The Midnight and the Nightmare
From Whence We Fell
By iAmSiNnEr
The Midnight and the Nightmare
“Is that all you’ve got?!” Midnight Sparkle taunted as she teleported away from Nightmare Moon’s blast. She reappeared behind the black-colored alicorn, before firing off her own magic blast.
Nightmare responded with a shield, before sending a fireball straight at Midnight. Midnight’s lips curled into a grin as she slashed through the fireball with her scythe, rendering the spell useless. Twirling her scythe, Nova, her wings beat at the air, keeping her afloat.
Nightmare growled. “The usual cowardice, Sparkle.” her voice was lustrous silk combined with a delicious coat of something Midnight couldn’t place, but relished. “Too afraid to come at me head-on, you use your tricks to fight me.”
Midnight laughed to the skies. “Moony, our magic power is almost equal! What, are we supposed to clash for all eternity as one tries to get the other over? No, I’d rather be labeled a coward and win than lose.”
Nightmare Moon didn’t reply, simply charging through the air, her wings propelling her forward. Her horn lit up in a show of power, the alicorn screamed as mana gathered on her horn, and the spell rele-
The world twisted.
Colors.
Warmth.
Love.
Midnight screamed as her mind was torn apart, assaulted by images she never saw before. Her past self, laughing with five ponies she had never seen before in her life. A baby dragon, cuddling against her in a bed.
She couldn’t move as her mind collapsed on itself, receiving more and more memories and images she was sure weren’t hers. Her wings failed to function as she fell through the sky, before crashing into the ground. She was faintly aware of Nightmare Moon experiencing the same phenomena.
Her parents, smiling at her warmly. A wedding, where she saw a much kinder version of one of her enemies smiling at some white stallion. Her parents weren’t covered in scars and injuries in these memories, unlike how she remembered them before.
How she remembered them before she killed them herself to put them out of their misery. The area filled with stars where she had ascended, but this time there was yet another kinder version of another of her enemies.
The memories lost their luster as Midnight struggled against them, pushing them away from her. These weren’t her memories!
As soon as her mind made that connection, the false memories began slipping away as Midnight’s own memories forced their way back into her mind.
The day she ascended, after beating a god’s challenge. The day she first wandered outside her cave of safety, seeking her own death, her throat parched and stomach empty.
The frozen wastelands that made the world, barely liveable in.
The day she stabbed herself for her blood to perform a spell. The day she returned home from foraging to see her parents curled up on the ground, close to death from a monster attack. Her tears, as she killed them to take them out of their misery.
And then she gasped as her eyes opened again.
“What did you do?!” She found her voice, roaring at Nightmare Moon. “What magic have you done?”
Her voice failed again as she saw Nightmare Moon curled up on the ground, her body twitching with spasms. Whatever had happened, it wasn’t the dark alicorn’s doing.
“Moony?” Midnight hesitated. “Moony-”
Nightmare Moon pushed herself upwards suddenly, causing Midnight to back up hurriedly, but the dark alicorn’s magic had already grabbed Midnight, slamming her into a tree. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” Nightmare screamed, her eyes deranged. “I AM NIGHTMARE MOON! LUNA IS DEAD!”
“Who’s Luna?” Midnight struggled against Nightmare’s hold, before quickly teleporting away. “I don’t know any Luna!”
Nightmare Moon sliced down with a blade dotted with stars, her eyes filled with rage and madness. “Stop what you’re doing!” Midnight dodged aside, using her magic to pull out Nova and parry Nightmare’s attack. “STOP YOUR SORCERY!” Nightmare Moon bellowed. “I am Nightmare Moon! I am not Luna!”
“It’s not me!” Midnight growled, knocking Nightmare Moon’s hooves out from under her with a sweep using the handle of Nova. Nightmare Moon collapsed onto the ground where she stopped moving, her entire body convulsing with…sobs?
“What?” Midnight hesitated. Nightmare Moon, the alicorn who she had been fighting for the greater part of the last decade, was…crying?
“Make it stop,” Nightmare pleaded. “Please. Make it stop. I can’t. I can’t. I’m not Luna. Please. Luna is dead. DON’T MAKE ME THINK OF THIS!”
“It’s not me!” Midnight grumbled, her eyes locking onto Nightmare. Nightmare Moon was down. She had to take this opportunity to kill-
Nightmare Moon threw her head back to the sky, her eyes glowing a dark blue as she screamed to the skies. Her scream was one of primal fear and it just sounded broken.
Something cracked inside of Midnight. Her viewpoint changed.
No longer was her greatest enemy in front of her.
It was now somepony who needed help.
Midnight hesitated, before shaking her head.
“Please,” Nightmare Moon begged her. “Make it stop. Please. I can’t take it anymore.”
