As the sun began its downward descent in the sky, a bright pink filly walked home, alone, feeling on the whole more cheerful than not. For Diamond Tiara, the day had been good. The Cutie Dork Crusaders hadn't shown up at school, she'd almost managed to mend things with Silver Spoon, and tomorrow... she smiled. Tomorrow was allowance day. Perhaps tomorrow she'd actually say something nice to Silver Spoon, if nopony annoyed her.
Not that it was her fault she'd not been getting on with Spoony. It was those stupid dorks, Apple Bloom, Something Bell and whatsername, and worse of all that stupid Midday Eclipse. They'd been driving Silver Spoon away from her, no matter how much she tried to get her fellow filly how much she meant to her.
She smiled at the thought of making things up with Silver Spoon. For all that the filly was kinda stupid a lot of the time, Diamond Tiara did need her brains, especially for homework. So tomorrow, she'd say something nice to her, and Silver Spoon would remember who her real friend was.
Diamond Tiara's good mood ended when she walked into something, not having noticed it while thinking. Actually, she'd walked into somepony.
A tall, incredibly dark mare, with a noticeable dark orange stripe going through her mane, and a Cutie Mark of a red sun over a wasteland, whose glowing, slitted orange eyes stared at the little filly like she was something that was usually scraped off her shoes.
"Watch where y-" Diamond Tiara started to say, when the mare's eyes narrowed, and suddenly the filly found herself flying through the air, aware of a sudden horrible feeling in her barrel. Pain. And lots of it.
She hit the ground and bounced, aware that her usual headgear (purchased at discount from Ameythyst Sparkler's store, though she'd never tell a soul that) was no longer on her head. She was also much more keenly aware that breathing seemed difficult.
The mare loomed over her, those horrible eyes just glowing, and then there was another sudden feeling of more pain than Diamond Tiara could ever imagine.
The mare stepped over her, continuing on toward Ponyvile.
Diamond Tiara tried getting to her hooves.
No good, she thought. Hurt. Bad. Scared. Dad. Mom. Money. Hurt. Nice day. Dad. Daddy. Mother. Money. Cold. Pain. Money. Mom. Dad.
Silver Spoon.
Good day.
Good bye.
*****
Nightmare Eclipse stared at the minature filly-scaled tiara at her feet, as behind her she heard the sound of Diamond Tiara slumping over.
For a few minutes, she stood there, waiting. Waiting for a voice to scream in her head that she would pay for what she had done, screaming defiance and revenge on her for hurting a filly, even one as obnoxious as Disgustingly Rich.
None came. The only thoughts in her head were her own. She smiled, and then crushed the tiara.
Then she resumed walking toward Ponyville.
*****
The first thing everypony noticed was the fact that everything went incredibly dark, despite it being only two in the afternoon. And once they made their way outside, they saw why.
The sun and the moon were being dragged across the sky, until the moon was placed in front of the moon. Then, a strange red force-field appeared, one that seemed to cover the entire town.
Instantly, everypony made their way to the center of town, save the Apples, and the school-kids, who were quickly sequestered in the school-house. Twilight Sparkle was the first to speak up, informing everypony that what was transpiring was not the work of Princess Celestia or Princess Luna, and quickly told every pegasus to take to the sky to see if they could find anything.
As a result, Rainbow Dash and Cloud Kicker were the first two to spot Nightmare, casually walking down Ponyville's main street, and Rainbow Dash wisely surmised that a pony with glowing orange eyes, with a black and red colourscheme wasn't, in her words 'walking around looking for somepony to sell cookies to'.
As a result, the entirety of Ponyville's weather-patrol attacked Nightmare at once, and in around five minutes, all seventeen of them were either unconcious or lying on the ground, most of them by Cloud Kicker's prone form being used as a club.
Then, strangely enough, the mayor of Ponyville declared Nightmare Eclipse stop.
"Explain who you are, and what you want!" she said. The mare stared at the mayor, looking confused for a moment, before finally deciding upon an answer she liked.
