Welcome the Nightmare
Chapter 2: Welcome the Nightmare Prologue - Part 2
Previous Chapter Next ChapterWelcome the Nightmare - Prologue Part 2
The large army of guards stood on a small hill overlooking Ponyville. Discord’s orders were to capture the six ponies with relatively little to no harm done unless they fought back. If they were to do so, they were ordered to capture them all with any amount of force. The head guard gazed at the moon overlooking Ponyville, bathing it under an eerie glow. He turned his head to look at his squad.
“We are to capture them immediately. I want all of you to come back alive. We must not fail King Discord’s order. Now move out!” he barked. The five legions of earth ponies each wore purple armor that was shaped from hardened amethyst laced with gold; it shone in the moonlight, casting an eerie glow. They started trotting in unison towards their designated locations. The single legion of pegasi ponies adorned a dark onyx armor which gave off no reflection. One glance at the armor the guards were wearing filled any observer with a sense of emptiness. They nodded and flew off into the sky, searching for the one cloud home that housed the rainbow-maned flier.
Rarity awoke from a blissful dream where she was having romantic adventures with a gentlecolt version of Prince Blueblood. She lifted her sleeping mask and gazed at the clock hanging on the wall adjacent to her bed. An abrupt and loud knock quickly filled the boutique, which made Rarity jump in her bed.
“Knocking? At 1:26 in the morning? Who would be so rude as to disturb me at this hour?” she questioned out loud, without concern of anypony heeding her. She grumbled rather loudly, and slowly got out of her bed. Muttering something incoherent, she leisurely made her way down the stairs, stopped her descent at half-way, and looked out of one of the windows that adorned the stairwell to see a group of royal night guards standing outside.
“Oh, what could these scoundrels want at such a late hour?” she pondered. The unicorn shook the thought out of her mind, moved down the stairs and trotted over to her door. Grasping the door handle with magic, she rotated it and pulled it open. “Greetings, soldiers. I hope that you are having a lovely and...calm evening. What could I do for you charming gentlecolts at this late hour?”, she said in a honeyed, sarcastic voice. The guard looked at her.
“Are you Rarity, ma’am?” he asked.
“Why, yes, I am. What do you need me for?”
“You’re under arrest.” Rarity stared at the guard in shock. Under arrest? She had done not anything wrong, so far as she knew. Had she accidentally offended anyone in Canterlot during her last visit? She turned her eyes towards the guards’ new uniforms.
“Me? Under arrest? It should be you, sir, that is under arrest! That outfit you’re wearing is a fashion nightmare! And I thought Nightmare Moon was terrible!” The guard glared at her.
“You’re under arrest by order of the new King, Discord.” Rarity’s eyes grew to double their size.
“Discord? Returned? When, how, why? He was supposed to be locked up!” she managed to sputter out. She knew her only chance at destroying Discord would be to meet up with her friends. Hopefully the guards had only went to her first, that way she can take care of them peacefully and meet up with the others. Rarity needed her friends more than anything right now in order to stop this twisted chaos god before he did something that would turn Ponyville upside down. As she snapped back to reality, she noticed the guard moving in on her.
“You will not touch me, ruffian!” The unicorn turned around and looked all across the room. Something inside of her was telling her not to do any harm to these guards, no matter how vile they were. It just wasn’t in her nature to actually harm a pony, no matter what the scenario was. With a sigh, she turned back to the guard. “Fine! I surrender... but I swear, if you even lay a hoof on my mane, I will do unspeakable things to you!” The guard nodded in her direction, hoping for a peaceful surrender. “Now, tell me. Where exactly are we going?”
“Canterlot.” The guard replied.
“At this time? Are you serious? I can’t do that! I’ll need somepony to carry me!”
“Ma’am!”
“What if my hoof chips? What if my mane gets dirty? I’ll need somepony big and strong to protect me!”
“Ma’am! Stop whining!”
“Oh, you think I’m whining, do you? This is whining! It’s dark out! I can’t see! My mane’s not trimmed! My hoof needs a pedicure! I can’t walk when it’s this dark! Somepony tell the big bad guard to stop an-!” Her words were cut short as the guard had slammed his hoof across Rarity’s head, knocking the unicorn down to the ground.
Rarity staggered up, and gave the guard a surprised look.
“Y..y..you touched my mane! Now. It. Is. On!” Her expression quickly became livid as she lunged at the guard, her horn catching the small opening in his helmet. She felt something wet begin to trickle down her horn. She backed up, and a look of horror dawned upon her face as she saw that her horn had stabbed the guard right in his left eye; a small line of blood was lazily dripping off of his face. He limply fell to the ground. She turned to look at the other guards that were closing in on her.
“I..I..didn’t mean to! I’m being honest!”
“Silence, criminal!”
