Virtues of Harmony

by SkylertKlaw

Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Past Sins

Back in Ponyville, the Diamond Dogs lead the mane six, along with Sky Fire, Spike, Luna, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Princess Luna, down to the mansion that Princess Celestia had commissioned. Out of all of them, Spike was the one who was the least bit excited. The memory of the events with the Diamond Dogs still fresh in his mind. He didn't like the fact that they had to trust the ones who kidnapped Rarity because she could find pretty gems.

The group spent about several minutes in silence. Tensions of course were still high between the Diamond Dogs and the Equestrians. Rarity's presence seemed to have them under her hoof though, making sure that no scuffles broke out.

"How far is it?" Twilight asked, breaking the silence.

"Not far yet, purple pony!" The Diamond Dog leader answered, glancing back to her, "You'll know when we get there!"

"How will we know?" Spike bluntly asked, folding his arms across his chest, "When you force us to dig for your gems?"

The Diamond Dog leader just ignored his comment as they continued to travel down towards the mansion. Silence once again overtook the group.

As they continued down the path, Twilight took notice of Princess Luna's mane. It wasn't the long starry mane that she had in the last Nightmare Night event, it was her short light blue mane. A frown grew across her face as she gently walked up to her side.

"Excuse me, Princess?" She asked quietly.

"Hm? Oh, what is it Twilight?"

"Forgive me for intruding but...I couldn't help but notice that you have your mane in its short fashion..." Twilight said, treading carefully on each word, "Is there a reason why?"

"Oh, my mane?" Luna chuckled somewhat, "I tend to keep it short during the regular months. I only let it in its true form around Nightmare Night."

Twilight could tell that she was lying. She decided not to push the issue any further. If there was one thing any pony in Equestrian knew, it was not to push a subject with a member of the royal family. Still, in the back of her mind she could only wonder the real reason Luna kept her mane short.

"Here we are!" The Leader of the Diamond Dogs said.

True to his word, the mansion that Celestia had commissioned stood in front of them. It was huge. Tons of care and effort went into making the mansion, suitable enough for anypony in Equestria. Not only was it big, but it was absolutely stunning to look at. The light blue color seemed to sparkle from the shining gems in the walls.

Everypony was lost for words, even Princess Luna.

"Whoa..." Spike marveled, honestly impressed by what the Diamond Dogs had done. "Man, this place is HUGE!"

"Yes, it's incredible." Fluttershy charmed in, "I had no idea the Diamond Dogs were capable of this."

Rainbow scoffed a bit before shaking her head, slanting her eyes in the process. Deep down, she was just as impressed as the others, but she couldn't let it be known too easily.

"It's certainly more than I expected." She said, trying to push out her best bored tone. Sky Fire just rolled his eyes at her poor attempt.

"What does blue pony mean by that?" The dog leader snapped, "We not fools!"

"You could have fooled me with that statement..." Sky Fire muttered to the side.

The dog leader glared at him with his beady yellow eyes. The one thing they hated more than anything was to be called fools. Before the situation could become more tense though, Rarity took a step forward. Remembering how she managed to 'defeat' them the last time they met, the dog leader immediately backed off.

"A-Anyway, welcome! Welcome to the mansion!" He hastily said, "It's fixed for white pon- I mean, Ms. Rarity!"

Rarity smiled 'innocently' as she trotted up to the door. The other ponies quickly followed after her. Luna seemed a bit confused, but didn't argue about how the tension finally being stopped. Spike smirked as he glanced over to the dog leader.

"Glad to see you remember us." He said coyly, quickly following after the others.

As the group entered the mansion, the first thing they saw was a large hallway. In the middle of the hallway, a large stairway that lead to a second series of rooms above. Hanging from the ceiling was a large and bright chandelier. To the left side, slab of ornate rock covered a large map, showing every detail about each room. Truly, it was a work of art.

"Not bad." Rainbow said, smirking.

"Look," Fluttershy pointed towards the map, "this map shows everything. There's enough beds for all of us, a rec room, a library, and..."

Fluttershy let out a very high pitched 'ee' sound as she read the final two words.

"An indoor garden!"

Twilight was the first of the group to react. Quickly clapping her hoofs together in merriment, she let out a squeal of happiness.

