Nightmares, Necromorphs, N7 Spectres

Chapters

Prologue - Wait, What?
One - Phantom Down
Two - Friendship Redacted

Prologue - Wait, What?

Discord faded into the Realm of Dreams, the plane where all dreamers’ consciousnesses went to when they slept. Clouds of all colors scattered about the realm itself. “The things I do for that mare…” he grumbled as he walked over to a pair of pulsing orange clouds. Tapping each of them, he tapped into the dream and eased the dreamer’s nightmares, the clouds themselves turning to a soothing, soft green. As he busied himself with the clouds, a near black alicorn pony noticed him and investigated. As she walked up, her draconic eyes narrowed and her wings flared aggressively, revealing the purple splotch on her flank with a little puffy white cloud inside.

“Discord, what are you doing here in the Realm of Dreams?” Nightmare asked dryly, seeing the draconequus. He looked over to the alicorn, before backing off the clouds he’d touched.

The Chaos Spirit slung an arm around Nightmare’s back, drawing her into a friendly hug. “Well hello to you too, Nightmare.” He waved his free arm dismissively. “Oh, I’m not doing much of anything, really. Just spreading a little goodwill.”

Nightmare shot a deadpan look at him. “Truly? In all my years guarding the Realm, you’ve not once shown any goodwill to any dreamers.”

He held up a claw. “Filly Scout’s Honor. All those little colts and fillies love their video games, you know?” Discord winked.

Nightmare nodded. “When we spoke a few days ago, Luna said as much.” She looked down forlornly, ears pinning back. “At least we get along better than before our unfortunate fusion.” Discord chuckled a little. Nightmare shuddered and shook her head as she continued, “I still can’t believe that whole Eternal Night business was a product of our insanity from that. Messy stuff.”

“Anyways, Luna said she was overwhelmed containing all the nightmares from a few of those new releases, but never said how bad it really was!” He held a paw up to his forehead.

Nightmare shot him a dirty look before moving away a few hoof-lengths. “Fair enough. I may be the Spirit of Dreams, but I haven’t had to actually create any nightmares in a week. I wondered what caused all these natural ones to form.”

Her face took on an annoyed visage as she gazed about the pulsing orange clouds and continued, “I’ve actually had to disperse some to keep the Realm’s stability intact.” She spread her wings and took off to a pair of orange clouds. As she hovered next to one, her horn touched it and the dreamer’s nightmare was disrupted, the cloud glowing a soft green.

“Really, that sounds kinda boring.” He looked over to a nearby cluster of the Realm’s flashing orange dream clouds, peering into their owners’ dreams. “Oh! Got a pair here!” He snapped a claw and the dream clouds slowly turned from their angry orange into a gentle green.

Nightmare smirked maliciously as she lit her horn, starting to cast a spell. Discord shifted uncomfortably. “What are you doing, Nightie? I’ve not done anything wrong!”

He got his answer as she flicked her horn and a holographic window appeared in front of her. After a few seconds, a little icon of a phone appeared and vibrated. “Why Discord… I’m not doing anything at all.”

Discord, fearing for his being leapt behind some of the nearby clouds to hide as well as he could.

A click rang through the realm and Luna’s face appeared in the window. “Luna here, what seems to be the problem, Nightie?”

“Luna? Can you send the Realm’s stats into this monitor, please? I left my monitor at home. If you’ve got Discord helping you with these nightmares–” Nightmare yawned. “–I can lend a hoof as well.”

“Alright Nightie.” Luna looks away from the camera and pokes something a few times. “I’m sorry Celestia says you can’t come live with us in Equestria yet. She still feels insecure about you, being that you resemble Nightmare Moon so much. I will try and see if for a night, you can come and visit, maybe on Nightmare Night! You really have to see the Realm-management terminals here that Twilight and I designed. They are amazing! Much faster and more efficient than being there in pony.”

Nightmare shook her head. “That’s a good idea. As for the terminals, I’d rather give my own personal touch to the dreams I invade, thanks.”

“That is a shame.” Luna’s ears flattened, but she continued regardless, “You now have real-time stats piped to the monitor as you requested. Is there anything else I can help with? Perhaps blasting a certain draconequus with a spell for some reason or another?” She smiled mischievously.

The mentioned draconequus, who’d been hiding out of sight, squeaked in fright. He may be the Spirit of Chaos, but he wasn’t stupid enough to challenge either alicorn on their home turf. Nightmare shot him a knowing look, “Another time, maybe. He’s not done anything yet. Thanks, by the way.”

“No problem, Nightie. May there always be fair winds at your back.” Luna winked.

Nightmare nodded. “And may your horn never break. Make sure to tell Celly that I’m sorry again. I know she’s still uneasy about me and all, especially for my duty and appearance, but that doesn’t mean I hate her.”

“Will do. Luna out.” Luna’s face disappeared from the holographic window and was replaced by a pie chart, constantly changing as the Realm did.

Nightmare sighed. “She’s gone, Discord. If you’re still scared of her after last time she blasted you in here, why are you helping?”

Discord’s head popped out from behind a cluster of dreams, while his torso popped out from another, and his limbs from a third. He quickly reassembled himself before answering, “Twi asked me, not her. You know how I can’t say no to that face. Besides, if I help her, then Luna’s likely to forgive my next prank easier!”

Nightmare snickered, holding a hoof up to her mouth. “Fair enough. Even after a century and a half, she’s still so adorable.”

After a moment, the silence was unbearable. Discord broke it, waving a claw. “Welp, now that my demise isn’t imminent, I’m just going back to work. Thanks and have fun, Nightie.” He turned back to the orange clouds, a claw tapping against one lightly.

Nightmare yawned before speaking, “No big deal. You didn’t do anything to deserve it.” The new monitor floated over to his side. “Here, after roaming the Realm for the last few days, I’m a little tired. I planned on helping out for a little while, but my bed is calling my name.”

Discord prodded the window and took a step experimentally. It followed him, seemingly tethered in its exact location relative to himself. He waved her off. “Alrighty then. Nighty night, Nightie. Don’t let the Nightmare bite.”

Nightmare snickered again before yawning audibly. “Night, Dissy. I’ll do my best to keep Nightmare from biting me.” She turned away and took a running start before flying off, her horn lit. After a few seconds, a deep blue flash resonated off the clouds, indicating her departure.

Discord sighed, the cloud he tapped turning to a nice gentle green. “That was probably the highlight of my night. Ah well, some work will do me good for a change. Probably.” He stroked his beard tuft for a second. “Nah, but it’ll keep the boredom and angry alicorns away.”

v>^^^>v<^>v

As she passed through the portal, a blast of warm, night, ocean air caught her wings. Nightmare glided down to the little shack she called home. Nestled on a remote little island chain, it boasted tropical temperatures year round. The little oak shack wasn’t much to look at, but it was home.

It was only a decoy, but fully furnished all the same. Her real home was far below it, and she was too tired to bother with it at this point.

