A Creature of the Dark

by Xhoral1865

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Nightmare Moon
Length: 1358

A creature, know to ponies as Nightmare Moon, ponders it's past and it's prison in Luna's mind.

A creature, known to ponykind as Nightmare Moon, ponders its past and its prison in Luna's mind.

Was made for this contest. It took me about an hour and a half to write, which really surprised me. Hope you enjoy.

Edit: I got silver in the contest!! WOOHOO!

Published 2014-03-23 06:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-03-23 06:30:02 UTC

Pondering Its Prison

A dark creature walked across a dreamscape. The dreamscape was a dead woodland, the trees fallen and rotting. At the edge of the forest of decay was a land of soaring spires of rock reaching into the sky. There was nothing sentient here, only her and her thoughts.

She had never liked it here, this prison, this exile. It felt like she was the only living thing here, there had to be something here that she could talk to at least, besides herself. It was a lonely prison, making it all the harder for her to survive. She didn’t need food or water to sustain herself. It was a dreamscape after all; she could do whatever she wanted with no consequence.

As she walked to another part of her little kingdom of death and decay, she came across a pool of water. She looked at her reflection. It showed a being of shadow, tendrils of light-absorbing darkness wreathing where her mane should be. A single protrusion of darkness came from her forehead, above glowing white holes that were eyes.

The creature had always liked the way she looked, wishing that she could manifest in the material realm once again. The time she had been in the material realm had been a time of bliss and excitement. Until the white unicorn with wings had sent her to a place far away. A place that was cold, so very cold. It had been lonely in that cold place, with only a blue unicorn with wings to converse with. She was a nice enough companion, except that she didn’t like the dark creature at the time. Eventually they had started to talk to one another. The unicorn had called herself Luna, which is ironic considering what she had said about their imprisonment in this cold place. The creature had nothing to call itself, as it didn’t want something to be called.

They talked about things for some time, usually about how they both missed the place that was called Equestria. They swapped stories about their times there. Luna telling the creature about her sister, the white unicorn with wings known as Celestia, and how Luna missed her so much. Speaking about her sister made Luna upset, which the creature understood considering that it was Luna’s sister that had sent them to that cold place.

Luna had called the creature Nightmare Moon several times, even though the creature didn’t like that name. It preferred to remain, as Luna called it, nameless. The creature didn’t want to be chained by something it didn’t want. Eventually Luna stopped calling her Nightmare Moon and just spoke to the creature when she wanted to. The creature wouldn't go anywhere, so that wasn’t a problem for it. She quite liked that arrangement.

So the years had passed, the two of them getting to know each other better and better. Eventually they wouldn't even need to speak to one another, just sensing the other’s feelings and interpreting them into a form of speechless speech. The creature preferred that, it didn’t like having to talk. A free flow of emotions was what it was used to before being imprisoned in the cold place.

More years passed, until an event occurred that pulled the two into a room. The creature was the first to know what happened, taking control of the body they shared. Luna was powerless to stop the possession. The creature announced itself by the name Luna had given her: Nightmare Moon.

Nightmare Moon scared the creatures, ponies, with her form and voice. Her mane and tail billowing out causing a kind of cyclone and making lighting rain down. She then fled, running to a place that emanated magic. Magic that had once banished her to a place that was very cold.

She arrived at the castle quickly, finding the things that had banished her, the Elements of Harmony as Luna had called them. She found only five of them. The sixth was hidden somewhere, it could almost sense it’s location. It then felt a magic, a magic it had never felt before. It quickly left the chamber the Elements were in and went after the magic.

What she found had confused her. It was a purple unicorn, with five others surrounding it. One was another unicorn, two were pegasi, and the last two were some type of ponies that had neither horns nor wings. This intrigued the creature, having never seen their like before. After talking for a while they set out after the castle that had the Elements in it.

The creature was ecstatic about this; maybe they would be able to find the sixth Element that had imprisoned her, and then she could finally destroy the things that had imprisoned her. She led them through some tests first, which the ponies all passed.

They entered the castle, and made their way to the chamber that had the Elements. Nothing seemed to happen, and the creature had lost hope that the sixth Element would not appear before them. Then the purple unicorn had an idea and sent the others outside while it did something with the five Elements it had found.

It seemed to be going nowhere, so the creature decided to play a role in the finding of the Elements. She appeared in the middle of the inactive Elements, and picked them up in a vortex. She waited for the purple unicorn to take notice, then teleported them to another chamber of the castle. The unicorn charged the creature, teleporting to the Elements just before making contact. This surprised the creature, expecting the unicorn to attack her. The unicorn then did something with the Elements that almost worked. The creature saw this, and then destroyed the five Elements, deciding that if the unicorn could not summon the sixth, it would be better the destroy the five and be done with it.

The unicorn’s friends arrived, causing the unicorn have an epiphany. She summoned the sixth Element, catching the creature by surprise. They then shot a beam of energy at the creature. She felt a searing pain as she was forcefully pushed into a prison in which she did not want to be in.

She was thankful that she was not destroyed, merely imprisoned. She didn’t know how long it had been in this prison, only that she was there. There weren’t any trees, or spires, only a blank emptiness everywhere. She hoped for some way to escape, but there were none. She resigned herself to her fate, until Luna appeared. The creature was surprised, and confused. She had wanted a companion, or at least something other than the blank whiteness of her prison. Luna offered to make her a dreamscape, somewhere where she could roam without having to stare at the eternal whiteness of this prison. The creature accepted the offer, glad that Luna was back. Luna made a dreamscape that would reflect the mind of the creature.

Now that the creature pondered how Luna had made this dreamscape while sitting at that serene pool of water, she began to see it in a different light. Instead of the trees decaying, she saw them helping to bring new life into the wood. She saw the spires of rock as an ancient city. She began to see the subtle signs of woodland animals; the small tracks, the stock still animals that blended with the trees.

Maybe this place wasn’t an exile, but a paradise for her to live in. She still missed talking with Luna, the mixing of emotions and thoughts they had done while on that cold place. Maybe she could live here, and maybe she could even make a civilization of her own. Maybe make that civilization to model the one Luna had told her about while they were alone on the moon. Maybe, just maybe, the creature had found a reason to be happy.

Author's Note

So yeah, here's a thing. If you have any comments, share them! I'd love to see what people think about this. If you have an criticism, please keep it professional. :twilightsmile: