A Nightmare's Legends Returns

The three pegasi soldiers that had pulled their chariots were following close behind. The skidded to a stop and looked around, getting into defensive positions.  One pegasus turned to them and opened his mouth to say, "Alright you six. You know what you're suppose to do. No ge-Ah!" He was cut off by a gray and dark blue blur colliding with his head. There was a sicking crack and the pegasus flew a few meters away from his previous spot. The other pegasi looked at him, seeing that he didn't get up. They quickly turned to the spot he was once at.

There stood a thestral, rubbing his hoof against his chestplate. His armor was similar to that of a lunar guards, the only difference being the pig snout like helmet, similar to the other soldiers, that covered most of his face. "Hmm...I thought I could have launched him farther...Ah well." He turned to the other two pegasi, laughing a little bit. He glanced behind him and saw the six ponies, one pony that looked like Nightmare Moon. "Bah! M-my queen! W-what are you doing here?!" The thestral stumbled back his eyes, that could be seen through the gap on his helmet, full of shook and fear.

The two pegasi guards looked and each other before poncing on the thestral. The were stopped however when a similar gray and dark blue blur speared them with it's spear. There stood another thestral with a spear. "You idiot! That isn't the queen! She isn't even wearing the right kind of armor!! That's a impostor!" The thestral used one of his hoof to push the two pegasi off his spear, flicking the blood off. He turned towards the six ponies. "Well, well. What do we have here. Where do you six think you're going? Wait...A mage?! Really! Hahahaha!" He pointed a hoof towards Ruby who shied back a little. "Is this what Celestia has been forced to send out. A simple little mage. Bahaha! Oh look. A crystal pony too, and a Saddle Arabian. Oh this is rich. Anyway, Jambourine, want to take care of them yourself of should I?" He asked the other thestral.

Jambourine just shrugged. "You can do what ever you want Captain, but I want to deal with the impostor. No one should get away with ruining the queen's good name." He stared at "Nightmare Moon", a low growl coming from his throat. He unfolded his wings and launched himself at Vision, he became a gray and bark blue blur. His speed was unlike any normal pony. The other thestral, a captain apparently, glanced over the other five, waiting for someone to make the first move.

((Remember it is heavily turn based during fight scenes.))

"Uh..." The way his attacker sped at him was almost unreal. So was the threat of death, really. But Vision's instincts served him well.

As fast as he could, he erected an illusory touch-sensitive spiked shield between him and the charging thestral, hoping beyond hope that he was fast enough to stop him. "Harun! Help!"

((Not being very familiar with the intricacies of a turn-based fighting system, I assume that it involves everyone making a post to describe their actions on our "turn", then allowing the enemies to react on their turn, and then we describe our actions on our turn again; rinse, wash and repeat.))

Not wanting to be held up, Shard wasted little time in her own reaction. By the time Jambourine had launched himself at Vision, she'd already begun to manipulate the crystal spear on her side, once again thanking that whatever twisted thing came up with this curse, they made the more simple stuff not as hazardous to her state. The make-shift spear began to rapidly elongate, shooting out at a speed close to if not matching the thestrals, aimed straight at the Captain.

While it was a long shot both figuratively and literally, Shard held on to the hope that the attack could reach the Captain before he'd have time to really react, possibly even caught off guard by the speed of the crystal spike, and if not take him out then inflict a nasty wound right at the start. After all, she'd barely been able to see the thestrals when they'd made their surprise attack and knew there was no hope of her keeping up speed wise.

Everything seemed to be happening at once, though that was the normal case with these kind of encounters. Without even a "Yes, my queen" or something similar, Harun turned his head to the side, using his mouth to pull down the tripod. As he awkwardly squirmed to get the musket from his back he flicked open one of his pockets and retrieved a small cylinder, one of several he had.  With an expert speed he poured the powder in, jerking the weapon towards the air as the lead ball was loaded. It wasn't the 'correct' loading procedure, but it meant he had enough time for a snap shot loosely aimed at Jambourine's armour. If it hit, he would still be able to feel it, but Harun wasn't in a bloodlust quite yet, not after what had just happened with the Pegasi. 

He left his sword in the ground as he took up his spear, and attempted to throw it at the Captain. As he did so the water of his flask pooled around closely to Rain, if anypony got too close they would not like the consequences, a good icicle in the chest is sure to send a decent message to these... Vagabonds.

Jambourine abruptly makes a sharp right, hitting the crystal spike and spear away from the captain. He had been trying to avoid the spiked shield. He stopped in mid flight. "Bah! What the hell did I just fly into?" He turned his gaze to the thestral that had his wings flared. "Oh you are so lucky I turned right." He quickly zipped off and out of sight without another word.

