Everlasting Night

Chapters

Captured
She's As Evil As Evil Can Be
A Knife In My Back (unedited) XXL
The Battle For Manehattan: Part 1
One does not simply sneak out of Canterlot

Captured

Everlasting Night.

Chapter 1: Captured.

May 21st Year 1 of the New Moon

Our bearers are Twilight, personal student of Celestia and a very powerful Unicorn. She's an 'egghead' with a love for magic and books. Friends weren't really important for her, until now. She represents the element of Magic and is the leader of the bearers.

Fluttershy is a timid Pegasus with a love for animals. Flying was not really a favorite activity of her. She knows that you can make your enemies your friends if you just show some kindness to them. She represents the element of kindness.

Pinkie is an earth pony with a love for pranks, parties and sweets. Her favorite activities are partying and creating parties. But there is one thing that Pinkie has sworn to herself and that is that she would make everypony smile, even if it kills her in the process. She represents the element of laughter.

Rainbow dash, a name that fits with her mane. This mare loves speed, the Wonderbolts and awesomeness. Her dream is to join the Wonderbolts and she would push herself to the extreme to accomplish that dream. There is only one thing that Rainbow would never do and that's abandoning her friends. She represents the element of loyalty.

Applejack, an honest farmpony. Her love for apples is like the love for a child, the apples were her foals. There is one thing Applejack can't stand and that's lying. She believes that speaking the truth is the best thing you can do, no matter what kind of situation you're in. She represents the element of honesty.

Our last bearer is Rarity, a hard to get mare for many stallions. Her love for fashion is widely known in Equestria. She helps many ponies with fashion problems and she does it for free, because she believes that a little bit of generosity can make a pony's day better. She's the element of generosity.

The lights are on, the stage is set, let the story begin.

It was time, the Bearers of Harmony had Nightmare Moon cornered in the ancient ruined Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. The Elements were clung around their neck and they were ready to end Nightmare Moon once and for all.

But this was the moment that Nightmare Moon had been waiting for. Ah, now they’re going to use the Elements, excellent. I just need to raise a barrier around my body and then I will be victorious. Nightmare Moon raised her barrier and just in time, in less than a second a rainbow engulfed her. The only thing she had to do now was to keep the barrier steady and wait until the rainbow disappears. Magic of the moon, I call upon thee, help me to defend myself. Her eyes began to glow with the same whitish hue as the moon, her barrier grew to become the same color. After what seemed like an age, the rainbow dispersed, she had survived.

She dropped her defensive barrier and saw the Bearers of Harmony lying on the ground unconscious. Good, unconscious, now that they are unable to stop me, I can put my plan into motion. Her horn started to glow and a magical aura enveloped the necklaces along with Twilight’s crown. In the blink of an eye, the Elements had gone to a place that only Nightmare could reach. She sat down and waited for the Bearers to come back to consciousness.

After ten minutes they all began to stir, they slowly came back from their forced rest. Twilight was the first to open her eyes and to speak.

“Wha-? Did we win?” She rubbed with her left fore hoof on her temple, trying to ease the throbbing of her head. Her rubbing stopped when she saw Nightmare, sitting in front of her. She wore a devilish grin upon her face.

“Guess again.” Nightmare snickered while patting Twilight on the head. The other Bearers were also starting to awaken, they all gasped in shock as soon as they saw that Nightmare was still in the castle.

Twilight pushed Nightmare’s hoof away and ran towards her friends, they were huddled up close to each other. Then, realization struck Twilight, her crown was gone and so were the necklaces.

“What did you do to the Elements?” She asked Nightmare, this triggered the attention of the other ponies and they gasped in shock, again, when they noticed that their Elements were gone. Nightmare just chuckled.

“Oh, are they gone? Well that’s too bad, but! If you truly want to know where they are? Then I shall tell you. They are in a place that only I’ve been and that only I can reach, they are sealed on the moon.” Nightmare was now walking around, her gaze never leaving the ponies and the devilish smirk remaining stuck on her face. “You won’t ever see the Elements again, I have won!”

Twilight fell on the ground, her fore hooves covering her face. She had to acknowledge her defeat.

“No, how can I get the Princess back? Will the sun come back?” Then a question popped into her mind, a question that needed to be answered. “How did you manage to defeat the Elements of Harmony?”

Nightmare stopped for a moment. Should I really be telling them this? I guess since the Elements are on the moon that it couldn’t hurt.

“Well, since the Elements aren’t coming back I can tell you how I defeated you. When I was on the moon I had 1000 years to study how they worked. I found out that there are only two things in existence that are stronger than the Elements, the sun and the moon. So when you were busy sending that rainbow towards me, I called upon the magic of the moon to raise the defense of my barrier and guess what? It worked.” Nightmare was beaming with malicious pride. She loved to humiliate other ponies, but she loved it even more when she had power.

Twilight frowned in thought for a moment. Why didn’t I see this before, how could I’ve been so stupid and more importantly, what is she going to do now?

Nightmare saw the frown on Twilight’s face and, through a mental link with Twilight, she knew what she was thinking. Her smirk widened. This is going to be the best part. I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces. She replaced her smirk with an emotionless expression.

“So, you want to know what I’m going to do now?” She looked at Twilight, her expression was first a confused one but a horrified one replaced this. She must have realized that I can read her thoughts. Nightmare cleared her throat.

“Well, right now my loyal followers are taking over Canterlot and I plan to repaint the castle of Celestia to a more dark color. As for you six, that we’ll discuss later. But right now get ready, because we’re going for a ride.” Before Twilight or the others could respond, the horn of Nightmare began to glow. In the blink of an eye they were gone, leaving the castle back to the way it used to be.

*****

Meanwhile in Canterlot the fighting continued. Celestia’s royal guards were trying to keep the Army of the Night from entering the castle. The Army of the Night were outnumbering the guards, but the guards were far more skilled fighters. The Army of the Night had conquered the city and were now making their final push towards the castle. In the middle of the battle were two individuals fighting each other. The individual dressed in a golden chest piece with a golden helmet was Shining Armor. He was a white unicorn loyal to Celestia, captain of the Royal Guard and the brother of Twilight. The individual he was fighting was dressed in a dark blue chest piece with a dark blue helmet, the armors of the two individuals looked like each other, except for the color. This individual was a black Pegasus with a gray mane, he was loyal to Nightmare Moon and the commander of the Army of the Night. His name was Dark Shadow.

They had been fighting for over twenty minutes, Shining Armor had the advantage of magic, but Dark had the advantage of flying, both made excellent use of their advantages. They were both becoming tired, but if one didn’t pay attention than the other could take an advantage of it. Dark flew towards Shining, his sword in his hoof. Shining was ready for the attack, he levitated his sword with his magic. There was a clash the two swords colliding against each other and the two ponies just mere inches from each other’s face.

“You have an excellent defense, Captain Shining Armor.” Shadow said, he knew that his opponent was a skilled fighter. He flew backwards and landed on his hooves, taking a moment to rest.

“You are also an excellent fighter, commander Shadow.” Shining Armor replied, he too, took time to rest.

They were both very tired and it wouldn’t take long before one of the ponies made a mistake. They both took their battle stances again and ran towards each other. They clashed against each other and tried to find an opening in the defense of the enemy. Shadow managed to make a light cut on Shining's leg, but it certainly wasn't enough to kill him. Shadow was beginning to declare himself the victor, but in his moment he wasn't paying much attention to the fight and Shining managed to use that to his advantage. They both looked down. Shining Armors sword was in Shadow’s chest, blood began to pour out of the wound. Shadow fell to the floor and just when Shining Armor wanted to finish the job another sound could be heard. It was a horn, the horn of victory. Shining Armor looked at the castle and saw that Celestia’s flags were being changed to Nightmare’s flags. Shining Armor looked back at Shadow.

“You… lost.” Shadow smiled, he could feel life dripping out of him, but then he saw a medic from the Army of the Night.

“Medic, over here!!” He shouted, this alerted the medic and he trotted towards the injured Commander. The shout had also alerted some soldiers from the Army of the Night. They rushed towards Shining Armor, they were ready to kill him, but Shadow interrupted them.

“Don’t kill him, he was… a worthy opponent. I’ll ask the… Queen to spare his life, but for now throw him in the dungeon.” The soldiers nodded and levitated Shining Armor of the ground. He looked one last time at Shadow and there was a small gratitude of thanks in his eyes, then the soldiers trotted towards the castle. Shadow turned his gaze towards the medic.

“Am I going… to make it?” The medic looked deeper at the wound and frowned his eyebrows.

“I think so, but you’ll need at least a few weeks of rest.” He took a piece of cloth and gave it to the Commander.

“Bite on this, I’m going to pull the sword out.” The Commander took the piece of cloth and placed it into his mouth, when it was in place he nodded to the medic. In one firm pull the sword was out of the wound, but blood was leaking out of it, much blood. The Commander was spasming in pain. The medic quickly took the piece of cloth out of the Commander’s mouth and bandaged the wound. He levitated some painkillers into the Commander’s mouth and finished the field tourniquet. Once everything was done, he levitated the Commander and went with him to the camp for better medical care.

*****

Nightmare Moon arrived with the Bearers of Harmony in the castle, it took some magic to teleport them all to the caste, but she still had enough to fight. She looked around. She was in the throne room. She looked to Celestia’s throne and then saw her smaller throne. In the 1000 years she was gone it had never left Celestia’s side. She felt some remorse inside her, but that was quickly replaced by anger and rage. She levitated Celestia’s throne and smashed it against the wall shattering it instantly.

The sound of the shattering throne alerted some of Celestia’s guards outside the room. They ran into the throne room and saw Nightmare standing there, looking at them with rage in her eyes. They unsheathed their swords and ran towards Nightmare, but were quickly trapped in her magical aura.

“You foals think you can defeat me!?! Those stupid mares over there couldn’t defeat me with their Elements of Harmony. Let me show you what I can do with those swords.”

The three guards were placed on the ground, but they were still trapped in her magical aura. She levitated one of the swords above a guards head and beheaded him. His body twitched for a moment before it lay on the ground, lifeless. She looked at the 6 mares that were standing behind her, they had witnessed it all and it had scarred them for live. She looked back at the second guard who was terrified. She levitated the swords to his legs and cut them off, all four of them. She dropped him and watched as he died slowly. She heard the 6 mares throwing up, but paid no attention to them, she still had to finish with the last guard. She levitated the sword above his middle and cut him in half, he also died slowly. She heard somepony collapse behind her, it was the white pony with the purple mane. She just had a smirk on her face, but a door opening disturbed that. She looked at the door, the door to enter the throne room, at a pony with the armor of the Army of the Night walked in. He bowed when he saw the Queen.

“My Queen, the city and the castle have been taken over.” The soldier said, still bowing.

“Good, sound the victory horn, let everypony know that Queen Nightmare Moon now rules Equestria.”

“Yes, my Queen.” The soldier left the room and five seconds later the victory horn was heard.

Nightmare Moon turned around and walked towards the terrified ponies. She used her magic to wake the white unicorn up. When the white unicorn was awake she began to speak.

“You have now all witnessed my capabilities, but for now I want to know your names.”

It was Twilight who found the courage to speak first, but she was still terrified.

“Well, as you know, I’m Twilight. The mare with the white coat is Rarity, the mare with the cyan coat is Rainbow Dash, the mare with the orange coat is Applejack, the mare with the pink coat is Pinkie Pie and the mare with the yellow coat is Fluttershy.” Nightmare Moon looked at all the ponies, they were either sick or terrified.

“I will remind you your names, but for now I will call you slave or pet and you will call me Queen or Mistress. I’m not the worst kind of Queen, if you obey and do everything I say then you don’t need to worry, who knows, I may even reward you. But if you cross my path and disobey me then you will feel my wrath, do I make myself clear?” She looked at each mare individually and there was one mare that caught her attention: Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash flew towards Nightmare Moon, stopping inches from her face. “Now wait a minute, I’m not going to be a slave, not even for-“ Her speech was cut off when Nightmare placed a magical aura around Rainbow Dash. She threw Rainbow in the air and smashed her on the ground, breaking her left wing in the process. Rainbow lay there, drifting between consciousness and unconsciousness.

“Rainbow!!” Applejack shouted. She ran towards Rainbow, but was stopped when she was in the same aura Rainbow was in a few seconds ago. “Ah should buck ya back to the moon.”

Nightmare’s expression changed back into rage. “You should just be quiet!!” She cast a spell and in less than a second Applejack was gone.

“Stop that right now, Queen meanie.” Pinkie Pie stepped forward.

Nightmare Moon looked Pinkie straight in the eyes. “What did you call me?!”

“Queen meanie, because that’s what you are, you’re a-“ Pinkie Pie was teleported before she could finish her sentence.

Nightmare then looked at the three other mares. “Is there anypony else that wants to feel my wrath?!” Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity looked at the ground and said nothing. A small smile formed on the Queen’s face.

“Good, you know your place.” Nightmare trotted towards Rainbow and teleported her also. She went back to the three other mares and shackled them with magical bindings to the ground. When she saw that everything was in place she teleported away.

Rarity looked at Twilight. “Do you think she will hurt them?”

Twilight looked away, a small tear dropped on the floor. “I’m pretty sure.”

She's As Evil As Evil Can Be

Unedited

You will read thoughts from different ponies, I’ll color the thoughts so that way you know who is thinking.

Blue: Nightmare Moon

Cyan: Rainbow Dash

Yellow: Fluttershy

Pink: Pinkie

Purple: Twilight

Brown: Enslaved Applejack

Orange: Applejack

Grey: Rarity

Everlasting Night.

Chapter 2: She’s As Evil As Evil Can Be.

20th May, year 1 of the new moon

Nightmare Moon walked through a hallway in the depths of the palace. The hallway was very different from the rest of the palace; the walls and floor were painted black and the torches that hung on the wall didn’t give much light. It also had a frightening atmosphere, for a normal pony that is, for Nightmare Moon it was heaven. There were also cobwebs in the hallway, meaning that the hallway wasn’t used very much, until now.

While Nightmare Moon was walking towards her destination, a little smile formed on her face. She was thinking about what she would do with her new power as queen, about her everlasting night and of course about her new servants. When she arrived at her destination she quickly suppressed her smile and recreated her cold expression.

In front of her was a large brown door that creaked when she opened it. In the room hung her three prizes; her three disobedient servants. There were 6 poles in the room. On the left side of the room Applejack hung between two poles. Her left foreleg and left hind leg were attached to the left pole and her right foreleg and right hind leg were attached to the right pole. Her body hung in an X position. Like this: |x|. In the middle hung Pinkie Pie; in the same position as Applejack. On right side hung Rainbow Dash who was conscious, but still very weak, she also hung in that same position. Nightmare Moon smiled again when she saw the display in front of her, but this time it was a mischievous smile. The three mares were now looking at her, Applejack and Pinkie pie with an angry expression and Rainbow Dash with half closed eyes.

“Hello my servants. Shall we get started right away?” Her voice was full of joy; clearly Nightmare Moon enjoyed inflicting harm on other ponies. “I think I’ll start with Rainbow Dash.”

Nightmare Moon walked to the weak Rainbow Dash. She figured that she needed to punish Rainbow first so she could get some medical attention. She was in pretty bad shape and if she didn’t get medical attention soon then she would die. Nightmare was now standing behind Rainbow Dash. She stood on her hind legs and wrapped her hooves around Rainbow’s body. Rainbow’s eyes opened in shock.

“What are you doing?” Rainbow’s voice was very silent; it was just a little louder than a whisper.

“I’m just going to give you… your punishment.” Nightmare’s voice was very seductive and her hooves were caressing Rainbow’s chest. “I give you two choices of punishment. The first choice is pain.” To show what she meant with pain Nightmare materialized a whip and then lightly slapped Rainbow’s flank. “The second choice is teasing.” Nightmare lowered her hoof and caressed the fur just above Rainbow’s nether regions. She received a small shiver in return. “Make your choice, live or die... I mean: pain or teasing.

It didn’t take long for Rainbow to choose. “Give me pain.” Her voice sounded determined, but deep inside she was scared. I don’t mind the teasing, but I just don’t want to do it with her.

A small smirk formed on Nightmare’s face. I’m going to enjoy this. She walked a couple of feet away from Rainbow and when Nightmare figured that she was standing far enough away she turned around. Nightmare took a moment to admire Rainbow’s back. It was healthy, slim and muscled, but the only bad thing about it was that her wing was hanging limply. My, my, she defiantly is a beautiful mare. “You have one last chance to change your mind.” Nightmare’s whip was ready to strike.

“No, I want the pain!” Rainbow raised her voice. Oh no, I raised my voice against… her. Get ready Rainbow, hell will be unleashed.

Rainbow was right, not a second later she felt the first whiplash. It felt like a hot dagger that was cutting through her. Rainbow made a deafening scream that almost shattered one of the windows. Nightmare took a moment to admire her work. What once had been cyan fur on Rainbow’s back was now a deep cut with some blood seeping out of it, Nightmare’s smirk widened. She’s beautiful, healthy, slim, muscled and she has the roar of a lion. Yes, I’m definitely going to enjoy her. Nightmare now looked at her two other victims. Applejack still had that furious expression on her face, but she was crying. Pinkie was still depressed and her tears were also flowing freely, she did manage to look at Nightmare though. That proved to be a mistake, because Nightmare mouthed 3 words to her: You are next. Nightmare focused her attention back to Rainbow, the punishment had to continue. Nightmare whipped and whipped until Rainbow’s voice kept being silent. Fearing that she might have killed her new servant, she quickly dematerialized her whip and walked towards Rainbow. Rainbow was still breathing, but she was unconscious. Stay with me Rainbow Dash, I’ll get you some medical attention. This didn’t bring much relief to Nightmare and so she magically undid Rainbow’s restraints and levitated her onto her back. She looked one last time at her now terrified victims.

“I’ll be back.” She quickly teleported to the throne room.

*****

In the throne room the three mares had stopped with their shivering and crying, mainly because they didn’t have any more tears. Twilight now had some time to think. What will Nightmare Moon do to us? Will I ever see my family again? Did my brother survive the attack on Canterlot? Is Spike going to be okay? Before she could answer her questions Nightmare Moon teleported into the room, she had a heavily injured Rainbow Dash on her back. Nightmare didn’t say anything, but Twilight could see that something went terribly wrong

“What happened?” A clearly concerned Twilight asked, the two other mares were also very concerned about their friend. Nightmare gave her a threatening glare.

“If you so desire to know, I overdid it on her. I forgot that I had already injured her and so I didn’t hold back in my punishment and one other little thing: Address me as queen or else I’ll need to take you with me to the punishment room.” Nightmare turned away from Twilight and magically undid the shackles of Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, take Rainbow to the medical tent just outside the city, I’ll enchant your wings so you can carry twice your weight.” A black aura surrounded Fluttershy’s wings. The effects of the magic were very visible. Fluttershy’s wings grew a bit and so did her feathers. Nightmare then levitated Rainbow off her back and onto Fluttershy’s. “It is of utmost importance that you get Rainbow to the medical tent as fast as possible. Don’t let her die or death will be the least of your worries, do you understand?”

Fluttershy was shaking, but managed to stand up. “O-of course, y-your Highness.”

I don’t know if I can do it.

Don’t forget that I can still read minds. I know you can do it, my magic will help you.

Are you sure?

Yes. Now go, Rainbow doesn’t have much time.

Fluttershy nodded and took off with Rainbow on her back. Fluttershy then flew through an open window towards the army camp. Nightmare nodded to nopony in particular and turned around, she was greeted by two very concerned faces.

“She’ll be fine.” That was the only thing Nightmare said before she teleported back to the punishment room.

*****

Nightmare was now back in the punishment room. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were still hanging were Nightmare had left them, but they couldn’t be anywhere else because their restrains were being held in place by magic, there was no escape. In this room she was also greeted by two concerned faces, Nightmare rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry about her, she’ll be fine. You should worry about yourselves and the things that I’m going to do to you.” Nightmare’s voice was threatening and joyous at the same time, her concern about Rainbow was completely gone. She trotted over to Pinkie Pie and stood right before her. “Tell me Pinkie Pie, what’s your favorite food?” She spoke in a calm tone, she was masking her punishment.

Nightmare looked Pinkie straight in the eyes, Pinkie’s eyes showed no joy, just sadness. It intrigues me that this normal joyous mare can change into a depressed mare just like that, even Rainbow Dash is made out of stronger wood and she gave up easily, it shouldn’t take long before I break her. “Cupcakes, why do you ask?” Her tone was not an angry one or one with joy, but just a sad one.

“Cupcakes, eh?” Nightmare leaned closer to Pinkie’s ear and whispered very seductively. “I like cupcakes too.” She leaned even closer to Pinkie’s ear, nibbled on it and just before she would pull back she gave her ear a little lick. “Mmm, taste like strawberries. Can’t wait to taste more of you… later.” Nightmare noticed that when she was seducing Pinkie, her hair inflated a little and that meant that Pinkie clearly enjoyed that.

Applejack was looking with an open mouth at the display in front of her. She closed her mouth and shook her head. “Pinkie, how could you enjoy that?”

Pinkie didn’t answer, she didn’t even look at Applejack, she was only looking at those beautiful turquoise serpentine-like eyes in front of her. It was Nightmare who responded to Applejack. “Oh shush you.” She materialized a tape and placed it on Applejack’s mouth with her magic, the only sounds that now came from Applejack were her muffled words. Nightmare materialized a cupcake and levitated in front of Pinkie. “This, my dear Pinkie, is my own special cupcake. It has the magic of the moon in it, but it tastes like blueberries. Try it.” Nightmare didn’t wait for a response and pushed the cupcake into Pinkie’s mouth. Pinkie was hesitant at first to bite but quickly gave in due to the heavenly taste. “It’s good, isn’t it?”

Pinkie nodded excitedly, her hair inflated and her pink fur was even pinker, she was back to her old self and all of this due to a cupcake and maybe some ‘love’ from a certain tyrant. “It’s like I can touch the moon, but with my tongue. You really should give me the recipe, Nightmare.”

Nightmare chuckled lightly. This is the first time in ages that I actually feel good; this mare certainly has a strange effect on me. I think I don’t need to punish her, being kind and seducing her will prove to be enough. “I will give you my love, the recipe and so much more if you just accept me as your queen and if you accept your life as my servant.”

Pinkie was silent for a moment, she was really considering it. Should she accept living as a servant like Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity or should she keep resisting. She knew that she would be severely punished if she didn’t accept Nightmare as her Queen. In the end Pinkie chose none of these two options. “I’ll think about it.”

Nightmare smiled lightly and magically undid Pinkie’s restraints, Pinkie managed to land on her hooves. “We’ll come back to this, don’t you forget about that, but for now I’m satisfied with your answer.” Nightmare materialized a tray full of those delicious cupcakes; Pinkie’s mouth was already watering. “Now why don’t you take these cupcakes and sit in the corner while I deal with Miss can’t-keep-silent, alright?”

Nightmare placed the tray on Pinkie’s back, but Pinkie was very hesitant to move. She looked with a pleading look at Nightmare. “Just don’t hurt her, I’ve seen what you did with Rainbow Dash and that didn’t end very well.”

The image of the almost dead Rainbow Dash sprung into her mind, but Nightmare quickly suppressed it. She was going to deal with Rainbow Dash later and if the key to Rainbow Dash’s obedience was apologizing to her, then so be it. “Don’t worry; I’m sure I’ll find some way.” Pinkie seemed to accept that and trotted with a tray full of cupcakes on her back towards the corner. When Pinkie was away Nightmare’s cold expression returned. I swear by the moon that this mare does something to my mood. If I’m in need of a good mood then I’ll keep her close to me. Now I need to crack the hardest nut.

Nightmare walked over to the again furious looking Applejack. With one firm pull Nightmare pulled the tape off Applejacks mouth, Applejack didn’t even blink. “What the hay did ya do to Pinkie, did ya mind control her or something?! Pinkie wouldn’t give in so easily.” Nightmare began to smile. She might be a mare, but she has the spirit of a stallion.

“Ha, mind control? No, this isn’t mind control, I just search for the weaknesses in a pony and then I take advantage of it. Pinkie’s weaknesses were sweets and love, but I think you’ve already seen that. Besides, mind control isn’t really a spell that I like to use.” Nightmare took a quick glance at Pinkie. She was sitting in the corner, eating her cupcakes and not really paying attention to what happened between Nightmare and Applejack.

“Ya don’t like mind control because ya can’t do it.” Applejack was just trying to insult Nightmare as much as she could and that would prove to be a mistake. Nightmare undid the restraints and Applejack fell on the ground.

“Well if you don’t believe me then I think a demonstration is in order.” Before Applejack could protest, a black aura surrounded her head. Her mouth opened lightly and her eyes glazed over. After 5 seconds the spell disappeared, but Applejack still stood there with no emotion on her face.

Hello, Applejack.

Who are ya?

Ah am you.

Ya aren’t me? Ah am me.

Ah am the enslaved you, just let me in your mind and ah will show ya my way.

No, ya aren’t coming in here.

Oh, but ya already opened the door.

“Applejack, sit down next to Pinkie.”

“Yes, mah Mistress.” Applejack responded in a monotone voice. Her walking didn’t seem to be affected by the mind control; she walked very normally to Pinkie and sat down beside her. This startled Pinkie, because she really wasn’t paying any attention to what had happened in front of her.

See how good it has been to just obey.

Strange, it felt mighty good, but ah still won’t let ya win.

You’ll give in eventually. Ah tell ya, giving in is like entering heaven.

“Applejack, you alright?” She waved her hoof in front of Applejack’s face, but there was no response.

Why can’t ah say something?

Because that isn’t your job, your job is just to obey your mistress and your commands.

Now what would Applejack normally don’t do? Oh, I know. “Applejack, kiss Pinkie… like you would kiss the love of your life.” Pinkie looked with wide open eyes at Nightmare, but she just gave a small wink.

Oh, a little bit of romance.

NO, Ah don’t want to do this.

Ya don’t have a choice

“Yes, mah Mistress.” Applejack replied and turned to Pinkie. She placed both her hooves on Pinkie’s shoulders and pushed her to the ground. Pinkie tried to resist, but Applejack was clearly the stronger mare. Applejack lowered her head and kissed Pinkie. First it were normal kisses, but Nightmare had said the love of your life and so Applejack wrestled her tongue into Pinkie’s mouth. Pinkie was still struggling, but in the end she gave up, it was far too enjoyable. Meanwhile one of Applejack’s hooves went down Pinkie’s body and they went closer to Pinkie’s nether regions, but Nightmare decided that play time was over and undid the mind control spell.

Bye Applejack, ah hope ah see ya again.

Ah hope not.

The normal Applejack returned and quickly got of Pinkie with a little shocked expression on her face. “Pinkie, ah’m so sorry.”

Pinkie was still panting, but managed to speak. “It’s nothing, you weren’t yourself.” But I do wish that you continued.

Now Nightmare walked closer to the corner, a large smile was plastered on her face. I definitely enjoyed seeing that, I even wished that I was Pinkie. “Are there any more spells you think I can’t do?” Applejack shook her head. She hated to admit it, but Nightmare really was the most powerful pony in Equestria. “Good, now how was it like being mind controlled?”

