//------------------------------// // Intermission: A Talk with the Doctor // Story: A Circle Has No End: Volume I // by Gladi Writes //------------------------------// The next morning, having concluded her planning for the next week, Luna took some time off. Today she was finally going to speak to that stallion that had been captured in Manehatten, and had been languishing in a deep dark cell in the Canterlot Dungeon for quite some time. The dungeon was quite new, and officially called the High Security Foreign Alien Containment Prison. It was designed and built after the changeling invasion made the government rethink the caverns below the castle. They were lit up, guarded, and re-explored. Now they housed the most secure prison in the country, designed entirely so that changelings wouldn't be able to enter or leave, even disguised. All guards were to work in pairs, and it was required that one be able to fly in order to cross the underground crevasse to the entrance proper. Guard duty was to be split between rotated Centurions, and Night Guards- their mutual distrust would ensure a state of constant paranoia. As an additional measure, each and every person once inside wore one of the magic dampening medallions the changelings were required to wear when on their own. It was fool-proof, although Luna knew full well no prison was impenetrable. The fail-safe was to have the Canterlot Waterfall pour through and drown everything if there was ever a riot. All this planning and construction had turned out to be for nothing however, only a skeleton crew looked over the prison now, but perhaps with the current chaos it would find itself used. For the last week only one of it's cells had been filled, by a single guest, guarded by a dozen police acting as the caretakers for the prison. Luna flew across the deep crevasse, and landed on the other side, the guard watching the great steel door glanced at her as he read a newspaper, sitting in watchpost, and then came to attention a few seconds later when reality caught up with him. "Good Morning your highness, this is an unexpected honor," he addressed from behind the thick glass window, fumbling with his untidy uniform. "Good afternoon," Luna said- wondering if they didn't pay attention, of it was a result of never seeing the sun- "I require entry to the prison." The guard reached down and produced a medallion from under the counter, sliding it out through a hole in the glass to Luna. "You'll need one of these, and..." He pulled a clipboard hanging from the roof, "... I'll need you to sign in," he said, thrusting that out too. Luna threw the medallion over herself- the security of the prison did rely on everyone wearing one, at all times, afterall; and ran down the list of dates to sign in. There was one other entry, a few days previous. Her sister. Luna hastily filled in her own name, and shoved it back through the hole to the guard. Worldlessly she gestured at the door, and it slid open as soon as he pulled a lever. The door swung open, and Luna darted inside the concrete hallway of the prison itself, another checkpoint a few meters ahead. Which was long since abandoned, it's door left open and the checkpoint itself empty. Luna sighed, and stepped past it into another concrete hallway, lined with doors that led down other hallways down the maze like series of tunnels and cells. Like any good prison it was designed to any would-be escapee would quickly find themselves running in circles in an attempt to escape- to the point where there were signs pointing to an 'exit' that was actually a dead end. For ten minutes Luna took her time walking through the eerily silent corridors, each leading into identical corridors with identical flickering lights. Once and a while she would pass a checkpoint or a distracted guard that seemed more worried with their hobbies- one of them appeared to be working on an impressive structure made of cards, carefully adding to it from behind the window of yet another unlocked checkpoint. Which Luna toppled with a gentle push of wind from her wing before striding past. The guard looked at her, hurt, and then slammed his head on the desk groaning at his lost creation. "Twelve hours! Twelve hours!" He lamented, rolling his head on the desk. "Maybe," Luna said, stepping through the door, "if you had locked the door, this wouldn't have happened." Luna continued on, finally passing into the darker corridors of the 'secure wing'. That last checkpoint was the dividing line between the regular prison and this place, and now cells lined the walls. Each had a thick steel door with nothing more then a glass viewing hole to look inside, a basic toilet, and a single bed. This is where they had planned to house Chrysalis' leaders if captured in another attack, and remained a way to house any changelings that broke the treaty- although that had only happened once. At the end was the last cell in the prison, the centurions had followed her order to throw him into the 'deepest, darkest, cell' to the letter. A guard sat at a desk outside, scribbling something in a book with his hooves up on it. His uniform was hung on the chair, making his cutie mark- that of a book with blank pages open- visible. On the desk was a placard- Chief Prose Luna approached him silently, curious to hear what he was mumbling about. "...overpowered protagonist? I could just make him fat in act two, that could work. First act needs some touching up... perhaps add another chapter here- maybe a dialogue. This entire scene is too early, needs to come later. What about his wife, if I were to k-" He noticed Luna approaching, and jumped