//------------------------------// // Twilight Rising // Story: House of Sun // by Riossumari //------------------------------// “What’s wrong Twilight?” a voice echoed throughout the dark domain, Twilight picked her head up. She stood and tried to move away but the shadows bound her in place, the most she could move was simply to stand up. She tugged at the shadows and tried to cast a spell to break free but it was useless, then she felt a cold looming presence behind her. She looked back and saw the Nightmare Creature standing over her, his size was almost double what it was originally now. He smiled and leaned in close speaking into her ear softly, “I thought you wanted this? After all, your friend is safe and free now. And just like you promised I get you as my new host...just look at what we’ve accomplished together too, within a few short hours we’ve done more together than Luna and I ever did as Nightmare Moon. You should be so proud of this.” he taunted as he mockingly pet Twilight on her head. Twilight tried to smack his hoof away but it was too big and he was too strong, “NO! I didn’t want this! I didn’t want you to hurt my family! My friends! My...my...my Mom...” Twilight sobbed as she slumped forward crying, the Nightmare couldn’t help but smile at how broken Twilight was right now. The thought of her in this state secured his control, she had no will to fight back which meant he would have all of Equestria to conquer in a matter of hours. “Just sit back and relax my little pony, if you behave yourself I might just let Celestia live.” he said, Twilight’s eyes opened at the mention of his words she looked up as he continued to talk. “After all, there are many secrets she knows about both Canterlot and Equestria that even I don’t. I’d be a fool to let such a valuable asset be destroyed so easily...” He walked past Twilight continuing to explain his intentions to Twilight, as she listened Twilight’s heart was racing. “Is he serious? He’ll let her live? All I have to do is obey him?” she thought a small sense of hope was growing in Twilight’s mind, she loved her mother and her family more than anything if it meant saving them she’d do it even under these conditions. The Nightmare looked and saw the look on Twilight’s face the small thread of hope she had, he approached her and set his hoof on her head again and leaned his face in close to hers. "By the way...I was lying...” he said, Twilight’s eyes widened and as the Nightmare turned and disappeared from her sight, Twilight broke. She collapsed to the ground and let a deafening shriek, tears pouring from her eyes, an all new level of hopelessness had consumed her now. The monster had purposely fed her false hope just to break her further, Twilight buried her face in her front legs and cried she had given up now, for her, it was all over. In the dream realm Luna slowly woke to a gentle nudging, she looked up and saw Cadence and the others all standing around her. She smiled happy to see them all alright, but then her face turned to a state of panic. She remembered the Nightmare had escaped with Twilight! Luna tried to stand but stumbled, Shining and Spike helped her to her hooves. “We have to get back to Canterlot! Celestia and every pony there is in great danger! That monster has escaped with Twilight!” Luna said, Sunset walked over and put her hoof on Luna’s shoulder trying to calm her. “We know Princess, but you need to calm down. Your hurt right now and we need to be ready for the fight he’s going to give us.” Sunset replied. Cadence nodded and stepped towards Luna, “She’s right, we were a lot stronger here in the dream realm and he still beat us. Once were back in Equestria it’s going to be even more difficult to beat him, it’s gonna take all of us including Auntie.” Cadence said. Luna nodded her family was right of course, she took a moment to compose herself and then began to cast a spell to allow them to leave the dream realm. As her horn began to glow so did the rune left on her by Midnight Sparkle, Luna grit her teeth in pain and stumbled before stopping the spell she was casting. “What is it? What is that?” Sunset ask noticing the rune glowing. The sight of the rune glowing a bright shade of red made Luna furious, “A binding rune, that monster has made sure I can’t leave here...he most think I’m a greater threat than Tia. So now he has me bound here so I can’t help her.” she explained. The others all looked at one another concerned, finally Rarity sitting behind them all spoke up. “I’m so sorry...this is my fault. All of it, if I had only said something sooner than none of this would’ve happened. Then Twilight wouldn’t be...” Before Rarity could finish her sentence though Shining stormed over to her and pressed his forehead to hers and said, “This is NOT your fault, its NO pony’s fault! The only creature to blame here is that monster that has my baby sister now. So, you can stay here and pout or you can try and help us save Twilight. What’s it gonna be Rarity?” Rarity looked at Shining a little afraid of the tone in his voice but then she nodded and stood up. “I...I want to save Twilight too! She let that monster take her to save me, what