Equestria was in chaos.
Eternal night had fallen over the land, ponies were terrified, outraged, or both. Nightmare Dusk was beginning her rule with an iron hoof. Many were too afraid to do or try anything and simply continued their lives, while others were headed towards Canterlot to try and give the new Queen a piece of their mind.
Needless to say, the castle was crowded. Nightmare decided to allow them in even though she knew they should have scheduled appointments. She decided to be lenient for now. Besides, she didn’t want to come off as a cowardly Queen who simply uses her guards to shoo ponies away when she didn’t want to deal with them!
Angry ponies had nearly rioted outside of the castle. Dusk had succeeded in chasing them off; she was getting quite irritated by the constant pleas. ‘Bring the Princesses’ back!
‘You can’t do this!’
‘The Elements of Harmony will stop you!’
‘Celestia will escape!’ and so on. And now the hopeless ponies returned home, to Nightmare’s relief.
And all of this happened in one single week.
Nightmare Dusk groaned, resting back on her throne. “One more,” she hissed through her teeth as the final pony walked in slowly, quivering.
“If you say ‘please raise the sun’, ‘give the princesses back’, or anything of the sort I will have you executed.”
There was a long, awkward silence before the pony slowly backed out. “Of course,” Nightmare sighed. “Does nopony love Us?!”
“Spike, you love us, right?” she turned to the baby dragon by her side, who blinked, taking a moment to register the question.
“Um… yeah! Yeah, of course I…” he shrank back underneath her accusing stare, and sighed, lowering his eyes to his feet.
Dusk closed her eyes with an irritated huff, allowing herself to relax. Hopefully now everypony got the idea that she was Queen, and that their sun would never return. “They are ungrateful. They simply do not appreciate our beautiful night!”
“Well… maybe they’d like you better if you brought the sun up?” Spike suggested hopefully, and earned a harsh glare.
“No.” she said, in a low, cold voice. “The sun will never rise again.”
~~
“Princess Cadance, you must do something!”
“Prince Shining Armor, there must be a way!”
“There’s got to be a way!”
“This can’t be happening!”
“It’s cold!”
“Winter will be unbearable!”
“The sun has to rise!”
“Please!”
“Help!”
“Do something!”
Princess Cadance and Shining Armor stood on the high stage outside the town hall, nearly all of Ponyville and several non-Ponyvillians had been too many ponies to fit inside, and thus the unplanned ‘meeting’ was outside.
Ponies from all over Equestria, having failed to convince Nightmare Dusk to at least raise the sun had gone for the next best pony: Princess Cadance.
The Princess and her husband called out several reassurances and tried to quiet the crowd, but to no avail. Finally, the overwhelmed couple were given a chance when a loud “QUIET!” rang out over the crowd. Everyone stopped, momentarily deafened, and looked for the source of the shout.
Fluttershy stepped timidly forward from behind Cadance and Shining Armor. “Um… I mean no disrespect but, I think they’re trying to speak,” she motioned her head towards Cadance and Shining, before timidly backing into the shadows with the rest of the elements save for Twilight.
“Thank you, Fluttershy.” Cadance dipped her head, and then stepped forward. “Ponies of Equestria, I…” she bit her lip, glancing at her husband who only nodded sadly.
“I’m sorry. But there isn’t anything my husband and I can do.”
Several defeated murmurs and angry shouts rippled through the crowd. “I’m so sorry,” Cadance repeated.
“…The elements of harmony!” a gray Pegasus in the crowd shouted. “They defeated her once, what’s stopping them from defeating her again?”
“We tried.” Rarity stepped forward. Her mane was a tad messier than usual, and her eyes were red-rimmed. “We failed; we are useless without the Element of Magic.”
“Why doesn’t Cadance raise the sun?”
“I can’t.” The Princess replied. “I’m sorry, I wish I could, but I can’t.”
There was a long defeated silence, before she turned to her husband. “Come on, Shining. We should get ready to go.”
They backed off the stage, the Mayor taking their place to try and comfort the citizens.
“Is there really nothing at all we can do?” Shining Armor turned to his sisters’ friends. “Beats me,” Rainbow Dash replied. “We used the elements; I don’t see why we don’t bust in there and attack all at once.”
“I can think of several reasons,” Cadance replied. “First off, she has an army of brainwashed guards at her side. Second off, she could take you down without even lifting a hoof. She could defeat all of us at once if she wanted to,”
“Then why didn’t she? We were beating her back there!” Dash shot back.
“She was having fun! If you proved too much, she could have easily defeated you with a blast of magic, no sweat!” Cadance argued. She by no means knew Nightmare Moon personally, but she could sense emotions. She could tell Nightmare Dusk’s motives.
“This ain’t right,” Applejack said. “There must be another way.”
Pinkie Pie, who had been uncharacteristically quiet and had remained still and silent, finally looked up. “What if – What if we’re nice to her?”
