//------------------------------// // 13: Nightmare World // Story: The Country of Roses // by Dutch Tilt //------------------------------// 13 NIGHTMARE WORLD Special thanks to Codex & FanOfMostEverything Rainbow Dash, for the first time in her life, had been too slow. Still shaking off the worst of Nightmare Moon’s blasting spell, she was still able to get above the sea of muck in time and regroup with Thunderlane and Cloudchaser. She had been able to focus her vision enough to see Twilight and the others huddled around Peacemaker’s broken body. She had ignored her friends’ cries and rushed down to save them, only to miss Twilight’s outstretched hooves by a split-second. The unicorn’s last desperate cry was choked by the slime filling her mouth, and then she was gone with the rest of them in the time it took to blink. Rainbow did not believe she knew heartbreak. She would tell you that it was a sissy feeling, and she was no sissy, but she figured that the twinge of despair vibrating inside her ribcage was close enough to count. What must be understood is that for all her bravado and steel, she was technically an innocent girl of sixteen years. Between the simplistic, isolated pleasures of Ponyville and the lofty magnificence of her original home in far-off Cloudsdale, she had never seen the terrible things that lived in the world below. Now she had seen the absolute worst, and it had destroyed lives right in front of her. Lives she had failed to save. All because she was too slow when it really counted. All because Nightmare Moon had stopped her. Nightmare Moon. The name chased away her despair and replaced it with something new and much more dangerous. Rainbow kept that image of Twilight Sparkle’s eyes, welling with tears of fright as she was sucked beneath the waves at the forefront of her mind, because she was wrong about what she felt. It was not heartbreak. Heartbreak implies a degree of deep regret and confusion. No, this was anger. A pure anger, a righteous anger, and it demanded satisfaction for the cruelty and injustice she had witnessed. Peacemaker, an earth pony who could not fly but had proven himself nothing less than her equal, would call it the anger of a gun-pony, but she was not to know that. He was dead. They all were. That awful night would change things in Ponyville forever. Thunderlane and Cloudchaser knew something was different in their leader when she joined them on the roof of the schoolhouse. The doors and windows were bolted shut, and through the skylight, the three pegasi could see Miss Cheerilee the schoolmistress and her pupils gathered in a tight circle. Cheerilee had volunteered not to attend the Summer Sun Celebration in order to babysit the foals who would not be able to stay awake into the early hours of the morning, which now seemed like it would never ever come. “Find every pegasus who hasn’t run for the hills!” said Rainbow Dash, her tone brokering no argument. “First thing we’re going to do is evacuate those kids, and then make sure everypony is as far away from here as we can get them!” “And then what, Rainbow?” asked Cloudchaser. “What else?” Rainbow scoffed as if it were the most inane question ever. “We’re going to stop that whatever-it-is dead in its tracks!” “And just how in the hay are you planning to do that?” asked Thunderlane challengingly. “Hit it with a big newspaper? It’s already bigger than Lake Mustang and it’s still growing!” “I’ll think of something,” said Rainbow, and she sounded as if she truly believed it. “Thunderlane, Cloudchaser, we might be all Ponyville’s got, so let’s show that overstuffed jelly doughnut not to mess with our town! You with me?” “All the way,” said Cloudchaser without hesitating. “Me too,” said Thunderlane, “but we’re still going to die.” Rainbow Dash smirked. “If we win, we’re heroes. If we die, we’re still heroes. Seems like a pretty solid bet to me.” So the long, hard effort began. The Starkblasts, as they now collectively called themselves, rounded up all the pegasi they could, and sent them to every corner of Ponyville in teams of two or three to effect rescues. Rainbow found the back door of the school ahead of the purple slime and, recalling her first meeting with Peacemaker, twirled her body in mid-air until she reached enough speed to drill a deep scar into the earth. Despite its evil nature, what they were facing was still a liquid-form, and after pouring over the edge of the scar, it