Lessons in the Moonlight

by Harmony Split

Bleeding Past

Author's Note:

“I’ve got an idea” the first words came out of the bat pony’s mouth for the first time since the previous chapter had been finished some minutes ago.
“Oh?” her companion asked, looking up with a raised eyebrow.
“I think it’s time we earned that ‘sad’ tag we slapped on this thing,” the nocturnal writer replied, giving a fanged grin of excitement.
The pegasus scoffed slightly and shook her head, but pushed the papers with the chapter name over to her companion, along with a pen.
They were both on a roll at that point, and they were getting pretty far into the story. Ten chapters was more than enough to get to the heavy stuff.
At least, that’s what they thought. There was still a lot to get out of the way before they could call the story a success.
Lifting the offered pen in her mouth, the nocturnal writer turned her attention to the page and quickly got to scribbling in the bulk of the chapter, as well as making a few notes on side pages.
Getting bouts of writer's inspiration was a rare occurrence, and yet the two writers were starting to ride high on their wings of inspiration. They had a solid idea of what they wanted for the moment.
And they were executing it smoothly, with only a few hiccups of improvisation along the way.
If their marefriends had walked in on them while they wrote in that groove of inspiration, they probably wouldn’t have even noticed.

Chapter ten: Bleeding Past

I was flying.

I didn’t know where I was going, and I didn’t care to know. All that mattered was that I was flying, with the castle shrinking behind me.

Tears stung my eyes almost as much as the wind, keeping me sufficiently blinded as I flew as fast as I could away from the castle and the ponies within. The only way I was sure I wasn’t going to crash was by flying as high as I could get away with, leaving the ground well below me and the all-encompassing darkness of the night around me.

I could scarcely believe my ears, at first I was in denial. There was no way that Luna was telling the truth. There was no way that I could have possibly been more than a thousand years old. But Luna didn’t lie, there was no reason for her to. And that, coupled with my dreams, I knew she was telling the truth. It was more than just a coincidence.

And so, I ran. As soon as I had picked myself off of the floor, I flew out of the window and didn’t look back. I thought that maybe if I flew fast and far enough, I’d be able to leave it behind me and never think about it again.

But that was where my problems had stemmed from in the end, wasn’t it? Not thinking about my problems, letting them be nothing but dreams and blurred memories. Denying what my mind was telling me, what my body already knew.

There were times before I had gotten to Starlight Glimmer’s town, when I was wandering through nameless territories of sandy desert, where I had let my body take over. Times where I needed to fight to survive, or needed to scavenge to eat, or find shelter when there was none. I never questioned how I was able to survive, how I was able to pull out of the badlands and wind up back in civilization. I just thought that I was lucky.

But in the end, I was able to survive because I had the training for it. My body remembered what to do even when my mind didn’t. My body was a machine, and it could operate perfectly fine without anything controlling it. Be it for killing or surviving, my body was a machine, and I was just a helpless passenger who was disgusted with what the machine had been used for.

I found myself wishing that I hadn’t made it to Starlight’s town, that I had died in the desert. When that line of thought died out, I wished I had never been altered by Luna, and I had died a thousand year ago. And when that line of thought trailed to an end, I wished I had never been born.

The thoughts that whizzed through my head were a clutter, an amalgamation of disarray and heartache. A blizzard of self-loathing and hatred, and yet, at the center of it all, I still thought about Twilight. The worst of my thoughts were always about how I had hurt and lied to Twilight, without even realizing it.

Gliding on unsteady wings, I hung at the joints of my wings as my thoughts fell to Twilight and tears rolled down my face. I had hurt the one pony I cared about more than anything else, and I had done so without even realizing it. I was a failure, a mess who didn’t even realize what I was doing wrong.

I didn’t really know when I had turned, or when the horizon in front of me had been replaced with a rapidly approaching ground. The only tell that it had happened was the whiz of air rushing past my face, pulling my tears with it as much as my mane or tail. There was a moment at some point that I thought about leaving my wings closed and seeing how much damage a straight fall would do to me, even despite Luna’s additions.

