//------------------------------// // You Can't Run in a Nightmare // Story: No Elements, No Harmony // by Fret //------------------------------// Cadance was lazily rummaging through a drawer. Her frequent trips to and from the Crystal Empire left her feeling fatigued, simply adding to her exhaustion from her extra duties. Never mind all the work she still had to do. If that wasn’t enough, she still needed to reassure the ponies that were beginning to seriously worry about the disappearance of the three other princesses. It occurred to her that she could share what really happened, but she doubted it would help. Also, why exactly was she invading Luna’s drawer? This isn’t her personal drawer, from what I can tell, she justified. Besides, she wasn’t reading anything written on the papers. She hit the back of the drawer with a ‘thump’, feeling the hard surface against her hoof. Wait… no, it was too small to be the back… Cadance shuffled her hoof around the supposed object - confirming that it wasn’t part of the drawer itself. Soon enough, she lifted it out of the drawer with her magic. She looked at it, seeing it was a notepad, and a thin one at that. Her magenta eyes narrowed at it, until curiosity got the best out of her. She flipped open the front cover, revealing a paragraph of writing. She tilted her head to the side, finding that she was already scanning her eyes over the page. Dearest sister, It is unlikely you should uncover this, but for the sole reason that I will not e’er show it to you. This letter is a more private side of us Sister… and should you find these please do not become alarmed. Suffice to say, We are bored. That is what the ponies say… correct? Anyhow, as we were saying, there are, at times, things that trouble us. While 'tis true I've returned to Equestria, I am unsure what is to come of this. There may be a possibility that I return to my old ways, or that the current citizens of Equestria may choose to reject us for the current pony we are now. And the most important question I must ask... are you mad at me? How did thou cope for these many years, all alone? We know it must've been hard to watch over thine citizens of Equestria in this way. This even applies to the fact you may have made some acquaintances along the way, for those acquaintances would be long gone as of now. We are rather unsure how to end this letter... perhaps I'll end it with one simple word: sorry. Plus, I admire you for still standing after a millennium of hurt. With that in mind, we are willing to accept any anger you may have towards us. -Luna P.S Don’t be mad at yourself. For any of it. Cadance slammed the notebook shut. Stop nosing through your aunt’s things, Cadance! she scolded herself, before placing the book back into the drawer. She then found herself left alone in the middle of Luna’s room, with nothing else to entertain herself. “...How long is this going to last?” she sighed. "I don't think I can take the role of Princess of all of Equestria much longer..." --- Twilight continued to stare at Discord for a few more moments, before tearing her gaze away and turning her back on him. She stared at the ground, her mane trying its best to cover her face. If it was longer, it would. “No… you’re wrong, Discord!” she growled. “Celestia and Solar Flare took different paths! I don’t care if you think they’re one in the same, because you’re wrong!” Luna watched as she trotted over to her friends, who all shared a similar expression - confusion. Twilight sighed, before lifting her head up. “I’m sorry I’ve dragged all of you into this… you could call this my life once every two weeks…” she forced that joke out, trying to lighten up the mood, but not even she could give so much as a chuckle. “I-it’s fine, sugarcube. Besides…” Applejack glanced to her left, then her right. “...We’re the ones who dragged ourselves into this… err… situation.” “Really? I’d say we only have to take twenty percent of the blame…” Rainbow Dash muttered under her breath, only to earn a slap on the shoulder by Applejack. “Ow.” “Either way,” Twilight continued, “I don’t think it matters whether Solar Flare is-” “Okay, I hate to interrupt, but can I just point out something?” Luna suddenly spoke, quite loudly at that. Each pony (and draconequus, or dragon. Maybe.) turned to look at her. “What?” Twilight blinked. “We are not running,” she replied. “Yeah… we know,” the younger mare grunted, pointing a hoof at the two queens standing next to Luna. “We don’t really have a choice, do we?” “Not if we’re following their rules,” Rainbow Dash sighed, slowly beginning to fly a few steps in front of Twilight. Both Twilight and her friends looked confused to what Rainbow was trying to do. “But here’s the thing,” she continued, a slight smirk appearing on her face. Then, she dashed forward until she was only a couple of inches away from the queen’s faces. “We’re not following them anymore!” With that, Rainbow swung both her front hooves up so that they would collide with the queen’s lower jaw. “Gah!” Nightmare