Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters
One Minute After Elements of Harmony Activation
Nightmare Moon
For the longest time she just stared, her mouth slack like a drawbridge and her eyes wider than a black hole.
The lavender mare who had just tried to send her back to the moon was the spitting image of her long-dead daughter.
It was impossible.
And yet…there was something about her, but her mind battled itself into a stupor.
NO. Twilight is DEAD. It MUST be a trick of Celestia’s to distract us!
But why use the elements as a distraction when they could have banished me back to the moon? That doesn’t make sense. Maybe…
NO. It is impossible, the dead remain dead. This is nothing but a sick hallucination, an illusion cast by the elements to draw us into a trap!
But she looks so much like my daughter, like my little foal.
A groan interrupted her thoughts and she realized that she had to act quickly, she was not alone in there after all.
Nightmare quickly took stock of the element bearers as she stood not ten hooves from the other alicorn.
The mare was unmoving, unconscious except for the small rising and falling of her chest as she breathed gently, as if only dreaming.
The others however, seemed to be coming back to a state of awareness as they shook off the aftereffects of using the elements.
The orange mare with a trio of apples on her flank and a brown Stetson hat flicked her eyelids as she slowly clambered to her hooves, casting a weary gaze around the room. Nightmare watched as her eyes locked onto her own body, her pupils dilating to pinpricks smaller than a pebble.
“Y-you?! But how?! Them elements were supposed to get rid of ya!!”
Before the orange earth pony could do or say anything else, Nightmare sent her flying with a quick lash of magic. She flew through the air until she crashed back down onto the floor, knocked out, gagged, and bound in a dark blue wrap of magic. Her element had flown off and clattered loudly like a broken bell on the stone.
“HEY!! Nopony hurts my friends!”
Nightmare swung quickly around just in time to dodge a multicolored blur that flew past her at a speed that would shatter bones. She then shot another binding spell that grabbed the rogue pegasus like a noose as the aforementioned mare flew back around for second pass. As the magic took effect, she plummeted to the floor with a sickening crunch, her nose bleeding and a foreleg bent at an odd angle as she closed her eyes and lost consciousness.
Another bell tolled sweetly as the element of loyalty rebounded across the room.
Nightmare got back up and cast her piercing gaze at the other four. The alicorn was still out cold, the white unicorn was standing but tittering on the edge of her hooves in a nervous canter, and the yellow pegasus was in a corner, crying her eyes out and whimpering pathetically in an incoherent blubber. The other earth pony was nowhere to be seen.
Where’s the pink one?
“BANZAI!!”
Just as the black alicorn looked up at the source of the battle-cry, a mass of pink fur collided with her head and wrapped her hooves around her horn.
Nightmare didn’t even flinch.
Slowly, as a hiss snaked between her fangs, her draconic eyes captured the earth pony’s orbs and held them in a hypnotic glare that spoke volumes. The pony hanging from her head looked perturbed from the lack of a reaction, Nightmare could see small beads of sweat break out across her fur as she smiled sheepishly back at the enraged alicorn.
“I don’t suppose we could play a game of cards for the sun?”
…
“No? How about…”
Before another sound escaped her muzzle, a spell hit her dead center of the chest, flinging her back up to the ceiling where the magic trapped her in a glowing spider’s web, her mouth gagged and a quick sleeping spell ensuring she wouldn’t do anything more to raise the alicorn’s ire. Nightmare turned back to the other three. The white unicorn looked especially skittish now as four of her friends were unconscious and the other cowering in a corner. She looked up at Nightmare as the far taller mare slowly approached with a promise of pain reflecting in her eyes.
“Now, t-this is no way for a p-proper mare to b-behave. C-could we p-please…”
The unicorn’s voice trailed off into silence as Nightmare loomed above her, her eyes widening and her lip trembling in fear, sitting back on her haunches as she quaked in the alicorn’s immense shadow. Nightmare lowered her head and took great pleasure in slowly smiling at the mare, her muzzle revealing sharp fangs glistening with saliva. Without another word, the unicorn’s eyes rolled up into her head and she greeted the floor in a loud thud as she collapsed in a dead faint. Snorting in amusement, Nightmare took her time placing a magic inhibitor on the unicorn’s horn and wrapped her legs together tightly, the mare’s flesh flashing red as the bindings bruised her.
“P-p-p-please s-s-stop.”
Nightmare looked up after making sure the spells would hold to see the butter pegasus still shaking in the corner of the room, her long pink mane obscuring her eyes. The slight pitter patter of dropping tears could be heard in the silent ruins.
