Fillystata

by adcoon

Bonus Act. The Thing in the Moonlight

“My name is Princess Luna. On June 10, 1799—for I know not even what the year may be now—at an old farm on Buckskin Road 5 in Dappleshore, I cast a desperate spell of unknown provenance and must have fallen unconscious as a result, since when I have been unable to awaken from this dream.

“My dream began in a dank and fetid marshland garden, perhaps once the property of some ancient castle in days of yore. If such a castle once existed here, it strikes me that it must have long since sunk beneath the reeds and waters of this wasteland, for I can see no sign of it.

“Impelled by some obscure quest, I ventured out among the lichen-encrusted walls and labyrinthine shrubs of this festering garden. At intervals, the passages of this land were roofed over by growths or ancient structures too damaged to identify, and these places were exceedingly dark and forbidding.

“In many such places I felt conscious of a singular sense of fright, as if some subtle and bodiless emanation from the abyss engulfed my spirit, but I could not divine the source of my alarm or pierce the darkness of this place. I appear to not be in possession of my full powers.

“At length I emerged into a vast, flat land of still waters in which I spied the hollow and crumbling shell of a large ship, lit by a faint moonlight which had replaced the expiring orb of day. Casting my eyes about, I beheld no living object, but felt aware of a very peculiar attention upon me from among the whispering reaches of the pestilential garden.

“After walking for some distance through the shallow water, I reached the remains of the ship, a plain three-masted vessel. I ran my hoof along the worm-ridden wood of the outer shell and crawled through a wide crack in the hull, emerging into a cabin. The room I found myself in struck me as remarkably well-preserved.

“It had a bed of carved wood, made with clean sheets and a pillow; a nightstand, still with a loaf of bread and knife; a heavy closet, and a desk and chair with flowers, quill and paper under a window. A few papers lay scattered across the floor, blown by a gentle wind from the window, a wind which has long gone. All of this appeared untouched by time.

“A door next to the closet proved stuck when I tried to open it. Beside it, by the desk, hung a mirror frame with the glass missing. In the middle of the empty frame I spotted a peephole in the wall. Nothing but complete darkness seemed to lurk behind it.

“A sound like the sloshing of hooves through shallow water to my left drew me away from the peephole and towards the window. I leaned over the table to see the dark forms of two figures looming in the moonlight. From the one’s attire and stature I could not doubt it to be the captain of this forsaken vessel. The crew member beside the captain, a creature of a mean and rough stature, sniffed the air and raised its head to howl strangely.

“I leaped up at once and galloped madly out of that ship and across endless leagues of wetland till exhaustion forced me to stop—doing this not because the crew member had howled like a beast, but because of the realisation that there was not two but a singular shape, the form of which was a mere white and corpse-like frame stretched and tapered to eight needle-like legs.

“I was aware that I only dreamed, but the very awareness was not pleasant. Since that fearful night, I have prayed only for awakening—it has not come!

“Instead I have found myself an inhabitant of this terrible dream-world! That first night gave way to dawn, and I wandered aimlessly over the lonely swamp-lands. When night came, I still wandered, hoping for awakening. But when I parted the walls of reeds and shrubs, I saw once more before me the ancient ship—and to one side a pale thing of eight legs lifted its head and in the streaming moonlight howled strangely!

“It has been the same each day. Night takes me always to that place of horror. I have tried not moving with the coming of nightfall, but I must walk in my slumber, for always I awaken with the thing of dread howling before me in the pale moonlight, and I turn and flee madly.

“Dear sister! when will I awaken?”

* * *

Trixie let the pen drop and sat, staring in the soft summer breeze from the open window at what she had just written. A moment earlier she had picked up the pen at a whim and started writing words that were not hers. The urge to write had persisted until the last word and then gone as suddenly.

The gentle wind played with the edges of the paper as one of the nurses picked up the empty plate on Trixie’s nightstand. Trixie looked up as the nurse turned to leave the room again. “I need to speak with Princess Celestia.”

The nurse looked at her in surprise. “Oh, o-of course, princess.”

Trixie looked back down at the paper containing Luna’s words as the nurse left in a hurry.

