Divergence

Chapter 1

Rainbow. Raaaaainbow…

Rainbow Dash started, darting glances left and right, trying to pierce the fog that seemed to close about her. Shaking off her fright, she drew herself upright, wings extended aggressively as her front hooves lashed the air in front of her.

"Who's there? I ain't scared 'a you! Show yourself!"

A seductive voice slid from the mist. "We've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the best flier in Equestria."

Dash was nonplussed. "Who?"

"Why, you of course!"

"Really? I mean, oh yeah! Me!" she said, recovering quickly.

"Hey, uh, ya wouldn't mind telling the Wonderbolts that would ya, cuz I've been trying to get into that group for, like, ever!"

"No, Rainbow Dash, we want you to join us, the Shadowbolts!" A trio of Pegasus ponies had galloped out of the fog, coming to a halt in unison, displaying their coat-tight black and purple uniforms proudly; vivid bolts of lightning emblazoned around the shoulder, angling down to meet at the chest. "We're the greatest aerial team in the Everfree Forest, and soon we'll be the greatest in all Equestia! But first, we need a captain. The most magnificent..."

"Yep," Rainbow chirped pridefully.

"...swiftest..."

"Yes."

"...bravest flier in all the land."

"Yes, heh, it's all true," Dash quipped in agreement.

"We need… you!"

"Woo-hoo!" Rainbow Dash cried, her life's ambitions laid out before her. "Sign. Me. Up! Just, lemme tie this bridge real quick, then we got a deal," she said, turning to the business at hoof.

"Ah yes, your friends. You're very loyal to them aren't you?"

The rope dropping from her mouth, Dash's eyes narrowed as she turned to glare back at the uniformed mare that slowly advanced towards her, an air of malice replacing the cooing flattery present just a moment ago. Something was seriously wrong here.

"Of course I am, what's that got to do with anything?" she asked suspiciously.

"Oh, it just seems that if you really cared about them, you wouldn't be leading them into so much danger. Danger that nopony without your talents, your abilities, your courage could possibly hope to survive." Dash hadn't noticed the purple mist winding through the grass toward her hooves, and her eyes went wide as it made contact, the visions assaulting her mind…

Letting out a battle cry, she twists violently to dodge a burst of flame, watching in mute horror as it splashes over Rarity, burning the flawless coat and delicate flesh off the beautiful Unicorn right before her eyes.

Twilight Sparkle is laughing maniacally, standing amidst the wreckage of bodies, her horn casting a violet light on a charred and torn cowpony hat.

Ponyville burns, the townsponies fleeing aimlessly in their blind panic. Windows lie shattered, doors hanging from the hinges of ruined buildings. Above, massive sections of Cloudsdale split apart, the cumulus infrastructure breaking off in enormous slabs, lightning shooting off in every direction. Untrained fillies fall from the sky, a tiny one with a shock of purple mane terribly, horrifyingly familiar.

Dash shrieks in horror and pain as her left wing, shorn raggedly off, tumbles away from her. She spirals out of control, her remaining wing flapping in instinctive desperation as she plummets toward the ground in a sickening spin. She takes one more deep breath, and meets it.

"ENOUGH!"

The command cut through the visions like a blade. Tendrils of frayed, purplish mist went slithering into the surrounding brush, fleeing from the rigid body of the rainbow-maned Pegasus. With a ragged gasp and half-swallowed scream Dash sank to the ground, legs numb, wings trembling uncontrollably.

Out of the now-normal gray fog gracefully clopped another form- that of a beautiful midnight blue Alicorn, her wings half-furled, shining crescent moon on her flanks. Her mane billowed subtly, within it shining the intermittent twinkling of a celestial tapestry. She snorted lightly at the retreating magical mists before turning to the thoroughly traumatized filly huddled in the grass.

"Oh my… are you alright little one?" the majestic mare asked as she walked up to stand before the violently shaking pony, wings arching protectively above the filly.

"What.. I… ohmygosh what is going ON? What was that? Why would Twilight… Ponyville. Th…The fillies… Scootaloo!" Rainbow Dash's body was torn ragged between hyperventilation and blind horror as her mind tried to process everything she'd just seen, tears sliding unchecked down her cheeks.

"There, there. Just breathe. None of what you saw was real. Necessarily… or perhaps, in all honesty, yet. You were shown things to sway you to serve a purpose. Vile, yes, but not entirely false. Those things, and many more like them, may indeed come to pass should the Nightmare have its way."

