//------------------------------//
// 4: Nightmare in the Forest 
// Story: The Successors 
// by Portmeirion 
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The first time Blue Moon ever saw Princess Luna was at a Nightmare Night celebration, the first year after her family had moved nearer to Canterlot.  It was Summer Sun's enthusiasm and curiosity that drove her to attend, even though Blue wasn't much fond of Nightmare Night herself.  But she would do anything to make her sister happy.

Both fillies had briefly met Princess Celestia in the past, on the few occasions when she had visited their parents, but the princess of the night was still very much a mystery to them.  Like all foals their age, they knew their Equestrian history: the story of Luna's banishment, and of her return a thousand years later.  But that wasn't the same as meeting her in person.

As per tradition, Princess Luna had promised to make a guest appearance (as "Nightmare Moon," no less) at the town's annual festival, and on the eve of Nightmare Night the whole community buzzed with excitement.  A great open-air tent was erected in the town square, dark blue canvas with painted stars to match the princess's mane.  Sweets vendors and costumed entertainers set up shop up and down the busy streets, and eerie orange lanterns were strung on long lines between buildings and lamp-posts.  By nightfall the square was filled with excited ponies, all chatting and laughing and dancing to the tunes of local musicians.

Blue and Summer arrived late in the evening, just as the celebration was getting under way.  Many ponies, mostly old ones, were standing around the square with foals gathered all around them, telling ghost stories and recounting Nightmare Night folklore.  Blue Moon half-listened, catching snippets of eerie yarns about Windigos and Will O' the Wisps, but her attention wandered – they were just old mare's tales, as far as she was concerned.  It wasn't until somepony struck up the story of Nightmare Moon that she really started to listen.

"Every Nightmare Night for hundreds of years," rasped the storyteller, an actual old mare, "Nightmare Moon has visited our town!  She flies through the streets, searching for little foals who are out past their bedtimes!"  Her voice grew dark and ominous.  "And if she catches you, she'll gobble your little Cutie Mark right off your flank!"

The gathered foals gasped.  Summer and Blue made no sound, but sat listening intently.  They knew that most stories like this one were no more than myths, but they were fascinated by them anyway; tales of Equestrian princesses, real or imagined, always piqued their interest.

"You!" said the old mare, pointing with a bony foreleg.  It took Blue Moon a moment to realize that she was pointing at her.

"Me?"

"I'll bet Nightmare Moon comes after you first!  She'll think that cookie-shaped Cutie Mark of yours looks awful tasty!"

Blue stepped back, offended.  "It's not a cookie!" she cried.  "It's the moon!"

"Actually, it kinda does look like a cookie," Summer giggled in amusement.

"Well, you'd better HOPE it's not a cookie," the storyteller continued, "or Nightmare Moon will come and gobble it up!"

The foals laughed.  Blue Moon turned away, her head low.  "C'mon, Summer.  Let's go find something else to do."

For another half-hour the sisters wandered about the festival, dancing, bobbing for apples, and chatting with what few other foals they knew.  At last the orange sun sank below the horizon, and the sky turned dark blue and diamond-studded.  They turned their ears to the chattering crowd – it seemed the princess was due to show up any minute now.  Summer practically bounced with excitement; Blue Moon was rather more apprehensive, but she stuck around for her sister's sake.

Then at last it came, as sudden and startling as a bolt of lightning.  From out of nowhere, broiling dark storm clouds filled the sky.  Thunder rumbled, white lightning split the night, cold winds whistled and howled all about them.  Then came the fluttering of leathery wings – a swarm of bats passed overhead, heralding the approach of their dread master.

"Despair, ye ponies!" boomed a voice, a deep, dark, dreadful voice, coming from somewhere above.  "For now cometh Nightmare Moon!"  A dark shape, huge and black as midnight, swept over the crowd's heads and came to a stop hovering over the square.  Wings outstretched, her horn glowing with black moonlight, the princess of the night leered over the mass of ponies below her.  Upon her head was a silvery-blue helm, and stars twinkled in her flowing mane.  Her eyes glowed, white and pale as death.  Nightmare Moon, in the very flesh, had arrived.

At this sight the crowd went wild.  Some cheered joyously, while others screamed in gleeful terror.  It was all an act, of course, but that was part of the fun; it was what Nightmare Night was all about.

