dusk shine doesn't enjoy anything other than a good book and seeing his trusted assistant barb, the last thing he needs is a mare in his life.
Dusk shine, the beloved student of Prince Solaris, is being kicked out of canterlot till he gets an idea of how to live life outside of books. I personally don't give a sh!t. This is a story of how one night can change even the worst of enemies into the closest ponies on equis. ENJOY OR PERISH BEFORE THE MIGHT OF- GAK!
bug me when you want a chapter posted, i will try to keep a regular every mon-wed-fri schedule going so.. bug me when you want to hear more.
Dusk shine slowly placed the scroll that he had in his telekinesis down on the desk next to him. An eery calm across his features. As the scroll fell the rest of the way, it unfurled, revealing the reason as to why he was about to explode. On the scroll, in neet hoof-writing, a simple note was written telling dusk that he was being reassigned to help the near by town with preparations with the Summer Sun Celebration.
With what could only be described as a smile of pure lunacy, the unicorn began reciting what could only be guessed to be a spell in a dead language.
Barb, noticing this, rolled her eyes and quickly smacked him up side the head with the nearest tomb. His eyes slowly lost their menacing red hue. As he resurfaced from the episode, he turned to barb and slowly lifted a hoof to pet her, earning another eye roll from her.
"Thanks barb, I don't know what i would do without you." He smiled and turned back to the parchment he had collected from the library, each of the tombs he picked up and stored in his dimensional storage space, a spell he had created and refined in his earlier years as a student to the reining monarch Solaris The warning he had sent him earlier was obviously not getting the desired response.
Two hours later...:............
Dusk and Barb were walking away from their personal hot air balloon when he ran right into(he was still trying to read an old scroll) a pink mass of unnoticed(by him, barb had tried to get his attention) and dropped his stuff. as he landed on his rump, the pink thing(Pinky Pie, as we all know how they met in cannon) gasped quickly jumped back up and disappeared in a cloud of dust from Solaris knows where.
He shook his head and looked to his trusty assistant. "What in the name of Tartarus just happened? barb, did you see that ponies cutie mark by chance?"
"UHG! I tried to warn you about that but you just had to keep reading about some old ass! You have to get your head out of those books, stop huffing scrolls, and leave those tombs alone! But yes, it was three balloons." She turned and continued to walk down the road, flipping some nonexistent over her shoulder. "You need to hurry, the first thing to check is the catering, some place called Sweet Apple Acres. Get off the ground and act like the dutiful student you are."
After a few minutes of walking, they came upon a farmer running up to the trees and bucking them till their fruit fell off, mostly only needing to do it once. The duo slowly made their way to the farm pony and tried to catch her attention, hardly even getting her to stop. after she bucked a few more trees, she trotted over to the new comers.
"Howdy there partner! What brings somepony like you to this here farm?" The farm pony greeted, taking off her stetson hat and wiping the sweat from her brow.
Dusk gave her a quick once over and held out his hoof, receiving a hardy shake from her. "Well, I was just here to check to make sure that the food was on par for the coming Summer Sun Celebra-"
"Oh! Your the fancy pony that's gonna be the taste tester for the princess?! Well, why didn't you say so! SOUPS ON EVERYPONY!" with that last yell, she quickly ran up to the house that had been conveniently hidden by the brush of sapling trees, dusk and barb in tow. Out of seemingly nowhere, a table was placed out front, with a table cloth and plates already placed upon it. The one they had just me began to introduce the entire family along with the food that they had all made, all of which coincided with their names. It was all apple themed. Dusk and Barb had just met the most feared and respected tribe of(mainly) earth ponies, the Apple clan.
After escaping the feast, Dusk slowly waddled with a full stomach away from the farm. He groaned and looked at his assistant, who seemed quite happy despite eating nearly three times her weight and not even showing it. "How can you eat so much and not be full?"
"A lady never reveals her secret!" Barb quickly pulled out a scroll and bopped him on the nose, causing him to scrunch his face and space out.
After a few seconds, he shook his head and glared at her, "Hey! you need to stop doing that! I could have tripped or run into somepo-"
WHAM
"Ohhh.." Dusk rubbed the side of his head slowly, trying to alleviate the minor headache he was now sporting.
"Oh, sorry about that! I din't see you there. here let m-" a hoof brushed Dusks' shoulder and the pony who ran into him suddenly gripped him by both sides of his withers and shoved his face against Dusk. "The swag is strong with this one, you must be careful... for you have the touch of the wandering stallion about you." with that said, the stallion with the rainbow main shot off into the sky, clearing the clouds in ten point three eight seconds.
"Well, that was strange. Usually you have to meet up with one of the religious sects to hear that phrase." Dusk brushed off the dust from the hoof marks on his withers and began to trot off again. "I believe that was Rainbow Blitz, the local weather manager. That settles the cloud problem for now. Barb? Who is next on the list?"
"Well, it says here that decorations are after the music, but it does seem like it would be closer and would give us a three minute head start on getting the list done, so... yeah lets do that next."
With that said, the duo began making their way to the town hall. after a few minutes of wandering around, they found it close to where they would be staying for the night, right down the road from the library. They made their way up the stairs and Dusk proceeded to knock on the door. the sound of somepony throwing a tantrum inside made them look to each other and shrug.
With a burst of magic Dusk opened the door to find a white mare with a purple mane and tail throwing decorations around out of a box.
"Um, hello? I'm here to check on the decorations for the Summer Sun Celebration? are you Rarity?"
The last thing I remembered was a high pitch squeal and a big box. That being said, I found myself in a rather odd dream... to say the least about it. The moon was high above, stars glistened, and the meadow was a... I don't rightly know how to describe the beauty of it all. All the flora was glowing, the bugs were skittering about, and a few birds, although they were obviously of an ancient variety, were spectacular in their flight.
I slowly rose to my hooves as I tried to figure out how I came to this kind of dream. Nothing I had been seeing today would have given me a dream like this one.
"You are correct..." a voice whispered through the foliage. An angelic murmur if I ever heard one before. I turned to follow the sound, finding a slight bit of bush blocking my path, if I were to call it that. I slowly trotted towards the bush, wondering why my dream would have somepony else in it. I raised my left fore hoof ready to turn aside the bush, "Tis' not yours to dream..."
"Oh, sweet stars above, let me live." I heard a light gasp as I pushed the foliage aside. the sight I beheld was of a mystical pond surrounding a small island, upon witch I saw a beautiful sight indeed. In a bed of clouds and starlight, an Alicorn of midnight blue and stars for a mane and tail lay. She was held in place by an array of chains and locks of pure darkness, a feel of regret and sorrow permeated here.
She shuffled a bit, as if she tried to get a bit more comfortable with such chains on her, a blush light across her cheeks. "We demand you stop gawking in such a rude manor and come closer, we have little time to talk."
Numbly, I nodded and slowly made my way down to a bridge of rocks barely sticking up from the surface of the pond. The grass a lunar blue, tickled my fetlocks. A light hum resonated about as I placed my fore hoof down on the first stone, sending a small ripple across the ponds surface. Notes sounded off as I trotted across the path to the island. As the last stone rang a clear note, one of the locks on the chain faded away, allowing her to stretch her neck a bit more as the chain relented its hold. the fore mentioned chain dissipating to a black cloud.
"OHhhh... what a relief, we thought that we would never know another night without a neck ache." her languid neck sensually rolling, swaying back and forth. After a few seconds I heard a loud pop, making me jolt up a little.
I rubbed the back of my neck,"Um.. princess... are you...?"
"Yes, we art thine teachers sister. Tell us, why doth thou pray to the stars instead of her sun?" she leveled a fierce gaze at me.
"Uh.. um... well... cause I always though they surpassed the sun in every way. they are my guide, my inspiration." I looked up at the sky, waving my hoof at the stars, not noticing the gleam of tears in her eyes, "They are a beauty to behold and a wonder to look upon... if only they were a constant so that I could look upon them any time. that would be special indeed."
I dropped my sight back to her, noticing tears spilling from her eyes. I gasped and made towards her, thinking I had said something wrong.
"You think they're beautiful?..." she smiled and pulled me in, hugging me. "You give us reason to celebrate young one, we praise you for finding us worthy of praise once more. For this we shall gran thee the greatest of boons, once we escape this, thou shall be mine consort!"
She let me go, pointing to the sky in a royal decree manor and I blushed lightly, rubbing my fore legs together bashfully. "Awwww... WHAT?!? Wait, who are you?! I know for a fact that there is only one princess of Equestria, and you are not her!" I pointed my left fore hoof at her.
Sigh... "Thou... truly doth not know of thee? our sister hat not told our subjects of our glory?" she pouted and turned away, a single tear glinted on her cheek. "We.. are forgotten? heh... thou can leave any time, just leave us here to fade away..."
"No."
"What?" her ears popped up. "Doth thou not... wish to leave us?"
"No one deserves to be alone like this, especially somepony like you." I stood up and trotted over to her side, I sat and placed my fore hoof on her withers, "I-I w-will, I will be your consort. Just... what is your name?"
She turned towards me, surprise clear across her face. "Thou truly means it? thou shalt be mine consort?" I nodded, "Tis' most glorious of nights!" she raised a foreleg shouting to the sky, "When we art free thou shall be mine, and we shall make Equestria see the beauty of the night once more!"
I rubbed the ringing from my ears, "Your name, please? you still haven't told me your name. eheh... I'm Du-"
"Dusk Shine, we know. our name is Princess Luna, Herald of the night, keeper of the moon, Protector of dreams, And goddess of fertility!but we art still virgin..." with that last part, I had to lean in to barely catch.
Relief flooded me, "Oh, whew, I though I would get the worst end of a cougar there for a second." I wiped my brow.
She tilted her head to the side, "Why would thou be getting mauled by a Mountain lion? We thought that thee would be the one doing the protecting of our kingdom."
I shook my head, "It's just a phrase. just ignore it." I blinked a couple times, light beginning to flood my eyes, "Wait, when will I be able to see you-"
"Again?!" I jolted up, knocking somepony over. I had just woken up, the town hall was just as I had last seen it. "Barb? BARB!"
"Whoa there Dusk, you just got knocked the buck out by 'miss' prissy here, say your sorry." Barb glared at the white pony on my other side, a mare by the looks of it, who seemed to be trying to not be seen.
As I leveled a glare of my own at her she shrunk back onto her haunches, "Oh.. um, sorry about that... But you snuck up on me, and I don't think I should be the one to apologize, you.. You!" she adopted a snobby facade, a feeble attempt to shift blame.
"You just assaulted the princesses personal student, I think you don't have any room to talk, miss. Besides, you probably had been told that we would be checking up on the decorations for the Summer Sun Celebration, you should have expected us." I looked around, the decorations were already up. sequins ran along the side, rolls of fabric hung from rafters, a few pins and gems were strewn in with the design. "Well, consider this your first warning, the setup is asymetrical and lacks most of her colors. try to get in theme here and you might have a half presentable decoration going."
With that, I levitated Barb onto my back and trotted out, leaving her flabbergasted.
"Wow, Dusk, you could have just gone easy on her, she obviously tries to impress with her work, just try and not take... what ever out on her." she tapped my ear, "What did happen? your eyes flashed white before you conked out back there, I was worried."
"Sigh... just call it a divine... call. I met somepony I will tell you about later, just... hold on ok? lets' get this done and over with, I want to see what else we can dig up on this 'Mare in the Moon'."
As I trotted down the road, contemplating the meaning of my dream, I caught a song on the wind. Birds, singing in harmony to make an excellent piece at the Celebration was the next thing I noticed. They all sat on a tree before a mare, a mare who was the personification of natural beauty. I stood there, entranced by her voice as she sang along with them, flowing with the music. Her mane drifted like flower petals in an autumn breeze. 'Her bal-wait? WHAT?! oh... it's a colt... OK. i can live with that... no. I can't.'
"Barb, is there a mention on the music?" I hung my head, knowing that I would get a confirmation on the stallion before me.
She scratched behind her left ear-fin, "Yeah, there should be a stall...ion. oh. that's what has you hung up right? you thought it was a she for a second, right?" she bent forward, patting my head in mock pity, with a smile that told of years of heartless behavior. "There there, we all make that mistake every now and then. You just need a good pat on the head and a swift kick IN THE FLANK!" she gripped my ear, and with seeming ease, pulled my head up and yelled that last part into my ear, scattering the birds and making the colt to drop like a rock as his wings locked up.
"OW! Barb! Why'd you do that? You could've ripped my ear off!" I rubbed the offended appendage wincing slightly as I felt a bead of blood trail down the back of my neck. "Watch the claws there Barb, you need to stop trying to file them to razors, OK?"
"IS THAT A BABY DRAGON?!"
With enough force to make a ditch, I was forced into a tree, breaking it on impact. A ringing permeated my hearing as I lay there, slowly realizing that it had been a yellow and pink blur that had thrown me into said tree. casting a quick spell, I restored my body to its' former state. A spell following that bled me magically dry as I prepared to go ballistic on said blur. I slowly rolled over and stood back up. The surrounding area had gone nearly silent as I looked over to where I knew the stallion would be.
The noise coming in an incessant stream I could barely make out. I felt the shadows bending towards me as I locked in on the figure crouched before Barb, who stood there grinning ear-fin to ear-fin till she caught sight of me. I could smell the fear rolling off of her. I slowly made my back onto the trail, Barb shakily raising a claw at me, stopping the pegasus from continuing his rant. As if sensing a predator, he ducked down, trying to make himself smaller. A niggle of fear dripped from him. I slowed and stopped behind him, making his ears flatten. The drop became a flood as I stood there, soaking in the negative emotion. Slowly, like a foal caught with a hoof in the cookie jar, he looked behind himself. His eyes shrunk to pin-pricks as he looked at me.
Perhaps it is time I told you a bit about myself. I have had a bit of a problem with anger in my past. Now, with any normal unicorn, you have magical flares that lessen with age. I'm not normal. You see, the day Solaris had chosen me as a student, I had what a unicorn calls a 'Nova'. In essence, a Nova is like a orb of magic that has no output, it draws more and more magic to it like a strong magnet. Novas are reserved for sixth tear unicorns. As said orb of magic begins to grow in diameter, it begins to flare out. Pure and uncontrolled, indirected magic causes some strange things to happen around it. But, like a star, it begins to change its' core. Now the core of a Nova acts like a ground and a battery at the same time due to the fact that unicorns have horns and can somehow draw environmental magic to themselves. The unicorn who first witnessed a Nova when his college had attempted to direct emotion into a spell. They both died. Emotions and magic have a bad time playing nicely together. It starts as an orb from the tip of the horn and envelops the caster, making them, in essence, a time bomb. See why the first two died? the magical fallout had to be cleared in order to get to their notes, which were somehow intact.
My trial had changed me in a sever way, it opened a door that no unicorn was meant to open. Like my namesake, I became the last light of day, the first rays of morn, and the Eternal Dusk. I felt the light, I needed the shadow... I nearly killed an Alicorn. I fed upon the sun, drank in the darkness... it was... amazing. In that moment when Artemis came in to 'remedy' the situation, I turned on him. his power was like a-a... really good cup of hot cocoa.
I drank, not even realizing what i was doing. With that, my Nova achieved double mass corona, solidifying my changes. Had the event played out any differently, Canterlot would have been the second Badlands, or another addition to the Everfree forest. But, thankfully Solaris knew how to properly defuse and pull back the magical 'flare out' I had experienced and taken me under his wing as his personal student. with the event under control finally, we noticed the cooing of a baby dragon from the wreckage of the cart. Barb had been my present and responsibility ever since.
With the last memory rolling away, I noticed my surroundings and found the two cowering in the middle of the road. The look the poor stallion was giving me reminded me enough of one of the instructors to momentarily snap me out of it. With practiced movements, I released my pent up energy. I hung my head and walked past him, picking Barb up in my magic and placing her on my back.
"The birds were pretty good, don't go slamming ponies around like that and we'll be fine." with that said, I trotted slowly off to the Library.
The walk back to the library was short and uneventful, nopony waved at me and kept a minimal distance of six feet away. The rest of the day looked to be improving. As I came up to the door, I noticed the window had been covered from inside, the note from the last librarian had explicitly said the drapes and window covers were all left open.
I formed a ball with my magic, a nifty little spell known as a 'flash popper' that my sister taught me forming quickly. With the spell finished, I opened the door, lobbed it in and shut the door in quick succession.
BANG!
With the detonation, I heard screams of surprise and pain, ponies ran about inside and a few things broke. the ensuing chaos was almost worth the cleanup cost and the replacements.
"You think you might have over done that there?" Barb lightly taped the back of my head. I looked back, lifting an eyebrow. "Well? lets go see what the're here for. Heyah!" She kicked my sides with her pointy little toes.
