Nightmare Moon gazed at the doors surrounding her, she let a soft sigh escape her lips. There were eight doors, and eight ponies behind those doors. Six of these ponies were national heroes, who had saved Equestria four times. One of those doors belonged to her sister, the alicorn of the sun, who was half responsible for leading Equestria out of it's primordial age of chaos and disarray. The last door of course, belonged to Discord himself, the all powerful, almost all knowing spirit of chaos, who had plunged the whole world into chaos, not once, but twice, and had more power in his little finger than all the other ponies in this room added together. Standing in the hallway between all these great and mythical figures, Nightmare Moon felt... unworthy. She was unworthy, who was she to stand among these seven titans, and one literal god?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Horus rapidly telling her to stop crying. Oh. She was crying? I guess I wasn't paying attention. "Come on Miss Moon, you're more than them! Even now you're still only spoken of in hushed tones behind closed doors, and you're not going up against them all alone, you have me, your... friend?" Horus' voice seemed almost hesitant on that last word, adding in just the right amount of confusion and nervousness to make it seem like he'd never had a friend before. 'Hook, line and sinker' he thought eagerly, watching as Nightmare Moon was stunned by his proposition.
Nightmare Moon nodded. Horus, her friend, was right, she deserved to be here. She was going to show them what she could do, with that in mind, she headed towards the door containing the most powerful entity of them all: Discord. She marched towards the door, her jaw set. Nothing could shake her confidence now... except for when she heard a sharp intake of breath from inside her skull:
"um... yeah, let's just turn around. Not that I think you can't handle Discord, I just think... um... think you should work up to it. Yeah, let's go with that!"
Nightmare Moon turned around from her draconic friends door and came face to face with the door of the element of loyalty, Rainbow Dash. She gave a hearty chuckle, "ah yes, our polychromatic pegasus friend, I feel this one may be significantly easier than any of the others. From Luna's memories Nightmare moon saw Rainbows dreams, she commonly dreamed of fighting monsters, She should be able to slip in almost unannounced.
"wait, you're actually going to do this tactically? I was honestly looking forward to all the thunder and lightning. As well as all the shouts of: 'thou shalt not escape night's vengeance'... oh, well."
"Would you like me to do that?" Nightmare Moon asked, trying really hard to not betray just how much she wanted to.
"I tell you what, since this is RD and she dreams about stuff like that all the time... I'll let you do it this once." Horus' voice filled her head, resonating around so much that even after he stopped speaking, she still had a headache. She suppressed the urge to squeal from joy and dance around like a little filly, and instead schooled her emotions so she could act like the unholy matron of the night she was. She raised her hoof to Rainbow's door, and pushed it open.
She fell, she was plummeting to her death. She didn't have her magic, so she couldn't stop gravity, nor protect herself from the fall. She sank like a stone in a pond. Before she remembered she had wings, Idiot, she mentally scolded herself. Thou couldst have suffered serious injury. She then promptly facehooved again for not realising this was a dream and the fall wouldn't have done as much as ruffled her feathers.
"haha ahah aha AHAHAHA!!!" Her master's Horus' abrasive laughter thrummed inside her head. Somehow in perfect sync with each beat of her wings as she rose to gain a vantage point in the element of loyalty's dream. She was on the cloudsdale racetrack, the one usually reserved for the wonderbolts. The rainbow maned pegasus was surrounded by changling drones, fighting them off by the droves. Somehow knocking down at least twelve with one kick. Against the wall of a sports equipment storage area were the wonderbolts, trapped in that green, sticky goo those little bugs are so fond of making.
"Rainbow "The Coolest Pony To Ever Live" Dash, we need your help!" Spitfire, the leader of the wonderbolts pleaded. "We're not awesome enough to fight them off! Only a truly courageous and noble hero could fight them! Help us!"
Rainbow grinned, she was in her element, if you would pardon the pun. she shot off into the stratosphere, leaving the changlings in the dust, and then rocketed back down. somehow performing a double rainboom. As she sped downwards, leaving a double rainbow trail in her wake, she spread her hind legs out, and spun. corkscrew diving into the mob of changlings below her. The pure air pressure she had amassed crushed them like the bugs they were. As Nightmare Moon watched, jaw agape, wondering what exactly this could mean. She yet again heard the voice of Horus in her head.
"Oh, I better give you your powers back. he said belatedly. As the harbinger of the night felt a familiar warmth return to her body. The warmth of magic. Her magic. Returning to her, this was proof, whoever Horus really was, he kept his word, and that meant a lot to her. She raised her right forehoof, and sent magic cascading from her horn into it. Letting the pure cosmic power slosh around like it was water before she hardened it. Taking aim for that horrible rainbow mane, she let the ball of magic fly through the sky... until Rainbow Dash dived to the ground, landing on the soft cloudy surface of the racetrack. The sphere of magic sailed over the pegasus' head, and impacted into the measly amount of changlings left standing. Let's just say that they actually had less holes in them after that ball of magic finished disintegrating them. Nightmare Moon cursed under her breath, in a long forgotten language.
