Episode 1

Rapture
The Nightmare Chronicles
Chapter I
Black

Sapphire felt the Sadistic mystical darkness within her soul fire unleash its terrible ferocious power. Draining her magical faculties to their utmost edge. In the darkening world of fading consciousness, sapphire watched, as if from a back seat, as the comforting visage of ponyville winked into nonexistence.
Unlike before on the cliff wall of the gorge, the soul fire's takeover was not intentionally caused by Sapphire, some ancient boundary was crossed, forcing the outburst of unspeakable power to be unleashed.
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Back in ponyville, twilight sparkle watched, rooted in horror as one by one as: princess luna, pinkie pie, rainbow dash, rarity disappeared in the shrieking burst of darkness emanating from Sapphire. The burst of black magic consumed all that was bright and joyful in equestria, replacing it with eternal night.
When the nightmarish waves of darkness finished pouring out, Nightmare Moon stood where Twilight's friends had been moments ago.
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Sapphire blinked, regaining consciousness in a crumpled heap atop a pile of crumbling masonry. She tried moving, alas to little effect as waves of nauseating exhaustion washed over her. Body and soul drained of life, teetering on the brink of death's door. Sapphire closed her eyes, having completed her mistresses bidding, there twas naught to live for.
Life stirred around Sapphire in the dank wasteland that she would soon call home. Alerted to the sounds around her Sapphire opened a solitary eye to her drear surroundings. Peering down the length of it beak directly back at her was a horribly disfigured mottled crow.
In a flash of movement the bird struck, plunging deep into her open eye. Pain shot through her skull as the mottled crow withdrew and struck again. Searing, burning suffering poured from her mangled socket: blood mingling with salty tears of pain.
Something stirred within her heart of hearts, a black flame once quenched, had returned, only a flickering light, but it twas there once more. Sapphire smiled through the searing pain, for once glad to have the smoldering evil within her soul.
A trembling hoof stretched overhead, and with a momentous final effort swept down, crushing the life from her tormentor. Hungrily the controlling darkness within pulled the dying crow up to Sapphire's fanglets. With one ferocious crunch, draining the lingering threads of life from the deformed creature.
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In a single slippery moment ponyville became a towering jungle of skeleton buildings overgrown with intertwining tree growth. A dead skyline playing a slow crumbling battle with vines, ivy, and other deciduous creepers. Above a canopy intermittently broken with the broken spines shooting up from a once majestic cityscape. Sickly gray-green patches of light trickled through the canopies numerous tears and piercings. A cornucopia of vines and roots spread and tangled their winding way between the arboretum skyscrapers interconnecting the towering giants sporadically above the swampy slosh below.
Rarity stared in shock. There were no words in her diverse lexicon to even attempt to describe the horror before her eyes. Dumbfounded, Rarity continued to stare out blankly, slack jawed in mind boggled shock long after her two companions had sprung into motion. Finally, Rarity broke her silence, turning to the ponies around her.
"This, THIS!" Pausing, Rarity shuddered. "I don't even... What is this Horrid place?"
"Silly, It's obviously a really old city with trees growing all over it that we teleported into somehow. Duh!" The unflapable pinkie pie bounced.
"Dash dear, please come back here." Rarity called after the sky-blue pegasus. Dash shot off through the thick overgrowth.
"This place is AWESOME!" Dash appeared through a blown out window frame in the towering skyscraper's facade extending far above them. They were in fact standing on a lower balcony of said high rise, jutting out about one hundred feet above the rancid swamp swirling below.
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Warm and coppery, crow's blood became fuel for the dark fire within Sapphire's soul. Crow flesh likewise became fuel for her trembling body. Within the hour a sleek blue-gray figure trotted off, winding through the treachery of broken, swaying stone columns and jagged forests of rebar. Sapphire was on the hunt. The smoldering malicious hunger within would be sated.
Out of the corner of her one good eye Sapphire glimpsed a white blur of motion. Her head turned, tracking the motion to fix upon the furry figure of a rabbit peering back at her reared up on its haunches. A battle of stares commenced, mirroring the fierce battle of willpower within Sapphire.
She won out against the hunger within, beginning to turn away when a blazing flare of rage burst out from her inner heart. The inner hunger Would be sated.
When Sapphire regained full control of her body, rabbit fur and gore spread out before her to every edge of the once serene clearing. The pony side of sapphire spotted a tuft of dandelions growing out of a shelf like window ledge only a few paces yonder. A different desire took hold, happily trotting over Sapphire half forgot the gruesome events of her previous repast.

