Rainbow Dash had been here before; she knew she had. Not just in her waking hours, but she’d seen this hall just as it is now, strutting down the empty corridors, her only company the shattered panes of stained gss and the howling gale in the shadows beyond. At the end of the hall would be the two animated panes of Wind Rider and Shadow Kicker… Assuming they aren’t still shattered, anyhow. But she had no intention of walking down to the end of that hall.
Climbing up over a piece of rubble, the pegasus frowns. The first time she had been here, she hadn’t been to Canterlot yet, didn’t recognize the simirities and differences between the hall and the one she walked down every morning on her way to csses. But now, standing up on a ledge formed by a section of ceiling that had caved in, the unfamiliarity of her surroundings began to dawn on her.
Not the hall itself; The windows are mostly still recognizable, at least the few that are still intact, and the weathering and damage inflicted upon the vaunted ceiling and floors made them too damaged to tell if they were the same or not. But beyond… In the storm of shadows and pouring rain, in the darkness of a midnight sky with the new moon dimly visible through a gap in the clouds, is a ndscape of foreboding shapes, silhouettes of mountains and trees, that do not resemble anything in Canterlot.
What’s going on? Why am I here? Rainbow Dash looks around frantically. She was in a dream, that much was for sure, but that observation itself is disconcerting. She did not usually have lucid dreams, so how was it she was so aware? How is it she remembers being here before so clearly? How was…
The moon. Rainbow Dash’s gaze jerks towards the dark shape of it lurking in the sky, oddly prominent considering the otherwise sheer darkness of her surroundings; her very awareness of the space around her simply more proof this isn’t real, as the ck of discernible light sources should have made it impossible to see anything.
“What do you want!?” Rainbow shouted, standing with her legs widened in a combative stance. Her ribs don’t ache, not here, and in fact she felt as strong as ever. “I know you’re out there!”
“My, Somepony is feeling adventurous tonight.”The voice feels deafening, striking Rainbow Dash like a sledgehammer, forcing her down to the ground. A burst of pain surges through her, as the voice gives way to amused cackling.
“Our subject remembrest us! Yet they did not heed our warning. Thou have tasted only a hint of what is to come.”Before Rainbow Dash’s very eyes, the moon seems to grow, its shape morphing and shifting until it descends to the very earth before her. The pegasus wants to bolt into the air, to try and fly away despite how stupid that would be in the raging stormwinds that bellow all around, but she finds herself firmly rooted in pce, beholding the nebulous cloud of darkness and stars before her as it takes on the regal form of an Alicorn; every bit as majestic, and every bit as horrific, as Celestia had been when they’d crashed down to earth like a raging meteor to rescue her.
With a faint smile, the eyes of the being before her slowly open, lifting their head to appraise the pegasus. Deep blue eyes, serpentine in their gaze, lock onto Rainbow Dash’s, long fangs forming a manic grin like shards of shattered gss only somewhat locking together.
Rainbow Dash opens her mouth as if to speak, but chokes on her breath, no words able to spill forth. The air all around her feels frigid, her every muscle taut yet unable to follow her orders to bolt away, do anything to escape from the creature before her.
Yet for all the simirities, there was a distinct difference from the inferno around Celestia on… Had it only been the previous day? It felt so distant from this pce. This Thing, this walking darkness walking in ponish shape, was poised, precise, controlled in a way that Celestia’s fury had not been. Wings spread wide, a night sky’s worth of stars visible through them, as the alicorn lifts from the ground without so much as fpping, and the full silhouette of the terror became visible from the fsh of lightning in the forest beyond them.
Rainbow Dash instinctively covered her eyes with a hoof, blinded by the intensity of the light. When it fades once more, there is a quite familiar scene pying out. The shadowy entity before her seemed… Somehow distracted, barely even paying attention to the pegasus she was supposedly haunting the dreams of.
