Dreamtwist

Dreamtwist II

Night walked out of the burning building nonplussed by the carnage surrounding him. He had completed the mission. He looked around: the lunar guard was coming. He could hear the sirens and yells. Corrupt as they were, the lunar guard usually responded quickly to this kind of situation. Which he was responsible for. The black pony ran from the scene.

    Canterlot was dying. Night could hear its moans, its populace disappearing, either moving away or just staying in their homes. After Princess Luna had taken the reigns of the kingdom from the “Retiring” Princess Celestia, she had moved the capital to the desert city of New Moon. Equestria was seemingly prospering. But something was wrong: unicorn magic was weakening. Celestia had disappeared with the bearers of the elements of harmony, and the edges of the map kept getting closer. Night was one of the few who noticed it. His boss noticed him. He didn’t know who she was, the lady only communicated through proxies and cryptic messages. Speaking of…

    “Nightrunner.” Somepony behind him said.

The unicorn wore an ornate mask of silver and green beads and a dark cloak that covered most of her pink form. She had never revealed her name. Night called her the Rose Lady. “The organization is pleased with your efforts, Night.”

    “My money?” Night asked.

    “Will be sent to you.”

    “Lovely. Is that all?”

    “Blackbow bridge. Be there in two hours.”

    Night sighed as the pink pony faded into the shadows. It looked like the night wasn’t over.

    As Night walked through the dark streets he noticed the growing number of posters. The obvious propaganda featured the princess Luna doing lovely monarch things. Supports the poor! Supports freedom! Makes delicious chocolate-chip cookies!

Night was not sure how the last one was relevant.

Despite all of this, a haze hung over Canterlot. A lethargy almost. None of the citizens did much any more. The status quo was everything. But if one looked closely, anyone who tried to disrupt that quo was squelched out. Nightrunner had noticed and others noticed him. Since then he had been accepting jobs from an enigmatic organization that apparently wanted to bring down equestria. Night didn’t care. He was just in it for the money. Apparently rebellion was quite profitable.

Before he knew it though, the bridge loomed in front of him and despite himself he couldn't help regarding it in awe as he moved under the massive arch that held up the suspension cables.The bridge itself was an artistic masterpiece. Somehow its creators had made it into a black rainbow, each band of color a slightly different shade of umber, from a light grey to a deep hole of color. Night appreciated the artistry until he noticed the light at the end. A glowing sequence of blue and orange moving impossibly fast up the bridge.

Right towards him.

Night pulled out his shotgun and cocked it, but he knew that the thing was moving too fast to possibly get a bead on. As it rushed closer he began to make out more of the detail on it. It was like a bike, he realized, an elongated bike made of some kind of metal lined with neon, its glowing wheels spinning silently against the metal of the bridge. As it drew even closer he noticed that it had a rider: an orange pegasus whose wings extended from the bike parallel to the ground. As it drew even closer, he noticed it was about to hit him and he should probably move. He began to dive to the side, but just as it was about to him it stopped suddenly within an inch of crashing into his head. The driver, unfazed by her near homicide, slid off it, landing on the ground lightly. Then she extended a hoof to the bike, which caused the strange vehicle to fold in on itself a countless amount of times until it formed a sphere. The sphere flew into the orange mares wrist as she turned to Night.

“Hello?” He said hesitantly.

The pegasus stared at him her purple mane covering one eye at length she spoke, “Why are you here?”

“Because I was called here?” Night responded hesitantly.

“Thats true. Why do you think you were called here?”

“... Because I kill people well?”

“No. Look at the valley. What do you see?”

Night looked and he saw what he always did, a green but empty valley dominated the view. He relayed that to the orange pegasus.

“No,” She said, and twisted the sphere, “Look again.”

He looked again and jumped. The once lush green valley was gone, it was replaced by a huge metropolis of skyscrapers and bustling streets, carriages and bright lights. Night gaped and the pegasus smirked. “Thats what most people see.” She said, eyeing Night’s shocked reaction.

“B-but…” Night sputtered in return,” My whole life there's been a valley there!”

“Thats because you can see.” The mare returned.

“Of course I can see! Almost everyone can! How do you think I-”

“But you see beyond, Night! Your eyes can cut through reality and stare into dreams!”

“Into dreams? In pony's dreams that valley is a city?”

“No its-” She froze. Night started to respond but she raised a hoof to his mouth to silence him then gestured to her ear. Responding quickly, he focused his hearing; and after a minute of quiet he heard a roar.

Night felt the roar more than he heard it, it was like being a ways away from a sub woofer, He couldn't hear it, but felt it in his chest, he felt it in the ground against his hooves, and it was terrifying. The orange Pegasus suddenly broke the spell, “We need to go.” She said tersely, “Now.”

She twisted the sphere, unscrewing it and separating it into two halves. But just as it looked like it would fall apart, she slammed it against the pavement with a hoof, it flashed orange and unfolded into the strange bike Night had seen earlier. “Get on.” The mare said as she slid onto it. Night, with no little amount of trepidation, (he’d seen how fast the thing could move) laid himself down on it behind her, getting as low to the seat as possible after being gestured by hoof-wave to do so. The Pegasus grinned at his expression as she put her hooves on the bike’s flanks, covering two patches of light. The second the hooves touched it, the bike roared to life, glowing neon filling its highlights like blood vessels. “I love this part.” The mare stated. Night tried to disagree, but the wind sucked the words out of his mouth as the bike burst from a stop and screamed into the streets of Canterlot.

