The cursed resident.

by Sylif Daring Doo

.eramthgin eht fo noissefnoC

______*Rarity's House, 2:01 PM......(Where else?)*______

Today it was only Alecia and Nightmare Moon in the house, Rarity was still at the boutique and Sweetie Belle was somewhere else entirely, so while the thunderstorm raged on outside the ghosts played cards to pass the time.

"Full house." Alecia stated, revealing three fours and two fives.

Nightmare smirked. "Straight." She stated, revealing four, five, six, seven and eight.

After the hand, Nightmare shuffled the cards and drew up a new hand, as did Alecia. "Do you mind if I ask why Luna and Celestia seemed surprised to see me?" Alecia asked, discarding a seven.

Nightmare sighed as she discarded a two and a four for two new cards, she then replied. "A thousand years ago the nation of Equestria traded with the human kingdoms, or at least one of them, we were interested in their culture, arts and technology, and they were interested in our medicinal knowledge and supplies, as well as our abundant crop yields." She explained.

Alecia nodded. "I know, plagues and famine were a big problem, it sucked, but that isn't what I meant." She replied, looking up at Nightmare after discarding an eight and drawing a new card.

Nightmare threw away a three and grabbed a new card and spoke. "Neither of them have seen a human for over a thousand years probably, it was probably just a surprise." She dismissed. "Flush." She stated, revealing a two of hearts, five of hearts, King and Queen of hearts, and ace of hearts.

Aleica smirked. "Straight flush." She stated, revealing her three to seven of clubs. "Not the way they stared at me, they seemed they recognized me, and the way that you dragged them away?" She looked at Nightmare Moon. "You reacted similarly when you calmed down, you know something, so spit it out." She stated flatly and shuffled the cards. "Also, not human, how many times do I have to repeat myself.

Nightmare Moon said nothing as Alecia started to slowly draw her hand, she stared at the deck intently and then started to draw her hand, saying nothing.

Alecia maintained her stare for a while and took note of the Alicorns strange behavior. 'Whatever it is, she must think it will bother me to know, or she can't bring herself to talk about it.' She noted.

Before Alecia could speak, Nightmare set her hand down and sighed. "The truth is, I did rule for a while.....three years to be precise, and in that time I had an apprentice, a human." She stated calmly.

Alecia set her hand down and listened to Nightmare's story. "You look almost exactly like her, so that's why Luna and Celestia seemed so surprised to see you." She explained.

The Alicorn ghost then went into more detail about the past.

_______*One thousand years ago.*_______

The city of Evergreen, capital of Equestria and home to the royal sisters, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, it was midday and the gray clouds hung high above the city, Day court was now in session, the nobles and commoners both stood in the court listening and giving petitions of their own while running the nation.

The people of this city lived their everyday lives as usual, working and going from one place to another, traders visiting the city sold their wares and purchased others in the interest of selling them elsewhere, wine, silks, gems and gold traded hooves quite often, the city itself was prospering lately, thanks to a large mine discovered where great seems of gold and iron were found.

Evergreen was also very safe, it's local guards kept the peace while the Equestrian military handled the threats of the nation, and the Royal Mage company were always training to combat any threats that the military could not face alone.

In this city however, moved a single being, who wandered the streets slowly and in a daze, this being was known as a human, a female one to be more precise, and as she moved through the city, she recieved many stares from the citizens, her movements were slow and shaky, and her breathing was sporadic, sometimes steady, sometimes short or pained.

This being wandered aimlessly for a long time, her legs burned in pain and she felt lightheaded, eventually the woman stopped walking and collapsed in the street, the only noise she heard was a call for help and then darkness.

_____*the present.*_____

"I am going to guess she told you all of this?" Alecia asked.

Nightmare Moon nodded. "That and I looked through her mind once with her permission." She replied.

______*later.*_______

The woman grunted and groaned as she slowly opened her eyes, her limbs still burned from pained but it had calmed down considerably, she breathed normally and was very tired, but she kept herself awake.

Looking around, the woman noticed that she was in a white bed in a light brown room with a single window, a table and nothing else, she saw no people nearby and rested her head. "Am I alive?" She whispered to herself.

