Nightmares

by unoservix

Chapter 01: Nightmare Storm

Nightmares

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Disclaimer: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro, DHX Media, and Lauren Faust, not me. I make no money off of this work. This is purely for entertainment purposes, and no copyright infringement is intended.

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Note: I should say up-front right now that this story was written pretty much exclusively before any information became available about season 3, so it probably won't fit into whatever appears in the latest episodes.

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Chapter 1: Nightmare Storm

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Princess Celestia hated this room.

This room, with its high arches and long redwood table, was the War Room of the opulent castle of Canterlot—and as far as Celestia was concerned, it was just as well if she never had to open its gilded doors with the crossed spears overhead. It was where Equestria's soldiers would meet to plan their strategy, where they would brief her on threats at the kingdom's borders, where they would plan and prosecute the wars Equestria had waged in its long history. It had not been used for its intended purpose in some hundred years, a fact in which Celestia took considerable pride. And when it did have to be used, it meant something had gone dreadfully wrong in the Princess's plans.

Besides which, every room in Canterlot Castle had some memories wrapped up in them for the thousand-year-old monarch, and at her age memories tended to be a double-edged sword. But the blade that this room drew across her mind and heart was coated in a special poison. Not even she at whose merest command the sun rose and set was immune to that.

But such was the burden of leadership, and with a thousand years' worth of sitting on the throne alone, the Princess had learned well the art of locking emotions away and keeping memories at bay. And thus Princess Celestia stood at the head of the War Room, listening patiently as the officers of what passed for Equestria's army debated the matter before them. The pony in front of her was the mountain of muscle and willpower named Mountainhide, the earth pony that could probably kick the entire mountain on which Canterlot rested off its base if he so chose, and the commanding officer of the Equestrian military.

"If I may say so, Your Highness," Mountainhide rumbled, "I think we've let this thing run loose long enough. We're fortunate it hasn't killed anyone. Yet."

General Mountainhide had a way of shutting up pretty much anyone he wanted, but only the Princess could get away with the look of gentle reproach she spared him. "With all due respect, general," she answered, "a Nightmare is not a thing. It's a pony—a pony that was once the same as anyone else in our kingdom."

"But Your Highness," sputtered a snow-white pegasus, "a Nightmare is by definition—"

"Do not assume that we are unaware of the nature of our foe!"

Celestia winced and waited for the walls to stop vibrating. Progress on that end, unfortunately, was still spotty.

She glanced towards her side, where Princess Luna was beginning to realize that she'd used the traditional royal full-volume blast again, and just about bowled over every pony in the room except the living building that was General Mountainhide—and even he looked a bit ruffled by the lunar princess's wall of sound. Well, at least she was learning.

"As my sister said," Celestia continued, as the mere mortals recovered, "we know what a Nightmare is. Which is precisely why I ask you to exercise such restraint. But," she turned and took in the rest of the room with a sweep of her wings, "at the same time, we must not allow this Nightmare to harm anyone else."

"With respect, Your Highness," Mountainhide spoke up, "that is why I've pressed for a full sweep with the entire Royal Guard. The Nightmare's lair is somewhere down there, and judging by the locations of its attacks, it knows the catacombs and canals very well."

Celestia frowned. Mountainhide was right—but only to a point. He would send in the Royal Guard, as was his duty and as he was trained to do, but they did not quite appreciate the power they were up against. The last Nightmare had prowled Equestria's shadows when Mountainhide himself had been but a foal. None of them understood their opponent like Celestia.

And, she added bitterly, like Luna.

As though bidden by her sister's thoughts, the Princess of the Night stepped forward and pointedly ignored the way the officers all braced themselves for another arctic blast of sound. "We are more than capable of dealing with the Nightmare, Sir General," she said. "But thy soldiers, constituted as they are of mortal flesh and blood, would stand at a serious disadvantage against this sinister shade. Lest we remind thou of the many injured warriors of your ranks..."

Mountainhide did not appear to be amused. "I assure you, Your Highness, that my troops are up to this task—"

"And we do not doubt them for an instant," Celestia interrupted, with firm glances towards the both of them, "but I am not going to send you or your troops to fight a creature against which they would stand so poor a chance. A Nightmare is simply too powerful." She straightened up and took in the entire room once more. "Although it pains me to say this to a meeting of fine and diligent officers, this is not a battle that you can fight for us. We, as the royal sisters of Equestria, must deal with this ourselves. Either one of us can handle this Nightmare, and together—" she spared a quick and tender glance towards her sister— "together, nothing at all can stand against us."

"Be that as it may, Your Highness," Mountainhide answered, "we of the Royal Guard would be shirking our responsibility not to accompany you into battle against this...creature." He paused. "I think it is safe to say, Your Highness, that our strategy of containing the Nightmare until it comes back to its senses has failed."

Celestia and Luna shared a knowing look, and Celestia tried not to sigh. Mountainhide had not been happy that so many of his troops had been put under Shining Armor's command for security during last month's wedding, and evidently even the good general had a streak of passive-aggression. Nor did it seem to help that the good general's troops had not proven terribly effective against an army of Changelings, armed with the element of surprise. The general was obviously itching for a chance to restore the Royal Guard's honor.

"It is agreed that we can no longer allow the Nightmare to prowl the lands at will," Luna declared, although at least she'd remembered to turn down the volume, "and thy troops will be necessary in the execution of our strategy."

That would keep Mountainhide happy, or at least whatever approximated happiness in his ironclad little heart. Celestia stepped forward to speak again—

The doors slammed open, all eyes turned, and three pegasi in the golden armor of the Royal Guard staggered into the War Room. The officers converged in a storm of intended disciplinary action on a young lieutenant and his two wing mates—and Celestia tried not to cringe at the sight of them. They were covered in bruises and scrapes, blood smeared over their hides, their armor cracked and broken, all of them breathless and trembling.

General Mountainhide cleared a path to the three winded soldiers with an imperious stamp of hooves. "Lieutenant!" he roared. "What is the meaning of this—"

At once, Celestia nudged him aside as the pegasus struggled to stand at attention. "I'll handle this, general," she said, and turned soothingly towards the exhausted stallion. "What's the matter, lieutenant?"

"A...a thousand apologies, Your Highness," the pegasus gasped, "but...we were on patrol...over Everfree..." He shook his head and swayed; Celestia nodded to two of the officers, who stepped up next to him to help him stay on his feet. "We were attacked..."

"By what?"

"By...some kind...some kind of unicorn..."

The room went silent, and Celestia felt a chill wash over her. She glanced back again at Luna—and the lunar princess looked even more dismayed than before. "A unicorn...?"

"It was black and blue," the lieutenant went on, "and...it had this mane like...smoke or something." He bowed his head in shame. "It hit us with...some kind of magic, and...all we could do was escape..."

Mountainhide looked grimly towards the two princesses. "The one we've been chasing has a fiery mane," he said. "Highnesses, there's a second Nightmare on the loose."

The princesses silently took in the thunderstruck looks of the officers around them. One Nightmare's power had been disturbing enough, but two?

"Lieutenant," Celestia said, looking down gently towards the wavering pegasus, "you said this was in the Everfree Forest?"

"Y-Yes, Your Highness..."

"General," she turned towards Mountainhide, "triple the patrols. Pegasi over Everfree and unicorns in the catacombs at Canterlot. Our plan is going to need some rearranging. And," she nodded to the lieutenant and his two ragged wing mates, "see to it that they are cared for."

Mountainhide bowed his head. "It will be done, Your Highness."

As the soldiers began to carry out their orders, Celestia turned towards her sister, her expression grim. "Two Nightmares..."

Luna gave her sister a puzzled look. "Has that ever happened before, sister?"

"On only the rarest of occasions." Celestia shook her head. "The one under Canterlot will have to be dealt with first. It's the more urgent threat. Hopefully the one in Everfree will stay there for the time being," her stomach turned at the thought of the little town that lay just outside that den of horrors, "and everypony else will stay out."

———

"So let me get this straight. You were trying to get your 'dragon slayer' cutie marks."

"Uh huh."

"So you decided to practice on Spike first."

"Uh huh."

"And he hid in the oven at Sugarcube Corner."

"Uh huh."

"Which Pinkie Pie didn't know when she turned it on to bake her 'Every Fruit in the Universe' pie."

"Uh huh."

"So how did you three still manage to get covered in tree sap?"

The question hung in the air not unlike the way Twilight Sparkle had found Applebloom in Sugarcube Corner's kitchen. A panicking Pinkie Pie had brought her there to find Spike nearly baked to a golden brown crust, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle stuck together, and Applebloom somehow suspended from the ceiling by a massive glob of tree sap. Pinkie had feared that she'd turned Spike into some kind of giant muffin, and although Spike was in a distinctly non-muffin-like state, she had been nearly inconsolable.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders glanced at each other in Pinkie's bathtub and tried to think of an explanation. "Pinkie had a big tub of tree sap lying out," ventured Sweetie Belle.

The introduction of Pinkie Pie into a chain of reasoning tended to bring any sort of logical endeavor to a screeching halt, so Twilight merely sighed and lifted a brush over to the still-sticky fillies. Spike was lucky he was covered in scales that could stop arrows and had managed to escape before being completely cooked, but not before his exterior had been baked to a delightful golden crisp. And Pinkie's "every fruit ever made under the sun for ever and all time" pie experiment would have to be postponed.

"Well, you three are no strangers to being covered in tree sap," Twilight sighed, "so I'll just let you get to work, and Gummy can keep you company."

The Cutie Mark Crusaders stared at Gummy, perched as he was on the rim of the tub. Applebloom grinned excitedly.

"Hey, ah bet Gummy could help us get our starin' contest cutie marks!"

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle broke into grins of their own. Gummy blinked back at them. The game was on. Twilight smiled triumphantly and made her escape. Once again, Pinkie Pie's madness had found a useful tertiary effect.

Other than another unsuccessful Cutie Mark Crusade, it had been a pretty good day, and as she gathered her saddlebags and tried to avoid the horrifying abomination of fruit that Pinkie had forged in a huge bowl in her kitchen, Twilight Sparkle was determined to make the most of the attending night as well. After all, learning never ceased when the sun set and the moon ascended, and if there was learning to do, Twilight Sparkle was going to do it.

"Oh hey Twilight!" Pinkie Pie's preternaturally bubbly voice went plowing through her thoughts. "Did you see the new pie I'm making? I managed to put every single kind of fruit that exists in the entire world in it!"

Twilight regarded the whole thing nervously. "Pinkie, I think some of those are vegetables."

