Chapter 7
“Destroy Thine Evil”
I simply stared at Nightmare Moon. I’d seen pictures of her, but to see her in the flesh was something else. Evil seemed to radiate off her as she sneered at me.
“So, Tia sent only a single stallion to slay us this time?”
“What have you done with Luna?” I shouted at her, trying to sound braver than I really felt.
She laughed. “Foalish boy, do you not get it? We are Luna.”
“No,” I said, as Nightmare Moon descended the steps of the altar, walking towards me.
“You must know you are outmatched."
I pulled out my gun and fired two shots at her; but she blocked them with some kind of force field, sending the bullets flying. My magic was cut off when Nightmare Moon fired a blast of magic towards me. Nightmare grabbed my gun in her magic levitating it away She looked at me in disbelief, and chuckled. “Bullets? You think to stop us with this pathetic weapon?”
“It was worth a shot,” I said, shrugging weakly. “Now, you let go of Luna right now, you monster!”
“Maybe Luna doesn’t want to be let go,” she said, snidely. “She’s always wanted to be Nightmare Moon, now she has the chance.”
“She can’t want this!” I cried. “She can’t want to be a slave to you!”
“She is a slave to nopony,” Nightmare replied. “Except to our sister. She is the true evil one, locking us away, and denying us our eternal night.”
“You’re twisted Nightmare Moon!”
“Oh, must this end in insults and violence?” she asked, smiling slyly. “I know what you’ve suffered, Preventus.”
“Nopony calls me Preventus!” I yelled, as I tried to tackle Nightmare Moon. She sidestepped, causing me I crash into a pillar. As I fell to the ground in a heap, she stepped on my back with one hoof, pinning me down.
“You struggle so much, Preventus. Raising a brother on your own, risking your life day and night for others. You’ve suffered so much, and what do you get in return? Nothing.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, struggling against her weight on my back.
“Oh, but we do. We know how long you’ve suffered. A father who tossed you out after killing your mother with that drug, a love with Twilight Sparkle that can never be repaired now.”
She’s right; Twilight probably hates me for what I did, and dad…
“We can make everything right, Preventus. Join me, and together we can destroy Celestia, and take control of Equestria. We can put your father’s fate in your hooves, grant Tailspin everything he could possibly need. We can force Twilight Sparkle to be your mate.”
I pondered her offer. It would solve a lot of problems, but I would never be able to forgive myself. I refuse! I fired a blast of magic at Nightmare Moon’s face catching her by surprise. She yelped in pain, allowing me to wiggle out from under her hoof. I glared at her as I sprang to my hooves. “You can take your offer, and shove it!”
“You would deny yourself a way to fix all of your problems?” She snarled at me. “We can make you a king among ponies, and grant you everything you could possibly desire.”
“Is that what you told Luna?” I asked, smirking.
“You speak nonsense!” Nightmare Moon thundered, glaring at me evilly. “Luna gained everything she could ever want! Fear, respect, and a night to truly last all eternity!”
"What did that get her in the end?” I asked, slowly. “She’s just your prisoner. You claim to be Luna, but you forget it’s not fear she wants.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Luna!” I exclaimed, trying to get through to her. “Luna, don’t listen to her! She’s just trying to convince you that she’s the only one you need.”
Nightmare Moon growled low, “You truly are a foal. We told you already, we are Luna.”
“No, you’re not,” I snarled, as Nightmare Moon and I began to circle each other like two prowling lions. “You’re the miasma. You’re trying to convince her that acting on selfishness will get her the respect she wants, but all she really wants is love.”
“We have given everything to Luna. She was nothing before us. A mere filly living in the eternal shadow of her big sister!”
“Luna, don’t listen to her! She doesn’t know how much ponies do love your night.”
Nightmare Moon’s eyes blinked, but instead of the reptilian eyes, the eyes were Luna's. “Our night…”
Nightmare Moon blinked again, and the reptilian eyes returned. “You think to confuse us! You pathetic worm!”
“Luna, I know a lot of ponies do bad things at night, but it’s also a time of love. Many a couple has found love under your stars. I myself found love while in your night. Luna, your night is wondrous. I know ponies don’t say it often, but it truly is.”