She strode over to the bed and flopped down lazily on it. “Wow it’s been a long few days. Time really does fly when you’re dreaming.” she spoke to nopony in particular. Hoof met face as she realized her folly. ‘I’ve really got to stop talking to myself.’

Nightmare curled up on the bed, snuggled in a blanket and soon was out like a light.

v>^^^>v<^>v

Nightmare stood in the Realm again, this time not as a Guardian, but as a Dreamer. ‘I’m not really in the mood to make something up to pass the time. I don’t have any particular memories I want to relive, so…’

A light bulb appeared above her head before sprouting a mouth and two yellow eyes, their red irises looking down into the dream intently. Nightmare’s horn glowed before sending up a flare, the cloud turning red around her.

“You rang?” Discord’s voice came from above her.

Nightmare teleported away, wings flared aggressively. She spun around at where she’d been standing. A light bulb winked at her before reforming into the draconequus. Nightmare shot him a flat stare. “I thought you were helping dreamers.”

“All part of being a Spirit of Chaos, dear.” He chuckled. “So, you called?”

She folded her wings back and nodded. “Yeah. I’m going to put some faith in you, like Luna and Twilight have. Surprise me.” Nightmare’s wings folded and unfolded in a shrug.

“You’re sure? I can be very creative if you give me free reign,” he warned her.

“If I give you free reign, there is to be no porn and no torture. Horror’s fine, though.”

“Spoilsport. Fine, I’ll see what I can whip up. Anything else?” He quirked an eyebrow.

Nightmare shook her head. “Nah. Other than those two rules, I’m pretty sure I can take whatever you throw at me.”

“Very well. Give me a few minutes and I’ll have your new dream delivered to you.” He bowed and faded away.

Author's Note

I might want to straight up explain this, as I’m not sure the subtext was direct enough. Nightmare Moon, the pony from Season 1 Eps 1 and 2, as you know her, was a fusion of this Nightmare, the Alicorn Spirit of Dreams and Nightmares and Luna, Alicorn Spirit of the Moon. Their fusion was an unstable grasp for power to counter Celestia’s gaining popularity among Equestria’s ponies. The fusion didn’t go quite right, and as a result, Nightmare Moon (took her name from combining Nightmare and Luna’s charge) made her bid for power and was banished to the moon from the Elements’ power. The first strike from the Elements of Harmony (IE: Celestia’s solo-blast) that sealed her, fractured Nightmare Moon’s mind, resulting in Nightmare and Luna individually in the body’s subconscious. And the second blast, from Twilight and her friends, truly separated the two. Nightmare, to recover, was sent back into her Realm by the Elements. Luna was left in the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters to be found and helped by her sister, Twilight, and Twilight’s new friends.

I’ll definitely do my best to elaborate and story-tell on that, and expand the Realm. I’ve got more to come about what the mysterious Realm of Dreams is capable of.

One - Phantom Down

After the promised few minutes went by, the cloud’s lining changed from red to a dull yellow, and Nightmare found herself falling into the center. Realizing what was happening, she blinked once.

White walls stared at her from all angles. She looked about, trying to figure out where she was at the moment, and what surprises the draconequus had in store. As she looked about the large room, some white lockers and shelves met her vision on the walls. The center of the room had four pillars and a holographic terminal in their center. “Discord, if this is what I think it is, I may never give you a nightmare for the next year. Or until you piss me off again.”

She stood up and made her way over to a locker. ‘Pistols. Huh.’ A futuristic white and grey workbench sat between the pistol locker and another labelled one. She made her way over to it. ‘Rifles. Even better, but let’s see what else is about.’ She made her way around the room, finding more lockers and two doors. The lockers were repeats of the first two along with a pair labelled ‘Shotguns’ and a large case labelled ‘Heavy weapons.’ One door lead to ‘Explosives storage’ while the other was locked, a big red padlock on the door’s electronic lock.

As she circled the room one last time, a voice intruded on the peace. “Intruder detected in armory. All hands, repel intruder.”

The exit door’s lock flashed green and opened wide. Nightmare lit her horn and jumped behind a pillar as she cast an invisibility spell, fading from sight. After thirty seconds, a pair of white and black armor-clad bipeds scrambled into the room, weapons drawn. “Find the intruder!” one called out in a scratchy voice. She got a good look at the marking on their armor, a black hexagon with a small wedge cut out at the bottom and a pair of yellow marks on the left and right that followed the black down. Four more bipeds joined their comrades and started scouring the large room.

Nightmare looked the pair over. ‘He didn’t… he actually did! I completely owe him for this one!’ She smirked, but none of the bipeds noticed, due to her invisibility. As they crept along, she made her way over to one of the 'Shotgun' lockers and unlocked it.

One of the bipeds stopped and held a hand up to its ear. “The intruder’s not here. Not sure how it got away, but it just vanished.” The biped paced a bit. “Roger. Moving out to sweep nearby.” He pointed to one of them. “Make sure to let Engineering know to keep a close eye on our Eezo Core. We have to get back to base.”

He pointed to two others. “You two stay here in case the intruder comes back. If I don’t hear you radio in every two minutes, we’re coming back and you both better be dead, else you will be.”

The two saluted, their bodies trembling slightly before the leader and remaining three bipeds filed out. Nightmare thought, ‘Oh, this is rich! I can’t believe I get to take on Cerberus!’ The remaining two bipeds posted themselves outside, at the armory’s entrance, constantly scanning the passageway.

Nightmare’s hoof popped open the locker and a half-dozen different weapon models greeted her vision. She scanned the weapons, looking for a particular one. ‘Blast. They don’t have the Venom. I really enjoyed its cluster grenades. Maybe it’s in the other locker.’ She quietly shut the locker and locked it again before moving to the other and opening it. A few different models greeted her vision, but she remained disappointed. ‘They’ve got the Wraith and the Claymore, and yet they don’t have the Venom. Hilariously incompetent indeed.’ She telekinetically picked up the pair of aforementioned shotguns, a sleek bronze trimmed model and a green and black, bulky brick and cast an invisibility spell over them, too.

She made her way over to the 'Rifles' lockers and did the same, picking out only one model, the rare and very angrily red M-76 Revenant Light Machine Gun. She pouted as she did so, though. ‘They didn’t have the Saber or the Spitfire, but those are hard to find, even in Mass Effect.’

‘Three guns and nowhere to store the–’ Thinking quickly, she stepped behind a pillar and out of sight from the entrance. She let her invisibility spells fall and examined herself. ‘Sweet Celestia. Discord, you’ve outdone yourself.’ Her fur was black, but this armor was somehow even darker than her fur. There was a hole on each side where her wings rested against the armored plates, and the top of each wing was covered in a strong fabric the same color as the armor. Along her sides and across her back were a total of six slots for weapons.

Craning her neck around, she spied where her cutie mark of a white cloud on a purple splotch normally was, was a painted version of the same marking. She stepped forward and something bounced against the armor on her barrel softly. A matching helmet hung from a strap and she quickly donned it, sliding her horn through the hole provided as the helmet’s base sealed itself with the rest of her armor with a small hiss. Her mane and tail flowed freely from them as if she wasn’t wearing anything. A bubble around her flashed and turned transparent as her personal kinetic barrier generator activated.

