Act I Chapter V
Act I: Creatures of the Night
Chapter Five
Time stretched on to eternity. Twilight stared unblinking down at the two figures below her. Nightmare Moon stared smugly back at her, an infinite lifetime's patience radiating off of her. Star Hunter blinked several times before dropping his raised hoof. His smile remained awkwardly plastered to his jaw. After a few minutes, he coughed.
"So," he said casually, "you're working for Nightmare Moon."
"HOW?"
Twilight's simple question caused Star Hunter to cower slightly, the sheer weight of the letters hanging around his neck. "I... think you would know that better than me?"
"HOW YOU?" Twilight said with exasperation.
"Twilight," Nightmare Moon raised a hoof to her chin, her voice high and mocking, "use your big-pony words."
"NOT NOW." Twilight glared at Nightmare Moon with enough force that it actually wiped the smirk off her face. "YOU." She glanced back at Star Hunter. "HOW," Twilight glanced away, gritting her teeth. After several bracing breaths, she turned back and tensely asked. "How did you know she was here."
Nightmare Moon's smile returned, "That's my little pony."
"What did I say?"
Star Hunter glanced between the two ponies, Nightmare Moon petulantly grinning at a unicorn would most likely could explode at any moment. "Ditzy." Both ponies turned their attention towards him. "Ditzy told me last night that she saw some, um, 'cool pony' with you that day. I decided to check it out and... Nightmare Moon."
Twilight turned her gaze on the black alicorn, who shrugged and said, "I stand by what I said then, we didn't need to worry about her. After all, she managed to bring little Star Hunter to me."
"Thank you, your majesty." Star Hunter replied, bowing awkwardly.
"Now, Twilight," the regal alicorn said, stopping Twilight from asking any more questions, "Star Hunter has pledged his service to me, completely on his own will, may I add? He's going to be carrying out a very special task for me."
"Let me guess...." Twilight muttered.
"He's going to be keeping his eyes peeled for any more Creatures of the Night and direct them to me so I don't have to risk myself recruiting." Nightmare Moon smiled proudly at the pegasus, who proudly drew himself up. "Isn't that right, Captain Hunter."
The pegasus grinned like an idiot and explained, "She made me Captain of the Guard. Well, her Guard that is, not the...."
"He is." Nightmare Moon said, cutting him off, "Seeing as I still need an army if I'm going to overthrow my sister and bring about nighttime eternal, I'm going to need a few ponies willing to sacrifice themselves for me. I'm sure there's at least one or two more here in Ponyville."
"And I'm going to find them!"
"I already explained that." Nightmare Moon said, chuckling. "Now, he has a long night ahead of him, don't you Star Hunter?"
"Right, need to get started tonight. Busy nights ahead of me, I suppose?" Star Hunter grinned and started trudging up the staircase. "Captain of the Guard. Me! Thank you, your highness. I won't fail you, your highness!"
"Just get going, already." Nightmare Moon replied, smiling broadly.
Star Hunter, still grinning like an idiot, trotted briskly upstairs past a mute Twilight Sparkle. So lost was he in visions of grandeur, of shining black armor and ponies at his command, that he was completely oblivious to Twilight closing the basement door behind him.
"So," he said, still grinning, "Nightma-"
He grunted as Twilight shoved him against a bookcase with her magic, knocking the wind out of him in the process. A crazed, disbelieving look plastered on her face, Twilight approached the struggling pegasus. "Why?" She asked, completely incredulous.
"Why?" Star Hunter replied with a raspy voice. "Why, what?"
"Why are you joining Nightmare Moon? Why are you... bending over backwards to serve her?" She leaned in and whispered, "What did she promise you?"
"That I would be Captain of the Guard when she overthrows Celestia?" Star Hunter replied, pulling his head as far back as the bookcase would allow him. "Um, look, this really isn't necessary."
After a brief pause, Twilight let go of the magic and allowed Star Hunter to tumble to the ground. "Okay." Twilight said, shaking her head. "Oh-kay. Nightmare Moon. She wants to: One, Overthrow Princess Celestia and become the sole ruler over all of Equestria."
Star Hunter rubbed his throat, complaining, "You know that really hurt."
"Two, Bring down the sun forever and replace it with constant night."
"You could seriously hurt a pony with that."
"and Three, Start a reign of tyranny where all ponies will be forced to worship her and will eventually be turned into Creatures of the Night like her."
Star Hunter looked up in a daze, "Wait, what did you say?"
"So I ask again," Twilight continued, her voice still high-pitched with disbelief, "why do you want to serve Nightmare Moon?"
