Concealed darkness

by Neobreaker10

Chapters

Prologue
Restlessness in Everfree
Ponyvilles white knight
A meeting with royalty
Sabers secret exposed
Darkness
Inside a Nightmares mind
Preparation on both ends
The everfree offensive
The Tartarus trek
Discord
Luna vs. Tracer
Trial by fire
Six to one odds
Waking from a nightmare
Crimsons final stand
The nightmare stronghold
Recovery and escape
Epilogue

Prologue

Concealed darkness

An MLP fanfic by: Neobreaker10

Edited to fit with season 3’s early events (up to ep: 10)

Prologue

A castle over the horizon

There have been tales throughout Equestria about a great open wasteland far beyond anypony’s reach, if one was to travel there they would have to go north, travelling over mountains, hills, and through caves. They would have to keep trotting through the frozen north, and must keep going till the crystal empire is out of sight to the south. At the heart of this wasteland is a black castle, its towers spiraling up unimaginable heights and many spacious Chambers placed everywhere throughout the castle, these features make it seem a lot like Canterlot castle. Many a legend has been told of this castle, some say it is the home of lost spirits; others say a terrible evil resides in its halls, while many more tell tales of gold being guarded at its deepest reaches. However, none of these tales are at the slightest true, instead, it is home to a teenage stallion, who sits next to his fireplace, wishing to see the outside world, and that is where we find ourselves today.

“This entire spacious world, and yet none of it knows of me” the blue unicorn thought as he batted at a small rubber ball. “I can’t remember the last time I was out there” he griped silently in his head, his neon yellow mane and tail really needed washing and he himself needed a bath, but he had been so absorbed in his griping that he kept forgetting to, suddenly a knock at the door startled him to his senses. “Who’s there?” he asked as he walked to the steel laced door, however just before he reached the door a Pegasus burst through the door,

“SABER!” he shouted as the blue unicorn fell over from surprise.

“For Pony’s sake Crimson Bullet, next time wait for me to open the door” he shouted as he regained his footing.

“Sorry” Crimson replied, the Pegasus was a brick red color, his mane and tail were black and a cutie mark of a set of cross-hairs adorned his flank, “it’s just that something is going on outside and-“,

“what!?” Saber cut in, flaring his bright yellow eyes in Crimson’s direction, “explain”.

“Well, I was out in the courtyard when brilliant colors streaked across the sky from the south, why?”,

“hmm” Saber murmured to himself “if my guess is on the money” he thought “then somepony must have activated the crystal heart” He looked over at Crimson Bullet, “get Tracer, Flare, and Strafe, you four will investigate”,

“alright Saber” Crimson replied. After Crimson left Saber’s stern look disappeared,

“with them gone, this is the perfect opportunity to check out towns around equestria, one gets weary in this dark castle”. He trotted over to the coat rack with a smile on his face, “I need a break from this place every now and again”. *slams door*

A couple months later:

Restlessness in Everfree

Chapter 1 Restlessness in Everfree

“Come on Spike!!” Twilight exclaimed “We don’t have all day for this!” the purple unicorn was in quite a hurry, after all, one does not simply miss a Pinkie Pie party.

“I’m coming twilight, just slowdown, these boxes are heavy” he grunted under the weight of the decoration boxes “but (urgh) wouldn’t it (huff) be easier to (hmmph) use your m-magic?”,

“sorry, what?” Twilight responded, oblivious to spikes comment,

“n-nev-never mind” remarked a less than enthusiastic Spike. But this wasn’t just a run-of-the-mill party, princess Celestia herself was coming to stay in ponyville for a few days and everypony wanted to make a good impression. “Ok, we’re here Spike” called Twilight,

“g-great, where do I d-drop th-these” Spike answered, incredibly relieved,

“oh, anywhere will do” Twilight replied, “great” sighed Spike before he fell on the floor asleep with exhaustion, unfortunately he was woken up by the voice of a hyperactive pink pony.

“Hi Twilight, soooo glad to see you made it, why is spike on the floor? Everypony has to work super-duper hard, eek, I forgot the balloons, I’ll be right back” and at that Pinkie dashed out the front door, plowing through a small crowd.

“Pinkie...” Twilight sighed, “I really need to get used to that, anyway, Spike”,

“yes Twilight?” replied the half asleep dragon,

“would you mind running back to the library and picking up my quills, I seem to have forgotten them” Twilight requested, Spike shuddered at the thought of more work (especially since he had just lugged 5 heavy decoration cases halfway across town)

“I’d love to Twilight but I… have very… important… things… to… dooooooooooo” replied Spike before falling asleep again,

“ugh, that dragon. Oh well, he could use the sleep, better do it myself.” Twilight muttered to herself walking out the front door, only to be greeted as Rainbow dashes landing pad again. “Hi Rainbow” she remarked in a mildly displeased tone,

“oops, heh, sorry” replied Rainbow, trying not to burst out laughing.

“it’s okay” sighed a rather frazzled twilight, “I was just on my way to the library to pick up my quills, and I might check on Fluttershy, she hasn’t arrived yet”,

“oh, well ok, I’ll tell everypony you may be late” Rainbow suggested, knowing how much Twilight liked being punctual, “just hurry up or there might not be any cake left when you get here”,

“I’ll hurry”.

Fluttershy awoke with a start at the sound of knocking at her door, “oh, my, who could that be?” she wondered as she walked to let in her guest “oh, hi twilight”,

“where were you, the party will start soon” twilight was trying to sound urgent, even though the party was still an hour away.

“Goodness, that was today, I’ll be right there” Fluttershy replied.

“You go ahead Fluttershy, I’ll catch up” called Twilight,

“ok, I’ll see you there” she called back, quietly of course. Twilight was about to follow after but stopped in her tracks, “hmm” she thought as she sensed something off. Now normally a unicorn can’t sense abnormalities, but for some reason Twilight felt unsteady. “Something’s not right” she whispered, walking towards everfree might not have been a good idea but Twilight was fixed on finding out what was going on.

Deeper and deeper she went, slowly starting to wonder if she would make it out alive. Suddenly a snapping twig made her jump and she ran into a bush, “what was that?” Twilight wondered, panicking as she scanned the forest, “great, I just sounded just like Fluttershy”. Regardless of how she sounded, she knew she had to get out of the forest, and soon, the noises of all the fierce creatures sounded restless. “I have to find Zecora” Twilight whispered as she ran off into the woods.

Ponyvilles white knight

Chapter 2 Ponyvilles white knight

“What a world” Saber thought aloud, and he had right to do so, everywhere he went he was kindly treated as a visitor, except in manehatten, he had some trouble with the big city behaviour. But all was well and good, he had bought enough food to last, a map of equestria (to which he attached a map of his homeland and the crystal empire) all topped off with souvenirs from everywhere he went. “It’s nice out here; I might settle in if there is a place quaint enough for that, these places are a little too big for my taste” Saber remarked, “let’s see, where to next……. Ah, ponyville, that may be where I settle in.” Saber closed his map and used his magic to cast a speed spell on himself tripling his running speed making him reach mach. 2, this gave him time to think as he sped toward the town he may soon call home. However, back in everfree...

Zecora had been drinking a cup of tea when Twilight barged in slamming the door behind her. Panting heavily she began talking in a most erratic fashion.

“Forest-Monsters-after me-trouble-WHAT DO WE DO” Twilights rapid speech pattern had even Zecora confused,

“my dear Twilight, what is your most dreadful blight?” she asked, rhyming; as usual. Twilight took a second to calm down,

“ok, I was on my way here to ask you about why the creatures in the forest are so restless” Twilight commented trying not to panic,

“these happenings I have recently seen, restless are the monsters of everfree. Filled with rage of life in these woods, they will attack the town, understood?” rhymed Zecora in an answer that had Twilight looking a more pale purple.

