Soon, everything was beginning to come into fruition. From the skies came a familiar face... one born of rage, a lust for power, and good intentions turned rotten. The monster was supposed to be Nightmare Moon, clad in dark blue royal armor with a white crescent moon on the front, and with a coat as black as evil itself and a light blue cosmic mane waving in the night's sky.
While a few things about this Nightmare Moon is the same, there was obviously something else about her that seemed to differ extremely.
This Nightmarish mare was very similar to the original Nightmare Moon, but this was not THE Nightmare Moon... she was something crueler. She was not equipped with blue armor, but armor of a more red color, with a helmet sporting the crescent moon proudly. Her light blue cosmic mane was more of a darker blue or pale or faded violet color. Her hoof guards were a pale white color with black knobs fastened onto them. The chestguard she wore was as red as her helmet.
The blackened Alicorn swoops down onto Canterlot unnoticed, ready to make haste with her takeover.
Down in PonyVille, there was a different and less life threatening situation going about, involving the Shapeshifting stallion, and two fillies arguing over what he should turn into.
"Gryphon!"
"Dragon!"
"GRYPHON!"
"DRAGON!"
The Stallion was watching two fillies argue over what he should become. One said Gryphon, the other said Dragon. One of these fillies as a mare dressed up as a fairy tale princess, where the other filly was a colt dressed up as a timberwolf. The two fillies were arguing about the choice for a good while, three hours had passed already, and Everchange was starting to lose his mind a bit.
"Children, please! How about a compromise? To be sure the choice is fair, why don't you answer three questions I ask. If one of you gets the most right, the victor will choose the form." Everchange stated. The fillies stopped their arguing as they sat on the ground, ready to listen to the stallion. As soon as Everchange had thought of a question, he felt his body being pulled away by a magical force, obviously confusing him.
"Ugh... Ok, I guess this isn't happening, why am I being dragged across the ground?" Everchange asked aloud, looking behind him, going pale in the face at the sight of Twilight, and several royal guards.
"You aren't gonna keep Celestia waiting, are you? You are her only family-"
"Not another word, Twilight. I'm not spending Nightmare Night with the one woman who-"
"Who banished your mother. I get it, but this is the night she comes back. Don't you think maybe you should be there by her side for the festivities, or to appease your mother after a thousand years of being trapped in the moon? Celestia is not the same one you ran from a thousand years ago. She wouldn't have at least visited you during your short hospitalization if she didn't care." Twilight stated. Everchange growled a bit, standing up and looking Twilight directly in her eyes.
"That woman is still the same... it's the hate from my aunt that warped my mother into a monster... and as much as I've been dreading these words... you're right, Twilight. I should appease my mother, at least I'll have one form of family to fall back on, then... but I will never forgive my aunt for what she had done." Everchange stated. Everchange activated the gem on his wrist, and slammed it down, becoming Lionhawk, and immediately taking off towards the direction of Canterlot.
Twilight looked up as she saw him take off, obviously still hurting after so long. The alicorn sighed as she looked around PonyVille, seeing so many faces out tonight and she didn't bother to dress up this time. From up above the alicorn's head, was Rainbow Dash, dressed up as a Shadowbolt, carefully maneuvering a storm cloud every which way she goes, cackling sinisterly as she planned to kick the cloud, letting out thunder and lightning to scare unsuspecting ponies.
As Lionhawk soared through the clouds, he eventually landed down on the ground in an alleyway. The gem on his chest let out a bright red flash of light as Everchange, still in his costume, was back to his normal form. The stallion stepped out from the alleyway, walking around the district as he tried to find his Aunt.
'Bah, this is ridiculous! Why should I have to come to her to deal with her mess... It's not like she bothered to care, Twilight doesn't understand. If she really cared, she would've sent out a search party for me being missing... but I guess a thousand years of grief can really change somepony... I can't believe this... I should just apologize, say my peace, and go back to PonyVille.' Everchange thought to himself as he trotted along, not paying attention. It wasn't long till Everchange unexpectedly bumped into Celestia, but things were still a bit sore between them.
"Nephew.." Celestia stated sheepishly.
"Auntie.." Everchange mumbled, trying to avoid eye contact. There was a moment of silence, besides the background chatter of everypony else. Celestia sighed as she looked down at the stallion.
