Chapter Three

Insect Dreams

We are all driven by fear. Ambition and self-confidence are the main motivators in most people’s lives, but the ever-nagging fear of failure or mere inadequacy spurs most of us on.

Reading my family history book, I found that fear of jail drove what remained of Nightmare Moon’s defeated army to shadowy forests and distant caves. After all, Princess Celestia was eager to imprison the ponies most loyal to her sister. The ones who murdered the most ponies would be executed. Others would face life in prison.

In the last few pages of the book, Quietus Mortis wrote, “It is through the grace and good fortune granted to us by our goddess of the night that we escaped her tyrannical sister. Three thousand loyalists have sworn to follow me anywhere. I cannot say where we shall hide, but we will stay hidden until Nightmare Moon rises again. Then we shall finally take Equestria for our own.”

The last passage read: “Woe unto those who would disrupt Nightmare Moon’s divine return to this world. We shall reap vengeance a thousand-fold against traitors. Every technique used to give Nightmare Moon power will be used many times over upon the faithless.”

That meant severed tendons, slicing off cutie marks, disembowelment and a dozen other methods to inflict almost unimaginable amounts of pain for hours before the victim’s body gave out.

“We shall reap vengeance,” Quietus wrote. Is that what that pony-mimicking monster meant when he said that he was with “The Vengeful?” How did my ancient family get mixed up with enormous insects?

This book was written a thousand years ago. If the Mortis family and the bugs somehow merged, for lack of a better term, why hadn’t we heard from them until now?

Going to Appleoosa to look for answers was the only route anyone could think of. What bothered me was that traveling to that desert town is what the Vengeful wanted. It’s never wise to do what your enemy expects, but they seemed to call the shots for the time being.

* * *

I could only pretend to sleep that night, my nerves too jangled to completely relax. Whenever I began to sleep, I would see the faces of everyone I talked to in the last few days burst into green flame and become giant grey-shelled insects.

He’s going to skin you alive, whispered one creature.

Llliiisten to meee… you are going to dieee, trilled another.

Whispering bugs.

Green fire.

Over and over.

I had, not counting the fretful, scatter-brained half slumber, a total sum of four hours sleep. The voices were still whispering in the back of my mind as I half-heartedly ate my breakfast, my mind still blurring between the waking world and the realm of dreams.

Skin you alive...

Because my mind can sometimes be a cruel beast, I had a sudden half-dream of a giant bug wearing my face like a mask. The way Pinkie Pie wore Rainbow Dash’s face. Because Nightmare Moon thought it would be funny to make Pinkie do that.

My gaping mouth sported a fanged, triumphant grin.

Large blue cat eyes stared at me.

The skin-mask slipped off, leaving bloody smears on the cheeks of . . .

Nightmare Moon.

She laughed and said, “Maybe you’ll take longer to bleed to death than your father.”

A sudden knock on the door yanked me away from that pocket nightmare and made me yelp. My milk bottle slipped out of my hooves. When the glass shattered on my kitchen floor, I heard Spike holler, “I heard glass breaking! Are you okay in there, Equus?”

“Yeah, I’m all right, Spike,” I shouted, grabbing a towel. “Be right out.”

After cleaning up the mess, I unlocked the door.

Twilight was behind him. She looked me over and frowned. “You didn’t sleep well, I take it.”

I shook my head. “It’s hard to do that after getting attacked at my own job.”

Spike said, “Yeah, Twilight told me what happened. How did this bug know where you live?”

“I’ve been racking my brain for hours, but I still have no idea.”

Twilight said, “Well, I do have some news. I studied those X-rays of the creature and did some research on insects. I know this sounds strange, but what attacked you yesterday was nearly starved to death, even though it has no stomach. I also suspect that the grey shell isn’t supposed to be that color.”

I held up a hoof, still trying to shake off my mud-brained sleepiness. “Hold on. How could that thing live without eating food? Why was it starved?”

“No idea. Maybe it somehow metabolized magic?”

I whistled, trying to wrap that slantwise idea around my sleep addled mind. “I suppose anything’s possible. But Equestria is held together by a magical field. Why didn’t this field feed the thing?”

Twilight shrugged, shaking her head. “I don’t know. We’ll never get any answers until we get to Appleoosa. I hope.”

“The Appleoosa express doesn’t leave for at least three more hours,” Spike informed me, cracking his scaly knuckles and smiling. “Man, I can’t wait to use my brass knuckles again.”

“Spike, it’s going to be at least a hundred degrees in the shade out in the desert,” said Twilight. “You aren’t sticking with your black leather outfit, are you?”

He waved her concern away. “Nah. I’ll just wear a sweat band and jeans this time.”

I said, “I wasn’t able to find any references to any group called The Vengeful, Twilight. But the Mortis family did once swear to destroy any traitors to their cause.”

She nodded. “We’ll find the end of the thread soon, Mortis. Meet us at the train station in three hours. Try to get some more sleep, okay? I’ll hold the train for you if you’re late.”

I’ve never had a kinder boss. She was the leader of the Mane Six for a reason, and it wasn’t because she had her Element of Magic in a crown. Twilight always cared about others no matter how tough things were for her.

I yawned and said, “Thanks, Twilight. See you then.”

Talking to Spike and Twilight helped wake me up a little more, but the vision of Nightmare Moon wearing my face was still stuck to the back of my mind. I don’t believe in omens, but I figured my mind was trying to warn me to be careful.

I would sleep on the train-ride to Appleoosa. Right now, I had to drink some sugary tea.

It wasn’t fear that drove me to stay awake. Getting attacked at my morgue only made me angry.

The last time I was mad enough to kill, I stabbed a griffin in the gut and almost skewered her throat. It took every last bit of effort I had to stop myself from being a murderer like my father.

And yet I bashed in the brains of a huge insect yesterday and felt no remorse. If nothing else, I felt as if I drank a gallon of coffee. Wired and ready to race. Was it because it wasn’t really a pony? Not to mention the fact that it tried to kill me?

If I have to kill any more bugs, would I ever feel bad about it? Would I become like my dad and not even know it? My friends would certainly notice. Applejack would be the first to tell me I was taking the fast train to crazy town. She rode those rails herself not too long ago.

I have made more friends in a year’s time than Ivory Mortis probably did in a decade, I bet. I had earned their trust and I trusted them to watch my back.

So why did I still feel nervous?

To help calm my nerves, I turned on my kitchen radio.

Cloudsdale has announced that there will thunderstorms from one to one-fifteen tomorrow aftern . . . There are so many of us, Equus. But there is only one of you. He will make sure your death is slow and glorious.

It was a growling and distant voice, one I had never heard before, but it was similar to what came from Vinyl Scratch’s speakers.

After yanking the plug out and smacking the radio into the sink with shivering hooves, I wasn’t sleepy anymore. The hot jolt of adrenaline from that sudden intrusion brought home why I was so uneasy.

The Vengeful were all around me. And I can’t stab a voice.

I was helpless.

Like a bullied and black-eyed colt in a school yard.

And that only made me even madder. I didn’t care how many death-threats they whispered at me. If I ever got my hooves on who was behind all this, my friends had better keep me from splitting his head open.

Because I don’t think I could stop myself.

Author's Note

The theme song for this chapter is "Midnight Poison" by Aghast Manor