“Pinkie,” Rainbow started, “I don’t think-“
“Maybe Twilight might be able to break through and give us a chance to use the elements? Like, if we’re really nice to her and stuff she’ll remember us!”
“That makes a lot of sense!” Rarity exclaimed. “Pinkie, you’re a genius!”
“But what if it doesn’t work?” Shining Armor asked. “Do we even know if Twilight is…” he hesitated, biting his lip. “…Still in there? Is she brainwashed? Possessed? Is her conscious just locked back behind Nightmares?”
“No, it’s not possession or brainwashing.” Cadance said. “I think everything but the vessel – Twilight’s body – is Nightmare.”
“Maybe not,” Rarity said, “But… Maybe Twilight is still able to influence her, at least a little. Or maybe it’s just Twilights… I don’t know, ‘residue consciousness’? I mean, Dusk…” she shivered at the name, and she wasn’t quite sure why, “seems to care about Spike, right?”
“Maybe,” Cadance replied. “But… I don’t think it would be enough.”
Everypony remained silent, eyes lowered.
~~
“We- no, I haven’t had cake in over a thousand years!” Nightmare Dusk exclaimed, biting into the sugary softness. She melted into the taste, so good! No wonder Celestia was hopelessly addicted.
She leaned back in the big chair meant for Celestia’s size, but magically crafted – by Nightmare – to suit her nightly color scheme. Luna’s things were nice, but size-wise were much too small for Dusk.
“Can I have a piece?” Spike asked from his apparently eternal place by her side.
“No, no, no, Assistant. You’re a growing child! Sugary sweets aren’t good for you! You must eat healthier.”
“Healthier?” Spike grumbled. “You mean gems, right?”
“No, those count as snacks.” The Queen said, taking another elegant bite. She chewed, swallowed, and said; “What do dragons eat? Meat? Ah! I’m sure there is a griffon restaurant somewhere here in Canterlot. I’ll have to-“
“No!” Spike said suddenly. “I mean – no, it’s fine. I’ll just eat hay! I like hay just fine!”
Spike had wondered about eating meat in the past, but decided not to. He didn’t want to offend or disgust his vegetarian friends, y’know? Besides, it didn’t sound all that great to him. He could be eating pony and not know it! Yuck!
“Chef!” Nightmare called, “Get this child some hay!” several confirmative grunts from the kitchen was her only reply.
Nightmare continued eating her cake, and her pleasured moans only further increased Spike’s appetite for sugar. A dark earth pony stallion trotted out from the kitchens, a plate of plain hay balanced on his head. He set it on the table in front of Spike, and when he was sure nightmare was too absorbed in her pastry he whispered, “I stashed a ruby in the bottom,”
Spike gave him a grateful look and started stuffed his face a little too eagerly as the chef backed into the kitchen.
“It is good that We finally get a chance to relax, the past week has been exhausting!” Nightmare Dusk sighed, setting her fork down. “I do not understand. Why are we so unloved? We barely have a chance to rule and already we are hated!”
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you banished both princesses and then brought about eternal night? It’s just a guess, Spike thought but held his tongue. The Queen finished her cake and neatly dabbed at her chin with a violet handkerchief.
“This confectionary was most excellent!” She called to the kitchen, getting to her hooves. “We shall come back for more at a later time!”
No reply. “We compliment them and they ignore us,” she growled but said nothing more. She picked Spike up and placed him on her back, much to his disappointment as he hadn’t yet gotten to the rewarding bottom of his hay pile.
“Where are we going?” he asked, more than a little frustrated.
“Our bedroom balcony. We have time, and We would very much like to see how Luna is doing, and We don’t want somepony to interrupt us.”
“Oh.” Spike said. Nightmare Moon liked to ‘visit’ Luna once in a while, and by ‘visit’, she meant watch Luna suffer while doing and saying nothing to comfort the lunar alicorn. Still, at least she got some company, which couldn’t be said for poor Celestia. Spike wondered if she was lonely. Was she mad at Twilight? Mad at him? Or mad at Luna for becoming Nightmare in the first place?
“We won’t take too long, though. There is one Pegasus pony who was decent enough to at least schedule a meeting with Us this afternoon.”
Spike looked out a massive window as they walked down the hall. The inky black night, sprinkled with stars, not a shred of sunlight peeking up beyond the dark horizon. “How can you tell when is what?” he asked, scratching his head.
“We do not need the sun to tell us what time it is!” she replied snootily. “We tell by the constellations!”
“What?”
“The constellations, We move them.” She replied with the faintest irritation. “Just like the sun used to move across the sky, the stars do as well, only instead of descending beyond the horizon, the sky move in a circular motion above us. And then as the seasons change, the summer constellations will descend below the horizon to make way for the newer ones.”
“I didn’t know that,” Spike said, thinking it over.
“Nopony does!” The lavender alicorn shouted. “Nopony knows these things! We slave away for hours to make sure the sky remains perfect, beautiful, and they don’t even notice!”
“I think it’s pretty,” Spike told her, hugging her neck.
“…Thank you, Spike.”