Nightmares Knights #4 Review

As 2019 dawned, more "encore shorts" started filling in the gap during the hiatus as information about Season 9 was still slow to be released. The comics kicked off the year with only the second student six appearance in the entire comics (albeit only half of them in the form of Sandbar, Silverstream, and Yona). And everyone waited with anticipation for the big four parter that was lurking just around the corner. Amidst that backdrop the "Nightmare Knights" series was chugging along without notice and everyone already focusing on the announced "Spirit of the Forest" that was to replace it. So, with interesting in the series waning, was this issue able to keep "Nightmare Knights" functioning at the level of quality it had established, or did it ultimately bring it all down? Well, let's find out.

We begin with Capper suffering a nightmare. He's a kitten trying to run from the Storm King and his army (including Tempest). Suddenly, he is approached by Eris who appears to be posing as an angel. Eris does the same thing in Stygian's nightmare (reliving him being confronted and cast out by the pillars, thus driving him to become the Pony of Shadows). However, Stygian refuses to rat out his teammates and for that Eris plunges him back into his nightmare full tilt. Capper, however, decides to take up her offer and work for her because he claims the ponies have no sense of self-preservation. Luna witnesses this from a corner and believes that Capper has defected. I think it's a little too soon to assume that, especially given Capper's crafty nature. But at the same time I can understand how Luna would need to believe it so as to make Capper's possible act successful and keep Eris from seeing through it.

Luna approaches Stygian and recalls that even as a filly she had the power to enter dreams, though she couldn't yet control them. And she risks being stuck in the nightmare forever. A risk she decides to take since she can't leave Stygian to suffer. Meanwhile, Tempest is still trapped in her nightmare and can't snap out of it. Daybreaker takes it upon herself to wake Tempest up, tapping into her powers. But this causes her to be shocked into unconsciousness by the collar. When she comes to she finds Tempest, and at the same time that Capper is walking alongside Eris we learn the backstory that ties Eris and the Pony of Shadows to Daybreaker. In a parallel universe, Eris stole Starswirl's journal to ensure the pillars wouldn't be able to trap the Pony of Shadows. Starswirl was killed and the other pillars escaped with the princesses. The Pony of Shadows sought them out, trying to travel to different parallel universes to steal a Celestia and Luna to corrupt for his plans. But every time he tried the pillars would thwart him and Eris refused to help. Eventually, he trapped her and used her chaos magic to hunt down the princesses. As for Daybreaker, she and Nightmare Moon appear to be from a parallel universe where they were always evil. They were raised by the Pony of Shadows, but Nightmare Moon never could be as evil as the Pony of Shadows wanted. So one day she rose up against him, only for Daybreaker to side with her teacher and kill her sister. Eris eventually made a collar that would make Daybreaker loyal to her, and together they overthrew the Pony of Shadows and Eris set up her own world with access to portals. She also declares herself to be a spirit of chance, and claims that Discord is her cousin.

As the narration ends, Trixie seems to have finally exhausted Twilight and prevails over her foe with a magic pinwheel. Her celebration is premature though as she runs up to Capper and for some reason she isn't able to notice Eris even though Eris is right there beside Capper. Eris takes an unconscious Trixie to Daybreaker, who works with Tempest to keep Eris from finding out that Daybreaker has regained control of her own powers. Immediately after Eris leaves to trap Luna in a nightmare forever, Daybreaker prepares to use her powers to wake up Trixie (we don't get to see what her worst nightmare is). And she is surprised to learn about names like Celestia and Luna (Tempest says that Luna is Nightmare Moon, hoping to draw on the fact that Daybreaker was originally the Celestia from Stygian's nightmare.

Back in Stygian's dream, Luna tries to persuade Starswirl to listen but he brushes her aside and Stygian begins to lose control of himself to the darkness. It's then that Luna realizes that it's not up to her to stop the Pony of Shadows, it's Stygian. She pleads with Stygian and tells him the Pony of Shadows isn't who he is anymore. Somehow it works, but we immediately cut to Luna and Stygian waking up on the floor as Daybreaker approaches with the rest of the group. And the issue ends there.

And that's the story, so what do I think of the issue? It's pretty good, it ties together many of the loose threads that were lingering since the first issue when we suddenly switched from the Pony of Shadows to Eris as the big bad. Capper's defect is an obvious ruse considering his entire mission is to get close to Eris, and now Eris is suddenly back on with her plan to auction off the orb (albeit after she takes care of Luna and the rest of the knights). Daybreaker ends up commanding a surprising amount of attention here, making you wonder if they're setting up a possible redemption for her in the conclusion. Tempest also displays a great deal of foresight and on her hooves thinking, able to ally with Daybreaker and keep Eris guessing. Meanwhile, Luna and Stygian are able to show off their best as Stygian refuses to sell out his teammates and Luna draws on her own experiences to inspire Stygian. Trixie kind of feels like an after thought here even though we get to see her triumph over Twilight. She's quickly taken out and woken up with little fanfare. Even Capper's apparent betrayal has more focus. Still, those are minor complaints for an issue that's definitely worth reading, and again don't go outside the five to ten dollar range for it because it's not worth that much. As for the fifth and final issue in this series, I have purchased it and it will be delivered in the near future. So expect a review of it soon.