Prototype: Equestrian Menace

Luna smiled as she took a sip of tea, her eyes reading a letter from one of the many ponies she had helped with their night-terrors. Ever since she had taken up the hobby of happily resolving ponies dreams they’d been happily writing her letters, saying thank you, praising her and even one letter that was written while drunk that was quite straightforward in what they were asking. Needless to say she didn’t bother reading that one.

Despite the odd letter that came in every once in a while she always delighted in reading these, made her feel like she was making a difference, since with the council her sister had made regarding all legislative matters always argued… well things never were done quick or right. As she finished reading that letter she set it down and grabbed another one from the pile at her bedside, wiggling on her bed to try and make herself more comfortable, feeling the lack of blood in her hind legs.

Satisfied she continued reading. As she reached halfway through her letter, her alarm rung on her night table. She glanced over at it and noticed it was time for her to walk through dreams again. Setting the letter down she closed her eyes and let her magic flow through her, the ends of her coat hairs standing up with the sheer amount of magic coursing through her.

Sighing she opened her eyes again to find her room gone, the floor gone, the only thing tangible was the cold nothingness on her coat. Humming a tune she picked up from Pinkie a while back, she aimlessly floated in a direction, not needing to flap her wings as there was no air for them to push against.

A minute into her aimless flight she saw a pinprick of light in the distance, shortly joined by another and another, then another. Rapidly, as she kept floating ahead, the featureless darkness was populated by an innumerable amount of specks of light. Nearing the first one she came close to it, the glow throwing her face into light. Cupping it in her hooves she raised it up to her eye inspecting the glowing orb.

Inside she could see a pony dreaming a dream about ruling Equestria and eating the Canterlot Castle, which was incidentally made out of chocolate… eh she’d seen weirder ones. Letting go of it she floated on, eyes checking each orb and speck to make sure they were fine.

On and on this went until she came across a different orb, one that instead of glowing brightly, was wavering and dim. With a frown she floated towards it and grabbed the orb. Looking into it she saw a mucked up dream, likely the dream of somepony on drugs judging by how blurred everything was. Still though they were having a night-terror and regardless of it being drug-induced or not she still needed to help them.

Lowering her head she tapped her horn against the orb, and closed her eyes before the magnificent white light burned her eyes.

When she felt a slight breeze against her back she opened her eyes and found herself in what looked like Manehattan, except there weren’t any crowds around. Confused she turned her head, just for the world to turn into little more than a blur bringing her to her knees as her sense of balance was gone. Okay, how was this pony still alive? This was equal to a coma dream…. how was this pony having a night-terror in a coma.

Confused she slowly inched her head around to see what was going on, then saw the pony having the night-terror. A small mint-colored filly was curled up in a ball sobbing. Slowly approaching her, Luna kept her eyes locked on her to keep the blurring world from messing with her head as much.

She tripped slightly and that alerted the filly to her presence, who looked back at her with big wet eyes and a pout. The pout turned into a smile as the filly saw her. “L-l-luna?”

“Why art thou crying little one?” The filly didn’t reply and instead stared over her shoulder. She froze as she felt a cold metallic object trace the curve of her spine before resting in the middle of her back, right in between the wings. Gritting her teeth she spun around, falling to her knees again thanks to the blur.

With a shake of her head her vision cleared and she saw nothing, nothing at all. “What was that?”

“It was the demon from today!” Screamed the filly as she resumed her sobbing. Confused Luna glanced back at her, making sure not to move her head to fast. She couldn’t resolve her night-terror if she couldn’t even walk straight. Slowly moving back to the filly she got onto her knees so she’d be more or less eye level with her.

“We need thee to look into our eyes little one.” She whispered as delicately as she could to the obviously traumatized filly. Obeying her the filly looked up into Luna’s eyes, the tears slowly dying off. With a smile she lowered her horn to the filly’s forehead and cast a spell that would put the pony into a dreamless sleep.

The filly slowly closed her eyes and went limp as the world around them slowly disappeared. But not before Luna heard a set of footsteps coming up from her right. Twisting her head slightly she saw the demon that the filly was so scared off, looking down at the two of them with a grin.

Demonic red eyes glared out from under its hood as it stood there, the black outer jacket almost blending in with the darkness closing in around them. Sharp claws that almost reached the ground despite it being as tall if not taller than her, then the arms that looked deformed with spikes coming out at irregular intervals and it bending inwards on itself at multiple points. What type of filly would dream this?

As the last of the world disappeared the demon waved goodbye with it’s massive claws the grin never going away.

Once the world fell away and she was back into the abyss of dreams she was flabbergasted. What type of thing was that? It almost looked like a changeling with those arms, but yet those eyes seemed so realistic, almost like it wasn’t a dream… but something more.

She shook her head before floating away from that spot and on through the fields of dreams, eyes alert for any other night-terrors, but she didn’t have to float for even five seconds when she saw another one. Okay maybe she could deal with something she was a bit more used to, or at least a pony who wasn’t drugged.

Grabbing it in her hooves she looked at it and gave a sigh of relief after verifying it was in fact, not another drugged dream. Stabbing her horn into it, she was bathed in another brilliant white light as she was transported into the dream.

The instant she was inside she was met by screaming mobs of ponies who almost trampled her, before she teleported up and away from them all. What was this dream? Another one about a giant fire-breathing lizard, oh that’d just make her night. Flapping her wings she stayed in the air and looked towards where all the ponies were running from, her breath catching in her throat as she saw it again.