* * *

“This is Princess Luna writing for the second time. I have yet to deduce a way in which to extract myself from this dream in which I am trapped. Normally such a dream should present me with a minor challenge at most, but I believe my own powers have been turned against me.

“I am writing this on paper I found in the old ship. Strangely, it contained no writing before. I do not know if anypony will ever read these letters that I write, but it makes my stay here a little more bearable to occupy myself in this manner.

“The swampland is indeed vast, for I can find no end to it in any direction. I have found no other fixtures or landmarks of note except for that ship, nor seen any signs of life aside from myself and the eerie thing that haunts me in the moonlight.

“I must assume that my body was saved from the underground tunnels in which I fought against Twilight Sparkle’s undead ancestor. I can only imagine my body would have expired without care otherwise, or is this indeed my final fate? Have I left the mortal coil to wander these dreamland wastes forever? It is not such a far thought.

“What happened to Twilight Sparkle and her ancestor? I fear that I already know in my heart, and in the time I have been wandering around this place I have often cried and begrudged that, one way or another, I do not believe I shall ever see Twilight Sparkle again.

“Sister forgive me. I pray that Trixie and the two young fillies got out alive and unscarred, and that Midnight will haunt the living no longer. If I died for that, then I died gladly.”

* * *

Celestia opened her eyes slowly as the light from her horn dimmed. She looked at her sister’s unconscious form in the hospital bed and shook her head softly. “I can not reach her dreams. Whatever is keeping her from waking up must also be keeping me from joining her.”

“Is there nothing we can do?” Trixie looked at the princess of the night. The normally proud alicorn looked small and helpless in this state.

“It would have to be a stroke of luck. Not unless we can somehow understand what magic she was dealing with in the last moments of that fight.” Celestia lowered her head. “Unfortunately …”

Trixie looked up at Celestia. Something in the princess’ eyes looked pained.

“We are digging up the entire farm and burning everything we find,” she continued. “That may well include the only information on what spell Luna could have cast, but even if it hasn’t already been burned, I will not risk any other ponies being possessed and destroyed like Twilight by this dark and corrupt magic.”

“You would let your sister die instead?” Trixie stared at Celestia.

“It may … be kinder to let her go, Trixie, than to keep her alive indefinitely only to suffer an endless nightmare from which she has no hope of escaping.” Celestia looked back up at Trixie. “But we will explore all available options. Trust me. I just can’t justify saving her if it means risking the lives and souls of other innocent ponies.”

“But …” Trixie reached out to touch Luna’s unresponsive hoof. “What about the letters?”

“We can only hope that they truly are from my sister,” Celestia said and put the letter back down on the bed next to Trixie. “Maybe she will reveal something about her spell.”

Trixie picked up the note and looked at Luna’s face.

* * *

“This is Princess Luna writing my third letter. I have explored this twisted garden of dreams for more days than I have counted. A sense of fright and evil lurks in the holes and drifts through the shadows and reeds of this place, like water through roots, but it is a dead and hollow thing that I do not think can harm or help me. I am half convinced that it is the mere spiritual imprint of something long dead. I can no longer doubt that there is nothing to be found here except for that accursed ship. If this dream has any answers or aid to offer, they must surely be found there.

“Only problem is that infernal thing. I can never seem to remember exactly where the ship is, and always stumble upon it by sheer fate, at which point my presence inevitably alerts the guardian. Even if I could overcome the dread and impulse of the dream which leads me to run, I do not think it would be wise to face it.

“The solitude is starting to make itself felt. I am alone here. I have been alone before. I was alone for a thousand years, but this feels different. I have never lost a friend before, because I never really had a friend before.

“I like to think I had a friend, at least. I like to think … maybe I even had two.

“The sun is going down. I am not used to being up all day or not knowing the movements of the great orbs, but I have no control over the night here or even my own sleep, and my beloved moon feels alien and strange to me in this endless garden. It is frightening, on a much deeper level than the primitive fear of that thing.

“I feel … small and bereft of so many things that were dear to me.”

* * *

Trixie dropped the pen on the floor next to her bed and fell back into her soft blankets. She had just enough will left to pick up the letter she had finished writing and read it before she fell asleep again with a sigh.

