//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12 - Back to the Edge 
// Story: Shadows' Call 
// by NPP6 
//------------------------------//

	Diamond opened her eyes blearily. As she took in the scene, adrenaline flooded her veins.
She was hanging off the edge of a cliff, a vicious wind keeping her floating like a kite. There was a massive chain connected to some kind of harness she was wearing. Each link was as big as she was
She was gawking at the chain when she heard a voice.
“So, thou art finally with us.”
The dark alicorn standing on the cliff was not the one she knew. The biggest difference was probably that she was a mare. “Princess Luna?” Diamond hazarded a guess.
“Yes. We implore that thou forgive our formality, such emotional strain as tonight doth bring out old habits of speech.”
“O-of course. You’ll have to forgive my not bowing.”
Luna laughed lightly, “E’en if thou wert ours to have bow, such would be unnecessary from one of thine rank.” At Diamonds confused expression, her mood sobered. “We see. If he hast not told thee yet, then tis not our place.” She shook her mane, an interesting sight given it's ethereal nature. “Enough of this. We are here tonight with purpose.”
“Isn’t Midnight supposed to be the one who visits me? I thought we had to stay separate?”
“Verily. On other occasions, ‘twould be his duty. This night however falls to us. After we leave thee Ranger, we shall remove ourselves from Equestria for a span. We shall return briefly to the moon, and visit with old friends amongst the stars. Ere that however, thou and we must speak of hard things.”
“Like what?”
“Dost thou know where we are?”
Diamond was about to respond in the negative, when she realized that she did recognize this cliff. “We’re in the dreamscape, aren’t we?”
“Verily. And what part of said dreamscape praytell?”
Diamond looked around for a moment, then swallowed as the gears began turning in her mind. “The boundary between Night and Darkness.”
“Forsooth. Dost thou understand thine peril then?” Diamond mutely nodded and the mare continued, “Understand this then: The only reason thou hast not yet fallen into yonder darkness is the bindings of the very oath that thou art on the verge of betraying.
“It is for this reason that our Midnight remains absent. Were he here, the ancient laws that bind us all would require him to sever this chain and let you fall, lest thou drag him into darkness with thee.”
It suddenly occurred to Diamond what the harness was. Her shadow armor had taken a different form for a special occasion apparently. “But… how did I get here? I never left Noctus Bastion.”
“Didn’t you?”
“Of course not, I would remember–”
“And how wouldst thou know? Dost thou remember where thou hast dreamwalked these past nights?”
For the first time, Diamond realized that she hadn’t left her dreams since the night… the first night she killed. “But… Still, how did I get here?”
“An excellent query. Thou arrived in thy present situation by beginning the process of becoming a Nightmare.” Luna continued over Diamond’s objections, “Dost thou know the details of how a pony becomes a nightmare? No, we thought not.
“To phrase things simply, a pony wraps themselves in darkness, becoming a part of it. They steep themselves in it, and it grows into ever deeper Darkness. Eventually, the Darkness penetrates their heart and soul, turning them. And then a Nightmare is born.”
Luna gestured with that final sentence, and Diamond gasped to see a pale, transparent alicorn near her. She was flying, just below the lip of the cliff, pawing in Luna’s direction, but not quite able to reach her. Diamond had never seen the mare herself before, although she had heard her described. In truth, she probably would have recognized her anyway, considering that she looked like a cross between Princess Luna and Nyx.
This was Nightmare Moon.
“So then… you mean I’m turning into Nightmare Moon?”
Luna shook her head. “No. Nightmare Moon is ours. Thou wert transforming into a Nightmare of thine own. And thou yet shall if ye fail tonight.”
“What do I need to do?”
“Fulfill your oath. Dost thou still remember it?”
“Fighting darkness, born of Night, live in shadows, protect the light. Stand for right and never fall, I now heed the Shadows’ Call.”
