Night of Nightmares

The decoratioins were complete, and Aurora was exhausted. The moment she hit the pillow she was asleep. As she slept she dreamed. The dream seemed so real. There was a young colt in all black running around the town. In some odd way, she knew that he was looking for her. Why though, would anyone look for her who she had never met? Or had she? There was a faint memory of his face that she couldn't her hoof on. Then the dream changed into a nightmare. Heat surounded her. Ponyville was on fire! Aurora spun around to put out the nearest flame to see none. The awful realization hit her. She was the one on fire. The fire was spreading from her cursed eye. Aurora screamed as the flames consumed her body and the whole town. All around her, she could see her friends being consumed along with her. Their cries fed the fire. Aurora wept helplessly. Then a darkness swept over the dreamscape. The darkness of thousands of dark hooded ponies swooped out of the fire. Aurora screamed as they desended upon her.

Aurora was still screaming when Twilight woke her up. Twilight stood over her temporary student worried. It had taken almost an hour to wake her up. The procedings had already begun. Luna had finally come and awaken her protege with a spell. Aurora looked up at her two teachers and realized that it had only been a dream. She calmed herself down and asured them that she was fine. Now was the time of Nightmare Night after all. The others laughed more out of relief then out of humor. The night went well after that. Aurora was escorting the fillies through the candy route with Pinky Pie. Pinky Pie had dressed up as Gummy, and Gummy had dressed up as Pinky Pie. Aurora was dressed as Clover the Clever with a black eye patch. She had seen no need to wear the magic one as her eye seemed to be normal. Twilight had dressed up as some magical alicorn that no one knew about. The fillies were very cute in their little costumes. There were pirates, witches, cats, ladybugs, and spiders. Their bags were swollen so much that some of the seams were tearing.

It was time for the traditional candy apeasement for "Nightmare Moon" at her statue. It was in the Everfree Forest, and sent shivers up Aurora's spine as memories of the last time she had been in there haunted her memory. Something in the memory bothered her. As they reached the statue it hit her like lightning. She had seen the colt in her dream here! The fillies were putting their candy at the foot of the statue. Aurora felt the need to run. She had to get out of here. Evil was here. Aurora wished she had brought her eye patch. Her thoughts were interrupted as one of the fillies, Pipsqueak, screamed at the top of his lungs as dark figures moved in from where they were hidden, lying in ambush. Now Aurora really wished she was wearing the mafic eye patch, for as they got closer, her eye felt like it was on fire.

The dark colt ran through the entire village but couldn't find the white mare. The colt was unfortunately nervous in crowds and wouldn't ask any pony about the whereabouts of the white mare. He ducked into a treelike library as a crowd of fillies ran excitedly past him. In his haste, he tripped over a book on the ground and when tumbling into Aurora's room. Twilight had been in the other room grabbing something that she had forgotten when she heard him. Before she could say a word the colt asked if Aurora was anywhere around. It was the only thing he could think of in the situation. Twilight was speechless. The colt sighed and quickly told her about the interest that the master had in Aurora and that Aurora was in danger. Twilight needed no further prompting. For some reason she trusted the stranger. They rushed out to where Aurora had gone calling to Luna and the gang to follow them. The eye patch remained on Aurora's dresser.

The children gathered around Pinky and Aurora as the hooded figures slowly came closer. Sirens were going off in Aurora's head. She put it aside as she got her priorities strait. Her first priority was to get the fillies safely away. Her second one was for her to get away. Funny how she placed her life second. If she survived she's look into it. She screamed, "RUN!" at the top of her lungs as she blasted three hooded figures back with a stunning spell. The green light from her magic illuminated the figures just as Aurora and Pinky rushed the fillies out of the clearing towards Ponyville. The hooded ponies had shaken of the shock of the magic and were gaining on them. Aurora screamed at Pinky to go on as Aurora stopped, turned, and charged at the hooded ponies. Pinky Pie could only keep running as her friend raced towards certain defeat. Tears ran down her face. For once, she had nothing to laugh about.

