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// Chapter Numero Uno de First & Only 
// Story: Antagonists' Pub 
// by D Historian 
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Antagonists’ Pub

The clopping sound of hoofsteps echoed softly as the cloaked figure trotted along, each silver clad hoof sending chink sounds when they contacted the hard but dusty cement pavement.
The cloak waved about and drooped as the hood was thrown back. A navy blue high-cheeked face, framed with flowing royal blue hair, stars glittering in the star-struck mane of princess Luna. Her dark turquoise eyes glittered intensely in the silvery light her moon cast. She angled her head at the end of the long and grey path. 
She blinked at her still sparking horn, burning from the after-effects of a powerful long distance teleport. Thankfully, Equestria was mostly dark now, but a tip of her spiralled blue horn shone with blue light, illuminating her surroundings as she walked.
The hem of the black cloak, fluttered before coming to a rest, slapping the princess’s slender legs. It dragged along the path, gathering dust.
Luna frowned in concentration for a brief moment, her horn charging up, light swirling up along the grooves in her horn and sparkling when it reached the tip. The result of the spell was the entire street brightening in a bluish shade, the lopsided silhouette at the end of the alley becoming clearer.
Antagonists’.
The barely legible words stood out brightly against the pale and rotting sign. The sign trembled whenever a breeze wound its way through the two concrete buildings on either side of the alley and nudged the wooden board gently.
It hung on thin ropes, swinging silently in time with the building’s quivering shutters that were firmly nailed, unable to open, on the near-opaque-with-age windows. 
Luna walked calmly, her eyes fixed on her target, a single feathered wing stripping herself of her garments. The black cloak, dustier than ever, lay discarded on a side of the pavement, where it would lie there, forgotten for the rest of eternity. Or not.
A flashing electric blue light blazed forth, and within seconds, it had consumed the princess. When the starry smoke cleared, it was not the serene princess of the night that was to be seen, but black razor wings, like a scythes’ edge beat the remaining fog out of existence. Jagged teeth were revealed by lips which curved up in approval of the efficient and life-like disguise. 
It was nearly complete.
The magic flamed again, conjuring armour plates of searing blue. The alicorn adorned them carefully, each armour piece bring back a memory, each burning into Luna’s mind with a flaming knife of guilt, pride and loneliness. 
The urge to relax drove down any remaining guilt. The image of Nightmare Moon stared back at Luna as she admired her costume in the silvery blue metal reflection, before adorning the helmet, too.
The princess shivered, feeling the cold wind rake her un-burdened back with a freezing claw. The blue star-metal weighed the newly morphed princess down, and made her head feel even colder. The sudden movement of the swaying sign made her jump as it knocked gently against the building’s door.
It paled in comparison to the proud tavern that once stood in its place centuries ago, if Luna’s memory served, but it was the same infamous pub for villains.
On closer inspection, the door was a browned and rusty metal, instead of wood that Luna had though it was. One hoof against the cold material brought away scrapes of flaking rust, which the princess brushed off in disgust. She scrutinised the reddish sand-like substance that littered the real wooden carved knob. 
Her ears pricked up delicately at the chatter and drunken laughter that drifted invitingly from behind the door. Faint sounds of scratching followed. Curiosity rearing it head, Luna lit her horn and turned the door knob, shedding rust.
The door’s hinges squeaked in defiance, the old mechanism damaged from countless fights and brawls that regularly surfaced from such a shady place. With a final pull, Luna sheared through the cobwebs and rust coating the door’s edges, and pushed it open, against the stubborn hinges’ will.
A tearing war cry sprang the minute the door allowed the princess the space to enter. Her first instinct was to shield her ears against the sound, but decided better of it and ducked on reflex, a glass shattering into crystalline pieces that impaled a few unlucky insects having ventured despite the danger. Luna bit her lip, glaring at the sparkling shards, still moist with alcohol, that had smashed into where her face had been moments ago.
A round of tipsy laughter drifted about the rowdy atmosphere, complete with the flickering yellow light of the torches that were forced skilfully into the wooden walls of the pub.
Turning back to face the many round cloth-less tables that were scattered about the begrimed bar, Luna took a step forward and stumbled the rest of the way, crashing face first into the dusty planks of the floor, drawing more laughter. 
Once the ringing in her ears cleared, her face burned in embarrassment. The warmth in her cheeks was similar to the warmth that had contacted her hoof when she had started forward. Spitting the foul taste of sweat and old alcohol from her mouth, Nightmare Moon scrambled to her feet and glanced at the prone object that lay on the Pub’s floors, mumbling drunkenly under its breath. A single red-tipped horn curved upwards and ended in a sharp point. The hazy grey coat of a well-known tyrant.
“Sombra?”
Hearing a familiar female voice, incredulous and shocked, the ex-king of the Crystal Empire peered up with red and inebriated eyes, the sclera glowing bright green and the edges smoking with purple fog, the usual indication of dark magic.
Seeing his position, the unicorn frowned, as if he could not remember how he had gotten there. He then blinked, trying to focus his eyes on the familiar princess. He whistled, a drunk smirk settling on his face. He lowered his voice to a husky tone, his eyes narrowing.
“Wow…one can really…see the moon from here.”
Luna watched in horrified fascination as Sombra, her sister’s enemy for the longest time, lick his teeth, two fangs sticking out from his mouth. Snapping out from her trance, Nightmare Moon bared her equally sharp canines to glitter at him dangerously, growling threateningly to add for effect. She scrambled off him immediately, watching the supposedly dead king right himself.
“Sombra! How are you here?” Nightmare demanded harshly, scowling at the unicorn tyrant, who swayed involuntarily and hiccupped. 