"Ow, you know I don't like it when you do that!" I levitated her off and to the side of the door. With her out of the way, I opened the door and made my way inside. The room was a mess. Streamers were flying, ponies were screaming their heads off, a banner was falling down, and in the center of it all... a pink pony was crying her eyes out. 'Good, now I just need to figure out what this is all about.' i trotted further in, taking note of the wording on the banner, 'arty' was all that was visible. I lifted it up enough to read the whole thing, 'Welcome to Ponyvile, Dusk and (totaly your daughter) Barb Party!'
"Why would you do something like thahahaaat? It was sooo meheheean!" the pink pony whined at me and flailed her hooves about, flopping onto the floor like a sack of flower.
"I find parties to be a waste of time, they are only meant for either entertainment or political bulls#!t. I never have time for either, so clear out and leave me alone." with a quick spell, I incinerated the banner and levitated everypony else out. I turned to barb, looking around for any stragglers. "Are we done with the list?"
She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, the only thing left on here was Solaris' personal order for you to get some friends, which you failed. Miserably." she rolled the scroll up and rapped me on the snout, making me go cross eyed and 'bwuoah' and stand there like an idiot for a solid thirty seconds.
After I resurfaced from the bop, I looked around trying to find Barb. The little snake had a tendency to hit me like that when she was going off to do something to try and 'fix' a 'problem' that I had made. This usually meant she was talking to a pony that I had made cry or mad. I walked outside thinking she was going after the pink pony. The little traitor was out there somewhere, trying to paint me in another light. I trotted off towards the center of town, following the trace of dragon magic that had been seeping out of her. After a few minutes, I found Barb, she was walking back to towards me.
"What did you do this time?" I picked her up and placed her back on my withers, "You shouldn't go off like that, you know how much I don't like it." I tried to fix her with a harsh glare over my back.
Barb flicked my ear, "You need to try and be a nicer pony, you just might end up alone one of these days. She only wanted to welcome you here with a party." She gave me a sad look, ruining my attempt to scold her. "I worry about you sometimes, When you do things like this. I know you don't have a full grip on your emotions, but you need to work on trying to be more empathetic. You hurt her real bad, dad."
"Sigh... fine, but we still need to prepare for the return of Nightmare Moon. who knows what she would do to us." I turned around and made my way back towards the library.
"I told you, I DON"T KNOW HER!" I shouted to Blitz, who was trying to fly around me and interrogate me.
"Then tell us how she knew your name!" Pinkie popped out from behind me and accusingly poked my chest. "And why she was all 'lost puppy' around you! That dirty no good Dusk stealing sk-"
"Pinkie! we need to focus on how we can take her down! Barb, where is the book on the Elements of Harmony, I thought i told you to get it before we left?" I turned to her as she lifted the book and let go as soon as I grabbed it with my telekinesis. "OK, we need to go to the last known location of the Elements of Harmony, the Castle of the Two Siblings. In the middle of the Everfree Forest. Well... Sh-"
"Shut up Dusk, we need to get your honor back and beat the ever-living Tartarus out of her!" Pinkie was now somehow wearing an entire set of armor and wielding an overly large sword that glowed with an ominous color. Applejack reared up and slapped the sword down and somehow made it disappear.
"Whoa there pardner' you need to slow yer' roll. First of all, we need a plan, and a good one at that if we wan't to get through the Everfree and live to talk about it. Dusk?"
Blitz zoomed back in, "What are you asking him for? For all we know, he could be working for her as a spy!" he stomped and flared his wings a bit.
"Sigh, you do know that I am the apprentice to Solaris, right? So that means that what ever is going on right now, it is my job to make sure that it does not happen." I dead-panned, "does anypony know anypony who's been to the Everfree? Or a map of the area?"
"Here is a map, it was right on the shelf over here." Rarity levitated over a scroll.
"Alright. Blitz, Butterscotch, you two will come with me. The rest of you are staying here, I don't care if it sounds sexist, I don't wan't a bunch of emotional mares running around in a dangerous situation. Alright, this is how it's going down..."
thirty minutes earlier...
The sun was due up in five minutes and Barb and I were slowly making our way (she was on my back just sitting there taking advantage of the guilt card about how she won't be able to do this forever), when a we finally arrived in front of the town hall. The lights were on and ponies were milling about, totally unaware of the danger that was Nightmare Moon.
"Barb, I want you to be ready to run home at the first singe of trouble. I don't care if it's something as simple as somepony lifting a purse, I want you to run." I levitated her in front of me so I could talk directly to her, "Anything could be a prelude to her appearance, were talking about an ancient being surpassing Solaris in power. Be ready, and remember, I will always be with you." I rubbed the top of her head.
She folded her arms and pouted, "Dad, why do you sound like you're going to do something stupid again?"
"I also need you to get the book on the Elements of Harmony ready for when I return, we might seriously need that one." I put her on the ground. "I just think I'm going to be held up for a little bit, she just might consider me a threat..."
acts of public indecency and defilement of an unwilling stallion
In the beginning of time, it was believed that stallions were gifted to mares to do treasure, but due to the fact that so few of them existed they were deemed a 'luxury'. Due to the lack thereof stallions, wars were fought over obtaining them. No stallion knew what it was like to be free back then. Then Solaris and his sister came and unified the land, proclaiming that stallions, though fewer in number we equals with the mares. Nopony could laugh harder than they who first heard this, for they the rulers of the three tribes back then were a bunch of sexist extremists.
Oh how they made fun of her brother, she the Goddess of... something and fertility even though she was yet a virgin. The leaders of each of the tribes offered up their best husbands to her in an attempt to curry her favor... along with a chance to lay with her brother. She didn't take the offerings but allowed the mares to try their luck at her brother.
Long story short, Solaris shot each and every one of them down and ended up uniting the land through hatred of him. Every generation, a mare of each the bloodlines is offered to him in a mock of submission in an attempt to bring him under the influence of a 'true leader'. This never works.
anyway, back to Dusk and the lot.
Barb and I entered the Town Hall and the place was bustling with ponies trying to find seats with their friends. 'Ugh, just peachy. ponies being all buddy buddy.' I thought. I trotted over to an empty seat,sitting down without a thought. Barb sensing what I was doing, jumped to the next open seat.
Mayor Mare cantered up to the spotlight, signaling everypony to pay attention (like they weren't already(eye roll)) and cleared her throat. "Attention everypony, this year our majesty, King Solaris has graced our little town with this years Summer Sun Celebration!" everypony else broke out in cheers, "Now now, everypony, hold onto your cheer till after the Celebration so we can give Solaris our fullest cheer potential!" a few ponies persisted, "I SAID QUIET!" err pony stopped finally. She cleared her throat again, "Thank you, now, without further adeu, Solaris!"
Mayor Mare backed up and waved a hoof, signaling the curtains to fold away. With a collective gasp, we all stared on an empty backdrop. after a few seconds, starlit smoke began pouring and condensing on the stage accompanied by the sound of sinister laughter. The smoke pooled into an orb at the middle of the stage, condensing into a blackish mass. Slowly a Figure began to take shape. The legs, long and powerful; the body, defined and lithe; the head, clearly a mare. She flared black wings and sported midnight armor that accentuated her curves and defined her muscles. She smiled, showing off razor sharp teeth, lastly she opened her beautiful dark blue draconic eyes, her gaze pierced my very soul.
"Hello... mine subjects. We bid yo-"
"Who the hay are you?!" Blitz flew up and buzzed her. "where's Solaris? We want to see Solaris!"
Her fury was clearly evident, "Thou dost not know of thine ruler? Thou dost not know us? Is there nopony among you who hear of my-"
"Barb... get to the library and get the book on the Elements of Harmony, were going to need them."I jumped up on the stage, striking a dramatic pose, "I know you! You are the mare in the moon... Nightmare Moon! I saw the signs, and I am-"
"Going to be my personal sex slave." she slid up to me and somehow pulled me into a rather... close... hug.... lets leave it at a hug. "You will be mine for all your years."
Blushing heavily, I struggled in her grasp, "What? No! I'm Solaris' personal student! I'm here to stop you!"
"Oh! that just makes this all the more sweeter! Our dear brother sends a stallion to us like a bribe! Hardly fair we say. But, enough of that talk, we shall depart to our castle posthaste!" she smiled and lit her horn.
I struggled even more, trying to get out of her hooves, "What?! Nonononononononono-!"
