Predatory

by Crazy Laughter


Bleeding Sun

So, here's the last chapter, kind of, of this story. I think of the next chapter as an epiloque to this story, as this story more or less focused on Fenrir, so, yeah. Have fun. Oh, be sure to open the links in another tab. there will be a few in here, if I remember to add them.

 Bleeding Sun

  “... And then I had to take his kid to have his stomach pumped. You would not believe the amount of effort and expensive gifts it took to keep that him quiet about the whole fiasco. More wine, your highness?” Smuggler smoothly transitioned from his interesting story to offering her a refill of her wine glass. Luna glanced down at her glass and found it empty. She must have emptied it while the man in an infuriating hat talked.



  “Yes, thank you.” Luna answered and picked her wineglass up by the stem and placed it under the offered wine bottle. She could smell the rich smell of the old vintage wine even before she brought the glass under her nose to savor it. She had missed quiet nights under the stars with a good bottle of wine, but a millenium on the moon had ruined the novelty of a quiet night and looking up at her stars. She found it hard to fall asleep without hearing some proof of people living and moving around her. “Someone might think you are attempting to get me drunk.”



  “Be at ease, your highness, as we have no such ulterior motives. We wish for you to have a relaxing night of camaraderie in our company, that is all.” Priest assured in a silky accented voice and offered his own glass of red wine to clink her own against. With an appreciative smile, she did so with a regal nod toward the courteous man.



  “Speak for yourself, eunuch. I wouldn’t mind keeping the royal bedchambers warm and alive with the sound of pleased royalty.” Smuggler blurted out with a hearty laugh and rosy flush on his cheeks. He slammed his hand on the shoulder of the man in a camo uniform next to him, causing the man’s bottle of beer to foam over. “If your highness does not think I would be enough for her royal standards, then I’m sure Soldier here could be coerced into joining in.”



  “Refill.” The solemn man simply said as he downed the rest of his half-spilled drink and stood up to walk to the bar. He didn’t even acknowledge the fiercely blushing princess of the night sitting next to him and shook Smuggler’s hand off rather roughly.



  “Don’t worry about him, he’s Finnish, you see. We’re lucky he’s said a word, other than inquiring where the beer is at.” Smuggler commented with a laugh, as if this little tidbit about the man would explain everything about his abrasive behaviour.



  “Well, he did only inform us that he was getting more beer, so we’re still waiting.” Priest pointed out, causing Smuggler to let out another laugh.




  “There’s nothing wrong with being quiet, you know. I’m not much of a social butterfly myself, as you know.” Luna interjected, not liking the nearly jeering tone they were talking about Soldier’s quiet demeanour. She knew how even playful words could affect a withdrawn soul and how extroverts thought it their mission to “fix” the introverts among them. Smuggler and Priest glanced at each other before answering her.



  “Don’t we know it, Luna! We had to practically drag you in here, kicking and screaming.” Smuggler said with a smirk, before chugging a good portion of his pint of beer. Priest raised an eyebrow and waved his free hand toward Luna.



  “Well, her lack of clothes might have had something to do with her reluctance, Smuggler.” Luna fiddled with the zipper of her Priest’s jacket, which he had offered to her when Soldier had dragged her into the bar, kicking, screaming and almost as naked as the day she was born. The only other things she had on her person was her crown and royal regalia, but those were only the badges of her office, not something that actually covered her up in any way.



  “Pssh! Details!” Smuggler waved the argument away with a smile and an exaggerated hand gesture. Luna gave him a stern glare, but the man only smiled wider at the attention. Really, the man had no shame whatsoever. Soldier rejoined them right then, but instead of sitting down, he opted to lean on the back of his chair silently, sipping from a frosty bottle of beer with an unreadable expression on his face. HIs gaze shifted from one person to the other, while they stared back at him.



  “I ordered some steak, did you want any?” Soldier asked, gesturing his bottle of beer towards the two men.



  “This place serves food?!” Smuggler blurted and whipped his head toward the bar. The lean old man tending it waved back at him. “Damn right I want steak! I’ll have mine medium!” Smuggler opted to yell his order across the bar, rather than getting up to place his order like any other sensible man would have done.



  “I will take mine well done, thank you.” Priest offered with a grateful nod at Soldier, who simply walked back up to the bar and placed their orders like a normal person. Again, he acted like Luna didn’t exist and Luna had to wonder what she had done to warrant such animosity from the quiet man.



  “Would you have liked something, your highness?” Priest asked carefully as she was still glaring at the uniformed man with his back to them. She gave his back the finger with rather childish enthusiasm, before turning to Priest with what she hoped to be a regal countenance of calm.



  “No, it is quite alright, I am not hungry at the moment, thank you for asking. I also doubt they serve a vegetarian option here.” Luna wondered, while glancing around the cozy pub. Smuggler groaned theatrically and Priest smiled an understanding smile, before glaring Smuggler into silence.



  Priest was about to reassure her about her choice in not taking part in the systematic slaughter of millions of living beings, when the dimly lit pub was bathed with light from the street. They all squinted their eyes and raised their hands to protect them from the glare of the sudden light spilling in. Soldier then stepped up to the table, placed his beer down and quietly looked at each of them again. He then grabbed his rifle, which had been leaning against the edge of the table, clicked the magazine back into place, racking the bolt back almost instantly with practiced ease.



  “I’ll check it out.” He simply stated as he pulled a pair of sunglasses from one of the many pockets in his uniform and placed them over his eyes. He stomped up to the door of the pub, pressed his body to the side of it and threw the door open while keeping his weapon pressed against his shoulder with the other and disappeared into the blazing light.



  Luna’s breath was caught in her throat at the sudden turn of events. What could that light be? Were they the spotlights of cars coming to take her away? The light seemed a little too unfocused and way too bright to be the headlights of any normal car. She also noted that Soldier had not fired a single shot yet, nor had he turned off the light yet, so there had to be some other explanation.



  She let out the breath she had been holding when Soldier walked back into the pub, holding his weapon casually and wisps of smoke coming from parts of his uniform. His face seemed sunburned and the tip of his left boot was burnt off, revealing the metal tip of the boot. Again, he scanned his eyes over the group of three with a grim expression, while they waited.



  “The sun is fucking bleeding.” He seethed as he took off the sunglasses and pointed a finger toward Priest and Smuggler. “This is ends now. We can be pretty damn sure what it means if there’s a bleeding sun in the sky!”



  “Now, Soldier, let’s not…” Smuggler was interrupted when Soldier raised his rifle and shot him twice in the chest. Luna screamed in fright at the painful sound and at the solemn man’s sudden apparent insanity. Priest put his wine glass down, but did nothing but stare at Soldier when he turned the barrel of the rifle toward the holy man.



  “There was no need for violence, Soldier. This could have ended peacefully, over a good steak and great wine.” Priest calmly stated, as the tall man glared down at him. Luna couldn’t take her eyes away from the weapon, nor could she not smell the acrid smell of gunpowder and heated metal in the air. The man who had dragged her here had just killed a man, while ranting about the sun bleeding and somehow blaming them for it.



  “Not when it would mean the death of Celestia. Not only does Equestria need her, Luna would be blamed for her death now. I refuse to incite civil war in a land of magical ponies.” Soldier answered Priest with a similar calm. Priest glared at the insane man for a moment, before nodding and taking his glass of wine in his hand again.



  “Stop acting, Smuggler.” Priest said and nudged Smuggler’s body enough to knock him off of the chair. To Luna’s horror and surprise, Smuggler caught himself before he slid off to the floor and glared at Priest. Smuggler stood up from his chair and started to animatedly argue with the armed man, as if the two bullet holes in his chest were nothing more than a nuisance.



  “What the hell do you think we can do about it? There is nothing we, or Luna for that matter, could do that they are not already capable of. This is the only thing we can do, Soldier. We are not the heroes in this story, we aren’t even the villains! THIS is the best end we can give to this fucking nightmare, you idiot!” Smuggler ended his heated statement by gesturing toward the pub around them.



  How could they know Celestia was in danger, in the verge of death if Soldier were to be believed? Everything was so confusing, nothing made sense. Both Smuggler and Soldier were talking as if it was the end of the world and she understood so very little. She picked up her glass of wine with a shaky hand to try and calm her frayed nerves, but Soldier smacked it out of her hand before she could take a sip.



