Next Steps
Nightmare Moon cackled maniacally. "Fantastic!" She lifted the stallion onto his hooves and used her magic to clean him up and heal his wound. "We can discuss the terms of our agreement later after the party. I won't bother anypony anymore, so enjoy." Her charming and light demeanor immediately whiplashed to a dark and foreboding expression. "Don't eat all of the stew or I'll eat you," she threatened.
She gestured for Sunny to follow her and lifted him up with her to the upper floor, leaving everypony behind to try and recover from the shock. The mare tapped the tip of her hooves gleefully on the floor and moved about, almost like she was dancing in joy. Sunny was still horrified by what he had seen. This...this creature had access to other worlds?! Did that mean there were other hers that existed that she could call upon if there was a problem? His mind started racing a mile a minute. Anypony that she disliked could be banished to such a realm and trapped there forever with all those horrific things he had just seen? Everything about them felt wrong, and he couldn't figure out just how to process their shapes. Were they even alive? Why were they phasing in and out of existence? He felt himself starting to hyperventilate as the ideas of what Nightmare Moon could truly do dawned upon him.
The alicorn poked him in the chest. "What's wrong with you, servant?" she asked.
"I-I-I-!"
He couldn't figure out what to say. She had just declared war on the whole of Equestria. The queen was infuriated, and the king that had always been known as steadfast and able to keep his cool had broken in mere seconds of her opening that breach between realities. How had she done it? He was a veteran of a few wars and many small skirmishes with deserters and bandits. He had been captured and tortured. The king was one of the most fearless and steadfast kings that Equestria had gotten in so long, and then this single pony comes out of the moon and immediately succeeds in vassalizing him.
"Hey!" Nightmare Moon bellowed. "What's wrong with you?!"
"You just broke the king immediately!" Sunny bellowed. "The mayor is going to be executed in retaliation for what just happened because they can't hurt you, and he brought everything here!"
The mare was about to say something then hummed pensively. She moved towards the balcony overlooking the throne room. The nobles were already ganging up on the mayor, just as Sunny had foretold.
Nightmare Moon leaned over the balcony and pointed at the nobles. "Touch him and die," she said quickly.
The nobles quickly retracted, grumbling under their breath. In reality, Nightmare Moon wanted to tell them that she would throw them into the portal, but didn't know the word for 'portal', so she went for the more traditional and boring threats.
"I can't believe you're linked to other moons. I didn't even know that you could open portals to other realities!" the stallion shouted once Moon came back into view. He started pacing back and forth. "How?"
"Oh, that?" Moon sat on her haunches and checked her hooves. She frowned. "I need to get armor protection as soon as possible," she said calmly. "But no. I can't do that."
"Can't do what?"
"Open portals to another reality. Was all smoke and mirrors," she said while wiggling her hoof.
The stallion stared at her, dumbfounded. "What?!"
"Oh yes. That was all just a magical illusion I made to scare everypony." She chuckled. "Looks like it worked very well, too."
"Wh..." The stallion took in several deep breaths to calm himself. "But the wound--"
"I inflicted it the moment he passed through the portal." She slapped the ground as she laughed. "Oh, I never thought I would be able to do something of this scale. I suppose that even the onlookers from outside the castle were horrified at what was happening. I missed these."
"What do you mean by 'missed'?"
"I've been doing these illusions since my sister was still alive." Moon sighed. "I had been tricking her and other ponies, but this power boost has allowed me to extend the capabilities of my illusions exponentially." She looked at Sunny Dimples from the side. "Don't think I haven't noticed the fluidity with which you are speaking my tongue, servant."
The stallion blushed, tracing circles in the ground with his hood. "I've maybe been studying everything you gave me almost every night." He cleared his throat. "I've been maybe also not sleeping much..." He smiled sheepishly at the mare whose eyes started glowing brightly.
"A tired servant is an incompetent servant. You shouldn't be pushing yourself to such extremes if I have not given you the order to do so," she stated.
"O-of course."
"Still, I commend you for your due diligence and hard work. That it all paid off is something that should be rewarded...in the future," Moon explained.
Sunny sighed in relief and his trembling body almost collapsed on the floor. "Still, it is a bit relieving that you can't actually open portals to other realities, let alone one like that."
