S3 CH 19. The Calm
Moondancer paced back and forth, trying to keep what few non-frazzled nerves she had left from frazzling. Not that it did much good at this point.
The skies were clear and the forces they had were now on the ground, trying to tend to the wounded, find out how many of them were actually missing and awaiting reinforcements from Canterlot before continuing the journey to deal with the dragon.
The shades were gone now, at least. Driven off by the spells of light and seemingly giving up for the time being. But the damage had been done, reinforcements had been delayed and their efforts were sent into chaos. She doubted Discord himself could have done as good a job if he tried.
Moondancer paused and glanced around. Funny, she half expected that thought to make him appear.
She felt utterly useless now, though. Everypony was following her orders and things were going smoothly, if slowly. She was maintaining the orb of light above their temporary ‘base’, just in case the shades returned. But unless another attack happened there really wasn’t a lot she could do. Then she caught sight of an all too familiar shadowbolt with a rainbow tail talking with one of the others.
“Rainbow,” Moondancer called out, making the pegasus jump and turn around.
“Hey, Moondancer,” Rainbow said before turning to give her a grin. “Sorry for the late arrival, we would have been here sooner, but wellll…”
“I sent you all off ahead,” Moondancer said. She suppressed the urge to berate herself for that mistake, there would be time for self hatred once this was over. “Not to say I don’t appreciate your timely arrival, but I’d like to know why.”
“Wellllll, err, about that…” Rainbow said, a hoof reaching up to rub the back of her head. “I know, technically, we’re supposed to follow orders and all that…”
Moondancer gave a soft sigh and shook her head. “Rainbow, please. I’m not going to get mad. I just need some information. The rest of the shadowbolts are still on their way, correct?”
“Oh, yeah, of course,” Rainbow said. “Spitfire only let a few of us come back, just in case.”
“In case?” Moondancer asked. “In case what?”
“Well, this,” Rainbow said.
“You knew we were going to be ambushed? How? When?” Moondancer asked.
“Oh, no, not like this!” Rainbow said quickly and, while the mask of her uniform did hide her eyes there was something odd about the pegasus’ movements. If Moondancer didn’t know better she’d think the pony was embarrassed. “And uhhh… it wasn’t… me…”
“Wasn’t you who what?” Moondancer asked.
“Figured it out,” Rainbow said. “So, I used to work as a weatherpony. I know all about the clouds and that stuff. Frankly? The weather just seemed too odd. Nopony calling for heavy storms, anything like that for weeks. They were way too thick for what we should have had. I mentioned it to my wingpony.”
“Oh, don’t listen to her,” another voice said and Moondancer glanced over to see Shadowfang trotting over to them. “She figured it all out.”
“Not really,” Rainbow said. “I was just making a joke. I didn’t actually think anypony would do it. Dragons certainly couldn’t.”
Moondancer sighed. Of all the times for Rainbow to be embarrassed by things, this was definitely not one of them. “Right. So, Rainbow, you saw the clouds were thicker and made a joke about it?”
“Kind of,” Rainbow said sheepishly. “I mean, I just said that as thick as they were, you’d think the paparazzi were planning to ambush you and Twilight once you left the castle. It’s what they do sometimes to us shadowbolts, hide in the clouds and when we come to clear them, they jump us with a thousand questions. Shadowfang was the one who realized that it might actually happen. The ambush, not the paparazzi.”
“I never thought I’d see Rainbow being humble about something,” Shadowfang said with a teasing tone. “None of us would have noticed if not for her, at least not in the dark like that. Once we mentioned it to Spitfire she sent us and a few back to ensure nothing happened to the main forces while they went on ahead. It could have been a real disaster, without Nightmare Moon being around, losing you could send everything into a panic.”
Moondancer nodded, though she had another wave of unease wash over her. She glanced up at the skies. “You thought Twilight and I were both coming with the main forces?”