"Um," Star Hunter replied frankly, "Well, I guess I'm just a creature of the night." At the sight of Twilight's eyes widening to the size of saucers, the dark pegasus stepped back into the shelves. "What did I say?"
Twilight wrenched her eyes closed and drew a hoof over her forehead. "Nothing, just... what do you mean by that?"
Star Hunter shrugged. "I just really like the night. I mean really." Star Hunter sat down and stared at the carpet as he explained, "When I was a little colt, I loved Nightmare Night more than any other time. I waited all year for a chance to put on my little costume and go trotting off into the night in search of candy. I remember this one time I dressed up as a Royal Guard; my mom got my grandfather's..."
Twilight coughed, causing him to glance upwards. "Oh, right. Anyway, I didn't just like all the candy and the costumes and the games and the, well, I really like hearing about Nightmare Moon. I thought she was, well, cool."
"Cool." Twilight repeated incredulously.
Star Hunter stared back excitedly. "Think about it, this mysterious royal pony flying in from the darkness, teeth bared, ready to gobble up unsuspecting ponies." He paused, a smile creeping across his face, "Cool, right?"
"No."
Star Hunter turned away, "Oh you don't know what you're talking about. Come on Twilight, tell me you never thought that to be cool."
Well, there was my first Nightmare Night...
"No." Twilight repeated firmly.
Star Hunter shrugged, though she could see in his eyes a glimmer of disappointment. "Well, that never stopped for me. I read all I could about her, every book I could get my hooves on." He paused, gauging Twilight's reaction. Insulted, he stood up straighter and said, "I read. What, do you think I never picked up a book before, Ms. High-and-Mighty unicorn?"
"I didn't...."
Star Hunter slumped slightly and shook his head. "Right, sorry, my mouth has a habit of getting ahead of my brain. Where was I? Oh yeah, when I was younger I found this really cool book about Nightmare Moon in the attic of my parents' house. Apparently it belonged to some great-great-great-great-grandsire. Now this got me thinking, what else is there in my past? So one week I travelled to Canterlot and managed to get into the Archives. Legally. I didn't break in, I found an old friend of mine that was a student at the University. A little stuck-up, but she's nice once you get to know her. Though he has this annoying habit of...."
"Star."
"Right, off topic. It took a while, but I managed to trace my family history back through generations, and do you know what I found?"
Hesitantly, Twilight replied, "You're descended from traitors."
Star Hunter frowned, "How'd you know?"
"Lucky guess." Twilight mumbled, kicking at the ground.
The dark pegasus squinted his eyes for a moment before jumping. "Ooh, you're descended from traitors too! Which one?"
"I'm...!" Twilight started but caught herself in time. Nose twitching in distaste, she looked away. "Yeah, apparently I am."
Star Hunter, now beaming, fluttered over to Twilight. "That's amazing! Maybe we could be descended from the same one. My ancestor's Scorpan the Deciever, whose yours? Hydia the Enchantress? Grogar the Twisted-Horn? Ooh, maybe T-"
"I don't know and I don't care, so shut it!"
Star Hunter dropped to the ground, shocked out of the air. Uncomfortable silence reigned in the library for nearly a minute before the pegasus leaned in and asked suspiciously, "You know, I have the strangest feeling you don't like Nightmare Moon."
Twilight's eye twitched as she held back her anger. "What gave you that idea?"
Star Hunter stepped back, wings flaring defensively. "Chill out, it's okay. It's just, why is she staying in your basement?"
"She's keeping my friend hostage." Twilight replied, eyes narrowed.
"Oh." Star Hunter replied simply. "I, uh, didn't see anypony else down there with her."
"No, he's upstairs."
"Then she really isn't keeping him hostage, is he?"
Twilight froze at the uncomfortable revelation. No, she's keeping an eye on him... but I could get him at any time....
But that would make her angry.
Now it not the time to be thinking like this. Think about Spike.
No, I could run upstairs and... no, what about the plan?
"Twilight?"
Twilight snapped out of her reverie and looked back at Star Hunter's concerned face. "If you must know, I'm keeping an eye on her. I'm making sure she can't spread her influence too far. You are an unfortunate accident..."
"Hey!"
'
"...but I assure you, she's going to get nopony else on my watch."
"And you're going to stop me from recruiting, how?"
Twilight opened and closed her mouth as she mulled over what to say next. Meanwhile Star Hunter sat unblinking, waiting for an answer. "Well..." Twilight finally replied, stretching out her answer, "...I...I'm going to defeat Nightmare Moon before you have the chance to."
Star Hunter hardly reacted. "And you're going to accomplish this...?"