  “Fucking snap out of it! You tore us out of our fucking reality, you don’t get to give up!” Soldier kicked her chair roughly and both made her nearly fall to the floor and her chair turn to face him, whether she liked to or not. “These two assholes are lying to you. Whatever you might think of as truth right now is something they wanted you to believe.”



  “Soldier, you don’t want to do this. No good will come of it.” Smuggler pleaded, leaning on the table with a grim expression for emphasis. Priest still stayed quiet, observing the situation with those calm and compassionate eyes. Why were they treating the rantings of this madman as truth?



  “We have to do something! I will not let a good pony die, just because you have a fucking plan, Smuggler!” Soldier then slung his rifle on his back and grabbed Luna by the shoulders. He picked her up from the chair like she was a child, despite her being nearly the same height. “You have to remember who you are! You are the ruler of the night court of Equestria, Princess of the Night.”



  “Soldier, stop! You don’t know what you’re doing!” Smuggler shouted, while Priest stayed calm and silent. Why weren’t they stopping him? Why were they letting this madman manhandle their princess in such a fashion?



  “You are Luna, Alicorn of the Moon and the night sky!” Luna stared at the man in shock. Most of what he was saying was true, but what in the world was a…



  Alicorn.



  “You’re a pony, Luna! You walk on freaking hooves and have a magical phallic symbol jutting out of your forehead. You fly on impossibly small wings and push clouds around like they’re senior citizens.” Soldier set her back down on the chair and thrust a hand toward Smuggler aggressively. “For some reason, these assholes wanted to make you think you were human, to trick you into staying here.”



  “I - I am an alicorn… I raise the moon, with magic, I have a horn for that.” Things were flooding back into her mind; Feelings, memories, pictures and sounds all raising up from under the confusion the humans had built and bringing with them one simple truth, she was an alicorn.



  She remembered the buzzing in her ears if she held onto a powerful spell too long and the smell of burning copper when she let so much magical energy cut through the air. She remembered how she enjoyed the cool night air on her wings and coat, how her ethereal mane sometimes refused to settle down in the morning, or when the stars pictured in it flared with blinding light when she was upset. She remembered the heartbreak of spending a thousand years on the moon, only her own rage and petty envy to keep her company.



  “You dare tamper with our mind?! I came here to aid you and this is how you respond to my kindness?!” Luna shot to her feet and concentrated on her magic yet again. The humans had already dragged her down to their level, so screw being careful. Her horn and wings appeared on her human form, but despite knowing exactly who she was, she did not return to her true form. “How have you done this? Do you even know what you have done? I cannot aid you in this form, you buffoons!”



  “Help us? Come now, your highness, we both know that was not was going to happen here. You came here to end us, to wipe away your mistake and move on, with Fenrir defeated and us thrown into whatever hell you dragged us out of. I thought it to only be fair for you to have a stake in what happens to us, at least.” Smuggler ran a hand through his shaggy hair and sat back down on his chair. Priest finished his glass of wine and leaned forward to swipe his hand over Smuggler’s pint, refilling it.



  “To be honest, we didn’t exactly know how the spell that binds us here works. Either things went the way Smuggler thought they would, or we would offer you an explanation for all that has transpired. We either lived to struggle another day, or we left this world in relative luxury.” Priest smiled at the enraged princess calmly and leaned back in his chair. His calm just might have been more infuriating than Smuggler’s selfishness, or Soldier’s aggression.



  “The sun is still bleeding, so are we going to do something about it, or bicker about who’s in the wrong here?” Soldier stepped up between the two other humans and her, not making any move to take sides in the argument, choosing to glare at both parties equally.



  “Yes, if her magic is reaching out to me in such a manner, then she is gravely injured. Yet it is also by the nature of our magic that I am unable to heal her.” Luna pulled her discarded chair closer and collapsed into it, feeling defeated at the face of the surreal situation. Her sister was gravely wounded and she was trapped inside the mind of an old beast of war she had wronged in the past. Not only that, she was also arguing how to save her sister with the three humans who had given Fenrir’s insanity direction and had been able to overpower her in her own game.



  “Yes, actually helping anyone but yourself would be out of character for you.” Soldier simply stated, crossing his arms across his chest, glaring at her with open anger.



  “SILENCE, YOU INSUFFERABLE BRUTE! To bring my magic to Celestia’s aide would do nothing but diminish both of our power, while accomplishing nothing!” Luna shot out of the chair and stomped up to Soldier, flaring her wings and preparing a spell to hurt the human in her horn. Not only did Soldier stay unfazed by her outburst, he stepped up to her and pushed her back onto the chair by grabbing her horn and nudging her head back.



   She might think she was human in some subconscious level, but she did not have as good of a handle on how to stay balanced on two feet as she thought and fell back into the chair heavily. She released the spell in her horn and was satisfied to see the angry human’s arm catch on fire. She started to gather the energy for another even more destructive spell, when she felt a hand gently placed on her forehead. Specifically, the part of her forehead that had her horn jutting out of it just a moment ago.



  “I apologize for Soldier’s poor manners and confrontational way of going about this. He is overtly confrontational by nature and often lets his anger get the better of him, but I believe he is a truly righteous man, at heart.” Priest had finally gotten up from his seat and the first thing he had done was to seal away her magic with a gesture of his hand. The well-spoken man might not have been the most vocal of the three humans, but there was a definite possibility of him being the strongest among them.



   “Perkeleen noita! Nyt vittu kuolet!” Soldier screamed hoarsely in his native tongue as he watched his right hand curl up in a blackened claw from the fire of Luna’s spell. He pulled out a knife from his belt with his left hand and attempted to charge at Luna again, only for Smuggler to step in front of him. Smuggler had his hand in his jacket and Soldier didn’t even hesitate on stabbing his knife through the boisterous man’s wrist before he could pull out the gun Luna knew he had there.



   Soldier didn’t stop his charge toward Luna, deciding to keep his hold on the knife and both push Smuggler back and pin the stabbed hand to his chest with it. They were both screaming at the top of their lungs, Soldier from the pain of his charred right arm and the anger fueling him and Smuggler was just screaming from the pain of the knife embedded through his hand. Priest calmly took hold of her chair and slid it away from the table, as both Soldier and Smuggler’s crashed onto it. Her mind idly reminded her that the two men had not been going towards the table just a second ago, but that didn’t change the fact that it collapsed under their combined weight.



   “PERKELE!” Soldier shouted again at the top of his lungs as he landed on his charred right arm. He scrambled off of Smuggler, his bloodied knife still pinning the other man’s hand to his chest. His legs gave out from under him before he could get to his feet and he made sure to land on his left side this time. He still struggled to get up, but by the way he was sweating and his limbs jerked Luna reasoned that the adrenaline had run its course and the pain of doing what he had in his condition was catching up with him.



   “Take note of the fact he did not go for his weapon at any point when fighting you. He is most displeased with you, but he does not wish you any serious harm, is what I believe. He only took out his knife in retaliation from you incinerating his arm. Now, if you'll excuse me.” Priest whispered into her ear in his silky voice, before tapping her on the shoulder and walking over to the two humans groaning in various kinds of pain.



   The black-clad holy man knelt beside Soldier with the same calm he seemed to do everything else in and laid his hand on the man’s charred shoulder. He then made the same sweeping motion Luna had seen him use to refill glasses of alcohol and wherever his hand passed, all signs of Luna’s spell disappeared. Soldier’s body relaxed visibly on the ground at the absence of pain and the man was getting to his feet only a few seconds later. Soldier put his hand on the barrel of his rifle for a moment while glaring at her, but then he glanced at Priest and decided to help the older man up instead.



   “You fucking asshole…” Smuggler groaned as both Soldier and Priest made their way to him. Soldier didn’t answer the man he had just stabbed rather ruthlessly, but he did bend down and yank his knife out of his hand. Smuggler must have went through his whole vocalibrary of swear words as Soldier simply wiped his knife clean on his sleeve and sheathed it. Again, Priest simply laid his hand over the man’s injury and it disappeared. Luna noted with some interest that Priest’s hands had to linger longer on Smuggler’s injuries, than they had done on the damage her spell had done. Was the man getting tired, or was there something different in the wounds Soldier inflicted? He had been able to ground her to his reality by touch before, so there was the possibility.



