Chapter 19: Maze of the Mind
Luna
Luna kicked the door behind her with her back leg, slamming it loudly. She let out a heavy sigh of frustration. “Answer me this, Cadenza.”
Cadenza looked up from where she was reading a book on dream rituals. “O.K. Sure. Fire away.”
“Was Twilight ever difficult to put to bed when she was a filly?” Luna half asked, half demanded. “Because I had to order Nova several times to get some rest!”
“How long was she awake this time?” Cadenza sighed in exasperation.
“Five nights!” Luna bemoaned. “When I had her as a foal, I would sing to her and she would fall asleep almost instantly!” Luna slammed her hoof down. “I blame Celestia! Only she could inspire such unhealthy sleep habits!”
“Well, it seems that some things have carried over.” Cadenza said sadly. She then tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Of course, now that I think of it, maybe the reason she stayed up all night was because she was part of it. Twilight loved to study all night, and then would have to drown herself in coffee to stay awake in her classes when she went to Celestia’s school.”
“My point exactly!” Luna agreed. “She should have slept all day!”
Cadenza returned to reading the book Luna had given her to prepare her for the ritual. “So? What was she doing this time?”
“She was in the archives again! Any moment she’s not with me she spends in that maze of books!”
Cadenza snapped her head up. “The archives? She’s been spending all of her time in the library?!”
“Yes!”
Cadenza stood up and walked over to Luna, her face twisting with worry. She grabbed the front of Luna’s armor and shook it gently. “Please, please tell me you restricted her access!”
“What of it?” Luna was confused at Cadenza’s reaction. She almost slapped the alicorn off of her. “I found out she loved books, so I thought that letting her visit the archives whenever she wanted might…remind her of herself. So no, I didn’t restrict her access.”
Cadenza’s armored behind slapped the floor as she dropped. She looked up in absolute horror at Luna. “You gave the twisted evil version of Twilight Sparkle unrestricted access to the largest collection of magical knowledge in the world?”
“…yes?”
Cadenza put her head in her hooves. “We’re doomed…”
Luna let Cadenza have her moment before she pushed the alicorn aside. “That does not matter. If my-“
“Our.”
“-if our ritual succeeds, Twilight will be her normal self and you and Shining Armor can do whatever you want to each other back in the dungeons.”
Luna summoned her magic and held out a clump of black hair above the center of the ritual. “After making sure Nova would sleep, I plucked this from her personal armor. We now have the final ingredient to start the ritual.”
Cadenza nodded and went to her circle in the ritual, directly opposite from Luna’s circle. Once they were both in position, Luna lit the runes in the floor. Blue fire erupted from the carvings in the floor, and Luna could feel the old and powerful magic start to take shape. Cadenza also lit her horn and the blue flames then grew stronger as they crackled and sent up pink sparks.
The edges of the ritual then threw up a wall of blue flame that surrounded them.The flames grew higher as the wall started to spin into a vortex and all of their other surroundings started to fade from view.The fire became brighter and brighter until Luna was forced to close her eyes.
Then darkness…
…silence…
…suffocating pressure…
…a piercing scream…
…a whisper…
…fear…
…then light.
Luna grunted as she opened her eyes and stood up from the floor. Cadenza was laying just across from her, where she had been standing before the ritual started. She seemed alright, and was quickly regaining her bearings. She stepped forward, but stopped when the ground beneath her shifted. Luna looked down, and realized it was not ground she was standing on.
It was books.
Luna looked all around her, and she could see that she stood upon the pinnacle of a mountain of books. It was a singular mountain, and at its base, miles and miles of bookshelves as far as the eye could see. They formed a labyrinth of epic proportions that would take years to navigate on foot. The sky itself was a mirror of the outside world, with glimmering angry stars that bled red light.
And directly above them hung a pale white moon with the face of a mare etched onto its face.
It was sickening. It mocked her. It defied her.
She hated it.
