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private Nightmare's Return (1x1 with Explosionmare)


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@Monotonality

Nightmare Moon waited patiently as Twilight did what she could to calm the civilians down. When they were calmed, they were told to bow down to her. Nightmare stood up proudly in response. She stepped forward, preparing the spell. She was interrupted when Twilight offered a suggestion.

“Fair enough.” she responded. “The staff may go first, seeing as they need the new adjustment the most. Guards, some of you keep the citizens occupied whilst the others gather the entirety of the staff.”

As she waited for the staff to arrive, she looked the citizens over. She could see a couple of them shivering or rubbing their eyes on occasion. Her horn itched to rectify these minor annoyances, but she had to remain patient. If they could see how well the spell would work on the staff, then the citizens would be better focus when it was their turn. Focus was key to getting the spell to work.

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@ExplosionMare

The guards nodded obediently and headed off to go gather the rest of the guards and staff within the castle. Some of them stayed behind with Twilight to watch over the guards. They went off into the castle to gather up the other guards. This also included Inkwell, Moonlight, and Afterglow. Smart Planner was also in the castle too and was also rounded up. Within a few minutes dozens of guards poured into the room and stood in a single file line. Some of the guards seemed to be teasing Inkwell and made her the first in line.

Inkwell was the more nervous type, having made to have gone first by the other guards. She would be the first one to be turned into a batpony. That was, until Afterglow stood up and stepped infront of her. He bowed. "I would like to go first. It has been my dream to see myself become an entirely nocturnal pony and to fully embrace the eternal night. So please, allow me to go first?" his voice spoke of pride, and deep loyalty to Nightmare Moon.

The others stood there quietly. Inkwell was shaking a bit but Afterglow patted her head. "Don't be nervous, you'll be better soon, Raven Inkwell. Come on." he helped her up and she seemed to calm down. Moonlight stood next to Afterglow silently. Her nightly eyes blinked once. The other ponies were watching this with various expressions. 

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@Monotonality

Nightmare’s staff came in promptly with the guards. Inkwell, Moonlight, Smart Planner, and Afterglow came into view. By the looks of things, the staff were pushing Inkwell to go first. How immature of them. Nightmare fought back the urge to roll her eyes. She though her staff were above that sort of behavior.

She looked to Afterglow who offered to go first in Inkwell’s place. To be quite honest, the empress didn’t care who went first, so long as the spell was cast on everypony. However, if Afterglow’s offer meant that the rest of the staff would cooperate, then she would cast the spell on him first.

“Very well.” she said plainly as she lit up her horn.

She held Afterglow in her magical grasp and slowly began to form leathery wings, slit eyes, sharp fangs, and thicker fur around him. The spell was intricate as it was with Twilight but the process did not take quite as long due to practice from before. When she finished with him, she set him down gently and allowed him to examine his new features. She then moved on to the next staff member.

“You will go next, Inkwell,” Nightmare insisted. “There are no bad effects to this spell. Besides, you need to set a good example for my citizens.”

She then picked up the mare with her magic and repeated the spell.

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@ExplosionMare

Afterglow observed the various changes of his body that took place. Inkwell and the others watched with amazement at what was going on and when Afterglow was done he flapped his wings and did some sort of pose to the others as if showing off a bit. He thanked Nightmare Moon for the transformation and proceeded to admire and check out his new form. Inkwell was next and stepped forward, after seeing what happened she wasn't as nervous.


Moonlight was the third, followed by Smart planner. Other guards were next. After all of the staff were eventually transitioned into bat ponies Nightmare Moon could see the selection of batponies that were standing around now. Moonlight and Afterglow seemed to be checking each other's new forms out, while the others were admiring their forms.

"Y-you uh, look great Moonlight." Afterglow stated to Moonlight with a grin. Afterglow would then look to Inkwell and admire her form as well before Moonlight redirected his attention to her.

"Thanks. You too." Moonlight would silently wink to him, after a brief dialog between the various guards the guards would go quiet and allow Nightmare Moon to focus. 

Inkwell out of all of them, still looked the most meek and cute of them all despite the transformation. She blinked her slit red eyes. Not all of the ponies here had red eyes. Afterglow did, Moonlight retained her eye color. Other guards had their eye colors changed though.

The normal citizens who were guarded over by Twilight were more amazed if anything by what had just happened. Their confusion and fear was replaced by curiosity and interest. The guards that were guarding over them were not transformed yet. They switched positions with other guards who had been transformed and after those guards were turned into bat ponies the entire room was now filled with bat ponies besides the citizens.

 

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@Monotonality

Nightmare Moon gave Afterglow a stern look after he decided to get a bit cocky after the transformation. She wondered what happened to the staff who was so eager to remain professional and diligent. She supposed they would “return” once the excitement of the spell wore off. She pushed that thought away for now and focused on transforming the rest of her staff, including the guards.

Some of the staff remained quite similar to how they used to appear while others showed more dominant batpony traits. Inkwell and Afterglow’s eyes became red as well as some of the guards’. She wondered if that meant anything since Twilight took on those same red eyes. She would have to get Twilight to look into that in the future.

“Citizens, step forward one-by-one. If you remain still during the entire transformation, this will not take long. Do not use your new forms to wreak havoc or there will be consequences.” the empress ordered.

She took the first pony she lay eyes on and took him in her magical grasp. Like with the others, she imagined his new features appearing one at a time. While she created his wings, fangs, and the like, she wondered if his eyes would turn red or remain the same. She tried not to think on this too long in order to avoid causing them to turn red by force.

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@ExplosionMare

Afterglow took a more professional stance upon the glare. The guards and those in the room watched as the citizens were transformed. The first one retained his blue eyes but they became darker. This citizen became quite intimidating by the looks of him however he was already a strong build previously. It seemed that the ponies previous traits of the pony remained but were heightened as the spell was done.

None of the citizens dared to speak or talk back to Nightmare Moon and silently obliged. Twilight watched what was happening with curious eyes amongst the other ponies. Inkwell would flap her wings and try to fly but she was too cautious to attempt flight, especially when around others. Inkwell was the most fluffy one of them all, however. Maybe it was the way the spell was done, who knows.

Eventually all of the citizens were transformed. They checked out their forms curiously. One of them spoke up. "E-empress...h-how will you get all the ponies in equestria to become bat ponies?" she spoke up.

"She raises a good point, hmm...what if we have some way to do the spell on ponies but without actually having to cast it?" Twilight suggested.

"Well that makes me imagine some sort of booth, or doorway that ponies walk through and it converts them into batponies, but we'd need some way to design and build such a thing." Afterglow mused, pondering.

 

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@Monotonality

When all the ponies in the castle were transformed, they and the castle staff began to wonder how the rest of Equestria would transform at a quicker rate. Ah, there were the professional ponies Nightmare Moon remembered. A random citizen, Twilight, and Afterglow were discussing the possibilities. She found it a bemusing that civilians and castle staff were suddenly on the same speaking terms. Regardless, she listened intently to what they had in mind.

“Afterglow makes a decent point.” the empress interjected. “A booth or a station would take a lot less energy and a lot less time to prepare than a normal spell. Twilight shall look into transferring magic into such an object while Smart Planner shall look into constructing the device.”

She sent the two batponies off with guards en tow. She then turned around to study the citizens. Some ponies’ features were amplified while others’ were entirely different. It was odd how the spell worked differently for each pony, but perhaps that was the spell’s way of filtering out weaknesses. Anypony’s with less than desirable features had them altered. That was the working theory, anyways. 

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@ExplosionMare

The civilian did not speak back as if afraid of being disrespectful while Twilight and Smart Planner looked at each other. "Hmm, my speciality is architectural construction but I suppose I'm up to the task, definitely." Smart Planner spoke. She was not one for constructing booths or stations of this sort but she supposed that she and Twilight would be able to come up with a plan here. Afterglow stayed quiet and he and Moonlight made a motion for the majority of the guards here to return to their posts.

"I believe that we can definitely do something like that. Should we get started on that right away? I'm not really sure what your plans are for the rest of the night." Twilight said, she had done a lot of work today and was a bit tired but she would be able to keep going if needed. Smart Planner smirked. "It'd be an honor working with you here, Twilight." she said and flapped her bat pony wings and walked over to Twilight.

