A Lost Soul Returns: The King of Monsters

by Dark Star the Crazed

The Nightmare Connection.

The elements of harmony, their coltfriends, and husband in Twilight's case, and the shades known as Edge and Muse were sitting in Fang's castle library. At the moment the ponies were taking turns looking in a mirror and repeating the phrase 'I wish to see my shadow.’ Every time somepony said that the image in the mirror twisted into a different pony, one that nopony had seen before. "My turn! My turn!" Pinkie Pie bounced in front of the mirror. "I wish to see my shadow!"

The image in the mirror became a darker shade of pink and the mane of the pink pony in the mirror deflated. Then a sick, twisted grin appeared to the face of the pony in the mirror. All of those who had gathered in the room saw the blood drain from Pinkie Pie’s face. "P-P-Pinkamena..." Pinkie grabbed her head and began to shake. Jekyll ran over and hugged Pinkie, trying to calm his fillyfriend down. He glanced at the mirror and could see himself hugging Pinkamena, only it wasn't him, it was Hyde.

Fang made the mirror disappear and looked at his friends. "Maybe it would be best if we took a break for now..." The others all nodded in agreement and left the castle library.

Celestia was sitting in her bedroom going over requests and propositions made by the nobility. Half of which suggested that she and Luna used Twilight's knowledge to conquer Transylmaneia and execute her big brother. Apparently half of the greedy ponies in the nobility thought that was why Twilight had married Fang. She sighed and looked away from the documents. "Honestly, why does the nobility think Fang is evil? Besides, don't they remember that I already went to war with him once and lost? And do they honestly not know what love is?"

She stood up and went over to her bed, where she had a warm kettle of tea sitting on the marble nightstand. She poured herself a cup and sit down. She glanced toward her closet and looked at the dresses she had obtained and used over the years. They were all sorts of colors, from red to purple and gold to silver... "Wait a second... I don't have a silver dress..." She stood up and walked over to her closet, deep into the back of it, as that is where the silver dress was.

The door slammed closed behind her and a she heard a chuckle. "I didn't think it would be this easy..." Celestia turned her head back towards the silver dress and tried to let out a scream, but was quickly silenced by a shadowy hand. The last thing Celestia saw before she passed out, was a pair of glowing, yellow, eyes.

A sudden pain shot through Luna's head as she walked through the corridors of Canterlot Castle. 'Listen to me Luna! Something has just happened to Celestia!'

Luna scoffed. "How would you know when something bad has happened to my sister? In fact, why would you even care if something happened to her?"

'Because as far as I'm concerned she's my sister too! Anyway, you need to get some help, there's a shade in the castle, and as far as I can tell he is very, very, angry!' Luna sighed. She didn't know why, but she felt as if her alter ego was telling the truth.

"Then what do you suggest I do? Who should I get to help me 'save' Celestia?"

'Duck!'

The blue mare raised an eyebrow. "I should get a duck to help me save my sister?"

'No, I mean DUCK!!!' Luna suddenly felt something hot collide with the back of her head. She was sent sprawling across the floor. Luna could hear the voice in her head facehoof. 'I said duck, you didn't duck.'

"Hmm... This was easier than capturing your sister..." The wizard shade walked over and picked Luna up with a single hand. "Well then, let's get you ready for the ritual, shall we?" Luna looked into the two glowing yellow eyes of the shade and gulped.

Soul, Edge, and Muse suddenly turned and looked at Canterlot. "Um guys? I think there's a shade in Canterlot..."

Fang walked up to Soul and gazed at Canterlot. "Well... There's a chance it might be evil, so we should go and check it out..." Fang glanced back at the elements and their coltfriends. "I suppose you all want to come along?" Every single one of the ponies nodded. "Ok Soul, I'm just going to guess, is it in the castle?" Soul nodded. Fang's horn glowed and the group of sixteen disappeared.

The group blinked as they appeared in Celestia's throne room, only to see Celestia and Luna bound to the walls with chains and a shade sitting on Celestia's throne. "Hmmm... Took you long enough to get here... There are more of you than I expected, but that is of no matter, you will all die just the same." Twilight noticed that the wizard was holding a staff on his right hand, said staff was visibly and violently pulling magic from both Celestia and Luna. "You even brought my traitorous little sister with you." The group was silent and looked at Muse.

"What do you want?" The shade looked at Luna and laughed.