Applejack got the shivers from just thinking about the thing that just happened. “Ah could still think and see, but ah couldn’t control mah body, ah was trapped in mah mind. There was also a voice whispering to me, telling me not to worry and to give in and obey. It was mighty scary, ah tell ya that.” Pinkie placed a comforting hoof around Applejack’s shoulder.

“If I had kept you in that spell then the voice that you heard would grow stronger each day and after a week your mind would cease to resist and you’d be a mindless slave until the day you die, but lucky for you I undid the mind control spell, I like my servants a little bit more lively and self-aware.” Nightmare was waiting for a thanks, but it didn’t come.

“Well if ya think that ah’m gonna thank ya then ya got another thing coming sister, ah’m still not gonna live as a servant.” Nightmare could just pull her mane out from angriness, but then she realized she had to be a bit slyer.

“Why don’t you want to live as my servant?” Nightmare’s angriness faded away, she knew that she would find Applejack’s weakness, one way or another.

“Well first of all, ya’re a tyrant; second of all, ya hurt mah friends and third of all, if ah live here then ah can’t help mah family on the farm and they would starve to death.” Nightmare formed a large grin on her face. Bingo. Applejack noticed Nightmare’s grin and realized that she had told Nightmare about her weakness. “Oh no.” She put her hoof in front of her mouth.

“Oh yes, your family is your weakness and I plan to take full advantage of it.” Nightmare thought for a moment about how she would create it to her advantage and then it struck her like lightning. “We’ll make a deal Applejack. If you accept me as your queen and your life as a servant then I promise I’ll send two ponies to your farm to help your family and you can visit your family once a week. If you still keep resisting then bad things will happen to your family.”

Tears were beginning to form in Applejack’s eyes. “Ya can’t do this.”

Nightmare stomped her hoof to the ground, the almost-kind Nightmare was replaced by the really-not-kind Nightmare. “I can and I will, make your choice now!” Now Pinkie was also shivering, this was the same Nightmare that tortured Rainbow; nopony knows what will happen now.

“Ah guess ah don’t really have a choice then.”

Nightmare Moon grinned widely, she was victorious. “No you don’t, so you accept your fate?”

Applejack hung her head and sighed. “If it means keeping mah family safe, then yes.”

“Good, now excuse me for a moment.” The two mares blinked, not knowing what Nightmare was about to do. Nightmare trotted to an open window, took a deep breath and shouted. “You will take care of this injured mare right now or I will personally rip your head off and place it on top of a pole!” It was a deafening shout and thunder could be heard, the two mares grabbed each other very closely. Nightmare returned to her old cold self. All these personality switches and that recent shout had really taken a toll on her and she just wanted to begin with her reign. “Now come, I can finally start with my reign.” The two mares got up and stood close to Nightmare, Nightmare powered up her horn and teleported with Applejack and Pinkie to the throne room.

*****

While Nightmare Moon was busy with Pinkie and Applejack, Fluttershy had already arrived at the camp. She looked around and saw the soldiers of Nightmare’s army. Some were still healthy and fine while others had cuts and bruises. The real injured ponies were lying in the tents of the medical teams. These ponies had lost their horn, legs or wings and others were fighting for their lives. A little further away from the medical tents lay the dead, while it were mostly royal guards there was also a big amount of night soldiers. They all lay under a white blanket, waiting for their cremation or burial by their families. Fluttershy felt sick, her stomach turned and she felt like a brick in the air, she could just fall from the sky. She gathered all her willpower and flew into the direction of the medical tents; she had to do it, for not receiving any punishment and for Rainbow Dash. Alright Fluttershy, just search for the tent with the red cross on it… oh, there it is. Fluttershy saw the tent and landed in front of it. She took a peek inside and saw ponies lying on tables while being operated by doctors. On the table closest to where she was standing lay a sleeping black stallion. He had large healthy wings and he was very muscled. Wow, he has an amazing body. Fluttershy stopped her admiring when she saw that he had a big cut on his chest, but it seemed that it was cleaned and stitched. Fluttershy heard 2 doctors conversing about the black stallion.

“How’s Commander Shadow?” The doctor who was busy checking the stallion’s wound asked. Fluttershy figured that the black stallion who was lying on the table was Commander Shadow.

“It was a deep cut and he lost a lot of blood, but he’ll be fine, you know that nothing can stop the Commander.” The second doctor grabbed a notebook and wrote down how the wound was healing.

“Yeah, only mares can stop the Commander. Have you heard about his recent one in Trottingham?

“No, what happened?” The two doctors didn’t notice that the Commander was opening his eyes and he already had a frown on his face.

“Open your mouth and I’ll kill you myself.” The Commander was wide awake, but he was still lying down, getting up would be very painful.

The two doctors turned to the Commander and smiled sheepishly. The first doctor cleared his throat. “Oh, hello Commander. We weren’t talking about you and especially not about your endeavors with the mares.” The first doctor received a hit on the head from the second doctor.

The Commander was certainly not amused. “Get the hell out of my sight.” The two doctors quickly obeyed and returned to their patients, but then one of the doctors saw Fluttershy peeking inside.

“Hey you, what are you doing here?” The doctor trotted towards Fluttershy. Fluttershy let out an eep and wanted to run away, but she was stopped by the thought of Rainbow dying.

The doctor stood now in front of her. “M-my friend needs me-medical attention.” The doctor took a quick look at the cyan mare that was hardly breathing.

“I won’t operate her, she’s a lost case.” The doctor turned around and started to trot away, but he was stopped by Fluttershy’s hoof.

“Please help her; it’s an order from Queen Moon.” Flutershy’s eyes were watering, she couldn’t let Rainbow die, she just couldn’t.

The doctor only snorted in response. “You expect me to believe that you know Queen Moon, that’s a good one.” Fluttershy wanted to retreat and find another medical tent, but she just froze in place when she heard a deafening thunder that awoke the entire camp.

“You will take care of this injured mare right now or I will personally rip your head off and place it on top of a pole!” It was the voice of the Queen and by the tone she spoke it with she meant business.

The doctor became pale and after he regained his wits he levitated Rainbow of Fluttershy’s back and whispered to her. “Please give my sincere apologies to the Queen.” Fluttershy nodded lightly and the doctor trotted away with Rainbow. Fluttershy managed to get one last glimpse of Rainbow before the doctor trotted out of the tent with her.

What a foal. Anyways, Fluttershy come back to the throne room, there’s something important to discuss. When I have time I’ll teach you the way of assertiveness, your lack of assertiveness almost costed a mare’s live. Luckily I was in time to intervene.

Fluttershy wanted to trot out of the tent, but she was stopped by the hoof of the Commander. “I see that you have a mental connection with the Queen, tell her that I’ll come to her later today. Normally I’m not allowed to leave the tent due to my injury, but I’m the Commander so I can do what I want.”

I’ve heard it Fluttershy. Tell the Commander that I’ll wait for him.

“The Queen will wait for you.” Fluttershy spoke very gently; it always broke her heart when she saw somepony in pain.

“Thank you… hey, what’s your name? Surely this nice and good looking mare must have a beautiful name.” Fluttershy blushed a little due to the compliment she received.

“It’s Fluttershy.” She spoke so silently that the Commander didn’t hear her name.

“I didn’t quite catch that, could you say it again please.” The Commander held his hoof by his ear.

“It’s Fluttershy.” Fluttershy spoke a bit louder and now the Commander did hear it.

“Fluttershy... That’s a very nice name, the Queen has made a good choice, I can see that.” The Commander let go of Fluttershy and closed his eyes, a little sleep before his meeting with the Queen would be nice. Fluttershy smiled at the lovely display in front of her and silently walked out of the tent, but it wouldn’t make that much difference since other ponies are screaming from pain. Fluttershy decided to just let the doctors take care of them and so she flew back towards the castle.

And now you have met the Commander, very loyal, but such a gigolo. He’s the best soldier my army got.

Was he hitting on me?

Oh forget about that, he hits on everypony. Some say that he even hits on stallions.

Oh, I didn’t know that.

And now you do, now come back to the throne room.

Okay, Nightmare.

Don’t forget my title, Fluttershy.

Okay, Queen Moon.

Better.

*****

When Fluttershy arrived in the throne room Nightmare was already sitting on her throne, Twilight and Rarity were out of their shackles and were sitting in front of Nightmare together with Pinkie and Applejack. Fluttershy slowly trotted forward and sat down next to Pinkie.

“Ah Fluttershy, you’re here, now I can start.” Nightmare cleared her throat; this was going to take a while. “As everypony knows you are now my servants and while some of you might still not accept your life as my servant you will accept it eventually, there’s no escape. I’ll try to be as nice as possible, but sometimes I’ll get angry. If that happens then just get Pinkie, she’ll automatically brighten my mood, isn’t that right Pinkie?” Nightmare gave Pinkie a small wink, hinting at what had happened before. “Anyways, that’s the introduction and now the rules of the house. Rule number 1: If you find yourself with some free time and you don’t have an order from me then you can do what you want in the palace. Number 2: You may not leave the palace without my permission. Number 3: When we’re in public then I’ll call you slave or servant and you’ll call me Queen or Highness. When we’re not in public I’ll just say your name and you’ll still say Queen or Highness. Sometimes you can say Nightmare, but don’t do it too much. Obey these 3 rules and of course me and you’ll be fine.” Nightmare stopped for a moment, she needed a breather and a sip from her glass of water. She saw that Twilight raised her hoof. “Yes, Twilight?”

“What are we even supposed to do here?”

“Hold your horses Twilight; I was just coming to that.” Nightmare materialized her notebook. She put on her reading glasses and searched for the right page. She cleared her throat when she found the right page. “I’ve searched a bit into your minds and I wrote down your capabilities. Twilight, you’re going to be my assistant and secretary. I think your organizing skills and your eye for detail will come in quite handy.”

Twilight nodded and dramatically wiped her forehead. “Phew, I thought I would be part of the cleaning crew.” Why am I so eager to accept this? She’s still the enemy Twilight, don’t you forget that.

“No, somepony else already has that spot.” Nightmare turned to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, you are very good with nursing animals back to health so you will be part of the medical crew of the palace. I also already have a command for you. Tomorrow, you’ll go with me to Rainbow Dash and you’ll help her with her recovery.”

“Why are you going with me, if you don’t mind me asking that is.” Fluttershy was again speaking very silently, but Nightmare could hear it. Oh come on Fluttershy, speak up and don’t be so shy or else I’ll change your name into Fluttersocial.

Nightmare giggled in herself at her own joke. “I’m going to do something I normally don’t do very easily. I’m going to apologize to Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy and the rest smiled, they liked it that Nightmare would apologize. If they knew the real reason they wouldn’t smile. The real reason was just to ensure that Rainbow was on Nightmare’s side. “But I’m digressing. Pinkie, you have an amazing talent for cooking and creating parties, so you’ll be part of the kitchen crew and when I’m in need of a lively party then you can organize it. That reminds me of something, we haven’t eaten yet. Pinkie, could you make me a sandwich with hay and salad for me and make something for you and the rest.”

Pinkie nodded and started to trot away. “Of course, my nose for food will guide me to the kitchen.”

I love it when they’re so obedient; it gives me such a good mood.

Nightmare smiled lightly and looked back at her notebook, next was Rarity. “Rarity, you have eyes for fashion, so you’ll be my personal dress designer and creator and when I need to hold a more formal party for the nobles then you can organize it. Oh, I almost forgot that I had something for you.” Nightmare levitated a drawing out of a bag that was lying next to the throne. It was the drawing of the new flag of Equestria. It had a dark blue background with the moon in the middle of the flag. In every corner of the flag was a large yellow star. Above and under the moon was a small red star and left and right of the moon was a small blue star. Nightmare gave the drawing to Rarity. “This is my design for the new flag of Equestria, I hate the old one.” Her voice was filled with venom, but Nightmare quickly returned to the kind-Nightmare. I’m really the mistress of personality changes. “I know that I’m certainly not good drawing, but I’m sure you can make something beautiful of it.”

Rarity took a moment to look at the drawing, it wasn’t the best drawing she had seen, but it also wasn’t the worst. “I think I can make it, but I’ll need to start immediately. Do I have a workroom?” Honestly I can’t believe that I’m working this tyrant, but I fear I have no other choice.

“Yes, just go to the first floor, take a right and the first room on your left.” Rarity nodded and started to trot away, but she was stopped by Nightmare. “Aren’t you going to eat first?”

Rarity gently shook her head. “No, I think I need all night for just one flag.” She continued her trot.

“I’ll let Pinkie bring some food to your work room!” Nightmare shouted at the now disappeared Rarity. “Let’s continue. Applejack, I’m sorry but I’ve put you in the cleaning crew. I wanted to make you my bodyguard, because you are the most muscled mare, but you’re just not very loyal to me, so you’ll need to be in the cleaning crew until I think you’re loyal enough.”

Applejack just shrugged, but she did feel a bit disappointed and angry because she didn’t get a better job. “Ah don’t care what job ah get as long as ya uphold your end of the bargain and ah can see mah family once a week.”

“Ah yes that, if you want then you can visit your family tomorrow, I’ll just have to ask one of my guards if Ponyville is already under my control.” Applejack’s eyes immediately brightened.

“Really? Now that’s mighty nice.” Strange, ah hate her and she already allows me to go and see mah family.

Nightmare wrote the arrangement in her notebook. “It is settled then, I shall see to it that the chariot will be ready tomorrow 6AM, but you are to return at around 8PM. If you aren’t back at 8PM then I personally will come and look for you.” While it was a threat it actually didn’t feel like one. “This concludes our little discussion.” Just when Nightmare was about to get up from her throne the Commander walked into the throne room.

“Greetings Queen Moon, I told you that I was going to come.” The commander walked very slowly, he had to be extra careful not to reopen his wound. He looked at the 3 mares that were sitting in front of Nightmare, he figured that they were her servants. “Greetings servants.” And then his eyes fell on that lovely mare he just met an hour ago. “Greetings Fluttershy.” Applejack and Twilight looked with large eyes at Fluttershy, they were probably asking themselves how the Commander knew Fluttershy. Fluttershy took no notice of this and flew to the Commander.

“Oh you poor stallion. The Queen made me part of the medical crew, if you want I can help you.” Fluttershy was looking attentively at the wound, but the Commander’s laugh made her look up.

“Ha… ow, where’s that shy mare I met?” Fluttershy looked at the ground, her shyness returned. “I’m kidding, Fluttershy. But don’t worry about me, the doctors said I was going to be fine, it only needs some time to heal.” They both stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, but their beautiful moment of just them was interrupted by a cough from Nightmare. I just witnessed the beginning of love between them. I think I’ll need to talk with Fluttershy about him and his ways and I’ll need to ‘encourage’ the Commander to stay with Fluttershy. It won’t be pretty if he breaks her heart.

“Now Commander, what do you want to talk about?” The Commander trotted with the help of Fluttershy to the cushion that was placed in front of Nightmare. The Commander sat down on the cushion and Fluttershy went back to her place between Twilight and Applejack, she received playful pokes and smiles from them.

“Fluttershy is in love, Fluttershy is in love.” Applejack teased Fluttershy silently, but it was loud enough to be heard by Nightmare and the Commander.

“I am not.” Fluttershy tried to defend herself, but she couldn’t deny the truth. She was helplessly in love. Were it his looks, was it his character or maybe it was his way of acting. She didn’t know what it was, but it was amazing. It was love on first sight.

“Yes you are.” Nightmare interrupted them with a stern voice and a serious glare. “Could you please be quiet, this is important business.” The three mares immediately kept their mouths shut. “Good, now Commander, tell me what you wanted to tell me.”

The Commander nodded. “Currently we’re rounding up the last prisoners, we are giving them two choices: fight for your army and live to see their families again or a ticket to prison in the mountains of Canterlot. Most of the prisoners choose the first option.”

Nightmare took her notebook and wrote all of the information down, like Twilight she wanted to organize everything and wanted to have control over everything. “Good and how about our casualties?”

“We’re still counting the dead, but I think we’ve lost about 30 percent of our troops”.

Nightmare did a quick calculation in her head. “That are about 500 soldiers, that’s too much. Come back tomorrow Commander, we’ll need to change our battle tactics if we want to win the civil war.” The Commander got up, bowed as much as his body allowed him to and began to trot away, but he stopped when he remembered something.

He turned and faced Nightmare again. “I almost forgot, but there’s a prisoner that has an extraordinary skill in fighting, he would be a great addition to our army.”

Nightmare nodded. “Very well, bring him with you tomorrow so that I can inspect him.” Nightmare wrote down the arrangement in her notebook, but then she reminded herself that she needed to ask him something. “My servant here,” She pointed her at Fluttershy. “Recently brought in an injured mare, how is she doing?”

The Commander thought for a moment. “Cyan Pegasus, Rainbow mane?” Nightmare nodded in response. “She’s going to make it, but she’ll lose one of her wings and so the doctors decided to remove the other wing too. The doctors haven’t told her yet, because she’s still unconscious.”

If Nightmare wore a T-shirt then she would have pulled at the collar, because she suddenly got it very hot. Rainbow would lose her wings because of her. “No, I’m the Goddess of the Night, with my magic I’ll make Rainbow’s wings come back.” Nightmare sounded determined, but she knew that it would take much of her magic to make Rainbow’s wings come back.

“Very well, if I see her then I’ll say that you and the lovely Miss Fluttershy will visit her tomorrow. Now I need to go, my army needs me.” The Commander bowed again and disappeared behind giant now-painted-black doors.

Nightmare now sat on her throne while looking at nothing in particular, she was thinking. There are some risks to the spell that I’m going to use on Rainbow. It’s possible that I immobilize Rainbow for the rest of her life, but it’s also possible that I kill myself on the spot. I could order Twilight to help me with the spell, but then I risk her life. No, it has to be me and only me and if it kills me then so be it. I’ve seen in Rainbow’s mind that flying is her life so I can’t take that away from her and she needs her wings if I want to use her in my army.

Nightmare was so deeply buried in thoughts that she didn’t see Pinkie standing in front of her with her sandwich on her back. “Is everything alright?” Pinkie’s voice startled Nightmare a bit, but she regained her composure easily.

“What? Oh, I was just thinking. Could you give me my sandwich so I can retreat to my chamber, I need some time alone.” Pinkie looked slightly worried. Why do I feel worried about my captor? Maybe my new ‘bond’ with Nightmare has something to do with it. Pinkie shrugged it off and gave the sandwich to Nightmare. Nightmare levitated it and got off her throne, but before she left she turned to Twilight. “Twilight, I can sense that there’s something on your mind.”

Twilight was also eating a sandwich with hay and salad, Pinkie had made the same for everyone. Twilight stopped eating and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “Well, I’ve one remark and one favor to ask.”

Nightmare placed the sandwich on the dinner table that stood in the middle of the throne room. “First the remark.”

Twilight looked at the moon. “Well, plants need the sun to grow and if they don’t have any sun then they’ll die. If the plants die then the ponies will follow.”

Nightmare walked to an open window behind her throne. “Good thinking Twilight, I almost forgot that. Just wait and see what I’m going to do.” Nightmare powered up her horn. On the horizon an orange dot rose, the sun was coming back. When the sun was again high up in the sky it changed color. What was first an orange sun became now a white sun. The light blue sky that had accompanied the orange sun changed back to the dark blue night sky with its many stars that were very visible. Nightmare panted, she had done it. The sun had returned, but she had kept her night sky and it wasn’t Celestia’s sun no more, it was Nightmare’s. She could feel the power of the sun flowing through her, it was nothing compared to the power of the moon, but it was still there. She looked at her new sun, it was going down and that meant that it was evening. Nightmare looked at the clock that was hanging next to the window, it read 7PM. This is the first time I’m going to sleep so early, but I’m too tired to stay awake, this day has really taken its toll on me. Nightmare turned back to Twilight. “The sun is back, but it’s my altered version of the sun. Now what’s this favor of yours?”

Twilight closed her mouth; it was hanging open, because she witnessed a big amount of magical energy surging through a pony’s body. Twilight focused back on Nightmare’s question. “Before you… took me and my friends I had a baby dragon. He’s now all alone in Ponyville, probably waiting for me to return.” Twilight could feel that tears were beginning to form in her eyes. “I’m just so worried about him.”

Nightmare thought for a moment. Hmm, if this dragon matures then he could be an excellent addition to my army, but before that I have no use in him. I think I’ll just get him into safety, that way Twilight’s loyalty to me will rise. “Applejack, when you come back tomorrow from Ponyville then bring this baby dragon with you. I’ll see to it that he can reside with Twilight’s family.” Applejack nodded and a small smile grew on Twilight’s face. Nightmare turned to a guard that was standing near the door. “I hope Ponyville is in my control?”

The guard didn’t move, the only thing that moved was his mouth. “Yes, my Queen. Ponyville and Canterlot are the two cities under your control.”

Nightmare smiled victoriously and turned back to her servants. “Good, now I’m going to my chamber. You can stay up, but don’t make it too late.” Nightmare levitated her sandwich and teleported out of the room. She realized that she forgot something and spoke in everypony’s mind.

You all sleep in one room; it’s next to the throne room. When I think you’re loyal enough then you can get your own room.

The mares finished their dinner and decided that they too were quite tired. Before they went to bed they went to Rarity to see how she was doing. Her work was progressing quickly and she said she was going to be done by midnight. Pinkie gave her the sandwich, told where their chamber was and went with Fluttershy, Applejack and Twilight to their bedroom. The bedroom was quite large. In the chamber were 6 one-person beds and every bed was accompanied with a closet, a chest, a bedside table and a lamp. At the far end of the room was a door that lead to the bathroom. It had a bath, a sink and a shower. They decided that taking a bath or a shower before going to sleep was a good idea. Everypony waited for their turn and when everypony was finished they talked about what had happened today.

Twilight was the one that began voicing her opinion. “I’m still not fully convinced to accept my life as a servant and I will keep resisting her, but she has been surprisingly nice to us and if she keeps being like that then I believe it won’t be so bad.”

Pinkie was next. “Yeah, I totally agree. I think she likes me, I can even make her smile. She also granted us some favors; she’s really trying to be nice to us and to make this as easy as possible for us.” Pinkie was jumping on her bed from joy. This joy mainly came from the thought that she really wanted to ‘play’ with Nightmare again, it felt so good.

Applejack wanted to interrupt, but Fluttershy spoke before her. “She even wants to teach me the way of assertiveness, I guess there’s a nice and lovely mare hidden underneath the cold and stern one.”

Now Applejack could speak, but her opinion was completely different. “How can y’all say that? She took us from our families, from our friends; don’t ya want to see them again? Besides, she almost killed Rainbow and mind controlled me. And what about the war? She slaughtered those guards right on the spot and she even enjoyed it, just like she enjoyed hurting Rainbow. Twilight, don’t ya wanna see Celestia again, she was your mentor for goodness sake. Ah want to get outta here as fast as ah can, she’s as evil as evil can be.”

Everypony was silent at first, they were thinking about how evil Nightmare actually could be. Twilight started to reason with Applejack. “She mind controlled you because she wanted to show you her powers and she did say that she was going to apologize to Rainbow and give her her wings back. About the war: I know that killing ponies isn’t right and I don’t accept that, but she’s the Queen now, she could just kill us if we stood up against her. And yes, I really miss the Princess, but I as a realist know that there’s no way that Nightmare will release her willingly, I just hope that she would do it though. Just give it some time and do like us, look at the positive things instead of the negative.”

Applejack lay down on her bed and threw her blankets over her. “And living as a slave, no thank ya kindly. Y’all are accepting this too fast, it has only been one day. Do you guys have the Stockholm Syndrome? Ah tell ya, the nice Nightmare is just there to hide her true intentions, don’t say ah didn’t warn ya. We’ll continue this discussion later, ah’m too tired to argue, goodnight.” The mood was somewhat broken, but everypony said goodnight to each other and lay down on their bed.

Applejack was almost sleeping but then she felt a tingling sensation on her body. She felt that her blanket had shifted and that it had hooves. “Since when does mah blanket have hooves, that ain’t right.” Applejack opened her eyes and saw something she didn’t expect. Nightmare was lying snout to snout with her; her eyes were staring into Applejack’s.

“Hello.” Nightmare gently said. Applejack’s eyes widened and she quickly ran out of the bed.

“What are ya doing in mah bed?” Applejack calmed down and took a moment to take in her surroundings. The room was smaller and the bed was a giant black two-person bed, Applejack realized that she was in Nightmare’s room. “Better yet, what am ah doing in your room?”

Nightmare gently chuckled and levitated Applejack back onto her bed. She placed Applejack on her back and began caressing her chest like she did with Rainbow. “Two reasons, Applejack. Reason one: I fear that you might try to escape, so I keep you close to me. Reason 2: After a thousand years on the moon it is normal that I feel lonely at night, I’m in need of some company.”

Applejack pushed Nightmare’s hoof off her, but the caressing did feel quite good. “Again ah have no choice, eh?” Nightmare shook her head and Applejack sighed. “Alright, but no Pinkie business.”

Nightmare leaned in closer and whispered very seductively into Applejack’s ear. “I plan to play with all of you, but for now no Pinkie business.” Applejack really didn’t want that Nightmare ‘played’ with her, but luckily for her it wasn’t her time yet. “Now let’s go to sleep.” Nightmare laid Applejack on her side and she did the same, then she pulled Applejack closer to her so that Applejack’s back touched Nightmare’s chest and belly. Applejack was smaller than Nightmare’s so her head lay under Nightmare’s. Applejack found it quite comfortable, but she couldn’t forget that she was lying with an enemy. Nightmare took one last peek at Applejack and then she saw something that made her grew pale. In less than a second Nightmare got out of bed and was standing on a table.

“Kill it!” Nightmare screamed like she had just seen death.

Applejack slowly opened her eyes and got up. “Kill what?” She looked around for an intruder, but she saw nopony.

“Over there, on the pillow.” Nightmare pointed at her pillow. On it was a very little spider that wasn’t moving. Applejack burst out laughing.

“Haha, ya, the Goddess of the Night, are afraid of spiders?” Applejack began to feel pain in her side due to her laughing. Nightmare, however, was not happy.

“Yes, I’m terrified of them, have you ever seen them under a microscope, they’re monsters from another planet. Now kill it!”

Applejack stopped laughing; instead a devilish grin grew on her face. “Ha, ah’ve found your weakness and ah plan to take full advantage of it.”

Nightmare’s eyes widened, Applejack has found one of her few weaknesses. “Oh no you don’t. As your Queen I command you to kill that monster and to forget about my weakness.”

Applejack placed her hoof near the spider and it climbed on her hoof. She trotted with three legs to an open window and placed the spider on the windowsill, it quickly disappeared after that. “There, ya happy now?”

Nightmare slowly got off the table and regained her composure. “Yes, but you could have done it quicker.”

Applejack laid herself back onto the bed, but before she was going to sleep she had to insult Nightmare just one more time. “So that you didn’t make a scene. Oh, I will certainly remember what happened.”

Nightmare laid herself also back onto the bed, but she lay with her back to Applejack. “Let’s just go to sleep.”

