After his "enlightenment" Aaron took days to recover. It was all his fault, he had forced the memory bond between him and Princess Celestia to flow backwards and had nearly killed both of them. But she understood his angle a little more now, and now that he had seen the collective sins of his dead race they haunted him like the nightmares of Luna had before. The suffering, the sorrow and the agony of human history made him cringe like a child. He hadn't seen either alicorn in days, most likely recovering from their ordeal as well.
It had come as the ultimate surprise that Luna hadn't killed him in cold blood when she spotted Celestia bleeding and convulsing on the royal throne. She had come close, he was sure, but had held back when she learned that the human was their reason for existence. Celestia had saved him, but for what end? Was he some kind of prisoner? A criminal to be punished? Or even more degrading, a pet to the immortal alicorn?
They sure fed him like a pet, plates of good food replaced the slop the guards slid into his cell three times a day. And he received water to wash with and fresh clothing, tailored somehow just for his specifications. Occasionally the presence would return, not saying anything nor displaying any images except those of worry. Like it was checking on him. Only once did it actually send the images to speak.
It was not your fault. Do not lose hope.
His rest and recovery was interrupted by another of the cut and paste gold-armored pegasus guards, the way he carried the shackles told the human that it was interview time again.
"Alright prisoner, behave well and we will not have any problems today." He got close to the human, muttering straight to his ear. "And if you hurt the Princess again, I personally will wear your skinned hide at the Grand Galloping Gala."
This time they marched him not the throne room, but to another chamber. It looked like auxiliary chambers, made for private discussion. The guards and their charge stopped at a large oaken door, unshackling the creature they held prisoner, the guards gave simple instructions. "You will not touch the Princess, you will not offend the Princess in any way, are we clear demon?"
"Clear as crystal you farmyard nag." The stoic guard did nothing to retort, instead sending him inside. It was a plain room, small windows at one end letting in plenty of light. In the center sat Celestia, fully recovered from the near fatal ordeal. In front of her sat a chair and a table, made for a human being. But the most curious part was what lay on the table, a fully outfitted chess board.
"Hello Aaron, won't you take a seat?" She indicated the chair, with her magic she pulled out the chair for him.
"What is all of this?" he said, taking the politely offered chair.
"Your memories told me you liked to play chess, I myself happen to be a rather accomplished player."
The human looked at the chess set, it was fairly similar to a normal chess set except the rooks were dragons, the pawns bat winged pegasi, the knights minotaurs, the bishops unicorns and the king being a partially eclipsed moon. He had never seen such a beautiful set, his side was pure ebony with gems set as eyes. The detail was breathtaking, each individual hair could be seen on the magically crafted pieces. Each figure's emotion could be seen as they posed for combat. Celestia's were what looked like either silver or pure platinum with normal winged pegasi as her pawns. This was easily worth a fortune, a man could ask for this set as a king's ransom! He resisted the urge to pocket the alicorn queen on his side.
He snapped out of incredulity. "White goes first, your move."
Celestia's horn became encompassed with magic, a single pawn on her side moved forward. "You know, I could have sworn I heard music when you reversed the flow. Strange music, but somehow fitting."
Aaron considered the move, then moved one of his pawns forward to expose his bishop. "Yeah, that was mostly involuntary, I tend to try and counteract traumatic things with music. Which by the way you stole from us."
Celestia moved a knight to cover the pawn's flank, shaking her head at the odd human.
"Why play so defensively?" he said moving his second pawn to allow his queen to play.
"It is my way." Moving a pawn to give her king moving space. "Your tactic is already so aggressive."
"It's a little quirk of ours, aggressive strategies to combat an aggressive opponent."
"We are not talking about chess anymore, are we?"
"I never was." He moved his right hand knight forward to action. "We were children of a world that sought to chew us up and spit us out with every waking moment. We had to be aggressive in order to survive."
Another white pawn forward to rest beside the knight. "You had to be stopped Aaron, your kind would have collapsed in on themselves if they did not learn the truth."
Aaron moved the opposing pawn to mirror its white adversary. "Truth is a lie. We began to realize that in our first civilizations."
