Several minutes earlier – Western Equestria, Tall Tale; 9:45pm

The battle between the defenders of Tall Tale and the minotaur army was reaching its climax soon; both sides weren’t giving up, but Tall Tale was slowly inching closer and closer to being defeated by the invading force. The siege towers were impenetrable, impossible to destroy as they slowly advanced toward the wall, the numerous minotaurs awaiting to charge toward the ramparts and swarm their enemies.

The ponies weren’t fairing any better, they were running out of arrows to fire and the continuous fire of burning rocks raining upon them wasn’t helping. The guards were running left and right to send in more supplies to the front, but soon they would run out of ammunition and forced to fight in close combat. “Staff Sergeant Grace, we’re running out of arrows and the siege towers are getting closer and closer, their main force isn’t approaching and we don’t have enough to stop those towers, what do we do, mam?!”

Winged Grace looked at the guard that ran up to her, then toward the enclosing siege towers, indeed the minotaur main force was just far enough to not be shot by arrows while the siege towers slowly made their way to Tall Tale. In minutes they’ll soon swarm forward and take over the town… and find what their looking for; Grace was told by Sharphook about why the minotaurs are here, and it seemed this situation was far worse than she imagined.

“Do we have anything to use that’ll slow them down?” asked Grace.

“Well… I’m not certain, but one of the guards found barrels of liquor but I don’t know what we can do with them, mam.”

Thinking about what use the barrels have, it was when a familiar face came approaching her. “Staff Sergeant Grace, we have a problem,” said Sharphook.

“What’s wrong now?” Guiding her, Sharphook led her to the gate of the eastern wall, before she spotted the problem as approaching the gate under a barrier of shields was a battering ram. The ram was bashing the gate down and was being protected by a wall of shields that blocked and bounced off the arrows that the defenders fired.

“Even if those siege towers come, by the time they do that ram would have smashed through the gate, we need to do something!”

Thinking quickly, she remembered the barrels of liquor a smile slowly creeping up her face. “I have an idea; you, get those barrels of alcohol up here, stat!” Nodding quickly, the guard gathered several others and ran toward where the barrels were kept.

“What will barrels of alcohol do in this situation!?”

“We’ll use it to pour it over these bastards and watch them burn, while it doesn’t solve our other problem, its the only thing I can think of.”

Seeing the temporary solution, Sharphook nodded when another guard approached with a fearful look in his eye. “MAM! The siege towers, one of them is closing in and is readying to board the wall, mam!”

Hearing this, Grace yelled out for the ponies to prepare themselves, all of them running to where the tower would be; everyone gathered, including the two griffons as the princess was still by where she was stationed originally at one of the towers. The ponies pointed their spears toward the approaching siege tower, but as it got closer… things went south quickly, as a barrage of bolts were fired upon the ponies, piercing through their ranks instantly.

Before the ponies could regroup, the drawbridge from the siege tower dropped, the minotaurs charged forth, slaughtering the ponies one by one. “Hold your ranks dammit, fight back, fight back!” shouted Grace, charging forth.

The ponies still standing fought back, but barely as they were cut down due to the minotaurs superior strength and weaponry. The only ones that were fighting one-on-one easily against them was Staff Sergeant Winged Grace, First Lieutenant Sharphook, and Sergeant Major Light Feather; the three were able to take down the minotaurs, but with the others unable to hold back the enemies, they would soon lose the east wall.

“Dammit, we need backup, where are the other guards!?”

“We need to hold our ground for them to come, they’re still evacuating citizens from the burning buildings!” As they continue to fight back, a screaming noise could be heard before a boom sounded off as an explosive round turned a nearby tower into rubble… the same tower that Princess Soft Beak was in.

“PRINCESS!” screamed Sharphook, rushing toward the destroyed tower. Sharphook bashed and slashed through various minotaurs before coming to the rubble of what remained of the tower, but as he searched a minotaur crept up behind him, ready to bash his skull in. Before the minotaur could act, an arrow flew by and took its mark onto the minotaur’s skull, causing the body to collapse backwards; looking where the arrow came from, he saw the princess at the top of the rubble, covered in dust and small cuts.

“Sir Sharphook, I think it’s best we focus on the problem at claw than myself, I may be a princess but I was trained by the best,” said Soft, grinning. Sharphook nodded, heading back to the battle on the ramparts.

