• Published 17th Oct 2014
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Living Nightmare - Autum Breeze



Nightmare Moon was destroyed by the Elements. But a part of her remained, working til it could become whole again. But something went wrong.

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Chapter 26

Chapter 26

___________________________________________________________

“Alright, everypony,” Miss Cheerilee calls out as we all get in line, “now, we have some time before the show, so you can have a look around, but don’t go wandering off. This is Manehatten after all and I’d rather not find out any of you got lost because he or she decided to go exploring.”

It’s been a few days since I was almost foalnapped again and our school is having a field trip in Manehatten. Miss Cheerilee was sent tickets for a musical here for the class to see.

I honestly want to see it because Coco Pommel, a friend of Rarity’s, is the dressmaker for the show and Rarity says her designs are really good.

A sigh makes me turn to see Diamond standing on her own. Silver Spoon got sick yesterday, so she couldn’t come.

I look around to find the CMC and see them heading into a gaming store with Button Mash, probably to try getting gaming Cutie Marks or something.

Seeing nopony else is coming over, I move next to Diamond and smile. “So, what you wanna do?”

She turns and smiles when she sees me, a slight sheepishness entering her expression. “I... don’t know, really.”

“Wanna go have fun?!”

We both cringe, though for different reasons, as Pinkie Pie appears next to us, her Confetti Canon firing off a blast.

Because of how many of us came on the field trip, Cheerilee got several ponies to volunteer as chaperons. Unfortunately, two of the ponies who volunteered are Pinkie and Fluttershy.

I now I trust Dash and Rarity again, but I just don’t feel comfortable around Pinkie and Fluttershy. Heck, I still do my best to stay away from them, Twilight and Applejack if it can.

I even got Mama to rent a room in one of Ponyville motels because I just couldn’t take being around Twilight’s castle when she lives there.

“C-come on, Diamond,” I stutter, moving away from the older pink mare. “Let’s get going.”

Diamond gives me an uncertain look, but follows after me.

___________________________________________________________

Pinkie Pie’s body sagged as Stellar and Diamond moved away and she looked down with saddened eyes.

She’d been trying so hard to make things right with the little filly again, but it always seemed to fail on her. Stellar just didn’t trust her anymore.

She’d been excited when she learned the little Alicorn was on normal terms with Dash and Rarity again, but her happiness had faded when she realized it was only those two she seemed to have forgiven.

“Pinkie?” the soft voice caused the pink mare to look to her right and see Fluttershy, watching Stellar and Diamond with sad eyes as well, before the Pegasus extended a wing and put it over the current not hyper party pony.

“I... I just wish we could go back to how it was... ya know?” she sniffled, a few tears sliding down her cheeks. “I... I can’t stand seeing Stellar so sad whenever she looks at me.”

Fluttershy said nothing, but leaned more into her friend, doing her best to comfort her.

They remained that was as Stellar and Diamond walked into the theatre where the musical was being held, just staying with each other, both trying to comfort the other for the sadness brought on for having emotionally her their mutual little sister.

Suddenly, Pinkie reached behind her, scratching at her neck, before her eyes widened and she looked around with slightly narrowed eyes.

“Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked, curious about her friend/relative’s sudden change in mood.

“Somepony’s watching us,” the pink mare said in a low tone, her eyes darting this way and that.

“Watching us?” the yellow Pegasus asked in confusion.

Pinkie nodded. “Somepony’s spying on us.”

___________________________________________________________

From one of the windows of the building in which the students of Ponyville School would be watching the play, a pony watched the street, specifically, the two young foals entering the building.

He reached for a communication crystal and tapped it twice, before speaking in a voice that you could hear his smirk in. “The packages are delivered. Move on to phase three.”

“Understood,” several voices replied from the crystal, before the signal ended.

___________________________________________________________

Diamond and I walk through the theater, looking around, the former sometimes saying a few things she learned about the design of the place from her dad and the mare that used to be her mother.

As we walk, I can’t help getting this weird feeling we’re being watched, but every time I look around, nopony else is there aside from other tourist and none of them ever seem to be giving us any attention aside from what you’d expect when somepony sees one of the princesses.

“Hey. Where is everypony?”

Diamond’s question pulls me from my latest glance around as that feeling of being watched strikes me again, and I actually look around the room itself.

We’re in the room where the place itself will be held... though Diamond’s right. Something’s very off here. The hall doesn’t look like it’s ready for a performance today. In fact, it looks like the only ponies who’ve been in here today are the janitor ponies.

“Diamond,” I say, moving a bit closer to the pink filly, “I’m getting a bad feeling about this. Let’s go back outside and stay with the class.”

