• Published 26th Apr 2012
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Friendship is Aura - KangTheGuardian



Lucario, the Aura Pokemon, and the newest resident of Equestria.

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Nightmares May Dream - Part 1

Time. It was a word and concept yet unknown to him. Even if he had known its meaning, he would still not understand its purpose. Time meant that things would change around him against his will, endlessly flowing forward without a real goal or motive. Even long after he eventually learned of the word, he saw no point in it. If time was just an excuse to age and end the things of the present, it was as useless as the ideas spurred out from the being’s mouth.

Time had no place in his world. The looming darkness around him had stayed the same since the first time he woke up in this place. His creations that he had continuously worked on changed only by his will alone, and not by some outside, unexplainable force. Even his body remained the same as it always had. The mere idea of it changing without his consent was a thought that had never even crossed his mind. He was what he always was, just like the darkness. Only the ever-changing mass beneath him was his to alter as he saw fit.

While he felt no fatigue from his work, he decided to take a short break to study the ground’s current form. He had lost count of how many times he had changed it. For some reason, he was just never satisfied with it. In fact, he had come to enjoy being able to shift it as he saw fit whenever he wanted. Plains, Hills, Tunnels, Caves. These different designs he had made up during his work always seemed to prove themselves useable in almost any kind of place and situation. Why limit the ground to just one, basic form when it could shift itself into whatever was fitting at the moment? Perhaps he had already found the perfection in his design by altering it like this.

As he looked over his progress, his eyes fell upon a giant sphere of rock he had formed long ago. He studied it for a moment, trying to keep himself from acting on the curious feeling of temptation in his chest. Despite his struggles, the feeling won him over, and he waved a part of the rock sphere away to reveal the contents hidden within.

He almost immediately regretted his choice, as his eyes began to burn slightly from the sharp color of the being’s grass. Despite its creator’s absence, it still looked the same as it had upon its creation. The vast plains within the globe were covered in it, inch to inch. As he was unable to change the being’s own creations, he had no choice but to simply hide it away from his sight. Sadly, the ever-present rock globe was enough to remind him of the thing it was supposed to block away from his memory.

Sighing to himself, he prepared to close the sphere up again when something stopped him. Staring at the grass, he couldn’t understand what was making him hesitate. The grass would no doubt serve to only distract him from his work, if not even corrupt the designs he had in mind. There was nothing about it that made him feel more focused or more creative. The only things he saw in it were pointless ideas, and the smile of a being that had left his side long ago.

For the first time in his life, the concept of time began to take root in his thoughts. He had no idea how long it had been since the being had left, simply stating that it wanted to look around a bit more. He had felt so free and relieved by the sudden, calm atmosphere that he had lost himself in his work. It was only now that the question about the being’s whereabouts came to him. What could’ve possibly been so interesting within the darkness to keep it away for so long?

He began to look around himself, noticing nothing but the same darkness that had always surrounded him. He couldn’t explain why he suddenly felt such an urge to find the being, but he just wasn’t able to put himself at ease before he found it. He didn’t even glance back at his work one more time before turning around to begin his search.

“Looking for someone?”

His new quest ended as quickly as it had begun, as he found himself staring into a pair of brightly colored eyes mere inches away from his face. Taking a few steps back in what was his life’s first startle, he eventually recognized the being that had snuck up on him. It was giggling at his reaction, the sound instantly familiar to his ears.

“How long have you been standing there?”

“Not long, I think,” the being answered as its giggles settled down. “I, um… lost track of time a bit after seeing you again. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

It was the first time he had ever heard the word Time, but he didn’t think of it. He was too busy studying the being’s appearance. It was the same as it had always been, but there was something different about it. The way it stood and held its head seemed… mature, as if its spirit had grown tremendously since their last meeting. Also, positioned on its cheeks were some red marks he didn’t recall it having before. He wasn’t even sure they had been there before the being had begun to speak.

He opened his mouth to ask it about this, but a sudden movement from the being cut him off. It walked up and threw its limbs around his shoulders, squeezing him against its chest as it pressed its left cheek against his own. He stood still for a moment, expecting some obvious reason for the being’s act to show itself. However, the being simply held its grip on him, its slow breaths the only thing to break the awkward silence. He could also feel some sort of weird beat coming from its chest, yet another mysterious thing he had never noticed about the being before.

“…What are you doing?” he eventually asked, seeing as the being wasn’t giving him an explanation.

“Oh! That’s right; you’ve never had one of these before. It’s called a Hug. It’s a way to express affections and feelings to others.”

“Feelings?” he asked, the strange word already tasting awful in his mouth as he spoke it.

“Yeah… that might take a while to explain. Don’t worry, you’ll learn eventually,” the being said, not loosening its grip one bit.

“…Can you let go of me now?”

“Why? You’re not pulling away.”

Suddenly realizing that he had indeed not tried to simply push the being away, he took a few steps backwards to break the hug. The being only held on to him for another short second before letting go, giving both of them some space. The red marks on its cheeks were even brighter now than before.

“…Where have you been?” he eventually asked after recovering himself a bit from the recent close contact.

“What? Did you miss me?” the being asked back in a teasing tone.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he answered without missing a beat. “With you gone, I’ve been able to work in peace. The fact that you’ve been gone for so long simply occurred to me mere moments ago.”

Rolling its eyes a bit at his answer, the being leaned its head to the side to look at his work behind him.

“Are you still working on that? I finished the landscape of my entire world ages ago.”

“Your world? Finished?” he repeated. “What do you mean you finished it?”

“I’m done with it. It’s complete. I moved on to other things a long time ago. I had a feeling it would take you a while to come up with the idea yourself, but this is just ridiculous!”

“…What are you talking about?” The being was spouting out nonsense, and he felt himself losing more and more track of what it was trying to say.

“You’re not going to believe me if I just told you.” It reached out and grabbed his limb, dragging him with it as it began to walk. “Come on, I’ll show you. Trust me; it’ll blow your mind!”

He remained silent as they began to walk, leaving his own work behind. Under normal circumstances, he would’ve objected to the being’s proposal. However, he found it oddly comforting to have the being in his presence again, so he obliged to its wishes.

“By the way, I noticed you kept my grass around. Have you tried rolling in it yet?”

“The thought never crossed my mind, *--*-*.”

The being turned oddly quiet, simply staring at him as they walked. Noticing its sudden silence, he looked over to see its eyes looking into his, shaking ever so slightly as they began to water up.

“You remembered…” it whispered without breaking their eye contact. A single drop left its eye before a quiet laughter escaped from its mouth. “I’ve missed you too, **--*.”

The two of them disappeared into the void, leaving a mass of ground, rocks, and a partly obscured layer of grass behind.


Windless as the area was, the field of grass and flowers still waved back and forth in unison. Among them all, the small petal of an Adonis flower lost its grip and flew away, rising up towards the night sky as it danced around in the air. It was the only thing that briefly blew past and broke the eye contact between the Pokémon and the alicorn staring at each other.

Lucario was still standing on the ground, his eyes filled with confusion as he looked up at the familiar shape on top of the tower. Appearance-wise, she looked different from Luna in many ways. Her coat was black as the night sky itself, and while her mane shared the princess’ blue color, it lacked the same shape and weight of Luna’s own. This mare was also much taller, coming close to or even surpassing that of Celestia. The greatest difference of all was the catlike eyes that stared down at him, accompanied by a small smile on the mare’s lips.

By all reason and logic, it would’ve been obvious that this mare was lying about her identity. Even the youngest child could tell a difference between her and Luna. But as Lucario studied her aura, he sensed that it was extremely familiar. It lacked the normal corruption that evil beings like Cerberus possessed. It wasn’t good either, but it felt like the aura of someone who had been misguided rather than one who was acting on their own sinister motives. Had it not been for his normal eyesight, he would’ve believed her words without doubt when she said that she was Luna.

“How do you like my country?” His thoughts were interrupted as the mare finally spoke down to him. “Gorgeous, isn’t it? Even without the sun, the plants continue to grow and display their beauty. My moon is all they need, and all they’ll ever need. I believe I’m right in guessing that you find the moon’s light to be much preferred over the sun’s own as well?”

“Your country?” Lucario asked, ignoring the mare’s own question.

