An Heir's Frailty

by Codex92

A New Breed of Evil

I opened my eyes, hearing a whole lot of chaos around me. And it wasn’t the normal sort of chaos I expected that came from Discord. Sure, there were some parts of the area distorted by gravitational imbalances, objects looking different and out of place, but it almost looked like a warzone. Discord might have been devious, but most of his chaos is somewhat harmless. It’s like the world was evaporating in its destruction.

“What the heck is going on?” I uttered, bewildered. “Is this…a dream? I doubt this would be a nightmare for Discord, but it’s still…bizarre.”

“NO! Get away from me!” My ears twitched, hearing Discord’s voice, and he was…afraid? I looked to where his voice came from, and he was running straight toward me. He definitely seemed panicked as he ran on all fours, fleeing from something. “Just leave me alone!”

“Discord?” I flinched as he barreled toward me and he didn’t seem to notice my presence in his path. I braced myself, but as I heard him run through me, his body phased through mine. Confused, I looked behind me where Discord was headed, only to be apprehended by…a black bipedal cat and a white deer? They wore what looked like armor meant for royal leaders in battle, but I’ve never seen other sentient creatures like them in the show. Not even in the movie, and the only sentient cat that I’ve seen was Capper, the con artist who resided in that shady port town in the middle of a desert. “What in the world is going on?”

“Diiiiscoooooord~.” My body froze and trembled at the sound of a sickeningly sweet, but devious feminine voice echoing from behind me. I was too scared to move, and I don’t even know why, or who that voice belonged to. Below me, the ground began to fade away, leaving me floating in a slowly decaying world. I flinched when something grabbed my body, staring down at a massive blue claw picking me up between two digits. I was forcibly turned around to face what grabbed me, their presence making my heart stop and my stomach drop in absolute fear as I looked into the yellow, cat-like eyes peering through a green mist this creature veiled itself in. “There you are, Discord. Thought you could run away from me forever?”

“...W-Who…What are…?” I tried to speak, but for some reason, I couldn’t get the words to come out.

“You will never get rid of me, Dizzy dear,” the creature said with a dark, creepily alluring chuckle. “You’re mine. Forever.”

It began pulling me into the mist, my body finally scrambling to break free from this monster’s firm grasp on me. “N-No! Wait! I’m not Discord!” I screamed in vain. “Help! Somebody help me!”

---

I woke with a gasp, panting heavily as I sat in Fluttershy’s bed. I’ve never had nightmares that intense, but I could still feel the adrenaline from the fear that…creature left in me. I have no idea what it was, nor where it even came from, but it was like I knew what was in that mist. I’ve never had a nightmare startle me that badly to wake me like that, and after being here for about a week, I would expect to be used to seeing strange dreams that could be fabricated by Discord. It felt so real; I could still feel that monster’s claws squeezing my sides as it hoisted me up. Once my heart settled down, I just let out a sigh, seeing it was already morning, and needed to get ready for whatever may happen today.

After climbing out of bed and putting the sheets and comforter back together by hand, I made my way to Fluttershy’s bathroom. I realized I hadn’t taken a bath or a shower at all since I arrived here, and I probably needed one. If human B.O. was bad, I have no idea how bad a draconequus would smell without any hygienic care. Thankfully, it was in the next room in the hall, and I helped myself inside.

Part of me expected there to be some fish or amphibians making a home in Fluttershy’s sink or bathtub, but it was a normal, clean bathroom. Even she had a need for cleanliness, especially when I forget that she and Rarity usually hang out together at the spa once a week. Snapping my fingers, I created a footstool to help my tiny body up into the tub that was twice my height, each step making a different squeaking sound as I climbed up it. Before jumping in, I turned on the hot water to warm it up, then twisted it back a bit while adding some cold water to cool it and make my shower pleasantly warm. I may be a chaotic deity in child form, but I’m not THAT insane. At least I don’t go insane.

With my shower ready, I jumped into the tub and let the water soak me. Once my fur and scales were wet enough, I glanced at some of the bath products Fluttershy had. She had quite a bit of conditioner, but with a mane and tail as long as hers, she definitely needed it more than Rarity and her curly hair. I didn’t have much thick or long hair. Although, I could make my own kind of shampoo or body wash. I shrugged my shoulders and gave it a shot, snapping my fingers and letting my magic randomly pick me a hopefully nice smelling soap.

A gray bottle popped into existence, no label to describe what scent it would have to add to the mystery, and a brush to help scrub hard to reach spots. I took a curious whiff, but to my confusion, I didn’t smell anything. My nose wasn’t stuffed up. Maybe no scent is chaotic enough and it would still get me clean? Hoping that was the case, I squeezed out some light blue colored liquid soap that was inside on the brush, then scrubbed myself while rainbow suds lathered over my body. I began humming “Winter Wrap-Up” while enjoying my shower, which reminded me of the season four premiere when Discord was summoned and he was in the middle of a shower. Maybe that’s why I decided to sing that song.

“Charlie, breakfast is ready. Are you-?” I didn’t even notice Fluttershy walk into the bathroom. I didn’t even remember closing the bathroom door, or moved the curtains to give me some privacy. When I looked at her, we both stared at each other awkwardly before she squeaked and backed out of the bathroom. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she apologized meekly, closing the door slightly while leaving it ajar. “Umm...Breakfast is ready when you’re done, Charlie.”

“...Ok,” I called back. When I couldn’t hear her hoofsteps, I felt so embarrassed that I wanted to just melt into the tub drain with the running water. A part of me wanted to be funny and let out a high-pitched scream while desperately trying to cover myself, but my lack of giving myself privacy threw that out of my brain, not to mention the fact that I would have done that to Fluttershy. I just finished showering as quickly as I could, dried myself off normally with a towel, and headed downstairs for breakfast. Fluttershy had some oatmeal and some apples on the kitchen table, looking just as embarrassed as I was for barging in while I was taking a shower. “...Uhh, sorry. I thought I forgot something important before jumping in.”

“I-It’s ok,” Fluttershy assured. This really shouldn’t be awkward since we’re creatures who don’t wear clothes, but in retrospect, realizing that I had BEEN naked these last couple days, I felt so much more self conscious after that awkward scene. I began eating some oatmeal, which tasted pretty good, until I heard Fluttershy sniff the air. “Umm, what kind of...shampoo were you using?”

I looked up at Fluttershy, swallowing my mouthful of oatmeal before responding. “Something I made up,” I answered. I took a whiff at myself, but I smelt nothing. At least I didn’t smell bad. “But...I don’t smell anything...What do you smell?”

“Oh! It’s not bad!” Fluttershy quickly said, thinking she was offending me. “It smells a lot like honey.”

“Honey?” I asked. “Weird.” I was about to take another bite, only to notice that the sounds of the morning critters had vanished. Fluttershy noticed as well, along with what was beside the table on my right. Glancing to my right, I saw the other animals eyeing me, including Angel, their noses twitching curiously while staring at me awkwardly. “...And this is even weirder. Did I do something to turn me into a magnet for animals?”

Angel was the first to vocalize his and the others’ strange behavior to Fluttershy, which surprised her. “Huh? He smells like...carrots?” she asked, which baffled me when she said she caught a whiff of honey from the body wash I materialized. The other animals told their caretaker what they thought, which further confused her when she glanced at me every so often. I smelled myself again, but I found nothing odd or off about my odor, especially after I just got cleaned minutes ago. “...Ummmm...Charlie, what...can you smell?”

“Nothing?” I said, already feeling my head starting to hurt while fathoming what the heck I did making that soap.

As much as I’d like to experiment on that with everyone else, I just shook my head and chalked it up to me messing up with this seemingly harmless chaotic spell. I waved my paw at them, getting them to go back to eating their breakfast while I continued eating mine, but they refused to budge. I ignored them and continued eating while Fluttershy dug into her bowl. While eating, I realized something seemed...a bit different in the kitchen. It wasn’t the layout of the entire room that was different; it was how it all looked. I know the show had some brighter and colorful settings, including some of the background stuff like buildings, flowers, trees, etc., but now, the colors are a slightly darker shade, bolder, and I can see thick outlines around Fluttershy, the animals, and my own hands. Maybe my vision is acting weird after my shower, or when I woke up this morning?

“Is everything ok, Charlie?” Fluttershy asked, snapping me out of my daze.

I hesitated for a moment. I didn’t want her to think I really have lost my mind if I was seeing things in a different way.

“Uhh…Y-Yeah. Just…had a weird dream before I woke up,” I said, not exactly lying, but I decided to be vague with the weird dream I saw.

“Like…a nightmare?” Fluttershy asked. She seemed curiously worried, but then began to rub her eyes after I saw them start drooping a little. “Ooh, I’ve been having the same awful nightmare all week. I haven’t got much sleep.”

“No. It was more…chaotic,” I said. Oddly, I have noticed Fluttershy getting more and more tired every day the last week. She even passed out once while feeding some of the chickens out back, only to wake suddenly with a scream despite no one spooking her awake. If she’s been having the same nightmare every night, maybe there was something troubling her. “Maybe we should see if Twilight can help solve these nightmares you’re having.”

“I think you’re right,” Fluttershy agreed.

We finished breakfast as quickly as we could and headed out. Fluttershy let me ride on her back, even though I said I could walk fine on my own, but she insisted. It’s not like I could say no to Fluttershy’s kindness since that’s basically her Element. I didn’t want to tire her out with me weighing her down, assuming I’m that heavy as a draconequus child. As much as I wanted to ask what her nightmare was about, my dream was still clear in my mind. Dreams usually don’t leave an impression for that long after waking up, but that thing I saw really rattled me. It felt so much worse than the chaos I’ve seen Discord come up with, and he’s already a psychotic genius who can end up a bit too gullible when he thinks he’s got the upper hand.

Oh, come on. I’m not THAT psychotic. And I sure as hay ain’t THAT gullible.

Confused, I looked around, thinking I actually heard Discord talking to me in my head. “What the…?”

“Charlie, is something wrong?” Fluttershy asked.

Before I could answer, neither of us noticed Rarity walking toward us, bumping into Fluttershy as they both yelped in surprise. I nearly fell off Fluttershy’s back while both mares were a bit startled from the unexpected bump.

“Oh my, terribly sorry, darling,” Rarity apologized. She was wearing a pink and white splotch patterned head scarf and a pair of sunglasses. They fell askew before she fixed them but I noticed she had bags under her eyes. She looked just as tired as Fluttershy and she was trying to hide it from the public. “I must have zoned out. I didn’t get much sleep last night. Or the whole week.”

“You too?” Fluttershy asked, peaking both of our curiosity.

“I’ve had these awful nightmares that woke me up anytime I was deep asleep,” Rarity explained.

“M-Me, too,” Fluttershy said, surprising the unicorn fashionista.

“Really?” Rarity uttered.

“That’s…a bit odd,” I mumbled. We all winced as we heard a crash further ahead. From the dust cloud, Rainbow Dash and Twilight were piled over each other, and Spike was there, but he was clear from the crash site. We approached them, along with Applejack by her apple stand nearby, and she looked just as exhausted as Rarity and Fluttershy. “Applejack, you don’t look so good.”

“Ah’m just tired, Spike,” Applejack said, mistaking me for the baby dragon.

“Uhh, I’m Charlie,” I corrected.

“Oh. Right. Sorry, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “Kinda hard to focus without any proper sleep.” She then took a sniff of the air as she walked beside Fluttershy. “Or that really nice, but strange scent of fresh cut red delicious apples.”

“I don’t smell that, but I do catch a hint of a lovely exotic perfume,” Rarity said, then looked at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, what are you wearing? It’s so divine.”

“Umm…it’s not me,” Fluttershy said.

I raised my paw with a sigh. “It’s me. I created some special soap when I took a shower, and apparently, it has a different fragrance to everyone.”

Rarity and Applejack looked at each other, surprised by the strangely chaotic soap I concocted. We met up with Twilight and Rainbow Dash after they got back up from their tumble.

“It’s ok, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said as she brushed some dirt off her coat. Seemed like Rainbow Dash didn’t mean to crash into Twilight again, even though she should really practice her stunts a little higher in the air and AWAY from town. “I should have been paying attention.”

“I’m a little off course today, too,” Rainbow said. “I haven’t been sleeping that great. All week, I’ve had-”

“Nightmares!?” Twilight interrupted with shock, making Rarity and Applejack wince from the shrill exclamation from the unicorn.

Now Twilight and Rainbow Dash had the same exact nightmare problem Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack has? This can’t be a coincidence. And if Pinkie was suffering from this nightmare insomnia as well, then something really fishy was going on.

“What is happening?” I mumbled. “I don’t remember nightmares affecting them until much later than this.”

“Remember what now?” Applejack asked.

“Uhh, ignore me,” I said sheepishly. I hopped down from Fluttershy’s back and walked over to Spike. Strangely, he wasn’t tired or sleep deprived if Twilight had awful nightmares. Is it only affecting ponies? “How did you sleep, Spike?”

“Slept like a log,” Spike said. “But this day is getting weirder and weirder. Have you been having nightmares all week?”

“Just one before waking up abruptly,” I said. “No other bad dreams the rest of the week.”

“How can we all be having nightmares all week?” Twilight asked. She picked up a book she had dropped when Rainbow accidentally crashed into her, flipping through the pages to find her answer. “This is unheard of.”

“What about Pinkie Pie?” Spike asked. “Maybe she hadn’t had any nightmares.”

---

“Welcome to my slumber party!” Pinkie greeted us.

Yeah, she definitely looked exhausted as well, and Pinkie was meant to have an endless supply of energy in her body. It was late in the night as Twilight planned to have all the girls, including Spike and I, meet together to solve this issue. And Pinkie came up with an interesting slumber party idea. At least this would be Twilight’s second slumber party in her life, though not for fun with this mysterious nightmare epidemic going on between the girls.

Pinkie had set up her room in Sugarcube Corner for the impromptu slumber party. There were some simple party snacks like chips and salsa, sodas, and some candies for late night sugar rushes to avoid sleeping. Along the floor were several sleeping bags, each one matching us, including me of all things. Mine was a weird, plaid patterned color, which definitely felt like something Discord would curl up in. Even Pinkie’s pet alligator, Gummy, was dressed in pajamas like Pinkie, who didn’t have a care in the world while staring off into space like the strange reptile he was.

“I don’t think there’s going to be much partying tonight, Pinkie,” I said.

“Well, if anything can chase away those heebie-jeebie dreams, it’s a girly night of fun!” Pinkie said as she hugged several pillows, then glanced over to where Rainbow Dash and Rarity were sitting. “Right, Rainbow Dash!?”

When I looked at the duo, I couldn’t help but snort in amusement. Rarity had made herself busy with Rainbow Dash, giving her a slumber party makeover. Her own mane was rolled up in hair curlers while she gave Rainbow a mud mask with some cucumbers over her eyes, tied her hair up to avoid getting it messy from the green cleansing mud, and one of her hooves was given a hooficure. Just from the frown on her face, she looked absolutely miserable.

