Appointment with Evil

by Bronyxy

5 Unfinished Housework

Nightmare Moon recoiled and snarled as the blast of light blue energy flew over her shoulder.

“Ha!” she retorted, “You missed; I will finish you for your impudence!”

Luna was unperturbed and said calmly, “My aim was true.”

Nightmare turned to see a magically conjured set of drapes closing across the massive window behind her and screamed. She pointed her own horn towards them, but it only managed to light with a faint glow and no spell emerged, the drapes continuing towards each other until they had all but blocked out the light.

Luna cast a light spell against the sudden darkness that had descended following the loss of moonlight from outside, and watched as the jet-black mare began to fade before her eyes.

“No … !” she shouted, her muzzle contorted into an expression of terror, “You’ll ruin everything …!”

The Princess slowed the progress of the spell and the drapes stopped within a fraction of their meeting, leaving only a small shaft of moonlight still falling onto the image of the ghostly looking alicorn.

“The stars were aiding you again, were they not?” deduced Luna, “Cutting you off from them has taken away your power.”

The increasingly transparent image of Nightmare Moon held its pose as if frozen, and said nothing.

“Were I to guess, I should venture to suggest that the storm outside had abated too” said Luna, “Since you were no doubt powering it from the same source.”

Nightmare stared back defiantly at her victor, her voice faint, “I am part of you, Luna, whether you like it or not. I will always be in your head …”

Having heard enough, Luna closed the drapes fully and the ghostly effigy vanished, along with its hate filled rhetoric.

She approached the dais and saw shattered remains of light blue fragments of discarded armour and black shreds of something else which, if she had to guess, would say contained the distilled essence of evil from Nightmare Moon. They had lain there ever since Luna had been freed by Twilight and the other Element Bearers, waiting patiently to be activated by the moon and stars as they drifted into a suitable alignment just outside the window.

Shaking her head, Luna left the sorry scene and went to find a bin to sweep the remains into, so she could ensure they would be finally destroyed, along with all memories from a past that she was desperate to forget.

Five minutes later, she returned with a sack and a small brush to complete a job that should have been done years ago, but as she drew nearer, she noticed moonlight spilling in through a large rip across one of the drapes. Where the moonbeams should have been illuminating the discarded remnants that encapsulated the spirit of Nightmare Moon, they now shone instead onto an empty stone dais.

Quickly, Luna dropped the sack and lit her horn as she began to cast a number of search and trace spells, but try as she might, the trail had been covered by a dark magic unknown to her. With every minute that she tried frantically to pick up the scent, the trail grew colder, until finally she had to admit to herself that the last vestiges of hope had gone.

Having been so close to ridding Equestria of Nightmare Moon and losing the opportunity at the final moment, she screamed at the top of her Royal Canterlot Voice out of sheer frustration, punctuating its final dying note by stamping her forehooves violently onto the floor.

Luna cursed under her breath as the adrenalin faded away, and looked around for any other clues she may have missed.

Something about the window intrigued her, so she went over to take a closer look and satisfy her curiosity. It was a large bay window with prismatically shaped panes arranged in an exact arc around the dais.

“Clever” she observed, noticing how the light from each pane focused onto the exact same point at the centre of the dais, amplifying the energy many times over.

“So that is how she did it” Luna acknowledged begrudgingly, “… and also why she could not move off the dais without losing her power.”

The Princess stepped back to put some distance between her and the window, then loosed off a single bolt of energy that blasted every pane into tiny shards in a single instant, leaving only the skeletal remains of shocked, bare frames as witnesses to the mass destruction.

Far away in Canterlot, Celestia paced the balcony of the Royal Castle, fretting at the lateness of the hour and the absence of her sister, fearing the worst. She had been dogged by bad dreams, and although she loved Luna with all her heart, could never forget why she had banished her to the moon all those long years ago.

Suddenly, the moon fell from the sky as if yanked sharply on a length of string.

Celestia stared, looking somewhat startled to see if this near comical act would be followed by something random that would indicate Discord’s intervention, but it did not come. With a warm feeling spreading through her, she realised that her sister must have suddenly become aware of the time and rushed to execute her duties.

Luna was safe; that was enough to know.

Celestia shook her head with a soft smile; moonset had been almost one hour and three quarters late; perhaps Luna had gone off on her travels and caught up with friends or had fallen asleep somewhere? She would tease her little sister about this one when she eventually returned.

Meanwhile, deep in the Everfree Forest, Luna could not shake off the picture in her mind’s eye of the familiar blue smoke belonging to her evil twin, searching for somewhere else to regroup and build up strength once again. She knew it would happen, but when and how this evil mare would reappear to threaten Equestria again would continue to taunt her consciousness. Nightmare Moon was in her head, just as her adversary had said she would be.

This was not over, but equally there was nothing more that could be done about it right now, so she turned her back on the ruined castle and raised her head to give a disgruntled huff before taking off for home. Perhaps she would stop off and see friends in Ponyville on her way?

She thought immediately of Rainbow Dash, then smiled to herself; what were the chances she would even be up at this time?

Then her mind switched to somepony who would definitely be in need of some calming down after the moon had been late to set.

With a little chuckle, she set course for Twilight Sparkle and hopefully some of Spike’s pancakes. It had been a busy night and to cap it all, she had missed both lunch and dinner.

Comments

[RebelNarrator45]

Masterfully well done. Very entertaining and suspenseful throughout!

Also yes. Twilight will need calming.

[Bronyxy]

10824538
Hey thanks!
Great to see you again

🏆

[Doctor_Den]

I must say that the story did not live up to my expectations. :(
I love watching the various interactions between Nightmare moon and Princess Luna, and this is what I expected from this story, but in the end, this interaction turned out to be catastrophically small.
after a long journey to it, it all ended before it really began.
I now felt myself in the place of an adventurer who went through the dungeon to the chest to find that it was almost empty.
nevertheless, I like the story.

P.S. at the end a thought came to my mind. Luna with such a proposal destroys her evil twin and is sure that Nightmare moon knows nothing but to do evil, but did she ever think of "how to explain to a blind man what a color is if he has not seen anything but darkness from birth?"

[Rustybuckets]

10825770
I felt it was more of an atmospheric adventure through an abandoned castle, and even if the ending wasn't as epic as I would hope it still got the job done. It feels like this was a short side story that could be canon.

[Bronyxy]

10842528
Thanks - glad you're enjoying it!

[Bronyxy]

10842547
Thanks for the comment - NMM remains undefeated and ready to make future appearances!

[Yubella]

Still trying to see nightmare as a bad guy

[Bronycommander]

Smart move, luna

[Bronyxy]

11501948
Thanks for commenting - nice to have your feedback!

[Bronycommander]

11501958
Mhm