A Nightmare in Equestria

Chapters

One, Two, Freddy's Coming For You.
A Foreign Home
Demons Of The Past And Those That Will Come To Be
Knowledge Once Gained...
A Tryst For Two
... Is Never Truly Lost
A Night To Remember: Applejack & Rainbow Dash
A Night To Remember: Fluttershy & Pyramid Head's Lilly
Bloody Mary
Mornings Requiem
Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall
Tea Party With The Royals
Bonus Chapter: Free Fall
Waiter, There Is A Bug In My Tea!
Bonus Chapter: Fleeting Tranquility
Heroes Exist Within Us All...

One, Two, Freddy's Coming For You.

'God I'm bored.'

"Miss Cheerilee, what's that one over there?" Inclined a small yellow coated, red maned filly with an oversized bow. Her hoof pointed towards me as I stood motionless on top of a block of stone.

'Yes I wonder what it could be? A fish perhaps? Maybe a log of wood? Don't be a stupid foal and just read the damn plaque like every other pony that's wandered by.'

"Ah that one," said an average sized mare with a purple coat and three smiling flowers on her plot, "that one is called The Nightmare, Applebloom. It is said that thousands of years ago, when Celestia and Luna were only foals, he would enter the dreams of ponies who'd done bad things and.... turn them into nightmares."

'Aww don't be shy wittle pony, tell them what I really did. Really wish I could cut the petals off your stupid tramp-stamp.'

"Do you mean like Nightmare Moon? And why does it look sort of like a scare-pony?" questioned a small orange filly with a purple mane that sure would look good as a coat.

The purple one shook its head as it began to tell of my failures, "No Scootaloo, it is said that this creature was the origin of the word nightmare altogether, and that it was the source of them originally. Some going as far to say that it was the very source of fear itself. Though many ponies disagree as it's silly to think of it like that because fear is a natural emotion."

'Woo, dodged another bullet hey you dumb horse? I'd certainly like to find out if those butt flowers have stems.'

"Now come along, we really should check out the other exhibits." The dark mauve mare shooed the little colts and fillies away from my statue, towards the more friendly ones perhaps, like Discord. Discord just looks so cute and cuddly.

So I waited once more, nothing but silence to accompany me and my thoughts.

And I waited some more.

And I Crack waited some more.

And Crack I waited even Crack more.

For some reason it had taken me some time to realise one of the statues was cracking open, when I did however I made sure to mentally scream 'That's no fair!' as loud as I could. Looks like cute and cuddly got out and was having a merry ole stretch. That was, until he decided to have a look around. He was appearing in front of every statue seemingly simultaneously with an inquisitive gaze that could scare a chicken into devolving into a dinosaur just to show him everything it had been.

It took him only a few seconds before he came across my statue. Though my face was kept in an eternal frown, my eyes covered by the shade of my hat, his became an unsettling grin. "Well, well, well, look at you! You look absolutely and utterly odd! Though I can't help but feel like we've met somewhere..."

His expression became thoughtful for a few seconds before he shrugged it off and clicked his talon. I suddenly felt a lot more lively, my frown becoming its feared smile. Cuddly didn't notice however as he was already gone in a cloud of see through confetti. 'What's the point of see-through confetti? Confetti was MADE to be colourful!'

I didn't move from my original position though, merely lowering my hands to a more comfortable degree and stretching my gloved one slightly. I was still covered in a layer of stone for some reason but it only barely hindered my movement.

Once more I waited. One thousand years is a lot of time to get good at waiting. I hadn't wanted to get in the way of Cuddly before his inevitable recapture, why did I know it was inevitable? Because he was captured in the first place, meaning whoever captured him would remember and pass it on in case he'd been freed. Retard.

'God I'm bored.'

"Don't sweat it Princess Celestia! It was nothing we couldn't handle!" proclaimed a rainbow-maned, blue-coated pegasus that I was almost certain was a lesbian. She was promptly yanked out of the air by a purple unicorn.

'Gee, purple sure is a popular colour.'

"What Dash means to say is that without your help in sending those letters I may have never remembered what truly keeps us together, that no matter what our faults are we can always stick together thanks to our friendship!"

'First. You are definitely first. Or second. I don't really care but either way I swear I am going to kill you.

Celestia just chuckled at their antics, still maintaining that calm demeanour she seemed to have surgically attached to her face. "No Twilight, it is thanks to you and the bond you share with your friends that Equestria is safe once again from the tyranny of Discord."

'Bah, I remember when you used to be scared of gaining weight. I'm surprised you managed to beat Discord the first time actually. Oh Nightmare, please allow me a peaceful sleep without a hint of fat~ Stupid Princess, I don't stop nightmares, I cause them.'

"Now, I believe one of your friends wished to host a celebration par-" she was cut off by a pink mare with a tasty looking mane jumping up in the air and shouting "SAVED EQUESTRIA FROM DISCORD THE MEANIE-PANTS PARTY!" and zooming off at a speed that could only be matched by a bunny running from a manticore.

The other ponies seemed to laugh as they all headed off as a group towards what I assumed was the main hall, all of them besides Luna. She seemed to sigh before walking in my direction and giving me a fierce glare as she sat her plot in front of my statue. "'tis thou's fault that our sister and I can no longer wield the elements. No, we- I am merely blaming myself." Her face got a little more dejected at this point as she stared at the ground. "Had we-I not grown jealous of my sister then we could have worked things out perhaps. Maybe even become closer through our flaws just like the new wielders."

She sighed and looked to the ground while I just stared at her. How much pain had I caused her all those years ago? Maybe I should not have tortured her dreams relentlessly and instead worked towards- Pfffft fuck no. "Hey whorse," that certainly got her attention, she was now staring at me slack-jawed while I pointed a bladed finger towards her, "Be wary bitch, the Nightmare returns and he's going to have so much fun gutting your precious little ponies!"

I laughed at her rather menacingly as she seemed to be shaking slightly. Her expression one of fear, how delicious. I leaned down towards her, the stone breaking and falling apart while I placed the tip of one of my blades against her forehead, a few inches below her horn. Blood dripped down her face and fell to the ground while she just sat there in shock. My grin grew wider as I uttered a single word before disappearing in a burst of fire, "Boo."

The scream was beautiful.

Author's Note

Hmmm, I may have gotten a little too into this. Oh welsh. Time for some fun eh?!

A Foreign Home

'How long have I been gone?'

It is rather important to note that three things had happened to me after being turned into a stone scarecrow, besides being turned into a fucking stone scarecrow. Firstly I had figured out so many fun ways in which to make those peace-loving hypocrites beg and plead for mercy, the second thing is a secret, and the last thing was that I lost track of time. It just seems that whenever some pony decided to reminisce on some Equis-shattering event near my statue that it was always in the one-thousand year increment.

Needless to say, I was shocked at the state of my old home. Not surprised, as it looked pretty similar technically, but now it looked even more decrepit and ruinous. The simple wooden hut looked like it got into a fight with a tree, vines weaved their way through various cracks and holes in the walls while the roof even had two trees going through it.

I just sighed as I attempted to make my way inside in order to see the full extent of the damage, key word being attempted. For some stupid reason the door did not feel like budging. So I did what any technically-not-sane-but-still-acts-like-it person would do, snarled at it for a bit before kicking it inwards. What I didn't expect however, was for it to snarl back.

Rather than falling to the ground like I expected, my foot had gone straight through it and kicked into something hard on the other side. I tried to pull my leg out but it seemed that the bastardised piece of mother nature had other plans as I was violently yanked inwards, crashing through the door and hitting the wall on the opposite side.

I'd taken this time to think about what the hell just happened, out loud of course, "Right, so I break out of boredom and decide I want to get to know what the ponies fear nowadays using the same methods as usual, when all of a sudden my fucking door decides it wants to eat me. Yea-fucking right!" I casually got up to my feet, dusting off my sweater as I looked towards what had thrown me.

"That's it?! Some wooden piece of shit dog thinks he can live in my home while I'm gone and attack me as soon as I get back?!" The dog was snarling at me, it's head held low as it bared sharp wooden teeth and looked at me with glowing eyes, "How about fuck no!" I disappeared in a burst of fire and reappeared in front of the dog, much to it's surprise, and punched it right between the eyes. It yelped as it found itself being launched through the now door-less doorway.

"Why don't you," I stepped through the doorway, looking down at the stupid mutt that was cautiously stepping away, "find some other house to crash in you little bitch!" This time it tried to jump away as I disappeared in fire once more, only to move back into my foot that hit it just above it's hind leg, causing it to fly right into a tree. There was an audible crack but whether it was from the dog or the tree I couldn't tell.

I slowly moved towards it, my breath slowly becoming ragged as I stared right into its orbs. I could just feel the thoughts running through it, and they all lead to the same thing. When I'd moved closer, pointing a knife at it, it cowered away slightly and I could suddenly see what made the cracking noise. A smile wormed its way onto my face as I vocalised what it had been thinking all along, "Run."

So it did, with a hilarious limp that caused it to fall to the ground a few times. My show got ruined though when I saw green flames lap away at the wounds, almost burning them away.

I sighed and looked back towards my house. "Alright, first things first, make sure everything is as you left it, you can look for a new door tomorrow." After rummaging around the dilapidated home for a few minutes my search came up practically empty, which is a good thing. Nothing found means nothing taken as robbers or hideaways would've left some kind of scraps. I moved my way carefully around the new trees in my home, tracing my claws down the lines between boards that ran vertically down the wall. After a few tries I managed to find the secret entrance, by ramming my hand through the boards and just breaking them out of the way to reveal a flight of stairs leading down.

I found myself smiling again, slowly moving down the steps into my true home. When I reached the bottom I found a welcoming sight, my grindstone sat in one corner of the room while various gloves and knives hung from the ceiling and littered the tables scattered across the room. "There truly is no place like home."

After making sure that I still had some metal lying around and polishing up a few of the knives I closed the door, slamming a few bolts across it just in case. I headed towards the large fireplace that dominated one side of the room. Somehow the wood in place had not rotted so it should be good for one return trip if I was lucky. I grabbed a lever on the inside of the fireplace and pulled downwards, the cold iron stick scraping across the flint sides and creating a few sparks that lit up the fireplace wonderfully.

You want me to explain why I'm doing all this? Well fine then. When I'd first wound up on this stupid continent I'd found myself slightly attached to the dream world, which you should've guessed by now. I could influence them slightly and get a vague reading of what they were about but I couldn't do much else. That was, until I had somehow managed to catch fire.

"AHHHH! Someone help me!" I was rolling around on the grass while Wind Chaser and Free Fall just looked on, shocked looks on both of their faces. I was hastily patting at the fire that lapped at my ankles, not really paying attention as it changed colour from the usual red and yellow to a more precise blue. Though I did pay attention as it became much, much hotter. It looked like the fire missed its breakfast because rather than lapping away at me it was taking enormous mouthfuls. Pretty soon I was absolutely covered in it, my clothes turning to ash as my skin flaked and fell, before my entire body decided to skip a whole state of matter and skip right into exploding in a ball of gas that quickly dispersed into the atmosphere.

And then I woke up.

No it was not a dream sequence.

Well technically I didn't wake up and had found myself in a dream sequence, literally. The world around me seemed to ebb and flow as I looked over it, thousands of bright images all around me. I noticed that when I focused on one it seemed to darken slightly, so I stopped and continued to look around. It didn't take long before I got bored and decided to find out what the hell they were. So I focused on one in particular, the image slowly growing darker as it now came closer. Over time it came to envelop everything around me.

For some reason I was now in an arid plain. The long grasses came up to my knees and I swear I could see a single, albeit cliché, tree in the distance. There was a noise, and I turned to look to it. The grasses slowly withered as I gazed towards a group of smaller zebras all running around two larger ones. I flexed my clawed hand while I walked towards them, why did I feel like I knew them?

Knowledge ran through me fluidly of things I shouldn't have known, but felt like I had for years. One of the smaller zebras had noticed the setting sun that fell with the dying plains, deciding to investigate what was happening. While it looked around the other ones disappeared. When its eyes settled on me it shrieked before running off.

I don't know why but I couldn't help but smile. The soft dirt ground slowly gave way to grated metal and the tree in the distance caught fire. I turned away from the fleeing zebra and raked my claw along a newly formed wall. Sparks flew wildly as I moved. I felt like I should move this way even though all common sense told me otherwise, so I moved forward. It didn't surprise me when he zebra had been charging towards me, colliding with me as its head looked behind.

I towered over the small bundle of stripes. It looked up at me slowly, despair evident in its eyes. I was chuckling, 'why was I chuckling?' "Didn't daddy tell you Shi'na?" I moved my face closer to it, only inches away, "don't desert the herd, because lions roam the lands!" My jaw elongated and sharp teeth grew from my mouth as I snapped at the shivering foal with a roar. Its eyes turned to pinpricks as it screamed and fled, tears flowing freely.

'Why am I doing this?' My thoughts were quelled by the sight of two lionesses running past me and towards the fleeing zebra at a speed that should have been impossible. I turned on my heel and walked down a new corridor, swiping at the zebra as it ran past. It screamed as blood poured from its newfound wound, the lionesses pouncing not a moment later.

They didn't get to him though, they just vanished, along with everything else. A growl escaped my lips while I moved towards the burning tree, the flame turning a beautiful blue. The flames leaped towards me and I caught fire again, just without the same pain as the first time. This time it felt calming, like I'd just taken a shower or something. No steps were skipped this time as flesh and bone alike melted, consciousness never leaving me until every single molecule turned to gas.

And then I woke up, on the campfire no less, with Wind Chaser and Free Fall yelping and jumping away. I just laughed as I moved my claw to cover my face from the sun overhead.

Author's Note

Right, things to note/recap of provided information.
Freddy/Johnny/Nightmare/whatevers physical abilities are akin to those he has in the game Mortal Kombat 9 because yes.
To enter dreams he does something similar to using a Floo, from harry potter, and burns his way into a collective unconscious.
His very presence is unwanted, hence the darkening of images.
When he enters a dream he gains knowledge on the dreams owner through their subconscious.
Lastly, sorry if this chapter disappoints you but I felt as though I needed to set the standard for his basic abilities. I will NOT be adding any little extra abilities along the way. Besides just one that will probably get mentioned in the next chapter.
Anything else...... oh! Nightmare sequences (In case you couldn't tell, those are the parts when he makes a nightmare) should be in most, if not every chapter. BUT, they will be from the perspective of the original dreamer rather than Nighty. Yes I'm calling him Nighty now, u wanna fite m8?

Seriously though, within 6 hours this story became twice as popular as most of my other stories. I don't know whether to feel overjoyed, pressured as all hell, or overcome with depression.

Demons Of The Past And Those That Will Come To Be

"Guards! Find my sister immediately!" Celestia's once calm demeanour was filled to the brim with worry, for as long as she could remember Luna had never screamed like that. Luna had always been the harder to scare of the two, with her always playing nasty pranks on Celestia. She wanted so badly to see what was wrong, but she could not leave her ponies behind.

Speaking of which, pones stood all around the highly decorated room. Some were covering their ears from the onslaught of noise while others had shock and fear etched onto their faces. Twilight, the one currently closest to Celestia, looked up to her with wide eyes, "What do you think happened to her Princess?"

"I do not know Twilight," Celestia moved her stern gaze over the crowd, "but whatever has caused my sister to scream like that must be taken care of immediately. Attention my little ponies!" her body gave its best to give off the picture of calm, but there were holes in it and the ink had smudged, "due to unforeseen circumstances I am forced to declare this party over, all besides the Elements of Harmony are to return to their homes immediately!"

The ponies all trickled out of the room, nervous whispers being exchanged and murmurs of some horrible creature that could scare an Alicorn washed through the crowd. Celestia just watched them calmly, ordering her guards to make sure everypony got home safe and sound, until two of them rushed in. "Your highness! We bring disastrous news!"

Celestia glared at them slightly, silently ordering them to keep their voices down, "It's Princess Luna your highness! We do not know what is wrong but she has been taken to the medical ward. We found her staring at nothing while babbling the wor-" he was cut off as Celestia turned away, headed towards the medical ward with the speed of a sprinting Earth pony, yet she looked to be walking while the Elements struggled to keep up behind her.

When they were outside the door however, Celestia stopped stock still. The Elements just tilted their heads in confusion as they heard that somepony was singing something.

"What is going on Celestia? Why did you stop?" I was getting very worried at this point, in all my years under Celestia's tutelage I had never seen her like this.

"Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity Belle, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkamena Diane Pie, you are all to return to the throne room to await further instructions." Celestia replied, a stern look on her face as she gazed upon the door that gave way to the owner of the voice.

"B-but princess, we want to see how we can help Luna." I stammered out, to which Celestia replied with a stern glare. Silence reigned for a few moments as we sat in silence, me cowering slightly under my mentors gaze.

Before she sighed, and relented, "Very well Twilight, you and your friends may enter, but what you see or hear must not leave the confines of the room and you must all promise me one thing."

The elements and I looked to each other, all giving silent nods while we each held the same sombre expression "Anything princess, you know you can count on us."

"No matter the cost or whatever you have to do, you must avoid sleep." And with that she gently opened the door, the words of the song becoming clear to all who gazed upon the figure draped in a bed sheet, staring at a wall.

"One, Two, the Nightmare's coming for you." sang a beautiful voice, the words filled with both worry and fear. Me and my friends slowly moving into the ward one by one.

"Three, Four, better lock your door." it continued, as we got closer we could hear a faint dripping noise.

"Five, Six, grab your torches and picks." the singing seemed to envelop everything besides the dripping. It was all I could hear and all I wanted to do was run away, but my inquisitive side got the better of me as I slowly moved around the bed the figure was on.

"Seven, Eight, gotta stay up late." my expression darkened as I came upon the view of Luna, her face pale and her hair drooping down her body as she stared at the wall. 'Who, or what, could have caused this?'

"Nine, Ten..." my gaze came across the source of the dripping, her fetlocks had cuts zigzagging across them, and as I watched a scalpel hovering in a blue field slashed across them once more. I gasped and looked up at the Princess once more, uncomprehending of why she was doing this, and I saw her stare right back at me with dead eyes while she stared right back, finishing the song.

"Never sleep again." I don't know why, but I screamed. My eyes rolling back into my head as I passed out. I always hated the sight of blood, I'd had no idea I would soon be seeing a lot more of it.

I found myself raising an eyebrow as the flame changed colour right in front of me. Where the flames of the furnace would usually burn red until I had stepped inside, they had instead glowed a sickly green. "What?"

