Crown of Shadows

Chapters

Creep into Reality
Very wrong
Chapter 3
Time for a story

Creep into Reality

"On nights clutched in cold winter's grasp, where animals burrow deep into their holes and ponies feel the need to lock their doors, darkness creeps. Darkness that cannot be burned away by lights or magic. Darkness that cannot be destroyed by love or joy, friendship or hope."

"Darkness, in it's purest form, creeps."

"When birds go silent in the evening lit trees above, and eerie winds whisper omens of old into our ears, darkness creeps. The feeling of hair rising on the nape of your neck? A bone chilling hoof placed just between your shoulder blades when you know you're alone? Darkness causes it. Maybe you get a feeling that you are being watched from afar in the middle of the night by something sinister? Are you sure those weird sounds you hear whilst the world sleeps...are just floor boards shifting in an old house?

They are not, do not assume so.

"All these things are precursors to what we all truly fear, to what you all fear. They are the tell tale signs that we are, and always will be surrounded, by that which creeps just out of sight...

Darkness."

There was about four or five seconds of silence after the storyteller finished her tale.

"Laaaame."

A tired voice droned out from behind a group of enraptured young foals. The owner of the voice, an older colt of tawny brown coat and rusty red mane, threw a piece of candy and almost hit the storyteller.

"Can't you make it a bit more intimidating then 'darkness creeps'?"

A moment of worried hoof wringing.

"W-well we were trying too, b-but it is for the younger children, not older colts such as you scoundrels, honestly, be off with you!"

Another wrapped candy hit the stage amidst scoffing and grumbling. The trio of colts turned away from the stage.

"Come on guys, lets go check out the 'haunted postage parlor', seriously can they get any lamer?"

As the neigh-sayers wandered off, the mare on stage was brought out of her muttered curses by the sound of several small delicate hooves clapping vigorously.

Whoops, almost forgot to bow!

After a sweeping of her cape and a tip of her hat rim, Trixie hopped off her stage and landed among the younger costumed foals, growling playfully at them. They giggled and screamed in fright before running away, giddy smiles across their muzzles. when the lot of them reached the entrance to the mare's storytelling graveyard, one little colt turned back and waved.

"'Happy Nightmare Night, Ms. Lulamoon!"

Lifting here hoof in a, appreciative wave, Trixie watched as they all ran around the festival, nabbing candied apples, cotton candy, candy corn, anything with candy in it's name really, before diving back into the sea of costumed faces.

"That was rather entertaining, Trixie. I could tell you've been working on your speech huh?" The blue coated mare turned her head slowly back and genuinely smiled as a familiar purple alicorn dressed in dark blue royal night guard armor walked up from behind the portable stage. Trixie couldn't help but feel her cheeks redden ever so faintly as her teacher and friend complimented her on her skills once more.

She rubbed her shoulder nervously, and smiled. "We are trying to improve, Princess Twilight, though Trixie feels as if the older these scamps get, the less enthused they become. It won't be long before even little Pip the Pirate stops coming by and thinks we are 'lame'." Trixie let her hat and head droop a bit at that, but unlike her old self, she perked back up in a second or two and stamped a hoof into the dirt.

"We suppose we'll just have to try harder at the next performance, maybe add some smoke, or--oh! Magically augmented fireworks made to explode into the form of Nightmare Moon herself!" Trixie danced on her hooves and then trotted past her mentor, to the stage beyond. Twilight Sparkle chuckled and readjusted a shoulder pauldron.

"Ya know, I wouldn't go too overboard, you might set something on fire like last ye--"

A piece of candy shot out and hit the armored chest plate, and the alicorn looked up to see Trixie with a flustered look and frazzled mane as she reset a fog machine with a wrench gripped tightly in her magic.

"ONE TIME! One time we did that and it was an accident! Is it too much to ask that we not let it slip out for one nightmare night celebration? Besides, we had informed you that spiders are not to our liking, and so when we got on stage," Trixie grumbled and finished resetting the machine before waggling the wrench threateningly at the Princess, who was now holding back a giggle.

"What was dangling over it? A giant freaking spider! It was completely rational of us to set it ablaze considering what Trixie has seen you and the elements of harmony attract out of that accursed forest!"

Twilight failed in holding back a loud snark of laughter, and Trixie glared at her, shoving the wrench back into the toolbox she kept just off stage.

"We find nothing funny about this, Princess Sparkle! We don't talk so flippantly to others about your irrational fear of cheese quesadill--MMPH!!!"

Trixie was yanked down off the stage, and before she could properly defend herself, Twilight had pulled her to the dirt and covered her mouth with a silver shod hoof. The royal mare looked around quickly and with worry on her face before letting go and whispering closely.

"We do NOT talk about the cheese factor in public! Your just asking for Discord to toy with me like he did last year." A shudder passed through Twilight's body and Trixie felt her mentor's wing tighten around her shoulder.

"....Quesadilla costume, pah! 'I'm finding my ethnic roots'...yeah right...that thing is more like a spawn of tartarus."

a momentary pause of silence. Trixie smiled sheepishly at twilight. "...Er, the costume, or Discord?"

Twilight rolled her eyes and went to reply when a gentle cough from the entrance caught both mares by surprise. Looking up, they found none other then Mayor Mare standing there with three or four young foals at her sides. The young ponies nervously looked from Trixie to Twilight. There was an equal amount of awe among the bunch of them. As the foals slowly walked forward under the guiding hoof of Mayor Mare, hushed whispers met the grappled pair near the stage.

"It really is Princess Twilight!"

"Who is the mare next to her? Is that Trixie?"

"You mean you don't know what the student of Princess Twilight looks like?"

"How am I supposed to know, she's had like four of them!"

"Three actually."

All the foals mouths fell quiet as Mayor Mare spoke up. She looked at them with a relaxed smile, and pointed to the now standing mares. Trixie had dusted herself off and was now preparing the stage, while Twilight sat and beckoned the newcomers forward with a wing.

"That is correct, Mayor. My first student, was Starlight Glimmer. Very good with temporal magic theory, quantum spell mechanics, and a bit on the brash side, but all in all a good friend and an excellent friend. I believe she'd visiting with family in her hometown this year."
One of the foals lifted their hoof rapidly, and before Twilight could even pick them, they spoke.

"Oh! oh! is that the mare that wore the mechanical suit last year? That was so cool!"

Twilight smiled and shook her head, watching as the foals began sitting around her in a semi circle. Some of their tails were certainly wagging happily.

"No, that was my second student, Lyra Heartstrings. She's a bit of a gamer, tinkerer, and historian. Her passion is finding fact from fiction through her musical magic skills, but mostly she just really likes making things ponies don't think can come true, into a reality. The mechanical suit was sort of her way of showing others that anything is possible if you put your mind to it."

Mayor mare grimaced and blushed.

"Y-yes she did get a little...grabby with those mechanical appendages of hers though, i had to ask her stop picking up the foals. I thought she might--"

"So what does Trixie do?" All heads turned to a grey pegasus mare who was looking at Twilight with a quizzical frown. Twilight put a hoof to her chin, giving the illusion of deep thought.

"Hmmm good question...why don't you ask her yourself?" Twilight stood and maneuvered out of the fillies way, allowing the young mare to flap up onto the stage in her hunt for the suddenly unaccounted mare.

"Trixie? hello?"

No reply came.

the foals behind her suddenly gasped and murmured as fog started to billow out across the stage. It slid off the stage and surrounded the group, the nearest foal coughed lightly and looked around nervously.

"U-um hello?" From the side of the stage, Twilight caught ear of a dark rolling laughter, it wasn't one she'd heard in a long time but she remembered it well enough. The laughter rose in volume as the fog swirled softly onto the small crowd of foals....and then, it died suddenly. By now the filly was shaking at the knees slightly. She shook her self and stamped out the shivers, her chest puffing out in mock bravery.

"I...I want to know what you do, Great and powerful Trixie!" She was defended with several nods and stamping of hooves from her fellow foals beneath her. The laughter arose again but this time as if flowing right up to the foal.

"What do we do, foal?" The filly shrieked and jumped off the stage as a black ominous form rose out of the fog, seemingly from nowhere. It grew and grew, until with a sudden shudder and shake, burst into form. Standing there, in all her splendor, was the mighty Nightmare Moon. Teeth glistening, her body in a cat like pose, poised to strike at any moment as the evil alicorn cackled mirthlessly. Thunder struck out across the sky behind her and the pegasus filly fainted right on the spot.

the rest screamed and dove behind mayor mare, who for the most part played along with an exaggerated gasp of awe. Nightmare flared her wings, casually sat down, and admired one of her feathered limbs with a cruel smile.

"I don't feel very encouraged to answer that, as I see no offerings of sweets before me. If you wish to show some respect for this eldritch queen of the night, not get gobbled up, and maybe get that question answered...give me something sweet to bite...."

Twilight was thankful she had cast a silence bubble over her mouth, because at that moment an entire bag of candy smacked Nightmare moon in the face and exploded everywhere. The 'alicorn' stared forward as candy rained down around her, mostly in confusion.

"TAKE IT! Just please don't eat me!" All eyes caught the glimpse of a pink mare in a blue and yellow vault suit blurring past them and simultaneously giving each foal a candy bag and a single bat topped cupcake. Nightmare blinked away her confusion and cackled loudly.

"Ah yes run! Run and flee for you have been spared by moving so quickly pink entity of the vaults, for I , Nightmare Moon will find you one day and gobble your soul!" She suddenly lept off the stage and landed a foot from the brave pegasus filly who'd dared question her actions. The foal had recovered from her fainting spell and was standing proudly, albeit still shaking visibly, she was glaring up at the tall mare.

"SO! you want to know what the great and powerful Trixie does?" Nightmare leaned her head down until her and the foal were mere inches apart. The filly back stepped and fell on her rump, too slow to see it happen, she was gently bopped on the nose by the alicorn, who now held a very gentle and motherly smile.

"Trixie tricks and she treats."

A blood moon.

A rare occurrence where the earth's shadow covers the moon, bathing it in the crimson glow of the sun. Sometimes thought of as an omen in ancient times, ponies would flock to lunar churches and pray to the Princess of the night, Princess Luna. Others took it as an odd boon, a stroke of luck upon them, and they'd do things differently the next day as a sign of appreciation. Sometimes it was thought of as a gift from the celestial Alicorn sisters. That they would change the very color of a celestial body, if but for a brief period for all to see. A few scholars also dared to say it was connected to Princess Luna's heat cycles, and considering how rarely alicorns had children, some went to agree with these knowledgeable bodies.

Only to find them buried nine feet under for such a perverted presumption.

The truth was simple though, the earth and moon revolved around the sun, and sometimes the earth would blanket the moon in it's massive shadow. Celestia used to joke with Luna about it. Saying "I'm giving you a warm hug that's out of this world". Luna had failed at the time to see the humor in the statement. She was in a darker time then, and thought her moon looked like it was covered in blood.

Hence the name.

As the lunar Princess sat outside her balcony, enjoying the fresh air, the stars and moon above, and the cheering from down in Canterlot, she couldn't stop a shiver from passing down her spine. Nightmare Night was in all intent and purpose, a celebration. A party meant to frighten and to inspire, and Luna couldn't find any holiday more enjoyable then her own. She had partied hard within the limits of Ponyville, with Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie pie dragging her from booth to booth in an attempt to show her every possible thing they could before she had to leave.

Another shiver ran down her back, and Luna shook herself, opening her wings and closing them once more in an attempt to rid her thoughts of darkness. She knew, as did her sister, that nightmare night would always be more then a holiday.

It was a reminder.

Nightmare night was a reminder of Luna's worst moment in history, the day she'd turned to the dark side and tried to overthrow the sun itself. She had begun to spiral into darker and darker moods, reacting less and less to the optimism of her ponies and her sister, until one day the darkness reacted. It had offered her a friend that would never leave, a companion who would always listen, and power that could rival her sister's. After a long period of fighting to stay above her ill thoughts, she had eventually embraced this new option, and unknowingly gave her soul to pure darkness. From the ashes of her mistake, Nightmare moon had arisen, using Luna's body, her magic, and her mind like a puppet on strings.

Ultimately failing her coup, she had been banished to the very entity she was soul bound to protect. The sole companion she had during those thousand years then showed her true colors in the form of a blackened alicorn with fear and power radiating off her in coiled tendrils of darkness. Nightmare Moon had patronized luna day in and day out about her failure to become stronger, her weakness to fight back, and her futile attempts to rid the darkness from her heart.

In the end, only the elements of harmony had saved her, and that hadn't been till a thousand years later.

Another shiver ran down her back and Luna snorted in annoyance. She knew why the shivers came and went, what they were trying to do, and she had tried so hard to ignore it. She stood and shook herself fully from mane to tail, and then waited.

...
...

another shiver.

"It is harder to ignore the signs then it is to accept them, yes?"

Luna flicked an ear back and sighed, watching from her left side as her sister Celestia came to stand beside her. Celestia was wearing a rather simple blue dress that was covered in stars, moons, and bats; all of these made from silver. Her normal regalia was replaced with silver shod shoes and a torque that looked like it had been half burned in a fire for a century or two. Atop her head was her crown, albeit with a burned mask adorning one side of it that covered her left eye completely and most of her cheek.

