Chapter 38: Canterlot Nights
Dusk passes more quickly and quietly in the ensuing days. Night folds in and cloaks the land in its comforting embrace, but it's not the same as it once was. The stars no longer shine as bright or twinkle so warmly in the misty firmament. The stillness of the night, the absence of dreams, the strange aura in the dark: while Equestrians knew the night held little to fear these days, the yawning void was a disconcerting pall cast over the land that even the coming dawn didn't fully dispel.
Three days of suffocating stillness and the council had finally yielded the day to Celestia once more. However, the Night Court still lay deserted. All but a small coterie of nocturnal guards were barred to the audience hall despite the cadres of ponies that ventured to the castle in the night shrouded hours. Even if they were turned away without explanation, those individuals didn't escape notice. A shade stands atop the battlements of the upper observatory jutting from Canterlot Castle. Shining red-rimmed cyan eyes pierce the gloom, watching as another small tangle of ponies meander from the open front doors, escorted by a pair of her night guard.
Luna takes a breath, inhaling the chilly wisps of mist that drift from further up Mount Canterlot. She should be talking with her subjects, but the Princess of the Night merely stands and watches, the brass and steel rimmed telescope lazily resting close at hoof on its thin silver tripod. She hadn't used it much, even when the opportunity presented itself. Like now. Instead, she squints and picks out the little bobbing lantern glow from five ponies that had departed the castle and now wend their way through Canterlot's serpentine High Market streets. She loses sight of them once or twice, but focuses on picking them up when they pass by limp pennants that hang from the spires of noble merchant houses.
"..ncess Luna?" A soft feminine voice breaks her concentration. Gazing over her shoulder, trying to shake off the fugue, Luna glimpses a now familiar periwinkle Unicorn softly lit by a black cast iron lantern.
"Oh, 'tis thou, Miss Barnyard." Luna nods and gestures for her to approach.
With a touch of hesitation, the doctor pads over and sets the lantern down. "Sorry, your majesty. But you didn't show up for your evening check in and I was afraid something might be..." she trails off, but the tight clutch of Luna's wing to her barrel doesn't escape notice. "It's not getting any better?"
"It will." Luna snips back tersely.
"But it hasn't improved or worsened, correct? Is there any inflammation, any point of physical harm?" Seeing the medical talk wasn't helping her patient, the Unicorn falls silent to await Luna's reply.
"We have been through worse and persevered, physician." Luna's cold voice trails off into the chilly night air.
Barnyard takes a breath, biting back whatever reply might have formed in her mind before rising and circling around the Alicorn to the far side, the 'protected' side. "May I see, your majesty?"
While no verbal reply is forthcoming, Luna also makes no move to rebuke her. Still, Barnyard keeps her distance until she had too; the swelling of her snout had only just gone down. Luna's awakening after she passed out may not have been exactly violent, spastic may have been closer. It turns out, Moondancer had been correct: the princess did kick in her sleep. A reflective backlash had sat Barnyard on her haunches the night before, and it had been just a relative tap.
Gingerly taking the wing, she stretches it out and carefully watches Luna's muscles twitch and tense as the princess fought back the obvious wave of pain. Slowly and tenderly, the doctor eases the wing to its full extension to expose the joint. It didn't look it until the fur was brushed aside by a pale arcane aura, but combing through to her flesh showed the dark banded bruising and black flesh like some sort of deep frostbite.
"Well, it hasn't spread." Barnyard replies and licks her lips before gently rasping one of her primary feathers back. Luna twitches back and jolts from the sharp pain. "But sensation is still there. That's good." Slowly and carefully the doctor tries to aid the Alicorn folding the wing back to her body. "Princess, I still have a lot of medical texts to go through. If I speak to my colleagues-"
"You will do no such thing." Luna's guttural growl sends shivers up Barnyard's spine. It was recent. The Canterlot 'royal voice' had been a subject of jokes and plays for centuries, but for the past few days, a serpentine seething or bestial snarl had emerged. It could even send her retainer guards scampering away.
"P-princess..." Barnyard stammers, flinching away.