A guard jumped at her, dead intent on catching her. Rarity quickly levitated up the first object closest to her and held it out in front of her. She hoped to find protection behind whatever she had put in front of her. The trapped pony had closed her eyes, hoping for the best. A quick gasp escaped from the guard’s mouth, and Rarity opened her eyes to see that she had pulled a hoof-full of knitting needles in front of her, stabbing through the guard at multiple places. She quickly dropped the needles and screamed.
Suddenly a bright purple light filled the entire Boutique, causing Rarity to be petrified as she looked upon the shadow that had suddenly taken up most of the free room in her house.
“D...D..iscord?” She muttered, her mind refusing to believe in what she was seeing.
Discord looked around the boutique at the two dead guards, and laughed.
“My my, Rarity. Always so graceful even while murdering! I must say, you’ve done a good job, but your luck, as it would, has just ran out.” He stated, actually managing to maintain a serious tone.
Rarity levitated the needles sticking out of the dead guards chest, and threw them all at Discord. The shadow draconequus laughed, and turned them all into butterflies with a snap of his finger.
“Now now, Rarity. Is that any way to treat a house guest? Now then, right to business. Either surrender yourself peacefully, or I’ll be forced to harm you... not that I wouldn’t enjoy it.” He laughed. Rarity backed up, there were no other items in the Boutique she could use to harm Discord. Without the other power of the Elements of Harmony, she was useless. Deciding to risk it, and with nothing else to lose, she charged at Discord; intent on stabbing him with her horn. As she leaped, the shadow swiped at her. His claws sunk deep into her flesh, as she was flung against the wall of the boutique. Darkness threatened to take her, as it pained every fiber of her body to just keep her eyes opened. From the depths of the void, she made out a voice.
“Alright, one of those little nuisances down, time for the other five. Guards, seize her and tie her up. Place a magic-nullifier around her horn... we don’t want anymore accidents, do we?” He smiled, as watching these guards die was fun to him. Although, capturing these little ponies was the main objective. “Let’s make this night at least somewhat fun, the capture of the one named Fluttershy should suffice for now.” Rarity struggled to get up, but the pain was too much. A tear formed in her eye as she imagined her friends all dying cruelly at the hand of Discord, but she wouldn’t be able to do anything. With a sigh, she closed her eyes. The darkness pounced on the opportunity, and took Rarity as she fell unconscious.
At the same time, Fluttershy was taking a nightly stroll in the center of Ponyville, expectant to see the stars which only the night held. As she was doing so, she heard a loud commotion behind her and turned to see what had caused it. She saw the Carousel Boutique, its whites somehow managing to contrast the dark night. This, however, did not capture Fluttershy’s attention. She heard her friend Rarity scream. A sudden realization hit that Rarity must be in trouble. She galloped over to the Boutique, but stopped herself when a bright violent light shone out through all windows. She looked inside to see a rather large shadow. Fluttershy heard Rarity stutter out that it was Discord, then watched as she charged at the shadow being. The timid pegasus watched as her friend had gotten hit, and was sent flying towards the wall. What scared her the most was the large gash on her chest that was bleeding profusely.
Umm... maybe I should warn Pinkie that Rarity’s in trouble, and that Discord’s free! she thought, afraid of speaking out loud in case the shadow heard her.
As fast as her hooves could take her, Fluttershy rushed over to Sugarcube Corner. When she arrived, she saw that a war had already taken place. She squeaked when she first saw the blood of a guard, and turned away; not wanting to retain any memories of what was happening. Maybe she was the last of her friends still alive? She shook her head, her friends were too strong to all get captured.
“Oh my, my animal friends! Maybe they’re in trouble!” She suddenly yelled. Once again, Fluttershy found herself running, this time in the direction of her cottage. It was about forty minutes of walking, but only about fifteen minutes of running. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, as she had to make sure Angel was alright. She wouldn’t let anypony touch him if she had something to say about it.
After what felt like an eternity, Fluttershy arrived at her cottage; the ominous looking Everfree forest stood in the background. There was a group of guards standing outside, and it appeared that they broken down the door and were entering the yellow pony’s cottage. The timid pegasus found refuge behind a bush, as the sounds of furniture getting thrown around the house without care became prominent in the silent night.
“She’s not here!” A guard suddenly yelled. The furniture thrashing ceased immediately as the sentence finished; the guards filed out of the cottage in a straight line. A bright violet cloud appeared from nowhere in front of the guards.
Fluttershy gasped. It’s the shadow from earlier! she thought. I hope Discord doesn’t find me here... she froze in position, unable to find herself move. A large booming voice broke her out of her catatonic state.
“Are you guards unable to find this little pony? I mean, she’s right over there hiding behind the bushes! You guards are terrible at hide and seek, no fun at all, I tell you. Then again, it helps that I can sense the elements, but that’s no excuse! Now go, I hope you look forward to your executions back at the castle.” The shadow stated, while floating over to the bush. Fluttershy squeaked again, and tried to scurry over to the next bush.
