Celestia, The leader and co-ruler of Equestria was sleeping, but she appeared to be having a nightmare.

This wouldn’t be a problem usually, because of her sister, but something was different this time.

Nightmare Night was approaching and with it, a rare event where the planets and the sun & moon were properly aligned.

And it was this night, she would learn of something terrible to come.

A dark cave… and hoofsteps echoing about.

A hooded figure made his way through the darkness, somehow not stumbling on the many rocks.

As he made his way to his destination he paused at a door.

“Essssasha,” He hissed and the door opened and he continued into what looked like a sacrificial chamber.

He approached a pedestal in the center of the room, this pedestal depicted a statue of a black snake.

And the snake's eyes glowed.

“I am here master,” He said.

“....Bring me the sacrifice,” a shadowy hissing voice demanded.

“Right away,” He said as he turned to a group behind him, carrying a sack with a wriggling pony in it.

“Do it,” It hissed.

“As you command,” The leader of the group said as he walked around the pony in the sack and he raised a knife and plunged it into the pony.

The mare in the sack screamed and thrashed but a few more stabs and she died.

Instantly a glowing light emanated from the body and flowed upward but it was pulled into the mouth of the snake instead.

“Aaaah, a fresh soul, I can feel my strength returning, but it's not enough, not NEARLY enough, I need more, Van,” The snake statue said.

“Yes, master?” The one named Van asked.

“It is time to begin work on the gateway, and bring my collectors here, go collect it, and let the beginning of the end come upon this realm, The Black Serpent rises once more,” It hissed.

“The Black Serpent rises once more!” They cheered.

“It will be done,” Van said before turning and trotting away.

“Be ready Celestia… Your time is near,” The Black Serpent sneered.

A lightning bolt cracks across the night sky and Celestia sits up with a start.

“NO!” Celestia said, panting as she looked around she immediately stood up and looked out the window. Not long after Luna came in the door and looked to Celestia.

“You sensed it too, didn’t you?” Luna asked looking serious.

“More than that, I had a vision… he is planning to return,” Celestia said “The darkest evil in Equestria’s history,” Celestia said as she stared out at Equestria.

“I will awaken our mages, shall we alert your student?” Luna asked.

“Yes, let us get moving,” Celestia said before trotting away.

Twilight was putting up the nightmare night decorations with her magic.

“Alright! We have the bats up, and the pumpkin carvings made, now we just need to put some ghosts up there and we’ll be finished,” Twilight said as she magically raised a line of ghosts over the exit to her castle.

Soon what came out of her castle was Spike wearing his second head costume and Starlight wearing a ghost costume.

“Hey guys,” Twilight said.

“Hey, Twilight!” Spike said.

“Going with that costume again?” Twilight asked.

“Yep, you don’t give up on something that works,” Spike said.

“And I didn’t have a chance to go costume shopping, so I’ll just do this instead,” Starlight said.

“Alright, now let’s get these ghosts up,” Twilight said and Starlight helped adjust them with her magic.

“Hey, Twiiiii!” Pinkie’s voice cheered and Twilight turned to see the pink pony hopping towards them dressed as a chicken along with the others.

Rarity was a vampire, AJ was dressed as a lumberjack, Rainbow was a zombie and Fluttershy was a werewolf.

“Hey girls,” Twilight said turning to them.

“This’ll be the scariest most awesomest most fantastic Nightmare Night ever!” Pinkie said.

“You say that every year,” Twilight chuckled.

“Then this time it's true!” Pinkie said.

“Alright, so, I’ll take the role of guiding the foals to the houses and getting them candy, and you girls can go to Pinkies party at Sugarcube Corner, I’ll come by later,” Twilight said.

“Alright, jest don’t take too long,” AJ said.

“Don’t worry,” Twilight said.

“Alright! Let’s get moving,” RD said impatiently.

“Yes yes, we should head while the night is young,” Rarity said.

“Alright, see you guys come along Spike,” Twilight said.

“Alright!” Spike ran alongside her out into town.

