A Shadow Came Unto Me

A Shadow Came Unto Me
Part 4: Night Mares

Two candles, three matches, a pewter holy symbol, a half-full salt-shaker and a piece of chalk. I’d rather not share what I had to do to acquire these items. Let’s just say I’m intimately familiar with how to braid a stallion’s tail, now, and leave it at that. Shower rituals in prison can get a little complicated. But I did what I had to do. Self-preservation can be a strong motivator, even for a normal guy like me.

My tattoo itched while I watched the sun slowly set. I started clumsily drawing. Having plain cement walls made it easy, and the meager rug was easy to roll up and put to one side. Being a former bookstore owner I’d read enough books on ufo’s, occult, and other controversial subjects to know a thing or two about driving away evil spirits. I’m no unicorn, but some symbols and such pass racial and species borders. I drew the seven-pointed star of Discord (warding) just outside the threshold of my cell. Then Celestia’s Triangular Wings (holy ground) above the window. Luna’s Blessing Cross (let no shadow fall upon the dweller) over my bed. I lit a candle and let the wax melt. Mixed the salt in. Then put two blobs, one on either side of my cell doorway (repel ghosts). When that was spent I used the rest of the salt to draw a line across my doorway (keeps those of ill intent from entering), and one across the cill of the window (keeps fell winds and black spirits out). Yeah I’m drawing from like six different cultures here but fuck you, you weren’t the one about to die come nightfall. It didn’t hurt to be thorough.

The sun slid over the horizon just as I was finishing. “Hey uhhh,” Proto Star had appeared in my doorway, rather late for a visit. “You okay, man?” His eyes flicked around and his ears splayed. “It’s her isn’t it? The Dead Mare?” His air of joking was gone and he looked around, rather haunted.

“I took something from her,” I admitted, looking to one side. “A seed. A morning glory seed. I didn’t know.”

“She’s comin’ for you, then?”

“Tonight,” I nodded slowly.

“Anything you wanna tell me?” he offered, like somepony extending a quill for last words before death.

“You think I’m dead, huh?”

“I think you’re at about the same stage as the last stallion who killed himself was, by the looks,” he gestured about the room to all my wards and symbols.

“Not gonna wish me good luck?”

“Nopony beats her, Oil Base,” Proto said, pausing to light a cigarette. He sighed, then stared at my apologetically. “Sorry.”

“Heh, well, send my crayons to a good artist then,” I snorted, turning to return to my work. If a symbol was drawn bigger, would it be more powerful in its effects? I didn’t know, I couldn’t remember what I’d read on that particular subject.

“Listen, I tried to warn you!” He started forward, but paused in the threshold. He seemed to think better of it. “Just don’t kill yourself, neh? We’ve had enough blood in this prison.” He turned from me, trailing white smoke behind him. “See you in the morning. Hopefully.” My eyes flicked down. He’d not passed over my salt line. Coincidence? Prolly.

=-=-=-=-=

Night wore on, the silvery moon blessedly lighting my room from the open, barred window. The cool night air was comforting, not too nippy just yet this time of year. I sat on my bed, on my haunches. I’d long since given up my whimpering and panting. I was a rat in a cage, it’s not like I could go hide somewhere. If I was gonna face something THAT horrific, at least I could face it like I had a pair. It didn’t keep my from pressing my pewter holy symbol tight against my chest. Prolly bruised myself. It hurt a little, but the pain took my mind off it. My head throbbed with stress and worry.

Then I heard the light hoof steps. “Herrrre she comes…” I mumbled, slowly standing up. I clip-clopped quickly into the shaft of moonlight and stayed there. Moonlight had driven her back once, perhaps it would shield me again. I’m not stupid.

“Bold statements, for one so unanoited,” A voice whispered in my ear. I flinched, whirling one way and then the other. “My my, covered all of our gods haven’t we? Discord… Celestia… Luna… even a little zafrican. I’m touched you thought so highly of me, you ungrateful little pimple.” I finally chanced a look at the ceiling. It rippled like a chilled winter pond, the cement moving impossibly like a disturbed pond. I knelt down onto my belly, clutching the pewter necklace to my chest. Then the hyperventilating started. A slender, muzzle poked free from the impossibility above me. It dripped gray onto my face, wet and slick like a newborn foal. It smiled lightly with black shark teeth. “I try to bring you a gift and you just throw it in my face…” she melted from the ceiling into the corner, grey and dull like a nightmarish garden statue. The eyes, there were no eyes. Only black voids with little white pinpricks of light.

