Chapter 18: Siphon
---{Dilan Shier}
The faint sound of a clock ticking met my waking ears. The bedroom slowly blurred into focus. I wasn't sure, but I thought I saw Spirit Sword's eyes slowly moving left and right. It was about then that I saw the book in his grasp. I squinted to read the words on the cover.
"Juvenile Monster?" I blurted out loud.
Spirit's eyes suddenly widened immediately before the book was slammed shut. He shoved it out of sight before I really knew what was happening.
"I was just... keeping current," he said hastily.
"Um... all right..." I dropped that topic of conversation and gathered my armor. "Huh?" It was about that time that I looked at my back due to the sound of clicking and tapping. The tips of the feathers baffled me. "Have I always had these metallic feather attachments?"
"For as long as I've known you, yes," answered Spirit.
Hmm, I thought, not sure if I was that tired or a victim of another one of Discord's normal routines. I gave my wings a couple of strong flaps. My ability to fly hadn't changed in spite of the blue tips. Shrugging, I returned to the floor with a gentle plop.
Spirit cleared his throat. "Princess Luna has asked for your presence in her quarters."
"For what?" I asked.
"She wouldn't say," said Spirit, "Perhaps we should go find out what she wants."
He trotted out the door and I quickly followed.
---
"Thank you, Spirit Sword," said Luna, "Would you mind waiting out here?"
"I would mind, but I will wait anyway," replied Spirit.
Before the door was closed behind me, I faintly heard Faith Shield chuckling and whispering.
"I think I'm rubbing off on you, Sword."
"Oh, hush."
I don't know what I expected. Luna's room had a few flowers scattered around the floor. In one corner was a candlestick as tall as a coat hanger. In another corner was an open cage with several hanging bats, presumably sleeping at this hour of the day. A fire was lit in a furnace against one wall. Sitting by the opposite wall was a large canopy bed.
"Dilan Shier," said Luna. Her horn glowed as large curtains were drawn over the window. The only light against her form was the crackling orange from the fire.
"Oh, hey, you didn't pause in the middle of my first name like you usually do," I said gleefully.
Her eyes stared at me in silence.
"Sorry, Princess." I rubbed my left front hoof against the floor. "You were saying?"
"I've been carefully examining you over the past few months," she continued. "I'm guilty of actually wishing that you were the real Nightmare Moon."
I scratched my neck. "Yeah, you only said something along those lines a dozen times."
"No, it was seventeen- Shut up!"
I set my hoof back down. "So is that why you wanted privacy now? Apologize without ruining your reputation of hating the dark thing that I've become?"
"Not exactly," said Luna, turning her head so that I couldn't see her eyes. "Tell me, Shier. Do you even know where your power originates?"
I blinked. "Well, this is Nightmare Moon's body, right? Her powers came along with the package. I mean, I picked up a few others from those fragments of Nightmare that latched onto other ponies. But it's all her, right?"
I heard Luna sigh. "Such an innocent and naive guess. You're almost making me wish that this was just a private apology."
I tilted my head. "Then, what is it?"
She turned back around and her eyes moved closer to me. "We have a connection. Our souls are intertwined by your very existence."
"Right." I nodded. "Shared tastes and intoxication. I knew that already."
"Well, I'm tired of being stuck together in such a cruel way." Her eyes advanced again.
"What do you want me to do about it? I don't know how to safely sever a soul chain."
Her voice lowered to a whisper. "I want you to give me my soul back."
"W...What?"
"The power you possess is miniscule compared to the darkness that I've had to contend with each and every night!"
Suddenly, I was staring at a pair of slit irises. I wanted out of that room, but I couldn't look away. Something was holding every single one of my limbs in place. I could barely even breathe in the strange tightness of the atmosphere.
How could I even describe feeling my eyes shrink in their sockets? How could I explain the vacuum that pulled at my very life force, more coldly and painfully than Tirek had once before? I tried to scream, but all I could hear was a suffocated breath.
Something else decided to fill the silence with screaming in my stead.
"Ahhhhhh!"