"It's not what I want, it's what King Nox wants. He want's revenge, and I know a certain pony that can help me destroy all of you..." A sick, twisted grin appeared on the shade's face. "Isn't that right Luna? Or Should I call you Nightmare Mo-" The shade was cut off as a tiny black hoof met the side of his head.

"Leave my mommy alone!" Dream landed on the ground in front of the throne and shot a small blast of magic at the shade. The wizard simply raised a hand and swatted the ball of energy away, towards Luna, who screamed in pain when it hit her. The shade looked at Dream and smirked.

"Do you think I'm afraid to hurt fillies and colts? I'm not." The staff in the shade's hand began to glow and he pointed it at the ceiling. "Tempestatem ignis vitae!" Dark clouds of flame began to swirl overhead and started to shoot at the group of ponies. A sharp pain shot through Luna's head.

'No!' Luna looked confused as to why Nightmare seemed so upset about the shade trying to destroy Twilight and her friends. Luna went wide eyed as she saw three giant snakes made of black flames appear and surround the ponies.

'I can't watch, it's going to be like when Striker died all over again!' Luna closed her eyes and waited for the screams of ponies being burned alive, but they never came. She slowly opened her eyes and gasped. The snakes were trying to get to her friends and family, but a dark blue shield was preventing them from doing so. However that wasn't what surprised her, what surprised her was who was casting the shield. Standing there, in a rage that seemed to cause dark black flames to rise from her body, was Nightmare Moon.

"What are you doing Nightmare!? You're supposed to be on my side! By helping them you're betraying your father!" The armor wearing alicorn growled at the shade.

"Do you think I care about that!? Luna is basically my sister and Soul is my brother! I'm not the monster that history makes me out to be! I'm not some insane demon that would kill my own flesh and blood! And my name isn't Nightmare Moon!" The black alicorn closed her eyes. "My name..." Her eyes shot open and the fire snakes were extinguished. "Is Tsukiyomi!!!" The shield fell and she blasted the shade into a window sending him flying over the walls of Canterlot. The chains binding Luna and Celestia to the ground disappeared as their magic was released from the wizard's staff.

"N-Nightmare Moon! I thought that my friends and I destroyed you!" The midnight black alicorn turned and looked at Twilight, who was shaking with fury, and to the surprise of everypony in the room, excluding Fang, who didn't know who she was since he had been imprisoned in stone for five thousand years, she giggled. Twilight and the other ponies in the group blinked at the dark mare. "D-did... Did you just... Giggle...?"

"Um..." Twilight turned and looked at Fang. "Who is she, why did you and your friends try to destroy her, and... Why did she call Soul her brother?" Twilight blinked at her husband and everything was silent. "Ok let me rephrase my question..." Fang cleared his throat and, in a tone louder than even Celestia when she used the royal Canterlot voice, rephrased his question. "WOULD SOMEPONY PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IN THE WIDE WORLD OF TERRUS IS GOING ON HERE!?!?!?"

After the ringing in the ears of the ponies had ended, the others noticed that Muse was circling the black mare, constantly touching her mane, tail, wings and horn, and poking her body. "Umm... Can I help you with something?" Muse stopped and cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry, it's just that your body is fascinating to me... You are probably the first nightmare shade in existence to take the form of an alicorn, and I can barely sense any shade magic on you... You're almost one hundred percent equine..." Everyone turned and looked at Fang when they heard him growl.

"If somepony doesn't tell me what's going on then I will shout again, and this time your ears will bleed!" He then pointed at Nightmare Moon. "And I will send you to the ninth level of Tartarus for confusing me!" Nightmare gulped and looked at Celestia and Luna, who had walked over and sat down with the rest of the group.

"Before all of you decide that I'm evil, remember that I just saved most of your lives... Also... Let me explain my origin, my true origin..." Nightmare followed her request with a laugh that showed she was a little bit worried at the moment, and perhaps a bit shy. Luna blinked, she had never thought that her darker self could be shy.

After getting some confused and distrusting looks from the group, as well as the four eldest beings in said group, Fang, Edge, Soul, and Muse, saying she deserved a chance because she had saved them all, Nightmare began her story.

"My true origin is a complicated one... You all know about how Soul's farther, King Nox Void went insane right?" She received a nod in response. "Well the day that Soul and Fang sealed the shades away in Tenebris, I was just I specter shade at the time. King Nox Void sent me to process Fang and have him kill Soul, but I messed up and entered Luna instead. As a natural plane walker, a being that can travel between the spectral and physical world at will, she was able to subconsciously overwrite my own will and I became trapped within her mind and body. And I have been there since she and Celestia were three years old." The sound of fire crackling caught the attention of the ponies and they turned to see that the wizard shade had returned, and he was furious.