Before she could be spotted again, she attached the weapons to three of the slots on her sides.

“No sir. Nothing yet,” came from the door.

‘And that’s my cue to go invisible again.’ After fading from sight, she raided the 'Pistols' lockers for a suppressed pistol. ‘Start out silent, go loud when I’m found or bored,’ she reasoned. It found its home on her last slot on the side.

‘Alright, time to check out the big guns.’ She stepped over to a case labeled 'Heavy Weapons' and popped it open. Looking over the boxes and tubes inside, she thought to herself, ‘Flamethrower? Nah.’ Nightmare passed over a bright yellow box. ‘Rocket launcher? Eh, if it’s not here, then fine.’ A grey and green tube was skipped. ‘Cain? Ohhh Peee.’ A yellow and black, almost beehive-shaped gun was skipped over. ‘Organic laser-thing? Ew.’ A slightly wriggling, flesh-colored tube was ignored. ‘Grenade launcher? Banish me, please.’ A grey box was almost shoved out of the way. ‘Chain lightning gun? Eh.’ The largest black box was carefully moved out of the way. ‘Black hole generato- Found it!’ Nightmare hefted a large, long white tube from the case and unfolded it. Four black fins protruded from its cardinal directions, and four tubes between them glowed blue. It steamed as it powered up. It was large enough that even folded up, it took up the last two slots in her armor, straight across her back.

‘The Cryo Blaster. Luna always complained how weak it was, but she never knew how powerful it could be.’

She looked to the unlocked 'Explosives storage' door and sighed wistfully before bringing the suppressed pistol out.

As she neared the entrance, a pair of checkboxes next to the words ‘Primary: Escape the Cerberus Cruiser’ and ‘Secondary: Escape undetected’ flashed in the top-right corner of her vision. She paused a moment to think it over. ‘Stealth is a secondary objective. Technically I’ve already been detected. Still, it says the objective is good. I’ll try stealth first, then.’ Her invisibility spell fell as the guards checked in a second time. ‘Invisibility spells are cheating when I’m armed like this. I’ve always enjoyed a good handicap.’

v>^^^>v<^>v

“No sir. Still nothing here.” The pair were looking down different hallways, weapons at the ready.

She raised the pistol and aimed it at one as she readied to pounce on the second. Executing her twin maneuver, the pistol ‘piffed’ twice into the first guard’s helmet and into the skull as Nightmare’s horn gored the second’s neck from behind. The first guard dropped like a sack of potatoes and the second struggled and gasped for air as he quickly bled out.

“I’ve got two minutes until I’m found out, so I’ve gotta move,” she spoke to no one in particular. Picking a direction, she started down the hall quickly.

As she neared the first intersection the voice from earlier blared, “Intruder detected. Intruder nearing Eezo core. All hands repel intruder.”

The secondary objective ticked with an ‘X’ and turned red. “Well so much for that.” She replaced the suppressed pistol on her armor and floated out her pair of shotguns. “Going loud!” She yelled, diving into the intersection. To her left was one Cerberus soldier, and the bronze-plated Wraith recoiled once, the bang echoing down all four corridors as the trooper’s body hit the ground, sans one leg laying nearby, blood pooling from both wounds. She scanned the hallway to the right and saw as a bulkhead hissed shut, sealing that passageway off. The passageway straight ahead was already sealed, the door’s lock glowing an angry red. Forced to go the way the trooper lay, she headed straight toward the cruiser’s drive core.

Only two more soldiers found her on her trek to Engineering and were killed before she made it to the engineering section of the cruiser. As she peeked around the corner, a wall of lead erupted into the opposite wall, followed by the thump and hiss of a rocket launcher firing.

‘Shit! They’ve got an Atlas! Guess I’ve their attention now! It’s time to bring out the Cryo Blaster.’

Nightmare telekinetically lifted the blaster and unfolded it. The four tubes glowed a much brighter blue as the weapon’s power up sequence completed. Its barrel started steaming again, like something very cold was exposed to the air. She backtracked to a different intersection and made her way around to a different entrance. Currently looking at the main entrance were fifty Cerberus troops.

In the rear were two stark-white Atlas assault mechs, piloted by a pair of engineers, towering over the others with their cannon arms trained on the main entrance. Their orange canopies provided their pilots an unsurpassed view of the battlefield. An armored Dragoon stood on top of each Atlas, his omni-lashes dangling from his palms boredly. Directly out in front were two dozen Guardian troopers, holding their massive Titanium-alloy shields in front of themselves as protection. Between the Guardians and the Atlases, were a dozen Engineers setting up automated turrets. In each of the corners, high up in their nests, were four pairs of Nemesis snipers, their red optics looking for the intruder. Nightmare’s helmet picked up a few distortions, picking them out as Phantoms.

Nightmare whistled softly to herself. ‘Wow. They really did pull out all the stops. Now I kind of wish I had brought the Cain. It’d make short work of this defense.’ She telekinetically held down the Cryo Blaster’s trigger and charged the blast for a few seconds as she brought her Revenant out, the machinegun folding out to twice its original length. As soon as it was fully charged, she herself charged through the second entrance, releasing the blast right into the line of turrets, as the Revenant constantly spat rounds at them.

As the frozen orb struck a turret it exploded, coating everything nearby with a strong cryogenic frost. The turrets started to seize up, but the Guardians and troopers took the worst of the blast, many freezing solid and falling to the ground. The frozen Cerberus troops struck by the Revenant’s rounds tended to shatter into pieces more often than not, and Nightmare took to the air as the turrets froze up, soaring over to the first sniper nest and her shotguns fired once. One Nemesis was missing its head, the other found itself having a hard time holding a sniper rifle with just one arm and was quickly kicked out of the nest. As the Nemesis fell, Nightmare launched into the air at a second nest, repeating her performance against its occupants.

In ten seconds, two of the four nests were cleared and the Cryo Blaster was ready to fire again. She reloaded her shotguns and the Revenant before taking aim at the Atlas mechs this time, their bulky frames slowly turning to bring their weapons to bear. “Freeze!” she called out, releasing her cryo blast into them, taking wing again, toward the third sniper nest.

One of the Dragoons called out, “What?” as the blast struck true, freezing them both solid and they hit the ground hard, smashing into pieces. The mechs’ barriers held up, preventing them from freezing. The high pitched whine of a cannon spinning up brought Nightmare to her next predicament, she’d not taken out the turrets.

She’d be pinned down soon if she couldn’t take them out! The Revenant spat shot after shot into the six turrets, only disabling one and destroying another. She made it to the third sniper nest before the remaining four turrets hit her armor’s barriers enough to drop them. Relieving the nest of its occupants, she waited a few seconds for the Cryo Blaster and her barriers to charge slightly. Releasing a smaller blast, she hit the four turrets again, and she took off to the last nest.

