Unfortunate Side Effects

by DWhay

Nightmare Night

Twilight woke to the sound of a screech owl, perched outside the tower window. She opened her eyes sleepily; last night had been the best sleep she’s gotten in a month. Her entire body felt limber, as if Luna had taken the time to rid her of all the tension in her shoulders, neck and back. She rolled her shoulders as she sat up, feeling like she’d gotten nine hours of sleep when she had only been out for six. It wasn’t a coincidence that she felt good, either. Luna had stayed up for a long time making sure her wings were just so, and the muscles in between them were so tender and supple that she swore she could go for a morning flight of she only knew how. The contented mare sat up in bed, thinking of how nice it would be to learn how to preen Luna’s wings, and how that might affect their relationship if she wasn’t so passive. For the most part she was the one who received the princess’ help, never giving any back. She wanted to do something for her for once. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a note lying on the nightstand.

The mare reached out and picked up the note in her hooves, switching to holding it with magic as she opened the long piece of parchment. It was a rather large letter inviting her to Nightmare Night. Her eyes widened as she realized that today Luna’s very own holiday and birthday. She jumped out of bed, looking over at the calendar. It was, the thirty-first of October, the very day that the princess turned three-thousand, two-hundred and twenty-two. She couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed; it was like she had been staring at her new wings in awe just a few minutes ago. She picked up the note again and began to read more carefully.

‘I, Luna, hereby invite you, my dearest student, to the Nightmare Night Festival in Canterlot. You are permitted to wear whatever you like, thought formal attire is preferred. You may come looking any way you like as well. I myself have a specific disposition of liking to turn my mane into stars, as well as lengthen my horn. You may appear any way you wish for this event (short of anything inappropriate for the occasion, mind you). I have already invited all of your friends, and you will be my guest of honor at the festival. Celestia will not be in attendance, and all of the guards will be my own staff. It starts at sundown tonight, and I would love little more than to have you accompany me. I do hope that you will accept, as we have shared more than a few special moments together that aren’t to be discussed in written letters. This will be a night to remember.

Happy Nightmare Night,

Luna’

Twilight read the letter again and again. It was beautifully written, in Luna’s own manuscript that flowed in cursive like water parting around the pebbles at the bottom of a stream. She took a deep breath and decided that this was well worth disobeying Celestia’s orders. She couldn’t stay inside forever, and it wasn’t like she could keep her wings hidden until the end of time. She was going to go out into Canterlot that night, and have fun. Not only with Luna, but with her friends, the same ponies that she hadn’t seen in over three weeks. Just thinking about that made her homesick, just imagining how distressed Fluttershy must have been once she’d heard of her disappearance. She clutched the note to her chest, thinking of how important this was. Luna was giving her free reign to break the rules, as well as have fun. It was as if she was doing everything that she hadn’t been able to since she’d arrived in the palace. She might even have a drink or two. She could probably even manage to buy a few things while she was in the city. The thought of going out into public again made her want to shout her joy to the whole castle, but she withheld on the front that, should somepony else learn of this, she would be in massive trouble.

The last time that she’d invoked the wrath of Celestia had been a week ago, and she’d paid rather dearly for her mistake. Now she was going to do it again. This time with Luna’s full consent. She had a great feeling about it, and that maybe this was her ticket back to having a life outside of the palace. She’d been so busy fighting for her life and her sanity, not to mention her own body that she had forgotten about all the things she loved to do outside. Limba was still hibernating in the back of her head, unable or unwilling to respond to the letter. The Id seemed to be… biding its time. Like it had already put her hand down on the table, and was waiting for the other players to either risk it or fold. She had the oddest sensation of anticipation, like she was actually waiting for her antithesis to make a move. She was stronger now, and she knew that no amount of mental trickery could force her into doing anything she didn’t want to unless she gave her explicit permission.

Twilight set the letter down and went to get dressed, thinking of how amazing it would be when she was free again. Despite her enthusiasm, she felt one last strand holding her back from leaving Celestia’s ever-watchful sight. She didn’t know what it was, but something was pulling her back for one last bit of unfinished business.

