...and then backing her into a corner.
Nobody could say that Cruel Knife did not do his job. Nobody could say he shirked his duties. He was a good hitpony, and thorough. Most others would have fled at the prospect of killing an alicorn. Not him.
It could be done. It was possible. It was all a question of hitting them fast… hitting them hard… hitting them from all sides simultaneously, so as to overwhelm the extremely powerful regenerative and restorative magic that granted them their near indestructibility. Trap them inside a booby trapped house full of high explosives for example. Or perhaps spear them with a lance made of some sort of ultra high velocity continuously reforming stream of molten metal.
The Problem was that anything that could take down an Alicorn also took down everything around them for quite a large radius, turning the hit job into a suicide mission. Cruel Knife was a professional, not a fanatic. He was not into suicide missions.
There was, perhaps, another way. Ponies, especially young ones, often lost control of their magic if placed under immense emotional stress. Overload the young Alicorn filly with emotional suffering, and her magical powers may go on the fritz, leaving her vulnerable.
Cruel Knife was thorough. He did his research. He travelled to Canterlot to visit the massive archives of the Equestrian Government. There he found Nyx’s identity card. It listed her address as the Golden Branches Library, Ponyville. A cross check of that address revealed that Golden Branches had a live in librarian, who, it further turned out, was none other than Twilight Sparkle.
That certainly complicated things. Cruel was not into politics or history.. but he knew enough to know that Twilight Sparkle was very close to Princess Celestia… and he had heard rumors that she was the most magically powerful unicorn in Equestria… perhaps even the third most magically powerful Pony- just a cut below the Royal Sisters themselves. It was clear that if his plans were to work, Nyx had to be separated from Twilight.
Cruel Went to the Equestrian National Library, a few blocks from the Archives. There he looked up archived copies of The Ponyville Gazette, a once every 2 weeks local interest newspaper that covered Ponyville events, usually farmer’s markets, school fairs and other matters that seem trivial to outsiders but form the lifeblood of tight-knit small communities. He looked up every issue Since Luna’s Return, on the theory that any Pony that lived with Twilight Sparkle, would show up standing next to her in a photograph at some point.
Finally he met pay dirt: his target was there, on the front page. She was wearing some kind of vest that obscured her wings, but it was clearly her, straining adorably at a rope in a tug of war, surrounded by three other fillies. The Caption confirmed her identity: Best Friends Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo , Apple Bloom and Nyx show that Friendship is Magic by working together towards victory during the Tug of War at the Learn and Play Day!
Cruel took out a pencil, levitating it to the note pad he had brought with him. He wrote down “Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo”. Now he knew how to separate Nyx from Twilight Sparkle. Now he knew how to get her to come to him. Now he knew just how he would break her.
Apple Bloom strained at her restraints, not for the first time. Being an earth pony who led a life of exercise and physical labor, she was extremely strong for such a young filly. And yet this time, like all the times before when she had attempted this, the restraints budged not a millimeter.
Next to her was Sweetie Belle, straining at her own bounds while looking forlornly at the tip of her horn, where the magic suppressor that Cruel Knife had fitted on her rested, mocking her by its very existence. Gags had been placed across both their mouths after Sweetie Belle’s attempts at lifting their spirits through singing had gotten on Cruel Knife’s nerves. Apple Bloom's warnings to Cruel had been a factor as well, though on the whole Cruel was thankful for the revelations put forth through the little earth pony’s bravado. She kept telling him that Nyx was the most loyal of friends. That she would track them down and rescue her. That Nyx would happily place her life at risk to defend her friends. Perfect.
He had kidnapped Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom with ease. Upon learning of their close relations with two of the Elements of Magic, he had set out to track them and then wait for an opportune moment in which to ambush them. But strangely, their families were nowhere to be seen. Upon seeing that both of the fillies seemed to spend much of their time eating a type of pastry that was apparently called “Idiot balls", Cruel procured a box of the treats from an apparently abandoned pastry shop and laid out a trail of them to trap first one filly and then the other .
He then went to both Sweet Apple Acres and Carousel Boutique and left behind written detailed instructions for Nyx. She was to come here, alone. The letters had an embedded teleportation spell that when activated, would instantly transport Nyx to his subterranean torture room… but only if she spoke the spell aloud while alone in a room. This was an attempt to stop her from bringing anyone else along. Cruel had no way of knowing whether or not Twilight Sparkle could subvert such a protection, but he figured the answer was “probably” so there were also highly descriptive threats of what would happen to her friends if she did not go along and come alone.
Cruel had woven one last spell into the notes. It would tell him when somepony was using magic to read the note or activate the spell, thus giving him time to set the trap. The moment Nyx arrived he would begin torturing the other fillies in front of her, hopefully causing her to breakdown, giving him his chance to strike.
His end of the portkey was inside a steel cage lined with anti-teleportation spells. The young alicorn had already showed her ability to somehow break through these spells, but this was a feat that would probably demand a great deal of concentration from such a young filly. Cruel was thorough, and knew this was probably the most dangerous hit of his career… and thus it would be his greatest. He had taken precautions. Aimed at the spot the filly would appear was a magical detector that would be able to measure the amount of magical output that would emanate from her. A slow continuous buildup might indicate she was about to attack or escape ,but what Cruel was looking for was a wild fluctuation... a sign the filly had lost control.
Either way there was a button in a table very close to cruel that he would push if he detected an imminent attack, escape or loss of control. It was marked “detonate”. Pushing it would simultaneously detonate the six shape charges that surrounded each side of the cage, its top and its bottom, filling the space of the cage with crisscrossing streams of hot molten metal travelling at supersonic speed.. hopefully enough to overwhelm the young alicorn.
Between the booby trapped cage and Cruel was a pane of clear, nearly invisible reinforced Crystal he had obtained at great cost from a specialized manufacturer in the Crystal Empire. It would be strong enough to stop magical blasts and to protect Cruel from shrapnel from the expected blast.. yet allow sound through. And sound and vision were vital, for it was crucial that Nyx witnessed the suffering Cruel would visit upon her friends. Only by watching Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom suffer, would Nyx enter the level of despair that would cause her to lose control of her magic making her vulnerable, making her mortal.
