//------------------------------// // Of Pink Shadows - The Prolouge // Story: Pinknesia: The Darker Descent // by Wolokai //------------------------------// One year...one dark...gloomy year. The moon was cold to me, it hissed, it tormented, it drove me to insanity and back. I didn't understand, even to this day...how Luna survived a thousand years on this barren hellhole. I was alone, cold, and miserable, with nothing but my own thoughts and my own, raging madness. My Insanity gave me only a tiny warmth, a sliver of comfort...a beacon of hope...even though it was a false one. Through my shattered and broken mind I wondered, I explored, and I dreamed. What I really wanted though...was an answer...an answer to why, why I did the things I did. I murdered the rich ponies of Hoofington, baked them into delicious treats, and fed them to the poor, homeless ponies of the alleys. I drew my blade against the necks of many, killing more and more, until the day my knife was slid deep into the neck of Health Inspector Trottington. Why...why did it come so easy? Why was it so easy to kill so many ponies when I found it nearly impossible to put a bunny out of its misery when I was a little filly? I've heard you carry the faces of those you kill, but the only face I carry really is...blackness. I hear it echoing in the back of my mind, I hear it calling my name, whispering dark instructions. This isn't me...something's wrong. These aren't my thoughts...these couldn't be mine. But if not mine...whose were they? I told myself that I would go, go to Princess Luna and ask of her the experiences she had while being trapped here like me. I needed to know if she had felt the same thing, heard the same voices, experienced the same blackened madness that tugged and pulled on the strands of my very soul. I was sitting on my belly, my hooves tucked in and comfy under my form. My eyes were closed and a peaceful look was displayed across my face. My features were...halved, with the right side of my body rich in pink color, my mane poofy and crazy...my left side...dull and blurry, my hair straight and smooth. I was divided, torn by the blackness that had invaded my fortress of a body. I opened my eyes slowly to stare at the Earth, Celestia's sun beginning to light the peaceful planet. Although most would deem it impossible to conceive, I could confidently say that my eyes were rooted to one spot on the planet, my gaze stretching forth from my white prison to the Earth below, watching over an orange mare who had begun to stir. She yawned, stretched, and wiggled around cutely in the blankets draped across her on Fluttershy's couch. I was watching over them all, laughing as they laughed, crying as they cried, listening as they talked. It was like I was gone...but not gone. I wouldn't have to wait for long... My sentence was nearly over, Celestia marking for me my final day here on the moon with her three hundred and sixty-fifth sun. I felt my body tingle, the surface of the moon glowing a brilliant white. This was it, my moment...my freedom. Before I left this cold, desolate desert, I promised myself, over and over, to not delay, to not tarry, to go STRAIGHT to Princess Luna. Of course I'd break it, my very first broken promise to myself. I'd give it a day or two...there was no real rush and no real reason to miss my own Welcome Home party. My body evaporated, and for a moment I was graced with the euphoric touch of bliss. A hoof pressed against my belly, another against my back. Opening my eyes, I was floating in a white abyss, the hooves of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna holding me gently. They smiled as I smiled, and as I looked towards Luna, a knowing expression grew on her face, and a single nod confirmed to me that I could take all the time in the world...and she would still listen. A moment later I found myself waking up, my eyes opening slowly and the fresh scent of grass and clouds gracing my nose. I heard shouts, I heard yelling and outbursts of joy. I heard applause, I heard magic, and I heard a voice. A voice I waited three hundred and sixty five suns for. I was in the middle of Ponyville, in front of the Mayor's building, and everpony was there to greet me. They had witnessed the gigantic explosion of light which had brought me home, and in the next instant the entire town was in applause. The voice I heard melted the icy shell that had formed around my heart and soul, and I instantly found myself hugged tightly by an orange mare, my darling, dearest, loving adopted daughter, Scootaloo. Oh the tears I shed, oh the sobs I let forth, oh the squeezing I gave her with my hug. The one Mare who was with me every step of the way, the one who was my best friend, and now, my loving daughter. Another set of hooves wrapped around me, under Scootaloo's, and I cried even harder when I smelt the familiar, forest-like scent of dear Fluttershy. One by one, my old friends returned to me, and held me tight. Applejack...Rarity...Rainbow Dash...and Twilight Sparkle. Even though Princess Luna and I knew that things weren't over yet...that there were still loose ends to be tied...and questions to be answered...we allowed myself some time. Time to breathe, time to be alive, time to be with my sweet Scootaloo and my darling Fluttershy. A time to enjoy the best party in Equestria, and a time to sleep soundly and peacefully...in warmth, rather then the cold winds of space. I held my Scootaloo, forgetting of all the future troubles and miseries I might face, and for once...for once in three hundred and sixty five suns... .......I felt it. The feeling. That all was right in the world again.