The Elements of Cacophony

The suit was left on the back of a chair, left for Nova to climb into. She hurries him towards getting dressed as a knock comes from the do.

"Ah, Nova?" Said the orange pony, cantering into the room, slipping around the door. Her hat was removed as she approaches, her freckled face attempts a smile as her bright blonde mane is shown in full, hat clutched to her chest. "I dunno if this is the time but, I wanted to tell you about how well my trees are doing now. We ain't seen harvests like this in years. Even Granny Smith's watchin' the new hands tryin' to pick up on what they're doin'. After that blizzard, I thought we were goners but...Just thanks."

She gives a pleasant, happy smile before seeming to shake herself back into reality.

"Oh, yeah! Uh, your almost ready, right? Princess Luna was askin' for ya."

Jackpot staggers, the glow of her horn diminishing. The unicorn seems dazed and heavily drained as Nightmare Azure stands. Apparently quite dizzy, Nightmare Jackpot attempts to keep herself steady and, most importantly, upright. She manages this but her poker face was in tatters.

Nightmare Tyro holds his head, Azure watching him for a moment before stepping out to approach Nova and Blade Runner.

"My puppets are doing well. Now, you may have managed to halt one of them but there are still four more. You can't hope to fight me. Not in the way you think you can." Azure said, stepping around Darkness at a decent radius from him.

"If you cut me down, you'll only cut down an innocent helper to your little crusade against me. I have no form and a contraption like the one you arrived with will not save you or Equestria."

Jackpot chimes in: "I'd prefer a more reasonable game for these circumstances. A game that will take place in your head. No more damage to your friends. No more need to come up with an excuse on why you saw fit to cut down ponies and a fox. How about it? But we'll throw in reasonable stakes, of course."

"You win, I release my thralls." Tyro said, standing behind them. "You lose, and I...I'm sure you can guess. What do you say? Otherwise, your odds look bleak."

There was a low cackle that cut through the whole place.

"You have come to challenge me." Said an all too familiar voice. "I accept. Prepare to die."

The green eyes with those malicious red disks were the first things to attract her attention to him. The darkness emanating from his eyes that now locked in on Azure from the blackness of some space that appeared to be slowly emerging. Behind him, a thunderstorm rages, the dark pony's voice still cutting through the clattering or occational thunderclap just fine. His horn glows with power, apparently interested in being sportsponylike for the battle he had been promised.

"Your not the first, you won't be the last. There's no shame in bowing to me now." King Sombra said, his vicious teeth being shown while he begins his approach.

 

(Sorry for taking so long. I have been kiiiiinda busy.)

All four of the Nightmare creatures give their own variations on the theme of a throaty, confident cackle.

"Survive." Nightmare Jackpot said, stepping forward as Tyro, Azure and Nova surrounded Darkness and Blade Runner.

With them they bring a huge haze of black around the group. As the hyena like forms of the Nightmare four emerge and vanish as the black mist of their influence swirls around them, Darkness and Blade Runner got their first glimpse of the Moon.

Of the harsh, grey landscape. The dusty dunes, pockmarked and forever scarred. Nothing would ever heal the impacts to it's surface this place appears to have sustained. It also left little clue on what it was like below the ground. The land crunched underhoof. It was a thin, fine powder of what seemed like little use.

Nothing could grow. And yet, the cloudy haze of the Nightmares did just that.

As each Nightmare appears and disappeared, looking for their point to strike, there were scenes behind each of them.

Jackpot was sprawled out on a grassy hill, enjoying the ebb and flow of the nature around her.

Nova was being praised hugely by Applejack, looking shocked by it all in a huge, ornate part of the Canterlot Palace

Tyro was down in the dark depths of some horrid mine, a huge smile on his face as he pushes on.

Azure stood face to face with King Sombra himself, the darkness-plunged dojo backdropped by the lightning storm surrounding the large, wooden roof.

Sombra's cackle was low, turning his snout skyward to then look down upon the little pony.

"You are so surprised. It has lead to this. Do not waste my time further. I wish to crush you quickly. I'm in little mood to toy with you today, Azure."

Behind him, there was a strange haze that seemed to be made by the rain. The scene contained Nova, the image put together in the rain.

"Well, of course, but this time, I've come prepared." Applejack suddenly said. Her expression seemed to be complete adoration of Nova but her voice seemed to be talking to someone else.

Except only him and the other Batpony where here...

As Applejack turned, she smiles while the Batpony appears to reply to her.

"Dad! Dad, your getting close. Any further and you'll dig right into the heart of the mountain. You'll be soaked in lava."

Applejack laughs, her tails appearing to split into two long brushes. Her freckled face had suddenly tapered towards a point. Her whiskers were quite prominent as she gives the Batpony a wide, sharp-toothed smile.

"Darling, Sweetie, Sweet Child o' Mine! We've been separated for too long!" Applejack giggles, the suddenly tan-coated vixen dashes forwards, her paws nimbly skipping forwards towards the stain glass window directly in front of her and Nova. Her smile was so powerfully energized while he scampers for this bright wall of glass.

"You know your Daddy!" Applejack said, her usual country twang replaced with a familiar Manechester accent that roared vowels rather than hung from them lackadaisically. "I can't resist a warm dip!"

Applejack the Kitsune leaps for the window.