“Who else would?” Rainbow asked. “Without the princess, you two are kind of the ones in command. Everypony knows it. Where is Twilight, anyway? Keeping the castle running?”
Moondancer froze, that feeling of dread suddenly becoming oh so crystal clear. “Oh no. Ohhhhh no. No no no no no. Buck. BUCK! Rainbow, Shadowfang, which of all of the shadowbolts here is the fastest flier? More importantly, can they outrun a train?”
“What? I mean, me, obviously,” Rainbow said with a chuckle. “And yeah, any day. Probably. Why?”
“Because we’re struggling to communicate as it is and I need you to go and catch one now!” Moondancer said, barely suppressing the panic in her voice.
She needed to get Twilight back to the castle. Oh by the sun and moon, she prayed she was just being paranoid. That she hadn’t sent her best friend off to her doom.
------
Gilda wondered if every pony had some kind of death wish or something. First the captain, now Legendary.
“Put me down!” Legendary yelled, as if the twenty-fifth time he said that would have any more effect than the other twenty-four times. Gilda just rolled her eyes and glanced to the other ponies. They were looking almost as haggard as him, though they had the added benefit of not having been tackled and tied up by the rest of them when he tried to do a ‘last stand’ to ‘buy them time’.
Now that she thought about it, she wondered why Coldstone even had that rope. This was why more ponies needed wings. Wings made everything better. Focus on wings and not the horrors that were chasing them.
Alas, Gilda couldn’t help but glance back at the slowly creeping dragons in the darkness. It wasn’t even their size or power that was the most terrifying (though it was more terrifying than she’d ever want to admit), it was how silent they were. Their steps didn’t even seem to make a sound, though she swore the ground sometimes shook underfoot.
Stupid Lavender. Stupid Thorax. Why in Equestria did they decide to run off INTO those things? She didn’t know what the changeling had done or how he’d ended up so big and green all of a sudden, but she knew whatever that boost of energy he’d given them had been pretty helpful and while she was pretty sure she’d ended up getting the largest burst, she really could use another one right now.
“Release me! If I must die, allow me to die in battle and buying my noble brethren time!” Legendary roared.
“Nopony is dying!” Bouncing yelled. “The captain ordered a retreat, we retreat. Reinforcements are on the way!”
“If reinforcements were on the way, they’d be here by--” Legendary’s voice went silent for a moment before he let out a single very soft, very nervous word. “Oh.”
Gilda couldn’t help but pause for a moment to look back. “Huh? Oh.” She slowly came to a stop and stared. Well, that was certainly reinforcements of a kind.
The dragons had come to a complete stop, one of them with a large, swirling circle over their chest. In front of them, Nightmare Moon now stood, her body so much smaller she could have easily been missed if not for one thing.
Despite the severe size different, the alicorn’s sheer presence seemed to dwarf the two dragons, drawing Gilda’s eyes to her despite any attempts to look away. The alicorn looked annoyed, though not so much at the dragons. In fact, the dragons now seemed unwilling, perhaps unable, to move. Instead the alicorn seemed to be focusing on something else. Her horn glowed for a moment and then, suddenly, it was as if something in the world shifted. Gilda couldn’t say what, but something just felt better.
“Oh, oh that is better,” Coldstone said before nearly falling over, only barely being caught by Bouncing. “Also, ow. Systems are back up, though. Ow, ow ow ow. Ow. Lots of missed messages. Buck. Ow. Okay can they go back down now, please?”
“Sorry sweetie,” Bouncing said with a light giggle before gently reaching up to massage his horn. “Only unicorn in the unit has its downsides.”
“If you like,” Ash said. “I have a potion that should help with--”
“I’ll take my chances with the messages,” Coldstone said before looking up at his wife. “Keep rubbing my horn, my little delicate murder dove?”
“Of course my amazingly blizzardy snuggle bunny,” Bouncing said in a soothing tone.
