Trus and Luna Chapter 12

Trus and Luna
Chapter Twelve
Strange and Complex

The hug didn’t last very long.
After they parted, Trus gave her a gentle smile, to which she returned her own.
He decided to speak up before silence could make another awkward moment. “So…could I ask a few questions?”
“…First you must answer mine.” Luna said.
Trus nodded. “…Okay…” He thought for a second. “What was the question?”
“Why did you hug me while I was in the act of betraying my sister?...”
“…Ah…” Right… He thought about it and opened and closed his mouth a few times until he finally said “…I’m not sure… I guess I just…thought you really needed one…or something…”
“Are you ashamed of it?” She asked.
Trus instinctively gave it some thought before he gave his answer. “No...” he said quietly.
“You do not sound very convincing.”
“Eh, I don’t like admitting I’m a good person.” Trus said flatly.
Luna raised a brow and then she looked away from him. “…Ah…” she said. She took a little time looking off in the opposite direction before looking back at him. “Thank you…” She said solemnly. “I believe you were right. That I needed one.”
Trus didn’t say anything, but didn’t look away.
“What is it you would like to know?” She asked turning it over to him.
He looked down for a second and then asked “I know this is a dream now, but I would like to know, if you know that is, why I can’t seem to walk properly anymore?”
She furrowed her brows together “explain.” She said.
“…Uh…well…ever since I woke up in that bed I’ve been stumbling around every so often while I walk, but I didn’t have any problems walking before that.”
She stared at him for a second or two. “Hmm.” She said as she looked up into the corners of her eyes. “I believe it might be related to a connection we had when you arrived.” She looked back at Trus as he sat silently waiting for her to continue.
“When you first came here I thought you were just a new part of the dream that I had imagined, but I found it was not so when I tried to brush you away with my wing… It is simple to push the ideas of one’s own dream away while you are lucid dreaming, but it is not so if it is the dreams of another.
“The idea that you may not be part of the dream had crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as foolish thinking… I had thought that I was alone…in an isolated prison where I cannot reach the dreams of others and others could never hope to reach mine… However, you seem to have done so, but I cannot fathom how.”
Trus nodded, but did not say anything at first, thinking she might go on. However when she didn’t he eventually spoke up again. “And…what was it about the connection?” He asked.
Luna recoiled a bit “Ah yes! I am sorry.”
“It’s alright.” Trus said with a mild smile.
Luna seemed concerned at first, but then smiled in return. “The connection we had started at your arrival and it seemed to link our minds in small degrees. For instance, I did not know of the big dipper or the northern lights of your world until they came up. I believe that you may have been unknowingly using that connection to be able to freely move about.”
Trus leaned his head to the side. “Huh…” was all he said.
“…Are you truly from another realm? Or a traveler of other realms that is?...”
“…Yes…”
“Your capabilities to go anywhere must be truly endless then to land in a dream.”
Trus scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah, pretty much.”
“And you truly have done all of those things that you have told me about in your stories?”
“Yes.” Trus said hanging his head a little.
“What is wrong?” Luna asked.
Trus took some time to form his answer. “Not much…I guess,” He said with a shrug.
“Then why are you acting so miserable? Many of your acts are heroic! Your very life is that of a dedicated hero and any hero would not do well to frown at their achievements!”
“I don’t want to be a hero…. I… just go around…like one…”
“…Why…” Came the question from a confused sounding Luna.
Trus was looking at the ground again and couldn’t see what she was doing. It was silent for a good long while before he spoke again. “because I can be and other’s can’t… because it’s just my life...”
There was another moment of silence before either spoke again and when someone did speak, it was Luna, speaking solemnly. “I betrayed Equetria, my ponies and my sister, because I was afraid of being forgotten and I foolishly thought that I was the one being betrayed by my sister as our ponies seemed to forget about me and continued to praise her.
“I have nothing to be proud of…but you do! And yet you wish it wasn’t so? I would gladly give up my lot to live the life you live, even if it would only be for a short while.”
“…I’d trade you if I could…and if I could…allow it… It doesn’t end… unless I get a very…low chance of…something happening… It’ll never end.” He didn’t look back at Luna and she didn’t say anything at first.
With time though, she spoke to him again. “I would still prefer it rather than staying here for eternity.”
Trus let her words sink in for a little bit before he tried to reply. But in the end he couldn’t find anything suitable to say beyond asking, “You’re here for eternity?”
“Yes. I am a prisoner within Nightmare Moon imprisoned in the Moon itself...for the rest of time. I would gladly take on a life of heroism regardless of any self doubt.”
Trus looked up at her for a second before looking down again and taking a deep breath. “I’m more a pawn of destiny than any kind of hero… I’ve actually even been thrown into places just to roll into a death trap... I guess it was just so someone else who needed to live wouldn’t fall into it. I’m just a pawn. Not really a hero… I just get used when the timing is right for me to make the right decisions when I need to…”

