The Black Eyes of the Nightmare

Victor and Jin walk through an ocean of people. The city is bustling twenty-four seven. Neither Victor nor Jin enjoy crowds, especially when they're getting in the way of some errands. Victor imagines if all these people just banished. Then he could get to the outlet store with ease.

"Careful now, Vic," says Jin. "New York is the last place you wanna get lost in."

"Yeah, but I really need some regular clothes," says Victor as he looks at his mage robes. They make him the center of attention, and he finds it embarrassing to wear. Yes, he does wear it all the time bak in Vremena, but that's when he has to be battle-ready at in instant. He's finally back in his world, and he tends to leave behind any signs of alienation.

"It's not that bad. Lots of people hang around on the streets with costumes," says Jin.

"I don't care. I need some clothes. Now where's that American Eagle store?"

"Right over there, my comrade." Jin points to the other side of the street. Victor groans to the idea of crossing one of the busiest streets in the city.

"Good thing we had that spell," he says. He sounds like he'd find it funny if they were screwed.

"Yeah." Jin pulls Victor over to a crosswalk. "By the way, haven't you noticed how our bronydom turned out to be really useful?"

Victor gets an expression as if he had an epiphany. Oh wait, he probably did. "Now that you mention," he says, "I wouldn't have been so friendly toward the ponies if it wasn't for that."

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Celestia and Luna are both lying on a cloud, high up in the air. The wind brushes through their coat and mane, and stare down at all the ants and fireflies down in New York.

"Manehattan's nowhere near as big as this place," says Celestia, amazed.

"Sister, does this cloud feel weird to thee?" says Luna, shuffling her hooves into the fluff of water.

"Yes. It does. They have more...depth."

"At least we can still sit on them." Luna lies down and smiles at her sister. "This is perfect. We can see the entire city and not get spotted."

"I dunno. See all those contraptions moving down there? I think Victor said it was an automobile."

"How can thou NOT see it?"

"That's not the point. I'm thinking these humans also figured out a way to access the sky."

Luna laughs. "Don't be silly, Sister. How could they possibly-"

Luna stops short when she says a machine zooming at the corner of her eye. She drops her jaw to the sight of large, commercial plane. The sound of its turbines deafen the two sisters. Celestia is also shocked, but more amazed. She turns to her sister with an 'I told you so' face.

                                                                *                                *                               *

Victor and Jin, with their new clothes, open the revolving door of the first hotel they see. Victor's wearing blue jeans, a red hoodie, and a white T-shirt, while Jin is wearing blue jeans and a buttoned shirt. Victor, having his robes tucked around his right arm, walks to the counter.

"Hello, we'd like to check in," he says politely.

The hotel manager, a white woman in her mid-thirties, looks at him suspiciously, then says, "How long?"

"Uh, a week. Just one room for my friend and I." Victor is not a good liar, but how is he going to explain that they have five more creatures as friends? The hotel manager types something on a computer and gives both Jin and Victor their room card.

"Room 815," she says.

"Thank you." Victor and Jin make their way up to their room and open the door. It consists of two queen beds, a couch, a mini-fridge, and a bathroom. The room looks nice overall, but it's not the best suite ever, and it couldn't be the worst. Victor only aimed to give his friends a decent lifestyle.

"Should I call them?" suggests Jin. Victor locks the door and nods. Jin smiles in anticipation as he opens the window. He cups his hands and makes a bird call. Far up, in the sky, Celestia's ear twitches to the anticipated noise.

"Time to go!" she says. Her horns brightens up and she vanishes, along with her sister. A second later, they appear inside the suite, along with Edward, Corvus, and Moon Fox. Princess Celestia directed all of them into the suite. She looks at Victor's and Jin's new clothes and says, "Aww, I liked the other outfits..."

"We're just trying to blend in," says Jin, annoyed. Celestia and Luna both hop on the bed and lie down. The next theing they notice about the suite is the television set right in front of the beds. Corvus and Edward keep looking around, while Moon Fox sits down on the couch, making her seven tails flutter out everywhere.