"Yahhhhhh!"
"Urgh-ahhhh!"
"Uwahhhhh!"
"Nooooooo!"
My armor faded like it was never there to begin with. My bones almost felt like they were melting. It could have been five minutes or it could have been ten hours. All I knew for sure was that it felt like an eternity had passed by the time the painful surge finally ended. I was dropped to the ground. Trying to move my body, I felt numb pins. I could barely lift any of my limbs before gravity reclaimed them.
Blurriness currently resided in my field of vision. My breathing was short and erratic. My next thought was how fast the floor was coming up to greet my face. Then... darkness.
---
"Pr... ess..."
"I'm... g... help..."
"...una... Si..."
---
I thought I heard voices. But their messages sounded like the hollow echoes from the farthest end of a tunnel. Were my ears ringing? It was hard to concentrate on anything. I fought to open my eyes. Blurred splotches were all I could identify. I groaned and lifted a wrist to my head.
"Princess, you're awake!"
"Ow..." I winced at the sudden noise. "Faith, not so loud, please. Splitting headache."
"Oh, sorry," he said, thankfully gentler that time.
"Did anyone get the paint job on that cart that ran me over?" I asked half-seriously.
I knew I had to open my eyes eventually or it would just hurt more later. So in spite of the pain, I blinked the blurriness out of my vision until surroundings gained more solidified shapes. Spirit and Faith were standing nearby the bed. Against my tired instincts, I smiled lightly.
"Your Highness, how are you faring?" asked Spirit.
That question seemed a bit off. I turned my neck this way and that way. However, I couldn't see hide or tail of the four princesses anywhere. I was fairly certain that they wouldn't waste invisibility spells within the castle. Though, it wouldn't have been the first time my intuition had been misled.
"Um, Spirit? We're the only ones here," I pointed out. "Are you calling out to them behind the door or something?"
Now the bat-winged guards looked with confusion on their faces.
"Princess Luna, he's talking to you," Faith said while pointing a wing at... me.
These guys aren't making any sense, I thought as I looked down at my front hooves above the covers. Wait a minute... Since when are my front hooves light purple?
Hastily, I pulled off the blanket and saw that the coloration had affected my entire body as well. I let out an audible gasp before looking straight up.
That's right! I was talking with Princess Luna and then she started saying some things that weren't making sense. Then she... I jumped from the bed, frantically galloping to the nearest mirror. What did she do to me?
"Princess!" exclaimed Spirit, but I didn't even give him notice.
I was too busy staring at the potential damage that could have knocked me out. But rather than bruises or scars, I was shocked at a very different reflection. The irises contained round pupils instead of slits. The light blue mane resembled a human woman's hairstyle, no imaginary wind pushing it at all. The pony that was staring back at me had her mouth open wide enough for me to see relatively flat teeth. Turning slightly, I got a look at the reflection's cutie mark. The crescent moon was still there, but what should have been the purple splotch was completely black.
"Dear gosh," I finally managed to find the breath for words. "What did she do?"
"Princess?" asked Faith.
I turned one-eighty on my hooves. "Guys, it's me! Dilan!"
He shook his head rapidly while saying, "Brr-uh!" He looked at me strangely. "Dill Anne? But... Nightmare Moon is outside combatting Princess Celestia."
"What?!" I ran over to the window just in time to catch a glimpse of Celestia flying past. She was followed by a dark figure with very familiar, smoky hair. A few of the pegasi guards were flying around as well.
My mouth struggled to form coherent phrases. "But... I... that... she... and... huh?"
"Princess, you're in no condition to be involved with this," insisted Spirit, "Please, just rest here and..."
"Stop calling me that!" I demanded, "I am Dilan Shier. Princess Luna did something and she somehow has my body... er, Nightmare Moon's body... gah, whatever."
In a fit of frustration, I accidentally hit my head against the window hard enough to crack some of the glass. I heard the trotting of approaching hooves.
"So... you think you're Dill Anne," reiterated Faith.
"I know I'm Dilan," I told him once more.
"Alright, prove it," he said.
