Chapter 40: Nightmare Stars 5
Raven sighed wistfully as she calmed her heart with a steaming cup of coffee.
The warm beverage soothed her mind as the embarrassment from an hour prior still played on repeat in her head.
Oh how embarrassing it was, If word ever gets out she'll never be able to show her face again!
She's almost thirty and already the stress from her work makes her feel twice as old.
But with this hot mug of roasted beans, for just a few moments, Raven Inkwell could feel her age.
"Raven! Get the royal Guard ready and sent to Ponyville," all the soothing calmness was washed away as Princess Celestia barged into her office, paper documents she's been keeping neat and tidy were being thrown around the room from the wind pressure of the door opening.
"I would be ordering Shining Armor, but he seems to be missing," Celestia said as she sauntered into Raven's office, sat on her desk, and levitated the mug out of her hold.
"Is this Zebrican Black? Good choice," She told her as Celestia took a sip from Raven's coffee, "Could use a bit less sugar though," She said with a scrunched face before draining the cup with a large gulp and jumping off the desk.
"I don't enjoy the bitter taste," Raven said quietly as she looked at the now empty mug, "My Mother sent it as a gift, and I didn't want to waste it, so I used more sugar,"
"Oh..." Celestia replied eloquently.
"Didn't Shining go to you?" Raven asked, catching the curiosity of Celestia.
"He did?"
"He and Starlight, yes," Raven said, "They were searching for you because somepony, I don't want to throw names, but it was a ruler of a nation, who thought it would be a good idea to leave the castle during a time of emergency," She told her blandly, her eyes gesturing out the window of her office, and to the Full Moon that was simply floating above the land.
"Okay," Celestia said, "I can agree that perhaps I was acting childish with Luna," Raven lifted a brow, "And Captain Armor I can understand,"
Celestia then took the chair in front of Raven's desk, "But why would Starlight Glimmer join him?"
"Because the Prince is missing," Raven told her.
Celestia blinked, waiting for Raven to tell the rest of the joke before the small smile on her face melted away, causing Raven to shiver slightly as the temperature of the room raised several degrees.
"I want every available Guard in Ponyville Yesterday," Celestia told her, her voice coming out as a whisper, yet remaining loud enough to easily be heard across the entire castle.
And all across Canterlot Castle guards and Servants stopped what they were doing and listened to the words of the Princess of the Sun.
"I want the tourist area closed, The guards there will take guard over the rest of the castle, Every other guard, suit up. Get to the town of Ponyville, and await further orders."
The castle stood still.
"NOW," within a matter of seconds, the castle of Canterlot was louder than it was in months, as guards ran around, getting ready to leave.
Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, Celestia calmed herself down before continuing to speak with Raven, now curled into herself beneath her desk to avoid the glaring gaze of the Solar Princess.
"I want a list of every single weapon and guard, and I want it in five minutes. Shining Armor and Starlight Glimmer better have a good explanation as to why my baby is missing," Celestia told Raven before standing up from the chair, "I'll be waiting by the carriages, be there in three minutes,"
And with that, Raven Inkwell was busy running around the walls of the castle, getting everything Celestia asked of her, and also placing an order for a new chair.
Seeing as her old one has stains of soot and the smell of smoke.
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Twenty Minutes.
That was how long it took for the Nightmares to capture them
Twenty short minutes.
The Moment they got close to the castles, they fell into the illusions of horrible nightmares, those were easy enough to escape.
What was not so easy, was the horde of Nightmare creatures, the corrupted denizens of the Moon, led by Nightmare Moon herself ready to capture them as soon as they escaped the illusions.
"Let Rarity go!" Rainbow Dash shouted before being thrown across the rocky surface of the moon, her body going limp as she rolled across the ground.
"You won't win!" Twilight yelled moments before witnessing Nightmare Moon kick Spike the Dragon so far, he was no longer visible.
"Darn it you!" Applejack charged at the mare, a similar fate awaited her.
No matter what they tried to do. Without Rarity to power the Elements of Harmony, there was no way for them to beat Nightmare Moon.
In Twenty Short Minutes, Nightmare Moon decimated the Elements of Harmony, threw them into the dungeon, and laughed maniacally as Luna flew away, her fears of the past stopping her from going further.