In that moment, Blue Moon decided that she really didn't like Nightmare Night.  She didn't like it at all.

As quietly as she could, the dark-maned filly slinked away, finding cover in a dim alleyway not far from the square.  She leaned against the wall behind her, squeezing her eyes shut and waiting for the noise to die down… and for the churning in her stomach to go away.

"Blue?  Are you okay?"

The voice caught Blue Moon by surprise, and she started.  She relaxed again when she looked up to see her sister standing over her.

"Oh… yeah, Summer.  I'm just fine.  Don't worry about me."

"Oh.  Okay, I guess."  Summer turned her head around, glancing out of the alleyway and taking stock of the cheering crowd.  "Nightmare Moon" continued to swoop above the square in a dazzling display.  She looked back at her sister, still scrunched uncomfortably against the cold bricks.  "Um, Blue… are you scared?"

"No, I'm not scared," Blue Moon insisted.  She was never scared – she couldn't allow herself to be.  If she was scared, who would take care of Summer?  "Look, can we go home?  I don't really like Nightmare Night all that much, all right?"

"It's okay, Blue," said Summer.  "I wasn't having that much fun anyway."

Blue got up from her hiding place and walked at her sister's side.  Together, the two fillies trotted back down the darkened streets for home, leaving the noise and spectacle behind them.




The border of the Everfree Forest stood just over a mile from Ponyville's city limits.  It rose from the earth like a veritable wall of woodland, dark and dense and thick with heavy foliage and many hanging vines.  Along its edge the trees were wild and ivy-coated, all reaching out from the dark with long twisted arms.  The wall had but a single opening, a small mouth down which ran a narrow dirt path.  Even on this moonlit night, the path vanished into shadow not more than a few yards into the woods.

Aurora and Corona stood at the edge of the trees, staring into the gloom.  Corona strained her vision, but she couldn't make out what lay down the path.  A wind seemed to blow from out of the woods, faint and chill like the breathing of some massive beast.  It unsettled her deeply, as though the forest was aware of their presence.  It was not making her feel welcome.

"Heh," she chuckled, doing her best to lighten the mood.  "That road looked a lot bigger on the map than it does in real life, huh?"  She looked at her sister, hoping for a laugh.  But Aurora stood still and silent, staring straight ahead, her expression neutral.

A few yards behind them, the carriage sat parked at the edge of a dirt road.  At its side stood the mayor, along with the six royal guards that the princesses had brought with them.  "The path isn't wide enough for the carriage," Tally Mark explained.  "And it winds a great deal, making it impossible to maneuver except on hoof.  I'm afraid you'll have to walk the whole way, unless you'd prefer to fly."

"We'll walk," said Aurora bluntly.  Her horn lit up, and with her magic she held the borrowed map before her eyes.  For a moment she studied it; then she took a slow, shaky breath in an effort to calm her jumpy nerves.  It was quiet enough that the mayor and the guards couldn't hear it, but Corona did.  It troubled her.

"Mayor," said Aurora, turning back to face Tally Mark.  "How many foals have vanished in total?"

For a moment the mayor paused, startled and saddened by the question.  "Eleven, your highness," she said in length, her voice low and dark.  "Eleven foals have disappeared into those woods over the past year.  The number rose so slowly, so gradually, that the staggering total simply crept up on us."  She paused.  "Why do you ask?"

Aurora turned around again and gazed into the darkness.  "I just needed to remind myself what I'm doing this for," she said, her voice little more than a whisper.  Then without another word, she stepped forward, walking solemnly into the forest's mouth.  Corona followed close beside her, and behind them came the heavy hoof-falls of the guards.  Tally Mark climbed back into the carriage and bade the earth ponies to return to Ponyville.  There was nothing more she could do from this point on.  It was up to the princesses now.

The moment they stepped into the forest, Corona was struck by a suffocating sense of claustrophobia.  The path was narrow and grew narrower the further they walked, and all around the forest was pitch-dark, choked by vines and foliage.  The air was thick and close like a musty cellar, but Corona still felt a wind on her face, like a cold breath that seemed to drift from somewhere deep in the heart of the woods.  She resisted the urge to shiver, looking instead at her sister to reassure herself; as long as Aurora wasn't too frightened, there was no reason for her to be frightened either.  The knot in her stomach untied itself every time they shared a glance.

