Shadows of the Night

(Author's Note: Prereader(s): Moon_Fire, Paw Print, RockingDoubleK thank you)

The day of the gala was much the same as it had been for the past week, everypony getting all their best suits and dresses primed, ironed, washed, dusted, the whole shebang of cleaning and extra cleaning to make the whole castle have a glow all its own. Though, the actual low level glow actually came from one of the more magical cleaning agents used in the castle, mostly for special occasions.

Cleaning aside, the whole castle was ablaze with gossip, rumors, and fantasies of all kinds. From the Elements of Harmony speculated continuation of last year’s debacle, of which was laughed about by the servants from the more snooty ponies who thought that as it was the first time anypony else could remember it actually being the slightest bit fun, all the way to the griffin whom seemed to have invented a new sort of music that clashed between classical and the pure beats of techno. All in all, pretty low brow stuff. What most ponies were talking about was the new latest trends from Fancy Pants and his exclusive shots for this coming winters fashion trends, bleh, boring.

To tell the truth, I was in a pretty good mood, heck, I’d go so far as to say mighty fine, as were my friends when I met them up at the food tables. Each was in there veritable Sunday best, none of them actually had any work that night. The nightly weather patrol was off, and all the cleaning had been done and a light stasis spell had been placed on it all so as to remain in the pristine condition all throughout the night. In fact the only other staff that I had noticed that were working were the royal guards, who were basically the bouncers of the evening, a little degrading when said like that, but damn if they don’t actually make those peacock feathered helmets actually look slightly intimidating. They certainly had the easier of the two jobs, cause the other workers were in the kitchen, the day staff had actually been given the morning off so they could sleep in and be ready for the night, and they were a wonder, zipping around each other like bees in a hive. All the while Devil and, who I could only assume was the day head-chef, were shouting out orders left and right, and nopony was stepping on each other’s hooves, metaphorically speaking, it was obviously not there first gala.

I’d actually had to just shadow-stride into the servant’s dining room due to all the hustle where my aforementioned friends waved a cheerful hello as well as a whistle from Weather Vein on the tux I’d made for my proxy, it was simple, yes, but you just can’t go wrong when you suit up, I’d even made myself a small fob-watch with circular designs on the cover on a chain for it too. Everypony was excited for the coming evening, excepting for me, who’d been partially dragged into all this, parties just aren’t my thing, I always end up feeling too socially and physically aware and I end up getting anxious. But I’d been talked into it by Devil Cake who’d overheard us a few nights ago and said that it was something that everypony should at least try once, “After all, it was a big castle and there was normally something interesting going on if you can find it.” He’d said.

There we all were as we made our way past the kitchens and into the vast expanse of spaces of the castle which housed the Grand Galloping Gala. It looked like we were going to go to the main hall, the same place that held the recent wedding, but when I asked Twister just rolled her eyes, “The main hall is where all the stuffies congregate. Nothing fun or interesting ever happens there. It’s the places on the fringes where you can find some real fun,” she said with a smile which quickly spread to the others.

We ended up in the Canterlot Gardens, in fact, right in front of the entrance to the royal hedge-maze. In front of it were two burly looking earth stallions, certainly ripped, not Snowflake ripped, but definitely more muscled than Big Macintosh, though most of that intimidation factor was taken away by the one on the left having a coat of mauve and mane and tail of purple satin, and the one on the right having a coat of just the same, but the color scheme reversed. I almost wanted to go all d’awww on them, but I think that might have hurt their feelings. Upon seeing me however they stepped, in unison, to block the entrance, but were waved back when the Clean Sisters waved them back and gave them both a kiss on the cheek. It took a lot of effort right then and there not to make a matching set joke from two sets of twins dating each other.

Once inside the floor had three choices of which we were to choose, obviously to keep anypony from getting lost, there was a red, green, and a blue line, each one split off at the first intersection up ahead.

“So which one do we choose?” I asked, a little bewildered.

