The airship was on fire.
More than on fire, the craft was aflame and listing badly to one side; but for all that her engines were still running, still driving the vessel forward at more than its top speed. A small gunboat in green and gold appeared out of a cloudbank directly in front of the onrushing airship, firing its weapons wildly as the larger vessel bore down on it.
Only a few more minor fires were added to the flying conflagration before the airship rammed the gunboat, shattering it utterly and sending its crew to their dooms. The lone pilot of the airship considered the added damage as she flew the vessel on, into the cloud bank the gunboat had emerged from. The airship was doomed, that much was certain, but it would hold long enough to reach its destination. That it would.
Pinkie Pie looked around the bridge of the airship she had commandeered an hour ago. Half the instruments were gone, the left side of the bridge had been shot away, but growing up on a rock farm had taught her just how hard equipment could be pushed before it stopped working completely.
Whoever had built this transport airship had known what they were doing. The gas bag might be on fire and leaking, but the hull and holds were completely intact, the engines solid and true, and the controls were responsive to her touch. She had time to have some chocolate milk.
Crossing the deck to quench her thirst, Pinkie paused as she caught sight of her reflection in a mirror. She was a mess. Her body was covered in bruises and cuts, some of which had opened again and were leaking. She’d have to fix that. If a body leaked too much of it’s special juice the pony in it would die, just like Twilight had… and just like that, the memories jumped back into her eyes.
Of the six of them, walking through Canterlot. A sudden crack of thunder, and the hole appearing in Twilight’s chest with no warning at all. Twilight died, confused, as all the special pony juice in her leaked out. Even her Pinkie Sense hadn’t felt it coming. It didn’t give her any warning either as a horde of changelings landed all around them.
That meanie pants Chrysalis had come back, to conquer Equestria again. This time though she didn’t want to capture ponies for love. She had decided it would be easier to kill anypony who could stand up to her, and Twilight had just been the first of many to fall.
Without Twilight to lead them, the rest of her friends fought as hard as they could, but even Pinkie knew that smiles and party cannons weren’t going to win this one. Rarity fired from her horn until it began to smoke, never giving up even as she was swarmed under from behind. All that was left afterwards were scraps of bloodied white fur on the ground.
At that point, the rest of them ran away as hard as they could, until Applejack directed the rest of them down an alley, declaring, “Ah’ll hold ‘em off. The rest of you, keep runnin’ for it. Get to the princesses.”
Everypony protested, especially Rainbow Dash, but AJ told Rainbow that she was counting on the Wonderbolt to get the other two to safety. The argument continued for a bit, until a hail of arrows seemed to fill the air. Then the arrows covered AJ and Fluttershy with feathered spikes, and Pinkie got to see two more of her friends die as their special juice leaked out as well.
She and Rainbow ran for their lives at that point through the back alleys and side streets of Canterlot. Everywhere, there were changelings wreaking havoc, burning and killing anypony that didn’t instantly and totally surrender to them. It was worse than when the Storm King had invaded. Pinkie had commented on that to Rainbow Dash, who figured out things out.
“She must have gone out and gotten a new hive going, then grabbed up all the Storm King’s old stuff and come back for revenge,” Rainbow had said.
“Quite right, Rainbow Dash,” Chrysalis said, standing on the prow of a former Storm King airship. Chrysalis had always been a big meanie, but this time she was big, mean and scary, because in addition to her crown she was wearing a cloak. A cloak made out of Luna and Celestia’s wing feathers.
“What have you done with the princesses?” Rainbow Dash demanded. In reply, Chrysalis dropped a building on her and Pinkie.
Pinkie lay there in the dark, stunned. She could feel bits of the building in her, and feel her own special juice start to leak out. She looked around for Rainbow Dash. There was a big smear of special juice around where a pillar from the building had smunched into the ground, and Pinkie could just make out the blue tip of one wing.
“It can’t end like this,” Pinkie said out loud, feeling the strength begin to drain out of her. “It was supposed to be cake, and parties and fun forever. Or at least for a long time. Can anypony hear me?”
“C’mon please,” Pinkie said, finding it hard to breathe now. “Anypony, anything. This isn’t right. Chrysalis can’t win, not like this. I’ll do anything to stop… to stop her, and bring back parties.”
Pinkie saw their faces again. Twilight’s shocked surprise. Rarity’s outrage as she was swarmed under. Applejack and Fluttershy’s stoic acceptance. Rainbow’s last defiant glare. Their faces filled her with sadness at first, but then as she saw them again in her mind’s eye, and felt her own body prepare to join them, a different emotion filled her.
Fury.
Chrysalis was the biggest meany pants ever and somepony needed to stop her, somepony needed to make her pay. It didn’t matter what it took, somepony had to avenge her friends.
“Make her pay,” Pinkamena whispered, and then everything seemed to stop, even her heart.
“We can do it, you know,” a voice said, and a dark mist seemed to fill Pinkamena’s vision. “Make her pay, punish Chrysalis for what she did to you and your friends.”
“I know you,” Pinkamena said, trying to narrow her eyes, but failing. “You’re the Nightmare, Hokey Smokes!”
