YAY I did it, part 3 of chapter 7 is done took me ages to write it.
And for a tribute for Wing Zero 032 I used his character suggestion in this chapter, but with a few minor changes, just to suit the story better. Hope you like it.
Luna was uneasy, she did not know where Pinkie was and was now lost with her daughters extensive mind. First Luna tried to use her magic to find Pinkie or perhaps Twilight, but something was wrong, something was trying to block her scrying magic. The first few attempts at trying to get the block was pointless but after she knew what type it was Luna now knew how to get around it. Using two scrying spells directly after another Luna hoped to avoid the scrying block. This method of magic allowed the first scrying spell to be blocked by the blocker but the second less powerful scry spell would be able to pass though, but however Luna also knew that the less powerful scrying spell would be very inaccurate and may be miles off target, 'but anything was better than nothing' she thought as she started to cast her magic. It worked… well mostly. All Luna was able to get was a small blip, pin pointing a roundabout area of either Twilight or Pinkie. She quickly got up from her seated position and began running back from where she came to where she sensed the small pink blip. Turning book case aisle after book case aisle Luna knew she was close now.
Once Luna was about halfway through one of the book case aisle's when she could start to hear voices talking.
"No Pinkie, I did not curse you and I am your friend" Luna heard one voice say, but it was muffled at the name so she did not hear it clearly. "I'm trying to help you, but you need to trust me completely, do you trust me"
"Good. Pinkie now I'm going to take you to the others, we may be able to help you, ok" again Luna missed the name of the pony the voice was talking to, perhaps it was the fact that Luna could swear she knew that voice, 'it's Twilight' Luna first thought but quickly dismissed it 'couldn't be… Nightmare Moon defiantly would not let Twilight wonder free within her own mind… would she' Luna began to think before the voice spoke up again.
"But the quickest way there is if I carry you with my magic, will you be ok with that" Silence, Luna could not hear the other pony talk, perhaps they were using head symbols, like nodding. "Ok good we better hurry before you forget what we even talked about".
"Hi ya, my names Pinkie, do you want to be my first friend. Wait, why am I flying… weeeee I'm flying weeeee"
Luna was about to run around the corner but a purple Alicorn pony with a pointy hat will bells stepped out onto her path. Luna was clearly able to see what the pony was doing she was carrying Pinkie with her magic. Luna was about to interrupt the two when she recognised the pony carrying Pinkie with her magic, and her heart ached. The other pony quickly saw her and she also went wide eyes before shouting out one word "Mother"
Both ponies just looked at each other neither saying a word nor showing any emotion a part from utter surprise. The tension was so thin the wind could easily break it; well it would have done if a certain pink pony hadn't started to sing.
"I'm a little tea pot short and stout, this is my handle and this is my spout" Pinkie sang happily unaware of the two other ponies looking at her as she did the actions to the song. Luna just looked at the pink pony completely confused and then looked directly at Star Swirl, her daughter's name from long ago.
Star Swirl just laughed nervously before saying "I did not do this" as she waved her front hooves to help show her innocence, "Some other ponies cursing her". Luna silently waked up to the both of them; she looked at Pinkie before looking back at Star Swirl. "Can you help her mother?"
Luna looked again at Pinkie before shaking her head "Oh Pinkie you silly mare, always getting into trouble"
"So can you help her mother" Star Swirl asked again.
"Of course my dear, it's just that why didn't you just counter the spell" Luna asked as she started to cast the right counter spell.
"I tried mother" Star Swirl said her head dropping with failure "The caster was extremely powerful, whoever it is their magic just feel's…evil. You wouldn't happen to know who it is doing this do you" Star Swirl asked her mother with a raised eyebrow. Luna just nodded very much distracted with the casting of the counter spell to answer properly. "Oh dear, that's not good then is it" she said with a small nervous laugh.
