Luna Wants a Windigo

by Lazauya

South

Twilight came upon the being with the flaming mane and distorted jewelry. "Princess, is that you?" she asked with caution.

The irate demon heard the words of her precious student, and her features immediately softened; the fire in her mane died down to a smolder, and her regalia seemed to harden. She turned around to face her. "Twilight?" she asked.

Twilight was shocked at the sight. Her eyes had become dragon-like and her open mouth displayed disturbingly sharp and asymmetrical teeth. "Princess...."

"Twilight, I've been looking for you!"

Twilight choked, a knot forming in her throat. No, I told Starlight I wouldn't let my emotions get the better of me! she thought angrily. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing, Twilight."

Twilight only frowned.

"Okay... so.... I changed my look. Nothing big. Just thought I'd give my mane a new style. And—"

Twilight cut her off. "Princess. Please. What's going on?"

"Nothing! Twilight—"

"Princess, please. I know about what happened in Canterlot."

The princess's brow arched in despair as she deeply frowned. "How do you...?"

"Princess, please, just tell me what's going on. I want to help you."

Celestia's lip quivered. She closed her eyes, "Twilight, I'm...."

Twilight pursed her lips.

"I'm—I don't know, Twilight. I don't know what's happened. I—" the princess contemplated, a lump forming in her throat. "I don't know what's going on. My sister tried to hurt me. My guards tried to hurt me. There's a strange, pink unicorn in this strange place where your library is supposed to be. I'm so confused, Twilight...." Celestia said incoherently as teardrops formed in the corners of her eyes.

"Princess, we'll get this sorted out. I'm sure of it. How about we relax?"

Princess Solar Flare bared her teeth while she frowned. "No! That's what Luna tried to do! You're trying to hurt me too!"

Twilight's eyes widened. "No, no, no! You misunderstand me. I don't mean relax," she fibbed, "I mean... hug. Come on, what do you say?"

Celestia gulped and look at her pensively. "You aren't going to try doing anything funny?"

"No, of course not! You're my dear teacher... I would never do anything to hurt you!" Twilight said with sadness.

"O-okay...." she said, wrapping her hooves around the smaller alicorn, closing her eyes in solemness.

Twilight winced at the pain caused by her mentor's heat.

But Solar Flare quickly regained her composure. She pulled away from Twilight, and looked at her with a serious glare.

Twilight looked at her with wide-eyed concern. "What is it?"

"Twilght, I need to give you my gift. Okay?"

"What?" Twilight asked incredulously, "I don't need any gifts from you, Princess," she said, remembering the strange windigo's words. "You being here is enough!" she added, trying to avoid suspicion.

"No, Twilight. This is a very important gift. Please, just trust me."

"No, Princess, it really isn't necessary."

"As your teacher, I insist."

"I really don't want it," Twilight said firmly.

"You need it, Twilight," Solar Flare insisted.

"If I have to take your gift, I'm leaving," the purple one said finally.

"Okay! Okay..." Solar Flare backed down. "I won't give you your gift...." she said solemnly.

"So, do you want to tell me what happened?"

"Like I said before, nothing happened."

"You said Luna tried to hurt you?"

"Did I say that? I must have been playing a game with her!"

"Princess, you aren't making much sense right now...."

"Oh Twilight...." Solar Flare dramatized as she rolled her eyes, "Always such a joker!"

"Princess, I really don't understand..." Twilight pleaded.

"It's nothing to worry about. Don't worry your pretty little head. I wouldn't worry," Solar Flare tried to reassure as her eye twitched.

Twilight looked at her in utter befuddlement. For a long time, they stared at each other as if playing a mental game of chicken.

An idea struck Solar Flare. She walked up to Twilight, a small grin displaying some of her disfigured teeth. Twilight stood her ground, not wanting to trigger an outburst. "What's going on, Princess?" Twilight asked with worry. She prepared her magic defenses.

