Waking Up

by Paladin-mlp

Inner Demons

Luna re-enters the memory. She phases in at the same location where she left, beside the bed. The room is still dark, it is still nighttime outside, except now there is a severe thunderstorm occurring. When she arrives she sees no sign of Moon Glider on the bed where she had left him.

“Moon Glider!” She cries out.

Lightning flashes and momentarily lights up the room. A deafening clap of thunder quickly follows.

She thinks to herself. Moon Glider was able to keep the memory is this up… he was able to avoid a collapse… despite being a few seconds away from death… despite the minimal training she had given him… his resolve is astounding… but where was he...

“Moon Glider where are you!?” Luna cries out again...

Upon further inspection of the room, everything seems slightly off, it all appears to be slightly larger…

“This memory is from the perspective of a foal.” Luna says to herself in fear. “He’s reverted to an earlier mindset.”

She pauses, the rain continues to pound against the roof of the house.

“MOON GLIDER, SAY SOMETHING!” Luna says, panic filling her voice.

“he-he….help…”

Luna hears a faint voice coming from outside the master bedroom. She quickly leaves the bedroom and darts down the long dark hallway.

“I’m here Moon Glider, tell me where you are!”

“He-here… I-I’m in… he-here… p-pl-please… h-help… s-she’s c-coming.”

Luna is able to pinpoint which room the voice is coming from, she quickly runs to the front of the door and swiftly opens it with her magic. Looking straight ahead she sees a bed in the far corner of the room. On top of the bed she saw him, the colt version of Moon Glider, wrapped in blankets, cowering in the corner of his bed. Upon seeing the frightened child, Luna lowers her voice.

“Moon Glider… it is ok… I am here…it is me, Princess Luna…”

The child does not look at Luna as she speaks to him. His gaze continues to remained fixed on the far side of the room.

“S-S-she’s in there… m-my cl-clos-closet… s-she’s in my cl-closet…”

Luna’s stomach begins to sink in fear…

“No one is in your closet Moon Glider… you are safe… try to relax.”

“NO! S-she’s in there… pl-please you got to be-believe me… no one ever b-believes me…”

“Moon Glider, p-please… do not be afr-”

Luna is interrupted by a loud clap of thunder from outside. The child cowers in fear. The fear within Luna’s voice is becoming apparent. She knows what the child is afraid of, but given her present state she doesn’t know if she can handle this right now.

A loud bump occurs behind the closest door. Luna cringes in fear upon hearing it; tears begin to form in her eyes.

“Moon Glider, please listen to me, there is no one in your closet; it is just your imagination…”

Another louder thud occurs in the closest and the door shakes.

“NO! S-she’s here! H-HELP!”

The child trembles in fear and places the blanket over their eyes. The closet door begins to rattle violently.

“Fear not little one, we are here! We shall protect thee!”

Luna stands in front of the closet door and braces it closed with her front hooves.

“Focus… relax… we can do this…” The mare tells herself trying to remain calm.

The rattling suddenly stops. A few seconds pass.

“She is gone… Moon Glider it is ok... she is go-”

A loud clap of thunder strikes again outside. Almost immediately after a huge crash knocks the closet door off its hinges. Luna is blasted back halfway across the room. The child gasps in horror at what they see in the closet, then goes deathly silent, paralyzed in fear. Luna, prone on the floor, slowly raises her head…

Before her lies a vile monstrosity, present in the form of Nightmare Moon, herself. Its outstretched wings span the room as its horn scrapes the ceiling. The jet black creature bares its dripping fangs as its green eyes meet Luna's, the only points of light behind the shadowy haze surrounding it. The child lets out a terrified whimper, tearing the beast’s attention from Luna.

Reaching out a long, gangly limb, it takes a step towards the child, its intentions clear

“no… NO!

Luna begins to stand up on her hooves.

“YOU SHALL NOT HARM THIS CHILD! RETURN FROM WHENCE YOU CAME!”

Luna begins to charge her horn. The beast continues to walk forward. Luna lets out a bolt of electricity at the beast. The bolt creates a hole in the chest of the beast from which a black viscous fluid slowly pours out. The beast continues to walk forward.

“DIE FIEND!”

