//------------------------------// // Debriefing // Story: Revenge of the Nightmares // by Commander_Pensword //------------------------------// William blinked and looked over at Luna, his entire body just felt worn out and tired. “Luna,remind me to let only you into my mind. Your nicer to it.” He laughed a little. Luna blushed a little, yet she did smile a little. “Don’t worry, I am sure if Twilight had to enter your mind or my sister, they would treat it kindly.” She still looked worried. “I am sorry for what Starshine did to your mind, I was able to fix it, and, was able to create a more stable barrier so you don’t have what my sister says we are calling Luna episodes for you.” William smiled with relief. “That is good, thank you Luna.” He closed his eyes before noticing he was wearing really a cotton fabric over his body. “Uh, I am wearing a hospital gown.” Luna nodded her head again to the statement, “Yes, since you were going to stay the night, we felt it would not be good for you to sleep in your dress uniform.” She looked at William and closed her eyes as her horn glowed. “I wanted to say that I have something from when I fell ontop of you, you did well in trying to prevent me from crushing you.” She smiled vaguely and William felt their was something else but he couldn’t place a finger on it. Suddenly a large feather popped into existence in front of his face. William noticed it was the color of Luna’s feathers, and he blinked as the feather was plopped on his lap. “While protecting yourself, you dislodged one of my feathers, and seeing as you don’t have a writing tool for when you are in the field, I felt that you could use my feather to help, it has been enchanted to write when you want it to, and the ink will dry so you do not smear it with your left hand.” William just smiled a little as he picked up the feather, something in the side of his mind twitched in pain and he narrowed his eyes, something about feathers was important, but he could not remember or place it. He was suddenly distracted by the scent of baked goods and cotton candy. “Hey!” William looked up and saw Pinkie Pie looking at him from the foot of his bed, there was smiling faces of all the element holders even Fluttershy and Discord. Pinkie began to speak again, speaking slowly for once. “I am sorry you are not feeling well so I thought I could throw a get well and welcome to Equestria first human party and I thought that I would only have those that you meet since you are suppose to be a secret.” She smiled a little. “I hope you like chocolate and some punch Discord was so sweet to create a fountain of Punch for me to fill some punch bowls.” Princess Celestia walked in and the look on her face William caught was of disbelief before a slight smile tugged on her muzzle. “So you are the one that talked Discord into his little prank.” Celestia however smiled a little as Twilight floated a piece of cake in front of her teacher’s muzzle. “I still do not know how you do this Pinkie. You are the only pony I know that can sneak a cake around the castle without me knowing about it.” Celestia muttered as she took the plate and a fork and began to munch on it. William blinked as a plate with a perfect slice of cake was placed in front of his face. He noticed that the feather was gone, he blinked and was about to panic when Luna smiled, she had made it look like she had preen some of her feathers during the distraction and their in her muzzle was her feather. Luna was blushing suddenly worried of what the others might say, like her sister, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, or Twilight as they all would know the meaning that, did she really mean that? Or did she finally find a use for her feathers that would make her happy to know that it was helping a pony. Still the small party was enjoyable, Luna giggled as Pinkie tried to cut Celestia off after five slices of cake, there was some banter, and all in all it was an enjoyable time. She also could see that William was slowly becoming more cheerful from the break down on realizing how far away from home he was. She blinked and she felt that same lonely empty feel, one that she had felt during those few times she was lucid while in banishment, and yet. She coughed and fell back in shock as Pinkie blew a party horn in her face causing her to fall back off her chair causing all around her to break up laughing, this eased her own mood and soon joined the others. She noticed that only after she started laughing that William laughed a little. William blinked and after the small outburst of laughing he sighed. “Thank you Pinkie Pie. I, I think we all needed that.” He grinned as he was still reeling from the realization of being alone and the lone human in Equestria. For William the Party wound down slowly and after another few minutes Celestia was the first to leave, and then Twilight Sparkle, followed by Applejack and then Rarity, Fluttershy left with Discord, after asking him to turn William’s nose back to normal and not the red bulb after William sang a little of Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer. Leaving Pinkie Pie and Luna. Pinkie Pie smiled and whispered something into Luna’s ear that William saw that whatever it was it made Luna blush a little before it was just Luna and William. Luna smiled and making sure that no one else was around represented her feather to him. She smiled a little. “Once again, thank you.” She whispered with a soft voice. William only nodded his head. “Your welcome.” In reality he didn’t know why he was being thanked again. He however held the primary feather with a