"Oh, Twilight, vegetables is just a fancy word for 'differently yummy'!" She eagerly held up the bowl, and as Twilight glanced through its smashed contents, she began to suspect that Pinkie had in fact literally combed the entire universe for kinds of fruit to put in there. "It's going to taste like everything! Which is weird because if it tastes like everything it won't taste like anything so it would be like eating a giant piece of paper, which is weird because I did that once and—"

"I'm, uh, sure this is going to be great," Twilight stammered, "but I've really gotta get going, see you later!"

And in a burst of sparks, Twilight was gone.

Pinkie huffed and swung back towards the oven. Twilight would see. They would all see.

———

The purple unicorn reappeared safely outside Sugarcube Corner and made a swift escape.

It wasn't, of course, that Twilight had meant to ditch Pinkie. Far from it. It was just that tonight was a very special night—the first day, or rather first night, of Moonbell Season. The Nightblooming Moonbell was one of the rarest flowers in Equestria, making its home only in the dark and murky depths of the Everfree Forest. Everfree was home to all sorts of flowers, of course, but never before had Twilight Sparkle ever encountered a Moonbell. It was said to only open its petals at night, supposedly to take its sustenance from the Moon itself. They were Luna's flowers, the moonlight's watchful companions, and Twilight simply had to study one. Only her abridged and highly annotated fifth edition copy of Everfree's Exceptionally Esoteric and Exotic Efflorescence had mentioned this mysterious bloom in a scientific context. Everything else was myth, fable, and the enduring cultural image of the Moonbell as a symbol for lovers.

Lovers. Twilight narrowed her eyes as she trotted back to the library. That thought had entered her mind quite often of late.

And, of course, it was entirely silly. Twilight Sparkle had come to Ponyville on the Princess's orders because she needed friends, and needed friendship to properly wield the Elements of Harmony. And all that was well and good. And here she was continuing her study of friendship—a study that got more complex by the day and from which her rational, calculating mind was having increasing difficulty distancing itself—but that didn't mean she needed to go further.

And that, she knew, was the real purpose of this little sojourn. All these silly thoughts about the magic of love and the importance of love and the feeling needed to be dealt with by some good hard science. And no science was harder than slogging through the Everfree Forest at night looking for a flower in bloom.

Twilight ducked into the library and regarded the still mildly crispy Spike with a grin. "Feeling better yet?"

Spike stared back in something that seemed like annoyance. "You think this is funny, Twilight, but it's not."

"I'd never," Twilight scoffed, and promptly lifted her saddlebags over to herself. She cringed as Spike picked off a blackened scale from his shoulder. "Um, are you gonna be alright to watch everything while I'm gone?"

"Yeah, sure," Spike sighed, "but I still say this is a bad idea. Why can't you go look for the flower during the day?"

"Spike! You can't look for a nightblooming flower during the day! It blooms at night! That's why they call it 'nightblooming'!" She shook her head; basic botany was just lost on so many ponies.

"But it's the Everfree Forest," Spike protested. "Remember the last time you went in there alone? The cockatrice?"

Twilight frowned. That had not been fun, no. "Well, last time I was alone, but this time I'll have Zecora with me," she said. "We're just picking flowers, Spike. Relax."

Spike crossed his arms, then blinked, then yanked out another fried scale and tossed it aside. "If you come back as a lawn ornament, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Well, suit yourself. See you later!"

Another flash of sparks heralded the departure of Twilight Sparkle, who promptly reappeared on the library's doorstep—and right in front of a surprised-looking Applejack.

"Oh, hi Applejack!" Twilight chirped. "What brings you here?"

"Well," she gestured to the empty apple cart attached to her saddle, "ah was takin' the cart back in, before ya went 'n zapped yerself into my path. Where ya off to at this hour anyway?"

"The Everfree Forest," Twilight answered immediately—and just as immediately regretted it.

The stern look of disapproval raced across Applejack's features. "Heaven's sake, Twi, are you nuts? What are you doin' goin' into Everfree at night?"

Twilight groaned. "The Nightblooming Moonbell only blooms at night! You can't go look for it during the day, it'll just be a little green bulb that you can't differentiate from all the other little green bulbs, and then I'll never find it!" She shook her head vehemently. "It's important!"

"Twi—"

"The Nightblooming Moonbell is one of the rarest flowers in Equestria—"

"Twi—"

"Its medicinal value alone could keep an entire university occupied for years! The mechanism of its nightblooming nature could yield completely new innovations in agriculture! We could learn so much about the properties of moonlight! It could—"

"TWI!"

All was silent as Twilight's ears rang. "Um, yes Applejack?"

Applejack unhooked herself from her cart and threw an arm around her friend's shoulders. "Twi, we gotta talk. Runnin' off into Everfree at night is just the last dang straw. But this ain't the first time you've been goin' off doin' somethin' just plum crazy."

"Wh-What do you mean?"

"Well, remember that time ya wanted to study a cockatrice egg?"

Twilight pawed at the ground. "An important investigation into cockatrice reproductive habits."

"An' the time ya tried to get manticore venom, straight from the tap?"

"The psychoactive properties are largely unknown!"

"An' the hang-glidin' experiment with Rainbow Dash?"

"But..." Twilight thought back to her absolutely terrifying trip over Equestria, in which her attempts at studying wind resistance had transformed into attempts not to be transformed into a crater. "Okay, that was pretty crazy. But still! I'm hardly being crazy all the time, Applejack, and my research sometimes requires me to step out of my comfort zone—"

"Research ain't the problem, sugarcube," Applejack said. "You're bein' reckless."

