The Moon's Hunter

by Derpsterette

Rating: teen
Tags: Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna, Mystery, King Sombra, Violence, Princess Celestia, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Death
Length: 2320

Nightmare Moon is back, but not in the way many might expect.

While all of the princesses were meeting to discuss how they will beat Sombra. They receive an unexpected visitor. It's Nightmare moon, and she has some unsettling news.

She's fixed their problem, but probably not how they would have liked.

Not too sure on whether "Gore" is a necessary tag, I've added it just in case. If it isn't please notify me.

Published 2019-07-27 13:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-08-30 07:45:45 UTC

Guess Who's Back

It was a normal sunny day in Canterlot, birds can be heard chirping as they fly through the trees, ponies going about their usual days completely unaware about the discussion going on at Canterlot Castle. Sombra was back, there had been sightings near the Crystal Empire putting the crystal ponies on edge. So all four of the princesses had arranged to meet at Canterlot, Twilight bringing her friends with the elements and Spike, Cadence also bringing Shining Armour. All of the most important ponies in Equestria were present at this meeting in Canterlot.

Discussions like this would usually take place inside the throne room, but thanks to everypony, with a horn, present being able to detect unusual amounts of dark magic build up, the discussion was then moved to an old war room that hasn't been used for centuries. Everyone was sat at a large round stone table, which had an image of half a sun and half a moon on it. The most important part of this table however was the map on it. It was a map of the Crystal Empire with all spots where Sombra had been seen.

"With the increase in Sombra sightings, Twilight you and your friends are to go to the Crystal Empire and attempt to use the elements-" Celestia begins to explain before she is interrupted by a guard entering the room.

"I apologise for the interruption your majesties but there is a disturbance outside, huge dark clouds are gathering around Canterlot. Ponies are worried that this may be Sombra returning, especially after the Sombra scare in the Crystal Empire," the guard explains.

"Well that makes it easier to find him then. Let's go blast him!" Rainbow says as she starts flying out of the room followed bu the cheers of the mane 6 aside from Twilight who grabs Rainbows tail with her magic.

"We've got to plan this out Rainbow, so we can actually beat him. Who knows what he plans on doing, but he must have a plan if he announces himself to all of Canterlot like this."

"Twilight we still do not know whether this is actually Sombra. It may just be a result of all of the dark magic accumulating around Canterlot lately," says Luna, "Do not just jump headfirst into a problem that may not even exist in the first place. I say we go and investigate this phenomena ourselves and even if it is Sombra he will not be able to stand to the might of four alicorns at once."

"Don't be so confident Luna, while it may not be certain it is Sombra, it is also not certain that it is not Sombra. Twilight is right to plan for one of the possibilities." says Celestia, " How about you, Cadence, Shining and I go and confront the clouds while you all come up with a plan if it is Sombra." As Celestia says this Cadence, Shining and Luna stand up to accompany Celestia whereas The mane 6 and Spike sit back round the table beginning to come up with ideas. Eventually coming up with just use the elements against him.

They then ran to join Celestia and the others outside of the castle in one of the main streets. They were Observing the clouds, which had gotten much larger than before. "It doesn't seem to have the same dark magic feeling as Sombra's magic, it seems raw, unfocused. Definitely not something product of Sombra." says Cadence

The streets were lined with ponies panicking, some claiming the world is ending, some others saying it was the third coming of Sombra. It was almost complete anarchy with boxes, clothes and food scattered about, discarded because of the seemingly impending apocalypse. The dark clouds were touching the floor now, obscuring a perfect view of the full street.

"This is getting worse and worse the longer it goes on. We've got to determine if there's a way to stop this, Twilight you and your friends should attempt to use The Elements on this cloud of dark magic, their harmonious nature should cancel it out and remove the dark clouds over Canterlot," Celestia says.

But before they can follow this plan through, the world around them goes unnaturally quiet. No more ponies screaming, no chirping of birds, it was as if all of time had frozen. It wasn't completely silent however they could hear the clopping of one set of hooves and the sound of something metal being dragged along the pavement. The mane 6, believing this to be Sombra, put on the elements in preparation for their use. They were not however prepared for what walked out of the fog.

They first saw glowing blue eyes in the fog moving slowly towards them. The cat like irises standing out like solitary stars in the night sky. The next thing they saw was a menacing grin full of pearly white, sharpened teeth that looked like knives. A long horn then pierced the darkness glowing a deep hue of blue, signifying the use of magic. Finally their full head was revealed to be none other than, The Queen of Nightmares and The Mistress of Darkness herself, Nightmare Moon. Once she fully revealed herself she was wearing full plate mail with intricately carved runes etched into the light blue armour. The runes predominantly featured the moon in its many stages in the night sky. The most worrying thing however wasn't her appearance, it was the one and a half metre long claymore that was stained red with the same if not more detailed runes as on her armour, again featuring the moon in all her stages.

Her appearance was met with the gasps of all ponies present aside from her own. Nightmare Moon just looked them all in the eyes as her grin widened. "How dare'st thee return foul Nightmare!" Luna shouts in the Royal Canterlot Voice, Nightmare Moon however looks unfazed, picks up a sack that was hidden in the black fog, the sack was dripping a red substance that all present hoped to be sauce, but they knew it probably wasn't. Nightmare Moon didn't open her mouth to speak, she just grinned even wider staring, seemingly into their collective souls. Nightmare opened the sack revealing a familiar decapitated head.