“Super. Duper. Fun,” Rainbow grumbled. While blinded by the cucumbers, she didn’t see Pinkie clutch one of the pillows in her hooves, and with a laugh, she threw the pillow at Rainbow. It smacked her in the face, splattering the mud and cucumbers off her face, even undoing the hair clip keeping her mane up. Wiping off some of the mud, she faced Pinkie with a smug grin and a challenging gleam in her eyes. “Oh, this means war, Pinkie Pie!”

Rainbow zipped off and grabbed some pillows, getting into a massive pillow fight with Pinkie as fluffy cushions of all sizes flew across the room. Rarity was annoyed that her hard work beautifying Rainbow Dash was ruined, ducking on occasion to avoid the incoming bombardment of pillows. Even though I felt like joining, one of the only fun perks of having a slumber party that wasn’t girly, now wasn’t the time to have fun.

“There’s got to be some kind of connection between our dreams,” Twilight said, surrounded by a few books around dreams, both in psychology and their different meanings they show the dreamer.

“Sounds like an old coinky-dink to me,” Applejack said while fluffing up her pillow.

“After such a fun party, I’m sure we’ll all sleep like baby dragons tonight,” Fluttershy said.

Speaking of sleeping dragons, Spike was already conked out for the night, and the slumber party barely started. I get he’s called a baby dragon, but isn’t he a bit older than the Cutie Mark Crusaders? And he’s also sleeping in a basket instead of a sleeping bag, barely phased by the loud pillow fight between Rainbow and Pinkie or the flung mud facial of Rainbow's splashing through the room. Maybe he finds it more comfortable sleeping in something like that until he’s old enough for his own bed.

Sadly, the fun for everyone didn’t last long with how tired the girls were and how desperate they were to get some much needed sleep. The girls all curled up in their sleeping bags, getting themselves comfortable for, hopefully, a pleasant sleep.

“I sure hope we’ll sleep as heavily as Spike,” Twilight said. “Goodnight, everypony.”

The girls all murmured their good nights while Pinkie said good night to every single pony individually. I thought it was funny how Pinkie addressed Rainbow last, and I was somewhere in the middle. I got an annoyed look from Rainbow Dash before she buried her head in her pillow to sleep. I began to get comfortable, finally not taking up Fluttershy’s bed she willingly offered to me. When I rolled over, I looked at Twilight, who seemed to glance at me for a moment, like she was hoping I knew what was happening to everyone.

I just shrugged my shoulders, unable to tell her even if I did know the root cause. She seemed a bit disappointed that I didn’t know, even after last week when I told her I knew everything that would happen during her little episode. Despite the unfortunate news, she was too exhausted to worry as she settled in for a hopefully pleasant sleep. I got myself comfortable in my sleeping bag and stared at the ceiling.

“Let’s hope I don’t have that nightmare again,” I mumbled before closing my eyes, following the others into dreamland.

---

I woke up some time, grumbling irritably as nature began to call. I curse this tiny body Discord put me in and this tiny bladder of mine. Shuffling out of my sleeping bag, I crept out of Pinkie’s room to find the bathroom. Thankfully, it wasn’t too far away while fumbling down the hall. If I thought a new body with different animal parts was disturbing, I had to get used to my new anatomy down there. As long as I didn’t get turned into a girl, I didn’t have to learn how everything works downstairs.

After taking care of business and washing my hands, I stumbled back into Pinkie’s room. When I opened the door, I stifled a gasp when I saw a strange black, smoke-like mist creep in through the closed window. There wasn’t a fire in the building, and the mist flew toward the girls, creeping into their ears, which made their faces scrunch up and mumble in distress, like they were having a bad dream.

“Is that what’s causing their nightmares?” I muttered in shock. I soon saw what looked like physical dream bubbles appear over each mare, showing the awful nightmares they were having. There wasn’t one around Spike, which meant this thing was specifically targeting the Mane Six. “What is this thing?”

Twilight’s nightmare had Princess Celestia dismissing her as her personal student. Applejack’s nightmare had her whole farm completely barren with dead apple trees and dry, infertile soil, disappointing all of her extended family as well as her siblings and Granny Smith. The animals in Fluttershy’s nightmare all ran away from her in fear. I even saw myself running away as well, which felt so heart wrenching to witness me running away from someone who was so nice and innocent. Rainbow’s was probably just as bad; the Wonderbolts flew over her, and she had a dejected look while her wings looked pretty badly banged up, her dream ruined by one major crash that left her permanently grounded. I would say that Pinkie’s nightmare was bad since her dream had her perform for a crowd while doing all sorts of silly things at once, but it didn’t warrant much of a nightmare if most of those ponies looked like they came from Canterlot.

For Rarity, that was where this weird mist seemed to harbor around more as I witnessed her dream. She was holding out a new pair of saddlebags for Twilight, but Twilight seemed appalled by the new bags, even though I thought they were nice enough for someone like me to wear, if I was big enough.

“Yeesh! No thanks, Rarity,” Twilight said as she walked out of the boutique.

“But I made it just for you,” Rarity said, clearly hurt that her generous gift she worked hard for Twilight was immediately shot down.

The dream transitioned out in town, where Twilight was wearing a new saddlebag made by a pony who looked a lot like Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls. I knew the show made a lot of different pony references for certain characters in the background, but I don’t recall a pony Mabel. She had the same turtleneck sweatshirt, the same hairstyle and color, even the braces on that cheerful smile on her face. And she made Twilight a huge pink saddlebag, which was bedazzled with gems in no diverse pattern, something that I thought was a handmade zipper on the side underneath Twilight’s name, which wasn’t even spelled right and had a heart at the end. What made it worse was that everyone else in the Mane Six were impressed by this random mare’s “quality” work, and Rarity was in the background watching this with a broken heart and tears running down her face.

“Whoa! That’s two hundred percent cooler than anything I’ve ever seen!” Rainbow complimented.

“Maybelle, you’re so generous!” Pinkie added, which only added more pain to the actual fashionista being completely ignored by her friends. “I don’t know what we’d do without you!”

I heard Rarity moan as she shifted in her sleeping bag, her sleep mask she had been wearing being pulled off in her distressed movements. “She didn’t even spell your name right,” she mumbled in her sleep.

As the nightmare got worse as the world began to spiral around Rarity’s dream. All the girls began to turn away from Rarity as Ponyville was lost to a swirling void with the same mist creating her nightmare.

“We don’t need anything from you, Rarity!” Pinkie said.

“And we never will!” Applejack said.

The other girls agreed as they disappeared, leaving Rarity to try to chase after them. “No, wait! Please, let me help…Don’t forget about me.”

As Rarity in her dream broke down in despair, the mist seemed to flare wildly, casting a wind that began to blow everything around and grow in size. The others awoke with a start, most of them still trying to process what was happening while Rarity screamed in terror as she opened her eyes. The mist grasped her in its clutches and shot out the window.

“Rarity!” Spike cried out.

“What’s going on!?” Pinkie exclaimed.

We all quickly rushed out of Sugarcube Corner, watching the mist fly toward the moon. I thought I was seeing things, but I thought I saw the moon flicker with that same smoky mist around one side of it.

“Rainbow Dash, go after her!” Twilight said.

“I’m on it!” Rainbow immediately shoots off to chase after Rarity, being the only one who’s fast enough in the air to catch up to this unexpected nightmare creature.

Wanting a closer view, I snapped my fingers and created a pair of binoculars. They were comically long, but they served their purpose as I watched Rainbow Dash catching up to the mist monster and Rarity. Rainbow managed to catch up, but the mist was smacking her away and fled at a faster pace, forcing the pegasus to use all of her speed to burst into a sonic rainboom.

“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” I heard Fluttershy whimper.

“Charles, is she gainin’ on Rarity!?” Applejack asked.

“I think she’s almost got her!” I watched Rainbow squinting through her speed, reaching a hoof out to Rarity as she did the same. I thought she was going to make it, but the moment their hooves were only a couple inches away from each other, Rarity and the mysterious mist poofed away in the blink of an eye. My jaw dropped, physically smacking the ground as I watched Rainbow frantically fly around in shock. I lowered the binoculars and picked my jaw up, shaking my head in disbelief. “...It got away…”

The others gasped, and judging from the shock in Spike’s voice, he was probably the most devastated having his crush be taken away by this strange creature. Rainbow zipped back within a few seconds, and with no reason, she came stomping over toward me.

“What did you do!?” she questioned.

“I didn’t do this!” I exclaimed. “I saw that weird mist fly into Pinkie’s room and go into your heads! I even saw all of the nightmares you were having!”

“But why did it take Rarity!?” Spike cried, breaking down in tears as he panicked about his beloved unicorn’s safety.

“I need to tell Princess Celestia about this,” Twilight said.

We all immediately headed back to the library to figure out what this ethereal creature was. Twilight got to work writing the letter to Celestia, and Spike was bawling his eyes out. I materialized some tissues for the poor dragon, although I do hope his crush with Rarity eventually dies out when he gets older. Once the letter was finished, he managed to blow his fire breath into the scroll to send to the princess while still blubbering. All the while, I could still feel Rainbow glaring daggers at me, truly believing I was responsible for that thing making them miserable and kidnapping Rarity.

“Rainbow, it’s not Charlie,” Fluttershy scolded.

“How would you know, Fluttershy?” Rainbow questioned. “He could have gotten used to his magic to make us miserable!”

“Ah don’t think chaos works like that if dreams can be just as crazy as our minds make them,” Applejack stated bluntly.

“Say, that icky smoke thing looked really familiar,” Pinkie pondered curiously.

As Pinkie pointed that out, the other girls seemed surprised, and agreed with Pinkie. “Hey, so did Ah,” Applejack said. “It was in mah nightmare.”

“I saw it in mine, too,” Fluttershy said.

“Me too!” Twilight added. “There has to be a link between this strange mist and our bad dreams. It makes perfect sense.”

“So if it isn’t really the kid’s doing, you’re telling us this smog monster somehow got into our brains?” Rainbow questioned.

“Brains!?” Pinkie gasped, quickly clutching Applejack in fear, to the apple farmer’s annoyance. “ZOMBIES!”

“It can’t be zombies, Pinkie,” I said. Twilight glanced at me, expecting me to really know despite how desperate the situation was, but I have no idea what this mist was. It wasn’t the Tantabus, Luna’s own personal nightmare created from her guilt of her actions as Nightmare Moon, since that was only able to exist in the dream realm. That’s when an idea came to mind. “Wait. Maybe Princess Luna can explain what’s happening to you guys, and if she knows what that thing is.”

“Why Princess Luna?” Fluttershy asked.

“She’s known as the Princess of the Night,” I explained. “She watches over ponies while they sleep, so she probably watches their dreams.”

“You are correct with your assumption.” Surprised, all of us turned to see both Luna and Celestia in the library, somehow teleporting to us without any warning. I half expected Celestia and Luna to leer at me, but with the circumstances not involving any chaos, they seemed to know what it was that took Rarity from us. “I believe a dark energy has been infiltrating your dreams. Luna may provide the answers you seek.”

Luna refused to look at us, almost like she was afraid or anxious to tell us. “So what in tarnation is goin’ on here?” Applejack asked.

“And more importantly, how do we get Rarity back?” Rainbow asked.

“Honestly, I do not have a clear answer for you,” Luna said, startling the girls.

“But you’re the protector of dreams!” Twilight exclaimed. “You must know something! Anything!?”

“Only that evil, dark forces have taken your friend to the Nightmare Dreamscape,” Luna said.

Twilight and her friends looked horrified, but I was left confused. The only dark forces I know of happen much later in the show. There were no other groups except for the changelings, and they reform at the end of season six.

“Then let’s blast on up there and get Rarity back! We’re wasting time!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“It is not that simple,” Luna said. “You do not know what they are planning.”

“Who?” I asked. “What dark forces are out there?”

Luna hesitated to respond, even though she knew something terrible was possibly happening to Rarity as we speak. “Luna, these ponies can be trusted,” Celestia said, urging her younger sibling to explain. She glanced at me, then back to Luna. “Even Charles at this point if they invaded his dreams as well.”

“Umm…I think they were only going after Twilight and the others,” I stated. “Spike and I were relatively fine.” Despite that bit of news, Luna still remained silent. She must be afraid to tell us if it had anything to do with her as Nightmare Moon. She still regretted her transformation as that evil pony she became in her loneliness and bitterness toward Celestia, and if there was something she made as Nightmare Moon that created this nightmare mist, she’d feel much more alienated and revered to the public as the Nightmare she was before. I kind of know that feeling, to my misfortune. I approached her, hopefully able to share some common bond to get in her good graces and put her trust in me as Charles, not Discord’s chaotic heir. “Princess Luna, I won’t judge you. What you did in the past, it’s all in the past. You were alone and no one appreciated you, but now, you had six ponies free you from that dark side of you, and you live in a time where ponies will most definitely appreciate you.”

Surprised, Luna stared at me. She thought I was joking, but even with my different colored eyes, I know she can see I was being absolutely sincere. I knew how tough her life had been, both in the past and trying to fit in with the present times. Even if she doesn’t want to trust me by my appearance, I know she definitely believes I have all my faith in her getting us any information that she can give about what we’re up against.

With a sigh, she hung her head, slightly ashamed, but she was willing to cooperate. “Something is happening,” Luna said. “Something I had hoped would never come to pass. When I was trapped as Nightmare Moon, I thought I could show everypony how special I was by making them fear me. The Nightmare Forces somehow knew exactly what to say to convince me…to give me their energy and hate.”

“‘Nightmare Forces’?” I asked. “I’ve never heard of that.”

“You haven’t!?” Twilight exclaimed. Everyone looked at the unicorn in confusion, but I quickly glanced at her with a grimace. I told her and Spike I knew what was supposed to happen from the show’s perspective, but no one else. Realizing her blunder, she giggled sheepishly. “R-Right. Obviously you couldn’t. You’re another creature from another world in a tiny Discord body.”

“Well, I’ve never heard of them, either,” Fluttershy said.

Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie agreed with Fluttershy as they have never known Nightmare Moon ever having herself a private, ethereal army created from nightmares. I’m really going to have to make it up to Fluttershy one day for saving me, intentional or not. No wonder Discord likes her that much.

As if I would ever like being friends with any of these ponies. Maybe Pinkie Pie, because she’s just as chaotic as me.

Startled, I looked around frantically after hearing Discord’s voice again. That was the second time that’s happened. I scratched my head, trying to figure out what that was about before I just ignored it. Thankfully, no one else noticed my little freakout, otherwise I don’t know what I was going to explain to everyone that I’ve finally lost my sanity and hearing things.

“After my curse was broken by the Elements of Harmony, I believed the forces of darkness would wither and die, but I was wrong,” Luna continued. “Legends says that IF the Nightmare Forces can harness enough strength through the cycle of the new moon, they are granted one more chance.”

“‘One more chance’ to what?” Twilight asked.

“To claim what Nightmare Moon promised: an all powerful kingdom of their own,” Luna said.

“Then it’s time to take action, not shuffling our hooves!” Rainbow said as she slammed her hooves together, clearly itching for a fight against a force she can’t physically deal with.