The answer came in the form of my body reacting for me; my wings stretching out on their own accord and pulling me into a gentle, albeit quick, landing. My muscles ached, my head swam, my eyes were sore and itchy, and I was sufficiently lost. The hill I had landed on was bare, save for a single oak tree at the top of the hill, and a valley on the other side. It was as good a place as any to collect my thoughts.

I found myself sitting at the base of the tree, looking out at the moonlit valley with a glazed-over look. The area was unfamiliar, and I couldn’t see even a trace of Ponyville behind me. The only sounds were of crickets and tree frogs, and the distant call of a pack of wolves somewhere in the valley.

With my back propped up against the tree, I let myself sink down low and breathe a shaky sigh. After such a traumatic night, I was tired, I was angry, and I was confused. But even so, I felt my body wanting to react for me, wanting to take me back to familiar ground. I wanted to stay lost, to never face Twilight again, and just sit there for the rest of my life.

As if a switch had been flipped, I found memories where there had been none before. I could put names to the faces in my dreams, meaning behind things that had been nonsense. Context to the blurry memories that had plagued me since I had woken up in the desert, vivid images and thoughts that felt like it had been in another life. Someone who was me only in name, a thousand years ago in buried history books.

I remembered training in a dark forest as a foal, with hundreds of other shouting ponies as we worked our muscles as much as our voices. I remembered learning ancient Equin, and getting lectured by a stern-faced professor for daydreaming in class. Fuzzy memories of the taste of wood and cloth as I held a sword in flight, and the echoing vibrations as it hit another. They were memories that had always been there, just hidden beneath a surface as thick and murky as ice.

It could have been that at one point I had a chance for a normal life, but with the families who had been tied to the ancient Lunar Guard, most foals of those families became Guards themselves, if not soldiers and fighters of Equis. The faded memories of my parents drew a shudder from me as I blearily recalled them signing me up for training before I had even learned how to fly to the lowest of clouds. If I had ever had a chance for a normal life, I wasn’t old enough to see it, and I wasn’t mature enough to make my own choice.

As I stared at the full moon in all its splendor, I remembered the first time I could call myself a true member of the Lunar Guard. I recalled the difficulty I had adjusting my sleeping schedule into a nocturnal one, and the teasing I had received from the bat ponies who never had to adjust. I even recalled my first friend in the Guard, who had wound up being my training partner for years.

Time became an echo as I relived the ceremony that Luna held for me and a hoof-ful of other Guards as we were uplifted into the Dynasty. The feel of a cast iron cup in my hooves as I drank back a rancid green liquid that made me gag, and the feeling of strength that passed through me when the nausea had passed. The cold feel of the crescent moon helmet being lowered onto my head, the same that the others who had been uplifted wore.

My heart wrenched in my chest as a flash of my first lover jumped into my head; a midnight blue bat pony with a fiery red mane and a love for sappy and romantic things. My breath caught as I recalled outliving my first lover, and spending months blaming Luna for not uplifting her. Months of loathing and hatred for everything that I held dear. I remembered for a time after that being a consort to Luna, there at her beck and call, no matter the need.

Faces flashed in my mind as I recalled my best friends, ponies who I trained and then subsequently outlived, ponies who I fought beside and called their names in the heat of battle. One stuck out as another lover came to mind; a white unicorn mare that I trained from a foal into an incredible fighter in the Solar Guard.

The very same mare I recalled crossing blades with on the night the civil war came into full swing. I barely felt the sob that wracked my body as I recalled removing my sword from her, turning away as her coat steadily turned red in the darkness of the eclipse.

The final memory that stood out was the moment Nightmare Moon was banished, and those who had been uplifted were banished through the ties they had with the princess of the night. A thousand years passing as though in endless dreams of constellations and lullabies, and a faint calling as if the moon itself was asking for my help.

