Trio Luna?
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Funny because I wanted to write more in this chapter yet it's still a bit longer than the regular. But anyway. Hope you like it so far and like always...
...ENJOY!!!
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"Luna" carefully lifted the Sphere of blue mist, staring into it mystified and something inside of her told her to smash it open. An instinct, as if The mist was a missing piece of a puzzle that would finally make her whole.
Luna watched all of it happened in confusion and finally recognition. She was surprised to see this mist here, but knowing Starfall, she should have expected something along those lines, as the Stallion was one to never leave potential research material...
She was uncertain whether it was a good idea, but...What else could she do? The dreams she created to share her memories with this new "Luna", only slowed her down, and it won't be long until she finishes her mission. That's why...
"Luna" suddenly felt the need to smash the Sphere intensify, as if something inside of her pushed her to do so.
"This... What is this..." She muttered confused trying to fight the feeling, but Luna's pressure combined with her unexplainable instincts took a firm hold inside of her consciousness, and the unexpected attack allowed Luna to momentarily regain the control of her body.
Her gaze went towards the blue mist.
"Don't make me regret this..."She whispered before using all her strength to smash the Sphere into the ground.
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Starfall took his sweet time preparing everything for the final test. The Vat had been installed. The Flesh containers had been connected and The power source, ergo the Space rock generator that he borrowed from Twilight before they could turn it into a bunch of smaller ones, and a bunch of energy crystals storing a significant amount of magic power.
He was in the middle of setting up runic formations according to his blueprints when he realised that Luna should have been back from the storage by now.
He looked at the Rune sequence and sighed. He couldn't stop now or he might mess something up. It was already almost an hour though...what was taking her so long?
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Luna woke up to a horrible headache. The world was spinning and she felt as if she was about to vomit. 'Did Pinkie throw another party yesterday? Pineapples...I feel like...'
*Like a wreck?*
"Huh?! Who said that?" She asked looking around, but seeing nopony...
*And Who do you think. ME! The one and only Nightmare Moon!* The voice said.
"Nightmare Moon?! You...Agh... Ouch...Why does my head hurt so much?!" Luna held her head in pain as the voice laughed.
*Silly girl! And what were you expecting to happen when you smashed that Sphere? Huh?* Nightmare Moon replied and Luna remembered what happened, further realising that the voice was coming from inside her head.
"I...I don't..."She was interrupted though as the voice of her "evil alter ego" Spoke again.
*We don't have time to argue Luna! She's going to wake up soon! We can't fight her separately. Even I understand that. Come find me when she pushes you deeper. I shall hide until then as she can't know about me.* Nightmare Moon said before her presence disappeared along with most of the headache.
"What...No wait! I-Agh!" Luna screamed but another headache caused her to slip from the grip on her physical body as another voice left her mouth.
"Ugh...So it was your plot to regain your body? Disappointing. I shall not fail my Queen and your pathetic attempt at regaining control fell to naught. I don't know what that Sphere was, but Its all gone now, and you won't get another attempt." She said haughtily, kicking the crystal fragments with her hoof.
"Luna" waited for a response from the other mare, but received none, so thinking that she won the argument, her attention went back to her mission.
A quick vanishing spell had cleaned up the broken crystals, and with that done, "Luna" went back towards the lab while a Sphere of pinkish mist laid in her saddlebag...
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"Ah! There you are Luna! I was getting worried that something happened to you!" Said Starfall from the ceiling surprising "Luna" Who had just entered the laboratory.
"Um...What are you doing on the ceiling, If I may ask?" She asked genuinely curious seeing her target sticking to the roof of the chamber...
"Oh, I'm just putting some runes above the Vat. I realised that there's much more runes to place than there was space on the machine itself, and I had to find more of it for a few safety measures that came to my mind at the last minute." He explained, still engrossed in magically engraving the runes in the stone ceiling using some magical reagents...
"I-I see..." She said, feeling a bit confused for the feelings of admiration her body exuded. Why was she feeling amazed by him? She should only feel that towards her Queen! The goddess who created her! 'It must be because of that damned Luna! She must be doing something! Eh Whatever. It's not like she can do any real damage, and I can always ask my Queen to get rid of her when I see her again...' She thought while taking the Sphere of pinkish mist out of her saddlebag.
"Where should I put this thing?" She asked and Starfall glanced at her before seeing the Crystal.
"Ah yes! Set it up in the circular slot atop the vat. And be careful, please." Said Starfall before going back to the rune carving on the ceiling.
"Luna" Followed his instructions, but the sight of a familiar pink mare floating inside the vat broke her concentration almost having her drop the Crystal.
"Starfall...What...Why Is Pinkie Pie inside here?" She asked feeling a weird mix of several emotions. She decided to temporarily ignore which ones were hers and which ones weren't, As it was too confusing...
"Oh that...It's not actually Pinkie Pie but a Water Origin Transfiguration-Imitative Magical Energy Construct..."He explained matter of factly, only further confusing the mare who looked at him completely lost.
"...It's a magical clone..." He said bluntly after seeing her expression, and she decided to just nod and continue her task.
When The Sphere was in the right place, He couldn't help but grin.
