Luna awoke, dazed, in a cold room, nearly blinded by the darkness of the cloth bag that had been sloppily draped overfront of her face. Seconds after re-awaking, the blunt pain of the wrench smacking her head once again rang out on the side of her face, where she had been hit the night before, or at least what she thought was the night before.
Luna listened intently to the monotone creaking of her new surroundings, the putrid stench of sewage and hatred filled the humid, sticky air. As she attempted to reach her hooves out, she found that her hooves had been tightly hoofcuffed to the chair she was sitting on. Not surprisingly, she found that the same had been done to her rear hooves as well.
A few seconds after re-awakening, she heard the slow, menacing creek of an opening door to her right, followed by the soft pitter patter of light hoofsteps encroaching unto her position. Seconds after the hoofsteps had stopped directly in front of her, the cloth bag had been violently pulled off of her head, only to reveal the angry, hateful face of her older sister, Princess Celestia. "Hey big sis", Luna spoke in a sarcastic, and challenging tone, along with an oblivious smirk, "come to spend some quality family time with your little sister?". Celestia looked back with an unamused glare, with malice in her eyes in an attempt to pierce the unrelentingly courageous eyes of her younger sister. "Why so confident Luna?", she said with the all too common voice of an older sister annoyed by her younger sister's antics, "You're trapped thousands of feet beneath a mountain, secluded in the Equestrian countryside, you know". Luna replied with nothing more than an even larger smirk, and but a few softly spoken, yet all too true words, "Because I know you won't kill me, and you know you can't keep me trapped down here forever. It would tarnish your reputation, and the masses, as well as Twilight Sparkle and her friends, they might all finally catch on".
"What is it you seek to gain from all this, Luna? Power, wealth, fame? It's nothing I can't give to you if you would just cooperate." Celestia bargained as she paced back and forth, now louder than ever, in front of her sister Luna, patiently awaiting a reply from the distraught mare sitting before her.
"Hm, after all this time you still can't sit back and look at the bigger picture, can you sis? Hehe, no, what I desire, my ultimate goal, is something far greater." Luna gracefully let the words slide out of her mouth, to reach the awaiting ears of her sister. "How cute," Celestia retorted, now with a tone of anger and impatience, "But do you honestly think you can stand against me now? I have the loyalty of everypony in Equestria behind me.". "Then why do I sense fear in your voice, big sis?", Luna fearlessly spoke with a tone that reflected her unbreakable will, "I wouldn't use the word "loyalty" so lightly. Your "loving subjects" are "loyal" to you, not because they love you, but because they fear you. You may not see it, they may not even see it, but deep down, in everypony here in Equestria, is the ultimate wish to see you overthrown." The ensuing silence filled the already polluted air like the thick smoke after a violent explosion, for minutes, as Celestia gazed deeply into the eyes of her younger sister, her own flesh and blood, judging her, testing her strength of character, until finally, she had decided to break the silence. "As much as you may think you can overthrow me, as much as you squirm and wrench within the palm of my hand, as much as you try in vain, it will never be enough, for in the end, when both you're body and spirit have been broken, when your revolution is finally destroyed, when you're will has been crushed and you are bleeding out on the floor begging me for forgiveness and reconciliation, I will break you."The words slowly left Celestia's toungue like venom leaves the fangs of a snake.
"We'll see.", Was all Luna had to say before they were once again gripped by looming silence. It wasn't until minutes later that Celestia had finally grown tired of this ensuing silence, and staunchly left the room, leaving Luna, once again, by herself, a mistake Celestia knew that one day she'd come to ultimately regret.
As the metal door slammed shut behind her older sister, Luna's mind began racing, thinking of all the possible ways out of this situation. Now was the time Luna had to act, for this opportunity might be the last she'd ever receive. In the effort to use her magic, she discovered that her sister had jinxed her with the deadly-humorous toxins of the wild blue flower of the Everfree forest, a mysterious land older than that of Equestria itself.
Upon attempting to spread them out, Luna also noticed that her wings had been tightly tucked between the bars of the chair's backside. Looking up, Luna could see that there was an exit hole towards the cieling, with waste water trickling down from it into the drains below, just wide enough for athletic figure to fit through. "Just maybe" she whispered silently to herself, "if only I could free my wings."