"We took you for our personal physician because we were given less of a choice than we wished. Princess Sparkle has abstained from the role until she has fully prepared and passed her medial terminology, and whatever other bloodletting rituals you chirurgeons have concocted." The princess snorts in distaste, "And convinced the bispectacled magi to do the same. Nor could We call upon Starlight Glimmer, or Sunset Shimmer." She takes a breath, recognizing another clop of hooves ascending the winding staircase just inside her observatory. Doctor Barnyard's ears splay back, and she trembles, too focused to take notice of their intruder.
Doctor Barnyard just quietly stammers a reply, "I'm s-sorry, Prin-"
"Do not be sorry, be useful. When thou proves thy worth, then We shall be satisfied." Luna tilts her chin up and takes a breath again. "Thou willst not be dismissed for the performance of thy duties."
Doctor Barnyard nods and half rises, haunch off the stone battlement. But she hesitates, nerving herself up with a deep inhale, "I'd prefer it if you had a full check up and inspection done in the morning. We need to know if there's any physiological considerations in addition to thaumotological complications. And, as you see fit not to allow me to seek outside assistance, perhaps it is best if you officially recognize Princess Sparkle as more than an aid regardless of her reservations. It is your privilege to do so, according to the college of practitioners charter. Good night, Princess." she bows, rump up, head down like some teeter-totter, before swiftly trotting away, completely forgetting the hooded lantern.
Hearing the little squeak, Luna keeps her gaze focused squarely on her city, knowing the two individuals nearly collided. She doesn't need to ask who it is, instead, she waits to hear the patter of hoof falls disappear into the depths of the tower. "You have recorded everything you remember?"
"Yes, Princess." The Unicorn watches from the doorway. "Wasn't that a little harsh? Not to mention pretty impersonal."
Luna sniffs, but offers no rebuttal. "And you are certain you want to go back near there, Sunset Shimmer?" The princess pushes on with her own line of questioning, the stilted early-modern speech draining away in the stale night air.
"I'm not sure I really have much of a choice, do I?" Sunset steps out onto the balcony, hesitating just long enough for Luna to pat a seat next to her.
"You always have a choice," The princess replies before taking a breath. "does 'it' still appear in your dreams?"
Sunset sighs and nods before replying, "Yeah. I'm afraid to go back, but I still feel her watching me even here. Something, she did something, and I don't quite remember. I think I told her something, and I don't remember what. But she's definitely watching."
"And you still want to come?" Luna finally glances over, seeing the Unicorn staring down out over the city as well. Sunset's eyes hadn't focused on any one thing, wide and dilated as they are, but instead she takes in everything at once.
"Absolutely. Besides, if she's a dream creature, who better to have nearby in case something happens?" Sunset looks up to see Luna staring at her with a wry smile.
"I once held a discussion with a dignitary, miss Rose Field, who once said that when one looks fear in the face, you are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror, and I can take the next thing that comes along, too.'" She keeps looking, feeling Sunset's gaze locked with hers. The princess nods in self-assured finality. "You, Sunset Shimmer, remind me much of her. You have the understanding to not be brash, the strength to not hide, the wisdom to listen, and the intellect to speak. I see why my sister chose you for her protege."
Sunset winces and hisses lightly, letting her gaze trail down between her hooves. "So, she really did tell you all about that."
"Yes." Luna reaches out to tip her chin up to once again set her gaze up. Ears back and lips pursed just a little too tight, she tries to look away in shame. "And we understand that weight of guilt better than almost anypony alive. 'Tis true, my sister would likely not consider you her protege after your choices, and you are being instructed and aided by Princess Sparkle, but that need not be all. What if you came to be my apprentice?" Seeing Sunset's open mouth and perked up ears, Luna slips her hoof from the Unicorn's chin to her lips. "I have decided that it would be prudent to gather a small group of talented whom shall act as my aids and confidantes in any future dealings regarding the other realm. Which means I shall require those ponies at my side. You were there, you saw, and thus you have experience. Sunset Shimmer, I can think of no other pony that I would rather ask first."
"Not even Twilight?" Sunset squeaks in surprise.
"Magi- that is, Princess Sparkle is too hidebound, too inflexible in certain instances." Luna blows a breath from her nostrils, "She will be instrumental, yes, but I said 'first'."
Sunset just nods and avoids answering for a moment. But seeing Luna's smile slip into something more formal and polite, Sunset reddens. "C-can I think about it for a while? I mean, I still have so much back home and..."
"Of course." Luna replies neutrally. "Are you still willing to continue, Sunset Shimmer?"
