The Trials of Phoebe

 Pipsqueak could feel the cold air on his face, but his body was not shivering, the ground was like sand, but white like the stars. His body light like a feather. He couldn’t remember how he got there, this strange place. When he looked up, he only saw the constellations on the dark sky, but no moon.

 Out of nowhere, he heard a cry, echoing from faraway. He decide to follow the strange echoing noise. He shouldn’t be able moving very fast, but his legs didn’t hurt anymore in this place.

 After walking for some time he found a strange crater, the cry has coming from inside there. Pipsqueak jump to the edge of the crater and he found the one making the cry. It look to be a little filly in a fetal position covered by some kind of shadow.

 When he approached, he asked her.

 “W-who are you?”

 “I-I want to go home,” Cried the small filly, sobbing

 “Hold there, if you tell me where we are, I may get you home,” Pips step a little closer

 “I-I don’t know! I don’t know!” She sobbed

 “Easy there girl, how did you get here?”

 “I was lonely… I was just trying to get friends, but I did,” She cried more.

 Pips try to get closer to the filly, but the shadow that was covering her start to move. Pips gave a few steps back, but the shadow tried to catch him and yell with a voice that he recognize “GET ME OUT OF HERE!”

 Pipsqueak woke up.

 It was the third time he had that dream, besides everything it was his favorite, since he could walk normally in there, other nights he was stuck on a chair or he didn’t had dreams.

 “Hey kid!” Someopony yell from down stairs “Breakfast is ready, get down here!”

 It was his stepfather’s voice.

 Pips try to get up and reach his crutches, they were a little far from the bed so he felt some pain from his legs. His legs were crippled in the fall of Equestria, a caribou ended up stepping on his legs when he was trying to run to his mother. It was a long time ago; his mother wasn’t the same since that day.

 “Kid do you need help getting down?” He yelled once more

 “No Francis! I can get down by myself,” Francis is always making Pips go in a hurry

 Pips walked through the corridor, looked at the mirror on the wall front at his room’s door and saw his messed black mane, used to have brown mane, but he painted black some time ago, 7 years after the fall.

 When he got down stair and sit to eat his stepfather talked to him.

 “Hey Kid, feeling good today?” Francis was a grey unicorn, a little fat and short. His mane is black like his eyes.

 “Kind of, just another heavy dream, nothing to be alarmed.”

 “Good,” Francis drink some water “I’m going to pick up your mother at the farm after lunch, if you want to go, just…?”

 “No Francis,” Pips get up without eating anything “I’m going to buy a new game,” He walks to the door

 “Kid!” Francis yell at Pips who stops “When you get home, you will talk to you mother. She was very sad about you been avoiding her all this time. You…”

 Pips interrupts Francis “I do that tomorrow,” Pips open the door

 “Kid!” Francis yelled and got up.

 “See you later,” He closes the door behind him

 Francis sits back on his chair and scrub his face “What the hell I’m going to do with that kid?”

 Pips walks through ponyville, using the faster way to the game shop, it didn’t had that many red collar in that way and Caribous, they always would glare at him, probably because he is crippled, they see crippled ponies as useless since they can’t do hard work, so in that way no one would bother him.

 “Hello sir!” Some one yell at him, I guess Pips was wrong.

 Pips look at his side and saw a pegasus. “Hmm… Hi?” Pips didn’t knew that pony, he looked like some kind of mailpony, but his uniform was way too different “Do I know you?”

 “I’m the mailpony Deep Sky!” He was blue Pegasus with white wings, and he was happily loud “You are mister Pipsqueak South isn’t?” Depp Sky had a big smile

 “Yes…” Pips didn’t knew what to do at that moment

 “Oh well mister South, I have a package for you,” Deep Sky gave him a package. Pips took it and he look it. It was a box with the words - “To Pipsqueak South” - written down. “Have a nice day!”

 “Wait shouldn’t I have to sign some….” When Pips took his eyes off the package, Deep sky was nowhere to be seen “…thing?” Pips shrugged and sited down was he started to open the package, which had a stone, it looked like to be an ore or metal of some kind “Hmm… That was weird….”

