Commission from the talented  BigGoodWolf!

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The nightmare circled around me, a trail of blue mist underneath its ethereal hooves as it galloped through the air. A chill wind rose with every hoofbeat, the first thing I had felt in the air since setting foot in the dark, ruined world. The creature paced through the air around me, never taking its glowing blue stare away from my blade, almost daring me to make the first move.

“Still up to your old ways, brother?” Nightfall said, his voice thin and wispy like frost. “Have I taught you nothing?”
I growled and kept my shield at the ready. The sword in my hand burned hotter, hot enough now that I myself could feel its glow, but I refused to drop it. “Whatever this spirit’s motives are,” I said, “together, we will strike-“
“Oh, do cease your natter.”

The hilt of my blade heated more. It burned now, a searing blaze too much even for me to handle. I yelped and dropped it onto the ground, unable to hold it any longer. Growling, I stepped back and hoisted up my shield.

Even now, Nightfall’s gaze remained on my blade, as though he didn’t trust that it was no danger even unwielded. He trotted through the air, his relaxed gait almost infuriating; how could he be so casual? Was he so confident in his power here that he didn’t even consider himself in danger? Could he be so arrogant?

I stepped away as the sword ratted and shook upon the ground. I didn’t trust anything in this world, I couldn’t. Not having been led here by a wayward spirit who withheld information from me, and not under the rule of a frost-addled hellhorse. The blade of the discarded sword pulsed with a red glow like the fires of the underworld. I growled and shielded my eyes from the blinding light, a wave of heat washing over me.

And when it faded, another hellhorse stood in the air.

In stark contrast to Nightfall, this beast’s coat was deep black, though veins of light shimmered across it. Its mane blazed like wildfire, searing down its back until it became a tail of raging flame. It stared down at me with eyes that glowed like coal, red light burning within its nostrils. It snorted, and the air shimmered and distorted from rising heat.

My sword lay upon the ground before it, cold and still.

“You,” I breathed. “Were you the-“
“Spirit?” the fiery nightmare’s voice rasped, rough and deep. “In a sense, I am. We are not of your world, after all.”
“Forgive my brother,” Nightfall said from behind me. I wheeled around to face him, still trotting through the air on his trail of blue. “He must have been sealed in that temple for so long, and he was never the patient sort.”
“Patient?” The fiery horse reared into the air and stomped, sending a cloud of ash and cinders rising around its hooves. “Get yourself locked away in a temple for however long it must have been, then you can talk about patience!”

I didn’t know what I truly expected, the first time I had heard of Nightfall. But this…even now, I didn’t know what to make of it. And now, the nightmare twins together, Nightfall and Daybreak…arguing and contradicting like children.

But it didn’t matter. I had already seen what one of the hellhorses could do, let alone when they joined forces.

The two of them trotted around me in a circle, each one always directly opposed from the other. Each trod a flat trail from his hooves, first fire, then ice, an ever-churning ring. But they were not focused on me; they focused on each other.

“Why, pray, did you return to this world, dear brother?” Nightfall said. He flicked his misty tail, sending a cloud of icy air to enshroud him. “So envious of what I craft, are you?”
“This was my world and you know it!” Daybreak snorted from behind me, like the roar of a rising flame. “That’s why I’m here!”

The nightmares continued to bicker, seemingly having all but forgotten about me. I could only guess I had served my purpose now; Daybreak had used me as a pawn to unseal his temple and bring him back here, and now he could discard me and focus on his brother.

Good. I could crawl beneath notice. Use their distraction. I inched my way toward my sword, reaching out with caution towards the hilt. All I needed was…

I yelped out as a frigid chill suddenly ensconced my ankles and legs, freezing me to the ashen ground.
“Still yourself, hero,” Nightfall said with a frosty sigh. “You are no longer needed.”
Daybreak trotted before me, and I shielded my eyes from his blazing glow. “Thanks for reuniting us,” he said. “But I think you’re done now.”
“Reuniting” Nightfall chuckled and looked down at me. “You mean to tell me you were duped by one as…single-minded as my dear brother? Oh, poor hero, what a fool you must be…”
“Of course not.” I looked up at the nightmare’s mocking face with a scowl. “Do you really think I’m so naïve? Of course I knew he was leading me astray.”
Daybreak dug a blazing hoof at the air. “Then why go along with me, hm? Sheer curiosity?”
I smiled. “Because I wanted you to lead me here.”

I breathed out a blast of flame over the icy cage that had encased my limbs and lunged for my blade. A blast of fire roared from one side, a spear of ice from the other. I rolled beneath both, grabbed my sword, and stood. I hoisted my shield before me as I rose to my feet, deflecting the energies that the pair shot towards me in response.
“I knew I had to stop you,” I growled, my arm buckling under the force of an icy spear shattering against my shield. “But first I had to find you. And having you both together would just make my job…” I leapt into the air, sword aimed for Nightfall’s throat. “…easier!”

A heavy weight crashed into my side, knocking me off course. Searing pain burst through my ribs as my armour heated under Daybreak’s blazing hooves, but I fought through it and shoved the nightmare off. Another beam of ice from behind me, but I just managed to lift my shield in response. Another blast of fire burst against my back, sending me lurching forward to the ground.

I rolled to my back, holding my shield above me and panting heavily. Despite their clear belligerence for each other, the two nightmares worked in perfect tandem together. Like the two hands of some greater beast, each moved in sync with the other, knowing exactly what the other would do, when to strike, to back off, to evade or feint. I had fought multiple opponents before, but these two were seemingly of one mind.

