“I can’t believe we lost.”
A statement that had been repeated over and over, all the way through Canterlot, the entire train ride, and continued as they walked through Ponyville, with no set destination.
“You should have let us stay and fight!” Rainbow Dash flew besides Cadance, and Shining Armor nodded in agreement.
“She’s an alicorn!” Cadance cried. “You can’t win in a fight against an alicorn! They have three times the strength, speed and magic of any kind of pony!”
“You’re an alicorn,” Applejack pointed out. “Wouldn’t that have been an even match?”
Cadance shook her head. “No, I’m not a true alicorn. I have wings and a horn, but I don’t have the abilities of an earth pony, and my flying isn’t really that great.”
“Really?” Rarity spoke up, wiping tears from her eyes. “I’m curious now.”
Cadance sighed. “Celestia and Luna are true alicorn’s. They are all powerful; they can raise the sun and moon. But I couldn’t do it if I tried, I don’t really know the details. I just know that I was born with wings and a horn, but at heart I’m really a unicorn.”
“But wasn’t Twilight just a unicorn too? How did Nightmare make her get all big?” Pinkie asked.
“I don’t know,” Cadance sighed. “Maybe because Luna... Nightmare Moon was an alicorn originally?”
“We can’t just give up, you guys!” Rainbow Dash cried. “We have to stop her!”
“How?” Applejack asked. “We can’t use the Elements of Harmony without Twilight, and we don’t stand a chance against her in a fight!”
“Then I guess it really is over…” Fluttershy whispered. “The night really will last forever…”
“No. I refuse to believe it.” Rainbow landed on the ground, stomping a hoof indignantly.
“Then don’t,” Shining Armor said. He turned to Cadance. “I guess it’s to the Crystal Empire with us.”
“You guys are just leaving?!” Pinkie cried. Cadance gave her a sad look. “We can’t do anything else, Pinkie. I’m sorry.”
“Oh.” Was all anyone had to say.
“…Here are your invitations,” Pinkie produced a basket of letters and handed them out to everypony.
“Invitations?” Rarity asked.
“Yeah,” Pinkie turned and walked away. “For my upcoming ‘The End of Equestria is Nigh and Twilight is gone forever’ party.”
~~
“Dense! Dense! She called us dense! We aren’t dense, are we Assistant?”
“Um… no?”
“Of course we aren’t. Why with our combined intelligence we are a thousand times smarter than they, I say!”
She had sat back down on her throne while a reluctant nurse tended to the minor wounds Nightmare didn’t want to waste magical energy on.
“Combined intelligence?” Spike asked with interest.
“There’s my intelligence alone, and there is Twilight’s intelligence. I can see it in her memories.”
“Oh…” Spike said with mild disappointment.
“They are lucky We did not lock them away,” Nightmare huffed. “We should have, though. But luckily We are merciful – one more strike, though… I should banish each and every one of them to different stars!”
“You can do that?”
“Of course We can!” she snapped. “Did you doubt our abilities?!”
“No! I didn’t doubt them, I just… forget it.”
Nightmare gave him a sideways glance, before shooing the nurse away. “Off with you, healer. Our wounds are sufficiently tended to for now.
“Yes my Queen,” the milky-colored earth pony replied with no small amount of venom in her voice.
Nightmare watched her go with a frown. “Why do they snap? Tis most inappropriate!”
“Gee, I wonder,” Spike muttered under his breathe.
“We are proud of you,” Nightmare said quietly, startling Spike.
“What?”
“You did not go with them. You chose to stay with us.”
“Oh… yeah,” Spike said. He himself didn’t even know why he had done it, but he couldn’t leave her. He just couldn’t.
“Come now to…” Nightmare Dusk thought for a moment, before saying, “Luna’s office! We have paperwork to go over!” She stood up, levitated the baby dragon up onto her back. “We must go over the current laws, the functions of society and many other things!”