* * *

“This is Princess Luna, writing my fourth letter.

“I can not tell how many days have passed. It feels like a year at least, but perhaps this is merely the dream speaking. I am still alone except for that thing which guards the ship. I am no closer to finding a way out, and I am starting to feel myself losing hope. I must try not to succumb to the feeling. Surely there must be a way out.

“I have been thinking extensively of my friends. About Twilight Sparkle, whom I loved, and Trixie who stole her love from me. I say stole, but I know it was Twilight Sparkle’s own choice to love Trixie and not me. I should not listen to the jealous whispers that would make me a monster. I have lost too much before by listening to that little voice deep within me.

“But she was also wrong. Twilight Sparkle was wrong. I don’t know why I should not be able to love her, or anypony, just because I would live to see them grow old and die. Who is there for me, who live as long as me? Why should I not follow my heart if it tells me to love a mortal pony? Why should I not be allowed that brief but happy time with a pony I truly love?

“I wonder if I shall ever find somepony who will love me, even if only for the brief life of a common pony.

* * *

Trixie carefully lifted Luna’s head and changed the pillow. She wiped the drool from the princess’ mouth before gently laying her head back down. She watched the unconscious princess for a minute before sitting down next to the bed again.

It was strange to see the princess like this and to care for her like this. Trixie imagined it was a bit like taking care of a newborn foal, except Luna never cried or moved. The nurses handled most of the care—the feeding and cleaning, the changing of sheets—but Trixie felt a strange need to help in little ways. She brought fresh flowers each day and changed the pillows when she was there.

Trixie wanted Luna to wake up, and something compelled her to be there for her. Perhaps it was the brief time they had together at the end, trying to save Twilight. Perhaps it was the loss of Twilight, or Trixie’s new life as a princess in her own right. Perhaps it was the letters.

It was frightening and stressful to be the unwilling vessel for another’s intruding mind, writing words that were not her own, but at the same time Trixie felt keenly aware that she too was intruding upon the private and innermost thoughts of the princess, even if she did not do so by her own choice.

And what she found in the letters were not so different from her own thoughts and fears before she met Twilight Sparkle. Luna too just wanted somepony in her life.

Trixie reached out and took Luna’s hoof in her own as she watched the princess.

* * *

“This is Princess Luna writing my fifth letter.

“I am starting to suspect that the thing is no more guardian of the ship than I am. Watching it as I have, I am now of the impression that it too is merely drawn to this place while seeking an escape. I can not imagine that I should want to offer it any assistance towards this objective.

“I have been trying to analyze the spell, as I recall it from the note. The note I found in the book was not sufficient to tell its purpose, and without a library of any sort it is hard to analyze its precise effects. But while mulling over the signs involved, I was subtly reminded of a certain four sigils in the Scripture of the Ghoul. I do not recognize it as one of these exact signs, but I should not be surprised to find that it matches one of them with only subtle differences. I will attempt to write them down below, as best as I can remember them.

“If I am correct about the sigils, then I may not be wrong in my assessment of this creature either. Is it possible that it is in fact the entrapped spirit of Twilight’s ancestor, or at minimum some fragment of her soul? If so, I fear that in banishing her from Twilight’s body as forcibly as I did, my own soul has become trapped in here with her. I can not imagine this was a normal effect of the spell. Midnight must have tried to strike back at me and turn the spell against me, only to be partially successful.

“Is it possible to work out what she did? It may be my only hope.

* * *

Trixie studied the intricate spells she had laboriously inscribed, without even the slightest clue what she was doing. Trixie had always been a very practical magician. She had never read a lot of magical theory, simply experimenting and using what she had found to work, or what other performers had been willing to teach her.

Trixie bit her lip. This sounded like dark and dangerous magic. Whatever scripture Luna was referring to was no doubt under heavy guard. Would Celestia deem it too dangerous to try? Would she take the letter from Trixie for fear of what such knowledge might do?

Trixie couldn’t risk that. If she was going to help Luna, she was going to have to do it on her own.

* * *

“This is Princess Luna writing my sixth letter.

