> Darkness Arisen > by XxLunasMoonxX > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Moonlight Wish awoke to the sound of wind nearby. She slowly got up, holding her hoof to her head. Where am I? This isn’t Ponyville, she thought, holding her scarf close to her face. She stood on her hooves and looked around. ¨What is this place? Is this-- is this a factory?¨ she wondered aloud. She sighed and started for the door. As she approached, she staggered a bit, not knowing why. Looking back at her hind legs, she discovered a deep gash along her left leg. She sighed and sat back down in a position to see it. She closed her eyes and thought for a moment, the familiar rush of magic moving through her as she recalled a spell to help her leg heal. She finished the spell and stood, then, limping, approached the door again. She reached it and slowly pulled it open. She stuck her head out, and, not seeing any danger, stepped out and looked around. She heard a noise to her left and whirled around, but it was too late-- something hit her head, knocking her out cold. > Darkness Dreaming > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The black mare mumbled in her sleep, and Luna felt bad for hitting her. She had suspected that whatever was making that racket was evil, but from what the princess could tell, there was no evident evil in this one. Mayhaps I should walk of her dreams again, she thought. Yes, the princess decided. This needed extra checking-- any threat to Equestria must be found and dealt with. She sighed and released her magic, the warm dream connection spell flowing out of her horn and contacting with the sleeping mare’s head. Luna’s eyes then glowed white as she focused her energy through her dream realm implant. She looked around a bit and saw nopony. She walked a ways through the dark before seeing a shoddy, two-story house nearby, and approached it. As she approached, she heard a filly crying from the other side. She walked around it and found that the house was in shambles from this perspective, roof hay and plaster everywhere. The mare she saw resembled the one from the real world, other than the fact she was younger. In front of her lay the bodies of three ponies- an adult stallion pegasus, an adult mare unicorn, and a pegasus foal of roughly the same age as the filly crying there. Luna could see the black aura around the filly’s horn spark uncontrollably before gradually turning a faded blue, almost purple. Luna calmly approached the filly. “Go away! It’s not safe near me!” the filly whined, moving away from Luna’s approach. “It is okay, little one. You cannot hurt anypony right now.” “But I-- I… I killed them!” she screamed, bursting into tears. “I never meant to kill them! I didn’t want to hurt them, ever! I loved them, and I killed them! I don’t deserve to live!” “Calm down, young one. It wasn’t your fault-” As soon as she spoke those words, she stopped, knowing she had spoken incorrectly. “But. It. IS!!” she screamed, her magic bursting from her horn in a blast of black and deep cobalt, pushing Luna back slightly. “No, it is not, child! It is not your fault that your magic was not able to be controlled!” “It is! I’ve held it back all this time, and now, this one time, I let it go on accident- causing this!” “Child, calm down! This stage in a unicorn’s life is where their magic starts to loose itself on its own!” the night princess screamed over the force of another magic surge. “Calm!” She moved up to the filly and grabbed her, calming her down. “It is only a dream. Wake up, child. Wake up.” > First Meeting > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Moonlight Wish sprang up onto her haunches, the memories from long ago forcing themselves back into her thoughts. Her dream last night reminded her of her ‘accident’ as a filly. Her magic burst free and killed her entire family. Her eyes welled up with tears as she remembered the incident from so long ago, and she wiped them away. She also remembered the blue alicorn from her dream- she didn’t remember that in her memory… she sighed and flipped over, and, with a start, she recognized the mare from her dream. ¨Are you well?” she asked, and Moonlight blinked. ¨You… you were in my dream…¨ ¨Well… yes, I was. I am Luna, the princess of the night.¨ ¨P-princess Luna?!¨ Moonlight Wish struggled to turn over to bow to her, but Luna put a hoof on her flank. ¨Yes, but there is no need for that. You are hurt.¨ ¨I- I am?¨ she flipped her head over her back, and, seeing her leg, she said, ¨I- I guess I am….¨ ¨Now, what is your name?¨ ¨I’m Moonlight Wish.¨ Luna smiled. ¨A fine name. Now, do you know where we are or how we got here?¨ Moonlight shook her head. ¨No idea. It looks kinda like a castle of some sort… maybe one of the old castles from underground?” Luna looked at Moonlight. ¨How did you know about the castles?¨ Moonlight blushed. ¨I...ummm… I study… a lot….¨ ¨Hmm. Much like Twilight Sparkle does….” Luna sighed, nodding. The two waited in silence before Moonlight spoke up again. ¨Won’t you being missing cause problems? I mean, you do raise and lower the moon….¨ ¨Well, I certainly will be looked for, and either my sister or Twilight can do the moon for now. What about you? Won’t you going missing cause worry as well?¨ ¨Not… really. I don’t have any friends or anything.¨ ¨Well, you have one now,¨ Luna said, smiling. Moonlight smiled back before she set her head down. Luna got closer and wrapped around Moonlight, who blushed a bit before she realized how warm and comfortable Luna was. Moonlight yawned and stretched, falling into a deep sleep. > Night's Beginning > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Moonlight yawned and stretched. She got up-- or, at least, tried to… there was another pony with her! She started, then remembered what had happened before she slept. Oh Celestia, it’s even worse because Princess Luna was the other pony!... What did Luna see in Moonlight’s dream, if she checked? Well, that would spoil the T-rating…. Anyways, Moonlight wiggled out slowly so as not to disturb Luna, but failed. Luna woke up as well. “Oh, hello, miss Moonlight,” Luna said. “How was your nap?” Moonlight was at a loss for words-- she’d just been cuddling with the princess of the night and Luna didn’t care? “U-umm… go--good, I guess….” she managed to choke out. “That’s good,” Luna said. She smiled and got up. Moonlight was a bit perturbed that the princess was so nonchalant about this. She tried to get up, but her leg prevented her from doing this. She looked over at the princess. "Does magic work?" "I have no idea. I will try." Luna attempted a teleport spell, but it failed. Moonlight tried many spells, but movement-based ones did not work. She did, however, manage to summon a book. She sat down and read.