grin. “Uh, well,” He laughed a little but it died as Luna was holding a small notebook. What he saw however was shocking him. Due to his national flag being on his left shoulder he now saw a small copy of the image of his nation’s flag on the cover, the cover itself was in the motif of his Digis as the nickname was for the ACU’s. He looked at Luna softly. “Here is your book, it has been enchanted to stay dry, remain intact. It cannot be destroyed. Also as long as you remove pages from the back there is a repair spell, so you will have access to paper parchments if needed.” Luna smiled and opened up the cover, and William saw a strap inside the book to place the Feather pen. Luna levitated the book to him and William took the pen and with a flourish signed his name on the inside cover of the book. Luna smiled at William’s penmanship, she knew it could be improved but for a society that used computers to write, his handwriting was impressive. She also learned his middle Name. On the inside cover in the upper left corner William wrote his name. William Jefferson Howard, to Luna and the new information she looked at him. “Your middle name, is after one of your founders of your nation?” William only nodded, before pausing. “Tell me, has anyone named any of their offspring after you or your sister?” Luna shook her head. “No, but they have named more geographical places, Like Celestia Island, or Lunar peak.” She smiled. “My sister named it that, As it is the tallest peak in the world, and only an Alicorn can really traverse it without problems.” She smiled, I can see you have questions of naming schemes, go on, ask me.” William looked at Luna and took a deep breath. “Tell me, from the show I know a few names, and to me, the names are, well fitting for their occupation and everything.” Luna looked at William with a look of joy and merriment as if happy to reveal a part of a mystery. “That is because the mother when giving birth, as a gift from my mother, gives them images of their child’s name. The Mother would write down the images and anything that she can associate from them, and will consult with their husband. A week later at the first meeting of their congregation. They will name their child.” Luna bowed her head. “At times the parents will also name any child that did not live to their first meeting of the month.” Her voice saddened. “Our medical field is getting better but it still is hard to hear of a mother losing a child.” She smiled and looked at William fully in the eye. “For your world that makes no sense-” William only interrupted, something that her guards were still flinching yet it seemed Luna was smiling as William spoke. “To me, it does not matter, this is your world, with your own rules and costumes. While you have not pushed any of your requirements upon me, what right do I have to place my requirements of society upon your heads?” Luna burst into some mischievous laughter giggles. “Unless we decide to implement them based upon observation and a sharing of ideas from a mutual spot of trust.” She seemed to be enjoying the sudden unease that William gave her. “No, I have no plans to start a republic, nor overthrow my sister, I did that once, or tried to.” She looked hard at him. “Also it was not to create a republic, my sister left the truth. Eternal Night was what the Nightmares wanted, by having eternal night they could destroy the world, destroy the world and the inhabitants would be too weak to resist the takeover of the pony races by the Nightmares.” William only nodded his head. “So, just how much?” “A lot William, a lot.” She replied. “My sister has only used the full power of her crown of authority once, and that was against her sister.” She looked at William. “Celestia and I are long lived, wise, and as such we know that the best policy is to leave enough alone. We let the world run itself, because even some of the best laid plans will have unforeseen events that would make it a terrible disaster.” Luna looked at William. “However, my sister I noticed has been enjoying your copy of your constitution and Declaration of Independence.” William just looked at Luna with concern. “Have you read them?” Luna nodded her head. “The Declaration has some very pointed facts against their previous ruler.” She smiled. “I think my sister would have signed it based on the tea alone.” She dropped her voice. “She likes her tea.” William only nodded, finding it, hard to quantify this new feeling, it was mix of enjoying a small joke, but at the same time, it was making light of one of the founding documents of his nation. Still, in the end he felt that seeing as they didn’t see it how he saw it, he would have to let it go. During the long time of William’s silence at her joke, Luna actually pondered herself if she did right by making that joke. She did relax when William smiled a little at her joke. One thing that she saw unnerved her guards was how William had taken on what she had overheard as the Night’s ponder. It was a look she got when she too began to ponder many heavy things. This caused Luna to actually ponder herself as well if he had that before, or after she shared her mind with him. She just sat there. It was with a bit of an odd moment when both spoke at the same time. “I,” They paused and the two spoke at the same time to let the other speak. It lasted only two times before William closed his mouth with a Princesses first. Luna took a breath. “William, Jefferson, Howard,” Her voice was soft, kind, and showed caring while using his full legal name. “I must apologies if my, joke was uncouth and in ill report with your standings and beliefs. I