Then I was forced to cover my eyes with an arm from a small explosion that originated from the flames, along with a small thud. I slowly moved my arm away from my face and noticed the flame was completely gone, and instead there was a large stone tablet. "What?"

I carefully looked over the small assortment of items with a hint of suspicion, carefully moving closer to them and picking them up one-by-one and placing them on one of my workbenches. "Lets see now, an odd glass orb with some shitty green stuff in it." It only just fit in the palm of my hand and while it looked useless, I thought I could throw it at someone as an escape tactic or something, not that I needed an escape tactic.

"Next, the tacky jewellery." I picked up a small diamond this time, a faint hum of words echoing around the room.

“I am the protector of the innocent, warrior of the weak, call upon me for assistance and I shall come. Call for the Gravity Shifter and I will make those who harm others beg for mercy as they are crushed at my feet. Hold this gem close to thine heart and I shall be at your side as a fellow warrior!”

I blinked slowly, manoeuvring the gem between the tips of my claws and carefully placing it down beside the orb, "So that's what these are, summoning items." My grin grew wider as I looked down at the two objects, some of the leftover muscles in my face tearing slightly from the sheer width, "I think I'll have some fun with this."

My grin never left my face when I picked up the last object, unlike the others it was just a stone. What it was made out of though, I had no idea. I carefully looked over the symbols on the side, turning it over occasionally. My smile faltered slightly as I moved the stone to my regular-gloved hand, the clawed one reaching down to the desk as I carved in some notes.

I'm not really as dumb as I seem y'know? I went through that spy phase as a kid too when I was.... the old me, at least I think I did. The code part always stuck with me though due to the challenge it would always provide. My claw scratched along the width of the table as I went through each and every symbol, "This is very similar to a pigpen cipher, in fact I feel as though I've seen these somewhere..."

My eyes widened and my claws dug into the table as realisation hit me, "Bionicles? Who would write out a message in Matoran?" I had no idea what I was saying but it sort of made sense.

My eyes roamed over the stone once again, replacing the symbols with letters as the message slowly formed, and I was absolutely dumbstruck, "What an asshole."

I scoffed and put the stone next to the others on my now ruined desk, looking over them with an unsettling smile. "I suppose I should give something in return." I looked over the room for a few moments, trying to come up with something that would work, though the answer was obvious.

I reached up and grabbed one of the gloves dangling from the ceiling, the blades without even a hint of wearing from time. I let a chuckle escape my lips as I got to work, grabbing a large amount of them and one by one I stitched in the same message, 'Burn Me'. I made sure it wasn't just a summon though, some of them had the words stitched in black while the others were red. I would help anyone who got a red one, and have my fun with anyone who got a black one. Either way, something is gonna end up dead.

I found myself laughing loudly while I sharpened the blades, sparks flying in all directions as I somehow sharpened two blades at a time on the whetstone-plated wall. I gathered all of them up on another desk before lighting the fire once more, hoping that I could will the flames into the green colour. It somehow managed to work as the leaf-coloured flames licked at every surface. My laughing only seemed to escalate as I threw the gloves in individually, watching them burn to ash instantaneously.

By the end of it I was gasping for air, with a workshop deprived of half of its gloves. "Now," I panted, willing the flames back to normal, "time to get some information the only way I know how." My laughing had been reduced to giggles as I calmly stepped into the flames, almost relishing in the feeling of my flesh searing and falling apart.

My jaw unhinged and fell off, melting with the rest of my body, but I still kept my smile. I couldn't even remember why I once feared this, and I didn't care either way, because night was descending and it was time for the Nightmare to play.

Author's Note

Woo!
Next chapter I finally get to go all out with the nightmares!
What, you thought the one in the other chapter was as good as I can go? Ha! That was written in barely ten minutes with a character I made up on the spot, don't even compare it to what I will be doing.
Also, cheers to Dundredo and Ssendam the Masked for giving me the chance to play with their characters! Looking forward to ~~killing~~ meeting up with 'em! :pinkiecrazy:
Hmm anything else....... oh! The extra power I mentioned has not actually been mentioned yet. Well you'll just have to wait until next chapter :derpytongue2: .
And sorry if the beginning is a tad dull.
If anyone else wants a glove, just chuck it in and tell me.

Knowledge Once Gained...

"My mentor Star Swirl the Bearded taught me about them" claimed Clover the Clever, "they're winter spirits that feed off fighting and hatred. The more hate the spirit feels, the colder things become!"

Both Private Pansy and Smart Cookie gasped at this news, Smart's expression becoming downtrodden as she spoke "Then... Then... this is our fault. We three tribes... we brought this blizzard to our home by fightin' and not trustin' each other. Now it's destroyin' this land, too."

Clover the Clever nodded, adding "And now our bodies will become as cold as our hearts... all because you retarded birds and in-breeding hicks couldn't just lay down and accept our rule!"

"This... this isn't right" said Twilight, her eyes scanning back and forth over the words, but they stayed the same, though the writing was thicker and a lot more erratic. Yet she continued to read.

Private Pansy stomped a hoof down, glaring at the other two, "Well, I hate you both so much... I hate you a lot more than Commander Hurricane!" For this, Pansy got glares of her own as both Smart and Clover advanced on her at once.

"What is going on here? This isn't what happened!" Twilight's mind was racing a million miles, who would write such an obvious fake? Surely nopony would have believed this if they knew what happened, which was hard not to considering the amount of times this story is recounted. But still she continued to read, hoping for some sort of answer to this.... this debasement of an important part of Equestrias history!

"Well I hate you both immensely! There ain't nothin' I want more right now than ta' wring your skinny little

Twilight dropped the book and stumbled back as the words on the pages in front of her seemed to melt, coalescing into a dark black that covered the bottom of the page. She looked around the library for anyone to tell her what in Equestria was happening, when she suddenly thought 'When did I get to the Royal Archives?'

Her thoughts however were cut short as the ink began to seep out of the book, turning a sickly red colour while it spread across the floor. She took a few more steps back, seeing that the red substance was also cascading down the shelves on either side of her, surrounding her in an ever encroaching puddle of red. She was stumbling to get away though her eyes were transfixed on the strange liquid as she could almost see what looked like letters underneath its surface.

Then all of a sudden the puddle stopped expanding, now contracting in on itself as it slowly bubbled up into a long pillar in front of the awe-struck Twilight. The pillar slowly developed limbs and took a step towards her as she stepped back. An arm with pointed digits formed and raised towards her as another formed pointed downwards. She didn't know why, but she felt as if the amalgamation of weird, red ink was smiling at her.

Then, with remarkable speed, the pointed digits began expanding towards her. They got closer and closer until she finally realised she should probably move. She heard a chuckle as she fumbled around a bit before fleeing away from the sharp red ink tentacles. They criss-crossed and twirled around each other effortlessly as they chased after her.

Tears streaked across the sides of her head due to her running. She barely noticed that one of the bookshelves was covered in a blue flame as she ran before coming to a complete halt, the tiles at her hooves were severely cracked and some were missing completely. The bookshelves that continued to surround her now stood bare and rotted. Even the ceiling seemed to cave inwards slightly. None of these were what stopped her though, rather she was stopped by the tendrils of red that had wrapped around her hocks, digging into them as they pulled her back slowly.

More tears ran down her face as she struggled to move herself forward with her two remaining limbs. Her hope faded though as the ground in front of her begun to crack more violently, falling down to leave an empty expanse where she'd been dragged from. Empty bookshelves crashed around her as they fell down one by one. She screamed as one of the tendrils twisted violently and snapped her left-hind leg in half.

Her screams almost drowned out the laughter that came from behind her, almost. Slowly, cautiously, fearfully, anxiously she turned her head to look behind her, only to be greeted with more darkness where the tendrils originated. Just black, and silence. Her breathing began to slow down as she looked, her head locked in place, not daring to blink.

Her thoughts slowly began to pick up again, analysing the situation as best it could at a snails pace. The tendrils stayed roped around her hooves as far as she could tell, but she was too afraid to find out. She heard laughter again and her breathing picked up.

"~One, Two, the Nightmare's coming for you~"

A red skull suddenly invaded her vision, becoming more defined as it moved towards her. Its mouth slowly opening wide enough to eat an Ursa Minor. It's 'skin' clearly made of the same words written over and over. Scars became evident as the teeth became sharper, the eyes more clear and the smile more terrifying. Closer and closer it came, she scrambled blindly behind her for something, anything! But she could not tear her gaze away from what was in front of her.

Within seconds it was but a few feet away and she closed her eyes, hoping that she would not have to see her own demise. But nothing came. Seconds passed, then minutes, then hours. She could hear the steady beeping of a heart rate monitor and she clutched her hooves closer to her body. It was then she heard a door open and saw light flood the room along with the sound of rushing hooves. She was shivering, slowly opening one eye to see nothing but white. Her vision trailed upwards to look upon the face of her mentor, a very concerned expression on her muzzle.

'It was just a dream.' she thought, a sigh escaping her lips as she tried to sit up in the bed. Only to scream as loud as she could when she'd moved her hind legs, tears moving down her face as she looked to the blood-soaked hospital bed. She saw the outline of one of her legs but when she looked for the other she could not find it under the blanket, instead seeing it poking out the side with that one word written all over it in her own blood.

I stretched as my body rematerialized in the fire, my joints cracking as I stretched them far further than I should have. "That was a good nap. I chuckled slightly, my head sorting out the new information I had gotten from the purple mare, and man was there a lot of it! I slowly moved over to one of my workbenches, absently picking an empty glove before beginning work on it.

I was about half way through making the third blade for it when I felt a slight tug. I grinned widely as the tug didn't seem to have any proper origin. "Finally, one of my gloves reached their destination. Now I'll just have to wait for whichever idiot who received it to burn the fucking thing, then I'll have a whole new playground to bully kids in."

I laughed loudly, whichever fools had sent their little 'one trip only' tokens here either didn't know where they sent them or were just plain unlucky. I'd figured this out during my time in stone, though the data was collected beforehand. You see, the original Freddy's power was limited to a certain area and any beings who had stepped foot in it, his being Elm Street and mine being the entirety of Equestria. So I thought to myself, 'If I could send out things connected to me and get them dispersed throughout some other area, would I be able to increase my little sphere of death?' Unfortunately, the only way to test this is with a live demonstration.

I hung my new glove up on the roof, remarking at all the missing space that the disposal of my old ones had created. I said aloud a single sentence that encompassed two trains of thought, "I've got a lot of work ahead of me."

Author's Note

Fun Facts!
1. Before writing this I realised I hadn't seen the 2010 remake! So I went ahead and watched it..... stopping about 14 minutes in just due to how bad it seemed.
2. I ended up getting Photoshop just for this chapter! Will work on a better looking cover image.
3. The little image I made turned out not too well considering it looked so nice beforehand, here's a link to the original if you want to decipher it.
4. I believe there needs to be a 'Freaky Fred in Equestria' story. Someone get on that.
5. If you want to try figuring out the hidden 'one' word that is written all over the second picture, here is the link to the original version of the second picture.
6. I promise not to make any more of these mid-story pictures if you people don't like them.

A Tryst For Two

I was calmly sharpening my blades, my thoughts running at a million miles a second as I came up with a slew of games to play with the stupid ponies. It was a little... depressing really. The ponies always easy to scare, so much as a scratch on their cutie-mark and they'll faint on the spot. "I need better toys. Maybe I should take up doll making as a hobby?"

My thoughts came to a stop though as the fire picked up, a voice echoing around the room.

"To those of sound mind, sound heart. To they that would stand against evil, in the face of Armageddon. To the warriors and heroes, both celebrated and unsung. To my fellow Displaced, I call on you. I am Auric Fulcrum, Knight of the Eclipse, wielder of Alchemy's might. All I hold dear is being threatened by another Displaced. I know not why he seeks to fight me, but as I am, I cannot fight him and win. I require allies while I repair my self. I call on you to aid me, and promise you this: should the side of Light prevail, then I will grant they that aid me whatever boons I can as rewards, within reason. I hope that is not the only reason you choose to fight for me, but in my experience, you motivate more people with a pile of treasure and a kind plea than a kind plea alone."

Well that was surprising, and it sounded like such an easy target no less. Still, even if I brutalised the ones he 'holds dear' in front of him I suspect he would only go into depression or get angry. His voice held a slight tint of grief to it after all. Shortly after that another voice came from the fire.

"Friends, villains, countrymen. Lend me your ears. I, Makuta Teridax, have a dream. A dream that, no matter what interference, will become reality. I call to you, those who want to dominate, to rule the world with an iron fist, I call you. I am Makuta Teridax, the Void, the Shadow of Evil, the Corruptor, he who is Anger and Hatred. And if you want to win... to dominate everything...then stand by my side, and I guarantee you... I cannot say, for I believe that my enemies may be eavesdropping on this, just as I did his... but regardless, come talk to me and I shall let you know. But the information I shall give you will NOT be spoken of. Or, if you want more... immediate rewards, I can grant those too. After all, power always comes with a price."

Villains? Well I guess I could be called that now. Martin Luther King rip-off? Ha ha. Dominate? I always do, don't much care for ruling though. At least he's smart about keeping information hidden. Wait, was that a hint of lust when he was talking about his enemy? Ew dude. He sounded regal, he had goals and he seemed to care more about the end result rather than the means. I think I'll have a chat with him. Despite the lust thing.

My near-constant smile grew as I stood, picking my hat up from the table and throwing two of my old gloves inside before putting it on, "Just in case." They had no claws though, so I only brought them in case my current gloves burned off or something, which was impossible, but it doesn't hurt to be safe. I looked towards the fire again, holding up a clawed hand to it as it slowly turned from red to blue. I'd reasoned that my 'dream flames' would be able to send 'living' tissue through other dimensions where my green ones would send dead.

I thought on how I was going to get a good bearing, lest I end up in an empty void. 'I, Makuta Teridax.' Oh, of course, how silly of me. He was the bionicle. I focused on the stone sitting with the other inter-dimensional trinkets I had. The flame rippled slightly before giving me a clear view beyond it. "Well hello tall, dark and evil-looking." I reached through the flame with my bladed hand and grabbed onto the wall beside it before stepping through, my grin wide as I thought on what was to come from the thing before me.

Yep, that is definitely a bionicle, he looked down at me. “Freddy Kreuger. What brings me the pleasure? As I do not need to sleep, this is hardly a dream. May I presume that you are like me, a man displaced from Earth and granted the form and powers of the greatest nightmare who ever lived?”

He was way too polite, but the compliments were nice. I was expecting tea and crumpets to be served at this point. “Ugh, you sound so polite, how sickening. Yes I am one of these…. what the fuck did you call it?”

If he was off-put by my language, he didn't show it. Or any sign of movement for that matter. “Displaced. We who have been torn from our homes by outrageous misfortune.”

I lifted the skin above my eye, god I missed having eyebrows. Why was he talking like we were on the battlefront already and he was trying to get the troops motivated? “Do you always talk as though you’re giving a speech?”

He leant down towards me, woo he is a big one! “Yes. Yes I do. If you have a problem with that…” At least he was honest. He drew back up to his full height. Correction: a VERY big one. “Then I won’t point you in the direction of a juicy target.” I was expecting a threat, what a let down.

That got my attention. I held back more smiling at the fear of tearing open my cheeks, didn't want to ruin his floor after all. I stroked my blades along my chin as I made the obvious choice. “What a hard choice, help the guy who will most likely let me have my fun, or the guy more likely to stop me due to…” I groaned “morals…”

If he was smiling I couldn't tell, for some reason it felt like that though. “Yes, morals. I don’t have those. In fact… I’d say that you know which target I consider… juicy enough for you to go at him. But one thing, Freddy.”

He leant forwards as darkness surrounded us from out of nowhere. “Don’t kill Auric in his sleep. Let him suffer. Maybe give him a scar. But I will be the one to kill Auric. Don’t forget that.” He makes it sound like I'm some sort of ninja killing people in their sleep.

I chuckled, tipping my hat upward slightly to give me a good view of his whole body. Control freaks like him were usually pretty easy to scare, all you had to do was take their control. But where I would make it so Auric had no control over the safety of his allies, Teridax's fears would be much more.... personal. I was rather upset at not being able to kill off Auric though, but since this thing looked like it could kill me with a thought, I think I should play the good little minion for now. “You two seem so much alike, yet your fears are almost completely different. I’ll be sure to have my fun with him, don’t you worry.”

“No killing or limb removal. That would bring suspicion on you and me. And DON’T reveal your identity. Disguise yourself as me when interacting with him.” He chuckled. “Let him make false assumptions about what I can and cannot do. Now that’s out of the way, I shall tell you my plans… and where you fit in with them.”

In my nightmares I am anything and everything, I wouldn't even have to show any identities if I didn't want to. “You’re such a control freak aren’t you? And if you dreamt, it would make you far too easy….” I laughed as I began walking around the room, inspecting various knick-knacks. Heck, I could just disguise myself as Auric himself if I wanted to. If Teridax thought himself a god of the physical world, I would be the one of the sleeping. “I’ll make sure Auric doesn’t know what hit him… even if he’s the one doing the hitting.”

He nodded. “Good.”

He picked up a block of the same material the rock was made from and started carving it idly as he continued. “My plan has two stages. First stage, I plan to absorb all of the Alicorns’ magic here. That means NO INTERFERENCE. If there is, I will get… angry.”

I nodded, clenching my clawed hand slightly as I waited for him to continue. 'I guess I could leave four out of infinity Alicorns' alone.' He continued. “The second stage relies on Auric making a move against me. He’s powerful, very powerful. With him fighting me and any other allies I make- which will include yourself, naturally- I plan to use the energy from the conflicts to Ascend out of the universe. The best part is, if he doesn’t show I can still Ascend with my own power.” Ascend? So he may actually become a god? Huh.

He turned to me. “Fight for me, and I’ll give you weapons and free reign over the dreams of any… dissidents here. You will strike only the dissidents. Otherwise, you can spread light terror. It will be your personal bolt hole. In exchange, I require you to observe Auric and any allies he gathers, and drive them near crazy. Is that fair?”

'I get almost free reign over another universe AND I get to be a spy with potential knowledge about the entire conflict? Why the hell not? Lets see what else I can get from this though,' my thoughts turning towards the odd material. No matter how much I tried to break off a small piece of it I could never do it, my blades didn't even scratch it, yet he was able to change it so easily. I raised my claw, holding up two of my bladed fingers. “Two conditions. I want blades made of that material.” I pointed towards the block of whatever-it-is he was carving. He had a relatively good drawing of my face on there. Creepy, though I can't say much. His lights squinted, then he nodded.

