“Stupid gorge! Why do they even have it?” Dexter muttered to himself as he approached the castle wall, brushing mud off of his suit.
After parting ways with Star Swirl and Clover, Dexter revisited the crate of supplies Quadraplex forced him to take before returning to the castle.
The colt opted to take a variety of explosives on top of a few gadgets, figuring that if Star Swirl’s method for opening the vault proved unfruitful then he would need a plan B.
The trip back to the castle was uneventful, at least until he came to the bridge spanning the gorge. Both sides of the bridge were under guard by lunar unicorns. Of course, Dexter stood a chance of getting past them without incident by using his cloak.
Yet, his cloak had already failed to hide him inside Luna’s private chambers. She had found him due to her advanced hearing. That and he didn’t want to risk running afoul of any magical trap or spell that might still be able to detect him.
Instead, he used a grappling hook to scale the side of the gorge, getting mud on his suit.
However, it wasn’t until he had successfully climbed up and started approaching the castle that he realized the useless nature of the gorge in the first place.
“Seriously, one third of their species can fly and the other third can teleport. Did they build that gorge just to keep out earth ponies?” Dexter complained quietly, scanning to the left and right of the wall for sentries. When he was sure the coast was clear, a ripple of light washed over his form, allowing him to turn visible once more. “Same goes for the walls!”
“Now to get past this wall… I can go around it or over it.” He muttered to himself as he reloaded his grappling gun. He would go over, as going the way around probably involved getting past a guarded door. Grappling would be easier.
At least it would have.
The castle wall a few meters to the right of him suddenly exploded, showering dust and broken stone everywhere.
The colt jumped, startled by the sudden sound, before pressing against the remains of the wall harder. “Or maybe I could just go through it…” Dexter quipped to himself.
However the dust soon settled, revealing a white figure lying in the debris.
Dexter recognized Celestia immediately.
The alicorn was a mess. Her main and coat were disheveled, if not tore up. Wet matted trails of fur hung under her eyes. She had been crying.
Her regalia was also gone, likely destroyed by her impact with the wall.
However, the apparent wounds from her impact appeared to start healing. The cuts sealed themselves while scrapes disappeared under fresh fur.
Dexter couldn’t help but watch, he had never seen something heal so rapidly on its own before.
Unfortunately, his presence didn’t go unnoticed. Halfway through Celestia’s attempt to rise, the alicorn’s eyes drifted until locking on to the colt.
At least, she thought it was a colt, judging by his shape and size. Yet he was wearing something which covered his entire body, hiding everything but the color of his eyes and mane.
“A foal?” She uttered in both fear and bewilderment.
“You see nothing.” Dexter waved a hoof as light rippled over his suit once more, causing him to vanish.
Not a moment later a blue blur crashed atop Celestia, crushing her into the stone rubble and kicking up another plume of dust.
‘What the heck is going on?’ Dexter backed away from the plume slowly. It dissipated slowly, revealing Nightmare Moon standing atop the rubble.
Nightmare brought her head down to Celestia’s face, glaring at the white alicorn pinned beneath her. “Fight me Celestia.” She growled, traces of indignation hidden in her voice. “Or are you too perfect to sully your hooves with a little violence?”
“I will not fight you, my sister...” Celesta coughed, panting under the force of Nightmare’s weight. More wounds that appeared starting healing once again. “Please, stop this madness-“
“AM I NOT A WORTHY OPPONENT!?” Nightmare roared before slamming a hoof down on Celestia’s chest, the force of the hit caused several of the stone bricks beneath them to shatter.
The white alicorn didn’t respond, writhing in agony as she cringed around the point of Nightmare’s strike.
Nightmare merely watched, her expression a mixture of fury and disgust. Using her magic she hoisted Celestia’s head upward before slamming it into another fallen stone. The brick in question shattered upon contact.
Nightmare then kicked Celestia with a sweeping motion, throwing her onto the grass a few feet away.
Celestia began to stand up, however she stopped when Nightmare landed a few feet away.
“I…I will not fight you Sister.” Celestia breathed again, struggling to stand.
“I’m not your sister anymore, Celestia…” Nightmare stepped forward, lowering her head to whisper in Celestia’s ear. “I am Nightmare Moon now.”
“Luna, stop this please!” Celestia cried before a hoof collided with her face.