When she wasn't reassuring her sister, Aurora herself continued to walk with her eyes forward, pausing only occasionally to study their surroundings and compare it to the map.  They were still on the right course, it seemed, but they had many miles yet to go.

Within minutes of setting out, the forest turned denser and darker and the atmosphere more oppressive.  The trees grew wilder here, their thick limbs crossing and writhing together like serpents overhead, forming a roof of black and green.  Beneath the canopy all was plunged into shadow; only here and there did silvery slivers of moonlight pierce through the shade.  Soon the princesses were forced to light the way with their horns: twin glows of sun-gold and moon-silver shone like lanterns down the forest path.

But worse than the darkness was the noise – or rather, the lack thereof.  At the forest's edge there had at least been the sounds of night-birds and chirping crickets; but here, in the thick of the forest, a dead silence hung in the air.  The darkness all around them produced no woodland noises, keeping quiet as a tomb.  Corona heard only her own hoofsteps and her sister's, and the slow rhythmic trudge of the guards behind them.  It was almost nerve-wracking.

After a while Aurora paused again to consult her map, and Corona leaned over to whisper in her ear.  "Hey, Blue…how much further?"

"It's not far now," said Aurora, showing her sister the map.  The dark canopy above them was marked; it was about three-quarters of the way from the forest entrance to a small crossroads.  "Once we get there, we'll have to take one of two routes: there's a path that goes east, and another that goes west.  Either one could lead us to the ghost town Pink Pearl described."

Corona turned her head slightly, eyeing the guards: they stood stock still at attention, waiting for the princesses to move again.  "Good.  I really wanna stop soon – those guards are making me a little nervous.  It's like they're following us or something."

"Summer!" Aurora whispered harshly, trying to fight the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.  In a moment she regained her composure.  "Summer, this is nothing to joke about.  We've got a serious job to do here."

"I know, I know," Corona conceded.  "I'm sorry.  But I really am nervous.  I don't like this place.  It's like those awful woods we used to get lost in when we were fillies, except a whole lot worse, because it's so much bigger…and darker."

Aurora had to resist the urge to drape a protective wing over her sister.  They both needed to look strong and independent in front of the guards.  But she leaned closer and whispered, "It's okay, Summer.  Don't worry.  I've got us a map, remember?  Just like old times.  We'll be fine, I promise."

Corona answered her with a smile, and together they continued forward.

At last they came to the intersection, where another trail, even smaller and narrower, crossed over theirs.  No signpost or marker stood at the crossroads; had she not been looking for it, Aurora might have missed it entirely.  On either side the path led into deeper darkness, like a tunnel beneath the trees, disappearing into pitch black just after just a few yards.

"All right," said Aurora, loudly enough for the guards to hear.  "The path on the left leads to the eastern village, and the one on the right leads to the west."  She turned her head, looking down each path in turn, and then sighed in frustration.  "I suppose this means we'll have to split up."

"Very well, your highness," said the guard at the front of the line.  They were all gray-white pegasus stallions, and Aurora had trouble remembering their names.  "If you wish, three of us may accompany you down the left path, and the others will follow Princess Corona down the right."

"No!" Corona said, loudly and suddenly.  There was fear in her voice, and it echoed in the trees all around them.  Then her face flushed, and she looked sheepishly at the guards.  "I-I think I'd rather stay with Aurora," she said more quietly, her eyes cast down in shame.

"It's okay, Summer," Aurora assured her gently.  Then she looked back up, addressing the guards.  "I think it'd be best if my sister and I stay together.  We work better as a team anyway.  Two of you can come with us down the east path, and the other four can take the west by themselves.  Return here after an hour and report anything you find."

"As you wish, Princess," said the lead guard.  He glanced back at his subordinates, and with a few jerks of his head he issued them a complex series of orders.  Nodding in compliance, four of the guards broke off and marched down the path to the right.  In moments they had vanished down the dark path, the sound of their hooves fading into the night.  Corona's eyes followed them until they were out of sight.

