//------------------------------// // Recap // Story: Fury of the Night // by 10champ10 //------------------------------// The six could barely believe it. An alicorn bat pony that was specialized in fighting standing before them after demonstrating that he was a fighter against a manticore. Fear and respect were the only two words they could use to describe how they felt seeing him. The respect would go up as he talked to them. His comment about Celestia shook them. Twilight was shook the most. The fact he called her a fool. There was no way she could be one. But the comment about not having a backup plan, not training them for this. It made way too much sense to be avoided. It was hard faced truth. Which unfortunately cared not about feelings. Truth was truth. So why did Celestia wait last minute to prepare for her sister's return? This was not acceptable. The rest of the journey was rather dull till they got to the old castle. One that was once known as the Castle of Two Sisters. But has been abandoned since that fight a thousand years ago. It was still mostly standing. Needed a good amount of work to be fully functional again. Some of the roof caved in, walls falling in and overgrown with vines and some of the smaller plants. The other plants were unable to conquer the stone building. Rainbow Dash took off to take care of the bridge, though Night could tell something was off and before any of the others could ask him anything he had taken flight to a stone wall that was barely visible from where the five were standing. Then that voice of Night Fury was heard. Apparently Nightmare Moon made herself known and Night found her. All six shivered at his voice. Shiver of fear hit their spines. Nightmare was in for it. Before they knew it, they were facing down the alicorn herself. Though Twilight and the others had the task of figuring out the elements while Night held off the corrupted princess. Twilight and the six were at it for a good bit before they heard a crash in the wall. The could see out a window as Nightmare landed against the stone covered ground. Twilight began to panic a bit. This wasn't a fight she expected or could have been prepared for. No way. No training or testing could prepare for this. How could Night handle himself so well then? She pondered a second. Then she saw an explosion happen. Night attacked at intense speed, the one that flung Nightmare off into the woods. Rainbow and Applejack had to drag Twilight away from the window. Though after that they all froze. A cry of rage pierced the walls and their ears. Night's cry was unholy. How could the princess keep herself composed and keep the will to fight with her opponent being that menacing? It took forever to figure out how the elements worked. Not because Twilight took that long to figure out the Tomb Raider style of wording. It was the battle happening around them that kept driving their attention away from the elements. Once they figured it out they went in search of Night. They found him and the most unsettling thing ever. The mass of black that Night was attacking. The fact THAT was what made up Nightmare Moon shook the six to the core. More than the newly met alicorn that is giving his all to defeat that mass. After that speech their wills were driven to fire their newly found magic which gravitated toward the bat alicorn despite them not aiming at him. To their relief, he was able to channel it and use it to defeat the mass truly and permanently. Saving Princess Luna. That was when they were dazed before eventually passing out. Night was holding Luna still, who was sleeping, staring at her sister with disgust. Celestia had a similar expression. This was not to her plan. Her plan was that the six would free her sister, not be a secondary help, especially not to a bat pony. They always creeped her out. And such, most of the tribes were forced to leave the country. Though trying to be as nice about as possible, she did give them governmental aid, though not much. The zebra's got more. Which may explain a few of the feuds that would have been recorded over the centuries. Celestia spoke first, "I see my sister is back to normal." Avoiding the fact that Night saved her. Or trying too anyway. "I hope that is your way of saying 'thank you.' If so, you suck at it and how you managed to keep peace is beyond me." Night spoke back, lowly. He was unamused by her tone of disgust and avoiding him as much as possible. Even in eye contact. "Thank you." She replied, in a formal tone and was not sincere. A true politician, and Night was not a fan of those. They always had a way to lie and plan. Lies that could fool masses of others into blind obedience. Planning on how to keep their power and their little empire in their possession. Night wanted nothing to do with her. Though now, didn't seem like he had much choice. Nor did she. Though Celestia continued to speak, "I should take her to get real medical attention." "Real?" Night almost snapped at that. He wasn't one to be taken for a fool, though this was insulting in some of the highest levels to him. "Don't think you talk your little game to me. I'm not as naive as your star pupil. Nor am I blind as the masses are. Nor am I impressed. I'm not like the royal elites. I may be rich, but I'm not stupid. Not that is of any of your concern. Though good luck trying to paint me as the bad guy in your perfect little world. Because as of this day, history will know ME as the savior of Princess Luna with the help of the Elements of Harmony. Your perfect little world now has a crack in it. And I do plan to watch and see how you plan to fix something that now is completely out of your control." Night continued. He lost his anger by the time he got to the part of him not being stupid. After that he started to sound like some kind of cruel school teacher that took pleasure in watching students fail or suffer on tests and