A warning went off in her helmet as the mechs launched two missiles at her. She sacrificed her Wraith shotgun to set them off prematurely, telekinetically slamming it into one missile, then what was left of it into the other. Reloading her Revenant again, she trained it on the nest and riddled one of the snipers’ heads so full of holes that it just fell apart. The Claymore dispatched the other one easily enough and she took refuge one last time to reload her guns and let her barriers recharge completely.

‘One spare heat sink for the Revenant, and I’ve still got five for the Claymore. I think that I’ve got one more good blast out of the Cryo Blaster before I need to reload it.’ Nightmare smirked. ‘Let’s go make ice sculptures of those Atlases.’

Grinning, she hopped the small concrete barrier at the nest’s edge and picked up speed. The Cryo Blaster unloaded it’s last shot and she set it back into place as the blast snap-froze the turrets once more. The Revenant chewed through two of the turrets, one falling over and shattering like glass. Her shotgun kicked once and one of the remaining two turrets exploded into ice chunks and slammed into the other, cracking it. The mechs were still trying to bring their weapons to bear when Nightmare herself slammed into the final turret, her body weight easily shattering the cracked surface and the turret burst to pieces.

“Alright. That went a lot better than I expected it would!” she cheered, taking to the air again. She circled the mechs and brought out her Cryo Blaster again, popping the extra-large heat sink out and replacing it with a new one. The Blaster chirped indicating it was reloaded and recharging.

As she circled, the air distorted in a pair of sniper nests. Both cloaked Phantoms took aim at the flying intruder before them. With an unspoken signal, both Phantoms’ hand blasters fired, the first overpowering Nightmare’s barriers. The second tore through part of her armor, cutting a gouge in her right hind leg. The Phantoms dropped down to ground level in anticipation.

Nightmare cried out in pain, “Damned Phantoms!” before picking up speed and diving through the door she’d entered from. Limping along a few steps, her barriers recharged and craned her neck around to check her wound. After a cursory examination, she found the blaster bolt went through her armor, only grazing her leg. “That was stupid of me. How could I have forgotten the damned Phantoms!”

A step rang loudly nearby. Nightmare’s head shot up and she grabbed her pistol from its slot. “Come out, come out, wherever you are. I only want to slice you…” rasped down the hallway.

Nightmare shuddered at the creepy voice. “I don’t remember Phantoms being this creepy.” She aimed all her weapons down the hall, where she’d just come from. Her only warning was a slight shimmer in the air before being tackled by a Phantom. Her weapons dropped as her horn struck the floor in the tussle.

Nightmare grunted. “Get… OFF!” she yelled, flailing her hooves. A hoof caught her near-invisible attacker’s head, snapping it back roughly. The Phantom suddenly appeared and dropped to the floor, her sword clattering to the ground. She didn’t get up as Nightmare recovered and snagged her pistol.

“That’s one of you,” Nightmare growled as she shot the downed Phantom’s skull twice. “There’s at least one of you to get yet.” She raised her voice, “I know you can hear me! You never do leave me alone, do you?”

The second Phantom watched her sister-in-arms fall easily to the bulkier pony. She watched as Nightmare scooped her weapons back up and made her way back to the main entrance. She held up a hand to her ear. “Intruder making its way to Eezo Core main entrance.” ‘Let’s see how you handle a pair of those mechs, mutant.’ She walked away, making her way back toward the mechs the way she’d come.

A blast fired its way through the entrance, slamming into one of the mechs as Nightmare charged through the entrance as best she could, taking wing once through. The mechs launched a pair of missiles, Nightmare deftly dodging them before they slammed into the wall behind her.

“Blast, how did they know?” Her Revenant spewed round after round into one of the mechs’ legs, destroying it. The Atlas fell over helplessly before the pilot ejected. Nightmare’s shotgun kicked once, and the pilot’s body slumped to the ground, a rather large hole in his chest where a lung would be. The Revenant clicked dry as soon as she turned it on the second Atlas. She holstered it, planning on reloading it when she got to cover.

As she swooped past it toward a nest, the remaining Phantom leaped off the Atlas’s top, sword in hand. Nightmare caught the shimmer as it barreled into her. “Damnit! Not again!” The Phantom’s free hand gripped Nightmare’s left wing, wrenching on it hard.

Nightmare cried out and the pair fell to the ground. The Phantom ended up taking most of their combined weight and was knocked out. Nightmare stood up and noticed the unmoving Phantom. “Got you this time!” Nightmare reared up and brought her entire weight down on the Phantom’s skull, crushing it like a grape. Afterward, she looked back to her wing, wrenched from its socket under her armor. “Can’t fly. Guess I’m making my last stand on hoof.”

She turned to the sole remaining Atlas as it tried to bring its cannons to bear, before charging it. As it turned toward her, she skirted around its side, making sure to keep away from its front. Even though the Cryo Blaster was ready to fire again, she couldn’t get to a safe distance without being shot at by the mech.

‘What can I do to get to beat this Atlas? A Claymore shotgun, a suppressed pistol and a Cryo Blaster that I can’t use without hitting myself. Ah, I know!’ She turned and charged between the Atlas’s legs as quickly as she could. The mech tried to take a step and crush her between its legs, but it wasn’t quick enough. Breaking into as much a gallop as she could, she cleared the mech and released a cryo blast at it before skidding painfully to a stop on her hurt leg. She turned and brought her other weapons to bear, looking at the results. The blast froze the mech’s protective canopy and its cannon arm. Her pistol fired twice and the canopy shattered, the second bullet striking the pilot in the neck.

Her shotgun kicked once alongside her pistol and the cannon arm fell to the ground, discharging in her direction. The plasma bolt it shot sailed past her and blew a hole in the wall near the drive core, as the mech toppled over.

“Alright, now that that’s over… I’m getting out of here.” Nightmare made her way toward the other end of the ship, stopping off at the infirmary to stock up on medi-gel.

Looking over her armor, she thought of an omni-tool appearing, and to her surprise it did! “Awesome. At least I’ve got an omni-tool. Now I can hopefully get past any locked doors, and get the Tartarus out of here.” She touched her omni-tool to the medi-gel container, and it registered in her HUD that she’d picked up two units.

“Alright, how do I use this stuff? Shepard made it look so easy…” As she spoke, the words ‘User wounded, apply medi-gel?’ along with the options ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ appeared on her HUD, floating a scant few inches away from her head. She lifted a hoof and tapped the option marked ‘Yes.’ The option ticked and a hiss sounded from her armor. Her leg stopped hurting as badly and her wing’s sharp pain ended, reduced to a dull throb.

“Alright, now to put my wing back in place.” She removed her helmet, noticing the HUD remained in her vision. Searching with a mirror for a seam in her armor to remove the chest piece, she found two clasps, right under each wing, and a seam that ran around her barrel and back to her rear. Telekinetically, she snapped both clasps out of place and the piece on her back hissed, popping free. The other piece dropped straight down and clanked on the floor. She took the time to sit down and look over her wing. ‘This is gonna hurt, but if I want to be able to fly in the near future, I’ve gotta do this…’

She telekinetically felt for the wing-joint. ‘Yeah. Definitely gonna hurt to put back in place.’ The wing’s joint was completely out of its socket. She gripped the joint and with a grunt that turned into a small scream, snapped it back into place.

