My Little Pony: Magic is Everywhere

by ayh

Interlude: Darkness and Madness

It was a place of darkness. More than just an absence of light; darkness permeated every corner, every nook and every cranny. Like a living thing, the darkness seemed to oppressively press down upon everything within the area, lounging languidly upon every surface and every being.

Within the center of this darkness, upon a raised platform, laid Nightmare Moon in all her glory. Dark blue armor adorned her form as waves of midnight obsidian made up her mane and tail. Green draconian eyes pierced their surroundings as nothing in the night could escape their gaze. Curling her lip back revealed predatory fangs as Nightmare Moon glared down upon the shivering unicorn before her.

“Incompetence. Betrayal! How has one of the Elements of Harmony revealed itself after so long!?” the dark monarch roared at the pale yellow pony with a pink mane.

“I-I-I’m so-sorry, my mistress!” squeaked the terrified yellow mare trying to hide behind her pink mane. “Re-reports say that Discord sent the unicorn Starlight to the earth pony lands to find the Element.”

A low rumbling echoed through the chamber as green silted eyes narrowed. “Discord!” Nightmare Moon spat the name. “Of all the fools; I should have known. Child of the night, go! Bring that vile worm to me at once!”

Squeaking in fear, the unicorn nearly tripped over her green saddle dress sheet as she scrambled out of the room to fulfill her mistresses order.

“Ho, ho, ho, ho, you should be a bit gentler with your playmates, Moony,” a playful voice laughed as the air next to Nightmare Moon burst in a cloud of cotton candy and the forms of Starlight Glimmer and a long serpentine figure made from a menagerie of creatures. “I’ve discovered that life is so much more fun with a bestie to share all those special moments with, isn’t that right my number one gal-pal Glimmy Glam?”

“Yaaargh!” Starlight screamed as she jumped up and tried to body tackle Discord.

With a snap of his eagle talon, Starlight found herself suspended in midair as she glared murderously at the Lord of Chaos.

“You bastard!” Starlight yelled from her midair prison. “What was the whole point in leading me to the Everfree castle if I was never meant to have the element for myself?”

“Indeed Discord,” Nightmare Moon growled as she stood up, her form towering over Starlight. “What game are you playing at this time?”

Sparing only a glance at the dark princess, Discord coiled and twisted in the air around Starlight. Putting a lion’s paw to his chin he hemmed and hawed as he inspected the enraged unicorn. “Now why are you so angry, my dear friend? Didn’t you like playing with all those other ponies? Don't you find games more fun with so many more varables?”

“This isn’t a game, you psycho!”

“DISCORD!!!” Bellowing in fury, Nightmare Moon stalked up to the duo and rearing up, glared down at the trickster. “You will explain yourself now!”

“Tut, tut, you two, I don’t see what’s the big deal.”

“You promised me power and then set me up to fail!” “THOU REAWAKENED AN ELEMENT OF HARMONY!” The two voices screamed with Nightmare Moon's cry nearly drowning out Starlight's.

“Again, I really don’t see what’s the big deal,” Discord replied raising an eyebrow.

*WHAM*

Powering her horn, Nightmare Moon slammed the draconequus against the wall as she marched towards him. “Explain thy self now!”

Standing back up, Discord evenly glared back at the black alicorn as he made a show of brushing off a broken stone chip from his shoulder. “Be very careful with who you chose to make enemies with, moon-butt.”

“I could say the same, villain,” his opponent shot back.

Had this threat meant to intimidate the other party though, it instead seemed to have the opposite effect as laughter erupted along with a shower of sparks from Discord’s throat. “Hahahahahahahaha! Hello pot! This is the kettle! You’re black! Hahahahahahaha!”

“Cease your prattling and explain!” the dark alicorn demanded.

“I agree, what in Tartarus are you thinking!?” Starlight yelled.

“Oh very well, spoil sports,” Discord harrumph’d as he crossed his arms. “I merely wanted to poke at dangerous ancient magical artifacts with a pony to see what would happen, and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed!” Discord finished with a manic grin on his face.

“You child-minded fool!” Nightmare Moon sneered as she ground her teeth at the callus whimsy of the spirit before her.

“So you lied to me? Used me just for your entertainment?” Starlight accused, anger and disbelief warring within her.

“Lied? Oh no, no, no, no, no, my little pony. The elements are powerful and could very well give you the power to twist destiny around your little hoof like a piece of string." He smugly sang as he swung on a giant yarn cat's cradle he had summoned. "You just didn’t find the right one.”

“The right one?”

“Oh yes, the one that those plucky adventurers found was the Element of Honesty; you want the Element of Magic my dear,” Discord practically purred into Starlight’s ear.

“Element of Magic? And I’ll find it in Cloudsdale?”

“Oh ho, ho, ho! I have no idea!” he laughed gaily as he swam around the air, chuckling all the way. “You’ll just have to go there and see, now won’t you?”

“What!?”