“Th-then how can we stop them?” stammered Twilight,

“unless there is one there stronger than you, it is for certain, ponyville is doomed”. By now Twilight had turned almost completely white,

“I will get the town to evacuate until Celestia arrives” Twilight shouted,

“Before you go, there is something you should know” Zecora called. Twilight knew she would have to hurry to town so she could spread the word, but she could spare a few moments,

“yes” she replied.

“What you must remember, at the least, the sword is mightier than the beast. Contemplate these words of mine and the answer will be clear in good time” Zecora commented in a riddle,

“well, ok” twilight responded half confused. She set her cup down on the table, “well thanks for listening Zecora, now hopefully everypony else does” at that note twilight ran out and to ponyville, at this time she felt more relieved, Zecoras riddle had shown a shred of hope. “Now, to evacuate the town”

At Twilights word everypony in ponyville went into a panic, “good, everyone this way. Rainbow!” Twilight called,

“yeah” she shouted flying down,

“I need you to scout for anypony who has something about them related to swords”,

“swords!? Why swords?”,

“because Zecoras riddle said something about the sword being stronger than the monsters”,

“on it” Rainbow flew off to see what she could find. “Now let’s see” she looked and looked but didn’t see anything, “ugh, who in the world would have anything to do with-” rainbow was cut off by a blue/yellow streak moving towards ponyville. “What in equestria is that?” she wondered aloud, she flew down to see and ended up having the streak crash into her. “Ow!” rainbow exclaimed, “So that’s what it feels like. Huh?” she looked over and saw the one who crashed into her was a blue stallion with a bright yellow mane and tail and similar colored eyes, his flank had a cutie mark of a sparkling blue sphere with a banner across it.

“Ooh” groaned the stallion “did anypony get the number of that train?” Rainbow stood there shocked, after all, she had never seen a pony run so fast, and she couldn’t just leave him without seeing if he was alright.

“Umm, are you ok?” she asked,

“yeah, thanks for asking. By the way which way is ponyville?” replied the stallion,

“just over there” Rainbow pointed out, “but I wouldn’t go over there, monsters from everfree are attacking and the town has been evacuated”,

“WHAT!!” shouted the stallion, blowing Rainbow back “I’ll see you there, I’ve got some grilled monster to make” just as he started running to ponyville when he heard Rainbow call,

“hey, I didn’t catch your name”,

“my name” the stallion said while looking back, “is Saber” at that word he started for ponyville.

Back in town the monsters were still looking for ponies who may have been missed in the evacuation, but with no luck. They growled at each other for the little they did find and were turning the town to ruins in their search. “well, I guess we may need to find a new home” Rarity pointed out,

“aww don’t look at it that way, they’ll leave eventually” Pinkie remarked trying to cheer everyone up,

“actually” Twilight commented, “Rarity is right, even if they leave it will take weeks to rebuild and they will return eventually, and when they do-”,

“HEY” Twilight was interrupted by an exited Rainbow Dash, “I have found the answer to our problem”, these words spread excitement through the crowd.

“Really, where is it” Twilight exclaimed excitedly, Rainbow giggled, “look to ponyville”. Twilight looked towards the decimated town, and just as she did a huge magical explosion occurred.

“YEE-HAW” Saber cried launching magical projectiles left and right sending plenty of monsters flying, you could say Saber was having a blast, in more ways than one. “Some challenge in this fight, I thought this was a problem” Saber thought to himself, turning another hydra into rubble. After what seemed like forever there was just one monster left; a chimera, which saber barely saw as a threat. The chimera growled trying to scare its blue coated foe, Saber remained calm and formed rune symbols out of debris which encircled his target; the chimera tried to leap out of the symbols but was stopped by an electrical field. At this point Saber was nearly bored with this “I’ll make this quick” he sighed, his horn started to shimmer with a faint red hue, and that is something he did not want, “oh no, not now” he thought in a panic, “must…. Fight it….” He strained at the magical energy which had started enveloping the rest of him. Eventually the magic burst calmed down and Saber collapsed from exhaustion, unaware that Twilight and Pinkie had seen the whole thing.

A meeting with royalty

Chapter 3 A meeting with royalty

“Mmh, wha” Saber muttered awakening inside what looked to be a library; he tried getting up but failed, landing on the floor.

“Don’t get up”, Saber looked up to see where that voice came from and saw a purple unicorn standing above him, “why not?” he asked weakly, “you still have to recover, you took a lot of damage”,

“who are you” Saber asked, staggering to his feet.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle, nice to meet you Saber” twilight replied,

“wait” Saber remarked, “how do you know who I am?”.

Twilight looked over “ Rainbow Dash told me”,

“ah, the rainbow maned Pegasus” Saber replied after getting up, “Now if you’ll excuse me I have places to be”.

“Aw, can’t you at least stay for a little while longer? I haven’t thrown you a welcome to ponyville party yet”, Saber glanced behind him to see who it was and saw Pinkie standing there,

“well, I guess I could stay for a little while” Saber answered feeling a little guilty for trying to leave like that “but only for a week at the most”,

“I’m glad you’re staying, the princess hasn’t met you yet” twilight remarked trying to cheer up Saber with saying he would meet the princess, however he was less than enthusiastic. Twilight could see this in his eyes, “are you ok?” she asked, “you look like something’s wrong”.

“No, no, I’m fine” Saber replied with a worried tone.

“What’s wrong? Come on, you can tell me”, at this point Twilight was very curious. Saber sighed and started explaining,

“For most of my life I was shut inside a black castle past the farthest north, my mother said I was too dangerous and had to stay away from others, you saw why out there, oddly enough I can’t remember my mother that well. But anyways, I apparently I had been imbued with some mythical magic at a young age, so I don’t remember exactly how I got it.” Saber took a pause to calm down, “so you see, if I go berserk again I won’t be able to stop myself from hurting you, the princess, or anyone, and it is likely I would do much worse than hurt.”,

“oh” Twilight gasped, “I didn’t-“ her comment was interrupted by a fanfare from outside. Soon she and Saber were outside watching as Celestia rode in on her traditional Pegasus drawn carriage.

“Twilight Sparkle, it’s good to see you again.” She greeted Twilight but paused when she saw Saber, “oh, hello. I don’t believe we have met”,

“err”, Saber was a little uncomfortable.

“Princess Celestia, this is Saber, he saved the town just a few days ago” Twilight said, sparing Saber the embarrassment of tumbling over his own words. “Well then, allow me to welcome you to equestria”, Saber started to shiver despite this warm greeting, for deep inside himself he felt an urge to attack, he knew why he felt like that but he never said anything even when he was having dinner with Celestia. “So, how are you liking ponyville” she asked while trying to get a smile out of Saber.

“It’s good, everyone’s so friendly.” He tried to smile but the feeling was keeping him from it,

“are you ok Saber, you have been all shaky since I first saw you” she was now kind of worried, and why wouldn’t she be. Saber had a bit of a menacing look on his face.

“I-I-I can’t control my power sometimes and have random bursts of it, you understand right?” Saber tried to make it sound like nothing was wrong, but Celestia started to see that Saber was struggling with something.

“We have been here for hours and have not seen a sign of Saber anywhere” the grey Pegasus was getting impatient, “are you sure he’s here Crimson?”,

“calm yourself Strafe” a black unicorn snapped at him, “We already sent Flare out to check in the crystal kingdom and further if possible”.

“Tracer, there is no need to snap at anyone” Crimson had been listening the whole time,

“but Crimson” Tracer marked out, “we were appointed to guard him and ensure that he didn’t go anywhere, do you remember what he told us to do those centuries ago?”.

“Yes, I remember” Crimson was growing tired of Tracers constant bickering at this point, “but I think we should let him go berserk, and when he finishes the princesses we can take over”. Tracer was shocked at Crimsons suggestion

“are you suggesting that we betray him, betray the one we were to guard?”,

“yes, and I know how we are going to do it, we will trigger this rage in him. He wants to destroy them, as his kind did before”,

“but he is not one of them, he is only part”,

“which is why we will fuel that part, we will force it to take over. And when the dust settles we will take our places as equestrias new rulers!!” at that Crimson started to glow, his appearance changed until he was revealed as a stone alicorn with runic symbols engraved on his body. Blue energy surging through his body he walked onto the balcony, “And the world will at long last bow to me!!” he roared out with a tyrannical laugh.