“Perfect. Tonight thou shalt dreamwalk as never before. In each place, thou must face the nightmare thou art in danger of becoming. Only if thou art victorious against her shalt thou have the ability to return. Now, our time with thee is at an end. I pray we might meet again under more fortunate circumstances, but I must away, and thou must pull thyself back to the edge.”
There was a wind, and some fog, and Diamond had to blink tears out of her eyes. When her vision cleared, Luna was gone, as was the apparition of Nightmare Moon. With no other real options, she reached out and grabbed the first link of the chain, intent on pulling herself hoof over hoof.
The instant she touched it however, her world went white.



She was floating again. She recognized the place, and instinctively knew who she’d find there.
Diamond?
He was behind her. She willed herself not to turn, but couldn’t quite keep her ears up straight as she answered, “Hello Blacklight.”
Why are you here?
“Don’t you already know?”
Do you?
“I… I’m here because I made some mistakes.”
Yes, we did.
“We?”
Unlike other weapons Diamond, I have a soul. What I do is my fault to an extent. This burden is not wholly yours.
“You sound a lot… older.”
Experience. It does that to my kind.
“I see… Blacklight, what is your kind exactly?”
Nightsteel Construct would be the closest thing I have to a race I suppose.
“And,” It occurred to Diamond that she was hesitating a lot tonight, “Are you… the last one?”
There was a pause while Blacklight seemed to consider. Then, I suppose that depends on your answer to my question.
“What question?”
Why are you here?
Diamond sighed, it looked like she had to say it. That made sense she supposed, she had been told she’d have to face the Nightmare. “Because I’m supposed to hunt and fight nightmares, but I was becoming one. Because the Darkness has almost taken me, which means we’re this close to failing our mission.”
Another pause, as Blacklight seemed to be waiting for something. Is that all? All this is indeed true, but is it truly the answer?
“What do you mean?”
You’re here because you were becoming a nightmare and that is all? Does this truly sound right to you?
“…No.” Diamond wasn’t sure how much time went by as she tried several more answers that meet with essentially the same response. Eventually she found herself asking the question to herself in a different tone. Why was she wasting her time here, what could she hope to accomplish…
Wait.
“I know why I’m here.” She could feel Blacklight’s attention turn to her. “I know why I’m here. I’m here because I need your help. There are nightmares out there, including one that’s almost me. I need to stop them, to keep them from hurting other ponies. And if I’m going to do that, I need your help.”
And you have it.



Diamond blinked as she felt the metal her hoof seemed attached to. It was a well-known fact that all ponies had a small amount of magic in their hooves that let them hold things, and it seemed the dreamscape amplified this ability.
She took the moment to consider what her visit with Blacklight had accomplished. She honestly couldn’t think of a thing, besides perhaps healing some unseen damage to their connection. Yes, she decided, that must be it.
It didn’t occur to her as she reached for the next link, and it never would after, that she had solidified her intent with her first visit.
Which was good, because she was about to need Nightsteel resolve.



She was in a city somewhere. It looked vaguely like Manehatten, but it was severely twisted and warped.
It was also very bloody.
Just about everything was soaked in blood, far more than would have been possible elsewhere. It was almost comical, except for the completely irrational sense of fear it induced.
As Diamond galloped in a random direction, details began filling in. Soon bodies were littering the streets, some of them even whole. After a while, she heard the sounds of distant fighting and headed towards it. Several blocks later, she found her.
Them…
Both hers individually and collectively meaningful.
I give up.
The filly she had met in the bar, who in the real world was currently sleeping in Keen’s bed, was cowering in the middle of a square, about the only thing that wasn’t bloodstained at this point.
There was another filly too, a black one with a pale gray mane. Those colors were barely visible through the blood that streamed off her body. She was holding a chainsaw and saying something, although Diamond couldn’t hear the words. It was odd, she could hear everything but words.
The real filly said something, and again Diamond watched her lips move but heard no sound. A response was cut off as a pony came galloping around a corner in terror. He froze at the sight before him, scrabbling with his hooves to run the other way, but the nightmare was too fast. In less than a second, the chainsaw had passed through his body and he fell to the ground in seven pieces.
