Chapter 36
"I dare to say that our forest is complete. There are hundreds of trees, and plenty of animals." Luna says proudly. A mere hour has passed; we worked in pleasurable silence and amassed an army's worth of cloud beings.
"I do believe that our forest is missing something."
"What could it possibly be lacking? There are mammals, reptiles, birds, dragons, manticores, a hydra, and a sphinx! What else might there be to add?"
"The cloud kingdom is without a ruler, and in lacking a government is drowning in chaos! This land of clouds needs the steadfast hoof of an alicorn to guide it!" I say overdramatically. "Do you, Luna, undertake this great duty?"
"I will."
"Do you swear to always uphold the sacred beliefs of the cloud kingdom, to protect them with all the lightning bolts you could ever kick, to help make more clouds when there are too few, and to rule them justly for all of its nights?"
"I do."
"Then by the imaginary power invested in me by the cloud beings, you are now the sole leader of this cloud nation." I make a cloud scepter and a cloud cape quickly, and throw the cape around Luna while I hand her the scepter. "As a new monarch, what is your first decree?" I ask and bow down.
"I will ask a vote of confidence in my new people, and have them cry their will upon this most dire matter: who shall be my most trusted companion as ruler of this nation? Who will I have to guide me when I know not where to tread? Who will stand beside me as my trusted friend and guardian?" Luna magicks the clouds to make them look as though alive, and they simultaneously cry:
"Let the Knight of the Moon take hold of this charge! Knight of the Moon!"
"The people have spoken; do you accept this sacred duty, Knight of the Moon, He Who Holds the Stars?"
"I do."
"Do you pledge to always uphold the sacred beliefs of the cloud kingdom, to protect them with all the sword-swings you could ever muster, to help shape the cloud people when there are too few, and to make sure I rule it justly for all it's nights?"
"I do."
"Then by the power invested in me by you and the cloud beings, you are now my sacred guardian and counsel for all important matters." Luna makes me a cloud sword and attaches it to my real one. "What is your first advice in the matters of this kingdom?"
"I advise that….. we have a cloud-ball fight!" I say, and grabbing a tuft of cloud, hurl it at Luna as fast as the non-aerodynamic tuft will go. Which is only so fast, because she could probably easily dodge it. However, realizing this is a game, she lets it hit her, and laughingly grabs a hoof-full.
"Have at ye!" Luna throws the lumpy mass at me, and we begin a cloud brawl of epic proportions. Although the cloud forest is spared, the rest of the landscape is ruined by our game.
After long, I notice that the moon is beginning to set. As we lay down on the clouds, exhausted, I look at the bright orb as it slowly yet distinctly falls across the sky.
We lie down for a long while, just watching the stars and the moon traverse the sky. It is only when the first signs of dawn are showing that we begin to think of moving.
"We should get back. It will be light in another couple of hours." I finally say, not wanting to break the silence.
"I agree. We need our sleep after all."
"I wish we could sleep on these clouds."
"We could, but we would float away with them."
"Is that such a bad thing?"
"Knights, we cannot shirk our responsibilities!"
"My only job is to take care of you."
"I can fix that."
"You wouldn't!"
"I would."
"Meh. We'll go back then." I shrug as if it's of no concern to me.
"Lead the way, Knight of the Moon, counselor and friend to the Queen Luna." With her head laying by mine, she closes her eyes and nudges her nose on my cheek. For the slightest moment, I feel a light kiss rest safely there.
"Always." I begin to blush, but instead gently grab the two of us again, and float us swiftly but smoothly back down to the castle. Below the clouds the sun is giving the sky an even brighter display of pinks and purples, though the orb itself is yet to be seen. Once we are at equal height to the castle's tallest tower, I release the spell, and we begin to fly again. I pant a little from the exertion. I hate my lack of magical stamina, but the fact I can use it at all is amazing. I have to remember that I'm very lucky to have this skill. I shouldn't take it for granted.
I let Luna lead the way in. She chooses her bedroom window as our entrance, and I think to myself that she must be tired. We spent all night, literally all of it, playing in the clouds. As she lands I can see fatigue in her step. I land behind her, in her dark and silver room.
"Let's just get you into bed." Luna stumbles a little and I worry for her.