---

Twilight pulled the hood up from her fur jacket, struggling to stay warm in the cold night. She’d decided that blending in would be the best approach to getting into the festival. She had teleported out of the castle with relative ease, and she was surprised that she’d been able to breeze past the borders of magic that were supposed to repel intruders. She couldn’t delve too deep into that, though, as she was currently standing on High Street in Canterlot. She didn’t see anypony running around, mostly because the street largely consisted of shops. The real festival was taking place over in Canterlot Park, and she knew inside that she’d find the princess there. She didn’t want to teleport in, since that might plant her in a large crowd, and that would undoubtedly raise an alarm Her wings weren’t concealed at the moment, and her horn was jutting out of the top of the hoody she’d borrowed from Luna. The jacket was lined with blue fur, and was made of solid pelt and leather. She would probably stick out like a sore thumb.

So she made her way on foot, thinking of how strange it was that she hadn’t seen a soul yet. It was as if the whole populace of Canterlot had been told to stay home. As much as this raised a warning flag go her, she didn’t want to become overly paranoid on Luna’s birthday. It was a holiday, too, so it didn’t get her anywhere to panic over something trivial. It wasn’t until she made it to Magnolia Lane that she began to worry. The trees there were dead, not just in the average sense as the trees prepared themselves for winter, but in the literal state of being burnt to a knotted, dehydrated crisp. She shrugged it off, dismissing it as a mere trick to make it look more legitimate in the Nightmare Night spirit. She couldn’t help but note the black bark and dried leaves, though.

With an odd finality she emerged onto the street nearest the park. She sighed with relief as she heard the familiar sounds of the Nightmare Festival. She could see other ponies playing and handing out candy amongst themselves. She had been concerned that she was going completely crazy when she hadn’t met anypony on her way there, but here they all were, having a wonderful time. She cast a quick spell to hide her horn, rendering it invisible. With her disguise in place, she strode into the crowd confidently. As she walked she saw all sorts of games, from Spider Toss to an old-fashioned haunted-house, everything seemed to be in place for an evening of Nightmare Night parties. She sighed and continued to head towards the center of the park, her intuition telling her that Luna and the rest of her accomplices would be there. She had a hard time telling herself that everything would be okay; after all everything that she’d done so far telling herself that had gone terribly awry in some fantastic way.

As the princess to-be emerged into the center of the park, into a sizable clearing, at the center of which was a small stage, she spotted her friends. They were all at a table in front of the podium, smiling and laughing at a joke that Rainbow Dash was telling them. Twilight couldn’t help herself as she galloped towards them, grinning ear to ear at how nice it would be to hear Fluttershy’s shy, apologetic voice again. She could only imagine the look on Rarity’s face when she got a good view of her wings. She sprinted toward them until she had to brake, nearly crashing into the table and coming extremely close to knocking over Luna’s drink. The princess smiled at her while her friends fell silent, staring at her. It wasn’t until Twilight was about to speak that Rainbow Dash said, in the most casual tone possible.

“I see that you got your feathers looking a lot cooler.” She complimented, nodding to Twilight’s wings. “I myself made mine look as awesome as possible for Nightmare Night. Especially since Luna invited me here as the guest of honor.” She continued, gesturing to herself in a bragging sort of way. “I didn’t want to take all the attention off of you, though. What were you about to say?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and smiled. It was only typical of Rainbow Dash to steal the show whenever she had an opportunity. The rest of the mares were all staring at her, waiting for her to speak. She hadn’t talked to them all in so long that she was having a hard time finding the words. After a lot of preparation, she took a deep breath, ready to break the biggest news of her life.

“Well... I guess that you guys deserve the truth. I’m not sick, and I wasn’t hurt in a magical accident. I know that I told you guys that the transformation into an alicorn is temporary. I… lied to you, because I was told to by Celestia. She was afraid that the word would get out, or that you’d be too much for me to handle. I’m fine now, and I wanted to say that I’m sorry for all the secrecy, and for disappearing. I probably looked really suspicious for a while there.”