At the mention of Nightmare Moon, Dash regained some of her presence, wobbling to her feet, slipping slightly on the wet grass. "That's right! We have to stop that… that thing! She stole our princess, an' wants to make nighttime last forever! She… wait a sec. Who the hay are you, huh? And what are you doing here? My friends are right behind me and we're on a royal mission! Twilight's the personal student of Princess Celestia herself, and she knows what's going on, so if you're plotting something or whatever you better just back off, right now!" Dash released the accusing torrent harshly, taking a step back and ducking her head, her wings flaring and tail snapping at this dark mare... who reminded her perversely of both Nightmare Moon and Princess Celestia - and just HAPPENED to show up out of nowhere in the middle of the Everfree Forest? Yeah right.

The midnight Alicorn heaved a deep sigh at the tirade, drooping her head a bit, reading the little pony's expression as easily as a book she'd read a thousand times. "My name is Luna, Arbiter of the Night, and sister to Celestia. I mean you no harm, little one."

Dash stared at the goddess blankly. "What." It was not a question.

Luna blinked. "What?"

Dash raised a brow. "You're kidding, right? I mean, Celestia's like, a goddess."

Luna daintily fluttered her wings and tilted her head, calling attention to her horn and darkly opalescent crown. The blue Pegasus bit her lip, taking in the shining, silver crescent moon on Luna's flank—the signposts of Alicorn divinity didn't get any more self-evident.

"And you are?" queried the Goddess politely.

"Erm. Name's Rainbow Dash," she said, momentarily side tracked. Rallying, Dash decided to go with her gut feelings, if only to avoid the headache of complexity. "I… dude, this is too much." She sat down with a soft 'poomf'. "So ARE you Nightmare Moon, and is this like a big trick, or... or what?" she finished, thoroughly befuddled, her hooves wide in the air.

"No, kind of, and… I'm not sure what to do with the 'or what' Miss Dash. While the Nightmare and I returned at the same time, we are not the same being… more like polar opposites now, come to that. While we still share latent experience to a minor extent, that connection is nearly severed, and the sooner the better." Luna huffed in disgust. "The Nightmare reached out and showed you your greatest ambitions to attempt to control you. Failing that, your most terrifying nightmares to break you. I noticed its actions a bit late, I'm afraid," she ended apologetically.

Dash was struggling hard to keep up. "So… that was all fake then, just a line of manure?" she asked with a hint of hopeful desperation.

Luna shook her head wearily. "I don't know Miss Dash. The Nightmare doesn't always lie, but it will without compunction if doing so serves its purposes- and it is very clever. I have learned to be… profoundly dubious, whenever our interests coincide. As to your friend, this Twilight Sparkle, she may or may not be a pawn in all of this. I'm not certain as to the quality, nor sources, of her information, or even the nature of her relationship with my sister... who has been known to have something of a … predilection for manipulation herself… but I don't know."

Luna trailed off with a look of distance in her eyes before giving a small shake of her head.

"Nevertheless, one thing is very clear - if your friends make it to the castle while the Nightmare and I are vying for control, they will not survive. The forces unleashed will be well beyond any mortal pony's endurance."

"But what about the Elements of Harmony stuff? Twilight says we're supposed to get them, and that they're the only thing that can stop Nightmare Moon! And where the hay is our Princess? We have to find out what happened to her!" Dash burst out in a rush, unable to contain all the questions the midnight Alicorn's story raised.

Luna frowned thoughtfully. "Yes… the Elements; that's the only thing that currently makes sense. The Nightmare obviously hopes to use you and your friends to reveal them, then obliterate you and gain control. Without the Elements of Harmony, it knows it can not hope to defeat me. With them…" Luna trailed off ominously, reminding Dash of her terrifying visions. "No, Miss Dash, the Elements must remain asleep and out of reach for now; that is the only way to be certain of the Nightmare's defeat in our coming conflict. As for Celestia… I don't know what to make of her disappearance at all. I had hoped…" Luna slipped into a disturbed silence for a moment, her eyes glinting as though in pain. "No, this is an absurdity. Even at the height of its power, the Nightmare could not match Celestia outright. I should know; I watched as it tried with much of my own power. Where my sister has gone and why she remains there is a mystery of her own design, but I mean to ask her. And soon."

"But… but what if the Nightmare wins?" Dash asked, unconsciously slipping into the regal Alicorn's vernacular.

"Oh, it won't. In fact, it knows full well that it cannot defeat me outright. We've spent the last thousand years becoming intimately familiar with one another, and now I've returned home. The severing between us is nearly complete, and much of my power has returned. Yet it will struggle, and rant, and rave. While futility is not strictly its nature, it is a creature of undiluted pride, and the need to control. The compulsion to dominate drives it, and so I must drive it down. No, it is only the Nightmare's plots that concern me now. I cannot be completely certain what it's planning, but the game it plays with you and your friends is central. Whatever that may be, it is the final hand, and the Nightmare is desperate to see it through," Luna finished with a indomitable certainty. A tiny, sad smile slid across her face as she finished, but was quickly gone. "You must prevent your friends from coming further. The best thing would be for you all to return to Ponyville for the night. You must try keep everypony calm and safe. Then, if you would, return to me in the morning when the Nightmare has been subdued, and we can attempt to discover my sister's whereabouts."