“Fight me or be silent.” Nightmare ordered. “No talking.”
Nightmare eyed the other alicorn for a moment, apparently trying to decide what to do. The pleading yet resolute gaze cast back at Nightmare displayed Celestia’s clear and unyielding determination.
Celestia would not fight.
By this point, Dexter was wondering if he should just shoot Nightmare Moon. The mare obviously had a number of mental problems to work out, and perhaps attacking the dark alicorn would give Celestia the upper hand.
However, the solar alicorn wasn’t fighting. A fact which would render Dexter’s help pointless.
The next best option was to leave quietly, yet he didn’t want to run the risk of being heard by the dark alicorn again.
Eventually he settled on staying put, hiding under his cloak until the two alicorns would leave. Thankfully this time he had plenty of power left in reserve.
“You know… A part of me is glad that you refuse to fight.” Nightmare produced a grin, though her eyes were filled with anger. “It gives me the chance to break your spirit; and when I do you will choose to fight me, and I’ll have the chance to break your body.”
A spine chilling cackle. “Everypony will see you lying crushed under my hoof,” Nightmare grinned. “Broken in both body and will, and there will be NO QUESTION in anypony’s mind who THE BETTER PRINCESS IS!”
“Luna please…” Celestia’s voice shook. “I don’t care who is better… I love you and nothing will change that. You’re the only one in this whole world I have…“
“At first I thought I wanted to kill you, but now I am not so sure.” Nightmare began. “I never realized the power of hate, and how it is as insatiable as it is intoxicating. No, killing you would not be enough. It would end your suffering too quickly.” Nightmare breathed. “No, I won’t find a way to release you from the curse of immortality!”
“How does it feel Celestia? Knowing that you will suffer just like me!” Nightmare let loose another spine chilling, almost neurotic, laugh. Again it appeared to be a mixture of a sob and hysterical gaffing.
“Can you not see, Celestia? Your sister is dead! You’re going to be alone forever!”
Celestia stood speechless, sheer terror in her eyes as she watched the dark alicorn. It was like her worst nightmares had been realized right in front of her, but not in a way she had expected.
The truth was, being alone forever wasn’t her worst fear. A fact Celestia just realized.
However, something terrible happening to the younger sister she loved was her worst fear.
“No,” Celestia shook her head, anger and frustration seeping into her voice as she stomped aggressively. “My sister is not dead, she can’t die.”
“But she is in pain,” Celestia cast her resolute gaze at Nightmare. “I don’t know what’s happened to you Luna. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I will fix this. I don’t care what I have to do, or how far I have to go. I don’t care if you beat me a million times; I will make you well again, Luna.”
“I love you Luna, and nothing will change that.”
Nightmare’s growing frown finally turned into a snarl, she opened her mouth to speak before abruptly stopping.
Then she grew a heinous grin. “Not if I fix you first…” Nightmare countered before chuckling. “Oh, this will be interesting… Lets see how long your love lasts in the face of such reckless hate.”
“Forget about your love Tia…” Nightmare almost sounded like Luna for a moment. “I will teach you to hate me.”
“And the smallest spark is all I need for nightmare to worm its way into your heart and mind.”
“And what greater victory could I have than making the alicorn of the day become a child of the night!” Nightmare proclaimed. “Oh Celestia, you will embrace me…”
“I could never hate you Luna!” Celestia shook her head.
“If it helps, Celestia, think of all your little ponies I am hurting,” Nightmare goaded. “The suffering I am causing, the friends I am tormenting. I am patient, Celestia. I’ll eventually beat the hatred into you.”
---
It didn’t take Dexter long to find the hidden vault, given that it was exactly where Star Swirl said it was. Judging by how well it was hidden, it might have taken Dexter a few days to find it on his own and without any technology. A fact which made him feel strangely fortunate for crossing paths with the old wizard and his apprentice.
Unfortunately for the colt, the vault room was not vacant. Half a dozen lunar unicorn guards occupied the room.
Four of the guards stood in a row while applying their magic to the vault door. Their leader, a unicorn mare, stood aside with another one of the guards. The black lining on her armor signified her status as an officer, and matched with her equally black coat.
Dexter was quick to note that none of these guards were actually watching the vault room entrance. In fact, they appeared to be more interested in breaking into the vault than keeping anyone out. Fortunately for Dexter, their lapse in vigilance kept him hidden as he walked into the vault room, giving him the chance to cloak before he was spotted.