gasped, holding her jaw with her hoof. Luna snickered to herself as she began to sneak away towards the castle, while also keeping an eye on the six other mares fled away from the two tyrants. Once they were far enough to be safe, Luna attempted to break into a gallop, yet to no avail. It was only a few seconds before she tripped over her own hooves. “Ugh…” She tried to lift herself up once again, only to feel a weight pressing her down against the ground. Luna almost choked on her own breath as her lungs felt like they were being crushed under - she could only guess - Nightmare Moon pushing her down. “Why you little…” the larger alicorn bared her fangs, glaring down at her counterpart. Luna managed to turn her head enough to look up at the queen. “Are you going to let me go?” Luna raised a brow. “What do you think?” Nightmare snorted in reply. The smaller mare grunted as she used as much strength as she could muster to throw the huge weight off of her back. However, instead of making a run for her sister in the castle, she swung her whole body around and faced the mare. She refused to let her have any advantage over her (aside from the fact that Nightmare still had her three physical abilities; magic, strength and flight). Luna stood her ground, getting ready for Nightmare to pounce on her again. The black alicorn had already got back into balance, and the two ended up piercing both of their gazes towards each other. Despite their differences, they both ignored Discord’s statement. “Welp, this is gonna end well.” Neither of them took any notice of the draconequus, and instead, Nightmare attempted to tackle her counterpart - darting forward towards her. Luna managed to stumble to the left out of harm’s way, however she was immediately met with the unwelcoming feeling of a sharp pain on her side. She yelp as she toppled onto her side, glancing at the burn which still faintly glowed blue - a colour which matched Nightmare’s magic aura. Before Luna could pull herself off of the dried floor, the queen finally succeeded in tackling her, causing the two to begin rolling as the two tried to claim dominance over the other. “Give in!” “No, you give in!” “Oh, great comeback, Little Miss Perfect!” Out of rage, Luna managed to swipe her hoof over Nightmare’s head; her original attention to knock her helmet off of her head. And while she did succeed in doing so - her head gear landing onto the dried up floor with a clang, she also ended up throwing the alicorn onto the ground along with it, since Luna had grappled her hoof over her horn. Nightmare Moon let out a groan of pain, rubbing her head - or rather, her horn. Luna saw that, even though the rest of her mane was formless, she still kept the same styled forelock that she herself had. “They always go for the horn, don’t they?” the black mare muttered. “Give up yet?” Luna sneered. Her counterpart gave a disbelieving snort. “As if.” Blue once again sparked from her horn, despite the noticeable strain to do so. Her fangs were more than clear, and Luna just had to wonder how she kept them so white after all of this time. That thought merely last a fraction of a second, however, for Nightmare’s eyes were beginning to glow a piercing white. Luna flattened her ears against her head, stepping backwards, only to find herself right on the edge of the crumbling cliff. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure she was indeed about to fall, then back at her counterpart. All she hoped for right now was that the cliff didn’t give way if she dared to yank herself off the ground. “You need to be taught a lesson, little filly!” Nightmare Moon hissed, her horn looking loaded enough. Luna knew what was to come next if she stayed in the same place. She tried to drag herself away from the edge of the cliff, only to feel the fragile ground beneath her begin to give way as her weight shifted. Curses… she thought to herself. She squeezed her eyes shut, getting ready for either being blasted off of the cliff, shot in the chest, the cliff to give way, or maybe even- “Sister!” She opened one eye - and slowly at that. She saw Nightmare turn her head to where the voice had come from. Once Luna saw nothing was to happen to her, she quickly crawled away from the cliff’s edge, cringing at the sound of some of the ground crumbling off the edge and fall to the bottom, but also sighed in relief. She tried to sneak towards the bridge, only to be dragged back by the tail with Nightmare’s magic. She muttered insults under her breath in annoyance. “I’m still not done with you,” the queen muttered to her. Luna snorted dust she had picked up from the ground into her face in reply. The alicorn blinked the particles out of her eyes in an irritated manner, then raised her head towards Solar Flare, who was hovering in front of Spike, who held five certain ponies in his mouth by their tails. “Ugh… I’m already dizzy,” Rarity complained. “We’ve been like this for about two minutes,” Rainbow scoffed at the unicorn. “...Still.” While the five mares