"No one makes a fool of me! I am Oracle! I can see the future and I see that in the future you will all burn alive!" Muse sighed and stood up. "Especially you little sister!" The wizard pointed at the witch.

Muse sighed and looked at the others. "All of you, scream as loud as you can, don't ask why, just do it." The ponies just shrugged and did as the female shade said, only they didn't hear themselves scream, when they opened their eyes they saw that Muse was holding a glowing orb, slowly it shrunk to the size of a marble. She rolled it across the ground toward her big brother, who was standing in front of a window, and smirked. "Bye-bye!"

Before the wizard could mock her spell the marble exploded and he was sent flying into the distance with a loud boom. Sort of like how Shining Armor and Cadence had sent Chrysalis flying at their wedding. Muse turned and saw the shocked faces on the group of ponies, as well as the wing-blade shade known as Edge, who was constantly opening his jaw and closing it, as if he was trying to say something but no words would come out. The witch chuckled and twirled her hand. "Please Nightmare, continue your story..."

"Ok, so where was I? Oh yeah, how I became a nightmare shade. Over the eons my form changed becoming a, well I guess you could call me a 'replica', of Luna herself, but altered, as if she had been born a shade. I know that she was close to Soul because she was the one, besides Fang, he interacted with the most. Overtime I found my thoughts being influenced by Luna's own, and I eventually evolved into a nightmare shade. By then I had figured out what had happened to me over the years. I found that like Queen Crescent, Soul's mother, I had become half pony, half shade. I guess you can say that I basically became Celestia and Luna's triplet sister the day I evolved into a nightmare." The dark mare took a deep breath before continuing.

"When her husband, Night Striker, was killed for the first time, I was shocked when I discovered that Luna's subconscious had put me in control of her body, but her rage and jealousy had clouded my mind, giving birth to the evil being that tried to cast down the sun and bring eternal night. When the Elements of Harmony brought back Luna's own conscious, I was imprisoned within her mind once more, and I have seen what you all have been through these past few years through Luna's eyes. Until earlier today when all of you were being attacked by Oracle, the shade who claims to be Muse's brother, and Luna was bound to the floor... I felt like I couldn't let Luna go through that grief again, it was like when her husband was killed for the first time, but on a much large scale.

"Suddenly I felt a burst of strength and was able to escape her body. After I did so, I blocked the fire snakes with a barrier. I then sent Oracle into the distance freeing both Celestia and Luna in the process. At this point in time I found that I began to think of Luna, Dream, Celestia, and Fang as family as well. And you won't believe this but I'm blood related to Soul. I was created by Void seconds before he sent me to possess Fang. So at the moment, Soul is blood related to Fang, Celestia and Luna. I guess you can say I'm 'reformed' now, but to tell the truth I was never really evil. I was just driven into insanity by Luna's rage and jealousy the first time I got free. Oh, and Celestia, no hard feelings for the whole 'eternal night' thing, I hope..." Nightmare finished with a sheepish smile as she looked at the shocked Goddess of the Sun.

"Well this is a surprise... She's... She's not lying one bit... Not at all..." Applejack just sat there, trying to understand what she had just been told. "She's telling the truth..."

Twilight looked to her side and saw Fang sitting there blinking. "I will accept this explanation and I will not send you Tartarus unless I am given a good reason." Fang saw Twilight giving him a angry glare. "Well... Ok... I'll give her three constrains, if she does anything to try and cause a rebellion and or tries to usurp any throne, I will send her to Tartarus before she can say 'what just happened.'... The second constraint is that she has to live as a normal pony, which means she can only have wings or a horn, not both. Finally, she will have to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, if she is insane I will send her to Tartarus. Is everypony ok with these terms?" Fang gazed at Twilight who, after a minute, smiled and nodded. He gazed at everypony else in the room and saw their smiling faces, including Nightmare's.

Suddenly Spike thought of something. "You’re going to need a new name... You’re not exactly Nightmare Moon anymore..."

"For the love of harmony and the shadows... I will say this one more time... Tsukiyomi... My name is Tsukiyomi. It has been my name since I evolved into a nightmare and it will always be my name... If you can't remember my full name then just call me Tsuki." The alicorn shade sighed.

