“And the small white crow swiftly jumped onto the branch,” Rainbow Dash spooked the five frightened mares facing her. “And what did it tell to the scared filly, all curled up in a corner of the frameless room?”
A long silence ensured, leaving to Rainbow enough time to cast a wicked smile on her features.
“What did it tell?” Pinkie asked, thrilled and scared at the time, wishing to know the end of the story.
“Where… are… my… eyeballs?” Rainbow spelled with a loud croak. “Have you seen my eyes?”
Rainbow burst into the sky and leaped on her friends in a mighty whistle. She stopped a second before the impact, screeching in the air. With her forced-bloodshot eyes she whispered with a creepy and slow raucous voice.
“Can I borrow...” She paused and screamed. “Yours!?”
Everypony jumped back, panting.
Rainbow intoned a noisy, raspy cackle that changed into laughter. With her hoof, she kicked into the fire that dwelled in the middle of the encampment, throwing embers in the air. Blinding her friends with a flash of firelight, Rainbow vanished, only to pop up behind Applejack. The cowpony trembled on her hooves when Rainbow slithered a few words into her eyes.
“Your eyes must be… delicious.” Rainbow condescended with delight.
“Oh stop it,” Applejack shuddered. “It’s not even scary.”
“Chicken!” Rainbow cackled.
As usual Pinkie Pie proved her ability to be on the two ends of the spectrum. From her stoic stupor, she jumped on her hooves and mimicked Rainbow in her toddling chicken stance. On their own, Fluttershy, Twilight and Rarity were holding each other, shivering. It took few seconds for them to get rid of the crispation running through their muscles.
They all blushed, shameful about being so suggestible. It was Rainbow’s stories after all, they had always been gore, grim dark and utterly terrifying. Yet…
“Your story is good Rainbow…” A new voice joined the circle around the campfire.
Everypony gave a small shout of surprise and fell from the logs they were sitting on. A laugh rose from behind a bush and Princess Luna’s head went out of the darkness. She turned her luminescent blue stare toward the gathering. She was magnificently horrific in her Nightmare Moon’s attire; all coated with night blue silk and black armour plates. On her stifle, her cutie mark was glowing a ghostly white. Its bright beams poured through the opening of her dress. At her hooves, a strange shadow was visible, wavering in spite of Luna steady position.
Princess Luna glanced at the Elements of Harmony and finally came to full sight. Her pitch-black mane waved in the air. Twilight’s eyes widened. When one of Luna’s locks touched a plant, the leaves withered until they were nothing but scorched or dried remains. What would it be with ponies? Or was it just an illusion that tricked gullible minds?
“However you keep repeating yourself, Rainbow Dash. And to be honest, it’s kinda boring,” the Princess teased, her mouth full of sweetie.
Luna was indeed chewing candies greedily. At her left forehoof was held tight a pumpkin-shaped box overflowing with sweets and delicatessens.
“Happy Nightmare Night,” Luna offered, showing off her booty. “Pipsqueak paid me a visit.”
Applejack raised her eyes to the sky and sighed loudly.
“Ah’m thinking ya shouldn’t use your reputation to squeeze gifts outta ponies,” she berated.
Luna chuckled. She crumbled into a wisp of smoke and snaked between everypony’s legs. She solidified right next to Applejack who nearly jumped out of fear. Casually, the Princess put her hoof on the Element of Honesty’s shoulder.
“There, there, there… Don’t be jealous,” Luna whispered before hoofing out some candies. “You wanna some.”
Twilight frowned at Luna’s strange behaviour. Amused, the Princess glued some peppermints on Applejack’s mane, one by one.
“How many candies have you eaten so far, Princess?” Twilight asked, hesitant.
“Meh…” Luna sniggered. “Must be like six or seven pounds… Or was it twelve? I didn’t count.”
The princess shrugged, bellyache was future Luna’s problem.
Put on the back burner, Rainbow Dash did not shy away from Luna’s critic. The cyan pony dashed between both Twilight and Luna. Stuck into the air, her wings flapping angrily, Rainbow faced the Princess with an angry glare. Their muzzles nearly touched.
“How can my stories be boring? Look!” Rainbow Dash countered, showing the still trembling hooves of Fluttershy. Dug deep beneath a bush, the poor pegasus was nearly indistinguishable. “See! My tales are frightening,” Rainbow bragged.
Luna repressed a giggle and smiled at the stubborn pegasus. It was a creepy grin that stayed in anypony’s mind, like a print on the retina after the bright and overwhelming flash of a lightning bolt. From nowhere, chortles echoed, likely summoned. Rarity, like all of her friends, gave afraid looks around, and when her stare came back on Luna, the Princess was not in her spot anymore. Rarity held back a gasp, betraying the fear tying a knot in her stomach. A drop of sweat ran on her face.
“What are you afraid of, Lady Rarity?” Luna croaked behind the unicorn.
The Princess’s two globular turquoise eyes appeared in the air, followed with her atrociously widened smile. Her features became clearer, and from her mouth grew two long whitish fangs. Her tongue travelled on her teeth before she gave a slimy kiss on Rarity’s cheek. The tiny unicorn tripped over her words.
“Are you afraid of the monster lurking in the neighbouring shadows?” Luna confided. “Or would you be even more afraid if there is nowhere to hide?
Luna puckered up with delight.
“I will tell you a scary story,” she broke in. “Not one those overused tales that are told again and again during sleepovers.”
Inquisitive, Luna stared at Rainbow. The pegasus pouted as she took the hint. Luna took a deep breath and eyed her audience, amused.
“Are you afraid of the dark?” Luna asked, neutral.
