Hey guys, its DragonEmperror2810 or Dee for short. Very sorry for the late update. Things had gotten really chaotic lately ever since I took the mantle of being the group leader here in college.

Being a part lone wolf, its difficult working together in a group but seeing as how majority of the assignments here are based on teamwork I had relatively no other choice.

Once again, I apologize for being absolutely quiet here, I lost count the number of times where I have to skip writing session for the sake of finishing my assignments. It didn't help that my procrastinating habits is still working full force.

Luckily, I have my lil sister to help out a bit (Keyword: a bit) so we're good...i think.

Anyway, I'm not here to preach about my college life. Lets move on with the story now, shall we?

The Mare of the Moon

Night time has once again fell upon the vast land of Equestria. However, tonight there seemed to be something odd going on as proven to how eerily quiet the castle grounds were.

"Hey Kurama, you remember which way our room is?" He inquired as he walked through one of the empty corridors, his hooves clacking loudly against the marble floors. "Kurama?"

Silence

"This isn't funny, Kurama, I know you can hear me."

More silence

Huffing in annoyance, he spoke, "Fine, don't talk to me then. It's not like I need your help anyway." He snapped. "Just don't blame me if we end up being stuck here until Celestia raised the sun."

This time, he didn't expect the fox to respond either and went on ahead, intent on not falling for his games.

Still, it was a bit tad surprising for him to be easily lost like this and Naruto was quite sure with himself that he had explored all the places around the castle. Unless of course Celestia had purposely left out something when he first came here but he highly doubt that was the case.

Or does she?

Shaking his head, the orange stallion averted his attention back to the situation at hoof. Like what Kurama said, he can worry about Princess Celestia some other time. Right now, he had a room to get back to.

…

Naruto was utterly stumped

He wasn't sure how long sure he had been trotting around these corridors but he was pretty sure he had been stuck here longer than he should. Everywhere he looked, the corridors looked exactly the same from top to bottom and that annoyed him to no end.

"Is it this way?" He muttered to himself as he glanced to the right. He let out a long hum before shaking his head in disagreement. "No, I'm pretty sure I went there before."

He turned to the opposite direction.

"This way then?" He mumbled to himself again as he skeptically glanced at the corridor. "Nah, that can't be right. I just came from there."

"Gah, this is so frustrating!"

Finally reaching his utmost boiling point, Naruto let out a long frustrated groan before plopping his flank onto the carpeted floor in utter defeat. This was hopeless.

What's more surprising was that throughout his uncalled journey through the castle, never once did he ever come across any other ponies and that made the blonde highly uncomfortable. Usually, he'd come across a few servants or patrolling guards by now but that wasn't the case for tonight. For whatever reason, he had no absolute clue.

Crack!

"Huh?"

Looking down at his forehooves, he was perplexed to discover that he had stepped on something. He couldn't see what it was due to the lack of illumination so he had to pick it up for a closer inspection.

"A pot shard?" He inquired quizzically. "What's this doing here?"

Obviously, this was done just recently. Had it done during daylight, the cleaners would've noticed it and got rid of it in the blink of an eye; a testament to how serious they played . But last time he checked however, he was the only one in charge of this specific wing of the castle. A intruder perhaps? Plausible but most likely not. The ponies in this world may be well-versed in the arts of magic but they're not shinobis.

Glancing up, his perplexed demeanor turned into mild concern when he got a full view of the corridor ahead of him.

"Kami, what happened here?"

As it turned out, the pottery shard wasn't the only thing that was there. Several more of its brethren were scattered here and there. Not only that but the ceiling-high lavish red curtains were brutally torn apart and a few of the glass window panels were decorated with multiple webcracks. The place was a terrible mess.

The prospect of having an intruder roaming through the castle grounds now being more prominent than ever, Naruto gently the shard he was holding and marched onward, carefully evading the mess as he went along in case there were any hostiles nearby. He decided to use the mess as a way point seeing as how they seemed to lead to a particular direction no doubt the intruders were heading for.

