//------------------------------//
// Ch. 8: Hatred Is A Shut Door 
// Story: The Moon Shall Rise From Hell's Ashes 
// by TundraStanza 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 8: Hatred Is A Shut Door


---{Dilan Shier}

I rapidly shook my head. "I'm sorry. What?"

Though, whatever had answered me decided not to repeat himself.  All I heard was the somewhat stormy cover in the background that had cut us off from the princesses.  I eyed my tail with uncertainty.

Well that's just fan-tipping-flastic, I thought. Apparently there is something living in my tail that turned it red. Great... as if I didn't have enough demons to face.

A dark, yet multi-colored trail swept passed the corners of my peripheral vision.

Speak of the devil. I clenched my teeth against the force of the wind.

Nightmare Spectrum was back on the offensive, and her snarling face was anything but happy.  She swiveled around a couple nearby clouds.  She then proceeded to turn around and slam her back hooves into them.  Lightning bolts surged out of the clouds and joined together.

Letting out a yelp, I quickly urged my tail to whip the cloud area in front of me.  A second crystal pillar quickly grew out.  I didn't understand how I was doing this, but I was content that I could do something.  Boy, did I do something.  That giant lightning bolt crashed right into that crystal and the electrical energy seemed to dance around before travelling down the crystal's length.  I saw the energy surge into the cloud underneath before it dissipated.

A cloud acts as a ground for the current? I sighed. Is there any law of physics that this world won't defy?

The world didn't seem interested in answering my question.  Next thing I knew, I was getting my head dragged across the cloud with some pony's hoof pressing against my neck.  I'm not sure how long that lasted, but the lack of breathing ability made it feel like hours.

When the sliding sensation finally stopped, I struggled to open my eyes.  My sight was a bit blurry, but I could identify the seven colors of smoke in my attacker's mane.

"You're beginning to annoy me," huffed Nightmare Spectrum.  Something slapped my face to the side.  It might have been her wing, but it stung so much that it might as well have been her hoof.  Another swatting motion forced my head to turn the other cheek.  My helmet was doing nothing to protect my muzzle.  My nose was running, probably with blood.

Did I mention that I couldn't breathe?  I couldn't breathe.  I attempted to say something, anything, but all I got out were a few noises like those of a guy being strangled.

...

What?  Have you ever tried to come up with a proper simile while you're choking to death?  It was impossible for me.

---{Narrator's POV}

Faith Shield smacked himself in the head.  This snapped him out of his fearful stupor and allowed him to take another look at the situation.  Though, it wasn't much better than before Nightmare Spectrum was threatening to freeze him.  His partner was still incapacitated and Nightmare Moon was currently getting an unpleasant face remodeling.

"Come on, Shield," the stallion critiqued himself, "Get a grip! This is no time to be pissing yourself."

He forced his bladder to hold it in and prepared his wings to dive.

"Let's do this." He licked his lips and whooshed into a descent. "Leeroyyyyyyy Wingkins!"

---
(Meanwhile, at the Wonderbolt Academy...)

"Achoo!" A blonde-maned, brown Pegasus pony sneezed. He looked around his sleeping quarters, wondering what in the world made him sneeze himself awake.  He shrugged his wings and rolled over, pulling his covers up.

---

No, Faith! yelled Spirit Sword mentally, because his ice cube prevented him from yelling any other way. Don't be a hero!  Of course with the adrenaline rush Faith was on, he wouldn't have been able to hear Spirit even if he had been able shout.

Nightmare Spectrum's ear flicked, causing her to stop her wing in mid-slap.  She slowly turned her head, wondering what that noise was.  She didn't even get to blink before a gray hoof made an impactful punch with her face.  The unexpected, new contact forced her into the air.

---{Dilan Shier}

I inhaled sharply.  I could cough properly since the enemy's hoof was no longer crushing my windpipe.  Sweet oxygen, the air tasted great!  I could have done without the liquid iron running over my lip, though.  I quickly rolled over so I could stand.

I turned to look at the man of the hour. "Nice work, Faith Shield."

He seemed to be having trouble catching his breath. "Yeah... that felt... good."

