Nightmare Night
A Dark Shade of the Past
by InfinityBreach
Chapter 34: Nightmare Night
"Sister."
Celestia looked up from the work she was doing at her desk, to see Luna descending onto her balcony.
"Hello there, Lulu." Celestia warmly greeted her sister. "I didn't expect you back so soon. Is your vacation over already?"
Luna let out a sigh, and began speaking. "No… no it is not. I came here to question you. Tia, I must ask you; who is Shaded Darkness?"
Celestia froze, her normally calm mask faltering for a moment. After a few seconds, Celestia finally said, "Why do you ask, sister?"
Luna walked into Celestia's room, taking a spot on her bed.
"I… I remember him. Sort of. I don't remember what he looked like, but I saw a picture of him in that book of Elements your student has."
Celestia mentally cursed herself for thinking that this day wouldn't happen if she gave the book to her student. Of course Twilight would find out about the past, but this… this is something she tried to hide for centuries.
"Shaded.. he.. he was a friend. And a wielder of one of the Elements before we both took over half of the six. How much do you remember?" Celestia asked Luna, not wanting to reveal any more than she had to.
"I do not know, sister. When I got hit with the elements before, I forgot a lot of my past. I do remember some of our friends, along with Discord. Yet I do not remember moments in history that I know I was there for. I also don't remember what happened as I was Nightmare Moon, but I would rather not remember that…"
"It was a dark time for us both, sister. But I had to do what was needed to protect Equestria." Celestia replied.
"Yes… I know, Tia. Yet, I feel as though I have forgotten many important things, however. Things that need to be remembered." Luna said, staring out towards her night sky.
"Well, the memories shall return to you in due time." Celestia replied, as she felt a twinge of guilt at her lie.
"I need my memories though, sister! I barely even remember our mother!" Luna yelled back, her eyes beginning to well up with tears.
Celestia trotted up to Luna and sat next to her on the bed, and embraced her. "Shh, now Lulu. Everything is fine."
"Everything is NOT fine, Tia! I should be able to remember the one who actually raised us! I should be able to remember my friends! I should be able to remember who the other wielders of the Elements were, even though the Elements were are to blame!" Luna hysterically cried, pressing her head into her sister's shoulder.
"Lulu.. I wish I knew the Elements would have locked you away. I wish I knew they would take you from me for a thousand years. I wish I knew that they would mess with your memories, and make you grow weaker than me. I really do. But what happened couldn't be changed, and I apologize for that." Celestia responded, letting her sister cry for as long as she needed to.
"You do know that your subjects need you to celebrate your holiday, correct?" Celestia said after a few moments.
Luna gave a small nod, and replied. "I'll leave when I'm feeling a little better. An hour or two won't affect them much…"
Celestia nodded her head, and continued speaking. "Again, I apologize for locking you away all those years ago. It was the only way I could stop you."
Luna nodded her head in understanding, as the room grew quiet.
Darkness itself was watching over this moment, shaking his head.
"Celestia… you cannot hide the truth forever."
"Oh my Celestia… LOOK AT ALL THESE CUPCAKES!" I yelled as I entered Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie wanted us to meet there before we went to begin hunting for candy. After all, today was Nightmare Night.
I erratically sped over to the spiraling tower of cupcakes, staring in awe at the mere size of the pile.
"Woah… this must be a hundred cupcakes, or something!" I muttered to myself.
I heard a sound coming from inside of the pile, when Pinkie Pie jump out of it dressed as what appeared to be a dragon.
She swallowed one cupcake whole, and turned to me with a smile. "Aaaand now there's a hundred!"
"Pinkie, did you make all of these?" I asked, still gawking at how many cupcakes there were.
"Of course, silly! I made them for all of my friends!" Pinkie replied with an even bigger smile.
My eyes widened as I turned to her, a feeling of excitement gaining in my body. "Does… does that mean I can have some?"
Pinkie tapped her hoof onto her chin, as if she was deep in thought. "Hmm…." She glanced over at me, and continued to make 'hmm' noises.
"Pleeeease, Pinkie!" I pleaded, dropping to the ground as if I were bowing to her. "Pleeeease! Your cupcakes are the best!"