Apparently that was a yes as he said, “And the other?”

My grin would have been menacing if he weren’t so damn tall. “After this is over, I want to have free reign over any who survived being on the other team, so to speak.”

I think I made him happy with that one, it certainly felt that way. “I agree to those conditions. Now, let’s see about those blades.” He eyed me over as I fought the urge to shiver. He then walked off to his forge, beckoning me to come.

“This is protosteel, one of the finest metals in the multiverse.” He gripped a block of the protosteel and threw it into his forge, watching it melt. He then pulled it out and started hammering it into shape, pulling strips off and shaping them. I was feeling slightly giddy at this point.

“If you want a strong sharp blade that will keep a damn fine edge, you’ve come to the right place.” He started folding the carbon-rich metal, pounding it rapidly to ensure it stayed in shape. When he’d repeated the process several times, he plunged it into water.

“Those blades can cut through solid stone with a little effort, and that edge will stay for a long time.” When they’d cooled sufficiently, he handed them to me with a bit of a flourish and what looked to be pride.

“If you were to meet God, he would be cut.”

My eyes sparkled as I took them, turning them over in my hand. They looked so damn sharp, I could not wait to test them out. After all, I always had trouble cutting those unicorn horns in twain. “Yes, these will be just perfect.” I slowly moved towards the still-flaming wall, eyes glued to the blades. My thoughts turned over the details until I realised something. “There is still one problem though.”

He seemed apprehensive. “If you ask for another condition, no. Otherwise, what is it?”

I chuckled as I turned to him, taking off my hat and tucking the blades away inside. “You misunderstand, I’m talking about a hindrance. You know of Princess Luna’s capabilities correct?” In my dimension she was a valiant foe, for about ten seconds. Where her sister looked to me to help from nightmares, Luna knew I caused them. So she sought out to defeat me, only to become a miserable wreck.

He nodded. “Dreamwalking.” After a slight pause he continued. “I see what you mean. Can you evade her easily?”

“I could break her down into a shrivelling mess, in fact I already have. But yes, I could avoid her. Though it will be difficult if she is not sufficiently distracted.” She always did like making grand entrances into dreams, and she ALWAYS came from the moon if it could be found. In my dimension anyhow.

He pointed at me. “Breaking Princess Luna in Auric’s dimension may draw unwanted attention to you and to me. Though it would help, I dare not. Auric may use that as justification to get the remaining Alicorns on your case. I will create a couple of distractions for her, don’t worry. I can’t dreamwalk, but I can leave suggestions and whispers… enough to draw her away from you.”

I nodded, at least he knew what he was doing. I reached into my hat and pulled out the pair of tattered gloves before throwing them towards him. “Cut off the fingers, burn a piece of those gloves if you believe the coast is clear. I’ll give you my trust on this one.” Trust in something that would kill me without a second thought certainly seemed hard, but I felt as though I had no choice in the matter, plus I'd never worked as part of a group before so maybe it would be fun.

He nodded. “In which case, I will make sure not to betray that trust.” His attention seemed to go elsewhere for a moment before returning to me. “Apologies, Freddy, but another being seeks my attention. I don’t like to cut a meeting short, but I must fly. See yourself out, please. But don’t touch anything.”

I smirked as I placed my hat back onto my head. I'd forgotten to tell him my real name, oh well. “I’ll make sure to remain a secret, even from your own side. So sorry, friendly-fire is on.”

He sighed. “Be safe”

I laughed as the fire picked up before whipping towards me as I looked to Teridax, giving a final bow before being flung back towards it and coming out on the opposite side. To be honest I fully expected him to try some sort of mind reading thing, though I didn't really care. When you spend a majority of your life in the minds of others you learn to protect your own. So if he did, he would either see some of my work, or my play. Can you guess which is more fun to watch?

I clapped my hands together as the flames dissipated, my smile now free to tear my face apart. "This is going to be so much fun!" I hurried over to my workbench, taking my hat off and pulling out the blades. I felt as my mouth slowly healed up and the flesh sewed itself together. I hurried over to another bench, looking over my gloves for the perfect fit.

After a few moments of looking over them though my head snapped to the left, my smile ripping apart my freshly fixed face as I slammed a fist into the wall and drew out a small box from the wreckage. Opening it I found my favourite gloves, two shiny black ones I had made when I met my first dragon. Sure it took a while to get them to soften enough to wear, but it was oh so very worth it now!

I hurriedly moved back over to my bench, laughing loud enough to shake the walls slightly as I grafted the new claws to the old glove. I found myself repeating the same phrase over and over as what was left of my inhibitions fell at the prospect of finally having something good to play with.

"This is going to be so much fun! Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!"

Author's Note

I realised while writing my part that I had no real way of telling whom was on what side, then I remembered The Nightmare has access to memories while ~~torturing~~ playing with his victims so it doesn't really matter!

Still, Terry needs an emblem or something, so get on that Ssendam :derpytongue2: .

I suppose I should mention I made a group for the upcoming war,
The War of Understanding
, just so people can keep track. I'm still working on it though. And I feel I should mention the name came from a comment by Time Squid on Ssendam's story.

To sum up this chapter: Nighty might be popping into a few other stories to give their characters some nightmares. If you're on Auric's side he will try to torture you for information and kill you while keeping his identity secret, and if you're on Terry's side he'll still torture you but in a way that'll help you become stronger.If you don't have a side then it'll just be torture and kill. So either way it's win-win!

Oh and if you haven't yet read Teridax's story (doubt it) and want to see what happened from his point of view here it is.

... Is Never Truly Lost

I found myself being forcefully thrown from the fire, smashing into one of my workbenches with a worrisome snap. I was pissed. I slowly got up and leant backwards, my spine snapping back into place. I slowly moved over to an empty workbench, occasionally clenching my clawed hand as I walked towards it. Correction, I was extremely pissed. I snarled and kicked the bench as hard as I could, it wrapped around my leg slightly before being sent off into the wall in pieces.

My leg gave and I fell to a kneeling position, the bone snapped completely out the back of my shin. I just growled and stood up shakily, raising a hand to my head as I hoppled over to my most recent project. Fire began lapping at my leg as the bone violently moved back into place, the skin and muscles melting over while I sat down.

~One, Two, Freddy's coming for you~

I growled at the music in my head, grabbing a large chunk of wood and cutting away at it. "I am not Freddy!" The gave way to my new claws, slowly forming into a small box about the size of a pony's head.

~Three, Four, Better lock your door~

"My door is always locked you stupid fucking song! And my front door is still indisposed so shut the fuck up!" My voice was steadily growing louder as I moved over to a workbench covered in different colours, holding onto the cube. I reached under the bench and grabbed out five buckets of paint.

~Five, Six, Grab your crucifix~

"God clearly doesn't exist here so shut the fuck up!" I slammed my fist into the bench, cracking it slightly. I decided I needed to calm down if I was to get rid of the damned song, so I grabbed a brush and started painting the cube. One side red, one green, one blue, one black and one grey. I then lifted a claw to it and carved a question mark into the remaining side.

~Seven, Eight, Gonna stay up late~

I ignored the singing, noticing as it slowly lost its volume. I placed the cube onto another bench to dry. I then went over to my pile of wood, grabbing a few pieces before chucking them onto an empty bench. I grabbed one of them and started carving out a sphere, the claws making it excessively easy. The mere thought of them though brought back unwanted memories. "'Keep a low profile' he says, 'keep out of trouble' he says. I spat my words slightly, the head becoming more defined.

~Nine, Ten,Never sleepagain~

"Of course the fucking cunt sends me out without any real information. He could've at least said, 'Oh hey, you know that guy I'm sending you to play with? Well he has some crazy self-awareness'. Fucking seriously. The head became one that looked like a stallions, fitting into the palm of my hand. I threw it over to the paint bench before standing up again. "The ponies here couldn't do shit against me, as if I'd let myself get sealed again!"

I punched a wall, panting slightly. 'How much had time passed here while I was gone? I think I'll check up on them.' I couldn't dream walk for a while though so that was out of the question. Reluctantly I opened the door and walked upstairs. I noticed the wolf was back but it seemed to be cautiously avoiding me. I snarled at it before moving towards the still absent front door.

I spread out my clawed hand and crouched down, lowering the tips of my blades to touch the ground. Slowly, painfully, my hand pulled away from my arm. Skin and muscle tore as the hand detached and went scuttling off into the forest. I hadn't done this in ages, not because it was painful but because it left me without my glove.

I was aware of the glove as it moved along the ground, occasionally jumping between trees to gain speed. I walked back down into the workshop as the claw moved, the creatures of the forest deciding that a bladed claw wouldn't go down too well. I sat down and grabbed another glove from the roof, a left handed one. I calmly put it on, my anxiety dissipating slightly as the leather wrapped around my fingers.

The glove came across a path, picking the direction that led further from my hut before heading out. There were hoof-prints along it so it probably wouldn't be too long of a trip. I got to work finishing off the pony puppet while one handed, it was not easy to do. The claw finally came across a small town after a while and I saw a familiar purple unicorn talking with an orange coated normal one. I finally began smiling again while I cared out one of the hind legs.

I moved the dragon-scale glove to follow her, none of the ponies seemed to noticed the glove jumping from building to building. I was finishing off the last leg as Twilight, as her dreams told me, moved into a large tree-library. The glove quickly ran in as she shut the door and dug its claws into the wall, moving up to hang off the ceiling above her.

What? You want to know why I was hearing my own theme song? Well that wasn't mine dickhead, that was Freddy's. It used to play in my head all the time until I finally figured out how to shut it up. Unfortunately when I entered Auric's head I unconsciously took a bit of his memories. I barely saw a hundredth of a glimpse of this understanding thing and my head ended up hurting like hell, all of my mental defences falling flat as I was forced to literally cut Auric's memories out of my head.

I absently ran a claw across my scalp, because if the injury it might take a day or two in order to get my flames properly working again. The claw followed Twilight grabbed a few books from the shelves. I chuckled as she flinched slightly, and I saw that one of her legs was tinted red. "Stupid whorse probably tried to bite off the words."

I painted my little toy for the next few hours as Twilight read. It was well into the night, almost morning, before she finally fell asleep. I smirked as my claw ran along the walls, carving the word 'Run' onto every surface until it ran out, so I made it carve it onto the covers of every book in the library. I quickly moved the glove over to the last untouched surface, a calendar.

"Two weeks. The stupid ponies have slept soundly for two whole weeks?! I've got to fix this." I smiled wider as I finished the last piece of the toy, letting it dry next to the cube. The glove scratched the word 'Run' into the calendar, on every single day, before it burst into flames. I chuckled as my wrist caught fire as well, the glove slowly coming into existence back where it belonged.

"I've been gone far too long, and I am just bursting with ideas. Sleep soundly now my little ponies, because tomorrow night you'll be having the fright of your lives." I laughed maniacally, grabbing one of the unused blades from a bench before assembling the new toy I'd made. It was an almost perfect replica of Auric Fulcrums pony body, and while I'd figured out I could never touch him, it did not mean I couldn't harm him.

My laugh grew louder as I stabbed the toy into a wall, calmly whispering "May all your dreams be cursed, you'll be forced to see the ones you love die in front of you over and over every night, while they are forced to dream of your demise." I smiled as blood began to seep from the toy before I lit it on fire, "A final present to you Auric, you can't keep everyone safe at night."

Author's Note

So there we go.
I was notably irritated when Thadius0 used my character without so much as asking but I just said 'What the hell?' and am deciding to go along with it.
Doesn't mean I'm not annoyed though, so have fun with your new toy Auric. Each time you break it, it will only burn back. It will always curse whichever it recognises as the first human to set foot in whatever dimension it resides, so if you throw it somewhere else they'll know whose fault it is.
And right now, Johnny isn't too pleased with Teridax either, so let's see how that goes.

A Night To Remember: Applejack & Rainbow Dash

"Ya'll better make sure that yer room is tidied up by the time ahm done now, Applebloom." I gave a stern glance towards Bloom to which she replied with a slow nod. I turned away and began moving towards the orchard, enjoying the smell of ripe apples in the morning. I moved over to the first tree and turned, leaning forward as my hind legs lifted.

I bucked with the same strength as usual, but the tree didn't budge. "Now what in tha hay." I frowned slightly as I tried again, to no avail. I bucked it harder, sure that at least one apple would fall, but the stupid tree just would not budge. "This better not be some kind of practical joke." I tried one more time, putting all my strength into my front hooves as I kicked out backwards. But my hooves never touched three tree.

As soon as my hooves were within a few centimetres of the tree it opened up. My eyes went wide as my legs moved inside it, unable to stop the momentum. I gasped as the tree grew two cold, green eyes and sharp teeth that looked like knives. The mouth closed down on my legs and I screamed, knives piercing through flesh only to come out the other side. I struggled to move away as the tree held me still, blood seeping down the trunk.

Then it started chewing. I felt something grab onto my hooves inside the tree and pull me backwards into it. I kept trying to move away but as soon as its mouth opened, it was shut again, eliciting another scream from me as I looked towards the rest of the trees. They now stood wilted and dead, rotten apples littering the ground.

"Wake up Applejack!"

Tears stained the dead ground at my hooves as I struggled to move away. I looked towards Celestia's sun, 'How could this happen?' I saw a blur move across the sky but I was too slow, and distracted, to follow it. The jaws of the tree opened again before quickly sinking into my upper thighs.

"Come on! Wake up sis!"

My front hooves moved feebly to pull me away, my body slumping to the ground as my blood dribbled down my torso. I heard a scream in the distance, which sounded a lot like "Fluttershy!" I moved what I could in the direction of the scream. I saw Flutters running down the path to my home, she was being followed by her animals.

She had a frantic look on her face and our eyes met for a brief moment.

The last thing I said to her was "Help!" before another scream got my attention.

~One, Two, The Nightmare's coming for you~
"Wake up sis! Please wake up!"

Then everything went dark. I slowly opened my eyes to see Applebloom, crying against my bed. I reached out a hoof and gently pet her head. "What's wrong Bloom?" She looked up to me with a face full of shock, then hope, then joy as she nuzzled my side.

"You finally woke up! Don't worry non' sis, Mac's gone to get a doctor." Doctor? Why would I need a doctor?

Then the memories of my nightmare returned to me and I looked towards my legs frantically. The sheets had been kicked off and the bed was stained red. My eyes went the size of dinner plates as I saw my legs. There were cuts all along and through them. I knew Applebloom was next to me and that I shouldn't worry her, but I couldn't help the scream that came from my mouth.

"Haha yes!" I just pulled off two Sonic Rainbooms in a row! The Wonderbolts are going to have to take me now! I looked back at the two parallel rainbow trails with a smug grin before turning back to the supervisors. They all had their attentions on their clipboards, even Spitfire!

"Good job Rainbow Dahs, now move into to next are for processing." Spitfire said disinterestedly. She even yawned! I grumble and flew towards the next area, I didn't even notice that the rainbow trail was still there. I sat down in front of a single judge on a desk who was going over some papers with a bored expression.

"Rainbow Dash, you are disqualified." He said calmly, putting the papers down and stamping them with the big, red word 'FAIL'.

"WHAT?!" I screamed at him, hooves slamming down on the desk.

"You have been disqualified, Miss Dash, due to a request by a higher authority."

"Who?! Who in Equestria would do such a thing?!" The judge just rolled his eyes and pulled some papers out of a drawer, flicking through them casually.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle."

My jaw hit the ground. 'Why would Twilight do this?' My mind went into overdrive as I tried to process this, then I shook my head and took off. "I'll just tell Twilight that someone used her identity to stop me from becoming a Wonderbolt, she'll fix this up for sure!" I sped over Equestria, I was too tired for a Sonic Rainboom though so I was a lot slower than I should have been.

I went over Sweet Apple Acres, I thought I heard something but shrugged it off as I flew past. I headed towards Twilight's castle and flew through the window, crashing slightly. Well, crashing a lot. I hit a bookcase pretty hard and knocked a large amount of them out. Groaning, I got up, shaking my head and fluttering my wings before looking to Twilight. She was reading a book like she usually does, her back to me.

I slowly moved up behind her, "Twilight! You gotta help me!" I shouted. She didn't respond though, she just flicked a page over. I kept running towards her but she always seemed just out of reach.

"What's wrong Dash?" She said absentmindedly, as if the world was completely at peace. I was about to say something when I saw her leg, 'Wasn't that leg injured horribly? There's no scar or anything.' I just shrugged it off as unicorn magic and tried to move closer.

"One of the judges at the Wonderbolts tryouts said you requested I get disqualified!" She said frantically, "But I know you wouldn't do that sort of thing so I came here right away!" I felt some confidence well up within me as I said it, 'When I find the pony that did this...'

"I did Dash."

"... what?" 'What is she talking about? Why would Twilight do this? She knows how much I've always wanted to be in the Wonderbolts!'

"Of course I did Dash, if I hadn't then you would've flown off and left the rest of us here. You sure are lucky I sent that request in when I got the news of your tryouts."

I sat down, dumbfounded. My thoughts were once more going a million miles and hour as I looked at Twilight's silhouette. The sun was slowly setting just outside the window. For once, I felt something I never thought of feeling before, hate.

"We can't have the Element of Loyalty running off to fulfil her dreams can we? That would just be stupid." I hated Twilight right now. My rage slowly building up as Twilight prattled on. Part of me was yelling about how Twilight would never do such a thing, about how she always had my best interests at heart. That side was losing though, to the side that called Twilight a bitch, a backstabber. It spoke of how she'd begun to see herself as above us now that she got a new castle, and that was the side I listened to.

I moved closer to her, the distance crossed almost instantly as I stood above her. "I hate you..." I mumbled, my voice barely audible. I raised up on my hind legs and stood above Twilight. "I hate you" I said louder, my Twilight starting to turn towards me. "I hate you!" I yelled, bringing my hooves onto her face with as much force as I could muster.

I hardly noticed the room grow darker as I began to pound away at her face, blood trailing up my hooves. "I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!" Faster and faster, blood splattering across my muzzle and the walls. My hooves kept hitting her until they came out the other side, and I kept hitting the hard crystal floor until my hooves were mangled and broken. I felt my eyes become wet as I looked down at Twilight's ruined face, completely unrecognisable under all the blood and bits of broken skull.

I sat on my haunches, raising my hooves to my face and cried my eyes out. "What have I done?" I repeated, over and over as the world slowly turned to black.

~Three, Four, Better lock your door~

My ears twitched at the sound before I felt like everything was shifting. I slowly opened my eyes, looking around my house. "It was just a nightmare." I said, yawning loudly and stretching out my hooves and wings. Then I saw my hooves, and I yelped slightly, trying to move away from them even though they were attached to me.

