//------------------------------// // Distance Makes the Heart... // Story: Hold Your Color // by Quillery //------------------------------// Hold Your Color by Quillery Suggestions, Editing and Pre-Reading by : Siyray, Willsons, Izraill Z, BabySkittleMonster, Legion222, Dreamshadow, edensbane, amacita Chapter Nineteen Distance Makes the Heart... Dash wheezed as she returned to her senses. Groans surrounded her as her friends lay prostrate beside her. They were back in the archives, fragments of old books and torn paper scattered around them. The scrivener’s tome lay shut on the ground beside her. The ancient runes had gone dark, laying inert and useless once again. Dash looked for Luna. Her form had returned to its ethereal image. Her face was a mix of multiple broken emotions. Confusion, fear, turmoil and more raged on her face as she stared into nothing. Her eyes twitched as if she were looking at millions of different things at once all of them conflicting, disjoined, unwhole. “Princess?” Dash said. “Are you alright?” Luna didn’t respond. Her lips trembled as she muttered something unintelligible that sung from her illusory form. “Luna!” she shouted. The princess turned, bearing the weight of her gaze on Dash. She recoiled a moment, stunned at the sudden intensity of her eyes, before Luna blinked. Her expression softened, and lucidity returned to her face. “I…” Luna tried. “I cannot believe this.” “Luna?” “It is so vivid upon my mind now. Clear in my memory, as if I had only just witnessed it days ago.” Dash frowned. “But you just watched it now.” Luna shot her a serious glare. “You know what I mean, Rainbow Dash.” Dash shook her head. “No, I don’t. How did you forget something like that, especially if you were there? Even Celestia didn’t remember.” “Because… Nocturne made us forget…” Dash blinked. “How?” Luna sighed and slumped her head. “Because Nocturne was our prized student. Back during a time when both Celestia and I would share a protege, teaching them all the splendor we had to offer. After Starswirl, she was our next best student. We believed great things for her future. She was so intelligent, so wise at such a young age.” Luna shuddered. “When she found love in Sombra, myself and my sister were so proud of her. We believed the Crystal Empire would enter a new age of prosperity and harmony under their rule. We were right… for a time.” Luna wandered over to the still form of the late scrivener. “When we received the scrivener’s summons, we didn’t want to believe it. Dark power was rising in the north, but we didn’t want to face it.” She looked to Dash. “But we had to.” “That still doesn’t explain how you both forgot everything about her.” “Because her physical existence was destroyed. Everything that tangibly tied her to this world was severed when Sombra attempted to consume her. We believed her dead. It was only because of my intervention that she survived at all.” Luna lifted her hoof and stared at it. It trembled as if it was something that needed to be cut off, and Luna’s expression signified that she was strongly considering doing so. “But… she was vaporised! How can you say that she survived!?” “I said her physical tethers were destroyed. Her mind remained, and from the moment I touched her in an effort to save her… her soul attempted to join with mine.” Luna closed her eyes as a painful sorrow dredged in her voice. “Nocturne is the Nightmare, and I was her first victim.” “That… no. That can’t be it!” “There is no alternative!” Luna shouted. “It was not long after the disappearance of the Crystal Empire that I could feel her malice seeping into my veins. My very being was saturated with her evil, and forced me to turn against my very own sister and I was too blind to see it. Even when her evil was purged from me three years ago, she was wise enough to take the last remnants of my my memories of her. This is the only reason I can think of why I nearly lost myself moments ago.” Luna shook her head. “A vide histoire curse. How could I have been so foolish?” Dash scratched her head digging up snippets of prancy that Twilight had tried to teach her. “An empty history? What does that mean?” “Blank would be a more accurate translation. A vide histoire purges the collective memory of a specific event from history. If the history is recalled, it is meant to cause intense rage in those affected to deflect the possibility of uncovering the truth, unless you are presented with proof.” Dash placed a hoof on her chin. “When I showed you the journal…” Luna nodded and released a long, harrowing sigh. “And now, Nocturne has returned to power, intent on reviving her late husband in another mad bid for power. Like she did long ago.” “Well, we know her plans now! Right? We know what she’s doing and how she’s going to do it. We just gotta find her and stop her!” “That is easier said than done, Rainbow Dash. Our enemy may be revealed, but we have learned nothing of her whereabouts, nor the location of the Prism.” Dash glanced around the room. So engrossed in her conversation with Luna, they had not noticed that Shining Armor and the rest were staring at them, wide eyed and unblinking. Shining Armor gulped as he approached Luna. “Princess, are you certain that is the Ni—Nocturne’s— intention?” He glanced at the room around him. “This place, these ponies. They barely survived his first return. A revival… would shatter the Crystal Empire.” Luna regarded Shining Armor sternly. “I am afraid that it is the possibility we face, Captain.” She shook her head. “But I assure you, it will not be only the Crystal Empire that will suffer his wrath. With his lady love at his side, with the new and terrible power she commands, they will be a force we may not be able to face.” “How can you say that!?” Dash shouted. “We’ve kicked their flanks both like it was nothing!” Luna