She rested for a few minutes, letting the new pain wear off, before donning her armor again. She raided another medi-gel container for more of the precious healing liquid.

Just as she felt like dozing off, she blinked.

v>^^^>v<^>v

Nightmare groaned as she sat up. She was back in bed and the sun shone through the window. She stood and stretched, her spine and neck popping loudly before a sigh escaped her lips. “That was an excellent dream. I’ll have to thank Dissy for it when I get back.”

After a quick cold cereal breakfast, she made her way out of the cottage and took off, opening the portal to the Realm again.

v>^^^>v<^>v

A navy flash bounced all over the Realm’s interior, signaling Nightmare’s arrival. She flew through the Realm, looking for Discord. Before she spotted him, she noticed the realm looked far less orange than she remembered, and green was now the dominant color. She whistled loudly. “Wow, Dissy. Never thought you’d be the workaholic.”

“You would not be the only one surprised, Nightie,” a feminine voice replied. Looking down, she saw Luna standing next to the missing draconequus.

Discord looked immensely proud of himself. He bowed before speaking, “Well, since Chaos usually is my full-time job, I like to take pride in my work.”

Both ponies snorted at that as Nightmare came in for a landing. She landed nearby and walked over to the pair. She opened her mouth, but Luna beat her to the punch. “So, you asked to help with the nightmares, and then you go and sleep!” She pointed a hoof at Discord as Nightmare’s ears pinned back. “Even when he promised he would, he followed through.” Luna shook her head. “I expected him to goof off, not you!” Luna levelled a glare at her.

Discord defended her, “To be fair, Lulu, she was nearly asleep on her hooves as it was.”

Luna sighed. “I suppose it could not be helped, then. I hope you had some peaceful rest, Nightie.”

“Peaceful isn’t the word I’d use,” Discord replied, snickering.

“Oh, so you were watching the entire time, Discord?” Nightmare asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Luna snorted. “Of course. Once it got good, he would not stop watching!” Discord rolled his eyes. “Alright, I watched too. You did wonderful for one against fifty. I liked the part where you almost got killed twice by those Phantoms.”

Nightmare shrugged. “It happens. Those invisible devils seem to always get the better of me.”

Luna chuckled. “Too true. Anyways, I was here to see how it all went last night. From the looks of things, Discord worked overtime. Good job, Dissy.”

The mentioned draconequus bowed and a baseball stand filled with fans that looked all like Discord clapped and throw flowers. “Ah yes, you're too kind! Too kind!” He turned to Luna. “My pleasure, Princess. Be sure to mention this to little Twily, would you?”

Luna nodded before embracing Nightmare. “We really have to catch up, when there’s little work to be done for the Realm.” She released Nightmare before embracing Discord. “Bye Nightie, see you later Discord.”

After releasing Discord, she waved goodbye and took off. A bright blue flash signaling her departure. Once she was sure Luna was gone, Nightmare socked Discord in the shoulder. “You totally did all that work just to get her to yell at me, didn’t you?”

Discord nodded sheepishly. “Yep.”

Nightmare grinned. “You cheeky bastard. I love it.” She moved closer before continuing, “Though, I’m totally going to get you back for that.” He paled slightly at that.

Before he could slither away, she wrapped him in a crushing hug. “Thank you, thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! I love the Mass Effect universe!”

Discord blushed, not expecting this response to his craft. “Y-You’re welcome. If you love it so much, why not keep the dream open for you to continue when you next sleep?” Discord suggested, trying to free himself.

“Good idea!” She released him and jumped backwards into a flying loop. “Goodness, I’ve not felt this refreshed in decades!”

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Well, I ought to get back to Equestria.” He floated the holographic window back over to Nightmare. “Thanks for letting me borrow that. It was more useful watching you than anything.”

Nightmare looked at the monitor she’d been given. Somehow it had butter stains on it.

Discord chuckled. “Sorry, you do make a pretty good action hero! What goes better with watching an action movie than popcorn?”

Nightmare shrugged and spoke, “Fair enough.”

Discord rubbed his paw and claw together nervously. “I ought to get back. Got plans with Fluttershy today.”

“Fluttershy, the… yellow one, right?” Nightmare questioned.

“Yeah, that’s her.” Discord turned around and took off.

“See you later, then! Thanks for the dream!” Nightmare waved Discord off.

“Back to the grind. Though I do feel damn good.” Nightmare stretched again before taking off deeper into the Realm of Dreams.

Author's Note

As of right now, there’s gonna be a gore warning. There’s two games being crossed into one universe, and one of them gets a little messy. Okay, a lot messy.

Oh man. Came up with this one while writing the prologue and chapter 1 for Science, Magic, N’ Jolly Cooperation!

Some of chapter two has been written already, as well.

Two - Friendship Redacted

As she delved back into the dream, she found herself back in the infirmary. ‘I wonder what class Discord made me,’ she thought. ‘I imagine my magic is equivalent to biotics, so I’m probably what… a Vanguard? A Sentinel?’ In response to her thought, her omni-tool flashed and her HUD changed. Instead of what she expected for a Mass Effect skill upgrade window, she got a completely different menu. It showed an outline of herself and her weapons, and had various points on each which could be highlighted.

‘What is all this? I don’t remember anything like this in the Mass Effect games…’ At a whim, she chose her wings. Another window popped up showing three upgrade trees. ‘Strength, elasticity, size?’ Nightmare blinked incredulously. ‘I can make my wings bigger than they are now? How is that even an advantage?’ She hovered over the aforementioned upgrade, looking for a clarifying description and found none.

Snorting, she closed the wings window and moved on to her legs. Like her wings, strength was a shared option, but toughness and acrobatics were the other trees. In the horn window, strength, efficiency and spell power were the three trees to choose from. Each weapon had its own upgrade tree, ending in one of two special effects that could be unlocked.

The final choice in the window highlighted a bubble around the other parts of her. She called it up and confirmed that it was indeed her barrier upgrade and fitness menu. She looked over the three trees, barrier strength and health, recharge rate, and damage resistance. ‘So, when I upgrade my barrier, it also upgrades my health? How does that even work?’

She took a look at the main window and saw that she had a three points unassigned to spend. She put a point in barrier strength/health, wing-strength and horn-efficiency.

After closing the skill tree menu, another popped up, showing what abilities she had at her disposal. She scanned the names and started laughing maniacally. ‘Oh sweet Celestia. I’ve got Warp, Dark Channel, Overload, and Stasis Ammo. For passive skills I’ve got Spirit of Nightmares. Oh, and an unassigned skill slot.’ She lifted a hoof and tapped the unassigned slot, and a new window opened, displaying a new list of skill types.

