At the Inn of the Prancing Pony

by McPoodle

Chapter 47: Two Sisters

At the Inn of the Prancing Pony

Chapter 47: Two Sisters

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“What makes you happy, Celestia?”

Celestia raised her weary head. Towering above her was Luna—Luna, not Nightmare Moon. She was wearing the armaments of war, the silver barding she had last deployed against King Sombra, and it glowed a bright bluish white against the harsh gray landscape.

Gray... We’re on the Moon. Of course.

“L...Luna? What’s going on?” she asked in a weak voice. If Luna was the picture of military triumph, than surely she was the symbolic victim, devoid of weapon or clothing, her mane a dull pink. She stretched her neck up, bracing for the killing blow.

“You are dreaming, Sister,” Luna told her coldly. “And I have escaped from the Nightmare. But this is but a brief reprise—the Nightmare was stunned to discover that we had won by default, and I took this moment to contact you.”

“Wait,” said a dazed Celestia, “I don’t...by default?”

Luna frowned. “There are no longer any ponies who fear and hate my night. Therefore, I win. The fact that this was accomplished by removing all ponies from Equestria is immaterial. Nevertheless, she will recover, and she will regain the control that I irrevocably gave to her in my moment of weakness. In the Dreamworld I can extend time, but only so far. So please, Tia, answer the question: What makes you happy? It’s important that you answer me truthfully.”

“Y...you, Luna. You make me—”

“No, Tia! We do not have time for sentimentality. The truth, Tia. Follow the rules of the game and tell me the truth.”

Celestia’s eyes began to water. “That was one of Father’s stupid games, Luna. Part of how he manipulated us to fulfil his master plan. I’m not—”

“Answer the question, Celestia!” Luna pleaded. “Just trust me for once. Please?”

Celestia bowed her head. “Making other ponies happy makes me happy,” she answered in a weary voice.

“And how do you do that, Celestia?” Luna asked, in a voice that did its best to resemble a mostly lost memory of Clover the Clever. “What talents do you possess that make other ponies happy?”

“I can see their shapes,” Celestia answered. “When I know another pony for even a short time, I can see into their souls. See what truly makes them happy, what makes them sad. Even when that contradicts what the pony thinks would make them happy or sad. And then I fit them together in a great board in my mind. I match the pieces together in real life so that everypony is making each other happy.”

“And what about the humans?” Luna asked.

Celestia looked up at her sister. This was not part of the game, she thought. “Well, the humans...I couldn’t see them. No matter how hard I looked, I could not see their shapes in their entirety. They kept surprising me with their complexity. So...” She pondered for a bit. “So I tried to force them into my puzzle board. And, well...” She gestured around her sadly. “You can see the result.”

Luna nodded gravely. “And outside of this mental board of yours—what does that represent?”

“Um...nothing. Monsters. ...Darkness.”

“And you never think about darkness if at all possible,” Luna said accusingly.

“No,” said Celestia.

“Well, I too wish for the happiness of ponies above all,” Luna said quickly, as she felt her time running out. “But I see the darkness first, both the darkness that threatens our ponies, as well as the darkness within their souls, the darkness they need to be ponies. I do not see them as puzzle pieces to be fitted, but as lumps of clay to be shaped—with my advice in their dreams, but mostly by their own actions. That’s what you have to know, Tia: any pony is malleable in their dreams.

“The Nightmare is returning,” she said, her eyes pleading. “And when she takes control once more, there will only be one decision I will be capable of making. A decision I could have made at any time after I let her take control of me. I think you know what I am talking about, Sister. The only weapon left after the Elements rejected you.”

“You never gave her access to your dream powers,” Celestia said faintly, a great fear of what was to come settling itself into her heart.

“The school of dream magic is the most subtle of all,” said Luna. “Able to exploit any loopholes in our prison. With that power, the Nightmare would be able to fully live up to her name.”

Celestia looked up into the starless sky above her, as a tear ran down her muzzle. She then looked her sister straight in the eye and said, “Do it. Send her to me.”

“But she’ll—”

“Do it!” Celestia ordered, before her expression softened. “I trust you.”

Luna closed her eyes, as she and the lunar landscape faded from Celestia’s mind. “So be it.”

---

Nightmare Moon reached out with the tendrils of her dream magic, seeking any minds in the void. She found one, the mind of her host’s sister, wracked with grief and guilt. With her restraints mysteriously relaxed, she latched herself onto Celestia’s unconscious like a tiny remora on an great white shark, glutting herself on her hated enemy’s grief and guilt. She fed, and she fed, and she fed, stretching dream time out so that Celestia experienced months, years, millennia of the most awful nightmares imaginable. And then she used those nightmares to rewrite Celestia’s mind, to make her the Nightmare’s slave in sleep and when awake. She forced Celestia to watch as she ordered her body to create life and torture it, to betray her every ideal. And still, the tortures continued. The Nightmare drank in nightmares too awful for anyone to survive who wasn’t equipped with centuries of mental resilience, a pony masochistically dedicated to putting herself through the worst nightmares imaginable, to nourish a creature that lived on misery and suffering, more than Nightmare Moon had ever imagined, more that she could possibly handle. Until finally, like a remora forced to drink every drop of a great white’s blood in less than an hour...she blew up.

Princess Luna was free.

Princess Celestia was broken.

And only the powers of a god could heal her.

Comments

[Prime 2.0]

Hooray! Now we can see the resolution to that cliffhang-

Oh.

I'm flattered by the notion that you consider us to be, in some positive way, less predictable than ponies, Luna. But then, Celestia hasn't exactly had the same amount of experience with us in the story - or you from outside of it, for that matter. It's not the easiest thing to account for the effects of one's own inexperience in a judgement.

Meanwhile, I suppose I shall wait for the self insert to save the day!

[djthomp]

Huh?

[Forderz]

Hm. Evil destroys itself?