Chapter 13: Stripped
“Alright, come on, Joel, you can do this…”
It was nearing nightfall; I only had so much time to at least get some practice in before Luna’s shift started. I limbered up—meaning I gave my mass the usual preparatory flex—and stared at myself in the mirror. “One step at a time…” I said, trying to keep focused. “Okay… here we go.”
I shifted my left arm into the shape of a pony’s left foreleg. I couldn’t do much to make my texture look like a coat, but I was more than satisfied with the shape.
Okay, one down…
I did the same thing to my other arm, then planted my newly shaped hooves on the floor. So far, so good…
Then came the trickier bits. I condensed my mass until it was in the shape of a pony’s body, then lifted it off the floor with a pair of formed tendrils that, with more careful shaping, would act as the hind legs. I took a long glance at the book I’d randomly grabbed from the library; on the cover was a detailed illustration of a male earth pony—perfect for me to mimic. I put a great deal of effort into making the body and hind legs look as normal as possible—once I’d perfected this shape, I could work on growing accustomed to shifting to it quicker.
Once I felt I’d put enough time into the body and legs, I glanced at myself in the mirror. All that remained was my head. I’d usually kept it in a shape vaguely similar to a horse head—all I needed to do was chisel in a few features and add a couple ears. As I focused intently on making my face, I considered adding a pair of wings—my body was looking a little bulky from the condensed mass, so having wings would take a deal of it away and give me a more reasonable shape. I still had the issue of not having eyes, normal-colored teeth and a cutie mark—I’d had enough trouble learning to change my mass to resemble human skin color, and even when I’d figured that out it left me feeling worn out whenever I did it. I supposed I could wear sunglasses, and maybe Luna could loan me some old guard armor to wear...
I could probably ask Luna for help with this…
I wasn’t fond of that thought; I wanted this to be a surprise for her… a way I could walk alongside her in public without inciting a panic about a living pile of ash stalking the streets. I didn’t know how Luna would react to me approaching her in the shape of a pony—she didn’t seem to care what I was, but, rather, who I was… and I felt the same about her. Maybe this wasn’t entirely necessary… but it gave me something to work on, since I hadn’t heard about any instances similar to Pridefall’s corruption.
A knock at the door broke my concentration, and I ended up putting a horizontal divot in what would have been my forehead. I sighed and dropped the pony shape. “Come in.”
The door opened; Tea Tray, one of the castle’s stewardesses, peered in. Tea Tray was one of the few castle staff that seemed comfortable around me. She was a unicorn with a beige coat and a cutie mark of, indeed, a tea tray. “Master Dread?” She asked. “Princess Luna requests your presence in her chambers, as soon as possible.”
I tilted my head in concern. “Did she say why?”
Tea Tray shook her head. “No, but… it seemed rather serious.”
I gave Tea Tray a nod. “Thank you.” I quickly moved past her—taking the time to savor that she didn’t flinch away from me as I did so—and hurried down the hall.
I was at Luna’s door within minutes. The guards had gotten used to my presence, now; I assumed it was either Luna’s good word, or perhaps the fact that it had been a while since I’d actually invoked their ire, however inadvertently. Whatever the case, they treated me like anypony else in the castle who didn’t wear a crown.
I slid to a stop at Luna’s door and knocked quickly. “Luna?” I asked.
No answer. Frowning, I tentatively opened the door and peered through. “Luna?”
Luna was standing at the window with her back to me; she wasn’t reacting to my presence. I entered the room, shutting the door behind me. “...Luna, what’s wrong?” I asked softly. No response.
Something was definitely wrong.
I began to slowly approach her. As I reached the center of the room, I held out my arms in an almost pleading gesture. “Luna, honey…”
Luna finally moved. She turned her head and looked straight at me.
In her tearful, reddened eyes, I could see pain, betrayal and anger—the latter of which I, somehow, knew to be both at me and herself.
She spoke, in a pained, almost broken voice. “Do it.”
