Nightmare Moon Crashes the Oblivion Crisis

by Blackdrag-rose

6: Cloud Ruler Temple

Nightmare continued to gaze out at the surrounding area, keeping an eye out for any more members of the Mythic Dawn in case they decided to attack the priory again. She was sure that Pandora was doing the same thing, but she was never completely sure what the seemingly insane breton was doing at any given moment. Shadow and Martin were supposed to be finishing up the evening meal so they could serve it, though Nightmare could have sworn that she smelled the familiar scent of meat in the air. Rend and Jauffre were still doing the same thing, going over the maps of the area they were in, pointing out the various routes they could take, and planning the safest path they could take to Cloud Ruler Temple.

While they did that Nightmare thought about getting her hooves, her hands she mentally corrected herself, around the neck of whoever commanded the Mythic Dawn so she could snap the life right out of his, or her, body.

"Its time Nightmare," Rend called to her, beckoning for her to join them at the table, "looks like we've got some delicious venison and some potatoes tonight."

Nightmare nodded and walked over to the table, waiting for the plates to be placed and for the others to take whichever seat they wanted before she took the last one. She knew that she could have easily taken the first seat, but in this world she was not a princess like she had been in her home world, which only made her a little angry. Martin didn't seem to mind that he was allowed first pick, as Rend and Jauffre sat on either side of him, though Nightmare simply waited until the others were seated before following suit. Once they were all seated they began to eat, though it wasn't too long before someone had to ask Nightmare a question.

"So tell us Nightmare, what exactly are you?" Martin asked, curious if she was truly someone that he could trust, "And where exactly did you come from for that matter?"

Nightmare had known these two questions, what she was and where she came from, would eventually be asked from someone in her present company, giving her time to prepare. There were so many things that she could tell them, but she was afraid that they didn't have the time it would take for her to reveal the exact nature of her world in the elaborate detail that was needed. She knew that the mages of this world, or at least this region, would have killed to get their hands on her so they could study and take notes on everything they noticed about her. She would have to settle with the briefest of explanations, though she hoped that it would please those that sat around her.

"I came from a world called Equestria," Nightmare eventually answered, tearing a piece of venison off and devouring it, "a world that is mainly populated by ponies, griffins, zebras, dragons, and quite a number of monsters. Equestria is mostly ruled by ponies, which are broken up into the Unicorn Tribe, the Earth Pony Tribe, and the Pegasus Tribe, or the Three Tribes as most call them. Ruling over those three tribes were two powerful sisters, both of which having the powers of all three tribes rolled into one body and giving them extraordinary powers.

The elder sister, baring a alabaster colored coat, had the ability to raise the Sun itself, giving light to the world and chasing the darkness back to where it came from. The younger sister, baring a dark blue coat that matched the night sky, had the power to raise the Moon and had the responsibility to set the night sky for all to see. The only type of pony that could do either of those things had to be an alicorn, which is exactly what I am as I have the power of an Earth Pony, the wings and speed of a Pegasus, and the magic of a Unicorn."

"So basically we've seen just a small portion of your powers?" Shadow asked, his eyes darting to the window she had been staring out of earlier and seemed to connect two points together, "Does the fact that your hair, or whatever you called it in your world, has what I'm assuming are stars in it mean that your the younger sister?"

"Yes, I'm not using all my power at the moment," Nightmare replied, holding up a hand as Pandora started to open her mouth, "and no, I'm not going to change the layout of the stars or move your moons. I'd rather not make whoever is in charge of them get angry at me for showing off what I can do, not after everything I have already been through. And yes Shadow, that does mean that I am, indeed, the younger sister of which my tale revolved around."

"Then what are you doing here, in our world?" Martin asked, causing her to turn back towards him, "Your responsible for moving the moon and stars of your own world, so shouldn't you be there, doing your duty to keep your people happy?"

"I'm, well, on a vacation of sorts," Nightmare replied, not willing to tell them all exactly how she ended up in this world at the moment, "besides, I'm sure that my SISTER can handle things without me for a few weeks. No need to worry about my world falling about without me being present."

"I'd still like to hear the story of how you happened to come to our world and land in the Arena of all places." Rend commented, pulling out the map he and Jauffre had been staring at earlier, "But for now, we have a pretty clear idea of the path that we should take so we can reach Bruma, and by some extent Cloud Ruler Temple as well, before our enemy notices that we've moved. We'll need to act like a small group of travelers, heading from the Imperial City to Bruma, but I am confident that we can pull this off without being discovered."

