Eternal Night [Open]

[revenancenpcs]

Characters: Whatever's been causing that really long night, the new bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and you.
Content: BOSS BATTLE
Location: Ponyville, just outside of town, towards the Everfree Forest. There's a certain clearing with a certain statue in it.
Time: Night. Because it's been night for days.
Warnings: It's a boss battle, guys. You know the drill by now.

Continual night is only supposed to be the default state for Traverse Town. When it happens anywhere else - say, Ponyville - it's worrying. That's exactly why you're here to check it out. Maybe you're now a bearer of an Element of Harmony and you feel a sense of responsibility. Maybe you want to take out whatever's causing it. Maybe you're just curious. Either way, you're still in Ponyville in time to see dark clouds swirl in the sky from seemingly nowhere and obscure the stars and moon.

Those clouds all rolled in from the same direction, though, and that's the direction you head in, towards the Everfree Forest. You stop in a clearing, empty except for everypony else who had the same idea as you and a rather creepy statue. You hesitate as a force field shimmers into view around the clearing and abruptly fades. For better or worse, you're stuck here for a while.

It's then that the clouds break long enough to shine a single beam of moonlight onto the statue. White-hot cracks begin to spiderweb over the statue until it shatters, exploding outwards. As the dust settles, you see something else standing where the statue was just moments ago: a pony matching the Princesses in stature, black as the unnaturally long night. The blue mists of her mane and tail swirl around her, failing to obscure the deep red of her gaze. Emblazoned across her flanks is the Nightmare symbol.

She pauses for a moment - either to regroup or for dramatic emphasis - before gathering searing teal magic at the tip of her horn and firing it at you.

[This is Nightmare!Nightmare Moon, and - surprise, surprise - she doesn't like you. This will play out in the same style as the other boss battles, with successes and failures being decided by D&D-style dice rolls (all taken care of by the mods). Please only tag in if you can keep up a pace of one tag per day; otherwise, your turn will be skipped. Additionally, this is a required event for anyone holding an Element of Harmony - if you can't tag in for any reason, please let a mod know. Ten characters total, meaning four non-Element characters can also tag in; no tag order; start a new subthread after every boss battle; have fun~]

Comments

[yabigfurball]

Chu was nothing if not quick on his feet! He jumped from spot to spot, avoiding the chunks of earth flung in the air or the holes that dropped out from beneath them, and still made sure that Ammy was secure on his back. Ammy clung as tight as she could...her Spirit would definitely be getting a royal cake after this!

Still no Nightmare Moon. This distraction was definitely getting tiresome. Ammy felt that sudden boost of power, which was definitely appreciated, and used it to knock out a couple of attacks in quick succession. She painted a power slash across some of the bats in her line of sight, and then immediately after used her tundra beads as a whip to try and knock the Nightmares to the ground, if not outright destroy them.

They just needed to get all of these necklaces glowing!

Konohana flittered over to see who needed a cure spell, and at the moment it looked like Kanji and Chell's Komory Bat did. The Wheeflower did its best to avoid any incoming rocks by floating above the ground.

[wavesinherheart]

Rarity's explanation of her element was, to be honest, a little surprising to Aqua. It wasn't anything that had really been mentioned before, although in hindsight it did make a certain amount of sense. But there wasn't much time to think about. Not right away, anyway, as it took her a moment to restabilize her glider properly.

Not that she turned to the matter of her element as soon as it was flying properly again. Instead, she turned her attention to the Nightmare bats, as her Pricklemane leapt off of her glider and into the midst of the nightmares, spinning as it went. In fact it isn't until the feeling of Kanji's spell ripples through her that her mind turns to the idea of friendship

She remembers, in a way that she hasn't since she came back out of the darkness. Remembers all those who fought with her and beside her: standing side by side the mouse who was a king to protect a heart of pure light, standing with Terra and Ven against a foe so much older than them and still powerful. She remembers Experiment 626, and the way she'd once woven a magic to bind the three of them together, on that night when they'd been sitting under the stars.

She remembers bringing down fire to help Kanji, too, and in the name of that friendship and all the others she's made here, she will fight. Even the spell she sends at the bats echoes the moment when she'd first gained her element - she sends a ball of fire at the bats, once that will explode when it hits and hopefully do at least a little damage to any other nightmares that might be in range.

[letteropener]

Celestia had not yet reached the limits of her power. At the same time as she kept her magical will clamped firmly on the ground, doing everything she could to neutralize the earthquake, she struck out with bolts of light at the encroaching Nightmares, while Hero dashed around to slam himself into them with the single-minded purpose of his namesake.

Celestia had no connection to the Elements any more, but she still had a purpose -- to inspire, to rally. The solar princess hovered in the center of battle, giving her all, with radiant light and warmth beaming from her as she fought against the darkness, and challenged the bearers of the Elements to do the same.

[revenancenpcs]

Hard though it might have been for Kanji, the buff does seem to have had some effect; Kant's fire breath and Phoebe's attack take out a pair of Nightmare Bats, while Setsuna's attacks and Amaterasu's power slash take out another. Amaterasu's bead whip, however, only manages barely clip one of the nightmares - it's knocked a little off course, but is otherwise undamaged.

Descartes and Hero have less success in their own attempts. With more than a few of the bats taken out by previous attacks, Hero's charge goes wild; he manages to come out of it unscathed, but runs headlong into Chu. Unfortunately, the lessened number of bats also means that Chell's attempt to attract the attention of the Nightmares doesn't work as intended. Her bats attempts are more successful, but they also draw in Descartes, who takes a severe hit from one of the Nightmare bats. It's not enough to leave him in danger of going to pieces, but it certainly looks like it must have hurt.

On a more optimistic front, however, Celestia's attempt to hold the earth together does work this time, as does Setsuna's own attempt at a smaller version of the same - the only one still standing on the ground to take any kind of damage whatsoever is Chu, as a result of Hero's charge.

Additionally, the last few elements have finally begun to react, the glows turning into beams of light that converge upon Aqua and her element. And with that, it's not long before a beam of rainbow light goes shooting towards the ground as Nightmare Moon is dragged back up out of ground under distinct protest. But there's no escape. Not for Nightmare Moon and the light of Elements encircles her without so much as a hitch. But it's not back to the moon with her. Instead, like all Nightmares, she explodes into munny and dream pieces as the rainbow of light begins to fade away.