My Little Slasher: Freddy vs Jasonby Desmond O-FarrelChaptersChapter 1: Murphy's LawChapter 2: What Hell Hath Wrought (Jason)Chapter 3: A New Nightmare (Freddy)Chapter 1: Murphy's LawStarlight had spent the last three hours readying the casting room for a new spell. It wasn't the fact she was doing a new spell that concerned Twilight, but rather how long she'd been preparing the casting room. What kind of spell is she going to cast that she needs so much time to prepare? Twilight wondered as she waited for her student to exit the room and invite her in to observe. Suddenly the casting room door swung open, and Twilight was greeted by Starlight, a semi-exhausted look in her face. "Okay," Starlight said, still panting a bit, "I think the casting room's ready." She ushered Twilight in with haste, and shut the doors rather loudly. "Alright Starlight," Twilight asked, "what exactly is this spell you've 'made'?" "It's a bit hard to explain," Starlight responded, a look of worry spreading across her face. "But to sum it up, it's essentially supposed to bring in one or more great beings from either the past, or another dimension." Twilight's eyes opened wide at Starlight's response. "A spell that summons a being from the past, or another realm?" Twilight said, dumbfounded by the idea. "Starlight, if this works, it could be the biggest discovery in the history of Equestrian magic!" Gleeful grins spread across both of their faces. While Twilight was excited by the prospect of her student making such an incredible leap in magical advancement, Starlight was just happy that Twilight wasn't mad at her for trying such a thing. The two mares walked towards the center of the casting room, the large, marble-lined circle in the center rife with fresh markings. These were presumably part of the script that Starlight had needed to create to perform the spell. They were written in a mixture of Ancient Equestrian, Draconian, and Griffin scripts, each one both distinct and indistinguishable from the rest of the script. Starlight moved to the edge of the circle. Her horn began flaring with magic as she read out the text around the circle. Each individual word lighting up as she enunciated their syllables. "O magnum esse, audite me; תקשיב לרצוני ותבוא מהעולם שלך; Я, Starlight Glimmer, вызывать вы- слушать и подчиняться! Veni ל меня!" Camp Crystal Lake, Cunningham County, New Jersey Cassie held her breath as the masked killer walked around the cabin. Did he know where she was? No, not a he- there was no way that...thing was human, in any sense of the word. What it had done to her friends...to Kenny...no human should be able to do those kinds of things. Not even strongmen. Her thoughts were cut short when she saw it looking at her through the peephole in the wardrobe. The black and lifeless holes it presumably had in place of eyes had been combing the whole area. It was looking for something. No, not something... it was looking for her and nothing else. Her breathing became more frantic as it approached. Its heavy footsteps echoed in the wooden cabin. It bent over. Cassie realized that the thing was now staring right back at her through the peephole. It knew. It knew she was in there. She began to pant harder than she had the whole night. Maybe if she was lucky it would move on and try to find one of the others. Wait...the body it had dragged in with it...Jacob. If Jacob was dead...so was everyone else. Her friends were gone. Her brother was gone. Her boyfriend was gone. She was the only one left. She had been preparing for such an event. It didn't make it any easier though. She thought of her friends, her brother, and Kenny. All of them had been having a great time that day. Until nightfall came. It had started with a scream that ripped through the forest and the camp. All of Cunningham County probably heard it. She had been the one to find Anna's body after it happened. She had been completely mangled. Her body was in three parts, with blood and entrails flowing everywhere around them. She tried not to think about it. The more she tried though, the more the memories of what she'd seen kept coming back to her. Kenny was the second to go. He was a great guy in all actuality. He certainly didn't deserve to have his body impaled on the column of a bird bath. She finally managed to force the thoughts out of her mind. She looked out of the peephole again. It was gone. Well it wasn't looking back at her through the peephole at least. Just when she was starting to feel safe...it came back. It had an ax this time. She could see the hockey-mask wearing thing raise the ax over its head and bring it down in one swift motion. The ax's impact shook the whole wardrobe. She looked up where it had hit above her head. It was stuck. The ax was stuck in the wardrobe. Right as she was about to let out a sad chuckle, the creature's hand shot out and ripped her from the wooden wardrobe. Splinters and chunks of wood flew as it threw Cassie to the ground. She started to scream. She started to beg. She started to plead. Then she realized it was no use. This thing...this monster...it was going to kill her here. She cried- she wasn't ready to die yet. She was only twenty-one! She couldn't die yet! She wasn't supposed to! The creature looked at her through the cold, unfeeling, lifeless blackness of the hockey mask. Its gaze was as stony and heartless as it was terrifying. Its arm moved towards its side. It pulled a large machete from the hip of its pants. The machete was stained with the blood of her friends. The blood of her brother. The blood of her boyfriend. All of them had, in some way, ended up meeting the monster's machete. Then a terrifying realization shocked Cassie's mind: this was no creature. It was no monster either. The thing that had killed her friends, her brother, her boyfriend, and was about to kill her... It was nothing less than a demon. The machete raised up. Then it came back down. It was an inch away from her face when something that could only be described as being miraculous happened. There was a flash of blue light from the demon, and then... Nothing. It was gone. 1428 Elm Street, Potsdam, New York "Here we are, Nancy! Back together at last- just like old times!" Freddy's voice echoed throughout the house. Well the burning remains of the house anyway. Nancy could hardly hold herself together long enough to even think of a response. "Go to Hell, Krueger!" was the only thing that came out of her mouth. It wasn't quite what she'd planned to say, but it was close enough. At least she wasn't going to die like a coward. Through the flames raging in the basement, Nancy could just barely make out the silhouette of her killer. Freddy Krueger. She'd already tried the trick from the first time she'd beaten Freddy, and it hadn't worked. You can't just say you take back the power you gave to Freddy Krueger- it doesn't work like that. He feeds off fear, and off belief. Krueger began advancing towards her through the flames. It was impossible to stop him now that he had so much fear to feed off of. Nancy had let herself be scared by Freddy, and now that he had a grip on her mind, there was nothing she could do or say to rip her out of her fear. She