A loud stomp echoed through the sky.  Faith and I opened our eyes wide.  Slowly, we broke our unofficial staring contest as we turned to look.  Sparks were dancing around the approaching pony.  The deathly gaze was made all the more intimidating by the pools of magenta.  Several short 'uh' sounds repeated from Faith's mouth.  That was more impressive than my stunned silence.

Now, I know what one or two of you might be thinking.  Dilan, why were you scared of a black Pegasus with a rainbow aurora for a mane?  You've seen Princess Luna with a desire to destroy you.  Shouldn't you be over this fear by now?

To that one or those two people, I would reply, "I don't get more interested in dying when exposed to danger. I get less interested in dying. So as long as a threat exists, I will continue to fear for my life."

Nightmare Spectrum was pissed.  There wasn't much left I could think to do.  Faith Shield must have used up all he had saving me from the choking fit.  I was pretty much drained after the fight of regaining respiration.  Spirit Sword was still fighting winter paralysis.  To top it all off, I had no way of feasibly returning a scouting report to the princesses that were patiently waiting outside of the storm cloud barrier.

"Repulsive colt!" shouted Nightmare Spectrum, "I'll flatten you where you stand!"

The dancing sparks started to flash more rapidly near her front right hoof.  A couple beats from her large wings launched her forth.  It seemed she was intent on retaliating with a variant of her attacker's move.  The poor thing wouldn't be able to move in time on his own.

Gosh darn it. I silently moaned. "Move!" With both front hooves, I shoved Faith Shield a few feet along the cloud.  Though in doing so, I ended up right in the path of Nightmare Spectrum the instant before she made contact.  My voice was filled with 'g's and 'j's.  How I hadn't fried my brain on all of this voltage, I had no idea.  But, I still didn't appreciate all of this pain.

"... Perfect."

Just like that, a switch had been flipped.  The electricity stopped flowing and I could open my eyes without flinching.  I exhaled my confusion before turning to look at my electrocutioner.  I'm amazed that my eyebrows stayed on my head when they were raised so high.

Nightmare Spectrum had her mouth wide open with her tongue sticking out.  She was letting out several choking noises.  The red, smoky appendage around her neck was likely the cause.	

My tail! I stared unblinkingly. But, I'm not doing this. What's going on?! I half-expected myself to scream, but I couldn't.  My voice was trapped somewhere in my throat.

"Yes... Yes... Yes... I must have it."

I gasped. It's that voice again.

Then, the color started draining from the Pegasus' face... literally.  The blackness itself was retreating, revealing a much lighter cyan color underneath.  I followed the retreat with my eyes.  As the color divide receded to the middle of her body, her wings shrank a little.  Her hooves shortened as well.  When the pony's hide was almost completely cyan, her mane started twitching.  It looked less like an attachment of smoke and more like solid hair.

"Give... it... all... to... me..."

Stop it! You're killing her! I tried moving the muscle that must have been in my tail, but its grip wouldn't falter.

Soon, the Pegasus' hooves were short enough that the red tail was dangling her just a bit above the cloud.  The magenta irises shrank, allowing way for more white eye.  The slits reshaped into black dots.  She let out one more choking fit before her eyelids shut.  With its task complete, the red tail finally loosened its grip and dropped Rainbow Dash onto the cloud.

Oh my gun. I sat on my haunches and stared at the little pony.  In my peripheral vision, I saw the clouds separating into smaller clumps.  Some of them disappeared while the rest turned a more pleasant white.  The cloud fortress no longer looked that intimidating.  In fact, it almost resembled a white mansion complete with rainbow waterfalls.  The clear, night sky actually helped it stand out.

But the storm might as well have stayed.  I felt something flowing down an emotional drain.  I didn't feel comfortable looking at Rainbow Dash, but I couldn't look away.

Finally, my vocal chord worked out a whispered, "What have I done?"

---

I don't know how long I sat there looking at the poor thing.  Next thing I knew, I was getting patted on the back by Faith Shield's wing.  I knew because it was enough of a touch for me to turn my head and see him.  He gave me a reassuring smile, but I couldn't bring myself to return it.  To his right, Spirit Sword was standing, though he was shivering a lot.  I guess the icy blast hadn't quite worn off yet.