Twilight turned around and walked towards the bookshelves on the far wall. "Nightmare Moon was defeated before, and take my word for it she can be defeated again. There were these... things... these Elements of..." Twilight bent her head as she picked through her mind. Unfortunately the two warring voices had picked that time to start arguing, making it hard to concentrate. "The Elements of... something with an H...."
"The Elements of Harmony?"
"Yes." Twilight froze. She spun around and glared at Star Hunter, the pegasus nonchalantly standing in the middle of the room. "Wait, how do you know about them?"
The pegasus gestured over his shoulder. "I saw it on that book Nightmare Moon was reading, over by her bed. Well, if you can call it a bed. It's more of a mattress, really."
"What book?"
"Something like, The Elements of Harmony: a Reference Guide."
Twilight blinked. Star Hunter blinked. A few moments later, Star Hunter glanced up at the ceiling and mumbled, "Wait...."
Without warning, Star Hunter found himself grabbed by a wave of energy which lifted him into the air and flung him out the door. The pegasus hit the ground with a thud and winced in pain. Inside, Twilight quickly said, "Good night." and slammed the door in his face.
- - - -
Nightmare Moon slowly ran her tongue over the delicate folds of the cupcake's frosting, savoring each flake of sugary goodness. Eyes closed, she raised the glorious confection to her mouth, only to be interrupted by the door to the basement being thrown open. With a burst of magic, the cupcake was wrenched from her grasp, leaving nothing but empty air in front of her mouth.
The dark alicorn opened her eyes and glared into the determined eyes of Twilight Sparkle. "I sense you might be unhappy for some reason," Nightmare Moon said softly, crossing her legs in front of her, "well, rather than the usual reason."
"Let's talk."
Nightmare Moon's eyebrows briefly twitched downwards as Twilight sat down in front of her, still glaring into her own eyes. The Princess of the Night leaned backwards and replied, "Talk?"
"Why me?" Twilight asked flatly.
"You were the closest Creature of the Night I could find when I arrived in Ponyville," she replied quickly and curtly, "nothing more."
"How did you know?"
"What you were a Creature of the Night? Even with Celestia's aura? It's nothing more than a shell, and a failing one at that."
She smirked as Twilight twitched in annoyance. "What about Star Hunter?"
Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes. "I didn't know about him then. As I said, you were closest."
"Well what about now?" Nightmare Moon frowned, confused. Twilight leaned in and continued, "Why don't you leave me and join him seeing as he actually wants you around."
Nightmare Moon scoffed, "Please, he may be a good pawn, but he's terrible company. You should have shown up earlier; his sycophantic prattling was making me consider tearing him apart, necessary or otherwise."
Twilight silently continued to stare at the black alicorn, causing her to readjust her wings uncomfortably. "Besides," she continued, "you already know that I've returned. I can't exactly leave you here unattended. Who knows what you might do to compromise me?"
"And you can't keep a track on me from Star Hunter's house? You claimed to be able to keep an eye on me when I left last night."
Nightmare Moon glanced away nervously. "Well... I trust you more than Star Hunter. I mean," she rapidly added, glaring back at Twilight, "he has an incredibly loud mouth and, from what I've heard, he has a roommate and I doubt I'm lucky enough to have two Creatures of the Night together."
Twilight's eyes remained narrowed. Nightmare Moon ground her teeth in reply and reared back. "That's it. I won't have any more questioning of this matter. I am your Princess and that's final."
Twilight flinched and briefly looked away. The dark alicorn smirked at the outward signs of Twilight's obvious inner turmoil. After a moment of hesitation, Twilight stood up and said, "No."
"No?" Nightmare Moon repeated incredulously.
Twilight turned around and started taking down the makeshift banners that lined her throne room. "You don't need to stay here any longer, so I'm kicking you out. You're not my Princess, Celestia is, and I don't need to do anything you say. So no more throne room, no more using Spike as your slave..." With a flick of her horn, the half-empty box of cupcakes flew into the air and started hovering towards Twilight, "...and no more cupcakes."
The cupcakes were wrenched from the air and slammed to the ground. Nightmare Moon brought herself up to her full height and in three strides crossed the room and pressed her head against Twilight's. The purple unicorn cowered, promptly falling on her flank.
"I don't know what brought on this insane little rebellion of yours, but I won't stand for it." Nightmare Moon growled coldly, staring directly into Twilight's shaking eyes. "Regardless of what you feel, if you stand in my way again I will break your little dragon's pudgy neck. Do not test me. Understand?"
Twilight, averting her gaze, nodded mutely. "Get out of here." Nightmare Moon growled, gesturing towards the door. The cowering purple unicorn, horn dimly lit for light, rapidly cantered upstairs and sealed the door closed behind her.
