Post by Luna on Jan 15, 2013 2:25:29 GMT -5
Bardigan's House
Bardigan's retreat from the world is a charming little two story cottage set near the edge of Whitetail Woods. Away from the hustle and bustle of main paths and roads while still being close enough to easily access Ponyville, this seems like a perfect artist's getaway. Built out of sturdy wood and white brick, littered with leaves and vines from the forest as its owner is simply too busy creating to worry about things like that, it manages to be a house without being too ubiquitous among the tall trees. A smoking chimney sprouts out of the side, and several windows usually have a candle or two in them.
Within the house there is a mess of knick-knacks, odd artifacts, and not very valuable treasures all over the house, almost all of which are labeled with some esoteric message hinting at a greater story. All of them, however, are placed with reverent order, being not so much cluttered as carefully packed.
This is a clean establishment, taken care of by somepony with good order and appearances in mind. Upstairs one can find Bardigan's bedroom (the most comfortable in Ponyville!), Diamond Dancer's star-filled room, a sitting area, a back door leading to the garden and a nightmarishly crowded study with books and ink-spattered papers covering every inch.
[ Exits: Up, Keep, Step, <O>ut to Whitetail Wood ]
[ Players: Bardigan ]
It's probably no surprise to anypony that Bardigan enjoys singing in the shower. After another long day of romping through town, and the woods, and the sky, and everywhere else he had to chase Diamond down to make sure she didn't cause trouble, he has a dirty mane and a ruffled coat to attend to. Extra hot water of course-it's the only way to shower. "Oh my! Feels just like I don't try, look so good I might die! All I know is-" he flings back the shower curtain- "Everypony loves me!" He hops out, still dripping wet, and throws a towel over his head, scrubbing mightily. "Head down, swaying to my own sound, flashes in my face now, all I know is..."
It is a very, very good thing that Bardigan got out of the shower, because the temperature in the bathroom drops sharply. A crackling noise announces frost obscuring the window and creeping out from the frame along the walls, turning the leftover drops around the stall into glittering ice. The lights don't seem to be working right, either. They're still burning, but they don't seem to be putting out as much light, and every shadow is sinking towards pitch black. This is the perfect time for lightning to flash outside - and not stop, lighting up the window behind a black face and two slit-pupiled blue eyes. "Little bard, little bard, let me in...," Luna's voice pleads, far smoother, more confident, and more maliciously joyous than usual. You know - Nightmare Moon's voice.
"-verypony... lo..." Bardigan trails off as the normal 'post-shower chill' turns into a chokingly frigid snap freeze. The towel slowly drops from his face, and then to the floor as he lets go, gasping at the sound of ice crystals forming on the damp cloth. And in his mane. And tail. His ears tilt towards the voice at the window, followed by his eyes. There's a moment of gaping, terrified silence, and then Bardigan gives a fine demonstration of how he got so many lead singing roles: his voice can go to impressive pitches. "YAAAAH!" He flaps his wings backwards and slams into the door; of course, frozen shut. "Who! What?! L... Luna?" he squeaks hopefully. It *sounds* like her... and, well, this would be her brand of humor.
The thing pressing her face against the window chuckles, and that face is still long and beautiful, despite the staring, reptilian eyes. "No, and yes. You have offended her, Playwright. You have broken open a heart barely mended. She will not see you until you have healed it, and has sent me for you to love instead." The face draws back, lips pressing to the frozen window in a kiss. That mouth parts, luridly stroking its tongue over the icy glass and showing off long, sharp white fangs in the process.
Bardigan shudders and his eyes lose some of their fear, distracted with remorse and confusion. It lets him look away for just a moment, until the monster pushes up against the window and his eyes go wide again. "... Uhhh," he says, his voice shaking from his pounding heart. He checks: yep, door is still a no-go. It doesn't stop him from trying behind his back. "Well, that's... that's awfully generous. But... I was... I was going to go to her! Firefly, she... she exploded into town with no explanation... who *are* you?!"
The window explodes, ice-covered shards of glass flying inwards - only to stop motionless in the air more than a yard away from you. Luna crawls in through the broken window, sinuous as a snake in what should be a very awkward fit of a too-big pony and a too-small window. She doesn't look well. Not only are her eyes slitted and her teeth fanged, but her mane and tail have become a black, billowing storm cloud through which lightning constantly flashes. The black mark around her crescent cutie mark boils and writhes, sending out dark globs across her body. To top it all off, the moment her hoof touches the floor, mushrooms spring up around it and the bathroom suddenly smells like rotting mulch. Sneering, 'Luna' answers, "You self-absorbed, two-dimensional little dreamer. Just admit you don't love me. I *AM* Luna, a part she broke off just for you."
