Chapter 20: Of Prophecies and Nightmares

It was Luna’s turn to have some fun in this neverending game of cat and mouse. Her conversation with Capone had been relatively simple, money for the complete control over the entirety of Equestria. He seemed to dislike Celestia just as she did for various reasons, probably because her presence alone caused mercenaries to tremble in fear. Manehattan was obviously their first choice of attack, all the higher ranking ponies were still gathered in Canterlot, trying to recover from their massive defeat.

The news of the ‘truth’ spread like a wildfire, it was a delight to watch her subject’s worlds break down and crumble as they found out about the real cause why Celestia was ruling alone. Capone’s own soldiers took it surprisingly well, he had over a thousand experienced warriors under his command that now began to spread the truth in all major cities at first, and then the entirety of Equestria.

The streets of the Manehattan were a mess, hundred of ponies running around in panic as they saw the wicked alicorn smiling down at them. Most just fell back at their haunches and stared at Luna with a fear the ponies had long since forgotten, the fear of a real Nightmare. The best part was their submission though, some of them bowed deeply before her as they heard about all things Celestia may or may not did. The Princess of the Moon didn’t tell the rebels to recite every last of her words, they could add things as long as they were believable, and reasonable.

For most of them Luna was a mere victim of the Sun Tyrant, she giggled madly at the thought. Her mind was working in high gears, trying to find ways to make her sister suffer even more, “A thousand years to prepare yourself, and you found nothing better than a mentally unstable, insanely powerful little filly? Hah! You’ll never change, dear sister. Now it’s time for your final farewell.”

Next to no casualties in the crowded city, only some guards were still resisting, but with the help of the loyal citizens the rebellion was slammed into the dirt with as much force as necessary. A mad laughter rang through her again the roles seemed to change slowly, months of hard work, siding with the talented, and, more importantly, tainted Twilight Sparkle had given her the perfect opportunity to reach her ultimate goal, revenge. That was what the Nightmare wanted too after all, it encouraged revenge like nopony else.

Luna casually walked through the rapidly calming streets of the former biggest city in Equestria, almost everypony bowed immediately, some banners of a moon with a six pointed star in it could be seen on buildings, apparently it was their new symbol of hope, The Princess of the Night, and the Deathbringer. Not even a whole day had passed since she arrived in this city, and without any members of the elite guards Celestia’s precious harmony crumbled before them. Everything they did at this point was only to make her sister suffer more, unfortunately, another one of her old foes was the key to victory. The proposal Discord made was their only chance of actually killing the Princess of the Sun semi-permanent.

“Prepare yourself for the worst, sister. Your light is slowly dying out,” Luna stated casually, some citizens wondered who she was talking to, but they knew better than to oppose their saviour and new ruler.

Hundreds of kilometers away, in the Capital of Equestria, Celestia nearly fainted as she heard what happened in her land. She’d just returned from her defeat in the gardens, her blood literally boiling, as another scout came storming into the throne room. Not even twelve hours after Twilight’s escape they managed to turn an entire city?! The white alicorn couldn’t believe her own ears, never did she even think about the possibility that her sister would just corrupt innocent citizens like that.

“How many Solar Guards are still in the city?!” Her thunderous voice boomed through the large hall, the scout shrunk back to a puddle of fear at this point. She could be just as scary as the Nightmare when it came to pure wrath and intimidation.

He began to stammer, “Z-Z-Zero, y-your m-majesty. Nightmare M-Moon took c-care of them personally. W-We don’t know the exact number, b-but it seems like most of the p-population joined her v-voluntarily.”

She growled loudly at his report, “Inform every scout you can find! You all have to travel into every city of this land! All Solar Guards have to be prepared at all times, and the two best guards shall travel towards the Griffon Kingdom and Saddle Arabia! I want to know if they’ll send us reinforcements! Now go!”

The stallion sprinted out of the room, his body bathed in sweat from all the fear. He’d never seen the princess so angry, well he’d never seen documents spontaneously combust either, but he guessed that was just another side effect of being immortal.