Afterglow looked to Nightmare Moon. "Empress, I suppose we are done with these citizens here? If we are, I'll have the guards escort them back outside and they can return to their daily business." Afterglow spoke obediently. 

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@Starforce Glimmer

Nightmare Moon looked at Twilight and Smart Planner as they agreed to do their tasks. She nodded at them to go, but not before she answered Twilight’s question.

“That is all I have for you tonight. I have a few things to take care of on my own, but they do not require your assistance.” she told her.

She then looked to Afterglow who was awaiting further instruction. He was a lot more willing to serve than the others—not that the others weren’t loyal and obedient, just that he seemed to take more pride in his work. Nightmare couldn’t help but admire that. In a serene tone, she told him,

“Yes, I am finished with them. The guards can escort them back home.”

She was about to turn around and head out until something made her pause. Afterglow said something peculiar. She turned to him with a more serious expression.

“You mean ‘nightly’ business. Do not make that mistake again.” she warned.

Her emotions seemed to turn on a silver bit just then, but she had strict rules and would like those rules to be followed. Quite honestly, she didn’t think it was so much to ask for ponies to no longer use day-related terms. If she was willing to respect her staff, they had to be respectful of her and her wishes.

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@ExplosionMare

Twilight and Smart Planner would nod and head off as the guards began escorting the citizens back home. The guards left and escorted the citizens beyond the castle limits, and the citizens were allowed to leave the guard's watch freely. The guards began heading back afterwards to assume their usual posts.

Inkwell was nervously watching the situation with Afterglow and Nightmare Moon. Afterglow seemed to shudder a bit upon the warning and instantly bowed apologetically. "Please, forgive my mistake Empress, I don't know what came over me at all in that moment and I regret it with every fibre of my being. I would personally wish to remove that word from existence if I could." he said and looked into Nightmare Moon's eyes as he spoke. She could tell that he was being genuine by the look in his eyes and the way that he looked back. Inkwell took this as a moment for her to leave and also attend to her own duties.

Meanwhile, Smart Planner and Twilight had spent a while in the planning room after Twilight had gathered more books on the subject. Smart Planner began sketching out rough drawings of the booth as Twilight told her the types of magics that would be involved. There would have to be a continuous power source, an enchantment casted on the device itself, as well as various "emitters" on it to emit the spell onto those that walk through and various other devices and equipment to set it so it would only affect anything put inside of it.

 Smart Planner would have to draw several sketches and alterations to Twilight's plans and ideas for this. It took a while of conversing and strategizing before Smart Planner had a blueprint of the device ready. It was titled, "The Night's Gateway" as Smart Planner wanted Nightmare Moon to be satisfied. Meanwhile Twilight had been listing the various materials that were to be used for the construction of the device. Some of them were probably more of "high class" materials, meaning that Nightmare Moon had to approve of this in order for the construction of this to be completed. The materials were rather complicated alloys of metal, metallic devices, electronics, and magical storage devices. 

After coming to a conclusion and triple checking, they both would go to Nightmare Moon. Rainbow Dash had lead them to where she thought Nightmare Moon might be, and if not found she'd look for her along with Twilight and Smart Planner. Upon finding Nightmare Moon, they bowed as they unveiled the plans. 

It was around two hours later, a bit later than Nightmare Moon may have wanted but upon the revealing of the blueprints it was a rather sophisticated and complex machine. Twilight added that they only had to build the machine itself once, and then Nightmare can clone it several times using an advanced cloning spell she had found in the forbidden section, she turned over the book that detailed the spell. 
 

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@Starforce Glimmer

Nightmare Moon gave Afterglow a forgiving look. He appeared to be genuinely sorry for his poor choice in words. She decided to let him go for now. Before she moved on to other things, she gave Inkwell a look to suggest that it would be unwise to eavesdrop like she did in the future.

While Smart Planner and Twilight did their work, Nightmare stepped outside to coordinate the sky. Tonight, she wanted to test something she had never done before. She concentrated all of her energy into her magic, her horn vibrating and pulsing like it had never done before. When it appeared to reach its maximum potential, she slowly fed electrical charges into the energy she had created. What resulted was a phenomenon Equestria nor Nightmare Moon had ever seen before.

