Lunar Memory

by Mordy

Ch1: The Keeper

Luna paced herself around the throne room shaking her head and trying to control her hyperventilating. Celestia sat on one of the twin thrones. Luna didn’t know why she hadn’t noticed that there were now two thrones instead of one from what she remembered, but this castle obviously wasn’t the same Canterlot castle. Sure, it had a lot of similarities, but there were some key differences. The throne was one thing and the strange glowing magic orbs within the halls was another. Now that she was more aware and awake she found that the banners and decorations were more in her favor now. Crescent moons decorated the tapestries and the colors that adorned the halls were her blue, black and white. There were occasionally hints of Celestia’s, but overall everything seemed more devoted to her.

Luna summed up that the castle was simply a replica adorned in honor of her it seemed. Like a getaway home though she would wonder why she’d need a full blown castle for a getaway. The journey to the kitchen would be arduous for a midnight snack. Though it would have kept her in better shape and would likely result in a tighter sexy plot than a certain cake loving alicorn.

Speaking of white alicorns, Luna had long given up on receiving any help from her sister. She was in a world of her own, one that involved bobbing ones head left and right while humming a carefree tune. Something was obviously wrong with Celestia, she could tell that much. Of course whatever it was beyond her current knowledge. She needed to figure out why they were here, how to get back, and why her sister was… mentally ill to put it nicely.

A heavy sigh escaped her lips and she walked up to her sister to watch her aloofness, envious of her current ignorance. She sat right in front of her and just stared complacently at her. After a moment Tia stopped swaying and bobbing and opened her eyes to stare back at her. A cheerful unworried smile plastered her face as they just stared into each others eyes. Luna actually started to feel more at ease while there eyes met.

It was then she noticed something else that was out of place. She was able to stare directly into Celestia’s eyes. Before hoof she would have to look up, but now she was able to look into them at eye level. It finally hit her that she was as tall as her sister if not taller than her now. Something she’d be very cheeky about if not for their current situation. The unfamiliarity of it was just making her more uncomfortable and annoyed than before.

She stomped away from the throne and breathed in before shouting to the ceiling, though without using her Royal Canterlot Voice, “What’s going on here?! Somepony answer me!”

Ding doo doo!

The melody of what sounded like the notes of a xylophone being struck replied back to her answer. Luna froze and her eyes shifted sporadically around the ceiling to locate the source of the noise. Then a very familiar yet unfamiliar voice rang around her in an echo that came from all directions, “Luna, please report to the Hall of Memories, thank you!”

She was dumbfounded by the reply and then called out, “Hey, who are you?! Also, where’s this Hall of Memories?” Her eyes continued to dart across the ceiling to locate the voice, but saw no pony.

It didn’t take long for her second question to be answered though. The floor underneath her suddenly lit up, revealing a line of glowing blue dots. They lead out one of the side doors of the throne room and most likely to her final destination.

She looked back up to the ceiling and hesitantly called up to it, “Uh, thanks?” She brought her eyes back to the blue dots and leaned in close to it. It was completely flat on the floor and she scraped her hoof against it, unable to move or pick it up. She looked back to Celestia who seemed to have ignored everything that had transpired and was back to her humming. Luna looked to the path and then back to her sister, “Okay Tia, you just stay there and… keep doing that. I’ll be right back!”

She trotted over to the door the dots was leading her to and she stopped to look back at her oblivious sister before making her way though the double doors.

Luna kept to the path while occasionally site seeing. Every so often she would pass by a window and be able to see the craters of her beloved moon and the beautiful tapestry of stars that coated the sky. So engrossed at the sightings of this, that she missed a turn and found that she was no longer on the path.

When she realized this and turned around she discovered a very interesting thing about her guided path. Looking down she saw that her new location that was down the wrong hallway now had the blue dots leading down the correct path from where she was. Experimentally she sidestepped to her right and as soon as she moved from her old location the path rerouted itself from her new one. A small intrigued smile crept on her lips and she started to pay more attention to her personal pathfinder.

As she walked along she looked behind her to see every step she took caused the lights to turn off behind her, preventing any possibility of accidentally getting turned around. There was no way she could get lost.

She continued to follow the waypoints as they began to take her down a spiraling set of stairs. For a moment she thought it would take her all the way to the dungeons, but she second guessed herself as everything remained furnished and decorated. The stairs and the waypoints lead her into a long hallway with a giant lunar steel double door. As far as she could tell there was no handle or anything to grab onto. Perhaps she just has to push?

The giant door was decorated with a strange symbol right in its center. A sideways crescent moon pointing upwards with what looked like a star tipped won jabbed right in its center. Upon the curves of the moon were featherlike wings. She found this symbol to be familiar, but didn’t know why.