But they weren’t of one mind. I had seen as much, heard as much. They must have been ancient, spent who knows how many centuries honing themselves together; that was how they knew exactly what the other would do.

Spending so long in the company of another…was bound to grate.

I rolled away from another jet of flame, keeping the two horses in front of me. They didn’t let up the attack, one a surging flame lunging forward, the other a mighty glacier to counter my own movements.
“Your brother’s right,” I yelled from behind my shield as a jet of fire pushed against it. I leapt forward and bashed my shield at Daybreak’s face, diverting the flame. “Didn’t realise I was playing you just as much as you were playing me, did you?”

“My brother…” He snorted and leapt forward again, another stream of blazing heat pouring from him. “…is an arrogant fool!”
I rolled aside from the blast of hellfire, then rose to my knee. “I suppose there’s a reason he was left free while you were sealed away in your temple?”
Daybreak whinnied out, the sound of roaring fire and damned screams.
“Same reason he was able to claim this world while you were left to rot, right?”

Another blast of fire, then another. Daybreak reared back and stomped, sending an inferno my way.
Behind us, Nightfall neighed in response. “Calm down, Daybreak!” he called. “He’s only trying to…”
“And what happens when you’ve finished me off?” I growled, pushing back against the fire with my shield. “He gets my world, you get locked up until he needs you again?”
“I know what you’re doing!” Daybreak roared out with another blast of flame. “And it will NOT WORK!”

But it already was.

“Settle yourself!” Nightfall called. “Stay calm for once in your existence!”
“You do NOT tell me how to do this!” Daybreak didn’t even bother to look at his brother. His blazing eyes were focused on me, his gaze burning a hole right through me. He stomped a hoof, sending a flaming lash whipping out at me, tangling around my sword. I shrieked in pain at the sudden, searing heat, dropping the weapon and clutching at my burning claw.
“See?” Daybreak snorted wildly. He wreathed himself in hellfire, ash and cinder swirling at his hooves. He kicked off an launched himself towards me, a searing missile from the sun itself. I smiled, gripping my sword tight.

“He is provoking you, fool!” Nightfall roared furiously. He reared back, his icy mane flaring out wide. Blue mist crept and snaked through the air and lashed out – but not at me. He struck his brother in a desperate attempt to hold him back, to stop him from playing into my own claws.

The frosty wind dulled Daybreak’s blazing hooves and he roared out in anger. He was wild now; my taunts getting well under his skin, and now dealing with an attack from his own brother. He didn’t see a simple attempt at restraint, but only added aggression. And so he wheeled and blasted intense heat at the other nightmare.

Fire met ice, and a cloud of shimmering steam burst between the two. I closed my eyes against the stinging heat, unable to suppress a sly smile. Even on my brief travels with the fiery hellhorse inhabiting my blade, I had learned he was temperamental and swift to anger. He was bottling it up as best he could in his attempts to deceive me, and now it all came out – at the wrong target.

Incoherent roars and whinnies of rage emanated from the cloud of steam. The heat and moisture stung my eyes as I patted around the ground, searching for my blade. Finally, I found it, and my claw curled around the hilt. The nightmares were fully at each other’s throats now, Nightfall desperately trying to rein in his brother’s unquenchable fury.

Even as I stood right between the pair, Daybreak’s attention was on his brother.
“You steal MY world from me and revel while I ROT!” he roared. “And think you have the right to command me now?”
Nightfall’s frost sizzled and steamed before Daybreak’s heat as he tried with all he had to quench the fiery nightmare’s anger. “Focus for ONCE!” he cried out.

Ice from one side, fire from the other. I dropped to one knee between them and raised my sword into the clashing energies. The steel drew in the heat and the cold together, the weapon absorbing the energy from both nightmares.

And with a roar, I lunged at Nightfall.

So desperate to hold off his brother’s inferno, he didn’t even see me until my blade was in his throat. The thin veins of lava-hot red spread, web-like, through his veins, and his empty blue eyes stared at me unbelieving. I turned, keeping my sword lodged in the nightmare’s throat, and crouched behind my shield as a wave of fire washed over us. I closed my eyes tight against the blinding light, the flames and the sheen washing over Nightfall.

Daybreak screamed – perhaps in sudden realisation of what he had done to his brother, I couldn’t tell. He galloped through the air, his burning eyes now locked on me. Roaring, I pulled my blade free from Nightfall. A cloud of icy crystals burst forth from the beast’s wounded throat, frigid and white. Flames licked at the sides of Daybreak’s mouth, and he opened wide, gathering the fire in his throat.

Nightfall’s body burst. The vessel of an otherworldly being, the wound infected with the energy of his brother was more than his form could handle, and a cloud of frigid energy burst around us. Daybreak roared as the frost crept over him, into him, through him. The force of the burst blasted me back through the darkness, sheer cold enveloping me. First, my fingers and toes grew numb to the cold. My sight overtaken by a blanket of snowy white. I lost all feeling in my wings, in my arms, my legs.

Feeling, and vision, returned I could only guess how long later. I shielded my eyes with a hand against the bright sun rising in the sky. I was in a field of soft grass now; the ash-coated ground vanished. The chill in the air had gone; replaced by a pleasant spring warmth.

Panting for breath, I look to my sword, still in my hand. One edge shimmered a faint blue; the other, gentle red.

I heaved myself up to one knee, my whole body trembling. A tide of weakness swept through me, draining all strength I had left. I collapsed again into the soft grass. At least I could rest here a while. The twin nightmares, Nightfall and Daybreak, were at last gone.

For a time. After all, could nightmares ever really be banished forever…?