The moon took on a crimson hue then faded to a fiery orange. It then went to green, to blue, to violet, and finally to pink. Yellow was omitted because it resembled the sun too closely. The moon continued to reflect these unique colors, lingering on the blue and violet, the empress’ favorite colors. Satisfied with her work, Nightmare Moon returned to the throne room to see what Smart Planner and Twilight came up with.

The mares bowed and showed her the concepts they had come up with. The machine, titled “The Night’s Gateway”, was intricately designed and equipped with all the necessities to utilize the batpony spell multiple times. There was even a way to duplicate the machine in order to improve efficiency. Pleased with the concept design, Nightmare Moon nodded before she gave further instruction.

“Construct this as soon as possible. Use the materials shown in the diagram only, do not make any further modifications unless they prove to be useful.” she said.

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@ExplosionMare

Afterglow and Inkwell left to return to their duties. Due to Nightmare Moon's alterations with the moon the various ponies of the castle, and across the land would have stopped to look up at the moon in awe. Not any of these ponies had ever seen anything like it before upon the Moon's slow transitioning between colors, avoiding the color yellow. All of the ponies were impressed, Nightmare Moon had sure done something. Ponies across the land would definitely be looking up at the moon more often. The castle staff would be asking her about this should they get the chance.

Twilight and Smart Planner would nod at this before they noticed the changing color of the moon above in the skylight. They both appeared to be mesmerized by the moon that was currently changing between a green and a violet hue. "Question...why is the moon looking like that? I've never seen anything like that, wow, that is quite beautiful..." Smart Planner would state before tilting her head slightly. Twilight was basically lost for words at the Moon's beauty for a little while.

"Green moon, color changing moon...that is really the most amazing thing I've ever seen, isn't it?" she'ed say and Smart Planner silently nodded. Even Rainbow Dash and the other guards were amazed but stayed silent. Twilight and Smart Planner then looked to Nightmare Moon for answers as to what was going on, their formalities being dropped at the sheer amazement of the moon's changing colors that would slowly change. 

 

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@Starforce Glimmer

Nightmare Moon returned to see her staff looking at the sky in awe. She smiled to herself at the level of fascination she created in everypony. She allowed them to look at the moon for a few moments before she told everypony to go back to work.

“The hue-changing is of my doing. You may look at it a while longer before you must return to work. Twilight, Smart Planner, finish your plans. Guards, rotate your staff now. Tomorrow will be another long night, so be prepared.” she spoke in an almost loving tone.

Nightmare felt strange feeling so elated like this, but she couldn’t help how she felt. Ponies were finally appreciating her and her work the way she wanted them too. Not only did they appreciate it, they adored it far more than they ever had appreciated the sun. This is what felt truly rewarding to the empress, far more rewarding than ruling a kingdom. Of course, that didn’t mean she didn’t like being a ruler, but ruling felt like more of a necessity than anything.

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@ExplosionMare

The guards would take a few moments of looking up at the moon to themselves before the guards walked away to switch shifts. Rainbow Dash however, did not as she was Twilight's personal guard. Even Rainbow Dash seemed a bit elated and her character seemed to break for a second as she blurted out, "That moon is AWESOME! Its almost like a rainbow lamp, the color of my mane!" she exclaimed, showing off her Rainbow tail and mane there before she realized that she spoked aloud and then took a harsher guard like stance like before. Twilight and Smart Planner were a bit taken back by this but they would nod.

However, Twilight would look up at the moon one last time as an idea formed in her mind. She could look up at the moon through a telescope, but would tell Nightmare of that later after finishing the project with Smart Planner. They would walk off. As they walked off the castle staff were all talking about the moon there and how interesting it was. Smart Planner would allow Twilight to accompany her as they would gather the resources needed. This would take a long time as there was a long list of resources and they had to look all throughout the castle to get them. 

Smart Planner gathered some of the construction ponies, who had just informed her that the new guard towers and fence around Canterlot was completed as they were working overtime and working really hard to finish the constructions Nightmare wanted to finish in Canterlot. Other ponies continued to work in Canterlot, as they were ripping up the sidewalks and installing new signs, and roads. Canterlot was undergoing a huge remodeling of the place, according to Nightmare Moon's wishes.

