//------------------------------// // Prologue: A Queen's Wish // Story: The Night's Knight // by PrinceMoonDustLight //------------------------------// The queen of the night stood from her bed from an uneasy rest, nightmares had no place for her mind, she conquered and even ruled them. Yet she had one of her own now, after a thousand years she finally found herself in shock. Her jet black coat felt the rushing cold winds from her extravagant night flow throughout her body, from the bottom of her hooves to her glittered starry mane. The night sky, it still was there, still above the land of Equestria even after her rest, yet she found fear, that maybe her eternal night sky could be taken away forever the next time she awakened. Interestingly, the ponies and other races used their internal clocks to regulate their waking and resting times, but the difficulty of finding out clearly the exact time it was, was all up to the clockmakers and Nightmare Moon herself. Although alone, she spoke inward gazing toward her moon, hoping the voice she was looking for would answer, to either mock who she has become, or be as confused of being in confusion and fear. “Hath thou shown me a sign ?” She looked outward to see the moon staring back at her, uneclipsed and unwavering like every night. The four stars that accompanied around it, the stars of destiny she had named them, glimmered unchanging such as all the others. Just as she thought she would hear the voice she was hoping for, something else had interrupted. “Who are you trying to talk to, mother ?”, much to her dismay, that voice was replaced with one of her own creation, the Tantabus. Though it was an intangible being to the rest of the world, its form still stood in front of her alone. The queen had come up with many of theories to explain why she could see her creation so vividly without nearing the dream world, either from dawning her helm and instantaneously having the ability to manifest her own creature mentally, or prolonged exposure to wearing her helm, or just her dark magic finally catching up to her. Nevertheless, the queen knew she had no way to deter their dialogue now. “Tantabus, must I keep reminding thou art not your mother. Thou creator, yes. Thine mother, not at all.” She had reminded her creature almost more than that of the stars in the sky, yet that didn’t deter the creature from continuing this blind act of stupidity. “Although you’re persistence is still much to admire, you are my mother. Now, what troubles you? You barely ever wake up in the middle of our wondrous eternal night in such a frenzy. If you had thought our prisoner escaped, well if she did escape, she’d be taking my job of being your personal one and only fear keeper.” the Tantabus laughed ethereally from her mind. “Might I remind you, thy creator can always taketh away the gift of such existence? If thou art done taunting and prodding, I shall speak of the sign that drove us away from thy slumber. ” Agitation could clearly be heard from the queen, wanting to get straight to the point instead of small talking all night. “Well, what are you waiting for ? Tell me, I was terrorizing a nearby village's dreams, so I need to be back their quick and keep up the carnage.” “Not the foals this time, right ?” Nightmare Moon gave a stern look toward the Tantabus, her cold cyan slits, ones of recollection and anger, staring into the Tantabus’ soul for what they pulled out from the past. “No, I learned my lesson from that one. Never harming a foal again psychologically or physically.” “Thou saw a vision of one of our Lunar Guards, a strong stallion yet small for his size to fit our standard height requirement.” “You think it may just be a colt? Maybe a foal? Mother, did you have a secret somepony hidden away in those memories of yours you aren’t sharing with me? Might it be that old crush of yours had wormed into your mind?” The Tantabus eagerly teased giddily. “T-THOU HASETH PARTAKEN IN NO SUCH RELATIONS WITH ANOTHER !” The boom of the queen's mental Canterlot voice shocked the Tantabus from the physical standing quadruped next to her, laid flat on the ground like ink messily splattered onto a clean piece of parchment and canvas, that parchment being the floor. “T-Thou’s relationship hath no other pony to be in our vicinity, neither the time to find that of a suiter. Only servants, guards, and peasants come to me, and they barely ever have any relevance to thou.” She sighed in a feeling of both loneliness and slight embarrassment at the resurfacing of that ‘old crush’ her creation relayed to herself. After a short moment, the Tantabus rose back from the floor comically shaking its head from the booming and becoming uniform, returning to its natural state. “I keep forgetting about your royal yell, really going to keep our minds ringing for a while now aren’t you.” The imaginary body of inky likeness put its forehooves to its head, again comically making a small swirling head