“Rainbow Dash, I don’t think you’ll be able to land a hit on these Nightmare Forces if they can turn into smoke or mist,” I said.

While Rainbow stared blankly at me for killing her mood, the rest of the Mane Six were still confused by why the Nightmare Forces attacked them with these nightmares. “Why do they even care about a flyin’ feather about us?” Applejack asked.

I thought the answer was obvious if these Nightmare Forces were a part of Nightmare Moon. When I looked at Luna, she seemed to look traumatized, staring into space. She quickly shook her head, snapping out of her flashback.

“Together, you possess the Elements of Harmony, which have defeated the dark forces before,” Luna said. “Now they will come after you; the only ponies who can defeat them…and destroy your home.”

As scary as this ethereal force was, Twilight wasn’t going to let a friend down and be held hostage. The others were on board, all except for Fluttershy, as she would with a scary situation like this. Maybe this could be my chance to prove to Celestia that I can help if my chaos can affect the Nightmare Forces and fully trust me.

“If we have to face our fears to get Rarity back, then that’s what we’ll do,” Twilight said to Luna.

“But it will be incredibly dangerous to enter their domain,” Luna reminded everyone. “And what of Ponyville? They will attack without a moment’s notice.”

“Don’t worry, Luna,” Celestia assured her worried sibling. “I will help Ponyville prepare for their arrival. And the Elements of Harmony are powerful. They brought you back to me, and I’m certain they will stop this monstrous force.”

“I hope so,” Luna mumbled.

“Umm, one question, if I may?” Fluttershy asked. “How are we supposed to get to the moon?”

“Ok, hear me out!” Rainbow said. “We get an enlarging ray and shoot me with it! Then I’ll carry you all to the moon, and SURPRISE!!! A million ponies will jump out and stomp those moonies to bits!”

Everyone stared blankly at Rainbow Dash, including me. I found that idea hard to believe, and that’s if I can actually make an enlarging ray from my magic, or just make her big myself. Not to mention the fact the moon is out beyond this world’s atmosphere.

“Did you skip science class when you were a filly?” I remarked.

“Hey, what I did in school is none of your business!” Rainbow argued. “Why don’t you make me big instead?”

“Can you breathe in space!?” I questioned. “I don’t know if it’s possible to create air in an endless vacuum, but I’m not that crazy enough to venture out in space without suffocating from a lack of oxygen!”

“I have a way,” Celestia said.

---

We all gathered on a hill outside of Ponyville as we waited for Celestia to get what she needed to get us to the moon. The binoculars I created didn’t reach all that far to the moon’s surface, even when I tried to increase its zoom with my magic. I couldn’t see anything but the moon’s surface, not even a hint of the Nightmare Forces. I poofed the binoculars out of existence as Celestia returned with Applejack, the farmer carrying a lasso in her mouth.

“Oh man. Don’t tell me we’re actually going to lasso the moon and pull it closer to the Earth,” I said.

“That is exactly what we’re going to do,” Celestia said.

“How is a regular ol’ lasso gonna do that?” Applejack asked skeptically.

“With mine and Luna’s magic, we should be able to shorten the trip for all of you,” Celestia said.

The Princess of the Sun’s horn lit up in her golden aura, enchanting the lasso as it glowed brilliantly. Manipulating the rope, Celestia gave it a twirl, and with a hard throw, sent the lasso flying swiftly through the air. The enchantment she cast enhanced the length by several hundred thousand miles, the loop stretching out as well, and it wrapped itself around the massive diameter of the moon. With the lasso firmly held, Luna lit up her horn, surrounding the moon with her magic aura. All of us grasped the rope, and with Luna’s signal, we began pulling while she helped drag the moon closer.

“Ugh! Using my powers to bring the moon closer to the Earth is harder than I imagined!” Luna grunted as she kept her concentration.

“Hey, couldn’t Charles just use his magic to bring the moon here?” Pinkie asked, sitting on the sidelines with a drum in front of her, “boosting morale” rather than helping us pull a giant space rock toward us.

“Yeah, sure!” I stated sarcastically. “How about I accidentally turn it into a giant cheese wheel!? Or merge it with the planet and destroy more than just Ponyville!?”

“Oh. Then keep pulling, ponies!” Pinkie shouted, then smacked her drum in a rhythm to help motivate our pulling.

After several minutes, we finally managed to bring the moon closer by roughly several yards away from the surface. “There, that should be enough,” Celestia said. She tied the other end of the lasso around a sturdy stump, anchoring the moon. “Everypony without wings will need to use sure footing to climb up. I will begin preparing Ponyville for the inevitable should things go wrong. Good luck, my little ponies.”

Celestia flapped her wings and flew back into town to warn everyone about the incoming threat. I looked at the rope curiously, and felt a little bit terrified. I have never done much balancing shenanigans as a kid, especially on something so thin like a rope. I wished I did a little bit of flight practice throughout the whole week of nothing crazy happening.

“This is your last chance to change your minds,” Luna said to us. “The dark forces that took Rarity will use all of their power to scare you. They will unravel you with your greatest fears.”

“When we’re together, the Elements of Harmony can overcome anything,” Twilight said.

“As long as we get Rarity back, it’ll all turn out just dandy,” Applejack added.

I was a bit hesitant, but if Rarity got hurt, I probably wouldn’t forgive myself if I couldn’t do anything with the power I have, even if I’m still learning about it. While Luna, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were freely able to fly up toward the moon, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Spike, and I had to tightrope walk up. I had to force myself not to look down while my hands gripped the lasso tightly while slowly inching my way behind Applejack.

I heard metal clanking from behind me, and I chanced a glance behind me, only to see Spike balancing behind me while wearing a suit of armor, complete with a shield in one hand that’s as big as him, a lance, flail, and a sweeping broom in another, and he had a heart shaped ruby pendant around his neck. “Why are you wearing all that?” I asked.

“We need to be prepared for anything!” Spike said. He wobbled slightly, and I noticed the rope giving way beneath the extra weight. “This is Rarity’s safety we’re talking about!”

“Dude, that much weight is going to break the rope!” I said.

“Nonsense,” Spike scoffed. To add to my fear, the bravely stupid dragon jumped on the rope like it was a trampoline. “This knot’s as solid as-”

The last jump he landed, the line snapped, sending those of us that were grounded falling from several thousand feet midair. Thankfully, we all didn’t fall too far down as Fluttershy caught me on her back, then helped hold up Pinkie with Rainbow Dash by both her forelegs, Luna grabbed Applejack’s hindlegs, and Twilight was held between the two earth ponies while Spike clung onto Twilight’s tail. At least the sudden drop slipped Spike out of his pointless armor and weapons, but he was clinging on desperately to that ruby with his other hand.

“Spike, grab my hoof!” Twilight called out. “I can’t hold you with my magic!”

“But the ruby! It’s for Rarity!” Spike exclaimed.

I resisted the urge to facepalm while holding onto Fluttershy. “Just a little longer, then my magic can guide you down,” Luna said, still concentrating despite using all her strength to keep her grip on Applejack.

“Spike, just drop the ruby!” I said. “You’ll find another one you can give Rarity when we’re NOT on a rescue mission!”

Spike still refused, but his grip on the gem slipped. “Noooo!” he screamed, just as Twilight managed to reach her hoof out to him and grab him. Sighing, I rolled my eyes, snapping my fingers to make the thin string connected to the Ruby turn into a pair of wings. Luna’s magic surrounded us, helping us safely float down onto the moon’s surface. The ruby flew into Spike’s hands, returning the string back to normal. “Thanks, Charles! You’re the best!”

“Don’t mention it,” I said. “Next time, save your knight in shining armor fantasies in your head.”

Spike giggled sheepishly, giving an apologetic look for snapping the rope on us. We were already here anyway, and no one else got hurt at the very least. We floated down to the moon, where we landed down in a really dark section of the lunar body. I could barely see past my nose with how dark it got as we got closer and closer to the ground.

“AHHH! Yellow-eyed monster!” Pinkie shrieked, then I felt something thwack my head with a weird squeaking sound.

“Ah! Hey, that’s me!” I shouted.

“Oh. Oopsie. Sorry, Charlie!” Pinkie apologized.

Luna and Twilight lit up their horns to give some light in the darkness. I saw Pinkie giving me a sheepish grin, holding a giant foam hammer behind her back, and quite terribly with it being as tall as Celestia.

“We must hurry,” Luna quickly ushered. “They’ll know we’re here.”

“And who is ‘they’, exactly?” Twilight asked.

“When the nightmare energy came back to life, it needed a form to take,” Luna said, giving us another little lesson that I didn’t know existed in this world. “Unfortunately, the peaceful inhabitants of the moon became its victims and are now trapped under its spell.”

“There are creatures that live on the moon?” I asked. “Like…aliens?”

“They are more like the wildlife back on Earth, though more ethereal while still holding a physical form,” Luna described, which made Fluttershy gasp in horror.

“How could they do that to sweet little animals!?” Fluttershy asked.

“They are not sweet anymore,” Luna uttered, grimacing with guilt.

If these moon creatures lived on the moon for as long as time itself, Nightmare Moon’s banishment and the nightmare that corrupted her would have spread its influence to all these creatures. I’m still puzzled by all this new stuff that I never knew existed. None of this was ever mentioned in the show. And what I finally noticed after first arriving here, Luna looked more like how she appeared in the first season’s premiere when she was freed from Nightmare Moon’s power, not the darker blue alicorn known throughout the rest of the seasons after. I knew her actual design wasn’t finalized until season two in the “Nightmare Night” episode, which explains her lack of appearance throughout the rest of season one.

While pondering these curious changes in events, we trekked along the moon to find where the Nightmare Forces were holding Rarity. Pinkie tried to make a game of I Spy to pass the time, but there was nothing but darkness, moon rocks, and craters or mountains. Kind of what I expected from a giant hunk of rock orbiting the planet. Or, for this world, being moved to make night and day in Equestria. I looked around a bit, noticing something off about this shroud of darkness around us.

“Umm, does anyone else get the feeling we’re being watched?” I asked.

“What makes you say that?” Rainbow asked.

We all froze and huddled together, hearing low growling coming from the dark fog surrounding us outside of the light from Luna and Twilight’s glowing horns. “Uhh, call it a hunch,” I squeaked. Through the darkness, we watched as different smokey creatures with glowing eyes of red and blue stepped into the light, their forms as small as rabbits to as tall as buffalo. They completely surrounded us, and I don’t know if there’s any way we can defend ourselves from creatures that exist in an ethereal form of nightmares. “Ok. Backup plan. Fluttershy, do you think you can talk to them?”

“I-I don’t know,” Fluttershy mumbled, shaking in fear. “I d-don’t think I can…”

Luna gasped and looked to her right. “Something is coming…” Suddenly, the darkness was pushed away for a moment, revealing what appeared to be a castle out in the distance. It had several curved spires coming from the main tower and was glowing an ominous blue light. The source of this dark mist also seemed to come from that very castle, and a huge cloud of it was headed for us like soot and ash rushing down from an erupting volcano. “Run! I have no power over this nightmare mist!”

“You heard her, move them hooves!” Applejack exclaimed.

“No need to tell us twice!” I shouted as we all ran for our lives. I sprinted as hard as my legs could carry me, but this mist was flying toward us much faster than we thought, maybe even faster than Rainbow could fly. I yelped as I tripped on a rock, tumbling to the ground, looking back for a brief second to see the mist coming toward me. “Oh, crab baskets!”

I shut my eyes, waiting for some psychological torment to attack me in the immediate nightmare I would be thrust in. I heard screams of terror around me, forcing me to squint my eyes to see what was happening. I seemed to be in a city that was littered with chaos; buildings warping or bouncing around, street lamps and benches twisted or turned into something completely different, roads patterned randomly in different checkered colors or patches of ground that didn’t fit with a city-like setting, something that would be like a wonderful dream for Discord. I looked down at myself, suddenly confused by my body having grown and slimmer, almost exactly like Discord’s mismatched features and height. Standing up, on two legs rather than four, I glanced down at myself, only to stumble when several random boxes and bags from different stores appeared in my arms.

“Hurry along, Dizzy! I have so much more window shopping to do!” That familiar voice from that nightmare the other night had called out to me. I turned my head to where it came from, gawking at the sight of a quadruped creature I have never seen before, where I saw what this female “monster” looked like. Underneath the fancy clothing she wore, she seemed to be like Discord with her body displaying different animal parts, but with much less compared to the draconequus. Her fur was a dark purple and shifted to a reddish hue going down her legs and tail, which ended with a scary scorpion stinger at the end. Her neck had some pink fluff, she had two normal, curved back goat horns sticking out of the white hat on her head, a tiger-like face with the three black stripe marks along her cheeks, and the back of her neck was like a cobra’s hood with the inner part of it a bright green. I couldn’t see her eyes due to the sunglasses she wore, but if her voice matched with the creature I vaguely saw in that dream, then they have to be the same yellow feline eyes that peered through the mist. “Don’t dawdle, Dizzy!”

“‘Dizzy’?” I uttered.

I yelped when I felt myself being tugged by an invisible force, following beside this strange female draconequus, assuming she’s the same species as Discord. Who was this creature, and does Discord know her? I don’t recall him ever having any family. Is she related to him? Was she his girlfriend? If they were a couple, that’d be a disastrous match made in Tartarus. I kind of thought he would have gone out with Fluttershy with all the not so subtle hints he drops whenever he’s around her.

As I followed whoever this was through a corrupted city of chaos, I watched ponies running away from us and screaming in terror while avoiding the random path of chaotic destruction around them. “Oh, look, sweetums! How lovely!” I looked to where she was talking about, a claw pointing to a display case of a clothing boutique. I flinched when she just punched her hand through the glass like it was nothing, grabbing a red scarf on a mannequin torso and taking it for herself. “This is mine now.”

She put it on and showed it off to me, or Discord, or whatever the heck was going on in this weird nightmare. “Uhh…Looks…good on you?” I responded awkwardly.

She ignored my compliment as she looked toward a building across the road. “Oh darling, look at that absolutely hideous building full of endearing school fillies,” she said with delight. I looked at the building, noting the sign that was hanging around the corner that read “Celestia’s School for Orphans, Waifs, and Generally-Underprivileged”. “Wouldn’t it look so much better as a towering inferno? Maybe we can put our thrones atop it. Matching ones…Oh! With cupholders!”

“Wait, what!?” I gawked at this crazy woman, watching her horns glow and unleash a spell in a dark pink magic aura. It struck the orphanage, melting and warping it as a fire roared on the roof of the building, with two thrones of red and gold sat untouched by the flames. I heard the foals scream and cry in fright, unable to escape with no one to save them. I heard this monster laughing in psychotic joy, but I ignored her, dropped all her random shopping, and ran toward the building. Snapping my fingers, I created a long ladder with different colored steps with candy cane legs, quickly scrambling up the ladder like a hasty spider to rescue the terrified kids. “Hang on! I’ve got you!”