Luna quickly finished the counter spell on Pinkie and after she finished Pinkie slumped over, completely asleep. Luna then used her own magic to pick to sleeping pony of her daughters magical levitation so that she could place the sleeping pony on her back until she fully awoke again. "You know she kind of reminds me of Surprise" Star Swirl spoke up as her mother finished putting the sleeping pony on her back. "Is she related by chance"
"Yeah, her great, great, great granddaughter" Luna responded as she faced her daughter.
"Really wow, then I must have been in the sub-conscious world for a really long time" This surprised Luna.
"Wait you know you're in the sub-conscious world" she asked with shock.
"Wasn't hard to work out, the memory books sort of gave it away and the entire worlds filled with Unicorn copies of me. Plus you did teach me everything you know about the sub-conscious world remember" Star Swirl told her mother smiling at her with pride "But… the other's don't know though… didn't have the heart to tell them their lives of old were over… but other than that, it's really good to see you again mother even if it is in a sub-conscious world"
Luna smiled before moving to nuzzle and hug her daughter "It is good to see you again too".
The two ponies just stood their deep within a meaningful hug, neither of them cared if anything was happening around them, they just embraced each other as any mother and daughter would. They both hugged for what seemed like hours, but slowly they were interrupted by the stirring of Pinkie as she started to wake up on Luna's back.
"Waa…huh" Pinkie tried to ask before falling of Luna's back with a loud thud. "Ow"
"Pinkie you ok" Luna asked the now slightly dizzy pony.
All Pinkie could say was "ow my head, that must have been one heck of a party"
Both Luna and Star Swirl smiled at this "Welcome back Pinkie dear" Star Swirl said giving Pinkie a hoof so she could stand back on her own.
"Huh…did I go somewhere" Pinkie asked confused.
"Some pony cast a very powerful mind blocker spell on you, harmless but can prevent you from remembering anything… could turn you into a vegetable but other than that completely harmless" Star Swirl explained smiling nervously as she said the last bit a bit fast.
"Was it Nightmare" Pinkie asked worryingly to Luna.
"Yes Pinkie it was" Luna said "Nightmare must have been trying to distract us; she knows mind magic does not work on me. But why do it at all, she must have known it would only slow us down" Luna started to ponder this thought when Star Swirl stood next to Pinkie and began to speak.
"Mother is really was good with mind blocker magic, especially after her experience with father and his blue box, Its part of why she's always been immune to mind blocker magic" Star Swirl explained before turning to her mother. "Mother why don't we go back to the inner sanctuary, we might find information to find this Nightmare you speak of"
"We can track the curse" Luna shouted happily, "We can find Nightmare by tracking the curse back to the caster"
"You have got to be joking right" Star Swirl shouted surprised at her mother's suggestion "You know very well that tracking a curse is very dangerous"
"What's going on" Pinkie asked extremely confused.
"Pinkie my mother wants to track the curse you just had, and track it back to the original caster. But in order to do that she has to use a massive amount of magical energy, which if it becomes unstable at any point within the spell it could make a magical feedback which could make… make your head explode" Star Swirl said nervously scratching the back of her neck with a hoof.
"Oh my, why would any pony do that" Pinkie said concerned for her very safety.
"It's safer with more unicorns, but we have to find Nightmare quickly" Luna spoke up.
"No you're not doing it" Star Swirl shouted at her mother.
"What choice do we have" Luna shouted back "We have to destroy Nightmare Moon"
"Think about what you're saying mother, could you really harm an innocent pony, a friend to destroy this evil. Because if you can then you're not the mother I know and love" Star Swirl shouted at her mother.
Those last words hit Luna really hard, she stopped shouting and remained silent. "I'm sorry, I let my anger get the better of me, forgive me my daughter" she said a single tear rolling down her cheek.
Star Swirl looked at her mother, her own anger now long gone. "I'm sorry I should not have shouted and I forgive you" she moved to hug her mother. "But we can find another solution in the inner sanctuary"
"Your right" Luna said going into a deep hug with her daughter. The both of them smiled as they erased each other, but then Luna spoke. "Star Swirl" she asked.
