Communication Difficulties
"What is she saying?" the mayor asked.
Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes and huffed. "Not this again." She rubbed her chin and started mumbling to herself. "No point in taking over this city as a start if no pony can understand me. It would be like a beast randomly destroying everything just to make its nest for them." She narrowed her eyes, scaring some soldiers. "Best to play this tactically. If I can communicate with them first, then I'll be able to find my sister, and then I can destroy them." She smiled at the end of her thoughts, causing further discomfort in the crowd.
"I think I know what we can do," a decorated unicorn officer suggested to the mayor.
"And what's that?"
"I'm no linguist, but I recognize a few of the words she has spoken from some old ponyish my nephew has been studying at his university." The officer looked the mayor straight in the eyes while still casting passing glances at the giant, black pony before them. "With your permission, I would like to send a contingent there and gather as many students and teachers in that area of study as possible. Together they might be able to tell us what it is this..." He took a deep, audible gulp. "What this alicorn is saying."
The elderly stallion gave it a moment of thought, glaring at the giant who looked back with a semi-bored, semi-amused expression that made a chill gallop down his spine. "Fine. Do that, and be quick about it!"
"Yes, sir!"
The officer took several unicorns and earth ponies on standby with him down the many stairs that led up to the square. Their hooves quieted as time went on, leaving just stressed out soldiers, an old mayor, and a bored alicorn. She sat down, causing a jolt of nervousness from the soldiers, but their existence remained unknown in the obliviousness Moon held for what was happening around her. Her left wing moved up, and twitched, and waggled, and the mare was growing increasingly uncomfortable.
"I think she's trying to set herself free," one of the soldiers whispered to his neighbor.
Said neighbor shook her head. "No way. These are the strongest antimagic spears we have, and there's at least thirty here locking her magic down."
"Hmph. Itchy," Moon grunted. The shadow on the floor bucked, ripping a spear out of the ground to spin towards the mare through the air and into her magical grasp. She used the tip to start scratching the middle of her back. "Ah, much better. That was killing me," she mumbled. She was about to throw it when she brought it closer to her eyes to scrutinize.
The mayor slowly turned his head to the dumbfounded earth pony officer, his face turning red. "She could get out of that this whole time?!" he asked behind clenched teeth. He glared at the Earth pony officer and pulled their helmet down.
"This is becoming tedious," Nightmare Moon complained. The cloudy, white skies prevented her from seeing the actual time of day, so creating eternal night wasn't really worth it for the time being, and she wanted everypony to see it. "I was supposed to arrive at the ceremony where my darling sister would be celebrating my imprisonment." She snorted. "Being vaguely aware of things...well, the moon does whisper sweet things to my ears when I'm bored. Learning of that...these ponies must know something. Even my imprisonment for a thousand years wouldn't see me forgotten."
She heard a shuffling of hooves as a multicolored crowd of young ponies were being corralled towards her. They were being pushed by the soldiers, causing their horseshoes to scrape the stone. Most of the damages incurred had been mostly cleaned out, but there were still large gaps in the ground.
The mayor turned away from the group and moved to Nightmare Moon. He looked at her with a scowl on his face and pointed to her aggressively, then to the group of ponies and gestured to his mouth, saying something.
The alicorn furrowed her brow and bared her teeth, exposing her long, sharp fangs. She bore the countenance of a wild, snarling beast. "How dare you, a peasant commoner, presume to command me!?" Moon shouted in the Royal Canterlot Voice.
Several of the young students gasped not in shock, not in horror, not in fear, but in awe, distracting the alicorn.
"That's...it couldn't be."
"But she speaks it so fluently."
"There are words I've never heard before!"
The unicorn officer stepped forward, annoyed. "Quit your jibber jabbering! What's going on?"
A small blue stallion with lime-green waves going through his mane and coat in single, consistent patterns stepped forth. "Sir, we believe that might be Canterlot Ponyish. It's a very, very old dialect that most of us have forgotten. It's, in fact, very hard to even find texts recounting its grammatical rules let alone just being written in it."
The mayor pushed the officer aside. "What? What are you talking about? Does 'Canterlot' have any significance?" He ran a hoof through his mane. "I don't have time for this. I have a festival to prepare."
A mare stepped forward, this one wearing a thick, red-and-white, polka-dotted sweater that hid everything but her eyes. "I-it's allegedly a place where the alicorns of legend existed and ruled pony kind. Considering that the dialect has that name, most historians believe it to have been a real place and, obviously, the origin of it."
