Nightmare: Volume 1

Rainbow growled as she forced the door of Constella’s observatory open with a powerful kick. After dropping off her gear in her room, she had gotten the address from Cadence. Afterall, since Constella Star had been in charge of it, the building might hold at least some secrets of Sombra’s plans.

She walked into the bottom floor. Filing cabinets lined the bottom floor’s wall, everything neatly organized. In the center of the room was a spiral staircase leading up. Taking them, the first stop was an intermediary floor. This housed a series of gears connecting the tower to the dome atop it allowing the structure to spin when needed. Continuing to the dome itself, Rainbow found a large telescope, its large lense poking out through a rectangular hole in the roof of the dome. Near it sat a large desk covered with parchments, inkpots, and quills.

She walked over to the table, pushing aside star charts and scribblings of various constellations. Finally, her gaze landed on a page of scrawled writing, a nearby book seemed prepared to be reassembled. Must have not had the chance to add the new page. Squinting in an attempt to make out the messily written words, she read.

“

At long last, I believe I have found it. The key to my success, and the key to pleasing His Majesty. I have tracked down the pegasus pony I heard about, the one who was transformed into a bat. As it turns out, she never fully recovered, and that nature remained inside her until that creature the princess calls Nightmare escaped.

I found out the hard way that she is not as harmless as she once was. It seems that at some point, Nightmare bit her, but she managed to keep it under control long enough to hide away from civilisation. She still sends letter to her friends as well, as I found. How pathetic.

Now that creature is mine. I will create more of her. I will complete what I’ve always dreamed of. I will finally be able to call myself a true scientist.”

Rainbow stared at the page in front of her, eyes wide in disbelief. A thousand thoughts whirled in her head at once. It wasn’t possible, was it? Surely it just had to be a coincidence. Surely Fluttershy’s disappearance three weeks ago had nothing to do with some crazy pony.

The pegasus continued to stare at the page, as if transfixed by it, as she struggled to make sense of it all. She probably would have kept staring for some time, was it not for the sudden gleam of metal that caught her eye.

Curious, Rainbow turned away from the parchment. In the corner of the table, was what appeared to be a small lever, connected to a switch. It had been well-hidden...which meant it was important. So, reaching forward, Rainbow moved the lever.

She heard a noise coming from the stairwell. The stairs had ended in a hole leaving the stairs disconnected from the dome. Having assumed they were connected to the main structure she thought nothing of it. But now they were turning in place, gears right below Rainbow grumbling as they turned the staircase around. Once they stopped she removed her weapon from its sheath and descended the stairs. They lead passed the intermediary floor, down to the bottom floor. Once reaching there though she found a trap door, uncovered by the stairways movement leading furth down into darkness. Rainbow descended the steps, bayonet held firmly between her teeth.

**** **** **** ****

As Nightmare walked she slowly strode through the crowd getting a look of every pony as she went. Come now, where are you. She thought to herself, a large menacing grin plastered across her face. She ignored the odd looks of the crystal ponies as they gave her a wide birth leaving a path for her to walk. Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Then she found her target. A dark brown pegasus with a blonde mane and tail, cropped short. Her already large smile grew ever so slightly larger. The pegasus was looking at Nightmare as they passed and had immediately recognized that she had been spotted from the small tell. Her vibrantly green eyes flew open in surprise and immediately took off running, having realized a wing race would be cut shorter than her tail.

The dark form of Nightmare gave chase, after giving the mare the head start. No fun in ending the hunt when it had only just begun.

The pegasus was clearly more familiar with the streets of the Crystal Empire. She ducked and weaved her way through back alleys and tried to blend into the crowds. But Nightmare was hot in pursuit and had caught her scent. There was no way she was going to escape even through a hoof race. However, she had found her salvation. Its metal shell glinted in the moonlight.

“Halt!”

Nightmare had been following by scent at the time so the outcry had caught her by surprise. A stallion in silver armor carrying a steel lance at his side had stepped into her way pointing the weapon towards her. A royal guard. The nearby crowd had separated giving the pair room. As part of the crowd, her prey coward, hiding behind another guard. Just seconds later, another pair of guards stepped forward.

One of them yelled out, “Get on your knees!”

A rustle of metal and a look behind her caused her to notice that three more had appeared from behind.

Nightmare’s lip curled back into a sneer, bearing rows of sharp teeth. She looked towards the guard that had claimed her arrest. “My fight is not with you. You are merely in my way. I would kill you, but I was instructed not to do anything that could harm relations.” Her mane and tail darkened, and poured across the ground catching everyone by surprise before suddenly, the guards, along with every other ordinary pony around her, collapsed into a deep sleep.

“Sigh, I guess there’s no avoiding it.” The green eyed pegasus stepped forward having been the only one to not pass out from the crowd. She stepped over the guard that had come to her defence without ceremony leaving her face to face with Nightmare. “Very impressive, by the way,” she commented casually. “I’d told those guards you’d attacked me, to see if they would slow you down. Technically wasn’t a lie either. It seems I was wrong though.”

Nightmare chuckled at the thought of being slowed by simpletons. “Alright, no more games. There is no need for any more hiding. Honestly holding a disguise like that must be draining for you.” She growled “Or are you just to cowardly to shed your disguise.”

“My body is morphed into the shape. Changing back would be more draining, even if not by much.” She positioned herself into a fighting stance “But if it would please you, it has never been beneath me to take requests.” Green flames surrounded her rising to remove her from view as her fur was replaced with black chitin. Her voice started to echo and vibrate halfway through the last sentence.

Nightmare smiled at the mare before her. “Here, Let me shed mine” She tilted her head forward slightly, looking up to see the changeling. Her gold-tinted glasses barely held on at first, shattering on the ground when they finally slipped off. Her shadow bolt uniform tore loudly leaving large gashes of black mixed with the purples and yellow where her fur showed through. Despite the menacing face, her poise was elegant. One hoof in front of the other, shoulders relaxed.

She wasn’t preparing for a fight, no, she was ready for a feast.