*****

Meanwhile there were two royal guards hiding in the bushes just outside of Canterlot. They just escaped the city and were discussing their next move.

“Have you seen that orange mare, she’s really resisting Nightmare.” The first guard said. He was a white Unicorn, his friend was a white Pegasus, you had to have a white coat to join the royal guards.

“No, you were the one who looked through the windows.” Before they retreated they decided that a bit of spying couldn’t hurt.

“Well, she really doesn’t like Nightmare. Nightmare took her from her family and she just wants to return to them. I heard that she goes to her family in Ponyville tomorrow, that’s the time we have to talk to her. I think she’ll help us with killing Nightmare.” They both got out of the bushes, it was time to leave.

“Alright, you go to Ponyville and wait for her to arrive, then you’ll try to convince her. I’ll go to Manehattan and speak with the royal council; meanwhile I will also get the assassins ready. Travel safely, my brother.” The two gave each other a small hug and parted ways, for them Nightmare’s days were numbered.

Note: Do you like this side of Nightmare? If you don’t, then don’t worry, the other side of Nightmare will return… in the next chapter and frequently in following chapters. I’m still not sure what kind of Nightmare I will write, the nice Nightmare or the evil one? Is nice Nightmare going to stay or is she just here to hide Nightmare’s true intentions? The only thing you really need to know is that the chapters won’t always be like this, her dark side will rise again.

The main resisters will be Applejack and Rainbow Dash with Applejack as the mare who resists the most. Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie and Rarity will look at the bright sight more or less, but they will still be resisting (Fluttershy and Pinkie less than Twilight and Rarity). This story is going to be a bit lighthearted (sometimes).

Next chapter: Will Rainbow ever fly again?

We’ll know what happened to Celestia.

Will Applejack become a traitor? (or maybe everyone of the mane 6?)

Octavia makes an entrée.

Shining Armor’s fate will be decided.

And we’ll have a look at the battle tactics for the battle of Manehattan.

Question: Should I write an evil Nightmare in the next chapters or a kind one or maybe something in between? I really don't know. Let me know in the comments.

A Knife In My Back (unedited) XXL

Unedited: If you see a mistake in this chapter, don't hesitate to show it to me in the comments.

Everlasting Night.

Chapter 3: A Knife In My Back

May 21st, Year 1 of the New Moon

Thoughts color

Nightmare: Blue

Twilight: Purple

Shining Armor: Green

Fluttershy: Yellow

Applejack: Orange

It was early morning when Nightmare woke up. She had a wonderful dream about ruling the world. Her armies had conquered every nation in the known world (Press download image on the right side of the page.) and were marching proudly through the streets of Canterlot while the national anthem was being played. That reminded Nightmare that she didn’t have a national anthem, she had to ask a musician to create one. She took a moment to look at Applejack. She was still sleeping deeply, but it seemed that while they were sleeping Applejack had unknowingly laid her head on Nightmare’s shoulder. Nightmare smiled a little at the display, the first somewhat hostile mare was now sleeping on her shoulder with a smile on her face. Sleep can even make the worst enemies friends for a small amount of time. Nightmare looked at the clock that was hanging next to her door, it read 5AM. Time for Applejack to wake up and time for me to get the chariot ready. Nightmare slowly placed Applejack’s head back on the pillow and whispered into her ear.

“Rise and shine, my little apple.” Applejack pushed Nightmare’s head away and mumbled something between ‘get lost’ and ‘let me sleep.’, but Nightmare knew the perfect way to get Applejack awake. She placed her hoof on Applejack’s chest and it made its way down very slowly. Applejack’s eyes shot open and she quickly pushed Nightmare’s hoof away.

“Now hold on, partner. That’s forbidden terrain.” A little blush appeared on Applejack’s face, she was clearly embarrassed. Nightmare, however, found it rather amusing and only smirked while she got out of the bed to stretch.

“For now.” Nightmare stretched until she heard a satisfying little plop coming from her spine. She hadn’t stretched for a thousand years so it clearly felt good to Nightmare. “Now why don’t you take a shower in the royal bathroom while I get a chariot ready.”

Nightmare guided Applejack to the bathroom. It was much larger than the bathroom in the servant’s bedroom. It had a large shower and instead of a bath it had a jacuzzi, this was accompanied with shampoos from different regions of the known world. In short, it was far more luxurious than the other bathroom. When everything was in order Nightmare teleported to her throne room and left Applejack alone so she could wash herself.

The throne room was empty, except for the guards who had guard duty. There was one guard that was sleeping on duty, so Nightmare decided to play a joke on him. She magically transformed herself into a guard and trotted towards the sleeping guard. She poked him until he opened his eyes. “If the Queen sees you, you’ll be in big trouble.” The disguised Nightmare warned him.

“What will she do, kill me?” The guard closed his eyes again and tried to sleep.

Nightmare smirked and changed into her old self. She whispered with her normal voice near his ear. “Maybe.” The guard opened his eyes and looked at Nightmare. She could have sworn that his eyes were now the size of watermelons.

“Q-Queen M-Moon, p-please don’t k-kill me, I w-won’t do it again.” He had a terrified expression on his face. He wanted to kiss Nightmare’s hooves, but he was frozen in place from fear.

“I won’t kill you if you get a chariot ready and find two guards who used to be farmers. They need to accompany my servant to Ponyville.” The guard bowed deeply and left to do Nightmare Moon’s bidding. When the guard had left the throne room Nightmare burst out laughing, she always enjoyed seeing the terrified faces of her subjects. She stopped laughing when she saw a very tired Rarity walk into the throne room. “Ah Rarity, why are you up so early?”

Rarity let out a big yawn. “Oh excuse me, I worked all night. I’m pleased to tell you that I’ve already made two flags. My first flag was completed by midnight, but I decided that I could make a second one.”

I made her my servant only one day ago, but she already worked her rump off. Maybe I should reward her. “Thank you Rarity, you’ve really outdone yourself. I shall give one of the flags to the local tailor so he can help you with the flags. Is there anything you want as a reward?”

Rarity thought for a moment but she gently shook her head. “No, I’m fine… or wait, there is something. I heard that Applejack was going to Ponyville today, so could you ask her to check in with my sister and my parents. They’ll probably want to know where I am, they must be very worried.”

I could tell her to go with Applejack today, but I see that she’s way too tired. Nightmare smiled warmly at Rarity. “I shall order Applejack to check in with your family and you need to go to bed, you look like you could fall asleep any minute now.”

Rarity yawned again, but this time she had a hoof in front of her mouth. “I know and thank…” Rarity never finished her sentence; she fell asleep on the spot. Rarity was leaning to the right, but Nightmare had been just in time to levitate the sleeping Rarity.

With a smile on her face she quietly walked to the servant’s bedroom. She quietly opened the door and tiptoed to Rarity’s bed, the others were still sleeping. She gently tucked in Rarity and looked at the other mares. Fluttershy and Twilight were sleeping like a normal pony would sleep, but Pinkie was sleeping in a different position. She was lying with her hind legs on her pillow and her head was lying on the place where normally her hind legs had to lie. Nightmare smiled even wider. I need to remember that for when Pinkie sleeps with me. She tiptoed again out of the room and trotted back to the throne room. Nightmare sat down on her throne and looked at her notebook. Before she went to sleep she had written down what was going to happen today.

6AM: Applejack goes to Ponyville.

6AM – 10AM: Paperwork.

10AM-11.30AM: Meeting with the Commander and his prisoner.

11.30AM-1PM: Lunch and a bit of rest

1PM-5PM: Going to Rainbow Dash with Fluttershy and the Commander

5 PM-8PM: Dinner + something to kill the time.

8PM: Applejack returns.

8PM-10PM: Speak with Applejack about Ponyville.

10PM: Time to sleep.

Nightmare looked at the throne room clock, it read 5.15AM. Nightmare decided that 45 minutes of sleep would do her no harm and so she laid herself more comfortable and drifted off to sleep.

*****

Nightmare awoke due to a poke she received. She opened her eyes and saw the guard who was sleeping on duty before her, he still had a terrified expression on his face, but less than before.

“Queen Moon, it’s 6AM. Your servant is already waiting at the chariot and the Pegasi that have to pull the chariot are waiting for your approval to leave.” The guard said with a normal voice, he was trying to mask his fear.

Nightmare got up and trotted to the door of the throne room, she motioned at the guard to follow her and he quickly obeyed. They walked through hallways where servants were busy painting them black. They arrived at the gates of the palace that were as white as the moon. Nightmare turned to the guard. “Have you found two soldiers who used to be farmers?” She might speak with a more lively voice to her servants, but when she spoke with her guards she spoke with a cold voice.

The guard nodded. “Yes, my Queen. They’re both earth ponies and they’re already waiting with your servant at the chariot.”

Nightmare nodded in approval. “Good, you may leave now.” The guard bowed and went back to his post in the throne room. Nightmare opened the gates and was greeted by her new sun rising in the east; it was going to be a warm day. In front of her stood the chariot with Applejack and the two soldiers already sitting in it; she trotted to the side of the chariot.

“Okay servant, you know you’ve until 8PM to enjoy your day in Ponyville. Oh and before I forget, Rarity asked me if you could check in with her sister and parents, tell them she’s safe and don’t forget to bring that baby dragon with you.” To make sure that Applejack didn’t forget what she had to do, Nightmare wrote it all down on a piece of paper from her notebook and gave it to Applejack.

“Thank ya… mah Queen.” Applejack found it very difficult to say it, but she knew she had to. Nightmare smiled, nodded and turned to the two stallions that were sitting next to Applejack.

“Now you two. Your service in the army is over.” Nightmare materialized two sacks with bits; it was their wages for being a soldier. She gave it to the two used-to-be soldiers. “With this money you both can buy a house in Ponyville. You’re going to help my servant’s family on their farm, but keep your armor and sword so you can protect the farm against attacks from I-don’t-know-what.”

The two soldiers saluted and nodded. “It was an honor serving you.” They both said in unison. Nightmare then walked to the 4 Pegasi soldiers who were going to pull the carriage, they were already ready and just waiting for permission to leave.

“You’ll stay in Ponyville for the day and I want that one of you always keeps guard over my servant. Don’t let anything happen to her or I will punish you all severely, understand?” The threat didn’t affect the Pegasi, they were trained properly and kept standing still as a statue. Ah, so these are the elite of my army, good.

“Yes Queen Moon, we understand.” They said in unison and kept staring forward.

“Good, you’ll need to return with my servant at 8PM, she’ll have a baby dragon with her and he’s allowed on the carriage. Now go and watch out for ambushes, peace is still very far away.” The 4 Pegasi nodded and began running, after 5 seconds they took off and flew away. Nightmare turned around and went back into the palace; she had to do some paper work.

Nightmare trotted back into the throne room and sat down on her throne. On her way to the throne room she had commanded a random servant to bring her the paperwork that was stashed in the palace’s post room. So Nightmare sat down on her throne and two minutes later the servant trotted into the throne room with a small stack of papers and letters on her back. Nightmare figured it were around 30 papers and letters. The servant gave the papers to Nightmare and returned to whatever she was doing, Nightmare already forgot. She opened the first letter that she saw.

To the evil Queen Moon

I will personally kick you on the head, tear your wings off, cut your legs off and anally rape you with it.

Sincerely, a pony who hates you.

Nightmare frowned. She knew that she would receive hate letters, but it still got her a bit angry. “If I ever find you then you shall be the one who will be anally raped.” She burned the letter with her magic until it was nothing more than pieces of ash on the floor; she’d make one of her servants clean it up later.

“Don’t you think that being anally raped will hurt?” It was Pinkie’s voice that startled Nightmare. She quickly flew towards the ceiling while her guards were ready to attack Pinkie. When Nightmare calmed down she saw that her guards were closing in on a terrified Pinkie. She’d make an excellent assassin. She’s very good at sneaking, but I don’t see Pinkie killing anypony.

“Guards, hold it!! She’s just my servant!” Nightmare yelled at them with a stern voice. They quickly obeyed and placed their swords back in their sheaths before they went back to their places. Nightmare saw that Pinkie was shaking, crying and hiding behind her throne. She landed next to Pinkie and embraced her. “Shh, Pinkie, they’re gone. I advise you to never do that again, guards can get jumpy very quickly and certainly when there’s a war.” Pinkie looked up at Nightmare while Nightmare kept stroking Pinkie’s mane.

“Okay, I’ll never do it again.” Pinkie’s mane deflated like a leaky balloon. It broke Nightmare’s heart to see Pinkie like this.

“Well, never is a big word. Try it again when the country is at peace and I shall search for ways to scare you, we’ll make it our own little game, alright?” Pinkie’s mane inflated as quickly as it deflated, the old Pinkie was back and she looked at Nightmare with one hell of a smile.

“Alright, but do you think that the war will be over soon?” Her voice was again as enthusiastic as before.

Nightmare sighed. I really hope that it will be a short war, but I know that the Celestial Army won’t give up that easily. “I really hope so, Pinkie, I really hope so. Now why don’t you make breakfast for us? You can choose what you want to make.” Pinkie left Nightmare’s embrace and jumped a couple of feet in the air. Nightmare figured that Pinkie was the only earth pony who could jump so high.

“Can I make those delicious cupcakes that you gave to me yesterday?” She landed back on the ground and Nightmare just smiled at Pinkie. She’s one energetic mare.

“That’s fine with me, here’s the recipe.” She materialized a piece of paper with the recipe written on it and levitated it to Pinkie. Pinkie took a moment to look at it, took it into her mouth and trotted to the kitchen. Nightmare still smiled and shook her head. I’m sure that there’re going to be more situations like this.

Nightmare sat back down on her throne and levitated the next two letters from the stack. It were the casualties reports from Ponyville and Canterlot.

Casualty report: Ponyville

Soldiers at start of battle: 180

Soldiers dead: 34

Soldiers injured: 52

Soldiers still fit for battle: 94

Enemy soldiers at start of battle: 160

Enemy soldiers dead: 48

Enemy soldiers captured: 112

Enemy soldiers that joined your army: 95

Enemy soldiers that chose to go to prison: 17

Total count of your army in Ponyville: 241

No enemy soldiers escaped.

Town not so badly damaged, repairs have already begun by the soldiers that are stationed in Ponyville. No civilian casualties.

Casualty report: Canterlot

Soldiers at the start of battle: 1550

Soldiers dead: 523

Soldiers injured: 658

Soldiers still fit for battle: 369

Enemy soldiers at start of battle: 1875

Enemy soldiers dead: 473

Enemy soldiers captured: 1402

Enemy soldiers that joined your army: 1049

Enemy soldiers that chose to go to prison: 353

Total count of your army in Canterlot: 2076

2 Enemy soldiers escaped.

Lower part of the city (the poor part) is badly damaged. Repairs have begun, but it will take quite a while without the funds that are needed. No damage in the rich part of Canterlot.

52 Civilian casualties. (Mostly civilians from the poor part of town.)

Sincerely, Commander Shadow.

Nightmare frowned when she read the casualty reports. I didn’t expect the casualties to be this high; luckily most of the soldiers from the Celestial Army choose to join my army instead of choosing to go to prison, but it’s still not enough to win this war. Nightmare teleported the casualty reports to a shelve in her room; there she would keep all the casualties reports. Now Nightmare had to find a way to get the money that is needed to repair the lower parts of the city. She could use the money of the nobles and so she could make sure that the poor ponies liked her and maybe they would join her army, but then the nobles might revolt. Nightmare could really use some advice on this one and it seemed that her prayers had been answered, because Twilight and Fluttershy trotted into the throne room.

“Ah, Twilight, just the mare I needed.” To make things go quicker, Nightmare levitated Fluttershy and Twilight to the cushions that were placed next to her throne. Each cushion had the color of one of her servant’s coats. It went like this: left of Nightmare: Pinkie, Fluttershy and Applejack with Pinkie sitting closest to Nightmare. Right of Nightmare: Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow, with Twilight sitting closest to Nightmare.

“Why?” Twilight asked while she sat down on her cushion. Fluttershy also sat down on her cushion and listened closely, it was the only thing she could do now.

“It came to my ears that the lower part of Canterlot has been badly damaged and the repair team needs money to repair that part of town. The royal chest is as good as empty and we need money, so I was thinking that the nobles and the rich have to pay for it.” Twilight thought for a moment, this was a very delicate situation.

“I don’t think the nobles and the rich will like that.” Nightmare knew that Twilight would come to the same conclusion, that it was very dangerous to issue a law like that.

“Twilight, this is now an absolute monarchy. L’état, c’est moi. I am the state, I command and they obey. Who do you think is more important, the nobles and the rich or the poor?” Twilight had to agree with Nightmare, the poor needed the money more than the nobles and rich.

“The poor of course… I think I might know a way to make this work” This awoke Nightmare’s curiosity, has Twilight really found a way? “What if you tell the nobles and the rich you’ll reward them when the war is over, like a sum of money or a building named after them, something like that.” Nightmare was silent for a moment and Twilight thought she said something stupid, her disappointment showed itself on her face, but it went away when Nightmare smiled.

“I like that idea; I knew that you’d make an excellent advisor with that big brain of yours.” Twilight could feel pride flowing through her; she liked it when she did something good. But she’s still the enemy. Nightmare materialized a quill and paper and began to write.

To my subjects in Canterlot.

I, Queen Moon of Equestria, declare that all the nobles and the rich of Canterlot have to give 25% of their fortune to the repairs of the poor part of Canterlot. Everypony who resist shall be placed in prison. The ponies who comply shall be rewarded with a sum of money when the civil war is over. The poor ponies of Canterlot and I thank you.

Sincerely, Her Royal Highness.

Nightmare pointed with her hoof at a random guard and motioned to him to come closer. The guard obeyed and stood before Nightmare. “Take this paper to the post office, tell them to copy it and distribute it to every mailbox in town.” The guard bowed, took the piece of paper in his mouth and trotted out of the throne room. Nightmare levitated the next paper of the stack and was about to read it when Twilight asked her a question

Twilight knew that she had to ask the question with Nightmare’s title in it, because the question she was about to ask was a delicate one. “My Queen, what did you do to Princess Celestia, if you don’t mind me asking that is.”

Twilight tried to do her best imitation of Fluttershy. Twilight looked at Fluttershy to see if the imitation was good, but Fluttershy just kept looking at Nightmare with a scared expression. Twilight focused her gaze at Nightmare and she got the same expression on her face. Nightmare had stopped levitating the paper and was shaking from anger; her anger was visible on her face. She stomped with her hoof on a hoofrest of her throne and glared at Twilight. Twilight was now holding her head between her hooves and she was shaking from fear, she knew she was about to receive punishment. Nightmare inhaled and exhaled, she was trying to calm her anger down.

“You’re very lucky that you’re one of my favorite servants otherwise I would have beaten you to death.” Twilight looked up, her eyes were watering and her fear was clearly visible in her eyes. “Now stop cowering and then I’ll tell you what happened to her.” Twilight needed a moment to calm down, she was sure she’d receive punishment. She sat in normal position and looked at Nightmare with less fear than before. “Good. I’ve taken all her powers; put her into a deep sleep and then I placed her in a crypt beneath a temple somewhere in Equestria, I’d be stupid if I told you where I hid her. She can only be awakened by me, so I suggest you forget her. Let us now forget this little situation and continue with the paperwork.”

Nightmare continued her paperwork with the help of now-calmed-down Twilight and sometimes with the help of Fluttershy when it were medical letters. Breakfast also made everything better and the situation where Nightmare lost her temper was quickly forgotten. It was 9AM when all the paper work was done. Nightmare still had one hour to fill, but there was nothing to fill it with, luckily a guard would change that.

The guard trotted to Nightmare who was standing on the balcony. She was looking at the army camp, the soldiers that were doing their daily training and then her eyes fell on the medical tent. I’m not sure how I’m going to apologize to Rainbow, but I know I need to do it; otherwise she won’t join my army. She stopped thinking when she heard the guard approaching. “What is it?” Nightmare didn’t want to be disturbed, but maybe something urgent was going on.

“There are three musicians who wish to have your audience. They claim they can provide you with a national anthem.” Nightmare turned to the guard.

“Send them in.” The guard bowed and went to the musicians who stood outside the palace. Nightmare walked to her throne and sat down; her servants were talking with each other about things that didn’t interest her. “Sit back on your cushions; we’re going to listen to some music.” Pinkie, Fluttershy and Twilight obeyed and walked back to their cushions. A minute later 3 ponies trotted into the throne room.

The pony that stood on the left bowed, she was a grey earth pony with a black mane and tail. “Greetings, your Highness. I’m Octavia and I bring you the best anthem for your country.”

The pony that stood in the middle pushed Octavia away. She was a mint green unicorn with a lyre cutie mark “Sorry you had to hear that Queen Moon, I’m Lyra and I shall be the one who brings you the best anthem…”

The third pony puts his hoof into Lyra’s mouth. He was a black Pegasus with a blue mane and tail. “My apologies Queen Moon, these ponies don’t know when to shut up. I go by the stage name of Ponyphonic and my anthem will be the best.”

The three ponies were starting to fight with words, but Nightmare’s shout stopped it. “Stop it! I shall decide who has the best anthem. I shall materialize magical instruments that can play your composition.” Nightmare levitated Octavia’s notebook to her, looked at all the instruments that were required and materialized them. “Now explain your composition.”

Octavia cleared her throat and stood in the middle of the throne room. “My composition is called Deae Lunae. It will start sad and slow, but then it will erupt like a volcano into something more powerful. It will die down again, but near the end comes the most powerful eruption that will blow ponies off their horseshoes. This is anthem to show ponies that you’re not a tyrant and that you’ve quite a history behind you.”

“Very well, I shall listen.” Nightmare used her magic one more time and the instruments began to play Octavia’s composition. It was exactly like she said and Nightmare enjoyed every second of it. Twilight noticed that Nightmare had closed her eyes, was swaying her hoof at the rhythm of the music and she had a smile on her face.

Twilight whispered next to Nightmare’s ear. “My Queen, do you have a love for music?”

Nightmare kept her eyes closed and kept swaying her hoof at the rhythm. “You have a keen eye, Twilight Sparkle. Yes, it’s true. Before I met Pinkie, music was the only thing that could calm down. Now shh, it isn’t polite to talk during musical performances.” Twilight nodded and focused her attention back on the instruments. When the song ended, Nightmare applauded and soon the rest followed. The Queen, her servants and her guards applauded, they all liked her composition. Her opponents weren’t so happy with her composition. “That was a good composition, Octavia. There was a bit of power in it, but I also felt something calming in it, very good. Now Lyra, tell me about your composition.”

Octavia walked away from the center of the throne room and Lyra took her place. “My composition is called Crusade, created with the help of Immediate Music. It has more power than Octavia’s and there’s also a bit of prestige in it. This anthem will show that your country is the greatest and that it won’t stop for anypony.” Nightmare levitated the notebook to her, looked at which instruments were needed and materialized them. She also saw that a choir was needed, so she created a couple of ponies with her magic that would disappear again after the song. After a couple of minutes the song ended and the choir disappeared. Nightmare and the rest applauded again.

“Good, very good. It is just like you said, full of power and prestige and I also like the choir in it. Now the last composition.” Ponyphonic took Lyra’s place and Nightmare levitated the notebook to her, she saw that it had lyrics in it. “Ah, you’re going to sing. That’s a bit strange for an anthem, but I’m very curious to hear it.”

Ponyphonic nodded. “Yes, Your Highness. I’m going to sing your story. It’s going to start that you’re sad, because ponies didn’t appreciate your night. In the middle, after the Latin line, the mood will change to a more determined one. At the end it will be about the start of your everlasting night. The instruments began to play and Ponyponic began to sing his song titled ‘The Moon Rises.’.

Now the hour has come at last

The soft and fading light

Has crossed the west horizon

And has bidden us goodnight

And what a lovely night it is

To walk a moonlit field

To see the softer shades

That are by starlight now revealed

So why is it that now,

When all is quiet and at rest

When candles glow and all the world

Is at its very best

The ponies of Equestria

Should lock themselves away

To shun the moon and wait instead

For Sister's sunny day?

In umbra Luna est (the moon is in shadow)

Am I so wrong to wish that they

Would see things like I do?

And am I so wrong to think

That they might love me too?

Why shouldn't they adore me?

Is it not within my right?

I'll not be overshadowed!

Mine is not the lesser light!

I've waited long enough now

For them all to come around

And though the Sun may plead and threaten,

The Moon will stand her ground

And all will know the wonder

Of my dark and jeweled sky

When all the world is wrapped

In an eternal lullaby

So say goodnight at this,

The final setting of the sun

Tomorrow dawns in darkness

The nighttime has begun!

Nocte! (night!)

‘Sister’s sunny day’? What does he mean by that? I’m pretty sure Nightmare isn’t Celestia’s sister, so that must be a mistake in the lyrics.

Nightmare and the rest applauded again when the song ended, she even had to wipe a tear away. “Wonderful, just wonderful. You have an amazing voice. Your song tells my story perfectly and that Latin was a nice touch. Now I shall declare my verdict.” Nightmare was silent for a moment, all the ponies in the throne room were very excited. “The winner is… all of you.” Everypony exchanged confused looks, but it was Twilight who made a remark about it.

“My Queen, I hope you know that a country can have only one national anthem.” All the other ponies in the throne room nodded in agreement, even the guards.

“I know, but I just couldn’t decide, they were all so perfect. So I decided that I split the year into three. Each song will get 4 months to be the national anthem. Octavia’s song will be the national anthem from January to May and it shall be the civilian anthem. Lyra’s song will be the national anthem from May to September and it shall be the army’s anthem. Ponyphonic’s anthem shall be the national anthem from September to January and shall be the night’s anthem, because it’s my personal favorite. It’s a win-win situation.” Nightmare wrote it all down in her notebook so she didn’t forget, but how could she forget such amazing songs. “It’s settled then. Lyra, you should be honored, your anthem will be the first to be heard by my subjects.”

“Believe me, I’m honored, my Queen.” The three bowed and left the throne room with a smile on their faces. They all won.

*****

Meanwhile Applejack had arrived in Ponyville. During their trip the carriage was attacked by a Celestial ambush, luckily there was a night patrol in the area to save them. The battle was bloody, but quick, the night patrol annihilated the ambush. It made Applejack sick, seeing ponies being killed in front of her eyes would be a sight she needed adjust to, but it would take quite some time. Luckily that the patrol was nearby, otherwise she would be dead and not the ambush. So because of the ambush, the carriage needed an hour extra to arrive in Ponyville.

When they arrived at the farm, Applejack hopped out of the carriage and trotted to the 4 Pegasi who were making themselves loose from the carriage. “Thank ya kindly for brinin’ me here and for protecting me, but ah can take care of mahself from here.

One of the Pegasi, who had a green coat and a black spiky mane and a black spiky tail like the night, shook his head. “That won’t be possible, Miss Applejack. The Queen has ordered that at least one of us has to keep an eye on you.” Applejack rolled her eyes.

“Ah’m not gonna try to escape, seriously.” Applejack darted with her eyes left and right, the Pegasus knew that she was lying and gave her a ‘really?’ look. Applejack immediately knew that she was busted. “Alright, the thought came into mah mind a couple of times. Let’s make a deal, one of ya accompanies me while the others enjoy Ponyville.”