"Well, it's quite simple really. I'm in an extremely bad mood, and looking for someone to take it out on. And I thought while I was at it, this town would make a nice summer home for me."
"Wait!" a voice declared, belonging to Twilight Sparkle, "Midday? Is that you?"
The mare bared her teeth, and stomped a hoof against the ground.
"THAT. IS NOT MY NAME!" she yelled. "I am Nightmare Eclipse. 'Midday Eclipse' is gone. And she will not be returning."
The mare sighed, and took a deep breath.
"Now then," she said in a voice that sounded like she was trying to sound polite, "Either you let me vent my rage, then supplicate yourselves before me, or... else."
There was a slight pause.
"You... already know what we're gonna say..." Rainbow Dash groaned from behind Nightmare, "We're... gonna tell you to go bu-"
Nightmare's horn glowed, she swirled around to face the pegasus, and a violent red burst of energy hit Rainbow Dash, throwing the battered pegasus several feet through the air.
"Unfortunate" the mare said after a few seconds. She turned back to see almost everypony in Ponyville glowering at her.
"Path of most resistance, then?"
"GET HER!" somepony, quite possibly Bon-Bon or Cloud Kicker, yelled.
*****
In the distance, Applejack and Big MacIntosh rushed toward Sweet Apple Acres, fear driving them faster than they thought possible, even as they heard the noise coming from downtown.
They rushed through the front door of the family house, the house of the Apples, which some said was as old as Ponyville itself, which was in fact nonsense (it was in fact older than Ponyville, they just didn't like making a fuss about it).
"What's goin' on out there?" they heard somepony ask, a young somepony. Immediately the fear of the Apple siblings dissipated.
"Apple Bloom," Applejack smiled nervously, "Is Granny home?"
"Yeah, but she-"
"Apple Bloom, you wake Granny Smith up, and you get her down to the cellar, y' hear me?" Big MacIntosh said.
"Okay," the filly said nervously, "But why?"
"Apple Bloom, you do what your big brother says, and don't argue, y'hear?"
"What's goin' on outside?" all three ponies hear Granny Smith yell from upstairs.
Applejack and her big brother looked nervously at each other, as if waiting for the other to speak first.
"Big of a fracas downtown, Granny. We just want yah to get down to the basement where it's safe, 'til this all blows over."
Then they heard something that made them break out in a cold sweat.
"Is there a fight downtown?" Applejack slowly turned her head to see Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle staring at them in confusion, both wearing their Sweetie Belle-designed capes.
"Oh, horseapples" Big MacIntosh uttered.
*****
Outside the dome seperating Ponyville from the rest of the world, two sets of eyes examined the scene playing out below them.
"Can we not do anything?" Luna asked. Celestia shook her head.
"Unless you've got any magics you've been keeping a secret from me, Luna, I honestly doubt it. Whoever is casting this force-field is ludicrously strong. And any stronger magic would reduce everything in a several mile radius to cinders, which would be... unhelpful."
Both mares had been trying for several minutes to lower the force-field, but by all appearances they hadn't been able to dent it, and their frustration at this situation was evident to each other.
"We'll just have to believe Twilight Sparkle can deal with whoever is foolish enough to attack her" Luna said, quietly.
"Twilight Sparkle isn't the pony I'm worried about" Celestia said.
*****
Twilight Sparkle watched the carnage unfold. Rainbow Dash wasn't moving, but from the looks of it the brash pegasus was just unconcious. Rarity had tried to subdue the rampaging mare by burying her in last season's clothing, only for the mare to burn her way through them, Pinkie Pie had vanished without a word, though Twilight was fairly certain she'd seen Pinkie heading toward Sugarcube Corner, just as Applejack had gone to her farm, which really only left Fluttershy. And herself of course. Oh, and Trixie, who was noticable in her abscence, though she was certain there was a good reason for that.
She had been hoping the Princesses would turn up, preferably with the Elements of Harmony, so that they could be used to stop Nightmare Eclipse. She was fairly certain whatever it was that had caused this sudden transformation in the young mare was because of whatever she'd experienced under the spell of the Black Mercy.
