//------------------------------// // Nightmare // Story: The Moon in the Dark // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// She slowly stalked through the empty halls of the ancient citadel. The walls echoed with the sounds of her steps. Each step stirred up eddies of white dust that billowed in the still, silent air. There was no fear inside her as she walked in this empty tomb, nor malice, nor sorrow, nor loneliness. Only power. Power that filled her very being. As she walked, briefly her mane billowed around her. The deep, dark blue swirled nebulously in the absent breeze, specks of dust clinging to the ethereal fibers like stars. Absently, she brushed it aside with her black wingtips. Soon... She wasn't sure why she thought that. And yet she knew what it meant. Soon, all she had strived for, all she'd sought to accomplish, would be within her grasp. Soon, the night would have its Queen... Sans stood silently in the hallowed hall, crystal structures in the stone shone light down from the surface through the windows. Normally, it was sunlight that shone through most of the time...but for some time now, only pure white moonlight reached through from the surface, drinking the color from the land as it cast all into the stark relief of shadows. He took this all in in a glance, noticing how much more menacing the hall appeared without the warm glow of sunlight to make it more homey. His focus, however, was on what was soon to come. She was coming...and despite her demands, he would not praise her. He heard the firm hoofsteps clopping against the tile floor, saw her stepping out of the shadows. He noted how much she'd changed, far more than he had expected. The once blue coat stained black as the void, the mane and tail billowing in non-existent wind, the sapphire cat eyes, the mouth full of fangs that grinned at him as she stalked towards him, and the relic forged by his old man's hands settled in the peytral around her throat. All in all, an incredibly terrifying visage. And if he hadn't seen with his own two eyes what she was capable of, that intimidation would have lost a great deal in the fact that she still barely came up to his knees. "tell me something," he asked oddly. "do you think even the worst person, whatever kind of person they are, can change? can be a good one again?" "But of course," the dark figure replied, her voice menacing despite the high pitch. "Of course, they have to want to change...to divert from the path they've taken." She laughed then, a wicked laugh with no heart behind it. "But you and I both know with how far I've come, I won't change." Sans sighed sadly. "i suppose so. in that case, let me ask you a different question. do you want to have a bad time?" "Funny," the figure replied, stepping forward. "I was going to ask you the same thing." Sans sighed sadly. "i thought i was keeping my promise...but i couldn't save you from this." He lifted his face to gaze at her. "so i guess i'll have to do it now...even if it means hurting you enough that you go back to the beginning to turn from this path!" The FIGHT lines appeared, surrounding them, energized with his true nature so that, unless he chose to lower them, they could not be escaped unless one of them was dead. "it's a beautiful night outside. the owl calls...the wind blows softly...this night you and i both love so much, i'll protect it from you, for all of them..." He gathered his DETERMINATION into every fiber of his being as he clenched his fists, his eye flashing blue and gold as the red scarf around his neck billowed out of its own accord. "...if i have to drag you through hell to do it, woona!" The tiny filly stomped her hooves, the hall cracking in response to the unleashed power. "My name is Nightmare Moon!" As Sans raised his hands to unleash his magic, a thought occurred in the depths of his mind. That's not my music... Nightmare Moon easily leapt back out of the way as Sans unleashed his waves of magic bones and Gaster Blasters, both by leaping out of the way and changing into a mist form, easily avoiding taking any damage. Unfortunately, she found that her own attacks were just as easily evaded by the skeleton. Then again, that wasn't too unfortunate. After all, he only had one HP. A single blow would finish him off. It wouldn't be any fun if the battle ended too soon. "It seems we are at a bit of a stalemate," she called out as she used a shield to deflect several incoming blue bones, shattering them in the process. "Neither of us seems to be able to hit the other. Though I'd say I still hold the advantage." She reared back, deliberately making her stats visible. LV 20 HP 200/200 MP err ATK 5 DEF X MAG err "I can take far more punishment than you can!" she called out. "You have to get lucky every time...I only have to get lucky once!" "then i guess i should stop relying on