Blitz
With a flick of her mane, Dusk had been taken by the evil looking Alicorn mare that had been practically treating him like a strip pole, leaving the rest of us dumbfounded as to what had just happened. After what felt like an eternity I snapped out of it. With a rush of air, I slammed down on the stage and galloped about to look for them back stage. Finding nothing more than ropes and stage props, I galloped back to the main hall, "We need to find him! Ponies, hurry and gather a search party!" BOOM
Dusk appeared out of the blue, dropping on my back with a flash of light. Like a dead weight, I had to catch his limp smelly body. He groaned after a few seconds of gasping for breath. "Oahhh... I feel like a Manticore just mauled my backside." he rolled off and limped off to the door, leaving us all speechless again.
"Hey! Get back here! How do you know her?! Get back here!!" I galloped after the strange stallion with the curse. Butterscotch following along with Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie pie in tow. We followed him till the library, in witch he tried to lock us out. I flew up and around, trying for the window. With a crash, and glass getting scattered, I landed in the foyer.
back to the present.(Dusk)
"They are rather bothersome. You're going on your own, I am not going through the Everfree at night. I'm going back to sleep, see you all later!" Barb waved at us and began walking up the stairs.
I rolled my eyes. "OK, since were going into the Everfree, we're going to need antivenin, Manticore spray, rope-"
"Or we could take the shortest route and skip all that." Pinkie Pie pronked down next to me, "Or... we could take the long rout and take a rom-" Rarity shoved a hoof in her mouth.
"I never got a chance to properly apologize for earlier... I guess you were right, about being prepared for scheduled visits, not the decor though."
The trot to the edge of the Everfree forest was short and uneventful. As we came upon the tree line, I noticed that there were some ponies following us. Three someponies. Three female someponies. One was white; one was an annoying shade of pink; "Hay!" and the other was orange, and wore a cow-pony hat. 'yay.'
We stopped right at the edge of the forest. I turned around and levitated the map to cover my other spell that I had cook, a quick levitation trap for the mares who were trying to follow. "Alright, we are going to follow the ridge line to the hills on the far western side of the cliff, there we should follow the edge of the cliff to a bridge that will allow us direct access." I set the trap off, sending the three mares careening out of the bush that they were trying to hide behind. As they rose up from the road and dusted themselves off, I calmly walked over and sat down. "Why are you following us?"
Applejack was the first to recover, Rarity was too busy trying to get her coat immaculate again while Pinkie was just lying there with a few birds flying around her head. "Ah... ah just waned' tah make sure yah wern't getn' inna' any trouble, hear?"
Pinkie jumped out of nowhere, booping me. "Silly! We just want the juicy little details of what happened between Black Snooty and you!"
I fell over and just lay there as I sorted out what they had going through their minds, trying to come up with a suitable explanation of why I smelled the way I did. Thinking back on the event, I realized that we were wasting time. "That was irrelevant, nothing really happened. end of story." I rolled back onto my hooves, shaking he dust out of my mane. "Nothing... happened. Come on you two, were late enough as is."
The path was clear for a good five minutes into the forest, somepony had either kept up on upkeep or it was magically sealed like this. the mares were insufferable at best, they had decided to just follow us and risk their necks just to pry the 'juicy details' out of me. I hate self centered mares like Bluebell.
thirty minutes earlier at the castle of the two 'sister'
"You know, It's alright if you don't know ho-"
"Silence! I will not be lectured by a Peasant!" Nightmare Moon paced by the bed. only stopping to shout at me every now and then. The chains and straps were chafing my frog and fetlocks.
The room was nice considering the time it took for her to clear the debris and loose stones away. We had been here for what felt like five minutes, she had tried to 'engage' me in 'a concubines duty'. She obviously had some inferiority complex or something of the same sorts. And obviously a virgin. Yay me, losing my virginity to a virgin goddess of darkness was obviously how I wanted to die.
I shifted the restraints again, rattling them around. I even had one of the oldest restrainer rings I've ever seen on my horn. Seeing as how I could have easily shorted the thing, I just slowly built the charge up, barely garnering a reaction from her. "I could teach you how, ifyou would let me..."
The Pacing stopped. "thou know how to do the... the deed? Thou could teachest thee?" Her coat flickered between a midnight blue and the black one she had.
"Lu-luna?... Is that you?" it finally clicked, the anger, the need for attention, the loneliness. "You have one two?"
She had froze right when I had said her real name, but anger washed over her anew. "SILENCE! THOU SHALT NEVER CALL US THAT NAME AGAIN! WE ARE NIGHTMARE MOON! AND YOU SHALL CALL US SUCH!" she stomped a hoof, chipping the solid marble floor.
I flinched, "yes.. Nightmare. Can you let me out of these chains please? I need to be able to move to teach you." With a glow and swish of her horn, the chains and restraints vanished, leaving me on the bed. I rolled over and scooted to the edge of the bed, trying to get her attention. "Nightmare, Nighty, hon, you need to be closer to be taught."
She stopped pacing and sat next to the bed. "T-thou truly wish to know us better? Intimately?" her dragon slit eyes widened in wonder. "Thou wouldst accept us as we are and cherish our night?"
I put a hoof to her cheek, a blush creeping around it. "Yes, if it meant that I could save you, I would stay by your side for all eternity if I had to." Gathering the energies that Solaris attempted to lock away from me, i pulled at the nightmare that had consumed her. Gently at first, I distracted her with a kiss. I could taste the hatred coursing through her that fed the nightmare. Slowly like a creeping fog, I took the hatred. After what felt like an eternity, we pulled away from each other, gasping for breath.
"Thou hath done this before?" Nightmare was huffing lightly and quivering with excitement.
I smiled and shook my head. "No, I just read a lot of anatomy books, plus I might have accidentally read several chapters of the pony-sutra when i was younger." I leaned in and slowly began to nibble a trail down her neck, testing to see of she noticed yet...
She tried to stifle a moan, letting me know I was definitaly doing something right. just as she leaned into my minstrations, It shifted to my darker powers and bit down on her neck, hard. The bite, to my shock hadn't gotten throutgh. I had simply dimpled her neck, causing her to let out a full bodied moan accompanied by a shiver of delight.
"Oh Dusk! Yes! Dominate me! Take me like a true stallion! Rut me raw!" She pulled me into a deep embrace, practicaly smothering me. I noticed how wet my lower half had just gotten, I was now fully aware that if I didn't escape now, I would litteraly be f-bucked to death. A death that any other stallion would dream of. I needed my magic.
"If you realy need me, you would let me use my magic to help myself stand longer!" and like the dawn, the idea slowly made its way into her head. She hastily took off the ring, barely even deactivating it before yoanking it off. "OW!" I noticed that she was now looking me over with confusion, just know noticing my coat and teeth. "Suprise?..." I smiled weekly before letting the shift fade away. She lifted a hoof and booped my nose, activating my 'moment'.
As far as I can tell, only a few other ponies besides me have a tendency to reack to the 'boop', as my assistant/adoptive daughter oh so eloquenlty labled, Its' a 1/100 ratio, just as I do. We just stand there, with a look of utter suprise and shock. compleatly open to any danger or suggetion that might be present at the time. It sucks. there was this one time, Barb had booped me while a sales pony was thelling her to keep comming back for the new edditions of her comics every first of the month, I haven't stopped going, nor have I been able to even try to stop going there and getting the newest edditions for her. Clever girl. But apparently Nightmare Moon knew about this as well and had decided to see if I had it. Clever mare... I was going to be in a plop-storm when i woke up.
As I came too, I noticed theat I was in the Town Hall, surrounded by everyponie that I had hoped would have had the sense to flee. They hadn't. Slowly, I got up and Walked out, barely even acknowledging Blitz as he followed.
After dealing with a cliff, a Manticor who tried to coerce me to create a new creature with it, a prissy serpent who was miles away from the ocean, a bunch of annoying enchanted bushes, and a cloud that just had it coming. We had finaly made our way (the mares had decided that they were 'needed') up the stairs after Blitz had tied off the bridge. The three mares had bickered between themselves who would take me on my first date in Ponyvile ever since they had come along. I only offered a free eviceration to the first three to date me. They laughed it off. We're getting off topic, we were standing in front of the castle with absolutely no real reason as to just stand here and wait.
"Are we just going to stand here or are we going to go in and fix this problem?" I stomped a hoof. "We only have till we suffer from the lack of sun and eventualy starve and/or freeze to death after all."
The stone was crumbly and plant roots were making it look like an ancient pile of bu-
"Dusk! stop that train of thought Immediatly! no swearing in front of the younger audience!" Pinkie dominated my eyesight and had a frown plastered on her muzzel. "No! I mean it! Don't do that again!"
