Splashdown

by Cyanblackstone

Chapter 11: Revealed

Author's Note:

I'M SO TERRIBLY SORRY! It's been sooo long since I've posted, and I apologize-- life intruded, and then Comic Con intruded, and then books intruded, and then anime. I'm a terrible person, I know, but I finally got off my lazy butt and wrote something for you.
So, here it is.

Cyan

The Nightmare snorted in amusement as Neil nearly fell over, the soldier in the corner stiffened, and everyone else flinched away. “Ha haaa!” it cackled mentally. “Look at their faces! Their fear is so tantalizing! Killing things is so fleeting compared to this; I could do this over and over...” Several disturbing mental images intruded on Luna’s mind, and she got the distinct impression of drooling. The alicorn shuddered, furiously wiping away the images and berating, “Don’t take over in the middle of a sentence!” She had no response for the other half of the thought. Those images—she shuddered. Nope. Wasn’t even going to think of a reply to those.

Unfortunately, the Nightmare could read her train of thought just as well as she could, and its schadenfreudian amusement doubled (at least) at her consternation.

“Why not?” it replied. “It was about me, and you had the facts wrong, anyway.”

“You just killed two men—gleefully—in front of these people. And the soldier in the corner doesn’t seem the most composed. We don’t want to be shot, do we?”

“Pah. Like those could do anything!”

“Rrgh!” Luna growled. “Even if that’s true—“

“Which it is.” It was taking positive glee from her anger, and Luna took a deep breath to calm herself.

“—We don’t want to aggravate their entire country, though! Not to mention we are on a ship, in the ocean, with no idea where we are or how to get to land. Do you want to go haring off in a random direction, hoping we find land?”

“...Fine,” it grumbled. “I’ll play nice. But only because flying over the ocean until you die of exhaustion is boring.”

“You’re surprisingly immature,” Luna sighed, “for an evil, sadistic, and scheming immortal spirit that’s been alive for thousands of years.”

“Being mature is boring. And it means I can’t kill things.”

“I...” Luna was at a loss for a reply—again. How did you ever reply to that kind of statement?

Returning her attention to the room, she noticed belatedly that their entire conversation had been out loud, and that everyone else in the room was staring at her in shock. Even the Nightmare sputtered to a halt, in something like embarrassment, once it had finished laughing (luckily, Luna had clamped her mouth shut over that especially-maniacal sound) at her.

“...I can explain?” she offered weakly.

Michael spoke slowly. “I really hope you can. I’m about one second away from recommending you get put somewhere that never sees the sun again. No, actually. Less than that. Unless you have a real convincing reason to explain this, that’s what the recommendation is.” He shook his head. “Did something—something serious—come loose when we landed? Because you sure didn’t seem like a psychopathic murderer on the way back to Earth.”

Buzz pointed out, “She did say she was on the Moon... not exactly by choice. Maybe she’s just a sneaky murderer. For all we know, her planet uses their moon as a jail!”

Neil was remarkably composed as he said flatly, “Talk.”

Even the Nightmare was (a little) cowed; for guessing based on what little they knew, they’d gotten remarkably close.

“It’s a long story,” she put off.

“We’re in here until we hit land. A week, at minimum. Talk.” Any sympathy was gone from their expressions; she saw no sign of the friends she’d talked to for three days.

“Very well. Perhaps I should start my story earlier than I was planning to... not 400 years ago,” she forced the Nightmare’s correction down her throat, “but more like seven hundred years ago, at the beginning of my world’s known history.”

She heard a click, but ignored it as she adjusted her seat.

“My world is an ancient one—empires have risen and fallen for longer than recorded history. But we know nearly nothing about our history before my birth, due to a being known as Discord.”

“From what little was gathered from the ruins of dozens of cities, many times, great nations had arisen, and every time, as far as we can tell, they were annihilated—by the very same creature, time upon time.

“His name was Discord, a patchwork monster of many different creatures. He was ancient, cunning, and held mastery of the very fabric of magic and universe itself. Natural or artificial, god or mortal, nopony could tell. He certainly held the power of a god, and the title which reoccurred, in every surviving account of the calamities befalling countries, was the God of Chaos. Every few centuries, he would appear, throw the world into bloody anarchy, linger for a few years, and depart. I do not know how long this cycle repeated; from what I have been able to collect, it had been for many thousands of years at least.

“For some reason, this occasion was different. Rather than simply destroying nations and reveling in the misery and chaos which followed, then disappearing for several centuries more, he stayed.

“From his eldritch throne, he ruled over the world, destroying resistance with ridiculous ease and twisting reality into a form that drove ponies mad from the sight. There is no reliable measurement for how long he ruled; the very years and seasons meant nothing when he could change the rotation of the entire world on a whim or make the sun and moon spin in the sky like tops.

“This was the sad state of affairs when a young colt, in one of the small villages in the frozen North (for they were the farthest location from Discord’s lair, and thus the least affected by his magic), found an ancient artifact in the snow.”

Comments

[jaroslav]

It's interesting that lot of authors thinks that death and killing is act of chaos. Death and killing is act of order. Chaos is life. The more life there is the more chaos there is. But with death of living beings order becomes stronger. Discord is spirit of chaos. So killing is something that would go against his nature.
That's why Celestia wants him as ally and friend because he will be good protector of her ponies when he learns to behave.

[BenRG]

This is actually very close to my own headcanon about Discord and the amount of damage he caused that last time before the Princesses defeated him.

What I like about your characterisation of Nightmare Moon is that you make her seem recognisably like a true psychopath. You can see the pathology playing out in her words and actions. It's hard to imagine what it must be like to share a mind with a utterly self-centred creature that revels in manipulation and cruelty and is, by definition, incapable of caring what happens to anyone else as a result.

[Charedfirescale]

About time!

[Warrior Kitten]

img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130122224809/creepypasta/images/4/49/WALL_OF_TEXT...PREPARE.jpg

[Evilhumour]

I really like Nightmare Moon's immaturity

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

And now the truth comes out.

And I love Nightmare Moon, too. She's quite... nuts.