The Wardens of Order

by ScottTrek

A la Lune

Luna paced restlessly within her little bubble of shadows. She couldn’t tell how long she’d been waiting, each moment seemed to stretch into infinity. In Luna tumultuous mind it could have as easily have been 30 seconds or 30 minutes since their self-appointed judge had rolled in the darkness.

Not that it was actually darkness engulfing them. Luna knew the magic of shadows, and even a cursory examination told her this stuff wasn’t magic either, not magic as she understood it anyway. She want sure if it was tangible matter though, if it was, it was impossibly dense. The energies needed to control such a substance were almost unimaginable.

Almost…

“I haven’t seen power like this…” She whispered, “Not since…”

Her train of thought was cut abruptly short as the indigo eyes once again loomed out of the darkness. Luna sat down on the provided chair. Staring at their host, daring him to break the silence first.

“Well then, feeling prepared for this little chat?” Umbra asked. The glowing eyes circled around Luna’s bubble, a hunter stalking its prey.

“I am quite used to dealing with bullies,” Luna replied, flawlessly keeping her eyes level with his as she turned in time with him. “Especially those who hide themselves in the dark where they dost think they are safe.”

“Excuse me?”

“You are excused.”

A low, heavy uneven noise emanated out from the swirling shadows, it wasn’t the omnipresent voice she was used to. This wheezing laugh bobbed up and down in time with Umbra eyes. “Oh this is much better. I do prefer a bit of fire over self-indulgent whining.” Umbra began to swirl around Luna again, the shadows drawing closer with every rotation.

“So shall we get to the talking then?” Luna said as she stopped turning, “Another thing I am quite used to is the shadow of Nightmare Moon hanging over me. I know this is why you have come here and despite thine proclamations both of the nobleness of thineself, and of doom to my companions. I grow tired of this elephant in the room.”

“I’m afraid the Pachyderm will have to wait. These things have their proper times, and right now is the time to discuss more individual failings. The Nightmare…I don’t view as such.” Luna’s facial muscles twitched for a second. “Right now we need to discuss the Tantabus.”

“Oh ….. I see.”

“In terms of bad decisions I rate nearly letting loose a world ending nightmare monster of one’s own creation rather highly.”

“It is not as if I released it on purpose. It was supposed to say within mine head.”

“But you knew it had the potential? I wouldn’t assume you that ignorant.” Umbra questioned, the eyes retracting slightly. The outline of a hand gestured and a large flat screen faded in. Luna watched half bemused, half mortified as a projection of her dream played out. The Tantabus transforming her into NNM, Twilight and friends rushing in to rescue her with rainbow power, the Tantabus escaping … then the scene shifting to Luna’s room in the waking world.

"My dream ended... happily? That... cannot... happen!"

Luna winced slightly, unable to keep the rising discomfort and shame off her face.

“The oracles who recorded this agree with me,” Umbra continued, voice picking away at Luna with its implacable certainty. “That was hardly a reaction of surprise. Dread certainly, but not surprise.”

“It was a risk of using the creature. I simply believed it would not choose to leave me.”

“I have to say that whether you thought it would get or not it’s still a pretty idiotic idea.”

“Yes I realise that….”

“Do you though?” Umbra cut across, “You wanted to punish yourself for NNM right?”

“Yes?”

“So why does it seem you were trying to make it happen again?”

“WHAT!?” Luna shrieked, so shocked that her legs nearly went out under her. Her eyebrows met like furious lightning bolts and cerulean light crackled round her horn. “HOW DARE YOU!”

“You fell a thousand years ago when all those negative emotions you were carrying around got all snarled up inside and it let the Nightmare get its hooks into you. Did you not?”

The light around Luna’s horn continued to intensify, but the flare of anger she felt was quickly burning away to cold inside her.

“You let the Tantabus infect you, torture you, give you nightmares of your ‘worst fear’ night after night. For months on end.” Umbra kept talking his voice sliding in past Luna’s protestations. “Were you going to keep letting it push you and push you until you couldn’t take it anymore? Until you snapped again?”

“I would never let myself become the Nightmare again.” Luna said through gritted teeth. “My punishment was to remind me of that.”

Umbra began to swirl around Luna again, faster this time. “What….by repeatedly letting you relive that moment? By letting you feel that way again in ever so guilty little bursts?”

Luna’s face fell. All emotion drained away in an instant. “No.”

Umbra was close now, like a shark closing in on its prey. “So why did you do it?”

“I wanted to punish myself.”

“And?”

“And I thought it was the best way.”

“Really?” asked Umbra.

“Yes…..” Luna started to sink to her knees. Something guilty pushing its way up through her psyche.

“By risking it all?”

“No…..”

“By trying to throw away all that your friends and family had done? By throwing away all she did?”

“It’s not like that!”

“So what is it like?!” Umbra was all but right up in her face now.

“I don’t ….”

“Why are you doing this to yourself?” Umbra roared eyes flashing.

“BECAUSE NO-ONE ELSE WILL!” Luna screamed back. With a gust of wind the inky shadows were blown backwards leaving Luna once again in an oasis of calm. She breathed in and out slowly, barely believing she had just said that. “They won’t…..”

“Go on.” Umbra said somewhat smugly.

“The others, they forgave me without even thinking. Even if, as you say, the blame for what happened was not entirely mine…I’m still the one who fell to the Nightmare, I’m the one who nearly plunged half the world into darkness and let the other half of the globe boil to death.”

“They forgave you? That’s the issue?”

“Yes and I know I can’t complain that Celestia still loved me or Twilight was ready to be my friend….” Luna sighed, struggling to find a way to articulate the labyrinthine emotions twisting about inside her. “But acting if it never happened…it’s like they were not taking me seriously. Or it was never important…which weirdly makes it like I never important.”

“Huh.”

“And then….they just put me back in charge again. Ruler of the night, co-ruler of Equestria. They just…pretended it never happened. CELESTIA pretended it never happened.”

“But it did happen.”

“The thing about my sister is… even if the kingdom was falling down around her ears, she would still put on that smile and pretend everything was just fine … for her image, for her people… and especially for me.”

“And you?”

“I’ve never been a very good liar.”

“So it would seem.”

“Tia loves me dearly but she wouldn’t have understood. She doesn’t know darkness like I do. Besides I knew she wouldn’t have list…..” Suddenly Luna sat bolt upright, her emotional outpouring suddenly snapping shut as she remembered who exactly she was talking to.

“You knew she wouldn’t listen?” Umbra purred, eyes shifting slyly.

“No I……”

“She never listeners to you does she?”

“That’s not what I meant……”

“Not about Discord, not about the Crystal Empire, not even about yourself.” More snippets of Luna’s past danced across the levitating screen. Scenes from both her recent past and from long ago. “I think I’ve heard all I need for now.” With the faintest breathe of wind Umbra’s glowing eyes retracted into the darkness creating little whirlpools of shadows

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[Xaldon Ajide]

Celestia is in big trouble.