“That’s correct, Guardian. Yes, I know who you are. This is my kingdom, or at least what it once looked like. A paradise free from my traitorous sister’s rule and her misled subjects. It was a place where the true beauty of the night could be displayed in its full splendor. And one day, believe me, it will do so again.”

Lucario didn’t respond, simply staring up at the mare with an empty expression. The mare didn’t seem to have expected an answer, though. She began to walk back and forth by the tower’s edge, continuing with her monologue as she did.

“Have you ever asked yourself why we have both days and nights in our world? Why there must be both a sun and a moon, endlessly chasing each other over our heads? In ages past, it was the unicorns who took it upon themselves to together raise and lower the two of them. They, and only they, were capable of such a feat. Of course, they took full advantage of it. They demanded trades, gifts, and even submission from the other pony species to keep the cycle of day and night going. One refusal from anypony was all it took to keep them from their duty, and thus the world was locked in a chain of tyranny and conflict. Only the arrival of my sister and I saved the world from inevitable doom.

“But what if there was no need for both a sun and a moon? What if the night was all the world needed to sustain itself? As its beauty clearly overshadows that of the day, I’m sure nopony would have any objections to the idea of the night being… well… eternal. Can you imagine it? A world under the permanent light of the moon, where everypony could bask in its glory. Such a wondrous future, such a perfect world! Such a-”

“You can stop now. I’ve lost interest in your words.”

The mare’s speech was cut off by Lucario’s telepathy, making her look down at him with a mixture of confusion and irritation. “Excuse me?”

“I’ve heard speeches like yours countless times before while serving under Lady Rin. They’re all the same; empty words and promises spoken by a ruler who could care less about their subjects’ well-being. They only want power, and are willing to mislead an entire country just to achieve their own, selfish goals.”

“Are you saying my plans are naught but lies?!” the mare shot back at him, flaring her wings in anger.

“No. I’m saying that your reasons are more… personal.”

The mare stared at the Pokémon for a moment before closing her eyes with a small laughter. Flapping her wings, she jumped off the tower to glide down to ground level, landing a few meters in front of Lucario.

“Perhaps you’re wiser than I thought. It’s true, I care little for the actual effects an endless night would have on the world, or for what ponies think of it. None of them have ever realized just how amazing it is, even after all these years. If I have to force it upon them, then so be it.”

“Who are you?” Lucario did not ask, but demanded to know. At first, he only received laughter from the dark alicorn.

“Hahahaha, I’ve told you already. I am Princess Luna, Princess of the Night, ruler of the stars and the very moon itself. Are you saying that I’m jesting?”

Lucario remained silent. As much as he wanted to confirm it all as a lie, the mare’s familiar aura still left doubts in his mind. Smiling at his lack of an answer, the mare began to walk around him.

“Perhaps you know me by a different name, a name that has made its mark in legend all over the world. It’s a name parents have told their fillies every night, warning them about the inevitable future that’s in store for them. The name of their true and future ruler… Nightmare Moon.”

Lucario’s eyes widened at the mare’s revelation. While he was usually quick to pick up on clues and hints during investigations in both Rota and Equestria, something had just blocked out the thought of the mare’s true identity from his head. He had thought that whoever this Nightmare Moon was, she was originally the same being as Luna. If so, then how could she be standing in front of him now? Had this land turned her back into her dark self?

As Lucario thought of it, he realized just how little he knew about Nightmare Moon. She had been a part of Luna’s past, and thus he had chosen to keep himself from learning about her in order to keep his and Luna’s promise. While he did not regret this choice, he found himself wishing he had more clues to go on concerning Nightmare’s presence here. If she really was Luna, he had no idea how to free her.

“You seem conflicted,” Nightmare said after walking a full circle around Lucario. “Do you still think that I’m lying to you about me being Luna? How can you even have such doubts? The resemblance is clear to see, is it not?”

“You just told me yourself that you’re Nightmare Moon,” Lucario shot back.

“And what is Nightmare Moon exactly, Guardian? Is she a malicious impersonator like a common changeling? Is she the physical form of the original’s inner evil? Or is she perhaps the true feelings and desires hidden deep within the princess’ heart, taken shape out of pure desperation to release her own needs and wishes?” She smirked at the Pokémon’s lack of an answer. “You know nothing about me, do you? You know nothing about either of us.”

“…We made a promise not to reveal our pasts until both of us are ready,” Lucario found himself answering. It was as if the alicorn pulled the words out of him against his will.

“Before YOU are ready, you mean? I have no problem with telling you about my past if you wish to hear it.” She noticed how Lucario’s eyes widened a bit in response. “No? Then you’re crueler than I thought, Guardian. Is your past really so terrible that you can’t bear to share it with anyone? It can’t possibly be much worse than having your own people and sister turn against-”

A screeching sound of metal interrupted Nightmare’s words as she found her throat inches away from three razor sharp blades extending out of Lucario’s paw.

“I told you that I’ve lost interest in your words,” he simply said. He would not allow this mare to reveal the story behind Nightmare Moon at any cost, even if she truly was Luna herself. The two shared a brief stare before Nightmare laughed and backed a few steps away.

“You made the biggest mistake in your life coming here, you know? You have no hope of defeating me, nor do you stand a chance against the even greater horrors that wait beyond me. Your mission was destined to fail the second you entered through the gates. But there is no need to worry yourself,” she said as her eyes began to glow, making Lucario enter a fighting stance to prepare himself. “Your life will end in the best way possible: UNDER AN ETERNAL NIGHT!

Blue fog surrounded Nightmare’s body, her shape disappearing within as she fused together with it. Before Lucario could intervene, the fog flew away at great speed, camouflaging itself against the darkness around them. Unable to keep track of Nightmare’s whereabouts anymore with his normal eyesight, Lucario quickly activated Aura Sense and studied his surroundings. After a few moments, he managed to locate his target flying by the tower. Without wasting any time, Lucario fired a Vacuum Wave in her direction. While the attack was rather weak compared to other moves, it was one of the fastest ones he knew, a trait he hoped to exploit in order to catch Nightmare off-guard.

To his surprise, though, the fog split itself away from the incoming attack, as if was simply blown away by the shockwave. The Vacuum Wave exploded against the tower wall, cracking the rock a bit without punching a hole through it. Still keeping track of Nightmare’s aura, Lucario fired off several more Vacuum Waves, hoping to eventually score a lucky hit, but the fog dodged them all just as easily.

“Is that all you have?!” he could hear Nightmare shout to him. Her voice didn’t seem to have a clear origin, reaching his ears from all sides without revealing her position. “Don’t tell me you’re holding back! Do you have such deep affections for the Princess of the Night that you don’t even dare to strike her?!”

Lucario cursed to himself. It was true that he was trying to simply knock Nightmare out instead of seriously hurting her. The possibility of her being Luna was still on his mind. However, with Nightmare being able to dodge even Vacuum Wave, the chances of him catching her were slim.

Still keeping track of his opponent, Lucario noticed the fog suddenly go on the offensive, charging towards him from his right.

Perfect. As long as she’s close, I can use Ice Punch to freeze her, he thought as ice covered his left arm. He then swung his paw right into the incoming Nightmare, knowing that his great strength would stop the alicorn’s attack easily.

His expectations were proven wrong when the fog effortlessly cut through the ice. It was not a blunt attack like he had thought, but a slash. With reaction speed honed over many years of combat, Lucario activated ExtremeSpeed and barely managed to dodge out of the way before the attack could slice him in half. It continued onward for a bit until it hit one of the boulders, effortlessly cutting through it in a diagonal line. As the top slid off and hit the ground, Lucario looked down on his paw. While he had pulled it away from the attack using ExtremeSpeed, a bloody wound was still left behind, letting small drops of blood fall down on the ground by his feet.

“Underestimating me, are you?!” Nightmare taunted him from the shadows. “And here I thought you were the greatest warrior Equestria had to offer! How someone like you managed to defeat Chrysalis is beyond me!”

Lucario barely listened to Nightmare’s insults. She was proving herself to be a rather troublesome opponent, one he would not be able to defeat while pulling his punches. As much as he hated it, he couldn’t hold back anymore. Ignoring the pain in his paw, Lucario conjured up an Aura Sphere and threw it in Nightmare’s current direction. The attack was much slower than his Vacuum Wave, something Nightmare immediately noticed.

