Nightmare: Rise of the Demons

Shield Bearer was uncertain. When he first departed Canterlot to look for Andromalius, he expected to encounter him hiding in a hole somewhere, not being allied with Nightmare Moon, who apparently managed to return after her second defeat not too long ago. However, he had learned a lot since then.

Thestrals weren't common in bigger Equestrian cities, preferring isolationist existence among various settlements hidden within deep caves and dense forests. Because of the mystery surrounding the only nocturnal kind of ponies, many rumors about them were spread. Some said they robbed ponies at night, others insisted they ate unwary travelers. However, the truth was much simpler - they were just like every other being, living their lives.

Shield Bearer remembered his apprehension when he first joined the Night Guard for dinner - in their case, it would be more accurate to say that it was breakfast. The scarred stallion expected them to stare at him, perhaps to make snide comments about his service to Princess Celestia, maybe even threaten him. However, none of this happened - no one paid him more attention than a glance here and there. As nervous as he was, he still managed to finish his meal without hurry, and he was left in peace.

"Ask away," one of the thestrals said him during their third shared dinner.

"Uh, what?" Shield Bearer blinked in confusion, surprised he was being addressed at all. He barely noticed a hint of an accent of some sort coming from the thestral.

"No one misses your stares," she said. Like the majority of the thestrals, she was of the winged kind, and she had gray fur and bright, glowing slit-pupiled orange eyes. Her most distinctive feature was a head of golden hair, but her talent mark - if there was one in the first place, Shield Bearer has yet to see an uncovered flank - was hidden underneath a light gambeson, on top of which plate armor was situated, "You've not seen us up close before, so you have questions."

"Well," he cleared his throat in uncertainty, "I don't know where to begin."

"I can certainly tell you that we don't kidnap ponies or eat them," she said wryly, "We'll be very pleased if those prejudices were left at the door," the stallion opened his maw to protest, but she cut him off, "Don't deny it, every pony has prejudices against us. At least you've yet to call us a bat pony."

"Is it... insulting?" he asked carefully.

"Well, we don't call pegasi bird ponies, now do we?" she raised a brow.

"Yeah, that's true," he nodded, relaxing a bit when he saw she wasn't getting angry, "So... where do you live?"

"Forest and caves next to forests. As long as there's enough fruit nearby. On the topic of not eating ponies, we very much prefer fruit," at that, she dove into her bowl and slurped up a few cubes of mango.

"Then why do you have fangs?"

"To pierce the skin of the fruit, obviously," she rolled her eyes, "Have you tried to bite a lemon? I can tell you it's not easy."

Little by little, Shield Bearer relaxed completely, and the small talk with various thestrals became an usual occurrence for him. There was no longer a sense of mystery surrounding them - they were just like every other pony. He learned about them and shortly came around to treating them like he would treat anyone else.

"Why do you ally yourselves with Nightmare Moon?" he asked one time. His companion at dinner was a unicorn thestral stallion this time.

"We're not exactly welcome under Princess Celestia, are we?" he replied, "And it was worse a thousand years ago. We were shunned, told we were evil. Everyone turned on us then. Princess Celestia wasn't actively hostile towards us, but she didn't do anything about how we were treated, now did she?" his voice turned bitter, "And we've not forgotten, you can be sure of that."

"So, the enemy of your enemy is a friend?" Shield Bearer couldn't help but ask, furrowing his brows.

"Goes deeper than that," was the reply, "She came to us, told us we matter, and she showed it. We've been living alone for centuries now, doing the best we can to survive. No help from the government, that's for sure," he snorted, "Nightmare Moon promised us it would change, and I believe her. You know how we won't even be served food in some places?"

"I've not heard of it before," Shield Bearer's frown deepened, "That's illegal, too. Unless you're making trouble, you should be free to buy things from anyone."

"It's not like the courts cared," the stallion snorted again, "Well sure, once in a while there was a victory, but going to court isn't free either. It's not worth the time and effort to sue someone over a few bits meal."

"But that's not right."

"When you're a thestral, you're used to it," the stallion shrugged, "At least it's going to change now. And even if it won't change, Princess Celestia never bothered with it, so it's not like it'd be any worse under Nightmare Moon."

Princess Celestia was raising the sun once again, her eyes looking over the hills, the forests, the fields, and the settlements from the top of the Canterlot castle. Once more, her ponies were waking up for another day. However, this idyllic scenery did nothing to quench her worries - she had yet to hear from her student. Twilight Sparkle had written every single day since she moved to Ponyville, yet there was nothing from her ever since she went in search of Luna. Celestia knew no troubles met her on her way to Ponyville and neither did anything bad happen to her when she departed with her friends. However, now that the six were out of her sight, there was nothing, not a speck of information. It was as if they simply vanished.

Celestia breathed deeply - it wouldn't do good for her to panic. She knew her student, she knew her friends - they would prevail. They stood together against Nightmare Moon and won, solidifying their friendship and becoming the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. If anyone could find Luna and bring her back, they would do it. Celestia needed to have faith in them.