A few minutes passed with nothing happening, and the woman started to fall asleep to wave off her tiredness, but she soon heard a door open followed by strange footsteps, she looked in the direction and saw a creature she didn't recognize.

It was a quadruped that seemed similar to a horse, but it was smaller and had a horn sticking out of its head, it had light yellow fur with a white and blue mane, large green eyes and was wearing a helmet made out of copper. "Good to see you awake, I was afraid your injuries were severe." It spoke in a light female voice that seemed compassionate.

The woman was immediately concerned and had a look of panic on her face. "What are you?" She immediately asked without thinking.

The creature didn't seem bothered by the question, if only confused. "I am a Unicorn, of the Equestrian species." She replied. "My name is Rally, a city guard." She replied.

The woman seemed to breathe a little easier while keeping her panicked expression. "Are you in trouble?" Rally asked.

The woman looked at the unicorn with a curious expression. "Not that I remember, why?" She asked.

The unicorn replied. "You were beat up pretty bad and had many injuries, among them were very long scars on your arms and back from unidentifiable sources, and your head was bleeding at the back." She explained.

The woman slowly reached and felt the back of her head, she felt a very tender and sore spot just above the tip of the spine. "How bad was it?" She asked quietly, her voice was raspy due to her dry throat.

"It wasn't fatal, but it was bad, you may have a concussion from the injury though." She replied. "If you don't mind me asking, what is your name?" She asked.

The woman went to say it but stopped herself because of one factor.......she didn't know. "I.......don't remember." She found herself saying out of surprise.

Rally sighed. "That's unfortunate, but may I ask if you remember anything at all?" She asked.

The woman just shook her head sadly. "I can't recall anything before I was walking through..........where am i?" She asked, realizing a big question she had forgotten about.

"Evergreen, Capital of Equestria." Rally replied simply.

The woman looked at the window, staring blankly for a time before the door opened again, she looked and saw a blue furred unicorn with blue eyes walk in. "Come now miss Rally, you must leave." The unicorn said, clearly female.

Rally nodded. "Of course Doctor." She then walked out of the room and left the woman alone with the new unicorn.

The woman stared at the blue furred unicorn. "Who are you?" She asked curiously.

The unicorn's horn suddenly lit up and the curtains closed by the window, and she shimmered, her body shifted and grew larger, as well as growing wings.

The woman stared in shock as the unicorn was replaced by a larger one with wings. "We apologize for our deception, but twas necessary in order to question thee." The unicorn stated. "We are Princess Luna, Alicorn of the Moon." She introduced.

The woman blinked. "I'm uh........I don't know." She replied honestly and with confusion, she then realized something. "Wait, why would you want to question me personally?" She asked, now concerned.

Princess Luna replied. "The reason is simple, thou turned up wounded and almost dead and we wish to know why." She spoke calmly yet firmly.

The woman blinked. "Well uh, I don't think I can answer that, I literally don't remember anything except wandering the city aimlessly." She replied.

Princess Luna approached slowly and looked the woman over. "Does anything feel familiar at all? even if it is something small?" She questioned.

The woman looked at her hands and then around the room, but her eyes landed on the night sky, or more importantly what was in the night sky. "The stars." She said, gaining a strange sense of familiarity. "I feel like I........have seen these exact ones once before." She mentioned.

Luna looked out the window and saw the stars in the sky. "It is not uncommon to find stars you have seen before." She replied before looking at the woman. "May we ask about the markings on thine neck?" She asked.

The woman blinked in confusion and stared at Luna. "I have markings on my neck?" She asked out of curiosity.

Luna nodded. "Indeed, they are most curious, we have never seen the like, perhaps this may reveal a clue to your memories." She said.

The woman shook her head. "I doubt it, besides I may have a concussion......whatever that is." She replied quietly.

Luna was about to reply when she seemed to space out for a moment, she then looked at the woman. "We must leave you now, but know that no harm shall come to you here." She stated before teleporting away.

The woman blinked at the surprising act, but didn't say anything, instead she simply looked out the window, deciding it would be better to recover rather than run off.

Time passed by slowly as the slow and quiet ticking of the clock was all that gave the quiet room any noise, it's ticking felt like a soothing melody to the fatigued human as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

The only sound to be heard before she slept was that of a door opening.