“The power of Luna compels you!” I shouted, showing her the holy symbol, a slender mare draped sleepily over the moon. The bizarre creature snorted, walking a slow circle about me. She tested the moonlight and cracks went up her leg. She pulled quickly from it, hissing. “The power of Luna COMPELS you!” I shouted again, waving my little lump of metal at her. She hissed, turning her head until it was upside down. The crackling, snapping bones and spine were audible and she grinned impishly until her head was right-side up again. “The power of Luna COMPELS YOU!” I shrieked, my voice breaking.

“Why swear by the moon-bearing bitch, neh?” she grumbled. “Tainted saint you think she is?!” She gave a light flick of her head and my bed LAUNCHED itself across the room. I yelped when the metallic frame slammed into my and pinned me to the wall. My sink ripped from the wall and began to spout water all over the floor. My mirror exploded, sending shards everywhere. The toilet began to regurgitate foulness, bubbling and threatening. I groaned, pressing hard at the bedframe. It swore and shrieked until it closed in half around me like a venus fly trap.

“The power of Luna compels you,” I sputtered as it closed around my ribs. “The power of Luna com… compels you,” it was getting harder and harder to breath. My earth pony strength strained against the unnatural might closing in around me. Finally I could take no more and a barren scream of agony flew free.

“Last chance, my little pony,” she whispered, suddenly nose to nose with me.

“What?! Last chance at what?!” I squirmed desperately. Cracks were going up my walls, spraying shards of concrete everywhere. The foul water burst free like a guyser from my plumbing. Why wasn’t anypony waking up?! Why wasn’t anypony helping me?! “Who are you?! What do you want?!” I cried desperately. “Anything! Anything please! You’re hurting me so ba-ha-had!” I was weeping by then.

“Let me in,” she whispered, cupping my chin. “Let me in,” she said again, a black vapor issuing from her mouth. “Or I’ll crush your tiny little body and you die here. Die in this insignificant little sub-world you call a life.” Her teeth clenched so hard her black, mishappen teeth were vibrating her cheeks.

“Anyth-i-i-i-i-ing!” I begged, and the shadow came unto me, rushing into my mouth and ears and nose. The bed crashed to the opposite wall, blowing away all the salt I’d laid down. Celestia’s Wings burned from my wall and the magic circle I’d seen so many times ignited across the floor in molten fire.

“At… la-a-a-a-a-st!” a little voice whispered in my head like a smug snake. I staggered hard as the beast forced its way in and in and in. I gagged as her body turned to vapor, rushing into my body like a phantom wind. I rushed until I hit a wall, then rushed again until I hit another wall. I scorched myself under the beam of moonlight, rushing up under the window sill.

“WhAT’s HAPenning To ME?!” It was a voice that was not my own. I snapped my head about, looking in what remained of the mirror. Then my spine snapped. I cried out doggishly, hunching over myself. My body was splitting open. “StOP! Stop IT”! I gagged blood as twin appendages began to force themselves from my back. Boney and slick with blood and birth, they threw lines of red on the walls. Was I being possessed?! No! NO! No it couldn’t be! My fur was reddening, then blackening, like I was being burned alive. I coughed wildly, hunching back and forth and holding hoof-fulls of my mane. I got a single breath of air, only to waste it on a full-throated scream of terror.

The door! The door! I crashed into it with all my desperation and the cell door came free. The railing greeted me, shiny and inviting. It was three stories down to the cafeteria floor. The cylinder shape of the prison would let gravity end my agony. With the last of my strength and adrenaline, I thrust myself over the railing.

I glanced left, not wanting to watch the hard cement rush up at me. Proto Star stood on the second floor, watching me go with horror. I glanced right. In slow motion, a guard was rushing from his post. He was nowhere near close enough to stop me.

I hit the pav—wait.

“That’s far enough. I have you now,” An authoritative female voice said to one side of me. The world had stopped. The guard frozen in place. Proto Star throwing his cigarette to one side in his fear. The lit paper thing spun in the air, defying gravity.

A slow, deliberate walk of hooves approached me. Echoed all around me. The world seemed to be like cardboard. Lifeless nothingness, just joking at what it was supposed to be. A slow, massive hoof stroked my cheek. “You’ve suffered enough. All I need now is—!” Another massive hoof took my shoulder. A cried out as smoke, ash, and darkness rushed out of my lungs I gagged, dripping spit onto the floor a few inches below me. I was lowered to the ground in a heap. The skeletal wings were gone. A long, nightmarish black horn had fallen from my like a baby tooth. It rolled away and cracked, turning to ash. “There’s no escape this time, Nightmare.”

