• Published 19th Jul 2015
  • 486 Views, 53 Comments

Umbra Memoria - Lunaexcelsior



A terrible curse had been placed upon Darkrim and it is up to our night princess to save him. However, what she finds in his mind could change her perception of the banished prince.

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A gateway to the mind

“I have to say that was mighty impressive, Princess”, Darkrim began as the two walked through the castle hallways; “But I have to ask: What is the ninth division?”

The Princess thought for a moment as she replied, “The ninth division is a ghost division, a creation that exists solely to be funded by the griffon administration with all the proceeds going to general Switchblade”.

“What?!” Darkrim exclaimed in shock, “How can they even do that?”

“It’s a bit too complex to explain”, Celestia said hesitantly, “Let’s just say that there’s a weird loophole in the griffonian protection law that allowed this division to exist”.

“I see”, Darkrim raised an eyebrow in suspicion, “So I guess you’ll inform the griffonian government now about it?”

“Not really”, Celestia responded, “One of the reasons would be the fact I gave them my royal word, but a more important one would be that I simply do not want to mess with their business. It just creates needless drama and besides, they are a sovereign state. They can figure it out on their own”.

“Then why did you threaten the Griffons?” Darkrim pressed on.

“Well I needed something to bargain with Switchblade”, Celestia said, “He has many qualities, but his greed for bits just clouds them all. I had to make him reconsider the price any way I could”, Celestia finished, clearly showing shame for what she had done.

“Being a ruler is not as glamorous as it seems”, Darkrim empathized to Celestia.

“Only a royal could admit that”, Celestia responded with a smile and a wink. The two continued their walk, making small-talk as they went.

“Can I ask you something princess?” Darkrim said.

“Well, you already did”, Celestia joked, “But go ahead”.

“Well, back there, on the mural, I saw the element bearers attacking a pony that resembled a lot like Luna. Who was that?” Darkrim asked as he saw Celestia’s face drop.

Her expression became much more painful as if an old memory had just reawakened and was trying to break free. Darkrim saw he touched a nerve with that question.

“That pony”, Celestia began, “Was a creature born from Luna’s jealousy and my negligence. It is a beast that plagued my dear sister for more than a thousand years and it was the source of my own fear and hatred”, Celestia said with vigorous spite in her voice.

Darkrim noticed that a purple mist was trying to break out of Celestia's eyes, but she was able to control it.

She took a moment to calm down as she suppressed the dark magic trying to break loose.

“I apologize for my outburst”, Celestia excused herself.

“It’s already forgotten”, Darkrim responded.

He now noticed that the princesses certainly had an interesting past. These bright and shiny walls seemed to hide some pretty dark secrets. Then again what royalty doesn’t have skeletons in their closets?

“Can I ask you something prince?” Celestia asked Darkrim, much to his surprise.

“Of course!” Darkrim clicked.

“Why were you banished from your throne?” Celestia asked with a concerned look on her face.

Darkrim’s bright blue flames began to slowly turn dimmer and his expression began to be much more serious.

“There was a difference of opinions between Hadeus and myself concerning my behavior, as he so eloquently put it”, Darkrim scoffed, “Out of a small scuffle erupted a big argument which ultimately led to my banishment, since neither I nor he were going to compromise”.

“I see”, Celestia said, “But couldn’t you two have worked it out?”

“When it comes to her, we couldn’t”, Darkrim said.

“Her?” Celestia repeated, slightly surprised.

“We are all just fools of our emotions”, Darkrim responded, dodging Celestia’s question.

Celestia wanted to push on, but she decided to leave him be. It seemed that this was already too painful and she didn’t want to just rub salt in his wound.

The rest of their walk was very silent, until the sunset horn sounded through the castle.

“It can’t be nighttime already?” Darkrim exclaimed.

“Well the sun is slowly setting”, Celestia explained, “Would you like to come with me to see it?”

“Sure”, Darkrim responded.

As he said that Celestia led him up the largest tower in the entire castle. The spiral steps in front of him made Darkrim groan in annoyance.

“I hate stairs”, he complained as he climbed up the spiral staircase.

“Well I don’t think they’d be too fond of you too”, Celestia joked.

“Are you always in your jestering mood?” Darkrim bantered.

“That’s noting”, Celestia responded, “You should have just seen mine and Luna’s foalsitter. The guy was a pranking and joking machine!”

“Really?” Darkrim said in surprise.

“Oh yeah”, Celestia responded, “Why I remember the one time when we turned the entire council into one huge cake batter”, Celestia laughed.

Darkrim found this very peculiar as he imagined a huge meeting of nobles in their prissy suits and ties and elegant dresses being all mixed into a huge gooey blob. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the mere thought of it.

“Perhaps I will get to meet this guy one day”, Darkrim said.

“Only if you are ready to give up your sanity”, Celestia responded.

“Whaaaaaaat?” Darkrim asked confusedly.

“Don’t ask”, Celestia waved it off as she open the hatch, “Well here we are”.

Darkrim exhaled deeply from fatigue.

His breath was taken once again as he looked at the sky above.

He could see the golden Sun slowly descending beneath the horizon. As it did so, Celestia took it with her magic, focusing all she had and slowly eased it down, giving off a bright red glow which slowly turned to pink and only began to grow thinner and thinner as the last blast of sunlight illuminated the entire Great Canterlot Area with its magnificent rays.

As Darkrim watched the skies above, he noticed another pony on the tower next to theirs.

It was Luna herself, her horn glowing deep blue as she raised the crescent moon into its position.

“We should probably get going”, Celestia whispered to Darkrim as they waved to Luna. She waved back at them and entered her tower.