"An underground library!" She said, trotting off happily to the library.

"Somepony's excited." Applejack chuckled. "You might wanna go after her, Spike. You know how Twi can get."

Spike just gave a small smirk before running after Twilight. Even though they were in a completely different place now, he knew that Twilight couldn't help but be excited when it came to libraries.

That was one of his favorite qualities about her.

Sky Fire approached the map next. He studied it very carefully as he looked over each room. He had to admit, he was impressed by what the Diamond Dogs did. It must have coast Celestia thousands of bits to have built. What impressed him the most though was the rec room spec. They were quite elaborate, even for the Diamond Dogs.

"Not a bad place to plan attacks..." He mused.

"Yeah..." Rainbow smirked, "Who knew those dogs could actually build something like this?"

Sky Fire chuckled a bit as he continued studying the map alongside her. As they talked about what the mansion had, they failed to notice the most excited members of their group. The Cutie Mark Crusaders. Scootaloo turned to her friends, excitement burning in her eyes.

"Come on, let's go check out that rec room!" She said, running off ahead of her friends.

"All right!" Sweetie and Applebloom said together, running right behind her.

Behind them, both of their older sisters called out at the same time for them. They didn't respond however, too excited to see what the rec room looked like. Rarity groaned in annoyance as she pursed her lips together.

"They'll never listen properly..." She muttered. Unaware of a certain pink pony looking over Sky Fire and Rainbow's shoulders.

"Oooh! That big room up top is PERFECT for having parties!" Pinkie Pie said loudly, pulling out a cake from her bag again.

The group laughed at how random Pinke was being. Before they had questioned how she was able to fit a whole cake in a bag, but now, they just decided not to ask questions.

XxXxX

Luna walked slowly down the hall towards the library Twilight and Spike were in. Though she had not shown it earlier, there was more on her mind that she let on. One of them being the answer she gave Twilight. Truthfully, she wasn't expecting the question at all. She had to make up something on the spot to avoid the real answer.

She knew that Twilight didn't believe her excuse. Celestia's student was way too smart to be fooled by such a simple answer. Afterall, Twilight was the one who rediscovered the Elements of Harmony, freeing her and trapping Discord yet again. She also helped her open up more during the first Nightmare Night Luna had attended in years. She held a great amount of respect for her.

Dismissing the troubling thoughts on her mind, Luna approached the library door. Putting on her best happy expression, she walked into the library. Luna smiled at Twilight's happy cheers as she looked at each book she walked by.

"Oh! Spike! I wish we had brought some copying paper!" She cheered, glancing over one book, "Ooooh, some of this stuff is irreplaceable!"

Spike sighed as he picked up each book she put down and put them into a pile one one table. Luna chuckled as she approached the baby dragon.

"She really does enjoy reading, I take it?" Luna asked.

"You have NO idea." Spike sighs, placing the last book Twilight glanced over on top of the pile.

"Spike! Over here! Hurry!" Twilight's voice called out from one of the shelves.

The baby dragon sighed as he began to jog towards where his friend was. Luna chuckled as she glided after him. It was a nice change of scenery to see a pony happy for once instead of worried ever since Storm Rider's attack.

"What's up Twi?" Spike asked as they reached her, "You find a collector's edition?"

"Eee, even better!" Twilight says as she pulls out a wore out marooned colored book. En-labeled in golden, but mostly faded, letters read a simple title, 'The Great War.'

"It's the only one of it's kind, it's elegant!" Twilight said happily, opening it up to reveal the mostly intact pages. "Oh, I wish we had some paper to copy all this!"

"Let me see that." Luna said.

Twilight smiled as she turned the book over to the younger Princess. The first chapter that Twilight had opened the book up to was one of the great battle with the zombie horde Amducias had summoned. Luna's eyes seemed to dance in memories as she read over the battle. A small smile of nostalgia grew across her lips.

"Oh yeah, I remember that battle. Amducias had summoned a bunch of zombies, but I was immune to their attacks, and they were easily defeated by my sister." Luna said, looking a bit down as the memories came back to her, "Even though it was a war...it was still a simpler time then."