Sabers secret exposed

Chapter 4 Sabers secret exposed

It had been a week since Saber arrived in Ponyville and Twilight could see a great change in his behaviour, Saber had finally made peace with whatever was bugging him and had become more open. “I have to thank you for helping me get over my problem” Saber thanked Twilight for her help,

“your welcome Saber, and I’m glad you’re alright, Pinkie was especially happy”. It was true, Pinkie must have been the happiest because Saber had cheered up just in time for his “welcome to ponyville” party, and Pinkie couldn’t stay quiet about his change.

“Yeah, I think I’ll stay here in this town, it’s nice” Saber was going to continue talking when a knock at the door occurred. “Hmm? Who’s that?” he walked over to the door and opened it to see a grey Pegasus who’s eyes were pointing in different directions,

“letter for a “Saber” she said as she handed Saber a letter,

“err, thanks” Saber was still confused by the mares eyes. He closed the door and turned to Twilight, “who was that?” he asked,

“oh that’s ditzy, our local mailmare” Twilight replied, remembering that Saber had not met everyone yet, “anyways, what does it say?” Saber opened the letter and began reading.

“Dear Saber, I have heard of your exploits and would like to meet you personally. You can meet me in the castle of the pony sisters in everfree. You may bring anyone you want. Signed: A secret admirer”.

“Ok, it would appear that I have a secret admirer, you want to come Twilight?”,

“sounds odd, but alright, I’ll come with you” and at that they both trotted out of ponyville and into everfree. Deeper and deeper they walked, getting closer to their destination,

“I don’t know about you Twilight, but I wonder; why in such a rundown place?” Saber asked twilight. And indeed it was a little fishy, everfree was known for its ravenous creatures, as everypony in ponyville learned the hard way. Up the stairs of the castle they went and into the chamber where Twilight had first used her element. “Well, here we are, now where is this “secret admirer” Saber now was a little more than worried,

“hey, that statue wasn’t here before” Twilight pointed out at a statue standing where nightmare moon was defeated.

“Hahaha, if it isn’t the “noble” Saber” a menacing voice filled the corridor.

“Who’s there?” Twilight called. As if triggered by her words the statue burst to life, it was Crimson.

“Ah, Saber, has it been so long that you forgot your purpose?” Crimson commented.

“My… Purpose?” Saber’s horn started to glow red; Twilight shot a beam at Crimson only to have it reflect onto a nearby surface.

“You ponies are pathetic, I am a nightmare” Crimson laughed manically, “anyways, you are too late unicorn, LOOK” Twilight looked over to Saber just in time to see him erupt in a black and red energy geyser, and he transformed in appearance; his mane and tail were now a vivid crimson, his coat turned night time black with tiny red dots glimmering all over like stars, his eyes changed too, no longer a bright shade of yellow, his eyes were now blood red with slit pupils, and the final change; he now had wings, and not your friendly Pegasus wings, he now had bat wings. “Say hello to Saber” Crimson bellowed, “The last of the true nightmares”. Far off in Canterlot, Celestia froze in terror, for she sensed the change, a change that even threatened her and Luna. The nightmares had returned.

Darkness

Chapter 5 Darkness

It had only been half a day since Twilight and Saber left, and now Twilights friends were very worried for she hadn’t returned and neither did Saber. “Twilight!!” they called consecutively,

“maybe she left” Rarity pointed out while trying to not sound as if something grim had happened,

“I don’t think so, but this is Twilight were talking about though, she could take care of herself” Rainbow tried to sound confident but also was uncertain. On continued the search in caves, in rivers, eventually leading them to the old castle in everfree.

“Ugh, I can’t believe we came back here” Rarity had been complaining for a long time,

“for the last gosh darned time Rarity, none of us are headin’ back ‘till we find Twilight” Applejack was on the verge of losing it due to Rarity’s constant griping, she was going to say something else but Rainbows shout interrupted her.

“I found her, hurry and get over here” she sounded panicked so they all ran over to where they had fought nightmare moon and their eyes were met with a horrid sight. Twilight was on the ground unconscious, badly beaten and afflicted with several bad cuts. Not wasting any time they picked her up and ran as fast as they could to the hospital, and not a minuet too soon, it would have appeared that Twilight had almost bled out. “Pinkie, go to the library and get spike to write a letter to the princess. She needs to know about this” Rainbow shoved Pinkie out the window, everything was at stake.

Celestia hurried over as soon as she got the letter. “It’s worse than I thought” she thought as she flew over ponyvilles outskirts, she was flying herself as to not have any delay. “Almost *oof*” Celestia was cut off by getting rammed in the side by a red energy bolt. She struggled to gain control of her flight pattern but crashed on the ground at Nightmare Blades feet (Nightmare form Saber). “What do you want Saber” she groaned as she got up off the ground.

“SILENCE, SABER IS GONE” he roared in rage, “my name is Nightmare blade” he blasted Celestia again,

“AAGH” she screamed in pain.

“So you are not as immortal as you thought” Blade cackled menacingly, “your efforts are to no avail, I have been imprisoned in that cheerful blue bag of cowardice for too long” he turned and spread his dragon wings, “consider this encounter a warning” he snapped at Celestia then flew off.

“Urgh, th-that overgrown” she grunted to herself trying to stay steady, “wing is t-to badly damaged. I-I’m going to have to hoof it into town” she continued to struggle while slowly limping into town.

After what seemed like forever Celestia finally made it to the hospital and twilights friends were there waiting. “Princess, are yall alright?” Applejack ran over to support Celestia as she limped in. they quickly helped her to one of the rooms and she lay down on the bed, she then told them of her encounter with Saber, or Nightmare Blade as he called himself. And Twilight (who had regained consciousness and was recovering) shared her encounter with the stone pony.

“As far as I’m concerned, the stone alicorn is the center of this whole mess” Twilight confidently commented, “we deal with him; we have a chance at getting Saber back”,

“I do believe you are right twilight” Celestia replied, “and since your magic couldn’t affect him, there is only one magic that will be powerful enough to do it. The elements of harmony are our last chance”.

“Hey, why is there a black cloud spreading in the sky?” Pinkie shouted out, “the only time clouds should be black is during a storm or if they are smoke” and indeed she was right, a large cloud of darkness was spreading over equestria, they had to hurry if they wanted to stop Saber. Time was of the essence, and it was not something they had much of.

Inside a Nightmares mind

Chapter 6 Inside a Nightmares mind

Far away at the peak of a mountain, Nightmare Blade and Crimson Bullet stood from their newly created castle watching the darkness spread. “Isn’t this much better than protecting their measly hides?” Crimson asked,

“I like this far more, but why does a simple pony help me? Granted you are powerful in your stone form, but why?” Nightmare Blade was curious and eager to find out as much as he could. Crimson proceeded to explain that not all nightmares had been totally destroyed, for he himself was one of them who had simply been bound to an unageing stone body with half my normal power.

“I knew the day when we would rise up and take over” Crimson sighed watching the darkness spread.

”So I am not the only one” Nightmare thought. He seemed fine, but if we look into his mind a completely different struggle is taking place.

Deep inside Nightmare Blades mind Sabers consciousness was fighting with a strange red/black spirit. “Leave my freaking head!!” Saber shouted, firing blast after blast at it, “Give me back my body!!” He tried and tried to eliminate the spirit.

“Heh heh heh, you can’t kill me” the spirit cackled, “I am a shadow heart, you seem to think otherwise”, Saber stepped back and looked down on the highly reflective surface of his mind.

“Then tell me this, what is going on” he asked. The spirit smirked and began to explain who it called its master’s plans, and that was exactly what Saber wanted.

