Genealogy - (or the Mating Habits of Nocturnes Pegasi)

by Georg

Chap. 9 - I Had a Dream Last Night

Genealogy - (or The Mating Habits of Nocturnes Pegasi)
I Had a Dream Last Night

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“Miss Diamond Tiara! Time to get up.” The maid poked her nose into the bedroom of Filthy Rich’s spoiled daughter and looked around. Normally the bratty little snipe had a full dozen or more catty comebacks before she would even set hoof outside her comfortable bed, and it made every morning a time where the maid really regretted not being born a unicorn. The idea of dragging the screaming little brat out of bed by the tail and bouncing her down the stairs into the kitchen was a constant temptation, and while she probably could do the same job with her teeth, the prospect of getting kicked in the face repeatedly while engaged in job-ending wish-fulfillment was just not appealing. Unfortunately, not one, but two little faces poked themselves out from under the covers this morning and the maid groaned to herself.

Silver Spoon. Why did it have to be her?

A weak, fake coughing came from the bed, and Diamond Tiara whined, “I don’t feel good. And neither does Silver Spoon. Can we stay home from school today?”

Ah, payback. “Of course, young Miss. Your father has already left for work. Shall I contact Dr. Stable for a house visit?”

“No! I mean, no, I don’t think that’s needed.” She gave another little fake cough. “I’m sure we just have a little bug. A germ! I mean a germ!”

“Very well, young Miss. I will notify the school and bring up a breakfast for you and your guest. Will haycon and eggs be acceptable?”

“No eggs!” screeched Silver Spoon, burrowing under the covers.

“Bring some blankets! Yes, we need more blankets,” snapped Diamond Tiara.

The maid left and the two little fillies scurried out of the bed to closely examine their little grey egg. “It still feels cold.”

Diamond Tiara bit her bottom lip and threw a blanket over the egg. “We need to sneak it back into its mother’s nest before she realizes it’s missing.”

“They know it’s missing! Didn’t you see all those evil pegasuses flying around last night?” Silver Spoon lowered her voice. “I’ll bet this is a special egg. Maybe even a Queen?”

Diamond Tiara glanced around the room as if there were fierce Night Pegasus Ninja hiding in the corners. “Don’t worry. I have a foolproof plan.”

* * *

The Everfree forest seemed more like a tropical jungle, but at least the thick canopy made the lighting at ground level more to Pumpernickel’s liking. Thick vines hung from the trees, overgrown with leprous-looking moss and swarms of small, pesky insects. No flowers graced the heavy forest, just the occasional flicker of color as a bird dashed from cover in the distance. The stench of rotting vegetation surrounded them both with an intensity that seemed to force itself into the lungs and throat while the hot fetid air made sweat pour down the inside of his oven-like armor.

“So why are we slugging through the weeds down here instead of just flying over?” groused Pumpernickel as he raised a hoof from the gummy black mud that made up most of the ‘path.’

“Quiet.” Laminia glared back at the guard before continuing to slog down the vine-enshrouded path. “I swear you make more noise than an elephant.”

“Like you know what an elephant sounds like,” grumbled Pumpernickel, brushing aside a vine which coiled around him and began to constrict. “Hey!”

“I told you to be quiet,” said Laminia, glaring back at him with a complete lack of sympathy. “Now I don’t have anypony to protect me.” Vines came curling out from the woods, wrapping completely around her and dragging her from sight. Her voice continued to filter out of the forest even as he struggled against more vines that began to wrap around his own body. “You’ve failed. You should have just gone away and let a real Royal Guard protect me.”

“Laminia!” The vines began to wrap around his neck, blotting out his attempt to see where the ball of vines surrounding her had already vanished into the dark forest. “Oh Luna, why does—”

She left off ‘Matriarch of Dreams and Ruler of Shadows’. I guess they don’t fit on her signature.

“Luna.” He ripped a hoof free from the vines and tore at the ground. “LUNA! LEAVE HER ALONE!” Vines seemed to fly away from him as he thrashed, bringing his wings up and smashing them forward repeatedly regardless of the pain. He tore himself free of the clinging vegetation and plunged into the dark woods, finding himself alone in a darkened clearing.

“LUNA!” he screamed, his voice shaking with rage. “Stop this right now!”

“What makes you think Luna is involved,” purred a soft, velvety voice that brought a cold chill up his back. The dark alicorn that slipped out of the shadows was much taller than Princess Luna, and wore the armor of Nightmare Moon. Cat-like yellow eyes looked back into his own as she purred, “Why so surprised? You’re the one who called for me.”