A small alarm went off, informing Cruel that the magic detector had detected a change… turning he saw the portkey in the cage had begun to glow… meaning the other one was being activated. His target would soon be here.
It had not been easy for Nyx to convince Spike to stay behind. But the lives of two of her closest anddearest friends were at stake.
Nyx owed so much to Apple Bloom Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They had taken her in during those first early days at school. Then stood by her side when she revealed her Alicorn nature to them. But most crucially, they had reached out to her at the moment she needed it most. They had risked life and limb to get to her, when she had been in Nightstone Castle, a lonely queen on her cold lifeless throne. Those three fillies motivated solely by love for their friend, smuggled themselves into probably the most dangerous place in Equestria at the time, into the manticore’s den, into the very heart of the beast, just to visit her. To see her. To be with her. And most importantly, to offer her a choice.
It was, of course, the same choice that Celestia had laid out to her while her neck was on the line, literally an inch from the wrong end of Nightmare Moon’s mystical sword. Even Twilight, who Nyx loved more than any other pony, to whom she owed her ultimate loyalty, couldn’t get her to see this choice, despite her constant pleading. After all, Twilight and Celestia were Nightmare Moon’s natural enemies, of course they would try to do everything possible to remove Equestria’s Dark Queen from her throne.
But these girls? They were no one’s enemies. They were Nyx’s Friends. And they got through. They punched through the wall. With their love and their loyalty and their unbridled curiosity. Sure an armor piercing question regarding her cutie mark had helped… but it was their very presence that really did it. Just by being there they had reminded her of a simple stunning fact. She already had had everything Nightmare Moon had ever wanted. She was loved, respected, seen as her own mare. As Luna , Nightmare Moon had not been able to step out of the shadow Celestia cast. But as Nyx, exorcised from Luna, given her own body, given a second chance, she had been able to make true friends. She had been granted a choice,a profoundly ironic choice: she could act like Nightmare Moon, behave in the way she was expected to and by doing so prevent herself from ever being truly loved, or, if the possibility were somehow still available, she could go back to being little Nyx, and by doing so actually achieve all the things that Nightmare Moon had truly wanted, to fulfill those emotional needs that had caused Luna to create Nightmare Moon in the first place, to finally achieve fulfillment in the most thorough way: by living out her very reason for being. But she could only do this, by shedding the mantle, the name, and the claims of Nightmare Moon.
It had been an amazing turn of events really, Nightmare Moon reborn, given a second chance, raised as a daughter by the loving hooves of the very pony who had led the team of extraordinary mares that had exorcised her from Luna. But Twilight was nowhere to be found now. Neither was Rarity, whom Nyx viewed as almost an Aunt, nor any of the other Elements . Nor was her actual Aunt, Cadance, available, or for that matter Luna or Celestia. No, for all Nyx could see the only pony in all of Equestria that had any chance of rescuing Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom was Nyx herself.
She was going in. Even though she knew full well she was heading straight into a trap.
Apple Bloom fretted . She couldn’t talk since she had been gagged. She idly wondered, whether or not should have been clearer when she had been able to talk. She told their attacker that he would be sorry.She knew he was trying to lure Nyx in for some reason or other. Apple Bloom wondered… should she have told him that Nyx was Nightmare Moon? Would that have stopped him? No Apple Bloom concluded. Nyx’s former Identity had caused her to become a walking target in the past. If their captor did not already know Nyx was Nightmare Moon giving him that piece of information would probably only make him more determined to hurt her.
A screaming came across the room. It had happened before, but only when the device was being tested.
This was not a test. This was the real deal.
Cruel Knife stared intently at the trap. There was nothing in the cage yet, but the magic detector sitting next to it was blaring its alarm. It meant the spell was being read and the little black alicorn was incoming.
Then suddenly a swirling mist appeared within the trap… and then, finally, with a small flash of light and a pop the Alicorn Filly appeared within the trap. She stomped her hooves most adorably within the trap.. then slammed herself against the bars.. but all to no avail.
Cruel summoned the form of the bound white Unicorn near him. He placed her near the crystal wall..to make sure the little alicorn would have a clear view of what he was about to do to her.
The table with his instruments of death hovered near.Cruel used his magic to call a hacksaw to him.Unicorn horns were very sensitive. slowly sawing off this little filly’s unicorn would cause her untold amounts of pain.Sweetie Belle’s eyes looked at him in utter terror as he put the hacksaw at the base of the little filly’s horn and drew its full length across its base once.. just enough for the teeth to penetrate the base of the horn. Sweetie was bound and gagged, but anyone seeing her facial contortions would be in no doubt of the amount of pain she was experiencing.
SHRREEEEEEEEEEEE …
The magical alarm blared. There had been an enormous surge of magic in the trap. Nyx had already lost control... time to detonate. The alicorn had to die first. Not much fun, but she was too dangerous not to kill quickly. He would have his fun later with the alicorn’s friends.
Cruel looked at his table of instruments, only to realize he had left the detonator behind. It now lay near the orange farmer filly. Cruel looked in that direction and grasped the detonator with his magic. He turned around to look at the trap as he depressed the button… but it was too late.
The bars of the cage were bent outward, something having clearly burst its way out of it. Cruel wondered where the alicorn filly had gone.
Suddenly, the crystal wall went opaque. What appeared to be a mass of swirling purple smoke completely covered the wall. The vapor condensed in the corner closest to where Sweetie Belle lay bound. A circular spot in the crystal wall, right where the fog was densest began to glow… and before Cruel’s uncomprehending eyes, the crystal itself began to melt, pooling around the floor, until a hole just big enough for an adult pony was created, melted right out of the wall itself.
Moving at blinding speed the smoke wrapped around Sweetie Belle and in a blink of an eye left Sweetie unbound and free.