Aurora took another slow, quiet breath.  Her nerves were jumping again, but she made every effort to keep it to herself.  She looked again at the map – there was nothing more she could learn from it right now, but it calmed her anyway because it gave her a sense of control.  She knew where she was going; it was just a matter of making herself go.  Sharing one last look with her sister, she trotted slowly down the east path and into darkness.  Corona followed at her side, much closer to her than before, and behind them came the guards.  Four sets of hooves echoed in the still, quiet forest.

Corona brightened her horn-glow.  This path was even darker than the main one, and it was thick with rocks and roots that burst through the dirt and made for uneven footing.  More than once she nearly stumbled.  After a minute's walk it became clear that the path was leading downhill, towards a low river basin where broad willows grew.  Their long, sinewy arms hung like tendrils from above, glowing ghostly pale in the sisters' magical light.  A few of them hung low enough to brush against Corona's head, which made her deeply uncomfortable; it felt like being touched by some unfamiliar creature.

She glanced again at Aurora to reassure herself, but what she saw only worried her more.  Aurora's stoic façade was slipping; her sense of control was intact, but a deeper fear had now seized her.  Since the previous night it had sat like a cold stone in her stomach, but only now was its icy touch beginning to reach her heart.  Corona noticed the change in Aurora's demeanor, in her darting eyes and her shaky breath.  Her jumpy nerves were clearly getting jumpier.

"Hey, sis?" Corona whispered, keeping pace with Aurora.  "You okay?"

"I'm fine," the night princess whispered back, but her tense, shaking voice betrayed her.  She clearly was not fine.

"Are you sure?" Corona pushed.  "Because you sound kind of nervous.  You're not, er…" Corona lowered her voice.  "You're not scared, are you?"

"No.  Not really.  I'm just…" Aurora paused, searching for the words.  "I'm a little… tentative about what's going to happen when we reach the village."

"Tentative?"

"Oh… well…" Aurora lowered her head.  "That's… that's just another way of saying scared, all right?"

Corona was surprised.  "Scared?  I didn't know you ever got scared, sis."

"Well I do, and I am.  And I'd rather not talk about it."

"Are you sure?"

Aurora paused in her tracks, releasing a defeated sigh.  It would do her a world of good to talk about how she felt – and who better to talk to than her sister?  Her eyes met Corona's and she started to walk forward again.  "At first I wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible," she went on, slackening her pace just a bit, "but now I'm not so sure anymore.  It's much harder to think about it now that we're almost there – now that it's almost right in front of us."

"I guess I understand.  It's kind of like what I had to do last week in flight training."

"Hmm?" Aurora said, her interest piqued.  "How do you mean?"

"See, Coach Skybolt set a cloud about thirty feet above the ground and I had to glide down from it.  I was really excited to try it at first, but every time I walked up to the edge I got scared.  It was a whole lot harder to jump when I could see the distance I had to fall right in front of me."

"So what did you do?"

"Skybolt told me not to think so much about it: just run and leap as fast as I could, and get it over with quickly.  And she was right.  I tried it one more time and I didn't look down, I just ran up and jumped.  And that made it a lot easier, I think – I glided down and landed and didn't get hurt."

"I see," said Aurora.  Her gaze wandered, and as she walked she stared into the darkness of the passing woods.  "I guess that's what it's like.  I'm getting close to the edge now, and it's hard not to look down."

"Well, I think it was pretty cool, the way you wanted to get this done tonight, even though you were scared," said Corona.  "I probably would've put it off until the end of the visit.  You're really brave, sis.  Did you know that?"

Aurora smiled bashfully.  "Thanks, Summer."

At last the downhill slope ended and the path leveled out again.  They had reached the edge of a dark stream, flowing almost soundlessly through the forest.  The path ran alongside it, weaving between hoary willows and dipping here and there into small black pools.  The air was warmer, almost steamy in places, and Corona felt beads of moisture strike lightly upon her face.  They were entering a bog.  The path turned soft and muddy and a mist filled the air, glowing white and gold in the light of their horn-lamps.

The further they walked, the thicker the mist grew; soon it was so dense that the guards, marching not ten feet behind the princesses, appeared to them as nothing but dim silhouettes in the murky gray.  Every so often they would come upon a huge willow, looming like a beast in the fog, only for it to vanish into the blankness again moments after they passed it.  Tiny rivulets ran through the muddy ground beneath their hooves, blurring the once-clear dirt path.  At times it seemed to them that the path had vanished entirely, and they were now just wandering amongst the trees.

