Chapter XVI

Nightmare Moon awakens, and then springs upwards from where she lays. Two ice spikes slam into the ground where she used to be. She sparks electricity through her wings and spins upwards while sending lightning cascading downwards around her.

Baelor pulls up short from his charge and slides over the ground on his flank, hurling more spears of ice upwards, only for them to be obliterated by the lightning. Lightning slams into the ground around him but he manages to erect a roof of ice over himself before he’s struck.

Nightmare slashes her wing and a blade of air sails down towards the ice. The dragon underneath dashes out from underneath his shelter right before it’s cut in half by the wind-blade.

Nightmare Moon sparks her wings again for another lightning strike, and Baelor launches himself into the air up after her with a booming kick off the ground. She lashes out with her wings in the same instant that Baelor stretches out his pointed claw, and the air ignites with the boom of a bolt of concentrated plasma.

Baelor’s body sparks from being hit with her attack, but he stretches out his other clawed hand behind him, and the lightning surges out from it in blinding a strip of electrical current.

Nightmare Moon’s eyes widen, and she hastily concentrates a constant current of voltage over the surface of her feathers and blocks a strike from Baelor’s lightning-whip, the plasma instead transferring to her wings instead of dealing damage.

Baelor swings the whip around his body, the lightning crackling as it whirls blindingly around his body, and halfway through Nightmare notices that he’s created a second whip in his other claw.

She backwings away from his whips’ reach, and blocks his strikes with her wings when they manage to extend out farther from his swinging pattern.

Nightmare narrows her eyes, there is a pattern. Suddenly, she darts in past Baelor’s whips and brings her burning wings to bear against him.

Baelor’s arms snap out to his sides, and Nightmare’s wings follow suit, flying away from his neck and arresting her forward movement. Nightmare snarls and swings her hind legs forward and slam them into his stomach. He grunts as he’s knocked away from her, his whips disappearing and freeing her wings.

Nightmare flares her wings and regains her flight, but then feels a wet tendril wrap around her hind leg before Baelor pulls her down with him.

Nightmare flaps her wings and manages to fly back upwards, throwing Baelor off balance in mid-dive, and then slashes through the water-whip that’s wrapped around her leg.

A blue shard hits her wing, and then suddenly, her wing is frozen in a thick block of ice.

Nightmare’s eyes widen in surprise, then flinches when Baelor darts back up at her. Acting on reflex, Nightmare twists her body around as she falls and fires off a bolt of lightning in his direction.

Baelor caught the lightning on the tips of his claws and redirected it to fire off at the ground beneath them all the while he closes the distance between them.

In a single fluid motion, Nightmare flips her wing upward, and then down from the motion she struck out with her lightning, and slams Baelor with a blast of air that catches him in the face, and sends him crashing into the ground below them in less than a second, causing the dust of the moon to erupt from where he crashed.

Nightmare, meanwhile, falls down to the moon’s surface while struggling to slow her fall with one wing. She manages to turn her body around and slams into the ground on all four hooves, straining her legs from the impact.

Nightmare Moon takes the single moment of reprieve to bash the ice encasing her wing, and manages to free it from its cold confines after the third blow.

And then Baelor tears through the cloud of dust with a snarl, red energy encasing his claws.

Nightmare ignites her horn with magic and encases her wings with lightning and meets Baelor halfway, locking together with claws to wings, and wing-talons to horn.

Nightmare Moon grunts from the force of their clash. “I… am no longer… afraid of you.” She strains to say through clenched teeth.

Baelor takes a breath through his nose, and then exhales.“… Liar.”

They break apart and then rush back. Nightmare slashes with her wings and horn, lightning and magic both slashing out at the dark dragon, and Baelor meets each slash with one of his own.

“Oh, so the beast finally speaks after all this time! I was beginning to think you’d gone feral after so long without words!” Nightmare spits out between attacks. She sidesteps, and backs away from a spinning attack of claws as Baelor flips forward and strikes out with his feet and talons on all six limbs.