“The pretender,” Legendary said in a hushed tone. “Oh, if only I had my axe I--” Gilda shoved him off her back and rolled her eyes. Hopefully Ash would be able to keep him quiet until they returned to base. She had to give it to the captain, she didn’t think--
Her heart almost leaped into her mouth when Nightmare Moon’s head lowered to the two laying at her feet. Despite herself, she couldn’t help it, she ran towards them.
Thorax and Lavender, both covered in long, bloody marks across their flesh as if they had been flailed. Nightmare Moon’s eyes kept looking between the two of them before, finally, she picked them both up in her magic.
The dragons chose that moment to strike.
Gilda watched helplessly, too far away to do anything, as the dragon’s claws came down at the distracted ruler and the wounded. Only for the claws to bounce off a dark shield that seemed to spring up from nowhere. The alicorn glanced up once more and then, with the same force one might swat away a fly, she flicked her horn. The dragons disappeared, where they were sent Gilda couldn’t begin to guess, but at least that meant one threat was gone.
The griffon came to a halt in mid step when the alicorn’s eyes turned to her. Angry, rage filled eyes. As calm as the alicorn had seemed a moment ago, those eyes were anything but. She gave a nervous gulp, trying to will herself to move, but she couldn’t.
“Griffon,” Nightmare Moon said. “You wear our colors.”
“Yes,” Gilda said before looking nervously down at the two wounded, then back up at the alicorn. “I--”
“Do you know what this is?” the alicorn asked before pointing at Thorax.
“Yes. That’s, err, he’s Thorax,” Gilda said.
“We… see,” Nightmare Moon said before looking down at him once more. “Is he one of ours?”
Gilda stared up at the alicorn, unsure of what was happening now. She couldn’t help but feel that Nightmare Moon was suppressing herself, as if one wrong move would result in the ruler wiping out not just her and the badlands, but all of Equestria. A rage so powerful that it threatened to engulf all of them. “Thorax is one of yours,” Gilda said, her heart hammering a little harder.
“We see,” Nightmare Moon said, her voice strained. “We have… erred.”
Gilda found her eyes drawn back to the two wounded. The deep cuts, the blood. She’d thought that whatever stupid plan they had enacted had resulted in that. Had Nightmare Moon done this? Despite the danger, Gilda couldn’t suppress herself. She saw red. “YOU DID THIS?” she screamed.
The alicorn gave a nod. However, before Gilda could say more, her beak was shut by dark magic. “We… apologize,” the alicorn said. “But we understand the anger you must feel right now. The words you desire to say. If you say them? We may not be able to stop ourselves. Not. Now,” Nightmare Moon said.
Gilda couldn’t be sure, but she swore the ruler was trembling.
“We… have erred. Our ponies require us,” Nightmare Moon said. “Our ponies must come first. So much we must fix. So many places we must go. Now is not the time for anger.” Her horn glowed once more and darkness enshrouded all of them.
For a moment Gilda felt as if she was swimming through a lake of ice, a feeling that chilled her straight to the core. Then she was standing in the middle of a medical tent, her and the rest of their unit. Though confused, within moments medical ponies came galloping forward to tend to them.
Even as the ponies tried to help them and find out what happened, one thought couldn’t leave Gilda’s head. A few words she could have sworn she heard the ruler of the night whisper before teleporting them away.
“Rage comes after.”
------
Nightmare Moon struggled, desperately, to contain the rage in her heart. How dare the umbrum do this. How dare it attack her. How dare it think to challenge her.
How dare it distract her. How dare it trick her.
She could feel it, all over her kingdom. Magic defenses cut. Networks destroyed. Connections broken. How long would it take for the full extent of the damage to be realized? She had truly believed the shades to be hers now, that the umbrum could never challenge her should it rear its head. She had allowed the shades full access to her kingdom, every facet of the inner workings they touched. In so many ways they were her personal spies. Able to keep an eye on any troubles that may arise.