Celestia moved her queen side bishop to rest between her pawns. "What a flawed way of thinking, the very thought is oxymoronic."
Aaron mirrored her bishops move. "Truth has no meaning, if you understand that truth is relative, then nothing is really true."
Celestia castled her queen in a defensive move. "How can you say that?"
Aaron looked up from the board, "There is no universal truth, only cold hard facts. Our intelligence dances with the wonderful idea that somehow our ideals are better than our rivals. A once great group of men acknowledged that fact and used it for the good of mankind." With little thought he moved his other knight forward to rest between his pawns.
Celestia slid her queen side rook over a space to rest next to the king. "Who were these men?"
"Murderers, thugs, killers for hire. They had a mantra, 'Nothing is true, everything is permitted.'" He moved his king's place pawn one space forward.
Th golden aura on Celestia's horn flashed away, her cool lavender eyes filled with repulsion. "How barbaric! You idolized those killers for what they did?"
Aaron smirked at her discomfort, even managing a mirthless chuckle. "No, we recognized them for their ideas and the logic of what they said. Besides, these men existed only as fiction, entertainment for the masses. But their message meant that truth is objective and relative to the beholder. Nothing is really true then, and everything has free reign to be done by our free will."
The game lay mostly forgotten, the alicorn considering the words of the human. "But there is the truth of love and peace, the truth of harmony."
"No, harmony is another relative concept with no definable meaning. What you saw as utter chaos at the beginning of the war was business as usual for us humans."
"You were rife with your evil ways, you had to be stopped or you and the earth would have perished."
"Did you ever consider that good and evil are just words, Celestia? Men who did evil things did not believe they did evil, the dichotomy of good and evil is another relative concept. If a man steals a loaf of bread from a store to feed his family, is what he did evil? He simply acted to forward what he believed was a good cause, getting the food to feed his family. If what you say is true, the entire extent of human actions are defined as choosing what somebody believed to be the lesser of two evils. And did the thought ever occur to you that my race considers you personally to be incredibly evil?"
The human awaited the alicorn's answer, but she gave none. He continued with his attack, "You are such a wonderful sophist Celestia. You have sat here and listened to everything I have said, but in reality you haven't said a word. You must be the absolute best politician spouting such pretty, meaningless words like 'truth' and 'harmony'."
No wonder Luna hated the human, he picked them apart like string. But, he was right.
Aaron's fingers touched the graceful alicorn piece, the queen to his set. "You know, ponykind is like the queen. From your birth everything was handed to you on a silver platter. When you do actually fight, you wreak havoc like no other and strike in unexpected ways. Humanity is more like the knight, or better yet the pawns. We had to fight for everything we had, we scraped together a technologically advanced industrial civilization from nothing but rocks and our minds. We fought for our rights, we died to reach our place in the world, we earned our way of life, and the queen can come along at any moment and just ruin the pawn's day, can't she? The queen just languishes in what the pawns built, robbing them of their safety by making them march to their deaths." The human looked up from the board, then with a single finger tipped over his king. "This game is over Celestia, I refuse to be your plaything, your pet that you can try to rob of his dignity."
Celestia blinked, the controlled fury of his tirade sinking in. "Why are you so angry with us? I thought you were happy with us ponies."
"I was never happy, I was lured into your false sense of security and love. I should never have trusted a single one of you."
"You know that isn't true. Your memories betray you, you were happier with us, better off than you ever were with mankind. You just keep lying to yourself, why do you lie to yourself Aaron?"
"If I am happy, then I fail my race. Plain and simple. I don't care what happens to me, I just want them to live again."
Celestia realized what he was saying. "You mean, you are willing to die for them?" The human nodded. "No, this isn't about them, this is still about you. You want to die for your kind so you can find some kind of redemption for your actions. You want to be some kind of martyr and hope that redeems mankind. You want to suffer." Princess Celestia stood, walking to the human's side of the table she tried to drape a wing over the broken man.
"Don't touch me, you will never understand."
Celestia retracted her wing, walking out the door of the private chamber. "I may not understand, but I know somepony who might," she murmured under her breath.
