Author's Note

Well enjoy a new chapter be warned it is kinda meh and exposition heavy I hope to get better at presentation of huge story points so hopefully future chapters will improve

Chapter 9: Execution

Chapter 9: Execution

I woke up and checked the time it was currently four hours till Nightmare Moon and I put our plan into motion we spent two hours discussing finer points of the plan and backups in case things went wrong. The jest of my part of the plan was that I would incapacitate each of the six who would arrive at the castle tie them up and watch them till Nightmare Moon took care of Celestia and then she would teleport me to Canterlot and announce her rule. I ate and by the time I finished it was time to get ready. I quickly checked my ammo and my weapons before walking to where Nightmare said the Elements would be and waited.

Nightmare Moon

It was the time that Nightmare Moon had been waiting for centuries everything was lined up and with her new help the chosen Elements of Harmony would be taken care of letting her take care of Princess Celestia. She could not kill her unfortunately, running the risk of sparking a strong emotion in Luna’s otherwise subdued mind and getting forced out. Subduing Princess Luna’s mind took years of seeding uncertainties and trickery that she rather not waste. Nightmare Moon flared her horn and turned to mist before heading to Ponyville and so it all began.

Tristan

Nightmare Moon returned an hour ago telling me to be prepared for the new chosen bearers arrival telling me the descriptions of the five mares she thought would come to confront her. I was going to face a powerful unicorn librarian, prissy seamstress with a skill in precision, pegasus athlete, shy pegasus with some odd magic gathered around her eyes, an odd earth pony with erratic magic surrounding her, and a earth pony farmer with more magic than average.
From what Nightmare Moon told me they were all civilians so I figured this would be interesting seeing as all of them were odd in their own way but still untrained or minimal training at best.

The wait was uneventful but I passed time by checking equipment. I had just finished putting my magnum back together when I heard the door to the castle open and six pony mares walk in, like Nightmare Moon predicted, a purple unicorn with a mane and tail of various shades of purple, white unicorn with a purple mane and tail, cyan pegasus with rainbow mane and tail, tan pegasus with a pink mane and tail, pink earth pony with a cotton candy mane and tail, and a orange earth pony with a blond mane and tail. All dressed in civilian clothes not even prepared for any kind of fight.

The group seemed to finally notice me and the purple mare had a sudden spark in her eye, but miss rainbow jumped to the front and spoke up first. “Who they hay are you?”

“Why are you here?”

This time the purple unicorn stepped up putting a hand on the cyan pegasus’s shoulder. “To get the Elements of Harmony and stop Nightmare Moon.” I could see the slight quiver the unicorn tried to hide.

I looked at the group “It seems she guessed correctly.” In a blink of an eye I attacked the purple unicorn, but the pegasus was able to block the attack in the nick of time. I saw ms rainbow grunt in pain the force nearly breaking her arm. Purple’s horn glowed as she fired bolts of magic at me slowly depleting me shields with each hit. I quickly charged her but was once more blocked by the rainbow mare who once more blocked the hit at cost of her arm snapping I then kicked the mare to the ground and broke her leg, the mare screamed and promptly blacked out. Before the others could react I ran towards the purple unicorn and punched her in the chest making sure to not cave it in but I heard a couple ribs break anyway when the mare was winded I gave her another punch to the face then punched her horn causing it to break and the mare to black out.

The others were stunned for a moment but the orange mare recovered and charged me I blocked the punch feeling the force overloaded my shields. The pink one just threw random objects at me each coming from seemingly nowhere while the other unicorn just threw magic bolts at me they did nothing to me but at times could be distracting. I focused on the orange stenson wearing pony and returned my own punch, she blocked it only wincing and I continued building on my momentum each impact letting out a thwack but in the end she could only take so much and I was able to cause her to stagger back, using my opening I kneed her in the stomach, she doubled over landing on her knees like the pegasus I broke one of her legs before moving on.

The remaining three fell quickly, the pink Earth Pony being a bit more annoying to deal with because of the seemingly impossible way she moved but I was able to track her well enough to knock her out and keep her from moving. The unicorn I just chiped her horn and she blacked out and the peach pegasus just cowered in fear and I simply hit her in the back of the head to take care of her.

