Aurora found herself up within a couple of hours and noticed the others were still asleep. She sighed. She had given them fair warning. She started off towards the lands of the Nightmares when she noticed someone was following her. She turned and was surprised to see that Applejack was following her with a pony she barely recognized to be Discord's pony form, with a sleeping Screwball on his back. He wasn't going to leave her behind again.
Aurora smirked. "Well at least someone understood what I meant." Discord chuckled while Applejack just grimaced. She hated the idea of leaving her friends behind on this, but she knew they were tired, and she felt like this was going to be more dangerous than anything they had ever faced before. "I trust you left a note for your friends, Applejack?"
"I did, indeed, your highness."
Aurora grimaced. "You don't have to call me that. I gave up that title the day I went up against Sombra's order for me to remain in the castle and out of the Nightmare War. Just call me 'Hope'." Aurora continued walking on as the night remained. "I'm glad you can still change your form, Discordias. I was worried you had given up that chaotic talent." She chuckled.
"Are you kidding? That's one of my signature acts! Well… not so much anymore, but still, you get the idea." Discord smirked. He felt less chaotic, but in a good way, around Aurora.
"If ya don't mind me askin… Hope… why don't ya wait for the others? I'm sure that we'd have a better chance of rescuin' Spike with their help." Applejack had been with her friends through thick and thin and it felt strange to just leave them asleep.
"Possibly, but I think they might also get hurt. I don't want my sisters getting hurt, nor anypony else, which is why I left so early. I'm a little surprised you two woke up in time to catch me. It does make me feel a little more confident though." She smiled softly. "So, thank you."
"Well shoot, I always wake up early. It's tough work livin' on a farm, but well worth the rewards. We try to get up before the rooster crows, ya know?" Applejack smiled.
"And I wasn't going to let you go and disappear on us again without at least trying to get you back safely this time." Discord muttered, but the girls heard him and giggled. Applejack couldn't help but think, 'Fluttershy was right, he is a big sweetheart.'
The sun rose slightly as they finally reached their destination. A dark castle made of brimstone. 'Hang on Spike, I'm coming.' Aurora walked in without delay, knowing full well that she was expected.
As the four entered the throne room, Screwball had awakened by now, a dark shadow looked over them from the throne. "Welcome to my humble abode, and my, you've brought some company, how quaint." The shadow laughed as it gained form. It looked similar to Astrana when it was done, but it had Stella's mane color. "I must thank you for coming, Princess Aurora Hope, as you've saved me the trouble of going all the way back to Equestria."
"Where is Spike?" Aurora's voice was as cold as steel. Discord slowly backed away from her as he transformed into his usual form. Applejack looked at him questioningly.
The Nightmare queen smiled wickedly. It sent chills up Applejack's spine as well as Screwball's. Screwball tried to hide behind her father, for she was now awake. "Why, he's right here…"She pointed her horn and a small cage appeared with an unconscious Spike in it. Applejack gasped while Aurora's glare hardened on the queen of Nightmares. "Unharmed, just as you hoped, he's just a little tired though, the poor thing. Nightmares are so harsh on a child's sleep, hahaha." She held the cage up with her magic, threateningly, as though she was going to drop him.
"Release him, Sierra. You're fight is with me." Aurora sounded calm, but Discord noticed the twitch in her tail, and it wasn't going to mean anything that Pinkie's did.
"And yet, you brought an entourage?"
"They're here to bring Spike back. I'm the only one you're going to be allowed to fight." She felt the others' stares on her as she spoke. Though she had not been in the royal court for centuries, she still possessed the same regal aura that had led the healers into training themselves as warriors all those centuries ago.
The nightmare smiled with a grin full of sharp teeth. She tilted her horn towards the farm pony and Spike's cage followed. "Leave here while you can, young ones. I have who I want. It's quite funny really, your armies throughout all your wars held on for so long all because of this one princess and you didn't even know she existed…" She pointed a hoof to Aurora who's neutral gaze gave away nothing. "She doesn't even see her own reason for existing now, save as a caretaker to the foolish, the weak, and the broken! The great princess of hope itself, and all anyone ever thought of her was the weak, young, baby sister, even your twin thought as much of you!" Sierra kept gloating while Aurora rolled her eyes. 'Why do they always feel that they need to monologue?'
Aurora decided to make a move at this point. She ran forward and heard something flying towards her. This time she was ready, this time she wasn't going to lose her wings. She ducked down and slid under a shocked griffon with his talons reaching right where her wings had been a second before. "Aurora!" Discord gasped with worry. He hadn't sensed the griffon there and would have moved too slow to save her.
Aurora's eyes remained emotionless as she flipped herself onto the griffon's back. "Hope!" Aurora caught a rope in her mouth from Applejack and tied the griffon's wings down against his body as well as hog tied the rest of him. She even tied up his beak.
Aurora glared at the griffon for a second. "You're so lucky that I don't take your wings like you took mine." She then glared up at Sierra. "Don't think I've forgotten about you. I'm removing you from your throne, Queen Sierra."
"And I suppose that weakling, Stella, is going to take my throne once you're done? What a laugh, hahaha." The nightmares howled in their queen's laughter
"She's your daughter, fool! How could you treat her like that? Your own daughter!" Aurora shouted above the Nightmare's howls. They suddenly shut up, processing what she had said. "You have abandoned your own family and expect others to clean up your messes! You think destroying me will remove the hope of Equestria and its creatures?" Aurora was starting to lose her self-control. Her eyes widened as she realized what was happening. She looked back to Applejack and Discord. Spike was still unconscious on Applejack's back while Screwball was now clinging to her father. Aurora managed to whisper one thing back to them. "Run!"