Nightmare Moon shrugged. "Well, I based what I saw on my nightmares," she explained nonchalantly. "Even one whose name is literally 'Nightmare Moon' can still have their own nightmares."
"I...see." He cleared his throat and lied down. "So, now what?" he asked.
"Now we wait for the party to cease. Considering the behavior of those leeches, they might just stay longer than they're supposed to while I'm not there to act tough in front of their peers," Moon explained.
She brought up the semi-transparent sphere that Sunny Dimples had seen a while back and watch as the alicorn moved lights, erased others, and created even more.
"But that's absurd. After what you just did? No pony would stay behind after that!" the unicorn exclaimed.
Moon scoffed and shook her head. "Ponies in their position are stubborn and prideful fools. The weakest of them will stand behind and act like they weren't affected, something that will influence the other cowards in their group to stay behind and proclaim that they also 'weren't scared'." She narrowed her eyes and used both hooves to move a giant brown-orange circle that had appeared on the surface of her sphere. "What even...They'll act tough when I reappear, so long as I don't confront them or say anything. Go ahead and look. Maybe spook them. Give us a laugh."
The stallion shook his head in disbelief. "No way. They'll have all left. Anypony sane would have."
Nightmare Moon looked at him with a bored expression and stretched out her hoof, exposing the frog. "Then go ahead and prove me wrong," she said. "Please." Moon smiled.
Moon noticed that Sunny was getting a bit too comfortable around her. She would have to work on that. The mare would only accept that kind of behavior from her closest, most trusted, and most loyal of servants. She didn't need somepony unswerving in her presence to pose a potential threat to her and her future. There was work to be done instead. Very important work.
Sunny looked over the balcony railing and felt all color drain from his face. The room was just as packed as earlier, and while the atmosphere felt tense and words were spoken more softly, the nobles were acting as though nothing happened. He looked down to see that the king was being held on the ground by his wife and was exchanging words with the mayor. How did she know? How could she know? To this extent?!
He slowly backed up back to the alicorn and spun around, his body still stiff. "They were still there," he wheezed.
"Mhmm," Moon said.
"They were talking like nothing had happened."
"Yes, as I had told you."
"Did you see anypony leaving?" she asked.
The stallion started scouring his short-term memory. "I believe so, yes."
"Then they are the ones we need to pay attention to. They know when to leave and when to stay. They don't push their luck." She patted the sphere several times and nodded at whatever result she had created. "Did the family who approached me remain? They're the exception to the rule, but only for my own reasons."
Sunny shook his head. "I didn't see them anywhere, your highness."
The mare looked instantly at the stallion with wide, surprised eyes. "They're more promising than I gave them credit for," she noted. "I'll have to elevate them to a more significant position when I take over Equestria officially. Also, I see that you only remember titles sporadically." The stallion cleared his throat in response to her words. "Don't get too comfortable. Everypony but me is ultimately replaceable."
"R-right," the stallion wheezed.
"Amazing!" a voice shouted. It was the mayor who had come in from the steps. "I would never in a million years have expected such a thing to occur!"
"Are you serious?!" Sunny shouted in disbelief. "Did you see what you've done?"
"I would have taken over one way or another," Nightmare Moon interjected.
The two stallions stared at her.
"She can speak our language now?" the mayor asked Sunny. "And what is that thing she's in?"
"She only understands portions of what we say, and I don't know." The unicorn paced about, horrified by everything that crossed his mind. "The king and queen are going to make an army to attack our city and destroy her! They might kill all of us in the crossfire."
The mayor smiled and waved his hoof. "Not at all. I negotiated with the king and queen, telling them what they wanted to hear. The alicorn will be staying here for the time being, and they can bring in ponies to watch her and relay information directly to them at the capital. The rest is up to her to negotiate. Even she couldn't fight the whole Equestrian army." His eyes widened and a wide grin slowly grew upon his face. "Or could she?"
"Mayor, this is getting out of hoof! You can't keep gauding her along like some toy! We talked about this!"
Now that she had finally met the so-called rulers of Equestria, Nightmare Moon was left with only one thing to do: Everything. She was getting better at reading the maps, although that was still a ways off. The most disconcerting issue was that, obviously, the names weren't the same. At the very least, she had already managed to locate where the city was a while ago, but now she needed to know where it was situated relative to Canterlot, and where the Everfree forest had gone. Her castle might still be present there, and Nightmare Moon needed to find a few of her belongings in there, or at least sleep more comfortably in the knowledge that time had destroyed all of her belongings.