I wasn’t sure when I had fallen asleep, or if I had actually fallen asleep at all. By the time I felt that there were no more tears to shed, and my body had had enough, the faintest rays of light were already cresting the horizon in front of me. My body felt like it had been torn apart, melted, and then reformed in a terrible replica of what it used to be, and my mine fared no better.

Despite this, I found myself able to breathe and see for the first time in hours. A long, drawn out sigh escaped my lips as I watched the sun start to peek its head out from behind the mountains in the distance, casting my hill into morning light and chasing the shadows down into the valley below. It was almost picturesque.

Despite the raging storm of emotions that boiled inside of me, it was a peaceful morning. The birds were chirping, animals were scampering about in the valley, and there wasn’t a cloud in sight. It was as if the entire area was untouched by pony hooves, just left to its own devices, and now it was showing itself to me. Like a little secret shared between nature and a broken pony.

As tired as I was, I was still awake enough to recognize the sound of approaching wings. The whooshing sound of air running through the primaries of a pegasus were hard to mistake with anything else. I assumed it was a passing weather pony, or a guard patrol of some sort. What I didn’t expect was the voice that came up behind me, making my weary body jump with surprise.

“Night Glider?” the familiar voice asked, making my ears flatten against my head as if I had been hit by a white hot poker. I chose not to reply, instead letting the other mare land on the grass behind me and do what she would. She knew about me, so if she was going to have me arrested, I wasn’t about to stop her.

I turned and expected hate, anger and many more other negative emotions. But there wasn’t any sign of it. She showed fear, hurt, sadness and it hurt me more than the other emotions could have.

“Is it true what Luna said?”

It was a simple question. A question that only gave me two answers, no chance to play around or dodge the question. It was a question that demanded the truth or a lie. I chose the truth; I never wanted to lie to Twilight.

"It is, but I didn’t lie to you,” I replied, focusing on her.

I could see a tear making its way down her muzzle, “But if it’s true, you lied!” she exclaimed, ears folding back against her head as she yelled.

“No! Remember what I said about those bad dreams? They’re my memories. Every dream showed me a bit more, and I’ve been able to remember it bit by bit. It’s not much yet, but this was my past, Twilight. I’m not a murderous, bloodlusting monster. I’m exactly the pony I’ve showed you the past few days.”

“How is it possible that you are over a thousand years old?” her voice trembled.

“Princess Luna did something to me, I don’t know exactly what. I’m not immortal, but I’m stronger and live much longer than any regular pony.”

“L...Let’s say that I believe you… would it change something?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Our relationship, the friendship we built, all those nice memories.”

“Twilight, everything would stay the same. It’s up to you,” I said before slowly starting to approaching her.

Twilight backed away, concern on her face, and it hurt me. I could feel tears coming up and my heart aching, “Twilight, I could never hurt you. I would rather sacrifice myself than hurt you.”

Did I just say that?

I heard you,” she said simply.

“What?”

“I heard you in the shower… I,” Twilight was cut off by various shadows appearing around us.

“Step away from her!” Luna shouted at me as she stepped out of the woods, a ring of darkly armored ponies joining her from all around the hill. I wasn’t sure how they had gotten so close without me noticing, but they were the Lunar Guard, and stealth was really one of their strong suits.

I jumped, an action that Twilight mirrored in surprise as we were surrounded by the winged ponies and one particularly angry alicorn princess. Twilight turned to face Luna with wide eyes, “Princess Luna! What are you doing?” she asked, confusion evident in her voice.

However, despite her confusion and whatever qualms she may have had with Luna’s intervention, it appeared that Luna wasn’t having any distractions. She made a subtle nod, one that I recognized and had seen on multiple occasions. My body knew what it was doing before I had even clued in to it. The power that I had put into the buck sent the first of the guards sailing in the opposite direction in mid-tackle, part of his chest plate caved in.

