Hard Truths

The canyon was deathly silent, not a single thing moving for miles around. An empty barn lay crumbled deep within. It was alone, with its wrecked stone walls and gutted insides. Rotten wood lay all over what was once the floor, but was now a hole collapsing into the ground from the inside out. Not even termites bothered with this place anymore.

For several more minutes, the building that had once been a barn continued it slow descent into the earth alone, but then, for the first time in forever, something moved toward it. Or rather, somepony. The black-horned unicorn had fur the color of coal, and her mane was a pure silver that would make the moon jealous. Her tail was mostly the same color, but there was one streak of midnight blue down the middle. Her eyes were the most interesting thing, however. Where white should be was an early night blue, and the irises were a dark blood red. The only thing normal was the black pupils.

Glancing around, the mare spoke. "Hello?" she called, her silky voice echoing in the desolate canyon. Nopony replied. In fact, nothing did. No scurrying of a mouse, no call from a startled bird. It was like a graveyard.

Shivering, she padded up to the barn and stepped inside.

"Nightmaaare."

She froze in place, her head snapping to face the direction she thought it came from, but couldn't be sure cause of how words bouncing around the canyon. Her body instinctively shivered, goosebumps forming up her hooves.

Trying to collect herself, the teenager took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, there was another pony in front of her. The pony was pure white, even her mane and tail. Her eyes were a dark brown, and she had a slim build, much like a dancer. It wasn't the looks that made Nightmare shriek. No, it was the smile. The teeth were spotted yellow and black, and there was blood and bits of what Nightmare could only assume was skin and body parts. Past a slit in the unnaturally sharp teeth, she could see a part of what the black unicorn thought was a heart. As she watched in horror, the white pegasus mare began chewing, and she looked like she was actually savoring the thing that had once kept a pony alive.

"Nightmare!"

The shriek wrenched her attention away from the terrifying mare. What she saw made her throw up. "Nightmare, why did you let them kill us? Why?" Peacock moaned, dragging her tattered body across the rocky earth. Her teal color had been replaced by red, blood having stained it permanently. Her purple mane and tail were gone, in their places were pieces of bone and meat poking from her misshapen neck and torn apart flank. As she crawled on her forehooves, for her hindhooves were completely missing, it looked like they had been ripped clean off, Peacock let out a groan. She exposed what had once been her belly, but was now an empty husk with intestines that were barely held together by small strings of wet, sticky meat. There were several chunks missing from the things that had once been part of the mare's gut.

However, it was Nightmare's father that made her sick. His face was half missing, and the other part of it was smashed. His eyes had several chunks of woods in them, which bled profusely. His body was broken in so many places, it was hard to list them all. His hooves, his back, his spine, even his neck. He too had almost completely red fur, although a little green showed. His mane and tail were intact, but it looked like someone had taken a hacksaw to them. Several scars across his neck and flank suggested they might have done just that. What was left of the skin on his face was pulled back, like somepony had tried to pin it back as to show off his crushed skull and dismantled jaw. His eyes bulged out as he walked closer. The most brutal aspect, however, was also his stomach. It had been sliced open jaggedly, and his guts were all mixed up like a soup, with lot of blood to replace water. Several things plopped out as he approached, landing with a nasty, *splat*!

Teary-eyed from puking, Nightmare looked back up, then immediately backed away, for they were standing right in front of her. She felt her rump hit an unstable wall of the barn, and watched in alarmed terror as the white mare joined the couple, silently stalking up to her.

Nightmare's brain tried to formulate a plan, but the sight before her stalled her brain to the point of it breaking down. That was when they reached her. That was when it began.

Tearing, biting, gouging, ripping, shripping, poking, prodding, beating, pounding, breaking, the three ponies tore into Nightmare. She screamed as she felt her body being taken apart, she lost one eye, then a forehoof. She felt her skin forced away from her flank, felt the loss of her future as she realized she would always remain a blank flank, just like she had suspected after all these years, then there was an agonizing crunch from her right shoulder, and she slumped to the ground, willing it all to go away, she just wanted for it to be over, she wanted the death to come, she wanted-

...mare!"

  The black unicorn shot bolt upright, smacking the pegasus above her as she failed about wildly, the nightmare still fresh in her mind. "Oh Celestia, please stop, please, no more!" she shrieked. The yellow pegasus attempted to calm her down, but Nightmare was in a state of absolute panic.

  Then water was splashed across her face. Big mistake, bratty little rabbit. Nightmare, thinking it was her blood spraying out from a broken nose, shot up and started blasting randomly with her horn. Of course, she started to surge, but this time the unicorn was glad, thinking she might get to blast her tormentors away.