   “So, Celestia’s dying out in Equestria. Shouldn’t we hurry this along, then?” Soldier simply stated, rather pointedly ignoring Smuggler’s glare. Luna flinched back at the anger in the man’s blue eyes as he turned to her, contempt for her very clearly showing in his features. The fact she had no horn made her feel defenseless in front of the armed man.



   “Time moves differently here. We have been between one heartbeat and the next, ever since I regained my identity. Time can pass sporadically, either fast or slow, so it would be prudent for a solution to present itself.” Luna answered, standing up from the chair, momentarily disturbed by the sensation of standing on two feet. “Soldier, did you have an idea on how to help our sister?”



   “I only knew that I would rather die trying, than not try at all. You knew more about this stuff than the three of us put together, so you had to remember that again.” Soldier answered, straightening his posture further and challenging her with an even stare. He had brazenly admitted to being more than happy to psychologically shackle her into being a weak and confused mockery of herself, if it didn’t mean any harm for her sister. Arguing with the man would probably go nowhere fast, so Luna bit back the scalding remark and looked to the other two in the room.



   “Well, if your magic is poison for dear old sun-butt, I don’t exactly get what there’s for us to ponder. We have no power out in the real world and anything Luna can do would only make it worse, so…” Smuggler bitterly spat out as he kicked his spilled pint of beer across the pub. The phantom patrons that had occupied the other tables while the humans had tried to break her into their mold had disappeared and the glass pint shattered against the far wall of the room.



   “If nothing else, you could assist your sister by teleporting her to the care of more skilled healers. All that we can do is offer our co-operation in freeing you from this trap we sprung on you, while circumstances differed from what they are now.” Priest offered diplomatically and without losing that calm and seemingly caring demeanour even for a second. Not even the outwardly courteous man showed even a shred of regret for what they had attempted to subject her to. Could she really trust such openly contemptuous beings to any degree?



   “Oh, definitely not, but that is besides the point. You ordered three steaks, hmm?” The lanky barkeep cheerily said, a pleasant smile on his face as he surveyed the destroyed table and the serious humans. “I’ll just set these down over on another table. The place is pretty much deserted anyways.”



   They watched in silence as the old man with a goatee set the three steaks down on a table and turned back toward them. Before any of them could say a word Soldier rushed forward and took the barkeep down roughly in a clearly practiced move, then pointed his gun at the man’s chest. Luna had her hands halfway up to her ears, but Soldier’s weapon only clicked mechanically as he pulled the trigger. The old man smirked and was about to open his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by Soldier’s steel-tipped boots colliding with his face.



   “Discord, I presume?” Smuggler calmly asked as Soldier kicked the old man in the ribs. Soldier already had his hand on the hilt of his knife, when the old man was finally able to snap his fingers and Soldier was suddenly tied down and gagged on a very sturdy looking wooden chair with thick straps of leather. The old man coughed and winced at the pain in his ribs and jaw, Soldier had obviously not held back.



   “Part of his magic, at the least, but let’s not get into that right now.” The old man got up from the floor and pulled up a chair, collapsing onto it with another coughing fit. “Really, I think our angry friend broke something. I was going to help you guys cut some corners here, but now I don’t know if I want to.”



   “We all know you were committed to influencing our decision the moment you made yourself known, Discord. I know your nature better than anyone, so let us not partake in such childish games.” Luna interjected, before Discord could bait the humans into exchanging banter. Subjective passage of time or not, they did not have time to waste on whatever games Discord was prepared to play. Priest and Smuggler gave her a look and Discord just started laughing at her.



   “Oh, the pretty pony princess from a land of talking magical horses says she is tired of childish games? The humans gave you their perspective, forced it upon you even, so tell me; what are you? You are no great deity upholding a cosmic balance forged in the fires of creation, little one. Oh, no! You, little Luna, are nothing but a character in a show for children. Conceived and controlled by their kind, humans are as close to we could get to gods, to real deities.” The proxy of Discord had been becoming more agitated as his speech continued. His body starting to show his true colors, horns sprouting from his head and his eyes turning yellow and red.



   “Is this how you convinced the humans to work against me? You had them believe they were gods?” Luna gestured toward the two men standing next to her. She could hear Smuggler make a rude snorting sound at the accusation and Priest simply gave her an admonishing look. Luna could feel Soldier shoot a quick glare in her direction, but he promptly returned to fighting against his restraints. Discord’s proxy leaned back on his chair, with his sneer still plastered on the man’s deformed face.



   “Ah, yes. You mess around with the veil on a regular basis, I should have known that you wouldn’t be fooled by an outside perspective. Well, it didn’t work on these guys either, so no big surprise. They kept insisting that they would not be that guy, whatever that might mean.” The man fidgeted in his chair and his tail snaked out. He sighed in relief and one of his fangs grew to rest over his bottom lip. Luna was quite certain Discord was intentionally letting the transformation happen gradually to try and freak them out.



   “Do you have a proposition on how to resolve this dilemma of ours, Discord? I find it hard to believe you wished for Celestia’s death. Was that not the reason you came forward now, despite the fact you could have stayed out of this altogether?” Priest took a step toward the half-formed draconequus, gaining his full attention. The humans obviously knew of Discord’s power and the part he had played in their fate, but both Priest and Smuggler didn’t show signs of fearing the draconequus. Soldier obviously hated the spirit of disharmony, but that was no surprise.



   “You were afraid that we would choose incorrectly, that we would endanger Luna’s life and leave Celestia’s life to ebb away as you watched on helplessly from your stony prison. You are a trickster, not a demon. You hold no ill will toward equine kind, you only wished for us to drive Fenrir mad enough to cause a stir among them. You did not think our actions could endanger Celestia, as Fenrir did not hold enough power for such a feat directly.” Discord’s smirk had vanished entirely at this point. The draconequus clearly didn’t like the point the human was trying to make, but still hadn’t interrupted him. Smuggler stepped forward with a sly grin plastered on his face.



   “We were more devious than you gave us credit for. We found our roles in this grotesque little stage you forced us into. Priest, Smuggler and Soldier, that is all we know of ourselves. We still found a way to fight back, to go beyond the limits forced upon us. We could not fight Fenrir and win, but we could lead him astray and let him die. That was our endgame, let Fenrir die and make a final try at surviving this.” Smuggler stepped to stand next to Priest, his voice more laced with emotion and his hands moving to accentuate his words. Luna couldn’t quite be sure if he sounded angry at Discord, or proud of what they’d achieved.



   Soldier was able to force the gag out of his mouth and promptly spat right in Discord’s face. His stance in this debate could not be more clear, despite the lack of verbal communication. The draconequus raised a claw to his face and wiped the spit off his cheek. The only remnant of his human guise being the clothes stretched to match his new form.



   “I made the assumption that you would be too busy fighting each other to give Fenrir anything more than the intended step up in cognitive ability. I never imagined that you had the capacity to simply define yourself through such trivial things and fight on nearly equal terms with Fenrir’s ego.” Discord’s smirk returned as his eyes turned to the bound Soldier. “You throwing one of your own to the wolves, quite literally, wouldn’t have surprised me, but Soldier doing it willingly certainly did.”


Discord floated off the chair he had been sitting on and crossed his lion paw and eagle claw as he kept smiling at the irate human. The humans had taken the initiative here, pushing DIscord into dismissing most of his childish games by giving him something else to amuse him. “Tell me, Soldier, whatever drove you to do such a thing? It was abundantly clear that confronting Fenrir directly would mean your death, yet you ran out of here to punch his lights out, despite the overwhelming odds.”



   “I refused to watch three innocent little fillies die, just because you thought it would be funny. I had to act, as I knew the cost of inaction.” Soldier explained in a clipped tone, giving the draconequus his answer, but refusing to acknowledge him further. Discord had some kind of compulsion over the humans, even if they weren’t aware of it.



   “See, Luna, this is the reason I simply adore humans. I never would have thought Soldier had it in him, with his body count, but lo and behold! I certainly didn’t encourage the act either, the door used to have a lock, but he kicked it down and went to work on keeping Fenrir at bay.” DIscord snaked in the air like it was water and swam around Soldier a few times, garnering more than a few murderous glares from the silent man.



