The Rise of Nightmare

by IMN

Rating: mature
Tags: Main 6, Nightmare Moon, Tirek, Spike, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 4350

To think, of all the powers that came into her possession, she would turn to the Nightmare in order to defeat him, plunging Equestria into the same darkness she once defeated. A Twyrant story.

During her fight with Tirek, Twilight recklessly used the same power that once transformed Luna into Nightmare Moon, Now she roams Equestria as it's herald turning all who oppose her into the side of nightmare, and the worst of it is that there seem to have no end in sight.

The Dark tag is there for a reason, read at your own risk, this is NOT a fic for the weak of hearts, the early chapters may appear innocent enough, but the more this fic progresses the more aggressive I will become.

Also, english is not my first language, I'd highly appreciate any correction on my grammar, vocabulary, or other incorrect use of language.

My entry to the Twyrant's Kingdom Competition Hope you enjoy it.

Results of the competition can be found Here

Published 2014-06-12 20:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-12 20:30:01 UTC

The Awakened Nightmare

“I can do this,” And with a small poof, she ended on the lower edge of the cliff. Proud of her achievement she declared, “See. Ha, perfectly controlled teleportation,” but barely did she finish her words when another surge of magic teleported her to Canterlot castle, then to Neighagra falls, then on top of a buffalo near Appaloosa, then inside a wedge of a cracked boulder near the Everfree.

“Ugh,” She huffed in frustration. Ever since Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadence gave her their powers, Twilight’s been having immense trouble controlling either. Feels like four kids fighting over a toy inside of me, she thought, whenever I cast a single spell in either of the four powers, the other three will spill over and the spell overcharges, every single time.

However, her thoughts were interrupted when she heard someone screaming her name. “Tirek,” Twilight gasped.

“You have something that belongs to me!!” Tirek exclaimed before Twilight was able to completely free herself. She then launched herself into the air, and after a quick maneuver, she managed to crash-land right onto his hoof.

“You’re going to give me what I want,” Tirek bellowed at her before activating his siphoning powers. However before he could even tap into hers, Twilight immediately teleported to her balcony, then used her telescope to identify the enemy’s location.

But as soon as she cough sight of him, he launched a massive energy bolt toward her. Gasping, Twilight immediately teleported into the library, grabbed Owlicious then teleported outside just in time when the bolt hits the tree house.

Twilight looked in horror as her once beautiful house was turned into rubble. The place where her fondest memories laid in shatter; her books and research, destroyed. The bitterness of losing such a precious thing left a storm of emotions flood her heart that cannot be described in words.

Revenge, a voice in her head came, yes, I will take my revenge on him.

She let go of her owl, then stood with a new determination, her prey was waiting.

Twilight teleported to where Tirek was, then supercharged her horn before launching an energy beam toward her target. Immediately, something felt odd, the princesses powers have stopped spilling over. If I use my hatred, I gain complete control, She deduced.

Pleased with her discovery, Twilight decided to test her new found strength. she increased the size of her beam until it covered nearly twice Tirek’s size, launching him backward and into a huge explosion.

Tirek looked somewhat surprised, then a smile of recognition flashed on his face, “Now I see what your fellow princesses have done,” immediately he realized what happened, to think that they used the same technique from a thousand years ago. This will be a tough fight, he mused, However, she doesn’t even compare to Starswirl the bearded in terms of control.

Tirek was fazed in that last attack; he launched his strongest energy bolt and she countered with hers, but he barely matched hers in terms of density, causing him to be pushed back with debris falling over him, She is growing stronger still, this is heading the same way as last time.

Tirek thought bitterly over his thousand-year imprisonment and how he got there, as he hoisted himself from under the rubble. At least I have leveraged this time, he thought.

Twilight walked up to him, her gaze ever defying. If this keeps up I might win this she thought. Her mood may have improved due to the direction the battle was heading, however, it did little to calm the wrath she felt, I never knew hatred could be such a powerful driving force.

“It appears we are at an impasse,” Tirek declared, a smile cropping on his face again, “How about a trade, Princess?” with a snap of his fingers, all of Twilight’s friends and Discord appeared in bubbles behind him, “Their release, for all the alicorn magic in Equestria.”

Twilight gasped in disbelief, while her friends disputed to keep her powers and save herself, Tirek bawled, “What’s it going to be? Princess.”