Van came back up into the chamber, carrying a device.

“Yessss, thousands of years of waiting and now that the sun and moon are finally perfectly aligned on both ends of this world, I can be free to plunge everything, into nothing,” The Serpent said.

“Let us make haste then,” Van said as he set the device on the ground and The Serpent extended a black fog from the mouth of the statue, a fog that turned into a giant snake-like avatar.

“Let us begin,” The Serpent said before he opened his mouth, and a beam fired into the device, and then a beam shot out of the box-like device and into the sky.

As the beam flew into the sky and hit the moon it then shot to the left and flew all the way to around the world and eventually hit the sun.

As both glowed they suddenly ceased moving and instead gained the image of a snake upon them.

“Trick or treat!” A colt said as he held out his candy bag and a mare happily gave him some candy.

“Alright! Next house,” Twilight ushered the foals along when suddenly a rumble came across the area and Twilight stumbled and fell over “Whoa!”

“What the hay was that?” Spike asked.

“I don’t- huh?” Twilight looked behind Spike and saw the moon gaining the image of a snake.

“What?” Spike turned around and looked shocked seeing the same thing.

“What’s happening?” Twilight said.

“Now for phase two,” the Serpent said. The device stopped shooting its laser and suddenly disconnected into four cubes and extended outwards into what looked like a square portal.

“Now… to obtain my minions,” The serpent said before he extended his tongue and flicked it into the portal.

Catnap was walking through the facility, he had received news from the others that a human had infiltrated Playtime Co, and most alarmingly he had managed to kill Mommy Long Legs, something he never expected a mere human to pull off.

Nevertheless he will continue to protect Home Sweet Home as per his god’s order.

The Prototype has been distant from him for awhile, but perhaps chasing off this troublesome human will get his attention, all he has to do is-

Suddenly a square portal opened up next to him and he flicked his attention to it and before he could react an ethereal tongue wrapped around his waist and pulled the shrieking cat monster into it.

Catnap tumbled to the ground and looked around seeing a strange chamber and an even stranger snake thing looking down at him.

“Who are you?! Where am I?!” Catnap demanded.

“Your new master, and the land you will aid me in conquering,” The Serpent hissed.

“I serve only The Prototype!” Catnap snarled and lunged at the snake but his claws went through the apparition.

“?!” Catnap backed away warily.

“Kneel,” The Serpent demanded.

“You're not my god,” Catnap spat and began leaking out some of the red smoke.

Before he could use it however a tongue whipped about and lashed him on the side of his neck and Catnap shrieked in surprise, the minor wound began to glow and before he could retaliate he suddenly couldn’t move.

“What have you done?!” Catnap demanded.

“You’ve been branded, you're mine now, bow,” The Serpent ordered and Catnap found himself bowing.

“Shall we set him loose now milord?” Van asked.

“Very well, we we could use this opportunity to get a head start,” The Serpent said before turning to the cat “Go, and kill many, I must feed on their souls,”

“I-....I…” Catnap was trying to resist but he couldn’t and he turned and ran out of the cave.

“Next,” The Serpent sent his tongue into the portal, snatched his next minion, and pulled him through.

Nemesis

“?!” Nemesis looked around, confused about where he was.

“Bow mongrel,” The Serpent demanded.

“Grrr!” Nemesis had been in the middle of pursuing Jill when he was yanked into this world, he got up and saw the giant snake, and before he could react the tongue lashed him on the neck as well and Nemisis suddenly found himself unable to move.

“?!” Nemesis found himself bowing.

“Now, go and kill for your new master, abomination,” The Serpent ordered and Nemesis went to do just that.

“Next,” The Serpent said eager to obtain more minions… not noticing a figure sneaking his way out from the back of the portal and out of the cave.

“...Those fools… I need to find Celestia and Luna, now!” The figure said quietly.

Twilight after the strange events in the sudden markings on the moon called off the events early and galloped home with Spike in tow.

“What if this is just another prank by Luna?” Spike asked.

“Better to be wrong and safe than right and in danger, I need to confirm what’s going on!” Twilight said as she entered the castle and drafted a message.

She didn’t even get halfway through when Spike burped up a letter.

“Uh, it’s addressed to you,” Spike said handing it to her.

“The royal seal? This is directly from Celestia,” Twilight said grabbing the paper and examining it.

Her eyes widened and she began to look worried.

“What does it say Twi?” Spike asked.

“It says horrible things, that the town and Equestria as a whole is in danger,” Twilight said with a serious look.

“Great, what is it this time?” Spike said.

“I don’t know, Celestia was vague but mentioned that we need to gather the townsfolk and declare a state of emergency, she will send Luna to advise and brief the ponies on the situation,” Twilight said before she hurried out to the outside.

“Ok!” Spike said as he ran with her.

As they got outside they saw ponies going about their business and Twilight wasted no time in running off to the Mayor's building.

Twilight burst into the office surprising Mayor Mare.

“Twilight?! Sheesh, if you wanted candy so badly, then you should have knocked,” Mayor Mare chuckled but quieted when she saw the serious look in Twilight's eyes.

“Mayor Mare, sound the meeting alarm,” Twilight said.

“Why dear? It’s still Nightmare Night-”

“State of emergency,” Twilight replied, knowing that was code for ‘get the lead out of your hooves, this is serious’

“...I’ll alert the town,” Mayor Mare said before pulling out the mic and speaking into it. “Attention ponies, a big problem has come up. A town meeting is to occur as soon as possible,” Mayor Mare said as Twilight and Spike left the building and made their way to their next destination.

Sugarcube Corner

She saw her friends standing outside and when they saw her coming they ran up to her.

“Twilight? What’s goin on?” Applejack asked.

“We may have problems coming our way, alot of them,” Twilight said and gestured for them to follow and they did.

The townsponies were whispering to one another as they gathered around the stage.

They went on to whisper until Twilight appeared on the stage.

“Hello my fellow towns ponies, I am here to tell you all of an unsettling message I received from Celestia, a state of emergency is being called, therefore we are advising you to stay indoors until further notice,” Twilight said.

“What’s happening?” A mare asked.

“I’m not a hundred percent sure of what is going on, but if Celestia says the danger is real then it is, not to mention have you noticed the current state of the moon?” Twilight gestured to the snake-imprinted moon.

“That could be Luna’s doing,” A stallion said.

“Still, we need to take this message seriously,” Twilight replied.

“Whatever it is, I’m sure we can handle it,” Rainbow said.

“Yeah, our friendship can beat anything, but still we want to mitigate any damages, everypony head home, we’ll get to the bottom of this, don’t worry,” Twilight said.

The ponies seemed unsure but they listened and went back home, save for Twilight and her friends.

“Alright, let’s get moving,” Twilight said.

The figure got over the crest of the hills and saw Canterlot in the distance, he breathed a sigh of relief.

The relief was short lived however when he heard a distant explosion.

“No… they’ve already started… I need to hurry, lives are on the line!” He said before he spread his wings and flew towards Canterlot.

A village was in peril, buildings were wrecked and the ponies everywhere were…. Asleep?

A red gas spread through the town and ponies left and right were passing out.

And amidst the situation, a familiar cat creature walked along the road and approached a downed stallion.

“...” Catnap looked down at the fallen stallion, and he heard the hissing whispers in his head telling him to kill for his new master.

“S.T.A.R.S!” Catnap looked to see his associate in culling this town, he had fired off a few rockets at the town before Catnap gassed everypony, and now he was just going around snapping necks…

Catnap didn’t like this, he only killed when his god commanded him to or when he was given proper motivation to do so, this… is senseless violence, but he cannot disobey now…

And so Catnap turned back to the sleeping stallion and raised his claw, and one swing later… he was dead…

“Prototype… save me,” Catnap muttered as he moved on to the next one.

Author's Note

Bit of a rough start but I assure you this will be my most ambitious crossover yet.