Act 1-Blue Moon Rising
All standard disclaimers apply.
Chapter 1- The Dark Before Dawn
-Tartarus, Present Day-
No one expected to see a pony in the depths of Tartarus.
The pony was wearing a threadbare hooded shawl, which concealed her identity, but her figure was obviously female, and judging by the clear lack of wings beneath the shawl, she was probably an Earth Pony or Unicorn.
This particular chamber was a cafeteria, in which some of the more sentient demons dined. It was an underground room with dirt walls, held up by wooden supports. It was a small sanctuary from the hazardous landscape outside for the demons that weren’t locked in individual prisons. At least eight of the giant stone apes known as golems stood at attention, surrounding the benches and tables scattered around the room. They wielded no weapons and wore no armor, and they didn’t need them. Those who had any measure of intelligence were wary of the mare. They knew that no ordinary Pony would be found here; that no matter how harmless she might look, to get into, and survive in, Tartarus, she had to be dangerous.
Unfortunately, Demons like that were a minority, even here.
A tall, stocky demon swaggered up to the mare where she stood in the food line, waiting for a bowl of soup. He was terrifying, with the face of a crocodile, the body and arms of a gorilla, the feet of a rhino, and the tail of a scorpion. Behind him, six changelings trailed. The creatures were pony-like in build, but with insectoid wings, black exoskeletons, and sharp fangs.
“Thank you.” The mare told the golem behind the counter, grabbing the bowl of watery vegetable broth in her teeth. The demon smiled cruelly. The mare’s voice was soft and sweet. She was obviously a meek and easy target. As she turned to find a table, he smacked the bowl out of her mouth, sending the hot liquid into the dirt. “Oops!” He said with a big grin. “Looks like you dropped your soup.” He leaned in and whispered threateningly, “Get down and lick it off the ground, or I’ll rip you to shreds.” The changelings buzzed laughter behind him.
Some of the other demons watched nervously. Even though the crocodile demon was three times her size, the mare did not flinch. She looked down at the soup for a moment, then back up at the demon.
No one saw her move. The pot of boiling soup was suddenly slammed with force over the demon’s head. The changelings recoiled, shocked, as the croc demon bellowed in agony. The mare leaped into the air and spin-kicked the pot with the force of a speeding train. A loud *Clang!* echoed throughout the cafeteria, and the croc demon hit the ground like a sack of potatoes.
As the mare landed, she tossed off her shawl, revealing what she looked like beneath it.
She had a royal blue coat. Her mane was jet black, neck length, and unkempt. Her tail was the same color as her mane, and like her mane it also showed the knots and dirt of somepony who had spent quite a bit of time living in the wild. The mark on her flank was a coat of arms; a black kite shield with the image of a white crescent moon, lain over two crossed longswords. Her eyes were a pale, ghostly hazel. Some of the demons swore that they seemed to glow slightly.
Blue Moon blew a stray lock of her mane out of her face, a grim smile on her face. “I don’t suppose you boys have learned your lesson?” She said to the changelings, indicating the fallen demon.
The insectoids buzzed angrily. Blue sighed, almost disappointed.
Almost.
Two changelings lunged at Blue, trying to grab her. She punched them both in the throat simultaneously, then cracked their heads together and threw them back into the group, tripping the rest of them up. As one got free from the pile, she hit him with a right-hoof-hook, then swept his legs out from under him with a sweeping kick, and finally hit him with a left, colliding his head with the ground. Three down, three to go.
Sadly, at that point, gravity decided to pull a fast one on her, and Blue found herself flying into the air.
The golem that had pulled Blue up by her tail looked at her sternly out of the large, black hollows that were its eyes. It started to carry her away.
“Hey!” Blue complained. “Where are you taking me?”
“Solitary.” The golem answered in its gravelly, stony voice. “For safety.”
Blue snorted in a very un-ladylike way. “I don’t know if you noticed, but I was winning back there.”
The golem pointed down at the changelings. Three of them had noticeable cracks in their exoskeletons, and the other three looked absolutely terrified. The demon had burns all over his body from being soaked in boiling water. He likely had a massive concussion as well. “For THEIR safety.”
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“C’mon Blue!” A twelve year old Moon Dust called. “Come out of there!”
Their parents had taken them out camping in Whitetail Woods. Daddy had gone out to collect firewood, and Mommy was supposed to keep an eye on them. It was easy for Blue to sneak away from her mother while she was distracted with her makeup, so she could go exploring. Her sister, however, had sharper eyes.
Blue giggled as Dust unsuccessfully tried to find her in the dark mine she’d found. She bounced up and down on the wooden platform at the bottom of the little hole. It was oddly springy, like a trampoline. The little foal simply couldn’t resist playing on it. It was so fun!
