Welcome the Nightmare - Prologue

Twilight walked down Stirrup Street with her friend Rarity, who was talking about her next big accessory line. Twilight had phased her friend out in an attempt to concentrate on other tasks. Although apparently, from what the purple unicorn heard, it was going to be out sometime next week. Instead of answering, Celestia’s student was lost in thought. Something in the back of her head was pestering the poor unicorn; she couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. It brought a bittersweet sense of nostalgia; last time she had this feeling had been the incident with Smarty Pants. Twilight shivered as the mere image of the doll made its way to the front of her mind. Quickly dispelling the idea, Twilight decided to set aside her apprehension hoping that it would eventually go away. She tried to turn her attention towards the fashionista.

Rarity continued talking, unaware of Twilight’s inattention. “So, darling, Hoity Toity asked me for yet another shipment of my newest spring catalogue! If I do say so myself, they’re absolutely marvelous. Twilight? Are you even listening to me?” she inquired, looking in the unicorn’s direction.

Twilight returned the comment with a confused look. “Huh? Oh, yeah. Good luck with that fashion thing. Say, does anything feel... I dunno... wrong in the air? I just have this nagging feeling that... something really bad is about to happen,” she stated.

“Hmm? Well, maybe that’s just your stomach talki-” Twilight’s stomach growled at the comment. “See? You’re just hungry. Nothing a quick lunch wouldn’t fix.” Rarity shot Twilight her signature “I told you so” look.

“Yeah...I hope you’re right. Since Spike was out helping Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres before I even got up, I didn’t really get any breakfast. I mean, I tried cooking, but burnt hay pancakes don’t taste that good...” She looked down; cooking was not Twilight’s strong suit.

“Oh, you poor thing! Here, let me buy lunch. I’d hate having to see you starve because Spike isn’t there to look after you!” Rarity mocked while playfully poking her friend’s ribs. Twilight laughed a bit at the idea; she really did need to learn how to cook.

“Alright, how about that restaurant over there? They make pretty good hay fries!” Twilight pointed at the familiar restaurant she had eaten at a few times before; she was almost a regular there, in fact. The pair walked over to Ponyville Cafe and sat at a small table with two chairs. After about a minute of twiddling with her hooves, a waiter finally came over and greeted the duo. The waiter looked at Rarity and introduced himself.

“And what can I get for you this fine afternoon, madame?” he asked.

“Let’s see... nothing here seems fancy enough for my tastes...” Rarity said after a moment of deliberation.

The stallion cleared his throat and gave her a disgruntled look.

“But I guess I’ll go with the daffodil sandwich!” she proclaimed, not wanting to incite an argument over such a silly thing. The waiter turned his attention to Twilight.

“And for you, Ms. Sparkle?”

“Hay fries please!” Twilight quickly exclaimed, affirming her decision with a nod. The waiter took down their orders and walked away. Shortly after five minutes, their server came out with two dishes.

“Here you go, mesdames. Hope you enjoy your meal!” he said. The waiter trotted over to the next table to serve a new customer. Twilight levitated a fry to her mouth and bit on it.

“I think these guys make the best hay fries here. Besides Spike, at least.” The student giggled before taking another bite. Rarity poked at her sandwich before picking it up and taking a small bite.

“I guess this food is...acceptable for the time being.”

She followed up with another bite, this one a bit bigger than the last.

“So, Twilight. Anything you want to do after this, um... lunch?”

Twilight pondered what she could do.

“How about we head over to Applejack’s and see if we can catch Spike?” she answered before biting on another fry.

“Well, why don’t we take these to go then?” Rarity said, dropping a small bag of bits on the table. “I’m pretty sure they won’t mind if we stay here.”

She levitated her sandwich and walked away. Twilight watched her leave before her friend had even gotten an answer. Twilight sighed, levitated her box of fries, and trotted over to Rarity.

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Meanwhile, in the Royal Canterlot Gardens, the statue of Discord sat in front of the garden’s maze as it always had. Yet, the statue did not appear as it typically did; large cracks began to form on the stone figure. First on the chest, slowly spreading to the head and other extremities. As they widened slowly, a quiet, malevolent laughter filled the air. With a sudden blinding light the statue shattered, letting the draconequus see the light of day for the first time since he had been petrified two years ago. Discord stretched his limbs, producing an audible snap as he began to use his bones for the first time in two years.