Soon reinforcements came and overtook the ramparts, with them they brought several barrels of alcohol and dumped them onto the battering ram group, lighting the liquid as it came to a blaze of fire. Burning silhouettes were seen screaming in agony or running away from the blazing flames; the ponies cheered in victory, but soon the realization came to them that the battle wasn’t over just yet. “Prepare yourselves, the battle may be over but the war still continues; you four, search that siege tower for supplies and burn the thing down, we can’t let them use it when the main force comes! Repair the main gate after the fires die down and somepony get some guards to collect the arrows we fired outside the walls, we need to spare every arrow for the coming main force to come!”

As Sharphook watched Grace order the guards, he checked on Light Feather and the princess. “Are you two alright, that tower took a bad hit, was anyone else inside with you?” asked Sharphook.

“No, the other guards went to get more arrows so I was the only one inside, I was luckily able to get out before the tower was destroyed… is there no way for us out of this situation?”

“...No path that we can find, and even if we get out it wouldn’t do anything, the Equestrians will soon realize that the minotaurs are invading, the best we can do is assist and kill as many of the bastards. If we manage to survive I’ll report this to the king back at Griffonstone to send help here… we may even work with the Equestrians, they may not be warriors but will fight when threatened.”

The princess nodded, glancing back at the slowly moving siege towers, and the ominous army of minotaurs that awaited to charge any moment.

At the outer perimeter of Tall Tale, near the Minotaur’s Invasion Force...

Lieutenant General Black Hoof oversaw the minotaur forces, many of them itching to charge and slaughter the ponies… but they were forced to wait on orders of General Iron Tusk; the plan was to let the siege towers to overtake the ramparts while another team would use a battering ram to bash the door down. The reason they didn’t use all their forces and charge from all sides was because it leave a thin line of their forces to be easily taken down over time, instead they focus their attention on one wall, using the siege towers to attack the eastern wall rampart while several contingencies of squads were stationed at the northern and southern walls to make sure no stragglers try to escape.

Sadly the plan seemed to fail as the battering ram squad was torched by barrels of alcohol that was poured onto them, and one of the siege towers failed to take the ramparts was being looted and burned down. Several ponies were seen collecting arrows but were close enough to the walls to retreat and too far to commit attacking them. Dammit, if this continues we’ll be the loosing force here.

“Black Hoof… report,” said Iron, coming from behind him.

“Sir, the battering ram and one of the siege towers were taken down, we did manage to destroy one of their towers, but if this continues… I’m afraid to even imagine what will happen if we fail this battle,” said Black.

Iron Tusk scratched his chin before gazing at the burning corpses of the battering ram squad, he then went into deep thought and came up with a new idea. “Who’s the fastest of us here?”

“Sir?”

“Bring me the fastest of the troops here, and gather all the gunpowder we currently have… I have an idea, and tell the troops to prepare themselves… we’re charging toward the eastern wall.”

Back at the eastern wall of Tall Tale...

After arrows were collected and the fires died down, many of the injured and dead were moved off the ramparts, leaving the reinforcements to do repairs and various other things, preparing for the next siege tower to approach.

As they awaited for any movement other than than the siege tower, a roar was heard before the spotters saw the minotaur main force charging toward them, they prepared for them to get into firing range when they saw a lightly-armored minotaur carrying something charge ahead of the main force; the minotaur quickly gained speed and before any archers could shoot him down, he tossed something at the eastern wall’s gate.

“What the heck did he just throw!?” To answer the guard’s question, a loud explosion enveloped the gate and the ramparts above the gate, those nearby were blown back or consumed in the explosion. Those who managed to survive or were far enough from the explosion quickly realized what had happened, rallying toward the destroyed wall.

“THE WALL’S BEEN BREACHED, SPEARS AND SHIELDS FORWARD NOW!” shouted Grace. The guards moved forward into a semi-circular formation around the destroyed gate, creating a kill-zone out of the destroyed gate, quickly placing spikes and barricades to force the minotaurs to charge at their spears. Archers were stationed along the sides of the destroyed gate, other archers reading to fire volleys of arrows at the incoming army.

The minotaurs charged toward the wall opening, but some stayed behind so they wouldn’t stomp over their own or get punctured by arrows, but those that were young or cocky charged ahead, only to be killed by spears or arrows at the pony’s kill-zone. The bodies began to pile up, forcing minotaurs to climb over their dead, some managed to slip through but were killed by the skilled veteran guards, others brought ladders to climb the wall while some followed behind the approaching siege towers and use them to climb up onto the wall ramparts.

“Keep moving forward, we’ll take this pitiful town and soon kill every single one of these equine fools!” shouted a minotaur officer.

“What do we do, we’ll run out of arrows and soon they’ll climb over the rampart and overwhelm us, mam!?”

“We can’t lose this wall, if we do then they’ll swarm us and slaughter us in our own streets, stand our ground and keep fighting!” shouted Grace. The guards nodded, both the Royal and Lunar guard holding their ground while the local militia held still, willing to fight for their homes and family.

Grace watched the new found bravery in her troops and smirked, standing beside them, ready to take down the coming enemy. Even though they stopped firing their catapults, we’ll most likely die by their cloven hooves or weapons, but I’m proud these fellow stallions and mares are willing to die then letting these bastards take one step in our town.

As the next attack force approached, with a mighty roar the ponies charged forward, piercing, stabbing and slashing those they charged at, stampeding any who came upon their hooves. The ponies and minotaurs collided with one another, some fighting one-on-one while others fought in groups, but since the minotaurs were hardier than a pony, it took at least two to three ponies to overwhelm them and even then some minotaurs were harder to kill then a simple trooper.

Grace slashed one minotaur down before she was sent flying to the ground, looking up she saw a large buff minotaur who wielded a mace, grinning menacingly at her. “I, Captain Skull Smasher will kill all of you pathetic ponies, and take my time with your mares, maybe I’ll be taking my time with you, if I don’t end up bashing your head in!”

“Just try it you piece of shit!” Grace stood back up and posed ready; Skull deciding to take a direct attack, did an overhead strike with his mace, which Grace easily dodged but what she didn’t see was the other weapon that Skull held. He brought an axe from the side that was slowly going to collide with Grace’s side, raising her sword up, the blow was blocked but emptied her lungs from the sheer force used to move the weapon.

Skull did a boot kick that made her slide onto the ground into a nearby body, standing back on all four hooves, she found herself trampled over before being lifted up by her neck, her helmet having fallen off earlier her long mane draped down her neck and covering half of her face. Glaring back defiantly, Skull smirked before tightening his hold on Grace’s neck, crushing her windpipe; the mare began to choke as she tried to kick and flail, her movements becoming weaker.

“How about I just kill you and use your body instead, they’re a bothersome trying to keep them alive.”

I… can’t die… like this… somepony… help… Her prayers were answered when a piercing pain was felt on Skull’s back legs, bringing him to his knees and dropping Grace. The thestral sputtered and coughed, inhaling deeply for her much needed oxygen; looking around Skull saw his assailant, being a feeble looking unicorn. The unicorn in question was Sparks, who was currently evaluating his life choices and why he tried to attack this terrifying looking minotaur.

Oh right… I attacked him because he was going to strangle Winged Grace… why do I have to be such a nice guy… well if I’m going to die, at least I died trying to help somepony instead watching and doing nothing.Skull snarled and was about to kill Sparks but Grace clambered up and thrust her sword into his throat, spurts of his blood covering her and Sparks; Skull fell down, drowning in his own blood until Grace stabbed her sword into his chest, stabbing his heart.

Both Grace and Spark were huffing and wheezing from the tiring battles they each fought, collapsing back-to-back with each other. “Thanks… for saving me...” said Grace.

“I… couldn’t let him kill you sergeant… you still have ponies to lead… me… I’m just a private… mam...”

“Ha, yeah right, I know about your leadership skills back at the camp, you were the top in your class, that and your pretty skilled with your magic and know a few good spells… After this, I’ll buy you a drink...”

The two were soon interrupted when they spotted another horde of minotaurs charging forth; standing back up, the two were joined by several other surviving guards, with them being the two griffons, their numbers dwindling to a staggering two digits from the original two-hundred that were stationed in Tall Tale.

“I guess we’re going to die here huh,” said Sugarcane, limping.

“Be glad you fought and are still standing… though I’m proud to be fighting with a stallion like yourself,” said Light.

“I’m assuming we fight back till we drop dead, I’m not going let these bastards take me alive, nor will I let them near the princess,” said Sharphook.

