Nightmares by Daylight

Daylight kept his back against the door as the creature kept screeching and slashing furiously the door with its claws, trembling in his hooves due to how terrified he is of the current situation. All he wanted to do is lay down and pray to Celestia that whatever it was it wouldn't get through the door, and he'd be safe. Unfortunately, he came back to reality, as he knew that lying down and simply hoping that it goes away would never work in a place like this. He forced himself to keep standing up, quivering like a scared, defenseless little puppy. He reached for his flashlight and shined it through the room, praying that there was something he could do to save himself.

The room seemed rather simple, Having several counters lining the walls of the room, knowing his luck so far, Daylight already knew that most of them would be empty if he even bothered to check them. He sighed and shined his light near the center of the room, the young colt could feel good fortune shine down upon him when he saw that a door was on the other side of the room. Daylight wasted no time and galloped to the door at full speed, happiness ran through him as he had possibly found a way to escape the beast. Things quickly took a turn for the worst, as when he approached it, he saw a strange, purple, slimy substance covering the doorknob, Daylight reached for it to open it anyway, but the slimy goop burned his hoof as he reached for it. He reared his hoof back in reflex, shaking off the burning sensation the slime gave it.

Daylight didn't want to use the PVM in any sort of attempt to vacuum the slime, as he believed it could damage his PVM, on the inside, and he was running out of precious time. The constant banging and scratching on the wooden door served as a reminder that he had very little time left. Hiding would only buy him time before whatever it was found him, and if he tried to sneak out he'd have nowhere else to run, and the creature would catch him. He looked through the room to find anything that could help him, until he noticed a head to a flashlight at the end of the counter on the right side of the wall. He trotted up to it quickly to examine it more closely.

It had a purple lining at the tip of the head. The lens looked weird, it didn't look like glass, but it was clear. It was rather odd. Perhaps it could be the dark light device he was told about by Classic? As he thought about what it could be, he heard a loud SNAP! coming right from the door. He had to act fast or he would fall prey to whatever was outside the door. He turned off the flashlight and took the head of it off using his magic, replacing it with the new head he had just acquired. Daylight pointed it at the wall and held the button on his flashlight down. The light still had to charge up like the old head did, so what could be so special about this one? It couldn't charge faster, or be brighter. Daylight looked around on it to find anything special about it, until...

SNAP!! CRASH!

This one was louder, as he directed his flashlight at the door, he saw that the door was broken in half and lying on the ground. He also noticed what appeared to be a timberwolf, a tree-like wolf found deep within the Everfree forest. He would often hear stories and descriptions of this creature, but this one was different than the ones he is used to seeing.

The bark and leaves on it's limbs was a dark, ominous purple color, it's eyes were glowing the same color as it's eerie limbs. A purple liquid, matching the goop that was stuck to the doorknob behind him, was dripping onto the ground. The young unicorn could hear the goop sizzle as it dripped on to the ground underneath the corrupted Timberwolf's claws. It let out a demonic roar as it dropped down on all fours and rushed right for Daylight. The colt charged his flashlight as he aimed it for the nightmarish creature, and his torch let out a powerful flash at the creature.

As the light cleared, Daylight soon saw that the creature was unaffected, it wasn't even slowed down. It slashed Daylight's left forehoof with it's poewrful, corrupted claw. Daylight yelped in pain from the hit, as the beast went for another slash, Daylight reacted quick and jumped to the right, to get out the way, the claw grazing his left hind hoof. The furious timberwolf immediately jumped for Daylight to continue it's relentless offense. Daylight had to think quick before he becomes mauled to death by this freak of nature. The timberwolf opens it's purple, goop-filled maw, revealing sharp, wooden teeth as it attempted to bite down on Daylight's right forehoof. Daylight quickly reared it back to avoid the bite and punched the creature in the eye, he knew due to his weakness it wouldn't do much but he had to try. He burned his hoof upon touching the purple eye, but the creature had reared back upon taking the hit. Daylight ran towards the door, his thoughts racing once again.

"I can't just run back... This thing will follow me... A-And it will catch me... There must be something this new flashlight head can do... Something to drive it away..."

Daylight looked at the flashlight head, stopping in place. He looked around it for any buttons or anything, but no luck. He thought for a moment, and turned the head of his torch to the right. Suddenly, his flashlight gave off a light with a dark purple tint to it. Acting quick, he turned around and pointed the light at the timberwolf, running out of options.

The hellish beast let out a demonic, painful roar, as stepped back, looking down. The blazing hot substance dripping from it's mouth soon started to slowly but surely fade, along with the timberwolf as a whole... As if it wasn't there at all... Daylight looked confused. Why would it just disappear like that? It looked far too real to be a ghost... Was it just all in his mind? Was he starting to go crazy? Whatever the reason was, Daylight was happy it was gone. He felt the flashlight start to get hot, a little too hot. He quickly turned the head to the left, causing the violet light to disappear now and allowing his torch to cool off.

Daylight sighed in relief, holding his forehoof in pain, as the slash inflicted on it had still hurt, feeling as if it was on fire. He checked the wound to make sure none of the goop was in it, and fortunately there wasn't. The colt turned to the door behind him, which was still covered in the burning ectoplasm from before, it had not faded with the beast. He turned the head of the flashlight and shined the deep purple light on the doorknob, watching as the goop on the knob simply faded away, he could hear the doorknob sizzling a little as the slime disappeared from the doorknob. The colt let out a sigh of relief before waiting a little for the sizzling to stop, before slowly opening the door.

The door had, unfortunately, lead down another staircase, to a dark hallway. The young unicorn hesitated, before letting out a quiet sigh and trotting down the stairs. The stairs were made of old wood, unlike the other stairs in the building, each step Daylight made caused the staircase to wobble and let out a long creak, despite Daylight's light weight. He was worried the staircase would collapse on him. When Daylight was finally close to the bottom of the stairs, he noticed an eerie pink glow fading down the hall. Knowing his luck, it must be another ghost. But soon after he could faintly see a green glow coming from the other side. There were multiple ghosts in one area.

The thought, perhaps if he proceeded very slowly, he could hide and let the ghosts pass. He attempted to proceed very slowly down the last step as his heart started to race, trying to making as little sound as he could...

Until...

CRACK!

The old, wooden step had completely broken, causing Daylight to unceremoniously fall face first onto the cold, hard ground with a yelp. He dropped his flashlight, which rolled a little bit away from him before stopping. He slowly looked up to try reaching it...

But then his heart dropped.

He realized the two glows down the hall have stopped fading, and were becoming brighter which each passing second. The ghosts were coming right for him at a fast rate.

And his flashlight, his only chance of stopping them, was out of his reach.