//------------------------------// // Broken (12) // Story: Song of the Moon // by BlackWing //------------------------------// Broken "Well well Lark, only your first day, and already you're behaving." Luna mocked. My ears perked up at this. 'Strange, I just turned, and I'm not violent.' "I'm sorry I had to be so rough on you, but the only way for you to take control of yourself is to break you. At this point, you've just been running wild. A werewolf is, by nature, a dog. Dogs can be trained, but you first have to let them know who's boss. I know you missed dinner, so I brought you some." Luna opened to door to the cage, sliding a tray of vegetables and eggs in. I immediately got up to eat them, but I found that I couldn't get close. Her magic was blocking the way. I began scratching at the mystic wall like a dog at a door, getting nowhere. "Ah ah, if we're going to tame you, you need to learn self control. You can't eat until you learn to sit nice." She smirked. I gave a low growl before sitting on the stone floor. She used her magic to feed me piece by piece, at her pace. If I tried to snap for it, she'd pull it away. I'd have to wait for her to put in in my mouth before I could try to eat it. It seems as though under the light of the full moon, transformations last an hour, and during the nights, it would last until an hour after the moon had descended. As I returned to my human form, laying prone on the floor, she nuzzled me gently. "I know this is hard, and you've had to swallow your pride, the only thing you had left, but you have to believe I'm here to help you. I've trained werewolves before, and although they were far less violent than you, they were also not nearly as quick to pick up on it. You feel as though you have lost all reason to carry on and I am truly sorry for that and I do know what you're going through. It's harder for you because you're fighting yourself every step of the way." She said in a voice that showed she truly cared. I simply remained silent. "Also, if you work hard and show progress, maybe I can do something about getting you a bit more suitable living arrangements, some visitors perhaps? I'm sure somepony would want to see you after that escapade." 'Who would I want to see? Forget that, who would want to see me? Nobody. How could I face Applejack, the crusaders, Ditzy Do? Lyra..... how could I look at any of them? I lied to them. I was a danger to them and I didn't let them know. I had only been here for a week, and I already thought of them as my friends, yet I couldn't let them know that one fact about me, the one that mattered most. They all must hate me. They won't come.' "What happened to the other werewolves?" "Well, they were trained well enough not to bite, so they never did, and it never spread. They eventually just died out on their own." "That's reassuring." "Goodnight Lark." And the the moon princess left. I lay awake on the metal frame bed in my cell, looking out the window at the stars. I see one falling, and decide to wish upon it. "I wish I this hadn't happened." "I cannot change that. You have to live with the consequences. You are not alone however, you have friends. You may have hurt one of them, but she'll recover. You deceived them, but they WILL forgive you. I don't know about where you come from, but ponies are a rather accepting bunch." The voice replied. "Luna?" "The one and only." "So then, you were the one who took away my nightmares?" "Indeed I was. Whenever one within this realm wishes upon a falling star, I hear their desire, and I if I can, I make it happen. I did not know it to be you at the time, although it looks like I really am granting that first wish of yours. I may not be able to cure you, but I can help you take control of yourself. You should really give your friends more credit as well. They are not likely to abandon you after this." The night princess declared. "It was so hard to earn their trust in the first place, were it not for Ditzy Do and the fact that she strangely doesn't fear monsters, they would never have come out of their houses. It took so much just to see a face, and after this, I highly doubt I'll be welcomed back." "It will take time. I appeared in Ponyville during the summer sun celebration, everypony saw me try and rule Equestria. A year later and they all still feared me, although I must admit, it was on a holiday intended to cause fright, but I eventually earned their trust and made friends as well. You can do it too. I am royalty, which makes me difficult to approach, and you are by all reasoning an alien, so they will be fearful of you, but you CAN do it. I'll see about having some of them see you tomorrow. They are probably still confused regarding what happened." The princesses words put me slightly at ease, although I was NOT looking forward to explaining myself. "Thank you." "Thank you what?" She wanted me to say 'master'. "Thank you Lulu." I couldn't see her face, but she was definitely embarrassed. "So you heard sister say that......" "Not much I don't hear." "Just to let you know, she doesn't trust you. You show up out of nowhere, hide what you are and attack her subjects, which she is highly protective of, enough so to banish her own sister to the moon. That, and she never liked werewolves to begin with. She would always get mad at me for having them at the table and in court with me. Just, try to act pleasant okay? She'll come around. And never use that nickname again." She vocally scowled. "So long as you stop treating me like an animal when I'm not one. It's the wolf that needs training, not me." "It was just a bit of fun....... Oh, alright fine. If it really bother's you that much, I'll stop. When I had wolves in my court, they usually stayed like that all the time, so I ended up treating them as pets more than anything else. I guess old habits are hard to break." She said with a sullen voice. "Old habits are hard to break, so you say to a werewolf you're trying to tame." Morning came, and I was actually able to eat breakfast properly. Simple iron plates and cutlery. I took my previous seat next to Cadence, who smiled warmly. I could tell she didn't enjoy seeing others sad. "So, Lark, were the accommodations to your liking?" Celestia asked, clearly a set up. If I said they were fine, she'd insist I remain in them, but I didn't want to come off as demanding. I decided to return it by being vague. "As accommodating as a prison cell can be. Canterlot certainly has the finest in dungeons, not that I've seen them from the other side of the bars before." Is she seriously going to go in to a battle of high class banter? Yes she has lived for several millenia, but I'm fairly certain she has had no use for such talk, as just about everypony bows before her in an instant. I however have wade through the river of egotistical blood and waged verbal warfare with the finest of linguistic generals. The sun princess wasn't very happy about that, and Luna just gave me a look telling me I was pushing my luck. Blueblood actually seemed amused by the whole thing. "So, my sister tells me that you are to have visitors today?" She changed the subject. My point. "Possibly. All depending on whether or not they wish to see me." "I am certain they will. My faithful student Twilight will certainly want an explanation of the nature of your lycanthropy, in detail, as well as many other aspects of your culture. I will remind you in advance to be patient, as she tends to go overboard when it comes to studying new things." Celestia smiled. Great, she was going to torture me by having the mad sorceress talk my ears off. Her point. "Of course. I already vaguely informed her of my predicament, so it should be a rather simple matter to fill in the details." I smiled. She glared daggers. On second thought, perhaps angering one who could turn me into a wall splatter is a bad idea. "Oh, and Lyra has been released from the hospital, she'll want to see you as well." That one hurt. Play it off. Don't let her know it hurt. Oh, for goodness sake, she already knows, or else she wouldn't have brought it up. After breakfast, I was once again escorted to the dungeon, although to a more hospitable room, presumably for meeting guests. It was some time before Luna came down, and with her, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Lyra, Ditzy Do, and the crusaders. I hadn't been chained down, obviously since I couldn't cause any harm in this state. The ponies in front of me just glared, all except the wall eyed one. The silence was broken by Pinkie. "I KNEW IT! My pinkie sense told me he was trouble, and I was right! None of you believed me, and guess what! In your face!" She accentuated each word. "Pinkie, he never denied that. He actually came to me and told me he was cursed, he just didn't say in detail. I almost can't believe it. A real werewolf! Oh, this is so exciting! I have so many questions! I...." "Umm, Twi? Ah think it would be best to save the questions fer a bit, till you two are alone, I mean, it's gonna take a while and the rest of us have sumthin we need ta say too." Applejack interjected. "Oh, um, right. Okay, go ahead." The unicorn said defeated. "Lark, I know you talked a tragedy, was this it? Was this what caused it?" She asked, I just nodded. "So then, yer family?" "My sister. When I told my mother and father, they tried to shelter me, to help me hide and escape. They were seen as traitors and heretics, blasphemers, and were burned alive for their supposed 'crime' of helping their son. If I had known, I never would have gone home." "I know what that's like. I lost mah parents. They worked themselves to death trying ta keep the farm runnin durin a drought, all ta make sure we'd be okay. I know why ya didn't tell us, too much pain. It's alright, I forgive ya." The orange mare smiled. "That easily? What if Luna had raised the moon in the town square? It could have easily been your sister, or any of you!" "Yeah, but it wasn't, and you had no idea that was gonna happen. It ain't yer fault. All in all, there was no harm done. You were actually pretty lucky in that regard. Ya get out of here after ya take care of, you know, yer always welcome ta stay on the farm. Maybe try some applebuckin again? Of course, not so hard this time." She chuckled. "Yeah....." After that, Applejack left. Rainbow Dash was the next to come forward. "So then, Lark, the reason you're so strong and coordinated.... it's because you're a werewolf right?" She asked, trying to make the question sound casual. "Yes, and don't even think about it. Trust me, it's NOT worth it." "But, you're strong enough to beat ME in a hoof wrastle, EASY! Look at you, you're a... a... string bean! If I had