Bardigan remembers now, in a rush of memories so fast and sharp it's almost painful. A dark silhouette while the music bounced off the walls, the statues from Nightmare Night. His grip goes slack on the door and he drops to the ground, not out of fear, but out of some kind of astonished awe. His mouth drops open as he stares up at the dark Nightbringer. "What...?" he whispers. "You're really here. But the Elements- you-!" His mouth flaps several times. "Who are you to tell me what I do and don't love?" he asks, the words spilling out before he can catch them.
Luna sets all four hooves on the floor, and walks across the bathroom to you - which doesn't take many steps, after all. Shards of glass that touch her coat fall to the floor, spent. She snarls, baring all of those fangs, and lightning flashes out of her mane and over the rest of her body - which drops the temperature in the room another good five degrees. "The mare you CLAIM to love, colt. The mare you insult time and again. The mare your eyes fill with loathing just to look at right now. Do you want me, or do you just want me to paint my sister blue for you?" Behind her, well, it's not a FLOOD of spiders, but they're sneaking in one by one and very industriously weaving webs in all the corners of your bathroom.
Bardigan is starting to really shiver now, uncontrollably. It was already freezing, and now it's gone beyond that. He wraps his hooves around himself and stands his ground; not that he has a choice to do anything else. "Is t-that what this is?" he sputters through chattering teeth. "You're trying to scare me away from you? You think... you think I didn't know what the risk would be? I know a few things about risky love, Luna. Or... whatever p-piece of Luna you are. I'm in the middle of it right now," he adds under his breath, with a sardonic glance to his frosted walls. "Whatever hap-p-happened, I never meant for it to!"
Snake eyes narrow, eyelids lowering, staring at you with angry contempt. 'Luna' takes another step forward, lowing her head to point her horn - so much longer and sharper than a unicorn's horn - at your chest. "If I let her hear those words, shallow colt, she would be in tears now. I am not here to scare you. This is not a punishment. If you find me horrible, it is because you find ME horrible. Face the truth of my words!" With that your lamp goes out. The room doesn't go completely black because of the actinic light given off by the princess's lightning aura, and in a second the light is replaced. Inside your lamp sprouts a sickly plant, growing up to bow under the weight of a drippingly wet, fat white pod that glows... at least bright enough to see by. It still smells like old mushrooms.
Bardigan's eyes widen at the horn and he presses against the door as far as he can go. So much for not scaring him! He gulps heavily, closing his eyes tight as his heart drops into his chest. She *is* right in many ways; this is quite horrible, but more because of the experience than the pony causing it. He continues to shiver: even as a pegasus, he can only tolerate so much cold. "Luna," he whispers. "Please, listen to me. I've lived only for so long. But even before you came back, I've had the stars in my eyes since I was a child. Your stars, and your Moon. I knew you were up there, and I knew why, and I *still* fell in love with you! Not just when I *saw* you for the first time, not just because you didn't break my ego and let me play for you. When you were still called a Nightmare... when you're pointing your horn at my heart." He gulps again, unhappily reminded of that fact. "I am. A colt. Of my word. And I love you. I did. I do. I still must. I couldn't love anypony ever again if I didn't! What makes you think I stopped?! Just tell me, so I can fix it!"
Luna lifts her horn, replacing it with the merely metaphorically piercing daggers of her stare. It is at least a calm intensity. A wing sweeps around, touching the tips of her pinions under your chin. They feel hard and sharp, and smell like old dust. The glowing plant sends out roots, and dark vines crawl across your ceiling. No sooner are they in place than the shining amber eyes of tiny nocturnal vermin peek out behind the leaves. The other wing sweeps back, directed out the window. It's no longer showing the usual view, but a mountain peak where the regular Princess Luna stands, staring up at a huge full moon. "Do you love me, or her?" asks the fanged, lightning-crackling Princess, just as one of the patches of black oozes over her face, temporarily replacing it with the even sleeker, tapered muzzle of Nightmare Moon.
