//------------------------------// // A Nightmare's Night // Story: A Nightmare's Night // by Thorax //------------------------------// [Authors Note: This story runs off the assumption that you have read Equestria's Crazies Though it isn't necessary it might help you make sense of the whole Nightmare Moon is free ] "So I've had a Holiday dedicated to me for this entire time?" Nightmare asked from across the table. Luna shook her head "No, I have a holiday not you. Your name just happens to be part of the title." It was the day of the Nightmare Night celebration. The second one Luna had seen since her return to Equestria. Apparently though Nightmare had somehow missed that entire evening when she still resided in Luna's brain. Now she was attempting to muscle her way in on Luna's only holiday since the drinking incident. Nightmare looked up from her plate, no longer hungry. She was now determined to reclaim what was rightfully hers. "But you even said all the foals of Equestria dress up in costumes and offer Candy to statues of me. If that doesn't sound like a holiday dedicated to me than I don't know what is." Luna was in a losing battle and she knew it If Only I hadn't brought it up She thought to herself Than I could have snuck out without anypony knowing. "No!" Luna snapped "This is my holiday and you can't have it. If you want a holiday so bad pick a day and give it a name." A devilish grin began to form on Nightmare's lips. "Then you've left me with no other choice Luna." It took Luna a few seconds before she realized what Nightmare was talking about. A look of pure terror covered her face. "You wouldn't!" she said sternly trying to hide the fear in her voice. "Oh, but I would my dear Luna." answered Nightmare her grin only growing "However all you have to do to stop it is let me reclaim my Night." "Never!" Luna shouted her voice beginning to fail her. "Three months of winter coolness and awesome holidays." Nightmare began to sing. "You won’t break me!" Luna shouted, her hooves covering her ears. "We kept are hoovesies warm at home, time off from work to play." Nightmare continued her horn beginning to glow. After several seconds varies object around the room began to move and tap forming a beat to go with her singing. "Lalalala!" Luna shouted still covering her ears. "But the food we've stored is running out and we can't grow in this cold." Nightmare sang, she knew it was only a matter of time before Luna broke. "And even though I love my boots this fashions getting old." "I'm not listening! I'm not listening!" Luna shouted her willpower beginning to fail her. "The time has come to welcome spring and all things warm and green. But it's also time to say goodbye it's winter we must clean." Luna continued to hold her hooves over her ears. However once again it was a losing battle and she knew it. If she didn't think fast she was going to lose and she knew it. "Winter Wrap up! Winter Wrap up!" Nightmare continued to sing raising almost reaching Royal Canterlot Voice levels. "Rubber ducky you're the one, who makes bath time loads of fun." Luna shouted attempting to drown out the sound of Nightmare. This is it Nightmare thought to herself One final blow and she'll crack "Winter wrap up! Winter wrap up!" Nightmare shouted breaching the barrier into Canterlot Voice and cracking the windows in the room. "I surrender!" Luna screamed as she dropped to the floor, battered and broken. "So Nightmare Night is mine?" Nightmare asked standing above Luna triumphantly. "Yes! Just don't sing anymore." She begged. "Victory!" Nightmare shouted as she galloped happily out of the room. Luna remained on the floor for several hours contemplating where she could hide a body roughly the size of hers and without anybody ever finding it. The moon seemed like a pretty good place. Several Hours later The festivals around Equestria would begin in a couple of hours and as such Celestia and Luna had given the staff and guards around the castle the evening off so they could spend time with their families. Discord had apparently headed off to one of the outlining griffon villages in search of the ultimate Milk shake. This left the castle quite empty except for three Alicorns scattered around the castle making their final preparations. Celestia was finishing up her packing this year she was going to try something different. Instead of spending the night giving speeches in villages across Equestria, she planned to stay with Twilight and the other Element bearers. She gave one last quick glance around her room before noticing the bottle of Vodka she kept on her desk. "If I remember correctly Twilight always did like a good drinking game" She said aloud before sliding the large bottle into her saddle bag. Celestia began her trek across the castle. As she made her way through the empty castle she noticed how nice it was. No pony around to bow to her every second. It was almost like the older days when the creatures of Equestria had no knowledge of them. The time when Luna and her silently controlled the Sun and the Moon and Discord ruled Equestria. "You ready Celly?" came the sudden voice of Luna. "Huh?" Celestia mumbled snapping out of her thoughts. "Oh yes dear sister, it's been centuries since I had an old fashion slumber party" She said with a smile. Luna let out a soft chuckle "Just don't be to rough with them. I know how hard you like to party." "Don't worry sister I'm only bringing one