Solar flare brought her muzzle to Twilight's ear. She whispered, "I love you, Twilight. I love you, Mare."

Twilight turned to face the princess in confusion. "Wha—?"

But before she could even finish her last phoneme, the light of Solar Flare's horn blinded her into submission. The magic buzzed like a grinder on metal, piercing Twilight's defenses too quick for her to react.

Twilight's eye's went blank, and she slumped to the ground in a pile of pony.

Solar Flare's grin widened. "Twilight! You didn't have to be so stubborn. I didn't want to use my magic on you. But you and her are the same now! I'm so glad I could do this for her! Oh my, this is so exciting," she yelled as her mane flared up, "My two favorite ponies in the same place! What did I do to deserve this?" she swooned gleefully.

But Twilight remained still. Her eyes were rolled into the back of her head, and her mouth hang agape.

"Oh, Twilight. I'm so sorry about lying about your gift.... I just had to give it to you!"

She was motionless as the demon sat down next to her.

"Okay. Okay. I'll wait," Solar Flare said as she pursed her lips innocently.

---

Meanwhile, the windigo and her pony friend were dumbstruck at what they had just seen. The pony in particular had thought that he had saved the day—that he had actually got the warning out in time for the elements to form up. What was she thinking? he thought, scared and angry.

The windigo gave him a concerned look.

He contorted his face in response.

The pony quickly exited the castle, a thick pain filling his chest as he faded through the walls. He felt literally sick with worry, a feeling he had nearly forgotten. He wondered what he was supposed to do now—now that the last line of defense against the distorted Celestia had been seemingly conquered. He turned around and faced Blythe with a desperately questioning expression.

She merely frowned.

Astatine closed his eyes, trying to regain his composure. "It can't be that bad. This sort of thing has happened before. Like when Discord turned the Elements into opposites of themselves! It's just like that time! When Princess Twilight wakes up, I'm sure she'll come to her senses. She has to...."

Blythe floated over to him and put her hoof on his forehead. I know everything will turn out okay. We should wait and watch.

Astatine gave a haggard breath, but nodded.

The duo floated back to the castle's library where they had left the scene, being sure to conceal their presence. They saw again Solar Flare sitting next to a limp Twilight Sparkle, waiting for whatever she had done to take affect.

Breathless minutes passed while the demonic princess blankly stared at her former student with her mangled grin. Her eyes remained fixated at some indeterminate point on Twilight's body; Astatine couldn't tell if Solar Flare had lost herself in thought, or if she was so mentally ill that she could contently stare at a random point for such a long time.

The minutes turned into tens, and Astatine's heart started to race in anticipation. Even Blythe could feel her own nervous excitement at what she was about to see.

Suddenly, without warning, the unconscious princess produced a sight that was difficult to behold. Astatine gasped and Blythe jumped at the sudden change in scenery.

The area around Twilight's body was black. It was dark—no, Astatine thought, it looked as if it was darkness itself—like the abyssal depths of the ocean had been transported to Twilight's library and were localized entirely around her form. But what was most confounding was the intense light that emanated from boundaries of the abyss; tiny white diamonds would appear brighter than a thousand suns for a moment, before fading back into dull rays.

Astatine and Blythe were blinded by the disturbance, but the demon princess remained diligent in staring at Twilight. Her grin only widened when she saw the sight. "It's happening! It's really you!"

The dark aura died down, and the corrupted princess looked around the room in confusion. Her mane was a strange shade of grey that Astatine couldn't put his hoof on, and it seemed to be completely devoid of shadows, as if the princess was drawn onto a photo. He could see the same aura that had previously surrounded her was now contained in her pitch black eyes, her pupils radiating out the same alien bands of light.

She turned to Solar Flare and stared. "Who are you?" she asked with in an uncharacteristically monotone voice.

"Mare! Is she in there, Twilight? Are you Mare now?"

"I do not understand your question," she stated with the same flatness.

"What? Aren't you Mare? Or Twilight?"

