Pony Split
Chapter 4 - Luna (Nightmare Mode)
Pure Heart and Luna had finally reached the guest room. Pure turned to Luna and said, "Wow, today has been a strange day."
"I'm sure it has been, but now you should probably get some rest. You have had a long and tiring day and you deserve it," she said with a soothing voice.
I gave her look a fake of disappointment, "Can't I stay up for just a little bit longer?"
"No, you need your rest, now hurry up."
I grumbled as I walked over to my bed. Man, she sure can be bossy.
She had already walked to the door and turned off the light while saying, "Sweet dreams." She walked the rest of the way out and shut the door, leaving me in darkness.
What a day, I thought, slowly drifting off to sleep. Little did I know, it was not to be a restful night.
I was running through Everfree forest. Couldn't stop running.
*PEW!* I narrowly dodged a laser. I had never been so scared.
"You can't escape me!" The voice behind me laughed with a vile tone.
I ran to a clearing and saw Luna on a cliff edge. "I'm so sorry Zach, but I must escape this 'asylum'." With that she stepped backwards. She was about to fall!
I ran to her and caught her by the hooves before she fell. "What do you mean?" I had tears streaming from my eyes.
"I'm scared," she said, terror filled her voice.
"What are you scared of?"
"YOU!" She then let go and fell.
"Nooo!" I ran down to where she had fallen and held her in my hooves.
With last bit of her strength she beckoned me closer. She whispered so quietly, I thought I only caught a little of what she said, "Stay...way...rom...Ark..." Then she collapsed and began to slowly melt into a reflective pool of liquid.
I looked into the pool and saw myself, crying. I cried for long time, and my final tear fell to the surface of the pool, creating ripples in the water. I slowly looked into the pool again, butdid not recognize who I saw. I saw a dark purple pony with a green mane. The most distinctive thing about this pony, though, were his eyes. Purple eyes filled with sin and a lust for power.
"I told you. You can't escape me." The reflection gave a devious smile, then his purple eyes started to glow. "Join your love in death, whelp!" I was immediately consumed in lasers that had shot out of his hate-filled eyes.
"NO!" I screamed awake in my bed. It was just a dream, a horrible dream.
I sat up and looked around. Had it all been a dream; the ponies; Luna; the kiss; all of it?
I tried to get up, but noticed something on top of me. It was Luna, she was asleep, with her head resting on my chest. She is so cute when she is sleeping. A faint snore escaped her lips.
I smiled and gently shook her awake. She slowly woke up, looking up into my eyes and smiled warmly. "Good morning, sleepy head," I said softly.
She yawned and replied, "Good morning to you, too."
"So, out of curiosity, what are you doing in here, not that I'm complaining," I asked inquisitively.
"Oh, well... I heard you cry out in your sleep when I came to check on you. So I thought that it might be comforting to you if I stayed close," she said shyly.
"Thank you, I'm glad you were there for me."
"Your welcome. Now would you like to talk about your dream. That always helps me to calm down."
Remembering the dream was in part about her, I decided against it. "Well okay, but if you change your mind later, just tell me, alright?" I nodded and she started to move away.
I grabbed her by the leg and said, "Please, can we stay like this a little longer?"
She smiled and said, "Sure, as long as you need." She then pulled me into a hug and squeezed me tight.
I hugged her back, nuzzling her soft, warm fur. I never wanted this moment to end.
We laid like that for what seemed like hours, but in reality, it had only been a few minutes. We parted and proceeded to get out of bed.
"I have to get ready for the day, okay?" I nodded and decided I should probably take a shower, to wash out the smokey smell from my mane. I asked where I could take a shower and she directed me to a door on the other side of the room. I thanked her and she started to walk out. She then turned and said, "By the way, breakfast is in 30 minutes. When you are ready, just ask the guard outside of your room to direct you to the dining hall." I thanked her again and she smiled, walking the rest of the way out.
I walked to the bathroom and stared in awe. This is huge! The bathroom was quite large and beautifully decorated as well. I stepped over to the shower and turned it on to the hottest it could get.
