//------------------------------// // Chapter 23 - Something’s is Going on // Story: The Adventures of the New Nightmare // by hmaf43 //------------------------------// The warm sunlight streamed through the windows, casting a golden glow on the wooden interiors. Laughter and chatter filled the air as more and more ponies started to gather here, to unwind after a day of work. Furlog is currently enjoying this cozy atmosphere as slowly gulped down his one of favorite beverages. As he observed the lively ponies that surrounded him, his ears slightly moved left and right. The chatter of ponies discussing various topics and the clinking of glasses filled the air as the agent of S.M.I.L.E. found himself trying to decipher any potential knowledge that was freely given by talkative drunkards in this dimly lit establishment. "Ah, such is my life," he muttered to himself, swirling the cider in his cup, the liquid forming a mesmerizing whirlpool. Furlog sat in the bar, a cup of apple cider in his hoof grip, slowly sipping his fifth serving of the sweet apple nectar as he delved deep into his thoughts. He looked at the fleeing figure of his private informant, who was currently being surrounded by mares and stallions, and couldn't help but reminisce about their first encounter. "What a disappointment that one was.” Furlog sighed, his eyes following the guard as he vanished into the bustling crowd. He couldn't help but think about what could have been if he hadn't thrown his life away like that. Truly, that one had delivered on all his assignments, but what he did with his private life left something more to be desired. He was one of Furlog's "pet projects," somepony he saw the potential for him to become something great and had invested some of his personal time into grooming the youngling behind the back of the agency. "But who can fault him? With a history like that," Furlog mumbled softly, gulping up the rest of his apple cider, he savored the bittersweet taste lingering on his tongue. Furlog then directed his attention back to the document that the guard had collected for him, unfolding the parchment and scanning the contents with a keen eye. The information within could lead to a significant understanding of their current situation. It was a collection of reports in many shapes and forms, from official documents to short notes by the royal guard himself, detailing various incidents. Furlog couldn't help but depressingly noticed the meticulousness with which the guard had procured this information, a testament to what he could have been. As he sipped his apple cider, Furlog opened the folder marked 'Ponyville General,' which contained Princess Celestia's medical record from that incident, and examined it closely. As he combed through the medical document, he noticed many details that intrigued him. The injuries inflicted upon Celestia were quick and severe for any normal ponies, a single impact of a projectile on the side, yet the location of her strikes allowed the sun princess to function relatively normally, even if she was forced to deal with humiliation afterward. Which she decided to avoid such a cruel fate by running away. "I know I would too." He mused to himself and shuddered at his memories of times in missions when interacting with Canterlot nobility was unavoidable. The damage she dealt to Celestia was precise, too precise, almost as if she intended to just only disable the princess, without causing her to be unfit from ruling. A non-lethal specially accounted for a target with an alicorn's healing facter. He knows firsthoof experience that Princess Celestia can recover from far worst injuries, and Nightmare Moon should've known it too. "Something didn't add up here." Furlog frowned and muttered to himself. He couldn't help but wonder if there was more to this than met the eye. The more he thought, the more It seemed that Nightmare Moon's attack on Celestia was more calculated than it appeared at first glance. A stallion of rationality such as him doesn't believe in such fickle things like luck and fate, everything must have reason to be the way they are. A little bit to the left and Princess Celestia would be flightless, a little lower and she would need a wheelchair, and merely a few degrees from completely totally sensory deprived the alicorn of the sun. Furlog's guts rining in alarm and told him that something deeper was at play. His eyes narrowed as he opened up a bundle of notes, containing information about the event that transpired on the longest day when that alicorn arrived in Equestria and attacked Celestia. Nightmare Moon, The legendary Mare of the Moon - a name that sent shivers down the spines of many foals and adults alike. The document mentioned that Nightmare Moon had declared the renouncement of her citizenship and wanted nothing to do with Equestria, but shortly afterward, she was bounded here simply because she was threatened with the fate of Equestria further puzzled Furlog. "The evil spirit that ate foals, huh." The stallion muttered. With how much this nation had hurt her, Furlog can't help but empathize with the mare if she want to just burn it to the ground, especially now when he know she was not the typical monster he usually worked on, but just a pony. The fact that she tried to mitigate the incident yesterday, a move that was detrimental to her position, was proof of that. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to make Twilight Sparkle completely emotional dependence on her? She could have one of the most knowledgeable and powerful unicorn in Equestria for a few days, in an emotionally fragile state all by herself. A mare with a direct connection to the crown, only if she did nothing. Why would she squander that chance? Not only that, the fact that she also gave up that artifact, one of the most powerful magic tool ever created, to the protege of the sun Princess, like it was nothing. The legendary Elements of Harmony. if its fables that sang of its tales were held true, it was an artifact that capable of defeating the force of all Tartarus inhabitants combined together, in just a single activation. Such a terrifying power, and Nightmare Moon just thrown it away like that? There was more to this story, and he intended to uncover the truth. In fact, was she really 'stuck' here? What would she do if no one stop her? Where would she even go? Nightmare Moon is a mare who was lost in the future thousand years. Everything's changed and she was struck out of her time without any place to go. Everypony she she knew was already dead. Would she just leave, or... "She might plan to lay low in Equestria, protecting it from the shadow, because even after all this, she still cared about this nation...?" Furlog mused aloud, half-questioning and half-pondering. The light of Day is blinding and only so many evils can be defeated. The alicorn of the night know well that the blade of shadow was needed. It would be explained away why she was found in the old ruined castle of the everfree forest. carrying back not only books hoofpicked by the lavender unicorn, but a few she picked up for herself too. Collecting that artifact was just her afterthought. However, he quickly dismissed his own optimistic conclusion, knowing that he couldn't afford to jump to the conclusion he wished to be true without any solid evidence. "Haah... A stallion can dream." He muttered tiredly. A relatable alicorn princess was a tempting prospect but that was just his wishful thinking. He needed more information to evaluate her properly. "For once, I will trust you. I will give you the benefit of the doubt, 'Your Highness'. " Furlog muttered to himself, raising his cider-filled cup in a silent toast to the enigmatic alicorn of night. "Glory to the new princess, I guess." He smiled, as he traced the shimmering of the alcoholic beverage in his cup. Nightmare Moon's armored hooves made soft thuds against the ground as she navigated through the dense foliage, and continued her search through the dept of Everfree forest. The ancient trees loomed over her, casting shadows that seemed to dance with a life of their own, as the deepest of magical blue light illuminated them. *Whirrs *Whirrs *Whirrs As she ventured deeper into the heart of Everfree, the alicorn of the night couldn't help but snort at the ridiculous fear ponies had about this forest. "The scary forest that weather moved by its own, they said." Nightmare Moon chuckled, she found such a notion amusing. Even in this magical land of quadruples, more than a few ponies from a thousand years ago would have considered this a normal thing, as it was no different from the rural areas of ancient Equestria back before the days of the weather factory. In those times, long before heavy machinery like the weather machine existed, and without any central authority to control weather schedule, total climate control was hard, as they needed dozens of pegasi battalions to keep on standby 24/7 for the weather duty and nothing else, eating away paychecks after paychecks, just for possibility of dealing with especially atrocious weather. Those happened a lot, actually. Mostly from the weather team of the neighboring town being too cheapskate to deal with their airspace properly and pushing the problem to someone else. She and Sunbutt had to take care of the fallout far too many times... "It's Luna, not me." Nightmare Moon muttered to herself, her still-repairing wings ruffled with a little pain as she took a breather. "That gal wasn't me." She continued her trek, firing off another set of tracking spells. *Whirrs *Whirrs *Whirrs The point is, that this kind of weather control was the only luxury that a wealthy city could afford. Even with just the second-handed experience from Luna's fading memories, the alicorn of the night could almost imagine how the laughter of those ancient medieval horse people would react to modern ponies' quirk. The forest that moved by itself. Spooky~ They would have found such tales spewing from the mouths of their descendants preposterous, amusing at how their waste of good sperm cells could be so fearful of their own natural world. "And back on Earth, Everfree would be just another dense forest, only with giant chickens that turned people into stone." Nightmare Moon mused. "Magical chickens, but still just a bunch of chickens." The idea of people hunting down cockatrice into extinction, she was sure its ability to turn people and animals into stone would be in high demand in many industries. Of course, hunting wild cockatrice would be cheaper at first. Just like whales, she can imagine the obligated protective species status! But as they figured out how to keep workers from turning into stone, cockatrice farming will eventually became matured and cheaper. Being just a species of giant