was not thinking.” She actually looked like a scolded child which made William smirk a little. “Luna, It was I who should be giving the leeway, you do not know of these documents till two days ago. Nor do you fully understand the weight they have for me. They are, these are some of the few words that I have from my home that I treasure.” He closed his eyes. “They are what my nation was built upon.” Luna moved a wing to lift William’s head as she lifted her own, the two having bowed their heads respectively to not look the other in the eye. Luna moved to make sure that the two were now looking in each other’s eyes, forcing herself to do it as well. “Those values, don’t lose them. I request all my guards to memorize something that is lengthy that gives them courage and strength, most of them pick the speech of Commander Hurricane upon the push to the new lands from the old during the Windego’s blizzard. But for you, that speech would hold as much meaning as one of my guards reading your Declaration of Independence.” Her eyes narrowed. “I hereby charge you as a member of my guard to memorize that document, and your Bill of Rights. It will serve as your shield from the Nightmares.” Her gaze softened then. “As for this, blame game. I will say this, we both deserve some blame, it will sooth your ego knowing you took some blame, but know this. Whatever pain I caused you-” “But you didn’t,” William yet again interrupted Luna, and the Guards actually growled at his discorum. William did not listen as he wanted to get out what he was thinking, some, courage inside him pushing him to speak. “I am scared of the ideas that might cause, the problems, ideas used by the wrong people, those ideas, could be used by others to mask a move forward, but as my planet has shown, many men rise to power on that promise of freedom, only to make it a mockery.” He closed his eyes. “Many men pretend to be Democracies but are just dictators misusing power.” Luna blinked, but she also understood. “You fear that those ideas are or can be used to destroy the nation that has been built by my sister? with I building much of the foundation.” William perked at this, was this one of the causes of the Jealously? Luna continued to talk to William leaving little time to focus on that thought. “Know this. That while my sister and I built this land. We are not opposed to sharing our powers. A pony that shows and exemplifies many traits can become adopted into, or have their house promoted into the Nobles.” She looked at William, “We have the Rulers, at this moment it is Celestia, Cadence, and my own self.” She smiled, “Then there's the Common Assembly that are appointed by the elected Mayor of each town. Also each Town votes for their own representative into the Senate.” She slowly closed her eyes. “Then there's the House of Titles. This is where Nobles sent their sons or daughters to learn the running of Government and listen to the Common Assembly. Only laws that are passed in both floors can grace the eyes of my sisters or I. Also if we so choose we can suggest our own ideas to either floor.” Luna began to smile deeply as if she was about to reveal a rather big secrete. “I personally like to speak to the Common Assembly, they remind me more of Ponyville then the House of Titles.” She smirked. “Oh, before we end this, their real name is House of Lords, I just use that as that is what the Common Assembly calls them.” “So, is the Common Assembly a nickname?” William’s inquiry only made Luna laugh. “No, oh no, they took the nickname that was given to them by the Lords and used it as their own.” William actually chuckled at that. “Like how we took the term Yankee from the British.” He laughed more fully upon the confused look Luna gave him. Luna only smiled as something tickled the back of her own mind, something to do with some old records. “So,” She began but found herself hard to think of anything to speak. She did find it a curious word William had used, Lobbyists. “Well, I guess I can give you the Lunar Guard Manual to read while in bed.” She smiled as she levitated a small bound hard cover book over to William’s beside Table. “Please note that this is my guards infirmary, so you do not need to worry about leaving the book around, but anywhere else and you must protect it. No one else is allowed to read this book. I shall return in two hours to see how far you have memorized the first page. As well as to see how far into the book you are.” William only nodded his head slowly as Luna got up and left him alone to read the book. He however found that he got maybe two or so pages in before a wave of exhaustion hit him, and to him, seconds past but in reality the two hours came and went. Luna however did check on him and smiled a little before turning around. She looked at the Sergeant Major. “Leave him alone, I had to put a sleeping charm on the book to make sure he rested, he is as stubborn as you are.” She shook her head with merriment of silent laughter. “Still, replace the book with a normal one, so he can continue learning.” The Sergeant Major only nodded his head, “As you wish your majesty,” He paused and chewed his mouth a little even though he had nothing in it. Luna made a move with her wing, indicating he could speak freely. “Why the treatment? You are giving him special deferments.” Luna paused and looked at the Sergeant Major of the Moonbeam Division and then to William sleeping and back to the Sergeant Major. “I, I don’t know, but I want to say right now that it is because of the war he fought in his mind, and having to deal with some of my darker thoughts at times and the guilt