Taming Nightmare Moon

by Leafdoggy

Chapter 20

Author's Note:

Heads up, there's a bit more violence in this chapter than the story's had before. There's no blood or anything, but it might go a touch past what you might see in the show, so I thought I should give a warning.

“I find your lack of charm insulting,” Nightmare Moon said. Her words cut through the air like a knife. “If you’re going to copy me, the least you could do is be fun.”

“Oh, this is going to be a lot of fun,” Daybreaker said. “Just not for you.”

“We’ll see about that.”

Nightmare Moon’s chilling blue flames sprouted from the ground and engulfed her, and she vanished. The tendril of fire that had held her still fell limp on the ground and shrivelled up until it vanished completely.

When Nightmare Moon reappeared, she was behind Daybreaker and poised to strike. The magic was flowing before she had even fully rejoined the world, and faster than thought she fired an ear-shattering beam of energy at her sister.

Daybreaker didn’t even turn around. A huge spike of flames swirled up between them and pierced through the stream of magic long before it could ever reach her.

“Pathetic.” Daybreaker glanced over her shoulder with a look of pure disdain. “I do you the courtesy of letting you keep your magic, and that is the best you can muster?”

Nightmare Moon smirked. There was another flash of fire in the corner of Daybreaker’s vision, and by the time she spun around towards it, Applejack was already gone, and all that stood in her place were cold blue wisps.

When the flames brought her back, Applejack was in midair. Far below her stood Daybreaker, seemingly unaware of where she was, and so she prepared herself, somersaulting through the air as she fell and pulling in her legs to get ready to kick.

Daybreaker was still one step ahead. More fiery ropes emerged from the ground and wrapped themselves around one of her hooves, and without warning she flung that hoof up and launched them into the air.

Applejack was still falling. She had no way to move, no way to stop the fire hurtling towards her, and it slammed into her with full force. It set her spinning, the world flashing by in a blur as, moment by moment, more flames coiled themselves around her. They tied knots around her legs, her chest, her gut, and then they squeezed and Applejack sputtered as the air was forced out of her.

Nightmare Moon leapt into action, catching Applejack in midair with her magic, but at the same moment Daybreaker spun towards her.

“I’m not through with you!” Daybreaker concentrated and dug a hoof into the ground, then kicked forward like she meant to launch dirt out. Instead of dirt, though, a shower of sparks flew towards Nightmare Moon.

The sparks exploded all around her. They flashed light into her eyes, blasted noise into her ears, and peppered her all over with tiny pinpricks of pain. It wasn’t much, but it was just enough to break her concentration.

Daybreaker stepped towards Nightmare Moon. Behind her, Applejack plummeted from the sky and slammed into the ground.

Nightmare Moon roared in anger and spread out her wings, then shot towards Daybreaker at lightning speed as she focused her magic into her horn.

“Enough of this!” Daybreaker growled and flashed her horn, and a bonfire erupted underneath Nightmare Moon. Thousands of strands of flame, so tightly tied together that they were indistinguishable, flew up and stopped her in her tracks. When Nightmare Moon loosed the magic she was holding, the flames easily flicked up and stopped that too.

Daybreaker walked slowly forward, having given up any pretense of weakness. Flames lingered anywhere her hooves had touched earth, and embers launched themselves from her mane.

“You’re too weak!” Daybreaker came up to within inches of Nightmare Moon’s face. “What’s the point in searing you down to ash if you can’t even put up a decent fight?”

“So sorry to disappoint.” Nightmare Moon’s voice dripped with anger and disgust. “I guess you’ll just have to let me go.”

“You’re not getting off that easy. I’m just going to have to make you into the threat I know you are.”

“And how do you suppose to do that?”

Daybreaker pointed straight into the sky. “It was your plan from the start, right? Making an eclipse so you can leverage it against me? Do it.”

“I had no intention of using it against you! And I’ve no intention now of playing into whatever fantasy you’ve concocted to justify your hate.”

Daybreaker scowled and took a step back. She raised her hoof into the sky again and concentrated, then snapped it down and pointed straight at Nightmare Moon.

At first nothing happened. The world was silent, and the air burned. They waited.

Then a hole was burned through the clouds above.