The irate black alicorn gazed at the door briefly before turning back to her mattress and sitting down again. She closed her eyes, and laid her head down at the edge of the bed. She calmly breathed in and out, calming the raging fire inside of her.
Seconds later one eye snapped open, fixing on an empty place by her bed that was definitely not empty before. Closing her eye again and gritting her teeth, Nightmare Moon couldn't help but grin at Twilight's surprisingly cunning plan....
- - - -
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," Twilight muttered, flipping rapidly through the pages of the ancient tome, "just tell me where they are."
Pages of rumors and speculation flew by her where "experts" wrote their theories on the most mysterious of magical artifacts. Sketches and drawings of the Elements in many exotic styles filled her eyes as she scanned for the only important piece of information in the book. Words blurred, sentences ran together, and paragraphs faded away as Twilight's search became more and more frantic.
...spark of...
...reflection of the universe...
...cient aliens ma...
...known location...
Twilight stopped, slamming her hoof down on the open page. Her eyes wide, she practically pressed her face into the book as she read: The last known location of the Elements of Harmony is the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters in what is now Everfree Forest, outside of the town of Ponyville.
Ponyville
All this time, Twilight realized, mouth agape, the Elements were probably just sitting in the middle of the forest. If I can get away from her for long enough, I can find them in ten....
"Interesting, isn't it?"
The hairs on the back of Twilight's neck stiffened as dread washed over her. Slowly, the unicorn turned around, unconsciously floating the book with her. Nightmare Moon stood behind her, towering over the little unicorn. The black alicorn's face was frozen in a mask of pleasant calm, but Twilight could feel cold animosity radiating from her.
"If you wanted to read that," the alicorn said mockingly, "you could have just asked."
Twilight backed away, keeping the book close to her. She didn't say a word, she hardly even blinked as she met the black Princess' gaze. Twilight took a steadying breath. Her eyes darted to the book and then to the door. A plan was already starting to form in her mind. Nightmare Moon saw this, her eyes narrowing in disbelief.
"No." She said disbelievingly, laughing slightly.
No one voice said cautiously
Yes the other said hopefully.
Twilight braced herself against the ground, staring directly into Nightmare Moon's dark eyes. The alicorn blinked in shock, but quickly recovered herself and laughed humorlessly. "Enough of this foalishness." Nightmare Moon's imperious glare fell into place as she lifted her head. An aura of blue surrounded the tome and pulled it towards the alicorn. "Besides, how could you possibly think of finding it-"
The book stopped in mid-flight, a purple aura now competing with the blue. Nightmare Moon scowled at Twilight as the unicorn narrowed her eyes and focused on the book. "Now see here," Nightmare Moon said impatiently, "do you honestly think," she pulled at the book with her magic, "that you could-"
With a sudden surge of magic the book was wrenched from Nightmare Moon's grasp. Her magic faltered and Twilight found herself with the tome once more. The alicorn's composure slipped completely, her eyes widening in shock. Her breathing became slightly heavier, the first signs of exertion sneaking through her facade. Silently, Twilight noticed these signs. Her eyes widened slightly in realization.
I'm stronger than her.
No.
I can beat her.
Don't do this.
This is it.
The black alicorn growled and raised her wings threateningly. "Don't even think about it. Take one step outside and your familiar is dead meat."
Tense silence hung in the air, two magical forces locked in a contest of wills. Nightmare Moon's superior gaze had been replaced by a challenging glare. Twilight returned it with an equally furious stare of her own. A soft breeze seeped in through a crack in the wall, chilling Twilight slightly.
The silence was finally broken when Nightmare Moon snorted impatiently. "Well?"
"YEARGH!"
Nightmare Moon glanced up just in time to see Spike leap off the stairs and crash into the black alicorn's face. His claws outstretched, the baby dragon latched onto the alicorn's ears and held on for his life. Nightmare Moon yelled in shock and reared back, her magic firing randomly. Bolts of dark energy soared around the room, knocking books off shelves and. A blue aura surrounded Spike, tugging vainly at his scaly hide. Twilight froze in shock, unable to process what was happening.
"Forget about me!" Spike yelled through gritted teeth, "Just run!"
Twilight stood still even then, "I-I-...." she managed to stammer.
"Twilight!" The dragon cried desperately, "RUN!"
And so she did.
- - - -
Took long to get out. Oh criticalmess, you're so late. I know. End scene.
Pre-Read by my good friend Duffman18, go check out his work sometime.
Please, Read and Review, especially Review.
