• Published 12th Jul 2012
  • 8,278 Views, 487 Comments

Stuck In Equestria - VaporingRat



A human travels to Equestria in a DeLorean and causes all sorts of mischief.

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Eternal Night: Daunting Nightmare

PAIN!

That was the first thought to float in my head when I opened my eyes after an uneventful sleep. At least, I think it was uneventful sleep, I can’t remember much about it. Wait, wasn’t I in pain? Oh, yeah...

PAIN!

God my back hurts! This is what I get for sleeping on the damn floor! GEEZ!

Well, I kinda didn’t have a choice. The only bed here was only big enough for a pony. If I had slept in it, my feet would be hanging over the edge, along with everything else below my kneecaps. So I elected for the floor, while miss purple pony got the bed. And her pet lizard managed to find a basket in a utilities room downstairs to sleep in. My bed was just a pillow, a blanket to lie on and a blanket to lie under. It didn’t help that the blankets were pony sized too...

I stretched my arm out, feeling around for my glasses so I can put them on and try to get up, but my fingers just pushed them further away from me, and straight off the edge of the upper level of the library’s upstairs room that me, Twilight and lizard boy were sleeping on. Why were we sleeping here, you ask? Well apparently, the upper level in the room is the ‘accommodation’ part of the library, as the lower level was a ‘private study area’.

Oh, and that Twilight pony was up half the night reading books on the lower level, so I decided to sleep up top so I wouldn’t get stepped on.

But now it meant that I had to navigate in the early morning light (the sun was just about to rise over the horizon) off the ledge and find my glasses. What a brilliant start to the day.

I threw the blanket off of me and stood up, before stretching and popping the stiff joints in my limbs and spine. Squinting in the dim light, I spotted the blurry outline of the stairs and slowly made my way over to them. But just as I got about a quarter of the way to my goal, I stepped on a book, and it slid along the floor somehow, making me lose my balance and topple backwards onto another book.

“Geez...” I sigh as I wince in pain, before managing to get back onto my feet and continuing my journey. But just as I was walking past Twilight’s bed, my big toe found yet another sodding book on the floor, causing me to hiss in pain.

“Stupid book...” I mutter as I give it a light kick with my injured foot, only to cause more pain in my toes.

“Ow! Stupid book!” I kicked it even harder, causing even more pain.

“OW! Stupid-!” I stopped cursing the book when I noticed that two purple blobs were watching me from the lower level. They look like Twilight and Spike, but I can't make out clear shapes without my glasses. "What?" I ask the blobs.

"I came up here because I heard shouting and find you kicking one of my books!" Twilight said grumpily as she snatched away the book I had kicked with her purple pony powers and brought it close to her. "I need this for research!"

"Research for what?" I ask.

"Research on how to stop Nightmare Moon!" Was the response. Figures.

“Well it’s your fault that you left it there. I can’t see squat without my glasses.”

“Well, I do get a little carried away sometimes when I’m studying...” Twilight admitted sheepishly.

“A little?” Me and Spike the pet lizard say simultaneously, at which Twilight smiled sheepishly in response.

“Ugh, whatever. I’m going to find my glasses and get some food,” I say as I turn round and walk towards the purple blobs.

And promptly walking off the damn ledge.

Unluckily for me, gravity did not decide to sleep in today.

Luckily, there was a pile of books below that ‘softened’ my fall.

“PAIN!” I groan loudly as I struggle from the pile of books I landed on. Fun fact: I have horrible depth perception, which meant I couldn't tell where the ledge ended and air began. Not wearing my glasses as well usually makes it worse.

“Uh, Twilight? I think you were a bit too carried away this time...” lizard boy commented from above.


Later, after I was reunited with my glasses and had made it downstairs without any more injury, I was leaning against a bookshelf eating toast. Due to my current luck today, it was brown bread. Again.

Despite being brown bread, it did taste alright for something that was created out of thin air. Yep, when the doohickey downstairs had revived the place, not only did it stock it full of books, but loaded the kitchen with food. We were wary about it at first, but after using Spike as a test subject for dinner last night, and he hasn’t spontaneously combusted yet, we decided to go ‘whatever’ and just eat the food. Oh, and I slept in my clothes (minus the coat) ‘cause the blankets weren’t enough to keep the cold out.