“So you’re an alicorn?” Fluttershy piped up, surprising everypony. She was hardly ever the first to participate in most conversations. “Like Luna and Cadence? Do you have better magical powers now? And can you fly yet?”

“No.” Twilight replied, impressed that her friend had been the initiator of the discussion for once. “I think that it’ll be a long time before I’m any good at flying. But I can use magic that I previously could only dream about. It’s been nice… but kinda hard, since things have been so hectic.”

For a moment she thought of telling them about Limba, about how all alicorns had darker halves that would seek to exploit those weaker than them. But something stopped her, telling her that was a discussion for another time, in another place. She would have to tell them individually, and everypony would have to learn the signs of her losing control. She would have to explain it to each of them, and each of them would need to be taught. She would have to divulge some quite personal information to do so, but it was necessary if she was going to keep them safe from Limba.

“So… I guess that’s it.” Twilight said, hoping that the whole topic would blow over and she could continue as if nothing had ever happened between them.

Pinkie Pie slurped at her smoothie loudly, breaking the tension with her quest to get the last bits of strawberry from the bottom of her glass. It was actually convenient; she seemed to know just when she could offer up some comic relief. She smiled to reveal strawberry pulp in her teeth, which caused everypony at the table to groan and shake their heads, smiling at their random friend’s antics. The pink pony just shrugged and set her drink aside, smiling at Twilight.

“Have a seat.” Luna said, offering Twilight a chair next to her. “Have a little fun.”

Twilight sat and just like that, it was like she was back to normal. Rainbow Dash resumed her extremely exaggerated reenactment of the time she’d performed double-backwards somersault midair and landed on a cliff face perfectly. Everypony listened to her, treating it as if it was a perfectly normal situation. It made her happy to know that she wasn’t going to be excluded from their group just because she was an alicorn, and when Rarity offered her a glass of tea she couldn’t finish it was like she’d won the lottery. She couldn’t help it; she felt more loved then than she’d ever been as a unicorn, just by being treated the same. It made her feel accepted among them, even if she was more of an outsider than ever. If she hadn’t fit in with them two weeks ago then it was a true victory for her to be able to sit at a table with them now and not be called ‘your Highness’.

The conversation about Rainbow Dash’s acrobatics faded away, and soon Rarity began to detail the making of a dress she’d recently made in the most exhausting measures possible, making everypony shut their ears for a few minutes. They all hardly listened to her as she told them about how she was caught using a box stitch instead of regular, and how she had to hide the stitching in the inseam. It wasn’t that they didn’t love Rarity, they all really did, but it was exhausting to hear drone on about her work. It was like Applejack telling them about apple quotas. It just wasn’t all that interesting. Luna coughed lightly, attempting to get everypony’s attention. Rarity stopped her monologue, turning to look at the princess.

“Thank you for that charming recitation, but I would like to ask you all something.” Luna said, her voice carrying over the field, causing her to get a few looks in her direction. “I was thinking about Twilight, as I have quite a bit these last few weeks. I was pondering over how healthy it is for her to be alone here in Canterlot with nopony but me and my sister to visit her. She has Spike, but I feel she needs a mare her own age to talk to, and maybe go out with on weekends. I’m fairly adept in being normal now that I’ve adjusted to society, but I’m sure that Twilight will need a break from me every now and again. So, would any one of you be able to move to Canterlot for a while?”

There was a uniform silence across the table as her words sank in. All of them looked at each other, unsure of what to say. They all had lives in Ponyville, and most of them had jobs. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were perhaps the most free of them, but Rarity couldn’t possibly give her time up with her boutique. Pinkie Pie had to run the bakery, and Applejack didn’t have a single day to come and visit her friend. In all, only the two pegasi could spare themselves to live in Canterlot. Even then, Twilight and Luna could see that they were having trouble deciding. As much as Rainbow Dash didn’t appreciate her job as a the weather mare, she was having a hard time imagining herself parting ways with it. Fluttershy knew that her pets could make due without her, they were animals after all, and didn’t need her constant attention to survive. Despite that, she felt her heart seizing at the thought of leaving them.

“I, um, don’t think that I can take the time.” Rarity confessed apologetically.