I heard a couple of steps to my left.  When I turned to see, Princess Luna's expression was unreadable.  I think this was the first neutral expression I had ever seen from her.  It was actually a bit more unsettling than her angry face.

Meanwhile, Princess Celestia was trotting over to the body of Rainbow Dash.  She knelt her head down.  I felt like doing the same thing.

"Princess, I'm sorry. I-"

She raised her head back up and looked straight at me. "If you're worried about having taken this little pony's life, then stop worrying."

I lifted my gaze almost immediately. "You mean...?"

She nodded and gently smiled.

"Whatever you did inside that storm seemed to do the trick," commented Princess Luna, while holding her expression. "Now the only thing left to do is monitor you until you betray us."

"Luna, aren't you laying down the dry humor a bit thick?" inquired Princess Celestia.

The younger princess clenched her teeth. "Sorry, Sister. I'll try to hold it back more."

Ah. I half-smiled. There's the look of frustration I know and dislike.

Rainbow Dash floated in a golden aura before being gently plopped onto Princess Celestia's back.

"I'll take her to the nearest hospital," she insisted. "Why don't the rest of you head on back to the castle?"

Without waiting for an answer, she quickly flapped her wings and went on her way.

Princess Luna turned to look at me. "For the record, I wasn't joking."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we all got that," I affirmed.  I then promptly fell onto the cloud completely.

---{Narrator's POV}

Luna blinked twice, then sighed. "She fell asleep. Didn't she?"

"Out like a light," confirmed Faith Shield. "Considering how crazy that battle was, I'm not surprised."

"Right, how exactly did she defeat the Nightmare that possessed the Element of Loyalty?"

"It's like I told you before, your highness. She summoned crystals to fend off lightning strikes, saved me from certain death, and finished it all up with a strangle tail."

"And there's nothing else of interest that happened?" Luna raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I'm not going to tell you how Spirit went down in the earlier round and how heroic I was when I smacked Nightmare Spectrum in the face. That would just embarrass him."

Spirit Sword's teeth chattered while he crossed his wings in front of himself. "Th-This is a v-v-very enlightening convers-s-sation, but can we p-p-please move it t-t-to the n-n-nice warm c-castle?"

"Quite so," agreed Luna.  With but a blue spark, the four ponies disappeared from the cloud.

---{???}

Perhaps there's something to you after all.  A soul that clings to innocence can actually guide power toward a cause.  A cause is typically better than flying forth without passion.

I'll let you have some of my power for now.  But do you have what it takes to recover the rest of my strength?  Can you handle my entirety?  That remains to be seen.

Good luck... human.

---{Dilan Shier}

"Wait!" I raised a hoof. "What do... you... huh?"

I took a slow inventory of my surroundings.  I was lying on a bed.  The room was full of relaxing shades of blue, white, and pink.  I could see sunlight leaking in from a nearby window.  Did I just wake up from a dream?

I moved to a more upright sitting position. "Spectrum, what were you trying to tell me?"

But the dream was already fading quickly from my memory.  I rubbed my wrist against my face and sighed.  It was about then that I noticed the gauze wrapped around my neck.

"I'm no doctor," I admitted, "but I think I've worked long enough in medicine to know that this isn't an effective fix for neck injuries."  On that note, I used my bare hoof's phantom fingers to pull the poor bandaging off. "Come to think of it, my neck doesn't even feel so bad."

I went ahead and eyed the rest of myself.  My wings could move just fine.  Each of my hooves felt fine.  My horn was still little more than a fancy door ornament, but otherwise it was fine.

My mouth twisted into an uncertain frown as I looked at my tail.  Whatever had caused it to act independently from me yesterday seemed to be dormant, if not completely gone.  I thought about moving that limb like the extra arm that it was.  It responded to where I 'told' it to go without hesitation.  I still looked at it warily before deciding to slide off the bed.