"I don't like this," Corona mumbled.

"Neither do I," agreed Aurora.  "This swamp is marked on the map, but the path should go clear through it.  This doesn't seem right."

"Maybe we could ask one of those guards to fly up above the fog, and see what's what," Corona suggested.  She looked back over her shoulder.  "Hey!  Could one of you guys – "

She stopped when she realized there was no one there.  The guards' thin silhouettes had vanished altogether and their heavy hoofsteps had fallen silent.

"Where…where did the guards go?" Corona asked timidly, hoping Aurora could give her an answer.

But Aurora couldn't.  She stared hard into the dark, blank mass of fog, but saw nothing.  They had been separated somehow – either the guards had gotten lost, or she had.  Aurora's pulse quickened as a hint of panic began to set in; but she took yet another long, slow breath, commanding herself to remain calm.  Nothing would be solved by losing her cool.

"They must've lost sight of us," she said.  "I'll bet they took a wrong turn around one of those willows and just kept going."  Sighing in exasperation, she rolled her eyes.  "Glass Eye shouldn't have even bothered sending those guards with us.  They're so inattentive it makes me wonder if they're as blind as he is."

"But, um…we can still find our way, right?"

"Of course we can, sis," said Aurora, holding up the map again.  "We must be near the river, at least – that's probably where all this mist is coming from.  If we can find it, I can figure out where we are on the map.  Now where is it…?"  Her eyes wandered through the fog and her ears listened for the sound of running water.

Corona looked and listened as well.  But all around her the world seemed blank and quiet; no sound reached her ears other than her sister's soft breathing, and no light reached her eyes other than the glow of her horn.  She turned about, looking in the opposite direction that Aurora looked, hoping she might spy a break in the mist; but saw something else instead.

A faint glimmer of light appeared through the fog, some distance away from her.  Corona looked closer: there, flickering soft and faint through the mist, were tiny yellow lights.  They floated and danced like stray sparks from a bonfire drifting on the wind.  No, not drifting – as they came closer, they seemed to be moving of their own will, swarming around like fireflies.  There were almost a dozen of them, approaching fast.

"Hey, Blue…what are those?"

Hearing Corona's voice, Aurora turned and looked as well, catching sight of the lights.  "I don't know," she answered.  One of them flew just before her eyes.  Aurora expected to see it attached to some sort of insect, but there was nothing there: just a point of yellow light, hovering on its own and floating gently through the misty air.  "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Do you think they're friendly?" Corona asked, smiling as one of the lights passed in front of her face.  She giggled softly.  "They're kind of cute."

"I…don't think we should be making friends with them," said Aurora.  "Most of the species in the Everfree Forest are still undocumented – these things could be dangerous."

"Well, they don't look dangerous."  The sun princess's eyes followed the lights as they passed between her and her sister.  Then they gathered in a swarm on the other side, swirling and dancing.  They seemed to be waiting for something.  Corona studied them closely – their movements looked almost beckoning.  "I think they want us to follow them."

"I really don't think that's a good idea," Aurora tried to protest, but Corona had already begun to trot through the mist in pursuit of the lights.  With nothing else to do, she followed her sister, magically carrying the map at her side.  Something about this didn't sit right in her gut, but it seemed a better option than just standing around in the fog.

"Maybe they're trying to help," Corona suggested as the lights led them on, slicing through the haze and weaving in and out between tall willows.  "They heard that we were lost and they're leading us out of the woods!"

"Well, they're leading us somewhere, that's for sure."  For some reason, Aurora couldn't shake the feeling that she knew what those lights were.  There was some vague memory in the back of her mind that made her suspicious, but she couldn't quite put her hoof on it; it was like trying to recall a dream.  But it made her anxious all the same.

There was a soft splash, and Aurora felt her hoof land in something wet.  She looked down and saw that she was standing in a shallow, murky pool full of peat and mud.  Corona was just in front of her, her own hooves splashing in the swamp-water, following the dancing lights.

"Summer, stop!" Aurora called out.  "They're leading us deeper into the swamp!"

"It's okay, Blue!" her sister shouted back.  "The ground's still really solid.  See?"  She bounced lightly up and down to prove her point, splashing muddy water about her legs.