“As if an attack like that could hit me!” she boasted while dodging to the side. However, instead of flying past her like the Vacuum Waves from before, the sphere instantly changed direction and followed after her. Surprised by this, Nightmare again dodged to the side, only to still find the sphere tailing her.

“There’s no point in dodging,” Lucario told her from the ground. “The Aura Sphere locks on to the aura of whomever I target, chasing them endlessly until it hits. You’ll never be able to escape it.”

“Tsk, in that case…!” Nightmare changed her course and made a bee-line for Lucario, the sphere still on her tail. With her great speed, it seemed like she was attempting to dodge out of the way just in time to make the Aura Sphere hit Lucario instead. A fruitless attempt, as the sphere would follow her lead perfectly, regardless of how sharply she turned.

A sudden flash of light revealed that his opponent was a bit cleverer than that. With a simple teleportation spell, she had warped herself behind Lucario, leaving the sphere to fly directly towards the Pokémon who was now standing in its way.

“Nice try,” Nightmare mocked her opponent as the sphere collided with him. However, to Nightmare’s confusion, there was no explosion from the impact. As the Aura Sphere was made out of his own aura, Lucario could still manipulate it without being damaged himself. He demonstrated this to the surprised alicorn by effortlessly catching the sphere with his right paw while simultaneously turning around to throw it back at her.

“Same to you,” he responded as he swung his arm, sending the attack right into Nightmare’s chest. Nightmare looked down in shock, no doubt bracing herself for the inevitable pain from the blast.

But the blast never came. Instead, the sphere simply passed through Nightmare's body, flying out of her back as it harmlessly detonated on the ground a few meters away. Lucario’s eyes widened upon finding his trademark attack to have no effect on his opponent. He wasn’t able to recover from his shock fast enough to dodge the dark beam of magic that shot out of Nightmare’s horn, sending him grinding across the ground in a cloud of dust and flower petals.

Panting a bit to catch her breath after the recent event, Nightmare was trying to make sense of the attack’s ineffectiveness against her. Raising her head up to look after her opponent, she found Lucario’s body shrouded in dust, obscuring it from her sight. An unsure laughter began to escape her, eventually regaining its confidence as she reveled in her swift victory.

“Ha… hahaha. Hahahahahaha! Well, that must’ve been embarrassing for you, Guardian! Good thing your precious princess wasn’t here to witness your fiasco… Oh wait, she was! Hahahahaha-”

“So it was a lie after all.”

The calm voice sounding from the dust silenced Nightmare’s laughter. Watching the cloud clear up, she found Lucario kneeling inside it, holding a glowing paw to his chest. Some kind of energy pulsated from it, mending the wound that had been left behind by her attack. Even the cut on his paw had been closed up, not even leaving a scar visible within his fur.

“Lie? What nonsense are you speaking of now?” she asked him, her voice managing to not reveal her surprise of seeing him recover so easily from her spell.

“I admit that I believed you when you told me that you’re Princess Luna. Despite the difference in your appearance, your aura is nearly identical to each other. However, thanks to that Aura Sphere, I can put my doubts to rest.” The wound on his chest now closed up, Lucario stood back up on his feet and looked at Nightmare. “Because I’m fairly certain that Luna wasn’t a ghost.”

Nightmare, while not shocked by Lucario’s statement, raised her eyebrow in response.

“It was impossible to tell from just looking at you,” Lucario continued. “Apart from other ghosts, it looks like you have a body of your own, one that doesn’t look transparent. It is even able to come in contact with living creatures and objects. I don’t know how you managed to gain a body after your death, but you would have no trouble with tricking others into thinking that you're alive.

“However, in my world, ghosts are more than just spirits of the departed. There is also a Ghost-type element, which some Pokémon can utilize for different attacks and moves. One of the Ghost-type’s most well-known traits is its complete immunity to both Normal-type and Fighting-type moves. Attacks like my Aura Sphere will just pass through Ghost-type Pokémon without leaving a scratch, even if they have a physical body.” Lucario pointed his paw at Nightmare. “Just like it did with you. It’s true that you’re not a Pokémon, and thus don’t have an elemental type like we do, but it seems my own moves still follow the principle from my world, being ineffective against you.”

“Hmph, splendid explanation, Guardian.” Nightmare rolled her eyes while stomping her hoof lightly on the ground in a mock applause. “I’ve no interest in how your world works. If anything, your observation has only helped to prove my point. If you can’t even damage me, your victory is all but hopeless.”

“On the contrary,” Lucario answered as he began to crack his knuckles. “Now that I know that you’re a ghost, I can finally stop holding back.”

“What are you-” Nightmare tried to speak, but Lucario interrupted her.

“I no longer believe that you’re Luna, which means that I can stop holding myself back from hurting you. My Fighting-type and Normal-type attacks may have no effect on you…” His right paw began to glow in a silvery light. “But I know moves of thirteen other types that can.”

Nightmare didn’t even have time to blink before Lucario crossed the distance between them with ExtremeSpeed, striking her cheek with the Steel-type attack called Bullet Punch. It was a move similar to Vacuum Wave, except that it was a physical attack instead of a long-range shockwave. A short, but loud burst of thunder sounded from the impact as Nightmare was sent stumbling backwards, using her wings to barely keep herself from falling over.

“How dare you…!” she shouted as she looked back at the Pokémon. Her furious expression changed to one of shock when she found herself no longer facing just one Lucario. A group of no less than twenty copies of him had surrounded her from all sides, each one standing with their arms crossed in front of their chests as they stared at her.

“Normal-type: Double Team,” the group said in unison. “But because the move isn’t limited to just one clone, some prefer to call it Shadow Divide, or Shadow Clone.” Not waiting for a response, they all raised and pointed their paws at Nightmare. The spikes on their backs all began to glow as silver-colored energy began to gather in front of them. “Flash Cannon.”

Beams of light erupted from their paws, charging towards Nightmare from every angle. The alicorn gritted her teeth in anger. “Don’t get too confident, fool!”

Fog again surrounded her as she shouted. Just as the beams were about to hit their mark, Nightmare’s body split itself into several smaller clouds, flying off in every direction to avoid the attacks. Instead of exploding in the middle of the Double Team group, the beams simply passed through each other, continuing forward and hitting the clones standing in their way. While most of the clones were unaffected by this, one of them faded out of existence as it was hit by the real Lucario’s Flash Cannon from the opposite side of the group, something Nightmare noticed from above.

“So they were all just illusions? How pathetic! Let me show you how it’s really done!”

A small group of fog clouds began to slash through the rest of the clones, while another group charged towards the real Lucario. Activating his Metal Claws, he began to dodge and slash them apart as they flew by. He quickly noticed that none of them were the real Nightmare Moon, but also that they didn’t seem to be quite as sharp as Nightmare’s full fog form had been before. She must’ve been forced to split up her powers between them all, he theorized.

Lucario was reminded of the disadvantage of fighting multiple foes at once as two clouds charged at him from both his left and right sides. Realizing that he didn’t have the necessary momentum to slash them with Metal Claw, he was forced to simply block them inches away from his torso with his paws. Thankfully, due to their lesser cutting power, he was able to hold them back by using Ice Punch on both paws.

“It’s over!” he suddenly heard Nightmare shout. The rest of the clouds fused together with the real Nightmare Moon, who immediately flew towards the defenseless Pokémon to finish him off while he was busy holding the two smaller clouds away. While not at full strength, she would have more than enough power to seriously wound him.

But instead of panicking, Lucario’s body was surrounded in white light, strengthening itself with Iron Defense. Just as Nightmare was about to hit him, he pulled his head back, engulfed it in a purple glow, and then literally met the attack head-on with a Zen Headbutt.

Receiving only a slight cut to his forehead thanks to his increased defense, Lucario managed to knock Nightmare back. The alicorn took on her physical form yet again as she clutched her face with a hoof in pain. Even in fog form, her real body was still vulnerable to damage. After letting the two smaller clouds rejoin her as well, she grunted furiously as she lowered her hoof, only to find her opponent gone from her sight.

“Rock-type: Stone Edge.”