  The cottage literally exploded, and Fluttershy and her animals were sent crashing into the ground several hundred yards away. Standing, the pegasus stared in frightened disbelief. "No...my home," she whispered, her bottom lip quivering.

  At that moment, Nightmare walked from the wreckage, holding a hoof to her head and looking about in bleary confusion. "Wha- what happened?" she asked to nopony in particular.

  Fluttershy rage mode activated. Target, Nightmare Stalker. Relation, injured stranger found out in the Everfree. "What happened? What happened?! I'll tell you what happened! You blew up my fucking house is what happened! I don't care what type of nightmare you were having, you had no right to attack me or my animals!"

  By now, she was up in Nightmare's very shocked face. The unicorn didn't know the shy, timid pegasus had it in her. "Well, I, um, uh," Nightmare stuttered, then paused as a thought occurred to her. "What nightmare?"

  The teenager could not remember anything about what happened after Fluttershy found her. It was like her mind had erased some her memories. Why? To protect her? What from?

  As she contemplated this, Fluttershy began to feel unsure. This pony looked really lost, she must not remember the things that had freaked her out. While Fluttershy was glad the images that had scared the technical child were out of her mind, she could not help feeling irritated that she would not know why her only home had been blown to smitherins.

  "Fluttershy, Fluttershy, are you alright?!"

  Both mares looked up to see a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, her magenta eyes filled with concern.

  Nightmare felt something in her stir, and she realized just how high the sun was. "Oh no, I gotta go! I have no idea how long it'll take to get to Rumbling Rock Ridge!"

  As she started to gallop away, the rainbow pegasus landed in front of her. "Hey, you destroyed my friend's home! You aren't going anywhere without a beat down!"

  Nightmare eyed the mare up and down. She looked physically fit, but Nightmare bet her sweet dollar the mare had never seen the real horror of the world, nor had to fight it. "Step down, miss. You'll find I'm not as easy to fight as I seem."

  This only enraged Rainbow Dash more. "Oh yeah? Well, so am I!"

  Nightmare saw the hit coming from a mile away, and sidestepped, sighing as she stuck out a hoof, which Dash tripped over. To the unicorn, it was like fighting off another drunk. The pegasus, for all her boasting, was probably only good at wrestling and boxing. Nightmare was just good at surviving fights and learning from them. Which she had quite often, there were a lot of angry drunks in her old home. In fact, that was the fight during which she had her first power surge, although the stress of losing her mom hadn't helped that one. Everypony in Dark Canterlot had learned from that event. Those who were left alive to spread the news, that is.

  Rainbow picked herself up for another round, but then Fluttershy rushed over, yelling in her soft voice, "Stop!" Nightmare glanced at her, more than happy to oblige. Dash, however, had a bit less tact. "Hey, she can't just get off scott free! She destroyed your house!"

  Fluttershy sighed and nodded. "Dash, she's just a lost and hurt kid. She probably has no control over her powers. I'm sure she didn't mean to. She just had a really bad dream."

  Nightmare decided she wasn't up to sticking around for more coddling and comforting. It was too late for either of such things. She began waking away when she heard Fluttershy use her soft yell again. "Wait, where are you going?"

  Nightmare glanced back before shrugging and telling them, "The Pie farm."

  She caught their confused looks. "The Pie farm? As in the rock one?" questioned Dash. Nightmare nodded as she continued walking towards the town.

  "Oh, um, it's between the Ridge and Boulder Hill."

  Nightmare shot back a thankful smile before resuming her journey. She now had her destination. Of course, she knew she'd end up coming back later to apologize. Maybe.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

  Nightmare skirted the town of Ponyville. She did not feel like running into anymore ponies. Too bad things never go as planned for Stalkers.

  Somepony slammed hard into Nightmare, sending them both rolling across the grass. As soon as they stopped, Nightmare leaped to her hooves and glared down at the little purple unicorn filly with blonde mane and tail. "Hey, watch it!" she seethed. The filly shied away in fright of her sharp teeth and crazy eyes.

  "Hey, you leave my daughter alone!"

  Nightmare turned to see a grey blue pegasus mare with the same blonde mane and tail as the filly, along with the almost exactly alike yellow eyes, except the older pony's eyes were all crossed, making it clear she was special ed.

  The black unicorn dusted off her chest, huffing. "Yeah, well, maybe she should watch where she's going," she mumbled, earning a glare from the filly.

