Chapter 2: Fate

A gray stallion galloped toward his commanding officer. "General Star!" he shouted. "There was a large explosion near the edge of town!"

Star turned toward the messenger. "An explosion, eh?" He grinned. "Maybe Ponyville is a bit more interesting than I thought. Midnight, take some of the soldiers here and follow after me."

He waved a hoof at some of the pegasi guards. "Come with me." He flared his wings and jumped off of the ground and into the air, and the pegasi he motioned to follow took off after him. "Meet me at the site, Midnight!" he called back.

He flew over Ponyville, and soon he found himself at a large crater in the ground and the form of a single pony near it. Star flew down to the ground and surveyed the area.

A white pegasus approached him. "Sir, there's only one body. Does that mean that it was only a misfire and one of our guards hurt himself in the explosion?"

Star made his way over to the body and blinked in surprise. "No, this pony here is definitely not one of our soldiers. In fact, he's the exact opposite of one of our soldiers."

The guard's face fell into confusion. "What do you mean by that, sir?"

"He used to work for Nightmare Moon, but he betrayed us. What a foal." Star spit onto the ground near the unconscious body. "I'm going to have fun with him."

Midnight approached Star. "Star," she began, "how do you think he got here? I had believed that we had dealt with him."

Star looked over to Midnight. "It must be fate that he survived, and that we met him here." He smirked. "I'm getting chills just thinking about what fun we'll have."

"You don't want to get too rough with him. You could break him like you did with that one captain back in Canterlot."

Star chuckled. "Good times," he mused. "Midnight, pick 'em up with your magic and follow me."

A dark blue glow surrounded Night's limp body and he was lifted into the air.

/\\

Night slowly opened his eyes. A dull aching filled his head, as well as the rest of his body. He tried to move a hoof up to his forehead, but it was stopped by a tight leather strap.

"W-what the…?" He tried to move his body, but it too was strapped to the hard chair he was in. Night concentrated on his horn and tried to conjure up a spell. A splitting pain flew through his head. "A horn-blocker, eh?" he said between pants. He took a quick glance around the dark room.

Night violently shook his hooves against the straps, but to no prevail. He stopped and closed his eyes. Okay, Night. You gotta think of a way to get out of this.

A door opened, and Night looked up from where he sat. Two figures walked into the room, and the door closed behind them.

A horn flared up and light filled the room.

Star smiled. "Welcome, Night."

Night glared at them. "What do you want from me? If you want me to join back up like the goody-four-hooves you two are, you already know my answer."

"Now why would we want a traitor back in our ranks? You know our mistress's punishment for treason‒Tartarus, you know first hooved." Star's face inched toward Night's. "I just wanna know how you survived."

"That's none of your business."

"Oh, but it is my business. Since only a few of us knew about the orders to kill you, it means that we have another traitor among us. I have an idea, but I need to confirm my theory about him."

"And what if I don't know who saved me?"

Star turned away and walked over to a metal table. "Knowing you, I'm sure you asked who saved you, and I do have my ways of finding things out." His head lowered and he picked up a knife in his teeth. He moved back toward Night.

Night's eyes widened and he tried to move his body away at the realization of what Star was going to do.

"Midnight, hold down that ear." Blue glow surrounded one of Night's ears. Star positioned the knife to Night's right ear. "Now, are you gonna tell me who helped you?"

"Never," he spat.

Star brought the knife closer to his ear. "Have it your way." The knife cut into flesh, slowly making its way through the base of Night's ear.

Night's body wreathed in pain, as a scream escaped his mouth. He tried desperately to get away from Star, or to at least move his ear away, but the straps and magic held him tight.

After about a minute of cutting, the ear fell onto the floor. "Now wasn't that fun?" Blood oozed out of where his ear used to be.

"Now, what to take off next? I could take off the other ear, but that'd be a bit repetitive. The tongue? No, we still need you to tell who betrayed us. Oh, I know, that horn of yours." Star dropped the knife and walked back to the table. He gripped a hammer in his mouth and walked back over.

"I remember hearing two things about a unicorn's horn. One: it has thousands of nerves in it, which makes going through Tartarus feel painless whenever it is broken."

Night whimpered at the thought of the pain.

"And two: it's one of every unicorn's worst fears to lose their magic." The hammer was raised into the air. "Tell me how it feels when you're going through the worst pain of your life."