“Y-yeah,” Diamond nods and we turn to leave. “This place is starting to creep me out.”

The same for me. Something about this place being empty just reminds me of those scary movies my parents back on Earth would never let me watch.

Suddenly there’s a flash of light, blinding us and something comes out as us, shadowed against the light.

I cry out, my stub of horn glowing and I wince as I feel a pulse of magic shoot out from it. It knocks whatever was coming towards us away, but the recoil knocks me back too, and I slam my head against one of the theater’s chairs.

As everything fades away, I hear Diamond’s voice crying out, but then everything goes black.

___________________________________________________________

“But, why would anypony be spying on you?” Bon Bon, another of the ponies who volunteered to chaperon asked Pinkie as the pink mare told her and Cheerilee about her latest Pinkie Sense.

Pinkie give Bon Bon a deadpan look, which caused all present to flinch. “Why? Why? I’ll tell you why, and I’m so stupid for not thinking of this earlier and— wait!” She glanced around, worry becoming evident on her face. “Oh no! Were any of the chaperons inside?”

“Um, not that I know of,” Cheerilee said uncertainly. “Why? What is the ma—?”

Her words were cut off by the sound of an explosion from inside the theatre. Several unicorns nearby winced, as if they’d all felt something painful at the same time.

“Stellar!” Pinkie cried, bolting for the building.

It took three seconds for her last word and her recent Pinkie Sense to click, before the other mares, plus any student who’d been close by, which included the CMC and Button Mash, who game rushing out of the store they’d been in, hurrying after the pink mare.

When they got to the where the sound of the explosion had come from, the main theatre hall, where the play would be held, several security ponies were already there, one of them helping the little Alicorn to wake up, whilst another held a grey Earth Pony stallion down.

Pinkie, Fluttershy and the Crusaders hurried over to Stellar, who was rubbing her horn, which was smoking a little, moaning quietly.

“Stellar, what happened?” Miss Cheerilee asked before the others could get a word in.

Stellar shook her head, looking around in confusion, before her eyes widened with panic. “Diamond?” she cried, getting up and looking around more frantically. “Diamond, where are you?”

“Stellar, calm down,” Bon Bon said, holding up her forehooves. “What happened?”

“Diamond and I came in here and thought it was odd that the stage doesn’t look like a play’s gonna be on today...”

This caused confused looks from the adults, but, when looking up to the stage, saw that she was right. The stage didn’t look like it was going to have a play done on it today, or, at least not the time specified on the tickets, anyway.

But Stellar kept going, “... and we both thought it was kinda creepy being in here on our own, so we turned to leave, but a white flash blinded us, then I saw a shadow against the light and got scared, then more horn hurt. I woke up when that pony,” she pointed to one of the security ponies, the one who’d been waking her up when they entered the hall, “started shaking me and...” she looked around worriedly, “and now I don’t see Diamond? Where’s Diamond?!”

“You! Talk!” Pinkie Pie yelled, walking over and glaring at the grey stallion being held down.

He growled up at her, before glancing in Stellar’s direction. “All this for nothing?! Why did that stupid Rich mare grab her daughter instead of the beast?!”

There was silence for several minutes as those words passed through everypony’s minds.

It was Stellar, however, who spoke first. Screamed, more like, really.

“SPOILED RICH FOALNAPPED DIAMOND?!”

___________________________________________________________

“Are you out of your mind, Spoiled?” the brown Pegasus growled as he glared down at the pink filly hogtied at the pink mare’s hooves. “The plan was to take the beast. How can we use your foal?”

Spoiled Rich glared at the stallion, causing him to falter. “You truly are a feather brained fool, Air Head. My daughter’s talent is to make ponies do what she wants. Do you not see how that will benefit us?”

The stallion scowled. “What? Get us better living arrangements?”

Another Pegasus, a white mare with a green mane rolled her eyes. “She’s right. You are just are you were named. Spoiled has actually proven the flaw in your own plan, Air Head.”

He turned to her, frowning. “And why is that, Cold Wind?”

She sneered. “A pony with a talent that makes others do whatever she wants? We can easily use that to sway the public’s opinion of the princesses. It would only be a matter of time before they are ousted for the tyrants they truly are and we will all be given our rightful places again.”

Spoiled nodded, her expression a cold sneer. “Whilst our ancestors were punished by no longer being able to bare unicorn foals, my daughter’s talent will more than make up for that.”

Muffled screams from bellow caused Spoiled to look down to see Diamond, gagged, looking up at her with tears streaming down her face.