Diamond had had enough. She stepped between the terrified filly and the nightmare, and slammed her forehooves on the ground for attention. There was a ripple, not quite a shockwave, just a pause, like the dream was taking a breath.
Then both fillies seemed to see her at the same time. Diamond preempted both of their surprised outcries with a statement of her own, “Friend, relax a little, this is a dream. Nightmare, you’re mine.”
Blacklight swung out, readying for battle. Diamond paused mid-step though as she heard a small whimper behind her. She sighed. “No, that’s me doing it again, isn’t it?” Blacklight locked back into his defensive position, and she locked eyes with the nightmare. “You are mine though, and you don’t have any right to be here.”
“And how do you plan to eject me? Your weakness betrays you, you are not even worthy of me.”
Diamond’s eyes flashed. “Worthy? I’m not really worthy of anything. I’m not a hero, or a soldier, and the last week proves I don’t deserve to be a Shadow Ranger. But I’m here anyway, standing between you and this filly.”
“Why? You don’t even know her name.”
“I don’t need to. She’s scared, alone, hurting inside based on her dreamscape. That’s all I need to know, is that she needs help.”
“So then we fight.”
“No. So now you leave. You don’t belong here nightmare.”
“And where am I to go then?  Tell me who I can plague.”
“Nopony. You’re not allowed to make anypony fear you.”
The nightmare laughed, “Aside from the fact that that is what nightmares do, I don’t have to make anypony afraid. After all, you do enough of that for the both of us.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Can’t you see it? I’m you! She’s afraid of you, that’s how I got into her nightmare!”
A cold chill ran down Diamond’s spine as she thought about that statement. It made entirely too much sense given what she’d seen of Luna and Nightmare Moon. “What makes you think she’s afraid of me?” It was the only thing she could bring herself to say.
“Because I can taste it! On her and on you!”
“How can you sense anything about me!?”
“I AM YOU!”
The statement hit Diamond, and she recoiled as if she’d actually been slapped. Then it occurred to her. “No.”
“What?”
“No. You’re not me, not yet.” She locked eyes with the other filly, and this time, there was a light in them that was absent before. “If you were, we wouldn’t be here. You’re trying to get stronger, so that you can be me. But you’re not ready yet. You haven’t been born yet.”
“This is ridiculous!”
“Ah-hah! That’s not anger anymore. I’ve got you reevaluating things now, which means I’m right, aren’t I?”
“You ignorant little foal–”
“Don’t you see though, that’s exactly it! I’m just a foal, once you strip away the shadows and night, I’m not you yet.”
“You will never be rid of me!”
“No, but the rest of Equestria will.”
“What?”
“I said it before, you’re mine. You. Are. Mine. You belong to me. You are my personal nightmare, and you have no right to be anypony else’s. So that’s where you go now, to me. My dreamscape, or wherever I have to put you, but you come back into me and you stay there until the day I die, because I am never letting you out again.”
A wind had slowly been picking up as the pair had argued, and by the time Diamond finished her monologue, it was whipping around both of them frantically. A small band of light began glowing around each of the nightmare’s hooves, growing thicker as she fought it.
Finally she looked at Diamond with desperation in her eyes. “I can give you power! Things you can’t imagine! Anything you could ever want!”
“I know, I’ll pass, and you’re wrong. I didn’t really like being lonely, and that’s all you’ll give me. The price is too high. Get out.”
A rip opened in the dream and the lights around the nightmare’s hooves solidified into manacles. Chains attached to them dragged the filly from the dream screaming. Her protests and oaths were abruptly cut off as the portal closed again, leaving Diamond and the other filly in an eerie silence.
The other filly broke it by bursting into tears. Diamond rushed over to her, Blacklight fading into shadow when he saw his services were not required.
“Hey,” Diamond grabbed the filly’s shoulders roughly, “None of that now, she’s gone. She can’t hurt you.”