  Derpy Hooves was never a particularly violent pony. In fact, most of the time, she was rather nice. However, when it came to her daughter, any rude act towards her little angel made her explode. No way was her small baby girl gonna live the life she lived as a filly.

  Before anypony knew it, there was a loud, BLAM!, then Derpy stood between Dinky and Nightmare, a tiny smoking crater under her hooves. "How dare you! Dinky doesn't know any better, she's just a filly trying to play Frisbee with her friends!" The furious mare shoved her right forehoof at a couple of small ponies standing off to the side, watching with wide eyes.

  Nightmare realized she was letting everything from the past couple days get to her, and lashing out randomly at anypony who so much as looked at her funny. Scowling at herself, she reined in her frustration and sighed. "Sorry, kid. Just had a lot happening lately. Didn't mean to snap. Sorry to you too ma'am. I suppose your daughter can get back to her game now."

  Weaving around Derpy, Nightmare took off across the field again, wondering if she was going the right way. Honestly, telling things and distances apart in real life was a lot harder than when you looked at it all from a map.

  Meanwhile, behind her, Dinky did indeed go back to playing with her little friends, the happy grin that had vanished once Nightmare glared at her reappeared, white teeth shining in the sun as she tossed the Frisbee back to a small brown stallion with a deep burgundy mane and tail.

  Derpy glanced briefly at them, then returned her attention to the mare working her way towards the Silver Lining River and Boulder Hill. There was something off about her, and it wasn't just the eyes, which Derpy was only just beginning to realize were very different, even more than hers, but there was also something else. The pegasus mother couldn't place her hoof on it. Well, whatever secrets this mare hid were obviously a burden, Derpy could tell by the way she walked like every step was painful, and her head was slightly hung, with her eyebrows always furrowed in concentration over those odd eyes. Despite her gut feeling telling her to not trust the stranger, she couldn't help but feel sorry. The things that mare carried around with her were probably worse than what Derpy carried.

  While the blue-grey pegasus hashed this out, Nightmare continued her course, shrugging off her worries about finding Rock Ridge or Boulder Hill. She'd find some sort of clue. Right? Not like she was gonna keep wandering forever, until whatever attacked her home and was prepping to attack Equestria found her and killed her. Right?

  Honestly, she had no idea what the hell to expect out of all this. Her family's luck was always off, and with this new threat that apparently had a vendetta against them, it looked to be the end of the Stalker line. Even if she found this Pie family, she doubted they would be much help. They'd all just die at some point.

  It was then Nightmare perceived the sound of rushing water. She stopped, her right hoof poised to go down, which would have ended in disaster, considering the sudden drop before her, which led straight to the river.

Great, she griped in her head, just what I need now. To cross this damn torrent.

  It was true, the river was indeed in a torrent, water splashing about wildly, rushing rapidly over and around rocks, and sucking in anything that came near. If she made a wrong move, Nightmare would get helplessly dragged into the Everfree Forest, or the San Palomino Desert.

  Glancing upstream and downstream, Nightmare realized she could see a rope bridge far in the distance. Guess that explained how the Pies would even get into town.

  She began to make her way toward it, the ground beside her and on the other side of the river steepening into cliffs. Halfway there, she heard a rasping sound behind her. She looked back and glimpsed a shadow flit across the path she'd just made through the grass. "Fuck," she whispered.

  Nightmare took off at a full blown gallop. Behind her, she heard an unearthly scream, and then sounds of pursuit. Of course she wouldn't get anywhere without bad luck following.

  She reached the bridge and leaped onto it. It swayed dangerously, but she didn't stop. Nightmare was almost there when the bridge jerked to the side. If she hadn't instinctively reached out and wrapped her hooves around the rope on her left, she would have fallen into the river below.

  Regaining her composure, she held on tight as she turned her attention to the end of the bridge she had come from. A literal shadow floated there, black wisps surrounding. The wisps were converging on the ropes holding up the bridge and were...frankly, Nightmare wasn't sure what they were doing. It seemed almost like the ropes were on fire, but at the same time were freezing. It confused her.

  However, Nightmare knew there was no time to try and figure it out. The shadow thing would soon have the bridge broken, and she would either fall into the river, or slam into the cliff on the other side, get hurt, possibly knocked unconscious, then into the dangerous river below. In any case, she would be in worse trouble then she was now.

  Her eyes snapped toward the nearby cliff edge. If she could just get over there, she would obviously survive. Judging from what she had seen, however, she knew she didn't have long.

