After having a long conversation with Healthy Hope, Nightmare Moon kept to her word. Instead of dropping Hope from the sky and letting her plummet to her death, Nightmare took her to City Hall, and tied her to the lightning rod on top. If Hope was lucky, she would be able to get loose and climb down on her own. If not, she would either be stuck there until some other ponies found her, or slip and fall, breaking a couple bones when she hit the ground. Or she might just freeze to death.

Nightmare Moon had learned disappointingly little. Other than a name, Hope knew pretty much nothing about Grogar. She had never met with them directly. All of the orders she and the other ponies got had come through a donkey by the name of Bray. She did not know anything about what was happening in The Crystal Empire. She did not know why they wanted Nightmare's blood, only that they wanted to keep Nightmare alive in case they needed to get more. Yes she knew about the theft of The Alicorn Amulet, but no she did not know why it was taken.

If Hope was any sort of indication, Grogar tried to keep ponies from knowing too much about what he was up to. Not exactly good enough to keep a pony from figuring out at least large portions of it, but enough to keep the whole picture from being put together.

Nightmare Moon figured that Grogar wanted to use the ritual to bring the shadow creature into the physical world. She could also guess what it wanted, to take over Equestria. With Ponyville being attacked, it was probably already free and working toward its goal. Hopefully Nightmare could figure out a way to stop it, or at least slow it down until one of the princesses arrive.

Maybe she would not need help. Maybe the shadow creature was not actually free yet for some reason. Maybe she could stop Grogar and prevent the ritual from happening, leaving that creature trapped wherever it was hiding in the dream realm.

And maybe Rainbow Dash would come flying out of her vagina and perform a Sonic Rainboom.

Reaching the hill that she had been directed to, Nightmare Moon circled above and studied it. As she had been told, there was a large dark blue tent set up at the top. Surrounding it were at least four ponies, each facing a different direction.

Suddenly, there was movement. One of the ponies was running around the tent to where another still stood, while the other two took off, flying up toward her.

Seeing them coming, Nightmare Moon started to climb. She was going to need a way to either defeat or lose them. In both cases, her best chance was to get them up into the clouds. Her sight would be limited, but so would theirs. There being two of them would be less helpful since they would either need to keep close to each other or call out to keep in contact, but she did not have to do either of those.

Slowing down, she pushed into the clouds. The idea was to sink into them and have them close around her instead of bursting through. That would allow her to hide inside the clouds, making it all the more difficult to be seen.

Although it was possible in theory, she had never tried it before. When it came to clouds, Nightmare either tried to bust through them, or pass through and land on top to stand on them. So this would be her first attempt at moving inside the clouds, and it was in a rather dire situation.

It was not an easy thing to do. Sometimes she would thrust up too hard and wind up above the clouds, or she would end up pushing them away from her, leaving a gap. Other times, she would not push hard enough, and start to slip down out of the cover.

It was during one of these moments that she noticed something. Her plan was not working. One pegasus was flying above the clouds, looking down at them. The other was flying upside down below them, mirroring the movements. They were not moving through the cloud, so it did not hinder them, and they would catch her if she went above or below.

She was going to have to try something else.

Shifting, Nightmare Moon moved to turn over, just beneath the surface of the clouds. With her dark coat, it should be enough for her to keep hidden from the pegasus' view, but allow her to see out when he passed over. Silently, she prayed to the celestial bodies above that it would work.

Turns out that when not moving, the cloud would hold her about where she had settled herself, neither trying to push her up nor make her sink down. That at least was in her favor.

As the upper pegasus got closer, Nightmare slowly took a deep breath and held it. Her body tensed as she waited, watching him move closer and closer. Once she thought that he was in the right position, she kicked out with one of her hind legs. Her hooves drove into the pegasus' stomach, causing him to let out a "whuff" as the air was knocked from her lungs. She then lunged forward, slamming her head into the stallion's jaw.

Nightmare Moon had never read a story where a character attempted to use a headbutt to take out an opponent. She knew of stories where such techniques were used, but she had never happened to come across one. It was also something that she had never bothered to do any research on. There were probably some tips and suggestions on how to do such in unarmed combat manuals, but that was something she had no interest in.

A fact she would be regretting at the moment if she were thinking about it.

As intended, Nightmare managed to strike the pegasus on the chin with enough force to cause his head to snap backwards. Unfortunately, she was not immediately aware of the fact. As her head struck the stallion's, a blinding white hot pain filled her skull, blocking out everything around her for a split-second. As the flare subsided, her head throbbed and ached. It felt like it was going to last for a while.

From what she could make out, the attack had worked. The pegasus was lying sprawled out backwards on the clouds. His chest rose and fell in a steady pattern, a faint wheezing sound marking each time he exhaled.