Upon the arrival of those ponies, who were more technical minded construction of the machine would begin. Twilight also helped out as she had experiences building projects before but nothing of this scale. The machine was incredibly complex and they would spend at least two hours constructing it without a break. Tons of communication, building, time, and intricate building had passed. The construction was completed. It looked a lot like a silver doorway with wires, containers of the power it needed, batteries, and other such things but it looked rather futuristic and sleek. 

They would bring the constructed Night's Gateway to Nightmare Moon for review and for her to be the one to clone the machine and test it out on a pony. When they all got to where Nightmare Moon was, they bowed and unveiled the machine, and then Smart Planner told Nightmare Moon that the gates and guard towers in Canterlot were now completed as well. 

 

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@Starforce Glimmer

Nightmare Moon scowled at Rainbow Dash’s unbecoming behavior.

“Control yourself!” she barked.

As much as she wanted her guards to be enthusiastic about the moon, she wanted them to remain stoic while doing so. They were here to work, so they had to act professional at all times. The same went for the rest of the staff and Twilight. If these kinds of behaviors kept up, she may have to enact some sort of discipline. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that since discipline felt rather time-wasting.

As everypony went off to complete their tasks, Nightmare Moon went to her room to review the few papers she had left. They were legal documents she had created in order to set official laws for Equestria. If anypony dared question her, she would have proof ready in case her word wasn’t enough. She edited the papers until they sounded professional before signing her name in the bottom right corner. She set them on her nightstand to dry. For the remainder of her waiting period, she designed various star coordinates for future nights. It was always good to have a plan in case nights ever got busy.

After about two hours, Smart Planner and Twilight were finished with the gate, known as “Night’s Gateway”. It was constructed with technology Nightmare Moon had never seen before, though perhaps that was due to her thousand year absence. She examined it curiously, making absolute certain she knew where to infuse the spell. Thankfully, the design was not complicated, so she was able to infuse the batpony spell into the gate within seconds.

“We shall test this device in the early evening. Some of my guards shall watch over this device to ensure that it does not get tampered with. As for the rest of you, go to your rooms and rest up for tomorrow. We have many more citizens to transform.” she instructed, heading off to her bedchambers herself.

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@ExplosionMare

Rainbow Dash and the other guards had controlled themselves after that command from Nightmare Moon. For the rest of the night, no guards gave her any such problems and she was allowed to focus on her other tasks for the night. 

The Night's Gateway was indeed constructed with technology she had not seen before. It seemed to combine various aspects of magic and technology - a process that was banned under Celestia's reign. This device was likely the first of its kind. Constructing another manually would be a huge hassle in itself as the construction of this was rather tiring and complex. Before Nightmare Moon headed off to her personal chambers, Twilight had turned over all of her notes, research, and books she used for the project, Smart Planner did the same for her blueprints.

"Goodnight, Empress." Twilight spoke somewhat shakily, but perhaps it was due to her tiredness. The guards would escort Twilight off to her rooms but she had enough time to tell Smart Planner to have a good night. Twilight had a lot on her mind as she walked to her chambers. Smart Planner had smiled to Twilight, and told her to enjoy her sleep before going down a different hallway to her own chambers. Twilight had entered her room, it was quiet. The construction in Canterlot had been continuing as per Nightmare Moon's orders. The area all around the castle was entirely completed. In the distant areas of Canterlot, in the streets and such they were installing new sidewalks, signs, posts, and re-paving the roads. Those construction ponies had worked in shifts, so that work would continue all around the clock.

Twilight would have taken a shower, and brush her teeth before bed so she would feel entirely clean. She was impressed with the design of the shower stall and the bathroom. It was all Night themed. She had to dim the lights in the rooms so her bat pony eyes would be able to see properly without straining them. But even in the dark, she could see more details than normal. This was all amazing to her, but she needed to sleep. So many thoughts had occupied her mind, it was too much for her to think of and she just went to sleep. 

The guards had already hung lavenders in the halls of the castle. No doubt Nightmare Moon would have wanted them to be hung. When Nightmare Moon had gone off to sleep, she would be greeted with the doorways in the dream realm. But that one, black doorway from before would be the one to stand out the most among them all. 