The Smoke whipped around Cruel and headed towards the earth pony farmer filly. In a moment it enveloped her and then whipped away. Like Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom was now also free of all her restraints.
The smoke then whipped towards Cruel. Like an arrow it headed straight towards the befuddled hitpony whose mind totally lacked the most rudimentary comprehension of what he was seeing. He didn’t even think of teleporting away.
The cloud of ethereal energy connected with his chin like a punch from the hoof of a championship boxer, Lifting Cruel up for four or five feet and splaying him backwards. Cruel landed on his back and blacked out for perhaps ten seconds. Upon awakening he scrambled to his hooves. He ran for the hole in the crystal wall and squeezed through it. Once he was past it and had put a few pony body lengths between him and the wall, He stopped. He caught his breath and turned around… only to see the purple smoke go right through the hole and to his side of the wall. Cruel just followed the smoke with his eyes until it settled maybe a pony body length in front of him.
The smoke coalesced into a form and finally solidified into the little black alicorn, Nyx.
Cruel had been aware, as a sterile dispassionate academic thought, that the smoke was the alicorn. But to see the smoke become her in the flesh right in front of him reduced whatever minuscule part of his brain had somehow still been working to mush. Not tasty cinammon-accented apple mush mind you, but the most bland and flavorless gruel imaginable, utterly incapable of rational thought. Nor for that matter, capable of any sort of succinct, apposite verbal communication.
“ How .. how did you do that”.. the smoke.. the melting of the crystal... How?!?!?!” Cruel Knife spluttered.
“ I don’t Know” Nyx panted out.. always eager to answer a question from an adult , even in these circumstances…” To be honest, normally I have to concentrate just to lift a spoon or a book with my magic… I am not supposed to be able to do that. Not anymore”.
“ Anymore ???? what the hay do you mean anymore !”
It was absurd! Judging from her size and her friends there was no way the alicorn that stood before him was out of elementary school. And what the hay was with the smoke! Cruel couldn’t think of anything or anyone that could turn into smoke .
But then he remembered that wasn't quite true...he had once read in a particularly fanciful story contained within a book of Old Mare’s Tales that Nightmare Mo…..
If it Looks just like the Dark Demigoddess.
And it Quacks like the Dark Demigoddess..
And it has the Powers of the Dark Demigoddess..
Then it must be…..
And so the cog turned in Cruel’s Brain, and the last piece slammed into place.
“Nightmare Moon”!!! he shrieked pointing his hoof at Nyx.
“Sigh” Nyx sighed. Which was the closest she was going to get to admitting that the cat was pretty much out of the bag.
Cruel tried to calm himself and focus. Okay so this was .. Nightmare Moon…somehow. That means she was not a mystery. She could now be handled. She had to break her..the only way was to attack her ..just after killing her friends in front of her. Kill her friends, then immeadiately attack her. The psychological pain would buy him time… if perhaps only a second.
Cruel floated his instruments of death through the hole in the crystal wall.
Then he grabbed the squealing form of Sweetie Bell…
Only to lose his grasp when the sobbing little Nightmare Moon headbutted him in the chest.
“ Leave My Friends alone!!” Nyx squealed furiously.
“I ‘ll deal with you yet Nightmare” Cruel said while trying again to magically grasp one of the two ponies beyond the wall… but the little black ball of angry dark demigoddess wouldn’t stop hitting him, poking him with her horn or flapping her wings in his face so he could barely see. Finally frustrated Cruel just Bolted. He ran for it, ran for the hole in order to get to the little ponies on the other side. He would worry about his tools later.
Bad Move.
“ STAY AWAY FROM THEM” Nyx roared, scaring and startling herself with this unexpected eruption of the maelstrom of sound known as the Royal Canterlot Voice. Nyx would, later on, when questioned, find herself unable to explain exactly what happened next, except that somehow she just willed that Cruel Knife be as far away from her friends as possible.
Cruel gasped as a magic lifted him up bodily and slammed him straight across the room. In the middle of the room the arc of his path intersected with the metal remains of his explosive laden trap. And then the mess of hitpony, metal and explosives buried itself in the basement wall on the far end drilling itself several pony lengths deep into the soil.
After a few seconds, because there is No Kill Like Overkill, the now unstable explosives in the trap detonated .
Nyx saw a column of fire and debris shoot out of the impact crater on the far end of the wall. In less than a tenth of a second she erected a magical barrier stretching from the floor to the ceiling protecting Nyx and her friends from the debris and the shrapnel.
This magical exertion depleted her reserves. And a few seconds after the smoke cleared, Nyx unceremoniously passed out.
“ Ah , Ah think she’s coming around, she’s coming to”.
Nyx opened her eyes. Hovering over here where Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom’s face was strained with concern. Upon seeing Nyx come to Apple Bloom’s joy was so palpable that Nyx swore she saw a visible wave of relief break over her features.
Then Nyx looked at Sweetie Belle. She bore a warm smile though rings of stress circled her eyes. Then just below Sweetie's horn, Nyx saw matted dried blood and Nyx remembered what had happened to Sweetie at Cruel Knifes Hooves.
“ Sweetie”! your Horn! Does it hurt. Here hold still”. Nyx’s horn glowed as a basic healing spell tended to Sweetie’s wound. It wasn’t much but it helped comfort Sweetie.
Sweetie smiled. “ Nyx thanks, but.. it is only a very shallow cut..”
“ Oh I am going to kick that unicorn’s flank until next week” growled Nyx, “where is he? Girls! WHERE IS HE? Watch out He is dangerous and ..”
“Ah wouldn’t worry about him Nyx”…chirped Apple Bloom pointing behind them.Nyx turned around following Apple Bloom’s Hoof. She saw the hole in the wall. Some smoke and the occasional cinder fell from it.
And then it hit her. Nyx’s face paled and went ashen.