"Wait! I'll tell you!"

Star paused, and the hammer lowered. "Get on with it then."

"The doctor told me it was a green pegasus, but the pegasus never said his name."

"I figured as much." Star turned to Midnight. "Let's go, we need to send a message to Nightmare Moon."

Midnight nodded, and the two exited the room.

Night sighed and gazed around the‒now dark‒room. How am I gonna get out of here? If only I had my magic. Wait… could I possibly overcharge this horn-blocker? It's gonna hurt like Tartarus, but it's worth a shot.

He closed his eyes to concentrate on the feat he was going to try to accomplish. Pain rushed throughout his head as his horn lit up, and his body convulsed in pain.

After a few minutes of pouring all his magic into his horn and thrashing in pain, he stopped. The pain's too much, damnit. Night sighed and closed his eyes. How am I gonna get out of this? If I stay too much longer, Star's gonna come back and torture me until I fall over dead.

There was a rattling at the door, and it slowly opened. Two ponies filed in and closed the door behind them. A horn flared up, and light filed the room.

Night's mouth dropped to the floor when he saw the two ponies that stood before him. One was Applejack, while the other was a lavender unicorn mare. There were bags under the unicorn's eyes and her darker purple mane was unkempt. They both appeared a bit shaken as they saw blood trickling from where his ear used to be.

"Wha-what're you doing here?"

Applejack was the first to speak up. "Ah was goin' up ta Ponyville, when Ah saw some of them no-good soldiers sent here pick up somepony an' walk off with 'em. Ah followed 'em ta see who the pony was. When Ah saw that it was you, I went ta find mah friend here ta help ya get out."

The unicorn undid the straps that held me down and took off the horn-blocker.

"Thank you, and I'm Night, by the way."

"You're welcome, and I am Twilight Sparkle." Night arose from his seat, and the two of them shared a hoofshake. She turned around and glanced back at Night. "Follow me if you don't want to be captured again." She then proceeded to walk out of the door.

Applejack looked at Night with an apologetic expression. "Sorry 'bout her. She's just been really under a lotta pressure after we failed to beat Nightmare Moon."

"Y-you tried to defeat Nightmare Moon?" Night stammered. "H-how did you even have a chance?"

"Let's wait 'till we're in a safe place before I tell ya that. It's kinda of a long story."

Night nodded, and the two filed their way out of the dark room. Twilight had a decent head start, but they soon caught up to her.

"So, uh, where are we going?"

Twilight frowned. "We're going to Applejack's orchard. Not too many soldiers go out there, and when they do, it's not for long." She then shut her mouth and continued on. Night followed her through Ponyville. To Night's relief, they did not see any of the soldiers. The citizens were cowering inside of their homes; only a few were brave enough to venture out.

Just the day before, Ponyville had been bustling with life, but since the guards came, many of the ponies were too scared to come out. Most of the ones who did come out were abused by Star and his men, even their homes were not safe.

The trio soon found themselves at Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack led the way into her house, and they settled down in the main room.

"Why is Nightmare Moon after you?" Twilight glared at him. "What could she want with some random pony like you? I'm actually quite surprised on the fact that she has not come after me yet."

"I'm not just a 'random pony."

"Then who are you?"

"I used to work under Nightmare Moon as a captain."

Twilight's horn lit up and a purple glow surrounded Night. He was then lifted up into the air and Twilight gave him a hard glare. "You say you used to work for Nightmare Moon. How do we know that you're not still working for her?"

"Well, the fact that I have a missing ear now and that I was tied up against my will in a basement kinda proves that I'm not exactly working for her anymore."

"And how do we know that's not an act? As far as we know, you were sent after us: the ones that tried to take out Nightmare Moon after she was brought back." The levitation field around Night seemed to tighten.

"Now, y'all calm down!" Applejack interjected. "Twilight, let 'em out of your magic, and let 'em tell us his story."

My what? Is she wanting to know why I quit working for that tyrant?

Twilight's levitation field disappeared and she dropped Night into the chair. Her gaze still was hard. "Tell us, Night. Give us a good reason why you quit working for Nightmare Moon." There was a hardness to how she said his name.

"I was deluded at first. She brought me into this feeling of security; one that I was not used to before that. I began to realize how she really was. How… tyrannical she was, especially after the farmer incident. After I failed to convince my friend to come with me, I left."