"Do I hate Twilight?"

Author's Note

Doing this because of anger issues. Expect maybe two more of these, possibly today as well. Sorry if this unnerves any of you.

A Night To Remember: Fluttershy & Pyramid Head's Lilly

“And here you go, Mr Squirrel.” I smiled as he took the grains and ate them. I was still worrying over Twilight since the… incident, but she looked like she was doing well now and I couldn’t get in her way. Especially not with all of my animals to take care of.

I beamed as I looked over the assortment of animals crowded in my small cottage, each and every one had a name and a story behind them. I moved over to a cupboard and pulled out some rabbit treats for Angel, one of the first animals I had taken care of.

After pouring them into a bowl however, he just kicked them away. It isn’t like he hadn’t done this before though so I just let out a sigh as I filled it back up again. “Now Angel bunny, you’ve got to eat your food. How else are you going to get all your vitamins.” He squeaked at me angrily before turning away but I knew how to get him to eat.

“Not even for a carrot?” He didn’t budge. “Two carrots?” Still he didn’t move. “Oh, my. Th-three carrots?” That got his attention slightly. How did he expect to eat all these carrots? “Wh-what about four carrots then?” He looked at me a while before nodding and digging into the pellets.

I yelped and curled up slightly as the lights went out for a moment. ’That’s odd’ I’d thought to myself, It’s the middle of the day and the curtains are open...’ My thoughts didn’t have time to dwell on it though as I heard a growling from my loungeroom. ’My animals!’

I rushed in there as fast as I could before grinding to a halt. My eyes opened wide as I saw some of the animals fighting, food spilled across the room. Angel came rushing up behind beside me and gaped as well. ’What is going on?’

When I saw Mr Bear swipe at one of the beavers I leapt into action. “Now you stop right this instant!” I was holding onto one of his paws but he just threw me right off before turning to me, snarling as he turned to me.

I started to cower away before stopping myself and standing back up. “You give me no choice Mr Bear!” I opened my eyes wide and gave him the Stare. He slowly began to lower himself to the ground, though his snarl never left. I just kept staring at him, until I was blindsided by Ms Raccoon. She clawed at my eyes before being kicked away by Angel bunny. I was crying as I couldn’t open my left eye. “W-what is go-going on?”

Angel squeaked something at me and pointed behind me to the door. I began running towards it which attracted the attention of the animals. They all ran towards me as I fled my cottage, blood down one side of my face and tears down the other.

Poor little Angel bunny managed to knock out some of them before Mr Otter landed on top of him. I would’ve ran to help him but I was too busy running from the animals that had gotten past him. So I kept running as fast as my hooves could take me. I ran through the empty streets of Ponyville as the animals kept getting closer.
Mr Bear took a swipe at my hind fetlocks which caused me to yelp and speed up slightly. “Why are you doing this Mr Bear?!” I yelled back weakly, he just responded with an unintelligible growl as he kept chase. Eventually I spotted Sweet Apple Acres and I ran faster, ’Surely Applejack could help!’

I almost stopped at the gates though as I saw Applejack, fear, pain and worry in her eyes as she screamed for help. Her hind hooves were inside an evil-looking tree that had blades for teeth! Everything seemed to slow down as she saw me, our eyes locking onto each other for a moment. All sound seemed to leave as her lips moved in a final ‘Help!’, and she was gone. No explanation or anything, she was just gone.

My worry escalated because I tripped over a root, sound returning as everything sped up again. There were no trees nearby, besides the one with bladed teeth that looked to be smiling at me. I stared at it in horror for a few moments before turning back to the animals. They’d pounced and were mere inches away from me.

~Five, Six, Grab your torches and picks~

I squealed and hid my head behind my hooves in some vain hope that I would be safe, that if I couldn’t see them they would just disappear.

After a few moments of nothing I thought they had.

I slowly moved my hooves away, seeing my room bathed in the morning light. I let out a sigh of relief before turning to Angel’s bed and screaming slightly. He was battered and bruised, legs twisted in awful directions and a paw completely torn off, groaning in pain as he turned towards me. He gave me a weak smile before his eyes closed. I was crying as I got out of bed, before falling to the floor.

I couldn’t seem to move my hooves right, my perception seemed off and I realised one of my eyes were closed. I tried to open it to no avail. Slowly, fearfully, I reached my hoof to it. I winced in pain as it made contact and yanked my hoof away. Tears and blood streamed down my face as I looked to the bloodsoaked hoof.

I found myself crying loudly a few moments, slowly crawling towards Angels bed to see him, to make sure he was okay, to help in in any way I could. I shivered as I heard the door open. My eyes turned to pinpricks as I saw Mr Bear with a worried expression on his face. I screamed at him to go away as he tried to help me.

He seemed sad as he turned and left in a hurry, headed to get help probably. I shivered in fear as some f the other animals peeked their heads inside and screamed at them to go away, to leave me alone. They backed off as I panted and cried beside Angels bed. I let out a final whimper, a last plea to the animals by my bedroom door.
”Please don’t hurt me….”

I was laughing as I stepped out of the tree, yanking my hands out of the wood and stretching my bladed fingers. It’d been a while since I wore two gloves, due to how annoying they are to grab things with, but I’d felt the need to wear them anyway.

One my right hand was the black glove with protosteel blades, on my right a white one with blades made from the teeth of the same dragon the right one was made of. I was walking towards a barn, a blue light occasionally flickering in the huge entrance.

I could have simply folded the dream, made it so the entrance was right in front of me, but I’d decided I could use the walk to clear my head a bit. That blasted song was still reverberating around my skull but only at a quiet murmur, just enough to remind me of what I would not become.

Sure I was pretty evil now, some would even say insane, and they were right 100%. I could never really refute any arguments that people put forth. But I was okay with that. I was my own person. Freddy, the one who the song wanted me to become, was a fool who only targeted children. I had far greater goals in mind.

I never limited myself to any age or species, always going after those who’d committed a horrible crime. Back in those days evidence was hard to come by, unless you had seen the crime yourself. Sure my power was fueled by fear, but my motives were those of… what’s a good word for it? Oh I know, change. Every time I entered somethings dream I did so with the hope of changing them, that was my business, that was my pleasure.

Even the mighty Tirek became an upstanding member of society after a year or so of nightmares. Constant dreams of how the power would corrupt him, of how terrifying he himself could be. I half expected him to be more ambitious if anything, but thanks to his brother he decided to instead help those he could and take power from those who didn’t need it. Sort of like Robin Hood.

If they could not be changed, then they would be killed, as simple as that. I was already full on fear from two hundred and thirty five days of constant hunting before they captured me. Only because I wanted a little holiday. ”Maybe,” I’d said to the empty dreamscape, thoughts moving through my head in an orderly fashion, ”maybe I should help out others in their dimensions.”

I smiled, the flaming hay bale coming into view. Yes I was mad, but you had to be when you wanted to change things. ”Yes,” The blue flame rippled slightly and spread along the wall, a whole new dreamhub revealing itself in front of me, ”I think I’ll give them some help, the beings here will all be changed when they see what I’ve done and remember who I am. But the ones in the other dimensions hardly know me yet.”

I was laughing as I passed through the flame, my presence already beginning to taint the dreams of all those I knew. But these were different, they had not met me yet and were not changed at all. Some of them seemed to be though, considering the multitude of black frames. Still, I would at least have my fun with the rest. So I picked one at random and walked right through.

“Celestia what is happening?!” I screamed and ran through the house. “Roseluck?! Daisy?! Where are you?!” I couldn’t help but be frantic, my lilies began to peel away the doorframe before wilting, then opening up as new ones grew out of them. I scrambled up the stairs and towards the bedrooms.

“Roseluck?!” I opened her door. Empty. “Daisy?!” Empty. In a desperate attempt to find somepony, anypony, I opened my door. Neither of my sisters were there, but something else was. It was tall, and skinny, and terrifying. I shrieked and ran towards the stairs. I ran for what felt like hours but the stairs never got closer.

Then I heard its footsteps, oh Celestia its footsteps, and I ran faster, screaming like a madmare. Slowly, so very slowly, they got closer. I noticed my lilies climbing up my hooves, somehow they’d grown teeth and were biting into my limbs, holding me still.

I desperately tried to move away, to flee, to run, but I didn’t move. The lilies hurt so much as they slowly sank into my legs, my screams becoming soundless as they moved under my skin. I heard a chuckling behind me but I could not move my head, the roots of the flowers had spread up through my neck and kept it facing towards the stairs.

Then they began turning around, leaves wrapping around my oesophagus and spine as my head tortuously moved to face whatever had been in my room. My head shouldn’t have been able to turn that far, but the plants in my body kept my neck from breaking.

He, I assumed it was a he, leant down to face me. A smile painted across his face as he placed a claw on my head. I tried to say something but I was far too afraid, whoever this was he was almost as bad as that other monster that had been spotted around Ponyville occasionally.

As soon as I thought that he snarled, his claw tightening around my skull and cutting into the skin. I shivered as the roots dug into my eyeballs, keeping them still, keeping them open. I was forced to stare at the creature as he moved closer, his eyes locking onto mine.

Then I heard a snap, and everything went dark. ...I thought I was dead until I heard the sound of a siren in the distance. The creature looked around confused before a rhythmic thumping and something heavy being dragged across the cobblestone. I didn’t know what it was until it let out a massive roar and called out a name.

“KRUEGER!!”

The creature, Krueger I assume, looked surprised at first, then chuckled before clicking his claws together. ”Oop, times up… Hehehehe…” A loud bang echoed through the landscape before I caught a glimpse of a larger creature with a large metal pyramid for a head…

I was smiling towards the asshole who’d interrupted my nightmare. Somehow he’d managed to pull me out of the dreamscape and put me… here. Wherever here was. On the inside I was yelling at this bastard but since he was in control I felt the need to be compliant for now.

”That’s not my fucking name!” I yelled at him, growling slightly while clenching my claws. ”Who the FUCK do you think you are, mister building block?! To rip me out of MY nightmare while I’m having MY fun?!”

“My name, is Pyramid Head. Guardian of Silent Hill, Father and Protector to Alessa, and personal protector of Equestria’s citizens. If you come here again with unruly purposes, I will personally drag you to Silent Hill myself, now…” I saw a power grow in his hand, he threw it out and a portal appeared behind me. “BEGONE!”

”Fucking bastard…” I grumbled, placing the tip of one of my claws onto Lilly’s head ”You’re a lucky whorse.” She didn’t reply though as she seemed to be in shock. I slowly moved towards the portal before an idea popped to mind.

”I take it you’re going to be on Auric’s side?”

“For the foreseeable future… And I assume you, on Teridax’s?”

I grumbled a bit more. ”For now at least, tell me, do you think you can give something to the golden boy for me?” I held a hand out, focusing on my palm as the bleeding, wooden pony toy I’d made burnt into being on it.

“A toy? You expect to scare Auric with a toy?”

”Fear, fear, fear, it’s all about fear with you people isn’t it? No, it’s as you say, just a toy.” I kept calm on the outside, hiding my smirk under my hat. I had been looking for a chance to deliver this particular thing to Auric since he’d made me remember that damn song.

He stared at the toy for a minute before he took it in his large hands. He looked at it closely, looking at the details before putting it in the pocket of his apron. He could use some pants. He nodded as he pointed back to the portal.

“Now, begone with you, lest you feel my wrath…”

I really couldn’t stop the laughter from escaping me then. After a while I stepped through the portal with a final ”Aye, aye, Moses.” I was still laughing as the portal burned for an instant, it wouldn’t do to be thrown through again, and I stepped out the other side.

”You fucking assh-” was all I managed to get through as the portal closed again.

Author's Note

Dreamscape - A dream shared by one or more beings.
Dreamhub - A place without a location that acts as a place where all dreams can be accessed. Dreams will often bond closer to those of a similar species or similar goals

At last you have Johnny's motivation. Yep, he has one of those.

Cheers to SCP Pinkamena for the mini-crossover with A Thousand Tortured Souls Scream My Name

Bloody Mary

Well, that was fun. Even if I had been interrupted at least I had found some way of getting the doll to Auric the Asshole. I was smiling, as usual, as I stepped through my blue flames. I only turned to say one last line but I was cut off as the portal closed.

"-hole. Thankyou. Yes, I should've been pissed at having been unable to rip the petals off little Lilly, but knowing that someone else was causing terror among the ponies felt quite comforting. Why do I hate the enigmatic equines? Because they give out titles like girl scout cookies. I've been having a hard enough time trying to remember my name without them saying Nightmare this and Nightmare that.

What, I could just tell them my name? I did, but I guess it wasn't nearly as memorable as The Nightmare, so I gave up. Right now though, I was in a very happy mood. Whether the triangle tipped tard knew it or not his universe was overflowing with nightmare fuel or fear as everyone so lovingly calls it. I'm speaking literally here. How else do you think I could have cursed the pony toy?

~Mistress Mary, quite contrary,~

I made my way over to the wood pile, my splitting smile making its way onto my face as all manner of ideas came to life in my head. The only problem I had was that the wood was dying. I must've collected too much fuel because the closer I got to the pile, the more dead and rotten it became. I turned on my heel and head out the door, my entire body actually beginning to darken slightly as I tried to contain what I managed to grab.

I needed something else, but what? What would be easy to find but not die too quickly? Metal for one, but I felt I should get more inventive with this. I made my way past the wooden wolf that was making my upper house its home. I barely noticed its body starting to rot away as I passed.

I made my way down the path I'd taken with my claw, after all I could probably make a pony zombie with this much fuel. I followed the various cuts in the trees and eventually found the dirt path leading towards the town. I guess I'd forgotten to take a glove off because I could hear the scraping noise of metal on metal while I walked.

I paid no heed to the sun rising, nor the sound of screams in the distance. 'Oh, right, I guess they're finally waking up.' I needed to think of something fun to make. But what? I made my way through the town, ignoring the screams of ponies running around me frantically. 'If that was Twilight's scream earlier then I probably have only an hour or so until she stops shaking enough to write a letter. Less if she woke up the dragon.'

My smile never left my face as I looked around the various houses, until I found one that immediately caught my attention. 'Perfect.'

~How does your garden grow?~

It was a rather fancy place, a bit too flamboyant if you ask me, but if stolen memory serves then I would find the perfect pony for this. The front door was locked so I just kicked it down, simple as that. I sauntered towards the stairs, past various machines and materials. Everything about this place screamed prissy. I walked up the stairs, turned left, second door on the right, exactly as Twilight remembered.

Surprisingly though, this door was not locked. I only looked over the intricate design of its owners name for a moment before jamming my claws around the doorhandle and cutting it off from the rest of the door. I gently pushed the door inwards and looked towards a large bed that filled up most of the room.

~With Silver Bells, and Cockle Shells~

I grabbed the pristine white mare that was sleeping in bed by the throat, cutting off her screams before she had a chance to even try. I held her up to the ceiling while I moved towards her bathroom, pulling off her eye mask and pulling out her earplugs. I smiled while she paled, kicking her hooves out at me in some desperate method to escape while I started humming an old nursery rhyme.

I ended up not having to take her to the bathroom, on my way there I came across one of those three-mirror dressing tables propped against one of the walls with way too many brands littered in front of it. I decided that I should get her dressed up before I went through with what I planned. So I threw her at the mirror with great enthusiasm, relishing as the sound of glass breaking and skin being pierced filled the room, along with screaming of course.

She was trying her best not to move while bits of mirror poked out of her body, gingerly trying to pull one shard out with her magic. She was so focused on the pain she didn't notice the other two mirrors shimmering slightly while I stood back. "Time to get ready for the show!" I shouted before they exploded outwards, every single piece seemingly attracted to the screaming white mare.

They dug into her at odd angles and a fair few of them dug through her face. I calmly picked her by the scruff of the neck while she writhed in agony. "Time to show Equestria who you are Rarity!" I was laughing as I kicked in the bathroom door. "Soon everypony will know your name, just not the one you want!"

I flinched at that before shrugging it off and concentrating on the mare I was holding. Her coat dimmed slightly and her blood steamed freely down her body as I threw her towards the mirror. Instead of smashing into it, she went right through it. I was laughing wildly as I walked up to it, unable to see her at all. I then realised I had some of her blood on my claw.

I raised a claw slowly, letting blood drip down to the tip as I etched in the same phrase three times on the reflective surface.

Bloody Mary.

I noticed the light flicker slightly as I finished, my smile now slowly returning to what could be considered normal. I kept humming the same tune as I left, my body catching fire quickly, but not fast enough as a little filly I remembered was Sweetie Belle caught the end of the rhyme.

"~And so my garden grows~"

Author's Note

Oh nyoooo~ I got about 3 dislikes last time I uploaded a chapter~ That's like, 4 dislikes now for no apparent reason!
I'm gonna have to stop writing this forever.
Lol no.

I know I said I had about two other 'A Night To Remember' chapters in the works but due to the amount of time between now and when I started that, the anger has pretty much worn off.

Next chapter I might write how the Mane ~~6~~ 5 react to what happened. Mebeh.
I've also just realised this is my shortest chapter, whoops.

Mornings Requiem

"Every dead body that is not exterminated, gets up and kills, the people it kills get up and kill."

Dawn of the Dead, 1978

"Good morning, morning!" I screamed out my window, a smile on my face and a hop in my step. I could just tell that today would be exciting! I turned back to my room and bounced my way over to the door, humming a random tune I just came up with that sort of went dun dun dundundun dundun dundundunDUN. Yep, today was going to turn out great!

I was making my way down the stairs hen my left hind leg went all wibbly on me and I yelled "Whoa!" as I rolled down the stairs. I ended up propped against the wall with my legs splayed out and one of my ears went floopy and covered one of my eyes. "A wibbly leg and a floopy ear? What's that supposed to mean?"

Then my hair straightened out slightly and my eyes became the size of dinner-plates, not the ones you would put teacups on. I think those're called saucers or something, wait this isn't the time for this! I got up immediately and ran through the bakery, quickly getting my message across to Mr Cake who was walking in the other direction, "SomethingbadhashappenedtomyfriendssoIgottagooutandhelpthem!Whenthetwinsstartcryingjustsingthethemesongorsomethingtocalmthemdownokay?!Wellbye!"

He just stared at me as I swooshed past him and slammed the door to the bakery closed behind me, which caused the twins to cry and Mr Cake to sigh and shake his head before turning to attend to them. "I'll never understand her..."