would not be able to re-emerge until it was filled to capacity. She created a second one on the opposite side, creating a moated path for the evacuation. The pain she would be in later was sure to be excruciating, but she could not have cared less. Her plan was working. Thunderlane bucked open the back door to a chorus of terrified shouts. Cheerilee came out swinging a broomstick, raining ineffectual blows on Thunderlane’s nose. It tickled the black pegasus’s nostrils and he sneezed with enough force to tear a hole through the broom’s brush. When she realised who she had been hitting, Cheerilee stammered an apology. “It’s fine!” Thunderlane interrupted her stuffily. “Get your kids together and come on! Rainbow’s bought us some time but we don’t know how much!” “Where are we going?” one of the foals asked. “Anywhere but here!” exclaimed one of the others, the youngest from the apple orchard. “Right! Just follow us and you’ll be A-okay!” said Thunderlane with a reassuring wink, and he and Cloudchaser began ushering the class through the door as quickly as possible, all the while Cheerilee was reminding them to stay together and in an orderly fashion so nopony got separated. They were making their way along the moated path at a brisk pace, when a shriek went up from the rear. Rainbow had been correct in assuming the ooze would fill the cracks she had created, however she had not anticipated the stuff may be intelligent and have a contingency of its own. A great, sticky pseudopod had lurched up out of the mess and caught a lagging filly around her hind legs. The stuff was crawling over her body, and would have doubtlessly meant her doom had Thunderlane not acted right then. The pegasus clamped his teeth around the child’s mane and gave an almighty yank. It hurt like hell, but that filly would always remember that it had saved her from something far worse than a sore scalp. Thunderlane flung her across to Cloudchaser, who caught her in mid-air, and then the pseudopod exploded against his back. He vanished in a spray of the stuff, to the dismay of the witnesses. A mess of sludge and ebony feathers smashed into the earth, and then it rose to its hooves with a serious of sickly squelching noises. The shape trembled, took one lurching step forward, and opened its eyes and mouth. They were hollow, black holes, void of any semblance of the pony who had been there before. It vibrated a long and impossibly low moan, and a chorus of identical sounds emanated from all around them. Rainbow felt her blood run cold. XXX Celestia was jolted back to wakefulness by a distant song of chaos. She was on her knees, affixed by chains to wooden posts engraved with ancient and arcane symbols. They were old and potent magick, and when she tried to pull at her chains, she found the effort fruitless. She seemed to be in a camp of some kind. There was a close circle of tents and a fire was burning. The camp sat near the edge of a gorge that filled the princess with a sick trepidation. She could not see into it, but something about it, or whatever was inside it, felt wrong on a fundamental level. She thought she was alone with the feeling, but then she saw the shapes of things peeling themselves away from dead trees. They dropped their camouflage, the chitinous texture growing dimmer until they were transformed into ponies. Most of them were dressed in black hoods, save for four. These, you may have rightly guessed, were Ramrod, Hammer, Tongs and the piebald witch known as Bindle Punk. “Hile, O Lady of Light. Sleep well?” the witch asked with a leer. “My sincerest apologies for the unrefined seating arrangements, but please understand, we cannot just have thou leave us until after the entertainments.” Celestia grimaced. It was quite clear whose entertainment she meant. “Listen to that wonderful calamity,” said Bindle Punk, lifting her head and closing her eyes. “Sweeter music has never been composed by pony hearts.” Celestia could hear it. That song of chaos was still vibrating in her mind, carrying within it a cacophony of fear, misery, confusion and madness. Above the treetops, she saw the new face of the moon, and a thought dawned on her, a thought that drained the blood from her. “Thou hast begun to understand,” said Bindle Punk. “That’s very good.” The tip of her horn lit up, and a window of light opened in the air for all to see. Through it they could see Ponyville and the horror that had befallen