//------------------------------// // Chapter 06: Aftermath // Story: Lunar Eclipse // by Ephemeral Memory //------------------------------// Our eyes met. My face attempted to mirror the excited ones, as a sense of doom slowly encroached the rest of my body -except for that one point of certain death on the back of my neck, where Beamy was still glaring. All of them bowed towards the princesses before a giant gasp for breath introduced a cacophony’s assault to my face. “HI AGAIN, ALIEN-HUMAN! YOU DON’T KNOW HOW EXCITED I AM TO SEE YOU! I’M GOING TO THROW YOU A PARTY WITH LOTS OF CUPCAKES AND BALLOONS AND -” My life flashed before my eyes as a pink cannon suddenly appeared and blasted towards my head. I winced. My! Ears! “I see you have met Laughter, Daniel,” spoke Luna. “You see correctly, Luna,” I replied while spitting out pieces of confetti. Good thing my food isn’t here yet. At this point, Laughter -funny name- was bouncing around me in circles at a disturbing pace - or as close a circle she could get with me already sitting at the table. “Ahem,” coughed the purple unicorn before continuing, “I don’t think we ever introduced ourselves. Greetings, Daniel, was it? My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these ponies are Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and -” “Rainbow Dash!” shouted the last pony with pride. What a fitting name. “And I’m Spike!” added the kid I called a lizard earlier. I still can’t believe he’s a dragon of all things. “Anyway,” said Twilight, “Sorry for not doing this earlier. We were almost late to the rehearsal for the Hearth’s Warming Eve play!” “No worries, Twilight. I’d say you more than made up for that by saving me fro- oh.” Both princesses seemed to have perked up at the mention of saving. Beamy’s face transformed from a smoldering glare-scowl duo into a look of pure terror. Celestia noticed. I tried to salvage the situation, but right as I prepared to speak again, Celestia gave me a questioning glance, as if she was daring me to lie. Gosh darn it. She seemed to sense my resignation and gave a faint smile. ..It’s as if the smile’s going, “I win!” I sighed. Here we go! "Um..I kind of ran off alone to Canterlot. And then" -I took a deep breath- “Igotcapturedbysomecrazyunicornmagicianguywhowantedmetoeitherbecomehispetorgetsoldsomewhereprobablyforsomekindofweirdzooorfreakshow.” Silence reigned, and everyone gave me a confused stare except for the princesses, Laughter or Pinkie Pie, and Beamy, who had pretty much fainted after the first couple of syllables of the the word I invented. Welp. There goes the current record for longest word. While Celestia seemed quite concerned for me, Luna had issues deciding who to glare at - me or Beamy or perhaps even the perpetrator. “Daniel,” Luna growled. “Oh wow, Danny!” squealed Pinkie, cutting Luna off, “I thought I was the only one who couldspeakgibberishlikethis!” “AS I WAS - ahem - As I was saying, “ began Luna with a brief glare at Pinkie, “thou couldst hath been injured most grievously! And hither I had assumed that humans were of a sensible race. As for thee, servant,” she paused, “how didst a pegasus lose sight of a being slower than it by air and land?” Wooow. Thanks. I appreciate being called slow, Luna….even if it is somewhat -just somewhat- true relative to ponies. “Oh..uh...I got lucky. Distracted her. Kinda,” I blubbered out. Celestia raised an eyebrow, while Luna narrowed her eyes. “Dost thou take me for a fo-” began Luna. “That’s enough for now, dear sister,” interrupted Celestia, “Daniel can explain himself later.” A resigned yet irritated huff quickly made itself heard. “Thank you, Celestia. Before we move on to a better topic, though, I’d like to point out that Beamy -I mean- Beam Dancer has no fault in this. It was my own behavior that led me to this outcome,” I asserted. Poor girl’s probably had enough at this point. I did use her as a pastry shield this morning.. “That shall be noted then,” said Celestia, “Anyway, now that all of you are here, why don’t you join us for dinner?” “Oh, but we couldn’t, Princess!” objected Twilight. “AWW YEAH!” crowed Rainbow before speeding towards the seat. After giving the evil eye to the colorful pegasus, Twilight whispered furiously, “Be. Polite. Everypony. We’re eating with the princesses for Celestia’s sake!” The faint smile grew on the white alicorn’s face. Polite for the princesses? I’ve never heard anything more absurd. Especially for these sisters. Not soon enough, everyone settled down, requested their meals, which ranged from hay to flowers, and started savoring them. Blegh... Huh? I looked up to see the purple pony staring at me, but as soon as we made eye contact, she returned to finishing