"Is that the TV thing thou were talking about?" asks Luna as she points a hoof at the screen.

"Yeah. You can watch a bunch of shows in it," says Victor as he grabs the remote from the nightstand.

"Ooooh, turn it on!" says Celestia, feeling excited.

Victor presses the power button. Static flickers on the screen, and a program to fade into visibility. "Can I see that?" asks Luna while looking at the remote. Victor stretches it out to her and she uses her magic to bring it close. Luna and Celestia both look curiously at the remote and its buttons. "Okay, I shall hit the up button."

Luna uses her magic to focus directly on one button. The screen changes from a show with actors in it to a cartoon show. It turns out to be Spongebob. "Are ya ready kids?" says the painted pirate.

"Ah, sweet. Spongebob," says Victor. He sits down near the ponies.

Celestia and Luna both listen to the merry theme song. They even start bobbing their heads to the beat. The Moon Fox only watches with a straight face, failing to receive any emotion from viewing. The song ends and Spongebob plays his own nose as a flute like he always does in the end.

"Oh, that song was wonderful," says Luna, who seems like she's about to start praising the television. "I wanna listen to it again!"

"Just watch the episode. It's better," says Victor.

Luna puts down the remote and reads the title of the episode. It's the one where Mr. Krabs earns his millionth dollar. "Are those things supposed to be sea creatures?" asks Celestia, confused. "They look nothing like them. Sponges aren't square!"

"As far as I'm concerned, there might actually BE a Bikini Bottom out there," says Jin.

"Guys, remember why we're here...?" says Moon Fox, annoyed. "Disaster's about to happen, and we have to be ready for it."

"Then how's this?" says Edward, raising his arms. "We all have shifts as a lookout. Just sit around on a rooftop and look for anything weird."

"That sounds like a good idea," says Jin, nodding his head. "Although it might be a problem for Victor and I."

"Why's that?" asks Corvus.

"Well, in our normal state, the best we can do is climb the buildings, but in the transformed state, we tend to get a little agressive if maintained for too long."

"Thou can transform, too?" asks Luna, getting her attention away from the screen.

"Yup. And as far as I know, some friends we got back home are going to-"

Celestia laughs hysterically. She keeps bobbing her head as she laughs. It's so loud that it gets everyone's attention, then Victor looks at the screen. She was still watching Spongebob. He joins with the laughing, but softly.

"Were you even listening, pony?" says Edward, starting to feel hostile.

"Of course I was!" answers Celestia, feeling annoyed. "Disaster, lookout shifts, transformation. I got it."

"No problem for you two, but what about us?" says Moon Fox as she gets up and walks to Victor. "In this world, we're nothing but circus freaks."

"Or the best damn cosplayers the city's ever gonna see," responds Victor, shifting his eyes.

Edward laughs in a mean kind of way. "Do you really think people will take us for humans in costumes?" he says.

"I've seen really good costumes before. Good enough to be used for movies."

"Honestly, Victor, who's gonna buy it?" says Moon Fox.

"Look, I just don't want you guys to be bored," says Victor, lowering his chin. "I'd hate lurking around if I had to do it."

"We're not even here for vacation, comrade," says Jin.

"Everything was gonna go smoothly," says Victor, starting to get mad. "We worked for about a month on studying about teleportation and building that stupid arc! I wanted to go back to Vremena with Moon Fox, so she could be with all her long, lost friends." Lightning starts to crackle around him, but it's dim and slightly visible. "I never wanted to go to Earth because of how people would react to seeing you all! Now we're getting a warning for a guy that I only knew for a week who claims to be another friends of Moon Fox, and now the five of you are now JAILED, because we just HAD TO be teleported to Manhattan!"

"Victor, calm down!" commands Celestia, glaring at Victor. Victor starts taking deep breaths. He closes his eyes and lowers his head. "You're the last person who does should get angry."

"Remembering all we've been through, dude?" asking Jin as he puts a hand on his shoulder, Victor glares at him. "You were nothing a but a clueless boy when we first met, then in an instant, one of the most unique mages in the world. So many people tried to kill us, and we've managed to get through 'em. The point is, shit happens."