It was the head of the Crystal Dictator himself, Ex-King Tyrant Sombra, only it lacked one of his most iconic features, his sharpened red tinted horn. Nightmare drops the sack and levitates the head over to herself, she looks him in the eyes before looking over to the ponies gathered. She throws the head to Celestia's hooves, looking her in the eyes before turning round and walking away, into the smoke, with her claymore in tow. It was then that she released the first sound they'd heard from her in this whole meeting, it was a cackle, a menacingly evil cackle, which only worsened the feelings of dread they all felt.

Author's Note

This was written as an attempt to better improve my skills in describing what is actually happening in a story. Constructive criticism is wholeheartedly welcomed.

The Start of Something Big

It was a few hours later now, and Nightmare Moon was still walking after her teleport in the dark clouds. They disperse after a day anyway, she doesn't need to clean them up. Thank the gods too, that would be a right pain. She giggles to herself, remembering the looks on their faces as she emerged from the smoke.

"Priceless," she says aloud, with another giggle, not really caring if anyone was listening in.

She's been living low ever since Luna was purged of Nightmare's spirit, she's not had a bad time, the fact that she even has a body now is evidence of that. She's lived in the Everfree Forest ever since, she was even able to re-inhabit certain parts of The Castle of The Two Sisters, which is how she was able to forge the armour she wears and the claymore she wields.

A long time ago, back when Luna was mistreated, Nightmare was a spirit going from pony to pony helping them with problems they encountered. But when she started to try and help Luna, that was when things started to get out of hoof very quickly.

Luna's room was dark and dingy with a wooden floor which was almost rotting, walls of stone brick without a single window, the only source of light was a magical blue flame which Luna herself had to put there. This room had only worsened her feelings of hatred and anger towards her sister and all the ponies who look up to her. Luna was currently laid on her bed, which was literally just a frame with a bit of cloth to cover herself with, she was dream walking solving the few nightmares ponies allowed her to enter.

It was at this time when Nightmare first met Luna. Nightmare was just wandering around the dream realm looking for ponies to strike a deal with where they just bumped into each other. Both of them trying to help the same pony, it was at this point where Nightmare realised that Luna was the pony who needed help most, and then they struck up a deal. Nightmare would possess Luna and help her to build a better image of herself, but this is when things began to go wrong. Nightmare could seize control of Luna if she felt Luna was making a decision that would affect her image negatively, she was also a voice for Luna to consult about decisions.

This method worked at the start, but progress was slow. Nightmare felt that fact affect Luna leading to her making more brash and less thought out decisions. Nightmare tried tirelessly to stop it but the problem with possessing somepony is that you are subjected to their feelings and unadulterated emotions all of the time. The amount of anger and distress Luna had inside of her was enough to corrupt any soul Nightmare's included.

It was this corruption which eventually lead to the very well known attempted coup, leading to Luna and Nightmare being stuck on the moon for a few hundred years. But once they both returned to Equestria Nightmares corruption did also, and now with a desire for vengeance. It was now Luna's job to attempt to rein in Nightmare's murderous attempts against the Mane 6's lives.

Once Nightmare had been purged from Luna's body, she woke up a few hours after outside of the castle of the two sisters, with all of her memories but now none of the corruption is present, and she began to feel an unbearable amount of guilt. She knew however that to progress in helping those she wronged, she would need to act and not mourn. She can wonder about the body she now has later, now it's time to raid the castle and get what she can from it.

Now it was the day the castle didn't look nearly as menacing as it had when she and Luna occupied it in the night. It looked almost welcoming, albeit in a state of massive disrepair, even as she walked through the main doors to the castle she could see pieces of the walls covered in moss and some bricks very loosely holding the castle up. Nightmare began by investigating the castle's kitchen, knowing that there wouldn't be any edible food but at least something she could wash and then use to cook for herself.

Upon visiting the kitchen she found the bare minimum needed to cook for herself all she needed now was actual ingredients that she could cook with. Because of this she decided to see if any bits were left in the treasury which she would then be able to support herself off of for a while. On her journey to the other side of the castle she again remarks on how much it is falling apart, she was pretty far into the castle but the holes in the walls still allowed her to see outside, admittedly she probably caused a few of these holes but she doesn't remember causing all of them.

She passed by the armoury on her way, and by a brief glance through the door she saw quite a few sets of night guard armour left on their stands, not moved since the castle was abandoned. She begins to think to herself about melting all of them down into a single larger set of armour for herself, because pretty much everypony knows who she is, putting her in a considerable amount of danger.

This big armour set can come later however as she now stood in front of the vault door. It stood many metres above her, its massive rotating padlock lit up blue in her magic as she began to input the correct code. She was surprised that the code hadn't been changed in all of the thousand years she was gone. The golden glow of the bits in the vault began to light up the corridor behind her. There was a considerable amount of bits just left here, surprising nopony looted this place once it was abandoned, but hey that doesn't matter all that mattered now is how Nightmare is going to use these bits because she still stood out like a sore hoof.

She knew she couldn't go back to Ponyville at risk of running into those six that purged her out of Luna. She'd have to get looking at a recent map to get her bearings and attempt to find a backwater village that she could sneak through and legitimately pay for the food that she would take.

Author's Note

Guess who's back!!
Sorry for being a bit late I am trying to aim for at least 1000 words a chapter.
Again constructive criticism is welcomed.