Night of the Living Ponies

by Rdash10000

Rating: everyone
Tags: Dark
Length: 1982

Luna's been acting strange lately. Why? Witness the return of nightmare moon and her forbidden magic as the mane 6 try to stop her!

Luna's been acting strange lately. Why? Witness the return of nightmare moon and her forbidden magic as the mane 6 try to stop her!

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-05-22 21:14:41 UTC

Chapter 1: The Awakening

About a week after our conversation about Luna, I received word from the princess that Luna had gone missing. I started to wonder if she had become addicted to the dark energies of the crystal and escaped the temporary "prison" Celestia had put her in until the crystal was either contained or destroyed. I fear that if she has escaped, she would travel to the Crystal Empire in search for the crystal. If she finds it, there's no telling how much more powerful Nightmare Moon would become after absorbing pure evil energy in such large amounts. It could potentially be the end of Celestia, or even all of Equestria, as we know it. I began writing a letter to the Princess stating my opinion on the subject and what should be done. I suggested that we search all over the Crystal Empire for her, and destroy the crystal before she becomes too powerful. Should we be too late, we will do everything in our power to stop Nightmare Moon and destroy the crystal using the Elements of Harmony. After i received approval from the princess, I informed Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity of the situation and told them to pack for the trip to the Crystal Empire. It took three days to reach the empire, three days of wasted time. Who knows how close she is to the crystal. We hardly even took time to unpack our bags before we started searching. Luckily it didn't take long to find her. As i expected, she was traveling at night when no pony was around. We saw her going into the basement of the castle through a secret entrance that was unknown even to me or Celestia. By the time we reached her, it was too late, she had already found the crystal. I saw Nightmare Moon  just standing there. But when she turned around, i was horrified. Her face was horrifically scarred and mangled as if she had been dead or sent through a blender. Almost as if she had read my mind, she began to explain that she, Nightmare Moon, had technically died, however , Luna had not. She had went on about the new magic she had discovered and mastered while in Hell. She mentioned a spell that could raise the dead, I knew that wasn't good. As we tried to stop her, she cast a force field spell that was impenetrable by any and every means possible. She then cast a restraining spell on all six of us, and left us all for dead. It seems that she had forgotten I can use magic. I tried a teleportation spell and it didn't work. I began trying any and every spell that made sense in this situation, none of them worked. She knew more advanced magic than i thought. I then used a spell that sent a ball of magic into the air, which then exploded into the words,"Help us.". In hopes of catching the attention of Cadence, my brother, or Princess Celestia. We stayed there, rotting, for two weeks with no food, no water, no anything. We were all silent because we were either sleeping or too tired and discouraged to speak. But finally, on the 15th day, Cadence, my brother, and Princess Celestia arrived to save us. She said things are not well in Ponyville, that Nightmare Moon was governing it like she owned it. After we choked down a hefty meal and nearly drowned while drinking water, we rushed as fast as we could to Ponyville. Another horrifying sight. It was once again eternal darkness, as Nightmare Moon had what looked to be Lyra and Bon Bon fanning her as she sat on her throne that was forcibly taken from the shop owner. We rushed up to her as i yelled,"Stop!", in hopes of getting her attention, which it did. She looked up at us and said,"Silly ponies! You have no reason to be here let alone to try and stop me.". As I hid the fear and discouragement in my eyes, i said,"We WILL stop you Nightmare Moon! We've beaten you once before and we'll do it again!". After letting out a maniacal laugh, she said,"I've told you once before, I know magic more advanced than you could ever dream of knowing, and I will use it if I have to.". At that instant, I remembered the spell that raises the undead horde. She must not use that spell, we must stop her at all costs. After pondering the thought in my head, I said to Nightmare Moon,"I know that. And I will squeeze them out of you before I banish you to the moon for another thousand years after we beat you!", I knew i shouldn't have said that because the split second after I did, she yelled,"THEN YOU LEAVE ME NO CHOICE!!!", then she used the spell. At that moment i knew we were doomed. I saw the first zombie rise from the ground, then heard Spike practically have a heart attack and run back to the library. I then started to see hundreds, maybe thousands of zombies surrounding us, and at that moment I knew we were now in a living hell.