"Woah! Someone's angry! Oh, and just to let you know if I hear you curse near me again I will turn you into poison joke, and feed you to rabid timberwolves. If that's okay with you."
Rainbow Dash turned around, her magenta eyes alight with the adrenaline of combat. Those same eyes narrowed as she met her oldest of arch enemies, Disc- I mean, Nightmare Moon "Ha! Nightmare Moon? Was losing once not enough for you? I'll give you a right hook straight back into that moon of yours!" Rainbows' voice bellowed, heavy with the confidence that this was just a normal dream.
"Thou ungrateful whelp! Dost thy ignorance know no bounds? Insulting a princess, you should be convicted of high treason, but It seems I shall have to beat you myself this time."
"You beat me? Well, to be fair you could probably do that..." Rainbows voice seemed to trail off, before coming back in full force "IN YOUR DREAMS! OOH! DARN! Ya didn't see that one coming, did ya?"
"She has a point you know, you walked right into that. Kinda pathetic if you think about it. The Scourge of Darkness, being beaten by a common pegasus, why don't you show her who's boss?
Nightmare Moon moaned, at first the prospect of a long dramatic fight seemed interesting, but now all she wanted to do is get things done.
"Show us thy best then, you illiterate imbecile!"
"You can't even speak proper Equestrian! you... jerk!"
"Jerk? You mean like you were, when you bullied poor miss Fluttershy during flight school?"
"Grrrr, I'm gonna grind you into dust!"
The rainbow maned pegasus pawed the ground with a hoof like a bull preparing to strike. Her nostrils exhaled steam, like a voracious dragon, and her face had an eerie calm on it. Like that of a snake preparing to strike. She charged right at Nightmare Moon, head down, wings flexing furiously. She gave a mighty bellow of rage (it was more like a grunt really,) and leaped, intending on separating Nightmare's head from her body by head-butting it. She was inches away from Nightmare Moons armour, when an astral veil, much like luna's mane surrounded her, safely teleporting her to Horus' dream room.
"What!? That's it? well, at least she's dealt with." There was a pause, Horus seemed to be contemplating his next words very carefully. "Ah, Miss Dash has arrived in my room just now. Thanks, Lu - I mean... Nightmare Moon."
Nightmare Moon growled, just the mere mention of that name had raised her blood pressure by at least 20 percent. She headed out of Rainbows' dream, which was starting to fracture, and crack. Slowly falling to pieces without a subconscious mind to power it. She sped towards the door and smashed through it completely, rolling to a stop a good five feet from where she was originally. She turned her head to see Rainbow's door vanish from sight. Fading into the same astral white background of the dreamscape. She looked around at the seven remaining doors, and decided that it would be best to get Twilights encounter over with. She headed towards the door that was literally a giant book.
"Someponies say that a book is a portal to another world..." His voice seemed deafening in the pure silence of the hallway. "I wonder where this one will take you to?"
She looked at the book - door, around the edges it had a thorny bramble design, with a title emblazoned in gold writing: 'Et in figura dicitur saeculum imperio magicae' Horus and the night queen both let out low whistles, Nightmare because she could tell this was an incredibly advanced magic textbook; only certain spells even required an actual incantation, and only super powerful spells were wrote in the old tongue, (like the ones for raising the moon). Horus let out a whistle because he could actually read the title. And because he knew what the book contained, he used to have a copy of it on his bedside table... but that was before his bedside table was burned to the ground. With his castle. Nightmare took in a halting breath, speaking out loud to calm herself. "This should theoretically be the easiest battle, Twilight is apparently an immensely powerful spell-caster, but power is meaningless in the dream realm. Here, I am god. The only real problem will be Twilight's new earth pony strength and her ability to fly."
"Can you even call it flying?"
"If it's as bad as Discord was saying then... no. I don't think you can.." She allowed her voice to trail off before pausing yet again. What were these random attacks of self doubt? It was almost as if she didn't want to do this. She remained there staring at the wall for what seemed like hours but in actuality was only a couple minutes. Not that it really mattered, time was relative in the realm of dreams. It moved as slow as a fly caught in amber. Miss Moon could've been staring at that wall for an epoch before a decade had passed back on Equestria.
Horus, while In the safety of his dream realm sighed. This pesky, puppet princess's morals were too strong. He frowned, deep in contemplation. Before a smile split his features, it was a freakish sight. Unnatural even. His mouth was too far apart, showing his teeth in an almost painful grimace. It looked as if his lips were held apart by tiny, almost invisible, black strings. Horus decided to exercise his power over Luna. Whereas before it had barely been enough to make her obey his commands, now it was powerful enough for him to be able to project his magic from her.