I galloped through Ponyville towards Twilight's library-castle thingy that was super shiny because it was made out of crystals which always made me worry that Spike might decide to eat it if he gets hungry like that first time he visited the bakery but I wasn't there so I had to ask the Cakes why there were bite marks on one of the walls and they said- What am I doing! I have to hurry!

I made sure to jump into one of the windows and pop out one of the bookcases in the tree castle's.... that doesn't sound nearly as catchy as treebrary, maybe Twilight will come up with something better for it later. Ooh maybe she'll call it a trestle, or a cree, or a castree, or maybe even- Stop it Pinkie! You have to focus!

Where was I? Oh yea! I popped out of one of the bookcases, almost 100 perbit sure that she would be there, I mean, the only time she isn't there is if she's playing with one of her friends like me or off doing some task for Celly-belly, haha that sounds silly, I think I'll ask Celly-belly what she thinks of it next time I get the chance.

Anyway, Twilight was there! Except she was just staring towards one of the walls of the super shiny library, her wings drooping slightly. "Hey Twily, what's wrong?" I crept towards her slowly, shaking off the books that had fallen on my back. 'That's odd,' I thought, 'Usually Twi would growl my name in frustration whenever I messed up her books.'

I didn't get a chance to look around because my attention was focused solely on Twily-cake. Mmm Twily-cake, I wonder what that would taste like? Could probably make it from lavender with a hint of Ursa Major fur. As I moved around Twily though, I noticed she was staring at the wall with her eyes covering most of her face like when me and Dashie accidentally spilled ink on a prank book that one time except it was alright because it was invisible ink.

I waved a hoof in front of her to get her attention. "Twiiiilight? Twi-twi? Sparklebutt? Anypony in there?" I couldn't seem to get it though no matter how close my face got to hers. So I relented and slowly turned to the wall, "What in Equestria has you so startled Twili-" What. Who would do such a thing? Why would anypony do this? This wasn't a joke, this was just mean.

Twilight was staring towards a calendar that had the word 'Run' scratched into it, on every day. My attention slowly moved over the wall and I saw it was everywhere! Every single inch of the walls were covered in the same word over and over. Then my gaze went across the bookshelves. "Oh Twilight..." I said sombrely, they were covered as well, and not just them, every book had it scratched all over the covers. I just had to get her out of there.

I clamped my mouth around her tail and slowly dragged her out the front door. I left her just outside when I remembered something. "Spike!" I sprinted back in and went upstairs to find him still sleeping in his basket soundly. I Daww'd for a moment when I saw him start sucking his thumb before shaking my head and placing him on my back gently before running back outside to Twilight and slamming the door closed.

This woke up Spike though and he jumped slightly before yawning and looking around. "Where am I- Pinkie, why am I outside?" I had no idea what to say to him, well I did have a few hundred-thousand but I just couldn't pick one, so I just held his head in one hoof and turned him to face Twily. "T-Twilight?"

He gasped and jumped off my back before running over to her and hugging one of her legs. I sighed gently before my mane straightened out again and I gasped loudly. "Spike!Igottagoseewhat'swrongwithApplejacksocanyoutakeTwilightovertoSugarcubeCornerandtellthecakesthatoperation'frownyface'isineffect?Yes?Okaybye!" I ran off towards Sweet Apple Acres while Spike slowly processed what I'd said, no idea why he needed to though because I was speaking perfect Equestrian.

I moved across the path to Applejacks place at speeds that would make Dashie jealous. When the gates came into view I saw Big Mac running in the opposite direction so I made sure to tackle her gently and pin her to the ground. "IstheresomethingwrongwithAJ? IfsopleasetellmequicklybecauseI'minahurry." My mane straightened slightly again and I gasped, what is going on?!

Big Mac just shook his head slightly before looking up at me, his big ole eyes just filled with worry as he told me exactly what I'd needed. "AJ is hurt pretty bad, you help her out, I'm getting a doctor." I just gasped again. I'd never heard him say that much before! And he said that Applejack was hurt!

I jumped off Big Mac and ran once more towards Sweet Apple Acres. I swooshed past the front gates and jumped through one of the windows up top, directly into AJ's room, and I began to cry as I saw her. She was crying as well, though Applebloom was trying her best to comfort her, her legs were bent, twisted and cut in more ways then there are pies. And there are a lot of pies.

She looked towards me as I landed, which only caused her to cry more as the sight of her hind legs came into view. I walked up to her and pet her mane gently while she started crying into my coat. This was the first time I'd seen her cry in, like, ever! I looked over to see Applebloom crying as well and I whispered to her once I'd heard AJ snoring softly. "After the doctors treat her I want you to try and get her to Sugarcube Corner okay? Tell Mister and Missus Cake code 'popsicle stick'."

She nodded at me slightly before AJ gasped and woke up, sweat going down her already matted coat. "Please don't let me fall asleep, not again." I frowned more before looking over to Applebloom and nodding.

"Don't you worry Jacky, Bloom will take good care of you while I go and check on Fluttershy okay?" She looked up at me, a hint of fear briefly covering her features, before nodding slightly with a concerned look.

"Make sure Shy is okay y'hear? I don't even want ta think about what's happened to her. Don't let her sleep, just as tha' Princess said, don't fall asleep." I looked at her seriously and nodded, giving her a salute before jumping out the window and heading back across Ponyville to Fluttershys cottage.

I was breathing heavily as I ran through the marketplace, some of the stall owners staring at me as they prepared their various knick-knacks and watchamagoos for the day. I paid them no mind though, because someone was doing very mean things to my friends and I couldn't just sit and watch.

I'd just passed the bridge when my mane straightened again. "Oh no! Not Dashie too!" I ran faster and went to knock the front door in as it opened unexpectedly, a very sad looking bear walking out with its head held low and tears in its eyes. I just stared at him for a moment before rushing inside, 'What could have happened?!'

I looked everywhere for Shy downstairs but I had no luck, I couldn't find anything. So I decided to search upstairs when I saw all of her animals, except for Angel and the bear, crowded around her bedroom door and taking up all the space in the corridor. They looked at me with sad eyes before letting me pass.

I slowly moved towards the bundle of fur crying in a corner, eyes going wide again as I saw a small trail of blood. "Shy, are you okay?" I said calmly, moving up behind her and poking her shoulder, she was cradling something but I had no idea what.

She flung a hoof towards me and growled at me, "STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" I shrank back slightly as Fluttershy glared at me, one of her eyes closed and bleeding. Her expression quickly fell as she looked to me though and she went back to crying. "I-I'm s-s-s-so sorry Pinkie, I just- I can't let them get n-n-near him." I slowly stood back up and moved towards her.

"Can't let who get near who Shy? What's wrong?" I briefly glanced back to the doorway to see the animals had backed away more, all looking at me with wide eyes. I looked over her shoulder to see exactly what was wrong, but I really shouldn't have. I started crying loudly as I saw him, Angel, battered, bruised and beaten. But most importantly, not breathing. "Wh-who would do this?" I managed to stutter.

"THEY DID!" Fluttershy pointed a hoof towards her animals who all backed up more, lowering themselves down to the ground. One of the weasels began to take a step forward, only to stop as Fluttershy yelped and moved closer to the wall. "STAY BACK! PLEASE GO AWAYhahay!...." So many ponies were crying today, why would this happen? I moved over to the door and shook my head at the animals slightly, they seemed to understand the gesture and nod before moving downstairs and outside, most of them taking occasional glances back inside the room.

I hugged Fluttershy softly and she cried against me, I could barely keep back my own tears. 'Why would anypony do this? This is just too cruel...' I let one tear fall before getting a determined look on my face, I was going to get to the bottom of this! And right now the best way to do that would be to get everyone to Sugarcube Corner. "We have to go Fluttershy." I gently whispered, urgency creeping into my voice.

She shook her head and cuddled Angel tighter, "I can't leave him like this Pinkie, not like this." I looked to the former bunny once more and winced slightly. I almost lost my midnight snack because of how icky he looked. I ended up just pretending that it was jam covering him and strawberry ice-cream coming out his ear as I hastily returned my attention to Fluttershy.

"Okay Flutters, how about we bury him now and then when everyone is okay again we can give him a proper... funeral." I really hated that word, it meant the end of everything for something. No more parties, no more balloons, no more cake, and worst of all, no more friends. "We'll get everyone to come around so that Angel can rest peacefully okay? We'll get Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Big Mac, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle," I'd begun crying more at this point, slight whimpers involuntarily coming from my mouth, "Derpy, Ditzy, Time Turner, Berry Punch, Zecora, Mayor Mare, The Flower Triplets, Mister and Misses Cake, I bet we could even get the Princesses to come by if we ask nicely enough and I'll even bring Gummy around! I'll make sure that everypony gets there... they have to..."

I hugged Fluttershy tighter as I wailed into her shoulder for a few minutes and she cried as well. Afterwards I wiped my eyes and looked towards her, she was smiling for the first time today, even if it was barely noticeable. I had a hard time focusing my attention on her good eye. "Thankyou Pinkie, it *sniff* it's nice to know that An.... that Angel had someone other than me to look after him."

It took around half an hour for us to find a good spot to bury Angel and a few more minutes for us to stop crying. Eventually though we made our way back down the path, my bounce with a bit less height to it and Fluttershy sporting a bandage over one eye. Naturally, many ponies looked at us a bit shocked and confused but we just kept going until we got to Sugarcube Corner.

When I opened the front door though my demeanour changed completely as I saw Dashy, completely unharmed and sipping at a milkshake on the other end of the table from Twilight. I smiled wide and sped over to her, wrapping my hooves around her barrel. "You're okay Dashie! I was so worried when my mane went all flat but I guess I didn't have to worry after all!"

Dash just looked down at me shocked for a few minutes before chuckling and petting my head slightly before trying to push me away. "Okay Pinkie, I get it, you can let go now." I held onto her for a few more moments before letting go. "What's got you so riled up anyhow? Princess Twilight seems fine to me." I tilted my head slightly when she seemed to spit the word Princess, just enough so that she could see Fluttershy behind me and gape slightly before flying over and asking her a ton of questions.

I chuckled slightly as Fluttershy smiled, happy that her friends had cared for her, before moving my attention back to Twilight who was just sitting against a window with her mouth open and an untouched cupcake in front of her. Spike was sitting next to her, eating his own cupcake and sighing as he looked over to me. "I don't know how to snap her out of it Pinkie."

I put on my serious face and hopped onto the table in front of Twilight, looking directly into her eyes and reaching behind me to pull out the one thing I knew could snap her out of it. I grabbed a book and held it in front of her face, slowly pulling down on either end of the book, causing it to bend dangerously. Twilights eyes grew wider for a second before she snatched it out of my hooves with her magic. "Pinkie! What do you think you are doing?!"

She was glaring at me slightly but I just laughed it off. "Don't worry about it Twilight, the book is blank and I was just using it to get you out of some weird hippie trance thing you were in." Was hippie the right word? I could've sworn there was an 'n' in there somewhere... Not that I would swear of course! Granny Pie always said that someone who'd say a curse would end up with half a hoof in the basket... whatever that means.

She looked at me for a while and I could almost see a bunch of doodads and spinnybits clanking around in her head before she started panicking a bit and shrinking in her seat. I sighed a bit before hugging her "There there, you're aright now Twily." After a few mkoments of calming down Twilight smiled up at me before looking over her friends.

"Thanks Pinkie, though I feel as if we're missing a few ponies." As if the writer planned for it, Applebloom chose that moment to push in a distraught but stern Applejack on a wheelchair, her legs covered in a blanket. Everypony besides myself just stared at her as she was slowly wheeled inside and moved beside the table.

"Howdy girls, ah reckon we got a might problem on our hooves." Dash was just about to ask her the most obvious question before Applejack raised a hoof to her. "Later Dash, we got a much larger problem ta sort out." Dash nodded slowly before turning her attention back to Fluttershy who was staring wide-eyed, well as wide as one eye can be, at AJ.

"S-s-s-so what I saw then w-w-w..." She trailed off into mumbles while AJ sighed and wheeled herself over to Fluttershy, placing a hoof on her head.

"Dun worry 'bout it Shy, there weren't nuthin you coulda done at the time. 'sides, Applebloom managed to wake me up before things got too bad. Doc says my legs should be right back to normal in a few months with enough care." I could see it in Applejacks eyes, they were going to get better but I doubted she would ever buck again.

"So you two saw each other in the same dream?" Twilight asked, to which both of them nodded, Rainbow placed a hoof on her chin for a few moments before mumbling.

"Wait a second, so that scream when I flew over Sweet Apple Acres in my dream last night was...?" Applejack sighed again before nodding slightly.

Twilight paled a bit before rushing over to hug her friends one by one, Dash struggling to get out of it while I just giggled and hugged back. "I'm so glad you're all okay!" All of us had done enough crying for the day, but at this Fluttershy began sobbing quietly.

I frowned and walked over to Twilight, whispering in her ear. "Angel is gone Twi." She looked at me shocked while I nodded grimly, Dash moving over to comfort Fluttershy as much as she could until all of us heard a scream, both my mane and tail immediately flattening.

My eyes went wide and I jumped in the air "We forgot Rarity!"

We'd run as fast as we could. Well, Rainbow Dash pushed Applejack while Applebloom struggled behind us. Luckily though, the boutique wasn't too far away, it'd only taken about five minutes of running before Twilight knocked on the door roughly. "Rarity! Are you alright?! Open up!"

After a few anxious moments Twilight used her magic to start picking the lock, that was, until we heard another scream and the sound of running hooves. Applejack seemed to become both eager and depressed at the same time while Twilight resolved to use her magic to rip the door right out of the frame.

We all stood still as we saw Sweetie Belle running towards us with a scared look on her face. Her mood seemed to brighten as she saw us and she ran faster. I heard Fluttershy squeal as we saw a dark red pony traipse down the staircase, her, well I think it was a her, entire body was cut and covered in shards of something while the only eye she had a shard of its own, pinning it to the back of 'her' skull.

None of us could analyse it fast enough and we felt we didn't need to as Sweetie was only a few steps from the door. I turned my attention back to 'her', grimacing as she seemed to smile widely and stop moving altogether. Just as Sweetie was about to glomp Twilight she hit something. None of us had any idea what it was but we could only compare it to an invisible wall.

She panicked and started banging her hooves on it while Dash flew in to help her. She only managed to tap the wall when Sweetie started tilting backwards along with the rest of the inside of the boutique. She screamed and cried as the wall hit the ground and shattered. Dash slowly flew to the ground, nudging a piece of mirror with her hoof slightly.

"What..." None of us knew what to say, as soon as we saw what the boutique really looked like though, we figured it out. I think Dash said something like "What the buck..." while Twilight just settled with using "What..." Fluttershy just squealed a bit and AJ pet her comfortingly while I scanned everything

The entire place was a wreck, nothing where it should be and everything torn or thrown around the room. What frightened me a little was that all the mirrors in the boutique had 'Bloody Mary' written on them three times with what I was hoping was red paint. I slowly walked towards one of them, my gaze trained on it while everyone else managed to wake out of their stupor.

I just felt... drawn to it, and as I got closer, I really wished I hadn't. I saw 'her' in the mirror, smiling back at me from where I was standing, at her feet lay a bleeding Sweetie Belle. I slowly moved away as she stepped onto Sweetie's head. I began muttering as I slunk into a corner. "Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall. Learn to face your fears. You''ll see that they can't hurt you, just laugh and make them disappear. Ha ha ha hahahaha...." I just kept giggling to myself, sobs breaking through occasionally while I stared at the mirror.

Author's Note

I love how none of you feel the need to point out faults in this story. Such as how the library was a tree in one chapter and then the crystal castle in the next. For shame. And don't worry, Rari- Mary has a reason for her actions.

..I just realised how much of a hypocrite Johnny is xD.

3,865 words?! I feel accomplished even though I probably shouldn't!

Edit: Featured! Omgadionfewjnfalijreaknfrijafwafenafoherauifn!
Edit2: 10 minutes later and it's no longer featured.... well that sucks.

Mirror, Mirror, On The Wall

"Where do you think you're going little Mary?~."

"Please go away! Please leave me alone! I don't want you here anymore!" I have to get away from her- it. Why was it still chasing me? "Please go away, please leave me be!"

"Aww, don't be like that, why don't you want to play with me Mary?~"

"That is not my name!" I ran faster down the street, buildings passing by in a blur of motion. "I'm Rarity Belle, fashionista extraordinaire and element of generosity!" Some of the buildings were becoming old, cracked, useless. Everything around me was colourless, everything besides it. "You will never get me, monster!" My stride became more assured, I had faced far worse than this.

"Come on Mary, I found someone we can play with~." I could feel its smile and it sent a shiver down my spine.

After all of this constant running my hooves were becoming heavy, my beautiful coat becoming more matted and dirty with every passing moment. Eugh. I knew, however, that all I had to do was wait for my friends. "You cannot tempt me with lies, Discord is a far better trickster than yourself dearie! Besides, you'll regret all of this once my friends arrive!"

"You think they'll be able to help you here, Mary? That's adorable~." I could not believe my ears, she was laughing at me! The gall!

One of the buildings in the distance seemed to explode into white dust about halfway up before slowly collapsing towards another. I had finally had enough of her when I ran into what looked to be some sort of empty square. I got about halfway before I collapsed slightly, perhaps Applejade had a point when she mentioned the importance of casual exercise.

Wait, Applejade? That doesn't seem right...

I looked back towards my pursuer, though her features were hard to see as she was hidden behind a line of shadow. All I managed to see were two bright green eyes and a smile that simply screamed crazy mare.

"Why don't you come over here Mary? Black is in this summer~." She was laughing again and I retaliated with a rather unladylike growl.

"How dare you patronize me! You have been doing nothing but chase me for hours and call me Mary! Which is NOT my name!" I looked around the landscape for anything I could use as a weapon. I also noted that there was a large barrier of darkness that she was standing in, covering that entire part of the city. I took the barest of glances towards my part of the city, wait, were these buildings always ruined?

I turned back to her as she giggled again, then she took a step towards me. I wouldn't have noticed without my keen eye for detail, for she had blended in perfectly with the black behind her.

"Come on Mary, let's play~" Why won't she stop smiling? It's so... unnerving.

I tried to occupy my mind to get over the fear, my thoughts turning towards the city. It seemed familiar but I could not remember it for some reason. Maybe ⊥ʍιгιმʜ⊥ Ƨƅɑʁĸгє will know where this place is? Hold on, who knew where it could be again? It began with a 'T' didn't it? Or maybe an 'L'. No time for that right now ՐԹՐ- RaՐ- Rrrrrrrr. No! This can't be happening! When did she get so close?