quizzes. Celestia couldn't believe it. This mystery alicorn for one, saw through her wording. Secondly detested her, thirdly couldn't be converted through ordinary means to follow her. Fourth, that fact he spoke and the way he said it. He was the hero in this story, despite her planning and preparing Twilight to be that. That idea is now shattered. She wanted to do something about him right her and right now. But she couldn't. For his truth prevented it. He wasn't the villain, thus doing something to him here and now would make her one. "There is a reason most of your kind is banished from Equestria." She muttered under her breath, though just loud enough for him catch some of it. "I thought I saw a black spot on the sun. Now I know that it wasn't my eyes playing tricks on me." Night replied, cocking a slight grin as he stood and turned to leave, Luna on his back. "Though try not to black out the sun before your sister wakes up from her much needed sleep. Also, when you are ready to see her, just go to her room." After that Night took off in flight, heading towards Canterlot. Celestia was as hot as the sun itself with anger. He was toying with her and it was working. Though sighed and looked down in defeat for a moment. That was when she looked up to a shell shocked Twilight standing in front of her. Apparently she saw or overheard Night and couldn't believe it. "Oh, Twilight! I'm so glad to see you are awake." She said, faking her happiness at the moment. Twilight overheard the comment of Night watching Celestia's world crack, or something like that. She was groggy when she heard that, though she quickly woke up thinking she was just hearing things. Nope. Night was speaking to Celestia and not kindly. She dropped her jaw when Night made the comment about her sun having a black spot in it. He really did that. He really went there. Only to see him take Luna away to Canterlot. She could tell Celestia was forcing the happiness out. Sounded sarcastic even though she wasn't trying to be. "Yeah, that blast was a bit much. What were you and Night talking about?" Twilight replied, rubbing her head after Celestia snapped her back from her thoughts. "Oh we were talking about the castle." Celestia gestured to what remained of the castle. Trying to keep Twilight from asking questions about Night calling her out. Twilight didn't believe her completely, but since she wasn't awake for the whole conversation, decided to just believe her and drop it for now. After that she got the others and they went back to Ponyville. Though not before Celestia said something to Twilight, "Night is staying in Ponyville, you are to care for him." Pinkie was elastic (literally stretched beyond physical capabilities) about him coming back to town. She had a party to throw then. Which after that she rocketed off in a rocket of dust and pink. The others just groggily headed back to town. Still feeling the after effect of the massive spell. Like a bad hangover, it lingered and not pleasantly. Night arrived back at the castle gate with Luna who was still sleeping and gave her to the guard who was standing at the gate, "Take her to her chambers. She needs to get some much needed and quiet rest." He said to the guard. Whom nodded and called over another and they took her back to the castle. After that Night went to Ponyville, seeing as that was the town the six were from. He got there and already he could tell Pinkie had set up a party for him. He overheard she was the party planner and the town was themed towards that of a typical bat pony town. Gothic. Very Gothic and quite accurate too. That was when Pinkie showed up and spoke too fast for Night to even begin to try to decipher. Though some large table with a super large dish on it arrived after that. Night simply cocked his head curiously. Apparently Pinkie went on about traditions of bat ponies and had a gift for him. This was going to be interesting. Night hopped up onto the table as her instructions of Pinkie, now who had slowed her speech down to a more understandable point. The five were watching too. They were clueless. Pinkie removed the lid to reveal Lyra tied down to the table with an apple in her mouth. Night just stared in massive confusion and blinked to seeing a mare tied down on her side. Head, hooves and barrel. Lyra just stared back scared to death at what was about to happen. Then Pinkie yelled out, "Night will now drink the blood of a virgin mare!" The whole town was prettified at this. The five screaming at Pinkie, the mint mare looking in true fear at the bat alicorn looking at her. Pinkie wasn't apparently able to hearing anything in her rant till Night stepped in with his demanding voice. "Pinkie!" That got the entire town to quiet down and look at him. "As much as I truly appreciate the gesture of appealing to my heritage." He looked at the mint mare again before looking toward the crowd, "This particular practice has been abandoned for about three centuries in most tribes. So, as much as I'm sure you would like to see me dine on the blood of this mare. Luckily for her and the rest of the town, it's not going to happen." With that he used his magic to undo the rope that bound the mare down and then took the apple from her mouth. Before the mare could really do anything he whispered in her ear, "As an apology, I'll treat you to nice dinner, just name the place and time." The mare couldn't believe it. Just a minute ago she thought she was about to be food for a bat pony only to find out that he is apologizing and taking her out to dinner! She quickly looked at the stallion, he was quite buff and good looking. She started to blush softly before nodding a bit. Once she realized she was blushing she quickly got off the table. Night continued on to talk to Pinkie and the town, "Though in more accurate truth, only three tribes of bat ponies ever were cannibalistic. Though only in events like this where