There was a flash behind me. I had barely spun around in time to see Celestia and an unfamiliar unicorn with a strange, crystalline coat before a narrow column of flame sprang up around me, rising from the floor to the ceiling. The trap touched and burned the parts of my mass that had been too close to the edges, causing me to yell out in pain before shrinking myself away from the sides.
Through the flames I could see outside of the trap; I looked frantically between Celestia, the unicorn and, finally Luna. Shifting the burned parts of my mass towards my chest, I made a few confused, terrified attempts at speech as the three approached me. “Wh… Wh-What?! Why?! What the hell’s going on?!?!”
Celestia stood as close as she could to the column without getting burned herself; her horn was flaring a bright orange, indicating that she was the one channeling this spell. In her eyes was an anger so intense, I half-thought that the trap was formed of her rage, alone. I also noticed a hint of triumph and, conversely, regret.
I glanced over at Luna. I could see that she was doing everything to keep from sobbing as she approached, trying to stay strong for Celestia…
For the moment, my panic subsided, and I knew what this was.
Luna was the only one who knew about the only thing that could hurt me.
“Luna?” I said softly.
Celestia took a deep breath. “Your reign of terror is over… ‘Joel’.”
Eight Hours Ago
“So…” Bulwark said, his eyes showing exhaustion from his long discussion with Celestia. The pair had moved upstairs to the living room while Bright Dawn had gone downstairs to tend to the afflicted. “This ‘Dread’ says he was once a… ‘human’? That he had stumbled across a substance that made him into what he is today?”
Celestia nodded. “It would seem so… The human claims to be in complete control of the mass, but…” Her gaze fell to the floor. “Either that’s true, and he was always so cruel as to terrorize innocents, and is simply using the mass to his advantage… Or—and I’d actually prefer if it were so—he’s not as in control over the mass as we, or, perhaps, even he believes.”
“You think the mass may be controlling him?” Bulwark queried.
“Perhaps… Either way, the human is definitely bound to the essence.” Celestia rubbed her head with a hoof. “And I doubt he could part with it if he wanted to.”
Bulwark tapped his chin in thought. “...Perhaps… we could separate them?”
Celestia looked to Bulwark, raising an eyebrow. “Could we?” She asked, failing to disguise a glimmer of hope in her voice.
“If what Dread told you is true—though we have reason to believe he has been less than entirely honest—then the consciousness that drives the essence may be removed, practically torn from it…” Bulwark rubbed his chin. “We just need the proper--”
A bright flash interrupted him. When his vision returned, he found that the pair had been teleported into Celestia’s study within the castle. “...spell?”
Celestia stood up and briskly moved towards a nearby bookshelf, scanning her collection. “Luna and I used this spell at the Crystal Empire, a thousand years ago…” She murmured. “It was how we managed to purge Sombra’s influence from the Crystal Ponies he had entranced…”
Behind Celestia’s back, Bulwark’s eyes narrowed, flashing an angry green before returning to normal. “Indeed?”
She pulled a particularly dusty tome from the collection and began leafing through its pages. “We haven’t had need of it since then. I… Perhaps I could have used it when Luna became… misguided, but, at the time, I thought her actions were entirely her choice… Either way…” Celestia held the book open for Bulwark to see the spell; it detailed a bright orange beam that was enveloping an earth pony, pulling a wailing, shadowy apparition from out of his body, in the manner of a powerful gust blowing a pony’s cloak away.
“It’s not a spiritual possession with Dread, of course, but…” Celestia’s voice faltered. “...This is all I can think of, Bulwark…” She frowned at the floor.
“It’s perfect…” Bulwark said, a smile dawning on his face. Celestia looked up at him in surprise. “The spell is meant to purge a controlling influence from a separate being, Princess!”
Celestia looked at the spell again and smiled. “Then we have what we need…”
“It is a risk…” Bulwark said. “If the spell, for whatever reason, fails to work, then we are left to see Dread’s true colors…”
“He will either see that we have made our move, and will act in kind…” Celestia said, nodding. “...Or we were wrong, and he is simply furious at being betrayed… Either way, I know not what he may do. There’s also the event the spell does work, but removing him from the essence doesn’t free the victims from their Nightmares...”