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@Starforce Glimmer

Nightmare nodded to Twilight as she said goodnight. She became much more relaxed as the guards assumed their original stances. When she arrived to her bedroom, she became even more relaxed as she slipped off her armor and bundled up under the covers. As her breathing slowed, she picked up the comforting scent of lavender. She was pleased to know the guards had hung those flowers already.

Once she drifted off, she immediately appeared in the dream realm. A familiar set of doors appeared along with an unfamiliar dark door. The door encompassed Nightmare’s vision, filling it with an expansive darkness. Her vision stretched beyond the door, beyond the realm, beyond what she was capable of seeing. Then her vision drew back, drew back to the realm, back to the door. It was as if the door was a black hole, absorbing all light and producing a chaotic darkness.

The visionary spectacle attracted her, drawing her closer to the door until she reached the doorknob. She turned it slowly, allowing her eyes the chance to adjust to whatever was on the other side. Once her eyes were focused, she trotted through the door and allowed it to transport her to whatever dream was behind it.

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@ExplosionMare

Nightmare Moon would have ended up in a largely dark void. In the center of it was a unicorn mare with a white coat, a mane and tail of various shades of blue and a cutie mark of a purple star with a black upside down star over it. There were smaller black stars but only at the points of the black star. The mare was surrounded by some fillies mocking her. The fillies would mock and demean the mare, in a manner that school bullies would.

The scene would have changed resembling a school, of which Nightmare Moon could recognize the mare, but she was unlike the others. She was more dirty, unkept and rather meek looking. One could say pathetic. It seemed to have been some sort of scene this mare dealt with when she was young, being mocked at by others here for being different and for being the weird dirty one it seemed. However something would happen, and it's not something that Nightmare Moon would have expected. The filly version of the mare stepped forth boldly, and punched the bully square into the chest. Then, the mare seemed to lay into the bully and punch them, and then throw them against the wall screaming all sorts of expletives. The filly had a maniacal smile on her face, enjoying this a great deal.

The dream would change, and the filly was back to be being a full grown mare. There were two other ponies within the void, a male and female. The female one had a mane suspiciously like that of Twilight with a cutie mark of 3 purple stars while the male was of a blue color with a cutie mark of two crescent moons.

"Worthless child, we should have gotten rid of you sooner!"

"How could my own daughter be such a worthless filly?"

"You are a mistake!"

"You are worthless, Moonlight!" 

The two of them insulted the mare, who's name was apparently Moonlight. But the mare stood strong, and bold. "It is Magnolia, not Moonlight! It is time for me to get RID of YOU! It's time for you to DIE for your crimes against me, and for all those years of pain and torment, that I feel in every waking moment! I will no longer stand idly by, while I am mocked! Nobody gets away with it! I am ashamed to be your daughter!" she roared much like a wolf as shadows swirled around her, and surged forth to the two other ponies. There seemed to be like a tentacle of sorts of shadows that was a resulting factor of this, swirling around them and then grasping around their necks.

"And now, you PAY!" the mare screamed, and then there was a loud snapping sound as she snapped the necks of who seemed to be her parents. She had a disgusted look on her face as if disgusted by this act. After the act was done, everything in the dream had vanished. She was laying there, a crying mess. Definitely a nightmare. She didn't notice Nightmare Moon's presence. 
 

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@Starforce Glimmer

Nightmare Moon was in for quite a surprise. The dream began with the appearance of a mare with a wavy blue mane and a lighter blue coat. Her Cutie Mark was a collection of purple and black stars protruding from each other. She trotted forward curiously, intrigued by the mare’s Cutie Mark. Before she could make any progress, the dream cut to another scene.

In this scene, the mare was a dirty, pathetic schoolfilly. Nightmare Moon looked at her in disgust. Other ponies in the classroom mocked the filly, behavior which Nightmare neither approved nor disapproved of. She figured she would just watch this filly grow weaker, so she allowed her vision to drift. Her eyes locked on the strange filly at the sound of a crack. Before the empress could comprehend what was happening, the filly had beaten one of her bullies and shouted expletives she was surprised a filly so young would know.