her food. The pattern occurred several more times before I noticed the pinkish aura around her horn. Sure, she was using magic to pick up her utensils, but, even when the utensil was set down, the horn would still be glowing..Wait a minute..is that..? I could just barely make out the tip of a feather that was moving as if..She’s taking notes? Why would she - Oh. “Um..Twilight, was it?” I initiated. The pony in question flinched at the sound of her name. “Yes!? I mean -That’s right, Daniel. Did you need anything?” “Actually, that was the question I wanted to pose for you. I couldn’t help but notice..your observations.” A sheepish grin appeared on her face in reply. “I’m sor-” I interrupted, “Don’t worry about it. I know I’m an extra-dimensional being that you’ve never seen before. Feel free to ask questions. But it’s probably best to stop taking notes for now.” At this point, Rainbow Dash, who was sniggering uncontrollably, added “Yeah, Twilight! Stop being such an egghead! Even the monkey gets it!” “Rainbow!” Rarity chastised. “What?!” “He’s a human -like the guard said.” “Oh! Riiight. I mean ‘human.’” she corrected, “Sorry about that! You know what I meant though.” I rolled my eyes. I’ll probably have to deal with this a lot more...but at least she and her friends are trying. It was at this moment when Pinkie, who had her mouth stuffed with cupcakes, chose to call out, "That’s the spirit, Danny! You'll get used to us sooner than you think, and then we'll become super duper friends!" After nearly choking on my food, I turned towards her -probably with shock written on my face. How did she….I guess she just saw my eye roll? No..she was too busy swallowing those diabetes-causing pastries. On my other side, Fluttershy patted my back and whispered, "It'll be okay." I swiveled my head to give a thankful grin towards the quiet pony, who eeped and hid behind her hai -mane. I chuckled out my thanks instead. “YOU’RE EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL?!” sputtered Twilight, dropping her quill. __________________________________________________________________________ In the end, dinner devolved into a pointless food competition between Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, who decided to jump in without Rainbow’s approval. Applejack didn’t seem to care though, and Pinkie Pie only wanted to justify the size of her cupcake massacre list. The others and I had our own occasional conversations while we ate like civilized people and ponies. “Oh, man! Now that is what I call an awesome meal!” asserted a clearly satisfied Rainbow Dash while patting her now bulging stomach. “I definitely won that contest!” Twilight rolled her eyes, and Rarity threw a quick disapproving glance at the multicolored belching mess. Celestia decided to speak. “It’s getting late. Why don’t you girls stay over for the night? After all, you do have another Hearth’s Warming Eve practice tomorrow morning before the performance in the afternoon.” A small gasp escaped a hopeful Rarity. “Oh, but we couldn’t, Princess!” interjected Twilight, “We already booked a place to stay.” Rarity, at this point, was on the verge of crying. Geez. What a dramatic little pony. “Is that so? And here I thought it would be nice if you could teach Daniel about Equestria and learn about his culture at the same time. You could even become friends!” Teach? Where on Earth did Celestia get the idea that anyone would want to tea- “Of course we’ll do it, Princess!” agreed Twilight. Oh right, this isn’t Earth. And I’m not in school anymore. Screw teaching. “May I object, Celestia?” The purple crazy one stared at me as if I was crazy for letting go of a learning opportunity or for objecting against the idea of one of her diarchs. With this pony, I wouldn’t doubt it was the former or both. “And why would you do that, Daniel?” “Because you already taught me a lot about Equestria on my first night here.” Luna, who had remained more reserved than Fluttershy throughout the dinner finally deigned to speak up. “We- I agree with Daniel. There art matters of greater importance to discuss.” Crap. She’s still upset, isn’t she. I amended, “Actually, now that I think about it, I still don’t know that much about the..uh..the harmonical elements? Maybe I can learn about that.” “You mean the Elements of Harmony,” corrected Twilight. “Yes, yes. That.” “Perfect,” stated Celestia, “you can speak to them now.” “What?” Luna and I replied simultaneously -Luna in shock and bordering on rage, me dumbfoundedly. “He hath no need to hold discourse over such topics. Upon that subject, he only needeth to understand that the Elements, which include Magic, Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, Laughter, and