Nightmare's House
Pony POV Series Dark World
Optional Canon
By Alex Warlorn Edited by Kendell2 and Louis
Nightmare Manacle slept on her floating cloud, snoring, and her chain armor lay in pieces around her on the stone floor. A drop of drool continue to be sucked in and out of her cavernous opened mouth with each breath.
Nightmare Whisper knitted, humming to herself, adding to her life-size yarn sculpture of her proposed Everkind Forest. It was now several hundred million square acres. Her little side project since she had joined the herd. It also included magically animated forms of Angel Bunny and her other dearly departed animals.
Nightmare Granfalloon observed her work from several different directions at once. As a gift, Nightmare Whisper had added a knitted copy of Gummy to her craft forest and her friends others pets. She had even made a white kitted copy of Opal, for when she could welcome her friend.
Nightmare Mirror was in her private chambers, wanting some 'me' time.
Nightmare Banneret's eyes never left the door that led to the outside universe, staying as still as a statue.
The door suddenly crashed opened, the door nearly bouncing back closed from the force. The noise shattering Nightmare Manacle's sleep. "BALGH! No Spitfire I wasn't trying to take locks of yours mane in your sleep!"
"Twilight!" Nightmare Banneret lumbered over to the senior Nightmare, hugging her, which she returned, "How did your trip to the heart world go?! Did you find her?! Did you finally find a Rarity who's willing to accept our gifts?! Is she ready? How soon can I go greet her?"
Nightmare Eclipse snarled, telekinetically throwing off her helmet. "Another worthless Pseudo-Nightmare!"
The white helmet slammed into the face of curious Granfalloon, to the sound of springs and rubber it bounced off her head and hit the floor with a clang. Birthday cakes and baby Pound and Pumpkin circled around her dizzy head. Granfalloon stuffed one of the birthday cakes in her mouth and fell on the floor with spinning eyes. Nightmare Whisper dropped what she was doing at once and began to tend to her friend.
"I mean seriously geeze!" Eclipse ranted, knowing Granfalloon would be perfectly fine. "Stupid dark-energy-parasites! Their magic signature is just close enough to a real Nightmare like us that it completely throws off my readings! So I'm stuck on wild goose chases, and instead of finding a true Nightmare, I find another pony possessed by some ill-defined sickly leech spirit!! She didn't even have wings! AGH! It makes me so mad!" She stomped her hoof.
Nightmare Manacle sitting up in bed waved her off, "Hey! Calm down Twilight, you'll pop a blood vessel. We'll make Rarity our Nightmare Charity," Manacle maniacally grinned as she brought her hooves into a crushing motion, "Even if we have to grind her spirit into paste and rebuilt her from the ground up to do it!"
"Rainbow!" Nightmare Whisper admonished.
"It doesn't work that way Rainbow Dash," The lead Nightmare said sternly. "The only way to become a true Nightmare is to become one willingly and knowingly. Like Princess Luna and all of us." The five Nightmare all nodded. "It has to be her choice. She must discard the excess by herself. And see the only way to fix the world is to do it yourself. The Heart World Rarity kept hanging onto some of herself anyway, so there went the hope of her becoming a real one." She couldn't bring herself to mention to Banneret WHICH part of her she'd refused to let go of.
". . . I'm sure we'll find a Rarity who'll listen, eventually," said Nightmare Banneret, in a down-in-the-dumps tone, "I mean, you keep saying reality is infinite right, Twilight? That means there's GOT to be one out there, right?"
Eclipse gently stroked the Nightmare dragon, "There there Spike. It's okay. And you're right. Of course we'll bring Rarity into our herd. I mean, I brought all of you in."
"Uh, technically, it was Applejack who brought me in," Nightmare Whisper, well, whispered.
"We know Fluttershy," Nightmare Eclipse said.
"And it's great to have ya!" Manacle laughed, half hugging Whisper's neck and giving her a noogie.
Granfalloon stuck her head into the hug, getting the noogie too and laughing. "You can say that again again again!"
"Suits me! Great to have ya!" Banneret said hugging Whisper as well.
"Oh Spike." Whisper smiled.
Eclipse nuzzled Whisper. "It's wonderful to have you with us Fluttershy."
Nightmare Whisper couldn't have felt more like she belonged with her friends.
Eclipse then sighed. "Girls, Spike, I think I need some time alone."
"Okay Twilight, no big," The Nightmare dragon said.
"Alright Twilight I understand." Whisper nodded.
"Oki, doki, loki, Oki, doki, loki, Oki, doki, loki!"
The Nightmares all giggled at the Laughter Nightmare.
"Can I watch the looper timeline while you're busy?" Nightmare Manacle asked.
"No."
"Please?"
Eclipse looked at the transparent glass sphere containing a mobius loop shape of stairs sitting on the table. "Last time I let you, you shook it like a snow globe to watch the stars settle."
"I just destroyed a few galaxies."
"Yes, but you could have damaged something important. I'll just give a quick little debugging before resting."
Disappointed but loyal, Manacle shrugged.
"And pick up your armor."
