//------------------------------//
// Nove 
// Story: Dark Side of the Moon 
// by Rust 
//------------------------------//

...When the course of civilization flows down the path of declination, is it right to safeguard it, and hold it still against the raging torrent of existence? Even if that means stifling everything that civilization stands for in the name of preservation?
There is no middle ground.
Either a people are slowly washed away with the sands of time, or they take the plunge.  And who is to say what they might be when they resurface?  
We Equinocti know this one truth to be evident — eternity is a cycle.  From nothingness, a spark.  From that spark, life.  From life, death.  From death, nothingness.  And so the circle continues, abiding by the machinations of the cosmos.  We have watched the stars for enough eons to know this to be true.  We have seen the flow of the Universe itself, and know that nothing can escape the pull of chaos, nor can it ignore the grasp of harmony.  Entropy is the infinite.  
Balance, in all things.
I think that some of us might forget that, though.  That sometimes, it is necessary to let go, so new creation might take the place of what is lost.  The cycle ever continues...







I was stirred from my slumber in the waning hours of the day.  
It was the curious sort of awakening, where one is very much aware of the fact that the rise from sleep was not a natural one, that something aside from one’s internal timepiece dictated the rising.  The issue, of course, is that if oneself was not awoken by oneself, how was one awoken?
As it happens, pondering such an answer is usually the reason why getting back to sleep is so difficult.

My eyes slowly peeled back, revealing the dank interior of the cabin.  I distastefully smacked my lips.  No use delaying the inevitable, I reasoned.  May as well greet the new night.
With a groan, I slithered out of my resting place, trading the firm-but-comforting surface of a naval cot to that of a wooden floor.  Egressing from the cocoon of various beddings, I took a moment to simply lay there upon my back, limbs sprawled out in various directions, still residing in that delicious place of half-sleep and half-life.
Abruptly, a soft, but ghastly whimper passed through the walls.  
Almost instantaneously, a maddening tickle ran the length of my ears, peeking at the tufted tips until I had to bestir myself to scratch them.  
What in King Starshade’s name was that?
I grudgingly heaved myself up, sluggishly kicking away the last of the entangling blankets.  Despite the call of wonderful rest, my curiosity had been piqued.  I was determined to discover the source of said noise, and whine at it until it stopped.
Then, I would return to bed.
What could possibly go wrong? 

I threw open the curtains covering the small porthole.  The sight of a lumpy, yet smooth city spread out beneath me took a moment to get used to, before I remembered that I was currently house at the top of the pile, so to speak.  The house of the noble High Elder Vega Lyrae; the upside-down wreck of an ancient cruiser, perched atop the very pinnacle of the graveyard of ships called Star’s End.
Having disembarked, a whirlwind tour of the city had commenced, led by none other than its prestigious mayor, the role of which was also held by the High Elder, who claimed to have laid the foundations for the city cycles ago, when he and his crew swatted a miscellaneous tourist yacht out of the sky into the canyon below, their very first of a long list of piratical achievements.
The tour had been driven to a grinding halt after Luna had spied a rogue's haven, a salty portside tavern bristling with unscrupulous characters and illicit wares.
It had taken no less than an hour for her to out-drink, out-fight, and out-curse nearly every single occupant in the building.  After consuming the entire tavern’s worth of moonshine, and declaring Chives to be “handsome enough,” (and upon planting a very sloppy kiss on his surprised face) she had decided that she would retire, for the alicorn was still thoroughly tuckered-out from her earlier expenditures.
Having been the one she’d promptly collapsed upon, demanding that she be carried, I couldn’t have agreed more.  By the time we’d reached the wreck, Luna was out like a light, and I was not far behind, heaving and wheezing like a sickly babe.

I threw the cabin door open with ill temper, sending a resounding bang echoing throughout the home.  Company be damned, I was in a foul mood, having been roused from my slumber so preemptively.  I scratched at my eyepatch.  The thing itched.
Pausing at the threshold, I cocked my ears, swiveling them this way and that as I attempted to ascertain the source of the ghastly noises.  There!  Another eerie wail, like it had been voiced at full volume, but now found itself muted.
And it was coming from down the hall.
"Off all the insufferable situations I've had to put up with," I darkly muttered as I stalked down the darkened passage.  I made a right turn, following the sound.  "Can I not have a moment's respite?  A single instance of peace?  That's not much to ask, oh, really it isn't."

