Dreams to Nightmares to Bliss
You begin to breathe heavily. The world seems to be spinning all around you as the air gets thicker and thicker and oxygen becomes an ever more valuable reward for the increased labor required to get it. Suddenly, you're underwater but you find you can breath better than ever.
Cool and blue liquid stretches around you for miles. It almost feels like a void but with a sense of familiarity and restfulness to it. It would feel peaceful to the average pony but you are not a pony.
You are Anon, the only human in Equestria. You must remember but never tell. Now more than ever, the very words that instruct you to do as you do give you strength.
"Remember but never tell," you repeat in your head. Those words are not just your goal put into verbal thought but an aid to your success. You must remember those words and keep true to them for this act alone helps you remain strong.
The liquid suddenly gets obstructed below you. You have been descending this entire time and are now reaching the dark matt blue floor of this world. You know what comes next.
The landing was soft but with it came the sense of a ten-fold increase in gravity. You began to breathe heavily again. This time, however, as a result of your body straining to remain standing.
"Impressive," said a mysterious figure bathed in the shadows of distance. "Any pony would have collapsed to the floor from these much strain but you seem to have an impressive ability to withstand the effect."
The figure stepped out from the shadows but it didn't matter. You knew who she was and what she wanted.
"Tell me your secrets," Nightmare Moon hissed. "Surely you must give up eventually?"
The phrase, "Remember but never tell," rang through your skull again. Those precious words kept you strong. You would utter them out loud if it wasn't for the fact that the mare in front of you would be able to use such information to help her in her goal. Thus, you kept those words in the few cubic centimeters of freedom inside your skull.
"Huh, and why would I do that?" you say the mare. "If you haven't managed to get it out of me in a year what makes you think you ever will?"
"Because I have twenty more" Nightmare Moon quipped back. "And even if you do resist this nightly terror for another twenty years, I will have you in a dungeon soon after I am released from this prison that is my beautiful moon and defeat my sister to take my place as the true ruler of Equestria and the night."
The gravity was beginning to become too much for you. You had a suspicion that Nightmare Moon had been gradually increasing it since she first started talking. A few more seconds and you would be on all fours.
"If you think that this is bad, just wait until I meet you in person Anonymous," said Nightmare Moon. "Because I promise you it's ten times as difficult to resist spilling secrets when you don't have a safe and cozy world to wake up to after eight hours of the night."
As she said this, she began to circle you. You could see it in her eyes. She was enjoying this. You couldn't really blame here. After all, her name was Nightmare Moon.
Just then, your body finally gave in. You dropped to the floor. "Yes," responded Nightmare Moon. "Get used to being on your knees human. When I return it is the only place that you will be."
She chuckled at this before coming full circle to face you and say, "You have another seven hours of this to go you know. However, I'll be lenient on the rest of tonight if you tell me just the tiniest thing I want to know."
You wanted to tell her anything you had to in order to stop this nightmare but you knew you couldn't. "You'll never learn anything about my world or the secrets we hold. Our knowledge and abilities should be untouched by ponykind. The things we are capable of and our ability to imagine and execute on different kinds of evil won't do anything for Equestria."
Even with the glowing sense of pride that declining Nightmare Moon's offer provided, you felt loss at the thought of blowing your chance at a night of peace.
The clock continued to tick, however, and the night was still far from over.
"Fine," huffed Nightmare Moon. "If that is the way you wish to be then so be it!" With that, she smashed her hoof into the ground and it shattered right underneath you.
You were falling again but this time came with a different set of emotions. Instead of the comfort and peace that came when you first entered your dream, you felt dread and sadness here.
Before you were in an ocean but here you find yourself suspended in a void. The world was pitch black. Suddenly, you see a purple light in the distance. It seems to be moving rapidly toward you. You use your arms in order to block it out and protect yourself.
Just as it seemed too late, the light diverts and splits into two paths just twenty feet in front of you. You take a look to find that the light was now a ring of purple fire surrounding you.
"Well," said Nightmare Moon. "What do we do next? Do we try to find a fear of yours and exploit it or do I just show you examples of what will come when I return to convince you to cooperate?"
"Ugh," you sigh. "More of those? We have gone through every possible one. It's not like they were particularly original in the first place."
"Silence," hissed Nightmare Moon. The ring of fire parted to let Nightmare pass through. She headed towards you and lifted your head to look into your eyes.
"Is that fear I see?" she said. "No," you responded. "I don't fear you and never will. There is nothing you can do to me."
"Maybe not here and now, but I can still torment you and that's enough to get most to talk."
"I'm not most," you retorted. A smile broke on your face. You knew Nightmare was no threat to you and so did she. Her threats were empty and meaningless. Still, she could make your nights sleepless nonetheless.
Nightmare paused to ponder your words. She knew she had already gone through all her techniques with you before. Every one of her old tricks was just as old for you as they were for her. She knew she wasn't getting through using her current methods so she had to try something new.
"So," you say. "What are you going to do now?"
In response, Nightmare releases your head and lets it drop down. She has no intention of touching a creature if she can avoid it.
"What am I going to do now?" she said. "I'm going to try something new." With that, she disappears and everything goes black. You find yourself back in the blue void that is your free and empty mind.
Days pass and your nights have never felt better. Nightmare was no longer visiting you. You knew this was strange and a deep pit was starting to form in your stomach as to what she could be planning but you weren't too worried about it. For now, you were just happy you avoided nearly telling Celestia what was going on. You felt like you had to deal with this problem alone.