Generosity, aid in retaining and cleansing the most chaotic and evil of forces.” Laughter?...No way. “Um...what do the Elements look like? Are they rocks? Tools? Electron clouds surrounding a core of protons and neutrons?” I asked before adding a doubtful, “Ponies?” Rainbow snorted. “Can’t you see? We look AWESOME!” “Rainbow!” hissed Twilight, “He’s…extra-dimensional, remember? He wouldn’t know that the Elements are us! And before us, the Elements were rocks!” “Wait a minute. So you guys are the Elements of Harmony that wipe out all the evil gunk from Equestria,” I concluded. “Actually, we are called when there are serious dangers. Most of the problems are solved by the Department of Defense and its local branches throughout Equestria,” answered Twilight with her quill still scratching on her seemingly-infinite paper. Is she taking notes on what questions I ask? What.. “Well, thanks for enlightening me!” I exclaimed enthusiastically. I braved a peek at the moon pony. Yup! Still mad. “I think you’ve taught enough for now, so I’ll just, uh, excuse myself.” I stood up and looked over to Feather Shine and Beam Dancer and called out, “Thanks for the meal!” With that said, I immediately left the tableside and tried to escape the room before a familiar blue glow held me in place. Screw magic...I wonder who this could be! “Thou dost not excuse thyself in the presence of royalty, Daniel. We excuse thee,” said Luna from behind me. Well, who’s the pony who asked me to call her “Luna” rather than “Princess Luna”? The blue glow faded, but before I could sprint, Luna joined my side and asserted, “We will converse elsewhere. Excuse us, Sister.” Oh crap.. She dragged me away before any reply came from the ponies at the table. After exiting the room, she began walking...somewhere. Following out of fear, I searched desperately for any chances to escape the blue terror next to me. Perhaps sensing this, she sighed before breaking the silence. “Be at peace, Daniel. We -nay- I may have reacted extremely to your story in the dining hall.. T’is merely our wish to comprehend the events that have occurred today.” Without meaning to, I spoke out loud, “Huh. Well, that was unexpected. Thought I was gonna be ki-” As soon as I realized, my eyes widened, and my head snapped towards her. She looked really really offended. “S-sorry. I didn’t mean - I mean-..It’s just that you tend to act before you thi- Sorry.” That could have gone better. Her eyes had narrowed with what I assumed to be a slowly growing anger before a resigned sigh escaped, taking the anger with it. Okay. That could have gone a lot worse! Luna turned her head back to the front and continued walking again. The silence was overwhelming, and after several, long minutes, I finally noticed the night guards that dotted the halls and hazily noted their appearances. Definitely batty. I was beginning to think that the princess wouldn’t deign to speak to me until we reached our destination before I heard another sigh. When she spoke, I had to strain to hear what was probably not even classified as a whisper. “Thou wert not far from the mark.” Huh? I sent a questioning glance before realizing she was still facing forward. She continued slightly less quietly than before, “If anything, my time upon the moon should have taught me patience. However, I fear that since I have left my prison, I have not only become...unpracticed in the art of conversation but also lost much of my tolerance for issues that should not be -nay- what I think should not be problems.” Interesting. Welp. Just glad she didn’t shout my face off. Wait.. “Prison?” I questioned. As soon as the word came out, there was a sharp intake of breath before Luna’s ears fell back. Stupid, me! “Nevermind! I can tell that’s a sensitive topic. Er..” I dug for a different subject and spouted, “How has the weather been recently? At night, that is.” I dimly heard a smacking sound behind and looked to find that a guard had actually facepa-hoofed. A quiet chuckle made itself known to me, and I swiveled my head back to the front only to find that Luna had stopped walking and was actually giving a small smile. “While I appreciate thy concern over our state of mind, thou needest not worry so. My imprisonment, which I have come to terms with, is a tale thou wouldst have discovered soon enough, as my release was an event most recent. It all began over a thousand years ago..” __________________________________________________________________________ By the time the Moon Princess had concluded her story, she had a faraway and pained look. Holy crap. No wonder Celestia didn’t tell me anything about this. Granted, I never asked..but dang, if she let me know this on my first night here, I