As he got further and further, the damage escalated even more to things like cracked floor tiles, scratched off wallpapers and smoldered walls that was obviously triggered due to magic side effects. No doubt caused by unicorns but who?

Eventually, the blonde arrived at a set of large doors that was located on the far end of one of the corridors. Contrary to all the previous bland wooden doors he came across before this, the particular entrance was twice as large and was flourished with numerous murals of white moons directly at the centre along with dozens of glittering stars around it. Almost as big as Princess Celestia's if he must say so himself.

Naruto stared at the door with a confused look. Was this door been here the whole time? He had no clue. It seemed there's more to the castle than he thought it'd be.

Peeking through the gap, the blonde tried to get a sneak peek of what was inside the room, only to frown when he was greeted with absolute darkness.

"Hello? Is anypony in here?"

Hearing no verbal response, the blonde decided to take the silence as a yes and slowly trudged into the room.

As Naruto's cerulean blue eyes finally adjusted to the lack of lighting inside the room, he realized that the condition of the room's interior wasn't as bad as the hallway outside.

It was ten times worse than that.

Cracked tiled floors, torn blue curtains, broken window panels, ripped pillows, splintered walls. Even what was obviously used to be an exquisite resting chamber was now demolished to nothingness.

Just what in the name of Kami is going on here?

He swiftly broke out of his stupor when he heard shuffling in the room. Battle instincts automatically took over, he swiftly entered a fighting stance.

"Who's there!" He demanded, his cerulean blue eyes darting all over his surroundings. "Show yourself!"

The blonde waited for any response but to no avail, the silence was his only response.

Naruto frowned. How he wished he was a unicorn right now then he'd be able to shine a light in this dark ominous place.

Luckily for him, Celestia must've answered his prayers as more moonlight slowly bathed into the room, further illuminating the room to a degree.

It was only then did he finally realized that there was in fact a lone mare laying in the center of all the mess, sobbing to herself. Compared to all the damage around her, she looked relatively unharmed.

Thinking that she was a victim of some sort, he slowly went to her side.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Whether if the dark blue pony heard his inquiry or not, she didn't show it and continued sobbing to herself.

Tentatively, Naruto reached a hoof for the mare's shoulder, making sure to be gentle about it in case she was scared...which she obviously was. "Hey, it's alright. I'm a Royal Guard here. My name's Nar-"

"No more…"

He stopped, his hoof a few inches away from touching the mare. "Huh?"

"I will have none of this anymore…"

No longer sniffling, the mare suddenly stood up on all her hooves, prompting Naruto take a step back in surprise.

"No more..."

"No...more...!"

"None of this!"

All of the sudden, ominous black smoke-like tendrils started to creep out of the floor tiles and around the mare. They coiled around her legs before engulfing her whole petite form before he could even as much as move a single limb. At this point, his senses was screaming right at his face and Naruto found himself slowly backstepping to the door he came from, he only managed to get about a few hoofsteps away before the tendrils suddenly lashed out at him.

Unprepared for the attack, Naruto crossed his forehooves in a last minute means of defense before he found himself being hurled in the opposite direction and straight into the doors, shattering the unfortunate wooden structure into hundreds of splinters. Precious oxygen was knocked out of his lungs as he was slammed into the wall outside of the room with an echoing crack, leaving a brick angel Naruto-shaped crater on it, before dropping to the ground with a muffled thud.

"What in the..." He managed to cough out as he stood back onto his four hooves. "What was that...?"

His fur standing on its ends, he quickly barrelrolled to the side when a deadly arc of blue magic burst through the remains of the doors and made impact on the exact spot where he previously, effectively destroying the tiled floors and leaving a gaping hole in its wake within a matter of seconds.

"That was close." He said to himself as he watched the damage done. "Had I been a second to slow I'd be fried to nothingness."