The same thing from the filly’s night-terror only this time it was ripping through policeponies and the like, blood being splattered everywhere as the demonic hurricane of blades traveled down the street. Then just as she got her breath back it looked up at her and smiled a sadistic smile, a orange light engulfing it before it literally disappeared.

Right before it re-appeared in front of her, screaming with rage as it slashed at her, her instincts making her flap backwards and out of the dream, smashing straight through the dream barrier and back out into the nothingness, it stopping at the tear before frowning and letting itself fall back into the dream.

“What the buck.” Was all she muttered under her breath. Two ponies dreaming of the same exact thing on the same night, no way was that a coincidence. She was about to travel back into that dream when she floated by another dream, it easily visible due to it being eye level and within spitting distance.

What she saw was another horror, the same exact demon holding a pony by the throat, its claws digging into its neck and drawing blood as it screamed in terror. Her eyes widened at that, yet another instance of the same exact monstrosity terrorizing her subjects. She was staring at the dream so long she didn’t notice all of the dreams around her growing dim as they all turned into night-terrors.

Looking away from that dream she gathered all of the bad dreams she could see in her immediate view and held them up to her eyes for inspection. In all of them more demons surfaced, devastating Manehattan, murdering dozens of innocents, sometimes they changed slightly. Some of them had glowing blue eyes and what seemed to be daggers on their arms, others had the same demon she had met already and others had a darker version of the demon fighting it, then there were a few with yellow bipeds dragging loved ones away.

There wasn’t any way this was all a coincidence, with a grimace she raised one of the less violent dreams to her horn and transported herself inside of it. The dream itself was a standard night-terror where the pony was running away from the monster, memory,  co-worker etc., but tonight it was yet another one about the demon chasing them.

With a flash of her magic she dispelled the dream around her in place of just her and the red-green stallion who was now flailing his hooves as he tumbled end over end, a stream of swears coming out of his mouth about what was going on.

Her magic dragged the stallion towards her as she stood there on nothing. “Tell us, our dear subject what it is you were running from?”

The stallion looked relieved as he came to a stop in front of her, a goofy grin plastered onto his face. “Oh thank you Princess, that things been chasing me in here fore--” He stopped as she held up a hoof.

“Yes we are glad we helped thou, but tell us what IT is. We have found dozens of other ponies having the same thing hunting them in their dreams.” She said with dissatisfaction.

The stallion’s ears drooped slightly as his face looked as if it were in pain remembering it. The stallion took in a deep breath and stated matter-of-factly. “That thing was in Manehattan today, killing ponies.”

For a second Luna thought she misheard him. “Say that again please?”

The stallion cringed, hearing the icy tone in her voice. “It, and another freak were in Manehattan fighting, killing dozens of ponies in the process. Nopony knows where they disappeared to but they all think they’re both still in the city.”

He kept cringing as Luna lowered her head, her mane covering her face. She stayed like that for a minute before turning around without a word and left the dream, the stallion quivering as he could just feel the coldness emanating from her.

Once she left the dream she didn’t bother with the others she had clustered around her and instead returned herself to reality. She clambered off her bed and walked to the door, her teeth grinding at this development. It was one thing to hurt her ponies, but to kill them for no reason?

Pulling the doors open with her magic she walked past her two guards who looked on puzzledly as she strode with a purpose down the hallway. They both looked at each other before galloping after her, her long strides too much for them to keep up just by walking. “Uh Princess what’s the matter?”

“Wake up my sister. NOW.” She said coldly, without looking at either of them. The guard on her left nodded and dashed away while the one her right kept pace with her.

“Your highness can I ask what’s going on?” She paused slightly giving the guard a moment to catch his breath, a distant look in her eyes as she looked him over.

“We’re going to war, now go fetch the captains of both guards. Time is of the essence.” Determination set into his face as he saluted and ran off to follow her orders, while she kept walking to her destination.

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Meanwhile

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All was quiet in the massive countryside of Equestria, the rolling hills going as far as the eye could see, almost nothing stirring in the night. Even the predators were slow to move this evening as a quiet calm was over the land.

Well all except one predator, who was blurring across the landscape, his head held low and his legs pumping faster than possible for any normal beast, as it followed the train tracks. Only one goal was present in its mind as a storm of dust followed close behind it, clouding the night sky.

In the distance he could see the light of a train and he moved off of the rails, not wanting to waste precious time by jumping over it and losing some of his hard-earned momentum against the train’s wind.

When he first saw the train’s light in the distance he guessed it was about four-five miles away and two minutes later he could hear it pumping, its engine spewing smoke into the air. Not slowing down he kept running and as the two speeding objects passed each other, one was knocked back and forth by the other’s speed so much that it fell onto its side, the earth shattering under its weight.

But he didn’t slow down as the passengers screamed, for he was on a mission. If he didn’t grab and absorb these god-like beings powers the other monster could. The one thing that he truly had left to fear in either of the two worlds. The only true thing that could kill him, and he knew for a fact that when it learned he was in fact not dead and just in a new land…. it would come find him. If he didn’t kill it then it would kill him… for even all the horrors he had committed it would be worse than him, all his acts to draw it out, it had just watched with glee knowing he couldnt touch it.

But he’d fix that when he absorbed those ponies and stole their magic.