Nightmares Over Equestria

by Ignimbrite

The Nightmare Begins

Solaria stepped into the city and smelled the air.

Canterlot.

It was most certainly a suitable place from which to rule. The architecture of the palace was a nice touch as well.

---

Several foals were in the library looking through topics for their homework assignments. Meanwhile, Twilight and her friends were visiting each other, trying to decipher what had knocked them out the other day.

"Um, Twilight?" She looked over to see Kind Face holding up a book. "Do you have any sources on changelings other than this one? Half the stuff in it's incorrect."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Incorrect? But Educated Guess is the most established scholar there is on the subject. He's even seen the remnants of some of their old hives.

"And wait a second. How would you even know that?"

Kind Face's eyes looked around the room just briefly. "I used to know somepony... back in Canterlot... and he met a few changelings from where he was from...

"Is there another book?"

Twilight shook her head. "Sorry. There aren't many books on changelings in the first place. Besides, if you know somepony with firsthoof knowledge of changelings, why so you need a book?"

"Miss Cheerilee said we have to cite at least one outside source."

Twilight thought a moment. "Well, I guess I could ask Spike to help you look around to see if there is something else. Until then, just cite the information in it that is correct."

Just then, there were several urgent knocks at the door, and a voice that called out loudly for Twilight. She opened the door to find a royal pegasus guard.

"Twilight. We need you and the other element bearers back at the castle at once. There's an insane alicorn in the palace."

Twilight, her friends, and everyone else in the library answered at once.

"What?!?"

Twilight moved in an inch from the guard's face.

"What do you mean an insane alicorn?"

Before the guard could answer, he was tackled by a familiar blue streak.

Everyone gasped. "Rainbow?!?"

Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, charged at the copy of herself that was fighting the guard. The two fought each other until Twilight magically separated them.

"Alright. What are you doin' pretending to be me, and why are you beating up guards?"

The other Dash spat. "I'm tearing an unworthy pegasus into spectra for treason against the queen." She pointed to the first Rainbow. "You're next."

"Spectra doesn't even come from ponies you moron! What did you do, hit the ground with your head?"

Unfortunately, the new Dash had hit the guard on the head during the fight, leaving him on the ground unconscious.

Applejack lassoed the other Rainbow, tying her up as quickly as she could.

"Oh no, oh no..." Twilight looked to the others. "Come on girls, get close"- She lit her horn- "and brace yourselves. It's a long jump, so it might get rough."

They all disappeared in a ball of light.

---

A flash of teleport magic brought everypony in the group to the Canterlot palace, where they were immediately surrounded by guards.

"Okay... Not what I was expecting."

"Well now, this is interesting. I thought the princesses would show up here first."

The voice behind them sounded surprised and vaguely disappointed. She also sounded familiar, but not enough to figure out why.

All of them turned around to see an unknown alicorn standing above them.

Two more flashes appeared in the center of the group, revealing Celestia and Luna.

"...on our way to visit our niece when we hear of a..."

She looked up to see what had brought about such an emergency that they would both have to return to the palace.

The alicorn smiled upon seeing them.

"Ah, there you are."

On sight of the speaker, Celestia's and Luna's mouths hung open, but no sound came. The raw impossibility of the situation stole all words from them.

By her side was a group of ponies that somehow appeared old and young at the same time.

Their leader spoke.

"Behold the Mother of Nightmares, the Conqueror of Worlds, the Terror of the Skies. Behold... the Queen of Equestria."

Celestia, meanwhile, turned to the guards. "Seize her!"

None of them moved.

"Did you really think I would order the guards around without taking measures to ensure their loyalty?"

All the spears and crossbows in the room leveled at the ponies in the center.

Celestia charged her horn.

"Everypony brace yourselves."

In a flash of teleportation magic, the entire group was...

...

... standing in the exact same place. The only change was that the grin on the usurper's face had grown.

"A port trap..." Twilight muttered, noticing the runes that had been carved on the surrounding walls. It was an old trick for imprisoning unicorns that nopony had bothered to use in centuries due to the invention of the horn suppressor ring. Any teleport starting or ending anywhere near the castle would invariably get pulled back to the center of the circle of runes.

Luna noticed the same thing. Since teleporting was no longer an option, she decided on her own course of action. With her horn, she shot out three of the guards with a combination of a sleeping spell and a shield, blasting a path towards an exit.

"Everypony run!"

None of them had to be told twice.

---

They all ran into the dungeons beneath the castle. Past them lay the old caves that wound their way below the city itself. The earliest caves they encountered had been converted into storage rooms or solitary cells, but the later ones took on the rough shape of the abandoned mines they once were.

The group closed every door along the way, including those that they did not use, to confuse the pursuers and buy some time. Eventually, the sounds of the pursuers finally died away to nothing.

"What was that?"

Everypony turned to the voice. Behind them stood the three foals studying in the library.

Twilight stepped closer. "What are you three doing here?"

Feldspar answered. "We all stepped out to see what was going on, then there was this flash of purple light, and we were all suddenly surrounded by a bunch of angry looking guards, then the princess said to run..."

Twilight groaned and bright a hoof to her forehead. "You must have gotten too close when I teleported. Now what are we going to do? I can't send you back because of the port trap, and I..."

Luna put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Have them descend further into the tunnels. It is the safest option they have right now."

Twilight nodded. She was still so caught up in thinking of how the teleport spell had misfired that she couldn't think of a better plan anyway.

"Okay. Now that that's settled, and now we ain't bein' chased anymore, who in tarnation was that?"

Celestia and Luna looked at each other, then at the ponies before them.

"That's our mom."

Author's Note:

While the changeling book in the first story was intended from the beginning to be somewhat inaccurate, the joke about Kind Face correcting it wouldn't exist if it wasn't for tsaukpaetra pointing out just how inaccurate it was in the comments.