//------------------------------// // Revelations IX // Story: Second at Best // by Wages of Sin //------------------------------// When Luna arrived at the castle she had hardly landed within the grounds before hurriedly approached by stallion of her bat-winged Lunar guard. "Princess! She's at the front gate! But she's-" Clarification was not needed, Luna knew exactly what the stallion was reporting just by his tone. She teleported before the guardstallion had time to finish his report. Luna reappeared among bedlam. Lunar guards were swarming like flies around a single figure. Any who charged or even strayed too close were swatted aside by quick lashes of magic. At the core of the madness was a figure that brought bile into her throat. It was certainly as the guardstallion had indicated, that much could be seen by all, but to those who know Twilight best it was all the worse. No, to those that knew the gentle unicorn, the image before her would have been a distorted mess, a twisted caricature of the unicorn. The mare's overall distinguishing characteristics were the same, cutie mark confirming her identity, but the distorting influence of foreign power was well in effect. Long legs gave the mare what would have been gangly appearance had it not been for the proportional thickening of her barrel. In fact, her whole body appeared larger, even her formerly unassuming horn was now of a threatening length, but most distressing aspect of her change was the pair of dark wings tucked into her sides, not leaving the reason for the change much to the imagination. Fear shook the alicorn. She had expected to see signs of corruption, but the manifestations of were far beyond what should have been possible for one so recently exposed. There was only one explanation. "Fall back!" Luna commanded her guards. The thestrals broke what little formation they had, falling back as commanded, but staying primed to re-engage. "Nightmare! Release her! Your quarrel is with me! Leave her out of this!" The mare's face grew dark, turning away. For a moment it appeared as if her words had some effect on the figure, but then as the being began shaking, the truth became clear. She was laughing, not the confident, familiar laugh of the abomination, but one just as fearful. "You're mistaken." The figure mocked, "Though I suppose you would know best." "Twilight, if any of you remains aware in there, you must fight it! Fight it so that I may cleanse you of this darkness." "Oh? Poor old Twilight grows a backbone and the only explanation is possession? I think we both know that is not how it works." Luna recoiled at the accusation. "No, I'm here because I have unfinished business. It's really too bad that it took all this to finally make me do what should have done long ago." "Twilight, you must calm down, she is blinding you! Muddling your thoughts! You must not succumb to her! Her whisperings are not your own!" Twilight broke the standoff, beginning to circle the lunar princess, "Still going on about that? Are you listening to me? I suppose not. None ever do!" The dark mare scoffed, "When you needed me, was I not there for you? But when I needed you, when I pleaded with you as a friend, what did you do? You betray me, caring only for your sister? Am I not one to be loved as well? No, always cast off after I've served my purpose, never accepted for who I am." the dark mare's glare narrowed "I would have expected you to understand. But no. Now here we are! You, standing in my way once again!" "And I shall continue to do so! You need to let go of these feelings so that you may see the truth! We love you! I love you! You are our precious friend! That is why I act as I do now! Because I cannot stand to see you fall down the path I once tread. The Nightmare's words are lies! The nightmare's power will turn against you! Do not let her take you! I cannot bear it!" Tears glazed the lunar princess's eyes, and the lavender mare's scowl seemed to waver, a visible knitting of her brow before it was just as quickly shaken off. "I can see no progress will be made here." She growled, "Thankfully, you are not the one who has wronged me greatest. Nor why I have come." Turning away suddenly to face the hallway previously blocked by Luna, the mare darted. The night guard who had remained in the rafters began to pounce down, attempting to flood down the hallway en masse. "Nay!" She shouted, "I shall deal with her!" Luna's recently placed charms upon the castle forbade teleportation, but Luna herself was under no such limitations. A flash brought her to where she knew Twilight was headed. Before the flash had even faded, Twilight's voice greeted her, “Out of my way." Luna turned to see Twilight already at the end of the hall leading to her sister's chambers. "Twilight! You mustn't try to force your way in! Especially not now! Her door is warded with a spell drawing from the sun itself! Only she can open the door! Any attempts made will recoil!" A scoff rebuked the warning. "Please! Twilight you don't want this! It's all the Nightmare! She is controlling you!" "You continue to lie!" She spat, switching her glare from the chamber door back to Luna, "I may have the Nightmare's power, but I have not been influenced at all! No dark whisperings! No possession! Just my realizations and rage! This power has only allowed me to express what I really am! And that's the truth isn't it? There is no 'nightmare', is there? It's just a scapegoat for your actions!" Luna's expression was a muddled mix of confusion and fear, "No! The Nightmare was real! I was possessed, just as you are now! You need to see-" "I am no fool!" She screamed, a charge building in her horn, "I am not just some weapon! I am more than just a machine to be put at a task and forgotten about!" She hollered, ignoring Luna once again for the door. "And I'll prove it to you! I'll prove it to her! I'll prove it to everypony!" She released the magic. Luna turned away, fearing the intensity of a reaction of so much antithetical magic. Contrary to her fears though, the door did not repel the attack. It simply fell inward. Though confusion and shock were chief among her emotions upon the display, they were not for what occurred, but for what was revealed: an empty room and a single letter upon the neatly made bed.