"Well…all right," said Aurora.  She caught up with her sister and continued onwards.  "But I still don't like this.  Something about those lights bothers me, but I'm not sure what."

On they went through the misty marsh.  The fog was finally starting to clear, and their surroundings became visible – in the glow of their horn-lights, they could see the swamp: gray, fallen logs lay half-submerged, and here and there thick Cyprus knees rose eerily from the black, misty water.  The lights, flitting about like a swarm of fireflies, led them on along a muddy path, but soon the pools about their feet grew wider and thicker with peat.  Corona did her best to hop lightly through and around them, but every step sent her hooves sinking into the murk.  It was a lot of work to drag them back out again; the mud seemed to suck them down.  Before long both sisters were slogging through the swamp, with the water often reaching above their fetlocks.

"Eeuugh," complained Corona, picking a hoof out of the peat.  She shook it dry, only to muddy it again when she took another step forward.  "I think the water's getting deeper."

Suddenly Aurora stopped in her tracks.  Prompted by her sister's observation, a memory came clear into her mind – a memory from a Nightmare Night long ago, of an old storyteller and a spooky old mare's tale to which she had paid little heed at the time, but that now felt inexpressibly important.

"Summer, we need to turn around," she said sternly.  "Those lights aren't helping us.  They're just making us more lost."

"What do you mean?"

"Those are Will O' the Wisps," Aurora explained.  "I remember hearing a story about them, a very long time ago.  They're a kind of forest spirit.  They lure ponies off of the path and into a swamp to drown.  That's what they're trying to do to us."

"But…" her sister started to protest, glancing back at the lights – but they were nowhere to be seen.  All she saw now was the darkness of the swamp.  Their "guides" had abandoned them, stranded in the mire.  Corona's head fell in shame.  "I'm sorry, Blue.  I just really hoped they were leading us out…I didn't like being lost.  I should've listened to you."

"It's all right, Summer.  I didn't know what they were at first, either."  Aurora picked her hooves up out of the mud and prepared to turn around.  "But I think it'd be best now if we just go back the way we came."

"Yeah… okay," Corona mumbled, moving to follow her.  As she turned, she cast one last glance in the direction the spirits had been leading them – and froze.  Just ahead, across a wide swampy pool and through a thick patch of brambly foliage, stood an old gray brick wall, half-fallen down and covered in ivy.  "Blue Moon!  Look!  We're here!"

"What?" Aurora asked, looking back.

"It's a building!  See?" Corona said excitedly, pointing with a hoof.

Aurora came up to her sister's side, brightening her horn-glow for a better view.  Ahead through the brambles was the wall, and beyond was a large moonlit clearing.  In the silvery glow she could make out the shapes of several more structures in varying degrees of dilapidation: some were nothing more than old foundation slabs crowned with crumbling brick walls.  It was the remains of a village, old and desolate, but clearly made by ponies.

"I don't believe it," Aurora muttered.  "It's the ghost town.  We really have made it!"  Immediately she scanned for a safe path to the clearing – she didn't like the look of that boggy, peat-filled pool that stood between them and the foliage on the other side.  It seemed rather shallow, but Aurora didn't trust her eyes.

"Yay!" cried Corona.  "Told you those lights were here to help.  C'mon!"  And with that, ran for the clearing…and straight towards the pool.

"Summer!  Wait!"

But it was too late.  With a tremendous splash, Corona sank into the mire.  It was, in fact, deeper than it looked: the murky bog reached up to the princess's knees.  Immediately she tried to wade through the muck, but with every attempted step she only sank deeper; the quagmire sucked her hooves down like quicksand.  Soon she could no longer even lift her legs, and still she felt herself sinking.

"Blue!" she cried, her voice nearly breaking with panic.  "I can't move!  I can't move!"

"It's okay, Summer.  Just calm down and don't struggle."  Aurora was close to panic herself, but she tried her best to keep her voice steady.  This must've been where the Will O' the Wisps were leading them, to this horrid pool.  She fought back a shudder – if she hadn't realized where they were being led, they both might've stumbled into the mire.

"Blue?!"

"It's okay!" Aurora said again.  "Just hold on.  I'll get you out of there somehow."  Her eyes scanned the swampy ground for a long branch or a vine, but she saw nothing useful below.  Looking up, she spied the long creeping arms of a willow dangling from overhead, and taking one in her teeth she gave it a mighty tug and broke it free.