She sighed. Without the Elements of Harmony, there was only one course of action. She turned, and headed away from the edge of the forcefield back toward downtown, trying to think of the most appropriate magic spell she could use.
*****
If Nightmare Eclipse was a sterotypical sort of monstrous killer, and she was fairly certain she was through the haze of confusion her stolen body was in, then in the middle of the fight she found herself in, she would have proclaimed nopony could stand against her. Actually, this obviously wasn't true. A lot of ponies were standing against her, it was just that she kept knocking them down. Especially Rainbow Dash, who she was certain she'd already hit several times by now. Then she realised she was having fun.
Up until Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash slammed into her. She could practically feel Fluttershy's Stare on her.
"That tickles" she said, glowing back at Fluttershy, and managing to throw the pegasus off of her with a solid kick of her hind legs.
"But what did you expect? I'm not some cringing cockatrice, or dragon or manticore. I am a Nightmare!"
"Shut up!" Rainbow Dash responded, hitting her in the face.
"Goodness, Rainbow Miriam Dash, I'd actually forgotten you were there. Sort of like the Wonderbolts, am I right? And I'm not talking about the Gala, I'm talking about when you saved them from becoming a bunch of craters beneath Cloudsdale. Did they sign you up for membership right there and then? Can't imagine why" she said, in an eerily-polite tone.
"They didn't forget! Spitfire recognised me at the Gala! I'm gonna be a Wonderbolt soon enough!" the mare hissed, punctuating each statement with another blow to the face, "That's my dream. Not that I'd expect some idiot calling herself 'Nightmare' to know squat about dreams"
Then, Nightmare Eclipse laughed. It was a cruel and mocking laugh many would-be overlords would've killed for. "Your dream is a joke, Rainbow Dash. You are a joke. You're the cosmic punchline, a walking comedy act. The reason you're not a Wonderbolt is because the world's laughing at you behind your back, Rainbow Dash."
Her eyes flashed, and suddenly Rainbow Dash was wracked by red lightning. "And I'm laughing right in your face"
And with a casual flick of her hoof, she punted the pegasus off of her, making her smash through a wall of a house behind her.
Nightmare flexed her neck. "Anypony else care to go next?"
"HEY, Black Snooty!" a certain party pony proclaimed, "Laugh this one off!"
There was a small 'phut' noise, followed by a brief whistling noise, and Nightmare Eclipse turned to just briefly see a cake hurtling toward her face. It impacted with a damp splat.
For a few seconds, everypony stared at the sight of the insane rampaging mare just standing completely still as a cake very slowly began to slide off of her face.
"What. The. Hay?" groaned a badly battered Bon-Bon, from near the pink mare.
"Cake cannon!" Pinkie Pie grinned triumphantly, as she hefted a large green cannon off of her shoulder, "Delicious, and effective! Reloading's awful though."
Then, as the cake fell to the ground, breaking apart on impact, everypony was aware of a strange, indeed almost horrible noise. Nightmare Eclipse was laughing, shaking off most of what remained of the cake, save for a small smidgen of jam on her nose.
"Hey," Pinkie smiled, "At least you've got a sense of humour!"
Then the mare's horn glowed, and from out of nowhere a grand piano slammed into Pinkie Pie. And then it lifted away from her, before collapsing completely.
"Heh" the dark mare smirked.
"Gotta make 'em laugh..." Pinkie Pie groaned, before passing out.
Nightmare Eclipse looked about, at the numerous ponies littering the ground around her, and stretched slightly, getting a feel of the number of bruises, scratches, aches, and pains. She was mildly aware the body she was in hadn't actually had much sleep recently.
She looked about, and realised a few ponies weren't there, and just as she was about to comment upon this, something slammed into her. A large red thing.
"Oh, Mr MacIntosh, I'm so glad you could make it!" she smiled, as the farm-pony kicked her straight through the wall of somepony's house, and the wall behind that, and the wall beyond that.