 “Hey Pips!” Someone yell from behind him “I haven’t see you since school dude!” It was Rumble, he grew a lot since the fall; also, he got some tattoos on his shoulders and wings who looked to be runes.

 “Just playing video games in my room.”

 “That’s boring, you should do more in summer vacation,” Rumble jumps in front of him

 “What in the name of Nero should I do?”

 “Shhhh! Don’t say that out loud.” The religion of Nero come from the Kingdom of Troidam. The Caribous hate that place. The reason is unknown. Pips learn about that religion in his travels with his mother. However, she and Francis don’t know about his religion change. Better stay that way.

 “Sorry, but really, what should I do?”

 “Well anything else,” Rumble was a good pony, but his brain wasn’t at the same level “Hmmm… Have fun with a red collar?” Again, his brain wasn’t at the same level.

 “Rumble...” Pips did a face palm “If you bring that up one more time.”

 “You will shove my wood sword up my ass. I know, sorry, but why don’t you hang out with me?” He shivers when Pips gave him a glare “Hmm… ready a book or something?”

 “What book? We don’t have a library in this town.”

 “Yes, we have,” Rumble pointed

 “One about sex,” Pips wave his arm to Rumble “I’m going to the game shop dude, I guess I see you in school.”

 “Summer started yesterday!” Rumble sighs and started to fly when he asked Pips “Wait, how do you get all that money?”

 “No, different by others lazy fucks in this town, I have a job… And he’s not my father!” After yelling to Rumble, Pips put his stone inside his pocket.

 “Ok…” He flew a little more “… Wait. What job?”

 “I fix game consoles!” Pips walk away

 “I should ask him to fix my old gamepony later,” Said Rumble to himself before he flew away

 Pips was just a few meter away from the game shop. Sometimes he goes there and fix game consoles, as he said to Rumble, also he remove the region block so they can play games from out of the country.

 When he go inside the store, a huge brown earth pony welcome him.

 “Well, well, well!” The pony was named Stockman, his store was the few ones who didn’t had a slave working on. He says that they are too much distracting. “If isn’t Captain Flint! You are here to buy a game, ask if there is any job for you to do, just to stand inside doing nothing?” Stockman call Pips by his game nickname ‘Captain Flint’.

 “I guess both, have something?”

 “Nope! Most colts are traveling in summer vacation, so no consoles for you Flint.”

 “It’s ok,” Pips sits on a chair close to the - “Omega Flare” - console “I’ll just stay here and wait for something.”

 “Ok, It’s your life,” Stockman picked up a - “Delta Blaze” -, a handheld console

 Seeing nothing better to do, since he literally beat all the high scores in all the games in that shop. Pips pick up the stone he got, it had a strange weight to it, it looked hard but light like a feather, but it had a crack on it, he could see something blue in there… No, it’s may be purple or just change color with light ‘Funny, I can kind see the stars in it’. Pips thought.

 “Flint? Flint? FLINT!” Yell Stockman

 “DAMMIT!” Yell Pips scared “What?”

 “Did you ate something?”

 “What? Well I didn’t had breakfast, why?”

 Stockman had a puzzled face, “It’s past lunch time,” He pointed to the clock on the wall.

 “What!” Pips looked to the clock, it was past 3 PM “Have I been staring that stone for hours?”

 “What?” Said Stockman

 “Nothing!”

 “I just got from lunch right now, I bought a pizza for you, If you want.”

 “Hmm, thanks,” Pips pick up his pizza and eat it, “Well I off to home now,” Pips picked up his crutches and walked out of the store. When he looked to the skies, and he saw something on the horizon “… A storm? I though today should be clear skies,” Pips started to walk home.

 Pips got home a little bit later than usual, he had to take a detour, some kind of accident happened in his usual way, so he couldn’t walk there. When he opened the door, he tried to walk the stealthiest he could, watching all of his steps so nopony would notice him. But after three steps, he noticed. ‘Wait! The lights are off, no one on the hall… IT’S A TRAP!’ But it was too late for him. He felted something slamming his body from behind and hugging at the same time. He manage to keep himself standing with his arms. Who would do this? Wait! That soft fur his felling, this way to hug, this smell… It could be only one pony!