The filly just wrapped Diamond in a hug. “I was so scared.”
“Easy,” Diamond began stroking the filly’s mane, the way her father had when she was younger. “Easy there. Remember, this is all a dream. She was just another nightmare to you.”
“B-but… She said she was…”
“Me. She was me. What I could become if I’m not careful. She wasn’t lying. But I promise you, that’s all she’ll ever be. A nameless nightmare, a could-have-been that never was.”
As the filly continued to sob, the scene around them shifted. Diamond wasn’t sure which of them was responsible, or if it was just that the nightmare had left, but the twisty bits straightened out a little. The blood was washed away by a gentle rain. The bodies and body parts faded from existence when your attention was diverted.
Eventually, the pair of them were sitting there in the middle of an only slightly cartoonish version of Manehatten. The moment was beautiful, in an only slightly depressing way, until it was shattered by a dark chuckle.
Diamond’s eyes snapped open as the filly she was holding stiffened. There was a stallion there, maybe ten paces away. She didn’t recognize him, and he didn’t feel out of place like the nightmare filly had. “Who is he?” She whispered in the filly’s ear.
She swallowed. “He’s… nopony. Nopony important. Don’t worry about him.”
Diamond ignored the filly however, gently extricating herself from the embrace. She walked carefully towards the stallion, keeping herself deliberately calm. She stopped about four hooves away from him and met his gaze steadily. “I don’t know who you are, but I know what you are. And I hunt nightmares. And if that doesn’t make things clear, well,” She shrugged, “You just saw what I can turn into when somepony hurts my friends.
“So run.”
The figure sank back into the darkness, and Diamond turned on her heel with a contemptuous flick of her mane. She quickly softened her demeanor though, and gently walked back over to her friend.
There was a moment before Diamond broke the silence, “We need to talk… But something tells me this isn’t the right time. We’ll talk when we wake up.”
“When we wake up?”
“Yes, this is all a dream.”
“So… nothing’s real?”
“I didn’t say that… Ugh, now I sound like Midnight. Look, it’s complicated. I’ll explain later.”
“How will I know any of this is real then?”
“Uuummmmm……. Oh! This works all the time in movies, tell me a secret.”
“What?”
“Tell me a secret, something that I couldn’t normally know.”
“Okay… Like what?”
Diamond resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “If I knew that, then it wouldn’t work.”
The filly in turn facehooved. “No, I get that, I mean… ask me a question.”
“Oh.” Diamond flushed, although she wasn’t sure if it showed through her black coat. She tried to think of any questions she’d had, but there really weren’t any. There was nothing to even prompt questions, she didn’t even know… That’d work.
“What’s your name?”
The filly blinked in surprise, then it seemed to occur to her that the question had never been asked before. “Featherdown.” She sighed as Diamond raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, I know. My mom… she never found out I wasn’t a pegasus.”
Diamond sank back on her haunches. “Oh. Well… um. Sorry to hear that. I’ve got a friend like that… I actually just found out recently she doesn’t even know how her parents died.”
“Yes, and I’m sure she’s as showered with sympathy as I was. Don’t pretend you know what it’s like.”
Diamond winced. “Actually, she’s been bullied most of her life. Usually by me.” It was apparently surprising enough to stop Featherdown’s anger cold. “Yeah, I’m not proud of that. I’ll tell you about it later though, remember to ask me about Diamond Tiara and Applebloom.”
“Okay… Where are you going now?”
“The next link in the chain I guess.” Diamond turned and started walking, a hole opening in the air before her. She smiled to herself; she was getting the hang of this place.



Diamond was panting heavily.
She had been through dozens of dreams, though it had been a long time after Featherdown before she’d recognized anypony. It did occur to her though that she was moving geographically, slowly getting further and further away from her body. That had happened around the time she’d visited Applebloom, the first pony she’d seen who’d been having a nightmare about Diamond Tiara instead of Black Diamond.