She examined the double doors and could tell it would swing in. She tapped the metal with her hoof experimentally and then gave it a push. When it didn’t move she pushed a little bit harder, but again it remained still. Placing both hoofs one the large door she began to push with all her might yet it still did not budge.

She stopped and then snorted in her old dialect, “Why dost thou not open!”

The floor below her suddenly glowed with brilliant silver light, practically blinding her. A single line of blue light from the ceiling passed right over her then right back like she was being scanned. Once it finished, the light show turned off and then a feminine sultry voice spoke, “Welcome Luna, your looking very sexy this evening,” The giant doorway began to slowly swing inward.

Luna blushed at the compliment before looking around to see the voice’s source, but once again there was no pony around except her. She carefully trotted inside, the doors closing behind her as she passed the archway. Her body flinched when she heard the sound of them closing quite audibly. Once her heart rate returned to normal she continued inside.

Besides the extravagant carpet and the waypoints guiding to her destination, the hallway was quite barren. There were three doors in the hallway, not including the one she just came from. To her left was a door of gold emblazoned with a sun resembling Celestia’s cutie mark. On the other side to her right was a silver door emblazed with a crescent moon and stars. Obviously this was supposed to be her cutie mark and her blue dotted trail lead to that door. However, before she wandered to her destination her eyes peered down to the largest door. This door was had carvings of the moon and stars along with the familiar symbol she had seen on the door she just entered from. Lunar steel was also the make up of the giant double doors, but it was even bigger and thicker than the one she passed. It would probably take tremendous amount of force to get through it.

She stared at the door a few more minutes wondering what was behind it before shaking her head and cantering over her room. As soon as she got within hoofs reach of her decorated door it quickly shot up into the ceiling, opening the way for her. She leapt away in surprise like a frightened house cat. Immediately the gate came back down sealing off the room once more.

After absorbing everything she just saw, Luna reached out with her hoof towards the door. Once she was close enough the same thing happened again and it shot up into the ceiling. Retracting her hoof brought it back down. She repeated this a few more times with a bemused look in her eyes.

Cautiously, she walked forward, the way opening once she got close enough and she quickly stepped through. The door closed once more after she made her way in.

The room was a dome and very plain as far as she could tell. The only notable things that stood out were the emblem of her cutie mark at the center, the fake stars that dotted the domes ceiling, and at the opposite end of the room was a small throne of midnight blue with her mark engraved on the backrest. Placed on the thrones seat was a replica of her tiara, but upon the tips of this crown were little gems that let off a very soft glow like the stars.

Looking back to her guiding lights she found it ended just before the emblem on the floor. She carefully walked forward, her hoof steps clip clopping against the stones that seemed to be dark blue with the current lighting. As she stopped just above last blue dot she watched it fade away and then let off a soft sigh, a bit sad to see her strange magical guide go.

As her head went back up she was greeted with a most unusual sight. Standing right before her was… herself. It wasn’t a reflection from some mirror as far she could tell. For one it was smiling very widely at her which she was not doing and then there was the fact she could see it from multiple angles within the space it occupied above the emblem.

Then she/it started talking, “Greetings Luna!” Her copy lifted a hoof to wave at her. Luna immediately backpedaled and let off a yelp of surprise.

Once she regained her bearings she glowered at her clone and then growled out, “What art thou? One of those changelings, masters of mimicry?”

Whatever her other self was it seemed to ignore her questions, “Sorry to say I can’t speak to you in pony, but I’ve left you a recording to let you know what’s going on,” Luna cocked her head and flicked an ear at the word recording. And what did she mean by not speaking to her, wasn’t she talking to her right now?

It then continued, “So, it seems a surge happened and that has corrupted a lot of the servers. Luckily the backups remain untouched. Due to the severity of all these corrupted files I have to devote all my focus and power to repairing everything. Once I’ve got most of that stabilized I can return to my normal duties. Until then please take care of Celestia!” With that her counterpart seemed to freeze in place with her eyes closed and a bright smile on her face.

Luna stared dumbfounded, after the message that made as much sense as having a castle on the moon. Apparently to somepony, this was all very logical and she couldn’t fathom what pony would consider this to be anything, but insane.

Examining the seemingly frozen mare in front of her she finally got curious and reached out a hoof to nudge her. She soon learned that this castle on the moon would never cease with the surprises as her hoof passed right through her clone causing a small magical static discharge from the area she touched. She didn’t feel anything when she did this and she looked at her hoof to find no damage.

She just stared blankly as a set of hoof sized glowing flat boxed numbers appeared before her in three rows of three with the number zero below the nine. The numbers all went from zero to nine and her fake once again spoke, “To repeat this message press one!” It waited a bit before speaking again and repeated this wait after each successive mini message, “To hear this message in neighponese press two. To hear this message in a Trottingham accent press three,” Her final option was the most enticing to Luna, “In case of catastrophic emergency press zero!”