Hearing Lucario’s voice above her, Nightmare looked up just in time to see the Pokémon somehow materialize rocks out of thin air around him, which he promptly began to shoot down at her. Scoffing at his attack, Nightmare fired a dark beam from her horn, intending to vaporize the rocks before they could even come close.

That was why she was taken off-guard when the beam passed through the rocks as if they weren’t even there. At the same time, the ground beneath her cracked open as another wave of rocks erupted from it, hitting her stomach and legs from below. Seeing the rocks fired from above fall through the ground around her, she realized that the Lucario above her had been another clone from his Double Team.

As if to confirm her observation, Lucario dug himself out of the ground a short distance away, carrying another big rock in his paw that he had found buried underground. Using the Dark-type technique called Fling, he threw the rock right into Nightmare’s chest, causing the alicorn to fall onto her back and bounce off the ground a few times from the painful impact. The large necklace that hung over her chest had protected her from any major damage, but it had recieved a noticable crack as a result of the attack.

ENOUGH!” Nightmare’s Royal Canterlot Voice thundered across the plains as she got back on her hooves. “I’VE PLAYED AROUND WITH YOU FOR FAR TOO LONG!

Once again taking on her fog form, Nightmare disappeared into the ground, leaving Lucario alone in the suddenly quiet area. Using his Aura Sense, Lucario tried to locate Nightmare’s position. What he detected instead was the alicorn’s magic that began to spread into the countless number of flowers around him, corrupting them with her will. He realized just in time what his opponent was planning, and activated Magnet Rise to escape into the air.

Just as he did, all the flowers in the area extended themselves out of the dirt, taking the forms of giant stalks and thorns all around him. Before he knew it, he was surrounded by a horde of nightmarish plant monsters, one of which leaned over him while letting out a chilling scream from the newly created mouth within its petals.

Her powers live up to her name, Lucario thought to himself just as one of the plants whipped a vine at him. Dodging to the side, he activated Blaze Kick and kicked away the next plant that tried to attack him. While the Fire-type attack was effective, it wasn’t quite enough to make it catch fire.

Dodging more incoming attacks, Lucario activated Aura Sense to look for Nightmare Moon. However, due to all her magic pulsating through the ground to empower the plants, her position was impossible to tell. Even if he could, the plants were so closely grown together that he wouldn’t even have a clear shot to dig himself underground. Even his super effective Blaze Kick was unable to burn up the plants enough for him to get down.

He suddenly found himself grunting as sharp pain began to spread across his back. Some distance away from him, a giant rose had shot its thorns into his back while he was distracted. The wounds were shallow thanks to his Iron Defense, but they were enough to let the thorns pierce his skin and cause blood to start running down his fur.

“That would be the end of it, I believe,” he heard Nightmare’s voice talk to him from every direction. “The thorns that just hit you are filled with deadly poison. You won’t even be able to move within the next minute. But, you know what they say: If you’re going to do anything, then you might as well do it properly!”

Loud thunder echoed over Lucario’s head, and he looked up to find the sky covered by a giant, black cloud. Flashes of light could already be seen shining within it at irregular intervals, waiting for its creator to unleash its wrath on the Pokémon.

“I’ve loaded enough magic into that thundercloud to burn your sorry form into a crisp. I wonder how long you will be able to dodge both the plants and the lightning before either they or the poison catches up to you, hahahahahaha!”

Nightmare’s laugh fell on deaf ears as Lucario simply brought his paws together, creating a shining orb of light between them. Dodging to the side to avoid another lash from an attacking plant, he threw the orb straight up into the air, letting it disappear somewhere within Nightmare’s thundercloud.

“Fire-type: Sunny Day.”

It was as if the scenery turned into one from a children’s book. Rays of light pierced through the black cloud, evaporating it into nothingness as a miniature sun revealed itself hidden within. Even the night sky above it seemed to disappear behind the light as it shone down over the previously dark area.

“M-My night!” Nightmare’s voice stammered around Lucario. “How dare you do this to my-”

The rest of Nightmare’s words were drenched out by the shriek of one of the plants as it slammed its head towards Lucario. However, instead of dodging the massive attack, the Pokémon once again engulfed his leg in fire. For just a brief moment, it seemed like some of the light rays were drawn to the flames, letting the Blaze Kick absorb them into it. As if suddenly drenched in oil, Lucario’s leg nearly exploded in an even greater fire, letting the flames reach up over his waist. The limb could no longer even be seen under the intense light of the attack.

Spinning around, Lucario kicked the attacking plant right when it was about to reach him. The empowered Blaze Kick burned a straight hole across the plant’s head, causing flames to spread over the rest of its body. Without wasting any time to look at the effect of his attack, Lucario charged down towards the ground, burning a hole through another plant’s midsection that was in his way. Piercing through it like a drill through wood, he finally reached the ground, landing on one knee as he touched the soil with his paw.

“Earthquake.”

The ground immediately cracked open as unbearable tremors began to pulsate from Lucario’s paw. Even the plants’ roots were broken into pieces as the earth forced itself apart. Some distance away from him, Nightmare herself couldn’t keep herself hidden anymore as the quake threatened to break every bone in her body. Having no choice but to escape, she flew out of the ground and landed in front of the tower, which had somehow been spared from being crushed by the nearby plants.

“Fine, so be it!” she shouted as she pointed her horn up into the air. In nearly an instant, another thundercloud formed itself above her head. It wasn’t nearly as big as the one that had covered the sky moments ago, but it would be enough to finish off Lucario if he dared to even come close to her. “Come at me if you dare! My lightning will strike you down before you can even-”

Nightmare had expected the Pokémon to keep his distance due to the danger of approaching her in this state. She was reminded of her opponent’s unpredictability when Lucario appeared in front of her, paw held back in preparation for an attack. By reflex and a brief feeling of fear, she instinctively released the lightning upon the incoming Pokémon.

The bolts hit their mark as Lucario’s body was engulfed in electricity. After standing in silence for a few moments, expecting some kind of retaliation, Nightmare calmed down and laughed as she watched what would surely be the guardian’s end. The only lingering question on her mind was why the Pokémon had bothered to try and block the bolts with his right paw. Stepping forward to take a closer look and gloat in her victory, she then noticed something else shining slightly within the electricity. It was a light green staff, thrust into the ground and held firmly by Lucario’s left paw. As she saw the lightning pass over his body and into the staff, she finally realized what was going on.

“W-What?!” she stammered in disbelief. “You’re using that staff to ground yourself from the electricity?!”

As if to answer her, Lucario’s right paw suddenly clenched itself. Looking at it, Nightmare noticed that it was shining brightly from concentrated electricity, having somehow absorbed some of the lightning bolts that would’ve otherwise doomed him. It was then that the lightning above them ceased, the cloud having completely discharged itself. Time froze as Nightmare stared at the Pokémon. Lightning sparked over his raised paw, and smoke was rising from his scorched fur. Nevertheless, he was staring back at her with unbelievable determination.

“ThunderPunch.”

Due to a combination of shock and fear, Nightmare was unable to move as the punch struck her chest, shattering her necklace into pieces. Not only did electricity spread through her entire body, but smaller lightning bolts were shot through her torso and out of her back due to her own lightning overcharging the attack. Her body disappeared out of view within the flash of light as Lucario sent her flying. The alicorn crashed through the tower wall, punching a second hole through the other side as rocks and furniture within flew in all directions. Around them, the giant plants immediately shrunk back into their normal sizes, their connection to Nightmare’s magic lost.

Panting heavily, Lucario leaned forward as he tried to catch his breath. While the combination of ThunderPunch and Bone Rush had saved him from Nightmare’s lightning, it had still been a painful process, and he could feel his entire body burn in agony.

I need to patch myself up with Heal Pulse soon. However, it looks like I still have to finish things up here.

Using Aura Sense, Lucario could detect Nightmare Moon struggling to her feet within the cloud of dust that had surrounded the tower after her crash through it. He was amazed that the alicorn was even conscious at this point, but remembered having a similar reaction to Chrysalis’ endurance during their battle. He wouldn’t expect much less from such powerful opponents like them, though.

He didn’t need to use ExtremeSpeed to cross the distance between them, as Nightmare wasn’t even able to look up at him as he approached due to her wounds. She tried her best to get back up upon noticing him, but her legs failed her as she constantly fell back on the ground.

