Equestria 485,000

by Unwhole Hole

Chapter 9: Shadows

Twilight gasped and lurched upward. She immediately attempted to engage her morphiplasm suit to attempt a diagnostic analysis.

“Silken, it had better not have been eight weeks this…time…”

No diagnostic readout appeared. Twilight reached for her head in a panic and felt nothing but her own skin. She was not wearing her suit, or even her jewelry- -she was naked.

That was when she realized where she was. Around her stood a dark castle built of something not unlike stone with high vaulted ceilings. On the walls hung tapestries and containers of fresh, blooming lavender. Long hallways seemed to emerge in every direction, leading off into darkness and to places that no pony was meant to go.

“Great,” groaned Twilight, putting her hoof against her head. “This is exactly what I needed.”

As much as she would be rather doing literally anything else, Twilight stood up. As she did, she focused on her nude body, allowing the aetherite jewelry to appear around her. She had become quite accustomed to it, and even in this place she felt a need to maintain some level of dignity.

She proceeded through the long, curving hall. It was empty and silent, save for the sound of her hooves tapping on the perfectly smooth cyclopean surface below, a system of stones of many dark colors forged into tiles in shades of dark green and black, only interrupted by the speckles of mica and native metal imbedded within.

Neither distance nor time were relevant in this place, and Twilight passed easily toward where she was allowed to. Had she desired to, she could have taken the seemingly endless hallways to either side, or even opened the thousands upon thousands of doors within their deepest perimeters, but she saw no reason to waste her time. In this case, it was better to stay in the central part of the castle. The size of it was already indefinite enough as it was.

When she arrived in the central room, it was as beautiful as she remembered from the many times she had been here before. The far edges of the stone floor gave way to rivers of cold, clear water that flowed gently through river-like channels on either side and through the space between the rocks below Twilight’s feet. Beneath the water’s surface were bright crystals, and their light was rendered into quiet waves by the water over them. In the way that the floor was made of rock and water, the enormous ceiling was painted with stars and planets in a seemingly endless starchart of all explored space.

The pony atop the pyramid at the far end of the room stood. “Twilight Sparkle.”

“Luna.”

Luna stood and descended her altar. Her body was tall and perfect, armored in carved moonstone. Seeing her, Twilight felt an urge to bow, but she resisted. Her state was already precarious; more humiliation would only make the situation worse.

“How goes the mission?” inquired Luna.

“It is progressing adequately.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Really, Twilight Sparkle? If it is going so smoothly, then why are you here?”

“I encountered…setbacks. I was rendered unconscious.”

“Indeed you were.”

“But it is only a setback. The recovery effort will take some time, but it will succeed.”

“And the planet?”

“What about it?”

“Twilight Sparkle, it is the planet we called home for so many millennia. I wish to know what is the state of it.”

“Hostile,” said Twilight, simply. “There is life here, but nothing but monsters.”

“In your expert opinion, what is the chance of successful terraforming?”

“Zero. There is no point.”

“I see.”

“Luna, you know I would not have come here unless I had to.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” said Luna. She turned and walked toward the stream, taking a moment to look down at her distorted reflection. She then turned back to Twilight. “In the spirit of honesty, though, I must inform you that I was against sending you on this mission from the start.”

“Against it?” Twilight took a step forward angrily. “Luna, you’ve seen the same things I’ve seen! Eight thousand years ago, our subjects numbered in the billions! Hundreds of billions upon billions of immortal ponies, spread throughout the vastness of space! Do you know how many there are now? Less than two million! TWO MILLION!”

“I am well aware of the demographic shift,” snapped Luna, turning suddenly. “More so than you could perhaps ever be. I see it in their dreams, how each day fewer and fewer go to sleep…and how fewer than that wake up again. But our golden age had already long since passed! Hundreds of billions? One hundred millennia ago, that number approached ten thousand times that.”

“So I should just give up? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Twilight, that is not what I mean.”

“Then what? I should just let them die? Luna, this is the only option! We need Cadence!”

“She already gave herself once for the prosperity of her people,” said Luna, “do you think it is right to ask that of her again?”

“Right and wrong does not matter to me,” said Twilight. “It never has. Only success.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed, and she took a graceful step forward. “Even if it means approaching that cursed planet?”

“I would give my life for our kind, if it were possible.”

“Don’t think that it isn’t,” snapped Luna. “You of all ponies should know. You were there with Cadence. Our immortality has limits. As it did for her. And for me.”

“I’m strong enough to survive.”

“On that planet?” Luna leaned closer, “the one planet that we forced ourselves to forget, because of what it did to us? Recall, Twilight Sparkle, that it is because of the weapons built on that planet that I will never again be able to walk amongst the living, or to see the night sky with my own eyes.”

For a moment, Luna’s form shifted, and Twilight was able to see the immortal scars that had rendered her body nearly inert. This was the land of dreams, and Luna was the one god of this realm- -but in the waking world, what remained of her body would never again be able to rise from sleep.

Twilight was forced to turn away, even as Luna resumed the beautiful form of what she had once been. “You saw it, didn’t you?” she said. “It must still be there. My moon. The cities where my beloved followers once dwelt.”

“Those weapons don’t exist anymore,” insisted Twilight, “I didn’t just destroy them. I erased them from history. No written record remains in any form. I am the last pony who knows their construction.”

“Can you really be that much of a fool?”

“Luna…”

“What has been done cannot be undone. What has been created cannot be forgotten so easily. You may have spent centuries burying our failures, but there are those who would gladly spend ten times as long to bring back the secrets of the past.”

“It isn’t possible.”

“So you claim,” said Luna, “but they still exist. There are things buried on that planet, secrets that neither of us would care to ever allow to be recovered. It is on Equestria that we nearly met our undoing. The very planet on which you now lie sleeping.”

“This is our only hope,” said Twilight. “Your concern is noted, Goddess Luna, but I have the right to make my own decisions.”

“That you do,” said Luna. Four dark forms appeared around her; tall alicorns whose bodies were pure black. They were her elite Priestesses, mares who had given up their physical bodies to be put in an endless coma at the side of the resting chamber of their goddess in her temple. Luna nodded to them as they bowed, and joined them as she retreated toward the depths of a world of her own creation. “Let us hope that your decisions do not lead us to ruin.”

“They will not,” said Twilight. “I will save ponykind. We will survive.”

“We always survive, Twilight. Such is the nature of the pure alicorns. And I shall watch you, to know your progress- -but know that things are not as they seem. There is something on that planet. I know not what, but I can sense it, drifting on the edge of my perception.”

“What sort of thing?”

“I cannot yet say.” She paused, and looked to her black priestesses. “That which becomes dreams, I suppose. But that is not your concern. Not yet.”

“Then what is?”

“That something is moving against you. I do not know what.” Her eyes met Twilight’s. “Those that do not dream.” �P0ɛ�.

Comments

[AppleTank]

.... what

also, Luna, ouch.

[AdventurePone]

rip luna