"I hear ya. I'm stripped of my normal life on Earth, with no worries but the regular ones. I'm forced to kill just to survive, I get betrayed by my friend, I turn into a beast, and now Equestria turns out to be real. Yeah, it really does happen." Victor looks out the window, feeling paranoid of anyone watching them.

"You didn't have a choice," says Corvus. "Some things just can't be controlled."

Victor glares at Corvus. She doesn't deserve it. When Victor gets mad, he has no control of where it hits. "And I'm starting to think I'm turning into one of those." He forcefully opens a window and jumps right out, giving everyone in the room a heart attack. Victor holds on to the windowsill and nimbly jumps from one to another, heading upward. Back in Vremena, he only did not learn how to perfect magic and energy, but to improve his physical strength. Moon Fox peers out of the window.

"Get back her! Now!" she says.

"YOU get back! They're gonna see a glowing, blue dog!" shouts Victor as he keeps climbing up the wall. Moon Fox growls while in defeat. He's right. If she started hovering out in the opening, she would be spotted in a heartbeat, and Victor's already starting to receive some attention. The Moon Fox closes the window and bottles her anger up with a sigh.

"It's just like back when I trained him," she says. "Always complaining about something."

"Meh. The boy was bound to show his darker side eventually," adds Luna. "He was always so pleasant and friendly."

"The problem with him," says Moon Fox as she looks at Luna, "is that he doesn't know how to react when things don't go as planned."

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The wind is strong, and the skies are cloudy. It gives plenty of cover for the two alicorns, their guests. Victor jumps off a building, clinging to the wall of another. He wants go away. As far as he can. He climbs to the top, struggling. He knows he's no Superman, or Spiderman, and that he's only a bit less fragile than the average human. He knows that one slip could cause him to plummet to his death, but he does not care about that. He grunts for every time he pulls himself up. When he makes it to the rooftop, he nearly loses his grip to the sight of an angered Princess Celestia.

"Dude! You almost made me fall!" complains Victor.

"Even if you did, you could save yourself," says Celestia. "But what the hell was that back there?" Victor looks down. "You're NOT going anywhere until you answer me."

"Fine." Victor swings leg over the ledge and picks himself up. He sighs in defeat, knowing he'll regret angering Princess Celestia.

"That was some attitude you put there, and I do not like it," says Celestia, glaring right at his empty eyes.

"What? You were surprised? No one's perfect."

"Yes, but that's no excuse to act as such. You're being selfish." The last word gives Victor a pain in his chest. He tries to look away, but he can't escape those eyes, growing in fire. Celestia has clearly learned plenty from the Moon Fox. "You were masking it back in Equestria, especially when we built the arc."

"Okay, fine. You're right," says Victor, starting to feel sad. Celestia can still sense some anger in him. "I am being selfish. I only wanted to know why I left Earth in the first place. The thing is, see the medallions Moon Fox, Corvus, and Edward were wearing?"

"Yes. They're blue and all had different symbol."

"It's their mark." Victor looks away from Celestia. "They belong to a group of seven beings who are older than the world of Vremena itself. The downside, well, they have amnesia. Ever since I got all this magic stuff thrown at me, I suggested that we got them all back together, maybe get their memories back if we put them together like a puzzle. I thought it could've gotten me a way back home, but then Moon Fox was killed. I had to get her back. She was the last one, except, he didn't have amnesia."

"So she knows about this origin?"

"Yeah, but every time I try asking her about it, she refuses to tell me. It bother her in some way." Victor's anger rises again. "I only went after her to get her back with her friends, and as a bonus, I could finally know the answer. I never expected to end up in a world full of talking ponies, and I never expected the bracelet to just explode."

"Victor," says Celestia, losing the glare, "do you care for them?"

Victor is speechless. He starts shifting his eyes on different parts of the rooftop. His body starts to heat up and he starts sweating, a nuisance to him when he's nervous. He takes a deep breath and says, "Deeply, yes."

"Deeply..."