"Simpler?" Twilight asked, but before she could ask her question her answer was revealed in Luna's eyes. A small smile came to her face. "It seems like it really was a fun time at least...before the war, right?"

"Well...I mean yeah, for all the faults he showed, Amducias fought hard, and we actually came close to losing at times." Luna sighed, "But you could feel the camaraderie between us."

The younger princess blinked a couple of times as a new thought came to her mind. Glancing towards the shelves again, she came across a black book. Shivering slightly, she pulled the book out and took it out. The cover had no title, it was just pure black.

She began flipping through the pages. She was determined to find out any answers, if there even was any. Maybe there was something to explain why Storm Rider had become evil, or even explain why she had become Nightmare Moon.

Luna shuddered at the thought of her darker alter ego's name. While it was true that many of the ponies in Equestria had seen her for what she truly was, the memory of being that monster still made her sick. If it wasn't for her big sister's help, and Twilight's assistance during the first Nightmare Night, she would have never recovered so far.

"Luna," Twilight said, "if you don't mind, what...what happened before you became Nightmare Moon? Do you remember anything?"

"...In truth, not really." She answered. "All I could think about was how jealous I was of my older sister...but I knew I still loved her."

She glanced down to the ground. The truth was that she was still regaining her memories from what happened after the second time Discord was sealed away. It was all fuzzy for her, even after the two years it took her to recover.

"W-What's that?" Twilight's voice said, snapping her out of her trance.

Luna blinked as she glanced to what Twilight was looking at. In the middle of the book was a pure black page. There was only one part of the page that was a different color. A single word in pure white lettering.

'Master.'

"Master..." Twilight mused, "What could it mean by that?"

"I don't..." Luna began to say, but a massive migraine hit her. Crying out loudly, the younger princess collapsed to the ground.

"Luna!" Twilight shouted, bending down as she helped her up. "Please be all right! Princess Luna!"

Luna could hear Twilight, but she couldn't see her. She tried to speak, to let her know that she could hear her. But her voice was mute. Something, or someone, was blocking her seeing her friend. A dark presence began to make itself known in the back of her mind. One being that she dreaded the most.

Nightmare Moon.

Luna's dark alter ego glared at her with a malicious grin. Each step she took made Luna's heart beat faster and faster.

"Look at you." Nightmare Moon said, "You think you can just go on and forget me? Well you can't."

The dark mare laughed, sending chills down Luna's spine.

"I am still with you, Luna. I am ALWAYS with you. And I will keep returning until you accept that I am right."

"N-No..."

"The Eternal Night is truly what you want!" As Nightmare Moon laughed, dark tendrils from her mane shot out towards Luna, determined to wrap themselves around her.

"No...NO!"

XxXxX

"NO!" Luna screamed, bolting up from the same spot she had collapsed at, only this time she was surrounded by Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy.

"You're all right!" Twilight said, a big smile of relief on her face.

"W-What happened?" Luna stammered, her forehead damp with sweat.

"You collapsed..." Fluttershy said, "Spike came to get me the moment you did."

"Do you have any idea what caused her to though?" Twilight asked.

"Well...it looks like she experienced a nightmare. But..." Fluttershy dragged one hoof across the ground, "I can't figure out what caused it."

"...It was that book." Luna said, straightening herself out, "Something about it knocked me out of and made me see...HER."

Twilight, Fluttershy, and Spike didn't need to ask who she meant. There was only one being that Luna would ever address in such a fashion. The younger princess noticed their worried looks though and gave them a kind smile.

"I'll be fine. I'm not about to lose myself again so soon after reclaiming myself."

"Please...be careful princess." Twilight begged, concern growing in her eyes, "We don't want to lose you again..."

"Thank you, all of you, for the concern." Luna said, standing up on her own hoofs again, "If something happens, you'll know."

Twilight gave a reluctant nod. She wasn't going to push the issue any further than it already had gone. They had more than enough trouble already. Remembering Nightmare Moon was not one of the things they needed to add to their list.

However, in the back of Luna's mind, a dark part of her still remained. Waiting for the right moment...

To Be Continued...

Comments

[Hailey-chan]

luna and princess luna?

[Hailey-chan]

luna and princess luna?