The alicorn, however, suspected something was wrong. While Luna did lower the moon each morning and raised it each evening, the feel of her magic was... different. Not in a way that would prove it to be tainted - it was merely an odd sort of feeling. The princess of the day wondered what it was but couldn't quite figure it out. Without leaving Canterlot in search of her sister herself, there was little she could do, and she couldn't afford to depart when it was clear something was amiss.

So, she resigned herself to patient waiting.

Twilight Sparkle groaned when she woke up from the enchanted sleep, her magic finally unraveling it. Her head ached despite the comfort her body felt, and she blearily blinked for some time, trying to figure out where she was and what happened to her. Then her eyes widened.

She was not home. She was not with her friends in a tent. She was... and then it hit her. She was captured by Nightmare Moon! She needed to warn Celestia!

The unicorn jumped from her bed and immediately fell to the floor as her energy was sapped from her, leaving her fatigued, the grogginess of sleep returning to her in force. She didn't know how much time it lasted, but she finally managed to stand up and look around. The first thing she noticed was not the details of the room but something on her body - a set of runes was painted around each hoof, circled her talent mark, and there was a feeling of muteness in her horn. She didn't recognize half the runes, and those she did seemed wrong, unfamiliar. However, they were certainly functional - she could feel a pattern of magic in them, steady and focused.

The room was small and simple: it featured a simple bed set low to the floor, a nightstand with three drawers by the bedside, an empty bookshelf, and two doors. One of the doors was solid oak reinforced with metal. It also radiated magic, although no runes could be seen from this side. Another door looked flimsy in comparison and wasn't enchanted at all.

Twilight Sparkle expected something far worse from Nightmare Moon, perhaps wet dungeons strongly smelling of mold and wood rot. At best, she would have a stone box with iron bars on one side with some old hay for a sleeping space and a bucket for her needs. Here, however, everything was clean, dry, and smelled not unpleasantly. If she didn't know better, she'd think she was at some sort of cheap hotel. There was also a small window that let the sunlight in, but it wasn't a real one - it was made with magic, showing an unidentifiable forest and the sky above Equestria. Despite her knowledge of the stars, she couldn't seem to figure out where she was - the night sky was undefined and blurry if she focused on it.

"Thou art awake," Nightmare Moon's voice sounded from the walls, startling her, "Impressive."

"You won't get away with this!" Twilight snapped immediately, the rightful anger sparking inside of her.

"I believe I'm beyond 'getting away with this', Twilight Sparkle," came the dark alicorn's dry reply, "Thou art restricted in magic and in body, and thou art in a place unknown. Despite thy skill in magic, there is very little thou canst do. 'Twould be interesting to see thee try, however."

"Where are my friends?" she demanded.

"So much anger in thy words," Nightmare Moon replied, "I sincerely wish Celestia taught thee how to act appropriate to the situations around thee. It is unsurprising to learn thou hast not had genuine friends before... the incident."

Twilight Sparkle deflated - the alicorn was, unfortunately, right. However, her anger quickly returned - just because Nightmare Moon was right, didn't mean Twilight would just lay down and accept it.

"As if you could understand anything about friendship!" she retorted, although a pang of hurt sounded in her chest - there were ponies she hadn't visited or even written to since she moved away from Canterlot, and they did call her a friend.

"Perhaps," was the mild reply, "However, that doth not change thy situation. As for thy friends, they are safe, asleep like thou wast. No harm will come to them."

The door to her room opened, and the dark alicorn stepped through it. Twilight Sparkle froze in place, but it wasn't her fear that made her do it - it was the runes painted on her body. Then, once more, they sapped her energy, and she was forced to lie on her bed, powerless, with only enough strength to glare at her captor.

"Thou hast managed to break through my spell," Nightmare Moon said, eyeing the unicorn with an impassive gaze, "However, that was quick work, nothing I cannot improve now that I have the time and the means. Thou shalt sleep, and so shall thy friends, until such a time when all of you can be released."

Her horn lit up with magic as she weaved a spell, and Twilight could barely fight as her eyelids drooped, her energy lowered further, and a sense of sleepiness invaded her mind. Despite the magic suppression she was experiencing, she did her best to delay the inevitable, and she grinned triumphantly when beads of sweat appeared on Nightmare Moon's forehead. The alicorn gritted her teeth, her horn brightening, and then sleep finally took over, smoothening the unicorn's features and releasing the tension from her body.

"Powerful, skillful," Nightmare Moon breathed out, then straightened, "Trained. Yet not enough."

She exited the room, closing and locking the door behind her, leaving the unicorn to the enchanted sleep, now much more powerful than the initial spell. Barely a stir could be felt from Twilight Sparkle now.

However, Nightmare Moon knew one thing - if she hoped to dethrone Celestia, she needed more power. If a half-trained unicorn could make her feel the strain, then she was weaker than she thought. This situation needed to be remedied as soon as possible. Thankfully, the ritual for increasing her magical strength was almost ready. Only one thing remained, and If she could obtain it, her power would grow tenfold if not more, and none would be able to stand in her way. She would no longer struggle even against Celestia and Luna combined.

