Twilight stared into space in shock. They four mares around her did too. Applejack's loss affected them all, even Twilight, who had only known her for a day. No one had expected Nightmare Moon to flee. And when she had, and Applejack had thrown her lasso out to stop her, no one expected Applejack to disappear as well. It was too shocking to try and figure out. It had begun as was according to plan. They had traveled through the everfree forest to get to the castle of the two sisters. Nightmare Moon had been there, but as Twilight began her speech about friendship. Nightmare Moon had begun to teleport away, fear gleaming in her teal eyes. But the ponies would not stand for it. Applejack had disappeared, the element of honesty lying in the spot she had been in moment before, and had never reappeared. Nightmare Moon officially had leverage that she could use against all of Equestria. When Nightmare Moon had disappeared, Celestia had returned and with a heavy heart she had sent the ponies back to Ponyville.
"I shall handle this for now Twilight, go take you friends and have a well earned rest." She said sadly. They ponies had slowly walked through everfree and Ponyville, but they were too shocked to answer anypony as they called out with festive air. As so they sat in the golden oaks library. Finally one of the mares spoke.
"If only there were someway to find her! Then I'd show nightmare moon a thing or two!" Rainbow said angrily snapping everypony out of their stupor.
"Wait! I think I know a spell for that!" Twilight said before she began ruffling through her books. After a few moments she began throwing book around in a frenzy and everypony else began searching too until finally.
"I found it!" Rarity cried. Everypony dropped the books they were looking through and wen to her. Twilight took the book and read over the instructions for the tracking ritual.
"This spell is very complicated…" she said gravely.
"Well how long does it take to cast twilight?" Rainbow asked.
"It takes three hours to cast, but it'll take at least three months to gather all of the ingredients."
"Three months!? Applejack doesn't have three months! Nightmare Moon is probably torturing her right now!" Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash.
"This is her only hope, we need to work as fast as we can, I'll stay here and work on the magical elements of the ritual, can I give you each a list of things to find? If we work together, we can finish the spell sooner." The four mares nodded grimly and were each handed a list. Twilight watched as her new friends left and thought darkly of the torture Applejack must be facing.
It had been three days since Nightmare Moon had unknowingly kidnapped Applejack. But she used her mistake to her advantage. Nightmare locked Applejack in her dungeon and promised to torture the mare for every scrap of information she had. After two days Applejack was beginning to feel brave. Not once had Nightmare Moon raised a hoof against her, she claimed to be busy but Applejack had a feeling that this was really just a ploy. Time to find out how ruthless Nightmare Moon really was.
"Let me out you black bellied varmit!" Applejack shouted as she kicked the bars of her cage which clanged loudly, a sound that rang through the dungeon and under the crack in the door to the rest of what Applejack assumed to be some kind of fortress. She sat on the floor angrily and huffed. "An give back my hat!" the door to the dungeons opened and Nightmare Moon walked in looking murderous.
"If I give back your silly hat will you stop shouting and let me work in peace!" she shouted angrily. Applejack glared and nodded stiffly. Nightmare Moon brought her hat forward with her tail and threw it through the bars. "Finally, some piece and quiet…"
"Can I have sumthin ta eat now?"
"Grrrrr!" Nightmare growled angrily. With a flash of her horn a nondescript bowl of soup appeared with a piece of bread.
"Can I have sum butter?" Nightmare's eye twitched. Another flash.
"An sum apple cider?" Nightmare froze before she screamed.
"Enough! You are my prisoner! I don't even need to feed you foalish pony!" with that the black alicorn stomped out of the dungeon and slammed the door.
"Ya fergot ta turn out the light!" Applejack cried out with a smirk. Another shriek rang out through the halls before the dungeon was doused in darkness. Applejack chuckled darkly before she leaned back and let her hat fall over her eyes. This pattern carried on for three more days where Applejack tortured poor Nightmare instead of the dark mare torturing her. Finally Nightmare had had enough. She placed a silencing spell and ignored the mare in blissful silence. But this was not the best of plans. After all, every pony can tell the difference between a screaming of demand and a scream of pain or fear.