She had stayed out of sight there, keeping to the shadows. She decided it was better not to talk to anypony from Ponyville.
She was tiring though. There had been no rest since she’d started, and dragging herself hoof over hoof was exhausting. Gritting her teeth, she shoved that thought aside and reached for the next link.



“Miss Cheerilee?”
It was the first time Diamond had tried to interact with somepony she knew. She wouldn’t have, but… Cheerilee’s nightmare was strange, different from the others she’d seen.
Cheerilee turned to the filly, eyes hollow and vacant. “Do I know you?”
It dawned on Diamond that her teacher wouldn’t recognize her with the armor on. After a moment of thought, she decided to go for a half-truth. “Sort of… I’m with the guard Ma’am, I need you to tell me about what happened here.”
Cheerilee’s voice was as empty as her gaze. “They died.”
“Who?”
“All of them. All my foals, my students, they… they killed them.”
“Who killed them?”
“The cult mostly, the stallion got one though…”
“What happened?”
The mare let out a sob of anguish, “I had to choose and I couldn’t save them! I could either go after her or stay to protect them, but I couldn’t decide and… and they all died. They’re all dead because of me.”
Diamond had learned something about dreams by this point. Among her new skills was the ability to manipulate reality within the dreamscape. “Really? Because if I didn’t know better, I’d say that armored wagon coming up the road is flying the Crusader flag and packed full of your very alive students.”
Literally on cue a military wagon came barreling around a corner like a runaway train. Diamond recognized the foals inside, though she could sense that they were merely part of the dream.
Another sob was torn from Cheerilee’s throat, this time of joy. It was followed by an exclamation of terror as at least thirty shadowy figures faded into existence along the path, attempting to assault the vehicle.
Diamond saw where this was going and loudly observed, “And would you look at how well they fight back.”
Suddenly, her schoolmates were armed to the teeth. She assumed Cheerilee’s mind had provided the weapons, because she only recognized one. Although the one she recognized made her wonder if any of the others were real.
“They’ll never beat them alone.”
Cheerilee’s statement was somewhere between a groan and a whisper. Full of dread at observing the inevitable.
Time stopped.
Literally, everything except Diamond and Cheerilee froze in place. The filly even noticed spells and ammunition floating in the air as she turned to her teacher.
“No,” She admitted, “They won’t. But they don’t have to be alone, do they?”
Cheerilee stared at her, uncomprehending. “But… Diamond Tiara might need my help too.”
Diamond shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. But them? They definitely do.”
Cheerilee hesitated only a moment longer before charging into the battlefield. The combat instantly resumed, but the tide was quickly turned against the cultists, who were almost instantly defeated.
Diamond couldn’t help smiling at the scene that unfolded before her. She also couldn’t resist calling out as she turned to leave, “Hey! Isn’t that Diamond Tiara coming over that hill there!?”



Diamond was gasping for breath, tears streaming from her eyes. Every time she visited a dream, she forgot how hard it was to keep crawling along the chain. She couldn’t take it anymore, it just hurt too much… No, she had to keep going, she had to fight, she had to–
As she reached for the next link with one hoof, half blind with tears and fatigue, her other hoof slipped. She fell back, ready to finally give in and surrender to the wind trying to blow her into the darkness.
Then she felt somepony grab her hoof. “I’ve got you.”
She opened her eyes to see an alicorn stallion. His coat was a matte black that seemed to eat light, his mane and tail a deep, oily midnight blue, his eyes blue as well, but steely blue, and with draconic pupils, like a cat… like Nyx’s. What really stuck out though were his wings. They weren’t feathery like the other alicorns she’d seen, they were more like bat pony wings.
She tilted her head to look up at the alicorn holding her. Midnight smiled down at her. “Don’t worry, he can’t hurt anypony right now.” He hauled her backwards, taking slow but steady steps until they were a good few yards away from the lip of the cliff. He gave her another gentle smile. “Well Diamond, welcome back to the edge.”