"Reckless, Applejack, please," Twilight laughed, and gently extricated herself from her friend's grip, "I know what I'm doing. I'll be with Zecora the whole time. We're just going to find some Moonbells and I'll come home. I'll be back before you know it!"

Applejack frowned. "That's what ya said when ya tried to get the manticore venom."

"Well in my defense, I wasn't expecting Pinkie Pie to go waking it up."

"But that's just it, sugarcube. You're takin' crazy risks, and that ain't like you. You've always been all organized an' sensible. So," she tapped a hoof on Twilight's chest, "what's goin' on with ya, Twi? An' don't try lyin' to me, ah got that fancy necklace to prove it ain't gonna work."

Twilight cringed. Sometimes being friends with the embodiment of Honesty itself had its downsides. "Look," she said, "I know you're worried and all, but you have to trust me, y'know? I know what I'm doing. I'll be with Zecora. Between the two of us, we can handle whatever Everfree tries to throw at us, and I won't even be gone that long. Okay?" She put her hooves on Applejack's shoulders. "I'll be okay. I promise."

Applejack stared back for a second and finally let out a defeated sigh. "If ya say so, sugarcube," she said, "but somethin's eatin' at ya, ah can tell. And ah don't want ya thinkin' ya can't talk to me about it."

"And that's why you're such a great friend!" Twilight chirped. They shared a quick nuzzle and the purple unicorn promptly made tracks for the Everfree Forest. "See you later, AJ!"

Left behind, Applejack watched her friend dash off into not exactly certain but unnervingly possible doom. "Girl's gone nuts if ya ask me," she sighed, and turned back towards her cart.

———

Leave it to Applejack to smash her way to the core of the matter with all the subtlety of a freight train.

The iron walls of stubbornness had deflected the undaunted will of a tired Applejack at the end of a long day for the time being, but inside the metaphorical fortress paced a rattled Twilight Sparkle. As she trotted down the path into the Everfree Forest, her thoughts were anywhere but on her botanical expedition with Zecora. That cultural symbolism that associated the Nightblooming Moonbell with lovers would not leave her head, and neither would Applejack's claim that she had gotten "reckless"—as if she was trying to distract herself from something. And the trouble with being a genius is that you were usually too smart to actually successfully deceive yourself.

With only a hint of annoyance, she mused that this was probably all her brother's fault. She'd read before about how attending weddings stirred up romantic longings in ponies that weren't already...attached. All that imagery about everlasting love and happiness surely must have had some effect on her. Obviously there was some psychological trickery going on here.

Which was great to know, but knowing it didn't make it go away.

Twilight heaved a sigh as she settled onto the familiar path through the trees towards Zecora's hut. The forest was unusually foggy tonight, but as long as she stayed on the path there would be no problems. At least, none of the typical Everfree variety. The ones swirling around in her head were another story.

It was all just so silly. What did Twilight Sparkle need romance for? She had friends, and that had been enough of a shock to her system—and since she still so often had cause to send off another friendship report to Princess Celestia, she had obviously not yet found the limits of what friendship had to teach her.

But romance wasn't the same as friendship. There were things you could tell a lover that you could never tell your friends. There was a connection, the one she'd seen between her brother and Cadence, something special and powerful all the same, when it was done right. And..."curious" was not the right word to describe how she felt about that. It was some murky, indistinct longing to experience that for herself—layered over by the typical academic desire to know what it was, what constituted it, what it could do, what it meant. Friends were forever and she knew the bond between herself and the other bearers of the Elements was pretty well unbreakable—not even Discord could stand between them for long—but what Shining Armor and Cadence had was something different. Somepony they could share their lives with. And Twilight Sparkle wanted that.

The books in her library had been of little help. Most of them focused on the practical aspects of wooing a mate, and Twilight's concerns were more...existential. Nor had her friends' experience been of much help. Spike had his adorably hopeless crush on Rarity, which Twilight figured was not much of a model for her own romantic pursuits, and the rest of her friends didn't seem to be very interested in the dating scene at all. And...well, there was Lyra and Bonbon, but even Twilight could tell that their relationship was what the statisticians called an "outlier."

And the other books, the trashy romance novels of which Rarity was far too fond, made it all seem so dramatic. Twilight was no stranger to drama, but lost loves, old flames, interlopers, suicide pacts, star-crossed lovers...well, none of that was what Shining Armor and Cadence had, and it certainly wasn't what Twilight wanted. Somepony who shared her love of magic and learning, who fit with her perfectly...that was how it was supposed to work, right? That's how Shining Armor and Cadence worked. Heck, that's even how Lyra and Bonbon worked, in their own indescribably weird way. Shouldn't that be how it worked for her?

Twilight Sparkle, however, was far too smart to get lost in goofy little fantasies about the perfect mate. After all, no one in Ponyville quite appreciated magic, research, and academia the way she did. And that was important if she was going to go falling in love with anyone. Magic and research were her life, and if she was going to go sharing her life with anypony, they would have to appreciate that and reciprocate.

But did that mean she would have to be alone?

Twilight blinked as the word brought her back to her senses—and suddenly, "alone" was even more appropriate. The fog had gotten impenetrably thick. She could hardly see a few steps ahead. And what little she could see of the path before her did not look at all familiar. Was she...lost?

Ridiculous. She couldn't be lost. The path from outside Everfree to Zecora's hut was a straight shot, and she certainly would've seen the poison joke to let her know where she was. Partially reassured, she lit up her horn and started back ahead, under the gentle light of an illumination spell to try to pierce the fog.

