"Raise the Heavens!" - The Nightmare Knights' rallying cry.
Heroes are not born. They are made. And the Crystal War was a forge of heroes, hardened ponies who have stared into the abyss and emerged stronger. But six unicorns went further than any other and brought the abyss back with them. They were the same six who defeated the Night Queen herself, the six who bore Nightmare Moon's dark curse into battle against Discord, the six who quietly subverted Queen Chrysalis into becoming Equestria's secret pawn, the six most feared by both Equestria's enemies and her own citizens. This is the unsung tale of six unicorns, Twilight Sparkle N1, Starlight Glimmer N2, Sunset Shimmer N3, Trixie Lulamoon N4, Luna Eclipse N5 and Sunshine Smiles N6, and their nightmare-bonded commander, [OFFICER NAME REDACTED] N7. Together they lead Equestria's last hope, the fearsome legion of nightmare-bonded humans and their loyal nightmares, the [REGIMENT DESIGNATION REDACTED PENDING CORRECTIONS FROM THE VICEROY OF HUMAN AFFAIRS].
As always, proudly brought to you by our hardworking dream team, Not A Hat and Brad The Brony.
S5 Finale spoilers herein.
Story premise in a nutshell: In a world without the sonic rainboom, the sirens succeed in amassing an army of brainwashed humans to invade Equestria. Their invasion led them straight into the hooves of Sombra and his army of mind-controlled ponies. The clash ended with the Sirens defeated and Sombra acquiring a new source of mind-controlled soldiers - Earth. The fielding of Sombra's highly-versatile mind-controlled human minions in battle further pressured Equestria into a corner. With no end to the war in sight, Equestria resorted to desperate measures. Once prisoners of Equestria, Nightmare-infected ponies and humans are finally allowed to fight to earn their freedom. This is the story of the first six Nightmare ponies, their human commander and their part in the Crystal War.
This is a Crystal War story featuring squad-based heroics, camaraderie-in-arms and a touch of wartime field survival. Originally conceived as a thought exercise in explaining away the absence of all the other villains in the the Crystal War continuity.
Nightmare Moon's greatest curse turned into the greatest blessing...Awesome!!!
This had more promise if there was no humans involve D
Yeah Butler!
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What does ( levite in caelum ) means I saw it on the nightmare knights emblem pic.
This sounds really good so far. I can't wait to read more.
I'm crying. Is that unmanly?
If you think not,
THen kindly go buck yourself with a flaming cactus.
6720250 Excuse me, but the humans provide an interesting side as handlers.
Also...
Just nuke the whole place to kingdom come.
Fast. Efficent. Nobody or pony cries. Because we'd all be dead. Problem solved.
Oh come on, Earths and Wings ignored again?
Ah well, the concept is interesting enough, I guess.
Where is the butler tag? We need the butler tag! Also, this is awesome, and features many excellent things.
6720953 It's Latin for 'Raise the Heavens', something Not a Hat came up with.
6721262 There are other squads with earth ponies and pegasi. Shadowbolt 1 is just unique in that it is a full unicorn squad.
6722054
I know (especially with the motley crew cheering in the jail/fort/whatever), but it sorely reminds me of all those "unicorn magic school" fics, and while yes, Flight School exists, people rarely write stories about them so they might as well not exist anyways. That's 80% of the reason why only one of the 6 or so magic users in my main fic is a unicorn, and he comes in comparatively late anyways. Everybody (or, a lot of them anyways) already does super magic laser ponies, I want to do Earth Benders.
I also have an affinity for combined forces. Each of the three pony sub-species contributing something to the combined whole. Sort of a necromantic counterpart to alicorns, who imo are all three for a reason, not just a really big, super powerful unicorn.
(aka E-> Defensive/Melee, Endurance, Power Source. P -> Speed, mobility, reflexes. U -> Power, Range, Utility)
6720953
Roughly translates into Raise the Heavens
6722054 Wouldn't the Nightmare, which increases their magic, also make pegasi and earth ponies into killing machines? Pegasi because, well, they can fly and control the weather with their magic, and earth ponies because their magic is the source of their durability and strength.
When it comes to earth ponies I can just imagine a squad of nightmare earth ponies just casually advancing on something, shrugging off bullets due to super-charged magic or simply having their physical abilities enhanced to the point where it's like you're having a ton of Albert Weskers in pony form, they likely wouldn't even need blades half the time with the sheer strength they can output.
6723409 Absolutely. I currently envision Nightmare pegasi knights as being split into a number of roles including air-superiority, bombers and meteor drop-troopers who would use their Nightmare resilience to allow them to withstand aerial drops. I have not thought much about using weather magic, though now that you've mentioned it, I'm starting to think about the possibilities. The only reason aerial squads weren't fielded in the first operation was because the bunkers had rune-flak and the commander of the air units wasn't willing to risk his pegasi against them.
Earth pony Nightmare Knights fill all the same roles unicorns do, from scouts to shock-troopers.
As I said, most squads have a mix of all three (four including bat ponies) races. Shadowbolt 1 is just unique in that it is entirely unicorn. I'm still slowly introducing characters, but you'll soon see some pegasi and earth ponies (Dose Dotes is one, by the way).
I'm getting sort of a Valkyria Chronicles vibe from this. I wonder if Butler-sama will drive a tank.
