To Live Again

“Umm dude.”

“Yes Rainbow Dash?” I said from in her head.

“It’s not that easy to save the world…trust me I’ve tried.” She looked solemnly at the ground.

“You haven’t tried my way.”

She looked back at the bathroom mirror. “And what way would that be?”

“We can try to kill her.”

“Pfft it’s been tried.” She said waving a hoof dismissively.

“Ok you need to give me a serious history lesson right now.”

“Well ok…but it’s not pretty…”

She went on explaining what happened to her home town of Ponyville when the sun never raised. Ponyville declared its independence from the rest of Equestria after Nightmare Moon took over. The town guard kept it safe from ponies who wanted entrance. In the cities food ran out fast and you either left or died there.

Later on ponies started their own militia. Of course Nightmare moon made her own corrupt night empire. 80% of the royal guard fled to the forests to build up their own Resistance force. Of course many ponies joined after the first two weeks of the eternal night. But many stayed within the safety of Canterlot’s walls. The more corrupt joined Nightmare. The militias that formed in spite of both these powerful factions found a way to have their own members join the resistance to learn combat training from professionals. Then they would return and pass on that training to their recruits.

Very soon the entire country was enveloped in a terrible civil war. Many cities that were able to support themselves declared independence from all the other parties and preferred to go it alone. Ponyville was considered Nightmare Moon’s territory because of its proximity to Canterlot. Night guard constantly patrolled the small town.

Thankfully when Applejack returned the first night of the eternal night she decided not to ship out any of the apples to other cities. That turned out a good thing when Nightmare moon demanded half of her crop delivered to Canterlot. The ponies in Canterlot became very corrupt because they were getting better treatment from Nightmare Moon than Celestia. Eventually the only sign that there were once Celestia lovers was the old graffiti art of the sun on walls. Nightmare Moon also put banners of herself all over the city to remind them who rules them.

But no matter how many times she’s tried she could never win the loyalty of Ponyville entirely. Ponyville and Nightmare have an agreement to not bother each other. Ponyville remains a mostly independent city state that refuses to hang banners of Nightmare Moon at the city hall. Nightmare moons attempts to force it resulted in burned banners. She stopped at that and decided it was best for her to keep patrols there instead.

The resistance knew of Ponyvilles unwillingness to cooperate with the moon witch and would occasionally send operatives to get intel from the civilians who can offer it.

But the most important aspect of the eternal night was the food shortage. A small town like Ponyville was able to feed its many members and eventually decided to ban immigration to keep it that way. However the bigger cities either migrated away or died off from hunger until the population was manageable. But the worst hit city was Cloudsdale. Not only was there never any farms in it but all the food and water was imported. With the whole country ‘going dark’ there were no inbound food resources that the city required to keep its citizens fed.

Pegasi either went to another city on the ground, survived in their own tribes, or joined the resistance. Most joined the resistance or made their own tribes because the cities became cesspools of scum and villainy.

Nightmare Moon had other plans for the cities. She demolished what she could and built walls around them. She also put BlueBlood in charge of Manehatten. He gladly accepted because he would love to show the ponies how to respect royalty like they’ve never respected it before. He basically ruled by fear. He tortured anyone who tried to escape or resist his might. The afraid forced the afraid to be afraid after two months. Nightmare left him to do what he pleased and eventually BlueBlood built a force of militia soldiers in Nightmares name.

The food became a major problem. Ponies started growing mushrooms in order to survive. It was a smart move that potentially saved the continent from hunger. Others picked the leaves off of the trees and ate them. That was also a good idea but the trees wounldn’t last too long. The predators went almost unchallenged as the sun would never rise and tell the predators to stop hunting. The prey items were also diminishing which made predators target ponies more and more considering they are the biggest prey item on the list.

‘So basically no one is safe…’ I thought to myself.

“Cory are you there?”

“Yea and call me Greymane.”

“Why Greymane?”

“It sounds cool.” ‘And from Skyrim.’ I thought to myself.

“Dude not the time.”

‘seriously where did this guy grow up? The nut house?’ Thought Rainbow Dash. Only I was able to hear it.

“Sorry.”

“So how do we save the world?” She asked.

“First we need to create a hero.”

“…I don’t get it.”

“It’s ok. I have a plan to kill Nightmare Moon.”

“K-kill?” She said warily.

“Yes. Nightmare needs to die and I plan on doing that to her. But I want to do it when you’re not around. Help me get out of your body. I may be able to manifest myself in this world and haunt her.”

“She’s the princess of the night dude. You can’t scare her.”

“I’m something she can’t touch. So I won’t have any regrets or worries when I oppose her. You however have a body she can rip apart and release her anger on. And I won’t let my host die.”

“NO! You’re in my body so you follow MY rules!” She said actually shouting at herself in the mirror.

“…Ok then. Fair enough. I’ll wait for you to call me or something. I’d like to go around and haunt some ponies for fun but. You come first I guess.”

“Thank you.” She said as if she were in charge. To be honest I will enjoy being in a girls mind. WHAT SECRETS DOES IT HOLD!

And so we began our adventure…kinda. Well actually we didn’t, we actually spent the last three hours playing twenty questions until we got an idea of each other’s character. I was all business no play for a while. Though after a while of talking we went silent. Apparently Dash went home to go to bed. She’s really getting tired of the night sky. I found it kinda boring because it wasn’t black and instead a bit purple. I found that weird but I thrust it into the back of my mind as a perk of this world.

“Ok the time is…oh wow eight? Why am I not tired?”

‘Maybe because of me putting you down for ten hours straight when I slammed into your brain.’

“Yea maybe.”

She went outside and gave the moon a distasteful glare. She flew off toward what I assumed was Ponyville.

Along the way I noticed her night vision was actually pretty poor. Well compared to a humans night vision that is able to find shapes. She could make out the landscape and minor but important details. Anything other than that was difficult for her like seeing the spaces between the blades of grass. In her eyes it was a solid color. I tried to help with that and surprisingly I was able to make out the world better. But I realized the grass was all shriveled up when she took an interest in it.

‘What’s going on?’ She thought to herself. ‘How am I seeing…so clearly?’

‘That would be me.’ I said in her mind.

‘Dude you can read my thoughts?’

‘I thought we went over that…’

‘I don’t remember.’

‘Ok your problem not mine.’

We flew…or she flew in silence while trying to locate something in the town. But after a few minutes of flying she found what she was looking for. A tree with a door on it. I assumed it was a house givin the porch on the second or third floor. I couldn’t tell but the tree was big enough for it to be possibly three stories high.

She landed at the front door and stopped for a moment.

‘Hey Greymane.’

‘Yes Rainbow Dash?’

‘Thanks for the sight; it won’t be as dull and dark now.’ I thought I somehow heard a hint of hopelessness in her voice.

‘Only fair I give what I can to you my host.’ I was personally getting really into the idea of being someone’s ACTUAL spirit guardian.

She went inside the tree house and looked around. Candles were scattered around every corner of the house unlike Rainbow Dash’s. Rainbow’s had at least one or two candles per room. This place was COVERED in candles.

“Twilight?”

I heard a pitter patter of feet hitting a wood floor upstairs and then a figure appears at the top of the stairs.

“Hiya Rainbow Dash!” Said an excited lizard creature that quickly made his way down the steps.

“Sup Spike. Where’s Twilight?”

“Talking to the Mayor about rations again.”

“Oh man no way!” She said with concern. “We’re not having another food shortage? Man I’d do anything to eat something other than mushrooms and old grass.”

“I’d like to give you some gems to snack on…but.” He looked at the ground sadly. “The only one who can eat them is me.”

“Aw that’s ok Spike. I appreciate the thought.” She patted his head to reassure him.

“Hey by the way.” He started. “Why do you need to meet up with Twilight anyway?”

“I have an idea on how to stop Nightmare moon…I’m tired of living under the moon.” She stated with anger.

“Yea I know what you mean. I mean dragons are practically the only thing that can go without the sun. We eat gems that grow in the earth.” He said with a hint of anger.

“Yea I know Spike.” She said rolling her eyes.

‘What’s his problem?’ I thought to her.

‘He has a grudge against the dragons for not helping ponies get the sun back. They said as long as they have their lava baths they don’t need the sun.’

‘Cold, but reasonable…I can see where they’re coming from all right.’

“yea…” Said Rainbow out loud. “Anyway I’ll get going.”

“Bye.” He said with a sigh. “Have a nice…whatever.” I could tell he didn’t want to say night as if it were a forbidden word.

Rainbow Dash looked back at him as he somberly made his way back upstairs.

‘Poor guy.’

‘What are you doing?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Who and why are we meeting this Twilgiht?’

‘To tell them about you.’

‘Oh well I have no way to prove I’m here so we might as well wait till we get that solved.’

‘NO WE NEED TO DO THIS NOW!’

She went out the door and sped off toward the center of town. I frankly couldn’t see what logic backed up her half assed plan. I could tell she was impulsive but seriously? This is just unhealthy!

I couldn’t help but subtly admire the Pegasus. She’s so determined to save the world even when the odds are not stacked in her favor. Shit I even told her I don’t have regrets and worries about what Nightmare can’t do to me and she decides to be a part of it. When she’s the one that has a body to torture.

*SLAM*

I broke out of my thoughts when I refocused on Rainbows surroundings. She found her way to what I presume is town hall or whatever they call the mayors building. I thought this because there was an office with the word mayor plastered on it.

But there were two ponies who look like they just got out of an argument because of Dash’s entry. A purple unicorn and a tan or grey (couldn’t tell in the darkness) earth pony. They both were wearing looks of confusion as they stare at the panting Pegasus before them.

“Umm Rainbow are you ok? Oh no! Did something happen?” Said Twilight.

“Uhh no but I’m going to need you and the rest of the girls.”