something like that, I could get in the wonderbolt's no problem!" She argued. "You'd join the wonderbolts, and then they'd join you, in your stomach." The phrase seemed to strike a nerve, instantly destroying her desire to share in my curse, leaving as well. "Does, does it hurt, when you... eep!" Fluttershy tried to ask. "Agonizing. Painful doesn't even begin to describe it. It's like all your bones are breaking, over and over, and they move around and..... I should probably stop describing it." The yellow pegasus looked woozy at the thought. "I, I think I'll just go lie down now." She too left. "So, dapper and sophisticated by day, horrific monster by night.... Oh, I can't even imagine, sleeping outdoors, being hideous, gives me the shivers just thinking about it." Rarity shuddered at it. "Not every night, just the full moon. For all but 3 consecutive nights every 28, I am completely normal. Well, that WAS the way it worked, but when I came here I found out that it just does whatever the princess wants it to, changing form to what she thinks would look best in the night sky." Twilight was writing notes on what I had revealed, not wanting to lose any details. The crusaders were next. "Is it true Mr. Lark? Were you that monster that ran through Ponyville on Nightmare Night?" Applebloom asked. "Yes, that was me...." "Why'd you go through town?" Scootaloo asked. "Yeah, wouldn't you want to run AWAY from all the ponies?" Sweetie Belle added. "The Everfree. For a brief moment I was able to control myself, so I decided I had to reach the forest where I could do no harm." "I, guess that makes sense, I mean, that's where all the monsters are. Well, the visit kinda has to be short so, I guess we'll see you around?" They said hopefully as they too left. Lyra was next, she approached with a bandaged hoof, limping slightly to keep the weight off it. I couldn't look at her, so I just stared at the ground. "Lark, why won't you look at me?" She asked. "Because, I did it again." "But I'm fine, I mean, sure it hurt, and I was scared, but I'm still here." "When I was like that, I killed my own sister, and I ATE her. When I look at you, I see her, and I see it happening all over again. I wasn't strong enough...." "But it DIDN'T happen again. I saw the look of recognition in your eyes. You bashed your head on a rock for Celestia's sake! Nopony weak would hurt themselves to protect somepony else." She put her bandaged hoof on my chin and lifted my head. Her golden eyes filled with tears. "But I hurt you......" "Yes, and it's going to take work to get me, and everypony else in Ponyville, to trust you again, considering as how you didn't really have it to begin with, but guess what.... we'll get over it. Eventually, it'll just be 'that Nightmare Night when Lark was really scary.' And that'll be it." "But why? By all rights, they should try to run me out of town, you should be wishing I was dead. How... how are you all so kind?" "It's just who we are." Lyra left, leaving only Ditzy Do, Pinkie, Twilight, and Luna. The pegasus approached me. "I don't even know how I can apologize to you Ditzy. You trusted me right from the start, and were my first friend. I've done nothing but lie to you and you've done nothing but help me." "Then don't apologize. You're sorry enough as it is. Everypony makes mistakes Lark, I know that better than anypony. If I had to apologize for every time I messed up, I'd be bowing for the next year! The point is, you made a mistake, and it wasn't even something you could control. It was an accident. Accidents happen." She smiled, her awkward eyes seemingly full of care, although hard to tell. I wrapped my arms around the pegasus and just cried. She's the one who I betrayed the most. She'd be mocked for having brought yet another monster to town, and yet she was here, comforting me. She wrapped her hooves around me and returned the hug. "You're the only one who never made fun of my eyes, or called me Derpy." She gave a small laugh, crying on my shoulder as well. "I don't even know what derpy means......" "Doesn't matter." "AWWWWWWWWWWWWW" We broke our hug to see Twilight, Luna, and Celestia all looking at us with those eyes you get when you see something absurdly adorable, while Pinkie was crying happily. The scene was broken by a strange tone coming from a watch on Ditzy's foreleg. "Oh! Yay! The Doctor is here! Are you ready for adventure my little muffin?" "Yay!" Dinky popped out from her saddlebag as her mother went running out of the room to meet the strange pony with the blue box. "Do I want to know?" Luna asked. "I would suggest not asking about that." "Another secret?" Pinkie demanded sternly. "Yes, but, not a bad one, and not one of mine." "I'm watching you bub......" Her eye literally stretched from her head as if to emphasize her point, before she ran out of the room as well. "Alright Twilight, you had questions yes?" "Ah, that's right." The unicorn suddenly snapped out of her momentary lapse in thought. "I have some as well. I may have judged you prematurely. Perhaps I should have known a little more of the nature of your world before I acted so harshly." Celestia, clearly moved by what had happened with Ditzy, and quite possibly Lyra as I had no idea when she arrived, was starting to have second thoughts about the way she had acted towards me. "I'll tell you everything."