cast a serious glare in her direction. “Because you and your friends faced each of them separately, and neither of them were at their full potential. Together, and now with mastery of their powers, I fear what fate lies ahead, especially with the Prism in their grasp. My sister drifts further into Nocturne’s curse, and our enemies gather at the gates…” She sighed. Luna’s eyes found Dash’s. “We only have the advantage of knowledge. We know our enemies and their intentions. We must make a move with that, and hope that it is enough.” Luna’s posture stiffened. “Rainbow Dash. You and Twilight Sparkle are to return to Canterlot immediately. Bring the scrivener’s tome with you, and we shall discuss our next move.” Dash nodded. “Got it. I’ll get Twi and we’ll head back right—” Dash’s body shuddered as a sudden, chilling wind crept over her. She turned her head, and saw that she wasn’t the only one. Luna’s image raised an eyebrow. “What is the matter?” Dash shrugged. “N-nothing. Just a freak breeze. Somepony’s probably got a window open up here somewhere.” Shining Armor frowned. “There aren’t any windows this high in the tower. It would be kinda hard to keep the books safe if any pegasus could just fly in.” “But then how—” Dash’s body went still, as the chill feeling in her body sparked a thought, one of the worst possibility. “No….” “Rain...ow…ash….” Luna’s image said in broken words. Dash spun to face it, and saw that Luna’s projection was flickering from view. The sliver light of the moon that filtered in from the glassy walls was being cut off by a shrouding darkness from outside. The cold feeling worsened as her Dash's skin crawled. Luna’s words died into severed fragments and then the image dissipated entirely. “Princess Luna!” Shining Armor shouted, turning to Dash. “What’s going on?” Dash turned to him with a haunted expression. “She’s here…” Her eyes fell on the shelves behind them towards the door. A dark, brooding gloom was drifting in, darkening the candles and moon from outside. Shining turned. “Who’s here? What are you—” He blinked, horror creeping onto his face. “How…?” Dash bolted for the door. “We’ve gotta get downstairs. Now!” She sped down the winding staircase with everything she had. If it weren't for the tight spaces of the tower, she would certainly have taken to the air, but the Crystal Empire was not made for pegasi in mind. The limiting of her speed only drove her worry harder, as every second she wasted was more time she wouldn’t get back to Twilight in time. The cold gloom worsened the further she went. Her legs struggled to fight off the pervasive chill that seeped into her skin and bones. She pushed her senses to their limit, reaching out her hearing. Her heart dropped as the sound of screaming and panic seeped in through the walls into her ears. She silently wished she had been horribly wrong, but her luck in such prayers had dwindled to nothing in the past few days. Her hooves were clattering unsteadily as she burst through the last door of the tower. She raced through the still open portcullis at the base of the archive tower. The guards were absent from their posts, and the screaming echoed from below. Dash reached the edge of the balcony and looked down. Her breath caught in her throat. A black, seeping miasma had invaded the lower floors of the library. Crystal ponies and guards alike were fleeing from the encroaching darkness as its chilling touch wracked through the chamber. Blazing beams of bright azure cut through the wave of darkness, pushing it back from whatever hellish pit that had spawned it. A second presence swiftly joined Dash on the balcony edge, panting. “Cadence!” Shining Armor shouted. He lingered only a moment longer before he sped to the next set of stairs down. Dash searched for another display of magic, one that would have belonged to Twilight. She never did and her heart sank further. Without a second for reason, she hurled herself over the balcony and dove into the lower floors. The biting cold nipped at her skin as she plummeted through the icy air to the bottom of the palace. The screams grew louder as well as the deep rumbling of the tower itself as the dark cloud seeped into every crevice. Dash braked only meters above the dark shape on the floor. Shelves and books were scattered everywhere, slowly being consumed by the shadows. Lancing pink light cut through them, filling the room with loud shrieks and wails. Princess Cadence stood on top of one of the shelves, surrounded by a barrier of magic as she launched projectiles at the invader of her kingdom. The dark muck boiled and raged in response to her attacks and grew larger with every strike. Cadence grit her teeth and bolstered her strikes, but they only continued to enrage the beast. A blazing shot of magenta struck the monster. It shrugged back as Shining Armor leapt from the staircase and joined his wife, adding his magic to her own. Their barrier grew and increased their influence. The shadows retreated from its presence, giving them a moment to breathe. Dash hovered over to Cadence. It didn’t take long for her to lean her weight into her husband her face flush with exhaustion. Sweat streamed from her face and her breaths were ragged. “It… it just came from nowhere. The cold… the darkness. It’s so powerful.” “Don’t worry, Cadence. I’m here. We’ll beat it back.” Cadence nodded weakly and pressed herself against Shining Armor, on the brink of passing out. Dash buzzed closer. “Where’s Twilight!?” she said in alarm. “Where are my friends?!” Cadence struggled to lift her head back up. Her eyes instead fell onto the great mass of shadows roiling only a short distance away. A powerful, chilling laugh echoed throughout the chamber. The shadows circled and merged together into a single, imposing shape. Like a giant towering over the entire floor, a pony face