Fragments Of Memories
The sister princesses had never required much sleep. Perhaps it was a side effect of their supremely magical nature; perhaps it was simply a skill that they had perfected over many centuries of immortality. Whatever the reason, Luna awoke from her rest about three hours after sunrise, staring around at her chambers while her mind readjusted to the waking world. The night had been long, in a way, and it was odd to realize she was waking to a sunny day again. Doubtless her sister was already deeply immersed in her duties, and Luna had no desire to interrupt her.
Now, she thought, I must record the events that have passed.
She rose from her bed and went to a large desk in a corner of her chamber. The lamp upon it lit in response to her approach, spilling soft, gentle light into the room. She didn’t often put the desk to use—if she wanted to correspond with somepony, she could do so through dream-walking, and any reading she wanted to do could be done in the royal library—but there was a small journal lying upon the wooden surface, waiting patiently to be opened. With a thought, Luna’s magic shimmered around both her horn and the journal, which opened and flipped several pages until it came to a blank point. Extending the grasp of her magical reach, she pulled an inkwell and quill pen out of a desk drawer, settled them on the desk’s surface, and opened the inkwell. Drawing herself up importantly, Luna dipped the nub end of the quill into the ink, gave it a dramatic flourish to shake off the excess ink—and paused.
The journal had been Celestia’s idea, of course. The two sisters had kept a shared diary as fillies, back in their palace that now lay as a crumbling ruin in the heart of the Everfree Forest. And in fillyhood, Luna had always been eager to write in the diary, to detail every moment of every day and night. She thought back, doing her best to remember how her entries had been back then, and as her face glowed in an embarrassed blush at the thought, she was grateful nopony else was around to see her.
My writing was probably silly and foolish, she thought, trying to remember how many entries had just been about her favorite slide. That thought trailed off into another, remembering a time shortly before the Nightmare-spirit had fully possessed her. In her darker moods, in her brooding jealousy about her sister, Luna had also taken to writing poetry in secret. At the time, she had considered it an outlet for some of her feelings and had thought herself quite gifted in the art. Now however as she thought back on it, those were probably embarrassing as well, considering she remembered writing a verse including the words, “Black, black, black, black, black grows my mind like an old dead tree.”
“Ugh!” She groaned, shuddering and wincing. What sort of poet worth their bits would write “black” five times just to emphasize a point in a poem? For an instant, her mind jumped to the draconequus Discord, who would probably resort to such redundancy in lyrical verse simply for the sake of driving his readers batty…assuming of course, that Discord ever did something like writing poetry and didn’t simply turn ponies into bats. But then her mind jumped again, this time to a dark, boiling shadow of malice and power, billowing behind enchanted bars within the oubliette, with two eyes staring out at her.
Doubtless King Sombra would find my old poetry amusing. She thought soberly. She shook the thought away seconds later, remembering that the deposed unicorn king was the reason she planned on writing in her journal to begin with. Despite Celestia’s good intentions, Luna only really wrote in the journal to record her thoughts when something worried or troubled her.
And something in the story Sombra had started telling her was very troubling indeed.
Mind resolute, she put the quill to the paper and began to pen down all that had happened since her first encounter with Sombra in the oubliette. Already she had much to record, but the Princess of the Night had always been particularly quick with a quill and despite her verbose writing habits, she managed to finish the entry within roughly twenty minutes, give or take.
“There,” she sighed, looking over her writing, “That should suffice for now.”
The doors to her chambers burst open and she looked around, startled, to see members of her sister’s Royal Solar Guard charging in.
“Your Highness!” The guard in the lead gasped, skidding to a halt. “Please, come quick!”
It occurred to her to be annoyed at their complete lack of regard for her station and the level of respect it commanded, considering they had just broken the rule of royal privacy, but if Celestia could shrug such things off with grace, then so could she. Instead she simply furrowed her brow in polite puzzlement and pricked her ears forward to show she was listening.
“What is the trouble?” She asked in regal, carrying tones just below the ‘Royal Canterlot Voice.’ “Why does my sister’s regiment seek my aid? Has something become of my sister?”
“No, no,” the guard replied, immediately looking a touch self-conscious, “The Princess Celestia is overseeing duties in the city. Forgive us, Your Highness, but we need your help in her absence. You see, there’s an issue in the palace gardens—“
“Lead the way, captain.” She replied briskly as she rose to her hooves, holding her head high and sweeping her mane back. The guards said no more, but nodded uneasily and set off at a quick trot around her. For a split second, she had a terrifying thought that perhaps Sombra had escaped his prison and was loose in the grounds, but it vanished as quickly as it had occurred. If that were the case, she would have known much sooner and wouldn’t have slept in.
This must be one of sister’s duties that needs seeing to, before it becomes a disaster!
The idea cheered her considerably. Luna had once made the mistake of claiming she could run the day as well as her sister, and had later come to regret her quick mouth. Celestia had taken the opportunity to give Luna her duties for an entire day, under the supervision of a picky unicorn named Kibitz. Between Kibitz and Celestia’s overly-full schedule that was timed to every last second, Luna had very nearly had an emotional meltdown. By the end of the ordeal however, she had survived and come to a much greater appreciation of everything her sister had to handle in a day. And this time, she had an idea of what to do and could easily help.
This is just what I need to keep my mind off my own worries, and those dreadful nightmares. She thought with a smile. They turned at the end of a hall, moving to an open atrium that led out into the gardens, where several more members of the royal guard were waiting for them.