"Yes mother."
Eclipse made no response to the remark and ran some in-depth spells to make sure everything was going according to schedule and check-list, which it was. Like a wheel oiled machine.
She allowed herself a sense of satisfaction at her long and meticulous work and marched to the door to her private chambers. Ancient sacred runes that translated to 'Nightmare Eclipse's Fortress Of Knowledge' were etched into the door.
The door telekinetically swung open, the Nightmare stepped through and closed the door behind her.
The chamber beyond was split into two floors.
The top floor resembled the top floor of a royal library tower once inhabited by a purple unicorn. The huge windows showed a sky perpetually at twilight, the constellations beyond being the only stars in this universe.
The lower floor was like a photograph of Ponyville's Golden Oak's public library with a few additions here and there and the absence of an owl perch.
The Nightmare breathed in deep, and let out the breath slowly. She slowly trotted forward, her magic slowly obscuring her.
By the time she reached a full length mirror, the magic blew away, revealing a purple unicorn mare with an inverted color cutie mark.
She sighed stretching her muscles before turning her head to look at one side of her face. A charcoal black scar in the distinct shape of a star-topped magic wand lay across her features.
'No matter how many times I join with a new self or rejig my vessels, the burn scar left by Trixie's last attack won't leave my flesh.'
How could the last strike from a lying faker con-mare infant imitation of an Alicorn be beyond her abilities to heal? Trixie had been a terrible pony and mediocre magician at best. What unholy unnatural curse had the talentless con-mare dived into that no self-respecting mage would have slithered down to?
'Strong face. Strong face. Your friends are all depending on you. All their trust is in you. They believe in you. For them. Strong face.'
Maybe she needed a little company after all.
She turned towards her bookcase, and finding her copy of White Snow And the Seven Ponies, she pulled on the book, causing a slightly click. The bookcase moved like pieces of a puzzle, opening, the unicorn stepped through.
She found an orange Earth pony wearing an old worn Stetson hat busy apple bucking.
The unicorn looked back, seeing the door shaped hole in reality leading back to her room at twilight in the vast bright sunny fields of the recreation of Sweet Apple Acres.
There was a familiar looking barn and farm house, and of course acres of apple trees.
'All she used her magic for was to create the environment and raw materials,' the unicorn though, 'she built those building herself with hammers, saws, and nails. She planted and raised these apple trees all by herself,' She thought. 'If she was still the incomplete her, we'd say she was working herself to death. Of course now her stamina is near infinite.'
She approached the earth pony who had another color inverted cutie mark. "I still don't understand how you can consider this relaxing."
"And Ah sill don't understand why ya don't ever knock."
"As if you'd ever notice."
"Like ya when yer readin'?"
"Touche."
"So wanna help with the harvest? It'll all go to waste if it's not all bucked and pickled."
"You could just suspend time if you're worried about that."
"And ya could just zap all the info of a book straight inta yer head."
"Doesn't it get a little lonely with just you and these trees?"
"No more lonely than ya and yer books."
"The Nightmare Rarity in the heart world was another bust."
"Cheap-flank magic-parasite horse-apples again?"
"Bingo."
"Figured. What is it with the Shadows are tryin' tah make up parasites tah explain us Nightmares? We're this way cause of ourselves. Ya knew it was gonna be that but ya went anyway didn't ya?"
"I didn't know for one hundred percent sure until the incident fully played out. It was worth a shot."
"And if ya were spotted? Would it have been worth facin' two full grown Alicorns, and a complete group of Elements, without us there to help ya out?"
"I'm not a baby AJ. And having more of us there would have left us be spotted. I can't trust Spike to hold in his impulses at seeing what might be a true Nightmare of Rarity. Pinkie would make a show of herself at the worst possible time. Rainbow Dash would follow instructions to the letter but she's impulsive. Fluttershy would risk her cover to help anypony she could. And you, well, it kind of goes without saying."
"Then don't say it."
'You're one to talk, Cruelest of Truths,' snarked Eclipse mentally.
"Fluttershy, I think has accepted the possibility we may have to do this without Rarity. But Spike. poor dragon. He just gives and gives, and all he wants is a Rarity to give it all to. And I have to be the one to tell him that I've come up short for him, again."
"Ah could always tell'em."
"It's my responsibility. He's family."
"What the hay do ya think we're all are then?" AJ smacked the tree to hard it cracked. "Ah dangit. Sorry Berrybarble, didn't mean ta, Ah'll fix ya up. Come on, Ah've some patch and rope in the house."
The two ponies walked.
"It's not that I don't consider you all family, you're my friends. You girls mean everything to me. But Spike is different. And I don't mean him being a dragon. Celestia trusted me to look after his needs as part of my lessons. And this is the most important need of his life, and I can't provide it."
"Then ya need to either face the truth that ya can't do it alone and need help, or he needs to face the truth that he'll never have a Nightmare Charity."
"So you think you can bring Rarity to us like you did Fluttershy?"