“Ah ah ah, little Fluttershy. You must know that there would be no hiding from the master of hide and seek, right?” With a snap of his fingers, the bush behind which Fluttershy was hiding turned into liquid chocolate, dispersing all over the grass. The dark creature watched her, then slapped his knee and laughed hysterically. “Silly Fluttershy, hiding your head in the ground is a rather good idea, but maybe you should do your entire body next!”
Dang... Fluttershy thought. I thought I had it there!
The pegasus pulled her head out of the ground, and turned to stare at the shadow.
“Now that’s a good fi-” he stopped suddenly. The look in Fluttershy’s eyes had him petrified immediately. Discord felt his mind being tugged out; his soul being attacked. Whatever Fluttershy was doing was ripping the shadow’s soul apart, and he couldn’t even move.
Fluttershy widened her gaze. She hated using the stare, but this was a matter of life and death. It had to be used. Continuing to hold the stare on the shadow, Fluttershy slowly backed away. Getting distracted by anything would be obviously fatal, so she focused all of her attention on the shadow draconequus. The pegasus slowly felt the amount of foliage around her increase, both in number and size. She was nearing the entrance to the Everfree Forest, but she was willing to bet anything she found in this forest wouldn’t be as bad the shadow itself.
I don’t know how much longer I can hold this stare. Fluttershy thought. I can feel it weakening... I’m going to have to run for it soon... If only I can get close enough to the forest...
The shadow started flinching, the mental bombardment was slowly diminishing. A sudden twitch of his fingers forced his eyes to close. “-Lly... what was that, my dear Fluttershy? I never knew you had that kind of power! Oh, imagine the things I could do with that!... Fluttershy? Oh, silly me, letting that pony get away. Now, where did you go?” Discord pondered. It was quite obvious that the pony had to maintain that stare in order to keep that up, which means she must be straight... ahead. He smirked.
Fluttershy had already turned and ran towards the Everfree Forest. When she saw that the shadow had flinched, she had dropped the stare. There was a fair distance to go before she reached the entrance, but maybe she could outrun that shadow.
“Alright guards, let’s let this one go, but burn her cottage down!” the shadow’s voice bellowed. “Make sure to set fire to everything around it, too. One other thing: let’s roast some bunnies while we’re at it. Make sure she can’t return!” It laughed.
Fluttershy reached the entrance to the forest and threw herself into the depths. Hiding behind a small plant, she turned around and looked at what remained of her cottage. There was a large cloud of smoke filling the sky, as most of her cottage was engulfed in flames. The fire flickered above the cottage, sending small embers towards the ground and starting smaller fires everywhere. Tears started to flow out of Fluttershy’s eyes as she pictured her pets all burning slowly. She let out a cry as her mind turned to Angel, who probably was sleeping atop her bed.
She tried to run back, but large thorn-covered plants had popped up behind her, creating a barricade that prevented her from coming back out.
There was no chance of him getting out alive. Hanging her head low to the ground, Fluttershy turned toward the inner depths of the forest and started walking.
Applejack tossed and turned in her sleep, bags evident under her eyes. The cowgirl hadn’t had a good sleep in a few nights, as it was applebucking season again. Her friends were usually too busy to aid her, although it was not the case today; Twilight and Rarity had come to lend a hoof. This was quite a relief for her, as she needed as much help as she could get for the harvest. The apple trees had produced much more than usual this year, and the crop was too much for Applejack to handle on her own. Spike had been keeping Applebloom busy, which had prevented her from getting in the way, and Big Mac had sprained his back hoof in a farming accident. This meant Applejack was all alone, just like that time a few years ago; this time she didn’t over-exert herself.
“No! I can’t eat all the-” Applejack suddenly yelled, launching herself into a sitting position. She looked both ways, and lied back down with a sigh. Just a dream. She thought, I don’t think I can eat apples again after that dream. A loud knock broke her out of her thoughts. She yawned, and groggily got out of her bed. She slowly went downstairs, making sure to not trip. The house was unusually quiet. Usually, if somepony was awake, they would be rattled by the sound of the rest of the family snoring. The knocking must have awoken everypony else! Applejack thought, her face donning a scowl as she was going to give whoever was at the door a piece of her mind.
Standing in front of the door, she pushed it open. Her angry face gave way to a more frightened expression as she saw a group of guards standing outside the door.
“Howdy, guards. What can I do fer ya?” Applejack asked. The guard in front of her turned to his comrade, and nodded.
“Are you Applejack?” he questioned, his stoic expression remaining intact.
“Why, yes I am. What seems ta be the problem?”
