We emerged from the abyss in a familiar, yet still incredibly foreign, forest. Chaotic energies permeated the air around us, toying with the weave of magic that lay just beneath the surface of reality, attempting to spread its vile corruption, to no avail.
I heard Andromeda breathe out a sigh of relief, and the coiling mass of magic that had surrounded me before was retracted into... somewhere, gently depositing me onto the forest floor below as I shrunk. Without the mist I felt... I felt weak. Every ounce of power I had felt during the transformation was suddenly stripped away, leaving cold, hard reality to take its place. I didn't have a horn. I was nopony special. I was a Thestral, not an Alicorn.
But for those brief moments?
I may as well have been Celestia herself. I had felt the power of a thousand stars coursing through my veins, just begging to be unleashed. I wasn't bound to a frail body of flesh and bone, and had become as close to pure magic as somepony could become. The cosmos had been bound to my whim, eager to spring to my command. For those brief, fleeting moments... I had been a god.
The feeling alone had been addicting.
Setting thoughts of power aside, I observed my surroundings. Dark, gnarled trees twisted and twined their branches together to form a vast canopy of nearly pitch-black leaves. The forest was dead silent, and not even the birds dared to chirp in our presence. Beams of pale moonlight shone through the messy shroud of vegetation and down to the thick, unkempt grass, providing barely enough light to see. Flowers of all shapes and colors surrounded us, from bells and roses to lilies and hollies. I could only describe the grove we were in as the perfect retreat; an area of pure, unadulterated peace and quiet.
"Where the hay are we?"
Forming herself from the mist, Andromeda's head looked around the small clearing we had appeared in. "The only place I knew we'd be safe. We are currently deep within the Everfree, near one of Luna and I's old havens. The only pony who would dare lay a hoof here is sitting on her throne, stuffing her face full of every sweet imaginable."
"Don't like Princess Celestia then, I take it?" I said, brushing some loose dirt off of my fur and checking my saddlebags. The vial still sat securely within, causing me to breathe out a sigh of relief.
Andromeda growled, the sound reminding me of metal being crushed. "She is a contemptible fool without vision, saved from a much needed lesson in humility by circumstance alone. Equestria has rotted in my absence, evidenced clearly by the insects who struck at us, and the sorry state of the Guard who attempted to prevent our escape. I would love nothing more than to show her the error of her ways... painfully."
I mulled her words over in my head, taking the time to examine my previous wounds, which had vanished during our transformation. "Speaking of the bugs, what the buck were those things?! They looked like a colt bucked a block of moldy swiss cheese!"
Her amused chuckle sent shivers rolling down my spine. "Not the most courteous description, but an apt one nonetheless. They are called Changelings, and they are one of the many cancerous growths upon Equestria that Luna and I sought to eliminate. They feed upon a pony's very emotions until they are naught but mindless drones, ready to be subsumed into the greater swarm. I thought we wiped out the last of the queens, but one must have slipped through the cracks."
By this point she had craned her "neck" around to look me in the eye. "Uh-huh... so they can just... what? Transform into ponies?"
She nodded. "Among other things. Their kind are masters of trickery and subterfuge."
I snorted at that, getting up and pacing. "So a species literally built on lying, that sounds great. Just my kind of bucking pony."
I could swear she smiled at my snark. "Verily. Come now, I know this location well. If we are to seize power and smite those who have wronged you, we must act quickly. I know for a fact that at least one of my followings has survived the ages, and with luck we will not have to look far."
I felt her tug me towards the north side of the clearing, my legs jerking until I walked that way of my own volition. "Wait, you were serious about all that? I thought you were just saying that to pull my leg."
She looked at me as if I had just insulted her dead grandmother. "Why would you think that? My kind are bound by the deals we make, and failure to abide by those contracts results in a... less than pleasant fate."
I gave her a look out of the corner of my eye, studying her face. "Riiiight... So these 'followings' of yours, they're just cults, right?"
"Cult just sounds bad, dear."
"Gotcha... so they're cults. What exactly do they even do?"
She let out a wistful sigh. "They were Luna's idea originally, but I grew to love them as my own all the same. We took in the poor, the hungry, and the sick. Any who felt they weren't wanted in Celestia's 'perfect' society were welcome in our domain. Mostly, 'twas foals that we took under our wing. I can remember each and every one of them with perfect clarity. I know not what has become of them now, however. I shall not speak of them further."
And so we began our trek through the underbrush. The silence of the forest was almost deafening, and even with my superior hearing I couldn't hear anything but the crunch of dead leaves and twigs under my hoof. It was the sort of silence that made every hair on the back of your neck stand on end, as if you expected some monstrous horror to pop out at any moment.
"Y'know, I really should be freaking out a lot more than I am."
I felt much warmer all of a sudden. "Mostly my doing, I will admit. You are of no use as a host if you are catatonic or mentally broken."
My face went deadpan. "Well that's just lovely. I assume you can do a whole lot more than that?"
"Correct."
We lapsed into somewhat of an awkward silence after that. It was a little spooky to know that she could just fiddle with my emotions like that, and I had the feeling I'd be a little bit more outspoken about this if I wasn't being forcefully calmed down by whatever magic she was using.
