to Swift Strike and muttered out the side of his mouth, "Yes, private?" The two guards did not move at all, other than their eyes and sides of their mouths, "Permission to speak freely, sir?" Thunderhead thought about it for a moment before nodding in consent, "Speak." Swift Strike looked hard at the princess for a few moments before breaking, "Why is she talking to herself?" It finally happened, the loaded question. Albeit that he lowered his voice as much as he could while asking it, the question was still asked. Thunderhead watched as the princess looked out the window and would answer questions in her own voice, then suddenly switch to a silky, dark tone and ask questions or give commands to herself, "I don't know private, but when we get to H.Q. we need to make a report about this." The private nodded as they both went back to playing statues by the door. Luna kept talking to herself. ________________________________________________________________________________ Nightmare Moon had fallen into a routine over the last twenty two days. Sleep, wake, wander, talk to herself, attempt to use magic to either escape or make food and drink, wash rinse repeat. At the moment the black pony was sitting down looking at a particularly large rock, "So, I guess you'll have to do." the block of moon rock that she was talking to, was roughly the size of a wardrobe. However its size did not make it any more intelligent than any other rock. This fact did not phase Nightmare Moon in the slightest as she continued, "Its going to take the stars years, maybe even decades before they can come to my aid. Until then, you are my source of entertainment, Rocky." The rock naturally just stood there. Nightmare Moon smiled and cast a beam spell to begin cutting at the stone. Large pieces fell off as she carved away the upper area. An hour later a panting Nightmare Moon observed the rough shape of a unicorn's head made out from the carved stone, "I think, that's enough for today." Suddenly, from her left Nightmare Moon heard the flapping of wings. She turned around and searched for anything that could have made the noise and found nothing. Giving off a sigh she turned back to the stone and saw her. A medium blue pony with light blue hair. She was approximately the size of an average mare, if not a little bit taller. However, her being what she was, made her seem positively tiny next to Nightmare. A depowered princess Luna stared at her with her wide innocent eyes,"Hello Nightmare." "Hello.....me?" Luna looked up at nightmare, and asked as innocently as she could, "Why did you kill us?" The Nightmare balked, and took a step back, "I never did such a thing, I still live!" "You killed us and took our place. You tried to kill our sister and kill everything else. Why would you do that?" Nightmare Moon looked down at her younger looking self and shook her head, "You're not here! I am imagining this, go away, LEAVE ME ALONE!" The image of Luna faded away, leaving only the shadow of the rock Nightmare was carving. She breathed deeply and looked up to Equestria and began wondering, "What is happening back home? Do they even miss me?" ________________________________________________________________________________ "Are you certain?" Starlight nodded his head grimly, "Yes your highness, the stars Ain, Mizar, Navi, and Vega are all on the move." Celestia nodded grimly, "Very well Starlight. Please tell us, have your prophets found what it means?" Starlight trembled for a moment, wishing not to bring down the wrath of the remaining Princess upon him, "Well your majesty, They all seem to have a common goal, they appear to be headed for the moon." Celestia's face scrunched up a little, "Tell us, dost thou think that our sister is behind this?" The light blue pony visibly sweat as he tried to keep his nerves under control, "Farsight and Deep Thought both believe so, your highness." The Princess gave off a light sigh as she looked out the window of the Canterlot Inn and stared up at the moon, "How long do we have?" "Well, we have a rough draft on the calculations, but it is going to take some time to get an exact date. However Deep Thought believes that they will all be in position in roughly a thousand years." Her mind began to click, in her mind she saw her sister advance a rook on the long chess game that has started. The Celestial Sister thought out every option and decided to advance a simple pawn, "Then we don't have much time. Find the exact date, down to the minute if you can and let us know the moment you are sure." Starlight bowed deeply, muzzle nearly touching the simple wooden floor before running off to the small observatory. Celestia walked over to the window. She stared up at the moon, and studied the imprint of a profile of her sisters head, "I know what you are planning Luna, and I hope I have the strength to do what I must without the Elements to aid me." ________________________________________________________________________________ As darkness finally fell across the area Nightmare Moon had decided to make her home base, a chill filled her to the very core. The moon's air was very thin, and while in the light it kept warm enough to keep comfortable, in the darkness the surface was well below absolute zero. Nightmare Moon shivered as she huddled against a cliff wall in hopes of keeping at least her back warm. For the first time in her life, the invincible alicorn felt vulnerable to the elements. "There has to be some way to keep warm, a fire, or hot rocks, or something I can't take this cold!" The fallen princess tried to stand back up, and found that a thin layer of ice had formed on her body from the cold, "Water..." Without thinking about it, the black alicorn ran her tongue over her body in hopes of getting even a small amount of moisture into her body. The ice melted inside her mouth. Despite how little it was, the vital liquid made a world of difference to the pony. She almost forgot about how cold she was as she tried to lick off the ice. Finally having enough moisture in her throat, she looked at the cliff behind her. A thought had entered her mind, so simple yet brilliant. Her horn glowed as she carved into the dead stone, creating a small cave, just big enough for herself to stand upright in and pace around for ten steps or so. She ran into her makeshift shelter and used her magic to grab hold of a pile of rocks. She lit her horn once again and sent a hot beam of magic to the pile, making them so hot that they glowed red. Finally, she could lay down, and know that on this long night, she would not suffer too much.