Chapter 6
More often than not, the immediate aftermath of a disaster is just as chaotic as the disaster itself.
It didn’t matter if it was the result of active malice or an act of god; there would always be people who tried to rush into the thick of things, no matter how grim it may seem. Generally, it ends up being a pointless effort. Either the stress eats away at their bodies until they become as useless as the victims they're trying to save, or pure, unlucky chance cuts their act of heroism short.
If they’re lucky, the real first responders corral them out of harm’s way as they try to meaningfully help. Whether they be a trained medic performing an emergency triage or search and rescue sifting through the rubble for trapped and helpless victims, they try to save as many people as possible.
Even so, There’s only so much someone can do, no matter how many hours they’ve trained for a situation, and I envied those who could face these catastrophes without flinching away from the mounting horrors that awaited them.
No, I was very firmly in a different category—the spectators. We were the cowards, the greedy, the pessimists. More often than not, our kind can justify our inaction with logic or craft an elaborate scapegoat to avoid the blame being hoisted upon our shoulders. Regardless if we’re just out for ourselves or spineless cowards, there is one unifying trait that brings our lot together.
We’re vultures.
We have an obsessive need to witness the unfortunate suffering of others, even if we fervently deny it. Like people at a zoo, we slow down to see the mangled bodies inside their crumpled vehicles in an accident. We watch impassionately from the comfort of our sofas as countless lives are uprooted and taken by the latest catastrophe. Some of us even scour the internet for live footage of these tragedies to satiate that fear-driven, adrenaline-fueled rush we crave so desperately.
This inherent need kept me rooted in front of the throne room doors, even as the very castle itself trembled. Curtains, banisters, sconces, tapestries- the collage of bright yellows and midnight blues scattered anything not nailed down like leaves in autumn. At the same time, dozens of fractures yawned open on the polished marble floors, greedily swallowing any wayward debris.
I reflexively placed my hands to my ears as the wind’s howls grew in ferocity. The patchwork of my frayed memories and past experiences thudded away inside my skull as I witnessed the freak whirlwind tearing apart everything in its wake. Through all the noise, I could still hear her voice. It was everywhere at once. Behind me, in front of me, inside my head. Luna’s voice was like a shadow on my thoughts.
Heedless of my survival instincts, I kept my eyes glued to the spectacle through the open throne room doors as these two forces of nature clashed. Propelled by wings and magic, Luna launched herself forwards, legs outstretched as she tried to pounce at her prey like a tiger to its meat.
Body ablaze, the violet armored figure retorted with a powerful blast of energy. The sluggish air compressed into a gout of fire that filled the throne room with a flash as bright as the sun.
Billowing shrouds of dust swept toward me, and I shielded my eyes and mouth as I began to tear up. The sounds that accompanied the blast were painful, almost deafening.
I fell to my knees.
…
I blinked.
White. Piles of white poured in through the shattered stained glass windows. Freezing, biting cold gnawed at the muscles underneath my skin. Pale clouds of vapor escaped my lips. The wind’s howls grew even more feral. A fear, long lodged and buried in the depths of my consciousness, surged into the forefront of my mind.
“Doth thou truly have nothing to say, sister? After everything thou hath wrought upon us?” She accused, her voice drowned in scorn and twinged with sadness. Luna firmly placed her forehoof upon her opponent's chest plate, whom she had immobilized with a tangle of dark blue, ethereal vines within the confusion of those few critical moments.
“What more can I say that has not already been said? What must I do to free you from your delusions?” Another voice responded. Regal. Scornful. Just like Luna’s, when she wasn’t hiding her true nature behind a mask of empathy and understanding. Even within her precarious position, the voice of Luna’s adversary commanded respect.
“Do not lay thy blame at our hooves, sister! ‘Twas thy folly that-”
“Starved and buried our subjects under a mountain of snow? Brought ruin to countless kingdoms? Violated the sanctity of an innocent being's body and soul? No, I’m afraid I won’t be taking credit for all of your… hard work.”
“Thy stubbornness and lies are tiresome, sister. We have only wanted to help thee, yet thou insists upon spurning our offers for help like a stubborn mule,” The sound of metal bending and snapping echoed through the throne room as Luna pressed down with her hoof.
“Know this, Tia, that we do this for thine own good. Time heals all wounds, and thou will see the folly of thine actions once we make thee whole again.” She mournfully spoke as her hoof punctured clean through the armor’s chest plate.
Something suddenly scraped against the back of my left leg, just below the knees, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Metallic. Purple. The lone forelimb dangled off the perforated chest plate, and I stared into the eyeless gaze of the broken automaton. I didn’t need to read between the lines to understand what they were trying to convey.
Run, you incompetent dipshit! Get the fuck out!
Quietly, I pushed myself up to my feet before turning to my left-
“Daniel!”
