Nightmare
“I discarded you,” the Nightmare says. Cruel ivory teeth jut out of her too-familiar face. “You were such a small thing compared to me! The night, even an eternal night, was the foolish obsession of a mind driven mad with petty jealousy. Pathetic.”
“You were destroyed...” Luna says, and the vacuum seems to sear at her lungs. The sun is so terribly bright behind her, and the sky so very black. Dust scratches at her hooves.
“Destroyed?” the Nightmare asks with a chill laugh. “I am without death.”
She strides to Luna, long black legs devouring the distance between them. “I will watch,” she says, leaning in, looming impossibly over Luna, “as you crawl into the shadowlands helpless. When the sun itself blackens and dies and all life has since been extinguished, I will be there.”
The soft moondust gives way under Luna’s feet, and she sinks into it. It stings in a way that Luna does not remember, and there is a burnt smell that seeps into her nostrils. The Nightmare stands above Luna now. “Perhaps I will keep you here with me,” it says, exposing a predatory grin, “to watch. We have been apart for far too long...”
The stars flicker out before Luna, like candles blown out one by one. The sun wheels over the sky, over and over, and grows into a monstrous red ball, as if it had gorged itself on the carcasses of the fallen stars. Luna can feel its searing heat on her skin.
There comes a flash of light, painfully bright, a ghostly roar, and then the sky is utterly dark and so very empty.
The Nightmare is next to Luna now, so close that she can feel the warmth of its body, its smell like a hunting beast—a dark, bloody smell, mixed with the gunpowder stench of the moondust. “You wanted this,” it says.
And Luna is not sure that it is wrong.
“For you are a part of me,” the Nightmare says, “and I of you.”
It leers, somewhere in the dark. “We are not so very different.” There is a sibilant buzz to this, and a flutter of insectile wings accompanies it. Then there is silence, and darkness, and Luna is alone, and—
And the blood spreading across the polished stone floor looks almost black in the moonlight. It stains the fur of the alicorn it seeps from, creeping onto her. A hundred bruises and cuts mar her ivory body. A faint puff of steam, breath condensing in the cool night air, emanates from her nostrils. Her eyes flutter open.
Luna is standing above her, a cold anger etched into her face, her jaw set. She kicks Celestia, savagely. The motion feels—dull to her, somehow muffled. She frowns. Celestia’s eyes have closed again, her body shuddering.
Stop this.
Luna kicks again, harder.
This isn’t real.
The voice does not sound like Celestia. Blood rushes through Luna’s ears. She kicks Celestia again. Something crunches inside the prone alicorn. The sun princess groans softly.
Luna, you would never do this.
But she is not Luna, not anymore, She is Nightmare Moon and her horn sparks and crackles with energy, and she stares at her sister, the one who stole what was rightfully hers, the one who—
The hall crumbles around her, proud columns tumbling, stone floor falling into nothingness, and the dying alicorn before her, and—
And Luna gasps, again and again. “Celestia!” she breathes. “Sister, I...”
She stands on a dark plain that disappears softly into blackness in all directions, the ground soft under hoof. A faint light, scarcely in the bounds of vision, seems to come from the air itself—or, at any rate, she cannot quite find the source of the plain’s illumination.
Luna looks down at her hooves. They are clean. Surely there should be blood.
The air is warm and wet around her, with a smell like a fall day. “Thank you for coming,” a raspy voice says behind her. “Not much choice, though.”
Luna spins, turning to face the speaker. A changeling stands there, regarding Luna with an uncanny calmness. Those empty blue eyes do not blink. The changeling’s fangs, protruding from its mouth, are wet. Luna feels something primal within her recoil at the sight. “Come no closer,” she says, quietly.
The changeling’s wings buzz momentarily, and then it is gone. “With respect, princess,” the voice says, right behind her now, “not much... you can do about it.”
Luna spins again, but the changeling is gone.
“In my mind,” the changeling says. “My dream, really. Safer here.”
There is an odd emphasis on “my”. Luna turns around, more slowly this time. The changeling smiles, the fangs and the dark pit of its mouth growing obscenely.
“My name is Case,” the changeling says. “And I want to help you. Please relax. Will make this easier.”
The dim expanse drops away, and—
And a changeling walks across the smooth ground, hooves pressing down, her gait unsteady. Once, she would have flown, and her wings twitch instinctively—but pointlessly. She strokes the amulet against her chest and takes in the nursery with one long glance. She towers above the other changelings, and they part before her. Her eyes fix on one larva after another, a practiced, cursory examination.
At last, she settles on one—a female, staring back at her. Her long legs consume the distance between them. The other larvae scurry before her. Her magic recedes from the far reaches of the hive, collecting her presence unto herself.
The changelings following her shudder.
She has eyes only for the larva in front of her. It stares at her, wary. She crouches down slowly, bringing her face nearly to its level, reaching forward with a hoof. It snaps at her, and she jerks back her hoof, panting at the effort. Her language is a sibilant buzz, pulsing from the back of the throat, but the words come clearly to Luna. “I like this one,” she says, to a dark silence. She laughs, a high, breathless laugh.
Her horn flares, and her face discolors at the effort. The larva gasps, its eyes still fixed on her. But the wariness is gone, the light already fading from its eyes. A final flash from her horn, and it thrashes weakly, falling onto the ground.
She walks to it, bending down to place a hoof to its neck. She nods slightly and gazes at it without passion, eyes taking in every inch of its body. “Yes,” she says in that same pulsing buzz. “Take it there at once, and...” She tries to stand up. All her limbs buckle.
The changelings around her rush forward, and she snarls at them. She rises again, jaw clenched tight, and this time she stays upright. She walks stiffly out of the nursery, following the larva being carried away. Its eyes are empty, unknowing. She watches it.
And smiles.
The nursery drains away, and—
And Luna is standing on the dim plain once more. Case is beside her now, and Luna starts at the sight of the changeling. She feels a throbbing pain behind her temples, but it feels distant, muffled.
“Headache will get worse when you wake up,” Case says, still looking out into the blank dimness.
“Then... I am sleeping,” Luna says. “Dreaming.”
“Yes.”
Luna tries to follow Case’s gaze for a few moments, but can make out nothing in the darkness. “What have you shown me? Who are you?”
“Showed you memories of her. Memories that weren’t meant for you. Will explain later.”
And the changeling is gone.
Luna awoke with a start and breathed in hot, humid air. It was darker than the darkest night, a night without moon or stars. There was no surface beneath her, not the comfort of her Canterlot bed, nor the gritty of the Moon.
She thrashed, her legs pushing against the moist membrane surrounding her. There was a brief sensation of motion, but it soon left. She pulled her limbs away, and the membrane clung to them. It was quiet, with only the sound of her labored breath in the darkness.
But now there was something beneath her—the sound of hoofsteps, and a voice.
Her voice.
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This is late.
And too short.
But I hope y'all enjoyed it. More's on its way.
Late and short is still good to me.
5434979 I demand more now! You can't just leave us hanging now you've finally caught us up to the in media res intro!
And here we are. Now the true story begins.
I really like this chapter. The first two parts in particular; you distill it down into such concentrated imagery. I feel like most people would have ruined it going too verbose. Definitely quality over quantity.
More please
5438062
Thank you.
God damn you've got some sexy prose going on in this chapter, Space.
I can't wait to see what comes next. No pressure, but the faster you update the less restless nights I'll spend wide awake in bed.
5612408
Oh stop it, you. I'm blushing.
I started not understanding a thing from the previous chapter.
Yeah, all things considered, Case's dream is definitely safer.
Well, maybe.