Two of the other guards had aimed for my legs, looking to set me off balance and pin me to the ground. A quick beat of my wings sent me above them, causing them to crash into one another before I landed heavily on them, the sound of metal giving away to my hooves echoing across the valley as parts of their shoulder and rib armor plates were bent and twisted.

My body didn’t rest on top of the two guards; with another steady beat of my wings, I found myself hovering above what had just turned into a battlefield, with no less than eight opponents taking to the skies around me. Even with three taken out of the fight, there were more than enough to overpower me, no matter how much my body knew how to handle itself.

The telltale whoosh of a pegasus sweeping was more than enough warning for me to close my wings and dive, reaching my hooves up and grabbing the pegasus who had attempted to grab me from behind. With a solid grip of his barrel, I twisted him in mid-flight so that he was pointed down, and then shoved with all my might so he crashed down on top of his two comrades. As he crashed, my wings popped out again, keeping me in the air as the seven remaining guards sized me up and tried to figure out how to handle me.

I could vaguely hear Twilight and Luna yelling in the background, and a few cases of my name being thrown between them, but I was beyond the capacity to care. I was in a battle, with the sun rising behind me and my freedom on the line. Hours ago, I would have been willing to let them do what they wanted with me, but the only pony I was willing to let render judgement on me at that point was Twilight.

Narrowing my eyes, I noted the pony directly across from me was a bat pony with my shadow in her face. Something of a smirk crossed my features as I beat my wings as hard as I could, propelling me into the air and removing my shadow from her, exposing her sensitive nocturnal eyes to the full brunt of the sun’s rays. The poor mare exclaimed in pain as she found herself staring directly at the sun, only for my rear hooves to connect with her armored skull as she thrashed about in mid air.

The bat pony hadn’t even hit the ground before I had turned to the next pegasus and had engaged in full frontal combat, catching her off guard as hooves and wings were entered into the fray. As elite as the current Lunar Guard may have been, they were nothing compared to even the lowest of grunts that I had trained with in my youth. As soon as the pegasus made a mistake, I gripped her forehoof and twisted her as hard as I could, the resulting snap was only covered by her scream as I spun her around to put her in the way of one of her comrade’s charges, sending the two of them to the ground in a heap.

“We have had enough of this silly play!” a voice boomed through the early hours of morning, causing me to look down, just to see Luna powering up a spell.

I had no idea what kind of spell it was, but it was blue, and heading right for me. There was no chance for me to block magic, so I braced myself for the impact and closed my eyes. An impact which never came.

Opening my eyes and blinking, I found myself surrounded by a faintly shimmering purple shield.

“Twilight Sparkle! What are you doing?! She is a threat to us all! We have to stop her, just look what she did to Our guards!” Luna shouted, her full attention turning towards Twilight in what could only be described as disbelieving anger.

“You attacked her first!” Twilight shouted back, her front hooves spaced out and her head lowered with her horn pointed at Luna.

“She is a murderer, and a traitor!” Luna exclaimed, stomping a hoof in barely contained anger as she kept her own horn pointed at me.

“So were you, one time! She’s a victim of her past just like you! I believe her, and I won’t allow you to hurt her!” Twilight growled back at her before what looked like a victorious grin crossed her features, “I hereby enact the Equin Speculator Act on Night Glider!” she called, eyebrows raised in a position that just dared Luna to retort.

Luna looked as though she had been smacked by Twilight’s words, directly insulted by having been called a traitor and a murderer, and what I could only assume were horrid memories for her. She huffed, breathing heavily for a few moments as she glared at Twilight and then up at me before looking back at Twilight.

After a few moments of huffing, she let out a snort and shook her head in irritation, “The consequences are yours, Twilight Sparkle! Do not say that We did not warn you!” she exclaimed before spreading her wings and taking off to the sky. The other members of the Lunar Guard who were lucky enough to be uninjured flew down to help their comrades who had been taken down, but soon enough, the Lunar forces were little but quickly receding specks of black in the morning sky.