peered down on Dash and the rest. Eyes like the night sky stared in delight at them, all the while cackling behind pointed teeth. “There you are, precious host,” The Nightmare said. “I’ve been looking for you.” Dash girded herself before the loud, deafening voice that bellowed above her. “What did you do with my friends?!” she demanded. The Nightmare chuckled coldly. “Oh? You mean these little baubles I’ve collected?” The Nightmare’s form blurred as her dark tendrils of shadow returned. They crawled from her body, four in all and danced in the air. Like a ball of yarn, they uncoiled themselves, revealing Dash’s friends. They were all unconscious, slumped limply in the Nightmare’s grasp. Dash’s heart screamed. “Let them go!” The Nightmare leaned down, her massive shape looming directly above Dash. “Oh, but that is not how the game is played, little one. You do as I command, not the other way. Such is the law of a queen.” “You’re no queen to me, Nocturne. Now let them go!” The Nightmare blinked. Her smile widened. “My! You have been busy. I was wondering when the world would realize their true queen had returned. It will make my return so much easier without have to reeducated the pathetic masses.” Dash grit her teeth and lowered her head dangerously. “That’s not going to happen! I kicked your flank to the curb before, I’ll do it again. Now I’ll tell you one last time. Let. Them. Go!” The Nightmare flicked back her head. Her tendrils moved, dragging the still forms of Twilight and the others in between her and Dash. “Oh? But which ones? They all look so important to you.” “All of them!” The Nightmare waggled her hoof. “Tut tut, little host. My mercy has its limits. You don’t think I’d let you win that easily, did you? Perhaps a choice? Yes. Choice. Two to keep, two to lose. Dash’s face fell into a sneer as she lifted her hoof. A fifth tendril snapped out and struck her, sending a jolt of pain through her leg. The Nightmare guffawed. “Ah, ah! I didn’t say you could make the choice. Now, let us see whom is most important to you of all.” The Nightmare first presented Khroma, bound and tied by shadowy coils. His head wavered as he struggled to regain consciousness as he bobbed in front of Dash. “Such a strong and handsome fellow, this one. And a lovely mane, just like yours.” She laughed. “Almost like yours. Oh well, like father, like daughter?” The coils tightened around him. He wheezed as a strained breath forced itself out of his lips. Dash reached out to her dad, biting at her lip. The Nightmare hummed as she withdrew Khroma and replaced him with Aurora. “Oh, how about this one, dear?” The Nightmare crooned. “She was the fiercest of all. Clearly she must be worth something to you?” Dash’s snouted trembled in rage as she stared at her aunt helplessly. Aurora groaned under the Nightmare’s grip. “This one must be important to you, musn’t she?” the Nightmare said. She placed her face directly beside Aurora’s while sporting a condescending pout on her shadowy lips. “Coat black as the night, but eyes of fire, just like yours. She reminds me of myself once upon a time.” Again, the Nightmare’s twisted gallery was changed. Third in line was Ditzy. A fresh wound in her forehead oozed blood over her eyes, which only fueled Dash’s inner anger as she watched uselessly at the Nightmare’s games, her friend’s lives in the balance. “This one put up an admirable display of courage and skill. I am truly surprised at her tenacity, despite her disability.” She hummed a single, chilling note. “Considering such an abomination would likely be executed for her differences back then, she should consider herself lucky in this age, long as it lasts.” Dash could barely keep herself from trembling in rage at the words that spewed from the Nightmare’s mouth, dripping with evil. Her friends, her family were being held in front of her, just at leg’s reach and she could do nothing to help them. Dash’s resolve nearly shriveled and died on her lips as Nocturne finally presented Twilight before her. Her mane was hanging loosely from her head, frayed and worn. Her face was covered in scratches and blood. She whimpered loudly in a comatose wail as the Nightmare squeezed her grip, cackling. “Stop it!” Dash screamed, tears beading at her eyes. “Stop hurting her you monster! What do you want from me!?” The Nightmare paused and slowly smiled. “Nothing… my dear. You’ve already given me so much.” She lifted Twilight and Ditzy away out of Dash’s reach. The shadows holding them tightened further and shrouded them again within the Nightmare’s influence. “Clearly, your feelings for these two is strongest of all.” She lowered Khroma and Aurora, discarding them at Dash’s hooves. Dash glanced at her dad and aunt in shock. Her tears flowed freely as she snapped her head back to the Nightmare. “Wait! Give Twilight back!” The Nightmare began to retreat, her ethereal form fading into the walls and out of sight. “Oh, come now,” she said, chuckling. “I cannot do that. The game would be over far too quick. Just keep from nosing around a while longer, and I might see fit to release your precious princess in time.” Just before the Nightmare faded behind the wall, Dash tore into the air after her. The tears flew from her eyes as she charged, leg propped out like a lance directly at the Nightmare’s face. “Don’t you take her!” she screamed. The last visage of the Nightmare evaporated into the crystal wall. Just like that, the shadows that had invaded the Crystal Empire had vanished just as they had appeared, quick, without mercy, and leaving no trace behind. Her last parting gift was burned into Dash’s mind as she collided with the wall and started beating against it with all her might. The Nightmare’s cruel grin seared her vision, as it blurred into tears and cries. “TWILIGHT!” But it was too late. Twilight was gone.