For a long, twisted moment, she stared at it. Despite her revulsion, it was almost fascinating to witness from a different point of view. She could see every detail, from the point of the horn, to the curve of the ears, to the hollow and haunting eye.
She heard Cadenza walk to her side, and could see through the corner of her eye that she too was staring up at the sky.
“When I first arrived at Canterlot Castle, and watched Celestia lower the sun and raise the moon, I asked her why there was a mare on the moon.” Cadenza said quietly. Luna let her talk, it was interesting to hear, even if it caused bile to rise in her throat. “Of course, there were a thousand and one theories. Ancient texts clearly recorded that the moon was once unblemished. Astronomers believed that it was the work of asteroids impacting the surface in a great cataclysm; that it was by chance.” Cadenza turned to her. “My favorite, the one that Celestia told to me to answer my question, was that the Mare in the Moon was the protector of dreams, and that she chased away nightmares.”
Luna turned away from the accursed sight and stared straight into Cadenza’s eyes.
“Was she telling the truth?” Cadenza asked.
…
…
…
“In times past, when magic was more feral, the realm of dreams was fraught with danger.” Luna admitted.It had been so long since she had talked with anyone about this, it felt good to confess this. “Creatures of all shape and size would be driven mad by the nightmares the wild magic created. They would have visions of demons, of family betrayals, and of lovers leaving. They would grow so paranoid that eventually they would snap, and commit terrible deeds.”
Luna breathed deeply, and gazed out across the endless landscape of bookshelves. “We…Celestia and I, searched together for a solution. But in the end, I created the magic. It was destiny, it seemed, for the dominion of the moon and the night was necessary for the magic to work. At night, when sleep reigned, I would flit from dream to dream and vanquish the monsters within. I was a nightmare for nightmares, and I was good at it.”
“I created an island of peace, where before, there was despair. I was content with that.It made me happy, to know that because of me, everyone slept peacefully” Luna’s voice grew cold. “Centuries passed, and they forgot what I did for them each and every night. They didn’t teach their children, and then when they saw me in their dreams I was the invader, not the liberator.”
“I’m sorry.” Cadenza said in a small voice.
“You are the first, in over a thousand years, to express regret.” Luna told her. “I will not pretend that I was a perfect ruler, but I am confident that I was a fair and just leader. If I have regret about that time, it was that others were dragged down with me.”
“The Lunar Pegasi.”
“Yes.” Luna confirmed. “They had always been outcasts, scorned and reviled by others. I took them under my wing and gave them a home. Then I gave them a purpose. Just as I hunted monsters in the mind, so my Night Watch held their vigil for the monsters that walked in broad daylight.”
Cadenza remained silent before she spoke again with a cautious tone. “You seem…talkative.”
“That is because I feel remorse.”
“Remorse?”
“Your powers of observation are lacking, Cadenza. Look at your hooves, and then look closer at the bookshelves all around us.”
Cadenza looked down, her eyes narrowing in concentration. The books, thousands of them, all shimmered with untold power, as if they were alive. In a way they were, for they pieces of Twilight’s mind. The pictures on the covers moved, as they depicted the contents within. One book showed a picture of a young Twilight, ironically, reading a book. Another had a picture of a filly Twilight with her adopted parents. They came in all colors, sizes, and thickness. Then she lifted her head up and leaned forward, searching for what to Luna seemed obvious.
“Gaze upon the capstone of my work.” Luna said bitterly, as tears fell down her cheeks. “Centuries of dream magic, fine-tuned and honed to razor sharp effectiveness…and I destroy my daughter’s own mind.”
For it was true. Luna and Cadenza stood upon a pyramid made up of Twilight’s memories and thoughts, all piled atop one another in a disorganized mess. The shelves that stretched on forever were empty, their contents decidedly laid at Luna’s hooves.
Cadenza stared, and her lip trembled as the enormity of what had happened finally dawned on her. But then, to Luna’s surprise, the pink alicorn wiped the fear and despair off her face and replaced it with a look of determination.