"Alright." She mumbles. Being in her dark room has made her exhaustion come out. I lead her to her bed, where she lies down. "You are not leaving, are you?" she asks, even as I turn to leave.
"Not if you don't want me to."
"I do not want you to leave."
"Then I will stay." I sit down beside the bed, close to where Luna lays.
"Then, good day." Luna says before her eyes finally shutter closed. I watch her for a little while, before making sure each door and window is securely closed and examining her room for my own amusement. I sigh, thinking to myself about all sorts of things. I try not to think about my newest spell, but the thought wriggles it's way into my mind before long.
I'm very unsure about it. Alexander said the risks are worth the benefits, but in thinking about her breakdown tonight, I'm more worried than ever. I know he said it was a lot less effective than the one he cast on himself, but I have to wonder. I still need to sleep and eat, but I can feel the extra energy this spell gives me. It's why I won't be sleeping today. I'll be up until Luna wakes again, when it is nearly night again. And I'll stay awake for another night and day after that, and another night and day after that. I probably won't need to sleep for another week, and for only an hour at that. Already I wonder how Alexander hasn't gone mad with twenty-four hours in a cycle that he stays up.
That's only the mental problems. Instead of replacing old cells within my body with cells and parts from consumed food, magic is constantly remaking my cells now. Well, not all of them all at once. Over time, magic will exchange energy for matter to recreate the dying bits of my body, much more rapidly than how it would naturally happen when I consume food. The cells born of magic will also die quicker, and need replacing a lot sooner. This constant 'refreshing' cycle could tear me apart.
Alexander placed a weaker version of the spell on me, allowing me to need to eat and sleep, albeit not as often. If I still eat, then I will still be replacing old cells naturally, or some of them. Sleeping was not an issue for me, but it was a package deal, so to speak. If I wanted to still eat, I would also have to still sleep. Now I will spend many days awake, alone, keeping Luna safe and well-guarded, even in her sleep.
The spell is also kind of permanent. It will eventually wear off in time, but the rate at which the spell decomposes is alarmingly slow. It could be years until my metabolic and gastric system function 'normally' again, and until then, Alexander can't undo it himself. So even though I have my qualms about it, I am stuck with it. In the moment he proposed it, I was so sure it was the right thing to do, but now thinking about Luna's fears of her loved ones dying…I'm not at all sure. I won't tell her unless she asks. But I know that if I fail to eat often, my body will eventually turn into a system of magical replacements, and I will be in a constant state of healing, and my body could burn out because it was never meant to function like this.
It's hard to understand, because having a body made of magic doesn't sound bad at first, but alexander explained that my body wouldn't be magic, it would be magic changed into living cells. Those cells, while exact copies of my original ones, are incapable of reproducing, and when they die, they become magic again. This cycle is dangerous, because while the magic is my cells, it will heal me of any wounds by making more pseudo cells, which will eventually die. I think the real problem with this is that they carry with them my genetic information, literally stripping me of my genes. So even if I eat a lot, and that food becomes energy and then later my new cells, they have a harder time recreating the parts of me they need to. And the constant state of healing will damage my original cells or naturally replaced cells, leaving me in a constant state of destruction as well.
I just hope that the spell doesn't work too well, and that I can still live a long life for Luna's sake. I know I'm mortal, and that I will die. But I meant it when I said I would fight through death itself to get back to her. If I need to, I can try to recreate Celestia's spell, and be born again again. Although being born again, again, means I would have to grow up again, again. And we'd have these same issues, only worse. Luna will keep on aging, mentally, and I will keep resetting myself. Eventually she'd be mature and grown up or like a wise grandmother or something, and I'd be this little colt that she keeps meeting.
I wish there were a way I could expand my life span, so that I wouldn't have to keep resetting myself, but I can't think of any way to do that. Maybe instead I could just rig the spell so that my memories come with me automatically, so that I don't have to dig for them each time I'm reborn. But I don't know how to manipulate magic like that. I only know how to do things that come naturally, or things I've been taught. I don't know how to structure a new spell. Levitation is the use of magic as I would use my hooves to hold something; I need only want something to float and it will. That's really the only spell I know, only modified in different ways to suit my needs. I can't even begin to grasp what it takes to cause a pony's soul to flash forward in time and attach to a new body.
