Chapters Giant Derpy galloped along the ground, Knight Spike on her back. He carried a red flag in his left hand, with his lance in the other.
"Oh no you don't!" A golden lasso lashed itself around Derpy's tail, causing her to trip, planting face-first on the ground. Applejack as Mistress Mare-volous stood there, her confident grin unshaken. Spike rose to his feet, and hurled his lance like a javelin at her. She jumped sideways, the spear missing her, then tackled Spike to the ground, grabbing the flag with her mouth. She jumped up, and ran through several streets, heading for the center of town. "Ah'm gonna win this!"
Then a loud honking noise was heard, and a four-wheeled vehicle came roaring into view, strange music blaring from its speakers. Applebloom was behind the wheel, and she grinned like crazy.
"Sorry sis, but that flag is ours now!!" she called out. Sweetie Belle leaned out of the passenger seat, and tore the flag out of Applejack's mouth.
"Hey!! Y'all get back here-" Applejack was interrupted by a hail of gunfire, courtesy of Scootalo, who was ponying the tri-barreled machine gun mounted in the back of the vehicle.
Applejack awoke, suddenly gasping for air. She calmed herself, then looked at the time. It was 2:34 AM.
"Dang it, now Ah don't get to see whose gonna win", she grumbled. "Ah well, it was only the first one. There'll be more in the future." She turned and looked out the window at the moon. "Although Ah wonder how Applebloom is doing..."
"Look out!!"
Sweetie Belle's warning came too late, as Filthy Rich came flying in on a raft of golden bits. He raised his right hoof, and a stream of bits came rocketing out, breaking the vehicle's windshield and burying Applebloom and Sweetie Belle in an avalanche of coins.
Scootalo fired the gun, but Filthy Rich dodged, sweeping in and grabbing the flag from the top of the pile.
"Not so fast!!" There stood Rainbow Dash as Zap, and a lightning bolt descended from the skies, electrocuting Filthy Rich, who dropped the flag. Before Rainbow could grab the flag, a manticore came out of nowhere, with Fluttershy on its back. It impaled the flag with its tail, and let out a roar that blew Rainbow's hair straight back from her face.
"Hey Fluttershy, not cool! So not cool!" Rainbow protested. Scootalo got out of the vehicle, and started digging through the pile of golden bits. Giant Derpy came around a corner, Spike once again mounted on her back.
Before Rainbow could make a dash for the flag, a blue box appeared out of nowhere, hovering in midair next to the manticore's tail. The door opened, and Doctor Whooves reached out and grabbed the flag.
Then Prince Big Mac came diving out of the sky, snatching the flag away from the doctor. "Yup!" Scootalo pulled Applebloom and Sweetie Bell out of the pile of golden coinage. Spike leaped off of Derpy and grew wings, chasing after Big Mac. Big Mac bucked a giant apple at him, taking Spike down for the count.
"No one hurts Spikey-wikey!!" Rarity declared as she arrived, riding on a flying carpet, and a mob of scarfs attacked Big Mac, tying him up thoroughly. The red flag floated to Rarity, who eyed it and said, "This must be elegant and presentable." She sowed the rips and tears closed, but at that point Pound Cake flew up from the town square, carrying his twin sister Pumpkin Cake, who proceeded to teleport the flag to the top of the town hall.
The mayor clambered onto the roof, reaching for the flag. Just before she could touch it, Twilight Sparkle teleported in, picked up the flag, and teleported back out.
Rainbow dove instantly into the Golden Oak Library, catching Twilight by surprise. She grabbed the flag, then flew out the window.
Then a triangular shadow fell over the town, and a massive ship loomed overhead.
"What the-" Rainbow began, only to be snagged by a tractor beam and dragged into the hanger bay.
Pinkie Pie bounced into the hanger. "So, who did I catch?" She saw Rainbow, and said, "Oh, I caught Rainbow Dash!!" She bounced over to Rainbow, who was still being held by the tractor beam, then took the flag from her. "Tell the captain to jump to lightspeed", she said to the bipedal creature clothed in grey.
At that point, a fizzle of yellow circles heralded the arrival of the CMC. Applebloom materialized in the hanger, wrenched the flag out of Pinkie's hooves, then disappeared.
At the same moment, Sweetie Bell and Scootalo appeared in the room next to the reactor. While Sweetie Bell knocked out all the personnel in the room, Scootalo attached a fifty-megaton nuke to the side of the reactor core and set the timer to five seconds. Then they vanished.
The explosion wiped Ponyville off the face of Equestria, leaving a crater a mile deep and ten miles across.
The CMC rematerialized in the center of the crater, where Luna stood inside of a glowing white bubble, her horn emitting white light and her eyes closed in concentration.
"Princess Luna!! We've got the flag!!" Applebloom said exuberantly.
Luna opened her eyes. "Indeed you have it - although I think that wiping Ponyville off the face of Equestria was a bit extreme."