Luna lets out three more bolts of lightning, two hitting the beast in the body, the third hitting it in the face. The head shot blows half of the flesh off of the creatures face, but below its white skull remains fully intact. Without the flesh the full extent of the creature long fangs are made apparent, which are now dripping with the creature’s black blood. The beast continues to move forward, unfazed…

Luna begins to panic in desperation… she decides to change her tactics. Luna charges her horn and casts a shield spell, creating a bright white magical shield through the middle of the room. The creature approaches the wall and then stops. It looks at the shield and then stares deep into Luna’s scared eyes. Luna continues to focus all of her energy on maintaining the shield spell, although she has trouble ignoring the visage of the hideous beast gazing at her.

“Focus…”

She says to herself.

The creature slowly raises its front right hoof and places it upon the magical barrier. Its gaze still locked with Luna.

“Relax…”

The beast begins to push its hoof against the shield. Luna struggles to keep the spell alive. The flesh of the creature’s leg begins to sear off as it is slowly pushed through the wall. A buildup of the creature’s black fur and blood begins to drip down the white magical shield from where the leg continues to progress. The skeletal remains of the leg continue to move forward though the shield.

Luna, using all of her mental ability to maintain the shield spell, tries to ignore the hoof slowly moving towards her, but it gets to a point where the hoof is just a few inches from here face. At this point Luna can no longer help but to divert her gaze to the skeletal hoof. The second she does her shield spell begins to falter. The beast lunges its full body at the shield, breaking it to pieces. The skeletal hoof slams Luna across the room. She slams against a wooden dresser next to the bed of the quivering child.

The beast returns its gaze to the child and begins move forward, slowly opening its mouth to reveal the long row of fangs dripping with the black grimy fluid. Jolts of black begin to strike both Luna and Moon Gliders vision as the creature draws near. The child eyes lay fixed on the sharp fangs slowly coming towards him. Luna slowly raises head. She realizes that a collapse is imminent, a collapse which Moon Glider will likely never recover from. She had failed to protect the child against the abomination.

“Moon Glider… I’m so sorry…”

Luna charges her horn, tears flowing from her eyes.

“Please forgive me…”

Luna strikes Moon Glider’s head with a bolt of lightning.

…

You can hear a mare crying… you feel a sharp pain in your head… you slowly open your eyes. Luna is standing over you. You are in your childhood bed back in your old bedroom.

“What’s wrong Luna?”

You ask the grieving Mare.

Luna looks up, a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

“You still know who I am?”

“Of course I do, how could I forget about you, after all we’ve been through.”

“What is your name?”

“What?! Moon Glider… haven’t we already been through this?”

“What is the last thing you remember…”

“Uh…”

“We were lying down in a bed together… I…I mean we were in the middle of a migraine… I had to vomit… but I couldn’t … I was chocking… you left to save me… you saved me!

“Do you remember what happened after that?”

You try to remember, nothing comes to mind.

“No… what happened?”

“You reverted to an earlier mindset; you were stuck in the middle of a bad childhood memory… does the name Nightmare Moon sound familiar to you.”

“Uh… no… sounds a bit ominous, who is she?”

“Me. I am… was… Nightmare Moon.”

You give Luna a confused look.

“Moon Glider…” Luna’s head drops in despair. “You were having a childhood memory of imagining that Nightmare Moon was in your closet. The memory was too strong for me to handle. You were on the verge of collapse, I had no choice but to use my last resort spell…”

“Last resort?”

“It’s a spell I deigned for ponies which are victims of extreme trauma or sexual assault and have severe problems functioning because of the experience. The spell permanently erases memory of the incident.”

You pause for a second, but then calmly reply.

“Luna, its ok, you did what you had to do to save me from going back into a collapse. I think I can do without a few childhood memories of being afraid of things that go bump in my closest.”

“No… it’s not that simple… certain memories can be linked to other memories… in my haste to erase the memories of Nightmare Moon I may have erased several other memories as well…”

You pause for a few seconds… beginning to worry about what just transpired…

“H-how do we tell?”

Luna pauses, then replies in a serious tone.

“How long has Celestia ruled Equestria.”

“Since… forever.”

“How long have myself and Celestia ruled Equestria together.”

“Just a few years…”

“What happened just a few years ago to cause this?”

“Uh… you just sort of appeared, I’m not sure how…”

“It’s alright… I’ll fill you in on the details of that later.” Luna says quickly while looking off to the side. Luna resumes her questioning. “What happens at the end of October?”

“Uh… harvesting?”

“Are there any major holidays that occur around this time?”

“Uh… none that I can remember…”

“Nightmare Night, costumes, candy… none of that seems familiar?”

Fear begins to grip your mind.

“Uh… n-no I don’t remember anything like that…”

“When you were a colt and you went camping, do you recall telling ghost stories around the fire?”