A howl pierced the still night air and sent Twilight skittering for cover. Her gaze shot around the forest, only to find that the fog was getting denser—and ramping up the brightness of her spell was making little difference. Applejack's misgivings came back to her with a stab of guilt—but then, how was she supposed to know this crazy fog was going to set in? What was it anyway?

Twilight let out a breath and got back to her feet. Alright, just keep going, she told herself, you never made any turns back there, just get to Zecora's place and—

"Little fillies shouldn't go wandering alone in the woods."

Twilight whirled around in terror, only to find nothing but fog. That echoing voice lilting out of the haze had a chord of familiarity to it, but only under the harsh tones of malice that she had heard all too many times before. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis...something was out there, something sinister, yet something she had never seen before.

"Who are you?!" she demanded.

The fog only laughed. Twilight turned back around and broke into a brisk trot. Threatening voices in the fog was a new trick for the Everfree Forest, but she was Twilight Sparkle, bearer of the Element of Magic, and—

"And where do you think you're going?"

Twilight's eyes shot to her right and she dove forward, just as a tree to the right snapped in two and came crashing down behind her. She yelped in surprise and ducked to the left to avoid another tree, and then another—and then she whirled around, a blazing ball of light on the tip of her horn to pierce the veil...only to find nothing.

"Where are you?!" she yelled. "What do you want?!" She turned around again and saw only more fog. "I'm warning you! You don't know who you're messing with!"

The voice laughed. Twilight turned around again—and then the fog before her parted and she stumbled into a clearing in the woods, framed with gnarled branches, surrounded on all sides by a dense haze, and occupied in the middle by the familiar shape of a pony.

Twilight frowned as the fog closed back in behind her. This was no ordinary pony. A unicorn the size of a grown mare in glossy purple armor and a tattered purple cape, a midnight black hide, a bright blue lightning bolt for a cutie mark, a mane made of nothing but wispy, swirling gray smoke...and then there were those eyes. Those telltale green reptilian eyes. Twilight's mind flashed back to the last pony's face she'd seen with eyes like those—the face of Nightmare Moon.

"I assure you, Twilight Sparkle," the mare in the clearing said with a wicked grin, "I most certainly do."

"Who are you?! Answer me!"

The mare threw back her head and laughed. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long time, little foal!" The ground began to shake; Twilight hunched down defensively as the forest floor quaked around her, and she backed away as the mare's horn flickered with bright blue light and violent surges of electricity. "Who am I?" the mare cackled. "I suppose it's only fair to let you know." The electricity lashed out from the mare's sparkling horn. Something flickered off to the right in Twilight's peripheral vision—and she turned around just in time to see a fallen log come streaking towards her. A blade of blue light flashed into existence, cut through the log, and vanished—and then the flying timber snapped open, neatly sliced into a claw, and slammed Twilight into the sturdy bole of another tree.

"What is this?!" she demanded, and struggled against the wooden claw. No good, it had jammed itself too far into the other tree's bark...

"You could call me one of your more careless creations," the mare chuckled, and stepped menacingly towards the trapped unicorn, blue sparks of magic dancing in the air around them both. "A consequence of trifling with somepony you shouldn't have."

Twilight glared back. "That's not answering my question!"

"Very well, then." The claw closed in tighter; Twilight ground her teeth as she searched for a way out. Maybe the impulse spell, or— "I'm not the pony you used to know," the mare said with a grin. "Not anymore. I've ascended beyond that."

"Who were you?!" Twilight demanded. "What's going on?! Why are you—"

"Now," the mare said, "I am Nightmare Storm!"

Twilight cringed. Nightmares. She'd heard about those...

"And with introductions out of the way," Nightmare Storm purred, and then another piece of fallen timber rose into view, glittering with the black unicorn's magic. Another blade of blue energy appeared and sharpened the timber down to a razor-sharp edge. Nightmare Storm turned her eyes back towards Twilight with a wicked smile. "I would hate to waste our time out here, Twilight Sparkle."

"Um...can't we talk about this?" Twilight said with a nervous smile.

Nightmare Storm's eyes flickered with rage and the blade came swinging down. Twilight's eyes went wide and her horn flashed to life—

And then, just before the blade reached her, Twilight disappeared in a flash of pink light, and the blade embedded itself in the tree instead. Nightmare Storm whirled around in fury—just in time for a bolt of magic to slam into her side and send her tumbling back into another unyielding tree trunk. She jumped back to her feet and scowled back at the purple unicorn, free of the claw.

"I see you're going to make this difficult," Nightmare Storm snarled, and blew an angry breath out her nostrils.

"I didn't come out here looking for a fight," Twilight started.

"Too bad! The fight found you!"

Four more logs jumped up into the air; the blue magic set to work and filed the ends down to sharp points in moments. Twilight gulped again and readied herself for another spell. The sharpened logs took off in a blur; Twilight ducked under one and hopped over the other, then dove to the side as the third went slicing by her. She whirled around on her back as the fourth came driving down towards her head—and then she jumped back up and blasted it out of the air with a bolt of magic.

"Sit still!" cried Nightmare Storm, as the other three spikes came whirling around. Twilight jumped away and skidded to a halt next to another fallen branch—and with a flash of magic, she flung the branch up to swat one of the spikes out of the air and smash it to pieces.

