Chapter 4
Outside the Ponyville Royal Observatory, large buzzing crowds remained around the building and on the streets. Under the faint light from the full moon and nearby buildings, they murmured, argued, and conversed with each other in confusion and worry. Rumors of what happened spread among the crowd, based on what some of them claimed to have witnessed. Some claimed that the two princesses engaged in a duel, with Princess Nightmare Moon managing to defeat the other princess before fleeing the scene. Others claimed that Princess Celestia saved her sister after she had fallen from the sky before taking her away. Questions and uncertainty were aplenty. Are the princesses okay? Did they really fight each other? Why has the sun not come up yet? Unfortunately for them, the observatory was currently on lockdown. Numerous royal guards secured the building's perimeter, preventing anyone from entering the building from the ground or air. Journalists and reporters sought answers from guards and town officials, but they were unable to provide them with much satisfactory information. With no news or anyone coming in and out of the observatory, speculations about the exact nature of the events continued to run wild.
As the crowd stayed restless, a dozen more pegasi royal guards arrived from the northeastern sky. Noticing this, the observatory guards cleared the ground for their landing, allowing them to land in formation. Instead of the standard-issue royal guard armor, they wore suits of armor that covered their entire body, with enchanted rubies studded on their sides that provided enhanced magical protection. Despite being fully clad in armor, they landed gracefully, their heavy armor clanking with each step they took. Moving through the numerous onlookers, the newly arrived squad approached the main entrance of the building.
"Orders from Captain Armor. We have an urgent message to deliver to Her Highness Princess Celestia in person immediately." A scroll was promptly passed onto the gatekeepers, confirming the captain's orders and the guards' identities. After spending some time eyeing both the scroll and the newcomers, the two gatekeepers nodded and signaled for the others to open the gates.
"Let them in, they're cleared."
With the gates open and access granted, the pegasi guards entered the building in rows of two. The gates closed as soon as the last of them entered, sealing the building from the outside world once again. Watching the closed gates, one of the two gatekeepers turned her head and looked at her compatriot.
"I can't believe they sent a squad of heavy fliers just to deliver a message."
"The higher-ups at Canterlot must be spooked. Considering what's happening right now, I don't exactly blame them."
Turning her gaze to the gathered crowd on the streets, she paused for a bit before speaking again.
"Light?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think the prophecy will come true?"
"I thought dragons didn't believe in prophecies."
"Well, I mean-" The amber and red-colored dragon readjusted her helm in embarrassment. "You're not wrong. I still think they're self-fulfilling statements at best, but this one... I'm starting to feel a bit worried, you know."
The cream-coated earth pony guard remained stoic, seemingly uncaring about his fellow guard's apprehension. But soon, he let out a sigh as his expression turned into one of concern.
"...Me too, Fireball. Me too."
Nightmare Moon fell onto the dry landscape of the moon for the second time, a cloud of dust billowing from her rough landing. She coughed as she moved out of the dust cloud she kicked off, trying her best not to breathe in any of it. The accursed particles that covered the moon's surface were irritating, the abrasive regolith clinging to her fur at every opportunity. The mare shook her body to get rid of some of what was stuck onto her, having long given up on trying to clean herself thoroughly from the incessant dust. After she spat out the dirt that had gotten into her mouth, she frowned, feeling the dreary atmosphere of the moon. It was not just because of its stark visuals. There was no ambient magic here. Magic was an ever-present force that invigorated the land and its inhabitants, something that everyone took for granted. Feeling its absence for the first time in her life, the princess was left perturbed, feeling as if the remaining magic within her was fleeting from her every second. The only other thing that she could sense was a slight prickling sensation on her horn caused by some unknown force. She didn't know what it was; she couldn't harness it like magic, but it was everywhere. It was something else, and such uncertainty only added to her uneasiness.
Never did she expect any of this from being struck by the Elements of Harmony. Standing alone on the surface of the moon, she did not fail to see the irony of getting stranded on the celestial body that represented her. Perhaps Harmony had a cruel sense of humor. Taking deep breaths, the Armored Alicorn tried to calm herself down, recollecting her actions so far.
When she was first thrown here, confused by the sudden change in her surroundings, she first thought herself doomed as she struggled to breathe. Her quick thinking was what saved her. Gathering as much of the moon's thin atmosphere with her magic and surrounding herself with it like a dome, she was able to breathe by casting a complex breathing spell alongside it.