"What could I possibly do to prove that?" I asked while turning around.
"Let's try... something that the princess wouldn't have been around to hear from just you to me," said Faith, "What... was your gender back when you were a hoo-man?"
I sighed. "I already told you. I'm a male, the equivalent of a colt in this world... and it's human, not who-man."
"Okay, you're Dill Anne." Faith nodded.
"What?" asked Spirit.
"Her Highness always referred to Shear as a filly," explained Faith, "Never once did she make any mention of the fact that Shear used to be a colt. But this mare told me that little detail during a trip to Manehattan." He patted my back for emphasis.
"Yes, now that that's been cleared up," I pointed to the window, "can we possibly do something to stop that Nightmare Moon from attacking everything and everybody?"
"Sure," Faith said while putting his hooves up against the window. "You just have to open it like this."
The window folded outward, letting the rush of different temperature winds blow all around. I opened my wings, letting the metal tips ring like chimes. I dove to the outdoors before climbing on a cross-breeze.
"Wait!" called Spirit.
"Yeah, don't forget us," added Faith.
Sparks and beams were thrown through the sky like crazy. Part of me worried about the structural integrity of this castle under all of this constant pressure. The other part was busy flying around to catch up with the dueling alicorns. I glanced back and saw the vampire guards before I immediately focused my attention forward and around the next tower.
The external sight of what Nightmare Moon had become was horrifying, if one could forgive my understatement. The purple smoke that surrounded her pony body looked on the verge of becoming a tornado. A few wild vines were lashing out from her back. Lightning crackled to her sides, but not directly on her. A bit of red and black made up the outlines of what should have been her mane and tail.
Flying opposite to her was Celestia. Contrary to the Nightmare's grin, she appeared determined to put someone in their place. Her horn charged up a golden aura. It released a thin beam of the same color in the next instant. Yet, Nightmare somehow staved off the attack with one of the large vines and actually whacked the golden blast down to the ground. She deflected a few more beams in the same way, only at different angles.
Nightmare retaliated by focusing a magical laser of blue death forward. Celestia's magic projected a golden shield that stopped the blast. However, her back had somehow been left wide open for a sneak-attack, lightning strike. She lost a lot of altitude in a hurry. It only looked worse for her as a bit of solid purple smoke reached down and snagged her by the neck.
"Princess Celestia!" was called by all three members of my impromptu team.
The dark one apparently took exception to that by hurtling her prey in our direction. Before I could even blink in surprise, Spirit Sword was grunting while getting shoved back by a damaged Celestia. Next thing I knew, a wild vine had snagged and wrapped around my torso. I decided to give the plant a taste of Spectrum's lightning punch. However, the static wasn't building in my right hoof at all.
"Huh? What the...?" I tried jabbing the vine repeatedly to no effect. "Grr, all right. How about this?"
I hoped that Posh wouldn't mind being used for some tactical use in this shadow-covered battlefield. My concern wasn't needed. No matter how much I tried to concentrate or steady my breathing, the shadows would not allow me to ride them in any way.
The Nightmare Moon that held me tightly was laughing up a storm at my apparently dwindling list of options. Her vine sent a slight crushing pain into my sides and wings before it flung me through the air. Unable to change my course that quickly, Faith grunted as I was thrown into him. The resulting impact on the nearest tower's outside wall probably wasn't good for it.
On the bright side, the kitchen had a brand new view to the outside of the castle.
...
I'm sorry. That was dreadful.
Okay, ow, that felt like a misplaced rib, I thought while trying to ascertain my condition.
"Hey, Dill Anne," said a muffled Faith Shield, "Could you please get off of me?"
"Y...Yeah, sure," I grunted, "Hold on."
Oh my gosh! Rolling onto my back made it hurt worse!
---
Despite the injuries wrapped by what must have been magical healing bandages, I sat on my haunches. Though, I counted myself lucky. The other ponies present looked worse off considering some of the visible scrapes and dirt rubbings. I sighed at all of this.
"I don't understand," said Spirit Sword and he shook his head. "Why would Princess Luna swap bodies with Nightmare Moon?"