“That’s the plan; you heard him, we either fight or die trying! FOR EQUESTRIA!”

“FOR EQUESTRIA!” The remaining ponies stood strong together, those who were still at the ramparts heard their fellow guards outcry and join them, preparing for what would be their last and final stand.

As the literal wave of minotaurs approached, something… happened; in an explosion of dirt, blood, and flying bodies, the minotaur charge was halted by a fiery explosion that knocked back bodies and killed many near the explosion. Some ran screaming as they were lit in demonic looking flames, while others tried to crawl with missing limbs.

The ponies were confused of what had just occurred, but the minotaurs were even more so, both sides were afraid to approach the fiery explosion, but some minotaurs slowly approached… until an armored gauntlet pierced the smoke and fire and clutched a minotaur’s head. The poor bull wailed and screamed from his own flesh being seared by the scorching hot metal of the gauntlet that clutched his face, soon he was tossed aside like a flesh-bag into the hooves of his kind.

The minotaurs backed up immediately, pointing their weapons at the new threat; stepping forth from the flames was an armored giant, bigger than anything either side seen before, it stood taller than the minotaurs at five feet and six inches. This creature wore armor unfamiliar to the eyes of any trained smith or armor-expert, as the one color that came to anyone’s mind was azure, but what spoke volumes were three things; on his left hand the creature wielded a grotesque large zweihander of some kind with a pulsing eye in the center that was covered in flesh. The other hand was more of a claw as it was mutated and had three pronged points that could tear anything it grasped; the final detail that stood out was the creature’s piercing red glowing eyes upon a helmet with two bat-like wing designsattached on it.

The armored being glanced around itself before slinging it’s mighty weapon over its shoulder; it faced the minotaurs who flinched before its gaze moved to the ponies. Seeing them for the first time, it slowly approached them, neither side moving but the ponies kept their guard as the creature approached them. Once it stood before them, it stood there silently neither side speaking until one of the ponies spoke out of curiosity and fear.

“Who… who are you?”

The armored giant stood stalk still but brought his sword forward, the ponies flinched but relaxed when it pointed the weapon to the sky, as if it were posing before them.

“I am Nightmare; the Azure Knight and wielder of Soul Edge! I am a wandering swordsman who has come from lands far and will fight for my own battles and my own wars, I will never be shackled to the whims of others nor will I ignore the needs of those before me… I traveled beyond the mountains just that direction from here.” Pointing toward the mountains just south of Tall Tale, the ponies looked back at Nightmare with little ease but kept their guard near him.

Stepping forward, Grace took front stage before the now named warrior, unnoticed by her or anyone but Nightmare or Seth in this case flinched at the blood-stained pony. Yeesh, this must not be her day.

“I am Staff Sergeant Winged Grace, I must ask why you have come here, as it is a bit of a coincidence that some wandering warrior would come into a middle of a battle.”

“Well, I originally planned to find civilization, but on my way to this direction I encountered this wounded hawk,” said Nightmare. Extending his mutated claw which made some of the ponies flinch and gag, a familiar hawk landed on one of his claw’s hooks; the bird cawed, gazing with red glowing eyes before it preened itself casually.

That hawk, its one of the messenger birds I sent out and if he encountered it, it must be the one I was sending to the Equestrian capital.

“How did you come by this messenger bird?” asked Sharphook, standing beside Grace now.

Having saw the shock in the griffon’s eyes, Nightmare knew the bird must of originally belonged to him. “As I was traveling beyond those mountains, two minotaurs wounded the bird, until they assaulted me without reason, I of course retaliated in return by slaughtering them like the mongrels they are. Being a merciful heart and one who believes in second-chances, I healed and made this hawk into… what you may call my familiar of sorts, in return he led me here, I however didn’t knew of this oncoming battle and decided to come down and intervene.”

“So are you planning on helping us?”

“...No.” The shock in their eyes was evident on their faces, especially the ponies who’s pupils shrunk but before they could fall to depression, Nightmare raised his mutated claw. “I plan not helping you, but I will deal with these minotaurs; I may be peaceful and calm with others, but I will not tolerate needless attacks, especially on those who attack me not out of revenge or reason, but to assault me because of my appearance is not a good enough reason either… So seeing how these minotaurs attacked me and do not appear to be in the speaking mood… I see no reason to play nice with them. Fight with me if you will, but do not get in my way...”