______*That Night.*______

The woman was wide awake in the room, it was quiet again, only the muffled sounds of the outside world and the rest of the hospital gave off noise, that and the clock of course, Rally had fallen asleep in the bed next to her's and had revealed that she was assigned to guard her until further notice.

The human was of course confused, after all she didn't know her past, her family or even her name, the only thing she did know was that she didn't have any memory of anything before wandering.

Just to pass some time, the human counted the cracks in the ceiling, of which there were five small ones and one slightly larger one, but once she grew bored of that and counting the walls, she looked outside.

Adding to her increasing confusion however, was a strange dark blue light coming from somewhere beyond a nearby building, she squinted but couldn't make anything out of it, she then pulled the covers off and got out of bed, her legs felt weak but she still managed to walk to the window.

The woman stared out at the city but the source of the strange light remained a mystery, no one was outside either so she doubted anyone could tell her what was going on, that was when she noticed another strange light, but this one was coming from the room and was dark purple, she blinked and looked back, seeing nothing, the light wasn't there, she shook her head and looked outside again.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Rally asked from behind her.

The woman turned and saw a sleepy Rally looking at her. "There's a strange light coming from over there." She said, pointed at the light.

Rally got up and rubbed her eyes, she walked over to the window and looked out, her face turned to one of worry. "I don't know what that is, it's probably nothing but you need to get back to bed." She ordered.

The woman's legs felt like they would give out any moment now, so she did as she was told, Rally looked back out at the light which was now slowly disappearing before looking back at the human. "Has anything come back to you?" Rally wondered.

The human shook her head. "I'm afraid not." She replied simply.

Rally nodded. "Well there's plenty of time to worry about that when you recover, for now try to get some more sleep, I have to keep watch." She replied.

The human stared for a moment before speaking. "I'm not tired right now, so can we just talk for a while?" She asked.

Rally seemed a little disturbed but decided to agree. "Fine." She replied.

______*a few days later*______

The days passed by quickly, after the end of the first day the hospital staff named the human a Jane Doe due to her missing identity, Rally for some reason refused to use it even though it made conversation easier.

By the second day the human was able to walk easier with the help of a crutch or a cane, that or Rally supporting her, the unicorn had also explained that the light she had seen came from the markings she had mentioned before.

The third day they had heard about a new ruler from Rally's younger brother and sister when they brought her non hospital food.

And by the fourth day the human was able to walk fully without problems, this was also the first day where she actually saw what she looked like because she has asked Rally if there was a way to see what she looked like.

And now that she was staring in the mirror, the human didn't know what to think, she had black hair that went down just below her shoulders, she did indeed have markings on her neck that were purple, her eyes were purple as well, she was told these were not normal for her kind, so she was a little confused.

Thankfully she was leaving today and the hospital staff happened to have some leftover clothes from some past patients, and after Rally was assured that they were washed, the human changed clothes from the hospital gown, the new clothes were just plain brown pants and a shirt, they weren't much but they were better than nothing.

Rally led the human out of the hospital and took in the fresh air. "Feels good to be out of there." She muttered, clearly not talking to anyone but herself.

"Yea." The woman said quietly.

The two simply stood outside the hospital awkwardly, neither one speaking for a while.

Rally looked around. "So uh......want to get some food?" She offered.

"I think the hospital food made me lose any desire to eat." The human stated.

"How about we walk around?" The unicorn suggested.

The human shrugged. "I'd probably just get lost." She said.

Rally shuffled a little, clearly anxious. "Umm.....any ideas?" She asked.

"Other than investigating the new ruler thing? no." She replied easily.

Rally seemed to be visually concerned about that. "I don't know, it might not be a good idea." She said.

"Why?" The human wondered.

Rally took a deep breath, seeming to calm herself. "It's.....hard, to do anything when it comes to the royals, Celestia and Luna are intimidating enough on their own, but the fact that you have to put yourself through endless waiting just to have a chance to talk to them?.....not worth it." She said. "In my own personal opinion of course." She added quickly.

"That doesn't mean we can't talk to the people and see what they have to say." The human replied.

Rally was about to counter but stopped herself......she seemed to consider her options before sighing. "Alright fine, you win." She relented.