"L-Listen, I... I- I just.." Everchange was trying to find words to say, but he didn't know exactly what to say. He constantly heard Twilight's words rack around in his head, constantly making him feel like there's nothing he could say to make things better, even if he tried. Celestia watched him think, and could only smile. Everchange constantly tried to find the exact words he wanted to say, until he was pulled into Celestia's chest, feeling her leg wrap around him as she hugged him.
"Everchange, there's so many things I want to tell you... I wanted to tell you my side for the longest time, and I know you want to hear your mother's side of the story too... Come, let's head back to PonyVille. I could use a better change of scenery, and it would be nice to see if you have settled down somewhere. Knowing that you're safe is all I need to know right now that would make me happy." Celestia stated, smiling as she looked down at the stallion, only seeing the young, scared and happy colt Luna brought into the castle 1,015 years ago, looking for affection and care...
Something she knew that she didn't give as much as she should've to the poor colt back then...
As Celestia brushes off the guilty chip on her shoulder for the moment, she takes the stallion onto her back, and begins to fly up, heading back to PonyVille. Meanwhile, a shifty, dark and Guilt-ridden malicious entity has already made their way into the Castle, which has begun to go from a shining marble white, to a stagnant brimstone black, with small protruding gems jutting out from every which way, ranging from a midnight blue, to a crimson red.
When the Princess and Everchange arrive back in PonyVille, making quick haste to return to the ground, the gem on Everchange's wrist is constantly flickering between a blue color, a yellow color and the green color it was so used to sporting. Everchange knew it was doing so, but shrugged it off, wanting to just focus on the festivities. And speaking of festivities, he remembered that Celestia was always the one to make a granduous speech to the local ponies, but he never bothered to stick around and listen to it.
By the stallion's side was the colt from earlier, still dressed up in a cyan shirt and blue pants with a pixelated pickaxe in one of his hooves. He looked up and smiled at the stallion, which promptly made Everchange feel a bit less bothered... either he was feeling literal heart burn or this sudden warm feeling in his chest was like friendship.
"Hey mister, do you think I can change shape like how you can?" Button Mash asked. Everchange looked back at the colt, and couldn't help but smile.
"Maybe when you get a powerful crystal like mine, you will... but who knows how long that'll take? Not that anypony who has looked at me... had any kindness in them to give to me. I try to save their lives, and some of them just keep glaring at me... what did I do to deserve this..." Everchange mumbled, collapsing to his knees as he felt a sharp pain within him, grunting a bit as he tried to push through the pain.
As the ponies listened to Celestia give a speech about how this nightmare night was going to be different, at first, it seemed like a pink light filter was glowing down on every pony in the area, until Everchange looked up, and saw the moon, shining a bright blood red color as the lustrous night sky seemed to darken as red stars danced in the skyward void above. Everchange felt a bit unsettled, but ready to stand his ground as he stood in front of the young colt.
"Button, stay behind me... something is clearly wrong here." Everchange stated firmly, looking at how the Blood Moon shines and glimmers sinisterly in the pale faded pink-ish red night sky. Everchange groaned as he noticed every pony begin to panic. Celestia was not sure what was happening right now, but it seems whatever light the Blood Moon was bathing ponies in, it was doing something strange. Ponies began to get angry, turning on each other as they started to fight one another, not even knowing why. Everchange tried to transform into one of his transformations, but it didn't work. The Gem was still acting extremely off, but he wasn't going to let this happen. He knew there had to be something done about this, but what could he really do?
Everchange looked around, seeing that most of the ponies that were bathed in the blood red moonlight started to shift their attention to the stallion, who began to trot away rapidly, carrying Button Mash on his back as he ran away. The colt looked back as a mob of aggressive and red eyed ponies trotted after them, and he ducked down and held on tight, trying to not look at them as Everchange continued to run. As the ponies continued to slowly catch up to the stallion, a sudden and loud caw echoed through the skies, as the ponies were sent flying back, obviously a bit hurt by whatever collided with them. Everchange and Button looked at the entity, and could barely understand what they were looking at.