was hopeless. The only things that ran through her mind were the memories of her husband and her little boy. Krueger had tortured them both for months leading up to their deaths. Her son hadn't gotten to dream about the dinosaurs he always did when he died. Krueger had taken that from him. The fear in her body started to get overtaken by another emotion. Rage. She picked a busted pipe up off of the floor, and charged at her tormentor with it. She bashed him in every spot she could think of, but there was practically no effect. Krueger barely flinched with each hit. He grunted once or twice, but that was all the response she could get out of him. She felt the knives go through her chest and pierce her heart. She felt the blood streaming down her front onto Krueger's disgusting hand and forearm. "That wasn't very nice, Nancy," Freddy said, his voice deep and terrifying. "Now say sorry, young lady!" "F...fuck...you...Krueger..." Before he could respond, Freddy's body began to erupt in bright blue spots. He felt his flesh parting as Nancy's life faded away. For the first time, he was scared. Frederick Charles Krueger, the notorious child murderer, the Elm Street Killer, the Dream Killer, was scared. The idea dawned on him that his presence- his existence- was connected to Nancy's life. "Ha...ha....h.....a......" Nancy's life ended just after she got to see and hear Freddy screaming his head off as his body finally faded into the blue lights coming from the holes in his skin. At least she wasn't going to die cold. Casting Room, Princess Twilight's Castle, Ponyville "Well Starlight," Twilight said, trying to cheer Starlight up, "at least you didn't destroy anything." Chapter 2: What Hell Hath Wrought (Jason)Jason found himself tumbling into a lake. Much to his dismay, it was not Crystal Lake. How did he know? Crystal Lake has a certain...smell to it. It's like a mixture of freshly cut grass, sea water, and blood. It was a smell he had enjoyed for many years living so close to the great body of water. His body went limp, and he felt the water pass over him as he sank to the bottom. When he did finally hit the bottom, a voice called to him. It was a voice he had loved for all his years; a sweet, caring voice that only he could hear. The voice of his mother, Pamela. Get up, Jason. You have work to do. Without any hesitation, he rose to his feet. Even at the bottom of this lake, Jason moved like he was on dry land. Well, not completely. His boots did stick to the mucky sand, and it felt like it had when his foot had gotten stuck in the mud that one day at camp. He liked that day. It had been a fun day. It was before the nasty counselors came around and ruined everything. As much as I love seeing you happy, Jason, now is not the time to reminisce. His mother's voice was just as sweet and kind as it had been earlier. It was a little more stern, but it wasn't malicious in any way. His mother's voice never was malicious- she was always kind to him, even when he had done a bad thing like letting one of the nasty counselors get away on accident. Jason loved his mother's voice, it was smooth and calm- just like Crystal Lake. Before he knew it, Jason was out of the water. The remaining wetness slowly dripped off of his body and his machete onto the muddy earth surrounding the lake. Jason took in a deep breath before he felt a nagging feeling creeping up on him. It felt like the world was too...vivid- too colorful. He certainly wasn't at Crystal Lake anymore. Off to his left, he spied what looked like a barn. A barn like the one at Crystal Lake, but...red. Not the nice blood red that Jason liked, but instead a bright, vibrant red- like the ones he'd seen in books before the nasty counselors came. Go Jason. Go there, and see what you can see. With haste, Jason started marching towards the barn. It hadn't been long into the night when Applejack saw somepony coming up towards the orchard. Wait a minute, she thought to herself as she took a closer look at the approaching figure, that ain't no pony, that's a...what is that? The figure was tall, and looked like it was moving on just its back legs. It was tall, even from this distance, and had a...machete...in one paw. It appeared to have seen her, and it was moving faster now. Well, faster than it had been anyway. Applejack ducked into the house and locked the door. Before any of her family members had a chance to say anything, she held a hoof up to her mouth and made a motion towards the light switch, which was right next to Big Mac. Her brother flipped the switch, and the whole house went dark. They'd made the decision to have a single switch control the lights in case of something like this. Well obviously not exactly like this, but the idea of a murderer coming out of the fields or the forest had been one of Granny Smith's oldest fears. She'd been the one who insisted that the lights all be on the same circuit, and nopony had really thought to question her. She was Granny Smith Apple, after all- in the Apple family, her word is law. No exceptions. They all hunkered down in the basement after the lights were shut off. None of them dared to make even the smallest sound or whimper. Until they heard the door being broken down. Get them, Jason. His mother's voice echoed in Jason's head, egging him on. His machete wasn't the best tool for breaking down a door, but in lieu of an ax (stupid wardrobe) it was the next best thing he had to do the job. Each crack of his blade against the wooden door sent waves of splinters from the point of impact. Jason was fairly certain one had at least partially grazed his uncovered wrist. Finally, he felt the fire of the rage in his belly light up, and, in a moment of pure, unbridled fury and strength, simply broke down the door with his body. He was still standing, though he was a little dizzy from the experience of hitting his head against a large piece of wood and glass. He did manage to snap himself out of it, and when he failed to see the creature that he'd spotted from the path, he heard his mother's voice again. Find them, Jason. Make them suffer. He nodded his head and started searching the whole house, tipping over furniture, checking behind shelves, and even going as far as to break down a structurally insignificant wall. That wall turned out to lead to the kitchen, but there was no time to make any kind of snack. He would need ingredients anyway, and ingredients required bodies. Fresh bodies. He turned, and saw a set of stairs leading up. The only two-story building he'd seen before was Packanack Lodge back at Camp Crystal Lake. He walked up the flight of steps, his heavy boots causing the old boards to creak and groan with every step he took. Before he was halfway up the steps, though, he heard something. "Do ya think we can make a run for it?" It was faint, but he clearly heard someone talking about escaping. Escaping would not do. Not at all. As quietly as he could, Jason found a spot behind the large sofa he'd thrown over and hid. When he heard a trap door open all quiet-like, he waited some more. And when he heard the clip-clop of hooves on the wood, he waited just a bit more. When one of the sets of hooves came to a distance he thought