The Black Eyes of the Nightmare

Sundown. One last glimpse of light before the calm vanishes.

Twilight just finished gathering all his friends and the Elements or Harmony. Applejack is squeezed into a group hug with her Apple family, Rarity is talking to Sweetie Belle, Pinke Pie is giggling with Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and Fluttershy keeps talking to her animal friends. Everyone's saying their goodbye's while they can.

"C'mon, girls," says Twilight. She opens a case that she hides in the library, and there lay the Elements of Harmony. Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Laughter, and Magic. One by one, the ponies put on their corresponding element. And so, they gallop into the dark murkiness of the Everfree Forest.

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Meanwhile, in Canterlot, Princess Celestia watches her dying sun as it makes way for Luna's moon, so she hopes. Princess Luna dragged her to the balcony to show her what happens to it.

"So, you're saying that something else is rising the Moon and not you," remarks Celestia.

"Yes, sister," answers Luna. "Thou have not seen it, but it's true."

"Maybe it went independent," suggests Celestia with a smile.

"Independent? Now's not the time for thy jokes. How could a moon move by itself?"

Princess Celestia watches her sun plummet into the faraway mountains. She turns to Princess Luna. "If it doesn't rise in a minute, you know what to do," she says.

Waiting for a minute couldn't feel so torturous before. Celestia keeps anticipating that the Moon doesn't rise unless Luna does something about it, but Luna is the opposite. She wants her sister to know the dreadful truth, that the creature in the Everfree Forest can rise and fall the Moon of Equestria.

The shining, silver ball know rises. Celestia's eyes widen as she snaps her neck to Luna. "I told you to wait a minute," she says, dissapointed.

"I am not doing it," says Luna.

"Is this some kind of joke? Maybe you ARE rising the Moon. It just doesn't look like you are."

"Jokes? Forgive me, sister, but those are so inappropriate at a time of panic. I swear to you or myself that I'm not doing anything but watching the upcoming night."

Princess Celestia shifts her eyes back to the rising Moon. The orange glow of her Sun vanishes, and the first stars start to glow. Celestia's long, ever-flowing mane gets in the way, so she wipes it aside.

"I'm afraid," mutters Princess Celestia.

"What? You're never afraid, sister!" replies Luna, extremely surprised. "Why would you?"

"I just am." Celestia turns around and leaves the balcony. Luna follows her sorrowed, older sister back inside.

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The Everfree Forest is surprisingly calm today. Twilight Sparkle and her friends, including Spike, who agreed to come, walk down a slightly damp pathway as they anxiously wait for something to leap at them and tear them apart, but nothing. They can't even hear any howls, roars, or even the annoying sounds of flying insects. They're truly alone.

"Twilight, darling, how long till we get there? My hooves are starting to ache," whines Rarity.

"Iunno," answers Twilight. The simple gesture of turning her head to Rarity makes the moonlight reflect on her crown. "This thing could be anywhere in the forest, but hard could it be to find it?"

"When we do," interrupts Rainbow Dash, "If it tries anything funny, it's asking for a kick in the face!"

"If it has a face," adds Applejack.

"Can we g-go home?" suggests Fluttershy, scared.

"Fluttershy, don't you understand?" says Twilight. "We have to prove whether this thing exists or not. There's mass hysteria all over Equestria! And we need your Element of Kindness."

"Okay." Fluttershy bows her head and closes her teal eyes, making her necklace drag across the floor.

The group grows silent, even Pinkie Pie. The rest of the walk only involves a mass amount of turning heads with worried eyes. The ponies' odds are clearly not in their favor, even when holding the Elements. At some point, an optimistic Spike decides to break the silence.

"How about a game to pass the time?" he suggests.

The ponies look at him, surprised. "Ooh! What kind of game?" asks Pinkie Pie with extreme anticipation.

"Um, I spy?"

"Okay! You go first!"

"Uh, I spy with my little dragon's eye...something...colorful."

Pinkie Pie looks around and spots a vivid-looking flower. "Flower," she answers confidently.

"Good."

"Okay, my turn! I spy with my little Pinkie eye...something blue."

"Uh, the sky?"

"No, you silly!" Pinkie giggles. "It's in the forest."

"Okay." Spike looks around for the blue thing. He struggles to find it. At the point near to giving up, he says a couple of blue tails dangling over a branch. "Tails?" he answers nervously.

"Yup!"

"Wait, tails?" interrupts Twilight.

"They're right over there." Pinkie Pie points her hoof at a tall tree that has a couple of blue tails hanging from a branch. Twilight takes a closer look, and he heart stops as she notices a figure lying on one of the branches. The tails are its tails. She gasps loudly, agitating the figure. It springs away at an amazing speed.

"After it!" commands Twilight. They all start running toward the figure's direction, hoping to catch up with it. Rainbow Dash flies faster, so she zooms past the group.

"You won't get away from me!" says Rainbow Dash, determined. But the rest notice her stopping at a distance, jaw-dropped. As soon as her friends catch up, they notice that she looks petrified. Applejack waves her hoof in front of Rainbow Dash's face, but Rainbow doesn't move at all.

"Rainbow? Are you alright?" asks Rarity nervously.

"Look..." mutters Rainbow.

Everyone turns to what she's staring at, and jaw-dropped expressions are passed around like complementary peanuts in a flight. They're staring at another tree that's at the edge of a plain area of the forest. On one of the branches, lies the creature, but exposed in the moonlight. The ponies could express it quite vividly.