At that moment Twilight’s mind raced into a thousand direction. But before a decision was reached, a voice came to her, calm and subtle, there is a way out, it whispered, use the nightmare. Twilight suddenly felt a small ache in her heart, an image of her friends lying dead in front of her suddenly appeared in her mind, their bodies lifeless, their void eyes staring back at her, and for that moment, she wanted to scream.

“Well?” Tirek roared, snapping Twilight out of her daze. Instead of an answer, however, Twilight delved into that ache, and she felt something that she thought was impossible, a surge of pure unrestricted magic filled her soul like wildfire, the feeling was even stronger than the time when the princesses gave her their powers.

To Tirek’s surprise, Twilight’s horn lit in a unique petroleum blue, what’s this? She’s abandoning her friends! But what is that power? Tirek’s thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Twilight fired a small blue magical bolt against him.

The bolt, however, hit Tirek with a force so great it launched him a few hundred hooves in the air as well as break one of his ribs, forcing him to release his hostages instantly.

Did I just do that? Twilight stood in shock. With just a single strike she managed to save her friends while dealing an impressive amount of damage to her enemy.

“Wow, how did you do that?” Rainbow Dash trotted toward her, clearly impressed.

“I don’t know,” Twilight lied fearing what her friends might think of her powers, however, one of the companions realized what exactly is going on.

“What do you think you are doing?” Discord yelled harshly, though Twilight could clearly see the panic in his eyes, “You know better than to use the nightmare in Luna’s power. You know how dangerous it is and how easily it can corrupt! Please, Twilight I beg of you, lets retreat for now so we can come up with…”

Discord gulped the moment he realized that Twilight’s glare was literally raising the temperature around her, “How dare you,” she growled in a low tune, “How dare you to assume that you could take lead,” her growl became a full roar, “After everything you have done,” Her horn lit up again with that ominous blue color, “I’ll show you, that I don’t need you or anyone else to protect those I love,” Then she flew off.

Tirek barely had time to register what happened, So much power, he barely retained his consciousness during that last attack, Where did she get all that power? He coughed up blood, No, that’s not the real question. Will I be able to defeat her? However his thoughts were interrupted when something struck him under the chin, breaking his jaw while sending him staggering to the ground.

“You dared to harm my friends,” Twilight hovered above him, “Harm my family,” her horn shrouded in an ever greater amount of that blue magic, “Kill my princesses,” A larger blue bolt of magic was forming above her, “You shall pay.”

“Wait, I didn’t kill any...” but before he could finish, Twilight launched the magic missile. Tirek managed to teleport just in time before the missile struck the ground, exploding with an earth-shattering force unseen during the previous skirmish.

This is bad, if I stay here, I might just die. Tirek realized in horror, I need to escape from here and fast.

However before Tirek could move, Twilight was above him, “And where do you think you’re going?”

Twilight stop, Spike thought in dismay as he watched Twilight brutally beat Tirek just an inch of his life, Twilight please stop, He never thought that his Twilight could be so cruel, Tirek’s already finished, Twilight, I’m begging, please stop.

“This is bad, we need to leave, now.” Discord voiced his concern, “If this keeps up, I don’t think we’ll be safe for long.”

“Will yah stop being so darn cryptic and tell us what you know Discord!!” Applejack exclaimed more frightened than irritated.

“Twilight’s been using her hate to combine the powers of the other princesses that was given to her,” Discord replied wearisomely out of character, “that seemed to have awoken the nightmare within Princess Luna’s powers, the more she uses it, the more deluded she’ll become, the more the nightmare becomes more powerful.”

The bearers of harmony gasped, “All is not lost, however, as long as she doesn’t raise the moon there is still a chance to save her," Discord declared, full of determination, "We need the princesses.”

“Then what are we waiting for?” Rainbow Dash jumped in anticipation, fluttering her wings uselessly, “Let’s head to Canterlot RIGHT NOW!!!”

Every pony nodded in agreement, then started trotting toward Ponyville in hopes of finding a way to Canterlot, and hopefully to the princesses, when a sudden realization hit Rarity, “Where is Spike?”

Author's Note

And so begins the most dark, horror filled story of all my stories, don't be fooled by the low key tone of this chapter, this is only the begining.

Also, I just fixed the tenses and the pov to third person for this chapter.

The Nightmare’s Dragon

The beating finally stopped. Tirek opened his blackened eye, the one that still opened anyway, to find Twilight levitating him at eye level, “You will give back the princesses and every pony’s magic, then you’ll return to Tartarus where you will rot for eternity, do you understand?”

