Nightmare's Redemption

by ninjanaut1000

CH.5 Fear from the eyes of madness Part I

Author's Note:

Been a while but here's the next chapter. I wanted this chapter to be longer but couldn't figure a good way to continue it. So i figured i would split this in two parts. Hope you like it so far. Threw a few references in there, some more obvious than others, let me know if you find them. if you have any questions, comments, concerns, or constructive criticism, let me know. I'd Love to hear from you.

Cheers!
-Ninjanaut1000

<UNKNOWN LOCATION, NEAR CANTERLOT, Nightshade POV>

A loud clunk echoed in the small cell. The stench of sweat and feces greeted her nose as she came to. Pain wracked her body as she shifted in place. All those small cuts, bruises, and repeatedly broken and healed bones were taking a toll. The uncomfortable heat and oppressive humidity sapped the strength from her. The sites where they had been injecting her with various chemical concoctions were starting to change color and the fur to fall out. The door was wrenched open with a squeal startling her.

"Number 7, here's your slop. Eat and get ready for your next round of fun~" the changeling said with a dangerous-yet-playful lilt to its voice and a smirk on its chitinous muzzle.

"w-w-why a-are you doing this t-to me?" she rasped out.

"Because your boss pissed of my boss. So now we are going to break you, change you, and turn you into a perfect little claw for our claw-machine. That way our boss can finally get the prize he deserves in the middle of that shit-hole you call a capital. Then we can finish what we started before you ponies came and ruined everything. Now EAT!" He kicked the bowl, nailing her in the face. Her head reeled back from the impact causing her to slump to the floor and agitate all her wounds.

Nightshade snorted out the mush that got in Her nose as she watched him leave. He closed the door but not hard enough to latch closed. Her ears perked at that. Did he not notice he didn't close the door all the way, did he do it intentionally? She limped over to the door and listened for any sound. Nothing. The door silently swung open with a nudge, Just enough to poke Her head through. She was met with a dull grey concrete hallway that stretched on in both directions. Nudging the door fully open she stepped out. Choosing to go right she limped as quietly as she could to the corner. A quick peek around it revealed another hallway but this time with polished floors, white walls, and local map. She listened for any chatter before rounding the corner into the hall. This was just what she needed, quickly memorizing it she set off to one of the marked exits. She rounded the last corner before coming face-to-face with a security gate and accompanying checkpoint.

"Shit. I'm gonna need a plan. That map said there was a security room next to their R&D lab down one floor. Alright, Step one: Secure the keys, They probably have my gear there too, if not then in the R&D lab. Ah, there's the stairs."

Gliding her way down and softly landing at the bottom of the stairwell She pressed her ear to the door. There was a set of hoof-steps fading into the distance but nothing else could be heard. Stepping out into the hallway she gave a quick glance around and spotted a hall-marker pointing to that security room. She crouched low to the floor as She made her way to the security room door and pressed her ear to the door. Nothing again. Popping her head in and confirming it to be empty, She scoured the room for her gear and the keys to that gate.

"There they are, come to mama." She smiled with glee as she pulled her suit on, luckily that was the only thing she had on her when she was captured. Grabbing the keys and stuffing them into a snug pouch on her chest she quickly made her way back to the stair well only to stop.

"Its a big risk, but if I sneak into their lab and grabbed what ever documents I can find I could expose their plans to the Princess." she paused for a second before deciding, "Eh, why not. I'm already here." A short jaunt down a hall or two She found herself in the R&D lab.

"Now where would they put their documents" she muttered to herself as she looked through cabinets and desks, "Test subjects, Compound trials, Genetic mods, Yes please."

She found a set of saddle bags and started stuffing them full of files pausing when she came across Johns file. she set it aside as she stuffed the rest of the files in. she pulled up a chair and opened his file.

"Sweet Celestia! Torture, Bad reactions to chem batches, some nearly killing him. GENETIC TESTING?! 7/1/2190 Testing on subject no.6 begins today, I'm quite excited. He's a completely alien entity, calls his species Hyoo-man and so far from the tests we ran he shows promising results. We will start Phases 1&2 these following weeks... 8/2/2190 Subject shows improved signs after phase 2 testing. The DNA splices aren't being rejected anymore... 8/6/2190 Subject is well into phase 3, It's progressing faster than we imagined now that his body isn't fighting back anymore. We are about 60% of the way done with phase 3, can't wait for tomorrows round of injections and tests....Fucking hell John, what did they do to you? Shit!"

She heard steps approaching the lab. Stuffing his file into the bag she hid under the desk right as someone entered the lab. They paused and took a few sniffs of the air.

