Nocturne of Shadows

By the time I had reached the bottom of the crater without breaking any more bones I waved a little with my good hand. “Um, Hello?”

She stared at me for a second before waving her right arm.... Why not speak? Eh... I don’t mind, it works.

I nodded a bit and waved back, “You the meteor? I must say, rather impressive display.”

She seemed shocked a bit before nodding once and just stared at me.... Um.... I guess it’s my turn to speak.

I put my right hand to my chest, “Name’s Aleister.... I’m guessing you got an artifact too?” I shrugged to myself. “What am I saying... You’d had to have found one.”

She nodded and pulled out a black truckers hat from the bag before stuffing it back in with her hands crossed on her lap... Wow.... Um... Wait, she was lying down.... shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhit.

I smiled sheepishly, “Um... Fuck I interrupted your sleep... Damn it, sorry.”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, waving her hand nonchalantly.... My diagnoses is that she’s upset. No need to be upset, there is.

I looked back to the forest, “I would suggest not falling asleep yet. Your landing caused a shockwave which woke up the town I just masterfully escaped from... No doubt drawing their attention.”

She just shrugged haphazardly.... Okay.

I sighed, “Well then before I start running again I have to say it’s nice to meet you.”

She nodded and went to lay down before I heard voices coming from the forest, oh god no. I turned to the forest, “Oh pissing blimey, they’ve found me!”

Twilight, and four others I didn’t know of, walked down the crater wall and glared at me, “YOU!”

I held up my hands, “Look, I didn’t mean to take the book an-” I got picked up in her glowly magic and hovered over to her.

“Look at you! I don’t understand why you even ran, and now you have a broken arm!”

I rolled my eyes, “I didn’t run... I simply escaped the dungeon and got a level up.”

A pink pony popped up from behind her and looked at me. “Yeah! I didn’t even get to throw you a ‘Welcome-to-Ponyville’ Party!” Wait.... That isn’t.... IT IS!

I pointed at her and did an epic shocked face, “YOOOOOOU! You and your army of clones charged at me with kitchen supplies!”

She blinked and grinned sheepishly. “Oh, Sorry about that. I couldn’t really do anything about them and then Twilight and the girls rounded them all up and there was a wall covered in paint and then Twilight started going all ZAPPITY ZAP and all of the clones started floating like balloons and then-” An orange pony stuffed a hoof in her mouth as she kept on talking. THANK YOU WHOEVER YOU ARE! When she finished, she flashed me this ridiculously large grin that seemed to practically split her face.

A light sky blue pegasus with a rainbow mane hovered over them and looked down at the pink mare. “Pinkie... we got bigger issues right now.”

I looked at them, “Would you mind putting me down? I have a manticore I need to go and tell I’m fine.”

Twilight looked at me with... Shock? Huh, taming a manticore is a big thing apparently. “What!? But how did you convince it to keep from attacking you!?”

I shrugged, “Just petted it and scratched behind it’s ear.” I grinned a little. “Just a cat after all.”

A butter yellow pony peeked around from behind the white unicorn that was there and looked at me. “Really? You must be really good with animals.” She eeped shortly after and hid behind her mane. “Oh.. um...”

I raised an eyebrow, “I did work at a vet...” I shook my head. “Anyways! Put me down?” The orange mare nudged Twilight and she quickly set me down. I nodded and started walking away to where I left him, “Thank you!”

A lasso wrapped around my torso and started to drag me back to the ponies, much to my pain.... “Now hold on there, we still got some questions for ya.”

I sighed and closed my eyes, lets see if I can do this trick again.... THERE’S THE FEELING OF ICE AGAIN! I phased through the rope into a standing position, this time with a minor headache! I turned and looked at them, “Please don't do that.”

The blue mare looked at me in shock and let her jaw fall. “Woah.”

I bowed a little and turned on my heel before looking over my shoulder at Applejack. “My arm is broken you know... That hurt.... Not like me snapping my arm into place.”

She went wide eyed and her ears fell back. “What?” She shrank back and looked up at me. “Ah am so sorry.... Ah didn’t know.”