With her immediate concern taken care of, her second thought was to teleport herself back to the fight and get out of wherever she was right now. However, she was met with her spell simply fizzling out. At first, Nightmare did not understand. She cast her spell again only to yield the same results, quickly realizing the reason why. She didn't miscast her spell; the teleportation failed because she was just too far away. With that, she blanched as the gravity of the situation settled in. This gray landscape around her, the incredibly vast night sky above, and a green and blue planet floating at a distance... This was the moon. She wasn't dreaming, nor was she dreamwalking. Checking whether her mind was under a mind-altering spell or any other means of mental assault, a part of her wanted this whole thing to be just a hallucination. Despite her wishes, however, this was very much real. She was sent to the moon, an impossibility made real by the unimaginable power of the Elements.
Panicking, the alicorn's next train of thought was to fly through the vast space that separated her from her home. When she tried that by flying out of the barren satellite, she soon discovered that something else was at play beyond the moon's low gravity. When she flew out of the moon's atmosphere, her efforts were quickly thwarted as she was dragged back to the ground by an invisible force. Her failed second try by using teleportation to bypass it only showed partial success, managing to escape further, but immediately yanked down to the surface once again. The results confirmed her suspicions; the spell cast by the elements had chained her to the moon, unwilling to let its prisoner go.
After finishing her recollections, her nerves had calmed down somewhat. Raising her head upwards, she stared at the distant planet above her again. Equus. The green and blue globe floated beyond, the distance seemingly close yet so far in reality. She stood there and gauged the distance, grimacing as the unfiltered sun's rays made everything around her unpleasantly hot. Would she even be able to get back? She wasn't the pony to doubt herself so easily, but the task ahead of her seemed daunting even for her. Nightmare, however, did not give up her hope just yet.
Whenever Starswirl taught her and Celestia about spells and the arcane, he liked to nag them that no spell was perfect and that they should always practice more, strive to do better, and whatnot. She'd heard that a million times already, and all magic had its shortcomings. While the old stallion had a knack for occasionally making dubious claims, she always trusted him when it came to anything related to magic. And assuming he was right, even the grand power of the Elements had its limitations. Like most spells of its kind, she assumed that the spell that tethered her to the moon must have had a limit to its range akin to a magnet. Nightmare did not know how far it stretched or how powerful the height of its strength would be. But she had to cross that hypothetical threshold and break the tether, no matter how difficult it would be.
As much as she wanted to cross the entire distance with a single teleport and ignore the spell, that was out of the question. Unless she somehow managed to get help from external sources, teleporting directly back to Equus was beyond her abilities. Even if she used up all the power she had in her now, she guessed that her longest teleport would hardly reach the quarter point before she was drained completely. And if the spell's radius extended further than that, she would be dragged back with indignity, rendering her efforts null. Casting multiple smaller jumps would barely help; there was just no way around it. The mare walked in circles out of frustration, failing to think of a feasible solution. Biting her lips in anxiety, she reasoned that there had to be a way, a solution that she overlooked. Would she be able to cover some distance by flight? No, she'd already failed in that regard. And just as she was about to give up on that, she stopped in her tracks. An idea had struck her, and a smile slowly formed on her lips.
The Night Princess stretched her wings, checking her appendages. Unlike their usual pristine condition, they were in a state of disarray. She hastily preened her ruffled feathers that stuck out at odd angles, positioning them back in their place. Many were burned by her sister's flames and were in questionable condition, but she didn't fret much over it. What's done was done; there was not much she could do about them now. One by one, she plucked out feathers that were in terrible shape with her teeth—the ones that were broken or burned to their quill. After she was done checking the state of her wings, she took a deep breath, ready to put her plan to the test.
With a powerful jump from her legs, the alicorn shot upwards with a singular beat from her wings, a single black feather falling behind her. Soaring above the gray landscape from her launch, she then unfurled her wings wide open again, concentrating her magic on them. Nightmare Moon's wings began to shine with her cyan magical aura as her spell was completed, a trick up her sleeve. It was a spell that was considered impossible to cast—a spell that could only exist theoretically, requiring constant channeling of both pegasus and unicorn magic. But as an alicorn who wielded the magic of all three pony tribes, she was the first to make it come to life after months of theory crafting. Starswirl might have complimented her ingenuity for it, but he also called it dangerous(to which she begrudgingly agreed). But now, she was more than willing to risk that. With a familiar chime of a spell cast, Nightmare felt a powerful force gathering within her wings, as if a strong tailwind was blowing behind them. And in a split second, she was launched into the vast nothingness with incredible speed.
