//------------------------------// // Chapter Twenty-One - Chaos Ensues // Story: A New Nightmare // by LittleAngelStocking //------------------------------// "Is it morning?” Rarity groaned, lifting her head off of her pillow, and Pinkie sat up and looked at the clock, squinting in the darkness. “Not yet,” the party pony yawned, stretching. Rarity yawned and stretched along with her pink friend, taking the cucumbers off of her eyes. “We’re all still awake?” Cadance giggled softly, sitting up herself. She rubbed her eyes with her hooves. It was kind of odd seeing her without her golden jewelry, which was currently sitting unceremoniously in the corner. “Oh, good morning everypony, or good night,” Fluttershy appeared in the kitchen doorway along with Applejack. “Um, we didn’t want to wake you because you looked so peaceful, but we’re making pancakes.” “Pancakes!” Pinkie cried, leaping to her hooves and bowling Applejack out of the way – carefully maneuvering around Fluttershy - as she dove into the kitchen. Cadance looked at Rarity who was fixing her mane with her hooves, and promptly started biting back laughter. “What is it?” Rarity narrowed her eyes, unease creeping over her. “Oh, nothing, nothing!” Cadance giggled, clearly lying as tears were forming in her eyes. “Alright, what is it?” Rarity was not amused. “I think somepony got you in your sleep,” Cadance finally burst into complete laughter. It took Rarity a moment to understand what the Princess meant, but when she did she promptly galloped for the bathroom. She flipped the light switch, and looked in the mirror. Somepony had drawn a crude lipstick smiley face on her forehead. At first Rarity felt complete anger and humiliation, but it faded into mild amusement. She allowed herself a chuckle, and picked up a rag, turning the sink on. Meanwhile in the kitchen, pancakes were being served in black, starry skied early morning. Pinkie trotted into the main room, a plate piled high with pancakes balanced on her head. She set it down on the floor, and started eating. Soon everypony was served and chowing down, save for Rarity who was eating slowly and delicately. The ‘night’ before had been fun. They’d all stayed up late, doing all sorts of fun ‘girly’ things. (Shining Armor had decided to stay back at the library, not too keen on being the only male in a slumber party) Makeovers, pillow fights, games, and fun. They’d all brought sleeping bags, (Cadance was using one of Rarity’s) and slept on the floor. They’d forgotten about all their problems, they’d been able to relax, unwind, have fun, it was almost unreal. Everything had seemed so hopeless, but now it was just good to remember that they were still friends, and they were still together. “So, girls,” Rarity started, earning everypony’s attention. “I was thinking… maybe Pinkie Pie was right, about try to be… nice to Nightmare Dusk.” “You can’t be serious,” Rainbow Dash groaned. “I am,” Rarity said. “I’m not entirely sure it will work, but if we just show her some generosity and kindness, I’m sure we might be able to break Twilight free, maybe even enough to use the elements and free her.” “It could work,” Cadance said, “But she doesn’t want to see any of us in Canterlot again,” she sighed. “No, wait!” Pinkie cried, and then paused. “Uh… wait, um… OH! I have an idea!” she motioned for the others to lean towards her and they did, forming a small circle, and Pinkie started laying down her plan. ~~ Nightmare Dusk collapsed on her bed, feeling quite sick with herself. Just one more reason ponies hated her. She hadn’t meant to lose her temper with Spike, she knew he was right. She hated to admit it, but she knew he was right. She thought back to when she was one with Luna. Back then, she hadn’t cared for the well being of her subjects, only about making ponies love her. She’d been willing to start a full-on war with Celestia, she’s gotten hundreds of innocent ponies killed, and she only cared about herself. Always me, me, me, and I, I, I. “And We still only care about ourselves,” she whispered. “No, I only care about myself,” she buried her face in the pillow, tears running down her cheeks. “Raise the sun, be a good Queen,” she whispered. No! She thought, No… We can still rule, we can be a kind monarch, she closed her eyes. But… No. Make them love us, make them love us or they will die. But that won’t