“Alright.” Cadenza said firmly. “Where do we start?”
Luna took a deep breath and let it out in a huff. Cadenza, though Luna hated to admit it, was right. The time for self-hating would come later.
Luna summoned a telescope with her magic and started searching all around them. “The mind is an extension of the soul, we are where the two meet. If my theory is correct there should be figures of importance that we could inquire of on how to fix Twilight. They might be animals, or talking furniture, or-“
“Spike!?”
“Well…yes.” Luna admitted. “It actually depends on the mind, each is individual.”
“No! I mean…” Cadenza screeched. She grabbed Luna’s telescope and shoved it towards the base of the pyramid of books. “Spike’s right there!”
Sure enough, Cadenza was right. At the foot of the mountain, there was the small dragon Twilight had named Spike, standing with his arms crossed while tapping his foot. He looked decidedly unhappy.
Luna pulled her head away from the telescope and blinked. That was fast. A feeling of suspicion creeped up her spine. Had the dragon been waiting for them?
Cadenza unfurled her wings but Luna threw a hoof over her shoulder and held her back. “Before we go meet ‘Spike’, you should be aware that these figures are a figment of Twilight’s mind. They will act in the manner in which Twilight expects them to act. In some cases though, they might know something that the real figure wouldn’t know, but Twilight does.”
Cadenza looked uncomfortable, but nodded in understanding.
The two of them then took flight and glided down quickly to the base of the pile. The closer they got though, Luna had another revelation.
She had assumed the mountain of colorful books had rested upon what would have been the ground or floor. However, she was wrong. The books rested upon another pile of books that encompassed everything. What she had thought had been empty bookshelves, were actually only the top few sections of those bookshelves. The rest of the shelves were buried under the books.
But unlike the colorful books that Luna and Cadenza had started on, these books were pitch black and opaque. There were a hundred times-no, a thousand…a hundred million more of these black books than the colorful ones that rose to form the pyramid. And those were only the ones Luna could see!
“You!” The illusion in the form of Spike called out in anger. His draconic eyes boring holes into Luna. He pointed a single claw at her. “How dare you come here! Crawl back into the hole you came out of witch!”
Luna landed with Cadenza at her side and looked at the illusion (from this point forward, she would call the illusions by the name they had assumed the form of) curiously.
“Interesting.” Luna said neutrally. "The real Spike is not nearly this brazen.”
“That’s because I’m not afraid of you, you overgrown fat old pile of moon rocks.” Spike snarled. “Go back! Haven’t you done enough damage already?”
Luna snorted, amused. Now, if this were the real Spike, she would be offended and take action. However, it was hard to take a literal figment of the imagination seriously.
“Figment, hear me well.” Luna said firmly. “I am here to restore your mistress to her proper mindset. Show us to Twilight’s present location.”
“Please.” Cadenza added.
“Hhhmmm, yeah.Let me think about that.” Spike crossed his arms and tapped his chin, making of show of thinking hard. “How about no? How about never? How about Tarturus will freeze over before I tell you?”
“Spike, we just want to help.” Cadenza said nicely. “Twilight is in danger, we’re just here heal her mind. No changes, no alterations, and no compulsions.” That last sentence was pointed more towards Luna than Spike.
The reminder was unneeded, Luna had seen what her actions had led to.
Spike’s rigid posture softened a little. “I…I understand that Princess Cadance. Twilight’s memories of you are full of love and laughter. I trust your intentions.” Spike’s scowl returned as he stared up at Luna. “I don’t trust hers.”
Before either of them could say anything else, the dragon walked over to one of the bookshelves and picked up one of the black books.
“I mean have you seen this mess?” Spike whined. “It takes me ages just to sort Twilight’s memories, and then all of a sudden, I have this mess!”
Spike opened up the black book and a face leapt up from its pages to let out a piercing scream.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Spike slammed the book closed and tossed it over his shoulder. “Do you see what I mean? There are thousands of those! Thousands! These should be in a restricted section or something! How in the world am I supposed to put Twilight’s memories back on the shelves when there are thousands of books filled with nothing but screaming?!”
Cadenza was curious about the book and moved to open it again, but Luna slammed her hoof down on the cover.
“Don’t…don’t open that cursed thing.” Luna spat at Cadenza. Her hoof trembled on the book before she pressed down harder to suppress the tremors.
She knew who it was that screamed.
“It was me.” Luna said finally, in response to Cadenza’s unasked question. “It was me screaming.”
“And there are thousands of those?” Cadanza said in disbelief. “But what…when…”
Then Cadenza grew silent and Luna turned away. She knew that the younger alicorn had turned to look up at the moon hanging above them.
Luna lifted a hoof to her head and closed her eyes. She couldn’t believe that she had forced all those dreadful memories of her imprisonment into Twilight’s mind.
“When I realized the moon was my dominion, I transformed it.” Luna started. “It took centuries, but I transformed the barren moon into an oasis, a paradise. It was unlike anything on Equestria, and I had it all to myself. Because of who I was and where it was, only I could visit it. Dreams, beautiful and peaceful, came alive there.They thrived there. The Elements destroyed it.”
Luna took a deep breath and continued. Cadenza sat enraptured by her words, and even the impudent figment kept his silence. “When Celestia and the Elements banished me, they imprisoned me with chains and nailed them to the surface of my moon. Without my magic, the paradise that was my moon was annihilated. The air was stripped away, the trees were cast into the void, and the streams and rivers froze into unyielding ice.It only took a few minutes.”
Luna stared up at the moon again, refusing to be afraid of her own charge. “I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t die.” Luna heard Cadenza’s gasp but paid it no mind. “Before today, I had never heard the scream. In space, no one can hear you scream. I thought my daughter was dead, and that I would be cursed forever to linger with my failure. As years passed, my fear turned to anger, and then to hatred. I thought of nothing else but of revenge. Justice. Judgement.”
Cadenza, though she clearly sympathized, still rebuked her. “Eternal Night was extreme though, everyone would have died.”
Luna laughed in mockery of Cadenza. “Is that what your modern science tells you? That without the sun, the world would die?”
“Well…yeah.” Cadenza didn’t sound so certain anymore.
“Magic, Cadenza, is the great equalizer. Magic doesn’t conform itself to the rules of science, it defies it. I created forests on a barren moon. Do you think of so little of me that I would destroy the whole world?”
Cadenza was unfazed. “To be fair, you did laugh maniacally and torture ponies.”
Luna smiled slightly. “Touché. Although, I only injured enough to where they were afraid of my power. If I went too far, then they would rise up. So I made examples of a few, instead of whole populations.”
Cadenza looked uncomfortable. “I see your logic, but I don’t agree.”
“Oh please.” Spike said with disdain. “She’s para-quoting The Princess by Marechiavelli; ‘Ponies ought to be either well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a pony ought to be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge.’”
They both stared at him.
“Celestia gave Twilight the original manuscript Marechiavelli gave Celestia. Twilight read the whole book when she was twelve.”
Luna smiled slightly. “Well, it seems that Celestia did something right.”
Spike looked up at her and smirked. “As opposed to you? You were there for what…a few months before you got yourself banished?”
Anger lit up in Luna very quickly, and she stalked towards the figment. “Illusion though you are, I am not opposed to torturing you to get what I want.”
“Luna no!” Cadenza protested.
“Boo hoo!” Spike mocked her. “Little Loony got her feelings hurt! What are you doing to do, Night Mare?I’m part of Twilight! Are you going to torture your own daughter?” Spike smirked and held out his claws to gesture to all the black books around them. “It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?”
Luna stopped and considered.
Cadenza stood up and got ready to intervene, although she did not seem confident in her ability to stop Luna.
Luna sighed heavily and turned away. “Come Cadenza, there are other avenues to explore. This insolent drake has no further insight for us.”