"Great! Now just give me a few more minutes and I should be done on my end, and we can start the preparations for activation!" He said getting back to the engraving, his memorisation of the Magic Language being a great help in this endeavour...
"Luna" watched Starfall for a while, thinking whether she should try taking him down now, but the unfavourable position of Starfall on the ceiling together with her weirdly tripple-imposed curiosity regarding his project had her refrain from doing so for the time being...
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Luna could traverse her fields of memories for as long as she could remember.
Ever since she learned magic, She could fall into that state of consciousness where she could see her brain from inside out and that led to her finally developing her ability to govern the dream realm. But to get locked inside of her mind, was something that only happened to her once before, and the mare responsible for that was currently standing right in front of her.
"What took you so long?" She asked causing Luna to look at her funnily.
"Wha-I've- I've been walking all over this place looking for you! Why didn't YOU try to find me as well Nightmare Moon?"She asked the tall and imposing although very much transparent figure of her alter ego...
"Sigh. I told you that I'm hiding, didn't I? If the other one finds me, We're both finished!" She replied annoyed and Luna was surprised.
"Wait. How do you even understand the situation? This doesn't add up. And how can I even trust..." Luna said causing nightmare Moon to huff in annoyance.
"You were the one who let me in in the first place. And for your first question...I'm "feeding" of the other one...Honestly you really did a good job with those memory dreams, or I would have most likely turned into another copy of her. When I was in that sphere I was just a piece of magic housing a scrambled figment of consciousness ripped from the rest, and without those memories you shared with the other one, I would have just took her memories and orders as my own because of the familiarly twisted magic..."She spoke giving Luna a moment to proceed the information.
"Then...Why are you helping me? You are Nightmare Moon are you not? Don't you want to take over my body and rule Equestria with an iron hoof?" She asked still a bit wary of the mare who once tried to bring na eternal night...
"You could say...my priorities changed..." She said looking to the side hiding some embarrassment.
A memory of a white coated hoof gently caressing her, a pair of striking Purple eyes, and a voice speaking to her, prominent inside her head. 'You deserve better...Don't worry... We'll meet again and next time it won't be on a battlefield...'
It was a memory from after being sealed in the Sphere, and not one she inherited from Luna. And while the new memories From the Princess gave her a new outlook on her previous behaviour, and showed her what really mattered, That one memory was what really made her whom she was now.
Yes, she was Nightmare Moon...But she was now much more...
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"And How do you expect us to take care of her Moony? Your not very...solid...at the moment. Are you sure you won't just 'Poof' out of existence while we walk?" Asked Luna point out Nightmare Moon's blatant transparency as they walked through her mindscape, trying to reach the center which was the convergence of the Consciousnesses...
"First. Never. Call me. Moony....Second...I am still slowly absorbing her Magic energy so I won't "Poof" on you as you so eloquently put it. And Third...I have the memories of the time I took over your body for the first time so I know what I'm doing. You think it was something that happened spontaneously? It's not technically much different than back then. Just now it's technically reversed as the good guys are inside, and there's two of us..." She said causing Luna to look at her with a raised eyebrow.
"You do realise that I still don't trust you, right?" She asked causing Nightmare Moon to laugh.
"Honey. If I wanted to do something to you, I could have taken your energy long ago and fried the brain of that impostor for daring to touch our body." She said much too cheerfully, causing Luna to sweat drop.
"Right...So any particular reason why you don't absorb the memory clusters here?" She asked instantly realising that it was a very stupid question.
"I'm not sure if you realised, but we're inside YOUR mindscape. Do you want me to steal your mental power and memories?" She asked and Luna shook her head in embarrassment.
"Sorry. I never had to deal with a split personality. I was technically asleep through the entire Nightmare Moon story only able to watch everything unfold..." She explained and Nightmare Moon smirked.
"Indeed. I have been thorough in making sure that you wouldn't have been able to escape. Mwahaha*Cough*Cough*" She laughed before catching herself and coughing.
Luna decided to ignore her behaviour and asked.
"So...Can you teach me more about this stuff? I know that Starfall had a similar experience with Pinkie Pie, but I believe her alter ego was already self erasing herself anyway..." She asked actually curious about the topic.
Nightmare Moon stumbled for a moment upon hearing the name of the powerful Stallion.
"*Cough* Well...I am absorbing the residual mental energy from Her, but only because we are still in the same mind and I have a connection to her through the Convergence, and the reason I cannot directly absorb her memories, is because She would instantly feel that something was wrong and I can't really do it from afar." She explained.
"But didn't you say that were in the same mind. How does that translate into distance?" She asked confused and Nightmare Moon sighed.
"Not actual distance. We're not talking about the physical world but the esoteric and abstract part of our minds formed through magic, which our limited minds translate into this mindscape. If you could comprehend how the mind really works and be able to physically manipulate your synapses, bypassing the memory clusters created by magic and directly impacting the memories, you would be able to purge that impostor in seconds, alas we are merely two simple yet very strong mares, and consciousness isn't a toy to play with as you see fit..." Nightmare Moon said, soon getting further into the lecture about the topic she knew better than even Luna, not realising that she was actually having fun talking to her...
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