Meanwhile Celestia extinguished the paper that had started to catch fire, sitting down on her throne and sighing deeply, “This is the worst crisis Equestria ever had… I need to fix this, fix everything… including my corrupted… student. Prithee be careful, Luna! This alicorn has not drawn her last breath yet!”

It seemed like an eternity had passed while Applejack and her still mysterious partner wandered through the darkness of the crystal caves. In the short time they’ve been in there both lost nearly all sense of time, the tranquility these shining crystals seemed to emanate certainly played an important role.

Neither one of them knew where this route would take them or how to reach their goal at all. Applejack began to feel kind of sick, she hated dark places, and her injured ‘friend’ didn’t make the situation any better. She wished one of her old friends could be here right now… together they could figure something out for sure. No… of course that was not possible, this Nightmare took that away from her, taking away a part from who she is… or rather was.

“I think we’re getting closer,” Sharpshot stated, half dragging himself, half supported by the country mare’s strength.

“Not that Ah’d doubt ya, but how can ya tell, Sharp? This tunnel looks exactly like the last dozen we’ve been in,” She replied with a bit more snarkiness in her voice than he’d have expected.

“You’re wrong,” He said, pointing at the crystal walls surrounding them. Some crystals in between the large mass of blue were glowing in a faint crimson hue. “See? Some crystals are red, just like the riddle said…” The stallion slowly approached one of the red crystals, gently touching the jewel, it was warm, unlike the rather cold rest of these caves.

Suddenly a bright flash of red blinded them momentarily. After a few moments of blinking, trying to get rid of the last few spots in his peripheral vision, Sharp saw a glowing line that connected the red crystals. The line went all the way into another tunnel and continued to light the darkness of the unknown, “Come on, Applejack!”

They followed the red line for what seemed like another eternity, the light became more intense after each connection. Finally the reach their goal… a wall. Not just any wall though, it was made entirely out of these crimson gemstones. The country mare couldn’t believe that all the trouble they had lead to a stupid wall, she could quite literally feel a scream of frustration build up deep inside of her, “Yer kiddin’ me, right? This is what we came for?! A wall?!”

“What happened to the calm, collected Applejack back in this temple? I need you to calm down and focus. Because if you were then you would’ve noticed this very peculiar shaped indentation in the wall,” His hoof pointed towards the crystal wall once again, straight at a crescent moon shaped hole.

“Oh… Sorry, it just… Ah jest wanna have a normal life again,” Her expression changed to one of deep seated sadness, her situation feeling more hopeless than ever before. Meanwhile Sharp used the time to fetch the stone from the moon temple and let it slide into the wall with a satisfying click.

The entire corridor shook, he feared it would collapse any moment, but instead the wall parted, the crimson gems disappearing into the wall. It revealed another room, much like the first one they found, also roughly the same size. The walls were glowing in an intense red, banners of a glowing red crescent moon hung from them already withered and faded from age.

“We did it!” Sharp exclaimed, finally this maze came to an end. “Huh… what’s this…” The stallion approached a neatly cut, glowing red crystal, lodged deep into it was what looked like a piece of a sword. It was just the double edged blade itself, reminding him of a broadsword, but the steel or metal was entirely blue and definitely radiated some kind of magical energy.

Next to it was a small pedestal, a single sheet of incredibly old paper was laying on top of it, unmoved for centuries. The hoof writing looks like the pony was in a hurry or barely knew how to write at all. Sharpshot began to read through it carefully.