Cadenza hesitated, but she eventually followed Luna as she walked away.
They trotted for a few more steps before Spike’s voice stopped them.
“Go that way.”
Luna turned and appraised the dragon. Spike no longer had his mocking expression. In fact, he seemed resigned and tired.
“There’s an arch that way through the shelves that will bring you closer to Twilight.”
Luna arched an eyebrow in polite disbelief and a bit of suspicion. “Why help us now? Why not before?”
“I was told not to help you unless you didn’t resort to torturing me for Twilight’s location.”
Luna’s eyes narrowed in concentration. “Twilight told you this?”
Spike shook his head. “Nah. I don’t even know where Twilight is actually. She’s been missing since you dumped all these memories in her head. Magic is running the show now.”
“Magic?” Cadenza asked in confusion.
“The Element.” Luna clarified.
This…had just gotten a lot more difficult. The Element of Magic was not likely to treat their intrusion with politeness. Magic would especially not appreciate Luna’s presence.
But now she had a direction and they could move forward in finding Twilight. She turned to leave, but looked over her shoulder.
“Goodbye young drake.” Luna hesitated. “And thank you.” She turned her back on him and took her first steps into the labyrinth.
“Watch where you step Loony, I’m not the only one you have to get past.”
Luna glanced back, but the figment of Spike the dragon was gone.
“Where did he go?” Cadenza asked.
Luna did not answer immediately. She took a deep breath and summoned her armor to her. The iron plates clanked together as they assembled around her form.Her boots clanked as she trotted solemnly into the darkness ahead.
“He is only a memory, and Twilight is forgetting him.” Luna said finally, eyes piercing through the endless night. "He was only the first. Magic will haunt our steps, ghosts will whisper wisdom, and monsters will stalk us. The hard part will be understanding which is which."
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Merciful Emperor...
Poor Luna....
yea for update,
god I hope they fix twilight and afterward twilight going to need buck ton of therapy,
that be good side story or silly chapter down road once twilight is back to normal and sunbutt is back, they all in family therapy....
Yay update
I'm reminded of a Dive to the Heart from Kingdom Hearts. Or, more appropriate in this case, the entire premise of Dream Drop Distance.
Really Really liking where this is going right now... glad it's continuing!
Heh ok this is actually pretty fucking neat.
You went with the most literal representation of psychotherapy and by process of it Luna will work through some of her shit and she’ll most likely come out, if not her original way, at least not a raging she bitch.
i really hope they fix twilight I dont like nova shes mean
Yay an update.
8652617 No, evil is when some decide they can push harder than the world does naturally. They supplant the coldness of the natural world with the devouring flame of their own uncontrolled desires.
8647889 Then blame the EoH. They chose the punishment. Celestia and the Mane 6 can only ever channel the power, they have zero control over its effects, which were different for each villain they were used upon.
Wow... thats sad
Is there a reason why the description was cut off?
This was in the feature box, and I noticed that the description has gone missing towards the end, just an FYI.
I wonder if the journey into Twilight's mind will help her see reason...
I like that saying at the end there it's words speak oh so true.
I actually created a heir to Nightmare Moon as well, but Moon becomes an anti hero after seeing what her grandson has done and what he would do to Equestria. Yes, in my MLP story, spoiler alert to anyone who has read the "work in progress" first 5 parts of my 10 part story, and sees this comment....
Nightmare Moon/Princess Luna, has had a child mare before her banishment, who got married and had a son, and that son had a chunk of Luna's dark magic in him, and after Luna's only daughter died giving birth to the son, and the husband of her got Swamp Fever with no cure, Luna raised her one and only grandson, who the mother named Riptide, since he had the power to control the water of the land, he suddenly became the first prince of Equestria, until Luna's banishment, which made Riptide's body completely explode into pieces, except his soul, which Nightmare Moon saved, and after Luna was reformed, Riptide had a change of heart, and in my story, becomes the main antagonist of my MLP story.