So I just kept walking, doing my best not to think about the life I had just left behind, or the bug ponies that had just tried to kill me, or the weird spirit... wraith... thing that I'd apparently picked up like a flea. I just focused on following the invisible trail that lay ahead of me, dragging my hooves through the undergrowth and paying half-attention to my surroundings.
It felt good to not think about any of that.
Snap. Snap. Crack.
I just kept plodding along, humming to myself, trying to stay focused on walking. Soon enough, Andromeda joined me, her own tune following my own.
I yawned, breaking my song. "So. This place we're going to. What is it?"
"A small fortress, one used by my most devout worshippers in days long since gone. It is the fortress wherein Luna and I bound ourselves together; an act that is of increasing rarity among my kind. She was... likely the best host I have ever encountered."
I cracked my neck, now intrigued. "Sounds like you miss her."
"I long for her company, even after all the time that has passed."
"Think you'll bother trying to reconnect with her once this is all over?" I saw a broken stone road ahead of us, which lead further into the woods. from what I could tell.
Andromeda went silent for a moment. "Perhaps. If I do, our reunification shall be engineered so that not even her sister, nor her ragtag group of commoners, could interfere."
She forced me to pick up the pace, and I was now sprinting at full speed down the path. Strangely, I didn't feel any strain from the act. It felt like I was sitting in a train cart. "Reasonable enough, I suppo—watch out for that tree!—suppose. So, what even are you? I've always assumed that Nightmare Moon happened because of Luna's jealousy and what-not, but you're tellin' a different story."
"A story for another time. We have arrived." And indeed we had, for far in the distance, there sat a small castle. Not too terribly extravagant or haughty for being a castle, but still a castle nonetheless.
"Nice lil' rinky dink place you've got there. I assume it's small for a reason?" I walked towards the stone structure with a pep in my step. Two castles in a month was a record, right?
"One of Luna's many cunning ploys, and one that worked. All of our larger citadels were targeted during the Rebellion, while the smaller ones were able to remain hidden or were deemed irrelevant by the Solar Army. To help mitigate the lack of space on the surface, we personally terraformed many of these locations, carving out vast spaces from the earth. The largest of these underground cities was constructed near the town you know as 'Hollow Shades.'"
That caused me to stop in my tracks. "You mean to tell me... that there's a large city, buried beneath the earth, right next to my hometown?"
"Indeed. Give me a moment, there are a few security measures we must bypass," she said, wrapping my whole body in the mist and transforming us into the large form of an alicorn as we approached the door. A large crystal sat in its center, lighting up as we grew closer to it. The center of the crystal emitted a bright light that shot towards us, scanning every inch of our body, before it glowed a bright green and disappeared from sight. Satisfied, Andromeda brought one of my hooves up and pushed the door open.
"The hay was that?" I asked her as we strode into the halls of the abandoned fortress. The interior itself wasn't anything too shocking or grotesque, it was just... empty. Like a bunch of crooks had come in and taken everything that wasn't bolted down. There was no finery, no pictures, nothing. Not even a single piece of furniture.
"Never mind that, this doesn't bode well. Only those with the proper artefacts should be able to enter these halls. Where has everything gone?"
We split apart into a cloud as she quickly dragged us to what appeared to be a war room. "By the stars! "Sweet Celestia!"
I don't think either of us expected what we saw.
There, on the back wall behind a throne, a guard had each of his hooves nailed to the wall, and many deep cuts marred his body. He had a bit in his mouth, and his eyes were missing. Foreign script was written around him in his blood, and the area around each individual rune was writhing with shadowy tentacles, but I was able to interpret their meaning through Andromeda's thoughts.
C̴̣̒ ̶̠̕O̷̥̾ ̷̫̈M̵͇̐ ̶̠̒E̶̹͂ ̸̙̾H̷̲̍ ̴̜̀Ó̶̭ ̷͛͜Ṁ̴͖ ̵̼͌E̸̼͌ ̸̪̾,̵̪̿ ̸̄ͅC̵̬̎ ̸̠͗Ḧ̵͕ ̵͉̋I̵̖̓ ̵̫͠L̴͙̔ ̵̣͊Ḓ̸͋ ̶͇̄O̵̼͆ ̷͕͌F̸̥̂ ̷͓̽T̶͓͠ ̵̺̽Ȟ̸͙ ̵̖̏E̵̘̐ ̷͙̌N̶̙͌ ̶͚̄Ì̴̠ ̷͓̋G̴͕͆ ̴̘́H̷͛ͅ ̵͍͗T̵͇̽
If spirits could heave, I think Andromeda would have.
"How far have you fallen, my dearest children?"
Why do I have a bad feeling that this is going to come back to haunt Evening Shade?
9831360
Naaaaaaaaaaaah, it's totally fine. Just ignore the giant Marker in the corner of the room.
9831388
That... doesn't quite help -_-"
9831431
Likely leftovers from Google Docs fuckery, thank you for spotting that! My editor and I had just gone through it last week and it's likely that some formatting issues occurred that we didn't notice. Edit: All fixed up there. I'll need to go through each chapter over the week and make sure that the issue was isolated to 3.