"I swear on the hive mother i'm going to kill Soft Shell. Tired of his damn pranks!" the changeling angrily muttered as they left the lab, Nightshade not to far behind. Making it back into the stairwell she fiddled around with her suit before finding her emergency beacon and her suit ID tracker and stuffed them into her front pockets before continuing to the locked gate. Moments later after unlocking and passing through the gate she found a maintenance stairwell.

"Step two: ascend from darkness." she muttered as she entered the maintenance stairwell. Making it to the top floor she exited the stairwell and turned the corner only to spot multiple changelings and another security desk. She darted back around the corner.

"Time for another plan, there's no way i'm going to easily get through that. Was nice of them to leave an arms locker unlocked in their security office." Popping open a pouch she produced the only distraction she could find, A smoke canister. she stopped when the Facilities P.A. system clicked on.

"You know I have eyes all over and throughout my facility don't you Nightshade, Or should I say Number 7." Nightshade peeked around the corner and saw that every Changeling in the lobby was staring at her.

"I knew of your little break out. Was pretty easy wasn't it. I had a little staff meeting and told one of your handlers, Shackles, to leave the door open a tiny bit. The rest of us got to watch your little adventure throughout. What do you think of this facility? It's SO MUCH better than that other place we experimented on number 6 in. But you wont be able to be saved like our mutual friend was. So do us all a favor and lay down on the floor so we can escort you back to your cell like a good little pony."

"How about no." There was an audible click as the pin was ripped out. Darting back around the corner she threw it into the group of changelings, within seconds the lobby was full of smoke. Rushing into the room she ducked and weaved between the changelings, she pumped her wings a few more times to gain enough speed to get out the entrance tunnel and to the outside. Darting back around she pulled out her suits ID beacon and dropped it by the entrance. She then pulled out her emergency beacon gave it a sharp twist to activate it and dropped it into the saddlebag. She flew a couple yards and managed to conceal it in a bush just as changeling swarmed out the entrance.

"There she is! Get after her!" Nightshade turned to run but failed to notice the one changeling with a red head-fin and dart gun.

Fwwiip!

A sharp pain hit her rump as the dart stuck in her. Biting and pulling the dart out she kept moving.

"No, I-I can get away, jush uh Miner Shetba-" she kept tripping over her own hooves and stumbling into nearby trees. Everything kept moving and swaying, eventually it became too much and she slumped to the ground as the tranquilizer ran its course through her system.

"I told you you couldn't get away you stupid mare" pharynx said as he tousled her hair a bit. That was the last thing she heard before she blacked out.

John POV

John found himself restless. He tried many times, but sleep managed to slip away every time. So he often found him self staring at Nightmare moon and thinking about what Celestia had said earlier about her possibly being able to sort out my head. I flick open my 3D projection map, looking at Nightshades blip. I zoom in on it and tap the blip opening a menu, I set it to bleep if its current position changes. Satisfied I get up and start doing laps around the camp in hopes to wear myself out enough to sleep. Which it does, I go back into my tent lay down next to Nightmare and hear her mutter 'I'm sorry' as I fall asleep.

Everything was quiet. the sound of Shining, John, Celestia, and Nightmares soft breathing were the only things to be heard.

BLEEP.

John shifted in his sleep before coming to rest again.

BLEEP.

I sit up and rub my eyes.

BLEEP, BLEEP.

The hell is that sound? I flick open the 3D map and look at the time. 5 AM.

"Why the hell am I up so early."

BLEEP, BLEEP.

I stare at Nighshades blip which was now pulsing in intensity. I quickly triple tap it to start recording and mapping the paths she's taking. I recognize some of the shapes the lines transcribing as stairwells. I see her blip spiral upwards a bit before stopping again. Next thing I see is her blip rapidly accelerate the come to a dead stop. Shortly after her emergency beacon starts broadcasting coordinates adding a pulsing red dot quite a bit from her own. Then nothing. Neither blip is moving, its concerning, especially when its hers that's stopped. But the nice thing, is what ever happened just saved our ass a lot of time with having to deal with an unresponsive Changeling.

"What is that?" I hear Nightmare mumble in fascination. I jump a bit while whipping my head in her direction. Seeing the wide-eyed wonder in her eyes I calm down a bit.

"Sorry, you startled me. To answer your question, It is a Three Dimensional Topographical Map with a built in compass. It also allows me to see the locations of all my current team members." I point to all the different bits as I explained them to her.

"There was something I wanted to talk to you about john. I can see a troubled look in your eyes, One of deep sadness and pain."