“You’re under arrest by order of King Discord, surrender peacefully or we will use force.” Applejack’s face changed to a look of pure horror. As much as she wanted to believe this was just an elaborate prank pulled by Rainbow Dash, she could tell the guard was completely genuine. She needed help to deal with these guards, there were far too many for one pony to take. A sly thought came to mind on which she decided to act.
“Umm... Well then, I’ll surrender. Can I just go and say goodbye to my brother?” She inquired.
“I don’t see why not, just don’t take too much time or we’ll force you out.” Applejack nodded, and quickly ran back upstairs. She bucked Big Mac’s door, shattering the wood into tiny splinters. She galloped over to the Clydesdale, and gave him a soft kick in his chest.
“Big Mac! Get up right now! Discord’s back and the royal guard is workin’ fer him!” She whispered, not wanting to alert the guards. Big Mac turned his head lazily towards his sister.
“You sure ‘bout this, sis?” he asked.
“Yes, I’m sure. You know I’m the Element of Honesty, I can tell when somepony’s lying, and these guards sure aren’t!” The cowgirl whispered. “Now, look. They have us cornered. I’m gonna need yer help to clear the way so we can go warn the others. Now, I have a plan, but you have to follow it, alright? It’s goin’ to get rather messy in the Acres tonight.” She affirmed with a nod, then turned away and walked out of the room. Big Mac sighed and slowly followed.
Once Applejack reached the bottom of the stairs, the guards looked at her. She nodded to them as they slowly circled them. Applejack embraced Big Mac in a hug, her eyes locked on his.
“Alright, you two. It’s time to take Applejack away.” One of the guards said as they laid a hoof on Applejack.
“Now!” Applejack screamed, quickly turning to buck the guard in the head. A loud snap filled the room, as the guard’s spine was severed by the impact. The limp body fell to the floor with a soft thud. Big Mac followed as quickly as he could, kicking at the other guards head with all of his might. The force of his kick had sent the guard pony flying across the room, landing with a large crack against the wall; a small blood smear followed as the guard fell towards the floor.
“Only... a bunch of ‘em left, Mac. Think we can do this?” Applejack inquired.
“Eeyup.” agreed Big Mac.
The next five minutes were a blur in Applejack’s memory. She briefly remembered jumping into the majority of the guards, landing with a sickening crunch on top of one of the traitor guards that Discord had sent for her. After that it was nonstop bucking, just longing to hit something. She felt something wet on her side, but ignored it. Her eyes were closed as she continued to kick randomly, not wanting to see the carnage she and her brother were creating. She felt pressure against her hooves, unsure of what she was hitting, but just knowing that she was hitting something. She opened her eyes, but quickly closed them again. In that one second of having her eyes open, she had seen more death than she had ever hoped for in her entire lifetime.
“We... killed ‘em all Big Mac. All of ‘em.” She said, keeping her eyes closed, but the sight had burned into her memory.
“Eeyup, we did. T’is not a pretty sight, but ‘twas for the best.” he replied, his voice somehow managing to stay calm. “Now, I need you to go run to your friends and see how they’re doin’, Applejack, and try not to loo-” a bright flash of purple smoke interrupted the stallion. The light invaded Applejack’s mind, and forced her eyes open.
“Discord? Yer s’posed to be trapped in stone...” Applejack inquired, staring at draconequus.
“Oh, Applejack. Do you realize how many times I’ve heard that today? It’s getting rather boring. Now, come peacefully if you want to survive, my dear little pony.” Discord stated, emphasising his point by faking falling asleep mid-sentence.
“Applejack, you go on ahead, I’ll hold ‘im off for you.” Big Mac whispered into the mare’s ear.
“But... Big Mac, you know you can’t hold him off.” Applejack stated, looking with fear at Big Mac.
“Just run as far as your legs can take ya, sister. I’ll be fine, I promise.”
Letting a tear escape from her eyes, Applejack nodded and began galloping the other way. She had only ran for roughly twenty seconds before the shrill cry of her brother pierced the night air. She turned around, as tears openly began to flood her face.
“No...” was all she could emit, before a sharp pain was introduced to her back.
“You should’ve kept running, dear Applejack. Now it looks like this game of tag is over.” Discord boasted, a hint of victory in his voice. “Now, go to sleep you, silly filly. You look like you need the rest!”
Applejack reeled backwards from a sharp stab of pain. She didn’t know what was hurting her so much, but it felt like something was digging itself deep into her flesh. With a loud scream, her body gave out.
Discord grinned as he looked down at the unconscious Applejack.
“That’s three down! Only three more left. This night will be fun after all!” He laughed. With a violent burst of light, both him and the mare were gone.
End Prologue - Part 2
A/N: If anypony reads this and sees any problems, including grammatical or spelling errors, feel free to comment. This is a ‘living’ document, so to speak, so it is subject to changes at any given time. The finale of the prologue will be uploaded a few days after this is published, so you won’t be waiting too long.