Bardigan's breathing is no less calm, and it curls in misty wisps of vapor around Luna's snout, as shaky and uncertain as Bardigan's footing. He's pretty sure he's lost the feeling in his hooves. He can't tear away from those wonderfully awful eyes. It reminds him of something. "When I was young," he murmurs, "and I could first imagine what the night sky was like - full of worlds I'd never see and cold that could kill - Do you know what I tried to do?" He gulps one last time. "I tried to embrace it." He reaches up with his hoof, even if he can't feel with it, and tries to touch her pitch black cheek. "I'd lie under the stars and hold my hooves open wide and look up at the Mare in the Moon and just let myself go. And I'd wish I could just take all of it in. A sky so much more *full* than the day. Holding beauty and terror and mystery and life and *death* and everything that made my heart beat faster." He glances at Luna, and then back at the dark reflection that holds him in place. "If you are Luna, then I love you. And if she is Luna then I love her too. Because I promised I would love Luna. All of her."
Luna steps back from that hoof, her face pulling away before she can be touched. "You are getting closer. Close enough that I will ask me to forgive you, for now. Perhaps Firefly or Nettleglum can open your eyes to the darkness you want so badly to love. If they were here, they would be gamboling like foals." Turning around with a stuttering rush of thunder in her cloudy mane, she walks back to the window, and when she stands in front of it she adds, "Do not step before her again and complain about who we are in the same breath as proclaiming your love. I may not be able to convince us both to forgive you again. We've heard too many hollow words."
Bardigan watches Luna pull back, his hoof still outstretched. If words are what got him into this mess, then he'll say no more. He just stares blankly at Luna as she berates him. He slumps to the floor, patiently waiting for her decision. But, for what it's worth, his hoof still reaches out, still trying to touch the stars outside.
Luna looks back over her shoulder, slit-pupiled eyes stopping on the outstretched hoof. For the first time since she arrived, her voice is downright gentle, just maybe warm. "You may love the night, Bardigan, but she will not love you back. What you can hope for is to make her happy. If you do, that will put you in very rare company indeed." With that she leaps forward, slithering out of the window. In three heartbeats she's gone... but the mess she made isn't. The bathroom is now overgrown with weird, luminous plants and toadstools, has rather a lot of spider webs and dust, the window is broken, and paisley frost designs have etched themselves into all of the tile.
Bardigan's hoof doesn't drop until long after she's gone. Bardigan sniffles, feeling quite worthless. All his life he's devoted himself to the night and all it entails, and he can't get it right when she's standing right in front of him. He sits on the cold tile floor, stirring only when a spider drops onto his shoulder. He gives it a short look, but doesn't flick it away. "... All right, but lights out at eleven," he mutters.
Bardigan's retreat from the world is a charming little two story cottage set near the edge of Whitetail Woods. Away from the hustle and bustle of main paths and roads while still being close enough to easily access Ponyville, this seems like a perfect artist's getaway. Built out of sturdy wood and white brick, littered with leaves and vines from the forest as its owner is simply too busy creating to worry about things like that, it manages to be a house without being too ubiquitous among the tall trees. A smoking chimney sprouts out of the side, and several windows usually have a candle or two in them.
Within the house there is a mess of knick-knacks, odd artifacts, and not very valuable treasures all over the house, almost all of which are labeled with some esoteric message hinting at a greater story. All of them, however, are placed with reverent order, being not so much cluttered as carefully packed.
This is a clean establishment, taken care of by somepony with good order and appearances in mind. Upstairs one can find Bardigan's bedroom (the most comfortable in Ponyville!), Diamond Dancer's star-filled room, a sitting area, a back door leading to the garden and a nightmarishly crowded study with books and ink-spattered papers covering every inch.
[ Exits: Up, Keep, Step, <O>ut to Whitetail Wood ]
[ Players: Bardigan ]
It's probably no surprise to anypony that Bardigan enjoys singing in the shower. After another long day of romping through town, and the woods, and the sky, and everywhere else he had to chase Diamond down to make sure she didn't cause trouble, he has a dirty mane and a ruffled coat to attend to. Extra hot water of course-it's the only way to shower. "Oh my! Feels just like I don't try, look so good I might die! All I know is-" he flings back the shower curtain- "Everypony loves me!" He hops out, still dripping wet, and throws a towel over his head, scrubbing mightily. "Head down, swaying to my own sound, flashes in my face now, all I know is..."
It is a very, very good thing that Bardigan got out of the shower, because the temperature in the bathroom drops sharply. A crackling noise announces frost obscuring the window and creeping out from the frame along the walls, turning the leftover drops around the stall into glittering ice. The lights don't seem to be working right, either. They're still burning, but they don't seem to be putting out as much light, and every shadow is sinking towards pitch black. This is the perfect time for lightning to flash outside - and not stop, lighting up the window behind a black face and two slit-pupiled blue eyes. "Little bard, little bard, let me in...," Luna's voice pleads, far smoother, more confident, and more maliciously joyous than usual. You know - Nightmare Moon's voice.
