Author's Note
Hello readers and writers alike. To make you aware before you read, this is an old piece of work I’ve only just recently picked back up for the sake of not just having one story on my page, and to be honest the concept was pretty hard not to grasp ahold of again. So please leave suggestions and show this story some love. Anyway, onto the story.
Prologue: A Queen's Wish
The queen of the night stood from her bed from an uneasy rest, nightmares had no place for her mind, she conquered and even ruled them. Yet she had one of her own now, after a thousand years she finally found herself in shock. Her jet black coat felt the rushing cold winds from her extravagant night flow throughout her body, from the bottom of her hooves to her glittered starry mane. The night sky, it still was there, still above the land of Equestria even after her rest, yet she found fear, that maybe her eternal night sky could be taken away forever the next time she awakened. Interestingly, the ponies and other races used their internal clocks to regulate their waking and resting times, but the difficulty of finding out clearly the exact time it was, was all up to the clockmakers and Nightmare Moon herself. Although alone, she spoke inward gazing toward her moon, hoping the voice she was looking for would answer, to either mock who she has become, or be as confused of being in confusion and fear.
“Hath thou shown me a sign ?” She looked outward to see the moon staring back at her, uneclipsed and unwavering like every night. The four stars that accompanied around it, the stars of destiny she had named them, glimmered unchanging such as all the others. Just as she thought she would hear the voice she was hoping for, something else had interrupted.
“Who are you trying to talk to, mother ?”, much to her dismay, that voice was replaced with one of her own creation, the Tantabus. Though it was an intangible being to the rest of the world, its form still stood in front of her alone. The queen had come up with many of theories to explain why she could see her creation so vividly without nearing the dream world, either from dawning her helm and instantaneously having the ability to manifest her own creature mentally, or prolonged exposure to wearing her helm, or just her dark magic finally catching up to her. Nevertheless, the queen knew she had no way to deter their dialogue now.
“Tantabus, must I keep reminding thou art not your mother. Thou creator, yes. Thine mother, not at all.” She had reminded her creature almost more than that of the stars in the sky, yet that didn’t deter the creature from continuing this blind act of stupidity.
“Although you’re persistence is still much to admire, you are my mother. Now, what troubles you? You barely ever wake up in the middle of our wondrous eternal night in such a frenzy. If you had thought our prisoner escaped, well if she did escape, she’d be taking my job of being your personal one and only fear keeper.” the Tantabus laughed ethereally from her mind.
“Might I remind you, thy creator can always taketh away the gift of such existence? If thou art done taunting and prodding, I shall speak of the sign that drove us away from thy slumber. ” Agitation could clearly be heard from the queen, wanting to get straight to the point instead of small talking all night.
“Well, what are you waiting for ? Tell me, I was terrorizing a nearby village's dreams, so I need to be back their quick and keep up the carnage.”
“Not the foals this time, right ?” Nightmare Moon gave a stern look toward the Tantabus, her cold cyan slits, ones of recollection and anger, staring into the Tantabus’ soul for what they pulled out from the past.
“No, I learned my lesson from that one. Never harming a foal again psychologically or physically.”
“Thou saw a vision of one of our Lunar Guards, a strong stallion yet small for his size to fit our standard height requirement.”
“You think it may just be a colt? Maybe a foal? Mother, did you have a secret somepony hidden away in those memories of yours you aren’t sharing with me? Might it be that old crush of yours had wormed into your mind?” The Tantabus eagerly teased giddily.
“T-THOU HASETH PARTAKEN IN NO SUCH RELATIONS WITH ANOTHER !” The boom of the queen's mental Canterlot voice shocked the Tantabus from the physical standing quadruped next to her, laid flat on the ground like ink messily splattered onto a clean piece of parchment and canvas, that parchment being the floor. “T-Thou’s relationship hath no other pony to be in our vicinity, neither the time to find that of a suiter. Only servants, guards, and peasants come to me, and they barely ever have any relevance to thou.” She sighed in a feeling of both loneliness and slight embarrassment at the resurfacing of that ‘old crush’ her creation relayed to herself.
