Living Nightmare

by Autum Breeze


Chapter 17 (Rewrite)

Chapter 17

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Luna growled as she paced back and forth in front of Twilight as she sat on the throne, watching the dark Alicorn with worry.

“Luna...” she tried to say, but was cut off.

“Mama, please save me! Save me from the monster!” Luna said, snapping her head in Twilight’s direction.

It had been almost two weeks since Stellar had been foalnapped. Two weeks that the poor child had been lost and alone in their world, held by who-knows what horrible gutter trash.

Twilight closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, then reopened them, looking firmly at Luna. “I know, Luna. But this is not helping. Until we can find a lead, we can’t—”

Monster, Twilight!” Luna almost shrieked, tears in her eyes. “Monster! Stellar only ever referred to Nightmare as a monster! If she’s pleading for me to save her from a monster, Nightmare must be gaining control over her!”

She paced for several more seconds, before looking back to her.

“Could it be some kind of cult that foalnapped her? Did they take her with the intent of turning her into the Nightmare Moon she would never be? What if—?”

“LUNA!” Twilight shouted in the Royal Canterlot Voice, causing the other Alicorn to quieten. Twilight cleared her throat and spoke normally. “I can understand your fear— Yes, I can!” she said, seeing Luna was about to say otherwise. “When Spike began turning into that monster of a dragon his greed was creating, I felt I was going to lose my son. I understand your worry, but we’ve already spoken with Celestia and everypony involved in the search.”

Luna calmed down the tiniest bit and nodded.

The doors to the throne rooms suddenly opened, causing them both to jump.

Several Pegasus guards and one unicorn guard were leading one of the castle’s house maids.

She had an anxious expression on her face, one that only grew at the sight of Luna and her legs started quivering so badly one of the guards had to help her stand.

Luna walked up next to Twilight and sat in her throne. Twilight looked down at the maid from Celestia’s, her eyes narrowed, one eyebrow raised.

The mare was a brown Earth Pony, with a green mane and tail, yellow eyes and a feather duster for a Cutie Mark.

“Yes?” Twilight asked, addressing the guards.

They all bowed and the lead one, a Pegasus, stepped forward. “Your Highnesses, this maid says she has found something that may aid us in the search for Princess Stel—”

He didn’t get to finish.

“TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW!” Luna bellowed with the Royal Canterlot Voice, causing all present to wince. She leaned forward in her throne, her eyes boaring into the mare’s. “TELL US NOW! WE MUST KNOW!”

“Luna!” Twilight scolded. “Voice.”

Luna caught herself, leaned back and coughed. “I apologize, fair maid. I am very stressed and worried for my daughter, but that was still uncalled for on my part.”

Twilight nodded, then turned her attention to the maid. “What have you found that could aid us?”

In truth, the trails had gone cold. Every one had been followed, only to yield nothing. Now there were no clues, yet the search continued.

All of Canterlot now knew of Stellar’s foalnapping and many had rallied, offering to help with the search, even those who had opposed the idea of showing her mercy when Luna and Celestia had made the original announcement about her four months ago.


The maid shakily stepped forward and Twilight noticed what looked like a pillow resting on her back. As she watched, the maid took the pillow in her forehooves then tore the casing open with her teeth. She then turned in upside down.

Twilight and Luna’s raised their eyebrows as black feathers tumbled out of it, gently falling to the floor in a small pile.

Luna cocked her head, looking both confused and angry. “What is the meaning of dumping feathers from a pillow on the throne room floor? You mean to tell me this will aid in finding my daughter?!”

The maid quivered, before picking up one of the feathers with her forehoof and held it out. “Th-this is no ordinary black feather, Your Highness. Look.”

Still frowning, Luna encased the feather in her magic, only to gasp as she felt a residual magical aura around it.

That magic. It was... But... it couldn’t be.

The maid nodded.

Luna’s eye went to the maid. “Where did you find this pillow?”

The maid looked away. “I was called to freshen his bed-covers. I-it’s my job, you see. I-I wouldn’t have paid it any mind, but, I know all the pillows he ever uses, I have to, and this pillow, it was new and I’d heard no word of a change in pillows. I noticed it and took it for a cleaning, since it was a bit dirty after several days of sleeping with it and knew he would’ve fired me if I didn’t clean it without needing to be asked first. But, as I removed the covers, I noticed the feathers. They seemed familiar and then I knew why.”

“Where. Did. You. Find. It?” Luna asked through clenched teeth.

“Prince Blueblood’s room?”

There was silence for several moments.

Blueblood’s room?” Twilight echoed after several minutes, utter shock on her face. “But, his guards are helping with the search. Why would he have a pillow made of Stellar’s feathers if...?” Upon realizing what she’d just said, Twilight shivered. “Oh, that actually sounds really creepy, now that I think about it.”

