Chapter 5: Declension
Nightmare Moon / Envy stepped forward, foals scattering out of her way as she bore down on Princess Luna, who was still too shocked at her appearance to make a move. “What’s the matter, Loony?” the alicorn asked, fangs jutting out in a terrifying rictus of a grin. “Surprised to see me again, after all this time?”
Princess Luna recomposed herself and took a menacing stance, horn pointed forward. “Not another step, foul creature!” she threatened.
Nightmare Moon laughed. “Oh, but by all means, fire away!” she declared, and Princess Luna made to do just that.
Isaac, sensing what was about to happen, tried to stop her. “Princess, NO!” he shouted, but it was too late: Luna had already sent a blast of magic towards her dark counterpart, who kept right on laughing as the blast cut her down the middle, each half of her body only held in place by a few strands of what appeared to be darkness. Each half of the dark princess took a step to either side, splitting them the rest of the way.
“Wha-?” Luna said, confused.
“Every time you kill Envy, he splits into two,” Isaac explained. Princess Luna gulped nervously as the twin, slightly smaller Nightmare Moons took threatening steps forward. “There’s no escaping us, Princess,” they hissed in unison. “We are Envy. We are everywhere, and everyone.” As she took a step back, Luna whispered to Isaac, “How do we defeat this one?”
Isaac looked at her nervously. “He gets… calmer, every time he splits, so you have to keep splitting him until he doesn’t feel like resurrecting anymore,” he explained, and Luna looked at him in surprise.
“Then the answer is… to just keep fighting it?” she clarified, and Isaac nodded. Armed with this knowledge, Princess Luna grimly smiled and strode forward into battle.
What came next was one of the most hectic fights Isaac had ever seen. Each of the twin Nightmare Moons were releasing blasts of magic that scorched nearby houses and destroyed anything in their path; Luna countered with blasts of her own. All the while, all three were dodging and weaving through the deadly mix, Isaac hardly able to tell Luna’s magic apart from Envy’s due to their similar coloration. A particularly lucky hit destroyed one of the Nightmare Moons, which quickly split into two even smaller ones, the scowls on their faces somewhat less pronounced.
“It’s working!” Isaac called out, and Luna flashed him a smile before continuing her assault.
Soon, those two were destroyed as well, splitting into four tiny little Nightmares with uncertain frowns on their faces. “But why fight us, Princess?” all five Nightmare Moons asked, their pitches of voice varying eerily as they got smaller. “Join us! Imagine the feeling of having it all, having what your sister enjoys each and every day!” Luna issued a furious blast of magical energy at the two smaller ones, and they dissipated into nothing – and stayed that way.
“NEVER!” Luna screamed, finally losing her cool. “I shall not repeat the mistakes of my past – I have moved on, monster!” Forgoing magic, she impaled the largest clone with her horn. It quickly split into two of its own, both looking surprised for a moment before the snarls returned to their faces.
“Oh, have you now? And yet, you’re still dark enough to commit a murder like that? In front of children?” Princess Luna paled as she looked around – the foals were still watching, though many of them were too terrified to even move.
“I… I will deal with that later! Right now, what matters is that you die!” she proclaimed, though Luna’s usual bravado was beginning to crack. Her dodging was slowly getting less effective – a graze of the wing here, an ill-timed blast there. Seeing this, Isaac hurriedly thought of what he might do to help – she clearly couldn’t keep this up much longer. He didn’t have the Bible with him, and couldn’t use his tears – what, then, could he do? Isaac suddenly recalled a lesson his new mom had taught him…
“But I need to get in there!” Isaac shouted, his whiny little voice only serving to amuse the guard.
“Sorry, monkey kid, Princess Luna doesn’t hold audiences with strangers. Especially such weird-looking ones as yourself,” the guard replied.
In frustration, Isaac kicked at the guard’s armored hoof, which served little more than to hurt himself. It did, however, make a large noise, and Princess Luna opened the door curiously.
“Is everything alright?” she asked.
The guard saluted. “Yes, Princess. Just disposing of this stranger.”