The dream then cut to the mare’s parents. Her parents shouted at her, calling her worthless and useless. Nightmare Moon’s parents, from what she remembered of them, never directly told her she was useless. However, that didn’t mean she didn’t feel inferior around them. They would constantly praise her sister for the smallest of victories while she had to achieve something huge to gain even a small amount of attention. While this was not the same as the mare’s situation, she could definitely relate to it.

Nightmare Moon discovered that the mare’s birth name was Moonlight, a name that was awfully similar to Twilight’s. The name she had given to herself was Magnolia, which, in her opinion, was less fitting to her Cutie Mark. She assumed the sequence would end there, but she was taken aback once again. Magnolia became violent again, only this time she had been capable of murdering her parents. All the rage and hatred she had was projected into her parents. With her anger gone, what replaced it was guilt and regret. Nightmare did not understand this, seeing as how the mare was merely seeking justice for a wrongdoing.

The dream ended and Nightmare returned to the dream realm. A fierce determination burned in Nightmare’s heart. She knew she had to find that mare. Magnolia, just like Twilight, had an unusual amount of power. She could also be useful to the throne.

When Twilight awakens, I must have her find Magnolia. The appearance of this dream could not be a coincidence! she reasoned. 

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@ExplosionMare

When Nightmare Moon would exit Magnolia's dream the dream seemed to feel like Magnolia was at least, somewhat aware of Nightmare Moon's presence. Magnolia had watched Nightmare Moon leave, but she did not do anything about it. Whether Magnolia was fully aware, or if she had just thought Nightmare Moon appeared in her dream was unknown. Whatever the case was, nothing would happen to Nightmare Moon and nothing was said to her.

When she exited the dream, Nightmare Moon was granted with the long line of doors. She could see Twilight's door which was something you'd see out of a library. Twilight's cutie mark which had a purple 6 pointed star with a rotated white one behind it, the design of it was rather beautiful and there was a single sort of ribbon that resembled the colors of her mane wrapping around part of the star. On Magnolia's door if Nightmare Moon looked closely, she would see Magnolia's cutie mark. There was a single purple star, with a black star the same size that was upside down with only black stars around the points of the black one. The designs of hers and Twilight's seemed to be similar but it could just be a coincidence, but is it? 

Nightmare Moon could also see Afterglow's door nearby, it was a calm indigo color with red outlines. His cutie mark was the Moon with Nightmare Moon's face outline on it with some star designs, as well as Smart Planner's door which was a solid lime Green with her cutie mark of a blue print sort of design interwoven around a silver pen. There were lots of options, even Moonlight Raven and Inkwell's doors were here. But where would she go? Who would she choose to enter next? 

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@Starforce Glimmer

As Nightmare Moon exited Magnolia’s dream, she felt a strange, illusory presence. She wasn’t sure if she was just being paranoid or if somepony had really watched her leave. She shook it off, realizing there was no point in contemplating the matter.

She trotted towards other doors and saw the ones lined up that belonged to her staff. There was Twilight’s, Afterglow’s, Smart Planner’s, Inkwell’s, and the individual guards’ doors, each decorated with their Cutie Marks and painted in a color resembling their coats. The empress took a moment to study the designs on the doors. She looked at Magnolia’s first since she was too entranced by the door itself before to get a proper look at it.

Magnolia’s Cutie Mark was a purple star that nearly merged with an upside down black star. Tiny black stars were pointing out of it. She moved on to Twilight’s Cutie Mark, which had a similar star pattern, only their was an indigo, violet, and hot pink ribbon flowing through it. She wondered if those two Cutie Marks were connected somehow. Surely they were, because why else would a seemingly random unicorn’s door be lined up against the ponies Nightmare Moon was acquainted with?

Her curiosity grew from there. She had to see if there really was a connection between Magnolia and Twilight. She ignored the other doors for now, but promised herself to return to them if time permitted. Temptatively, she edged closer to Twilight’s door, dragging her polished hooves slowly across the stars beneath her. She wanted to remain quiet because unlike last time, her goal was not to protrude. She merely only wanted to investigate.

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@ExplosionMare

Provided if Nightmare Moon opened the door, she would see what seemed to be Twilight laying in the middle of a clearing looking up at the moon. The moon was shining brightly over the dream here however Nightmare Moon would notice that there weren't any stars here. The clearing seemed to stretch on for as long as the dream could continue onward for. Twilight was reading from a book, this book was something that would catch Nightmare Moon's interest.