“I can not know for certain what Midnight did, but in analyzing my own spell I believe I can make some guesses. I should think it highly probable that it was some sort of counter charm. The big question is what she hoped to do. Did she hope to make me the target of my own spell instead of her? That would be difficult, unless …

“If the spell was a corrupted form of the ghoul sigils, and given where I found it, its purpose must have been to banish the souls Midnight summoned. ‘Do not bring forth that which you can not put down again’, so it makes sense to have such a spell close at hoof.

“Midnight provided Twilight with research and information, enough for her to summon the dead and question them, and also to put them down afterwards. But this would also mean that Twilight could have returned Midnight to the grave in the same manner, unless Midnight made sure that the spell her descendants knew had a loophole that only she knew about, and which she could use against them if they ever tried to banish her.

“Indeed, I believe this is what she must have done, but in her wounded and frantic state, Midnight fumbled the counter spell and trapped us both.

“If I can work out what exactly was the charm’s intended effect and how it went wrong, I should be able to work out a spell to unweave the dream and regain control.”

* * *

“This is Princess Luna, and this is my seventh letter. I think it may fit to be my last, for I fear that I shall never escape this dream. I have come to this grim conclusion after an epiphany in which I spied a glimmer of hope, but this hope has now proven to be my doom instead.

“This place is suffused with sympathetic magic. I almost missed it, because of how subtly it creeps through this place. I can not imagine what Midnight intended, but what her fumble did was to create a very strong connection between us. The spell I cast banished and trapped Midnight in this dream construct, but because of the connection between us, my own soul has been tangled up in it as well.

“The good news is that it is not a difficult task to untangle me from Midnight and the dream. I have devised a spell, which I shall inscribe at the end of this letter in case I ever wish to be reminded of it. With this spell, one should be able to open a way for me to escape this place. The bad news is that I can not do so myself, and a connection must already exist between me and anypony else who should attempt the spell.

“There is but one pony with such a connection, and this pony is Trixie. When I gave her my blood and performed the rite that saved her, I created a sympathy between us, admittedly quite weak. In addition, she was also in the dungeon when I cast my spell. Since I have not found her here, I must assume the connection was not strong enough for my spell to trap her as it did me. The combined effect of all this should be sufficient for her to open the way, however.

“Alas, if Trixie did not actually die in that terrible event, then she is at least unlikely to help me. Not only can I not explain my predicament to her, but even if I could, why would she agree to help me when all I have done is hate her and try to kill her?

“I wish I could tell her how sorry I am. I wish I could tell her that I only ever wanted somepony to love me, and when I felt she ‘stole’ Twilight from me, I let my jealousy and hatred take over.

“I am so truly sorry, Trixie. I hope I redeemed myself a little in the last days, and if I wasn’t trapped here I would like to make it up to you in any way that is within my power. Maybe we could have been friends, if I hadn’t been such a big, jealous foal.

“I think I shall never have that chance again.”

* * *

“We were both big, jealous foals,” Trixie said as she watched Luna on the bed before her. “But you still saved my life, even when you didn’t have to.”

She looked down at the letter and the spell inscribed at the end. Luna had described it as ‘not a difficult thing’, but Luna knew much more about magic lore than Trixie could ever hope to do. What if Trixie screwed it up? What if she somehow made it worse?

Trixie sat down and stared at the spell. She had to get it right. And she would! With a deep breath to clear her mind, Trixie studied the spell closely and stood up. “This is it … The Great and Powerful Trixie can do this!”

Her horn lit up the form of the princess as Trixie closed her eyes and focused all her attention on Luna’s spell. Trixie gritted her teeth and groaned as she strained herself.

Threads tangled and untangled in the vision of her mind. Trixie pulled at the weave and felt herself suddenly drawn in …

“No no no …”

* * *

Luna pushed aside a dense blanket of reeds and shrubs. The old wreck of a ship came into view before her. Luna scanned the open marshland cautiously. There was no sign of the eight-legged thing. Cautiously she crawled out into the open and hurried as silently as she could across the watery wasteland.

She reached the ship and looked around, her heart beating in her chest. Nothing.