Luna was gone. One second she was there, the next she wasn’t.

“Guards, to me!” Twilight shouted, preparing a teleportation spell to follow Luna’s.

The guards hurried up just as the room was bathed in the light of Twilight’s aura. When the world was no longer just purple, what they saw made their mouths hang open.

They were in the dining hall. Blueblood was pinned to the wall by Luna’s magic, her eyes, wide and murderous staring in his, which were also wide, but full of panic.

“Where is she, Blueblood?!” Luna demanded, her voice as cold as ice, causing Twilight and the guards to shiver.

“Wh-where is who, auntie?” Blueblood asked, his voice squeaking, though he wore a nervous smile.

Luna came right up to his face, her lips pulled back into a snarl. “Stellar Nova. Where is she, monster?”

Blueblood gave a slight look of hurt within his fear. “Where is she? Auntie, I have no clue. I gave you my personal guards to find her, so how would I—?”

Luna’s horn glowed brighter and the clump of feathers and the pillow appeared beside her head.

Blueblood’s eyes flickered the tiniest fraction.

“This is your pillow, correct?” she growled. “Your name is sewn in gold on it. I know because it is a pillow you asked me to get you tailor-made for your birthday! But it was not a feather pillow when I gave it to you! If you do not know where my daughter is, then how come her feathers are the filling for your pillow!?”

For a second, Blueblood looked worried, before his fear vanished in a scowl. “Your daughter? I thought you’d see reason with her gone, Auntie! Has she truly corrupted your mind so badly that even in her current state she still has a hold on you—?”

He realized all too late what was coming from his mouth as he stopped himself, but the damage was done.

Luna’s eyes glowed with white light, her mane billowing faster and wilder than it had ever been seen to as Luna.

“Where. Is. My. Daughter?” she somehow managed to say this normally, but also in the Royal Canterlot Voice. The merging of her normal voice and the Royal was unnerving to all others present to say the least.

“If you are still blinded by her now,” Blueblood said, his face going dark, “then I can only think of one way to free you, Auntie.”

His horn glowed, as did something in his pocket and there was a blindly flash that caused all, even Luna to back away and even lose her grip on her magic.

When the light faded, Blueblood was gone.

Luna roared louder than any dragon as rage fueled her very being.

“We can still find Stellar!” Twilight shouted, causing Luna to snap her head to Twilight as the other Alicorn turned to the guards. “You,” she said to the unicorn guard, “You, Luna and I will track her trail with the magic from her feathers. You two,” she pointed to two of the pegasi, “go get Celestia, my brother, Cadance, everypony you can.”

They nodded and flew off, while Twilight, Luna and the unicorn guard activated the tracking spell and they all followed after the trail.

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“Child? Foal, how are you holding up?” the not kind, but not cruel voice spoke to me. It was a voice I had once feared, wanted nothing to do with, but now, is my only comfort.

I look up at Nightmare. She looks horrible. Her right-eye is swollen shut and there are scratches all over her body. Like me, she had no wings, mane, tail or horn.

After I’d blacked out, I’d found myself inside the place I’d spoken with her and Discord all those months ago, now seeing her control my body. At first, she’d taken control of my body only to take revenge on Blueblood for what he’d done to the body that she’d created for herself. However, after some time, she’d learned that I was suffering more than even she had wanted me to and that the depth of it sickened even her.

She didn't care for me like a friend, but she also was disgusted by how Blueblood was treating me. She kept me locked deep inside whenever I was dealt my “punishments” by Blueblood, taking the force of the pain herself when they came and taking it with her when she gave control back to me, so I couldn’t feel it, saying she could survive it, but I would not.

Had it not been for her, I might have given up long ago. But, with she and I had a common enemy in Blueblood. We weren't friend and we sure as antyhing didn't like being in each other's presence, but we still dealt with each other.

Though she never did it with kindness, she did spur me on. So I held out, hoping Luna... No. Hoping Mama would find me.

I was still angry at her for keeping the truth from me, but Nightmare had told me that Luna truly cared for me. She only said it so I wouldn't lose hope, take over the body during "punishment time" and die, bringing her with me, but she did it all the same.

She told me how Luna was hurting, that she could still sense Luna's pain and that she was blaming herself for everything, when she'd really just been trying not to hurt me and that, even though I remembered my human mother, Luna was now my pony mother and it was wrong of me not to think of her that way. After everything Blueblood had done, it was enough to make me think of Luna as my mother.

Nightmare walked over and sat down, though she didn't pull me into a neck-hug or anything.This was all she would really offer. She still had her boundaries with me, since I was the one who took her body from her.