Nightmare Moon's armor pieces were sitting against the nightstand in an orderly fashion.  I went ahead and shuffled into the chest plate and helmet.  Then came the leg bracers: back right, back left, front left, and front right.

*Bzzrt!*

"What the...?" I felt a short zap from that leg piece, almost like static.  I lifted my right hoof and turned it palm-side up.  My eyes snapped open at the sight.  Instead of blue, the underside of the metal bracer had green, purple, and orange strokes.

What is with all of these color changes? I silently asked while looking between this bracer's underside and my tail. What's next? Is my hide going to turn pink or something? I slammed my hoof down enough to make a loud tap. If Princess Luna finds out about this, will she drink us both into a coma again?

It was a long conversation yesterday before Princess Luna and I managed to tell her guards and Princess Celestia about the Element of Loyalty's danger.  One of those topics turned out to be a theoretical soul chain.  That's how I found out about the shared sobriety and taste.  Even though a bunch of magical explanations ran the order of this world, I still questioned how drunkenness could work like that.  Unfortunately, I was short on other ideas.

Back in the present, I heard a knock at the door.  Shaking my head quickly, I trotted across the room.  When I opened the door, I didn't know who I was expecting.

"Hey, Nightmare... er, Dill Anne," he greeted.

"Oh hi, Faith Shield," I returned the greeting. "How are you doing?"

"A lot better today, thanks." He smiled briefly before changing to a look of concern. "Yourself?"

"I can safely say I've had worse," I replied with a light chuckle, "I've had broken legs before. Compared to that, I'm the picture of health."

"I'm glad to hear that." His smile returned.

"So, what brings you by today?" I asked.

"Well, I just received word that I've been given a week of vacation, starting today."

"Oh?" I blinked. "That sounds great. Does Spirit Sword get the week off too?"

"About that... Princess Luna did give him the offer but..."

---{Faith Shield's flashback}

"You've worked so hard already," insisted Luna, "You deserve time to relax more than any pony else I know."

"Be that as it may," said Spirit, "I can't in good honor leave you without knowing that you have some form of guard."

"Come on, buddy." Faith gave a playful whack with his hoof. "I haven't seen you in a chugging contest in over a year."

"That's because I understand my limitations now," Spirit responded flatly.

"Would it change the matter if I gave you an order to take some time off?" wondered Luna.

"Not one bit, your highness," the unflinching guard pony replied.

Luna stared at him for what seemed like forever.  Then, she sighed. "All right, that's your choice." She then turned to the other guard pony that was releasing a breath. "In that case, Faith Shield, I have a request while you're away."

Faith smiled wryly. "You want me to take Nightmare Moon with me so that we can keep an eye on her, right?"

"Actually, we've been referring to her as Dill Anne, and-" Luna paused and actually leaned her head back. "Have I become that easy to read?"

"Like the Juvenile Monster series." He nodded.

Spirit Sword performed a facehoof and quietly groaned.

---{Dilan Shier}

"Wow," I commented. "If there's one thing to admire about the guy, it's his diligence."

"Yeah, heh," Faith chuckled.

"Wait." I looked down slightly. "If I go out into the city, won't all the ponies just start screaming and running around in circles as soon as they see me? I... kind of don't want to relive the my first time to Ponyville."

His golden eyes widened after I said that.  He then proceeded to scratch his chin thoughtfully.

"I may have an idea of where that won't be an issue."  He turned around and motioned with his wing. "Follow me."

---

A cloud of steam briefly blocked out my sight of anything else before evaporating.

So, this world has train stations, I observed. Huh. Well, I guess that's not too unusual, but could they have chosen to make a train that didn't resemble gingerbread?  I turned back around to see Faith trot over to the main building.

"Two please," Faith told the pony behind a window.  He then proceeded to pull out a small, purple gem and pushed it through the slot.  A couple of yellow tickets slid back out the same way. "Thanks, ma'am."

"There seems to be an awful lot of ponies crowding the last car," I noted aloud.  I didn't think it looked very comfortable for so many ponies to sit, stand, or press themselves against the confines of that gingerbread-colored passenger car.  There were also a lot of eyes staring at me through the window.