Baelor blocks with his right claw and talon combine from a wing-slash with sparks flying off from their collision. “You’re one to talk about being a feral beast. Have you already forgotten which one of us tried to kill her sister and practically killed her cellmate over and over again for shits and giggles?” Baelor growls back. He gets kicked back and rolls with his momentum and deflects a stab of magical energy from her horn.

“I’m not the only one who did the latter of those two! You’ve turned into a monster! One that would be hated and feared infinitely more than I if those down on the world below knew of what you’ve done!” Nightmare Moon hisses angrily at him. She lunges in with her horn.

Her attack gets deflected upwards from an kick from Baelor’s glowing hind foot, and she is blasted back from Baelor when he flows into a palm strike that unleashes a pulse of fear through her soul.

“I am what you made me!” Baelor roars at her. The red energy of fear encompasses his entire body, his eyes glow red, and his crimson-glowing claws warp and distort the air around them.

Nightmare Moon skids to a stop on her hooves, and she focuses her magic into its most intense form. Lightning surges up past her wings over her entire body, and the magic of her horn does the same, the lightning coursing over her body transforming into an intense dark-blue glow over her entire being.

They launch themselves at each other with pure, hate-filled screams.

Luna jerks awake with a gasp. She breaths heavily as her heart beats furiously in her chest. Eventually though, she manages to calm down. Or at least as calm as she’s going to get until the memories of the nightmare fade from her mind.

‘I am what you made me!’ Baelor’s roar reverberates through her mind.

Luna slowly drops her head into her fore hooves, and simply sits there in her bed as she waits for the end of the night.

Celestia takes a deep breath before re-reading the letter she just received from her student.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Baelor is missing!!!

I don’t know what happened! Rarity said that yesterday she wanted to get a look at his uniform that he kept in his bag, and then once he left it with her to reference for his Gala outfit, he walked out of her boutique. And that’s the last time anypony’s seen any sign of him! He didn’t come back to the library after that, and none of the girls have seen him around town. It’s like he just up and vanished!

I’m so sorry that I have to trouble you with this, but I’m really worried about him and so is everypony else. We don’t know where he’s gone and we don’t know where to look! Please, can you help us at all with the search?

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle

Celestia furrows her brows in thought, then picks up a quill in her magic. She brings out a scroll and begins writing.

Dear Twilight,

Don’t panic. While I understand that you are worried about Baelor, he is also more than capable of handling himself. I’m sure that he is fine. One thousand years ago, he was prone to wandering off into the wilderness in order to run, fly, and generally stay active, so I believe he may have simply slept outside yesterday. He tended to stay out anywhere between a few hours to a few days, so I would recommend you simply sit tight and wait to see if he returns.

If it helps you to understand how to think about this situation, think of Baelor as a sort of puppy (Please don’t tell him I made that comparison of him) that you found in the woods.

Don’t fret. He’ll come back home when he’s run himself out.

Your Teacher,

Celestia

Celestia rolls up her scroll and sends it off to her student. However, her face doesn’t reflect the reassurance that she wrote to Twilight about. Instead, she’s thinking.

‘It isn’t like Baelor to leave without letting anypony know though. Perhaps she’s right to be worried…’ Celestia thinks to herself.

Taking a deep breath, Celestia grabs another scroll, but this one is darker and looks much more worn down. Unrolling it, she picks up her quill again and begins writing another letter.

Proditor,

I would like to request that you head to the town of Ponyville at your earliest convenience. While I am uncertain whether it is serious, a Prospective has gone missing. I would like for you to search for him, and if he is imperiled, please aid him.

His name is Baelor and he is a black dragon with yellow stripes, and yellow eyes, and is roughly the same height as yourself to give you a general description.

Seek the aid of the local townsfolk if you must but be discreet. And should you find him and he is well and returning to the town, or simply spending time away from the town, then alert me to it. You may remain inconspicuous or reveal yourself to him if you so choose. I know how you tend to be with Prospectives.