As it warmed up, I decided to get a better look of myself in the mirror. I was well built, and I thought I looked pretty studly, for a stallion anyways. I noticed that my mane and tail were starting to turn green and my coat was starting to turn so black it looked purple. Man, I really need a shower. Before I jumped into the shower, I decided to look at my right eye again. Yep, still purple.
I stepped into the shower and was instantly warmed by the constant spray of hot water dousing my coat. I found some shampoo, conditioner, and body wash on a shelf and started lathering myself thoroughly with it. I then started scrubbing hard to try and get the discoloration out of my mane, tail, and coat.
I was in the shower for a good twenty minutes before I got out. Taking a shower always makes me feel super relaxed and refreshed. While toweling off, I looked back in the mirror and stopped mid-dry.
My mane and tail had turned even more green. And what red that I had been able to see before my shower had been replaced by an uber dark crimson that looked almost violet. What is in that shampoo and soap?
I didn't have much time to dwell on the subject because it was then I realized I had 5 minutes until breakfast started.
I quickly finished drying off and ran out of my room and asked the guard to escort me to the dining hall.
After being escorted to breakfast, I thanked the guard and sat down next to Luna. She looked at me and said, "Pure Heart, there is something different about you this morning, did you dye your mane?"
"No, but I can tell you one thing: a certain grooming company is going to be receiving a rather nasty letter later on." She didn't have time to pursue the matter further, because it was then that the servants brought out our meals.
I had not thought of it until now, but I was extremely hungry. I guess not eating for almost two days will do that to you. Once they had lifted the lids, I was amazed to see a great looking fruit salad. I immediately started to dig into the fruit. It tasted absolutely divine.
I looked over to Luna who was giggling. "You know, if you inhale your food like that, you are likely to turn into it. After all, you are what you eat."
After swallowing, I said, "Oh please, that is absolutely ridiculous, Luna. That would never happen to anyone."
Meanwhile, in Dreamland
A certain pink puffball with red shoes sneezed loudly, startling Bonkers. He quickly scratched his nose, then proceeded to suck up the coconut-throwing ape to get the hammer ability.
"So, Pure Heart..." I looked up at Celestia who continued, "Luna tells me you had a bad dream last night. I would love to hear about it."
I swallowed the piece of melon that I had been chewing and said, "Oh, you don't want to hear that, do you?"
"Please, I would really appreciate it. Hearing about others dreams helps me to learn about them."
"Well, if you insist..." I started to recount all of what had occurred in my dream.
When I had finished telling them about it, Celestia seemed to have turned super tense. "Hey, hello," I whistled and waved my hoof in front of her, "Equestria to Celestia, do you copy?"
She came out of her deep thought and gave me a nervous grin. "You okay, you don't look so good," I asked.
"Yes, I am fine. Luna?" She turned to her younger sister. "May I talk to you later in 'private'?" She had a sense of urgency in her tone.
"Of course, Tia."
"Good! Now if you will excuse me, I... I have important matters to attend to. Good day." She quickly stood up and left the room.
"I wonder what her problem is," I said, mystified as to the why she might of reacted so strangely.
"I have no idea, but your dream was most curious. Tell me again what I said to you as you held me in your arms," she asked.
"You had said, 'Stay way rom ark', though I thought I had just misheard what you said, thinking you meant 'Stay away from the dark.'"
"Perhaps..."
"Yeah, so anyways, I was thinking we could go down to Ponyville today."
"I would love to, but I can't. I have diplomatic duties to attend to."
"Oh, okay..." I said, somewhat down trodden.
"But, that doesn't mean you can't go. Just be careful, okay?"
"'Kay. So how do I get down there?"
"Well, I can arrange a chariot to take you down."
"Sounds good, see you later." I walked out humming happily to myself.
After getting a ride, I thanked the guards and started walking towards Twilight's house.
I arrived at my destination, and knocked on the door. "Coming," I heard someone say from inside. The door opened to reveal a certain purple and green dragon.
"Well hi there. Is Twilight around," I asked.
"Sure is, hold on let me get her." He turned and yelled, "Twilight, somepony is here for you!"
"Okay, I'll be out in a second!"
"Come on in," he said. I gladly obliged and walked inside. "What's your name stranger?"
"Pure Heart, what is yours," I asked trying to play it cool.