As scared as the foals were, they instantly reached out to me as their only saving grace. Grabbing each one and holding them all close to my chest, I turned the ladder into a slide as we safely slid down onto the street. I didn’t expect much of a thank you from them, seeing how scared they were and ran to find a pony adult to help them. I was going to give that monster a piece of my mind, but the moment I turned to face her, she was already in my face. I balked at her deadly gaze, all my bravado quickly vanishing in less than a second. She also seemed to grow in size, further intimidating me as my spine bent backward as I was locked onto her yellow-eyed gaze.

“Dear one…you dropped my new scarf,” she growled.

“...B-But…you were going to-” Before I could meekly explain why I dropped her belongings, I felt my body quickly, and quite forcibly, change into a light brown puppy.

She grabbed me, smushing her snout against mine while giving me a loving gaze. “You know how I feel about my things. Is this just another one of your rebellions, sugar-lumps?” Ok, calling me THAT definitely hinted that Discord had some sort of fling with this crazy woman. How could Discord LOVE someone whose idea of hilarious chaos was nearly burning and killing innocent ponies, especially foals!? “It’s the thrones, isn’t it? I know you’re afraid of commitment, but I know you’ll change your mind eventually. You’ll never be over me, and you know it to be true.”

She only cared about Discord, nothing else around her or who she ends up hurting to have fun. Discord seems so much more tame than this monster. Or maybe I should call her a demon instead with her dead heart pining for the real draconequus. This nightmare was trying to scare me, but her actions only made me furious. What fear I did feel washed away as I glowered at this creature.

“Lady, I have no idea who you are, but you are far worse than Discord,” I said. “You almost killed a bunch of children, and you think you could win him over by hurting innocents!? Discord doesn’t cause carnage or destruction with his magic to this magnitude, unlike you!”

She just laughed, amused by my words and began nuzzling my snout again. “Aren’t you adorable, trying to act all menacing with such a cute, fluffy, widdle-?” I snapped, both from the condescending and my jaws, chomping this beast’s nose as hard as possible. She dropped me with a startled yelp, quickly grabbing her muzzle in pain, annoyance, and anger. Part of me told me to run away, but I was going to stand my ground. Snapping my fingers, I returned to my normal, pint-sized Discord body and materialized a massive hammerhead hat on my head. While strapping it on tightly, she stared at my strange accessory in confusion while still holding her bitten face. “What is that?”

“I call it the hat of discipline,” I answered. “Do you live in a cave!?”

I quickly reared my head back, making the large piece of iron grow several times bigger, then just as swiftly slammed my head down. She didn’t have time to react as I smashed her into a pancake, barely hearing her yelp before getting flattened. After crushing her, I let out a gasp as my eyes saw white for a moment. When my vision returned, I shook my head to snap back to my senses, finding myself back on the moon. Around me, I saw Twilight, Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack on the ground, seemingly asleep as a faint blue aura radiated around their bodies.

“Charles! You’re awake!” To my right, I saw Luna and Spike were still awake, or they managed to find a way to break free from their nightmares brought by that cursed mist.

“He broke free much sooner than I thought,” I heard Luna mumble.

“Are the others trapped in nightmares, too?” I asked.

“Yes. What came after us placed all of us under a nightmare curse,” Luna said. “They need to realize that what they are seeing is only an illusion of their fears, otherwise they will be trapped in their nightmare forever!”

Looking back at the girls, I had a hunch I knew what their nightmares must be. I snapped my fingers and created a dream catcher, but I held it up and saw within the opening of the spiritual trap what the girls were dreaming of. As I thought, they were having similar nightmares that they were having earlier tonight.

“Alright. Let’s wake them up,” I said, dismissing my dream “watcher” as Spike, Luna, and I hurried to snap them all out of their nightmares.

Starting with Twilight, who was distraught at being disowned by Celestia for failing to perform her friendship duties, she was able to see it was all just a facade after some encouragement from us. I saw the aura shoot out from her head when she woke up, which must have been what happened to me when I broke out of my nightmare, even though that seemed to feel like more than just a random vivid dream or nightmare. We found Rainbow next, who was afraid of losing her ability to fly and be a Wonderbolt, but we reminded her it was a dream and fought back, flying away and was back to her cocky self. Then there was Pinkie, but she didn’t need much help against her dream audience heckling her and broke free of the curse on her own. Fluttershy needed a bit more convincing with how easily frightened she was, but with a quiet yell at the animals that feared her and were turning on her, she was awake and freed, hugging me tightly as soon as she saw the real me again. Applejack, however, seemed to have it the worst, considering her nightmare could have been a reality if her family’s farm went under. She was still hesitant to fight back, but after reminding her she was a much better farmer than the nightmare forced her to believe, she believed us and broke free.

We weren’t out of danger just yet. We may have escaped from our nightmares, but we were still surrounded by the Nightmare Forces. Even though their nightmare curse won’t work anymore, I still have no idea how we’re supposed to fight creatures made of pure dark magic. Sunlight? Light magic? A simple flashlight?

“You want some more!?” Rainbow exclaimed, goading the creatures to attack us. “We’re not afraid of you!”

“Aw, but some of you are afraid. Isn’t that true…Luna?” Startled, not thinking that any of these things could speak, I looked toward where the eerie voice came from. Out of the many spectral mist creatures, one of them was a dark blue with red eyes, and there was another floating next to that one that was a dark shade of gray with yellow eyes. And it was hard to tell by their forms with their wispy bodies, so I had no idea what creature they were supposed to look like. “Is that what you’re going by now?”

“That is my name,” Luna responded. “My past as Nightmare Moon is long gone.”

“But there is something you fear,” the blue nightmare creature said as he and his gray friend hovered closer to Luna.

“Come back as Nightmare Moon and we will spare your friends,” the gray one said, who seemed to sound more like the incompetant villain’s sidekick to the first one.

“After all they’ve done for you, this is how you will repay them?” the blue one asked in amusement, floating closer to Luna as she turned her head away from him. “Of course, you know our other alternative.”

Luna winced and shut her eyes, clearly dreading this other alternative to ceasing their invasion. But, knowing how devious some villains are, especially those in large groups, they’re definitely not going to keep their word.

“No! You can’t!” Luna begged. “These ponies saved me. Rarity saved me…I will go-”

“No!” Twilight interjected. “You aren’t going anywhere, Princess Luna!”

“Yeah!” Rainbow agreed. “Like we’re gonna let some goth-loving bunny take another one of our friends!”

Shocked, Luna looked at us. “I’m…your friend?”

“Well, duh!” Pinkie said. “All of us are! Even Charlie!”

“We all trust you,” Fluttershy said. “We know you would never lie to us.”

Luna seemed to doubt Fluttershy’s words, but she didn’t have much to dwell on the prospect of making friends from her actions when the blue mist creature in charge hovered before us again. “Well, I see you have some real friends here,” he said with a hint of sarcasm. “Friends who would do anything for you.”

The gray nightmare monster took notice of me and Spike, both of us keeping our distance from it if it tried anything. “Hey, Larry, look at these little dragons!” he called out to his companion. The blue one growled, creating a hammer from its body and smacking his cohort hard in the head, clearly annoyed with the gray one’s dumb, distracted antics. “Sorry, Shadowfright…”

Sighing and dragging a hand down his face, the one called Shadowfright didn’t let his partner deter him from his speech. “And these friends won’t be dissuaded.”

“No way, buddy!” Rainbow challenged.

Shadowfright smirked in amusement, then flew back over to Luna, ignoring the rest of us. “This is your last chance, ‘Luna’, before they find out what you let happen.” Luna didn’t face Shadowfright, refusing to respond. She wasn’t giving in, which was a good thing, but I could have sworn I saw a tear about to fall from her eye. What else did she do that made her feel so much more guilty than she already was? “Well, my pony friends, I can see that we will not be able to make an…arrangement. Luckily, we came prepared.

“We will get the kingdom we were promised!” We heard many of the Nightmare Forces letting out approving noises at Shadowfright’s claim. If things turned out well in the future, I highly doubt these guys would win against us. Before I could call them out, a sudden explosion of magical, bright light blue energy erupted in front of us. We stepped back in surprise, and through the magical eruption, a pair of slitted blue eyes opened inside. When the smoke dissipated, all of us gasped as we recognized the figure before us. “Now, the Elements of Harmony will be destroyed forever, and Ponyville will be defenseless! Meet our new queen: Nightmare Rarity!”

If I earned a bit from the amount of times my jaw would literally drop out of my mouth, I would probably be rich beyond my wildest dreams. Our hearts dropped at the sight of Nightmare Rarity’s form, but I couldn’t imagine how much Spike was feeling right now. Rarity was just as tall as Luna now, but her fur was a dark black instead of white, and her longer, billowing mane was a slightly darker shade of purple with white streaks. She may not have had wings, but her horn was much longer and thinner, probably about three to four times longer than a normal unicorn’s horn length. And her cutie mark had smaller white stars around her three blue diamonds.

Nightmare Rarity chuckled, her voice definitely changing to a more ominous tone. “It’s true. Your powers defeated me before, little ponies, but what will you do now that I’ve taken one of you?” she asked. “Without all of you, your Elements of Harmony are powerless. Bit of a pickle, isn’t it?”

I picked up my jaw, fumbling around with putting it back in place while my brain tried to process this villainous Rarity. I know she wasn’t as helpless as she appears to be, but whatever these Nightmare Forces did to break her and have a new Nightmare Moon return and possess her, these monsters were dead serious about getting their revenge. Some part of Rarity still had to be in there somewhere.

“Rarity?” I notice Spike stepping forward, getting the nightmare unicorn’s attention. “It’s Spike. You know, your little Spikey-wikey?” Nightmare Rarity’s eyes widened slightly, and I saw them begin to change. Of course! Spike adores Rarity and does anything for her, no matter how tedious or strenuous, and she enjoys the attention she gets from him, seeing him more like a little brother than a friend. “We…I…You’re the best. Please come back.”

“...S-Spike…” I thought Rarity’s platonic love for Spike would have broken through, but our hopes were dashed when the mare’s gaze quickly turned into a glare, her horn flaring as she looked away from Spike, pushing Rarity back inside. “ENOUGH!” she shouted, stomping her hooves down harshly into the ground, forcing Spike to step back. Nightmare Rarity avoided Spike, focusing all her attention on the possessor’s former victim. “Luna, Luna, Luna, you had it all. How foolish you were to give up your power. And for what? These weaklings?”

“You’re wrong!” Luna exclaimed, but her glare faltered when Nightmare Rarity approached her.

“If you had taken my offer and became Nightmare Moon once more, your precious ponies would be spared,” Nightmare Rarity said. “You’ve done this to them, Luna. And they will never forgive you.”

Luna grimaced at the harsh words. I had enough watching Luna being put down, both by herself and the monster that had once taken over her that now resided in Rarity. I split both mares off with a wall made of moon rocks, taking the Nightmare aback, and I climbed up a flight of steps on Luna’s side. I climbed up to the top, standing at eye level with the baffled nightmare unicorn.

“Leave her alone!” I shouted. “You’re the one who influenced her when she was upset that no one ever appreciated her! You took advantage of her loneliness to give you your promised kingdom, but that’ll never happen!”

Nightmare Rarity eyed me curiously. I didn’t think she’d be frightened by my appearance, but I didn’t like the way she looked at me either.

“What sort of creature are you?” she asked.

“Never heard of Discord?” I asked back. She quirked a brow at my response, but considering this thing was once a part of Luna, I could see that she recognized the name. “But I’m not Discord. I’m his heir.” Snapping my fingers, I created a pair of giant forceps, gripping both ends in both hands. “And we’re getting Rarity out of there one way or another. I suggest you open wide and say ‘Ahh’ before you try anything funny.”

Nightmare Rarity didn’t flinch at my bluff, even when I snipped the forceps a few times to prove I wasn’t messing around. I kind of was, actually; I don’t know if I have the power to pull out a specter or a parasitic entity with chaos magic. She chuckled in amusement, making me wilt slightly.

“How adorable,” she said. “But Rarity is gone. What the Elements of Harmony failed to destroy is now in full control of this mare.”

“Yes she is!” I argued. “She reacted to Spike reaching out to her! You may have one of the Elements, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t be beaten!”

“Your attempts will be futile, no matter how much you try.” I thrust my forceps at Nightmare Rarity, only to have them blasted out of my hands by the Nightmare’s magic beam. Stunned, I was suddenly snatched out of the air by Nightmare Rarity’s bright blue aura, forcefully dragged off my perch and floated a few inches in front of her. “You are a mere child who does not understand the full extent of the powers he has. Even as Discord’s offspring, you can’t even hold a candle compared to me. You’re as useless as the Elements of Harmony now.” I yelped as she flung me back into my rock wall. The others gasped as I hit it, which weakly broke through as the pieces all began randomly floating away without any gravity to them, and I tumbled back until I came to a stop at Luna’s hooves. “It doesn’t matter what any of you say or attempt to do; I am taking Ponyville, and all of you are powerless to stop me.”

As I got up, shaking my head with a groan, Nightmare Rarity ordered her Nightmare Forces to charge us, and all the creatures obeyed. Luna quickly grabbed me and flapped away, leaving me next to Spike before shooting off to blast some of them with her magic. The others tried to fend them off as well, which surprised me when I saw Rainbow taunt Shadowfright, and when he dove at her, he slammed into the ground when she zipped away at an impossible ninety degree angle to veer away from him. Apparently, these things can be physically grabbed, but it doesn't help much when their bodies can stretch and morph with their ethereal forms.

The gray creature who Shadowfright talked with began to stalk Twilight, ready to pounce her while she was distracted zapping the other nightmare creatures. “Oh no you don’t!” Spike yelled and dove forward, grasping the gray nightmare’s tail and held it tightly. “You took one of my friends! I’m not letting you take any more!”

He noticed Spike trying to pull him away, then began flailing his tail wildly to shake the dragon off. “Let go!”

“Not until you give up!” Spike said.

I leapt in to help Spike, managing to latch myself onto the Nightmare Force’s tail with him, which I immediately regretted as we both yelled and clung on for dear life. “Why did I tag in!?” I questioned myself.

“S-Surrender now, and we’ll take it easy on you!” Spike said, but I doubt we would be that threatening when we’re holding on to what feels like a mechanical bull gone haywire.

“How kind of you, little dragons.” He suddenly stopped, then without warning, he flicked his tail like a whip, flinging the two of us really hard into the air.

We both screamed as we were sent sailing almost a mile away from the battlefield. I really, REALLY should have practiced flying sooner rather than later! We began falling to the ground, and there was nothing on the moon that would be considered safe enough to land. Thinking quickly, I repeatedly snapped my fingers, creating several cotton candy clouds in our path. We fell into and through each one, slowing us down a bit while coated in sticky strawberry fluff and chocolate milk. After falling through the last cloud, we bounced against the ground a few times before rolling to a slightly painful, but safe enough to not splat on the moon and suffer serious injuries.

We both groaned as we sat up, taking a moment to settle our nerves after such a terrifying freefall. “That’s it. If we manage to save the day, I’m taking flying lessons,” I uttered. Shaking off the moon dust and the sticky mess of chocolate milk-filled cotton candy, I checked on Spike to see if he was just as rattled. “You good, Spike?”

