A New Nightmare Awakens

They were all sitting in the kitchen in Ryan's apartment, with Nightmare and Ryan side by side facing Eric, with the former in all her glory with her full armor, without the helmet on, and horn standing on full display for the world to see. Eric was now who was looking at them with surprise and awe, with his mouth hanging open after hearing Ryan and Nightmare's tale of what happened during the last week.

Eric could not believe it the 'woman' sitting by his friend's side was in fact not a woman at all, but some kind of pony deity of the night or some shit. To say that today was full of surprise would be considered the understatement of the century, after all who can say they encountered an alien deity with the appearance of a woman only to discover that she was some kind of talking horse. Of course he did not believe the both of them when they started telling him all of this, that is until Nightmare returned to her normal form using magic.

Nightmare, meanwhile, was looking to the side with shame plastered across her face, for what she was about to tell the both of them was not something she was proud of. She would have preferred to tell only Ryan, but he assured her that Eric would not react badly, 'I just hoped that he is right about his friend or I will have to do_.' She violently shook her head to get that idea out of her head, 'no Ryan trust me not to do something like this and I will let him handle it if the situation degrade!' She thought as she gaze at Ryan, who sense her looking at him and smiled at her reassuringly.

''So Ryan told me that you had something to tell us, Nightmare right?'' He asked with a raise eyebrow for confirmation. At her nodding he continued, ''so is it about the thing that happened today at the mall or is it something else?'' He finished with crossing his arm on his chest, and letting himself fall on the chair he was sitting on to relax himself better.

''Yes, it is about what happened earlier.'' She said let out a sigh to calm her frantic nerves, unsure of what will happen from here, but determined to see it through. ''I will be honest with the both you, what I did in there is not something I am proud of, but it seemed like a good idea at the time to teach them respect.'' Taking another breath she started relating to them from her point of view what happened. ''I started by scanning their mind via the use of magic, do not worry it is painless and you feel nothing about the intrusion.'' She said once she saw the expression from Eric, Ryan him pretty much understood that if she could go inside others dreams she could read minds, and so was not as shocked as Eric. ''I discovered then the fear of each and everyone of them, on of them was the fear of blood. With that knowledge in mind I sent that one ,specifically, to sleep and created a nightmare where he was running away from a wave of blood that was destroying everything in its path. But the longer he was running away, the more horrid the destruction get, to the point where he was beginning  to see people close to him... die... swallowed by the wave... and it was then... that I... that I.''

At that point Nightmare stopped trying to talk, as she was crying too much for anything coherent to be heard. Ryan was prepared to hear something horrible, but he was nonetheless shocked by what Nightmare as just told them. He looked over at Eric, to see him shivering on his chair with a look of pure fear on his face after hearing what she said. 'No matter, yes she did something horrible, but from the look of it she is already paying from what she did, and I will not betray her trust by lashing out to her.' Ryan thought. He then did the only thing that came to mind he hugged Nightmare from the side, as he whispered soothing words to try and calm her down as best he can. All the while looking at Eric who was now looking at him as if he was insane, maybe he was but he did not really care he promised to Nightmare he would help her, and he will, by comforting her, as this is what she needs the most right now.

Eric was flabbergasted here he was watching his best friend comforting that monster, who just hours ago raped the mind of someone, by making him live his worst nightmare over and over again. He was not sure how to react, but staying still as a statue seems as a valid option for him right now. ''So what happened after that?'' He said with a shaking voice, showing how scared he is right now. 'Great as if I need more gruesome details, good job brain.'

Composing herself so as to stop crying, and thanking Ryan once more for his support and understanding, she resumed from where she left. ''When I realized what I was doing, I released him and the others from all the spell that I put in place, and I reverted back to normal. But even then the damage was already done, so I did the only thing to repair what I did, I erased their mind of me and of the moment since they entered the bathroom.'' She was still full of shame for what happened, but at least now she calm once again, and if only a little bit proud that no lasting damage as been done during this whole ordeal, at least she hope so. Looking at Ryan, she was glad to see understand and support. But once her gaze settle on Eric she knew that the battle was not over, for she had to convince him now that she was not a monster, which she was not sure she was.

''So let me recap!'' Eric exclaimed with anger. ''Not only do you rape somebody's mind, but after you're done with them, you erase everything you did! Who do you think you are god? And after doing that you expect us to believe that everything is sunshineand rainbows!'' His anger grew until it became unbridled fury. ''Nuh huh, I'm done, you can go and **** yourself, you, you. ARGH!'' He finished with a shout and grip is hair as if he was trying to rip them off.

Ryan was surprised, for it happened very seldom, like only one other time, that he recalled seeing Eric this angry and prompt to punch someone. He decided to intervene, as Eric outburst sent Nightmare into another bout of depression, which is shown by her head hanging lower and lower at each word Eric said. ''Eric calm down, you don't need to shout at Nightmare, she is already paying the price of her action enough as it is, without you adding more weight to her conscience!''

Ryan's words seemed to work as merely a few seconds later, Eric was calm once again although still angry at Nightmare. ''Sorry it's just that hearing her explain herself made me remember bad memory.'' He said as he pointed to Nightmare. Of course Ryan knew what memory Eric was talking about, as he was there when it happened.

What happened next was Nightmare calming herself with breathing exercise she learned to use when she was still one with Luna. After being calm enough she look up at Eric, ''I know what I did cannot be undone so easily, I just hope that i limited the damage enough so that they don't remember it, and to answer your questions. No I do not believe myself as a god, nor do I expect it to be all sunshine and rainbows. The only thing I ask is for your forgiveness?'' She finished as she bowed towards Eric in an act of plea for forgiveness.

''Well I forgive her,'' Ryan said as he envelope Nightmare in his arms as if he was trying to protect her. His own action surprised him a little, for he rarely acts like that, no that was more Eric acting like that.

Eric was surprised to see Ryan embrace Nightmare like that, and so did Nightmare, if her expression was not enough, but in the end decided to follow Ryan's lead and trust Nightmare, for now, only so that he could place this awkward moment behind him. Rubbing the back of his head he sigh and say, ''alright I forgive you as well, but mess up once, or hurt Ryan, and will come and mess you up so badly you will wish you were never born.'' He said as he pointed his finger at her, as a warning that he was dead serious.

Ryan knew that the discussion was over, and to be frank with himself, he was that this was the case. The whole conversation was nerve wracking and infuriating in someway, and so he decided to change the subject. ''So what do we do now?''

Eric at those words got up and look at the both of them, ''me? I'm going home and sleep on everything that's happened today.'' And with that started making his way over the door, but was stopped as Nightmare was addressing him.

''You promise to keep this a secret Eric? If not for me, for Ryan at least.'' She said with steel in her voice that was previously lacking throughout the whole conversation.

''I promise.'' And with that he open the door and left, closing the door behind him.

''I suggest that we do like Eric, we eat and go to bed after.'' Ryan said as he move to start the diner, which was Mexican food for today.

Nightmare looked back at Ryan and nod at him as she move to set the table. After the diner the wash the dish, even though there was not much to be done. They then proceeds to use the shower to wash the filth of the day off their bodies. After their respective shower they went to bed, with Nightmare using Ryan's bed as he offered it to her, and Ryan using the couch. But was stopped by Nightmare who dragged him to his bed by using levitation to facilitate her job at forcing Ryan, since he would have disagreed to use the bed if she was using it. Once the both of them were in bed they fell asleep rather quickly, tired by the day activities, and events.