Beyond My Grave: Exhumed

by AnnEldest

A Visit To Nowhere

It was hardly into the next day that Luna was allowed to be discharged from the hospital and resume her life, albeit with one wing out of commission. As glad as she was to leave, Luna was beyond afraid to face what the world had in store for her. When would those demons strike next? Or would it be some other horror? They rarely seemed to repeat themselves. And when they did, they were worse than the first time they appeared to her. And as always, the worst part was that she had to face it all alone.

The very moment that Luna arrived back home, she walked directly back to her bedroom, guided by her sister.

“Will you be alright?” Celestia asked.

“Of course I will, sister. It’s only my wing, after all,” Luna replied.

That wasn’t entirely true. Luna had always loved to fly. Ever since she was a little filly, she loved the feel of the wind blowing past her face, whipping her mane around like a windmill and diving through the clouds. Now, she was grounded.

“Do you need anything?” Celestia asked.

“I’ll be fine. You don’t need to dote on me,” Luna said, waving her sister off. “Sorry to make you do my job for me last night. These pain pills do make me a little bit drowsy. But, I’ll be sure to take them after I raise the moon tonight.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” Celestia said. “The doctor said that you needed to take things easy. That means no flying, and no magic. So for at least the next couple of nights, I’ll be taking over your duties of raising and lowering the moon.”

Luna opened her mouth to speak.

“And I won’t have you arguing about it. You get to bed and rest for as long as you need. I’ll be standing by in case you want anything,” Celestia said, as she made her way back to the door.

“Alright. Fine, I suppose,” Luna conceded, deciding it best not to argue.

“Just remember, I’m a shout away,” Celestia said, before taking her leave, closing the door behind herself.

And so, Luna was alone again. She laid in her bed, trying her best to relax and get the rest that she surely needed. But, she couldn’t bring it about herself to do so. Some small part of herself feared that even though she was awake, she would be plagued by the nightmares and flashbacks once more.

A dull pain prickled through her injured wing that made her whole side throb. She looked at the pain pills that she had been prescribed, and contemplated taking them. There was nothing more she wanted to do than to ease the pain, but she remembered how drowsy they had made her before. How quickly they made her want to sleep. The only thing she could think to do was to take her mind off of it.

Luna eyed the bookshelf at the end of her room. She knew the placement of each title by heart, and knew precisely how each section was organized. It didn’t take her long to spot one of her old favorites on the shelf. Unsure if it would still work, Luna aimed her horn at the shelf and flared her magic. Her horn lit up, and the book levitated its way over to her. At least it still worked. For now.

The hours passed as Luna read the book she had chosen. In that time, the pain had gone all the way into her shoulder, and started creeping up into her neck. She turned a page, feeling as if the simple action had set her nerves on fire. Her hip tightened as the pain spread to her lower body. She could bear it no longer.

Luna flared her magic toward her private bathroom, where she magically turned on the faucet and filled a glass that rested on the counter. She brought it over to herself, opened the bottle of pills and took one of them with the drink she had poured for herself. It felt like only moments for the pain to start subsiding. She sighed to herself, feeling her body go slack as the pain pills worked their black magic on her. It wouldn’t be long now, but she had to fight it.

The book laid on her lap, and Luna picked it back up to keep reading. She read each word as thoroughly as she could, keeping her mind actively engaged on the subtext of the dialogue and the narration between the lines. What small points of the plot had she missed on all of the other times that she had read that story? She tried to notice the small details about the character descriptions.

She went on like that for a time she wasn’t aware of, until she began to slip away. The book slid from her hooves, and Luna’s whole body went limp as she drifted off into sleep.

---

Thunder rumbled overhead, taking Luna from her deep sleep. She rubbed her head, finding the world around herself had gone dark. She looked at her clock, and saw that it was well past ten o’ clock PM. Just as her sister had promised, she had risen the moon for the night. Not that it could be seen through the heavy storm clouds that dropped rain on the palace roof with a sound like a million marbles falling from the sky.

Her wing was no longer in pain. And the pain that it had spread to the rest of her body had subsided as well. Even though she had forgotten to take the pills that her sister had been forcing her to take, her sleep was uninterrupted by those terrible dreams.

“Thank goodness for small mercies,” Luna said to herself.

The mercies had seemed to reach their end. A loud noise came from her bathroom, and the light turned itself on.

“Who’s in there?” Luna asked.

She waited for an answer, but none came.

“Celestia? That had better not be you. You have your own shampoo you can use.”

There was still no answer.

She knew it was too good to be true. Fearing the worst, Luna stepped out of her bed and cautiously made her way to her bathroom. She cracked the door open and peered inside, finding the entire place in horrible disarray. Her medicine cabinet was emptied of contents. Her makeup shelves were toppled over. Her bath products leaked all over the tub. Towels were strewn all over the floor. And the sounds of the intruder were coming from somewhere in there still.

A quiet scurrying took her attention to the side of the sink. Luna crept along the wall, flaring her magic to keep it at the ready. She reached the end of the sink and quickly peered around it, ready to blow away whatever was there. Instead, she found nothing. But, the sounds of the intruder scurrying around the room still reached her. And they were coming from the door at that time.