"I'm sorry, but I always find something annoying about everyone I meet. I try to like them, but in a way, I always get back to the impulse that I hate people."

"Why would you hate others?"

"Because other people are different. They have their own opinions, and they put mine to shame. It's infuriating how others judge you, and how they always after you, for any reason!"

Celestia's glaring resumes. Victor is starting to get scared. "You never showed us this side of you in Equestria. You were doing so well with Twilight and her friends. Why can't you stick to being that friendly boy everyone loves."

Victor glares back at Celestia. "Because I have no self-control," he says, coldly. "On account of my previous statement, I avoided any form of behavior that would give a negative influence to my image. I liked you guys, and I feared that I would show my dark side sooner or later."

"Would you care if everyone but you died?"

"It's complicated," says Victor, starting to cry. "I don't want my friends to die, nor the ponies or you. I'm just fed up with all these events that it just pisses me off. I only wanted to build the arc so I could get Moon Fox and so we could hang out more and not having to say goodbye forever. Sometimes I hate people, but in the end, I promise myself to always go back to the Victor wants to see. I've fought and won many times, but I'm losing the fight within me..."

Victor intentionally drops on the ground. He lies on his back, looking at the blinding Sun, leaking sunshine through the clouds. Then Princess Celestia joins the clouds as her head and rainbow mane block the rays of light. Victor notices that she looks concerned for him. "Victor," she starts, leaning her head down closer, "growing up, you must put away those selfish thoughts, and think more about pleasing others. Yes, it's a shame how you got your normal life taken away, but if that didn't happen, you would have never met those friends of yours, or even went to Equestria. You can't wish for something to never have happened, but you must move on. Think about this: Vremena was in chaos, and you helped put an end to it. That's very selfless of you. Moon Fox and I had our differences, and you showed up and shed light on the entire situation. What about that present you made for Fluttershy? That was a gift from the heart. The point is, you've got to getting mad for things that are beyond your control. When this upcoming disaster is over, you can show me around all you like."

"Some of the selfless things I do include selfish motives," argues Victor, quietly.

"Then just think of how you're being a wonderful person," says Celestia, smiling. "What is your motive for fighting? Give me the real answer."

Victor looks back at the first day he was sent to Vremena. He starts to smile at the thought of it, even thought it was a painful day for him. "My first fight involved protecting someone I only knew for an hour. I kept fighting when someone would be in trouble. Then I started fighting to take down the order that was a plague to the world. I guess I fight to defend."

"And that's not very selfish, if you ask me," says Celestia as she uses her magic to pick Victor up. She teleports him and herself back to the suite, to reunite the group for commencing lookout duties.

                                                                *                                *                               *

The rest of the day was very dull for Victor, Jin, and their otherworldly friends. They all stayed out of sight on the rooftops, watching Manhattan like a hawk. Victor and Jin, however, blended into the mass of people to check for what a bird eye's view couldn't offer. They also provided food and water for whenever their friends needed it. Princess Celestia and Luna both camped on the clouds, passing their time with a long chat. Edward and Corvus alternated through various tall buildings. The Moon Fox lurked all over the massive city, and no one could get an eye on her. Her pervious life experiences made used to being stealthy. Overall, it was a boring and uneventful.

The only thing that happened that actually happened was when Edward had a chat with his friend through the arc. The aura contained by it already proved itself well to work for communication. Twig, the mysterious friend unknown to the princesses, gave Edward a few reports on the storms, mainly on the cloud formations. He reports that there hasn't been a sunny day for weeks.

It's midnight. Around sunset, Victor had to tell both Luna and the Moon Fox that doing their mutual job was not necessary on Earth. They both felt embarrassed for forgetting. Now they all sleep to ready themselves for yet another boring day as lookouts. Celestia and Luna are sharing a bed, while Corvus and Edward share the other. The Moon Fox is sleeping on the couch, which conveniently is a pullout bed, and lastly, Victor and Jin pile up some blankets to make themselves sleeping bags. It was hard for them to order the blankets because they had to hide their friends in a bathroom. The maid that came to their suite looked at them suspiciously for requesting so many blankets and pillows. The suite is filled with snoring, especially from Edward. As he snores, small streams of smoke escape from his nostrils.