After a short moment, the Tantabus rose back from the floor comically shaking its head from the booming and becoming uniform, returning to its natural state. “I keep forgetting about your royal yell, really going to keep our minds ringing for a while now aren’t you.” The imaginary body of inky likeness put its forehooves to its head, again comically making a small swirling head motion.
The alicorn sighed again, the embarrassment left from her body and mind, only focused on that lonely aching at her heart. “Arth thou really doing the right thing? Many now appreciate our night, yet they stare at us still with fear in their hearts. We hath done so much to earn any love to our night sky, maybe we should-” before she could finish her thought, the Tantabus stood in front of her with an angered expression. Although it obeyed comedic effects, it stood in thin air this time staring deep into the queen's cyan eyes.
“Mother, do I sense a small hint of weakness in your thoughts? Maybe, I should take over your responsibilities for a while again, to make sure that thinking stays just a distant thought, like the name you threw away.” The tone of the room had shifted severely in the Tantabus favor, from comical annoyance to struck nerve filled rage.
Nightmare Moon groaned in defeat and offered her revised thoughts rather than arguing the matter. “No Tantabus, you need not do such a thing, nor remind me of that pitiful name. That name stays dead, as well as the pony that was once connected to that name, we only feel as though our rule is dull. There must be something to excite our rule, to show our subjects that we deserve love as well.”
That answer seemed to quell the anger that would’ve been unleashed from her entitled “child” so to speak, and got an idea from such a revision. “How about a royal guard contest? Other ponies could sign up to see if they could make it into our ranks like old times!” The Tantabus let out a burst of cheerfulness and held a chaotic inky smile, prancing around in midair for a while till comedically falling to the ground with a loud mental splat being heard by only the queen herself.
“Very well Tantabus, enough with your games for tonight.” The jet black mare yawned to her ethereal shadow calmly. “We shall see each other another waking night, correct ?”
“Only if you want me to be mother! Good night, as always.” The Tantabus chuckled at the pun, and then after disappeared, of course going back to its duty of terrorizing the grown mares and stallions, never the colts and fillies as Nightmare Moon kept reminding her.
As Nightmare Moon trotted back to her bed, she took the time to realign her sights to the four stars, and as she kept her gaze toward them all, she saw the stars all pulse at once, a rare sight, a rare sign. When all four stars were to shine at the same time, a wish would always come true rather than taking a chance at a shooting star. She shut her eyes prematurely on instinct rather than on command, as if to be obeying an old habit. Waiting a few minutes, she finally heard a long awaited voice of a pony lost from long ago, a voice that came from her own muzzle.
“I wish that things could go back to the way they used to be, to see my sister, to feel the warm sun, to feel love for my night.”
Nightmare Moon looked back to the stars as she opened her eyes, they all shone desynchronized from one another like they used to. She finally leapt back into her comfortable bed, her body and mind falling out into a deep slumber a second time.
It was morning, or should’ve been morning for the ponies that woke up afterward if the moon would’ve moved. Alas, it stayed in place just like every 24 hour cycle, never the day yet always the night. Though it may have seemed like another day in Equestria, the appearance of the Lunar Knights would’ve offered a different story, along with what they were posting around every street corner, light fixture, and billboard. A flier that read as so,
“Come one, come all to the Castle of our majestic ruler to test your strength, speed, smarts, and skills to earn extravagant rewards before our rulers glorious eyes. Bits, Treasure, Jewels, galore are promised for those that come close to winning. For the luckiest winner however, have a free position as our queen’s personal Knight without any need to pay or pass commonly necessary exams. Food and Refreshments will be provided for the event along with other festivities of the night. This event will take place on the day of the Equestria Games, for these are games for those with bravery and ambition. All races are welcome to bask in the Glory of the Night and the Stars they carry. All praise our rightful ruler, Queen Nightmare Moon.”