This ominous monument to...something. A mountain that has burst it's top, spewing both acrid smoke and hot fire into the air. A cross section of the magma below the surface was visible, arcing away into the ground around the massive, master magma chamber. This glowed brightly with the sunshine behind it, making the heat and overflowing brilliance of it's power lending intensity to the piece.

And then Applejack the Suddenly-A-Kitsune-Vixen slams through this window. The glass never falls out as Applejack is immediately lost in some horrible flame.

The magma oozed from the smashed window. It spilled and pooled onto the floor, glowing white hot. It didn't burn any carpets. The bat pony didn't even react to it as she smiles calmly at Nova, ignoring the fact that Applejack just appeared, transformed and then vanished into the churning cauldron of inferno that was spilling out towards Nova's hooves.

And yet, there was no heat he could feel. There was nothing, even as it touched him. It was like a mist, more of the window breaking off in the flow of magma. As it flowed around both Nova and the corridor, Applejack could be seen, hat and all, paddling towards something built into the side of a huge rockface. It was near black and half-submurged.

(The walls of illusion are breaking in the effort. They won't stay like that forever
[MENTION=7521]KillStreak[/MENTION] Not heard from you in a while. Still around? You can still act.)

 

Sombra looks down pitifully on the pony, mightily unimpressed.

"I've heard of you. Years, no! Decades of forging yourself into a weapon and this is the fruit of those efforts?"

His cackling rang out as his power skyrockets, his eyes glowing a deep emerald as the general buzz of the air becomes thick with power. Magic in every facet was being stretched and pulled into his control.

The roof above him splinters, fractures exploding up and around the pair, unable to withstand the pressure from King Sombra. They explode up and outwards...

Into a bright blue sky. Bird chirping, cows gently mooing.

All round Asure, this dojo of some kind was caught in perpetual rain. Thunderstorms rumble and bellow in the distance as the Evil King stands before her, his horn dripping with energy. The atmosphere was dire but exciting.

Apparently, directly above her, just beyond that roof, was a lovely summery spring afternoon?

Applejack looks behind her briefly.

Only spotting Nova floating through lava. No real inter...Wait, whut now?

"Is this a spell? Or a thing Alicorns can just do?" Applejack asks, looking over Nova as she treads magma, watching the Batpony flap over to her without much of a care or interest at all in the heaps of liquid rock. It was pretty surreal to him.

"The bloody heck are you doing?" Applejack said, pointing a paw at Nova accusingly. "Twilight! I thought I told you to distract Cydonia! Why are you here? How are you here? This place would cook you to a crisp! Even I'm feeling a little sweaty in this stuff!"

As pandemonium began to spring loose as the illusions wore down, their barriers cracking, several paths grew but with the Nightmare's circling and taunting the Knight to dare come forward to reclaim the stolen comrades.

One path lead to behind were Nova had rushed away too. Another lead to Jackpot's relaxing farm. Another lead to Azure's battle for revenge.

It might be necessary to be quick as any of the trapped four could rush off deeper into the dreamworld.

 

Darkness was able to pass through. While the cold chill of a manifestation made of hatred and fear was like stepping through a blizzard of insecurity, it at least appeared over quickly.

Although, as Darkness stepped in to the realm of this altered Canterlot palace he knew so well, there was something tugging at him. Something odd, yanking at him. Not at his fur or mane but from within. The prickling at the back of his neck turned to a shiver despite the apparently burning hot lava in front of him.

This was a pit of black magic. A hideous testament to his wife's anguish, jealousy and pain. This could be the end of him if they weren't careful.

The Nightmare's allowed Darkness inside for two reasons. One of them was that having the mighty Blade Runner join their ranks was too good an opportunity to miss.

Jackpot's horn emerges from view, glowing with a horrible menace as she careers out of the smoke and fires straight at Blade, over and over and over. Each magical bolt fired dead ahead, aiming for his chest. As she keeps her distance but keeps the powerful blasts coming.

Just as Azure and Nova charge in. Nova dives in from above while Azure attempts to flank Blade. Both swinging for Blade's side. Azure's dark powers fueling her strength and speed. Nova was simply relying on gravity.

Darkness felt something warm lick at his side. Tyro had singled him out. Flame and fireballs splashed near him as the nightmare fox attacked from the edges of the illusionary mist.

Applejack is successfully tackled, both figures are pushed through the glowing mass until Nova hits the bottom of the lake. Somewhere, he could feel Applejack struggle, even attempting to bite back in a desperate bid to free himself.

"How are you doing this?!" Applejack screams, a few shudders of something around them as the lava turns to a haze. A grey, luna surface below them. They were on the moon but, the glowing remnants of the scene they'd left still lingered, clinging on to them both, waiting for their turn to strike.

"I-I don't understand?!" Applejack's form was giving way to Tyro's, the orange turning read. The adventurous smirk turning to pure fear. Tyro was clearly anxious, looking around. Panic was settling in. "Where did everything go?!"

He pushes back against Nova: "Please! Let me go back there! I was going to escape Equestria! I was going to get back to what I'm supposed to be doing! I was going to find my kids! I'd be free!"

The fox leans back, his face screwing up, something painful stabbing through his head, over and over. He clasps his paws to his head, the remnants of the scene around both Tyro and Nova flashing in and out, growing solid and gaseous within a matter of seconds, flickering back and forth like a glitch in reality.

"Y-you don't mind letting me back, do you? I dunno about waking up yet..."