With that, the two began walking towards the source of the light, talking to whoever was in the way, of course it didn't help that every single person they talked to didn't want anything to do with them.

They kept on walking forward, passing a group of guards along the way who seemed scared of something, but they barely let it show.

Rally even seemed on edge the closer they got to what she called the Palace, and when she stopped walking along, the human looked back at her with concern. "You alright?" She asked.

With a deep breath, the unicorn moved forward. "Yea, I'm alright......I just don't think getting any closer is a good idea." She said.

The human nodded. "Regardless, aren't you curious to see what happened?" She asked.

Rally shivered a little for some reason. "Not really." She replied quietly as she walked alongside the human towards the palace.

The road to the palace was massive, the stone streets leading to it were lined with visitors and guards, carriages and chariots, there were even a few robed unicorns here and there, observing everything silently.

"Who are they?" The woman asked, pointing at the robed unicorns.

Rally gulped and led the human forward. "Warrior mages, deadly, the best of the best when it comes to combat, don't tick them off." She said in a distressed tone.

The palace itself was grand, it's large domed towers stood tall and the massive structure they were connected to served as the center of Equestrian government, the structure was at least three hundred feet long and one hundred feet high, the banners of the nation flew high, one was of the sun, and an Alicorn with white fur and a cutie mark of the sun stood under it.

The other banner had the moon, and an Alicorn with dark blue fur and a cutie mark of the moon stood under it, according to Rally, these banners represented the royal sisters and their respective alignment, there was a third banner with the sun and moon on it, which was the common banner for the nation.

The woman tried to talk to some people to find out what happened a few night ago, but no one would talk to her, they wouldn't even talk to Rally, which was surprising since she was their kind.

The woman looked at Rally who seemed stumped but before she could talk a male voice was heard. "Private Rally Lightwing!" The voice was commanding and sounded angry.

Rally immediately turned to face the voice. "Captain Iron? I thought you were at the front?" She said out of confusion.

The captain was a large black furred earth pony stallion with no mane or tail, as well as a large scar across his muzzle and wore heavy looking iron armor. "I see you still have yet to learn military discipline private, I will make sure to note that." He said, he sounded annoyed and yet not annoyed.

Rally said nothing in reply as the captain continued. "You have been reassigned, report to the barracks immediately for your new orders." Iron said calmly before walking past them and away from the palace.

The woman watched the captain leave, and heard Rally sigh. "I guess this is where I leave you, sorry uh.......well, you know." The unicorn stated.

"I'll manage, thanks for everything Rally, if I ever see you again, I'll be sure to have a name." The woman said.

Rally chuckled a little at that. "Sure thing, goodbye human." She said before walking off.

The woman simply watched in silence as Rally left, she didn't know why, but she had a bad feeling in her gut about this.

_______*hours later*_______

The woman sighed as she looked up at the sky, the dark moonlit night gently illuminated the streets and buildings, it was quiet now as almost everyone was inside for the night, apparently afraid to be outside.

The human had been wandering the city for a long time, occasionally stopping to let her legs rest, she looked up at the moon and then turned down an alleyway, she walked down it and found herself in a maze of alleys, she blinked and looked around, there were several pathways to go down, and they all looked the same, she crossed her arms and sighed. "Maybe i should just go." She muttered to herself.

"Go? so soon? why would you go and do that?" A creepy voice asked from the darkness.

The human immediately looked in the direction of the voice, she spotted a light blue Pegasus stallion with a brown mane emerge from the shadows of an alley.

"I think she's scared, scaredy cat." Another creepy voice said, this one belonged to a red unicorn stallion with an orange mane.

"I don't think she likes us boys, I wonder why." One final voice said from behind her, she turned and saw a brown unicorn stallion with a dark blue mane emerge.

All three had creepy grins on their faces, and it was clear they weren't friendly, so the human did the one thing she could think of, she quickly ran down an alley in an attempt to get away or find help.

Her attempt was in vain however as a large wall of stone rose from the ground and cut her off, she stopped and looked back, she saw the three ponies staring at her with malicious grins, the brown one's horn was lit up.

And then In one swift motion, the Pegasus flew forward quickly at the human, he pulled his hoof back and then threw it at her, but thankfully she managed to dodge by falling over.

