The clash of hooves and voice rang throughout the torn castle of the Royal Sisters. Nightmare Moon kept a cautious pace with Derrick, hoping his long run would tire him out soon. Though she was an alicorn, a being that is master of strength, speed, and magic, there was a deeply motivated desire to not do anything rash. She was very worried that Derrick would fear her more if she displayed any of the three in her godlike manner.

Mediocrity in her actions was at best right now, especially with the Castle of The Two Sisters barely holding itself in place from the extra weight. Cliffs were crumbling very slowly, trees that lost their blossoming life long ago were plummeting to their final destination, and walls were loosening as he sprinted through room after room to find a good place for rest. He was more exhausted than he anticipated, his body aching with each step he took to get away from the Mare in The Moon.

For the first time he felt the impact of his body beginning to fail him in his darkest moment. It hit him like a solid body blow, cruel and wicked to the fullest. This is bad. This is really bad. I don't think I can run for much longer, not at this state. I'm bound to pass out soon or make a wrong move. I have to find a place to catch my breath.

His aches sharpened in his legs, although there was nothing physical that touched them. Derrick was right. It was not going to be very long before his body shutdown and left him to the clutches of the dark alicorn. He thought long and fast where he could hide to catch his breath, but the deeper he went inside the castle the more rooms he found to be occupied with creatures you normally see in the Everfree Forest.

Trying to find an empty room seem impossible to the man. Derrick had almost a determined fervor to him when he became frustrated at all of the unwelcoming occupants. Said occupants were quite aggressive if not deadly, but none of them dared to leave their nest and give chase this weakened prey, not when the Queen of Darkness passed by.

It was Nightmare Moon who broke the silence, calling out to her human. "Derrick, stop running this instant and calm down. You're only making things worse for yourself. This castle is bound to fall any given minute if we stay any longer. Please, I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to protect you."

Derrick did not slow down. He simply looked backed and exchanged a look that was mixed with fear and anger. Both were very clear in his eyes, making the alicorn frown deeper in spite of the circumstances. Although being a grown man on the run, clearly he was still relegated, only by Nightmare Moon, to the "child" perspective for his lack of listening.

It was difficult to keep herself in check and her powers at bay with Nightmare Moon's sense of humor disappearing throughout the night.

"I should have explained myself in the beginning," Nightmare Moon confided in a loud whisper. "I cannot touch with him magic, but maybe I can get in the way of his path."

Just as she darted around the next cornered, Derrick took in a large breath and ducked his head to avoid the wooden support beams that already broke apart. He hadn't expected the castle to be this damaged, to be a large dump. He was used to seeing houses that have little to no hope in reconstruction, but this one took the cake.

The darkness ahead signaled the human, his hopes growing as the dark alicorn cursed for the support beams blocking her path. He smiled and chose to take his chances in the blackness, approaching the first room that is completely shrouded in this blinding darkness. Objects fell as he pushed inside in an attempt to coat himself in the darkness. Once he did, however, he was completely blind and hidden from the alicorn.

He lowered his head behind what he felt to be tables and chairs and covered his mouth with his hand, listening to the sound of Nightmare Moon's voice in the echoing halls as they drifted with a strange atmosphere of danger. Derrick, however, did not notice this strange atmosphere around himself, not even the peril of him sitting on a floor that is close to giving in from under his weight. Not that he was fast, but rather the fact of a thousand years wearing the foundation down to its core.

He looped his arm around a bar—a secret lever, maybe?—and looked up to the alicorn's horn shining into the darkness. In the midst of this, he heard many familiar voices trailing behind her, voices he remembered in an instant.

"Derrick, please come out," Nightmare Moon whispered. She sounded so scared at the moment, so worried for him, but that could not be right. She was the monster that tried to bring eternal night to Equestria, so it had to be a façade for luring him out. It just had to be, right? "Derrick, I am not here to hurt you. Please, let me help you before those sun lovers find you. If they do they will take you back to Canterlot, and I do not want that."

"Derrick!" a very angelic said in the distance, one he knew all-too well. "Derrick, my beloved, please come out. It's not safe in here!"