The sunlight hit Nightmare Moon like a stampede, rolling over her and giving her no chance to recover. It burned at her skin, singed her fur. She just barely shut her eyes in time, but even through her eyelids it felt blinding. She tried to turn her head away, but the flames were still holding fast, and she couldn’t even do so much as to raise a leg to shield herself.

Daybreaker stomped forcefully on the ground. “Do it!”

Nightmare Moon gritted her teeth. She clenched her eyes ever tighter, and forced all her energy into her magic. Slowly, the moon started to rise.

It was slow, though. In her weakened state, it took Nightmare Moon several agonizing minutes to raise it into the sky. All that time, the sun glared down at her. It burned away at her willpower, and she was about to give up when the shadow started to creep across the world.

Daybreaker grinned as darkness fell on Equestria. She released Nightmare Moon from her flames and watched with a grisly glee as her sister stood there, panting and wincing in pain. She could tell it was working. The fact that Nightmare Moon could even stand was proof enough of that.

They stood there and glared at each other for what felt like hours. Daybreaker started to slowly circle her prey, sizing up the coming feast. Nightmare Moon focused on getting her energy back, but she wouldn’t let Daybreaker out of her sight.

Applejack still laid unmoving where she had fallen, wrapped in fire that bit into her wherever it touched.

Eventually Nightmare Moon started to feel it. She was back to her full strength, but it wasn’t stopping. The moonlight was pouring into her, feeding her like it never had before. Her desperation made her ravenous for it, opened her up to avenues of power she had never even considered.

She kept panting. She couldn’t let on that she had recovered.

Daybreaker kept pacing until, at one point, she stood over Applejack. She looked down in pity and shook her head. “Really, you couldn’t even protect one pony. What a sorry display. I do hope she’s alright, though. Her friends would be absolutely heartbroken if I had to tell them what you did to her.”

Nightmare Moon bared her fangs. “How can you still believe I’m the danger to Equestria?”

“You made me do this!” Daybreaker snapped at Nightmare Moon. “You had every opportunity to keep her safe, and you dropped her on my head! You’ve nopony to blame but yourself.”

“What a joke.”

“Complain all you want, sister. We’ll see who’s right when—”

Nightmare Moon was ready. She launched herself at Daybreaker again, her wings cutting through the air like knives.

Flames bubbled below her, and she swerved. She was easily out of reach before the licks of flame even crawled from the ground, and she did the same for the next, and the one after that.

When she was close enough, she fired. Her magic blasted out with so much force it nearly stopped her in her tracks.

Again, a spire of flames sprouted from the ground and sliced the magic in two, rendering it powerless.

Nightmare Moon pressed on, though. She pushed harder, flew faster, and just as she reached the column of fire it exploded and smoldered down to nothing, and there was nothing in her way anymore.

Daybreaker scowled. Nightmare Moon was mere feet away, and there was no time left to stop her. In a last ditch effort, she lit up her flames and burned herself away just as the magic reached her.

Nightmare Moon landed hard and dug grooves into the dirt as she skidded to a stop. She spun around just in time to see Daybreaker reform again, once more safely out of reach.

“That’s more like it,” Daybreaker said. “That’s the kind of strength I knew was in there, and that’s why I can’t let you stay.”

“You’ve outplayed yourself, Daybreaker!” Nightmare Moon swiped a hoof through the air, bombarding Daybreaker with a wave of fire that she easily deflected with her own. “You can’t win anymore. Just give up now.”

“In your dreams!” Daybreaker shot forward this time, her eyes laser focused on Nightmare Moon. She left rolling flames in her wake, huge swaths of fire that spread out in either direction and showed no sign of stopping.

“If you say so.” Nightmare Moon placed a hoof on the ground, then slowly, carefully tore through the air in front of her.

Daybreaker could see nothing, so she plowed on and ran straight into Nightmare Moon.

Then she crashed into the ground behind Nightmare Moon, having gone right through her.

“What have you done?” Daybreaker demanded.

“Just as you suggested,” Nightmare Moon said. “We’re in my dreams.”

Nightmare Moon waved a hoof, and a deep, black pit opened below Daybreaker and swallowed her up. It closed back up again before she even had a chance to escape.

Nightmare Moon was alone.

She stepped back out into the waking world and took a look around. It took only a quick gesture to put out all the lingering flames, and soon the air began to cool. She looked up at the moon, still blocking the sun. Then she looked down at Applejack, still unconscious, and started to walk towards her.