was close enough, he pounced. He ended up grabbing what he assumed was a female one by its voice. It was also clearly very old, and...green? No, his mind wasn't playing tricks on him: this horse-like creature was, in fact, a pastel green. What fresh Hell...? Jason! Stop playing around! Kill her! She doesn't deserve to live! No-one who builds their house so close to our lake deserves to live! Jason pressed his machete against the old horse's throat, and he was about to drag it across when he heard another voice. It was a masculine voice- deep and sturdy, and with a thick country accent. "Let'er go!" the voice said, "Granny ain't dun nothin' ta nopony!" He's lying Jason! Just look at her! She has to have done something- you can see it in her eyes! Kill her! In one swift motion, Jason brought the old horse's back down on his knee, snapping her spine with a sickening crack. Then, he lifted the horse up by its neck, and grabbed its mouth and the back of its head. In one more motion, he turned the head one-hundred and eighty degrees, accompanied by another crack. Don't stop, Jason! Kill them all! He picked his machete off of the floor, and used his foot to push the overturned sofa out of his way. He could've just stepped over it, but he liked putting some restrictions on himself. It made the punishing more...interesting. The masculine one was a red horse with some kind of old-fashioned yoke around his neck. There were two other ones behind him. One was significantly smaller than the other, clearly indicating youth. Then again, it could just be some kind of dwarfism among these creatures, it wasn't like Jason was an expert on these things. "Y'all two git outta here," the red one said angrily, "Ah'll take care o' this here murderer." Murderer. Was Jason a murderer? He certainly didn't think so, and neither did his mother. It wasn't murder to defend your home from no-good, defiling, disrespectful idiots, was it? No. No it wasn't. Jason's time with his mother had taught him that much: it wasn't murder to defend your home. The lake he'd found himself in wasn't Crystal Lake, but it was a lake presumably parallel to it. Assuming that this was an alternate universe that has opposites for each constant back home, and not a completely separate dimension, of course. The red horse charged at Jason while the other two ran away. He felt the horse ram into his gut with the force of one-hundred trains at once. Not that it phased him, really; he hardly even flinched. He grabbed the horse by the back of its neck and drug it out of the house. He'd seen a water pump nearby, and he was feeling like having a drink. Pulling the red horse over to it, Jason put the creature's head into the space between the actual pump mechanism and the spout's pipe. He kept the horse's head in place with his left hand, while his right arm went to town pumping water. Well, water and blood. A few hard pumps later, and Jason found himself with a nice, well-crushed horse's head, complete with dislodged brain matter, blood, and bits of skull all mangled up. He was tempted to Stay and admire his work a little, but his mother reminded him why they had come here in the first place. That's my Jason. That's my special, special boy. Now, follow the others! Catch them! Hunt them down and make them pay! For the first time in many years, Jason found his voice. It was deep, almost too deep for normal human speech, and distorted just a small bit. But then again, he was special. He was his mother's special boy. "Yes, Mother..." Author's Note WHAT?!? YOU MADE JASON TALK?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! THAT'S NON-CANONICAL! YOU'RE BREAKING THE LORE! YOU'RE- My Story. My Rules. Deal. With. It. Chapter 3: A New Nightmare (Freddy)Well, Freddy thought to himself, this certainly wasn't what I was expecting. Not at all. Freddy had been sitting in a seemingly endless blackness for what felt like forever. All things considered, he had been expecting a bunch of burning pits, maybe some lava, or even a woman with a Venus fly-trap for a head. He certainly hadn't been anticipating complete inky nothingness. "Alright," he called into the darkness, "you can stop with this shit now! I've seen scarier shit in the nightmares of six year-olds, Old Scratch!" In truth, Freddy was a little freaked out by the infinite nothingness that surrounded him. Perhaps ironically for a man who kills people in their dreams, Freddy had always been a bit scared by intense darkness. Given who the Hell he was, it was more than a little disconcerting when he saw a set of lights appearing on the horizon. They looked familiar in a way... "Dream Portals..." Freddy said under his breath. At this point he didn't actually care if they were Dream Portals or not, he was just excited that there was something new to look at. You know, instead of varying shades of black. Using his arms and legs, Freddy made swimming motions towards the lights. Before he reached them though, he saw a large blue horse with a horn and wings walk out of one of them. He knew what they were: a fellow Dreamweaver. From the horse's demeanor, they had either just successfully turned a good dream into a nightmare, or spared someone from the horrors of a nightmare, probably while giving them some bullshit mini-speech about their life choices. Regardless of which it was, he had his way out. After the horse-thing had moved on to another dream, Freddy continued his ethereal 'swim' to the portals. He looked all around when he finally reached them, and chuckled. So many new nightmares to make, so little time... Rarity had been having a fairly nice dream so far. She knew it was a dream because she was able to think the materials she could only hope of one day using into existence. Materials like Changeling Silk, Snow Fox Fur, and Molted Dragon Scales. It was all going so wonderfully, this little imaginary version of the Carousel Boutique. Then she heard something she hadn't really been anticipating: the door opened. She turned, and started her usual greeting, but she was cut off by some kind of cackling. It was deep, hoarse, and almost demonic in nature. If she didn't know better, Rarity would've thought that her dream was being invaded by some otherworldly being. No, she thought to herself, it's probably just the dream world doing the usual thing of messing with me. And besides, Princess Luna is the only being who can enter dreams, so what have I to worry about? Then things started to...change. The materials she'd been working on were fading away as she tried to continue working with them. When they returned, they were some kind of blue, rubber-like substance. The cackling came back now, more malicious than it was before. Her nerves were starting to get to her at this point. What on Earth could be making that dreadful laughing? Suddenly she heard a scream from upstairs. Rarity ran up the steps, but just before she reached the top, she was greeted with one of the most disturbing sights she thought she would ever see. Sweetie Belle was standing there, but she looked...wrong. Rarity wasn't quite sure how to describe it, but there was something about Sweetie that just looked off. Her mane and tail were flat, not their usual fluffiness, and