"Thou sees through us even to this day, Tia.....Hmm, the silver bats are a nice touch to your dress, oh haunted spirit of thy ballroom."

Celestia held a small smile and looked down at her chest for but a moment, before looking out over the expanse the sisters called their kingdom. For a while neither spoke, until a shared shiver ran over their coats. Celestia sat and put a wing protectively around her sister, to which Luna leaned closer.

"You feel it as well then, Tia?"

a nod.

"Yes, as does Cadance. Somewhere out there, a darkness we can't see, but we know it's present."

Luna hummed and leaned closer, nibbling a spot on Celestia's neck out of habit. Celestia leaned into the touch.

"What will we do then? Are the elements aware of it?" Luna watched a wane smile come across her taller sister's face, before Celestia nodded again and looked down at Luna.

"Yes, I told twilight what the shivers meant, and the first thing she wanted to do was disprove it." they both smirked.

"Of course the student would wish to do so, she is of the sciences and can't take us at word alone, alicorn or not it seems. What of the others? Their reactions?"

Celestia chuckled and nuzzled her sister atop her head, Luna swished her tail in enjoyment.

"Rainbow Dash wants to fight it head on, Applejack declared she wouldn't let it touch her farm, Fluttershy shied away a bit, and Rarity merely frowned while admiring her hooves...."

Luna merely sighed and then counted in her head before looking perplexed and...slightly worried.

"And what of the pink one?" At this Celestialit up her horn suddenly and a large blue, white, purple, and pink blanket easily fifty feet in width and length appeared above them. Celestia laughed as the spell went out and Luna shrieked as the large cloth landed atop them abruptly, covering almost the entire balcony in cloth. The muffled whinnies and neighing of her younger sister made Celestia grin.

"She gave me this blanket and said we should share it, so none of us catch colds."

A blue wing extended out and smacked Celestia's side, causing the Alicorn to quickly brace her front hooves on the stone as she began to laugh.

"Tia! Get this thrice damned cloth off our balcony at once! We cannot see where we are going--OOF!"

Two alicorns fell over amidst the fabric, mixtures of grumbling and laughing combined as the blanket was draped in golden magic and teleported away. Celestia was on her side, a hoof holding her sister down as they tussled. Luna was in a head lock and was furiously batting a wing against her sister's thigh in an attempt to break the hold. Luna growled and flailed, trying to get away from her sister's iron grip.

"Thou will cease thy assaults on our heavenly body at once!"

Celestia laughed and playfully nipped one of Luna's ears, the action elicited a muffled squeak and a fit of giggles from the lunar mare.

"Oh come on Lu lu, when was the last time you and I had some fun together?" a hoof descended to Luna's belly fur and began vigorously tickling her sides.

"We-Ehehahah! W-we will not be subjected to-Snrk!-- T-this torture! Re-AHAHAH! not the ear!--Re-release us at once!"

Luna finally broke away from her sister with a triumphant squeal and jumped from the balcony, Celestia followed suit a second later. Down below them, the guards and nearby citizens cheered and clapped as their princess also enjoyed the holiday. For some, it showed the bond that the sisters had repaired over the last twenty years, and for others, it merely meant that the night was young and there was more fun to be had.

By the time Luna felt another shiver, it was nearing sunrise. After their impromptu race around the castle, Celestia had contacted Twilight and the three alicorns and fellow harmony bearers were treated to an all you can eat smorgasbord within the castle kitchens. Applejack and Luna had been the victors there, hooves down.

The night had lasted long, and was filled with many warm and memorable moments, but soon everyone had been so tuckered out that they'd all commandeered Celestia's bedroom in the name of sleep. Twilight, Celestia, and Luna were all snuggled up in one big alicorn pile atop Celestia's bed. Nearby on cushions and couches were the other elements and spike, the now teenage dragon had his large body wrapped protectively around Rarity.

and Luna, Luna was awake again, if only briefly. Her head nestled right next to her drooling sister, with Twilight sleeping rather casually across the white mare's back, a purple wing draped lovingly over Luna. Even though the shiver had woken her up, Luna drifted back to sleep quite quickly, and with a smile. Knowing she had family and was not alone any longer made the darkness around the room less creepy it seemed.

But darkness always creeps.

....a broken bookshelf....a dilapidated door.... a torn tapestry...worn stone....cold, hard stone....

She shivered.

The stone was so cold, frost even covered it's edges and the pages of a nearby book were clearly frozen together. She blearily blinked open her eyes and tried to lift her head, but unable to find the strength to do so, it fell back to the stone with out a sound. She coughed haggardly, a breath of frost escaping her lips.

weak...so...weak.

She looked around again, this time with just her eyes. The room she was in looked vaguely familiar to her. If not mistaken, this was the main atrium to the royal throne room. If she could just turn her head a little to the right, she could see if it were true...was she really...

her head shifted laboriously to the side, and her eyes fell on the remains of a pair of damaged and forgotten thrones not fifty feet from her spot.

...so...that means...

I am...alive?.....no...this cannot be so....another nightmare then...Sighing, coughing, and the flipping her ears back against her neck, she closed her eyes. Like all the previous dreams and night terrors she had, she tried to let the dream wither away like all the rest. Snippets of previous dreams came to mind as she did so. A battle between two gods in this one, a flowery field covered in sleeping ponies in another, a destroyed and barren wasteland, devoid of life... So on and so on as the pieces drifted in and out of her mind, muddled though it currently was. As she lay there, she thought of her previous life once more. It was a topic she came back to on many occasions when she had enough lucidity to remember.

Defeated by the elements of harmony. Blasted into galaxy knows how many pieces...Not exactly the best comeback to be honest. That was the odd thing though, she had actually come back once more. Now, as her mind reformed and her body shifted and moved, she waited for the dream to loose it's strength and fade like all the rest. Another shiver ran through her, right down her spinal column to the tip of her tail.

she had a spine again?

Something was off. She could still feel the stone, and the scent of old dust as it lingered past her nostrils. Dreams did not normally last this long when she willed them to leave her be. The aether she had been apart of for so long was fine tuned to hear her words and obey, and yet...it wasn't?

She peaked an eye open, and saw the same book still sitting before her, frozen just like before. More frost was collecting around it and her hooves...

.....not..a dream? Slowly lifting her head, she gauged that she had a bit more strength then previously and looked around the dilapidated castle. She looked to the thrones, then to the side passages that still stood, and then to the exit, it all looked like it did when she'd fought here before. She sighed, letting a cold cloud of frost hover before her muzzle before it too dissipated. Something touched her leg.

She looked down, to find a rather peculiar sight before her. She was not whole yet.

Her legs, chest, and even part of her cheek were missing, where they should be perfect were wisps of shadowy tendrils clawing out and thrashing quietly but desperately. She felt something touch her again, this time from her side, and looked behind her. Her wings were also not fully formed. Several feathers were either missing, partially formed or finished but in odd angles. She would have to preen it seemed, else she leave this place looking like a disheveled mess.

that wasn't the odd thing though.

The shadows around her, they were breaking away from their positions and crawling towards her. Once reaching her form, they started mending the missing pieces of her body. Slowly she watched as they reformed her into a whole mare again. Sometimes the blobs of darkness would hop and bounce, as if full of energy and life. Leaping over entire books or gaps in the floor to get to her, while others slithered and swayed around objects in their way. Coiling around table legs and columns of stone that had fallen from the ceiling. The outcome was the same. They were rebuilding her....

But...how is this to be? Why am I back?? She watched for a time as the little bloblits continued to appear around her, sometimes they would collide and become a larger blob before melding into her side or a limb. anywhere that wasn't fully finished, seemed to get attacked with gusto until the job was complete. In the end, they finally disappeared and no more came into view. While she definitely though it was odd, the stone beneath her finally started to annoy her with it's freezing temperatures and she attempted to stand.

It took a moment or two to remember how her legs worked, but when she did at last stand at her full height, Nightmare moon breathed a huge sigh of relief and flexed her wings out slowly until they were at their longest, smiling in pleasure as her ears heard several muted pops and cracks as her joints lost their tightness.

She hummed and then tried to speak.

"NEEEIGH!!" A hoof shot up and closed over her mouth almost instantly. Nightmare moon would never let such a horrible sound breach her lips, and yet...it had happened. She stood there with a mortified look on her face for a moment longer before trying yet again to speak.

"...Nee....whinny...neigh!?" Her attempt to speak was rather surprising. She couldn't actually form words for a moment, and ended up instead making animalistic noises! Something wasn't right, that much a she could tell, and several more attempts to form words failed fantastically with a loud braying or whinny escaping her lips. Nightmare snorted and pawed at the frost beneath her hooves in irritation.

It was as if a vice sealed around her throat and shut the sounds she was attempting to make completely out. She could form any words.....that was bad. She didn't like that one bit, but neither could she understand why or how it had happened.

Maybe my torc is in the way?

Reaching a hoof up to check it's position made her blink in surprise. She looked down and found that neither her torc, nor any of her armor was visible either, in fact she couldn't find it anywhere! Nightmare tried to growl and found that at least she'd been gifted with THAT noise, and she used it well in those few moments. She began to walk around the room, checking the bookshelf, the thrones and even behind them for any trace of her regalia....only to come out of it empty hooved. She snarled and smacked her hoof into the floor.

Where is my Regalia!?

Nightmare huffed and began pacing about left and right in a flurry. Her wings twitched, her tail thrashed and her ears lay pinned back against her neck as she tried to think of some reason she had neither her armor nor her voice. To her dismay she couldn't figure out why she would lose them.

I have a body, I have my power...I think...I am alive and in one piece....I think....So where the heck did my other stuff go!? Just to be sure she checked if she did in fact have all of herself present.

Wings? Check. Horn? Check? Legs? check, check, check, and check. Mane and tail? Check. Cutie mar--

Where there should have been a dark purple splotch and a white moon....was plain black fur. Nightmare moon's eyes widened and she snarled, whirling in place and then reversing the direction as she verified that her cutie mark was indeed gone. She came to a stop with her legs in a widened stance, desperation and worry lancing across her face and her mind raced to find where luna's---

She gasped.

They aren't mine, they never were.....

It clicked and Nightmare moon sat down rather suddenly in shock....her voice...was luna's....her cutie mark...was luna's.....and her regalia...It was all Luna's. None of it had been hers because she'd stolen Luna's body. Now, without any of these, Nightmare moon felt....

naked.

cautiously lifting a hoof to her chest, she slowly rubbed where the silver torc had once sat and felt like something had been taken from her. She felt so alienated without her helm, her shoes and her voice. It had all been repossessed by the mare she'd defeated, and now she was without the power she had craved. Then another thing came to the darkened mare.

Something was taken from me, my kingdom! Nightmare snarled again and kicked a pile of books into the wall angrily.

Those mares, and Celestia! They stole my crown from me! She snorted and looked out a open hole in the ceiling, to canterlot, her eyes ablaze with revenge. A sneer came across her muzzle.

Well, enjoy your precious peace while you can, because Nightmare moon is back, and she is going to get what she is rightfully owed!

As she stamped her hoof down in verification of her words, she realized that without her actual voice to amplify the feeling, the action felt rather empty. She sighed and started towards the doors, revenge wrapped around her thoughts and a first objective already set before her.

I need a voice.

Very wrong

She was on the edge.

Nightmare could feel the very thin line of magic that sat not a few feet in front of her, and she scowled. Raising her horn once more, she pummeled the barrier with magic for several long seconds. A frown creased on her lips as her magic disappeared, leaving behind a completely unharmed barrier.

"W-why can't I cross...?" She mumbled whilst sitting down. Her wings opened half way as she put a hoof to her chin and fell into deep thought. There was a large dome like shield over Ponyville that seemed to repel all forms of magic off it's surface. Not only that, but it was alicorn magic, meaning either Luna or Celestia had cast it. That left her wondering why they would come out here in the first place to do such a thing.

Such powerful magic for such a cruddy looking town.... Her frown deepened.

Ponyville was almost antique in stature. By design alone, the buildings looked like they were several decades older then they should be for the current era, and the surrounding lands were wild and untamed, save for closely guarded fields near the town's edge. The town seemed to have no guards or barracks for armies, and no castles were present either.

So why would they need such a powerful barrier? Nightmare stood and walked along it's edge, noting that the barrier came all the way out to the beginning of the Everfree forest, but never beyond that.

Perhaps to keep the beasts from their homes? No that can't be right, I am hardly a beast and I can't physically pass through it either....She tapped the magic wall a few times to see if there were any weak spots, but to her annoyance any sort of contact with the shield--magical or not--only seemed to temporarily make it stronger. Sighing in frustration, the alicorn began slowly angling around the shield instead, her next destination being Canterlot.

I'd hoped to get a voice before confronting the sisters, but I suppose there is a poetic beauty in silence, if anything it will unnerve them.

Nightmare grinned devilishly at the thought of seeing them beaten down before her might, the sun's body draped protectively over her lunar twin in a last ditch effort to save the poor mare from annihilation. They would not succeed, and she would show every pony, griffon, zebra, and minotaur that Nightmare moon was back for good.

As she walked around the shield, her ears flicked back towards the forest every now and again, a sound piercing the rather silent forest. Nightmare found it pleasing to know that upon exiting the castle, the surrounding creatures immediately felt her presence and were smart enough to shut up. She did not like obnoxious noise. Still, it seemed some of the beasts that lived within the forest had something dangling between their legs, else they too would have fallen silent.

