The Moons Nightmare

by Dark Wolf

Chapter 2

“Do you know who we are, Silver Ash?” Luna began whimsically, staring off into space.

“Certainly, your majesty, you are Luna, caretaker of the moon, sister to the rightful ruler of all Equestira, former pris…” Silver recited off dictatorially, the information having been driven through his head ever since he was pulled from Celestia’s guard to serve her sibling. Through the haze of this automatic recollection the guardstallions disengaged mind picked up on something else. “ ….wait? You know my name??” Silver abruptly interjected into his own words in a slightly higher pitch than may have been strictly appropriate.

“Indeed…” Luna sighed to herself, “We have learned the names of everypony within this castle and as many beyond as possible, from the lowliest cook to the highest aristocrat”. Her face bore a slightly bemused expression, as though she was tallying off all the titles in some deep and inaccessible section of her mind.

“But why?” came the almost startled reply. “There is no need for you to be troubled by such things, and though it is most honoring to know that a mare of your status regard all who serve her in such high esteem, it seems strangely wasteful of your time to peruse such knowledge”.

Luna eyed him with a mixture of sorrow and jealousy. He could never understand what she felt, they were just too vastly different. And she hated that, hated herself for how different she was, and longed for what he had, an implied understanding about the nature of things. “We were imprisoned, alone, for a thousand years. We never in that time saw another face, only our own in the mirror, and our own name, we were all there was, for almost our entire life. Just Luna Luna Luna. The world that we had loved faded to become our own legend, nothing but a decayed figment of our own imagination. Nothing was real, and though our body survived the solitude we are unsure that our mind did. There is only so long that hope can sustain us before it to succumbs to the madness, just the mind screaming its own name, trapped in its certainty that it is all that is and ever was.”

“It is for no reason other than this that we remember thy names…” she trailed off, a single tear rolling down the matted blue fur of her cheek. Silver sat tense in his chair letting what she had said hang in the air unobstructed. He was notoriously ill-equipped to deal with what one might call deep and meaningful conversations and had therefore tried to avoid them whenever he could. Almost in spite of himself his head flicked at the only escape route the chamber presented.

Luna reacted instantly, and virtually every lose object in the room, not least impressive of which were the bed and several wardrobes rocketed to pile in front of the doorway. “No”, she said quietly but with a hint of malice. “For too long we have listened, heeding the advice of others only to suffer the cruelest turns of fate for our ignorance. So now, we shall just talk, you and us, then you will be free to go if you so chose. We are through fighting, and through bargaining. This is how it will be, because this is what we want. You asked if you could be of assistance. And this, is your assistance”.

Luna straightened herself up and once again grasped the glass of brown liquid which Silver had set aside. “Now” she continued, “it was our request that you share with us a drink, and though ours is gone, still yours remains”. The empty glass on the desk was duly refilled and Silver found his own placed gently back into his hoof. Though polite pony society had long since abandoned dining utensils better suited to their physiology, the actually process of evolving relatively simple ways in which to use these more civilized of appliances had yet to be adopted, and thus the simple task of drinking from a glass presented a difficult set of challengers for the non-magically endowed pegasus.

Luna raised her own glass to her lips and sipped lightly, all the while watching as Silver tried rather sheepishly to drink from his own. Eventually his experimentation found a position which allowed relatively easy drinking, and he took a gulp which emptied the glass of half its contents. Luna knew that any form of alcohol was strictly forbidden to the guards, so the desire to see how he would react to something he had never tried kept her gaze unbroken. It took a mere second for the realization of the mistake he had made to make itself apparent, and Silver doubled over coughing heavily, his throat burning like Celestia’s Sun.

Luna almost chocked on her own mouthful, bursting out laughing in a way that would have been almost inappropriate had her first glass not been starting to take effect. The sight of the seconds before proper and upstanding guard standing knees bent, dry reaching on her chamber floor was almost too much to bare. “Maybe…” her internal monolog began, “this would be quite fun after all”.

Silver stared intently at the single flagstone directly in front of his eyes. Though the burning had now left his neck, he had felt it continue down to his stomach where it was having a bizarre, if not entirely unpleasant effect. To about the closest his mind could reason, it was rather like being on the edge of sleep whilst remaining entirely awake. Through sheer force of will, Silver forced the two images of the stone slab he could see back together and almost leaped backward into the chair he had fallen from. “This is no way to behave in front of you charge, boy” his mind’s eye conjured an image of his commanding officer aggressively shouting before the likeness gradually surcame to the mists of his consciousness. Looking across at the charge in question, Silver took in the broad smile that now adorned her features. It was the first time in the almost two years he had spent in her presence that he recalled her looking so…..pleasant.

Grabbing the now spilled glass from the floor and swinging his foreleg around in a wide arc, Silver delivered a line which in his own mind neatly glossed over the last minute or so, but in which Luna detected what might have been the slightest hint of suave, “Now then, your highness, just where were we?”.

“Well”, Luna started in a tone reflective of her own diminishing mental state, “do you know who we are? Though you have made it abundantly clear that you know the, ahh, ….well….textbook version…..what do you actually know, the stallion buried under all that armor.”

The guardspony shuffled uncomfortably, suddenly becoming aware of how heavy the thick plates covering the greater portion of his body actually were. “I’m not sure it’s my place ma’am, this whole situation has me feeling somewhat out of my depth".

The moon goddess sighed exasperatingly, just what was it she would have to do to get through to this one? A dim aura of blue surrounded Silvers head, and the royal seal that festooned his helmet detached and clattered to the ground. “There; you are relieved of all duties for the period of this night, and are free to speak and act freely, such is the decree of we, Luna”, she said with increasing speed and volume. “And as you know, such an order far outstrips any which you may or may not have previously received”. Silver almost dared protest, reasoning some kind of flimsy argument along the lines of service and duty and what not, but the relaxing effect of the drink convinced him that he should just play this one by ear. “NOW SPEAK” Luna barked, and so it began.

---

Authors note: This is the first story that I have put even the slightest thought into writing, and so I know it’s far from perfect, and any experienced authors among you would be cringing right about now. So just do us a favor and don’t judge me too harshly.

Also, on the off chance that someone is actually reading this, rest assured the story will always continue, but by no means will it be updated in a regular manner. I’m juggling work, university, family and friends, and sleep whenever I can find the time, so each new section will be done at the earliest possible convenience.

Comments

[Spec Ops Pupper]

me gusta
i would like moar sir

[Starwind Dood]

Irregular updates!? But... but...

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[Windsaw]

allspammedup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Oliver-Twist.jpg

[HuskSummers]

This is a great story. You may think you are making others cringe with your writing, but I must contradict you. This is a great idea, and I think you could easily continue to make this story shine. Just keep up the good work :D