bottle of the good stuff." Celestia said as she glanced back at her saddlebags. "Big or small bottle?" asked Luna "What?" answered Celestia "You heard me, big or small?" she asked again "celestiasized" mumbled the sun goddess. "What was that I didn't hear you" asked Luna with a sly grin. "I said Celestia sized" answered Celestia doing her best to avoid her sisters glaring gaze. "I thought you were suppose to be going to a slumber party not a drinking contest." Luna said with a giggle. "Why can't we do both? Laughed Celestia "Anyways I thought you were going out for Nightmare Night so where is your costume?" Luna had completely forgotten about her costume. It was far to late to go to get something from the costume store. After a few seconds she remembered something she had seen before. "One second dear sister." She said as she ran out of the throne room. Almost immediately after the door had shut the door she reappear with a flash. However now she was wearing a paper hat. "What are you suppose to be?" asked Celestia raising and eyebrow. "I am Woona moon explorer extraordinaire" She said striking a hard-boiled pose. Celestia was about to tell her younger sister how none of anything she had just said made sense. However before she could begin to speak the door at the opposite side of the room flew open. What entered the room both stunned and amazed both Luna and Celestia. Nightmare Moon entered the room, or at least it looked like Nightmare Moon with a few large changes her once starry mane and tail had been dyed to match that of Celestia's. The other major change was the armor that Nightmare had almost always been seen in was replaced with almost exact replicas of Celestia's shoes, necklace and crown. The only difference was the colors instead of a glimmering gold, Nightmare’s were a light shade of blue with purple gems inside them. "So what do you think?" asked Nightmare doing her best to show off her costume. "You're me?!" stammered Celestia "Close" Nightmare said with a grin "I'm Princess Celestia dressed as the dreaded Nightmare Moon." she finished with a maniacal cackle. Celestia was confused "So why didn't you dress up as me?" Nightmare shrugged "Seemed like a good Idea, though I do love the sound of screaming foals and free candy. I apparently can't have both unless I'm a statue in the middle of a forest. This way though not only do I get free candy, but ponies will think I'm you. Therefore I get free candy and the praise of everypony in Ponyville." "So it's a elaborate scam for some free candy?" asked Luna "Eeeyup" replied Nightmare. "Okay than" interrupted Celestia "Now that everything's settled let’s go!" In a instant Celestia's horn began to glow and with a flash the castle was empty. Apparently Celestia was still angry about the whole eternal night thing as instead of appearing in the Ponyville's library as they had originally planned. The two lunar princesses found themselves roughly 10000 ft above Ponyville's town square. "crap" both alicorns said in unison Both the alicorns attempted to regain flight control but quickly realized Celestia had planned ahead. Large rubber bands were firmly placed around their waists locking their wings at their sides. "Do you think she's still mad!?" Luna shouted over the rushing wind as the hurled towards the ground. "Apparently!" shouted Nightmare in response. "So what do we do now?!" asked the smaller of the two lunar goddesses. "Scream?" answered Nightmare Through the remaining light Nightmare was able to make out Luna nodding in agreement, and so they began screaming in unison." "Aaaaaaahhhhhh" Screamed Luna "AAAAHHHHHH" Screamed Nightmare "Aaaaahhhh" Screamed Luna Meanwhile in Brennenburg Castle "Aaaaaahhhhh" Screamed Daniel as he ran through the dining area of the castle. "Aaaaaahhhhhh" Screamed Mr. Face as he chased Daniel through the dining area. Back in Equestria "Maybe we should stop screaming!" Shouted Luna Nightmare was about to respond however the ground apparently had other plans as it had managed to sneak up on them and get the drop. With a bone shattering crash Nightmare slammed into the concrete walkway leading to the town square. Luna on the other hoof had more luck. Instead of receiving the same harsh landing she managed to splash down in a reasonably deep pond in the town center. It was half an hour before either alicorn regained consciousness. Nightmare had the misfortune of landing upside down lodging her horn in the concrete. It had taken several ponies over fifteen minutes to fish Luna out of the pond. "Argh" Moaned Nightmare as she tried to rub her head. "What happened? Why am I upside down?!" The ponies that had gathered around all looked at who they believed to be Princess Celestia. An orange stallion was the first to approach her. "Who are you?! Where am I?" asked a slightly panicked Nightmare. "Don't you remember me your highness? I'm Carrot Cake you spent the day at our shop before and we provided the food for the Grand Gala." Mr. Cake was growing worried maybe Princess Celestia had landed harder than he had thought. "Ah, I remember now" answered Nightmare trying her best to sound honest. "Well Mr. Cake would be so kind as to help me up?" she asked doing her best to recreate Celestia voice. "A thousand pardons your majesty." Mr. Cake quickly said before attempting to dislodge her from the ground. After several minutes and some extremely awkward moments Mr. Cake had successfully managed to to