Nightmare Sweetie Belle laughed a shrill cackling laugh. Her dark wings flared around her jet-black body as her silver-shod hoof pounded the floor of Canterlot Castle. "Follow me, my minions! Tonight we will bring down my conniving sister, who rules all Equestria with her all-controlling horn!"
“Wha!?” cried Scootaloo. She and Applebloom peered uneasily around the open door. “Isn’t that – well -”
“- isn’t that sorta mean?” Apple Bloom said.
“Mean!?” Nightmare Belle shrieked. She shook her head, her purple-black curls waving. A purple light shot from the royal peytral snug around her neck. “I tell you, my royal sister sits on her throne content in her reign over all Equestria, designing more and more elaborate dresses, and dances, and receptions, and schemes to get us all into them, and -”
Scootaloo gagged as she trotted into the room. “And you’re gonna stop that all, right!?”
“But isn’t overthrowing a Princess -” Apple Bloom started.
Nightmare Belle rubbed her hooves together. “We’re overthowing Princess Rarity, yes — but I’m a Princess too, right?” She tapped the peytral around her neck.
Apple Bloom nodded slowly before giving Sweetie a brief bow.
Nightmare Belle lifted two suits of armor from where they lay on the floor, and let them hang in midair in front of her friends. “Now, my loyal minions, I have some barding for you!”
"Uh..." The small orange pegasus eyed the helmet and wing-armor hovering in front of her. They were both sized for an adult pony, the wing-armor shaped something like bat wings. "Isn't that a little big for me?"
“Nope!” Nightmare Belle reared, some black dust falling from her coat, her wings flaring out once more before folding up by her side. “Come on, Scoots, my Nightmare magic’s better than that!”
Scootaloo tapped the armor again. “Nightmare magic? Sure!” She plopped the helmet down on her head. “Down with your evil sister and her – ah -”
Scootaloo gasped as the helmet shrank around her head to fit snugly. Her muzzle suddenly grew longer, and, with a faint hiss, a pair of fangs slipped out from her upper lip.
Apple Bloom’s eyes went wide in horror, but Nightmare Belle rubbed her hooves and cackled again. “Behold the powers of my Nightmare armor! Mwahaha!”
Scootaloo’s mouth broke open in a serpentine grin. “I like thisss!” she hissed. She leaped into the air, her small wings beating furiously. “Sssomepony get me a mirror!” she cried.
Nightmare Belle focused. A light burst from her horn, and a mirror suddenly manifested in front of her.
Scootaloo peered at her image, then moments later sank back down to the floor, grinning. “I look awesssome! Now help me with this wing ssstuff!”
Nightmare Belle softly crept through the castle, her two minions by her side – Scootaloo leaping through the air with her bat wings, and Apple Bloom marching at her flank.
The Nightmare paused in a hallway, placing one silver-clad hoof on an ornate couch. “Too long!” she exclaimed. “Too long have the rules of my royal sister ruled Equestria! Too long has all quality guaranteed to be her quality; too long has everypony sought her approving glance; too long has she been the pony everypony must know!”
Her minions cheered. “We’ll never stop! Never stop!”
“How long must we hang on every word that Princess Rarity speaks?” Sweetie cried. “‘Hush now, quiet now, wait your turn to rule’ -”
“A new Equestria!” Apple Bloom boomed..
Scootaloo hissed. “Not so loud!” she cried, slapping her hooves over her ears.
“Sorry,” Apple Bloom rumbled, a little quieter. She rubbed at her muzzle — her new, longer muzzle — but a crumpling sound answered her. Apple Bloom staggered backwards a step or two, a fresh hoofprint dented in her helmet. Her armor hadn't given her wings — but aside from a longer muzzle and deeper voice, it had made her hooves broader and so firm she was still surprising herself with them.
Scootaloo's eyes went wide, and she almost burst out laughing.
“Strike the foe, not yourself!” barked Nightmare Belle through her own grin. “Your Princess demands it!”
There was a split-second of silence; then Apple Bloom cried, "Yes! Our Princess! Our Nightmare!” She grabbed Sweetie’s hoof firmly in hers and held it aloft.
"She will repel all the foes!” Scootaloo cheered.. “She would never let those bugs into here pretending to be ponies! Like Princess Rarity must've!”
The Nightmare reared, her own bat-wing armor flaring. “Yes! My good and faithful ponies! The recent invasion shall be the final disaster to strike Equestria under my sister’s rule! Not content to merely vex our patience, she leaves the realm open for the changelings to strike! That all ends to-day – no, to-night!”
“Night!” Scootaloo cheered softly.
