Nightmare Moon stood on the bank of a river. Beneath her hooves was bare dirt, broken with bare trees. At the edge of the water was a flat-bottomed boat with two benches built into the sides, on black water that reflected an empty sky. Beyond that was the other side of the river, the place that they called the far country, the place from which the dead did not return.

The boatman was long gone from this place. His oar and cloak were thrown over one of the benches, empty. His role in events had been consumed, when the gate had opened. (Why would there be a need to take the Neath to the far country, when the far country had come to the Neath?)

She turned around and began trotting, moving up a slope away from the river. The world around her slowly became brighter. The ground below changed from black to brown. The trees brightened from ebony shadows to mahogany, walnut, teak. The sky began to shine, like matte transforming into a black mirror. Until – until –

The light was the oil lamp on the brow of her barge. The river was gone. She was on her boat in the middle of the sea. The false-stars in the roof of the Neath were all no more. The only light was her lamp. Her superior night vision let her faintly see the walls of the Cumean Canal, at the very edge of the light of her lamp. The gate leading into the lock system was still open, as designed. She could guide her barge into it and activate the systems to bring her back to the surface, if she desired. But that would not happen for a good long while. She had work to do.

Nightmare Moon closed her eyes and reached out to dreams…

...She stood, now, up to her knees in slow brown water. Mud sucked at her hooves. The only light was orange candle flames, floating like will-o’-the-wisps that had been painted upon a great dome. Within the water floated round red shapes, bobbing and rolling. There was a buzzing like bees. The smell of rot hung in the air.

"Drowned Man!" she screamed, out into the darkness. " Drowned Man! I demand an audience!"

Silence.

"I know dreams were your home, eaten one. I remember! This is the dream of sustenance. This is what you created, after the betrayal. If there is anywhere in the land of dreams you would be, it is here! Now speak!"

No one responded. The bees buzzed, just far enough away to not be illuminated. The lights hung, unheeding.

"I bear a blessing, my sister's word! I bear the power of the Liberation of Night. You will come, and open the way!"

The only sound was the splashing of her hooves in the water as she turned.

One last try. "Now we have the wax, which is the streak beneath our skin, and the wick, which is the faith we have skeined, and..."

Nightmare Moon sensed nothing. No one was watching, or they refused to speak, or had turned away, if they had even been there.

Nightmare Moon grit her teeth. She closed her eyes and opened them again.

She was back on her barge. A waste.

Very well. Their preparations had included such a possibility. There was another method to force open the Seeking Road. It would be more difficult and more dangerous, but it would not require Mr. Eaten's sanction to go North.

She went to the back, next to the folded engine. She pressed down on a foot pedal, and the engine unfolded like an accordion, gears and pistons expanding and locking into place to form a boiler and propellers. A clever arrangement of flexible pipes allowed for the channeling of zee-water directly into the boiler. A crate of lead plates was next to the engine; she took one and magically inscribed a rune into it: an intimate understanding of the substance of flame. The rune glowed red as it was finished, and smoke began to rise from the plate. She put it into the boiler where the coal would normally go and closed it.

The use of a Correspondence plaque was not a particularly refined way to create the heat needed to run a steam engine, but there would be no coal left in any station. She needed a method that was as fuel efficient as possible.

She steamed southeast, towards Kingeater's Castle.

* * *

Kingeater's Castle stood at the end of the Sea of Statues. It had no history, no past. No one could say who had constructed it, or when, or what had happened to the builders. The statues must have been built by human hands, for it did not seem likely that the Drownies or the devils or the Rubbery Men might have carved them, but that left the question of how they had been sunk in water so deep that only their reaching hands remained above the surface, or where in the Neath someone may have built sculptures larger than a cathedral's steeple without leaving any trace of a construction site.

The castle itself was no castle at all. It was more like a theater in the round, or an arena. Rows of seats, carved from dark stone, rose in a circle around a central altar, and at the tops of the seats, the size of ships, rose five stone hearts.

Nightmare Moon tied her boat to a great stone fist at the edge of the Sea of Statues. If what she was about to attempt worked, then it would be safest to keep the boat as far from the castle as he could. She flew the rest of the way, through the arms and heads and torso that rose from the sea.

She landed next to the altar. The two braziers on each side of it still burned. Stone veins threaded along the top of the rows, intertwining the five hearts. Nothing moved. There were few powers that were left in the Neath who would witness this, but the castle was one, and she felt it watching her. Very soon, she would draw another.

"My name is Nightmare Moon," she began. “On the surface, I am the guardian of dreams and the darkness between the stars. I betrayed my sister and my people. I accepted darkness into myself. For these, I was chained to the moon for a thousand years. Now I come, one who betrayed and was betrayed in turn. I am here to open the way to the North.

“None may approach the well unless they have suffered as the Drowned Man suffered. The way North is death, and then torment. This is the law, and none may break it. When those who loved the Drowned Man went North, they embraced it. They gave of themselves willing to feed him. They were asked for seven scars, and seven chains, and seven stains, and they gave all those with joy. They gave up their pasts, they gave up their presents, and they gave up their futures. They drowned in pain as he drowned in the well. They gave the very head from their shoulders. They walked the path North, and they opened the gate, and they gave all they were to the Drowned Man.