‘Hm… I’ve got some good skills as it is now, between Dark Channel and Warp, that’s a good combo. I can even use Overload instead of Dark Channel to set up electric bursts… I’m missing a good sustained power or unique ability. Let’s fix that.’ She tapped ‘Sustained powers’ and a third window opened. ‘Tech Armor, Fortification, Barrier… I don’t qualify for Defense Matrix, Devastator Mode or Hunter Mode, so they’re out. I could pick up Bloodlust, but that’s more for melee damage.’ Nightmare hummed thoughtfully as she brought up the ‘Unique powers’ window. ‘I could pick up Tactical Cloak, Biotic Sphere, Sentry Turret, Havoc Strike, Flamer… What’s Black Hole Singularity or do? I’ve never heard of that one. Nor have I heard of an Omni-Hammer.’

She called up Black Hole Singularity’s window and read its history. “Adepts on Omega made a startling breakthrough with the Singularity technique. By adapting the skill with the user’s omni-tool, the singularity is tweaked slightly, giving it immense mass upon creation. Unprotected enemies and those without Mag-Boots are sucked in before being violently crushed. Skill may be evolved to detonate upon expiration.” Nightmare whistled loudly.

“Whew, that’s a doozy, definitely. Now, let’s see what this Omni-Hammer’s all about.” She then brought up the Omni-Hammer’s window and read its history aloud, “In the Attican Traverse, a single Krogan scientist managed to create an improvised warhammer using disposed-of Omni-blades.” Nightmare looked at the little hammer icon, as if trying to visualize the original weapon in its position and shook her head. “After going on a two-hour rampage with his newly-acquired hammer, he was finally arrested once he collapsed of fatigue and blood loss, and the warhammer was confiscated.” She snorted dismissively.

“Afterwards, this skill was created by a team of Asari, Salarians and Turians for the war against the Reapers’ ground forces based on what little remained of the Krogan scientist’s notes, along with the media footage.” That part at least made some sense to her. “This hammer, while lightweight for its size, is unwieldy, but far is it from fragile. Those unique enough to use this skill tend to take care of their forged Hammers, and only forge a new Omni-Hammer when their current one finally breaks or is otherwise lost. One small clan of Krogan use a unique variation of these Hammers exclusively, and to be given one by the clan is a sign of true brotherhood with them.” She blinked twice, reading the description a second time.

She opened her mouth, speaking to herself again, “Omni-Hammer it is. Singularity is Singularity. Whether it crushes enemies in the middle or lifts them helplessly, it’s kind of wimpy.” Nightmare double tapped Omni-Hammer with her left forehoof and it occupied the remaining slot. She was startled as a hiss released from her opposite foreleg. Part of the panel popped off and another weapon hardpoint was revealed, glowing the same shade of orange as the Omni-Hammer in the skill’s picture did.

‘Spirit of Nightmares seems like a logical choice next to explore. What extra passive bonuses do I get?’ She tapped the skill and it opened yet another window. ‘Power damage, power recharge, mostly. Good.’

‘Alright, let’s get out of here.’ Nightmare stood, checking over her weapons. Reloading her Revenant’s last heatsink she thought, ‘Last heat sink for the Revenant, I’ll have to go get more. Might as well head to the armory to pick up another weapon too.’ She walked to the exit, the door opening as she neared it. She returned to the armory, a significantly easier task with nothing actively trying to kill her.

She stepped over the two bodies laying outside the armory’s entrance and into the room. The Explosives Storage room was open. Nightmare smiled devilishly. “They do say that any problem can be solved with the right amount of high explosives…” she said as she entered the storage room. Her jaw dropped as she looked at the empty shelves. “W-what? How can they be empty?” Her ears folded back and she sagged. ‘I was so looking forward to using those…’

Dejectedly, she returned to the main armory. After restocking her heat sinks for her current weapons, she telekinetically popped all the weapon cases open and brought their contents before her one case at a time. She examined the pistols before returning them. ‘Nah, I’ve already got a suppressed pistol. I’m good there.’ She floated the shotguns over to herself, exchanging the Claymore out for a much lighter Eviscerator. ‘The Claymore’s only got one shot per heat sink, while the Eviscerator’s got three. Wish I still had that Wraith…’

She returned the shotguns to their case and looked over the remaining rifles. ‘Why are both assault rifles and sniper rifles in the same case? That makes no sense!’ Nightmare sighed. ‘I’ve already got the Revenant. I suppose I should get a sniper rifle, then.’ She returned the assault rifles to the case before looking at the remaining weapons. ‘Let’s see. There’s the Viper semi-automatic, the Mantis single-shot, the Incisor burst-fire rifle, the Indra fully-automatic… Nah.’ She tapped a hoof to her chin thoughtfully as she returned the four rifles to their homes. ‘The Kishock harpoon gun, the Krysae that shoots explosive ammo, the Raptor also semi-auto, the Collector sniper rifle…’ “No. Not that one. It’s a little too fleshy for my tastes.” And the fleshy gun wriggled as Nightmare deposited it back into the case, looking the last three weapons over. ‘They have a Javelin, but not the Spitfire? Jeez. There’s also the Widow and the N7 Valiant. I never cared for the Valiant or Raptor.’ A grey and black rifle with a couple red stripes adorning its side, floated back into the case alongside a white rifle with yellow markings.

‘Alright, just the Kishock, Krysae, Javelin, and Widow left. The Kishock shoots literal flash-forged harpoons.’ A short black rifle sat down on the bench nearby. ‘The Krysae shoots explosive ammo.’ A green and grey, rather-abstractly shaped rifle set down next to it. ‘The Widow’s just a high-powered anti-materiel rifle.’ A long, light grey rifle joined the pair. ‘And finally the Javelin’s a very high pressure water gun with a thermal scope.’ She walked over to the bench and sat down in front of it.

She spoke aloud to herself, “With the Cryo Blaster freezing targets, the Kishock would be nice for delivering devastating blows to bigger targets, but shattering several in a row with the Javelin or Widow would make for a much easier time handling groups of enemies…” She floated the Krysae back to the case almost sadly. The Kishock joined it. “Alright, so I’m down to the Widow and the Javelin. The Javelin’s got better stopping power, can penetrate armor and cover better than the Widow, and has that scope that shows an enemy you can hit, even though cover. The Widow holds more ammo and should reload much faster… Against mooks like those Cerberus troopers, one shot from either rifle puts them down.” She debated between the two rifles for a minute more before the Widow was returned to the case and the Javelin rested on one of her weapon hardpoints.

She took one look at the bench she sat at and noticed a full assortment of weapon modifications lining its sides. She pulled her weapons out and set them out to be modified, her omni-tool assisting in slotting the chips and threading the barrel attachments with ease. ‘Hm… remove these panels, slot new compartments in…’ The Javelin was upgraded with extra ammo compartments and a high-velocity barrel, further increasing cover penetration and damage capability. ‘Thread this onto the barrel’s end, make sure it’s snug.’ The Eviscerator got a high-velocity barrel as well, providing the same upgrade, as well as an internal choke upgrade to increase accuracy. ‘Strip the internal heat distribution system and replace it with this more efficient version…’ The Revenant got a magazine upgrade and a cover piercing mod, giving it cover penetration like the Javelin originally had. ‘Snap the scope onto the top rail and secure in place.’ The suppressed pistol took on a scope. Satisfied, she returned her weapons to their hardpoints and walked out into the hall.