Back in ponyville Celestia and Twilight had just finished recovering and were back on their hooves. “Ok, here is the plan” Twilight began, “Celestia is going to head back to Canterlot to get the elements and bring them to the entrance of everfree. Next I want Rarity and Fluttershy to get trained in medical procedures and to gather medical gear, for the fight ahead we are going to need it. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, you’re on provisions duty, we don’t want to starve out there.”

“What about me?” Rainbow interrupted,

“I want you to locate where Saber and the stone alicorn are, start by looking through everfree and if you can’t see them look in the nearby areas, my guess is that they are in an area that we will be least likely to survive in, I will research the nightmares, if we plan on fighting one we will need to know as much about them as we can, because of this I will also be going to Canterlot to use the archives.” Twilight finished up with her plan.

“I will also permit Twilight to use any spells that she can find in the archives” Celestia added, “We will need all the power we can get. I will also notify Luna.” And with that they all headed out to complete their task.

Preparation on both ends

Chapter 7 Preparation on both ends

Twilight & Celestia

Far off in Canterlot Twilight and Celestia arrived and began on their jobs. “Ok, nightmares… Nightmares… Now where would I find that” Twilight wondered while browsing the shelves. “Ah, here it is” she pulled out several books on dark equestrian lore as well as a lot of scrolls which all had spells she thought would be useful. “Now then, to reading” she declared. Over on Celestias end she had collected the elements and ran to her younger sister’s room.

“Luna!” She shouted bursting in.

“What is it sister? You seem paranoid” Luna asked noticing her sisters panicked look. She proceeded to tell Luna what happened.

“That’s awful” She exclaimed gasping, “but I was Nightmare Moon, does that mean that I too am-“,

“NO” Celestia interrupted, “you are not a nightmare Luna, we all have our desires and they sometimes twist us, but that does not mean that we’re monsters.”

“I see” Luna replied, “How can I help?” Celestia was slightly surprised to see her younger sister so eager to get involved.

“Well” she thought, “could you put the guards on full alert?”

“Consider them alerted, anything else?” Luna replied.

“After you have alerted them we must wait for Twilight to finish researching the nightmares and spells she believes will work against them, afterwards we will join her and head for everfrees entrance where we will meet up with her friends. We will discuss further plans then” Celestia answered.

“Then come sister, we will wait for Twilight at the entrance of the castle” Luna suggested as they walked off.

Back in the archives Twilight had just found what she was looking for. “Ok, let’s see” she said as she began to read.

The story of the nightmares: 2 thousand years ago, during the early stages of the Celestial and Lunar princesses reign, there existed a race of alicorns who were called “Nightmares” due to their incredible bower and dark appearance. They resented all of ponykind, why did they? It was because ponykind had light, and nightmares can’t live in light. Over time this resentment grew, till eventually one nightmare grew sick of the dark and spoke his opinion to all of the nightmares. That did it; it was war for 5 years afterward. Many ponies died in the desperate struggle to protect equestria and the princesses had to enter the battlefield. They had to combine their strength to use a spell called Celestial array, this spell was what it took, all the nightmares, except for one, were eliminated. The princesses proceeded to seal the last remaining nightmare inside a stone alicorn body and they halved its power to ensure no further uprisings. This stone alicorn has not been seen since.

Twilight finally pieced it together, finished with her research she went to meet with the princesses and head out to everfree.

Nightmare & Crimson

“Come Crimson” Nightmare called.

“Yes my lord?” he answered as he hurried to Nightmares side.

“We must prepare for their arrival” Nightmare replied,

“Who?” asked Crimson. Nightmare shot him a glare which made crimson stumble backwards,

“ah, yes. The purple unicorn and whoever she brings with her” Crimson remembered, but felt sheepish for not remembering her.

“Yes, indeed” muttered Nightmare, “anyways, I want you to check to ensure that the other three aren't slacking off. After which you will arm all the wall cannons with a come to life spell and a loyalty spell”,

“as you wish my liege” Crimson replied before hurrying off to check on Tracer, Flare, and Strafe.

After Crimson left Nightmare walked to his quarters and sat down in front of his mirror, “it finally is happening, we will no longer be dismissed” he tried to cheer himself up, but instead heard a voice in his head, it was Saber’s voice.

“Not happy? No wonder” he taunted Nightmare,

“what, who’s there” Nightmare growled,

“gee, I’m hurt that you don’t remember the unicorn who’s mind sheltered your mangy carcass” Saber continued to mock him,

“Saber, So you still exist within my head” Nightmare shot back,

“for the record, it’s my head. And I might as well say that I still have some control” Saber pointed out,

“true, you do have some control, but it won’t matter when I finish your puny friends”,

“I wouldn't be so sure, if they win you will be destroyed and I’ll finally have a mortal body”,

“but if they lose, I will kill them and all who stand in my way”. Saber’s voice left Nightmare after that, “foolish unicorn, he refuses the truth, but yet he still stinks of it”

The everfree offensive

Chapter 8 The everfree offensive

Back at everfrees entrance Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash waited for Twilight and the princesses. “Here they come” Pinkie shouted, pointing to the east. Twilight trotted up to them with the princesses close behind.

“Did you find anything?” Rainbow asked inquisitively.

“There wasn’t much on the nightmares, but I think if we can all combine our power we can use the celestial array spell and defeat Nightmare Blade” Twilight answered confidently.

“Excuse me” Luna interrupted, “have you forgot about the nightmares power?” she tried cautioning everypony, “Saber may just be a more powerful breed, even if I still were-” Luna was once again cut off by Celestia,

“I told you that you were never one of them!” she scolded Luna in a gentle fashion, “but we won’t worry about that now”. Twilight started to relay her plan to everypony,

“alright, here’s the plan. We stick together until we reach his stronghold, when we get there we will split up and search the place. It is likely Saber will be in the throne room but we need to deal with the stone alicorn first along with anypony else who has turned” she finished, “now Rainbow”,

“yeah?” she replied.

“Where is their fortress?” Twilight asked.

“it will be very hard to run into, but I found an old stone slab with some writing on it in the old castle ruins”,

“excellent” Twilight exclaimed, “what did it say”.

“It said “a bridge broken only crossable by those who have traversed fire” she spoke out what the tablet said.

“I may know what it is saying” Celestia pointed out “but it’s risky, Nightmare obviously planned for this”.

Twilight asked “how do we access the fortress?” Celestia sighed, “Alright, it means to open a gate so we can bypass his dark power one of us will have to go through Tartarus”.

Everypony stood there and stared at Celestia, none too sure what to say. After all, Tartarus is even worse everfree and the only known entrance was smack dab in the middle of the ruins. Twilight sighed then straightened her neck, “I’ll go” she exclaimed.

“Very well” Celestia replied, “I will teleport you to where the entrance is, after that you will have to continue on your own”. Her horn shimmered in a bright yellow light which enveloped Twilight,

“make it back soon” Pinkie commented while waving with a worried expression on her face, Twilight nodded then vanished.

“Now that she is doing her job we might as well go to Nightmares fortress” Rarity suggested, “now then, Rainbow darling, which way is the fortress?”,

“this way, follow me!” Rainbow called as she flew into the forest with everypony right behind her.

“Ooh” Twilight groaned as she opened her eyes. She was used to teleporting but this was the first time she had been by somepony else. “Alright, it should be nearby” She remarked looking around. She started with the entryway but slowly worked her way through the ruins until she finally reached the last area she could look; it was right where Nightmare moon fell, and where she was nearly killed by Saber. She shuddered, this was the third time she had been here and trust me, she was no more fond of it than the first time. “Well, if it is here then that must mean that the stone alicorn has been using Tartarus as a shortcut between areas” she thought aloud. She worked her way to the back of the room and prodded around with her magic. “It has to be somewhere” she thought, no sooner had she said this than her magic hit an area which started to ripple and pulse, eventually opening into a portal. Twilight stepped back to recollect on what she was about to do. “Well” she gulped, “here goes” and she trotted into the portal, but what she was in for at the other side was something nopony could guess.