Respect and obey me or die. This is my verdict to those who think opposition is a good idea.

The thought of killing something set Nightmare's neck hairs tingling with enjoyment. Oh yes, she would do many a great things to those who dared fight back this time. IF any stallion, mare, or foal chose to fight against her, they'd soon find themselves impaled from shoulder to hip on spears.

Rather nice lawn decorations, I think.

Smart ones would simply obey and be cast into slavery. Those with useful talent would be given proper ranks in her armies and any who showed true loyalty...Well.....Let it be said that Nightmare rewarded those who followed her previously. For a moment Nightmare paused, a sound she'd heard several times to her left had refused to abate and it was starting to bother her. She waited, listing as the sound rustled around in the brush, fell silent, and then continued to do so. It was smaller then her, moving closer, and had some form of stealth training.

Either it's a predator like me....or it's--

Her thought was cut short as a young timber wolf burst from the shrubbery nearly ten feet in front of her, snarling and chasing what looked like a small rodent of some sort. The critter was white and had a small puffy tail on it's rear end.

ah. A bunny....Why does it have a knife? Nightmare let her head tilt to the side in curiosity.

Looking closer as the two scurried around each other, Nightmare noticed the timber wolf had several small knifes embedded in it's head and one down near it's paw. The bunny, currently cackling and chattering a small battle cry, was wearing some sort of costume that resembled a fighter of sorts. a small bandoleer of knives was attached to it's chest and a set of black streaks were swiped under it's eyes. It also had an armored head band wrapped around it's forehead with a carrot engraved into the plate. The alicorn paused and watched with rapt attention as the two squared off for a moment, each one gauging the other's reactions before they lunged.

fancy that, the hunter has become the hunted it seems. Nightmare smirked as the bunny adeptly leaped right through the wolf's open maw just as they opened. When the wolf went to close it's mouth, it found a blade wedged between it's jaws and a bunny sitting atop it's back, just between it's shoulder blades. Flipping a knife up in it's tiny paws, the Bunny screamed in fury and drove the knife in between the two chunks of wood. The wolf yelped and then whimpered, scampering around and then right back through the brush, the bunny squeaking in triumph atop it's back.

For a moment, Nightmare stood there and blinked slowly, her brain unwilling to process what she had just seen. closing her eyes, she shook her head gently and smiled.

perhaps discord is still about the world, I'll enjoy toying with him.

Nightmare looked ahead of her and found that the shield was finally beginning to curve ever so slightly to the right, giving her more room between her and the forest. Spreading her wings out at her sides, she braced herself and leaped into the air, her wings beat firmly at her sides as she gained altitude. Once well off the ground, Nightmare turned and faced ponyville.

It is so small, I could obliterate it in a single spell, yet where would the fun in that be? I'll save you all for dessert. Cackling loudly, she veered around and faced Canterlot. Her smile grew as she started getting closer to the mountain.

Soon...i will have my---

"URK! GAH!"

Nightmare's smile vanished as a searing pain reverberated through her body, from the tip of her horn down to her hooves. She seized up in mid air, her wings snapping closed and her body slowly beginning to free fall towards the ground. Her legs refused to fold closed, frozen in half tucked positions as she brayed and whinnied in frustration as the ground loomed closer and closer.

Crap! What just happen--- With a fierce cry of anger, Nightmare collided with the ground and......

.....
....
W-what?.....Why didn't that hurt?

taking a moment to gain her bearings, Nightmare looked around. The area before her was just a field, no abnormal markers or strange magical resonances. The only odd thing was that her vision seemed distorted somehow. It was like she was looking through purple hazy fog or....wait...Nightmare looked down and almost smacked herself with a hoof, if she had one.

I've become smoke....Okay, that isn't so bad. I've done this many times before, no problem. I can just fly over the ground towards uuurrrrg.....ow! ow! what the---OW!

For reasons unknown to Nightmare, every time she tried to head closer to canterlot, a serious pain grew in her chest until it was unbearable and she had to float backwards. The puddle of Nightmare sat in the grass, almost pouting. small tendrils of herself whipped around and cut a few stalks of the tall wheat down in retaliation.

WHY!? Why can't I move forward? The glob of darkness boiled in anger and sifted quickly to the right and tried again.

pain. unbearable pain.

OKay the left then!

pain. unbearable pain.

Aaaag....why...is it...refusing my advances.....WHAT is refusing my advances....dammit....Floating to the ground once more, Nightmare tried to reform herself into a physical form, only to frown and sigh as the spell sputtered and failed. Although darkness was what made her, Nightmare groaned as her vision blurred and she burbled into a tighter glob.

Dammit...used too...much...energy. Need to...sleep.

As she drifted off, Nightmare felt a small tremor nearby, but thought nothing of it. Nothing would dare mess with the blob of the night.

Nothing....

"Momma! what is that?"

"Hmm? Looks like a blob of some sort..."

"Oooh cool, can I keep it?"

"Um, sir honey, jut uh...put it in this jar okay?"

"Okay! I'mma name you Squidlet!"

Nightmare groaned and shifted onto her side, or what felt like her side. She was rather snugly fit together in her bed. The sheets were rather nicely tucked around her in all directions, just the way she liked it. Her movement was a little constrained but that was alright. Nightmare was a nester, she liked being in small spaces.

Blearily looking around for a moment, she admired the nice tall glass walls of her bedroom, and the forest debris that floated just to her left.

Mmm...my bedroom never had leaves and twigs in....---

Nightmare was jolted awake as her entire form rocked back and force suddenly. Looking around more clearly she was immediately aware that something was very, very wrong.

Where the heck am I!?

Shifting to look up, Nightmare felt her anger double. She was in a mason jar. Not only that, but she was sitting in the back of a wagon that had a bunch of store equipment and some fruit crates. A grey coated pegasus mare was flying the cart in front, hooked into a harness. Nightmare Moon felt the jar tilt suddenly and she hissed when a large shadow fell over her prison.

"Hey mom, is it supposed to hiss?"

Nightmare was looking up into the face of a young unicorn foal. She was similarly colored like her parent, but with an off shaded coat of light purple. She was currently tapping the glass with a hoof gently, but to Nightmare it sounded like a cannon was going off repeatedly right next to her.

STOP THAT, FOAL!

The foal squeaked and back pedaled into the crate. Her eyes widened in fear and surprise.

"M-MOM! I think...I think I caught a genie!"

Ooh...if Nightmare had eyes, they'd be rolling right out the cart.

"Hmm? Dinky, is it doing something?"

The mare angled her head back and Nightmare noticed that the mare's eyes were slightly off, like she'd been hit rather hard once and one eye had gone off on it's own agenda. She eyed the jar with a hint of curiosity and a good helping of worry.

"M-mom, it spoke to me!" The foal squeaked in both surprise and happiness. the mother raised her brows.

"Huh, here let mommy see it."

Nightmare was unceremoniously tossed about and jostled and the foal managed to half levitate half carry it to her mother, who graciously had a gentle touch. She eyed the jar and held it out at arm's length.

"Hello? Anyone in there?"

Nightmare sighed and for a moment contemplated staying silent just to spite the foal, but then she realized something rather bluntly. The foal had heard her....so, that meant that ....

Release me from this prison.

For several seconds the pegasus stared at the jar, her expression a mixture of confusion and shock as she looked closer. Night grinned inwardly. so she could hear the alicorn....good, she would use that to her--

"Dinky, you used the jar I said not to, this is for peaches."

"I did? Oh...sorry... momma..."

Nightmare screamed silently in the jar, and whirled around the tiny confines in anger. A tiny tornado of rage.

LET.ME.GO!

"M-momma! You're making it angry, see--OH!"

Dinky gasped and whimpered as Derpy suddenly lost her grip on the jar and it slipped out of her hooves. Nightmare screamed for an entirely different reason now. Her power was too condensed for her to break out of the jar and the lid had been magically sealed, so if she had no way to get out on her own, then the only way to escape was by someone opening it for her.

CATCH ME YOU ARSE OF A--POMF!

Above her, Dinky clamped her ears tight against her skull as the jar fell below the cloud cover and out of sight.

"U-um....I don't think we need that jar mom, that wasn't a very nice genie anyway." A hoof connected softly with her head and Dinky hummed as her mother smiled warmly.

"That's my girl. We can always get another jar."

Nightmare was plummeting faster and faster towards the ground. Imagine a face that has seen so much crap recently that their expression is stuck on "screw my life" permanently. That would be pretty close to Nightmare's expression right about then. She was so done with her situation that as the ground become clear she merely opened her eyes and sighed.

Well, if anything is good from this blunder, it's that I will be free.

She looked down. She grimaced.

Down below her, was a large, forest covered mountain range that spanned for miles. No area around her was familiar to her memories. Either Canterlot was just around the corner of these mountains...or she'd been asleep for quite the flight. Further thoughts were demolished as the jar collided with a tree trunk and the jar exploded into thousands of shards that flew in all directions. A nearby group of birds took off as the glass explosion erupted around the forest. To her credit, Nightmare moon remained mostly calm as she was thrown from the prison and into a thin but sharp tree branch that split her smokey body in twain. One piece of her landed in a nearby bush, and the other landed at the base of the tree she'd crash landed into. She remained mostly calm because the landing was expected.

She did not expect to instantly revert back to her solid form, with only half of her body present and accounted for, however. She groaned and lifted her head from the ground, looking for her rump. She found it stuck tail end out of the bushes to her right.

*sigh* Well at least it doesn't hurt...for some reason.

Her wings were luckily attached to her upper half and Nightmare half flopped, half flapped over to her other piece, feeling all the bit like a fool for how humiliating this would be in front of others. As she got closer, the other side of her suddenly burst into little blobs of shadow and quickly started reattaching themselves to her in appropriate places. She breathed a sigh of relief, worrying that it wouldn't have been so simple.

How odd would it be to ask a doctor in this era that he has to stitch an alicorn goddess back into one piece, heh....

Humor aside, it still took her body twenty minutes to reform. In that time, Nightmare perused her surroundings. She was in an ancient wood forest that was atop an unknown mountain range. She was unable to ascertain where Canterlot was located and the sun's position was currently obscured by the dense canopy, so she'd have to exit the forest to find her bearings. Around her, the forest had fallen silent and appeared to stay that way so long as Nightmare remained.

After verifying that she could once again walk, The tall mare craned her head above her. The canopy above was ridiculously dense. It made her question the actual age of the trees around her. Almost a split second later, Her horn lit and she snarled, her magic lashing out and clawing deeply into the wood of the nearest coniferous tree.

If I want answers I get them! She thought as her magic deeper and deeper into the ancient trunk. a few seconds later, Nightmare felt the tree groan as its load bearing weight began to lean into her cutting. The ground trembled violently as the inner core of the behemoth trunk snapped with an explosion of force, sending shrapnel in all directions at deadly speeds. Nightmare reflexively erected a shield, and was promptly reminded why nature is scarier than the powers that lay claim to the land.

She was now staring at a one foot thick, thirteen foot long splinter, that had burst from the tree's main core and smashed into her shield, cracked the surface like it was a glass panel, and the extremely sharp tip was now just ever so gently prodding her nose. The rest of it was outside her shield, but the force and speed at which it launched, managed to shove Nightmare a full eight feet back into the foliage.

And the tree wasn't done with it's fireworks display. It hadn't even begun to fall yet. Nightmare felt her neck fur stand on its end as the tree basically roared all around her. Wildlife bolted, anything from the smallest field mouse to the large deer and bears took off at a death sprint in all directions.

Away from the tree. Craning her head up, She was surprised to find something she didn't expect to see. Debris, lots of it, was falling towards her and to the ground around the tree. One might think by debris, such things as small twigs and pine needles, maybe even a couple large branches were coming down.

No. Whole trees were coming down. Nightmare realized all to late that with the canopy being so dense, the branches above must have connected and grown together over time. Effectively creating a layer of thick, tree-like branches that acted like a connector to each tree. Those connections were now crumbling as the ancient timber changed direction suddenly and without warning.

Deafening explosions of dirt, ground foliage, and rocks as large as her head rained around her. The mare herself was staring in silent awe as the tree tilted further and further from its original position. it was going rather slowly for all the destruction it was causing so quickly. Her eyes watched the chaos and bursts of dirt as the tree roared it's last and finally pitched on its side.

Towards her. Nightmare would later recount this tale to any pony, with the description of herself as a poise and calm alicorn, walking among the destruction as it happened, the tree falling behind her in thunderous symphony, heralding her arrival into this world.

The reality was far less graceful.

Nightmare sucked in her breath, spun on her hooves and took off with a shriek that sounded very closely to that of an ancient equine from the paleo-pony era. She whinnied as loud as she could as the towering ancient obliterated the landscape with its fall. Smaller trees were ripped from their hold in the earth and flung forward and around the tree, its canopy connections to them taking them along for the ride.

Nightmare ducked, jumping, and dove through the woods as trunks four or five times larger than herself careened out of control and every which way. If she ducked one branch or rock, another took its place. For all her skill in combat and her prowess on the battlefield, Nightmare realized nature still could beat the stuffing out of her.

or is it shadow blobs now? she thought as a deer suddenly landed in her path, a frightened doe screaming some random name, probably her fawn. Nightmare had little time to react, leaving her only choice to leap over the creature. She managed to do so even as the doe stared at her in wide eyed terror. As the mare leaped the living hurdle, she bit back a curse as a large tree crashed in front of her. It cut off her landing space and the alicorn's front shins smashed into the tree trunk and she felt them detach into smoke once more.