The guards could have been charged with retrieving something for Nightmare Moon. Perhaps she had sent them after the remaining Elements of Harmony as an added precaution, given that she had been forced to accelerate her plans.
But if that were the case, shouldn’t they already be in the vault? Surely Nightmare Moon would have told them how to open the door.
Shaking off his thoughts, the colt pushed into the room silently.
“Are you sure about this?” The guard beside the officer asked, frowning with a hint of worry.
“For a sergeant, you’re awfully vocal about your reservations.” She chided.
“Crystal…”
“That’s ‘Lieutenant’ while in uniform,” She chastised. “Is that understood Sergeant Lancer?”
“Alright, Lieutenant,” The guard rolled his eyes, continuing sarcastically. “I don’t mean to be hurting troop morale, but this seems rather dangerous. What if our new Queen finds out what you’re doing here?”
“Our new ‘Queen’ is why we are here,” She spat at the word ‘queen,’ hiding no distaste for Nightmare Moon. “You do realize what will happen to this world if she actually does bring about the ‘unending night’ that she has brainwashed everypony into wanting,?it would be horrible!”
“Do you have any idea what she will do to us if she finds out you’re trying to break into the royal vaults without her permission?” Lancer countered. “It’s hard to love a bloodstain…”
Lieutenant Crystal merely glanced at him in annoyance.
“Well, I was hoping for our relationship to be long and happy, but I guess I’ll settle for short and exciting…” He declared cynically.
By now Dexter had circled around behind the pair of talking guards and the four others working on the vault door, taking special care to go unnoticed despite the cloak making him invisible. He didn’t pay very much attention to what was said. He was more concerned with choosing the best angle to ambush the unsuspecting guards. Finding the spot he wanted, he drew his rifle and aimed at the guards.
Lancer opened his mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by the Lieutenant throwing him aside with a foreleg. The motion was one fluid movement, proving that she was quite a bit stronger than the average mare.
She then whirled around to face directly at the colt, casting a bolt of electricity from her horn. It struck him in the center of his chest. The magic dampeners in his suit instantly activated, absorbing the blast and leaving him unharmed. However, Dexter’s cloak dropped during the process.
He squeezed the trigger. Blue energy erupted from the barrel, striking the guard just below the horn. Her head jerked back from the impact.
The rifle was a miniature ion cannon, and packed enough punch to blow holes in a five foot thick stone. Of course, the colt had set it to stun, and should have been more than enough power to put the mare down.
Which was why Dexter was utterly bewildered when the mare gazed back downward to face him with an angry scowl.
“What the?” Dexter asked in confusion, upping the setting on his rifle before taking aim once more. It was set to its maximum stun setting.
“You… You’re a foal?!” Crystal asked in confusion, despite flaring her horn defensively with a green aura. “So the rumor was true… Captain Night Watch was ambushed by a child.”
The other guards in the room had already rounded on Dexter, surrounding him with their horns charged. Lancer, picking himself up off the floor, joined them.
That’s when Dexter noted an oddity: all of them had green auras of magic except Sergeant Lancer. All of them were the exact same hue, matching perfectly with Crystal’s piercing green eyes.
“It can’t be…” Dexter muttered to himself, a growing suspicion causing him to worry. Two things didn’t sit right with the colt; the odds that five ponies would have the same aura of magic was extremely small, and given the fact their colors should have been made blue by their uniforms for the lunar guard.
He sent the neural command to his suit’s sensor to scan the mare before him, almost cursing when his suspicions were confirmed.
All but Lancer were changelings.
It explained why she was able to tell he was there; despite the cloak she could still sense his emotions[1] .
“What? What in the world are you freaks doing here?” Dexter held his rifle tighter, aiming straight at the lieutenant’s face. “Heh,” Dexter suppressed a chuckle while he shook his head. He should have known there was something more to history than what he had read in the history books. “You’re responsible for all of this aren’t you! Nightmare Moon and this entire catastrophe is your fault!”
There was no way in the world Dexter would believe that mere coincidence lead changelings to infiltrate the lunar guard at the same time princess Luna became Nightmare Moon. In fact, prior experiences with changelings lead him to presume the worst.