The black alicorn could only look on in disgust at the trembling mare. This? This was her sister’s task force? These were the ponies the elements chose to wield them? The only one that seemed competent was the still unmoving lavender alicorn laying in the middle of the floor. The others were rash, reckless, predictable, and cowards.
Her hooves clacked ominously as she slowly approached the whimpering blubber with a practiced step as if she had all the time in the world.
Which she did.
Nightmare stopped just a few hooves away from her, in a position much like the one she assumed with the unicorn, like a predator about to pounce on helpless prey.
A faint whisper escaped the pink mane.
“What was that? We couldn’t hear your pathetic voice begging for mercy. Speak louder little morsel.”
Another small whimper was all the response she got.
Oh, she was going to enjoy breaking this one.
The midnight alicorn grasped the pegasus in her indigo magic and lifted her to just below eye level, the pink mane still hid her eyes as she trembled violently in Nightmare’s grasp.
“Come now little one, we don’t bite…much.”
Finally growing impatient since the mare didn’t respond, Nightmare whipped the offending mare’s mane out of the way so she could lock eyes with her next victim.
A stare of great magical power looked back.
“Y-you will s-stop right now.”
“We will stop right now.”
NO!! Snap out of it!! It’s mind compulsion magic!!!
Faintly, in the undercurrents of her mind, Nightmare recalled non-unicorn mind magic was exceedingly rare, and required direct eye contact. The magic then compelled, not forced, but strongly suggested doing whatever the pony said. It was a kind of hypnotism.
“You w-will release my friends and g-give them back the e-elements.”
“We will release your friends and give…”
In her trance-like state that gripped her mind, Nightmare remembered what giving back the elements meant.
Back to the moon.
FOREVER.
“NO!!”
Breaking eye contact quickly, the compulsion shattering like glass, Nightmare panted in relief as she regained control of her faculties.
Right before she sent her hoof, sheathed in iron, into the pegasus’ head.
With a sickening crunch, Nightmare’s hoof clocked the yellow mare in the temple above her left eye, before another whimper could escape her when she renewed her trembling in the alicorn’s magical grip. As soon as the impact registered, her eyes closed and she fell to the floor with a dull thud, her legs and wings splayed out, twitching faintly before ceasing movement altogether.
That was too close…
Yes…now…what to do about that pesky mind compulsion? Hhhmmmm…
If there had been anypony else to witness it, Nightmare was sure they would have fled in terror at the smile that spread her muzzle, rippling with sweet vengeance as her sharp teeth reflected the moonlight and her eyes shined with malice.
Lowering her horn to the condemned pegasus, Nightmare reached out into her head and found the nerves that connected the eyes to her brain.
And severed them.
After all, what threat was a eye-oriented mind magic when the pony was blind?
Nightmare watched in perverse delight as the pegasus’s eyes began rimming with bruises from the severing of her optic nerves, adding to the black and purple knot already swelling on top of her head. Gently, Nightmare’s magic flicked the unconscious mare’s eyelids back just in time to see them turn white with blindness.
Standing back up, Nightmare bound the crippled mare much like the other pegasus with the sole exception being that she wasn’t gagged.
The screams would be harmony to the alicorn’s ears.
Chuckling to herself, Nightmare finally cantered back over to the lavender alicorn still lying still on the floor and plopped herself down in front of her, the debate renewing in her mind with a fervor, clouding her mind and making her hesitate.
She looks just like my foal, the mane, the horn, wings, everything. Just bigger.
It must be a trick of Celestia’s. We must not be caught off guard again by more of her tricks.
I will find out the truth…
Curiosity as to who it really was finally won out, and Nightmare lowered her head until her horn connected hesitantly with the other alicorn’s.
Being the Night Alicorn, Nightmare was well versed in mind magic, specializing in dreams, but she could also peer into memories. Usually, she could only do this if the pony had these thoughts near the surface, such like a bad memory causing a nightmare. She could delve deeper, but what glimpses she could catch would be fleeting and small.
The lavender mare was unconscious, obviously, but Nightmare finally knew why she hadn’t awoken like the others.
The magic from the elements had reconnected what seemed to be long dormant leylines of magic that connected with her wings and hooves, the pegasus and earth pony magic, in addition to the already prevalent unicorn powers. The change had been so sudden an unexpected that the body had reacted by putting itself into a deep sleep, not a coma, but a state of unconsciousness that would allow her body to heal and adjust to the sudden restoration. Currently, her mind was stuck in a dreamlike state, unaware of her surroundings and recent ascension. Just below the surface, Nightmare sensed older and more useful memories, which flicked by rapidly as she glimpsed at them.