“Buck you,” he snarled. “Get out of Laminia’s head right now! She’s got enough guilt right now to deal with, this isn’t going to help.” Pumpernickel face twisted as he attempted to think. “Please.”

“Please? What makes you think your Queen of the Night cares for your trivial little problems?” Nightmare Moon turned into a cloud of blue sparks and flowed through the humid forest air, rematerializing beside Pumpernickel with a brush of wings up his bare flank. “Yum, tasty.”

The guard took a deep breath to calm his racing heart, and slowly knelt down into the clinging mud. “Princess Luna, I beg of you, please stop. I will do anything you ask, just please. Leave her alone.”

“Anything?” The dark alicorn brushed up alongside him and whispered into his ear. “Anything at all? Do you care for this foolish creature then? Do you even know what she did?”

“Yes. Yes, I do know what she did. But she did it out of love for you. She cared for you, and wanted you to be… better than you were. She never wished for you to be consumed by Nightmare Moon. Neither of us did. If you need to take your anger out on anypony, take it out on me. Please. Before this form you are taking now becomes comfortable to you.”

“What! You dare to beg favors from me?” A crash of thunder illuminated Nightmare Moon from the back, flattening leaves around him as the very sky seemed to open up with rain. He was soaked to the bone in seconds, but he remained frozen in place, his head between his forehooves in a posture of supplication. Hailstones began to smash to earth around him and the wind picked up into a fierce gale. Pumpernickel did not move.

Finally, a dark figure slipped up to his side and gave his ear a good, solid, wet lick.

“Yeach! Ewww!” The Guard shook his head and sneezed, and when he opened his eyes again, he was resting on a grassy hill with the open star-filled sky above. No wind. No clouds. No Nightmare Moon. Just stars. And completely dry except for a wet ear.

“Dost thou have one speck of brains in that rattling skull, my trusted guard?” The night sky in front of Pumpernickel seemed to part like a curtain and Luna looked down on Pumpernickel’s prone form. “What would make you think that a dream I hast placed within your mind alone would affect my Hoofmaiden? Art thou truly this ignorant of our powers?”

For one moment he wanted to jump to his hooves, but he stayed where he was, face down, prone on the dry grass. “I’m sorry, Princess Luna. I have little experience with dreams. It was never covered in the Academy curriculum.”

“Perhaps I shall have it added. For now, we have a different fish to fry. What?” she asked at Pumpernickel’s terrified shudder. “‘Tis a valid modern euphemism, I did hear it from the Griffon Ambassador.” She sighed as the guard remained in his subservient position.

“We did expend a great deal of effort to ensure the removal of thyself from the presence of my Royal Hoofmaiden, and here you are not a single night later, wrapped up in her passionate embrace. What must I do to separate you two?”

“I did not intend to return, but my family duties brought me here.” A change seemed to sweep over Pumpernickel’s body, when he looked up, he was no longer in the grass but on the floor of the library. Princess Luna stood by his side and looked over the neatly stacked collection of chests with a degree of puzzlement.

“Verily, I did not expect this kind of response to mine correspondence. Perhaps it was a transcription error.” She trotted up the stairs, passing Twilight Sparkle with a giant-sized cup of coffee floating by her side as she went about organizing checklists and charts around her newest treasures. The purple unicorn paid no attention to the Princess of the Night as she passed, although Pumpernickel was not sure if that was because he and the Princess were in some strange dream world, or she was just concentrating on her work.

Luna paused at the dressmaker’s dummy outside their storeroom/bedroom to look over his carefully arranged uniform where Laminia had placed it before bedtime. He hoped for some sort of approval for Laminia’s work, but she merely made the smallest of sniffing noises before turning to the storeroom and opening the door. He felt almost certain that the images he was seeing now were just a dream, because the sunlight streaming into the storeroom did nothing but illuminate the features of the two Night Pegasi who were wrapped up in each other’s embrace, sound asleep.

“What am I to do with you two? I feel responsible, for I was the one who brought you together, and I the one who attempted to separate you.”

She looks so peaceful. So unlike when she is awake. Pumpernickel turned from the scene and looked away. “She deserves better. I hurt her whenever I’m around. Send me away, far away.” A cold shiver went up his flank again and he swished his stubby tail in discomfort. “She should meet somepony who will bring happiness to her instead of pain.”