The perfect weapon to tear her kingdom apart from the inside. She felt like such a foal. Allowing herself to get lost in the glee of tearing apart a pathetic opponent who dared to challenge her. The umbrum was weaker than it had ever been, there was no way it could have challenged her. She should have known it was all part of some plan to remove her from everypony else. To distract her while it did as much damage as possible.
However, aside from her rage she also had to suppress her pride. Because while the damage was extensive, her power was tremendous. So much had been destroyed, but she was able to, more or less, brute force everything back into working order. The magics her kingdom depended on so much were once again functional, if not a hundred percent. Reports were coming in from all over Equestria of the many threats that threatened to wash over them. The umbrum had managed to distract her, set into motion a plan that had likely taken every resource it had available, even taken grievous wounds upon itself. All for what, a few hours of communications being cut, ponies suffering an inability to teleport during that time and a hoofful of new shades? It truly was pathetic that it was all they could achieve against her now supreme power.
Which was why she struggled to reign her pride in as well. The umbrum knew it could not challenge her openly, so there had to be something else it was trying to do. Damaging the communications structure for a short while could not have been its only intentions. Surely it hadn’t believed she was so weak that it could hope to defeat her even while spreading itself so thin? Had it truly desired a chance to defeat her it should have brought all of its forces to bear. As much as she wanted to believe she had just been underestimated, she doubted it. There was something more to this that just hadn’t reared its head yet. She was sure of it.
Nightmare Moon shoved the door to her throne room open so hard that it cracked the wall, not even allowing the guards to open it for her.
She had to be calm and focused. Figure out what it was that the umbrum was trying to do. Once she knew what its plan was, she would stop it and unleash the true rage of the ruler of the night. It would learn the true meaning of fear.
Nightmare Moon walked to her throne and, slowly, took her seat before looking over at the guards who now stood at attention. Anxious. Fearful. She could almost taste it on them. The nervousness. Foals, their ruler was here, they need not fear. The umbrum would no longer harm them.
She tried to shove those thoughts aside and focus on the task at hoof. “Have my student and bard summoned immediately and prepare all forces for the coming battle with the umbrum. We will…” Nightmare Moon trailed off when the door opened.
Moondancer came walking into the room with a look Nightmare Moon couldn’t quite identify. She didn’t look scared, sad, worried or anything like that. She looked shocked, as if she had just been slapped. She didn’t even seem to be paying much attention when she walked, as if she was in a daze. For a moment the ruler wondered if the mare had been experimenting with a stunning spell that had gone poorly, but that quickly faded when the unicorn came to stand before her.
“I failed,” Moondancer said.
“You failed?” Nightmare Moon asked, a part of her taking more glee in seeing her student like this than she wanted to at the moment.
“I deserve to be banished,” Moondancer said before her legs started to shake and she collapsed, the tears starting to fall.
The glee vanished and Nightmare Moon climbed back to her hooves, momentarily forgetting her own rage. “Student, you do not--”
“THEY TOOK HER!” Moondancer screamed, the stunned mask crumbling to one of despair before she covered her face with her hooves. “They took her! I, I tried to keep her safe and I couldn’t and I failed!”
“Her? Took--” Nightmare Moon went entirely still. No. No no no. The ruler felt a growing sense of dread that threatened to overwhelm her. “Not…”
“Twilight,” Moondancer said between sobs, her hooves now covering her face.
Nightmare Moon stared at her student and, only through great strength of will, suppressed the urge to crush her like an insect. Now was not the time for rage or despair.
But soon. Her rage. The umbrum’s despair.
“We see,” Nightmare Moon said, waves of dark, violent magic rippling off her and leaving small cracks in the walls of the chamber. “The end of the umbrum comes. Moondancer.”
The unicorn stared up at her through tear stained eyes. “Your highness?”
“Dry your eyes,” the alicorn said. “For you will not be banished.”
“Your highness?” one of the guards asked nervously. She could almost admire his bravery, speaking up now. She wondered if he was trying to draw attention away from her student to protect her. “Should we prepare?”
“Prepare for what?” Nightmare Moon asked.