Standing tall was a gryphon, A gryphon with a horse's back half, and a gryphon's front. It was huge, undeniably huge, practically bigger than a pony and a Gryphon combined. It's feathers were a Silver color, almost like its feathers were made of metal. It's talons matched it's equestrian half's colors, which was more or less a sleek white color, with a cutie mark resembling a Blue bullet with black stars shimmering around it. The gryphon half of the creature had some golden shine in its hair/cranial feathers. It's beak seemed to resemble a Woodpecker's, but not by much. In place of a pony tail was a gryphon tail, long and slender, with a tuft of red and white curly hairs poofing out at the end of it. The strange gryphon pony thing turned to meet the gaze of the ponies, and seemed to smile, their eyes being obscured by shadows as it flew away. Everchange rubbed his eyes and looked in amazement.
"I'll be darned... A gryphon/pony Hybrid... haven't seen one of those before... at least not intentionally. But, now's not the time for marvels. We need a place to hide... and I think I know just the place." Everchange stated, quickly running in another direction, making sure Button Mash was still holding on.
Back in Canterlot, the pristine white and clean kingdom has been blackened and plunged into darkness and fear. Inside a blackened and burned Brimstone castle, sat the looming pitch black Alicorn, who smirked at the sight of several trembling guards, who were loyal to the end to Celestia. She commanded several of her own guards, gray stallions and mares in dark violet armors with red detailing to escort Celestia's guards to the dungeon. As she did, a sudden thought that wasn't her own had interluded into her mind. An image of a stallion with a faded and pale yellow coat, brown and pink hair, and green eyes came to mind.
'Everchange! My son! My poor baby boy! D-Don't hurt him! Please, this is already enough!' a faint, but audible voice echoed out through the Alicorn's head, and the Alicorn's smirk became more and more twisted and malevolent.
"Well! This is an interesting thought. It would be a shame if he didn't join us, and overthrow that sunny shrew of a sister. Pitch Ink! Flintgraad! Get your sorry flanks in here, your new queen has a job for you!!" The Alicorn exclaimed, her voice echoing throughout the ruined throne room. Two guards in special armor trotted in. One was a Chartreuse stallion with a metal prosthetic hoof, clad in dark gray and blistering red armor with the red crescent moon hooking the armor together as he bowed before the Alicorn, showing off a pair of Bat wings and a Unicorn horn. His cutie mark was a piece of Flint that was shaped into a waxing moon stained with a red substance.
The other guard by the stallion's side was a dutifully dull gray mare, albeit she looked far tougher and physically capable than the other mare guards Celestia had hired. She had Bat wings, but she had no unicorn horn. Her armor was of the same color and design as the stallion's, but it was made to fit her more due to her smaller stature. Her cutie mark was a busted and worn baseball on a cracking ink jar. The ponies removed their helmets, showing that they had short and well trimmed crewcuts. The stallion's cut was colored out of Blues and faded oranges, while the mare's was colored out of Reds and Purples.
"What is it that you ask of us to do, our mighty Queen... Lunar Blight?" The stallion asked, his voice deep, warped, and thoroughly spine chilling. The Alicorn known as Lunar Blight shivered as she giggled, looking at the two guards with a calm, but incredibly manic expression.
"There's a pony I want out of the way, besides Celestia... find a stallion with a pale yellow coat, green eyes, and brown and pink hair. I want you two, my two almighty elites, to hunt him down and rid him for me. Your queen of darkness and Eternal night DEMANDS IT!" Lunar Blight exclaimed. The two guards nodded their heads, unmoved and unwavered by her booming and intimidating voice. They both took a knee, nodded their heads and put their helmets back on.
"We shall not disappoint, your majesty. The stallion will be rid of faster than you can curse that shrew Celestia all over again. Come along, Flint, we must not disappoint her for once." Pitch Ink stated, flying out of the throne room as the stallion followed close behind. As the two guards left, Lunar Blight's maniacal cackling and laughter could be heard all over Canterlot, as innocent ponies shuddered in fear, hoping that Celestia would be here soon to save them.
Back in PonyVille, there was a nice homely little place up on a hill, leading into the forest. Inside said home was a bunch of animals, ranging from bears, birds, reptiles, and one stubborn little bunny who was tapping his foot on the table he was standing on as Fluttershy closed the blinds to her home, obviously not wanting to see the crazy things going on outside on Nightmare Night. The yellow Pegasus shuddered in fear as she tried to calm down. Only for a sudden flurry of rapid knocks to be heard on her front door.
"W-Who is it?" Fluttershy asked, slowly approaching the door as her fear kept rising.