Hearing this, Nightmare turned and faced the minotaurs, balancing his weapon on his shoulder, stomping toward the wave of minotuars. The ponies looked at one another before gazing at Grace who was also baffled at this being’s reasons for fighting; shaking her head, she faced her fellow guards and allies. “We won’t get in ‘his’ way, we’ll follow behind and fight any surviving stragglers that are left behind, don’t act cocky and charge forth, you’ll end up killed by the minotaurs or that… thing’s backlash.” Nodding in understanding, the remaining force of guards split into groups of ten to fifteen, slowly moving behind Nightmare at a reasonable distance.

Nightmare approached the enemy forces, seeing the cowering and shaking forms of the minotaurs from the distance between them. “My my, not my reasons for killing these fools but whatever gets me souls without being chased or ran off by others,” said Soul.

“I wasn’t wrong, I am often peaceful and calm but after seeing those two scouts kill Nightwing so easily shows that these guys don’t plan to do anything good with those living in that town. If I had to choose who I’ll help, I’d go with the underdog instead of the winning side, no matter who it is.”

“And besides, the minotaurs have more souls than these ponies, and while I’d be pleased if you killed them all, you’re the boss so I follow your lead.”

Done with their short conversation, Nightmare prepared to begin his murderous spree upon the minotaurs, his eyes glinting as he prepared what would be a one-sided fight. “Time to begin the onslaught!”

“LET US FEAST ON THEIR SOUUULS!”

While slow, what happened next shocked everyone; seeing his slow movements one of the minotaurs charged thinking he could out-maneuver him, but what happened next was so quick he didn’t realize he died. Charging with a shoulder ram, Nightmare bashed into the bull before lifting him up, slamming him into the ground before finishing it with smashing his weapon into him, leaving a bloody pulp of flesh and blood that splattered everywhere, covering his comrades and Nightmare himself who continued on.

“Pathetic, not even worth the fight.” This riled up the rest, charging toward Nightmare with rage and determination in their eyes… before they would join the countless bodies to come.

Time to show them why I’m known as, the Symbol of Destruction. With slow but powerful strikes, Nightmare sweeps away the oncoming wave of minotaurs with each strike of his weapon, sending bodies and limbs flying, blood spraying everywhere as the agonizing screams of the dying echo across the battlefield.

With each death, their soul is devoured into Soul Edge, leaving behind a field of bodies in his path, the ponies follow but glance at the destruction brought by this creature. None were spared and those who did manage to survive were barely close to life and killing them was more of a mercy than an act of killing.

Wrecking havoc onto the minotaur army, they begin to run in fear some dropping weapons or removing pieces of armor to run quicker; seeing this, Nightmare grasp Soul Edge with both his gauntlet and malfested arm, before the weapon was engulfed in chaotic flames. With a powerful horizontal swipe of the blade, he sent a blast of flames that scorched those it made contact with, leaving behind embers, ashes and scorching bodies, some minotaurs running while still alight from the fires.

Seeing their comrades easily defeated, the remaining minotaur army retreated back, but not all managed to escape as Nightmare stared at the still standing siege towers that had some minotaurs inside them still. Charging at one tower in particular he smashed his weapon into the side of the tower, before it began to collapse killing those inside and those who couldn’t get out of the trajectory it was falling to, smashing all it fell upon.

“RUN YOU COWARDS, FOR I AM NIGHTMARE, THE SYMBOL OF DESTRUCTION; I WILL DEVOUR YOUR SOULS AND SLAUGHTER YOU LIKE THE ANIMALS YOU ARE! FEAR ME FOR YOUR END HAS COME, FOR TONIGHT I WILL FEAST!” With a horrid and demonic laughter, Nightmare unleashed a torrent of chaotic flames from Soul Edge that spiraled into the sky, turning the once midnight sky into a blazing mix of red, orange, and purple. Raising his weapon skyward, he stood before a hill of debris from the siege tower and bodies that Nightmare killed, as glowing wisps of the souls of the deceased slowly enter into Soul Edge.

“RAISE THY SWORDS, FOR TONIGHT HAS BEEN A GLORIOUS BATTLE OF BLOOD AND FIRE!”