*CRACK!*
Blue ceased her bouncing, giving a wide eyed look at the wooden platform below her.
Moon Dust came storming into the cave just in time to watch her sister fall down a vertical mineshaft. “BLUEY!”
Blue screamed as she fell nearly thirty feet. When she landed, her left back leg broke with an audible *SNAP!*
Blue’s scream turned into a wail of pain and fear. She was now trapped at the bottom of the shaft.
“Blue!” Dust called down the hole. “Are you okay?”
Blue sniffled and cried. She started to bawl, but what she saw next stopped her cold;
The hole was not just a hole. It was a tunnel… filled to the brim with hundreds upon hundreds of bats!
Blue knew that her scream would wake them up. She struggled to stem her tears and be as quiet as possible.
“Blue!” Dust called down the shaft. “Are you okay?”
Blue was too young to swear, so she settled for a long, loud screech as the bats’ eyes opened.
The little blue filly suddenly found herself at the center of a massive, leathery-winged swarm. With her broken leg, she was unable to escape. Tears of pain and terror streamed from her eyes as she shrieked her throat raw.
Then, she felt two pairs of hooves wrap around her, and lift her into the air. Her father’s voice whispered gently into her ear. “Shhh, Bluey. It’s okay. Dusty and I have got you.”
Blue felt herself rise quickly up out of the shaft as her father and sister flew her up to safer ground, racing the bats to get out of the mine.
As they set her down outside, time suddenly stopped.
“An interesting memory for you to visit.”
The pain in her leg vanished, and her child form was replaced with her 27-year-old, adult one. Her mind cleared.
Blue looked up. “Hello, Princess Luna.” She greeted coldly.
The Moon Princess stood a few feet away. She was smaller than her sister, Celestia. She had an indigo coat, spotted with black, and a white crescent moon on her flank. Her mane and tail flowed like ethereal blue flames. “Hello, Blue Moon.” She greeted with a polite nod. “I see you still have some distaste for me.”
Blue didn’t dignify that with a response. “Why are you invading my dreams again?” She demanded.
Luna gazed at her evenly. “Your family has begun to notice your absence. Moon Dust is attempting to make excuses for you, but your mother has demanded your presence.”
Blue stood up, her fury redirected. “She WHAT!?”
Luna sighed. “Despite recent happenings, she still seems to harbor the delusion that she has any real level of power over you.”
Blue stomped her hoof. “How DARE she!” She shouted.
Luna placed a soothing hoof on her shoulder. “Calm yourself, Blue.” She said softly. “Your sister also wishes to see you again. You’ve been away for nearly a year.”
Blue’s gaze turned cold again as she remembered who she was speaking to. “You didn’t come here to talk about them, did you?”
Luna sighed. “No, I did not. I came here with an offer for you.”
“I don’t want to hear it.” Blue snapped, throwing up a hoof dismissively. “Besides, isn’t there somepony else having nightmares that you need to bother?”
Luna didn’t seem shocked at Blue’s treatment of a Princess. “Please! If you’ll just hear me out-“
“No.” Blue cut her off. “Now go away, and leave me to my nightmares.”
Luna’s expression hardened. “Fine.” She spat. She turned to leave, and started to fade. “And Blue? When you decide to stop acting like a foal, come and see me.”
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Back in the small, iron-barred solitary cell, Blue’s eyes snapped open.
She slowly pushed herself to her feet, stretching her back. She wasn’t too sore; she’d slept on worse surfaces than the dirt floor of the cell.
The memory of the dream was still clear in her mind. She sighed. “I’d better get out of here.”
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20 minutes later…
“Here Cerberus! See the ball, boy? Fetch!”
Cerberus was shocked to see a small red ball come flying over the humongous stone wall separating Tartarus and Equestria. He was cautious at first. Well, one of his heads was. The only head that remembered that this was the exact trick that Tirek had used to get him away from the gate.
‘The ball isn’t that far away.’ One head reasoned. ‘And the gate is closed this time. No one will get out.’
Desire for the ball won out in the end. Cerberus went bounding after it.
Blue attached her grappling hook to the top of the wall, and rappelled down in several quick bounds. She pulled down the rope once she reached the sandy desert ground.
Cerberus dashed back to confront the strange pony. He quirked his right and left heads, glaring sternly at her with the center one.
Blue held her front hooves up in surrender. “Sorry! I was trying to break in. You caught me! I’ll never do it again.”
Cerberus growled. The pony didn’t smell like a changeling, and she didn’t seem hostile. He’d let her go, just this once.
Blue smirked as Cerberus jerked his middle head towards the small trail that lead away from Tartarus. It always amazed her that the Princesses left such a stupid creature in charge of guarding the most dangerous prison in Equestria.
As Blue walked, Tartarus faded into the horizon. She let out another small sigh. ‘Time to go home.’