‘Spike, take a letter. To the princess’
‘Princess look! I…’
‘Have fun at the academy Shiny!’
‘My Cutie Mark!! Yes! Yes!...’
As the memories flew by Nightmare’s awareness quicker than shooting stars, one memory stood out amongst the rest and grabbed her attention like a dying mare for water.
A name.
Her foal’s name.
Twilight Sparkle.
Delving deeper like a frenzied gold miner, Nightmare searched back to the farthest and deepest memories, ones recorded but not remembered by the conscious mind. Buried in the furthest recesses of memory.
A familiar room appeared, a room which Luna had crafted underneath this very castle. The room had a recognizable crib and stars studded the ceiling. As the present Luna watched at the edge of the memory, she saw a sight that hadn’t been seen in over a thousand years.
It was herself.
The self she had left behind when taking the name Nightmare Moon. She was a dark blue, like the sky on the night of a full moon with hooves clothed in a sparkling crystal slippers. Her torc, black as night yet twinkling, had a silver moon emblazoned on the front. Her mane shimmered in an invisible wind as gentle stars glowed in the ethereal strands. A small black tiara graced her head, just behind a regal horn.
And she was carrying a small bundle, gently nuzzling the lavender foal within.
The foal was the source of the memory.
As this brief glimpse of the past proved too much for her fragile emotions, Nightmare whipped herself out of the lavender alicorn’s mind and looked down at the slumbering mare before her.
Twilight.
Her daughter.
Alive.
All at once, memories and feelings she thought she had long shunted to the side resurfaced with the bluntness of a hammer.
She could be a mother, raise her child, teach her, hold her, talk to her…
Love her, and be loved in return.
Such strength was the renewal of these hopes that they overwhelmed her and she fell weeping to floor in joy, holding her daughter to her chest, never again to let her go. She cuddled the unaware filly and laid there crying in absolute ecstasy for what seemed like hours. Never ceasing to delight in the miracle given to her.
Slowly, like a patient awakening from a drugged sleep, Nightmare began putting together bits of information that both shocked and infuriated her.
Celestia!! She’s trained my own daughter to attack me! Does her treachery not end? Why did Celestia keep her? Was it to hold it over me and further humiliate me? And why did she only have her unicorn magic? Could she not tolerate another alicorn and so mutilated my child!!!
All these thoughts and questions flashed like lightning in her mind as she accessed each possible theory and conspiracy, trying to undermine and access her treacherous sister’s mechanizations and schemes.
But nothing seemed plausible.
Slowly, the thoughts drifted away and Nightmare was left holding Twilight in her hooves, cradling the much smaller mare like she was still a foal. Looking down at the sleeping mare, one more thought breeched the surface of her mind to fill it completely.
What now?
Clearly, this is not what she had planned. Her original plan was to steal the elements, hide them or render them useless, and then return to Canterlot to consolidate her rule.
But now things had changed dramatically.
She needed to do everything to protect Twilight, which was first on her list of priorities. Nightmare could not bear to think that her daughter could be taken away from her again, not so soon after her miraculous reappearance. Second, she needed to get Twilight to recognize her and undo whatever lies Celestia had crammed into her head, which would take some time and effort.
As she mulled it over, her draconic eyes settled on each of the bearers, and realized that she also needed to hide the elements.
Nopony else could use them since they had bonded with these mares, and if she hid them, the bearers could not activate them against her and so were valuable prisoners to flaunt a dissenting public with as to demoralize the inevitable rebels.
A plan formed, one which would protect Twilight and keep her near enough for her to watch over and also imprison the bearers were they would suffer the most.
With her purpose renewed, Nightmare lowered Twilight gently to the floor and stood back on her four legs. Reaching out with her magic, she grabbed the five necklaces and the one crown that made up the Elements of Harmony and sealed them away in a dimensional pocket that only Nightmare could access. They would be safe for the time being before she found a more promising hiding place or secured vault.
Then, she grabbed the five other bearers and grouped them together in a large bundle, uniting their magical bindings and placing a deep spell of sleep over them so they wouldn’t wake and cause trouble, although she had been looking forward to the yellow pegasus’ screaming.
Finally, she picked up Twilight and slung her on her back, making sure she was secure and still unmoving, it would not do for her daughter to wake up and interfere, Nightmare didn’t want to hurt her but wouldn’t hesitate to stop her for her own good, Twilight didn’t know any better after all.
Casting her eyes around the forsaken castle ruins, searching for anything she may have forgotten or overlooked in her frenzied state,
Nightmare charged up her horn and she and the others vanished in a whirlwind of magic, teleporting to the next step in her plan.
The Night would rule, and Twilight would join her.