"Derrick, we are sorry for what we did," added a panicking Luna. "Please cease this hiding and come back to us. We know you are angry and scared and you have every right to be, but know that we did not do what we did out of spite. We love you and want you to come back home with us, please!"

Celestia!? Derrick mentally screamed, his fear causing him to betray his own secrecy. His heart raced again and the sound of his breathing tripled in decibels, almost as if he was in a horror movie. No, not those assholes. How were they able to find me? Is it because of Nightmare Moon?"

Nightmare Moon heard his breath and reacted to it with a sharp turn of her head, her horn glowing brighter as the sounds of her enemies drew closer by the minute. She knew it would not be long before those monsters saw her. She knew she had to be quick, even if it meant forcing Derrick to go with her.

She entered the room, finding it to be Luna's old bedroom, something she remembered to be much cleaner than now; given the fact of this place being a desolate home in memory, something was still amuck, something the dark alicorn sensed to be closer than she wants.

"Derrick, is that you?" she said in a worried tone, discarding furniture after furniture with her magic. "Derrick, if you are in here you need to come out right now. Something is very wrong here. I feel a dark presence within these walls."

At once Derrick felt the light of her horn shine down upon the pile of he was hiding behind, darkness leaving him when the light licked him and the walls. He tried his best to stay quiet and think of a way to escape, but there was nowhere to run. Derrick realized that he had trapped in a room that has no doors and no windows, nothing but a stone-cold room that felt more like a prison. He felt oily and dirty, shaking his head repeatedly to deny the reality he is experiencing and remove the emotions out of his head. He swept a hand over his face and it came away very bloody. Tiny beads of blood began to pour from his nose and chin, realizing his running has left him slightly injured. Not a good thing at all. Nightmare Moon most likely sniffed the air and caught a whiff of the stench.

"Derrick, I can smell you," she managed to say. Dear god, he was right. "Stop hiding and come out right now, please. I do not want to force you to listen to my words."

Nightmare Moon pushed more debris from her long forgotten battle until her light shined in the shadows of her target, its brightness blinding the human as she pushed further to uncover all spaces. She was very determined to find Derrick before the others. To bring him back to her part of the world, safely. Most importantly...she could smell him. And this was not just any normal scent a predator finds in the midst of hunting—no, this was a very fresh scent. Derrick was near—Nay, he was so close, so close that she could almost taste his aroma.

"You are very close. I know from your scent." the dark alicorn whispered. She pushed another table aside and tossed the last chair out the window, her light shining directly upon the one she cannot lose again.

Nightmare Moon stopped dead in her tracks when Derrick's curled up form rested in her eyes. He was pale and weak from causes she cannot assess right now; at least not until they were out of danger. Still, there was the simple unbearable sight of his body having cuts, scrapes, and bruises running down his skin from all the running he performed. The deepest laceration was on his forehead, the wound all the way to the third layer of skin.

Blood only ran down his forehead, something he barely managed to comprehend in the midst of his fright. This only made things worse for the alicorn. She did not want this to happen. Not to see the one she cares about shaking in terror of her, all the while of allowing himself to puddle the floor with his own blood.

Goddess of the Night or not, even Nightmare Moon could not resist the sorrow that swelled behind her eyes. What did they do to you? she whispered in her mind, wings stretched to curl around him for comfort. Did they hurt you? Is this all from being in the Everfree Forest and running from me?

Silence continued to pass between the human and the human, almost as if death was about to take a life. Nightmare Moon leaned down to the man, her approach causing him to curl harder against the corner. "Oh Derrick..."

"Leave me alone," Derrick told her in a very hateful tone. "You're all a bunch sick fucks that think of me as a monster. Just get the fuck away from me."

Nightmare Moon's gaze softened. "Derrick, I am not here to hurt you. I'm here to help you get away from Celestia and the others." she replied very lovingly. "I know that sounds impossible, but I really am here to help you leave those ponies behind."