“How… is this possible…?” she gasped in exhaustion and pain. “How can you still be alive? The poison from those thorns should’ve done you in by now!”

“Steel-type Pokémon like me are immune to poison,” he explained as he walked. “We’re also immune to toxicity and acid, due to the small layer of metal surrounding our entire bodies. The thorns may have pierced my skin before, but the metal surrounds the insides of our bodies as well.”

Reaching the downed alicorn, Lucario leaned down and grabbed her neck with his left paw. He then dragged her and held her up to a part of the tower wall that was still intact. While he didn’t like to use excessive force like this, he knew that Nightmare was still able to fight back if he let his guard down. He also wanted some answers out of her.

“Where’s Princess Celestia?” he demanded to know, tightening his grip a bit.

*Cough, cough!* “I… wouldn’t tell you even if I knew…” she whispered back.

“You don’t know? What do you mean?”

“You’ve seen how this land works, haven’t you?” *Cough!* “The environment changing as it pleases, the bodies of your enemies melting into the ground. Even if I knew where my sister was taken, she could be somewhere else entirely by now.”

“She’s Luna’s sister, not yours,” Lucario corrected her.

HOW WOULD YOU-” *Cough, cough!* “How would you know? I know more about that mare than you ever will. I grew up with her. I was betrayed by her!”

“I’ve told you that I don’t want to hear about your past. If you don’t know where Celestia is, then there’s only one left who could. I know there’s someone pulling the strings behind all this, so tell me where they are. Where’s your master?”

Nightmare didn’t answer. She simply stared into his eyes, her own not wavering in the slightest. Despite her catlike irises, Lucario could feel something familiar in them. The depth behind them seemed to hide a past as dear to her as her very life, just like Luna’s. He also noticed something else in them, something he hadn’t been expecting. They weren’t withholding rage or contempt, nor did they mock him as she didn’t answer his question. They were sad, as if their owner was looking at someone who had disappointed her, or had even broken her heart.

“So you oppose my dream as well…” Nightmare whispered, almost too quiet for Lucario to hear. His eyes widened upon hearing the genuine sorrow in her voice, and he felt his grip on her loosen just a tiny bit. “Very well. If you won’t listen to my past, I’ll settle with the next-best thing…” Lucario was unable to look away from her stare, as if he was suddenly captivated by it. “I’ll watch yours instead.”

Lucario let go of his grip completely as he staggered backwards, holding his head with his paws. The entire world was spinning around him, and he could feel both his mind and body grow heavier as a wave of fatigue hit him. It wasn’t due to his exhaustion from the fight. It was as if he hadn’t slept for days. Managing to look back up into Nightmare’s eyes once more, Lucario felt his body fall to the ground as the alicorn seemed to stare into his very soul.

“Don’t despair, Guardian,” she said as his eyelids fell further and further down. “Your eternal night is waiting for you.”

Darkness claimed him, and Lucario briefly watched images of his past and present friends flash in front of him as the world around him faded away.


Nightmare Moon allowed herself to catch her breath as she watched Lucario sleeping with his back on the ground. It had been a stroke of luck for her that the Pokémon had kept staring into her eyes for so long. It had given her the time she needed to slowly hypnotize him into a deep slumber. But despite falling asleep against his will, Lucario’s closed eyes were calm and his breathing was peaceful. It was as if he had fallen asleep in the comfort of his own home. He should be thankful to her, all things considered. Like this, the worries of reality would no longer haunt him, and he wouldn’t feel pain from any of the wounds she had inflicted on him during their battle.

“Tsk, to think that I would be forced to use that power on him,” she said to herself. “I can’t believe he was able to overcome me like that. I can see now why Chrysalis lost to him.” She looked down at him, listening to his breathing. “But why is Lord Tartarus so interested in him? What did he want to test him with by fighting me?”

Shaking her head to rid herself of these questions, she looked up and noticed that the miniature sun from before had disappeared, letting her night sky become visible once again. She breathed a sigh of relief. She had been worried that the Pokémon somehow had the ability to change night into day like her sister could. The mere thought of it had caused her blood to boil. She sighed again to calm herself before walking up to Lucario’s sleeping form. Her body was still aching from her wounds, but she would have time to recover in just a moment. First, there was something she needed to know.

“Let’s see then, Guardian,” she said as she leaned down to his face. His mouth was slightly open as he was breathing through it. “Let’s see what events led you to this-”

“Dr… lse…”

Nightmare stopped in her tracks as Lucario mumbled something beneath her. Did he just talk in his sleep? she thought to herself. I didn’t expect someone like him to-

“Dragon… Pulse…”

As Lucario took another breath of air, a green orb formed itself in front of his mouth. In an instant, it grew as big as his head mere inches away from Nightmare’s face. Her eyes widening in shock, she pulled her head back just in time to avoid being hit as the orb was launched into the air. She could feel the fur on her nose singe a bit as the orb barely touched it. Taking several steps away from Lucario, she looked up to see the orb disappear into the sky.

Was that… dragon magic?! she thought to herself in bewilderment as she stared after it. Are those elemental types he mentioned even capable of that?! Even Star Swirl the Bearded spent his entire life trying to figure out the secret of dragon spells!

Spawning illusionary clones, splitting the very earth open with his bare paws, the ability to create temporary miniature suns, and now showing himself capable of not only utilizing the elements of fire, ice, electricity, and rock, but also a magic so mysterious and advanced that even the greatest genius in unicorn history couldn’t master it. For every move he revealed, Lucario upstaged every magician and fighter to have ever lived in Equestria. He was even able to almost match the powers of Nightmare herself, Celestia, and possibly even Discord, although it was still to a lesser degree. Regardless, the fact that a creature capable of such feats even existed was inconceivable. Are all Pokémon just as powerful as he is?

Wait, how was he even able to attack me? He’s asleep! Nightmare suddenly realized as she lowered her sight from the sky to look at Lucario. To her surprise, the Pokémon was no longer lying on the ground. He was standing up, swaying back and forth with his arms and head hanging down. Being the ruler of the night, Nightmare recognized a sleepwalker when she saw one, but she had no idea how Lucario was able to do that while being under the effects of her powerful spell. She didn’t know that he was in fact using a Normal-type move called Sleep Talk, which allowed the user to use random moves while asleep.

And as Nightmare soon learned, he still knew exactly where his opponent was standing.

Leaning forward as if he was about to lose his balance, Lucario instead pushed his feet into the ground and dashed towards Nightmare. Taken off-guard by his sudden charge, she was unable to dodge when the Pokémon reached her, opening his mouth and biting down her right foreleg. While it wasn’t as damaging as his other attacks, the pain Nightmare felt was unbearable beyond any logical sense. Flapping her wings, she began to fly all over the area in a desperate attempt to make Lucario lose his grip, blowing up dust and uprooted flowers from the ground.

“ARGH! L-Let go!” she screamed as her eyes began to water up from the pain. “What do you think you’re doing?! Stop biting me at once! I said LET GO!

Finally managing to gather herself, Nightmare lowered her head and blasted Lucario’s face with a beam from her horn. He staggered a few steps back from the spell while Nightmare stumbled backwards as well, her back hitting a part of the tower wall. After briefly looking back to see what she had hit, she turned around just in time to see Lucario coming towards her yet again. Relying on instinct, she leaned her head to the side, barely avoiding the claw that slashed past her and cut through the wall behind her like paper. This time, the claw wasn’t made of metal. Instead, much to her ever-growing shock and disbelief, the claw was made out of some kind of dark energy, engulfing the Pokémon’s paw in a transparent layer of shadow.

He can use the power of darkness as well?! …No, that’s not it. The power radiating from that claw feels different. It’s almost… spiritual? Was this what he was referring to before as that Ghost-type element?

Having grown tired of Lucario’s spontaneous surprise attacks, Nightmare entered her fog form and flew away from the area. To her relief, it seemed like the Pokémon had trouble utilizing that sensing ability of his while asleep as he simply stood in place, not even turning away from the damaged wall. High above him, Nightmare looked down at the sleeping creature that had time and time again caught her off-guard. To say that she was infuriated by his constant advantage over her would be an understatement.