“Oh! Your Highness! Thank goodness you’ve arrived!” One of them sighed with relief.
“What is the trouble?” She asked, but before anypony could answer, several rosebushes abruptly began floating in the air, their buds transforming into brownies with small pops! And the statues in the garden changed position, vanishing from their pedestals and reappearing on different pedestals around the garden. As Luna watched, her eyes widening, a loud, chortling guffaw echoed around them. She recognized that laugh, having heard it once or twice before, and knew instantly what she was up against. She marched out into the main square of the garden, scowling in annoyance, and looked around for some sign of the culprit. She didn’t have to wait long, however. There was a shimmering pop of magic, and a figure appeared, hovering upside-down in mid-air.
“Oh, poo,” the draconequus pouted when he caught sight of her, red-and-yellow eyes going half-lidded in disappointment, “It’s just you, Princess Moody-Moon. I was hoping for somepony a little…taller.”
Her scowl deepened.
“Get used to disappointment, Discord. What are you doing, turning the gardens topsy-turvy like this?” She demanded.
He slowly spun in a loop in mid-air, righting himself and giving her a wounded look.
“I was planning on putting it back. It was supposed to be a gift for your dear elder sister Celestia, you know.”
“She’s out.”
“Yes, well, obviously,” Discord huffed, reaching out with the tuft on the end of his tail and snatching brownies off a rosebush that floated past, “Otherwise I doubt you would have bothered to come out here and scold me. Brownie?”
She glanced at the pastries as he juggled them sideways and shook her head, a thought occurring to her.
“No, thank you. You shall be pleased to know, Discord, that I am willing to forgive this little prank of yours, if you’ll answer a few questions for me.”
“Questions?” He echoed interestedly, ears pricking up. He stopped juggling the brownies and instead of falling to the ground, they sprouted wings and flew off awkwardly. With a snap of his claws, an oversized coat and deerstalker hat appeared on him and he pulled a bubble-pipe out of thin air. “What kind of questions?”
“Do you know of the Crystal Empire?” she asked, genuinely curious. The Crystal Empire had been established under the rule of a unicorn princess after Discord had been initially sealed in stone, but the draconequus was an enigma. Perhaps he could provide her with more information to either prove or disprove anything Sombra said.
Discord appeared to think hard about it for a moment, tapping the stem of the bubble-pipe against his chin.
“Hmm. Let me think… Crystal Empire…” He looked at Luna, snapping his talons again, and a shimmering bubble appeared next to him, reflecting a perfect model of the Crystal Empire inside it. “Big shiny place? Lots of crystals? Ponies that shimmer and sparkle? Oversized palace set in the middle of everything? Some legend about a crystal heart and an evil king?”
He snapped his talons a third time and the bubble vanished as he looked away, shaking his head. “Nope. Haven’t heard of it.”
“Of course you haven’t.” Luna answered as indulgently as she could manage, although she couldn’t entirely resist a roll of the eyes. “And I suppose you don’t know anything about that same evil king, either.”
Discord shook his head.
“No, sorry,” he answered, not sounding sorry at all, “But if you wish, I’ll lend you an ear.”
He punctuated this declaration by pulling one of his ears off his head and holding it out to Luna as he started to guffaw wildly. She glanced at the ear in his claws before nodding regally.
“You have my personal thanks, Discord. I appreciated your willingness to assist me, and I shall put in a good word for you with my sister.” She said, turning away to leave.
“Wait,” Discord said, and with the sound of a lid being screwed onto a jar, he twisted and turned his ear back into place, watching her with a dubious expression, “Why do you ask? Why do you want to know about the Empire and King Sombra?”
Luna pursed her lips for a moment before answering.
“No reason.” She replied nonchalantly, unable to think of a viable excuse. Discord slowly raised a snowy eyebrow, looking utterly puzzled by her response. She bade him goodbye again, not waiting to see the expression of calculating skepticism that crossed the draconequus’s rarely serious face as he stroked his chin in thought.
***
He was a foal again, running down a familiar corridor to hide behind an old, moth-eaten tapestry in order to escape his governess pony. The last thing the young prince wanted was to be forced into a bath. He let out a tiny, muffled giggle as he squeezed himself into the nook behind the tapestry. Hooves galloped through the hall as the elderly mare’s breathing became short and ragged, and she called out the prince’s name. He had to practically stuff his forehooves into his mouth to hide another giggle as she passed right by him.
How many times had he done that in his foalhood?
Raised voices could be heard, not too distant from the little prince’s hiding spot. Queen Platinum was in a towering temper about something, and she could be heard arguing with somepony. The little colt crept out of his hiding place, curious to find out more. He picked his hooves up as quietly as he was able to, worried that his governess would somehow hear him and come after him for that bath. His mother’s voice went quiet a moment as somepony he didn’t know spoke in a tired old voice, jingling bells accentuating his speech.
Ah. It was this memory again.
Darkness coiled in a tight spiral as two glowing eyes opened in the dark mist. Sombra gave a low rumble as he pushed the memory back far from his mind, burying it away from his thoughts as he contemplated his solitary imprisonment.
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It's ALIVE?!?!
5224345
5224458 Thanks bro ;)
Good to see an update. Looking forward to the future developments.
Isn't Q omnipotent, so Discord would be omnipotent too? So shouldn't he know why Luna was asking about the Crystal Empire?
I is confuse
This continues to be immensely intriguing, and I love the care you put into your descriptions. It really brings the characters and story to life.
6808351
Q?