//------------------------------// // ch0: Prologue // Story: Eternal Nightmare // by MeNoGoosta //------------------------------// The ruins of the old residence of the two royal sisters sure was scary. Especially since it was so dark. Twilight turned around to see the other five cross the bridge Rainbow Dash had repaired. Though it was dark and frightening here, they were all giggling and laughing like nothing had happened. She had to smile unconsciously as Pinkie Pie explained for the umpteenth time why cupcakes were the best thing in the world. But the smile soon faded away as soon as she looked back at the half destroyed building ahead of her. The Elements of Harmony ought to be in there. And, most likely, Nightmare Moon was inside as well. It's too dangerous for them. Twilight had lost count on how often the same thought had crossed her mind. But the longer she thought about it, the more certain she got that she had to do something, or else, somepony might get hurt. Oh, what do I do? Come on Twilight, think! There has to be a way to stop them following me, even if I have to restrain them somehow! Wait...that's it! Twilight cheered inwardly. Those hours of studying in the royal library in Canterlot weren't so bad after all. She stopped to wait for the others, letting them pass her so they wouldn't see her horn glowing as she started to cast the spell she had discovered just recently in an old book, hidden underneath a dust layer worth of at least fifty years. When the five friends noticed that the purple mare wasn't following them anymore, it was already to late. "Hey, come on! You'll fall behind if you just stand there! Huh? Hey Twi, what are you..." Rainbow was interrupted by a purple smoke that wrapped itself around the five ponies. "What tha hey is this!?" Applejack exclaimed, moving closer to the others. "Ah, why am Ah feelin' so dizzy all of a sudden?" Applejack wasn't the only one. The others were feeling weaker every second as well. The pony responsible for their dizziness was watching silently as her spell started to kick in, and one by one, her new friends fell down to the ground. When she was sure that all of them were fast asleep, Twilight released the magic and allowed herself a short rest. The spell had taken more out of her than she had anticipated and it took a few minutes till her breath returned to normal. She walked over to the ponies lying on the ground and studied them for a while. They didn't appear to be hurt and Twilight couldn't help but to let out a sigh of relieve. She hadn't know for sure that the spell was completely save, but looking at her friends, snoring peacefully, she managed to calm herself down. It's alright Twilight, you've done what you had to do, so stop worrying! According to the book, the spell would last twelve hours what gave her more than enough time to deal with Nightmare Moon. Giving the five ponies one last look, she turned to face the ancient building, which was now much closer than she had liked it to be. She gulped as she started to tread towards the entrance and, much to her dismay, closing the distance pretty quick. After a long and deep breath, she pushed the door open and entered. The purple mare instantly noticed the big pillar in the middle of what was once, probably, the throne room. Five arms pointed out of it in regular spaces. On each of them was an orb of maybe double the size of one of Twilight's hooves. She felt the excitement building up inside of her. I found them, the Elements of Harmony! She focused immediately and calmed herself down once again. She looked around, anticipating that the evil mare would jump out of any corner ore shadow. Nothing. No evil laughter, not dark blue mare that attacked her on the spot. Twilight looked back at the Elements and moved a little closer. The book in the library said that if the five first elements were present, a spark would reveal the sixth. She had thought about this pretty long but Twilight still wasn't sure what that passage meant. The same idea came to her mind again and in the end she decided to try it. The already exhausted mare started to levitate five the globes down one by one. After the last one Twilight had trouble in staying on all four hooves. That blasted sleep spell had used up a good amount of her still untrained magic and she started to wonder if she had made mistake. Shaking her head Twilight stared at the five spherical stones to her feet, noticing that all of them had a symbol on them. She instantly got curious about them, but shaking her had again she focused and shrugged off her curiosity. "Alright then, here I go." she thought and started to enlighten the Elements. From the distance, hidden in the shadows, the evil mare of nightmares watched the hole scene with amusement. Though she was wondering why that purple mare had entered the old castle alone, Nightmare Moon didn't really care. They could have come with an army and still wouldn't have been able to do her, the mare that broke free from the moon's icy grips, any harm. Her mirth grew when the mare had trouble in levitating the elements down from the pillar. How pathetic! With such weak powers thou hope to defeat me? Nightmare Moon decided to step in when that foolish little mare started to enlighten the Orbs. Now thou shalt experience true power! Twilight had a hard time keeping her magic steady. The raw magical power sleeping in her was incredible yes, but without proper training, a unicorn pony wasted far too much of it for even the easiest spell. And unfortunately Twilight never actually had any kind of training in the practical usage of magic since they learned only the theory of casting spells at the school for gifted unicorns in Canterlot. The Elements of Harmony were already glowing when Nightmare Moon's strike came. Twilight was thrown back by at least twenty feet. She quickly got up but froze instantly where she stood. There she was, the former mare in the moon, enthroned over the five orbs that symbolized harmony. An evil grin formed on Nightmare Moon's muzzle, quickly turning into a horrifying laughter. "Art thou scared, thou insolent little pest? I suppose yes, because I can smell thy fear!" Twilight was indeed cowering totally frightened. However, she managed to calm down and, rising again, glaring into the two dark lakes that were the evil mares eyes. "I am not afraid of you, Nightmare!" Twilight shouted, her trembling voice betraying herself."I will not allow you to continue and ram..." the sudden urge to leap aside probably saved her life when a dark blue beam hit the ground where Twilight had stood just a second ago, leaving a black smoking crater behind. The purple mare stared a moment at the hole in the floor, but a sudden pain emitting from her horn and thundering through her entire body made her double hover and she let out an earsplitting scream of sorrow. While Twilight was staring at the evil mares work, the latter