//------------------------------// // 12 // Story: Rift in Ponyville // by xnaturalblue //------------------------------// Sonar Moonshadow slammed the dusty book shut after skimming the final page, watching as Misty Seeker busied herself by watering a mix of red and purple potted flowers that grew by inches in a millisecond. “I finished reading.” “What did you find?” Misty inquired with a faint twitch of her lip into a knowing smile. “This… um, what did you call it? Demon?” Sonar rubbed his temples, mind swimming at the new information. “Not a demon. Destolord.” Misty sounded sharp in her response, almost offended. “Right, that. Well, this Destolord is the only regularly observed one of its kind in our history,” Sonar flipped the book back open, trying to guide his thoughts into a comprehensive narrative. “It showed itself to Princess Luna after… I dunno, a few centuries after she arrived on the moon?” Misty nodded, so he continued to relay the story he had learned… Luna was fully coherent. She no longer wondered if her torture was only mental, as she stared into the deep eyes of the creature before her. “Who are you?” Luna barked out, and the vacuum of silence somehow got even quieter. “You need not to know of my name, only of my power,” The creature grinned, stepping closer to the princess as she firmly held her ground. “You will see.” In a flash, Luna was sent careening to the rocky terrain of the moon and she felt her shoulder pop out of place. Shocked, she attempted to regain her posture as before she was knocked back to the ground by an unseen force, the grinning Destolord not having lifted a single hoof. She tried to use her weakened magic, unknowing that it was determination alone allowing her to stand once again. “Who are you?” The princess repeated firmly, not letting her slowly rising terror show on her face. “I am Princess Luna, riser of the moon and the night, ruler of dark Equestria.” “If you are so insistent on introductions, you may call me Jesterbones,” His voice sounded like it was miles away, but it also sounded like a whisper directly in the princess’ ear. At that, Luna's hooves pounded against the rocky surface as she charged at ‘Jesterbones,’ her magic now discarded as a means of defense. With a swift movement, she aimed a powerful punch at his strange form, but he had dodged it, his body contorting like smoke in the wind. Luna spun, her back legs kicking out at him as she tripped, but Jesterbones simply phased through the second attack and reappeared behind her. Growing frustrated, she launched herself at the creature once again, aiming to tackle Jesterbones to the ground. He blinked out of her vision at the last moment, sending Luna crashing into the ground once again and kicking up a cloud of the silvery dust of the moon. Luna sprang back to her hooves, her eyes narrowing as she ignored the pain in her shoulders. Jesterbones grinned, a sickening sneer twisting his unnatural features. He suddenly lunged at the princess, aiming a series of rapid jabs at Luna's face. Luna deftly weaved backward, her training evident as she avoided each attempted strike. With a swift movement, she retaliated, landing a solid crack against Jesterbones' side, her hoof getting an unwanted feel of his exposed ribs. The impact briefly rippled through his form, but he countered with a powerful uppercut that sent a wave of black magic through the air. Luna staggered back, shaking off the hit. Her small victory felt meaningless, and something dark in her mind told her that he was only lowering himself to her level of combat just to come back stronger. “Now Luna, will you disappoint me just as you have disappointed your dear sister? Sad,” Jesterbones’ mocking smile that exposed his curved fangs never ceased to deepen the pit in her stomach, and the newly found rage made her twitch in sheer anger.  “Do not speak of my sister!” She charged again with a renewed passion, her fury guiding her strikes to land. Crack after crack of bone echoed in the air as she assaulted the creature with her front hooves, and with a wild battle cry, Luna unleashed a spinning kick, catching Jesterbones off guard and sending him sprawling across the moon's surface. He rolled, recovering quickly, his blackened eyes glowing with newfound intensity. “There you are.” The fight continued, a repulsive dance of hooves and bones and anger on the desolate landscape. Luna pressed her newfound advantage of surprise, her strikes landing with precision, but she couldn’t help but feel that he wasn’t even trying. Jesterbones fought back, his movements entirely unpredictable. Each punch and dodge echoed through the quiet expanse of space above them, and the moon bore witness to their battle, the sole silent observer of this clash of titans. Hoof met demonic form in a relentless struggle, neither willing to yield until Jesterbones blinked out of existence only to reappear several yards behind her. “It feels good, does it not? Releasing your rage?” “Nothing about this is pleasant,” Luna wiped her bloodied nose on her hoof gracelessly. “If you are simply here to kill me, stop toying with your food. Us ponies consider it to be incredibly rude.” Jesterbones tilted his bony head back and laughed at that, the unnerving sound entirely filling the air. “Princess, are you requesting that I end your life?” Luna sniffed, then huffed out a breath. “I am requesting that whatever your motive is, you get on with it already.” “That sounds perfect. I suppose my next step is to take out your sun princess while you are trapped up here? To take over Equestria and cover it in eternal darkness, just as you wished?” Jesterbones grinned, levitating