The Pegasus looked at his squad mates, they just shrugged. The Pegasus looked back at Applejack and nodded. “Alright, Miss Applejack. I’ll stay with you while the others of my squad will help guard Ponyville, name’s Red by the way.”

Applejack eyed him from top to toe. “Ah don’t see anything red on ya.”

Red opened his wings to their maximum and showed them to Applejack. “I get that a lot. My parents named me Red, because I’ve red highlights on my feathers and on my hooves.”

Applejack looked at his wings. He was right, some of his green feathers had red highlights on them. The colors were very conflicting with each other and one would get a headache from looking at it for too long. “Ya can put your wings back to your sides.

Red nodded and retracted them, then he turned back to his squad mates. “Be back here at 7PM, that’s the time we have to leave.” The squad mates nodded and Red followed Applejack and the two soldiers to the farm.

Big Mac was plowing the fields, he was still thinking about Applejack. His sister and her friends never returned from the castle and a search party didn’t find any trace of them, it seemed like they just disappeared… or they were murdered by Nightmare Moon. The news that Applejack was missing hit the Apple family hard. Granny smith’s condition dropped to a critical level in just one day, Applebloom didn’t go to school today and Big Mac just kept working on the fields until he fell asleep on the spot. Big Mac was just about to pass out again, but he saw an orange pony trotting on the road to the barn. At first he thought it was just his imagination playing with him, but when he saw that Applejack was accompanied by some soldiers he knew that it was real. He undid himself from the plow and galloped to Applejack who still hadn’t noticed him. He was almost near Applejack, but then he got tackled by one of the soldiers that were accompanying Applejack. Applejack heard the ruckus and looked in the direction of it; it was then that she saw Red holding a sword at Big Mac’s throat.

Applejack quickly intervened. “Red, he’s mah brother.” Red looked at Applejack and nodded. He got off Big Mac, sheathed his blade and then he went back to his position at Applejack’s right side.

Big Mac got up and embraced Applejack like he had never done before. “Oh Applejack, where were ya? We thought ya were dead. And who’s that clown that attacked me?” A little tear left Big Mac’s left eye. He didn’t cry when he was hurt, but he was very emotional when something happened to his family.

Applejack laughed and cried from happiness at the same time. “One question at a time mah brother, let’s discuss all of this with a cup of tea. Ya do have to make extra, because we have guests.” Applejack motioned with her hoof at the three soldiers that were standing behind her.

Big Mac let go of the embrace and nodded, he actually didn’t like making tea for the conquerors, but Applejack was with him now so that made things much better. “Okay, Ah’m just glad that ya’re safe.” Big Mac, Applejack and the soldiers trotted to the farmhouse, Applejack knew she had some explaining to do.

*****

It was almost 10AM, the Commander and his prisoner could arrive any moment now. Nightmare was very curious about the prisoner. The Commander had said that he was very skilled in fighting, but how loyal was he to Celestia? Nightmare had to find a way to make him join her army if he was a very loyal follower of Celestia, but she could worry about that when she actually saw the prisoner. Nightmare checked her clock again, it was exactly 10AM. The doors of the throne room opened, the Commander was known for his exactness. However, there was something not right, he was alone.

The Commander bowed. “Greetings Queen Moon, I have arrived at our agreed time.” The Commander stopped bowing and returned to his normal position.

“I can see that, where’s the prisoner?” Nightmare was not amused, if the Commander was wasting her time, then things wouldn’t look good for the Commander.

The Commander, however, knew that Nightmare had a short fuse and immediately got to the point. “I wanted to announce the entrée of the most skilled fighter of the Celestial Army.” The Commander trotted back to the door and stood next to it. “Mares and Gentlecolts, I give you the most skilled fighter of the Celestial Army, Capitain of the Royal Guard: Shining Armor!” Shining Armor walked inside, his head hung low. He had hoofcuffs on and a ring around his horn that prevented him to use his magic. His head had cuts and bruises and was swollen everywhere, the guards of the dungeons didn’t hold back when they punished Shining Armor.

Twilight eyes widened and she brought her hooves to her mouth. “No.” She silently said. This can’t be happening; my brother.

Nightmare noticed that Twilight was a bit more upset than usual, but she didn’t pay attention to it, she turned her attention completely at Shining Armor. “This miserable worm was Capitain of the Royal Guard? Don’t make me laugh.” Nightmare truly enjoyed humiliating other ponies until they could only pity themselves. “Look at me, you worm!”

Shining Armor slowly raised his head, his expression was more of a sad one. That was until he laid eyes upon his sister. His expression immediately changed to that of a shocked one. “Twilight? What are you doing here?”

Nightmare looked at Twilight and then back at Shining Armor. “Ah, you two know each other?”

Neither of them paid much attention to Nightmare, but Twilight knew she had to answer. “He’s my brother.” Nightmare sensed something. She sensed a very strong bond that could never be broken, a bond that she could use to her advantage. I know the perfect way to get him into my army.

Nightmare began to smile mischievously, she was going to start with her plan. “Oh good. Shining Armor, I give you two choices: either you join my army or you die.”

Twilight gasped and began to create tears. “Oh no no no, you can’t do this.” Twilight grabbed Nightmare’s right foreleg, but Nightmare pushed Twilight away from her.

Shining Armor gave Nightmare his determined expression and a glare. “Never, I’d rather die than becoming a traitor.

Twilight’s tears were flowing freely now. Did my brother just say he wanted to die, I don’t want to lose him. Pinkie and Fluttershy saw how upset Twilight was and wanted to comfort her, but they were stopped by Nightmare. “Stay there!” The two obeyed and went back to their cushions, they knew how evil Nightmare could be when she was angry. Nightmare focused her attention back to Shining Armor. “Let me say it differently: either you join my army or your sister dies. Can you live with the guilt that you’ve killed your sister?” Everypony in the room became silent, they hadn’t expected that, not even the Commander.

Shining Armor’s ears twitched from anger and rage. “Don’t you dare to hurt her!!!” he tried to power up his horn, but his horn ring prevented that. Then he tried to run towards Nightmare, but he tripped due to his hoofcuffs. After his fall Nightmare kept him in place with the help of her magic.

Nightmare smirked, she knew she was going to be victorious. “Oh I dare, you have until one to change your mind, otherwise say goodbye to your little sister. 3” Nightmare leaned her head closer to Twilight, Twilight was also kept in place by Nightmare’s magic and so were her friends. Shining Armor’s anger and rage faded away and this was replaced by doubt. Should I really risk Twilight’s life just because of an oath that I swore. “2” Twilight was really scared now, her brother wasn’t giving in and she would die. Please brother, just accept. I don’t want to die. “1” Shining Armor kept being silent, but the doubt was still very visible on his face. Sweat was dripping off his face, but he still wasn’t giving in. Nightmare let out a sigh and nodded slowly. “Very well, you’ve made your choice.”

Don’t worry Twilight, everything will be fine.

What? How, I thought I was going to die?

You’ll see.

Nightmare powered up her horn, a dark blue light was emitting from her horn. The light grew and grew until it was a small orb. Nightmare levitated the orb to Twilights chest, more precisely: to Twilight’s heart. ‘Take one last look at Twilight, because this will be the last time you’ll see her alive.” They looked at each other, both had tears in their eyes. The orb reached Twilight’s heart and it sent out a wave of electricity through Twilight’s body. Twilight screamed from pain and spasmed. When the orb disappeared Twilight slumped to the ground, she wasn’t breathing.

Shining Armor broke down. “Nooo, Twilight!!!” Nightmare released her magic over Shining Armor and he ran towards the lifeless body of Twilight, this time minding his cuffs. The guards wanted to stop Shining Armor, but Nightmare stopped them with a motion of her hoof. Shining Armor took Twilight’s lifeless body in his hooves and rested his head against hers. “I’m so sorry, Twilight. I realized too late that you were more important to me than my oath and now you’re gone, all because of me.”

Nightmare knew that this was the time that Shining Armor would accept her proposal. “You know, I can still bring her back IF you accept my proposal and accept me as your Queen.”

Shining Armor was quiet for a moment. He’d do anything to get Twilight back and if that meant that he had to join the army of the enemy, then it would be that way. Shining Armor let out a sigh. “Please, I’ll do anything.”

Nightmare shook her head, but her smirk never left her face. “No-no, I want to hear you say it properly.”

Shining Armor looked back at the lifeless body of Twilight, he knew it had to be this way. “Please bring her back… my Queen.” Shining Armor knew that this would be the start of his new life as a soldier of the Night Army, but if that meant that Twilight would be safe then he accepted his new life.

Nightmare smirked even wider and patted Shining Armor on his head. She powered up her horn again and this time a smaller dark blue orb left her horn. It went into Twilight’s chest and two seconds later Twilight began to cough. “Wha-? Is this heaven?”

Shining Armor’s eyes widened and he pulled Twilight in a bone crushing hug. “Oh Twily, I really thought I lost you.” Twilight tried to move her legs, she tried to get out of his hug before one of her bones would break. Shining Armor noticed that he was practically hugging Twilight in two and he quickly let go of her. “Sorry.”

Twilight took a moment to breathe and this time she hugged her brother, but with less power. They both cried in each other shoulders and Pinkie and Fluttershy did the same. Nightmare, however, was indifferent to the whole scene. “I’ve brought your little sister back, but don’t betray me or I won’t spare you nor your sister, understand?”

Shining Armor nodded. “Yes, your Highness.” I can’t believe that I’m now a soldier in her army, but luckily Twilight is safe and that’s all that matters.

“Good, now you’re part of my army. Fight well and stay loyal to me and I might even promote you to Capitain of the Night Guard, but you’ll need to prove yourself for that. You shall join training and obey the orders of your higher ranking officers, understand?” Shining Armor nodded again. “Okay. Everypony in this room leave us, I’m sure Twilight wants to have a word with me.” After 1 minute Twilight and Nightmare were the only two ponies in the throne room. Neither of them said anything or even looked at each other and after 2 minutes Nightmare decided to break the silence. “Twilight, I-“ Her sentence was cut off as Twilight began pounding with her hooves on Nightmare. I’m so stupid to hit her, but she deserves it.

“How could you kill me!? Do you think it’s funny to play with the life of another pony?! Applejack was right, you’re as evil as evil can be!” Nightmare did nothing to stop Twilight, she knew Twilight wanted let off some steam and it didn’t really hurt. “I hate you more than anything! I just want that things are the way they used to be.” Twilight stopped pounding, mainly because her hooves began to hurt, but her tears didn’t stop. They were still flowing freely and drenched a bit of Nightmare’s coat.

Nightmare sighed. She was glad it was over and Twilight’s pounding did begin to hurt. She has some strength when she’s upset. “Finally, could you now just shut your trap and listen.” Twilight blinked a few times, but sat down and listened. “I never intended to harm you and you weren’t really dead.”

Twilight shook her head. “I normally had to die, I felt the electricity surge through me.”

Nightmare laughed gently, this was a type of magic nopony except she and Celestia knew. “That electricity placed you in a plain of existence between life and death. I had ten minutes to bring you back to the land of the living before you were gone forever. Luckily your brother chose the right choice.”

Twilight gulped, she barely escaped death. “So you’re telling me that if my brother continued to oppose you, you let me die.”

Nightmare snickered and gently shook her head. “No, I’ll never let you die. Your brother, on the other hand, would have to pay it with his life.”

“Why do you even care about me and my friends? The way I see it now we’re just your servants?”

“You and your friends might be my servants, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t protect you. As long as I live nopony shall harm you except me if you all are asking for it.” Nightmare smiled and raised her right wing. “Now come and rest, I’m sure you’re still a bit shaken up from your near-death experience and my throne is big enough for two ponies.”

Twilight’s image of Nightmare didn’t really change, but there was something weird about it. She was being kind and caring and she raised her wing just like Princess Celestia did when Twilight was just a filly. The open space near Nightmare seemed so inviting and warm and yet Twilight couldn’t find it in herself to move to Nightmare. It reminded too much about the Princess and it hurt too much. “I-I can’t, it reminds me too much of the Princess.”

Nightmare lowered her wing and smiled warmly at Twilight. “I understand, go back to your chamber and sleep there for a while.” Twilight nodded and trotted away. Am I glad that that is over and yet she reminds me so much of the Princess, it’s like they used to know each other. No, that can’t be true, maybe with a quick power nap I can think clearly again. Meanwhile Nightmare was thinking about the same thing. One day I’ll have to tell her that I’m actually just Celestia’s sister. But that can wait for now, it’s too soon to tell her. She cleaned her coat with her magic so that Twilight’s tears were gone and called the guards. “Guards! Servants! You can come back now.” A little while later the guards, Fluttershy and Pinkie came back to the throne room.

*****

Shining Armor and Commander Shadow were walking through the ruins of poor Canterlot, their destination was the army camp just outside the city. Civilians and guards were already busy with repairing the damage, this indicated that Nightmare’s law was already in effect. Neither of them spoke during the trip and kept watching the destruction that was caused by the siege. When they arrived at the camp the Commander spoke to Shining Armor.

“Here it is, your new home.” The Commander pointed to a tent that was on his left side. Shining Armor took a peek inside. It was a normal army tent with 10 cots and 10 chests that accompanied the cots. It seemed that Nightmare made sure that the soldiers had some comfort after a hard day of training and fighting.

Shining Armor turned back to the Commander. “It doesn’t seem that bad. So, what do I need to do?”

The Commander raised his eyebrow, he had expected that Shining Armor would put up a fight instead of just complying. “You take it rather well that you’re now fighting for your enemy.”

Shining Armor thought back at the scene in the throne room. “It’s the only way to keep my sister safe.”

“Okay then, you’re going to change your armor and train while I get the plans ready for the upcoming battle.” The Commander started to trot away, but he was stopped by a hoof from Shining Armor.

“Where do I need to change?”

The Commander pointed with his hoof to a tent near the sparring grounds. “Over there. When you’ve changed your equipment go to the sparring ground and the sergeant who has duty shall tell you what to do. You’ve heard what the Queen said, do well and you might get a promotion.” And with that the Commander trotted away. Shining Armor, however, stood still as a statue. Should I really continue with this? Should I really betray Celestia? Isn’t there another way? ... No, I have to do this. Not for their cause, but for Twily’s safety. With a determined expression on his face he trotted to the tent to begin his new life a soldier of the Night Army.

*****

When Applejack first arrived at the house she immediately went to check up on Granny Smith. She was very ill and weak, but when she saw Applejack her illness became less severe and she felt stronger. Everything was going to be alright with Granny. She then went to Applebloom and told her that school was important and that she wasn’t allowed to skip school ever again. They gave each other a big hug before Applejack trotted back to the living room where she was going to tell Big Mac about Nightmare and all the rest. It took her quite a while to explain everything and Big Mac needed some time to think things over.

Big Mach placed his cup of tea back on the table and looked Applejack in the eyes. “Ah think ya need to return and enjoy yer life there.”

Applejack knew that her brother didn’t lie, but she didn’t really expect him to say that. “But ah don’t want to leave, ah want to stay here.”

Big Mac got up from his chair and trotted to Applejack who was sitting on the couch and on the verge of breakdown. He placed his big hoof on her shoulder and looked at her with a warm smile on his face. “Now listen to the advice of yer big brother. We’ll make it without you, we also have two new ponies to help us. Don’t ya worry about us, we’ll be fine and besides, ya can visit us once a week. It’s for yer and our safety.”

Applejack knew that all those words were true and she really didn’t have chose. “But it still feels like ah’m saying goodbye.”

“Ya aren’t saying goodbye, ya’ll come back next week.”

Applejack sniffed, sighed and accepted what her brother said. “Fine, but can ah at least buck some apple trees?”

Big Mac chuckled lightly. “Ya can buck as much as ya like, this is still yer farm, lil’ sis.”

Applejack got up from her couch and gave her brother a big hug. Her brother isn’t really the smartest of all ponies, but when it came to advice and comforting then he was the best. She left the hug and told him that she’d come back, but that she needed to check in with Spike and Sweetie Belle. Big Mac nodded and and began to explain the art of applebucking to the two stallions that were sitting next to the couch. Before Applejack left, Big Mac told her that Spike had taken up residence in the local library. Applejack smiled and left the house with her ‘bodyguard’. It didn’t take long for her to reach the library, but something was off. The sign showed that the library was closed and the lights weren’t on. She knocked on the door, but there was no response. She knocked again, but there was still no response. She went to a nearby bush, because she knew that there always was a spare key in the bush next to the house, it was a Ponyville tradition. She found the key and opened the door. Red went in before her with his sword drawn. Applejack thought that he was exaggerating, but he was a soldier after all. So there they stood in the darkness of the library, the only sound came from the grandfather’s clock next to the door. Red and Applejack searched the ground floor of the library, but when they found nothing they continued their search on the first floor. Red opened Twilight’s bedroom door and heard somepony sobbing. Applejack put on the light and saw Spike lying in a basket while he was making his pillow wet with his tears.

“Spike.” Applejack said. The baby dragon stopped crying and got out of his basket. His eyes widened when he saw Applejack standing in the doorway. He ran towards her and hugged her, he was even faster than Red who tried to stop him. A look from Applejack told him that it was ok.

When Spike calmed down he tried to speak. “They told. *sniff* They told me that you were gone.” Spike was still crying, but less than before. He was just so happy that one of his friends was alright.

Applejack broke the hug and looked at Spike with a warm smile, it was the same comforting smile Big Mac had given her a couple of minutes ago. “No, we’re not gone. Everypony is alright and safe. Ya’ve probably heard that Nightmare has won?” Spike nodded. “Well, Nightmare took us with her to her palace in Canterlot and she made us her… servants.”

Spike looked up at her with a confused expression. “So you’re saying that you all need to do Nightmare’s bidding?”

Applejack nodded, but her head hung low. “Yes, most of us seemed to accept it, but ah certainly don’t accept it and ah think Rainbow won’t accept it either after what Nightmare did to her.” She was still worried about Rainbow, but she had other priorities now.

Spike needed some time register it all and when he felt like he understood it all he spoke. “Okay, but shouldn’t you be in the palace with Nightmare?”

Applejack raised her head and smiled lightly. “No, she gave me a day off to see mah family and Twilight asked Nightmare to bring you to Canterlot. She ordered me to fetch you, ya’re going to stay with Twilight’s parents and ah still need to go to Sweetie Belle to tell her that her sister is ok. So pack yer things and when that’s done then go to mah farm, alright?”

Spike nodded. “Can I see Twilight when we’re in Canterlot?”

Applejack was already on the stairs when Spike asked her that question. “Ah’m pretty sure that Nightmare will allow you that, but probably not today.” She continued her descent and trotted out of the library with Red, her next stop was Carousel Boutique.

Carousel Boutique seemed a little bit more lively, the curtains were open and the lights were on. She knocked on the door and a couple of seconds later the door opened. She was greeted by the surprised face of Magnum, Rarity’s dad. “Applejack? They said you and your friends disappeared.”

She put on a smile, but she did feel a bit uncomfortable. “Hello Mr.Rarity’s dad, can ah come in?”

“Of course and please, call me Magnum.” Magnum got out of the way and let Applejack and the soldier in. He closed the door and went to the kitchen. “Sweetie, Pearl, come to the living room, we have visitors.”

Sweetie came out of the kitchen and saw Applejack standing by the door and just as Spike did, she gave Applejack a big hug. “Applejack, you’re alright. Where’s sis?”

Pearl quickly intervened, she saw that Sweetie was suffocating Applejack. “Let her go Sweetie, that way Applejack can tell us what happened to our poor Rarity.” Her expression saddened, but she didn’t cry, she tried to stay strong.

Sweetie let go of Applejack and nuzzled her mother, all eyes were now fixated on Applejack. She suddenly felt very hot, but she knew that it was just her brain messing with her. She sighed and decided to take the plunge. Wow, telling this to Spike was way easier. “Nightmare made us her servants, we now need to work for her in the palace.”

THUMP

Pearl had fainted and Magnum and Sweetie were trying to wake her up, but that was to no avail. Magnum looked back at Applejack. “She’ll probably stay like this for a while. Back to the topic, does that mean that we’ll never see Rarity again?”

Applejack shook her head and decided to follow her intuition like she did with Spike. “No, ah think that if Rarity asks Nightmare for a day off to visit you then Nightmare will agree. Ah can visit mah family once a week.”

“Is she safe?” This time it was Sweetie that asked Applejack a question. Her expression wasn’t a sad one, it was more a worried one.

Applejack nodded. “Yes, Nightmare hasn’t laid a hoof on Rarity and if she does then ah’ll buck her to the moon. Ah’ll protect all mah friends, Rarity included.”

Magnum sighed in relief, for the first time a smile formed on his face. “Well, as long as she’s safe and she has a protector it’s ok for me.” Sweetie nodded as a sign that she was also ok with it. They too accept it so fast, ah’ll never understand these ponies, but it’s their choice.

“Well if ya don’t mind, ah go back to the farm now. Ah want to do some applebucking before ah need to leave again.”

Magnum nodded. “Of course, but could you ask Rarity to visit us soon and thanks for informing us.”

“It was nothing and ah’ll ask Rarity. Bye.” They waved goodbye and Applejack and red left the boutique, she was glad that that was over so that she now could concentrate on applebucking.

*****

Twilight walked through the hallways of Canterlot palace. Her body moved on its own towards the door that stood several feet before her. Now that she didn’t have to concentrate on her body she could take in her surroundings. The hallways were white instead of black and the doors were painted in gold instead of midnight blue. A connection began to form in Twilight’s mind, this was the palace before Nightmare decided to give it a makeover. How she got here she didn’t know, maybe her mind used a time travel spell in her sleep, but the only thing that mattered right now was that she was going to see Princess Celestia. She stopped in front of the golden doors and she felt that she had regained control over her body. A faint golden glow surrounded the doors and after a second they opened. Twilight couldn’t contain her excitement and ran into the room. The room that she ran into was the throne room, but the walls were white, the normal flags of Equestria hung on the walls and Celestia’s throne stood on its original place with Celestia sitting upon it.

Celestia noticed Twilight and smiled. “Ah Twilight, how nice of you to AAAAH” Celestia screamed has a horn pierced through her back. Twilight ran towards Celstia to help her, but she was too late. Celestia changed into dust and the wind that came with the attack carried it away.

Tears began to form in Twilight’s eyes and rage overtook her. “Where are you? Show yourself!” Twilight didn’t see that the horn began to move out of the back of the wooden throne.

The horn managed to break free and the attacker showed itself. The attacker trotted to the front of the throne and sat down. Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes. Before her sat Nightmare Moon, it was logical, but she still couldn’t believe it. “You shouldn’t greet your Queen like that.” A mischievous grin formed on Nightmare’s face.

If eyes could kill then Twilight would have sent Nightmare twice to Tartarus. “You told me that you placed Celestia in a deep sleep, you told me that you didn’t kill her!”

“Ha, but killing is so much better. Now bow before your Queen.”

Twilight changed the position of her body into a defensive stance. “Never, you aren’t my Queen.”

Nightmare shook her head lightly. “You would have been such a good servant, but if you don’t want to bow then I shall kill you.” Nightmare got off her throne and jumped at twilight like a tiger would do to its prey. Twilight closed her eyes and got ready for the impact, but it never came. She opened her eyes and saw A statue of Nightmare floating in front of her. The magic that held the statue in the air disappeared together with the statue. Four hooves landed in front of her and Twilight looked up. Before her stood the Princess in all her glory.

“Princess? I thought you were dead?” Twilight slowly relaxed and sat on her haunches, the tears she had now were tears of joy.

Celestia chuckled lightly, sat down next to Twilight and draped her left wing over Twilight’s body. “I would, if this was real.”

Twilight looked confused at Celestia while her brain was beginning to make the connections, her brain was always fast. “Is this a dream?”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, it is.”

“Then why are you here, Princess?”

“I’m not your Princess, I’m your guilt.” The Princess changed again into the dust and it flew away, but her voice remained in the room. “You see, when you accepted Nightmare as your Queen it woke me up, because deep inside your heart you want Celestia back.”

Twilight knew that those words were true, she really wanted Celestia back and she knew that her guilt spoke the truth, because her guilt was a part of her. “I really want her back, but what can I do?”

The dust came back and it changed into the Princess again who was standing in front of Twilight. “That’s for you to decide, but do know that these dreams will become worse and that can give you serious mental damage if you don’t do anything about it.” She kissed Twilight’s forehead and disappeared again. “It’s time for you to wake up.” Everything around Twilight began to crumble. She looked at the ceiling and was greeted by a piece of stone that was headed straight for her face. She couldn’t do anything about it and everything went black.

Rarity noticed Twilight stirring in her bed and trotted to her. She saw that Twilight was having a really bad dream, she was covered in sweat and her body didn’t stop moving. She gently shook Twilight awake. This proved to be effective, because not long after her shake Twilight opened her eyes and stared at Rarity.

“Oh Darling, you were having a nightmare.” She said with a smile on her face. Twilight tried to smile back, but her thoughts were still fixated on the dream she had and so a concerned expression grew on Rarity’s face. “Everything alright?”

Twilight shook her head to change her thoughts and smiled back at Rarity. “Yes, I’m fine, but I think I’ll go back to the throne room now."

Rarity trotted back to her bed and began to comb her mane. “Oh me too, I think I’ve slept long enough.” When she saw that her mane was gorgeous again she followed twilight to the throne room.

*****

Applejack was busy with applebucking, it was the only time she could just set her thoughts on something else, it was her form of meditation. Her bodyguard sat down against the wall of the house and he always kept an eye on Applejack. She was busy with the northern part of the orchard while her brother and the two used-to-be soldiers were busy in the southern part of the orchard. She was busy bucking her 26th tree when she thought she heard a sound. She looked around, but saw nothing. So she shrugged it off and went to the next tree. She readied herself for the bucking, but then she heard that sound again, it was a quiet whistle and this time she heard it coming from one of the trees. She looked at the tree that was a couple of feet to the right. She then spotted it, there was a soldier from the Celestial army hiding in that tree. The soldier was motioning with his hoof to make her come closer, but Applejack knew that if she began to talk then Red would notice. She walked to the tree and began whispering.

“Ah don’t know what ya’re doing, but before we can talk ah need to make sure that mah bodyguard doesn’t notice.” The stallion said nothing and Applejack trotted to Red. “Hiya Red, is it ok if ah talk to mah favorite tree a bit?” Applejack knew that she wasn’t really good at lying, but she really hoped that Red would believe her.

Red cocked her an eyebrow. “With a tree, huh? I always knew that there was something wrong with ponies from the countryside. Yes, fine by me, but stay in my field of vision.” Applejack decided to forget about the insult he gave her and trotted back to the tree.

The stallion was still in it, but he was unnoticeable from Red’s point of view. Applejack sat down next to the tree and looked up, but not too much so Red wouldn’t notice. The stallion was a white unicorn with armor from the Royal Guard. Applejack didn’t know how the unicorn got in one of her trees, but that wasn’t important right now. “Why are ya here?” She kept talking in whispers, just to make sure that Red wouldn’t hear it, he was sitting 100 feet away from them.