her coat looked like a dull steel instead of bright cream. Rarity was starting to hyperventilate at this point, the sense of dread she got from looking at this dream version of Sweetie was crawling all along her back like an insect, and she swore that the boutique was changing, too. Rarity felt her heart skip a beat when this dream Sweetie- no, this nightmare Sweetie- opened its eyes. At first, they looked normal, but then the pupils started to get larger and larger, until the whole of the eyes were nothing but blackness. As Rarity started to back away, she heard the nightmare Sweetie call out to her. "Sis no!" the nightmare Sweetie said, almost sounding scared. "Don't go! Don't leave me here! Please!" Rarity felt like her heart was going to explode out of her chest as the fake Sweetie continued to talk. There was no 'almost' about the fear in its voice anymore- this creature was genuinely scared about something. Rarity watched, horrified, as a darkness came up behind the dream Sweetie, and a large, clawed paw came down and snatched her up. There was screaming, and then silence. Despite her best efforts, Rarity's curiosity got the better of her, and she went the rest of the way up the stairs. She could hardly breathe when she saw the scene laid out before her. There was blood, more than there should have been in a pony's body, almost completely coating the walls and floor in thick redness. In the middle, barely five feet from her, was the body of the dream Sweetie. It was completely dismembered; its guts were spilling out from four large cuts on its belly; its head was twisted the completely wrong way; its legs were either broken in ways that shouldn't even be possible, or torn off and left just out of the poor creature's reach. Its mane and tail had also been completely removed, with blood pouring from the now skinless areas of its head and rear. Rarity felt like she was going to puke. Steeling herself for whatever this nightmare had in store, Rarity slowly trotted over to the corpse. When she was barely a foot from it, Rarity could scarcely believe her eyes. The fake Sweetie's head turned back round. Its dead, empty eyes looking back at her as blood poured from them. Then it spoke. "Why?" it asked, the blood now pouring in thin, steady streams like tears instead of regular blood. "Why didn't you help me? Why didn't you save me? Why?" Rarity was speechless. Even more terrifying than the nightmarish version of her little sister in front of her was its voice. It wasn't how it had been; it wasn't Sweetie's voice anymore. Now it was more akin to that demonic cackling she'd heard earlier. Rarity watched in horror as the talking corpse morphed into something completely different. It wasn't Sweetie anymore. It wasn't even trying to be Sweetie anymore. The creature before her was massive. It stood on two legs, and had a face that, shall we say, not even a mother could love. Its skin was peeling in all different directions, leaving holes revealing the muscles underneath. What was even more terrible was that it seemed to have a truly garish fashion sense. It wore a green-and-red striped shirt of sorts, torn-up khakis, soot-covered dress shoes, and a large, brown fedora. Its right paw had four long claws hanging from its fingers. It was almost like the claws had been tacked on with some kind of glove. Then it returned to its maniacal, demonic cackling. "Wh-what a-are y-y-you?" was all Rarity could manage to say. The monster didn't reply. Instead, it brought the claws up to its midsection and drug them across. Rarity could barely keep from puking at the sight of what the claws revealed. Thick green slime began pouring from the creature's gut, and worse yet, maggots began falling out from it as well. The monster returned to its cackling. The demonic laughter cut through the air of the now shadow-laden boutique like a knife through butter. It was moving towards her now. Rarity could only stare, petrified with fear, as the creature approached ever closer. Luna barely had time to regain her senses after she left Scootaloo's little nightmare, assuming it could even be called a nightmare. Really? Scootaloo was afraid of chickens that looked like her? Strange little filly that one. Returning to her Hall of Dreams, Luna felt a wave of fear echoing out through it. She followed it, expecting that somepony was having a very bad dream indeed, for such a strong feeling of fear and terror to wash over the dreamscape. Perhaps it was a filly dreaming of clowns, or a parent dreaming of losing their foal, or- "Well this is unexpected," Luna said as her senses fixed onto the source of the fear. It was one of the Element Bearers' dreams that the fear was coming from. Stranger yet, it was coming from Rarity's dream. Something felt off as she walked through the portal into the young fashion mare's nightmare. When she emerged, she saw something...incomprehensibly scary. Rarity was slowly shuffling backwards, away from...something. Some kind of creature was haunting her. Luna could feel the power radiating from it as it marched towards Rarity. This was not right. Luna was the only one who was supposed to be able to traverse the dreamscape, and yet this creature was not a nightmare born of Rarity's subconscious, but rather an entirely independent entity. Maybe it was a piece of the Tantabus that had managed to avoid destruction? That was the only logical explanation. Luna galloped towards Rarity, taking a place in front of her to shield the young mare from the monster infesting her dream. "HALT, FOUL CREATURE!" Luna shouted in her Royal Canterlot voice, hoping to intimidate the monster into leaving just by her presence. 'WE ARE PRINCESS LUNA, AND WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS TERRORIZING OF OUR FRIEND!" Luna was fairly confident that would do the trick. It had worked on the nightmarish beings from the dreams of the other Element Bearers, so why wouldn't it this time? The monster continued its advance. It barely even slowed down for Luna to shout at it the first time. An low, unnerving laugh echoed from the monster. "WE SAID," Luna restated, "HALT! YOU SHALL NOT TERRORIZE OUR FRIEND ANY LONGER, MONSTER!" "Watch this," the creature responded. It raised a long, clawed paw up , and sliced off two fingers from its other paw. Thick black sludge began sloshing out of the stumps, and Luna found it hard to keep her composure. The fingers then simply...regrew. Like corn stalks after the winter. Both mares were completely immobile at the sight of the monster's blatant disregard for Luna's commands. There was no doubt in Luna's mind that this creature had been a part of the Tantabus. Only that being had been able to defy her commands, so it was only natural that a creature born from it would have the same capability. Before she could give it much more thought though, the monster lunged at them. Its huge claws connected with Luna's face, leaving a sizeable set of cuts along her snout. While she was disoriented, Luna saw the monster then bring its claws around to attack Rarity. Just before the claws connected, Rarity screamed for a split second, and then... Nothing... The dream had ended. She was back in her Hall of Dreams. Somehow though, Luna had a feeling that she hadn't seen the end of this...demon.