"No. I am—" Twilight stopped, completely frozen in contemplation. "I am—" she tried, only freezing up again. "I am neither one of those beings. I am myself."

Solar Flare was crestfallen. "But you have to be one of them! Or both! Or something!" she pleaded as her mane flared up.

The pony that replaced Twilight frowned deeply. "Do not yell at me." In an instant, the dark princess encased Solar Flare in her magic, and removed all her air, extinguishing her mane. "Are we clear?"

Solar Flare spent a moment trying to resist with her own magic, but her eye's widened and she nodded her head when she realized resistance was not an option.

Twilight gave her her air back. She took a deep breath. "What was that for...?" she asked with trepidation.

"It is obvious. I do not wish for you to yell me. I told you as much."

Solar Flare said nothing, but instead hesitantly stared at the dark princess.

"Good," the new Twilight said, "Now what will I do?" she asked herself.

"We can do whatever you want...!" Solar Flare said without thought, trying to appease her.

"What is my name? Who am I?" the dark princess asked, ignoring the fiery one.

"You—you're Twilight. Don't you remember?" Solar Flare said with sorrow.

"...Twilight..." she said thinking out loud, "What an interesting name—perhaps in reference to the rare twilight magic. But I digress. I am not a mere twilight mage. I am definitely something more. The twilight... it is the between time of night and day—the balance of the two. But I am not the balance of night and day magic—I am... I am more powerful than that: I am the unison. I am... an eclipse. I am Eclipse," she said finally. "Yes. Eclipse. I like that name."

"But you aren't Eclipse!" she said looking at the newly named being. Then she turned her head away, muttering "She isn't Eclipse! That's supposed to be you. Yes, I know. I don't know what happened. The spell. It wasn't the right spell. It was never completed."

Meanwhile, Astatine watched without the ability to take any action; he was desperately trying to recalculate all his plans. The pony he thought that would be able to defeat Solar Flare had forgotten herself. The pony that replaced her—Eclipse, he supposed—appeared to make Solar Flare frightful, but the new pony's goals remained altogether a mystery. In her current state, Eclipse seemed capable of defeating Solar Flare with ease; but Solar Flare was quickly taking a more subservient role rather than the antagonistic one that would have spelled her doom. Astatine was afraid of what this meant; he feared that Solar Flare had just created an even bigger monster than before.

Suddenly, Astatine felt extremely cold. He was jolted back to reality at the realization that he was feeling cold again of all things. He turned to Blythe, who still wore her iconic concerned expression. He noticed the frost that started rapidly forming on the walls of the castle; then, he looked back to Eclipse: her casual grey coat turned back into the inky black stain he remembered before. Meanwhile, the area started to glow as it's temperature rapidly increased. Astatine could tell that Eclipse was behind this, but the reason remained unclear.

And then Eclipse turned to him, her shimmering eyes and her void pupils staring at him with an intensity he had never felt before. He backed away, beginning to pant, before darting out of the castle as fast he could. He fazed through the walls, trying to make as much distance between him and that fiend as he could. He could tell now that Eclipse was not good; she wasn't bad, either; but she was empty—devoid of purpose, morals, and natural emotions. When Astatine looked into her eyes, it was like looking into the eye of hurricane: he saw a phenomenon, a force of nature, not a pony. It disturbed him that something so alien could be so powerful. He knew that she was bad news.

He stopped after a while, turning around to find Blythe darting toward him with the same panic he was experiencing. She caught up to him and placed her hoof on his head. We have to stop her.

"But how? You saw her! She's even more powerful than Celestia!"

Blythe wore a pensive expression as she thought. And then she suggested, We must get Princess Luna.

"What? What? But she couldn't even beat Solar Flare!"

She is the most powerful pony that we know. We should retrieve her.

Astatine frowned without a word, but eventually nodded. "It's the best we have...."

Author's Note:

So. Close. To. Finishing.

Comments

[LEGION55]

Interesting.