“I killed him” Said Nyx “ oh my Celestia I killed him!” I killed a pony! Ikilledihikilledhimikilledhimkilledhim”
“ Calm Down” said Sweetie belle” calm down or you will hyperventilate… do the breathing exercise Twilight taught you”
Reflexively Nyx began taking deep breaths humming slowly with each exhale, drawing out each exhale as long as possible while making each inhale as deep as possible. It was a breathing exercise Celestia had taught Twilight in order to calm her down. Twilight in turn had passed it down to her daughter, just like she had passed down Smarty Pants. Or for that matter, just like she had passed down the anxious and hyper-excitable temperament that made the breathing exercise so useful in the first place.
“ breathe..breathe,, you will be fine Nyx”
“ Pinkie promise that YOU will be fine Sweetie”
“ of course… I promise I will be fine”
“ pinkie promise it”
“'Cross My Heart, Hope to Fly, Stick a Cupcake in my Eye!”
“Good Sweetie, that means you will watch out and you will take care of yourself, and you will be careful , because you know Pinkie promises cannot be broken. They last …
“FOREVER!! Oh hi girls!” Said a maniacally grinning pink ball of energy bouncing around the killing floor of a now deceased serial killer's torture room.
The appearance of said ball of pink poofy mania instantly snapped Nyx out of her fugue state. “ Pinkie! How, how did you get here?!”
“ Oh silly, I felt a tingling around my neck and that always means that someone is about to do a pinkie promise and pinkie promises are serious business so I always have to go and make sure that the parties involved know and are aware of the perpetually binding nature of said oral contract!” Pinkie said in one single breath.
“But Pinkie” Nyx puzzled out loud “ How did you get here… and where have you been”?
“ Oh see there was a really weird moment where I was in Sugarcube corner just mixing together some cake batter and wammo..! suddenly I was in some kind of immaterial plane with Luna and Celestia and all the girls and even Discord was there and we thought it was all Discords fault and but even he was confused but since he was there he started doing magic tricks and it was so funny… but we all kind of worried for a bit and then all of a sudden I noticed that somebody was doing a pinkie Promise so I came over through the swirling vortex of terror and now I can see that all of you look like you have not taken a bath in two weeks and I can feel the end of my tail getting frizzy and you all know what that means? Well of course you don’t because you are not me! so let me tell you when the end of my tail gets frizzy it means that I have recently been subjected to a time distorsion field so even though it felt like five hours it was clearly a lot longer and Oh my! Twilight! hold on Girls…”
Pinkie walked out to the middle of the room.. Nyx looked up and noticed that on the roof directly above where Pinkie was now standing there was now a swirling hole or aperture of some kind with what appeared to be clouds swirling on its edges which was mighty odd since the whole thing was barely wider than a pony. Clearly this was the “ swirling vortex of terror” Pinkie referred to.
Pinkie looked up into the vortex and called out “ Girls! I found a way home!” Then she bent her knees and jumped straight up perfectly perpendicular to the floor, so that the path she traveled upwards formed a 90 degree angle to the floor, and to reality… and to the laws of physics… because Pinkie Pie. She disappeared up and into the vortex. Then about a minute later the vortex bulged, as if something massive was trying to get out through it… and then it opened and disgorged , in one mass, all of the superpowered entities that Spike had tried to contact earlier in this fanfic.
No one interrupted Rarity as she hugged and shook and sobbed over Sweetie Belle.
No one interrupted Applejack as she hugged and sobbed over Apple Bloom.
But above all, the very idea of interrupting a certain purple unicorn as she hugged and sobbed and fretted over her daughter did not even begin to speculate about the mere possibility of crossing the mind of anyone present.
___________________________________________________________
All seemed well. Wounds were being treated. Everyone now sat basking in the warm hearth that burned in the antechamber of Celestia’s private quarters, the antechamber where she entertained her most private visitors, her inner circle, which at this moment included apart from Celestia herself, the elements of Harmony, and two alicorns.. both of whom had once responded to the name of Nightmare Moon… and had long since grown to despise anything associated with that name.
The younger of these Alicorns sat nearest to the hearth next to her mother. To Celestia’s surprise, Twilight left Nyx’s side and trotted towards her . As she passed Celestia, heading towards where the other Elements clustered on the far side of the room, Twilight slightly bowed her head towards the Alicorn of the Sun and whispered.. “she wants to talk to you”. Celestia simply nodded towards Twilight and then looked at Nyx, who stared at her, sniffling. Celestia kept her regal bearing as she trotted over, but she was surprised. Nyx and Celestia’s relationship was hardly warm and conducive to heart to heart soul bearing conversations. “ Polite” was the way Celestia had once described it to Luna. Nyx respected Celestia ( after all few understood the hidden complexities of Celestia’s job better than Nyx!) but for reasons that Celestia understood only too well there was a distance between them. After all it is hard to develop a warm friendship with an adult authority figure that once had you dragged out of your house and away from your mother, even if you understand that said authority figure meant well.
Thus it was doubly surprising for Celestia when Nyx looked up at her with a hopeful gaze, that somehow let Celestia know that Nyx looked forward to this conversation, perhaps not in a true feeling of friendship but at the very least in one of necessity.
Celestia extended a protective wing over Nyx , and to the pleased surprise of the Princess of the Sun, Nyx buried her head into her chest, in the way so many ponies had before, but in a way Celestia had secretly feared Nyx might never do. “ What is the problem , My Little Pony?” she spoke in her warm practiced maternal voice.
“ I killed him”…
“ Now Nyx, you couldn’t really help it.. ”
“ No listen to me…. When I was ..well Nightmare Moon, I did everything I possibly could not to kill anyone. I had all my possessed advisors telling me to assault this very castle in a “glorious” full frontal assault… Guards who would tell me how they wished to die in glorious battle for the eternal night… and all I wanted to say was … I don’t want anyone to die. Not a one. But I Didn’t say it… I just overruled Spell Nexus and the others… and did it my way. And of course when I was impersonating all the volunteers I befriended hundreds of Royal Guards, and I was fascinated by all the stories they would tell me about their hometowns and their lives and their families… and not only did I not want to harm them, but I vowed secretly to myself that.. when I was queen and they where under my command, I would do everything to keep them safe, to always place myself in harm’s way first, because I was stronger… because I could take it. And then of course when the monsters invaded Ponyville.. I tried to not even kill the monsters!.. but I killed him! The Ponynapper! There must have been some other way I could have defended my friends and spared his life… I failed Princess… I failed..”