The stallion readjusted his position in the tree and began to whisper back. “I’m here because we know that you don’t like Nightmare.”

Applejack took a quick glance at Red. Red was still looking at her, but she saw that his eyes were slowly closing. Guess the sun is making him drowsy. She focused her attention back at the guard. “So what? We both will be in deep trouble when mah bodyguard sees us talking.”

“I know, but that’s not the point right now. You see, we’re planning an assassination attempt on Nightmare, but we need your help.”

Applejack’s eyes widened when she heard that. She tried to regain her composure so that she wouldn’t arouse suspicion. “Are ya crazy? Ah may hate her, but ah ain’t stupid.”

“Please, the only thing you need to do is to keep the front gate unlocked when you get back in the palace, so that way our assassins can murder the guards, enter the palace and kill Nightmare.”

For Applejack the plan seemed like a good plan, but she still wasn’t convinced. “And what after that? Ah’m pretty sure Nightmare will kill me on the spot when she sees me walking next to a few assassins.”

“Tell Nightmare that you don’t feel so good, she’ll probably let you go to the toilet, then hide in one of the closets of the palace. Our assassins will stick to the shadows and when Nightmare is killed they’ll find you. Help us, you’ll save a lot of lives and everything can go back to the way it used to be.”

Applejack was still in deep doubt. On one side she could join them and Nightmare would be gone before more innocent ponies die, but on the other side it was quite dangerous to betray a monarch that could rip you apart in less than a second. In the end Applejack chose to for the ponies. “Alright, but ya make damn sure that everything goes according to plan.”

“Thank you, you’ll save a lot of lives.” The unicorn began firing up his horn so that he could place an invisibility spell on himself, but he was stopped when Applejack spoke again.

“Wait, there’s a complication. Ah can’t lie and Nightmare can read mah mind.

The stallion rubbed his chin. “Hmm, stand closer to the tree.” Applejack obeyed and stood closer to the tree. “Alright, what I’m going to do now is a spell that makes you the perfect liar, even in your mind. I’m pretty sure even Nightmare won’t see through your lies.” The stallion could see that Applejack’s bodyguard had fallen asleep, so this was the perfect time for the spell. He fired up his horn and cast the spell on Applejack. Her body was surrounded by a white aura for a couple of seconds, but then it faded away. “That should do it. When you arrive in Canterlot, our assassins will be in place just outside the palace. When you go inside, they will wait for five minutes and then they will start their assassinations.” With that the stallion placed the invisibility spell on himself and silently walked out of the orchard. Applejack went back to bucking, but she has never been so nervous in her whole life.

*****

Nightmare was walking to the medical tent of the army just outside the city and Fluttershy was accompanying her. Her mind was wandering back to lunch. Twilight seemed very upset about something and reading her mind brought her no answers, so Nightmare decided for herself that Twilight was still a bit upset about her fake death. Her attention then shifted to Rainbow Dash. Nightmare knew that Rainbow was going to be very upset about the loss of her wings, but that was the reason why she had brought Fluttershy with her.

Nightmare looked at Fluttershy who was doing her best to make herself disappear behind her mane. Nightmare rolled her eyes and spoke. “Fluttershy, do you remember your order?”

Fluttershy took a quick glance at Nightmare and saw her uninterested look. She quickly hid herself back behind her mane. “Yes, I need to comfort Rainbow Dash.”

Nightmare nodded. “Good.” She focused her attention back on the road in front of her.

Her mind wandered off again, this time to a stallion that came to speak with her during court. The stallion had identified himself as Prince Blueblood, but Nightmare had identified him as a narcissist and a pony who doesn’t give a shit about others. He complained about the new law and that who wouldn’t give any money to the peasants, that was his words for the poor ponies. Nightmare had stripped him of his wealth, title and belongings and relocated him to the poor part of Canterlot, where he could experience poverty first hand. She gave 70% of Blueblood’s wealth to the repairs and 30% was for the royal chest, which needed filling. She received smiles from her servants. Nightmare was a ruler who placed her ponies above herself. Nightmare was so deep in thought that she didn’t see that she had already arrived in the army camp. Fluttershy poked her and Nightmare snapped out of her thoughts.

She took a moment to take in her surroundings and turned to Fluttershy. “Thank you, Fluttershy.” She trotted to the medical tent and walked inside. In the medical tent lay several soldiers, some with cuts and bruises and others with internal bleedings. She knew that the doctors would take care of them and so she trotted to her target who was lying at the end of the tent on a cot. Rainbow was awake and she saw Nightmare walking towards her. Her body began shaking and she hid beneath her blankets, Nightmare was one of the few things which she now feared. Nightmare saw that she was upsetting Rainbow and she turned again to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, here starts your job. Try to comfort her so I can come closer to her.”

Fluttershy nodded and trotted to Rainbow. She knew she had to do her best, because she was now part of Rainbow’s recovery. She stopped next to the cot and touched Rainbow’s blanket with her hoof. A light eep came from beneath the blankets. This is worse than I thought. “Rainbow, it’s me, Fluttershy.”

The shaking lessened, but it was still there. “I-is N-Nightmare with y-you?” It seemed that Rainbow was now the new Fluttershy.

“No, she’s standing a couple of feet away from us. Could you please come out from under the blankets?”

There was a silence, but slowly Rainbow pushed the blankets away from her. After some time Rainbow was again lying on her pillow with her blanket on her chest. She kept her gaze focused on Fluttershy who was sitting next to the cot. “Why is N-Nightmare here?” She took a quick glance at Nightmare who was, much to her surprise, smiling at her.

Fluttershy began stroking Rainbow’s mane, it was like a mother would do to her child. “Well, I think Nightmare should explain that to you, but you have to let her come closer.”

Rainbow shook her head very quickly. It was a bit too fast, because the place where her wings used to be began to hurt. “No, she’ll hurt me.”

“No she won’t Rainbow. I’ve been with her for a day and did I get hurt? No. She might be hard on the outside, but I know that deep inside she’s a very nice mare.” Fluttershy began to look at Rainbow with a pleading look. “Just trust me.”

Rainbow needed some time to think, but in the end she decided to trust Fluttershy. “Alright, I trust you.” Then she began to speak under her breath. “But I hope I’m not going to regret it.” Fluttershy motioned with her hoof at Nightmare, meaning that she could come closer.

Nightmare took small steps, so that she didn’t startle Rainbow. When she was sitting next to Fluttershy she spoke. “How are you, Rainbow Dash?” Nightmare knew it was a stupid question, but it had to start somewhere.

“I’ve been better.” Rainbow replied sarcastically. “You took my wings away.”

Nightmare rubbed the back of her head with her hoof, this was going to be the hardest part for her. “About that, I’m very s-s-sorry. I couldn’t control myself and it’s my fault that your wings are gone.” Nightmare breathed a sigh of relief. It was a small apology, but was the best she could do.

Rainbow, however, was far from accepting the apology. “Apologies won’t bring my wings back.”

Nightmare knew that this was the time she had to preform the dangerous spell. After a few moments of silence she decided to take the plunge. “Well actually…” Nightmare didn’t finish her sentence. Her horn began to glow a midnight blue and so was Rainbow’s back. Nightmare began to concentrate on Rainbow’s back and Rainbow could feel a light stinging sensation. She took a quick glance at Fluttershy whose eyes were beginning widen. After a few minutes the spell stopped and Nightmare began to pant. “Would you… accept this as an apology?”

Rainbow looked at her sides. On her sides were two bat-like wings and they were black like the night. “Wow.” That was all she could say.

Nightmare regained her breath and smiled a little. “They aren’t your old wings, but it’s the best I can do. You actually have the same blessing as my Pegasi guards and the Commander: the Blessing of the Moon.”

Rainbow took another moment to admire her new wings. “They’re pretty cool actually.” Rainbow looked back at Nightmare. “I still don’t fully trust you, but… thanks for the wings.” She extended her hoof towards Nightmare.

“I promised myself that I would bring your wings back and that’s exactly what I’ve done.” Nightmare touched Rainbow’s hoof with one of her own and shook it. “Now we just need to wait for somepony else.”

Fluttershy decided to be part of the conversation again, being Nightmare’s servant made her a bit more sociable, but not much. “Who?”

“The Commander.”

*****

Twenty minutes had passed, but there was still no sign of the Commander. Fluttershy and Rainbow talked to each other and Nightmare occasionally said a sentence or two, but she kept her gaze focused on the opening of the tent. She felt that she needed to stretch her legs and began to walk around the tent. Her gaze fell on a young dark blue stallion with a light blue mane and tail, Nightmare saw that he was just a teenager. She didn’t know what it was, but she felt something in herself, something like motherly concern. She trotted over to him and sat down next to his cot.

The young stallion turned his head and began to smile. “G-greetings, my *cough* Queen, what brings y-you to my cot?” Nightmare saw that the young stallion was very weak. His eyelids were almost closed and it was hard for him to smile.

Nightmare smiled back with a genuine and comforting smile, just like she did with Rainbow Dash. “I wanted to see the condition of my injured soldiers. Tell me, what’s the matter?”

The young stallion coughed again and threw his blanket to the side. Nightmare looked at his injury. His body had a cut that started near the beginning of his throat and stopped on his abdomen, it looked like a cut from and operation. “Could you tell me if I’m going to make it?”

Nightmare knew that he was dying and that the truth would hurt, but he had asked it and Nightmare was pretty sure he knew the answer also. She placed his blanket back on his body and looked him in the eyes. “I’m sorry, your wound is too severe.” This was the first time Nightmare actually felt really sorry for somepony, she hated it when kids died.

The young stallion closed his eyes and let out a sigh. “I knew it.” The was a moment of silence between them and then he spoke again. “Could you do me a favor, my Queen?” Nightmare nodded, it was the least she could do before he died. “Could you preform magical euthanasia on me? I know that I’m going to die, but I don’t want to suffer anymore.”

Nightmare’s eyes grew wide and she took a step backwards. She didn’t mind killing the enemy or ponies that had wronged her, but this was one of her own soldiers and he was just a child. “I-I can’t do that.”

The young stallion sighed again and gave her a pleading look. “Please, it’s my last dying wish, I don’t want to suffer anymore.”

On one side it’s unethical to ignore his last dying wish and let him suffer, but on the other side it’s still murder and of a child. I hate to say it, but I shall honor his wish. She lowered her horn and touched his forehead, their faces just inches away. Nightmare had a saddened expression, but the young stallion gave her a smile. “You’re still sure about this?”

He nodded. “Yes. Thank you, my Queen.”

Nightmare suppressed a tear, fired up her horn and smiled back. “Please, call me Nightmare.”

“Thank you, Nightmare.” He closed his eyes and kept smiling. Nightmare could feel and hear his heartbeat slowing down.

THUMP THUMP

THUMP

And then it stopped. Nightmare stopped her spell and looked at his face. The smile was still there, like nothing had happened and Nightmare knew that he had passed on peacefully. She sat back down next to his cot and placed his blanket over his face with her magic and that was the moment when a small tear left her right eye and rolled down her cheek.

Rainbow and Fluttershy had seen the whole scene and so had the rest of the tent. Rainbow turned to Fluttershy. “I guess she does care about other ponies.”

Fluttershy, as the delicate pony as she was, had cried during the scene, but she knew that what Nightmare did was the right thing to do. “I told you so.” It seemed a bit childish, but it was the only answer Fluttershy could come up with.

Rainbow silenced Fluttershy with her hoof and looked back at Nightmare. “Wait, she’s singing.”

Rainbow was right, Nightmare began to sing. This was something Rainbow didn’t really expect, but it was a kind gesture. “Sound the bugle now - play it just for me.” She placed her hoof on his body. “As the seasons change - remember how I used to be.” Shortly after that the rest of the tent, even Rainbow, joined Nightmare’s singing.

Now I can't go on - I can't even start

I've got nothing left - just an empty heart

I'm a soldier - wounded so I must give up the fight

There's nothing more for me - lead me away...

Or leave me lying here

Sound the bugle now - tell them I don't care

There's not a road I know - that leads to anywhere

Without a light I fear that I will stumble in the dark

Lay right down - decide not to go on

Then from on high - somewhere in the distance

There's a voice that calls, "Remember who you are"

If you lose yourself - your courage soon will follow

So be strong tonight - remember who you are

Yeah you're a soldier now - fighting in a battle

To be free once more - yeah, that's worth fighting for

After the song Nightmare stayed with the stallion until a doctor came to place him next to the other dead ponies. She asked him his name and family so that she could send some money to his family. His name was Blue Streak and his family lived in Cloudsdale. She hastily wrote it down on a paper and teleported it to her chamber. She took one last look at the teenager and then the doctor levitated him out of the tent. She went back to Fluttershy and Rainbow and sat down next to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy placed a hoof on Nightmare’s side. “You’ve done the right thing, I hope you know that.”

Nightmare nodded and smiled gently at Fluttershy.”I know, but it was a hard thing to do.”

Rainbow decided that enough self-pity was said for a day and decided to brighten the mood. “Yeah, even I have to readjust my image of you.” Rainbow knew that her comment was a hit, because Nightmare chuckled lightly. But there wasn’t much time for laughing, because the Commander trotted into the tent with his plans for the siege of Manehatten.

Nightmare shook her head to get all her sad thoughts out of her head and trotted to the Commander like nothing had happened. “Ah Commander, glad you could make it.” The sarcasm was strong in this one.

The Commander bowed before his queen and began to apologize. “I’m sorry, my Queen. I had to make some adjustments on the plans.” He rose up from his bow when he saw Nightmare walking away from him.

“I hope the plans are perfect. Now come, we need to tell Rainbow Dash about her new job.” The Commander followed Nightmare to Rainbow’s cot. When they all sat around Rainbow’s cot Nightmare began to speak. “Rainbow, this is Commander Shadow. He’s the leader of my army and also the best soldier in my army.”

Rainbow looked at the Commander who was sitting next to her. She saw that he had a giant scar on his chest, but she didn’t want to know what had caused it. “Um… nice to meet you, I guess.” She extended her hoof towards him.

He accepted it and shook it. “Likewise.”

Nightmare decided it was time for business. “As much as I enjoy small-talk, that wasn’t reason for the Commander’s presence.” She turned her attention to Rainbow. “Rainbow, I decided that I won’t make you my servant.”

Rainbow’s ears perked up and giant smile formed on her face. “Really? So I can go back to Ponyville?”

Nightmare shook her head. “No, I want you to become a part my army.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened from amazement, but her expression turned sour pretty quickly. “No, I’m not going to kill ponies for you.” She crossed her forelegs in a kind of childish manner.

Nightmare knew that Rainbow wasn’t going to accept her new post just like that, so she was prepared for this. “Come on, Rainbow. You’ll get your own tent and you’re not going to a normal soldier. Oh no, you’re going to be Captain.”

Rainbow’s ears perked up again when she heard the word Captain. She had two dreams when she was a filly. One was becoming a Wonderbolt, the other was joining the army of Cloudsdale and promoting in the ranks. She had dismissed this dream and only focused on becoming a Wonderbolt. “Captain? Just like that?”

Nightmare nodded. My little fish has taken the bait, now I just need to reel her in. “Yes, I sense that you know your way with weapons and tactics, so I’d be stupid to just make you normal soldier. Do you accept?”

Rainbow rubbed her chin. She was really considering joining her army, because if she did one of her dreams would become reality. On the other hoof, she didn’t want to kill anypony and certainly not for this tyrant. But her image of Nightmare had changed recently, so that was also something to take into account. There were so many things she needed to take into account, so it was impossible for her to decide that right now. “Can I decide later?”

Nightmare nodded. “Yes, I figured that you would need some time, so I give you two weeks to make up your mind.” She turned her attention to the Commander. “Commander, you can now explain the battle plans, that way Rainbow knows how to make tactics.” The Commander didn’t respond, instead he just kept staring at Fluttershy who did two things at a time. She stared back, but she also hid behind her mane. Nightmare rolled her eyes and decided it was time to raise her voice. “Commander!”

The Commander shook his head and began to make himself as little as possible. “What? Oh, I’m sorry, I was distracted.”

Nightmare rolled her eyes again, it was starting to get really annoying for her. “Yes, I think the whole tent saw that. The plans, if you would be so kind?” The Commander quickly laid the battle plans at the end of Rainbow’s cot, just next to Rainbow’s hind legs. Meanwhile Rainbow gave Fluttershy a playful poke.

The Commander took a map and laid it on the cot, but in front of Nightmare. He cleared his throat and began. “So, the whole operation will be called Operation Overlord. Our first attack will be an attack with paratroopers, meaning that Pegasi will drop off Earth Ponies, Unicorns and other Pegasi in the drop zones. I, Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash, if she accepts, will take part in this phase. We will start this attack in the night between the 5th of June and the 6th of June.”

“As you can see; the blue diamonds represent our drop zones and each drop zone will have 100 ponies. These 100 ponies per dropzone will be divided into squads, that makes it easier to maneuver through the streets. Our squads will stay in contact with each other and the main force with something our researchers call a ‘radio’. Each squad will have one radio and one radiopony. Our objective is to capture one side of the bridges that connect Trotlyn and Queens to Manehattan. The four objectives are: the Trotlyn Bridge, the Manehattan Bridge, The Queens Midtown Tunnel and the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. The blue lines represent the path that we should take. There is a possibility we need to alter the path if there is too much enemy resistance in Trotlyn or Queens. When we’ve captured one side of the bridges then the next phase shall begin.” The Commander searched through his papers and found the map that he was looking for, he placed it in front of Nightmare.

“The blue diamonds represent the starting places of our main force. The main force will attack in the morning of the 6th of June, just after the paratrooper phase. The main force will be divided in 3 starting places. The black lines are the paratroopers who need to defend the bridge against enemy attacks. The red lines are the defenses of the Celestial army near the bridges. We know that this information is accurate, because we have our best spies stationed in Manehattan. The blue lines represent again the path our main force needs to take and the red stars represent our objectives, the other side of the bridges and the tunnel. This is the last phase before the final assault.”

Nightmare knew that the Commander was a skilled tactician and now it showed, but there was still one issue that kept lingering on her mind. “Commander, what will you do with the main force before they need to begin the assault.”

“Well, I thought of hiding the main force in the forest near Trotlyn.”

Rainbow, who had listened carefully, decided to mingle herself into the conversation. “But that will make your main force exhausted before they even reach Trotlyn, that forest is quite a distance away from Trotlyn. I’ve seen an abandoned farm in the outskirts of Trotlyn. You should camouflage your soldiers and hide them there, the farm is large enough to hold between 5000 and 10000 soldiers. Hide them on the farm, that way they’ll have less exhaustion when they start their push across the bridges.”

The Commander and Nightmare both had an eyebrow raised and their looks were fixated on Rainbow. Rainbow thought she had said something stupid, but eventually the Commander spoke. “That… is a pretty good adjustment to the plans.” He hastily wrote it on the papers he had with him.

Nightmare smirked at Rainbow. “Well, well and I thought you didn’t want to help me?”

Rainbow hastily shook her head, they had misunderstood her. “No, it’s not like that, I just care about ponies.”

Nightmare chuckled, but kept her smirk on her face. Yeah, keep telling yourself that, darling. “Either way, it seems that I was right about you being born for tactics.” She turned back to the Commander who had laid the last map in front of Nightmare. “Shall we continue?”

“Of course. This is the last phase of the Battle of Manehattan. The blue diamonds represent once again the starting positions of our main force. We shall come from the south, the east and the northeast. The blue lines represent the path we should take and the red lines represent the defensive positions of the Celestial army in Manehattan. The red star is our objective, it’s the Equestrian State Building. Conquering the Equestrian State Building would mean the conquering of Manehattan. If everything goes according to plan, then we would only need 1 day to conquer the city, that’s something I’d like to call Blitzkrieg.” That was the end of the Commander’s explanation.

Nightmare thought a moment about the plans. They were really thought-out and the Commander had put his time into it, but she wasn’t so sure about the thing that everything would go according to plan. Nightmare knew that there was going to be at least one thing that would mess up the plans, she knew that well thought-out plans would always meet resistance. But aside from that, everything seemed okay. “Okay Commander, the plans are in order. I shall search for ways to attract ponies for our army, because it think that this is going to be the hardest battle in the entire war. Is there anything else you need?”

“No, my Queen. I’ll now go and check up on the new recruits.” The Commander gathered all his papers, placed them under his wing, bowed in front of his queen, took a quick look at Fluttershy and trotted out of the tent.

Nightmare now turned to Fluttershy and Rainbow. “Fluttershy, you can stay with Rainbow if you want, but be back in the palace before 9PM. I’m sure you two have a bit of catching up to do.” Nightmare didn’t wait for a reply, trotted out of the tent and continued her way to her palace. She knew that Fluttershy would stay with Rainbow, so a reply wasn’t necessary.

*****

Applejack sat in the carriage, lost in her thoughts. She was still very nervous about the assassination attempt and the spell that made her the perfect liar didn’t bring much relief to her. Her thoughts also went to the possible consequences if the assassination failed. Death, prison, torture or maybe banishment; there were too many possible outcomes. She decided to get a little bit of sleep, maybe that would make the thoughts go away.

Meanwhile, Nightmare was also thinking about something, she was searching for ways to raise the manpower of her army. The best way was probably starting with propaganda. That would mean a slow increase of manpower, but that might not be fast enough, the battle would begin in two weeks. Her other, more drastic, option was organizing a draft. She knew that the population wouldn’t appreciate a draft, but it was the only way to ensure that she had enough manpower before the battle. After a moment of deep thinking she chose to mix both ways. First she would start with the propaganda and if her manpower still wasn’t enough, then she would organize the draft. Her work for today was over and a quick look at the clock told her that Applejack would arrive any minute now. She got up from her throne and trotted to the front gates.

Applejack awoke when she felt the light shaking of the carriage, to Applejack it felt more like a light earthquake than a landing. She took her hat, that was now lying on a seat next to her, and placed it on her head. She said her goodbyes to Spike, the carriage would bring him to the house of Twilight’s parents, and got ready to get out. The stallion, Red, opened the door for her and she got out of the carriage. She readjusted her saddlebags, gulped and trotted to Nightmare, who was waiting at the front gates. She bowed, got back up and took an apple out of her saddlebag. She gave the gift to Nightmare.

Nightmare levitated the apple to her and took a bite out of it. Almost immediately her eyes widened and she quickly took another bite. The apple was being murdered right in front of Applejack’s eyes. After a few moments Nightmare threw the core of the apple in one of the many trash bins that accompanied the front gate. “Applejack, that was the best apple I ever ate in my entire life.”

Applejack blushed a bit due to the compliment, but her mind never forgot the task she needed to fulfill. “Thank ya, your Highness. Next week ah shall bring an apple pie with me.”

Nightmare nodded and began to trot back into the palace, Applejack followed after a short hesitation. “That’s very generous of you. Now come, I want to hear about your day with your family.” They entered the palace and Applejack took a quick glance at the front gate. The two guards that that stood inside the palace closed the gate, but it wasn’t locked. Immediately Applejack knew how she would get the gates open, it was now or never. She increased her speed until she was trotting next to Nightmare.

She changed the expression on her face to one that told her that she was sick. “Um… mah Queen?” Nightmare turned her face to Applejack and was greeted by Applejack who was ready to throw up. “Can ah go back outside, ah don’t feel so well. Ah think it’s flying sickness.”

It was dangerous to send Applejack back outside without a guard to accompany her, but she seemed sick and there were two guards outside who could keep an eye on her. “Yes, of course. But if you throw up then tell one of the servants to clean it up. I’ll already go to the throne room and wait for you there.” Applejack nodded and galloped back to the front gates.

She stopped at the front gates when a guard halted her. “Halt, why did you come back?” His expression was stern and a bit intimidating, but that was expected from a guard.

“Ah feel sick and the Queen has allowed me to get some fresh air.” She knew that the lying spell worked, because the guard opened the gates for her. “Ya can leave the gate open, ah won’t be long.” The guard nodded and Applejack trotted outside. The carriage was gone and to her surprise the two guards who had to guard the front gates from the outside were also gone. A hooded Pegasus jumped out of the bushes and trotted to Applejack.

He whispered to her. “You’re Applejack, right?”

Applejack nodded and looked at the hooded pony, only a small amount of his white muzzle was visible, the rest was as black as his cloak. “Yes, what did ya do to the two guards?”

“They won’t trouble us anymore. We thank you Applejack, for opening the gate for us.” A second hooded Pegasus trotted out of the bushes and nodded at Applejack. “We now go and deal with the two guards inside. Wait 30 seconds and then you can come inside. Search for a place to hide, a storage room or a closet and hide in there. We’ll get you out of there when Nightmare Moon has been dealt with.”

Applejack was searching in her mind for a good spot to hide. Yesterday, when she and her friends were going to their bedroom they passed a storage room. The storage room was filled with boxes, so that was the perfect place to hide. “Alright, but don’t harm mah friends.”

“No worries, Nightmare is our only target.” The hooded stallion and his companion began their stealthy approach towards the front gate. In one quick motion they galloped inside and muffled screams could be heard. After 5 seconds the screams died down and the dragging of two lifeless bodies could be heard. 25 seconds passed and Applejack mentally prepared herself for all the blood and dead she would see, but to her surprise there weren’t any traces of an assassination. The bodies were gone, there was no blood and the assassins were also gone. Applejack shook the thoughts out of her head and ran towards the storage room, the only safe place right now.

Nightmare was sitting on her throne, she had left the doors of her throne room open for Appleajck’s return. Twilight, Pinkie and Rarity were sitting next to her, all of them were eager to hear about Applejack’s day in Ponyville. Nightmare suddenly felt a feeling, it was that kind of feeling she gets gets when sompony else is watching her. She looked at her servants, they were looking at her with curious expressions, but she knew they weren’t the cause of this feeling. Her guards were like statues who were looking at the things in front of them, so that meant that there was an uninvited guest in the throne room. She began to look around and she captured a small motion in the corner of her throne room, near the ceiling. Nightmare, who could see better in the dark than most ponies, saw the silhouette of a pony and a small dagger in his wing.

She immediately knew what that meant, the Celestial Army had made a move in their game of chess. She got off her throne and began to shout. “Guards!! Assassin!!!”

When those words left her mouth the silhouette got into action. He opened his wings, with the dagger attached under it, and flew towards Nightmare. Nightmare, who had her complete focus on the pony, fired a paralyzation bolt at the pony. The spell hit him right in the chest and he dropped to the ground. Suddenly Nightmare heard Twilight gasp and felt something warm on her flank. She took a quick look at Twilight, she was pointing at Nightmare’s flank. Nightmare looked at her flank and saw a big cut, her blood was going down her flank and was dripping on the ground. She immediately knew that there was a second assassin. She heard the flapping of wings and looked up, the assassin was beginning with his second attack. This time she didn’t have enough time to power up her spell, so it was going to be a hoof to hoof battle. Luckily for her, a Pegasus guard tackled the assassin out of the air and smashed him on the ground. Nightmare limped to the guard and gave him a pat on his shoulder before she levitated the assassin and threw him against the wall. The assassin groaned and fell on the floor. He tried to move, but realized that he couldn’t. His head was the only thing he could move. He looked at Nightmare and he was beginning to get terrified. Nightmare had a maniacal grin and one of her pupils was smaller than the other one. His dagger was ripped off his wing, taking a few feathers with it in the process, and was placed just under his throat.

