VII (?)
Night Mares
VII.
September
Year 6 of the Harmonic Age
They all got died.
Night Mares
I've always been so afraid of the ending. It's sudden and violent - the kind that I think a story like this deserves. The Night Mares were never meant to be invincible super-soldiers and fall into the heroic tropes we so often see. I didn't want them to deliver a mighty speech before partaking in some grandiose sacrifice. Their ends are without warning and completely out of their control, just like most ponies'.
I apologize for the wait and thank you all for reading. I know this isn't what a lot of people were necessarily expecting, particularly given the word count, and I apologize again if it's not to your liking. The story couldn't be too long, and this is how I always wanted things to end. I just could never bring myself to finally make it happen, you know? I love my first fanfic, not that I am biased or nothing. Bring on the ol' downvotes if you want. I got to get over my fear of them somehow!
Thanks again, you guys. Your theories and analysis blew me away and I never imagined Night Mares would receive such support. It means the world that you'd even give it a shot, let alone take the time to draw fanart, compose music, make sculptures or even lend a hand in the comments. You guys helped me so much, and I can't thank you enough. You guys are the best!
P.S. - This is absolutely, 100%, no-doubt-about-it, not the final chapter.
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Goddammit, NC.
Was a long time since I read this, but still somehow very fresh in memory.
Never figured we'd see an especially happy ending to all of this.
For a moment I was afraid it was an aprils fools, but here we are.
Anyhow, thank you for a lovely fic. Time to read it all over again.
God damn it. It's been so long since the last update to this I immediately assumed you just wanted to slap an ending on it instead of leaving it permanently uncompleted!
8835148
The wording's a little ambiguous, but the fic's still marked incomplete - it's an April Fools.
8835155
Eh, good enough ending for me. Aside, the aprils fools joke could be that it wasn't a joke.
I'd like to give you my thanks. Thank you for this chapter. Thank you for not making it an April Foolsy chapter and breaking my heart. Thank you for finally completing this story as it is an unmitigated gem that needed to be completed. I won't say I'm happy with the ending, but is a good ending, and I'm thankful for that. And lastly, thank you for creating this wonderfully tragic gem of a story. Thank You NC.
>Sees chapter update in feed.
>Sees last chapter's post date.
>Sees current date.
Please don't play with my heart like this. Please let this be real...
aw man dude its great to see you again
Wait... what?
My face reading this.
Beginning.
Middle.
Ending.
Authors Note.
Windigos, really? Can't say I expected that.
Woooooooooooo new chapter !!!!!!!!!
*jumps up and down* woohoo! New chapter ! Been following your art for forever, but man this story is a work of art too! Been hoping you'd pull yourself away from your drawings long enough to work on this ;)! Cant wait to read it!
THREE YEARS!! THREE BUCKING YEARS FOR A NEW CHAPTER!!!
......
Not the longest i have waited for a new chapter for a story ... thats eight years .
Still feels to long though.
But enough if that (GIANT INHALE!!!)
It’s back and it’s good!
You did good, NC.
They probably looked like revenants, death itself.
Yippee...It LIVES!
The coverart changed from when I first saw this thing
Well mark it complete and put a cap on it.
Was a good run over all and will miss it.
Back in action!! Alright!!
Beautiful totally-for-reals ending right here.
Whew... NC... man, three years it's been since the last update
You're lucky I didn't forget anything that had happened the past few chapters, lmfao! Man it's great to see an update here, you had me worried considering... you know, it's April's Fools day right now 
Ending or not, well... who cares? This was a grand chapter and one great read! Thanks for giving me hope dude, lol, and keep up the awesome work!
I dont have the slightest clue whats going on anymore.
Dang, an update after all this time? That means I'll have to reread everything again! How terrible!
Ending?...
No... no, i don't think so. You know that you're still not finished with this since you came back after 3 years of no updates to the fic... The current "ending" as you call it.. it is just too good to not give us one more final chapter.
Maybe it will be an epilogue set a few years after the end of the war with this chapter being but a dream for our three Night Mares....
Who knows? We can only ask for riddles from NCMares.
After all... you can be very cryptic, so i wouldn't put it past you to tease us....
Checks email while playing Fallout[1]-
See's update for this-
Saves game and quits to read-
Dang, I sure hope this was an april fools joke, I think this may have been the worst ending I've ever read in my entire life.