A sewer system had been built into the side of the mountain, where her makeshift prison had been installed, with the waste water running deep underneath the bridge Luna's chair had been placed on. The room she was trapped in was cylindrical, with only a diameter of about 10 feet, sorrunded by concrete on each side. She pondered on how she could put all of these to her advantage.
Just then, she saw how she would escape this. She knew she had but one opportunity, for if she missed this, if her calculations were just a fraction off, then she would plummet to a watery grave thousands of feet below, succesfully putting an end to the revolution before it even began. She again attempted to spread out her wings, but this time in an attempt to judge the strength of the chair's barred rear. After several minutes of this, she had made the life or death decision.
She performed a series of awkward hops, each one getting her inches and inches closer to the the edge of the bridge. Once she had reached the edge, she began rotating herself clockwise until her backside was facing the paralleled wall. She quietly inhaled a deep breath, one that could have easily been her last, and, without thinking, she jumped. At that moment, every muscle in her body began to tense, her blood began pumping extramentally, heat coursed through every inch of her body as she held in what could have been her last gasp of air, and closed her eyes... she could hear her heart pounding heavily against her chest, as her entire life flashed before her. Everything she had ever done up to this point. From the founding of Equestria, the civil war, the blood curdling cries of ponies dying all around her in the heat of battle, the broken shreiks of children crying out for their now deaceased fathers and mothers, the 1,000 years spent on the moon, all passing by in a matter of seconds, as Luna felt a tear brush across the side of her face, and watched, as it flew up, away from her, as her seemingly endless descent continued. Finally, she recalled the dark and menacing eyes of Princess Celestia staring back into her own, as Luna's raw hatred of her sister welled up inside of her heart, and at that moment, something inside her knew that these next few seconds could not be her last, that she alone had to be the one to lead the revolution, that she alone had to be the one to face Celestia, that she alone had to be the one to restore freedom, and liberty, to the world she held so dear.
Just then, the sound of the chair's backside smashing and splintering against the side of the concrete wall filled Luna's mind, and awakened her from the trance-like state she had been in, as she quickly spread her wings, flying back upwards as fast as they would take her, into the exit hole she had spotted just minutes ago, in prayers that it would be sizable enough to utilize for her escape.
During her ascent, she noticed that her wings had almost a rustic feel to them, like the times when she would wake up in the morning only to find that she had been sleeping on her leg the whole night, rendering it numb and almost lifeless. She prayed that she wouldn't have any difficulty flying, that all of her hopes would not have been put to waste in just a short few seconds. As she hoped against this horrid premonition, she felt the wind flowing through each and every one of her individual wings, as she recalled the sense of exhiliration caused by flying. This newfound indulgence was short lived, however, as she noticed that the exit pipe she would use for her escape was growing ever closer with each passing second.
She struggled to hold her eyes open as she braced herself for what she hoped would not be her outspread wings fracturing against the sides of the concrete tunnel, knocking her back down into the hell she had just that one chance of escaping. As soon as she saw that she was just inches away from her salvation, she tucked in her wings as tightly as her body would allow, as she shot into the pipe, and emerged, almost unharmed, in hoof-high sewage water. In the slight motion to rise to her feet, she found she had to exort effort to retain balance, likely due to the fact that she had been sitting in immobile captivity for so long, making almost no use of her legs for what she was now sure must have been longer than a single day. Attempting to walk, she easily lost her balance several times and collapsed to the waste polluted floor, mumbling to herself each time, frustrated at her inability to do such menial a task as walking. "The day the Princess of the Night can do little more than a mere infant", she whispered to herself, under her breath, in the likely case that somepony could have been listening. Surprised that it had taken them until now, her eyes began adjusting to the new light, a nice change of scenery in comparison to the darkness her eyes had previously inhabited for so long a time. After patiently awaiting the full adjustment process to finish, and once more getting a feel for the walking process, Luna continued her journey down the pipeway, to where she desperately hoped would be an exit. Deeper into the tunnel, she began to pick up a new scent, a nice alternative to the putrid stench of sewage waste. At first whiff, she was unable to identify it. Deciding that she had time, and that no pony seemed to be pursuing her, she pondered on this until she was finally able to identify this odd new scent. It was apple pie!