“ Nyx, now it is your turn to listen to me” Celestia Interrupted “ There is no sin in killing if you are saving your life or the life of someone else. Now of course if you neutralize the enemy and you then kill him or her that is a different matter altogether.. but as long as there was an imminent threat any force you use that is reasonable is justified… and when the imminent threat is the threat of death then the kind of force that can result in death is itself justified. Now tell me Nyx, did you intend to kill this pony ?
“ No”
“ what did you intend?”
“I just wanted him to be as far away from my friends as possible”.
“ Well there you are. You acted without malice. You acted with nothing but the noble desire to protect your friends. You seem to think that you have betrayed your cutie mark, your purpose. But I don’t see it that way. Quite the contrary. You probably saved your friend’s lives. Yet again. You should feel proud of yourself my little pony”.
Dear Princess Celestia:
Thank you.
Nyx
Dear Princess Luna:
Mom says that after a big event, or a new lesson, it always helps her to understand things better ,if she writes or talks to Princess Celestia. Something big just happened to me, as you know, and I need to understand it better myself. Mom told me I should write to you instead of your sister. Because of how much you and I share in common.
Mom says we share a " common identity". She means that you and I share a common name, a common title. A common image. It is not an image you like . I know I don't like it. We wish we could get rid of, well, her, just as easily as the caterpillars in Fluttershy's garden get rid of their old skins and turn into beautiful butterflies.
But I know it is not that easy. Because there are ponies who won't forget. Mom says they have "vested interests" in seeing the two of us,meaning you and me your highness, in a particular way, and that they get angry if we don't act that way.I don't know what vests have to do with it, but I think I know what mother means.
You see, I know this filly in school. She is the daughter of one of the two richest families in town. My friend Apple Bloom and I , we used to be in the same class as her. They did not get along. This filly always said Apple Bloom "doesn't know her place". I thought that meant she looked down on Apple Bloom, but one day my mother told me that actually that wasn't what she really meant.
See, Apple Bloom's family, the Apples, well as it turns out, they are the other richest family in Ponyville. They founded the place, actually.
This filly, she always thought that being rich meant that she could bully others and treat them bad. That it was her right to do so. But my mom says Apple Bloom is actually just as rich, but instead of being mean and snotty like the other filly, Apple Bloom is humble and nice and sweet and lives in a wooden farmhouse and helps her family with the farm chores. Mom says that this filly hates Apple Bloom because she " exposes her pretensions". I am not sure I know what that means, but I think it means that the fact that Apple Bloom is such a good friend, and so kind and funny makes Diamo this filly look bad, because it takes away her excuse for being so mean.
She doesn't like me either, this filly. Mom says that it is mostly for the same reason as why she doesn't like Apple Bloom. The filly liked to pretend she was nobility, which mom says worked as long as no nobles lived in town.
But apparently I count as a noble,now I don't want to be a noble or a royal or whatever and if you could do something about that I would really appreciate it,because I was once a queen, even though I never wanted to be . And being an alicorn like yourself and Princess Celestia and Aunt Cadence, well apparently those ponies with the vests will force me to be royalty. Mom says I am nobility in the eyes of Dia the filly , and that is why she hates me. Because she always said she acted the way she acts because that is how Nobility acts. But I don't act that way. So I " belie her claim" my mom says.
If I acted more like her, if I was mean and cold and looked down on others, then the filly might like me more.
But I am not going to act like she wants me to. I am going to be me.
You know I never thanked you enough, for giving me a second chance. But also you know, for creating Her. Us. Nightmare Moon. Me. I get tongue tied just talking about her. Me .Us.Pronouns fail me. It may sound odd for me to thank you for creating the nightmare, but of course if you had not, I would not exist.
I know you created her, all those years ago, In a fit of madness, because you believed no one truly appreciated you for you. And as Nyx, I have been blessed with everything that I am told you wanted, all those years ago. Friends, love, affection, acceptance, not by all, but definitely by those who matter to me . I don't know whether you are truly happy these days. But I promise you Princess, that I will do everything I can to make you as happy as you have let me become.
Your faithful future student and even more faithful future friend,
Nyx of the Night.
Editing is still a work in progress. Those odd spaces and punctuation issues will disappear, someday. I pinkie promise. This is my very first fanfic and the longest work of fiction I have ever written, so my apologies for its very rough unpolished character.
This story is NOT canon with the stories set in the Past Sins Universe that I plan to write in the Future. I am, by the way always looking for editors pre readers and other help for those stories, so if you have any interest in helping me write more stories involving the world's most adorable little black alicorn please read this blog post in which I detail my story Ideas..
Come on! You know Nyx herself is dying to read our stories!
( this glorious image comes from lionheartcartoon, one half of the Husband Wife Duo responsible for " Children of the Night" you can view it in situ here:http://lionheartcartoon.deviantart.com/art/Storytime-Nyx-Bedtime-418409439)
I dedicate this story to Pen Stroke , who created Nyx and this particular version of Equestria, and to Animal Collective and their album " Merriweather Post Pavilion" which I played in a near constant loop as I wrote it.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- SoulboundAlchemist · 7.7k words · 16 6 · 1.1k views
- onlyanorthernsong · 7.9k words · 83 8 · 3.8k views
- MaskedPony · 22k words · 55 27 · 4.6k views
- JusSonic · 34k words · 27 19 · 1.8k views
- Mister E · 3.2k words · 98 11 · 2.8k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.106 seconds
Total duration
745 users online
915,334 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I don't read much Nyx unless it is happy Nyx (I have a bit of a drab, depressing life. Why not spend some time dreaming of something exciting and happy instead of brooding about it?)..But i gotta read this. I just gotta.