Chapter 1: Murphy's LawStarlight had spent the last three hours readying the casting room for a new spell. It wasn't the fact she was doing a new spell that concerned Twilight, but rather how long she'd been preparing the casting room. What kind of spell is she going to cast that she needs so much time to prepare? Twilight wondered as she waited for her student to exit the room and invite her in to observe. Suddenly the casting room door swung open, and Twilight was greeted by Starlight, a semi-exhausted look in her face. "Okay," Starlight said, still panting a bit, "I think the casting room's ready." She ushered Twilight in with haste, and shut the doors rather loudly. "Alright Starlight," Twilight asked, "what exactly is this spell you've 'made'?" "It's a bit hard to explain," Starlight responded, a look of worry spreading across her face. "But to sum it up, it's essentially supposed to bring in one or more great beings from either the past, or another dimension." Twilight's eyes opened wide at Starlight's response. "A spell that summons a being from the past, or another realm?" Twilight said, dumbfounded by the idea. "Starlight, if this works, it could be the biggest discovery in the history of Equestrian magic!" Gleeful grins spread across both of their faces. While Twilight was excited by the prospect of her student making such an incredible leap in magical advancement, Starlight was just happy that Twilight wasn't mad at her for trying such a thing. The two mares walked towards the center of the casting room, the large, marble-lined circle in the center rife with fresh markings. These were presumably part of the script that Starlight had needed to create to perform the spell. They were written in a mixture of Ancient Equestrian, Draconian, and Griffin scripts, each one both distinct and indistinguishable from the rest of the script. Starlight moved to the edge of the circle. Her horn began flaring with magic as she read out the text around the circle. Each individual word lighting up as she enunciated their syllables. "O magnum esse, audite me; תקשיב לרצוני ותבוא מהעולם שלך; Я, Starlight Glimmer, вызывать вы- слушать и подчиняться! Veni ל меня!" Camp Crystal Lake, Cunningham County, New Jersey Cassie held her breath as the masked killer walked around the cabin. Did he know where she was? No, not a he- there was no way that...thing was human, in any sense of the word. What it had done to her friends...to Kenny...no human should be able to do those kinds of things. Not even strongmen. Her thoughts were cut short when she saw it looking at her through the peephole in the wardrobe. The black and lifeless holes it presumably had in place of eyes had been combing the whole area. It was looking for something. No, not something... it was looking for her and nothing else. Her breathing became more frantic as it approached. Its heavy footsteps echoed in the wooden cabin. It bent over. Cassie realized that the thing was now staring right back at her through the peephole. It knew. It knew she was in there. She began to pant harder than she had the whole night. Maybe if she was lucky it would move on and try to find one of the others. Wait...the body it had dragged in with it...Jacob. If Jacob was dead...so was everyone else. Her friends were gone. Her brother was gone. Her boyfriend was gone. She was the only one left. She had been preparing for such an event. It didn't make it any easier though. She thought of her friends, her brother, and Kenny. All of them had been having a great time that day. Until nightfall came. It had started with a scream that ripped through the forest and the camp. All of Cunningham County probably heard it. She had been the one to find Anna's body after it happened. She had been completely mangled. Her body was in three parts, with blood and entrails flowing everywhere around them. She tried not to think about it. The more she tried though, the more the memories of what she'd seen kept coming back to her. Kenny was the second to go. He was a great guy in all actuality. He certainly didn't deserve to have his body impaled on the column of a bird bath. She finally managed to force the thoughts out of her mind. She looked out of the peephole again. It was gone. Well it wasn't looking back at her through the peephole at least. Just when she was starting to feel safe...it came back. It had an ax this time. She could see the hockey-mask wearing thing raise the ax over its head and bring it down in one swift motion. The ax's impact shook the whole wardrobe. She looked up where it had hit above her head. It was stuck. The ax was stuck in the wardrobe. Right as she was about to let out a sad chuckle, the creature's hand shot out and ripped her from the wooden wardrobe. Splinters and chunks of wood flew as it threw Cassie to the ground. She started to scream. She started to beg. She started to plead. Then she realized it was no use. This thing...this monster...it was going to kill her here. She cried- she wasn't ready to die yet. She was only twenty-one! She couldn't die yet! She wasn't supposed to! The creature looked at her through the cold, unfeeling, lifeless blackness of the hockey mask. Its gaze was as stony and heartless as it was terrifying. Its arm moved towards its side. It pulled a large machete from the hip of its pants. The machete was stained with the blood of her friends. The blood of her brother. The blood of her boyfriend. All of them had, in some way, ended up meeting the monster's machete. Then a terrifying realization shocked Cassie's mind: this was no creature. It was no monster either. The thing that had killed her friends, her brother, her boyfriend, and was about to kill her... It was nothing less than a demon. The machete raised up. Then it came back down. It was an inch away from her face when something that could only be described as being miraculous happened. There was a flash of blue light from the demon, and then... Nothing. It was gone. 1428 Elm Street, Potsdam, New York "Here we are, Nancy! Back together at last- just like old times!" Freddy's voice echoed throughout the house. Well the burning remains of the house anyway. Nancy could hardly hold herself together long enough to even think of a response. "Go to Hell, Krueger!" was the only thing that came out of her mouth. It wasn't quite what she'd planned to say, but it was close enough. At least she wasn't going to die like a coward. Through the flames raging in the basement, Nancy could just barely make out the silhouette of her killer. Freddy Krueger. She'd already tried the trick from the first time she'd beaten Freddy, and it hadn't worked. You can't just say you take back the power you gave to Freddy Krueger- it doesn't work like that. He feeds off fear, and off belief. Krueger began advancing towards her through the flames. It was impossible to stop him now that he had so much fear to feed off of. Nancy had let herself be scared by Freddy, and now that he had a grip on her mind, there was nothing she could do or say to rip her out of her fear. She was hopeless. The only things that ran through her mind were the memories of her