Nightmare Moon

Nightmare Moon heard the fighting stop almost as quickly as it had begun she did not expect anything less from what she knew of the Demon. She knew that he was efficient in dealing with problems. It seemed that she would have to honor her deal after all. She walked down the castle stairs carrying a suave air around herself a smirk showing as she looked at the scene of the fight. “I must say I’m impressed the myths and legends surrounding you summarize your fighting ability quite well. The title of Demon is quite fitting.”

Tristan looked at Nightmare Moon and shrugged, “My part of this process is over I trust you can take care of Princess Celestia yourself while I make sure these six are not going to get away?”

Nightmare Moon waved him off, “Trust me I have built sufficient power to take care of her why do you think I kept the moon from rising?”

“Good, tell me when you are done then you will carry out your part of the deal like we agreed.”

Nightmare Moon nodded with a smirk before the air around her distorted and she teleported to Canterlot Castle's entrance. She killed the guards with ease years of peace and lax training making them ill fit to fight even a basic soldier. She walked through the castle virtually unopposed. Walked through the throne room door armor and sword painted red in blood some dripping onto the floor like tears.

“We meet again Celestia, this time you do not have the elements to defeat me.”
Celestia looked at the corrupted form of her sister saying nothing. She was dressed in a similar armor but colored white and gold, the emblem of a rising sun on the breastplate her own sword in hand shining with a soft white light. Not wanting to wait Nightmare Moon snarled and closed the gap between the two starting the second fight between Celestia and Nightmare Moon started and the throne room rung with the sound of steel and magic.

Tristan

I watched the now unconscious forms of the six mares that were tied up in front of me and watched as they all started to wake up. ‘Great I was hoping that they would not wake up. Now I get to deal with the whole Celestia will get you for this and all that dribble.’ By the time they all were able to to see clearly they noticed their pain and started to groan. The purple one was the first to speak, “Ugh what happened?” she seemed to remember and it was almost as if an exclamation mark appeared over her head as her eyes focused intently on me. “You did this! My friends are hurt because of you Demon!”

I nodded my head, “Yes that is correct.”

The purple unicorn seemed to be surprised by what I said or maybe how I said it. “That’s it that’s all you have to say after severely injuring myself and my friends?” The unicorn shook her head and rubbed her temples with her hands. “That doesn't matter Princess Celestia will defeat Nightmare Moon and make you pay for hurting her subjects and student.”

“Is that so?” It was then the others woke up, all of them grunting in pain from their various injuries while the peach pegasus just cowered. Orange, White, Rainbow, and Pink started saying various things about getting me back, how I was lucky they were hurt. I just tuned them out and watched them. After so long it seemed a chance to get home was soon at hand.

Nightmare Moon

Nightmare Moon was slowly gaining the upper hand the extra power gained by keeping the moon up had helped her greatly while hindering Celestia. Celestia started on the offencive but as the fight raged on she started to show signs of weariness. Nightmare used this and forced Celestia to expend more magic and energy to defence. Now Celestia was tired and drained. Nightmare finally found the opening to finish the fight when Celestia over extended one of her swings allowing Nightmare Moon to bat the blade away and put her sword into Celestia’s lightly armored side causing the sun princess to scream in pain crumpling to the ground.

The blow while normally fatal was not so to an Alicorn, as the only way to kill one was a short ritual to consume an Alicorn’s core of power, essentially their soul and take on the slain Alicorns aspect and power. If the sudden influx of power did not burn up the one that consumed the core then the Alicorn would never be able to come back, if it did then the core would be intact and given time the alicorn would come back even if their body was destroyed.

With Celestia incapacitated Nightmare Moon quickly pulled out a rock inscribed with runes and broke it, using her magic to direct and fuel the spell encasing the Princess in a magical cage just big enough to let her move around a little. With Celestia defeated it was time to contact the Demon and prepare him for the teleportation spell she was going to use.

Tristan

A little over an hour and a half had passed and his prisoners had their pain override their anger not long after their outburst, I knocked them out to quiet their pained groans. I suddenly felt a strange feeling prod me and shouldered my gun looking for the source. Ihe prodding grew more frequent and I remembered a similar feeling during my time fighting for Discord. Having remembered how to respond to the feeling I opened myself up mentally and an annoyed huff sound in my head, “About time, didn’t Discord use a similar way of contacting you?”