The Tartarus trek

Chapter 9 The Tartarus trek

On the other side of the portal Twilights eyes were met with a barren red wasteland peppered with charred trees, fire, and small pools of tar as far as she could see. “Yeesh, no wonder nopony wanted to go here” she muttered. She walked out into the ravaged area and looked around; there was nopony anywhere in sight. Further on she trekked looking for something, anything that could remotely help. By now she had completely lost her way, her only option was to finish her quest before she died of starvation, “this may be awful, but I suppose starving is a better way to go compared to what Saber and the stone alicorn will do” She thought to herself, “no, I’ve come too far to look back now” She trudged on. Hours later she had to stop and take a rest, “it’s been hours” she griped, “where is the point that I can break the barrier” her thoughts were interrupted by a low growl coming from nearby. Twilight let out a short gasp as she frantically searched the area for somewhere to hide. “I don’t know what that is, but I’ll never be able to beat it” she remarked for she knew full well that here an ursa would be the least of her troubles; she had no choice but to run. Eventually she found a sheltered place to rest. “ok, I think I’ll be safe here” she sputtered as she gasped for air, she had no idea of where she was, or what time it was but as far as she was concerned she needed to sleep or she would faint from exhaustion. She found a small concealed alcove and she brought out her sleeping bag. “It’s not home, but it will have to do” she sighed before drifting off to sleep.

Her sleep was anything but peaceful; she kept on having nightmares of what might happen if they failed. After a large series of these nightmares she finally woke up, stretched and packed up her stuff after having an apple as what she supposed to be breakfast. When she walked out of her shelter she looked around at the wasteland, she didn’t know why but after that sleep it all seemed brighter. She sighed to herself as she looked around, for some reason she felt more alive doing this than reading, but regardless; Twilight marched out onto the red ground and continued on. A while later she stopped and perked up her ears, she heard something, the same low growling as earlier. She wanted to hide but for some odd reason she stood her ground and readied her magic.

Soon she heard the growl right behind her, she spun around and her jaw dropped at what she saw. Right in front of her was the most hideous and threatening creature she had ever seen; it was 23 feet tall with pale grey skin and 4 long thin arms which were weaponized by sharp fingernails as long as a croquet mallet, it had 6 large green eyes and its teeth were thin and as long as an anaconda. Twilight backed off slightly but was near frozen by the sight of her adversary. She readied her magic as the beast lunged, but she didn’t feel any pain, when she opened her eyes she was in an entirely different area from earlier. She suddenly heard something behind her again, but this time it was a voice, and a very familiar one at that.

It said “ah, Twilight Sparkle, How odd of me to see you here”.

Discord

Chapter 10 Discord

Twilight turned around in surprise, for right behind her was the king of chaos himself Discord. “I could ask you the same thing Discord” she remarked, thankfully for her Discord had been reformed.

“Well I got bored of how peaceful everything was in Canterlot, so I came here to get a breath of fresh air form that” he replied, “and you?”,

“I’m here to save Equestria” Twilight answered.

“Well” scoffed Discord, “you won’t make it far in here”,

“I noticed” Twilight shuddered remembering the monster that tried to eat her earlier, “I have a request Discord” Twilight suddenly gained a serious tone in her voice.

“And that would be?” he asked,

“Please come with me, to stop Nightmare Blade we will need all the help we can get” Twilight requested.

“Who’s “we”?” Discord asked,

“The princesses and my friends are waiting back in Equestria for me to remove the dark power barrier shielding Nightmare’s hideout”. Discord stopped asking questions, he did not expect to be asked to help save the world. He took some time to think, but he shortly made his decision.

“Well I suppose I could help” He sighed, “if you want to break the barrier from here you are in luck for I know exactly where the weak point is” Twilight giggled slightly at Discords sudden changes in attitude, Discord quickly picked her up and they both teleported.

When they reappeared Twilight looked around, where they were looked a lot more distorted as the ground was twisted up and a black energy ball hovered in the most distorted section, it was pulsing with dark flame and electricity and was emitting a dark haze. “Well this must be it” Twilight thought out loud as she walked towards it. But as soon as she reached her hoof out to touch it a backlash of dark energy sent her flying till she landed at Discords feet. “Urgh” she groaned, “why didn’t you warn me?” she was ticked off that Discord had not told her about the energy backlash.

“You didn’t ask” Discord replied with a chuckle, Twilight rolled her eyes

“well, regardless we still have to destroy that thing” she remarked as she stood up. Suddenly the dark orb pulsated and the energy around it moved faster, slowly it formed a body of its own.

“This cannot be good” Discord commented with his arms crossed. The dark orb now looked like an alicorn; it spoke

“I’d like to see you try” with a hiss. It didn’t take long for Twilight to start fighting it, magic bolts flew left and right, as for Discord; he was lounging on a sofa eating popcorn.

“This is entertaining” he said with a smirk.

“DISCORD” Twilight shouted, “STOP LOUNGING AROUND AND HELP ME!!!”,

“If you insist” Discord groaned rolling his eyes before snapping his fingers. At that one on the dark alicorns magic bolts was turned into a candy cane which Discord promptly ate. Now that he felt much better he reached out a hand which began to glow, he used his own magic to tie up the dark alicorn in several ropes. After that he turned his adversary purple with yellow polka dots and gave it a really long orange beard. Twilight did her best to bite her tongue but soon both she and Discord were rolling around laughing. The dark alicorn snapped the ropes, it was angry now. It charged at them only to trip over its beard, Now Twilight and Discord were laughing even harder.

Wiping a tear from her eye Twilight asked Discord “shall we finish this?”,

“why not, I’ve had my fun” Discord chuckled. Twilight’s horn began to glow and so did Discords hand. They both fired a beam and the combined power blew the dark alicorn into pieces, pieces which Discord quickly turned into bursts of confetti.

Luna vs. Tracer

Chapter 12 Luna vs. Tracer

“Ugh” Luna grunted as she reappeared in another portion of the castle in what looked to be an armory. “Nightmare, you may have separated us but I will find my way” she boldly proclaimed.

“How touching” Luna spun to see a dark grey Pegasus at the other side of the armory. “It would bring tears to my eyes if I had such emotions” he continued,

“who are you” Luna demanded.

“Heh” the Pegasus chuckled before melting into shadows,

“what!?” gasped Luna in shock. “I’m Tracer, one of the nightmares subjects” he cackled from the darkness. Luna searched the room with her eyes until she looked in a mirror; she stepped back and scowled, for in the mirror she did not see her own reflection, but the reflection of Nightmare Moon. “Dear Nightmare Moon” Tracer continued, speaking through the mirror.

“LIES!!!” Luna shouted, “I am not one of you”.

“Were you?” Tracer smirked as he walked out of the mirror in his true form; he now was as tall as Celestia and wore black battle armor with a new moon as the mark on its chest, his eyes were now a light blue and similar colored steam seeped out of them. But what stood out to Luna the most was his mane and tail; which were now steel grey and translucent, speckled with white glimmering dots; Tracer looked like a male doppelganger of Nightmare Moon.

“Why do you look like HER?” demanded Luna.

“Let me explain” Tracer smirked, knowing that Luna would want to hear what he had to say,

“Fine” Luna grunted reluctantly. Tracer began explaining,

“After the nightmares fell and the one was imprisoned he spent his time trying to magically create more nightmares, he only managed to make 2 incomplete nightmares who were in a gaseous state and needed mortal bodies to possess in order to walk among us. The third one however was different; it had a physical form and yet could assume its gaseous state. That nightmare gave the original an idea, to send this “pseudo nightmare” to cover the land in darkness, it crept into the mind of a young alicorn possessing her and covering the land in eternal night” he finished.

Luna was shocked, she had no idea what the nightmares were truly capable of. “I see” she remarked, “but what does this have to do with me?”