It was none other than Princess Luna standing over me, holding a sphere of what could only be described as a nightmare in her hoof. It roiled with a dozen razor-toothed mouths, eyeballs of all shapes, anuses and roiling fleshy bits. It fought and squirmed, but she held it fast in a sphere of her divine power. “P…. Princess Luna?” I wondered airily, staring up at her.

“Wake! You must wake!” she said quickly. The world came apart around me and… and…?

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Turn off the audio, we will speak with him now.” A voice said. The beeping halted as the world swam in my vision. “Oil Base. Oil Base…? Can you hear me, stallion?” The dark blue, feminine features of the Princess of the Night slowly came into focus. To one side of her was a black, ornate chest lined with deadbolts, locks, and magical seals. It vibrated and shook where it was. She saw where I was looking, then smiled patiently. “All will be explained, but I must know, are you okay?”

“What happened…?” I husked, pulling off an oxygen mask. “Where’s the prison?”

“Prison?” Luna puzzled for a moment. “My little pony, you’ve never gone to prison.” She stroked my brow, thanking a doctor as I was unhooked from many a strange device.

“Of course I have,” I mumbled, groggy and unstable.

“Please, lay back,” she gestured. I did, staring at her. There was an awkward silence. “Pray smile, stallion, when you look upon your savior.” She said coyly, touching my shoulder. I blinked twice. “You… don’t remember anything, do you?” she said slowly.

I shook my head, “I was in my cell,” I told her. “And the last thing I remember was you pulling some kind’a… spirit, out of me.”

“The Nightmare, yes,” Her Majesty gestured to the hopping, thrashing chest next to her. She gestured lightly, and a rather large Night Guard stallion sat upon it. The chest growled lightly, but moved no more. “How is his head?”

“He’ll be in here a few more days, but otherwise I think he’ll be fine now that he’s awake,” The doctor smiled. “You gave use quite a scare, coming in here with your head half-cracked open.”

“Wh… what? I don’t understand,” I said, sagging against my pillow.

Princess Luna came and sat next to me, a little less formal now that the chest of nightmares had been seen to. “I repeat again, my little pony, you never went to prison.”

“But I did! I was there for weeks and weeks!” I said. “Solitary! Then Min-Sec! I had friends! And bullies to look out for!” I looked around and she raised a hoof to stop me.

“Please, I will help explain. Do you remember what happened that night in Cobweb Dew’s chambers?” She asked. I screwed up my face at the painful memory. I’d told Proto Star and the Dead Mare about it too:

“I’ll tell you the same thing I told the guards, and the judge, and the jury, and Cobweb Dew’s father. We started… seeing each other, you know, off to the side. When nopony was looking we would sneak notes and kisses. One night she invited me into her family manor. So I came in through a window. She helped me in and we slept together. Or we were, rather. Her father came in and she panicked. He got me pretty good with a wooden chair, and she said I was a… a…”

Luna stopped me. “Neigh, I can assure you, about the guards, judge, jury, and father,” she said. “When Lord Mountain Dew struck you over the head he… well… put you into a coma. You never rose from the blow.”

“Wh… what?” I said. “Then the trial? The dungeon? The solitary confinement? The weeks and weeks of living among other prisoners…?”

“Your mind rebuilding itself,” Luna said, tapping my forehead with a hoof. “I’ll give you no sugarcoats, there was a rape investigation.” She paused to sigh. “But when the details started not making sense Cobweb Dew was exposed as a liar and her father charged with assault. Both are serving jail time beneath our very hooves in the dungeon-belly of Canterlot. Six months for he, and four and a half years for her.”

“Four and a half years?”

“Nine years is the standard sentence for rape in Equestria,” Luna sniffed, looking at me. “Tiz only fair for one falsely pointing the hoof at a stallion or mare to be punished at least half as hard. Sometimes more.”

“I… I see,” I mewled, rubbing my aching eyes. This was all happening so fast… so fast… “What about Proto Star? The Dead Mare? The others?”

“Sometimes dreams rub up against each other. If there are coma victims out there that shared a very similar idea of where they think they should be… they may share the same dreamscape. Your prison, for example,” Luna said gently. “As for your Dead Mare,” she gave a huff and stood. “May I introduce The Nightmare, inspiration for the creature you call Nightmare Moon.” She patted the locked chest twice and it snarled angrily.

“What...?” I whispered.

“She dwells where she can, between this world and the next, whispering at any who can hear her,” Luna scowled at the container. “And who better to reach out to than an innocent prisoner, bound in his own waking nightmare, laying defenseless in a coma?”

I nodded slowly that I understood. “S-so Cypher? Proto Star? Everypony…?” I trailed off.

"Not real, dear stallion," Luna shook her head slowly, offering me a gentle smile.

END OF PART 4