"Yes mother" Star Swirl said looking up at her mother.
"Don't ever take that tone with me ever again, you're not too old to have a smack on the flank you know" Luna said with a stern smile, making Star Swirl laugh.
"Alright then mother, I promise never to take that tone with you again. Unless you plan on doing something crazy" Star Swirl joked gaining a laugh of Luna.
"Yay, every pony's happy again" Pinkie shouted, appearing besides the two pony's "I made forgive and make up cupcakes" Pinkie said showing Luna and Star Swirl two freshly made cupcakes.
Star Swirl looked at the cupcakes and then behind Pinkie, she somehow found an oven which was turned on and making more cupcakes. "Pinkie how did you" She tried to say but was interrupted by her mother.
"Don't, just don't question it" she said as Pinkie giggled and shoved the taste baked goods into their mouths, to which they happily ate down.
On the way to the inner sanctuary, Star Swirl was leading the three member group; Pinkie and Luna loosely following behind.
"Princess" Pinkie spoke up wanting to know something.
"Please Pinkie just call me Luna, like all my close friends do" Luna said giving Pinkie a small smile.
"Yay I'm your friend that's wonderful Luna" Pinkie said excited that she gained a friend "But I just have one or maybe two questions" Pinkie told Luna who was looking back at her.
"Of course Pinkie ask away"
"I'm just wondering but. Why is Twilights mind one big humongous library, I thought it would be like a dream" Pinkie said all in one go.
"We are not dream weaving Pinkie, we have entered Twilights sub-conscious. Dreams you can change things in, but within the Sub-conscious world it operates the same as reality. And the reason for the library well it's how Twilights mind structures itself" Luna explained getting a confused face from Pinkie "each pony have different minds and the mind stores memory's and feelings in different ways, Twilight stores things in a library which is why we see books with memory's on them"
"So I've got a library in my mind, oh does it have Daring Doo in it"
"No you don't understand, your sub-conscious could be different, the mind take things where used to. Too create our storage places for memories; for instance my sub-conscious is one big forest in the moon light, and my trees are just like these books" Luna explained.
"So my sub-conscious world could be anything" Pinkie asked in amazement.
"But normally ponies don't normally see their sub-conscious world; they can only see it through either a coma or a really powerful magic spell" Luna explained as she and Pinkie turned the corner. "The only reason I know mine is because of an unintentional accident with my husband" Luna spoke the last sentence with a deep heartbroken sigh. Pinkie did not ask why Luna sighed, but she sensed it was about something painful. Luna was just grateful Pinkie did not ask about it.
The rest of the journey was silent, neither Luna nor Pinkie talked as Star Swirl lead them to their destination. Soon a huge massive wooden double door appeared in-between the corridors of the library, Star Swirl just smiled as she turned around to look at her mother and Pinkie. "Welcome to the inner sanctuary, the homes of over fifty Unicorns and one me" Star Swirl spoke with pride before turning towards the door to open. She quickly used magic to open the massive doors they both swung open giving Pinkie and Luna a clear view inside. Pinkie saw that each Unicorn had a slightly different look, some had hats, some wore dresses and some had different colour manes. But what struck Pinkie as odd was that the fact that each and every Unicorn had the same mane style, the same cutie mark, and the same colour purple body fur. Pinkie shivered, but not knowing why. Pinkie was about to great every pony in the room unfortunately one purple Unicorn spotted them first.
"Oh no she's come back to finish us all off, every pony run for it" a purple unicorn shouted across the entire room filled with purple unicorns, so it was really unclear who shouted.