"Apple Pie? Of all things?", she thought to herself. At first, she couldn't believe her senses were telling her that deep within the sewers built into a secluded mountainside, the scent of freshly baked apple pie had filled the previously near-toxic air. She began to break out into a full sprint as she took this new scent as a definitive sign that she must have been nearing the exit.
Trekking quickly through the water lined corridor and the apple scented air, she began to make out what she thought must have been the exit. Her pace increased, and she could feel each individual muscle tighten as excitement and anticipation coursed through her body. She ran as fast as she could and at the last second turned a full 90 into... Another room.
She let out a long sigh of disappointment as she took in her new surroundings. The pipe system had gone out of use, only to be replaced now by hallways indicated by doors, almost similar to designs found one might find in houses. This new room had a total of 5 doors leading out of it, each one in a completely different direction, but only one led to the eventual exit back into the outside world, she was sure.
She began to think on how she could find the escape route, thinking about possible patterns in shapes and sizes, until her deep thoughts were sharply interrupted by a shrill hiss being let out by the corridor directly to her right. As she made out the creature that produced this noise's shadow painted boldly against the stone metallic wall, she could hear joining in, coming from each angled possible.
Rakhgouls! The word rang out in her head as the horrifying revelation donned on her that she was sorrounded by these horrid creatures, besieged on all sides by monsteres that could kill a full grown buffalo with just one bite of their vicous fangs.
In the blink of an eye, she recalled the lessons she had received about Rakhgouls, and how legend had told that they were once ponies, a group of foals that had gone deep into the countryside in search of riches, but had become corrupt and twisted by greed. Looking at the grotesque figures slowly approaching her, she could see that their disgusting body shape hardly resembled that of a foal at all.
They had had enlarged heads, with a cranium that more than doubled the length of their body, and limbs that extended far beyond the length of any average pony, even herself. The most disturbing part, she noted, was that these foul creatures were completely devoid of any kind of fur or feathers anywhere on their bodies.
All these thoughts had run through Luna's mind in a matter of seconds as she thought about how these creatures could easily outrun her, given their long limbs and terrifingly acute sense of smell. She had no choice but to stand and fight for her life, for the security of the Revolution and for the future of Equestria.
"Funny", she thought, "how so much could be so greatly influenced by so little as a few actions committed deep within a sewer"
Luna braced herself as the Rakhgouls grew ever closer to her with each passing second, slowly, as if ready to strike at any second. She eventually grew to wonder if they had even decided to attack at all, or if all this would be over before it began. However, these hopeful thoughts had been dispelled, as the first Rakhgoul haunched itself over, and began charging towards her, as the others soon followed in suit.
The first Rakhgoul came like lightning in the night, quick and deliberate. To her own surprise, Luna's reflexes had been heightened, most likely due to the extreme amounts of adrenaline that now flowed through her. The charging Rakhgoul had managed to reach mid-pounce before Luna quickly dived downward, directly under the leaping Rakhgoul, and raised her head as quickly as she could, feeling her horn slowly impale into the gut of the disgusting creature, piercing it's soft flesh as it's putrid-smelling green and sticky blood spewed out onto her already filth-ridden body, contaminating her even further.
But she could not afford to pay any attention to such things, as the next Rakhgoul was already on it's way towards her. When the glutton was just a hooves's length away, Luna performed a quick bunny hop forward and to the right of the approaching beast, as she raised her front left knee straight into it's abdomen, rendering it immobile for a precious few seconds, as Luna rapidly performed a 90 turn, so that her flank was facing the rabid and twisted swine that had attacked her seconds ago. She raised her rear hooves, took in a deep breath, and released it as she fully extended her legs, and could feel her metallicly lined hoof fracturing the creature's frail jawbone, knocking it into the wall opposite her position.
The third Rakhgoul, this one substantially larger than the others, clumsily hobbled along the corridor, practically hurdling itself at her. A frown fell upon her face as she came to the realization that this one would be an easy kill, almost filling her with a sense of remorse, as if this creature didn't deserve it. It was a thought that she easily put aside, however as the brute flared it's teeth and let out a deeply pitched growl, moving itself towards her with the only goal being her death.
It's sideways-styled movement had caused it's leap to turn into a tackle, which Luna took to her advantage by dashing forward, and in the process extending out her right wing, so that the tip of the fully-extended wing slashed out and cleanly cut a slit straight through the clod's lightly tissued throat. She instinctively shielded herself with her outspread wing to protect from the waves of the cur's rotten-smelling blood, spewing in every direction, filling nearly every inch of the room, accompanied by a near unbearable stench.