How dare he humiliate me so?! Asleep or not, he will pay for toying with me like that! It’s about time I end this, once and for all!

The air all across the flower field began to shiver as Nightmare’s eyes lit up in a blinding light. Incredibly powerful magic began to erupt from her horn as the entire area shook from the force. Eventually, the many boulders and smaller rocks lying around were suddenly covered in a purple glow, lifting them up into the air one by one. Even Lucario was lifted off the ground, whether he was aware of it or not in his sleeping state. While he floated higher and higher up towards the sky, the rocks and boulders began to attach themselves onto his body, covering him up bit by bit. By the time he reached the top of the tower, he was completely imprisoned in a great sphere of rock.

But Nightmare didn’t stop there. Sending her magic deeper into the ground, she unearthed even more rocks as she continued to increase the size of the sphere. Slowly but surely, it continued to grow, its shadow easily covering the entire tower as it floated a mere meter above its roof.

Eventually, Nightmare finally sighed and let her magic settle down. After panting a bit in exhaustion with her head hanging, she took a deep breath and looked back up at her creation. The countless number of boulders and rocks had formed themselves into a brand new moon, floating just above the tower without the need of her magic. While it wasn’t nearly as big as the real thing, it was more than enough to keep Lucario locked up within. Even his Earthquake ability wouldn’t be able to crack it open so easily.

Still flying in the air some distance away, Nightmare studied the moon for a while to see if the Pokémon would attempt to escape. Thankfully, it seemed like he had fallen dormant inside of it, and she could feel that he was still under the effects of her sleep spell. With a smile of relief on her lips, she finally flew up to the moon and landed on the roof of the tower. Walking up to its center, she lifted her hoof and placed it on the moon’s surface.

“Nowhere to run anymore,” she said as she closed her eyes. “Now… show me what you’re dreaming of.”

The world around her faded away, and while her body was left behind, Nightmare’s mind drifted off into another world.


Opening her eyes, Nightmare found herself in a great corridor. The floor beneath her was covered with a big, red carpet, and a pair of great, brown doors stood in front of her. She tried to turn her head to see what was behind her, but found herself unable to do so. In fact, her entire body was out of her control as it simply stood in place, facing the doors in what seemed to be brief hesitation. It wasn’t until she finally lifted a limb to the door handle that she noticed a paw at the end of her leg instead of a hoof.

Tsk, so my powers haven’t recovered enough yet. Being forced to occupy this fool’s body during his dream is beyond degrading.

In the past, Nightmare had been able to simply observe ponies’ dreams instead of having to experience them herself. But creating her own avatar within somepony’s mind required more magic than normal, and a fateful defeat against a group of six wielders of harmony had cut her off from her full strength. Had she been the Nightmare Moon she was back then, still in control of Luna’s body, she would’ve had the powers she needed. Alas, her strength had been weakened considerably after her forced split from Luna, leaving her no choice but to switch places with whatever pony, or in this case Pokémon whose dream she entered.

Pushing open the doors, she entered what seemed to be a giant throne room. While her head was forced to stare forward at the throne ahead of her, she still felt as if she knew of her surroundings without needing to look around. The room was extremely wide, with a group of red pillars supporting an alcove to her right, and a ceiling so high up that an adult dragon could stand on its hind legs within it. To her left, several large windows were built into the wall, leading out to some kind of balcony or courtyard. On the far side of the room, on the wall behind the throne, several red curtains hang down from the support beams above, the middle one being embroidered with some kind of royal symbol. Whatever that symbol was or represented was unimportant, though, as she continued to stare at the… creature that sat on the throne in front of her.

It was a female, judging by her long, blond mane and feminine features. She was dressed in a beautiful, blue dress, and a golden diadem hang down her forehead. Judging by her face, it seemed like her body lacked fur, leaving her pale skin visible. She was also bipedal, which she showed by standing up to greet Nightmare as she approached, her arms outstretched in preparation for an embrace.

But what Nightmare noticed the most about this strange, yet beautiful creature was her smile. It was the kind of smile only a motherly figure could give, or someone who was mature by character and considered everyone to be her beloved children. In her entire life, Nightmare could recall only two other ponies who had shown similar smiles. The first one was her mother, whose image she could still recall clearly, even after countless years. The other was her sister, who gave her such a smile after she had escaped from her banishment on the moon. She had only seen it for a brief moment before returning her banishment in kind, yet it stuck to her memories like glue.

“Lucario…” the lady in front of her suddenly said. “I’m so… see you safe…”

Her words sounded distant, making it hard for Nightmare to hear her. She found herself stopping before reaching the lady, who lowered her arms in worry after seeing Nightmare neglect their hug.

“Where’s Sir Aaron?” Nightmare asked. She had never heard that name before, yet it sounded familiar to her, as if she had known it her entire life. The lady took a step towards her, lifting her strange, five-digit claw to her cheek.

“…do you mean? Where… been? What…”

It wasn’t that Nightmare didn’t concentrate on what the lady was saying. She simply just couldn’t concentrate at all. She felt her lips move in response to the lady’s unheard question, but she had no idea what she said. Whatever it was, it caused the lady’s expression to grow even more concerned, nearly screaming at her as she tried to make Nightmare face her by grabbing both of her cheeks. However, whatever else she said was now completely muted.

From the corner of her eye, Nightmare noticed something black in the sky outside the big windows. She turned her head to face it, but it reached the room before she even had the chance to see what it was. The entire world turned dark, and Nightmare’s ears rang from a deafening explosion that seemed to echo from all around her. She didn’t know what had happened, whether she had been hit or if she was still standing. It was as if her entire body had disappeared, leaving her mind alone in an empty void. She could only hear the explosion, crumbling rocks, and screams of terror that chilled her to her very bones.

The world slowly began to reform itself. She found herself on the floor, her vision blurred and her head dizzy. She forced herself to stand, but had to grab onto a nearby doorframe several times to keep herself from falling over. As her vision slowly recovered, she found the throne room to be gone. Instead, she was standing in some kind of living room. Ahead of her was an open doorway to another room with a big bed standing in the middle. The lady from before stood in front of the bed, her back turned to Nightmare as the alicorn still tried to find her balance. While Nightmare herself could barely even stand, the lady seemed to be standing firmly with her hands held together in front of her waist.

For some reason, Nightmare dared not to breathe. Only the tiniest, briefest breaths escaped her mouth as she desperately tried to stay quiet. Despite having surely made a lot of noise already while trying to stand up, it felt like the quietest of sounds would alert the lady of her presence, something she suddenly wanted to avoid at all cost.

But the lady turned her head around to face her. Her motherly smile was gone, replaced by an emotionless expression and lifeless eyes. She only stared at Nightmare for a second before running towards her, her arms reaching out in attempt to grab her. She seemed to whisper something to her, but her words were inaudible. The only things Nightmare could hear behind them were curses, hatred, and blame. Nightmare panicked, and she turned around to run for her life. It felt like she was running in slow-motion, her body feeling heavy and unresponsive. But she had to keep running. She had to escape.

Rounding the corner of the second doorway leading out of the living room, Nightmare found herself running into some kind of corridor. Just as she entered it, an arm extended itself from behind the doorframe to scratch her face. Another creature like the lady had been waiting behind it. She was an elderly female dressed in servants’ clothes, her expression and eyes just as lifeless as the lady’s. Nightmare tried to scream, but her voice came out as nothing more than a barely audible squeal. She kept running through the corridor, feeling her pursuers trying to scratch and grab her tail. Only once did she turn around to see how close they were. She swiftly regretted it as their faces were almost mere inches away from her own.

Reaching the end of the corridor, Nightmare smashed open a door that was standing in her way, finding herself outside whatever building she had been in. She was now surrounded by darkness, her panicked breaths being the only things she could hear. She didn’t know if she was still chased, but she dared not to look back a second time. She continued to run at a snail’s pace, reaching deeper and deeper into the black void.

And then she heard something else. It was so quiet at first that she couldn’t tell what it was, but it grew continuously louder as she ran. Looking ahead of her, she found herself approaching a sea of flames, burning all over a vast field of grass floating in the darkness. In the middle of it all, untouched by the fire, stood something. A shadowy creature facing away from her and with its head turned up towards the sky. The closer she came to it, the louder the sound grew. Seeing the creature’s whole body shake in synch with the sound, Nightmare finally realized what it was.