“Well, the red one goes to the food, and…” Weather Vein said as he tapped his chin.

“…the green one goes to the games, and the blue one goes to the bar.” Twister finished for him.

“Why have the bar separate from the rest of the food? Isn’t that inefficient?” Was my only reply, of which was quickly met by snickers and a, “I’ll tell you when you’re older Rumor” from Oxi.

‘Oh my.’

“So then what’s the plan?” I restated.

“I don’t know about you fillies,” Vein said with a puffed out chest, “but I’m headed off to enjoy a night off at the bar” and he sauntered on off.”

That just left me with the rest of the ladies, who just seemed to wait around some, and since no one else was taking the initiative I suggested we check out what the “games” section had in store.

I’ll admit, I’m still not used to this whole concept of magic, but damn if ponies don’t know how to have fun with it. It was like a mini-carnival, and each ride was powered by a team of three or four unicorns who then lifted two pairs of ponies off the ground and sent them whirling and spinning about in fantastic ways for about three minutes. There was also a giant ice slide, made by a unicorn, I think his name was Frosty, who work with two other pegasi who had wrangled a cloud and made it snow to keep the whole thing from melting. It was all pretty sweet, but it seemed the main attraction were the actual games that were there, board games to be exact. Ponies love board games, apparently. There was checkers, chess, chutes and ladders. I really had to start getting over just how many things were so easily translatable into different worlds. None of them really caught my fancy, though Twister seemed to want to try CandyLand, I wasn’t that thrilled, or interested, until I saw IT. The ultimate friendship destroying, hair-tearing outingest, ground-stompingest, table-flipingest, all around best board game in all existence, Monopoly. I was surprised that a game like this had been made, especially with the over-all egalitarian vibe that the ponies around here practically exuded from their pores, though it was only just a game, so I guess it made sense. I loved me some Monopoly, and a small look over the rules proved them to be the exact same, save a few pronoun changes, no houses and hotels, but cottages and castles, and a few other minor words, but it was still the same game, made by the PonyBros, yes ha-ha, horse pun. I know there’s no such thing as a bad pun, but it just sort of loses its edge when it’s the only pun that seems to proliferate through the community, it no longer seems like even the slightest bit of a challenge to make one. That of course wasn’t going to deter me away from a rousing game, of which the ladies agreed to play, I of course called dibs on the iron, best…piece…ever. And the game began.

***

I couldn’t believe just how cut throat everypony got once the game started, it was beautiful. Competition at its finest and I loved every second of it. By my seventh go around the board I’d been able to get all four rail road’s, and both cards to the purple monopoly, of which had two houses each, and a smattering of a few other properties. But it was Twister who everyone had to watch out for, she’d luck out her first go around the board and landed on the first blue property, Luna’s Wing (of Canterlot Castle) and her next turn she rolled snake eyes, and of course she bought Celestia’s Wing next, and she had managed to get a house on both of them, a real nasty stretch to go through so early in the game.

I wasn’t worried though, I was just a few seconds away from breaking out some house rules and finalizing my trade of my single yellow property with Oxi’s two light blue properties, which would give me complete dominance over the first stretch of the board, and give her a nice monopoly, with my promise that she would not have to pay rent her first three turns across my side of the board, as well as a hefty seven-hundred dollars from me as well before she’d hand them over. Clever girl.

It was then, of all times, that disaster had to strike. A loud crash was heard from the ball-room, even through the din of party goers and distance and screams starting to fly. I’d begun to start taking stock of my surrounding, but it appeared that all the hub-bub was focused in the primary reception hall. But it was only a few seconds later when an earth shattering rumble emanated from the castle. A few stones, followed by massive amounts of dust, flew out from the castle as the whole section of the castle took on a more holy appearance.

It wasn’t until the shaking stopped that everypony outside started to panic and run about screaming. I wasn’t able to hear any of that too well because Caligo absolutely went OFF. Before I could notice anything he quickly pushed himself outwards and I felt my face melt and reform as he took dominance.

***Caligo***

‘There, a way in.’

I was not about to let my master waste an opportunity to claiming his throne. Whatever was occurring in the primary reception hall had apparently cause enough damage to splinter through whatever fortifications had been sealing my sister half away from me. I am not going to let this opportunity slip away.

Shadow-striding to the hall my master began to voice his complaints at my actions, I wouldn’t be able to do this for much longer anyway, soon he’d be able to completely dominate me, but until then it was my duty to make sure that the Sovereign of Darkness would be able to successfully be able to thrive, and more power is one of the easiest ways of making him safer.

Making it to the ball-room, sheathe in shadow, of which was now growing due to the shattered light sources around the room, I caught the tail end of an immature black dragon leaving through a ruined door-frame. She may have been the one to cause some of this, but she was leaving, and obviously no one was stopping her, so she must have stopped creating havoc, otherwise there would have been more guards on her. But she was of little matter now, because whatever damage that had been caused had not only given way to my sister’s holding cell, but it had also freed her. No one around the room noticed as she shifted her way into the populace.

She stopped first at a griffin with red plumage and a crudely shaped sword upon his back, her whispers and enticements held little sway over him, but her second attempt was successful. As she merged with a grey mare she quickly shifted into an alicorn form, and immediately began to attack the room around her, focusing primarily upon the one whom scorned her.

At this juncture I’d already been up on one of the ornate pillars in the hall for roughly thirty-seven seconds, partially to keep out of the cross-fire, but also because my master was beginning to loosen his binds. His mind was already almost completely fused with mine, the shared power was almost completely his as well, but I still had a few tricks to keep him occupied.

The battle swiftly ended as quickly as it came, lasting only a few minutes and a few changes of primary fighting targets, of which that blasted fool of a bird almost destroyed when he tore off the horn. Had he been any closer in his wrecking of such a fragile instrument of magic, she might have been lost to me. All of the creatures that fought her demonstrated a skill, and zeal, for fighting that I had not happened upon since the war of chaos and order headed by Discord and those two alicorn sisters. Even now it still amuses me just how little Discord understands pure chaos and thinks himself a king over the small fringe workings he dabbles in. Truly an impressive sight, but made again unimportant as the defeat of my sister’s puppet had left her in an incredibly ephemeral and weakened state.

Then it happened, the fight was over, but they just had to let the hammer fall once more. Once more on my sister! A wretched little changeling, morphed into a bipedal stance, came up behind her. Swinging his quasi-instrument in a wide arc he brought it down upon her host's head, directly into the damaged magical nexus of her force-grown horn. The weapon, obviously enchanted, in some form or another judging from the sparks of twisted light running along the ventral side, sent a burst of light through the creature, and shattered my sister, sending pieces of her flying EVERYWHERE!

'My sister! That idiot shattered my.....

***Back to Rumor***

I don't know what happened, but quite suddenly the grasp that Caligo had upon me weakened and I was able to force my way back to being the dominant conscious being. Coming to, after feeling Caligo’s mask sludge back into where ever he kept himself in my body was as disgusting as it sounds. But I didn’t allow myself to lose my cool, mostly due to fear at seeing myself now on a ledge of an ornate pillar as my hands griped onto the edge to make sure I wasn’t going to fall off. I was about to shadowport down to the ground, and then give Caligo a piece of my mind when…

‘Look, this is what happens when my sister half is let loose upon the world.’

It was only due to his words that I finally began to truly see the destruction below me, rather than it just being a place far away down. A few ponies were being looked over, and a few were being levitated to the next room or to probably get some medical attention. The room itself was in shambles. There was a gaping hole in the floor that went down several of them. Broken chairs and other dining equipment were shattered and spread among there burned counter-parts.

‘How many?’

