Captain Goodking and the Nightmare Knights

by Leondude

Chapter 16 - The final battle

The pillars were helping with the war effort in taking down the alien invaders. However, they all suddenly suffered a surprise attack from a lot of dark tentacle things. As the pillars got up from that attack, they were horrified by what they were seeing: The Pony of Shadows has returned!

"It can't be" Star-Swirl said in a shocked tone.

"Oh, but it is!" a hooded pony behind the Pony of Shadows said. The pony then unhooded itself to reveal his three unicorn horns and dark red coat, with no mane in sight. The pony also had black markings on his face and yellow eyes that made him look more devilish than he already is.

"Now, before I explain how I made Stygian embrace the shadows again, I'm going to quickly introduce myself. My name is Sacanas. I used to be a pupil of Princess Celestia, thought I might try to conquer Equestria one part for power the other part for revenge against those who have bullied me, got killed by my apprentice but came back with a little help from a Time Turner."

The pillars then noticed that Sacanas' horns were glowing, along with a light pinkish aura surrounding the Pony of Shadows' eyes.

"You know, it's amazing what you could do with some time spells, some illusion magic and the right words in the right ears. Now that I have explained everything even though there's really no reason to other than to rub in how bucked you are, let's dance!"

Meanwhile, in pitch black darkness, stood Captain Goodking, Trixie, Tempest, Capper and Luna all prepared to face Sanies. Sanies chuckled at them all getting ready in a fighting position.

"Five against one? For a society that preaches about how sharing is caring, I wouldn't consider this predicament fair at all."

Sanies' eyes then glowed a brighter green as Trixie and Luna crumpled to the floor in pain before getting up with a zombie-like gait.

"Much better" Sanies said with false courtesy "Now, where were we?"

While it would appear that the Nightmare Knights are done for, Capper had an idea.

"Hey, isn't this some sort of dream?"

"If it is, then it's our worst nightmare!" Goodking exclaimed.

"True, but what if we could turn it into our greatest dreams? This may sound crazy but it's time to dream big!"

Sanies chuckled at that sentiment. However, his pessimistic lack of faith was about to proven wrong when Tempest magically and spontaneously grew her horn back, Goodking had some sort of glowing magical energy spiking around him as he engaged in a battle cry and Capper summoned a great big sphinx. Sanies could only stare before giving a smile.

"Well, this should be interesting."

Meanwhile, on the battlefield where everyone was defending against the aliens, the pillars were running away from the Pony of Shadows, who appeared to be under Sacanas' control. They galloped quickly to the Mane 6 (sans Fluttershy) in order to inform them that they need the elements again. Star-Swirl then immediately collapsed from exhaustion, something that Twilight and Celestia quickly noticed as they hurried the aid the old unicorn. And as they approached Star-Swirl, they noticed the Pony of Shadows and Sacanas catching up to them.

"Stygian....darkness" Star-Swirl said exhaustedly "Must..get...elements".

As Star-Swirl fainted, Celestia quickly flew away carrying Star-Swirl while Twilight quickly gathered her friends so they could get the Elements of Harmony. And only when everyone present showed up did they notice somepony was missing.

"Where's Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.