It was laughter. The most sickening, twisted laughter she had ever heard in her life. Laughter filled with a kind of psychopathic joy no living being in Equestria had ever shown. It seemed to revel in the destruction around it, embracing it as if it had caused it all itself. It contained no remorse, no regret, and no sympathy, only malice and insanity. Whatever the creature was, it was the most terrifying thing Nightmare had ever seen… and she was running straight towards it.

She tried to stop. Every fiber of her being yelled at her to stop. She didn’t care if the other two were still chasing her; she just had to get away from that thing. But her body did something worse than to simply ignore her will. It was drawn to the creature, as if it was seeking something only it could give her, the only thing left that could free her from this torment.

An end.

With her face now mere inches away from its back, the creature turned around. Its bloodshot eyes and the maniacal grin on its face burned themselves into Nightmare’s mind as she felt something slash across her chest. The last things she heard were the cracks of broken bones, and a quiet, nightmarish chuckle.


With a panicked gasp and cold sweat running down her coat, Nightmare woke up. Staring at the floating moon in front of her with shaking eyes, she backed away as fast as her body allowed her. In her terror, she forgot that she was standing on top of a tower, and thus promptly found herself falling over its edge. She tried to unfold her wings to break her fall, but they were paralyzed in fright and refused to respond. She hit the ground below hard, but the pain was lost on her. All she could think of was to get as far away from the sphere of rock as possible, crawling backwards away from the tower as she still did not dare to let her eyes fall from the object of her fear.

Eventually, her pushing legs failed her, and she found herself lying on her back as she gasped for air while still staring at the moon. Except for her breaths, everything was silent. No more than a few minutes at most had passed in the real world since she entered the dream, but it had felt like a lifetime to her.

She was Nightmare Moon. Dreams and nightmares were as much part of her as her own life. She had been the source of nightmares and tales of horror to ponies for over a thousand years. She had witnessed countless other nightmares before. She was the very embodiment of fear itself. Yet here she was, trembling like a little filly that had just been attacked by a manticore. She was scared. Nightmare Moon was scared. Scared of the shadowy creature she had seen in the dream. Scared of the knowledge that she had only witnessed a fraction of the terrifying events that the nightmare was based on.

Most of all, she was scared of the Pokémon sleeping within the floating moon, whose past was every bit as real as the nightmare had felt to her.

Her voice still shaking from the fear, Nightmare asked the only question she could think of out loud for none to hear or answer.

“What kind of… monster are you?”

She didn’t know how long she lied there; trying to calm her beating heart down before it risked exploding within her chest. But in the midst of all her fear and terror, a thought slowly began to form itself in her head.

I can’t let him escape. It’s far too dangerous to let him live. I have to stop him now before he brings destruction upon us all!

It took a lot of concentration and focus, but Nightmare finally managed to calm herself enough to stand back up on her hooves. It took even more to start channeling magic through her horn, but she couldn’t afford to waste more time. She had to put an end to Lucario’s life now, before it was too late.

“Forgive me, Lord Tartarus,” she silently apologized out loud. “I don’t know what you wished to learn from him, but I can’t risk this monster leaving this place alive, not at any cost.”

The moon was engulfed in its creator’s familiar magic, and it started shaking as its layers of rock began to press against each other. Slowly but surely, the sphere began to shrink, compressing its innards tighter and tighter around the Pokémon sleeping within. It wouldn’t be long before Lucario’s body would get crushed by the force. And with him gone, the world would be a safer place for all.

But as Nightmare stood and watched Lucario’s approaching demise, her expression was not one of joy, relief, or even determination. Even she was surprised by the emotion that took its hold of her chest. She felt sad, disappointed, and even a bit let down. Annoyed by these unexplainable feelings, she lifted her hoof and wiped her eyes in irritation. There was no reason for her to feel this way. She knew what fate had been in store for the Pokémon once they met, and regardless of what her master had wished to test him with in this battle, she had still brought him victory. Everything was going according to plan.

But for all the terrors that lived within Lucario’s past, there was something else to them that Nightmare had wished to see. Not some deeper secret or some darker mystery. What she wanted was much simpler than that. And as she watched the moon growing smaller and smaller above her, she found herself whispering the reason for her grief.

“I wish… that you could’ve understood my dream.”

She lowered her head, not wishing to see the rest of the scene before her play out. She didn’t want to see the only being whose past she could ever hope to relate to disappear. In the end, all they had known of each other were fragments. Regardless of her victory, it had left Nightmare in the same state she had been before: In loneliness.

She didn’t know that in the process of watching Lucario’s dream, her panicked heart had reached out to his and shared her own.


Where… am I?

This was the first question Lucario asked himself upon waking up. Or at least he thought he had woken up. His mind was groggy, and he couldn’t open his eyes despite his best attempts. His ears were ringing, drowning out the sounds of his pained breaths and grunts. He tried to move his arm, but it just dragged numbly over the ground he was lying on, almost as if it was no longer under his control.

What happened…? What did Nightmare do to me…? Why can’t I move…?

His eyes finally opened up ever so slightly, revealing little but mere shadows of his surroundings. He was in some kind of big room, and he could barely make out a strangely colored wall in the distance. For a second, he could see some kind of object fly past the corner of his eye, but it was gone before he even noticed it. He felt his head move to the side, although it was not by his will that it did so.

Why is my body moving on its own…? What’s going on…?

The ringing in his ears began to fade, and something else became audible to him in return. The sound was muffled, as if it had been slowed down several times over. However, he recognized it as some kind of voice, and he was barely able to make out what it was saying.

“-ut of the way…”

Is someone talking to me…?

“-na, you have to mov…”

That voice… sounds familiar. Where have I…?

“WAKE UP, LUNA!”

The world instantly became clear to him, and he pressed his limbs down on the ground to move his body away. Just as he did, a large object fell out of the sky and landed right where he had been less than a second ago. He dashed backwards away from the object as fast as he could, but his legs felt unresponsive. It was only after stopping that he began to take in the strange scene around him.

He was in some kind of throne room, but a throne room unlike any he had ever seen before. The object that had almost hit him was a giant… pie? Some kind of cream from it had been splashed everywhere, but it was smoking and hissing as it somehow burned straight through the checker-patterned floor. While such a design was unusual as it were, he at last also got a good look at the equally strange walls he had seen before. Dots, stripes, squares, and various other designs were painted on them in all kinds of colors, as if their designer had gone mad in the middle of his or her work.

But the walls and the floor proved to be the least surprising things around as he took notice of pink, cotton-looking clouds all across the broken ceiling. Some kind of brown rain was falling from some of them, and it was drunk up by several ponies that were flying through the air. To his ever growing surprise, they weren’t even all pegasi. In fact, it seemed like the majority of them were earth ponies and unicorns, floating in midair as if they were swimming or holding on to invisible ropes.

And in the middle of it all, looking down at him with mixture of mischief and annoyance, was some kind of dragon. Or at least that was what its overall physique resembled. Every single one of its body parts was different, resembling all manner of animals like a bat’s wing, a goat’s leg, and a deer’s antler. It was the most abnormal creature Lucario had seen since arriving in Equestria, and it could still hold its own next to other strange Pokémon from his own world.

“Hmph, always the party-pooper, Woona. Some vanilla cream will do your fur and coat good, I assure you. Come on, you know I never lie!”

“I told you to stop calling me that!”

Lucario felt the words leave his mouth, but the voice didn’t sound like his own. It was high-pitched, childlike, and even feminine. Furthermore, he hadn’t spoken the words by his own accord. It was as if he was in the body of somebody else.

Somebody else… Wait, could it be?

While he was still unable to move his head to look down on himself, he had enough sense of his body to feel how different it was. He was standing on four legs instead of two, and he could feel and see a light blue mane hanging down the sides of his head. Some unfamiliar body parts were attached to the sides of his torso, and he could feel the slight weight of a horn on his head.

This is not my body. This is…!

“Luna, are you all right?!”

A concerned voice sounded behind him, and his head turned around to face it. A white-coated alicorn with a pink mane walked up to him, unfolding her left wing to briefly embrace him.

