//------------------------------// // Death and Discord // Story: Right Behind You // by BleepBloop2 //------------------------------// [One thousand and one years ago] [Spy] Luna was crazy. She was balls to the walls, wrist slitting, gun in mouth and finger on trigger insane. I know because the Voice in my head told me so. The Voice, it whispered things to me, things I couldn’t know, things I had no way of knowing. Go left here, it would say, the words slithering into my mind from nowhere, echoing around my skull until I couldn’t tell where the voice stopped and I began and before I knew what was what I’d gone left, and the target would be right there. It wasn’t always there. I felt different when it wasn’t around, hollow, like something important was missing, something I couldn’t live without, didn’t want to even try. And when it came back, it didn’t feel like I was getting a fix. The world didn’t become better, it became normal. It went back to the way it should. Kill this pony, it would say, no longer echoing or slithering but a command from on high. This type lacked the urgency of the first, and could be resisted, though I rarely did so despite no reasons being given, no explanations as to why that pony had to die. I stopped asking after a while. Stopped caring soon after that. The only time the Voice and I were at odds was when it took over. It happened rarely, but even that was too often. My face went numb, my limbs heavy, and my mouth moved by itself, some other voice slipping out. But I dealt with it. The Voice told me what to do to stay alive. It was calm when I was scared. It was confident when I was nervous. The only time anything resembling emotion entered the voice was when I saw Celestia. So, when Luna made the Voice nervous, I knew something bad was going on. I was scared of the way Luna had been acting recently, but the Voice was, well, a voice in my head. It hadn’t always been there, I could sort of remember a time when it wasn’t, but if it could jump to my head, it could jump to others. It couldn’t be killed, or hurt, or only inconvenience. And Luna scared it.   I knew, talking to some ponies in Luna’s army, that she hadn’t been like this, ever before. That while she sometimes got a little jealous of her sister, it had never been this bad. There were foul spirits about, they claimed. Evil magic was being worked on their fair princess, turning Luna from a benevolent ruler who felt normal ponies shouldn’t be ruled by immortals into a tyrant who claimed control over everything, mare or beast. I decided to have a chat with her, see if I could help. Need to ensure my role in the new world order, after all. I greeted her as I always did, as I had for the past year or so; by name. “Luna,” I said, nodding. Her response was a sign of just how much she had changed. She glared down her nose at me, and spoke in a voice as cold as space and as distant as the moon. “We are no longer to be referred to as Luna, Spy. Henceforth, thou shalt refer to Us by Our title of Queen Luna, for Queen of the world We shall be as soon as Our sister falls.” I shrugged and went with it. She had all the cards, what with her being a quasi-immortal goddess of the night. That didn’t seem to make her any happier. “Have thee no spine?” she asked, stomping a hoof. The ground shook like a small earthquake had struck, shattering anything in the tent that was made of glass and sending everything tumbling to the ground except me and Luna. “Thou have served Us for a year, and served well. Thou should make a claim on Our name, thou had earned it.” When I opened my mouth, she lifted a hoof. “Had. Seeing as you are as spineless as your name implies, that privilege is now lost to thee. Perhaps if thou serves Us well in the future, thou may again earn the right to address Us without title.” She paused, as if asking me to speak. Now, if there is one thing I hated above all others, it was someone claiming to own me. “Listen here, Luna,” I said, taking a step towards her. “I. Am not. A servant. You do not own me. Now get your head out of your ass and tell me what has you acting so crazy.” I expected her to be offended, outraged even. I expected to be banished, to be arrested or maybe just told to leave. I did not expect her to swing for me. Her hoof came up too fast for me to dodge and slammed into the side of my head. As I fell, I heard Luna say, “Perhaps this will teach you your place,” before everything went black. The blackness surrounded me, washing over me like the tide, relentless and inevitable. In that ocean of darkness I found the Voice. I have no words for what happened next. The closest thing I can sue to describe it is the moment of clarity addicts have just before they get clean.The Voice was there, and I knew nothing would ever be the same. Pain burned through me. My head filled with fire and ice and pain, a torrent of unimaginable size that quickly flooded the rest of my being. Everything was pain, and pain was everything and the Voice spoke, the sound flowing over me like a cool summer breeze, and the pain faded. I felt a thumping, steady and rhythmic. One-two, three-four. One-two, three-four. One-two, three-four. One-two, three-four. My eyes flew open, stayed open even as the light of a thousand suns burned them to a cinder. I gasped for breath, and the air that filled my lungs was heavy, almost too heavy to breathe. I felt heavy and unwieldy. I felt warm and cold at the same time. But above all, I felt alive. [Present Day] [Celestia] Celestia heard her sister land next to her, her silver-shod hooves making a distinct sound against the cobblestone street. Far above her, she felt the beginnings of storm, magic swirling almost chaotically to produce wind and rain, thunder and lightening. She looked at the corpse of Spy. She should be happy, or at least relieved, that Spy was no longer able to haunt her every waking moment. His brains spilled against the street should ensure that. Celestia turned to face Luna as her sister came to stand beside her. “It’s done,” Celestia said, trying for a small smile. Luna shook her head. “No. Spy yet lives, sister. I once dealt him a similar blow, and he returned.” Celestia frowned. That should not be possible. She and her sister were only able to return because they were more than merely physical and for all the Spy was capable of, he wasn’t that powerful. “I speak true, sister,” Luna said, her voice quiet. “It was no trick or magic. I struck him over the head full force with my hoof, and he fell to the ground as dead as he is now. Despite no longer being myself, I had him buried as befit his rank. Thirty days later, he clawed his way out of his coffin and to the surface.” Celestia frowned. Resurrection, true resurrection, was not possible. Not even Discord, for all that he seemed to bend the universe to his whim, had shown any sign of that power. Celestia reached out with a tendril of magic, as delicate as a newborn filly, and brushed against Spy. Spy was as dead as a stone, which was only slightly less impossible than resurrection. There should be life within him as parts of his body that did not rely upon his brain continued. Yet there he lay, with not a single thing within him showing any sign of ever being alive. She reached out with a different tendril of magic, and found him cold to the touch, as if left on ice for days. The world around Spy seemed to darken as she withdrew her tendril. Turning to Luna, Celestia nodded. “Let us move him to the Vault. He should be secure there, should he return. His equipment would no doubt end up there anyway.” Luna nodded back. Both their horns began to glow, but before they could complete the spell, some around her changed, and the sudden difference snapped her concentration. Celestia glanced at her sister, who seemed as confused as she did. Warily, Celestia closed her eyes and reached out around her, trying to spot what had changed. She felt Luna doing the same. As they searched, the clouds opened up and the rain began. It took them a few seconds to spot what had happened. It had been a subtle change, despite how large it was. Slowly, fearfully, Celestia opened her eyes and looked skywards. Pink clouds let loose a brown rain. Thunder sounded, and it was the laughter of a mad god's laughter.