Goodking and Sanies battled with amazing speed, with Goodking charging up golden energy blasts and firing them at Sanies, with Sanies blocking them with his fire breath. Sanies then charged at Goodking with his claw but Goodking dodged swiftly and punched Sanies right in the face. They then proceeded to engage in extremely fast fisticuffs before punching each other in the face really hard twice before giving each-other a headbutt that sent each-other flying. The headbutt was so strong that it temporarily loosened Sanies' control of Trixie and Luna. Good thing too because Tempest and Trixie were duelling with a long magic blast from both unicorns that almost looked like a magic tug-of-war. Tempest managed to win thanks to Trixie faltering and then being sent flying. Capper's sphinx has been defending itself and Capper from Luna's magical attacks. Goodking then heard Discord's voice calling out for Fluttershy. This distracted him enough for Sanies to grab him by the head and slam him into an invisible wall before slamming it into the floor multiple times. Before he got hit a third time, he blasted Sanies right in the face with a magical attack from one of his hands. This disoriented Sanies long enough for Goodking to grab him and repeatedly headbutt him at a rapid pace until the last headbutt sent him flying into another invisible wall. He then charged a Sanies with a glowing fist that actually knocked some of Sanies' teeth out. In fact, the punch was so great, it knocked everyone back into reality. It was powerful enough to release Trixie from Sanies' control. However, Luna was still fighting for control of her own mind. As the Nightmare Knights looked around, they noticed Fluttershy gasping for breath. And then they noticed Discord looking for Fluttershy. They all did the noble thing and shouted "She's over here!". Discord noticed them holding up Fluttershy and quickly jumped over the hedges to jump onto Fluttershy and once again give her a great big hug. They then charged through the labyrinth, going through the hedges and brambles and whatnot for they did not have the time to properly navigate their way out. They took a break to catch their breath and noticed in the distance the Mane 6 (except Fluttershy) and the pillars fighting against the Pony of Shadows. Sanies quickly took control of Luna and laughed at the knights (and Discord).

"My master and I have already won. There is no possible way you could get to them quick enough to save them."

Discord then snapped his fingers and teleported the rest of the Mane 6 at his position, even though it left the pillars being the only ones fending off the Pony of Shadows. He snapped his fingers again to teleport the elements from the Tree of Harmony to their position. Sanies could only give Discord an annoyed glare.

"I know this is rich coming from me" Sanies said in a dry tone "But has anyone ever told you that you are ridiculously overpowered?"

"Well I wouldn't call myself overpowered, otherwise I would be saving the day twenty-four seven. anyways, knights, stand back! Girls, do your thing!"

The Mane 6 then used the elements to charge up a magical attack directed at the Sanies-possessed Luna. While Sanies tried fighting back, the magic eventually overwhelmed Luna's form and seemed to have purged his presence from it. While Sanies knew there was no point in fighting back the elements, it did not stop the fact that it felt like the sulfur lakes of Tartarus. In the distance, Sacanas quickly noticed the display and teleported himself and the Pony of Shadows to the elements. That proved to be a big mistake on his part because the elements still have enough juice to be used again and free Stygian from the Pony of Shadows again. It took a while for the pillars to catch up but they made just in time to help out the Mane 6. Along with the Pony of Shadows, Sacanas was struggling with the elements as well. And when he looked at one of his hooves, he noticed that he was suddenly fading away. It appears the elements are reversing whatever time spell Kronos used to preserve Sacanas' life. Sacanas then spent his last moments staring at the Mane 6 working together. He felt something eating away inside of him. Is it regret? He then looked at Luna and Discord. Is it possible that if he were born in this era they would have accepted him? He realized that if someone like Discord could live peacefully with the ponies, maybe he could have become friends with them. But instead, he just had to take up the opportunity to subjugate Equestria with Kronos and his alien forces so he can watch a world he always hated burn. He lamented the fact that his thirst for revenge has blinded him to the true power of friendship, shedding a single tear as he did so. But before he was sent back to the time of his death, he alternated between silently crying and giggling to himself as he thought of a joke somepony once told him.

See, there were these two ponies, an Earth pony and a pegasus, in a lunatic asylum... and one night, one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum any more. They decide they're going to escape! So, like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moonlight... stretching away to freedom. Now, the pegasus, he flew across with no problem. But his friend, his friend didn't dare make the leap. Y'see... Y'see, he's afraid of falling. So then, the pegasus has an idea... He says 'Hey! I have this lamp with me! I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk along the beam and join me!' B-but the Earth pony just shakes his head. He suh-says... He says “Wh-what do you think I am? Crazy? You'd turn it off when I was halfway across!”

Author's Note:

I was listening to this while writing this chapter, figured it be fitting to listen to while reading this chapter:

But don't think this is the end. I still got two more chapters to go, one of which being quite the doozy. I'm not going to go into any details but the last chapter involves two OCs that originate from this saga, one of which has already made an appearance in The tragedy of Sacanas.