“So...” I say before taking a bite of buttered toast, chewing, and swallowing. “About those prep thingies for this here celebration...”

“Hmm?” Twilight responded as she chewed on her own toast.

“Do you have plan about doing it or...”

“Ah. I have a schedule for the day listing every part of the celebration we need to check,” Twilight said after she had swallowed and used her TK powers to summon a piece of paper in front of her.

“Go on.”

“Well first, we have to check the banquet preparations done by Sweet Apple acres, then the weather team are supposed to keep the sky clear, then the decorations done by Pinkie Pie, and finally the musical band.” Twilight read from the list.

“But how do we find all of that?” Spike asked his owner.

“I can help. I know where Sweet Apple Acres is, where the pink one has her evil lair and I have a fair guess about where the weather team is,” I offer as I finish my toast and set my plate on the table in the centre of the room (that appeared out of nowhere last night too).

“Alright, lead the way,” Twilight said as she levitated her own plate to the table and started to move to the door. I grabbed my coat from the coat hanger as we departed to the outside world.

I immediately started to walk in the general direction of the apple orchard, with purple Unicorn and lizard in tow.


After half an hour or so of walking, we arrived at the orchard’s entrance. Everything looked just fine since last time. Nothing to worry about.

“This is Sweet Apple Acres!” I proclaim dramatically, which Twilight just rolled her eyes and walked forwards. “Oh hey, there’s that Applejack pony. Hey Applejackie!” I point to the orange normal pony in question and call her over. She stops kicking the trees at the sound of my voice and heads over, a friendly smile on her face.

“*Sigh*... let’s get this over with,” Twilight said glumly before putting on a smile for the orange cowpony.

“Well howdy there Declan! Came back for more work?” Applejack asked me.

“Nope, just showing these two here around,” I reply, gesturing to the pony and lizard.

“Good afternoon, my name is Twilight Sparkle-” Twilight began, but her right hoof was suddenly being shaken vigorously by Applejack’s front hooves.

Okay, so it took us slightly longer than half an hour to get to Sweet Apple Acres. As it turned out, I had led them to the other side of town by accident. Whoops.

“Well howdy do miss Twilight! A pleasure makin’ your acquaintance. Ah’m Applejack (as Declan already said), an’ we here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like making new friends!” Applejack said happily, much to Twilight’s slight horror.

“F-friends?! Actuall-eeeeee... I-eeeeee...” Twilight tried to say, but the violent hoofshake made speaking a tad awkward.

“So, what can Ah do ya for?” Applejack asked after letting go of Twilight’s hoof, which was still shaking up and down dangerously, before Spike stopped it.

“Well, I am in fact here to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. And you’re in charge of the food?” Twilight enquired.

“We sure as sugar are! Would you care to sample some?”

“Yes please!” I butt in excitedly before Twilight could respond, and as such Applejack quickly ran to a hanging triangle and started to ding it.

“SOUP’S ON EVERYPONY!” Applejack called over the dinging of the triangle. What happened next could only be described as a stampede of ponies from all corners of the farm.

“Good lord, they’ve multiplied!” I exclaim in shock as we’re surrounded by the horde of ponies.

“Now, why don’t Ah introduce you y’all to the Apple family?” Applejack began, before she started to list every single pony surrounding us. And with each name, they brought a plate of food.

Delicious smelling food.

I tuned out the names of the ponies and focused all my attention to the rapidly growing pile of food, but was snapped back when Applejack started calling a familiar name rather loudly. Said name turned out to be Granny Smith. I tore my eyes away from the food to watch the elderly pony slowly get out of her rocking chair and make her way towards us, muttering “Ah’ma coming” as she hobbled over.

I turned back to Twilight, and found she had started eating before me! The nerve!