Luna looked down to see Isaac hopping in a circle, his face constricted in pain as he clutched his foot. “Isaac? Isaac is no stranger, he is my son,” Luna admonished, and the guard’s expression quickly shifted to one of shock. “Were you not briefed on this matter?” Princess Luna asked, her voice like Antarctic pack ice.
“I – that is, I – may… have missed that… particular briefing,” the guard muttered.
Luna affixed him with a steely glare. “See to it that you do not miss another,” she chastised, and the guard drooped his head in shame.
“Yes, Princess. I will.”
Luna ushered Isaac inside, having him take a seat at the edge of her bed. “How did you hurt yourself?” she asked, examining his foot.
“The guard wouldn’t let me in, so I kicked him,” Isaac falteringly admitted – now that he said it out loud, it sounded like a rather stupid thing to have done.
Luna looked at him, unimpressed. “And should you have?” she asked him.
“No, I shouldn’t… but he was just so frustrating!” Isaac grumbled.
Princess Luna laughed. “When proving a point, it is wise to use your words, not your body.” Isaac nodded guiltily, and Luna gently bopped him on the head with a book. “Now, let us continue your studies, and think no further on the matter,” she advised, and Isaac nodded.
An idea came to Isaac, as he watched Luna fight. It was risky, sure, but Luna had taught him the importance of using his words. “You’re wrong, Envy!” he called out, and sure enough, one of the Envy clones turned to stare at him.
“What do you mean, Isaac?” she asked, voice like honeyed poison.
“Princess Luna has nothing to be envious of – because everypony here loves her just as much as her sister!” he triumphantly declared.
There was a moment of silence, then… “Yeah!” a voice in the crowd shouted. A small colt had made his way forward, a brown patch over his eye in contrast to the rest of his white coat. “Princess Luna is the coolest Princess ever!” Isaac smiled as this precipitated a chain reaction of compliments from the crowd.
“Best princess!”
“I love your night skies!”
“You’re the best, Princess Luna!”
With each shouted assurance, all the Envy clones looked more and more worried – and Princess Luna became more and more confident. In a single blast, she destroyed all but one of the Envy clones – the one who’d turned to look at Isaac. “What – how –“ the clone spluttered as Princess Luna stood menacingly over her.
“I need not envy my sister – she is my equal, my opposite… my other half. I could not live without her – something you, Envy, cannot possibly understand.”
There was a commotion as the crowd parted to reveal none other than Princess Celestia, who strode forward to stand by her sister’s side. “Well said, Luna – and the feeling is mutual. Now… what to do with this one?” Celestia mused.
Luna smiled, looking down at the tiny Nightmare Moon who was gazing at them in a wide-eyed mixture of apprehension and pure terror. “Hmm… I have an idea,” Luna announced, and lit her horn. The miniature clone screamed once, before a flash of light lit up the clearing.
When Isaac rubbed his seared retinas back to functionality, he looked at the spot the tiny Sin had been a moment ago. Now, there was nothing there – or so it appeared. Luna lit up her horn once more, and levitated what appeared to be a toothpick from the grass, examining it closely.
“Sister, what did you do?” Celestia asked curiously.
Luna smiled mysteriously. “I turned it into the most unenviable object I could think of.”
The toothpick was quickly disposed of, Celestia assigning a guard to carry it off to the Royal Archives for study. Princess Luna, upon healing her wounds, trotted over to Isaac and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you for that, Isaac,” she whispered, and Isaac nodded. He started in surprise as she levitated him onto her back, cantering around joyfully before addressing the crowd. “Now, let us return to the celebration!” she announced, and Twilight sidled up nervously.
“Um, actually, Princess, it’s about time to end the celebration – we only have about 24 seconds left,” she advised, checking the timepiece on her costume.
Luna looked at her in surprise, but quickly recovered. “I knew that,” she asserted. “I was just testing you.” Twilight looked at her, and Luna looked back imperiously before suppressing a giggle. Both Princesses quickly burst out laughing, and the whole crowd joined in, Isaac actually managing to roll off Luna’s back as he laughed his little heart out.
Luna reluctantly departed soon after that, promising Princess Twilight to ‘visit again soon’. She kissed Isaac again on the cheek, and once again complimented him on his aid. Isaac, unused to such compliments from a parental figure, blushed crimson and remained silent. Luna merely giggled as she entered her carriage, and Isaac waved along with Twilight as they watched her depart. Finally, as the carriage disappeared beyond the clouds, Twilight trotted inside before ripping off her wig.