The captain watched Jambourine fly off with out another word. He flapped his wings and launched himself over to Ruby, skidding to a stop next to her. "Hmm. What kind oh mage might you be? Attack? No...Shield mage? Might be..." He flicked her horn a little bit, making Ruby back peddle a little bit. "Why don't you show what you can do, because right now you look like you do nothing."

Ruby drew her dagger and pointed it at the captain. She charged her horn up, runic lines on the dagger glowing a bright red. The dagger seemed to light on fire, as Ruby slashes in a diagonal fashion. From the slash fire seemed to continue forward, catching the captain off guard. The captain fell to the ground away from the fire.

"Pyro mage? Pyro mage...Pyro mage and shield mage perhaps? Hmm...Possibly." The captain pondered a bit, flapping his wings and zipping off a fare distance away. "Ah well. What a Crystal Pony doing all the way out here near the Everfree? Did little Cadence kick you out of the Crystal Empire? Did the one true queen's troops drive you away?" He spread his wings, ready to fly away if he needed too. "What might a Saddle Arabian be doing here? You're awfully far away from home." He turned his gaze to Harun.

Retracting the crystal spike, which in turn increased it's thickness, Shard simply turned slightly and angled her body so that when she relaunched the crystal spike it was again aimed at the captain. Shard's face was in a frustrated expression as she grit her teeth to the captain's mocking. This time however, she had an additional little surprise for the captain who was proudly displaying a decent amount of arrogance. Supposing he'd dodge, smaller spikes would form off the sides of the initial spike, shooting outwards to add a second direction to the attack and once again try and hammer at that element of surprise.

"I am where the threat is most pressing to those I serve," Harun replied, he didn't need to be reminded of his distance from home. "If we may do question for question, what inspires you to fight for your queen? What makes her claim any more legitimate than any other?" He was cheating there, that was two questions. While he was talking, he went through the loading process of his musket, but only kept half-cocked, meaning he wouldn't be able to fire off straight away if he needed to. His face didn't look like he was in for a fight, he wanted to threat dismissed, one did not necessitate the other. Besides, any information they could gather on how Nightmare and her forces operate would have be nice, no detail was too small, even though he often lacked the ability to make connection. It was a skill he would have plenty of time to work on after they were done.  

Time for a show. Vision, still in Nightmare Moon's skin, decided to play a little trick. His horn glowed dimly under the illusion.

Around him, the image of the cosmos that he had shown Harun earlier manifested itself around all of them in stark clarity. As planets and suns swirled in the black void above them, the ground below all of them reformed into a blanket of stars, only just wide enough to encompass the area all of them stood in - except Vision himself.

His illusory wings flapped, and he maintained the image of flight beyond the blanket, if only to reinforce the misconception that the blanket itself was the only safe ground to tread. His voice, magically enhanced and modified, echoed through the area with the tone of Nightmare Moon.

"You know not with whom you fight. We may not be your Queen, but We are no different from her in many respects." He gestured to the expansive cosmos. "This is what We will bring in time. The beauty of Our glorious night for all to behold. Can you strike Us or Our faithful servants down now in good conscience, soldiers of the night?"

Rain cursed under his breath, ignoring the mocking, he never cared for boasters, "Damn... That was my good spear..." He rounded closer to Shard he whispered, "Would... Ice help at all?" He asked as he nudged her to look at a patch of water that seemed to look like a hoof waving, "I can help... If that is what you require..." Trying to make it seem like nothing he then took two big slow steps away from her, keeping his ears pricked for anything she may ask of him.

The captain quickly grabbed his spear and began to spin it, knocking the sharp away. He stopped spinning it and strapped it to his side when Harun asked two very important questions. "W-w-well..." He took a step back shaking his head. He...he couldn't think of answers to those questions. His head started to hurt like hell just thinking of the questions. "Aghh!" The captain screamed in agony as he fell down onto his flank, clutching his head. "Make it stop! Make it stop! Dear Celestia make it stop!" The captain ripped his helmet off and threw it a few meters towards the group. A dark cloud of smoke could be seen around his head before it seemingly went inside of him. His screams of agony stopped almost imminently. He shook his head and looked around him.

It looked to be a black void with stars under neath them. Ruby flicked her dagger for a moment to put the flames out and put it back in it's shaft. Her horn glowed dimly and she scanned the black void. What surprised her was that it was all just an illusion. A smirk appeared on her face as she watched the captain. She was also surprised by his reaction to Harun's questions as well as the dark cloud of smoke. She didn't have enough time to scan the cloud, but she was sure that, that was what Nightmare was using to control the other solar guards she kidnapped.