“You will do no such thing Discord!” Nightmare Moon yelled as she hurled crippling blasts of magic at the serpentine spirit, only for Discord to twist and roll away from each with blatant ease. “You have done enough damage! I will not allow you to carry on with thy whims!”

“Oh Looney Mooney,” the spirit of chaos mocked as he turned to look directly at her, “One can NEVER do enough damage.” And with a snap of his talon, he and Starlight were gone once again, leaving the mare in the moon alone once again.

"…"

“It’s all coming undone for you, isn’t it?” a soft voice whispered in Nightmare Moon’s ear.

“Silence!” Marching to behind her platform Nightmare Moon threw aside a black velvet curtain to stare directly into an iron cage hidden behind it. Inside she saw the chained and locked form of another alicorn, smaller than her, with a pale blue mane and crescent moon upon a dark sky cutie mark. “This is but a minor annoyance at best. The fool plays at things beyond his ability to grasp, yet again. I need only to ensure that I am not harmed when this too blows up within his face.”

Leaning forward, her prisoner glowered as she stared down her jailer. “Not this time. You hear him; he plays with the Elements! He will fall just as you should have fallen all those years ago!”

Flinching back, Nightmare Moon growled and power gathered around her horn before she stopped. A cruel grin spread itself across her features. “Ah, would this have been before or after I killed your sister; what was her name again?” she nearly sang as she tapped her bottom lip with her hoof, pretending to be in deep thought.

“You leave Celestia out of this!”

“Oh yes; Celestia. That was it.”

“Don’t you DARE speak her name, demon! She was a thousand times the pony you could ever hope to be! Even her name alone is too good to be spoken by a vile witch like yourself!”

Craning her neck down to look down upon her captive, Nightmare Moon smirked. “Oh, was dear sweet Celestia really that important to you?”

“More than life itself, monster,” her captive hissed.

Her hooves clacked against the marble floor of the room as the regal alicorn circled the cage. “Then tell me again, who was it that aided me? Who was it that allowed me passage to her very throne?”

Her anger popping like a soap bubble, the smaller alicorn flinched as if struck, shrinking into herself as she sought refuge in the furthest corner of the cage. “I-I didn’t know; I was so young, and I was jealous,” she babbled as she turned away, unable to look any more at Nightmare Moon.

“What is this? No more brave words? Do you not have an opinion anymore? What say you about the Elements, my dear Luna?” Nightmare Moon mocked.

No words met hers though, as Princess Luna curled in upon herself and silently wept, her whimpers fading to nothing with in the chamber.

“That is what I thought; utterly pathetic.” Tossing the velvet curtain back upon the tiny prison, Nightmare Moon marched away from the empty cage and returned to her platform. “I cannot allow that fool Discord to continue this game.” Stretching her neck and summoning her magic once more, Nightmare Moon closed her eyes and looked deep within herself. “Still not my best, but soon I should be recovered enough." Gathering the shadows around herself she looked up towards the sky where she could feel the world's moon hanging high above her. " Beware all those that stand in my way, I shall soon be coming for you.”

Author's Note:

OK, I completely had a different idea in mind, with a random changeling attending to Nightmare Moon who would of course turn out to be a spy for Chrysalis.

But it was 1:30am in the morning when I wrote this. I looked online for random pony designs and a generic yellow mare caught my eye. Scrolling through the list of nameless background ponies again I saw one with a pink mane that looked interesting. Then I figured since changelings use magic I should make this one a unicorn. 'Bam'. Instant generic pony.

Again, this was 1:30 AM.

It was my pre-reader Tasermonspartner told me he was looking forward with what I was planning for Fluttershy.

FLUTTERSHY

It wasn't until I heard that, that I realized what I had accidentally done.

After thinking it over, I'm just going to keep it as is. This story has officially gotten away from me so let's all see where this all goes from here.

Comments

[Comickook]

Great job on this interlude chapter taking a look at some of the villains following the failed attempt at the Element of Honesty. The work that went into the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up are all well done in all the right places. Yeah, that argument between Nightmare Moon and Discord was quite well done as was Starlight's demonstration of frustration concerning the failed attempt at the first element and that argument between Nightmare Moon and Luna.

Plus, yeah, I can see where you would subconsciously think of a pale yellow unicorn with a pink mane. Of course, nothing saying that this unicorn mare couldn't still be a changeling in disguise spying for Chrysalis (as you, yourself, pointed out in the author's notes; the changeling might have been inspired by Fluttershy, going for the quietest, most mild-mannered, least conspicuous form possible).

For the Cloudsdale adventure, maybe Twilight could create a couple of fully-functional artificial wing packs for herself and Applejack so they can fly just well enough to make it in Cloudsdale (as well as devise a formula to make her next set of saddle bags more magic resistant so that Starlight can't take them from her so easily again); at least until the two of them make friends with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

Anyway, really looking forward to more of this particularly on if the next recovered and activated element turns out to be either Loyalty or Laughter.

[raven618]

That moment when you accidentally make a protagonist.

[Hawkrine]

Loving this so much!