Darkness in the Light

        The night was as dark as it ever was in her dreams. The sky was starless and an aurora of red in the blackness combined with the blood red moon lit the sky.  Cascading through the black clouds the colors melded turning a shade that cast beams of blood red harp strings to the ground as far as she could see.  A landscape of dead ponies of all colors and tribes littered the ground covering the hills in the distance to the grass at her hooves.

        Looking down she trembled and tried to run, to scream, but she couldn't move from the skeletal remains of her once beautiful legs: the flesh, muscle, and sinew laid around her body, preventing her from moving.  As she looked, the harpstrings from the wicked moon washed over her body and begun melting her in slices.

        Splattering and clunking to the ground, she gasped until her underside ripped open with a sickening noise and all her innards fell to the ground below her.

        "Light, fight this evil."

        Light recognized Luna's voice again, but couldn't see; her eyes melted turning the world black.  A moment later she was outside her body, ghostly watching herself stand in place melting, her skeleton standing tall, as every other part of her began to melt into the ground below her. She watched in terror as her body became one with the ground and began to turn into a tree, its trunk flowing through her skeleton, melding with it until it formed a disgusting figure of her as large as the largest tree she'd seen.

        Her wooden facade held her real face, twisted in pain and agony as her wooden body sprouted green berries that contrasted the rest of the land.  Suddenly they began bursting with stars that flew into the sky.

        "Light, I will help as I can," Luna's voice echoed from location unknown. The stars began to fight the blood red moon to turn it white.  As Light looked at the battle in the sky, her emotions swirled between hate, fear, hope, and a longing to be home; away from all this.

        Light sat up in bed. Her bed. In her home.  A decent sized apartment in Manehattan.  She looked around as she felt the cool air from the open window wash over her sweat drenched coat. She shivered and sobbed into her hooves as the vivid dream stayed in her mind like all the others.

        The only dreams she remembered for the past months were the terrifying dreams of death and pain. Half an hour later, she had composed herself to the point she could get out of bed and go the the bathroom. Electricity she thought as she turned on the lights flooding the room with it beautiful artificial light. 'Magic crystals or not, I am so glad I pay for this and not some ancient lanterns like they do in the 'burbs', she thought.

        She went to the mirror with her eyes closed and took a shaky breath: the image of her melting body flashed through her mind as her stomach lurched.  She turned to the toilet, emptying her last meal over the next minute into it.

        Shaking her head quickly as she finished, she sobbed again and looked into the bowl, heaving dryly as she remembered her guts splayed across the ground below her skeletal hooves.  She closed the lid and pulled the handle down.  She looked at her hoof and sighed, still there she thought to reassure herself.  Her eyes trailed her light green coat along her foreleg to her shoulder and she felt a smile creep onto her muzzle as she exhaled a larger breath.

        She stepped into the shower and reached for the handle, yet she hesitated. The remembrance of her dream weeks ago of the clouds raining acidic blood still terrorized her every time she got near water.

        She swallowed hard and pressed the knob in and turned it slightly feeling it click inside the wall.  She gasped as the water began to fall on her, washing away the remnants of her vomiting a moment before and the fears that life was going insane around her. She opened her mouth and filled it with water, swishing it and spitting it to the floor she watched her snotty mucus with small chunks of hay fries washing down the drain and sighed.

        She slipped her hoof into the strap of a brush and pressed it to a dispenser on the shower wall and trembled.  The cleaning solution was the same consistency as blood, in her mind.  Hesitantly, she washed her whole body as fast as she could.  While she bathed she was thankful she wasn't a Pegasus and slightly lamented the fact she wasn't a unicorn.  Maybe she could fight the demons in her dreams with more magic, but she knew she'd be in worse place flying through that realm.  Watching the last of the foam wash away she turned off the water and shook lightly.

        Smiling as the water fell to the floor and splashed on the walls of the shower in a rhythm she'd experienced since she was a filly, it was comforting to know some things were the same.

        Finishing in the bathroom as quickly as she could, she left to the kitchen to get some juice. Feeling more confident than before, she felt reality around her again and the fears that had traumatized her began to fade. Getting her juice, she sat at the table and sighed. "Maybe I need to get help. Luna tries her best but can't stop them, my friends and family just try to hug them away, maybe a doctor or unicorn? Maybe they can do something."