Luna pondered for just a moment why that option would be the very last thing somepony would say before she reached out her hoof to touch the flat square that held the zero. She amazed when her hoof touched the luminescent number that it was actually solid. The boxed number glowed brightly for a moment and a soft ding was heard for her confirmation as she lifted her hoof off of it.

The numbers and the copy of her disappeared with what looked like a teleport spell with a blue glow similar to her magical aura. She was now all alone in the room and she wondered if she was supposed to do something now.

That loneliness didn’t last long as flash of blue light appeared before her and her other self was once again before her, but unlike last time this version of her was in a much more panicked state and far more lively. Her clone’s eyes were mere pinpricks and she started to yell at her with noticeable stress in her voice. It was unnerving hearing her own voice. Actually, she didn’t think it sound like her voice at all, but ones voice did tend to sound different when coming from oneself.

“What?! What is it?! Is it a meteor shower? The shields down? Space pirates? Space dragons? Space Ghost? Supernova? Are we about to crash into a planet? By the goddess, don’t tell me those awful vampire romance novels survived the furnace!” She quickly sputtered all this out about a near Pinkie Pie rate. She was staring at Luna now with her body jittering.

The only thing Luna could think of then was to reach out and touch this fake her once again. Once again her hoof passed right through as if she wasn’t there. However, unlike last time it actually reacted to this. At first it just looked to Luna’s hoof then back to her and she yelled out at her causing Luna to jump, “Luna focus! What the hay is going on that you need me right now?!”

Luna just started back and replied with annoyance in her voice, “Thou tell us!”

The fake Luna’s eye twitched, “You had me drop everything I was doing for nothing?! I left a brief message that explained everything!”

Luna growled, “Thy message or whatever explained nothing to us!”

She gaped at this, “Explained nothing? The servers are corrupted and I need to do back ups. How could that not be any clearer?!”

“We doth not know how a servant could be corrupted and how backing thyself up will fix that. Also,” She paused thinking of much better question, “Who art thou fake?”

The other Luna blinked a few times at the question and seemed a little hurt by it. Then in a much calmer voice she asked, “You… don’t know who I am?”

“No,” She deadpanned with a hint of venom in her voice as she was not amused by any of this.

Her copy was taken aback by this and looked the floor for a moment finding her hooves more interesting before returning her gaze, “Luna, tell me, what year is it?”

She quirked her head at the question and wondered why that was relevant, but answered anyway in hopes of having her own questions answered, “It was, according to my sister, the 1002nd summer sun celebration.”

Fake Luna closed her eyes in though as she seemed to try and remember something. Her eyes shot opened, “Oh dear, that’s not good.”

Luna raised an eyebrow in anticipation for an explanation. Her copy soon gave an answer, “Okay, Luna you have amnesia. Well not really, per say, but the easiest explanation is you are suffering a form of amnesia. Oh this must all be so overwhelming for you.”

“No kidding,” Luna rubbed her head wondering how she could have lost her memory so suddenly, “How did this happen? How much time are we missing? Days? Weeks?” She swallowed and stuttered out, “Y-y-years?”

“This has to do with that corruption I was talking about. I’ll explain later though. As for your other question… years,” She answered with a frown

Luna’s gaze became distant and she calmly asked the next question, “How many years?”

“You don’t want me to answer that,” she replied while adverting her gaze.

“How many years?” She asked again with some rise of anger in her voice.

“For your own sake I am choosing not to answer. It isn’t as bad as it may seem, but the way you are now, answering that will… cause more panic than necessary. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about,” She saw Luna anger and panic rising regardless, but continued, “When I finish my duties I will come to you and explain everything. I promise! I’ll even Pinkie Promise if that makes you feel better,” She smiled at Luna, but when she just gave her a bewildered stare she then remembered something, “Oh, that’s right, you didn’t know what that was yet.”

“Thou promise to answer all of our questions?” She asked while looking at her fake sternly in the eyes.

She nodded to her, “All that I can. Until then, you need to look after Celestia. I’ll check on you every once in awhile,” Her horn glowed with an exact aura as Luna’s, but before she released her spell she then answered one last question, “Oh, my name is Memoria by the way and you can trust me because,” Memoria smiled softly at her, “You did create me and made me the keeper of your memories,” Her spell released and she teleported away.

Luna sat on her haunches staring at where her copy, Memoria, had been. She lost herself in thought at the prospect that she had made that clone of her if she was to believe her words. With a deep breath and a sigh, she started her trip back to Celestia with more questions than ever before.