"Ah never said that. But Rainbow Dash couldn't bring 'Shy ta us, and neither could Pinkie. Nothin' makes a pony want to change the world more than realiziin' the lie 'bout the world being kinda like how they want that they kept tellin' themselves."
"Maybe. But you lack the social graces and sophistication that Rarity readily listens to."
"And Ah got an accent."
"Yes."
The ponies opened the farm house. It was clearly built for more than one pony, but the earth pony was its only occupant.
"I know what the answer is for why you haven't populated this place with constructs. But why haven't you just taken some of the props from one of the loops? They're cardboard fakes, but I imagine they'd be nice to look at."
Manacle had done that. Her room was basically a copy of Ponyville and Cloudsdale from before the day of chaos (though it was missing Scootaloo). It reminded Eclipse of that reality (that sickened her where again Luna's Nightmare was treated as a separate being from her) where Discord populated his void prison with constructs that had the gal to think they were alive.
She wondered why Manacle always seemed to sit in her cloud castle with a sad look on her face whenever she was in there. They could make any pocket dimension they wanted, why did Rainbow make something that only seemed to make her sad? She kept trying to ask, but Manacle wouldn't talk about it. Whisper and Granfalloon said it was a little personal and she'd tell her when ready. Eclipse accepted that as friends should.
Another thing that confused Eclipse was that the after AJ transformed, the first thing Nightmare Mirror did was show that nonexistent filly the truth about that comic, reharmonizing her to her pastel colors. Eclipse didn't bother to remember what Mirror did with her after that. Countless fake Apple Pies had come and gone since then.
" . . . They all have their AJ, and Ah ain't her, and Ah stop bein' mah family's AJ a long time ago."
"Now you're something more. Something greater. Something whole. Something beyond a mere pony."
She got out the patching and bindings out of a cupboard and began to trot out of the house.
" . . . Yeah. Ah can definitely say Ah'm not a pony anymore." She looked herself over. "Ah ain't wearin' this shape tah lie tah myself about still bein' the old AJ. Ah just feel like bein' nostalgic sometimes..."
The two walked past again the large barn. Fill to maximum capacity with various preserved apple products along with the cellar that had been expanded several time with the proper braces and safety measures as well.
"So what do we do about Rarity?"
"Whatcha askin' me fer?"
"Because I know your answer will be the most honest one."
"Ah say we don't need 'er. We've got Spike. There's no reason to drag Rarity inta all this too. We ain't got no reason ta, make'er like us. With good old Spike at our side we've got a full set. Unless yer lookin' to invest in back-up Elements. But Spike needs her doesn't he?"
"Yes he does."
"Then maybe he needs to accept we'll only find Rarity for'em after we gotten the dirtiest of the dirty work done. Then she won't have ta get over the whole 'erasing worlds' thing."
"We're not erasing, we're resetting. And it's not like the props we're doing this to are actually ponies. They can't really die anymore than characters in a video game."
"Beep-beep."
"Ah don't be like that AJ!" The purple unicorn hugged her, smiling and speaking happily, "We'll always be friends!"
"Ah know Twilight, Ah know."
The palomino put down the materials in front of the tree 'Berrybarble' and got to work.
"Let me help," the unicorn offered.
"Fine by me."
Using telekinesis, the unicorn wrapped and tied the binding as the orange pony applied the patch.
"There! Good as new!" The unicorn said happily.
"Not really. Just patched and bound up. It's still broken underneath." The palomino looked at the tree, herself, then the purple unicorn, and concluded Berrybarble was in similar company.
"Well as long as it can do what it was grown to do that's what counts right?"
"Ah guess ya would know."
"Oh AJ, the only things that got 'broken off' with us was the chaff. We're more ourselves like we are, then we ever were before. The core of who we are is now all of us."
"So ya went ta the heart world hopin' ta meet a true blue Nightmare of Rarity and got swapped with another 'evil possession blackness thingie.' Had to disappoint poor Spike. And Fluttershy but she hides it perfectly even though it hurts her too not ta have Rarity around. Ah told ya what Ah think. Whatcha gonna do now?"
" . . . For starts I'm going to re-read those biographies and autobiographies of different Rarities I got from some of the timelines I've visited. Might give me some new insights. Then I'm going to watch another of Rainbow's private stunt shows. Talk to Pinkie Pie about 'Princess Rarity.' Maybe allow her to bring back her 'Princess Rarity' from the next Rarity who refuses to become whole. Not sure how Spike will feel about that though. And I have to make sure the looper world is running smoothly. So many things can go wrong if they don't have my direct attention after all. Perfect plans never stay perfect if you hoof them off to others after all. And of course, as much it pains me, I'll have to review that world where Trixie managed to steal the stature of Alicornhood. After that I should have a clearer understanding of where things have gone wrong."
"Don't ya all mean where ya have gone wrong?"
The unicorn patted the other pony on the head, "Oh Applejack you're such a silly pony."
"Ah know Twili, Ah know. Come on. Ah've got some apple cake we can both enjoy."
"Of course. What are friends for? And Applejack."
"Yeah?"
She nuzzled her, "Thank you."
~Fin