"Eh, they probably just want to hoard all the food in the dining car," Faith said dismissively, "Let's go."

"If you say so." I was still uncertain, but I followed him on board anyway.

The inside of the train was less edible looking.  The front car in particular had what amounted to couch seats with emerald green backs.  I couldn't see how that would be particularly comfortable.  But we weren't stopping here.  Faith Shield was already heading into the next car back.

This one had sliding doors that led to the seating inside miniature rooms.  Faith trotted back to the second door on the left and slid it open.

*Woooo!*

---

The cart attendant seemed a bit tense as he offered Faith some donuts, but otherwise didn't say anything.  After Faith tossed a couple of gold coins, the other pony practically galloped away.  It was making me feel more uneasy about coming on this trip.  Faith offered the dark brown circle in his hoof and I grabbed it with my left hoof's phantom fingers.  My internal worries regarding the scared ponies were interrupted when my taste buds were suddenly introduced to the pastry.

Wow! I hummed in delight. That is rich. No wonder I never eat these anymore.

"So," Faith said between bites, "I went ahead and gave a friend of mine a call. He's going to meet us at the station."

I practically gulped my entire donut. "Oh, yeah. You never said where we were going exactly."

"It's a bustling city that gets less than three hours of sleep at night," he stated proudly.

I held my hoof right in front of my face as I looked down. That sounds an awful lot like a slogan I know. I can't seem to place it, though.

"We'll figure out what to do after we get there," he said reassuringly.

And... I lost my train of thought. I gave up and set my hoof down.  I settled for listening to the clickety-clack noises from the rails as the travel continued.

---

The train came to a screeching halt.  Through the window, I saw nearly all of the ponies from the back car frantically race away.  I supposed that they were all late for something, but I couldn't tell what.  As Faith and I made our way out of the train, he started taking a careful panned view of the station area just before the exit stairs.

"Faith, there you are!"

Upon hearing that voice, Faith's expression immediately brightened up.  He practically galloped down the stairs to what looked like a chartreuse stallion.  I trotted along after him, though with less haste.

"Good to see you, Pine Apple," Faith greeted.

"It's been too long, man," the other stallion said with a smile.  He didn't have anything other than hooves and a tail.  Earth pony, I guessed. "How's Luna been treating you?"

"Can't complain," Faith answered with a grin, before motioning for me to come closer. "Pine Apple, this is the mare I told you about over the phone."

"Oh, hey," Pine Apple greeted me with surprisingly zero tension, "I'm Pine Apple."

"Dilan Shier." I returned his hoof shake. "Pleased to meet you."

He took his hoof back and waved it once around himself. "Lady and gentlecolt, welcome to Manehattan!"

My ears perked upon hearing that. Did he say... Manehattan? I took another look at the buildings along this street. Wait, this city is called Manehattan. It's full of skyscrapers. Faith said it's a city that lacks sleep. That can only mean...

"Hey, lady!" A sudden blot of brownish-orange was in my personal space.

Darn it! There it goes again. I exhaled in resignation. "What?"

The brownish-orange blot turned out to be a small filly with a sort of faded red mane.  She seemed to be intently scrutinizing every inch of me.  She scampered around me a few times before rubbing her chin.

"That's an okay Nightmare Night costume," she finally concluded, "but your cat-eye contact lenses are way too obvious and the tail color is all wrong. Keep trying." She then flashed a confident smile.

I blinked a couple of times, uncertain of what I just got critiqued about. "Uh..."

Pine Apple chuckled. "I see you've gotten acquainted with Babs Seed."

"That's Babs?" Faith Shield whistled. "Wow, she's growing up fast. I remember when she was barely tall enough to bite my ankles."

"Not for lack of trying." Pine smirked.

"For hay's sake, Dad," Babs Seed remarked, "I said I was sorry that they looked like Turkish Delight."

"I wasn't even mad." Faith shrugged. "I was impressed that you knew what Turkish Delight was back then."

Babs didn't comment further.  Instead, she blew a bit of her mane out of her face.

Pine clapped his hooves together once. "Well, that's enough standing around for now. Who's ready for some lunch?"