705. Moon Cycle - Day 15

We did it… we actually came to an agreement! Now I can feel its full power flowing through my veins, this frail body is nothing more than a vessel for all the magic I can hold now. It’s exhilarating, almost… intoxicating. I’ve seen its true form in our books though, the entity itself, or rather the spirit seems to be female, but who knows if that is actually true…

Anyways, I feel like her voice keeps getting louder and louder every time she demands another sacrifice, or another task to be completed. It won’t take long for her to order the complete genocide of our race, but it’s too late to back out. The advantages outweigh the few unimportant risks by a margin! What is the sacrifice of a whole tribe, all my friends and family, compared to infinite knowledge and power. Now I understand why and how Celestia got so powerful, not even my new Master could do anything against it, but that’ll change soon enough. The only thing it seemed to avoid while we attacked seemed to be a particular sword, brought back from its home. It ordered me to destroy it, so I separated it into three pieces and spread them in the winds. The Frozen North is out of reach for these insolent mortals. I don’t have much time to continue my documentation, this page belonged to one of my old friends, Silver Streak, it was fitting to finish it with this last entry.

I’ll leave the blade piece here, nopony will ever find the required artifact to open this room, but in case they really do I’ll just leave this note here. The last location is by far the most interesting, it showed me a way to locate it, using this piece of the blade, and a weird pedestal on the Coast of Despair, remarkable really. Hidden in a small cave at the north beach. The place itself is an entire island! Not only that, but it’s filled to the brim with high ranked demons, even it’s former second hand is waiting there to guard the last piece. Not a creature I would mess with.

The brilliant part about it is that it vanishes every day at sunset, and reappears somewhere in a random ocean anywhere around the world. Nopony knows where it will appear next, but every time it vanished it left a trail of death and destruction in its wake. Even if somepony wanted to find it, they’d need the other two blade pieces, and an extraordinary wizard that could break the barrier around the island. I’m not really sure why she gave me this much detail about it, but no one in their right mind would dare to come even near the island. Time to shake this world up a bit, chaos had been held back for far too long.

~ Yours truly, Rao.

Sharp’s eyes widened as he read the name, the same as on the diary of this scholar. That meant that she really did unleash the Nightmare upon this world once again, maybe even before Nightmare Moon was created, because the depiction of her looked way different then Rao. The journal back in the Moon Temple mentioned ‘princesses’ though, as if there was another ruler at the time, besides Celestia. Did this other princess know about Rao and this tribe, they all seemed to hate the Sun Princess, but barely mentioned the other one. He sighed, more mysterious things to unravel, “Hey AJ, I think I know what we have to do.”

Applejack turned her head slightly to face the grey stallion, a certain determination has found its way into his expression. Meanwhile she examined the large crystal formation closer, it was definitely some kind of sword inside of it, but by the looks of it only a piece. She took the piece of withered paper, reading through the ancient writing. After a couple of minutes she scratched her head, this time with a confused expression, “So… Ah guess this island… or the frozen north is next, right? Also, this name rings some bells… kinda, but Ah dun’ know where Ah’ve seen it before.”

“It’s the same as in this journal we found in the temple… the High Priestess of the Moon Tribe. It seems like she really was the one siding with this thing that was trapped inside the crystal, the Nightmare… So Nightmare Moon wasn’t the first entity possessed by it,” Sharpshot stated, it was now his turn to stare at the blade piece.

“Seems like it… this is bigger than we expected… maybe the princess should know about it. Ah chose to go away, it’s not like Ah’m banished or somethin’, it’s just… difficult,” Applejack replied with a trace of sadness in her voice.

The stallion continued to stare at the sword, after a short pause he said, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea to be honest. Think about it for a moment, why do you think did they hate her so much? Very unusual, especially when talking about a princess like Celestia. Single ponies may dislike her methods, but a whole isolated civilization? No, there has to be a very good reason for a deep seated hatred like that. This ‘demon island’ does not sound like the usual place in Equestria. I only hear ponies talking in the coast areas, that… well once or twice a year, ponies suddenly vanish near the coast lines. Especially fishers and divers that search for valuables. These are just rumors though, but I heard that in nearly every city at least once. ”

“Well what do ya suggest then? Search for this island on our own? She wrote that there are demons… I thought they only existed in myths and in old tales Granny used to tell...” The country mare exclaimed, just the mere thought of these creatures sent a shiver down her spine.