Nightmare Storm herself charged forward with a crackling bolt of blue magic. Twilight threw herself to the ground and rolled away; Nightmare Storm lurched down towards her, hooves raised. Twilight kicked upwards and caught her foe in the chest, sending the black unicorn tumbling backwards. She jumped back to her feet and hunched down into a defensive stance—but then she yelped in surprise and backed up as Nightmare Storm came charging back towards her again, and the two ponies locked horns, glowering into each other's eyes.

"I don't know who you are," Twilight grunted, and she dug in her hooves as the bigger mare pushed her down, "but if you think you can just pop up out of nowhere and hurt me—"

"I have waited far too long for you to go screwing this up!" snarled Nightmare Storm, and she sent Twilight skidding backward with a hard shove. "I did not spend all those months rotting out here, developing these powers, turning myself into something more than you—" the black unicorn's horn lit up and a stream of blue magic bolts blasted out, sending Twilight scrambling for safety— "for you to stop me now!" Nightmare Storm took off at a gallop after the retreating Twilight, horn flaring. "You are no longer more powerful than me! Everything has changed! Now get back here and die!"

Twilight dove into the fog and charged forward. I can't just run like this forever! Think think think think—

She lurched to a stop with a yelp and threw herself to the ground, just in time for a flickering blade of blue energy to sweep by overhead.

"Hold still!" roared Nightmare Storm, and she drove her horn forward, towards Twilight's heart—

Reflex took over as Twilight rolled away and bucked back, smacking Nightmare Storm in the chin and sending the bigger pony staggering back in a daze. Twilight took the chance to leap back to her hooves and lunge back into the fog—but the blue blasts of magic followed, and Twilight ground her teeth in frustration. Nothing was stopping that crazy pony...!

She turned around again, another blast on the tip of her horn—but then she screamed in surprise and threw her head down, just as those two sharpened logs went flying by.

"Oh right, forgot about those..."

Nightmare Storm parted the fog with a furious snort and dug her hooves into the ground. "Very clever, little foal, but I can do this all night."

Twilight scowled back and willed herself to be calm. "Sooner or later somepony will find us, and it won't be good news for you."

"Let them," scoffed Nightmare Storm. "I will kill them, the same as you!"

Twilight tensed and jumped to the side as the spikes came flying back at her. They abruptly veered up into the sky, to come spiraling back down towards her. Twilight's eyes flicked back towards Nightmare Storm, a vicious grin on her face—

And then, with a brilliant burst of pink light, Twilight sent up a shimmering magical barrier over her head—just in time for the two spikes to slam down into it and shatter into useless splinters. Nightmare Storm snarled in rage and lunged towards the purple unicorn; Twilight vanished again and reappeared behind her relentless foe. She ducked back into the fog—and Nightmare Storm's fusillade of magic blasts followed with a wordless scream from the black mare.

"Don't think the forest will hide you!" Nightmare Storm cried.

"Okay, seriously, why are you doing this?!" Twilight screamed back. She turned around to face her attacker—and then ducked to the left as another blast went searing by her and snapped a tree behind her in two. "What did I do?!"

The black unicorn charged forward with a wordless growl. Twilight teleported again and turned around to run away—but then yet another fallen branch came flying up to catch her in the chest and pin her against another tree trunk. Nightmare Storm landed before her with a crash, horn sparking with menacing light—

"Oh no ya don't!"

Nightmare Storm hardly had time to blink before an orange blur slammed into her from her left and sent her tumbling away to disappear down an incline.

"Applejack!" Twilight exclaimed. "Am I glad to see you!"

Applejack tossed away the branches around her friend. "Yeah, savin' the day, ah know, now who's yer friend?"

"I don't know! She just—and I—how did you find me, anyways?"

Applejack glanced down the incline, where there was no sign of the larger unicorn. "You've been puttin' on a light show with this little...whatever ya got goin' on here. Saw it all the way from the farm. Now come on, let's get outta here 'fore yer dance partner there comes back."

The two ponies turned around—and there was Nightmare Storm, eyes blazing with utter fury. "Wonderful," the black unicorn sneered, "you brought a friend."

Applejack and Twilight backed away, crouching into defensive stances. "An' just who the hay are you?" Applejack shot back.

Nightmare Storm flung up a storm of fallen branches and charged forward. The two ponies leapt apart and Applejack let loose a strong kick with her back legs; Nightmare Storm ducked under it, seized her tail with a tendril of magic, and flung her towards Twilight. The purple unicorn yelped in surprise, her own horn lit up, and a soft pink glow surrounded Applejack and set her back on her hooves.

"Alright, what the hay is this all about?!" Applejack snapped—and then she threw herself back on the ground as another shimmering bolt of blue magic flashed by overhead and wiped out another tree.

"Some dimwitted farm dullard is not going to keep me from my victory!" Nightmare Storm screamed and barreled towards Applejack again, horn throwing sparks. Twilight leapt in front of her friend and they both vanished in a burst of pink light, reappearing again behind another, much larger tree.

"'Dimwitted'...okay Twi, do you owe this mare money or somethin', 'cuz this is not what ah was expectin' when ah came out here," Applejack whispered. "What's goin' on?"

Twilight glanced nervously around the tree trunk. "I don't know! She just showed up out of nowhere rambling about how she's been waiting for this and next thing I know she's trying to kill me! But," she checked again for any signs of their armored foe, "maybe we can get away—"

"Not likely!"