   Luna looked at the man tied down on a chair reminiscent of an electric chair as his eyes followed the lazily floating spirit of chaos. There was no denying the fact he enjoyed the thrill of battle and was a competent fighter, but that was not unheard of in the royal guard, even if the scuffles and skirmishes the guard handled rarely resulted in deaths. Things were obviously different in the human world, so could she really fault the man for acclimating his own set of morals to it? Would she really find Soldier any more dangerous than the members of her guard if the monsters they faced were normal ponies, rather than the actual monsters that were abundant in her realm?



   “You were able to overcome Fenrir’s will within a week?” Luna raised a brow as she took a step toward the bound man. She found it hard to believe this man was powerful enough to do that. He would have had to know ways to completely subjugate Fenrir’s will, then extract the information on how to move his body, while being careful to not sever the body’s autonomous systems…



    “We were able to take control of the body, while Soldier kept Fenrir’s attention. It was not… pleasant, or easy.” Smuggler cut in, shuddering a little at the memory. Luna wrinkled her brow even further at this. It was possible, theoretically at least, for one human to subdue the original consciousness, while one kept the autonomous systems unhindered and the third took control of the body’s actions, but it was still something that was accomplished through intricate spellwork and constant manipulation of arcane energies. These humans had no magic in their world, so how could they accomplish these feats so easily?



   “Oh, Luna, You should know it by now. Wasn’t this kind of magic your specialty back in the day? Despite your lack of practice over the centuries, they still played their parts without questioning their reasons behind it.” DIscord jeered as he slithered toward her in the air. She could see both Smuggler and Priest glancing between her and Discord, waiting for the answer.



   “It took very little coaxing for you to use that knowledge again, Luna. Especially if it was on beings from beyond the veil; they’re all monsters anyway, right? I think your biggest mistake was that you still left them a bit too human, it was in their nature to fight it and strive to survive.”



   “I - I didn’t…” Luna weakly tried to argue as Discord’s eyes danced with glee. Discord took a breath and opened his mouth to spell out the truth, when Soldier stabbed him in the neck, right below the jaw. DIscord’s eyes bulged and he was able to cough once, before Soldier simply stepped back while holding onto the knife, cutting Discord’s neck open all the way to what served as the draconequus’s collar bone. Discord tried to swipe at the human with his claws, but Soldier had already stepped back out of his reach. Discord dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes, as his unnaturally thick blood seeped out from the wound like crude oil.



   “What the hell, Soldier?! You just had to stab him now? You couldn’t wait for one lousy minute?!” Smuggler yelled as he stepped over to the taller man. “You’re the one who wanted to fucking save Celestia and you go and stab the guy that has a solution?! Are you messing with us, or are you really that stupid?”



   “I’m sorry. I didn’t know… I couldn’t have...” Luna forced out, as her eyes unfocused. In hindsight it was so blatantly obvious that it was clear she had been consciously avoiding the truth. She was the only one with enough knowledge about soul magick to understand what she had done, so even with Celestia there to help her, she had been able to avoid facing the truth.



   “I do not think we could have trusted Discord to give us a solution that didn’t solely benefit him. To trust a horned devil is truly a fool’s gamble.” Priest said as he laid a hand on Smuggler’s shoulder. None of the humans had moved to help the spirit of chaos bleeding out at their feet in any way. They might have been aware of Discord’s compulsion over them after all.



   “Fuck his solution and fuck his mismatched fucking self! Discord did this to us! Without him we would not have suffered through this fucking nightmare, so he can bleed out for all I care!” Soldier shouted back and pushed Smuggler away. He swiped the blade of his knife clean on his sleeve and sheathed it again without even looking down at the blade. The practiced ease of this action sent shivers down Luna’s back.



   “It was nothing but a fragment of his magic. To kill a being akin to Discord would not be this simple.” Priest had noticed her tears and knelt down to her. She was laying down on the floor, her legs sprawled beneath her. The fact she was still human surprised her, as what she had done would be considered inhumane, even in their cruel world. The blame should be on the Alicorn Princess of Equestria, not the innocent human counterpart they had thought up for her.



   “I’m so sorry. I cannot help you…”



   “Do you know how to heal Celestia? The sun is still bleeding.” Soldier asked, as delicately as a sledgehammer. Luna nodded weakly and attempted to gather her thoughts. They deserved the truth, at least.



   “Now that Discord’s presence over you has been diminished, you are no longer bound to Fenrir to any degree I cannot free you from. There is a way to heal my sister’s injury, but I must tell you something about the nature of the spell holding you here, before we can consider it.” Luna stood up from the floor and locked eyes with each of the humans in turn, hoping to convey the seriousness of the situation.



   “Do you mind if we eat the steaks while you talk? Would be a shame to put them to waste.” Smuggler asked, gesturing toward the table with the three plates Discord’s proxy had brought forth. Soldier had already sat down at the table, his jammed rifle in pieces in front of him. He looked up as the steaks were mentioned, but his hands were still busy wrenching a bent cartridge out of one part of his rifle. The cartridge made a hollow pinging noise as it came loose and made a delicate arc in the air, before landing into one of the plates.



   “Aand that one’s Soldier’s.” Smuggler pushed the plate over to the quiet man and sat down on a chair opposite to him. Soldier pocketed the cartridge from his plate and then quickly reassembled his rifle. He racked the slide twice and then pulled the trigger while pointing the weapon at Smuggler. The weapon made a clear mechanical click and Soldier gave an almost imperceptible nod at the sound, before attaching the clip back in his rifle and setting it to lean on the table.



   “Asshole.” Smuggler said with a smile as he pulled out a pocket knife to cut into his steak.



   “Dick.” Soldier responded, spearing his steak with his knife and taking a hearty bite out of it. Luna grimaced at the red juices dripping from the cooked meat. She might have been a full-blooded omnivore for a few hours, but she was still an alicorn that leaned heavily toward a herbivorous diet. They both started to pick up the french fries with their hands as they chewed on their meal. Hadn’t they asked for her permission a moment ago?



   “Really, we are in the presence of royalty, gentlemen.” Priest reminded the two as he set cutlery down on the table. The two other men picked out forks from the pile to eat the fries , but kept using their own knives. Priest dragged over his own plate with a hearty sigh. He used his fork and knife as anyone with a decent upbringing would.



   “Hah! All that means is that she’ll look down on us no matter how civilized we act, so what’s the point?” Smuggler blurted out, with a mouthful of food squirreled away in his cheek. Soldier shrugged slightly at this, but still kept eating his meal in silence. Priest followed the man’s example with a disapproving shake of his head.



   “Please, go on, Princess Luna. I assure you we are listening.” Priest assured her with a calming smile. Soldier nodded without making eye contact and Smuggler waved the matter off with a grunt.



   “I have learned something of the nature of the spell that binds you here. The spell was cast by me, but the kind of magic that was used is something that… does not draw its power from myself.” As soon as Luna said those words the humans paused in eating what could be considered their last meal. Despite their world’s lack of magic, it seemed they could catch onto her logic rather easily. It could have been the fact they were all mental projections, which allowed for thoughts to be conveyed more easily, or it could mean that the humans were just that clever.



   “I have wronged you in more ways than I can ever atone for, but I must implore you to grant me this one request; Please, help save my sister, Celestia. I need her more than I will ever tell her and Equestria needs her far more than I… Please, I beseech you to consider.”



   The humans looked at each other, but after a moment continued eating their meal in silence. Luna opened and closed her mouth a few times in the following quiet minutes, struggling to find the words to dispel the silence. No matter how she looked at it, she could not justify pleading her case any further. The humans had to respond to her query, before there could be any further dialogue.



   Finally, after Smuggler set down his fork and cleaned his knife on a handkerchief he procured from one of the many pockets on his person, he pulled a glowing orb filled with what looked like lavender fog out from another pocket. He set the orb on the table deliberately and carefully, between the three humans and so she could see it.



   “I believe this decision should be delegated to a third party. One who has no ties to humanity and who has the best interest of ponies at heart. I vote for this decision to be given to one by the name of Twilight Sparkle, as she has Celestia’s best interest in mind.” Smuggler proposed and leaned back on his chair. Luna’s eyes widened as she remembered creating the glowing orb. That was Twilight Sparkle’s mental projection! How had they been able to steal it from her and keep her stable remained a mystery. Luna was still relieved to see that they had made the effort to ensure the unicorn’s survival, while they attempted to mentally hobble her.