Tirek could barely comprehend what was going on. Looking into her eyes, he saw an infinite amount of sadness and hate. Unable to understand the source of all that hatred, he gave a whimpering sight. Looks like this is the end of the road for me, he thought. Suddenly a rustle came from the bushes behind her.

“Twilight please stop,” Came the voice of a crying baby dragon. To Tirek’s surprise, Twilight, who was so fixated on him a mere seconds ago, suddenly dropped him and turned toward the dragon.

“Spike? SPIKE!” she yelled before flying over to him hugging him, “I thought you were dead,” She kept crying as she hugged him tighter.

Tirek took a moment to catch his breath, if I stay here I am as good as dead, he thought to himself when a sudden wicked realization came to him, this will be the perfect distraction for me to make my escape.

He stood up then silently took a few steps back, need to keep my distance, stopping only when he suddenly heard, “You stay here, Spike, this will be over in a minute.”

She then flew toward him, “Where do you think you’re going?” she asked him angrily.

“Dear Princess,” Tirek replied through his broken teeth, “I will do as you ask. Just give me a moment.”

With a deep breath, Tirek gathered all the remaining magic in his mouth, then all of a sudden launched a massive beam of energy that missed Twilight by more than a few yards.

“Do you think this is funny?” Twilight light her horn with blue light in response, her wrath growing by the second.

“I wasn't aiming at you,” Tirek gave her his most dreaded smile.

At first, Twilight got confused, but as her sight trailed the path of the beam, fear gripped her heart. And when she saw the crater, Twilight could not hold it much longer, she wailed, “SPIIIIIIIIIIIIKEEEEE.”

The bearers came to the crater too late to do anything. Tirek had already left, running toward an unknown destination, Twilight is huddling around a tiny body that appeared burned to a crisp. A small whimper can be heard from whoever is between her hooves.

“Don’t die, Spike, I’m here,” Twilight kept repeating to the charred remains of her barely alive dragon, “Stay with me, you’ll be ok,” her world fell into a black pit, filled with darkness and horrors, “Just open your eyes, you’ll be fine, Stay with me,” Her friends huddled around her, telling her things, crying over their lost comrade, or simply staring in silence, all of which fell on deaf ears; their cries are nothing more than whispers; their agony is but a fading light. Her closest friend is dying in her hooves, and the ache that she felt in her heart is now a torrent of pain; a pain so strong it’s numbing, and her world grew darker still.

There is a way, the darkness suddenly spoke, he still breaths you can still save him.

“How?” Twilight muttered.

Use the darkness, it spoke to her, Use the nightmare, Twilight was now more than certain. Raise the moon, it was her pain talking to her. It will heal him, make him strong. She looked at him one more time. Time is of the essence, CHOOSE.

“Raise the moon,” Twilight muttered.

“What did you say?” Rainbow Dash protested.

“I have to raise the moon.” Twilight lit her horn in ominous blue.

Turn the day into the night.

“Twi, what are you doing?” Protested Applejack.

“It’s the only way.” Twilight raised her head to the sky.

“Please, Twilight Stop.” Begged the crying Rarity.

Turn love into hate.

“The darkness can save him.” Twilight tapped into the energy of the moon.

“Twilight, you can’t.” Pinkie got ignored.

Turn darkness into terror.

“Goodbye, all,” With much protest from her friends on the ground, Twilight jumped into the air at maximum speed flying higher and higher. And he will be saved, the darkness finally said while the moon rose into the heavens, eclipsing the sun.

Then the sky turned into night.

A sudden rush of energy gripped Twilight Sparkle, she hugged her baby dragon tighter fearing that she may lose him for all eternity and started transferring as much of the energy she was feeling toward him, when just as suddenly all went blank.

On the ground, Tirek was limping across the Everfree forest as fast as he could, when suddenly day turned into night. “What is that crazy alicorn doing? Does she plan on destroying the world?”

Then a new light caught his eyes, an orange orb of infinite power appeared in the middle of the night sky, shining more and more without ever truly lighting the skies around it. Then, to Tirek’s dismay, a new alicorn walked out from it, she was taller than Celestia, her mane and tail were like a burning fire of the thousand colors of rainbow glittering and sparkling like nothing he had ever seen, her coat was what he could tell was of lavender color, the same color of her predecessor, her horns and wings were of massive proportions, and when he concentrated a bit, he saw the ugliest cutie mark he had ever seen on a pony, a red sun with a black heart in its middle, sitting right next to the crescent black moon looming around a six-pointed purple and black star.

