//------------------------------// // Chapter 17 // Story: After the Nightmare // by CORACK //------------------------------// Celestia let out a sigh as the sun dipped behind the horizon. After it was safely tucked away, she reached out and took hold of the moon. Even after a millennium of bringing forth the night, it still felt wrong to move Luna's former prison. The moon felt cold and lifeless in her grip, and no matter how much she fiddled with it, it's positioning in the sky always seemed a bit off. After a few minutes of making minor adjustments, she decided it was as good as she could get it. She took one last look as the glow around her horn faded. The Mare in the Moon no longer visible only served as a reminder that Luna was still lost. She and Twilight had been working on a way to reach out to her Luna, but progress had been stalled for months now. Trying to combine a dimensional spell with not only the power of the Elements but also the bond that she shared with Luna was something that had never been attempted before. It could easily be years before she and Twilight would be able to complete the spell. After closing the door to her chambers, the energetic smile she kept up all day withered away and she stumbled towards her bed. A half written letter inviting Twilight up to the castle sat on the table next to her, Celestia decided she would finish it tomorrow, she didn't have nearly enough energy to do any spell work tonight. She had spent most of the day in an extended session of court listening to a group of nobles banter back and forth over one inane thing after another. She climbed into bed and pulled out a book. For the first time in ages, Celestia considered taking a nap. A loud pop and the sudden appearance of Twilight quickly put any thoughts of relaxation out of Celestia's mind. "I'VEGOTIT" Twilight yelled at no one in particular, as a guard burst into the room. "I'm sorry about this Princess, I told her you were not to be disturbed but she tried to get in anyway, when I went to grab her she teleported." "It's quite all right," Celestia replied. "What's going on Twilight?" Twilight turned towards the princess and trotted over. She stank of coffee and sweat, her mane was a mess and her eyes were red and puffy. They kept shifting back and forth as if she was having trouble concentrating on any one thing. "Lunnnnna! I know how to find her!" Twilight shouted excitedly. Celestia quickly dismissed the guard and then turned back towards Twilight. "Show me what you have found," she said. The exhaustion that had been plaguing her melted away as she was filled with hope for the first time in months. "Well, the biggest issue we had was creating a beacon. We can't replicate the bond between you and Luna if we don't know how it works," Twilight said as she started to pace back and forth. "Did you figure out how to do it?" Celestia asked. "Not quite, I still have no idea what allows you to feel her presence, but since we can't duplicate it, we won't even try." "I'm confused Twilight, Luna will need something to home in on or she won't be able to find her way here." "Well, you know how we were going to setup the beacon?" "By opening a rift to the void between universes? That's the only way we can hit every dimension at once." "Well, we don't need to create a beacon, we already have one." "We do?" Celestia said, scrunching her nose up in confusion. "You! Instead of trying to setup a magical beacon, you can step through the rift." "But I need to maintain the rift, and I can't do that from the other side. This isn't like a regular gateway, it can't just be enchanted into an object like Star Swirls mirror." "Yes, I know that, but look at this," Twilight said, pulling a scroll out of her saddlebags. "I made some modifications to the rift spell and vastly increased its efficiency. I still can't open the rift myself, but once the rift is open, it should be stable for a few minutes with no additional input. In fact, with these changes, I could even maintain it for an hour or two once you've opened it." Celestia stared at her student for a moment, then took the scroll. She quickly scanned over the changes that Twilight had made. As she read, a huge smile crept onto her face. Finishing the scroll, she placed it down and swept the small unicorn up in a loving embrace. She kissed Twilight on the forehead before putting the pony back down. "Twilight, you've done it! I'm sure this will work," Celestia said, beaming. "When do you want to try?" Twilight asked. "Well, we still need to gather your friends, but I do not want to wake them at this hour. I'll send out some guards to collect them in morning." Twilight let out a long yawn. "Speaking of sleep, I should probably get some, I've been up for... uh what day is it?" she asked. "Thursday," Celestia replied with a smile. She was familiar with Twilight losing track of time when working on a project. "Oh." "There's no point in you traveling back to Ponyville tonight, you can use the one of the guest rooms, though I suggest a bath before bed," Celestia conjured mirror so Twilight could get a look at herself. "I do not mean to offend, but Twilight, you stink." Twilight blushed," I'll get right on that," she said. "One more thing Twilight," Celestia said a note of seriousness returning to her voice. "Yes?" "Thank you." ##### "Luna, I thought you'd like to know that Selene is moving around." Luna's ears perked up. "Can you tell what she is doing?" Luna asked. "Unfortunately not, I have no visual sensors on that level, all I can do is detect her position. My guess is she's looking around." Decima continued to give Luna updates on Selene's movements for the next few minutes. "It looks like she's headed into the loading bay storage area, if anything else changes, I'll let you know." "Thanks Decima." There was a few minutes of silence before Luna heard Decima speak again. "Luna the field is dropping, it's a bit ahead of schedule, I'm going to initiate the teleport sequence now," Decima said. The pad on the floor lit up and Luna felt a wave of magic wash over her. There was a brief moment of disorientation and she found herself in a darkened corridor. "Can you hear me?" Luna asked. She waited a moment for Decima to reply but when there was nothing she realized that she was now out of contact with the AI. The map she had committed to memory let her know