The Immortals are Gone
"Hmmmm."
A figure stirred within a boundless void, its anger seething and raw.
"It will have been a thousand years now. Aaaah, to finally be free!" The figure struggled to move, but as with all the other times, it was pointless. "To be bound body and soul to the source of my power. I will have my revenge, sister, and it will not be pretty." Its laugh echoed around it as though it were in an empty, metallic room. The entity took in a deep breath. "Hmmph. I can already feel myself disconnecting from the moon and reforming. It will be over soon. All my plans will soon come to fruition, and the little ponies will adore my night, whether they want to or not!" it yelled with fury and disdain.
Everything around the entity started to swirl and spin, vibrate and gyrate. The long millennia of sensory deprivation where every non-breath would last a day and swell the moon. The only colors being the red of rage that bled over every memory of her defeat and the deep silver of victory when she would witness her sister fall to her power!
Sister. Disgusting. She hated her, but Celestia was not weak. The Mare in the Moon felt herself coalesce as the spell unraveled around her.
"I wonder what my sister has done to our home while I was away," Nightmare Moon said. "Perhaps she fortified it. She knows I'll return to where she banished me." The mare paused. "Or she abandoned it, leaving it to its own machinations, and it's a castle." She felt more anger boil up within her ever-solidifying form. "Destroying our home. I'll have it rebuilt when I get rid of her. We'll see how she feels when she's banished within the sun for a thousand years!"
Her body began to take shape, but the alicorn felt odd. More and more matter seemed to swirl towards her like the eye of a whirlpool, more than she ever remembered having. More power, energy, and the pure 'fragrance' of the moon, as she called it long ago. A memory of her and Celestia as fillies bubbled up in her mind before being chased off. The mare in the moon felt her body surge with lunar energy, some of it not of her own, precious satellite. She wasn't sure where it had come from, but it wasn't really a priority since she was swelling with power.
After such a long wait, the alicorn raised her forelegs, gazed upon them, and cackled. "Finally! No more speaking to myself of what will be and what I will do! Now is the time to act!"
The sky above Equestria darkened suddenly, torn apart to display the stars of the night sky above everything. The moon itself was many times its size, terrifying some thinking it was about to crash into the world. All the astral bodies began glowing brightly after a swirling, dark vortex of shadows funneled from the ground, pulling up a dark, cackling figure. It rose higher and higher as its body solidified and took shape within the storm of darkness until it rose its forelegs high and threw its head back as it laughed heartily, its sharp fangs bared.
"I have returned to my castle! Foolish ponies!" it declared. "Soon, my dear sister will be groveling at my hooves, and I will banish her into the sun. All those who resist my reign will be imprisoned forever more, their only comfort being the stars that will swaddle them in the night eternal!"
The vortex expanded and burst outward several feet in every direction before pulling back and collapsing into itself upon the newly freed mare-in-the-moon. Her glee quickly made way for confusion. Standing before the alicorn were a plethora of ponies that had been laying on the ground, bracing themselves from the initial expansion of her imprisonment spell dispersing violently.
"What is this? Where am I?" She looked around. "Where is the Everfree forest?!" she bellowed.
It was all gone! The small forest around their home which she was sure would have devoured everything if left unsupervised was gone. Even her castle had vanished! Not a stone of it was left. Instead, the mare-in-the-moon was met with a whitish-blue pavement at her hooves stretching as far as she could see. At least, that was when they weren't interrupted by strange buildings with the same kind of material. Buildings rose several dozens of feet high into the air, making the alicorn think of wide guard towers. Worse still, each of them had bizarre shapes. One looked like a cane, and another like it had two arms stretched out behind several buildings in front of it.
Nightmare Moon pulled her head back as she took in the scenery and more ponies flocked to her. The floor's monotonous coloring was interrupted by several errant shapes of a much darker or brighter color, producing patches of bright whites or deep, dark blues. Far in front of her was a gigantic snow globe standing in the middle of the space displaying a hillside and a cottage upon being snowed on, although where the slow-moving flakes were coming from was a mystery. Above were several airships floating around, unaware of the world below them. They all had different shapes to them, from angular to smooth and round to multi-faceted ridged spears. The balloons all remained the same, however: White blobs held onto the hull by ropes squeezing them.
The alicorn flinched when she saw all the ponies fathered at her hooves looking up at her with bright, sparkling eyes.
"Wow, that's an amazing performance!" a stallion said with glee.
"How do you think she manages to look that way? Magic? I've never heard of a spell that can make you giant like that," another wondered.
Moon looked quickly between each of the ponies. "What are you saying? Speak ponyish!" she shouted. "What kind of language even is that?!"
The ponies stopped in their tracks and all said 'ooooh', stunning the alicorn.
"Wooow. They're even speaking in a made-up language."