“Why, Ah’d say they’re already part of the family,” Applejack told the rest of her family as she gave Twilight a hefty pat on the back, causing her to spit out the food in her mouth. Wait, did she say that Twilight part of their family? What does that make me, their

“Okay, well, I can see the food situation is handled, so we’ll be on our way,” Twilight said as she turned to go, receiving sad looks from the Apple family.

“We can’t go just yet, what about all of this food?” I ask her pleadingly, while a small pony I knew as Applebloom decided to put on the puppy dog look aimed straight at Twilight.

“Sorry Declan, but we have an awful lot to do...” Twilight responded, and started to walk away, but in one final bid to eat some of the food, I launched myself to land right behind Twilight and grab her leg.

“Please Twilight? I’m ever so hungry...” I beg her as she turned to look back at me, joined with Applebloom who had increased her cuteness factor to eleven, and even added a “pweese?”

“Fine...” Twilight sighed, to which everyone cheered. I let go of her leg, stood up, dusted my front off and immediately started to chow down.


“I think I ate too much pie...” Twilight groaned as we made our way back into Ponyville via the directions Applejack gave us.

“Nonsense. There is no such thing as too much pie. Besides, I was surprised they only had four helpings of everything available,” I say as I pat my stomach while we walked.

“Hmm, it says here that weather is next, and the weather team is led by a Pegasus named Rainbow Dash,” Spike said as he read the list in his hand like claws.

“Rainbow Dash? Hey, I know tha-” I begin,but I was interrupted by a sudden cry and a rainbow streaking past me.

“LOOK OUT!”

WHAM! The cyan Pegasus plowed straight into Twilight and sent them both backwards into a large patch of mud.

“Uh... ‘scuse me?” Rainbow Dash said sheepishly, before bursting out into laughter when she got a good look of Twilight, who was caked in mud. “Here, let me help you,” Rainbow offered, by flying up to a cloud and started to jump on it.

And causing it to rain down upon poor Twilight. WAT.

It cleaned the mud off of her coat, but she was now soaked through. Rainbow gave a small chuckle at the sight.

“Nicely done,” I comment as Twilight shoots the Pegasus a glare.

“Oops. I guess I kinda overdid it, huh?” Rainbow said thoughtfully as she glanced down at the drenched Unicorn. “Uh, how about this?” The rainbow maned Pegasus then proceeded to fly round and round Twilight at fast speeds, causing a striped rainbow tornado that sucked all the mud off of Twilight.

“My very own patented Rainbow-Dry!” She announced as she stopped flying and ended the rainbow tornado. However, Twilight’s mane was now a complete mess, which caused Rainbow and Spike to burst out into laughter when they saw her.

“This is Rainbow Dash by the way,” I inform Twilight, who was not happy at this point.

“The one and only!” Rainbow boasted as she stopped laughing to hover in the air.

“Then you can tell me why the skies aren’t clear yet. I’m Twilight Sparkle by the way, overseeing the Summer Sun Celebration preparations for Princess Celestia,” Twilight informed Rainbow Dash, who had nonchalantly spotted a cloud in the sky above us.

“The weather? That’s easy, I’ll do that in a sec,” Rainbow replied as she flew up to the cloud and decided to get comfortable on it, like she was taking a break. “I’ll do it after I finish practicing.”

“Practicing for what?” I ask.

“The Wonderbolts!” Rainbow answered, pointing at a poster on the side of a house behind us. “They’re performing at the celebration tomorrow and I’m going to show them my moves so they can invite me to join them!” Rainbow said excitedly.

“Wait, we’re talking about the Wonderbolts, right?” Twilight asked for clarification, with a shrewd smile on her face.

“Yep!”

“Wait, who are the Wonderbolts?” I ask the two ponies. I have no idea what they are going on about.

“You don’t know who the Wonderbolts are?!” Rainbow asked me incredulously. I simply roll my eyes.

“Not from around here, remember?” I remind her.

“The Wonderbolts are the most talented flyers in all of Equestria!” Rainbow told me like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And these Wonderbolts remind me of the Red Arrows, a RAF display group that do spectacular flybys during air shows and celebrations.