   “She has seen what both Fenrir and Luna have done to us and is a witness to Luna’s confession to these crimes. I vote for this, as well.” Soldier stated with an icy glare towards Luna. She could not fault the man for wanting justice, as they deserved it as much as she deserved the punishment.



   “Twilight Sparkle might have sufficient knowledge of magic to decide on how to use the spell that binds us here. She is the only one here who could possibly make an unbiased and informed decision. Please allow Twilight Sparkle to speak, Princess Luna.” Priest finished with an air of finality.



   They had made the choice unanimously, but she could simply ignore them and do what was necessary, she had the power and knowledge for it. Celestia’s life was at stake, after all. What’s the disapproval of one pony and the bitter memory of three things from beyond the veil, when weighed against the life of her sister? There was enough power in the souls of the humans to heal Celestia and maybe even alter the memories of all concerned parties. She could make it so Fenrir never roused the Diamond Dogs from their stagnant lives and nopony would know there even were humans to begin with.



   All she had to do was tear into the souls of others for that power, maim the very core of what they were to get what she wanted. Twist and break and mold them into what she needed, as she had done with Fenrir and as she had done with these humans. How could she pretend to have grown a conscience after all the things she’d done?



   Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by an aviatory spoon bouncing off of her forehead. She blinked and glanced down at the offending silverware rattling on the ground. Did someone throw a spoon at her?


   “Did you just throw a spoon at me?” Soldier grunted and reached for another utensil from the pile Priest had set on the table earlier. He made a gesture with the fork he picked up for Luna to hurry it along, before tossing it in her direction casually. She ducked her head to avoid the wayward kitchenware.



   “This is beyond childish! There are repercussions for the things we are discussing Twilight Sparkle is unable to comprehend! It would be most...” A solid piece of cutlery bounced off of her horn, rattling her train of thought. She clenched her teeth and seriously considered attempting to incinerate the man again.



   She turned to glare at the man, keeping her eyes level and matching the contempt in the man’s eyes with her annoyance. She was about to open her mouth to dare the man to throw another piece of cutlery at her, when she felt something slip under the collar of her borrowed jacket. The cold piece of metal slid down her bare human body and caused her to jump up from her chair, shrieking at the uncomfortable cold thing touching the sensitive skin of her human form. Smuggler’s amused snort and huge grin told her all she needed to know as to who was the culprit.



   “You are so…” Luna paused, looking at the three men in front of her. They were infuriating, condescending and downright hostile towards her, but they were also so obviously alive. They infuriated her to no end and had tried to do her wrong, but she could no longer think of them as mere collections of energy. She had just tried to rationalize murdering these three men, just because it would have been the easy thing to do.



   “Right, you are right. Twilight Sparkle now has the authority to bring this matter to a conclusion. I lack the unbiased perspective needed.” The Princess of the Night channeled enough power through her horn to give Twilight Sparkle enough of a presence to communicate with them. To manifest her in any tangible sense brought the danger of rooting her to this false reality, so she hoped the unicorn could get used to the idea of being incorporeal.



   “Princess Luna, there is a fork in your mane.” Was the first thing the magenta orb blurted out, the orb brightening slightly at the words. Luna groaned and sat down heavily on her chair, absent-mindedly combing her hair with her fingers to find the assaulting cutlery.

        Kamos

   It was chaotic, that’s the only word Kamos could use to describe it. The shot had rung out and after an excruciatingly long and hopeful moment Celestia had fallen. He had ordered his pegasi to find the shooter and capture him, to keep the perimeter secure by any means necessary and immediately fetch the unicorn healers from the operational camp. The element bearers and the members of the guard that had saved the fillies had been in shock, but Kamos had no time to let them get over it.



   “If any of you knows healing magic, use it! Remember the oath you took! Act like you deserve that armor!” Kamos shouted, adding some bite to his voice and punching one of the guards on their golden armor. The clear humming note from the armor seemed to snap some of the guards out of their stupor and his officer’s bark did it for the others. He noticed Regal Poise giving him an angry glare for moment, before the colt went to work on commanding the unicorns to do what they could.



   “Watch the ground, the dogs can burrow through it with ease! Secure the dog that fired that shot! Disarm him and take him somewhere secure, I will need to see the weapon! Move it! The rest of you, a perimeter around the princesses!” Kamos shouted frantically as he trotted between the princesses of both the night and day courts, both incapacitated at the moment. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if neither of them got out of this alive, but the thought still gnawed at him.



   There would be chaos, after a time of mourning, of course. The unicorn nobles would try and take power in some form, the pegasi and earth ponies would no doubt be against it. There could be a war, if things went wrong here, yet it was all out of his hooves. Celestia’s injury was beyond the capabilities of the unicorns he had at hand and there was no time to call for Canterlot’s aid. Celestia’s vast power would interfere with any healing magic going into her body, so all they could do was keep the sun monarch at death’s door, where her magic drastically decreased. It was not something that could be maintained indefinitely and the magical reserves of the ponies he had at hand would tap out before the hour was out.



   “Buck it, I need miracle.” Kamos dejectedly admitted to no one in particular. This situation was going from bad to worse faster than he could comprehend and something had to happen to turn it around, and soon. It was too bad he didn’t believe in any higher beings watching over the world, as any help would be appreciated.



   “Trust her, trust the one you swore an oath to.” Suddenly, Pinkie Pie was whispering in his ear. He flinched away from the crazy mare and had half the mind to scream at her for not being serious, before he remembered what Regal Poise had said. This situation could have been avoided if he had taken the mare’s precognitive abilities seriously, so he bit his tongue. The pink pony shook her head and moved back to comfort her shocked friends, her gait slightly wobbly.



   He was just about to start picking apart the nuances of what Pinkie Pie had told him, when Fenrir’s body suddenly jerked to life and the light between his princess and the beast intensified. He signaled the ponies guarding the night monarch to stand down as Fenrir’s body continued to convulse and seemingly sweat out motes of light. These motes of light floated through the air in a lazy arc, before coalescing into a form resembling a horn on Luna’s transformed body. This process continued for what had to be only a minute or so, but he still saw the tiny particles of light form Luna’s horn and wings in agonising detail.



   As the last of the particles of light filtered out of Fenrir’s ravaged body, the great beast lay still and the princess of the night stirred for the first time, still in the foreign body. She rolled around on the ground and struggled to get on her knees. Her movements were spastic, as if she was not familiar with how to move her body.



   “God’s sake, let me walk you over there! I actually have a fucking clue how to move in a bipedal body!” Luna growled out, while her legs straightened under her smoothly and she stood in a straight bipedal position for a second, before immediately slouching down. Kamos flinched at the sight of her knees giving out and scraping on the gravel under her.



   “No, you don’t know how to control my magic.” Luna strained out, as her body collapsed on the ground again. Both her horn and wings seemed solid and real now, leaving only her eyes to glow in an otherworldly light.



   “Who the fuck cares! Time is of the essence here. Soldier, if you would?” Luna shouted to seemingly no one, ignoring her surroundings. There was a second of silence, before Luna’s foreign features contorted in obvious pain and she collapsed back on the ground in a motionless heap.



   “Princess Luna?” Kamos warily inched toward his seemingly insane princess. It was obvious that Luna’s spell had been brought to its conclusion, but were the foreign souls attacking her, or was this still part of the spell?


 
   “Ah, terribly sorry if I frightened you, Kamos. We’ll need to get to Twilight Sparkle first, then we can see about Celestia.” Luna rattled out quickly, as her body straightened into a standing position, none of the awkward jerkiness in her movements anymore. Kamos watched as Luna stretched her new limbs and rolled her neck. The skin of Luna’s new body was tightly hugging her musclerature, so Kamos could see how every little movement caused muscles to shift in various ways



   “Huh, apart from being a little top heavy, it’s not that different…” Luna muttered out as her hands cupped the teats on the strange body’s chest. Kamos jerked out of his trance as he realised he had been staring at how he could see the muscles moving under that hairless and smooth skin. It was both alien and frighteningly alluring. He rushed to pick up his discarded cloak to give his princess a chance for decency.