Luna’s eyes appeared again “Love, during our night?”
“Don’t listen to this foal! Think of the betrayal we suffered at the hooves of our sister, and his ancestor!”
“No,” Luna replied, to her evil counterpart. “We have caused the suffering. We have nopony to blame but ourselves.”
“You would listen to this stranger, over the one who gave you all this power?”
“You stole away the only ponies who ever loved us!” Luna cried, shaking Nightmare Moon’s body madly. “We never desired power. We only desired somepony to appreciate our night. You are the deceiver here!”
“What are you doing?” Her eyes kept switching between Nightmare and Luna. “You cannot destroy us! Miasma cannot be destroyed! Only absorbed!”
Only absorbed? I knew what I had to do if I wanted to free Luna.
I ran to Nightmare Moon, grabbed her head and forced her fangs into my leg. I screamed in pain as the miasma began to leave Luna and enter me.
Slowly Nightmare Moon’s armor melted away to reveal Luna. She looked up at me frantically, as the miasma entered me. “Private! What have you done?”
“I took the pain on me,” I replied, weakly, as the blue mist entering my blood. “I gave it a new host to think of.”
“You sacrificed yourself for us?” Luna asked. “Why? We have done nothing to deserve this!”
I fell on my side as the miasma traveled deeper into my veins. Luna cradled my head in her hooves. “Luna, my yolk is easy, I can face it…”
I closed my eyes slowly.
_________________________________________________________
I stood in total blackness facing another me. The other me wore an evil smirk on its face. “So, you decide to face me this way? You are even more foalish then I thought.”
“You’re the voice in my head,” I said, slowly, “the one who told me to abandon Dinky in that fire, the one I’ve overcome every time…"
“I don’t know about this voice you speak of,” evil me, said with a smirk, “but now we will act out all our darkest desires.”
“You forget,” a voice said, from behind me. I turned to see Nocturne moving up beside me. “He does not face you alone.”
Behind me more and more ponies appeared, everypony I helped, everypony I became friends with, everypony that now has a better life because of the actions I took.
Nocturne glared at pseudo me. “Your time is up Miasma. Neither this body, nor Luna's is your playground. Now begone! You who would take so that you may live cannot stand to see ponies who give so that others may live!”
Pseudo me screamed as a light came out of everypony’s eyes. The light broke through the darkness and the miasma was expelled from my body.
___________________________________________________________
In reality, I coughed and the blue mist left me. The mist hung in the air and took on the form of a monstrous face.
The face roared in anger at me, “Your pathetic race has lasted too long. Twice you’ve escaped my grasp!”
“I don’t know about round one,” I said, as Luna helped me up, “but you certainly didn’t win round 2.”
The mist distorted itself and entered Nightwind’s body. The Lunar Stallion’s body writhed, as if he were possessed. He looked at me with his red eyes and smirked. “Now you shall face me, AND ALL THE POWERS OF HELL!"
Suddenly the mist turned into blue fire, as Nightwind transformed into a colossal black dragon. He snapped at Luna and I with razor sharp teeth, blue mist seeping out of his nostrils.
“Hang on, Private,” Luna called, as she picked me up and tossed me onto her back. She spread her large wings and we took off into the air. As I looked back, the dragon came out of the building and blew a stream of fire towards us, hitting Luna directly on the wing. She cried out in pain, sharply banking to the right. Unable to maintain my grip, I slipped off her back.
I fell towards the misty abyss below. I closed my eyes, preparing for the last sound I heard to be the sickening crunch of every bone in my body, as I smashed into the ground. Then I heard it…
"PRIVATE!"
I opened my eyes and saw Rainbow Dash flying towards me at sonic speed. She swooped down, grabbing me in her forelegs. I looked up at her in disbelief. “Dash, what are you doing here?”
“Saving you again, and this time I brought back up!”
“Back up?” I looked over and saw Fluttershy grabbing Luna. A lasso was tied around the Alicorn’s leg, and she was being pulled up by Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
Dash dropped me off on the other side of the old rope bridge, and I saw that all six of the elements came. Twilight ran to me and threw her forelegs around me. She buried her face in my chest and kept saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
I rubbed a hoof along her back. “It's okay Twilight, I’m here. I'm sorry too.”