As he laid there unconscious, an idea came to Nightmare Moon. If she kicked a hole into the clouds, she could drop the pegasus through it. If he was lucky, he would wake up as he plummeted and manage to save himself from hitting the ground. Better yet, his ally might catch sight and catch him, keeping the two of them temporarily out of the way. Alternatively, doing so would mean giving her position away. Plus she had no idea how long until the second pegasus noticed this one was missing.

Choosing the plan that required the less time in one spot, Nightmare Moon once again took off, flying back toward the hill.

A quick pass-over showed nothing different from what she had seen before. There were still only two guards standing outside, both on the same side (presumably the entrance). But what kind? If they were earth ponies, she would be safe until she landed. However, if they were unicorns, they could very well used ranged magic attacks on her.

With a deep breath, Nightmare shot toward the hill. As she went, she began to bob and weave, moving up, down, and side to side. She even tried to twist and turn as well as change her speed, but that took a little too much concentration. She was just going to have to keep to the weaving and hope that it was enough to help her dodge any blasts directed toward her.

None ever came.

Nightmare was actually a little disappointed.

Coming in closer, she noticed that the two on the ground were watching her. It turned out only one of them was a pony, a unicorn stallion that was wearing an eyepatch and glaring at Nightmare. The other was not actually a pony, but a donkey that was currently wearing a bright red peasant cap. They two of them watched her land, but did not move to attack her.

"Not going to try anything?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We were told not to," the donkey said, and Nightmare recognized the voice. The same voice that had been giving orders from the shadows.

"And you should consider yourself lucky," the unicorn stallion growled. Reaching up, he rubbed at the cheek beneath the eyepatch.

Nightmare smirked.

"Why? Were you planning on... blind-siding me?" Her smirk grew wider as she made sure to draw attention to her fangs.

The stallion bared his teeth and let out a growl, ears pulling back.

"For what you did to me and Hope, I should tear off half of your face!"

"I was defending myself!" Nightmare yelled back. "Since it seems you have forgotten, it was you who attacked me first!"

"We weren't going to hurt you!"

"No!" Nightmare rolled her eyes. "Just throw a net over me, knock me out, stab me with a needle and steal my blood." She moved forward, her nose almost touching his. "Look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing in my place, cyclops!"

"Enough!" the donkey cut in. "Dream, let it go. Grogar wants to see her, and he doesn't like to be kept waiting."

Dream whatever (or maybe it was whatever Dream) let out a snort, his hot breath blasting Nightmare in the face. He then took a step back, moving away from Nightmare. His eye kept on her, glaring.

Stepping past him, Nightmare straightened up. She raised her head as high as she could, nose pointing up into the air. Her wings gave a quick flicker as she walked before settling against her sides. After nearly getting past the unicorn, she whipped her tail, slapping him on the flank with it. She would have liked to seen his reaction, but turning to look back at him would ruin the effect.

Entering the tent, Nightmare Moon found a large mountain goat standing there. He was taller then her by a head, and proportionally as broad as Big Macintosh, with a dark, blue-gray coat. Large black horns curled back from his head, and glowing red eyes stared out from underneath bushy white eyebrows.

"How nice to meet you in the flesh," he said.

The sound of the goat's voice caused Nightmare Moon to freeze, eyes going wide. Her mouth dropped open as she stared at him. Her mind was reeling. A part of her wanted to scream that it was impossible. She knew that was not the case. She had known what was likely to happen. Now that she was facing it -- facing it -- she could not believe it.

"You," she managed to croak out. "You were the shadow creature underneath the castle."

In response, he grinned at her. A familiar purple light engulfed his horns.

"That is correct," Grogar stated. "And now that I am free--"

Guessing what was coming, Nightmare Moon lunged to one side. Unfortunately it was not fast enough. The blast of magic struck her square in the chest, knocking her through the wall of the tent.

"-- you are no longer necessary."

There was an audible crack as Nightmare hit the ground, followed by a blast of pain in her wing before entire back went numb. She rolled several times, but was unable to count how many. Each time, she felt something else hit the ground hard. Strangely, she felt it less and less.

Finally Nightmare's tumble came to an end, leaving her looking up at the cloudy sky as snow fell around her. Shadows creeped at the edges of her vision. Her chest felt strange. It was cold -- but not the cold of the weather -- and felt like something slimy was stuck to it. Looking at it, she saw a large red spot with charring around the edges. Did she smell burning hair? Cooked meat? Maybe she was imagining it because of what she saw.

Her head felt heavy. Too heavy to keep up. She let it flop back into the ground, looking up toward the sky again.

I wish it was a clear night. She reached up with one hoof. I would love to see the moon again.

Something wet ran from her eyes and down face. Tears? Was she crying? Probably.

It was like she could feel her heart beating in her chest. It seemed to do so slower... and slower... with each beat a little softer and gentler than the previous.

The darkness around the edge of her vision moved closer and closer. Soon, all she could see was a single snowflake floating down toward her before that too faded to black.