they would consume the blood of another pony. Even then they were nice about it, giving the pony a numbing agent to prevent them from feeling the bite. Also they never consumed a large amount of blood. This was so the pony wouldn't suffer any medical conditions plus blood wasn't the primary food source nor drink. Usually the pony was a volunteer from a neighboring area of non bat ponies. Due the event, and go home with maybe a small scar." "Also, I do not belong to those tribes. So consuming blood of another pony would actually make me quite sick. Though the rumors of bat ponies being love biters is true. All bat ponies get a little rough when it comes to romance. Though in those cases, they only draw the blood, they don't drink it. Unless the partner isn't comfortable with it. In fact, consuming any meat outside of eggs would make me sick for days. As my tribe is one of the many who are partially related to the fruit bats. So I prefer a nice salad over anything with blood in it." Many in the town sighed a bit of relief at him saying he wasn't carnivorous. That wasn't something they were really ready for. To have a resident among them that would hunt animals for food. Luckily, as he stated, no blood or he would be in for it. After that the town went about with it's party as originally planned. Though Pinkie was a bit disappointed that the sacrifice was a waste of time. Though she did a handful of lectures from the fellow townsfolk about it. Though Lyra made sure they didn't get overly worked up as the stallion was making it up to her for the accidental scare. Speaking of which. She actually managed to sneak off with Night to do that date while the party was in full swing. Apparently she was overly curious of how strong he was and wanted to do a few tests. Now that it was nightfall, Night was staying in the library till he bought his own place. Unlike his world where he owned a mansion in Ponyville, apparently in this world he nor his family ever owned any land in Equestria. Though he was flipping through some history texts when Twilight came in and cleared her throat to get his attention. He put the book down and stared at her in a tone that said "What is it?" "So, a few things happen to have been running in my mind that I haven't been able to answer or get out of my head. Firstly, do you really have unnatural power inside you that gives you insane strength? Secondly, what were you and Celestia talking about at the castle?" Twilight asked, taking a seat in a nearby chair. "To answer the first, no. I made that up. I have no special gift or bonus magic. I came up with that along with the little stunt of super heating my body to the point it would ignite. Then add in some color effect magic to turn the flames the black and blue. Fire off a heat resistance spell then a healing spell. Quite scary isn't it?" He said, quite proud of himself of pulling off a stunt like that. "Second question, you won't like the answer, but I called Celestia out as not being as perfect as she wants, claims or IS claimed to be. I also detected something black lingering around her after she found out I was a bat pony. She didn't like my kind. So I told that she had no choice but to accept me as I was part of the story now. Also told her not to try any tricks on me. Lastly I told her that I knew she had something dark in her and to be careful." Twilight was super impressed with the answer to the first question. He managed to create this story then sell it with a couple spells fired quickly after each other. The second answer made her heart drop. He really did do what she thought he did. Though to be fair, he did warn her about not giving into the darkness that may be hovering around her heart or head. She was definitely going to have to do some thinking now. Though one last question did come to her after realizing that the book he was reading was an Equestrian history text. From the title, it was about the events a few centuries ago. Roughly within the range of one to three after the banishment of Nightmare Moon. "What are you reading and why?" She asked. "Oh, yeah. In my world, my parents bought a large property and built me a mansion on it. In this town. But considering Pinkie's stunt told me that no bat ponies have ever been in the town in a long while. Plus, Celestia mentioned that she banished most of the tribes. So I got curious if my family was still in Equestria or was one of the many to be forced out. From what I can gather, the tribe I belong too still exists and still lives in Equestria. Also true among both worlds is that the tribe is well known for producing the best fighters. Both worlds show my tribe as serving in Luna's guard. Though in my world both sides of the Royal Guard disbanded after the defeat of both ruling princesses. In this one, Luna's guard was largely downsized after the banishment. Partially due to several of them committing treason, the rest was simply because Celestia never left the castle at night. Plus she had her own guard. So many were laid off. Though now that Luna is back, I bet she will be hiring again." Twilight was quite impressed and shocked. He knew a good bit of his ancestory. Enough that he could track his lineage in this world despite historic events being vastly different. At least from the way he worded it. Now she was intrigued and her egghead side took over. "What is your world like? Also, what happened to your parents in this world?" "Well. The night that Nightmare Moon made her move, was the last night that either princess was alive. That event a thousand years ago was the last time anyone saw those two princesses. The castle we fought Nightmare in, doesn't exist in my world. It was completely destroyed that night. See what ended up happening was that Celestia, instead of using the Elements of Harmony, gave into the darkness of her heart and turned into her into Day Breaker. Basically the same type of