"I'm Spike, Twilight's number one assistant."
"Pure Heart, you ready for that tour of the town," Twilight said, finally making an appearance down the stairs.
"Yes, I most certainly am. I was also wondering if I could borrow some books on magic later so I can actually learn how to use this thing," I said pointing to the magical appendage on my forehead.
Twilight squealed with delight, "I would love to! I can also tutor you in some basic spells later on, if you like?"
I grinned, "That would be fantastic!"
"Alright, well first lets go have you meet my friends, okay?" I nodded and we walked out.
Luna's POV
I was trying to figure out why I had felt the need to kiss him on the cheek last night. Could I be in love with him? She shook her head, No, I have only known him for a couple hours, there is no way I could grow such an attraction to him in the short amount of time... is there?
I thought about this all day long as I went about fulfilling my duties as a princess.
Later, I walked into my sister's study to ask what she wanted to talk about that was so private, that we could not discuss it in front of Pure Heart.
"Hello Luna, how are you doing," she said with a nervous tone.
"I'm quite fine. Now, you mentioned earlier that you wanted to talk."
"Oh, yes, quite right. Well, as you know, I have been researching Pure Heart's eye condition."
"So you have."
"Well, while looking at one of our older texts, I noticed a footnote that pointed to the Book of Prophecies. The very last prophecy in the book states that a unicorn will one day appear with different colored eyes."
"Okay, that partially pertains to Pure Heart, but what..."
She was cut off, "Let me finish..." Celestia took a deep breath, as if to prepare for something. "His entire appearance will start changing, but only whenever he feels an extreme emotion. He will change from the color of his coat all the way down to what his cutie mark looks like. Once the transformation is complete, which is when his other eye finally changes to match the other, his mind will be overtaken by an... alter ego of sorts."
I gasped, "You mean the same thing that happened to me when I turned into Nightmare Moon, will happen to him." Celestia nodded sadly. "But this is not talking about Pure Heart, is it? I mean sure there are some similarities, but there is no way to prove it is him, right?" I was shaking with fear as I watched my sister's face grow more solemn.
"That is what I thought... until..."
"Until what Tia? Tell me!" I said, starting to become very tense.
She lifted up a large and dusty book and turned to a specific page with her magic, looking almost as if she was trying to find something in the text to say. "Until this morning, when he mentioned what you had said in his dream. 'Stay away from Ark.'"
"Well yeah, but he had said that he might of heard me wrong, saying 'dark' instead of 'Ark'."
"No, he heard correctly... it was definitely 'Ark'."
I was shocked, but tried to regain my composure, saying, "Okay, so what if he transforms into this 'alter ego'. He will still just be a normal pony, right Tia?"
"I am afraid not Luna, he will change completely, his very demeanour will change, to the point of almost be stoic. Now listen, I know that you have feelings for him."
I blushed, "Whatever do you mean?"
"Oh come on, I may be old, but I am most certainly not blind. I have seen the way you look at him. Plus, there is the fact that I can read minds, from which I know about how you have had 'thoughts' about him. But, I will not allow you to pursue this relationship any further. You are hereby forbidden to interact with him from now on."
"What! No! You cannot be serious. I love him, Tia! You cannot stop our love."
"I am sorry Luna, but I am afraid I can and will." She paused to look at her sister, who seemed to be seething with anger. "But before you make any rash decisions, perhaps you should read the last part of the prophecy." Celestia levitated the book from earlier over to me and I grasped it with my magic. I read the highlighted passage.
Tears started to brim from my eyes and I dropped the book. "No, I will not let you do it!" I screamed at her and ran off to find Zach.
"Luna, come back!" Tia yelled with sorrow in her voice.
But I couldn't hear her, the only thing I could think of was saving Zach from this prophecy. It kept on repeating in my mind, over and over again.
In the asylum of his mind,
From imprisonment he doth wake,
The one with eyes diversified,
His body and soul will he take.
With him comes the induction
Of light becoming dark.
The one true master of destruction,
Stay away from the one named Ark.
When he comes
he's here to stay,
You can not reverse what has been done.
One method only to prevent
reality's decay,
Preemptive banishment to the sun.