chickens, International chained fast-food restaurants will see the opportunity and lay their grubby hand on this new victim, breed cockatrices for meat, and fatten the bird up until its legs collapse under its own weight just to increase their profit margins even more, and will still dare complain about not enough yield rate. The demand for infinite growth will turn the scarcely magical giant chicken into a protected near-extinct species. The alicorn smiled as her random train of thought seemed amusing to her. "Capitalism truly solved everything, hah!" Nightmare Moon laughed at her musing. "As exotic-looking as they were, I'm sure mom would liked to try it. She is always adventurous with her diets." Nightmare Moon then paused her step for a moment as her thoughts caught up to her words, reminiscing about her time back home on Earth. The memories of her human family flooded her mind. Would they still accept her in this new body, in this new gender? Would they understand that their son had become an alien magic pony princess? The thought of being rejected and called a monster horse by her own family weighed heavily on her heart. Nightmare Moon pondered the possibility of how could they react to her current form. "Well, perhaps a monster isn't far from the truth," she chuckled softly, a hint of sadness in her eyes. After all, she is now the fearsome Mare of the Moon, the immortal and gothic-winged unicorn of the night that can control the moon and be sealed for a thousand years for her sins. The Lovecraftian entity who capable of breaking the sanctuary of mind at will. This was undoubtedly a character profile that fits the description of an eldritch monster in many horror stories – quite an overpowered one at that. She even has sharp fangs and slitted eyes to go along with it. Without abilities to distract herself, Nightmare Moon was left with her own mind, and would have no choice, but to do another round of self-introspection, if not for a new stimulation that is. Suddenly, the alicorn’s train of thought was interrupted as she felt a jolt of impact on her barrel. Immediately, Nightmare Moon's arcane armor sprang to life, forming solid constructs fueled by her magic, to protect her from the sharp jaws of a Timberwolf that had attacked her. The wooden creature snarled angrily, but Nightmare Moon was prepared. She summoned her magical prowess and sent a powerful blast of energy toward the creature, obliterating it in an instant. But the alicorn soon realized it was not an isolated attack. More Timberwolves appeared, their glowing green eyes fixated on her. Nightmare Moon gritted her teeth, readying herself for the battle that lay ahead. "Howl!" one of the Timberwolves let out a chilling cry, signaling to its pack for the offensive. Nightmare Moon heard the sound of approaching footsteps "A pack of Timberwolves... huh." she muttered question, not expecting such a large number of them. Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she prepared herself to face the approaching threat. Energy rippled around her horn as it charged up for an offensive spell. Without hesitation, Nightmare Moon unleashed a powerful barrack of magic missiles, each one with pinpoint accuracy, obliterating the Timberwolves in a blaze of arcane energy. "A horny horse is the best horse, not that horny, brain." The alicorn smiled wryly at her own pun, her horn still glowing with power, as she acknowledged the advantages of her new body. Despite the heavy baggage that it came with, it did have its perks in many things. And one of them is combat. As Nightmare Moon prepared to call it off for the day, to go back and rest in the safety of the ancient wall of the ruined castle, she soon realized that retreating was not an option, as her ears swirled around, catching the noise of many footsteps approaching. Surveying her surroundings, Nightmare Moon noticed countless glowing pairs of green eyes already surrounding her, peering at her from the shadow of trees. She knows that there were far more of them lurking in the shadows. A feeling of dread filled her mind as she swirled her ears around, catching the sound of more and more footsteps. The uneasy feeling mad a twist in her gut kept building up and she couldn't shake the thoughts that she was already in deep trouble. Seeing the overwhelming number of Timberwolves, Nightmare Moon decided to cast a detection spell to assess the extent of the threat. *Ping. Fifty Timberwolves. *Ping. Two hundred Timberwolves. *Ping. Five hundred Timberwolves. The result that came back shocked her. "Holy shit," The night alicorn instinctively tuck her flowing tail in as she exclaimed under her breath, taken aback by the sheer quantity of her foes. One of her hindlegs is still not fully healed, her wings are mangled and broken, and her magic reserve is limited, reducing the choice of spells and tactics she could use. She cannot run, nor can she go all trigger-happy and let's lose her spells thoughtlessly. With a resolute expression, Nightmare Moon suppressed her inner Shinji Ikari and switched her arcane armor's power source to the internal emergency power gemstones, the alicorn knew she needed to conserve whatever was left of her magic reserves, especially in her currently drained state. The alicorn of the night lets out a sigh "This is going to be a long fight," She said to herself, mentally preparing for the intense battle that lay ahead.