hadn't hesitated and launched a blue lightning into the purple mares horn. Nightmare Moon would've continued with the torture, but a sudden outcry from the door made her stop. "Twilight!!" the called mare lifted her head and stared in disbelief to the gate of the castle. There they stood, the five ponies who should have been asleep for half a day. Outside the castle walls, a few feet away from the gaze they lay, motionless. The sky had gotten even darker than before and the moon hardly provided enough light to see a few feet in the distance. Suddenly Pinkies ears twitched. Slowly lifting her eyelids she looked around and immediately noticed her four friends lying on the ground. The pink mare stood in less than a second. "Hey guys, what's up? Why are you on the ground? Come one we got to teach that old meanie pants a lesson? Guys??" No reaction. Pinkie frowned at this. But then, a cheeky grin began to form on her muzzle. "Oh, I get it! You want me to get a response from you right? Alright then, get ready for some Pinkie tickling!!" and with that she started tickling all four at once. At first they didn't do anything, but soon they were all giggling and laughing so hard that they could hardly even breath. "Please...Pinkie...stop!! We... give...up!" Rainbow Dash spit out between her laughter. Finally, Pinkie stopped and they could all catch their breath again. "Wha' in tarnation was that for Pinkie??" Applejack exclaimed "Well when I woke up and found you all sleeping like little fillies a said to myself 'Oh, they must want me to get a reaction out of them', so I started tickling you" Pinkie answered in a single breath, with such innocence that the four ponies had hard time actually being mad. "Wait a minute" Rarity said "'Woke up'? Does that mean we were asleep?" "Yep, and pretty deep too! Never had somepony resist my tickling so long". The ponies looked at each other, save Pinkie Pie who didn't get where the problem in taking a nap was. "How come we were asleep?" Rarity asked curiously "and more important, where is Twilight?" the others let out a gasp as they noticed the mare was missing. "Must've been that purple smoke that enclosed us" Rainbow thought out loud "and since that blasted purple mare isn't here, I'd say it was her doing!" She concluded. They didn't get to be angry at Twilight as they heard a pained scream coming from inside the ruins. "Was that..." "Yes, it was! Quick girls, Twilight needs help!" they cracked the door open just to see the mare lying on the ground, bending over in agony "Twilight!" They all cried. The five ponies rushed over to Twilight. Applejack helped her up and Fluttershy immediately lost her fear and exclaimed: "Twilight, are you okay? Please, say something!!" "Girls...?" the purple mare responded weakly "But...how...why are you awake?? The spell shoul've lasted for twelve hours." "We'll have time for that later, as well as for some lecturing 'bout trust" Applejack gave back with a grim look, which turned to one of concern as Twilight let out groan of pain, even spitting a bit blood on the floor. Meanwhile Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Pinkie Pie had placed themselves between Twilight and Nightmare Moon and gave the latter the most evil stare they could perform. "Alright girls it's time we show that mare how Ponyville deals with ruffians like her!" Rarity proclaimed. All except for Twilight and Fluttershy, who was still to tending to the former's wounds, lined up. Rarity's horn began to glow, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were pawing with their hooves and Rainbow Dash spread her wings, ready for immediate take off. "No...wait...you will..." Twilight tried to hold them back, but Rainbow Dash cut her off "You've done enough Twilight. We'll take care of things here. Nopony hurts our friends without a proper beat up!" Too weak to argue, Twilight let her head sink back onto the ground. "Okay everypony, charge!!" and with that, the four ponies stormed towards Nightmare Moon. However, the latter only let out a small laughter. When the four friends had almost reached their foe, they were suddenly pushed back by an invisible power. "How pathetic! Didst thou really think thou couldst do anything against me? Ha!" blue lightnings were following her statement and suddenly the other ponies screamed in agony just like Twilight had a few minutes ago. Twilight looked at her friends in terror. They are suffering because I'm too weak. It can't end like this! It mustn't She started to gather the last reserves of magic in her. Nightmare Moon was too busy torturing her friends to notice Twilight's glowing horn. Then, when she had enough magic in her horn, she cast the teleportation spell and the six ponies disappeared immediately. Nightmare Moon stared at the spot the six mares had just been lying. She felt a growing anger in her. How dared they fleeing just like that! She had the sudden urge to take after those insolent little foals, but resisted and calmed herself down. She'd have plenty of time hunting them down once she was done with Equestria. The dark blue mare looked around and started to smile evilly. This place was perfect for her conquest over this land. The evil grin didn't fade away when she started to summon her minions. Twilight's teleportation was everything but accurate as the six mares found themselves at the border of the Everfree Forest instead of her Library. But at least they were save from Nightmare Moon's grasp for now. Applejack was the first to make a move after their sudden transportation through time and space. Since she was an earth pony she was effected the least by the lightnings which had emitted from the dark mare's horn. Shortly after, the others started to move again, except for Twilight. She had exhausted all of her energy and was too tired to even lift a limb. But she still could hear and understand her friends talking. "Oh, shit! What are we gonna do about that blasted mare?" Rainbow Dash was close to loosing her mind, but she couldn't help but laugh as Rarity scolded the rainbow maned mare immediately "I beg your pardon, Rainbow? Please, watch your tongue! Hey, what's so funny?" it was too hilarious. They had just faced death and the only thing Rarity seemed to care about was that they didn't swear. The five others were all laughing, even Twilight, though all she could do was a pained chuckle. It was Fluttershy who calmed down first and got serious again. "I think Rainbow Dash's question eligible. We can't do anything, can we?" "Ah'd say we'll head fer town an' warn everypony 'bout it. An' then we should get outta here quickly. There ain't anythin' we can do right now" the others agreed with Applejack. For now, their hooves were tied behind their backs. After that, Twilight started to pass out. Her mind got number any second and the last thing she could feel was how she got lifted up and was carried away by a strong orange mare.