Dreamtwist I
Night dove for cover behind a wall and heard the hail of bullets that flew past him. The black pony uttered a few choice words and peeked around the corner. The security force was numerous and annoying. The uniformed ponies were ill trained, but well equipped and their constant rain of machine gun fire was forcing the black earth pony into a corner. Night was getting annoyed. When he had gotten the black envelope from his unknown employer, he assumed it would be a quick smash and grab, not a full firefight against 20 fully armed guards! His train of thought was derailed when a loud buzzer screamed through the sparsely- lit warehouse. “The alarm” he thought angrily, “Now it’s 30 armed guards”.
It was simple, the letter said. Go to Canterlot Mail and Freight, sneak in, and kill that corrupt son-of-a-bitch they called a CEO. Night had grabbed his pistol, his knife, his shotgun, and a couple choice trinkets then tried to sneak into the depot. He tried. Despite his black coloration, Nightrunner the unicorn was not subtle and he walked into what seemed like a practical firing squad of goons. They started shooting and didn’t stop until Night agilely ducked behind cover. Now he was stuck behind a shipping crate with 30 armed guards bearing down on him. They had stopped firing and demanded that he come out and drop his weapons. Night sighed and straightened his eternally tousled mane. The blue mess had black highlights in it, just as he planned. He threw his weapons into the aisle with the trigger-happys, and strolled out as casually as possible. He walked towards the one who seemed to be in charge, a brown colt, whose uniform had the most adornment.
“Freeze scum!”, The colt barked: “Hooves in the air! And no magic!”
Night rolled his eyes and complied, rising to his hind legs.
“Cuff him!” The officer blustered.
A hesitant subordinate, obviously new, moved forwards with a quad pair of hoof cuffs and gestured for Night to lower his hooves. The unicorn complied, but as he slowly lowered his hooves he ran his hoof through his mane once again and pulled out one of the highlights. Then threw it in the subordinate’s face. The flash bang worked perfectly, disintegrating the young colt’s face and blinding the others. Night pulled another strand of his mane off and used the garrote he had planted there to strangle the nearest blinded guard, who went down quick. As he fell Night grabbed his pistol with a quick magic tug. Instantly cocking the gun he emptied it on the guards and dropped it. “Ten down, 20 to go,” Night tabulated, “Not a bad start.”
After pulling his pistol and shotgun to his side, he ducked around a pile of cardboard boxes, then waited.
The guards slowly recovered, and choked at the carnage that Night had caused. One even threw up a little. Night didn’t blame him. Losing one-third of their number in a minute did that to ponies. But he was losing focus. The boss was the target, not them. He clenched his teeth and moved. The office was in the back of the warehouse and he needed to beat the guards there. So he ran, ducking and diving between piles of letters and packages, even sliding down one massive heap. Which didn’t give him a little thrill of childlike glee. At all.
He eventually found the office and slid beside the door. He pulled out his pistol but paused. Somepony was shouting at a probably more ruffled pony. He put his ear to the door.
“AND I’M SAYING I CAN'T JUST PULL ALL THE INFORMATION OUT NOW!” an old but strong voice reverberated through the wood,”I’VE ALREADY SPREAD IT THROUGH THE SYSTEM! AT YOUR REQUEST I MIGHT ADD!”
“Inconsequential.” Night had to strain his ears to hear the silky whisper of a significantly non-ruffled mare. “The nightmares will hunt you down if the information leaves this warehouse in any hands but mine own.”
“Fine.” The colt obviously feared this mare, his voice was trembling”I will get the documents myself.”
“It is too late for that, they are already here.”
“Who? Who’s here?’
“The seekers send their assassin, this place will burn.”
Night could feel her glaring at him through the walls, and took a breath.
“What! Why?!” The colt wailed.
Night burst through the door and got a glimpse of a dark colored mare who faded into the shadows. Meanwhile, the pony Night assumed to be the CEO cowered before the spot the mare would have been. He turned and stood. “He’s going to beg for his life.” Night thought. “And by the look at that gemstone paperweight, he’s going to offer money. Lovely. I can’t stand beggars.”
The CEO opened his mouth “Please don’t-”
Night shot him in the head.
The shot blasted loud enough for even the incompetents to hear. The guards started yelling. Very loud, they were close, Night moved on instinct, and grabbed the paper weight. Then he pulled two of his highlights and left them on the desk. Then ran out of the room leaving one more black streak. Hearing the guards on his tail he ran to the exit. And then he heard the shouts of discovery. They were in the office. Night grinned as he pulled out one of few remaining Highlights and shook it. The bombs he placed in the office went off. Perfectly. Night found the exit and slipped out, framed by the harsh firelight.
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.
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.
