A Mere Bad Dream

Luna spared precious moments, meditating and focusing the rare and powerful energy that she had harnessed from the previous encounter.

It felt as if she could enter the fibres of her abilities, and warp them with the energy she has in abundance.

Since Luna knew what she could meditate with, she pulled and tugged at certain fibres, draining that precious energy at a rapid rate, but not without making sure that they were utilised properly.

She slowly opened her eyes, finding herself on her haunches, bowing towards the warm and comforting fireplace that had been struck with life.

Glancing at the Arcanium Blades mounted on her graceful wings, she realised that she could wield them more efficiently, enhancing speed, reducing stamina consumption and most important of all; cause deeper lacerations with delicate slices and increasing exerted force with a much heavier attack.

She felt more ready then when she had drawn herself into the presence of the Paleblood Eclipse.

Inhaling deeply and releasing the breath sharply, Luna arose and opened the enchanted door that led her to the Doorway Matrix and quickly realised that the pink door that was relinquishing black ooze was now vacant.

She glanced to the other direction to realise that the door with the malformed vain embedded within was now pulsating with a faster rate.

Her insight had guessed that the Nightmare behind that door had worsened, and she was needed urgently, or else the poor soul would be subjected to yet another, sleepless and tormented night.

Luna enveloped the circular doorknob within her magic and unlocked the tumblers within the lock.

Only to have the door be ripped from her magical grip and swing open to its hinges fullest extent, feeling air rush past her.

It was like that behind that door, was similar sensation of being in a vacuum that she desperately tried not to dwell on.

Making sure her Arcanium Blades were secured and in her possession, she placed one hoof within the doorframe, not expecting to be pulled in forcefully by the same unknown force that was harboured within this harrowing Nightmare.

Ominously gliding to a halt, Luna could not envision a single entity from where she stood in the perfectly dark abyss.

But she knew that if one sense is rendered near useless, she can focus intense concentration into her other senses such as; heightening hearing sensitivity, awakening unique smell identifiers and increasing her spatial awareness without vision.

All of her harmonic paths of concentration were abruptly shattered by the bloodcurdling shriek of an unknown and terrifying source. All of Luna's mental strength came crashing down and caused her to wince harshly, subconsciously shutting her eyes tight.

It was a few moments until the petrifying echoes of the shriek had faded away from Luna's perception of audio, but the memories of the shriek were still fresh, replaying continuously in Luna's mind, chilling her to a slight degree.

Once she had stopped reliving the horrid memory, Luna opened her eyes and was immediately greeted by a dry and slightly encumbered forest.

Tilting her head upward, she was blessed by the presence of the Paleblood Moon, which graced the forest with it's brilliant moonlight and signature white hue.

Luna's pride returned in unspeakable amounts and she no longer had to worry, as the moonlight was her ally and her greatest advantage.

It was now abundant to Luna that whatever dreadful entity that had cursed this nightmare was inhabiting this section of the flourishing forest.

She glanced around, looking for some sort of way to enlighten her direction and give her a path to follow.

She noticed a small pair of tracks trailing through a tight path in some large Oak trees to the left of her.

But once Luna had set her perception on following the tracks, a small hissing sound alerted her from her right.

Immediately drawing her Arcanium Blades and propelling herself backward with a forward wing-thrust, she saw a large snake with three heads and elongated fangs narrowly miss it's target; Luna's neck.

Thinking quickly, Luna seized the opportunity to slash upwards whilst the snake was still in mid-air, recoiling from it's missed attack.

The contact with the blade was flawless, and all three heads where severed at their individual bases, causing the rest of the body to fall limp as it crashed to the ground awkwardly.

Luna watched as the heads also fell before her, but once she looked up, she realised that the forest's path with the tracks, had mirrored.

The tracks were now leading to her right and no longer on the left. Luna thought that it must be a psychological tactic used by the snakes to trick their pray.

Luna made note of this and continued along the tracks, navigating between trees and awkward bush formations.

After making careful adjustments to her path, she approached another small clearing, where the tracks trailed off slightly to the right.

Luna lined herself up with the tracks and immediately rotated so that the tracks were behind her and she saw another snake, awaiting silently on the ground.

Luna struck first, alerting the snake to try and fight back, but after three precise slices, the snake fell limp again after a few quivering moments as the life force left it's now, eviscerated body.

After the snake faded away, the tracks slowly phased back into her vision, showing her that this was the true way to go.

While following the next set of tracks, Luna heard that horrible shriek again, causing her to wince once more, but kept her eyes slightly open, making sure that she wasn't prone to surprise attacks.

This time, the shriek sounded louder, so Luna knew that whatever was causing that dreadful sound, she would be in its presence soon enough.

Once more, she approached a clearing with tracks leading off directly in front of her. Utilising her previous tactic, she pivoted around and scanned for the familiar snake, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Luna suddenly felt a scarily sharp sensation penetrate her neck and begin to draw blood quickly, coating her neck and shoulders.

The snake had succeeded in luring Luna into turning her back and was rewarded with an opportunity to strike.

Luna struggled, squirmed and bucked carelessly in all attempt to get the disgusting snake to release it's grip before it became dangerous.

After bucking and thrashing around enough, the snake lost grip and fell to the ground in front of her, hissing and lunging multiple times.

Dodging all attempts, she combined her blades as she charged forwards, driving her Great Arcanium Blade into the ground where the snake had laid.

Pinning the snake down partially with the blade, Luna brung the blade directly upward, slicing the snake once again into two halves.

After causing large mortal wounds to the snake, Luna felt some of her lost life vitality return to her.

Feeling stronger, Luna forced the blade downwards with all the strength she could muster and successfully managed to cut the snake's one half directly in half again, quartering the snake's head.