“To, err, rescue Twilight Glow?” the stallion asked nervously.
“No,” Nightmare Moon said before shaking her head. “That will not be necessary. We have erred again, it seems. There will be no need to prepare for war.” Once more she turned her gaze to Moondancer. She then, very slowly, offered a hoof to the fallen mare. “We and our student will deal with this personally. For now, the focus shall be on recovery from this attack.”
“Your highness?” Moondancer asked, staring at her. Slowly she reached out and took the hoof, letting herself be drawn back to her hooves.
“You have not failed us yet,” Nightmare Moon said before slowly lowering a hoof to the ground. One of the pillars in the room finally crumbled from its hundreds of small cracks. “Let us go retrieve our bard.”
Moondancer stared at her for a long moment before glancing around the throne room and all the cracks and damage caused by the small suppressed waves of magical energy from the ruler. Then, very slowly, she nodded. “At once, your majesty.”
------
Twilight groaned and slowly opened her eyes. She felt cold and achy. Where in Equestria was she?
“Spike?” Twilight asked.
“Twilight?” the little dragon asked. She glanced back to see him on the ground next to her, looking as confused and disoriented as she felt. “What happened? Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” Twilight said. She looked around for a moment to try and determine the answer that question.
Only to realize they were inside a cage being watched by an all too familiar unicorn.
“Who are you supposed to be?” Twilight asked before slowly getting to her hooves and walking to the bars of her cage, staring at him.
“King Sombra, ruler of the Crystal Empire,” he said, an amused grin on his face.
“I see,” Twilight said, trying to keep as calm as she could. “I’ll be honest. I have to give you an A for effort, but dark ruler has already been done. I don’t think Nightmare Moon is going to put up with you for long. But please, go on. This is where you tell me your evil plan and I’m supposed to cower like a foal, correct?”
Sombra laughed and shook his head. “No.”
“The part where you try to replace me with a fake and send me off to another dimension?” Twilight asked.
“… What?” Sombra asked, the smile on his face wavering slightly.
“Invite me to tea?” Twilight asked.
“Hm. Unlikely,” Sombra said. “No. I was merely curious if you were everything they said you were.”
Twilight cocked an eye. “I see. You know, if you invited me all the way here for an autograph, this really isn’t the right way to go about it. Try sending a letter, I read them all and try to write back. Though admittedly I haven’t kept up on that as well as I would like.”
Sombra gave a light laugh before shaking his head. “I see. I would have preferred to have acquired all three of you, but you two will have to do.” He held out his right hoof and dark magic popped and boiled in it for a moment before a pair of metal helmets with a few spikes and black plumes appeared, one shaped like a dragon’s head and the other like a pony’s.
Twilight gulped and took a small step back, quickly interposing herself between Spike and Sombra. “When Nightmare Moon gets here, she’ll--”
“Be more than willing to negotiate,” Sombra said.
“You don’t know her highness if you think she’ll negotiate anything with you,” Twilight said softly.
“With me? No. With you, however, is a different story,” Sombra said before he began to chuckle before the top of the cage opened.
Twilight gave a soft, nervous gulp before looking back to Spike. She just had to come up with a plan. Some way to--
Then the helmet fell over her head and the only thought she had was ‘All hail King Sombra.’
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Hoping Thorax makes it through this.
11013423
Pshh thats the most abstract and obtuse way to say it and we all know it. He didnt say he did fear something currently, just that THEY werent something he feared. And he got turned into a shade. COMMUNICATION
DUN DUN DUUUN! Looking forward to seeing what happens next! Thanks for all the updates!
Is it possible to change the helmet with an enchantment or some kind of amulet. it suits this character much better than that unfortunate helmet from the show. Please!
Thanks for the chapter! I love this story!
Now that's a line! Holy shit that was ominous
11014824
What? Twilight? You think she needs some head protection?
11015118
Don't worry, Nightmare Moon will just give her standard, totally measured and not at all excessively destructive responses.