“Yes, I am the Nightmare,” said the mist, and Pinkamena got the impression of rolling eyes, “and I’ve been sent to give you the same thing I gave Princess Luna. The chance for revenge.”
“What about the whole eternal night thing?” Pinkamena asked. She wanted Chrysalis to pay, not have Equestria destroyed by not having sunshine again.
“That was all Luna,” the Nightmare said, dismissively, “and I don’t blame her for that. She was going through a phase. The main thing I did give her, was the power to have revenge for all the wrongs done to her. That’s what I do. That’s I’m willing to do for you, if you want.”
“I want her to pay for what she did to my friends,” Pinkamena said, “What do you need me to do?”
“Let me in,” the Nightmare said, and Pinkamena did. Only to hear a sad sound from the Nightmare a moment later. “Oh, you poor pony. You’re dying. I can’t stop it, but I can slow it down and give us a little more time.”
“Enough time for one last party?” Pinkie asked, smiling. “Maybe a good blast from a party cannon?”
“Time enough, and cannon enough. I think,” the Nightmare said. “Yes, we can do this. Together.”
With that, the Nightmare gave Pinkamena the strength to get up and make her way out of the rubble. Afterwards, it had taken them nearly a full day to find what they had needed for the biggest party favor ever. A transport airship that was full of exploding powder, and magic gizmos, and all kinds of things that went boom in a not-fun way. They had stolen the airship, the Nightmare showing Pinkamena how to pilot it, with the intent of giving Chrysalis a party that would last a lifetime.
“Enough memories, mare,” the Nightmare said to her, as Pinkie came back to the here and now. “We are almost out of the clouds.”
The former party pony finished her drink and made her way back to the controls, noting that the water in the cloud had actually put out a lot of the fires that had been burning. As the last fluffs of the cloudbank passed by, Pinkie saw that they had come out of it above and behind the massive airship that Chrysalis had taken from the dead Storm King’s fleet, and made into her personal flagship.
“Do we have time enough for a song?” Pinkie asked, as the Nightmare moved her hooves to bring the ship into a dive.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” the Nightmare said, smiling back as Pinkamena Diane Pie, former Bearer of the Element of Laughter, now the Element of Vengeance, broke into song.
What's packed in my hold
Is dearer than gold.
Revenge is my cargo this day.
Ya' think you have won,
But when my job's done.
The Nightmare will force you to pay.
Our ponies weren't strong,
They’d done ya' no wrong.
We just happened to be in your way
You take what you seek,
Contempt for the weak.
And your battle fleet came yesterday.
Like the coward you are,
You struck from afar,
And death is the harvest you reaped.
For all we were brave,
No warning you gave,
My ponies ya' slaughtered like sheep.
Alone in the dark,
I lay near to my death.
With hate in my heart,
And with my final breath,
To whatever Gods
Would listen I prayed,
That they'd witnessed your crimes
And force you to pay.
My Granny, now dead
Old gods she had said,
Created the Nightmare to fly.
Grim justice to seek,
And revenge for the weak,
On those whom the law had passed by.
Those gods heard my plea,
And granted to me,
The means of achieving my goal.
Oh, I think they are just,
For to do what I must,
The Nightmare they placed in my soul.
Transformed by Her hate,
Now I am your fate.
The Gods chosen weapon of right.
The Nightmare inside,
Will not be denied,
And I seek my vengeance this night.
She steadies my hand.
Her tool to command.
An accounting you will not deny.
Your ship is in sight,
Of my Nightmare led flight,
And the fires of my vengeance burn high.
I've stolen this ship packed,
With weapons of war.
So you will not profit, as you have before
Eluding your fleet,
Past your sentries I slip,
And the Nightmare is guiding me straight to your ship!
What's packed in my hold,
Is dearer than gold,
As dear as the ponies who fell.
When I ram in your side,
At the end of my ride,
This Nightmare will send you to hell, to hell
This Nightmare will take you to hell!
On impact, the explosion seemed to rip apart the very sky itself. Nothing bigger than an eyelash was ever found of any of the ponies, changelings or ships caught up in that titanic blast.
“And that, my dear ponies, is how one of my best friends gave her life to avenge us all and save Equestria,” Princess Luna said, standing before the gathered crowd as she awkwardly shifted her maimed wings over her back. “So, on this, the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Changeling Wars, we honor all those who fell on those dark days, with this statue.“
Luna pulled away a large sheet to reveal a twenty foot tall statue of Pinkie Pie, wreathed in the aura of the Nightmare, one hoof on an airship’s tiller, the other reaching outwards. A single word was engraved on the statue’s base.
BOOP!
Author's Note
The original of the song Pinkie Pie sings:
All of my Song Stories are works of passion. Moments when a song goes into my head and just will not let go. This story is a little different.
As some of you may know, my life is in transition right now, and the other day I learned some information that made me angrier than I've been in a very long time. All-consuming fury is a better description. Luckily, I have good friends who cooled me down long enough for me to start processing my emotions and to use them as fuel and power to make myself stronger and better.
But even with that done I still needed to purge the remaining hate in my heart, lest it poison me and change who I am. Fury is that purging. My way of expressing my own fury and channeling it into words and out of my system. I hope it made for an adequate story.