-C

After finishing her letter, Celestia picks up a candle from her nightstand and lights it with a small spark. Instead of fire burning at the tip of the wick, a black, ghostly wisp erupts into being at the tip of the candle.

Celestia holds the candle to the parchment, and the words written on it are engulfed in black flame. After a moment of the black fire burning on the surface of the parchment, it goes out, and the words are nowhere to be seen on the scroll.

Princess Celestia blows out the candle, and then rolls up the scroll again before setting them both in their original places. Then she sighs.

‘I wonder what Luna is doing?’ She wonders, standing up to raise the sun.

“Please take care of my duties for today.”

Luna’s clone nods before turning to walk out of her room to do just that.

Luna, disguised as Starflight, then leaps off her balcony and flies towards Ponyville. It only takes her a few minutes to reach the town this time, since she’s not flying around erratically doing stunts of whim and fancy.

Luna lands in the quaint town and begins walking towards the restaurant she and Ditzy ate at yesterday.

*clang* “Oof!”

Luna stops in puzzlement from the voice. Looking up, she’s met with a face-full of gray, and then is flattened to the ground.

“Ugh. Dang it! Every day that same pole!” Luna hears a voice on top of her say.

“Urmph. Ditzy?” Luna guesses as to who’s on top of her.

“Eep!” Ditzy hops off of her. “Oh, I’m so sorry Star! I didn’t mean to crash into you!” Ditzy exclaims. She helps Luna up.

“What happened?” Luna asks her, accepting her helping hoof.

Ditzy groans. “What usually happens. My eyes drifted while I was flying and I didn’t see that pole til’ I crashed into it.” She answers, annoyed.

Luna looks up and sees the light pole Ditzy is talking about. “Are you alright?” Luna asks her, concerned.

Ditzy snorts in amusement. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that since, you know, I landed on you?” She asks back.

“But you crashed headfirst into a metal beam while flying. So are you alright?” Luna repeats her question.

“Yeah, I’m fine. This happens a lot so I’m used to bumps and scrapes every now and then. It only turns into a bad day when I end up hurting somepony else with my accidents.” Ditzy murmurs the last part.

Luna winces in sympathy. “Regardless, that does not sound enjoyable. Have you attempted to find help of some kind?” Luna asks.

Ditzy shakes her head. “I’ve gotten myself examined a couple times to figure out what the problem is. But the doctors just say that it’s the muscles in my eyes falling asleep every now and then. It’s just a quirk of my body that would cost way too much to fix a really minor but hard-to-reach problem. It wouldn’t really have that big of a payoff after they’re fixed anyways.” Ditzy explains.

At Luna’s look of concern Ditzy waves a hoof dismissively. “Seriously, it’s fine. It’s not that bad, all things considered.” She tells her.

“If you are sure…” Luna concedes.

“So, now that you’re here. Let’s go get lunch!” Ditzy says happily.

Luna chuckles. “Very well. Let’s.” She agrees.

Twilight lets out a small sigh, still lost in thought over Celestia’s letter.

“Well? What do you all think?” Rarity asks them.

“Hm? Oh, it looks fantastic Rarity. I love it.” Twilight answers automatically, only really glancing at her dress.

The silence that encompasses the room is enough to snap her out of her thoughts, and she looks around her to see all the girls staring at her.

“Is something wrong?” Twilight asks them.

“Twilight dear, are you sure you like your dress? That answer was a little… lackluster.” Rarity asks her. “If you don’t like it, I can tweak it or even do it over to get it to how you want.” She offers.

“What? No, Rarity it’s not- *sigh*, I’m sorry. I’m just not really able to focus right now. I’m just worried about where Bael is.” Twilight explains.

“Why? Didn’t the princess say that he did this often?” Rainbow Dash asks her.

“Well, yeah but… I’m still worried about him. What if he runs into danger wherever he’s at?” Twilight asks the others.

