//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Cutie Mark Crusaders Nightmares, Yay! // by LostUmbrella //------------------------------// Darkness. There was only darkness, the pain had ceased too. She tried to focus on what she had been before and remembered a light. It was beautiful, possessing all the colors of the spectrum, but she hated it, for it brought the pain. An excruciating pain, like being peeled alive. This rang a bell: she wasn't a pony, but a nightmare, a parasitic being that survived by taking over the mind and body of it's host. The fact that she couldn't feel any part of her body should have given her an hint, but she still felt a bit slow. "Now, where is my host?" she asked to nopony in particular scanning her surroundings with her sight. Her voice reverberated with a strange echo in the empty room. It was long, with many high broken windows which pieces littered the ground together with fragments of the vault. Two times she had fought in this place with her previous host, and twice she was defeated. By the elements of harmony. She remembered being sure of having smashed five of them. And she remembered the unicorn. "That puny pony that who knows how summoned six brand new elements for herself and her friends! Ah, how I hate her!" she cried in anger as her purple gaseous form waved and swirled furiously. "And then came the rainbow colored light..." she sighed letting the painful memory sink in. Of course, the room was deserted: nopony was in sight. She had lost everything except her life. "Keeping a low profile would be advisable, but I want revenge! Those six mares shall suffer as I did!" she roared at the empty space around her. She swirled in place before darting towards the half broken down doors of the room. She fended the air in absolute silence, passing through dusty, ruined corridors and darkened, run down halls. In less than a minute, she was out in the forest. The sun was high in the sky, yet the canopy shielded out almost all the brightness. She didn't waste even a second glancing at the dense undergrowth before identifying the road that went from the palace behind her towards the nearby pony village and darting towards that direction. --- It had been a painful month: she had searched a suitable host in Ponyville without success. None of those ponies had a desire strong enough to be tempted by her, none of them had a reason to go against the bearers. "The only pony that might have had the requirements was a little annoying filly that loved bullying the bearer's sisters," sighed the nightmare from beneath the canopy of the library-tree "Pearl Crown or a similar spoiled rich filly name. I cannot believe that I, the one that corrupted princess Luna, cannot find a suitable host..." She looked down at the colorful population of the city, searching for a desire strong enough. "Maybe I have to tone down my expectations: in a thousand years the desires of ponykind have dulled a lot..." she sighed again. She noticed that she had been sighing a lot in the past days. She also considered that in her current state she couldn't do much more, being a sentient purple mist. And then came the sensation of being dragged away, as if somepony was pulling many ropes planted with harpoons in her body. A second later, she had vanished. --- Some moments earlier, three particular fillies were standing near a roughly drawn magic circle wearing black robes. The room had been darkened, the only light came from the lit candles placed on four of the five points of the star enclosed in the circle. "Are ya ready, girls?" asked one of them with a strong southern accent, her voice was a little shaky. The other two nodded. The one that had talked lit a match and, holding it with her mouth, turned on the last candle. A thick cloud of gray smoke started swirling in the middle of the circle, faster and faster until it dissipated leaving behind... Another cloud, only purple. "Oh, come on! Who the hay wrote that book!" protested one of the two that hadn't spoken stomping one of her tiny orange hoofs in annoyance. "We should tell Twilight that this 'Necroponycon' here is a fake," commented the third hanging her hooded head, a hint of sadness in her voice. "Where am I? What's the meaning of this? I demand an explanation!" thundered the mist waving furiously. "Wait, the cloud spoke! It worked, we did it!" beamed the first one. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS OCCULTISTS, YAY!" shouted the three fillies putting out the robes and looking at their flanks before snorting in disappointment seeing them still bare. The mist would have frowned if she could. "Who are you? And what are you doing?" demanded the now confused nightmare. "Oh, right, you're still there. We're the cutie mark crusaders and we summoned you tryin' to obtain our 'occultist cutie mark'. Ah reckon we messed up something though..." said the one that lit the candle, a light yellow earth pony with red mane and tail and a huge red bow. "You're not an elder abdominal, right?" said the second one, an orange pegasus with spiky purple mane and tail. "It's eldritch abomination," corrected the last one, a white unicorn with curly pink and violet mane and tail. The nightmare recognized two of them as sisters of the bearers and the third as a close friend. She also noticed that their desire of obtaining a cutie mark was overwhelming. She would have smiled if she had a mouth. "No, I am not an abomination, but something much better, for I am a djinn!" she declared. "Diggin' ? What's that?" asked Apple Bloom. "Djinn: a creature with huge magical powers that can grant wishes," droned Sweetie Belle. "What are you, a dictionary?" asked the mist. "Pretty much..." confirmed Scootaloo nodding, before starting to jump in place and asking "So you'll grant our wishes?" "You summoned me, so I can grant one of your wishes," explained the nightmare. "Can ya give us cutie marks?" asked the yellow filly unable to hold back her excitement. "Unfortunately, no: it goes far beyond my powers..." said the cloud in a well faked sad tone. There was a chorus of "Oww..." from the fillies, who hanged their heads. "There could be a way... No, you wouldn't let me..." said the mist at a well calculated time. "What is it? Tell us, please!" said Scootaloo jerking up her head. "Well, I can lend part of my powers to you so that you can obtain your cutie mark easier; yet this way you'll have my presence always in your heads." "Sounds good to me," said Scootaloo shrugging. "Ah dunno, ya wouldn't do some strange numbo-jumbo like controllin' our minds, wouldn't ya?" asked Apple Bloom much less eager to accept the deal. "Of course not! Why would I do something similar? Moreover, you can send me away if and whenever you wish," she said mentally coursing that filly. "Well, we can try at least..." suggested Sweetie Belle shyly. "Ok... ehm, what's yer name again?" asked the yellow one. "You can call me Night." "Ok Night, we accept!" beamed the three of them. Immediately, the mist divided into three smaller clouds that drifted towards the three fillies, cloaking them like a second skin, only to disappear a second later sinking in their fur, leaving no physical evidence of ever being there. "Uhm, did it work?" asked after a couple of minutes Scootaloo.