I shrugged and winced, “It’ll be fine. Hmm... MAXIMILIAN!” I walked over to the side as Max came running from the trees. He stopped in front of me and I petted him, “Good boy.”

Pinkie smiled and looked over to the yellow pony. “Hey Fluttershy, isn’t that the same manicore from when we beat Nightmare Moon?” Fluttershy trotted up to the Max and he licked her across the face, causing a big cowlick in her mane.

I stared and made an oh sound, “Oh crap!” I turned and pointed to the mystery girl and waved a hand. “I just remembered we’ve been ignoring you!”

Fluttershy looked over and squeaked in fear before bolting behind me. “Oh... um..... h-hello.....”

She waved dismissively and stood up. She reached into her bag and pulled out a notebook before writing something down. She walked over to the ponies and showed them the notebook and Twilight blinked in confusion. “Well.... a couple years ago, she tried to cause eternal night across Equestria.”

She frowned more and hastily wrote down another note. “Oh.... well me and my friends had to stop her because, well, eternal night would have doomed everything. Anyways, we found these artifacts called the Elements of Harmony and used them on her. When the spell faded Nightmare Moon was gone and Princess Luna was free.”

Pinkie spoke up. “She was a meany, mean pants the whole time!”

She wrote more onto the notebook and the rainbow one leaned down. “‘After everything I’ve learned’? The hay do you mean by that?”

Applejack looked up at her. “Rainbow would you get your head out of the way? I’m tryin’ ta read here!” She shoved Rainbow’s head out of the way and looked at the notebook. “Er.... Ah’m with Rainbow on that one.”

They all were looking at each other and mainly started to look at Twilight. She looked at the notebook and seemed confused. “Well.... alright. But I think we should at least contact the princesses.” The others nodded and Twilight turned back to me. “Could you and-” She stopped and facehoofed before turning back to the mystery girl.... Five bucks says that she’s really fucking upset. “Oh, this is embarrassing, I forgot to ask what your name was.”

The girl quickly wrote down something and showed it to me... Joshua.... Cool name. Twilight looked a little shocked. “It’s... um... nice to meet you?”

Rainbow started to hover right in Joshua’s face. “Wait, your friend? You’re saying that Nightmare Moon was your friend!?”

Joshua angrily wrote down her response, she does that a lot... Eh, maybe a way of venting. And showed it to Rainbow. She scowled at the paper before looking at Joshua. “Alright, but I’m watching you, so you better not try anything funny.”

She wrote down more and showed it to Rainbow who looked confused. “Wait.... near death? Nightmare Moon almost kicked our flanks!”

Joshua wrote down another note and Rainbow flew back a foot. “WHAT!?” I hopped back a little, damn that was loud.

Twilight looked up at her, “What is it?” Rainbow grabbed the notebook and showed it to Twilight who visibly paled. “Y-you have N-Nightmare Moon’s power?”

Nightmare Moon? Snhk.... That’s kinda funny. I shook my head and turned to Maximilian, “I believe we should get ready to leave soon.... I’m bored now.” I turned to Joshua and raised an eyebrow, “You gonna come with, or are you going to go out on your own?”

She gave me a deadpan glare before pulling out her notebook and writing down and showing me, ‘I actually wish to meet the two Princesses, if possible. There is something important that needs to be discussed with them, about Nightmare.’

I nodded, “Well good thing that Ms. Sparkle happens to have a direct link to her.”

She nodded and wrote down, ‘Alright. And for the record, I am putting this away until we can speak to them, so I will not respond if anyone tries to speak with me.’ She showed it to the ponies and put it away.

I turned to Maximilian and raised an eyebrow, “Can you carry one of us there?” he nodded and lowered his head so someone could climb on. I looked at Joshua and motioned to Max, “Here. I can try and finish the stairs I made.”

She looked at me deadpan and didn’t move at all.

I sighed, “Alright then, we’ll walk.” I turned to Max. “Come on get up. We’re walking.” He stood up as I began walking towards the exit, Max following me. “Shall we?” Let's have some fun!