"Yeah, That also fits perfectly with something I wanted to ask you too. Celestia told me that you, or I should say Luna could help with Nightmares and such?"

"That is correct, but one thing I should mention is that we both can do dream magic. That is because both of us are the one in the same. There was no evil entity corrupting Luna. I created this ponysona out of my own anger and hatred of my sister. That's why my coat was flickering between shades. The elements had no idea what or who was the real one because the was not separate entity...Only me." A sniffle behind us caught us both of guard. Looking over we saw Celestia with tears running down her face.

"I'm so sorry lulu. I'm so sorry."

"I'm sorry too, Celly, But Luna is no more. I've had to live like this, as Nightmare moon, for so long that it just feels right. like this is actually who I am. maybe one day I will make a return as Princess Luna, but today is not that day."

"While all this chatter is nice, it would be better if we ALL could get some sleep." Shining grumpily mutters.

"Ignore his grumpiness, he's a real drama queen when he doesn't get his beauty sleep. But I agree with him though, we should all try to get at least a few more hours of sleep."

I got nods in response to that. The others where able to fall back asleep, all but John. All this new information regarding Nightshade kept him awake. Why is she still sitting there? Why did she activate her emergency beacon Instead of just heading to Canterlot? Damn it, Mind as well get up and go search then. It looks to be about a six hour walk from here to her last known location, even shorter from there to Canterlot. I'll go fill in my group and head out for information on her whereabouts. By now its around 7 am and the others are now waking up. I grab my utility belt and strap it on.

"John? where are you headed?" shining asked

"Nightshades blip moved and her emergency beacon was activated. So i'm going to go investigate." I flick open the map to show him.

"I'll go with you, teleportation would be quicker. Plus if we get ambushed I can get us out of there just as fast."

"Alright then lets go." With a flash and pop we found ourselves in the general area of her blips. "Let's check out her ID blip first, when I set it to record her path she was heading upwards before it made an abrupt stop."

"So it would be safe to assume she was either being chased or was using it to mark the location of her captors."

"Exactly, but it doesn't make sense as to why she would activate her Eee-Bee. why wouldn't she use that to mark the entrance instead. We're coming up on her first location, keep your eye's peeled."

A sort search revealed a cave. A shallow cave. That can't possibly be right.

"It says that there is should be a way to go down. But its just a stone wall, maybe were missing something here. Can you check for enchantments or anything magical in nature?" John said staring at the wall before him even harder.

"Sure thing." Shining's horn lit and flickered a multitude of times as he fired off spell after spell. "Nothing...Absolutely nothing. no enchantments, no spells. Not even magical residue from spell-casting besides myself. You sure that maps accurate?"

"Absolutely, it was made by Celestia herself with the assistance of Twilight to make sure all the different bits played nicely with each other....Hold on." John looked down. Hoof prints, a LOT of hoof prints. "Look, hoof prints. looks like they are coming and going."

"Good catch." shining and John exited the cave following the prints.

"They are heading towards the Eee-Bee. Let's go." A short jog later they made it to where the Eee-Bee was broadcasting from.

"You see anything? There's got to be something here that was important enough to drop that broadcaster."

"Hey, There's something over here, stuffed under this bush, looks like a Saddlebag."

"Bring it over here, let's take a look." Opening the bags greeted them to the sight of files and documents.

"Huh, Files. Looks like we have a bunch of information to go through later. There's her Eee-Bee, Also the tracks keep going further that way."

"Hey, uh, John. There's-There's a file on you." Shining shifted uncomfortably.

"As interesting as it is. We still need to figure out what happened to Nightshade."

"Right. lead the way." Tossing the bag on his shoulder they followed the tracks.

"The imprints are all over the place. Some are even dragging. Looks like she got hit with something."

"There's something stuck to the tree over there. Same with that one. All at the same height. Looks like fur." They both were examining the tufts of lost fur on the trees when a flash of color caught their attention.

"Well, we know what happened when she dropped the beacon." Lifting up the dart, Shining gave it a quick look.

"You happen to have a evidence bag stuffed in your armor?"

"Yeah, here." The dart and fur clumps were sealed in the bags and placed in the saddlebag.

"Let's get back to camp, whomever was chasing her out here more than likely has her. So were going to have to plan a full scale raid, Get these files dealt with, and get this dart analyzed. To top it all off we are short of time if we want to get Nightshade before who ever gets wise enough to move house."

"Alright lets go." Shining gave one last look the the tree the dart had been by before teleporting them back. A strange message for sure, probably somepony just being creepy.

I'll get you back home soon number 6.

Comments

[Knight of Crows]

Neat.