The captain glared at Vision as he asked his question in Nightmare's voice. He opened his mouth to say something, but just like before his head started hurting. "No! You will not ask your idiotic question to me. I am Captain Night Wing and your words hold meaning to me. Your petty questions a but a fouls last dying words. I shall do you the pleasure and make your death quick and clean." He grabbed his spear and flew straight at Vision, the mocking captain gone replaced with a blood lust captain.

A strange figure with a large glowing blue scythe appeared on the side of the forest. It seemed like a hooded unicorn, its armor being black and slightly glowing in light-green colour. The unicorn slowly approached the group, stopping just a few meters before them, sitting down and observing the fight. Most of his attention was taken by Vision's perfect illusion, almost fooling the unicorn aswell. Then there was the Saddle Arabian, who took the rest of his attention. The hooded scythe-carrying unicorn was wondering, just what was he doing here, so far away from home, before remembering that he himself was rather far away from his home village aswell. The hooded unicorn then proceeded to observe the battle, taking short notes of everyone's attacks and powers in his head.

Nightmare Moon's eyes do not so much as flicker, watching the captain's approach impassively. Behind the mask, though, Vision was panicking, but he steeled himself for what was to come.

His horn flared, as did Nightmare Moon's, and the illusion collapsed into a dense cloud of stars, reminiscent of the dark cloud of smoke, concealing him within. He moved out of the way of the captain as quickly as he could, hoping that it would be fast enough as he said, "You are a fool. Can you not see the signs? The signs of Our victory?" The cloud of smoke on the captain's head from before came to Vision's mind. "We may yet free you from your agony, if you will but cease your pathetic attempts."

Harun was surprised with the reaction he had gotten, there seemed to be the disadvantage to methods through which Nightmare seemed to be getting her labour. She likely had some loyal and properly cultivated followers, but the one of the fastest ways raise an army was to use a few magical tricks to keep ponies in line. The question of what would happen if he managed to get put under such an influence, there was nothing special he could do to prevent that. The safest way, he concluded, was that he couldn't let that happen. 

He made sure his weapon was cocked fully, the pin would come down hard enough to set off the shot now. He still held his fire, especially so near to others. He could get in close, but the earlier display of strength made him hesitant until he could catch the captain unaware.  He took a few conscious breathes to steady himself.  

With her crystal spike once again deflected, Shard retracted the make-shift weapon in a hurry. She grit her teeth as her frustration built up, but this time kept herself from launching another attack. Then she heard Rain's question and through grit teeth, she grinned ever so slightly. "Ye-yeah, thee can work with ice if thou has a way to make it," she replied quietly. "What good it serves us however isn't much if that pony see's thine attack coming."

Then the captain launched his attack at Vision, and Shard swore under her breath. "Thee had best make it fast," she said already throwing her magic towards the rapidly shrinking area between Vision and the charging captain. If Rain would be able to make his ice fast enough, it'd rear up right in front of Vision and curl over like a wave to try and catch the captain, using his own speed against him. If the ice wouldn't be there, then it'd be up to the crystals in the immediate area which were likely much more sparse and thus the trap would be weaker.

This however was already having a minor effect on Shard. While the others wouldn't be able to see it, Shard could easily notice the darkness creeping in from the sides of her sight, clouding and obscuring it near the edges.

Rain nodded at her words, and closed his eyes, his wings flared out as the water seemed to turn to mist, it hovered over his wings before turning into ice like blades, that much to Shard's delight followed her plan as he hurled ice, the ice flew straight for the captain, with impressive speed. He twirled and used the other wing to throw three more icy shards at the captain.

The thestral stopped mid-flight glaring at the spot Vision had been standing. He turned to look at Rain, his eyes widening. His side and helmet was hit by the ice like blades. The base of one of his wings being sliced by one blade. The captain screamed in pain as he fell to the ground. He quickly looked down at his wing as he saw a tail of blood coming from where the base was hit. He got up and glared at Rain, his wing hanging limp from his side. "You little...Ah!" He was cut off as he was hit by three more shards. He laid on the ground for the longest time he could think. He stood up slowly, legs shaking. It was at that moment that Jambourine collided with the captain, sending them both to the ground.

Jambourine laid on the captain, seemingly unconscious. The captain quickly rolled him off of his back. "Nightmare for saken...Oh no...S-she can't be here. She just can't!" He looked down at Jamourine, noticing a few burn marks on his armor. He turned his gaze back up at Vision and the others. "You...You may have won this fight, but you have not won the war yet. The scouting squad will take care of you. We will meet again, and when we do, I will get my revenge on you and that pesky traitor of a thestral!" He quickly pulled Jambourine onto his back and ran off, his wing still hanging limp against his side.