kind of friend would I be if I just stayed here and waited?” Rarity replied. After a moment though Spike spoke up next, “But how do we get out of here? Aunt Luna just said we were stuck here!” Luna walked over and put her hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “No Spike, I said “I” was trapped here, its still within my power to send all of you back to your bodies. But it’s going to be dangerous, and you’ll need to get Celestia’s help to fight this creature. I won’t lie, this will be far more dangerous than fighting Discord or...Nightmare Moon. We all saw how powerful Twilight had made this creature. Are you certain you want to fight?” Luna explained, without a word every pony looked at Luna and nodded in agreement a confidence unlike anything they had displayed before, their combined need to save Twilight giving them their resolve. Luna smiled seeing this confidence and then stood in the center of them all, “Then allow me to send you back with haste, I will stay here and try to find a way to undo this rune or help Twilight from within the Nightmare.” Luna slowly began to rise off the ground her horn glowing a dark blue her magic flowing to all the ponies and dragon around her and then in a flash they were all gone. Luna now stood in the nexus, a mass space where all the dreams of the creatures of Equestria were connected. There were so few from ponies she noticed as she looked around, but that didn’t matter to her she had work to do. Midnight Sparkle sat on Celestia’s throne her wolves lining the throne room, chained up in the center of the room Celestia. “Nothing to say now Princess? You’ve gotten awfully quiet all of a sudden. I was honestly expecting you to try and escape or maybe attack me. But this, this is just boring...” she taunted. Celestia looked up at her an angry scowl on her face, “I am doing something monster...something that you obviously don’t understand, something that can only come with years of experience and wisdom. Of which, I have had many, many, years of...” she snapped back. Midnight Sparkle looked at Celestia a little puzzled by her words, she could sense her casting no spells, she hadn’t tried to break free, what did she mean? “Alright princess, I’ll bite. What do you know that I don’t?” she asked, Celestia simply smiled and answered. “I know how to wait...” Midnight Sparkle gave her a dumbfounded look as she went to reply a massive blast of magic and dragon’s fire exploded through the wall her behind her engulfing her and sending her soaring across the throne room and into the wall on the other side. Celestia looked and could see her family rushing into the room and begin to battle the shadow wolves all around, instantly Celestia sprang to life shattering her binds and turning to face Midnight Sparkle who exploded out from the rubble of the throne room wall. “Well now...I actually felt that one.” she said glaring back at Celestia and the others. Cadence and Sunset rushed up alongside Celestia ready to fight, Spike, Shining, and Rarity fighting off the remaining wolves in the throne room. “Are you both prepared for this? It’s not going to be easy, and I can’t completely focus on protecting you this battle.” Celestia asked, she looked and saw the two mares beside her nod confidently. Then the three rushed to fight Midnight Sparkle, Celestia leaped into the air and fired a blast of magic at her opponent. Midnight Sparkle raised a shield front to her blocking the attack, the second the attack faded Sunset slid across the floor kicking her legs out from under her, before she could react Cadence charged from the other direction and tackled her slamming her into the floor with boom. Midnight blasted Cadence away and sprang up from the ground only to be struck from above by a magic blast from Celestia. Sunset quickly helped Cadence to her feet as Midnight flew into the air to attack Celestia, with a quick thought Sunset but a barrier between the two at the last second causing Midnight to slam into the barrier cracking and damaging it. Celestia reacted immediately knowing the barrier was a breath away from breaking and blasted Midnight again sending her back to the ground. She let out an infuriated scream as the three mares continued to pummel her around, “Oh, now this is fun!! I actually like having to put some effort into a fight for a change!” she shouted as she fired a magic blast towards Celestia who swiftly dodged the blast barely missing the tip of her tail. Then a barrier that resembled diamond suddenly formed around her, followed by another purple barrier that resembled armor, Midnight looked behind her and saw Shining and Rarity casting the spells from behind, Spike standing in front of the two. Oddly enough they had left a noticeable hole in the barrier between Midnight and them, she laughed and asked. “You know a barrier is useless if you give it an exit right?” Shining smiled and replied, “True, but what happens when put a large amount of heat in a small enclosed space?” Midnight’s eyes widened in shock as she looked down to see Spike taking a deep breath and unleashing a massive burst of fire into the barriers completely engulfing Midnight. Spike unleashed