"Don't worry every pony I will protect you" a purple unicorn shouted from the crowd of purple unicorns, this one however was seen clearly as she jumped into the path of Luna, Pinkie and Star Swirl. The brave unicorn was wearing a suit of armour, purple in colour matching the unicorns own fur colour. It was clear to Luna that this pony was once a captain of the royal guard. "Get back you foul demons" she clearly shouted, her horn charging up with magical energy, "My magic will protect the innocents that reside here… now be gone with you" she stomped her hoof in a threatening way.
Star Swirl face hooved while she shook her head, "Captain Sparkling Shield stand down" she shouted, moving past Pinkie and her mother to face the captain.
"Star Swirl you're alive" Sparkling Shield said with genuine surprise her horn no longer glowing with magic. "Silver Starlight said you had been eaten by a monster of great pinkness"
"Well evidently not" Star Swirl said "Now let us in"
"I'm sorry Star Swirl" Sparkling Shield responded, her horn charging back up with magic "But you could be enthrals, of the black magic demon". Star Swirl just rolled her eyes as she moved in front of Sparkling Shield just so she could whack Sparkling Shield on the metal helmet getting a sharp yelp of pain from Sparkling Shield "ow… what was that for… that really hurt" she whined as her horn stopped glowing.
"One you just insulted my mother and my friend; secondly you still think you're the almighty defender of Equestria, and thirdly you're still not letting us in" Star Swirl spoke out to Sparkling Shield with an annoyed tone.
"But I am the almighty defender of Equestria, I single hoofingly defeated a hoard of Griffins for the might of Princess Celestia" Sparkling Shield shouted back at Star Swirl.
Star Swirl just moaned in annoyance "Please there hasn't been a Griffin hoard since the fall of the Griffin Empire, and that was way before your time. And there still scared of what Celestia would do to them if they even tried harming any of her subjects. You should have seen the last Griffin Emperors face when Celestia explained to him that he should dissolve his empire and turn it into a democracy, and she didn't ask… nicely"
"Alright, Alright I'll let you in". Sparkling Shield said defeated. "Only the real Star Swirl would know that" turning Sparkling Shield shouted to the shaking huddled mass of purple unicorns. "It's alright it's just the big mean uncaring Star Swirl" she shouted before getting another whack over the head from Star Swirl.
Once every pony had calmed down Star Swirl stood in front of the purple unicorns and shouted across "Every pony, I would like you to meet my mother" she shouted with pride as she pointed to Luna. Luna smiled at the attention while Pinkie waved enthusiastically to every pony as she stood next to Luna. Some ponies were nervous while others were accepting of the two new comers and Pinkie greeted them all with either a hoof bump or a big meaningful hug.
Once Pinkie greeted every pony she knew each and every name front and backwards. Some of the Unicorn ponies hoof bumped her, some just said hi, some went to hug her, but one pony gave Pinkie one big sloppy kiss, right on the lips; Much to the great amusement of a Unicorn pony with a pointy hat and cape, who Pinkie met next.
"Wow… that was intense" Pinkie said still recovering from the strange kiss, while observing the Unicorns pointy hat and cape. The hat was similar to Star Swirls except that this hat had gold stairs and moons patterns across the entire thing and that it did not have bells. Pinkie saw that the cape even had the same pattern to the hat.
"Yeah that's Passion Fruit for you" the unicorn pony said speaking with an old posh Canterlot accent. "She's always out there with the other mares"
"No she's not she's right there" Pinkie said pointing towards the pony who had just kissed her, who winked back at Pinkie.
The Unicorn pony just rolled her eyes in annoyance "Doesn't matter, you will understand it eventually"
"So what's you name" Pinkie asked eager to know the pony's name.
"I am the great and Powerful Lulamoon Twist" the purple unicorn said "No pony's magic rivals my own, in spectacular and magnificent magic shows"
"Oh please you only did one show" a nearby pony said over hearing Pinkie and Twist talking which in turn made Twist's eye twitch at the comment.
"True… I only did one show, that was more my big sisters thing, but my first show, was the best in all of Pony-Dom" Twist said trying to regain her pride.