Two thirty. Jin wiggles around in his blankets. He groans quietly and gets up. His hair messy and bushy when it's not tied up. Jin cracks his neck, picks up his straw hat, takes a room card, and looks at the door. He slowly turns the knob and tiptoes out of the suite.

Jin runs down to the first floor (or ground floor if you prefer it so). He can hear the sound of cars zooming past him on the streets. Truly is the city that never sleeps. He keeps turning his head, looking for something. However, he can't really be taken serious nothing but a plain shirt and fuzzy pants. He is pleased when he locates a sign reading 'Computer Room'. An arrow points the location of said room, and Jin gladly follows. He easily finds the room, but almost has a heart attack at the sight of a dark blue pony fiddling with a computer mouse.

"Luna? What are you doing here?" asks, Jin, sounding worried but trying to remain quiet.

Luna turns around and smiles at this pleasant surprise. "Oh! Thou could not sleep, either?" she says.

"That's not the point. Why are you even down here? Someone could see you."

"Worry not, human. No one saw me on the way down here." Luna shifts her attention back on the monitor. "Now, will thou help me figure out the sorcery of this contraption?"

Jin goes from worried to happy. He snickers. "I remember now," he says. "Equestria doesn't have computers."

"Equestria is only the name of the country. Is thy country's name Earth?"

"Actually, last I recall, we're in the United States of America." Jin pulls one of the office chairs toward him and takes a seat next to Luna, who's sitting on the floor. "I guess I can show you how these 'contraptions of sorcery' work."

"All I could do was move that little arrow into and over that grassy field."

"Well, you're lucky computers exist in Vremena. It's basically a machine that lets you do numerous things. Write in documents, take notes, play games, but my personal favorite, browse the Internet."

"What's this Internet thou speakest off?"

"Well, it's a form of link to every computer in the world, where you share pictures, videos, documents, etc.," responds Jin as he moves the mouse ove to Luna. "Wanna use the hoof, or work the pony magic on that?" Luna hesitantly covers the mouse with a blue glow. "Now drag the mouse over to that icon there, and then press this button." Jin points to the left button on the mouse. Luna moves the mouse to the Firefox icon, and clicks on it. To her surprise, a window pops up, showing the Google homepage.

"Pray tell. What's a Google?" she asks Jin.

"Oh, that's just a search engine. Whatever you type in there, it will be found. You type using the keyboard." Luna curiously examines the keyboard and starts using her magic to type in letters. She does it slowly, and when she's done, the text reads 'Princess Luna'. "Oh, you would," jokes Jin.

"Victor said something about us being part of cartoon show," says Luna. "If this Internet does what you say..." Luna clicks the left button, and another window loads up. She feels overwhelmed by the amount of links the search engine gave her, but one button intrigues her: Images. She moves the mouse over to it and clicks. Jin panics and pushes Luna off her balance. He quickly scans the screen, then sighs in relief. "What be the meaning of this?" asks Luna, starting to get angry.

"I was making sure Safesearch was on," answers Jin, nervously. "I must warn you, Luna. The Internet is a dangerous place for someone so naive and new to it. In other words, there's some humans out there who like to take something so innocent, so beautiful, and turn it into a sick manifestation of their inner thoughts."

"So thou claims there be bad humans out there..."

"Exactly," says Jin as Luna gets back into sitting position. She sees countless of pictures of her. She is not shocked, but amazed instead.

"My, this is all too much," says Luna, blushing.

"Quite flattered, I see. Well, some of these pictures are from the show, and some of them are fanart."

"I must ask. Return to the previous window?"

Jin clicks the Back button, reloading the window with all the links on it. Luna points a link leading to the My Little Pony Wiki. "That one? It has quite the information on your world. Come to think of it, you seem to be taking this so well."

"If our world is based on a story," says Luna, taking control of the mouse with her magic, "then there is an author. I wish to know who this divine creator is."