husband and her little boy. Krueger had tortured them both for months leading up to their deaths. Her son hadn't gotten to dream about the dinosaurs he always did when he died. Krueger had taken that from him. The fear in her body started to get overtaken by another emotion. Rage. She picked a busted pipe up off of the floor, and charged at her tormentor with it. She bashed him in every spot she could think of, but there was practically no effect. Krueger barely flinched with each hit. He grunted once or twice, but that was all the response she could get out of him. She felt the knives go through her chest and pierce her heart. She felt the blood streaming down her front onto Krueger's disgusting hand and forearm. "That wasn't very nice, Nancy," Freddy said, his voice deep and terrifying. "Now say sorry, young lady!" "F...fuck...you...Krueger..." Before he could respond, Freddy's body began to erupt in bright blue spots. He felt his flesh parting as Nancy's life faded away. For the first time, he was scared. Frederick Charles Krueger, the notorious child murderer, the Elm Street Killer, the Dream Killer, was scared. The idea dawned on him that his presence- his existence- was connected to Nancy's life. "Ha...ha....h.....a......" Nancy's life ended just after she got to see and hear Freddy screaming his head off as his body finally faded into the blue lights coming from the holes in his skin. At least she wasn't going to die cold. Casting Room, Princess Twilight's Castle, Ponyville "Well Starlight," Twilight said, trying to cheer Starlight up, "at least you didn't destroy anything."
Chapter 2: What Hell Hath Wrought (Jason)Jason found himself tumbling into a lake. Much to his dismay, it was not Crystal Lake. How did he know? Crystal Lake has a certain...smell to it. It's like a mixture of freshly cut grass, sea water, and blood. It was a smell he had enjoyed for many years living so close to the great body of water. His body went limp, and he felt the water pass over him as he sank to the bottom. When he did finally hit the bottom, a voice called to him. It was a voice he had loved for all his years; a sweet, caring voice that only he could hear. The voice of his mother, Pamela. Get up, Jason. You have work to do. Without any hesitation, he rose to his feet. Even at the bottom of this lake, Jason moved like he was on dry land. Well, not completely. His boots did stick to the mucky sand, and it felt like it had when his foot had gotten stuck in the mud that one day at camp. He liked that day. It had been a fun day. It was before the nasty counselors came around and ruined everything. As much as I love seeing you happy, Jason, now is not the time to reminisce. His mother's voice was just as sweet and kind as it had been earlier. It was a little more stern, but it wasn't malicious in any way. His mother's voice never was malicious- she was always kind to him, even when he had done a bad thing like letting one of the nasty counselors get away on accident. Jason loved his mother's voice, it was smooth and calm- just like Crystal Lake. Before he knew it, Jason was out of the water. The remaining wetness slowly dripped off of his body and his machete onto the muddy earth surrounding the lake. Jason took in a deep breath before he felt a nagging feeling creeping up on him. It felt like the world was too...vivid- too colorful. He certainly wasn't at Crystal Lake anymore. Off to his left, he spied what looked like a barn. A barn like the one at Crystal Lake, but...red. Not the nice blood red that Jason liked, but instead a bright, vibrant red- like the ones he'd seen in books before the nasty counselors came. Go Jason. Go there, and see what you can see. With haste, Jason started marching towards the barn. It hadn't been long into the night when Applejack saw somepony coming up towards the orchard. Wait a minute, she thought to herself as she took a closer look at the approaching figure, that ain't no pony, that's a...what is that? The figure was tall, and looked like it was moving on just its back legs. It was tall, even from this distance, and had a...machete...in one paw. It appeared to have seen her, and it was moving faster now. Well, faster than it had been anyway. Applejack ducked into the house and locked the door. Before any of her family members had a chance to say anything, she held a hoof up to her mouth and made a motion towards the light switch, which was right next to Big Mac. Her brother flipped the switch, and the whole house went dark. They'd made the decision to have a single switch control the lights in case of something like this. Well obviously not exactly like this, but the idea of a murderer coming out of the fields or the forest had been one of Granny Smith's oldest fears. She'd been the one who insisted that the lights all be on the same circuit, and nopony had really thought to question her. She was Granny Smith Apple, after all- in the Apple family, her word is law. No exceptions. They all hunkered down in the basement after the lights were shut off. None of them dared to make even the smallest sound or whimper. Until they heard the door being broken down. Get them, Jason. His mother's voice echoed in Jason's head, egging him on. His machete wasn't the best tool for breaking down a door, but in lieu of an ax (stupid wardrobe) it was the next best thing he had to do the job. Each crack of his blade against the wooden door sent waves of splinters from the point of impact. Jason was fairly certain one had at least partially grazed his uncovered wrist. Finally, he felt the fire of the rage in his belly light up, and, in a moment of pure, unbridled fury and strength, simply broke down the door with his body. He was still standing, though he was a little dizzy from the experience of hitting his head against a large piece of wood and glass. He did manage to snap himself out of it, and when he failed to see the creature that he'd spotted from the path, he heard his mother's voice again. Find them, Jason. Make them suffer. He nodded his head and started searching the whole house, tipping over furniture, checking behind shelves, and even going as far as to break down a structurally insignificant wall. That wall turned out to lead to the kitchen, but there was no time to make any kind of snack. He would need ingredients anyway, and ingredients required bodies. Fresh bodies. He turned, and saw a set of stairs leading up. The only two-story building he'd seen before was Packanack Lodge back at Camp Crystal Lake. He walked up the flight of steps, his heavy boots causing the old boards to creak and groan with every step he took. Before he was halfway up the steps, though, he heard something. "Do ya think we can make a run for it?" It was faint, but he clearly heard someone talking about escaping. Escaping would not do. Not at all. As quietly as he could, Jason found a spot behind the large sofa he'd thrown over and hid. When he heard a trap door open all quiet-like, he waited some more. And when he heard the clip-clop of hooves on the wood, he waited just a bit more. When one of the sets of hooves came to a distance he thought was close enough, he pounced. He ended up grabbing what he assumed was a female one