Next chapter! Man, reading back over these chapters and rewriting them, it makes me cringe…everyone is so OCC…sorry. If I had idea, I would go back and redo most of this, but for now, just bear with me folks.
Disclaimer: I don't own My Little Pony or Rise of the Guardians
Night groaned as she opened her eyes. She was once again in control of her body, but she was restrained by large heavy chains designed to cancel out all powers and magic. She growled as she thrashed about, but couldn't move the chains very well.
"So, you're finally up? Good, now we can decide your punishment" The voice had come from the same nightmare who had stolen control of her body.
Night's eyes narrowed. "Shade. I almost didn't recognize you, you've gotten uglier.
Shade's eye twitched, but didn't react. Instead he smirked. "It's General Shade to you now. You lost your title of both Nightmare and General of the Forces when you betrayed us, now you're nothing."
Shade was wearing all black armor with a menacing sword strapped to his waist. He noticed her looking at it warily and grinned.
"I see that you've noticed my new sword. I'm sure you recognize Nightbringer, as it was your sword."
Night said nothing and snarled at him. He just laughed at her.
"Later." And with that he disappeared.
-The Guardians' Place-
"We have to go after her!" Pitch shouted.
"After she nearly killed us? I think not!" Jack shouted back.
"Everybody wait for a moment please!" yelled Lyra.
No one heard her over the overlapping arguing.
"SHUT UP! I'M TRYING TO TALK!"
Every one fell silent.
"Thank you. Pitch, why do you want to go after Luna? She attacked you and all of us."
"That wasn't Luna, she was being controlled. There was a dark aura around her."
"Are you sure?" asked Io in disbelief.
"Yes."
"We don't know where she is though. How are we supposed to find her?" inquired Sprite.
Pitch was silent and Lyra sighed.
"I take it that you don't know then?"
-Unknown Place-
Former nightmare, Moon, are you ready to accept whatever punishment the council feels fit to give you?
Night stood in front of the Grand Council of Nightmares with her head held high in defiance. Her hands were covered in magic resistant bindings secured by large heavy chains. She was surrounded by several guards.*
"Are you ready to accept the fact that I really don't care? Also, you really should consider looking for a home for old farts and hags like you." Night shot back.
There were several ripples of shock and disapproval throughout the gathered nightmares and several council members growled.
Shade stepped forward. "As you can see my lieges, she shows no respect for the Grand Council. Her position as a princess has made her arrogant and disrespectful."
Night snorted and all heads turned to her. "It's not that I'm arrogant, I just really don't care. Besides, it's not like being a princess actually means anything here other than people are even more disappointed when you fail."
Shade grabbed a handful of her hair and pulled her head back to look at him. "You will speak when you are spoken to wench."
Night spat in his face and he smacked her. He drew Nightbringer and approached her.
"Shade, enough." The lead council member spoke.
"My apologies my lieges,"
Night just chuckled darkly and flipped him off. Once again all attention was turned to her.
"Shade, you are a coward. Only cowards strike girls and only cowards strike someone defenseless." She said while holding up her bound hands as a reference.
"You are anything but defenseless." Grumbled Shade under his breath.
"Ooh, was that a compliment I heard?" mocked Night.
Shade looked ready to murder her when the council intervened.
"ENOUGH!" the lead member boomed. Everyone fell silent. "We have enough evidence to support several claims that Moon has indeed betrayed the Nightmares. This trial proves it."
There were several gasps of shock and several murmurs among the crowd.
"No, no it really doesn't." she muttered. "Crappiest trial I've ever been to."
Traitor!
How could she do this?
Why…why Moon?
Night looked up in shock to see her former guardian/ half brother, Shadow in the crowd. She gave him a glance that said 'I'm sorry' and he just shook his head.
This simple action made Night feel a flood of emotions that prevented her from hearing the first part of the lead member's sentence.
"-therefore, Princess Moon's punishment will be decided by Nightmare Shade."
Night's head shot around to face him. "WHAT?!" she shrieked at a pitch that would've shattered glass had any been around at the time. "You're gonna let this perv decide?! What's wrong with you?! I am the Princess of the frickin' Night! You can't do this!
Shade just smirked as he grabbed her by the back of her collar and dragged the still shouting (former) Nightmare Moon from the building.
-With the Guardians in the Akumu Forest-
"Ugh! We are never going to find her if you keep stopping to complain about everything!" Pitch growled, irritated.
"Well sorry if not everyone has your energy or likes Luna as much as you do!" Tooth growled back.
"If you don't care, then leave." With those words, Pitch continued on silently.
No one else said anything else for the rest of the trek. Soon they heard a very familiar voice shouting at the top of her lungs.
"THIS IS A FREAKISHLY CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT!" Night's voice was so loud that all of the birds flew away and the whole area seemed to vibrate so that it was impossible to pinpoint the origin of the voice.
Driven by a new-found strength, Pitch and the others ran as fast as they could to find their friend.
-With Night and Shade-
Night was blushing furiously and was giving Shade the most heartfelt glare of absolute loathing and hatred. Shade just grinned at her.
"You seriously expect me to wear that hideous abomination?" She snarled.