"You are one strange mare..." A rustleing sound drew our attention. Some how Rarity, while we were talking, had found an old tapestry that had been blown outside and was fussing over it like a hen. We all staired at her.
"Ugh, 'pick', oh my, what a beautiful piece of artistry, 'pat pat,' the stich is still holding together after all this time!" She looked up at us as we watched her. "What?"
"Your wasting time, we need to get inside and deal with this." I trotted up the last few steps and opened the massive door with a flick of my magic, the door groaning due to years, if not centuries of disuse. I looked behind me finding the rest had decided to follow me after all. "Alright, we need to look for the Elements of Harmony if were to deal with Nightmare Moon. It would be easyer if we split up to look for it. Butterscotch, your with me." The mares looked like they had eaten a slice of lemon, Rarity had even led out an 'oh poo' to show her disagreement with the lack of an availability to come with me.
The great hall that led up to the Throne room had three doors leading out of it that didn't include one we came out of, I took the one closest to the throne on the left. We all split to our respective pairs for the adventure and began our search.
Butterscotch began shaking like a leaf as soon as we were out of sight from the rest of the group. "D-d-dusk, could you m-make your h-horn any bu-bu-brighter? I-i-i'm not that c-comfortable I-in the dark..."
I sighed, "Butterscotch, you can put a full grown stallion through a solid 'Apple' tree, what exactly are you afraid of?" I looked back at him, raising an eyebrow. "Or more importantly, why are you even afraid anyway? you are a pegasus, right? Arn't you all just a bunch of brash, headstrong individuals?"
Butterscotch trotted along side me. "W-well, I c-come from from a family of light hearted pegasi dating all the way back to Private Pansy herself. We're all just a bunch of push overs, my parents especialy. my big brother Zepher breeze takes more after our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-greeat-great-great-great-great-great-gre-"
I grabbed his mouth in a telekinetic glow, stopping him from continuing any further. "That is great and all, but we need to find the Elements of Harmony and fing the rest of the ponies that followed me here. I don't feel the need to file any more mysterious dissaperance paperwork. Twelve times was enough to wear even me out of that branch of legalese. Eugh, I that particular branch... anyway, we should co-"
A blur of midnight and raw feminin need slammed into me as I entered a random door to my right. As I lay there, I couldn't help but smell the obvious and easily recognisable sweet tang of Nightmare Moon. She was huffing anf puffing as we lay there, neither of us willig to move a muscle. I barely looked out from under her barrel, her eyes locked onto mine. Slowly like an elegant swan, she rested her snoot on mine. As her breathing returned to normal, she adjusted slightly to alow me to breath more freely. Now firmly seated on my... lower pelvic region, she smiled and began to rub my barrel. I did the only thing I thought would get her off me, talk.
"You smell like raspberries." Her blush was barely notably through her dark fur, apparently she hadn't thought to mask the smell. "I like raspberries." The blush became more evident than percievably possible concidering the fur. Her eyebrows knitted into a cute pout and I could feel her lower lip tremble against my own, her eyes took on a shine and her pupils dialated to encompas the whites, leaving just her perfect midnight blues around the edge.
I lay there, stairing down the dreaded 'Doubble Barrel' that most married stalions kept telling me about durring a study about how mares convince their spouse to buy or bring them something/somewhere. The studies on how mares still manage to convince their spouses to do new thing had pointed in the obvious direction of this tecnique, so to speak. The study barely held a candle to the sheer power of it.
With one word, one utterance, she destroyed me. That one sound rended my whole world asunder, and anihlated my will. Her breath razed my mind and tore at the last remnants of what I use to call a heart. A single beat resounded in my chest after twenty of my twenty one years had rendered it silent.
The party was in fuil swing at the Sparkle residence, all but three inhabitants were enjoying the revelry. Dusk Shine, Twilight Velvet, and his Grandmother, Starlight Sparkle sat at the edge of the party, watching impassively.
"Mother, What happened to me?" Dusk looked to Twilight Velvet.
Twilight looked down at her son, curiosity flickered across her eyes. "What do you mean, sweety?" She smiled and pulled him in for a hug. "Your a perfectly healthy young colt, and I coulnd't be more proud of you if I tried. You're the personal protege of the Prince, you should enjoy your party!" With a light nudge, she tried to get him to join the rest of them.
Just sitting there, Dusk looked back to her, no emotion even flickered through him. "I can't feel it anymore."
Twilight's smile dropped, a tap on her shoulder from Starlight kept her from speaking further. The older mare rose from her seat and took a few steps over to Dusk. gazing deeply into his eyes, she said "What do you speak of, young one?"
"M-my heart... I don't feel it... I don't have a pulse, but i'm alive. Why?" fear and sadness began to creep into his voice and tears shimmered around his eyes. "I don't feel compasion and-and I don't feel happieness, just... like I have a pit in my chest and I can't fill it anymore. It's been getting worse since I was three, only every now and then I would feel a beat, like my heart was trying to beat. but now It is wholy silent since I was chosen by Prince Solaris."
The mares looked to eachother before sighing hevily. Starlight spoke. "You have the curse we carry. It was only meant to be partialy lifted when we find our "true love" so to speak, your mother has her companion, but it was only meant for the mares of our lineage. It takes the beat of your heart and deadens it to the world around, cutting your emotions and compasion. But, the mage who cursed us also had told our ancestor of a way to lift it from our family for ever. A stalion of our line would take the curse of the wanderer and cause great change... but at the cost of his heart. The mage said, "Once he falls in love, and knows the pain of a broken heart four fould, shall the curse be lifted." young stallion, you shall carry the pain of our lineage four fold upon your back, but remember, we will always be here for you." Starlight patted Dusk on his withers and nodded to her daughter. "We must allow this to pass or risk the curse deepening. just try not to let the deamon from your fathers side take you under."
current time, Castle of the two Sisters.
We were covered in sweat and the room smelled of our colective... activites. I was huffing into her neck, huggin her barrel as her wings wrapped around me. Nightmare was practically purring with pleasure after our fith go, her armor lying off to the side of the bed like discarded laundry. "Ooohhhh, Dusk. Thou art the perfect stallion a mare could ask for. Our children shall be gods, and nopony shall ever take Thou from Us." Lunas color had been flikering through the past few hours as we had romped, staying longer and longer as time passed, now it looked like somepony had just thrown a few splotches of black paint on her.
I huffed for a few more seconds before finnaly catching my breath, lifting my head to meet her loving gaze. "I've been told by my grandmother that the four mares that could make my heart beat would rip it to shreds. Please... just please don't hate me after this." my heart stutteder and died again as I rolled off her causing me to cough and stagger against the wall. "Ooohh, I didn't expect that to happen so quickly." I felt the cold radiate back out from where my heart had been. The feelings I had felt, blown away in a matter of seconds, replaced by the cold logic that had been so adament through out my life.
Nightmare looking at me from the bed with confusion and fear in her eyes. "What dost thou speaketh of paramour, we would never dare betray thine heart!" She got out and trotted close to me.
The seconds that she had spent talking to me, I had readied myself. The hours we had spent together I had finaly found where the darkness had been aethericaly flowing from, isolating the magical frequency to cut and drain it. As she neared me, I shifted back to my darker form, making her pause mometarily. I lunged before she could move, my teeth tearing into the darkness still lingeing within her. Using all my strength, I pulled on that font, drawing it into me and scouring it from her body. She began to struggle and try to dislodge ne from her neck, using her hooves and wings as I latched further on her with my forelegs and straddleing her hips.
Her struggleing tore apart the room, upending the desk and wrecking the bed already worn from earlier, destroying the door as she launcher us at it in a last dich attempt at getting me off. As I drainded the last of the Nightmares power, We hit the first stone stair. I immediatly let go of her and began to try and stop my desent into the stairwell, failing to do so. We fell for what felt like an hour till she met the door first, then I fell on top of her, shattering the frail wood to splinters. I rolled out to the middle of what I thought to be the throne room, dawns light filtering in through the few stained glass windows
The blood pooling around my body felt rather cold... and the princess as I noticed was still over by the door frame... which meant that the splinter in my chest hadn't been just my heart breaking. I noticed the blackness around the edge of my eyes creeping in as I lay my head onto the cold marble, blood following the contour of my neck. I heard the clop of hooves comming through the hall, who knows from which direction at this point. I laughed to myself, knowing that I had yet to finish breaking the curse for my family.