She was staring right into my eyes and I wanted to turn away, to run, to ĦÆ¥E ŠΘME FυÑ, but I just stared back into those ~~gΦЯgęΦЦs~~ terrifying green eyes of hers. I hardly noticed the town, or was it a city? Anyway, I'd hardly noticed that it'd disappeared under the wall of darkness that now enveloped her and her.

"You want to play some tag Mary?~"

Well, why not? I love games! No, that doesn't seem right. There was something else....

"Okay!" I replied happily, my smile matching hers as I turned towards one of the black structures that surrounded us. I smiled into it's white window as I saw a filly of the same colour on the other side. It looked like she was reading something but the window was blank, what a silly pony!

I chuckled as I walked towards the window and looked down at the filly, she seemed familiar for some reason... I doubt I know her though because she's on the other side of the window haha! Why does that matter? Oh well.

I saw her repeat the same phrase for some reason, then the window turned a glowing red. "Oooh how pretty!" I placed a hoof onto the window and marvelled as it slowly sunk into it. I was so overjoyed at the discovery that I practically jumped into the window and landed in front of the filly.

She was apparently happy as well, if her scream of delight was any indication. She scrambled to get away and I ran after her because apparently I was it. I didn't run too fast though because I didn't want to fall and hurt myself, which would just be silly. I casually ran through the hallway of the new area and made my way down some stairs.

I almost chuckled as I saw the filly make her way to one of the white windows, I guess she didn't know you couldn't move through those ones. I did smile wider however as I saw a group of ponies on the other side though.

I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected.

Hmm? Where did that noise come from? Well, whatever. My smile faltered a bit as the window started tilting towards her, one of the ponies on the other side must have knocked it over. She jumped back as it shattered and in its place was a passageway to a black expanse. When she tried to flee I just decided to cheat and use my magic.

I levitated her towards me while I descended the stairs, we both met in the middle of al the mirrors and I chuckled before she fell unconscious. "Hey! You can't fall asleep in the middle of the game!" I said, I think, before slamming her onto the ground. I probably broke one of her legs if the loud snap and scream were any indication.

She curled up, sobbing quietly while nursing her injured leg. I giggled slightly, moving my hoof to tap the top of her head lightly. "Tag." She didn't react to it and decided to keep her attention on her injury. I frowned slightly before catching sight of something in one of the remaining windows, another pony!

She was a really pink and fluffy one though. I smiled to her while she slowly backed away, muttering to herself, maybe she wanted to play? I was just about to go over and ask her before the window cracked and shattered.

"Aww, no fair."

Author's Note

I'm very sorry for the wait and all. I've been hella busy lately so I haven't been able to find the time to write out another chapter.
I guess I'm also a tad sorry that the chapter is very 'bare-bones' but hey, you just gotta learn to take what you can get.
So, yesh, chapters may be few and far between now depending on whenever I can find the time.
And yesh, I will get back to Johnny, perhaps in the second half of the next chapter. Expect tea-parties!
I am wholly convinced that everyone loves a nutjob at this point, if they're done right that is.

"The scales of chaos and harmony are in perpetual motion." - Me
Yeah I just quoted myself, you got a problem with that?
Please don't hurt me...

Tea Party With The Royals

"Ugggggh, my heeead" I groaned loudly as I sat up, a claw covering my face. I ran the blades down while I took a hold of the edge of my apparent 'bed', or as most would call it, the workbench. I slowly stretched out, cracking a few of the bones in my lower back and my shoulders before folding my body backwards almost completely and sighing pleasantly at the sound of bones crunching.

After a few moments of stretching I sighed and walked over to my oldest bench, my first one. I'd gotten it as a package set when the previous owner of this place... left. I smiled, tracing my claws along the name marred into its surface, a name I would never forget no matter what happens.

It seems my energy decided to kick in as I looked towards my front door, the frame lying on the floor. I guess I was a bit out of it last night, I'd had no idea that the mostly physical manifestation of fear and dread would act like a powerful stimulant. To me anyway, as far as I could tell most others would probably avoid the stuff out of mere instinct.

"I guess I'm going to have to get around to fixing that sometime.... well, that is a rather welcoming sight." My gaze had slowly moved towards the ceiling, and the many pairs of new gloves that hung from it. "While I was out of it I must've gotten rather busy, though, some of these look a bit silly."

I must've been really out of it, I'd apparently gotten bored of making blades and just grabbed a bunch of random crap, some of the gloves had forks and spoons whilst one had metal needles, one of the gloves even had scissors. Slowly but surely my eyes drifted towards the back of the workshop and the new decorations that adorned my shelves.

I let out a slight whistle as I walked towards them "That is a lot of dolls and puppets, just how much energy did that shit give me? I've never gotten these effects before." Though that was probably due to the overload from the decoration-Lego heads dimension. Still, I wasn't complaining, some of them weren't too shabby either. One of them caught my attention however.

It was a simple puppet, two legs, two arms and one head. I had no idea what it was though. It looked human, and I felt I'd seen it somewhere before, but for the life of me I just could not remember. I decided to investigate it a bit, walking step by slow-step towards it. I felt a headache coming in the back of my head but I ignored it as I looked over the details of the thing.

Average brown hair with brownish-green eyes. The pain picked up as I kept moving forward. The clothes seem incredibly average with even a hoodie to boot. The headache was becoming a dull throb as it spread out through my head. He looks to be smiling to, not a forced smile or an overbearing one, just a calm an casual one that just seemed... natural.

"what do you think- AJ!...."

I couldn't help but throw it to the other side of the room as my hand clasped around it, the pain had become too much. I barely registered the sound of the puppet cracking across the middle. Whoever he is, or was, he wasn't really that important to me right now. I kept the palm of my clawed hand to my forehead, pushing down on the burn scars that stubbornly refused to heal.

"I need a day off. Wait a second... I don't have a job! Screw this, I'm taking sick leave." I took off my torn sweater, the thing really needed a clean, and let out a sigh as I saw my torso, covered in ugly scars from head to toe. My spirits quickly reignited though as I chucked on a tacky Hawaiian shirt and grabbed a pair of sunglasses. I put on my hat and took off both of my gloves. Heck, I even swapped my raggedy brown pants with some khakis.

I had stepped into the furnace and was just about to question why these clothes were in my workshop before I thought on the joys of having someone I could shout at to pull the lever. For some reason I wanted them to be called Kronk. "Actually, considering that wooden puppy insists on staying here, I think I'll call him that."

And with a chuckle I pulled down the lever and let the sparks fly before covering me in my favourite kind of flame. The kind that melts things.

I was casually lounging on a beach chair, an umbrella providing a comfortable shade from the blazing sun above, until the sun decided to finally notice me. Her gaze glided over me for a second before returning to me, narrowing her eyes and walking towards me with her guard up.

After ignoring her for a while, her glaring down at me while I casually rested, she eventually decided that talking with her mouth would be far more effective than her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

Well, I guess she left her politeness back in the waking world. I merely rolled my eyes before shifting in my chair slightly, hat tipping over to cover half of my face. "Aren't you supposed to welcome guests with a smile rather than a glare?"

"I'm afraid that courtesy is only given to those who do not injure my little ponies." Subtle. So subtle that I could feel the growing intensity of the sun hangng overhead in fact. I couldn't really blame her for her hostility I guess, so with a sigh and a groan I lifted myself up into a sitting position, adjusting my hat slightly so that I could see her royal crankiness.

"Fine then, what is it you want Princess Heatstroke?" Oh hey, her glare somehow managed to get more intimidating.

"I should be asking the same of you, we are in my dream I presume. So, Nightmare, why are you here?" Did she really think punctuating each word by moving her head slightly closer would frighten me? It just looks silly.

I just shrugged and stood up, the chair burning to ashes behind me while the umbrella flattened out and managed to cover the entire sky above us. The sand beneath our feet turned to marble, then a layer of carpet covered it. The umbrella overhead became a ceiling and a chandelier hung from it as it raised to a more appropriate height.

I gave Celestia my reply as I moved towards a round table that had sprouted from the ground. "If you really must know, I'm on a small vacation." I'd said this with as much seriousness as I could muster, lifting a teacup towards my lips and having a quick sip.

For her part, Celestia took the change in scenery rather well, likely due to time spent fighting Discord, her reaction to my words however....

"What...?"

I took another sip of my tea while her glare went through a few different phases before resting on confusion. Lucky me that ponies can only express their true emotions in their dreams, no facades of perfect composure.

"I mean exactly as I said, I'm taking the night off after such a busy schedule. Unless you'd prefer a nightmare?"

I raised a non-existent eyebrow at her as her eyes widened. I mostly ignored the sound of chains grinding against the walls in the distance, along with the various cracks that began to spread through the room. I could've sworn there were limbs climbing out of them.

"No thankyou, I would rather do with one less nightmare to deal with." Well, at least she was witty. I shrugged as the cracks receded and the grinding stopped, almost laughing as I heard a slight squeal from one of the limbs that got crushed in the floor. Celestia sighed out of relief and moved towards the table slowly, having a seat opposite me while her glare returned in full force.

"Did no one tell you that the bad guys can take holidays? Double-dip Discord takes them quite often from what I've heard." Lucky bastard.

Celestia warily took a sip of her own tea, unable to avoid letting out a please "Mmm." as she lowered her cup. I chuckled when she blushed slightly, and to think I almost considered her a threat.

"You created the tea Cello, so it's pretty much always going to be the best of your favourite.."

"Hmm, something my sister had neglected to tell me about during our tra-" She cut herself off from letting loose her secret, though I already knew what it was.

My cup began overflowing, spilling onto the carpet below before spreading over it completely. My favourite grin came back as I looked into Celestia's horror-stricken eyes. "Let's play a game thundercalves, two player hide and seek." She'd backed off a bit, tipping over her chair as the tea-stained ground turned to green and grass sprouted from everywhere.

I was laughing as my cup fell into two halves, the half I wasn't holding onto falling to the ground and dissolving. My hat stretched out and Celestia marvelled as the seemingly endless room was revealed to be nothing but cleverly painted walls that loudly fell to the ground, showing us to be in a forest.

"What are you playing at Nightmare?!" She shrieked at me while the table became longer and many different plates, teacups and pots clattered its surface. She barely even noticed that she was now wearing a dress that looked as though it would be more welcome on a maid or pony from the old ages.

"Oh Cellybelly, how your words wound me so!" I pulled a rather shocked pose as I smiled at her, clothes falling over themselves and changing to a drab brown overcoat with a bow tie. I just laughed and jumped onto the table, slowly making my way towards her.

The forest around us grew restless, the dining table becoming a lone sanctuary. Celestia moved away from the table as I stood on the edge, smiling down at her. "I hope you don't mind but I've invited a few guests for tea." Her shoccked expression was priceless but I didn't give her a moment to plan for anything as the edge of the table rapidly expanded towards her, me calmly standing atop it while she held on for dear life.

"The rules are as follows," I wasn't really too sure if she was paying attention but I was having fun so who cares. I pulled a scroll from a pocket that wasn't there and put on a pair of reading glasses as the trees zoomed past us. "You are to find the rabbit, tweedle dum, tweedle dee, the carpenter, the queen of hearts, the jabberwock, and finally the cheschire cat before returning in time for tea."

I really don't think she was paying attention, especially after she was smashed into a few trees, don't worry, she was sturdy enough to not be hurt too bad. I hit her over the head with a ruler in order to get her attention, scoffing as I continued, "If you do not return in time for tea then you lose, if you do not return with all those required to attend you lose, if you die you lose, if you give up you lose, if you say the word tree you lose, if any member of your party loses a limb... well you get the idea at this point."

I rolled up the scroll and threw it away, without much fanfare to be honest, other than the sound of a chicken having it's neck twisted but I'm sure that was a coincidence. The table unceremoniously stopped at a clearing with a door labeled 'tea party' on one side and a path on the other. I lazily hopped off the table as Polar Luna tried to regain some measure of health, dignity or strength. Maybe all of them.

I was just about to turn the door handle as Sunkist decided she would do something besides pant and wheeze. "What should happen if I am to win? And for that matter, what shall happen if I lose?"

"Hmm, how about thish then; if you should win then I shall hand myshelf over, and should you loshe then I want dishcordsh shtatue." I've become a rather avid collector haven't I? Guess it comes with having nothing of value. Besides one thing of course.

She didn't really contemplate my choice of wording long before nodding and standing up to her full regal size, an inch below eye level, it was pretty funny to watch. I just laughed it off as I slammed the door behind her, leaving to her adventure as I came face-to-face with a merry band of grumpy characters all sitting around the dinner table.

"You know, usually I would enjoy games," the cheschire cat appeared right in front of me with a rather large frowny face, "that is, so long as I'm not forced to be dressed up as a cat." I flicked his nose and sauntered in, taking my seat at the head. All but one pair of eyes on me.

"In this world only you know who you are, all else will see you as your character so long as you are dressed up. And as an added bonus, you can't tell anyone who you are!" I laughed and put my feet up on the table, the various items atop it bouncing slightly in the air before simply floating upwards. "Why, I bet none of you know who I am. Well, all besides one, but I digress, it is time to play the game!"

I threw some rather sharp needles at them, they couldn't see the needles and nor could they see the connecting threads. I laughed as each one of them seemingly fell through the floor, only about three of them screaming while two let off a manly yell.

One left. "Luna, you can stop shaking now." After a few precious moments I sighed and walked to her, the rabbit ears were just adorable. "Catch!" She jumped a bit and looked at me fearfully, well I guess I couldn't expect much else. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a large fobwatch before throwing it at her. SHe somehow managed to catch it in her terrified stateand looked at the watch face.

"Click the thing to the side, it will give you a clear mind for exactly one hour and can only be clicked every two." It was kind of obvious she didn't trust me but whether she liked it or not I had to get her playing the game.

After far too many minutes passed of her slowly examining the watch I got impatient and drew my fist back, I wasn't going to hurt her too bad, just hit her into her start point. She shrieked and just as my fist was about to make contact, it didn't.

I barely noticed that a fiery portal opened between us and my fist went straight through, my clothes burning back into the holiday wear I had put on before entering the dream. My ever-present smile drooped as something unexpected happened. Instead of the pleasant sound of flesh hitting flesh or the soothing sound of a jaw being snapped and torn it sounded like a bug being squashed.

Needless to say the experience was slightly depressing.

I twisted my arm around inside the large... bug... thing, before yanking it out. The colour of its blood was just... ew. I quickly started wiping my hand off on my shirt before turning towards whomever had interrupted my fun whilst tilting up my hat to get a better view. I was not expecting some half-bug dude.

“Well,” He said out loud, “I didn’t imagine that you would look like this. Especially after your very dramatic entrance.”

He was definitely not one to talk.

Author's Note

If you couldn't guess, next chapter will be a crossover.
Sorry if this chapter is a wee bit dull.
I'm a tad very annoyed with the internet but apparently it should be back up by this afternoon, yay.

Bonus Chapter: Free Fall

These bonus chapters are just my way of filling time between chapters. They contain events that occurred in this story's Equestria, only during the time before Johnny was imprisoned in stone. I'm not sure if I'll do many of these but whatever. Also, do note that while the characters in these were (possibly) killed off thousands of years ago, it does not mean they will have no effect on the rest of the story.

These bonus chapters are just my way of filling time between chapters. They contain events that occurred in this story's Equestria, only during the time before Johnny was imprisoned in stone. I'm not sure if I'll do many of these but whatever. Also, do note that while the characters in these were (possibly) killed off thousands of years ago, it does not mean they will have no effect on the rest of the story.

I ran as fast as I could down the hallway, my purple and blue mane flicking behind me as I longed to spread my wings. As much as I wanted to I new I couldn't, this place was far too small and narrow, the roof only a meter or so above my head. I would try to smash through the walls but I had no idea what they were even made of, some kind of incredibly refined iron perhaps?

My hoof-steps were loud but were easily overshadowed by the sound of metal scraping behind me, over and over. I risked a glance behind me and picked up my pace at the sight of saw blades spinning in mid-air, bouncing off walls as they chased me endlessly. Suddenly one of them hit at a twisted angle, producing a particularly nasty crunch sound before flying through the air towards me.

I had no time to dodge as it tore through my side, cutting my cloud cutie mark neatly in half as I staggered. My thoughts raced as I stubbornly kept moving, trying to ignore the pain searing along my body as well as the single saw that passed me soared off into the distance. I ground my teeth together while I persevered, heading towards the shadow at the end of the corridor.

Unfortunately I hadn't noticed the blades behind me had stopped, spinning endlessly in the air as they took certain positions before stretching to fill up different lines in the air. I did however notice the blade that had gone past me, now stretched out to just barely fit the hallway as it slowly moved its flat end closer to the wall.

"What in Eq-" I didn't have time to finish my sentence as the saw connected with the wall somehow and I lost my hoofing as the entire hallway shifted vertically, the way behind me now below. My instincts kicked in and my wings snapped out in the air. I decided to keep moving ~~forward~~ upward. A quick look down however gave birth to new fears.

The saws that used to be behind me were now moving through the walls effortlessly and I knew I could never outfly them. I smirked as I realized all I'd have to do would be the thing I do best. I closed my eyes and fell backwards a few moments, righting myself directly downwards.

I just managed to open my eyes as the first blade came up to me, I shifted my left wing and spun to the right as the next one came up and I shifted the other way. The third and fourth one were a set and I tucked my wings in as I span between them. One by one I passed all the blades until there was only one remaining.

I had a beautiful wife and daughter waiting for me, as if I would let some spinning piece of metal stop me! I gave my cockiest grin as the blade was towards the left. I lazily shifted closer to the wall on my right as my inevitable victory over that bastard was in reach. I have no idea why he started doing the things he had been but we were going to snap him out of it.

We'd all made a promise after all.

Due to me being caught up in my thoughts I hardly noticed as an arm erupted from the wall next to me, not giving me nearly enough time to dodge as it grabbed onto my wing and yanked it into the wall. I didn't follow however as I smashed against the wall, drowsiness overwhelming me as my head made contact though the pain of having my wing torn off from the base woke me almost instantly.

I screamed as I helplessly fell towards the blade below, mocking me with its constant sparking and whirring. I closed my eyes again, not wanting to believe the end was coming. I could not stop it with thoughts alone and soon I felt the pain of having my head sliced off.

Then I felt nothing.

Author's Note

Tell me what you people think. More of this or just focus entirely on the story? Either way I'll probably still do these occasionally.

Also, please note that my internet has been on the fritz lately and it will make the time between uploads possibly longer. Sorry about that.