Luna breathed out and turned with relief, running her hoof along the wood until she reached the crack in the hull. Once again she looked over her shoulder before slipping inside. She might not have much time.

The room looked the same as it always did, the few times she had been lucky enough to get this far before alerting the creature. The same, at least, except for the papers she had taken to use for her letters. Why had she written those letters?

Luna shook the thought aside and turned to face the door and the little peephole beside it. She wasn’t sure what she hoped to find anymore, but what would she do if she just gave up? Simply wander around the swamp forever? She might as well try to pretend that she was doing something to better her situation, even if it was pointless.

A faint blue light seemed to shine from the other side of the peephole, something she had not noticed before. Luna blinked and moved closer, placing her eye against the hole to see. She was surprised to find another eye staring back, its pupil a deep violet.

Luna blinked and quickly spoke, “Hello? Anypony in there?”

No reply came back. She was about to look again when an eerie howl broke the silence. Luna’s body tensed as she spun around, ready to bolt. At her movement, the door behind her opened a crack as if by some unseen power.

The howling and running of legs was getting closer. Luna stared at the door for a breathless second before leaping through. “I’d rather take my chances in here than spend an eternity in that swamp!” she thought as she slammed the door shut behind her and leaned against it.

A long winding flight of stairs descended into the earth before her, surrounded by nothing except darkness as far as her eyes could see. She glanced back at the door in the dark behind her. The wall was gone, as was the peephole.

Luna turned back to the stairs and took a careful step ahead. Quickly she picked up pace, glancing back frequently as she descended the steps.

The scent of the moist earth was all around her, and it did not take long for her to lose all sense of direction. The stairs just wound their way onwards, but whether it was up or down, left or right was impossible to tell. Luna paused and looked over the edge of the stairs. Nothing but the blackest abyss greeted her.

A shiver ran down her spine. The long creak of a door in the darkness behind her made her heart skip a beat. She quickly hurried on, taking several steps at a time.

The sound of many scuttling legs in the dark behind her drove Luna on. She was too frightened to look behind her as she galloped down the old stone steps in the dark. A pale light flickered far ahead. Luna cried out in desperation as she steered for the light, feeling the presence close behind her.

A grand citadel of light, surrounded by vast gardens loomed ahead of her. Luna stumbled and closed her eyes as she fell into the light screaming.

* * *

Luna cried and fell into a pair of outstretched hooves. She felt herself pulled up and through the blinding light. Behind her, the darkness and the stairs dissolved and disappeared. Luna blinked and opened her eyes. A fresh breeze from the window tickled her coat as the light faded.

“Trixie!” Luna hugged Trixie tightly and let her tears flow freely. “You … saved me!”

Trixie let out a long breath of exhaustion and grinned, hiding her own tears as she held Luna. “Hah! Was there ever any doubt? Now Trixie thinks she is entitled to half the kingdom, maybe.”

* * *

Eight legs crept through the darkness, blindly searching the stairs and walls around them. It stopped and looked out over the grand castle and lush gardens.

The creature smiled.

Author's Note:

This bonus act was inspired by a little story of the same name by J. Chapman Miske. Miske wrote his story based on a letter written by H. P. Lovecraft. You can see the similarity in Luna's first letter.

Comments

[k64speed]

Now I'm curious... *Spoilers for MitM ahead*

I'm willing to bet that the eye beyond the peephole was filly Twilight, and the blue light that accompanied it would reflect the filly's connection to Trixie. At the same time, the last we see of this eight-legged creature reveals that it sees the castle and garden--isn't it in the garden maze where Trixie first talks to Filly Twilight? This makes me wonder if the both of them were actually Twilight. Or, perhaps, was the creature actually Nightmare Moon? I know these ideas are a far stretch, but it still makes me think...

[adcoon]

2796618
Luna believes the creature to be Midnight, actually, and that Midnight was trapped in this dream by Luna's spell. The ending suggests that Midnight escaped along with Luna.

[k64speed]

2796667
...Oh. I knew she suggested that in her letter, it just didn't stick out to me. I should've figured out the obvious escaping after that. Sorry.

[Tome]

Great story