There was a tugging sensation from my barrel, about where my heart should have been. Touch, the first thing that came back was touch. I felt a little claw on my barrel approximately two or three inches from the shard of the door had impaled me, the small pool of blood surrounding me cool to the touch. I heard crying from behind me, the mares had probably found me and had begun thinking I had died. Ha. getting knocked unconscious by Nightmare Moon had been fun.
I blinked the sunlight from my eyes, nearly blinding me as I tried to look about. Barb was standing on my barrel, the large piece of wood in her claw. She looked rather perturbed that she had to take care of yet another 'Accident'. Oh joy. I could barely make anything out beyond three or so heads away, the blurry shapes of the rest of the party were around the blue shape of what I assumed to be the princess.
I have had a few things happen like this in the past you see, I had been dropped by a flying chariot onto a wrought iron fence in the middle of a family pic-nick, had a chef drop a knife off a banister in the middle of a party thrown by some snob nearly decapitate me, and one of the other students thought that I could be drowned. I woke up in the middle of lake Celestia in the middle of the night. that one had been rather entertaining, I had met a serpent that was looking for directions that time. I have yet to find a place on any map anywhere called Albuquerque.
Barb was giving the piece of wood all she had, trying to wiggle and pry it out of my chest cavity. After three or so tries, she noticed my eyes had opened and was giving me a very good imitation of the look my mother gave me when I had destroyed our fence that one time.
"Are you just going to lay there or are you going to get this hunk of wood out of your chest? Those three idiots over there are getting on my last nerve." She crossed her arms.
I smiled and looked around the castle. The sun shone through a few holes in the walls and roof. I heard Solaris fly into the room with a regal flap of his wings. I sat up getting gasps from the mares over by the unconscious form of Luna. "Prince, I have found your sister and have returned her to her former glory, plus I happened to be coerced into performing... several forms of intercourse with her. Grant me this boon as to stay among the living for the remainder of my natural life as to make up for this transgression." With a quick spark of magic, I tore the rest of the piece of wood from my chest, spilling at least a pint of blood and even a few pieces of lung tissue. no sight of any of my heart.
The sounds the group made were almost enough to make me laugh at them. As my eyesight clarified further, I saw a tall white female alicorn in the room over where I Thought Solaris had landed. The surprise must have shone on my face because she smiled at me and shake her head the same way my teacher would. I stood there for a few more seconds, trying to wrap my head around this.
The Alicorn spoke. "Dusk shine, you act like you don't recognize me, surely you at least remember all the time I spent teaching you?" I stood there, wondering if my life had decided that it needed to kick me a few more times while I was metaphorically down. realization dawned across her face, followed quickly by rage and possibly jealousy. "Dusk.. did you just admit to rutting my sister whom had been a virgin before her banishment?"
I quickly cast the self-healing spell and stood back up. With a flick of my horn, I levitated barb over to where I thought would be the safest area around. I cleared my throat. "Yes. We had a good rut right after I arrived and decided to split the group up. Of course, I couldn't possibly have known of your now obvious infatuation with me. If you would turn your attention to your sister, you will notice that I have separated the Nightmare from her without the need of the Elements of Harmony. A very hard thing to do I might add, I had to distract her for at least four hours before finding the source of magic that it had latched onto before severing that tie and then draining it of its magical essence."
Luna looked at me like I had just described how to properly eviscerate a newborn with a rusted serrated spoon. "How could thou say something like that after thou hath taken Our maidenhood? Dost thee mean nothing to thou?!"
I sighed and slowly trotted over to her. "Of course you mean something to me, I'm not entirely sure what, but I was a virgin before I ever met you. So I guess we both had the greatest pre-wedding elopement in pony history. Now getting married would just be a formality." I turned back to 'Celestia' in time to receive a blast of solar plasma strong enough to launch me back to Ponyvill if I were in the correct spot. As it were, I had better luck winning a game of russian roulette with all five bullets ready to go.
The journey back to the town had taken around seven hours, as I had been heckled by that same manticore from earlier. Some females just couldn't take a hint, I had to scare her off by destroying the tree she kept catcalling me from! By the time I got back to Ponyville, the now Princess "Celestia" had taken her sister back to her castle up in Canterlot. As it turned out, the rest of the ponies who had accompanied me on the journey to the castle of the two sisters were all worried about where I was and had made decent headway into forming a search party. I had just emerged from the edge of the Everfree when I was tackled by a very solid marshmallow. With purple hair. And had a horn. That had nearly speared my eye.
"OH DARLING, I thought I would never see you ever again!" she then tried to forcefully make out with me. I quickly teleported to a safe distance and resumed my walk to the library.
Barb walked out from the group of ponies over where they had been gathered by the road, shaking her head and glaring at me. "You just had to go and get some while you left me alone at a strangers house? Do you know what would happen if somepony decided to kidnap me? At least tell me who I have to call mom now."
I lifted her I my TK and placed her on my back before teleporting to the road before the narwhal with purple hair could jump me again, causing her to slam into Blitz. "Well, you would have tried to take over Equestria, and we're royalty know. You will probably Still call her 'your majesty', or something akin to that. Besides, we can finally deal with Cadance, no more shipping coming from her!" I quickly put up a shield around us to ward off the crazy mare that had decided to try and follow us. "Oh, and her name is Luna."
Rarity had begun to chase after us... or me, and was becoming a rather annoying metaphorical lamprey of the situation. I had decided to test the cloud walking spell that I had found in the library at the castle, quickly casting it on barb and I before teleporting up to a cloud that happened to be close enough to land on, narrowly dodging the mare. I sighed as her screams of frustration barely made there way up to me, her anger palatable.
'Odd, It tastes like boysenberries...' I thought to myself. I looked to the left and found that Butterscotch's cabin was a little over yonder, almost exactly where we had gone into the forest. I shook my head and began to teleport to clouds that were over near the town, allowing me to lose Rarity in the back alleys. After landing, I summoned a scroll and quill. "Barb, I need you to remind me later to contact our...friend... in Canterlot, I am in need of some answers on flavors of a few emotions that I have recently come across."
I heard the scratch of quill on paper as I trotted towards the library tree house. Barb swatted my ear with the feather end of her quill. "So, since were like royalty now, does that mean that I can roast Blueblood? I really don't like him."
I looked at her over my withers. "Well... only if you can convince Celestia the importance of destroying the lineage of the Bloods. He is the sole surviving heir after all." I quickly opened the door and side stepped the confetti blast that would have knocked me on my rump and given Pinkie Pie the chance to... do something. Something that I only do with the "Waifu" that I "stole"... according to the Neighponees. 'I am not very into the Anna May and manenga things as Barb, but I try to keep up to date on such as it is a part of literature as a whole.'
I began to clear all of the party equipment out of the library and had put up a selective barrier around the library to ward off the three females who I would rather incinerate than associate with, so I don't accidentally do so. the ponies who had been waiting to surprise me had been ceremoniously teleported outside and dumped onto either Rarity or Pinkie Pie. After I had finished cleaning up the mess left by the annoying one, I had just enough time to sit down before I was summoned to Canterlot right into a Tuxedo. Some how it fit perfectly. Standing off to one side, My brother and his marefriend were glaring daggers at me.
As I turned around, I noticed that my parents were barely awake and had a rather lager amount of cameras with them. A thestral mare in what I assumed to be ceremonial garb was standing in front of me. To my left, Luna was preening and absolutely going to... entertain herself with me later. A wing wrapped around my withers and quickly drug me closer to her, the blue feathers letting me know it was her. I looked on the other side of Luna to find the new princess of the kingdom, Celestia brooding over the fact that she would never get to have her way with me.
I turned and waved to my parents in the first row, trying to emulate how normal ponies smiled. To my surprise, I could feel my heart try to beat every now and then, feeling like I was having palpitations. I knew that Luna wasn't going to keep the thing fluttering like when I had been with Nightmare, they had become separate ponies over the course of their stay on/in the moon.
Take for example, I had taken a small part of my soul and put it into a magical construct that would solidify into a corporeal body once the soul had matured enough to live by its self. It had taken about three months to mature into a sentient creature. Seven months later, it had gender identified as female. As it reached its second year of life, I had named her "Twilight" in honor of what my parents would have named me if I had been so. Now "Celestia" had no idea I had done so, only barb and one other pony had any knowledge of my experiment. The time It had taken to mature into sentience, I had a limited link to it. Twilight is living in a small condo in Stalliongrad, a similar body type to mine and very similar mannerisms, along with talent and likes and dislikes. It is like looking into a mirror. A very scary mirror. She also has a thing for my brother.