Sharp drew his sword, the coiled blade glistening under the crimson shimmer, “First, we need to get this thing, and get out of here. And yes… infiltrating that island is the best thing we have. Although, I’ve never heard of a place called ‘Coast of Despair’, it’s definitely not a name Celestia would allow in her land.” He engulfed the bare grip of the blade in his magical grasp and began to pull as hard as he could. “Hngh! This darn… thing!”

Finally after five minutes of intense groaning the blade began to quiver ever so slightly, slowly sliding out of the massive crystal. “Rahhh!” He put every ounce of strength behind his last pull, freeing the sword from its prison. A blue shine seemed to emanate off of it, the crimson crystal that held it slowly turned back into colorless, transparent and dead rock.
The blade itself was a masterpiece, the blue, double edged broadsword was still flawless despite the hundred of years it waited inside of its prison. The stallion could definitely tell that it held a considerable magical charge, even this single piece of it. It soared through the air, its edge still razor sharp, “Sweet Heavens… this is the best sword I’ve ever seen… it might even rival Twilight Sparkle’s… although, it’s a physical blade… that is a disadvantage, but still one of the best in this world for sure.”

“Ah have no idea what you’re talking ‘bout, but look!” A wall at the back end of the crumble gave way, the crystals also turning transparent, it seemed like this sword was the thing that caused the crystals to gain a small magical charge. It revealed a hidden passage, maybe even a direct way out of this mountain! “Seems like it’s the tunnel this mare used to escape… come on!”

“Coming!” He strapped the unfinished blade to the cord of his other weapon of choice and briefly looked around before leaving. Everything was either turning colorless, or already crumbling, at least this was the last time ponies had to risk their lives in these dangerous caves… Sharp sighed and followed her, leaving this part of their journey behind him.

The first thing the timid pegasus did, was to let the small iron cogwheel ‘click’ into place, now they just had one more door to go. They could at least move up to the next floor, now that she thought about it, this whole shrine could take a whole lot longer than they would’ve expected. If that was necessary to leave this freezing hell she would do it without a second thought. Fluttershy’s mind was centered around her friends since she got here, the situation had to be even worse than her own.

“W-Well… I guess we don’t really have a choice… let’s enter the last room… if only these strange barriers wouldn’t exist… then I could at least try to carry you to the next floor,” Fluttershy stated with a hint of sadness in her voice. Like usual she felt pretty useless… Rost could’ve done it himself, there was nopony that needed her here…

“I’m still glad you came with me. To be honest, I hate puzzles, riddles, or any other obstacle that doesn’t involve the need of pure strength or a sharp steel object. Heh… I would be pretty lost without you,” The brown stallion replied.

As they entered the room the door slammed shut, similar to the last door. Their eyes went wider and wider as they tried to find the seemingly missing ceiling. Not that it was a way out of the mountain, but it was just so high that they couldn’t see it. Leading up to the ‘ceiling’ was a wide rectangular staircase, well there weren’t actually any stairs. Just ramps that lead up to the not visible ceiling, and presumably, the last cogwheel. They were just barely fixed to the walls. The floor beneath the ramps was filled with some sort of bubbling violet liquid, definitely not something either of them should come in contact with.

What’s so difficult with that? Just climb it carefully, no problem. The real challenge were the traps, and sweet Celestia there were many of them. Coming out of of the wall were slowly moving ‘cannons’, with a little shield on top of it that had a demon’s face on it. They were also frozen, but seemed to ‘scan’ the area slowly. As Fluttershy took one step forward the four lowest of them fixated their barrel at her in a matter of seconds, the mare ‘eeped’ and backed off again. Little holes could be seen in the ramps, they looked like spikes or something would come out of them, despite the ramps being relatively thin. Also axes… giant axe pendulums hanging from the underside of the higher ramps to slice intruders on lower ramps in half. Everything in this room was half frozen and nopony had been in here since, most likely forever, but it worked without a single broken machine.