“Shaken and sore, but I’ve got tough scales,” he said. Seeing how sticky he was from my innovative parachute, he used his long dragon tongue to lick himself clean. Now I see why Twilight was disturbed by that when she got those cupcakes during her little friendship letter freakout. After he was spotless, he checked on the ruby around his neck. “Phew. Not a single scratch.”

“I still can’t believe you want to give that to Rarity while she’s possessed by Nightmare Moon,” I grumbled, but after saying it aloud, maybe Spike giving her something as a sign of affection could help her fight back against the Nightmare. I looked around where we landed, practically in what feels like the middle of nowhere after getting flung so far from the others. We heard something above us, watching a blue blur zip back down to Earth, which seemed much farther away as the moon drifted away after Spike snapped the lasso. “Uhh…You don’t think that was Luna, do you?”

“Why?” Spike asked. “Did…did the others lose?”

“I have a sinking feeling, but…probably,” I said. “Without the Elements of Harmony, I don’t think anyone in Ponyville could stand up to them.”

“Don’t you know what’s happening?” Spike asked. “We save Rarity and stop the Nightmare in the end, right?”

I sighed and hung my head. “Sadly…this didn’t happen in the show.” Spike gasped in surprise, but I didn’t blame him. “I don’t even know who I keep seeing in my nightmare. It’s so weird.” Looking at the ground, I picked up a rock and observed it, then looked back to Spike. “I don’t know if you can see it, but, somehow, the world just looks…aesthetically different right now.”

“...H-How?” Spike questioned.

“Before, all the colors I saw back on Earth were bolder and brighter, but now I’m seeing everything’s kind of…grainy, and I see outlines around everybody. It’s like I jumped out from flash animation and into a-” I paused with my odd description, glancing back at the moon rock and my hand. Again, my jaw fell off my face, too distracted by the realization to notice Spike grimacing and staring at my detached muzzle. “...A comic book.”

“Uhh, what?” Spike questioned.

I dropped the rock, spinning around while staring at our surroundings as I looked back at the strange changes in the world that I never noticed until now. “The show also had a comic book series, with their own plots and stories that weren’t canon with the cartoon’s!” I exclaimed in a panic, completely forgetting about my rambling mouth on the ground. “No wonder I didn’t know what was happening: WE’RE IN A COMIC PLOTLINE! I’ve never even read a single one of those issues!”

“There’s comic books about us, too?” I didn’t hear Spike ask as I was having my own “Lesson Zero” moment.

“We were supposed to go into ‘Nightmare Night’ after ‘Lesson Zero’!” I continued. “How did I not see that Luna looked like her earlier design before she looked like how she’s supposed to throughout the rest of the series!? That should have been my first clue the moment I woke up in this world! I thought Discord brought me to Equestria that went with the show’s narrative! THIS THREW EVERYTHING COMPLETELY OUT OF-!” The rest of my ranting was suddenly muffled, feeling something clasp onto my flapping gums. I touched my face, completely forgetting I lost my mouth in my shock. “Hmm?”

“Dude, I don’t know what exactly you’re going through, but…maybe have a chaotic freakout when we get back home,” Spike said. I looked at him, where he was holding my mouth in his hands with one of them keeping my mouth clamped shut. “If Luna was forced to escape and the girls are in trouble, it looks like it’s up to us to save the day.”

He did have a point. I slowly nodded, putting this ordeal behind me for now until I can get some answers about my jump between the cartoon’s continuity and the comic’s. Spike handed back my mouth, which I gladly took and smashed it into my face. With a few twists and adjustments, my muzzle melded back to my face good as new.

“I don’t know what else we can do, but I don’t think overpowering Nightmare Rarity with brute strength will help us win,” I said, then pointed to Spike’s giant ruby. “We’re going to strike her heart instead.”

Spike let out a gasp in horror. “We’re going to stab Rarity through the heart!?” he exclaimed, making me facepalm.

“No, you lovestruck idiot,” I groaned. “I’m talking about you and your present for Rarity.”

“...Oh.” Realizing how he misinterpreted my phrasing, Spike giggled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. “I-I knew that.”

“Come on, Romeo,” I grumbled, grabbing the dragon’s wrist, dragging him with me to begin our trek to find that castle we saw in the distance. “Let’s save your Juliet and the rest of the girls.”

It was going to be a long, long, VERY long walk across the moon to Nightmare Rarity’s castle. Hopefully, we will get there soon without needing to climb a mountain or two. Even if the girls had the Elements of Harmony with them, they wouldn’t have worked without Rarity. No one else could replace them if Twilight thinking that Spike could replace Rainbow Dash with the Element of Loyalty against Discord was proof enough.

As we walked, Spike began singing a song about himself and saving the day. I knew songs out of nowhere were a thing in the show, but I didn’t think they’d happen in the comics. I wouldn’t even know what rhythm he was going with or what the tune would be, but I just ignored it. We walked past some geysers spewing out smoke, but no sign of that massive castle structure built out of the very orbiting asteroid it stood on. Spike began slowing down, panting a bit and messing with the timing of his “heroic” song. I knew he still had some baby fat, but he really should lay off the gemstones if he goes off on another misadventure in the future.

“The most famous dragon…you ever liked…his name is-” Spike collapsed, wheezing slightly as he stopped to rest against one of the geysers. “Spike…Spike…Spike~”

“Ugh. I could have sworn that castle was somewhere in this direction,” I said as I scratched my head.

Oh, I knew you should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.

“Albuquerque? We’re on the moon.” After a few seconds, I blanched when that voice sounded like Discord. “Ok, that’s the third time I heard his voice! Have I really lost my mind!?” Just as I was about to question my sanity, I shuddered when I felt something slimy crawl up my tail. “Ugh! What in the world!?”

Looking at my tail, I saw a strange mass slithering up it. Leaning closer, I saw an eyeball staring back at me, and it looked like it was a part of my tail? I know Discord had a weird sense of asymmetry with his body, but nothing like a weird, slimy lump that’s staring right at me. I grabbed it, feeling the squishy thing in my fingers as I lifted it off of me and held it up closer. It blinked, and I saw some of its body shifting colors like a chameleon, its back turning yellow like my eagle claw.

Spike began giggling, seeing him also covered in these same moon slug creatures crawling over him, their bodies camouflaging with the dragon’s scales. “S-Stop! That tickles!” Spike laughed as he squirmed. Well, at least he’s no longer wheezing and out of breath. He sat up, letting out an awed gasp when he looked up. “Hey! Look!”

I looked up as well, this time keeping my jaw from dropping when I saw we were right next to the lunar castle. “Huh. How about that? We’re here,” I uttered.

“So, this is where they’re at?” Spike asked.

“Yup. And I bet it’ll be crawling with Nightmare Forces,” I said. “We’ll need to be stealthy and avoid detection if we have any hopes of getting the girls out. My magic would only make us stand out and do something random…” Looking at the moon slugs, feeling more of them beginning to crawl up my legs, I grinned as a light bulb appeared over my head. “I got it! These slugs can conceal us as we sneak in!”

“I was thinking the exact same thing!” Spike said. We already had a huge group of the little friendly slugs around us, and they were all looking at us curiously. “Are you guys ready to join me on a quest to save a damsel in distress!?”

The slugs all blinked, but didn’t give much of an answer. “You mean ‘us’,” I corrected. “And I’m not sure if they understand you.” To my surprise, the slugs all slithered up to us and crawled up our bodies. Their slimy skin shifted to our colors before changing to match the castle walls. “...Ok, maybe they do.”

“You can’t say no to rescuing a princess,” Spike said with a laugh.

“At least she’s not held in the clutches of a fire breathing dragon,” I said. I winced when I realized what I said. “Uhh, no offense, Spike.”

“Eh. None taken,” he said with a shrug. “Now, let’s save fair Rarity.”

I just rolled my eyes and let Spike have his fantasy. As long as he doesn’t make me his trusty steed. We approached the base of the castle and began to climb up the craggy mountain. As we reached the carved castle portion, a balcony above us seemed to have some flora growing over the railing. I’m kind of surprised to see plants growing on the moon, but since there’s oxygen around here, it seems to make sense that a world filled with magic could make this giant hunk of rock habitable.

As we grabbed onto the sturdy vines, we carefully climbed up to the side of the railing, our slug friends camouflaging us to help us blend in. “There will be no more mistakes!” Spike and I froze, keeping as quiet and still as possible when we heard Nightmare Rarity speak. “We must strike while those meddling ponies are locked away.”

“But my queen, aren’t the ponies still a threat?” I heard Shadowfright say.

“Oh, my dear Larry. My dear, simple, unamusing Larry,” Nightmare Rarity said to her right hand entity. I guess he hated his real name that much and preferred the more menacing name of Shadowfright, and the Nightmare was definitely condescending toward him for his questioning. “I picked this pony vessel for a reason: to render the Elements of Harmony powerless!”

“Supreme one, may I ask why you chose this pony in particular?” Shadowfright asked. “That yellow one seemed like an, um, easier option.”

Oh, heck no. They did not suggest having Nightmare take over Fluttershy’s body. I’ve seen mean Fluttershy, I do NOT want to imagine Nightmare Fluttershy running amok. Quietly, Spike and I continued climbing, peeking over the railing. There was Nightmare Rarity, directly in front of us, and behind her were Shadowfright and his doofy accomplice, who I might just call George just to give him a name. The dark unicorn was wearing a slightly pale blue circlet and choker with a blue diamond in the center of her forehead and neck, showing off her regality as a queen of the Nightmare Forces.

“It was her mane, right?” George asked. “That pony Rarity had great hair.”

Annoyed, Shadowfright gave George a sideways leer, then wrapped its arm around his friend’s mouth to shut him up. “I chose Rarity specifically,” Nightmare Rarity said. “She had, shall we say, self-esteem issues?” I had a feeling that’s what got Rarity. That nightmare of hers involving her generosity being unappreciated really did affect her. And she must have been pressured into accepting Nightmare to avoid feeling that pain of rejection from her closest friends. “I needed a being that was…pliable. Rarity was so eager to help. So generous with her gifts, but she had a deep, dark secret. Although, I was sure she would cave.”

Spike and I glanced at each other. So she was able to fend them off, if only for a short while before being influenced by her fears.

“She was a bit stronger than we had hoped,” Shadowfright said.

“Well, sometimes a little force is necessary,” Nightmare Rarity said.

“And what will we do with the prisoners once we’re victorious?” Shadowfright asked.

“For now, leave them in the dungeon,” Nightmare Rarity said with a wave. She began to move away from the balcony railing, her hench-mists staying by her side and their attention no longer looking out at the empty scenery. “Or we could always lock them up and throw away the key!”

The mare and Shadowfright laughed at the idea. “Good one, my queen!” Shadowfright said, kissing up to his benevolent ruler.

“Key? Uh, I know I had it here a minute ago.” George seemed to be looking around for something, but shrugged and continued following the mare and his cohort.

That gave us an opening to sneak inside. Spike and I kept out of their sight, successfully creeping inside and found the spiral stairs leading down. We had to get the girls first, then we’ll save Rarity and finally put an end to this living nightmare.

“Spike~. Spike~. Spike~.” I grumbled as I heard Spike begin to sing his dumb song.

“Spike, now’s not the time to be singing about your-” I turned around to scold him, only to flinch when, out of nowhere, I saw George hovering right behind us.

Quickly snatching Spike, I held us against the wall, hoping he didn’t catch us as the slugs did their thing and helped us blend into our surroundings.

“So those two little dragons are in the castle?” Darn it, we got caught! I thought he was going to capture us, but to our confusion, he seemed to double back and look upstairs. “‘Larry’s sidekick?’ Not for long…”

George flew away, leaving us be. Spike and I remained quiet for several more seconds before we finally let out the breaths we were holding.

“Ok, definitely the dumb evil sidekick type,” I said. “What a stroke of luck.”

“We better hurry before he decides to come back with guards,” Spike said.

Continuing down the stairs, we came across a crossroads with a passage to our right and more stairs leading further down to where a dungeon would be in a castle. As the moon slugs crawled off of us, I looked downstairs, only to grimace when I saw that same smoke that took us into nightmare land billowing along the steps.

“Oh crud, not that again,” I mumbled. I used my magic to create some gas masks, hoping these can filter out enchanted mist. After placing mine on, I gave Spike the other. “Here, Spike. Don’t want us to get caught in a-” When I looked to where he was standing, I gasped when I saw the dragon go right down the hall, which also had that same mist flowing from within. “Spike, no!”

I hurried in after him, but as soon as I entered the room, I felt something grab me. Just as I was about to scream out for Spike, only to have a wispy tendril rip off my gas mask and gag me. My whole body was tightly bound up by Shadowfright’s form. I forgot unicorns could teleport, and Nightmare had some pretty powerful magic under her belt. George must have really warned them that quickly, which explained the mist trap she left if we went either direction.

“Don’t squirm, runt. Watch as we have your friend devote his loyalty to his new queen,” Shadowfright taunted in my ear, snickering quietly while I tried to squirm out of his vice-like grip.

Spike walked forward to a dais made out of stone, and waiting behind it was none other than Nightmare Rarity. I don’t understand how he was still moving despite being under the effects of the cursed nightmare mist, but when Spike looked around in awe, his eyes were closed. He was sleepwalking. When he reached the top of the steps, he let out a gasp, reaching a claw out to nothing.

“M-M-Me? King?” Spike said aloud.

I had no idea what he was seeing, but if I were to take a wild guess, this empty, barren room was meant to be like a royal throne room in Spike’s mind. Nightmare Rarity smirked as she stepped up to greet the dragon.

“Why, of course, my little Spikey-wikey,” the mare said, masking her voice to sound like the real Rarity.

“Rarity! You’re…You’re ok!” Spike said with glee.

I struggled, my shouting muffled as I tried to tell Spike it was a trap, but Shadowfright was keeping me tightly bound and gagged, especially my hands. If I couldn’t snap my fingers, I can’t make anything out of thin air with my mind. I knew some things could come out, but it was random and for random convenience for some random situation.

“And why wouldn’t I be? I’m a queen now,” Nightmare Rarity gloated as Spike hugged the mare’s leg, where she returned the hug with her free hoof.

“That’s amazing,” Spike said. “But what about the other po-?”

“Oh, hush!” the mare interrupted, giving Spike a gentle boop on the nose. “You are far too cute to be thinking so much! Besides, I have a question for you.” I shook my head, continuing to struggle. I couldn’t even bite Shadowfright’s limb around my muzzle. He constricted me tightly, making me grunt and forced my head to stay still and watch Spike getting tricked by the Nightmare. He knelt down before her, bowing slightly as he was accepting something through his closed eyes. He thought it was a crown, but what I saw that shocked me was a collar on a chained leash, possibly infused with magic to make Spike Nightmare Rarity’s slave. “Will you, Spike, forget the past and be my king?”

I thought for sure he was going to say yes in his lovestruck stupor, bracing myself for the inevitable brainwashing and seeing a possible Nightmare Spike transformation. “...Wait a minute. Did you say, ‘Forget the past?’”

“Why, yes I did,” Nightmare Rarity said.