“Okay,” Spike said less than enthusiastically. He closed his eyes as Nightmare walked; trying to pretend it was Twilight Sparkle, the real Twilight Sparkle. It was hard; she felt so different, yet so similar.
Pretend it’s Celestia, he thought to himself. That was easier, but still not the same.
~~
Four days. It only took four days for the news of Nightmare Dusk’s reign to reach all the cities of Equestria, and the lack of sunrise in those four days proved it of those who hoped it might have been just a silly rumor.
Already ponies were boarding the train, ready to head to Canterlot to give the Queen a piece of their mind. Fools.
Nightmare Dusk had gone over all the paperwork she could, reading the laws and other things she might want to change. But she wanted some time to settle into her position as Queen before doing any drastic changes – other than nighttime eternal, of course.
In the castle, Nightmare Dusk was currently sitting on Luna’s bed. She didn’t know what she planned to do with Celestia’s room yet, perhaps turn it into a bar for her own pleasure and amusement?
She was sitting with her hooves tucked underneath her, eyes closed, face expressionless. Her armor was sitting on Luna’s dresser, her mane swirled about her face.
“...Nightmare?” Spike nudged her shoulder. She opened her eyes, sparing him an expressionless sideways glance.
“Are you okay?”
“We’re fine, Assistant. We are simply watching,” she closed her eyes again.
“Watching?”
“Watching Luna,” she said, eyes still closed. “She's crying. But she tries to stop, because she knows we’re watching.”
Spike said nothing, lowering his eyes.
“But she can’t.” Dusk continued. “She wants out. She wants to escape so badly, like a trapped bug. But she has no hope.”
“Maybe you should free her?” Spike suggested hopefully.
“No. At least, not now.” She said softly.
Spike looked out the window, thoughtfully. “What about Celestia?”
“Oh, We do not bother with her. She may burn for all We care.”
“Burn? Is she going to burn to death?” Spike asked with alarm.
“No, of course not. Sadly. She created Sol. It does not affect her as it may other ponies.”
“Is she like… on the sun or in the sun?”
“Both, and neither. She sees outside the sun, as though she were on the surface. She can move her consciousness inside of it, but cannot leave. Her body is useless to her mind, her mind goes where it wants. It just doesn’t leave the sun itself.”
“But… don’t you care about her? Weren’t you on the moon once?”
“Yes, because of Celestia. She has earned this.”
Spike couldn’t think of anything else to say, so he simply didn’t.
Damn, Nightmare Dusk's mind is full of fuck if she can't see WHY eternal night is a bad idea.
But she just said that she and Twilight are two separate entities. THERE IS STILL HOPE!
Also, first post!
So awesome!
Those are my favorite parts of the story. Filler is where character development, and introspection happens.
Filler also lets the reader take a breather between the major events.
1805796
There's always hope, it just depends on how much there is.
Here's a good motivational song. It fits the mood pretty well.
1805796
Equestria is full of magic The thing that stories use when they're too lazy to explain something.
EDIT: I didn't complete my train of thought when I first posted this.
Maybe Dusk thought that she could use magic to make things grow, and heat equestria. Celestia can move the SUN for crying out loud! Throw out your preconceived notions of reality, physics, and general laws of nature for some of these situations ok?
i.qkme.me/35wl8c.jpg
1805891 And this for when Twilight actually fights back against Nightmare:
...Twilight really needs to get her head out of the second-layer and give Nightmare a little biology lesson.
Regardless, excellent work.
1805918
Here's a theme for the Nightmare/Dusk victory over the royal sisters. (Or just any decisive battle where Dusk wins)
"What does it even matter when nothing really dies" It's not word for word out of the song, but this fits well with nothing ever being killed in FIM. (Besides Sombra)
let the Nightmare win NO hope
1805891 There is always hope. Believe in yourself, never back down and you can do anything.
Hooray for cliche!
1806395 How would Nyx even fit in?
Anyway, thanks
Nyx would fit in like this 1.She is Nightmare Moon 2. She would be an even match.