"Fluttershy!! Open the door, please!! It's too chaotic out here!!" A familiar stallion called out. Fluttershy opened the door as a worn out and exhausted Everchange stumbled inside, collapsing onto the ground as the young colt, Button Mash, was visibly shaking as Everchange laid on the ground, trying to catch his breath. As Fluttershy helped the stallion and the colt up, leading them to the couch, she quickly grabbed a few freshly made cups of cocoa, setting them down in front of the stallions as Fluttershy sat down, feeling curious, calm, and incredibly scared about what was going on tonight.
"It was terrible! The sky got red, and everypony was going crazy! We got chased all over PonyVille for crying out loud! This was too much for one night! I wanna go home!" Button Mash exclaimed, feeling close to tears. Everchange finally caught his breath and took in one more deep breath before looking into Fluttershy's eyes with a concerned, stern, and worried expression.
"Fluttershy... I'm going to regret asking this, but is Discord around right now, preferably within earshot?" Everchange asked the Pegasus. Fluttershy would've answered with something, if it wasn't for a sudden magical POOF! to suddenly occur in the midst of the living room.
Hovering above the ponies and animals was the very lord of chaos himself, Discord. A monster known as a Draconequus. He had a goat-like head resting on a long slender slithering body, with a taloned hand and a more bear or lion hand, a dragon's leg and a cow or bull or minotaur's leg as well. A scaly tail with a white tuft of fur or feathers or hair at the end. Mismatched wings, one belonging to a pegasus, and the other belonging to a dragon. He had one deer or reindeer antler and some other type of creature's horn or antler as well. His very physical body is something strange as a whole, but at least he isn't crazy for petty reasons.
"Thank you for the warm compliment, Narrator. Maybe after this chapter, take a break, you look like you need one." Discord casually stated aloud, the ponies looking at him with confusion.
"Oh, nevermind! They aren't me. Anywho, Fluttershy! Happy Nightmare Night, my friend! And who are these two?" Discord inquired. Everchange groaned as he stood up and looked at the Draconequus with pure contempt and slight irritation in his heart.
"Listen up, Discord! I need your help. I need to get to Canterlot Castle, immediately! I have to try and talk down-"
"Ah-bu-bu-bu-bu-bup! Say no more, I knew it's been a while since I've been in stone, so I'll gladly send you to the castle. Just know if this backfires, I propose you let the original plot take its course, it'll benefit you in the long run if you live. Toodles!" Discord interrupted and explained. With a quick snap of his fingers, Everchange suddenly vanished in a flash of white light. Fluttershy glared at the chaotic god, obviously not approving of such a disrespectful use of his magic.
"Oh come on, now. Don't worry, my dear, he's going to the castle to try and make amends. I know I wouldn't want to be him in that situation. There's not enough positive reinforcement to fix what's wrong with the moody Moon princess as she is now." Discord stated, laughing jovially as Fluttershy tried her best to comfort the colt as the Draconequus laughed and laughed.
In Canterlot, a flash of white light is present as it dies down, revealing Everchange, in his new clothes and not his costume. Everchange quickly ran down the streets of the kingdom, looking for the quickest way to quickly get up to the castle entrance. All the while, two flying guards manage to catch sight of the stallion, and grin evilly as they swoop down, prepared to attack.
As Everchange neared the long and traversable steps, he heard the sound of wings flapping. The stallion turned around and saw two bat pony guards rushing towards him. In an act of either habit or instinct, Everchange slammed on the gem without knowing what form he might take on, and was replaced by his Breezie form, Minifly.
"Errors have been made. Errors have been made!!" Minifly exclaimed, flying in-between the bat ponies as he tried to fly away from the two guards, causing them to crash into each other.
"Get your head in the game, Flint. That's the one we're lookin' for! Though last I checked, I don't remember Earth Ponies having the power to shapeshift, but it must be an evolution thing. We were on the moon for a long while, so be on your guard!" Pitch stated, flying after the breezie. Flintgraad got up, growling as he let out a guttural hissing noise and immediately followed after. Minifly quickly flew through the air, noticing several different guards on point as they corner a couple pegasi trying to leave. Minifly growled and flew straight on towards the guard as he slammed his entire small body against his head, knocking the guard upside the head and distracting the other guards, giving the pegasi time to quickly make an escape.
