• Published 26th Jul 2019
  • 439 Views, 19 Comments

Every Nightmare's Caveat - libertydude



A prisoner of Nightmare Moon is given a second chance. It may not be the one he wants.

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Research, Development, and Propaganda

“Time travel?” Nightshade squeaked. “That's so cool!”

“Hmm,” Earth said. His eyes stared dead ahead, not looking at the filly skipping beside him. The dark hallways stretched silently before them, save the occasional guard or castle staff shuffling past. The clocks stated his meeting with Nightmare Moon was seventeen hours earlier and a glance out a southern window confirmed Gieneigh indeed shifted the estimated amount. But between the tense study session and the uneasy sleep that followed, Earth thought it may as well been seventeen years.

“It’ll be so great when you and the Princess figure it out,” Nightshade said. She shifted to the right at a diverging passageway, and Earth followed her lead down the new path.

“Not sure that’s the word I’d use for it,” Earth said.

“Why not? Being able to control all of time sounds great. You could help so many ponies that way.”

“Depends on your definition of ‘help’.”

She gave him a funny look. “That’s what the Princess wants, right? To help all the ponies in the past and future?”

“More like help herself keep power.”

Nightshade shook her head. “No way! She’s not like that meanie sister of hers. She wants to give ponies the glory of eternal night.”

“And what if some ponies don’t want eternal night? What if they like playing in the daylight?”

A confused look came across Nightshade’s face. “Why would anypony want that? The Moon is a lot softer. It won’t burn you and you can nap anytime you want!”

“Some ponies don’t like that. They want to go outside and play in warm sunshine.”

Nightshade stuck out her tongue. “Sounds like a bunch of weirdos. They probably like eating broccoli or reading books without pictures.”

Earth sighed and stared forward. “I hope one day you understand. Maybe you’ll see the world a little more clearly.” They walked in silence for a moment, the crackling torches the only sound down the hallway.

“They told me you’d be grumpy about the Princess,” Nightshade mumbled. “Said you had a bad attitude.”

“Hah!” Earth laughed. “You wouldn’t have liked me seven years ago.” He glanced down at Nightshade, who looked up at him with a nervous expression.

“Look,” Earth sighed. “I’m sorry about what I said about Nightmare Moon and the Sun. Just…just know that while we may not agree all the time, we can at least get along well with everything else.”

Nightshade nodded. “Okay.”

Earth nodded back. “Now let’s get to the library.”

Her cheer returned and she started trotting down the hall faster. Earth caught up and kept the pace, chuckling to himself. At least she’s pleasant to be around, he thought. Even if she’s more indoctrinated than the Lunar Corps.

“What’s the Sun like?” Nightshade asked further down the hall.

Earth gave her a disbelieving grin. “You just told me ponies who like daylight are weirdos. Now you want to hear about the Sun?”

“I don’t want to be in the Sun,” Nightshade said defensively. “I just want to know what it’s like.”

Earth closed his eyes for a moment. “Alright. You work in the kitchen, correct?”

She nodded her head at breakneck speed.

“The Sun is like a really big fire in an oven, heating up everything else around it.” He pointed up at one of the aqua torches burning on the wall. “And it gives off a lot of light like that torch.”

“So that’s why it burns ponies.”

“Well, yes and no. If you got too close to it, you could definitely burn up. Down here in Equestria though…” His eyes wandered to a passing Night Guard, her eyes wandering over him with a suspicious glare. He waited until she was further down before saying: “Here on Equestria, you couldn’t get burned alive.”

Nightshade gave a confused look. “But what about the sunburn?”

“What about it?”

“Our teacher Ms. Grizzle said ponies used to get a thing called sunburn that left them in pain for a long time.”

Earth chuckled. “Well, there was sunburn, but not quite like that. It was just a nasty rash you got if you stayed out in the Sun too long. Nothing like the burns you’ve seen in the kitchen.”

Nightshade scratched her chin. “So Ms. Grizzle was wrong?”

She lied, Earth thought. “Everypony makes mistakes,” he said.

Nightshade stared down at her hooves. “That’s what they said my parents did.”

“What kind of mistake?”

Nightshade turned red. “I shouldn’t talk about it.”

“Why not?”

“We’re not supposed to talk about traitors.”

“Ah, of course. Damnatio memoriae.”

“What?”

“It’s an old term. They use it for ponies who do crimes so heinous that they refuse to acknowledge they even existed from that point on.”

“Ms. Grizzle said they tried to fight Nightmare Moon. Said they wanted everypony to burn in the Sun. Said they were…” She looked back down at the ground. “Said they were going to give me up to Celes- To her so that they’d be on her good side.”