The Unicorn rises to all fours, taking a last glance out over the balcony edge and across the city that fell away beneath her. She savors the pale threads of dwindling starlight and takes in a lungful of misty air tumbling down the mountain slopes. "Alright," she breathes out, "Lets go."
"You've gotta be joking, Twi. Whaddya mean you were in Canterlot the whole time? UUUUuuugh." Rainbow Dash just grumbles, tossing her flight goggles by the red divan in the corner, making Rarity to balk at the sudden accessory tossed into her folded forehooves. She shoots a withering glare past the needle she was threading in front of her face, but the oblivious pegasus was completely immune to it. The fashionista wrinkles her muzzle as Rainbow trots by Applejack, seeming to enjoy the roar of the fire, or perhaps liking how the stark flame cast long eerie shadows across the rest of the room. She ruffles her own messy prismatic mane to get out the frustration. "I was three bucking minutes away at the front gate the whole time... how come I never-"
"Sugarcube, ain't no train coming through those gates." a soft clock of a hoof on skull echoes to a chorus of a few giggles and at least one guffaw. "They couldn't ah known, neither could ya."
In the somewhat stuffy and slightly too small Canterlotian living room, two other ponies work in relative peace and quiet. Twilight and Moondancer sprawl across the central couch, books cluttered and even layered over a paper strewn coffee table while several more grace nearby chair arms. A shock of Fluttershy's pink hair sticks out from under a towel as she lays on a plush buttercream wool and white lace blanket by the fireside near Twilight. Her cyan eyes twinkling as she follows another pair shining in the dark. A smile forming as she silently communicates with a tiny mouse slowly edging towards a crumb that fell from the iron grating on a sweeping cooking arm above the hearth.
The rasping crackle of a warm fire is tended to after a few moments by a content Applejack despite being glared at by the prismatic pegasus.
Rainbow huffs and trots by, her fur still slicked in spots and stuck out like bullrushes on a frozen pond. The Wonderbolts uniform still awkwardly hangs from one of her two sets of saddle bags as she gives the earth mare's flank a sharp snap of her tail. The little 'woah' and mock glare from Applejack only gets a sour raspberry in return.
Raritya shakes her head with a sigh and licks her lips before delicately threading a needle, the pale blue thread snaking through and knotting itself. But she gives an audible sniff and wrinkles her muzzle as Rainbow passively asks, "Hey, where's Pinkie?"
Rarity looks down her snout through a pair of designer cherry red cats-eye glasses, "Kitchen. Rainbow, darling, forgive me for saying but you smell just the teensiest bit ripe. Wouldn't you rather, oh, I don't know... freshen up a bit?"
"Yeah yeah, gimme a break." Rainbow huffs and inelegantly drops one of her saddlebags down at the foot of the divan. Rainbow just ignores Rarity's wrinkled muzzle of distaste as she cringes at the sloppy grime encrusted bags. "I pay for a ticket to get to Ponyville so I don't have to stick around and shower with some grungy castle guards, then I get to the station and there's a note waiting for me saying to meet you here? Look, I'm dead on my hooves here and somepony couldn't hold her halter."
"What? It ain't me. Ah don't care whatcha smell like, formative time in a barn'n all, if'n ya don't recollect, hon." AJ just shrugs defensively and turns back to stoking the fire.
"C'mon AJ, I didn't mean you." Rainbow turns, shooting a look to the kitchen entrance, a partially open sliding door with the only notable feature being it was off its track and wobbled like it was about to fall.
"I said it was a joke, Dashie! C'mon, you're not still mad at that, are ya?" Pinkie's voice rings out along with a puttering wheeze. "Awwww... my souffle."
"HAH! The Great and Powerful Trixie isn't responsible! She told you! You lost the bet and now you will make Trixie whatever she desires!" Another accompanying voice calls while a third just sighs. The tap of weary hooves echoes from the kitchen as a frazzled Starlight rounds the bend to look at a nonplussed Rainbow Dash.
"Greaaaaat," she lowers her irritated voice to a breathy stage whisper, "I just figured out a way to keep them from talking or fighting with a souffle bake off and now we're back to square one." Starlight just waves a hoof and trots past Rainbow to a spot on the couch between Moondancer and Twilight. She levitates off one book, neatly places it open on the coffee table, before flopping face down on the couch.