Nightmare lowered her head, while keeping that maniacal grin on her face. “I’ll get straight to the point, how did you get inside my palace?” Her voice was dripping with venom, but the stallion kept his mouth shut and glared daggers at Nightmare. “I knew you wouldn’t talk, but don’t worry, I’ll ask your companion.” And with that said, Nightmare slit his throat. Some blood splashed on her face, but she didn’t care, she only wanted to know how they got inside. The stallion’s head dropped on the floor and he spasmed for a few moments before going limp. His companion was still paralyzed and lying next to him. Nightmare undid the spell, but she held a firm grip on his body with her magic. She saw that this stallion was terrified, it was probably a new recruit. She placed the dagger on the floor and altered her way to get information. “If you tell me how you came inside, then I shall spare your miserable life."

“T-the gates were open.” He expected to be released, but instead he got a hard slap on his cheek from Nightmare’s hoof.

“Lies!! The gates were closed when I went back to the throne room and Applejack…” The gears in Nightmare’s head began working and everything shifted into place. Applejack felt sick, she needed some air and she was still gone. Nightmare asked one last question, she needed confirmation. “Did an orange mare help you?”

The guard nodded. “Yes, I think her name was Applejack.” That struck Nightmare like a thunderstorm on a summer day. She heard Rarity fainting, but she momentarily didn’t care about her. Her eye twitched from rage and the dagger was once again against the throat of a pony. All traces of a kind Nightmare were momentarily gone and the evil had taken her place. The stallion tried to move his head away, but Nightmare kept it in place with her magic. “I-I thought you’d keep me alive.”

The maniacal grin returned to Nightmare’s face. “I lied.” With one swift motion the throat of the stallion was slit and he suffered the same fate as his companion. She kept watching the stallion struggle against death until he was as dead as a dodo. She tossed the dagger between the bodies and turned to her guards. “Guards, dispose of these two bodies and find Applejack. I know she’s still in the palace.” The guards saluted and went to do their duties. Nightmare materialized a first aid kit and began disinfecting and stitching the cut on her flank.

Applejack was very nervous now, her storage room wasn’t that far away from the throne room and so she heard the order Nightmare had shouted to her guards. She had two options. Her first option was staying in her hiding place, but with a high change of getting caught. The second option was running, but still with a change of getting caught. Of course her mind chose for the latter. She took a lantern from one of the shelves and lit it, the palace was very dark around this time. It was hard to trot on three hooves, but eventually she found a good rhythm and decided to open the door of the storage room. She peered out of the doorway and looked left and right, there was not a living soul in the hallway. Sighing, she trotted to the left and began to walk her way back to the front gate, maybe it was still unguarded. After a trot of 5 minutes she heard the clopping of hooves and it was heading her way. Luckily for her, there was a closet in the hallway. She opened it, extinguished her lantern and hid in the closet. The pony passed the closet and after waiting a couple of moments she peered her head out. The pony was gone and she got out of the closet. She lit her lantern again and continued her path towards the front gate. She was almost nearing her destination when she heard again the clopping of hooves on the ground and this time there was no closet near her.

The earth pony guard turned around a corner and saw Applejack, the culprit, holding a lantern. Immediately he readied himself for a chase. “Halt, that’s an order from Queen Moon!” Applejack dropped her lantern and ran away from the guard. The guard started to chase her and he was gaining ground. Applejack looked behind her and saw the guard 5 feet behind her. She turned her head back to the way in front of her and was greeted by a low-hanging shelve. Rule number one of a chase: never turn around. The guard pinned her to the floor, but he did give her a tissue for her bloody nose. He blew on a whistle and in less than a second Nightmare Moon stood before them.

Her wound was stitched, but her face was still bloody, her pupils were still small and the maniacal grin was still present on her face. “Excellent work, guard. I’ll see to it that you receive a reward. Now go, I’ll take it from here.” The guard bowed and trotted away. Nightmare lowered her head towards Applejack and spoke again with that venomous tone. “Now you’ll see why ponies call me Nightmare.” She cast a teleportation spell and they were gone.

*****

Inside the throne room Twilight and Pinkie managed to wake Rarity up. Right now they were discussing what would happen to Applejack if Nightmare got her hooves on her and they all came to the same conclusion: Nightmare was going to kill Applejack.

“I’m going to save her, she’s still our friend and maybe I’ll free Celestia at the same time.” Twilight said, she wasn’t bothering to whisper, because all the guards were currently looking for more assassins.

Pinkie, however, wasn’t really happy with Twilight’s plan. “She’ll kill you too if you get in her way and I thought you had said that you were pretty sure Nightmare wouldn’t release Celestia willingly.”

“Yes, willingly, I’m going to make her free Celestia. I’m one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria and even an evil Alicorn isn’t going to stop me from protecting my friends.” Twilight began to search the whole palace for Nightmare. If she found Nightmare, then she could teleport to her.

“I do appreciate everything you want to do for us, but I still think that this is a bad idea.” It might seem strange for everypony, even for Pinkie, but this time she was the one with the brains. Pinkie’s argument fell on deaf ears, however, because Twilight was already gone.

*****

Applejack was once again in that familiar room, the room that she had named ‘the punishment room’. This time she wasn’t attached to any poles or restraint in an embarrassing position. No, this time she could walk freely, if Nightmare hadn’t kept her in place with her magic. There was one thing that caught Applejack’s attention. Next to Nightmare, who was busy glaring Applejack down, float a sword. The sword looked so sharp that it could behead a pony in less than a second. In an instant Applejack knew that there wasn’t going to be any punishment today. The only thing on her mind right now was crying and begging for her life.

“Alright, ah’m sorry. Ah’m terribly sorry, it was wrong of me to betray ya. Ah just wanted to s-stay with mah f-family-y-y. T-then these soldiers show u-up and show me the s-solution to all my problems. Ah’m s-so sorry, please don’t kill me-e-e.” Applejack was crying like a little foal and she could feel her heartbeat in her throat. She looked at Nightmare’s face, hoping to find the slightest bit of empathy in her face, but there wasn’t any, only a maniacal expression. Nightmare walked to Applejack’s side and kicked her in the ribs. Immediately all the air in her lungs disappeared and she cried even more.

“Yes, cry like the foal you are. Cry for your family, who are going to be relocated to the Everfree Forest. Cry for your farm, that is going to be burned to the ground. Cry for your friends, who shall never see you again and cry for yourself, your miserable self.” Nightmare walked back to her floating sword.

Applejack restored her breathing and started begging again. “No, not mah family. They didn’t do anything.”

Nightmare’s left eye twitched and the sword floated to Applejack’s flank. It made a cut identical to the one Nightmare had on her flank. Eye for an eye, Applejack, eye for an eye. “Yes they did, they raised a treacherous unloyal bitch. I gave you so many chances to see things my way, I gave you so many rewards and still you put a knife in my back. Well news flash, Applejack, my patience with you is over and done.” She levitated the sword above Applejack’s neck and Appplejack closed her eyes in response, she knew what was going to happen next. “Now you die!” The sword went up and came back down with a crashing speed, but it stopped just above Applejack’s neck. The midnight blue aura around the swords had changed to a violet one. “What the-“ The sword began to move to the doorway and in the doorway stood Twillight Sparkle, savior of Applejack and Celestia, or so she thought.

“That’s enough Nightmare, let my friend go.” She took on an a defensive position, with the sword levitated in front of her. Twilight expected that Nightmare would comply, but instead she began to laugh wickedly. “What’s so funny?”

Nightmare’s laugh died down and that maniacal grin returned to her face. “Ha, did you really think I wasn’t prepared for this? When you were busy waking up your friend, I placed a spell on you. This spell will strip the victim of all its magical powers, but it only does that on my command.” Nightmare’s horn began to glow, Twilight’s horn stopped glowing and the sword fell on the ground. “See?” Twilight tried again to levitate the sword, but it didn’t move. Realization sunk in, she had doomed both Applejack and herself. Nightmare levitated the sword and held it very close to Twilight’s throat. “Now lie down next to Applejack so I can behead you both.” Twilight began to move towards Applejack, head hanging low. She had failed Equestria. She had failed the Princess. She had failed her friend, but more importantly, she had failed herself. She thought she could take on Nightmare on her own, but that was wrong of her and now she had to pay the price. Just when she was about to lie down she saw a pink blur running into the room and clenching itself against one of Nightmare’s legs.

It was Pinkie that had clenched itself against one of Nightmare’s legs. “Please Nightmare, don’t kill them, they’re my friends.” Pinkie began to cry lightly.

The maniacal grin disappeared, but the stern expression was still there. “Pinkie, as much as I adore you, I can’t let them live, they betrayed me.”

Pinkie nodded in confirmation. “Yes, and that was very stupid of them, but give them at least one last chance. Do it for me, please.” Pinkie used the puppy eyes, it’s super effective.

Nightmare sighed and released the sword from her magical grasp. “Alright, they get one last chance, but I keep them in the dungeons until I’m sure that they learned their lessons.” Pinkie nodded, stood on her hind legs and gave Nightmare a kiss on the cheek. Nightmare’s eyes widened and so did Twilight’s and Applejack’s. Normally Nightmare had to make ponies kiss her, but this one did it willingly. Nightmare shook her head, smiled warmly at Pinkie and trotted to the door. “I’ll send some guards to this room so they can take you to the dungeons, I'm pretty sure don't have the guts anymore to run. Pinkie, are you coming?”

Pinkie shook her head. “No, I first need to talk to these two.” Nightmare nodded and teleported away. Pinkie then slapped Twilight and Applajack on the cheek. “You two were so stupid.” Immediately after that she pulled them into a hug. “I’m just so glad that you two are safe.”

They stayed a few seconds in the hug and then Twilight pulled away. “Thanks Pinkie, if you weren’t here then Applejack and I would be dead. How did you even manage to reason with Nightmare?”

Pinkie chuckled lightly. “Sometimes a mare just needs some love and friendship and that’s just the thing you two need to learn. Give love or friendship to Nightmare, 1000 years on the moon is a long time and you tend to get lonely after 1000 years on the moon.”

“Well ah learned that betraying Nightmare is a very bad idea and ah won’t do it again.” The three chuckled at that remark and kept talking until the guards came. During the talk Twilight constantly thought about her dream and she knew that her guilt wasn’t going to go away anytime soon. (Applejack's cut was stitched in the dungeons.)

*****

Equestrian State Building

11PM

The General of the Celestial army was still waiting for a report about the assassination. It had been 3 hours since the assassination, so the report could land in his hooves any minute now. After some minutes a soldier knocked on the door of his office. “You may enter.”

The soldier came inside and saluted. “Sir, I regret to inform you, but the assassination attempt was a failure. Our spies told us that Nightmare was too quick for them and the orange mare who helped them has been thrown in the dungeon together with another servant who also tried to stop Nightmare.”

The General cursed in himself, but he knew that this was just a game of chess and there was always another turn. “Get some of your men ready, experienced men this time. You’re going to Canterlot and free those two servants, we can trade them for Ponyville. It will be a stealth mission.” The soldier saluted and trotted away.

The Battle For Manehattan: Part 1

Everlasting Night.

Chapter 5: The Battle of Manehattan: Part 1

2nd of June, year 1 of the New Moon.

It was time, the preparations were finished and Nightmare had a good amount of ponies in her army. Her propaganda worked and she only used a small draft to strengthen her army. The ponies who wanted to fight for her willingly weren’t really fighting for her cause. They just wanted an end to the war and they decided to live with Nightmare as their Queen. She didn’t care about their motives, they were going to fight for her and that was all that mattered. Her army had a total count of around 3500 ponies and it consisted mostly of Unicorns.

Right now she was in her bedroom, putting on her armor. Her helmet, made of the finest steel from the Griffin Kingdom, was resting on her head. Her hooves and shins were protected by her steel boots. She hated it to trade her beautiful silver shoes for steel boots, but it was for her own good. Her chest was protected by a steel breastplate with a black crescent moon on it. Her back and flanks were protected by a steel saddle, but without a real saddle to sit on, just the armor. Steel was one of the best materials for armor, so it was no surprise that she chose for it.

Yesterday she had held a speech for her army. She had told them about the upcoming battle and that many weren’t going to return. She didn’t want to bring fear in the hearts of her soldiers, but she couldn’t deny the truth. Manehattan was a stronghold, capital of the Celestial government and she knew that the Celestial Army was going to defend it at all costs. She told them that the families of the ones who died would get compensation and that they could always come to her if they had financial or other problems. The ones who survived also received a sum of money, but less because they were still alive. Nightmare knew that money wouldn’t be a problem, because she could ‘lend’ some money from Manehattan after she conquered it. She ended her speech with the promise that she would fight with them on the battlefield, she would stay at their sides.

She looked once again at her dressing mirror. Her beautiful black body was covered in shiny steel, her armor anticipating the upcoming battle. Next to her mirror lay her diamond sword. She picked it up with her magic and examined it.

The sword was as sharp as a razor; even a little sweep could kill a pony. A sentence had been carved on one side of the blade: ‘For the moon, for the night, for the ones I swore to protect.’ That last part was the most important part. Nightmare was going to defend her ponies, no matter what. They might not accept her as Queen, but they were still her ponies. She wasn’t Celestia, but she had the same duties now.

“Do you really have to go?” Pinkie asked. She was lying on Nightmare’s bed, looking at Nightmare and how she was readjusting her armor. Pinkie classified everypony as friend, Nightmare included, so it was normal that she was concerned about her.

Nightmare sighed, placed her sword into its sheath on her flank and turned around. She and Pinkie had this discussion since the start of last week and it was really starting to get on her nerves. “For the 15th time, Pinkie, I have to go. My army needs me, I’m their will to fight. Without me they’ll either desert or panic. I will be there for them and I will fight with them.” She said with a rather annoyed tone.

Pinkie, however, wasn’t intimidated. She jumped off the bed and made her way towards Nightmare. She knew she wasn’t easy to intimidate. Sure, she was scared of hydras and timberwolves, but they were monsters and not ponies. “And what about Fluttershy, Rarity and me?”

“Ah, I almost forgot about that. You and Rarity stay here and manage the palace and Fluttershy will come with me. My army needs her medical skills.” She materialized a small pink tiara and placed it, with the help of her magic, on Pinkie’s head. “Now you have full power over my servants. Please be a little calmer when you rule the palace. Knowing you, that will probably be a difficult job. Rarity already knows about this, she too has a tiara and Fluttershy also knows what I expect of her.”

Pinkie looked at the mirror. Her pink tiara was a bit concealed by her poofy mane, but you could see that it was there. She was, just like Dash, not one for fashion, but she had to say that the tiara looked beautiful, especially the small pink gem that was placed in the middle of the tiara.

The usual talkative Pinkie couldn’t find her words. “Its… gorgeous.”

Nightmare smiled. She knew she had done a good job at those tiara’s, but receiving some praise was always welcome. “I know, so keep it in optimal condition. It took me a long time to make it and it would be a shame if it got destroyed while I'm absent.” Pinkie just nodded. “Alright then. Now come, my army is waiting.”

Pinkie followed Nightmare to the throne room. During the walk neither of them said anything, but Pinkie could feel some worry in Nightmare’s body language, it was part of her Pinkie-sense. She didn’t pursue it, but it made her a bit uneasy. She knew that Nightmare technically killed Celestia and took over her kingdom, but deep down she secretly hoped that Nightmare was going to come back alive.

They entered the throne room and it was different from last time. The banners were still the same and so was the overall layout, but Nightmare’s throne was gone and it was replaced by two smaller thrones which stood very close to each other. One was white and the other was pink. Rarity was already sitting on her throne while Fluttershy was sitting on Pinkie’s throne. Fluttershy also had some armor on. She didn’t have a helmet like the soldiers, but she did have a hat like the one Daring Do wears. Her body was covered in steel armor, like all the soldiers, and it was just to ensure that Fluttershy didn’t get hurt if they walked into an ambush. She also had two saddlebags, attached to her flanks, with a red cross stitched on it, probably by Rarity.

Pinkie looked at Nightmare. “Does this mean I now have the power to rule?”

Nightmare nodded. “Yes Pinkie, you and Rarity are now my regents, but with a bit of supervision by one of my most trusted guards: Shiny Sword. He will keep you two in check and help you with ruling the country. I hate to say this, but I still don’t trust you two enough to let you rule the country without somepony who keeps me informed.” She continued walking towards the two thrones and Pinkie followed suit.

Rarity noticed Nightmare and Pinkie and she smiled at them. “Isn’t it amazing, Pinkie? My dream finally came true, being part of the Canterlot nobility and it has a nice bonus attached to it, ruling Equestria.” Rarity really was in seventh heaven. At the start of her capture she thought that she was going to live in a living hell, but Nightmare made her dreams come true and she was very grateful for that.

“Don’t be too overjoyed. You still have to follow my rules and restrictions and believe me when I say that ruling a country is very hard and tiring work. Isn’t that right, Pinkie?” Nightmare remarked.

“Yeah, you have to stay up really late to get the paperwork done and then there are those annoying ponies who always want something from you. You also have to manage finances and politics and try to keep public order under control, but there is one positive thing about ruling a country and that is that other ponies treat you very well.” Pinkie beamed, it has been a long time since she used such long sentences and it felt really good.

Rarity blinked at Pinkie and only one thought occupied her mind. Since when did she become so smart? She just waved a dismissive hoof at them. “Still, I’m part of the Canterlot nobility now, so thank you Nightmare.”

Nightmare chuckled very silently and it was almost unnoticeable. “Enjoy it while you still can, I do plan to sit back on my throne after the battle of Manehattan.”

“Oh I will enjoy it very much.” Rarity said. She couldn’t wait to start with her rule, it was going to be so much fun.

“Good.” Nightmare turned to Fluttershy, who was awfully quiet. “Are you ready, Fluttershy?” Nightmare asked. She kept the volume of her voice down, from experience she knew that Fluttershy was scared of loud noises and of… almost everything.

Fluttershy eeped and hid behind the armrest of Pinkie’s throne. After a while she looked back up. She noticed that Nightmare and Pinkie were now standing closer to the throne. Nightmare had an indifferent expression, mixed with a slight hint of worry, but Pinkie’s expression was full of worry. “I’m just a bit scared.” Fluttershy whispered. If Applejack was in the throne room right now then she would have seen that Fluttershy had lied to her friends and Nightmare. She was absolutely terrified. She had to go to a battle, treat dying ponies and risk her own life at the same time. She really wanted to help ponies, but she feared for her own life.

Nightmare levitated Fluttershy towards her and placed Fluttershy on the ground before her hooves. With a light telekinetic force she made Fluttershy look up at her. She stared her directly into the eyes. “Listen, you don’t have to be scared. During the march to Manehattan you just stay at my side and nothing will happen to you. You don’t even need to fight, you only need to stay in the medical tents in our camp. That camp will be put up a couple of miles away from the city, so you won’t even be near the fight.” Her tone was regal, but there was a caring undertone in it.

Fluttershy’s eyes filled with hope, Nightmare could see it in those blue orbs of her. “Alright then.” She let out a deep sigh and a little bit of determination could be seen in those eyes of her. It was nothing compared to Rainbow Dash, but it was definitely enough for Fluttershy. “I’m ready.” Now she had sealed her fate, she was going to take care of wounded and dying ponies.

Nightmare draped a wing over Fluttershy, just to reassure her that nothing was going to happen to her. “Come, we need to leave now if we want to leave on time.” She turned to Rarity and Pinkie. “If everything goes according to plan we should be back the 12th of June. Rule the country well.” She nodded to them as a sign of goodbye and walked with Fluttershy out of the throne room and to the courtyard where her army was waiting for her.

Pinkie kept staring at the open throne room doors. She just saw Nightmare and Fluttershy leaving for what could possibly be the last time and she was really concerned about their safety. “Please be safe, both of you.” She whispered and sat down on her throne. She produced a small smile and motioned a guard that he could let in a pony who wanted an audience. She had to focus on her job, she could worry about Nightmare and Fluttershy later, right now she and Rarity had a country to lead.

*****

4th of June, Year 1 of the New Moon.

Nightmare frowned and not because the march was tiring and annoying, but because of something else, something very worrisome. They had been marching for two days now, they had passed Ponyville and the Everfree Forest and they were rather close to Manehattan, but they have never had an ambush. Normally that would be a good thing, but she knew that the Celestial Army had planned something for her army, she just didn’t know what.

She was currently leading the march, with Fluttershy, the Commander and Rainbow Dash at her side. The Commander and Rainbow Dash could keep up with her, but sometimes it became too much for Fluttershy and then she had to lay down and rest in one of the supply carts that were being pulled by the strongest of her army. Nightmare knew she needed to take action, she needed to know why they didn’t walk into an ambush yet.

She turned to Rainbow Dash, she also had her armor on. Her head was protected by a Centurion helmet, but without the crest, only the Commander wore a crest. Her body was protected with steel armor, just like the rest of the army and she also wore steel boots with shin protectors. “Captain Dash, take two other Pegasi and scout the road ahead of us, but keep your distance from Manehattan.

Rainbow sighed and shook her head a little. “Do I have to? My wings still hurt a little from the exercise this morning.” Her mind wandered back to the morning. Even on a march the Pegasi had to train their wings with flying, the Unicorns had to train their magic with concentration and the Earth Ponies had to train their strength through brawling with each other. During her flying she accidentally crashed against a tree. She didn’t know how it happened, but it hurt and it was embarrassing. The soldiers didn’t dare to laugh, because of her rank, but if she was just a soldier like them then they would have laughed their flanks off.

Nightmare glared at Rainbow. She knew that she was being kind to the Bearers of Harmony, but that still didn’t give them the right to disobey her orders. “Captain Dash, I gave you an order, don’t forget that you’re in the army now.”

Rainbow averted her gaze and tried to make herself as small as possible. “I’m sorry, your Highness.” She normally wasn’t so submissive, but she had already been tortured by Nightmare once, she didn’t want it to happen again. “I’ll find two Pegasi to do some recon with me.” She saluted and flew off as fast as she could.

Nightmare shook her head. “She still has so much to learn.”

“In time, my Queen. I know she has the potential to become a good commander, but her attitude stands in the way.” The Commander remarked. He was rather good when it came to estimate the abilities of ponies.

“I hope you’re right, Commander. I still am a bit afraid to send her into battle. I know she can fight, but her technique isn’t optimal and her bold attitude doesn’t make it any better.” Nightmare responded while she saw Rainbow flying in the direction of Manehattan with two Pegasi at her side.

“You don’t need to worry, my Queen, Shining and I will keep her safe. We even had a talk and I gotta say that he’s quite alright. He’s not that happy about his sudden change of faction, but he will fight with us to get his little sister back.” The Commander thought back to the day where he and Shining sparred. He normally didn’t spar with his soldiers, but Shining was an exception, he had been the Captain of the Royal Guard after all.

Nightmare was suddenly curious, she wanted to know where Shining was. “Do tell, Commander, where is Shining Armor?”

The Commander pointed to a position behind him, where all the soldiers were currently marching. “Somewhere in the group behind us. See the giant pink shield above us?” He pointed to a shield which was placed above the whole army, but it was moving with the army.

“Yes?” Nightmare half said, half asked.

“That’s Shining’s work, he’s very good when it comes to defensive spells.” The Commander answered. He was actually really glad that Shining could do that kind of spells and thus protecting the army against enemy attacks.

Nightmare kept looking at the shield for a few seconds and nodded. “I do need to say that I’m impressed.”

“Me too, my Queen. I hope you don’t mind, but I think it’s best to end this conversation here, the Celestial army could ambush us anytime.” The Commander remarked, he knew the Celestial army liked ambushes.

“Good thinking, Commander.” Nightmare answered. But I highly doubt that they’ll attack, something just doesn’t seem right.

They kept on marching, the army just right behind them and almost every soldier in the army was jumpy. For the most of them it was their first time fighting, they’ve never killed anypony and now they had to. But they all had faith in their brothers and sisters and together they would survive.

Thirty minutes later Rainbow Dash returned with the two soldiers, one was a mare with a chocolate brown mane and a light brown coat and the other a stallion with a dark blue mane and an ocean blue coat. The soldiers were breathing heavily and sweat was just dripping off them, but Rainbow Dash just stood there and it seemed that she didn’t even break a sweat.

The two soldiers bowed before their queen and Rainbow did the same when she noticed that she was the only one who wasn’t doing it. When Nightmare gave the sign she rose again and spoke. “I flew all the way to a lake just twenty miles from Manehattan and I didn’t notice a single soldier, it’s like they just disappeared. You can ask these two rookies here. They were flying so slow that I had to leave them behind, but they did get a good look at the ground below them.” Rainbow reported proudly and puffing her chest out to empathize her proudness.

Nightmare, however, wasn’t happy with Rainbow’s stupid action to leave her companions behind. She had sent them with her to protect her, not to be left behind. She frowned at Rainbow and that was still being nice. Normally she would have killed Rainbow on the spot, but that would be unwise of her, the Bearers were finally beginning to trust her. “Captain Dash, it was very foolish of you to fly alone! Therefore, you will stay at my side until we reach Manehattan and flying is only allowed when you’re training.”

“But, but…” She tried to protest, but when Nightmare opened her wings in an intimidating manner she just lowered her head and stared at the ground. “Yes, your Highness.”

The march continued. Rainbow walked next to Nightmare, disappointment clearly visible on her face. Nightmare had just taken away her flying, but she had to admit that it was rather stupid of her to fly alone. If the Celestial Army ambushed her then there was nopony in the area to help her, so she was, in a certain degree, happy that Nightmare had scolded her and she made a mental note to fly with her companions next time.

Nightmare worried even more than she was used to. Rainbow’s report was everything, but satisfying. She had some suspicions about what could have happened to the Celestial Army, but she had to be sure. The only pony with enough tactical skill in her army to rival her own was the Commander.

“Commander,” The Commander looked up at her, clearly showing that she had his full attention. “Are you thinking the same about the report?”

“That the Celestial Army transferred all its soldiers to the heart of Manehattan?” He knew this even before Rainbow’s report, but just like Nightmare, he wasn’t sure.

Nightmare nodded. “Yes, that. The General of the Celestial Army is smart, placing all his soldiers in Manehattan for one last stand. I think a bloodbath will happen in Manehattan.” She sighed and hung her head a little. She had prayed to the moon for an easy battle without many casualties, but now that the Celestial Army stationed all of its soldiers in Manhattan, she wasn’t so sure of her victory.

The Commander noticed the sudden change in Nightmare’s mood and tried to lift her spirit. “Nightmare, if I may be so bold, we have strongest ponies in our army. There’s Shining Armor with his defensive spells, Rainbow Dash and her agility, me and my excellent knowledge in fighting and you who has the power of a god. And what does the Celestial Army have? Just a little flying airship.” The Commander smiled at Nightmare, something he only did when seducing mares, but this time the situation asked for it.