No. No, no, no, no-
The air shifted.
My vision turned blue.
A sizzling sound rang in my eardrums like strips of bacon on a frying pan as my makeshift toga was torn away from me and discarded amongst the piles of scrap metal. And I'm confident I would've heard the pounding of my heart had the blood in my veins not been frozen by the sudden cold.
The world spun, and my stomach churned as Luna’s witchcraft swept me off my feet.
Through the opening in the doorway, pale turquoise stared back at me.
Terror gripped my chest.
“Let go of me! Let me go! LET ME GO!” I shrieked. My hands scraped themselves raw against the twin golden doors as I tried to latch onto something, anything. A part of the mural work or the handles, but her grip on me was too strong. With little fanfare, I was dragged, kicking and screaming into the throne room like a child having tantrums at a local park.
“Be still, little one,” Luna cooed.
“No! Stay away from me, you fucking abomination!” My arms and legs flailed about as I tried to delay the inevitable. All the while, a slight grin formed on Luna’s muzzle as she sat down on her haunches. Her mane and tail billowed from an unseen wind, and her blue-furred coat looked just as pristine as I remembered it, as if she wasn’t just duking things out with an entire army of magic droids and her ‘sister.’
Wings and forehooves wrapped around my naked, shivering skin like a weighted blanket. My muscles strained and tensed up as I tried to struggle and force her away, but I knew it was a pointless gesture.
“Daniel!” Luna whispered into my ears.
It was the voice she had used before—that goddamn lying, motherly tone. The same one that she used to pull the wool over my eyes for weeks and months in that cramped gilded cage. I knew that this was all an act, but no matter how much I insisted on this fact to myself, I still felt my resistance waning.
The sound of her voice was a siren’s call, and the thumping of her heart was a lullaby.
My futile attempt to wriggle free from her grasp weakened, much to the pleasure of my aching muscles.
“We… we were so worried!” Her icy breath made my neck's hair tingle, and I subconsciously surrendered myself more into her grip. I tried to justify my shameful behavior to my lack of clothing, but the lie didn’t stick. After countless hours of being hounded at every turn, I was all out of juice. It was a miracle that I was even conscious.
“...Why?” I exhaustedly wheezed. It was the million-dollar question. The one I had desperately searched for an answer to ever since I arrived in this world.
“You are safe now, my child. She cannot deceive you anymore.” She responded softly with her patented non-answers. “This, I swear.”
“The only person I need protection from is you.”
“We- I do not know what lies our sister polluted your mind with, but rest assured, I will make things right.”
“You can’t make things right,” I murmured. If I had had this conversation at any other point, my anger would have boiled over tenfold. But now? Between the fear paralyzing me into submission and my newfound sense of apathy? I couldn’t find it in myself to raise my voice. “And even if you could, you wouldn’t.”
“It’s always just more lies with you. Lies and promises you never deliver on.”
“That is- “
“Unfair?”
“Nay,” Luna flinched. Her ears twitched and folded to the sides of her head as she nuzzled my head. “You are correct. I have withheld the truth from you, but only for your safety. Had I revealed my inability to send you home, you would have surely slain yourself in grief.”
“And there you go again—more half-truths and small admissions of guilt as a smoke screen to hide your other lies.”
“And what would you have had me do, Daniel? Stain thy soul with grief before imparting terrible truths about the dangers lurking outside the castle walls? Of my sister’s madness? You were safe under my care, child, a luxury that we are sad to say is in very short supply….”
Luna’s death grip on me slackened briefly as she stared into the distance. “There is nothing I can do to compensate for the suffering and pointless cruelty you have endured at the hooves of my sister. I have failed you, Daniel. Completely and utterly.”
Something faintly scratched against the marble floor behind me.
Our eyes met.
The pained expression on her face would have moved most people to tears or close enough to them. Even with me knowing better, I almost still fell for it. She was a professional, a musician, and an actor. She knew the exact cadence her voice needed to sell her lies and the perfect body language to discomfort her victims so they’d dance to her tune.
But this had the opposite effect on me. It started as another pained wheeze, then a stinging sensation in my eyes as a flurry of conflicting emotions pushed down against my chest. A bout of unintelligible laughter squeezed out of my chest like the water from a wet sponge. Every last ounce of fear, shred of hope, and a twinge of pain and exhaustion flowed into this single bout of mania.
“Daniel!” Luna grimaced, and I was again crushed in another herculean embrace; the plumage of her wings stroked and caressed my back gently in small, circular rotations. “What is wrong, my child? What has she done to you?”
“Enough with the bullshit, princess,” I scathingly retorted. “I’m not falling for your motherly act or your fucking crocodile tears anymore. Everything you’ve ever told me was just one lie after another. You were never going to send me home, were you?”