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"This is a terrible idea Celestia! You know just as well as I do that one of us will go insane and tear the other apart."
"We have to try Luna, your suffering and his make you two the only ones who can actually find common ground with one another."
The two talked in Luna's tower top quarters, the black alicorn having been awoken from her daytime rest. The human still sat unaware in the room with the chess set.
"You do not have to look like yourself, I can disguise you to look like me and he'll never know the difference."
"The idea is foalish! I do not even play chess." Luna turned away, completely adamant.
"Calmly Luna, I beg of you to try, it may do you good to talk with the creature that hurt you on equal terms, before it was always him as a prisoner or an enemy."
The night blue alicorn snorted, "Fine, make it quick, I need my rest for raising the moon this evening."
"You will not regret this." And so the white alicorn began her spell of illusion. After a few minutes, Celestia finished. "Why Luna, it is like looking in a mirror!" she said proudly of her work. "Now, shoulders up, I do not slouch like that. And hold your head more regally. Like this." she demonstrated for her look-alike sister.
"Celestia, you have been lecturing me like this for centuries, I think I can handle myself."
"Very well, shoo now! He has been waiting nearly half an hour."
"Both of us have lived for thousands of years, I think he has learned a little patience."
"Aha! See, you two already have common ground." Luna rolled her eyes and walked out her door. Trudging down the winding staircase and through the vaulted, arched hallways to the room where the human resided she wondered why in all of Mother's creation had she agreed to this foalishness. She stopped at the oaken door. Taking a deep breath she steeled herself.
"Alright Luna, he is just a human, you knew humans. They were harmless and mostly friendly....mostly. Yes, this will go just fine."
The back of her mind disagreed and screamed out in protest, "Run! Run like the wind! He might hurt us again! Get out of here you foal!"
Raising a hoof she pushed the door open, there he sat, calm and complacent. Maybe just a shred of malice in his eyes. No, wait, that's just his eye's natural color. She was panicking as she sat behind the table and on the white side of the chess board.
The human stared at her, his eyes boring holes past her illusion. "I thought I told you earlier Celestia, I am not your pet, I am through with your games."
"Um, I know, I uh, just wanted to play one more game. One more friendly game." she put on a fake smile. The human's eyes narrowed, suspicion dripping with every blink.
"Well?" he said after a minute of staring.
"Well what?"
"White always moves first, unless you forgot that in the thirty minutes you were away."
"Oh! Um, no, I was just formulating a strategy." nervously she moved a pawn forward. Why had she not paid attention when Celestia tried to play chess with her! Why couldn't the human play something simple like perudo!?
"You seem awfully tense, Celestia. Did you have a breakdown or am I just more intimidating in this light?" he moved a knight out to the field.
"No, um, I merely remembered a treaty that really needs to be considered and redrafted by tomorrow!" She mirrored his knight. Was she sweating? She felt like she was sweating. This room was very warm, maybe she should open a window.
"Then why are you wasting my time and yours when you should be doing your homework?" He moved another pawn forward.
"Do not talk to me like that! I did nothing to offend you!" She moved her other knight to the field.
"I'll talk how I like Luna." Luna's eyes were like dinner plates.
"Oh, you poor dear, you must be delusional. It is I, Princess Celestia!" This pain in her chest must be what one of those so called 'heart attacks' must feel like.
"Let it go Luna, I think we are both mature enough to have this discussion like adults."
Luna let the illusion fade away, her blue-black fur and flowing blue mane returning. "How did you know?"
"Simple, first off, Celestia is calm and composed no matter what. Second, you displayed a random yet aggressive strategy whereas Celestia would have played defensively. Third, your cutie mark was still the same when you walked in."
Buck it all! Celestia had forgotten her cutie mark! Whether intentional or not, she was going to have a talk with her sister later.
"Why are you here Luna? The last I recall you wanted me dead for hurting Celestia. In fact, I recall fearing for my existence for the past two millenia, afraid that you would come out of the dark to grab me and throw in some torture chamber, AGAIN."