"Why of course you can have some!" She said as I finished speaking. "I did say that I made these for my friends; and I'm pretty sure you're my friend, Eclipsal!"
She then hopped off, as I hungrily took 3 cupcakes with me to eat as I followed her.
"So when do you think the others will get here?" I asked Pinkie.
"I dunno. They should be here soon though!" Pinkie replied, pulling a huge bag out of nowhere. "It's too bad Fluttershy can't join us though. She hasn't showed up the other times too, but then again this is only year we decided to meet up."
"Yeah, but she kind of does have a reason for it. I checked in with her before I came over, and she's still healing from the Hydra attack." I solemnly said as I took another bite out of the cupcake I was magically holding.
"She'll be fine soon though! She's a tough cookie, she is." Pinkie said, as she opened the bag, and began tapping her hoof against the floor in an impatient way. "As for those other ponies, where the hay are they? Time is candy, and the longer we wait, the less candy is left!"
The others came in at that moment, each dressed up in a different outfit.
Pinkie Pie gave a greeting to the festivity. "Hello, everypony! Ready to go get lots and LOTS of candy?!"
Twilight was surprisingly the first to start speaking from excitement. "I am SO ready for this! I'm even wearing my Clover the Clever outfit from our Hearth's Warming Eve play, so I'm going to get so much candy!" She wore what looked to be a brown fabric robe with more brown fabric made into a hood, all tied together with a yellow rope.
"Twi, ya definitely did good! Simple is always good ta me! But Twi, I don't think many ponies would think of Clover the Clever off the top of their head." Applejack said with a small laugh.
"Yeah, just like how they didn't know Starswirl the Bearded!" Spike said, eliciting a laugh from the rest of the group. I looked at his costume, and couldn't help but chuckle at what he was dressed as.
Spike continued on with his tirade. "I, however should be easily recognized by many ponies! For I am…" Spike gave a dramatic pause, and lowered his voice a few levels. "… a pony."
He was wearing some sort of pony suit, his eyes popping out of the eye sockets of them. If it weren't for all the fabric lines, he might just pass off as an actual pony.
"And I, Rarity, the most fabulous fashion designer in Equestria, am dressed as the most fabulous singer in Equestria; Sapphire Shores!" Rarity exclaimed, striking a pose. She had her usual mane done up so that it was more curly, and was now wearing a small white tophat along with a white jumpsuit covered in a variety of sparkling gems, a golden band going around her waist, which only added to the brightness of her outfit.
"Most fabulous for most fabulous, huh? Makes sense." I stated, looking over to Applejack.
"Well… I didn't get all done up like all you other ponies did. I'm only dressed as Granny Smith, cause I figured it would be mighty nice." Applejack stated. She wore a bonnet on her head, and her mane was tied into braids, the same treatment going to her tail.
"Don't you worry, Applejack! Granny Smith was and is still one of the most beautiful and amazing ponies in Ponyville. She also deserves some recognition for helping found the town, because without her we wouldn't even be here right now." Rarity said with a warm smile, which Applejack embarrassingly returned.
"Heh.. well, that's true… anyway, Rainbow, whatcha dressed as?" Applejack asked, looking above us.
Rainbow was sitting on a cloud that she brought into the building, and swooped down before us. "I am dressed as Spitfire, the most amazing flier in the Wonderbolts! Because as the fastest flier in Equestria, it just makes sense."
"Fastest flier, most skilled flier. Also makes sense." I stated, when the others agreed to me, and Rainbow flew down to me at eye level.
"Listen, you. I'm only here because I want to hang out with my friends." She then turned to everypony else. "I'll be outside."
She flew out the door, and Rarity walked up to me. "Listen dear, don't worry about Rainbow. She may still be mad at you, but we can still have a fun night, right?"
"I guess so." I muttered. "I thought this entire thing would have blown over by now… how long is she going to stay mad for..?"
Rarity let out a sigh, and changed subjects. "I see your outfit has come out quite nicely. You never told us who you were, though."