He paused at Nightmare’s accusing tone, blinking at the bar, which twirled nauseatingly in front of his eyes. He giggled at his own drunken state before he addressed the startled alicorn.
He beckoned with a single grey hoof, the lack of his usual adornments on his hoof causing him to misjudge the amount of strength needed, and nearly capsized, before grabbing Nightmare Moon around the neck for balance. Realising how close he was to her, he whispered into a severely discomfited Nightmare’s ear.
“I have no idea.”
Luna face-hoofed at Sombra’s genuine obliviousness and sighed. She shrugged the drunk tyrant off expressively, causing him to tip over, head first, and crash to the floor, once again left to admire the unique dust patterns that coated the floor in a grimy array, where he promptly fell asleep.
With that headache out of the way, Nightmare looked to the rest of the bar. Most of the occupants, several diamond dogs, griffons, ponies and other creatures had turned away, interest lost, to their own business.
Faint and decades old music played in the background. 
A long table was placed at the very back of the bar, the table top actually lacking in the inch layer of dust the rest of the room had. Every stool that was arranged along the table was occupied by a changeling. The bug-like race of creatures was abuzz with chatter, glancing at a particular spot on the floor which was not visible to the alicorn.
Nightmare Moon paced slowly towards them, curiosity flaring, noticing that the scrabbling and scratching that she had heard from the outside was coming from there.
Every now and then, a changeling would clap two of its holey appendages together and chant, occasionally cheering. A few of the changelings sometimes would also start shifting furniture about, warily, as though afraid.
“Fight! Fight! Fight!”
Their caution was easily explained when the alicorn finally got near enough to observe the cause.
Two creatures, one long, serpentine and draconic, the other appearing to be pony-shaped, fought each other in heated intensity. The snake-like chimera was an amalgamation of several creatures, and had flashing scarlet and gold eyes that glared angrily at the other creature in asymmetrical anger. Two mismatched claws, one cat-like, the other resembling a bird of prey’s, scratched into the floorboards, clearing dust and making long and deep grooves. The tall black equine punched her opponent defensively with a dark holed hoof, her insectile wings buzzing and creating an infernal chant that the changelings responded to.
“Discord? Chrysalis?”
The two battling creatures ignored her, churning up dust that caused nearby changelings to sneeze. Discord continued punching and swiping, his magic obviously not in use against Chrysalis, who charged up her magic weakly in a burst of green flame every now and then.
Luna groaned and placed a hoof to her head. She trotted over to one of the wooden stools and bucked a tipsy changeling off, who flew across the room and landed beside the still un-moving Sombra, joining him to scrutinise the amazing dust coat on the equally amazing floor planks.
She jabbed daintily, which was equivalent to slamming, a hoof onto the long table, sending tremors through it and changelings to look around in confusion at the vibrations.
Instantly, a cloaked pony appeared out of the shadows, its face and features covered by a dark grey cloak which swept the area behind it. It nodded inquisitively to the alicorn, who pointed at a golden bottle chock full of a similarly coloured liquid with a hoof, the other supporting her head as she groaned. As soon as the drink was served, the cloaked pony melted back into the unlit darkness at the back of the table, waiting to be summoned again.
The honey coloured liquid was halfway to Luna’s lips, suspended by her blue magical aura, when a yellow eagle claw grabbed it out of mid-air.
Nightmare Moon hissed in displeasure at an unharmed Discord, who raised a white furry eyebrow and gulped her drink in a single swallow, tutting.
“You forgot to slit your eyes, Lulu!” He scolded sarcastically. Luna amended her illusion quickly. 
“Where’s Chry-“
She let the question hang, unfinished, as she got her answer prematurely. Sitting on her other side, pointedly not sitting near or looking at Discord, was Chrysalis. She was sipping a drink, courtesy of the mysterious bartender who once again disappeared after replacing Nightmare’s lost drink. She blinked casually at the alicorn, looking like herself and unlike the Chrysalis who was brawling un-regally moments ago, sporting only a black eye and several bruises.
Chrysalis swirled her drink, savouring the flavour, in her mouth. She sipped more of it, revealing some broken teeth. She turned to look at Nightmare.
“How strong is this stuff?”
Discord answered her nonchalantly, picking his snaggletooth with newly unsheathed lion claws. “Strong enough for you to play a Go-Fish with moi, I hope?”
Chrysalis readily agreed, insisting that she got to shuffle the deck, looking at Luna questioningly. The currently sensible alicorn declined immediately, lifting a hoof.
“Still not drunk enough to play Go-Fish with the lord of chaos, but you can go ahead first, I’ll join you after.” Nightmare Moon then proceeded to gulp alcohol at the speed of light.
The two previously fighting antagonists smirked at each other, cards assigned to each. They proceeded to play, the memory of the fight still blatantly obvious and stuck in their minds.
Chrysalis struck a conversation, leering at the draconequus, remembering how she had taunted him earlier and got under his skin.
“So, Discord, do tell. How are you enjoying your new role as the ponies’-“
“Fives?”
Chrysalis obliged, hiding her anger and frustration. She gritted her teeth and tried to taunt Discord again in vain.
Three fruitless turns later, it was blatantly obvious that a mortal changeling queen could not beat the master of chaos. 
Chrysalis glanced at the very drunk and very asleep Nightmare Moon. Taking a leaf out of her book, she followed suit and drowned her sorrows, frustration and anger in the sweet remorseless and guiltless euphoria of alcohol.
Discord glanced down at the chugging changeling and at the sleeping princess of night, her Nightmare Moon illusion fading off. He was still sober and bored, despite having out drunk a table of diamond dogs and two griffins. He blinked around at air, looking and saying indifferently to no one in the particular vicinity.
“So...same time next week?”