The Tallmare (being reworked)

by hus

ch26 Luna part 1

Luna gently pressed her right hoof into the leaf covered ground in front of the old castle with a soft crunch. The full moon gently shone through the gaps between the branches and through the shattered windows. She felt cold around her and she felt nostalgia that was as cold as the air itself. It was one of those nights where crickets wouldn’t sing or any other critters make their noises. It was a pure blissful silence, the only noise being that the soft fall breeze brushing against the shrubs and trees of the forest around her. She let out a breath that she had been holding in and slowly started walking towards her old home.

There were memories. Memories that were so few in number that it seemed like her childhood was nothing but an incomplete puzzle that she hadn’t finished in many many years. She stopped at the entrance to the castle with the pale white light of her horn shining onto it as she somberly looked at it. It was much more damaged than she expected it to be. It was almost halfway gone with age and seemed that somepony had busted through one of the doors leaving a small hole on the right side of the double doors. She slid both doors open with the glow of her magic and looked down the empty hallway with a feeling of disconnect and familiarity.

The main entrance of the castle had been a fond photographic memory stuck in her head, she always remembered sitting outside and occasionally glancing back at the door. But there was always one memory that just seemed half-complete. She remembered there was arguing behind those doors and that’s where the memories stopped. She took a couple of steps inside before stopping at one of the old suits of armor and examined it respectively. She and her sister, when they were younger, partly converted this castle into a scare contraption for the average pony to wander through and get scared off by. There were hidden doors and little secret passages that she couldn’t remember at the back of her head. It was a fun piece of engineering effort and seemed to be one of the memories Luna had of Celestia that was positive. She let out a quiet chuckle to herself as she stared at the set of armor before bumping it on the bearer plate and causing one of the secret passage entrances to open behind it, but stopped midway. The Lunar princess groaned with irritation and thought the old door disguised as part of the cobblestone and tried to enter the tunnel. Of course, she didn’t fit into the small tunnel and realized this tunnel was mostly meant for an average pony or for her younger self and her sister when she was younger.

She turned herself around and walked down the long carpeted hallway that had withered away with moss and mold covering it and looked up at the twin banners that hung above the stairs. Those stairs were what modern ponies called a liminal space, and this liminal space was hers. The stairs brought nostalgia with them but then also reminded her why she was here, there had always been a feeling that there was something missing from her mind, like there were memories that seemed so important but just seemed incomplete. Those last few horrifying nights with her sister's protege filled her suspicion even more, that name that hound spoke of, Hecate, It was an epitaph some ponies of dead culture gave her long ago, but then again she couldn't remember who they were besides that they didn't like her. She remembered leaving a diary here, maybe that would bring back some memories.

With slow hoofsteps she climbed up the eroding stone stairwell as the moonlight shone through the broken glass window near the door at the top of the two stairwells. She slid open the two wooden doors with her magic and stared down the main hallway that led to the living area of the two sisters. The area she was in before was actually not part of the living quarters of her and her sister but for guests to wait. This hallway lacked the moonlight. It stretched out into darkness like it was a catacomb. The old wax candle fixtures were still remaining with their candles but unfortunately, they looked like they were already used up about a century ago.

The alicorn treaded down into the pitch black with the silver light of her horn dimly guiding her to the doorway. She opened the door yet again and was greeted with the dying area that was only illuminated by two windows that somehow remained unshattered. Luna examined the table with a sense of sadness before stopping as she felt a pain in horn again. That creature was there with her. She didn’t see it there but she now realized it was waiting for her. The alicorn of the moon fumbled around on the ground as she tried to find her footing as the light on her horn dimmed and brightened again and again. She continued to stumble around with a feverish headache and a loud ringing in her ears until she saw the void black tentacles of the silent queen protruding out of the faceless pony itself who abnormally grew taller than the alicorn below it.

She continued stumbling as she continued stepping back before stepping on an old pressure plate under the cloth of the table. She forgot about that little thing she and her sister put under there. It was only now that she remembered it as the wall and the floor started to rotate to the other room. As the floor continued to slowly turn she felt the frustration building inside her as the headache continued.

“Why are you here?! Why are you here in my old home? Have you come here to just mock me? You’ve been around me and my sister for almost our entire lives. Yet you’re still here to torment us, to torment me. I’m not the same filly that you knew a century ago, I’m an alicorn now. So please, leave me alone!” Luna screamed as she let out a small ray of her energy into the Tallmare. But yet, it didn’t do anything. She continued staring at that thing from her past before the wall eventually brought her to the kitchen. She crawled back onto her legs and went to one of the old pots and vomited inside. She felt humiliated. For such a lesser creature to overpower her felt blasphemous, considering how she perceived herself. This thing from the past was supposed to be not as terrifying to her anymore. She was supposed to grow up like her mom told her. “Wait a minute”, she thought as she lifted her head slowly out of the cooking pot with tears drying on her fur, “I don’t remember Platinum telling me this. Who is this other mom that I’m thinking about?”

Author's Note:

sorry for the wait yall, just that school is being rough, and some other stuff