Spoiled’s expression changed to a maternal, yet somehow still cold one as she leaned down and nuzzled the filly’s cheek affectionately, ignoring how the filly tried to move away. “Do not worry, my little gem. You’re back with Mommy now and she’ll cure you of the corruption that monster clearly forced into your mind. Soon you will be happy again, sitting with your mother as we take our rightful places in this world.”

“We should move quickly,” Cold Wind said, glancing out the window of the building they were hiding in. “Our contacts in the Crystal Empire have a train already for us. Once there, we can start using your daughter to turn the Crystal Ponies against their Princess of Love.”

Spoiled lifted her head and a evil sneer formed on her lips. “With the power of the Empire, we will show Equestria the truth about the princesses and finally be rid of them.”

“And Equestria will enter a new, glorious golden age,” Air Head sighed, looking wistfully at the ceiling. “A perfect world at last, where the special live happily and the lesser beings know their place.”

___________________________________________________________

“It’s all my fault!” I wail, tears streaming down my face. “They took Diamond because of me, I know it!”

“Stellar,” I wince as I feel a familiar pair of wings surround me (when you have wings yourself, you’re able to tell somepony else’s feathers from touch), and a pair of forelegs hold me close. “It isn’t your fault. It was never your fault.”

“It is!” I cry, trying to get out of Fluttershy’s grip, pressing so hard I know it must hurt. Why, if she’s hurt, is she still holding me? “It’s because ponies still see me as Nightmare Moon that she got taken. If I wasn’t around, she’d still be safe. She’d—”

“She’d still be the same mean, meanie pants Spoiled Rich made her,” Pinkie cuts me off a bit firmly, which, due to the oddness of that itself, causes me to stop and look at her from within Fluttershy’s hold, seeing the pink mare next to us. “You helped Diamond to understand herself, Stellar. If not for you, she’d still be poisoned by Spoiled’s idea of the world.”

“That’s right,” Fluttershy says softly, nuzzling my forehead. “You helped Diamond become a better pony and made her happier for it. You never did anything wrong, Stellar. You saved Diamond from who she was becoming and helped her be the pony she wanted to be.”

Pinkie laughed. “Hey, that sounds like it’d be great in a song, Fluttershy.”

I can’t help giggling at what Pinkie said, before I go still as both their words pass through me. I had saved Diamond, hadn’t I? Spoiled was a terrible mother to her, and kept going even after Rich divorced her. If I hadn’t been here... she might have stayed that way forever and never made any real friends.

I can’t keep a small smile from forming on my face as I think about that. The kindness in Fluttershy’s words, and the laughter Pinkie Pie’s silliness just gave me, I might have spiralled inward and then how could I help Diamond?

I look up, moving my head between the two of them, smiling.

Suddenly, the word goes white and I feel a surge go through me, like the one back when Dash and Rarity saved me from Wind Rider and Suri Polomare.

___________________________________________________________

Everypony cried out in alarm when Stellar’s eyes flashed white, followed by a blinding light. When it faded, however, everypony’s mouths were agape.

Pinkie and Fluttershy had changed. Their manes and tails had grown longer and had several new colours in them.

“The Rainbow Power!” the CMC cried in joy, bouncing up and down.

“Wow! I didn’t think this would happen!” Pinkie cheered, bouncing.

Stellar was floating in the air, her eyes still glowing white as her partially regrown wings and horn glowing white and seemed to grow before their eyes.

When their light faded, Stellar lowered to the ground, shook her head and looked up, her eyes widening at the sight of Pinkie and Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy?” she gaped, before looking at Pinkie. “Pinkie?”

“We’ll explain later, princess,” Bon Bon said, taking out a pair of glasses and putting them on, before moving over to the security ponies. “Did this stallion have anything on him?”

“Not much,” one said, emptying a bag onto the floor.

Bon Bon looked over the items with narrowed eyes, before she grabbed a train ticket. Turning around, she should it to the other ponies. “Look at this. This train ticket is set for the Crystal Empire.”

“So, if that stallion was with the ponies that took Diamond...” Apple Bloom frowned, scratching her chin.

“Then the ponies that took Diamond are heading for the trains station to head for the Empire!” Sweetie Belle cried in alarm. “If that get on that train, we might never find her!”

“Then come on,” Fluttershy said, her expression firming. You never messed with a filly when she was around. Normally, would not be aggressive, but these ponies had taken an innocent filly against her will and she was not happy. “Stellar, get on.”

The filly nodded and hurried up onto the Pegasus’ back, before Fluttershy took off at a speed more akin to Rainbow Dash.

“Hey! Wait for me!” Pinkie pouted, also moving at a similar speed, only remaining on the ground.