“Push them out,” Midnight whispered. “Push the memories out. Think of your own, ignore the ones that aren’t yours. Recognize them as false, and push them all out. The pain will stop.”
Nightmare Moon seemed to struggle for a moment before her chest stopped heaving from her heavy breathing.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
Nightmare Moon finally looked up after a few long breaths. “It truly was not you?”
“I don’t know,” Midnight admitted as her scythe hung limply in her magic aura. “I-I felt it too. The world, the very air—it just twisted. I…never felt anything like that before.”
“I don’t trust you,” Nightmare Moon spat. “You could be tricking me. Earlier, you admitted outright you wanted to win at all cost. How do I know you haven’t cast an illusion around me and make me jump off a cliff or drown myself?”
“I saw Daybreaker but less…Daybreaker,” Midnight replied. “That enough?”
At that, Nightmare Moon sagged, the fight gone out of her. “I see,” she whispered. “There was no way you could have known what she looked like before. I have no choice but to believe you.”
“Who was that?” Midnight asked slowly. “Who did I see in the Plane?”
“You most likely saw Celestia,” Nightmare Moon replied hoarsely. “Daybreaker’s other-self. Just like how you weren’t always Midnight Sparkle.”
“How did you—”
“I was not always Nightmare Moon,” Nightmare said shortly. “Never ask of her. She is dead.” Midnight shuddered on the inside at the amount of venom Nightmare Moon put into the last word.
“What was that, anyway?” Midnight rubbed at her temples. “I…I saw memories that didn’t belong to me. A world I never lived in. Times where I felt…loved.”
“A trick of some kind,” Nightmare Moon spat. “By some god or goddess that roams free on our world, released from Tartarus. Or even Discord. I don’t believe he would just leave us alone for this long.”
“I don’t recognize that name,” Midnight slowly said. “Who is Discord?”
“Better you don’t know,” Nightmare Moon muttered. “He was a pain.”
“I want to know.”
“What?” Nightmare Moon’s head swiveled to Midnight. “Just because we’re on a temporary standstill, for now, doesn’t mean you can question me impetuously—”
“Not Discord,” Midnight corrected. “I want to know what that was. The shift in our world caused those memories to flood into our minds. I want to know what was so powerful enough we felt our own universe shake.”
“I said,” Nightmare growled. “Someone is tricking us—”
“It didn’t feel like a trick,” Midnight refuted. “I felt it vibrate through my entire being.”
Nightmare Moon visibly snarled. “You want to—”
“Investigate?” Midnight finished. “Yes, yes I do. This was not some ordinary event where a god or goddess messed with us. This shook the very limits of time and space. I do not want our universe to collapse.”
“You are foolish,” Nightmare Moon’s lips twisted in a sneer as she pushed herself up. “You are an utter imbecile. You would be investigating a farce, something that didn’t exist.”
“The pain was real, Moony.”
“Don’t call me Moony,” Nightmare Moon snapped. “I am the Nightmare. Never call me Moony. She was called Moony.”
“As you say, Moony,” Midnight reacted and teleported as Nightmare Moon launched a spell at her. As she reappeared a meter to the left, the spell turned a half-dead tree behind her to dust. “Missed me.”
“Call me Moony again,” Nightmare snarled. “And I will not miss.”
“I will continue to call you Moony, Moony,” Midnight quipped as she teleported again, the spell missing her by inches. “It’s your name!”
Nightmare Moon’s lips pulled back as she began to retort, but she restrained herself. “I do not feel like continuing our altercation. If you wish to investigate, you may go do so. I will remain in my territory, alone.”
“I need your help, Nightmare.” Midnight simply said.
“You need nothing of the kind,” Nightmare Moon started stretching her wings, readying herself to fly away. “You’re powerful enough to do whatever you want.”
“Daybreaker, or Celestia, was your sister, wasn’t she?” Midnight asked.
Nightmare Moon’s wings stopped moving. “How do you know that?”
“In one of the memories that flooded my mind,” Midnight answered. “I saw you two hugging. Your other self and hers. Hugging, and calling each other sisters.”
“...” Nightmare Moon was silent.
“What happened to our world?” Midnight whispered. “I saw another world. Full of life, full of ponies. Why is our world almost dead? Why do monsters roam free, killing whoever they wish?”
“Because ponies failed this world,” Nightmare snapped. “Ponies let them run rampant. The world froze over, and only a few survived. Us, and the monsters. Ponies are dying out. I rather not go the same way.”
“Then help me,” Midnight urged. “Help me find out what could have been, and what has happened. We need to know if someone out there is trying to destroy our world.”
“...on one condition.”
“Name it, Nightmare,” Midnight replied.