"It wasn't really a body swap," I said.
"How do you know that?" asked Faith Shield.
"Well, for one thing." I held up a hoof and panned it down my side. "Aside from the cutie mark, I don't look anything like Princess Luna."
"Actually," interrupted Celestia, "there was a short time where she looked exactly like what you look like now."
I looked over at her with an eyebrow raised.
"Shortly after the Elements freed her from the Nightmare the first time, her strength was severely weakened. She looked like any other little pony. It took several months just to regain her usual level of magic and power."
I opened my eyes wide and gasped. "So the reason I look like her weakened form was because she drained me." I let my head droop. "But that still doesn't explain why she did it."
Faith tapped his chin. "Maybe a fragment of Nightmare got to her again."
I shook my head. "No, I've been sensing those pieces just as much as she has. I would have felt the dark presence on her if there had been any before she called me into her room."
Spirit stomped a hoof. "Sham it! We're just going in circles with speculation. We need to find a way to save Her Highness before she causes damage in wherever the hay she is now!"
One of the white stallion guards galloped in. "Princess, the scouts returned with sightings of Nightmare Moon. She's headed into the Everfree Forest."
Celestia closed her eyes. "There are only two places that somepony with that much power would go for."
"The Tree of Harmony..." started Faith.
"... or the Ruins of the Castle of Two Sisters," I finished.
Celestia opened her eyes. "Thank you, Warrant Officer. Keep me posted."
"Yes, Your Highness," saluted the guard before he galloped back out the door.
Faith tapped a bandage on Spirit's shoulder. "On the bright side, we know where she is now."
I wasn't sure if Spirit winced more from pain or frustration at Faith's wit. Either way, Spirit countered, "But we still don't know what she's up to."
"Well, after we save her, how about we ask her directly?" asked Faith.
"That may be our best option right now," said Celestia as she stood up. "Urgh!"
She immediately held a hoof against her chest. The tension suddenly rose greatly in that throne room. I didn't want to believe it, but I was getting an uncomfortably familiar feeling that only got worse as I looked on. The sense didn't stay intangible for long. A small purple cloud started swirling in place against Celestia's chest and throat.
"No way!" exclaimed Faith. "It can't be!"
"It's gotten a hold of Princess Celestia!" shouted Spirit.
I don't really know what compelled my legs to stand and gallop. But in that instant, that's exactly what I did.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" I rattled as I ran smack into her. Idly, I felt my tail brush past her leg. "It can't have you too!"
In spite of my refusal to allow things to happen, the cloud had other plans. As Celestia struggled to breathe and her eyes shrunk inside the whites, the piece of Nightmare spread down to her front hooves. I could also see it trying to work its way over her mouth.
"Darn it!" I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing some liquid from my tear ducts. "Who's going to save your sister if you lose here?"
A pin dropped in the distance.
"Huh?" Faith's voice broke the silence. "It's... shifting direction."
Spirit made another observation. "Dill Anne, your tail!"
My eyes popped open as I looked down to see what he was talking about. While I had been busy freaking out, my normal ponytail managed to curl around Celestia's leg. As I looked back up, I saw that the Nightmarish cloud was receding from the chest and mouth area almost completely into her leg. It was the same leg that my tail was around.
"Oh... crap..." I whispered just before the entire purple cloud poured itself out of Celestia's leg into my tail.
I don't have any of my Nightmare powers supporting me right now, my thoughts raced, That means Tail Demon isn't with me to absorb the hatred and keep my conscience at the surface.
I managed to uncurl my tail from the pale stump, but it was too late. The cloud was already working its way up my back. I shivered and squirmed. I actually tried running in circles, all the while unable to tear my stare away from the darkness that was consuming my entire body.
Will I just fall asleep like Spectrum and Posh, or will it somehow brainwash me into doing its bidding? No! I don't want to become an enemy!
This time, I did hear a scream... and it was mine.
---{???}
...
Is that your wish then? Fine. I won't lay a hoof on their hides.
...
But I will stop her.
---