“Hate to break up the reunion, sugercube,” Applejack said, looking across the bridge, “but that there dragon is headin' right for Ponyville!”
Luna looked up from her position on the ground. The dragon was making it’s way towards my new hometown. “If that miasma gets to Ponyville then the entire town will become as corrupt as we were!”
“How do we stop it?” Rarity asked, looking up at the colossal dragon. “Will the elements be enough?”
“Miasma cannot be destroyed,” I replied, tracking the dragon with my steely grey eyes, “only moved. If we destroy its host, then we should be able to stop it.”
“You're suggesting using the Blade of Night?” Luna asked. She rubbed her chin thoughtfully, when I nodded. “It should be able to slay Nightwind, but the Miasma would block the blade before it could reach the host.”
Twilight let go of me, and appeared to be doing some quick thinking. “If we use the blade as a lightning rod for the Element’s power, it should allow the blade to break through the miasma and hit its host dead on.”
“So let’s quit talking about it and do it!” Rainbow grinned, smacking her hooves together in determination.
“It’ll take some time to get the Element’s charged up,” Twilight said, as she opened a chest containing the Elements themselves.
“I’ll keep it busy! You wouldn’t happen to have a spare Blade of Night on you?” I asked, looking at Luna.
Luna nodded and her horn glowed. Suddenly a star twinkled, and a Blade of Night fell from the sky, stabbing itself into the ground front of me. “It’s a more modern design; we should be able to stop him with this.”
I nodded, and lifted the blade out of the ground with my magic. I looked at the rest of the group. “You guys get those Element’s ready! Luna and I will fly around and keep him busy."
The group nodded and I leapt up onto Luna’s back. I looked back at Twilight who looked at me with apologetic eyes. I mouthed the words she desperately needed to hear…
I love you, and I always will.
She smiled widely at that as Luna sprang off the ground and into the air.
We flew towards the dragon and I yelled, “Hey big, and ugly! Over here!” The monster turned, and roared at me launching another torrent of fire at us. This time Luna was prepared, she dodged the fire and got me close enough. I swung the Blade of Night with my magic and cut the beast across the right side of his muzzle.
It screeched in pain and I heard a cheer from the ground coming from Pinkie Pie, "The fate of Ponyville is at stake, plunge that sword into that snake!”
The dragon glared down at Pinkie Pie and roared, “You stay out of this!”
Pinkie began half-heartedly waving a flag with an N on it “Nightwind, Nightwind he’s our man if he can’t do it,-“she shouted the last bit, “GREAT!”
We swung around for another pass as I saw the girls gathering in a circle below. I hung on as Luna dodged a claw coming at us. Luna looked back at me. “There’s no way we can get a good shot in with that thing moving.”
She was right, this dragon may be massive but if we couldn’t get a clean shot in we were dead. I asked Luna, “Where is Nightwind in that thing?”
Luna flew several yards away from the beast and blinked her eyes. When she looked back at me her eyes were glowing green, like night vision goggles. “We see him! He is where the heart would be.”
If only that thing would sit still, then we’d have a clear shot. Suddenly, massive black tentacles came out of the forest and wrapped themselves around the black dragon. Nightwind roared and screeched as the tendrils wrapped around his arms and neck. He was immobilized.
Thank you Slender…
Luna flew us within the light of the moon as a colossal rainbow beam came from the ground. I looked down and saw that Twilight and company had activated the Elements down on the ground. I held out the Blade of Night and the rainbow beam went into the Blade.
I held the Blade to my face and said in an almost trance like tone…
Blade of Night,
Destroy this blight,
Fly swift and sure!
That evil die and good endure!
I used my magic to fire the blade like a missile towards the trapped dragon. The element’s magic allowed it to pierce through the miasma, and hit the host dead on. The dragon let out a roar, writhing and twisting in pain. Slowly the dragon stopped moving as the miasma left the dragon, like a mist through a pipe.
Luna flew down and landed next to Nightwind. The Lunar Stallion lay on the ground, with a sword plunged into his black heart. I looked at Luna with a smile. “It’s over.”
Luna smiled back at me. “You are a brave one, Private. We can see you are truly Nocturne’s descendent.”