   “Princess, here, you can use my cloak, if you would like.” Kamos offered the cloak to Luna with a hoof. Luna’s glowing eyes met with his and he could clearly sense a mind different from her princess looking back at him. So, the things from beyond the veil were really controlling his princess. “But I cannot allow you to approach Twilight Sparkle, as it is not Princess Luna who I am talking to.”



   “Be assured, we wish no harm to befall any of you.” The foreign soul controlling Luna’s body accepted the cloak Kamos was offering and deftly used the spidery fingers to tie it into place on her shoulders. Kamos could feel yet another presence look back at him through his princesses eyes. “Princess Luna’s will was subdued to stop herself from hurting this body. It was a rash decision, but one that was made with her best interest at heart. We only wish to return Twilight Sparkle’s mind to her body and then try to help Celestia.”



   “I will not let you anywhere near Twilight Sparkle, not until I can talk to Princess Luna.” Kamos took a step back from Luna’s foreign body and motioned for his ponies to come forward. They readied their weapons toward Luna with only minimal hesitation. He was proud to see their training at work, but the chance that he would have to attack his princess was still quite painful. Still, it would not stop him from doing so.



   The foreign soul moved Luna’s bipedal body’s head to measure up his ponies, before settling back on him. There was an expression on Luna’s strangely flat and simian face that Kamos recognized as a smile, before the foreign soul used her mouth to talk. “Smuggler, please don’t test him. Soldier, let Luna to the surface. Luna, please see to Twilight first, if you could.”



   Immediately after these words left Luna’s lips, her bipedal body slouched, as if she were a marionette doll with her strings cut. Kamos could hear Luna let out a harsh breath as her bare knees made contact with the gravel under them. He was glad to sense his princess behind the blank white eyes this time. He had come to rely on this vague sense over time, as it helped spot out changelings in his ranks.



   “Kamos, you should have let them do this. They’re still here, but now they’re filling my head with… with white noise. Dear lord, I don’t even know what those words mean, but that’s what it is!” Luna babbled on with a frantic intensity, as her eyes darted about and her head went on a swivel, most likely trying to pinpoint voices that weren’t there. After a short moment, Luna stopped looking around like a paranoid schizophrenic and seemed to be listening to the incorporeal voices instead.



   “Kamos, the spell I cast on Fenrir was a success. The spell that healed him and that gave him his newfound intelligence is no more. The drawback is that the foreign souls that gave Fenrir his life and intelligence are inside me right now. Three distinct personalities, all fighting to get a word in on what I will do. It is disorienting, but we have a common goal. First Twilight’s orb, then Celestia.” Luna jerked out a closed fist immediately after she was able to spit out the words and a magenta orb of energy appeared between the fingers of the strange appendage as the hand unfurled. Luna giggled  and brought her other hand over to shield the orb.



   “It is peculiar, these fingers have the capacity to be conduits for my magic but this body has no innate way to produce the energy needed. They gave me the knowledge I need to move it, but it’s a lot more than I - Twilight, I know. Twilight first. Kamos, please trust me. This is Twilight’s mental projection; when it is reintroduced into her body and anchored to her soul again, she will be fine. We will see to Celestia, after that, only after that.” Luna jittered out, random spasms and flinches making her look like she had lost her mind, but if there really were two to three foreign souls residing in her body, then being a little jittery could be forgiven.



   “Sir, the dog who shot Celestia has been captured. The weapon it used burned it severely. The other dogs are… eerily quiet. What are your orders?” Kamos snapped his eyes away from his princess to listen to the forest around them. The dogs they had captured and hogtied to hang from the surrounding trees still made as much noise they could, but the howling from the den had ceased and there were no dogs attacking his ponies.



   “Keep watch over the captives. They could be coming for their own. Make sure the dog does not die of his injuries, not before we can interrogate it. Is there nothing left of the weapon the dog used?” Kamos turned his eyes away from the alien and shaky form of his princess to address the pegasi. The pegasi glanced back toward the patch of trees where the shot had supposedly come from.



   “There are pieces of metal, nothing more. From the pieces that didn’t burn into the dog’s skin, or burrow in the surrounding trees I would say it was a makeshift cannon of some sort.” Kamos had expected as much, but knowing that the dogs now had the plans and materials to make weapons that were both portable and capable of inflicting such grievous injury on somepony like Celestia was disconcerting at best. They needed to try and stop the dogs from perfecting the technology, but they did not have the numbers to raid the den successfully.



   “Keep watch over both the captive dogs and the unicorns keeping Celestia alive. They are our number one priority right now. Call for reinforcement from both the guard and our ranks, this matter needs to be dealt with. We are raiding that den as soon as we can.” Kamos knew that waiting would give the dogs time to retreat deeper into their tunnels with whatever they had used to deal the deciding blow to Celestia and collapse the tunnels behind them, but there was nothing he could do to stop that. He could only hope that the dogs would not have the presence of mind to cut their losses and run. He actually hoped the dogs would attack them, at least then he would know where they were.



   “Luna, I will allow you to return Twilight’s mind to her, but you will have tell me exactly how you are planning on healing Celestia. I do not trust the souls who interacted with the Fenrir I fought to any degree.” Kamos motioned for his ponies to stand down and Luna stood up on unsure feet. She was still cradling the magenta orb of light in her hands, holding her blank stare on it as she walked toward Twilight’s prone body.



   When they got a few of the bipedal body’s steps away from Twilight, Luna simply opened up her hands and allowed the purple light to flow back to Twilight’s body. The light lingered on Twilight’s Element, before flowing back into her body through her horn. Luna flexed her fingers, before pulling them back into the cloak Kamos had given her, hiding both them and her torso from sight.



   “There, Twilight Sparkle is safe. She will regain consciousness momentarily, but we do not have time to -”



   “And what in the hay is going on here? What are you doing to Twilight, creep?” Rainbow Dash suddenly interjected, rushing between Kamos and Luna. She either did not recognize the Princess of the Night in her alien body, or she didn’t care. Kamos glanced behind the prismatic mare and saw the rest of the element bearers trotting toward them at a more sedate pace, sans FLuttershy and Pinkie Pie.



   “Princess Luna just inserted Twilight Sparkle’s mind back into her body. She saved your friend’s life, so I think you should show some gratitude.” Kamos said with forced calm, while pushing the irate pegasus away from Luna.



   “Pardon me for maybe bein’ rude, but why are yah an ape? We saw something going from Fenrir into Luna a bit ago, so how do we know its even her highness who we’re talking to?” The farm mare was more intelligent than Kamos had given her credit, but he also knew they didn’t have time to answer all of their questions. Kamos was about to order his ponies to remove the elements, when Luna spoke up.



   “Princess Luna needs us to be tied to her on a subconscious level, if she were to manipulate the spell in the way she plans to. Sharing our knowledge of moving in a bipedal body serves as that connection. I am sure Twilight Sparkle can explain it in more detail, when she wakes up.” Luna said in a tone at odds with her twitchy mannerisms. Kamos thought he heard a hint of an Fancé accent in there.



   “So, you admit that you’re not Luna? What did you do to Twilight?!” Rainbow Dash shouted, flying to face Luna’s taller bipedal form eye to eye. Luna’s eyes blinked slowly and she reached a hand out to nudge the pegasus farther away.



   “Luna returned Twilight’s mind to her body, as we explained. We only admitted that she was not alone in this body. We assure you that Luna has agreed to our course of action and will stand behind her decision. I only wish to help Luna in healing Celestia, as she healed Fenrir in the past.” The foreign soul’s presence disappeared from Luna’s glowing white eyes and her posture slouched again. Luna clutched the cloak closer to her body and jerked her head from pony to pony.



   “Well, I don’t think whatever it is lied to us, at least. This is still damn suspicious, if ya ask me. The dogs nearly kill Celestia and this thing gives Luna a solution right away?” Applejack narrowed her eyes and planted her hooves to stand between Luna and Celestia’s body.



   “Yeah, I bet this is just a part of its plan! It just wants to control Celestia, like it did Fenrir! I ain’t gonna let that happen!” Rainbow Dash shouted, hovering in position above Applejack, stopping Luna from simply flying to Celestia’s side.



   “Seriously, you are going to do this now? Celestia’s bleeding out right there and you think this is a good time to debate this? Luna agreed to it, so should you! I think you should have a little more faith in the co-ruler of Equestria!” Luna took an aggressive step forward and pointed his hand to where Celestia lay, breathing weakly in a slowly growing patch of stained gravel. The two ponies looked unsure, but didn’t stand down.