“Never again am I wearing this thing,” she muttered, and Isaac stifled a snicker.
“Dunno about you, but I am about ready to dig in!” Spike announced enthusiastically, holding up his own bag of candy.
“I wouldn’t eat too much, Spike – unless you want Gluttony to show up,” Isaac admonished, and Twilight laughed. She quickly sombered up, however, and glanced at him.
“You are joking… right?” she asked. Isaac shrugged.
Isaac, for his part, ruminated on this simple statement over the next few days. Were the Sins drawn to expressions of their various selves? Envy had imitated Nightmare Moon, Pride had attempted to possess Isaac himself, and nobody quite knew what was going on with Greed – then again, he had always been somewhat ‘separate’ from the other six Deadly Sins. This in mind, he carefully rationed out his candy, following Twilight’s near-religious adherence to no more than three pieces per day. No sense speeding up the process, after all.
He went back to Canterlot uneventfully, hugging Princess Twilight goodbye before stepping onto the train. One of her guards had been temporarily assigned to him, as the guard was taking her leave to stay with some relatives in Canterlot anyway. They chatted amicably about the various pleasantries of their life, and drifted off into silence as Isaac watched the countryside speed by. Finally, the guard poked her head up again.
“So…” she began, and Isaac glanced over. “Is this kind of thing… normal for you humans? Battling demons with your tears, saving Equestria…?” Isaac thought about this.
“I don’t know,” he finally answered, surprising himself.
It was true: He didn’t know. Isaac had no idea what other humans were supposed to be like, having spent so long in what amounted to isolation. Were other humans kind? Cruel? It was so hard to remember, but Isaac thought he had a few vague memories of being tormented as a child, before he fell into the Basement. Kids would laugh at him, tease him, prank him… His mother, on the other hand, had been better. She was indifferent at times, sure, but Isaac still vividly remembered a few things. His first wig, back when he wanted to be like Magdalene, him playing and drawing while his mom watched TV, the two of them holding hands in sorrow while Isaac’s Dad left the house for good… Isaac noticed the guard pony staring at him, and slowly became aware that his eyes were watery.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” the guard began, but Isaac cut him off.
“I know you didn’t,” he soothed, wishing he could reassure himself as easily as the guard.
Princess Luna was there the moment he stepped out the doors, sweeping him into a hug with one of her wings. Isaac returned it gratefully, glad for the feeling of protection that his new mother provided. Luna smiled down at him, and they began the walk back to the castle.
A few minutes in, Isaac decided to ask what had been on his mind. “Mom… what were other humans like?” he asked.
Princess Luna stiffened in surprise. “Well, er… they were…” she began, pausing for a moment as she apparently tried to phrase her response appropriately. “Oh, Isaac,” she sighed after a moment. “They were cruel, they were violent. They built many wondrous things, things we ponies could never even dream of… and used them to hurt each other. If the humans of this planet had just been a little more kind to each other, they might have survived to the present. But you’re nothing like them,” Luna hastily reassured Isaac, fearing that he might get the wrong impression.
To her surprise, she found Isaac sniffling and looking at the floor. “Sounds about right,” was his only response, and Luna remained silent, having no suitable reply.
They continued their short journey back to Luna’s room in utter silence. Princess Luna looked at him several times as though she wanted to say something, but with no words forthcoming, they remained silent. Finally, they came to Princess Luna’s room, where Isaac found to his surprise a second door beside it, marked with a small cross – standard Christian practice to ward off spirits. He looked at Princess Luna, who smiled and nodded, and Isaac reached out and opened the door.
Inside, he was met with a moderately sized room, furnished with fairly standard furniture – an odd departure from the fancily-decorated rest of the castle, but Isaac rather liked it. There was a stack of papers bigger than he was on the desk, as well as books of all sizes – he would clearly be entertained for a long time.
“Well? Is it… satisfactory?” Princess Luna asked, snapping him out of his reverie.