"You came to my town," Big MacIntosh said, his voice filled with barely restrained anger, "You hurt my neighbours, my friends, my family. Usin' a young girl's body to do who knows what? I can tell what you are. You're a monster."
He walked over toward Nightmare, who was struggling to get to her hooves.
'What a kick that man's got' she thought to herself.
"So, yeah. I don't like fighting if ah can help it, and I don't really don' wanna fight a mare, but you're lookin' for a fight, and ah think it'd be impolite not to kick your head in."
He aimed a kick at the mare, and then, there was the sudden sound of hoof on hoof, and underneath the small thunderclap there was a barely audible 'crack'. Big MacIntosh winced, until he realised what had just made that noise. Which was his leg.
And Nightmare Eclipse was laughing again.
"What's the joke?" Big MacIntosh asked. The mare turned to look at him, smiling wickedly as she did.
"You. Sorry," she said as she began to titter, "You are the joke, and the joke is you. But, you see, that's not why I'm laughing"
She slowly shoved his leg back, and turned to face him.
"I'm laughing, Big MacIntosh, because you're not holding back. And I was."
Applejack was just catching up to Big MacIntosh, having stopped to make sure her friends were okay, when she was aware of a loud noise, and found Nightmare Eclipse standing over her brother, a horrific grin on her face.
She stared in horror and revulsion at the mare, and was suddenly aware she could hear somepony screaming, followed seconds later by a purple blur rushing past her head, and saw the strange sight of Cheerilee laying into Nightmare Eclipse as she screamed obscenities at the mare.
Then Applejack leapt after the mare. As she did, Twilight Sparkle and one of the local nurses rushed over to Big MacIntosh.
"Is he-?" Twilight asked. The nurse shook her head.
"Yes" she said without pause, or even looking at Twilight, "And I'm pretty certain unless you can revive the dead, you won't be much help to him."
Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it again. She gently held one of MacIntosh's hooves between her own, not sure what else to do.
"He's not awake, you know" the nurse said. "And aren't you going to do something about that mare that his sister and would-be girlfriend are laying into?"
"Not yet," Twilight said, "I can't risk taking a shot until everypony else is out of the way."
She didn't add that with her familiarity with what happened to Luna and Nightmare Moon, she was afraid of hurting Midday in the process as well. She was also a bit alarmed at the fact that Midday apparently possessed the power to move the sun and the moon at once, and that it didn't seem to be slowing her down at all to keep them in the same place. She frowned. She made a note to ask Midday about that once everything was over.
If either of them were still alive at the end of this nasty affair.
*****
Nightmare Eclipse was quite strong, but strong enough to fight two enraged earth ponies trying as hard as they could to hurt her? Evidently not. She frowned. She had the forcefield up and was holding the moon and sun together as a show of force, but now she was beginning to wonder if that was a bit too much effort.
She sighed, and focused her magic on Cheerilee first, blasting the mare head over hoof, the mare landing in a heap in a flowershop window. Then she turned to Applejack, who suddenly showed surprising dexterity, wrapping around her.
"Don't think ah won't try an' hurt ya, girl. Just give up right now, an' ah'll only beat ya senseless."
"Tempting offer, Applejack. But..." Nightmare Eclipse grinned, "You know what, I'd like to know something about you before we go on. After all, I, or I suppose 'Midday Eclipse' heard about what happened to your parents, so I am wondering... how do you feel about your little sister?"
She could practically feel Applejack's glower on her neck. "What? Yer takin' time out to ask twenty questions in a fight? You think you can just go pickin' about in mah head?"
She suddenly shuffled slightly, and found her mouth beginning to move against her will, "Ah might... occasionaly feel a bit angry at Apple Bloom. An' jealous of Big Mac, 'cuz he knew 'em longer than I did. An'... NO!" she yelled, suddenly slackening her grip on the mare, tears welling in her eyes.
