“Justice extends to every pony, no one is safe.”
“But I’m sorry! I've tried to make up for it, I’m not the same as I used to be!”
“You can’t erase your faults. Your failures to the people and the ones you love have brought nothing but hurt. You must be punished, taste the claw!”
“No!”
Luna sprang out from the covers with a jolt, throwing her hooves over head as she cowered on the floor. Her breath became labored, escaping in short gasps until she took a look of her surroundings, “Oh….It was just a dream,” she realized. Taking a moment to regain at least a more decent level of breathing, Luna began to recollect her dream. She remembered that she was dreaming of Ponyville, that she was visiting Twilight Sparkle and her friends, who where all hanging out together down at the Sugar Cube Corner. She sat next to the lavender unicorn as the group laughed at another of Pinkie Pies jokes.
“So I said to them, don’t be silly! Scootaloo ain't no chicken!”
Luna couldn't help but break into laughs. Just being surrounded by friends who cared filled her with joy. Even if she didn't completely understand Pinkies joke, it was way better than the constant solitude that Luna felt.
“Twilight, thank you for inviting us… I mean me, to eat lunch with you and your friends.” Twilight turned to Luna with a smile
“Don’t think of it Princess. You know what they say, keep your friends close,” Twilight's smiled quickly faded into a frown, her entire coat turning into a nasty shade of gray, “And your enemies closer.”
Luna’s cheerful demeanor slipped into uneasiness as she looked at the rest of the ponies, Their coats and manes colored gray as they stared at Luna with despise in their eyes.
“What do you mean, are we not friends?” Luna tried to keep the fear from creeping into her voice without success.
“We would never be friends with Nightmare Moon,” the mane six answered, with a union, their voice melded into a almost hollow out drone.
Suddenly Luna felt the floor beneath her give away. She threw her hooves in the air, desperately hoping that one of her friends would lend a hoof. But no help came as Luna was plunged into complete darkness, watching as Ponyville shrank to a blip of light and finally disappear. She twisted in the air, flailing around for anything as she continued to descend. The sudden appearance of a white marble floor rushed up to meet Luna, hard. The cold stone knocked the wind right out of her with a jolt; Luna coughed and gasped spitting out traces of blood from her mouth.
“Why are you laying down my dear sister?” a voice asked from the surrounding darkness.
“Celestia? Is that you?” She cried. The darkness was then uplifted to reveal that Luna was in fact in Celestia’s throne room. A red embroiled carpet split the room, rolling right up to the golden throne, where the tall white alicorn sat. Celestias gaze was compassionate and caring as she looked down to her sister,
“Luna, why do you lie down in court… while your being convicted” Luna snapped her attention back to her sister, only to see a cold steeled eyes bore into her. Luna’s spine tingled with chilling dread. She had seen those eyes only once in her lifetime, and at that time, they where pointed at Discord. To be at the receiving end sent Luna’s stomach into lurches. Luna raised herself from the floor, keeping her head bent low, trying to avoid Celestia’s gaze.
“Sister, please! What am I being convicted of?” Luna asked. Her eyes crawled to meet Celestia’s.
“Don’t play coy with me sister. Or should I better say, Nightmare Moon!” Celestia spoke with the royal canterlot voice now. Stomping a hoof on the ground, and conjuring from it a silver lined mirror. But what met Luna was not her own reflection, but instead the legendary mare on the moon; Nightmare Moon.
Luna could only turn her head and sob, not wanting to see the haunting mare that was her former self. But she couldn’t, the mirror just moved into her view. Showing her the reflection of a tall black alicorn, one whose dragon shaped irises showed not compassion but hate. She tried to form words, but they escaped from her mouth as small whispers,
“Why sister?”
“Because of you ponies have been hurt and suffer. They cry for rightful justification for your crimes.” Celestia turned to her right where a jury sat, including the mane six. Twilight Sparkle took a stand, glancing at Luna with eyes full malice and hate.
Luna just stared at the floor, feeling a growing resentment for herself.
“We find the defendant guilty of charges against the crown.”
Each word stung hard at Luna's heart. She felt as if a huge weight was being dropped on her shoulders with every stare. Celestia stomped her hoof,
“Justice extends to every pony, no one is safe.”