work; We want to earn their love, not force it. They don’t love us, they never will. But if We just… Nopony loves you, nopony ever will. Why bother? I… Spike doesn’t care; he only wants his abusive ‘mother’ back. We care about Spike, it’s just- He doesn’t care about you, though. So why care? “Let me go.” Dusk opened her eyes and raised her head. She sighed deeply; all these conflicting thoughts making her head ache. She once again thought back to the way she used to be, the way she was: murderous, manipulative… and she still was murderous and manipulative. It hurt. She swallowed, and got up off the bed, opening her eyes and moving towards the door. “Spike?” she whispered softly, “Spike?” She opened the curtain and stepped out into the almost unbearably chilly night air. No dragon on the balcony. Worry seeped into her chest, and she stepped out completely. “Spike?” She was sure he hadn’t come inside, or left the room. There was no other way he could have gotten down unless he’d magically sprouted wings. “Spike?!” she called out again, wings unfurling. She looked over the edge to the gardens below, and suddenly a terrifying revelation came to mind: Had he jumped? Without a second thought she dove off of the balcony, great lavender wings spreading wide, “SPIKE!” ~~ Spike headed through the Canterlot Gardens, eyes low. He’d managed to climb down the wall, the stones that made up that side of the castle were jagged and stuck out, climbing down was easy. He wasn’t sure how to feel anymore, about Nightmare Dusk, about his friends, Celestia and Luna… it was all confusing. What friends? You don’t have any friends, he thought. He picked up a rock from the ground, spinning out around in his claws. She’s right, she was right before. He was useless, worthless. He did nothing but cause problems for everypony else. He let out a low growl, deep in his throat. He wanted to help Dusk, he really did. But he was also conflicted: Was he even useful to her? He’d abandoned his friends, hadn’t he? He hadn’t even thought about that until now: did that just prove his disloyalty, his selfishness? He gripped the smooth rock hard, his claws making horrible scraping noises against it. He pulled back his arm, and threw it as hard as he could in a small fit of pure temper. He flinched when a terrible cracking sound rang out through the garden, assaulting his ears. Did I hit one of the statues? The side of the castle? He thought, running forward. He found the rock on the ground, hardly cracked. He looked up at what it hit, and froze. Discord’s statue. The baby dragon eyed the statue up and down, looking for any signs of cracks or breaks, but saw nothing out of the ordinary and sighed in relief. He collapsed on his back, staring up at the sky. All I do is cause problems, he thought. Discord probably gets a kick out of watching me, assuming he can see. I wonder, maybe freeing Discord wouldn’t be such a bad thing, he thought. Maybe if Dusk protects the kingdom and defeats him, ponies will love her then. After a moment, he sighed. Nah, that’s a stupid idea. Kind of mean too, for Discord. “You and I have a lot in common, sort of,” he said aloud to the statue. “I mean… you’re sort of a dragon-thing, and we’re both the only one of- well, I’m not technically the only dragon in Equestria, but I’m the only one who lives among ponies, I think. And we both cause chaos,” he admitted, even though he knew his own chaos was usually indirect. “…Sorry for throwing the rock at you,” he said, not even sure of the draconequus could hear him. He back up against the statue, pulling his knees up to his chin and wrapping his arms around his legs. “Do you have any friends?” he asked, and received no answer. “I don’t think I have any, any more,” he said sadly. “I abandoned them all, to stay with somepony I’m useless to.” No reply. “Do you know what it’s like, to abandon all your friends and then realize you made the wrong choice after it’s too late?” No reply. “I miss Celestia, and Luna. And all the ponies who used to be my friends, and… I miss Twilight. It hurts y’know? But I can’t really do anything about it, and I care about Dusk, but… it’s not the same. She’s not Twilight, even if she looks like her and sounds like her, and smells like her and acts like her… it’s just not Twilight, but it is.” Still no reply. “I shouldn’t be bothering you, but… maybe I