“…I suppose there’s only one way to know for sure.” Bulwark said softly. Celestia gave a firm nod. “All that remains is how to keep him in one place long enough to perform the spell.”
Celestia was silent for a few long moments. Then she gave a deep, remorseful sigh. “...I might have a way…”
“You’re wrong.”
“Luna, please--”
“No. I refuse to believe it.” Luna stood up and stormed from the middle of her chambers, towards the window. After a few moments of trying to find the words, Luna turned to her sister, who lay in the middle of the room, a mournful expression on her face. “Still?! Still?! After everything, you still suspect him?!”
“I have reason to…” Celestia said; her voice carried a plea for a chance to speak.
“You simply refuse to see past what he does, what he can do!” Luna seethed. “You refuse to see him as anyone other than Sombra!!”
“Because there is little difference!” Celestia said hotly, standing up. “Luna, he has been working behind our backs…”
“He wouldn’t do that!!” Luna retorted. “But of course you wouldn’t know that—you never gave him a chance! The first thing you did was imprison him!!”
“You know why we did that!!” Celestia snapped, clearly trying, and failing, to keep her temper. “But that’s not the point…”
“Then what is the point?!” Luna cried. “What makes you think Dread is hoping to ‘plunge Equestria into darkness’?! What makes you think he has been lying to us all along?!”
“Pridefall was manipulated,” Celestia said, loudly; Luna’s expression softened somewhat. “Something made him… afraid, Luna… Afraid of us… Afraid of Equestria rising up as an overwhelming, military power… There was a look in his eyes, Luna, a look I haven’t seen since the Crystal Empire, so many years ago…”
“...Someone… drove him to attack Ponyville?” Luna asked.
Celestia nodded. “I’d… read that letter from the Gryphon Emperor in front of him, mentioned what were merely concerns on Pridefall’s part… A week later, he leads an attack that nearly kills the Bearers of Harmony? I doubt he would have grown so paranoid of us in such a short time… Not without somepony—or something—worsening his fears...”
“...B-b-but Jo—Dread, he… He would’ve needed to go all the way to the Gryphon Empire to do that!” Luna argued.
“Luna, it’s a mere three hour train ride there, three hours back… It’s not hard to believe he could board an early morning departure without anypony noticing.”
“But we were together practically every day since he’d arrived!” Luna argued; she paused and ran over the days before the Gryphon attack, muttering quietly. “...the evening the tear opened, the day he awoke, the day he and I spent in the gardens—that was the night with the letter, then…” Her voice faltered when she remembered something; Dread hadn’t been seen that entire day, until Luna had found him in the library towards the evening, when he would be given the news that he couldn’t return home…
...But no, he wouldn’t… He couldn’t have, the librarian had said he had been in there all day!
...As far as he knew.
Luna shook her head and looked back up at Celestia. “He wouldn’t have, sister—that’s not like him!”
“How do you know?” Celestia asked, simply.
“Because we’ve been together every night, for the past month!” Luna cried. “We’ve… talked, about so many things! We’ve been… been…” Her lips quivered; Luna blinked back a coming wave of tears.
Celestia stared at Luna, confusion and empathy in her eyes. “...You’ve been what?” Luna didn’t respond, yet her efforts to keep from breaking down were a clear enough indicator that there was something else. Celestia approached her sister. “Luna, what is it?”
Luna fell to her haunches and hugged herself with her forelegs. “I-I…” She whimpered, quickly beginning to break down.
Celestia sat beside Luna and pulled her close in a wing. “Luna, please, tell me…” She reached down and lifted Luna’s face with a tender hoof.
The briefest glance into her eyes—filled with pain, denial… a hint of regret—told Celestia all she needed to know.
“...Oh, Luna…” She whispered. Luna sniffled, a sob escaping her. “...How long?” Celestia asked.
“...N-Nearly four weeks, now…” Luna said. “We’ve been just… together… We haven’t… done anything, we’ve… just been… close…”
Celestia hugged Luna tighter. “...And you didn’t tell me because you worried how I would react…”
“We were going to…” Luna said quickly. “W-When we felt that you could finally trust him…”
Celestia understood. She couldn’t blame Luna for the secrecy—she was actually impressed that Luna had kept it under wraps.