"I am the worst," She thought to herself as she flew back down to Equestria, leaving the Elements of Harmony behind.
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Two different bodies were walking silently across the castle on the moon.
One was injured and small, his chest heaving in pain as each step he took caused his scales to itch and fall off, revealing the soft pink flesh beneath.
The other was calm and collected, each step he took in the silence of his magic reminded him of his days in the Navy, all he needed was an earpiece and a rifle.
The small injured one silently climbed down to the dungeon, luckily avoiding the plenty of guards as he searched for his captured friends.
The Calm and collected one stood silently near the corner of a bend, his body against the wall as two cloud-like creatures walked past him, unknowing of the danger they would have been in had one of them bumped into the White Unicorn.
The Small Injured one smiled widely as he made his way into the dungeon, silently crawling beneath the sleeping guard as he opened the locks that kept his friends captured.
The Calm and Collected one was staring blankly out of the window, looking at the green and blue orb that floated in front of him far in the distance, his brow twitching as his escape plan only got more complicated.
With the help of his friends, the small injured one managed to convince the Dungeon Guard to help him defeat Nightmare Moon, because Friendship is worth much more than whatever deal he has with her.
The Calm and Collected one sat silently as his magic engulfed the large bag he was carrying, before he screamed loudly, his muscles stiffening and his pupils pinprick as his horn glowed a pale blue, before the bag he levitated shot away into the sky, leaving the Unicorn huffing for breath as his muscles ached from the extraneous spell.
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In Canterlot Castle, a loud crash was heard as one of the windows was broken into.
Hours later, Staff would find a large bag with a note attached, written: "Blueblood's stuff Do Not Touch!!!"
But that is a story for another time.
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"Larry," Nightmare Moon called out to her most useful soldier, "Is the army ready?"
The Bird-looking Nightmare nodded his head as he rubbed his eyes, "Of course oh horrible one, they are simply waiting for your command," He wanted to throw up every second he degraded himself for Nightmare Moon's ego, but he held back.
Soon, She will fulfill her purpose, and he will have a spot on the earth, away from this barren and empty rock his colleagues call home.
He has waited more than one-thousand years for this fool of a Queen to conquer Equestria, He could wait a few more hours.
And as soon as she's done with her work, her petty little plan to create an everlasting night, he would come in and take his spot as King of Nightmares, SHADOWFRIGHT!!!
"Is something amusing you?" Nightmare Moon asked, and Shadowfright quickly shook his head.
Soon...
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As soon as Celestia landed back in Ponyville, she got to work.
She met up with Shining and Starlight and gave them her orders.
Shining Armor will cover the town with a shield as Starlight got ready to remove Rarity's Cutie-Mark as soon as she made her appearance.
She found that Luna has returned, and ordered her to go back to the moon and get Blueblood as soon as this is over.
More and more orders left her mouth, the temperature around her only rising hotter and hotter as her mind worked a mile-a-minute, thinking of what she would do to Nightmare Moon the moment she released Rarity.
She didn't expect to find the Girls and Spike return on the back of one of the Nightmare Creatures, but she will deal with that afterwards.
Her eyes looked to the sky, past the dark clouds of the Nightmare Forces, flying down toward Ponyville as a large black cloud, and instead focused on a small area of the moon behind them.
Hoping to find any sign that her darling baby boy was safe.
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"Where is everyone?" I asked as I removed the illusion from myself, seeing as I haven't seen anybody in minutes there was no reason to keep the drain on my magic, I'm already draining enough with the several golden weapons I have floating behind me.
I sat on the floor, looking out from a balcony in what looks to be a bedroom, If you ignore all the dust and decay, and look at the earth far below me.
It doesn't look like Earth, the geography is mostly Earth-like but also different, The continents look like what would come out if you gave detail to a child's crayon drawing of the world.
That is, I could recognize that one of these continents is North America, And there's Africa and Asia, Australia and Europe, Antarctica, and South America.
But they all looked off.
If in the past month, I didn't already realize it, this would have been the moment.
"I'm really not on Earth anymore, huh?"
And so with nothing else to do, I laid my back on the stone floor of the balcony, my head resting on my arms like a pillow, and I simply stared.
At the Pale Blue Dot that wasn't my earth.