"How impressive." He heard an entirely different mare voice spoke. "No pony has ever evaded my attacks before."

Going back into his defensive stance. Naruto's eyes hardened when he saw an entirely different pony emerged out of the room.

Instead of the blue mare from before, the pony that stood in front of him was covered in a blue coat fur that was as dark as the night itself accompanied by a few ocean blue armor pieces consisting of a Trojan unicorn helmet that has a circular hole in the center for her unicorn horn to protrude out, an intricately designed collar that was emblazoned with a crescent moon symbol in the middle and two pairs of pointy-edged hoof slippers that reached up to her knees.

The blonde chuckled. "Yeah, well, there's a first for everything."

"Not everything apparently."

"Huh?"

Looking downwards, Naruto let out a muffled curse when he realized that his hooves were now encased in a thick sheet of ice. How did he not realized this happened?

Flaring her Unicorn magic, the blonde stallion found himself struggling even more when he was suddenly imbued in the mare's magical aura and was effortlessly lifted off the ground with his ice-trapped legs still intact and was brought to face to face with the mare. Had it weren't for the feral look in her blue eyes, he would've deemed the mare to be a beautiful one. Nevertheless, he maintained a calm demeanor.

"Hmm…how odd." She spoke in a rather rich and prideful tone of voice, examining at him from left and right. "You're different than any other stallion I have seen before."

"Who are you?" He demanded. "And how did you get into this castle?"

The blonde was unprepared when the blue pony suddenly let out a cackled laugh at his question, almost if she had just heard the most funniest joke in the whole Equestria. "How did I get in here, you ask?" The elder mare repeated when her laughter died down, ignoring his first question smoothly. "I live here."

"...what?"

"As for who I am...I am sure you will find out soon enough." She elaborated. "For I will come back and reclaim what is rightfully mine."

What's rightfully her's? What does she mean by that?

"Until then, enjoy the sunlight while you can because it will be the last time you will ever see it."

And just like that, he was slammed onto the side of the wall head-first. For a brief second, he could have sworn he heard something important breaking inside him but he didn't have time to think about it for his vision immediately descended into the darkness.

…

The blonde jolted out of his bed in utter shock, beads of perspiration drenched his fur as he shakily clutched the kunai he had discreetly kept hidden underneath his bed.

He frantically looked for any hostiles, but there was none in sight. He was back in his room. No destroyed furniture, no crazy blue Alicorn mare, no nothing.

It was all...just a dream?

There you are. Kurama mentally remarked. I almost thought you're dead or something.

Said blonde evidently flinched at the gruff voice inside his mind but quickly calmed himself when he remembered who it was. "Kurama…is that you?"

He snorted. Of course it's me. Who else could it be?

"Sorry, I just…I just…" Unable to find the proper words to express himself, he ended up finishing with a tired sigh.

You alright, Naruto? You've been thrashing in your sleep for quite a while now.

He was surprised by that.

"You didn't see it, Kurama?" Being the creature living inside his body, Kurama was capable of seeing his dreams as much as he does. It was for this sole reason he was able to instill nightmares on him back when he was still a child.

The fox shrugged nonchalantly. Not that I'm aware of. You made it a point for me to not disturb your dream long ago ever since I woke you up from one of your ramen fantasy. He commented offhandedly.

Shedding off the blanket with a lazy if not tired throw, the orange stallion got off his bed and approached the one of the windows available. Grabbing the edge of the curtain with his mouth, he gently pulled the covers aside.

Sensing his tenant's discomfort, the fox bijuu decided to ask the million bits question. So what is it this time? It's unusually rare for you to be shaken like this.

Running a hoof through his messy blonde hair, Naruto could only sigh at the question. "Honestly, I've no clue." He replied, prompting Kurama to quirk an eyebrow. "One thing for sure though..."

He averted his gaze to look at the view outside.

"I got this bad feeling that it wasn't just a regular nightmare."

…

"And that's how I managed to vanquish all the skeleponies in the dungeon with only two strikes of my Holy Sword!"

