Taming Nightmare Moon

by Leafdoggy

Chapter 17

“I just didn’t know who else to turn to.” Celestia was pacing back and forth frantically as she spoke. The words were coming out fast and nervous, with very little effort devoted to screen what she was saying. She looked weary, and her mane was a disaster because she kept stopping to anxiously run a hoof through it. “Anypony at the castle would have told Luna, and anypony who wouldn’t tell her, I don’t know well enough to trust! And I know, trust me, I know I should just go to Luna, but…” She stopped and rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know! I just can’t.”

“So you came to me?”

Pinkie Pie sat on the floor in the Sugarcube Corner, watching the Princess curiously. She was clearly concerned, but hints of apprehension could be seen on her face.

“You’re the only pony I could think of! I’ve heard about your… Episodes, so I thought you might have some advice.”

“What, like when I get sad?” Pinkie tilted her head in confusion. “You look more scared than sad. That’s more Fluttershy’s thing.”

“No, I—” Celestia sighed and stopped pacing to look at Pinkie. “I need to explain. Okay, so…” She paused, still not sure about what she was doing. “You know Nightmare Moon, right?”

“Big scary Princess that Applejack thinks is hot?” Pinkie nodded. “Yeah, why?”

“I… I think the same thing might be happening to me.”

“Ohhh.” Pinkie drew out the word far longer than was necessary. “That’s not good.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“You should talk to Luna,” Pinkie told her. “Or Nightmare Moon, I guess.”

“I know.” Celestia ran her hoof through her mane again. “I know! I need to just go right up to her and lay it all out.”

“...Yes?”

“So why can’t I?”

“Hmm…” Pinkie hummed in thought. “Well, do you want to?”

Celestia blinked and stared at her. “What?”

“I know there’s plenty of stuff I should do that I don’t cuz I just don’t wanna. Cleaning my room, eating vegetables, not eating garlic before I visit Fluttershy. Whatever.”

“Of course I want to,” Celestia said quietly. “Why wouldn’t I want to?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Iunno.”

“Not telling her is just going to make things worse. I just want us to be close again.”

“I mean, when I’m sad all I ever do is make things worse. When I lock myself in my room all day, I know it’s gonna get the others worried about me, but when I’m sad like that, well… That’s what I want.”

“Okay, but I’m not… I’m myself right now, right?”

“I get sad way before I get sad,” Pinkie told her. “Maybe you’re still… Whatever it is you were feeling that got you so freaked out.”

“How I felt?” Celestia thought for a moment. “I don’t know, I didn’t feel all that different. Just kind of… Angry? Except I wasn’t actually angry, once it got going I was pretty calm. I just wanted to teach him a lesson.”

“Uh-huh… Well, did you?”

“Teach him a lesson?” Celestia let out a dry chuckle. “Yes, I’m pretty sure I got the point across.”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow.

“What?” Celestia looked at her for a moment, then her eyes went wide. “Oh. Oh, it’s still there. Oh, no, that isn’t good.”

“Yeahhh…” Pinkie gritted her teeth.

“And…” Celestia looked down at her hooves. “If I tell Luna, she’ll make it impossible for me to do it again if I think I have to… I don’t want to feel that way, though! Thinking about what I actually did is horrifying, and thinking about how I felt when I did it is even worse. Surely that’s reason enough to get me to go to Luna.”

“Well, are you gonna?”

“I…” Celestia closed her eyes, willing herself to take action, but she couldn’t do it. “Pinkie, I don’t understand. There’s no way I want this to happen!”

“I mean, I don’t want things to get worse when I start to feel bad.” Pinkie looked away and started rubbing her leg anxiously. “But… Part of me does. When I start to feel bad, there’s a part of me that tells me ‘Let it happen. You’re already sad, and they haven’t noticed. See how long it takes them. Make them face how blind they are to how you feel and feel terrible for it.’” Pinkie paused and rubbed her eyes. “They’re awful thoughts. I hate them. I hate myself the whole time I listen, but once they’re loud enough to hear… It’s usually too late to stop them”

Celestia frowned. She wasn’t sure how to respond. She decided on just walking up to Pinkie, leaning down and rubbing her shoulder. “Thank you for the help, Pinkie Pie. Is there anything I can do in return?”

Pinkie sniffed and shook her head. “It’s okay, Princess Celestia. I’m happy to help. Let me know if you need any more advice later.”

Celestia nodded. “I will. Right now, though, I should be getting back home. Should I tell Applejack that you could use some company?”

“No, I can go to Fluttershy’s. Good luck with everything.” Pinkie got up and started walking slowly to the door. “Bye…”

Celestia pursed her lips. “Hopefully next time we’ll meet under better circumstances.”

“Mm-hm.”

With that, Pinkie walked out the door, and Celestia was left alone. A moment after that, in a flash of light, she was gone too.

Back in the castle, Applejack had woken up alone. She didn’t sleep in too late, she just wasn’t that kind of pony, but getting up at dawn was just a bit too much for her. So, the lack of Princesses in the throne room didn’t shock her.

What did shock her was the absence of anypony else. There was no Vim, no guards, not even any carpenters working on windows or rugs. It was just her.

Her thoughts drifted immediately to mischief. Applejack wasn’t much of a trickster, but some opportunities are just too good to ignore, and being unsupervised in the throne room of Canterlot Castle was definitely one of those opportunities. It was enough to tempt anypony.