“You don’t attack or try to kill me,” Nightmare’s hooves stomped on the ground. “I mean it. If you dare attack or attempt to kill me, I will make you regret ever trying to trick me into a false sense of security. I will cut you apart, and then feed you to the manticores. Are we understood?”
“Perfectly clear, Moony,” Midnight quipped. This time, Nightmare Moon did not retaliate to the nickname.
“If we are to find out what happened, we need to travel to the Engine,” Nightmare decided, ignoring the nickname. “The Engine will show us what is happening. It was created by the creator of Equus.”
“The Engine?” Midnight raised an eyebrow. “I don’t understand.”
“The Engine lies at the edge of Equestria, both on the surface and down,” Nightmare explained. “It lies neither on the mortal plane nor the Plane of Ascendance, but on its own. It is impossible to access by any but alicorns, and it requires four.”
“Four?” Midnight blinked hard as it dawned on her. “You mean—”
“Yes,” Nightmare nodded. “If we are to accomplish what you want, we will need to locate Daybreaker and Heartbreaker. Without them, we will fail.”
“This is insane,” Midnight noted. “They hate us both even more than we hate each other.”
“It was your suggestion,” Nightmare growled. “Do not back out like a coward.”
“Fine,” Midnight grumbled. “Where do we begin?”
“Where my sister always is,” Nightmare Moon cast her gaze into the distance, where a cloud of smoke could be seen drifting into the air from a volcano. “Where she slew the entire population of dragons and fed on their flesh.”
Midnight heaved.
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WHAAAATTT WAIT THIS IS SO INTERESTING, DOES THIS MEAN THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY DONT EXIST OR WHATNOT :O
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Most likely not, yep.
Just gonna guess but is this story going to be Midnight Sparkle X Nightmare Moon? If it is then I quite like the sounding of it!
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Indeed it is! The two have never had any interaction before, so I decided to write it :D
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Sounds good! Can't wait for more!
Haven’t even read anything yet and I can say this sounds SO INTERESTING AAAAAAA
Well this is something but what the something is i don't know yet, So yeah you got your hook in me
That was a interesting story.
Oh, this is deeply intriguing. Especially the uncertainty of just how reliable Midnight's memories are. Eagerly looking forward to more.
Did you mean “nor on the Plane of Ascendance?”
Also, HOLY SHIT THIS IS SO COOL AND INTERESTING!!!!
I love this story for the fact that you and I call the dark version of Cadance "Heartbreaker".
Obviously, the rest is great, but that little bit is just amazing.
This is interesting... I can't wait for the next chapter!
What kind of monsters could survive in this world if, for example, the entire population of dragons were killed?
in myths, dragons have always been considered the most dangerous monsters because of their fiery abilities and durable scales.
great story so far
"Whence" means "from what place" so saying "From Whence" is redundant
Now... now that's an approach I wanna hear more about ! It certainly is a interesting premise, and I can't wait to see if, or how, frienship will prevail !
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The thing is, Celestia considered the dragons a threat. Daybreaker, now that the dragons are dead, doesn't think anything is a threat.
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I'm not using words for the sake of using them. From Whence is correct. I'm saying, "From the Place they Fell", or "From Where they Fell"
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Thanks!
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ay yo no problem bro
Okay I'm hooked this is such a strong start I cannot wait to see where it'll go!!
Quite an interesting scenario and start. I look forward to reading.
Holy crap, that was a great chapter, the way you wrote midnight its very good.
Now for my random question / theory.
What the hell is "the engine"? Is it some machine thing that shows the alicorns everything that could be or might be?
Who the hell are the other "mad gods & goddesses"? This implies that equestria has many deities in both the "Normal" & "Altered" versions, I'm excited to see how this plays out.
Last one. I fully believe that discord of this universe is trying to fix the alicorns by using memories and whatnot to try and fix the world, after all discord is a trickster and just wants to have fun, letting the entire world die isnt fun even to discord
Holy $#!+. What a start.
Nifty.
I'll follow the bread crumbs, sure. See where this goes.
Well, damn. That was a thing.
"The Engine" reminds me of a bit from The Secret World wherein the player has to find several locations around the world that basically determine how reality is supposed to function. Curiously, they were called "World Engines" and if controlled by evil would have let in Everything Outside to wreck the world once more, as in the Old Times.
Not often I slap "Fave" and "Bookmark" on the first chapter, but this one indeed slaps both. I look forward to seeing where this goes!
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Spike:🗿
So, a World Engine. I mean I love the concept.
hehe "Moony" is a great nickname
oof, that is quite the origin story! poor AU Twilight
great name for the Nightmare form of Cadance
This is so edgy.
If you want to remain edgy but not cringy, you will have to severely refactor the phrasing.