3614826 Rest assured there is nothing broody about this.
3614831 nevaaaar!
So nothing bad can happen to her.
How SOME MINDRAPEING HAHHAHAHHAHAH
Great story hope to see more from you.
3614852
There's a say that you'd post remind me of:
Just because your immortal doesn't mean that someone can't shoved your head up you ass or mind rape you.
None of us do. That's what makes it fanfiction.
Not bad. I personally haven't seen any Nyx torture fics, but I can definitely believe they exist, and with the plot holes you suggest. Could still use an overall cleanup, though.
Now to be pedantic - Nyx isn't actually invulnerable, nor does she have a healing factor. She is very tough, as befitting an alicorn, but during the defense of Ponyville in Past Sins, she was severely injured and basically out of commission for quite a while afterward. She probably would have died during the torture scene. But that wasn't really the point (and is arguable, anyway), so carry on.
And for the record, Nyx's letter to Luna at the end was actually rather nice.
Ah yes, 'Nyx'.
Allegedly a well-written character that brings joy to your life.
We have dismissed that claim, along with the ones about My Little Dashie.
Well, that was... interesting.
3615110 Given that this is a parody of badly written Nyx torture-fics, those may or may not have been intentional.
uuuhhhhh?????????........
3615091
"
Yes she is not invulnerable, but recall that we are told in Past Sins that her weakness and vulnerability in the Ponyville battle scene were caused by the fact that she split herself into many pieces, while here she is whole and untouched.
An argument could be made, I am aware,that she would still die. I recall being shocked when I read the first of Pen Stroke's official sequels " Nightmare or Nyx" that Nyx apparently now struggled to Lift a book!. I always assumed that post Past Sins Nyx would have the same amount of power she had before being forcibly aged upwards, But for some reason Pen Stroke decided otherwise. Still I chose to believe that some kind of fail safe was put on Nyx post the events of Winter Bells that allows her access to her Alicorn Powers for self defense purposes. Seems only just since it is clear by then that Nyx is a walking target.
3634451 its not THAT crackficky!
3615244 God I wish. Nah all the errors are mine and are completely accidental. For some reason I have an extremely difficult time noticing my weird spacing issues. It looks fine to me
but drives everyone else crazy.
This is like draft 2 out of 10,000. Much as was done with " Past Sins" itself,I plan to edit and polish and rewrite this many times. It came to a point where I was pretty sure I wasn't going to publish this at all unless i said " just buck it i'll polish it later". Given that even in the Niche world of "Past Sins" recursive fanfic this was always going to be a super niche story, the amount of people who would read this was always going to be very small, so I figured the pre publishing investment in editing should not be that thorough. The other stories I plan to write, while also niche due to being Past Sins sequels, are intended to have a broader reach. There will be much more thorough polishing on those chapters before they see the light of day.Though yet again those will always be continuously polished as well.
In other words this was written in a fit of pique as essentially a rant against the existence of Nyx torture porn, and then formatted quickly into a story and published to get me acquainted with the process and the experience. It was always meant as more of a learning experience than a serious attempt at writing a " good story", though again I intend to return to it and work some more on it in the future.
3614852 I didn't say that.
3639300 Uhhhhhhhhh- *Slaps himself* I have no idea what happened.......
3639313 Ah.
It would have made sense, given the kind of fics this story was parodying...
3639351 well I mean it is a little crackficky
given the whole thing is basically an author fillibuster disguised as a story. 
" keep your hands off our cute little alicorn filly you haters" is the message. Basically.
3639466. right! oh by the way haters, I have like 20 shotguns so watch out!
I have seen these torture fics too. pretty much sums it up. I adored Nyx's letter!
3614831 she stays. I have a shotgun.
3756241 Need some amo?
(don't know how to spell it correctly)
3756264 Double barrel shot gun
harm nyx and I blow your bloody head of
(many I'am playing too much Dead Island).
No doubt about that
Twilight is badass in this story, right?
What makes you so sure Discord would do that? To the best of my knowledge, they've never even interacted.
4300639
Twilight [would be badass in this story.... which is why she isn't really in it.
That was kind of my point actually, when I wrote this it was a spasmic reaction to my discovery of Nyx torture fics.. i kind of wanted to point out the many logical inconsistencies with that idea... one of them being that twily would basically obliterate anyone who harmed Nyx.
By the way let me apologize for the still very raw state of this story. I am very slowly editing it, you will notice that about halfway through the first chapter all of a sudden weird spacing issues ( like Th is ) pop up. In the second chapter among other things I cant make up my mind whether it is Apple Bloom or Applebloom. ( I understand "Apple Bloom" is the correct spelling) I am aware of these issues and am working on them. Albeit very very slowly.
4300666
Do what? help rescue Nyx?
nothing really except no one would let him just sit by the wayside
at the least would force him to do something.
Oh and Discord and Nyx do interact in the last 2 chapters of "Winter Bells"... Discord pronunces Nyx " boring" and mock congratulates
for "sucking all the fun" out of Nightmare Moon.
Nyx for her part labels Discord as even weirder than Pinkie Pie.
oH WOW I DIDN'T KNOW THAT THIS FIC LINKED TO A PIC OF MINE THAT'S AWESOME HAHA
Anywho, The fic is pretty good! It's best not to take it too seriously since it IS a parody and meant for laughs.
I like this cause well, I HAVE seen a Nyx torture fic (It was in the Past sins group.. and the Nyxian Alliance. Who the fuck checks these stories before accepting them? or does Fimfiction work different when it comes to groups and submissions?) and honestly this is just me but. Cartoon child or not. ANY torture fic/video/picture involving a CHILD just makes me sick. Even if it is fiction, if you write something like that.. well.. it really says a lot about you as a person.
bUT THIS FIC IS STILL GOOD AND I ENJOYED IT. SORRY FOR ADDING MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS HERE WHOOSP.
