ATC's Scrapbox

by AdmiralTigerclaw

Darkness Eternal

Could you imagine what it would do to Nightmare Moon to come back from her lunar exile to find the world she was banished from blasted and broken, and her sister long dead? A quick thread response from a line of discussion on Spacebattles. Long enough to be a quite.

If you do not feel an empty place in your soul after this, you are not human.

Only one track fits...
DEFCON

---

Nightmare Moon inspected the landscape before her. In every direction all the way to the horizon, the once fertile plains had long since been erased. In their place, the land was scorched and melted. Beautiful hills and majestic mountains, smashed and scattered like pebbles. The air itself assaulted her throat, parching it and invading with the acrid oder of brimstone and ash. Life had been here once, but not anymore. Nothing could live on this desolate world. It was a hostile place, a scar on the universe where nopony would ever walk again. Nightmare Moon knew, even as she tried to deny it. Nopony would love her, no vengeance could satisfy her. There was nothing left, nothing.

It was sobering for the vengeful spirit. And in her reflection she realized that her own selfish whims and juvenile whining were nothing compared to the horror that had obviously taken place here. She could still feel it, the echos of magics long since extinguished. The power of the sun against chaos unrestrained. They had warred on this very spot, releasing forces so catclysmic that both had been consumed by their hatred and destroyed beyond hope of recovery. And the land itself had been immolated as testament to that power.

"Apologies... Sister." The nightmare spoke evenly. "Had it not been for our own petty concerns, this world may yet be a place of life and happiness. In becoming our own hubris, we hath robbed thee of the tools that could have been used to stop the madness. We could have stood there by your side in thy darkest hour, and prevented the horror we now bear witness to."

Nightmare Moon lowered her head in mourning, removing her armored helmet to place upon a nearby stone. After a moment, it morphed, returning to the shape of a black crown. Several more articles of armor joined it a moment later, returning to their original forms.

Now free of her trappings, the corrupted princess raised her head to the sky. The sun beat down upon the land, dim and red as if it too had all but died. The heat it released was merciless and cruel, nothing at all like it used to be.

"We are not, nor have we ever been worthy," she continued solemly. "Where you hath always been a shining beacon of hope, there to guide your little ponies, we... I hath always been the jealous one. Desiring that which I never did understand, wanting for that which you hath earned. I am not worthy of the Royal We. I am not worthy to be ruler of the night. A true ruler of the night would never have allowed this... unspeakable act to come to pass, not over her own selfish desires. I renounce my crown, renounce it to a land unable to hear me, or to care. A land long since dead along with a sister I never desserved, and will never know again."

Nightmare moon lowered her head once more, bowing to the dying sun above, the mystical sparkles in her mane dying as its color faded to a dull gray blue color. Then she raised her head once more.

"Rest," she commanded, forcing the sun to lower one final time towards the horizon. "Rest and be at peace. Let this land, blasted by your cleansing fires become frozen in time, serving as a warning to any from beyond who may discover this place. Let it serve as a reminder that there are responsibilities greater than our own selfish needs."

With one last shot of green, the sun vanished over the horizon, quickly plunging the world into the cold grays of moonlight. A sad, forlorn moonlight that did little to hide the destruction wrought upon the surface. Nightmare Moon stared out one last time, contemplating where she could go from here. She had her Eternal Night at last, but it would never be the beautiful tapestry of stars and meteors she once invisioned, iliciting coos of inspiration from all who would look up to her. Instead, it was an end... A silent closure to what was little more than the memory of laughter long since forgotten. Cold and lifeless on a rock drifting through the cosmos.

"The Night is Forever," she stated in reverence. "And life is but a brief flicker of light and hope like a candle in a storm. Fare thee well, Equestria. I will miss thee, for all eternity."

And with that, Nightmare Moon lit her magic, her mind catching hold of a strange thread that led off into the aether beyond knowlege. Feeling there was nothing else worth doing, she latched on to it, and teleported.

Comments

[macdjord]

There's nothing else to say to that.

[Prime 2.0]

Neat little exercise, though I ponder why nightmare moon jumped straight to acceptance from all the stages of grief.

Also, I'm going to be a total semantics-whoring buzzkill right now and mention that neither Nightmare Moon nor Luna ever showed the ability to teleport, and almost certainly cannot; after all, if she could, why bother with the mist thingy?

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

1305724

There is no logic to be found. Only a blasted, dead world scorched beyond recognition by a dying sun. This loss is beyond grief.

[nemryn]

Man, I thought we were done with Emo Woobie Luna.

[AdmiralTigerclaw]

1306105

No emo woobies here, far as I can tell.

Just foresaken, guilt driven Nightmare Moon.

I mean seriously man. An entire PLANET has died and it might very well be her fault. If that's not grounds for beating yourself up, then I'd suspect a serious number of psychological problems, starting with sociopathy and working on out from there.

Anyway, the discussion was about Twilight Clones, with one coming from an Equestria that was suffering a cataclysm and Celestia had only just punted her to another universe to escape the End. Some shreds of the conversation involved 'what if it happened while NMM was still locked away?' and I went and followed that train of thought.

[Lancerlot]

So ...Luna? You've got a completely vacant and unoccupied world here, right? Why not play with it?