The Pegasus didn't seem to have a problem though, as he used the stone was to propel himself back at her rapidly.

The human felt the world slow down around her, and at the moment all that seemed to matter was surviving, she put her hands out in a vain attempt to stop the Pegasus. "Stay away from me!" She cried out.

To her shock and the shock of the ponies, a quick bolt of purple light rocketed out of the humans hand and impacted the Pegasus, sending him flying through the stone wall and out onto the street.

The human stared at her hands in shock, wondering just what exactly happened. "Did I......do that?" She whispered.

She looked at the two remaining ponies who's horns were lit up, she quickly stood and aimed her hands at them. "Go away!" She shouted.

As if on command two bolts of purple light shot out of her hands and one hit the red unicorn, throwing him into a wall, the other one missed and the brown stallion seemed angry as he shot a small volley of magic bolts at the human.

The human's eyes widened and she braced for the coming impact.....but it never came, she opened her eyes and saw that she was shielded by some wierd barrier. "What in the world?" She wondered.

"If it does what I want." She muttered, she aimed the unicorn. "Leave me alone!" She cried out, and just as before a bolt shot out, this one moved very fast however and impacted the unicorn in the chest.

The human decided to run out of the alley, eager to get away, but just as she turned around, a very large figure blocked her way, she looked up at the figure and saw two cyan cat like eyes looking straight through her, she froze on the spot, completely terrified to do anything right now.

The creature was silent, it was definitely an Alicorn but it seemed to be more than that, it also wore armor which made it much more intimidating, it then spoke in a calm voice. "A human that can use magic, I did not think it was possible." The alicorn said.

"Who......who are you?" The human asked.

The Alicorn spoke. "I am Nightmare Moon, ruler of the night." She declared, her tone was one of authority and power, she was obviously not one to mess with.

"W-what do you w-w-want with me?" She asked.

Nightmare Moon's horn lit up and suddenly the three that attacked the human vanished. "You intrigued my predecessor enough for her to personally visit you, and now I see why." She then teleported the two of them to the street. "What I want, is to know how you can use magic, when your species can not." She replied.

The human watched as Nightmare Moon looked towards the palace. "I have an offer to make you, in exchange for allowing myself and my mages to study and learn how you can use magic, I will allow you to stay in the palace until we have our answer, including food and shelter of course." She looked back at the human. "And if that is not enough, I will also put someone to work discovering your identity......discretely." She added.

The woman blinked as she contemplated the offer, on one hand, it would give her a place to stay for a while, but on the other she had no idea what these....studies, could mean. "If your answer is yes, go to the palace gates and tell the guard the moon is bright, if your answer is no, don't go to the gates at all until the end of tomorrow." She stated before teleporting away.

______*the present*______

Alecia put the cards back on the shelf and looked at Nightmare. "So, what was her answer?" She asked, looking back at Nightmare.

The Alicorn ghost chuckled. "Her answer made me like her instantly." She stated before continuing her tale.

_______*the past.*_______

Nightmare Moon waited in the observatory and soon the door was opened behind her. "Your highness, you have a visitor." Said the voice of a palace guard.

"Let her in." Nightmare said.

Nightmare Moon turned around and saw the guard door to the room, leaving her with a familiar human female. "I see you have chosen to accept my offer." She said calmly.

The human sighed and walked a little closer. "Actually, I came to tell you that I decline." She replied, no hesitation in her voice.

"Oh? and why is that?" Nightmare Moon asked.

The human crossed her arms and took a breath. "It feels wrong, it feels like I'm getting more than I'm giving and that doesn't sit right with me, if your going to offer food and shelter, as well as information about a forgotten past, you should make the other side of the offer more balanced." She pointed out.

"So the issue we are having right now is the offer itself?" The Alicorn asked.

The human nodded. "Right, as it stands, i have to decline." She replied.

Nightmare Moon smiled. "Then perhaps a different offer would intrigue you?......if you would hear it out of course." She said.

The human thought on this for a short time before nodding. "Alright, I'll listen." She said.

Nightmare Moon turned and looked outside. "As it stands, you have no place to stay, no food and no income, in short you will die unless you turn to crime." She started, she peaked over her shoulder to look at the human. "And since you will not accept my previous offer, allow me to amend it." She said, looking outside again.

