//------------------------------// // Fuzzy // Story: Crackshipping and You: Rainbow Moon // by Fuzzyfurvert //------------------------------// Somewhere in the dark forest, a lone timberwolf howled. Nothing answered its sad wail, since the local pack had been disintegrated by the will of the Queen the previous week. Rainbow Dash tsk’ed quietly to herself, kicking the tig remains of one of the creatures out from under her hooves and into the nearby scrub. The forest gave her the hebejebes, but she wasn’t about to let something like fear keep her from her duty. For the millionth time in the last minute, Rainbow wished the canopy here wasn’t choked with vines and old growth branches as thick as an earth pony’s leg. She’d give just about anything to be in the air and not on the ground, picking her way through the underbrush and timberwolf detritus. But here she was again, night after night, pressing onward regardless. Up ahead, Rainbow could see narrow shafts of moonlight where it pierced the leaves and creepers to illuminate a small clearing. She slowed as she reached the edge, pausing in the shadow of the last gnarled tree. In the center of the clearing, like something out of a fairy’s tale, sat a low table made from a single amethyst. On the table, like out of a haunted dream, reclined Queen Nightmare Moon. “You keep coming back here.” Nightmare Moon’s teal eyes were the only thing that moved to register Rainbow Dash’s presence. “Would you rather I gave my attentions to the castle and staff again?” Rainbow snorted, stepping into the clearing as gracefully as the root churned loamy soil would allow her. “The ceiling has almost been repaired and Rarity should be out of the infirmary anytime now. So...yeah. Saves me having to come out into the middle of nowhere to find you wanning here on that stupid table.” “Your Queen does not appreciate your tone.” Moonlight glinted off perfect, sharp teeth. “My apologies, your Highness.” Rainbow meant it, but she also meant for the dark goddess to see the accompanying smirk. “What I should have said was ‘find you here wallowing in melancholy rage over some pony that magicked herself into non-existence just because she believed that old hag Celestia could be saved.’” Rainbow walked up to the side of the amethyst table and rested her elbows on it. “Sorry I misspoke the first time.” She grinned, finishing her climb up onto the cool crystal to lay next to her Queen. “Any luck tonight?” “You are quite lucky that you are cute.” Nightmare growled hungrily. “Do you know that?” “You keep reminding me.” “So that you never forget your place.” Nightmare snarled, unfurling her wings to lay one across Dash’s back. “Beneath me.” Rainbow grinned harder, snuggling her body against her Queen’s. “It’s where I belong.” “You may stop plying me with compliments. I find myself...distracted...now.” Nightmare sighed, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips. “Though my efforts to destroy this wretched crystal have met with continued resistance, I have had some...luck.” She gestured with a faint nod of her regal horn, those teal eyes tracing a spider’s webbing of cracks through the table’s semi-transparent interior. “Soon it will break. I just require time and power. Both of which I have in infinite supply.” “But not patience.” Rainbow spoke softly, knowing where to press her warmth into Nightmare for maximum effect. “I know you’ll do it. Eventually. I believe in you, your Highness. You’ll erase every last scrap of the old ways, the old Equestria. We’ll be reborn and be better than ever.” The mare reached forward with her wings and unbuckled the harness that kept her armor on. It rattled dully against the stone table and she pushed it away so that she could press even more of her sky blue coat against the midnight blue of Nightmare. Rainbow nuzzled Nightmare where leathery wing met feathers and fur alike, kissing along that powerful muscle. “Don’t let that nutter pony get you off your game.” Rainbow left a trail of wet kisses from Nightmare’s wing to shoulder, her voice husky. “She was nutters back in Cloudsdale, she was nutters here and now she doesn’t even exist anymore. You checked yourself.” Nightmare nodded, stretching one hoof out to the edge of the table, extending Dash’s journey to her neck. “Yes. I believe you are right, my captain. That purple one was...nutters. A world where my sister still rules? Preposterous.” She sighed when Rainbow started to kneed the juncture where her wing attached to her back, the former pegasus continuing to kiss along in tiny increments. “Nonetheless...this thing, this crystal table...it is somehow attached to my sister, and I will not stand this affront on my kingdom.” Rainbow murmured in agreement, lifting herself until she could just reach the under side of Nightmare’s jaw. She nipped at the soft skin there, nickering playfully when Nightmare pulled away. She bit harder and was rewarded with a soft growl and a swift trip from Nightmare’s wing claw that spilled her on her back. Rainbow gasped and smiled up at the dark shadow blotting out what little moonlight made it into the forest clearing. “Want to desecrate it again?” Teal pools and gleaming fangs flashed in the night above the prone pony. “With you? Always.”