it. “No!” Celestia exclaimed. “Do you have any idea what you’ve unleashed?” “Not I, regrettably,” said Bindle Pink with a sigh. “How I wish it were, to be true, but nay, such wondrousness be the work of another. One far greater than thy humble servant.” She smiled with malevolent intent. “And it is wondrous, O Princess! Such pure, primordial havoc finally set free after an eternity beneath the skin of this world. But the time for us to talk is passed. I hear her approach, and she has much unfinished business to discuss with thee.” The group parted as a plume of blue mist suddenly belched up from the ground. A smoky smell of incense filled the air, and the mist curled and twisted into a shape Celestia recognised all too well. Nightmare Moon had arrived, and the ponies all prostrated themselves before it. “Great One,” said Bindle Punk, keeping her head bowed, “thou dost honour us with thy presence here tonight.” Nightmare Moon snorted derisively. “And you are?” “Bindle Punk. Merely a fellow servant of the Red,” was the reply, “and, if I may be so bold, the engineer of thy resurrection. It was prophesied that the stars would aid in thy return, and just look.” She gestured towards Ramrod, Hammer and Tongs, and the uniformly cracked stars emblazoned on their flanks. “Under my direction, the stars did exactly that, and as thou can see, it gets even better.” Nightmare Moon turned its head towards Celestia. “Yes, so I see,” said the creature. “You’ve done well, Bindle Punk. You and your followers have my thanks. You may stay and watch as I give my beloved big sister what’s coming to her.” Its long horn lit up, and Celestia screamed as her whole body was racked with pain. “All the things I missed because of you,” snarled Nightmare Moon. “A thousand long years, unable to move, to do anything save watch my world change under your rule until it didn’t even resemble a shade of its former self. All this sun-soaked happiness, why it’s just sick! And do you know the worst part, Tia?” Celestia’s legs trembled as she struggled to remain upright, to seem stronger than she felt. Her resistance crumbled in seconds under Nightmare Moon’s relentless assault. “Imprisonment is boring!” the creature bellowed. “You can’t imagine the mind-numbing monotony of the whole thing! I am an equine of the old blood, born to roam! And yet knowing that need all too well, you stuffed me into that prison and threw me away like so much rubbish! You abandoned me!” “I know I hurt you, Luna,” said Celestia, “but don’t you dare delude yourself by thinking it was for nothing! You know well enough of the unspeakable crimes you committed against our subjects!” “Well, that’s all academic now, Tia,” said Nightmare Moon. “Now I’ve discovered a whole new world, full of unfamiliar things just waiting to be destroyed, and this time around you’re powerless to get in my way. Unleashing the Smooze was just the beginning, because while it decays the lands and boils the oceans, I will unravel everything you’ve ever worked towards and plunge the rest of reality into darkness, to be rewritten as I see fit. The Red shall at last triumph over the White.” “Luna, please!” Celestia pleaded. “You can still stop this insanity! If you want to punish me, then so be it! Goodness knows I deserve it! I’d welcome it! But leave my ponies alone, they’ve done nothing to you!” “But what better way to punish you than by annihilating them?” Nightmare Moon asked rhetorically. “I’ll wipe the slate clean and ensure you suffer for eternity. It’s the most pragmatic course of action. Wouldn’t you all agree?” “Indeed, O Dark Mistress,” said Bindle Punk. “Kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes. Rather an appropriate turn of phrase, if I may say so.” Nightmare Moon laughed, and with a theatrical flourish of its feathers, it began to sing. “Oh, my dearest sister, Your nightmare’s come to pass, A thousand years have been and gone, You’ve finally been outclassed. “I recall how you betrayed me, Then exiled me from our land, I became a horror story, Now it’s time I make my stand.” Celestia chimed in desperately. “My little sister, let’s start over, Stand together, wing to wing, With mercy and compassion…” Nightmare Moon leaned in close, its smile so wide and filled with so many teeth that its visage was split across the middle. Celestia could see its breath as tails of electrified blue fog. “No, that’s really not my thing.” “But you know what is?” “Your ponies’ hearts all filled with fright, Their foals all screaming in the night, Your sunlight dies, my dark unfurls, That’s my nightmare world.” It whirled away from her, its tone changing from ferocious to thoughtful. Its eyes swivelled up towards the mutant face of the moon, a moon that was now empty and desolate. It remembered the ever-present smell of the silver-white desert and the faithful reverberation of its own thoughts. “Now in the past I have considered, That it may have been deserved, But a thousand years? You’re kidding, You’ve really got some nerve.” Celestia pleaded once again, and this brought a cruel, thin smile to Nightmare Moon’s features. She was begging. The accursed traitor sister was begging. The whole spectacle was just too delicious. “Luna, try to understand me, I could find no other way, I’d do anything, believe me, To go back and change that day.” “Well isn’t this your lucky night? You’ll get your chance to make things right, Like me, you’ll gaze from greater heights, Upon my nightmare world.” “Luna,” Celestia whispered, perfect tears streaming down her cheeks. “Please, this isn’t you. Fight the evil inside you.” Nightmare Moon’s flaming eyes filled Celestia’s vision. The black patch of fur between them seemed to expand and reshape itself in the princess’s mind, the horn on its forehead growing longer and thinner. Now what she saw was a tower, impossibly high and surrounded on all sides for many miles by a sea of red roses, only she was not looking at it from a distance as she had done days before in her dreams, but from a balcony high up on its side. Nightmare Moon walked amid the gathered harriers, its voice sounding almost sorrowful as it continued its wicked song. “Dawn is done, and poor Luna’s finished too, As you’ll see for yourself soon, That no matter how you call to her…” The creature spread its wings wide against the glimmer of the starlit night, and like a mass of black cloud, its feathers seemed to suck in the light and leave only blind oblivion. “There is only Nightmare Moon!” “Please! Just listen, sister, It’s not too late, you’ll see.” “It is for you, the end has come, For now I’ll rule supreme! “The thrill of what I have in store, When darkness reigns forevermore, The joy of vengeance!” Bindle Punk and the harriers joined it in mocking diapason. “Testify!” “You’re no longer welcome!” “Adieu! Adios! Bye-bye!” Its eyes flashed, and the ground beneath Celestia’s hooves began to quake and transform. Thin knives of light burst up from the soil and cut a deep circle just wide enough to contain the princess and the wooden posts to which she was so helplessly bound. Green and blue flames flickered in the gap, and then the section of ground began to rise into the air. “It’s farewell to your kingdom, You’ll see my banner fly, Against the moonlit sky, In my nightmare world!” “Have a nice flight, Tia!” crowed Nightmare Moon. Its horn sparked with magick, and then to a chorus of wild cheers Princess Celestia, chains, posts and all, rocketed into the upper atmosphere, where she disappeared in a tremendous fireball. The explosion was so high up and so bright that it could be seen clearly from all the farthest edges of Equestria. Bindle Punk and her harriers thought it was the most beautiful sight they had ever known. XXX Peacemaker opened his eyes, and was surprised by the distinct lack of sickness in his head. He was lying on his uninjured side under a blanket of large, soft leaves. He tested his right foreleg and found he could move it, but barely. A cursory investigation revealed it to be bound in a sling. Cautiously he stood up. He was in a small, dark room with a curtain of vines obscuring the doorway. He could make out scant light around the edges and hear voices. Familiar ones. He lowered his head and pushed his way through. He was now inside a large room hewn from twisted wood, with a cauldron over a fire in the centre. There were shelves of bottles and jars filled with colourful substances, and strange masks and fragrant bags hung from the walls and ceiling. The ceiling was pitted with many holes like a honeycomb, through which yellowed light shone down from some mysterious source. Like the voices, the aroma coming from the cauldron was oddly intimate to him. Before he knew it, a pair of forelegs wrapped around his neck and pulled him into a hug. “Good to see ya back with us, sugar cube,” said Applejack. “Where are we?” asked Peacemaker. “That’s