“And they would never accept a Pegasus who couldn’t keep the sky clear for one measly day,” Twilight added shrewdly, which seemed to irk Rainbow.

“I can clear this sky in ten seconds flat!” Rainbow shot back, to which Twilight’s response was:

“Prove it.”

And just like that, I had a weird feeling of deja vu. Rainbow then proceeded to clear the sky at lightning speed, obliterating the clouds with precise kicks from her legs. Twilight and Spike were both shocked and impressed at the rate Rainbow was going, and had indeed cleared the entire sky from the clouds in just under ten seconds. I’ll be honest, it’s not that impressive the second time around.

“See, what’d I say? Ten seconds flat. I’d never leave Ponyville hanging,” Rainbow informed us when she landed next to us. She had another fit of giggles when she saw Twilight’s face, still frozen in awe. “You should see the look on your face!” She said in between laughs as she started to fly away.


“Next is decorations,” Spike read from the list as we made our way into town.

“Great. Where do we go for the decorations?” Twilight asks.

“Don’t ask me. I have no idea,” I shrug, looking around the street we’re in.

“Well, the celebration would be held in the town hall, so we should try to find that,” Twilight suggested as she scanned the buildings on either side of the street.

“The town hall? That’s actually... behind us. Huh, what a coincidence,” I say as I look behind me, and sure enough, the familiar shape of town hall looms up above us. We turn and start to head inside, but as we approach the door, it was yanked open and an all too familiar pink pony bounced out, followed by a familiar white Unicorn.

“Look, Pinkie dear, as much as I appreciate your choice of... decorations, I think a more regal design is needed, rather than ‘streamers, confetti and balloons,’” Rarity tried explaining to Pinkie Pie, but that pink pony was having none of it.

“But it’s a party for the Princess! And you can’t have a party without party decorations,” Pinkie explained using her own brand of decorating logic, which Rarity didn’t accept.

“Well, this is a special kind of party Pinkie. One that needs more than the usual party decor,” Rarity countered, and surprisingly enough, it worked.

“Oh, why didn’t you say so? I’ll leave it all to you Rarity!” Pinkie said as she turned around and was about to bounce off on her merry little way when she spotted me, Twilight and Spike. Upon seeing us, or rather Twilight, she leaped into the air, let loose a loud and drawn out gasp, before zipping off to do whatever she had decided to do. Rarity meanwhile had headed back inside, closing the door after her.

“That again?” Twilight sighed.

“I take it you met that pink pony then?” I asked, curious.

“She was the first pony I met when I came into town,” Twilight said before walking to the door and opening it with her purple tinted telekinesis. We walked through, and entered into the main room of town hall, to find it caked in streamers, balloons, and other assorted party decorations, including a punch bowl which I suspected that a small green bitey thing may be lurking in it’s 8-inch deep depths.

“Good lord, this place look’s like someone barfed up an entire party store,” I say as I glance around the still cavernous room.

“Oh no! We can’t use these decorations for the celebration tomorrow, they’re too informal!” Twilight said while panicking slightly, starting to go on about how she had failed the Princess and whatnot. However, I stopped paying attention to Twilight when Rarity appeared from behind a pillar, levitating several large bundles of cloth. Twilight’s panic mode had taken her to walk behind a pillar, hiding her from Rarity’s sight, before plopping onto her haunches in a sense of failure.

Rarity meanwhile, started to use her pony powers to systematically rip the cheerful decorations off of their positions around the room, dumping them in a bin located at a corner of the room. She then unfurled a quarter of the bundles, and hung them on hooks lining the walls of the room. They turned out to be banners, both vertical and horizontal, and of different colours, shapes and sizes, and once they were secured, she started to unfurl the rest of the bundles and sent out different types of decorations cover the room. The whole scene lasted no more than a few minutes, and once she had fixed the final piece- a neat little bow that sparkled -onto a pillar, she stepped back to admire her handiwork.

“Hey Twilight,” Spike said, trying to get her attention by poking her, and failing. Twilight was very happy to stare at the floor sadly, ignoring the world around her. “Twilight, come look at the decorations.” No response. But I think I know how to get her moving.