Up a staircase, around another corner, through a gazebo haphazardly slapped onto the house, and, finally, into the Captain's Quarters of the upside-down ship that was the Elder's home, perched upon the very summit of Star’s End.  
It was also, I dimly recalled, the chosen lair of Luna.
Her door, in particular, was surrounded by an otherworldly glow, faint light spilling out from the cracks and around the frame.  Another keening wail issued from within.
I hesitantly put a hoof on the doorknob.  It was icy cold.
“And what exactly are you up to?”
I whirled about, and promptly tripped over myself, crashing to the floor with a dull thud.  “Chives?” I sputtered.
“No, his twin brother,” scoffed my butler.  "Pleasure to meet you."  He was sitting in a small alcove, bathed in shadow.  He had been still as a statute, and I would never have noticed him until he announced himself.
“W-what are you doing here?”
“I asked you first,” he said, leveling a hoof at me.
I gave a guilty look at the bedroom door.  “I... couldn’t sleep.  Kept hearing things.  I was going to find out what was making all the racket.  And you?”
His shadowed silhouette gave a shrug.  “The same.  Though I could not muster the courage to open that door.  Something... else... resides within.”
That gave me pause.  The words 'Chives' and 'cowardice' only came together under the rarest of instances, and only in sentences that went something like; "Chives certainly lacks in cowardice."
“What, Luna?” I said.
He gave a sigh.  “No.  And yes.”
“Are... you afraid of her?” I whispered.  “Is that why you’re out here too?”
“I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t fear the unknown.  But whatever’s going on in there is giving me such a sense of ill-intent that I would not dare to open the door.  Can you feel it, master?”
I turned back to the barrier and placed a hoof on the woodwork.  Again, a violent tingle spread through my leg.
“No.  Nothing so much as what you describe.”
“Hmm... you always did show the most fascination...”  He moved closer, out of the shadows, the light playing across his aging, tired face.  “It is possible, that whatever is in there... must want you to come inside.”
“It’s just Luna.”
“No.  Far more than that, and I think you suspect this as well.”
I was silent for a few moments.
“Are you truly getting such a bad feeling from this?”
“It is taking all of my willpower not to turn tail and flee at this very moment,” he replied.
I grimaced.  Another ghostly moan issued forth.  
“Ironic, isn’t it?  That it is the coward who shows no fear?”
Chives chuckled, though there was not much life to it.  “Aye.  And the pinnacle of chivalry, not to mention good looks, finds himself turned away.”
I once more set my hoof upon the handle.  
“Be careful, master.  I promised your parents I’d keep you safe.  I... don’t want to let them down.  Or you,” he finished quietly.
“I know, old friend.”
With that, I pushed the handle down.  The door came alive, flying open into the chamber revealing nothing but a blast of alabaster light issuing forth.  The noise was suddenly deafening, like the fury of a thousand silverstorms joined together.
Something blessedly dark snaked through the blaze and and struck my face, right upon my patch.  The patch was ripped away in an instant, revealing my pupil-less eyeball to the world.  Only now did fear make itself known to me.  “Chiiiiiiiiiives!” I wailed.  There was no answer.  Only the sudden pull of the black streak, wrenching me into oblivion.





“Da?  Ma?  Can ai come out, nao?”

Why was the house so drafty?  I shivered as I scampered down the massive corridors.  They’d always seemed so large to me.  Da said that wouldn’t be true when I was big and strong, nothing would be too large or out of my reach.
Someone had probably left a window open somewhere.  Maybe one of the servants.  That new one, most likely, with the mustache.  I called him Mister Mustache.  He was always goofing things up.  Not a very good servant.  But he was fun, and he played with me.
Da wasn’t in his study, and Ma wasn’t in her workroom.  Where were they?  For that matter, where was everyone else? 
One moment, Mister Mustache and I were in the best game of hide-and-seek ever, and the next...