Nightmare Moon could see that the front of the book had an image of a blazing sun with the outline of a mare within it. The mare in the sun, her sister that she had banished into the sun. The book had no pages within it, at least no words that were written. It was a blurry jumbled mess as you couldn't really read within dreams. But why would the book have the mare in the sun on it? Maybe Twilight was wondering more about her former mentor but Celestia was not present within this dream. At least it was a step up, Celestia wasn't there inside Twilight's dreams.

The dream would change scenery, to Twilight overlooking a balcony. Nightmare Moon would recognize it as one of the balconies of the castle. Over the horizon was a weird red, almost fiery glow but nothing happened further than that. But something about that fiery glow was off. What was it? It almost felt like there was another presence within Twilight's dream. Something hostile, something...oddly familiar but yet Nightmare Moon couldn't put her hoof to it. Twilight seemed to look out into the distance, but oddly enough did not recognize that strange red glow over the horizon. Whatever it was, it quickly seemed to vanish when Nightmare Moon had entered. As if it didn't want to be seen by her. 

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@Starforce Glimmer

Quite a few things were off about Twilight’s dream. For starters, the batpony was holding a book with a sun on it. The sun, of all things! Nightmare was about to scold Twilight for this, despite knowing that the book wasn’t real. However, there was a detail she previously missed that managed to grab her attention enough to change her mind. There was a mare in the sun, similar to how Nightmare was once in the moon.

Is that my sister? If so, what relevance does this have in the waking world? the empress questioned.

Before she could investigate any further in this starless scene, she was taken to a balcony where Twilight stood, seemingly in a daze. She wasn’t looking anywhere in particular. This fact was surprising considering that there was an ominous red glow just around the corner. Nightmare wanted to chase it or at the very least investigate it. Unfortunately, it whooshed away before she had the chance to go anywhere near it.

As the dream concluded, Nightmare suddenly felt she was in great peril. If she didn’t take action soon, her throne could be jeopardized. Quickly, she sped over to Afterglow’s door. She had to warn him to take action in the waking world as soon as possible. She wanted to be prepared for whatever threat was about to impose on her. Hopefully his dreams did not jump around as much as Twilight’s.

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@ExplosionMare

Twilight definitely seemed unaware of what she was even dreaming about, there. She seemed in more of a daze as if she was not even seeing the red glow. Whatever was happening, maybe it was not powerful enough to be noticed? Or maybe Twilight just wasn't aware of it. Whatever it was, it was definitely aware of Nightmare's presence. 

but Nightmare quickly left and entered within Afterglow's dream. Inside of Afterglow's dream, he was laying on a cloud with Moonlight. They were enjoying the calm night sky over the cloudtops. Nothing seemed to be amiss here.  Afterglow and Moonlight then were looking at the moon with binoculars, admiring the craters. They were content and calm. The Moonlight here looked a lot less intimidating without her armour, as well as Afterglow. Whatever was happening within Twilight's dream it did not happen in Afterglow's dream. Nightmare felt no other presences within this dream.

Afterglow was unaware he was dreaming, so Nightmare Moon would likely have to come to him and tell him of what was going on. 

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@Starforce Glimmer

Unlike Twilight’s dream, there was no invisible presence. The dream was quite peaceful, with the Moon and the stars in full view. Afterglow was sitting with Moonlight, admiring the night sky. Nightmare Moon hated that she had to interrupt a scene such as this. However, she knew it was necessary.

She flew over to Afterglow, steeling herself in order to sound urgent but in a calm tone so as not to alarm him too much.

“Afterglow, I fear there is something out there that is proceeding to threaten my throne. she stated. This is a dream, what you are doing here, but the presence is real, in the waking world. You must wake up immediately and alert the guard! Everypony must be on high alert around the castle. Wake the others, then be prepared at your post!”

As quickly as she appeared, she left to return to the waking world. She hurriedly put on her armor and flew out the window to stand on the highest point of the castle. She needed to keep an eye out just as much as the guards did. She recalled a few spells by memory just in case she had to use them.

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