"Ah don't... ah don't...." she strained, struggling to bite down words she couldn't stop herself from saying, "Ah look at Apple Bloom, and ah hate her 'cuz it's her fault my maw and paw ain't around and I hate myself for hating her, because she's my little sister and she didn't cause it but it is her fault an-"
Applejack suddenly stopped as a small purple beam of energy lanced from Nightmare's horn. Her eyes drooped, and she began to collapse slowly.
Behind Nightmare Eclipse, Twilight Sparkle took aim.
"Okay, five out of six Elements of Harmony dealt with. Anypony else want to stop me?" she asked to the air.
"Well," a voice said, cutting through the quiet with a noticable air of barely restrain smugness, "I was just going to sit back and let everypony else deal with you. But you're the reason I'm stuck here, so I suppose that leaves me."
Nightmare Eclipse turned to look, at the stallion trying to adjust his bowtie, and for a moment, she looked amazed.
"I was beginning to wonder if you'd show up, Doctor" she smiled, still talking in the oddly calm and polite tone, with just the barest hint of mockery.
The stallion just smiled and laughed, briefly waving the small cylindrical device in his mouth at her. "H-okay, you're a Nightmare, an Abstract entity, feeding off the negative emotions of your target, using her as a meat puppet in order to..." he stopped, tilting his head from side to side, "Create more fear and terror, I'm guessing, but you found the emotions too strong, too volatile. Possessing a teenager, always leads to that, doesn't it?"
The mare just glowered at him. "Oh, hurrah, Doctor. Pat yourself on the back, another creature of the abstract figured out, day saved and you run back to your old time machine. Time Lord" she spat.
He stared at her for a moment, the strange giddy excitement that had been there a moment ago utterly gone. Nightmare Eclipse just smiled.
"Oh, yes, I know who you are. What you are. Remember when you went into this head? You woke me up, Doctor, rummaging through the back of this girl's mind, knocking on every door."
His expression dropped. "Oh, come now, Doctor, you didn't think those bits of your mind just happened to end up in my head, did you? What was it that young girl said? Something about doors opening both ways? So now what do you do? Threaten me? Claim to give me one chance before doing something clever and brave and handsome, then swaggering away like usual?"
"Yes" he said, his voice as calm as the eye of the storm, "One chance. That's all you get, because I will protect these ponies from you, with-"
"With your life if you have to, last of the Time Lords, unlimited rice pudding, and so on, and so forth" Nightmare Eclipse yawned, as she circled around him, "So, Doctor, do you think I'd be here if I could honestly just leave?"
For a moment neither pony said anything, and then the mare's expression shifted, "So, Last of the Time Lords, the Oncoming Storm, here's my counter-offer: You have one chance. To run. Isn't that one of your favourite words? Run? So run. Leave. Go. Let whatever happens next happen. Or else..."
A wicked smile went across her face, "Because, as Applejack has just learnt, if I asked you a question, you would be... compelled to answer, and to answer truthfully."
The stallion's face paled, and Nightmare Eclipse looked at him. "This isn't a threat, Doctor. We Nightmares think very highly of you. You bring fear to the fearless, to those who hacked fear out of themselves. We... well," she grinned, "We Nightmares are some of your biggest fans."
She stopped pacing around him, and nodded. "Run, Doctor."
And then, to his own horror, he turned, and began to walk away. And as he did, the mare smiled, and laughed.
"Doctor Who?" At which point his pace increased, and Nightmare Eclipse's laughter grew.
"Do you see? I just drove away the last Time Lord. Is there anypony left who can stop me?"
And then a massive blast of energy struck her, and after a few seconds she fell over.
"Yes. There is."
Twilight Sparkle slowly approached the fallen form of Nightmare Eclipse, her horn lit and prepared for another blast, though she was confident the first was enough to subdue almost anypony..
"You really love the sound of your own voice, don't you? Is this a trait of all Nightmares, by the way, because I would really like to contrast you with the entity that possessed Princess Luna."
As she approached Nightmare Eclipse, the dark of her fur seemed to slough off, revealing royal blue beneath.
"Twilight!" the mare cried out, "Please... you've got to-... got to stop her, before she makes me kill anypony else!"