“Oi Twilight, Princess is here,” I say, pointing behind me with a jab of my thumb. This was more than enough to get her moving, as she jumped up at lightning speed and practically teleported from behind the pillar to appear in front of an non-existent Princess.

“Oh Princess Celestia, I’m so sorry! The celebration is ruined because...” she trailed off when she noticed the lack of Princess, and the newly decorated town hall interior. Instantly, her mood picked up at the sight. “Because the decorations are beautiful!” She finished, smiling in relief.

“Yeah, she is...” Spike said dreamily as his eyes started to glaze over while he stared at something.

“Pardon?” Me and Twilight ask simultaneously as we glance down at the apparently lovestruck lizard. Spike just pointed a scaley claw at Rarity, who was still basking in her success. I sigh while Twilight gives him a funny look, before we walked towards the fashionista Unicorn.

“Hey Rarity, nice save with the decorations,” I say in greeting as we get closer, making her turn around in a brief moment of surprise, before she smiled gently.

“Declan dear, I didn’t see you enter. How are you?” Rarity asked me, but her pleasant smile evaporated into horror when she saw Twilight’s mane, which was still an utter mess from the encounter with Rainbow Dash. “My stars! Whatever happened to your coiffure darling? It’s simply dreadful!”

“Oh, my mane? It’s nothing, really. I was here to just check on the decorations then I’ll be out of your hair,” Twilight explained good-naturedly, but Rarity wasn’t giving up.

“Out of my hair? What about your hair? We must get it fixed right away!” And with that, Rarity started to push Twilight out of the town hall, despite her protests, and followed by a lovesick Spike and myself.

We end up at Rarity’s place, and she instantly fixed Twilight’s mane in a heartbeat. Then came the outfits. Rarity had decided that Twilight needed something that matched her personality, and had made her go through practically half of the clothes at the boutique before they had found the perfect one: a saddle lined with pretty jewels.

“You guys have the weirdest fashion sense ever,” I mutter to myself as Rarity asked Twilight where she was from, and at first I thought she had said Camelot, but it turned out to be Canterlot. Geez, these ponies are real creative when it comes to town names.

Rarity then started going off on a tangent, saying how beautiful canterlot was, how she dreamed of living there, and how her and Twilight would become the ‘best of friends’, to which Twilight grimaced when Rarity wasn’t looking.

“Declan dear, what do you think of Twilight’s new look?” Rarity asked me, while Twilight just stared at the mirror unimpressed.

“Uh... well, it’s nice I suppose...” to be honest, the saddle looks like something a horse would wear if the Queen was riding it in the Grand National. “The emerald is a bit too much though,” I add as an afterthought.

“You’re right, what was I thinking? Emeralds clash with her eyes- ohhhh! How about rubies? Yes, they might do...” Rarity trailed off into a mutter as she dashed off to find some rubies.

“Quick! Let’s get out of here while she’s distracted before she dyes my coat a different colour!” Twilight yelped as she made a run for the door.

“Aw come on Twilight, it’s not that bad-” I begin to say, but I get interrupted by a voice from upstairs.

“Oh, and I have some designs that would look marvelous on you Declan dear,” Rarity called from the second floor.

“Wait for me!” I yelp as I follow Twilight, picking up a love induced catatonic Spike on the way.


“That was close,” Twilight panted once we had put a good amount of distance between the Carousel Boutique.

“Geez... I am so unfit...” I wheeze, trying to regain my breath after all that running.

“What’s next on the list Spike?” Twilight asked the lizard.

“Music apparently.”

“And where do we go for that?” Twilight asked, making a point to look at me.

“Don’t look at me, I don’t have a clue,” I answer, shrugging.

“Wait, do you hear that?” Spike asked.

“Hear what?”

“Those birds...” we all became silent as we listened for the birdsong, and sure enough, we could hear a chorus of birds singing a particular tune, originating from not too far away.

We followed the sound, walking over to a dirt path that ran by a lone tree with most of its foliage gone. On the lower branches of the trees, colourful birds of different sizes and plumages sat perched, singing the song we had heard. On the ground below the tree branches, a familiar yellow Pegasus pony, directing the birds in their singing.