‘You are incredibly lucky, because no one was killed this night, but next time no-one will be so lucky, nor the third time,, and every other time so long as my sister and I are not rejoined together.’

‘Yeah, but I promised I’d leave Nightmare alone…’ I didn’t think the next part of that too loud, but Caligo still felt my want to continue working here in this ultimately peaceful environment.

‘If this is truly how you feel master, but consider this, the lives lost from my sister’s rampages will be upon your head due to your lack of action.’

A low blow to be sure, but an accurate one, I couldn’t let innocents be put at risk when I could do something about it, but I was still bound by my word that I’d given to Celestia, so I decided to go and ask her one more time.

It wasn’t hard finding Celestia, the gaping hole of light she creates in darkness is quite stark, that, and she’d only been a few rooms out past the hall, the guards posted outside of them were also another obvious sign.

Finding the nearest dark corner in the hallway, I closed my eyes and concentrated on finding any place in the room Celestia occupied that had any shadows I could come in through, there was a surprisingly high amount, but I didn’t question my luck and came through.

The room itself was rather drab, compared to other parts of the castle, and was obviously meant to be used as a guest room from the darker blues and greens that prevailed in the carpeting and… bedding, of which Celestia laid outstretched upon.

I thought she might have been asleep and was about to leave when a small chuckle escaped from her mouth, it somehow sounded slurred, but I politely cleared my throat and said, “Excuse me Princess Celestia.”

“Mmmff, what do you want?” Came the muffled reply of Celestia’s voice from behind a few of the more ornamental pillows from the bed.

“I’m afraid that Nightmare just now caused some damage to your Gala, and I wanted to know if you’re sure that you don’t want me to attempt to…”

“Yeah, just go for it, I know I wanted him to loosen up some, but I’d rather Knightmare didn’t take too much on from that griffin.”

It was a little shocking to hear her talk so… so… informally about it, but I chalked it up to her always wanting to maintain her look of control over things. She really had pulled something similar in the first two episodes of the show after all, and Caligo certainly wasn’t going to let me dwell on it further as he drew me towards the outskirts of Canterlot’s city proper where he said Nightmare was trying to reconstitute herself.

***

There beneath the shadow of the mountain that held Canterlot aloft was Nightmare, the entity of corruptions that twisted Princess Luna into Nightmare Moon, and try to throw the world into eternal night, and just recently had merged with a musically inclined earth pony in an attempt to destroy all other forms of music but the most stringent of classical. She writhed and swirled in her murky form beneath overhanging rocks and ridges in a shadow like a patch of midnight that had never been cleared away. And I pitied her. I could feel the edges of shadow where she began to take root and twisted it into a physical form, and I could feel the throbbing pain.

I began to walk towards her she immediately stirred into action and began to sweep towards me. She must have though I couldn't see her, which was just as well because that also gave Caligo the advantage of surprise which he was so clearly relishing. As soon as she attempted contact with me whispers of power, gold, and glory filled my mind. I’d be lying if she didn't sound damn persuasive, hints of all the people who’d ever harmed or made fun of me suddenly become my playthings to torture, burn, rend, rip, and peel, and all other manner of wonderfully prolonged and oh so inefficient means of hurting. I could do it all, I would have the time, because I would just be that powerful… just so long as I’d give her the reigns.

Caligo urged me to accept, and promised me that I’d be fine, of which he felt my apprehension after having just so recently been turned into his living puppet, but promised he would no longer do such a thing without my permission again. Through it all I felt the one thing he was trying to hide, but couldn't, not with her so close. He wanted to help his sister.

I agreed to Nightmare’s whispers and she let out a sigh as she once again slid her way into a new host, where she could better heal from her recent wounds.

***Caligo***

After countless years, she was finally back, my sister half. The waves of corruption that the previous Sovereign of Darkness infused her with still circulated her being. Again, another failure of the Alicorns. The amateurs.

Now she was back and I could feel her...

Emotivores detected. Quarantine subject Nightmare. Capture subprogram No. 3 begin execution.