Luna watched with horrified eyes as the monstrosity before her hissed and twitched as blood continued to pour from it's now openly exposed neck. The other Rakhgouls in the area had directly seen what Luna had done, and decided that they did not wish to partake in any sort of combat with her. As they each fled for their lives, Luna decided that the savage animals she had fought were, in fact, dead, and when she could take no more of the sickly-sweet stench of freshly deceased bodies accompanied by the putrid stench of the Rakhgoul's blood, she began to walk out of the room, into the nearest hallway available.
"Wait a second" she said aloud, as the delectably sweet smell of apple pie's once more filled her nose, and she began running down the hallway, following nothing more than what she believed must have been the outside world. She could feel her heart racing once more as the smell got stronger and stronger with each step. Childishly, her mouth began to become filled with saliva, as she could feel the sensation of a freshly baked apple pie filling her mouth with sugary delight.
After mindlessly following this smell even longer, she came to what appeared to be a closed door coupled by an unlocking mechanism mounted on it's front. As if by some divine force, the password was left still on the screen, as if to allow the next pony that came through here easy access to whatever was inside.
She quickly inputted the pre-typed password, and took no notice of the severed arm lying on the floor directly to her right, as she stepped through the doorway, into what seemed like a village sized Garage. Directly ahead, she could see a substantially large sized pile of assorted gems lying on the ground. Walking up to them, the glittery shine they gave off put her in a near hypnotic state, as she glared deeper into the seemingly endless ruby before her. Looking into it, she could see her more than own reflection.
The longer she looked, the more the ruby told. She saw in it the many faces of the ponies that had been lost in the first Civil War. She then saw the image of the mare in the moon, what had become to her a symbol of tyranny. Finally, as if it was haunting her very soul, she once more saw the malicious glare of Celestia looking back into her own eyes, almost sending a message.
This trance was broken almost instantly, as her eyes began to widen, as she heard a deep exhale as smoke filled the air, the sudden premonition of where she was finally came to her. She took in a deep breath of air as she quickly became motionless, paralysed by fear. It was a Dragon's lair! She then broke out into a full gallop, completely throwing aside the concepts of stealth and guile that had come to define her. Horror now filled her vains, replacing curiosity, as she could feel her hoofsteps become in sync. with her heartbeat, pushing her to the limits of her potential as she raced back to the safety of the corridor. Thoughts of the viscous dragon that made this lair it's home filled her mind, and she had become more afraid in that moment than ever before.
She turned her head downwards, as if to escape from this nightmare that had become her life. Where was she? How long was she unconscious? Would she ever escape from this hell? All she had to hold on to was the smell of apple pie, for it had become her one connection back to her life.
The second she reached the inside of the doorway, she quickly turned around, closing the door as fast as she could behind her. She collapsed to the floor, panting heavily, taking note of everything that had just occurred. Waiting, waiting for the violent roar of the dragon to fill the halls.
Noticing something out of the corner of her eye, she turned her head to her immediate left, to reveal the severed leg of a pony, a frag grenade still tightly held in the hand, as if it was still not yet ready to let go. Looking at it, she wondered about it's origins, where it came from. Mostly, she wondered why it was severed. "Most likely the dragon", she though.
She sat, for almost an hour, thinking as to how she had intended to get past the ferocious dragon blocking her salvation. Facing it head on was suicide, that much she knew. She had to figure out some way to outsmart the beast. She stood up and shook her head, starting to trot down the hallway once more, as the plan finally came to her.
Once she re-entered the room where she had slew the Rakhgoul mongrels, she approached one, and took a deep breath, as she bent down and grabbed the lifeless beast by it's nape, and began to drag it at a steady pace back to the door. She had to fight every instinct in her body to not puke and recoil in reaction to the stench her bait had started to give off, as it filled her mouth and entered her nose through her neck. Her eyes began to water, and she started to loose grip on the thing, until she realized that she was already just a yard's distance from her destination.