“Two years imprisoned and no welcome party? Why, that means I’ll have to make one for myself!” A sly grin crossed his face. “And this time, those ponies won’t know what hit ‘em!” A  laugh escaped his mouth.

Now...if only I could find that little purple princess. Where would she be... he pondered to himself. With a snap of his fingers, Discord began his search.

Discord teleported into Luna’s room. Sure enough, Luna was sleeping under her star-embroidered blanket. “This is rather... boring. I expected a good game of hide and seek!” he giggled, appearing beside the sound asleep Luna, and prodded her. “Wake up, my little queen!” He shouted, making sure his mouth was right beside her ear. Luna began to stir, and quickly opened her eyes. What she saw petrified every part of her except her mouth.

“D...D...Discord? But that’s impossible! How? Why aren’t you in the garden!? You were defeated by the elements two years ago!” she said, her face fixed on what seemed to be the implausible.

“Ah ah ah!” Discord scolded while wagging a finger. “I just wanted to play a little game, is that too much to ask for? Now, I’m going to do something, so please do try to hold still; we don’t want any accidents happening, now do we?” He laughed, then floated over to Luna’s side and touched Luna’s coat. Slowly, Luna’s hair began to change from a dark blue to a pitch-black. “Now, I hope you enjoy the lovely hate I filled your mind with! Isn’t it rather chaotically fun?”

“I- b-but, I- C-Celestia... Equestria... I-I can’t... NO!” Luna stuttered, locked in a battle as her conscious fought off the invading forces of hatred to no avail. Discord’s influence proved too strong for even the goddess of night. With a deafening scream, a bright purple light filled the entire room. A grin sprung onto Discord’s face as the light began to dim. Nightmare Moon stood before him. Her beautiful black coat and purple ethereal mane made her look as brilliant as ever.

“My, my, if it isn’t Nightmare Moon... What brings you here to Equestria, friend?” Discord inquired, holding back a fit of laughter.

“Quiet, Discord! I never asked to be awakened, what do you want with me? You know very well that I won’t rule Equestria with you, so don’t even attempt to persuade me! In fact, I should just kill you right now and claim this little country as my own!” She let magic enter her horn, and it began to shine a very vivid purple.

“Well, well! Is that anyway to treat the draconequis that just saved your royal rump? I expected even you to have some manners, missy!” He laughed. Nightmare Moon grimaced and fired a magic bolt at Discord. Discord, with a snap of his fingers, disappeared and reappeared at the side of corrupted princess. Discord gave the alicorn a disapproving look. “I’m not suggesting we both rule. Now, if only you silly alicorn would pay attention!” He teleported over to her and flicked her horn. “I’m suggesting we become one! That way only one of us rules over, but has the power of both of us! Oh, imagine the sweet chaos! Cotton candy clouds and chocolate milk rain would be the least of Equestria’s worries!” He grinned at her. Nightmare Moon questioned his ideals, but for once they actually made sense.

“Speak your case, Discord! I will only listen for so long before I kill you!” she bellowed out in the royal Canterlot voice. He floated over to her slowly, that same mischievous grin on his face as usual.

“Oh, I’ll show you alright. Close your eyes, you won’t feel a thing...” Nightmare Moon hesitated, but she succumbed to curiosity and closed her eyes.

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Octavius was in the middle of his daily patrol of the royal gardens. He had been drafted five weeks ago, following in his father’s hoof-steps. He felt a great sense of pride patrolling around the garden, knowing that he was one of the ones that the princesses depended on to keep them safe. He let a small smile slip onto his face. Showing emotions was forbidden, and Octavius knew it. All the guards were trained to wear a stoic expression at all times, but Octavius could not help himself. He quickly replaced the smile with a more serious one as another guard came his way. He nodded at the fellow guard, and continued patrolling around the garden.