Whatever it was, it had gotten past her without her notice. Luna quickly went back to her bedroom and turned on the lights. She found the culprit. And it was far from terrifying. There, crawling across her bedsheets was a tiny, white possum, which started rolling across her messy bed. Luna smiled at the sight of it.

“Tiberius! What did you do to make such a mess of my bathroom?” she said.

Of course her pet didn’t answer. Not that he ever listened to her anyway. He wasn’t even allowed on the bed, even though Luna had tried to break him of the habit so many times. If she didn’t know better, he had deliberately destroyed her bathroom, just so he could break the rules.

Flaring her magic, Luna put her bathroom back in order and stepped back in.

“Alright. I’m wise to your little game now. If you’re not off the bed by the time I get out of the bathroom, I’m going to make you get off. Do we understand each other?” Luna said.

Her answer was Tiberius rubbing his head all over her pillows.

“We’ll see how you feel about that in a moment,” Luna said, before closing the bathroom door.

Even though she had slept for most of it, she felt like it had been a long day. All she wanted to do was wash her face, rinse out her mane, and hopefully be able to finish her book. Except when she turned around, she found a sight that she would never have expected.

It was not her bathroom that she saw, but a kitchen. One that she knew from her foalhood. Everything there was exactly as she remembered it. From the chip in the wooden countertops to the slight warp in the one tile on the floor. Luna walked through the kitchen, knowing she wasn’t really there, but wanting so desperately to believe it. She followed the room down to a doorway that she hadn’t passed in centuries and peered in.

There was a table in that room, where two ponies sat. One, she knew was herself. After so long, Luna had forgotten what she was like as a filly. But, there she was, sitting at the table with a stallion who she had not thought about in a very, very long time. He was an older unicorn, with a white coat and a golden mane that shone brightly in the sunlight. On his flank was the mark of a flaming crescent moon with two stars upon a cloud. Before him was a plate of blueberry pancakes, which he happily took a bite from.

“Mm! Luna, you’ve got to try these pancakes your mother made. They’re probably the best she’s done yet,” the stallion said.

“Celestia made them,” young Luna quietly said.

“Is that right?” the stallion asked. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. She always wanted to be like her mother. Here, try a bite.”

Young Luna looked at the plate and shook her head.

“Maybe later. I’m not very hungry now,” she said.

“Okay. More for me,” the stallion said, talking the plate back for himself.

Luna watched her younger self sit silently at the table, before she raised her head to speak to the stallion.

“I think I’m getting the hang of flying,” she said.

“Really? It’s like I told you: practice makes perfect,” the stallion said.

“Maybe, you could come out to the field with me? To help me try to stay in the air for a while?”

From the doorway, Luna watched the scene play out, hoping that somehow it would be different than the last time that she was there. A desperate desire for things to be different than they were. But, the look on the stallion’s face made her know that it couldn’t be.

“Luna,” the stallion said, placing his utensils on his plate. “You know that I have to go away for a while, don’t you? So, I can’t be there to help you with it this time.”

Young Luna lowered her head again, unable to look at the stallion.

“Of course you can’t. That’s what you always say,” she said.

“You know that I really want to. It’s just–”

“So why don’t you!?” young Luna snapped.

Luna felt her nerves shake at the sound of her own voice. The bitter resentment she had felt in that moment was something that she would carry with her for many years afterward.

“You always do this! You never have time for anything that I want, but you’ll change your whole day just to watch Celestia knit a stupi sock!”

“Luna, please–” the stallion tried to say.

“Forget it!” young Luna said, climbing out of her seat. “You’re never there when I want you to be! Just when you do!”

And with those last words, she left. On her way out, she walked right past her older self, who watched her go until she disappeared out the door at the far end of the room.

Luna looked back to the stallion in the room, and watched him as he slowly pushed away his plate of pancakes. Without a word, he got out of his seat and walked toward the front door.

“No,” Luna whispered to herself as her eyes filled with tears.

The stallion opened the door and walked out into the blinding light beyond. Before left, Luna chased after him.

“Don’t go! Please! Stay here!” she begged him.

It was too late. He had already gone. Luna stared into the blinding abyss, waiting in vain for him to turn around and make everything the way that she wanted. Soon, the light faded away, and there she was facing her own bedroom. She looked around, finding nothing out of the ordinary. There was even Tiberius, still rubbing his face on the pillows as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

As if she were still in a dream, Luna drifted over to her bed and sat on the edge of it. The moment she had, Tiberius hopped onto her lap and began rubbing his sides against her, stopping long enough to allow Luna to pet him.

“Oh, Tiberius. What’s happening to me?” she wondered.

Her answer was a tongue lapping up her hooves, and the quiet rumble of thunder outside.

Author's Note:

I am terribly sorry it took so long to post this chapter. No I haven't been writing it and that's why it took so long. It's simply because I got so busy with life and working on my YouTube channel, I kind of forgot to keep updating this story. But I promise you updates will be much more frequently now and I haven't forgotten about this story. Thanks for understanding. As always:

Till Next Time