“Sugarcube, I know you’re worried about the big fella. But he’s also been through his fair share of scrapes, and he’s got a level enough head on his neck to steer clear of unnecessary risks. He can take care of himself just fine.” Applejack reassures her.

“Unlike others.” Trixie says, shooting a pointed look at Rainbow.

“Hey!” Rainbow exclaims.

“Not to mention that his one weakness is still here in Ponyville!” Pinkie exclaims.

Everypony looks at Pinkie strangely. “Um, his weakness?” Flutter shy asks

“Twilight’s magic!” Pinkie chirps.

Twilight face-hooves while everypony giggles at Twilight’s expense, but she smiles with them regardless.

Twilight sighs. “Alright. I guess you’re all right. Baelor’s a grown dragon, and can make his own decisions. I shouldn’t be stressing myself out with worry as if he’s a baby dragon like Spike.” Twilight admits.

“We’re not saying not to worry about him, darling.” Rarity says, putting a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s only natural to be worried for your friends when you aren’t sure what is going on with them. But yes, he is grown and capable. He took on another grown dragon to keep us all safe for Celestia’s sake.” She says.

“Wasn’t he, like, five seconds away from getting flattened like a pancake by the time Fluttershy stopped it?” Rainbow points out.

“Trixie, would you mind?” Rarity asks.

Trixie salutes, grabs a nearby ball of yarn in her magic, and shoves it into Rainbow’s mouth.

“Thank you darling.” Rarity tells Trixie.

“My pleasure.” Trixie answers with an evil grin.

“Anyway, as I was saying. Worrying about him is fine, but as his friends we need to acknowledge his capability to take care of himself.” Rarity says to Twilight.

“And who knows, he might be on a crazy awesome adventure saving a distant kingdom from a dark overlord right now as we speak and will pop out of nowhere from shenanigans with time travel and an awesome story!” Pinkie says enthusiastically.

“Pinkie Pie, ah’m pretty sure he’s not just going to pop up out of nowhere-.” Applejack begins.

A wide, black, pulsating hole in the air appears in the middle of the room and Baelor falls forward out of it and lands on his chin with a grunt of pain. The portal closes behind him.

Everypony stares.

“…But ah’ve been wrong before.” Applejack adds with wide eyes.

“Bael?!” Twilight exclaims in surprise.

“Ugh, hey girls. Sorry for being gone so long.” Bael says while standing up.

“What the buck was that?!” Twilight asks, pointing a hoof at where the portal was.

“That… is an explanation that will take a while.” He answers, glancing at the spot the portal was in.

“*Pteh* well we’ve got time. We weren’t in the middle of anything important when you dropped in.” Rainbow tells him, spitting the ball of yarn into her hooves.

“Rainbow, I brought you all over here to look at your dresses.” Rarity reminds her.

“Like I said. Nothing important.” Rainbow smirks at Rarity.

Rarity lets out a gasp of offense, and then angrily shoves the yarn back into Rainbow’s mouth with her magic.

Baelor chuckles in amusement. “Well, if you’re all sure you’ve got time, then I guess it’s story time.” Bael says with a grin.

“Whee! Yay! Story time!” Pinkie cheers.

“Heh, yeah. Anyway, to start things off, do you all remember that guy named Azure I brought over to meet all of you after that stuff with Zecora happened?” Baelor asks them.

“Thank you again Ditzy, I enjoyed the meal once again, and I’m glad we took the time to do this.” Luna thanks the gray pegasus mare.

“Heh, no problem Starflight. This place always sells great food, but it’s a bit depressing to eat at a restaurant alone so I don’t come here that often. But with you here it makes it perfect. It also helped that I didn’t have to pay for it.” Ditzy remarks with a smirk.

Luna chuckles. “Yes, and thank you for letting me pay you back in this way. It didn’t feel right to make you pay for everything yesterday.” Luna says.