It was a long while before either spoke this time…
…It was such a long time that Trus even stretched a little while he avoided looking at Luna. He did however occasionally glance over at her hooves just to make sure she was still there.
“…I think I would still accept such a life over my own…” Luna said, breaking the silence. “Even if I could go back home…I could not show my face to my people that I betrayed…
“They might forgive me, but it would not feel just, to simply accept such forgiveness. Even if they did not forgive me it would not feel just that I should get to return home after such a betrayal… No it feels right that I should sit here for the rest of time for my crimes against my own…but I do wish at times that I could get away…”
“…Heh, heh...” Trus laughed. “Heh, heh. I guess we should trade…if we could…
There was another long period of silence.
“…I feel like I’ve betrayed my God and every person I left back home…because I left without doing anything for…them…” He finally looked up and turned to look at her. She was looking back at him and looked to be listening intently.
He looked into her eyes, her sad worn eyes, and decided to ask another question. “Luna?”
“Yes?”
“…What do you want?”
She didn’t look away, but continued looking right back into his eyes. She didn’t say anything for a bit, but then finally opened her mouth. “To rot.” She said, her eyes almost closing.
Trus nodded slowly. He looked slightly down and then away before he said something else. “…I don’t want to exist.” His eyes lingered off into oblivion for a second before he remembered where he was and looked back at her. She was looking off to the side now.
“…Oh that we’d have such a blessing…” she eventually said.
That simple fraise seemed to calm him for some reason. Even though it seemed like it was something that should alarm him.
After a bit he smiled and said, “I’ll probably be up and saying that I’ll never give up and I’ll keep going soon enough.” He said, having looked down and looking back up as he said it. “I tend to change my mind kind of often.” He sank into his shoulders.
She looked at him and blinked. “Hmm.”
Trus didn’t know how to respond that so he just sat there, with his head in his shoulders, waiting.
“…That is good.” She said moving her eyes back onto him.
Trus smiled a tired, but genuine smile.
Luna actually began laughing.
At this point Trus had no idea what to do. So he waited for her to stop, which didn’t take long. However, she went into another thoughtful stare, so he decided to take another look around the room.

Not much had changed. Though there were a lot more cracks around the room and not just where Luna had smashed through the bridge. There were some small some large. A few big ones were on the walls closer to where Luna had done her work and there was even a small one that was on the blue throne. That one though almost seemed like it was coming off the throne and cracking through the air somehow. For some reason he couldn’t focus in on it however so he gave up and looked around a bit more. There were also some places that looked blurred out or smudged when they shouldn’t have been, but he was so tired of strange things that he just attributed it to the dream and moved on. He found Celestia standing in the middle of the throne room with a glazed look on her face. The doorway behind her was completely out of focus and smudged like someone had taken a sponge to a painting.
Seeing Celestia though, triggered another question concerning someone else he had recently seen. “Who is Dark Sentry?” Trus asked looking back at Luna.
She tilted her head a bit. “I believe that he is just part of this dream… Why?”
Trus took a moment to put his words together. “…He’s always sounded a bit different to me…and he told me about you being Nightmare Moon.”
Luna didn’t react at first, but then her eyes went a bit wide and she blinked a few times. “…I had…assumed that you simply had learned through the connection that I was Nightmare Moon and he has always sounded the same to me.”
Trus nodded. “I have a translator of sorts that changes the way some people speak so that I can pick up on some…usually minor things… For instance, you sound like you’re speaking from an older dialect while Dark has always sounded like he’s speaking from my time’s dialect.”
“…That may explain why you were beginning to sound so odd while we had the connection.” Said Luna. “I did not think much of it at the time. I had felt that I understood perfectly even, but nonetheless it was strange.”
Trus bobbed his head a few times. “Okay…I noticed you sound-r…starting to sound odd too around the same time… Anyway, Dark also said that he was a…dream…pony…or something…and that I would forget him when I woke up…” He looked at her with another question coming to mind. “Do you remember having any other dreams with Dark Sentry in them?”
Luna sat with another confused expression while she looked into the corners of her eyes for a while. “…No.” she said giving a hard stare that wasn’t particularly directed at him. “I remember the others in previous dreams, but Dark is new to me as well… I thought of it at the same time I questioned if you had been real, but I supposed that he was just another addition the way I had thought you were.”
Trus’s mouth dropped to slightly hang open. “…Huh.” He looked down to the stone floor again. Then he looked back up at Luna. “Do you…want to go find him?”
“Yes. I would like to know who else has been invading my mind.”
Trus sunk into his shoulders again.
Luna looked at him, smiled, put a hoof on his head and said “Do not fear I have greatly enjoyed your company. And you have allowed me to relieve myself of many cares I wished to let go of. Thank you. Let us go.” They both got up to leave, but as they turned to head to the doors of the throne room another question popped into Trus’s head. “Hey uh, if I’m still here, do we still got that…connection thing going on?”
She was standing tall over him and looking down to view him. For some reason now being shorter than her was bothering him. Must be that connection stuff.
“No, you are here because of a connection that allows you to view my dreams. The connection from before connected our mentalities, such as our personal traits, memories and sensations. That is the one I severed.”
“Oh…” He shrunk and looked away for a moment, “sorry about that…”
She smiled at him and gave him another hug, to which he returned.
“Let us find Dark.” She said releasing him.
They walked a little ways. Trus got ahead and then heard Luna ask one more thing. “Are you still my friend?”
He froze feeling ice creep through his spine. He looked back to see her standing still with a blank expression on her face.
He opened his mouth, looked down and then looked up again wearing an expression of fear and concern. “I believe so. Yes.” He said.
He turned away and continued walking.
“Trus.” She said.
He stopped and looked back with a blank expression. She stared hard into his eyes and he couldn’t help but glance uncomfortable away a few times. She smiled. “Then I believe I am your friend too.”
With that she walked up to and passed Trus. Then she looked back at him with her smile still on her face and said, “Come we have a Dark Sentry to find.” She turned her head around and took off in a gallop.
Trus just stood there for a split second and then snapped out of his stupor. He chased her past Celestia, out of the room, and down the halls.