Rapture
The Nightmare Chronicles
Chapter II
Broken Heart

The grotesque figures trickled through the thick foliage in hot pursuit of Rarity and company. Dash did her best to fend off the deadly on-slot from above, but to little effect as the deadly barrage of deformed crows would not abate.
In the six hours since their arrival the trio had spent nearly half their time fleeing for dear life. Hot on the trio's trail were several horriblely mangled half horse half somethings covered in layers of matted feathers and tar. These monsters, whatever they were, had veritable droves of crows at their beck and call. The swarming mass of shreeking black birds curbed any attemp to deviate as they swiftly aproached the ivy coated wall looming above.
Seeing no avenue of escape, Pinkie and Rarity turned to fight. Rarity cast about with her magic in search of anything to keep the savage beasts at bay. Horn aglow, Rarity levitated a rusted sewer cap using it as a make-shift shield. Pinkie jumped up into a boxing stance, fore-hooves held up in leu of clenched fists.
The disfigured feathered monsters encircling them just laughed. The burliest of the brutes stepped forward sneering gracelessly.
"Pathetic."
On his signal a wingman shot out a lasso, catching one of dashes legs as she continued battling the crows with hoof, tooth and wing.
Dash went down and was quickly hogtied, despite her best efforts to break free. There was nothing Pinkie or Rarity could do to help her,
Dash was thoroughly immobilized by ropes pinning her wings and hefty iron hoof-cuffs.
"Drop."
The most wizened and elderly looking one said. The metal disk shielding Rarity from direct assault slipped from her levitation field. Panicked Rarity began casting any spell she could think of that might slow the approach of the lead beast.
"Unicorn magic holds no sway over a centaur curse. Your spell casting cannot protect you now."
The leader of the centaurs reached out his hand above the now cowering Rarity. Yes as Rarity saw the appendage up close it was undeniably a hand, not a hoof, nor a claw or paw, but a honest to goodness hand. And this hand now held her horn in its powerful grasp.
"Crack!"
Rarity's horn snapped in half as the laughing centaur added another horn tip to his growing collection of unicorn memorabilia. It was a crying shame this group only had one, irregardless, three lively ponies at once was a lucky find all the same.
For brief instant Rarity felt that she was just waking from a terrible dream. Slowly Rarity watched as that feeling fade, leaving nothing reality's cold, hard, naked truth to crash down around her without remorse. The waves of nauseating pain were a poor comparison to the sinking pit of crippling despair welling up within her soul. There were no words to describe the immense loss she felt, the dead stump of her once majestic spiral was as lifeless as the beauty within her heart. Rarity was a broken pony.

