Death Note: Alight Equestria

by DeviousNights

Missing Element

Rarity's death had not been made public. The fashion industry's big wigs had been told that she was going to take a hiatus from designing due to a recent burnout. However, the five remaining Elements of Harmony were not as much left in the dark. They were told mere minutes after it happened, most of them being asleep around the time that it happened.

Four ponies sat in Twilight's castle's main room, one seat being barren with three diamonds scrawled onto it. Another also did not have an occupant, one with three pink butterflies on the seat. The room had a depressing undertone to it, with each of the ponies having an equally depressing mood about them.

Pinkie Pie's mane had lost its puffiness and her head lie onto the table motionless, aside from the few hiccups from her constant crying arising.

Rainbow Dash had her hood on the table, looking downward, her body shivering in silent anger. Her teeth were clenched and jaws locked, as she thought that she could have done something to stop this.

Fluttershy did not even bother to show up to the meeting. She had not been seen come out of her house since she had gotten the news from her local police deputy.

Applejack was in much the same condition as Rainbow Dash, angered at thinking that she could have done something. Unlike Rainbow Dash, however, she knew she couldn't have done anything even if she was in the area. How could she, or any of the other ponies stop a God?

"We need to see Interpol." Princess Twilight Sparkle herself announced from the middle seat. "I have received information from Princess Celestia that Interpol has been looking into the Kira case and may have information."

"Oh what'll that even do? She's gone." Pinkie said solemnly, so different from her normal personality that it gave Twilight chills.

"We have to try SOMETHING." Applejack said, finally looking forward.

"What's the point?" Pinkie questioned, her raising her head to reveal black under her eyes and the area around them becoming very wrinkled.

"Whomever or WHATever killed her may have information on getting her back. I refuse to believe that ponies just drop dead for no rhyme or reason." Twilight said, attempting to snap Pinkie out of her depressive trance.

Pinkie didn't even bother to respond, instead simply leaning back in her seat.

"And that, is why I took the liberty of inviting a member of the Interpol to our meetings."

A figure, as if on cue, then began to make her voice heard from a corner of the room. She walked from the shadows of the corner, her goggles gleaming from the lighting. Her vibrant yellow coat sticking out against the cool colors of the castle. She stepped fully out, the bite sized robot following closely behind her.

"Nightmare Moonlit." She declares.

"As in Rarity's stallionfriend Nightmare? Dark Side? Major Moonlit?" Pinkie asked, peeking her head up.

"Yes. And my reasoning is as follows. As we probably all know, Rarity herself died trying to be the Good Samaritan she is. She went to report Nightmare for the crimes he has committed. It would only make sense that Dark Side himself would want her taken care of because of that."

"But how would he had even known where she'd been There's no possible way? Is there?" Applejack asked.

"I suspect either somepony was shadowing her that day or..."

There was a long pause.

"...a Shinigami. Or a God of Death, whichever you prefer."

"What?!"

"Don't talk stupid!" Rainbow Dash finally screeched. "Twilight! You want us to put our trust into this crazy pony?!"

"You can call me whatever you like." She said, shrugging her shoulders and taking a plopping a strawberry lollipop in her mouth. She glanced over at Twilight, who was staring back at her with a cold hard expression on her face.

"I can judge that by the fact that I had a bug placed on Nightmare's coat pocket, nano sized actually. Feel free to take a listen if you want."

Spark pulled out a transceiver, which then began to play various phrases.

"Ryuuk. What is it?"

"....notebook...."

"She's in my way!"

Spark cut the transceiver off. "From what I can infer, he's not talking to any normal pony. There's no known pony named Ryuuk, and I checked the hoof print database just in case, which needless to say yielded no results. So...I can only assume he's talking to a creature not of this world. A creature not unlike Discord."

"D-discord?" Pinkie asked in a shaken voice.