Their ability to sense emotions, coupled with the fact that the alicorns didn’t even know changelings existed at this point in time, provided them with every opportunity to manipulate Luna into a spiraling depression; one which would lead her into becoming Nightmare Moon.
And if the changelings were responsible for Luna becoming Nightmare Moon, then there stood a chance they would know how to reverse the process and bring Luna’s personality back to the surface.
But he didn’t want to do anything to disrupt the timeline further, and changelings were known only as a myth until at least a year after Luna’s return. He couldn’t just expose them, but he still needed to find out what they had done.
“Careful, he’s stronger than he looks.” Crystal warned her fellow ‘guards.’
“You bug eyed freaks have been manipulating Princess Luna’s emotions to turn her into Nightmare Moon, haven’t you!” Dexter accused, grinding his teeth. “Do you have any idea what damage you have caused?”
“What?” Crystal, genuinely surprised by the accusation. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” She waved to the guards. “Seize him!”
A bolt of blue energy erupted from the end of Dexter’s rifle, striking Sergeant Lancer directly in the chest. His body immediately seized before he passed out and fell to the floor, unconscious.
The remaining guards returned the attack with green bolts of magic which were pointlessly absorbed by the colt’s armor.
By this point, Dexter needed information from the changelings. However, getting it would be astoundingly difficult while they were attacking him. He had to find out a way to stop the fight before it could escalate.
He aimed his rifle toward the floor a few feet before the guards, turning the ion rifle to its highest setting. The blue bolt which struck the floor hit with explosive force, shattering the stone and hurling the guards across the room.
The explosion wasn’t close enough to the changelings to actually hurt them, but it did more than wind them.
When the dust cleared, the guards began picking themselves up. “Where did he go?” One of them asked, scanning the room. “I don’t see him.”
“He’s still here,” Crystal replied as her horn glowed. She turned to scan the room slowly, reaching out with her ability to sense emotions, before she was stopped by an invisible object.
“Don’t try anything,” Dexter warned, reappearing as his cloak fell. His rifle firmly pressed to her side. “This isn’t on the stun setting anymore.
Of course he couldn’t leave the weapon on stun, the last time he tried to stun her it only served to tick her off.
“Tell them to stand down,” Dexter ordered when the closest of other guards took an aggressive step toward the colt. “If they try something stupid, and this gun goes off accidentally, you’re the one who will pay for it.”
She responded by waving them off with a hoof.
“Now tell me how to undo what you’ve done,” Dexter demanded.
“Changelings.”
“What are you talking about?” Crystal asked, genuine surprise flashing through her leer. “Changelings are a myth, and we’ve done nothing.”
”Stop lying,” Dexter ordered after gritting his teeth. “I know you’re a changeling, and I’m not just about to think your presence here is a coincidence.”
“You’re crazy kid,” Crystal dismissed. “Changelings are nothing but legend.”
Dexter bit his lip; he didn’t have time to play this game.
“Look, let’s skip the denial game okay?” Dexter sneered. “I know you’re a changeling. I know you feed off of love. I know you can sense emotions – which is why you were able to sense my presence despite my invisibility. I know your hive is lead by a queen, you have holes in your legs when you’re in your natural form as well as a bunch of bug-like features.
“I could go on, but you get my point.” Dexter finished with a frown.
The lieutenant stared at him silently, her face held a mixture of confusion and surprise. Yet she pressed on. “You’re confused,” Crystal began. “My name is Crystal, and I’m a unicorn from-“
“That’s a lie,” Dexter chastised. “The name of the mare whose identity you’ve stolen is Crystal. But for changelings, it’s only after you’ve proven to your hive that you’re extraordinary in some way that you are even given the chance to earn a name. An interesting bit of culture you bugs have there, but it should be expected since you don’t need names to distinguish yourselves from one another…”
Crystal’s feigned confusion slowly faded, being replaced with a deadly glower.
“And how, exactly, do you know that?” Crystal hissed, turning toward Dexter. She would have taken an aggressive step toward the colt if it weren’t for the rifle now pressed to her chest.
“How I know it is irrelevant,” Dexter replied with a growl of frustration. The continuous waste of time started to grate on his nerves.
“I don’t think it is,” She countered. The changelings had worked very hard to keep their existence a secret from all of ponykind. The fact that not only was their existence exposed, but they were detected by the colt, had much broader implications for changelings as a whole.