Nightmare gave him a small smile. The Commander was a good pony, she could see and feel it. “I appreciate that you’re trying to make me feel better, but you off all ponies should know not to underestimate the Celestial Army. Their airship has a destructive power which can annihilate a squad in less that a second. The surroundings are also a positive aspect for them. They know Manehattan like the back of their hooves and we don’t. I think my confidence is just a bit faltering due to that report.”

“It will be alright, I promise.” The Commander reassured her. He has never spoken to Nightmare this way and it was nice to have just a friendly chat instead of following orders.

Nightmare didn’t answer, there was no need to. A little thought, however, kept lingering in her mind. Can you keep that promise, Commander?

*****

June 6th, Year 1 of the New Moon

00:15AM

It was just a quarter past midnight and this night would be the start of the Battle of Manehattan. Nightmare’s army had set up camp ten miles from Manehattan and she gave the paratroopers some rest before they had to fly to Manehattan, but that was yesterday. Now they were all checking their equipment, radios and armor for the battle that was about to come.

From the 3500 ponies she had in her army, 750 would fight tonight. Squads would be made in the camp, most of them consisting of 2 Unicorns, one Earth Pony and one Pegasus. Pegasi that weren’t part of the squad would drop the squads in the outskirts of Manehattan and then return to the camp. After they were dropped, the squads would need to make their way to their designated target. These targets were: the Trotlyn Bridge, the Manehattan Bridge, The Queens Midtown Tunnel and the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. The squads would need to conquer one side of the bridge, or tunnel, and hold that position until morning, then Nightmare and her main force would assault the city by hoof.

Nightmare was currently in her own tent together with the Commander. They went over the plan one last time to make sure that it was perfect. “And you’re sure that this plan will work?” Nightmare asked while she looked at the map one more time.

“Yes, I’m sure. According to our spies stationed in Manehattan, we won’t meet much resistance on the way to the bridges, but they will be heavily defended.” With a red marker he highlighted the bridges and where the main defense positions were.

Nightmare nodded in understanding. The plan did seem perfect, but there was one rule in war that applies to both friend and enemy: Trotly’s law. This law said that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. “And what about squads?”

"Like I said, we make squads consisting of 4 ponies. 2 Unicorns, 1 Earth Pony and 1 Pegasus. I’ve already made my squad. It consists of myself, Shining Armor, a soldier named Red and Rainbow Dash.” He answered a bit impatiently, they really had to leave now if they wanted to stick to the plan.

Nightmare placed the plan in a chest and locked it with a key which she kept hidden in her mane. “Alright, it seems that you got everything covered. I give the green light, but just make sure to protect Rainbow Dash.” It was best to keep Rainbow close to her, but she was a soldier now and soldiers needed to fight.

“I will, don’t worry.” He said with much confidence and as he tried to trot out of the tent Nightmare said something.

“Oh, and Commander? What is the first rule of our army?” She needed to make sure that the Commander knew that rule, it was the most important one.

He thought for a moment, but he knew it almost instantly. “Protect civilians and minimize civilian casualties.” He smiled and trotted out of the tent.

Nightmare sighed and put a hoof on her forehead. Making plans and monitoring everything came with a lot of stress and that stress worked on her brain. She had a massive headache now and it needed to disappear before the assault. “Ugh, I need an aspirin.”

*****

“Twenty seconds until landing!!!” The Commander, who was carrying Shining Armor, yelled. Their designated landing zone was Poney island in Trotlyn. It was a rather long way away from the Trotlyn Bridge, the objective of the Commander’s squad, but it was a safe landing zone.

“Ten seconds!!!” Rainbow heard.

It was hard for her to say it, but there was no denying it. She was scared and nervous. She had never really fought in a war. Sure, she knew some fighting techniques from her time in Cloudsdale, but those techniques weren’t going to save her. And then there was that one thing in war she really detested: killing other ponies. It just wasn’t right to kill, but in a war there was no other choice. Her mind told her that other ponies in Nightmare’s army had the same problem, especially the drafted ones, but that didn’t really bring any peace in her mind. She knew that she had to kill or the enemy killed her.

“Five seconds!!!” Red didn’t really mind the battle, he was trained for this and he knew that this day would come. The possible aftermath if they won this battle was also no secret for him. If they won this battle, then the war would be practically over. The Celestial government would be disbanded, their army also and all the other cities would lose the will to fight. It was going to be a domino effect, they just had to give the first domino a push.

“Touchdown!!!” The four ponies landed. Well, Rainbow Dash, Red and the Commander landed. Shining Armor fell face first onto the concrete of Manehattan.

“Pony down! Pony down!” Shining yelled while winking at Rainbow. It did hurt a bit, but he could handle it, he had been Captain of the Royal Guard after all.

The Commander, however, wasn’t so amused. War wasn’t a time to have fun, war was serious business. Even if you just needed to wipe your nose and you lost your attention for a moment, then death was just around the corner. He scowled at Shining who was getting back up. “War isn’t play time, soldier! You of all ponies should know that.”

“Alright, no need to erupt, Mr Volcano. Play time over, searching for Twily and Applejack is the priority.” Shining said while he looked at the dark sky and he saw the silhouettes of the ponies of the other squads. The other squads would land on different landing zones, but their objectives would be the same.

The whole 750 soldiers who had to fight today had been divided into 188 squads consisting of 4 ponies. 47 squads had the Trotlyn Bridge as their objective, another 47 had to go to the Manehattan Bridge and so on. It was the perfect plan, created by both the Commander himself and some of the best strategians of Canterlot.

“Very well then, let’s get going.” The Commander said to his three squad mates.

The four of them began to walk towards the Trotlyn Bridge. Luckily for them the streets of Manehattan almost didn’t have any curves and at the end of every block there was an intersection, so they just had to follow some streets and those streets would lead them to the Trotlyn Bridge. It was like a walk in the park, but now they only had to look out for enemy patrols.

Yes, according to Nightmare’s spies there were still some patrols in Trotlyn. The major part of the Celestial Army was stationed across the Sun River, in the heart of Manehattan. So the ponies who had to patrol Trotlyn were unfortunate souls, because the Night Army really outnumbered the patrols.

So now they were on their way to Trotlyn Bridge, one of the landmarks of Manehattan. It was late at night, but the four of them could still feel the city living around them and it was scared. Better yet, its inhabitants were scared. Some ponies even dared to look through the blinds of their apartments.

That was also something negative for the Night Army. While there were some houses in Manehattan, most of the buildings were apartments or skyscrapers and the made it impossible to spot aerial attacks of the Celestial Army until it was probably too late. This city wasn’t an open field where you could spot an attack from at least five miles away. No, in this city you were blind.

Other ponies quickly smashed their doors shut and locked their doors and occasionally they would find a strangler who, when he or she became aware of the Night Army’s presence, quickly tried to find a hiding spot. The Commander didn’t pay any attention to the civilians. Right now they didn’t need his help and he wasn’t going to hurt them, that would be against the rules and against his standards. It just wasn’t ethical to hurt civilians.

The ears of the commander twitched and he quickly hid in an alley, closely followed by his three squadmates. They tried to ask him why he hid in an alley, but he shushed them, he had more important things to do than to answering their questions. They became quiet and he could hear it again, the clopping of steel boots against the concrete; it was a soldier and the Commander could hear that he or she was alone.

He turned to his squadmates and could see Rainbow glancing around her quite nervously. She was really scared, but the Commander knew that she would harden eventually, all the soldiers hardened after seeing their friends die. “Stay here. A soldier is coming this way, he’s a loner and I’m gonna deal with him. Rainbow,” He whispered and Rainbow looked at him with all her attention. “Watch and learn, that’s an order.”

Rainbow gulped, she didn’t think it was going to be so soon that she would see a pony die. She knew she didn’t have a choice and just nodded. She promised herself that she would try to keep watching, that would make it easier if she needed to kill somepony. Better get used to death now, than later.

The Commander nodded to her. Rainbow was a strong mare and he knew that, but he was really doubting if she could handle seeing him killing a pony right in front of her eyes. Still, she had to see it eventually.

He quietly walked out of the alley and looked around. He was instantly met by a hoof to his face and fell to the ground. It seemed that the one-pony patrol had taken him by surprise and from the force of it he knew that it was a stallion. The enemy pony seemed to have heard the Commander trotting out of the alley, so that meant that he had excellent hearing skills.

The Commander got back up and wiped some blood from his face, his nose to be specific. The bastard in front of him had almost broken his nose and he was going to make him pay for that. He unsheathed his sword and looked at the soldier in front of him, a small evil smile formed on his face. The poor soul in front of him was going to be an easy one, he saw that from the stance of his hooves. He was unbalanced and the Commander was going to take advantage of that.

Back in the alleyway Rainbow had a clear view of the battle that was about to unfold right in front of her. She began shaking. It were her nerves, but she couldn’t help it, she was going to see a murder right in front of her eyes. Suddenly she felt a hoof on her pauldron and she tensed up. Only when she connected a face to that hoof she relaxed again, but not much. It was Shining and he was giving her support. Rainbow appreciated it. She wasn’t alone in this war, she really wasn’t. She looked at Red and saw that he was busy optimizing his radio and it seemed that he didn’t really care about everything that was about to unfold. He was the radiopony, so he had to make sure that the radio worked.

Back on the street the Commander was currently waiting for his enemy to attack. Only mindless foals would run to their opponents, but they would be instantly killed. He just waited for his enemy to make the first move. And the enemy did.

The soldier of the Celestial Army also unsheated his sword and let out a battle cry like one would do on the toilet when he needed to take a dump. Well, that was the image that came to the Commander’s mind. He didn’t like battle cries. Yes, they could be motivating, but he was a calm pony and being calm in a battle would save many lives.

The opponent attacked and came running towards the Commander. The Commander placed his hooves firmly on the ground, lowered himself a bit and took on a defensive position with his sword clenched between his teeth. He thought about his tactics to win this encounter. First he would trip the pony when he came running towards him. After that he would grab his sword with a wing and walk to the fallen pony. There, he would finally attack the pony and try to kill him when he was still lying on the ground. It was the perfect plan.

The Commander saw that his opponent was near him and ready to attack and he placed, in one swift movement, his sword in front of the pony’s hooves. Just like he predicted, the pony wasn’t fast enough to avoid the sword, which suddenly appeared in front of his hooves, and so he tripped. He landed face first on the concrete and his sword fell out of his mouth. He tried to get up, he knew he had to or otherwise his enemy would kill him, but found out that he couldn’t, that something was blocking him from getting up. The pony looked up and saw that his opponent was standing above him, thus blocking him to get up.

“No, please,” The soldier pleaded. “Please don’t kill me.”

The Commander just kept standing there, with one hoof on the soldier’s body and the other still firmly on the ground. He pushed his sword against the throat of the pony under him. “And why would I want to do that?” He asked, putting a little more pressure against his sword, thus putting more pressure against the throat of the pony and almost to the point where his vertebral artery would have snapped.

The pony tried to push the sword away from his artery, but it was to no avail, his enemy was too strong. “Please, I have a marefriend. We were making plans to get married next month.” He pleaded with fear present in the sound of his voice. He wanted nothing more than live to see another day and, of course, his marefriend.

The Commander was silent and just kept staring, but in his mind he was in a better place and in a better time. He was back in the time where his wife was still alive. He shook his head, he couldn’t think about that right now, he couldn’t think about that fateful day. He once again looked at the soldier’s face and it reminded him of himself when he was younger, but he also saw something else in the soldier’s eyes; he saw innocence. The soldier under him was probably drafted from the population of Manehattan, he didn’t want to fight in this war, but he had to. The Commander sheated his sword and stopped pushing the pony against the ground.

“Go. Go to your marefriend and leave Manehattan, it’s gonna get ugly here. Don’t look back and just run.” The Commander said while he watched the soldier getting back on his hooves. He nodded to the Commander as a sign of thanks and ran away with tears in his eyes, but a small smile on his face.

The Commander sighed and walked back to the alley. That encounter reopened an old wound, a wound he just wanted to forget, but he just couldn’t forget it. He just couldn’t forget his wife. Her beautiful blue mane, her snowy white coat and who could forget her teal eyes where one could be lost in forever. She was his angel, but on a day she had been taken from him. Years he had wandered from place to place to find the perfect replacement of his wife. It may sound harsh to an outsider, but he couldn’t stand being alone; he needed somepony who was there for him. In all those years he had a relationship with countless ponies, but nopony could rival his wife… until he met Fluttershy. That shy mare had something, but he couldn’t explain it; he just knew that this was the mare he had been looking for all those years.

He arrived in the alley and sat down. “Sometimes, Rainbow Dash, you need to show some compassion. I just don’t plan to make it a habit.” He said to her when he saw her confused look. “Now, what did you learn?”

“Well, try to find your opponent’s weaknesses and take advantage of it.” She said with some confidence. She had stopped shaking when she saw that Commander wasn’t going to kill that pony.

“Good, but you forgot the most important lesson.” He remarked.

“And what’s that?”

“Compassion may be used one or two times, but don’t do it too much or you’ll end up dead. You might be compassionate and some enemies also, but most of them aren’t. Keep that in mind and you should be alright.” The Commander explained.

“And what about killing? You didn’t kill that pony so how can I get used to killing other ponies?” She asked the Commander.

“You sound like you wanted me to kill that pony. Is that what you want, Rainbow Dash? That I become a mindless killing machine?” The Commander asked. He wasn’t shocked or angry, but he was remarkably calm.

“W-what? No, that’s not what I meant.” She tried to defend herself, fearing a little for her own life.

“Good, that’s the next lesson; always keep calm. Don’t fight like you are invulnerable, because you aren’t. The best course of action is to wait and let the enemy come to you, like I did in the encounter with that stallion. You’ll learn to kill soon enough. Always remember that war might be chaos, but you need to stay calm.” He stood up and readjusted his armor. “Now let’s go, we still have a long way to go.”

*****

“Get to the defensive positions!!”

“Get down!!!”

“Look out!!!”

“Kill him!!!”

“Valor!! Noooo!!”

“It’s too late for him! Quick, get behind that wall!!!”

“We’re all gonna die, we’re all gonna die.”

Those and others were the sentences of war that could be heard near the bridges. The Celestial army and the Night Army had different opinions about Nightmare Moon, but they agreed on one thing: chaos was everywhere.

The Commander and his squad arrived at the Trotlyn Bridge a bit later than the other 46 squads that had to capture one side of the Trotlyn Bridge and this due to some encounters with patrols. In those encounters Rainbow didn’t kill anypony, but she did have to fight for her life. Most of the time she evaded lethal blows with just one flap of her wings, but sometimes she had to take action. She even gave a Pegasus a broken nose and she pulled some strands of his mane out, but she didn’t kill the enemy, the Commander, Shining or Red killed them. She saw that Shining also had problems with killing ponies, but he did it for Twilight.

When they arrived the Commander asked for a sitrep (Situation Report) and he got one immediately. Apparently all the squads had arrived at the bridges and the tunnel and they were now just defending themselves against incoming attacks from the other side of the river. Some enemy unicorns were now mobile artillery who fired magical beams at the defending Night Army and this from the other side of the river. The enemy Pegasi flew, with rocks in their hooves, above the Night Army and let go of the rocks when they were flying above a soldier from the Night Army. These rocks would fall down with a giant speed and could shatter bones on contact. The enemy Earth Ponies were the spearhead of the Celestial Army and crossed the bridges or tunnel to take the fight to the Night Army. Some unicorns who couldn’t fight as mobile artillery walked behind the Earth Ponies instead. They were the unicorns who had to fight together with their Earth Pony companions and with magic and swords.

That was the tactic of the Celestial Army. The tactic of the Night Army was just defending, defending and defending. They had to stay in cover, minimize casualties and hold out until morning so that Nightmare could cross the bridges and tunnel with the main part of the army. The unicorns with healing magic were the medics of the Night Army, while the other unicorns just defended their friends with swords and their magic. The Pegasi of the Night Army flew above the ground and had to fight the enemy Pegasi. They also had to transport some wounded to the medical tents of Nightmare’s camp. The dead could wait, they weren’t going anywhere soon. They also had to support their companions, just like the Unicorns. The Earth Ponies of the Night Army were the ones who had to meet the spearhead of the Celestial Army head-on. They, together with some support of the Unicorns and the Pegasi, had to keep the defensive line intact and make sure that the Celestial Army didn’t break through.

Those were the tactics and said tactics were created to ensure victory, but most importantly, to keep everything structured. The real deal wasn’t so structured. Ponies were lying dead on the ground, some had a panic attack and were crying for their mother, while others just snapped and attacked everypony, both ally and enemy.

Right now Dash was hiding on the ground floor of an abandoned apartment near the Trotlyn Bridge. The apartment only had a desk for the reception, the rest had probably been stolen just before all hell broke loose. She decided to hide in the abandoned apartment to stay away from all the fighting that was continuing outside, but she had her fair share of the battle, because occasionally a magical beam would shoot through one of the windows and then she had to avoid it or risk getting killed. She was genuinely terrified, but she knew she had to continue, she had to fight.

Just when she was about to go to the door to fight with her companions, the Commander opened the door, ran inside and closed the door behind them. She jumped a bit from the sudden shock, but while she calmed down, she kept an eye on the Commander. It appeared that he had lost his sword, one of his wings was twitching, that was a sign that it was almost broken and he was gasping for air like he had almost been drowned. If the Commander acted this way, then something really bad must have happened.

“Um… Commander? Is everything alright?” Rainbow asked after she saw that the Commander had calmed down enough to speak.

The Commander walked to a broken window and stared through it while frowning a bit in the process. “No, it’s not alright. I just received very disturbing news.” He said while his eyes scanned the sky.

Rainbow walked to the Commander and sat down next to him. “What news?” She asked with concern very clear in her voice.

The Commander kept looking at the sky, but sighed after a moment and hung his head. “Our spies told me that the Celestials have launched their airship. It’s setting course to either this bridge or the Manehattan Bridge. I really hoped that the Queen would have been here when the airship attacked, so that she could deal with it, but it seems that we will have to fight it.” He said and stared with a sad gaze at Rainbow Dash. It was the first time that the Commander really doubted the success of his tactics and army.

“But we don’t have the power to fight that thing!!! I saw what it did to that squad in Canterlot, they just evaporated!! We’re all gonna die if we need to fight it!!” She shouted at the Commander. She knew it was stupid of her to shout at her commanding officer, but she just wasn’t ready to throw her life away.

“I know that!! I…” Out of the corner of his eye he could spot a magical beam heading with a very high speed straight to the window where Rainbow and himself were sitting. He instantly came into action and did a cougar jump to push her away from the window. “Look out!!! AAAAH!!” His body spasmed for a moment and he landed just in front of her hooves, but at least he managed to push her away.

She gasped. It was the only thing she could do, it all happened so fast. One moment she was shouting at the Commander and the next moment he was lying in front of her hooves. She ran to him and removed his armor. She knew he was still alive, because she could feel him shaking from the pain. It was then that she saw a giant hole in the stomach area with blood flowing out of it. She gasped again. During her training she had learned about injuries and their severity. The wound that the Commander had, was a deadly one.

“Don’t you die on me now, you hear me?! Don’t you dare to die!!!!” She shouted when she desperately tried to search for some bandages, but there weren’t any on the ground floor of the apartment. It was just her and the Commander. She wanted to get one of the medics, but she was going to be too late. Even with her speed, it was too late. With all hope gone she returned to the Commander whose breathing was going slower.

“I did… my duty.” He silently said between breaths. It wasn’t going to take long now, he knew it.

“W-what?” She asked with tears in her eyes. The Commander wasn’t really her friend, but in the last few hours he was like a guardian to her. He was always protecting her, always making sure nothing happened to her and now it was all over.

He smiled… well, he tried to, but the pain didn’t allow him to smile much. “Nightmare asked me… to protect you… and I did, but I… also did something else.”

“What d-did you do?”

“I made… a soldier out of you. You didn’t kill, but… you learned how to be calm. I know a… soldier is more than being… just calm, but if you… stay calm, then you will survive. Rainbow Dash with her bold attitude… is now calm.” He closed his eyes and his breathing slowed even more.

She shook him a little, but not too much or otherwise the Commander would be in more pain. He might look like somepony made of steel, but he too has nerves and he isn’t invulnerable. “NO! What about Fluttershy?” She asked while some tears fell down her cheek and landed on the black coat of the Commander.

A dreamy smile appeared on his face, but his eyes were still closed. “Fluttershy… was the mare of my dreams… but like every story… it has to end one day. Tell her… that I love her… but that I’m going… to my wife. Goodbye, Rainbow… you’ll make a good Commander one day. Starshine… I’m coming home…”

And then it was over. His breathing stopped and everything was quiet for Rainbow. She didn’t hear the screams of agony that were coming from outside, she didn’t hear herself crying, she didn’t hear anything.

She stayed like this until there were no more tears in her eyes. She just wanted to stay near him and hope that he would come back to the land of the living, but she knew that wasn’t possible. He was gone, he was gone forever. She got up, walked past the Commander’s body and walked to the door. Before she opened it, she glanced one more time at the Commander and promised herself to personally get his body out of the building after the battle. She sighed, opened the door and laid eyes on chaos. Ponies were still fighting, but the amount of ponies from both sides were really low. A wonder had to happen if they wanted to hold out until morning. She saw a low wall near the bank of the river where Shining was busy protecting Red, who was talking on the radio.

She closed the door behind her and took a step forward. “Better go talk to Red, I need to warn somepony.” She said to herself while galloping to Shining and Red. One thought kept lingering in her mind and a very familiar voice was connected to it: ‘Stay calm.’

A/N: And thus we say goodbye to the Commander. In memory of Dark Shadow, Commander of the Night Army. *Salutes* Also, TheTimberWolffe, why don't you take a little break from editing? Contact me when you find the spirit to edit again.

One does not simply sneak out of Canterlot

Everlasting Night

Chapter 4: One does not simply sneak out of Canterlot.

29th of May, year 1 of the New Moon.

Thoughts ponies:

Nightmare moon: blue

It has been slightly over a week since Twilight’s and Applejack’s imprisonment in the dungeons of Canterlot’s palace. They both shared one cell so they could be together in the cold and damp dungeon. This was Pinkie’s request and Nightmare agreed. Nightmare actually wanted to separate them so that they were alone with their thoughts and so that they could think about their mistakes, but Pinkie used her playful character on Nightmare and she just couldn’t resist that hyperactive pink pony.

The whole week Twilight and Applejack were bored out of their minds. Twilight couldn’t use her magic to entertain Applejack and herself due to the spell Nightmare had cast on her and Applejack couldn’t move very much due to the cut on her flank, the cut that Nightmare had inflicted on Applejack, so she had to keep lying down on her cot. Twilight hated it when she couldn’t use her magic and Applejack hated it when she couldn’t stretch her legs. They both hated the position that they were in right now and they both knew that their action from a week ago wasn’t really that thought out. Slowly but steadily they were beginning to accept Nightmare’s rule over Equestria.

Sure, Twilight was still thinking about Celestia and a possible way to free her, but slowly her determination was fading and she was starting to see that there actually wasn’t a way to free Celestia. Maybe the best solution was siding with Nightmare Moon and if Twilight was obedient enough, then maybe they could have an agreement about Celestia. Her plan had a small chance of succeeding, but it was one she was willing to try out. Twilight’s nightmares had become slightly worse over the past week, but it still wasn’t dangerous enough to consume her from the inside out. She still had enough time to try out her plan in this delicate situation.

Applejack took it far worse than Twilight. She wasn’t worried about Celestia. No, she was worried about her family. Nightmare had told Applejack that her family was going to be relocated to the Everfree forest and that her farm was going to be burned to the ground. Even if she escaped from the dungeons, then she couldn’t go back to her farm, since it got burned to the ground and she couldn’t go to her family in the Everfree forest, because they were probably dead. Nightmare had broken her spirit and she knew it, she would do anything to ensure the safety of her family and her farm, she would even side with Nightmare.

Applejack wanted to ask Nightmare about her family, but Nightmare never came to the dungeons. The only ponies who did come to the dungeons were the guards who had to guard the prisoners, Pinkie who brought the food for the prisoners and soldiers who brought in other prisoners.

The dungeon was actually pretty full. It had a capacity of around 100 ponies and there were at least 80 ponies in the cells, most of them protested against Nightmare’s rule and demanded the release of Celestia. Nightmare, however, didn’t want to hear any of it and chose the easy way to dispose of them: a ticket to the dungeons. Yes, times were hard under Nightmare’s rule, but the ponies of Canterlot and Ponyville were slowly calming down from the shock of a sudden change in ruler and everlasting night.

Twilight was leaning against the bars of her cell with a bored expression on her face. The other prisoners were whining about their imprisonment, most of them were the high elite of Canterlot, and the guards weren’t very talkative. All of that basically meant that Applejack was the only pony she could communicate with, but they began to run out of things to talk about.

Twilight sighed again from boredom and decided to look at her cell for the 24th time. The cell had a length of 6 meters and a width of 4 meters, so it was actually pretty large for a cell. Twilight’s cot was placed against the left wall and Applejack’s cot was placed against the right wall. There was also a toilet against the wall opposite of the cell bars, but the toilet didn’t have walls surrounding it, so Applejack had to look away if Twilight needed to do her business and if Applejack needed to do her business then Twilight had to look away. It was rather embarrassing, but it didn’t kill them.

Twilight trotted to her cot and lay onto it, it was the only thing she could do right now. She fixated her gaze on Applejack. She was staring at the ceiling and she seemed to be counting the amount of cracks she saw in the ceiling, they both were very bored. Yes, being Nightmare’s servant was a rather tough job, but it gave them something to do. Now they couldn’t do anything and they almost wished that somepony put them out of their misery. Twilight managed to get a small smile on her face and spoke to Applejack, it was the only thing she could do right now. “Having fun?” Twilight asked half jokingly, half trying to start a conversation.

Applejack smiled at Twilight’s remark, but kept staring at the ceiling. It was actually a fun little game for when you’re bored out of your mind. “Ha, kinda. 201. What about you? 202. Did ya had fun staring at the guards? 203.”

Twilight chuckled lightly. They may have been imprisoned, but they always tried to lift each others spirit, just to keep each other sane. “Oh yeah, one of them even blinked.” Twilight said, stealing a quick glance at a guard who was staring at a point in front of him.

Applejack chuckled lightly, the exact same chuckle Twilight did just a few seconds ago. “Is that so? They’re becoming sloppy, we might even get out of here if we try really hard.” It was supposed to be a joke, but Twilight didn’t catch the joke and became silent, her smile slowly faded away. Applejack turned her gaze away from the ceiling and looked at Twilight, it was then that she saw the rather emotionless expression on her face. “Twi?”

Twilight was still silent for a moment and just blinked. Just when Applejack was going to call her by her name again Twilight spoke, but her voice wasn’t as confident as before. “Do you still think about escaping?”