dislodge Nightmare Moon. "Thank you Mr. Cake you may rejoin with your companions now." Nightmare said dismissively as she turned her attention back to Luna. "Thank you, your Majesty it's been a pleasure serving you." Mr. Cake said with a bow, not noticing that Nightmare Moon was already gone. Nightmare had made her way over to Luna had apparently been left in the care of a young colt dressed up as what appeared to be a Ninja. "Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" shouted the white colt as he jumped up and down on the unconscious Princesses water shooting out of her mouth after every jump. "What are you doing?" Asked Nightmare now extremely confused. "Oh I was at the library when Princess Celestia appeared. She asked me to come check on you two and make sure your weren't broken. I tried to get you out but you were to big." said the young colt as he continued to jump Nightmare wasn't sure if she should be offended or not. "When I couldn't get you out I went over to Princess Luna and started to try and wake her up. But she's all full of water so I have to empty her." He said with a smile Nightmare let a smile creep onto her face "Why don't you let me help you with that, kid." "Oh my name is Pipsqueak" He said holding out a hoof. "Nice to meet you Pipsqueak, I'm Nightmare Moon." She responded before shaking his hoof. Nightmare was surprised not many ponies knew she was even alive and yet this foal seemed perfectly fine with her. "This is so cool, now I'm friends with two princesses!" Pipsqueak cheered as he jumped circles around Nightmare. Eventually he stopped and stared at you "So how do we wake up Princess Luna?" With that the smile returned to Nightmare's face "Just stand back, okay?" Pipsqueak nodded and watched as Nightmare climbed up onto the wall positioned behind Luna. "Cannonball!" she shouted as she jumped from the walling. Landing square on Luna's chest in an instance all the water inside Luna was fired out her mouth if it weren't so weird somepony might have found it beautiful. In fact several years after this a statue depicting this exact scene would be erected in the town square. Sadly though due to a sheer fluke a small chuck of moon rock will crash into and destroy the statue. Luna awoke to see a torrent of water firing from her mouth. Funny enough that wasn't the weirdest thing happening at the moment. Not only was Nightmare lying across her chest but also Pipsqueak had apparently joined in on the pony pile. "What happened?" asked a dazed Luna as the torrent of water finally ended. "In order?" Nightmare asked sarcastically Luna nodded "First, Celestia dumped us off in the sky. Second, we fell pretty far and pretty fast. Finally I hit the ground and you fell in a nice safe pond." she said glaring back at the hole left by her horn. "So is that why I was filled with water? Luna asked staring at the small lake that had formed around her. Nightmare nodded "Ya, apparently you drowned.... a lot." "Well, okay than." Luna said standing up. However before she could even get fully up she was hit full force by a small white blur. "Princess Luna!" Shouted Pipsqueak as he hugged the moon goddesses. Luna smiled "Long time no see Pip." she finished as she rubbed his head. "So what are we going to do this time?" asked the energetic colt "Are we going to go play games? or get some candy?" Luna shook her head "Not this time Pip, this time we have something more important to do." She said with a evil grin. "So you're thinking what I've been thinking" Nightmare said the same grin forming on her lips. "What?! What?!" asked the excited colt "I want to help as well." Nightmare stared at Luna unsure as how to proceed "Should we let him?" she asked Luna nodded before turning back to face Pip "Okay than Pipsqueak there are something you'll need to know before you accept your mission. Should you assist us in this it may result in Banishment to the Moon or grounding. However should we succeeded when the time comes you can call us for assistance. Knowing this do you still wish to join us? Pipsqueak paused for a minute. On one hoof banishment to the moon sounded bad, being grounded sounded worse but on the other hoof if something bad happened or he got bored he could call the Princesses to come help him. In the end though his curiosity had already decided what he was going to say. "Yes I want to help." He said with a nod "So what are we going to do?" Luna and Nightmare both turned back to him a slightly disturbing smile plastered on both their faces "Simple my dear Pip, we are going to get Celestia back." Luna said rubbing her hooves together cackling madly, Nightmare quickly joining in." At first Pip was a little nervous but then he thought Meh might as well before joining in with his own cackle. Five minutes later and awkward silence had fallen over the three of them. A small group of ponies had formed around them watching as what appeared to be Both the Princesses of the Sun and Moon standing with a small foal laughing maniacally for apparently no real reason. "What are you staring at?" snapped Nightmare The entire group of ponies quickly dispersed, but not before each pony approached her to offer their apologize for whatever they had apparently done. "It's good to have power." Nightmare said cheerfully as the last of the ponies left. "Okay than where do we begin?" Asked Pip Crap Luna thought to herself "I forgot we needed a plan for revenge before we can