"Oh, you see, I'm Sha.." I was about to continue speaking, when I saw a look from Twilight telling me to stop. In the next few seconds I remembered how we agreed we wouldn't tell everypony else about it until after the Running of the Leaves, which became extended to today, due to one of the Princesses staying here. "Uh… I'm just this horse from history Twilight helped me find."
"Really?" Pinkie said, with a shocked expression. "I thought you were Starswirl the Bearded!"
Everypony began laughing, including me, as Twilight facehoofed.
"Well, I guess I might look like some sort of powerful wizard. For all I know, I could be." I looked down at my hooves, a clear yet silver metal covering my hooves and spiraling around my legs in a powerful way. Rarity even made me a cloak to add to my outfit, which trailed behind me as I moved, the pitch black fabric that seemed to always be flowing. At the front of it was a medal pentagon armor of sorts that kept my cloak attached to me, a black sphere centered in it that faded into the white tips of the pentagon.
"By the way, Pinkie." I said, looking towards her. "What are you supposed to be dressed as? It looks like a dragon, but I'm not sure.."
"Oh, this is Crackle the dragon!" she replied. "Rarity, Rainbow, and Twilight wore this a long time ago, and Rarity edited it and gave it back to me so it could fit one pony, instead of three!"
"Uh.. huh." I said, looking at the eyes on the so-called dragon's head, which were blankly staring at the different sides of the room. It's green body had some gems on it, and was extremely wrinkled. And right in it's mouth with paper-like teeth, was the ever energetic Pinkie Pie.
Rarity made a small cough, looking quite sheepish. "How about we go get some candy, now?"
Pinkie, Spike, and I yelled, "YAY, CANDY!" At the same time, as we flew out the door, ready to get our harvest.
Luna solemnly flew out of Canterlot, returning to Ponyville. While with her sister, she asked about the situation with Victory, and the most they could find out was that she was in the badlands recently, and then they lost her again. But that wasn't important right now. Many ponies were in Ponyville awaiting for her arrival, which brought a grateful smile to her face.
Over the Everfree forest now, she felt a strange power pulsating from below, very similar to what she felt during the eclipse many months ago. She looked down to see the ruins of the castle she used to live in, which she unfortunately didn't remember getting destroyed, but knew it was.
She let out a sigh and continued flying, when something caught her eye.
Enclosing the ruins was a massive barely visible transparent field, which Luna recognized extremely.
She flew directly into the zone, completely sure she knew what was happening. "This is dream magic! I.. I'm the only one who should be able to use this!"
Luna then felt a sharp pain in her head, her mind going back to her being Nightmare Moon. She used Nightmare zones to mentally wreck ponies so that they would fight alongside her army in the rebellion against her sister. Which meant the only other being able to use this type of magic would be…
"Victorious Nightmare. I have finally found you." Luna said, anger in her voice, as she saw the magic expanding all the way from her ruins to the end of Ponyville itself.
We had gone door to door, seeing all of the amazing costumes, and even meeting a few other ponies I didn't know much about.
I went back to Pinkie, so we could deposit more candy in the carts that were borrowed from Applejack. She was chatting up with the pony I had met awhile ago, named Ditzy.
"Hey there, Ditzy do." I welcomed her. She was wearing a red and white scarf with glasses and a red and white striped beanie.
"Uh… hey, Eclipsal…" She said, staring blankly at my costume. "Who are you dressed as..?"
"I'm dressed as a horse named Shaded Darkness. I figured it fit well, considering I'm a horse too." I explained with a smile.
"I… you shouldn't know about him. It's not possi…" All of a sudden, she looked out towards the Everfree, and began flying off, yelling, "Sorry, I have to go. Be careful. I mean it."
"So much candy…" I muttered, sitting down next to the three carts filled with mountains of candy.
All of us had already eaten a good portion of the candy, and we had barely made a dent in the amount of candy left. Everypony else had called it quits except for Spike and Pinkie. I was reaching my limit, though.
"Is it me, or has the candy been slowly growing?" I asked, noticing that even though we ate a lot of the candy, none of it was disappearing. "Did we even have this much candy before?"
"Candy can't grow, Eclipsal." Twilight groaned next to me.
"I think I might need a good few apples afterwards to even out all these sweets…" Applejack muttered.