Tirek’s heart gripped in fear at the simple sight of that alicorn, he knew he needed to run but for some reasons his feet had failed him, as he stumbles on the ground unable to move or tear his eyes off of that sight.

The new alicorn looked around toward her new mane that blazes in the colors of a sparkling rainbow, her wings large and strong, her horn long, sharp, and ready. She was no longer Twilight Sparkle, the weak alicorn who could not control the powers that were given to her. The ‘her’ now had assimilated all the powers of her predecessors and created a new form, worthy of a new name.

But that could wait, for there was still an ache in her heart that needed to be filled, she looked around to find that the orange sphere had not subsided when she left it. She knew that whatever her ache was, it will be filled when He comes out of it.

“Grow strong my assistant, soon we will be together again.” She said as she waited silently for her dragon to come.

‘Where am I?’

Spike woke up in a green pasture, somewhere on the border of Ponyville, just a moment ago his body was hurting him badly, he could remember the hazy silhouette of Twilight Sparkle, then there was darkness.

‘Am I dead?’

He walked into Ponyville only to find that everything is back to normal, every pony seemed cheerful and happy. Only when they saw him, their smiles turned into a frown, then suddenly a tomato hit him out of nowhere, “Get out of here, you monster!” he hears somepony yell.

Spike turns around to see who did that only to be greeted by an angry mob running after him with torches, “Get him,” one of the ponies yelled and they all charged at him, Spike ran as fast as his legs could carry him, stumbling into Pinkie Pie on his way there, “Pinkie, you’ve got to help me, there is an angry mob after me.”

“Okye doky,” Pinkie replied cheerful enough, then grabbed Spike by the arm and yanked him over, toward the mob, “He’s over here boys, come and get him.”

Horrified by what just happened Spike struggled hard to escape his friends grasp, and succeed just in time before the mob closed in on him.

Running faster he reached Carousel boutique first, then stammered his way in, slamming the door behind him then reinforcing it with a chair.

Rarity trotted down from upstairs, “Who is it?” her voice sing.

“Rarity, you’ve got to help me, there is an angry mob out there trying to kill me, and Pinkie is acting weird, well weirder...”

“YOU,” Rarity’s scream sent shivers down the dragon’s spine, “How dare you walk in here after what you have done?”

“Bu-but I can fix it, whatever I did, I can fix it,” The baby dragon begged his friend to listen, to at least tell him what's going on.

“You think you can fix this?” her complete reject of him left him even more shattered, what was worse was her hollow laugh, “You think you can bring back the dead?”

“Dead!?!!” Spike’s voice trembled in fear.

“You don’t even know what I’m talking about!” her voice filled with anger, “Get out,” she opened the door with her magic, “OUT.”

Spike did not even think twice when he ran toward Golden Oak Library.

“You killed her, you murderer,” Rainbow Dash swooped in from above, Spike only ran hard.

“Running away jus' like the little coward you are,” Applejack trotted behind him, Spike only increased his pace, tripping and slamming head first on the ground.

The moment he looked up, he saw Fluttershy using the stare on him, “MONSTER,” she yelled at him. Spike shrieked then picked himself and ran his hardest toward the library.

He finally reached the library, quickly he opened the door as fast as he could, “Twilight,” he yelled, “You’ve got to help me, every pony’s saying I killed…” his voice was cut off when he saw Celestia walking down the stairs.

“Twilight?” her voice was filled with sadness, her eyes red with tears, “Twilight is dead,” She chocked on that last word, then started crying in front of him.

“No,” Spike uttered in disbelief.

“You killed her, remember?” Princess Luna appeared to his right, her once stoic posture was now filled with ill-intent.

“No” Spike refused to believe what they are telling him.

“You burned when you lost control, don’t you remember?” Princess Cadence appeared to his left, there was no love in her voice, just the sheer spite she had toward him.

“NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,” Spike couldn’t take it anymore, he opened the door and ran away; he didn’t care where; he just needed to get out of there at any cost.

Weariness crept on Spike as he stumbled again biting the ground for the second time. He could not, no, did not believe that there will come a day where he could even harm his Twilight. However, he suddenly finds himself in a graveyard, there was Shining Armor near a tombstone, Spike gulped, then approached the Captain warily.