4338636 NO NO no apologies comments are appreciated. Did you draw the cover pic? I just google imaged Nyx+ Twillight...
so
Actually on second thought you said "linked" so you must have drawn the pic of Nyx in her " winter bells" disguise ( because you seem to be a Nyxdrop fan and that artist had drawn a lot of NyxDrop) anyways thanks for the pic!
and to answer your question, no one it seems decides what gets put on the story groups, anyone can automatically add any story ( this story was added automatically when I submitted it.. like in less than a second) I suppose there is a mechanism to remove a story if enough people complain... but I would not know what that is...
anyways I am something of a free speech absolutist so instead of censoring unpleasant idiocy, i much prefer to attack it frontally by mocking it and pointing out how ridiculous it is...hence this story.
4338870
"Actually on second thought you said "linked" so you must have drawn the pic of Nyx in her " winter bells" disguise ( because you seem to be a Nyxdrop fan and that artist had drawn a lot of NyxDrop)"
Guilty as charged.
But yes I drew the Winter bells Nyx!
Ahh so it's an automatic system. I see vuv
And that sir is my favorite way of attacking stupid things! By Mocking it!
4339149
by the way , you are as far as i can tell the only person to have drawn Winter Bells! disguise Nyx, I linked to your pic because I got a couple of messages stating that Nyx did not wear a disguise post " Past Sins" and even if she did why did I describe her as a white Unicorn?
So I decided just to find a picture of the disguise she wears in " Winter Bells" and yours was the first ( and as far as I can tell only) illustration.lt is a very good one too, so I thank you for it. It has been useful to me.
4339897
Oh man, I'm so glad it helped ya!
I'm surprised not a lot of Past sins fans have read Winter bells, or have even drawn her disguise from the fic. When I was first reading it one of my first thoughts was 'Oh someone is definitely gonna draw this' but I saw none so... I decided to draw it myself
Didn't think I'd be the only one haha
I realize this was supposed to be a parody of torture fics, but it was a torture to read. I have never before seen a story where spacing was an issue. One space between words. One space after most punctuation. This is one of the most basic, most fundamental rules of writing... and you couldn't manage it. I'm sorry, but I couldn't read past Nyx shifting out of her smoke form. It was just unendurable. If you meant it as a parody of how badly the average Nyx torture story is written, there are some things so terrible that they shouldn't even mocked. If you didn't... seriously?
It's an easy fix. Just use the Find function and search for two consecutive spaces. But please, please do it. I want to like this story, but as it is, I can't.
4517015 yes this is still a bit of a wreck, the reason why you could not read past that part is because that is how far my slow tortuous editing of this thing has gone. beyond that is an undiscovered country of weird spacing terribly sorry, my apologies.
Please tell me more about this find feature.. is this on here on google docs or where precisely? I wrote this on Word ( which has no such feature for spacing) and then copy and pasted which only resulted in a formatting clusterfuck.
When I first learned to type iusedtorunallmywordstogetherlikethis so it was drilled in my head to space after every word to the point where I space too much. In fact i CANNOT SEE the difference if I have 1, 2,or 3, spaces after a word, so the only way i can correct it is to put the cursor after every word, hit the backspace until the words are in fact smushed together, and then hit the space bar exactly once. I have spent HOURS doing that on this story alone and as you can tell, the work is far from done. So if you are telling me there is some simple command to do it, well, you would be saving me many hours of future work if you walk me through it!
3777432 Ooooo
can I join?
>Ecocat<
4540716 Yeah sure here *tosses weapon (of your choice)* lets blow some heads!
Soren: count me out!
Imp: Me in!
What's the word self-minded or somthing, anyway perhaps I'm doing fake parts with other people that aren't real ( OC included, see user page), seriously though what's the word I'm looking for???
3756264 Dude he's not the only one with a shotgun(double barlled to be exact).
Plus, one of my friends has about 2,000000, somthing , demons With M14.
Sorin: 2,000,002,300,400 if you count the Imps.
None of this is liget I do it for the LOLs!
So she stays.......
And there an't anything thou can do about it.
THAT ANIMATION OF TWILIGHT AND NYX!!!! OH MY GOD!!! SO ADORABLE!!!!
Surprisingly good story, especially considering that its clearly a joke / parody / full of deliberate contrivances, etc. I laughed out loud multiple times, for the story's hilarious self awareness, and such.
But in all seriousness, that letter to Luna at the end was superb! Well done!!
4879881 I am pleased that you found the self awareness funny, since It is very easy to make such a thing grating ( It is almost always the sign of a lazy writer, which I most definitely was when I wrote this, for example I rather obviously gave up on grammar about halfway through). The rough unfinished nature of this story is why the story i am working on now will probably take a while, I kind of want to go to the other extreme and polish it all up as much as possible .
anyways this thing came about because there was a flurry of Nyxabuse stories posted and they ticked me off. Not only because I like the characther and thusly dont like the hate, and not only because writing stories where a little filly is brutally tortured is , well, not a good reflection on your moral charachter, but also because it is a really dumb plotline. I mean really torturing the reincarnation of NM, who is fiercely protected by
? How would one even do that. So I had to react and basically typed this out frenetically over a weekend and threw it on here.
Glad you enjoyed it.
4882173 Yes, I think for me its a very personal thing, as I have a little girl myself and some pretty terrible things happened 3 years ago and I had to fight for years to rescue her. So I'm particularly sensitive to stories like that of Nyx, and I can understand Twilight's feelings (especially during 'Treachery') to the letter. It took me a while to read through that chapter because it was so personal and I know EXACTLY how that felt. And yeah, thanks for standing up against the abuse/torture stories. That's just retarded, I don't know why people do that.
I'd also like to reiterate that the final letter to Luna was very touching, and I related to that as well because of how you pointed out Nyx's thanks to Luna for becoming NM, in that if that bad thing had not happened, a good thing would never have existed. Through my own personal tragedy it resonated with me because so much is good now that wasn't before, and it wouldn't be this way if the bad stuff didn't happen. So well done with that piece of insight on the original story. I just started reading Winter Bells, so looking forward to the resolutions that you mentioned. The Shining Armor arc and Twilight's blood, making her Nyx's biological mother. Hopefully it will also address the fact that Nyx made that very courageous personal sacrifice in destroying the black cloud which was actually part of herself and painful to attack. That moment gave me tremendous respect for Nyx's character and I was disappointed that nobody else acknowledged it in the original story.