I'm not gonna say anymore, cause I'm not spoiling his entire story yet. But there you go. 😉
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Oh my God, yes! Finally chapter 19 has arrived! This was worth the wait! Not surprised that Twilight/Nova's mind is fill with books, but what did surprised me was Spike (or in this case "Memory Spike") actually talking back & giving Luna the lip! It was kinda funny seeing that. Excellent job, again this was worth the wait!
Luna's wrong about one thing: Spike didn't disappear because he's been forgotten. If he had, she wouldn't be about to encounter as many other guardians as she is.
Wonder if you could make really messed up music by harmonizing the different emotions of screams. Also wonder if the shelves grew to accommodate the Luna books or if they were always that tall in anticipation of how many memories Twilight would have over a theoretically immortal lifespan.
Now let's see if Luna can fix what she wrought or if she killed her little star.
8753053
Don't promote your story in the comments of someone else's. That's rude and insulting to the author of this story.
ooohhhh this is getting good. Can't wait to see who turns up next. XD
8754132
I'm not promoting anything, I'm just explaining a character in my story that is inspiration from others in the community, but I'm sorry. 😓😟
Yay! Update!
This is dark, but I am enjoying the story. Hopefully it works out in the end.
That's some really interesting backstory there. It'll be interesting to see what role the Element of Magic is playing here; I'm glad to see this story back.
8647889
The part where you start maiming innocent people. I love forgiveness stories, I joined the accusation group specifically cause I like reading more realistic takes on Anon-a-miss and A Canterlot Wedding. When dealing with forgiveness though there are forgivable actions, bittersweet possible forgiveness, and unforgivable actions.
That 1000 year banishment makes her actions against Celestia easier to forgive so that even if she killed her she would fall in that middle territory where it's possible to be forgiven but it's always going to leave a bad taste in anyone's mouth what she did.
Maiming an innocent party to that punishment though is immediately out of forgivable territory and into that bittersweet territory if it's fixed, into unforgivable territory if she's permanently blind. You can say that NMM was justified in doing it because she thought Fluttershy was an agent of Celestia. So her harshness with Fluttershy can be easier to forgive just like her actions against Celestia, but that's not how it works.
If an innocent person was put into jail by a prosecutor for years, came out with intent on getting payback, and stabbed your eyes out cause he thought you were that prosecutor even though you weren't, that's not a forgivable action. "Oh it was an honest mistake, I'm sorry I permanently took your eyesight cause I thought you were working for Celestia." Forgiveness doesn't work that way.
Then she started torturing Cadence and Shining. Actively threatening to cripple Cadence for life by letting the bones heal wrong. Taking sadistic joy in hurting Cadence and Fluttershy is not the actions of a misunderstood tragic villain of circumstance who just wants her daughter safe. It's a line I'm fairly certain by now the author wanted to cross to make NMM less forgivable.
I was initially so vehement because it seemed like the author was trying to make NMM a tragic villain like in the show despite how much more like an actual sadistic villain she acts in the story. Since then though they wrote in Nova and now NMM has a body count. Doesn't matter how tragic your back story is Applejack isn't going to forgive and forget NMM for Granny Smith's death.
man you can really weave together a great naritive. i was so inthrolded into the story that i read chapter's 1-19 in a day and a half without any sleep i can't wait for chapter 20 and so on, and here's a idea for one of the monster's to hunt cadenze and nightmare have nightmare herself be the second to last opstical untill maic make's it's apperence.
8756211
It is worth noting that aside from what happened to Twilight, Luna is not at all apologetic about what she has done.
Luna just admitted she'll throw Cadence back into the hole once Twilight is restored.
....
Yeah, Twilight is never going to be able to forgive her.
So glad to see this story return with another chapter, it's genuinely got me hooked.
Looking forward to the next one soon! :)
It liiiiiives! This epic tale still has it! Such an awesome update. Thank you for all your hard work!
And now that they're here...
tonight...
it's gonna get...
WEIRD
This turn of events is thrilling!