Celestia, this would be such a boring and cliché way to die, Nightmare thought.

  As the rope she wasn't gripping snapped, she realized she had mere milliseconds to act as the bridge fell out from under her, only her hold on the other rope, which was quickly being freeze-burned, kept her from falling. She took a deep breath, swung back and forth a couple times, then let go. She sailed through the air, hooves outstretched to catch the edge.

  Nightmare missed. By a hell of a lot.

  Thinking she was going to die, Nightmare allowed her mind to wonder over her regrets. It was stupid, she knew that, but she couldn't help it. There were so many things she'd missed in her life, although she wouldn't have had much of a future. It was kind of dumbass really, what had she expected to happen after meeting the Pies? For her life to get miraculously better? For some real answers? Please. No adult told the truth to kids these days.

  Then, she felt a hoof wrap around hers. Nightmare's fall hit an immediate stop, jerking whoever had caught her forward, while she swung towards the cliffside.

  Something shot above Nightmare's head, and she heard another screech from the shadow specter. At the same time, the teenage unicorn was being pulled up and over the cliff.

  It took a few minutes for Nightmare to perceive that she was not dead. When she finally gained the nerve to glance around, she saw two earth ponies in front of her. One was a light brown with a short cut grey mane and tail, both of which had dark white streaks. A beard the same grey color of his mane adorned his face. He had dark yellow eyes, and on his rear was a pickaxe.

  The other pony was a mare. She was silverish grey, with a pine green mane and tail. Her mane was done up in a bun. Her eyes were crystal blue, and below them, on her muzzle, rested a pair of gold glasses. A string of beads on either side of the glasses went up and disappeared behind her pointed ears. Around the bottom of her neck was a black with white stripes collar, with a gold and blue pendant pinned in the space between each end. Her cutie mark was three triangular-like shaped rocks.

  The mare was pulling on a long, elastic glowing white net. Inside the net, floating in the middle of the gorge, was the shadow creature. It was struggling to escape the net, but however much it squirmed and kicked, it couldn't get out.

  Nightmare had trouble resisting the urge to raise her eyebrow, impressed. It was clear now that there were at least ponies out in the world that knew how to handle these types of beasts.

  With one more good yank, the mare managed to get the shadow specter onto the ground next to them. It was no longer struggling, drained of its power.

  Letting out a relieved sigh, Nightmare managed to get to her hooves. "Thanks, whoever you are. Thought I was a dead fucker for sure."

  The stallion narrowed his eyes at her, clearly displeased with her cussing. Nightmare brushed the look off. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be the Pies, would you?" she said, connecting their cutie marks with the rock farm information. The couple exchanged a look. Then the stallion turned his attention back to Nightmare, his eyes hard. "What is it to you?" he asked.

  Nightmare hesitated for a second. She didn't know why, but she felt that mentioning her family's name would be a bad idea out here. It made no sense. So, thinking that out oh so spectacularly, she told them.

  "I was told to find you, assuming you are the Pies. My name is Nightmare Stalker."

  There was an instant change in the pair. The mare and the stallion shared another look. "They've come back...it's no wonder. Just look at her," the mare said, making the two look back at Nightmare, who was just as confused as before.

  Shaking her head, Nightmare scowled. "What are you talking about? And could at least tell me your names?"

  The couple paused, having starting sharing whispers. Then the stallion removed his black cowboy hat, holding it to his brown chest. "Mighty sorry. We should have had better manners. I am Igneous Rock Pie. This is my wife, Cloudy Quartz Pie."

  Another sigh of relief. At least she didn't have to trek through the whole damn countryside looking for them anymore. Letting a teeny, tiny smile cross her face, Nightmare nodded. "I thought so. Now, I know I'm in no position to make demands, so I will merely suggest we return to your farm with this...thing. Then perhaps you could answer some damn questions that have kinda been bothering me since, ya know, ghosts attacked my fucking house and slaughtered my family."

  The Pies gasped, eyes widening in horror. "Brute and Peacock are dead?!" the mare asked. Nightmare nodded, looking back in the direction she was sure Canterlot was in. "Disco probably is too."

  Before Nightmare could think, Igneous had a hoof wrapped around her, and was forcing her forward. "Fuck, this is worse than we thought. We've lost almost half our allies. We have to have this Stalker trained by the end of the month. If not, it's game over for all of us."

  Nightmare was still in the dark about all of this, but it was clear something bad was coming. Great. Just what she needed. She just hoped this training wasn't what she thought it was.

  And on that happy note, the three made their way toward the Pie family farm.