perceived to bicker about their current position, Nightmare wished to do nothing but smirk. “These ponies make it too easy!” She cackled, though her grin soon faded. “I’d ask dear Princess Twilight why she chose such a poor choice in heroes, yet she doesn’t seem to be here…” Her eyes narrowed at her sibling - her pupil slits seemingly piercing through her. Solar gave an uncertain look at first, but soon shook her comment off and returned to her usual expression - that being a complete grump. “She can’t have gone far - I doubt she’d abandon her oh-so-useful friends.” “Y’all wanna repeat that?” Applejack growled through gritted teeth. Solar glanced at her - both brows raised accompanied with a pout, before the dragon holding them tossed the five mares into the air to flip them upwards. They all tended to yell or scream in surprise until they were all caught in Spike’s claw. “Now - what did that princess call you? Spike?” She scorned at the name. “Well, Spike, you keep hold of them while I go look for your would-be mommy.” With that, she flew down the ground, then began to look around. “Erm… one question?” She glared at Nightmare. “What?” “Where’s Discord?” She tilted her head. Nightmare blinked, her pupils moving to her left, then right. “I… got distracted.” Solar gave an annoyed snort through her nostrils, along with slumping her shoulders. “Great. Now we’ve lost him again because of you two and your little catfight.” “HEY!” “IT WAS NOT A CATFIGHT!” Nightmare Moon hissed through her fangs, now bared.. “Uh-huh. Sure,” Solar rolled her white pupils. “Either way, I can only guess we’re throwing them in the dungeon?” She turned to her sister. “Just making sure, considering I don’t know how long it will take to find Twilight and the other one.” “Until we can find a reasonable punishment for each of them, that will be so,” she nodded, a smirk appearing on her face. “Punishment for what?” Rainbow Dash screeched from above. “Trying to save Equestria?” “Well… yes,” Nightmare Moon replied flatly. “For Pete’s sake…” the pegasus muttered, quite loudly at that. “Who’s Pete?” Pinkamena raised a brow, though it was as if she was talking to a brick wall. Rainbow snorted her annoyance, “I don’t see why it even matters.” She stared down towards the floor. “Good luck getting us all in those dungeons! What do you plan doing? Getting the dragon to lift up the roof so he can drop us all in there at once?” “...I have my magic,” Solar replied, her hoof now tapping the ground impatiently. “Have fun escaping that.” Rarity then leaned over to Rainbow Dash and whispered something in her ear. “Wait… do you know a lock-picking spell?” Rainbow said a little louder than she should have. “Ssh!” Rarity scolded, slapping her hoof on the pegasus’ mouth. “Don’t even think about it,” Nightmare told them dryly, using her magic to pull Luna over by her chain, making her gasp, since the action was unexpected. “We still have these.” She held up the cuffs connecting her hooves together. “Knowing you, I would’ve thought you’d just kill them,” Luna couldn’t help but mutter under her breath. Nightmare Moon flickered her ear, having heard her words. She glared at her, then whispered, “Do you think that I’m nothing more than a monster?” The smaller mare nodded, keeping a smug expression. She waited for a harsh retort to answer her, but instead, the queen’s lids drooped a little as she looked at the dried grass, her brows also raised, before slowly lifting her head back up to look at the six mares. Luna tilted her head and scrunched up her muzzle at the unexpected reaction. Nightmare then leaned over to her sister’s ear to whisper something. Solar jerked her head away from Twilight’s friends and blinked a few times, before nodding, and looking back at the struggling ponies. “Where did Discord run off to?” she asked them with a calm tone. They all glanced at each other for answers, yet not finding any. “No clue,” Applejack replied. “Then where’s Twilight?” “...We don’t know,” Fluttershy whimpered. Nightmare scoffed at this. “You have to know. She can’t have just abandoned you.” Applejack rolled her eyes. “We’re not saying she did. We were just scattered when running from this guy,” she pointed to the dragon, who snorted a cloud of smoke on them as a response, causing them all to cough and sputter as soon as the black cloud faded from them. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Discord did, though,” she cocked her head up to the dragon. “Perhaps you know what direction they went in?” His slit pupils moved towards the Everfree Forest, then he sniffed through his nose. He then looked back at the queen and let out a growl, while pointing in a specific direction with his tail. “Why don’t you just go look for them yourself?” Rainbow Dash scowled. Fluttershy gasped at her tone towards the queen. However, Solar remained unfazed. “Well, I was going to, but why put effort into something that someone else has already done for me?” She gave a casual shrug. Rainbow’s eye twitched. Though she could do no more than shuffle her wings, her two front hooves were free, and was proven when she threw them up in the air. “You’re both worthless! You’re not rulers! This would be the point where I’d say, ‘you might as well kill me now,’ except I’m not, because being killed by either one of you would be the most dumbest way to die yet!” While Nightmare did not react, Solar gasped at her words. She spread her wings so that she could fly up to the pegasus’ level. “Oh, is that so? Such a way to talk to your fellow ponies that have died in our hooves, is it not?” she snarled, the flares that endlessly flowed from the corners of her eyes picking up in speed again. Luna also heard that her voice was beginning to sound distorted, similar to a changeling’s. “I was going to keep you alive anyway, but maybe it’s a better punishment to crush you with the dragon’s teeth, if that’s what you find to be the worst punishment!” Rainbow Dash fluttered her eyelids, before bursting out with laughter. Solar curled her lips, as well as raising a brow. Soon enough, Rainbow wiped a tear from her eye and caught her breath, despite her friends seemingly shaking at her words being said to the queen. “Oh, I don’t mean that! Being killed by a dragon would be the awesome way to go.” “Rainbow!” Rarity gasped in disgust. “Hey, dragons are cool, at least!” Rainbow shrugged. “No, what I mean, Queen,” she leaned forward as far as she could over the large finger holding her back. “Is you killing me. As in, with your horn, your hooves. Whatever method you use, I really don’t give a flying feather!” The fiery mare flinched her head back, followed by the rest of her body. As all of this happened, Luna couldn’t help but notice a smirk appearing on her own lips. I’d like to see you try, Celie! Rainbow pouted, tapping her hoof impatiently on the purple scales. “Well? I’m waiting!” Solar flattened her ears against her skull, before shaking her head and returning to her firm expression. “I’m not insane. I’m not just going to kill you on the spot.” “So called it,” the blue mare gave a simper. A growl was heard from the queen’s throat, before she flew away from them, towards the Everfree Forest, glancing around for any evidence of a draconequus. Luna couldn’t care less about Discord’s safety, and instead turned back to Nightmare Moon. Perhaps I can get more information about Solar Flare from her…? “You’ve been awfully silent,” she taunted. Her counterpart just flickered her ear once again. Luna stood up on all fours so that she could get closer to her ears. “Reminder; you haven’t put your helmet back on.” The cat-like eyes widened a little. “...Oh, right,” she said to mostly herself, levitating the helmet that was still on the grass, then settling it on her head, ignoring the few pieces of grass that had stuck to it. Luna groaned, “I didn’t want you to put it back on!” She then swiped it back off of her head again, to the mare’s annoyance. “Then why’d you remind me, imbecile?” “I’m just curious,” she lowered her voice, “why do you wear armor, while your sister wears simple regalia?” Nightmare Moon gave her a curious look. “Why’s that so important?” “Just answer the question.” “Make me.” Luna growled in frustration. Solar’s regalia was hard to make out, with her flaming illusion for a mane blowing everywhere, but Luna had come to recognize her with a reverse of her sister’s regalia; her crown, yoke and shoes all a mixture of dark maroon and purple and an orange gem placed in the center of her crown and breastplate. At first glance, Luna had thought that the regal attire was simply a part of Solar, it blended into her volcanic feel. Hm… now that I think about it… I feel like I’ve seen Solar Flare before… she mused in her head. But where? In a dream? I just can’t put my hoof on it… perhaps it was in my fillyho- She was broken from her thoughts when she heard a familiar voice in the distance. “Run!” --- Twilight broke free of the branches scratching and tugging at her coat, escaping her hiding place. Discord climbed down from the tree he was hiding in. “Run!” she yelled, seeing Solar Flare’s figure drawing closer to them. While Discord did follow her, he still moaned, “I don’t see the point in running. She’ll catch up to us, anyway!” “There has to be somewhere else where we can hide in this forest, right?” she half answered his question. “Twilight, it doesn’t matter! She’s already coming!” The alicorn glared back at him. “Don’t say that! We’re getting those chains off of you, and that’s final!” “You can’t!” “I can!” “If I’ve never figured out anything, how can you?” Twilight swallowed her frustration as she began to gallop faster. “Why do you have to be such a pain?” she grumbled under her breath. She then glanced back to see if Discord had reacted to her statement, and she was thankful that he had not seemed to. She then drew her attention to what was ahead of her, continuing to flee from the queen. However, her next step did not reach the ground, instead she found her hoof waving in midair. She ended up being hung