"As before, you would allow myself and my mages to study you to discover how you can use magic, you would be given a home here in the castle, with food, shelter and even a small income, in addition I will even take you on as my apprentice, which means you will learn magic and other various things, but you will be in my service, you will be a novice Mage publicly and will be expected to perform the same duties as a novice Mage." She turned and looked at the human.

This left the room in complete silence for a while, many minutes passed by until the human spoke. "I suppose I don't have a choice, I don't know if I can trust my own kind or not after all." She replied, she then relaxed her arms and spoke. "Thank you for your offer." She said, bowing slightly.

Nightmare Moon walked up to the human and lifted her head with her hoof. "None of that, when we are alone, you don't have to bow to me, publicly you should show the utmost respect, now.....we must find a name for you." She said, beginning to think.

The human said nothing, not knowing of any names beyond a few, the room once again fell silent, and the only noise to be heard was the door opening and a maid bringing in the tea and then leaving.

Nightmare Moon had been walking around in deep thought, and whenever she seemed to get stuck she would glance over at the human, and after about ten minutes had passed she finally spoke. "Dark Glyph, that will be your name." She stated.

The human thought on it for a while.......but eventually just shrugged. "Better than nothing I guess." She said, still mentally saying the name to see how she felt about it.

Nightmare Moon nodded and turned to face her apprentice. "You may change it at a later date should you desire, but it is better than calling you nothing but Human." She said.

Glyph looked at Nightmare Moon. "So, what now?" She asked.

_______*the present.*______

"You weren't good with names were you?" Alecia asked.

Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes. "It was the best option I could think of at the time and I didn't know any human names." She stated.

Alecia sighed. "So, what next?" She asked out of curiosity.

"No offense, but I would prefer not to go into more detail right now, I'll tell you more some other time." Nightmare said before vanishing.

Alecia rolled her eyes and laid back on the couch. "I'll hold you to that." She muttered.

______*Canterlot, meanwhile.*______

Celestia and Luna were in their private conference room talking about important matters of state, of course this was ten minutes ago and Celestia had just dropped the bombshell on her sister.

"WHAAT!?" Luna shouted. "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT NIGHTMARE MOON RULED EQUESTRIA ALONGSIDE YOU AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME!?" The lunar Alicorn snapped, anger was clear in her eyes.

Celestia took a sip of her tea and used her magic to repair the broken table before answering. "Yes, Nightmare Moon did in fact rule Equestria with me, in my defense however, you were in a bad mood the night before and said things would be different starting tomorrow, I simply thought the change was you being serious about it, and it was working." She said calmly.

Luna grumpily sat down again. "And the fact that she....I wanted to bring about eternal night wasn't enough of a giveaway?" She asked skeptically.

Celestia sighed and set down her teacup. "To be perfectly honest, that didn't come up until a month before I banished her to the moon." She replied.

Luna raised an eyebrow, her curiosity seemed to be piqued. "How long did Nightmare Moon rule for exactly?" She asked.

Celestia seemed to think on it for a moment, in truth she didn't want to answer because she knew what the reaction would be. "Do not stall Tia, tell me now." Luna demanded.

The solar Alicorn sighed and took a final sip of her cup. "Four years." She said.

Almost instantly, a roar of anger combined with a powerful spell, saw to the end to the top of the oldest tower in Canterlot Castle, which was now little more than a pile of rubble.

Far away, Nightmare Moon felt an unnatural shiver run down her spectral spine.

Author's Note:

Ugh......ok, I'll be honest, being away from writing when I have chapters started has been driving me nuts.

Hopefully I'll remember to actually write and not forget again, but anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Nightmare Moon said that she ruled Equestria for three years but Celestia said that she ruled for four years. May I ask which one is it?

[Sylif Daring Doo]

9856815

Believe it or not, both are correct, Nightmare Moon only remembers the three years she ruled because the fourth year she started to lose her mind, Celestia remembers the four years because her mind was stable at the time, whereas Nightmare Moon had two minds battling for control.

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

9857345
Very interesting, thank you for answering my question.

[jimerjam]

dis gun b gud