A loud rumble shook the ship, followed by screeching and a voice calling out over the intercom, “Starboard hull breach detected along decks two, four and six. Decks depressurizing. Starboard engines unresponsive. All personnel to escape pods. Automated emergency landing protocols initiated.”

The cruiser’s hall lighting flickered before going out, bathing the area in darkness and the ship shuddered again. Nightmare’s helmet flickered, flipping into night-vision mode. The voice called out over the intercom again, “Starboard hull breach detected along decks two, four and six. Decks depressurizing. Starboard engines unresponsive. All personnel to escape pods. Automated emergency landing protocols initiated. Drive Core offline. Life Support offline. Reserve power siphoned to remaining engines for emergency landing.”

Nightmare whistled. “Well, I know where the high explosives went, then.” Instead of taking a right down to engineering, she took a left, toward the bridge. Five minutes went by uneventfully as she crossed the seemingly-abandoned ship, seeing blood or bodies of soldiers that she’d never killed strewn about haphazardly. ‘I’m not alone here, something killed these guys. I just hope it won’t try to kill me.’ As she neared the next corner, she stopped, just poking part of her head around to make sure that there wasn’t an ambush ahead.

When she reached the Command and Control section of the ship, the first hallway’s white walls were stained with blood, and some kind of flesh had spread along the ceiling. As she was inspecting it, Nightmare noticed the fleshy substance was climbing down the walls almost imperceptibly slowly.

As she closed in on the Officers’ Bridge, she noticed something written on a wall, written in blood with a Cerberus trooper’s body laying underneath. ‘Go for the limbs. Hack them to pieces. That’s the only way.’ Examining the trooper’s body closer, she saw he’d been impaled with inch-diameter spikes. ‘Almost like it was from…’ She yanked one out of the trooper’s body and examined the two foot-long spike. ‘It can’t be… if this is what I think it is, I take back what I said about Discord.’

She checked the map at the next intersection and the Officers’ Bridge was just around the next corner, to the right. The automated voice came over the intercom again, bearing a different message. “Unknown pathogens detected in atmosphere in Command and Control. Quarantine lockdown initiated. Staff are advised to watch for symptoms of disease.”

Thoroughly frustrated, Nightmare stomped a hoof. “Oh come on! Really! Just as I get here it starts? Of fucking course it does.” She vented her rage, stomping a nice dent into the floor for a few seconds, before a screech down the left hallway broke her concentration.

What was left of a trooper shambled down the hallway. On top of each shoulder, a green limb ending in a spike protruded, giving the trooper four arms. It screeched again, an unholy roar, as if noticing her, before sprinting at her, raising its spike-arms menacingly.

Nightmare, startled by its original scream, hesitated for a second before leaping forward, ducking under it’s spike-arms as she used her superior mass to knock it to the ground. A single hoof stomped down and popped its head like a grape, but the mutated trooper kept struggling. She grabbed her Eviscerator shotgun and put a shell into each of its spike-arms, severing them. After that, she put her final shot into its legs from the side, severing both legs. It gurgled from the stump on its neck before going still.

Nightmare removed her helmet and scraped the blood and gore off the visor before replacing it. “Great. Necromorphs. Just what I always wanted to see. Before I go any further, I’m making an Omni-Hammer. I’ve got this inkling feeling that I’ll need it.”

She stepped off the freshly re-killed trooper and back into the intersection, holding her left hoof up in front of her, she activated the Omni-Hammer skill. The little tool set to work flash forging a hammer for her. As it worked, the tool flashed several directions and positions to hold her hoof into her HUD to help the forging process along faster. After the task completed, the tool beeped loudly and it shut off, the hammer dropping to the floor. The hammer itself glowed bright red-orange from the heat, with a blunt tip on one side, and a spike on the other. She lifted the hammer, comparing its size to herself. The shaft was almost as long as she was tall, its head coming to rest level with her muzzle. On her HUD, the skill turned grey and a timer of one day started ticking down.

Nightmare whistled appreciatively as she hefted it in her telekinesis. She strapped it to her leg and it folded up to be as long as her leg, its heat siphoning off into her armor. “That’s a big hammer. Well, there are some big bugs to squash, so it’s appropriate.”

After chuckling at the mental image for a moment, she shook her head. ‘Time to get busy then. This quarantine won’t lift itself.’ Her HUD updated, adding a new sub-objective under her current one, labelled ‘Release Quarantine Lockdown.’ She stalked forward while reloading her shotgun, looking for the bridge. Her HUD bleeped once, highlighting a door farther down the hallway on her right.

As she neared the door, a screeching sound shook the wall on the right and the doors opened. A single Nemesis, followed by several Cerberus Officer-Centurions backed out the door, firing into the room. After the last officer had cleared the door, it slammed shut and one of them slammed an armored fist into the control panel, smashing it. Nightmare dropped into a crouch, stealthily nearing them in the darkness.

“Damnit! What the hell happened in there?” The Nemesis shouted.

Several of the officers exchanged looks before one responded, “Your guess is as good as mine, ma’am.”

She relaxed her grip. “That’s better.” She sighed before continuing, “The Illusive Man’s gonna have my head for this if we can’t contain it.”

Nightmare took stock of their state. She looked at the gathered officers, whose armor all had dents and holes in them from the fight. The only one who didn’t have any damage was the Nemesis, but her rifle was scratched all over and the scope and stock were missing.

“So what do we do now?” one officer asked, tossing his rifle away, inadvertently toward Nightmare. She lost the answer as his rifle clanked on the floor and broke into pieces.

After the pieces settled, she looked up to see them headed her way. The Nemesis spotted her first and called out, “Intruder!” The rest of her compatriots lifted whatever weapons they had.

Nightmare, in response stepped forward, lifting all of her weapons out into ready positions and speaking, “Are you sure you want to do this? I can see most of your weapons are falling apart at the seams, as well as your armor is.” She kicked a piece of the broken assault rifle laying on the ground off to the side before bringing her new Omni-Hammer in front of one side of her helmet as if she were holding it with a pair of hands. “I’m all for letting you pass unhindered, but I don’t mind fighting either, if you really want to try me.”

The Nemesis held her hand up and lowered her rifle. She looked at the veritable arsenal pointed in her direction before turning back to her compatriots. Only one had his weapon up, but she received more than a few nods from the others. “We never saw you. You never saw us.”

“Who are you again?” Nightmare smirked under her helmet and stood off to the side, returning all of her weapons excepting her shotgun and hammer to her armor.

“Exactly.” She motioned forward and the group quickly moved past Nightmare and down the hallway away from her.