"Admittedly, not a bad idea. Novel, sounds pretty ridiculous, but it got results for, like, ten minutes." Moondancer shrugs, still not looking up from her book. But the sharp scowl was gone, and even though her eyes skim lines of text in an aged weatherworn medical journal, there was a lightness to them.
"What can I say, I know my mare." The awkward silence for a moment lasted for just longer than the skipped heartbeat as Starlight stiffens, "Not that she's mine, just.. I mean, when you're."
"Starlight, I really don't care." Moondancer twitches her muzzle and sniffs, "Just don't get my sheets wet."
"Awwwww gross, I didn't need to hear that." Rainbow groans and pauses at the kitchen, as if blankly wondering if it was worth entering the fray at the sound of clanging pots rattling around in lazy circles on the floor.
Moondancer just glances up at that, staring blankly at her too. "Uh-huh... sure. That goes for you too: don't get my sheets sweaty, musty, or otherwise disgusting. Shower's the second floor, first door on the left. The yellow one just took one so I don't know how much hot water's left so, y'know, don't blame me if you freeze your teats off." She flips a page haphazardly.
"It's Fluttershy, Moondancer." Twilight repeats in her disconnected blasè way as if by rote.
"I don't mind." Fluttershy's timid voice still reaches their ears, though Moondancer's have to pivot to actually pick it up. The soft yellow pegasus sneaks a hoof out as the mouse edges closer.
"If we're gonna be staying here, everypony should try to get along." Twilight replies while using her magic to levitate a quill and pop open a vial of ink.
The Alicorn goes back to her writing as Rainbow takes a breath, plunging into the kitchen with an unconvincing, "heeeeeey you two," echoing in everypony's ears.
"Darling, not to sound churlish or ungrateful, but why precisely are we here invading your abode? We could very well take a hotel, or stay in one of the castle suites." Rarity asks while focusing on the few precisely placed strips of lavender and pastel blue. But after a moment and sideways glance at Rainbow's grubby saddlebags, she sweeps the fabric aside and picks up the containers to restitch a loose button. Celestia knew that wouldn't be the last 'fix' or 'alteration' that bag saw.
"Only if you want to sleep on a thin cot or share it with Luna." Moondancer grumbles, "With the medical staff and secrecy about the whole thing, there's no extra rooms. I'm already in Canterlot, Twilight's a friend, Sunset's okay though a little flaky right now, Starlight's pretty okay, I guess I owe Pinkie for last time, Trixie's a grade A whorse but she's got her leash so whatever. Long story short, they asked if I could put you up and I didn't say no and frankly I expected more time at the castle before Twilight thought it would be a good idea to point out I didn't have the certification I 'technically' needed to be Luna's nurse."
Despite Starlight's reddened face and slight spluttering wheeze at the reply, it did get a bit of a laugh from AJ. "You probably would've made a new friend in one if'n Rainbow would'a heard that."
"That's not nice you two." Twilight again resumes her post of unenthusiastic moderator.
"Ain't apologizing fer that, you know it's true, Twi." Applejack finishes with the fire, placing the fire poker aside and circling back around to Fluttershy. "Scoot on over, Sugarcube." she smirks, settling in and curling up alongside her friend basking in the soft glow, in the absence of any more chairs. But it was friendly, pleasant enough to be just a hooflength from Twilight. "Hey, Starlight?"
"Mmm?" comes the tired reply from the mare who had been playing peacemaker all day.
"Did ya meet Sunset?" Applejack asks, turning back to look over.
"Yeah I... thought I told you I met her last time." Starlight rolls over onto her side, curled up against the comfortable brown cloth couch before turning to look back at a blank faced AJ. "Did I seriously not tell anypony about that? Ugh, fine. Yeah, she's cool."
"Well that's nice, glad ya got to make a new friend. So when are we gonna meet her?" Applejack lofts a brow, looking at Twilight.
That gets a momentary blink before the Alicorn looks over, then up at an aged brass clock hanging jauntily on the wall. Perched off-center between the closed doors to a broom closet and the rickety foot of the wooden staircase, it reads 9:24 after Twilight uses a light arcane touch to straighten it.
"Well," Twilight muses, "She's been sleeping for a good six and a half hours now and missed dinner."
"We all did." Moondancer interjects.