I look at Luna. She needs me. But will she always? I wonder if I can help her so that she would no longer need me. I would still want to be with her, but if she no longer worried for me or needed me, we wouldn't have this problem. I could rest peacefully knowing she was wholly safe and prepared for the world and all it's changes. I would be sad though. I wouldn't be with her, near her, seeing her every night. I would be dead. And she'd be living a wholesome life without me, safe and happy I'd hope, but without me.
But if I knew she didn't need me, and could succeed here without me, I'd be glad. I'd have done my job, and helped her.
I try to rid myself of this sad thought, and think instead about the ominous words Celestia shared with me. She said there was something important I had to help Luna with. Was she merely being cryptic or was she prophecying something? I doubt that Luna's emotional problems are the 'something important' Celestia was referring to, and somehow I feel like the attacks on her are not what was meant. Maybe I am reading into this far too much, and her reengagement into society is my grand task. My heart tells me otherwise. I feel it is something too large for me to grasp at at the moment.
I realize, now, that I am speaking or rather, thinking, in older speak. This is an opportune time for me to engage a memory. I am unsure as to why, but when my thoughts and speech takes on this change I find I can think of my past life more clearly. It is helpful to know this when I wish to recall important details, such as now. If I can find out any more of my past, our past, then I am sure it will be helpful.
I let my thoughts travel down any path they might please, and soon I find myself far away in the past.
"Are thou prepared for the upcoming battle against our sister?" My dark Luna asks of me.
"I am. I have prepared a spell that will allow us to be connected through our thoughts so that I may come to your aid, if the need is presented." I stand kneeling on my forehoof, head bowed.
"We do not need this spell. We are strong, and we will not need of thy help." She looks out through the window, taking stock of her dark army. I still haven't an idea how they got here, but they are mortal, and under no spell. Perhaps she reached out to them from afar, and upon their agreement, brought them here? I do not know. There is no pony that will tell me.
"Please, my Princess. I am worried for you unnecessarily, I know, but let us place this precaution. If thou would allow it, I would be satisfied that my fears may rest deep. I know there is no need, but my heart aches at the thought that you might need me and I would have no way of knowing. Please, let me be sure." The black incarnation of my Luna turns from her view of the army, and looks strangely at me. I almost feel as if the real her wishes to escape from this evil version of herself, but my hopes are surely dashed when she speaks.
"If it is so meaningful to thou, thou may place thy spell. We are not a princess that will heartlessly forget the kind intentions of our subjects, and it is right that thou should worry for us. We will allow that you place this spell, but it will not be needed, for we are strong and will not fall to our sister."
"Thank you, My Princess. You are truly the better princess." I wish I could bring her back, the real her, my true princess. However, she is adamant. This dark her is reluctant to leave, and despite the sweetest of words and the most pleading of speeches, she has remained a Nightmare, but still my Luna. Always my Luna.
I forget of my plight and cast the new spell with my false horn. This is a wonderful gift from my Luna, although the intent of this gift is for war. I use the magic that has always resided within me to create a tunnel between our minds, so that I may know her thoughts, and she mine. I am unused to spell casting, but I perform the spell correctly, and I know she knows all that I feel. I hold nothing back. As I feel her mind search my own, I hide nothing from her. My loyalty, my kindness, and my love are all unleashed on her. I hesitantly feel for her, but her mind castes me out, letting me see nothing of my princess's true thoughts.
"My mind is no place for you. There are things that lurk even in thoughts that should never be shared between two ponies, especially my thoughts." For a moment, I hear the caring nature of my Luna, the true her, but it disappears. "Thou should not look in the darkness of the night for that which thou have never seen. If thou know not of what thou search for, what thou might see may carry painful consequences."
"Yes, my princess."
As I come back to this life, I gasp, inhaling a large amount of air. I think of all I just heard, saw, re-experienced. So that is how we came to be linked. I created a spell that bound our minds together. And I died before I released the spell, if that was ever my intention. The link carried over to this new life, and it has surely helped us thus far. I wonder how I know beforehand if something is going to happen. That night, five nights ago, when I knew about the crossbolts; how did I know?
I wonder if this is another side effect of Celestia's spell. It has interfered with my life before. It seems to have a hoof in all of my life now. Everything seems slightly wrong because of it.
But everything is right because of it. I cannot complain.