//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: The Return of Nightmare Belle // by LostUmbrella //------------------------------// Sweetie rushed in her room with a spring in her step: it had been a great day spent crusading with her friends and, even if they had not found their special talents, they had a lot of fun, and best of it all they were going to stay at Sweet Apple Acres for the night since Rarity and her friend had left to help Twilight with a test or something. She swiftly gathered her things on her bed and started putting them in an empty bag with her magic when she noticed a really strange thing: the mirror on her nightstand was reflecting somepony else's image. The filly in the mirror had dark gray coat and mane and tail stylized like hers, only coal black and deep purple, and was facing away from her, apparently intent in contemplating the room in the mirror. Sweetie timidly poked the mirror's surface, but nothing happened. She started to back away from the unknown filly when the latter turned around, fixing her eyes on her. They were cold, hard, green pools of hatred, and worst of all, they were reptilian. "Uhm, hello?" tentatively said Sweetie. The filly seemed genuinely surprised to be addressed, then really pleased of it. She smiled, a smile that was more like a sly grin, and said: "So you can see me? Good, very good." Her voice sounded somehow like Sweetie's own, as if she had exercised in imitating it but still wasn't quite there; it had a strange echoing quality too. Now that her feature had relaxed, Sweetie noticed a disturbing similarity in their appearance. "Uhm, yes, I can... What are you doing in my mirror?" "Well, I'm your reflection, of course," explained the dark filly "Where else should I be?" "But you don't look like me," protested the other "And mirror images don't usually talk." "I look exactly as we looked a while ago, don't tell me you don't remember, Sweetie Belle." The answer to all her doubts hit her like a hoof jab in the face. "You're Nightmare Moon!" "True and, at the same time, false," was the dark filly's enigmatic answer. "What do you mean?" "I'm Night, and I am the nightmare that possessed you, but without Luna I'm nowhere near as being my glorious old self," explained the image "The fact that after two years appearing in a mirror is the best I can do is a hint of how weak I am right now." By the end of her speech, Sweetie had fled. "What a troublesome host," muttered Nightmare before dissolving in a cloud of black smoke. --- Having licensed the whole episode as a product of her vivid imagination joined by a tired mind, Sweetie spent a pleasant evening with her friends. After having planned the crusades of the next day, the three fillies went to bed. Around midnight, Sweetie went to the restroom. It felt a bit surreal to witness the farm, normally bustling with activity, quiet and silent in the full moon light. As she passed in front of the bathroom mirror, her eyes caught the image of her nightmarish other self peering at her through the shadows of the dark room. "Are you ready to talk now?" asked Nightmare with a sly grin. Sweetie almost screamed at the top of her lungs. Almost. "Are you real? Or is this a dream?" asked the white filly instead after having calmed down. "While being a nightmare, unluckily for both of us I'm absolutely real." "Didn't Celestia...?" "Yeah, she did," answered the dark filly with a frown "And it hurt a lot." "Then why are you here?" "I wasn't lying when I said I had fused our life essences," explained Nightmare "Luckily for you, and probably for me too, the process is very slow." "So you're inside of me?" "No." The answer gave the filly an enormous relief. "I am one with you," finished explaining the dark filly. At those words, Sweetie's heart sunk. She felt her legs become weak as she almost lost consciousness. "So you're back to trick me and steal my body?" asked Sweetie after a painful moment in which she had cleared her mind. "That would be pointless: as time flows I regain more and more power," explained Nightmare "In another couple of years I should be strong enough to take control, three at best." "Then what do you want?" "Isn't it obvious?" asked the dark filly "I want my own body." "Then go, I won't certainly hold you with me!" said Sweetie motioning towards the small window. "Do you really think I wouldn't have already done that if I could?" "What do you mean?" "First of all, right now I'm far too weak to go and take over somepony's mind," explained Nightmare "And, since I fused with your life essence, my new host must share blood ties with you." "I'm not letting you touch my family!" said the white filly stomping a hoof. "Calm down, you'll wake somepony!" snarled the other before explaining in a calmer tone "I have a solution that will make everypony happy." Sweetie sighed and said: "I'm going to regret asking, but what is it?" "There is a spell that lets the caster clone itself," said the dark filly in a conspirator tone "You cast it, I take the clone, everypony wins." "But the clone..." "I know what you're thinking," said Nightmare raising a hoof to interrupt her "And no, it isn't a real pony, and it doesn't have a soul, a simple puppet." The white filly took a couple of minutes to ponder over the offer, then asked: "What will you do once free?" "Does this really matter?" asked the dark filly, then, after noticing her light's counterpart eyes, sighed and said "I don't really know... I want my revenge against that lavender unicorn, against Celestia too, yet I'll be far too weak to try anything... When I hit Rainbow I used the maximum power, I should have killed her and she was barely hurt..." "I won't help you if you don't promise not to hurt anypony," sternly said Sweetie Belle. "That I cannot promise, but I can avoid searching for them," proposed the other "Only self defense." "Why are you so accommodating? You can just refuse and wait a couple of years." "Yeah, to get zapped by the elements and go back to square one," said Nightmare in a dejected tone "Having my own body might help avoiding that, moreover I'm sick tired of families wanting their loved ones back... And admittedly Celestia overpowers me." "I see..." said Sweetie "It seems we have a deal, Nightmare Belle, but if you do something weird I'll tell everything to the princesses." "Nightmare Belle?" asked the other visibly disdained "But it sounds lame!" "I think it's a great name." "It's terrible!" lamented Nightmare vigorously shaking her head "What about something cool like Nightmare Toll?". "Do you like more Sweetie Moon? Or maybe Sweet Nightmare?" asked the white filly giggling, ignoring her counterpart's proposal "After all, you are a nightmare and me fused together." "You know what? Nightmare Belle is fine," sighed the dark one in defeat "Just don't try to find other names for me." "Deal," said Sweetie "But now I need to use the restroom so, could you please turn around?" Nightmare Belle rolled her eyes but complied.