Applejack sighed and stared back at the ceiling. Yes, the thoughts about escaping still lingered in her mind, but they weren’t as strong as before. She really wanted to escape, but the possibility that her family still had a small chance of surviving had kept her in the dungeons. She figured that if she just did what Nightmare asked then maybe she could ensure the safety of her family again. On the other hoof if she didn’t escape she could never know what happened to her family. “Ah don’t know, Twi. Ah mean, Nightmare did threaten mah family and if ah don’t escape ah’ll never know what happened to them.”

Twilight couldn’t believe what she just heard. Applejack still wanted to escape even after everything that transpired last week. They were the cause that they ended up in the dungeons, they were the cause that Applejack’s family was relocated to the Everfree forest… and they were the cause that the chances of Celestia’s return were rather slim. Twilight knew that her plan of just staying in the dungeons was better than Applejack’s plan of escaping. “How could you even think about that! Wasn’t the cut on your flank and losing your family enough?!” She half said, half yelled. Her tone was furious, because she was rather angry with Applejack for even thinking about escaping.

Applejack looked back at Twilight, her face a mixture of hurt and anger. She was hurt, because Twilight’s remark about her family and she was angry, because she didn’t like that ponies talked to her like that. “Ah told ya ah don’t know right now! Ah’m stuck in the middle. Ah want to know what happened to mah family, but a rather quiet voice in mah head keeps telling me that staying in the dungeons could ensure mah family’s safety.” Applejack had started with a furious outburst, but near the end her voice had died down to a volume of a whisper.

Twilight saw the hurt in Applejack’s eyes and her anger melted like snow on a late winter day. She felt really sorry for Applejack, losing your family was even worse than losing your mentor. Applejack cried into her pillow and her sobs even overpowered the whining of the high elite. Twilight couldn’t stand it anymore and trotted to Applejack. She had reopened a wound in Applejack’s mind and that was also something she could add to her feeling of guilt. She sat down next to Applejack’s cot and placed a hoof on her back. “Shh, everything will be alright.” She spoke in a motherly way.

Applejack turned her head to face Twilight. Twilight smiled warmly at her and she smiled back. The occasional sob was still there, but she was a strong mare. “Twi, what do ah do?”

Twilight rested her head on Applejack’s neck and kept stroking her back. “I don’t know, Applejack, I don’t know.” She kept comforting Applejack, even if they just had a small discussion. She knew that in these dark times a friend was the best thing a pony could have.

*****

Outside the palace a small squad of 10 ponies regrouped just in front of the palace’s walls. These ponies were the elite soldiers of the Celestial Army. They were trained in sneaking and ways to deal with your enemy quick and quiet.

They had used the weather above Canterlot to their advantage. The Pegasi of Canterlot had orders to create a thick cover above Canterlot to clear the streets of any remaining blood and due to that overcast they managed to enter Canterlot unnoticed. Now they just needed to finish their regrouping and find a way past the wall. They could go to the gate and kill the guards, but that might draw some attention or they could just fly over the wall and hope for the best.

Sergeant Daventrot was the commanding officer in this small squad and it was his responsibility to complete his objectives and to ensure the safety of his squad mates. He had been trained properly for this kind of situation and the solution didn’t take long to make itself visible in his mind. He trotted to his squad mates who were busy checking their equipment for lost items. “Men,” He said in a whisper, but with a commanding tone in it. His squad looked at him when they heard that their Sergeant was addressing them. “I’ve figured out a plan to get across these walls. The moon illuminates a large part of the courtyard behind these walls, so if we cross these walls we’ll be spotted immediately. Now, we’ve all seen the light overcast, right?” His squad nodded. “Well, when one of the clouds drifts in front of the moon then we’ll have some time to fly over these walls, because then the courtyard will be illuminated significantly less.” The squad nodded once again, clearly they began to understand the Sergeant’s tactic. “Alright, get ready and wait for my mark.”

The whole squad got into takeoff position, they were all Pegasi, and waited for the mark of their Sergeant. The squad mates looked nervously at each other, the occasional gulp could be heard, it was going to be all or nothing. After a few seconds a lone cloud drifted in front of the moon and it immediately became darker. That was the sign the Sergeant had been waiting for. He also placed himself in takeoff position and whispered. “Now.”

The squad took off while trying to make the flaps of their wings as silently as possible. It was no problem to fly over the wall, but what came after that was hell. 200 meters of treeless courtyard separated the wall from the palace and if they weren’t at the palace before the moon illuminated the courtyard again then they would be seen.

They flapped their wings as hard as they could. The Sergeant took a quick glance at the cloud in front of the moon and saw that it was starting to drift away. They had to hurry or they wouldn’t make it. “Faster.” He whispered to his squad mates. Everypony put their wings into overdrive and flew even faster than they thought physically possible. Just when the moon was going to illuminate the courtyard again they arrived in the safe shadow of the palace. They all landed in the shadows and began formulating a plan to enter the dungeons without being spotted.

*****

It was late at night, even for Nightmare, but she was still in her throne room trying to get through all the paperwork before dawn. Everypony, except Pinkie and the guards who had duty, went to bed a few hours ago. Pinkie stayed with Nightmare so that she could help with the paperwork. Occasionally Pinkie advised a very random action and Nightmare would roll her eyes at that, but most of the time Pinkie was a very serious mare with a surprisingly high intellect.

The next letter that Nightmare levitated towards herself was a letter about new statues for the Royal Garden. Nightmare replied that when the finances were back on track she would reconsider that request and with that she teleported the letter back to its sender.

Nightmare levitated a small mirror towards herself and looked at it. Even though her mane flowed in a non-existing wind it was starting to flow slower. Her eyes were half closed and she had bags under her eyes, she could also feel that her magic was starting to drain. It wouldn’t be long before she would fall asleep on her throne. She might be an immortal Alicorn, but she still needed her sleep.

She placed the mirror back on the wall to her left and looked at Pinkie who was sitting to her right and she was reading a letter. Nightmare took a moment to observe Pinkie. Her mane was still Pinkie style, her eyes were open and she had no bags under her eyes. It was like exhaustion didn’t affect Pinkie. Well, if she can stay up then I can too. I’m the Queen of the Night for goodness sake. It was then that Nightmare saw Pinkie yawning and a smirk formed on Nightmare’s face. Ah, there it is. Maybe it’s best for the two of us if we call it a night.

Nightmare got out of her throne and stretched her legs, being tall and sitting all day wasn’t very good for your legs. After that blissful stretch she trotted to Pinkie and sat down next to her. Pinkie looked up at Nightmare and smiled at her. Nightmare smiled back. She really didn’t know how Pinkie could make her so happy, but she didn’t care. She was happy with Pinkie next to her and that was all that mattered. She rested her gaze on the letter that was lying on the floor so that way she could see what kind of weird request it was this time. “Request for a public swimming pool?” Nightmare asked aloud.

Pinkie nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, for when it’s hot on Summer days. It’s going to be so much fun. It’s going to have a water slide, a Jacuzzi and a little swimming pool for the foals. I think you should say yes to this request.”

Nightmare looked at the enthusiastic Pinkie, then back at the letter and then back at Pinkie. A swimming pool could be fun, but currently the war was more important. “Well, it’s a clever suggestion, but the war is more important. I promise that when the war is over I’ll give some money to this pony who wants to build this swimming pool.” She wrote the response on the letter and sent it back to its sender.

“Do you Pinkie Promise?” Pinkie asked, her enthusiastic expression changed to a more serious one.

Nightmare just cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head a bit. “Um… what’s a Pinkie Promise?” Nightmare asked.

Pinkie sat herself more comfortable and began doing some weird gestures with her forelegs. “A Pinkie Promise is a promise that you cannot break, otherwise bad things will happen. Just repeat after me and don’t forget the hoof gestures. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Nightmare still eyed her, but sighed and started doing the same gestures. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. There, you happy?” Pinkie nodded. Nightmare had promised that there was going to be a swimming pool and now she couldn’t back out of it. “Good.” Nightmare trotted to her throne and laid down upon her cushion. She then raised her wing the same way she did with Twilight just a week ago, maybe Pinkie was a bit more cooperative. “Do you want to sleep next to me?” Nightmare was just too tired to continue working, she really needed her sleep and she figured that Pinkie needed it also.

“I don’t see why not.” Pinkie pie replied while stifling a yawn. She trotted to the throne and hopped onto it. She laid herself against Nightmare’s right side and felt the warm embrace of the wing just a second later. It was the first time Pinkie actually felt a wing on her body, and boy, it was heavenly. She snuggled closer to Nightmare and waited for sleep to take her away. However, before she went to sleep she wanted a question answered. “ What are you going to do with Applejack’s family?”

Nightmare didn’t know how to respond to that question. She knew that she had to punish Applejack in one way, but hurting a family just wasn’t ethical, not even for Nightmare. Maybe the pink mare who was lying next to her could help. “What would you do, Pinkie?”

Pinkie didn’t need a moment to think, she already knew the answer. She looked straight in Nightmare’s eyes. “I wouldn’t hurt and Applejack’s family and I would forgive her.”

Nightmare knew that Pinkie would give this kind of answer and she was happy with it. She wasn’t going to hurt Applejack’s family, but she was going to punish Applejack in one way. “We’ll sort this whole mess out tomorrow.” Nightmare kissed Pinkie’s forehead and got into a position so that Pinkie’s head was lying on Nightmare’s neck. “Goodnight Pinkie… my friend.” The last part she whispered very quietly, hoping that Pinkie didn’t hear it, but Pinkie did hear it and a small smile crept on her face. Nightmare really began to see Pinkie as a friend and not just as a servant. They grew closer to each other from day one and while everypony was afraid of her, Pinkie saw the real Nightmare and that was the start of their wonderful relationship.

*****

Just outside the palace the squad of the Celestial Army was still making a plan to enter the palace undetected. They came up with three ways.

The first way was through the main gate, but that meant that they had to take out the guards. If they did it quick and quiet then there was a chance that they could enter the palace undetected, but if they were detected then every guard in Canterlot would be in the palace in no-time.

The second way was through an open window 100 meters to their left. This way had a higher chance of succeeding, but it still had a high chance of getting caught. If just one patrolling guard saw them and if he had enough time to blow his whistle then the mission was a failure.

The last way was a dirty one, but it was the safest one. The last way was going through the sewers of the palace. The chance of being caught in the sewers was very low, since no rational pony would even dare to patrol the sewers. Some ponies in the squad had voiced their opinion about the sewers, but Daventrot was still the commanding officer and he decided that going through the sewers was their best chance to reach the dungeons.

Luckily for them an entrance to the sewers was just next to them, still in the part of the courtyard hidden by the shadow of the palace. The whole squad trotted to the large tube masoned into the wall of the palace and they entered it.

There was a small path in the sewers that ponies could take if they needed be in the sewers without getting their hooves wet. The whole squad was very grateful for that, now they just needed to worry about their safety and the smell.

Slowly, but steadily they moved through the sewers. The squad didn’t have a map of the sewers so when they came across a ladder somepony had to go up the ladder to see where they were. The dungeons were supposed to be a bit lower than the main floor and next to the storage room of the palace.

The soldier who had checked where they were came down the ladder. Once he was again on the ground with his four hooves he spoke. “Right now it looks like we’re under the storage room.”

The Sergeant nodded. “Okay, that means that the next ladder is our stop. Check your gear for the last time and be ready for anything.”

All the ponies checked their gear, which consisted of their main weapon, their armor and a small dagger to preform assassinations. It was when they were checking their gear that they heard a splash. All the heads turned to the source of the sound and they saw that a squadmate had fallen into the filthy water of the sewer. His name was Fast Shadow. “Fuck!” He yelled while stomping a hoof into the water and that made even more water splash in his face. “Fuck!”

The other members of the squad snickered, because they knew that if they laughed they would be found. Daventrot wasn’t laughing. No, he was scowling at Fast Shadow. “Keep it down, will ya?” He whispered while helping Fast Shadow out of the water.

“Yes, sir.” Fast Shadow replied while sniffing at his left forehoof. “Eww, I smell like shit.” He let everypony pass by him and when he was sure that they were out of his reach he tried to shake himself dry. It wasn’t that easy since a large part of his body had armor on it, but his legs were dry. “Why did I even join the army?” He asked himself while following his squad to the next ladder.

*****

“What was that?” Twilight asked herself. A sound that almost seemed like the clopping of hooves on a hard surface had awakened her. When she was comforting Applejack she had fallen asleep on Applejack and it seemed that Applejack had also fallen asleep.

Her sleeping position wasn’t exactly that comfortable. She had laid her head on Applejack’s neck while the rest of her body was still in its sitting position on the ground. Now, when she was awake, her back had to face the consequences.

Her ears twitched again, she had heard the sound again. The sound came from beneath her and this time she clearly heard that it was the clopping of hooves. Clip-clop, there it was again. Still, she needed to be sure so she tried to wake up Applejack.

“Wha?” Applejack asked sleepily. She opened one eye and when she saw that Twilight was staring at her. “Go back to bed, Twi. Ah don’t know what time it is, but ah reckon that it’s late at night.” Applejack rolled around and turned her back to Twilight. Twilight or not, she needed her sleep.

Twilight, however, didn’t want any of that and rolled Applejack around so that Applejack was once again staring at Twilight, this time with an annoyed expression on her face. Applejack wanted to voice her protest, but Twilight silenced her by putting a hoof in her mouth. “Shh, do you hear that?”

Applejack didn’t know what Twilight meant, but then she heard it. It came from beneath her and it was the clopping of hooves. It wasn’t that audible, but it seemed to enough to raise the attention of Twilight, Applejack… and the guards. Twilight pulled her hoof out of Applejack’s mouth and she walked to the bars of the cell. The five guards who had guard duty were walking around the dungeons, trying to find the source of the noise. One of the guards came close to Twilight and Twilight saw this as her chance. “Is everything alright?” she asked the guard.

The guard in question looked the same as all the other guards. He had a black coat, a gray mane and dark blue armor with a sword in its belt. The guard turned to Twilight and scowled a bit at her. “Get away from the bars and stay quiet.” The guard ordered. Even though he was just a guard he had a bit of authority in him, so Twilight walked back to Applejack’s cot and sat down beside it.

The guard nodded at Twilight and continued his search. He passed the other cells and it seemed that all the other prisoners had heard the sound too; there was an intruder in the palace. He turned around and saw one of his companions pawing at a manhole cover. This manhole served as the entrance to the sewer, so if the intruder was beneath them then this manhole was the only way to get to the intruder. Just when his companion was about to lift the manhole cover up, it lifted itself up. “What the-“ That were the only two words the guard could say before a dagger was thrown from the manhole and it nestled itself between his eyes. The guard was dead before he even touched the ground.

Immediately after that, pony after pony came out of the manhole. Meanwhile the other three guards had abandoned their search and they now stood at the sides of the other guard. All of them were a bit in shock, but they all placed themselves into a defensive fighting position. Even if they were just guards who needed to protect the prisoners, it was their duty and they would make their Highness proud.

Right now all the soldiers from the Celestial Army had climbed out of the sewers and they also placed themselves into fighting stance, their wings holding a steady grasp on their weapons. It was Pegasus against Pegasus, Celestial Army against Night Guard, but the Night Guard was outnumbered and they knew it. They knew that they would probably die, but they made it their objective to take as many enemies with them.

“Kill them.” Sergeant Daventrot ordered his troops.

Immediately all the soldiers of the Celestial Army attacked. Our nameless guard looked at his companions and nodded. They nodded back, it was their own little way of saying goodbye. They didn’t have much time to say goodbye, because immediately after their little nod to each other they all had their own fight to worry about.

Our nameless guard currently had to deal with two enemies, one who was holding a sword in his wings and the other was holding a morning star. Both deadly weapons, both very lethal, but both quite heavy. He took out his dagger that he hid behind his sword and threw it to his wing, which immediately grasped it.

One of his enemies attacked, it was the one with the morning star. One hit with the morning star was enough to kill a pony, but it was very heavy and that was a negative factor for the movements of his enemy. The soldier swung with his morning star, but the guard managed to duck and he avoided it. Just like he predicted it took some time for the morning star to stop moving and he knew that he had to avoid it again so that he could make a move.

Meanwhile the other soldier had swung with his sword, but he had hit the armor of the guard, so no real damage was inflicted.

It was again time to duck and so he did, the morning star passing just over his head. Like a cougar he jumped on the soldier’s back, who was still busy trying to stop his morning star from moving, and he pushed his dagger into the skull of the pony, creating a hole in his helmet in the progress. The pony let out a loud, but short scream and dropped dead on the floor soon after.

He didn’t see it, but he felt it. After getting off the pony’s back and getting back on his four hooves, he felt a stinging feeling in his belly. He looked down and saw that the other pony had glided under him and had pushed his sword into his stomach. Now it did begin to hurt, mainly because he was aware of the source of the pain and because the soldier under him decided that he wanted his sword back. In one swift motion the soldier pulled his blade out of the guard’s stomach and crawled away before the guard’s organs splashed on the soldier’s face.

The guard fell on the floor next to the dead pony and looked around. He saw that still one of his companions was fighting against three soldiers, but he was losing, his other companions were dead. His vision began to blur, but he had enough power to raise his wing and he got ready for his last attack. The pony who was responsible for his dead trotted away from him, but he was trotting towards the calculated trajectory of the flying dagger. When the guard saw that the soldier was just right on target, he threw the dagger with all the force he had left in him. The dagger flew through the air, sometimes reflecting the moonlight. It was like a gem, only now the gem had become a weapon. The dagger was flying and flying and flying… and stopped. The dagger had planted itself in the back of the pony’s head, he didn’t even see it coming. The guard didn’t celebrate, he didn’t smile. He just rested, he had done his duty and he rested.

He was dead.

The Sergeant, who just watched the battle progressing, took the keys off the dead guard’s body and smiled. He knew that this was just a small victory, but it was one step closer to Nightmare Moon’s defeat. He counted his surviving soldiers. From the normal nine which he had sent to fight for him, six survived and seven if he counted himself with it.

He walked over to a cell with 5 ponies of the Canterlot high elite in it. “Where’s that orange mare?”

All the ponies in the cell pointed to a cell next to them. The Sergeant nodded and walked away. One of the Canterlot high elite spoke up. “Hey, aren’t you going to release us.”

“We’re not here for you.” The Sergeant simply said and continued walking to the cell of the orange mare. He stopped in front of the cell and looked inside. There he saw an orange mare lying on her cot and a terrified looking purple mare. “Hey, orange one. Are you the pony who helped our assassins a week ago?”

The orange mare got up, but kept sitting on her cot. While the guards and the soldiers were fighting she had shielded her face in her cushion, she didn’t want to see all the bloodshed. Twilight also tried to look away, but sometimes her curiosity won over and she stole a quick glance towards the fight and that had traumatized her a bit. “That ah am, name’s Applejack. Why are ya here?” Applejack asked while pulling Twilight closer to her. She was going to protect her friend, even if she was currently immobile.

The soldier pushed the keys into the lock and opened the cell door. “We’re here for you two, we’re getting you out of here.” The Sergeant said while he entered the cell.

Applejack’s eyes widened, she could finally see her family again… if they were still alive. Twilight, however, wasn’t that enthusiastic. “I don’t think that such a good idea.”

The Sergeant turned to her, a mild expression of shock on his face. “Really? Do you want to keep living in the dungeons?”

“No, but Nightmare is changing. She spared us and she’s actually very kind to my friends. I want to stay here, because I know that in time she might free Celestia and I know that if Applejack just asks Nightmare to spare her family she’ll spare them. Call it a wild guess, but I’m pretty certain that my guess is right.” Twilight explained to the soldier, then she turned to Applejack and looked her directly into her eyes. “So please Applejack, stay here. Do it for me and do it for your family.”

Applejack was very conflicted right now. One part of her wanted to go with the soldiers and search for her family with their help, but the other part wanted to trust Twilight and actually wanted to trust Nightmare. Freedom versus friends. Giving up her last chance of being spared by Nightmare versus the safety of the palace. Both sides had very good arguments, but in the end she chose her side. “Ah’m gonna stay here. Ah trust Twilight and if she says that Nightmare changed then she has to be right, she’s always right.”

The Sergeant looked at his soldiers and then back at the two mares. “I’m sorry, but you two don’t have a choice.” He quickly turned back to his soldiers before the two mares could even blink. “Take them, knock them unconscious if you have to.” He ordered.

Immediately after those words left his mouth, the soldiers got into action. They entered the cell and approached Applejack and Twilight. Twilight tried to use her magic against the soldiers, but Nightmare’s spell prevented her from using magic. A soldier that had left her field of vision by flying towards the ceiling, did a dive and pushed Twilight to the ground. With a knock of his hoof on her neck he knocked her unconscious.

Now it was Applejack’s time. Two soldiers approached her very slowly. They had seen the muscles in her hind legs, so they knew that she could break bones with those two cannons. They had also seen the cut on her flank, that indicated that she wasn’t in optimal form to fight. One soldier came too close and received those two very muscled hind legs against his chest. The power of the kick had knocked him against the bars of the cell. He was bleeding, but still conscious. Applejack wasn’t so lucky. She was lying on the ground, her flank with the cut on it twitched every second and she was groaning in pain. The other soldier knocked her unconscious with a firm knock against her neck. He was merciful, because now she was resting peacefully on the floor. Two soldiers put the mares on their back and all of them left the same way they came in; through the sewer.

*****

A loud boom shook Nightmare awake. She immediately jumped out of her throne, extended her wings and readied her magic. She knew that Pinkie was still with her, so she was going to protect her from everything.

Her dreams had been really happy for the first time since her return . She didn’t dream about conquering the world, she didn’t dream about inflicting harm upon other ponies and she didn’t dream about the moon. She dreamed that she was in a large field galloping away from 6 she had captured recently. They weren’t galloping after her with pitchforks and torches. No, they were galloping after her while laughing and Nightmare was laughing too. They were playing tag and it was only fair that it was 6 against one, since Nightmare was an Alicorn. Oh how they laughed and laughed, it was her favorite dream, but it had to be interrupted by that boom. Oh, she was going to make the pony responsible for it pay.

Just when she was about to lower her guard a soldier of her army came dashing through the open door. He had lost his helmet while he was running and his breathing was ragged. He bowed while regaining his breath. “M-My Queen, Canterlot is under attack.”

Nightmare folded her wings, but kept her magic ready. She didn’t answer the guard and just ran towards the front gates. How could the Celestial Army even attack? According to her calculations they had lost more than half of their army. She didn’t have much time to search for answers, because she was at the front gates. The stallions who had guard duty were jumpy, they had also heard that Canterlot was under attack, but they saluted for their Queen and they opened the front gate for her.

Nightmare stepped towards the courtyard and was prepared for anything, except for the thing that she saw in the air. It looked like a ship, but it was flying. It had several cannons on both sides and its propeller was powered by a steam engine. It had also a part that seemed to be stolen from a hot air balloon. It was a weird contraption and Nightmare dubbed it an airship.

She looked closer and saw a small Pegasus squad flying towards the airship. She squinted her eyes and she could make out an orange form and a purple form lying on the back of 2 Pegasi. Her mind immediately made the connection, Twilight and Applejack had escaped.

She turned towards the guard who was standing on her right. “Take two other guards and go to the dungeons.” The guard nodded and galloped away, then she turned to the guard who was standing on her left. “Ready a Pegasi squad and tell them that they have to fly to the airship and get those two prisoners back.” That guard nodded also and flew towards the army camp.

Nightmare looked once again at the enemy Pegasi squad. Twilight and Applejack were with them, but they didn’t move, they almost looked unconscious. Could they really be unconscious? Were they taken against their will? I don’t know, but I do know that I have to get them back.

Nightmare waited for her Pegasi squad to take off and after 30 seconds she saw three of her Pegasi flying towards the airship. The airship turned a bit, so that its port side with all the cannons was pointed towards her Pegasi. She wanted to fly towards them and warn them, but she didn’t even have enough time to take off. Instead of normal cannonballs being fired from the cannons, it fired a golden beam. Nightmare could feel the heat from the beam and she had to shield her eyes from the blinding light. She managed to take a small peak and she saw that her Pegasi had evaporated. Everything was gone, their armors, their coats and their skeletons. It was a sickening sight and Nightmare would make the Celestial Army pay. One thought in her mind was louder than everything else. Taking Manehattan just became a lot more complicated.

She once again looked at the airship and saw that the Pegasi squad had entered it, she had lost Applejack and Twilight. The airship began to leave Canterlot airspace. Knowing that it was too dangerous for her army to pursue it, she ordered a guard to tell her army that they could rest again. She entered her palace and was greeted by the three guards who had brought a guest with them. Next to them lay a soldier from the Celestial army, two hoofprints clearly visible on his chest. She searched the room for Pinkie and saw her sitting on her throne together with Fluttershy and Rarity. They were talking, but they immediately became quiet when they noticed Nightmare’s presence.

Nightmare focused her attention on the soldier who was still lying on the floor. She levitated him towards her and she saw his fear in his eyes. “Name. “ She simply ordered.

The soldier swallowed and spoke quietly. “Fast Shadow.”

Nightmare nodded and levitated a guard’s sword towards his throat. The soldier shrieked, but he couldn’t move away. “If you tell me why you abducted my servants I’ll let you live.”

The soldier slowly nodded. He had learned to resist the strongest interrogators, but Nightmare Moon was completely different. She wasn’t an interrogator, she was a monster. “W-We were ordered to take those two so that the G-General could trade them for Ponyville, if you don’t accept h-his trade he’ll kill them. Our spies had seen your i-interaction with them and that’s how the General came up with the plan.”

The soldier felt the sword pushing deeper against his throat, but she didn’t do the act. The sword levitated away and he fell on the floor. Nightmare turned to her guards. “Kill-“ Then her eyes met Pinkie’s. Those eyes were telling her not to do it. Nightmare kept looking into Pinkie’s pleading eyes and she sighed. “Throw him into the dungeon.” The guards complied and began dragging the soldier away. The soldier locked eyes with Nightmare and Nightmare saw a mixture of thanks and confusedness.

A sharp voice broke the silence. “Can I have a word with you, your Highness.” Nightmare turned around and in the doorway stood Rainbow Dash. Most over her body was still covered in bandages.

“Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Nightmare and Fluttershy asked at the same time.

“Nah.” Dash simply said and she did a somersault to empathize her answer. She landed in Dash-style and with her new bat wings open. “Even flew around the camp with these new babies… until I heard the boom. That’s also why I’m here. I heard your complete conversation with that soldier and I want to tell you something.”

“I’m all ears.”

Rainbow readied herself, the thing she was going to say now was going to change her whole life. “Well, I’ve started to think, due to all the recent events, and I didn’t know if it was a good idea to join your army. But now that I heard that my friends are in danger, I’ve made up my mind. I’ll join your army, because my friends and all the other ponies need me.”

Nightmare nodded. She wanted to hug Rainbow, but right now there were too many guards in the throne room. “Thank you, Capitain Dash. But as you know, the Battle of Manehattan just became a search and rescue mission. We’re going to save them, no matter what.”

A/N: Will this turn into a MoonPie? That’s something else than the occasional MoonLight. I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see.

E/N: I was pretty tired while editing this, my local bronies are having a “meetup spree”, 2 weeks of constant meetups. Ugh, my eyes…oh well, it must be done. Forgive me for any mistakes I missed.