Craters, red hot, mark the ground. Standing within it is… Celestia, but not Celestia as they are, but only as Rainbow Dash remembered them. Bzing with supernatural intensity, a living embodiment of rage and hatred given substance. That dreaded ughter filled the air once more.
“Ha! I see the accursed Sun has not lost its touch. Good, mine victory over them would be sour should they become feeble.”The source of the voice, that alicorn-shaped blur of night and darkness, turns back to Rainbow Dash, almost as though it had forgotten she was there, and thunders down to the ground before her. Rainbow Dash yelps, scurrying backwards and diving off the edge of the rubble pile, whatever rationality she possessed repced by a pure animal instinct of simply getting away from that thing.
The Nightmare simply chuckles, raising one hoof as it's horn lights up, and all of the scene except the narrow path between the alicorn and the pegasus simply vanishes into a miasma of star-studded darkness, flickering and flowing upwards like nebulous fmes.
“BE STILL, Disciple of the Sun. I would have words with you.”Rainbow Dash is frozen in pce, as the alicorn approaches, closing the gap with every deliberate step. This close, Rainbow Dash marks out more of the entity than just the blob of stars and negative space it had seemed to be. Its form is slender, athletic, almost predatorial in disposition, bedecked in ancient, finely forged armor of an unfamiliar style, curved and bded in forms just as elegant as they were cruel.
Swallowing and doing her best to put on a defiant face, Rainbow Dash finally manages to work up the nerve to shakily stand up and speak. “Wh-what do you want!? Why are you showing me this?”
“Why am I showing you? Why, Rainbow Dash, surely you must have realized, that it is you who are showing us what you have seen.”A hoof reaches out, raising Rainbow Dash's muzzle even as she cringed away, forcing her to look into the alicorn's eyes, so close now. The constricted serpentine pupils draw her gaze, holding her enraptured like she was hypnotized.
“You were warned, Disciple of the Sun, but you were foolish enough not to listen. Did you think you could take our pce by the Sun’s side so readily, without suffering the consequences?”Through the mystic power and majesty that saturated each word, Rainbow Dash can just barely hear a twinge of mortal emotion through it; A sound of venom, bitterness, envy… and perhaps even a smidge of regret?
“First blood has been drawn, my young subject, but it shall not be st. Soon, Equestria shall be awash in it. You should have run when you had the chance.”The alicorn rears up once more, its form highlighted against the bckness beyond, bloodcurdling ughter echoing from its muzzle. Rainbow Dash gulps, and with all her will, shouts back once more. “Who are you? What do you want from me?”
“‘Who are we’? My, has our exile been for so long that our beloved subjects do not remember us?”A hoof pces itself upon Rainbow Dash’s shoulder, who remains stock rigid as much as she might have liked to bat it away.
“I am the darkness that blots out the sun. I am the stars you have shunned. I am the princess of night eternal. I am Nightmare Moon, and soon I shall return to recim my throne.”A rush, a nauseating blur, and the scene around the pony and vaguely pony-like entity shifts once more. The bck storm clouds dissipate, and it seems as though the hall around them rushes past, leaving the pair of them in a courtyard surrounded by dark trees and the silhouettes of distant mountains. Above her is a sky that would have been breathtaking had she not been so terrified, the stars clearer than she had ever seen before, even nebue and numerous consteltions dimly visible to the naked eye. Looming towers encircle them from all around, midnight blue streamers fluttering in the breeze. Rainbow Dash looks around in confusion, the sight before her far distant from the rest of the dream.
“Look upon it, my subject, and see our rightful pce. See the glory that should have been mine, and soon, shall be!”Rainbow Dash’s gaze is drawn without her intention to the steps leading up from the courtyard, upon which sits a single, elegant throne of carved obsidian, sitting upon the rubble of some manner of fine woodwork.