Derrick sighed, wiped the blood from his mouth and looked up to the saddened alicorn before approaching rather abruptly with a powerful curl of his fist. The blood from his hand dripped as he expressed to her a mixture of sadness and a lost will to live. He was through lying onto the ground and hiding from his fears, and that was the problem—a huge one.

"Why can't you all take a hint?" he asked, tears running down his cheeks, mixing with the blood. "Why must it always resort to this for me to be left alone?"

Nightmare Moon knew that look very well, and she knew by those words what he meant. Her eyes widened as the floor began to crack from under his feet, its resistance finally giving out as she took a step back for her own protection. Oh no, he's so delusional that he's resorting to violence, and he doesn't realize that the floor is caving in.

"I just want to be left alone," Derrick said very threateningly, unaware that the stone was giving in. "I just want you all to—"

Nightmare Moon was about to interrupt him, but the sound of stone breaking from under Derrick's feet stopped both him and her in an instant. They looked down to see the foundation descending faster than their minds could process, taking the starving and mentally exhausted man to a plummet he does not want to experience.

Derrick looked back up to the alicorn and realized it was too late for him, taking into account he was falling to either his death or a very bad injury. Seconds of him falling became the loudest scream he has ever released in his entire life. It was loud enough to alarm every living thing in the castle and send the Mare in the Moon into a full-blown panic attack for his health.

"DERRICK!" Nightmare Moon screeched. Dust and debris fell with her human as he continued to scream. He looped around multiple structures to the castle as her form shrunk slightly in his eyes. He crashed and fell on wood and rock that held the lower caverns of the old castle, pain unlike anything he has felt in last week.

There were multiple yelps and screeches from the man, but the last one he gave off sent Nightmare Moon into overdrive. No, no, no. This can't be happening. This cannot be happening. He's got to be alive!"

Finally, after falling for what felt like minutes, Derrick landing hard on his back and yelped in the middle of having wood and small rock pile around him. He was lucky to have missed the large stuff; all of the rock and wood would have done damage or have killed him in an instant. Still, he had a very hard time breathing. Then again, he just had the wind knocked out of him.

Derrick curled up and moaned painfully, his spine bursting with long jolts of agony as the aching in one his legs increased one hundred fold. "Motherfucker...Dammit...Son...of a...bitch..."

"Derrick, Derrick, are you alright?" Nightmare Moon yelled. There was no answer at first, just the sound of rock rolling around and pebbling the floor. This made her terrified, very terrified. "Derrick, please say something. Say anything to let me know you are alright."

Derrick coughed in response, blood dripping from his mouth as the light from Nightmare Moon's horn beamed down to him. "...This...is all your...damn...fault."

"My fault?" she questioned annoyingly. Okay, even if he is injured, Nightmare Moon could not take such an accusation, although in some perspective it is her fault. She glared at the injured. "How the hay is it my fault that you fell into the cavern of the castle?"

"...Because you are...Nightmare Moon, and you chased me throughout the...forest," Derrick wheezed very loudly. Though he was injured and unable to stand, there was no logic in his words; even though she did chase him throughout the Everfree Forest, it was not his fault that he wandered into the castle without knowledge of its foundation failing. "Seriously...what the hell do...you want from me?"

"I warned you of the castle being unsafe, but you decided to keep hiding from me." Nightmare Moon said scathingly, before remembering how important it was to get to him. Finally she shook her head and groaned to relieve herself of the frustration. "Anyway, are you able to stand up? Does anything feel out of place or broken?"

"I don't know," he tried to move his legs but the right one to be shot with nigh unbearable pain, including his left arm. "Fuck, that hurts like a motherfucker!"

"What? What's wrong?"

"I think my arm and leg is broken. I can't move them."

Nightmare Moon took in a deep breath and collected her thoughts. She was almost back to her royal demeanor, almost in complete silence until the next moan from Derrick snapped her out of her worry. "Derrick, do not try to move. I am coming down there to get you. Just stay right where you are."

"No argument here," Derrick gave her a thumbs-up with his left hand. Thank the heavens, he was starting to realize her intentions were true. "Just be quick about it. I don't want to be down here for very long, not when the background is like Jeepers Creepers."