"Take this!" she shouted, tossing one end to her sinking sister.  Corona caught it with her magic and tried to pull it within biting distance, but the willow arm simply wasn't long enough; she had run too far into the murky pool.  Already she had sunk so far that the morass reached above her knees, and it was becoming increasingly hard not to struggle.

Corona's crimson eyes were wide with blind terror.  "Blue… what do I do?!"

"Just hold on!" Aurora repeated firmly, pulling the vine back to dry land.  "I'll try to make it around to the other side.  I can reach you from there."

"But can't you just fly over?"

"Summer, I can barely get off the ground under normal circumstances!  There's no way I could fly at a time like this!"  Inwardly she berated herself for being so poor a flyer, but quickly stopped herself; there would be time for that later.  Right now her sister needed her.  "Just hold on!"

Aurora then dashed around the edges of the pool, hoping to find some safe path to the other side.  The mire was wide and there seemed to be no clear way around it, save for a long, fallen tree, half-submerged longways in the murky water.  It looked old and rotten, bare of bark and slippery, but Aurora saw no other way around.  Carefully placing one hoof after another upon the log, she tread slowly from one end to the other, more than once nearly slipping into the swamp herself.  But after a few tense moments she made it across to the edge of the clearing.  Here the ground was more solid, with thick green grass and tougher soil.

"Here!"  Again, she cast the willow branch into the swamp, aiding her throw with a bit of magic.  At last Corona seized it in her teeth, just as the murk-water reached her stomach.  Aurora planted her hooves firmly on the ground, took the other end of the branch in her mouth again, and pulled.  She tugged for all she was worth, leaning back against her sister's weight and groaning in effort.  The swamp put up a terrible fight, dragging back Corona back with what seemed like the strength of a dozen earth ponies; but at last, it started to give way.

Corona felt herself being pulled from the mire.  Slowly but surely, the muck was releasing its death grip, and she felt herself rising out of the swampy pool and inching towards the shore.  Soon the upper halves of her legs were free again, followed by her knees, and then both of her forelegs.  She grasped madly at the ground, finally planting her front hooves on the bank of the mire.

"It's working!" she said through gritted teeth.  "I'm almost out!  I'm – "

"SHREEEEEIIIIIIIIK!!!!"

Both sisters froze.  The sound had come from somewhere behind Aurora, from the direction of the ghost town.  The night princess's blood ran cold, and the willow branch fell from her mouth.

"Anyway, that was when I heard it: some kinda screechin', howlin' sound. I ain't gonna lie, it chilled me right to the bone."

Pink Pearl's words rang in Aurora's head.  Her pulse quickened – this was it.

Corona dropped her own end of the branch, pulling herself out of the pool and onto dry ground.  She stared with frightened eyes past her sister and into the clearing.  "Uh, sis… what… what is that thing?"

Aurora didn't answer.  The air behind her grew chilly, and every hair from her tail to her mane stood on end.  Slowly, with shaky breath, she mustered every ounce of willpower she had and turned around.

In the clearing stood a pony.  She was tall, taller even than the princesses themselves, and bore huge black, feathery wings on her back.  Her mane and tail were midnight-blue, flowing ethereally in the pale moonlight.  About her neck hung the regalia of Equestrian royalty, colored silvery light-blue, and atop her head was a warrior's helm pierced by a long black horn.  She stood many yards away, just outside a ruined brick home; but even from so long a distance, Aurora and Corona could both see the savage, toothy smile on her face.

"Nightmare Moon…." Aurora breathed.

At the sound of her name, the monster shrieked again.  It was a hideous high-pitched sound that pierced their ears like a blade of cold steel.  Aurora winced, unable to move, unable to fight, unable to think.  Icy fear ran through her veins and froze her where she stood.  Once again, memories of a long-past Nightmare Night came to her mind; but now they inundated it, paralyzing her thoughts with fearful visions and ringing with voices as clear as yesterday:

"Nightmare Moon will come and gobble you up!"

"Despair, ye ponies!  For now cometh Nightmare Moon!"

"Blue… are you scared?"

Aurora trembled, her knees giving way.  She collapsed, shutting her teary eyes as tightly as she could.  There was nothing else she could do.