Nightmare Moon started, she felt something wrap itself around her ankle. Glancing down, she saw what appeared to be a piece of gossamer. On closer inspection it revealed itself to be a string. An almost invisible string. One that was stretchy like elastic, but could be as sharp as a piano string. It guided her hoof up towards the book - door and pushed it open. She bowed her head, and ducked inside.
She was immediately amazed at what she saw. She was standing on a vast island of books. Which was somehow floating. The air was just perfect, allowing a crystal clear view of all the surrounding landscapes, it also felt incredibly nice to simply breath it. The air was light, yet full. She couldn't describe it, it was too good to be put into words. There were steps in front of her. This time made out of polished marble studded with sapphires of the clearest blue she had ever seen. She had one word for this place: Harmony. A fitting name for a kingdom ruled by the Princess of Harmony herself. The land beneath her is an endless expanse of the greenest pastures she has ever seen with the occasional break for rolling hills. She looks to the sky and is astounded at what she sees. All the constellations are laid out. All of them. Even though she changed them every century. The astral diety couldn't even imagine how much research Twilight had done on her constellations, suddenly a wave of affection came over her. She couldn't place quite where it came from. Be it the surroundings, the feeling of peace in the air, the memories it sparked up within her, or something else. She felt tears come to her eyes for the first time in years. Tears of joy, tears of sadness, it didn't matter, all that mattered was the Moon Princess sobbing her eyes out and hidden amongst those sobs, were small twangs, it was the sound of a million strings snapping and disintegrating, as well as a crack as the guise of Nightmare Moon fell off. These noises went unnoticed to the now restored Princess Luna, the noise however did reach someponies ears, and that pony wasn't best pleased.
Horus was livid. Not only did he have to deal with his imbecilic associates, not only did the first stage of his plan have to be carried out tonight, not only did his plan hinge on the very uncooperative night princess doing her task properly, but on top of all that, he had an itch that he couldn't reach. Eventually quelling the itch with a simple burst of magic, he realised that there was an easy solution to at least one of his problems. the old adage: "if you want something done properly, do it yourself." came to the forefront of his mind. He scoffed, that saying was nearly as old as he was. He needed to capture the newly restored Princess Luna, the only problem was, leaving this room would not be good for Rainbow's sub-conscious trapped within it, as it would fall to pieces without somepony who could control dreams in it. Rainbow was currently entrapped in a dark, crystalline cage, unconscious, and bearing a few scratches and bruises for sure, but very much alive. Horus pondered how to solve his little conundrum, before eventually realising it was simple. All he needed to do was use a simple spell that would link Luna with Rainbow, who was currently unconscious. Therefore making her unconscious as well. Of course, they weren't really unconscious, with their dream-selves being their subconscious mind, it was more like there brains were shut down. But frankly he didn't really care what terminology he was using. All he needed was to perform this simple spell... which wasn't actually that simple.
Horus groaned, this plan was going to be harder than he thought, like Luna, Horus was not asleep, but meditating, he was in a trance, so to speak. This allowed him to shape his dream as he saw fit, to far greater extents than even Luna could go... mainly due to his control over the mind. While in the dream realm, he didn't really use up any of his magical energy, (which was good because he barely had any), rather his 'magic' was powered instead by his imagination. Which, although it would allow him to take on anypony who dared to enter his dream. Would literally be useless against somepony who was in another pony's dream. This meant he would have to use his real magic, which would be almost impossible, merely accessing it would probably wake him up, then his plan would fail and Rainbows' subconscious would... actually he had no idea what happened to a subconscious trapped inside a deteriorating dream. He grinned, there would be time for experiments later. Focusing his will, he attempted to channel his real magic into his real, physical horn. Horus winced, he could feel his dream tremble, he was waking up! All his planning, for over a thousand years were useless! he tried to fight back against the urge to snap out of his trance but it was impossible! No. He wouldn't allow this, his eyes narrowed, his wings spread out, he felt a searing pain as the eye symbol was branded onto his forehead, just below his horn, which now sparked and smoked ominously. His greyish fur seemed to disintegrate, as it blackened and burned, before turning into a glossy, black, which could rival even the blackened heart of Sombra. Horus- no, Asmodeus, for that is what he is now, was enraged beyond reason, he had all this power, and yet his own mind was betraying him. He wouldn't let this happen. He was Asmodeus. He was a God. He was the master of his own mind! And with an earthshattering explosion, that sent shockwaves around his dream, causing the growths of blackened quartz that had sprouted up from the ground during his transformation, to shatter and slam into the walls. In all the commotion caused by his ascendance, he didn't notice that the strings that once covered his body had multiplied, there was now thousands of them, looking as intricate as a spiders web. His eyes glowed a sickly emerald colour, with a haze of black smoke coming from the corners of them. he finally broke through the barrier that was holding him back. His dream ceased to tremble, he could feel his real magic! Focusing greatly, he reached deep into his magical core, and felt a rush of clarity flood his mind. he was able to see everything. From the dust particles in the air, to the foolishness of his own plan.