“You aren’t mad that he gave you up to Celestia?” I asked.
“Sometimes, one must see that the one causing the hurt is oneself,” Luna replied, softly. “We do not blame Nocturne; he was just trying to save us from ourselves. In the end, it led to us finally being free of Nightmare Moon, and the darkness in our heart.”
“Everypony has a dark side, Luna,” I said smiling at her “The key, is accepting that dark side as a part of you. If you keep denying it then it will only try all the harder to destroy you.”
“What did happen to that Miasma anyway?” Luna asked, looking around “Where did it go?”
I looked around too, indeed the miasma was gone. Probably looking for another host, let’s just hope it knows you don’t mess with Ponyville. Luna and I landed where the girls were. The girls were proudly displaying their elements and looking deservedly pleased with themselves. “Is everypony all right?” I asked, as I jumped down off Luna's back.
“Can you say, BEST, WIN, EVER?” Rainbow Dash grinned triumphantly.
“Ooh, I’m so excited I could just scream!” Fluttershy said, with a smile. She took a deep breath and let out a quiet, ”Yay!”
Rainbow simply facehoofed.
Rarity looked at everypony and said hastily, “Come girls, let’s give Twilight and Private some time alone.”
All the mares began to walk away except for Luna who remained, looking at us with a tilted head. Applejack walked back to Luna and raised an eyebrow. “Beg pardon, Yer Highness, but why are ya lookin' at 'em like that?”
“We are curious to see how mating habits have changed over the centuries,” Luna replied, in a tone that reminded me of Twilight, after she’d decided to study quantum physics for fun.
Applejack began to pull Luna away. “Come on, Princess. Ah’ll show you how to bob fer apples properly!”
“You are all no better than Tia!” Luna said, almost childishly, as she was dragged away. I chuckled a little. I guess Luna had a bit too much curiosity in-
I looked back at Twilight who had her head bowed. I saw a tiny tear streak down her face and land on the grass below. I reached out a hoof and tilted her head up to face me, tears were starting to form in her eyes.
“Private, I’m so sorry….” Twilight said, her voice catching with emotion.
“I should be the one apologizing, after what I did…” I said, shame causing my cheeks to burn as I looked down at my hooves.
She shook her head quickly “I know it wasn't really you, it was the Miasma. I am sorry I had to lock you up."
I kept my head bowed in shame. “I should’ve just told you…”
“Told me what?” Twilight asked, tilting her head.
“I should’ve just admitted I was scared.” I felt tears of my own forming. “I should’ve admitted I was terrified of being locked up, but I was too stupid, and filled with pride to admit it.” I forced my eyes to raise up and meet Twilights. “If I did tell you what happened, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. We could’ve handled this together.”
Twilight stepped into me pressing her head into my chest. I felt her tears soaking my trench coat, but I didn’t care. I wrapped my hooves tightly around her, so thankful she hadn't left me for good. Her voice was muffled as she pressed herself into me, “I should’ve told you why I wasn’t ready…”
“I guess we both have fears we need to tell each other.” I said, resting my head on top of hers.
Slowly she moved her head so she could look up at me. “It’s just that, I’ve read so much about how things can go wrong. I’m paranoid that maybe I’m not good enough, or I’ll say something stupid. Now I see that by not telling you, I allowed the Miasma to have a stronger hold on you.”
I then told her why I was afraid of being locked up. I explained to her everything, why I was scared, why I desperately wanted to be let out. “I didn’t tell you before, because I was afraid I’d look weak,” I said, closing my grey eyes.
“You’re not weak, your one of the strongest stallions I know,” Twilight said, nuzzling my cheek.
I nuzzled her back, lovingly. “It may seem that way to you, but the truth is, I’m a mess like everypony else. Twilight, you’re the one who makes me strong.” I gazed deeply into her beautiful amethyst eyes. “That’s why I love you, and why I always will.”
"I love you too, Private. More than you realize," Twilight replied, her lips moving closer towards mine.
As the dawn rose we kissed each other lovingly, clinging tightly to one another. I didn’t want her to ever let go. I wanted this mare with me forever…
I love you, Twilight, and I always will…