“Strange,” said Luna distantly. “She looks happy now. And yet as much as you say you wish only her well-being, can you name anyone who brought her joy before you?” A wordless pause stretched between them. “I thought not.”

There was something there, he could feel it. Some tiny little hint of warmth that stayed just tantalizingly out of his reach. There was an answer he was not seeing, if only he could bring it out into the moonlight.

Luna gave a sigh of regret. “If happiness were something I could merely command, do you not think I would have it myself? I lost all of the joy in my heart when Nightmare Moon stole me away from my sister, and am only now ever so slowly regaining it. Time is something my immortal sister and I have in great quantity, but our bond could take centuries to return to what it once was. For foolish mortals...”

The dream began to fade away as the library became indistinct in his vision. “I give you no orders, my faithful guard, but one. Live.”

The darkness seemed to recede slightly, and the interior of the library storeroom swam slowly into focus as he woke for real. It felt strange to be waking up here, stranger too to feel Laminia’s legs securely locked around him. But not as strange as the feeling of her muzzle in his sore ear, and the occasional mumbled word ‘ice cream.’ Accompanied by a lick.

It was still at least an hour until moonrise. It would have been difficult to work his way free of the crushing embrace of the dark mare, but not impossible. He actually considered it several times, in particular whenever Laminia would snuggle in tight, or lick his ear again like an ice cream cone.

The closer the relationship, the more pain resulted when when it was ripped in half. His own experience with sisters notwithstanding, Luna must have loved her sister so much. It must have been like being torn in half for both of them when Celestia had used the Elements of Harmony to seal Luna in the moon.

Perhaps Laminia’s explanation for her cutie mark was accurate after all. Love just seemed like a rigged game, and the only way not to lose, was not to play. So why didn’t he get out of bed? After all, his bandages itched, it was stuffy in the room, and he needed to get going back to Canterlot because he never had actually checked back in with the Guard so it was vaguely possible he was considered missing despite Luna knowing where he was. Even while on leave, it was a violation of his Royal Guard’s oath not to have left word where he could be found. So it was really important for him to get going. Soon. When the moon rose, perhaps.

Comments

[djthomp]

Yeah, probably best to stay in bed a little while longer.

[BenRG]

Poor Pumpernickel! The problem he's facing is that Laminia has a lot of hurt inside her and she's decided that she doesn't deserve to be happy. Because he is making her happy, ergo, there is something wrong and she has to drive him away. What he is going to have to do is teach her that there is no crime in her happiness. Maybe even one day they'll believe it.

I wonder what they're going to think when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon present a melon to them and inform them that they stopped Applebloom from stealing 'their egg'. Something tells me that the two spoilt fillies are going to be spending a long time at Dr Extreme Therapy's Hospital for Mentally Wayward Rich Gentlefoals.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Proof that procrastination can be used for good as well as evil.

I love lucid dream sequences, and this one was excellently done. I was half expecting a Monty Python and the Holy Grail reference when Luna appeared in the clouds.

[Georg]

1412779 Hopefully you'll like Chapter 13 then, it's almost *all* a dream sequence. (and yes, they're harder to write than normal scenes) Working on it now.

[Dongaro]

I really liked the earlier two stories, both for pacing and characterization. And this story started off really strong, but it's gotten weaker and weaker. Tsundere relationships, and broken wing relationships can be interesting if done correctly, but it's really hard to pull off. Particularly abusive relationships wherein the abused wants someone better for their beloved.

I like th echaracterization of Luna and Celestia a great deal, and the OCs are interesting. But the plot has kind of fallen a bit. It was an interesting story, but I'm going to jump ship now so to speak. I look forward to reading your next work.

[Nyerguds]

“We did expend a great deal of effort to ensure the removal of thyself from the presence of my Royal Hoofmaiden, and here you are not a single night later, wrapped up in her passionate embrace. What must I do to separate you two?”

Luna, you complete bitch... You don't "fix mistakes" at the cost of the people involved

It felt strange to be waking up here, stranger too to feel Laminia’s legs securely locked around him. But not as strange as the feeling of her muzzle in his sore ear, and the occasional mumbled word ‘ice cream.’ Accompanied by a lick.

Don't you dare scream, Pumpernickel

Remarks and corrections:
> The purple unicorn payed no attention to the Princess of the Night
Again, "paid".

[Amos Anon]

Diamond Tiara glanced around the room as if there were fierce Night Pegasus Ninja hiding in the corners. “Don’t worry. I have a foolproof plan.”

Murphy? Yeah, life is calling you!