I sighed, “Yes but it has been a long time since then. Anyway I guess you took care of Princess Celestia.”

“Indeed as I imagine you have taken care of the would be Element Bearers, In anycase stand next to them and I will prepare a mass teleportation spell to bring you and them to me. Once they have been properly secured we will see about sending you back to your world as I promised.”

I walked up next to them and soon after a large circle appeared on the ground shining with a dark purple light. My vision turned white and then I was suddenly dropped on the ground. Having recovered I saw Nightmare Moon standing in front of me with her arms crossed her armor covered in scratches, dents and a fair amount of blood. “You really don’t have to kneel for me.” She smirked for a moment showing a personality beyond her want for revenge and power.

“Well let's get these six mares to the dungeon and under lock and key I will get some worshippers of mine to guard them. Quite the surprise that some actually worship me but it makes creating a guard easier and decreased the amount of guards that I had to fight through.”

I got up and nodded, Nightmare Moon snapped her fingers and suddenly ponies wearing dark purple robes with the image of the moon walked forward from the shadows and began to drag each of the mares towards the dungeon. I followed the cultists along with Nightmare Moon holding a magical cage containing Princess Celestia. Each of the mares were fitted with magical inhibitors made for their respective pony type before being put in six separate cells guarded by two cultists each.

Nightmare Moon progressed further down in the dungeon beckoning me to follow Celestia was then placed In an empty corner with various magical devices that almost immediately attached to the cage.

With Celestia and the six mares taken care of, we headed back to the throne room the cultists quickly took over as guards some putting on the armor of fallen royal guards. Nightmare Moon walked up to the throne and with a glow of her horn the room darkened changing from gold and whites to midnight purples and shades of grey along with the image of the mare on the moon replacing the sun on the banners. Nightmare Moon looked at the changes her hand on her chin and slowly nodded seeming to like her handiwork.

“So now that I have helped capture the would be bearers as was our deal I believe you are to see if you can get me home and back to my previous body.” I said arms crossed

Nightmare Moon looked at me as she sat back on the throne with her legs crossed, “I did didn’t I. Seeing as you have fulfilled every one of your parts to the letter it is my turn.” Nightmare Moon stood up infront of me and put a hand on my shoulder, “Stay still and do not resist my magic, this scan your soul to look for a connection to your home the trade off is I will know you on quite a base level, memories, experiences emotions will be shown to me and possibly some of mine and my hosts will be shown to you. Knowing this do you want to continue. Nightmare Moon’s voice was like listening to a list of facts there was none of that smug confidence she usually held.

I nodded my head, “Go ahead with the spell the invasion of privacy is something I can live with for a chance to go home.”

Nightmare Moon nodded her head and began the spell my surroundings turned black and moments later images flashed before me, images of the Nightmare’s birth from Princess Luna’s slowly growing jealousy. How she slowly gained awareness and wished to be freed from Luna and her desire to rule. The nightmare’s manipulation of Luna and eventual take over and her new goal to finally split from Luna and gain her own form. Even some of Princess Luna’s memories leaked out, childhood memories, my fight against her and how much she was scared of dying, her growing jealousy and conversations with Nightmare. It was then my awareness was returned.

Nightmare Moon

Nightmare Moon cast the spell knowing she would learn all of the man’s history down to his private secrets and momentarily entertained the idea of using it to try and control him but quickly dismissed the idea seeing too much chance for backfire. Having pushed that line of thought back Nightmare focused back on the spell scanning each part of the Demon’s soul to find a connection back to where he came. As she scanned his soul she noticed that she was receiving memories of not one but two beings one was of a human going through life surrounded by family and friends. The other was very different this Human was kidnapped at a young age and trained in combat and strategy before going through some sort of surgery and later fighting what appeared to be rebels and then aliens.

Nightmare finished her scan not seeing any path to the Demon’s home but she now knew that the man before her had two different souls fused together something so rare as to be almost unheard of. Nightmare terminated the spell and prepared to tell the Demon what she had found.