"-verypony... lo..." Bardigan trails off as the normal 'post-shower chill' turns into a chokingly frigid snap freeze. The towel slowly drops from his face, and then to the floor as he lets go, gasping at the sound of ice crystals forming on the damp cloth. And in his mane. And tail. His ears tilt towards the voice at the window, followed by his eyes. There's a moment of gaping, terrified silence, and then Bardigan gives a fine demonstration of how he got so many lead singing roles: his voice can go to impressive pitches. "YAAAAH!" He flaps his wings backwards and slams into the door; of course, frozen shut. "Who! What?! L... Luna?" he squeaks hopefully. It *sounds* like her... and, well, this would be her brand of humor.
The thing pressing her face against the window chuckles, and that face is still long and beautiful, despite the staring, reptilian eyes. "No, and yes. You have offended her, Playwright. You have broken open a heart barely mended. She will not see you until you have healed it, and has sent me for you to love instead." The face draws back, lips pressing to the frozen window in a kiss. That mouth parts, luridly stroking its tongue over the icy glass and showing off long, sharp white fangs in the process.
Bardigan shudders and his eyes lose some of their fear, distracted with remorse and confusion. It lets him look away for just a moment, until the monster pushes up against the window and his eyes go wide again. "... Uhhh," he says, his voice shaking from his pounding heart. He checks: yep, door is still a no-go. It doesn't stop him from trying behind his back. "Well, that's... that's awfully generous. But... I was... I was going to go to her! Firefly, she... she exploded into town with no explanation... who *are* you?!"
The window explodes, ice-covered shards of glass flying inwards - only to stop motionless in the air more than a yard away from you. Luna crawls in through the broken window, sinuous as a snake in what should be a very awkward fit of a too-big pony and a too-small window. She doesn't look well. Not only are her eyes slitted and her teeth fanged, but her mane and tail have become a black, billowing storm cloud through which lightning constantly flashes. The black mark around her crescent cutie mark boils and writhes, sending out dark globs across her body. To top it all off, the moment her hoof touches the floor, mushrooms spring up around it and the bathroom suddenly smells like rotting mulch. Sneering, 'Luna' answers, "You self-absorbed, two-dimensional little dreamer. Just admit you don't love me. I *AM* Luna, a part she broke off just for you."
Bardigan remembers now, in a rush of memories so fast and sharp it's almost painful. A dark silhouette while the music bounced off the walls, the statues from Nightmare Night. His grip goes slack on the door and he drops to the ground, not out of fear, but out of some kind of astonished awe. His mouth drops open as he stares up at the dark Nightbringer. "What...?" he whispers. "You're really here. But the Elements- you-!" His mouth flaps several times. "Who are you to tell me what I do and don't love?" he asks, the words spilling out before he can catch them.
Luna sets all four hooves on the floor, and walks across the bathroom to you - which doesn't take many steps, after all. Shards of glass that touch her coat fall to the floor, spent. She snarls, baring all of those fangs, and lightning flashes out of her mane and over the rest of her body - which drops the temperature in the room another good five degrees. "The mare you CLAIM to love, colt. The mare you insult time and again. The mare your eyes fill with loathing just to look at right now. Do you want me, or do you just want me to paint my sister blue for you?" Behind her, well, it's not a FLOOD of spiders, but they're sneaking in one by one and very industriously weaving webs in all the corners of your bathroom.
Bardigan is starting to really shiver now, uncontrollably. It was already freezing, and now it's gone beyond that. He wraps his hooves around himself and stands his ground; not that he has a choice to do anything else. "Is t-that what this is?" he sputters through chattering teeth. "You're trying to scare me away from you? You think... you think I didn't know what the risk would be? I know a few things about risky love, Luna. Or... whatever p-piece of Luna you are. I'm in the middle of it right now," he adds under his breath, with a sardonic glance to his frosted walls. "Whatever hap-p-happened, I never meant for it to!"
Snake eyes narrow, eyelids lowering, staring at you with angry contempt. 'Luna' takes another step forward, lowing her head to point her horn - so much longer and sharper than a unicorn's horn - at your chest. "If I let her hear those words, shallow colt, she would be in tears now. I am not here to scare you. This is not a punishment. If you find me horrible, it is because you find ME horrible. Face the truth of my words!" With that your lamp goes out. The room doesn't go completely black because of the actinic light given off by the princess's lightning aura, and in a second the light is replaced. Inside your lamp sprouts a sickly plant, growing up to bow under the weight of a drippingly wet, fat white pod that glows... at least bright enough to see by. It still smells like old mushrooms.
