//------------------------------// // The Gathering // Story: Nightmares Over Equestria // by Ignimbrite //------------------------------// It was the beginning of Nightmare Night, right after sunset, and six ponies gathered in a clearing in the Everfree Forest. A cold wind stirred up some leaves from the ground, and a haze of clouds drifted over the moon, diffusing its light. In the center of the clearing was a complex pattern of lines, arcs, and sinusoids that radiated outwards like a crop circle. The clearing was illuminated by a ring of torches just outside the pattern, and near a tree just outside the ring of torches, the ponies set down their bags of supplies. "Why are were doing this tonight again? I'm missing the festivities." "I know. I heard the town was doing a contest this year. Hey, come to think of it, could this wait for another night? It's been years. It's not like another day would make a difference. Why don't we live a little?" "We need all the dream magic we can get in order for this to work. That either means doing this right after a mass nightmare or doing it on a night dedicated to nightmares. Which of those two is more predictable?" "But we've tried this in a different spot every year and it hasn't worked yet. I'm starting to think the whole 'dedicated to nightmares' thing doesn't supply enough magic." "Deep Scar, enough. We're doing it anyway. Any questions?" No one responded, so the leader pulled out his notes. "Alright, let's make sure we have everything." The pegasus looked over his checklist again. "Thaumically neutralized unicorn horn powder?" One of the other pegasi held up a plastic container. "Right here." He scratched it off. "Ropes?" "Got 'em." "Stakes?" "Next to the rope." "Ceremonial knife? Oh right, I've got that one. Clock?" "Yup." "Rose Quartz?" "Fresh grown." "Five lemons?" "You brought those." He checked his saddlebags, then marked it down on the list. "Compass?" "I've got it, but I don't get why we need it when the pattern's already drawn." The leader rolled his eyes. "You ask about that every year. We need to make sure she's facing the right way or it won't work." "Oh," he chuckled, slightly embarrassed. "Right." The leader went back to his list. "Life crystal?" A unicorn levitated the lid off a sturdy wooden box on the back of a cart. "Not a scratch." He scratched off each item. "Considering how long it took to find one that large, I should hope not." He looked at the next item on the list. "Sacrificial host body?" "Right here." The earth pony gestured to a bound, gagged, and magically suppressed unicorn mare beside him. "I still think we should have put a bag over her head." One of the unicorns looked her over. "Who even is that?" "Tartarus if I know..." "Well, I don't think she needs a bag. Who's she gonna tell? Seriously, why do you think we're calling her a sacrifice?" "It's basic security, if you kidnap somepony, you put a bag on their head. Anypony knows that." "But why do we need security in the middle of the night, in the middle of a forest, with everypony else out in the middle of the village throwing a party. There's literally nopony around except us." There was a slight rustling in the bushes. The pony who believed that they did need a bag looked over at his ideological opponent. "You were saying?" "It's probably just a small animal or something." The bushes rustled again. All six of them pulled out their knives and slowly approached the bush from which the noise had come. Just as they reached it, a bush on the other side of the clearing rustled. All six turned to look back at that one. Seeing nothing, they turned back to the first one again. High above it, outlined by the full moon, a black pony hovered on quiet wings. A black pony with blue slit-pupil eyes, a crescent moon cutie mark, and a horn hovered above the bush on quiet wings. The pony grinned, exposing a fang. All six backed up into the clearing, only stopping when they heard the wingbeats of another pony behind them. They turned around to see a hovering white alicorn with slitted red eyes and another fanged grin. They all backed up into the tree where their sacrifice was tied up, as the two flying abominations slowly approached. "My my my, what do we have here?" The voice came from above. All of them, including the sacrifice, looked at each other, then slowly looked up. Queen Chrysalis lazed on a branch high above their heads. "You're seriously trying to be evil out here in our forest, on our night?" She gave them a fanged smirk. "You're cute." As she said that, the other two perched on a couple branches behind her, also smirking. The six looked at each other again. This was not going according to plan at all. Chrysalis watched them. Finally, one of them looked back up. "What do you want?" She smiled and threw her head back to the sky. "You will set up your Queens. And we shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the morning and the night! Fair as the sea and the sun and the snow upon the mountain! Dreadful as the storm and the lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. "All shall love us and despair!” She whipped her head down and glared at them with a gaze to burn through their eyes, and she gestured with a hoof. "Go. Your being here only interferes with our plans. Drop your play acting and leave the real evil to the experts." The six looked at each other for a moment, then scattered, bolting in every different direction. Several of them ran across the pattern in the ground, rendering it even less decipherable than before. The only things they left behind were the torches, now blown out by the sudden burst of winds from the pegasi's wings, and the bound unicorn, who was still under the tree. To call today unlucky for that unicorn was something of an understatement. What had started as a trip to take a shipment of fabric to the owner of the local boutique had turned into a kidnapping, only for the kidnappers to be supplanted by two corrupted alicorns and a changeling queen who were now perched above her and poised to strike. The mare was sure of it. She was going to die.