Midnight in the Heart of Equestria

by Wheller


Chapter 2: You Saw Me Standing Alone...

Chapter 2
You saw me standing alone...

Something was wrong.

A moment ago, Princess Luna was walking with Twilight Sparkle to Sugarcube Corner; it was the middle of the day.

Now it was early morning and she was standing on the outskirts of town watching the sun rise. Something was very, very wrong indeed.

Luna looked around, and saw a pitch black earth pony near the tree line. Amber eyes looked out at her; she had nearly missed him in the low light of daybreak.

“You!” Luna cried out to the earth pony, her voice filling with fear. “I remember you! I know who you are!”

“Yes. Yes you do,” Nightcaller said as he trotted towards her. “And then you forgot.”

Luna blinked; every feeling that something was wrong had washed away in an instant. “Oh hello! You startled me; I don’t see many ponies out at sunrise.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” the black earth pony said. “Please forgive me your highness.”

“It’s... quite all right,” Luna said. “Have we met before? You seem very familiar.”

“I don’t think so... I know you because you’re well... you, but I don’t think we’ve actually met in person,” the earth pony said. “My name is Nightcaller.”

Luna smiled at the stallion before her. “Pleasure to meet you Nightcaller.”

Nightcaller did not reply, as another voice, this one soft and meek filled the air.

“Hello Princess Luna... Um, I’m not interrupting anything am I?”

Princess Luna turned to look, Fluttershy, the shy, yellow coated pegasus was standing before her.

“Hello Fluttershy, I’m just enjoying the sunrise,” Luna said.

Wait. No. That didn’t sound right. Princess Luna was filled with a sort of Déjà vu. She felt like this had happened before, but it was different than it was supposed to be.

Nightcaller had disappeared, but Luna was not concerned by this, when she looked away from him, she’d instantly forgotten his existence.

“Are you all right Princess?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t know...” Luna said, unsure of what was happening.

Then it hit her. It was far too early for Fluttershy to be here.

Luna blinked again, and the sky was much brighter now, the sun had risen to the eight o’clock position.

“Who is that pony?” Fluttershy asked looking out into the distance.

Luna looked out into the distance. A single pitch black pony with an equally black mane and tail was walking towards them, a colt, no less. No more than 10 metres out. Neither Fluttershy, nor Luna had seen this pony before. Who was he?

The colt walked up to the two mares, gave each a look and smiled. “Ponies! I made it...” he said before passing out on the ground at their hooves.

Fluttershy’s jaw dropped. “Come on! We need to get him help! Help me carry him!” she cried out frantically. Luna had never seen the meek pegasus so excited... or had she? She was getting déjà vu again. Only this time she ignored it, this earth pony needed help, and she couldn’t just ignore somepony who had passed out at her hooves.

Luna and Fluttershy picked him up and carried him off towards the Clinic.

Luna blinked. She found herself in the ponyville clinic. The pitch black earth pony was awake, and speaking to an assembled group of Fluttershy and the rest of her friends.

“My name is... uh... Nightcaller, that’s my name. Nightcaller, and well, I’ve been walking for the last two months... I seemed to have, misjudged the distance between here and my last stop, because... Well, I ran out of food eight days ago, and had the last drop of my water two days ago. I barely made it here. When I came across you two I had just reached the point where I couldn’t go any further... If you hadn't been there, I might have collapsed from exhaustion and died with no one knowing I was even out there.”

Wrong! Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong! Luna knew for sure now. This had happened before, but it had not happened like this.

“WHO ARE YOU?” she screamed loudly at the bedridden earth pony, causing everypony in the room to jump in surprise.

Nightcaller merely smiled at her. “You know.”

Her memories came flooding back. She remembered now, she had met this pony before. He kept appearing where he didn’t belong.

“You might call it a dream...” Nightcaller said, he reached out his hooves towards the closest pony next to his bed, Pinkie Pie, grabbing her head and with a twist, snapped her neck. “I prefer, however, to call it a nightmare.”

Pinkie Pie’s body fell to the floor. The rest of her friends collapsed along with her, each of them dying from seemingly natural causes.

“This is wrong... This is so, very, very wrong!” She cried out.

“Yes it is,” Nightcaller said his voice rang with no emotion at all. “It’s wrong that you believed you’d escaped from us.”

Black smoke filled the room, Nightshadow and Nightsinger appearing from it, they joined their brother as they marched over the corpses of Luna’s friends, backing her into a corner.

“You’ve forgotten your own personal Nightmare. Now we’ve come to bring her back.” Nightcaller said, smiling coldly.

Luna’s eyes widened. “No! You can’t do that!”

Nightcaller could only chuckle. “Can’t we?”

The trio galloped at her, returning to their form of black smoke and entering the night princess’ body. Luna felt it as her body began to change, she cried out in pain as she was becoming something that she’d hoped would never see the light of day, or, more accurately, the dark of night ever again.

The cloud of black smoke lifted, Princess Luna was gone. Nightmare Moon had come again.

“It feels so good to be back, doesn’t it?” A voice whispered to her.

“Oh yes it does!” Nightmare Moon cackled. “And this night, these streets will flow with pony blood!”

Princess Luna could only watch in horror. Her Nightmare was in full swing, and she could do nothing to stop it. She couldn’t wake up.

The Clinic door’s burst open. The night had just fallen and many ponies were still out and about finishing up the day’s business. It was the last they would see.

“It’s Nightmare Moon! Everypony run!” a green coated unicorn cried out, the ponies panicked and galloped away in random directions.

Nightmare Moon charged the green unicorn, her longer legs caused her to close the distance. She lowered her head and speared the green pony with her horn. The first drops of blood had been spilled.

Nightmare Moon cackled insanely as she felt the unicorn’s life fleeing her, soon enough the pony was dead and Nightmare Moon shook the body from her horn. There was far more than where this came from.

“Lyra!” a crème coloured earth pony called out. Nightmare Moon turned her attention onto her.
“And ponies say I show no mercy!” Nightmare Moon called out. “I’ll show you the mercy of not having to live without her!”

Nightmare Moon charged the crème coloured pony, who didn’t even bother to make her death enjoyable by running. Nightmare Moon speared her as well, the crème coloured earth pony didn’t even whimper in pain.

“Bah,” Nightmare Moon said as the earth ponies life ended. “How boring! At least she could have made it somewhat enjoyable by screaming in pain, or crying or something!”

“It is of no consequence. There is more where that came from.”

Ponyville’s streets had become a river of blood. The town was burning and corpses were strewn about everywhere. Nightmare Moon was pleased with her handiwork.

“Forget ruling an everlasting night! This is so much more fun!” Nightmare Moon chuckled to herself.

“Aren’t you glad we came back to you?” The voice whispered to her.

Princess Luna, from her introspective seat inside Nightmare Moon’s mind let out a scream of No! It however fell upon deaf ears.

“Yes!” Nightmare Moon cried out with childish glee.

“We promise what we will never leave you, ever again.”