Linking Rainbow and Luna was foolish, Luna would probably resist the charm. Knocking Luna unconscious and then leaving his dream to do the job himself was foolish, with no - one to keep the dream stable, it would collapse. Asmodeus grinned, a plan forming in his mind. He exercised his 'real' magic, letting it coalesce around his horn, it was a pitiful amount of power, but alas, one cannot expect to have a high power level after one has been imprisoned for millennia. He magically scanned around the room that his physical body resided in, and found what he was looking for. Asmodeus let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, letting the magic from his horn grab the object in question. before using an incredibly powerful but cheap spell that allowed him to bring the object into his dreamscape. It was a plain hunk of rock, to the common eye it would seem to be made of granite. But to a trained magic user from times past such as Him, it was a lethal weapon with no equal. Capable of even harming literal gods such as Discord. With his mind powers he reached out into Luna's thoughts, and easily overpowered her minds natural defences. Contrary to popular opinion, it doesn't become harder to control someponies mind the more you do it. It actually becomes easier, although it also becomes easier for them to break that control. With Luna now under his complete control, albeit only temporarily, he forced her horn to light up, making her teleport to him.
Luna blinked, she was taken from what seemed to be Paradise, to a cold, emotionless expanse of nothing, the only thing around her was an endless amount of black smog. She shivered. Where the last dream had seemed warm and had filled her with such a feeling of happiness, this one was... empty of any emotions. It wasn't particularly harsh, it just seemed... apathetic. She glanced around at the black smoke, still in shock from not only being mind controlled twice, but also from being forced to come here. The smoke to her right parted, and Hor- no, Asmodeus stepped through. His mouth was open in a Cheshire grin, his pearly white teeth on full view. Luna recoiled, broken out of her reverie by his appearance, before she could react Asmodeus spoke: "Luna, here's the deal. I am going to leave this dream, you will remain trapped within it. Any questions?" Luna's eyes narrowed, she snorted, steam actually coming out of her nostrils, and charged.
Asmodeus just stood there. Stock still. Luna neared him, a feral growl tearing itself from her throat. She swung her right forehoof at his face, hard. Only to be met with thin air. She gasped, and immediately turned around, expecting him to teleport behind her to retaliate. What she didn't expect to see was a giant sign saying 'behind you!! Luna pivoted so fast she almost broke the sound barrier, with a hoof raised to defend herself. Asmodeus smirked, easily anticipating her next move. With barely any effort at all he swept aside her upside hoof, before delivering a punishing blow to her ribcage. Sending her rocketing straight through several walls conjured by Asmodeus' imagination. After coming to a stop at least 30 meters away from Asmodeus. Luna rose silently, albeit with a wince, she then immediately took to the air with two beats of her powerful, blue wings. Charging at Asmodeus. Asmodeus teleported directly above Luna before performing a nigh impossible ninety degree turn and slamming both of his forehooves into Luna's back. Sending her directly into the floor, cracking it.
Luna raised her head. The world around her swam and spun before coming into sharp focus. She struggled to her feet, and wished she hadn't. The pain was almost unbearable, she was sure that if she wasn't in a dream, She would've broken her back. Asmodeus continued to advance towards her, she sent out a cluster bomb of magical projectiles. Asmodeus simply disappeared. She turned her head, without teleporting Horus had managed to get 50 feet away from the magical beams! How? She lowered her head, he was too fast. Unfortunately for him, he had forgotten about the magical homing cluster bombs that were heading towards him. They barreled into his side, each one exploding, sending him further backwards. He got up, his movements seemed a blur to her eyes. He advanced towards her slowly, stalking her, like a leopard.
His eyes glinted dangerously, black smog seeming to pour from them unendingly. She remembered the old mares saying: the eyes are the window to the soul, and shivered. He was almost upon her now, his hoof raised above her leg, ready to strike it and probably break it. he brought his hoof down, intent on shattering it, before it was blocked by a shimmering, cerulean shield. the shield slowly expanded,, casting her entire body in a dark blue glow. Asmodeus seemed quite annoyed at first before smirking, raising his hoof, he stomped down on the barrier, causing one singular crack to run along it's surface. Applying her magic to the affected area sealed it up tight. Asmodeus just grinned and brought both of his front hooves up, before bringing them both down as fast as possible in a staccato flurry of speed and power. Again and again. Now to a normal pony, rapidly pummeling into a shield created by a being who raised the moon twice a day, would probably break their forelegs, to an alicorn it would probably hurt. A lot. But Asmodeus was neither of these, he was using his mind powers to supress the pain his body was feeling, as well as how tired he was from the fight. He would doubtless pay for it later, but he'll burn that bridge when he gets to it. With an ear splitting roar, Asmodeus brought both of his hooves down on the barrier that Luna had mended about five hundred times already. Reducing it to magical dust. Luna quickly formed another barrier around herself, and another, and another, this much overuse of magic would usually cause her to have a major horn-ache at least, but she had set the shields to only block Asmodeus' hooves, therefore reducing the amount of magic needed to power them. She didn't notice the piece of granite that was hovering behind her, it slipped through her shields without a sound before ramming into the back of her head. Knocking her out of her own shields. Asmodeus grinned joylessly, seeming to recline back onto the shadows that always followed him, before he spoke: "Luna, I will give you one last chance, I don't want to hurt you, not really. I want to help you, what I am doing is in everyone's best interests."