"I think she's casting a spell!"
"Enough!" Nightmare Moon bellowed.
The Royal Canterlot Voice wasn't the only thing that came with her outrage. While the ponies were pushed back by the strength and wings, making their cheeks flutter back, a huge wave of dark energy crashed forth from Nightmare Moon, washing the crowd away. Only a few remained in front of her. The rest were pushed away a few feet like they were standing on ice. Some had fallen onto their backs.
"Huh. That was new," Nightmare Moon said. "These ponies are enraging! Why aren't they afraid of me?!" she griped to herself. "Don't you know who I am?!" she yelled once more in the royal canterlot voice. "I am Nightmare Moon, come to bless you with night eternal after I imprison my sister for having unjustly banished me!" The ponies looked at each other and shrugged. They continued speaking in a language the alicorn didn't recognize. "Alright, that's enough."
She stomped forward, pelting the land beneath her with energy, cracking it and pushing the stones upwards, making them bubble up like a volcano was beneath, about to erupt. She grabbed a pony by the neck and swooped up high into the air, astonishing her crowd. The mare was finding it hard to breathe and looked around to try and establish where she was.
"Ugh. You sure do love your icy colors," she spat. Moon looked down at the stallion she snatched looking at her with a mixture of amazement and fear. The alicorn bared her sharp teeth at him and growled. "This is all wrong. This was supposed to be my moment of triumph! My great return! Where is Celestia?!" she yelled at the pony. The stallion remained silent. "I asked you a question, insolent stallion."
"I-I-I don't know what you're saying, miss. I'm not sure I like that you're acting like an aggressive alicorn. I thought they were meant to be great beings of purity and kindness!" he stammered.
The alicorn's eye twitched, and she ended up roaring in her building rage and frustration. An immense tornado of dark energy surrounded her. It spread to the ground where its voice was second only to the destruction it was causing. The stones on the floor were being broken apart and chucked in various directions as they were pulled up by Nightmare Moon's powers. The cyclone rose up and pulled the clouds into it. The mixture of them with her powers was beginning to agitate the sky, and a pseudo-storm started brewing. The clouds started to share Nightmare Moon's anger, turning dark, taking on the shape of the wavy asperitas cloud, and groaning loudly.
The captive stallion slowly started to realize that this wasn't actually some kind of magic show using really advanced tricks and a bit of magic. He started wriggling about in Moon's grasp, trying to free himself, but her grip would not relent and, in fact, only became stronger.
"Celestia! Where are you?! I know you are hiding!" the alicorn shouted as loudly as possible.
The ponies on the ground began to scatter, realizing as well that this was no show, or at least that the actor had become overly enthusiastic. The stallion in Moon's grasp started to whimper and cry, which received a hearty laugh from his captor. She looked to the side to see at least a battalion of armored pegasi flying towards her. Their bodies were completely engulfed in metal plates, including their wings. Their helmets, however, didn't cover the face, but a long cap obscured all but the mouth. Light blue uniforms covered their chests, with some bearing some form of decorum upon them. It didn't escape the alicorn that many of them were carrying spears with glowing, yellow tips. Possibly a form of antimagic weaponry, she thought, but she was the mare in the moon. Even something like antimagic could not empty her limitless magic pool!
Squeak.
"The festival preparations are going well, sir. The minotaurs in the south have lent us several crystal formations for the Winterdrop Turning. They'll, of course, want them back after the festivities have ceased."
Squeak.
"We'll be needing to order some additional cooks for the festival, though. A few seem to have fallen ill or were called by more pressing matters, sadly."
Squeak.
"We did get plenty of artists to perform, though. Several of them are very well known."
Squeak.
Why was he even here? He wasn't even looking at his assistants. He couldn't even tell their voices apart when he was never looking at them. He could be at home getting everything ready for his own enjoyment at the festival, but he was a mayor, and that meant 'dUtIeS aNd ReSpOnSiBiLiTiEs'. He heaved a sigh and spun around on his chair, making it squeak again. His office was as bland and boring as any other mayor's office: A polished desk made of blue marble with streaks of white across its surface and two, simple wooden chairs with black cushions on the back and seat in front of that. Currently occupied chairs. Polished, wooden shelves filled with books on legal matters to peruse when he needed their insight, A few opposite them holding copies of the city's legal documentation and complaints ordered by date of reception. It was surprisingly empty most of the time thanks to his clever application of a tier system where lower-level staff would take care of things like noise complaints or a rock being too angular, or maybe even a tree growing. Oh no.
Some rattling filled the mayor's ears, attracting his eyes upwards. The copper pipes were acting up again. They created a hideous contrast to the white walls of his office and snaked about near the ceiling. He was lucky the walls were made of stone, or he'd likely be suffering some form of decomposition by now. They belched steam on occasion, and the plumber never fixed them correctly. They led directly to the fireplace in front of him where the contents would mix with another few substances from unseen pipes to create a calm fire to heat up his room in these freezing temperatures.