“Well, that’s what friends do. We pay for stuff for our friends and they do it right back to us. We should do this again sometime Star.” Ditzy says.

“Indeed we should. Perhaps tomorrow, same time?” Luna asks.

“Heck yeah! We might even be able to make this a regular thing!” Ditzy suggests, smiling wider from the thought.

“Perhaps we shall. But I believe it will be your turn to pay tomorrow, just as a reminder.” Luna points out.

“Aw, darn! What-ever shall I do to be able to afford two whole sandwiches!” Ditzy says with an exaggerated and off-key voice on every other word for a very comedic effect. Luna arches a brow and chuckles at her friend’s antics.

“Well, I had better get going. Goodbye Ditzy, see you tomorrow.” Luna says, taking to the air and waving.

“Goodbye Starflight!” Ditzy warbles, sticking her tongue out to the side.

Luna laughs and flies off in the direction of Canterlot.

But she hasn’t even been flying for a minute before she’s startled by an orange pegasus filly on a scooter colliding with her wing, which sends them both plummeting down towards a grass-covered hill.

“WAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” The filly screams.

Luna reacts immediately and corkscrews downward, grabbing the filly in a gust that brings her into Luna’s waiting hooves and then, with a quick burst of wind, brings their rapid descent to a soft halt inches from the ground. The filly’s scooter clatters to the ground a few feet away.

Luna let’s out a sigh of relief and gently sets the orange pegasus onto the ground. “Are you alright?” She asks her. Luna idly notes it’s the same filly from yesterday, but she pushes past that thought to focus on the filly.

“That. Was. AWESOME!!! Let’s do it again!” The filly cheers, a massive grin on her face.

“What?” Luna asks in surprise from the request/demand/exclamation at the end.

“Scootaloo!”

Luna twists around and sees an orange Earth Pony stallion galloping towards them. The orange filly, apparently named Scootaloo, rushes past Luna and runs up towards the approaching pony.

“Scootaloo! Oh my Celestia, are you okay?! Any cuts or bruises? Any broken bones?” The stallion asks when he reaches Scootaloo, scanning her over for injuries.

“I’m fine dad! But Dad! Dad! Did you see me! I got so much air with that last jump!” Scootaloo tells the stallion enthusiastically.

“Yes, I saw, and you crashed into that heroic mare over there and she just managed to save the both of you. You need to be more careful when playing around with your scooter. Keep an eye on the sky and maybe not go for such high jumps.” The stallion admonishes sternly.

Scootaloo shrinks down from his words, and Luna sees his eyes soften. Then he leans down and gives his daughter a hug. “I’m just glad you’re alright. You scared me when you made that jump.” He says to her gently.

“Sorry dad.” Luna hears Scootaloo say to him.

“Just promise me to be more careful from now on. Okay?” The stallion tells her.

“Okay, I promise.” She answers.

The stallion lets out a breath of relief, and then turns to Luna. “And you, thank you so much for keeping Scoots from getting hurt. I don’t know how I could repay you.” He thanks Luna sincerely.

“Oh, erm, it was nothing. I am used to thinking quickly while in the air, so it was not really much trouble to simply reach out and grab the filly while I was falling.” Luna replies modestly.

The stallion sags a little. “I’m also really sorry about my daughter crashing into you and putting the both of you in danger in the first place.” He tells her.

“Like I said, it was not much trouble, and I am used to thinking quickly in the air. So no harm was done.” Luna placates understandingly.

“Right, well, thank you once again. We need to get going though. Say ‘thank you’ to the nice mare Scootaloo.” The stallion tells Scootaloo.

“Oh. Thank’s for the save miss! You’re really awesome!” Scootaloo tells Luna.

Luna smiles down to her. “You’re very welcome. And thank you.” Luna replies. She doesn’t let it show, but the compliment actually feels very good to her.

Scootaloo runs past Luna to grab her scooter on the ground, and then promptly climbs right back on it. The two orange ponies then walk off, leaving Luna to stare after them in thought.