She wanted to leave it here. She wanted to apologize to Luna, to say she was wrong, to apologize to Dread for being so distrusting… Anything to spare Luna this pain…
But the image of the terror-stricken victims in Bright Dawn’s home told her that she, as Princess, had a duty to uphold, for the good of her subjects.
“Luna…” Celestia said softly. “I’m sorry—truly, I am… But are we sure he--”
“Yes!” Luna snapped, pulling out of Celestia’s hug and glaring angrily at her. “There’s no ‘manipulation’ here, sister!! I…”
Luna hesitated, then straightened up and looked Celestia firmly in the eyes. “I love him… and he loves me.”
Celestia, however, shook her head sadly. “Does he?”
“Yes!!” Luna snapped. “I… I showed him that I… felt for him, and… Well, he was… taken aback. He left for a few minutes to… to gather himself, then came back, and… and showed he felt the same.”
“You made the… first move?” Celestia asked; Luna nodded vigorously. Celestia thought for a short time. “...Then… perhaps he--”
“Tia!!” Luna cried in both exasperation and disbelief.
“Perhaps he… saw an opportunity…” Celestia said; it hurt her, deeply, to say this, to further try and pull the wool from Luna’s eyes… She knew that Luna would be hurt, that she may struggle to trust anypony else after this… but it was for her own good, and for that of their home. “He… he saw that he could… earn your trust…”
“No…” Luna shook her head, glaring at her sister.
“Divert suspicion…”
“No!”
Celestia took a deep breath. “...Luna, Dread has been using you…”
“NO!!” Luna spread her wings angrily, her eyes glowing white. “You’re wrong!!” Her horn began to glow; wind began blowing through the room, causing the two sisters’ manes and tails to billow violently in the gale. “Joel is NOT Sombra!! HE IS NOT A MONSTER!! HE WOULD NEVER USE ME LIKE THAT!!!”
Celestia, unphased by Luna’s fury, closed her eyes and lit her horn. There was a flash.
When the light faded, the pair were in Bright Dawn’s basement. Luna’s eyes lost their glow, her horn dimmed and her wings folded back to her sides. “W-Where are we?” She asked, looking about in confusion. Her eyes fell on the ponies laying on the cots that surrounded them; the ponies lay shivering, whimpering, their legs folded inwards.
Luna had seen many ponies like this; when a pony was having a nightmare, they were often in such a pose as this… “What is this?” She asked softly.
“These…” Celestia said wearily. “...These are victims… They’ve been found over the past two weeks, all in the same state… We haven’t been able to help them.”
Luna stared, shocked, at the ponies, her breathing quickening. Her horn lit up as she stood over one victim and leaned towards his head. “M-Maybe I can…”
The aura around her horn suddenly flared. Luna yelped as, for an instant, pure terror struck her, then immediately faded as she stumbled backwards. The pony gave a short yell, his quivering becoming worse.
Celestia rushed forward and put her front hooves on Luna’s shoulders. “Are you okay??”
Luna caught her breath from the shock; the illusion, it… it had lashed out at her attempt to dispel it…
Like when she’d seen Joel’s dream…
Luna gave a shuddering gasp. She wanted to deny it…
...But who else could do such a thing?
“No…” She said, her voice cracking.
Celestia laid her head on Luna’s, affectionately. “...Luna, I’m so… so sorry…” She whispered.
“No…” Luna said again, tears streaming down her face. “No no no no no no no…”
Luna fell to her haunches; Celestia sat beside her and pulled her sobbing sister close. “It’ll be okay, Luna… It’ll all be okay…”
“Celestia…” I said softly as Celestia began circling the pillar of flame. “Luna, please, what’s going on here??”
Celestia was glaring sternly at me, while Luna was some distance away, keeping her gaze centered on anything but me. “You will no longer terrorize our home, Dread…” Celestia said firmly. “I gave you a chance to prove yourself… one of many mistakes I have made, over the years.” Her gaze flickered over to Luna.