Rost laid his right forehoof on his iron helm and gasped, “Woah… this looks like a suicide parkour, we’d be crazy to try that.” As he tried to move his hoof slightly over the boiling liquid on the edges he got repelled similar to what happened to Fluttershy. There was only one way, forward.

“I… I will try i-it...” Fluttershy shivered like crazy, her whole body trembling in genuine fear of death. If these giant axes or spikes wouldn’t finish her off for good, one of the dozen cannons would surely do the trick. “You’re… n-not a-as agile as I-I am...”

“Fluttershy! You can’t expect me to just let you die in this insane room! There has to be—”

“NO!” Fluttershy shouted, interrupted the concerned stallion with an unusual force in her voice. She was still trembling, but a certain force began to shine in her eyes. “I-I need to be s-strong! F-For you, a-and my other friends! If I can’t survive this… I… I would never survive the r-raging inferno t-that is my home land now!”

The yellow pegasus stepped back until her tail touched the iron bars of the tightly shut door, she took a deep breath, maybe the last one she’d ever take. Then Fluttershy sprinted forwards, faster than she’d ever thought was possible, leaving a small trail of snow and ice particles in her wake. The rosary around her glowed brightly, rotating around her body as she literally glided over the first ramp. The first three cannons caught the mare in their crossfire. The first frozen iron ball grazed her left hind leg slightly making her wince, a thin layer of ice began to form there before the beads of her rosary melted it off.

The last two flew towards her in perfect parallel unison, Fluttershy just acted out of instinct, opening her feathery wings and jumped forward in the right moment. She felt the coldness of the ice grazing her back and underside, but neither of them hit her directly. Rost’s eyes went wide once again in the background, he’d never seen the timid pegasus do tricks like that before. It was like she was a whole other pony, just acting through her sharpened senses and reflexes.

Fluttershy’s suspicion had been confirmed unfortunately, long, frozen rods of what looked like sharpened bamboo shot out of the holes, blocking her way. It stopped her for just a second, enough time for five more cannons to take a shot at the mare. She flew over the trap and pivoted rapidly while flying, literally backflipping over two icy balls of iron. The two deadly projectiles impacted with the other three, producing a large explosion in the air that caused her to almost lose her balance. She was not even on the third ramp and already escaped death three times. The remains of the destroyed spike trap fell into the liquid and made it splash up to her. Fluttershy didn’t notice it in time, and just two droplets of it landed on her right hind leg while she touched the ramp again. The yellow pegasus buckled for a second, it felt like one of these demons was chewing on her whole leg with extreme aggressivity.

Her eyes went wide in shock as she saw the next barrage of cannonballs fly directly at her. This time there was no way to dodge, they impacted with the rosary, producing a sound similar to nails on a chalkboard inside of her head. Luckily they turned to ash instantly from the intense magical heat, but she already looked like a mess, tears streaming down her cheeks and completely out of breath.

Rost shouted something from the door, but it took her ears a moment to recuperate from the magical assault, “Fluttershy, I know you can do it! Don’t give up!” He was right… she’d come so far, and this mountain was not going to win! The timid mare got up slowly, shakily standing on her hooves, but Fluttershy did not have much time to even catch her breath.

She barely dodged another projectile by running further up the curses parkour, the first swinging axes came into view, but the cannons never ceased fire, it also looked like they reloaded themselves, however that was possible. Fluttershy waited just a second too long for the first axe to pass, another icy cannonball hit the barrier that saved her life multiple times now. The action produced a reaction immediately, the ear shattering screech of a thousand nails on chalkboards disoriented her, but she had to push on.

This time she slid under the next axe, the razor sharp steel grazing her vulnerable stomach. The still dizzy mare came back to her eyes, thrown up another ramp by a massive explosion. Then she heard a sound that let her heart sink, a slow cracking noise directly behind her. On the safe ground Rost shouted something, barely audible because of the ear shattering crack, “..un! ...run, Flu...shy! RUN!”

