Luna’s night was not going well, not by any sensible standard.
She’d just recently been informed of the attack on the Crystal Empire, learned Sombra’s return, reported innocence, and penance, and there was currently a warning put out to all of Canterlot to keep an eye on the foals. There’d been numerous unexplained disappearances of children, as well as several adults, and damn if she wasn’t going to get to the bottom of this. She had to do something. Anything to mitigate the encroaching idea of her irrelevance and uselessness.
She was currently soaring over her city, rather than engaging in the tedious - and frankly, fastidious - night court. She was keeping an eye out for any disturbance or incongruity, trying to discern the cause of her missing subjects.
In some small sense, she wanted to imagine this protective act as a form of apology, though she knew it was nothing to the child she had wronged. At the very least, she would be protecting innocent, as opposed to accusing them.
The notion of creating a statistic to monitor her moral compass's ups and downs crossed her mind. She realized she would probably not like the results, and scrapped the idea, violently shaking her head, trying to focus on her task.
Had she been doing so mere moments earlier, she may have seen and avoided what appeared to be a hole in the sky before her. As it were, Luna flew right into it, the sudden darkness startling her out of her flight pattern. She heard an echoing, almost childlike laugh, and suddenly found herself thrown against a rough wooden floor.
The princess bolted upright, utterly baffled. If her shell-shocked senses were telling her the truth she was right where she’d promised never to venture only days ago.
Luna was within the Basement she’d seen in Isaac’s dreams. Floating gently above a gap in the floor before her was a small, black-skinned demon with a single tooth, smiling with the gape-mouthed innocence of an infant. Eyes, appearing more as crimson pearls, perked with delight when she acknowledged the creature, as it bounced in the air before diving in it’s hole.
Before she could even consider looking after, it closed. And she was left there.
“What has just happened?!” She interrogated the stale air. Confused, alone, and more frustrated than many of her subjects become in their entire lives, Luna desperately called out in her Canterlot Voice, “Is anypony here?”
She heard a rapid succession of steps. Somepony heard her? Was it one of her subjects, heeding her call? A beast, rising to a challenge?
The princess turned to the source, on the other side of a door shrouded in darkness. She nearly let off a blast of energy when a figure ran in.
“You,” said a masculine voice, followed by a long groan. “For the love of…” He grunted with annoyance. “Why are you here?”
Luna recognized it. She recognized him, though she did not know his name. It was one of the children she’d met in Isaac’s dreams. The bandanna-bearer, coated in what appeared to be his own blood, a belt wrapped tightly around his body, with his eyes congealed with some form of white, resinous substance which was quite clearly not meant to be applied to the face.
Her immediate reaction was to flinch at both his appearance, his looks, and his tone.
The child grimaced. “Oh come on, you’ve seen worse.”
She shook her head, more so to clear her mind than to deny the fact. “M-my apologies. I am not aware as to why I am here, so much as I am as to what brought me here.”
The child slapped his face, dragging the palm down exasperatedly. “Little chubby demon? Inter-dimensional holes?”
The alicorn nodded, slightly surprised by the immediate answer.
The child muttered under his breath, “Nine in one run, what the hell…” He took a deep breath, and sighed. “Listen. Get. Out. I’m sick of babysitting all your stupid subjects.”
Luna, affronted, snapped back, “They are not stupid. It is not their fault your world is so jarringly harsh.”
He snickered, his eyes never closing. “You’re serious? You think they’re all just spooked?”
His brow folded into a scowl of disdain. “Those lemmings have been here for hours. They’re still to scared to leave the rooms I had to leave them in. Half of them are still sobbing, and I’m pretty sure the big one pissed himself. You still think they’re just spooked?”
The alicorn was silent.
He scoffed, and whispered harshly, “Useless. The smallest thing and they snap. I’m done, goddammit, done.”
The child turned, starting toward the door… but he paused. “... Hope you’re made of stronger stuff, lady. Because otherwise? They’re all gonna die.”
In a flash, he was pulled up to her, his face pressed against her muzzle. Luna’s eyes blazed furiously with starlight, as if trying to burn their way through the greasy reflection that his own returned.
“I will not let a single pony die. I will protect every last one of them. And you are going to help me get them all out SAFELY. Understood?”