and emotions.” She looked back at William and to her eyes he looked a little weak and frail, yet she had seen, “Maybe it is the fierce spirit of fighting to the point of no return against a foe he could never beat on his own without help.” She turned to walk back, the sun having reached noon now. “I will answer you when I fully know myself.” The Sergeant Major only nodded as he took guard outside the door. He looked back at William, a stranger, an alien who had caught the eye of his top commander. He shook his head and returned to standing outside the door and would make sure no one that did not have permission enter the recovery room. William awoke in his mind almost right away, however he knew something was off right away, for one thing Luna was looking at him with a smile, the book she had him reading was sitting on the table next to his bed. Before he could speak, Luna opened her mouth. “Do not fret, I needed you to rest to fully set into place the binding spells that helped fixed your mind.” She smiled and looked at William, “Now, while I was working on your memories, I noticed something, your world saw the royal wedding invasion, tell me,” She leaned in a little. “Would you like to know what really happened?” William only stared at Luna with a look that Luna only chuckled, as it was a look she had seen on Twilight’s face whenever she got the chance to learn something new, and she took the expression as the only thing she needed to begin her telling of the Canterlot Wedding. “First of all,” She smiled a little and looked around before leaning in. “The Mane Six.” She giggled and upon seeing William shocked look and worry, smirked. “By the way, they are being called that in my new security documents for the Night Guards, much better than the old E-Team moniker.” William just looked at Luna and opened and closed his mouth as if he was a fish out of water. “Well,” Luna hummed as she pulled back. “They knew about Shining Armor, I mean, he did use an excuse to always accompany the Princess to visit Ponyville.” She seemed sad. “Which from what I had heard, was a blast, try being the Captain of the Royal Guard when you have Princess Celestia the prankster, and Twilight Sparkle your sister causing mayhem.” Luna chuckled at some unknown stories of the past before reigning in her laughter and moved forward upon her tale. “Anyway, yes, they knew Shining Armor, but it was in fact a shock for them, you see, the wedding invite was held up due to security, and since Spike was a dragon, the two letters arrived at the same time. One by regular mail that was postmarked with a date in Shining Armor’s writing three weeks before the postmark from the post office.” Luna smirked at William’s confused look, “This is important, besides it is rather hard not to remember that detail when Twilight yells at the Secretary who held up the letter, so they could do a ‘Proper’ background check. So, here is where it got interesting, I got to hear them talk about this so this I heard first hoof.” Twilight was glaring daggers as she marched to the home of her big brother. She was going to confront him, and ask what happened, she also was going to find out what happened to Cadence. She knocked on the door, and after a minute Cadence opened the door with a smile. “Oh Twilight, how are you doing?” “Good Cadence,” She had deliberately used those words as that was what she always called her foal sitter. “I just got some questions I would like to ask before,” She paused as she noticed her big brother walking up from outside. With a small kick to the door with a rear hoof, She looked around with worry. “I must say.” Cadence began. “I was hoping you would come sniffing around.” Twilight turned her head and blinked at the strange green glow, this wasn’t Cadences magic. She tried to take a step back only to hear a hiss, Twilight being one to panic a little spun around and, came nose to nose with herself. She heard laughter, laughter and tone that was most definitely not Cadence’s laughter. She stepped back feeling trapped when suddenly fire began to circle around her, Green Fire to be precise, “What’s?” She began, only to hear her voice speaking from the mouth of the imposter. “Going on?” The imposter Twilight only smiled. “Why, making sure the Elements of Harmony won’t work.” The other Twilight only began to laugh with the, what Twilight realized was an imposter Twilight as she began to sink down into the ground. “Hold on, You’re telling me, that the Changeling Queen,” William interrupted with a wave of his hand, “She knew, and had the plans to replace Twilight?” Luna only nodded her head. “Yes, tell me, if one of your enemies could sneak in, replace one of your most powerful weapon with a dummy or have a way that would prevent them from being used. Would they?” William only shivered and nodded his head. “She was smart.” Luna grunted. “And she almost won as well.” She looked at William, “Time is short and I should be napping myself before this evening. So I will cover the highlights for now.” She rose a glass of water with her magic, something that William was still finding it hard to believe but it was happening in front of his eyes, there were rules being applied here, and for a moment he wished he was a physicist like his grandfather, or more into math like his father, heck his brother would be better adapted at studying this. Luna’s voice cut into his thoughts as she began again. “So, Twilight spent two days in the caves, the first day working to get out. On the second day she found the real Cadence, which she used the Sunshine, Sunshine phrase.” Luna smiled and laughed a little before