Nightmare nodded and left the table, returning to her original position by the window as she continued to gaze up at the stars and keep an eye out for any enemies. As she did she heard the others cleaning up whatever was left of the evening meal, trading bits of information with each other as they worked. Eventually the few minutes turned into an hour and they all had to turn in, but that was where Nightmare had one trick up her sleeve, or rather a spell that she didn't need them to know about. Once she was sure that they were all asleep and that there were no enemies she called on her magic and summoned a barrier around the priory, the light blue color shimmering before it faded into the background.

Nightmare had to smile at her work, though she would love to see an enemy come towards the priory, only to be repelled by something that they couldn't see.

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Morning came quicker than Nightmare would have liked, but she didn't mind that much as she had been sleeping a dreamless sleep, something she had done for nearly the last eight hundred years. It was a state that protected her mind from the prying eyes of her sister, though she had no idea if it was possible for Celestia to reach her from Equestria right now, and allowed her to recharge her body. She felt better after a good nights rest, though she could tell, by looking at the faces of her companions, the same could not be said for the others. She silently wished that she had taken the time to make sure that they could have gotten a restful sleep like she did, but they seemed to be almost as good as she was so she let the thought slide.

"I felt a barrier fall over the priory last night," Martin eventually said, as they began to walk out of the priory and neared the stables, "so either something wants us to stay here, or someone forgot to mention that they placed a protective shield around us."

Nightmare had no idea how he could have felt the barrier go up, but she sighed and approached the simple barrier that she had set up, pressing her hand against the magic. The barrier shimmered into existence for a second, showing the others that there had been something around them the entire time, before it tore itself apart. Once all traces of it were gone she nodded her head and the company started to ride out, though she chose to walk and keep pace with their horses. She thought it would be weird for an Equestrian, from Equestria, to ride the horses that she saw all over Tamriel.

"You sure you can keep up with us Nightmare?" Rend asked, raising an eyebrow as he watched his companion, "Are you sure that you'd rather walk than ride?"

"I can keep up just fine," Nightmare replied, flexing her wings in case Rend mentioned them sprinting towards their destination, "and I'm positive that I'd rather walk."

"Then I guess we had been get underway then," Rend called out, lighting kicking his horse into a run and bolting out of the stables, followed by the rest of the group.

Nightmare chuckled and flared her wings, taking flight as she followed the others from the air, keeping an eye out for any and every threat that could stand in their way. She knew how amazing it would feel to fly without a destination in mind, just continue on and ignore the world below her, but she couldn't let herself get distracted. She kept a steady pace with the others from above, her eyes scanning the treeline for bandits, but as the minutes ticked on she began to wonder if anything would jump out at them.

"How long do you think she can stay up there?" Martin asked, glancing at the sky and seeing Nightmare enter his field of vision, only to disappear after a few seconds.

"I do not know Martin," Jauffre replied, despite not even expressing an interest in watching the stranger from another world, "In her home world she might be able to fly for hours on end, going from one side of the world to the other without tiring from the effort. Here she might be forced to slow her speed to keep pace with a group on horseback, forcing her to expand more energy than she would in her home world. She will come down either when she is ready to do so, or when we are under attack and Rend wishes to show the bandits who they are trying to rob."

That was before they were stopped by a group of bandits, five of which stood in the center of the road so they could prevent travelers from going anywhere without giving something up in return. Further up the road were three more bandits, their bows drawn and trained on their location, no doubt to make them think twice about fighting back. Rend growled as he moved his hand, wondering how to get Nightmare's attention without causing the bandits to know what he was doing. Shadow and Pandora placed their hands on their own weapons, but neither of them made a move to draw and attack, either waiting on Rend's command or Martin's command to do so.

"Hand over you money," the bandit leader called to them, standing between the four warriors in the front and the archers in the back, "or you shall forfeit all of your lives."

"Good luck with that," Rend shouted back, spotting something move in the sky.

Before any of the bandits could make a move Nightmare descended from the sky and landed between the leader and the warriors that were blocking the path. As the warriors raised their weapons to strike her down Nightmare brought up her battleaxe and sliced off several of their arms in one motion, bringing fear to their eyes. Those without their arms were the first targets to drop, as Nightmare continued her assault and took their heads, letting them roll across the ground before turning her attention to the others. The leader stared at her as she heaved her weapon up and tossed it, letting it travel all the way past him and into the chest of one of his archers, who was sliced in half.