Twilight saw the group before the colt did. Pinky ran into Twilights blinded by her tears. She started babling nonsense and sobbing. Twilight had never seen Pinky like this and it made her more terrified than anything the colt had told her. She looked into Pinky's terrified eyes and asked in a shaky voice, "Pinky, where's Aurora?!" All Pinky could do was point back towards the Everfree forest. The colt took of like a flash. Twilight huridly told Pinky to take the fillies home and raced after him. The colt suddenly stopped suddenly causing Twilight to run right into him. There standing in the center of a ring of hooded ponies was Aurora and it looked like she had conjured a shield of protection. It also looked like the shield was failing fast. She cried out as the sheild failed and the hooded ponies attacked.

Aurora wished that she had thought her plan out better. Then again she didn't have a plan at all. She had simply known that she had to but Pinky and the fillies some time. It had gone downhill from there. Her eye hurt to much for her to concentrate. The only thing she could do was put up a weak sheild as the hooded ponies bombarded her with spells that made her sheild flicker dangerously. What was worse was the voices in her head. She couldn't hear what the voices said but they distracted her enough that her sheild was failing even faster. Eventually the sheild fell as Aurora knew that she could never defeat such evil. It was imposible. Then Twilights voice had come like the sun through fog and Aurora could think again. She took in the situation quickly. The hooded ponies had gained a lot of ground against her and were coming even closer. She couldn't let them get any closer. She also couldn't let them hurt Twilight. No one would hurt her friends. Her eye sight became even clearer until it was white. This was power. But not from the curse. It was her own. She would worry about where the power had come from later. First she had to deal with the hooded ponies. She couldn't see anything but knew that she had to drive the hooded ponies away. Then came blinding pain and the world went black with tints of green and red.

Twilight looked at her young pupil in awe. Her eye had turned white and magic was surging around her like a magical storm. The hooded ponies were blown back a few paces and then each was caught in a ray of white magic. They flinched away from the light and ran. The hooded ponies were retreating. Twilight ran towards her pupil only to see a bolt of black magic hit Aurora's side. Aurora fell with a shout of pain and lay curled in pain with the ocasional twitch as black magic began to encircle her. Twilight screamed and ran to her. She hugged Aurora as tears ran down her eyes. She waited to be shot with the same magic; not caring anymore. She had failed her student. Her tears ran down Aurora's face and she stopped twitching as the black magic faded away. After a while, Twilight realized that she hadn't been shot yet. She looked up to find the young colt had mad a sheild with his magic that was a light gray. He was sweating from the effort and probably couldn't hold on form much longer.

Aurora was in blackness. Then the pain occured. It flashed across her in strips of red and green. She thought she was going to die right then. It would have been more merciful than this. Then came a rain of pure white drops of water. The pain was washed away as Aurora laughed and danced in the soothing rain. She caught a drop on her toung only to recoil in shock. The rain was salty. How strange. Still, it washed away the pain so she continued to run and laugh in it like a young filly. Nothing could hurt her now.

Twilight gently set Aurora down and rushed over to the colt. She gathered her magic and cast a strong protective sheild. The colt gratefully layed down, his sides heaving. He opened one of his eyes and muttered his thanks. A bolt of black magic hit the sheild causing Twilight to step back a pace. Her eyes widened. Who could have that much magic?! An old pony stepped out of the shadows and grinned slyly. Twilight gasped. It was Star Swirled the Bearded. She stuttered out his name in shock. The old pony snarled and sent anouther bolt of magic rattling the sheild. "You are never to use that vile name again. I am now known as Millenium. The soon to be ruler of Equestria." He was about send another bolt of magic at the sheild when he was hit backwards with a ray of magic from above. It was Princess Luna!! Twilight couldn't have been happier to see the princess than right now. Surprisingly Star Swirl, or Millenium, cackled. "Hello Luna. Long time no see. I see my spell was destroyed by your exile to the moon. What a pity. I'll have to do it all over again. Oh well." Before anyone could move, Millenium had shot his black bolt right at Luna. She shrieked as she fell and black magic enveloped her. Twilight screamed as Luna began to change. Luna stood and grinned slyly. Luna was now gone. There was only Nightmare Moon.

Author's Note

I'm sorry this took so long. I hit a writers block and couldn't write for a few weeks. I also added in a few head cannons of mine so I hope you don't mind. If you don't like it it's your opinion and I respect it. Leave suggestions for me in the comments. What I'm doing wrong or what could be improved. Thanks again for your patience.