“But I don’t want to forget my past,” Spike said. “What about our friends? I know you don’t want to forget about them.”

I was surprised Spike was able to snap out of his infatuation to notice the mare’s words. “But Spike, don’t you want to be my king? Forever?”

“Y-Yesss…” And I had to jinx it.

“Then you will serve me, and only me.” I wish I could just shut my eyes and avoid watching this demon of an entity manipulating Spike.

We were possibly the girls’ only hope of escaping, and we got suckered into a trap. I knew this was too good to be true. We got this far, only to be outmatched by a smarter, powerful eternal shadow monster.

“Wait a minute.” Just as I was about to admit defeat, Spike pushed aside the collar from being placed down on his head, then held up the heart-shaped ruby necklace to Nightmare Rarity. “Rarity, what do you think of my necklace?”

“It’s cute,” she answered.

“Cute? Just ‘cute’?” Spike questioned. “Nothing else?”

“Not my color, really,” Nightmare Rarity said, wondering where the dragon was going with his questions.

But I knew exactly what was happening, and I think he finally figured out what was going on. “That’s the first time I’ve ever hated you saying the word ‘cute’, Rarity,” Spike said. He was upset, but he stood defiant, swiping his hand and tearing something that was on him in his dream and pointed a claw at Nightmare Rarity, startling her and Shadowfright. “But you’re not Rarity! Not MY Rarity! NOOOO!”

Spike woke up from his dream, causing Nightmare’s leash to dissipate into mist along with the curse she trapped him in. When he opened his eyes, he gasped as he saw Nightmare Rarity looming over him, glaring bitterly at him for breaking her spell after getting so close to enslaving him. Blue ethereal flames appeared around her, giving her a menacing appearance in the eerie glow of the blue lighting. She snatched the necklace from Spike’s neck, startling him.

“Seems you’ve discovered my little secret; not only can I create your nightmares, but your dreams, too,” Nightmare Rarity said.

“But-but Rarity…I-I lo-love…” Behind Spike, I saw a pair of gray, smokey arms rise up from the dias, revealing George’s sneaky smirk.

“Oh, p-p-poor Spike,” the Nightmare mocked, angering the dragon. “Can’t get the words out?” He tried to leap at her, only to be grabbed and held in front of the mare while he struggled to attack her. “Don’t worry. It’s too late for Rarity anyway, let alone your friends.”

“I will never help you! Never!” Spike roared, gritting his teeth as he grunted and struggled from George’s grip. “Throw me in a dungeon for a bajillion years! I don’t care!”

“Help!?” Nightmare Rarity scoffed. “What could a silly, deluded little dragon possibly help ME with?” She chuckled, stepping down from the dias and walked over to me and Shadowfright. Spike stared at me, almost forgetting about me as he saw me bound and gagged by the Nightmare mist monster’s body. Nightmare Rarity looked at me with a sadistic grin under those sparkling blue eyes. “Besides, this nightmare has only just begun.”

I leered at her, but as I squirmed and tried to break free, Nightmare Rarity’s horn glowed and she zapped me with a spell, knocking me out my vision went black.

---

I had no idea how long I was conked out for. As I stirred, I could still feel my hands and fingers bound together. When I opened my eyes, I was staring out at the moon, back on the balcony Spike and I snuck onto. I was sitting in some sort of chariot, and there were hundreds of Nightmare Forces gathered around with Earth high above us. To my left, I heard Spike grunting, bound by a smoke-like rope while wearing a cloak bearing Rarity’s three diamond cutie mark on the forehead of the hood. I was also bound by the same cloudy bindings, and my hands were clasped together in a pair of special handcuffs keeping them and my fingers tightly together, making it impossible for me to snap any of them to unleash my magic.

“Spike? What happened?” I asked.

“What happened is that you two brats have been a thorn in our queen’s side for far too long.” Hovering in front of us, Shadowfright smirked down at us. He was dangling Spike’s ruby pendant mockingly at him. “Lucky for you two, our queen has a use for you two.”

“I’m not doing anything for her!” Spike exclaimed. “She took my Rarity away forever!”

“Well, you see, that’s the problem,” Shadowfright said. “Apparently, there is a wee bit of that dreadful pony left in our vigilant, yet glamorous leader.”

“What!? You’ve gotta set Rarity free!” Spike begged. “Your ‘queen’ is a monster!”

“Not a chance!” the mist creature shouted, making Spike flinch. “You will watch as your beloved Rarity destroys your home along with all the love you have for her. Then the transformation will be permanent.”

To emphasize his point, Shadowfright squeezed the ruby with all his might, causing it to shatter and break into pieces. As much as it upset Spike, my thought about Spike’s love for Rarity to help break her out of Nightmare’s hold was found out by her smarter right hand man. Shadowfright tossed the gem’s pieces aside as Spike watched them fall, his gift lost to the moon.

“Are my ears burning? Because with how hot I look, I should be on fire!” I looked to my right, where Nightmare Rarity strutted up to the chariot. She was wearing a set of golden battle armor with gemstones embedded in her boots, helmet, and an odd accessory around her neck that was the type of thing an evil villainess would wear to show off her evil and royal nature. Even though she was a creature of darkness, part of Rarity’s fashion flair obviously showed in her armor. “I think we’re about ready to ‘acquire’ our new kingdom, starting with Ponyville.”

“You’re not going to win,” I growled.

Nightmare Rarity laughed at my threat, but she didn’t sound like she was mocking me; she was…amused. “Au contraire, I have already won. The Elements of Harmony are useless with me in control of Rarity and your friends locked away, and Equestria will not be able to stand against me or my army. Not even the princesses themselves will be able to touch a single hair of my mane.”

“I could stop you,” I said. “Take this stupid thing off my hands and I’ll show you what I can really do.”

Shadowfright and the other Nightmare Forces guffawed at my threat. Nightmare Rarity, however, just silently stared at me for a moment before she finally moved closer. Her face lowered to mine, much closer to my liking as I leaned back against my seat in the chariot. What unnerved me was that she wasn’t angry or cross with me for standing up to her despite me being helplessly bound; she gave me a soft, warm smile, and her eyes seemed…eerily gentle as she stared into mine.

“Why do you insist on helping these ponies?” she asked me. I thought the answer for her would be obvious. “You are Discord’s heir; a child with so much power at the tip of your little hooves. He could cause so much chaos in the world, and you are the one who is to uphold his legacy by serving the ponies who turned him to stone for a thousand years?”

“...I-I’m…not really his ‘son’,” I explained. “He picked me to take his place. I’m not from this world.”

“So, in other words, he chose you as his replacement to take the brunt of the ponies’ wrath for HIS misdeeds,” she summarized.

“Well…I guess, but I did agree to do it after being promised I’d have his powers,” I said. “He tricked me into looking like this-”

“And the Elements of Harmony, Celestia, and Luna immediately judged you as that ‘monster’ in the blink of an eye.” My eyes widened in shock. How did she even know what happened to me? Through Rarity’s memories? But the only moment I’ve seen Rarity appear in her eyes was when Spike tried to reach out to her earlier when we got surrounded. Nightmare Rarity tittered at my expression, then gently rubbed my head. “Sometimes, dreams and nightmares can stem from memories. When I rendered you unconscious, I saw the most terrifying moment of your life in only the first week since you ‘awoke’ as Discord’s heir. That fear still haunts you, doesn’t it?”

Well, obviously getting turned to stone after waking up in a new world is terrifying, but what startled me was how she hinted at when I first “woke up” as Discord. “...Y-You mean…you know…about me? The…The real me?”

She silently nodded, but continued to rub my head in an assuring way. “Equestria is not really the friendliest kingdom in all the world if they would wish to turn a child into a living statue,” she said. “They turned away from Luna and focused more on Celestia. Heh, even against each other before Hearth’s Warming was ever founded as a national holiday. If you think I’m awful, what about everypony else?”

“It was a different time back then! Things take so much time to make a better change!” I argued. “Fluttershy likes me! She saved me!”

“Only because she is too innocent to even bear a single nasty bone in her body,” Nightmare Rarity countered. I was about to respond, but she spoke up before I could get a word in. “And don’t say that little dragon next to you is your friend.”

“I am his friend!” Spike argued. “We may not have been friends for that long, but he’s pretty cool!”

“And what of the other Elements?” Nightmare Rarity asked, being surprisingly calm despite both our arguments. “They either give you the benefit of the doubt, or just outright don’t want anything to do with you. What kinds of friends won’t give anypony a chance?”

I didn’t want to believe her for a second. The girl will get better with judging others, as well as everyone else, but it did hurt a bit knowing some of them don’t trust me when they don’t know everything about me, only by what I look like. Nightmare Rarity continued her little manipulative spiel as I looked at Spike. While I did, I noticed our little moon slug friends had found us, crawling up into the chariot. We both glanced back at the Nightmare and her army. Luckily, they were all distracted by their queen’s words about how friendship was nothing but a farce and how gullible some of them can be.

Looking back at Spike, I gestured with my head for him to break out and let our slug friends take his place. I think he got what I was thinking, though he must have thought I actually would turn my back on them after Nightmare Rarity’s “convincing” arguments. Wiggling my hips, I managed to give my tail a bit of room, shifting it to reach out to Spike with a confident grin. He smiled back, swishing his tail to latch with mine into an alternative to a handshake with our bound limbs.

While we still had one more chance, the slugs slithered around Spike, slipping him out of his smoky bindings with their slimy bodies, then bundled up to Spike’s form and changing color to match his scales and spines. It was a crude imitation, but it would have to do. Spike saluted to me, then quietly exited the chariot and snuck away from our foes’ sights. I hope he finds the girls and frees them. Among all the Nightmare Forces, I didn’t see George anywhere among their ranks. Not even with Shadowfright.

Speaking of, Shadowfright approached the chariot and stared at the Spike slug replica. “The silent treatment?” he asked after a moment of silence. “Clever, but your silence won’t save Rarity once your love is gone.”

I ignored the urge to roll my eyes when he didn’t realize that wasn’t the real Spike he was mocking. Nightmare Rarity settled herself into the chariot, sitting in front of me.

“Now is the time for Nightmare rule!” Nightmare Rarity proclaimed, sending her troops in an uproar of cheers. As the mass of cloud bodies flew on ahead, the chariot being pulled by a couple of them, we flew off to the Earth. The invasion was underway. I only hope everyone in town is able to protect themselves. “You have been quiet for a while now, Charles,” she said to me, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Have you thought about what I said about those ‘friends’ of yours?”

Putting on my best childlike innocence act, I looked up at her. “I have,” I said. “And you know what? You are right. They didn’t show me any kind of friendship at all.” She smirked at my words. I was a terrible liar, but I guess being a draconequus, I’m able to fake it really well, and I didn’t even need my hands to make it possible. “Equestria’s not as nice as I thought it was.”

She rubbed my head, “consoling” me, thinking she already won me over. “I know. The truth can hurt sometimes. Nopony likes creatures like us because they’re afraid of our power. And they’ll do all they can to stop us from proving how horrible they are toward every creature, sentient or non.” Removing her hoof from my head, I looked down with a pout before that same hoof lifted up my chin. “You have so much power in you, and it’s obvious Celestia and Luna fear you. That’s why they want to instill fear in you by using a power that’s not their own. You’re stronger than an alicorn princess by leagues compared to what they claim to have. You should be free to spread all that chaos in that cute, little body of yours.”

I looked at the Earth as we got closer and closer to the atmosphere, no doubt the Nightmare Forces casting a menacing shadow around the moon above Ponyville. “I could…be free to do whatever I want?” I asked. She answered with a nod. I glanced down at my cuffed hands, a bit nervous to fully unleash my power when I’m still worried about it going out of control. I only hope everyone, especially Celestia and Luna, doesn’t think I’m going to be the next chaotic deity that Discord was when I turn the tables on Nightmare. “...If I help you take over Ponyville…will I be free to spread chaos?”

“Why, of course, darling,” Nightmare Rarity assured. “And no repercussions, no turning to stone, no judgements. On my word.”

I looked back up at Nightmare Rarity, gave her a sinister smirk, then bowed my head. “I will do whatever you ask of me, my queen.”

Her amused laughter sealed the deal, hook, line, and sucker. I heard her magic ignite, followed by the cuffs disappearing and freeing my hands. Rubbing my sore limbs, I looked up just in time to see us getting closer and closer to Ponyville.

“I know I can handle all of them on my own, but wait for my signal to really give them a shock and spread your chaos however you please,” she said.

I nodded, bracing myself for the backlash I’ll surely receive when all of Ponyville sees my alliance with the Nightmare Forces. I can only hope Spike will explain to the girls, especially Rainbow Dash, that I was still siding with them if they manage to get broken free. Actually, how would they even return from the moon? It was already back in the planet’s orbit, and Celestia and Luna were back on Earth, so they couldn't bring the moon back again until Nightmare Rarity was defeated.

The moment we were hovering several hundred feet above Ponyville, a blue beam of magic fired at us from the ground, but Nightmare Rarity easily deflected it away with her golden boot. “Really? Must we go through all of this again?” she questioned with a roll of her eyes. “Boring.” I winced as the magic beam deflected back to the ground, almost hitting Mayor Mare while leaving behind a small crater. “Still trying to fight back your fear and anger, Luna? Give into the darkness! Join the party.”

Peeking around the chariot, I saw everyone in Ponyville ready to stand their ground. Luna and Celestia were there, with the younger princess bearing golden armor almost similar in design to the royal guard’s.

“I will defeat you! Alone!” Luna proclaimed defiantly.

Nightmare Rarity chuckled, glancing toward her soldiers. “Have fun.”

The Nightmare Forces flew off with a battle cry, zooming down to attack the town. I expected the worst, but somehow, I was surprised to see them managing to hold their own. Even beating and humiliating them with many of them not having any fighting experience at all. How did we lose so easily? Outnumbered? Unprepared for what we would be facing? Plot convenience?

Looking away from the battlefield, Luna was back in the air and was about to dive toward Nightmare Rarity, but she paused when she saw me with her. “Charles!? Why are you-!?”

“He is on my side now,” Nightmare Rarity laughed. “You fools would not give him the courtesy of giving him freedom as himself, but you all treat him like the dreaded monster that was Discord instead! He has pledged his loyalty to me, not you miserable backstabbers.”

“You lie!” Luna dove down again, aiming straight for the Nightmare.

Nightmare Rarity just smirked, then looked at me. “Take care of her for me, Charles,” she ordered sweetly.

Without hesitation, I looked at Luna, silently apologizing, then lifted a hand and snapped my fingers. Within seconds, Luna’s gold armor suddenly felt heavier on her body, making her drop in the air slightly, forcing her wings to flap harder to lift herself from her chaotically enchanted armor.

“You know, gold’s not a very durable metal to craft armor,” I stated. “It’ll dent and just weigh you down. No protection whatsoever.”

“W-What? W-Why are y-you-!?” She then cried out in pain as Nightmare Rarity blasted her with a spell, causing her to fall and crash to the ground.

“Such a disappointment, Luna,” Nightmare Rarity mocked. “You shouldn’t get distracted by your own failures.”