“Yes, it shall be night!” Sweetie continued. “A Night, not like our sister’s day! ‘Wait till you see it in the sunlight,’ she says – no! We shall gallop in the Night!”
Both ponies cheered.
But as they cheered, the door opened. For a moment, all three gasped – but the next moment, Nightmare Belle strode toward the interloper. “Come, Lyra!” she called. “Come, join my crusade!”
The mint-green unicorn stared. “What – Princess – Sweetie -”
“Yes!” Sweetie clapped her silver-shod hooves together, and a crescent-moon-shaped light rose from her horn to match the moon on her peytral. “Come join me in overthrowing my overweening sister from the throne of Equestria!”
Lyra wrinkled her muzzle. “Your sister?” she repeated “Wha—?” She paused, then shook her head, muttering to herself. “Not a changeling... she can't be... they’re all gone now, and wouldn't be asking like this anyway...” Aloud, she added, “And… where’d you… where’d you find those?”
“In the depthsss of Princessss Rarity’s closetsss!” Scootaloo cheered.
“Where she stuffed everything that’s out o’style!” Apple Bloom joined in. “Come join Princess Sweetie and the Night!”
Lyra stared for a second, then slowly smiled, nodding. “Yes, I can join you! To put you on the throne, I suppose?”
“Yep!” Nightmare Belle grinned. “Don’t’cha worry; I’ll be a good Nightmare Princess. And you can be my Royal Minstrel!”
“Beautiful!” Lyra smiled. “Almost as beautiful as your royal mane!” She turned and fell into step beside them. “And what about Lemon Hearts and Minuette? And Bon-Bon?”
“I’ll call them to me, and they’ll be amply rewarded – as soon as my sister’s off the throne!”
The four ponies peered through an impromptu periscope (the Nightmare’s magic having helped them assemble it) under the door of Princess Rarity’s sitting room. The Princess herself was stretched out on a couch, an open book floating in her magic and an empty ice cream bowl by her side. Behind her, a window stood open to the late afternoon breeze. Fluttershy sat beside her, wings outstretched over the thick arms of a deep stuffed armchair, a small bird cuddled in her hooves.
“Oh no!” Scootaloo whispered. “Fluttershy'sss a fearsssome warrior when her anger'ssss rousssed!” She smirked. “At leassst she doesn’t look ready for battle now. Gotta get her fassst ‘fore she ssstrikesss, Princesssss!”
“Do you hafta do all that hissin’?” Apple Bloom rumbled.
Scootaloo tried to stick her tongue out, bumped it against her fangs, and only then poked it out of her mouth. “You try ssspeaking with a new ssset of teeth!"
"Focus, girls!” Nightmare Belle snapped. “We have to find a way to get around the Princess’s guard!”
“But we don’t have to hurt her, though!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. "If we could attack fast, strike before she’s ready—"
“Yep...” Nightmare Belle nodded. “And I think have an idea.” She took a deep breath and concentrated. Her horn glowed blue, as did the crescent moon on her peytral.
A thunderclap suddenly exploded in the hall behind the fillies.
Fluttershy stiffened. With a loud "Caw!", the bird flew from her hooves and out the open window.
Fluttershy’s eyes widened. "Oh no! I-if you don't mind, Rarity, I’ll just -" Without waiting for a response, she jumped into the air, and soared out the window after it.
A moment later - with barely enough time for Princess Rarity to look surprised - the door slammed open and the Nightmare's army stormed in.
Rarity jumped up, the bowl clattering to the floor. “Wha-a-a — Sweetie – Lyra --”
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo jumped on her, bowling her over and pinning her to the ground. “Your reign of terror’s at an end!”
“My wha —?”
“Long live Princess Belle!” roared Scootaloo. “Nightmare Sweetie! Our Princessss forever!”
Nightmare Belle slowly walked over to her sister and stretched out one silver-clad hoof toward her. “Surrender to me your throne!”
Rarity tried to stand, but Nightmare Belle lit her horn and pinned her to the floor.
“Surrender!” she cried again.
"Wha?" Rarity blinked, taking in Sweetie's black fur, her wings, and the peytral around her neck — and she smiled. "Surrender to what? Eternal night?”
“No,” Nightmare Belle purred. “No..." Her eyes flashed; she cast back her head and cried, “BANISHED TO A THOUSAND YEARS AS A PONYQUIN!!!”
But as Nightmare Belle cackled her laughter and held down her defeated sister, a shadow rose up from the floor. It formed into a mouth and spoke, with a hiss echoing off the walls: “WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?”
Lyra gasped and fell to her belly. Nightmare Belle whirled to face the shadow, horn ready.