would’ve avoided this pony like the plague! But...Well, no one is perfect. Including magical pony princesses. I looked up only to wince at the sight of Luna still holding that expression. Slowly, my hand drifted to her neck and began petting her. The moment it had touched her, her body tensed, and she snapped out of her depressed state and stared at me a bit before relaxing. Just like that, a minute or so passed before I reached up and gave final pat on her face, which now held the faintest of grins. Breaking the silence, I spoke, “You’re welcome.” She snorted. I continued, “And thank you for telling m-” Her hoof raised up. “Nay, t’is I who should thank thee for listening. T’is not often that I have the opportunity to tell my story. Most ponies these days just know the abbreviated form passed down over the years. And fewer even und-” She was eyeing my raised hand. “Like I said, you’re welcome.” That got a giggle out her. Looking at her grin now, the sides of my mouth twitched downwards, as I remembered the reason we left the dining room in the first place. Should I? Shouldn’t I? Would I be seen as crazy? I flipped a coin in my head. Heads! “Darn,” I muttered quietly before speaking up, “You wanted to know more about what happened today, right?” She sobered up immediately and replied with a nod. __________________________________________________________________________ “WHAT?” I grimaced while shielding my ears from her amplified voice. We had only gotten to the statue -AKA, the beginning of the story. “Discord,” she hissed, “helped thee distract that pegasus?” I nodded. “And thou didst not think to tell one of us?” I assumed she meant her or Celestia. I shook my head and shut my eyes, anticipating another bout of shouting. Instead, I felt a sadly familiar force grab hold of me and shove me forward. I had expected many things -a slap with a hard hoof, a slap with magic, a visit to the dungeon. So why the heck is she hugging me? I wasn’t about to complain about the sudden comfy and warm blanket though. At this point, she had her head over my shoulder, and some time passed before she spoke up rather emphatically. “Daniel, thou shouldst not listen to anything that monster hath to say or offer. He may be playful. He may be funny. He may even be thy most precious of friends...until..he hath no need of thee. Thou wouldst understand his true nature only too late. His chaos.” Another brief period of silence followed. “Promise me. Promise me that thou will stay away from or at least ignore that statue.” I returned the hug and assented, “Alright, Luna. I promise.” It was at this moment a certain alabaster horse conveniently made her appearance. Though, I had a feeling that she was listening in far earlier than that. “Oh my! Am I interrupting something?” snickered Celestia. Are you serious?....Fine! I turned my head to her and retorted, “Yes. Yes, you were, Ms. Princess. In fact, you interrupted our little friendship bonding activity, and you should be very ashamed of yourself!” I felt Luna trying to contain her giggle, while Celestia’s eyebrow raised. “And no, you’re not invited, so shoo before I ask Luna to call the guards on you.” With that, Luna, who had succumbed to her giggles, released her hold and knocked me playfully on the head. Celestia chuckled, “Well, it seems I did miss out on quite a bit. Perhaps I should arrange a ‘little friendship bonding activity’ at some point.” “I highly recommend them, dear Sister.” “Then I will arrange one!” proclaimed Celestia. I rolled my eyes. “What, you don’t want to, Daniel?” “Hmm..Nope!” With feigned hurt in her eyes, she inquired, “Am I not good enough for you?” I crossed my arms. “Your Sun hurts my eyes. The Moon’s just right.” She smirked, “Ohh. So I’m too bright for you.” “More like too big.” She huffed, and Luna went down right there, barely gasping, “He hath most skillfully won this battle of words, Tia.” I got a last harrumph from Celestia before we all calmed down again. “Well, while this was all amusing, it’s actually getting pretty far into the night now. Did you not have an advisor meeting in fifteen minutes, Luna?” “Oh blast!” muttered the blue mare before teleporting away. “So..did you make that up?” I inquired. “Why would you think I did?” “Hmm. I don’t know. I get the feeling you heard some of our conversation before the hugging part..and that you might want to talk my ear off, too.” “Oh? Dear me. This human has more intelligence than we thought!” She only received a dirty glare. “Okay, Daniel. Luna did have that meeting...but it was in twenty-five more minutes.” I raised an eyebrow. “And I know Luna already ‘talked your ear off,’ so I assume you understand the gravity of this matter.” I looked down