Few nods answered.
“Now, would you be afraid… of the light?”
A long silence followed as everypony cast strange faces at the Princess. She replied with smiled.
“Well, it seems that I shall tell you my preferred story ever.”
With her magic, Luna put right back on their logs Twilight and her friends. Then, she cleared her throat and as she walked around with the same unsettling smile, she started talking with a voice that was coming right out from the bowels of Tartarus.
“Dizzy, you wake up.
Queasy, your mind tries to put together the last scraps of memories that pounce in your numbed mind. You blink, multiple times and all you can see is whiteness. ‘Are you blind?’ you ask. No… You can see, but nothing is outlined… Nothing is shaped… Nothing is distinguishable. And with this inextinguishable thirst that dries your mouth since your awakening, you search for a landmark around you.
But, what can you find in a place absolutely blank… Empty of life and contours, deprived of sharp shapes and clearly drawn lines? You feel ill. You can’t tell from where the light comes from. You’re just bathing in it. It literally drips down your fur like a viscous liquid. It washes over you like a burning and irresistible bite. You want to scream, but no sound comes out of your lungs.
From this nowhere, you are assured that the light erased all the shadows and glimpses of dark that had dwelled here. And you feel terribly sick. Is it due to the fact that this area is deafening? That your pumping heart is the only beat that fills your ears? Or maybe is it the fact that, even trapped in this seemingly endless space of emptiness, you do not feel alone… but watched over like an insect encaged in a box?
Your hooves tremble. And little by little you feel this small unfathomable knot birthing in the deepest folds of your stomach. Yes, you are not alone at all. You know it. Your instinct tells you so. Eyes are riveted on you, unblinking, absolutely unwavering.
You swivel on your hooves. You can’t believe your guts. It cannot be possible.
There is nothing around you, just this bright light burning your retina and making your skin ache. So why is this craving of running away not vanishing? You cannot find a good answer.
You try to focus on your surroundings. But whatever assiduous your attempts are, you still can’t figure how shaped the landscape is. How far the ceiling may be. This cyclopean place of whiteness enshrouds you like a veil that plays with your senses… with your own mind. The forms are strangely formed, likely not Euclidian. You feel like you could walk on the walls if there were any… on the ceiling if there was really one. You make a hoofstep forward and you stumble. Why? You who are usually steady, why are you falling right now? At this moment. Your mind aches, your heart pains you. You feel despair growing quickly in your heart.
A tickling sensation grasps your hindhooves, lurking on your fur. Then it gains your hindlegs, crawls on your knee cap and reaches your groin.
You struggle, screaming in silence as every sound is instantly muffled in the light. The tickling becomes aching, the aching becomes burning.
You can’t see it, you can’t hear it, you can’t smell it, but… you can still feel it. Like a claw, running on your skin. Like an eye transfixing you. And it burns so much.
You want to flee, to run away and hide from it. And indeed you run but not even the clatter of your horseshoes reaches your ears. You give a look behind and you see nothing. But it’s there, you know it. All coated with light, it trots behind you. You can’t get rid of this feeling that a burning ember is biting your fur and skin.
It follows you wherever you go. You may turn, you may go back, and you may cringe on your hooves. But deep within your mind, you do know there is nowhere far enough to hide, nowhere far enough to go, nowhere far enough where to shrink and disappear.
It is really there, right behind you, its eyes focused on your back. And it doesn’t only watch you. It also pierces you, reads you and sees who you really are. You’re naked, burning to the bones while it is scanning what you are, who you are, what you want to be and what you’ll become. All of this only to realise with a sadistic thought how helpless you are.
And so you run. You try to away from it, this unfathomable thing that keeps chasing you beyond the thresholds, beyond the realms and beyond the folds of this strange overwhelmingly bright world and of your twisted mind.
You seek for somewhere to hide. But there is nowhere to go.
And exhausted, trembling, worn out, deprived of your own dignity and begging for a spot to keep you away from this bite, you understand that it is too late.
You cry so loudly. You whine so poorly and sob so pathetically. You’re a wreck of seared flesh. You can’t handle that stare consuming you. You are thrust into its light, forced to stand beneath its eyes. And this light wastes you, scorches every layer of protection you may hold against it until you’re nothing.
And in the end, the… thing, watching over you, tilts in your direction and says only these words, ‘I do know you now’. And the laughter resonating in your skull swallows you whole.”
Luna licked her lips in front of six stunned mares.
Screams bellowed into their air, bursting from behind the Elements of Harmony. They all shrieked and for a second time this night, they fell over their improvised chairs. Heart-beating, they looked behind. For each one of the Elements, a shadowbolt had sneaked in their back and waited for the right moment to shout out loud a brain-shattering scream.
Everypony was panting heavily. Fluttershy had fainted. Rarity was trembling, and while Twilight, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were backing from the Princess, shivering, Luna stood over Rainbow Dash. She narrowed the gap between their two pairs of eyes and with a voice coming right out from the underworld she whispered.
“Darkness is not scary Miss Dash. It is the absence of darkness that thou shall fear,” she toned, savouring every words she pronounced with her royal speech. “In thy mind, Darkness is the nest of death. But if there is only light, in which shadows will thou lurk when thou must hide?”
“From… Hiding from what?” Rainbow blabbered.
“From the monsters Light’s womb may carry!” Luna spelled with disdain.
Leaving the mystified ponies, Luna disappeared into a wisp of dark smoke with her faithful knights of the night. As Luna and her escorts flew away, the Elements of Harmony heard the creeping laugh of Nightmare Moon.
The echoes rang, for a long time.