The princess suddenly realised her one way out of this. This was a dream, and she was the most powerful dreamweaver to ever live. She would not fail in her duty to protect her subjects! She cast her horn forward, divine light surging from it, casting the entire area in an incandescent glow. The light got steadily brighter. Soon reaching the potency of a thousand stars, Luna dared to look up at Asmodeus, and discovered that he was terrified. He was cowering before her might. Fear adorning his face! With a wordless scream, Luna sent the ball of magic cascading from her horn. It raced towards Asmodeus, breaking the sound barrier and causing a sonic boom, before... dissipating. She stared in shock. That was the same spell which she had used to almost one-shot Celestia as Nightmare Moon, and it just disappeared.
Asmodeus headed towards her, with each step the darkness slipped off of him before rejoining the black fog that always surrounded him. Disappointment clear on his face. Horus took a deep breath and said: "Really Lulu? Did you forget I still have control of your dream magic? But... If you stay here while I take care of your friends, I might give you it back. So, are you going to cease this insufferable nonsense?"
Luna quailed, her sense of courage evaporated. This... goliath of a pony had bested her in every sense. He was unbelievably fast. He had the speed of somepony who both knew exactly what you were thinking, and had years- no, centuries of military experience. Real military experience, not the pathetic amount of training that the solar cub scouts went through. She knew she was outmatched, even Celestia wouldn't have much of a chance against him. She could just escape the trance, but who knows what would become of Rainbow Dash? Or the others he no doubt would capture? She knew she only had one choice, she had to do as he desired, for the greater good. Luna bowed her head, her astral mane floating over her face, covering her eyes. She hadn't felt this helpless since the Nightmare's had corrupted her. She licked her dry muzzle, and spoke. "Yes... I shall wait here and ensure this dream doesn't collapse to pieces while you collect the rest of my friends."
"Great, have your magic back... Oh, and if you try to use it to get Miss Dash out of this dream, I'll know... and you won't like what happens next." With this last threat, Horus simply stepped out of the door that connected his dream to the dreamscape. Luna remained inside the room, exerting her will to ensure that her and the still unconscious Miss Dash's soul wasn't lost to Oblivion. in the seclusion of the dream, no - one noticed the tears that slowly trickled down her face. No - one, but me that is.
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Horus strolled through the dreamscape, looking at the three remaining doors left, one in the shape of a spell tome, another in the shape of... a pop - out book? I could've sworn it was a gingerbread house door before, and a giant castle before that, as well as the boring, almost plain looking marble door that denoted Princess Celestia's room, it gave off a slight glow, but even that was unable to pierce the veil of darkness that surrounded Horus wherever he went. He had dealt with the other element bearers easily enough. Applejack was a bit tricky, she was as strong as he was, if not more, and Pinkie Pie was... unpredictable to say the least. She actually pulled out a dubstep gun at one point, but it's hard to beat someone who knows your every move. Horus smirked, he was unbeatable he hadn't even been using his magic, and yet he was still able to predict her moves, and move around them like he was the air itself. He decided to pay Twilight a visit next.
She would be easy, threatening to hurt her friends unless she came with him was probably a good idea.
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That was not a good idea. Horus narrowly dodged another magenta burst of magic which exploded behind him with the force of an average pipe bomb. Causing the books that made up the very foundations of one of the many floating islands that were dotted around Paradise to crumble, reducing the island to ash. Twilight and him were engaged in an aerial magical firefight. For once, Horus felt like he had met his match. He couldn't attempt to mind control her, she was far too enraged by the news he had captured her friends. He did a barrel roll and watched another purple beam of magic narrowly fly past him. Only for it to stop in mid - air and loop around, hitting Horus right in the rump. Horus fell out of the air, before smacking straight into one of the many book islands. With his horn now impaled through a copy of mating habits of the common draccus, he slowly stood up, before casually disintegrating the book around his horn. "Time to get serious." Was all that came out of his mouth before he turned into Asmodeus once more. The dark veil that usually followed him was swallowed into his very soul, turning it blacker than pitch. He ascended through the air with a mere thought and turned to smoke, letting a bolt of purple fire fly through him. As he re - solidified, he shot twenty beams of shadow out of his horn, Twilight saw them coming and conjured an amethyst shield to stop them. Unfortunately for her, as soon as the bolts hit the shields they exploded like firecrackers, shrouding her in a dense smoke. Coughing heavily, she was taken by surprise when two pairs of hooves wrapped around her barrel and drove her into one of the book islands. As Twilight limped to her feet, she noticed something. This new villain had no scars on him at all. His sleek, charcoal black coat didn't have a hair out of place. She levitated approximately half of the book island into the air, before sending it rocketing towards him. To Asmodeus these books might as well be stuffed toys for foals, he saw them as if they were moving in slow motion, easily stepping around them. His motions seemed like he had done this countless times before.