Aahhh fuck me! she snarled mentally. her body was tossed into the surrounding bushes and dirt, tumbling head over rump down a smaller hillside before her shoulders smacked into a solid boulder, stopping her abruptly. She groaned, opened her eyes and wished she hadn't. the whole forest was coming down around her. the canopy's strength taking half the forest down in a swath of movement akin to a domino pile.

It was here that nightmare huffed, watching the impending destruction as it barreled toward her. She had enough time to re-position her rump, cross her foreleg stumps and mentally grumble.

I hate nature.

The Alicorn was promptly covered by said nature in a resounding crash that was heard for miles around.

***_*_***

Nightmare regained consciousness some unknown hours later, albeit with a splitting headache, and several new hair and tail accessories. Twigs, branches, leaves, and a smattering of other debris had lodged themselves in her mane and tail. A sharp stick was poking precariously close to her tail base, and she elected to remove that pesky problem first before assessing her situation.

She was underneath an unknown amount of timber. It was dark enough that she could tell it had taken a lot more time to rebuild her body. She was also made aware of something else rather quickly. She was hurting all over. Her hind legs were underneath a rather large trunk, and they were screaming in protest at the weight. She frowned at this, partially due to the fact that so far, no pain had made itself apparent when the other situations had taken place. Even when she was in pain from the barrier near Canterlot, it had been a mind pain, more of an internal pressure that made her feel like her horn was being squeezed.

This pain was physical. Nightmare slowly checked all her appendages, just to make sure they were all in working order.

okay, wings one and two, working but stiff, very stiff, i'm stuck on my back so that is no surprise, but i'll need to get them stretched out. Forelegs are sore but present and working. Neck and head, sore but to an acceptable level. Make sure to kidnap a masseuse pony.

When she went to flex her hind legs, pain erupted in her left side. It wasn't her leg that hurt, it was her hip. Nightmare grasped her left side and hissed as she felt the swollen muscles underneath. Parting her fur, she could tell it was inflamed and rather irritated.

something is either sprained, torn, or broken, and that is no good. However that begs a question. She sat up and looked herself over.

How am I just now being hurt physically? She thought. Wreathing her horn in magic, she bit back a snarl as she teleported fifty feet straight up, and her hip screamed in protest at the movement. she reappeared still surrounded on all sides by wood and loam, only this time her mind reacted faster, and she created a shield around her self. Gritting her teeth, she pushed out with the sphere of magic, watching as it disintegrated the nearby branches, shrubbery, and dirt, effectively creating a circular space big enough for her to lay in.

Which she immediately fell to her right side and screamed. Something was definitely broken. Nightmare groaned and slowly lifted her left wing. Using it to gently poke and prod her form, she found the point at which something hadn't formed correctly. Or, to be more correctly, a piece of her hip was simply not there.

This bothered Nightmare greatly, and she looked around and tried to see if any blobs of herself hadn't come back. The sphere of wood and dirt told her nothing new. She scowled and pawed at the smooth surface beneath her, the heat of her magic had burned and smoothed the branches and dirt into one solid surface.

I may have made it impossible for the blob to return to me...dammit.....or... Nightmare felt her eyes widen as a new idea hit her. she pulled her forelegs under her, closed her eyes, and gently cast her magic, sensing for her own well spring.

What she found made her worry spike.

Nightmare hadn't just lost part of her hip, she'd lost part of her being, her existence!

No, no this is bad, if i can't get that back, i'm not whole! How could this happen?! she let her magic go, and found her breath coming in short bursts as she panicked.

I cannot face the sisters like this! I have to figure out what is going on! she stamped the earth with a hoof and then regretted it immediately as pain vibrated out from her leg, and down her body. but pain was good, it helped her focus and not panic more. She slowly but surely got her breathing under control, and then she closed her eyes once more and started to process everything she'd known since her awakening.

Okay, she'd woken up in the old castle, with no one around, and no regalia from her previous existence. That removed the idea that she had been summoned by a would be pony or other significant magic user. Plus, to cement this issue, there hadn't been any sign of magic even being used in the area.

Nightmare simply...arrived there.

But why? if she wasnt summoned it would be pointless spell casting, as she wound't be anchored to any point of power. Nightmare came from the other side of dreams, the other side of Luna. If she wasn't anchored to Luna any longer, she should have simply faded away into nothing the moment her conscious reformed.

And yet she hadn't.

She had all the magical strength of an alicorn, the body to prove it, and the well spring to--.....Nightmare paused as her magic ran over her wellspring once more. Something wasn't correct there. Sure the missing piece was standing out like a sore pinion, but there was something else wrong that she hadn't noticed.

Had her wellspring shrunk? It was noticeably smaller than when she'd been in the castle. It had shrunk! But how? That wasn't physically possible! an alicorn's wellspring, in theory should only get bigger as time went on, so why was her's depleted?

depleted....losing energy...Nightmare gasped as it hit her.She was losing energy! She had no anchor to feed from and therefore was slowly fading away again! That was why her hip hurt, and that was why there was a chunk missing. To keep her alive, she'd absorbed some of her wellspring to keep her safe!

Princess Luna had kept her essence alive by giving the Nightmare her anger, hate, and malice, all her negative emotions kept the entity going, but now....

Now Nightmare was disconnected.

I still need a source to live from...I still need an anchor...dammit! She dug her horn into the wood and snarled as the realization hit her.

i'm...i'm not immortal. She growled and felt her horn light up as it burned a hole into the wood. After a couple minutes of snarling, growling, and basically pouting, Nightmare sighed and opened her eyes. She had to set her priorities, it seemed.

step one, she had to find a source to feed from, and in her current state, it didn't really matter what she fed from, it just had to have life energy. Step two, she would have to gain a voice, hopefully from the same source. if not, she could always steal one. It would need to be a pony species though, as she did not fancy a griffon's screechy language or a minotaur's bellow for her regal vocals.

She was brought out of her musings as a sound hit her ear drums. She flicked her ears up at the ceiling of her circular room, and flinched as an explosion rocked the small confines. The alicorn blinked in surprise, and then flinched again as another one sound off, this time even closer. She bared her teeth and lit her horn defensively. Something was coming towards her, and it was powerful. If the indication of power level was based solely off the way her entire enclosure shook when a third explosion went off, this time even closer. The wall even cracked slightly.

As she sat there waiting, a new sound reached her. Voices.

"I told you, Will, There is nothing out here! Can you stop for five seconds and look around you? You're fifteen feet down in a pile of trees for crying out loud!"

A new voice, younger than the first and far more desperate popped up, seemingly on the outside of her circular wall.

"And i know what my horn felt, someone out here was casting powerful magic, so you can shove it. This wasn't a natural disaster. I couldn't get a read on the type of magic cast, but underneath me is a magic signature, it's weak, but i think some pony got trapped nearby in the debris! We owe it to our badges to do what we are trained to do!"

Nightmare's mind went into over drive. Nearby were two sources of life. Judging by the commentary on badges, they were some form of military or soldier. She knew that the moment they laid eyes on her, they'd freak out and cry wolf. Nightmare moon was probably still fresh in the equestrian mind, after all. She'd either have to hide her form, or kill them. Killing them would leave her with a very small amount of life force to steal before their souls drifted into the ether realm. It would also leave her without new knowledge of her whereabouts. That wasn't okay.

Option b however, would leave her weaker than she liked to admit. Shape shifting took a lot of power, but it looked like it was her only option at the moment.

The ear splitting crack that danced across her enclosure, emitting light and noise from the outside made the decision even more acceptable.

Here's hoping this works! Magic surged out of her horn and covered her form. Her wings vanished into her diminishing body and her mane and tail shrunk into a dark purple shade. Her fangs slowly disappearing under her lips, while her coat took on a lighter color of gray. lastly, her rear gained an image of a black silhouette of a snarling dragon's head.

As the outer wall of the shell she'd made solidified, her blurry vision witnessed the wooden room crack open with another explosion of magic, ruffling her mane and making her shut her eyes.

Her mind felt the sudden drop of energy as her soul weakened, and nightmare whimpered in pain. A gasp above her made her realize she'd been spotted.

"O-oh my god!"

She managed to whisper out a single word as foreign magic gently gripped her body and pulled her out of the debris.

"...Help..."

Author's Note

Cheese has a funny way of telling the soul it needs to keep up the pace, otherwise we mold o>O

Chapter 3

Nightmare woke an indeterminate time later, to the drip of water and a clock somewhere nearby. The click and drip combination went in a slightly off rhythm, that made her ears twitch ever so subtly as each made their presence known.

Click...Her left ear flicked to the front position.

Drip...Her right ear swiveled to her right.

Click...both perked to the front.

Her breathing was calm and collected, her body was relaxed and she could tell she was in some form of bedding. A cloth comforter was draped over her, up to her forelegs, which sat atop the fabric. She slowly took a couple sniffs of the air.

Pine wood, flowers, medicine, and...maple syrup? Nightmare slowly cracked an eye open and found herself in a small room that by its appearance felt like a hospital room. The only things that made her think otherwise were the walls and the window. She was in a hospital bed, with a half filled IV drip bag hanging on her right, and connected to her foreleg. A heart monitor machine sat by that, beeping slowly to her heart, but the rest of the room looked like it was part of a log cabin. The walls were made of large beams of pine wood that had been sanded and then polished. the window had shades that were drawn down to block the morning sunlight out, but instead of plastic strips, they too, were made of wood. Each corner of the room had a plant hanging in a basket, different species by the looks of the flowers. The wall also had a clock, which looked far more modern, and thus out of place, and a water dispenser was next to the door.

Nightmare blinked a couple times to erase the grogginess that came with waking up, and gently lifted the bedding off her body. She wasn't very surprised to see casts on her hind legs, and a weird contraption that held her hip in place. It was made of precisely cut and shaped metal and a couple black straps that stuck together rather oddly. When she undid one, she was surprised to find one side was fuzzy, and the other had these tiny little loops of plastic. She found it oddly mesmerizing to slowly attach the two, and then just as slowly pull them apart.

So they have made advancements in technology since I was banished it seems. The question is, which banishment? She hummed in thought, and was about to separate the strips again, when she heard voices outside the door. Both ears swiveled to the hard wood door in curiosity.

A gruff and elderly voice broke the quiet, just beyond the closed doorway.

"It's good you got her here when you did, although i'm not sure what else I can do, Will. She is the oddest case I've ever seen!"

The other voice, Will apparently, spoke up. "What do you mean, doc? She seemed to be fine, minus the broken legs and hip, frankly i'm surprised that is all the damage she sustained!"

A heavy sigh, "That is just it, Will, those aren't her only injuries. I did a fully body scan, an X-ray, and a blood test, and something screwy is going on with her, especially her wellspring." Here a couple sheets of paper were rifled through, and then the Doc spoke again. "Her wellspring is fluctuating sporadically. I used a magical meter to check and I got two completely different readings."

Two readings? Nightmare blinked, and then mentally cursed. She had rushed her transformation, and thus the form she had didn't add up to what she actually was! A normal unicorn wouldn't have the wellspring of an alicorn, and whatever the doctor had done showed up in her results. She growled softly and closed her eyes, trying to connect with her magic. She found it similar to what the doctor had witnessed. It bounced between a normal mare, and that of an alicorn more like Celestia or Luna. like a thermometer being pulled back and forth from a fire and cold water, her levels of magic went up and down faster than any medical professional would say was healthy.

Almost as if she'd voiced her thoughts, Will spoke up. "Is...is that bad? I mean, couldn't you just use your magic to fix it?"

Nightmare almost laughed out loud, but muffled it with a hoof. The two outside failed to notice.

"Of course not! I'm an Medical Doctor, not a Magical Doctor. You need a specialist when it comes to these kinds of things, and even then, I've never heard of a unicorn's wellspring destroying a magical meter."

A pause of silence,and then Will spoke up. "Um...okay, was there anything else?"

Another sigh. "More than I care to admit, confidentiality and all that, but yes. For starters, something has happened to her larynx."

One more pause, "Her what?"

"Oh for the love of-- her voice box, Will! Seriously, for a ranger who took medical classes, I thought you'd retain at least some of the knowledge. I took a look down her throat and found it...well it looks funny."

The door knob creaked, and Nightmare quickly schooled her expression, stopped casting magic, and pulled the covers back up to her chest.

Will spoke through the opening door "It looks funny?" The two stallions entered the room and the doctor's reply fell away as they noticed she was awake.

A pregnant pause permeated the room for almost a full minute. She blinked at them with a calm expression that showed no hint her frustration, only silent curiosity as one of her eyebrows rose up. She had to get this right otherwise they'd immediately suspect her. The stallion she now knew as Will was a silver coated unicorn. His mint green mane was cut short and braided into a tight hunter's braid, with dual braids on either side of his neck. His tail was cut short and tied off at the end with a leather band, to keep it from getting tangled or caught in anything.