Minifly got up in the face of the guard and blew a raspberry before quickly flying downwards toward an empty alleyway. As Minifly hid in-between a couple garbage cans, and retreating to the innards of an empty tin can, it would've seemed like this was the end of the chase, until those two guards landed down, smelling the air.
"Smell that? Amongst the garbage?" Flintgraad asked, sniffing the air more as he trotted closer and closer to the Breezie's hiding spot.
"All depends on what it is you're smelling besides garbage and filth, Flint." Pitch stated, gagging a bit at the smell of the garbage around them. Flintgraad smelled the air more, recognizing that something was obviously off.
"I smell a Breezie. He must've come through here, so let's see if we can find him soon. Queen Blight demands that we eradicate this pest as soon as possible." Flintgraad stated, taking off into the air. Pitch Ink could definitely smell Breezie flesh in the air amidst the garbage, but she didn't pay much attention as she took off and followed close behind Flintgraad. Minifly fled from his hiding spot and immediately made his way towards the castle, and his incredibly small size made it easy as pie to sneak past the more menacing lunar guards.
"D'oh... I wonder how the others are doing." Minifly stated quietly, fluttering through the halls.
Back in PonyVille, Celestia had just taken off towards Canterlot, obviously aware of what needed to be done. At Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Trixie had all taken shelter from the crazed ponies with Big Mac, who was using his natural physical strength to batter the ponies back.
"Ok, so Nightmare Night just got 20% more awesome! It's like those Evening of the Trotting Dead films I used to binge watch! Except nopony out there is trying to eat us alive... and this isn't a movie." Rainbow stated, her excitement becoming more and more unenthusiastic as the terror was starting to set in, knowing everypony, who just survived an alien parasite attack, is now being mind controlled or driven mad by the light of a Blood Moon.
"So, Princess Twilight, do you have a plan to stop this or get us out, or is this how we all meet a Not-so-Great-And-Powerful Demise?" Trixie asked, her snark being a bit unsupported by the fear she felt shivering up her spine, and making her hind legs feel like Jello.
Twilight was ignoring Trixie for a good minute, but Trixie had a point. This was something unexplainably crazy, and cheesy horror movies aside, everything was just too much. She ran from her mentor, she didn't think to look for Everchange, who would've posed as a major threat if he was affected in any way with those crazy powers he has. Then, she remembered something. His mother was one of the royal sisters, and since Celestia had a Sun theme, Luna, was the obvious Moon Princess. All that time on the moon, looking down in hate and distain would drive anyone mad. But it's not like she was mad about ponies not admiring her beautiful night sky, she was outraged and banished for wanting the best for her child, and it blew up in both of the royal sisters' faces.
"We need to get to Canterlot, but there are so many ponies out there. I don't even know how we're gonna through them without having to brute force our way through. But before we do get to Canterlot, we need to get Fluttershy, make sure she's okay." Twilight stated aloud. Suddenly, a mare with a vibrant light blue coat and black and white stripes, like that of a zebra's, barged through one of the barricades, growling as it swung its hooves towards the ponies.
"That is if we make it to her cottage before these ponies tear us limb from limb!" Applejack exclaimed, slamming her back hooves into the pony, sending it back a few feet as Big Mac quickly blocked the broken barricaded window with a sturdy cabinet.
"Eeyup!!" Mac uttered, grunting as he held the front door shut as crazed ponies tried to reach in.
"Wait, we can teleport! Twilight you can teleport 6 of us on your own. But with my help and also with Trixie's, if she's willing to try like last time, we can actually escape, and make haste to save PonyVille." Rarity stated. Everypony was debating this, and it could indeed work, but what was the repercussion of something this daring?
"This is the only idea we have? Then fine. I'm willing to estimate that we'll only have two tries at this. One for getting Fluttershy, and the next chance is to get to Canterlo-" Suddenly, before Twilight could finish her sentence, there was the sound of fighting, and magical blasts being fired. All was silent for but a moment, until there was a subtle and gentle knock on the door.
"Twilight? Are you in there? I'm not mad, I just want to tell you that we need to find the elements... Nightmare Moon came back with a vengeance, and I cannot stress how important it is that we immediately head out... Don't worry about your shy friend, I got the whole story from her, and some unnecessary tidbits from Discord. We must act now, my student... Everchange won't last in his current state to fight her." A familiar reagal voice rang out.
To Be Continued...