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holy damn this is heating up. wondering how long it'll be before at least one of her friends is a traitor's descendant, and or how long till Celestia talks about what would've happened or whatever went wrong etc.
There is more to what Nightmare Moon is saying...Twilight made some decent points on that subject...so what is she hideing?
*holds up bowl* MORE PLEASE!!!!
Ula, next time remove the 'e' from hiding.
Anyways. Love the new chapter, and i do wonder whats going to happen next. Grammatically there were no easily noticeable mistakes, but the ending seemed a little rushed. Heh my little grammar nazi editor is coming out. But otherwise not bad.
i already see Twilight's plan failing. anyway i feel sorry for nmm with her inept followers. when will twilight realize that nmm isn't completely evil?
dangit i was hoping there would be ass wooping from twilight with the magic princess celestia really should have taught twilight being a political target and all
1048958 Who said NMM wasn't completely evil? She may be less ostentatious, but she's definitely still evil.
I'm more concerned over whether Twilight's plan is completely doomed.
1054217 o its doomed alright i mean wheres the other bearers i mean they dont know whats going on and twi is the only one that does but she doesn't even know that she needs the others to even have a chance at using the elements.
Hrm. I still don't know where this story is going, I'd thought for sure Nightmare was going to be the victor, seeing as Twilight was beginning to bend to her will, But with this latest update, I'm left scratching my head.
I guess we'll see what happens.
Interesting twist here, definitely not the route I was expecting. The whole inner turmoil stance is also an fascinating take, since it could be said that Celestia's shell made a false Twilight and the real one is trying to get out, but we're seeing the 'false' Twilight's inner fight for her desire to continue existing.
I have two little requests - don't hurt Spike and make NM reconcile with Celestia. Make NM realize what she's loosing. Oh, and perhaps ship. Shipping is always desired!
This last scene make no sense, Twilight could run with Spike and put him in safely when Nightmare Moon was busy, to be honest, Nightmare Moon was not even paying attention to Spike at all, so why Twilight did not took him to safely.
Whats more, why Twilight just not send letter to princess since Spike can send it anytime with his flame no matter where he is.
Why Twilight tryed to resist Nightmare Moon so openly if she thougt that nightmare Moon is stronger than her, totaly irracional, Twilight would never be so illogical, she would alwais consider better options, or do bying Night pony afected her mind to that high level ?
When Twilight found out that she is stronger than Nightmare Moon, why she did not attacked her, whats more, a open fight would alarm Ponyvile and ruin Nightmare Moon plan to lie low.
And when Spike attacked Nightmare Moon, why Twilight not took him away, why she not teleported with him away, I mean, Twilight was helping Nightmare only because she could kill Spike, and now when Spike openly attack Nightmare, Twilight just run leaving spike to his death.
SO many thinks that does not make sense in this chapter.
Twilight wasn't certain that she could overpower NMM until the struggle with the book. She might have suspected, but she didn't really want to risk it. Her failure to have evacuate Spike was called out by Star Hunter; she's pretty clearly falling at least a little under Nightmare Moon's influence, and not acting on opportunities to escape that she should be. Leaving Spike behind was a little strange, but Spike told her to run and she ran; she called all of NMM other bluffs at that point, so maybe she doesn't think Spike will actually be harmed.
I'm glad this fic was continued. It's a fairly interesting premise.
Omigawshomigawshomigawsh!
Run Twilight! Get your friends and secure the Elements of Harmony!
Okay, that being said, I noticed a few things that slipped through, but the only one that I remember is Star is talking about some friend of his on a tangent and how she's this, and that, but then he calls her a 'he'...
*Edit*
I found it:
"... A little stuck-up, but she's nice once you get to know her. Though he has this annoying habit of...."
*poke*
I'm happy to say that I just rediscovered this, since I'd read through chapter three or four before I made my account, and I still haven't gone through all the stories I bookmarked my position in. I finally got around to reading the first (and only) chapter of Sordid Truth (which is what made me check this out again), and so I now have two reasons to say: MOAR NAO/SOON PLZ.
Also, I believe it was last chapter, I remember seeing a besseching rather than a beseeching.
Make more or for the love of celestia i will HURT YOU!
Plus make NMM corrupt twilight already!
BTW, should probably be an alternate universe tag on this.
Otherwise, good read. I will be awaiting the next chapter.
0_0 what no more???? Cole on this Is great
This ever going to update again?
i really like this story so far hope to read more soon
One of these days this will be updated and I will cry tears of joy
Is this story going to get an update...?
NOOOO!!!!
WHEN IS THE NEXT BUCKING UPDATE???
interesting stories rarely reach their end 😟
10274475
Feel ya bro...