“Luna!” I heard Celestia cry out. Peeking down at the ground, I grimaced as all of Ponyville surrounded the downed alicorn princess. With her armor heavily weighted, she nearly created a pony-sized indent a couple inches in the ground. As some of the ponies helped take off her armor, some of them scraped and bruised from their confrontations with the Nightmare Forces, Celestia spotted me and glared intensely with a burning hatred. “You…”

“Oh, crab baskets,” I mumbled, knowing all my trust and credibility was gone with Celestia now, and she didn't realize I’m only playing along until the time was right.

The chariot landed on the hill overlooking the shocked and weary ponies as they looked at us. “Time to wave the white flag, anypony!?” Nightmare Rarity called out, thinking she’s already won. “Might be time to pack in the towel before somepony REALLY gets hurt! And it won’t be from me.” She let out a mock gasp, holding a hoof to her face. “Oh wait, Luna already did.” Luna was slightly winded, but was freed from the armor I made much heavier for her to handle. Even though everyone else was powerless against Nightmare Rarity, or even me, they all kept their ground, protecting Luna as they leered at us. “Ha! How quaint! You’ll all still protect her? After she betrayed you and let your town be destroyed?”

Stepping forward, Sweetie Belle out of all the ponies stood beside Luna as she began to wake from her daze. “Yes! Forever!” she said.

The other two Crusaders stepped forward, though they were really hurt seeing me standing alongside the Nightmare after just becoming friends with them “Charles? What are ya doin’ with her?” Apple Bloom asked.

Before I could utter a response, Nightmare Rarity wrapped a hoof around my barrel and pulled me closer to her. “He has become my loyal servant, little ones,” she announced. “No longer shall he hold back his true potential in order to befriend those who only see him as a shadow of the former Lord of Chaos! He has no use for ponies who despise him just by the way he looks! All your fighting will be futile against a child of chaos and the Nightmare!”

I could only give the fillies an apologetic look. They look so disappointed in me. If my sister was among them, I think she would hate my guts for siding with a villain as cruel as the Nightmare. Maybe it was a good thing the Elements of Harmony are useless now; I was definitely going to be turned to stone after this if Rarity was freed.

“No…Do not believe her words,” Luna said. “She must have manipulated poor Charles.” She winced slightly, staring at all her subjects and older sister around her. “I will fail us again. My bitterness and anger had transformed me into Nightmare Moon before, and I fear it could happen again. It is my burden.”

Celestia looked away from me and at her sister, startled to hear her claim. “No, Luna.” She helped Luna back on her hooves, the lunar princess staggering slightly from the strain of her armor earlier, where I’m going to get an earful for. “This isn’t your burden to bear alone. Nightmare Moon was also my responsibility for her existence. If only I listened to your cries for attention long ago, this monster would have never been born.”

“And you’re one of us!” Scootaloo said. “You’re trying to save us, and we’ll all do the same for you!”

The other ponies all voiced their agreements with the pegasus filly. Luna looked at her subjects in awe, like she had never been praised for anything in her life. I think she took what I said much earlier tonight, how ponies ideals toward the princesses were far different today compared to those a thousand years ago. Then she glanced at me, the so-called traitor who took her down and insulted her, but when our gazes met, she could see I hold no malicious intent while being held next to the Nightmare beside me.

“...With all of you beside me, maybe I don’t need to fear my past…or my future,” I heard Luna utter. Getting her second wind, she stood strong and faced Ponyville and her subjects. “My dear friends, if we are to fight together, then I must be honest with you. I’ve been hiding my fear and my past from you, but now there is no hiding. It lies in front of us, and I cannot face it alone. If you can forgive me, I swear I will never abandon you as I abandoned the denizens of the moon. I will never let my fear of becoming Nightmare Moon stop me from defending you!” Her magic suddenly flared around her horn after her speech, her aura surrounding her body in a brilliant display that startled all of us. When it faded away, the town, Celestia, and I marveled at Luna as she now looked just like how I’ve seen her in the show: her fur was a darker blue, her mane and tail billowed like Celestia’s and glittered like it was part of the starry night sky above, and her size grew slightly to where she was just a head shorter than her older sister. “Together, we will defeat the nightmare energy, and it will never hurt anypony ever again!”

While the crowd cheered, sticking with Luna and the boost of morale she gave, Nightmare Rarity growled, glaring daggers at her former host no longer intimidated by her presence or the constant reminders of her past. She was almost squeezing me closely to her side, making me gag as she seemed incredibly irate and ready to blow everyone up with her magic.

“You are all fools!” she shouted. “Love! Trust! Friendship! Bleh! Try power! Fear! Darkness!” Lifting me up, she held me out the ponies and shook me, making my eyes roll and jingle aggressively. “Even chaos! With this child under my wing, you have no hope of winning with your ‘magic of friendship’!”

My head spun around as I wearily lifted a finger. “Actually, I’m-” I said with a dazed slur, only to be unceremoniously dropped to the ground.

“Can’t you see!? You have NOTHING left!” the Nightmare exclaimed. “I’ve even taken your dragon!”

“Uhh, then who’s the young whippersnapper flying through the air?” I heard Granny Smith in the crowd say.

Shaking my head and getting control back in my spinning eyes, I looked up to the moon with Nightmare Rarity, Shadowfright, and the other Nightmare Forces. Floating down to Earth, Spike was being carried down by George, to mine and the others’ surprise. Although, with George being the left out villain sidekick, it would have been obvious he would have defected and joined the heroes’ side.

“What!? How did he-!?” Nightmare Rarity and Shadowfright looked back at the chariot, where the Spike doppelganger was still seated. Realizing the jig was up, the slugs slithered out of the melded mass they created, shocking the Nightmare tyrant. “Slugs!?”

“What is that dingus doing with that dragon?” Shadowfright grumbled.

Trying to save face, Nightmare Rarity looked back at her foes, still believing she’s going to win. “No matter. Our finest soldier…what’s-his-face has him!” Ok, maybe we don’t know his name, but I at least gave him one in my head. “Or should we be shaking in our horseshoes?”

“Actually, you probably should,” Spike said. “Take it away, Jerome!”

“Jerome?” I uttered.

The gray smoke creature, whose actual name was Jerome, lowered Spike down, and began to spiral around like a cloudy twister. “That’s right, Larry! My name is Jerome!” In a brilliant flash of light, blinding us for a moment, the smoke monster we saw now had a physical form, and for the umpteenth time today, my jaw flopped off my face and hit the ground. Jerome looked like…some kind of alien lion? I have no idea how to describe it: his skin was a brighter gray, two curled and very long eyebrows that look more like antennae, a similarly long, thin tail, a wispy goatee, and the inside of his ears and underside had a light blue, almost scaly look to them despite his body looking smooth. He’s almost like a lunar alien lion, but unlike me, he isn’t the weirdest creature in this world. “And that’s not all!”

Above him and Spike, several glowing lights hovered down to join them, and in those lights were Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie. And in Fluttershy’s hooves, there was a weird, fluffy alien cloud rat. Figures she’d find a new animal friend on the moon. Somehow.

Nightmare Rarity was seething with rage. One of her soldiers betrayed her, and rightfully so if he was treated like dirt. But one thing that was bothering me was how the hay the girls were glowing like that!? They don’t have the Elements of Harmony, and without Rarity, they shouldn’t be glowing! I’m lucky my head didn’t roll off my shoulders as well from all the shocking moments I’ve seen tonight.

“Silly scary lady, friendship is stronger than fear will ever be!” Pinkie proclaimed, and how true it is in this world.

Luna seemed relieved to see them as she ran up to them, and the girls didn’t seem that upset when they saw me standing next to Nightmare Rarity, so Spike must have told them my crazy scheme. “You’re all ok!” Luna said.

“Psh! Who could possibly stop us!?” Rainbow Dash gloated.

“Now show us what ya got, princess!” Applejack said.

“Certainly!” Using her magic, Luna gathered her aura and began absorbing the lingering harmony light radiating from the five Element bearers.

As the light intensified, the Nightmare Forces backed away in fright. Luna unleashed that light in a shockwave, quickly washing over all of them and transforming them just like Jerome had. They were all revealed to be different creatures underneath their smokey forms, more bright and colorful while also looking a bit more alien than any of the normal animals on Earth. All of the Nightmare Forces were shocked, and they no longer had any malice to them thanks to the Elements’ power.

“How!? What is happening!?” Nightmare Rarity exclaimed. She looked down at me, still snarling, but believing she still had an ace in the hole, she began laughing. “No matter! I still have Charles, the draconequus foal you all resent! You made a mistake treating him so poorly, and he will reign his chaos down on all of you pitiful ponies just like the real Discord!”

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” Confused, the Nightmare looked down at me. I snapped my fingers while wearing a sly smirk, stripping her of her armor pieces, and turned them into an alicorn-sized cage, trapping her inside. Startled, she looked around her prison, then glared at me with a scowl. “I can’t believe you actually believed me. You realize you were trying to manipulate a child when I’m no ordinary child, right?”

“Why, you little-” Quickly snapping my fingers, I shut her up by making the cage smaller, almost cramping her in with a grunt.

“Also, I’m fifteen! I’m smarter than I look!” I exclaimed. With Nightmare trapped, I backed away while Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Luna surrounded the mare. With five of the Elements emanating Harmony magic, I wasn’t going to risk getting caught in the crossfire. “I told you you wouldn’t win. Now, we’re only going to ask you one more time: give Rarity back.”

“...Never,” Nightmare Rarity growled.

I sighed and shook my head. “The bad guys never learn,” I said. “Alright, girls, it’s magical rainbow time!”

With a nod, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie closed their eyes, focusing their mysterious Element powers, and blasted Nightmare Rarity with different colored beams. The harmony immediately dispelled my cage, turning them back into armor while also striking the mare as she let out a yell. She grunted as her dark magic struggled to fight back against the slightly weakened magic of friendship, but it was still strong enough to keep her in place. Luna approached Nightmare Rarity, her own horn glowing brilliantly as she lowered her horn to the possessed unicorn’s, adding a bit more power to aid the Elements’.

“Your darkness cannot survive in the light,” Luna said. “Loosen your grip on generous Rarity’s heart and let her speak.”

As Nightmare Rarity continued to fight back, all of us who weren’t completely concentrating with their magic could see the real Rarity begin to emerge within the Nightmare. “My friends! You came for me!” we heard her say, overjoyed and relieved. “You didn’t forget me!”

“Geeze, those things really sucked on your brain, didn’t they?” Rainbow said.

“You mean, you didn’t replace me with an ill-fashioned with braces!?” Rarity exclaimed in shock.

“That was all just a nightmare!” I called out. Surprised, Rarity looked at me, hoping me explaining for the girls would help keep their focus on getting rid of this demon of darkness possessing Rarity. “Who else could replace the pony who would give something to someone who really needs it and feel good doing it!? If anyone throws away something you made for them with all your heart, then they’re not friends! They all care about you! Everyone does!”

“I thought that you’d stop forgetting about me if I stopped being fabulous…I want to help…Always!” Her negative thoughts from her fears made the Nightmare growl, strengthening it as Rarity was beginning to fade away. All of us gasped as the Elements’ power was failing, and Rarity was getting plunged back into the darkness as Nightmare Rarity began to reform. “Please, no! I don’t want to go back! It was so cold and lonely! And I wasn’t helping anypony! I was hurting them! HELP!”

“No! Rarity!” Twilight cried out.

The light from the Elements began to fizzle out from the girls, leaving them nearly drained. In the dark mist, Nightmare Rarity reformed, slamming her front hooves down to blow the remaining mist away with a sadistic cackle.

“There is no power that can stop me now!” she gloated. I tried to trap her again, but when she fixed her gaze on me, she immediately trapped me in her magic aura. “And you, you little backstabber, you won’t get the upper hoof on me again!”

I grunted, struggling to make my thumb and finger snap to make anything chaotic. Suddenly, I cried out as I felt a painful shock wrack my body. I thought I heard Fluttershy call out my name, but through my spasming twitches from the magically conducted current flooding my nervous system, I also felt her aura grip tightly around my neck and cut off my oxygen. When I regained feeling in my arms, I clutched them at my throat, struggling to breathe. She wasn’t choking me to death, but she was suffocating me enough to keep me from fighting back. I was about to black out, we have no chance of stopping the Nightmare now, and Rarity was going to be lost to us forever.

No chance? Ha ha ha ha! Really!? Do you even remember who you are!?

Again, I hear Discord’s voice. Am I having a near death experience?

No, you’re just being tortured through asphyxiation by a unicorn possessed by a dark spirit. Why are you letting her do this to you? You have more power in your pinkie finger than she does in her whole being!

I…I don’t want to lose control.

Well, then I guess I must have chosen the wrong heir. You’ve done barely anything chaotic since you got here.

You…chose me…at random…

That may be, but as the new Lord of Chaos, you can do ANYTHING. No other powerful being can stop you unless you keep hesitating and don’t fully embrace the chaos. Stop holding back, and show these ponies you hold more power than any of them combined. Unless you want them all to see you die.

…No…No. I don’t…I don’t want to die. I’ve been in this world for only a week. I swore to Rarity we would be there for her. I know I’ll just lose control, but if Discord thinks I can’t handle it, a human, who he views as a species that can be just as chaotic as him, then I’ll show him I have what it takes to be his heir! On my terms!

My eyes shot open, glowing a brilliant yellow as I let the chaos magic flow around me. My hearing returned and I could breathe again, Nightmare Rarity’s aura dispelled and fading away from my body in a flurry of sparkles. I heard her and everyone gathered around the two of us gasping in surprise as I looked down at her. With my body levitating by my chaotic might, I grinned at the power flowing through me. My grin grew wider and more sadistic, curling up to most of my face as I suddenly felt so much more power than I ever thought I could imagine having. And from the shocked and horrified look on Nightmare’s face, she regretted forcing me into this state.

“W-W-What…What is happening?” Nightmare Rarity uttered.

“You just unleashed the beast,” I responded, my voice echoing and mixed with Discord’s tone. Raising my hands, I threw them down and aimed them at the Nightmare, unleashing a beam of energy that had a distorted, purple plaid-like void within it. She jumped away in a panic, my magic striking the ground, but it already began to spread along the ground around us all. The grass transformed into a random checkerboard pattern, grew all sorts of sweets like an overgrown forest from candy canes to massive marshmallow boulders, and the night sky turned dark and twisted. I ignored the startled cries and gasps from everyone else; my focus was only on the Nightmare and the sadistic glee I had to make her suffer for causing my friends so much misery. In a flash, I wore a pair of scrubs, a doctor’s coat, and a pair of sterile rubber gloves, one blue and one red. “Prepare for your examination!”

“W-What’s going on?” Twilight uttered. “What’s happening to Charles?”

“And why did he say that last part in a weird, Germane accent?” Pinkie questioned.

“No. He’s unleashed all of his chaos, and it’s taken complete control of him,” Celestia said.

“He’s lost his mind,” Luna summarized.