"Yes." She attempted to lunge at him but was stopped by her chains. Shade watched her struggle with obvious amusement.
He had told her that her punishment was to wear a non-PG rated frilly pink dress. He knew full well of her dislike for frilly pink things and anything revealing.
"How about this," he suggested. "You don't have to wear it. You can wear something else, but it has to be of my choice and you still have to do something else for punishment."
"Why can't I still wear this? Knowing you you're going to pick something else perverted." She said.
"Hmm, follow me."
She followed him while guards held her chains. They passed through the archway that led to the Nightmare Castle and traveled up the stairs leading to the main hall of the castle.
The castle halls were mostly empty save for a few servants here and there so they were able to move without attracting crowds of attention. They traveled up several flights of stairs until they reached the royal chambers. Now days Prince Shadow was the only Nightmare of royal blood that still lived in the castle, so they other rooms were unoccupied.
They approached the room that had been meant for Night herself, but had never been used do to her only being a nightmare for a short period of time before being banished alongside Luna.
"This was supposed to be your room." Shade's sudden breaking of the silence startled her.
"Really…"
Shade pushed open the doors to her room and dismissed the guards. He then undid her chains and restraints. Before she had the chance to do anything though, he had snapped a silver wristband onto her wrist that had what appeared to be veins filled with a dark liquid shaping complex designs. In the center of it there was a dark gem that the veins all flowed to.
"This is supposed to restrain your magic, but still allow movement." He explained.
Night turned to her room and looked around. There was a large window on the wall farthest from the door. A large bed lay near the window and a large closet was next to that. There was a book shelf that was half filled with books about dark magic on the right hand side of the room. Other than that, the room was bare.
They walked in and Shade told her to wait in the room as he headed for the closet. She just shrugged and walked over to the bookshelf. She skimmed the shelves until a book finally caught her eye. She was ten pages into the thick book when Shade exited the closet with a small pile of folded fabric in his hands.
He raised his eyebrows when he saw the title of her book, The Nightmare Wars, but said nothing. He called for several servants and gave the fabric in his hands to them. He gave them instructions that Night couldn't hear from her side of the room before leaving the room.
The servants approached her before asking her to remove her current attire, simple black pants and a black long sleeved shirt with her waning crescent moon in the center. She protested against their commands and soon they were holding a thrashing girl around while forcing a dress on her.
When they were done, she was wearing a calve-length dress with a dark indigo ruffled skirt connected to the torso by a pitch black sash. The torso was the same color of her skirt from underneath her breasts to her waist. The top was sleeveless and everything else was the same black as her sash with a waning crescent in the center. The side sleeves from her under shirt were visible and were also dark indigo.
They had also somehow had managed to change her hair as well. It was now down to the middle of her back and was a mixture of dark blues, indigos and purples. It lazily floated around like wisps of smoke.
When they were finally satisfied, the head servant went to get Shade. As she waited, she gazed out of the window, thinking.
Please hurry Pitch, wherever you are…this is a flipping nightmare itself.
Shade chose that moment to barge into the room. He stopped abruptly when his eyes fell on his rival and gaped. He quickly regained his posture again before speaking.
"You are dismissed." He told the servants.
They bowed before scurrying out of the room.
After long silence, he finally spoke. "You look nice, I guess. I guess I do have a good eye for looks."
He looked to her face to find her wearing an expression of mild disturbance.
"Do you even know how creepy and weird that sounded?"
"What?" he asked innocently.
Suddenly one of the Council's messengers burst into the room.
"Nightmare Shade, the council has requested your immediate presence. We captured a small group of prisoners that were wondering inside our borders."
"Tell the Council that I'll be right there, I just need to take care of something first."
The messenger nodded before teleporting away and Shade turned to Night.
"What to do with you…" he mused. "Your punishment has still been undecided. You will stay in here for the time being. There will always be a guard outside your door at all times, you can use this mirror to see movies, videos and anything we might send to you or allow you to see." He said while handing her a smooth glass surface that was not much bigger that her palm.
"Why would you give me this and can I watch your little meeting?"
"So you don't die of boredom (aka. plot convenience) and I don't see why not."
With that Shade teleported out and Night sat on her bed to see the meeting.
Shade, I assume that you've punished Ms. Moon? (A/N: That sounds kinda creepy…) The lead member asked.
"Yes. She is currently stuck to the confines of her room in the castle." He answered.
Good. We need your help in deciding the fate of or prisoners. Bring them in please! He called to the guards.
Night leaned in close to the small reflective surface to see who it was. She gasped in shock as one by one the figures were pushed into the view of her screen.
It was Pitch and the other Guardians.
*Unintentional reference to Loki in the beginning of Thor the Dark World. Watch it if you haven't, watch it again if you have! Go Loki! He's the best! (Well, to me anyway, but everyone has their own opinions. (Free virtual cookies to anyone who LOVES Loki.) If you didn't guess, 'Akumu' means nightmare. Just to be clear, only lesser Nightmares have no real form. Lesser Nightmares include but are not limited to: Peasants, Slaves, and some servants. Any Nightmare in the middle class has a human form, but not very powerful magic. Sorry for any confusion. Peace out!