The tree behind the two ponies suddenly rattled. Applejack and Twilight jumped away, just in time for the entire thing to glow blue and lurch out of the ground, roots and all—and underneath it, horn glittering with light, stood a furious Nightmare Storm.

"I have had it!" the black mare screamed, and the tree hovered menacingly over the two ponies. "I have spent months out here honing these abilities! The power of a Nightmare is far beyond the puny abilities of some ordinary unicorn! I will not be denied—"

"Oh, quit yer yappin'!" Applejack shot back—and with that, she tossed a rock into the air, whirled around, and bucked it straight at Nightmare Storm's head. The black unicorn ducked down to avoid it; Twilight seized the chance to launch a blast of pink magic up into the tree and blow it to pieces. The wooden splinters rained down around the three ponies, and under the hail of shrapnel, Applejack threw herself forward and rammed Nightmare Storm in the shoulder. "Twi, ah'll keep her busy! Do somethin' brilliant!"

Twilight cringed as she watched Applejack and Nightmare Storm go tumbling away in a frenzy of flailing hooves. That frightening black unicorn wouldn't be distracted for long. She screwed her eyes shut and started concentrating. She'd only have one chance at this...

Applejack, meanwhile, grunted in pain as she slammed down into the ground at the bottom of an incline. Nightmare Storm leapt back to her feet, hooves raised; Applejack rolled away, kicked as she jumped back up, and smacked Nightmare Storm in the side of the head. The two ponies circled around each other, Nightmare Storm growling like a furious dog.

"You have no idea what you're trifling with, farmer," she snarled.

"Not really, no," Applejack answered, "but ah'll whip ya all th' same."

"Fool!" Nightmare Storm flung herself forward, horn alight. Applejack sidestepped the charging mare and whipped around with a hard kick to the black unicorn's side. Nightmare Storm lashed out with a hoof of her own and smacked Applejack across the muzzle. The earth pony followed the momentum to whirl around and then slam Nightmare Storm in the side of the head with another hard kick. The black unicorn staggered back and blinked, obviously dazed—and Applejack took that as her cue to charge forward and ram Nightmare Storm again, sending the taller mare sprawling in the dust.

"Givin' up yet?"

Nightmare Storm struggled back to her feet, vicious rage glittering in her eyes. "You have interfered long enough, earth pony," she snarled—and then, sparks of blue light dancing around the trees and crackling through the fog, a swarm of branches and loose rocks lifted into the air around the black mare. Applejack backed away and cringed; beating back a pony with her trusty hooves was one thing, but crazy projectile magic was a whole different story. "Now," hissed Nightmare Storm, as the storm of debris reared back overhead, "let this be done—"

"Applejack, duck!"

Nightmare Storm whirled around, eyes wide, as Applejack threw herself to the ground—just in time for a blinding flash of pink light from the ridge overhead. The black unicorn lit her horn up in defense, the cloud of forest debris falling to the ground, forgotten—and then a vast column of light came crashing down from Twilight Sparkle's horn. Nightmare Storm launched forward a blast of her own to meet the attack head-on, but with a hail of sparks, Twilight's blast punched its way through and hit home—and Nightmare Storm sailed through the air with a scream and slammed hard into a towering tree, yards away. The black unicorn fell to the ground with a grunt.

"Applejack! Are you okay?" Twilight cried as she hopped down the ridge towards her friend. Applejack cracked open her eyes and blinked in disbelief at the smoking trench her friend's magic had carved into the very earth—and then looked back up at the breathless Twilight.

"Holy horseapples, Twi, you did all that?"

"Basic directed energy spell," Twilight huffed. "Princess Celestia taught me—"

"You call that 'basic'?"

"Well...sort of." Twilight helped Applejack back up and they both turned towards the splintered tree where Nightmare Storm was haltingly getting back up. "Now what about her...?"

"Ah'll buck her brains out, that's what," Applejack snorted. "Thought ya would've learned yer lesson!"

Nightmare Storm flinched as she tried to put weight on her rear right leg. "I have a Nightmare's power coursing through me," she growled. "I have power like none of you have ever seen before! And you think you can—"

She fell silent at the sound of voices off in the fog—and Twilight smiled in recognition, as she heard Rainbow Dash somewhere off in the forest, and the sound of hooves on their way. "That's my friends," she said with a triumphant grin. "You're already outnumbered, Nightmare Storm, and now you're about to be even more so. Now stand down!"

The black unicorn's reptilian eyes darted back and forth between the direction of the sounds and the two ponies in front of her—and then, with a furious snarl, she disappeared behind a veil of smoke. Twilight started forward, but the cloud lurched up and vanished into the darkness.

"Twilight!" The fog at the opposite side of the clearing parted and the next thing Twilight knew, she was on her back with the rest of her friends huddled around her, bombarding her with questions.

"Twilight, what happened?!" demanded Rainbow Dash. "There were lights everywhere and Applejack sent me to go get everyone else—"

"—and your mane is simply a mess," Rarity wailed, "what on earth happened, did something attack you—"

"—and, oh my, you're all bruised," mumbled Fluttershy, "and we should really wash those cuts before they get infected, and—"

"—and there was a BIG explosion," Pinkie Pie cried, "and it was all FWOOOOOOM and I was all OMIGOSH and Rainbow Dash was all 'we have to help Twilight' and I thought you were fighting a monster or something like a manticore or a cockatrice or a manticore and a cockatrice or a manticore with a cockatrice head or a cockatrice with a manticore head or, or, or I don't know what, but now we're here and it's gone and you're okay!" and she finished by wrapping Twilight up in a bone-crushing hug. A moment later she blinked and looked back at Twilight with concern. "Um, right? You are okay, right?"