by its voice. It was also clearly very old, and...green? No, his mind wasn't playing tricks on him: this horse-like creature was, in fact, a pastel green. What fresh Hell...? Jason! Stop playing around! Kill her! She doesn't deserve to live! No-one who builds their house so close to our lake deserves to live! Jason pressed his machete against the old horse's throat, and he was about to drag it across when he heard another voice. It was a masculine voice- deep and sturdy, and with a thick country accent. "Let'er go!" the voice said, "Granny ain't dun nothin' ta nopony!" He's lying Jason! Just look at her! She has to have done something- you can see it in her eyes! Kill her! In one swift motion, Jason brought the old horse's back down on his knee, snapping her spine with a sickening crack. Then, he lifted the horse up by its neck, and grabbed its mouth and the back of its head. In one more motion, he turned the head one-hundred and eighty degrees, accompanied by another crack. Don't stop, Jason! Kill them all! He picked his machete off of the floor, and used his foot to push the overturned sofa out of his way. He could've just stepped over it, but he liked putting some restrictions on himself. It made the punishing more...interesting. The masculine one was a red horse with some kind of old-fashioned yoke around his neck. There were two other ones behind him. One was significantly smaller than the other, clearly indicating youth. Then again, it could just be some kind of dwarfism among these creatures, it wasn't like Jason was an expert on these things. "Y'all two git outta here," the red one said angrily, "Ah'll take care o' this here murderer." Murderer. Was Jason a murderer? He certainly didn't think so, and neither did his mother. It wasn't murder to defend your home from no-good, defiling, disrespectful idiots, was it? No. No it wasn't. Jason's time with his mother had taught him that much: it wasn't murder to defend your home. The lake he'd found himself in wasn't Crystal Lake, but it was a lake presumably parallel to it. Assuming that this was an alternate universe that has opposites for each constant back home, and not a completely separate dimension, of course. The red horse charged at Jason while the other two ran away. He felt the horse ram into his gut with the force of one-hundred trains at once. Not that it phased him, really; he hardly even flinched. He grabbed the horse by the back of its neck and drug it out of the house. He'd seen a water pump nearby, and he was feeling like having a drink. Pulling the red horse over to it, Jason put the creature's head into the space between the actual pump mechanism and the spout's pipe. He kept the horse's head in place with his left hand, while his right arm went to town pumping water. Well, water and blood. A few hard pumps later, and Jason found himself with a nice, well-crushed horse's head, complete with dislodged brain matter, blood, and bits of skull all mangled up. He was tempted to Stay and admire his work a little, but his mother reminded him why they had come here in the first place. That's my Jason. That's my special, special boy. Now, follow the others! Catch them! Hunt them down and make them pay! For the first time in many years, Jason found his voice. It was deep, almost too deep for normal human speech, and distorted just a small bit. But then again, he was special. He was his mother's special boy. "Yes, Mother..." Author's Note WHAT?!? YOU MADE JASON TALK?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?! THAT'S NON-CANONICAL! YOU'RE BREAKING THE LORE! YOU'RE- My Story. My Rules. Deal. With. It.
Chapter 3: A New Nightmare (Freddy)Well, Freddy thought to himself, this certainly wasn't what I was expecting. Not at all. Freddy had been sitting in a seemingly endless blackness for what felt like forever. All things considered, he had been expecting a bunch of burning pits, maybe some lava, or even a woman with a Venus fly-trap for a head. He certainly hadn't been anticipating complete inky nothingness. "Alright," he called into the darkness, "you can stop with this shit now! I've seen scarier shit in the nightmares of six year-olds, Old Scratch!" In truth, Freddy was a little freaked out by the infinite nothingness that surrounded him. Perhaps ironically for a man who kills people in their dreams, Freddy had always been a bit scared by intense darkness. Given who the Hell he was, it was more than a little disconcerting when he saw a set of lights appearing on the horizon. They looked familiar in a way... "Dream Portals..." Freddy said under his breath. At this point he didn't actually care if they were Dream Portals or not, he was just excited that there was something new to look at. You know, instead of varying shades of black. Using his arms and legs, Freddy made swimming motions towards the lights. Before he reached them though, he saw a large blue horse with a horn and wings walk out of one of them. He knew what they were: a fellow Dreamweaver. From the horse's demeanor, they had either just successfully turned a good dream into a nightmare, or spared someone from the horrors of a nightmare, probably while giving them some bullshit mini-speech about their life choices. Regardless of which it was, he had his way out. After the horse-thing had moved on to another dream, Freddy continued his ethereal 'swim' to the portals. He looked all around when he finally reached them, and chuckled. So many new nightmares to make, so little time... Rarity had been having a fairly nice dream so far. She knew it was a dream because she was able to think the materials she could only hope of one day using into existence. Materials like Changeling Silk, Snow Fox Fur, and Molted Dragon Scales. It was all going so wonderfully, this little imaginary version of the Carousel Boutique. Then she heard something she hadn't really been anticipating: the door opened. She turned, and started her usual greeting, but she was cut off by some kind of cackling. It was deep, hoarse, and almost demonic in nature. If she didn't know better, Rarity would've thought that her dream was being invaded by some otherworldly being. No, she thought to herself, it's probably just the dream world doing the usual thing of messing with me. And besides, Princess Luna is the only being who can enter dreams, so what have I to worry about? Then things started to...change. The materials she'd been working on were fading away as she tried to continue working with them. When they returned, they were some kind of blue, rubber-like substance. The cackling came back now, more malicious than it was before. Her nerves were starting to get to her at this point. What on Earth could be making that dreadful laughing? Suddenly she heard a scream from upstairs. Rarity ran up the steps, but just before she reached the top, she was greeted with one of the most disturbing sights she thought she would ever see. Sweetie Belle was standing there, but she looked...wrong. Rarity wasn't quite sure how to describe it, but there was something about Sweetie that just looked off. Her mane and tail were flat, not their usual fluffiness, and her coat looked like a dull steel instead of bright cream. Rarity was starting