One by one they all began to say similar things, all of them explaining why, with things the way they were, they couldn’t put their lives in Ponyville on pause to help Twilight. Applejack did her best to tell her no, but even then it came out as a jerky, stuttering apology. She wasn’t used to letting anypony down, so having just got her friend back and then just to lose her again was difficult. Pinkie Pie made a likewise awkward apology, hoping that she wasn’t hurting Twilight’s feelings. After a long pause it came down to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, with them being the only two that hadn’t given an answer. Rainbow Dash was already ready to give her answer, but she was looking at her friend from flight school for support. She was willing to do it, since she barely ever worked anyways, and her house wasn’t going anywhere. Fluttershy was having a lot more trouble, being the indecisive mare she was. It wasn’t normal for her to be put on the spot, and she did the opposite of well under pressure. She gnawed at her bottom lip, looking over at Rainbow Dash. She nodded, signaling that she was in if she was.

“I guess I’ll go…” The shy mare conceded, nodding her head.

“Yeah, I guess if she’s going, I’ll go.” Rainbow Dash said. “We’re both pretty used to living together, ever since flight school when we had to share a cloud house. Count both of us in.”

Luna looked impressed with their character; she hadn’t actually expected any of them to accept. In all she’d only proposed it as a second thought to her original plan, which had involved simply commandeering a fair enough number of objects from Twilight’s library and setting them up in her room in an (rather feeble) attempt to make her feel less homesick. This had been more than she had hoped for. If best came to the best then she could have both of Twilight’s friends live in the castle with her, simply by adding another floor to her tower with a little jiggery-pokery via draconequis magic. It was the first break she’d received in a rather long time, ever since she’d gotten back to earth, in fact. Maybe even the first time the wind had blown her way period. She nodded gratefully, marveling at the strength in the two young pegasi.

“I hadn’t expected any of you to actually accept, but since you did, I’m going to set you up with free lodging and as much money as you need.” The princess explained. “You can move into the castle whenever you want. Since that’s done I suppose that we can get onto more business.”

“Wait just a second.” Applejack interjected. “We’ll came here to have a good time and see Twilight, not to talk all serious for the whole night.”

Seeing the other ponies nod, Luna sighed and accepted that no more agreements could be made before they’d had something to liven up their Nightmare Night. She smiled and clapped her hooves, her horn lighting up in a sapphire flare. Instantly ten separate drinks of different types appeared on the table, all in front of the perspective pony it was made for. Each one was also color-coded, with the different colors matched to each pony. Rarity got a nearly white glass with only a small amount of liquid martini at the bottom, the rest being slush and foam. Applejack was gifted with an extremely thick, foaming alcoholic cider, and the Rainbow Dash got a frozen form of every single drink imaginable, all mixed into a rainbow of colors in her glass. She herself got one, and was the first one to take a drink of her blue hued beverage.

The ponies around the table looked at her, wondering just what Luna had interpreted their evening to be. Rarity was politely pushing her drink away from her, insisting that she had to work tomorrow. Applejack had no qualms about accepting anything free of charge, and had already taken a large gulp of her own cider. Rainbow Dash was hesitant at first, then shrugged, figuring that she had to quit her job tomorrow anyways. Fluttershy sipped on hers to find that it was curiously free of any alcohol; it was as if Luna had known that she’d never drank before in her life, and wasn’t about to start. Twilight was likewise suited, and so was Pinkie Pie. It was strange how she had known just how much each of them had partaken in drinking, based on how she’d known to give each of them a certain drink that all happened to be their favorite.

Sensing the burning question, Luna stirred her straw and said. “I made the spell while I was bored on the moon. It’s constructed to measure the exact state of your kidneys and liver, then determine if you’ve ever had anything alcoholically based to drink, and how much you had and just what kind. I had a lot of time to make it, so don’t feel too estranged. It was a thousand years of thinking I had to do. I have a lot of spells just like it lying around, that was just the one I remembered and fit the occasion.”