After gently placing the rag doll body upon the floor, she twisted her head to her right to release a spew of vomit that had welled up inside her. She returned to the severed arm she had seen before, and struggle with the corpses hand for the grenade, taking into great consideration the potential she had to set it off right there at that moment. After finally winning the precarious battle for control, she brought the temporarily harmless grenade back over to the lifeless carcass of the Rakhgoul.
Re-opening the hole she had punctured with her horn, she gently placed the grenade inside of the creature's gut, and proceeded to re-seal it using a medical kit found near the severed arm. Once she was satisfied with the results, she opened the door, and begun to drag the Rakhgoul's corpse, slowly through the dragon lair's grand halls. Once again, as if it had become a pattern of her's, her heart began to race and beat with vigour, as the fear that rendered her near paralysed last time had returned. She once again felt the adrenaline pump through her, the life or death feel once more gripped her, holding her in it's menacing claws. Her eyes began to drift back into her head, as she fought the overwhelming desire to fall unconscious upon the floor of the dragon's lair. Her hoofsteps began to fell ever more light and weak, as the time passed her by. Her whole body began to feel increasingly numb, darkness filling every corner of her vision, engulfing her mind to the brink of collapse, to the brink of surrender to darkness eternal.
"No!". Luna paused, motionless as the word of a million and none imperatives rang out through her mind. "I can't allow myself to stop here" the words filled her mind clear and simple as they were, followed by the words of her closest friend, the one pony who had remained at her side a thousand years ago,
"A day may indeed come, when the strength of ponies fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship. But it is not this day! An hour of broken dreams and shattered spirits when the Age of Ponydom comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day you shall stand! By all that you hold dear that you hold dear on this good Earth, Luna, I bid you stand, Princess of the Night!"
As she heard the words spoken to her, Luna snapped open her eyes as consciousness flooded back into her mind, reminding her of the duty at hand. Secretly, she had thanked her friend. Without her words that night, Equestria might have been forever trapped beneath the iron fist of tyranny, and oppression.
Luna felt her rear hoof collide with one of the many collected skeletons of Rakhgouls kept in the dragons lair, and began to place the grenade equipped corpse alongside the bones. After that was accomplished Luna began yet another sprint towards the doorway. Before slamming it shut, Luna had leaned her head out into the hall, shouting "Hey, you slimy piece of worm-ridden filth!"
The words hung in the air as the great Dragon opened it's eyes and let out a spectacular growl, one Luna had hoped was a growl of hunger. Noticing the freshly slain Rakhgoul lying in it's lair, the oblivious dragon began walking towards it's next meal. Almost gently, it picked up the it's dinner by the leg, and, almost like a cherry, placed it inside it's awaiting mouth.
That was when everything went exactly as she had hoped. The stomach acids had indeed set off the grenade, exploding shrapnel and flame throughout the inner workings of the enraged dragon. A waterfall of blood and fire began pouring from the beast's mouth, as Luna looked away for a brief moment, until the sound of the giant sized dragon heavily collapsing to the floor had filled every inch of the halls.
She stole another glance, this time to make sure the beast was truly dead. She took it's torn open stomach and scattered entrails as a definitve "yes". Looking over yonder, Luna spotted the exit, and, once more following the scent now life-giving of apple pie, continued her journey.
The doorway opened to reveal another long, yet easy to follow passageway. And so she began to walk. She walked, for hours at a time. After walking for so long, Luna noticed that the flow of sweat had mysteriously stopped, her eyes began to dry up, and a dreadful feeling began to grow inside her. It was dehydration.
She felt as if she had just licked salt for days, as almost every area that had once been moist became dry as dirt in minutes. It had had an effect on her exhaustion too. She began to grow weak, each step becoming more and more of a challenge.
She pondered on whether or not she should turn back, and risk drinking the waste water. "No", she thought, "I'll never make it in time. I guess, sometimes, we just need to keep going down the dark tunnel, even when we can't see the light at the end."
Those words kept her alive for the next hour, wherein her life had become little more than a complete wreck. Once again, she could barely walk, or keep her balance. The last thing she had that made it all worth while was the smell of apple pie. She laughed to herself, thinking about how the last thing she would ever smell would be apple pie. "Hm... aha... hahahaha!", she had decided that she might as well spend her last few minutes on Earth laughing. She allowed the joy of the insanity consumed her, along with the madness accompanied by the extreme dehydration. Finally, after exerting all her remaining effort into one last laugh, Luna collapsed to the floor.