“YES YES YES! THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR, YOU ARE THE ONE THAT SHALL BRING THIS WORLD TO UTTER CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION! SHOW ME MORE MORE MOOOORE; WE WILL BRING THIS WORLD TO ITS KNEES OR DESTROY ALL IN OUR PATH! FOR YOU ARE THE ONE AND ONLY-”

Speaking together simultaneously, both Soul and Nightmare screamed with blood-lust in their voices, their maddening laughter echoed for all to hear. “AZURE NIGHTMARE!”

Grace watched with the rest of her troops at the demonic silhouette that was Nightmare, who laughed maddening at the surrounding blood and gore that he stood before without a care, as if it were all a game to him… a game that would bring forth untold destruction. Internally and externally she gulped, both regretting and amazed at what she was witnessing… and what may come.

Just what have I gotten myself into?

The next morning – Central Equestria, Everfree Castle; 6:30am

Celestia awoke, readying to raise her sun, feeling the warm rays touching her face; with a smile she made her way to the dining hall for breakfast with her sister before she took her needed rest. Arriving at the dining hall, she was met with a tired Luna who was sipping a cup of tea, nonchalantly eating a muffin.

“Good morning dear sister,” said Celestia.

“Morning Tia…”

“Is there anything I need to know during your rounds last night?”

Luna took a sip of her tea, putting it down on the teacup plate that made a light clack, looking at her Luna searched through her memories before the events of last night came to her. “Actually I do, Captain Breaker came by and told me that the magi discovered four anomalies that appeared during my rounds the previous night. He said two of them were in Equestria, one somewhere in Western Equestria while another at North-Eastern Equestria, the other two are currently unknown but he said he would tell either of us of any news-”

At that very moment a guard came bustling in frantically before looking around and spotting the two princesses, running up to stand in the view of both princesses and saluting. “I am sorry for interrupting your morning meal your majesties, but urgent news have come from the settlement called Tall Tale; a large invading force from the Minos Empire came and attempted to invade and possibly raid Tall Tale!”

The shock was clear on both princesses faces; Celestia glanced at Luna, the look on her face clear that they would continue talking about these anomalies later. “And is the settlement and those there alright, are there any injured?” asked Celestia.

“Sadly there are injured and many of the guard stationed there were killed, but the biggest report isn’t that… Tall Tale… its been taken over!”

Standing up quickly, Luna got the attention of the guard to look at her. “WHO HAS TAKEN OVER TALL TALL, WAS IT THE MINOTAURS!?”

“N-N-No your highness… something… else has taken control of the settlement… We aren’t clear of who taken over the settlement, but the one who sent the report has been told to send a request of seeing the leaders of Equestria from the one responsible of taking control of Tall Tale, pronto.”

Both princesses looked at one another, but after awhile they looked back at the guard with Celestia speaking. “Sent scouts to check the current status of Tall Tale and some more scouts to see the current whereabouts of this invading force; my sister and I need time to reevaluate about this information and make a decision.”

Understanding, the guard nodded and went off, leaving the two sisters alone until Luna spoke. “What shall we do sister, this… thing that took over Tall Tall may be controlling our ponies with an iron hoof, we must fight back and take it back!”

“Don’t be impatient Lulu, what I’m worried more about is this invading force from the minotaurs… something must have happened at the Minos Empire. For now we need to see the current strength of this force… let us hope that they are safe until we can make a swift retaliation to take it back.”

“Who knows what kind of monster is terrorizing our ponies...”

Western Equestria, Tall Tale; 7:00am

“...Welp… I’m bored,” said Nightmare.

Nightmare sat at the top of the eastern wall ramparts, watching the clean-up groups that were moving bodies at the battlefield and clearing debris; pony bodies were moved into the city for proper burial while minotaurs were looted and put into pyres to be burned. After the battle, there was some mistrust and suspicion around Nightmare, with the ponies not letting him enter inside but after several hours – being convinced by Sharphook – they let him inside and after that he sat on the ramparts and gazed at the wrecked battlefield, mostly caused by him.

He was currently gazing at the guards working, with some guards on the ramparts eye him before moving back to their patrol routes. Soon the Azure Knight was approached by who he was introduced to be as Winged Grace, with her were some new… faces to say the least; with her were three griffons and two other guards, possibly with her out of worry for their leader from him.