"Morning? But the Nightmare and the legends both talked about eternal night! And Celestia's gone, how can there be a morning? How can there be a sunrise?" Dash exclaimed.

Luna's gentle laugh was moonlight across a still lake. "Few things are more imprecise than old legends, my little pony. I will raise the sun in my sister's stead if need be, though I hope to discover Celly's whereabouts before I have a need to work with her sun. It's… uncomfortable, for both of us. Eternal night? What a foalish notion! Equestria as we know it could not survive that; though, in its compulsion to dominate, that is indeed the Nightmare's intent. Really, it's quite insane."

Dash stared up into the emerald eyes of the night goddess, searching for some sign of deception or duplicity. Dash's strong suit had never been analysis; she'd always relied on her heart and feelings to show her the way through when things got rough, but this time was different; there was so much more at stake.

"I... I don't know Princess. I want to believe you; I do believe you, but it's... there's so much more than just me riding on this..." she trailed off, frowning hard at the grass.

Luna stared at her for a moment, then stomped her hoof lightly. "Very well, Miss Dash, I understand: Witness."

The Princess turned away from Dash and flared her wings, facing off to her right. What she was looking at, Dash couldn't tell; everything was just a solid wall of fog. Luna's horn began to glow; the violet light building until it seemed to create a nearly opaque sheath of luminescent power. The Princess's eyes had closed tightly, and she released a small sound of effort, tense and strained. The fog before her swirled away in a large funnel, creating a clear line of sight to the horizon beyond. Suddenly, the jagged mountain range in the distance became more distinct, glowing in a soft light. Luna clenched her teeth and groaned, as the sun peeked a brilliant sliver above the far off crags, briefly illuminating the surrounding fog in a surreal orange glow. Luna cried out and collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. The fog swept back to surround them, the light vanishing as abruptly as it came. "I'm sorry, Miss Dash; that was the best I can manage at the moment," she said between deep gulps of air, shaking lightly from the exertion.

Dash stood rooted to the spot. Her jaw hung down, eyes bugged out as she processed what she'd just seen. The sun. She just raised the sun... Realizing she had been staring blankly at a boring wall of fog for several moments, Dash tore her gaze down to the recovering Alicorn. Trotting over to Luna, she settled down next to her. "Okay, Princess; that... that's good enough for me. That should be good enough for anypony. You totally are who you say you are… so... let's go and talk to the others, tell them what's going on," she said, focusing on the one thing that it seemed she could get done.

Luna raised her head to meet Dash's gaze, her expression apologetic.

"I'm afraid there's simply no time. I must return to the castle and contain the Nightmare; prevent it from acting any further upon your friends or the land. You must turn back your friends, and I ask that you return to me at dawn, when I have managed to seal the creature away."

Rainbow Dash stared blankly at Luna. "You're tearing me apart, pony," she deadpanned.

She sighed, swallowed hard and shuffled her hooves—further considering the prospect and how to explain the situation to the Princess. "Look, I'm not exactly the best pony with, uh, words. Twilight's a reeeaaally smart pony, and she's totally sure she knows what's going on. I'm not sure I can convince her without you there... I mean, Ibelieve you, but I don't see how I can make them believe me, especially if you're not even there! How the hay am I supposed to explain all this?"

Luna opened her mouth to speak, but broke off suddenly, craning her neck backward and frowning over her shoulder toward the castle shrouded in the darkness. "I'm sorry, I have to get back quickly. It's gathering for another assault." She turned to look at Dash directly, a sympathetic intensity replacing the serene distance that had filled her eyes. "I wish I could be there to make this easier on you and your friends, but you must convince them. Failing that, know that whatever you do, it will be about saving their lives, whether they know it now or not."

Luna leaned forward, nuzzling Dash's cheek. "Be brave my little pony, and… thank you for believing in me. I know you can do it, and I'll need your help even more in the coming weeks." Dash blushed lightly, hesitantly returning the gesture.

They rose to their hooves.

Now that she was set on a course; past the confusion and indecision, her usual fire returned to her and she stomped the ground confidently, ruffling her wings in preparation for take-off. "Be careful Princess Luna, I'll take care of my end, no problem!" Though damned if I know how…

Chapter 2 - "Confrontation" -