motion. The alicorn sighed again, the embarrassment left from her body and mind, only focused on that lonely aching at her heart. “Arth thou really doing the right thing? Many now appreciate our night, yet they stare at us still with fear in their hearts. We hath done so much to earn any love to our night sky, maybe we should-” before she could finish her thought, the Tantabus stood in front of her with an angered expression. Although it obeyed comedic effects, it stood in thin air this time staring deep into the queen's cyan eyes. “Mother, do I sense a small hint of weakness in your thoughts? Maybe, I should take over your responsibilities for a while again, to make sure that thinking stays just a distant thought, like the name you threw away.” The tone of the room had shifted severely in the Tantabus favor, from comical annoyance to struck nerve filled rage. Nightmare Moon groaned in defeat and offered her revised thoughts rather than arguing the matter. “No Tantabus, you need not do such a thing, nor remind me of that pitiful name. That name stays dead, as well as the pony that was once connected to that name, we only feel as though our rule is dull. There must be something to excite our rule, to show our subjects that we deserve love as well.” That answer seemed to quell the anger that would’ve been unleashed from her entitled “child” so to speak, and got an idea from such a revision. “How about a royal guard contest? Other ponies could sign up to see if they could make it into our ranks like old times!” The Tantabus let out a burst of cheerfulness and held a chaotic inky smile, prancing around in midair for a while till comedically falling to the ground with a loud mental splat being heard by only the queen herself. “Very well Tantabus, enough with your games for tonight.” The jet black mare yawned to her ethereal shadow calmly. “We shall see each other another waking night, correct ?” “Only if you want me to be mother! Good night, as always.” The Tantabus chuckled at the pun, and then after disappeared, of course going back to its duty of terrorizing the grown mares and stallions, never the colts and fillies as Nightmare Moon kept reminding her. As Nightmare Moon trotted back to her bed, she took the time to realign her sights to the four stars, and as she kept her gaze toward them all, she saw the stars all pulse at once, a rare sight, a rare sign. When all four stars were to shine at the same time, a wish would always come true rather than taking a chance at a shooting star. She shut her eyes prematurely on instinct rather than on command, as if to be obeying an old habit. Waiting a few minutes, she finally heard a long awaited voice of a pony lost from long ago, a voice that came from her own muzzle. “I wish that things could go back to the way they used to be, to see my sister, to feel the warm sun, to feel love for my night.” Nightmare Moon looked back to the stars as she opened her eyes, they all shone desynchronized from one another like they used to. She finally leapt back into her comfortable bed, her body and mind falling out into a deep slumber a second time. It was morning, or should’ve been morning for the ponies that woke up afterward if the moon would’ve moved. Alas, it stayed in place just like every 24 hour cycle, never the day yet always the night. Though it may have seemed like another day in Equestria, the appearance of the Lunar Knights would’ve offered a different story, along with what they were posting around every street corner, light fixture, and billboard. A flier that read as so, “Come one, come all to the Castle of our majestic ruler to test your strength, speed, smarts, and skills to earn extravagant rewards before our rulers glorious eyes. Bits, Treasure, Jewels, galore are promised for those that come close to winning. For the luckiest winner however, have a free position as our queen’s personal Knight without any need to pay or pass commonly necessary exams. Food and Refreshments will be provided for the event along with other festivities of the night. This event will take place on the day of the Equestria Games, for these are games for those with bravery and ambition. All races are welcome to bask in the Glory of the Night and the Stars they carry. All praise our rightful ruler, Queen Nightmare Moon.” Many of the ponies either grew disgusted, sickened expressions at the gesture of playing the parts of fools led to a clear slaughter for entertainment. Others held eyes only filled by greed and fame of such a chance to be praised and wealthy. Although many found the fliers and either started burning them as some way to remember some resemblance of the sun, or running to start training themselves and read up on advanced magics, a small hooded figure took one of the fliers with a white magic aura. After reading it fully, realizing there wasn’t any age requirement or time to waste, the hooded figure spread their wings behind a nearby alley, and flew off out of sight.