The child feigned gagged. “Your breath is disgusting. Did something die in there? Was it your self esteem?”
Luna’s face lost all intensity. She grimaced, and dropping him bodily to the floor. “You do know the way out of here?”
The boy, further annoyed, replied sarcastically, “No, I just live here.”
She glared at him. He looked back at her impassively. “... Yes. I do.”
The Princess granted him a curt nod. “Take me to them.”
The child scowled at her, and gestured for her to follow him. As they walked, she could see dozens of places spattered with gore and viscera, much as her palace had looked after the invasion. Scenes of battle? She wondered. Is he truly so accomplished?
Looking him over, she noticed several things she had not seen before. Beneath large swathes of bloodied and bruised skin, scars criss-crossed over his shoulders. Wounds long healed, leaving only knotted flesh beneath. Fists clenched with such anger that blood crusted around them. He was obviously hurt, but he did not even seem to regard his own wounds.
Luna, hesitantly, asked him, “What is your name?” She found it hard to believe she had taken so long to consider it.
“My name,” His response came out low, almost unintelligible. She could almost taste the acidity his words dripped so venomously with. “is Samson.”
OH MY GOD YOU UPDATED.
Heh. You've fleshed out the Basement Children a lot better than I ever bothered to.
Get it? Fleshed?
...Okay, I'll shut up now.
7332916 Oh, that's low.
Geddit? Low? Like a basement?
... It seems we are at a comedic impasse; ABSCOND!
7332913 OH YOUR GOD I DID.
(Maybe I should start doing preemptive blogs so people aren't surprised?
In the description, it's not "it's", it's "its".
Or else it'll be "from it is demise".
Just a heads up!
Wooooo. More world-building, more intrigue.
Luna gon' go on an adventure.
I just saw this on the front page, and I just caught up and I'm loving it! I hope to see you update this more soon!
(random not-so humble facts about my adventures in the binding of isaac)
I only have rebirth, but I've completed all the boss rushes and chest runs for each character except for the lost (saving him for last) and am working on the dark room runs for the last few characters.
6608167
Meh. I don't really care one way or another.
I'm still reeling from Cain's death, don't you dare kill off Samson!
Luna just has no idea what she's getting into.
But hey, if you're repentant, in for a penny, in for a pound.
7332962 Fixed! Thank you very much, that's almost literally the only grammar mistake I make with consistency!
7333285 Thank you for your interest! And good luck on the dark room - that place can be a menace if you don't end up in a good place by the womb!
7333751 Quite true.
7333812 As above. And I wonder how many people notice that reoccurring problem of hers. (It is intentional and planned for, don't worry - not just being a jerk to be a jerk.)
7333891
No problem.
7333812 Thank you. Cadence deserves a smack upside the head for how she treated Spike, and Twilight should get one for just hanging back silently and letting her do it.
Samson has entered the game! prepare for Ipecac cause shit's about to get dangerous!
69/10 Best fic
7337313 6.9/10 this comment was okay
7357100 Guilt does strange things.
She's trying so hard to be right, to avoid mistakes, that she can't accept her own failures.
It may come off as 'her being a bitch', but almost all adversity stems from within.
I DID A DANCE FOR A WHOLE MINUTE AND WAS CONVINCED THAT IT WAS LILITH
I'M MORE THAN UPSET I'M ANGRY THAT IT ISN'T MY DEMON WOMAN
7400589 Oi, geez. Not like she's been forgotten.
7402451 *ANGRY SCREAMING NOISES FOR YOU AND LITTLE BASTARD*
7402451 You excited for Afterbirth+ m9?!
I can't wait for the next chapter! @_@
7416708 1001%. I've kept myself spoiler free for fresh experience... if you happen to know the date of it, though, I'd be glad to be informed!
7428927 I appreciate the enthusiasm! But whenever people say 'they can't wait', what happens when they have to wait? Do they travel in time? Do they have a heart attack? Do they cease to exist? Do they... *gasp* wait?
... If I'm honest I'm on a bit of a block right now, but I'm trying.
7433356 :P I hope you get over your writers block. :/
great story c: definitely following it to see where it goes ;3
I haven't even gotten 1001% yet... but SOON..!