“Nightmare, I like you to meet First Lieutenant Sharphook, he was the one who ‘convinced’ me to let you enter, traveling with him is Sergeant Major Light Feather and her highness, Princess Soft Beak of the Griffon Lands.” Stepping forward, Nightmare takes a careful view of the three now named griffons with some intrigue, especially at the princess.

A princess you say… wait, this must be the group that the minotaurs were chasing in the first place. “A princess you say… never met one before in my life,” said Nightmare, extending his armored gauntlet. “Hello, my name is Nightmare the Azure Knight, its a pleasure to meet you.”

Light seems to stiffen while Sharphook watches with a careful but calm look, Soft takes a step back, but taking a calm breath extends a claw to shake his gauntlet. After the exchange, Nightmare still sits down but looks before the six beings before him.

“So, have you sent that request to your leaders, because I want to… talk about a few things with them?”

“About that… the letter I sent them might be ‘misinterpreted’, so they may think you took over Tall Tale,” said Grace, worriedly.

“,,,Well I may as well have,” said Nightmare, nonchalantly.

At those words, the two guards that came with Grace pointed their spears at Nightmare which caused Grace to order them to lower their weapons and Soft to sweat worriedly. Seeing this happen, Nightmare rose up which caused everyone to take a step back with their own fearful looks. “Oh, you wanna fight?”

“We… we won’t let you take over this town and harm the ponies here!” shouted Sparks.

“That’s right, as part of the Equestrian Guard, we’ll protect our homes even from something like you,” said Sugarcane, agreeing.

Nightmare stood there ominously, everyone on edge by his lack of reaction before he began to bellow out a light laughter which grew to a stronger one. “Ahhhhh, haven’t laughed that hard in a long time, I was serious of taking over this place but because I need someplace to stay… I’m in a world I’m unfamiliar with so it makes sense I make a place to come back to if I plan to travel this world… and besides I did saved all your hides so you all owe me. Whatever your leaders think won’t matter, in my own opinion you can only judge somebody with your own eyes and experience, not what others say.”

“So… you don’t plan on hurting anyone?”

“Only those deserving… so unless you give me reasons, I won’t lay a finger – or claw – on anyone; now while I’d love to continue our chats,” said Nightmare, picking up Soul Edge. “I have some exploring to do, I’m going to look around this town and check the sights, if you want to tell me anything just find the armored being wandering the streets.”

“Wai-Wait, hold one second there!” shouted Grace. Nightmare began stepping down the steps off the ramparts while Grace tried to catch up with his long strides; the two guards looked at one another before following behind, leaving the griffons on the ramparts.

Now alone, Soft Beak looked at Sharphook for what their next decision should be now. “So what now, with the minotaurs defeated we can head home, right?’

Sharphook stared at the receding form of Nightmare before facing the princess. “I don’t think so princess, with the Equestrian leaders coming here, we may need to get help from them… I also like to see who this Nightmare character is and why exactly is he here… it’s too much of a coincidence just for him to appear to stop the minotaur’s invasion army…”

With those words, the three griffons followed behind; Nightmare wandered the streets of Tall Tale, taking a look at the sights until the voice of Soul was heard. “Why are we not slaughtering these ponies, the more souls we gather, the more powerful I shall become!?”

“I don’t find the need for killing them necessary… why kill when I could conquer… I always wondered what it be like to control my own empire… There’s also the extra help to find my friends, the more eyes, the higher chance to find clues to find their whereabouts.”

“Hrmmm, well… it be chaotic to own your own army of malfested… Well I agree then, it be interesting to cause chaos world-wide than wandering the place; I shall assist in your new plans and give you power to begin your wide-spread control.”

“Good then… time to bring this world to its knees and maybe find the whereabouts of my friends.” With a malicious smile hidden by his helmet, Nightmare wandered Tall Tale, a glint of inspiration in his eyes.

Author's Note

Nightmare has saved the ponies (and other creatures) of Tall Tall from the invading army of Minos, and now he plans to conquer the world and use - his soon to come - future resources to find his friends.

Celestia and Luna hear news of a new "power" coming from Tall Tale, and signs of war coming. Who could this strange being be, and what does he plan for the future?

And where are the others, and what are they doing in this strange world?

The end to Nightmare's origin story is done; now onto our next character - a little teaser for who's next: THEME MUSIC TIME!