Twilight's gaze was still hard as a rock. "How could you just realize that she was a tyrant? She blocked out the sun! She staged a coup d'état and succeeded! She either killed or imprisoned all of the Royal Guard! She‒"

"Twilight!" Applejack interjected. "Ah understand why ya don' trust 'em. Even Ah'm havin' a hard time trustin' 'em, but until he does something to betray our trust, then we should give 'em the benefit of the doubt. An' anyway, would a soldier of Nightmare Moon openly say that they used to work fer her?"

Twilight stopped and though for a moment. "I guess you do make a point." She then turned to Night. "Sorry for exploding on you about that. It's just…"

"I, uh, I think I understand. Now, Applejack, you mentioned that you tried to defeat Nightmare Moon. How are you even still alive?"

"Twi thought we were somethin' called the Elements of Harmony, so we tried ta stop Nightmare Moon. After we failed, she just let us go. Ah don' even know why she did that."

"I-I thought that if I gathered the elements that we would be able to defeat her, but, obviously, I have no idea where the elements are." A few tears fell down Twilight's muzzle. "I… I failed Equestria."

She then looked up at Night. "But you were in Canterlot recently, right?" He nodded. "How are things up there? It can't be that bad, right? I tried to get up there myself to see what has happened, but Nightmare Moon put up an anti-magic barrier around the city and the train refuses to travel there now."

"Mainly, things went to Tartarus. Quite a few nobles and Royal Guards tried to rebel after Nightmare first took over, but with… uh… my help, they were overwhelmed. A few of the nobles were even taken as prisoners."

"Who were they?" Her face had changed from hard to worry.

"Why? Do you know a few nobles or guards?"

"She was originally noble born in Canterlot," Applejack explained.

"Do you know of what happened to the nobles Night Light and Twilight Velvet, and Shining Armor, the former captain of the Royal Guard?" She now seemed more desperate than worried now.

"Ah, well, I don't believe that I heard of Night Light or Twilight Velvet, but that captain brother of yours, I believe he's now a prisoner for Nightmare Moon."

"A-a prisoner?" She sighed and gulped. "How are the dungeons up there? I know how they were when Celestia was the ruler, but, well, you know that I haven't been able to get back up there." A few tears traveled down her muzzle.

Night winced. "Last I checked, that pony who captured me, Star, was in control over the dungeons, and he's one sick buck."

Twilight glanced toward the ground. Applejack moved over to her and put a hoof around her. "It'll be okay, Twi."

Twilight wiped the tears from her muzzle and put on a determined look. "Now then, how are we going to fight back against Nightmare Moon?"

Both Applejack's and Night's jaws dropped nearly to the floor.

Night regained his thoughts, and nearly shouted at Twilight. "There's no way we can beat her! She has an army! What do we have? A few ponies?"

"Just about all of Ponyville are wanting away with Nightmare Moon. I bet that just about all of Equestria is against her. Nightmare Moon needs to fall. We need to get Celestia back upon her rightful throne." Twilight's face looked determined as ever.

"But Celestia is in a coma!"

Silence filled the room.

"W-what?" Twilight looked like she was going to die of shock.

"You heard me. Celestia is in a coma. Nightmare Moon was too much for her. After Nightmare Moon defeated her, she just… hasn't woken up yet. At least, that's how she was ever since I left. I can't say too much as of right now."

Twilight's face returned to the determined face she had only seconds before. "Well, it looks like we will have to rebel."

"How? Celestia is in a coma! We have no chance in this!" Night argued.

"How else are we going to stop this eternal night? Crops are failing, and prices of food are going up. Soon, ponies will be starving to death under her leadership. Do you want thousands of ponies to die?"

Night closed his eyes. "I… fine. I'll be a part of your little rebellion." He smirked. "I'm ready to get a bit of revenge."

Twilight turned toward her friend. "You in Applejack?"

Applejack nodded. "Well, since Ah can' really do mah job when we're havin' night twenty-four seven, I guess Ah'll have ta."

Twilight smiled. "Then it's settled. We'll stop Nightmare Moon. We have to."

A/N: Sorry for taking so long on this chapter. I've been quite busy. If any of you would like to see this story updated more often, look it up on Fimfiction. That's the main place for it. I have the same username there and the story has the same title. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter ^^