"Hey, that's Fluttershy!" I say in a hushed voice to the other two as we watch Fluttershy from a nearby bush.

"Why are you-" Twilight began, but I quickly shushed her to be quiet. "Why are you whispering?" She asked again, this time lowering her voice to a whisper.

"Fluttershy is, er... shy," I whisper back, shrugging. "She gets startled by loud noises very easily," I explain further.

"I think she may be in charge of the music," Spike suggested in a quiet voice to us.

"You could be right Spike. I'll go over and ask her about it," Twilight said quietly, before she walked over towards the timid Pegasus. Fluttershy however was too busy with her singing birds that she didn't notice Twilight approach her from behind, so she was almost scared to death when Twilight had spoken from behind. "Hi there, my name is Twilight Sparkle and I was wondering if you were in charge of the music for the upcoming celebration." Although Twilight said this in her normal voice, it was still enough to startle Fluttershy and cause her birds to fly off in fright.

Fluttershy slowly turned to face the offending purple Unicorn, trying to hide her face behind her long and pink mane timidly. She slowly nodded lightly, so lightly in fact that I could barely notice it.

"Great! I came here to check on the music, and I can tell that it's going to be perfect." Despite Twilight's friendly and reassuring smile, Fluttershy just seemed to shrink even further away. Twilight looked back awkwardly at me and Spike and I got the message. I decided to go over and try to reassure Fluttershy that Twilight wasn't going to eat her.

"Hey Fluttershy," I say softly as I approach the two, and the meek Pegasus in question perked up a little upon seeing me.

"Oh, h-hi Declan..." Fluttershy said quietly, but just loud enough for me to hear.

"It's okay, Twilight is a friend of mine," I say soothingly to her, as I come up next to Fluttershy and crouch down next to her, giving the Pegasus a comforting pat on the back. Fluttershy nodded, still a tad shy of Twilight , but at least she had stopped hiding behind her mane now.

"Oh look, your birds are back. We'll let you continue practising," Twilight said as Fluttershy's birds returned to their branches on the tree. I stand back up and me and Fluttershy exchange goodbyes, before I walked away with Twilight back to the bush where Spike was waiting.

"That went well," I say to the other two once we get back to the bush.

"Alright! That was the last thing to do on the list!" Spike said triumphantly as he rolled up the list.

"Brilliant! Does that mean we can hea-" POW! I get rudely interrupted when something hard and fast plows straight through me, sending me flying ten feet backwards and impacting the ground on my back.

“Oh my, a baby dragon!” I shakily sit up from my position on the floor and look over at the spot I was previously occupying, which was now inhabited by Fluttershy. “I’ve never seen a baby dragon before! He’s so cute!” Fluttershy cooed as she fussed over Spike, who seemed to be enjoying it, while Twilight sighed in exasperation and shot the two a glare that they didn’t notice.

“Ha!” Spike said triumphantly as he jumped into the air and pointed a claw at me. “In your face!”

“This changes nothing...” I respond, giving him a stern glare.

“Oh, I didn’t know dragons could talk! This is so wonderful!” Fluttershy exclaims in joy, her wings fluttering to raise her a few inches in the air and hover there. Then, in a snap decision, Twilight grabbed Spike in her purple glow and half carried half threw him onto her back.

“Well in that case, we’d better be going. Come along Declan,” Twilight said slightly stiffly as she walked away. I get up onto my feet, groaning as I did so, dusted my clothes off, and started to follow the purple Unicorn. Unfortunately, we were being tailed in the form of a meek, yellow Pegasus, who quickly managed to catch up to Twilight and Spike.

“Wait! What’s his name?” Fluttershy tried asking Twilight, but she blanked Fluttershy completely.

“I’m Spike,” Spike answered instead, giving me a smug look. I hate that dragon-lizard thing...

“Hi Spike, I’m Fluttershy. I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what do dragons like to talk about?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Absolutely everything!” Twilight seemed to sag at this, letting out a small groan.