She sensed something was wrong, but she didn't know what exactly. She had no idea that Nightmare Moon was entering your dreams. You had to keep it that way. The easing of stress from the lack of Nightmare Moon's visits made keeping the secret much easier.
Months pass and life seems to be getting better. Without the nightmares, Celestia stopped suspecting something was wrong. You had dealt with your little nightmare problem. So, why didn't it feel like you dealt with it?
One day, you found yourself in the library reading some dream magic books. This day, in particular, was a very long one. The sun had only now begun to set but it was about the time that most ponies went to sleep. You yourself were about to head to your bed for another peaceful night's rest until you hear that all too familiar voice.
"Hello Anon," speaks Nightmare Moon. It was enough to stop you dead in your tracks. You veered your head around to get a look at the one pony that could never be, neigh, that should never be behind you. What you find, however, is the impossible. As the voice alluded, Nightmare Moon was standing in the flesh.
"Oh, I finally got you to be fearful?" asked the princess of the dark night, "It's about time you figured it out. I have the power to make things horrible for you Anon. I managed to store that power for long enough to get that final burst I needed to break free. You are mine to do with as I want now, Anonymous."
As she says this, she inches ever closer to you. Beads of sweat begin to go down your face. You feel yourself leaning back but you can't move your legs. They seem to be fixed in place. They seem to be frozen in time. You can't tell if this is Nightmare's doing or your own fear at work.
In the time it took you to think that, Nightmare Moon got close enough that you could feel her breath. She was real. She looked real. She acted real.
She outstretched her hoof and was about to touch you when your nerves finally kick in and you snatch up her outstretched hoof. You do this only to find that your hands go right through. She wasn't really there.
"Bwahahaha," laughed Nightmare Moon. When she calmed down a second later she said, "Oh, you are fun to toy with. I can't actually break out of my prison but I can manifest myself within the real world if I save up enough energy. I have a few hours to see the world you walk in. Maybe I'll find some hint or clue as to how I can get you to talk about your people's secrets, hmm?"
The thought alone had you shuttering. You didn't want the worst to come. Nightmare was horrible at guessing your fears which is why you could afford to tell her that you had none, in the past. Now, however, she might just find something that would make your dreams real nightmares. You couldn't let her find out anything important and so you do the only thing you can. You talk to her."
"I told you before Nightmare, I have no fears," you lie.
Nightmare huffed and said, "I still find that hard to believe. Everypony has a fear. I don't care if you aren't technically a pony. You, my dear anon, have fears like all the rest."
"And you?" you responded, "What are your fears?"
"I have no fears," Nightmare Moon stated flatly.
"But you just said-"
"I know what I just said. There is an exception to every rule."
"Why can't there be two then?" you responded slyly.
With this, Nightmare Moon paused. She started circling around you again. You find she enjoys to do that a lot. She completes a few circles and pauses to say, "enough with your games, time to get what I came for. Where do you live Anon?"
"In the castle, you know that."
"Yes, I do know that and you know exactly what I meant."
"I'm sure I don't know what you mean," you responded slyly again.
This upset Nightmare Moon and she said, "Enough! Tell me where your room is or I'll probe it out of you. That much I can do with my newfound power."
"Why couldn't you do that in the dream realm?"
"A limit exists for how much magical energy I can bring into that world. It isn't enough to probe your mind. I also can't surpass a similar limit out here but I can get enough magic through to get your most recent memories."
Within a few minutes, Nightmare Moon had taken what she wanted from you and was phasing through the walls to get to where she needed to go.
When she finally arrived there, she was amazed at what she found. It was a plain white room with a bed in it. Everything seemed too clean and bright to be real. It was almost as if-
*Slam
The door closed. Nightmare tried to phase through the walls but found she couldn't anymore. Then, you appeared in the room with her.
"Hello Nightmare," you said.
"How, how!?" was the only response she could give.
You maneuvered yourself towards her and materialized a table with two chairs.
"Come, sit," you said. She sat.
"I spent the last couple of months finishing up my trap," you said, "with you giving me some time to myself, I finally had the energy I needed to speed up the process to completion."
"Oh, this is a trap dream spell," she said.
"yes. In fact, I'm fairly sure it'll last the rest of the time you have in that prison of yours that is the moon. You see, I'm using your own magic to do it."
With this, Nightmare Moon was now the one to be afraid. You could tell. She had already jumped to the end of the story.
"You see Nightmare, I used a-"
"You used a mirroring spell to bounce my magic back on myself and added a twist with the trap magic. You activated the trap right about the time I first spoke to you today and now I'm trapped inside here," she interrupted.
You take a moment to collect yourself and say, "Yes. You got the gist of it. Now, we both know how this goes. Either you release your grasp on this world entirely or this spell continues until you are brought back to Equestria in twenty years."
"B-b-but you'll be trapped here with me you fool!" she yelled back, "It won't do you any good if you aren't free yourself."
"Ah, but that is where you are wrong dear Nightmare. Here, you do not control the dream. I can live in peace until I need to. Celestia will maintain my body in Equestria for the time needed and I can get a good nice chat with you in the meantime."
Nightmare Moon knew she was beat. She knew she had been outdone. If she didn't comply, she would be trapped here with you for the next twenty years. If she did, she wouldn't be able to return because the connection would be broken and it would take more than twenty years to reestablish it.
"You win," muttered the princess of the dark night before vanishing from the dream and allowing you to return to your world in peace. You leave with a smile.
Author's Note
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