Nightmare Moon chuckled at his poor humor and began to charge her horn for more destruction of the castle. She did not have a choice in the matter of subtlety. Everything so far was going to Tartarus and time was of the essence. Celestia, Luna, and the Mane Six probably heard everything and are most likely running this way to see if Derrick was alright, so it was only logical to be quick with making the hole big enough for her to descend through. Unfortunately that meant more time had to be wasted in order to reach him, and doing so would only delay her more.

"Do you feel pain elsewhere?" Nightmare Moon asked as calmly as she could.

"Yeah...everywhere." Derrick chuckled, while rolling to his side to find a more comfortable spot. Currently, in his weakened state and position, he was not going anywhere, not anytime soon, so he might as well make conversation with the alicorn. What the worst that could happen with talking to her? He already lost everything when Twilight and the others tarnished his reputation with false accusations before killing him. "Why do you give such a damn about me? I thought you only desired eternal night and overruling Celestia."

Nightmare Moon continued moving debris. She did not stop, for there was too much at stake, and something around her was beginning to awaken, the same "something" she sensed earlier. "That was my purpose when I possessed Luna, but the Elements of Harmony destroyed the evil within me and gave me new life."

"How?"

"When Twilight and her friends split Luna and I apart, the elements destroyed the evil that I was and borrowed natural magic from the Everfree Forest to give me life. I was but a mere soul watching Luna regain her body when it all happened."

"Talk about having your life flash before your eyes." Derrick joked, but it was a poor joke at best, one that Nightmare Moon found to be slightly insulting.

"Anyway..." she continued, "The elements took the magic they borrowed from the plants and wildlife to construct my original form. Once that was done, I made haste to escape before those insufferable bastards could find me and make sure that I never exist. I fled Equestria and in do time found a place that inhabits ponies like me, ponies that are not evil yet still carry the reality of light and darkness carrying a sense of balance."

"Ponies like you?"

"Yes, ponies that live in light and darkness, but you will know more when I take you there."

"To your home?"

"Yes, but it is not just home...It is my kingdom, and I share the power with my sister and her husband." The last bit of debris was removed from the hole, thus giving the dark alicorn space to commence with the final step to reaching Derrick: Increasing the size of the hole. "But enough about my beginning; tell me what it is that made you flee from Celestia and Luna when they are so desperate to have you back?"

Derrick raised an eyebrow towards the mare, suspicious already. "You pointed out that I was running from them, so why ask me that when you should already know?"

"I know that you fled from your new home, but I do not know your reason for fleeing." Nightmare Moon clarified.

Things were starting to get mysterious, so much that it gave Derrick a migraine to go with his physical pain. "I ran away because they tried to kill me by using their power to amplify Celestia and Luna's magic, hoping to kill me, I think." He looked away in shame, anger imminent in his bloodshot eyes. "I'm not sure if that was their intention, but it felt like that to me."

Derrick went to add more about what happened at Canterlot when suddenly he was interrupted by a small noise to his right. His ears twitched at the noise, the same as Nightmare Moon's, and he gathered all of his remaining strength to sit up and see where it was coming from. What the hell was that just now?"

"Derrick, stop moving around or you'll hurt yourself more." Nightmare Moon scolded.

"It wasn't me," Derrick replied angrily, his eyes never leaving the direction of the noise. "I'm not sure what made that noise just now, probably some rock or wood?"

Nightmare Moon was going to agree to that, but her words stopped in the middle of her throat and swelled in fear of what she just felt. Her sense of danger returned stronger and more powerful than she recalled, its presence burning around her, almost as if the owner of this energy was directly above or...underneath her.

She'd learned from her experiences to keep her voice low and quiet in these kind of situation. To be silent, just like does when she wishes to avoid her friends and family. This presence, however, alarmed her very quickly with its dark and ominous nature drawing in as she gaped the hole with her magic.