"Yes. Ryuuk must be something that only certain ponies can see, or only ponies he chooses to reveal him or herself too may see it. That's the most plausible information that I gathered, from this and the accounts given be Colonel Dynamo Pad and Lieutenant Colonel Aryan Blues, who are both officers in Interpol, mind you."

"Is there anything those two did to "see" that there God of Death?" Applejack asked, now becoming more interested in the current conversation.

"Apparently, leading to my next point, they both touched a notebook. Something by the title of a 'Death Note', which Nightmare himself mentioned multiple times during the days he was tapped. This can only mean that notebook is how he kills, and he's hidden it."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop another thirty degrees, the cold caressing the faces of the members of the room. The shocking revelation did nothing to soothe the minds of the heartbroken ponies, and instead instilled fear into their already damaged psyche. A God of Death? A notebook that kills people? Could it be real?

The next day the sun had risen very slowly as if Celestia was getting slower and slower at her job. When the sun fully rose into the sky Celestia flew back down to Canterlot, landing in her castle. She tucked her wings in as a group of three ponies, unicorns and a pegasus, appeared before her. One had an Equestrian Royal Guard dress uniform on, one had a EPD Police Dress Uniform on, and one with a simple tuxedo and tie on.

She recognized one out of the bunch greatly, Attorney General Lawrence Sawyer. He, Celestia, and the rest of the princesses had dinner a few times throughout the past year, when crime was at its most active. Their conversations were over new laws to enact, but ever since the criminals started dropping like flies there was nothing to seriously talk about between them. As a result, she hasn't seen or talked to the Attorney General since.

The unicorn standing to the right of the Attorney General had an Equestrian Royal Guard uniform on, akin to the one worn by Shining Armor. His ranks glistened in the little sunlight that illuminated the room. He had a messy mane, some of it clumped together in a loose ponytail in the back.

The Pegasus standing next to him was in a fully black uniform with a tie and a pair of shades. He had four ribbons perfectly placed above his right breast pocket and his ranks also shined. He had a constant intimidating expression on his face, looking Celestia in the eye at all times. His yellow mane was tied into a neater ponytail than Nightmare's, and was double-knotted, and tossed over his right shoulder. His eyes Emanated a dark red color, him seeing Celestia's full name and the number of days left for her.

Gavin scooted closer to Nightmare and mumbled something inaudible to Celestia, aside from a few words.

"74 days."

"My name is Major Nightmare Moonlit."

"Good morning Major." Celestia said, giving a salute to which Nightmare returned.

"With the recent death of the Commandant of he Equestrian Royal Guard and his Sergeant Major...and the rest of the major officers...the Attorney General has signed all the warrants, and, I, Nightmare Moonlit, will take the spot of the Commandant in this dire time, and I will be taking Colonel Sycamore Gavin as my Sergeant Major."

"Why would you want to REDUCE Sycamore Gavin?" Celestia asked quizzically. "Isn't that counterproductive?"

"Reason being I need someone in charge of the enlisted sector of the ERG." He answered, looking over at Sycamore, who agreed with his eyes closed.

The Attorney General stood watching. He knew that since there was no one else possibly able to do the job that this was her best option at this point. What else was she going to do? Shining Armor had his own kingdom to run, and even there, Crystal Ponies were not faring any better than the normal ponies on his end of things, them still getting killed by the notebooks. Oh, what will she do?

Celestia was in awe of how quickly this had all happened. The general officers of her Royal Guard began dying some weeks ago, and she was in desperate need of replacements. However, nopony would fill the position for fear of death. The fact that these two came from nowhere to take this positions was appalling, and nonetheless suspicious at that.

The Attorney General stepped forward with six signed sheets of paper and a pair of ranks. He lie them in front of the steps.

"I have approved of everything. The only thing left is for you to pin the ranks on and allow him to assume his position as head of the Equestrian Royal Guard."