luck, huh?" Sans offered, drawing out his bones again. "you know, i feel like i should be lecturing you, or trying to appeal, or something...but you wouldn't be listening if i did, would you?" "Oh, I'd listen," Nightmare Moon replied, stepping aside as blue bones erupted from ground and ceiling all around her, interspersed with white. "But it wouldn't change anything." "then i'm not going to waste my breath," Sans concluded. "i have little enough left as is." His bones flew out, seemingly flying at random. Nightmare Moon paused, raising an eyebrow as not one bone came anywhere near her. "Have you become so enraged you can't see straight?" she asked softly. "None of your attacks are coming anywhere near me." "look again, princess," Sans taunted as he hauled out his Gaster Blaster. Nightmare Moon's eyes widened as she saw what had happened. She had been hemmed in by bones, white and blue, filling her side of the FIGHT, leaving only the space the Gaster Blaster would cover. All Sans would have to do is keep the blast on her until her HP were drained completely, and he'd win. However, despite this she grinned. She had another trick in her arsenal to break the skeleton before her. "goodnight, moon," Sans stated as he prepared his Gaster Blaster for an extended firing. As he readied himself to pull the trigger, however, he suddenly found himself facing another skeleton. "BROTHER...HELP ME..." "p...papyrus?" Sans gasped out, his resolve wavering. A blast of lightning erupted, shattering the bones and shredding the Blaster. Sans only just barely sidestepped it. "You're fast on your feet," Nightmare Moon taunted. "Pity he wasn't." "what..." Sans began. He then closed his eyes. What did you do? Nightmare Moon cackled wickedly again. "Oh, poor naive skeleton...Asgore and Alphys were so desperate to find a way to make Monster souls last beyond death, so the barrier could be broken. The problem wasn't Determination...it was a shortage of magic. Even the strongest monster soul didn't have the strength of connection to the magical field to keep from fading on death...except for Boss Monsters." Before Sans' very eyes, Toriel appeared. "And I had the soul of a Boss Monster to compare it to," Nightmare Moon declared in Toriel's voice as the image faded, pain in the former Queen's eyes as she seemed to dissolve. "And now...every monster in the underground is a part of me...a part of my magic!" Sans struggled to his feet as he desperately attempted to fight back, unsurprised now as his attacks were brushed aside. "you...you demon..." Nightmare Moon laughed again. "Maybe I am...but what does that make you? You could have stopped me..." Undyne's image appeared. "But you were too lazy to be a good guard!" As her image faded, others appeared, each with their own words for Sans. You are a disgrace to what I made you to be. I never should have made you. "You have failed all monsters everywhere..." "I w-w-watched her die...w-w-where were you?!" Sans struggled against the images, and the guilt he felt. "that...that doesn't make sense...she doesn't die...and not the King unless...you get past me...that's not how it goes..." Nightmare Moon chuckled wickedly. "You are a fool," she taunted. "Did you really think I'd play by the rules any more than you do? After all, you are..." a skeleton with only one HP, the last spark of Hope made manifest... "The fewer monsters there are, the stronger you become," she taunted. "Before I reached my goals, I wanted the ultimate challenge...I wanted to see you truly at your strongest...so I hunted everyone down, one by one...saving you for last." As Sans staggered back, she sniffed disdainfully. "So far...I'm disappointed. "no...no no no no no...this can't be real...this can't be real..." Sans eyes suddenly widened. "it...can't be real..." Nightmare Moon tilted her head in confusion. Sans had suddenly burst into laughter. "It seems after all, you are just a joke. Very well. Die laughing." Lifting her horn, she gathered her magic for a final blow...confused when she found herself hesitating. Why did this...upset her? She would soon get everything she wanted. "it's not real!" Sans suddenly screamed out. "woona, it's not real! none of this is! you just have to wake up!" "I told you!" Nightmare Moon snapped angrily. "My name is-" For the first time since she faced Flowey when she first arrived in the Underground, the command blocks appeared before her. Angrily, she reached her hoof towards FIGHT... ...but she refused. Even as Nightmare Moon screamed in rage, Woona placed her hoof to MERCY, and saw her options. -Spare >Wake Up A scream of absolute terror echoed across the entire underground from a room in New Home. Woona sobbed bitterly from her nightmare as Chara pulled her into his etheric embrace, and she buried her face there as she wept. Knowing what was ahead of her filled her with DREAD.