Many of the ponies either grew disgusted, sickened expressions at the gesture of playing the parts of fools led to a clear slaughter for entertainment. Others held eyes only filled by greed and fame of such a chance to be praised and wealthy. Although many found the fliers and either started burning them as some way to remember some resemblance of the sun, or running to start training themselves and read up on advanced magics, a small hooded figure took one of the fliers with a white magic aura. After reading it fully, realizing there wasn’t any age requirement or time to waste, the hooded figure spread their wings behind a nearby alley, and flew off out of sight.
Chapter 1: The Nightmare Games
Author's Note
Hello again readers and writers alike, I just wish to address the changing of the stories tags. The idea for this being somewhat more dull and held back like that of an episode just seemed, restricting and boring to actually put in the effort for. So I’d rather there be some form of violence and swearing to make this story have more personality. Anyways, enjoy the fic everyone.
Chapter 1: The Nightmare Games
Time had passed after the fliers were posted, giving enough prep time for the participants of the event that seemed to have glory in the eyes of the moon and its queen. Small vendors of food and little games were outside of the castle of the twin sisters small accompanying arena for those that only came to grab small, carnivalesque prizes, but those that went into the arena were in it for the bigger prizes. The lands subjects were split into three visible ques, the first and second ques were for the ponies to sit either at the far left or far right seats to view the ironic form of entertainment, funneling into the arenas major numbers. The third line however was purely for the competitors, the ones that cared to take up the name of glory or for the sin of greed.
The line led under the stadium to the barracks below where numerous pieces of armor and weapons were at their disposal, yet many used their own homemade weapons to use against their competition. Lunar guards kept watch over those that entered, making them sign a completely unnecessary waiver for acknowledging whatever damage they take in battle is their fault and will be entitled to, being laughed at, being sent to the closest mortuary or hospital, and such. Those that signed the waiver were also given a second sheet of paper to fill out the basic name, age, gender, race, cutie mark, and address of the participants to keep track of their records. Although it was given, the guards did say it was optional to fill out, thankfully a hooded figure that walked past the guards took advantage of its optionality and instead denied the second form, opting out to have been assigned a number for their call out.
The competitors waited underground for their names to be called out to start the tournament, the mixed yells of cheers and oppositions heard from above ground. Groups of unicorns were still studying their spell tomes and picking up standard weaponry to use their magic. Flocks of pegasi stretching their wings and chose simpler weapons that were lightweight, some daredevils using wing blades that could cleave clouds into perfect shape. Herds of earth ponies came around and chose heavy weaponry such as hammers to swing and copper hoof plates to have a harder swing. Griffons were taking up two weapons at a time to intimidate some of the ponies of the competition, only being the second best fliers in equestria. Yet, nothing compared to the intimidation tactics of the dragons that signed up, holding arrays of weaponry with no trouble at all, the addition to breathing fire, and born with the most durable scales raised them as the highest on the power scale. All these opponents, so intimidating and stronger than any could imagine, yet the hooded figure sat on a bench on their haunches, back legs hanging out in front of their veiled form.
“Hey! Look at the silent shorty over here, aren’t you a bit too young for this type of shit?” There at that point did a single griffon’s taunting caused the whole of the armory to stare at that one pony. Many looked at the griffon and the hooded pony, unanimously agreeing that they were strangely short to compete.
“Hey! Say somethin’ you fuckin’ brat! You’re probably scared aren’t ya?” A dragon added in, “Scared to see how outmatched and out classed you are? Best just to give up before you get beat back to your mom and dad.” The rest of those that were in the barracks started to let out the most mocking laughs imaginable, all aimed at the short silent hooded pony, the whole time though, they did not engage. “Maybe we should cut down the competition by one less potential nuisance right guys!” The whole of the barracks were completely filled with the chants and cheers of death before the main event, the griffon and dragon holding weapons at the ready without a second thought. Both of the aggressors were immediately caught off by the sounding of the loud trumpets that signaled the first act of the tournament. “Fuck. I guess we’ll be forced to see how terribly you place after all. You got lucky punk, but not lucky enough.”
The room completely spun around, staring at the iron gates finally opening. Lunar guards escorting all participants out onto the arena's circle were met by the mixed reactions to the fighters, blending together in a whirlwind of all voices combining to form aggressive neutrality in a crowd. Guards along the perimeter of the arena were tasked for clean up, along with pegasi tasked to attack any that disturbed the fight in any unfair manner. After a few minutes, trumpets blew for the second time to reveal the one that organized this event of clashing races, the one that had kept the moon from moving an inch from the skies, the queen of the night herself, Nightmare Moon. The spectators stood silent as she stood tall above her subjects, even if rejecting her rule she was a ruler nonetheless. Were it a choice between Chrysalis or her, then they would rather take their present situation to the rule of the changelings.
“My loyal subjects of Equestria, I, your queen Nightmare Moon, welcome all to The Nightmare Games!” Half the crowd yelled out in cheers praising her entrance to get the show on, while the other half sat silent in anger and disgust. “Tonight, you shall either gain righteous glory over those who stand as your opponents, or be humiliated by your peers from your defeat! The rules are simple to restate from, if there is any form of trickery, unfair conduct, or stray idiotic attempts to attack your ruler or any unparticipating spectators, these offenses will be punishable by imprisonment or death from the severity of your stupidity. The first event consists of all participants to battle in a free for all, the last six survivors shall fill the brackets, and become closer to your ultimate prize. That being said, let your Nightmares come to life!” She stomped her hoof to the ground in her high placement, the crack of power making the Lunar guards signal another trumpet song, sounding off the start of the games.
“Mother!” a whinny disheartening voice arose from the Queen's side. “Did you forget to invite me to the games? The mean guards didn’t let me in without a ticket.” Of course the Tantabus had to make up fake scenarios when only she could see her, ironic how such a mental construct could joke about participating in a physical event the queen had thought.
“Of course, my apologies Tantabus. Although, thy expected thou to remember their own idea. I see a grandiose night ahead, and a similar grandiose event to all who have come to see.” Her majesty whispered optimistically.
“I am very busy terrorizing ponies of the night for your important duties as Queen. Serving ponies in their waking hours sounds boring anyways.” It says with an upside down stature. “So, who’re we betting on to win the grand prize ?”
The queen sat on her throne, spectating the contestants with her cold cyan slit eyes. The dragon with the large ego looked to be the strongest of them, the griffon was easily the most balanced yet fast, a certain unicorn seemed the most skilled in magic, the decision was hard to make. For seeing each race being in the arena all at once waving at the appraisers, there was one that had no reaction to the cheering and booing, the small one in the hood. It had that look, or lack of a visible look, that it would be the underdog, the black sheep, the many many other metaphors that excluded that one suspicious and unsuspecting being of no importance having the most promising results.
“Thou hath chosen the one in the hood.” Her hoof decorated with a clear polished silver hoof piece, the moon's glow reflecting a beautiful shine from it.
The Tantabus stood confused as to why she had bet on a weakling gaining the upper hoof from a dragon, griffon, and ponies that looked tough enough to squash the competition. “Um, why him? The little shrimp won’t make it past round 1.”
“Thy did not specify age, but as they say nowadays, I just have a hunch.”
The Tantabus had a strange look on its ethereal face, of course it stood blank yet the expression it gave was that of a stern agitated look at the queen of the night. “If you say so, but I’m betting on a winner, mainly the dragonborn. Durable, strong, and can fly, in all three categories he looks like a beast, of course he is a beast. So now, to the exciting part, what we’re betting.” The Tantabus smirked a toothy grin, its teeth an ineffable mix of milky stone, she continued issuing her first bet, “If you lose, then I get to take over your body, along with the terrorization of a few fillies.”
The queen gave her extraterrestrial mental creation a face of pure unnerved agitation, and gave her end of the bet. “If thy are victorious, placing thy faith in the hooded one, I get to speak to Luna-” before she could finish, her creation was instantly filled with unending rage, cracking the stone wall encasing their private seating. She continued again, ignoring her imaginary friend, “-and I will release the sun for a day.” That again set it off in anger, only a small piece of restraint keeping it back from the unimaginable things it wanted to do to teach her a lesson.
“You have too much confidence in this little fool, as if you’re trying to conspire against our victory. What foalish game do you play mother?”