"To fight against Kira you need someone who is willing to step forward. And so far it looks like..." He looked around as if looking for anyone who would step up. "...I'm the only one."

Celestia flew down her steps and landed in front of Nightmare. Clouds had begun looking outside as a light rain began to tap agains the stain glass windows, making the glass art look dark and depressing.

Nightmare looked up at Celestia with a confident look on his face.

Celestia took the papers and ranks from the Attorney General. "Understand this is only temporary Nightmare." She glared down at him, considerably disgusted at how he took such a tragedy into his advantage. His mare-friend died yesterday and all he wants is to be the Commandant of the Royal Guard?"

"Of course." He snickered getting himself into the position of attention, Sycamore Gavin coming beside him.

"Just know this Nightmare. I do not like you."

"Back at you."

Nightmare assumed the positron of attention, finally getting himself fully stiff. Sycamore did the same thing, looking straightforward.

"To all you who shall see this presents greeting." She began with an unsure look on her face. This had all come so suddenly it was almost too coincidental for its own good. If only she didn't need a commander to look into this so badly. "Know ye that reposing special trust and confidence in the fidelity, loyalty, judgement, and leadership abilities of Major Nightmare Moonlit and Colonel Sycamore Gavin, I do appoint Nightmare Moonlit a Lieutenant General and I reduce Colonel Sycamore Gavin to Sergeant Major of the Equestrian Royal Guard..."

Her speech echoed in the halls of the royal palace, clouds getting darker outside as thunder began to rumble and lightning a crashed outside.

Nightmare's ranks, unlike normal did not glisten. The silver of his ranks shined even when not hit with direct sunlight. He took a bow, and with his new Sergeant Major, left the room, with the largest smile on his face that he's ever made.

"God" and his two "hands" all walked through the dark halls of the palace. It's time to show this world what happens when you screw with Lieutenant General Nightmare Moonlit.

Author's Note:

And with that, Nightmare gains even more power over things, even to the point of commanding the Royal Guard. What will the Mane 5 do to counter this?

Comments

[Not Here Anymore]

Plot Twist
All of the mane, 4 I guess die from specific causes as does L.

[PsychicBeagle]

I don't really see how Rainbow could instantly dismiss the idea of the Death Note and Shinigami, and you brought up why. Discord! For crying out loud, he controlled your whole click with a snap of the fingers and made chocolate milk explode dark. Your average pony, okay. I can see that, since they're less intimate with higher beings. But this lot, who rub shoulders with reality shifters, Alicorns who control the cosmos and the nature of love, and combat things like Tirek on a biannual basis? Nope, not buying that bridge. Or maybe grief is blinding their snap decisions, but that's a big maybe. At least they have L and a solid hit on Dark.
And the mad triumvirate has formed, time for Rome to burn. It would have been nice to see the three meet for the first time, get a feel for their opinions on one another, but I'll let it slide since Death Note itself slipped on that with the crazy deleting judge towards the end. I should also say how I like Celestia here. Even in the face of crisis, and having a good reason to trust at least one of them, she's still seeing something dark in... well, Dark. Could have found a better turn of phrase there... Let's see if she can do something about it in her two and a half months remaining.
Oh, and, small tone tip? That bit of info would have made a good stinger. The quiet mumbling of her clock count is a sore thumb in the middle of the scene, and blatantly stupid to do right in front of her face on their part. I'd have saved it for an end of chapter stinger, something to smack the audience with when things already look bad enough. Something like...
Nightmare's ranks, unlike normal, did not glisten. The silver of his medals shined even when not hit with direct sunlight. He took a bow, and, with his new Sergeant Major, left the room, the largest smile he'd ever made creeping across his snout. It was time to show the world why no one screwed with a Nightmare. Sycamore leaned in close, a discomforting twinkle in his eye.
"Seventy-four days, my liege."
...You know, leave them with a chill. Getting a story out is one thing. Making it leave a mark when it hits is another. I look forward to the next update.