For several moments, everypony just stood around, not sure what had just happened.

“Uh... right,” Bon Bon said, being the first to snap out of it, before turning and heading out the room. “I’ll get the Manehatten police!”

___________________________________________________________

“All aboard!” the train conductor called out as he stood outside the train. “Next stop, Crystal Empire! All aboard.”

“Diamond, quit being so stubborn,” Spoiled scolded as the pink filly struggled from between the older mare and Cold Wind, thus hiding the fact she was currently tied and gagged. “Once we’re safetly in the Empire Mommy will untie you and we can go back to being a happy mother and daughter. Won’t that be nice? We won’t even have to worry about your pathetic father getting in the way.”

Diamond gave a muffled shout with Spoiled took to being in agreement, despite the glare the younger pink pony was giving her.

“Diamond!”

Everypony halted, Spoiled, Cold and Air’s heads whipping around to see a little filly dropping from the sky.

Cold Wind responded by moving away and flying up to get at the little menace, but was knocked aside by another Pegasus, a yellow one, who’s eyes were narrowed in anger.

“You. Will not. Hurt her!” she growled, pinning the mare down.

Spoiled and Air Head glanced around as several ponies cried out, having noticed Diamond tied and gagged.

“Move it, Air Brain!” she cried, grabbing her daughter by the scruff of her neck and hurrying off.

“It’s Air Head!” he shouted, moving after her, but was stopped when a bright blue cannon appeared before him and fired, smothering him under a mound of confetti and streamers.

“Spoiled Rich!” an angry little voice shouted, causing Spoiled to glance back to see the little Alicorn charging after her, her expression firm.

Wait. Weren’t her wings and horn smaller than that when she’d grabbed her daughter?

Spoiled was paying so much attention to what was behind her, she failed to notice the wall she was headed for, up until she hit it and tumbled into a heap, Diamond dropping from her mouth and hitting the tiled floor of the station, hard, causing her to whimper from the pain.

“Diamond!”

The cry pulled Spoiled from her dizziness and she stood up, shaking her head as she saw the little monster running towards her.

___________________________________________________________

I still don’t know what happened with Pinkie and Fluttershy, but it got us here and now I’m only a few feet away from Diamond. She’s going to be alright. She’s going to be safe. She’s going to be—

A blur of pink darker than Diamond suddenly appears before me and I feel something hard smash into my face.

I tumble back, skidding along the floor.

Looking up, I see Spoiled Rich standing between me and Diamond, her eyes wild with anger, her nostrils flaring.

I scowl and slowly get up and start moving back towards her. “Let my friend go, Spoiled Rich!” I growl, wincing as my cheek throbs where she hit me. “Give Diamond back, now!”

“You retched beast!” she snarls, holding the hoof she hit me with. “I’m saving my Diamond from you!”

I stop, blinking in confusion. “Huh?”

“Why else would she not want to join my when I first joined up with Alchemist, or, as I thought at the time, Blue Blood?” she snarled. “It was you and your corruptive magic that blinded my Diamond from her true destiny.” Then she sneers. “Well, you won’t succeed, foal. The descendants of the Golden Chalice will have our place again and my Diamond will be there, right by my side, where she belongs.”

“Have you asked Diamond?!” I demand, glaring at the horrible mare before me. “Have you ever really asked her if that’s what she wants?”

She looks at me blankly for a moment, before cackling. “Asked her? I needn’t bother, you stupid child. She wants what I want. It has always been that way. It was just my stupid ex-husband that clouded her mind, before you blinded her to seal the deal.”

Suddenly, there’s an explosion of confetti and Spoiled becomes trapped a pile of it, her head being the only thing that sticks out.

Pinkie Pie sits atop the pile, grinning as she returns to normal again. “That was fun, Stellar. I love playing Make the Bad Pony Monologue about Herself Long Enough to Be Trapped.”

Giving the pink mare a small smile, I hurry past the pile of confetti and help Diamond out of the ropes, biting them with my teeth when it’s clear I won’t be able to do so with hooves.

Once freed, Diamond rips the gag from her mouth and hugs me tightly, shivering. “Thank you!” she sobs into my shoulder. “I... I-I’ve never been so scared in my life!”

I return the hug, holding my friend close. “It’s okay, Diamond. You’re safe. She won’t ever hurt you again.”

“There they are, officers.” I glance over my shoulder to see Bon Bon with a bunch of Manehatten Police.


A few minutes later, Spoiled and the other two ponies with her are pushed into a police cart.

Spoiled sticks her face against the bars, looking out at Diamond with pleading eyes. “Diamond, you have to make them see reason. Tell them the truth. Make them understand. You can do it. Use your talent.”