Twilight Sparkle paused as she looked at the mare, desperation and fear in her eyes, which now looked like normal eyes.
"Midday?"
Then a broad, toothy grin spread across the mare's face.
"Boo!" she hissed, before blasting Twilight Sparkle with a burst of magic that glowed sickly green. As Nightmare Eclipse stood up, dispelling the disguise of Midday Eclipse, she shook her head.
"Twice. Twice, I have done that. I guess it does run in the family. Although, I can't really do anything serious to you, I guess" she said, advancing toward Twilight Sparkle, who was twitching violently as she tried to stand.
"Although I suppose destroying everything you ever struggled for would be alright. I don't know, what do you think?" she said, as she leaned in to the mare.
"Shall we start with a simple truth? Yes. Let's start with 'Midday Eclipse'," she smiled, "Now, you already know that's not her real name, so would you like to know what her real name is? Would you?"
Twilight Sparkle gave no response, just staring at her with a mixture of fear and disgust,
"For you see, her real name is Tw-"
Suddenly a heavy book slammed against Nightmare Eclipse's head, and she frowned. She looked at Twilight, as if expecting the mare to confirm that had just happened, and then looked over to see who'd thrown it.
An odd smile went across her face.
Standing a short distance away was a young stallion, roughly the same age as Twilight Sparkle, and with deep blue fur, and orange hair.
Nightmare Eclipse stared, tilting her head. For a moment she wasn't sure what to say.
"...Alright. I can honestly say I was not expecting you."
"L-leave her alone!" the young stallion said, trying desperately to look like he understood what was going on.
"Oh, tall dark and handsome scientist, coming to the rescue of the cute librarian without thought to his own safety. This one's a keeper" Nightmare Eclipse smirked, before turning to Twilight, and then recalling something.
"Oh, Twilight Sparkle," she whispered in awe, "You just created a temporal paradox again."
She turned and moved toward the young stallion. "Comet Chaser, isn't it? Last of the House of Starcatcher, bit reclusive, and you're a bit shy, aren't you? And do you know why, exactly your house is so reclusive? So that nopony can abuse your heritage for their own means. The living descendant of Mimic herself, Mimic the Great and Powerful, pupil of Starswirl the Beared. Do you really think you can stop me? Really?"
He looked at her, his bright orange eyes meeting her stare, despite his trembling.
"Brave, but also really, really stupid. Look at you. You're a scientist, not a mage. And frankly, even if you were, the amount of Mimic's blood left in you is almost so little as makes no difference. So, that said... What can you do?"
He pondered this, then smiled. "This!"
His horn flashed brightly, an old spell almost every book-loving foal learnt immediately after learning how to cast magic. As Nightmare Eclipse waited for her eyesight to come back, he rushed over to Twilight Sparkle and lifted her onto her hooves.
"Can you walk?" he asked. She nodded, feeling, for the first time in a long while, incredibly confused, though she was willing to blame this on concussion from hitting the ground so hard. The two ponies began to move, slowly, as Twilight tried to ignore the bright pink elephant in the room he represented.
"Go on then!" Nightmare Eclipse hissed, "Run! All of you! You cannot fight me! I am a Nightmare, and I will get what I want, and nopony shall stop me!"
Suddenly there was a sudden whistling noise, and another bright flash, and the feeling of her flank being set on fire. Nightmare Eclipse whirled around to find the source of what had just struck her.
"Who dares?"
There was a rumble over-head, and she looked up to see a dark cloud over her head. She quickly tried to move, when a lightning bolt slammed into the crown atop her head, passing through to the rest of her body.
Then she heard the laughter, the strange echoing laughter.
"I dare. You have faced the rest, now you shall face... the best!"
A small spray of fireworks slammed into Nightmare Eclipse's face.
Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke, and a mare appeared, wearing a purple hat, and a matching cape with stylised stars and moons on it. She bowed, removing her hat to reveal silvery-blue hair that seemed to flow oddly. Then the mare spoke, her voice having a noticable two-toned effect to it.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie will face you, Nightmare Eclipse."