“But I’m sorry! I've tried to make up for it, I’m not the same as I used to be!” Luna started to sprint forward, wanting the reach the only family figure she ever knew. But black chains appeared, tying her down hard against the floor. Any struggle being a fruitless effort.
“You can’t erase your faults. Your failures to the people and the ones you love have brought nothing but hurt. You must be punished, taste the claw!”
Lightning flashed, and Celestia disappeared from the throne. In place of the regal alicorn stood a tall black bipedal creature. His features where hidden by a black mask, but his glowing orange eyes sliced right into Luna sending chills throughout her. His sized increased as he reached to her, his hand glowing a burning dark red. Luna screamed.
“Luna are you alright? I heard you scream” Luna turned up to meet the worried face of her beloved sister.
“Celly!” Luna cried. She leaped forward, encasing Celestia into a bone crushing hug. “I had a terrible nightmare! Youwherethereandnightmaremoonwasthereandyouwhereallangryatmeand…”
“Luna stop! Take a deep breath, and calm down. Tell me what’s the matter. “
Celestia waited patiently, as Luna took a breather before beginning to retell her nightmare. Celestia’s calm reassuring smile slipped into a grim frown as she listened to Luna’s tale. When Luna finished, Celestia was already deep in her own thoughts.
“I thought I lost you sister. I was so scared that you would hate me forever.”
“Luna, I could never hate you. Know that I will always be here for you, no matter what you may do. I will always love you dear sister.” Celestia embraced her sister, trying her best to comfort her. The pair sat there for a while, relishing the comfort of each other, as Celestia gently stroked her sister’s head.
“Luna nothing can hurt you in a dream, nothing in there is real.”
“I don’t know sister. The creature, it felt so real. But at the same time it was as if didn't belong to our world.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The logic was simple, where there is water there must be a source. Three hours of following a river finally yielded results for the dark vigilante. Breaking through the tree line, the Lobster found his much searched water. A mighty waterfall of at least thirty feet in height crashed down upon rocks, which then flowed into a calm lake. Kneeling down at the edge, the Lobster dipped his cupped hands into the cool water before taking a sip. Once his thirst was satisfied, he unclipped a canteen from his belt and submerged it into the lake. The dark vigilante stood up taking a moment to analyze the scenery before determining his next course of action.
Where there is a waterhole, there will be predators, and they must surely have a den, he thought. Allowing his gaze to settle upon the muddy water bank, he realized at that moment how truly bizarre this world was. He found animal prints in the mud, but unlike any other seen before. Massive paw prints similar in form of a lions dug deep into the ground, along with small claw prints hinting to that of a small chicken. Yet to what was visible to him, not a single sign of a struggle for such a prey. Moving further down into the river he discovered a trail of scales, as if a giant snake lived in the river. The Lobster picked one up observing it under close scrutiny. It was as big as his head, colored light purple, brilliantly reflecting the light of the rising sun.
“Morning already?” he said to himself. He had been walking up the river all night after the incident with the young pony. Counting the hours before his arrival, he realized that he’d gone two days without sleep, Assuming that this worlds time is even close to my own. A world with wolfs made of wood and little ponies that talked, if the Lobster didn’t know any better he would say that this was hell, or at least a strange state of purgatory. But he knew better. The Lobster had seen hell himself, in different cases across New York. He knew for certain that hell was on earth.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“SOOOOOOOOO your saying you want us to come with you into the Everfree forest to find somepony that probably doesn’t even exist.” Scootaloo tilted her head waiting for a response.
“Eyup,” Apple Bloom answered.
“And all because you forgot to thank it for possibly saving you?” Sweetie Bell asked
“Aha,” Apple Bloom responded.
The two friends nodded together in agreement before speaking in unison to their closest friend Apple Bloom.
“Your nuts,” they exclaimed.
Apple Bloom frowned, she expected her friends to be much more willing of the prospect of a new adventure.
“I’m not nuts. I’m just being polite. I mean, who leaves somepony who just saved your life without even a thanking him! If the same thing happened to you I bet yah would do the same,” she countered.
“But from what you said, it’s not even a pony,” Scootaloo pointed out.