She got the message and nearly tripped over her own hooves as the mare began to do as she was told. The platform behind her shattered due to the massive firepower, the cracked stones falling down into the liquid. This caused a rapid chain reaction, the ramp she was standing on lost its support, it gained a more oblique position, threatened to fall too. Fluttershy sprinted like she was chased by a demon, in her panic she completely forgot about her live saving appendages. With a mighty jump the pegasus landed on the slightly higher ramp, but didn’t have even a moment before it began to fall down too.

It was time limit which made this thing even more dangerous. She couldn’t spend more than ten seconds on each platform, her body did certainly show that. Two deep cuts in her back from a double sided axe that were making her dizzy from the heavy blood loss, her entire left side bloodied and bruised because a large piece of a cannon ball ricocheted off the wall and took her off guard. Also her right hind leg looked like it was completely useless by now, one frozen bamboo that had been sharpened to a tip pierced right through the base of it, the mare couldn’t move it even one inch. Right now Fluttershy could barely stay upright, but her still somehow present reflexes kept her alive.

The last ramp came into view, but she couldn’t run properly, a steady dripping of blood could be heard, at least Fluttershy could hear it. The world seemed to slow down, the explosive particles behind another cannon ball could be seen, lingering in the back of a barrel, ready to end her misery. Although… it couldn’t end here… right? What would her friends say if she never returned? Not only that, but Fluttershy just had to know what happened that day, in Canterlot.

The timid mare unleashed a soul rending scream. For a second there was only her, and this cursed cannon. The icy ball was mere meters away from her as it happened. She spread her wings wide to turn faster, and turning she did, spinning like a miniature tornado. Fluttershy steeled her nerves for the next moment that would decide if she’d live, or die. It was an all or nothing attempt of preserving her own life, the life beads ‘whispered’ to her, telling Fluttershy to do this insane action.

She screamed like never before, barely audible from within her ‘tornado’. Only her still working hoof touched the ground, producing massive amount of friction with the rapid spinning motion. The ball was just a meter away from the mare as she stopped, her good hoof was… burning? The flames around her hoof extended upwards to the middle of the leg, the beads glowing brightly, amplifying the effect, but it didn’t burn her. Her wings flapped once, causing her to do a backflip, as the pegasus’ leg was at the highest point her wings flapped rapidly, giving her more speed to crash down at the iron ball.

“RAHHH!” Fluttershy screamed as hard as she could, the metal fizzling and struggling against the force of her hoof. The entire thing had caught on fire as it was repelled by her tremendous and completely unknown physical strength. It’s fiery explosion looked like a dying miniature star. The yellow mare fell back on her haunches, panting heavily without noticing the recoil had literally catapulted her to the safe platform. Her leg looked completely normal again, no signs of any burn or bruises. The life beads had returned to their natural state, just a ‘normal’ hovering rosary around her neck, “Thank you...”

The ground below her got quickly soaked up with blood from her ruined hind leg and her back. She had to stop the bleeding as quick as possible, but first… Behind her, laying on the ground without a care in the world, was the last cogwheel. It just… laid there, without any traps, no collapsing platforms, nothing. So she crawled over to it and picked it up. Fluttershy then quickly dragged herself towards the literal cliff and sailed down, using her wings to control her fall.

On safe ground once again. Rost immediately trotted over to her and began to wrap their last roll of gauze bandage around her injuries, they got soaked up with blood at an alarming rate. Two minutes later most parts of her back, and the base of her hind legs were covered in bandages. Without a warning Rost hugged her, his voice quivering as he said, “N-Never do something like that again!”

“Ow… m-my back,” Fluttershy winced, the stallion quickly let go of her. “It wasn’t l-like I had a choice.”

“Thank goddess you’re okay… but… how in the world did you do all that?! You jumped around like a top athlete, dodging even the cannon balls! And that thing with your leg, how’s that even possible?!”