“You still don’t get it do you?” Tracer growled, “I was the nightmare, I am the true Nightmare Moon!”

That triggered it, Luna’s shock turned to rage and she fired a lightning bolt at Tracer who quickly dodged it. “You mean that all this time” she fired again, “you were the reason I have been kicking myself?” she shouted furiously, “that you were why I tried to shroud my subjects in darkness?” bolts flew left and right, “I will not stand for this” she started charging a blast, “I’LL KILL YOU!!!!!” Luna roared, eyes glowing white she fired and blew the entire chamber into a crumbling ruin. When the dust settled Luna still had a furious look on her face, she heard a chuckle from the darkness. “Why are you still alive?” she growled,

“Bravo” Tracer chuckled.

“Why are you encouraging me?” Luna asked.

“Ah Luna, so clueless” Tracer grinned, “such violence is just what I would expect” he paused, “from a nightmare” he ended in a smirk as Luna looked in the mirror, although Tracer no longer possessed it she could not see herself; just Nightmare Moon grinning at her.

Luna stumbled back and collapsed with tears in her eyes. “How could I be so stupid” she choked, “how could I let you make me do this?” Luna was practically crying now, “I’m a fool” she thought, “do I even have the right to be called a princess when all I am inside is a monster?” Luna thought a little bit and then realised something; she had done far worse as Nightmare Moon, and she had still been forgiven. Tracer smiled at his accomplishment of turning the once proud Luna indo a crying mess.

“I’ve had my fun” he exclaimed, “time to end this” he walked up to Luna, horn glowing.

“I couldn’t agree more” Luna replied, “It’s over”. Tracer’s eyes widened as Luna stood up glowing with the moons light.

“IMPOSSIBLE” he shouted, “even after all I’ve done you still find the will to fight?”

“Put a sock in it” Luna snapped back, more confident than ever, Tracer fired magical blasts at her but each one seemed to just bounce off. “It’s over foul nightmare” she angrily commented, “give my regards to Tartarus” she finished as she launched a bright white beam from her whole body engulfing Tracer.

“Mark my words princess” he shouted as he slowly shattered, “the nightmare will never end” his words soon became a voided echo as all that was left of him was a new moon crest on the ground.

“Never again” remarked Luna as she shattered the mark before leaving to find the others.

Trial by fire

Chapter 13 Trial by fire

In another section of the castle Discord and Celestia walked down a series of corridors. “Ugh, how long do these go on for” Celestia asked with a slightly displeased tone,

“forever at this rate” Discord replied trying not to laugh.

“Why is that?” Celestia asked again,

“because we’re walking in circles” Discord responded with a chortle.

Celestia slapped her hoof to her face, “we’re going nowhere fast” she was most displeased now, “let’s try this way” she remarked walking down another hallway. Discord teleported over,

“well, if this is going to take this long I might as well have some fun” he snapped his fingers turning the fire in the torches that lined the wall a bright pink, he snapped his fingers again, this time he turned the walls of the corridor a crazy set of bright colors arranged in erratic geometric shapes. “There, much better” he commented on his work with a sigh.

“Discord, stop fooling around, the fate of Equestria is at stake” Celestia snapped at him,

“oh I know that” Discord replied smugly, “but what’s the point of being in peril if you can’t have fun with it” he snapped his fingers yet again and turned the hallway floor into soap which he started to skate on. Celestia was not as happy as she had trouble standing now. She yelped in surprise as Discord used his magic to slope the ground under her which in turn sent her sliding into the door.

“Ouch” she groaned as the door fell opened, Celesta looked up with a frown at Discord who glided by chuckling.
The room they ended up in looked to be a storage room.

“Hello there” an earth pony called, she was a sickly green/brown with lime green mane and tail and dark green eyes.

“Young mare” Celestia rushed up, “you shouldn’t be here, it’s dangerous” she warned in a caring manner, Discord turned his head, pointed his finger at his open mouth, and gaged.

“You’re right, it is dangerous here” the mare replied before turning her facial expression into a sinister one, “for you” she launched a flaming projectile which hit Celestia dead on. She stumbled back,

“what? Who are you?” she asked in shock.

The mare started to change shape, she grew as tall as Celestia and her coat turned a charcoal black, her mane and tail turned multiple shades of orange and red, the last features changed, she became an alicorn and her entire body lit on fire as her eyes started glowing white hot. “My name is Flare” she explained, “I am a nightmare”.

Celestia and Discord readied themselves to fight, but Flare just giggled. “Oh, you don’t really expect me to believe you can win do you?” she asked,

“try us” Celestia responded.

“Please” Flare remarked rolling her eyes, at least if her eyes weren’t white she would be, “how can you defeat me, a nightmare, when you could not even defeat a simple changeling?” Celestia backed up a little,

“how did you know that?” she gasped.

“I’ve been watching you, and-gah” Flare was cut short by a blast of green/orange energy which smoked her right in the face.

“Forgetting somepony?” Discord called, Flare looked over at discord, who was leaning on a cane made of licorice.

“You are no better than she is Discord, as you were turned to stone twice” Flare pointed out, trying to discourage Discord.

“Whatever” Discord commented, eating the cane, “I may have failed but that doesn’t mean that I won’t be back” he replied confidently. Celestia gave Discord a puzzled look, she knew him not to give up easily but she had not seen this before.

“Fine” Flare growled, “Then take that hope with you to Tartarus” she readied a fireball,

“already been” Discord replied.

“What?” asked Flare,

“never mind” Discord commented. Flare shot the fireball at Discord who caught it in a baseball glove,

“go long” he called, hurling the fireball back at Flare knocking her off her feet. “

Why you-” Flare flew backwards as a bolt of Celestias magic hit her.

“Thanks for snapping me out of that depression Discord” Celestia complimented,

“you’re welcome” Discord replied snapping his fingers, at that Flares fiery aura was now a cheerful shade of pink.

Both sides were silent until Discord burst out laughing followed soon by Celestia. Flare scowled at her opponents, she did not think this was funny. “GRAAAH” she roared as she launched a wave of fire that covered the room causing Celestia and Discord to jump to their feet. “This has gone on long enough” she growled and launched many flaming bolts ad her targets. Discord and Celestia countered with bolts of their own, Celestias being their usual color and Discords being of random colors. Bolt after bolt collided until Flare noticed that Discord was gone,

“where did he go?” she shouted, she heard a voice,

“right behind you” Flare screeched as a series of magical projectiles slammed her all over. Discord flew over to Celestia, “shall we?” he asked with his hand glowing,

“yes” Celestia replied, her horn glowing. Flare looked up,

“you may have beaten me, but you will never win” she groaned. Celestia and discord fired together, reducing Flare to her first form with a red dust everywhere.

“Ugh” The earth pony looked up, “princess?” Celestia breathed a sigh of relief, the nightmare was no more.

“Young mare” she commented, “hurry and leave this castle, it is far too dangerous”.

“y-yes” the mare answered before hurrying off.

Six to one odds

Chapter 14 Six to one odds

“How much further to the throne room” Rarity griped, “My hooves are killing me”.

“Really? You’re going to worry about that and NOT the fate of equestria?” Rainbow remarked in a sour tone. Rarity turned her head sheepishly,

“in any case we still must find the throne room” she commented.

“I’d have to agree with Rarity; while we should worry about the princesses stopping Nightmare blade takes top priority” Twilight agreed, after all, it would take more than a couple of nightmares to stop them, especially with Discord out there too.

“Hey, this room looks like a party hall” Pinkie shouted,

“no Pinkie” Twilight responded, “It’s probably the main hall” indeed Twilight was right, for in front of them was a large hallway with a red carpet down the middle with a giant steel door at the end. “My guess is that we will meet up with Discord and the princesses behind that door” Twilight predicted.

“Yes, too bad none of you will not live to make it there” a voice shouted out as its source fell in front of the door.

The source was a grey unicorn with an orange mane and tail, “Nightmare will be pleased if I kill you” he smirked.