“Yeah, what if it’s an invader from another world, it could be dangerous!” Sweetie Bell added.
“There’s no telling what it might do!” Scootaloo yelped.
“What if it foalnaps us and sucks our blood,” Sweetie Bell exaggerated, bearing her teeth in a rather comedic manner.
“What if it uses its alien technology to takeover ponyville,” Scootaloo exclaimed.
“And then the rest of Equestria!” added Sweetie Bell.
“Girls!” Apple Bloom interjected, “I thought yahl knew better than that!” Both crusaders turned their heads at Apple Bloom, caught midway in awkward positions. “Didn't we learn to not jump to assumptions based on someponies look?”
Apple Bloom scrutinized her glare at the two crusaders, trying as hard as she could to mirror the same glare Apple Jack gave her last night. Narrowing her eyes and pushing her bottom lip in a snarl, she smiled inwardly finding both her friends to drop their gestures and focus entirely on her…Just to drop on the clubhouse floor in laughter.
“What are you guys laughing at!” Apple Bloom cried. She expected her friends to show a little more respect. She seriously hoped she could bring her friends around to see her point of view, Maybe if I offer them Granny’s Apple pies for the next week they’ll help? Apple Bloom thought. Throwing a side ward glance to the weeping willow marking the start of the Everfree forest.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Lobster knew things could be worse. Three weeks in the cannibal infested sewers of New York had steeled the vigilantes mind, demons and oddities constantly popping out drove him to push his body’s physical limitations. Throughout his journeys, the Lobster learned without question that there where worlds out there, beyond earth and any perceived space, I just never thought there would be one full of talking….ponies!
The vigilante had never encountered anything quite like it. It was almost as each creature had popped from the pages of a child’s coloring book, albeit colored in a wide variety of bright eye melting neon. The very idea of a intelligent race of talking ponies was stupefying, driving him to retreat into the dark woods to contemplate the possibility of insanity only for the theory to be blasted to smithereens every time he returned to reexamine the quaint little town.
“No,” The goggled hero muttered to himself. Even the ghosts and demons I fought seemed more plausible of encountering than…this! He took a moment to peer out from behind some willows to observe a ranch, with immense wide spreading acres of apple trees being cared and toiled for by two lone ponies. The first being the biggest, he was head taller than his counterpart, his height almost reaching to the vigilantes chest. His bright red coat glistened with sweat as he pulled against two plows attached to a horse collar on his neck, muscles bulging from the continuous task of tilling the soil. The second pony, though not as tall and broad as her partner, toiled just as hard. Kicking with both hind hooves and against apple trees, she pulled her long dirty blond mane into a simple ponytail, the rest cresting out in a bang from beneath a light brown Stetson hat.
“Whew, it’s almost be about noon now Mac,” stated Applejack wiping streak of sweat off with the back of her hoof. “Why don’t yah take these baskets in and buckle down for lunch, Ill finish up for yah here and meet you there.” The stout pony took a moment to reexamine his work, not wanting his sister to over exert herself like last time. They were still paying for damages for the bunny stampede. With a firm quite nod, he untied the plows from his horse collar and trotted off to a nearby house. The Lobster returned his gaze to the light orange pony. He pondered quizzically to himself why the pony was doing all the work when not a couple meters away sat a ranch of cows.
“Have these ponies even gone through industrialization?” he muttered to himself.
He turned his gaze back to the town, scanning the crowd that had collected around a local market. It was rich in variety, and went deeper than just colors. Inspecting the crowd more thoroughly, the Lobster found himself cringing, discovering that it was not just ponies that occupied this world, but also unicorns and pegasus! He watched them go about their daily business, flying on disproportional small wings, using acts of magic and telekinesis as casually as if breathing air r. It was daunting how much the world resembled a child’s fantasy, the building made completely out of candy only furthering the hero’s displeasure for this cheery reality. The Lobster took one more sweep of the town, his goggled stare piqued by a peppy pink pony skipping down the market. Her infectious bubbly personality only served to sour his mood further, which not a seconds past, turned to shock! He tensed his body as off in the distance, in the quaint little town full of oddities, he saw the same pink pony turn around and wave.