Twilight couldn't believe it. He had survived that barrage of books, without getting hit by even one of them! He continued to walk towards her. Then, she noticed something strange. Every unicorn (or alicorn) has a "magical aura" as Princess Celestia had called it. This was what they used to... levitate objects, for example. Everypony's aura is different, The Princess's was warm and loving, Luna's was slightly unnerving, as if it made all the hair on her body stand on end, and Discords seemed to be everywhere at once, it always changed as well. She remembered how, when he sided with Tirek, his aura was oppressive. It seemed to crush you by it's very presence, and Twilight believed that that was Discord holding back. But with Asmodeus, you couldn't even feel his aura. It could be because she was dreaming, or it could be because... well, she honestly had no idea, but still, there was something strange going on there. As he slowly walked towards her, Twilight felt a sense of dread, if this was a dream, then why wasn't Luna saving her? Then again, Asmodeus had said he had captured her. Which meant he was real, unless this was just her imagination making this dream up. Why was dream philosophy so hard!?
"Come on Twilight, I'm giving you the chance to protect your friends here." Asmodeus smirked, a predatory grin adorning his muzzle. "You did the same thing with Tirek, didn't you? Surely you want to be with them in their time of struggle?" Twilight faltered, her eyes going wide. Asmodeus just chuckled, he had her now. "So, the way I see it, your choice is simple, come with me willingly, or I drag you there."
Twilight gulped, she didn't know why, but she had such a feeling of cold dread. She had faced worse than Asmodeus, right? She had faced somepony who possessed the whole world's magic for Celestia's sake! And yet... she couldn't shake the feeling that she needed to go with him. She knew it couldn't be mind controlling powers, those were outlawed by Celestia after she took the throne from Discord. Although the spells were still taught to unicorns, they were never to be used. The princess had had a very strongly worded conversation with Starlight after that particular incident. I'm not sure she thought. what if this is some kind of omen? It's not like I could beat him anyway, I think he could tank just about anything I could throw at him. Well, except for the friendship beam, but I need to be with my friends for that to work! With her mind made up, Twilight called out: "Fine I'll go with you, but if you harm my friends... I'll make you pay." Asmodeus just grinned, he was invincible this pathetic brat couldn't hope to harm him. "So... how are you going to get me to my friends? Are yo-" before she could even finish her sentence, Asmodeus had teleported her to his dream, and knocked her out.
As the shadows fell off of him, turning him into Horus once more, he voiced his thoughts out loud. "Well, only two to go, Celestia will be easy, she still feels guilty about the whole Nightmare Moon incident, so I'll be able to guilt her into joining the others. As for Discord... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."
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A note from the ever lovable Discord:
Hello everypony! Did you miss me? Well no matter, because I've decided that I'm going to take over this little portion of the story, I mean, what's a semi - corporeal, metaphysical spirit compared to me? I'm OBVIOUSLY the better narrator! So with this, I bid you good day. Arrivederci!
As Horus expected, Celestia was easy. She was about to go all "Celestia Ex Machina" on him but after finding out that he had beat pretty much everyone, she looked a lot less confident. Maybe his mind control powers had something to with that as well (hehe). So now we find Horus in the dreamscape with only one door, minus his own, left. It had now taken the form of an invisible door that was only visible when you were doing backflips on a Sunday while yodeling the draconian alphabet semi - backwards (what? so maybe I'm a little paranoid about ponies invading my personal privacy) thankfully Horus had a lot of experience in pushing past illusions, and this was one of those instances where it came in handy. He raised his hoof to the door and sighed. "I am so going to regret this."
Horus walked into a land of pure (beautiful) chaos, that is the only way I can describe it. Pigs were flying, houses were rotating, avocadoes were field trips, and meaning had no mea- oh, sorry I almost slipped into tacky villain mode. He watched the chaos in pure awe, obviously too stunned at the beauty my mind can create. Before he set his jaw, and ventured forward. He got quite far, kudos to him... He even managed to figure out that the floor wasn't really lava, it was just orange soda. I wonder how he did that? I mean there was even a sign that read: 'this area of floor is boiling hot lava, do not touch. It's a shame really. And so it was, that Horus, who stole his name directly from another mythos by the way, came to be rather annoyed. He eventually just gave up on searching for little old me and just shouted for me instead. "Discord! I can hear you narrating my life! I would rather you stop it." Naturally I assumed he was just another father who wanted me dead because- "Discooord!!" He bellowed. "Come out." Groaning I teleported into his view. Well, I say teleported, but I actually appeared riding an old rocking pony shaped like Sunbutt, except instead of walking, the pony rolled like a bicycle. If a bicycle had cheese as wheels that is. I gave my signature winning smile, my snaggletooth hanging over my lips, surprisingly this only infuriated Horus even more. I wonder why? "Discord I'm just going to skip the part where I explain why you're going to come with me, and just ask you to come with me instead."