shaking her head. William knew there was a funny story there but he wouldn’t ask at the moment. “So, they broke out at the last watch my guards have before the Solar Guards took over. I say this because they ran into about five of my guards,” She paused a beat, “Literally ran into them. The sun had just come up, so they roused me from my bed while the guards escorted them.” My guards were held up when it turned out the guards in front of the gate were changelings, This was a disaster for the guard, having changelings hidden in the guard.” She shook her head. “While Twilight and Cadence went and crashed the castle, and having two Twilight attacked each other, I led the Moonbeam division right into the caves. We, their was a fight underground before we were able to capture what was a teleportation device the Changelings were using to get into the cave system. They were to wait for the dome to fall before flooding out of the cave system.” William just sat there, even the cliff notes he was getting was changing an event that was big. He just stayed still while Luna finished. “What I saw of the images for the ending is about right. I didn’t want to scare the others with the news of a second wave, so I cleaned up, flew up to my sister and asked rather nonchalantly, ‘What did I miss?’ the look my sister gave me almost made me break my own mask to break up laughing.” She extended her wings. “That,” he finished in a grandiose voice, “Is how the wedding really happened.” “Well, part of it,” Came another voice and two heads turned to see, Celestia standing in the doorway smiling, she must have been there awhile. “but the events are in the right order, however my sister is right, there is not much time. I would like to speak with you before we change the celestial bodies for the evening if that is fine with my sister.” “Of course Tia,” Luna bowed her head and left the room, closing the doors. Celestia only looked around before leaning in. “Thanks to you, I finally know what her barracks infirmary looks like,” She leaned back to a normal stance. “I can see you are getting stronger, let me help you out of the bed and we can walk a little bit.” With the help of some magic William found himself helped out of the bed and began to walk with the Solar Princess. “Tell me more about your world, how do you see your own people?” William while still walking remained silent. He was thinking, but Celestia paused and held out a wing to stop him from walking. “Your silence tells me your people are complicated, some of your muscle twitches inform me that some of the things you know are not, good,” She smiled at the shocked look of William as he slowly turned to fully look at Celestia, “Silence can at times be just as loud as Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice, but that is what I thought, humanity, is complicated.” She smiled after that. “I actually liked that, humans have so many political viewpoints, and views of-” “How-” William began, but a wing whacking him in the face silenced him. “You may get away with that with my sister, but with me, when I am talking, you shall listen and respond only when I am done.” The tone of voice was not of scolding but of a mother teaching with love a child proper manners. She waited a bit before continuing, “views of the world, and views of each other,” She smiled in that way that William knew from Luna that she was enjoying this, “I know this, because of what Luna gave me when she and I shared information when you first arrived in our throne room.” She paused, and smiled such that it caused William to slowly relax, “I see that answers your question, now, I think you show enough strength to get dressed in your dress uniform and join my men and I for planning for the dawn attack.” William only nodded his head as Celestia began to lead him to another room to gather his items. While doing so, he wondered just how Earth would handle someone like Celestia? Let alone how would Equis handle Earth, he shook his head to clear his thoughts as he got dressed in his dress uniform and making sure that the items were still where they were placed by the Lunar Guards earlier that day. He walked out of the changing room and looked at the Princess before opening his mouth. “What is today’s date? last I heard it was the Fourth.” Celestia only nodded her head. “Yes, being in bed and sleeping a lot can change one’s perspective on time. Today is the Fifth.” William only nodded his head before falling into step behind Celestia as they began to travel to another part of the castle. The show never did fully realize how massive the Castle was both above and below the mountain. Right now he had the feeling he was heading towards a room that was more towards the inside of the Castle. He was still trying to come to terms that he was in Canterlot, in a Castle that defied most engineering designs by just existing in reality and that it must have been supported by magic. “Your highness?” William began. “I will not answer anything about my own capitals designs or structure as that is still classified material that is not open to common knowledge, only that it can do this, and is safe. It has been perched here for over five hundred years.” The way she spoke the time made William wonder if she was being vague on purpose with him. He had a feeling somehow that this was much older, but why? He had no real full memories of Luna knowing this, but then why was his gut telling him she was lying? Somehow he remained silent for most of the trip through the halls and so wrapped up in thoughts he was only semi paying attention to the turns and paths he was taking.