“I don’t know… reflexes and the magic of these beads, I guess. They saved my life on more than one occasion now,” The yellow pegasus replied, still completely out of breath. “I just hope that my hind leg heals...” The two of them didn’t even flinch as the sound of metal grinding came from behind them. She survived another deadly trap of this insane shrine, but… this was just the first floor… what would wait for them in the second one?!

The first night after the ‘heroes’ of the revolution returned from Twilight’s suicide mission didn’t go very well for the unchallenged leader. Her dreams were different this time, by far the worst she ever had. It wasn’t just Celestia doing awful things, no… entire nations crumbling in anarchy, millions of individuals dying, not just ponies.

Families torn apart, whole villages wiped from the face of their planet. This was the path she chose, and there was no way back. It wasn’t her vision though, her plan was to protect Equestria from Celestia’s tyranny and outside threats, not conquer the whole world.

In this moment a soft laughter rang through her dream, it was the most beautiful sounding voice she’d ever heard. Laughing with such clarity and happiness that Twilight could’ve sat there all day listening to this wonderful sound. Then it, or rather she, because it was definitely female, began to speak. Some stray tears rolled down Twilight’s sleepy eyes, never before had she heard something like it, “So naive~ Yet so full of darkness.”

“W-who are you? Please, show yourself,” Her dream was gone, left was a place of great importance in her past life. It looked exactly like her old room in the right tower of Canterlot Castle.

The lights dimmed, and the shadows seemed to shift and turn. The vague shape of a pony began to form out of it. The smooth blackness slowly formed the alluring form of her ‘guest’. Her form could be compared to the famous model Fleur De Lis, slender legs, curves at the perfect spots, an unusually large horn, matching the size of Celestia’s, a perfect hourglass figure, and a set of gorgeous eyes that resembled Nightmare Moon’s slitted ones. Her hips practically dripped with sex appeal, every mare in Equestria would be jealous of her.

Twilight’s mouth dropped slightly as a pair of large, feathery wings formed on her side. Definitely larger than those of a normal pegasus. She resembled Celestia in so many ways, yet never came even close to the white alicorn. They practically were negatives of each other, but at this very moment her mysterious intruder was so much more tempting. As the new alicorn gave her a warm smile Twilight couldn’t help it and smiled back, it was like looking at the crush she didn’t even know she had.

“Oh~ Do you like this form, my child of darkness?” She purred, coming closer and closer to the lavender unicorn. “This is just a small taste, you know?” The mare nibbled at Twilight ear, it made her shiver as a small bolt of pleasure seemed to go through her whole body.

“D-don’t… this is.... j-just a dream,” The confused unicorn panted slightly, blood rushing into her cheeks. The air around her seemed to grow hotter by the second.

“It is~ But dreams are so much more. They are portals into my subjects subconsciousness~ I think our meeting is long overdue, Twilight Sparkle. I am known as the Nightmare, the spirit of shadows,” She punctuated the last sentence with her slender hoof travelling along Twilight’s fur.

“Mhm~ You… you helped Luna, right? But you cursed her… that’s why she has these insane fits of laughter,” The mare said, but couldn’t think straight. Her visitor barely touched her, only grazed her fur with those… divine hooves, but it felt like the best thing that ever happened to her.

“The Princess of the Night was lonely, and unstable. I made a mistake, admittedly. You have anger too, and this burning need for vengeance. Let me guide you, Twilight~ You have no idea what your magic can do once we pull at the same string, child of darkness,” The Nightmare purred into her ear. It was easy to fall for honeyed words flowing out of a silver tongue, but Twilight wasn’t stupid.

The lavender mare moaned and squirmed against her gentle touch, “B-but… mhm… I need to follow my own… path.”