For a while the ponies sat in silence, enjoying their drinks to their own content. Rarity eventually warmed up to the idea, logically thinking that she could probably take one day off if she really needed to. Not only that, but Pinkie Pie was discovering that her own smoothie kept changing from tasting like bubblegum to tasting of strawberries and cherry pie. Applejack was done with hers within three minutes, belching loudly in Rarity’s direction to perturb the formal mare. Twilight observed quietly as her friends carried on for about another half an hour, eventually discovering that their glasses would fill themselves after a few minutes of being empty. It was alarming for Fluttershy, in the middle of drinking her banana-flavored ice cream milkshake, to see it suddenly fill all the way up to the brim. Luna almost laughed as she jumped out of her chair, holding the glass at arm’s length. The princess smothered her laughter behind a polite hoof, hiding her amusement to spare the pegasus’ feelings. Once she had successfully stifled her chuckles, she took a deep breath and addressed them, using the same light, informal tone as before. She knew it wasn’t the time for her to be acting like a princess; it was more a time for her to act like she was their friend.

“Anyways, now that we’re all refreshed.” Luna said, setting her glass down on the table. “I was going to ask if any of you had the time. I have to be off at around midnight. The Nightmare Festival will begin at exactly that time.”

“It’s exactly eleven twenty-three.” Fluttershy squeaked from the far side of the table. She hadn’t been wearing a watch; countless years of exploring the wilderness had left her with an instinctual sense of what time it was, just judging by the position of the sun and moon.

Luna said a curse under her breath, resulting in a pony tripping and falling on the other side of the field. “I have to go now. Twilight, please follow me. I’ll show you how to work the spells behind the rejuvenation ceremony. It’s rather sophisticated if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

The princess got up, the rest of them rising to follow her. The princess looked back to see the other five mares, standing and taking a step in the direction she was headed.

“I’d prefer that me and Twilight did this alone. It’s dangerous, besides that it’s been a secret for as long as my memory can serve. Just sit back down and make yourself comfortable. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

With that the two alicorns strode off, leaving the rest of the Elements to wonder if it had been something they’d said. In truth and all fairness it had been nothing they had done, but it was more important that Twilight knew just what the princess was planning to do during the ceremony. She was almost halfway to the line of trees when a rather familiar face came running from the crowd, sprinting in their direction. It was Spike, and in his claws he was clutching a red jewel. One that glowed. He was going so fast that he was outpacing most of the guards that were chasing him. They came running from the crowd as well, pushing and shoving ponies out of the way after him. The young dragon seemed to be on the verge of collapsing when he reached them, panting like he’d run a marathon. He clutched the gem to his chest, hiding it from them.

“I… was... Twilight…” He panted, still holding the gem tightly. “I had Twilight’s dark side… in my head, and she… made me steal this and now that I took it out of Luna’s desk the guards are chasing me because I stole it from Celestia and she’s coming to chop off my head and mount it on her wall what am I going to do I’m being chased and now you two should protect me because this jewel holds the truth about what Celestia wants to do with both of you because she thinks you’re both a threat!” He said, all in one absolutely massive run-on sentence. The young dragon had to stop and pant for several seconds afterwards, unable to continue.

“What are you talking about?” Luna asked, trying to take the gem off of him.

“No!” He said, pulling it back towards him. “This thing makes sense of why Celestia is the way she is and that she isn’t who she seems! She’s actually her dark side in disguise! And she has no other wish but to be supreme ruler of everything, so she’s breaking the will of your guy’s’ dark sides to that they can’t challenge her! And she’d doing that by breaking you two, and she’s going to do it with Twilight just like she did to you Luna!”

Luna stopped immediately, her horn switching from glowing blue to an eerie navy in an instant. “What do you know about what Celestia did to me?” She said in a slow, almost robotic voice. She was obviously paying attention now, as her tone was now concealing the desire to take the gem and bury it in the mantle of the earth, then rip the memory out of him and burn that as well.

“I know everything, and I’ll never ever tell anypony about what happened. All I want is for you to save me right now and help me forget later! Just help me to get rid of this!” He held up the gem in his hands. “This is where I got the memory. It can’t be destroyed by the pony who made it, so Celestia locked it up. Twilight’s dark side made me steal it.”