“I-I’m fine,” he, or more exactly Luna said. “He just caught me off-guard.”

“I told you to be more careful,” the other mare said with a frown. “You know we can’t defeat him like this. We have to use them.”

“I’m sorry, what was that?” the strange dragon asked above them while mockingly angling its head to hear better. “You have a secret weapon up your sleeves this time around? Oho, now this should be interesting! Come now, don’t keep Mr. Discord waiting, he has some other chaotic matters to attend to soon.”

Luna and the other mare looked at each other and exchanged a nod before closing their eyes. Unable to see what was going on anymore, Lucario tried to make sense of the situation.

Why am I inside Luna’s body? And that other mare, is that Celestia? And Discord… I remember Luna mentioning his name during our meeting in Canterlot, that he was some kind of ancient being as ancient as Cerberus. But why is he here now? Why are Luna and Celestia-

He didn’t get the chance to ponder these questions, as he suddenly felt some kind of warmth spreading over Luna’s body. Her heart started beating more quickly, but not out of fear or fatigue. It was a happy feeling, one that would’ve prompted a child to run and jump around in joy.

Then Luna opened her eyes, and Lucario could see the throne room light up from the intense glow that radiated out of them. Six orbs were floating in circles around Luna and Celestia, each one marked by differently shaped gems, with the exception of one that was instead marked with a six-pointed star. Discord seemed to be intrigued by all of this, as he floated down to ground level and studied the orbs from afar with a claw under his chin.

“Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and Magic,” Celestia spoke behind him. “These are the spirits of friendship you’ve never bothered to learn, Discord, and the same spirits that will today end your reign of terror: The Elements of Harmony!”

The force of the Elements’ power was overwhelming, forcing Discord to raise a claw to shield his eyes from the light. For just the briefest of moments, his expression betrayed a look of fear. But it was soon replaced by a knowing smile and a confident laugh.

“Hahahaha! ‘Friendship’, you say? Aren’t we pulling out some big words now, my little ponies? You almost sound as if you even know what that word means! Hahahaha, oh, this is too much! No more, please, I can’t take it anymore!” He continued to laugh with his claws on his belly as tears ran down his cheeks.

“You can’t fool us with your words anymore, Discord!” Luna shouted over the laughter.

“Fool you?!” Discord managed to answer in-between breaths. “Oh please, do I have to repeat myself over and over? I NEVER lie, Woona. I think the three of us have been together enough for you to realize that. Remember that time I predicted that you would slip on the newly cleaned floors in the dinner hall and glide right into Celestia’s table, embarrassing both of you in front of everypony?”

“YOU were the one who made the part of the floor I walked on extra slippery!” Luna shouted back.

“But you still slipped, didn’t you?” Discord replied as he broke down in another fit of laughter. Lucario felt Luna grind her teeth in rage, but Celestia walked up and held her back with a wing before she could run up to the dragon. Discord’s laughter faded away sooner this time, and he looked up at the princesses with the most serious expression Lucario had seen on him yet.

“My point is that when I say something will happen, it WILL happen. So let me tell the both of you something you would do good to remember: Your ‘friendship’ is not as great and unbreakable as you make it sound. What will happen once you two have a little fight? Or will you even remember what those ‘spirits’ or whatever are in a few years, let alone in a few centuries? Trust me, you’ll forget it all eventually, and once you do, I will be here to tell you ‘I told you so’!”

“Enough!” Celestia called out. “We don’t need to listen to you ever again, Discord. This is farewell. Brace yourself.”

Discord raised a brow at Celestia’s statement, only to close his eyes and shake his head.

“Ugh, fine. Have it your way. I suppose I could use a holiday,” he stretched his back, put his right claw on his chest, and raised his left one into the air, taking on some kind of pose. “We’ll see each other again, you two. And when we do, I hope you’re ready to hold on to your hooves…”

The light around Luna and Celestia intensified, forming itself into a giant rainbow that shot out towards Discord.

“Because I will bring back some good, old memories with a good, old party of CHAOS! HAHAHAHAHA-”

The whole world turned white as Discord was hit, blinding Lucario from the effects of the blast. It eventually died down, and everything was suddenly vastly different. The checkered floor and colorful walls had turned into simple, gray bricks, and the pink clouds had vanished without a trace. The flying ponies were now lying on the floor, clutching their heads as they tried to gather themselves from what must’ve been Discord’s curse. Discord himself was standing in the middle of the throne room, his body turned to stone from the Elements striking him. Even in petrifaction, his face was frozen in a permanent laughter, looking every bit as happy as he had before.

One of the ponies caught glimpse of Luna and Celestia standing at the other end of the room, and her eyes immediately widened in recognition.

“T-The Princesses of the Day and Night! Discord is vanquished! Equestria is saved!”

One by one, they all ran up to their saviors, kneeling before them and even kissing their hooves.

“Thank you, your highnesses! We’re free! We’re finally free!” another mare said while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. From the corner of Luna’s eye, Lucario could see Celestia smile down at them.

“Yes, my little ponies. You’re free. Now and forever free.” She brought a hoof to her chin in thought. “Hmm, ever free… I like the sound of that.”

Luna leaned over to her sister a bit. “’Your highnesses’? We aren’t their rulers, are we?”

Celestia answered the question with another smile. “We are now, little sister. Let us lead Equestria into a new era of peace.”

It was when she said those words that Lucario finally realized what was going on.

So that’s what this is. This is Luna’s past. Nightmare must’ve put me in a dream were I would witness all of this. Mentioning Nightmare’s name to himself triggered yet another realization, one he wasn’t sure he was thrilled for. It was enough to make him lose focus of his surroundings, not noticing that the world began to dissolve around him.

She’s showing me how Luna turned into Nightmare Moon.

To be continued…


Author's Note:

Many thanks to halo003qd and Icestar156 for proofreading!

Over 13 000 words and we still have two parts to go? Dear Faust...

So yeah, there's definitely A LOT going on in this battle. So much that it's the first time I've been forced to split up a chapter into two parts. I don't think it would be too good if I uploaded a chapter that was over 30 000 words long.

I'm still working on part 2 as of the release of this chapter. I was initially planning to release both parts as a same-day-upload, but as you may have noticed, writing this chapter has taken quite a while. I don't know when part 2 will be finished, so please be patient.

Including that bit with the Adonis flower petal was my attempt at a bit of flower language. According to a website I looked up, the Adonis flower represents sad memories, a bit of foreshadowing to what we will learn about Luna's past during the battle.

For those of you who were confused by Lucario's "thirteen other types" line, let me explain. There are a total of 17 elemental types in the Pokémon games (not counting the ???-type, glitch types, and the Shadow-type from the Gamecube games). Out of all these types, the only two Lucario can't learn any moves of is Grass and Flying (unless you count Hidden Power as one of those two). Thus, if you also subtract the ineffective Normal and Fighting-types, that leaves 13 types at his disposal that can damage Nightmare Moon.

I've also learned that writing nightmares is a whole lot of fun. A problem with watching nightmares in a movie or on a show (like Scootaloo's nightmares in Sleepless in Ponyville) is that it's really hard to make the viewer feel creeped out as well. So when I started planning the nightmare sequence in this chapter, I tried to make a list of things we experience in them that we find horrifying. Loss of control over our bodies, like Nightmare feeling like she was running away at a snail's pace. Voices and sounds we can't make out. Something flying or running past the corner of our eyes before we can even get a closer look at it. Taking something friendly and non-threatening and twisting it into some kind of mindless husk that wants to kill us, like the humans Nightmare were chased by. And finally, an encounter with something so terrifying that it not only kills us, but also makes us feel so much despair that we welcome death's embrace just so that we can escape from that living hell. Waking up after such an experience has at least been my own most horrible nightmares.

The name of this chapter (and the next) is a reference. Hey, it's been a while since we had one of those. It's a reference to Devil May Cry, to those who didn't catch it. The name wasn't actually inspired from the recent release of the latest DMC game. I've had that name planned from the very first day I started writing this story.

Next time in Friendship is Aura: The events that led to the princess of the night's downfall will finally be revealed to us. What secrets will be revealed to us about her dark past? Find out next time in Part 2 of this epic three-parter.

- KangTheGuardian -