Rapture
The Nightmare Chronicles
Chapter III
Survival

The never ending slog through the endless urban jungle took its toll on everypony. The draining humidity was enough to sap the strongest ponies strength, and some of the bedraggled ponies chained to Dash did not fall into that vital category. Since Dash and the others had joined the main group of over two dozen ponies going had been unbearably slow. Every few steps a pony stumbled and the whole chain gang skidded to a halt. Their captors were definitely not soft with the touch of their whip. When Dash first felt the drivers whip across her flanks, she had nearly flared up in blaze of indignant fury. The only thing that saved Dash was the somber look on Pinkie's when she shook her head; no.
The three friends were separated, but not so far apart that they couldn't keep tabs on each other. The single double file line was guarded on each side by four Centaurs, Dash was still not sure of their exact number due to the obscuring foliage, but guessed it to be about half the number of prisoners.
They walked into a clearing. On three sides were the still standing walls of what must have once been a department store ages ago. Against every wall were piles of trash, junk, filth and the skeletons of empty shelving. Despite the nearly randomly located collection of clutter, the space next to where the final wall should have been was cleared, revealing a smooth concrete floor. As the train of ponies approached the space a thunder of clacks resounded through the building as the unison of hooves pounded against the smooth pavement. This area had been heavily traveled.
Now fully in the clearing, dash could see the shear drop out the opening. A deadly fall of over three hundred awaited any pony who was unfortunate to fall out that opening.
As two members of his party began separating the throng of ponies from each other the head centaur spoke.
"As some of you may know we are at Half Wing's crossing."
His lips curved into a cruel smile.
"Tonight is your last chance to escape before you are taken to work in the wondrous Island paradise of Half Wing's death camp. When you die you will have the singular honor of donating your flesh to feed Half Wing's army of Bane Centaurs poised to take over control of mainland equestria and finally crush your pathetic 'pony' insurrection. Heil Halfler!"
With that the centaurs arm shot out in a sharp salute. However, the five digits at the of his extended appendage drooped in mimicry of a broken Pegasus wing. For a moment Rainbow Dash contemplated the notion that the leader of this malicious band of centaurs was a pegesus. But she soon forgot that train of though for a much more productive one: the possibility of escape.
The head centaur, whose name was Halfgore Dash had recently learned, drew her attention as he began speaking again.
"I forgot to tell you, Half Wing's Crossing is also called The Sacrificial Falls."
It was becoming morbidly clear to Dash that Halfgore keenly enjoyed terrifying his prisoners. With no real goal in mind, but a base desire to cause terror and pain.
"You know why the call this place that?" Then affecting a high pitched squeal, mimicking the sound of a young filly, Halfgore continued. "Oh no, please all powerful Mr. Halfgore Sir, tell us why because we are pathetic, sniveling little BITCHES!"
Halfgore finished with a ferocious grating sneer.
Although Dash had never heard the word she intuitively felt her ears burn.
"Because," Halfgore smiled cruelly "Below is a field where thousands of Aphrod Pony Traps grow, they suck you in with paralyzing tentacles, slowly eat you alive layer by layer, pealing away your skin and muscles before you die. It is the most imaginably painful way to die conceived by the gods."
His cruel laughter grated on every ponies ears, but Rainbow Dash was glad he had stopped talking, maybe now she could contrive a method of escape. Oh how woefully wrong Dash would soon prove to be.
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The eternal flame of the sun had finally faded over the horizon, Dash opened her eyes and silently glided to her hooves. Time to break free of this horror fest. Dash counted thirteen centaurs slumbering around the dying bonfire erected in the center of the clearing. She couldn't be certain, but that seemed to be about the right number.
With ninja like skill and grace Dash made her way to the bed of glass shards that has fallen from the now paleness doors opening into the concrete jungle beyond.
With a sigh of relief Dash peared around the opening to find no guards posted outside. 'could it possibly be this easy?' Dash wondered to herself, almost turning back before the call of freedom reaffirmed its hold on her.
With pounding heart and bated breath Dash took her first step outside the makeshift enclosure. No blaring alarms, no jingling bells not even a simple spring trap or tripwire. Relaxing a little Dash took several more steps outside. She was in the clear, hidden behind thick walls of foliage that could stop a charging bull elephant. Now all she had to do is cut the ropes that held her wings and she was home free. A task that proved to be a quantum leap more difficult to achieve than expected.
Rainbow Dash was not going to be defeated by mere rope. the struggle went on into the wee hours of the morning before Dash and her teeth completed their task.