Shining didn’t even spare him a second glance, he simply stepped aside; Spike took a step forward, hearing his heart pounding Spike looked up to read what was written on the grave, what he saw destroyed whatever bits of him are left.

“Here lies Princess Twilight Sparkle,

Princess of magic,

A great sister,

A greater friend,

Died by the fires of her number one assistant.”

Spike's wail reached the heavens, of all the possible worst scenarios, of all the nightmares he had after King Sombra’s palace was nothing compared to this.

Spike suddenly broke his wail when he felt Shining armor’s hoof on his shoulder, looking up at his brother, he did not see any hate, only sadness, “Just answer me this,” Shining’s voice showed tiredness beyond imagination, “Why?”

Spike sniffed, then he wiped the snot with his hand, “I…I…” he tried to explain when he felt a hoof on his paw.

Spike looked down, the lavender hoof was coming from the ground, but just as the realization hit, Spike was dragged into the grave where a rotting Twilight screamed at his face, “Why, Spike, Why?”

Spike screamed and cowered as others pointed at him and laughed, cursed, called him a monster, a traitor, a coward…

‘Make it stop; make it stop, make it stop.’ He wanted the nightmare to end, he wanted all of this to end, when all of a sudden, a voice rose above all others, ‘do you wish for this to stop?’ it told him, ‘then turn toward the nightmare, and use the darkness in your heart.’

The darkness in my heart? Spike nodded, then stepped up, all the faces of his friends, his family, every pony he ever knew, shouting and blaming him for what happened, he wanted it all to disappear, and he knew the only way, The darkness in my heart!

He breathed fire, dark flames wiped away the angry faces, the hate, and the sadness, there was nothing left but fury.

The small sphere suddenly started to expand. Then with a loud explosion, it dissipated revealing behind it a large winged dragon with purple scales and a green crown, his roar boomed even louder than the detonation that preceded it.

“Welcome to the world of the living, my dragon,” The new alicorn boomed in what resembles the Canterlot royal voice, “How does it feel being reborn?”

The dragon contemplated his arms, wings, his size above all; then started to laugh, “It feels great, I feel invincible,” He looked at the alicorn in front of him, “Is this you’re doing?”

When the alicorn nodded, the dragon bowed, “I am honored that you chose to spare my life of all creatures, I was nothing but a small feeble hatchling who was a burden on the rest of you.”

“Nonsense, if you weren’t that important to me, I would have never decided to heal you, to kiss you with the nightmare,” she lowered herself to his eye level, “However, I will no longer tolerate weakness on your behalf. Prove to me you are worthy of my gift. Prove your worth to be by my side.”

“Anything my queen, you name it and it shall be done.”

“I want you to kill the creature who imprisoned my people. I want you to hunt down Tirek and to bring me his head.”

With a grin, the dragon gave another bow. Scanning his surrounding, he took a few sniffs around then flew toward the direction of his prey.

Tirek snapped back the moment he heard the roar, the fear of seeing that alicorn was now being replaced by a more primordial fear, the fear of being hunted by a greater predator.

He stumbled on his feet, he had two broken legs, several broken ribs, a ruptured stomach, and a host of other injuries. Yet he kept running, despite all his injuries he couldn’t stop. he knew if he stopped, he’s dead.

He suddenly heard a wing flap above him. Panic gripped him. He fires a magic beam toward the noise only to hit the air. The flapping came from another direction, Tirek launched another beam to that direction, again he hit nothing.

“Show yourself,” Tirek bellowed panicking.

To his surprise, he heard a reply, “as you wish.”

The claw that suddenly wrapped around his neck seemed to have come out of nowhere, Tirek suddenly realized that there is a purple and green dragon standing in front of him, though unlike his predecessor, this one was just as big as he was.

His claw squeezed tighter on his neck, “To think that I was afraid of you,” The dragon growled. Tirek tried to gasp for air, only to fail at the dragon’s strength. He tries to summon his magic even that failed as well.

“Please, have mercy,” Tirek finally pleaded, for the first time he feels despair, he wants to cling to whatever life he still has.

The dragon only grinned, “There is no mercy for the dead,” He said before plunging his free claw deep into his heart ripping it his heart out as if it was an apple on a tree, sending a strong magical wave throughout Equestria.

Author's Note

First Dark chapter, sorry about that. others will not be as kind though.

This is has also been edited. Expect the third chapter to be out soon