“Um, I think we all would prefer that you didn’t try to kill us” Fluttershy whispered,

“bah, and incur his wrath?” the unicorn snapped back. Fluttershy backed up,

“HEY” Rainbow shouted, “nopony talks like that to Fluttershy, just who do you think you are?”

“I am strafe, one of the nightmares that guard these halls” he replied.

“Really? Well yall certainly don’t look like one” Applejack commented,

“Oh don’t I?” Strafe asked, “Observe” he chuckled as he began transforming. He grew to the size of a full grown alicorn and gained a pair of wings, his color changed to a bright red and his mane and tail color changed to a light grey, and his eyes became entirely black. “Show me what you’ve got” he taunted, of course Rainbow Dash was the first one to charge him, only to be caught in an electrical barrier.

“Why you” she growled, Strafe chortled under his breath,

“Why thank you for offering yourself as my first victim” he remarked in a cheerful yet sinister way. He stumbled back when a blast of confetti and streamers knocked into him, he released the barrier. “What!?” he growled as he looked to Pinkie Pie who was standing by her party cannon.

“You mess with one of us then you’re dealing with us all” she shouted,

“Well then why don’t you come and try?” Strafe smirked

All 6 (minus one Fluttershy) charged at Strafe, Twilight using her magic supportively, Rarity and Pinkie Pie playing the ranged roles while Rainbow Dash and Applejack charged him. Strafe fired a lot of beams and wounded several of them, but as hard as he tried they kept getting back up. “He said this would be easy” Strafe griped to himself.

“Alright girls” Twilight shouted, “catch” she threw them all their elements of harmony. “You know what to do” she called,

“try me” Strafe growled.

The mane 6 fired the elements blast directly at Strafe who fired a full force darkness blast resulting in a beam clash that caused an energy twister that ripped up the hall and spiralled into the sky. Both sides struggled to keep their blast going; however, slowly the harmony beam began to overtake the darkness one until finally it struck Strafe and ripped him from the body of a young grey Pegasus.

“Huh?” the Pegasus groaned as it opened his eyes,

“hurry out of here, run back to ponyville” Twilight urged. He didn’t argue and hurried out as the mane 6 continued past the steel door and into a room where the princesses and Discord were waiting. After seeing how badly everypony was beaten Fluttershy gasped,

“Oh my, oh my, this is no good” she rushed around treating them all as best as she could.

“Good to see you and your friends made it” Celestia sighed with relief, “so how did your fight go, we heard it from back here” she asked.

“Umm, I’m sure we all have amazing stories to share but don’t you think they should wait until we have saved equestria?” Rarity remarked.

“We might as well, I’m done with the treatments” Fluttershy pointed out,

“great” Twilight complimented, “now we just have one more foe to face, and he will be much more difficult” everypony else nodded before following twilight through a final door into the throne room, where Nightmare Blade was waiting.

Waking from a nightmare

Chapter 15 Waking from a nightmare

They walked into the throne room and Nightmare was standing in front of the throne. “We’ve come to stop you” Twilight confidently announced, “no” Nightmare replied, “You have come to stop me” he shot a bolt past twilight and formed a powerful magic barrier around the entire room trapping himself and Twilight inside it. “I expected you would bring help” he remarked while walking to Twilight, “but I wanted some quality time, just the two of us”. Twilight stood rooted, “why do you want it to be just us?” she asked, “why simply because I wanted to offer you a deal that will save your and their lives” he pointed out. Twilight thought for a second, she knew she didn’t want anypony to die at his hoof, but at what price. “What’s the deal, I want to know what you want” she requested, “join me” he grinned. “What?” Twilight was stunned at this bold request, “join me and we shall rule over equestria and I’ll leave your friends be” Nightmare offered. Twilight was wide eyed at this; she strained her thoughts then locked eyes with nightmare, “No” she answered, “No?” Nightmare asked, grin disappearing from his face, ”I won’t join you, I’d sooner die than let equestria fall into evil hooves” she boldly proclaimed, “that can be organized” Nightmare growled as he blasted Twilight with a magical bolt sending her flying into the force fields wall.

“*gah*” she gasped as she spat out some blood and fell to the floor, “you are a fool” he scowled down at her, “denying me is the last mistake you will ever make” he picked twilight up with his magic and slammed her into the ground creating a small crater. Twilight gasped again as she struggled to her feet, “why won’t you fight me” he asked, “because” Twilight struggled for breath, “Because I won’t harm Saber, he’s my friend and doesn’t deserve such treatment”. “A noble reason” Nightmare replied, “and a foolish one at that” He fired an explosive projectile at Twilight and hit her dead on causing her to slide backward leaving a smear of blood behind her. “TWILIGHT” she heard Rainbow shout, she looked over, “don’t let him bother you, he’s not really Saber”. Twilight smiled, Rainbow was right, Nightmare Blade may be using Saber’s body but he still wasn’t Saber. She came to her hooves and through much pain prepared to use magic, “you still persist?” Nightmare asked, confused, “Very well” he fired another beam at Twilight, this time she dodged it. “Saber is not gone” she pointed out, “I will not fall to one like you” she mustered up her strength and fired her own magical projectile; however it fizzled on contact with Nightmare. He smirked and fired again, Twilight dodged again and launched another beam.

This continued until her attacks were back at full strength, she was too. “That’s better” Nightmare commented, “I purposely dragged this out; I want to face you when you may stand a chance”. Twilight smirked at him and he smirked back, she charged and teleported just after he fired a magic bolt, she reappeared behind him and fired a beam. Nightmare spun around and countered the beam just in time, he then rammed twilight with his horn sending her sailing and gasping for breath. Twilight quickly regained her footing and caused magic bolts to rain down on Nightmare who dodged most of them with a few hitting him directly. He started launching multiple explosive energy balls at her and she did the same with beams causing collision after collision. Twilight used the smoke cloud as cover to get above Nightmare and launched a downward kick right into his back causing him to almost fall down as she jumped in front of him. “You’re no slouch at fighting” Nightmare complimented, “neither are you” Twilight responded, “but I think I’ll end this” he smirked, “I haven’t been using my full power”.

Twilight stood there wide eyed, if this was him not trying, then what was. Nightmares horn started to glow brightly, Twilight prepared to dodge, but it would be pointless. Nightmare Blade fired a massive blood red energy beam that completely engulfed Twilight who screamed in pain at the impact. Twilight struggled to keep standing; she had no chance at surviving this. “Wait” she thought, Twilight had found a way she could do this, it was risky but her only chance. Nightmare kept his blast going “she’s finished” he grinned. Suddenly his blast separated down the middle revealing Twilight cloaked in a magical aura, eyes glowing white with power. Nightmare halted his blast and stumbled back, “how?” he gasped in shock as the aura around Twilight grew more intense. “It’s over Nightmare” she shouted, voice echoing, the purple light enveloped Nightmare Blade, he couldn’t move. “I’ll never give in” he shouted back, but it was no use, the glow became brighter and brighter. “BEGONE” Twilight shouted as she unleashed a blast so powerful it shattered Nightmares shield, far and wide his scream could be heard, even up to as far as Canterlot. When the light died down Twilight fainted from exhaustion, her vision blurred as she entered unconsciousness.

Crimsons final stand

Chapter 17 Crimsons final stand

“SABER” he shouted, “I have had it with you, I was THIS CLOSE to ruling equestria”. Crimson sighed, “But you aren’t the problem, I’m here for that meddling unicorn Twilight Sparkle”,

“Me?” she asked,

“Yes you” Crimson replied, “you destroyed Nightmare Blade, my last chance at takeover”. Crimson scowled, “But the time for talk is over” he launched a barrage of blue energy projectiles at Twilight which blew up on contact with a barrier created by Saber.

“You alright?” Saber asked,

“yeah, thanks” replied Twilight, they turned to Crimson and fired many a blast, Crimson returned fire and eventually fired a bolt that hit Twilight dead in the chest knocking her down. Crimson took this chance to teleport over to her and blast her again.