‘It felt… nice, to be complimented by the filly but… something about it is just, saddening to me. Why? Why am I drawing a blank on so many things lately?’ Luna asks herself with a deep frown.

Eventually, Luna simply turns back towards Canterlot and takes off again, still lost in thought.

Celestia casually sips her tea, reading one of the latest Daring Do books, when suddenly a scroll manifests from a plume of green fire above her.

She catches the letter in her magic, and unrolls it to read it, slightly curious about its contents.

C,

Through some strange magic that is unknown to me, the Prospective you instructed me to find has returned to Ponyville and is unharmed. He appeared from some strange portal in front of the Element Bearers so I imagine your student will be sending you this same notification-

Celestia just barely manages to read that far before yet another scroll appears above her in another plume of dragonfire, and she nods in affirmation when it lands next to her. She returns to reading the first letter.

-notification relatively soon after mine.

In addition, you are correct to assume that I will attempt to interact with the Prospective, but not immediately. I have no knowledge of who he is or what he can do, and I intend to rectify that soon enough. But I need to take some time to gauge his intentions. Afterwards, I shall see how promising of a prospective Knight he is.

-P

‘Oh dear. I hope Proditor doesn’t go too far with Bael. I’m trying to give him some space to think right now, but if he pushes him, he may end up making things worse…’ Celestia thinks with a hint of worry. She sips her tea some more, which calms her down a bit.

‘But then again… it is Proditor. I’ve always known him to have excellent restraint and sharp judgment. Perhaps he will see what Bael needs most.’

Celestia sits in silence for a moment.

‘Very well. I shall defer to your judgment Proditor. Do what you feel is needed.’ Celestia thinks.

She hums after another sip of her tea. .

Author's Notes:

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUNNNN!!!!!

"No, no no no no no. No. That's not how you do it. THIS is how you do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhMvKv4GX5U

"No no no. That's not what he was going for. The last "dun" was extended. So it REALLY should be this."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JSCbEKsguQ

"No. No it's not. This is."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Y73sPHKxw

...Are they really having an argument about how "dun dun dun" is supposed to go?

"Looks like it."

Letum! We haven't seen you in a while! How are you?

"Oh, you know, same old same old. Story's still stuck on the first chapter. And not much else besides that."

...Oh... yeah... right. Er...

"But honestly I don't really mind too much anyway. It gives me more free time! So how's it going with you guys?"

Heh, things are actually pretty good, all things considered. Story's obviously not the number one best-seller by any stretch of the phrase, but I think it's doing pretty good anyway. We're at around 190-ish up-votes to the story.

"*whistle* That's great! It's almost at 200 likes. Never thought this'd be that popular."

I know right! Neither did I, and yet here we are, less than a dozen up-votes away from another milestone. It's hard for me to wrap my head around it.

"Mmmm-hm! Anyway, congrats dude! You've earned it! But I've gotta head out now. Let the others know I said hi! Later!"

Will do. Bye!

...

And there she goes... wait, you guys are wondering about where Baelor was at aren't you.

Well... I'm sorry to say that the crossover's not actually done yet. But I'll be sure to leave a link to both the chapter and the story he jumped into when i'm able, but for now, I've got nothing. My partner isn't able to get on to write very often so it's kinda slowing progress down. But I don't really mind, we've all got real life things to deal with, and God only knows how many times my own life has kept me from being able to get things done quicker.

Regardless, Bael is now back home, and with Luna visiting Ponyville more often, I can only imagine things are going to get a little tense with you guys as you all wait for the seemingly inevitable confrontation.

Or not, because this world is a cartoon and cartoons like to fuck with our minds like that. SO WHO REALLY KNOWS!!!

I'M FALX OF LUME AND I'LL SEE YOU ALL-

NEXT TIIIIIIIME ON THE ROOT OF MY PAIN, THE CORE OF MY GROWTH!!!

SEE YA!!!