1806471 I can see where you're coming from, but I don't see where I'd fit Nyx in. Either way, I wouldn't want to put her in. Perhaps a reference, but I like this the way it is
I'm gonna be the pessimistic one and say that Twilight's memories are all that's left of her. She's gone. Feels empty man.
1806403
If I were in it, I would have been a villain. (because I have a history of being the bad guy for some reason.)
Trolling the heroes is just so much fun.
1806395
Nyx? Who's that, you? (It sounds like RD's nick name for Phoenix Wright in "Turnabout Storm"
1806510 She's from the fanfiction 'Past Sins' (which is actually where I got a little bit of the inspiration for this story,) basically this cult tries to bring Nightmare Moon back to life, but the spell is interrupted and NMM comes back as a little filly and doesn't remember her past, and Twilight names her Nyx.
(I didn't really like Nyx, but she didn't ruin the story for me )
1806541
I haven't read that fic, but it sounds good.
I seriously hope this doesn't have a cliche ending like...
Friends help Twilight to banish/expel NMM from herself, and use the EoH on her.
If you want a good example of what would happen if NMM beat Celestia, and was in charge, read "Night's Favoured Child".
NMM isn't necessarily evil, she's more of a pissed off child trying to get revenge because of perceived unfairness.
About the "lack of sun will freeze the world" issue. In your canon Celestia created the Sun. That would lead me to assume Luna created the moon. What if Twilight/Dusk could create her own celestial body, or light source like them? She has the power.
1806371
Bubbles = Fluttershy. Both are cliche weaklings. Both become hard-core, and badass when they're pushed too far.
"Weak" for Bubbles is relative though.
They become the most dangerous things ever.
That show is just as violent as I remember it.
1806655 I didn't really like it that much, but it was one of the first fanfictions of any kind that I'd ever read, and I had just become a brony so it holds a nostalgia factor for me
And I am going to find that fanfic you mentioned
1806729 True, true
Even when I was little I didn't really like Bubbles. Buttercup was my favorite
1806746
I didn't like Buttercup very much. Blossom was my favorite.
1806801 I think I was constantly changing my favorite back and forth from Blossom to Buttercup, but thinking back on it I think my favorite was Blossom.
I remember I'd cry whenever I watched the episode where Bubbles and Buttercup gave her a haircut
1806737
The first fic I read was "Fallout Equestria"
The second one was "FoE: Project Horizons"
They're still my favorites.
1806817 The first three brony fanfictions I read were Past Sins, Fallout: Equestria, and Paradise (Which is still in the making, I might add)
1806814
It was so horrible. Poor Blossom.
This is why she's best.
1806844 Blossom
1805891 i vote yes to this
1805918
That played before Optimus faced Megatron, and he died soon afterwards. This doesn't bode well for Twilight.
1798310
For some reason I don't remember anything about why people hate him. (I draw a blank when I try to think about that episode)
1807884
"The Touch" played a second time when Hot Rod became Rodamus Prime due to the Matrix, beat up and threw Galvatron while 'injuring' Unicron from the inside with said Matrix, made his escape along with all the other Autobots and allies just before Unicron exploded AND lasted during as well as after everyone gathered in a safe area to chant in unison "Till all are ONE!"... So I'd say that it depends on the circumstances, no?
On another note... the worst that Blueblood ever did was to 'hold' Rarity in front of him before he got hit with an assortment of food... then backed away from her while complaining that he might get his clothes dirty if she touched him. Not evil... just awfully shallow and snooty.
1808484
I completely forgot about that one. That movie was so nostalgic.
It's too bad that when most people think of the "Transformers movie" they think of the version Michael Bay made.
1808524
I forgot about that, though I have a counter to that too.
Twilight doesn't really fit either of those roles. It would be best to say that she's Galvatron. Dusk (the combination of NMM and Twilight) = Galvatron Unicron = NMM Twilight = Rodimus/Optimus.