I inhaled through my nose, using my predator senses (that, unlike Spike's actually work). I was immediately assailed with the stench of corruption and dark magic, but... that wasn't all, I could smell power, it was a strange smell, it varied by what type of power the person possessed, powerful mages tended to smell like the type of power they had. Fire mages smelt like smoke, water mages smelt like sea salt etc, etc, nobles tended to smell like a cloying perfume, which was far too sickly and sweet. Horus smelt like true power. I could sense his magical power, but it was a smell that I have never encountered before. It smelled nice, but that's really the only thing I can say about it. His blood smelt like gold, he knew what it was to have true wealth. His breath carried the scent of blood, a tangy, coppery scent that sent chills down my spine, he was definitely a warrior, he seemed like he had been in countless wars. I took a deep breath and pushed past all the dark magic that ran through his veins, the horrible scent offended my nostrils, and what I found took my breath away, literally. Deep inside him was a furnace of rage and pain. Somethinghad happened that had made him want to see the world burn to ashes around him. Unfortunately, I, the great Spirit of Chaos, don't possess mind reading powers, even if I did Horus had so many wards on his mind that I doubt I would be able to get anywhere near it.
I looked up from where I was painting some high quality shipping material of Horus and Chryssie snuggling each other, what can I say? They're too cute. I cleared my throat and addressed him: "look, I find it noble that you're trying to: 'make the world a better place' with your villainy, it's certainly better than what I did when I was evil, but the answer is the same: No." Horus just swallowed, as if he knew it would come to this all along, "Fine." He called out, "but I won't fight you, Discord. I fought Luna because I needed her to do as I said, I fought the element bearers because they started it, truthfully it hurt me to fight them, they reminded me of some of my friends from so long ago. But I won't fight you Discord, because I know you. And I owe you a debt that I will never be able to repay. I have no quarrel with you." These were the last words Horus managed to say before the floor beneath him shot up into the air, revealing the massive spring that I had placed underneath it. Horus flew up into the stratosphere, he looked down and saw the floor, so far away, he gulped audibly, he had a rather irrational fear of heights, or rather, falling. Thankfully he didn't fall, he landed on a cotton candy cloud. "phew, that couldn't have gone better, now all I need to deal with is the fact that this is never going to get out of my coa- oh wait, this is a dream, forgot about that." Sadly Horus didn't see the giant white banner above the cloud; 'FREE BOILING HOT CARAMEL RAIN'. So he was rather surprised when he was coated in boiling hot caramel that stuck to his coat and feathers, rendering him unable to use his wings to stop his fall. He was also covered in sticky, hot liquid that singed his fur and mane, burning through it and then hardening onto his skin to stop him from moving completely, but that's not as important. he fell to the ground, and landed with a massive 'THWUMP' I love that word, thwump, thwump, thwump. it's fun.
His impact also caused a massive crater that was roughly pony shaped. Horus rose unsteadily out of the hole, his feathers and fur burnt beyond all recognition. His mane still had spots of hardened caramel in it. "I knew this was going to be a bad idea," Horus commented. "I... actually can't be bothered with this. Where's the exit door?" I took this moment to appear before him, "I moved it. Oh don't give me that look, you really thought I would let you escape so soon after kidnapping Fluttershy?" I leaned forward, my eyes glowed demonically, I was literally face to face with Horus, who rather than being even slightly annoyed, merely looked accepting of his fate, I... couldn't go through with it. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to turn him into a pair of slippers or something, but... there was something off about him. Other villains, Sombra, Tirek, Me, Chrysalis... we all gave off an air of evilness, but Horus just looked like a little lost colt. What I'm trying to say is he didn't seem like a villain, I knew he was evil but... he didn't seem like it. I couldn't do it. I just couldn't.
I turned around, facing away from him and watched as the landscape dissolved, turning from the land of chaos that it once was, into a standard reception area you might find in a 3 or 4 star hotel. there was a set of sliding doors at opposite the reception desk, which I was currently at. I look up from the boring Sudoku magazine I'm holding and lazily gesture in the direction of the double doors. Horus looks at me, shocked, before striding regally over to the doors, and heading through them. When he thinks I can't see him, he slumps over miserably. I notice what's left of his fur blackening. Horus looks down at his hooves sadly before he's replaced by something else. I feel an icy chill enter my heart, I feel like I've seen this before. And I didn't like it the first time.