Chapter 2: Twilight Sparkle

As the six of us stood there, hopelessly trapped and watching hordes of zombies rise from the ground, I could tell we were all thinking the same thing, that we were doomed. To all our surprise, the princess showed up out of nowhere, likely through teleportation, and she approached Nightmare Moon and said,"Let them go!", then she hesitated and said,"Take me instead.". Nightmare Moon was just as surprised as we were, as she questioned what the princess had said, as if she was hearing things, and the princess repeated,"I said take me instead. I offer my life to trade theirs.". Nightmare Moon laughed again and said,"I accept your offer, however I will not kill you just yet. I will torture you and put through excruciating pain that will likely kill you before I do." The princess sighed and responded,"Fine, but let them go first." Nightmare Moon coughed and then said,"Very well.", as she released the restraining spell. The others ran away, most likely to think of a retaliation plan, but i stared in disbelief at the princess. I almost could not believe what just happened, it was likely that she wouldn't have done if she didn't think we could beat Nightmare Moon, so i then turned and followed the others. I followed them to a hollow hidden under a tree that belonged to one of Fluttershy's woodland critters. Once we were all in, I asked if anypony had a plan. None of the plans made any sense or were too dumb or risky, except Rainbow Dash's. She suggested that we split up and make our way to our respective elements in our houses, taking out as many zombies as we could on our way. She also said since Fluttershy was so cowardly and shy that she would go with her to Fluttershy's cottage, then to her mansion, and then send Fluttershy to the hollow while she went to help out anypony in trouble. We all agreed. As I made my way to the library I was stopped by Lyra, who was fighting of a large group of zombies. I went to assist her, but as I got close enough to one of the zombies, I could hear it saying something. It sounded like it was saying, in umbra luna est, which was latin for, In the shadow of the moon. I also heard, Nocte, again, latin, for night. I don't know why it was saying this, but it definitely had something to do with Nightmare Moon. As we cleared out the area of the horde, I said to Lyra,"Follow me.", and she did. We bolted for the library, but were again stopped by another horde of zombies. We tried fighting them off, but Lyra was getting overwhelmed. I ran over to try and help her, but it was too late. The zombies were already tearing into her flesh, ripping her to shreds as they feasted like a pack of wild dogs. As I cleared out the last of the zombies, I ran over to Lyra's corpse. In just a matter of seconds, she was reduced to nothing but bone and a pool of blood. I was horrified. Then something strange happened, her bones started coming back together almost like timberwolves. As the bones were put back together she said,moriere, latin for, you will die. I started backing away as she walked toward me. I didn't want to do it, she was my friend. I knew i had to though, that moment I made a decision that will haunt forever. I charged up a powerful spell and blew her to smitherines. I already regretted it. I started running for the library again. Thankfully, not being interrupted on the way. I made my way through the doorway, barricading it behind me. I went to the secret room where i kept the element, opened it and retrieved it. As I un-barricaded the door, i was greeted by more zombies. Luckily, I had the element and defeated them easily. When i reached the hollow beneath the tree, I was glad to see Fluttershy, safe and sound."Did you get the element?", I asked her. She replied yes and I placed mine next to hers. I didn't want to go back outside, in fear of having to kill another friend, but I knew i had to. As i ran out, I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw Bon Bon get swarmed by zombies. She was already a pile of bones, which, again reconstructed and chased after me. Again, I regretted killing her, even if it was her skeleton. It was going to be a long, painful night.

Prologue: How it all began

It was a bright and sunny morning in Ponyville, as I, Twilight Sparkle, and my assistant, Spike, were out practicing new spells. Then, as usual, Pinkie Pie crashed into me as I was casting the spell and ended up almost burning down town hall. She was off to see what Rainbow Dash was doing. She was probably just sleeping on a cloud, as usual, but being how she is, Pinkie was looking for as much fun as possible. After I got up and tried the spell again, the princess arrived. She informed me that her sister, Princess Luna has been acting unusually strange lately. "I'm not sure, but it could be possible that she is becoming corrupted once again.",She told me. I responded as respectfully as I could with,"Forgive me your highness, but I don't think that's possible. Is it?". She went on to tell me how she had spoken with Zecora before she had come to me and how she said it was possible if around dark energies for an extended period of time. I then asked the princess,"How is that possible? We've reformed Discord,banished Chrysalis back to wherever she came from, and destroyed Sombra. There's no dark energy left around.". She then told me that, deep beneath the crystal empire, far beyond the reaches of even her, lies a crystal of pure dark energy, put there by Sombra as a last resort, should he be killed. I asked her how it went unnoticed for so long as well as why Luna is the only one being affected by its power. "Of that, I am not certain, however I am certain that if we let her absorb enough of its power, Nightmare Moon will rise again.",The princess responded. The instant she said Nightmare Moon, horrible memories flashed through my mind of what happened the last time we faced her. At the same time, we said,"We must NOT let that happen!"