Disappointingly, there just wasn’t anything for her to do. The throne room was dreadfully bare, just two massive chairs and some curtains. It didn’t even have a carpet anymore. Maybe Rainbow Dash could have thought of something, but Applejack didn’t have the creative spark or the experience she needed for this.

So, instead, she opted to wander the halls of the castle. Thankfully, there were ponies in the rest of the castle; she wasn’t ashamed to admit that the empty throne room had given her the hint of a scare. She wasn’t actually scared, of course, but if the entire castle had been empty it would have been a different story.

The castle was as busy as ever, though. More so, even, with the ponies who were scattered around working on renovations. She didn’t recognize any of them, but it seemed like they were starting to recognize her, as several ponies stopped to say hello or waved as they passed by her in the halls.

The warmest welcomes came from the few ponies she found scattered about who were clad in the new Lunar Guard outfit. They were mostly pegasi, who all wore their leathery wings with pride, but there were earth ponies and unicorns mixed in, too. The one common thread between them all seemed to be a great respect for either Luna or Nightmare Moon, and it seemed that, for most of them, that respect carried over to Applejack as well.

It was all a bit surreal for her. Sure, a lot of ponies in Ponyville respected her for her hard work and honesty, but she wasn’t generally respected just for being Applejack. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. She hadn’t earned that respect, she just happened to be dating the Princess. It seemed like taking something that wasn’t rightfully hers, and it gave her the same tight feeling in her gut that lying did.

Eventually all the attention got to be too much, and Applejack ducked into the nearest room.

She found herself in the library, and when the doors shut behind her it became eerily silent. Here and there were the sound of pages turning or ponies moving around, but just being able to hear those things was bizarre. It was like the library existed in its own little bubble of existence.

As she walked in, the librarian looked up from the book she was reading and smiled brightly. He was a stout yellow pegasus, and despite the genuine warmth of his smile, he looked scarily serious as soon as it faded. “Ah, Applejack. Wonderful to see you. I presume you’re looking for Vim?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Vim’s here?”

The librarian chuckled. “I guess you’re not. Well, yes, she’s back looking through our books of magic. Is there something I can help you with, though?”

“Err, I was actually just lookin to escape the hootenanny out in the halls.” She scratched the back of her neck awkwardly. “Sorry.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem,” he told her. “No matter the reason, you’ve found your way here. Feel free to have a look around, and let me know if you need help at all.”

“Will do,” Applejack said with a smile.

She walked off into the endless rows of books. Applejack was used to big libraries, as were all of Twilight’s friends, but the scale of this one still threw her off. It wasn’t deep, in fact the first floor only held as many books as the front room of Twilight’s old library in the tree, but so did the second floor, and the third, the fourth, and it didn’t take long for Applejack to realize that the library must take up an entire tower of the castle. She couldn’t believe Twilight had ever managed to pry herself away from this place.

The benefit of the layout, though, was that every floor was like its own little world. The noises of one floor hardly travelled to the others, which meant that Applejack didn’t need to feel self conscious when she found Vim on the seventh floor and walked up to greet her.

“Howdy.”

Vim had been sitting on the floor with her nose buried in a thick tome, and she jumped up in shock at Applejack’s voice. Then she paused, took a breath, and calmed down from the scare.

“Hi, Applejack,” she said once she had caught her breath. “What brings you here?”

“Just wanderin,” Applejack told her. “You?”

“Oh, I’m working on—” She remembered who she was talking to and stopped herself. “Um, I’m working on a personal project.”

“Yeah? Anything I can help with?”

“I’m afraid not,” Vim said. She shook her head solemnly. “Thank you for the offer, though.”

“Well, tell me about it. I might surprise ya.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to take up too much of your time,” Vim said with a nervous chuckle.

“My… Wandering time?” Applejack gave her a curious look.

“Well, you’re on vacation is all, I don’t want to bog you down with work, you know?”

“Ain’t like I’m doin much else,” Applejack said, “and I’m kinda itchin for some work to be honest.”

“Oh, I really don’t think you’d be able to help…” Vim chewed on her lip anxiously.

“C’mon, don’t count me out so quick. I’ve hung out with Twilight enough to pick up a thing or two about just about everything.”

“Oh, I’m not trying to say you wouldn’t know anything, I just…” Vim grimaced. “You know, I’ve already checked so many books, and—”

“Vim.” Applejack stared down at her. “Just tell me what the dang thing you’re lookin into is.”

“It’s, um… Eclipses.”

Applejack’s eyes widened. “What in Equestria could you wanna know about eclipses that you can’t get from Luna?”

“Um… How to… Cause them?” Vim winced.

Applejack took a shocked step back. “What? Girl, what do you think Luna would say if she heard you talkin about making an eclipse?”

“Well, actually, um…” Vim made a nervous sound and looked away.

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “What is she up to?”

“Up to? Why would she be up to anything?”

“Vim.”

Vim sighed. “Okay, fine. She wants to test you, and thought that if you stopped an eclipse you might become a Princess.”

Applejack’s jaw fell open. “Has everypony around her lost their dang minds?”

“That’s entirely possible.”

Applejack groaned and started stomping away. “That girl is gonna hear some words.”

“Okay, well, I’ll uh…” Vim looked around. “I’ll be here, I guess… Researching.”

Comments

[Eroraf86]

Applejack’s jaw fell open. “Has everypony around her lost their dang minds?”

You live in Ponyville. This barely qualifies as a Tuesday.

[Vaguely Demented]

So Fluttershy is a vampony?