Cadence could only giggle as the grey stallion continued to boast about his victory in his recent board game outing with his nerd friends. Its not even an hour after their picnic and he already started talking about his hobbies. While she had to admit, she only had little knowledge in what he was talking about, the pink Alicorn was just glad that he's enjoying himself. With his duties as the Lieutenant of the Canterlot Royal Guard, the grey stallion actually had little time to spend for himself. This was one of that moment.

"Why do you keep on playing those stupid games, Shiny?" Twilight innocently asked as she stuffed cookies after cookies into her mouth, getting into the genius aspects of herself. "From what I see, there's no beneficial aspects from playing those board games."

"Hey, its not stupid!" The Lieutenant shrieked, no doubt offended. "Its very educational!"

Leaving the two to settle their usual antics as usual, the Alicorn of Love decided to look around to appreciate the view. It was from then she realized that somepony wasn't enjoying the picnic.

Naruto had an utterly distant look on his face as he absentmindedly nibbled on a daisy sandwich and he had been acting like this ever since the very beginning. A rather weird thing considering how hyperactive he was.

"Is something wrong, Naruto?" Cadence finally asked in concern. "Does the food taste bad?"

Realizing his mistake, he quickly spoke, "Huh oh o no no, its fine. I was just thinking about something, that's all."

"And what would that be?" She inquired, suddenly found herself interested. After all, its not everyday the blonde would admit that he was thinking about something. It was even rare seeing the hyperactive blonde acting serious.

He waved the question off dismissive wave of his hoof. "Don't worry, it's nothing important."

"...I see." Cadence let her suspicious gaze lingering for a few second or two before changing the topic. "In any case, who's ready for Nightmare Night?"

"Oh! Me! Me! Me!" Twilight eagerly cried out.

"Totally! I can't wait to show other ponies the costume I've prepared!"

"What about you, Naruto? Aren't you excited for it as well?" Cadence inquired when he didn't give any response. "You do know what Nightmare Night is, right?"

Said stallion snorted at that. "Of course I do, I'm not that clueless."

"So?"

"So what?"

"Yeah dude, aren't you pumped up as we are?"

"I don't know. I mean, it's just a night where you ponies dressed up in costumes and get candies from other ponies, right?"

Licking his lips, the orange stallion brought the cider closer to his muzzle, only for it to stop midway when he noticed the incredulous looks the three were giving him. "What?"

"Dude are you serious?"

He shrugged. "Sorry guys but I just can't see anything fun about Nightmare Night."

The blonde brought the bottle to his lips once more but found itself stopping a few inches away still when Cadence spoke.

"Oh well, you know what that means..." Cadence trailed off, sneaking knowing glances with the other two in which he easily noticed.

"What?" He said in total alarm, finally giving up on trying to drink the cider. If there was something he didn't like to hear, that was one of them. "What does that mean?"

Cadence and Twilight grinend. "Its time for a little story telling!" They both said simultaneously.

"Wait what?" Naruto blurted in confusion.

"Oh oh oh!" Twily cried out the blue like a student begging for their teacher's attention during class time, effectively ignoring Naruto's intelligible statement. "Can I tell the story instead?"

"Are you sure, Twilight?" Cadence asked. "You know how to do the spell?"

"Of course I do. You kept on doing it for my bedtime stories, remember?"

There was a moment of pause before the Alicorn of Love smiled and nodded. "Alright, then go on ahead."

"Uh, what is she going to do?" Naruto asked worriedly as the filly's horn began glowing softly in purple magic.

Rather than giving him a straight answer, Shining Armor simply rested a hoof on his shoulder. "Dude, just relax and enjoy the show."

"...was that suppose to reassure me?"

The Lieutenant was about to give an answer to that question but decided to shut his mouth instead when the show was about to start. Seeing no way out of this, the orange stallion could only sigh and comply with what he said. He was startled however when a purple fog suddenly materialized in the center of their little picnic area.