 “Mom!” Pips said in pain, “I can’t hold you!”

 “Daddy said that mummy had to do this or you would run away,” She hugged him even harder

 “Legs... Losing strength!” Pips fell on the floor.

 “Sweetie!” Yelled his mom.

 “Kid!” Francis turned on the lights, “Are you ok?” He walked towards him.

 “Yes,” Pips said with his face on the floor, “I will just stay here and rethink my life.”

 Francis pulled his mother by the shoulders, “Don’t a drama queen kid. She’s not that heavy.”

 “For you,” Pips still had his face on the ground, the ground was kind comfy the more he think about it.

 “Come on Kid, get up,” Francis pulled Pips up and putted him on the couch, “Well, your mother have some stories from the farm to tell us, she was holding that for hours waiting for. By the way, why did you took so much time?”

 Pips put himself together on the couch, “Work, I had a lot of work.”

 “Well look at that Green, our son is making money. And must be a lot for not be in home for most of the time,” Francis took a sip of a cup of vodka on the table, “So Green, why don’t you tell us how was your time in the farm?”

 “Oh yes!” Pips mother was sitting on the floor, Francis said that she was too dirty to sit on the couch, “Well when I got there I meet a really nice earth pony called Applejack---“

 Pips stopped listening to her mother, he didn’t really cared about the farm, Francis just send her there so he could make a quick buck. Pips was never into slaves, a couple years after the fall, Francis said that he would take him to slave market to buy his first slave, but Pips managed to take that idea out of his head. For a short amount of time, one week later, he founded a slave in his room, Francis said that she was in promotion so he bought her for him, but Pips never used her though, he would always leave her outside of his room when he goes to sleep, but sometime he would let her inside, when it was cold. When Francis found out about that he got mad, said that he expended some good money with her and that Pips should at least play with her. The little filly implored to stay, but Francis sold her back, Pips never knew what happened to her.

 “---Sometimes the milk machine would break and I should do that by hand, it was slower, but anything to finish my work and come back to my master,” Green winked.

 When Pips notice that her mother stopped talking he nod and agreed to what she said.

 “Well, I think is time for dinner, I ordered a pizza,” Francis got up and walked to the kitchen.

 Pips was just looking at the kitchen door and waiting to the right time to go to his room, when he felted his mother laying her hand on his leg.

 “So sweetie, did you missed me?”

 “Yes,” ‘No!’

 Francis come back from the kitchen with the pizza, Pips ate it and then asked if he could go to sleep.

 He walked up stair and heard Francis saying something to his mother, it’s was probably nothing.

 When Pips enter his room he turned on the light, the color theme there was black and blue, which gave him a sense of space, a thing he loved. He also had a couple of posters on the wall about his favorite games that take place in space too. His TV set was o the front of the bad with two consoles plugged in, on the shelf’s a lot of games. Since there was nothing more to do in that day, Pips decided to go to sleep, even been just 7 PM.

 Pips didn’t had a dream that night, it was all black, but when he waken it still was night. He don’t usually wake in the middle of night. When he looked at the clock over his bed, it’s was 11 PM. He was felling weird, like something was… on him.

 The moment when Pips looked down to his legs he saw what he would never wanted, his mother sucking his cock. Pips must had forget to lock his room’s door. ‘What is she doing here’, ‘why is she doing this’ are the words passing through his mind. For some reason he also couldn’t move, like his body was paralyzed or something, maybe the pizza… or is just a sleep paralysis. But he manage to talk

 “M-mom! W-what are you doing?”

 His mom stopped sucking and looked at him with a smile, “Your father asked me to do this for you,” She go back to sucking, “He said that would make you more open or something,” She said between sucking.

‘No, no, no ,no, no! This shouldn’t be happening! Dammit! I have to get out of this!’ “Stop! Stop!” Pips still trying to move, but nothing happen.