have revenge. Anypony got an Idea where to start?" Nightmare's hoof quickly shot up "Pick me! Pick me!" she repeated. Luna let out a sigh "Yes Nightmare, you don't need to raise your hoof this isn't magic kindergarten." Nightmare quickly pulled her hoof down happy that nopony else had seen her little outburst. "How about we sneak up to the library and release a Manticore inside?" "Why is it that whenever we need a revenge plan the first thing you suggest is Manticore. Nightmare we're going to have to think outside the Manticore for this one." Nightmare shrugged "I just like Manticore's but maybe we can try something different. Wait, wait how about we use a Hydra?" Luna turned her gaze to Pipsqueak "Okie dokie than she's not allowed to help us plans. So it's up to you pip, so do you have any ideas?" It was only now that Luna noticed the devious grin on Pipsqueaks face if she had seen that smile on any other pony it would have terrified her. However Pip's tiny features combined with that unholy smile led to weird mixture of cute and horrifying leaving Luna stunned. "I thought you would never ask." The young colt said with a hollow chuckle. "But if we're doing this than we need to go get some supplies." Nightmare raised an eyebrow "What kind of supplies?" "500 eggs and 57 rolls of toilet paper." He said staring at the library off in the distance. "You are an evil, evil foal you know that?" Nightmare complemented not quite sure if she should be proud of this child or terrified. One Hour later Compared to finding the toilet paper, finding 500 eggs was quite easy. bringing them back was no problem either, no pony would suspect the princesses to do anything like what they had planned. Once everything had been gathered the three ponies regrouped inside a bush in front of the library. "So where do we begin?" asked Luna holding both a roll of toilet paper and a carton of eggs. Pipsqueak raised a hoof and pointed at the toilet paper. "If we TP the house first we can remain undetected. Than once that's done we begin the egging hopefully we can get it all done before anypony figures out what's happening." Luna was stunned, she had only asked for a plan but instead she got detailed instructions how to completely the plan without getting caught and achieve maximum vengeance. "Are we ready than?" asked Nightmare Pipsqueak nodded and the assault began. At first the TPing went quite slow but gained a much needed speed boost once the two Night goddesses remembered they had almost infinite magic capabilities. However there had been many close calls with Ponies going by the window. They had almost been completely busted when the Element of kindness left the party the only thing that seemed to keep her from noticing was the fact that she appeared to hammered. "Pip do we begin the second phase yet?" asked Nightmare holding up an carton of eggs excitedly Pipsqueak nodded "We'll split up and take position around the tree. That way we can cover a large portion faster." However just before the group could split up and begin the final phase of the attack something donned on Luna. "How does egging Twilight sparkle's library help us get revenge on Celestia?" Nightmare and Pip both shrugged "The buck if I know." spoke Nightmare. "We've already completed phase one might as well finish what we've started." With that both Pip and Nightmare began hurling the eggs as fast as they could. Luna hesitated for a split second before joining in. Inside the library Celestia was startled by the sudden thumping coming from all around. She looked around noting that all the other ponies could in fact hear it and that she was not going crazy. "What's that?" slurred Twilight before passing out again, Celestia didn't answer her unconscious student. Instead she approached the window doing her best to get a glimpse as to the source of the impacts. What she saw surprised her, actually it didn't she had known they would not take what she had done lying down. However she didn't expect them to be so... rude about it. "Haha it's a full moon" chortled Pinkie apparently immune to the effects of alcohol. Back outside the library Luna and Nightmare had finished up their victory mooning and had begun their retreat back to the castle. dropping off Pip at his house and providing him with an air tight alibi. Should anypony ask he would tell them that he was attacked by a Manticore but was able to lose it after releasing several more Manticores on it. After dropping off Pip they returned to the castle where they promptly passed out. The Morning After Luna sat up in her bed, something felt off. Her bed had never felt this stiff before. In fact it almost felt like rock, moon rock to be exact. "Son of a..." she said aloud staring out at the Lunar surface. "I know dat feel." Came the voice of Nightmare. "I know dat feel." Back in Ponyville Celestia and the others had just finished eating breakfast. "So princess, how long are you going to keep them up there?" asked Twilight. "Oh just long enough for us to get our plan in order." answered Celestia softly. "Our plan?" stuttered Twilight "Please princess please keep us out of it." she begged Celestia let out a soft chuckle "Don't worry my dear student I have someone else in mind for this." she said pointing the shadows. "Isn't that right Pipsqueak?" "Yes my princess" the young colt said stepping out from the shadows. "Though I'll expect my candy payment from both job as soon as possible."