"Mayor?"
Oh, right. They were here. The Winterdrop Turning.
"Yes?"
They exchanged looks. "We were talking about the state of the festival preparations?"
"What...Oh. Oh! I'm sorry! I got lost in my thoughts. Make sure to send a letter of thanks to the minotaurs and the best estimate they can expect to retrieve their crystals," the mayor said with a smile.
The pony who called him back to reality quickly scribbled the words down in her notebook. She was a twin, and her brother stood next to her. Both were very thin and somewhat svelte, which often made it difficult to tell them apart. Supposedly they were kin to an alicorn of old, -as if- and so were forced into this position by the previous mayor. The current doubted their abilities because of it, but was surprised to find that they were immensely helpful to his tasks.
Both of them had white coats, manes, and tails, but with multiple streaks going through the latter two. Their manes both curled at the tip, wrapping over itself into something of a ball that covered their right ear. Their tails were loose and split at the ends, making them look like they were wet at the tips. At the base of their eyes and the joints of their legs connecting to their torsos were red lines covered in sparkles. The mayor was certain that they were doing it artificially, but even when standing in the rain or sweating a lot during summer, the colors and sparkles wouldn't vanish. They stared at him with their giant, red eyes, awaiting his next response.
The stallion was named Candy Cane and the mare Candied Cane. The mayor groaned internally. Even their names were difficult to tell apart. He'd strangle their parents if they were still alive. Actually, he could dig them up and-
"Mayor! I feel like you're not really invested in this festival," Candied Cane complained. She laid her notebook down. "Don't you care?"
The mayor rubbed his temples with a hoof. "I'm exhausted, Candy Cane."
"Candied Cane."
The mayor cringed. "I did it again. Sorry," he wheezed. "Anyways, I'm exhausted. It's always the same things over and over again. Nothing new ever happens around here." He spun around to look through the giant window behind his desk. "At least with that powdery stuff I expected something to come of it, but nothing...Hmmm. What's that?" he asked. He moved to the side and gestured to the window. "There's a crowd down there with a giant black pony. The artists are rehearsing or something?" The Cane twins moved to the window and looked at the open square, seeing the crowds growing. "Ha ha, looks like an alicorn." The mayor wiped his forehead. "Good thing they aren't real," he laughed.
"Uuuuh," the twins said in unison.
"Well, that was actually quite invigorating to see. I feel a little bit more motivated to work now." He adjusted himself in his seat. "How about w-" His office shook, startling him. "Hey now, they're going a bit hard on the effects there. If that happens again then I want our policing force to apprehend th-" A more violent tremor shook the office, knocking some decorative knick-knacks down. "My awards," he lamented.
"Mr. Mayor, I don't think that's an act," Candy Cane said nervously. He chuckled. "I uh, think that's serious."
The mayor stared at him with skepticism. "Really, an alicorn of legend just pops up out of nowhere and starts destroying everything?" He scoffed. "They're legends. That means they're not. Real. They...! They..."
A shadow crept across the office when a tornado of darkness started rising into the sky and destroying the land.
"Get...get the local military involved," the mayor said quietly.
"How-" Candied Cane didn't have time to ask anything that the mayor exploded.
"Get them involved! Have them bring in the pegasi with antimagic weaponry, and get the earth ponies and unicorns to try and stabilize everything. I don't know what's happening, but that is no sleight of hoof!"
When the two galloped out of the room, the mayor faced the tornado again. During a flash of light, he discovered his reflection staring back at him with a gigantic grin.
The alicorn laughed as a spear was thrown her way. It dug past the vortex and locked in place, dragging the vortex down with it.
"Gah!" Moon cried out. She swatted the spear away, lodging it into the ground. "Antimagic doesn't have that kind of power!" She grunted and clutched her side with a hood. "Insolent little whelps. No matter! I'll get rid of all of you and find my cowardly sister!"
She held the kidnapped pony in her magical grasp as she called upon the powers of the moon. Bolts of white lightning started raining down upon the pegasi approaching her. To her surprise, many of them were deftly avoiding her magic, but a few were still struck and fell down in heaps of smoke. The fight continued on like this with the ponies throwing their spears at the monstrous being before them. Nightmare Moon tapped into the seemingly limitless power she possessed and threw new spell after new spell at them: Whips grabbing each one and smacking them against each other, crescent blades of white light nearly slicing through them, bubbles that would pop with explosive force when approached. Nightmare Moon was, much to her surprise, having quite a lot of fun. Perhaps it was because she was trapped in a void, only minimally aware that she was a being and that there was a world outside for so long.