Her mind wandered while she worked on space and trying to find the new moons she had been linked to. The pull was no longer there, even when she used this magic. She still had much training to do before she fully understood how her new gifts functioned. Still, now that she had vassalized the 'king' she now had access to tremendous amounts of resources and finances. Being stuck in the moon gave her time to realize: Ponies that aren't compensated for their craft would easily become disgruntled and rebel. If they become disgruntled and rebel, then their vital services become lost forever. Intimidating a single pony when you are on your own is easy, and you develop a reputation for it, but a ruler can't do that, even one like Nightmare Moon. What was it that the ponies called it before she and her sister arrive? Kingcraft?
Moon chuckled.
Ironic, considering the circumstances. She looked over to the mayor and Sunny arguing and semi-closed her eyes. She was actually starting to feel a little tired. Power could only push a mortal body so far, after all.
There were the terms to discuss with the new vassal king first, though, but what to talk about? And what would Moon pursue first? There were so many things and so many mysteries left to solve. The alicorn steadied herself. First was Canterlot. She would use the king's resources to get a geographic indication of the mountain it was built upon. If these ponies were as stupid as she thought, then they would have certainly lost a mountain of all things.
"Fools," Nightmare Moon thought to herself.
Got a prompt for the Gen 5 contest, so I'll be writing that after this chapter.
It'll be for this.
And it's a short story (max 10K words), so it shouldn't take up all of my time.
Also, I bamboozled you all again!
Stats
Page generated in 0.022 seconds
Total duration
643 users online
757,826 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Enjoyed this. Illusion. Tricky. Sunny the reluctant minion. I wonder how long he'll be reluctant...
... and how long it'll be before Sunny will become one of her most loyal of servants?
Nightmare Moon reappeared in the spot she was banished from.
Which, according to some things, was actually in the air above the Castle of the Two Sisters.
Which, in this time, is apparently in the mountains instead of a forest.
Of course, if her return spot was actually spot in sky above that latitude-longitude, plate tectonics moved the ground beneath it, and thus she actually arrived on what was Mount Canter, meaning that ruined castle they are repairing is Canterlot Castle.
Honestly I would be scared of somebody called nightmare had nightmares
Pride is a first step to fall, Nightmare. Why did you told to Sunny, that this all shit with King was just a trick? If he even accidentally spill it out, you reputation will get severly damaged and King will be angry even more for being fooled. Yes, you can execute Sunny for this, but damage will be done. Long tongue is unfitting for rulers.
11007617
There's actually a TV series called Freddy's Nightmares it's based on the nightmares Freddy Krueger had when he was alive
There will come a point where Nightmare will start to truly understand just how much Equestria has changed, including the culture and lifestyles of her subjects. She originally wanted them to love her night, to enjoy it as much as they do the day. I think she'll find the city nightlife quite eye-opening.
Lets warm that cold frozen heart shall we?
11008127
But then it'll melt :c
11008162 Well.. yes but not all of it, right?
11008226
:>
Now that Nightmare Moon has reached such power, I was wondering what kind of casual clothes would our queen of the night wear? Will she choose some dress to emphasize her elegance and be admired by the people as she originally wanted in the canon, or will she start wearing heavy armor to match the canon design?
11008554
Oooh, you draw?
11009031
I draw a little at the initial level. 😄
but my question remained unanswered.🤔
11009042
The answer is yes. (I started writing too late so I couldn't finish the next chapter on time :c)
Sounds like my mom around Thanksgiving.
11014190
lol
She's right above it isn't she
11055099
N-no!
“She brought up the semi-transparent sphere that Sunny Dimples had seen a while back and watch as the alicorn moved lights, erased others, and created even more.”
Due to every other verb being past tense, “watch” should be ‘watched’.
Yes, anypony [bold]sane[/bold] would be long gone, but these are nobility we’re talking about; they’re not known for being shining examples of sanity.
“Did the family who approach me remain?”
Should be ‘approached’.
Should Nightmare Moon not try to find out what wiped the history? What if something could become dangerous to her...