I sobbed quietly shuddering as I felt the bones that had been connected to my wings try to move what was no longer there. She was the only one I could talk to who understood me, though she would talk to me reluctantly.

I felt my consciousness returning and sniffled.

“I’ll be right here should you need me,” Nightmare said as everything faded away.

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I slowly opened my eyes and looked around at what had been my home for I had no idea how long.

It was a small cage, built into the wall of the room where my wings and horn had been taken from me.

The chains around my legs clicked as I shifted my body on the stone floor, trying to find a slightly more comfortable piece of the cold rock to lie on.

I didn’t even care about the pain coming from the bruises and cuts all over my body as they came in contact with the floor. I’d been in pain so long now I didn’t even feel them anymore.

The sound of a distant door slamming open made my head shoot up and I heard the sound of hurrying hoofsteps. When the door to the room opened I see Blueblood glaring at me.

Levitated next to his head is something that makes my blood run cold. A knife!

I scramble to my hooves and started backing away from him, further into my cage, trying to get away as he drew nearer.

“The only way my aunt will truly be free of you, you monster,” he said, the cage door starting to glow with his magic, “is if you live no more.”

I shut my eyes, bracing for the pain. I couldn’t fight back. Even without my horn, my mane and tail were still magic, something Blueblood had learned the hard way when Moon had taken control, but with the collar on, I couldn’t even use those.

I was helpless. I said my last prayer, hoping somepony would here it and answer it.

The sound of crashing from above caused Blueblood to stop and for me to look up.

“It’s leading this way!” a voice I’d never thought I’d hear again outside my memories called out.

“Twilight!” I cried, hoping beyond hope that she could hear me and that I wasn’t just imagining it. “I’m in here! I’m in—”

I was stopped as I felt the unicorn’s magic grab me and slam me against the wall of my cage.

“Now I have no time to dwell,” I could faintly hear him say over the ringing in my ears.

I looked at his blurry image, my eyes not having recovered from the sudden slam into the wall.

I could see the knife hovering ready as his magic moved the key into the lock.

Suddenly there was a crashing sound and the wall the door to the room was on exploded.

Blueblood whirled around and I could just make out a purple blur and three white ones charged towards us.

Before he could respond, Blueblood was surrounded by an aura that was not Twilight’s. It was dark-blue, though not as dark as mine had been.

He was hurled towards the purple blur and white ones, while a dark-blue blur appeared outside my cage door, which was yanked off with the same aura that had grabbed Blueblood.

I felt the chains around my hooves unlock and fall away. I wanted to run, but I was so weak my legs gave out and I started falling to the floor.

At once I felt an aura take hold of me. I squirmed at first, thinking Blueblood had gotten me again, before I realized it was not his aura at all. I was levitated out of the cage and into the forelegs of a much larger pony.

“Stellar!” she whispered, her face and voice filled with horror. “What has he done to you?”

I looked up at the dark-blue Alicorn holding me, a weak smile on my face as my eyes struggled to stay open. “I knew... you’d come... Ma... ma...”

And the world went black once more.

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“Please!” Luna begged, trying to get past the guard who would not let her into the hospital wing. “I must see her!”

It had been two hours since they’d found where Blueblood had been keeping Stellar captive. Luna had been horrified at the sight of the young Alicorn. Her horn and wings were gone, her body was bruised and battered worse than she had ever felt herself in any battle she and her sister had fought in so long ago.

It had broken her heart to no end to see her in such a state and had never filled her with more rage, wishing to inflict a billion times the amount of pain on the one who’d done this to this innocent filly.

“Princess!” she stopped as a unicorn mare with a brown mane, orange coat and a clipboard for a Cutie Mark stepped from behind the guard, a firm expression on her face. “You have entrusted Stellar Nova to my care, so please, do not act like a foal waiting to know something that cannot be told before it is known.”

Luna stood, looking down.

The doctor sighed. “She is stable—”

Luna’s physically relaxed, her expression becoming that off complete and utter relief.

“—physically, anyway.”

Luna’s heart caught in her chest. “Wh-what do you mean?” she almost whimpered.

The doctor sighed, nodding to the guards and stepping aside, as did they. “It... would be easier for you to see for yourself first, Your Highness.”

Fear gripping her heart, Luna followed after the doctor, going down the aisles of beds until they came to one where a black filly lay, looking as if she were sound asleep. Luna’s breath caught in her throat. The swelling of her bruises had gone down a lot, and some of her cuts were gone, but the absence of her horn and wings was still apparent.

Stellar was resting atop the sheets on her stomach, showing the bandages all around her body, but especially where her wings should have been.

Her mane and tail were the only sign that her magic still flowed through her. However, it did not billow as it once had. Now the usually full, flowing, star-speckled mass of indigo was pale, sickly, and came off of the filly, not like a consistent cloud as it always had, but in thin trails and wisps.