It was weird how having devoured trans fat on the train only made me feel hungrier.  I heard my belly gurgling audibly despite some of the background noise in this city.

"Great!" Pine nodded. "To Messy's Hall!"

We power walked over to the corner of the street.  I performed a double-take at the vehicle in front of me.  It had the yellow and black appearance of a taxi, but it was open in the front.  Not to mention, a uniformed pony was hooked up to it.  What was the point of carriages if the population was entirely consistent of ponies?  Trains were a thing in this world.  Why weren't cars?

Pine grabbed a 'door' that was on the yellow carriage's side.  He started to climb on before another pony came in out of nowhere and pretty much shoved him away.  The mare then climbed in while giving her demands for the address to go.  Pine seemed resigned to the barger and he sighed.  Something ticked me off about the mare's scissor imitation, though.  Without thinking, I trotted closer.

"Hey!" I hollered, "He had this cab first!"  A random lightning bolt crashed in the sky, but I paid it no mind.

"Hmph," harrumphed the sitting mare with her nose up while swatting her mane. "Pics or it didn't happen."

I leaned back while gaping. She didn't even flinch when she saw me. I don't know whether to be relieved or insulted.

With that, the taxi puller galloped off, carrying the pushy mare with him.

Babs hurried over and helped her dad back to his feet. "You alright?"

"Yeah," he answered. "We'll get the next one."

---

As it turned out, Messy's Hall was a retro-styled diner.  The image was complete with rollerblading waitresses.  Our meals consisted of fried hay and veggie burger sandwiches.  At first, I thought it was weird that ponies would cook anything like fake meat.  But that was dismissed by a thought that it was made of tofu anyway.

The guard off duty and I took off our respective headgear and set them aside while we ate.  Faith practically threw himself into his platter, but I was distracted by other thoughts and ate rather slowly.

"What's on your mind, Ms. Shear?"

I looked down at Babs. "What makes you think something's on my mind?"

"Because you've been sucking on that catsup bottle for the last two minutes."

I looked over at my hoof.  Sure enough, there was a red squirt bottle instead of my beverage.

"Huh." I smiled humorlessly. "I thought my raspberry shake had too much tomato in it."  I shoved the bottle away before actually looking and grabbing the cup with my drink in it.  I resumed my slurping of deep thought.

"So..." Babs made circular motions with her hoof expectantly.

I gulped the contents that were in my mouth and sighed. "It's that pony from the taxi earlier. Who does that? Who pushes someone else out of the way when it's obvious who had it first?"

Faith paused in his engorging and swallowed. "That's part of life in Manehattan for you. Every pony feels that they are the most important being in the world and they all have to be somewhere at a certain time. No pony else's schedule matters."

"I heard that the locals wouldn't even let Princess Twilight get a cab when she needed it," added Pine.

"Get out. Really?" Faith shook his head as he grabbed his shake.

Wait. I opened my eyes and stared upward. Now I remember what I was thinking. The city is full of skyscrapers. It's called Manehattan. It hardly sleeps. Babs has a Brooklyn accent. The ponies that live here are jerks that won't even budge for royalty. And... and...

"Random question," I piped up, "Is there a green statue near here depicting a pony carrying a torch?"

"You mean Freedom Mare?" responded Babs, "Yeah, she's on that little island right in the bay."

Freedom Mare... as in Lady Liberty? The dots connected and they were even in order from zero all the way to one hundred. I'm in New York City.

I could feel the smirk gluing itself to my face.  Snorts were bubbling up in my throat.  Mt. Cackle became active and I was right at the epicenter of the eruption.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Uh, Dill Anne?" inquired Faith.

Ow, my sides. I had both of my front hooves grabbed around my belly. I felt tears streaming through my eyelids. But I just could not stop laughing.

"Does... that happen often?" wondered Pine.

"No, I've never seen her act like this before," Faith insisted.

"New York City! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Woah!"

Hello, linoleum.  Nice to see you again.  Light blurred out.

I could of sworn I heard a faint last word from Babs. "Nyeh?"

---