Twilight is being controlled by Nightmare. Galvatron was being controlled by Unicron.
Galvatron tried to help Rodimus (but was stopped by Unicron.)
The Matrix of Leadership = The Elements of Harmony.
Nobody could use the Matrix because it wasn't the right time.
Either Twilight is broken free of NMM, or Twilight remains in her, that isn't the only issue.
Another one is, will NMM become semi good, or remain evil?
1807884 It also played when Hot Rod FINALLY became Rodimus Prime, though...and when a revived Optimus used the Matrix to wipe out the Hate Plague in "The Return of Optimus Prime".
In other words, it actually bodes extremely well for Twilight.
1808484 Um, which Equestrians is that song meant to represent...if you don't mind me asking?
BEST FREAKING NMM TAKING OVER TWILIGHT STORY I'VE EVER READ!!!! XD
1809144
Well, the original animated movie was seen by a lot of people but it never compared to the audience(so I've heard) that was accumulated by the three newer movies so it's no surprise. Sometimes it helps to say one of three things: 'the 1986 one', 'it had Leonard Nemoy as voice actor', 'it had Orson Welles as voice actor'.
As for "The Touch", I did not refer as to which scenario would represent Twilight best but rather what the circumstances were when it did play... I like your analogy though! But we can only stand at the mercy of the mind that is LittleAngelStocking. The story really could go anywhere given what's happened so far! I'm a sap for happy endings but I can appreciate a well written 'Bad End'.
1809241
It was written somewhere in chapter 16 that a number of upset citizens were on their way to confront the fact that it's been night time for days... while having gotten wind that it's due to Nightmare Dusk's usurping of the throne... the fools! They know what they're up against but at the same time they don't!
Also... you've pointed out a somewhat obscure fact that "The Touch" also plays in the far less popular and successful follow-up to the series in that particular episode! Really sharp observation there! I saw the episode out of curiosity roughly a year ago only once and forgot about it until you mentioned it!
1809524 Let's face it, whenever "The Touch" starts to play, something epic is about to happen!
1809582 Just had a thought! This would be awesome music to play when the Elements of Harmony turn the tables on Nightmare Dusk:
1809614
HAH HAA! We're getting off topic but that is an awesome song... But don't the lyrics talk about the power of robots?........................................!!!? MLP and SRW crossover! It's too crazy to conceive... therefore it's BRILLIANT!
1809636 It actually fits perfectly because of one line that's used multiple times: I GET THE POWER OF LOVE!
1809241
A better way to put is. It doesn't necessarily mean anything, and it could go either way at this point.
Right now we're only making educated guesses. Just because it happened in the movie, doesn't mean it will happen in this story.
I win because I'm the first to realise that all of these Transformers references mean nothing.
Here's a song to soften the blow.
1809524
I'm just a little pissed that most people that I know didn't even watch the origional, and only remember the Bay movies.
Also... Saddest moment in Transformers history for me. I was more upset than when Optimus died.
1810084>>1809656
...I really should watch Armada.
On a lighter note... OBJECTION! Iluvatar, you can't claim to win the string of Transformers related comments by admitting that they mean nothing when you brought it up in the first place! We three are equally at fault for releasing our inner geek and must therefore apologize to LittleAngelStocking before we get shafted. TAKE THAT!
.
.
.
.
.
So... sorry LittleAngelStocking! We hope that you and anyone that read this was at least mildly entertained.
1810192
I changed the video to the one from the movie.
Objection! Phoenix Wright has nothing to do with this!
Take a boot to the head!
[K.O.! You Win!]
Yata.
Yes, she said she liked it when we debate.
-LittleAngelStocking
1810192 Nice use of the Phoenix Wright memes.
1810084 HOLD IT You contradicted yourself.
The second sentence implies that Optimus Prime's death was the saddest moment in Transformers history for you. TAKE THAT!