It was an intolerable breach of security that couldn’t be allowed.
Of course, Dexter didn’t want to waste time thinking about that for the moment.
“The only thing of relevance right now is Nightmare Moon.” Dexter dismissed. “If she isn’t stopped, there is a good chance everything on this planet will die, changelings included. So you’re going to tell me exactly what you did, what I need to know to undo it. Understand?”
“We’ve done nothing to precipitate Luna’s transformation into Nightmare Moon.” Crystal frowned, shaking her head. “Now you haven’t answered my question, and believe me you will-”
“I just don’t seem to be getting through to you, am I?” Dexter growled after gritting his teeth. “If you don’t tell me what I want to know right now, I’ll expose you.”
“What?” The changeling hissed.
“If you don’t help me defeat Nightmare Moon, starting with telling me what I want to know, I’ll go and tell all of ponykind about the existence of changelings… His scowl slowly morphed into a sinister grin.
“And I’ll tell them how to find you.” Dexter spoke. “I’m sure Nightmare Moon will enjoy hunting you all down. That is, if you don’t starve or get enslaved first.”
The room hung in silence when Dexter finished. The mare at the end of his rifle softened her scowl slightly as her grimace became dispassionate.
“You’re playing a very dangerous game, foal.” The mare replied calmly with a cold gaze. “But I spoke the truth, we’ve done nothing to cause Nightmare Moon’s rebellion. In fact, we’ve been trying to prevent this from happening.”
“So I am supposed to believe your appearance here was mere coincidence.” Dexter rebutted.
“Of course it wasn’t,” She hissed. “Over the past few months, we’ve been detecting emotional disturbances in ponies all across Equestria.
“Ponies were becoming more hateful…”
“It took weeks of intelligence gathering before we were able to determine it was Princess Luna,” She went on. “Or should I say, Nightmare Moon, converting ponies in their sleep to her cause.”
“That’s when we became aware of her… mental and emotional state.” Crystal went on. “But by then, Nightmare’s grip on Luna’s mind was very strong. It was far too late for any amount of emotional or psychological manipulation to reverse Luna’s descent into madness.”
“Why didn’t you just send a few changelings, as ponies, to befriend her?” Dexter questioned. “It seems like those whole situation could have been prevented by a letting her know her work as Princess was appreciated.”
“No,” Crystal shook her head. “It would have merely inflated her ego and her pride, and the adoration of those few ponies would have been justification, proof in her mind that Celestia was unjustly more popular than her.“
“And why should I believe any of your story?” Dexter asked.
“What?!” The mare threw who hooves up in frustration. “How could we have done this? Why would we have done this?” She ranted. “Nightmare Moon is disrupting the harmony of Equestria. She is destroying the love that Clover planted and which unified Equestria, and is replacing it with hate!
“Nightmare Moon is a creature of hate, born from jealousy.” The changeling ranted. “In a world ruled by her, there would be so little love for Changelings to feed on, we would all end up starving to death; that’s if her eternal night didn’t kill us all first!"
“We’ve been doing everything we can to stop her.”
Dexter lowered his rifle, looking up at the mare’s face as if trying to see if she were lying. He didn’t know what to make of Crystal’s story, but he knew it made perfect sense from what he had learned about the changelings and Nightmare Moon.
“Look, I’ll prove it.” Crystal turned toward one of the guards. “Bring them,” She motioned with a hoof.
“But, your hi-“
“Now,” She hissed, causing the guard in question to levitate his saddlebag toward her.
“Look at this,” She ordered; opening it up to reveal three large perfectly cut gems: one red, one orange, and one blue.
“The Elements of Harmony?”
“Loyalty, Laughter and Honesty,” The mare confirmed.
“I… I thought Nightmare Moon had hidden those elements away so that they couldn’t be used against her.” Dexter tilted his head.
“She did…” Crystal’s eyes narrowed on the colt. “But how did you know that?”
“Star Swirl told me after I rescued him,” Dexter answered, inspecting the gems after finally lowering his weapon. “How did you-“
“One of the guards Luna instructed to hide the Elements was an infiltrator.” Crystal replied curtly. “She still believes the original guards she sent to hide the elements are still travelling out of Equestria.”