“My family never went camping much… we mostly stayed in the city…”

“Ok… when you were scared in the night what did you do?”

“Uh… I don’t know… I guess I would have gotten my parents.”

“What were their names?”

“Cloud Glider and Wind Glider…”

“Good… good…”

Luna says, letting out a sigh of relief.

“Do you recall ever running to their room in the middle of the night about something being in your closest.”

“No…”

Luna looks out the door of Moon Glider’s bedroom. Moon Glider’s parents’ bedroom was far down the hallway; however there was another door directly across from Moon Glider’s bedroom. Luna begins to think, what if Moon Glider didn’t go to his parents’ room for help whenever he heard a bump in the night, what if he went to one of his siblings for help instead…

“Whose room is directly across the hallway from yours…”

You strain to think, but nothing comes to mind. This is your childhood home, but you don’t know what was in the bedroom across from your own.

“I…I…I don’t know…”

Luna’s voice begins to waver…

“Did you have any siblings Moon Glider, who else lived in this house?”

“No… only me and my parents lived here…”

“Moon Glider…your sister… do you remember her?”

“My… sister?”

You ask in fear and disbelief.

Luna recalls earlier when Moon Glider once mistakenly called her “sis” when she rescued him from them sand.

“The sand… do you remember being buried in the sand…”

“Y-yeah…”

“In the original memory… who dug you out of the sand…”

“I..I don’t remember… I had a sister?”

Tears begin to pour down your face…

Luna’s voice turns saddened as she comes to a realization.

“She was the one who helped you overcome your fear of Nightmare Moon being in your closet. I’m sorry, but in erasing all memories of Nightmare Moon, I… erased all memories of your sister as well…”

“What?!...”

A bolt of blackness strikes your vision.

“Moon Glider! You need to control yourself!” Luna yells trying to hold back sobs of her own.

You begin to stabilize… still sniffling in fear…

“So what does this mean?”

“There is going to be gaps in your memories. She likely had a huge influence on your life so some things will no longer make sense. But we need to proceed! We need to get you out of this coma!”

You pause for a second and then divert your gaze from Luna to the floor.

Luna thinks to herself… in an effort to save this stallion’s life, she had just killed a small part of him… he had already suffered so much… it was not fair that he had to go through this too…

“If you need a few moments-”

“No! Let’s go!”

Luna pauses for a second and then asks.

“Are you sure you are ready?”

“Yes, let’s move on to another memory.”

You quickly raise your front hoof to Luna.

“Alright…”

Luna grabs your hoof and begins to charge her horn.

You continue to look at the floor.

“Look at me Moon Glider”

Luna says to the sullen stallion.

You lift your head and lock gaze with Luna. Luna sees the confused and conflicting emotions being displayed upon your face. She is unsure what to say to you.

You see the saddened and unsure look on Luna’s face…

“Luna… you did what you had to do… I hold nothing against you for that… you’ve helped me so much… do not feel guilty for what you did to me…”

You come around to meet her face to face, and then place your other front hoof around her, embracing her in a hug.

“Thank you Moon Glider…”

As you embrace her Luna begins to shift both of you to another memory. Whiteness begins to overtake both of your visions.

”Thank you…”

…

You and Luna materialize into a hall of a nice building. You detach from Luna and looks around. In front of you is a doorway which contains a large amount of grieving ponies all dressed in black. In the center of the far side of the room lies a closed coffin.

“We’re at a funeral, I remember being here, but…”

Luna cringes upon awaiting your response.

“I don’t know who this was for…”

Moon Glider looks to Luna.

“It was for her, wasn’t it…”

“Yes…” Luna replies.

“How did she die?”

“I believe, like many other thousands of ponies, she died the day of the changeling attack.”

Your mind begins to remember the attack, as well as the recent memory you just relived with Luna. The mare and her child being mauled by the changeling inside the convenience store.

“That mare at the store… she died the same way my sister did.”

“No… your sister died fighting, she was a guard… she managed to save a handful of ponies with her actions.”

Luna motions to a couple of families sitting in the back of the room.

You look around the funeral home and see the faces of several friends and family. Each of them quietly grieving and talking amongst themselves.

“What did she look like?”

“She looked a lot like you… even your cutie marks were similar…”

You gaze upon the closed coffin.

“Those bastards mauled her… that’s why this is a closed funeral… isn’t it…”

“Yes…”

You slowly approach the coffin. Luna slowly follows behind you. You see your parents sitting in the front row of seats inside the funeral parlor. They gaze upon you in anguish.