“So adorable~ What do you think I am, dear child? A nefarious beast that plans to conquer the world? No, I want to protect Equestria as much as you do. Twilight, I have seen your dreams. Think about it for a second. What happens if the Sun Tyrant loses? She is not foolish, far from it, all the beasts she held back will be cut loose. There are hundreds of threats, just waiting to dig their claws into the flesh of Equestria,” The Nightmare said while giving her little child a small kiss on the cheek, making her blush even more.

“W-What threats? C-Celestia is the main problem, everything else is not important,” She said, just a little irritated. That negative emotion instantly melted away under the Nightmare’s touch.

“The griffons in the north, their military one of the strongest in the world, and their methods are… barbaric in the least, in the east, countless islands with their own kingdoms, rulers and plans alongside them, just waiting for the right moment to invade Equestria with their strong sea presence. Those are just two of the dozens of enemies Equestria has, and their number grows while the land is crumbling under this civil war. With my help, you could end this~ Follow Discord’s plan, and we will add her powers to our own.”

“Were you r-responsible for all the nightmares I had?” Twilight asked, her cheeks coloured in a rich crimson. This was bothering her ever since the first day these dreams showed up, depicting a dark future for the leader of the rebels.

“Oh, those were no nightmares, my little darkness. Glimpses of the future would be more fitting. I showed you what will happen in case the Princess of the Sun loses her mind. Even an immortal being like her is not immune to the grasp of insanity. And you push her closer to this dark abyss every day you continue to hide from her ‘protection’, ” The last word was spoken with an enormous amount of venom in her voice, almost dripping with pure, unadulterated hatred for Celestia. It showed once more that the Nightmare was not a force to be trifled with… especially not if she was in this… form.

Twilight stayed close to the shadowy goddess. She was emanating ridiculous amounts of chaos magic, the lavender mare could tell because it was the same technique she used to ‘focus’ Rainbow Dash. Even though she knew that her guest was practically enchanting her… Twilight couldn’t help but enjoy this treatment. To give this special kind of ‘affection’ was one thing, but to receive it was a completely new experience, a feeling she could get used too... “Mhm~ I… I pushed her to this edge? H-How? I’m sure she experienced t-this kind of revolution time and time a-again, at least once with Luna.”

The Nightmare giggled, continuing to play with Twilight’s hair and fur. Just a simple touch was enough to send sparks of pleasure down the lavender mare’s spine, “I don’t know how she managed to hold back for so long, you are just too adorable~ Because, Twilight Sparkle, she has way more feelings towards you then your brilliant mind could ever realize. This has never happened once in our ancient rivalry.”

She didn’t reply, how could she? Celestia just saw her as a toy, nothing more. All these years under her wing, all the evenings spent closely cuddled together reading another book about the most complex topics known to ponydom… All of that was a lie…

“Oh I know what you think, my little darkness. How could she do something so cruel if she has such strong feelings for you? Mhm~ The answer is simple, Celestia loves her sister as well. All of these horrible, horrible decision were just made to keep those she loved under her control. The being known as Nightmare Moon wasn’t under her influence anymore, twisted as her mind is that was equal to a terrible betrayal. Loved by a goddess, and still able to flee her influence, immortal beings can’t have that~ She loves her sister, and she loved the most powerful unicorn of this century, because of that, Celestia has to control you, limit you, make sure you stay hers forever. Love should be expressed freely, without these boring restrictions, don’t you think?~” More sweet talk out of her mouth, for her it was just another move in this game of the gods. Celestia was as readable as a book, her feelings towards Twilight were even more obvious, and since the young scholar was oblivious, made it even easier to make her join the Nightmare’s cause.

“Yes… of course,” Twilight replied like in a trance. “I’ll make her realize that she can’t control me or Luna.”

“Perfect, my child of darkness~ I’ll show you the right ways. For now just keep going, you’re doing the right thing. I’ll be with you the entire time should you require assistance. And now, wake up, and bring true darkness upon this world~” Twilight’s dream faded, the intense pleasure from her encounter remained though, and the last image was the warm smile from the Nightmare.