She snorted, "Celestia seems to think that we can help each other. She thinks that the two of us are alike somehow, and that will allow for some kind of 'therapy'." each word laced with sarcasm and scorn.
The two mortal enemies sat across from one another, staring down the other, neither willing to blink first. Aaron broke the ice.
"You never did answer me in Ponyville, how was the moon?" he said smugly.
The alicorn's eyes narrowed. "Rocky, barren, a completely lifeless hell where all one does is have nightmares about what one has done."
"Sounds a bit like cryo-stasis. Did you see our lander up there?"
"That odd hunk of metal and plastic with the tacky flag sticking out of the dirt? Yes, I did. I slept in it occasionally."
"That 'tacky flag' is the flag of my forefathers." he said with a bite of anger.
"Red, white and blue do tend to clash when put together. But I suppose it would be fitting for a nation of creatures outwardly declaring their narcissism to the rest of the universe."
The human's lips curled back in a snarl. "What's the matter Luna? Lose faith in humanity? Did you give up on us and let that hideous thing feed on our souls?"
Luna stood and slammed her front hooves on the table, her blue wings flared in anger, "Celestia and I hunted Discord to the ends of the Earth and back a dozen times! We managed to capture him with a few humans still alive, but there were too few of you left and you faded away!"
"Why do none of those ponies know what I am!?! WHY AM I A CREATURE OF MYTH LUNA!?" he roared.
"I was trapped on the moon for one thousand years! In that time Celestia decided your memories only brought hate and chaos to the world when she saw what I became! What I became, because of you."
"Because of me? You are saying that we were forgotten, because of me?! God damn I have heard some lame excuses, but this tops it!" He leaned back in his chair, folding his arms and denying this allegation.
"I never gave up on humanity, Aaron."
When she called him by his name, Aaron knew Luna had spoken the utter truth, but he still could not believe it. "I know you are telling me the truth, why do I want to believe you are lying?"
"This whole monstrous episode in history is because of the two of us. Our personal blood feud drove you humans away, drove us to suppress your memory. And drove the two of us to the extremes of insanity and depravity."
"This whole thing is...our fault? The war, the plague, everything?" Luna nodded solemnly.
"I live with the unending guilt that I failed to save humanity, every time I close my eyes I hear their screams as they murdered one another under the influence of Discord." Luna shut her eyes that shimmered with tears, holding back the weeping that came with the reminder of her failure and of horror that only Hell could ever compare.
Aaron looked at his enemy in a new light. "You hear them too?" he said softly to the alicorn. Luna looked into his eyes, his bloodshot, pain filled eyes.
"I never gave up on your kind." Luna's horn glowed with magic, a small object appearing on the table. "If you truly saw our memories, you will know what this means." It was a doll, a rag doll of a pony. Though faded by centuries and weathering of time, he knew that doll. A flashback, Luna picking up the doll from the home he had seen Discord so violently tear apart, weeping for the lost soul that had once treasured the item.
Aaron gently lifted the doll, it looked patched in places, like Luna had taken extreme measures to keep it safe and sound over the centuries. "Why? Why keep it?" he gently asked the alicorn.
"To remind myself that we had harmony, no matter how brief. Maybe that we could have harmony again one day."
"I...I don't know how to feel about this."
The corners of Luna's mouth curled up ever so slightly, her eyes focused on the doll that had been her only friend for centuries, "Little Moonflower has always been there for me, even when I was lost in the darkness. Celestia doesn't even know I have her."
Aaron thought for a second, here was his worst enemy confiding the fact to him that she still slept with a doll after two millenia. This poor creature sitting across from him wasn't something to fear, her pain and her suffering made his own seem lessened. Though she would live countless centuries beyond himself, she was as mortal and as haunted as he was. His nemesis sat there and just seemed so....vulnerable. So.....human, for lack of a better word.
"...I'm sorry Luna."
Her gaze snapped from the doll to his face, unsure of what she just heard. "What did you say?"
"I'm sorry for what I did. To you, to us, and for what we did to humanity."
Luna looked into his eyes once again. "I'm sorry I hurt you Aaron, I'm sorry I couldn't save them, I'm sorry for everything."