The earth pony officer huffed at the concept. "Yeah. Sure. A place of legend like that is real. It's more likely it was just named that by some aristocrats who began to speak it."
"Well, clearly it's not a legend what with that thing right there!" the mayor yelled angrily while pointing to Nightmare Moon.
There was a long pause while everyone exchanged glances. "Then what do we do? Have the students try and talk with her?" the unicorn officer suggested.
The pegasus flew down and hovered nearby. "What are our options here? We've been watching that mass of black energy for a few hours now, and we're all getting tired."
The mayor scratched the ground with a hoof. "Have the students confront the alicorn. Keep the unicorns on high alert to teleport them away if there's any potential threat to their lives. If this gets worse, then, you have my permission to contact your higher ups and have them take over." He stepped forward and jabbed the lowered pegasus several times in the chest. "Provided you minimize, or preferably prevent, any further damage to my city."
"Yes, sir."
It took several minutes before the students agreed to get closer to what they were sure was just a monster in the guise of an alicorn. Nightmare Moon was starting to get antsy and gradually tapping the ground harder and harder with her hooves. Her growing anger subsided partially when she noticed the uneven ring of guards slowly break apart in one area, leaving a nervous crowd of ponies to inch forward closer and closer whilst looking terrified. The alicorn couldn't help but smirk. This was what she wanted to see. Terrified ponies groveling before her.
A unicorn stallion with his mane and tail spiked up was pushed forward by the others. His mane and tail were twirled mixtures of greens, blues, and pinks, and his coat was a bright yellow. It was almost white.
"Be our spokesperson," one of the students told him. "We'll help out with translations."
The stallion gulped and inched forward while Nightmare Moon lied down to be at eye-level with the pony. "I can tell I'm going to hate you already," she grumbled. The stallion cleared his throat and opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He turned to face the other ponies, letting Luna catch a glimpse of his cutie mark. She felt her blood start to boil. It was a sunrise with musical notes above it. "Even his cutie mark...!" she strained.
"Um...uh...I Sunny Dimples. Unicorn. I live...uhhh..." He gestured to the ground then the city with his hoof. "Here. City of Snowfege. Very big city. Where do...mmm. Who you are?"
"...I'm going to have an aneurysm," Nightmare Moon stated flatly. The stallion furrowed his brows and tilted his head while still smiling. "It's 'Who are you', not 'who you are'," she corrected." Now, I will ask you this nicely just this once: Where is Celestia?"
The stallion turned his head towards his classmates several times before giving the alicorn a nervous smile. The others exchanged many words, a few of which Moon understood. Clearly, they had no clue what she was saying and had to confer with each other to figure it out. "Celestia?"
"Yes. My sister. The white alicorn that controls the sun."
The stallion's face twisted. "Sister?" he stammered. "Other alicorn like you?"
Nightmare Moon immediately bolted upright and stomped the ground as her shadow fought against the spears. "I am not like my sister!" she bellowed. "She is white and controls the sun. She has ruled you ponies for a thousand years after banishing me!" the mare spat.
The stallion wanted to disappear. He wanted to go back home and stay in his bed for the rest of the d-No, m--Year. Year sounded good. "Not ever heard of," he said nervously. "You knowing Canterlot?" he asked.
Nightmare Moon realized that she could pry this bumbling buffoon for knowledge after that question. "Yes. It was where we were supposed to rule before..." She clenched her teeth.
"But, that...um...hundred hundred years ago," the stallion stuttered.
"Hundred hundred, huh?" Nightmare Moon repeated skeptically.
The stallion returned to the others then spoke again. "Thousands years ago. Canterlot real? Great news!" he cheered.
Nightmare Moon felt herself weaken, and she paled at the knowledge as well. Celestia was nowhere to be seen and was unknown to the general public. Ponies were speaking in a strange language, possibly an offshoot or evolution of her spoken tongue. They wielded strange new technologies against her, but the more she looked around, the more off things seemed to be. Their technology should have advanced far more than it already did. Airships were things that existed in her time too. The antimagic weaponry was strong, sure, but it was barely any different from that employed in the past. Satellites orbited her mind as she thought through the trauma to try and keep herself focused. The ponies here had barely advanced beyond the technology of her age, so what were the other races doing, and, more importantly, where were the other immortals? She had felt the birth of a few alicorns during her passing waves of awareness. Who were they and where had they gone. Then there was that self-proclaimed god of Chaos. Likely there were others.