Now the mare in the ceremonial garb had begun to wax poetics about how life is ever changing as the moon and tides, along with some other horseshit lines about love. Thankfully, I was able to listen to what she was saying and not really hear her. the ceremony was short and held little significance to me due to the fact that I had never come across any lunar ceremonial tradition books in the archives. Anywhere. As we said our vows (Luna told me mine via telepathy) and were about to leave, a Narwhal with purple hair jumped down from... somewhere along with a pink blob of something and promptly stuck an anti magic ring on both Luna and I, and proceeded to tie me up and throw me onto an orange stallion with a stetson.
I had barely been a prince for three minutes and I had already been ponynapped. 'Well... that could have been a bit less dramatic, but good enough. I kinda expected Chr-' I was promptly dumped onto the floor by the stallion, the fall jolting my thought process. Rarity and Pinkie both siding up along side him and whispering conspiratorially. I decided to just ignore them due to the fact that either the guards, Luna, or another party would find us here. For now, I decided to put my Eternal Dusk side to use.
As I shifted, I noticed that the mares and stallion had stopped talking and were now focused entirely on me. I smiled at them and dissolved into shadow, leaving the ring and other restraints there. I of course didn't have to rely on the emotion based magic of dark magic since I couldn't feel until the curse was lifted, hence the reason as to why I was unswayed by it thus far. I recoalesced into my physical form in order to open the door, leaving the trio there flabbergast. I shifted back to normal in the hall, noting that I was just a few doors away from the I quickly dropped my second form before the door closed, making sure to walk along like nothing had gone on.
The fact that they had the audacity to ponynap me had surprised me, since the fact that they had done so right at my wedding was nearly unimaginable. Apparently one of them was a stalker of mine. Some how, after I had become Solaris' apprentice I had found that I had a fan club of sorts, they would often try to swarm me when ever I would go outside for supplies. I was thankful of the guard detail that he would often send out with me. back when he was a he, after all. 'I just wish I could feel anything at this point. it gets a little monotonous every now and then.'
One of my most devout of my fans had dressed herself up into a wedding dress and had a priest outside of my parents house, telling them about how we had apparently bee dating for a few months and I had popped the question as it were. Fat chance. Thankfully my mother had seen through the lies and was just entertaining the cerulean mare, playing with her. Apparently her name had been something like 'The great and wonderful... something or other'.
I continued down the hall till I came across the kitchens, a warm blast of air coming out of the service doors followed by a server pony carrying a tray of hors d'oeuvres'. I quickly ducked out of his way and made my way inside, seeing the head chef slamming around pots and yelling in Sheetlandish at his underlings. The only creature in this castle that could bring Anything remotely related to a smile to my face was the damn near necromantic way he dealt with those who displeased him. Of course, he claimed to be part necromancer every now and then to keep up the jig.
I quickly and quietly made a sandwich, hiding in the corner of the room where I knew no one would look. I was siting there, bored, while the bustle of the kitchen allowed me to just try and make sense of all of what had just happened. One, the ponies from that town had made it to Canterlot in less time than would seem possible. Two, I was now being passive aggresively being hated on by my teacher, whom had feelings towards me. Three, I had a feeling that the curse would ruin everything in the next few hours if I had any idea as to how it worked. 'With how it happened in the past, I'm sure that it will...' I thought darkly. 'I know for a fact that it definitely wasn't Princess Luna I had fallen for. This will complicate the plan...'
A cleaver sliced through my sandwich, making two triangles, the way I told the head chef not to. The way he still cut it to this day. the way he just cut it in front of me. It was a matter of practicality to me. 'Why cut something that teeth could rend just as easily?' "Aye, Laddy? What's got ye in me kitchen, eh?"
Chef Baa Ram was giving me a rather interesting look. "Yae gonna stain me kitchen with such dribble laddie? Juss gonna Shite on me perfect record? Aye?!" Faster than I could react, my sandwich was snatched away from my field and thrown into the trash. he quickly turned around and cobbled together the same exact sandwich I had made, but added more to it before shoving it into the space where the previous one was held, somehow staying in my telekinesis.
I looked from the sandwich and him a few times. "I will never understand you and your need for perfection." I shrugged and began to eat, Baa Ram rolled his eyes and went back to his post. I continued to eat as the kitchen resumed its natural rhythm, the head chef yelling back and forth between dishes that were being brought out to where the reception was to be held. Or at least where I thought the reception would be held.
I followed the next server out into the hall, staying just far enough away to not have to make him nervous. It took a minute or two to get to the hall, nearly no one was there and the servers were busy making sure that all the food was in order. There at the top of a raised platform, in a chair that was meant for Luna, sat Chrysalis. She was obviously sad for some reason or other, she was looking longingly at the seat next to her. I could barely hear her, the multi tonal sound of her voice distorting her words a bit.
"Why didn't I just take him like I wanted to?..." She raised a hoof to stroke the table cloth.
I teleported next to her, making her yelp and jump out of the chair. "I hope you like the design." I looked down at Chrysalis, my heart palpitating. "You still give me a little love to go on don't you?" She blushed green and scuttled away before I could say anything else.
As Chrysalis ran out the doors a guard and the rest of the party that I had left began to file in. As soon as Luna set her eyes on me she teleported over. With a sweep of her wing, I was lifted unto an embrace that would leave an earth pony infirm. "Oh, how you gave mine heart a fright! We forbidist thou from e'er leaving Mine side again!" Thankfully the sound of my spine shattering forced her to drop me like the sack of rocks I had bought to study the formation of geodes. "Oh, We forgot thine fragile body! Sorry Our husband, We forget Our own strength!"
As soon as I was on the floor, I was wrapped in another light that repaired the damage, allowing me to stand again. "Now that you two are reunited, we can finally finish this! Ugh, auntie I hope you enjoy your present from me, I tried to tailor it to your needs due to the fact that you were out there for a thousand years." Blueblood walked around Celestia and sat next to me, forcing Celestia to sit next to her sister thankfully.
Silver Tears, reporting the strangest meeting in all of Equiis.
Around three hours after the reception ended, a gathering took place, a gathering of mares who thought they had been cheated out of their "happily ever after" so to speak, convened at a local doughnut shop. Now you need to understand that they are all very... shall we say, blond. Like, One of them had tried to convince Dusks mother that they had been special someponies for three months the first time they met. I had of course asked Twilight Velvet if I could come in and record the conversation. She of course said yes.
Now, the meeting that I was sitting in on was graced by the current ruler of Equestria, Solaris. That was very confusing when I noticed that he had changed his gender to try and woo Dusk Shine, something that I know that the masses would eventually riot about. Also joining the "Herd" were three Ponyville ponies, one of which was a farmer. The first time I looked at the farmer, I had mistaken her for a stallion, nearly earning myself a shiner. Thankfully I had chosen not to comment on her appearance. The next two were a bit more explainable, a fashionista and a baker. The Pink baker had begun babbling about how she was tired of not being the "Lead Romantic Partner" in the "Story", quickly followed by the purple haired narwhal-I mean white coated and purple mane and tailed fashionista hushing her and saying that she doubted that a "hussy" like her would never be of the caliber of mare necessary to court him.
The fight had thankfully been adverted by Queen Chrysalis, the queen of the changelings, who had them quickly stuck to opposite walls close to where the nights discussion would take place. A few other noble mares of lineages who didn't want them to be know came up to the circle of pillows and lied down. The founder (Chrysalis for those who are just now beginning to read these) Decided that tonight would be a night of Remembrance, or a night where you share the story of how you met Dusk. This would be the scoop of the century.
I readied my paper and quill, waiting for the first one to begin. As it turned out, the pink pony from Ponyville was the first to talk, her travel through the multiverse and how throughout all she could find she had been friend-zoned so thoroughly that she was in crippling depression. Ow. The next was our Prince/Princess Solaris/Celestia.
"I was born a mare after my older sister Luna, our travels brought us far and wide when we first made contact with unicorns. We had just finished dealing with the Unicorn Royalty when we met the rest of the when we discovered the rest of the ponies that had taken up residence within the Vale of Respite. The vale of Respite being the name we decided upon seeing how beautiful it had been once we found it, Luna wanted to call it the Vale of Stars. If only I had listened to her when we first started to bicker about the ponies worshiping me more than her, that was my first mistake." She glared at the Founder. "As soon as we found another problem, this being the changeling infestation and the state of how they treated males in their society. They treated them like possessions and rarely ever let them outside, instead the richest of the Warmares had courtyards where they would hide their stallions like greedy dragons. It was with this discovery that I and my sister came up with a plan that would require one of us to be a stallion till our job was done. She of course tricked me into being the stallion."