Daybreaker was falling.

All around her was darkness. Darkness above, darkness below. There was nothing for her to see.

She shot flames out, testing every direction, but they blinked out of view long before they stopped burning. Nothing could cut through this dark.

Daybreaker couldn’t accept that. Nothing could stop her light.

She blasted more flames out, and more, and she kept going until it was clear fire just wasn’t enough. She tried light, just pure light with no flames, but it was put out just as easily.

She roared in frustration.

She held out her hooves and concentrated. With all her strength, all her will, she focused on the raw might of the sun.

As Nightmare Moon neared Applejack, a light appeared in the corner of her vision. She stopped dead in her tracks and snapped around, immediately on the defensive.

In the distance, a beam of intense light appeared out of nowhere. Then it grew, both in size and intensity. It burned a hole through reality itself, boring away at the walls between worlds, and it wasn’t long before it had grown more than large enough.

Daybreaker stepped back out into the waking world.

Nightmare Moon snarled. “Enough! I can just put you back, over and over until you have no strength left. Give up!”

Daybreaker’s head was low, and she was breathing hard. The flames of her mane were growing unfocused, shooting out in every direction. Still, though, the fire in her eyes burned as bright as ever.

“I’ll never be beaten by you.” Daybreaker glared at Nightmare Moon and lit up her horn. Nightmare Moon crouched, ready to defend herself.

Daybreaker didn’t fire at Nightmare Moon, though. Instead, she wrapped her magic around Applejack and pulled her into the air between the two of them.

The sudden movement jostled Applejack awake, and she pried her eyes open and groaned, struggling to piece together the scene around her.

“I’m the one with the power here!” Daybreaker never broke eye contact with Nightmare Moon. “I make the demands, and it’s time for this to end. Either you disappear, or she does.”

“You wouldn’t,” Nightmare Moon said. “You can’t!”

“Do you really want to try me?” Daybreaker stomped on the ground and shook Applejack to taunt her.

“I—” For once, Nightmare Moon was at a loss for words. “I don’t…”

Applejack coughed and looked over at Nightmare Moon. “You do it,” she muttered.

“What?” Nightmare Moon stepped back in shock.

“Banish me,” Applejack said. “If you send me somewhere, you’ll know where to go to find me.”

“Don’t even try it!” Daybreaker pulled Applejack closer to herself. “If I see one hint of magic out of you, she’s gone.”

Nightmare Moon frowned deeply. “Applejack, I—”

Applejack smiled weakly at her and nodded. “You can do it, Moonlight.”

Nightmare Moon flinched at the words, but she made up her mind. With all the energy she could muster, she blasted her magic towards Applejack.

Daybreaker growled and, without hesitation, did the same.

She was weak, though. Her magic was a lot slower, and there was no way to fix that now. Nightmare Moon’s was going to hit her first.

In a final bid, Daybreaker yanked Applejack further towards herself, hoping to make up the distance.

Both beams hit her at once.

It was like nothing Applejack had ever felt before. The magic seemed to fight inside her, and both sides were chipping away at her, trying to send her away. It was slow, the spells keeping each other largely at bay, and the entire time it felt like she was being torn in two.

It took only a few seconds, but that was enough time for Applejack to let out the most excruciating scream any of them had ever heard.

Then the magic faded, and Applejack was gone.

Nightmare Moon was horrified. She stumbled and fell onto her knees, staring blankly at where Applejack had just been.

Daybreaker roared in anger. “Do you see? Can you understand now? So long as you exist, this won’t stop! You can bring nothing but conflict, and if I let you stay, more ponies will be caught in the crossfire! It has to—”

She stopped. Before her, Nightmare Moon started to glow. Slowly, methodically, as if she was taking off a coat, she started to shrink down, and just like that Nightmare Moon was gone.

Luna started to cry.

Comments

[Coranth]

Well -- congratulations, Celestia, you horrible, horrible, awful spiteful pony.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Oh no....

[Vaguely Demented]

Here’s hoping that Princess thing works out for AJ.

[Eroraf86]

Congratulations, Celestia. You fed up.

[Superbowl]

AJ is gonna be a princess of not being an idiot or something, after being blasted here just like Twilight got blasted by the elements. Calling it.