The house was quiet.  That wasn’t right.  Usually there was some noise coming from somewhere.  The kitchens were always fun to go and look at, all the cooks banging around shiny pots and pans.  Ma didn’t like me in there, though, so I snuck in there when she wasn’t around.  The cook would always give me a little something sweet to eat.
My stomach rumbled a little.  Supper wasn’t for a while, so it wouldn’t hurt to have a bit of a snack.  What Ma didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.
I happily skipped down the grand staircase.  Again, I was struck by how silent everything was.  
“Hewwo?  Mistuh Cook?”  I opened the kitchen doors and peered inside.  Not a soul stirred within.  “Hewwwoooo?”  This wouldn’t do.  I was hungry, and I needed something to eat.  Cautiously, I ventured forth.  The counters towered over me, like some kind of stone and metal maze.  
I hopped up onto a stool, and from there I scrambled onto the counter.  I giggled to myself.  I’d done it now!  Walking on the countertops.  Surely someone would come to scold me, and I could ask them for a cookie.
Yet again, only the stillness of the night proved my only company.  
“Where iz evwybody?”  I scuffed my hooves on the counter, marring it with dirty streaks.  
Obviously, I needed to up the ante.  The usual antics weren’t working.  With a hop, skip, and a jump, my little wings snapped open as I soared across the mighty gap between the countertops.  I landed poorly on the opposing side, sliding across the polished surface with delighted laughter.
A tray of silverware, left out for some unknown reason, was the one thing that stopped me from going over the edge back onto the floor.  “Owie!” I rubbed my head as I saw it teetering on the brink.  “Uh-oh.”
CRASH!
An earsplitting racket echoed throughout the house.  My ears itched.  Time to bail!  Frantically, I looked about, in desperate need of a hiding place.
There!  The oven was open!  
I dived inside the open hatch, tumbling on the charred grates until I hit the back, causing the whole thing to buck and slam closed.  Instantly, I was surrounded by total darkness.  The door didn’t yield when I pressed against it, so I politely knocked upon the closed door.  “Could somebody lemme out, pwease?  I’m sowwy I knocked ova your shiny stuff.”
Nothing.
“Ya know, in hindsight, dis pwobabwy wasn’t mai best idea.”
Seconds bled into minutes, and minutes bled into whatever comes after a minute.  Teacher hadn’t gotten that far, yet.  The grate was uncomfortable and the dark, sooty oven was proving to be a regrettable hiding choice.  The game of hide-and-seek was over, this wasn’t fun anymore!
No matter how hard I banged on the door, or how loudly I screamed for help, nobody came.
Maybe they’d forgotten me?  Maybe they were all out somewhere else, and forgot little baby Cassie back home.  
They’d have to be back eventually, I realized.  This is home!
It was only when the tears began to flow that I realized I might be stuck in here forever.  
Suddenly, the door opened.
“Lord Cassius?  Is that you?”
I knew that voice!  “Mistuh Mustache!”
Freedom!  Sweet, glorious freedom!  All thanks to him.  I shot out of the oven and promptly tackled him, burying my face in the stiff white collar worn by all the servants in the house.  “Ai’m sowwee, Ai’m sowwee,” I sobbed hysterically.
“Shhh.  There there, little one.  You gave me quite a scare!”
“Ai want my Ma!  Where is evwybody, Mistuh Mustache?”
He hesitated.  “M’lord... they...”  He began rocking me steadily.  A few of his own tears graced the corners of his eyes.  “Aren’t reachable at the moment.  They asked me to take care of you, though.”
“B-but evewything is fine!  We just pwayed a game of hide-and-seek and now evwybody else is pwaying!”
“No.  No, child, we played that game.  Bad people were looking for us, so we hid.  You parents played another game, more dangerous and more risky.  And they lost.  We must flee this place, before we lose, too.”
“I d-don’t wanna pway that game, Mistuh Moustache.”
He sighed.  “I know.  There’s only one way to get out.  We must leave, little lord.”
“L-leave?”  I glanced around.  The way he said it, the word carried so much finality.  This was home.  Where else was there?  A memory surfaced.  “Da has another house!” I realized.  “Can we go dere instead?”
“Maybe.  Where is it?”
“Umbara, I tink.  It’s a beeeeeg spire, and Da’s been building it for years, now.”
“Umbara.  By the border.  Perfect.  As far from this damned city as we can get,” he said.
He gently shifted me across his back, in between strong shoulderblades.  I clenched around his neck with all my might.  
“It’s going to be alright, little lord.  I’m taking you away from all this.  Their game will never touch you.  Not if I have any say of it...”







Color.
Bright, vibrant, and warm.
Hues I had no name for, swirling and dancing around me.  I never thought I’d ever see something so beautiful as it.  Green, something old in me said.  That one’s green.  Brown.  That’s blue.
I chuckled, uplifted to the highest I’d been in years.  A smile wrenched my face almost painfully upwards, my features contorting into a position rarely used, and never so vigorously.
I was happy.
For that one instant, I had peace.  Nothing else mattered but the storm of color and life, battering my eye in ways I could no describe.
I threw my head back and laughed.