"Mmm, I try to make a habit of not eating after eight. It's bad for one's figure, sleeping on a full stomach." Rarity replies, but the fugitive peek to the side and curl of her muzzle caught at least Applejack's attention. "But I couldn't possibly say no to a night cap, s'il vous plait."
"The fancy means 'I want it now'." Applejack's smirk gets an indignant huff from the divan's occupant. She hefts herself up, giving Fluttershy a little bump and making sure not to trouble her as she bounds over the prone pony. "Ah'll getcha somethin. Rainbow might need it after her shower, ain't no way ah'm gonna deal with that filly like that if'n I draw the short straw and have ta share."
"I thought you said you didn't mind?" Moondancer lofts a brow and fixes Applejack with a curious gaze.
"Ah don't mind a smell, but grit'n grime ain't comfortable by a long shot. Bad enough she shuffles in 'er sleep like a jackrabbit on a hot tin roof." Applejack shakes her head and, with a steadying breath, traipses into the kitchen from where voices were already rising between a shrill Pinkie and even louder Trixie.
Moondancer looks to Starlight, fixing her a look as she asks 'what?' before turning to Twilight. "I can say Luna does the same, but that's because she kicked me in the face when I went to check on her. Should I ask what's her excuse or, like, leave that alone?"
"Applejack usually volunteers if we have to share sleeping arrangements on a mission," Twilight explains with a sigh, "She also tends to draw the short straw. Rainbow snores and flails, according to Applejack at least."
"Mmm, it's true, darling. When we were on our camping trip she was a bit of a hellion. Needless to say, it was far from restful." Rarity keeps her voice low, letting it scrape by under the din of the kitchen.
But Moondancer was looking at her. It's a sharp, calculating look that makes Rarity smirk and coyly glance aside.
Moondancer's mouth hung open, and a slight smirk forms as the pale purple maned fashionista snips the thread and binds it to a white thread before switching from the now-fixed button to embossing Rainbow's cutie mark emblazoned saddlebags. "Clever filly." the knowing smirk passes between them before Moondancer's grin widens even more.
"I'll go wake up Sunset. Besides, I don't think I can stand any more noise. Call me if they end up drawing blood, but after today, I think I need two nightcaps tonight." Starlight flops onto her side and rolls to standing with a grunt. "I don't mean hats, for the record. I need a drink... a very big, very strong, and very salty drink." Slowly she trots toward the staircase and, with a long suffering sigh, starts the climb.
It leaves the small group of four in near total silence by the crackling fire, listening to the accusations and a few more than bizarre conjectures from the kitchen. Moondancer just stretches out a hind hoof to nudge Twilight's haunch, "Your friends are a bit weird."
Whatever was going on in the kitchen soon swells to a crescendo. Trixie's voice rises just loud enough to catch everypony's attention, "Well yeah, but Trixie is NOT going to lick that clean, so get it out of Trixie's face!"
The resultant silence could have suffocated a pony before a hiccuped, stuttering voice bursts into gales of wheezing laughter. A second giggling, snorting voice blends in with a distinct 'harrumph'.
Trixie all but hurtles from the kitchen, red-faced and trailing frothy vanilla frosting on her front left hoof. Even before she could look for a seat, Rarity looks down to snatch another spool of red thread, "She's upstairs with Sunset, dear."
"With Su-Starlight?!" With mechanical precision spurred on by embarrassment and, whatever else it was, the mare weaves past the divan, around the couch, past the little end-table covered in yellowed letters, and takes the steps two at a time.
Moondancer once again looks at Rarity with a certain collected awe now. Her gaze tails back up the steps before slowly panning again to Rarity. "Oh, oh you're good." She smirks and gets a knowing glint from the alabaster mare who offers no reply or defense.
"What?" Twilight finally asks but gets nothing but two mock-innocent smiles in return.
"Nothing darling, nothing at all. Don't let us interrupt your studies, Twilight." Rarity's affable coo garners that intended smile and nod from the Alicorn princess.
All of it is broken by a light stumble and call from upstairs, "Hey, girls? No one's seen or heard Sunset, right?" Starlight calls from the top of the stairs, "Caaaaaause it looks like she tied a bed sheet around a post and snuck out the window."
"... would you kindly run that by me again?" Rarity blinks, thread halting in mid-air.