“I had them brought back here so they could be reunited with the other elements.” Crystal explained. “It’s my hope that they were sent away by Nightmare Moon because she knew that Celestia could use them against her. The plan was to put the elements in the vault so Celestia would find the full set waiting for her.
“Unfortunately the remaining three are inside the most secure vault known to exist.” The mare pointed toward the vault door.
“Alright, let’s say I believe you…” Dexter began slowly. “That doesn’t mean I trust you, so here’s a new deal, help me defeat Nightmare Moon and I’ll keep your secret. Betray me, and Nightmare Moon will be the first to know of you.”
“Fine…” Crystal hissed.
“Good, now let me show you how to open this vault…”
---
“Well, that was rather easy…” Dexter asked as he pushed the vault door open. After using the trick Star Swirl taught him to disable the magic keeping the vault sealed, unlocking it was simple. However, the door itself was still five tons of the hardest metal Equestria knew of. But Dexter’s suit made the task a lot more manageable. “Star swirl must have wanted a way to get into the vault real quick.”
The changelings however merely watched the child, trying to hide their slight amazement at the sight of him pushing open a five ton door without magic.
“One thing that I don’t understand though… “Dexter began, recalling a few details of the Canterlot wedding. “Isn’t the changeling queen really powerful if she has the love of someone to feed on? Would she be powerful enough to fight Nightmare Moon?”
“That’s what sergeant Lancer was for…” The changeling replied. “I do hope he wakes up from whatever you did to him soon...”
“Yeah…” Dexter’s gaze drifted. “He might be out for a few hours …or a day … or two… Don’t worry though, the ion bolt stuns by creating a flux of ions through the target’s body that-” Dexter noticed the changelings raised eyebrow. “Let's just say he was electrocuted in a fashion that put him in a short term coma, he isn’t having dreams right now so Nightmare Moon can’t get to him.”
“Good to know, but he’s already been indoctrinated by her.” Crystal frowned. “Took weeks just to get him to say something negative about her…
“But fighting Nightmare Moon directly was my backup plan,” She went on. “I was hoping that it wouldn’t come to that. I have no idea how powerful she truly is, even with love I might not be able to beat her.”
“You beat her?” The colt asked in surprise, following the lieutenant inside the vault. “Wait a second… YOU’RE Queen Chrysalis?”
The mare rolled her eyes. “Chrysalis… Crystal… say it aloud little colt, it’s not that big of a leap. Besides Nightmare Moon threatens all life, of course she would provoke a response from the hive.”
Dexter opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, evidently wanting to say something. He didn’t know she was immortal, or at the very least long lived. But he had a timeline he was trying to protect, even though he knew such was a futile endeavor at this point. “You know what, never mind.” The colt managed eventually, turning to the vault door. “I’ll deal with you later; let’s just unite the Elements of Harmony.”
The royal vault wasn’t filled with gold or jewelry, but rather a large assortment of artifacts. Many of them appeared to be rather old, while others hummed or glowed with magic. Some of the artifacts were weapons, while others seemed to be as mundane as a simple quill and ink.
However, most of the artifacts were clearly labelled with names Dexter didn’t recognize.
“What is this junk?” Dexter asked, poking what appeared to be a mundane vase.
“DON’T TOUCH THAT!” Crystal shouted, frantically flaying her forelegs for the colt to stop.
Dexter gingerly pulled back his fore hoof, eyeing the vase.
“This vault contains everything Luna or Celestia deemed too powerful, too dangerous, or too evil to exist freely anywhere in the world!” Crystal explained, heaving a sigh of relief upon confirming that the vase was intact. “So don’t touch anything!”
“You need to keep Equestria safe from a pot meant for plants?” Dexter asked skeptically.
Crystal shook her head. “It’s not important. Just don’t touch it; we have enough problems to deal with at the moment…”
“The world should be glad Dee Dee isn’t here,” Dexter muttered under his breathe.
It didn’t take long to find the other elements. They were mounted on a device that appeared to be rigged to rise up through a trap door in the ceiling and into the room above. The colt watched as Crystal replaced the missing elements, fixing them into their relative positions.
“The Elements are in place,” Crystal declared.
“So now all we do is wait.” Dexter answered, gazing at the elements. He wanted to believe that everything was fixed, but he couldn’t stop thinking about what Star Swirl had said. Without at least two friends to bear the Elements, they couldn’t be wielded.