“She was the successful sibling, I was the fuck up, wasn’t I…”

“NO! Moon Glider, do not say such things!”

“That day she died a hero… I kept on living a life as a regretful coward… and I don’t even know what she fucking looks like.”

You place both hooves on the lid of the coffin.

“Moon Glider, don’t-”

You open the coffin. Inside there is nothingness, a black void of nothingness. Luna places a hoof upon your shoulder.

“You both loved each other very much, there will be opportunities to relearn about her when you waken…”

“If I awaken…”

“MOON GLIDER! Listen… this is terrible I know… but you can’t give up now, you need to stay focused.”

“…you’re right…” You reply. “Let’s move on.”

You slowly and carefully close the coffin.

“Very well…”

Luna strengthens her grasp upon your shoulder as she begins to charge her horn.

You take one last look at the coffin before whiteness slowly fills your vision

…

You materialize into being sitting at a table. You are drinking a bottle of hard cider. The cool crisp liquid slowly pours down your throat. That crispness and the alcoholic taste feel good upon tongue. You continue to drink until the bottle is empty. You swirl the bottle around with you hooves and then place it straight up above your mouth, gathering every last drop from the bottle.

“Where are we Moon Glider?” Luna asks you.

You divert your gaze from the bottle and look around.

“We’re in my shit-hole studio apartment.”

Piles of unwashed dishes are piled up in the sink. Your bed is unmade; various cloths are strewn about the floor. A thick layer of dust covers everything that is not used daily. Small pieces of food litter the floor. A large pile of unopen mail is building up on the floor in front of your front door. The garbage can is overflowing.

Before you on the table lie eight empty bottles of Sweet Apple Acres hard cider. You feel drunk… your stomach is swelled from drinking so much cider.

“I remember this…”

You say as you wobbly stand up from the table.

“After the funeral… I hit some pretty dark times.”

You walk towards the refrigerator, wavering back and forth along the way.

“A lot of good ponies have faced drinking problems in the past…”

You open the refrigerator and grab another bottle of cider.

“I’m not a good pony.”

“Yes you are!” Luna replies quickly.

“Luna… c’mon, really?”

You place the bottle cap against your kitchen counter and hit it with the top of your hoof, the bottle cap pops right off.

“Just look around you… look at this shit hole… look at me…good for nothing scum bag…”

You take a large gulp of cider from the bottle. The familiar crispness feels soothing as it goes down your throat.

“That’s not true-”

“YES IT FUKING IS…” You yell at Luna while pointing your bottle at her.

“You could be out there helping ponies who deserve your help, I sure as fuck don’t!”

You place the bottle back to your lips and begin to take several large gulps.

“Moon Glider, stop doing that to yourself! You will find no solutions to your problems at the bottom of a bottle!”

You laugh at her…

“Yeah… you got that right… but what’s the fucking point…shit job… shit life… there ain’t much waiting for me once I get out of this coma…”

Luna, pauses. She realizes that without your motivation, you were doomed to fail.

“You were not always like this, this was just a brief stint wasn’t it?”

“Yeah… so…”

“What brought you out of this?”

You strain to remember but you can’t…

“I don’t know…I probably ran out of money for cider…”

“NO! She brought you out of it! Your sister! Even though she was dead, she still inspired you to stop drinking and turn your life around!”

“She did…?”

“YES!”

You look down at the bottle in your hoof.

Your mouth craved another taste of the crisp cool liquid.

“She… she was a really good pony… wasn’t she…”

You begin to cry…

“Yes she was…” Luna replies.

“Fuck…”

You raise the bottle closer to your lips. The aroma of the cider fills your nostrils.

“I bet I could never be like her… she sounds like one in a million…”

The cravings to take another sip are very strong, your body craves more.

“But… but... I sure as FUCK am gonna to try!”

You raise the bottle above your head and throw it down into the kitchen sink. It shatters into several pieces.

“I’M NOT YOUR FUCKING SLAVE!” You shout at the cider as it begins to drip down the drain.

You look at Luna, she looks emboldened after watching what you just did. You focus your mind; you are able to eliminate the feelings of drunkenness and a bloated stomach which plagued you just moments ago. You extend your hoof to her. Luna looks down at you hoof, and then back to you. She grabs ahold of your body with both hooves in a massive hug.

“We’re gonna get through this, I’m sure of it…” Luna replies, her emotion causing her to skip over her formal diction, tears of joy coming from her eyes.

Her horn begins to glow, whiteness over takes your vision as your apartment fades from view…