what we’d like to know.” Jack-a-Nape was walking towards them with Bow Sansy and Spike. Sister Fluttershy crouched almost invisibly behind them, looking around the room distrustfully. Twilight Sparkle was inspecting one of the masks with keen interest and had not seemed to have noticed them. “You’re all alive,” said Peacemaker. “No need to sound so amazed, buddy,” said Jack-a-Nape, chuckling. “No, that’s not what I meant,” Peacemaker protested. “Easy there, P.M.,” said Jackie. “We know. It’s pretty crazy. One second we’re facin’ down the universe’s ugliest dessert pudding, next we’re in this nutty place.” “How are you feeling, honey?” asked Bow Sansy. She took note of the sling around his leg and her face registered concern. That confirmed enough to Peacemaker that none of them had been responsible for his bindings. “A bit sore, but I’ll live,” he said, “although I don’t think I’ll be shooting right-hoofed for a while.” “Poor baby,” Applejack teased, and nudged him in his unhurt side. He smiled wryly at her. “What kind of place do you think this is?” asked Spike. “And where d’ya suppose that light’s comin’ from?” asked Applejack, looking up at the ceiling. “It sure ain’t natural, but I ain’t seen no evidence that this place has a power source. No wall sockets, no wires. Nothin’.” “I’ve no clue how to answer any of those questions,” said Peacemaker, shaking his head. “Whoever owns this place is clearly a follower of magick, and I don’t know one type from the other. Sai Twilight, your thoughts?” Twilight finally seemed to notice them. She looked haggard. Her eyes darted to one side as if the question had caught her off her guard and she had to remember a script, and even when she did she could not look him in the eye. Peacemaker wondered if she had been crying. “This is alchemy,” she said. “Potions, poisons, rare ones at that. Look at the labels on these jars, some of these haven’t been seen in Equestria for hundreds of years. Whoever this place belongs to, I can’t imagine how or where they got so many of them.” “If you wish to know from whence they hail,” a new voice spoke, and they all jumped to attention, “then ask me one day and I’ll tell you their tale. I think first that there are more pressing matters to which we must attend, there is great evil to stop and a land to defend.” The voice was low and sultry, with an exotic accent. With a sound of fluttering fabric, the Manni zebra known as Zecora appeared before them on the far side of the cauldron. “Greetings to you, wandering pony of steel and heat, I had thought it would be longer before our next meet. But necessity beckons as to destroy you dark forces conspire, to remember my promise to you of safety beside my fire.” “I am once more in your debt,” said Peacemaker, and bowed his head to her. Zecora returned the gesture amiably. “You’re the one who saved us?” asked Jack-a-Nape. “Hey, thanks, babe. ’Cause I mean gettin’ eaten by some monster grape jelly stain can really put a damper on your good vibes, dig?” “I dig, and I truly wish the circumstances were more pleasant,” said Zecora, “but we must be done with niceties so we might discuss the present. Ponyville has been lost to an unspeakable blight, and soon this forest too shall feed the Smooze’s appetite.” “The Smooze?” asked Applejack. “The Sam Hay is that supposed to be?” “Once, in a time before time was just a dream,” said Zecora, “the Smooze was born with a primal scream. An ocean of chaos that filled all of creation, in which lived every kind of abomination. Until one day, suddenly out of the deep, entities of light were aroused from their sleep. They constructed a Tower and six Beams to hold it, and from that central point civilisation unfolded. The chaos receded, leaving its denizens stranded, they were forced to adapt to the shores where they had landed. It was from those survivors the first monsters were given birth, always longing to return to that Stygian surf.” “Hang on a sec!” Spike interrupted. “You’re saying that blob’s responsible for every single evil creature in the whole world?” “And what’s all this about a tower?” asked Bow Sansy. “It is said that all things in the end serve the Tower,” said Zecora, “for it turns even the wheel of ka with its power.” “Ka!” Peacemaker and Twilight exclaimed at once. The others gave them odd looks. Jack-a-Nape huffed. “Okay, I got no idea what you’re jabberin’ about, lady, but you seem to know a lot about this thing. So, let