But it didn’t make sense, Nightmare Moon would have known as much. If that were the case, she wouldn’t have bothered with hiding them.
“Hopefully Celestia will come to realize her sister is beyond reasoning soon.” Crystal stopped to look down at Dexter. “However, you should get away from here. Despite your apparent strength, this is still no place for a child. You won’t want to be here for what might happen between now and Nightmare Moon’s defeat.”
“I’ll consider it,” Dexter answered. “But I’d rather stay to make sure. After all Star Swirl said that Celestia couldn’t wield the Elements all by herself, so I have a feeling this isn’t over yet.”
“… what?” Crystal asked in shock, almost angrily. “Star Swirl said WHAT?! Why didn’t you say something before?”
“Because, I have a very good reason to believe that Celestia will, in fact, use the Elements to defeat Nightmare Moon.” Dexter replied curtly.
“But it’s no guarantee?” Crystal complained, frowning at the colt. “I suppose you’re not going to tell me what your source is for that information?” Crystal turned away from the colt, storming out of the vault.
Dexter turned to follow, taking one more chance to let his eyes wander about the various artifacts. He was about to step out the vault door when his eyes spotted a vacant portion of raised floor, completely vacant of any artifacts.
Taking a closer look, there was indeed something missing. The vacancy betrayed by a patch of dustless stone. Whatever was here had been taken away very recently.
That’s when he spotted the plaque on the corner of the slab.
“Oh crap…”
“Hey foal, get out here unless you want to be locked in the vault until Celestia arrives!” Crystal called from somewhere outside. Dexter raced out of the vault, rushing to her side.
“We’ve got a BIG PROBLEM!”
“You didn’t break the vase, did you?”
---
Mission Log: Temporal Excursion to the Past
Objective: To disprove the existence of Nightmare Moon Save the world.
1000 years prior to arrival in Equestria
Dexter: Scientist, Boy Genius.
// Voice to Text Recording Initiated:
This is Dexter; I am making this recording to update my mission log. And I have to start off by asking:
WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?!
…
Well, I want to start off by declaring, for the record, that no matter what happens this wasn’t my fault.
I am, in absolutely NO WAY to blame for whatever happens.
Nope.
Now I know that one might argue that this history would have been just fine if I had left well enough alone, and that this whole awful mess with Nightmare Moon’s uprising would have certainly ended in her defeat had I not come into the past and started messing up the timeline.
But how could I be held at fault for that?! My doubts were justified! Even Star Swirl doubted it when I told him Celestia was supposed to wield all six of the Elements, a fact clearly recorded in the history books.
See, my doubts were justified! Therefore, traveling into the past and jeopardizing the integrity of the timeline just to prove my doubts correct wasn’t as stupid, reckless and irresponsible as it sounds.
…
…
…
Who’s to blame for this whole mess isn’t important right now.
So I’ll start over, picking up where my last log left off.
I successfully located Princess Luna, and began recording her in order to disprove the existence of Nightmare Moon.
But much to my dismay, I was wrong.
THAT LADY IS FREAKING CRAZY!
I mean REALLY, Luna is absolutely NUTS. I saw her having a crazed argument with a mirror. On top of that, her voice kept on shifting to this creepy tone. Eventually she changed her appearance all together and proclaimed herself as Queen Nightmare Moon.
That’s when she detected me.
I was hiding on top of a chandelier. However, it broke and I fell to the floor. Fortunately my cloak had performed flawlessly and she didn’t see me, but she heard me when I stood up and tried to leave. Of course when I realized she was on to me, I stopped making sound.
And that’s when everything hit the fan.
I narrowly escaped her bedroom without being skinned alive. But the act of her detecting me was enough to impact the chain of events currently unfolding.
Nightmare Moon immediately assumed that I was a spy working for Celestia, and decided that her plans to attack were about to be exposed. Thus, she accelerated her plans in order to maintain the element of surprise, causing the civil conflict to start four days earlier than it was supposed to.
Needless to say, the impact to the timeline cannot begin to be calculated.
However, I don’t know what to think about the timeline anymore. I have good reason to believe that the history books were completely and utterly wrong about everything. At least, regarding some very important details.
But I’ll explain that in a moment.