The creature has a blue coat of fur with black markings on its cheek. It's wearing a black overcoat with white robes. It has three fingers and a thumb with a light blue fur for its palms, also for its lower half of the face and feet. About the feet, they're also light blue and are bipedal. The creature also wears a blue medallion that only shows a crescent moon on it. But the most noticeable features are its eyes and tails. Its eyeballs are black with a light blue iris. Its pupils are also black. Also it has more than two tails. It has seven tails. Foxtails. Overall, the creature resembles a fox, but nothing like the ponies ever saw, and it has a blue aura glowing.

It chews on a fruit as it relaxes on a tree, until it notices seven faces staring at it. It awkwardly keeps chewing slowly, but being stared makes it lose its appetite. It throws the fruit away and is now sitting on the branch, arms crossed.

"What?" it says, feeling slightly annoyed. Its voice is surprisingly majestic, that of a beautiful woman. It sounds calm and slightly deep, but still sounds wonderful to the ears of the ponies. The creature is female, or at least that's what the ponies assume.

"W-What are you?" asks Fluttershy nervously.

The creature doesn't answer. She hops off the branch, and her seven tails trail after. "I've seen one too many of you ponies," she says. "Go away."

"Hey! You can't tell us what to do!" shouts Rainbow Dash, angry.

"Just did."

This infuriates Rainbow Dash. She zooms toward the creature at full speed.

"Rainbow!" yells Twilight.

As soon as Rainbow Dash is about to land a kick, something squeezes her tightly. She struggles, but finds it futile. She notices that a blue foxtail is holding her. The creature's tail. "What?" says Rainbow Dash.

"What did I just say?" says the creature. The tails keeps tightening, making Rainbow Dash scream.

"STOP IT!" yells Spike. "Please! let her go!"

The creature stares at Spike. "As you wish, dragon..." she responds. The foxtail loosens on Rainbow Dash. Rainbow hovers back to her friends, terrified. "I thought no one came her at night."

"Oh! Well, you see," says Pinkie Pie, trying to sound cheery, "Princess Celestia told us to find you!"

The creature's straight face shifts to confused. "Who?"

"Princess Celestia."

"I don't know a single princess, curly."

"Um, Miss?" says Applejack. "What are y'all doing in the forest?"

The creature turns around, refusing to answer Applejack. She looks a strange alignment of trees as if it's more interesting than them.

"Please, we just wanna know if you're causing trouble or not!" pleads Twilight.

The creature keeps ignoring them.

"Come on! Let's just use the Elements!" suggests Rainbow Dash, still mad at the creature.

Twilight considers Rainbow's idea, and she says, "If you don't answer us, we will be forced to use the Elements of Harmony against you, fox!"

"The what?" says the creature. She notices the jewelry they're wearing. "Hmm, nice jewelry. Now go away."

Twilight is now angry, and is the rest of the group. "Need I say 'formation'?" she says.

It's no need. The six ponies are now aligned to activate the Elements. They start floating, and a white aura intensifies around them. The creature turns around, noticing the bright light, but it doesn't affect her view at all. Twilight's eyes start to glow, triggering the massive rainbow that spins around them, and shoots toward the creature. The rainbow now circles the creature. She doesn't look around with fear, but with curiosity. Then it turns to anger. She lets out a loud roar, causing a shockwave of blue energy to burst around her. The force of the shockwave shatters the spinning rainbow. Twilight and her friends stop glowing, and fall on the ground. They all share moans of pain.

"What just happened?" asks Rarity, confused.

"It didn't work?" asks a worried Fluttershy.

Rarity looks at where the Elements aimed at. There's a few dust clouds, but she notices the creature's still there, without a scratch.

"Oh my Celestia, she overcame the Elements!" yells Rainbow Dash, extremely surprised.

"What? But's that impossible!" says Twilight. "No one could stand up to the elements like that. Not Nightmare Moon, and not even Discord."

"So, what now, sugarcube?" asks Applejack.

"Yeah, what now?" adds Pinkie Pie. Her sense of cheer is gone.

"Uh g-guys?" says Spike, trembling. "She l-l-looks m-mad."

The ponies pick themselves and notice the creature staring at them, not with her typical straight face, but with anger. She floats into the air. It flies, thinks Twilight Sparkle.

"I don't know what you ponies are trying to do," says the creature, "but you're obviously trying to get rid of me." Fluttershy trembles as she lays back down. "I ask for solitude, and this is what I get? A bunch of ponies that claim to only be following orders from your dear princess? Tell me. Why doesn't she face me herself?" The ponies are too afraid to answer. "She's obviously a coward. I could've killed you all with ease, but you're lucky I'm generous enough not to."

"At least tell us what you are," says Twilight Sparkle nervously. It takes a lot for her to form up those words.

The creature stares at Twilight with her black eyes. She overflows her with fear. "Fine," she answers. "You may address me as the Moon Fox, and I hope this is the last time we meet, ponies." The Moon Fox spreads her arm toward a mountain and shoots a stream of blue and white energy heading straight for it. When it makes contact with the mountain, a white light fills the night air, blinding Twilight and her friends. When the light dims, they stare with bewilderment when noticing that the mountain is gone. All that is left is dust and dirt being blown by the wind.

"And that was a demonstration of my potential," says the Moon Fox, feeling uninterested. "This time, the mountain. The next time you disrupt me, it's your town. Now leave."

The last word of the Fox's is unimaginably stern. Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Spike heard it. They all heard it loud and clear. They turn around and vanish into the thickness of the forest, leaving the powerful and mighty Moon Fox alone again.