Attached to her legs were IV drips and a heart rate monitor showed her heart rate was normal and steady.

“Will... will she be like this forever?” Luna whispered. She could not bear Stellar remaining asleep forever more.

The doctor shook her head. “I have tended to many unicorns in my job, princess. When they have lost a horn, there was a twelve hour limit in which it could be reattached without it being impossible—”

“Alicorns are stronger healers than unicorns!" the Alicorn snarled. "I myself have regenerated new limbs after the fierce battles my sister and I fought in long ago and know full well my daughter can do the same. I was referring to her unconscious state!"

She smiled and nodded. “My apologies, Your Highness. She does have the same healing abilities as yourself and your sister. It will take time, maybe half a year, maybe less with the right magical care, but Stellar Nova will regain her wings and horn.” Her face saddened. “As to your actual questions to whether she will wake or not...”

Luna opened her mouth to say something, only for a flicker of something to catch her attention. It was Stellar, but not Stellar. Something inside of her was calling to her.

Frowning, Luna lit her horn, quickly reassuring the nurse that things would be fine and followed the path of what she’d seen.

___________________________________________________________

Luna blinked, unsure of what she was seeing.

Stellar was floating in the darkness around her, surrounded by the aura that she knew belonged to Stellar.

“What is this?”

“Her only chance at returning to you.”

Luna whirled around at the sound of the voice, her eyes going wide with fear, then wider at the sight of the mare before her.

Nightmare Moon stepped forward from the darkness, more bruised and battered than Stellar had been when they arrived where Blueblood had been holding her.

Luna stepped back, shocked at the sight of Nightmare. “Wh... what?”

Nightmare gave a weak smile and nodded, looking up sadly at the filly floating above them. “I took control of her the moment she blacked out, when Blueblood removed her left-wing.”

Luna glared at her. “And what, you let her go?”

When Nightmare remained silent, Luna gasped.

“You... You let her go?”

She nodded.

“But... why?” Luna asked, not understanding this at all. “Why did you let her go?”

Nightmare didn’t say anything at first, then she sighed.

“I thought I was cold and heartless,” she whispered, her face filled with sorrow. “I thought I could never be outmatched and would always be the worst thing ponies feared. The monster that would rule all and never be questioned, only answered. However, having shared the time of Stellar's captivity by that beast in pony form, I know now true heartlessness. He held me captive just as much as he did her. After we did, I want Stellar to be safe, because I now know the true meaning of oppression, and have thus lost my taste for inflicting it.”

Luna glared. “You’ve said something like that before and you were lying then. Why is this any different?”

Nightmare turned to her, a sad smile on her face. “Because now, I cannot live within her and she cannot live outside of me.”

Luna blinked. “What?”

Nightmare sighed and stepped forward, stopping underneath the floating filly. “Stellar’s spirit is broken.... and so am I.” She closed her eyes. “The only way for her to be whole, is if I join with her.”

“NO!” Luna shot forward, standing in front of Nightmare, growling. “That is what you told me when I let you join with me!”

The black mare nodded. “But this time, I have nothing to gain.”

Luna blinked, her fury turning to confusion. “Explain.”

She nodded and turned, looking up at Stellar again. “When I convinced you to let me join you, I told you that we would be of the same mind, that I would give you power and nothing more.” She looked at Luna over her shoulder. “When I join with Stellar, I will cease to exist. At most, wisps of my consciousness shall remain, locked deep within her mind. To even be given a chance of freedom again, even in the smallest of ways, the very world would need to be out of balance in a way it cannot be.” She chuckled. “More than I deserve I bet you feel.”

Luna took a step forward. “Nightmare...”

Nightmare chuckled. “To think I wouldn't want to be called anything but that. Your daughter called me by a different name, at least until I asked her not to.”

Luna cocked an eyebrow. “What did she call you?”

“Moon.”

Luna blinked.

Moon sighed. “You’d best go, Princess Luna,” she said, addressing Luna by title for the first time ever. “Your daughter will need you to be there for her.”

Before Luna could respond there was a flash of dark-blue light and her conciseness was flung back into her body.

___________________________________________________________

As Luna shook her head, trying to regain her senses, the filly in the bed stirred.

Luna shook herself again and stepped forward, leaning her head down to Stellar’s.

The little Alicorn’s eyes fluttered, then slowly opened. When she saw Luna, a weak, but small smile came to her face.

“Hi... Mama. Sorry I worried you.”

Luna wanted to pull her into a tight hug right then and there, but remembered the injuries she still beared. Instead, she gently wrapped her wings around her in a soft, but warm embrace, feeling happier than she had in what felt like another thousand years.