"I'm still fine, but I'm probably going to have to exercise to work out all of the candy." Rainbow said, lazily floating on her cloud.
All of a sudden, lightning began flashing from the sky, even though it was clear. Clouds began to roll in out of nowhere, and the moon began to glow red.
"My, my. This is looking to be a dramatic entrance." Rarity said, staring at the sky in wonder.
"Is Luna finally going to show up? She's pretty late." Spike stated, looking up to the sky.
"You wish." an echoing voice billowed around us.
Thunder flashed, and lightning struck right in front of us, a white mare glaring down at us, with a smear plastered on her face.
I was the first to react, jumping forward about to pound my hooves to the ground, when I got hit with lightning, and opened my eyes again, to see that I was hanging above this massive pool of energy.
I looked up to see the candy now coming alive, linking itself together as chains, binding up the others. Rainbow was able to escape though, since she was on her cloud.
"Rainbow! You have to stop her! That's Victory, the one who hunted Twilight and I!" I yelled at her, as Victroy looked from me to Rainbow, the same sneer on her face.
"I would think twice about that, Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty." Victory stated.
Rainbow flew above her, and asked, "You trapped my friends, and you expect me not to stop you?!" She then rocketed towards Victory, her usual rainbow streak flowing behind her.
An image appeared in front of Victory, that made Rainbow halt, wind blowing around from her sudden stop.
"This is why you won't attack me." Victory smirked. "You see Eclipsal over there? Well, just like how you can tell from this picture, Fluttershy is in the same trap as him, all the way across town. Now you've had your treats; so how about a trick?"
"What game are you playing, Victory?" Rainbow yelled, her hooves trembling at her sides.
"You can only save one of them. Fluttershy, or Eclipsal. If you don't save one, the other dies in that spiraling mass of electricity. Oh, this time Fluttershy really won't be able to fly!" Victory said with a deranged laugh. "The best part is; no matter who you choose, I win. I am always victorious."
"Rainbow! If you get me, I can use my magic to save Fluttershy. I can see her right over the horizon of the town." I yelled.
Rainbow turned and saw that Fluttershy was indeed hanging up like me, with a bright light below her.
She looked between the two of us. I was closer, and Fluttershy was farther away. "Rainbow, hurry! Before Victory changes the rules!"
"I'm going to save Fluttershy." Rainbow said after a few moments.
"What?! But Rainbow, I can save her!" I yelled out, now trying to struggle.
Rainbow stopped, and turned to me, before yanking her head away.
"You weren't able to before."
With that she flew off, a sonic rainboom exploding from her, wind blowing past everything except Victory herself.
"Well then, Eclipsal, was it? It was nice knowing you."
I began squirming as much as I could, attempting to get out of where I was stuck. I heard a soft click go off above my head, as I fell downward into a pool of light.
I closed my eyes, expecting pain to hit me at any moment. I opened them again to see Luna, placing me down beside my friends.
"Break them out of those candy chains. I'll deal with Victory myself." She said, turning to the white mare.
I began using my magic to untie and try and break the many chains of candy surrounding my friends, as Luna fought Victory.
"So you have finally decided to arrive, Luna." Victory stated, a small smile on her face.
"Yes. I came to save my little ponies. I refuse to let you do any harm to them." Luna said, a glare on her face.
"Oh, you and that rainbow-maned one. Both Elements of Loyalty, both quick to anger, both with dreams big enough to crush the effects of the Nightmare zone, and both loyal to those they care about the most. But what happens if the one you care about the most, is the problem?" Victory said, casting a look off to the side.
"Well no matter." Victory continued. "I'll turn off my power… for now. I shall see you again, my counterpart."
With a smirk, lightning struck in the place of Victory, leaving ashes in her place. What looked to be magic dropped from the sky, replacing the clouds with the clear sky again, the moon back to white.
The candy chains around the others shattered, freeing them.
Twilight jumped up and hugged me. "You're okay! I thought for sure you were done for."
"Nice vote of confidence, Twi." I said with a smirk.
"I can't believe Rainbow left ya like that!" Applejack muttered, an angry look on her face.
At that moment, Rainbow flew in, an unconscious Fluttershy in her arms. "Ah… sorry about that, Eclipsal… I guess we're even now though, right?"