Initiate mental barrier: target host mind.

Creature shows weakness, memory scans reveal entity as fractured fragment.

Employ mental caging... creature secure.

Target captured.

Initiating Purification subprogram: dark-arts, "suck poison from wound".

Processing excess negative emotional defensive response, rerouting to physiological response.

WARNING: physiological response will cause severe harm to host. Continue?

Agree (host possess superlative regeneration abilities within absence of light. Current location: underneath mountain outcrop at night).

Emotivore defensive response exhausted, begin assimilation.

///Error. Subject Emotivore's corruption inhibits complete mental domination. Retreating to sleeper mode.

....

My sister!!!

I couldn't quite recall what I had done, but the way I was reflexively relegating the pain towards the hos-Rumor meant that she had been hurt very badly. I was just glad that she was now free of the alicorns influence. Looking at her, I could see a form of cognizance returning, slowly towards her.

My sister blinking past the haze of pain, as I collapsed the mental barrier that kept her in place, staggered towards me and latch onto me to help steady her. I was far more than happy to oblige. She was finally coming back, but there was still so much corruption in her. I noticed a stream of energy was being channeled from us out into existence I could feel the peace that had for so long eluded my sister begin to fill up in the places where only pain had been able to reside in. It was over in a lifetime of pain made seconds long. It was done.

***Rumor***

So I agree to let Nightmare in, and began to feel a sense of euphoria when Caligo walled himself away from me, breaking Nightmare’s control as well as the sense of euphoria. It was a bit of a drag, though it would explain why Nightmare was able to keep control of a host for so long.

I tried to make contact with him a few times but I just felt my thought bounce back off of this sort of mental wall. In fact I bounce a few thoughts off of it because they made a sort of telepathic echo, but stopped when I realized I was probably putting stress onto a structure that was meant to try and keep me safe.

The seconds ticked by into minutes, and I began to worry, especially with my poor sense of time. I started to worry that he might be dying or one of a’thousand different horrible things that went through my head. I tried blocking them out by simply counting out the seconds. Fun fact, despite being horrible at keeping accurate enough guesses of the passage of time, I can pretty much count time with the passing of seconds with near perfection.

I’d just gotten up to two minutes and thirty-three seconds when my blood decided it didn’t want to hang around with me anymore and started to geyser out my pores and tearing apart my organs in their haste to leave. Suffice to say, expletives, and every other word I’d ever learned at this point in my life left me utterly speechless as both pain and lack of it greeted me with such force as to knock me back up into a standing position after collapsing to my knees as my whole body began to seize up.

See, that’s the nice thing about not only having a wonderful little immune system that works even better the less light there is in the general vicinity and is only partially fueled by the body so that way magic can help keep it going if the body would normally just flip the table and flat on out leave. It means that you don’t get to pass out from pain. It means you get to feel every little drop of its existence until it’s done, and only when you have exhausted yourself from using power or fighting will you actually be allowed to involuntarily do something like that. It’s quite wonderful. ‘Ah the joys of sarcasm.’

And then it stopped.

‘It is done.’ Was all I got from Caligo as he slunk back into his own little corner of my mind as another hole began to form for my new little noggin mate.

‘That’s nice, I think I’ll go wash off by the stream then see if I can find some grub to help make up for…’ I look down, ‘I don’t know, a couple pints of blood. I don’t think magic can completely make up for this.’ I stagger a little as I make my way to the sound of running water. Caligo remains silent. Don’t care. I’m now tired, hungry, and in no mood to mitigate my feelings by calling myself only “a little” irritated. I’d think “I hope you’re happy”, but the small wave of emotion that Caligo can manage... Meh, still too tired to care right now.

(Author's Note Mk. 2: Knightmare and Nightmare is not a typo, for those of you who aren't aware, that interesting little insert was from this story From Nobody to Knightmare, a nice person, and a story I rather enjoy)