on an invisible armchair as he pretended to ponder. “I certainly don’t have to kill you. I’m sure your sister would put up a more… entertaining fight, anyways.” Luna saw red, vision narrowing upon the beast before her as she let out an anguished cry. She spread her wings and flew into him, taking the two of them to the ground and kicking up the pale dust into several smaller clouds. Anything she could reach was trampled with as much force as she could muster, her magic illuminating the scene as she tried to bestow herself with the strength she needed. However, it was not enough. Each blow was met with an equally as hard injury to her own body – she could ignore the pain through her rush of adrenaline, but she noticed that so could her counterpart. Each failed attack against Jesterbones brought a new wave of preemptive grief for her sister, and Luna mournfully hoped that Celestia would understand that her young sibling had tried with all her might to protect her. A distant thought brought Luna’s mind back to the cracked armor that she had scattered across the terrain once she had realized the state of her becoming, and she realized that she only had one option left: to allow the hatred for her own weakness to manifest in her existence once again. With tears in her eyes, she conjured the resentment into a dark magic that lifted and consumed her body in such a bitter familiarity. As she forced her transformation, the only remaining thought in Luna’s mind was the newly found feeling of fierce, unwavering love that was not there before. As she felt herself fizzle out of existence, Nightmare Moon took her place, and Luna’s final hope was that she would be able to tell her sister just how sorry she was.  “So, basically Nightmare Moon kicked his ass, and… that’s that?” Sonar gulped down his freshly materialized glass of water, his mouth dry from speaking for so long. “That’s the issue. I imagine you learned about the origins of the Elements of Harmony in your history class, yes?” Misty finally joined him at the table, taking a seat in front of him once again before continuing. “The six ponies who saved the world… I was born on that night.” “What night?” Sonar inquired, although he had a feeling that he already knew. “Nightmare Night. The night that Princess Luna returned to our realm as Nightmare Moon. That is my birthday.” Misty acted like this was common knowledge, and Sonar’s jaw dropped. “Wait, that makes you-” “You were born one hundred years, to the date, after my… accident, and I was twenty back then. I am now one hundred and… sorry, how old are you?” Misty lazily straightened the rug with the tip of her back hoof from under the table. “Twenty-three! You’re one hundred and forty-three!” He exclaimed, somehow still surprised even with all of Misty’s hinting and brief comments on the time she had spent in this realm.  “Definitely old enough to drink.” The two of them burst into laughter at that.  “But wait, can you explain your, erm, accident? I know you can’t remember much, but how does Jesterbones tie into all of this Nightmare Night stuff?” Sonar Moonshadow eventually asked awkwardly, unsure of how to enter the sensitive topic. Misty seemed lost in thought for a moment before reeling herself back in. “I’m not sure of what would happen to your mind if I overloaded it in this realm. Why don’t we play some cards, and I’ll explain in a minute?” “Taffy, I… I didn’t know what to do, I’m sorry!” Jelly Splash was trembling with grief as her deceased younger brother stood in the entrance of the cave.  “Jelly, I don’t think that’s real…” Sapphire Swirl was incredibly disturbed at this point, never breaking their gaze from the now silent mirage of a corpse. “I didn’t know that the Heart would explode. I would never have taken you into town if I knew, I’m so sorry!” The unicorn freely wept now, the emotion strong in her voice. The colt was eerily still, expressionless and cold. For a few moments, the only sound in the cave was Jelly Splash’s cries and Sapphire’s heavy breathing, before Taffy Twists suddenly let out an agonized screech, tilting his mangled head back to amplify the sound. Sapphire suddenly had to think quickly, flying in front of Jelly to physically restrain her from getting closer. “Stop, Jelly, it’s not real!” Sapphire Swirl exclaimed as the unicorn pushed against their grip violently, turning just in time to see the animated corpse being dragged out of the entryway by an outside force with another scream.  Everything fell eerily silent – so silent, in fact, that the two ponies were suddenly very aware that they could no longer speak or move, left frozen in their positions. A grotesque figure emerged from the darkness of the cave entrance. A faint red glow emanated from its sunken eyes, and the sound of bones clattering against each other filled the cave with each step it took. Curved fangs enhanced the horrifying grin stretched across its face, and Jelly Splash felt a bead of sweat fall down the back of her neck as it emerged completely from the shadows to show its full form. Its eyes darted to the two unconscious ponies, then to the glowing inscriptions on the walls, and back to the two frozen ponies. “It looks like you two have caused quite a mess, haven’t you?” The creature’s voice sounded warped and indescribably fear-inducing, and the two ponies simply stared in horror. “Let me help you get this cleaned up,” It laughed, and Sapphire Swirl realized just how doomed they really were. Hundreds of millions of miles away, distant and unseeing beyond time and space, Misty Seeker was suddenly filled with dread, her artificial horn illuminating with a dark magic.