   “I think we should hear Luna explain her decision. She does not seem to be in her right mind, to be blunt.” Rarity spoke up finally, standing next to her friends, horn aglow with a spell that no doubt had no chance of stopping Luna if she decided to force the issue. Kamos stayed silent and turned to Luna’s blank gaze, the foreign soul beyond looking at them all, as if considering his options.



   “Keep it short, Luna.” The alien soul growled out and Luna’s consciousness returned. Luna fidgeted for a moment, wrapped the cloak closer to her naked body and then started talking. She made the effort to keep looking between Applejack and Kamos, to make sure it was both her talking and that she was telling the truth.



   “I… I healed Fenrir by using the souls of three beings from beyond the veil. These three souls both brought Fenrir back from the brink of death and gave him an intelligence and power he did not possess in the past. I plan to use one of the souls to heal Celestia’s injury.” Luna explained to the ponies, looking intently at the ground as she finished. Kamos didn’t like seeing his princess this timid and hoped it would pass and was not a symptom of something the “human” souls had done.



   “You’re going to put one of these things that are making you act all crazy in Celestia? That doesn’t sound like a very good idea, if you ask me.” Rainbow Dash summarized and hovered a little higher off the ground. Kamos agreed with the vibrant pegasus, however.  The three human souls could seemingly take turns in overpowering his princesses mind mid-conversation, so to introduce even one of them to the other part of the diarchy was too dangerous.



   “Girls, wait…” Twilight Sparkle rasped out, as her eyes slowly inched open. She tried to get up and failed to gather the strength to do so. Time was of the essence, so Kamos ordered a pair of his pegasi to help Twilight Sparkle to them. He wanted to hear what the unicorn would have to say, assuming she had witnessed something that would shed light to the situation.



   “Tearful reunions later, just listen to what she has to say, ponies.” Kamos rudely interrupted the three mares before they could open their mouths. Twilight Sparkle took the time to stand on her own to hooves, before speaking. She looked tired and a little pale, but there was a determination in her eyes that couldn’t be there if she wasn’t absolutely sure of what she was saying.



   “The spell Luna intends to use, she told me exactly how it worked. It doesn’t only use the soul in question to power the spell, it breaks and molds it to do a certain function. The souls become both the infallible source of power for the spell and part of the spell itself. The only reason the humans retain anything of themselves is because she used three different souls for each part of it. It’s actually how the ancient enchanted items of old were made and why they still retain their magic, there’s a living soul anchored to the object.” Twilight turned her head to Luna’s downturned visage and put a hoof to her elongated leg.



    Luna flinched back and grabbed the cloak tighter around herself. That would explain the weird behaviour to some extent. She was again forced to kill something she tried to save, ultimately because of one mistake made out of the same misguided compulsion in the past. Something like that would make you feel defeated, even without those you tried to save whispering in your ear constantly.



   “So, the offered soul will die if used to heal Celestia. How would you decide which one to use?” Kamos took a step back from his princess. He would have no qualms about this plan of action if the answer was what he thought it would be.



   “I volunteered.” Luna firmly stated as her posture straightened again. She looked from pony to pony with those glowing eyes. “So, are we doing this? Applejack? Rarity? Kamos? Rain… I mean, Blue Suspicious Pony? Make your decision, or I’m just going to push past you and get to it.”



   “You… you would do that? After all of this?” Rainbow Dash asked, suspiciously narrowing her eyes at the possessed princess. Luna crossed her arms under the cloak and straightened even more to look the flying equine right in the eye.



   “I will, the other two decided not to, Blue Insistent Pony.” The alien soul simply stated, ignoring the non-verbal order for an explanation. Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to retort, before just groaning and landing next to Applejack with a huff.



   “I ain’t saying we wouldn’t be mighty grateful if you could do it, but it is yer choice. Are ya absolutely sure?” Applejack tentatively asked. She might not have understood the intricacies of soul magick, but she knew the consequences of what was going to happen, so it was enough. Luna’s body crouched down suddenly, enough to be eye to eye with Applejack, before the foreign soul answered.



   “I know the cost of inaction, so I would rather act.” Luna lingered in the crouched position without saying anything for a silent moment, before the human soul spoke again. “Would you mind if I borrowed your hat? You can have it back after Luna is done.”



    “... Why in tarnation would you need mah hat?” Applejack asked, rather disturbed by the nonsensical turn the conversation had taken.



   “I just want to wear it. It’s okay if you don’t want to part with it for the rest of my life.” Luna’s body chuckled wearily and her posture slouched almost imperceptibly, before it bounced back and Luna smiled weakly, looking at each of the ponies in turn again. Both Applejack and Rarity could only force a slight grin at the morbid joke. Rainbow Dash didn’t even bother trying, deciding to just look away.



   “Nah, it’s fine. You can have it for a while.” Applejack said in an even tone, reaching a hoof to hand the hat to the human. Before Applejack could do it though, the human soul used Luna’s hand to deftly snag the hat off of Applejack’s head and place it on Luna’s. The hat was too big for the human body’s head and tilted back because of Luna’s horn jutting out of her forehead, but the smile that painted Luna’s features was genuine.



   “You got a huge head for such a silly pony…” Luna muttered as the smile stayed fixed in place on her features. Luna straightened herself out and stood tall and proud with the ridiculously tilted back and over-sized stetson precariously balancing on the back of her head. Luna the turned on her heels and faced Rarity directly, brought one hand on the brim of the stetson and said in a mock deep voice “Lady Rarity.”



   “Can you tell us your name, at least?” Rarity asked, in a voice strained by something she would appreciate Kamos not naming directly.



   “No, I am sorry. All I can say that I am Soldier and the others are Smuggler and Priest. I know what I was, not who I am.” Luna’s right appendage was still fidgeting with the rim of Applejack’s hat, working the delicate fingers on the brim and the material the hat was made of absently. There was an awkward moment where they all just stood there, but ultimately the glow of Rarity’s horn dimmed and Luna immediately stepped past the three mares. Kamos took a few steps past the mares to follow his princess, until Luna’s posture slouched again and she turned back to him, Luna’s own presence meeting his gaze.



   “You should stay back, Kamos. This will be an unpleasant thing, but it cannot be disturbed, relay that to your squad.” Luna degreed with a stern voice of authority, despite her less than authoritative quise. He could see the tiredness in his princesses eyes, but he also knew this was something that had to happen. He could only hope the humans hadn’t successfully manipulated them, at this point, no matter how likely or unlikely that seemed.



   So, Kamos gritted his teeth and watched as Luna walked the distance between him and her fallen sister alone and ordered the unicorns away. He watched as Luna carefully kneeled next to Celestia’s head and used those foreign limbs to lift her sister’s head onto her lap. He watched as Luna brushed her alien forelegs through her sister limp mane and spoke words that would stay between them, before alighting her horn to cast the spell that would end one life and possibly save another.



   He was not as surprised as he hoped to be when Luna started screaming in agony.

 Celestia

   Celestia was in an endless abyss of white light. She could not feel her body, nor could she hear or sense anything specific around her, but she had the feeling she was laying on her side on something. She could not feel whatever she was laying on, so she doubted even that tidbit of information. Her mind slowly got around to wondering how she’d gotten to this place. Didn’t she have something important to do?



   She remembered she wore a crown, a golden thing with beautifully cut gemstones to gather and refract light from her mane. Had she been a ruler, then? Yes, that seemed right, but not quite right at the same time. Her mane had been gorgeous, though, that much she knew. Yet any poet or artist over the centuries who had brought attention to it had made her feel uncomfortable. The fact that the ponies she protected found ways to find the exact same thing just as compelling every few decades drove home the truth that she was not one of them.



   One insightful pony had compared her to a beautiful emerald watching a river go by around it. The colt had received a ceremonial knighthood for his crisp mind and the minor heroics he had accomplished in a little skirmish against monsters of his time. His proud smile at the knighting was a memory that almost overshadowed his inevitable and overblown funeral service in her mind.