demon that took Luna took Celestia. Though those demons intermix their agenda with that of the host. Luna wanted her subjects to always see the night that she created, so the demon wanted that as part of the agenda, though mixed in their own which is why Nightmare Moon wanted more than just long period of night. Celestia's demon, found out that Celestia wanted a brighter world. So naturally, the sun was the brightest object so the demon used that image and that idea when it merged with Celestia. Though since Nightmare Moon was already in existence, the demons then knew that they were in conflict which each other. So they waged all out war on each other. Killing themselves and the hosts in the process. The end result was that the day and night cycle is now naturally occurring. No being makes it happen. The world also lost a lot of it's life. A lot of the colors stopped occurring and the world is basically in a state of grey. The country has been on the verge of civil war for as long as the princesses have been dead. The threat of foreign attack is also just as high. Though I have managed to stay out of the politics. But fighting still had to occur. In order to gain true respect I had to do literal fights. I went out of my way sometimes to find the biggest thug in town and beat him up to the point that he had to go to the hospital. That was only way for me to ensure survival for myself. Though by now having to fight is only against those that think they can be the biggest punk in town. That's why I was able to take on the manticore as easily as I did, along with Nightmare Moon. The manticore was a creature that actually often tried to attack Ponyville and I would run them off. Nightmare Moon I thought would be a true fight. In my world, no one was at that level. I myself was wondering if I could defeat her truly. But what I found out was that Nightmare was expecting a magic fight. Not a physical one. I am trained and prepared for any kind of fight. Ground, air, water, magic, physical. Yes, I can fight while under water. Also being able to adapt is key in a fight. I adapted as I needed too. Nightmare wasn't afraid of a hero. She was afraid of a monster that was scarier than her. So I had to become just that. I had to become a nightmare to the creator of nightmares. I have been tracking my family history, though I haven't got to my parents or myself for that matter. I'll have to get back to you on that. Though knowing my parents. They probably moved out of the country around the time the banishment happened. Despite the fact the tribe itself wasn't banished. They were closer to one of the tribes that did end up getting banished. So they are probably on the other side of the Everfree somewhere. The book doesn't mention where they settled. Just that Celestia gave them some grants and donations to compensate them and help them restart their lives. Though from I can gather, it was about the minimal amount needed. Probably a little less." Night spoke. He was good at controlling his emotions, though it was very clear he had it rough. Even Twilight couldn't picture a world like that, but it exists. "Wow. What about us? Do we exist?" Twilight asked, curiously. "Yes, though you are an instructor in Canterlot, teaching magic. The other five are living their respective lives here in town. No elements of harmony, no heroes." Night replied. Teaching magic. That sounded very cool to Twilight. Though it would make sense. That was her gift. Which the way he worded it. They simply followed their respective gifts without ever really getting to know each other. That was quite interesting. But something she doesn't really want to know much more about as she already knows how the story goes. Though something did come to her mind again. "What is the name of your tribe and how many are there?" "Mine is called boytsy nochi. Which translates to fighters of the night. As that was the specialty of the tribe. For numbers, well, ones that are connected to mine number to about seven. Though there are probably more than that. Just bat ponies are far and scattered. Also native languages vary too. There are tribes that I cannot talk too in native. For they speak something completely different. Though universal languages do exist so that is usually how we usually communicate if need be." "Alicorns normal in your world?" "No. Still as rare as this world. Even rarer that a bat pony like me is one. I've also been one since birth which is rare also. So I think the chances of another pony like me existing is like 0.024%. Which as you basically means, once every few thousand years. The worst part is that many bat ponies see it as curse to be birthed with a horn, so either the baby was killed or the horn was cut off. Though that was centuries ago. Much like the practice of drinking the blood of a virgin. Though unlike most, I am not into politics. I am a fighter. Plain and simple. In my blood and it's my special calling too. Though it is getting late. I'll catch you tomorrow. Good night!" Night replied with a yawn, putting the book away where he found it. Twilight was excited to be experience a being like him. He was so rare. He was the rarest alicorn to be born. They also had for a long life expectancy. They don't die of age like others. Though they are still killable just like anyone else. Just it takes more effort due to their higher magical levels and reserves. Their bodies were also more resilient so they could take higher amounts of damage compared to other types of pony. Though an alicorn like Night Fury was never going to be seen again. He trained his body to fight, to take the pain and keep going. Even to a higher level than the Royal Guards. Though he mentioned that they disbanded in his world. So no one was keeping the peace. Though realizing it was really late, she agreed it was time to go to bed. Both she and Night settled in for the night and went to sleep.