Piercing through the cold, airless aether in her flight position, the armored alicorn soared with power and grace. Her glowing wings were spread to their maximum, unmoving as its magical propulsion left behind a cyan flight trail in its wake. As she picked up more acceleration, so did the all-encompassing pressure that threatened to pull her back down. She could feel the spell of the elements push against her momentum, but not enough to slow her down as she began to accelerate even faster. Nightmare was confident that she was nearing her maximum velocity. This was her best chance of escape, and she wouldn't let it go to waste. Ever so slightly, Equus was getting closer. She just needed to keep this up for longer, and she could begin her jump. She would return, and she would finish what she'd started.
The terrified mare woke up as she fell and hit the cold, hard ground. With her limbs splayed on the glossy white floor, she grunted in pain. Her left hoof was throbbing from the impact, her mind was hazy, and the rest of her body was in varying degrees of pain and numbness. She took shallow breaths, her half-lidded teal eye trying to take in her surroundings.
Despite her blurred vision, Nightmare Moon could tell she was in a spacious furnished room, its floor and walls white. Right next to her was a large bed that she fell from, and alongside it was a nightstand and a white crystal lamp that illuminated the room with a dim light. Several boxes were stacked next to the nightstand, and next to it stood a large contraption with a screen that let out continuous beeps in a steady rhythm. Feeling a migraine coming up, the Princess of the Night tried to rub the side of her head with her hoof. That was when her eye started regaining its focus, allowing her to notice things that were covering her body.
Gone were her helm, her peytral, and her hoofshoes. Her entire left foreleg was covered in hard plaster, rendering her joints unable to bend. Several other parts of her body were covered up, including the left side of her head wrapped in a bandage that also covered that side of her eye. She carefully tried to move various body parts, finding that her left wing was also in a cast, and several more spots, like her barrel and her neck, were bandaged. While trying to survey her body, she felt something tug at her right leg and saw several lines taped onto the side of her limb. One was connected to a small clear bag hoisted on a metal pole next to the bed, and the others were connected to the beeping device. Having no idea what those were for, she decided to leave them be for now. Instead, she began to carefully prod her bandaged areas to assess the injuries she had no memory of getting. As she took in more of her sorry state, she felt her unease rise as the absence of her armor pieces made her feel vulnerable.
To say that she was feeling unwell was an understatement. Unable to think straight amidst her brain fog, Nightmare felt utterly lost. For whatever reason, she had trouble remembering what had transpired to her. She returned from the moon and ran right into Celestia's trap, running through the doors and escaping out onto the terrace. There were a lot of ponies outside, and then... The rest was fuzzy and somewhat confusing, making her doubt whether the latter events happened at all. The nobles cheering for her? Someone must have done something to her head, she reasoned. And why was she unarmored, and why did everything hurt? Had she been captured already? Using her less injured right foreleg, she shakily hoisted herself up from the floor, careful not to put too much weight on her bad leg. As she managed to stand with her aching legs, her focus was shaken when she heard sounds coming from the other side of the room. At a glance, she spotted a white door with a sliding lock on the far side of the room. Unsure of what she was hearing, the mare stood still and observed, until she realized the sound coming from the other side of the door was hoofsteps. Somepony was coming.
"Nightmare? Are you alright?"
Celestia closed the door behind her as she entered the private ward of her sister. The doctors had told her that she would remain unconscious longer, but what if she was awake early? Learning from her previous encounter with her sister, she made sure she entered the room slowly, calling out to her to make her presence known to its occupant.
The first thing she noticed as she surveyed the room was her sister lying on the large hospital bed, covered in bandages and her limbs in casts. Their white color contrasted with her black coat, highlighting her injuries even more. Celestia felt her heart drop at the sight of it and began to slowly approach her. Standing at the bedside, the Solar Alicorn's heart sank further as she examined Nightmare Moon's injuries. She knew the doctors said she was in stable condition, but seeing her bandage-covered state couldn't help but make her feel anxious about her safety. The more she looked at her sister's injuries, the more she felt bad for what she thought she had caused inadvertently.
"Nightmare? Sister?"
The older princess spoke softly to the wounded mare, waiting for her to respond. She waited for her to reply, expecting her cat-like eye to slowly open and gaze at her. Nonetheless, the younger princess remained still in her bed, unresponsive to her sister's calling. Celestia exhaled as she let out a breath that she was subconsciously holding, realizing the doctor was right. She reasoned that she must have misheard, and that maybe the sound she heard was just from the heart rate monitor. Using her magic, she brought a chair from the table at the center of the room and sat beside her sister's bed.