"Nightmare! I'm a might thirsty!" Applejack cried with a snicker. After about twenty minutes however the mare began to anger. "HELOOOOO! What kinda evil overlord pony fergets her prisoner! WOOOHOOOOO! NIGHTMARE MOOONNN!" Applejack cried out. Still the mare was alone. After a while Applejack stopped calling for the black mare. After a few hours though Applejack's stomach began to growl. Nightmare had never let her starve before. The fact that she was made Applejack begin to worry. On the solitude stretched. For hours Applejack sat on the stone floor of her prison sell in silence when a sound caught her ear. She stood up ad looked around, but the sun was setting outside and the pitiful light that penetrated the prison was beginning to fade."Nightmare? Is that you?" the sound whispered through the cell again, making Applejack's fur stand on end. "uh heh… Nightmare? I'm sorry fer the way I was actin, can ya come out now, ya made yer point, I wont bother you no more…" silence filled the cell for a few seconds before a pair of gleaming black eyes made Applejack scream.
Nightmare Moon rose from her nap and surveyed the beatific night she had created, then she frowned. She could hear no crickets. She puzzled over this for a few second before she chuckled at her own foolishness and removed the silencing spell. The crickets chirped happily from the night and she smiled. Then she frowned again. There was no sound coming from the dungeon. Not a peep. This worried her greatly so she flew down to the dungeon. Still silence filled the dark dungeon worrying Nightmare even more. She flipped on the light and gasped.
"Star spiders!" she cried and stomped on the blue stared arachnid with a squishy sounding scwelch. She blasted at all of the poisonous spiders and levitated a prone Applejack out of the dungeon. She was covered in star spider bites. If Nightmare didn't remove the poison she would surely die. The dark alicorn worked quickly using magic to draw the poison out of the mare's bloodstream. It was a long trying process but at last the last drop of poison was removed and Applejack was still alive. A exhausted sweating Nightmare Moon roused the orange earth pony, just to make sure.
"Ni'mare? I'm a might thirsty…" she slurred before she fell back down, bone tired. Nightmare sighed.
"Finally, some peace and quiet." She mumbled. Then Applejack began snoring. Rather loudly. Nightmare groaned and walked out of the room heading to her bed.
The next morning Applejack sat up and rubbed her eyes. She blinked in confusion as she realized she was laying on a plush four poster bed instead of a hard prison floor. She looked around more before her she smiled a bit and leaned back into the fluffy pillows. She rose a hoof to pull her hat over her closed eyes. But her hat wasn't on her head. She began looking around frantically for the hat. Nightmare Moon walked in.
"Oh good, you're awake, well I-"
"Where's my hat!?" Applejack growled angrily getting in Nightmare's face. Nightmare looked at the mare in confusion, then anger.
"I just saved your life and all you care about it your stupid hat?! Manners surely have suffered in the last thousand years."
"I need my hat!" Applejack said looking around worriedly. "It's special!" Nightmare Moon looked at the mare before huffed and sulked.
"I'll get you your silly hat." Nightmare said with a growl. Applejack was suddenly hugging Nightmare's leg.
"Oh thank you thank you thank you! Please hurry." Nightmare stared at the mare before she lifted her leg and extracted herself from the cow pony. As she left the room she locked the door. Couldn't let her escape after all. Down to the dungeons Nightmare Moon slunk until she stood at the door. With a fortifying breath Nightmare charged a spell and opened the door. She began firing beams at anything that moved, killing as many star spiders as she could. Soon she had made her way to the cow ponies cell. What she saw inside made her mouth drop open and her ears droop. Star spiders acted a bit like bees in that they had a hive mentality. And like bee's they had queens.
Apparently, Star Spider queens like straw hats as thrones.
Nightmare Moon made her way back to the cow ponies room. She was covered in bruises and spider bites, luckily she had a star spider antidote purchased after the incident with the cow pony. She unlocked the door and stepped inside. The orange mare was sleeping on the bed sloppily, limbs splayed around, snoring loudly. Nightmare glared angrily and threw the hat at the mare. Applejack woke with a start before she looked down and saw her hat.
"YEEEHAW!" Applejack cried before she set it on her head heartily. When she looked at Nightmare her smile fell. "Holy horse apples! Are ya alright there sugar cube?" she asked worriedly. Nightmare sighed heavily before she slammed the door. This was going to be a LOOOOOOOONG couple of months.