I suppose it is sort of fitting for the war theme though. Nearly everything in this chapter comes out of absolutely nowhere, has no explanation, doesnt make a lick of sense, and ends suddenly and ambigiously. Not with a bang, but rather a confused whimper of disapointment, as if asking, da fuq?
The kind of ending that would have me turning the page and staring at the blank otherside hoping this was merely a poor joke.
Finishes reading chapter... is reminded of that it's April Fools and the Author dickery that tends to happen on this day...
Overall, the first part could be a descent beginning to the "Real" next chapter if you're going for something where a descent amount of time has passed between it and the previous chapter... but then end, especially with the "storm" sweeping in from nowhere, just ain't your style NC, especially as an "End" for the story... (Plus I still see that incomplete tag on the cover page)
One of the things I love about this story is that there's always a reason behind everything, and even if it isn't immediately explained the first time we see something new, it's always explained eventually, and I don't see this one ending with so many loose threads still hanging around.
Well that was... esoteric. I keep going back and forth on whether or not this was an April Fool's joke. I can't give it the proper thought without going back and rereading from the beginning. No time now, but I'll give it a try some time.
I love this story, it's great to see an update, even for April Fool's day!
Until it's shown to be otherwise, I'm going to treat this as the end. I read it as Equestria nuked their own with winter magic. Probably was easier and more merciful than to bring home all those ponies who are no longer ponies and will never be able to recover to be ponies again. Such as the Night Mares. Shame that Twilight was in the blast at the time.
And should their ever be more chapters, it will just make it that much sweeter.
Holy shit, IT UPDATED!!!!!
>squinting
But seriously, holy shit I think I came when I saw this @ the top of my favs. Looking forward to moar.
i love how no one is getting that this is an april fools chapter.. or not.. and they are really all dead.
"P.S. - This is absolutely, 100%, no-doubt-about-it, the final chapter. The End.
Happy April Fool's, I'll be seeing you."
8835994
I very much disagree with the 'never be ponies again,' but. Plenty of vets come home missing limbs, changed physically and emotionally, but they're no less human and many go on to live good lives. I've known men (and women) who struggle with extreme PTSD their entire lives and still get married, raise families, and live well. Sure, coming home will be unimaginably hard for the Night Mares, but for every pony that's scared of them there will be many who see them as heroes and legends and show them the respect they are due. Sorry if it seems like I'm jumping on you here; not my intent. But it's late, I have a lot of military friends and family, and the topic is sensitive for me.
8835641
Check the author's notes. Read alllllll the way to the end.
>This is absolutely, 100%, no-doubt-about-it, the final chapter. The End.
>Incomplete
Nope.
So... Chapter is real. And real good, as always. End... Real, but not end yet.
And Windigos, yeah? Never so it coming.
8836338
I did. The thought never crossed my mind until I did. But then I wasn't sure if that could be trusted. Hence, back and forth.
8836419
According to the decorum of April Fools, my understanding is that once one has declared 'April Fools,' it is the end of the fooling.
8836422
There are rules? I ought to check the bulletin board more often.
8835679
I have to agree on the poor ending. From what I remember of the rest of the fic, there was always a linear and coherent progression during scenes. Yes they could be chaotic as war often is, but you could still follow it. Here, it’s like the author forgot to include the little things like tell us what the CMCs are doing while AB remembers lost friends. It’s all too vague compared to the rest of the fic.
Then the whole, seeing the honored dead part was... what? A shared vision? A hallucination? Could it have been actually that the CMCs were killed and this is how they see themselves going to the afterlife? There’s a serious lack of cohesion to mesh these thoughts and scenes.
Then there’s the bits with Twilight saying they get to go home. Where did this come from? If tanks are still rolling forward then there’s no ceasefire, or the officer or Twilight would have mentioned as much. Are they getting some much needed R&R? Are the nightmares actually being retired? Right as the war is being turned around?
There’s plenty of things that you can get away with as being spontatious. But it really helps if some of these questions are explained by the characters, even more so since apparently they have the time to listen.
At the end of the day, it really feels like the windogos are a cop out, a quick excuse to end a fic that’s been sitting for three years. Just boom windogos, game over. Not some enemy attack or lucky artillery shell, hell not even a spy pulling a suicide bomb if you have to, or even choking on some food. We don’t even hear of windogos striking other parts of the war, they just magically first appear here. There’s random events and then there’s pulling something out of your ass which has been camping in left field.