His eyes were crimson colored, and they sparkled lightly in the light as he held her gaze. He was wearing a dark green jacket that had a formal style to it. Pleats sat atop each shoulder, and a pocket with some form of badge pinned to it, was on the left side of his chest. He was very healthy, if his musculature was anything to go off of. His legs were strong but slender, meaning he could probably keep up in a race or two, and the shins of all four of his legs had armored plates covering them.

Lastly a saber, silver in color and fashioned to look more like an attachment and less like an actual weapon, was at his right side. She felt her lips curve into a small smile as she looked him up and down. This did not go noticed by Will, who graced her with a grin most bold. This stallion probably got along well with the ladies.

She glanced to the unicorn Doctor and found him...well, lacking felt like a proper word. Named Dr. Health Points, he was well beyond any age she'd be interested in, and his scraggly, graying mane was in complete disarray. His dirt brown coat held no luster to it, and his green eyes had bags under them from obvious lack of sleep. He wore the typical doctor's attire, that one might see at any medical facility. With a white over coat, stethoscope around his neck, and a pair of glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose, he looked completely average to Nightmare. His expression furrowed at her when she pinned her ears back at him.

He spoke first, never losing the grumpy frown. "Hello, Miss. I am glad to see you are awake--"

No you're not. Nightmare didn't need to be a changeling to read the Doctor's emotions. He was frustrated, annoyed, and disinterested in any reply she might try to give.

Lucky for him I can't reply. She thought sourly. Health, seeing no reply come from her continued.

"We have quite a few questions for you, if you can answer them, that'd be appreciated." He said bluntly, raising a brow at her and levitating a clipboard up to his face, blocking everything but his eyes from Nightmare's view, so it looked like he was glaring at her from over the board.

"Alright, first question should be the simplest, What is your name?"

Nightmare blinked, and her ears remained pinned back. She opened her mouth, and pointed at her throat.

The doctor's brow furrowed. "Can you not speak?"

She shook her head. Both Will and Health gave a look to each other. Will spoke up, walking up to the other side of the bed. "B-But you can understand what we are saying, yes?"

When Nightmare nodded, they both sighed and then the doctor coughed into a fetlock. "Erm, right then, here." He set the clipboard on the bed, with his pen. "I assume you can write, yes?" After a roll of her eyes and an exaggerated nod, he huffed and walked to the door.

"Good, I'll need those questions answered and then we will take a look at your hip." Health turned to Will, "Keep her company, Will, and help her with any questions. I'm going to go fetch a nurse."

When the door closed and they were alone, Will sighed and chuckled. "Sorry about him, he can be a stick in the mud sometimes, but he means well."

Nightmare smiled kindly to him and waggled her ears. Will smiled back and sat casually at the side of her bed.

Nightmare then looked to the paper and the first question.

What should my name be? She thought back to her transformation and the talk Will had been having with whoever had accompanied him into the forest. Will had mentioned that he knew magic had been cast and that it had been the cause of the damage to the forest. Whatever name she chose had to coincide with that. Nightmare lifted the sheets and looked at her cutie mark.

A dragon roaring...hmm, that is perfect. Nightmare levitated the pen over and scribbled her name.

Silent Roar, this seems like a good name for now. I merely need it until I get my full power back and that should be within a few days of being around these two. She thought. The Doctor had more than enough frustration in him that she could latch onto.

The second question was asking where she was from, so she chuckled and put 'Equestria'. She noticed Will perked his ears up at her noise and she looked to him. he had a bewildered expression, his ears were straight forward. he lifted a hoof and pointed at her.

"U-um, can you open your mouth for me please? I thought I saw..." he let his hoof lower as she blinked at him with a raised brow. Opening her mouth, she let him lean forward, and then closed her mouth when he leaned back. His expression was one of complete confusion. He looked from her eyes to her mouth and then pinned his ears back.

"Wow...never thought i'd see that..." When Nightmare continued to stare at him, he shuffled his hooves nervously. "Your uh, teeth aren't normal..." When she gave him a confused expression, he continued by pointing at her mouth. "What I mean is, ponies don't normally have teeth like a diamond dog or...or a dragon, huh." here, he looked to her rear, which was obscured by the blankets.

"I guess that sort of explains the cutie mark you've got, and what the Doc said about abnormalities..."

Nightmare felt her teeth grit together and she hissed lightly, making Will's ears perk up again. She frowned, and licked her teeth, checking each one. Sure enough, her teeth had kept the general structure of a dragon's mouth. Inwardly she smiled. This was actually rather funny. Her transformation had been sudden, so she'd latched onto the only thing she could, which so happened to be an image of a pony and dragon fighting in a children's book Luna had liked to read. It was the first thing that had popped into her head. The heroine of that story was what she now looked like. At the time, the idea of a fierce female dragon fighter was something she hoped would give her an appearance more suited to a pony, but still hold the intimidation she wanted.

And if history hadn't completely wrecked their habits, dragons were naturally intimidating.

Her magic had altered her body to be more like a pony who fought the huge beasts, but it had also given her the aspects of a dragon as well. With any luck, she could pass herself as a dragon slayer. Hopefully those were still a popular occupation. she tapped a hoof to her chin.

Hmm, maybe I could breath fire too heheh. She grinned, showing off her canines and went back to writing.

Will leaned forward and tried to look at the sheet of paper, and Nightmare instinctively raised it higher in her purple magic. He frowned and then smiled. "Oh come on, I just want to see your name, so I don't have to keep calling you miss." When he reaches out with his hooves to grasp it, she growled loudly and watched with glee as he yelped and took several steps back from her.

The stallion regarded her with an incredulous expression. His brow then furrowed and his lips creased into a frown. "W-what the--Okay, did you just growl at me?"

When she happily nodded, Will sat down again rather suddenly and looked at the floor. "Oh boy, the doc was right, you are...different."

Nightmare stuck her tongue out at him playfully and then went back to her questions. As she answered each, she noticed Will slowly crept back to his original position at the side of her bed. By the time she'd finished, he was sitting next to her again, and he seemed intrigued.

"You have got to tell me, are your eyes normally that way or is this a spell of some sort you cast?" She blinked owlishly and then he blinked back. When she picked up the clipboard and pointedly looked at it and then him he understood.

"O-Oh sorry! I get it, you can't see your own eyes. Um, well, they aren't circular. The pupils are slits, like a cat. Although admittedly I thought of a dragon first, again. That's why I thought this was some sort of spell you'd cast on yourself. Still, I've never seen or heard of a spell that could do this!" he said waving his hooves in her direction.

Will seemed very excited by her physical appearance, and for a moment Nightmare felt good. At least some pony liked her natural attributes. Then she frowned. These were her natural attributes, but she wasn't herself. Not without her wings, or her regalia, or her wellspring intact. Right now she was a false form.

She handed the clipboard to Will who took it and waggled his eyebrows at her. "Alright mystery mare, lets see what your name is." He went to read her name...and then stopped. His expression darkened and he squinted at the writing.

Nightmare frowned and cocked her head sideways. Is it not legible? Impossible, I remember my writing from Luna. There is no way it could be sloppy--

"U-um...one sec, Miss." Will said, his voice filled with confusion and a hint of worry in the tone. He stood just as the door was opening, and the Doctor re-entered. When he saw Will with the clip board he commented. "Oh, thank Celestia for little miracles, I suppose. I couldn't find the nurse. It seems she is out on an errand, so we will wait to check your hip, now lets have a look see shall we."

Will cleared his throat. "S-sir, she answered them...but--" The doc cut him off and snatched the clipboard from the stallion's magic. Levitating it in front of himself as his eyes read the first line.

"But nothing, Will, there shouldn't be...anything...wrong..." He fell silent as his eyes traveled down the page. When it reached the bottom he gulped and looked at Nightmare like she'd grown a second head.

"Miss, when I asked if you could write...I meant in modern equestrian...not ancient."

Nightmare felt her cheeks flush.

Oh ponyfeathers...

Luna sat at in the main castle dining hall, waiting for her sister to arrive, her empty plate was being given a rather grim expression. the kind of look one would give a tool that had broken or a co-worker when they'd mucked things up and made your job harder to accomplish.

Luna's night had been bothersome to say the least.

Her usual agenda had been going swimmingly up until she'd entered the dream realm. It was here, she found many things wrong, and in ways she could not explain. Normally when a pony or other sentient creature had a dream, their doorways glowed a light green or blue color, to show they were at peace and required no assistance from their lunar princess.

If they were having a nightmare, the doorway would turn black or purple, and would usually put up a fight to allow Luna entry. A pony also could not have more than one nightmare at a time, just as they could only dream one dream. If the dream needed to shift or change to something new, there was a lull in between them, a sort of quiet that permeated the pony while it slept. This was why some ponies said their dreams were blurry or fleeting, as these shifts would cause irregularities in their memory of what they experienced.

Another set of rules pertained to lucid dreams and night terrors. Lucid dreams were caused when a pony fell asleep and became aware they were dreaming, thus allowing them the control to do what they wished within the realm of their mind. Luna actually found it exciting that this had increased since her banishment. Lucid dreams made her job far easier, as she wouldn't have to check up on a lucid dreamer.

A night terror, on the other hoof, was horrible. This was when a shift between dreams froze. Unable to continue on to the next thing, or even revert back to what was before, the pony's mind would lock up and try to reboot itself mentally. If it failed this, the pony sleeping would panic. Screaming, flailing, thrashing in their sleep, and jumping rapidly between emotions were well known symptoms of a night terror. Luna was capable of stopping them but the amount of power she would need to stop one tended to leave her winded and tired.

Luckily, night terrors were few and far between. If she had to deal with them at all, the number of cases in one night rarely amounted to more than five or six. It was by these set standards that Luna had grown to understand and control the dream realm, as rarely ever did it change or shift in a way she was not prepared for.

Last night however, had been a whole situation entirely of its own.

The nightmares and horrors she found were numerous and causing chaos. On top of this, she noted that the entities she'd encountered were excited. Almost like having emotion, Luna had been forced to chase the dark feelings and entities as they gleefully rushed from one door to the next, Like they were searching for something. This worried Luna to no end. The last time she'd witnessed something like this, it had been at the hooves of King Sombra. His fear and anger had seeped into the minds of the crystal ponies, and Luna watched as the doors were encased in black dark shadows.

However, the nightmare entities had never shown emotion, be it positive or negative when they were at work. They went about their actions in a clockwork style. Even when banished, destroyed, or removed from the pony, Luna never caught wind of feelings or thoughts.

Last night they were abundant with energy and joy, crowing with happiness as they darted out of her grasp and zipped from door to door. Another odd thing was that they never seemed to stay in a pony's dream realm for more than a couple seconds. They would dart in with her hot on their heels, and then upon entering, wouldn't even attack the pony's dream. They drifted on the outside of it, watching, before shaking or shivering and then leaving just as quickly.

At one point, Luna had caught one and held it down with magic, intent on getting answers.

It had replied, even before she opened her mouth to ask. Squirming and laughing ominously up at her with teeth made of cracked bone and eyes that poured darkness.

No, no, no, Ahahaha! You are not the one, not what we shall crown, not where we shall beg to reside! You, of the side we cannot go! Respect! respect the side which of we must choose! For you are the other half! soon soon SOOON!

She had let it go, mostly due to confusion. It had shot off with the rest. whisking away down the corridor of doors and as she sat there, befuddlement clear on her muzzle, the creatures had all come together in a swirling mass of darkness and horror...

and vanished. Shrinking in on themselves like a black hole before disappearing in a puff of purple smoke. Luna had made sure none of her ponies were harmed before exiting the dream realm. She had then sat at her desk in her tower and written everything she'd seen or heard.

Her conclusion was to be expected, it just wasn't what she'd wanted to realize.

The nightmare creatures were looking for something or someone, and they were going to follow that being. Luna shivered and shook herself as a cold bead of sweat ran down her neck. She nickered in frustration and nibbled her neck fur, removing the annoying droplet.

A door behind her opened, and through it the sound of a delightful sigh came into the room. Luna lifted her head and with magic, smoothed her fur down, before gracing her sister with a smile.

Celestia, in all her regalia, stood but a few feet away, her front legs bowed and her wings spread wide. Her head lowered between them as several pops and cracks made themselves heard as the elder Alicorn stretched. Luna smirked as her sister, ever so playfully, spread her back legs, arched her prismatic tail, and moaned daintily.

"Ooohhaaa...yes." She murmured. The hint of a grin on her lips as she slowly flapped her wings.

Behind her, two solar guards, new recruits by the look of their shoulder ranks, blushed furiously and snapped their eyes away from the royal posterior.

My sister, ever so cruel to her golden guardians...Luna thought with a smile.

Celestia stood and hummed as she stared out a nearby window, looking at the outside world with a gentle smile Luna knew to mean her sister was content. It saddened her to see that smile, knowing it most assuredly would not last with her breakfast announcement.

"Luna, a pleasant morning to you, little sister."

Luna nodded with the slightest hint of a smile. "A pleasant evening to you, mine sister."

After Celestia had sat down and gotten comfortable, Luna continued. She lifted a fork in her magic and twirled it idly. "The night time events were less enjoyable to be sure. We had troublesome issues to deal with."

Celestia had unfurled a newspaper and paused in her perusal of the front page to look at her sister with curiosity on her brow. "I assume these issues were dealt with to the fullest?"