 He manages to get his movements back, but in panic, he grab one of his crutches and hit his mom with this.

 When he notice what he did, his mom was on the ground in pain and fear. Pips quickly putted his pants back on, grabbed his crutches and run through the house and to outside, he didn’t stopped until he got inside Everfree forest.

 He stopped and took a time to take a breath and try to put together what just happened.

 “Ok! So, Francis must had order my mom to do this, dammit! I hit her on the head! What the hell I’m going to do now?” Pips walked more inside the forest, “I can’t go back after this, Francis would kill me and I can’t face my mom… Go to Rumble’s house? No, Francis would check in there,” He looked forward, “Maybe… Run away? With those legs is impossible,” Pips let himself fell on the floor, “I’ll be eaten by a monster or something! What the hell I’m going to do now?” Pips looked to the skies and saw the moon. He noticed that the rock was still inside his pocket. He picked up and saw that it had some light coming out of it. When he looked, inside he felted like his whole body was getting as sleep and everything got dark.

 Pips felted cold and light, like in that dream, maybe he was sleeping again. He then heard a voice calling him.

  “What! Who’s there?” When his vision was back, he saw a strange mist on front of him.

 “My name is Phoebe,” Said an ageless voice, echoing inside Pips head.

 “Where am I?” Pips noticed that the voice was coming from the mist.

 “Your mind have entered my realm. A parallel dimension if you will.”

 “What you want from me?” Pips tried to look for some place to run or something, but was like he as in space or in a void.

 “Not what I want from you. But what someone else want.”

 “What? Who?”

 “Do you remember Princess Luna?”

 “Luna?” Pips never forgot her, the only time she was in the city was in the Nightmare Night events, but he would never had a chance to meet her again. Dainn always would keep her busy, “Of course I do.”

 “Yes. When she manage to give me a message she would always speak about you, about the old times with you.”

 “You know her?”

 “Of course. I’m her servant”

 “Servant?”

 “She only used me once. What was again? Oh! You also may know me as Nightmare Moon.”

 “You are Nightmare moon?” Pips was surprised.

 “Well, the place where her power come from at least. That shape she took was just cosmetic.”

 “What she want from me?”

 “Well kid, isn’t that obvious?” Phoebe’s voices scared Pips, “Save her.”

 “… From Dainn?”

 “No! From the Easter bunny. Of course is from Dainn! You really think is good to be a slave?” Pips didn’t really expect that bit of sarcasms.

 “Wait! Why won’t you give her the Nightmare’s power back?”

 “She forbidden me to do this. She said that Dainn would take Nightmare power from her somehow.”

 “Ok, ‘Nightmare Moon’ how can I trust on you? For all what I know, this is just a fever dream or som- Argn!” The mist launched some kind of smoke on his torso; the pain he felted was if flaming needles pierced every nerve of his body, “Ok! I believe in you, you are Nightmare moon, what you need me to do?” He said in pain.

 “I will give test, trials if will. So I can trust if you can really save her.”

 “May I have a question,” Pips was still in a little pain.

 “Yes?” Now Pips could see that the mist had eyes.

 “Why me? I don’t know if you noticed,” Pips tap his legs “those thing right here, don’t work really well.”

 “My young colt, it’s not physical strength that matters, but! You willpower! Your ability to control my powers is what will be your victory!” The mist’s voice now had some personality into it.

 Pips had a black stare for a little time, “So what you want me to do?”

 “Go to the sister castle in the Everfree forest.”

 Pips got surprised, “It will take week to get there with my legs!”

 “I’ll give you a little of my powers, just so you can get there and do my trial.”

 “Well… Thank you Nightmare Moon! What will…?” When Pips noticed, he was back to Everfree forest “… Wait… At least tell me what to do there...! Nothing?” When Pips tried to find the stone, he noticed that his legs didn’t hurt anymore, he could run again. Maybe Nightmare healed then somehow, but it wasn’t time for that now, when Pips found the stone, he started his journey to the castle, even if he didn’t notice that somepony was following him.