Ruby watched them go as she looked around. "What...What do you think happened to that other one besides the captain?" She asked, looking around. "And Vision, drop the illusion. I do have to say, you're magic with illusions is impressive though." Her eyes fell on the strange figure standing off to the side. "Um...Hello there."

The thestral mare from earlier, that was flying above them all landed in front of them. "I happened. That little trooper wasn't a match for me. You see, I'm rather well know for running thestrals out of town. Now, you five! No more lolly gagging! You have a time limit!" She shouted at them before flying off to scout the perimeter of Ponyville.

Shard was wavering on her hooves, but after a quick shake of her head, she re locked them and nodded in affirmation. Relinquishing her control on the ice, Shard paused only to watch the spikes crumble under their own weight since they were no longer supported by that magic. Then with a stoic expression, she turned and simply continued onward as steadfast as she could. The shadows on the fringes of her vision creeping away after a few moments, but the haunting thoughts remained.

Vision sighed in relief as all his illusions dissolved at once. He hung his head in fatigue, panting. "Thank... Thank you, Ruby. That was tiring, though. I'd rather not have to do that again soon."

That seemed to be that. With the fighting over for now, Harun began to move once more. Though he wasn't going to tell anypony, he felt a little useless in that fight, making his only impact with words. He had not set out with the hope of hurting anypony though, so it was something of a success for his morals. It was a shame that the thestral mare would not be being joining them, she didn't seem afraid to hurt those in the way.

Not being as fatigued as some of the group, a perk of hanging back, he moved fastest and took up a front position.  "This place has an entirely different feel to home," He sad to no one pony in particular, trying to be a conversationalist. "I imagine it is much more crowded under different circumstances."

Rain puffed his chest out, "And stay gone..." He muttered. He then turned brightly back to the group, who he quickly followed after, the shattered ice dissolving as he felt his flask get a tad bit heavier, "Hehe, that second volley sure seemed to catch him off guard eh?" He said aloud as he nudged Shard.

The hooded unicorn with a glowing scythe grinned and slightly clapped his hooves as the fight ended. "Good show." He said in a very dark voice, still clapping his hooves and grinning at the group. As they started to move, the hooded unicorn stood up, took the scythe off his back, only to make a slice in the floor in front of him. The tiny hole that the scythe had made started glowing in a bright blue color and a second later, a portal appeared in front of the unicorn and he jumped into it, only to appear with a flash a good twenty meters in front of the group, sitting down on a tree stump.

"Tis not something thee should feel pride for. Thyself's ice did not obey thine commands," Shard replied stoically while continuing to trot forwards. After a sigh, she continued with, "thee meant for it to capture, not puncture, and only shows support for thine princesses opinions about thee." Shard had said that last part with a down expression, though she once more lifted her head to look at the appearance of the hooded unicorn. While the sunglasses hid her suspicious glare, they didn't do a thing to hide her grit teeth. Still, Shard just kept moving forwards, feigning no interest in the scythe wielding pony.

"I hear you on that one. Hurting ponies isn't a skill you should pride yourself on. But by being able to protect yourself and others, you can protect your freedom," Harun said to Shard. The Crystal Empire was not particularly high on his trivia list, but he knew after what that one pony had done, freedom had to be something highly valued. He wouldn't let himself get oppressed twice. 

The little ability showcase of the hooded unicorn brought back the doubts about his use to the team, but with a potential threat in front of him, he couldn't afford himself the full pleasure of doubt. "It would have been a much better one if an extra pony had gotten involved," He said in a friendly enough fashion. The unicorn had already left an impression on Huran, and it was quite possible he was willing to help them, certainly being able.  

Ruby looked at the hooded unicorn as he appeared on a stump in front of them. Her interest peaked at the sight of something magical. She looked at Vision. "Don't worry. If something attacks I can probably put a shield around us. That thestral was right about one thing and that was that I'm a shield mage. I'm only good at making shields. Though that doesn't stop me from knowing the different types of magics." She held a hoof the her chest before putting it back down on the ground.

She looked at her saddle bags. Opening one of the flaps, she pulled a map of Equestria with her magic. She looked towards the entrance of the Everfree, where they were heading into right now, and looked at the path they needed to follow. "Hmm...Looks like we have to go slightly pass the old Caste of the Royal Pony Sisters. Then once we get past the area between Dodge Junction and Appleloosa we have to climb Macintosh Hills. All we have to do is survive the Everfree." She said, rolling the map up and putting it back into her saddle bags.