I glared at Rainbow so hard that it made her flinch. "We're even?!" WE'RE EVEN?! Yes, it was my fault Fluttershy fell off the cliff, but I jumped after her, and saved her! You left me to die! That isn't even, AT ALL!" I yelled, rage building inside me.
I felt a scaly limb touching my body, and looked to see Spike standing next to me.
"Calm down." He said.
"Calm DOWN? AFTER WHAT SHE NEARLY DID TO ME?!" I yelled back, anger now feeling as if it was leaking out of me.
Spike brought up my hoof, and pointed at the metal on it. I looked, and saw staring back at me a monster. That's the best I could describe it. The reflection barely even resembled me, red eyes glowing intensely, my mane now pulsating magic of some sort, and my body having a black aura around it.
I looked up from my reflection, with shock on my face. I turned to see the rest of the ponies in town who saw what had happened, but were backed away from me; obviously scared of my appearance.
"I'm done." I stated, magic surrounding my body. In an instance, I was gone, teleported home, where I wanted to be.
Twilight walked up to where Eclipsal once was, a sad look on her face. "Maybe we should go and make sure he's okay."
"Yeah. I want to go and apologize to him.." Rainbow stated, before she was interrupted by Applejack.
"No. I think you've done enough. He's been worrying about losing your friendship for more than a week now, and you didn't so much as care! Now you're the one in his situation; except multiple times worse, yet you expect for him to forgive you!?" Applejack yelled at her, making Rainbow flinch back.
Rarity walked between the two. "That is enough, you two. I believe we have a slightly more pressing matter to deal with."
"Yeah, like where did all my candy go?" Pinkie said, looking at the now empty carts of candy.
Luna turned around, and sighed. "I don't know if you know this; but I control both the moon and am in charge of the willpower that you get from your dreams. With those powers, I have a multitude of dream spells, and this was one of the ones that I used as Nightmare Moon. It's called Nightmare zone. I used it before to manipulate and mentally break ponies so they would fight on my side. But that is not it's only use. It has the power to make a certain portion of the world fall under a dream like state; where I can control everything that happens. Or in the case of tonight, Victory can control everything that happens, too."
"So, everything we went through was a dream?" Rainbow asked. "See? Eclipsal wouldn't have died anyway!"
"Actually, even though it was a dream, the effects of it were all too real. Eclipsal could have in fact died. My power of dreams aren't what you think of them." Luna stated in a serious tone, as Rainbow once again shrunk back.
"Maybe we should go and check on Eclipsal, then…" Rarity said. "Not only has he been through a near death experience, but he turned into that.. whatever that was."
"It looked like a magical overload." Twilight stated. "It happens when you exert an emotion too much while using magic.. it usually has catastrophic effects."
"With enough power to give birth to a dragon, which is near impossible." Spike added. "But anyway, I think we should give him his time. He's had a bit of a rough night, and I'm sure you all remember how I was when I went greed-form, right?"
They all nodded, as Luna took to the sky. "I need to make sure the rest of Ponyville is safe before I report back to my sister. Goodbye, for now."
"Was that enough chaos?" Victory asked.
"I imagine so. I wouldn't have thought you could create so much in such a short span of time. Summoning a Hydra, taking over Ponyville, and even coaxing Twilight into thinking she was useless? Your kin are devious masterminds."
"I would prefer to say that our minds are as dark as our powers; we make perfection out of the mistakes of our owners."
The sound of cracking echoed across the world, unnoticed to most, but heard to Victory and the being she was with. Then there was an avalanche of magic unseen to the world for awhile.
"Looks like he's finally here."
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A excellent chapter!
you didnt reply to my criticism...
1547679
If you're talking about when you said Fluttershy seemed out of character, I answered that in both the review section down here, AND in the chapter 'For Who The Guilt Tolls'. If you're talking about when you said that Rainbow was being an ass, I responded to that in the chapter 'Oh, The Irony'. I did respond to your criticisms.
CELESTIA WHAT ARE YOU HIDING FROM THE BEST PRINCESS!
also nice going rainbow
Yay, a me coustume