Chapter 44. Going to the Moon.
The moon was a lonely place. The only resident was Luna, who was there for a thousand years. But she was rescued by a few stars.The stars that freed Nightmare Moon were also Discord’s doing. Anyway, it has been vacant for a while, but Luna checked in again. From the moment she felt something slip into her brain she knew it: The corruption was back and it was out to get her. She knew that there was corrupted magic in Martin, but it was so dormant that she didn’t worry about it. But she was wrong.
Now she was on the moon, her mind had divided into a corrupted and a non-corrupted part, and the corrupted part was gaining control fast. She knew she had to do something, but she didn’t know what. For all the knowledge that she gained over the years she didn’t know how to fight the corruption alone. For every single occasion that the corruption took a shot at her Celestia had been there to help her. The corruption never went after Celestia for reasons unknown to them both.
Her persona itself stood completely still on the moon, nothing moving. She wasn’t even breathing, her magic took care of her bodily functions so that she could focus completely on the mess in her mind.
And what a mess it was. After the last time she set up many a barrier to ward of everything from mind-invading spells to corruption, but this time they were all knocked down as if they were nothing. She was fighting mental hand to corrupted hand. And she was losing.
There was nothing she could do anymore. She could only let herself loose and hope that the corruption would let her be kept a prisoner. She salvaged all of the sanity that she had left and hid in a corner of her mind, throwing up defenses that even she didn’t know how to knock down. Only her sister knew how to and that was good, because the corruption had access to her memories. This barrier meant that the corruption never could wholly drive her out and that if needed, her sister could rescue her.
The corruption wasn’t like the last time. Last time it only sought to destroy what Celestia had made of Equestria. This time is was going to be subtler. The corruption was going to replace Celestia and be a different ruler. It was going to be even more devilish than last time. This time its plans were to cleanse Equestria of every filth it could find and make Equestria the best place in the whole universe. And then it would let it all crash down. There would be so much panic that not only Equestria would collapse, but the whole planet would come down in turmoil. And it would come up on top.
That was its plan and it wasn’t going to be deterred by anything. The human would soon be under its control and would be a perfect weapon. The memories of war machines would help, but his sight alone brings fear to the ponies. He’s the perfect weapon.
Celestia felt it. She felt the magic residue of a very long distance teleport. She quickly teleported herself to the room next door, but she only saw a very distraught Martin. Not caring for feelings at the moment she stood on her back legs and grabbed Martin by the shoulders. “What happened?” She yells at him.
His eyes glazed over for a second then they focused. “We simply hugged and then she teleported away. That’s all I know.”
Celestia’s eyes turned down to the floor. “I’m sorry, but I have to search for her right now. Please wait in my room.” She quickly said before teleporting away, leaving Martin to care for himself.
The moon now had for the first time in its existence two habitants. It was only a shame that both of them weren’t so friendly to each other. By the time Celestia arrived Luna had already surrendered and her mind was damaged, but not destroyed. ‘Luna’ sat there, not moving a muscle, when Celestia approached, but even when she came close enough to touch…. Nothing happened. It wasn’t until Celestia actually touched her shoulder was it that ‘Luna’ did anything.
‘Luna’s’ head turned around, it did a full 180. Her mouth turned into a very wide smile that was on the verge of crazy. After less than a second it went across that line and broke new crazy ground. Celestia was genuinely scared, something that hadn’t happened in a long time.
“L-Luna, what’s happened?” Celestia asked with a trembling voice.
“Let’s just say that Luna won’t come to the answering machine for a while.” She said laughingly.
Celestia was even more scared. The corruption finally had her sister. “W-What’s an answering machine?” She asked.
“Oh, some human thing. It must’ve rubbed off on me when I was inside his mind. Now that I am speaking about that, his mind is a wonderful place. So many methods of destruction. It’s every tyrant’s wet dream! You should take a look, I’m sure you could be in there for years and still find new stuff to look at.”
‘It never hurts to ask.’ Celestia thought. “Will you leave Luna if I promise not to throw you into the sun?”
‘Luna’s’ body turned to meet her head and the smile stayed. “Nah, I think I can manage on my own. But I think it shall be your flesh that shall sizzle in the sun. Did you know that Martin is an omnivore?”
Celestia said nothing. She didn’t know about it, but it didn’t surprise her either. She simply nods.
“So, you must know that Martin hasn’t eaten meat in a while and I figure, he would love to take a bite outta you.” ‘Luna’ opened her mouth and showed her teeth. Instead of the normal molars she had a mouthful of sharp teeth. “Maybe I’ll even get started already. You do look quite good if I might say so.”
“Luna don’t do this. Fight that monster.” Celestia said.
“Have you lost your ears. I already said that Luna ain’t here no more.” ‘Luna’ said. “I figured that Nightmare Moon got a bit stale, so I got a new name, Blood Moon.” With those last few words she charged at Celestia.