that she needed to follow the tunnel until it met up with the main corridor. Decima had warned her that Zax was the only AI with full control of the lower levels. She wasn't able to give Luna access to any locked doors and more importantly she had no way to stop any of the automated turrets on the lower levels from targeting Luna. She walked for a few minutes until she found the exit from the tunnel system. Bringing up a shield around herself she pried the doors open. It seemed her precautions were unnecessary, whatever active defenses had existed here had long since gone offline. There had been a large battle here, but judging by the thick layer of dust that covered the dozens of fallen constructs that littered the hallway, it had happened years ago. She continued down the hallway until reaching the elevator. Like everything else on this floor it seemed to be without power. Decima had planned for this and Luna made her way back into the maintenance tunnels until she reached the power distribution node. Opening the node she cycled the main circuit and then waited. There was a moment of silenced followed by a low hum as the node's power systems came back online. Luna stepped back out into the main corridor which was now lit up. When she reached the elevator she hit the pad to open the door and was rewarded with a quiet groan as the doors slid open. She raised her hoof and pawed the button to bring her down to level 36. The doors slid closed again and she felt the elevator begin to descend. Luna watched the display on the control panel before her. The alien script slowly changed as she neared her destination. A distant rumbling sound, accompanied by slight shaking filled the car. The elevator stopped with a sudden lurch and a loud alarming tone filled the air. Luna pressed her button again but the panel simply screeched at her in response. When Luna and Decima were working on the plan to get Luna down to Selene, Decima warned Luna that like everything else in the complex, the elevator system ancient and there was a possibility that it might not work, but they hadn't discussed what to do if it stopped working while Luna was on it. As far as Luna could tell, the elevator had stopped only one floor shy of her destination. She pried the doors open and hopped out of the elevator. She paused to check on Selene, her horn flared up as she checked on the beacon spell. Selene was still moving, but worse, if Luna's memory was correct, she was now in the corridor leading to Zax's control room, where Vohaul was currently trapped. Decima was sure that Selene wouldn't have been able to gain access to the corridor but somehow the girl managed not only to get in, but she was now headed directly towards the control room. With a worried look, Luna took off at a gallop down the empty hallway. There was a series of access tunnels on each floor that she could use to get down to the next level. It took her a while to find the hatch that opened the tunnel, but when she did it opened up easily. The tunnel, which was designed for the bipedal Eternals, was a very tight fit. Luna had to scrunch down as low as possible and inch herself forward. It took almost half an hour to reach the ladder down to the floor below. Upon reaching the ladder she used her magic to cut the ladder away from the wall, which just barely gave her enough room to fit. She dropped down and started to crawl out of the access tunnel. ##### Selene crouched down panting heavily. A thick cloud of dust hung in the air, kicked up by the collapsing ceiling. After catching her breath she turned around to look back at the damage. A large pile of rubble sealed off the path back into the large room she had just escaped. With no way to go but forward, she picked herself back up and continued her search for a way out. Slowly she trudged forward, still not quite believing the size of this underground labyrinth. After walking for what seemed like miles, she finally reached the end. A large door loomed before her, if this didn't open she was trapped. She had tried to open every other door she had run across and none of them had opened. Slowly she reached out towards the door control. Right before her hand reached it, the door let out a quiet hiss and started to open. She jumped backwards in surprise. "Hello? Is anyone there? Luna?" she shouted out to the darkened room before her. When there was no response, she peaked inside. The small amount of light flowing into the room showed a large circular room. There were number of control panels sitting up against the walls, similar to the one she had hid behind earlier. A few of them seemed to be damaged but it was too dark to make out any significant details. With no other ways left to go, she stepped into the room. After a few moments her eyes started to adjust the light levels and she could start to make out more of the destruction. Displays were smashed and consoles were overturned. Selene took a few more steps into the room, trying to make out if there were any other doors leading out. The back half of the room was far too dark for her see anything but as she moved forward she thought she spotted a door. She heard a noise behind her and spun around. The door she had entered in was slowly closing, and with it, the little light pouring into the room was being cut off. She tried to run but was far too slow and with a click, Selene was plunged into total darkness. She stopped as quickly as she could and for several seconds she didn't move. There was another sound behind her, a heavy thud followed by another and another. She felt a chill roll down her spine as she realized that it sounded like heavy footsteps. She turned her head slowly towards the sounds, hoping that she could make out even the slightest bit of detail. The thudding got closer and closer, before it finally stopped. Too nervous to move or make a sound, Selene held her breath and waited for something to happen. Out of the darkness twin points of demonic light appeared, slowly growing ever brighter, until Selene could make out a crystalline head. The head turned downward, the eyes pointing directly at the frightened girl. She tried to grab her rifle but found that she was unable to move. A raspy voice rung out in the darkness, each word causing Selene's heart to beat faster. "Well this is certainly a surprise, I was not expecting a powerless mortal."