The human gave the doll back to Luna, so many wounds that had festered now began to close. Saying two simple words just seemed to make a world of difference for both of them and mend so many rifts in their lives. He no longer hated the alicorn, he felt sympathy for her. She was really the only creature on the planet that truly understood him and his pain. Luna stood and left the room, Moonflower gripped under a wing. Aaron sat alone once again with the resplendent chess set, yet it no longer held the allure it once had. He too stood, going to the door he called for a guard to take him back to his cell.
Luna trudged up to her quarters, two millenia of hate and nightmares just seemed to evaporate after this session. Her future felt uncertain, but now she believed she could rest peacefully knowing that she had reconciled with the creature of her nightmares. She entered her chambers to see Celestia waiting for her, Luna gently placed Moonflower in her special box, then went to her beloved sister.
"Luna, I haven't seen this look in your eyes for centuries. You two felt compassion for each other. I'm so proud of you little sister!" Celestia stood and wrapped both of her massive wings around the smaller alicorn, giving her a feathered hug.
"Celestia, I don't think the nightmares will come back anymore." she said into her sister's shoulder. She wrapped her own wings around Celestia, the dawn of hope finally cresting after her endless night of despair.
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While Luna had her sister to be there for her on this most trying day, the imprisoned human had nobody. Nobody to hug him and say the nightmares were over, that he had made some kind of peace with his most ancient foe. Or so he thought.
Once replaced into his cell, Aaron felt the presence once again fill the room.
"What do you want? I just had a very emotional day and I don't feel like talking about it."
But the presence wasn't here to check on him, a flood of emotions swept into his mind. Joy, pride and love so strong he could almost feel the spectral arms wrapped around him, telling him he did good.
"You saw that? How? I thought you were confined to this one room."
An image of a pyramid with a single open eye at the top flashed into his mind.
"What? Are you saying you're some kind of a pyramid builder? Oh! The all seeing eye! You see everything!"
It felt like it was clapping in applause.
The human grew confused, "I thought you were some kind of ghost or something."
A picture of scales, scales for measuring; one weight labeled yes, the other no, not really tipping either way.
"Not really, huh? How about some kind of figment of my imagination?"
A series of images that said something like; Dead wrong, very real.
"Okay, since you seem to be enjoying this little game of charades so much, how about a hint?"
A picture of a happy mother singing to her newborn.
"You are some kind of parent?"
A feeling of expecting more, like it was twirling a hand to keep him saying things. Another image of a mother, but clad in green wisps with himself in one arm.
"You're my Mother? That's impossible, my mom died two thousand years ago."
The old expression 'facepalm' came to mind along with another image, the same motherly woman in green holding the whole world in her arms, singing softly to all life.
It all fell into place suddenly, "Dear God, you're everybody's mother, you're....God!"
A feeling of nodding and a spectral kiss on his forehead, followed by a gentle laugh.
"I'm so sorry sir! I mean ma'm! I mean Mother!"
Mother sent feelings of soothing and comfort to the human.
"I'm so sorry for yelling at you! Please don't smite me or anything!"
Mother felt confused, so she sent an image almost questioning his words. It was an old episode of South Park, Cartman is yelling at God when a lightning bolt strikes him and sends him to the hospital for being a bad child.
"Yeah, something like that." he said nervously.
Mother sent her laughter at the scene. She obviously found it kind of funny, albeit a tad bit morbid.
"Wait, how did you get that memory?"
Sounds of radio static and various other electronic noises.
"You picked up the signals from our televisions? You watched us through our technology?"
He felt the spectral nods again, this time Mother started showing black and white reruns of "I Love Lucy." The fairly harmless slapstick comedy seemed to make the eternal Earth Goddess laugh, so long as nobody got hurt.
"You get stranger every second. Alright, I've had a full day, Mother," he said awkwardly. "I'm tired and I need some sleep."
She seemed to understand that, and like any good mother started to fill his mind with soothing music.
"Oh for Christ's sake, I'm a grown man! I don't need a lullaby to get to sleep!"