Bardigan's eyes widen at the horn and he presses against the door as far as he can go. So much for not scaring him! He gulps heavily, closing his eyes tight as his heart drops into his chest. She *is* right in many ways; this is quite horrible, but more because of the experience than the pony causing it. He continues to shiver: even as a pegasus, he can only tolerate so much cold. "Luna," he whispers. "Please, listen to me. I've lived only for so long. But even before you came back, I've had the stars in my eyes since I was a child. Your stars, and your Moon. I knew you were up there, and I knew why, and I *still* fell in love with you! Not just when I *saw* you for the first time, not just because you didn't break my ego and let me play for you. When you were still called a Nightmare... when you're pointing your horn at my heart." He gulps again, unhappily reminded of that fact. "I am. A colt. Of my word. And I love you. I did. I do. I still must. I couldn't love anypony ever again if I didn't! What makes you think I stopped?! Just tell me, so I can fix it!"
Luna lifts her horn, replacing it with the merely metaphorically piercing daggers of her stare. It is at least a calm intensity. A wing sweeps around, touching the tips of her pinions under your chin. They feel hard and sharp, and smell like old dust. The glowing plant sends out roots, and dark vines crawl across your ceiling. No sooner are they in place than the shining amber eyes of tiny nocturnal vermin peek out behind the leaves. The other wing sweeps back, directed out the window. It's no longer showing the usual view, but a mountain peak where the regular Princess Luna stands, staring up at a huge full moon. "Do you love me, or her?" asks the fanged, lightning-crackling Princess, just as one of the patches of black oozes over her face, temporarily replacing it with the even sleeker, tapered muzzle of Nightmare Moon.
Bardigan's breathing is no less calm, and it curls in misty wisps of vapor around Luna's snout, as shaky and uncertain as Bardigan's footing. He's pretty sure he's lost the feeling in his hooves. He can't tear away from those wonderfully awful eyes. It reminds him of something. "When I was young," he murmurs, "and I could first imagine what the night sky was like - full of worlds I'd never see and cold that could kill - Do you know what I tried to do?" He gulps one last time. "I tried to embrace it." He reaches up with his hoof, even if he can't feel with it, and tries to touch her pitch black cheek. "I'd lie under the stars and hold my hooves open wide and look up at the Mare in the Moon and just let myself go. And I'd wish I could just take all of it in. A sky so much more *full* than the day. Holding beauty and terror and mystery and life and *death* and everything that made my heart beat faster." He glances at Luna, and then back at the dark reflection that holds him in place. "If you are Luna, then I love you. And if she is Luna then I love her too. Because I promised I would love Luna. All of her."
Luna steps back from that hoof, her face pulling away before she can be touched. "You are getting closer. Close enough that I will ask me to forgive you, for now. Perhaps Firefly or Nettleglum can open your eyes to the darkness you want so badly to love. If they were here, they would be gamboling like foals." Turning around with a stuttering rush of thunder in her cloudy mane, she walks back to the window, and when she stands in front of it she adds, "Do not step before her again and complain about who we are in the same breath as proclaiming your love. I may not be able to convince us both to forgive you again. We've heard too many hollow words."
Bardigan watches Luna pull back, his hoof still outstretched. If words are what got him into this mess, then he'll say no more. He just stares blankly at Luna as she berates him. He slumps to the floor, patiently waiting for her decision. But, for what it's worth, his hoof still reaches out, still trying to touch the stars outside.
Luna looks back over her shoulder, slit-pupiled eyes stopping on the outstretched hoof. For the first time since she arrived, her voice is downright gentle, just maybe warm. "You may love the night, Bardigan, but she will not love you back. What you can hope for is to make her happy. If you do, that will put you in very rare company indeed." With that she leaps forward, slithering out of the window. In three heartbeats she's gone... but the mess she made isn't. The bathroom is now overgrown with weird, luminous plants and toadstools, has rather a lot of spider webs and dust, the window is broken, and paisley frost designs have etched themselves into all of the tile.
Bardigan's hoof doesn't drop until long after she's gone. Bardigan sniffles, feeling quite worthless. All his life he's devoted himself to the night and all it entails, and he can't get it right when she's standing right in front of him. He sits on the cold tile floor, stirring only when a spider drops onto his shoulder. He gives it a short look, but doesn't flick it away. "... All right, but lights out at eleven," he mutters.