I appeared in front of Luna, making her shriek as I temporarily slipped out of my magicked doctor’s clothes. “You are correct! That is one hundred percent correct!” Catching the Princess of the Night completely off guard, I grasped her face, pulled her toward me, and gave her a big, loud, and face-sucking kiss. Parting with a loud smack, I laughed like a Looney Toon, bouncing and floating like a hyperactive rubber ball around Luna and the other ponies nearby. I didn’t care if I startled everyone or left Luna an awkward, dazed mess of confusion, but I rolled with this sudden delight of insanity before zipping back into my doctor’s outfit, glaring down at Nightmare Rarity like a mad doctor. “Now, let’s remove this nightmare tumor from our generous Rarity. NURSE! SCALPEL!”

Popping beside me in a flash, at random out of the populace of Ponyville and the two princesses, I picked Rainbow Dash as my “nurse”. Confused, she wore a skimpy nurse’s outfit with a skirt that barely reached her cutie mark, and in her forelegs was a huge scalpel clearly bigger than Celestia by size.

“Wha-!? Hey!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Oh hush, Rainbow, you LOVE dressing in style!” I gushed. Taking the scalpel from Rainbow, I patted her on the head, then teleported her back to her friends, making her continue wearing the nurse outfit. I gave the scalpel’s blade a bit of a glance from a slight angle, giving my nod of approval before going back to mad doctor mode. “Time for SPIRITUAL SURGERY!”

I dove down at Nightmare Rarity, my comically large scalpel rearing back to slash down on the mare. The Nightmare turned into a cloud of mist, backing away from me to avoid the large, thin blade, which hit the ground and made a funny squeaking sound without breaking the earth beneath it. As she reappeared, she began shooting a barrage of spells at me to stop me. Using the scalpel like a bo staff, I let out random yells and battle cries as I deflected each beam.

“I! Will not! Be bested! By an insane brat!” she shrieked. She managed to shoot my scalpel out of my hands, which broke down into styrofoam peanuts when it hit the ground. Feigning a look of shock, she tried to blast me again, but I smirked, held up my hand, and caught the magic spell like a baseball. I think she realized that she was now completely outmatched and regretted trying to kill me, assuming she did try to kill me when she was force choking me with her magic. “H-How? W-What kind of magic…were you holding back!?”

My doctor’s outfit was now replaced by a black undershirt, a blue and white jacket, and a red and white cap, the brim concealing my eyes. Still holding the magical energy from the Nightmare in one hand, I lifted the brim of my hat, revealing my glowing eyes with a wide grin.

“Pure. Unadulterated. Chaos,” I responded. Turning my cap backwards, I readied myself for a pitch, mixing chaos magic in Nightmare’s molded sphere of energy. “And lucky you, YOU’RE the one who brought it out of me!”

Giving a hard throw, I sent the blended magical ball hurtling toward Nightmare Rarity faster than she could blink. It struck her in the chest, making her cry out as she was enveloped in a veil of chaotic energy. Rolling up my sleeves, I stamped my feet like I was preparing to charge at full speed while floating in midair, then sped off into the distorted energy.

The inside was much bigger than the outside as I flew through the void I created within Nightmare’s possession. Her screams of agony as she was surrounded by my magic was music to my ears, but I was also listening for another voice lost within the Nightmare energy. And there it was, the sound of a mare sobbing, afraid and alone; Rarity. Soaring through the ether, I found the Element of Generosity in the center of the void, darkness slowly closing in around her. Clenching my fist, I quickly opened it, shrouding my hand in chaotic energy, then reached out and touched the darkness, making it fade away into confetti and sprinkles. Finding herself no longer surrounded by darkness, Rarity looked up and gasped when she found me floating in front of her.

“C-Charles?” she uttered.

I reached my hand out to her, realizing it was still coated in chaotic magic before shaking it away and reached out to her again. “Let’s get you out of this nightmare and back to reality,” I said, unnerving the unicorn slightly with how calm I was compared to the insanity I threw myself into. Slowly, she moved her hoof toward me, and I gently grasped it as I guided her out of the void of Nightmare’s energy. As we began to make our escape, we heard a shriek as an ethereal mist came hurtling at us from behind. The Nightmare was clearly not happy, but neither was I. “Oh, put a sock in it!” For the first time while unleashing all of my chaotic power, I raised my hand and snapped my fingers. Appearing in the Nightmare’s face was a bomb clock, causing her to stop and stare at it while it ticked down to its eventual explosion. “See ya, Nightmare! Wouldn’t wanna be ya!”

Grasping Rarity’s hoof tightly, I flew off at breakneck speeds out of there, hearing Rarity scream in surprise while dragging her behind me. I could imagine the look of confusion on Nightmare’s face before it turned into startled shock when she realized just what it was. With no time to react, the explosion blew up in her face, which began distorting the distorted realm I created to dive into the possessed mare’s body. We both heard Nightmare’s death cry reverberating throughout the void before we finally shot up in the air, back to reality, and the darkness from the Nightmare energy faded away.

Everyone let out a collective gasp in awe, everyone happy to see Rarity back to normal again and the Nightmare defeated by the small draconequus child that was me. I floated us back to the ground, where her friends immediately ran up to Rarity in a collective group hug.

“Rarity, are you ok!?” Pinkie asked.

“I-I’m fine,” she said, shedding tears of joy as she embraced all of her best friends. “I’m so glad you all will never forget me.”

“We never will,” Twilight reassured.

“And don’t ya forget it,” Applejack added.

“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle came running up to us as the girls broke up their group hug.

Rarity saw her little sister and caught the filly in a tight hug, both unicorns relieved to be together after such a terrifying event. When Spike came up to Rarity after reuniting with her sister, the mare gave the baby dragon a kiss on the cheek for his heroic efforts to bring her back and save the others back on the moon. He was stunned, caught off guard, but he grinned dopely while I added some silly hearts popping around him to emphasize his lovestruck daze and bashfulness. Hearing hoofsteps behind me, I tilted my head back to see Celestia and Luna approach me, the latter looking a bit awkward after that cartoonish lip-smacking I gave her.

“Charles? Are you…still sane?” Celestia asked nervously, her voice clearly expressing caution in the chaotic state I’m still in.

I turned my body around while my head was still staring at them at an upside down angle. “Never better!” I answered with glee, then twisted my head back on straight. “I feel so full of energy and chaos, I want to do something even crazier!” She clearly did not like that answer. Before I could make anything else happen, I suddenly felt drained as the glow in my eyes faded away, and the chaos I had spread quickly turned the town back to normal. My vision grew blurry as I stumbled, my head spinning as my limbs felt like jelly. “Maybe…after a little…nap,” I uttered before falling over and blacking out.

Comments

[hunterjackson2001]

I think that mysterious female at the beginning was Cosmos from the mlp comics.

[Theresa]

Hopefully this makes Celestia realize he isn't discord and despite having his power he nothing like him besides looks.

[Orderly Disassembly]

you weren't kidding with "coming soon" in the comment eh?

[Theresa]

11064718
Well they all needed a scolding. the bearers for breaking their word to twilight.
Celestia for not knowing the niece she raised from a small child enough to tell the difference. Shining should say sorry for not telling his sister sooner about the future wife of his and the fact that if Celestia hadn't invited her and her friends she would have never found out that he was married. Spike for going with everyone else.

[Loganic]

Oh comic. Nice.

[techyhalo]

11102439
I just imagine now when she finds out he’s discord’s heir she’ll ether think discord got married and had a kid or that he’s her kid which would be rather funny

[StarzGecko]

Yooo I remember this comic and sad I don’t see anyone place it into their stories much at all. This was a definitely good surprise

[hunterjackson2001]

11102529
Yup lil ol discord Jr.

[Snow Storm1437]

That was fun

[Mr Swanky Hat]

“I call it the hat of discipline,” I answered. “Do you live in a cave!?”

I get this reference!

Prepare for your examination!

Let's go practice medicine

[Reishin Amara]

“I call it the hat of discipline,” I answered. “Do you live in a cave!?”

AH SILENCE...The fic speaks to me..it says...ROLF.

[shadow wolf1573]

Pretty fun

[RageLord]

This chapter was damn cool! Let's go!

[FanficReader920]

Dang! Charles’ chaos state is awesome!!!

He needs to make a Heath Ledger Joker reference at some point.

[Inzhir-Bukvitsa]

The story was updated right before the new year. The perfect gift!
In addition, more than 20k words, OMG. Good job!

[Mitril]

“Prepare for your examination!”

Redrum redrum

“Oh hush, Rainbow, you LOVE dressing in style!”

Oh I get that,it's from previous generation XD

[Mitril]

11102529
11102464
11064718

To be honest It would be cool If he would able to reform certain villains, like Changelings, Chrysalis, and Cosmos

Cosmos needs a reality check like Discord had.He realized that he is lonely and he could have a friend if he tried
The same possibly with Cosmos who probably would be in similar state after being trapped.

Chrysalis needs a love source and that's it.He could just snap another Crystal Heart,or create plants/rosses that create love energy

[fulminar]

👍👍👍👍

[Kreotre]

That Chapter was crazy and awesome, and you added Cosmos in it. Awesome job 🤩🤩

[Mix-up]

hum, I would say using the comic story instead of Lunar Eclipse was probably a more interesting idea, even if it doesn't make sense chronologically sense the comics started right after season 2 after the Canterlot weeding. I did like the child like way of reaching the mood at the time it was very creative like the magic of the early seasons. It also helps to better develop the dudes character some more in a more adventure story, but might have been a little too focused on the Nightmare Rarity plot, but I think his Discord dreams/memories with the female draconiquis was an interesting thing and foreshadows very interesting thing then just narrowing following the shows with some twists, I wonder how things will affect the cannon with Discord out of the picture. I wonder if he will ask Luna to look into his dreams and seem what it could be, anything related to Discord is reason enough to be worried, assuming that she can get into her good graces again. I think a little more interaction with Luna between him and her before the adventure would have better helped to make his apparent treason would have been more impactful, but the fallout could better be shown in the next chapter if, I am sure Celestia will be looking forward to it. Still the comics does add an extra variable to the mix that the protagonist can't really foresee.

Looking forward to seeing more your story in the near future keep it up.

[Dis-Harmony Light]

I really liked this story before this chapter, now however. I. AM. LOVING IT!!!

[SethFilms]

god damn, a awesome chapter!

Please don't make us wait as long again.
almost lost hope!~

[Voltaje]

Good stuff, now i Will start with they cómics, there are a Lot i havent read, but i read some, ibñncluding this one.

[The A I]

Chaos crash, worse than a sugar crash, better than a hangover?

[jasha3558021]

Que se haga el caos

[swarm chaser]

I’ve never even a single one of those issues!

I’ve never read even a single one of those issues!

He knows the future but doesn't seem to be able to change the outcome or the course of events.
Based on lesson zero he could probably tell them everything that he knew was going to happen for the next several years and they still wouldn't do anything differently.

This is good because it means he can't mess anything up but bad because i'm sure there are plenty of things he'd like to change.

The locked into different media for different stories is weird, I don't know what to think about it.

I'd be concerned as it means he's somehow stuck within the media and the gen ends in a few seasons.

[Theresa]

11105701
Well he only been in two events so far and the first one he could have changed it for the better if twilight hadn't been so stubborn and the second was a comic which he never read. So to decide whether he can change anything with so little information and him still needing to grow into his power more so he can handle it better.

[Una]

I remember Discords...shall we say, partner from the comics. If she shows up it'll be interesting to say the least. Interesting Ed, Edd, Eddy reference as well. I'm glad he finally began to understand his power finally. It was getting frustrating with his lack of action.

[Slient Melody]

11108103
Really I didn't even know there was a partner discord had in the comics do you know their name?

[Una]

11113021
His former lovers name is (Cosmos) and she appears in issue #75 if I remember correctly.

[ThunderDash]

I think i will save up this one inmy fav list

[Starkiler]

continue with this story please it's really cool even i loved this story please 👍:)

[Mix-up]

I am curious to know if the story is going to focus more on the comics, great idea on that, I wonder if you will try to do the transformer's crossover or the what if universe

[White seal]

11120862
I'm curious why this option exist tbh, like why people dislike/like stuff without giving reason why, it's doesn't make sense, just like on yt dislikes and likes serve no purpose m

[Orderly Disassembly]

11121097
likes and dislikes exist as a quick and easy way to show the general opinion about your piece of work
a lot of dislikes = hated
a lot of likes = generally loved
It's a way for ppl to give a generic opinion honestly, and to show it concisely to others. If I see a bunch of dislikes on a story, and the description suck, then I probably won't read it. If the same story has a bunch of likes, then I'm more likely to give it a chance. That's why they're here, and why I think Youtube getting rid of the dislike counter as a bad idea.

[Orderly Disassembly]

love the story so far, that last chapter was a bit long winded but still liked the story.

[White seal]

11123130
I mean in the comments, like they are pretty useless tbh because every negative comment has like a bunch of dislikes mainly because they are negative or are criticizms towardz story, i had a situation when a person just told to fix grammar mistakes under a story and got disliked only because of that, i feel like you can't criticize things anymore ir have different opinions
"either you are with us or againts us"

[Orderly Disassembly]

11124733
fair enough

[Jack14]

When is the next update

[Amos Anon]

“How adorable,” she said. “But Rarity is gone. What the Elements of Harmony failed to destroy is now in full control of this mare.”

“Yes she is!” I argued. “She reacted to Spike reaching out to her! You may have one of the Elements, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t be beaten!”

This makes no sense. He basically just agreed with nightmare Rarity when she said that Rarity was gone.

[Amos Anon]

11124733
Imma dislike this because you said "againts" instead of "against" lol.

I'm kidding.

[Theresa]

11124733
Yeah I hate when people are so focused on the way it is written that they forget about the story itself.. the whole point of a story is to be enjoyed by enjoying the story itself not to worry about how it is written. And yes everyone is going to make mistakes but it not going to help first time writers if you can't say anything nice.

[White seal]

11129767
Lol i actually could be disliked for that XD

[Shadowfax69]

Now this is epic.

[PinkiePieFox]

I love this, its really fun and enjoyable!

[MurderP0n7]

Que gracioso y genial, charles ganó el modo legendario "Super Caótico" hablado solo en las leyendas, ganó un poder increíble y sin límites, el costo es su cordura... hasta que lo controle

pd: ¿quien entendió la referencia?

[xavex]

Ah nothing like the nightmare of another comic villain who actually rivals dear Dissy, starts with a C for those who don't know. I am not going to spoil, but at least an interesting to know that you would involve the comics into this, so how would this work. Would you only use parts of the comics that doesn't contradict the show or simply mix them that has a unique background to the characters we vaguely know. Reason asking as one season a certain got permanently destroyed, but in a comic issue he got redeemed. Though knowing Charles is different from Discord, assuming a season 9 wouldn't exactly come into play or at least with the way it showed some factors.

[A_User]

Can you summarize everything that happened in this story? I had a vision problem and I have about 100 stories to read, I won't have time to read the big ones anymore

[Theresa]

11169061
Discord turned a human into mini him so he could retire and although the first 2 days were rough he certainly not having a boring time in equestria. Makes me wonder how the girls have time for anything with all the trouble that finds them.