me ask you a question. How do we stop it?” “The first time the Smooze was sealed with six Beams, six points of light,” Zecora continued, “so to vanquish it once more, the same six must reunite. You must go with great haste to where the feud of day and night was begun, for only with the elements inside can this battle be won. Hurry now, friends, for the enemy flies, you must reach your goal before our last hope dies.” Peacemaker and Twilight looked at each other. They were sure they knew what the six referred to. The Hexadema, the crown with six gemstones which, according to only the most obscure texts the unicorn had unearthed, were the key to overcoming Nightmare Moon’s evil in the Ritual of Ka-Tet. All that left was the location. Peacemaker recalled the sorceress telling him to come to the place where it had all begun, and here it was again in Zecora’s strange, omniscient rhyme-speak, but he could not guess what it meant. It was the curse of his lack of imagination coming to haunt him all over again. “Castle Everfree,” said Twilight after a moment. “Before she moved her throne to Canterlot, Princess Celestia ruled Equestria from Castle Everfree. The battle with Nightmare Moon reduced it to rubble and it was forgotten.” “I don’t know. Sounds a little hokey to me, T.S.,” said Jackie. “Got any better ideas?” asked Applejack. Jackie grinned sheepishly and looked away. “So where exactly is this Castle Everfree?” asked Bow Sansy. “Where else?” Twilight replied. “At the very heart of the Everfree Forest.” A tense silence fell over the group. Sister Fluttershy whimpered and hid her face behind the curl of her own luxuriant mane. “It’s not like we have a choice,” said Twilight, and turned towards the door at the far end of the room. “Peacemaker and I are definitely going.” “What about me?” asked Spike. “I want you to stay here with Zecora. That is if she doesn’t mind,” said Twilight. Zecora responded with a wordless nod of her head. “If things go wrong and we don’t make it back, I want you to send a letter to my brother in Canterlot. Tell him what’s happened and to put everypony on high alert. Understand?” Spike moved to protest, but Twilight gave him a stern look that brokered no argument. “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Jackie exclaimed, approaching the pair. “You’re not goin’ without me. Look, I may not be from Ponyville originally, but it’s still my home, an’ let me tell you no scum-suckin’ witch’s brew from the dawn a’ time is going to turn it into mulch if I got anythin’ to say about it! Capiche?” “That goes double for me,” said Bow Sansy, flapping her wings as if it emphasised her point. “Ya’ll realise this is likely a suicide mission, right?” Applejack piped up. “Still, if we gotta go down, then I wanna go down swingin’ for the right side!” She looked at Peacemaker, and he saw a courage in her emerald eyes that he adored. Jackie whirled about until he was facing Sister Fluttershy. “What about you, soul sister? You ready to rock an’ roll with the rest of us or what?” “W-well, the thing is,” Fluttershy stammered in a tiny squeak, “I-I’m not sure, but…” Peacemaker limped towards her. “Sister,” he said, “if you do not wish to join the rest of us, we will not force you, but you were brave enough to come to me when I was hurt in the town hall, and I can tell that your faith is strong.” She gnawed her lower lip thoughtfully. “My faith in Lady Oriza is everything,” she said eventually, a little louder but just as meek, “but it means nothing if I can’t use it to help others. Let’s, uh, let’s go.” Peacemaker smiled and bowed to her, and Jackie and Bow Sansy both cheered loudly. That was how their quest started. Zecora led the six ponies out through the front door of her home, and they realised they were already within the shadowy boundaries of the Everfree Forest, and from there they would face the greatest of its myriad trials. Spike waved after them until they disappeared amid the trees and their hoof-beats faded from his hearing. Zecora gravely incanted one final rhyme, and whether the wind carried the words to their ears or not, just as the spinning of the planets is no less real even when it cannot be actually felt, their gravity was not diminished. “I wish you all luck and pray you find the ties, that bind you together in each other’s eyes. Against Nightmare Moon you must all strive together, for if true Harmony goes unfound, then twilight falls forever.”