“Daniel, I promised- “
“Your promises aren’t worth a damn!” I seethed, quaking in her embrace with rage. “I did everything you asked and wasted away in that cramped room for months! All because I trusted you to honor your word, even when my instincts screamed at me to run away as fast as my feet could carry me!”
“And had you stayed put, I would have been able to grant your wish!” Luna cupped my cheek with her hoof and stared directly into my eyes.
“And yet the moment I dared to step a single foot outside my prison, you hunted me down like a rabid animal! You and your damn monsters! Not your sister!” I shouted. “And I know this isn’t the first time we’ve had this conversation, either! How many times has your pet violated my mind and stolen my memories? How many times have you lied to my face?”
“I have done no such thing! I would never conceive of doing something so wretched and vile!” Luna trembled as if trying to shake off a terrible memory. “You are more precious to me than anything! I would trade my throne, crown, and my very moon and stars before I would see you come to harm!”
“Then why did I hear your voice?”
“Daniel?”
“It wasn’t enough for you to steal me away from my family. No, you wanted to be thorough,” My breathing hitched for a moment. “I don’t remember how it found me or what happened before I was being… digested by that monster. But you know what I did remember, princess?”
I leaned my head forward.
“Your voice. You whispered sweet nothings into my ear as I was drowning to death. You wanted to scrub away any semblance of myself away from me. You wanted my past to be nothing more than a nightmare. And when I cried for help, do you know who listened?”
Luna only stared at me, not betraying any outward emotion that would ruin her self-imposed image.
“It wasn’t you.”
“She is deceiving you!” Luna protested. “Anything that does not worship the ground that she walks on is an affront to her! And you would never willingly bend the knee to a po- person such as her!”
Luna continued her act; her ears, still splayed to the sides of her head, twitched while her eyes closed. I recoiled in disgust as she placed a small, wet kiss on my forehead before nuzzling me again.
Luna shook her head slowly before continuing. “You remind her of herself. Too proud. Too stubborn. She will stop at nothing until she breaks you, and then she will discard you like a broken toy.”
“And you won’t?” I asked warily. “When you grow bored chasing me around your castle, you won’t just toss my broken body into the nearest ditch to rot? Or do you plan on making me suffer for eternity alongside you?”
“You know not what she has done, child,” Luna whispered. “Of what she used to be. Every night, I mourn for the sister that I have lost, and every day I battle against the monster she has become.”
Luna paused.
Seconds felt like eternities in her iron grip, and I spent that stretch of seemingly endless time trying to wiggle my way out of her grasp. It was ultimately a futile effort, even with the princess experiencing another PTSD-ridden flashback, complete with quivering lips and a thousand-yard stare.
“W- I have made many mistakes, Daniel. I have failed friends, subjects, and my sister countless times in my eternal life. Kingdoms have fallen to ruin, and entire cultures have been erased because my sister forced my hoof.”
A thin line of tears matted the fur on her cheeks.
“For so long, we allowed the weight of our sins to chain us down and hide us away from the world. Our malaise has allowed Celestia’s restless spirit to run amok for far too long and corrupt everything her light touches. Our fear has driven you away from us and, in turn, allowed my sister to poison your mind.”
Her turquoise eyes glittered dangerously.
Something metallic scraped against marble.
“No more,” Luna said firmly. “We do not blame thee for thy folly, but we cannot allow it to persist. We will do whatever is necessary to protect you, even from yourself!”
I withered and squirmed under her draconic gaze as her horn glowed an ominous blue. Sweat oozed out of every pore of my forehead, and my skin turned ashen as my body shook uncontrollably. My feeble attempts to escape only enraged her further as her vice-like grip tightened, causing my bones to creak and driving the air out of my lungs.
I was in the predator's jaws, waiting for them to snap shut.
“We will have thee back, child. We will make thee forget our sister’s lies and only remember our undying love for thee.”
Something cold rubbed at the skin of my feet.
Luna bent her head down and touched her horn on top of my sweaty forehead.
“We shall see,” Celestia replied.
Everything went dark.
Stats
Page generated in 0.018 seconds
Total duration
648 users online
980,676 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
👀
Huh
Mystery solved. Luna won, fucked the world, killed celestia and is now keeping daniel as a toy to shelter herself from her insanity and loneliness
11337131
I think you are mostly right, but I dont know if she fully killed Celestia, because who maintains/makes the automatons? If I understand correctly everything outside the Castle is dead. So only someone that cannot die or is always revived/rebuild could be there.
This story never fails to intrigue me, but I still have no idea WTF is going on. Lol.
This is all a nightmare Luna is having. None of this is real, not even the human.
Rest in peace
This is the strangest story I have ever read on this website
I think the biggest clues to this story are what Daniel has been tasting this whole time. Copper and gasoline.
daniel isnt real, his name is an anagram for denial, lunas denial she cant let go
also loving the story so far, read it in one sitting and eagerly awaiting more