From the shadow stepped Princess Luna, still three times as tall as the Nightmare filly, her wings and horn gleaming, shadows wafting from her mane. Ice and steel shone in her glare, and her neck and feet were unclad.
“I repeat,” she intoned, “what art thou doing here?”
Sweetie Belle took a step forward, her mouth quivering. “I-I’m defeating my big sister and taking her throne!”
Luna’s gaze swept from Sweetie Belle, standing in Luna’s own royal regalia; to the other two fillies, who quickly felt for the buckles of their borrowed armor; to the mint-green mare still prostrate on the floor; and finally, to Rarity who had risen to her feet just in time to sink into a curtsy.
And suddenly, Luna chuckled.
The ponies before her relaxed a little; Apple Bloom and Scootaloo stopped feeling their armor; Lyra half-rose.
“We must enquire,” Luna said, “where, exactly, didst thou find Our royal peytral and sabatons?”
“Um... on a couch?” Sweetie Belle offered. “In that room with the big map?”
“Ah.” Luna tapped her chin. “Mayhap this Princess should be a little less forgetful on occasion…” She shrugged. “Be that as it may, We are glad that they ended up in good hooves.”
Sweetie Belle stared, then broke into a smile.
Luna returned the smile and swept her gaze back across the others. “Rise, Lyra. Rise, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Rarity, and -” her eyes sparkled as she swung her hoof toward Sweetie Belle - “ - hear the word of thy new Princess!”
Sweetie Belle blinked, swallowed, and then raised a hoof. “P-picnic on the lawn!” she cried, the tremble leaving her voice as she spoke. “This evening – no, right now!”
To the Crusaders’ surprise, Lyra joined them in their romp on the lawn, promptly lost to Scootaloo in tag, then stretched herself out nibbling on the grass between the carrot salad sandwiches that the kitchen staff had brought out in the middle of the games. “Thanks!” she said, finally. “I… think I needed that.”
“Yeah,” Apple Bloom replied, wrinkling her nose. “The changelings got you even worse than us, right?”
Lyra gave a brief nod. “Yeah,” she said. “It was… rough, having them in my head like that…” She gave a troubled glance up toward the setting sun, but her face quickly brightened to a smile. “The Princess was helping me, though. Luna, I mean. Though -- helping you take over Equestria helped a lot, too!”
Sweetie laughed. "And I didn't even need a whole army either!" She stood, rubbed her dark back briefly where the wings had been (they had vanished as soon as she took the peytral off, but the black color remained), and walked over to where Rarity and Luna. The Princess was wearing her regalia once again, and they were deep in discussion about couches or something like that. “Hey, uh, Rarity?” she said quickly.
Both Luna and Rarity looked up.
Sweetie glanced at Luna, then took a deep breath. “Thanks.”
“For what?” The touch of a smile lit at the edge of Rarity’s mouth. “For not banishing you to the clubhouse for a thousand years?”
Sweetie grinned. “For playing along!”
Rarity smiled wider. “Of course, Darling! You do make a darling little Nightmare...” She reached out to rub Sweetie’s mane, only to have some black color come away at her touch. After a few moment's look at her hoof, she laughed. “So that’s how you did it!” She blew on her hoof, and a few black grains drifted away. “Soot! And lampblack!”
Luna chuckled. “A most ingenious Nightmare, if I say so myself.”
Rarity nodded. “But how in all Equestria did you get the royal peytral and sabatons to fit -”
“Their own magic,” Luna interjected. “They grow or shrink to fit the wearer, whoever she might be. And didst thou see they magnify their wearer’s magic, as well? Almost like how the armor of my --”
Scootaloo came flying over their heads before spiraling down and skidding to a halt just past the blanket, her still-armored wings furiously flapping.
“SCOOTALOO!” Rarity shrieked.
Scootaloo jumped up to her feet, fangs bared. “I can fly! Almossst! Luna – please – can I join your Guard – or sssomehow -”
Luna opened her mouth to respond. But before she could speak, Sweetie jumped to her hooves and gestured to the setting sun above them. "Before speaking of guards, 'tis time for Our royal duty! Let the sun set!"
Luna looked at her uneasily for a moment. But then she paused, smiled, and gestured a Sweetie to come. The still-blackened filly happily jumped up on Luna's back.
Moments after, the sun dipped to the horizon, and both their horns glowed.
And Nightmare Belle raised the moon.
Author's Note
Readers may notice the lack of any "Alternate Universe" tags.
This's a thematic sequel to Autumn Wind's The Regalia, with also some inspiration from BrokenImage321's Celestia XVII on how the regalia in question might be for more than just show.
Just how magical they are - and whether Sweetie could've followed through on her threats - is left unstated.