And then... clarity.
The colors snapped into place.  I was suddenly aware of the fact that I was somewhere.  Somewhere else.  Stuff like silvergrain, short and green, grew all around my, soft and tickling.  The sky, above, was dotted here and there with stars and was uproariously blue,  tinged violet and red all around the horizon.  The sun, a flaming orb of orange, hung on the edge of the world.  I looked into it, painlessly, and laughed again.  
I was standing in this wide field of color, a playful breeze tickling my wings.  I felt like running and jumping and skipping and singing my heart out!
Then I saw it.
On the far side of the sky, basking in the deepest, darkest of blacks, was a glistening white sphere, pockmarked here and there with scars and patches of grey.  
It was like looking at a tiny map of home from a great distance.
Home.
The moon.
Was in the sky.
“So... then, I must be...”
The realization struck me, so great a shock it was that I collapsed into the green and lay still, flat upon my back, gazing up into the sky in sheer wonder and awe.
Only to be graced with yet another sight, improbable as it was.
Two specks, one dark and the other light, midst the distant sky.  Why did it look like they were getting bigger?
Wait a minute.  Uh oh...
I hastily scrambled to my hooves and began running, hastily looking over my shoulder as the two specks rapidly descended, increasing in size as they did so.  Faintly, I made out two pairs of feathered wings and two elegant horns.
“Luna?” was all I had time to mutter before they hit the ground behind me with all the force with the hammer of a wrathful god.  The green was churned up into brown as I was catapulted end over end by the resulting shockwave.  
I was up in an instant, feeling no pain.  My own leathery wings spread and carried me faster than ever before to the crater, where I alit upon the edge and gazed nervously within it’s steaming depths.
A golden blast of light sizzled out of the mists, striking the ground beneath my hooves.  The edge collapsed in an instant, dragging me down with it into the crater.  I tumbled and slammed down to the very bottom, dragging myself out of the brown substance that made up the ground.  Dirt, that old part revealed.  

“How could you!?” came an agonized cry.  In split second, the mists were blown away, revealing Luna, in all her armored glory, crossing horns with another alicorn.
This one was taller, and more slender, and brilliantly white, though her swirling mane was a vibrant pink.  Her long legs were willowy, though there was obviously power in them, for she (and it was certainly a she, as well) held  the raging Luna at a standstill.  She was covered in golden armor, which, like her counterpart, was spectacularly damaged and streaked with grime.
“How could I not?” she said, her voice muffled through the elegant winged greathelm she wore, struggling to stonewall the darker alicorn.  “You’ve become irrational, Luna!  This is not you!  You love our little ponies!”
“OUR!?” screamed Luna.  “They are yours to the core, dearest sister.”  She said the very word like it was toxic to her health.  “And they’ve no love for us!  Not while you steal it all, ‘Tia!”
I know that name, I realized.  ‘Tia.  Whispered during the worst of Luna’s frequent daymares.  Sometimes in fear, sometimes with fondness, but always with regret.  I finally bore witness to the force at the center of it all.
I was not sure what to make of her.
“Show reason!” ‘Tia pleaded.  “Think, Luna.  You’re only feeding yourself lies that you invented!  If not for Equestria, then stop this for me!””
Luna shoved hard, forcing the taller alicorn backward a step.  She leveled her long horn, sparks of blue crackling along the length as power was charged.
“No.”
The spell was unleashed at point-blank range.  I grimaced, despite finding myself instinctively rooting for Luna.  The darker alicorn’s wrath was something I had experienced firsthand.
Despite the formidable power behind the blow, it only succeeded in snapping the golden-armored head backwards, ripping the greathelm clean off.  ‘Tia’s face was revealed, filled with the same fierce alien beauty as her counterpart.  She recovered after a second, holding an armored hoof up to her brow, where the a faint trickle of alicorn blood seeped down into her eye.  
Stock still, she inspected her own life splattered upon her hoof.  “Has it truly come to this, then?” she said.
This isn’t right.  I had to do something.  The sight before me was fundamentally wrong, in ways that affected me like I’d never felt before.  The eye behind my patch itched maddeningly.
I had to stop this.  Somehow, I had to stop this.  Luna knew me, surely she would listen to my reason, the one who had saved her life and pledged himself to her cause!  
I remembered the swirl of colors, and how they filled me with such serenity.  It wasn’t the colors themselves, I now realized, but the fact that I had focused only on them.  For that one instant, I had transcended everything holding me back.  The childlike joy of simply existing, embracing the wonderful bounty that is Life and the Universe.  No concerns.  Nothing but peace and warmth.  
My worries — of falling into the same pit as my parents before me.
My fears — of the very authority I had been born to wield.
My desires — of seclusion and comfortable uncaringness.
My grief — for the life I should have had.
My apathy — to the people and my title.  
It was time to come out from behind the turtle shell.  I had a responsibility to my Kingdom and myself, but also to my friends.  And the only friend I’d ever made was about to do something very stupid.  My mind was clear, my heart sang with unfamiliar beat of purpose.

I rose up from the rubble of my collapse and charged forward.

“STOP...!”