4883049
4883049
It is an honor to know that my story resonated with you. Every writer wants their reader to see a bit of themselves or of the readers condition reflected in the story. I suppose that is what is meant when people say that all stories worth telling are in effect, about our shared human condition.To know that my story resonated is a huge honor.
As for your point about Nyx being grateful to Luna for " creating" Nightmare Moon, and how that resonated with your experience of something good coming from tragedy, I am glad that you connected with it. I think it is one of the more interesting aspects of the story, Nyx wants nothing to do with NM ( and Knows Luna feels the same way) but of course, no NM equals no Nyx, so Nyx has to come to terms with that, and then , hopefully, act in a way that sort of provides that silve rlining, she must become the good that comes out of the bad.
i want to address the blood issue here. I hope not too mislead you so I will provide a spoiler as a bit of fair warning. The resolution of the Blood subplot in winter belles is not as straightforward as you probably want it to be. Nyx is NOT
's genetic daughter as many of us wished her to be. she IS however her " real/true" daughter. I am not going to explain the difference at this moment, since the story provides an explanation.( there is essentially a " dear princess Celestia letter" written by SPELL NEXUS (!!!!!) to Twilight that lays it all out at the end of Winter Bells.)
At first many of us were disappointed with this decision By Pen Stroke. But the more I think about it the more that I agree with it. The driving question in winter bells is " Is Twilight Sparkles love towards Nyx a genuine expression of her free will or has she been coerced somehow?" By eliminating a genetic link with Twilight ( at a time when most Past Sins fans, myself included, thought the blood was a source of genetic content for Nyx,) Pen Stroke reinforces just how " freely"
gives her love to Nyx, since one cannot even argue that she is doing out of a sense of familial obligation. 
real daughter. she IS HER REAL DAUGHTER..but I will let the story explain that to you.
None of This is to say that Nyx is not
There Is one excellent story written as a fan sequel to "past Sins" where Nyx is T
genetic daugher. That is " nightmare Night and Nyx" . if you go on my user page you will see it listed in my all time top ten favorites list.
A caveat, while "Nightmare Night and Nyx" is an excellent well written and above all heartwarming story, I do NOT recommend you read the other Nyx stories ( Nyx's family alicrnundrum etc) written by its author. That is because said author, realitycheck is notorious for being one of this communities resident, well, crazy people, ( to wit, he is the male Ultra right wing fanatic, as opposed to Chatoyance, our female, ultra left wing fanatic) Nightmare Night and Nyx is the story that made him famous, and when he wrote it he clearly focused on the story , but once he got an audience, he started filling the subsequent stories with political rants. But again " Nightmare Night and Nyx is a great story and I recommend it whole heartily, and Nyx IS
genetic daughter in that one. Though you should of course still read " Winter Bells". I am just letting you know that you may enjoy "Nightmare night and Nyx" in addition to " winter bells.".
4883810
That's ok I guess. I mean, being a biological parent is a bit more than having the same blood. Even if it doesn't make Nyx Twilight's biological daughter per normal reproduction, it could still have been a significant contributing factor to her personality (unless this is contradicted by the author of course). I figure at least some of her goodness would come from that, in addition to the propensity for learning and also apprehension, which they clearly both share.
I'll definitely check out the other story you recommended. Although I find it odd that he would use the writing as a platform to make political statements. I'm at a loss as to what sort of politics could even be derived from MLP related fiction. However, being a conservative minded person myself (not a fanatic, mind you) I probably won't be offended by his comments. In my view, a conservative point of view is very pro-family, and so if he writes about that, I'm fine with it.
Do you happen to know if anyone's written a future-Nyx story, as in, what her life would be like fulfilling her destiny as a protector? I saw this and thought a full story set in that situation would be pretty awesome. If I were a writer I'd probably do one like that.
4883976
These attributes are explicitly stated to have come from twillight I will let the story tell you how.
well then I thoroughly recommend 'Nightmare Night and Nyx" without reservation. There is a political subtext running throughout it but it remains subtext. The Problem with his later stories is that he brings the narrative to a screeching halt to pontificate on say, how fiat currency is immoral for an entire chapter, and then was a total ass to anyone who debated him in the comments section ..you would think if you put politics into your pony to that degree you want to foment debate. Guess not.
You as k what kind of politics can be derived from MlP: fim... and that was part of the problem.. it all felt very shoehorned like it came out of nowhere.
But in Nightmare Night and Nyx the political subtext remained subtext and did not impede the narrative flow. and if you already agree with the subtext that will only increase your enjoyment of the story. So yeah definitely read Nightmare Night and Nyx.
Unfortunately no nothing substantive. I am only familiar with two short stories on here by Keaton-Furman-Prower that have Nyx in them, are set in the far future, and hint at her job ( captain of the guard for centuries on end as the "shield of Equestria")
. But this is not at all the focus of the stories which are very short and deal with loss and immortality. the stories are "when all you have is memories" and "the memories of former villains"
4884071 Look what's been a whole year!!
And what a year it's been.
So glad we had this little discussion last September.
Well that happened!
7392830 This IS basically a crackfic... so yeah.
7396662
That explains a lot.... Still loved it though... Why do I have a feeling a bunch of people are screaming Mary Sue?
7396737 Have You Read " Past Sins"? probably no more fan made characther has been called a Mary Sue in all of bronydom than Nyx. Now I am a great defender of the character and am currently involved in editing a massive story in which Nyx is the main character so obviously I do not agree with this assesment. Nyx has great characther flaws ( a bad temper, insecurity etc) but she was " crafted" in a way by her creator to tug at reader's heartstrings, and this has caused her to be called a mary sue. Which is kind of ironic because the question of identity is the very point of Past Sins