Diamond just puts a foreleg around my shoulder and glares at the mare. “Oh, I will, Spoiled. I’ll tell how you were the worst mother any pony could ever have. How you treated me like nothing but a tool to further yourself in life. How you tried to use me to make everypony turn against the princesses, against my own friend!” she tightens her grip on me at that.

A look of horror and defeat came over Spoiled’s face. “No, Diamond!” she cried as the cart started to pull away. “Don’t give in to their lies! Don’t let them brainwash you! Please, for your mother’s sake!”

“You are not and never were my mother!” Tiara screams, her eyes flaring with anger. “My mother was Silver Slippers and will soon be Derpy Hooves and both are better mothers than you could ever be, even if you had a thousand years!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Spoiled’s rage-filled, anguished cry rang out, slowly fading away until it was gone.

Once the sound of Spoiled's voice has faded, the CMC come over and we all enter a group hug. As we pull away, I notice something that makes my jaw drop. "You all got your Cutie Marks!"

The CMC grin, before displaying their marks proudly.

"Yeah, it happened after we helped Button Mash figure out his special talent for video games," Scootaloo grinned.

"After he got his mark, we decided we'd stopped spending so much time searching for our own marks and help other ponies instead," Sweetie Belle nodded.

"And that's when we got these beauties," Sweetie Belle cheers.

“Well,” Miss Cheerilee said, coming over and smiling down at us, “as happy as knowing four of my students know what they want to do in life, I think that’s enough excitement for one day, hmm? Let’s go back to school.”

“Eeyep!” Diamond and I say together, before glancing at each other and the five of us burst out laughing.

___________________________________________________________

“Well, we should have guessed this would happen,” one stallion said as he held the latest newspaper.

“That stupid mare!” a mare’s voice growled. “All she needed was to get the foal and it would be fine! But she instead wasted her time of that worthless child of hers.”

“The foal's talent may be to make others do as she wishes, but she is of common blood,” another stallion said. “She would never have seen the light and helped us. She is as blind as the rest.”

“All those bits wasted on all those fake tickets for a non-existent play,” the mare growled.

A third stallion slammed his hoof against the table. “And now everypony knows it is our family. Why did she go and blab our name out like that?!”

“Indeed,” a deeper voiced stallion said, sounding annoyed. “Now we will have to move more secretively. No doubt the princesses will now be looking into our family line since leaving Canterlot, to try and find those of us who still haven’t lost our way.”

“We will need a plan to get closer to rid ourselves of the beast first,” a second mare’s voice said. “If we can rid our world of her, Luna will be too stricken with grief to think clearly.”

“As will the other princesses,” another mare chuckled coldly. “Maybe losing Alchemist wasn’t such a bad thing. His treatment left the beast more loved by the princesses than ever. When she is gone, we can easily manipulate their grieving hearts.”

“Now the only question,” said the deep voiced stallion again, “is how do we get close enough?”

There was silence for a moment, before another stallion chuckled.

“What is so amusing?” the first mare asked.

The stallion chuckled again. “The pony Pinkie Pie has been trying for weeks to get my client to perform at some worthless charity performance in Ponyville. I can arrange for her to go and use the opportunity to finally rid us of the beast.”

“Then you will need this,” the deep voiced stallion said, before passing a small red jewel along the table, a white hoof stopping it.

“So, it’s finished, then?” the owner of said hoof asked.

“Yes,” the deep voice chuckled. “So far we’ve only managed to get one working, what with the lack of unicorns that see the light, even with the aid of those two bumbling brothers helping just for the bits, but this should send that beast back where she belongs.”

The stallion holding the gem chuckled cruelly. “Very well then. I shall make the arrangements. You don’t mind if I demand whatever I want from the town, do you?”

There was a chorus of laughter all throughout the room at the stallion’s joke.

“It is only right,” the deep voiced stallion chortled. “They are beneath us, after all.”

“Just be sure to send her away someplace nopony else will see,” the first stallion said firmly. “If she isn’t seen falling into the pit, she will be assumed missing again. With the commotion, it will be so much easier for us all.”

Cold laughter rang throughout the room.

Author's Note:

Told you I'd keep my Pinkie Promise and i even got it out before the end of the day.

So, now Pinkie and Flutters have also redeemed themselves in Stellar's eyes. Who will be next and how?

And we now have the name of the family, though, if any of you had read the side stories, specifically the first one, you probably already figured it out a long time ago.

So, what will that jewel do? What do they have planned for Stellar and will they succeed?

You'll have to wait and see.

Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter and, til next time, later everypony.


So close! We're almost done!