As the seconds went one, Derrick became more adept with his conscience assessing the cause of said noise, telling him that it was not a rock or piece of wood that fell. He could hear clearly and see through the terrible darkness a creature's eyes, hissing in temptation to eat, trying to invoke pure terror for the thrill of finding easy prey.

Terror gripped him. Fright. Absolute dear. There was no way to deny what he was feeling as the creature dripped saliva with anticipation. His eyes dilated even more, almost as black as the darkness around him. He took a deep breath and proceeded to scoot back, reaching into his body for adrenaline to shoot through his veins like venom from a poisonous snake.

The burst of pain was sheer agony. His body went rigid with each movement. Convulsed. The air he inhaled was driven from his lungs in one loud screech from the monstrous creature prowling him. He could not think, the fear and pain turning every nerve ending to fire and every thought to one sentence.

"Nightmare Moon...get down here now." he demanded calmly, his words somehow enticing the monster's hunger greatly.

Nightmare Moon looked down the hole again, only to see her human pressed against the debris pile that was made in his fall. Still, she could feel that something was very wrong with Derrick. He never demanded from others to do a single thing for him; there was never a dull moment where he ordered someone. It was always kindness that came from his mouth when he needed something done. It was always a request.

"Derrick, what's wrong?" she asked in a fearful tone. "Is there something down there with you?"

The creature stepped into the light, its features too disgusting for Derrick to properly explain. It hissed and screeched at him like it had won a battle with its next meal.

"Yes, and it's looking at me!" Derrick screamed at the top of his lungs. "Nightmare Moon get down here right now!"

Nightmare Moon saw the beast and gasped. She knew not of its species but clearly sensed its intention to eat her human. "Hang on, I'm coming!"

"No, no hanging on," Derrick yelled. "Get your ass down here right now!"

The creature lowered its head and began to trot towards Derrick, as did Nightmare Moon begin to rip through the debris like paper.

"Get down here!" Derrick backed into the pil at this moment. He was trapped between the creature and the pile, unable to reach for anything or see an exit. "Nightmare Moon, get the fuck down here. Get your sexy ass down here now!"

"I'm coming, Derrick, just hang on." she yelled in return, but there was no hanging on, no form or method of patience. The beast was almost upon Derrick with its teeth flickering from muscle control, readying to stretch and engulf him in one bite. Darn it, I cannot teleport to him. The cavern is too narrow!

"GET DOWN HERE NOW!" Derrick began to panic. The screeching from said creature grew louder, stretching across the castle as an ear splitting tune. "GET DOWN HERE. GET DOWN HERE. GET DOWN HERE. GET DOWN HERE RIGHT FUCKING NOW!"

When the monster came close to Derrick, the Mare in the Moon removed the last remaining piece that hung in her way and dove into the hole without spreading her wings. She was not worried about herself. Her body can take long falls without receiving a scratch, and Derrick was too valuable of a man to be allowed to die at the hooves of an unknown creature.

"GET DOWN HERE, PLEEEAAASE!" Derrick began to scream madly at the monster. He kicked and swung at it with his good arm and leg as she grazed bits and pieces of the hole with her body.

Nightmare Moon thrust herself to the ground, between Derrick and the screeching beast. She raised her head and instantly unleashed the fury of her power in beams of burning darkness, protecting her human with all her might. It still did not change the fact that this thing is real and preying her human, and that in turn made it very difficult for the alicorn to contain her rage.

"You will not lay a hoof on My Derrick!" she roared in what seemed to be her Royal Voice. She lowered her head and dragged her hoof across the dirt as a warning sign for the monster. "If you dare touch him I will bucking kill you with my bare hooves!"

Derrick was going to tell Nightmare Moon to kill it and be done, but his words stopped short. He suddenly felt a large force impact the top of his head and steal his ability to stay awake. Though he could not look away or move to see what just hit him, there was no mistake as to the blunt force that hit him. A rock or a large piece of lumber had to have fallen from somewhere.

He fell to his side in a dazed fashion, but unlike most people—or ponies in this case— his unconscious state was very quick and painless.

Before he could blink and see conflict unfold between Nightmare Moon and the beast...he blacked out.