"Well, we didn't summon a giant ship out of the sky. We just blew it up."
"That is true", Luna said, smiling fondly at them. Then she took a deep breath.
"THE WINNERS OF TONIGHT'S COMPETITION ARE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!!!!!" Luna declared in her royal Canterlot voice.
Night 2: Pony- Wait, the Moon?
Luna had planned to make the dreamscape different from time to time, but she had also intended the nightly competition to stay based in Ponyville, only moving to other dreamscape locations occasionally.
Which was why she was currently struggling to change the dreamscape, which, for some reason, was stuck on being a piece of the terrain on the far side of the moon. But no matter what she, or the ponies in the dream, tried, the landscape kept morphing back.
"Why isn't this working?" Luna asked as a rhetorical question, releasing some of her frustration at the stubbornness of the dreamscape.
So everypony was surprised when someone - or something - answered.
"Why, because of me, of course." A tall mare suddenly materialized out of black mist, her visage one that everypony - especially Luna - had hoped never to see again.
Rainbow Dash's eyes blazed with fury. "DIE!!" she raged, streaking towards the mare at an impossibly fast speed.
The mare swiftly leaped into the air, unfurling her wings just as Rainbow flew straight through where she had just stood moments before, plowing a massive furrow deep into the regolith that composed the lunar soil. She swiftly used her magic, a massive rock falling out of nowhere and impacting, causing a large crater to form. When the dust cleared, there was no sign of Rainbow Dash.
Everypony was frozen in shocked silence for a moment. Scootalo shattered the silence with a scream.
"YOU MURDERER!!!" Scootalo then suddenly began to transform, her body swelling in size, her wings disappearing. The mane and tail faded, and a long tail of skin, muscles and bone shot out. Her head expanded, stretching out in every direction, her teeth increasing in number and size, becoming shaped like steak knives. Her back legs increased in length and strength, the front limbs reshaping into small arms with two claws on each hand.
Finishing in just a few seconds, Scootalo let out a deafening roar , charging at the mare with great speed.
The mare smiled, a dastardly, cunning, mocking smile. Her magic flared, and a massive spear, made of tungsten and capped with a deadly needlepoint, came out of nowhere, impaling Scootalo through the gut, the point sticking out of the other side. Scootalo let out a cry of pain, collapsed onto her side, and laid still.
This time, the Doctor broke the stunned silence. "You just went too far, Nightmare." A flash of light appeared, and suddenly there were eleven more stallions standing there, each with the same coloration and cutie mark, but with different hairstyles and outfits. They spoke in unison. "You mess with one of us, you get all of us!!"
Then any faint semblance of calm vanished. Everypony charged towards the Nightmare, screaming incoherently with bloodlust. The Nightmare summoned her own forces. "ATTACK!!" she commanded, and the battle commenced.
Everywhere one looked, there was chaos. Spike had transformed into an adult dragon, his fiery breath like napalm. He torched columns of opponents, his breath so powerful that it carved channels into the moon's surface.
Derpy was cornered by a squad of the Nightmare forces. She took a deep breath and a blinding flash of light occurred. When it passed, a creature somewhat similar to the one Scootalo had become stood there, with four claws on each hand, one of them opposable. A dark grey color, it also had armor plates on its back, and feathers on its forearms that were a strangely blonde color. Its yellow, somewhat lazy-eyed eyes narrowed, and another deafening roar , somewhat different in acoustical quality, echoed across the landscape.
Twilight morphed into her human-pony hybrid form, garbed in a set of black robes. She summoned two small, cylindrically shaped objects . She grasped them, igniting their purple blades and charging into the fray.
Fluttershy summoned a swarm of Parasprites, which attacked the shadows, eating in a frenzy like it was free, all-you-can eat cherry vanilla ice cream day. Prince Big Mac unleashed a hail of apples that pummeled the Nightmare forces.
Many other things were going on, with everypony contributing to the fight against the Nightmare forces. But the real action was overhead, where Luna and the Nightmare clashed, locked in a magical struggle of wills over the control of the dreamscape.
Unnoticed in the prevalent chaos, Scootalo stirred, her near-miraculous healing factor already beginning to staunch the massive internal blood flow.
"Surrender, Nightmare!!" Luna called out, her magic beams aimed vehemently at the Nightmare.
Scootalo rolled onto her stomach, the movement leaving her in the typical tyrannosaur resting position. She grunted in pain, resting there for a few moments.
The Nightmare dodged, and summoned magical blasts of her own, which Luna dodged. "Never!"
Scootalo opened her eyes, seeing that the Nightmare and Luna were getting closer to her position. She pushed off the ground with her small forearms, getting unsteadily back on her feet.
"You cannot win", Luna stated, her magic spewing into a beam of blue light.