as much fire as he could until he had to stop to catch his breath, the moment he stopped though Celestia, Sunset, and Cadence all added their own barriers sealing Midnight inside with all dragon’s fire that was now burning her all over. “Was that enough?” Cadence shouted over the sound of the roaring flames, but then in a massive explosion the barriers shattered revealing an infuriated and burned Midnight. Every creature shielded their eyes from the sheer force of the blast, and as Celestia went to look Midnight crashed into her slamming her into the wall. Celestia gasped from the raw force and power of such an attack, Cadence tried to blast Midnight but as her attack flew towards her she quickly moved Celestia into its path causing Cadence to hit her aunt instead. Then with a mighty kick he sent Celestia charging towards Cadence who tried to catch her but was knocked over from the impact. Midnight then fired another blast of magic at the two hitting them dead on, Sunset was thrown against the wall from the explosion and when she went to look she suddenly saw Midnight was there beside her. She lunged forward biting Sunset on the shoulder and swinging her around slamming her into the wall with every ounce of strength she had, and then swung her back into the wall where she had been standing. Sunset fell to floor unconscious, and Midnight turned to see Shining charging at her. Midnight flew into the air avoiding Shining and then dropped down onto him crushing him into the ground, then she began to savagely strike him over and over with her hooves screaming like a lunatic. When she finally stopped she looked up and she saw Rarity and Spike watching, both visibly afraid now, Midnight’s breathing was heavy with rage now. Spike only thought about how this reminded him of how Nightmare Moon was when she'd begun to lose her fight with them. Spike stood in front of Rarity though, terrified as he was, he was determined to at least protect her from harm. “NOO!!! Stop it!! Please!!!” Twilight shrieked as he watched the Nightmare use her own body to hurt her family and friends. Sunset was unconscious, Shining beaten to a bloody pulp, and she couldn’t tell if Cadence and Celestia were even alive now. And now, she slowly began to march towards her little brother Spike. Again, Twilight broke down crying she couldn’t even bring herself to watch now the pain was too much for her she thought. “Twilight!” a voice suddenly echoed throughout the dark domain, Twilight stood up and looked around recognizing the voice. “Aunt Luna! Where are you!? Help! I need your help!” she shouted back, then a ghostly, blue ethereal alicorn appeared before her. Twilight was little confused by this, “Aunt Luna? Is that you?” she asked leaning towards it. “Yes Twilight, though only in spirit. My body remains trapped in the dream realm still.” Luna explained, Twilight grit her teeth still crying. “Aunt Luna...this is all my fault...I wanted to save Rarity and now...every one is getting hurt. I...I think he’s going to kill them...and I can’t stop it.” she sobbed. Luna reached over and hugged Twilight, “I’m so sorry Twilight, I cannot fathom how hard this must be for you. But you cannot just quit, not now. You’re family needs you now, you have to fight back now more than ever.” she said. Twilight hugged Luna’s ethereal form as tight as she could and buried her face in its shoulder crying. “But I can’t...I’m not strong like you...or like Mom...I’m so weak...” she sobbed. Luna grabbed Twilight’s shoulders and moved her to look her in the eyes, “No Twilight! You are so much stronger than you realize, this creature, this Nightmare, he’s only as strong as he is because of YOUR strength, your magic, your power! And if you let him he will destroy everything you love. Are you going to sit back and let that happen? Are you willing to lose more than already have?” Luna shouted. Twilight looked at Luna for a moment unsure what to say, but then she remembered the pain of losing her parents how devastating that was and she never wanted to feel that pain ever again. Then Luna’s ethereal form began to slowly fade. “What? What’s happening?” Twilight asked, “Oh no, he knows...he knows I’m talking to you and he's shutting me out.” Luna said looking at her hooves, Twilight tried to hold Luna again but her hooves simply went through her. “NO! Don’t leave me now! Please don’t go!” she begged. Twilight slumped forward her grief overtaking her again, Luna’s hoof moved under Twilight’s chin and even though she couldn’t physically touch her now she made Twilight lift her head and look at her as she finally faded away. “You are Twilight Sparkle, you are Celestia’s student, and more than that her daughter. I believe in you Twilight, and so does the rest of your family. Now fight! Fight and save them!” Luna said as her ethereal form finally disappeared. Twilight stood alone in the void for a moment she looked up to see the Nightmare was still fighting her family, as she watched though Luna’s words echoed in her mind again. She wiped the tears from her eyes and stood upright a new confidence in her and announced, “Yes! I am Twilight Sparkle! And I’m done being controlled!!”