Augur Of Friendship Part 1: A Wrong Turn
I, Nightmare Moon, will cause the sun to never rise again; the moon will be all the ponies ever see, and I will lead these ponies into a new empire!
Nightmare Moon, I Punish you to the place you love most and where you can’t cause anymore damage…The Moon!!!
“I’m sorry, Luna.”
Luna woke up from another night of sleep, if you could call it sleep. She had been in isolation for so long, the days no longer held any value to her. All she knew she was asleep for years, but it always seemed that the poor princess had the same nightmare every time she closed her eyes.
A thousand years changes a pony, and the mare known as Nightmare Moon was no exception. Hate turned to anger, which turned to grudges, which turned to self-pity, then remorse, then genuine guilt. Luna knew now that she was wrong and all she wanted was to return home.
“Home”, she uttered in her daze.
A place where you were always safe, comfortable, and well fed, a place that she missed more than almost anything. But even more than home, she missed her elder sister, Celestia. The pony that taught her love and kindness, who never doubted her little sister even when she doubted herself, the pony that she let down in a way that was unforgivable.
She came from time to time to visit, not in the last hundred years, but she would come by. But that was back when Nightmare Moon still had a hold over Luna. Princess Celestia would come, and determine if her sister was ready to come back, and wait for an answer. Every time it was a ‘no’. But Luna still remembers her sister’s face every time she came. It was a look of disappointment and disgust, a look that conveyed to the now remorseful alicorn that she could never come back. The worst part was she didn’t even blame her older sister.
“Sister… I’m sorry… can I please come home? Luna whimpered.
If there was even the slightest chance that her sister was out there, she would scream her loudest, in her official Canterlot voice, begging for Celestia to take her home. But that was far-fetched as no amount of wishing could save her. she had to stop dreaming that something or someone would just be with her and keep her sane. Luna got up, and decided to go for a walk. It was the first one she had in at least ten years. Most of her solitude had been spent immobile.
After spending the day, or it could have been many days walking, she decided to try to find a crater comfortable enough for her to sleep in. She hadn’t taken a step when she heard a noise right behind her making Luna jumped. The moon was always quiet, so this incessantly loud roar was the first real noise she heard in nearly a thousand years.
She turned around to find something had just smashed into the moon, a new crater formed right behind her. Luna was lucky that she was just far enough not to be hit by what she assumed was a meteor. Luna did like this bit of excitement although meteors aren’t exactly rare on the moon, even if none ever hit during her banishment.
Luna was about to walk away from this new crater when she heard a strange noise come from the center of it.
“Hello? Anyone out there? Can I get a bit of help?” An odd muffled voice came from the crater. Luna walked to the voice asking for help to find a wooden chest that fell from the heavens.
Luna trotted to the box and with a bit of fear in her throat opened the chest to see transparent blue skull of some creature in the box. It reminded her of a fancy jewelry furnishing from home, although a bit grimmer.
"Ah, a fleshy, thick-headed organic! Hello!” Luna understandably freaked out.
“Wait! Don't run away...I'm surely not the weirdest thing you've seen Luna.”
“How do you know my name?” Luna creeped over to the chest.
“I'm a traveler. Of sorts, I'm what you might call an aspect, eh? Like an idea's shadow. Don't make a face! I'm telling you the truth. Not my fault your language is so crude!"
“You, and almost all life I meet call me The Augur of the Obscure. Bound to answer any question when directly asked.”
“Oh great...I've finally gone mad here all alone.” Luna rubbed her head.
“Trust me, I've seen crazy and your far from it.”
“Why are you here?”
“Well...had hoped for a longer holiday. I can only manage a leap like this once a century after all. Ah well. Was planning on enjoying myself on a crisp sandy beach but I guess my little leap landed me in your reality”
“I have a few questions first.”
"Of course you do. Everyone has questions and I have all the answers. Fair warning: be specific! I'm bound to tell the truth, but the truth can be a little slippery, you know what I mean?"
“Why are you stuck in a crystal skull?”
"I'm not in the skull. I am the skull—at least here on the Mortal Plane. Over in the Adjacent Places, a fourth dimension realty, I'm shaped like a throw-pillow. Imagine that!
You look confused. It's just a trick of the light, mate. The skull's what you might call a manifestation."
“Are you really smart?”
The Skull laughs uncontrollably for about thirty minutes….
“Are you quite done? Luna went from fearful to confused to annoyed in record speed.”
I am. I am. Phew! I had no idea you were so funny! We're going to have a really good time, you and I. Yes, in answer to your direct question, I do know a lot. And by a lot I mean basically everything."
“So last question for now….Why are you called the Augur of the Obscure?”
"Well, an Augur of the Obvious wouldn't be very useful, would it? For what it's worth, I lobbied for something way more impressive—the Resplendent Skull of Hexagonal Wonders! It was forcefully vetoed. No accounting for taste, I guess. Everything has a name. Names give a thing its shape. Birds, snowflakes, tea kettles … you get the idea.”
“I'd tell you mine, but you'd need about six more tongues and a pair of cymbals to pronounce it correctly, so let's not bother."
Luna felt this was going to be...an interesting development.