Sitting on her chair, she felt her shoulders slump from the fatigue creeping up. It wasn't exactly because of her workload preparing for what was arguably the most important summer sun celebration in a century. Her faithful student had done a great job helping her organize it, taking a significant workload off of her. With that and among other things she'd done for her, Celestia couldn't thank her enough. In truth, her tiredness stemmed from her lack of sleep. For the last several months, she has had a hard time falling asleep. As much as she wanted this day to come, her anxiety regarding it was also paramount. She worried about whether her sister would be endangered if any of the preparations went awry, or if the prophecy and the calculations were wrong. If so, she would fail to save her sister, and it would deal a massive blow of despair instead. Doubts gnawed at the back of her mind, the thought of failure keeping her awake. But now, the white alicorn gazed at her sister, a small smile returning to her face. It was all worth it, she thought. It wasn't without trouble, but she'd brought her back. That was all that mattered to her.
The room was silent, save for the continuous sounds from the heart rate monitor. Listening to its sound, the Princess of the Sun could tell it was beeping at a faster rate than normal. Nightmare's face remained strained, which was something she also took notice of. Was it because of the pain from her injuries, or was she having a nightmare? Whatever it was, the princess felt sorry for her; her mind and body hurt, and unable to find peace even in her slumber. She reached her hoof out to caress her cheek, but stopped as she noticed a bruise on her skin. She needed to be careful not to hurt her further. Pulling her hoof back, she instead held her sister's good hoof with hers, holding it gently. She could feel the dark alicorn flinching slightly in her sleep upon her touch.
"Do not fret, sister. From now on, everything's going to be alright. I promise." Celestia spoke softly as she held onto her sister's cold hoof, feeling a weird sense of Deja Vu. Similar scenarios have happened before in her dreams—a rare occurrence that happened numerous times over a thousand years. Nightmare Moon would appear in varying states, from angry and tense, to expressionless and unresponsive. The only thing in common was that whenever Celestia tried to touch her, to hug and console her, she would always end up vanishing within a second. She knew this wasn't a dream, but she couldn't help but feel a bit of fear. The white alicorn tightened her grasp just a bit more as if she were afraid to let her go, and much to her relief, her sister did not vanish this time. Feeling her sister's hoof slowly warm up, the princess let out a relieved sigh.
As she slowly regained her peace of mind, Celestia's mind wandered to her long-gone memories of the past, the ones shared between her and Luna. Those were the myriad of memories that she held dear—the ones that refused to fade away after all this time. Not all of them were pleasant, but Celestia was grateful to have them regardless. As she was absorbed in the remembrance of the past, the sound of someone knocking at the door interrupted her thoughts.
"Your Highness, messengers from Canterlot have arrived." Celestia turned her head at the sound of the guard on the other side of the door.
"Thank you for notifying me. Send them back for now; I'll go over their letters shortly." As she was just about to turn her head back around, the guard continued talking.
"They claim Captain Armor gave them strict orders to deliver the letter in person, and they insist on meeting you directly. Should we send them back, Your Highness?"
Shining Armor sent them? That was odd; he was more than capable of handling things on his own. Something urgent, perhaps? Celestia pondered as she rose from her seat and turned her body towards the doorway. "No. Let them in. I wish to speak to them right now."
"Of course, your highness. We'll bring them in right away." After a minute, a sound began reverberating from the hall outside the room. It was the sound of soldiers, marching in single file as their armored hooves made loud hoofsteps against the hallway floor. Another round of knocks was heard from the door, and Celestia acknowledged it, allowing them to enter. When the door opened, what she saw was not what she was expecting.
Celestia assumed they would be four at most; they were just messengers after all. But they weren't just messengers. It turns out Shining Armor sent an entire squad of armored soldiers. She watched twelve pegasi guards clad in heavy armor enter through the doorway one by one, the sound of their clanking armor filling the room. And if she hadn't been so distracted by their entrance, Celestia might have noticed the heart rate monitor in the room starting to beep faster on their arrival.
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Another misunderstanding to make things from bad to possibly worse.
There was this short fanfic about Luna returned to Equestria as a mumified, frozen corpse.
I can't help but think of that.
Really? They needed to send a platoon of heavily armored soldiers? Even in this timeline, Shining is still an idiot. I just wonder when all these misunderstandings will finally be cleared up since I fear Luna/NMM may end up being banished or hated.
11699452
Interesting. Link to it?
Oh boy, I can already see how Luna is gonna take this
(Armorrrr, why?!!!)
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https://www.fimfiction.net/story/485004/deep-freeze
Nightmare Moon: "I'll get back, and if it takes a thousand years!"
Elements of Harmony: "You have no idea how correct you are."
Don't worry, the armor never covered particular much in the first place.
Let's hope so...
Maybe it would be better to go to the guards instead of letting them come to you.
Nightmare Might become nervous if suddenly numerous guards walk into the room.
Good chapter!
I enjoyed reading it.
Very interesting, look forward to seeing more of this story.