As for your theory... you'll need to continue reading to find out if its correct!
9831417
Shhhhhh. It's time for the rebirth, Isaac.
9831441
... God, it's the whole 'Make us whole' thing, isn't it?
9831448
I'll see how it turns out, but something along those lines may very well happen!
9831449
Hunh... Good to know.
9831453
Let's just say I'm going to be justifying the use of the dark tag in the coming chapters.
9831469
And your question shall be answered next chapter! Trust me, I'm not leaving any loose ends in that regard.
And I suppose the best way to summarize how Andromeda works in terms of feeding, without spoiling anything that is, would be like this. Rather than being like the Symbiotes from the VENOM movie, who consume biomass to sustain themselves, Nightmares feed off of a variety of different things, but will rarely ever take from their host. Now, I will elaborate on the pact between Evening and Andromeda in later chapters, but for now? None of that "I'mma eat you if you don't do what I say" stuff.
9831441
Hmm, that's odd... definitely looks like some weird thing going on with the suggestions here.
I'll go check it out
Why do people keep making Nightmare not originate from Luna?
9831499
Because it's a stylistic choice of mine that plays into the story and allows me to very easily set up sequels or side stories?
9831509
But hurts Luna as a character
9831517
I'd argue against that. Her rebellion is actually much more tragic for her as a character when you make it so that she didn't need to be manipulated or magically induced to betray her sister, and she instead chooses to do that on her own without a spooky scary magical demon telling her, regardless of potential consequences. Sure, she may have bound herself to the Nightmare, but in the end her actions were hers alone. All the Nightmare did was assist her with her own goals.
It makes "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?" that much more heart-wrenching when you realize that while Luna seeks to be loved, she doesn't believe she deserves any form of compassion or redemption during her acts as Nightmare Moon, because at the end of the day she chose that path for herself, and she knows that deep inside.
I don't think she needs to have created a magical demon to be good as a character. Sure, the magical demon route may absolve her of guilt, but that doesn't help her in a story sense at all, because she still created the magical demon, and she still hurt all those ponies.
Oh Jesus....
9832023
If you continue reading further, I do actually plug that hole in a roundabout way in chapter 7.
9831883
Time to earn that dark tag, baby!
9832209
Yeah.... It's time.... what was that blood message, what did it say?
9832308
Wait shit, you couldn't read it? I'll need to redo it once I get home.
It said "Come home child of the night."
9832312
No I couldn't read at all
9832313
Super weird. Frostwolf could read it... Did you read it on mobile or something? it looks fine on my PC.
9832330
.... you know that would explain it
9832332
Probably. I didn't think about people reading it on the phone
9832343
You being surprise
9832344
I have been swindled, hoodwinked, and quite possibly even bamboozled.
9832361
Ha!
9831536
That's what I mean. With nightmare not originating from her it weakens the fall of her.
9832457
I just explained how that wasn't what I was saying at all. Nightmare Moon was just what she looked like. Luna is in control the entire time.
9832471
Yet saying they are seperate..okay did nightmare moon exist before luna?
9832727
Yes. Further into the story I will go into more detail regarding Andromeda's origins, but she comes from an entirely different dimension than Equestria.
9832730
Not a big fan of that for it still hurts Luna
9832961
looks at movie this face is based off of.
looks at planned sequel to the movie the fic is based off of.
Pffft, naaaaah. Not a chance of a Carnage style antagonist for the sequel to this story. Nope. Not at all. Totally not.
9832919
I just explained why I didn't think it hurt Luna at all. It may make her seem more epic or cool for literally spawning a demon from her sorrow and rage, but it is far better for her character development as a whole, from a writing standpoint, if you don't do that, as I've previously explained.
9833022
No it takes away some of the blame.
9833121
How does her choosing to betray her sister on her own, without any influence from a magical demon, take the blame for her actions away from her?
9833153
That we don't know that
oh...hello Zalgo.
9834146
Which is what headcanons are for... Like mine, in this instance. Just like Octavia and Vinyl etc were headcanon/fanon until they were adopted by Hasbro as official characters.
9834250
Zalgo says "heyyyyy gurl!"
9836781
Yes. Yes they will. Next chapter specifically covers this!
When more AWESOME updates!?
9837042
I try my best to update the story every Friday at 6 PM EST, though that may change to Sundays at some point in the future.
Not bad.
Your first-person prose is good.
9838348
Thanks for the compliment! I've actually found it easier to do first-person and second-person than third-person!
9838562
Form follows function.
Third-person works well for either cinematic or distant viewing; first-person is heavily expressive with a reliance on voice. When our voice slowly becomes that of the character, thankfully, writing comes easily and, sometimes, more enjoyably.
Do please keep writing for us, ya hear?
~ Yr. Pal, B_25
9838589
I do intend to complete Nightmare, hopefully before the end of 2019, but that may not be possible. I have a few other projects lined up that I'd love to get your opinions on, if you have the time.
9838625
Of course.
Though take my opinion with a pinch of sal—oh.
9838650
*Addictive*.
Sorry. Pet peeve of mine.
I guess you could call them Children of The Night...