Waiter, There Is A Bug In My Tea!

I just stared at him blankly as I reached a hand behind my back, directly into a flaming doorway that stood behind me. The flames quickly cut out and the doorway caved in on itself before coming into contact with my hand and wrapping around it, which was absolutely boiling hot by the way, forming a glove with a slight red tint.

I grimaced a bit as I saw it, I had to help someone for fucks sake, why did I put that option in some of the gloves again? I wrenched my attention from the glove towards the mostly-a-bug thing that stood in front of me. ”And what is it you want? I was in the middle of something y’know?”

“Well, I was just curious about you. After all, the only other time that I had done anything like this was with Auric." Or as I like to call him, goody-two-shoes-shit-for-brains, head of the golden dildo armada, the always ready to fuck shit up the bum captain of cornflakes. It wasn't a very short nickname, but if I ever meet him again I am probably going to call him by it. Honestly though, just the mention of his name gets me so pissed! That fucking asshole did not have to fucking force me back! He could've just said please! I would've ignored it but it's the principle of the thing! Okay Johnny, deep breaths, my anger was almost palpable there, and do I smell burning? "But I digress, welcome to the Central Hive!” The what-what?

”Hive? As in, bees?” I looked around the place, and I gotta admit, it was kind of impressive. It as a bit familiar for some reason but whatever. Of course, that the bildings were made of flesh really caught my eye, and the ground is all kinds of black... and alive apparently. ”Fan-fucking-tastic, I was summoned by walking, talking cockroaches.”

“No, I can assure you that our roaches can’t walk, or talk.” He waved over just one of the Bugs Life rejects. “See?” Ew, it's all black and gooey. Not that I'm against black and gooey, it's just the way this particular black and gooey looked was just... well it wasn't something I'd take out for a romantic picnic. Not without having a pleasant conversation first, one in which I don't try and punch it in the face. “We are the Zerg. What more can I say?”

Man this thing is stupid looking though, it's like if someone took a normal roach and just covered it in a mountain of black gooey stuffs. Back on the subject of punching things in the face however, I think the port burnt off my dream clothes. A quick look down confirmed this, I was back in my vacation wear. "Goodbye, fleeting vacation, you shall be missed." I mumbled as I clicked my claws together to make a spark that quickly engulfed me in flames.

My clothes were quickly burned off and were replaced with my more 'formal' attire. Striped sweater, raggedy pants, the usual. ”Name’s Johnny, though most know me as the Nightmare or Freddy,” I shivered a bit as I continued, I fucking hated when people called me that, ”just call me Johnny though mister/miss?..” I had no idea what gender it was, it could be a tranny for all I care though.

“Dahaka. And I am a mister. At least, until Prime Directive has its way.” I just, no Johnny! The joke is far too easy! But it must be made! Fuck it, I'll just say something casual and witty. “And you actually said slash?” He's gone nuts, I never said slash, silly retarded bug thing.

”Sounds kinky, and I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I brought my usual grin back, not at it's full power but I'm really not in the mood for it.

“Unless you want to get into a whole discussion on how the Zerg work, I wouldn’t pursue the ‘mister for now’ thing.” Got it champ. Your gender perspective is none of my business.

I shrugged and looked around, bored as hell with all this talking. What really got my attention though was the building currently being constructed by what looked to be ponies and most decidedly not made of flesh. ”Well, well, well, looky what we have here. I have my ways of getting the info I need but I think it’s a bit more polite to ask. What the fuck is that?”

“It’s an embassy. So what?” So defensive.

”Let me guess, you killed off a few pompous pastel pricks and had to ask for another species to harbour you from the xenophobes? Unless of course…” I squinted a bit at the building, and I saw something that really got my blood boiling, although I'm not sure if I have any. Note to self: Bleed. ”Is that a sun emblazoned flag I see on the wall over there?” I practically spat it out, perfectly reasonable considering my past experiences with anything that had that in their home. Assholes.

“Basically," please don't tell me I'm in for a history lesson, "when I got here about one thousand, five hundred years ago," well... fuck, "I wasn’t in full control of myself." You sound like an abusive boyfriend apologising to his hospitalised chica. "In this state I caused, simply put, a mass genocide that wiped out about half of the intelligent species on the planet." That's odd, I don't remember there ever being an intelligent species on Equestria. "But once blasted by the elements of harmony, I was stuck as stone." It's nicer to call it a pigeon-shit perch than a statue, don't ask me why. "But it also made me in control of myself once again." Definitely an abusive boyfriend. "So, I escaped just after Discord and set the hive up. But the Sisters held a grudge and sent a large portion of their army to kill me." How rude. "They all died." Brief. "But soon something happened, something came and started attacking Equestria, so I helped them. And that’s how this came to be.” Oh my god, this fucking thing looks adorable!

I picked up a small bug thing and held it just in front of me while it flailed about, trying to claw my face off or something. ”Feisty little fucker… sorry what?”

“You’re lucky that I’m stopping them from killing you right now. But Essentially, Equestria and I now have a common enemy.”

”Hmm,” I wonder what this thing looks like on the inside? I'm sure... Dack-nack? won't mind, looks like he's got plenty of them. ”The way I see it, you just need to go back into the state before your imprisonment, because apparently it’s better at killing things.” What? He needed something dead and he used to be good at killing things, makes perfect sense to me. He started growling and I felt him nudging against my brain-box. Being such a good sport I let him in, the things he showed me from what I guessed was his arrival were so... I can't remember the word. What's another word for beautifully gore-covered? Was there even a word for that?

I smile and started crushing the little bug more while it shrieked. And since I was such a good sport, then it's only fair I be partial to equivalent exchange. ”Sharing is caring.” I said, a tad sadistically, as I showed him some of the fun I'd had before my own granite covered incarceration.

His eyes started glowing red and his next couple of sentences really clued me in on what just happened to him, “ATTACK THE INTRUDERS! Not... the... ponies.” He mumbled this over and over as he kept trying to out-order himself. It was very stupid to watch. So stupid, in fact, that I almost didn't notice the bugs were rushing me like it was something they were used to doing. Meh, I'll just call it a Zerg rush, it fits for some reason.

I laughed as they approached, their weird mouth things doing weird mouth stuff and I let myself relax a bit, laughing as they came closer. I felt something akin to a puppets strings being cut as my muscles weakened their grip on my bones. I then spun into the fun as I bent and twisted in ways that were not natural, punching, kicking and dodging anything that came near me, not even bothering to use my claw considering it was more fun to just punch things right now.

By the looks of things, I was probably going to be here for a while. So I hatched a cunning scheme in which to halt the oncoming horde. I sung a lullaby for Dunebug-Dahaka ”Go to sleep,” I punched a little bug that had leapt at me, crushing the one from before under my foot. ”Go to sleep,” I don't think my singing voice was very good since he wasn't even blinking. My punch continued, my torso clicking and cracking as it spun a full two-hundred and seventy degrees with various snaps of bone before my fist managed to hit another bug. ”Go to sleep little Daka!

My legs twisted in the opposite direction of my torso to kick a bigger bug with pincer things that had gotten a bit too close for comfort. It wasn't nearly as cute as the little ones. I held my claw in the air, closing it and pulling down while focusing on the air above Dahaka, hopefully I had enough fuel spare, before going back to punching and kicking. ”Once you o-.” Bullseye.

”-pen your eyes you won’t see me a-” My smile was up to eighty-percent as my body returned to its anatomically correct position and he struggled to stand up straight ”-gain.”

He muttered a quick “Kill me” before falling to the ground. It took nearly half a second for me to figure out he was ordering his bugs, and another half to get pissed at him for it. Motherfucker! There is no fucking way I'm going to let you get away that easy!

I growled and leapt towards him, trying to think of some place far enough away from his bugs but within porting distance. Needless to say, I had a pretty good idea of where to go. ”No you fucking don’t!” We were both engulfed in green flame as I moved us to both the closest and the furthest location from his hive thing.

After a while I groaned and stood up. That port had really done a number on me, especially because I had to get the bug as far away from the rest of them as possible. Hence why we were in the Canterlot dungeons, a place many a guard dreaded to be stationed. Mostly because of boredom and not the fact that anything was down here. We weren’t in Dahaka’s dimension of course, who knew how far his version of telepathy could reach. No, instead I dragged him to my dimension, which is why I was having another headache.

”Uggh, you mother bugger, making me do things on my vacation.” I shook my head and did my usual routine of cracking joints and bones alike before heading over to the bug currently trying to saw his way out of an unlocked door.

”You know,” I said as I walked closer, standing a meter or so behind him. ”I’ve yet to find someone who would lock the door to an empty dungeon.”

“But why would it be unsealed? It would not make sense to keep a containment chamber unsealed.” He had such a bored tone, like there was nothing new to what was happening even though, judging from his reaction, this was.

I sighed and tapped him on the shoulder before directing his attention to the rest of the dungeon. ”Can you count how many prisoners are currently in here?”

“Zero. And while I can see why you would make such an argument, they would probably have taken into account the probability of something like this happening.” As the bug said this, it’s claw finished cutting the bar. It started cutting another part of it.

I just rolled my eyes. ”Yes, they took precautions for those teleporting into the cell, obviously. I mean, it’s not like anything that could teleport in could do the same to leave.” It paused for a moment, then replied,

“You are either using sarcasm, or you are extremely dense. But either way, the possibility of a situation like ours is not negligible.”

I facepalmed, surely he knew Sovereign Sunstroke could never plan for the little things. For example, she would always be good at knowing which countries were best to trade with, but she has nothing prepared for if someone threw a pie at her in the middle of day-court. She has plans if a cake gets thrown at her though.

”Right, well, I’m going to grab your shoulder in a few moments so don’t freak out on me or anything.” I didn’t really give him time to process that as I grabbed him and we quickly caught fire. I don’t think he was used to being burned alive however as we soon reappeared at the main floor of my shack. Kronk obviously wasn’t too pleased to see him.

“Never do that again. It is unpleasant in the extreme.” That’s odd, I thought bugs loved to be set on fire. Unless I’m thinking of dragons, oh well.

I chuckled and pointed to a seat while Kronk growled at him. ”Just sit on that root for a bit, I’ll be right back.”

I didn’t catch his response and I didn’t really care as I made my way to my workshop, he was practically stuck here after all and I could probably use that as leverage. After looking through the room my eyes caught on the prize, the glass orb I’d gotten with green crap inside it. It really wasn’t hard to make the connection between the weird bug thing and what could be described as the egg of a small bug.

I picked it up and chucked it in the air a few times as I made my way back upstairs. The bug was about to open the pup’s chest with it’s claw’s as I came up, But dropped it as it saw the egg. Poor Kronk, he’d been through quite a bit since I got here. Maybe I’ll get him a treat later.

I smirked as I looked towards Primrose, holding up the egg between my claws. ”You’re a leader of sorts, let’s see how well you can negotiate.”

“You seem to think that I was made with negotiation in mind. But it also seems that you wish for things to die. My return to my realm will mean the death of many things. And I will be able to come back here to kill many things. I think that having things die is your prime directive. So by letting me have the anchor, I will be able to help you fulfill your prime directive.”

I grabbed a chair and turned it around, sitting on it as I looked at the bug. ”Look Optimus,” I held up two claws after moving the egg to my other hand, ”I only want two things from you. Death was never really my main objective but everyone likes to think so and I can’t be bothered to correct them.”

I scraped my claw along one of the walls, drawing a crude picture of the thing in front of me. ”First thing I want, is to give you a backdoor.” I drew a door next to the terrible stick figure that looked more like an elephant somehow.

“But why do you want this? I am not of your concern.” I am not of your concern he says, this guy is like a broken record of matter-of-fact answers.

”Think about it, it is inevitable that when Daka wakes up you’re going to be nothing but a voice in his head. I just want to give you some way of influencing things, nothing too big but just enough so that you can get out your own small commands that he won’t know about.”

It was pretty simple really, Prime wanted to kill a lot of things and Daka wanted to be peaceful. Currently Daka was more powerful apparently so if I give Prime a way of being able to do things then I may be able to create some changes without touching a thing. Beyond Dahaka anyhow.

“It would help my directive to have a, as you put it, ‘back door’. Dahaka has not let the swarm grow. Evolve yes, but not in ways to help the Swarm overcome and consume all.”

I clapped my hand and claw together, not really caring as I accidentally cut a finger off half way. ”Fantastic then, on to my second request since you can’t have the first without it.”

I thought back to the new dolls scattered around my workshop downstairs before deciding on a regular pony puppet that I never got around to painting. I ported it to my hand and decided to burn my finger back together as an afterthought.

”I would also like you, Prime.” I thought over my words a bit before chuckling and continuing. ”Not in the way you probably thought. What I meant was, when I give you a backdoor I would also like to copy your personality over to this toy. Copy, not move in case you were wondering.”

I mostly just wanted to give it to the ponies so I could see what would happen really.

“I see nothing objectionable to copying myself onto a toy. But first, could I have a skin sample? I would like to study your essence.” He couldn't have said it any creepier, so I pretty much knew my answer before I’d had a chance to think on it.

”Sure, on the condition that Dahaka does not learn of your… ‘secret project’ until you’ve made something from it.” Honestly the thought of a bug me running around and killing things was both funny and hilarious. Shutup, I can use both of those to describe something.

“I would like a section from your brain, heart, and skin. Just the skin would be fine, but the other two will make things go faster.”

I thought on it for a moment before shrugging and standing up, placing my hat on the back of the chair before throwing my sweater on it. ”I have no idea what you could use a dead heart for, but I might as well. I’m not really using it anyway.”

“So I take it that I can have the whole heart then?” Well, at least someone is eager.

I nodded and placed my claw on my chest. I slowly carved an ‘x’ in the middle of it near the bottom of my neck and pushed my hand in. It was… unpleasant to say the least and all the scarring had made it a bit too easy to cut. After a while of wriggling my hand around inside myself, something I hope to never do again, and going past my ribs, I’d managed to find what I hoped was my heart.
I thought on the best way to get rid of it before just deciding to rip it out. It wasn’t beating anyway, so I saw no harm in it and if I should need it for whatever reason I could just burn it back… probably. After tearing off the main arteries, which somehow had blood flowing through them, I managed to pull out my heart. Rather curiously it began beating as soon as it left my body.

”Well,” I was panting a bit from the experience and quickly decided to burn the wounds back to normal, though I had no idea what the arteries were going to connect to. ”I can’t say that is something I wish to do again, so hurry up and take it before I decide I no longer wish to literally give you my heart that is currently both achey and brakey.”

The bug quickly took it. It then lifted up a flap on its lower back, and placed it inside. “Now for the brain and skin.

I growled at him a bit. ”Do not push your luck right now. I feel empty enough as it is.”

“Just the skin then?” I glared at him slightly before relenting, although being literally heartless now made me feel so… empty, I doubted that a piece of skin would do the same. So I just scraped a bit off my arm before chucking it at him and putting my sweater back on. The bug who had stolen my heart quickly snatched the skin up and put it into the same pouch that my heart was now in.

I quickly put my hat back on and grabbed the egg. ”Alright, you got your end of the deal, now it’s my turn. So lie down or something and get sleeping.” I didn’t really care for his response at this point as I went downstairs, and I didn’t really think Kronk was up to pulling the lever yet so I let him rest upstairs and keep an eye on Primeval.

As soon as I got to my workshop I walked into the furnace and pulled the lever. There was a painful tearing sensation in my chest as I was thrown into the dreamscape, it was probably because I was missing pieces but I would get used to it eventually.

After a bit of grovelling in pain I finally righted myself and looked for buggy’s window. I was beginning to think he had duped me when I spotted it, way off into the distance as if it was avoiding everything else. I quickly brought it to me and walked in. The bug’s dream was constantly shifting, as though it had no stabilizing force. This was probably due to Dahaka also being in here somewhere, the two personalities fighting for dominance or something.

I looked around the place for Prime, not really interested in staying for too long as the constant change was giving me a headache. I eventually spotted a thing in the distance, it looked like a growth on the land, and it was the only stable thing. I just thought on the thing and the dream shifted so that I was next to it. I was wondering on how to get in, but a gap opened in the fleshy substance. It was disgusting, but it was the only way in. So I squeezed into the gap and popped out of the other side.

The inside was disproportionately large compared to the outside. I saw many glowing double helix’s floating around. I tried to grab one, but it had a kind of protective field around it. Then I saw a sort of blob. It grew legs to walk on, but when the legs no longer had pressure on them, they were recycled into the blob. It grew an arm as it approached a helix, and it interacted with it.

”I hope you haven’t forgotten our deal already. And considering I can’t get a lock through the dream, I am going to have to do this directly. I’m not sure if you can hear me or not, but I want you to know that I am not sorry at all for any pain this causes.”

I dug my hand into the blob, reaching in up to my elbow until I found what I was looking for. I grabbed it and pulled. It took some effort but eventually I managed to tear it out. What I now had in my hands was a purplish flame that would probably kill you if you looked at it too long. Maybe I should have mentioned the process involved with copying things? Nah.

I fiddled with the flame, it seemed like it could barely hold its shape, always changing to match whatever it needed, which made sense as it was basically a representation of Prime’s entire existence, before pulling a strand of string out from it and cutting it off. I could practically feel the thing screaming as I burnt a new one in its place and shoved it back in the blob.

I doubted he would be happy at me when he woke up so I quickly shoved the strand in my hat and tore a claw in the air. I made a rather crude door and gave it a little furbishing before I saw the blob start to move again and I high-tailed it out of there. The dream had somehow gotten more shifty as I ran towards a furnace that had melted out of the ground. As soon as I was a few feet from it it lit up and I jumped into the blue flames, though, not until after throwing the egg at the blob behind me.

As I ignored the new pain of rematerialisation and made my way upstairs I barely caught a flash of green peeking past the door frame. I heard and felt the ground rumbling below me before I sprinted upstairs. ”Why couldn’t the stupid bug just use a portal or something?! It would have been so much simpler!”

I somehow managed to reach the top and grab the still unconscious bug before throwing him out the front door that I still needed to get. It was like one of those tricks a dog does where you throw something and it catches it. Except instead of a frisbee it was a barely conscious bug that went by the name Prime Directive, and instead of a dog it was a giant fucking worm thing. Which I hoped no passers by to the Everfree wouldn’t notice, which I doubted.

Author's Note

In the next chapter:
"Twily?"
"We're all out of paint."
"No! That's against the rules!"
"The door is right there!"
"Of course, would I ever lie to you?"
"Everyone dies in the end, even you, Celestia."