"But I see show pony's nearly every week, how are you any different" Pinkie told Twist who just sneered.
"Amateurs, the lot of them… let me guess they were unicorns who just used their magic from their horns" she asked Pinkie with a prideful boast.
"Well, yea isn't that where magic comes from" Pinkie asked.
"Oh dear Pinkie, you insult me… an amateur will use magic from their horns, or try to cover their horns with a hat or… something… but a true master like me won't need to bother" Twist said standing on her hind hooves so she could pose, in a heroic show pony manner.
"Ooo" Pinkie said mystified.
Twist just laughed as she placed her two front hooves together. "Watch Pinkie as I do magic without a horn" she proudly said by pulling her hooves apart. Pinkie watched in amazement as a rainbow appeared between Twist's hooves, Pinkie just kept looking between the rainbow and Twist's unicorn horn. It wasn't glowing like normal when a unicorn used magic.
"How are you doing that?" Pinkie asked without a sense of irony or a knowing of the word. Pinkie was completely enthralled in her personal magic show.
Twist just smirked as she placed her hooves back together, and then once again pulling them apart with a blast of rainbow coloured confetti. "And that Pinkie is true master magic", Twist laughed as Pinkie rolled around in the confetti. "Only an amateur uses magic from their horn in a magic show"
"How did you do that" Pinkie asked.
"Magic to which took me and my sister many years of practice and trial and error to complete" Twist said smiling smugly.
"But how did you do it" Pinkie asked again.
"Now, now, now Pinkie a true master never reveals her secretes" Twist said proudly getting a disappointed moan from Pinkie.
"Pinkie where are you" Star Swirl shouted over the crowd of Unicorns
"Over here" Pinkie shouted jumping over the crowd and then freezing in mid-air so Star Swirl could find her.
"There you are Pinkie" Star Swirl shouted back "Mothers looking all over for you"
"Oh alright then, I'll be there in a second" Pinkie said falling back down to the solid ground.
"Oh while you're at it Pinkie, bring Lulamoon Twist with you, I need to speak to her for a moment" Star Swirl shouted before turning back to where she came from. Once Twist heard her name being called by Star Swirl she winced, like any child would do if they knew they were going to get a lecture about doing something wrong.
Eventually Pinkie was able to get to where Princess Luna and Star Swirl where sitting. Both ponies seemed to be talking about a serious matter; one witch troubled Luna deeply because as soon as Pinkie saw them Luna was already in deep thought. Star Swirl perked up when she saw Pinkie.
"Ah Pinkie there you are, mother needs to speak to you" Star Swirl told the pink pony, who just nodded and moved to sit next to Luna. "And you" Star Swirl said in an angry tone towards Lulamoon Twist who was at that moment trying to slip away. "We need to have a talk about you wearing my beard"
Once Star Swirl dragged Lulamoon Twist away, Luna began to speak to Pinkie. "Pinkie… I'm struggling to understand Nightmare's motives"
"What do you mean" Pinkie asked confused
"Nightmare… I thought I understood her" Luna said looking down at the solid floor. "Since we returned to Equestria, Nightmare has done things that don't make sense to me. First when we returned she did not attack Celestia, and now this. Using a memory blocker spell on you, and now for some reason attacking Twilight's forgotten personality's… it just does not make sense" Luna shouted frustrated. "It's like Nightmare Moon is a completely different pony from when she was on the moon".
Pinkie stayed quiet as Luna continued. "I don't even know where Nightmare Moon is" Luna cried, tears rolling down her face to the floor. "I can't even save my own daughter… I'm just… useless"
Pinkie moved down so that she could look Luna in the face. "You're not useless, no pony is useless" she told Luna "And you're doing everything you can do to stop this"
Luna looked up so she could see the face of Pinkie who was doing everything she could to make Luna happy and not give up. "But I am useless; my own daughter is paying for something she should never have been a part of, and I don't even know where to start to put it right". Luna cried looking back down to the ground.