“Why would she want you?”

Nightshade’s eyes grew wide and fearful. “Because she wanted to eat me alive.”

A silence passed through the hall, with only the chirping crickets outside and the duo’s hooves clopping along the stone floor.

“Ba-ha!” Earth said. “Aha-ha!” He fell the floor, his guffaws running up and down the hallway. A few ponies stuck their heads out from doorways to see the curled up stallion rolling on the floor.

“It’s not funny!” Nightshade said, her face beet red.

Earth took quick breaths between his laughs before sitting back up. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I never thought they’d be pushing the propaganda to that degree.”

“What’s propaganda?”

Just then, Earth pointed towards the door with a book imprinted within the wood. “Is this the library?”

Nightshade nodded.

“Then you can learn what it means in here,” Earth said. He pushed the door open and found himself within a tall room. A dim chandelier hung from the ceiling, providing just enough light to make out the center tables and three-story high bookshelves lining the remaining space.

Earth took a deep breath of the dry and dusty air. “Better get to it,” he said. “Nightmare Moon likes to have things quick.”

“What should I do?” Nightshade said.

“Do you know Dewey Decimal?”

“Um…no?”

“Do you understand the concepts of fourth dimensional transmutation and matter manipulation?”

“Trans-moo what?”

“That’s what I thought.” He waved his hoof towards the section labeled ‘Equestrian Fiction’. “Why don’t you go over there and read some stories until we leave?”

“Well, um…” She gave a nervous look towards the section. “They told me that if I didn’t have anything to do with you, I should just go back to the kitchen.”

“Do you want to go back to the kitchen?”

“Not really. I just think they’d want me to…”

Earth leaned down and lifted her chin. “Nightshade, I am working for the Princess, and so are you. As long as I say I need you, nopony will be questioning it. Even if you sit around reading books all day.”

Nightshade gave a nervous glance towards the section. “I won’t get in trouble?”

Earth shook his head. “Not as long as you’re with me.”

A small smile came across her face. “So what are we going to do?”

Earth looked up at the cramped bookshelves. “I am going to look at Star Swirl and the other ancient scholar’s works about time manipulation and spatial displacement. And you… go find a dictionary. Find at least twenty new words you can recite to me at the end of the da- I mean, later on tonight. After that, read whatever you want to.”

“Okay!” she said. She went off towards the back of the library, skipping as she looked up and down the aisles.

Earth chuckled. Cute little filly, he thought. Just like Emmy. Shame they both had to be born in these times. He shook his head. Focus.

He wandered over to the librarian’s desk, where an elderly mare with glasses stuck in her white hair and a faded orange coat sat. She read a periodical titled The Equestrian Grazzette with a headline reading: GRYPHON AND DRAGON SKIRMISHES IN THE NORTH.

“Excuse me?” Earth said.

The librarian looked up with disinterested eyes. “Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for the scientific collections by Star Swirl and the Ancients.”

She put the newspaper down and began to shift through a collection of cards. Her lips remained pursed while Earth stood expectantly. A minute later, she pulled out a worn card with crumpled corners.

“The works you seek are in Section F, Row 45, Call Numbers ERGI 345.H3920 A84 to 347.J4923 R90.” She glanced up at Earth’s confused face. “Do you need assistance in finding these materials?”

“Yes, please,” Earth said. The librarian stood up and began walking to the library’s left side, Earth following close behind. Their steps echoed within the lonely aisles until the librarian pointed up a shelf.

“The books are on the fifth shelf up,” she said in a monotone. “Do you need any more assistance with this endeavor?”

“Maybe,” Earth said, his horn lighting up in a light green aura. The ladder near the aisle’s end lit up in the same aura and started rolling their way. Once it came to a rest, Earth began climbing up past the lower shelves.

The first book revealed itself quite easily: STAR SWIRL COMPILATED STUDIES AND ADDENDUMS. The title revealed itself among a thick brown cover with a picture of Star Swirl and his official seal. The remaining books to the right all consisted of various literary add-ons about Star Swirl’s later studies. To the left, nothing but a thick pile of dust.

“Where are the books about the other Ancients?” Earth said, doing his best to not breathe in too deeply.

“They’re arranged in chronological order,” the librarian said. “If they came before Star Swirl, they should be to the left.”

Earth reached over and took a hooful of dust. “Nope, nothing up here but dust bunnies. You guys do any rearranging recently?”

The librarian shook her head. “Somepony else must have checked them out.”

“Alright,” Earth said, taking each Star Swirl book into his hooves. “I’ll only be able to get through these today anyhow.” He made his way down and found a table near the library’s center. With only the occasional scurries from the library’s rear filling his ears, he began to read.