A sudden bright flash of light caught his full attention, as it appeared to have radiated from Princess Luna’s room.  Octavius was unable to see inside the room; it had been obscured by a thick purple fog. Quickly setting aside the fear that had enveloped his mind, he galloped as quickly as he could into the castle and down the hallway leading to the princesses’ bedrooms. Before arriving, though, he could feel something was off. Blood was smeared across the walls, and and a decapitated guard was on the ground, motionless. His body was contorted into a way that would be impossible to do without immense amounts of magic, and a huge pool of blood was forming around the body. The sight made him want to vomit, but he was trained to remain calm no matter how grotesque the scenario was. The smell of something resembling iron filled his nostrils as an over-sized shadow descended upon him.

“Oh, look. Somepony else to play with, this should be fun, right, Nightmare?” The raspy voice seemed to come from all directions. Octavius stood his ground and kept his stoic expression.

“Stand down, foul beast, in the name of Celestia! You are under arrest!” Octavius shouted. The shadow yawned, then mockingly held its hands out.

“Oh, I must pay for the crimes I have committed against the kingdom! Now please, arrest me puny pony!” The shadow laughed.

Octavius warily started to walk over to the giant shadow before it suddenly vanished in front of his eyes. His chest hit the ground rather abruptly. He looked down to see both of his front hooves suddenly missing, a stream of blood pouring out from each dismembered appendage. Octavius screamed out in pain as something dug into his chest. The shadow once again let out a sadistic laugh.

“Silly pony, how are you going to arrest me if you don’t have any hooves?” the raspy voice said behind him.  “Now, I wonder how it’d feel...but I wouldn’t know, that’s why you’ll have to tell me!” The sound of something heavy slicing through wind made its way to Octavius’ ears, then his backside fell against the ground. Fear filled his mind as he knew what had happened, but he did not want to admit it...he had just lost both of his back hooves. The shadow laughed again. “So, little pony, since you now know how it feels, how does it feel?” Octavius looked down; his muzzle coming in contact with the pool of blood his ripped limbs were producing. His body was starting to feel weak; something which the shadow noticed. “Oh, I’m not going to let you die of your own accord! What fun would that be? None at all, I tell you!” The guard pony mumbled something incoherently towards the shadow before finding himself lifted off the ground. The guard pony’s eyes met with what he thought were the eyes of the shadow.

“W..w..hat are y...you?” He managed to stutter, weakness filling every word.

“Why, I’m your favorite nightmare! Except this time you just can't wake up! But don’t worry,  we’re going to have some real fun!” The shadow winked at the guard, noting that the guard’s eyes were double their normal size and his pupils were pinpricks in the vast ocean of his sockets. With a grin, he lifted his claw up to the guard’s face. “Now, be a good little pony and don’t squirm much, alright?” He thrust his claw forward and grasped the guard’s head in his grip. “Good night, my little pony!” He laughed. With a sickening crunch,  the head exploded from his grip suddenly closing with force, like a grape under pressure. Blood splattered from the newly headless body all over the walls as the shadow dropped the dead body. His hand was still dripping with a viscous red liquid. He shook it, trying to get his hand free of all visible blood. The sound of his previous victim was sure to flow throughout the castle, which should make more guards appear.

“Clean up on the royal aisle!” Discord shouted. Soon enough, two more guards came into the hallway, running towards him. “Oh, this is going to be quite fun.” He smirked and readied his attack. With immense precision, he flew towards the guards and held his claw out. The claw cut through the first guard like he was wet paper. “Oh, why must you silly ponies have so much blood in you. It really gets the claws dirty, you know!” He laughed again. This was turning out great so far. He turned to the other guard that was cowering in fear against one of the hallway walls. His stoic expression had given way to fear as he had watched his comrade get shredded with relative ease. “It must be your lucky day, little pony. I’ve had enough bloodshed to satiate my thirst for chaotic sadism for all of this week! Now, go, run along now! And if anypony asks, you saw nothing, alright?” The shadow said, raising his voice to a mocking tone on the last few words. The guard nodded and slowly backed away.

Discord watched the pony quickly gallop away, and discovered that it was rather fun to install fear into everypony’s heart. He had had enough fun with the guards, as he was quickly showing disinterest in killing them all. He needed somepony new, somepony powerful to taint and have fun with.

“Oh, maybe we should give dear old Celestia a visit, wouldn’t that be rather fun, Nightmare Moon?”

“Why yes, Discord, it would be how you call it... fun” The voice rang out inside him.