"But that's why we're here right" Pinkie said sitting down in front of Luna. "To find a way to find Nightmare Moon and then to save Twilight from her evil clutches, and you got us here, not me nor Celestia… the only pony that allowed us to even get this far is you princess" Pinkie said trying everything to console Luna. "You're not the useless one, I am… I failed to protect my best friend… I didn't even pass my tests to become a watchful guardian over Twilight" Pinkie told the princess, sighing deeply as she continued. "The only reason I'm in Ponyville is because I'm a useless guard who can only bake and sing". A single tear dropped from Pinkie's eye to the floor. "I'm the useless one…no you"
Luna looked up, her sadness now gone to Pinkie, who was silently crying. Pinkie's mane had become less bouncy and messy; some of her mane was straightening out and darkening. "No Pinkie, without you I would not have had the courage to talk to Twilight in the library. Without you I would have been still crying after Nightmare Moon stole my daughter away. And now once again you helped me gain the strength to carry on once more" she said standing up with a new found strength. "And your coming with me Pinkie, to save my DAUGHTER" Luna shouted the last part before pulling Pinkie of the ground and into a friendly hug.
Pinkie really needed that hug. Her mane that was straightening was now returning back to its original messy bright state. She was about to say something but before she could even open her mouth to even speak loud screams of terror, where heard from the other end of the inner sanctuary, near to where Pinkie and Luna first entered the inner sanctuary. Luna and Pinkie quickly separated from the hug before running towards to torrents of screams.
In the centre of the room was a huge gigantic night time coloured cloud, in the centre of the cloud was Star Swirl, struggling to escape its grip on her. Surrounding the cloud were Lulamoon Twist and Sparkling Shield and many more Unicorns, each one trying desperately to save their leader Star Swirl form the massive cloud. The dark cloud lashed out at the many Unicorns who were powering powerful attack spells. Some Unicorns where smacked across the room into the bookshelf's for even attempting to harm it or save Star Swirl.
Lulamoon Twist was unlucky to have a tentacle of dark cloud wrap around her body, before it lifted her into the air to throw her at Sparkling Shield. Twist screamed as she was flung though the air straight into Sparkling Shield; who at the time was powering extremely powerful attack spells and was unable to prevent her crashing into her. As soon as Lulamoon Twist hit her, Sparkling Shield's spell misfired hitting the left door of the double door sending it off its metal bolt hinges and making it hit the ground with a thunderous thud.
"NIGHTMARE" Luna shouted at the cloud with extreme anger boiling anew within her; Pinkie was standing in an attack position right next to Luna, ready to launch herself at the cloud to aide her friends.
"MOTHER HELP ME" Star Swirl screamed shaking with every bone in her pony body. But as soon as Star Swirl screamed for help an electric shock passed through her, making her send out screams of pain before falling limp inside the dark could that was Nightmare Moon.
"LEAVE HER ALONE" Luna screamed at the top of her lungs.
The cloud mockingly laughed at Luna. "Temper, temper don't want to hurt the precious memory echo, now do we" Nightmare laughed while she lifted the motionless body of Star Swirl between her and Luna.
"I SAID LEAVE HER ALONE" Luna screamed at Nightmare filled with anger.
Nightmare laughed before her cloud form started to move away leaving though the now half open double door. The cloud did not drop Star Swirl; in fact Nightmare Moon seemed to be taking her with her as she was leaving. Once out the door the cloud made a run for it along with Star Swirl, moving with tremendous speeds along the bookcases away from Luna and Pinkie.
Luna was quick to react. "Quickly Pinkie, after her" she shouted to Pinkie before she started to run as fast as her four legs would carry her, to chase Nightmare Moon though the Library. Pinkie swiftly followed Luna after Nightmare Moon, deep down hoping all the other personality's which were left behind were ok.