Luna smirked as the snake didn't go limp or quiver before it's death, as it just fell to it's sides lifelessly.

Luna turned around once again and was surprised to see that the tracks had not moved, indicating that the snakes had learnt to manipulate Luna's tactics, catching her out.

Following one last set of tracks, Luna approached a large clearing that lead to an apparent hill that the Moon was visible over, accompanied by a single dead tree.

Utilising her incredible hearing, Luna heard slight galloping sounds from over the hill and quickly realised that they were approaching rapidly.

It was not long until Luna saw what had manifested within this Nightmare and it was extremely apparent that she had seen this Nightmare before.

A large stallion stood tall at the peak of the hill, but did not have the characteristics of a head. This stallion, was head-less.

Looking up at the moon, the Headless Horse shrieked loudly from the orifice it had obtained on it's neck, confirming that this was the beast omitting that dreadful sound.

Luna drew her Arcanium Blades into their duel-form again and took on a fighting stance.

Luna had subconsciously realised that this Headless Horse was much more malformed and terrifying than the one she destroyed in Scootaloo's Nightmare, many moons ago.

The Headless Horse was continually bleeding from its neck, some of the hoof bones were showing from behind the rotted and scabbing flesh and it maintained a much more stronger posture.

No filly could imagine gore and horror this intimately, so this belonged to an adult somewhere and Luna knew that this one would be more of a challenge.

The Headless Horse charged down the hill, gaining significant and was heading in Luna's general direction.

Luna panicked, unsure whether to attack mid-charge, or completely omit the attack by executing a dodge.

But clouded by panic, the Headless Horse connected with Luna, sending her a few feet in the air and crashed clumsily, causing her to lose some of her vitality.

Luna leapt to her hooves with precision and rearmed her Blades, staring the Horse down. The Headless Horse simply shrieked back, charging once again.

This time, Luna had decided on an attack and dodged the charge at the last moment, letting the Horse slow down after missing it's target.

Seizing these few seconds, Luna did a charge of her own and pirouetted, followed by a short slicing combo before backing away again to avoid a harsh downward slam attack caused by the Horse's front hooves.

Luna strafed to the right as the Horse charged again, but she soon learnt that the Horse's trajectory was slightly curving, following Luna's movements.

Just before the Horse connected, Luna suddenly dodged to the left, throwing off her tracks and retaliated with a roundhouse slice attack that struck the Horse three times.

This once again, enraged the Horse and caused it to slam the ground again. But before it could follow through the attack, Luna cast a Blood Bolt at the Horse, catching him at the perfect time.

The Horse collapsed to it's haunches for a few moments and Luna was able to rush over and complete a Visceral Attack.

Luna leapt into the air and drove both of her blades downwards into the neck of the Horse and pulled them apart viciously, heavily damaging the Horse and was accompanied by even more profuse bleeding from the Horse's open neck wound.

Thick blood was now easily visible from the ground that Luna and The Headless Horse had been fighting in.

The Horse gave another shriek, before charging once again, but at a much faster pace.

Luna realised an opportunity with this and combined her Blades and made her Greatsword once again, charging a large attack as the Horse grew closer.

Luna was physically straining as she channeled all her stamina into her next attack and had to wait until the perfect time to execute the attack.

Once the Horse was twenty feet away, Luna thrusted forward with the Greatsword, timing it perfectly and catching the tip on the Horse, causing him to recoil a few feet backwards, with his gaping neck wound directly facing Luna.

Luna saw another chance and leapt into the air and once she had gained enough altitude, drove the Greatsword downwards. As she neared closer, the Horse rose it's head and was now presenting the neck wound upwards.

The Horse could no longer see Luna's positing and began to shriek once again, before it was cut violently short by Luna's Greatsword being driven through the neck wound, all the way through it's neck and torso until it created an exit wound and struck the ground.

The Horse's shriek quickly got quietly and turned into gargles and coughs from the orifice that Luna had driven straight into.

Thick horse blood was hacked and choked onto Luna's face and front hooves that held her Greatswords' hilt as she supported the Horse upright as it slowly died in front of her.

After the death gargles and choking had gone quiet, Luna forcefully removed the Greatsword the Horse, leaving a large wound that completely impaled the Horse's neck and torso.

After the Greatsword was removed, the Horse simply fell onto it's side and continued to bleed onto the ground, accompanied by a few occasional short spurts.

After vanquishing the much more dangerous beast, Luna was distracted by the rustling of trees and pivoted to see the source of the sound.

To her surprise, she saw Ponyville inhabitant Bulk Biceps desperately clinging to branches with a look of utter terror on his face.

But Luna returned the look with assurance and calmness, as she was here to liberate poor victims, not mentally scar them.

"It's okay. I am here to help you." Luna said softly.

Bulk Biceps looked less spooked and started to climb down the tree, landing with shaken legs.

"Did somepony tell you this dreadful story?" Luna asked, looking at Bulk Biceps directly in the eyes with a comforting look.

"Y-yeah. My friends from work. They said it was a silly filly story..." Biceps trailed off, looking slightly embarrassed.

"Do not worry, such things do not exist. And do not be concerned about such things scaring you. I have seen things much less scary that can torment ponies." Luna assured Biceps quietly.

"Now, leave this place and get some well earned rest." Luna spoke before the forest began to fade away like her previous vanquished nightmare until there was just Luna, stood in a never ending abyss.

Closing her eyes and focusing on her Relaxation Room, Luna felt a breeze rush past her until all became still.

She opened her eyes once again and awoken underneath the Paleblood Eclipse.

Another Nightmare had been eliminated, and another poor soul liberated.