Dreamtwist

Dreamtwist III

    Night was still entirely unsure about how he had gotten himself into this situation. One minute he was a simple mercenary. The next he was literally swept away by a mysterious mare, forced to travel above reasonable land speeds, had supernatural powers. And she was apparently the leader of a revolution that sought to overthrow a goddess. In summation, Night thought he barely dodged another lunge from one of the nightmares, This is probably not the time to be introspective.

The “Nightmares” were like nothing he’d ever fought before. There were two of them to boot. The bigger one, the owner of the tendrils that had just slashed at him, was shaped like an earth pony except twice Night’s size. Also the two shadowy tentacles? Tendrils? Elongated-pseudo pods? Pretty irrelevant at this point, Night decided as he ducked under one of the appendages from the other Nightmare. The other Pony-esque Nightmare bothered him more. Unlike its counterpart it was a unicorn-shaped being, and seemed more intangible. Where the earth Nightmare dissolved into black slime at its edges, making it look more liquid than solid, the unicorn seemed to dissolve at the edges, its form blurring into streams of black smoke. It seemed more intelligent than its counterpart too. While the earthwalker charged and attacked ruthlessly, the unicorn was more subtle. It attacked when he was vulnerable, when he had just dodged a stroke or was off balance, its pseudopods would strike at him viciously. Between that and the earthwalkers tenacious assault, Night was on the defensive. The Nightmares didn’t even give him the time to draw his gun. And it was making him angry. After he dodged a swipe from the earthwalker for what felt like the hundredth time, he was done. Slipping past the inevitable lightning-fast slash from the unicorn he decided to implement one of his most trusted strategies; Tactical retreat. So he turned and sprinted out of the plaza, leaving the Nightmares behind him.

    Night sprinted into an alley at the edge of the plaza, hooves clopping loudly against the stone of the empty alleyway. Not good, he thought, These Nightmares have me against the wall… Still at a full sprint, he flung himself around a corner and was rewarded by bricks in his face. Literally against the wall then…lovely. His brain finished.

After a quick recovery from his minor head trauma, Night considered his surroundings. The ally he had turned into was an empty, dark, dead end one of many in the complicated streets of Canterlot. It was quiet too, he couldn't hear any pursuit, which was nerve wracking. He couldn't say why, but he knew they were hunting him; And the fact that he couldn't hear them was scaring the hell out of him. Out of desperation more than anything, he pulled out the sphere the Scootaloo had given him and stared at it, as if the force of his retinas would unlock its secrets. The sphere was a silver color and fit comfortably in his hoof. Its metallic surface was smooth for the most part but had small grooves with no discernible pattern. After feeling all the grooves with a hoof, he resolved to try to change what “phase” he was in like Scootaloo had shown him. And after a second of focus, he twisted the sphere.

The sphere blinked purple and the change was immediate: The city's lights erased the inky blackness with the hard glow of distant skyscrapers casting hard shadows over the buildings surrounding him. That wasn’t the only change though. The shadows deepened, turning into a black tar that stuck to the buildings and ground like glue. It reminded him of the trails the Nightmares seemed to leave behind them, a little too much in fact, as confirmed by the fact that the earthwalker rushed out at him from the tar like a crocodile from a swamp. Maw stretched wide open, it rushed at him and Night had to fling himself into the corner of the alley, flinching as he felt the rush of air that followed the missed ambush of the creature. The Nightmare’s momentum carried it into the wall, but instead of an impact, it dove in. Like the aforementioned crocodile, it dove back into the shadows vanishing into the alley. Night froze, pressing himself into the corner trying to stay out of the shadows as much as possible. He could feel it moving in the shadows, shifting them, preparing to strike again. Night watched the shadows carefully, evaluating his options. His back was again, literally against a wall, and if he tried to jump across, the Nightmare would probably bite him in half. With no other option, he twisted the sphere.

The sphere blinked green and the wall vanished behind him. And as ruined Canterlot reappeared behind him, the shadows grew more ephemeral and the earthwalker Nightmare sprang out of them in a lunge at him. Night, using the new room he had gained, rolled back, dodging the lunge easily. Not only that, the Nightmare slammed into the no longer existent wall.

Well thats convenient Night thought. Nightmares only exist in the dreaming apparently. The earthwalker wasn’t phased however, and it recovered quickly, jumping over the now invisible wall with ridiculous ease. Night responded to this by putting five shells into its head, which passed through the unfazed Nightmare. With his only weapons useless, Night returned to his former strategy.

    Night ran faster than he ever had with the Nightmare on his tail. The creature, while significantly more intangible-seeming, was relentless, chewing the ground behind him ruthlessly trying to consume Night with brutal tenacity. Night on the other hand, was growing tired and significantly more frustrated. So he turned to the sphere again, giving it a half twist instead of a full one. This time the change was more jarring than ever before as the dreaming superimposed itself over the real, intangible walls forming over the physical ones. Night, for what felt like the first time in forever, grinned. This he could work with. He started to plot his route, jumping through the intangible walls, enjoying how the Nightmare was stopped and delayed frequently. Not stopped but slowed.

Small victories.

    Eventually, Night grew tired of the pursuit. I need to ditch this thing. Night strategized, and the opportunity presented itself. Ahead of him there was a huge hole in the ground, covered by an intangible street. With no other options, he flung himself into it. The hole was incredibly dark, but Night watched with satisfaction as the Nightmare passed just over his head. The creature was confused at his disappearance. Briefly. Then it began to sniff. Night froze. Its nose was just above his head and it could definitely smell him. It’s head ripped open into a grin as it vanished. It Reappeared a second later, grotesquely ripped mouth howling at his neck. Sphere still in hand, Night punched it.

    But as his hoof flew towards the Nightmare’s head, it began to glow with a ferocious white glare. When it made contact, the glow kept going extending to a point as it impaled itself into the nightmares head. As the Nightmare continued to scream, Night pulled his fist from its head; and smiled in appreciation of his new weapon. Apparently his sphere was also a sword. A four-foot long sword made of pure energy. His… Dream Cutter Night thought, the name coming to him suddenly like the sword itself had given it to him. He liked it. And even more importantly, the Nightmare didn’t.

    Despite its newly bisected cranium, the Nightmare charged at him again using its tendrils to strike at him with lightning speed. Night spun to the side and waited for the shadowy appendages to reach their full extension before cutting right through them. Then, before the pseudopods even had the chance to fall, he spun towards the Nightmare with the cutter. When the blade made impact, his grin widened and he felt the sword go through the Nightmare like butter, severing its barrel in one smooth blow.  For a split second the Nightmare was perfectly still. Then its torso began to separate and dissolve and before Night could blink, it was gone.

    After a couple of minutes of stillness, he allowed himself a breath. The earthwalker was gone and he hadn’t seen the unicorn since the plaza. Putting the sphere in a pouch on his pistol holster, he turned once again to black bow bridge and trotted towards it. He needed to get to ponyville. It was the only way he would get the answers he wanted. And his pay.

    From the shadows, The unicorn Nightmare watched him. It had seen what he could do, and unlike her counterpart, she wasn’t stupid enough to tangle with that blade. No, she had a higher purpose, and she knew the dark lady would want to hear of this. And was her job to inform the lady of any new dreamers. Run to Ponyville silly unicorn, She thought, The dark lady is coming and when she does, your blood will color the plains for centuries.