“What are you talking about?!” I cried; I could have tried to find a way out of this trap, sure, but I was certain any movement on my part would encourage Celestia to suddenly shrink the column around me… I still didn’t know what would happen if I was completely burned, and this wouldn’t be a good time to find out.
“By my power as Princess of Equestria…” Celestia said firmly, stepping towards the unknown, crystalline unicorn, who was carrying a book in his magic. “I hereby strip you of your power.” The unicorn opened the book to a specific page and held it out for her.
I glanced frantically between them and Luna, who was still glaring bitterly, mournfully, at a nearby wall. “Wait! Wait!! PLEASE!!” I yelled; I didn’t know what they planned to do, or why, but I wasn’t very keen on finding out.
The glow of Celestia’s horn began to flare brighter. She grit her teeth with the effort and bent into a bracing stance as her horn began to form a bright ball at the tip.
I was able to meet her gaze before a massive orange beam flew out. The flame pillar dropped a mere instant before the beam hit me.
Agony.
I suddenly knew absolutely nothing but agony. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t do anything. I felt like my brain was in a wind tunnel, with violent winds tearing past it, nearly blowing it out of my skull…
The agony began lessening, but only slightly. I could feel myself being pulled like a stubborn weed from… something, something that didn’t want to let me go. From the back of my mind I began feeling something tear from the pressure…
Whatever it was, it ripped open. The tear expanded rapidly, and I was pulled through what felt like some sort of bag. From where I could only see darkness, now I was completely blinded by light. As I was pulled through I could suddenly… feel, again.
I felt myself land on a carpeted floor; I was blind from the sudden light, as though my eyes hadn’t been used in years--
Wait, WHAT?
Cold… I was so cold… Laying on my… my side, I, almost instinctively, hugged my arms for warmth, pulled my legs close to my chest.
Oh god.
I flexed parts of my body. Five fingers. Five toes. Skin.
Oh my god.
My chest was suddenly feeling tight; I could feel something clutching, begging for something…
Breathe. BREATHE.
I made a loud, gasping inhale. I breathed in and out, continuing to rub my skin in disbelief.
My eyes quickly began to adjust to the light. After a few, worrying seconds, I could see Luna’s room again. Celestia, Luna and the unnamed pony were staring at me, eyes wide. In the middle of the room was what I instantly knew to be the mass I’d been controlling for the past four years.
I was laying, naked, on Luna’s bedroom floor.
I was laying, naked, on Luna’s bedroom floor as a human.
I was human again.
And the first thing I did was let out a scream of terror.
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Hmmm, I wonder what they will think if he is happy to be human again.
I bet joel is happy he doesnt cause nightmares when he hugs someone anymore!
4531890 he never did that in the first place. he controls the power.
4531931 I would have nightmares if an ash monster came up and hugged me! It would remind me of Lost and its shit ending.
this is bullshit
Stupid Celestia
yay I can add something new to my list about stuff that I hate Celestia for.
4532287 I gladly join that group. Maybe Tia's horn took too much much of her frontal lobe for it to to work correctly and not notice the other signs of what caused the nightmares to happen. Joel's and Sombra's powers should be noticeably different.
4534152 true... vary true
Sombra doesn't know that form's weakness, Joal does
there's no other way to express the stupidity that's just oozing out of this fic. And that is NOT considering the fact that Celestia blindly followed and/or trusted someone who fought along King Sombra.
4972453 ikr I wanted to jump through the screen and bitch slap celestia.
OH HELL NO. HELL NO. CELESTIA, YOU BUCKING IDIOT. YOU HAVE JUST DOOMED YOUR ENTIRE KINGDOM.
.
Didn't you said just a few chapters earlier that the spell could only be brocken by Sombra himself or be lifted when he dies?
Celestia... you are a stupid dense cunt. I have never been this pissed ad disappointed at the same time before.
And now you have no way of beating Sombra.
Yes, Celestia. Trust the random pony you just met who used to rule under Sombra.