He felt like he was being scolded by the goddess.
"Alright, I guess I'm not really that tired. What do you want to do?"
She seemed delighted at the prospect of spending time with her child. Consternation and thought poured through the ethereal bond. Then a brilliant idea. His entire body stood without his command.
"Hey! Woah! What are you doing?" Though still in control of his own head, Mother had easy control of the rest of him. His arms raised and did a few test movements. She obviously did not achieve physical form very often, this was very novel for Her. He began to sway and step to music that played in his mind.
"You cannot be serious, you are an all powerful God and you want to dance?" The spectral feeling of nodding again, the goddess let go of him. But it felt confused at the thought of 'all powerful', sending him an image of the sun in question.
"The sun? What do you mean?"
Mother sent an image of a man wreathed in flame holding a child sheened in green, smiling at his daughter.
"The sun is your father? That makes sense I guess. Why are you talking to me? Am I your favorite? Your messiah or prophet?"
Confusion again, she didn't seem to understand the concept of a messiah or even religion.
"Hold on, I think I have something to help." He sent her memories of men preaching to crowds and of great leaders throughout history.
Definitely a negative, she didn't seem to like that idea at all, sending back an image of everyone, human and pony, working together and loving one another.
"So you want me to wake up humanity!"
The implied nod again. But something else, a picture of a man, but with his soul standing next to him. The man appeared to be complete, but his essence had a hole in it.
"Humanity is broken? Come on, how bad could it be?"
A scream of anguish, Mother blamed herself for something.
It is all my fault! I left a hole in your hearts! I made the mistake! Father was right, I should never have tampered!
Her weeping felt so near, her emotion so strong that the message came as actual words. He felt sorry for the Earth goddess who had to live forever with her mistake.
He felt sorrow and tears. Images from televisions began to fill his mind. Children dying in streets from starvation, men brutally killing each other in wars, women crying and oppressed for no other reason than because 'God willed it.' Bombs falling, explosions that rocked mountains, toxic waste flowing from cities, forests leveled for no discernible reason. Mines that emptied Mother's very womb, millions of lives being extinguished for an insult. All these things and a million more flooded his head. Mother was frightened by them, loving children did not hurt each other like this.
"So you sent the Surges to pacify us?" He sent his own memory of the third Surge, the waves of magic pulsing from the base of this very mountain. With the memories flowing between Aaron and the spirit of the Earth, he had a revelation. "It was you. You sent those memories across the link between me and Celestia. You defended us, after all we've done to hurt each other and you. You stood up for me and humanity..."
He felt the nod again, but her melancholy was too painful, and her essence began to withdraw from the room.
Everyone deserves a second chance.
"Wait, I'm sorry! Don't go! Don't leave me here alone!" he was truly sorry he had hurt her feelings, he felt like she was actually his mother, and he had hurt her.
The presence returned, comfort and love flowing through their bond. Music began to play in his mind, music that had played across the radio waves centuries ago. Images of love, compassion and life flowed with the words. He felt as though she sat next to him, silently enjoying his company for what it was worth.
I see trees of green, red roses too.
I see them bloom, for me and you.
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
I see skies of blue, and clouds of white.
The bright blessed days, dark sacred nights.
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.
The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky.
Are also on the faces, of people going by.
I see friends shaking hands, saying 'how do you do?'
They're really saying, I love you.
"You really are Her." he said as the Mother of all life crooned him to peaceful sleep.
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Not as dramatic of an end to Luna and Aaron's feud as I had originally planned. Originally Aaron challenged her to a duel, but is sorely defeated. It didn't really advance the plot and demonized the Princess a little too much. The song "What a Wonderful World" was originally sang by Louis Armstrong, and I felt as though it accurately portrayed the harmony and love that the Earth goddess is trying to achieve. That and it really is a good song. My portrayal of "Mother" does make her a bit of an oddball, a nearly all powerful god watching I Love Lucy and dancing? What kind of crack you smokin' PegasusKlondike? But I believe it makes her more of a lovable and naive character, more like an actual loving parent as opposed a to vengeful and wrathful goddess of chaos.