“You seriously thought you stood a chance against me?” Crimson laughed,

“Oh we are more than a match for you” Saber shouted as he lunged into Crimson toppling him backwards. Saber looked back at Twilight who was now almost half dead; she wasted too much energy against Nightmare blade.

“Out of my way Saber, it’s her I want” Crimson shouted,

“Never” replied Saber, “she risked her life to save me and now I’ll do the same to protect her” Saber jumped onto Crimson’s back, jabbed him in the neck with his horn and fired a bolt which sent Crimson skidding across the land. Twilight regained consciousness around now and saw Saber fighting Crimson, she herself charged in and used a teleportation spell to gain speed, she then rammed Crimson in the side that flew backwards and crashed through a wall.

“I’m not done” Crimson growled, “I will never be done”. He stomped on the ground sending magic shockwaves across the ground right into Twilight and Saber. Crimson then sent magic blasts flying at them again; Saber back flipped up and countered the blasts before levitating some large chunks of the wall up and hurling them at Crimson. Twilight teleported behind Crimson to sneak up on him but got a kick to the face. She persisted and used her magic to send a wave of earth out and at Crimson who stumbled a bit at the impact.

Twilight had enough of this and made her horn glow sunlight yellow, Saber knew what she was doing and combined his power with hers. Crimson saw this and he was no fool, he knew the celestial array when he saw it so he fired blasts at them while he still had a chance. “Don’t give in to his attacks Twilight” Saber urged, they charged up and released the ultimate spell which nailed Crimson dead on.

“AAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!” Crimson screeched as the array tore him to bits, Twilight and Saber didn’t stop, they increased the power. After they stopped the attack they saw that none of Crimson remained, not one shred of stone survived.

“We did it” Saber sighed in relief.

The nightmare stronghold

Chapter 11 The nightmare stronghold

“Where is she?” Pinkie was almost panicking now.

“Relax Pink” Applejack did her best to calm down the pink earth pony, “she’ll be back, that much I’m certain of”. Almost as if it was triggered by her words the Dark barrier around the fortress collapsed inward and they could see Twilight reappearing, along with somepony else.

“I’m back” Twilight called after reappearing entirely, her friends and the princesses didn’t say anything because they were looking at Discord.

“Any particular reason you brought him along?” Rainbow asked.

“Funny story actually-” Twilight was cut off by Pinkie,

“oh, a funny story, I love funny stories!”

“…Anyways” Twilight continued, “I would never have made it out if it weren’t for Discord”,

“seriously?” Everypony asked.

“Yes” Discord remarked with a triumphant tone, “and I have so kindly decided to help you in your quest, now here is this ‘fortress’”. Rainbow pointed behind Discord, “oh” he commented, “Well this makes it easier”

They all walked into the front courtyard, nopony saw Nightmare watching from the throne room window, he smirked as his horn began to glow. Suddenly three red magic bubbles enveloped the group, Luna in one, Discord and Celestia in another and the mane 6 in the last. The bubbles contracted and teleported them, Nightmare cackled “welcome to my domain foolish ponies (and snake, goat, whatever he is), here the fun never ends and the game is just beginning.” He walked to his throne, “for when the bell of victory finally tolls I will be triumphant, and yet a cautious triumph as you dropped the barrier. Come to me my foes” he chuckled to himself, “let this game begin”. He turned to the corridor, “Tracer, Flare, Strafe” he called for 3 of his minions. They quickly hurried to the throne room along with Crimson.

“What is it you wish sir” they asked,

“I want you three to go to your designated spots; your victims will be there shortly”. The three ponies hurried off, “what about me?” asked Crimson,

“you will wait just a few rooms from the throne room in case they fail” Nightmare commanded.

“As you wish” Crimson bowed to Nightmare then hurried off.

“Heh” Nightmare chuckled, “even if they fail, I will be ready. With a fair fight waiting.”

Recovery and escape

Chapter 16 Recovery and escape

Twilight woke up after what seemed like forever to her, “wh-wha?” she panted looking around. Celestia was the first to notice her awakening,

“Twilight” she called, “thank goodness you’re alright, everypony she’s awake”. Everypony in the room rushed over,

“oh Twilight, we were so worried” Pinkie exclaimed happily while hugging her.

“Uh, Pinkie” Twilight croaked, “choking”,

“oops, sorry” Pinkie apologised. “The point is” Rarity commented,

“you did it Twilight” Rainbow Dash finished.

“Huh?” Twilight asked, “What did I do?”

“I’ll tell you what you did” a voice said from behind Twilight, she turned to see Saber standing there in his original form, “you saved me” he finished.

“As you can see” Celestia pointed out, “Nightmare Blade is no more”. Twilight smiled, she took the risk of letting her magic go out of control and it paid off.

They started walking to leave the castle; it all seemed more peaceful with the fall of the nightmares. “I never thought that we would ever be able to stop the nightmares” Twilight commented,

“I just can’t believe you managed to eliminate Nightmare blade” Saber pointed out.

“Would you look at that” Celestia sighed happily, “They’re laughing together like old friends”,

“I guess it is kind of nice” Discord remarked, “even if it is a little sappy”. After a bit they all reached the gate, it was finally time to leave.

“I can’t wait to get back to ponyville” Twilight exclaimed, “what about you Saber?....... Saber?” she looked back to see Saber with a worried look on his face.

“I would’ve thought that the dark clouds would have cleared out by now” he pointed out. Everypony looked up, the clouts had not cleared up and one particular spot was glowing bright blue. “Twilight” Saber called,

“yeah Saber?” she replied, “I’ll need you with me on this one” Saber turned to everypony else, “you all hurry back to ponyville and wait for us”.

“Oh no” Rainbow Dash demanded, “we’ve come this far together and we’ll stick together to the end”.

“Look, I would love it if you could help, I really would” Saber sighed, “but the one who’s coming is somepony me and Twilight have a score to settle with and I wouldn’t want you all to be at risk”.

“Alright” Rainbow griped before flying off,

“Make it back it one piece” encouraged Celestia. Saber nodded as everypony aside from him and Twilight went back to ponyville, “well, here goes nothing.” Saber commented. They looked up at the clouds as somepony descended from them, it was somepony Twilight hoped she would never see again. It was covered in runes and a flaming blue magical aura. It was the stone alicorn, and this was the fight that would decide equestrias fate.

Epilogue

Welcoming Saber

When Saber and twilight returned they found that Pinkie had arranged an ENORMOUS party that pretty much topped any other she had thrown in the past. “Welcome home” they all shouted, Saber looked around, there were ponies dancing and playing everywhere, the cake was huge with blue and yellow frosting and had an image of his face on it out of sparklers, there were streamers and confetti (courtesy of Discord) and a large banner that read “Welcome to ponyville Saber”. Saber blushed,

“Isn’t this a bit much?” he asked.

“Are you kidding?” Pinkie bounced over, “it’s not even enough, I mean you’re new here and I always throw a party for anypony new, you also ended up defeating that meanie stone alicorn AND you saved ponyville from all those monsters AND-” she was cut short when Saber covered her mouth.

“Hey, you’re grateful, that’s description enough for me.” Saber commented, “Now let’s PARTY” he shouted as he and Twilight joined the party.

The party lasted for hours, eventually Saber walked out to a field to watch the sun set; it had been forever since he actually saw one. “Room for one more?” Saber heard Twilight behind him,

“oh, yeah sure” he answered. “Some week huh” she asked,

“I try not to dwell on the past” Saber replied. They watched as the sun set, Saber sighed,

“are you alright?” Twilight asked,

“yeah, it’s just that I’ve been such a monster, you and your friends may be able to forgive me, but will everypony else?” he responded.

“I’m sure that they all will grow to understand you” Twilight pointed out, “just like I have” she finished. Saber looked over as Twilight put her head on his shoulder; he smiled and turned his eyes back to the horizon just as the sun set.

END