In a professional plea for explanation, Nightmare Moon spoke. “If they desire sunlight, we shall only tease them as much. They will only see the first ray of dawn, and the last ray of dusk, never being able to gain the satisfaction of the full experience.”
It seemed to calm her metal cognition a bit, “And for you speaking to that of the dead ?”
“To see the reaction of such a broken mare, would put a bigger smile on my face.” She planned for these responses in truth, yet accomplishing that in reality was a different story. Seeing its demeanor change to a somewhat calm state made her own state of mind become calm.
“Yes, of course. Why wouldn’t I think of that?”
“Dream jumping becoming too much for thy to handle?” The queen smugly commented.
“As if. You created me to do so without any stamina, so there isn’t any boredom or exhaustion to speak of.”
“Of course.”
The first act of the tournament started underway, the races of all clans had to clash in a vicious free-for-all. Fire spewed immediately from dragons that wanted to kill of the competition easily, spells fired from unicorns that balanced their defense and offense, blood flew from most that were brutally wounded, and screams of those that had fallen out of the arena’s ring were promptly labeled losers of the tournament getting actively kicked out without a reward, or carried off from the rules of the waver. In the center of the ring, the ever so confident dragon and griffon were taking the competition by storm, scorching and tearing flesh from multiple targets. The screams didn’t deter them from their task though, the task of simple victory, with casualties resulting in their imaginary scoreboard rising higher and higher.
The griffon and dragon were back to back, counting their kills like wildlife hunters stalking the hundreds of weaker prey in a stampede of color, feathers, and pure bloody carnage. The griffon smirked, “Well, do you see the shorty anywhere? I counted fifteen kills and none of them were the kid.”
The dragon replied in dumbfounded arrogance, “Fifteen? I thought griffons were good at combat, meanwhile I’m at twenty-one. I didn’t get a hit on the kid either though, so we’re both waiting for the jackpot to show up.”
His feathers beat from his skills not holding up like he thought they would, “You think the kid is worth ten kills, or twenty?”
The dragon spurted out, “If anyone other than me kills the kid, I’ll let everyone in the barracks know I’m-” Suddenly, out of the commotion, the silhouette of a small hooded figure started trotting toward them and from under their noses. “Well well well, guess we don’t need to hear the last part of my bet, cause I’m the one that’s gonna win this !” The dragon took the opportunity to lay a strong fiery burst on the tiny figure that once stood in front of the red scaly creature, if only that figure wasn’t still standing. Attracting the attention of the griffon behind the once confident dragon, now wishing their birth was completely halted. The small statured figure lifted its head, the show of dark glowing eyes from behind its shadowy veil. It hovered into the air, carrying both the cocky dragon and his griffon ally with a force that couldn’t be broken. After fear had been fully instilled in the two unworthy opponents, the force that held them in the air had suddenly flung them both into the nearby arena walls with great force, ending their chance at victory for life.
Almost hundreds of competitors had entered the ring in the pursuit of glory and greed, but when the dust had cleared, all that was left were six contestants each from a different equestrian race. Nightmare Moon stomped her hoof to end the first act and give her decree. “You who have survived long enough shall endure your opponents in formal combat after a quick recess. Rest thyselves and take up arms in your waking hours.”
With that they all bowed their heads and retired to the barrack chambers. The watchers of the arena also making their way wherever they could to gain rest, even if it was outside of the arena’s walls in a tent to get the best seating arrangement possible for tomorrow. In the barracks, the lunar guards escorted each of the six remaining contestants to six independent rooms, there would’ve been more if all the races were involved, however the Yaks and Hippogriffs still shunned away from the queen's rule, hidden away effectively. The six entered for their resting hours, a strange way to say sleep with no sun, ‘waking hours’ and ‘resting hours’ sounded the most understandable to the rest of Equestria at this point. Still astounding how none of the vegetation had died off by now. In the depths of the night, the hooded contestant made their way out of their room, with Lunar guards already holding weaponry at the small figure. They stood still, holding a paper in their mouth, it read. “Which way to the restroom?”