        Looking at the clock on the wall she drank her drink quickly and trotted back to bed; leaving the cup on the table. "Three in the morning,  I've got a big day tomorrow, I can't stay awake all night, and these dreams don't repeat the same night, I'll be safe, I'll be safe, I'll be safe," she began to chant as she slowly walked back to her bed and climbed in, laying on the other side this time to avoid falling asleep in the sweat soaked portion of her bed.

        "I'll be safe, I'll be-" she yawned loudly as her chant quieted to a whisper, "be safe..."

        She was asleep before she knew it.

        The sound of her cup breaking woke her violently as she thrashed in her sheets until she realized she was in bed.  Gasping, she was prepared for another nightmare until she heard a voice quietly curse the cup.

        'A robber?  Now?  Tonight?  No, please...' She felt her eyes watering as another voice whispered in the darkness. Her room door was open and a straight sight to the front door, all they had to do was look and they'd see her trembling, sitting in her bed, holding a sheet to her chest. She quietly got out of bed and slowly went to the wall by the door in the hope they wouldn't come in her room.  The soft clopping of their covered hooves traced across the next room as items were gathered and placed into what was probably a chest.

Easier to get around town with a chest than a bag of loot, smart.

        She smirked as she thought of them carrying a chest with all her belongings through the city. Then she screamed as one of them began walking into her room. She reared up as he stared at her in shock before she landed on his face with a large crack.

        He fell to the floor and shouted as she reared again and landed on the side of his cranium.  She felt it crack under her hooves as her hooves sank quickly into his head; he bucked and twitched his legs, letting out a deep gurgling sound as the life left him. Quickly, she hopped back,  spun quickly and placed her weight on her front legs while she balanced and waited as the other set of hooves came closer.

        "Honey?!  Oh, Celestia, what-"  the muffled voice shouted before the owner was struck.

        Light bucked her hardest and felt her left rear hoof suddenly immersed under a lot of pressure. She fell to the floor with the weight and looked behind her... then laughed at the sight of her leg, up to her pastern, impaled through the robbers head, her hoof sticking from the other side. She placed her right hoof against the attackers head and heaved, pulling her leg free and stumbling forward, landing on the carpeted floor. All of a sudden, the world got bright.  So bright her eyes stung and she saw her sleeping blindfold on the floor in front of her.

        She looked at it in puzzlement before she remembered putting it on as she was getting in bed. It was purple and white with red speckled on it.  "Blood from the robbers," she said mirthfully as she stood up.  "I beat the nightmare this time. I'm ready to wake up now," she said waiting.  She heard the front door creak open again and turned her ears to the open door holding two dead robbers.

"More of these punks?" she said with a chuckle to herself. Her eyes still blinking away the light of day; she went and grabbed the most recent body and dragged it into her room, out of the sight of the new pony and did the same to the other quicker than she thought she could.

        Her focus began to clear and she reared leaning on the wall with her right hoof and coughed loudly.  A muffled voice came from the other room, almost at a whisper.  She felt the floor vibrate as the pony came closer.  She timed it perfectly and fell onto the pony and felt a crack under her hooves as the pony shouted as he was tackled to the floor.

        "Light!?" he shouted as she reared again. She recognized the voice and changed the angle of her fall, landing her hooves inches from his twitching muzzle. She looked down at him and blinked hard as his face came into focus.

        "Random Corns?!"  She took a step back and looked at the pain and fear on his face, he coughed but it was almost silent. Why was it so quiet?  He's bleeding, he's coughing blood.  She shook her head and her right ear rang from sound flooding it.  Her eyes widened and she turned her head knocking the other ear plug out to hear him coughing loudly spraying blood across her floor and her hooves.

She looked up and smirked.  The smiled a welcoming smile.

        "Mom, daddy?  What're you doing here?  Is it Monday already?" she asked the corpses of her parents, "I'll make some coffee so we can catch up.  Random Corns, where are your manners?  Cover your mouth when you cough," she said as she trotted to the kitchen to make coffee and tea, slipping often as her hooves lost traction on the smooth tiled floor.

        "I'm so happy you're here, I had another nightmare and really could use your advice," she said as she returned with a pot of hot water, a carafe of coffee, and four cups on a tray on her back.  Setting them down by her dead parents and her broken, fearful, brother she began talking about her past week and giggling at the jokes she believed she heard them say."Mom you're so funny.  I've gotta get to work soon, you can let yourselves out, right?"  She asked as she left the room and slipped on a scarf and hat. "I love you all and will see you soon," she said flatly as her face fell neutral and she left her apartment.