Twilight took a moment to shake her head as the rest of her friends stared at Pinkie. "Um, yeah, I'm fine..."

"Heavens to betsy, y'all, let the girl breathe," Applejack sighed. "It wasn't a monster out here. 'least, ah don't think it was."

"Then what in Equestria was it?" Rarity asked, and glanced around nervously. "You've never had to use that much magic to escape the monsters here before."

Twilight sat down with a heavy sigh, as the exhaustion set in. "It was another pony," she said, "a black unicorn. She kept saying she wanted to kill me."

Twilight's friends gasped in near-unison.

"K-Kill you?!" squeaked Fluttershy.

"Why would anyone want to kill you?" Pinkie cut in. "I mean, it's not like you're a bad pony or—wait, do you owe her money?"

"I don't owe anypony money!" Twilight cried.

"Where is she?!" yelled Rainbow Dash, taking to the air with a growl. "I'll take care of her! Nopony threatens my friends!"

"Simmer down, Rainbow," Applejack said, and yanked her back to earth by her tail, earning a glare from a slightly offended Rainbow. "She took off after she heard y'all comin'. Guess she didn't think six to one was good odds."

"Oh, great," groaned Rainbow, "we'll never find her in all this fog."

"B-But we have to do something," Fluttershy added, "because, I mean, somepony might get hurt out here, if there's such a mean pony running around..."

"Exactly," said Twilight, and she painfully got back to her feet and pointedly ignored the soreness in her muscles. They'd be all stiff and painful tomorrow, but there was nothing she could do about that now. Maybe they could stop by Zecora's hut on the way back, but first things first... "So, Rainbow Dash, you go back to the library and get Spike. We've got a letter to the princess to write."

———

The taste of failure stung Nightmare Storm even more than the pain in her leg and the numerous cuts, scrapes, and bruises all over her battered body. She finally came to a stop under a gnarled tree and collapsed to lick her wounds. A healing spell would take time and concentration, and right now she was exhausted—physically and emotionally. Twilight Sparkle had been alone and distracted, and she, Nightmare Storm, had been at the height of her power. It should not have ended this way.

And then...there was him.

Nightmare Storm's face twisted into a furious scowl as she picked up the sound of crackling fire. Bathed in warm orange light, another figure stepped out of the darkness—this one a tall black stallion, a stallion with wings and a horn and glimmering red reptilian eyes, with a mane and tail of pure, undulating flame.

"Of course," she sneered, "where there's smoke, there's fire."

"Oh, my little storm cloud," the stallion sighed, "what exactly happened here? You said you would, and I quote, 'tear her to pieces,' and, funny thing, really, I just walked by that little clearing and found Twilight Sparkle still in, you know, one piece, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't part of the plan, so—"

Nightmare Storm growled. "Don't patronize me," she snapped. "You lied! You told me this power would be enough to destroy her!"

"Well, yes, and who can blame me?" the stallion asked with a shrug. "I mean, I only harnessed the infinite power of darkness, fueled by the unceasing depths of sheer animal hatred, and gave it to you to command at your merest whim. How in the world could I have expected you to kill one little ol' pony with that?"

"I did not expect her friend to interfere!"

"And neither did I," the stallion went on, and threw an arm around Nightmare Storm's aching neck, "but hey, live and learn, right? So I'll tell you what. You just stay here and get yourself all healed up, right as rain, and we'll give this whole 'kill Twilight Sparkle' thing another shot some other time. Sound good?"

Nightmare Storm cringed. "I've lost the element of surprise now. She and her friends will expect me."

"And we'll adapt," the stallion said with a smile. His long black horn sparked with red magic and wrapped Nightmare Storm in a soothing glow, and the pain began to ease away. "Besides, brute force and sharp pointy things you found in the forest aren't the only ways to kill a meddlesome unicorn."

"Really now."

"Yes, really." The stallion stood back up, and turned his eyes towards back towards the darkness in the rest of the forest. "It's all about knowing the right tricks." He looked back down at Nightmare Storm with a grin. "Wouldn't you say?"

Nightmare Storm put her head down with a sigh and her horn came to life, as she called upon the forces of magic to heal her injured body.

"Now now, chin up, my little storm cloud," the stallion said, as he turned back towards the shadows. "Don't be so glum. You'll get it right one of these days. Because," he glanced back at Nightmare Storm, the smile still on his lips, "you know what happens if you don't."

Nightmare Storm ground her teeth and bit back her rage as the stallion vanished into the darkness.

———

Comments

[ForSpite]

Nightmare... I'll call him Flame for now, seems to remind me of the Mayor from Buffy.

That is a good thing.

[AdamGrayson]

finally! I've found this story again! I read it before back before I didn't have an account here. I have to say I love this. Just wonderful. im definitely going to fav this....after I read it again.

[therealguy_]

You would think twilight would be a bit more pissed at the CMC for trying to kill spike.

[ZeroSpawn]

Besides which, every room in Canterlot Castle had some memories wrapped up in them for the thousand-year-old monarch

so she was a new-born when luna was banished to the moon?

[josue]

good so very good this story is

[hmaf43]

this nightmare is so weak! as weak as that 3 random changeling drones from canterlot wedding.

and celestia said a nightmare can teardown whole army of royal guards?