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I now interrupt your irregularly scheduled narration to bring you back to your normal narrator
Horus strode angrily back to his own mind door, it had hurt him to go against Discord like that, but it hurt him even more to have Discord not remember any of what he did. He slammed the door open, immediately seeing Luna lurch away from her sisters side and back to standing on guard. Horus could have reprimanded her, but couldn't really muster the energy to do it. Using his imagination, he conjured up his throne, it was a marvelous thing, made of polished rosewood that was so shiny you could see your face in it. It had a rich, velvet cushion full of cotton, which he promptly plopped down onto. The most spectacular feature of his throne however, was the back of it, it was shaped like an alicorn with it's wings spread out, at the apex of the wings and the tip of the horn was a singular, suspended light. Making lights was by no means a hard thing, most unicorn colts and fillies could do it, but this light gleamed like a star in the night sky... probably because it was made from a star. It also changed according to Horus' emotions, and right now it was rather muted. Horus sighed, the plan was in action. All he had to do was wait for the changelings to do their part. He hated changelings.
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Ditto grunted, she was a changeling, who had been tasked by her Queen to capture a list of certain people, she was heading to Ponyville, with a squadron of drones and two sentients to capture the Elements of Harmony, a crack team of infiltrators and combat experts were going to recover the two pony Princesses from Canterlot. Her squadron was flying in a V shape, to take advantage of the night sky and the extra concealment that it would bring, she felt an extra gust of wind and looked to her right to see one of the other two sentient changelings named Facsimile, flying beside her. He shouted to combat the noise of the wind going over their heads. "So, why are we goin' after the elemen's, again? Won't they just beat us like they did last time?" Ditto winced at the memory of their previous defeat. It had happened quite a while ago, but they had all been under the Queens' fury up until a couple weeks ago, when the shaman had shown up at their hive. She shouted back to her fellow sentient. "No, remember that zebra mare told us they would be asleep! And wouldn't wake up no matter what." Facsimile scrunched his face up, trying to remember. "I weren't there! I was sco- scou- doing undercover work in the dragon lands, remember?" Ditto cast her mind back before remembering, Facsimile, with his incredibly low intelligence had been perfect to go undercover as a small dragon. She groaned, she was going to have to explain what happened or Facsimile would never stop asking her about it.
"Well, it was a few weeks ago, and this zebra mare showed up to the hive, she was a funny type. Her black and white markings seemed to make a sun on her flank, almost like a cutie mark. Oh, and she spoke in riddles. Err- I mean rhymes..."
The Changeling Hive, A few Weeks ago
The changelings cowered in fear, a scouting party had come back and told the queen that they couldn't find any traces of Thorax, that was the third party to say that in two weeks. Their Glorious Queen was furious at the news. "Why shouldn't I just drain all of your love!? Give me a reason!" Chrysalis yelled as she pinned a sentient named Duplex to the rocky ground of their hive. The sentient was silent for a while before answering, "I don't have any, My Queen." was his miserable response, it was true, the changelings were slowly starving, and Our Queen knew that. Chrysalis's eye twitched. She removed her hoof from the changeling and hastily apologised. The assembled changelings quickly dispersed, lest the Queen see them gawking. They were abruptly stopped from doing that by an intruder just walking into their hive. Chrysalis looked up and gawked, how did a zebra get past their sentries? The zebra in question piped up and said: "Sheathe thy fangs, I come in peace, with a plan that is sure to make your hunger cease." Chrysalis looked up from where she was standing, interested she asked: "What is your plan, Zebra?" Zecora grinned, and I swear that the black and white stripes on her fur started to swirl around her, seeming like an optical illusion. Her eyes were the strangest thing about her though, they seemed to be pure white, with no pupils, and shadows coming out their corners.
"'Tis not my plan, but my masters, to bring all Equestria to the edge of disaster, He has many schemes in place, yet this one requires the help of Your Grace." The zebra ended. Addressing Queen Chrysalis directly. The Queen pondered for a couple minutes before smirking victoriously, "Why don't we talk in my personal chambers. You'll have privacy there." After saying this, The Queen rose from her seat and led the way to her chambers, with the zebra following her.
"Oh... I think I remembah someone saying sumtin' like that." Facsimile murmured. Ditto just rolled her eyes and continued flying,
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Horus, now very much awake, and very much real, watched as the prisoners slumbered in front of him, courtesy of the sleeping enchantment he had placed on them. He leaned forward on his "throne" and smirked. What he was doing might be evil, but it was for the greater good. When this all blew over, he'd be a hero for having to sacrifice his own morality to bring about a new age of peace and prosperity. It would all be worth it. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn't even hear the voice that seemed to come out from the shadows that surrounded him. "yes," It whispered, "Everything is going to plan." And with those words, The Darkness stopped talking.