What Nightmare Moon needed was knowledge and a place to begin her empire as she learned the language and history she was lacking. There were certainly answers in the libraries...but wait. Celestia wasn't around anymore. A slight murmur came from the alicorn which slowly evolved to a chuckle, then a cackle, then bellowing laughter.
"I've defeated you, sister! I've outlived you!" she shouted to the heavens. "Whatever fate befell you missed me thanks to your inability to kill me!" She cackled again. The soldiers were all growing unnerved and gradually breaking apart as they stepped away from the crazed alicorn. "I will be the one to rule Equestria and bring with it my eternal night, and now, no pony can stop me! Soon, they will forget all about your sun as they take in my starry skies!"
The officers and mayor stared at the scene, baffled at what they were witness to.
"Well, I don't like that," the unicorn officer stated. "Maybe you should cut your losses and evacuate the city."
The mayor looked at him slackjawed and wide-eyed. "Why, that's a fantastic idea. And then, I can use my butt as a pogo stick or cast a spell on it so that I can walk on my butt cheeks!" He threw his forelegs into the air. "Don't be a stupid idiot! This thing has immense magical powers but isn't trying to destroy everything." He rubbed his chin and grunted. "Probably was terrified when she noticed everything here and acted instinctively. I don't know." The mayor walked up to Sunny Dimples despite protests from the soldiers and put a hoof on his shoulder. "Congratulations. You'll be her permanent spokespony and translator."
"Wh-what?! B-but I don't want to--Guys, help me!"
His friends were quick to scamper away while bidding their classmate good luck. Sunny stared at his friends leaving, his emotions shot, but he was quick to notice that the alicorn had stopped laughing. He slowly turned his trembling head and felt himself slowly die from the scene: Nightmare Moon's bright, unblinking eyes were mere inches from his face. The slitted, reptilian pupils seemed to be chopping his soul into pieces the longer she looked at him. The alicorn's face was engulfed in black, wispy magic that accentuated said eyes and her frown. It was like seeing a deadly spirit suddenly appear behind you when you had already checked. He passed out.
"This is going to be fun," the mayor said to the officers.
He found himself grinning mischievously again.
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Poor Sunny. Getting volunteered like that.
This situation is so daunting but I'm starting to get an idea where this could be going, and I'm looking forward to seeing if I'm right.
hoof
It is somehow difficult for me to imagine that all the "immortals" have disappeared. At least it seems to me that such a being as Discord can live to the end of time.
I hope they will give us answers to these questions in the future.
Yes.
I’m excited to see where this story goes!
10993562
FFS. I keep glancing over things like this! And the spellchecker don't find 'em neither! Thanks for spotting them.
10993977
depending on how rarely I use certain words, I set my word processor's spellcheck to automatically replace certain words with different ones to make it easier for me.
might work for you too.
10994052
I don't think it has that option, but I'd rather not have spellcheck work automatically. It's fine, though. I spot a lot of them with the spellchecker, and my friend spots a lot more as well with his SPECIAL EYES.
10994056
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/masonry/000/485/449/055.jpg
10994060
Ha, you got the reference.
This is quite beautiful
10994808
Spank you, Greenwall.
Curious. That mayor is so over his head he has no idea. Poor student.
Let's see how this pans out!
theory Sunny Dimples is actually tia in disguise pulling a prank few thousand years in making
Instead of a thousand it's a hundred thousand years
11004151
?
This is like a caricature of an adult. If a mythological demigodess appeared in the middle of your town and literally tossed aside your entire police force, your main concern wouldn't be a festival, no matter how important that festival was. This just isn't realistic behavior at all.
10993977
The spell checker won't do shit there since that's the corect spelling for hood
11038610
It does find when there's the wrong word for a sentence, oddly enough. I have a friend who reads through and finds the issues too, at least, although that tends to be after I've submitted the chapter.
I can just imagine sunny thinking that this is just a small family dispute of gods
11206588
Luckily not the Greek Gods.
This is fascinating. Can't wait to see it unfold.
Still not catching... Nightmare Moon hopefully has a spell taking over the sun's qualitys or the plant life will start to die after eternal night started...
Cackles Maniacally as i hit the like button two characters in and I already like this story