The Nightmare countered, her black-blue magic forming into a beam of its own. The two beams collided head-on, resulting in a magical showdown, which soon ended at an essential stalemate, each flare of magic from one matched by an equal flare from the other.
"No, I shall win, because I will always come back", the Nightmare taunted. "You are weak, Luna, and you will fail. Equestria will be mine!!"
Scootalo drew on what little energy she had left, and lunged upward, her powerful jaws snapping shut on the Nightmare.
"AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" the Nightmare screamed in pain and surprise. Scootalo refused to open her mouth, knowing that that would allow the Nightmare to escape. Instead, she shook her head around, like a terrier shaking a rag doll.
And everything dissipated, the dreamscape vanishing as the minds of the ponies were released back into the waking world.
Night 3: Twilight's Castle
Author's Note
I know that the chapter's a bit short, but there's a reason in the story itself that makes it so.
Enjoy!
Night 3: Twilight's Castle
It had been some time since the last dream game of Capture the Flag. After the Nightmare's attack upon Luna in the Dreamscape, the contests had been temporarily suspended, as the Princesses attempted to figure out how and why the Nightmare had wrested partial control of the Dreamscape away from Luna.
But now, finally, the games were beginning again. In celebration of the occasion, the location in the dreamscape was Twilight's Castle, and the game was preceded by a huge party.
Of course, Pinkie Pie had decorated the entire place - and the dreamscape enabled her boundless imagination to take physical shape. The party had been amazing, and everyone had had a great time.
Now, however, it was time. Luna looked upon the crowd of equines, and couldn't help but smile at their eagerness.
"Let the third dream game of Capture the Flag BEGIN!!!"
Instantly, the red flag vanished, and the ponies scattered, each one eager to get to the flag first.
Luna looked upon the now-empty hall, and sighed in contentment. She sat down, waiting for the flag to be found.
The portal flared, and a orange and red unicorn mare stumbled through, rapidly followed by five other, rather familiar, mares.
"Where are we?" a yellow pegasus with a pink mane asked plaintively.
"And what in tarnation are we?" an orange earth pony wearing a brown cowgirl hat added.
The orange and red unicorn looked around and shook her head violently. "We've wandered into Equestria!!"
"What if our counterparts find us here?" a white unicorn with a purple mane queried.
"That could cause significant repercussions. We need to leave NOW!!" the orange unicorn replied.
"Eh, I think that meeting our counterparts could be cool", a rainbow-maned cyan pegasus stated. "I'd get to see if she was just as awesome as me!"
The orange mare, whose flank bore an image of a orange-and-red sun, shook her head in emphatic denial. "No. We must go. NOW!!!"
The portal flared once more, and the mares disappeared as quickly as they arrived.
No one noticed that the pink earth pony, who had been strangely silent during the whole incident, had grabbed a piece of red fabric before departing.
The next morning
Luna awoke, the sunrise shining full upon her face. She groaned slightly before getting out of bed, shielding her eyes with an outstretched wing.
She walked to the balcony and looked out over the city of Canterlot. She smiled as the ponies below awoke and began to go about their daily business.
But in her heart she was slightly uneasy, for the flag had mysteriously vanished without a trace from the dreamscape.
There had been epic conflicts to be sure, but no one had found the flag by night's end.
It's not a big deal. I'll simply create a new flag for the next competition. She frowned slightly as she mentally added, But I would like to know where it went...
Meanwhile, in the Equestria Girls universe, a certain pink-haired teenage girl skipped into the dining room, spreading a red tablecloth over the table.
A few minutes later, another girl, this one with gray hair, walked into the room. She looked at the brand-new tablecloth, and spoke to the pink-haired girl, who was in the midst of making a bowl of cereal, topped off with whipped cream.
"Nice tablecloth."
The pink-haired girl looked up and smiled widely. "Thanks! I found it lying around, and as no one was using it, I decided to put it to good use."
The gray-haired girl wondered about the tablecloth's precise origin, before dismissing it as simply being one of the small mysteries that her younger sister seemed to generate wherever she went.
After the incident where the flag went missing, Luna regretfully decided that, due to inexplicable occurrences continuing to happen, it was probably not safe to continue the Dream Wars.
Months later, Twilight Sparkle and Luna were having a dream conversation. Luna stood in the middle of an immense library, books flying past her to Twilight, who sat at a desk.
"This does look very relaxing", Luna admitted. Twilight grinned at her.
"Thanks! Oh, by the way, I found out what happened to the Dream Wars flag, Luna."
"What?"
"You know how the human world contains doppelgangers of the ponies here in Equestria?" Seeing Luna nod, Twilight continued. "The human version of Pinkie Pie is using it as a tablecloth."
Luna gazed at Twilight, her mouth gaping. Then she took a deep breath, and Twilight summoned every kind of noise-cancelling device that she knew of and surrounded herself with them.
"PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!!!!!!!!!"