“None may approach the well unless they have suffered as the Drowned Man suffered. This is the law, and none may break it. But I am an alicorn, and I am high in the Judgments’ Great Chain of Being, and thus I have the strength and permission to bend it.

“I will suffer, but it will not be suffering through sacrifice but suffering through struggle. I will walk the Seeking Road, but not to join the Drowned Man, but to destroy him. I go forth in opposition to him. I say this so that all will know it; let him gnash his teeth with it!

“The Seeker must bear seven stains upon their soul; I offer the one stain of becoming the Nightmare. The Seeker must place seven chains upon their mind; I give you the thousand years I was chained on the moon. The Seeker must endure seven scars; I offer one, the wound my sister gave me before I came down to the underworld. With my sister’s blessing and my own strength the rituals will accept this.

“I gave up my past, when I embraced the Nightmare. I have given up my present, when I put on her face and died on the Surface. Now it is time for me to give up my future. I dedicate my future to the destruction of the Drowned Man.

“I will walk the path North, and I will open the gate, and I will bring a final end to the Drowned Man. And the well will be silent and the candles calm, and Equestria’s dreams shall be truly her own.”

“He has closed the path to me; he knows I am coming.”

The wind blew across the surface of the castle, breaking the stillness. The flames in the braziers flickered and danced. The water around the castle moved back and forth, lapping at the land.

“Storm! I know you are listening! Once you barred the way North, before the coming of the Drowned Man. I demand that you once again open the way! I call upon the clouds and the thunder! Come to me!”

The wind came again, more urgent this time. She looked up. Something pale was moving, above her. Clouds?

"I speak the words: Now we have the wax, which is the streak beneath our skin – "

The clouds were gathering above her, carried by a suddenly stronger wind. One raindrop, then another fell.

"- and the wick, which is the faith we have skeined – "

The drizzle that had been falling increased to rain, pattering all across the castle. The flames hissed as the water hit them, but did not go out.

" - and the tinder, which is the harm we have done to those who loved us – "

The wind was howling, now. The white clouds above her were thickening, turning black. The rain redoubled to a deluge. Distant thunder rolled.

" - and the flint, which is the name, the Name, the treasure of music stilled!"

The rain was coming down in sheets, the wind screaming, threatening to drown her out. A lightning bolt came down, smashing into the sea and sending bright sparks across the surface of the roiling water. The fires on the altar flared higher, burning brighter against what was coming.

"Now," she cried, roaring to be heard above the coming storm, "it will hurt, we must render ourselves a little, there will be scars, but one more scar, what is that – "

Storm, the dragon, the ancient anger, the god in the roof, fell from the clouds. His wings were open, wide as the castle, and lightning gathered in his jaw. The rain and the thunder fell with him, a hammer coming down to crush the one who dared to demand to go North.

Nightmare Moon spread her wings and rose to face him.

Author's Note

It would be regrettably out of character here for Nightmare Moon to go point-by-point through all the facts that are going into her logic here, since the only people who would be listening ought to know them already. So for those of you who are new, the first several steps of the Seeking Mr. Eaten’s Name quest go something like this:

A little while after the quest starts, various opportunities will come up to demonstrate a little more blatantly your allegiance to the Drowned Man: things like grabbing people in the street and screaming at them to tell you what is the Name, or setting a place for him at your dinner table and having a mealtime conversation with his most probably nonexistent presence, or eating your own teeth. Once you’ve done enough of those, then in no particular order you need seven Weeping Scars (gained by killing yourself seven times in various elaborate ways), seven Memories of Chains (get sent to jail seven times), and seven Stains on your Soul (an operation which very likely does not involve the cooperation of devils). Then you need to betray seven NPCs or real human players by sending them messages that, when opened, get them started on the same quest you’re on. Pull that off, and you pick up an item that lets you move on to the next stage of the quest. The general idea seems to be that in order to travel to where Mr. Eaten currently is, you need to commit the crimes he committed and endure the punishments he endured.

Nightmare Moon has a different idea. T here's something called the Great Chain of Being, which creates tiers of supernatural ability. The higher you are on the chain, the more supernatural power and ability you can wield. Alicorns are brimming with magic, so they're probably pretty high on the chain and therefore can get away with things with doing magic rituals wrong and getting the right results anyway. In this case, instead of seven of the scars/memories/stains, she’s going to use only one of each and just skip all those steps. Probably the biggest change she's making is that instead of going North to give themselves to the Drowned Man to aid his vengeance, she's going North to kick his flank through his jaw.

There's no real information on what dragons can do in Fallen London/Sunless Sea. We know they're very powerful, but there's no detail on what kind of capabilities to expect. Probably Sunless Skies has something, but I'm writing this before Sunless Skies comes out, so I think I'll just use my author's fiat on what to include.