...I hate this part. I don't remember too much about it, but I hate it. This is before I met my big brother Bardigan. Just before I met Princess Luna, actually.
So, I get to ponyville. I'm there maybe, one or two days, before I've got Fluttershy helping me get an audience with Princess Luna. Running into her was a stroke of luck! Who knew she was a savior to the nation and friends with Princess Celestia!! So, we get to the castle. You are never gonna believe this, but Fluttershy has the castle doctors there, wanting to examine me. Says she noticed I was sick. Me? I'm about ready to collapse. Yeah. I'm pretty sick. I can't smell anything anymore. I noticed it yesterday actually. The air just...doesn't smell anymore. It's hard to describe, cause you're is always smelling something. You just don't notice, right? Right. Doctors aren't my favorite ponies in the world. But they fed me some garbage about needing an physical exam before being allowed near royalty and I ate it up. I was so close to seeing Princess Luna, and if I didn't get to see her, I'd never forgive myself!! So...I went with them. That was not a good choice.
It was hectic! So many things going on at once! Blood pressure reading, checking my eyes, nose and throat, listening to my heart. So I remember, one of them, wanting to take my temperature. Ahem. Mind you, this is me not having ever having any medical care before, except for Doctor Holiday. And he just wanted to experiment on me and my blood. So this was...this was a new experience for me. This is also back when I still had some sense of feeling. Anyway, long story short, I beat the living crap out of him. Then they held me down and held a thing over my face. Then things go black.
I wake up later in this white room. It's soft in here. Quiet and it smells...smells like...No. Still no sense of smell. I think it's gone for good. I felt sick though. Like I didn't have any strength left. Icarus Syndrome was starting to do a real number on me. Was this it? Was I going to die in this stupid little room, before seeing the princess?! She's the only reason I got as far as I did! I had to see her!!
"Diiiiiiiiiaaaaaaamooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnd" hissed a voice. I froze. That was something I wasn't expecting. This...voice I heard in my head and also over my head. It's hard to explain. But I could hear someone whispering to me. It was super creepy. But it's not like there's anywhere for me to go. I'm not feeling so good. I want my mommy (I don't know why) but I'm really getting scared. I'm not gonna make it to tomorrow...
"Diiiiiiiiiiiiiamooooooond...Oh, poor thing. You're terrified...I can feel your suffering from here...mmmmmhhh...you're dying...Aren't you? Such a sickly filly...come...releassse me..." The words are echoing in my head. I must be dreaming. The world doesn't feel real. I'm sick. I'm so, so so sick... I'm on my hooves though. I don't know why. I was so tired, but this voice...
"Yesssssssss, come...I can help you...I can ssssave you..." I march along sluggishly. Up and out of the room, and down one of the halls. It was weird. There was nobody around. No guards, no anything. Just empty hallway with an open door at the end. I walked towards it sleepily. I didn't feel great, but I couldn't stop myself. All the while, I'm becoming more and more convinced I'm not going to make it to tomorrow. I feel terrible. But this voice. It said it could save me...so...maybe?! Maybe right?! Downstairs the voice led me. Down to a lower room, and to a lower room still. The castle treasury. Not a guard in sight.
"Heeeeeere, heeeeeeere yessssssss Diamond, poor filly, look at you, pale as the moon, and so ill...over here, dear, over here, yesss the vasssse...I am a trapped fairy. Long forgotten here in the bowels of the castle. Free me from my prison, Diamond. I can grant you years to live, to grow old, wouldn't you like that? "
Okay, so, here's the point where common sense kicks in. I'm thinkin this sounds like a trap. Like, the mother of all traps, right? This is obviously, not a good deal. But I'm sick. And I'm scared. And I just needed Princess Luna to know she impacted my life so much. And I'm not sure how much longer I have.
The vase is sitting quietly on a shelf behind a large stack of coins. I imagined the treasury would just be piles and piles of golden bits over flowing, with diamonds and rupees and all sorts of pretty jewels. But actually, it was all very neat and orderly. All of it stacked up nicely row after row. Maybe 50 coins to a stack. Sealed together in paper bags and stacked on top of themselves. I don't have the strength to reach it by flying, but I can certainly climb. I make my way up, climbing over heavy stacks of bits and jangles and gold pieces. There's the vase.
"Do it...free me...release me...." Pushy fairy. I really should have asked it why It was trapped in a vase in the first place. I never said I was a particularly bright little pony. Anyway. Vase. Shelf. Easy. I tip it over and watch it shatter to the ground.
I have made a grave error. I know this immediately. So, the room turns dark, right? Black and foggy and dark. I can't see it, but I know there's something else in the room with me. You know when you feel the presence of someone, even if they aren't there? It feels like it's right behind me.
"Free at last!! I WILL have my revenge on Equestira!! Ahhhh...My assisssssstant. My little helper...I shall grant you life like no other, filly!"
And that was it. The last thing I could clearly remember. I knew things happened after that, but it was kind of like trying to remember a dream. You know, you have some parts of it, but not all of it. It was a nightmare. Kind of like the one that possessed Luna. Or, perhaps it was the same one that split itself in two? I don't know how nightmare's reproduce. I'd rather not think about it, really. Anyway. I remember talking with Princess Celestia after that. This is when I find out what my body can really do. I apparently stormed my way through the castle. Feral and snarling, and biting and crazy. The nightmare gave me a kind of strength, a dark horrible kind of blood lust that I couldn't control. I was just along for the ride.
I made my way to the throne room, dispatching guards easily left and right. I could just throw one and he'd go flying. Into his companions. The room was a chorus of screams and sickening cracks as this creature wrought it's havoc. Princess Celestia arrives with the sun guard. She commands I surrender. I refuse. She orders them to seize me. They strike. Spears, swords, close quarters weapons. They didn't offer any reluctance to strike at a little girl. I laugh. I'm glad they don't. The spears don't pierce, and the swords don't cut. I don't bleed, and I use that surprise to my advantage. I'm like a wild animal, charging into guards and thundering through defenses. This wasn't me! This wasn't me at all!! I didn't want to hurt anyone! I didn't want to fight like this!! But I moved anyway. I did as I pleased. The guards were no match for this creature. My body... tough like the consistency of a diamond. Or so I've been told. Soon it's Celestia and I.
No. That's not right. It was Celestia and the thing inside of me. They barked at each other. Words of domination and conquest. Explaining vengeance towards the sun and the night. I feed off of fear and terror. I absorb it. I can feel it. I tell Princess Celestia I'll give her a choice. To tell the towns people of Ponyville I will feed off of them one, by one, until I'm powerful enough to take over the land. Warn them all. Make them fear me. Yesss...OR...she can keep it to herself. Don't let them know I'm freed. Don't do a thing, and let me take them all off guard. Easier for me, but I feed much more if there's paranoia on top of that fear. Hahahaha. Princess Celestia fires a blast at me from her horn. I dodge and let it carve a nice little hole in the side of the castle. I wiggle my way through it, and out into the night. The Princess sends the rest of the sunguard after me. Wonderbolts too. But it's dark, and I hide in the ever free forest. The creature inside of me finds a nice, shady little burrow at the edge of a swamp. Where I plan my next assault on the castle.