The bubble of purple disappeared, allowing me to spread my wings and gently land next to Twilight. She looked like she was ready to jump for joy or pass out, a look of equal parts confusion and excitement passing over her features. She looked up at me, breathing heavily for a few moments before she finally got out of her combat stance.

After a moment, I set a gentle hoof on her shoulder, giving her the first real smile I’d been able to manage in several hours. I couldn’t contain myself, after a second of silence, I darted in and wrapped my hooves around her in a tight hug. Despite the surprised look on her face, she returned the hug almost as quickly as I gave it, burying her head in my shoulder as she did so.

We held one another for a long moment, nothing but the sounds of nature to tell the passage of time. When we broke away, I took a breath, looking back over the valley before asking something that had me curious, “What’s the Equin Speculator Act?” I asked, my wings ruffling slightly in worry.

Twilight stepped up next to me, the feeling of her wings brushing against mine not bringing a blush to my face for once. She followed my gaze for a long time before she finally responded, “It’s an ancient law… It was around when you were a guard, if I’m not mistaken. It states that a Princess of Equestria can claim the life of a criminal as her personal guard, in whatever position she wishes, for as long as she thinks is necessary for the criminal’s crimes to be repaid,” she explained, the distinct shuffling of her hooves making her nervousness obvious.

I blinked a few times, “That’s stupid. Having a criminal as a bodyguard?” I asked, confused beyond measure at the sheer ridiculousness of the law. A criminal would make a terrible guard under the best of circumstances.

A small chuckle escaped Twilight’s muzzle before she responded, “It has to do with psychological conditioning. You take a criminal, give them a job protecting a princess, and reward them for it. Eventually, they stop being the bad guys and start being the most devoted of good guys. A guard who’s always been a hero will take advantage of it, but a guard who knows what it’s like to be on the other side of the law and doesn’t want to be on that side again will always appreciate the position they have,” she explained, the smile gracing her features almost as warm as the sun that was rising in the distance.

I was silent, taking in the ramifications of the explanation. It meant that I wouldn’t be a criminal anymore, but it also meant that I’d be spending the rest of my natural life with Twilight. I wasn’t quite sure if that was a blessing or a curse, but with the sun shining and the chill of sorrow washing away from me, I chose to believe that it was a chance to start anew.

Twilight was the one to break the silence as we both stared at the slowly rising sun, “Welcome to the Twilight Guard, Captain Night Glider,” she said, leaning into my side slightly as we stood on the hill in the middle of nowhere, basking in the sun's glow.

Comments

[Satto Kez]

Beautiful! I said the same line that twilight did when she shot it back at luna! Also Luna has the excuse that it was the elements that changed her.
I want to see what Celestia says about this, she has to know after this, expecially if Lunas worries are as serious as she makes them!
Oh and one thought, Night Glider said that when Nightmare Moon was banished so was she as well as the others like her.... so... I hope to find out what others there are and if they are not a threat, but that's would make things interesting because of N.G. new role!
OK now I'm talking to much... its time to wait.
edit: I hope her friends are going to question why she made Night Glider her guard with twilight saying she used the Equin Speculator Act... most likely no one will know what that means.

[DonnEStarside]

I do like where you took this... But I'm still just sitting here going "Dammit Luna..." XD

[Darthvalgaav]

6106939
I disagree with the damnit Luna bit. While Luna is being harsh, she's taking action against what she see's as a threat. She said in the last chapter that Night Glider was an expert manipulater and, as far as she knows, Night Glider is getting close to Twilight to try something. And even if she's not what happens when the old personality come back to the forfront?

[DonnEStarside]

6107493 Yeah, I understand where she's coming from, and she's not wrong to be suspicious. It wasn't a "Luna you're wrong to be suspicious" it was more of a verbal face palm at the situation her knowledge of the past was causing. XD

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

I actually hate Luna in this. Hypocracy heavy in this. She visited Night Glider in her dreams before this and had no issue. and also if she was all that you claim Luna. well.....YOU MADE HER THAT WAY!