11014834
Happy to bring it back. :)
Dunn Dunn Dunn!
Love that thing of NMM being seething with what I might be tempted to call maternal rage after a fashion but doing everything in her power to keep it reigned in until the right moment.
One teensy-weensy little typo I noticed
I think that the phrase is usually "reared its ugly head"
But in the case that this word choice was actually intended feel free to disregard my comment.
11016079
It was not. Typo fixed, thank you!
11016138
I'm glad to help
I see this as a seminal moment in the story:
For the first time, Nightmare has shown she's as deserving of power as Celestia: she's learning to care about the security of her subjects, swallow her anger so her judgment isn't overwhelmed, and admit to making mistakes. I think it's especially telling that despite her concern for her "bard", she isn't letting that concern keep her from losing control until the right time. This will be important later since she'll be confronted with her brainwashed bard and it will take all of her emotional might to not let herself be blinded by Sombra's schemes.
11015118
I agree. It is the line of someone worthy of power.
And caught up. This is a wonderful story, and I cannot wait for you to conclude this season.
And please, not an epilogue. More stories. More seasons. Please.
ITS BACK EVERYONE CALM DOWN DONT READ ALL OF IT AT ONCE LETS GOOOOOOOO
Oh no. Competent!Sombra. That's not good. And poor Twilight. But Nightmare Moon doesn't exactly take loss well.
I have always considered Discord to be the most powerful creature in the mlp universe.
And after he just gave up here, I thought that the biggest problem here would not come.
Who knew Sombra would be the most dangerous threat in this story?
especially when you consider that in one fan animation on YouTube, Luna dealt with Sombra alone without even fully revealing the powers of Nightmare.
11026552
About the topic of dead tree format FiMfics, I have amassed quite a collection of them.
Here is my list of printed FiMfics
The Two Sides of Melody -- multiple authors
Equestrian Stories 2019 -- multiple authors
The Time Loops Trilogy -- Eakin
Tales of the Sun and Moon -- multiple authors
And yet there are many more out there I still need to obtain. A few will be rather difficult to find, as they are out of print and I would have to find someone who would be willing to sell their copy. That is how I got my first edition copy of Fallout: Equestria, and will almost certainly be how I will eventually find a copy of The Flight of the Alicorn by Ponydora Prancypants. Others are a matter of cost, but I can get them at my leisure, as long as the various sources are still printing copies.
If you ever decide that Getting one (or more) of your online novels into book format, there are ways. A few of the authors listed I know, and I am certain they would be more than willing to help you by getting you headed in the right direction.
11026890
You know, if/when things are more stable in my writing career, I might just try that. It could be fun. I'd need to finish some of them first, though. But how hard could that be?
11032604
....
for some of us, damn near impossible. It feels my writing muse has committed suicide after I had my heart attack. I have a ton of plans outlined in my head... I open a Gdoc to work on those plans...
......
And my mind simply goes completely blank on me. And there are no words I know to politely describe just how depressing that is.
11044509
Statistics in college... my presentation lasted almost 90 minutes. The professor retired the nexr semester
11034262
That can't be easy. I've had moments where I can't write and they're just heart wrenching.
11044662
Oh dear heavens. You monster! Way to go. XD
Okay... that cliffhanger is more evil than an hour long PowerPoint presentation... and I know PowerPoint
Oof, i just rereadthe whole story and I am fying to know what happens next
11046422
I mean, I don't think it's THAT evil.... And I really need to stop ending on those. Blame Twilight! She's the one who... wait, none of this is her fault. Shoot.
11049864
Hopefully soon... (TM)
AUs got extra inttsdying a get the show showed us that no sonic rain boom is reeally bad. Also guess spike never born in this verse. Haven’t read it yet
Ohh. How *did* spike manage to be born if there was no twilight magic to hatch him?
11311921
He was most likely born naturally from ambient Equestrian magic. All Twilight Sparkle did was accelerate it, after all.