‘Well, that was easy. Bet they forgot about the quarantine. Back to work.’ She walked up to the door the group had come from and pulled her helmet off. Pressing an ear to the door she heard several screams filter through the metal before she pulled back and donned her helmet again.

She pulled out the Javelin, unfolded it, and peered through its scope at the door. Though she couldn’t see into the room, dozens of shapes highlighted, showing what she feared would be in the room. The room was packed with bodies and necromorphs. Several seemed to be going to each corpse and reanimating it as one of their own.

‘Shit. I can’t waste time unless I want to fight everything in there,’ she thought. ‘Fuck it. I’ve got plenty of ammo, I can just go in guns-blazing this once if I need to.’ She looked to the smashed control panel. ‘Looks like I need to knock.’

She spun around and bent her forelegs, taking all her weight on them. She curled in her hindlegs, before lashing out at one of the double-doors violently. Her hooves met the metal, and she felt it bend quite far. She repeated the her action on the door again, knocking the door from its tracks, and sailing into the room. She turned around and looked at the door as it sailed.

“Knock knock!” She called out as the door hit the ground, impaling a corpse with a screech. Her telekinesis grabbed the other door, and she heaved herself against it. It noisily screeched into the wall, giving Nightmare enough room to enter. She looked up to see another walker, like the one earlier, charging her, along with two others.

She didn’t hesitate this time as she brought her hammer to bear, swinging horizontally at the first’s head. Its spike arms and head were liberated from its body with one swing. The body continued forward unhindered as Nightmare stepped up and used her weight to knock it over. She stomped down on its chest and swung the hammer again, this time at its legs with the spiked part. They were separated and it quickly went still. Her Revenant spewed lead, floating to the second’s legs and severing them both with a hail of fire before moving onto its head and arms.

After the arms had been severed from both of them, her telekinesis grabbed them. She turned her eyes on the third necromorph-trooper, before her horn surged with power. The four torn limbs flew and impaled their target’s chest, momentum carrying it to the far wall, where it was stuck, screaming and struggling.

As she stepped off her first kill, she took stock and brought the rest of her weapons back out. Seven unnoticed necromorphs growled as they stood. Nightmare smirked as she sent each of her weapons after one, and a few seconds later, the room was clear. Consoles and monitors lined the walls, except where the doors were. From where she’d entered, there was a door caddy corner from it, and what looked like an emergency sea-landing exit in the ceiling.

She moved to the other door, her omni-tool unlocking and opening the door easily. She looked about the room as the door shut behind her. Her objective marker lit up on a still running terminal on the room’s far side.

She started moving, toward the terminal until something landed on her back.

Nightmare cried out and panicked, galloping forward. She heard more than felt something trying to tear into her armor. As she came to the room’s far side, she skidded to the side before rolling, trying to crush whatever was riding her.

As her weight pinned the offending rider to the floor, she completed her roll and was back on her hooves. Instead of the necromorph she expected, a Phantom greeted her vision, slightly more flattened than the previous Phantoms she’d encountered.

Her pistol put two bullets in the Phantom’s skull, making sure it was dead. Afterwards, she walked over to the terminal and pressed a few buttons on it. The robotic voice came over the intercom, “Quarantine lockdown lifted. All staff exercise caution until otherwise noted.” The objective ‘Release Quarantine Lockdown’ ticked green and disappeared.

Nightmare sat down, sighing. “Well, I take back what I said about you, Discord.” She yawned before blinking.

v>^^^>v<^>v

A navy flash signaled Nightmare’s return to the Realm. Nightmare immediately took stock of the Realm’s state, surprisingly finding it more stable than it usually is, only roughly one of every three dreams anything but pleasant.

‘I swear, Discord is doing this just to make me look bad,’ Nightmare thought. Speaking of Discord, he was nowhere to be seen so she called out, “Discord? You still here?”

Something tapped her shoulder causing Nightmare to loose a loud yelp before hopping away. As she turned, she noticed Discord was the culprit. Only, he didn’t look quite right. His beard and the tuft on his tail were bright red, he had a white umbrella under one arm, and he was covered in blue polka dots. “I figured you would be showing up about now. So, what’s up?”

“What’s up? What’s wrong with you? You’re covered in polka dots and you’ve got a red beard!” she cried out.

He looked himself over before tisking once. “Oh dear, I seemed to have sunned myself too long.”

Nightmare shook her head. “Anyways, I had one question. In the dream you made me, why did you cross the Mass Effect and Dead Space universes?”

He waved a finger at her. “Spoilers, my dear. All that crossbreeding happened for a reason. So, where did you leave off?”

Nightmare shot an unamused glare his way. “Weren’t you watching? I just shut down the quarantine.”

“Which one?” Discord raised an eyebrow.

The sound of a hoof striking its owner’s face rang clearly through the realm. “Dear lord. I’m going to kill you if you’re serious.”

“Now, why would I be serious?” he asked, scratching his back with the umbrella with his eyes shut. The icy stare that he received when he looked back to her cowed him slightly. “Alright, serious time.” He held up his paw. “I swear there are no more quarantines.”

Nightmare relaxed slightly. “You still didn’t answer why you mixed them. You could give me a hint.”

He sighed, seeing no fun way out of the situation. “Alright. I’ll only say two words. Necromorph. Reaper.”

Nightmare took a step back, ears folding. “You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?”

“You’ll find out.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively and disappeared.

Nightmare sighed, taking wing and looking over the Realm. “Great. Now that mental image is gonna be stuck in my head. How the hell am I supposed to beat a necromorph reaper?”

“A what reaper?” A voice asked off to her left.

Nightmare looked over to the voice’s owner, finding an grey, wall-eyed pegasus. Her mane and tail had turned silver since they had met, but some of those strands still held their original yellow. “Oh, sorry Ditzy. Just mulling over a challenge Discord may have set up for me. The hint he gave me was ‘necromorph reaper’ and I’m stumped.”

Ditzy hummed in thought for a moment before taking wing and joining Nightmare in her patrol. “You got anything to make it extremely hot or cold? How well would a necromorph reaper work in space?”

Nightmare shook her head. “I dunno. But it’s Discord, so it may just work because of how it shouldn’t.”

Ditzy chuckled lightly. “Fair enough!” They lapsed into silence for a few minutes before entering an area of the Realm that childrens’ dreams seemed to appear, and Ditzy spoke up again, “Seems like this is my stop. Have a good shift, Nightmare.” She waved and took off.

Nightmare waved back and responded, “You too, Ditzy.” Beating her wings a little harder, Nightmare sulked for the rest of her shift, a small part of her mind desperately trying to figure out a viable strategy.

Author's Note

CDR says murder everything. I think that’s a swell idea, CDR. That kind of was the original plan, too.

I also… took a day to create an actual class that Nightmare could viably use in Mass Effect 3’s Multiplayer. Which is totally fun ~~and not at all bullshit~~. But seriously. It’s a blast to play, especially when you’ve got a good group of friends and can take on the higher difficulties.