Luna tilted her head left and right in a weaving pattern, her wings shuffled. "Weeeeell, that is yet to be determined, I'm afraid. I found the situation had resolved itself before I could glean much from its purpose." Luna set the fork down and paused in her conversation as a pair of cook ponies arrived with their breakfast. Trays with silver dishes were set in front of the two sisters, and their lids removed to showcase a large portion of pancakes and waffles.

Together, the sisters dug into their meals, each enjoying the moment of silence that eating gave. When Celestia paused for a moment to quench her thirst with some water, Luna continued her talk.

"We ran into an odd scenario in the dream realm last night. The nightmares, they were extremely active, and were able to elude my grasp."

Celestia, having taken another bite, merely nodded and twirled her hoof at Luna, letting her know she was listening. Drumming her hooves on the table, Luna figured the bluntest approach would be best. When it came to Celestia, keeping things short and simple was the best route to keep her sister from waxing eloquently.

"The nightmares are looking for something, sister. "

Celestia paused in her chewing and held her sister's serious gaze. one eyebrow raised to sit just under the white mare's horn, prompting further chatter. Luna sucked in a breath and looked at the table.

"We captured one for a short moment and found it was extremely excited, it had actual emotion. This is unheard of to us when it comes to these entities. Rarely ever have they had real feelings or thoughts, yet this one was happy, overly so. It was seeking something...or some pony." She paused to take a bite and Celestia subsequently swallowed.

"You do not think they seek you again, do they?" Celestia asked, her brows creasing in worry. Luna shook her head and swallowed.

"Nay, sister, It actually said we were not what it sought out, but it also said more than that. These entities, they seek to crown something...I fear they may be looking for a leader of sorts...like--"

"Nightmare moon?" Celestia murmured. When Luna's eyes widened, Celestia put her hooves up to stay any comment her sister may have given. "Hear me out, Lulu, you yourself said that Nightmare moon was unlike any nightmare entity you'd ever come across in the dream realm. She possessed her own emotions, personality, and feelings. It would stand to reason then, that they may seek to crown her.

"Impossible!" Luna barked, slapping a hoof on the table, "We eliminated her, Twice! She was destroyed with the elements!"

Luna kept her glare with Celestia for a mere second or two before she sighed and looked at her plate, her ears lowered to her neck.

"Lulu..." Celestia whispered.

"...We...we would like to believe she is gone for good...but, the idea had crossed our thoughts..." Luna mumbled.

Celestia sighed and leaned back into her chair. "Then it would make sense that they want to crown her...No pony truly is gone, after all..."

Luna frowned and sat up straighter. "Then surely this coincides with the blood moon, and the feelings we alicorns shared recently, yes?"

Celestia merely hummed in thought. She shifted from her chair and stood, shuffling her wings and nickering in frustration. She levitated her plate and let it float in the air next to her shoulder.

"I think we should be prepared for anything, just to be sure. I would hate for Nightmare Moon to suddenly drop in for a spell or two. I will contact Twilight and Cadance, they need to make sure that we are ready from all corners of Equestria."

Luna nodded and continued eating her meal. As Celestia walked to the window once more, her eyes landed on the everfree forest and the ancient ruins that barely could be seen through the canopy. If Nightmare Moon came back, it meant far more trouble would be arriving, and from multiple directions. Celestia almost bent her fork as she took another bite of her pancakes, and she took a moment to steel herself before chewing, letting the sweet flavor of maple syrup wash away her fears for the moment.

We will be ready for anything this time...we will...

Nightmare Moon, or her new name, Silent Roar, never was a fan of sweet things. Candy and cake seemed to be the embodiment of everything she wasn't.

Which was why she was now frowning at the nurse who'd entered the room with a small plate of waffles on her back. Waffles were good, Luna ate them a lot, so Nightmare was aware they were considered a scrumptious meal. The amount of syrup that currently covered her plate however, could give a hydra a sugar induced heart attack.

"Is something wrong, ma'am?" The nurse, a petite earth pony mare with an amber coat and a split in half triangle for a cutie mark, asked. Nightmare sighed and made an obviously fake smile appear on her face before she pointedly stared at the mare and used her fork to scraped off most of the syrup. The nurse watched and then rolled her eyes.

"It's the standard amount of syrup we put on them, ma'am. My apologies if it's not to your liking but we are not allowed to deviate from the mandatory rules when it comes to serving patients." The nurse looked at Nightmare's torso and frowned, worriedly. "Besides, no offense or anything, but it looks like you could use the extra weight. You appear under weight by the average standards."

Nightmare scowled at her and waved her away with a hoof. She was slender in form, not a damn toothpick. When the Nurse sighed and left, Nightmare growled and stabbed her fork into the fluffy breakfast, making sure her fork scraped the plate noisily.

Her thoughts drifted back to the Doctor's words, before he and Will had left.

This is ridiculous, so what if I can't write modern Equestrian, the fact that I can write ancient script should be considered a good thing right? I mean-- She swallowed and went for another bite--Won't most ponies see that as a benefit? Its like--Another bite of the waffles disappeared in her mouth as she angrily bit the fork--Having a second language! Last I checked, that was something rare back then and a pony was looked up to for knowing more then the average dingus on the streets!

Nightmare scowled at her plate of rapidly vanishing breakfast. Even with all the syrup, the waffles were well made, and she hated that she couldn't say otherwise.

Oh well, I'll just act like they are terrible. She found that pleasing, and continued eating. A few moments into the meal, the door re-opened and Will stepped into her room, closing the door behind him. He was carrying another clip board, and nightmare glowered at the object. Ignoring her expression, he sat down at the end of her bed and crossed his hooves atop the end wood frame, frowning back at her.

For a few moments they stared at one another, until he looked away and levitated the clipboard in front of his hooves.

"So...your medical reports came in and something is definitely wrong here, ma'am." Nightmare frowned further at his clipped tone, it was accusatory and suspicious. Now that she looked him over, she noticed how his sword was different, it was a real one this time, and his posture was relaxed but alert.

He's prepared for something to go down. Nightmare noted. she felt her self tense up at the idea of fighting him in close quarters, and her magical grip on the fork tightened. She was at a major disadvantage if he attacked. Her hind legs were locked up in casts and her hip was immobilized. Deciding to play her part, she Set the plate of food aside, folded her hooves together, and slumped back into the pillows bracing her back. A frown launched itself at Will.

Will, not getting more from her continued. "We have discovered several magical and physical problems in your body that don't add up, some of which lead myself and the Doctor to believe you are not a pony."

Nightmare blinked at him in confusion. Her ears fell back and she gave him the equivalent expression of "What?"

He flipped through the papers and floated over a black sheet of semi transparent paper to her in his magic. Upon closer inspection, she was amazed to see her own body, although it seemed as though whatever they had done had taken a picture of her insides.

What, what is this sorcery? she asked herself, she grabbed the paper out of the air with her hooves and felt the paper. it was stiffer than paper, no..it wasn't paper. that was a better way of putting it. Turning it in opposite directions, she stuck her face to it and could see through it, to Will, who was giving her a look of curiosity and confusion.

He took the sheet back much to her frustration, and leveled it next to him. Pointing to it, he spoke up.

"This is an X-ray picture--in case you didn't know that--of your body, and we have found many things disturbing about you. For example," Here, Will pointed to what looked like her midsection. "You have two large sacs right under your lungs that appear to be filled with an unknown type of liquid."

When he looked to her, hoping for an explanation, she simply shrugged. He sighed and moved on.

"Second, is your hip. Normally a broken hip means there are piece that have broken off or cracked in ways an X-ray machine picks up very accurately." his voice gained an air of some pony who felt they were being toyed with. "Ma'am, your hip doesn't have any broken pieces OR any cracks, what it does have, is a whole chunk missing!"

He smacked the picture where her hip was supposed to be and Nightmare noted how a distinct part of the photo just had a large splotch of black where white should have apparently been. She'd figured out that the white parts were her bones and the gray areas were her internals.

From the photo, it looked like she was missing a whole third of her hip. Her left leg, if walked on, would just fall out the open socket and she would collapse. Nightmare's mouth closed and she slowly applied pressure to her teeth as she tightened her jaw. A low growl escaped her mouth, making Will tense up.

Shit...this looks really bad. A normal pony would be incapable of walking after an injury like that, yet I appear totally healthy. It made sense that the Doctor was suspicious of her from the get go. She turned her eyes from will to the clip board. With a surge of her magic, she wrenched the clipboard from the stallions magic and brought it close to her.

"HEY!" Will stood and walked to the right side of her bed and tried to apply his magic to the board and remove it, but was magically swatted away like a slight annoyance as Nightmare read.

Multiple internal inconsistencies appear to be present in the patient.

Two liquid filled sacks found just under lungs. Tubes lead and attach to exit orifices found behind tongue. Purpose currently unknown. Assume poisonous properties.

Fangs and predatory teeth present in mouth, question dietary habits of patient.

Draconian eyes. Patient appears to have vision shared with that of a dragon. Possible mutation, possible tampering, illegal surgery, or other unknown option. Question patient adamantly on this.

Disfigured larynx. Patient seems incapable of speech. Larynx appears to be similar in form to that of ponies medically documented one to two millennia in the past. Signs of surgery not present after magical examination. Patient has been assumed born this way, resulting in conclusion of possible inbreeding.

Missing hip section. Patient appears to have lost, removed, or never been born with a necessary bone section of their hip on the left side. body of main Ilium found to be missing. Again, no signs of surgery or tampering, resulting in stronger conclusion of inbreeding malformity.

Blood tests:

Unicorn blood sample found to be very strange, testing as three different blood types, four species, and one unknown entity never seen in blood as of yet. Consider patient contaminated and in need of disease removal magic.

Medical conclusion:

Patient appears to be one of the following:

1. a changeling with no skills in proper shapeshifting (contact CRR)

2. a direct product of inbreeding. (send letter to Canterlot genetics corps. for intervention and removal of patient.)

3. Due to their inability to write modern equestrian writing, and their general lack of common information, it can be plausibly assumed Pony is from another time zone, dimension, or third option, caused by a massive magical disruption in the forest. (contain, restrain, and study)

Nightmare stared at the paperwork and slowly let her grip on the clipboard slip from her magical grasp. Her mouth twitched, formed into a smile, and then she chuckled. Nightmare looked at Will with a disturbingly weird smile that had him back away suddenly.

"Th-thank you for giving me back my clipboard, ma'am, that was not for you to read though." He mumbled, his eyes darting to his sword handle a moment before he sucked in a breath and let it out.

"O-okay, now the hard part. Your answers to our questions leave us to believe that you are in fact a changeling as," He paused and his eyes tilted down farther on the page. "For your sake, I sincerely hope that is true, cause this second option is...ugh, horrible."

He shook himself and set the clip board aside. Taking a military stance Nightmare had seen before in the Canterlot royal guard, Will spoke formally.

"As per the code of Canterlot rule, all changelings found within Equestrian borders as of King Thorax's rise to rule, found without a permit or visa to enter the country will be detained, questioned, and then deported to the badlands. You have been suspected of being a changeling with out a permit, and I must perform a spell to check if you are. If you do not wish to be cast upon, and are a changeling, now would be the time to drop your disguise and show your permit, should you have one."

Nightmare chuckled lightly and leaned back onto the pillows, putting her right hoof over her left and sitting with proper posture. She leveled the most sarcastic, enthusiastic smile she could at Will and then flicked her ears forward, as if to say she was ready.

Will waited a couple seconds, hoping she would just shed her disguise, but when she made no move at all he sighed.

"...Ooookay. here goes." Lighting up his horn, he shot a gentle wave of magic into the room. As the spell washed over Nightmare's form she smiled sincerely this time. If the spell worked on her, this guard would be in for quite the surprise.

I can imagine his shocked expression now, a look of horror as he sees the one being he never expected to meet face to face! Nightmare chuckled as the spell completely washed over her form and she felt Will's power probing her form for changeling magic.

When she felt something odd happen. Will's magic was diminishing the longer it touched her, and he didn't seem to notice. Her eyes fell on her hip, where, like water pouring into a funnel, his magic was disappearing. Slowly, her hip joint started reforming! She then turned to him and grinned like a cat who had just found a mouse.

Well, that is...new. I suppose I just need to have him cast more magic at me and my body will slowly heal itself back? Nightmare frowned.
No, that can't be right. if an enemy blasts me with a spell meant to harm me, it would still hurt me. So not all magic, just neutral magic.

To her dismay, the spell ended before she'd even gained an inch of her joint back. She frowned. How would she get her hip back without causing suspicion?

Will frowned when the spell came back with negative results. "W-well your not a changeling...shit..." Nightmare was brought out of her musings as he frowned at her. "S-so you uh...you're not option two are you?" He stood and walked closer, standing at the edge of the bed and lifting a hoof. he put it on her shoulder. A worried smile graced his lips,
"Please...please tell me your not option two." He said with clenched teeth. "Inbreeding is horrible and, if you are, I'm so sorry for what you've gone through, b-but the rules on that situation are even--OW!"

Nightmare levitated the clipboard back onto the bed and glared at him. he rubbed his horn and glared back. "W-what was that for?!"

Nightmare ran her hooves down her cheeks and growled before grabbing the clipboard once more in her magic and poking the second option with her hoof. When she adamantly shook her head, Will sighed.

His shoulders relaxed. "Oh good...but wait." he blinked and then looked below it to the third option, then to her. "A-are you...the third option then?"

