A Terrible Joke.

“No luck here, let’s move on.” a pegasus royal guard told his two companions. With that the trio took to the skies to continue their sweep of the area. After they were gone there was a slight rustling from a bush not far from where the guards had just been.

Suddenly, a unicorn mare with a dark blue coat stepped out of hiding.

“Foals, I thought they would never leave. But that was close, I’d best move on. I can’t get captured before I can have my revenge.” Nightmare Moon said. She had been free of that weakling Luna and her little pet unicorn for no more than a day before the first patrols had started. She had expected something like this, she was one of the greatest evils to threaten Equestria in recent history after all.

“Alright, For now I need to find someplace where I can safely start planning how to take care of those pests in Ponyville.” with that Nightmare Moon began walking once again into the woods. What she needed was someplace that nopony would look at twice. Caves were automatically out, if the ponies chasing her saw any caves, it would be obvious to think she was hiding in it. She couldn’t chance sleeping out in the open either. As much as she was loath to admit it, separating herself from Luna and then Teleporting such a distance away from the town had left her with very little magical energy, she wouldn’t be able to escape, let alone fight.

“What is left for possible shelter? My best bet would probably be finding something close to my coat color that looks natural, but that could be a problem.” Annoyance was evident in Nightmare Moon’s voice. She looked around her, scanning between the trees for any dark shades of blue or black. She saw something off to her left, and hurried to it to get a better look at it.

Before her was a field of dark blue plants.

“Aha! If I lay down and cover myself with these plants I should be almost unnoticeable.” Nightmare Moon exclaimed. She looked up, the sky visible through the trees telling her it was almost night. The search for today was likely about to go home or at least switch shifts.

Nightmare Moon wanted to stay up through the night that she love, but decided that resting while she had the chance was more important.

“I may need to be able to cast at least a few spells tomorrow, and the only way that is happening is with rest.” Nightmare Moon reasoned. She walked into the patch of flowers and laid down, the tops of the flowers now near level with her barrel. Using a small amount of the power she did have at the moment to move some of the flowers in a way that hid most of her. Now mostly safe, Nightmare Moon drifted off to sleep.

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When Nightmare Moon awoke, something felt… off.

‘I don’t remember the grass being quite this tall when I went to sleep’ Nightmare Moon thought. Opening her eyes, she saw that the grass had indeed gotten taller.

“What type of grass is thi-” She cut herself off before she could finish. The voice that had come from her mouth hadn’t been her voice. Instead it was the voice of,

“A FILLY!” Nightmare Moon squeaked out in a high pitched voice while looking at her now tiny body.

“Hey, I think I heard something from over there, let’s check it out.” a gruff voice said from somewhere alarmingly close. The sound of hoofsteps and breaking twigs told Nightmare Moon that multiple ponies were coming right toward her position.

‘This is bad, I still don’t have enough magic to teleport away. I have to stay still and hope they just walk past me.’ Nightmare Moon thought, now thanking her small form for the ease with which she could hide in this grass. The hoofsteps had to be at the edge of the clearing by now, but they stopped short.

“Hey don’t go any closer! Don’t you know what that stuff is? That’s poison joke, you so much as tough that stuff and who knows what will happen to you” A smooth voice explained.

“But what about that noise I heard, Nightmare Moon could be here right now!” the gruff voice argued back.

“I doubt that anypony would willingly walk into poison joke, especially not somepony as dangerous as Nightmare Moon, besides she probably would have heard us and cleared out.” the smooth voiced one explains.

‘Little do you know just how much walking into this stuff has suddenly helped me keep out of your grasp.’ Nightmare Moon thought to herself.

“Look if it makes you feel any better we can quickly go report in and say that we heard suspicious activity around here, maybe get a search party set up to see if we can find anything” the smooth voiced pony said. A sigh, and then

“Alright, but only because I don’t want to touch this poison joke stuff. Let’s get back double time so that we can get that perimeter set up.” The pony with the gruff voice said, with that the two started running off to rendezvous with whomever was in charge of tracking Nightmare Moon down.

After she was sure that one else was around, Nightmare Moon crawled out of the plants, now revealed as poison joke.

“Well, it seems this poison joke is actually helpful in certain circumstances. I should be able to get around easier as well because I’m smaller.” Nightmare Moon reasoned. With that she left the patch of poison joke, intent of being long gone by the time that those ponies would get back.

“Now, if all goes well I should be back up to full strength within a week. I need to formulate my plan of attack. I can’t afford to fail this time. This time the night will last... “ Nightmare Moon trailed off.

“But, why do I want it to in the first place?” She asks. She comes to a stop for a second, before shaking her head violently and continuing on her way.

“It doesn’t matter why, It is what I was born to do… right?”

Author's Notes:

To start off, no this will not become a Nyx story. I love Past Sins and I have made jokes referencing it in some of the early chapters. But this story will not have Nightmare Moon becoming Nyx. I just thought of poison joke randomly as Nightmare Moon has no experience with it. The part of her turning into a filly was drawing from the idea of Nyx, but she will be returning to her original form before anything happens with between her and Twilight and Luna.

Second, I basically had this chapter done yesterday but couldn't upload it because I wrote it on my phone for the most part and didn't get to my computer until after work. I got out a lot later than anticipated and just wanted to sleep, so it is being uploaded today.

Again I hope this chapter is good, I think I have a pretty good idea for where I want the story to go but I want to make sure I actually do a good job making an interesting story.