Queen Chrysalis had decided that this was the point of which she should put her two pence in. "Oh, shut it you cake gobbling excuse of a ruler, we all know why you're here, and I don't really like you anyway! you tried to have me and my children starved to death just so you could be the favorite of the crowd!" She grasped a newspaper in her magic and quickly rolled it up and whaped Solaris/Celestia on the nose. "Your just jealous that your own sister, after nearly an entire millennium on the moon shacked up with Dusk before you could even tell him you had a cu-"
What happened after that was a rather interesting discussion that included plasma, miasma, several coffee pots and a narwhal. Due to the severity of the incident, I was sworn never to tell anyone of what happened after the Founder said such a nasty word. but due to the wording and rushed job, I was able to tell another of what happened. He was a curious looking griffin, his eyes had a deathly blue sheen to them.
This curious fellow was none other than a long thought dead (as in he really had been dead) Griffin Warmonger, Felix. A young pegasus sat on his head and was obviously blind. Apparently he was looking for the Heart of Stars, an ancient artifact stolen by Luna of necromantic origin that would grant him life once more.
Dusk Shine, the greatest magician of the age. Princess Luna, the goddess of the moon. Both were in the forbidden section of Canterlots' library. On one hoof, Dusk was wide awake and looking at a tomb of great power. On the other, Princess Luna was... chained up in the middle of a circle of magic. Around three hours earlier, Dusk had given Princess Luna a rather strong concoction of sedatives and pain killers. Half a second later, Luna dropped like a sack of rocks. Apparently Alicorns aren't resistant to drugs. After drugging his "wife", Dusk had teleported them to the library section where he knew Twilight would pop in every now and then to sneak into the rest of the library. The problem was waiting for her to get there.
It had taken him roughly thirty minutes to draw the necessary Runes and line them up in accordance to what he was going to attempt to do. After that, all he had to do was heft the Lunar Princess into the circle and chain her down. The only down side to this sort of Circle was that it had to be performed like brain surgery. Only while the patient was awake and coherent. But such was life, and why he needed Twilight here.
The need to have someone here with a sense of empathy was critical to getting her to comply with the operation. The only problem was waking her up without causing her to destroy the Lab. As soon as Twilight wou-
"Hi Dusk! Guess wh-"
He whirled around to find Twilight standing in the doorway, astonishment painted across her muzzle. "Now, you will tell me why in the name of Tartarus you have an Alicorn tied down in that Circle or I will get Solaris down here and have him ream you about what you are about to do again."
After blinking a few times, Dusk cleared his throat and turned around to face her. "Well, Twilight, I would like to introduce you to Princess Luna... But she is currently in a drug induced sleep. She has a soul in her that has fragmented off of her psyche and had nearly caused the world to suffer from severe cold, sunlight deprivation and a few years of tyranny before we either killed her or died due to starvation. That soul fragment, much like how you did, became sentient and subverted her into granting her complete control. That fragment calls herself-"
"Nightmare Moon from the foals story, got a lady-boner from being near you and gave you a bit of a thump-thump problem in your chest cavity, and now you're trying to extract her from Princess Luna and give her a body made of Bio-simulcratic tissue and hide her away from everyone that would have you kill her." She cantered closer. "And now you need me to convince Luna not to kill us so you can do the operation and wipe her mind of this happening so you can call off the marriage and survive to tell your little buggy children that you have another day for them to talk to you." She shook her head. "Chryssie is not going to like this..."
Dusk nodded and turned back to the Circle, channeling magic through his horn before shooting Lunas sleeping form, causing her to jolt awake. After a few seconds, she began to fret and try to break the chains, pained grunts following after from the feed back from the Tartarus ring around her horn, sucking away the magic she tried to cast.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!? DUSK, THOU SHALT TELL US WHERE WE ART ELSE THOU SHALL BE-" Twilight swiftly smacked her with a hoof, surprising her enough to silence her.
"If you say the wrong thing, he will have to kill both of us!" the fake fear in her eyes nearly believable to Dusk, which meant that she had Luna in the cradle of her hoof. "The only reason why he has me here is to convince you to submit to the operation that he will be conducting in order to take the Nighmare out of you.”
Lunas eyes widened as she realized what had been said to her, fear roiling off her like water in a boiling pot. "W-what art thou saying? The Nightmare hath been defeated! We are free of her foul trickery! We felt her powers leave Us!"
Dusk trotted into the candlelight, his "Nightmare" form bleeding over his coat. "You mean this power?" Lunas heart nearly stopped beneath Twilights hoof, then promptly spiked as she began thrashing on the chains in earnest. Dusk shook his head, letting the magic wash away. "You don't have to fear me, I have had full control over myself ever since I had found that I had one when I had become your brot-sisters protege."
Luna was still panicky but was more confused that afraid. "H-how hath thou done that? Thou should be in Tartarus for using such magic!" She was shaking now, her fear winning but freezing her to the spot.
Dusk shook his head. "I have no heart to let the Darkness sway, both literally and metaphorically. Back in my school days, I was known as the Heartless. It's a familial curse."
Twilight sat down right next to Luna, making her flinch lightly. "If you go through with this, you will never have to fear becoming Nightmare Moon again."
She looked back to Dusk, hesitation clear across her muzzle. Just as she lifted her hoof towards him, the wall next to the door bust open, revealing the form of a griffin.
"I hope you don't mind me, I'm just here for the Heart." as the dust settled, they could see that the assailant was a skeletal Ghule, balefire burning in place of his eyes, the silvery glint of his claws flash in the light of the mage-light above. The griffin was faster than anything they had seen, seeming to blink in and out of existence and reappear with ease.
He slammed his knee into Dusks face, knocking out a few teeth along with knocking him out. after doing so he gave Twilight a swift crack on her head, rendering her unconscious as well. "Well well well, princess... you seem to be a bit, tied up!"
"Tamyriss! O-or Felix... I told you not to hurt them, you don't listen to me." a little blue filly Pegasus made her way into the room through the door, nervously trying to hide behind her cloak. "We just need to find the artifact that they stole from you and we can leave, and I remember telling you not to hurt any-pony!" she stomped her tiny little hoovsies, the only one flinching was Felix.
"I'm sorry, we really did need them to not be here though. And I know that I can't kill either of them without the other dying, and neither of them could die unless they both have a heart at the same time." He waved towards the rest of the room. "And they were going to hurt the princess anyway, and from what I can tell, they were planning to cut away part of her soul and erase the memory. Need I remind you how much it hurts to have part of your soul cut away?"
"Uh-uh, you just need to stop being so mean!" the tiny little 'dorable cute Pegasus filly made her way over to him in a little huff, her wings floofed out in her trying to be aggressive in her way. In her attempt to be more threatening she just made herself more adorable. After a few steps though, she bumped her little snoot on a book shelf, a cute little oof coming from her. "Feliiiix! I told you to tell me if I was going to bump into anything!" she began to tear up a little bit, rubbing her snoot, ready to begin crying. A few cracks forming on Felix's skull.
He winced and let go of Princess Luna, walking over to Night Shade and picked her up. "I'm sorry, I should have paid more attention to you. Do you want to hang in my rib cage again?"
"WHAT THE BUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!?" Princess Luna was obviously distressed from having woken up and not understanding her predicament, leading to the explosive response to the situation. she began to thrash her chains in earnest, the floor and chains groaning in response.
Felix gently placed Nigh Shade on the floor, slowly he closed the distance between himself and the princess. As he stood in front of her, Luna stopped thrashing and just began trying to get as far from him as her restraints allowed. "No nonono, Please leave me alone! GET AWAY FROM ME YOU MONSTER!"
Felix looked back at Night Shade, the little filly listening intently. "Nightshade, close your ears. I don't want you to hear this." as she fearfully complied, Felix looked back to the chained Alicorn. "You had Broken Note and his girlfriend rip part of my soul out to fuel your dream of taking over Equestria. I need that back now."
With a quick jab, he forced his claws into her ribcage and with an audible snap, brought out what appeared to be a shard of metal in the vague shape of a heart. Out of the hole in her chest poured a black liquid that quickly pooled into a drain that had been in the center of the room. in the corner of the room, the filly winced as the Princesses cries of agony bled through her feeble attempt to block out the sound.