This is a badly executed ending. An ending if you absolutely must check that complete box, but it brings down the rest of an otherwise excellent story.
Edit: I do hope this is an actual April fools joke, no matter what the A/N says. Yet I’m going assume this chapter is real unless stated otherwise.
Thank you for the ending been waiting years for it
8836494
There are many questions left after this сhapter, yes. But remember: "Incomplete". It's just not end of the story yet. So, answers in the next сhapter, I think. Or author re-post this, as he already did it once with another "April Fool's" сhapter.
P.S. Now I began to doubt. Is Windigos real, or AB wakes up in the bathtub in the next chapter with a mighty scream?
8836494
There were a few little hints here and there that the weather was unusually cold despite it being the middle of summer, but I guess I ought to have made it a bit more obvious. Sorry about that, bud! I was afraid of accidentally going overboard and must have kept things too subtle. This was the aim all along, however. I wanted to suggest that things were going a little too well for the Equestrians and that they were being lured toward certain doom via ruinous powers that they couldn't hope to combat.
There's always the opportunity for another go, though! Maybe consider this version 0.99. Livin' and learnin' all day, errday.
I don't know a whole lot about how stories ought to be written, let alone concluded, but thanks a lot for the feedback. o7
8836333
I completely understand where you're coming from and I do not disagree with you.
But, as for what I said, its all fiction and so we have no idea if they can recover from PTSD. And, if this truly is the last chapter and there will nothing more, then my head cannon says this war has fundamentally broken something in those ponies on the front-lines and they will never be the same and so Celestia and Luna made a (horrible) call for the sanity of the rest of ponydom. This was just my personal taste on how I would like to see the story play out (I'm a bastard that way, some times) .
This is making me extremely suspicious NC. Not to mention that a sudden ending like this doesn't seem like something you would do, but I could be wrong. (Also that incomplete tag is still there)
Wether this is the serious end or just an April fool's joke, it was a great chapter.
Edit: just read the blog post thing lol. Oh well
Here come the Windigos
8836636
Yeah, total cop out, this ending was ridiculous. It goes from, hey storm clouds and a single snowflake to "LITTERLY EVERYTHING IS FROZEN, EVERYONES DEAD AND I DONT KNOW HOW TO END THIS SO THEY ARE GOING TO GROUP HALLUCINATE." This seems like a classic, "Im tired of people complaining about this story not having an ending so Im going to pull a reverse dues ex machina out of my ass and end it so I can finally get on with my life."
Incredibly poorly executed, again, what law said comes to mind. Everything else has been linear, made sense and had an explanation. And then this chapter happens and you decide to go batshit off the rails. Now if we had seen the ghosts earlier that would make sense, maybe not explain them but have them there and have the characters ponder them instead they come out of left feild, for no reason and no explanation.
Then the windigoes who seem ridiciulously overpowered for no discernable reasons and come out of almost nowhere. Their appearence so utterly baffling that I honestly stopped, facepalmed and went. "really?" They dont show up for the entire war but after the author gets sick of writing they show up?
It doesnt make a lick of sense in cannon as if the equestrians were winning there would be less strife, less division. Not more? Wouldnt they arrive at the peak of fighting and not on the swing down? Also why did they instantly freeze everything? Why did noone see them coming? Why didnt the scouts say, hey I see a wall of ice coming and all our shit is getting frozen? Why wasnt there a radio call that said "random weird magic is coming?" How didnt Twilight or anyone know this was coming? The windigoes arent even intellegent really but you expect me to believe that they sat idly by, building their power and then hit directly on top of Twilight as their first attack? Really? In order for any of this ending to make sense you have to explain tons! As right now you havent explained anything so we have to assume they are the same as in cannon, which makes this entire chapter a hot mess of poor explanations and panicked, half assed endings.
What makes George R R Martin good at writing charachter deaths is that he has build up, lead in, and he puts his characters in danger so in retrospect we look at the characters death and go yeah, that makes sense. This is a complete mess with only about 150 words that go from, litterly in the safest place to everyones dead, theres ghosts everywhere and the story is over. Its like you were telling someone a story and your mom called you home for supper so you just go "rocks fall, everyones dead, bye!"
Id honestly rather you delete this chapter and add a few words to the chapter before like. "And maybe they are still there, hidden in the dirt, waiting for an enemy that will never come and the end to a war that will never arrive." Then just end it.