upside down by her tail, seeing that Solar had already caught up to her. “Nice try, my little pony!” she sneered. Twilight blinked a few times, before attempting to teleport away again, but Solar’s mane wrapped its orange tresses around her horn before any aura could spark from it. Her ears drooped in disappointment at first, but then she yelped. “OW!” “What?” Solar tilted her head. “Your mane! It’s… hot!” “Mhmm.” “How does that make any sense?” she groaned. “Magic,” the queen replied, before holding up Discord along with her, also by his tail. “You’re both coming with me,” her eyes narrowed, before dragging them along with her, also keeping them in front of her. With Solar’s questionable mane having taken hold of her, Twilight sighed in defeat, while Discord just folded his arms and pouted, as if he were a child being dragged to his room. Twilight twisted her neck around to see her friends in Spike’s hand and Luna sitting beside Nightmare Moon, then managed to lean over closer to Discord’s ear and rasp, “Do you still think she’s like Celestia?” Discord just gave a snort, “Do you think that she’s like Solar Flare?” She blinked, then opened her mouth to reply, only to shut it again. Never mind that, Twilight. Think, think! How do I help my friends escape without anypony getting hurt? She tapped her chin with her hoof. Running’s no use. Those chains just cause problems. Can’t hide from Spike. What else is there? For some odd reason, seeing Solar Flare gave her a final idea that she hadn’t yet used. Well… it’s what I do best. --- “Well, that didn’t take long,” Nightmare Moon chuckled as Solar approached them with Discord and Twilight in her grip. Luna cringed a little, not being able to help herself as she glanced up at Twilight’s friends stopping their struggling to look at their friend - some with fear, the others with disappointment. “Well, now that we’ve gotten you all gathered, it seems there is no chance of escape,” Solar Flare sneered as she dropped the mare and draconequus, while still keeping her mane wrapped around Twilight’s horn, which made Luna a little curious to why; though she could figure it had something to do with disabling her magic. Twilight snorted at the queen’s statement, “Wow, what are you gonna do? Stand by me for the rest of my life with your mane wrapped around my horn?” “Really? Her mane is what’s stopping you?” Rainbow called from above. “Hey, you try using your wings while they feel like they’re burning!” Twilight retorted. “Oh, hush. You’ll have enough time to chat in the dungeon,” Nightmare silenced them, taking a step forward. “And y’all really think you can keep us in there forever?” Applejack scoffed, a brow raised. “Well, no. This is just your current punishment for each of your betrayals,” Nightmare Moon stated. “That excludes your pretty princesses, by the way. They’re as good as dead.” “Oh, so you expect us not to fight back while you feed us to a dragon?” Twilight scoffed. “Of course I do. Who wouldn’t?” the black mare chuckled. “What even is there to gain from feeding us to your…” she visibly gulped, “...pet.” Luna planted a hoof on her face. This is no time for a lecture, Twilight! Nightmare, however, just stifled her laughter. As she did, Twilight raised a brow. “What?” The lavender mare tilted her head. “Oh, you think we’re actually going to feed you to the reptile?” A smirk grew on her face. “Oh, no, way too easy!” “Too easy?” Luna echoed. Her counterpart glanced at her in amusement. “But of course. Both my sister and I are planning out some fun way to punish the three of you.” Her grin spread as she began to stalk towards her, making her shift her wings uncomfortably. “Um… what are you doing?” Twilight’s tone had become noticeably cautious. “I’ve left Celestia’s punishment up to Solar Flare. Yours, however, I’ve already decided.” She took a final step in towards Luna, making her lean so far backwards that she ended up falling onto her back. The queen then lowered her voice so that only Luna could hear her. “I’ve been planning this long before you came here…” Luna gasped as her horn began to glow. The aura looked anything but friendly; a darker outline accompanied the normal cyan colour. That was the last thing she saw before a bright flash blinded her, causing her to black out. --- “Luna!” Twilight exclaimed as she watched her fellow princess flop onto the grass, unmoving. She raised a hoof to run towards her, but something had already grabbed it. Something cold. She looked at it, and flinched in surprise when she saw a metal chain clamped just above her hoof. She gasped as she felt it on her horn as well. “Let me go!” she snarled as she turned to Solar Flare, who hadn’t moved from her position. “It wasn’t me,” she simply answered. Twilight raised a brow, before glancing to her left. Her eyes widened when she saw Discord gripping the other ends of her shackles. “Wha… huh… no! Discord, you can’t!” Her heart began to race. Yet Discord’s expression didn’t change; it remained a dead-pan.. “Do tell me the reason why…”