“Our exile has been long, but soon the traitorous usurper will be destroyed, and you shall all learn to fear the glory of the Night.”Rainbow Dash rounds on the dark Alicorn, stance widening as she growls at them. “Are you the one behind the attack!? Just to get at my… Teacher?” Rainbow Dash hesitates before the st word. Should she have said ‘Princess’? ‘Monarch’? Anything else more formal? But somehow, having known them for the past month, something more casual just felt more natural.
The aura around the alicorn, which had almost been oddly amiable a moment ago, turns cold; quite literally, as Rainbow Dash can feel the magic of the aura shift as it becomes more malicious. Nightmare Moon steps before her, spreading their wings and simply staring deeply into her eyes, the sheer force of their presence forcing Rainbow Dash to fall back onto her haunches, whimpering involuntarily. But before the alicorn says anything, they seem to rex somehow, smirking viciously instead of raging.
“You will learn your loyalties are mispced in good time. For now you should learn well from that traitor, for I shall have need of such servants upon my return.”Rainbow Dash shuts her eyes tightly, takes in a deep breath, and commits to what is quite possibly the stupidest thing she had done that day. “You’re wrong!” Her voice sounds out of pce, weak, frail, in that pce, compared to the living embodiment of Night before her, but she won’t relent. Images fsh through her head, both of the gentle, regal, sometimes oddly casual Celestia she’d known for the past month, and the infernal being of unending rage that they had been the previous day. “Celestia… Wouldn’t betray anypony! I don’t know how you knew them, and I don’t know what you are, but Celestia isn’t a traitor, and you won’t defeat them.”
Nightmare Moon’s eyes narrow, looking down upon the fledgeling pegasus with an aura of spite and malice. But rather than react with fury, the alicorn's response is merely somewhat bemused, measured.
“You’ve seen their true form, and still deny the truth? Do you even understand what we are? You are more foolish than I had thought. Very well then, if you have such faith in your dear Sun, ask them yourself, whatever became of your rightful ruler. You will learn, in time.”Apparently uninterested in any further discourse, the alicorn folds in upon themself, like space had just closed around the starbound shape leaving only bnk space where it had been. Rainbow Dash blinks in surprise, both at the retively calm response, and the disappearance of the Thing.
And yet, though the apparent source had vanished, Rainbow Dash had yet to awaken from slumber, looking around the unfamiliar castle, half expecting some manner of monster to leap out at her, but instead being left alone. An aura of cold, burning loneliness descends upon the pce, as she uncertainly steps forwards, knowing little else to do but look around.
Am I really dreaming? Rainbow Dash is starting to doubt it, with how detailed this pce, this pce she had never seen before, is. Ascending steps of carved stone, she makes her way to the solitary throne, when something upon the ground catches her eye; Two banners, one depicting the sun and the other the moon, y below the thrones feet in tatters. Following up to where they must have been pced before, Rainbow Dash frowns. In their pce is a single banner, a dark moon in a bck sky only punctuated by a hooffull of stars.
Stepping around the dusky, ominous throne, Rainbow Dash lifts up a shred of the banner. There is a sense of mencholia that hangs around it, yet it doesn’t feel like her own emotion. What is this..? Is this what it's like to be magically sensitive, like Twilight? Without the Nightmare hanging around, it had begun to stand out to her more; Ever since she’d fallen into this pce, she’d become so keenly aware of so many feelings, like aura’s hanging in the air that she can’t perceive with any sense, yet still somehow feels in her heart.
Not knowing what else to do, she sits down on the ground, some distance from that throne. Gazing off towards the dark horizons, she blinks, slightly startled. She does recognize those shapes, but not from Canterlot. It’s the Canterhorn mountains as viewed from the east, the same view she’d had while flying to Celestia’s court to begin her lessons.
Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell how long she’d stayed there, exploring an empty castle as though it was lost in time, damaged by some manner of battle. Slowly, bit by bit, the world around seems to give way, disappearing fragment by fragment, until all that is left is an infinite expanse basked in an endless Twilight.