She could still feel her creator - Luna now spent most of her time asleep, unable to do anything but think. Truthfully, Nightmare Moon felt sympathy for her. She remembered her lonely imprisonment on the moon, and this kind of prison was hardly better. Before the ritual commenced, Nightmare Moon would release Luna into a new body, letting her be free. It was only just after what they've both experienced. And with time, Luna would understand that Nightmare Moon was right about the Eternal Night, and she would accept it. After all, it was her who first thought of it.

"Thou hast no idea what consequences shall befall Equestria if thou succeedst," Luna's thoughts echoed in her mind. Her voice was dull, almost lifeless. The dark alicorn felt a pang of guilt - this wasn't what she wished for her creator. Alas, it needed to be done.

"Nothing I cannot deal with once I have the power," Nightmare Moon replied dismissively, "Thou shalt see it soon."

"If only I haven't created thee this blind to what thine actions would entail..." Luna sighed and fell silent, retreating to a safe corner of her mental prison.

Nightmare Moon didn't ponder long on this, her mind shifting to what she needed to do to complete the ritual. The sooner she did it, the sooner Luna would be free, and the sooner she would be able to stand against Celestia openly. She needed to get but one artifact - as translated, it was 'The Tear of Goddess'. The books hadn't given her an answer to what it actually was, but it promised to be a powerful artifact that made miracles possible. Once it was in her possession, things would certainly move swiftly.

With purpose, she walked through the palace, her hooves clicking against the ancient stone. She made certain to lock the many doors she passed behind her with strong charms, as well as to ward the walls against damage, magical or otherwise. No pony was to remain anywhere close to the six Bearers of the Elements - they would be monitored distantly instead. Their vitals would be supported by magic as well, making sure neither their bodies nor minds wasted away as they slept. And as long as they remained in that sleep, they would be of no danger to the dark alicorn.

After making her way through the palace, she emerged in a hall deep underground. The power thrummed around her - the Tree of Harmony was nearby. Despite its name, it had little to do with the purpose of the Elements. Instead, it was a point of magic where it concentrated and presented itself visibly and physically. The hall was specifically built for power-intensive rituals and was thus used very rarely. Locked away, it had not a speck of dust, its six walls, the domed ceiling, and the floor smoothed to a matte perfection.

Nightmare Moon stood at one of the six points of the hall, focusing on the spell she was going to cast. Her horn lit up in a swirl of blues and purples, illuminating the otherwise dark room. She uttered the ancient words of the spell, pronouncing each with precision and purpose. The magic responded, the intention of it lightening the hall without ever revealing a light source. With her focus, Nightmare Moon shaped the runes into the walls - six runes for each. Ever since the magic was explored by the ponykind, the importance of the number six was drilled into the minds of the many magicians - it had power, as had the number three. Three pony tribes, six Elements of Harmony, and now there was three alicorn sisters. To ignore such signs would be foolish.

A circle was formed by Nightmare Moon's magic in the center of the room, equidistant from the walls. She continued speaking the spell, switching to a different language - a sibilant one. An eye was painted in the center, six symbols surrounding it: the three runes for the three base colors, then a symbol each for length, width, and height.

A surge of magic raced to the painted eye. A flat disk formed above the ground, perfectly black, its surface facing the dark alicorn. The spell was over, and so the darkness receded, allowing a vision to take its place. Nightmare Moon stepped forward - now that magic was properly stabilized, it would take a few minutes until the spell unraveled itself due to how much power it was consuming. If the Tree of Harmony wasn't there, the alicorn would've collapsed under the strain of the spell halfway through the casting.

She gazed into the disk - in the swampy lowlands, among the reeds and the rot, clutched in the mud-covered hands of a bipedal skeleton, a book lay, as pristine as the day it was created. A thick tome, it was closed and locked shut, yet the gems set in its cover glowed ever on. It wasn't what she was searching for, but she felt it was important nevertheless.

Among the bones surrounding the artifact, treasures lay aplenty - gold, gems, crystals, vials, piles, and boxes, contents spilling from them freely, glinting in the haze. In the distance, the mountains could be seen, tall and imposing, spreading wide across the land. A broken tower lay at the foot of a mountain, abandoned for years untold. Among the mountains, guarding the long-abandoned mines and quarries, hulking figures of stone treaded. The dead lay among the treasures and the paths around the swamps, some more alive than they should.

In the distance, spires pierced the skies, capturing the glow of multiple moons even at day, and an eerie green glow rose above the towers and the walls. The denizens of those dead cities stirred, feeling Nightmare Moon's gaze on them. Eyeless skulls looked up to the skies, seeing yet not seeing, lacking understanding of what the dead, magic-bound bones felt.

Nightmare Moon breathed a deep breath, hoping they couldn't look back at her. The vision continued, showing an old, weathered monolith, many runes etched into it. She knew now that she would need to find them and activate them to find the Tear. Finally, the spell unraveled, ending the vision and stopping its tremendous draw on the magic of the land. Yet Nightmare Moon shivered - there was a sensation, a feeling of being watched back for the briefest moment before the vision stopped. She sincerely hoped the attention of those on the other side was not firm - she had no idea how they would react to her intrusion. However, now she knew how to find the Tear.

Now, there was only one step left before she could start on obtaining it.