out of the chair in surprise throwing papers around in his haste to come to attention. "Your highness!" He shouted, saluting sharply as papers rained to the floor at his hooves. Luna glanced at one, which seemed to be the title page for something called 'Self Insertion', and looked back at him. "Chief, open the door," Luna ordered. The chief reached to where his pocket would be, and then blushed when he realized he was out of uniform. "I uh, I apologize for my poor uh..." He stammered, rummaging through the uniform over the chair, before quickly pulling out a set of keys. "Just open the door," Luna sighed, shaking her head at the obvious incompetence. "Yes ma'am," ge said, and stuck a key into the door. It was the wrong one, so he tried again. And again. At the sixth try Luna stopped him, putting an impatient hoof on his chest. "Give it here," she ordered. He meekly offered the keychain, and backed off. Luna looked at the door- A22, and then to the keys. They were all B1-44. "This is the wrong set of keys you fool, I'm getting tired of this incompetence!" Luna shouted, tossing the keys back at him. She peeked through the glass, and saw the prisoner lying in his bed. She wasn't a monster, he had been provided with food and books to read, one of which he was reading now by the light of his horn. Chief Prose coughed, Luna turned and tore a different keychain from his hoof and unlocked the door before tossing it back at him. Luna swung it open, and the middle aged stallion- although supposedly only 25 years old he certainly looked older- with a grey coat and white mane, sighed and closed his book. Luna stood in the doorway, glaring at him. "So, is this a release or an interrogation?" Flankenstein asked. Luna shut the door with her hind leg, and continued glaring down at him. "The first depends on the second," she said, and took off her medallion. "So then," Flankenstein said, sitting up on the side of the bed. "Ask away, but I'll remind you we're both in the same position- I've made some bad decisions in the last.... forever," he lamented. "I know this full well, my question to you is: why?" Luna asked. "For you, of course. I can't remember the end of our relationship, but I can remember the beginning. I remember those long nights staring at the moon, I remember you would even take me flying, and we once explored the dreamscape together," Flankenstein said. Luna desperately tried to make sense of all this. She had no memories of these events, they had been stolen from her by this... wretched creature. "For me, you say, but that's dodging the question. Why in my own name would you see fit to steal my memories, memories I can never regain through magic or any amount of effort? You've stolen so much from me Doctor, why?" Luna asked, her voice beginning to shake. "Because, Luna, I am a fool. Then, I was a fool in love. I tried to use science to solve my problems, blind to the actual consequences of doing as such. It's a mistake I repeated recently, and it's led me here," Flankenstein said. Luna, strode to the other side of the room, and looked at the pile of books on the floor. Her face contorted with conflicting emotions. On the one hoof she wanted to hang this stallion, and she would be just in doing so- he had after all willingly participated in treason. Yet she also needed to know why he had met so much to him in those months lost to her. She could have any stallion in Equestria, why him? "Why was my sister here?" Luna asked, staring at the pile of B rate fiction. "She offered me exile, but I refused. I've run from my mistakes too long, and it's cost too much," he replied. "I can never forgive you," Luna said, turning to face her nemesis. He seemed to helpless, so innocent- even tired. "Of course, I don't think I can forgive myself either. I had everything, I had you, and now I have nothing," Luna glanced away, a tear suddenly in her eye. Why was this stallion having such an effect on her- she had risen to become Queen, and yet here she shed a tear over a stallion that should be hung for his crimes. Then she felt a glimmer of why she had fallen for him. He was imperfect, but beyond that he didn't see her as the Princess of the Night, he saw her as Luna. Last Nightmare Night she had felt the icy sting of fear still in the population. To them she had been like a legend suddenly come to life, a fearful memory of a mythical terror. He had seen past all this, and loved her for what she truly was. Not trying to change her, or make her into a lighter Luna, he accepted her for who she was. Perhaps there was room in her heart for one last love, but not today. "You will be released," Luna said, and turned to look him in the eyes- suddenly brightened. "But I want you to stay far, far, away from Canterlot. If I want, I will contact you, never contact me." Flankenstein nodded, and came to beside the bed. "It's more then I deserve," He said. "I am quite aware of that, but I think it's best if we both act as if you died in Baltimare, and move on with that in mind," Luna suggested, slinging the medallion back over her neck. "Well I was an asshole, I'm glad I died," Flankenstein joked. Luna couldn't help but smile, and knocked on the door. Chief Prose fumbled with his keys outside. "He didn't actually lock it," Flankenstein said, and pushed the door open from Luna's side- the shocked 'chief' hit with it. "I've got some reading to finish, goodbye Luna," Flankenstien said, and trotted back to his bed. "Dos Vedunya, Flankenstein," Luna said, and glanced to the 'chief'. "Allow him to leave at his leisure," Luna ordered, and departed down the hallway without another word.