"She... oh just perfect." Twilight lets out a frustrated sigh as she levitates her half dozen books into a neat pile and quickly rolls off the couch, "I asked her not to do anything risky or rash, but nooooo. Hmmmph, I bet I know exactly where she went."
The halls lay empty and clear, even the night guard are completely absent in the depths of the castle catacombs. Two ponies trot in near silence, only the sounds of hoof steps and the soft shuffle of saddlebags on fur disturb the suffocating stillness.
A dark blue Alicorn paces in front, her royal regalia completely absent though she wears a light silver cuirass buckled on her chest. Her cutie mark is etched at its center with just a small amathyst oval jewel. The soft black leatherette saddlebags on her haunches rustle. Sunset follows behind, eschewing any form of armour or weapon, but her own pale brown saddlebags were just as down-laden. They scrape softly, something crystalline rasps against each other on the inside. She follows after without comment as they wind their way back through the halls.
In moments, the old plain vault door looms up before them, and opens after Luna presses her horn to the divot.
"Princess, Sunset!" Both ponies look back, spotting Twilight and her cadre of friends bounding down the steps, though it's far too late to actually stop them.
Luna turns, pausing just for that second before nodding her head once to Sunset, who gives her wordless assent. The doors open, and both gallop straight towards the tall opalite and silver mirror standing so innocuously in the middle of the moonlit room. Both dart to the entrance, but halt right before they step in. Luna casts a hoof over Sunset, and with that, both enter just as Twilight breathlessly reaches the door in a stumbling awkward mass of outstretched feathers and skating limbs, only to skid straight past the vault door. Rainbow banks hard and swoops inside, taking the turn with expert precision. "Hold it!"
"Rainbow, nononono wait! We talked about this!" Twilight's words coming far too late for the impulsive Pegasus who darts straight after, disappearing with a ripple of liquid silver.
With a warble of worry and surprise, Twilight storms through moments later. For her, the world swirls and spins, screaming into life with far more vibrancy than it should have to the other world, and sure enough with a sickening sideways lurch, she's spit out onto the rocky hardpan.
By now, the world was familiar enough for her to find her hooves and look up the escarpment by reflex. Rainbow hovers at the summit before touching down, wings outstretched and flicking awkwardly. Galloping forward, Twilight crosses the dusty ground and surges upwards with a few flaps of her wings before landing hard right next to the Pegasus. "Hey," Twilight reaches out to gently nudge her friend, "You alright?"
Rainbow's eyes were set across the wide blue-hued plain at the enormous marble, brass, and ruby door that the two rapidly disappearing ponies were galloping towards. The free-standing doorway slowly starts to yawn open.
"Woah, what is that? Twi, where are we?" The Pegasi's voice had dipped from the chase and descends into something utterly enraptured. The blackness of space lies like a torn open wall behind that door, and Rainbow could only stare as Luna, then Sunset, disappear further into the distance.
"Twilight?! Rainbow?!" Sunset's voice breaks the spell cast on them. Both ponies look back to see Starlight, Trixie, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and finally both Moondancer and Fluttershy who pour out from the mirror portal and collide into an awkward pony pile.
Looking back and forth between the two groups, Twilight could only anxiously trot on the spot. Rainbow just calls back over her withers, trying not to tear her eyes away, "C'mon, you gotta see this! There's a huge door in the middle of nowhere and it's awesome!"
"Just think about that statement for a second," While spoken with some authoritative glint, Moondancer's simper couldn't quite hide in the back of her throat as she extracts herself from the pile.
"OooOOOoo, neat!" Though she had her muzzle shoved to the ground, Pinkie reaches out and toys with one of the ribbons of arcane energy rippling across the ground.
"Hey, Rares, it ain't too dusty here, neither." Applejack laughs and pulls herself free before offering a hoof to help her friends up.
"Ugh," Rarity mutters, "but it's so drab-"
"Girls, seriously, get your flanks up here or we'll lose them!" Rainbow hollers before clicking her tongue and shooting back over to help. It left Twilight to stare at the quickly disappearing pair. Luna and Sunset slip through the massive marble doorway that starts to close behind them, presenting just a towering edifice emblazoned with two mirrored canines and dominated by a single enormous sigil.
Twilight's breath hitches in her throat as she looks at the slitted ruby eye, "Nightmare moon..."