I'd also like to thank Dundredo for the crossover with his fic The Zerging of Equestria.

And yes, I do realise how annoying the constant swap between past and present tense is.

Bonus Chapter: Fleeting Tranquility

"All aboard!" The conductor was as loud as ever, though that could probably be excused thanks to all the noise generated by the train station. The train itself was loud when it got going, but when it was still all you could hear was the chattering of ponies walking about, either gawking at the train or saying goodbye to loved ones.

Many of them had tears in their eyes, and why wouldn't they? Nopony wants to go to war. We've been doing it long enough that we've gotten used to it but it doesn't mean we like it, it just means we know what to expect. There were no faces full of pride like my grandfather had once told me was an abundant feature seen on the faces of most every pony to head out.

The new technology hadn't helped either, especially the printing press. The new Princess' were very forthcoming with the details of war, not promoting it in any way, just telling everyone that it had to happen for one reason or another. I really couldn't help but let a yawn escape from just thinking about the things they taught in schools nowadays.

Still, I was one of the lucky ones. I managed to avoid being drafted thanks to a few connections and was instead being dropped off at the half-way point to help in the exportation of Equestrian fashion to the Crystal Empire. Of course, it would mean I'd have to adapt a new style to fit their... unique physiology, but I was determined to prove myself.

I was brought out of my daze as about fourty Earth ponies walked towards the front of the train. They were called runners and their absolutely built bodies helped show this off. Pretty much all of them were covered in muscles they must've developed over years of pulling these big hunks of shoddy metalwork across the uneven tracks.

Without much of a thought my mind turned to their uniforms, dirty and torn from years of hard work. Really though the hems could have been done a little better and the area around their withers should have been made looser to help with movement.

The train started off, abruptly pulling forwards at the call of the conductor while the inertia of fthe start-off pulled me back into my seat. Funny word inertia, up until twenty years ago it was the name of a drink. It still is, but Starswirl had dubbed it a new meaning because he found the word 'fitting'. Poor guy, heard he died of a heart-attack a few years back, really hit both the magical and the non-magical community pretty hard. Even Princess Celestia shed a few tears before calmly walking back into the castle.

Celestia, all this thinking is just the worst. I should be thinking about some new designs! Not old gossip. I let out another yawn as the landscape zoomed past the window. Maybe I should get some rest? It was going to be quite a while before we even reached the North. I leaned my head against the window, listening to the vibrations of the train, tuning out the conversations around me. I'd barely noticed my eyelids drooping, further and further, until finally they sh-

SCREECH

I cursed as my head clanged with the back of the seat, not giving me nearly enough time to wake up before forcing me back into the waking world. I held a hoof to the back of my head for a while, nursing the injury, before moving my hoof back into sight.

Blood. Just great. Well at least I could probably sue them for this, preferably before any other passengers could. I sat back up in my seat, looking around the train. I ignored the red tint that now covered everything, deciding to better ask the question of "Where is everypony?"

I looked out my window, noting that all I could see was a rocky, red landscape expanding into forever. I tried to open the window but gave up when it wouldn't budge. I wouldv'e tried bucking it but I didn't want to injure myself.

Cautiously, I got out of my seat and headed to the front of the train. Hopefully the conductor would have some answers. As soon as I reached for the door connecting this compartment to the next I felt something was... off. I couldn't describe it, but I felt compelled to turn around.

Apparently my instincts were of a kind nature as I noticed something I'd missed before, a frightened filly curled up near the back seats. I steeled myself and walked to the other end of the carriage, putting on my most reassuring smile before clearing my throat just next to the seat.

The filly whimpered a bit and I waited a while until she finally decided to poke her head out past her wings. "Are you okay?" It took some time for her to reply, even then it was only a gesture. her eyes scannedover me for a while, probably worried I meant to harm her, before giving a slight shake of her head.

"I didn't think so, you wouldn't happen to know what's going on would you?" Another shake of the head. Not that I expected her to know something, but it was worth a shot. "Do you have a parent or guardian with you?" Left, right, left again. I really don't know why I'd decided on pointless questions. "Alright then, how about we go see the conductor and hopefully we'll find someone who knows you on the way."

She lay there, still inspecting me with her huge eyes, before giving a slight nod and crawling off of the seat. I gave her a smile as I headed back to the door, making sure the filly was close by in case something were to happen. I gripped the handle in my magic andslowly pulled open the door. What I'd expected to see was another empty cabin as we were three from the front, what I hadn't expected was the hallway made of corrugated iron.

What I expected least of all though was the shriek of the filly as she dove past me and into the hallway. I only had a few seconds to look back and notice the train carriage was crumbling and falling into nothingness piece by piece before I'd jumped as well.

I lay there, trying to catch my breath as I tried to comprehend what'd just occured. It mostly just translated to 'Trains don't have doors that leads to hallways' and 'Trains don't fall when you leave'. I shakily got to my hooves and chanced a peek into the doorframe. Yep, nothing.

I sighed and pulled my head back in before going to comfort the filly I must've forgotten about in the past few seconds. I gently placed a hoof on her head and pet her mane for a while until she stopped trembling. Her wings had loosened up a little until the door slammed shut and they immediately covered her again.

It took forever until she'd finally stopped shaking enough to stand. To be fair though, I had no idea why I wasn't shaking. Maybe I was just putting on a facade for the little one. Whatever it was, it lent towards a newfound determination to get her out of here.

"Can you tell me your name?" I don't know why I hadn't asked earlier, that was a fundamental thing in meeting new ponies right? Oh well, right now I just had to think on what is important, like finding a way out of this place.

"M-my name is B-b-butter" BZZT ", sir." I chuckled a bit at the honorific. It wasn't very common nowadays for colts and fillies to use such formal language, usually they just settled with grandpa, but hopefully this one was a sign of change in that aspect.

"Pleasure to meet you Butter, my name is Dashing " BZZT ", though you can just call me -- if you'd like." I'd somehow managed to get a small smile out of her as she nodded before I turned my sights back towards the hallway.

'Right Dashing,' I assured myself, 'time to get some answers, and maybe a new coat as this one clashes so much with the decor around here.

Author's Note

I'm not dead in case anyone was wondering.
Just been busy with exams.
Last one is in a couple of hours.
Sorry for not uploading.
kkthxbye.

Heroes Exist Within Us All...

”Right then,” I cracked my knuckles loudly before heading back into my shack, ”It’s time to get to work.” I headed back inside my hut as the worm settled in the distance behind me, apparently content with its new location.

That buggy bastard should’ve told me that his token created a permanent gateway the size of a fucking house, and then I could have planned for it or something. Oh well, no use dwelling on it now. I pet Kronk on the head as I passed him, he growled and moved away but I just forcefully grabbed him.

Pets are supposed to comfort people right? Useless mutt. I just sighed and kept petting him for a while before turning my attention to the sun setting on the horizon. I guess I came back too early, the me from around now could be anywhere, I really have to get this time thing sorted.

I gave Kronk another pat on the head, a lot gentler than before, before making my way downstairs. I barely acknowledged the green flash of light I saw as I walked downstairs, making my way over to my wood pile.

For some reason I felt especially lazy today, so rather than carve the wood into a suitable shape I just sat down and scraped one claw on the other over it, creating a spark that quickly set the wood alight. I calmly watched as the fire ate at the wood, my eyes trained onto each tongue of flame that came off the pile.

I calmly let out a breath and decided it would be easier to focus if I used my hands somewhat so I raised them and started directing the flames over the wood. It could almost be seen as beautiful if it weren’t for such a stupid purpose.

After a couple of hours of work I’d finally finished making the pieces I needed. I was already on the move before I even realized it, placing each piece where it belonged in a much larger piece of wood. I sorely wish I could’ve used metal, but this was far easier and more efficient anyhow.

I stood up to my full height as I looked down at my creation, wiping a bead of sweat from my face before taking my hat off and placing it on a work bench, the strand I’d taken from the bug writhed around inside but it had no real method of movement.

”Such a grumpy bug he was, I honestly wish Daka luck in dealing with that one.” I carefully picked the strand up between two gloved fingers as it struggled to get out of my grasp. After a bit of examination I nodded and placed it back down before picking up what was left of a chunk of wood. ”I really need to find something else to carve.” I grumbled.

I began sculpting the chunk of wood while keeping a close eye on the strand. It had given up its previous idea of crawling away and looked like it was actually planning a method of escape. I know that some people are swayed by chest feelings and shit but to say that Prime was guided by it probably wouldn’t be too incomprehensible of an assumption.

My eyes briefly trailed over to the wooden ponyquin standing next to the wall. Creating life is something I had never even thought about until I’d taken so much away, but now I guess I was getting a bit lonely. Yes, I know I had Mary but she was trapped in the mirrors and probably wouldn’t even be able to hold a decent conversation.

I sighed once more as I held the wooden heart in one hand and grabbed at the soul-string-thing with the other. It really was such a shame I was going to give him to the ponies, I guess that’s just the cost of fun. I trailed the string over the heart, tying it around over and over until it had covered most of it. The damn thing was just so stretchy.

I really had no idea if this would even work, but it couldn’t hurt to try. I moved next to the ponyquin as I tightened my grip around the heart, my palm heating up considerably while I concentrated on stopping the heart from catching fire.

For such a tiny thing, it could sure scream, though I guess you couldn’t hear it unless you were in a quiet room and listening very carefully. I slowly lowered my hand to the back of the ponyquin, pushing my hand into it as a hole clearly melted away. When I was pretty sure it was mid-way into the barrel I let go and pulled out, making sure to cool the wood as quickly as I could.

At first nothing happened, but sure enough I slowly saw the wood close over the hole at the rate of a tectonic plate, fucking slow. I growled a bit and stormed over to what was left of my wood, pretty much nothing.

”Oh well, I guess I’l make just one last thing and get some more wood later.” I threw the wood onto a workbench and got to work. The new pony I’d just made was the last thing on my mind as I worked.

First and foremost I needed something to stop the newfound pain of flame-porting, hey, that isn’t a bad name for it actually. I’d gotten it when I gave my heart to the bug, so all I needed was a new one. I could vaguely remember what mine looked like so I set to work on copying it.

”WHY THE FUCK DID I GIVE THAT THING MY FUCKING HEART! THIS IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS! WHY THE FUCK DID I NOT THINK ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS TO THIS?!” Putting it mildly, I was frustrated. Making a heart was one thing, making it out of wood is an entirely different story.

After a while of trial and error though I’d finally managed to get it to a point where it didn’t fall to pieces but could still pump blood somewhat. Fuck it wasn’t easy though. I don’t want to explain the process, because the science of it made no sense to me, but it involved a lot of rapid heating and cooling.

I calmed down a bit before taking off my shirt, yep, there was now a scar running down my chest, joy. Hopefully though this would fix it. I held onto the heart and clenched my teeth before shoving it into the scar. ”FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!” It hurt a little.
I twisted it around inside my stomach and only let go as I felt my chest heat up. I crossed my arms over the scar as the burning increased, and only kept getting hotter. I screamed and started slamming my head into the workbench; this was so much hotter than all the other fires! I kept bashing my head over and over until the burning finally peaked before cutting out completely.

Grunting, I sat up straight and moved my arms from my chest to see the scar burning over itself. In my joy I’d barely noticed that my chest was glowing slightly which could only mean one thing, the heart was burning.

”FUCK!” I slammed a fist into the workbench and broke it a bit while my jaw reset itself from being slammed into the now broken workbench; I guess it was karma or something. The biggest downside to now having a slightly glowing weak spot was that I would have to keep getting it replaced now if I wanted to keep porting around.

After a few minutes of cursing loudly and breaking my workbench into a new pile of wood I calmed down a little bit, then I heard a scream behind me. I slowly turned to glare at the ponyquin behind me, though it was hard to call it that now. It was still made of wood but had someone gained a black coloured coat with a red, wool-like mane.

I kept looking over it as it composed itself, straightening up into a sitting position while its eyes followed something only it could see before I bonked it on the head. “Ow” Woo, this one’s got a tongue on ‘im ma’! Better get that bar o’ fat ready just in case!

He looked up at me while managing to pull off the ‘I’m looking down on you’ look at the same time. Silence reigned supreme for a while before I rolled my eyes and bonked him on the head again. ”My name is Johnny, your name is Prime, I made you out of wood so try to avoid fires and remember that I could kill you at any time, now go have fun with the ponies!”

I didn’t let him get a word in as he opened his mouth to speak, only to scream when I flame-ported him into the castle of the Purple Pony Princess of Pals. Hopefully, that would be a good surprise for her when she finished the game.

If you honestly couldn’t guess she was at the tea party then shame on you, who else would make a perfect Tweedle-dum? Though I guess it’s more Twili-dum. Twilights Kingdom, Twili-dom, Twili-dum, get it? Me neither. I have no idea where I got Twilights kingdom from.

Moving onward, I stepped up to the fireplace while calmly calling down the Timberwolf tenant. ”Get down here Kronk!” I might’ve been a wolf-whisperer in a past life because he came down obediently with his head low to the ground. ”Well aren’t you just adorable, now then, onto business.”

I struck a dramatic pose, one hand behind my back as the clawed one pointed to the roof. My hat flew over to land on my head as I announced ”Pull the lever Kronk!” I emphasized the pull a fair bit but shrugged I off as Kronk somehow managed to convey the stupidity of his situation with glowing, empty eye-sockets.

He pulled down on a lever and I was about to smile for the first time that day before the ground opened beneath me. ”Wrong lever Kronk!” I don’t remember installing another lever though, or a trapdoor, so how this had happened was a complete mystery. I just shrugged as I fell and clicked my claws together, lighting myself on fire and dissipating away into blue embers just as the ground came up to meet me.

Kronk for his part just shook his head and made his way back upstairs, wondering whether or not the free accommodation, meals and protection were worth the harassment

Canterlot, eastern wing of the castle.

Blueblood. One of the most disliked, yet favored nobles in Equestria. His title as Prince as well as his connection to the royal sisters easily bumped him right towards the top of social hierarchy. Though no pony is without their faults. For every kind word he has said to one noble he says an entire paragraph about them behind their back, usually in the most unkind ways. He felt as if he couldn't help it however, his ranking among the elite aided to assure him that it was in his place to do so. He was raised more by those around him than his own parents.

On one fateful- no. On one destined day, a crux in the turning point of Equestrian history, Blueblood met her.

The night sky its usual dark purple as Blueblood strolled through the gardens. Over the years the life of a noble had grown weary, the constant bickering and distaste for anything deemed lower class driving him to isolate him further from the rest. For even if he had grown up around them, he never felt that he had truly fitted in. It was only natural of course, with his position he was practically isolated from having a deeper relationship with others.

As the stars above twinkled and glimmered he was reminded of this. For he would not have realized what he'd truly become until Auntie Luna had told him directly. Auntie Luna, something he had never even considered. He thought he was close to Celestia, maybe even closer than Twilight Sparkle, and yet she had told no one of her long lost sister. ''Long lost had been the term that suited her most, as her memory of the days of old had shown him the errors of his own actions.

She had pulled him apart from the other nobles during one evening and told him everything he'd both hoped and dreaded to hear. Apparently Celestia had told her just what he used to be like, a child with dreams of being a hero. It was the dream of most little colts at some point, but his dreams were encouraged by Celestia herself, even if they were beaten, broken, downtrodden, trampled, destroyed and utterly annihilated by the nobility, he still had hope.

Luna had told him how the nobility of old had become as such not through birthright, but through achievements. All except those of Princess Platinum's lineage however,"as they had been spurred towards becoming some of the greatest scholars in history. They had written and collected every piece of Equestria's history, storing it all in the forbidden wing. I'm getting off track however.

Blueblood dragged his thoughts back towards the night sky, of his Aunties, of the very state of Equestria. Had he truly even tried being a hero? Maybe he could be one, all he had to do was take a step towards change. These thoughts were quickly brushed aside however, his own negligence to change driving him back. How could he ever be a hero? He wasn't strong, he wasn't magically powerful and he wasn't very smart. He was certain that he would be doomed to die an unimportant noble, one the history books barely mention as they talk of the true heroes.

Certainty is only a fleeting thought however.

This realization had struck him the moment one of the stone pedestals had caught fire. Not the overpowering flame of an insatiable hunger, but a calm, golden flame that looked as though it needed to be there. He barely registered in a passing thought that the stone pedestal was the one on which the Nightmare had stood many moons ago, the plaque on the front seeming to melt and shift as the words had changed. The flame rose, a dress coming into existence in thin air, not one for ponies but one for a bipedal creature as his Aunt had taught him through countless visits to the Minotaur homelands.

The dress seemed almost on fire itself, a small voice reminding him how it seemed just like the glow of his Aunties magic on the Summer Sun Celebration. Soon the dress'wearer came into view, frail arms almost as pale as bread, stretching behind the air above while a ghostly yawn ran through the air. Blueblood stood there dumbstruck as the figures head became visible, a white mask with a smile carved into it present on her face that left her golden eyes visible, her hair almost the same as her eyes but maintaining the fiery appearance of her dress.

Howdy! Blueblood sputtered and fell over in shock as the creature had somehow appeared beside him, falling flat on his back as he stared up at what he'd figured was a she. The mysterious woman tilted her head slightly, the mask looking as if to frown while she slowly reached out a hand and placed it on his head. Initially he had flinched, but within seconds he had calmed down as she petted him, still shocked silent from what'd happened but slowly coming to his senses.

He'd knocked her hoof away as swoon as he realized what was happening, a faint blush on his cheeks as he stared up at her, regaining the posture of the high and mighty. "How dare you touch me with your filthy appendages, state your business or I shall call the guards immediately!" His posture failed slightly as he was caught in those eyes of hers. She giggled slightly as her mask seemed to return to the smile he'd seen earlier.

With almost no hesitation she reached out to him again, and he felt reluctant to pull back yet did so. He was unable to avoid her as she seemed to flash and appear in front of him, staring into his eyes while she cupped his head.

""Aww, poor little Blueblood, so unsure of yourself. She moved closer, her eyes only an inch or two away as her voice rang through his head, a quiet whisper in his ears becoming the words he thought over countless times in an instant; "Do you want to be a hero?"

The words on the plaque now replaced by a single letter: A

Author's Note

Ehhhhhh, what do you guys think of that beginning? 'Cause honestly it seems a bit boring and pretentious to me.

Or, you know, don't criticize me, see if I care. :fluttershysad:

Wow, looking back on the first part of this (up to the lever part) I realize I may have lost track of the story.
Still, I added the new character early, and postponed the wonderland arc a tad. Sorry about that. Oh and sorry for the wait.