Isaac turned to Luna and wrapped his arms around her leg, whispering “It’s perfect.” Princess Luna smiled and nuzzled his forehead.
With that, she left, and Isaac turned to appreciate his new room. Taking off his clothes, he stepped into the shower, turning on the water and jumping out due to the cold. Giggling slightly, he was about to check the temperature again when a small laugh resounded from the mirror. Curious and in slight trepidation, Isaac went over to the mirror, and gave a shocked cry. His reflection… it was his demon self. Red eyes glanced at his own, and the apparition’s bat-like wings quivered slightly as it gave a fanged grin.
“Y…you! You’re not… I am purged! You can’t be me!” Isaac exclaimed.
The demonic reflection chuckled. “Oh, Isaac. You poor, poor fool. How can we be purged of evil… when evil is all we are?”
As quickly as it had come, it vanished, leaving Isaac shocked speechless. The sound of the water running slowly brought him back to reality, and he stepped into the shower, scrubbing vigorously as though he could wash away the thing he had just seen.
Some time later, Princess Luna came to tuck him into bed. “Mom?” Isaac asked quietly, as she planted a kiss on his cheek.
“Yes, Isaac?” Luna asked, and Isaac debated whether he should tell her or not.
“I saw my demon self again today. He was in the mirror,” Isaac finally said. Luna remained silent for a moment.
“What happened?” she asked carefully.
“He told me I wasn’t purged, because… I was pure evil. There was no good part of me to separate,” Isaac replied, thinking back to his brief conversation.
Luna laid her head atop his in a comforting manner. “Oh, Isaac. Of course there’s good in you, far more than evil. Anypony can see that,” she whispered.
“But what if-“ Isaac began, but Luna held up a hoof.
“Besides, what have we discussed about demons?” she asked, and Isaac smiled slightly.
“They always lie,” he answered, and Luna smiled and nodded.
“Sweet dreams, my dearest son,” she softly concluded, slipping out and closing the door.
Once outside, Luna hastily cast a spell around Isaac’s room so that he would not hear, and roused Princess Celestia from her slumber.
“Mm.. wha… Lulu, whattizit?” Celestia mumbled, still out of it.
“Sister, we need to talk,” Luna declared urgently.
“Mmkay… go ahead…” Celestia replied, shaking her head to clear it as a few strands of ethereal hair sprang loose from her mane.
Luna steeled herself before asking her question. “Sister… can the Elements of Harmony purge something of true evil?”
At this, Celestia went bolt upright.
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Another wonderful chapter, I'm wondering which sin is coming up next
...
...
...
If there's something strange, and it don't look good.
Guess who it is!
GHOST NAPPA!
If there's something weird, and it don't look good.
Guess who it is!
GHOST NAPPA!
I can actually do a perfect TFS Nappa voice. And Mr. Popo.
5909006 why are you so relevant to Chapter 6
5909025 Because, Vegeta.
I can fly.
Needs some editing.
ALWAYS seperate dialogue inyintiinto eeperate paragraphs.
I.e.
Should be
It is so much easier to read that way, and helps avoid walls of text
If Isaac finds that he was not purged, or that he found reason to believe he was fully evil, he could become enraged with Luna for lying to him about him being good. Wrath.
Come to think of it, any major betrayal to anyone may bring up Wrath.
I'm wondering how Sloth will come up- Wait. Isaac has no duties, no chores. Basically a prince. There we go.
... I just realized, I'm not looking forward to Lust. Nope. Nada. None of the sort.
5909978 Author, NOTICE THIS PERSON!!! This story is downright painful to read when character speech isn't separated.
5911964 I knew I missed something, editing took way less time for this chapter! Thanks for reminding me, I'll get right on it.
5911177 ahahaha, a-GREED.
But seriously, how would that come up, jfc I don't want to know
Well, this story isn't bad, really, but I kind of have to echo what some people in the older comments have been saying: a lot of this feels like it's happening on fast forward. The story just rushes from one plot point to the next without ever making any of the characters really feel alive. I don't really feel like I have any actual idea who Isaac is at this point, as a person. He just gets shuffled along all over the place and then stuff happens. It's just chapter 5 of... 20 at this point, though? Plenty of time for the story to improve on that.