    The bike zoomed through the formerly quiet streets, streaking past the empty mansions and corporate headquarters that lined them. Night, never having moved that fast before was not happy, and slightly motion sick. He looked behind him to try and find an anchor point just in time to see a shadow rise from the ground. It was enormous, bigger than the buildings that corralled it into the tight street. It looked like a grotesque mass of shadow that consumed its surroundings, making everything around it darker. As it rushed towards the bike its front opened like a mouth revealing a dark red maw that chewed through the air.

“What in Celestia’s name is that? Night shouted at the pegasus,

“Nightmare!” The mare shouted back, “Big one too!”

“A WHAT!”

“NIghtmare. They eat dreamers like me, and you.”

“EAT?”

“Consume, absorb, all meanings of the word really. Hold on.”

“WHA-”

The  Mare grinned, turning the bike onto a street that night, despite his panicked state, recognized as Archmages Terrace, a dead end.  The terrace was a peninsula, extending off the city's own plateau, into the open air. “What are you doing?” Night shouted at the obviously insane Pegasus.

“Escaping.” she returned calmly as she drove off the edge of Canterlot.

Night braced himself for impact. But after a few seconds he noticed a distinct lack of falling. Opening his eyes cautiously, he barely kept himself from screaming. The bike was running on air. Literally driving in the sky like a road. “What the hell?” he shouted at the obviously insane driver.

“You seem to be shouting what a lot.” She replied quietly, audible despite the screaming wind. “Now shut up so I can focus. This is harder than it looks.”

“I don’t think it could be that hard!”

“You’re right. This is incredibly easy for me.”

“Screw you!”

“You wish. Now hold on.”

The bike leaned into a wide U-turn heading back into the city. Breaking through the courtesy railing it rushed into the street. After five minutes she slowed the bike down in an empty square and stuck her head up. “I think we’re clear”, she said. Night practically fell off the bike. “Holy crap,” he said,”Is it over?”

“Sure.” she returned.

“Ok then.” Night said calmly. ‘What the hell was that? Why can your bike drive on thin air, what the hell was that sphere?”

The mare rolled her eyes. “That was my dream cycle.” She said, “I’m a true dreamer, just like you. We’re ponies that can see into the dreamscape.”

“Is that why I saw that city?”

“Yes, that meadow you saw isn’t real, neither is that city. Take this.” She tossed him a sphere. “Twist it until it glows green.”

Night cautiously twisted it with a hoof and the sphere blinked green. His vision went black for a second, and when he looked up the world had changed. Canterlot was in ruins, and surrounded by desert. The previously empty square was lined with shipping crates, marked as emergency rations.

“What is this?” Night asked.

“This is reality.” She responded as she climbed on one of the crates and sat on it edge, “What happened to Canterlot after Celestia disappeared.”

“What?”

“No time, turn it until it blinks purple.”

He did, and Canterlot jumped back into how he knew it, quiet and surrounded by meadows.

“This is flux space.” The mare who was now sitting three feet above the ground explained. “This is what dreamers like you and me exist in. Our brains can’t comprehend that Canterlot has been simultaneously destroyed and turned into, grown into, a metropolis.”

“Then that city?”

“That city was constructed in dreams by Princess Luna and when she took power. Now… shes trying to make it real.”

“Real? Why!?”

“She-”

Then the nightmare roared. From right behind them.

And as Night and the mare spun around the shadow creature fell from the sky at the other end of the empty square. The orange mare swore as it rushed forward and jumped on her bike. “Its after me” she declared as she started the engine,”Listen, I’m going to lead it off and try to kill it. Once I’m gone, get moving to Ponyville, if I survive I’ll meet you there in three days.” She grimaced, obviously trying not to focus too much on the possibility that she wouldn't. Night looked at the nightmare, now halfway across the square, moving quickly towards them.

“Night.” The mare said pulling his focus back to her, “Learn to use the sphere, it has the power to kill the nightmares, you just need to learn how. Now, I’ve got to move.”

“Oh come on,” Night complained as the engine revved beneath her, “I don’t even know your name!”

“Its Scootaloo,” She shouted as she rode off.

Night watched her go then turned his focus on the nightmare. Sensing Scootaloo’s escape, it veered off from Night to pursue her, exiting the square and leaving a trail of black slimy corruption behind it.

Night swore and took a breath. He needed to get off Canterlot, fast. He didn’t know why she wanted to meet in ponyville, but he was going to get there and get explanation. He turned and ran across the empty square in the direction that the nightmare had come from. As he sprinted he regarded the sphere. “The power to kill a nightmare huh?” He thought. But when he touched the slimy black trail that the beast had left behind, it rose from the ground. Forming two huge pony-shaped monsters of shifting black slime. Roy stopped and gripped the ball with his hooves. Looks like I’m going to have to learn quickly.” He thought as the nightmares rushed at him, mouths open and black fangs out.