should visit more often. Can you hear me? Do you ever get lonely? Standing all alone out here, for hundreds and hundreds of years… Maybe I will visit more. Nopony deserves that,” No answer. Spike buried his face in his knees and started to cry. Nightmare Dusk swooped down above him, though he didn’t notice. Dusk wanted to go down there and hug him, tell him she was sorry… she paid Discord’s statue no notice as she fluttered down to the ground, and landed on her hooves. The icy air chilled her to the bone, and she realized she had not yet adorned her armor. She stepped forward, wanting to apologize, to comfort the poor baby dragon, but when she opened her mouth, she hesitated. No, no, no… her mind clouded with alien thoughts and confusing commands, and she felt a cold anger seeping over her. What had this child done to deserve her pity? Nothing! Nothing at all. And running away? She didn’t like deserters. Without warning of any kind, she gripped his entire body into her magenta levitation, and yanked him into the air. He opened his eyes, letting out a startled cry as he was held at eye-level with her, and she glared into him. “Why did you leave?” she asked icily, her magic holding his head so that he couldn’t look away. “I… I…” he had no answer for her. “WHY?!” “I don’t know!!” he cried fearfully, trying to squirm away. “You don’t know? You don’t know?! What is wrong with you! We take care of you; we left the balcony to give you some alone time and you thank us by running away?! Tell us! Where did you plan to go, pray tell, hm?” “I – I didn’t plan to go anywhere, I just-“ “You just wanted to leave us all alone? You planned to abandon us?” “NO! Please, I-“ he covered his face with his claws, but she magically pulled them away and held them out at his sides. “Did you just raise your voice at us? What gives you the right?!” Dusk closed her eyes, biting her lip and squeezing her eyelids shut tightly. “P-please stop it,” Spike begged. Dusk sucked in a deep breathe, and let it out slowly. Then, she opened her hateful eyes and glared, Spike felt as though she were glaring into his soul. “We have had enough of your disobedience, your selfishness!” her horn glowed a brighter pink, and Spike started to panic when he felt the magical grip tighten around his chest and throat. “You make us sick,” she growled. Spike gasped for breath, desperately trying to pull air into his lungs; but Dusk only tightened her grip, refusing to let him go. And then, Nightmare Dusk let out a pained shriek and released the baby dragon when a piano came out of literally nowhere and fell onto her back, crushing her. Spike fell to the ground, vision going black. He struggled to focus; and as his vision slowly started to return; he became aware of a sharp cracking sound, like cracks opening in stone. Dusk groaned, and forced herself to her hooves; the piano broken in half fell to her sides. She was hardly hurt; with the durability of an earth pony, but she was incredibly sore. Besides; she’d been hit from above with a piano before. At least, this body technically had. The cracking noise became aware to her as well, and her body froze, every muscle tightening within her. No, no! She looked up at Discord, as the cracks slooowly opened upon the stone surface, and panic filled her body. Spike entirely forgotten, she focused her magic into her horn, closing her eyes tightly in concentration as she tried to seal the cracks and prevent the god of chaos from escaping. Finally, she managed to seal all the cracks she could, she opened her eyes and backed away, waiting for the longest time. Nothing happened. She sighed in relief, but an icy realization swept over her: Discord wasn’t going to remain like this forever, at least not while she ruled. She blinked, any remnant of her irrational anger smoldering into a cold ash. Nothing seemed to be in her favor any more, she lowered her eyes to the grass, her hooves. Not her hooves, Twilight’s hooves. Guilt wrapped her heart in its cold embrace, and she started to softly cry. She caused nothing but chaos by just existing, she was nothing: an incarnation of one pony’s hate and jealousy and nothing else. An evil existence, a pony who used and manipulated others for her own gain. Selfish, cruel, evil. “S-Spike?” she managed to choke out, she look to where the baby dragon had dropped, and found he was gone.