to hyperventilate at this point, the sense of dread she got from looking at this dream version of Sweetie was crawling all along her back like an insect, and she swore that the boutique was changing, too. Rarity felt her heart skip a beat when this dream Sweetie- no, this nightmare Sweetie- opened its eyes. At first, they looked normal, but then the pupils started to get larger and larger, until the whole of the eyes were nothing but blackness. As Rarity started to back away, she heard the nightmare Sweetie call out to her. "Sis no!" the nightmare Sweetie said, almost sounding scared. "Don't go! Don't leave me here! Please!" Rarity felt like her heart was going to explode out of her chest as the fake Sweetie continued to talk. There was no 'almost' about the fear in its voice anymore- this creature was genuinely scared about something. Rarity watched, horrified, as a darkness came up behind the dream Sweetie, and a large, clawed paw came down and snatched her up. There was screaming, and then silence. Despite her best efforts, Rarity's curiosity got the better of her, and she went the rest of the way up the stairs. She could hardly breathe when she saw the scene laid out before her. There was blood, more than there should have been in a pony's body, almost completely coating the walls and floor in thick redness. In the middle, barely five feet from her, was the body of the dream Sweetie. It was completely dismembered; its guts were spilling out from four large cuts on its belly; its head was twisted the completely wrong way; its legs were either broken in ways that shouldn't even be possible, or torn off and left just out of the poor creature's reach. Its mane and tail had also been completely removed, with blood pouring from the now skinless areas of its head and rear. Rarity felt like she was going to puke. Steeling herself for whatever this nightmare had in store, Rarity slowly trotted over to the corpse. When she was barely a foot from it, Rarity could scarcely believe her eyes. The fake Sweetie's head turned back round. Its dead, empty eyes looking back at her as blood poured from them. Then it spoke. "Why?" it asked, the blood now pouring in thin, steady streams like tears instead of regular blood. "Why didn't you help me? Why didn't you save me? Why?" Rarity was speechless. Even more terrifying than the nightmarish version of her little sister in front of her was its voice. It wasn't how it had been; it wasn't Sweetie's voice anymore. Now it was more akin to that demonic cackling she'd heard earlier. Rarity watched in horror as the talking corpse morphed into something completely different. It wasn't Sweetie anymore. It wasn't even trying to be Sweetie anymore. The creature before her was massive. It stood on two legs, and had a face that, shall we say, not even a mother could love. Its skin was peeling in all different directions, leaving holes revealing the muscles underneath. What was even more terrible was that it seemed to have a truly garish fashion sense. It wore a green-and-red striped shirt of sorts, torn-up khakis, soot-covered dress shoes, and a large, brown fedora. Its right paw had four long claws hanging from its fingers. It was almost like the claws had been tacked on with some kind of glove. Then it returned to its maniacal, demonic cackling. "Wh-what a-are y-y-you?" was all Rarity could manage to say. The monster didn't reply. Instead, it brought the claws up to its midsection and drug them across. Rarity could barely keep from puking at the sight of what the claws revealed. Thick green slime began pouring from the creature's gut, and worse yet, maggots began falling out from it as well. The monster returned to its cackling. The demonic laughter cut through the air of the now shadow-laden boutique like a knife through butter. It was moving towards her now. Rarity could only stare, petrified with fear, as the creature approached ever closer. Luna barely had time to regain her senses after she left Scootaloo's little nightmare, assuming it could even be called a nightmare. Really? Scootaloo was afraid of chickens that looked like her? Strange little filly that one. Returning to her Hall of Dreams, Luna felt a wave of fear echoing out through it. She followed it, expecting that somepony was having a very bad dream indeed, for such a strong feeling of fear and terror to wash over the dreamscape. Perhaps it was a filly dreaming of clowns, or a parent dreaming of losing their foal, or- "Well this is unexpected," Luna said as her senses fixed onto the source of the fear. It was one of the Element Bearers' dreams that the fear was coming from. Stranger yet, it was coming from Rarity's dream. Something felt off as she walked through the portal into the young fashion mare's nightmare. When she emerged, she saw something...incomprehensibly scary. Rarity was slowly shuffling backwards, away from...something. Some kind of creature was haunting her. Luna could feel the power radiating from it as it marched towards Rarity. This was not right. Luna was the only one who was supposed to be able to traverse the dreamscape, and yet this creature was not a nightmare born of Rarity's subconscious, but rather an entirely independent entity. Maybe it was a piece of the Tantabus that had managed to avoid destruction? That was the only logical explanation. Luna galloped towards Rarity, taking a place in front of her to shield the young mare from the monster infesting her dream. "HALT, FOUL CREATURE!" Luna shouted in her Royal Canterlot voice, hoping to intimidate the monster into leaving just by her presence. 'WE ARE PRINCESS LUNA, AND WE WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS TERRORIZING OF OUR FRIEND!" Luna was fairly confident that would do the trick. It had worked on the nightmarish beings from the dreams of the other Element Bearers, so why wouldn't it this time? The monster continued its advance. It barely even slowed down for Luna to shout at it the first time. An low, unnerving laugh echoed from the monster. "WE SAID," Luna restated, "HALT! YOU SHALL NOT TERRORIZE OUR FRIEND ANY LONGER, MONSTER!" "Watch this," the creature responded. It raised a long, clawed paw up , and sliced off two fingers from its other paw. Thick black sludge began sloshing out of the stumps, and Luna found it hard to keep her composure. The fingers then simply...regrew. Like corn stalks after the winter. Both mares were completely immobile at the sight of the monster's blatant disregard for Luna's commands. There was no doubt in Luna's mind that this creature had been a part of the Tantabus. Only that being had been able to defy her commands, so it was only natural that a creature born from it would have the same capability. Before she could give it much more thought though, the monster lunged at them. Its huge claws connected with Luna's face, leaving a sizeable set of cuts along her snout. While she was disoriented, Luna saw the monster then bring its claws around to attack Rarity. Just before the claws connected, Rarity screamed for a split second, and then... Nothing... The dream had ended. She was back in her Hall of Dreams. Somehow though, Luna had a feeling that she hadn't seen the end of this...demon.
