Pony & Blade: Warparty

Chapter 4: Nightmares

It wasn't long before he had fell asleep that Gavin began to dream. He dreamt of his home, his friends, his life on Earth, how peaceful and simple it was, how boring. He may have been sleeping but he recognized the thought as not his own, he liked the simple life, or did he? Gavin was on the midst of comprehending how that thought bore into his mind but in his slumber he was vulnerable. His subconscious had realized this beforehand and was already at work exposing what was going on in his head. His mind was represented to him as a source of light amongst a black sea of nothing, his subconscious as an orb of blue energy, the intruder in his mind as an alternating mass of colors and shapes. The intruder was wrapping dark glowing red tendrils around his mind, diminishing its white hue and beginning to convert it to the dark red color. The glowing blue subconscious rushed from Gavin's dream, leaving It defenseless to save the whole. His dream had begun to revert to something strange and horrible. Spiders crawled from cracks in the walls of his home, his friends bodies contorting into physically impossible shapes and grew strange clawlike appendages, fire and ash rained outside the windows and he himself was just a small defenseless child. His subconscious was busy investigating the unnatural thought and was witnessing the twisting of his mind. The dream was just a box amongst the darkness, close to the mind, but still far seperated. Without defense from his subconscious the dream would revert into nightmare, but the dream does not affect the whole unless given due time. The shining blue orb began to launch small spherical projectiles at the mass that was corrupting Gavin's mind, in turn the intruder released its grip and began to unexpectedly attack the dream, converting it further to nightmare. Gavin's subconscious let out a large blue flare and launched it at the intruder, who let out a maniacal laugh. "Is this all that you're mental defences can do?" It then continued to laugh unimpressed, and went back to the mind. By this time the subconscious had used up most of its options, fighting it was useless, it had no effect. Occupying it was also a failure, as the intruder deemed it trivial to deal with something so weak. It had considered its third and final option, wake up.

In his nightmare Gavin had escaped from his now smoldering home and was being chased by his immensely deformed former friends who where letting out bloodcurdling screams as they charged for him. He had then ran across his not-so-sleepy town and reached a lake. Seeing it as his only viable option for survival Gavin jumped into the water and was swept away with a strong current. When he resurfaced he found he was floating in a river and was fast-approaching a particularly deadly-looking waterfall. He was grabbing around the near 12 ft deep water for some way to save himself from the fall, but it was too late and he fell down the waterfall and broke the surface face-first. When he surfaced again he was drained, and floated lazily along the now calm water until he came to a stop at a small pond. he just stayed there, unable to move, and waited. He was then suddenly grasped by a dark red tendril from the now crimson-red water. it had wrapped itself around his neck and was pulling him under, he couldn't resist after the fall, he was too weak. That feeling was from his subconscious using all of its strength to keep the corruption from spreading. Two more appeared from the murky fluid and wrapped across his chest, submerging him completely under the now endless abbyssal ocean of red. Then something snapped, and it all ended. He was still asleep, but Gavin's subconscious had considered another option, exposing the intruder by ending the nightmare. There was that shifting mass of color once again, Gavin was floating in the black nothingness, and saw his mind begin to recover as it was guarded by his subconscious. The malicious mass then began to fade and reveal a true form. Gavin recognized his favorite villian instantly, Discord. "It's good to see you're mind has some spunk," The draconequus chuckled, "I was hoping it would of put up a better fight." He then looked back at the recovering mind that he had been twisting. "I guess I was asking for it," Discord looked to Gavin and put one of his claws on his left hand on Gavin's lips and let out a "shh..." as he tried to speak. "Your mind put up a good fight, more than I expected," He looked at Gavin, half respectfully and half amused, "So I'll leave your little thing you have going here alone, but don't expect me to not tempt you when you're awake!" Discords eyes then widened and his mouth turned into an "o" shape, then they reverted back and he let out a devious smile as he slithered around Gavin. "Oh, and I almost forgot you won't remember any of this, except the nightmare, that should prevent you from warning any of the ponies that I'm here, and that nightmare was GENIUS!" He then flew around him, spinning Gavin like a top as he was unwrapped. "One more thing!" Discord yelled as he began to fly away, "You should try to avoid King Harlaus, he doesn't like you... or the ponies..." He then did a spin and let out a maniacal cackle as he dissapeared in a flash.

In said flash Gavin awoke in a damp sweat, panting. It was pitch black and he heard sounds of shuffling and a fire outside his tent, showing that the others were still awake and that he was still in Calradia, then Gavin noticed something. He looked to his lap to see a sound asleep Twilight Sparkle laying across him. Gavin was then flooded with immense amounts of "D'aww" in his system that could possibly overload his nerves. He then began to slowly slink back down to his rough pillow, and slept. He may have remembered only the nightmare, but something was still very unsettling in his head, he felt as if he had just had an immense violation of privacy. It would end up being the worst sleep he had in months.