Woo PTSD! Ain't that fun?
Next up, making brain backups.
uhhhhh how the hell did luna turn into a unicorn
So, what do the humans count as? Do they do anything, or just general support?
Just found this fic. The general theme and light-hearted ultra-violent tone remind me of Team Fortress 2. I approve. Does Sombra have humans too, or is it just Equestria?
That was so anime, I just shat a Son Goku.
6723440 WHY THE FUCK DO YOU HAVE TO WRITE THIS!? WHY THE FUCK!?
6724001 What's that?
Holy shit, yeah, this is so fucking anime, you don't even know. Seriously. I don't even watch the stuff and I'm still imagining half of this in the form of various clips and outtakes I've seen. I love it. Please keep going.
why do you have to be so disappointing. you are one of my favourite authors but you never actually finish anything. :-(
We are Nightmares.
That will not change.
Not as long as there are evils and sins greater than us.
Be it human, pegasi, thestral, earth pony, or unicorn,
Any of these things,
We have all been changed unwillingly,
Wronged,
And cursed.
But do we curse at the night sky?
NO!
We are Nightmares!
We are a sin and evil unto itself
And our very existence is wrong!
But do we give a damn?
NO!
We will destroy all evils as they come
And become the greatest sins of all!
Will we curse and scream at things unmoving!?
Powerful!?
Stronger than us!?
At bubble wrap and pea soup!?
OF COURSE WE WILL!
FOR WE ARE NIGHTMARES!
WILL WE DIE!?
OF COURSE WE WILL!
BUT WE DON'T GIVE A DMAN!
WHY!?
BECAUSE WE ARE NIGHTMARE KNIGHTS!
WILL WE CRY!?
WILL WE MOURN THE FACT THAT WE HAVE LOST THINGS!?
WILL WE DREAM THAT THINGS WILL CHANGE!?
OF COURSE WE WON'T!
WHY!?
BECAUSE WE WILL CHANGE IT OURSELVES!
WE WILL NOT STAND DOWN FOR LIFE TO ROLL OVER US!
WE WILL GLOMP LIFE IN ITS PLUSHY BARREL AND BOOP IT TO DEATH!
WE ARE GREATER THAN THE NIGHTMARES!
WE ARE GREATER THAN OUR ENEMIES!
WE ARE GREATER THAN OURSELVES!
WE ARE THE GREATEST EVILS IN THIS LAND!
OUR ENEMIES WILL SCOURN OUR NAMES!
OUR LOVED ONES WILL FEAR US!
OUR ONLY TRUE ALLIES WILL BE OURSELVES AND EACH OTHER!
BUT WE WILL STILL FIGHT!
FOR LOVE!
FOR DREAMS THAT WILL COME TRUE!
FOR BUBBLE WRAP!
FOR OUR HOME!
FOR WHATEVER COMES TO MIND AT THIS MOMENT WHEN I SAY HAPPINESS, PEACE, AND JOY!
WE ARE NIGHTMARE KNIGHTS!
THE GREATEST, MOST SINFUL, HERETICAL MONSTERS IN THIS LAND!
AND WHEN WE FIGHT WE WIN!
WE WILL WIN!
WITH SEXINESS!
6725552 the humans are all squad commanders as they act as anchors with out the humans all the ponies that are nightmares would lose control when they go nightmare
also to the author N92 is dead you killed her of last chapter ( i assume this is prior to the battle)
6728579 Here is the wiki page, me explaining it wouldn't do it justice, it's a real good game, nice characters. Has protagonist leading a cast of colorful characters. You can find it on steam.
*insane laughter* Cry out and let loose the nightmares of war!
Uh oh.
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Don't really now why I did that speech, hope you liked it anyway's
Now THAT is how you hype up the start of a war fic! When you can't help but let loose a cry along with the cast, you know it's going to be good!
Too bad it's immediately followed by the pissed off people you just woke up at 6 AM.
you should write more of this story
OP please end this hiatus. Or at least tell us why there's a hiatus. Or at VERY least, change the "Incomplete" tag to the "Hiatus" one. I ask you as a humble reader.
Good soundtrack.
Dead fic
damn another fine work that most likely will never be finished. sigh
...Holy shit this is gonna be SO DAMN GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!
6723409 ...*shiver* i'd hate to fight one of those fuckers
WAAAAAAAAAA WHY BRO WHY THE TEARS *sniffle* WHYYYYY
WE NEED THE NEXT CHAPTER ASAP... *salutes* Sir
next chapter please!
Well done sir. Can I only ask that you occasionally find dramatic music for those of us of advanced reading speed? I can finish a chapter in roughly 2-3 minutes, which isn't even close to being dramatically timed with the music you find.
I, too, would like to experience things as you, the artist, mean them to be read, but sadly I cannot due to my accelerated words-per-minute count.
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7278131 I feel your pain on the accelerated reading rate. I have 222 stories favorited on this site, and 832 favorited on FF.net. Some of those stories break a million words. Waiting for those to update is torture.
Can you upload a new chapter already
How dare you make me enjoy this so much than kill the story. :(
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[5 weeks]
Well, fuck
Reads the description Wait, who in Tartarus is Sunshine Smiles? And is Luna just a Unicorn instead of a Alicorn?
So this is PRINCESS Twilight?! Damn.