Initially, the magic took no visible form and simply floated about like a vibrant-colored smoke. Then, under the purple filly's metaphorical grasp, the raw magic swirled into two distinctive pony figures standing above a cloud. One having a lighter shade of purple than the other.

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled and created harmony for all the land.

To do this, the eldest used her unicorn power to raise the sun at dawn while the younger brought out the moon to begin the night.

Obliging the narrator's words, a sun rose beneath the clouds below and into the sky just when the elder sister tilted her horn up. Simultaneously, the younger sister mirrored the action afterwards but with a crescent shaped moon instead.

As Naruto stared at the scene before his eyes, he was inflicted with a small sense of deja vu in which he immediately shrug off.

Thus the two sisters maintained balance for the kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies.

For once, Naruto smiled. He didn't know why but he found the story to be rather sweet though he still can't see how it would connect with Nightmare-

But as the time went on, the younger sister became resentful.

Ah, there we go

The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night.

All of the sudden, Naruto flinched. He didn't know why but looking at the mirage of the supposed blue mare projected by Cadence, he was swarmed by a strong sense of déjà vu. And it wasn't a good kind of déjà vu.

One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn.

Despite being relatively simply in terms of visual projection, the story did a pretty good job in getting its readers into the right mood. Naruto himself found relatively more uncomfortable as the story telling went on.

The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon.

His breath hitched, the blonde's body went as stiff as a board when a eerily-familiar looking fog began to surround the blue mare and out came a pony he was all too familiar with. For the sake of filly fantasy, it was missing a few distinctive features such as her maniacal grin and razor sharp fangs but there was no denying it, it was the same mare he saw from his dream.

She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night.

Reluctantly, the elder sister fought against her younger sibling.

Eventually, she was forced to harness the most powerful magic known to ponydom, the Elements of Harmony.

"The Elements…of Harmony?" He whispered questioningly under his breath upon seeing seven different glowing orbs floating floating around the 'elder mare'. "What is that...?"

With the aid of the Elements of Harmony, she finally defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon.

Naruto's cerulean blue eyes went wide in bewilderment at that but luckily nopony noticed it.

Thus, the elder sister took on responsibility for both and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations.

"And that...is how Nightmare Night was created." Twilight finished professionally before perking up in her usual filly excitement. "So how did it go? Did I do well?"

"Well done Twilight. You did better than I expected." Cadence complimented as she gently ruffled her pink-and-purple mane, prompting the filly to giggle in delight.

"Yeah Twily, that was pretty good. Still not as good as Cadence tho-" Whatever words he was about to say next, he didn't have time to say it when said Alicorn jabbed him by the ribs. Luckily, Twilight was too focused with Cadence's previous positive remark to pay her older brother any attention. Speaking about attention...

"So how about it, dude?" Shining inquired, changing the subject rather abruptly in an attempt to distract everypony as he tried to wring the ebbing pay away. "Are you interested in Nightmare Night now?"

Naruto could only reply with silence for he was too busy processing what he just heard. Averting his gaze elsewhere, he glanced at the vast blue skies with a thoughtful look before looking at the whole group before him. Finally, he grinned.

"So what do you ponies do during Nightmare Night exactly?"

Due to technical reasons, neither me or my sister was able to proof read it properly. Heck, I myself had an assignment that needed to be handed in the next 24 hours so I couldn't do anything about it. So if you guys happen to find any gaps in this chapter (or any other chapters before this) do leave a constructive feedback in the reviews. I'd greatly appreciate that.

Also, I'm opening a few spots for Beta Readers to proof read my stories so if any of you guys are interested then do leave a PM. I'm not sure what I can give in return but I'm sure we can work it out. Keep in mind, we'll be giving you several tests to see if you're up to the task or not. This is to make sure that you're as good as you said you are. Think of it like a job interview of some sort.

Anyway, off to finishing my assignments, see ya!