   She had no sense of her body, but she felt tired, so very tired to keep doing this. She was tired of seeing good ponies turn into bitter old things that could barely hold back the urge to spit at her forever young visage. She was even more tired to see the few ponies she cherished stay just as lively and lovable until the day their mortal bodies gave out. She was tired of hurting at good memories turned sour; she was tired of the golden memories haunting the quiet moments of her day, just waiting for the moment in time when she could no longer remember the faces or the names.



   “Stop crying. It’s heartbreaking to see a shiny horse cry.” A male voice suddenly cut through her melancholy and brought focus back to her world. Who was that? Why was he here? How did he get here? Where exactly was “here”?



   “Who are you?” She could feel her lips move, but could not hear any sound leaving her. She took in a breath to try and respond to the stranger audibly, when the man answered, like he could have actually heard her lips moving.



   “I don’t remember my name and I am sorry for that. I do know I am a soldier, though. You can call me Soldier for the moment, if you like.” She could finally see the source of the male voice. He was walking toward her from the white expanse they were both in. From what she could make out at the moment he was bipedal and either had the shaggiest and most strangely colored fur, or was wearing a strange set of garbs around its body. He was limping heavily on one side and one of his arms was strangely limp for a creature walking on two legs, usually they needed to move those for balance if they didn’t have a tail. Well, he was too far for her to tell if he had one, so anything was possible.



   “So, Soldier, what are you doing here and how did you get here? I… I don’t think you should be here. I think I thought it was impossible for anyone to be here. This place… it’s been a long time coming. I never thought I would have company.” Celestia didn’t know what she was talking about, but it didn’t feel like she was lying. It was like she was reciting a half-forgotten script on stage, the tension and love for the act bringing it all out unconsciously.



   “Celestia, I don’t think I am here for the reasons you think I am. I know you must be tired, you must feel beaten and alone after all that pain you’ve forgotten. I am not here to lead you along, I am here to drag you back. I am sorry for that, as well.” The bipedal man had gotten close enough for Celestia to make out his flat simian features and blood soaked garbs. He was limping one severely mangled leg behind him and his left hand was just as horribly mangled and hung in an awkward angle at his side with some of the digits missing or hanging by a sickeningly thin thread. He did not look like he was in any shape to even drag himself anywhere, yet here he was, intending to drag an alicorn at least his own weight back wherever he came from.



   The man unceremoniously grabbed one of her fore hooves with his good hand and groaned and cursed to limp one small step back. His alien face contorted in obvious pain, but with only one intake of breath, he heaved her body another small limping step back. Celestia let the man do this for a few times, before she thought she had to stop him from killing himself.



   “Stop it already, you made your point.” The man let go of her hoof with a pained grunt and Celestia forced her hooves to inch their way to where they should be to help her up, but found herself lacking the power to stand up. “Please, help me stand and we will walk out of here together. I would rather not be a burden.”



   The bipedal creature moved to her side and started pulling her up with his hand under one of her forehooves. He could not muster much strength with just one good arm and a leg, but it was enough to help Celestia force her way to a standing position and then lean onto her bipedal savior for support.



   “So, what manner of creature are you? I do not think I have had the pleasure of meeting your kind before. Although I must admit my memory is a little hazy at the moment.” Celestia tried to distract them from the forced bodily contact as they took their first tentative steps toward wherever the bipedal man had come from, leaning on each other heavily.



   “I am human, bullshit latin name would be homo sapiens sapiens, or something like that, but you can think of me as an exceedingly clever ape that’s been stretched out and shaved, I wouldn’t mind.” The self-proclaimed human answered, sounding just as uncomfortable at the situation as Celestia felt.



   “So, mister homo sapiens sapiens, however did you end up here? I have the feeling our conversation should be impossible. I appreciate the distraction from… things I would rather not think about when alone, but the absurdity of the situation is something I cannot shake. You are not at all what I was expecting to happen.” Celestia took a step toward their unnamed goal, trying to drown out her inquisitive mind on the painful monotonous action of walking, but still failing horribly.



   “I can’t exactly tell you how, as I don’t know it myself, but you should ask your sister as to why. She, and the other two, can give you a pretty good idea of that.”  The self-proclaimed elongated ape fell into silence for the next dozen small steps they took together and Celestia gladly let the silence stretch on. Her lungs felt far more labored than they should, from such little activity as walking while supported by another being. It felt like there was something stopping her lungs from fully expanding.



   “Also, I think I should mention I took something of hers without permission. She kept hurting people with it, so I thought she would be better off without the choice.” The man breathlessly wheezed out as he took out a strange cylindrical cartridge that tapered out into a wickedly sharp point at the end. It was clearly something meant to hurt and kill things and it turned Celestia’s stomach to even look at it. She felt sick looking at it, but she also knew that it could not hurt anypony on it’s own, there had to be something else for it work to it’s full potential and this ape-man did not have it.



   “Thank you. I value my sister’s independence, but I would hate for her to be tempted by such power. I wish you could safeguard it, until my sister is ready to accept the responsibility of such power again.” Celestia pleaded, trying to bring forth the best tricks she’d learned in her years as a ruler of a nation to convince the young man.



   “Yeah, about that…” The young ape-man said wearily, before pushing her forward and off a cliff she had not noticed until now. Her eyes widened and she could feel her jaw slacken at this sudden betrayal of trust, as he looked at the alien and tired face of the young man who had dragged her here. He was actually smiling as she was falling further and further away from his smug little face!



   Celestia forced whatever remainder of magic she had to flow through her horn as she fell deeper and deeper into the oppressive blackness of the chasm that asshole of an elongated ape had pushed her into. As a small comfort, she could feel her magic tug the smug little ape down with her, just before her consciousness cut out.

   *******

“Sister, please wake up, your wounds are healed sufficiently for that. Please, talk to me. Please, tell me I was stupid and too kind and too cruel at the same time. Please yell at me and teach me new things ponies have done in my my absence… Please wake up.” Celestia could hear her sister babble on about wishing her to be as bitchy as she had ever allowed herself to be and if that wasn’t a sign things were wrong, then nothing was.



   She found herself unable to succumb to the almost overwhelming tiredness the pain in her chest brought with it, or the biting cold in her every limb and that was soaked into her bones. Somehow, she found herself fighting against both the cold and the lethargy with a determination she did not know she possessed. She became aware of the damage in her chest, specifically around her heart and carefully channeled her energies to fix the damaged tissue, before it became a problem.



   “You know nothing of healing spells, if you think that, dear sister...” Celestia croaked out of her dry mouth. As much as healing spells were able to do, dehydration was still easier to deal with in the old fashion way, even if there were spells to help with the symptoms. Without a word Celestia saw Luna’s magic levitate a bowl of water where she could reach it easily without moving her head away from her warm pillow. She didn’t care if any of her subordinates there would think less of her for it, so she accepted the offered comfort and quenched her thirst in small and gradual sips of heavenly water.



   “There was an ape-like being, called itself a human, that dragged me back from where I was. I believe you owe me an explanation for that, Luna.” Celestia slowly said, as she forced herself on her hooves again. Her barrel was soaked in matted crimson and there was a noticeably discolored part of her fur just to the side of the joint of her right foreleg. The patch of growing fur was a slightly off white shade of blonde, rather than the pristine white of her coat. Luna still residing in her human form was a slight surprise and brought back the details she had forgotten on the other side.



   “The spell I used to heal Fenrir was more… violent in nature than I originally thought, sister. I harmed more souls I should have any right to for my foolish act of kindness and I am so sorry. The man you saw was…” Luna paused her speech to rub her throat with a hand, in a very human gesture of discomfort. “He was the most noble human I had the chance to meet… and now he is gone, just so that I would not be left alone.”



   Luna then wrapped herself tighter in the short cape she had tied around her shoulders and gagged slightly as she tried to hold back ravage sobs of discomfort. Her sister was bearing all the weight of a horrible situation, just as she had always done. Celestia carefully sidled to her crying sister and gently wrapped a wing around her sobbing form. She craned her neck to touch her sister’s feverish skin and gently hummed a tune most of equine kind had already forgotten.



   “Shh… I’ll always love you, sister. I will always help you, whatever you do. We will get through this, together, as it should be.” Luna’s foreign body sobbed pathetically for a few times, before she suddenly grappled her neck with those simian appendages and clutched on tight enough to make it hard for her to breathe. She waved the guards who tried to rush in away with a wing and leaned into her sister’s desperate embrace.