As the leader shouted a command to the other archers to open fire Nightmare flicked her fingers at them and daggers shot out of her hair, tearing into their hearts and dropping them to the ground. She used one dagger to change back into magic, wrapped that around her battleaxe, and yanked it back to her hands, where she spun it around and eliminated the warriors she had left behind her. Once the deed was done she straightened herself and turned to face the leader, who backed up the moment that he tried to meet her eyes and failed. She snapped her fingers and the daggers behind the bandit shot up into the air, spinning through the air and piercing his back, where they forced him into the air and onto the head of her weapon.

"You should have saved one for me," Pandora moaned, just as the group rode up to where she was standing, "I wanted to bring them such beautiful madness."

"I don't think they cared much for madness my friend," Martin commented, staring at all the bodies while trying not to throw up, "I'm amazed that you could pull all of that off, all while making it look like you weren't doing very much at all."

"It takes years of practice to perfect a sequence of attacks and spells like that," Nightmare remarked, dropping the bandit leader's corpse on the ground, "and I have spent years fighting terrible creatures with these same moves. For many of these moves to work they require constant training in both the physical world and that of the magical world, both of which I am attuned to."

"I am becoming aware of this fact," Rend commented, eyeing the carnage that his companion had wrought, "though if this is the destruction you can cause at half of your power then I dread to wonder what your full power looks like."

Nightmare let the comment fall almost immediately, though she had no idea how her true power would react with this strange world and the creatures that called it home. As the others continued down the road she sighed and took to the skies, refocusing her mind so she wouldn't have to think about such things anymore.

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When they finally arrived outside Bruma Jauffre was quick to lead them around the walled city, so none of them would have to enter the city and bring attention to themselves. Rend cast a glance back into the sky and spotted Nightmare, who hid herself behind a set of clouds while she waited for them to approach the mountain they were heading to. They all felt better having a scout in the sky, though they knew that she wouldn't do it all of the time and that they were lucky she had even did it this time.

They eventually reached the path that would lead them to the top of the mountain they were searching for, so Rend beckoned to the clouds and Nightmare emerged. She circled the mountain, and the fortress on the very top, before descending towards the group, landing behind them and falling in with their horses. The path to the top wasn't too bad, though the moment they reached the very top Jauffre had them dismount and lead Martin towards the gate, where they were greeted by a member of the Blades. Within a few sentences between the two of them the entire group was allowed entry to the temple, though Nightmare could tell that the guard outside the main gate gulped the moment he laid eyes on her.

Rend, Shadow, and Pandora were greeted by the remaining forces of the Blades, of which Nightmare counted at least twenty of them walking around, though none came to greet her. She was fine with that, as she hadn't been given the quest to deliver the Amulet of Kings to Jauffre, but she had been part of the team to save Martin. She was sure that the Blades around her had no idea why the Queen of Knights was standing among them, but she just stood there and watched everyone else go about their business. As she stood there she watched Jauffre and the Blades welcome Martin as the Emperor, while Martin blushed and told them that he would learn his new role as quickly as possible.

Jauffre also extended an offer to Rend, Shadow, and Pandora to join the ranks of the Blades, but while Pandora said that she wanted to think about it Rend and Shadow agreed immediately. Nightmare was not offered a place in the order, but she was just fine with standing by her friends and fighting whatever horrors would be coming their way. Now that they had delivered Martin to the hideout, where she assumed he would be safe until the time came for him to take his throne, she had to wonder where they would be going next. That was until Rend came to her to inform her that they would be traveling back to the Imperial City, to speak with the Blades member they had left behind with the late Emperor's body.

Sometimes, Nightmare noted, fate just really seemed to side against her.

Comments

[Sonata Blaze]

By the Divines, Nightmare is literally tearing every enemy she meets apart...and she's only using half of her power?!
Makes me think that she'll have to go full power when we get to Dagon.

[HB_DS2013]

Or that weird fan...

6426151 Oh, and hi again! Good to see you after a while.

[Sonata Blaze]

6426388 That's right, she is the Arena Champion in a sense and that fan hasn't shown himself for some time yet.

Same to you. We just had to wait for the latest update to meet once more.

[Vigilant of Stendarr]

And so Martin is safe... until the Mythic Dawn realize exactly where he's hiding this time.