Night mare gave a pause, looking at the sheet in serious contemplation. She could lie and say yes, and that would lessen the fire she was stuck over somewhat, but then it would bring completely different questions up, and ones she had no immediate answers.

Still, it was technically true. The heroine from that children's book might not be real, but Nightmare Moon really had come from a thousand years ago. She could pass herself off as a pony from that era pretty easily. Her fascination at the X-ray paper would even help with her case.

After all, the best lies are usually the ones that are also true. Nodding to herself, she noted how Will sighed loudly suddenly. She turned and found him shaking himself of the formal posture. Apparently he'd taken her silent nod as an answer.

"Oh thank Celestia! I was really worried you were option two, that would have been terrible! But this, you're from another time, o-or a whole different dimension, this is great!" The stallion chuckled and then noticed Nightmare wasn't laughing. She was still frowning at him.

I have to make the act convincing. she thought to herself.

Wilting under her gaze, Will shuffled his hooves nervously. "I...well, I mean, no. It's not great, ma'am. You're obviously completely lost and have no clue as to what is going on. It's just, well I think it's neat that I met you and, well... yeah. Sorry. It's probably not a good thing you're here." Will rubbed his left leg with his right and risked a glance at her.

She gave him an expression that said "Ya think?!" before slumping back down into the pillows and staring up at the ceiling. He seemed to get the hint and fell silent. As she lay there, Nightmare was furiously thinking of answers to any and all possible questions she might get asked. All of these answers, she logged away for later use.

I must act, feel, and be this pony, if I am to get better. Right now I have no anchor to keep my form together, so I must keep myself from over exerting myself, and i have to somehow get magic from others into me. Hmm... Nightmare watched Will as he flipped through the sheets of paper and wrote stuff down. She had an idea.

channeling her magic, she grabbed the clipboard again and gently tried to tug it from Will's grasp. Will reacted just about the same way a parent would when one of their foals grabbed something valuable.

"Wha-hey! no! nononono! that is not a toy!" Will, wrenching his head to the left, tried to dislodge her magic from his but found she was far stronger than he assumed.

"Will you--erg, let go of--gah! my-hnnng! CLIPBOARD!"

She relented suddenly, snickering as he was sent flailing backwards, his legs in the air and him on his back. She nickered loudly and watched as he huffed and rolled back onto his belly.

"Oh har har, ya knocked me over. Whoop dee doo." He groused. Picking his clipboard back up off the ground, he shot a glare at her and then at his clipboard. he waved his hooves at her defensively.

"My clipboard. NoOoOoOo touchy!"

Nightmare smiled, rolled her eyes, and shrugged. Inwardly, she was cheering. Her plan had worked. Using her magic, she found that she could siphon a little bit at a time from him, and he wouldn't notice. If she could do it with him, she could do it to others.

As long as I can interact with their magic, i can heal.

Then a thought hit her.

Earth ponies and pegasi don't manifest their magic outwardly like unicorns...I might not be able to do it to them without them being aware of my actions. She looked at Will and felt her worries drift away. Both he and the Doctor were unicorns, and where there were two unicorns, there were usually more.

I'll be fine, all I need is a couple and this hip will be healed in no time. She thought, as her magic grasped his sword handle and she drew it suddenly. She hovered the blade sideways in front of her, acting like a child admiring the craftsmanship.

Will, on the other hoof, lost his shit.

"SON OF A--okay! THAT is definitely not a toy!"

As Nightmare,....no, as Silent Roar swished the blade haphazardly this way and that, all as an act to show her newfound acquaintance that she was an innocent little soul lost in a world she didn't know, she chuckled. As Will nervously grappled his magic to hers and they started another impromptu tug of war, she smiled.

This would be fun.

Time for a story

Children love to interact with everything, they are curiousity incarnate. To give a child the power to question is to see life grow, and parents crave nothing more than to see their child's wonder and knowledge expand. A parent whose child learns rapidly in the equine world is both a blessing and a curse, however. Knowledge is power, they say, and this is no more different when age is envolved.

Teach a child too much, give them too much freedom, and they can drown in it.

As was the case with Silent Roar, or Nightmare Moon, who had learned so much in the past few hours that her brain felt filled to capacity. Her teacher was none other than the unicorn ranger that had found her in the woods. His name was Willing Growth, but he went by Will for a nickname. The unicorn stallion had made it his newfound goal to get her caught up on everything that was new and modern.

Nightmare groaned throughout the impromptu lessons, vaguely remembering how Luna had hated listening to Starswirl the bearded's lectures. Some of the things Will was trying to teach her were too basic even for her. she knew basic math, she knew what a clock was and how to tell time, and she sure as tartarus knew how to read.

Will thought otherwise it seemed, and had amassed everything he could find on the subjects in the few hours she had alone. Well, not entirely alone. Doctor Points had pestered her to no end about her "place in time", Asking everything from "Have you foaled?" and "Was the equine plague still in effect before you vanished?" to more pressing matters like "do you know any dark magic?" and "Have you ever consumed meat?".

To these questions, Silent never really felt the need to lie to the doctor, finding it humorous when she nodded to the questions of meat and dark magic. This had perturbed the doctor greatly and he'd written down a whole page of notes before excusing himself and letting the nurse refresh her Iv bag. The nurse had also brought in a large helping of food around noon, notifying Silent that her weight ratio was way off and that she need to eat more food to regain her strength.

The draconian mare had growled at the aid but begrudgingly eaten her fill of the food. The nurse refilled her Iv, her eyes watching from the corners of her sockets to make sure the ancient mare didn't try any fast ones. When she had finished her meal, The nurse had tried to take the tray back but Silent had snapped her teeth at the aid's leg, startling her and making her back away quickly, holding her hoof to her chest protectively. Silent held the tray up to her chest and growled at the earth pony.

The nurse sighed and dropped her hoof back down to the floor a moment later, her voice quiet but strained with annoyance.

"Ma'am, i'm just trying to help you, if you wish to keep the empty tray you may, but i'll need it to feed you again at dinner time."

When Silent growled more as a response, the nurse left, opening to door to find Will about to open it, a pile of books in his magic. The nurse had whispered something in his ear, her eyes slanting back to look at Silent for a moment, before she pulled back and walked out of view. Will looked down the hall where she'd disappeared and then to Silent.

He frowned, and entered the room, closing the door behind him. "That wasn't very nice of you, she's just trying to help you recover ya know." He grumbled, setting the books in a stack at the end of the bed. Sitting next to them, he picked up the clipboard from previously and flipped the first book open.

Tilting her head to the side, Silent read the spine. Ancient Equestrian Translations, by Glyph Storm, huh...I guess he's trying to decipher what I wrote. She smirked and sat back, watching him as he flipped back and forth through pages. A moment or two into the work, he levitated a scroll and quill out of his bag and began looking back and forth from the clip board she'd written on and the book.

And now the fun begins, lets see what you think of me after this. Nightmare smirked, she would play this charade until her power was fully restored, and then it was sweet nightmares for the whole lot of em. She'd send entire towns into nightmare induced coma's, leaving them like that for a few days, and then let them all wake up to recount their horrid memories to others.

I think i'll start farther away from Canterlot actually, it seems tactically sound to effect smaller areas first. With Luna guarding the realm of dreams now, Nightmare had to be sure she kept on the down low until she was fully capable of over powering Luna.

"Huh." Will's verbal statement pulled nightmare out of her thoughts, she watched as he scribbled something down and then looked up at her. "Silent Roar, that's an interesting name, is it because you can't seem to speak?"

If looks could kill, Will would be a pile of ashes. The stallion flinched under the glare she leveled at him, and looked back down at his clipboard.

"Er, I'll take that as a yes then." Continuing on down the page, he blinked at her answers. "Okay, first question, putting "Equestria" as your place of origin isn't exactly helpful to the doctor or me. do you have a more detailed answer of where you are from?"

Silent Roar put her hoof to her chin and acted like she was thinking, and then she pantomimed a square in the air to him. At first he looked confused, tilting his head to the side slightly and flopping an ear.

"Um..you...lived within the borders?"

She smacked her hoof into her forehead and shook her head. using her magic she grasped the clipboard again, both to get a hold of it and try to siphon out some more magic from Will. To her dismay he let her have it with ease, he even procured a pen. She didn't even get a scrap of his magic before she had to let go.

Its fine, I have plenty of time, patience is a virtue here. Silent used the pen and scribbled a rough drawing of Equestria onto the back of a page. she outlined the area known as the Everfree forest and then filled in the spaces marked as Canterlot and Ponyville. From there she branched out to the foal mountains where she made a big scribbled circle. Letting Will take the clip board back and examine it, she watched as he nodded and jotted down some notes in his personal paperwork.

Once more he looked up. "Alright, thank you. Next question, you answered "Dragon slayer" as your job occupation, I assume this implies you killed rogue dragons that invaded our borders?" When Silent nodded, Will frowned. "I see, well sadly that occupation is no longer applicable to our time. Dragons have been allied with us for over a couple hundred years now."

Silent merely huffed and folded her arms, pinning her ears back against her head. Of course Celestia and Luna had done that! They wanted to be all goody goody with the other species. Silent couldn't care less about em, unless they wanted to worship her, then they were...acceptable.

Will kept talking. "Now with that being said, I wanted to ask a question about your physiology," Here Will brought out the X-ray if her body from a side view. "You have parts of your anatomy that are the same as a dragon's. The teeth, eyes, and these sacs under your lungs, all correlate to that of a dragon. This begs me to ask you, Silent, are you a half breed?"

Silent furrowed her brow, and shook her head. Will seemed perplexed.

"Oh? But if you're not as half breed, then how did you get those traits?" He paused for a moment, "...Was it by magical means?" Silent nodded slowly, looking out the window at the sunlight that peeked through the blinds. Again she reached for his clip board and he gave it willingly. This time she draw a circular symbol, with images and designs she pulled from her memories of Luna's magical classes. she created a makeshift rune symbol that held three markers within it.

the first marker was of transformation magic, she placed it at the top. The second marker was for a unicorn, and she placed it on the left. The third marker she placed as the symbol for dragon. She drew all of these in ancient equestrian, both to confuse Will, as well as make it hard for him to decipher the image. While she didn't really care if he succeeded, she also didn't want him to find out entirely what she was doing.

Handing him the clip board once more, she watched as he looked it over and then went to his translation books. after a couple seconds of confusion, he simply set it aside and looked back to her with a smile. "I'm just going to put magical as the reason." After jotting it down, he continued. "With your job being defunct, are there any skills you can show me without strenuous activity, that could be useful in this era?"

Silent thought for a moment and then nodded and was given the clipboard with a new sheet of blank paper. She wrote for a few minutes and then with a snicker she hoofed it back to him. She smirked when he started reading. the first one making him blush hotly.

"M-Ma'am, I...this isn't...okay, we need to cover some ground rules its seems. First off, Writing "kiss me and I'll show you my talents" isn't acceptable. Prostitution is illegal nowadays, and even then, that kind of activity requires strenuous movements. Plus...no offense, but you are in no condition to do stuff like that."

Silent couldn't help but chuckle as the stallion blustered his way through evading her proposition, she batted her eyelashes at him when he finished and let out a throaty purr that sent his mane straight up. He gulped and took three steps back.

"N-Nope, no way. nu-uh. I-I'm on duty anyway." Will looked anywhere but the mare on the bed. He instead quietly read down the list, some items making him squirm and others seeming to intrigue him. As silent expected, things like "professional dragon slayer," and "can kill just about anything" seemed to bother him, but stuff like "soldier" and "weapon trained" grabbed his interest.

Will wrote several things down and then looked up once more, a happy twinkle in his eyes. "Sweet! It sounds like you were a military pony, and that field of knowledge I know! So, next question. Your throat is pretty messed up, can you tell me how that happened? Cause you not being able to speak is...hard for us."

Silent purposefully scowled, and nodded. She quickly scribbled "I can fix that" onto the paper. When Will translated it, he blinked in surprise.

"Y-you can? W-well tell me what you need, and if we have it i can get right on that!"

Silent made a grunting noise and shook her head. she scribbled onto the page and handed it to him. When he read it, his cheeks flared up to their brightest. "I....I don't think we can do that...the only other mare here is...well--"

It was here that the door opened and the only other mare in the building walked back in, carrying another clipboard and a few syringes. "So the doctor wants me to take another blood sample from around your hip area and..." The nurse paused as she became aware that both occupants were staring at her with two very different expressions.

Silent was gazing at her with a pair of sultry half lidded eyes and a light blush was on her cheeks, while Will was staring at her like she'd walked in on him masturbating or something. Setting her clip board down on the table, she leveled a glare at Will. "Ooooookay, whats going on and what did i just walk into?"

Will simply blushed harder and slowly handed her the note. She read it, she blinked wide eyed, she blushed furiously and then to Silent's delight started beating Will over the head with her clipboard until it broke.

"She wants me to do WHAT!?"

**********

The nurse, Doctor Points, and Will, all looked from the clipboard and it's single sentence, to Silent Roar, who was looking back at them with a semi serious expression, her front hooves steepled together as her eyes darted between the three of them. After explaining in written format how the spell worked, they had fallen silent and shuffled awkwardly about. Doctor Points spoke up, coughing into a hoof and glancing at the nurse for a moment.