“Looks like you finally found out how to speak in my mind! Sure took you long enough! What do you think of the walls? Don’t they look rather... chaotic?” He laughed while floating towards Celestia’s room. A shrill laugh echoed inside Discord’s mind.

“I actually do enjoy what you’ve done to the place. Maybe you should coat the entire castle with it? That would make it much better.” The voice resonated inside his mind, a touch of sadism evident.

Discord looked ahead, and sure enough the door to Celestia’s room was getting closer. As he neared her giant door, Discord concentrated on his form. He easily phased through it like it did not exist and looked around the chamber. The sun was embroidered on nearly everything in the bedroom, the exception being that the symbol was not found on books housed on the numerous bookshelves. He sighed; this really was too bright for his liking. With a snap of his fingers, the image of a half moon found itself replacing the sun symbol.

“What do you think, Moonie? I think I rather enjoy this room now!”

“It certainly has... a nice feeling to it. I like it, but the room is still a bit too light for my tastes. You’ll fix that soon though, won’t you?” Discord thought about the question. Apparently having the royal Canterlot voice used inside your head made it ring like a bell. A rather large one.

“Anything for you, Moonie! I’ll fix this room up after we take care of that dreadful, prissy little alicorn, and I know just the way to do it!” Discord gave off a small squeal. This plan would torture Celestia more than death’s warm embrace itself. The draconequis went over to the bed, laid down on it, and transformed back into a shadow in order to hide in the darkness’ embrace.

“But for now... we wait.”

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Celestia was outside the castle, strolling through her garden. It had been a rather busy day of listening to farmers talk about how they owned land and that other farmers were invading. It was getting rather boring, hearing others’ predicaments that were not even close to being how big they sounded. She turned to the sky; it was late afternoon, and Luna would soon be putting the moon out. Even so, she marveled at her work; today was a beautiful day. Myriads of different animals could be seen either basking in the sunlight or foraging for food. She smiled, thinking about the prosperity which graced Equestria even to this very day. Her train of thought was derailed as a scream fell upon her ears.

“Celestia! We need you at once!” Celestia turned her head in the direction of the scream.  A guard was bolting towards her, his eyes wide with fear.

“D...Discord has returned!” Celestia’s eyes widened and her mouth opened.

“Oh no... this can’t be true, he was imprisoned in stone!”

“But it’s not just Discord... there’s something very wrong about him!” Celestia gave the horrified guard a worried look before entering a full gallop towards the castle.

Upon arriving at the castle, Celestia saw that the inner hallway was soaked in the blood of what used to be her royal guard. Bodies lay mangled in miniature hills of corpses, tributaries of blood fed into a river which seemingly did not end. Celestia slowly walked by the dead guards, taking in every one of the contorted faces of horror and fear her guards were wearing. The sight was sickening, and Celestia felt her stomach churn; she had never witnessed something so gruesome during her entire reign as the ruler of Equestria. Her eyes fell upon the banners of the castle. These banners were once covered in both a sun and a moon, but now only a half moon could be seen. Her thoughts shifted to the only pony in the castle who truly cared for the moon: Luna.

She broke back into a full gallop towards Luna’s bedroom, only to find that the area outside the door contained more bloodshed than the previous hallway. Outside the door a mountain of dead decapitated ponies, stacked in an unorganized fashion, stood in the middle of the hall. Severed limbs were flung all across the hallway, creating a flowing river of blood. Celestia avoided stepping on the limbs as if they were explosives. She slowly made her way over to the room and knocked on it. The door opened to her knocks and she looked inside.

“Luna? My precious sister, are you there?” No response. Besides being empty, the room seemed no different than normal. It was too normal, in fact, save for Luna’s bedsheets laying at the floor of her bed. All of her books were shelved alphabetically, her socks were all neatly bundled in a corner. Celestia sighed. She turned back and trotted to her own bedroom with the thought of the possibility that Luna was hiding somewhere in her quarters.  It was rather... quiet on the way there. Besides the pile of dead ponies outside Luna’s chambers, Celestia saw no bodies on her way back to her bedroom. The silence was unnerving; normally one could hear the rhythm of guards patrolling, but today the halls were filled with emptiness. Celestia finally reached her door and found it slightly ajar. She pushed it open and took a look inside. It was also empty, much to her dismay. Celestia walked in and lied upon her bed, using her magic to pull a book over to her. A sinister shadow slowly crept out from behind her bed until it was right above her.