Shortly after escaping from Nightmare Moon’s private chambers, I meet Star Swirl The Bearded and his student Clover the Clever and helped them escape the castle. They were rather helpful, if not chatty, and told me how to gain access to the royal vaults so I could retrieve the Elements of Harmony.
Though they did give me a bit of bad news, three of the six elements had been hidden.
And that’s where the Changeling Queen comes in…
Seriously? As if I don’t have enough things to deal with at the moment.
It turns out, I found the Changeling Queen and a number of her subjects trying to break into the royal vaults. As luck would have it, they aren’t actually trying to steal anything. In fact, they seem to be genuinely focused on stopping Nightmare Moon.
Of course, I don’t trust anything they say. But they did retrieve the missing Elements of Harmony from wherever Nightmare Moon had hidden them. Such actions speak louder than any words, so I believe them when they say that didn’t do anything to precipitate Luna’s transformation into Nightmare Moon.
But considering my personal experiences with them, I still don’t trust them.
Nevertheless, they are my allies until Nightmare Moon is defeated.
But all of that pales in comparison to the discovery I made next.
DISCORD GOT LOOSE!
You know, in retrospect I should have predicted this.
Let me lay this out: Discord was imprisoned in stone by the Elements of Harmony. However, in the future, he will be released from his prison when some fillies get into a fight in his immediate vicinity. The chaos from the fillies’ fight was enough to strengthen Discord such that he could free himself from the magic that kept him encased in stone.
But all that is supposed to happen in a thousand years! Heck, I go to school with the fillies that did it!
However, I should have predicted that the same mechanics could be at play here: what would happen when two immortal alicorns get into a fight in proximity to Discord’s statue? Granted, they weren’t standing just beside him but they were in the same castle.
Plus, their fight is a bit more intense, if not one-sided.
Could the chaos of Celestia and Nightmare Moon fighting be enough to release Discord?
Heck, it might not have been just the alicorns! All of Equestria is erupting in the chaos of a civil war. In fact, the changelings have told me that the entire planet has erupted into chaos due to the sudden and drastic shift in the planet’s day-night cycle.
There is more than enough chaos happening across Equestria to release Discord.
But whatever the cause, Discord is loose!
And one thing is for absolute certain: The history books said absolutely nothing about Discord being freed this night.
Which leads me to one inescapable conclusion: The timeline has been altered irrevocably. Once Discord starts causing chaos, he will do so on a planetary scale.
But it doesn’t make any sense! My interference should not have been the determining factor in Discord’s escape! Even if everything went according to the original timeline, Nightmare Moon would have still caused the same amount of wide-scale chaos with her coup d'état!
And Discord was locked inside a vault this whole time; nothing should have been able to get to him!
…
Either these history books were horribly wrong, or this is now an entirely different timeline.
Whatever the case may be, I’m now flying blind. All of my knowledge about the events of this night are no good now.
I can only express regret for my failure to protect the timeline, but that is irrelevant right now. If Nightmare Moon isn’t defeated then there won’t be an Equestria in a thousand years. I’ve got to focus on that.
When the changelings found out that Discord was loose, they decided we needed to act fast.
It’s not a surprise that they don’t like the idea of Discord running around any more than I do.
In about four hours, they are going to distract Nightmare Moon, allowing me the chance to speak with Celestia. I’ll bring her the Elements of Harmony, and hopefully she will be able to use them to deal with both Discord and Nightmare Moon.
Once they’re out of the picture, I can focus on picking up the pieces-
[Unknown Spkr - M] “Oh I wouldn’t count on that, not with so much delicious chaos about…”
[Dexter] “End Log!”
[Log Terminated]
A/N:
Well, there you have it. I hope you guys enjoyed the twist. I've never read any of the comics, but does the MLP lore tell why Discord was released because three fillies got into a fight ("exemplifying discord") in front of him, but didn't get released when two alicorns were slugging away at each other in a fight which tore apart their castle?
Also, I was going to make Nightmare Moon a lot more evil and twisted than she was in this chapter - given that is what you all asked for. But I toned it down because I thought it was a bit much. Then the pre-readers toned it down even more. I hope it was the right call.
As you can see, Celestia spotted Dexter. That is something he will have to deal with when he returns to the future. But don't worry, Dexter's trip to the future will pick up right where it left off - I am not forging an alternate timeline.
STARS WARS THE FORCE AWAKENS IS IN FULL COLOR - sorry for the spoiler.