"Blue!" Corona cried, striding quickly to the fallen princess and kneeling at her side.  Aurora's eyes were still shut fast, and tears streamed from their edges; Corona had never seen her sister in such a state.  Raising her own eyes, she watched in dread as the nightmare before them advanced slowly, stepping towards them with grim purpose.  Her black horn began to glow sickly green, and Aurora's trembling grew fiercer and her breathing heavier.  It was doing something to her, Corona could tell – but what?

Well, whatever it was, she wouldn't let that thing get away with it.  "You leave my sister alone!" she shouted at the advancing terror, now no more than a stone's throw away.  Rising up to her full height, Corona's face hardened and she fixed a determined glare on her enemy.

Nightmare Moon now turned to her, meeting the princess's fierce eyes with a fiery white gaze of her own.  She opened wide her mouth and let out another shriek, even more terrible than the first, and it sounded horribly triumphant, like a cruel burst of laughter.  Corona shrank back a bit, but held her ground even as fear took her heart.  No way was she letting this monster keep her from helping her sister.

"Oh yeah?" she shot back in answer to the shriek.  "Well I don't think you're so scary!  C'mon, show me what you've got!"  And with that, she charged.

She didn't really know what she intended to do.  Corona didn't usually think that far ahead.  Impulse guided her decision and she ran with it, as she so often did.  And this time, it cost her.

Grinning madly, the monster fired a luminous green bolt from her horn, striking Corona square in the chest.  The force of the blow still sent her crumpling to the ground with a breathless grunt, the wind knocked from her lungs.  For a painful moment she lay there, too shocked to move so much as a muscle; then she feebly raised her head, catching sight of her petrified sister trembling on the ground.

"Blue…" she said weakly, trying to recover her breath.  "Help…."

Nightmare Moon strode to the fallen princess.  Once again, her horn glowed ghostly green, and she looked down at Corona with hungry eyes, hissing and laughing wildly.

"Blue… please…."

Amidst the shrieking, amidst the hideous laughter and the sounds of the fight, Corona's feeble plea for help pierced Aurora's defensive shell.  At last she opened her eyes: Nightmare Moon towered high over her sister, still grinning maniacally like a predator over its defeated, trembling prey.

Fear turned to anger.  Aurora's icy blood boiled.  She rose again to her hooves, staring the nightmare in the face with blazing eyes.  Something inside her snapped; she felt her own magical energies welling up beyond the boiling point.

"Leave.  Her.  Alone!"

Nightmare Moon had only a second to react before she was struck by the magical equivalent of a ten-ton load.  A radiant blue aura slammed into her, knocking her clean off her hooves and flinging her backwards quite some distance.  With a mighty crash she collided with a wide oak tree, striking it with such force that the trunk splintered into flying bits of wood.  She tried to rise to her hooves again, but fell to the ground after a single attempt, her will to fight utterly spent.

Aurora stood panting, breathless, as blue wisps of smoke rose from her horn.  She'd never been able to summon that much energy before – it was as exhilarating as it was exhausting.  But she spent no more time dwelling on it, and instead ran right to her sister's side.  "Summer!  Summer, are you all right?" she cried, her voice almost frantic.

"I'm… I'm fine," said Corona, picking herself up.  Aurora knelt down at her side and helped her to stand.  She coughed once, but after a moment her breathing returned to normal.  "I'm okay.  But what happened to – "

"AM IS NIGHTMARE MOON!"

Both princesses spun around to face the source of the shrieking voice.  There, at the base of the splintered trunk, stood their defeated foe – but no longer did she resemble Nightmare Moon.  Now she was just a small, black creature, with insectoid wings and a stringy, pale green mane, hobbling weakly towards them and trying her very hardest to muster some sense of menace.  She was failing miserably.

"Am is Nightmare Moon!" she shrieked again in a failing voice.

"It's… it's a changeling," Aurora said, astonished.

The little changeling stumbled, falling upon the grass at Corona's feet.  "Hungry… so hungry…" she whimpered, her voice raspy and broken.  "Please… no hurt… please…."

For a long while the sisters stared at the slight creature, listening apprehensively as she cried softly and watching her little chest rise and fall with each labored breath.

"Blue," said Corona at last, looking up to meet her sister's eyes.  "What do we do with her?"