After many long hours, the mare tired, but her magics were being temporarily retained by the many dozens of spears the pegasi had thrown at her vortex. She was now upon the tattered ground, pony held in her foreleg. The spears were strewn about her, planted into the ground at various angles, holding down a living shadow of sorts. The alicorn chuckled internally.
"Release that stallion, pony!" one of the armored pegasi shouted. The mare tilted her head in confusion.
"S-she can't speak...our language!" the hostage struggled to shout while he tried to free himself.
The pegasus gestured to Moon to let go of the pony and let him go away, to which she acquiesced with a shrug and a sinister smile. He was quick to scamper away. Curious as to their intentions, and still surfing on the fun she had, the alicorn let them approach her. The soldiers were looking around, and one came with a glass orb filled with a cloud. At least, that's what it looked like. They threw it at their hooves in front of Nightmare Moon who could only raise a brow. The contents simply vanished into the air, and the soldiers looked on in horror.
"You threw a cloud at me and are horrified that it didn't do anything?" The mare scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Ponies of this era are complete idiots. You even trapped it in a glass ball of all things," she berated with a shake of her head.
"What did she say?"
"Is that even ponyish?"
Nightmare Moon had been so distracted by the ball and the underwhelming outcome that she hadn't noticed the earth ponies and unicorns surrounding her, all dressed in similar garb as the pegasi.
"Quaint. The teeny tiny ponies think they can take me on," Moon teased.
The only sound that could be heard was the fluttering of the dark, blinking veil that engulfed Nightmare Moon's form. The stand-off was interrupted by somepony calling out to the soldiers. A unicorn and earth pony approached the source of the voice and accompanied them to the limit of the circle the soldiers had made. The newcomer looked like a civilian. He wore a brown vest with black buttons and a blue undershirt to try and spruce up his faded coat. There was just the tiniest hint of color there, but he was mostly gray and white now. His mane and tail were mostly unkempt, but Moon wasn't sure that was because he came in a rush or it was just his regular wild mane style.
"Who are you? What are you? Why did you do this?" he asked as he gestured to the square. "This is my city and I am its mayor. I won't have some ruffian using explosives with their parlor tricks destroy it!"
The ponies around shifted in place, something that didn't escape the mare's watchful eye. She lowered her neck to the stallion's level and dissipated the veil across her body. Immediately, the mayor's jaw dropped, and the soldiers collectively gasped.
"Alicorn!" the mayor stuttered.
Nightmare Moon felt relieved and raised her head. "Ah. Now that's a word I recognize. Why can't you all speak like that?!" she bellowed angrily.
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Very fun story so far!
It has a few grammatical mistakes here n' there though. Interested on seeing where you take it
10991802
It does? But I passed it through the spell checker.
Long ago in a distant land, I, ̶P̶r̶i̶n̶c̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶L̶u̶n̶a̶ Nightmare Moon, Lady of night and darkness, revealed her true form, ̶u̶n̶l̶e̶a̶s̶h̶e̶d̶ ̶u̶n̶s̶p̶e̶a̶k̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ ̶e̶v̶i̶l̶"̶ tried to get what was taken from me.
But a foolish sister, armed with the magical elements of the harmony, turned against me.
Before I dealt her the last blow, she tore out the portal in time and threw me ̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶o̶n̶ into the future, where I don't know what - the law.
Now I'm trying to go back in time and ̶d̶e̶s̶t̶r̶o̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶u̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ to bring back what belongs to me, Nightmare Moon.
* and then the music starts playing.
https://youtu.be/K81KTSU0mIg
I really liked the idea of this story and now I look forward to continuing.
10991846
10991853
I would watch this fight with this weapon. :D
Okay, not gonna lie seems pretty interesting.
10991815
A spell checker will not always catch Grammar errors.
10992515
Sounds like trickery!
Mrm.
10992570
What?
10991815
What spell checker are you using?
10992627
Language Tool (firefox extension). Actually spotted quite a few errors I didn't see on my first pass over.
This is a interesting take, and I look forward to more
This looks good!
We will watch your writing career with great interest
Why is this the only story I know of where language actually changes a thousand years later? How does no one else ever do this?
Also from the summary I thought it was going to be a G5 fic.
11020361
The whole idea is that it has been more than a thousand years, much of that time without allicorns. same language makes sense when you have a ruler who still speaks it.
11025184
That's... Actually a really good point.
11006475
First, grammar, do you understand what this means?
Second, Nightmare Moon has been trapped on the moon for over a millennia, possibly longer, with only herself for company. She is hardly in the right state of mind for ‘playing nice’.
11025184
From what I gather, it's been more like fifty-thousand years instead.
Great start to the story.
I'm intrigued.
Not a fan of G5, but i give it 5 more chapters to get me interested...