“Enough said.” Luna said stiffly, suddenly all business. “I’ll help you, but that stone is mine. Maybe finally I can be rid of that terrible time forever with it gone. So far none of my amnesia potions or spells have worked, and I have a peculiar feeling that gem is the reason.”

Luna turned on a dime to Twilight, who was still struggling to understand what was going on. All she’d heard was Spike talking extremely fast to her mentor, and then them saying something about a memory, and the gem.

“You guys, what the hay is going on?” The confused mare questioned, looking form Spike to Luna. “Why are guards chasing Spike, and what were you talking about a memory being inside that jewel?”

“There isn’t any time to explain right now.” The impatient princess said, her horn beginning to glow navy again. “We’re going to the castle, now. Hold on, and I’ll explain once we’re there.”

There was a flash and what sounded like a shout of surprise from a guard before they were gone, leaving nothing but a blank stretch of grass in the field where they had been standing moments before.

Author's Note:

Oh boy, this is getting juicy. By the last chapter there will be a lot of questions answered, but in Spike’s dialogue he reveals that Celestia’s Id was plotting against them ALL ALONG! She was just masquerading as useful to disguise her own motive, to gain total control of everypony! I loved including that, since it throws the idea of a non-inherently conniving Id out the window. As it turns out Celestia had made a deal with the devil when she’d let herself be controlled by her darker half, since she began to see her true motive as she learned about Luna’s Id, Nightmare Moon. Spike tells us only the surface of what Celestia did to Luna, and just why. She used her powers of domination to assert her authority as the alpha over Nightmare Moon, by preying on the one thing that both the light and dark halves of an alicorn fear and dread; bodily harm. Scars are the bane of an alicorn, both physical and mental, since they live forever and are slow to fade, a great number of traumatic events can permanently burn a brand into the memory of both sides of an alicorn’s psyche, effectively rendering both parties neutralized and very hesitant to receive another. And Celestia wants to do all of these unspeakably cruel things to Twilight now, just like she had with Luna! This is to the extreme level, and though Spike doesn’t show it much in his state of panic, he’s seen some things that nobody his age should ever see and not go through serious mental rehabilitation and some long-term counseling. Celestia, seeing the detrimental nature of him having the memory both on him and inside of his head, is trying her best at the moment to apprehend him and retrieve the stone, thought she hadn’t expected him to get Luna and Twilight involved.

Now that we have the back of this chapter covered, let’s get to the beginning, shall we? I basically set up the future events of this fiction’s timeline in the beginning/middle of the chapter, when Luna invited Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash to stay in the castle. This will allow for more of an open-ended story ending, since we now know that inevitably the two pegasi will be living near Twilight and Luna. We also get to know that Luna didn’t just carve rocks while she was on the moon, she created a number of spells that, while not very useful on most occasions, are under the right circumstances. She had a lot more than she lets on, as she does tell them that she has a lot lying around. I also mentioned a few street names in Canterlot that I might use in future fictions.

That about wraps it up for this chapter, write a comment if you enjoyed and I’ll see you all next time with the second to the last chapter of this fic. We’re getting to the end, so it’s really important that you tell me something’s wrong now because once it’s done, it’s done. Sealed away in a sarcophagus, never to be seen or touched by sunlight again, perfectly preserved in the exact state I left it. So really, leave a comment to help change the fic with your input now rather than risk it ending and miss your big chance. Goodbye everypony, and may your tea stay sweet.

Comments

[Deadman123]

more spike and more evil cel and fuk rarity

[Riz]

I'm going to guess this is a TwiLuna ?

[Jet Lignite]

Well I guess my theory was correct on Celestia... sort of. I'm surprised Spike's mind didn't break. So now she's trying to kill Spike... if he were to eat the jewel would:
A. He turn evil and have powers?
B. He super charge his own Id?
C. The jewel finally be destroyed?
D. He have a fighting chance against Celestia?
E. All of the above?
I also sense Luna's Id threatening to return.
Would it be so bad if Limba was broken? Oh! The suspense is killing me!