"You do realize this sounds completely preposterous to us, right?" He pointed to the clipboard, where the sentence 'Let me kiss a mare and take her voice.' glared back up at the trio. "Seriously? this sounds like a spell straight out of the imagination! I went to school, and no mage would allow such magic to exist...then again," he glanced at his patient. "You do come from a time when magic was in it's infancy, things deemed unacceptable now were useful back then I imagine...."

Silent nodded, and Doctor Points frowned, his ears folding back to touch his neck, and he looked to the other mare present. The nurse out ride shook her head and lifted her hoof defensively against her chest. "No way, not in a thousand year will I do that."

Silent smirked, oddly ironic statement there, nurse, I haven't done this is a thousand years either!

To her disgruntlement, The doctor agreed. "I must admit while it would help us get more direct answers from you, and you'd be able to speak, I'm not going to put my career, or the job's of others in dangerous fields. I cannot allow this spell to take place. I'm sorry Ms Roar, but until I can get the clearance to do so, I'll be putting it in your paperwork that you are a mute."

Silent Roar growled, she pointed exaggeratedly at the clipboard and when will gave it to her, she furiously scribbled out a reply.

Will retrieved it from her, and read aloud. "This was perfectly legal in our time! We could request a voice, and thus be given one! Have these many years softened our race so much? Could we not just take from those who deserve not to speak?"

All three looked at her with sideways ears and perplexed expressions, the nurse furrowed her brow. "What do you mean by that. While I understand the irony of your situation, I feel it should be said, every pony deserves to have their voice, and keep it."

Silent threw her hooves up in the air and then flopped back into the bed cushions. folding her arms and glaring at her lap.

Suffering children, why is it so hard to get a voice!? Silent snatched the clipboard from Will, and scribbled again, before thrusting it in his snout, he took a step back and frowned, displeased by her actions. "She asks...why can't we use a criminal or dying pony..."

Here the doctor stepped forward with a haggard sigh, Silent could tell he was trying to reighn in his frustration. "Listen, Ms Roar, what you are asking, while legal in your time, is NOT legal in ours, besides the obvious moral issues with stealing a voice from a dying pony or a criminal even, it is wrong to do so."

Silent looked out the window, frowning and grumbling.

It was here the Doctor reached out and touched her shoulder, making her flinch. She slowly slid her eyes in their sockets to look at him, without moving her head. the result was that Will put a hoof on the side of his sword, and the nurse backed away. The Doctor didn't pull back. "Ma'am, With as much respect and consideration as i can muster for your predicament, It's like this, when in Roan, Do as the Roan's do. You are in our time now, and until you go back--"

the nurse quipped quietly "If she can go back..." Oddly, her statement wasn't said in annoyance, it simply was.

"--Then I am going to have to ask you to adhere to our rules, our way of life." Removing his hoof, Silent watched as the Doctor straitened himself up and turned away from her, to Will. "Ranger Growth, I want you to stay here and watch Ms Roar, and try to help her as much as you can. See if you can get her caught up on some of the laws of our little town and the rudimentary basics of modern etiquette she'll need to eh...fit in." At the last part of his sentence he looked back at Silent and smiled lightly.

She scowled back.

When the nurse and Doctor left the room, she looked back out the window with the same displeased expression from before. If she couldn't get a voice, this would make things quite complicated. If she stole one, it would be blatant that she cast the spell now deemed illegal.

Curse Celestia and Luna for their morals...it'd be so much easier if I just took it from a criminal, they will not need it in the afterlife anyway! She smacked her hoof into the sheets in frustration, and then using her magic, she picked up a nearby picture frame and crumpled it instantly. Will barked out a "hey!" before she leveled him with a glare and sent the chunk of scrap hurtling out the window at a speed that shattered the glass in several pieces.

Will jumped to his feet and sent out his magic across her body, restraining her front hooves to her side and pushing her head into the pillow. she snarled for about a second before she felt his magic slam her jaw shut. Will trotted around the side of the bed and bared his teeth at her. Silent widened her eyes at this, her ears pinned back and her teeth bared back.

"Alright that's enough!" He hissed, and brought his nose within an inch of hers, making her surprised expression all the more genuine, "I have had it with your bratty, childish glares, your insults and vulgarity! The first thing i'm going to teach you, is some humility."

The nurse poked her head in to speak and Will snapped to her. " We are busy with a lesson, please give no interruptions."

The nurse promptly squeaked and closed the door. When her foot falls had gone away, he looked back to her. next to him, the clipboard floated up and a pen zipped across it's surface, writing out the basics of a spell. Once finished, Will unceremoniously bopped it against her snout and sat back to where she could only see the clipboard and it's contents.

"That is a repair spell, in our village every foal capable of magic learns this first, so if they break something, they fix it as well. You are going to do the same."

Silent glared daggers at the clipboard, wishing it would burst into flame, but when it didn't she snorted and read the spell over. It was simple enough. In fact, it was too simple. She knew a spell that was far better then this, and instead of falling the stallion's learning lesson, She decided would surprise him.

After about ten minutes of holding the clipboard up for her, Will pulled it away. If he expected a remorseful or guilty expression, he got none of that. Silent was the epitome of calm, collected peacefulness. she closed her eyes, lit her horn, and Will watched in full fascination. As if time was reversing, the many shards of glass reversed from their resting places on the ground, and in perfect sync, the window mended itself in one fluid motion.

Even more surprising, was that the object that caused the damage, right before the window finished mending, came floating through the hole it had made, oscillating in mid air all the way over to the desk, where it then un-crumpled itself and reverted back to it's previously undamaged form.

All of this took place in a matter of a minute, And Silent was very thankful that Will hadn't removed his magic from her arms or her neck, the magic pull she was getting was really helping heal her hip. Will for the most part had his mouth agape in astonishment. She looked slowly from her, to the window, and then back again, a hoof lifted and swinging back and forth between the two.

"I... that was...you...what?!" Standing and walking over to the picture frame, he scooped up the picture with a hoof and examined it closely. his magic faltered and fell away from Silent's form as his attention changed targets. She found herself rather amused by his antics, as he poked and prodded the frame with his magic.

"What in tarturus was that spell? You didn't fix everything, it's like you made it never happen!" He set the frame down and went to the window, slowly encasing the glass and feeling it before his eyes widened. "N-No, you did more than that, this glass's internal structure is more firm, better formed, gods above..." Will slowly turned around and looked at her, this time with full apprehension.

"W-what did you cast?" He asked, his voice pouring out ample amounts of curiosity. Silent inwardly cheered.

Good, he knows i'm no foal when it comes to magic, and as an added bonus I healed quite a bit of my hip too. still...Silent watched as Will walked over to her, and they both stared at one another, two different forms of thought processing in their minds. One questioned the level of danger this mare could deal, while the other contemplated if she should show less of her power.

Their thoughts were rudely interrupted by the door opening and the Doctor barged in. he quickly looked to the window, then to Will, and finally to Silent. "You!" he exclaimed, pointing a hoof at her. "What did you just do? What Spell did you cast?" He stepped forward with each question until he was on the other side of the bed opposite Will. Both stallions looked down at her, and weirdly, Silent felt herself shrink into the bedding by an inch.

yup, I definitely need to be careful with what I cast around here... Sitting up fully after a second, she collected the clipboard and scribbled the answer. Will read it out loud and quietly exclaimed "Sweet Celestia...it was a temporal reversal spell..." The Doctor opened his jaw in surprise and then they both looked at her, Will murmuring "how in the heck can you cast a spell of that caliber? That's like.." he Looked to the Doctor, "Isn't a spell like this around the royal sister's level?"

Doctor Points snorted and shook his head, "Erm, No, I don't think so, but it is a spell rarely cast by random unicorns, it has multiple levels. Some are simple, others are complex. An average unicorn from Canterlot University could cast this spell to fix something a window." He then frowned and looked back at Silent Roar, "However, there is one part of that spell that most cannot cast, and you, ma'am just did it with ease."

Will twitched an ear and sighed. "What did she do?" Silent looked at him like he'd betrayed her and he snipped "Oh don't look at me like that, you are a very odd case even in my book."

Doctor Points sat down. "Just a few seconds ago, after She shattered that window, a patient came in with a cut on her foreleg. It was rather deep. I went to patch it up, only to watch in amazement as the wound closed up and even a couple globs of debris removed themselves from the wound!" He chuckled, "Frankly, I'm quite surprised Ms Roar here can do such a thing, that part of the spell casting process is very rare. If any part of her spell is a higher level, it's the fact that she reversed organic damage."

Shit...

Doctor points smirked as a bead of sweat trickled down Silent's neck. "Not to worry," he said while standing up and walking to the door, "If anything it means you've made my job a lot easier. You should be very easy to find in records of old, as back then, a spell caster of your level would be very useful and thus, very noteworthy.

ShitshitshitshitshitSHITSHIT Why didn't I think of that! Of course this old codger has been observing everything i've been doing since arriving, he spotted the inconsistencies in my blood, my magic, and my body, quick, think of something!

wracking her brains out, she snatched up the clipboard and scribbled something, before almost flinging the scrap of wood at the doctor, whose reflexes barely caught it before it smacked his snout. He read the sentence. "N-Not your spell? what do you mean it's not your spell? You cast it."

Silent made an effort to look like she was hiding something, biting her lip, looking away cautiously, nervously flicking her ears. All little ques to show she was anxious about revealing more. Doctor Points and Will both stepped forward, Will speaking up authoritatively. "Ma'am, You're clearly distressed about something, what is it?" He and the Doctor leaned in, ears forward.

this would be a perfect time to slit their throats....Nightmare chuckled inside. Composing herself slowly, she nervously took the clipboard offered to her by the Doctor, and wrote out her half lie.

Doctor points took it from her once she was done, and read aloud for Will. "We were not supposed to cast it, our teacher, Starswirl, the Bearded said it was for emergencies only...We thought, it would serve a better purpose for what soldier, Willing Growth requested we cast."

Will backed up immediately. "wait, wait, wait a darn minute...Starswirl was your teacher?!"

When Silent nodded, both stallions sucked in breath and looked at one another. will spoke first. "so...that explains the power level...b-but then that means if you knew Starswirl, then you might know Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Right?"

Silent had to fight not to growl or frown, instead she nervously chuckled and shook her head, before writing more on the clipboard, at this rate she'd need a new sheet of paper soon. Once more the Doctor read aloud her response.

"We were not his student, more like a passing learner. We met Starswirl on the border of the dragon lands, where we were hunting a rogue dragon. Injured from a previous fight, we witnessed his casting of said spell and asked him to teach it to us."

here Silent rubbed a forehoof against her forehead, looking exasperated, blowing a lock of her mane out of her eyes. The Doctor chuckled and continued.

"We were not expected for his lectures, they are more dangerous than some dragon's we have fought! Regardless of this, it is the only spell he taught us, and our time with each other was nary a week in company. I went on to fight the dragon, and he....he went somewhere else, we do not know where."

The clicking of the clock claimed the majority of the room's sound for the next few moments as the two stallions absorbed this knowledge, and then an idea came to Nightmare, and she wrote more.

"We were camping not a few weeks later from this encounter, when we woke in those woods the soldier, Willing growth found us in. We are still not sure how we got there, or what caused our sudden alteration of time, but we have an idea."

That got the two males attention, and they scooted closer. Silent wrote out the next part slowly, seeming to shrink in embarrassment. her cheeks reddened and her ears flattened against her neck. The Doctor spoke more.

"We have been known to..sleep cast... in the past."

Doctor Points sighed and tossed the clipboard onto the bed next to her. "Well that is certainly a possibility, but most foals stop doing that at around ten, did you never get trained to stop your horn's flow of magic while sleeping?"

Prepared for this inquiry, Silent broadened the fabricated story.

"We suffered surges at a young age, our magic once surged in a field and it continued for two hours until we fell unconscious." Here the doctor gasped, putting a hoof to his lips, before reading more. "we were unconscious for a week, and were told we almost passed on..."

Will grimaced at this, rubbing a hoof on his other leg. "Yikes..."

the Doctor continued. "Ever since, sleep has become dangerous to those around us. We have woken in the epicenter of blown out houses, destroyed glades, and ruined forest floors. We think what happened in your forest, to us, was a mixture of both a magical surge, and starswirl's spell."

Nightmare inwardly patted herself on the back for the story. Doctor Points put his hoof to his chin and tapped it a couple times before nodding. "That would explain why my magical meter showed two different levels, one low and the other unimaginably high...and I suppose it could explain why you have a piece of your hip missing. You sort of teleported through time, and teleportation without a point of landing or a point of known origins can be extremely detrimental, Losing parts is a known risk."

He stood up with a determined expression. "I won't be able to medically say it's sound, but it makes sense logically and that's good enough for me." Next to him Will nodded his agreement and Silent sighed with a small smile. "Now, You need some rest, Will, she will need some more paper, and maybe a set of pens, in case some fail. Heavens above I know I've ran into those. It's like they engineer some to just be duds."

Silent looked down at the pen and turned it to the side where she could read the name.

Hmm, I know not who these flim n flam brothers are, but if they make pens utensils that purposefully fail, I will give them never ending nightmares of sudden inexplicable fatherhood and broken contraceptives.

**********

Author's Note

Eventually, the warbling griffon who writes this story will manage to give regular updates.