"Ok what is up with the shades and Neighponese names?" Rainbow looked at the shade with a raised eyebrow.

"Just like Firefly. She asked me the same thing when she helped me send Arabus to Tartarus the first time. Actually... Now that I think about it, you remind me about her a lot with your personality Rainbow..." Soul smiled as he observed his friends behavior

Something about that comment sparked something in Edge's memory. He went wide eyed as he found a memory about a hobby, it was just a fragment of his memory. But he now remembered that he was a genealogist! He researched family trees. Muse caught the look on his face and watched as he zoomed out of the window that she and Tsukiyomi had sent Oracle through, twice, and back to Fang's or more specifically, his castle library, which held a few copies on genealogy books, and soon he was working.

"I don't know about you, but I think that Edge just remembered something from his past." Muse just blinked in confusion as she talked, she knew that wing-blades were fast, but Edge almost moved as fast as Rainbow at that point.

Tsukiyomi blinked and smiled. "Speaking of Firefly... I remember that Starswirl received some letters from you Soul. Apparently you found the Crystal Mirror, the one that Sunset and Twilight went through. That was when Firefly and her friends moved to Equestria, after Arabus and Grogar went into the mirror to cause trouble and the six of them followed you back here after you managed to chase them back into this world. If I remember right... Two of those mares shared the names of Queen Twilight and Applejack here..."

"Well I am named after a mare named Twilight Sparkle, she was the founder of my family's clan after all..." Answered Twilight, who had checked her family records after Trixie had revealed the feud between their families.

"Same here partners. My ancestor was the one who started the apple farms in Equestria... But to think that Soul had a hoof in bringing our clans to Equestria... Why, that means he is an extremely old family friend..." Applejack had thought that Soul's name had sounded familiar the day they met.

"Soul? Are you alright?" Trixie waved a hoof in front of Soul's face, only to get a thousand yard stare in return. She tapped Soul's horn and he tipped onto his side, stiff as a board, and vibrated a bit with a cartoonish sound effect before his body was still. Trixie quickly tried to bring him out of his shocked state.

Pinkie whistled. "Talk about mind blown..."

"Ok, I think that's enough revelations for one day. I'm heading to bed for first time since I was placed in Luna's body, as my own body feels tired. Must have been the thousand years on the moon. Luna slept through it, but I was wide awake the entire time. Luna going to sleep in our fused state kept the body rested, which was why I didn't fall asleep when I got back to Equestria. See you all in about six months! I need to catch up on some of that lost sleep!" Tsuki tried to sink into her shadow.

"Hold on!" Fang grabbed her with his magical aura and lifted her off the floor so she couldn't sink into her shadow. "Three things! First, unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony?"

"Um... Unicorn?" Tsuki felt her wings slowly retract into her back, making her into a normal unicorn pony. "Ok... What's the second thing?"

"Where are you going to stay?"

Tsuki opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by Trixie. "She can stay in the guest room at my house!" Fang and Twilight looked at Trixie with raised eyebrows. "I have a reason! She is a nightmare shade. If my cousin decides to send Nero after me directly then maybe she can talk some sense into him, nightmare to nightmare." Twilight and Fang thought for a second before nodding in approval.

"Ok... Third?"

"Your cutie mark, we need a back story for it..." Tsuki looked at her flank and saw a familiar image, a full moon, complete with the shadow of the Mare in the Moon. She thought for a second before smiling.

"I'm a Selenologist, I study the moon's cycles and the effects it has on the planet." Fang and Twilight smiled and nodded. Fang let her drop the floor before she sank into her shadow.

Everypony then looked at Soul. "I wonder how he's going to take the fact that she is living with you now..." There was a unanimous statement of 'confused as hell.' And with that, the group of sixteen returned home.

Luna just sat in her room for the rest of the afternoon, eye twitching as her brain tried to process what had happened.

Oracle stood from the crater his impact with the ground had made. "Curse you ponies! I will have my vengeance!!!"

"So you hate the ponies as well?" The shade turned around as a saw a strange bug like creature with emerald green eyes. "Perhaps we can work together to get our revenge on the ponies of Equestria... My name is Chrysalis... What is yours shadow creature?"

Oracle was about to blast the strange beast with a ball of fire, until he saw something behind her, it looked like a legion of more creatures like her, albeit smaller than her, but still. A twisted grin appeared on the wizard's face. "My name... Is Oracle..."