and nodded glumly. A white wing raised my chin. “Don’t worry, Daniel. The past is in the past.” She pursed her lips. “I just want your permission to search your body for traces of chaos magic -or any tampering for that matter.” What. I hesitated. “Would that...hurt? And would that change anything?” I asked. “No, no! You wouldn’t feel a thing!” She paused. “Well, you might feel some minor tingling, but that would be because of your lack of acclimation to magic.” “Alright. Go ahead. I don’t want any crazy thing stuck on me -especially if it’s from that jerk.” A golden glow from her horn signaled the beginning of her search. Basically, it was just like some scanner going from toes to the head, where a golden line indicated where she was in the search. If only airports had alicorn scanners...minus the odd feeling from magic. Involuntarily, I twitched when the light reached a spot between my shoulder blades. Almost immediately, her horn stopped glowing. “Are you okay?” asked Celestia with a look of concern. “I’m perfectly fine. Just continue-” Her horn glowed at the same spot, and I twitched again and saw the beginnings of a grin on her face. “Can you just skip over that spo-ah! Can you not do tha-ah-at?” A heard a muffled sound come from- Is that giggling? “This is not -AH- amusing.” “Aww, is somep-one ticklish?” I gave her the deepest frown I could make, which was ruined a second later by another glow of her horn. “I -ah!- know where you’re -Stop!- ticklish, too!” I sputtered. What are the guards doing? Aren’t they going to stop their diarch from torturing me? I looked around desperately. Wow. Screw this. Guards can giggle, too. Rather, they were snickering, but I didn’t care at that point. Grimly -or as grimly as possible while being tickled- , I looked up at the cause of my suffering. Ticklemare, you’re mine. With that, I waited for the next pause in glowing before sprinting...and stumbling, faceplanting thankfully not on the tile but on - Soft fur. Target locked! My hands reached for her weak spot on her stomach, and I barely got a laugh from her before there was nothing there. Confused, I looked up. The hall was empty except for a couple of still snickering guards. “Hmm..” I turned around quickly and met a pair of magenta eyes. “BOO!” “AGH!” Needless to say, I won the “Most Graceful Person of the Year” award when my jaw dropped, and I fell on my butt. My face flushed with embarrassment. “Point for me,” sang that evil mare. “Anyway, I’ll complete that search now.” Her horn glowed past my abused spot and traveled to my eyes. I’m Cyclops! “Hold still.” Her eyes narrowed. “Wh- Ow! You said this wouldn’t hurt!” “I meant that the search wouldn’t hurt.” Note to self: Take everything the princesses say -or any pony for that matter- with a grain of salt. “Then what did hurt?” I grumbled while rubbing my head. “Discord.” My gaze shot up to her. “It seems that while interacting with you, Discord tagged you -your mind, specifically- with chaos magic.” What the absolute f- “It’s okay though!” assured Celestia at my shock, “It was such a small amount that it wouldn’t have damaged or skewed your thoughts anyway.” “That’s...good, I guess, but it’s still troubling that such things can influence my mind. You did remove it, right?” “Of course, Daniel. There’s absolutely no need to worry about it now. Just..as Luna asked of you..please stay away from that statue.” “Definitely will, Celestia,” I affirmed. “I am glad to hear that,” said Celestia with her usual smile back, “Anyway, it really is getting late. Let me show you to your room.” “My room?” “Indeed, your own room. You don’t think that we would let you sleep outside again, do you? Now, come along.” A wing gently pushed my back. My own room...It seems I’m here to stay. __________________________________________________________________________ “I get to live in here?!” This place is at least three times the size of my room! “Not satisfied?” she chuckled. “No! I mean..Yes, I’m more than satisfied. Thank you, Celestia.” “You are most welcome, Daniel. Now..you’ve had quite a long day. Good night, and rest well.” “Good night, Celestia. You need more rest than I do, what with ruling an entire country and tickling random aliens.” She scoffed, and her wing bat my head before the mare left, shutting the door behind her. I looked around the room. There was a five-star hotel worthy bathroom, an obviously larger-than-pony sized bed, empty dressers and wardrobes, obviously, and my backpack. Wait..I thought I left that..Oh. Upon closer inspection, I discovered a note. Dearest Daniel, Here’s your bag. The bag that you left after you “distracted” me in the maze. You’re welcome. Sincerely, Beam Dancer Heh. What an amusing little pony.