MEANWHILE...

The Moon was as desolate as ever. A barren, dusty, airless ball of rock and craters. Uninhabitable for any creature.

Well... except one.

Or two.

Or possibly three.

A tall, lean and pitch black pony, wearing armour of the deepest midnight blue, accompanied with a long, sharp horn to pierce her enemies; two large and powerful wings, allowing her to fly to great heights and extreme speeds, and an ethereal mane that flowed freely, as if it was caught in a non-existent breeze, sparkling with the starry sky and made of pure blue space, like the endless void above her.

Her attention, however, was focused on the beings in front of her.

They were the size and shape of an normal Earth pony, except they were translucent, as if they were mere spirits visiting from beyond the mortal realm. they also seemed eerie and were coloured the most palest white. These were demons from far beyond the stars, and could send a shiver of fear down even the most powerful of beings’ spines. Nightmare Moon was no exception.

She hated these creatures that fed off of the pure magic that was the life essence of a pony, be they Earth, Unicorn, Pegasus, or even Alicorn. They much preferred Unicorn, as they provided them with the most satisfying meal. But if they managed to find an Alicorn as powerful as Nightmare Moon herself to feed on, they could sustain themselves for millennia. Nightmare Moon counted herself lucky that the deal she had made with them had prevented them from feeding on her five hundred years ago, when they had first visited the lifeless prison that she call ‘home’, and that was stretching it.

“Well well well, is it that time again? I thought the comet wasn’t due for another 18 months,” Nightmare Moon said to the spectral beings, giving them a thin smile that managed to hide her feelings of slight fear and worries about if they were hungry safe inside her mind.

One of the spectral beings opened it’s mouth, and no sound came out. But Nightmare could hear their voices clearly in her mind as they were sent empathically to ber brain.

||We have come early, to ensure that your end of the deal is being upheld. It is the time that the Destroyer of Realms would have arrived and begun the path to our downfall||

“I know, you told me the precise date, but you neglected to tell me WHERE he was supposed to arrive,” Nightmare said in slight frustration, and regretted it instantly.

||Did you find the Destroyer?||

“It wasn’t easy, Equis is a big planet-”

||DID YOU FIND HIM?!||

Nightmare winced as the empathic voice screeched the last message into her mind, causing her to stumble slightly. “Yes! Yes I did find him!”

||Good, has he joined the Keeper of Harmony and the Keys of Harmony?||

“I think so,” Nightmare began, before the voice screeched again.

||WE DO NOT WANT ‘THINK SO’. WE WANT ANSWERS!||

“I-I can only do so much from here! His mind is at it’s weakest during his sleep, but I can only access a few memories at a time, not to mention I have to distract him by giving him bad dreams at the same time, and my magic simply isn’t as powerful as long as I’m stuck here!” Nightmare shouted at the spectral ponies, who continued to wear their emotionless features.

||If your magic is insufficient then we may feast on what little remains||

“No! Please, I can do this! When you help me return to Equestria soon, I shall be at my full strength!” Nightmare said pleadingly, even sinking to her knees in despair.

||Your strength will not be enough. He has proven to survive immense powers that surpass even that of The Light Mistress||

“Then how do I defeat him?”

||His machine, The End of SpaceTime, holds a power that can only be bested by the sacred jewels. Use it against him, then surrender it to us during the next passing||

“Why should I do that?”

||Our reserves will be depleted when we perform the ritual for your return, which in turn means that we will be hungry, VERY HUNGRY. If you do not give us the power from The End of SpaceTime, then we shall feed on all of Equestria||

“Okay, okay! I will do it, just remember our deal, okay? I will return and defeat him,” Nightmare said, trying to be reassuring to the spectral beings, but unbeknownst to her it was mainly to reassure herself that nothing could go wrong.

||We do not want defeat, we want DEATH!||

Author's Note:

Hi guys, sorry again for this being late. The next one is halfway done and should be out soon! In the meantime, I'm going to double back and correct some mistakes that you guys have pointed out in the earlier chapters.

Also, this site keeps updating faster than I can type. :/