“Well well, hello there, Celestia!” Celestia jumped and turned to the shadow. Her eyes widened as she saw that it was Discord. No, not Discord. While this being looked somewhat similar to Discord, something was off.

“Discord! You’re supposed to be trapped in stone for the rest of eternity! How did you break free?!”

“Simple, my dear. I petrified myself before being blasted with those silly elements. They didn’t affect me at all! After all, how could I have any fun sitting, cased in stone, in your hot sun? You don’t get it, do you? The existence of yourself and your kingdom is only but a game to those superior to you, my dearie. And this game goes by my rules. Speaking of which, I have a new rule...” Discord contemplated his words, then continued.

“Life’s going to get awfully boring for me if no one’s going to be resisting my tyranny. There needs to be some reason for everyone to hate me, so I can have some fun while gutting them alive. I’d need to take somepony with lots of power and influence, and defile her to make the rest of the world very angry. My, my, revolutions would spring up everywhere! Say, have you ever heard of someone named Prometheus? You probably haven't, but he's from somewhere very far away and very long ago. Soon, you'll have a lot in common..."

“I will not be playing your games, Discord!”

“You don’t really have a choice, Tia. It’s either you play my game, or you die! And I will not have mercy on you, for you see. I have absorbed the raw power and hatred of Nightmare Moon!”

“But... that’s impossible.”

“Nothing is impossible when I’m around! Haven’t your learned that yet, Tia?” He laughed. “Now then, let’s get started.” A vivid bright light engulfed the entire room. The light filled Celestia’s head, and she fell unconscious instantly. “I hope you enjoy re-living your most horrifying moments for all of eternity, Tia! This serves you well for ruining a land of chaos and fun.” He lifted Celestia up and set her down on the bed. “Now you...just stay there until time finally claims your soul, Tia. Now, if you’ll kindly excuse me, I have six other little ponies to deal with”

Simultaneously, the royal guards responsible for filling the moonlight shift at the royal castle had arrived to the scene. The uniform beat of the guards galloping towards the princess’ chambers could be heard echoing throughout the halls. The moonlight shift, composing of ninety six guards, had surrounded the entrance to Celestia’s bedroom.  In a flash, the two giant doors which had separated the room from the rest of the castle were now lying on the floor. Discord was soon to follow, and his voice was next, “Well, hello my little subjects! I would love to entertain the audience I have before me, but instead I have a very important task I need you to accomplish.” With a wave of his two hands, Discord entranced everypony present. A visible change could be seen in their coats, which had turned a light grey.  “I suppose this will have to do for entertainment; we’re going to play a little game. Right now, there are six ponies living in the town of Ponyville, most likely sleeping in their houses. Their names are...” Discord summoned a scroll, which he read off of. “Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and, most importantly, a little pony by the name of Twilight Sparkle.”

“The rules are simple: all you ponies need to do are locate these six ponies and bring them here.”

                                         End of Prologue

Credit:

Editors: Angelhood101, MadJedi, MyDreamName([email protected]), Gancolt, Doom_Pie

Image: (Once again) Es337

Notes from the editor: 

Hello, after editing this I would just like to say some words from me, MyDreamName/Bronies, to you, the reader. Now, I imagine that you read the story, since these notes are located at the end of the story. The main point I wanted to bring up is that all feedback, no matter how critical, is welcome as long as it is constructive criticism. The part of the story which I, personally, am most concerned about are the grimdark portions mostly around the middle of the prologue. I personally do not read grimdark fics (and will not), but the creative director (buggieboy) had wanted to use this as a plot device to convey a more sadistic version of season 2’s antagonist, Discord. When you give feedback we would, of course, want to know about the more obvious errors that we missed, such as any glaring grammatical errors or the failure to use homonyms. But in addition to that, we also want to know what you think about the direction that the story’s course is at; a text could be shined to a spit, but it’s not worth anything if you’re shining coal.

This is a living document and is subject to change based on your opinions, feedback, and ideas.

Thank you.

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