The three ponies met up back at Darkrim’s room.

“I see you met my sister, prince”, Luna said with a smirk.

“Well I was bound to”, Darkrim winked at Celestia as she just giggled a bit. Luna rolled her eyes and smiled.

“Well, I should leave you two be”, Celestia whispered to Luna as she left the room.

“You can stay if you’d like”, Luna said, “but I don’t know how exciting two ponies sleeping would be to you”, she joked.

Celestia laughed, “Sounds riveting, but I must retire myself. I have a pretty busy schedule tomorrow. Good night everypony”, Celestia said as she exited.

“Good night”, Luna and Darkrim replied in unison.

Once they were alone, Luna was able to do her magic.

As Darkrim lied in his bed, he noticed Luna pulling up some rather peculiar objects from her satchel and began to place them around the room.

She took out three dark blue candles with three different shapes and placed them accordingly; the one with a spiral was placed over Darkrim’s head, the diamond one was placed to where Luna would stand and the third one, with an electric bolt, was placed in between the first two.

“These candles will serve as a guiding tool for my magic”, Luna began, “Each symbol represents the beginning, the middle and the end. And these”, Luna pulled out two amulets, “Will be our connection points”.

Darkrim could notice that the two amulets were made to resemble what they held dear.

Luna’s was made to look like a pure white alicorn with the moon rising behind her and Darkrim’s was the symbol of the royal Tartarus family; a three headed beast with a head of a pony, a dragon and a minotaur, the three founders.

“You sure you are ready to do this?” Luna asked, “This magic is extremely risky, considering it hasn’t been used for over three thousand years”.

“It’s our only shot to get rid of these shadow curses, right?” Darkrim asked.

Luna nodded in confirmation.

“Then fire it up princess”, Darkrim replied.

“Alright”, Luna began, “Now the first step is to get you relaxed. You must close your eyes and think of absolute nothingness. Empty your mind of all needless thoughts and slowly go to sleep”, Luna spoke softly, attempting to ease him as much as possible.

She could hear Darkrim’s breath slowly slowing down.

He became more and more relaxed by each passing second, letting go of all of his thoughts and replacing them with the calm serenity.

“Now for the hard part”, Luna said, once she was convinced that Darkrim was in a deep state of sleep.

She opened up the ‘Nocta et umbra’ and read an excerpt from it.

“By the order of Memoriam Guard, I ask permission to enter this young colt’s mind and free it from the horror that lies behind”

As Luna recited the ancient spell, her eyes turned pure white.

Loud thunder could be heard throughout the castle and a ghastly wind blew through the hallways as Luna’s spirit was detached from her body.

She could feel her body and mind being torn one from another.

Her horn lit up and, as if it were guided by an invisible hand, her energy flowed through the candles and into Darkrim’s consciousness.

As the wild ride finally ended, Luna found herself in a cold and deserted land. There was nothing around her, apart from the sands of time.

“I must have gone too deep”, Luna thought to herself as she explored this bizarre dimension of Darkrim’s mind.

Above her was a sky filled with nothing but inky blackness. It seemed to stretch out into infinity and it would always cloud her vision, so Luna could barely see where she was going.

New lands seemed to reappear as she walked, but it was all the same. Her hoofprints disappeared as quickly as they appeared, leaving absolutely nothing behind.

As Luna continued her walk, she could feel that something wasn’t right.

A presence loomed just beneath her feet, making the ground quiver as it slithered by.

Luna was already prepared for battle as a creature jumped out.

The inky blackness of the beast’s body and the purple glow of its serpentile eyes gave it off immediately.

Still, one thing was off.

This creature seemed much smaller than the others Darkrim told her about.

“Must be a hatchling”, Luna thought to herself as she shot a beam of pure magic at the serpent.

Instead of hitting its target, the beam just went through the slithering opponent as it prepared to launch its attack on Luna. The night guardian flew up, escaping the serpent’s venomous fangs.

“Why didn’t my magic work?” Luna thought to herself.

She watched in horror as the serpent began to grow wings, much similar to that of her own and began flying towards.

Luna flew as quick as she could, dodging the beast’s unrelenting jaw.

At one point the snake like creation attached itself to Luna’s hooves, in an attempt to weigh her down. It latched on as hard as it could. Luna began thrashing and kicking at the beast mid-air, but it seemed to do no damage to the monster.

As her last ditch effort Luna’s horn began to shine white as a powerful wave of electricity was unleashed from it.

As it hit the serpent, the snake twitched and loosened its grip on Luna, allowing her to break free and making the serpent to fall down on the sand below.

Luna came close to the unconscious monster as she attempted to observe the beast that had just attacked her. Its purple energy began to glow dimmer as the serpent continued to twitch. Soon enough that too stopped.

“You don’t like light magic very much, don’t you?” Luna concluded.

The wings of the serpent were now fully gone as Luna began to walk away.

As she continued her journey Luna could see what looked like a huge metal gate, rising in the distance. Since it was her only orientation tool, Luna decided to go towards it.

Slowly, but surely, Luna made her way over to the metal gate.

She began to inspect it with her hooves, attempting to find a keyhole or any opening. The gate seemed to be completely sealed.

There was a scripture on the bottom of it showing a strange creature chanting what seemed to be some sort of tune, but Luna couldn’t interpret it.

Some of these notes seemed very strange, while others seemed way too high for any Equestrian being to sing.

As she explored this mysterious gate, Luna could hear a loud, bombastic, voice yelling from behind her.

Author's Note:

Well I hope you are enjoying the story so far :pinkiehappy: The next chapter is going to be an interesting one so I will publish it on Friday. See ya then :rainbowdetermined2: