Spike And Nightmare Moon, A Trip Around Equestria

Chapters

A Friend Of Nightmares
Morning of Nightmares
A Painter of Nightmares

A Friend Of Nightmares

The Everfree Forest, a dark and terrifying place. Inhabited by terrible monsters and plants, full of mysteries and secrets. One of said secrets being the very ruins of the old castle of the two princesses. A place devastated by the fight that took place more than a thousand years ago. To this day, the very magic from such battle still haunted the place. No creature nor plant would dare to stay inside for long, in fear of what long ago happened in there.

Or at least that would be the case, were it not for a little dragon with a growing headache standing inside of the castle's entrance.

"Let me see if I understand correctly," mocked the voice inside Spike's head, "You decided to seek your destiny in the forsaken Badlands. And you decided that the only way to do this course of action was to go through the dangerous forest, which might I add, is filled with dangerous monsters?"

"Yes," Spike sighed, "Now if you're done, I want to get going before Twilight finds me!” Inside his head he started to make a checklist of everything that could go wrong. ”Knowing her, she'll have a breakdown and send a whole platoon of Royal Guards to find me! And when she finds out about you she is going to take me to the lab in the basement and open my head with…”

While Spike had his own mental breakdown, Nightmare Moon could only observe with amusement the rapidly increasing checklist that was being formed inside his mind. Literally being formed. The piece of parchment continued to expand before her. Before she could examine it properly, though, another thing caught her attention. His mind felt hotter than before.

She did not know the how or why, what she could feel, was everything getting dangerously hot. Trying to look through Spike’s eyes, she only saw deformed images. Through his others senses she felt that he was at the verge of a panic attack— Drop that, he was in the middle of a panic attack. When the checklist got bigger than one of the castle’s pillars she decided to put an end to it.

“Calm down!” She said in what would have been the Royal Voice had she been able to use that kind of magic, “Breathe!”

The sudden headache that filled Spike’s head derailed his current train of thought making him flinch. Nightmare Moon on the other hoof, only felt relief as everything went back to normal.

“W-what just happened?” Spike shook his head, trying to recover from the sudden headache, ”Ugh, was that really necessary?”

“Are you done complaining?” She said nonchalantly.

Spike only shrugged the commentary, before continuing his path towards the forest.sr

“Where do you think you going?” Although her voice was calm, her tone would chilled Spike’s spine had he not been to tired for this.

“I’m going away so that Twilight won’t find us.” He simply answered. “I doubt any of us would want that.”

"Of course not!" she shouted inside his head. "But we cannot just go yet! Do you not know the dangers that lurks in this forest? I would much rather be captured than become some manticore’s snack. Heavens, it is a miracle that you were not eaten alive by beasts in the way here!" Nightmare Moon said, her metaphorical eyes wide with disbelief.

"Well..." Spike rubbed the back of his head trying to think of an excuse, but nothing came up. He really had been terribly irresponsible by walking into middle of the Everfree at night. "It’s not like we can just stay here all night! As soon as she finds my letter she'll panic and start searching for me, this is probably the third place she'll be looking."

"But we also cannot throw ourselves into danger just so you can avoid her!"

Both of them were quiet for a moment, trying to think of what do next. Nightmare Moon was the first to break the silence.

"Tell me, when does Twilight Sparkle wake up?" She said trying to think of some sort of plan.

"Hmm? Well, today is Friday, she would normally wake up around 7 AM to organize the library.” He tapped his chin for a second before continuing. “Since Rarity had to cancel their weekly tea party, she already organized it yesterday. So, she will have some free time to sleep in until 9 AM and would have expected me to make her breakfast."

"Ponies and their silly tea parties," Nightmare Moon grumbled a little, "But this is perfect! I hate to say this, but we need to wait until the sun raises since the forest is safer at day rather than night. Then we shall have enough time to find another place to hide before she wakes up and notices that you're not there."

"But if we just leave now, we would be hours ahead of her. With any luck we'd be halfway to the Badlands by the end of the day." He threw his arms in the direction he wanted to go and tried to look at the source of the voice out of habit before remembering that he was, technically, alone.

"Tell me again, why would you want to go to such a horrid place? Isn't the name enough of what you shall find there?"

"Well," Spike sat at the floor, looking down at it, "Everypony is always going on adventures and saving the world. Twilight even has her own student now, Rarity has her boutiques. Even Rainbow became a Wonderbolt." he sighed "But I'm still the same assistant I was when you appeared, never going on adventures. So I-"

"Decided to go and find your own destiny?" She said in a surprisingly sympathetic tone.

"Well, uhm, yes." He picked himself up off the floor, a little startled by her sudden change in tone.

"Then why are you going to the Badlands of all places?"

"It is where most dragons live an—"

"Exactly!" She shouted, her usual snark voice back "Most dragons live there, but do tell me, are you like most dragons?"

"What, of course I am a dragon!" He posed, trying to show his "muscles" while breathing a little of fire.

"Yes, but are you like most dragons?" If she could she would have been staring directly into his eyes.

"What do you mean?" Even without seeing her, Spike could feel the metaphorical pressure.

"I may lack a thousand years of knowledge, but I do believe that dragons haven't changed that much since them, and you are completely unlike any dragon I've ever met. Tell me, where were you born?"

"Why do you want to know?" He said with something between offense and caution in his voice.

"I want to know, because if you were born in a pony city, and raised by ponies, then there is no reason for your destiny to be with other dragons." She said very slowly, punctuating each word for emphasys.

"I..." The more he thought about it, the more her reasoning made sense, but there was a thing that still bothered him, "Even if you're right, why should I belive you? For all I know you are trying to gather enough magic to get out and cause mayhem again!"

"Don't you talk to me like that, little dragon," she said in the Royal Voice, "You know who you're talking to!"

"I'm talking with the voice inside my head." He retorted with an huff, trying to overcome the headache with his determination. "Now if you excuse me, I need to get going." Spike said picking his bag off the ground.

He barely took a step before getting interrupted. "No. Wait!" Nightmare Moon shouted, loud enough to give Spike a headache.

"Ouch! That hurt, don't do it again! And unless you have a good reason for staying, we're off to the Badlands." He said, rubbing his temples.

Nightmare Moon fell quiet for a moment, and Spike took it as a mute agreement and started walking again.

"I miss them," he stopped on his tracks as she spoke, "I... I miss my little ponies, their cities and civilization in general. After a thousand years in the moon and some more here, I don't want to go even further from them." She said in a much quieter voice.

Spike stood there for some seconds, on how tiny she suddenly felt to him, like she was trying to hide in some corner of his own head.

"Fine we're staying," Spike said finally, barely restraining a sigh. "But you owe me one for this alright?"

Although she didn't respond, Spike could feel her happiness in hearing that and he smiled a little because of it.

He waited for her silent cheering to die out a little before saying anything.

"But I still don't want to stay in Ponyville, because we don't want Twilight finding out about you."

"Oh, believe me, neither do I." She said with a roll of eyes. "But still, we should wait for the sun before finding ourselves some road to take. Tell me, where is the nearest major city?" She asked.

"Well, I'm not sure, but if we take the train we should be able to go to almost any place, I think the first train to Canterlot should arrive at 8 AM."

"Sounds like a plan, but what is a 'train'?" She asked confused. “I have never heard of such thing before.”

"You never heard of it? Oh, right, they didn't have those a thousand years ago." He said, rubbing his chin with a claw. "A train is... like a giant... metal snake? Ponies go into it and it has tracks tha-"

"What? Why would anypony want to be devoured by a snake?" She all but screamed inside his head, bringing the headache back.

"Ouch, I told you to not do that again! And it's not a real snake, it just looks like it and... You'll see. First we need to decide what to do now."

"We should get some sleep of course. I can tell that you had little sleep today."

As if to confirm her a yawn escaped Spike.

"I guess you're right," he said as he put his bag on the floor before laying on it.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting some sleep, like you said."

"No no no, I'm not sleeping here in a room full of holes just to become a snack to some creature nearby. No, we are going to find a proper bedroom first."

"For what? The castle is one big ruin, I've seen the old bedroom of the princess and it is in shreds, sleeping here or there wouldn't make a difference."

"Not the whole castle, the eastern section is still mostly intact."

"If you say so." Spike rolled his eyes, but still got up and slowly dragged his bag with him as he once again made his way into the inwards of the castle.

Spike walked inside the castle and with directions given by Nightmare Moon, shortly arrived on the eastern section. As she said, it was still in good condition, the surface of some walls still broke with the slightest of touch but that was to be expected of such an old building. But other than that, and some broken windows, it was in much better shape than the rest, although to Spike the place seemed a little less majestic than the rest of the castle.

"What is this place?" He said looking around after having reached a long corridor with doorless door-frames that lead to a multitude of bedrooms.

"This section was used as the staff living quarters, when they were not working or spending time somewhere else, they rested here."

"Oh, so that is why you did not destroy it?" His eyes light up as he came up with the realization.. "You didn't want to hurt the people who lived here."

Nightmare Moon didn't respond for a moment, but before he could question her again, she spoke.

"There, that room should do it." Although Spike couldn't see where she was "pointing" at, he knew exactly which door she was talking about for some reason.

He thought of pointing out that she ignored his question, but decided to let it go with a shrug.

Walking inside the room he saw a surprisingly well conserved nightstand and a bed attached to the wall. The bed was the typical color of aged white but other than that it didn’t seem to be a thousand years ago. Above of the nightstand was a window that still had glass in it and at the other side of the room was a wardrobe embedded to the wall.

Spike cleaned a little of the dust on the nightstand before putting his bag on top. A shame he didn't thought of doing the same with the bed before throwing himself into it and immediately regretting doing so as a cloud of dust filled the room.

After opening the window, some well deserved coughs and some snarky comments from his new friend, Spike cleaned the room a little and gently laid in the bed. He was about to close his eyes when the little voice he had forgotten about spoke.

"Good night."

"Good night, I guess... Wait, if I sleep, what will happen to you? You better not try to control my body and make me into a sleep-walker!"

"Even if I could do that, where would I go? The night is still dangerous."

"I guess you're right," he said still with a little suspicion in his voice, "well, if you can, try to wake me when the sun rises, good night" he said as he slowly closed his eyes for dramatic effect.

Sleep came to him faster than Nightmare Moon expected and soon she was alone in the darkness. She wasn't really bothered by how dark it was or how quiet, what bothered her was that it wasn't as empty as she expected it to be. Even though she could feel through Spike senses, now a little "blurred" since he was asleep, she also could somewhat feel herself inside his head. As she suspected, when he fell asleep she stayed awake, and without nothing to do she focused on figuring out her limitations.

First she tried opening his eyelids, she knew she wouldn't be able to control his body but maybe she could do something tiny like this. After what felt like hours focusing on the dragon's eyes and no results she finally gave up, it seemed that she had even less control than she hoped for. Then, instead of focusing on him, she decided to focus on herself. After a little time of mental gymnastics she could feel her body again, it was a lot like a illusion, a dream perhaps, but it still was a little comforting.

Next she pictured a floor, a lot like the one in the castle, and soon she was standing on it. After that were the walls, the ceiling and some furniture, very much similar to her old room. It was all fake, but she liked it nonetheless. She sat at her newly created couch, relaxing and waiting, when she noticed something strange in the room, a object that she hadn't made. A door? she thought. Its frame was green while the door itself was made of purplish wood, it stood in the middle of the wall opposite to her couch. Without thinking she rose and walked to the door. After analysing it without noticing anything peculiar other than the fact that she hadn't made it, she opened it.

At the other side of the door was an enormous and dark forest. Before she could even gasp properly a scream coming directly ahead of her cut through the air. Instinctively she run ahead to see what was happening. Coming to the source of the sound, she saw Spike running scared from a blurry dark mass that chased him. She tried to focus on the mass, but no matter what it would stay blurry, like it wasn't really formed. That was when she realized that she was, in fact, inside Spike's dream. That door was like the bubbles that Luna used when traveling through the Dream Realm. For some seconds she just stood there, watching as Spike ran from the mass that never seemed to approach nor go away, but then she decided that it was enough.

Channeling the rest of the little magic she still held, she shot the darkness, destroying it completely. She took advantage of the momentum of her magic and directed the rest of it into reforming the dream. In front of Spike, she created a cave, one huge and so full of the most precious and colorful gems that it shined in the dark forest. Spike didn't wait a second before jumping inside of it and tasting the most delicious crystals he had ever seen, having forgotten about what had just happened.

"Dragons and their gems." Nightmare Moon thought to herself, enjoying the vision a little before realizing what she was doing. Suddenly she turned back to the door, her smile replaced with a frown. She passed through the door and slammed it closed. Of course she enjoyed what she did, she started thinking to herself, she had just made use of the power that only the princess of the night like herself could. It was to banish a nightmare, but who cared? She certainly didn't! She locked the door behind her with a key that she had just made with a little magic out of instinct and gone back to the couch. Making sure that her host was having a good night of sleep would only help her after all; least he have a panic attack while asleep. She thought as she sat on the couch like before and waited for the sun to rise.

Author's Note

Will Spike find out about Nightmare Moon's secret train-phobia? Will Nightmare Moon become a Tsundere? Will they be able to enter the giant metal snake OF NIGHTMARES?
I have no idea! Really! I need to start cranking up some ideas fast for the next chapter...
Wait, this a fan fic of an fan fic. Does this make it a ficception?

Big thanks to SShonix for approving this of fic and proof reading it, you're awsome!

Edited in 15/05/02019 - Changed some wording, fixed formating, and made some things less "to the face" if only a slightly; made it more torelable
Edited again in 16/05/2019 - "You know the editting was good when the author had to fix the previous editting note" - Me

Morning of Nightmares

Time is a strange concept, Nightmare Moon thought to herself as she sat on her couch. A thousand years of imprisonment seemed to last forever but at the same time it felt so distant from now, so small. The last years she spent on the forest felt longer than it sometimes. But longer than all that together, and shorter at the same time, was the time she had to wait for the sun to raise.

How ironic it was that she, the Empress of the Night,the Queen of the Darkness of all ponies, couldn't wait for the sun to raise and cast her night away, she thought to herself, well, not her night...

Before she could walk that thought all the way through, she started feeling something. A weird warmth and a weak sensation of having something pressing on her eyes. It didn't take long before she realized that it was not her eyes that were being troubled. Casting her own sensations aside, she instead focused on that of her host. It was a strange feeling having the sensations of some other pony —well, dragon—, especially due to the difference in anatomy, but it didn't take long for her to find the source of the disturbance. Even through the closed eyelids of the dragon she could 'see' that the room where they were in was brighter than before.

Focusing back on her 'body' in her little room she looked around. She had said that she would wake Spike up at the sunrise, but now that it was time, she had no idea on how to do so. Looking around the room, while seeking for a solution, she looked at the weird door purple and green that stood at the opposite site of the room. Of course! All she had to do was to enter Spike's dream and wake him there.

She rouse from her couch and walked to the door, already thinking of several ways to scar—wake someone up off their dream. She grabbed the handle in her magic and opened it. Or at least she tried to, but the handle wouldn't even move. She looked at the door for a second trying to figure out what was happening. She almost noticed that the colors of the door were somewhat faded, less saturated than before, but instead she had an idea. The key!. Of course, the key! She had locked the door with it the last time she walked through.

Summoning the ethereal key with her magic, she put it on the lock and tried to turn it, but the key refused to move. The Queen of the Night was rather annoyed by this stubborn door. Annoyance quickly turned into fury as she repeatedly tried to open the door to no success. It didn't take long until she started shouting at the door.

"OPEN UP ALREADY," Nightmare Moon all but barked at the door, "OR WE SHALL SHOW TO THEE WHAT SHALL HAPPEN TO THOSE WHO OPPOSE US!" When the door continued to not even flinch at her attempts to open it, she turned around and with all the grace of a princess like herself—that is, all the grace of a hungry manticore—she bucked the door. Instead of destroying the door, like she expected, her hooves hit what felt like stone, propelling her forward, into the sofa in the other side of the room.

Before she could cry out or complain due to the bone breaking pain in her hooves, something she didn't even know was possible to feel in this place, another voice spoke up.

"ARGHH! Whaat... My head..." Said a rather equally sleepy and confused dragon, "Why does it feel like I've been run over by a train?"

Nightmare Moon thought to respond, but was way more preoccupied with her own pain. Instead, she just kept rolling on the floor trying to hold back not-so-metaphorical tears of pain. Meanwhile Spike rubbed his temples trying to understand where he was. He was on what seemed to be a really old bed, in a really old room. Only when he saw his bag on top of an really old nightstand he remembered where he was and what he was doing. But more important, with who he was doing it.

"Nightmare Moon," he said trying to suppress his annoyance with a sigh, "What are you doing in there? I'm not sure why, but I'm pretty sure you are the one who gave me this headache."

"..." Nightmare Moon didn't try to respond, even if the tone of the dragon to the princess was reprehensible.

"Nightmare Moon?" He said with some surprise at the lack of response, but also with some... genuine worry? "Are you okay?"

His tone really got her off-guard, was that dragon... Worried about her well-being? Of all ponies?. The shock was so much that the pain seemed to fade a little. Just enough for her to respond.

"I'm here." Her voice much quieter than she had intended. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" The same worry still on his voice.

Nightmare Moon thought of assuring him of her well-being, but then she looked at herself. There she was, the Queen of the Night, rolling in the floor due to some imaginary pain, with a dragon, an old enemy nonetheless, feeling pity towards her. Towards Nightmare Moon! She rouse with all her mighty, all her will-power directed to not flinch due to her hooves still in pain.

"Do you doubt thy Queen? Yes! We are fine!" She shouted, proudly looking to ceiling of her room. "Nothing can hurt us"

"Ouch, don't scream! You know it give me a headache every time!" Spike rubbed his eyes trying to adapt to the sunlight. "Is it morning already?"

"Yes, your Queen believe so." She spoke looking at the ceiling while sitting at her couch, not because her hooves hurt, mind you, a queen like herself would never be so easily afflicted, but simply because she felt like it. "Now, let us get going, my little dragon"

Spike rubbed his nose bridge and murmured something about useless elements and queen my tail that even Nightmare Moon didn't hear, but she still felt insulted anyway. One should not murmur before a queen. He picked his bag and put it on the bed with him.

"What are you waiting for, dragon?" Her neck started to get sore from looking towards the ceiling and talking to the walls didn't seen really appropriated, so she created a small crystal ball that she put onto the small table in front of her couch and transferred some of Spike's sensations to it. Now, while she still could feel him if she wanted to, the ball displayed his vision and served as a speaker for what he spoke and heard. "Now, much better." She was pleased by her own ingenuity.

"I'm getting my breakfast first." He said while picking some gems off his bag. "And what's better?"

Nightmare Moon took a second to think before responding, should she tell him? For some reason she didn't want to. What harm would it do to do so? She couldn't think of any. Finally she decided to put that feeling aside and just tell him.

"I built myself a room." She said somewhat reluctantly.

"A room, uh... Wait, wha—" He choked in a gem he had just bit. "Cough! cough! What do yo— cough. How do you? What?" To say that he was bweldered was a understatement.

"While you were asleep, we projected a body and a room." Nightmare said rolling her eyes.

"B-but how?" Spike was still confused, but it didn't take long before it turned into caution. "Wait, you better not be messing around inside my head!"

"Worry not little dragon!" She said confident, satisfied with what she took as fear coming from the dragon. "This room and our body are not unlike a waken dream that we created for our comfort."

"If you say so..." The crystal ball in the room went black as Spike closed his eyes and munched on a gem as he had an idea. "What color is the room?"

Were she not so proudly indulging on her regained confidence, she would have been somewhat taken aback from such an odd question. But she wasn't, so she answered anyway, "Why, it is the beautiful colors of our royal night, of course! Rich Indigo and Symphony Blue!"

Spike focused on those colors, after taking a second to silently thanks Rarity for making him memorize the names of thousands colors on the times he helped her in her boutique, and started to visualize then. If he was right, then... There! Spike thought to himself as he started to see a room. It was like trying to remember of a dream so it was really difficult to properly "see" things, but he still knew what they were somehow. A bedroom, with a large bed, some furniture and tapestry. But much more important was the big couch in one of the walls of the room, or rather, the pony sitting on it.

"What are you doing?" She said looking to something in the table in front of her, he wasn't sure what it was, but it felt important. "We don't have the time for you to sleep again! Open your eyes already!"

"I think I can see..." He simply said, trying to focus on the thing she looked at.

"What can you see? Your eyes are closed! Have your fear of me finally settled in and now you're seeing things?" She mocked with a grin smile.

"You, I think." –Nightmare Moon stopped smiling– "You said it's like a dream, so I tried to... remember it I guess... I can kinda see a room an—"

"What?" She said quickly raising from her couch and accidentally hitting the small table in front of her, dropping the crystal ball on the floor. "Get out!"

"AHHHH!" Spike stumbled and fell out of the bed, the sudden change of position of what he was focusing on breaking his concentration and giving him a headache. "Ouch, what was that for?"

"You dragon! Do not spy on a mare's room like it is yours!" She shouted at the crystal ball on the floor, only worsening Spike's headache.

"Calm down!" He shouted back while pressing his head where he hit it when he fell. "Sorry, ugh, I was just curious. Anyway we don't have time for this, let's get going." He added, trying to change subject.

"Agreed" Nightmare Moon simply said, with some repressed fury. "But we'll talk about this later. Now let us get going, it must already be past 6 AM."

Spike yawned and put on his bag, "Right, we should get there and get the tickets before the train arrives"

"Right... What's a ticket?"

Spike face-palmed, something that he always wondered how ponies could do with hooves instead of claws. "This is going to be a long ride..." He said as they started their way out of the castle. The Everfree and the entirety of Equestria ahead of then.

But first, the Ponyville train station.

A beautiful and well conserved building, or at least as well conserved as a building in a city under constant attacks of magical beings and catastrophes can be. It stood proudly at the limits of Ponyville, far from other buildings so that the noise from the train would not bother them.

Some meters away from it's platform was what seemed, to anypony passing by, like a lonely bush somewhat weirdly placed at the middle of the field, distant from a bunch of similar bushes nearby. When nopony was looking at it, it grew eyes and legs and hopped away to the train station platform where it settled again for a minute before hopping away again.

Not far away from where the bush was before, stood a very unimpressed dragon hiding in bunch of similar bushes.

"What was that?" Asked a very impressed and confused Nightmare Moon.

"It was just Pinkie." Spike said as he got out of the bush. "Now that she is not here, I think that we can just wait for the train without anypony seeing us."

"Pinkie? Wait, is this one of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony? The pink one?"

"Yeah. Element of Laughter."

"What was she doing hiding in a bush?"

"She was just being Pinkie, I guess." Spike shrugged. "Probably planing somepony surprise party."

"Humm... Really fitting for the Element of Laughter to do this sort of things." She mumbled to herself, remembering the ridiculous way that the pink pony got past her Trees of Nightmare.

"Look!" Spike said as he got onto the train station platform and pointed at a clock on the building's wall. "It's 7:55 AM already! The train should arrive at any moment now!" And as to punctuate his words, the noise of steel on steel of the train approaching started to appear on the distance.

Spike ran to the station's booth where he asked for two tickets to Canterlot. The train brakes screeched on the trails at the same time he managed to find some bits in his bag and gave them to the stallion at the booth.

"What is this noise?!" Shouted Nightmare Moon trying to tune down the volume of her crystal ball. "Are we being attacked by a giant Tatzlwurm?!"

"It's just the train" Spike said in low-voice so that nopony would hear him as he looked at the train so that Nightmare Moon could see it.

It was as strange as she expected it to be. A weirdly shaped carriage at the front with gray smoke clouds coming out of long tubes. Several closed carriages attached to it's back in a line, each with numerous windows , all on top of impossibly small wheels. All made of metal. Nightmare Moon wondered how could such thing exist, there was no way that a thing that should weight several tons like this could be moved by regular ponies. But a much more important question stroke her.

"Ugh, why so colorful?" She buried her head in a pillow on her couch. "Aren't ponies colorful enough?"

Meanwhile, Spike presented his tickets to the conductor pony that picked both on his magic.

"Are you waiting for somepony to show up?" Said the unicorn as he perforated one of the tickets with a tool and gave it back to Spike. "If so, they better hurry up, we are leaving soon."

"What? No, why?" Said the soon to be very embarrassed dragon.

"You have two tickets, why, did you buy the extra by accident?"

"Well, one for me and the other..." He suddenly turned red, something impressive for a being with scales, the realization hitting him like a train. "I—The ticket— Ehhh—Bye!" He picked the tickets and ran to the next wagon.

"You can refund the ticket if you want!" Shouted the unicorn before shrugging as the dragon closed the door that connected the two carts. "What an weird dragon."

Spike sat at the first bench at his left and tried to make himself as small as possible on it, trying to hide away his shame. With little success due to the constant laughing inside his head.

"Sh–shut up!" He was still red hot of embarrassment, even if the only pony in the wagon was inside his head.

Eventually her laughter died out and Spike finally got himself in a comfortable position on his seat.

"So, how does this 'train' move? I couldn't see it before it stopped." Asked Nightmare Moon having regained some air after her fit of laughter.

"Well, it has a vapor engine in the first cart of the train." Spike explained. "They put water and burn coal to make vapor and them the pressure moves some pistons or something."

"Vapor? The same thing that clouds are made off? How could it move such a heavy vehicle?" Nightmare Moon inquired. "There must be some magic on it."

"It has some sort of tubing or something, it is really complex, but I don't think it involves magic since I have seen some train drivers that where earth ponies. If I could I would show you, but—" The train sounded its whistle, cutting off Spike, and slowly started to move. "Look!" Spike looked outside the window where the world slowly started to move.

"It is rather slow isn't it? It should be, being this big an— Wow." As the engine started to kick more power, the train quickly gained speed, the acceleration giving Nightmare Moon some movement sickness. She still stared, eyes wide, as the town became smaller and smaller in the distance. The acceleration rapidly gave off as the train reached its speed limit. "This is... Amazing!" She said not even trying to hold back her wonder.

"Yeah." Spike agreed . "I'm pretty used to it, but I still like to watch the terrain passing by."

"At this speed we can cross Equestria in less than a night!" The Queen of the Night exclaimed. "How long do you think it will take to reach... What is the name of the city again?"

"Canterlot? About three hours I think."

"Canterlot... Was it built after my—" Her words got caught on her throat. "Uh-hum. In the last thousand years?"

"I don't know... Wait, yeah! It was built after..." Spike stopped on time, having got the hint that she didn't like this topic in particular. "After the old castle was destroyed. The Princess built her new castle there and it became the capital of—"

"It became what?!" Nightmare Moon shouted, just low enough to not give Spike a headache.

Spike gulped in dry. "The capital...?"

"Are you saying to me, the Queen of the Night, that we are going to not only the capital of Equestria, but the place where both princesses of Equestria live? The two most powerful beings that could destroy us if they suspected that their biggest enemy is there?!"

"Wel– well, when you put it like that..." Spike could feel her ice freezing stare at him. Taking a second to breath and calm himself, he thought on what to do and spoke a little to quickly. "T–the train makes various stops before Canterlot, w–we can always hop out in one of them."

Nightmare Moon took a second to consider that possibility, analyzing it from every angle. "It sounds good. But to just hop out anywhere would be suspect—" Now that her paranoia was on, there was no coming back. "—we should go to another big city where we can hide, do you know any?"

Spike said the first city that came to mind. "Fillydelphia! I visited it before, and there are a lot of dragons living there! And I know some ponies there!" He decided to omit that he had visited it with Luna and that the ponies he knew where police officers.

"Perfect! A city with dragons and ponies you say? That's strange. I remember that we were not exactly in speaking terms with them in my time." Nightmare Moon remembered some conflicts that she— Luna had to settled with dragons, due to the old enmity between them and pegasus. "Things must have really changed since then. I really shouldn't be surprised since you yourself live among ponies peacefully."

"Well, Fillydelphia – and I– are kinda the exception, most cities have almost no dragons in them. I'm the only one in Ponyville and I never met others when I lived in Canterlot. We will need to buy the tickets to it in the next station though."

"I see." She lost herself in her thoughts, thinking about what she had just learned, and Spike did the same, both appreciating the view that the window provided.

Far away from where they were now, and some minutes later, a sleepy unicorn started to raise from her bed. Her horn shining brightly in a purplish hue with an alarm spell that she made herself to always wake in time. Twilight walked to the bathroom, shaking away the dreams she had. She washed her muzzle and with a quick spell dried it out after an yawn.

Walking back into her bedroom, she noticed that she was not alone. Owlicious stood sleeping at the headboard of her bed.

She giggled to herself. "Must have felt alone in this big castle."

Twilight thought of petting him, but didn't want to disturb his sleep, instead she silently walked out of her room. Without even noticing the scroll fallen at the feet of her bed.

Walking her way to the kitchen, the big and long way, she found it strangely empty, without either the characteristic smell of recent cooked food or an apron wearing Spike.

"He must have gone buy ingredients." She said to herself. "I'm just going to pick something to read and wait for him to be back with breakfast."

"Who are you talking to?" Said a new voice behind her.

"Ahhh!" She jumped and turned around, recovering her balance with her wings. "Oh, Starlight, you scared me."

"Sorry..." Starlight lowered her head a bit, felling some guilt.

"It's okay. I was just talking to myself..." Twilight blushed a little, embarrassed for that little habit of hers.

"Is breakfast done?" Glimmer tried to spy into the kitchen behind Twilight.

"No, Spike must have gone somewhere. I'm sure he will be back soon."

"Oh, well, in that case, I guess I'm going to see if Trixie wants to go out and eat something." Starlight said as she happily trotted away.

"Okay, I will be in the library if you need me." Twilight said as Starlight turned around the corner.

And so she walked to the library where she would spent the next hours lost in some very interesting book about dragon's migration habits. Completely clueless of the irony of it.

Author's Note

Dang this took longer than it should. But hey I'm back.
Really didn't expect to get so many views, Im happy :rainbowkiss:
Protip for you guy: Plan the first 3 chapters out before dropping the first. Especially if you are about to go through the busiest month of the year (and have a procrastinating problem, seriously, I learned to use blender and modeled 3 photo realistic objects (of questionable quality) before I thought "Boy, I really should be writing now").
At least I had the time to plan ahead and now have some really wild things planned for you guys :pinkiecrazy:
Also, try putting chocolate chip ice cream in a cup of black coffee, it is marvelous :raritywink: (If your hands start shaking after drinking/eating it, it means you're doing it right!)
Also 2: Does anyone know the name of that fic that has Celestia and Scootaloo living inside a box but Celestia is disguised as Nopony? I read it and forgot to fav it, now I can't remember its name

Edited 16/05/2019 - Surprisingly easier to edit than the previous chap. Also thanks to PonyDragon, who found the namr of the story I had forgot.

A Painter of Nightmares

“Why does it take so long? This so called ‘train’ moves at such a high speed and yet it feels like years! Perhaps we should simply jump out. Each second that passes is another second closer to my greatest enemy…”

Spike sighed as Nightmare continued to ramble on and on. Most would find it annoying, but Spike was very much used to panicky and possibly crazy mares, and so, he knew the universal weakness of mares, and that meant all he had to do was wait for the opportunity and…

“Look! It's the trolley pony. I can buy us some candy, how does that sound?” And capture their attention by the stomach.

With Nightmares rambling finally subsiding, and substitute by general curiosity towards modern candy, Spike bought two caramels and a chocolate bar.

Nightmare had no idea of what chocolate was and when Spike explained that it was made from cocoa she was exceptical to the idea that such a bitter fruit could make any candy worth her time.

Despite her misgivings, Spike took a bite from the chocolate and finally there was blessed silence. Nightmare Moon, the Queen of the Night was silent for the first time since they had met. For all of four glorious seconds before she exploded in an euphoric raze, driven by a taste overload the likes she had never had before!

Her excitement seemly bleed off into Spike, since he devoured the bar in record time and did the same with the caramels, which although she was familiar with, tasted like nothing she ever had.

The trolley pony was particularly surprised when, while coming back from her first round on the train, the odd little dragon requested she simply leave the candy bow with him. And was even more surprised when he paid using Royal Print Checks, the only check universally accepted in all stores since only Princess Celestia herself could grant them to somepony. Some stores didn't even bank on the check and simply framed it for posterity.

Usually Nightmare Moon would be furious with the blatant crumb trail that a check like that would leave, since very few beings had access to them, but usually Nightmare Moon would not be furiously trying to convince a dragon to force feed himself as much candy as he could possibly fit in his mouth.

It seemed that, a thousand years ago, candies were, in general, more bland and tasteless when compared to what was considered common place today. And even if that wasn't the case, Nightmare Moon's priorities at the time involved very little of sitting down for a meal and more of conquering Equestria and bring forth night eternal. It mattered very little that she wasn’t actually the one doing the eating, she could still feel the taste fully.

And thus, Nightmare soon devolved into a blubbering mess of pleasure and satisfaction inside of Spike’s mind. Meanwhile, Spike also dissolved into a blubbering mess, unfortunately for him, the kind that is filled with the sugary regret and sweet pain of too much candy. That Nightmare immediately started to demand for more candy once she realized he had stopped only scalated the suffering.

After 15 minutes of Spike trying to convince her that he could not eat any more candy, which took the trolley pony confirming that they did not, in fact, have any more candy other than that of the bowl, the train finally came to a stop.

Having gotten out of the train, Spike immediately went to the ticket booth in order to buy a new one for the next ride to Fillydelphia, which was, fortunately, the next train to come. Unfortunately, however, he noticed that he was almost out of money by then, having brought very few bits with him since he didn’t expect to be taking the train. That and he really didn’t want to use the checks again.

And so he just sat in a bench while waiting for the train.

“I have a question, dragon.“ Said Nightmare.

“What is it?”

“Couldn’t you have traded your extra ticket for a new one?”

Only silence answered her for a time and she started snickering, causing him to finally say “Shut up.”

“Measure your words, dragon.” She tried to sound menacing but her mirth ruined the effect. “But do tell me, how long does it take for the train to come?” Asked Nightmare.

“Hmm, I’m actually not sure. Could be five minutes, could be half-hour. Actually, I really should check the schedule.” He said as he jumped from the bench, looking for the poster that should have the informations, that for some reason never were in the same place when in different stations.

He found it near the edge of the platform, facing the tracks with barely two pony lengths of distance from the edge. It was such an stupid place to put it that both him and his passenger just stared at it in bafflement for a moment.

“Which kind of pony would be idiotic enough to put it there? If it was facing the center of the platform I could understand, but it faces the tracks!”

“You want to know the worst part? This isn’t even the worst place I’ve seen it in.” Spike said, remembering one the trips he made with Twilight to a village on the edge of Equestria. The poster was so misplaced that not even the workers at the station knew where it was and he only found it by accident. The question of how somepony managed to put it in between two walls that were just a centimeter apart would forever haunt him.

Nightmare didn’t even bother to question what was the worst, fearing the effects any possible answer would have in her sanity.

After finally getting over the sheer insanity of it, he just walked to it before looking for the information he wanted. And he would have found it if something hadn’t just shoved him aside, almost making him fall.

“Hey, watch it-” Spike cut himself off having seen who had just shoved him. Or better yet, what had. Another dragon. But not only another dragon, a dragoness, twice as tall as him and of a vibrant red and silvery white that almost reflected like a mirror, she also looked like she was fuming with emotion. Literally. A constant stream of smoke seemed to leave her nose and mouth, almost blocking her vision. That her eyes looked like they were watering didn’t seen to help either as she furiously tried to read the train schedule.

“Now isn’t this a curious sight?” Said Nightmare, noting that the dragoness, like Spike, had an bag that seemed to be packed full. “Perhaps a kindred spirit of yours, dragon?”

“Only if she has an annoying travel buddy.” Spike whispered back.

“Watch your tongue or use it to teach her some good manners! She shoved you, and by extension: Me! I refuse to be treated in such a way. Make yourself useful and show her some manners.” She said, lifting her muzzle.

“What? Heck no! Just look at her; She could snap me in two if she wanted to!” Spike whispered again, but it seemed like he didn’t do it low enough since the dragon almost immediately turned to him with what could be a glare, it was difficult to tell behind the smoke.

“A-and just what are you mumbling about, hm?” She snapped with something that almost sounded like a sob, walking towards him with menacing watering eyes. “You p-ponies think you can just make fun of me behind my back?” She looked like she was about to continue, but a hiccup interrupted her and cleared her vision from the smoke, letting her see the cowering dragon before her.

The two –or three depending on how you counted it– of them just stood there for a moment, staring at each other, Spike in fear –Nightmare just watched it all with interest– and the dragoness in surprise. She was the first to snap out of it as she turned away to clean her tears.

Spike on the other claw just gathered his wits while Nightmare said, “I wonder what could make a dragon cry like that.”

“Let’s find out, shall we?” Spike whispered back before addressing the dragoness. “Hey, hm, I'm Spike.” He said, offering claw to her.

She ignored his extended claw and just turned back to the schedule. It almost looked like she was going to completely ignore him, but after another attempt at reading through her smoke she answered irritably, “I'm Drachen.”

Nightmare snorted, “What kind of name is that? And why are you being cordial with her? Just get her out of the way already!”

Spike ignored Nightmare and simply lowered his claw. After so many years of living with the princess of friendship, he found that a friendly voice was all it took to disarm a situation like this. “A pleasure meeting you, Drachen. If you don't mind me asking, just what brings you here?”

This time she seemed almost determined to ignore him, but the silence that followed and her failed attempts of clearing the smoke were more than enough to make her talk again, if only to make him stop staring at her and to clear the air. Metaphorically. And, hopefully, literally.

“Was hired to paint a portrait.”

“Ah, so you're an artist? Looks like it didn't go well. What happened?” Spike said sympathetically.

At this Drachen just sighed, it seemed like this dragon just wouldn't leave her alone. “Yeah I'm an artist, I guess.” She said, looking at her feet. “I came here because a client wanted a portrait, but as soon as the first pony saw me, they screamed 'Dragon!’ and the whole town locked up!” At this she lifted her head in order to look at Spike with eyes full of hurt and gestured towards the town. “Not even the client opened the door for me! I've spent the last of my bits to come here, to this damned pony city to do my first commission; finally start a life as an artist, and then they simply go and steal this opportunity from me! I don’t even know how I’m supposed to get back home!”

At this point she looked like she was about to start crying again, but it was hard to tell behind the veritable blinds of smoke she exhaled. Regardless, Spike knew he had to calm her down quickly; a crying female was the last thing he wanted.

Nightmare on the other hand simply snorted, “What a pathetic story! What kind of coward ponies would hide from such a small dragon that offers no threat! One that has come when invited, no less! If I could, I would teach those pathetic excuses of ponies what they should truly fear.”

The sheer amount of conviction Spike felt from Nightmare almost gave him pause, ‘What’s with the sudden sympathy? No, focus! I have to cheer her up; Time to put on the good ol’ charm.’

“Wow, that really sucks.” He tried to sound as sympathetic as possible. “But I guess that's ponies for you; More squitish than card castle in a windy day.” At this he gave a knowing smile. ”If you think their reaction to a dragon is bad, it’s because you never seen them reacting to a misplaced rose in a tulip garden. They’d burn the village down and salt the pastures, I tell you. Believe me, almost seen it happen more than once.” He said with a loud snort of barely contained laughter.

She snorted too, and with it most of the smoke cleared away from her eyes until she started breathing normally again and a smaller, but still troublesome, stream of smoke started to come out of her nostrils. She still looked depressed, but the risk of crying had decreased drastically.

Some would have seen how much better she looked now and called it a day, but not Spike. He wouldn’t give up until he’d seen an smile. He wasn’t a friend of Pinkie Pie just because of his good looks, after all.

“You said you were a painter, do you have some of your work with you?” He said, pointing at her bags.

She held her bag protectively against her chest and looked she was about to refuse but ended up just sighing. “Yeah, I have some landscapes and still life’s.” Drachen said as she started to open her bag, her mood shifting more to sad neutrality rather than depressed.

Even though it looked like she would show them to him regardless, he found that asking permission would be the polite thing to do, “Do you mind if I see them?”

“No, go ahead. Like any of these ponies would care to see it.” She said, and Spike noticed that every time she’d talk, the smoke of cloud would dissipate, only to return as soon as she started just breathing again. ‘Odd’, he thought.

She took three paintings out of her bag, one that barely fit in the bag and two that were about half the size of the first, all covered with a thin piece of wood on both sides to protect it from damages. She hesitated for a second, but the smile on Spike’s seemed to reassure her as she removed the cover from the biggest painting.

‘Green’ was the first thing that came to Spike’s mind as he looked at it. It took all he had to keep his neutral on his face and not look surprised. Nightmare on the other claw had no such qualms, “And now one is suddenly happy that she did not show her art to the locals. I doubt they’d be as kind as to you to restrain their reactions. Although, I believe they to be more than deserving of the fury she’d bring upon them.”

Spike ignored her and just kept analysing the painting. It had a lot of green to it, especially on the bottom. Closer to the top it looked to be more blue, but it was difficult to tell. Throughout the entire painting there were various shades of gray mixed in with the colors, in the center in particular, the grey seemed to overtake the painting. To the left it looked like there was brown, roughly in the shape of a tree, but it looked like the closer it got the edge, the more sharper the image was, the exact opposite of what any sane artist would do. He had to think hard about what it could mean.

Having lived his entire life surrounded by books, he naturally read many books on art, and found many critics to be common simpletons spouting tautologies of little significance and value in pursuit of a feeling supposed superiority. True critics would look not only at a painting but at the author, the times in which it was started and finished, as well all that happened in that period in order to form an opinion on what was the significance of it to the artist, what he tried to evoke from the people of the time and how its meaning could be adapted to a modern time. Both, howerever, would, more often than no, fail to recognize a very simple truth, just as it was said in the immortal words of some dude: ‘Sometimes a painting is just a painting.’

With that in mind, Spike just to looked at the painting for what it was. A landscape. As seen through the eyes of a dragoness. A dragoness with smoking problems. Literally.

He looked at it, and then looked at the dragoness who seemed to fidget under his critical gaze, the cloud of smoke in front of her eyes like blinds that obscured the world from view. ’Come to think of it, she might have some breathing problems. I was just like that when i got the flu.’ He focused hard on her eyes, but all he could see was gray with hints of magenta.

He took a deep breath. He released it slowly, along with some of his fire to produce a continuous stream of smoke. The clear image of Drachen in front of him became a blurry amalgamation of grey and other colors. The smoke itself, something that at a distance would be a distinct and sharp shape or other, was completely out of focus; it was too close for his eyes to focus on it. It looked exactly like her painting.

With this revelation Spike looked at it with new eyes and no small amount of awe. The painting, that before looked like something out of a failed artistic movement, likely brother to cubisms, suddenly looked like the most photorealistic thing he’d ever seen. The way that the center was completely out of focus and the colors were mixed was exactly like what he saw. The closer to the edge the image got, the more clear it became because that was where the smoke was thinnest. Looking at the other two paintings only confirmed his theory. He had no doubt that were he to look at a bowl of fruits through his smoke, he would see exactly what was painted there.

It seemed like Nightmare had come to the same conclusion when he breathed the smoke, “Now isn’t this fascinating? A most dedicated artist that can only paint that which none will ever be able to compliment without great deal of effort...” Spike could be wrong, but it she almost sounded bitter by the end. But he didn’t have the time to dwell on it, he had an idea forming and he had to act on it fast.

“Drachen, these are incredible! The way you painted the smoke! I didn’t even think it was possible to do something like it! It’s so realistic!” He said with enthusiasm.

Her smoke became suddenly more intense, but she seemed to perk up quite a bit. “Y-you really think so?”

“I think? No, I know it! I love it! But…” He gave a small pause, both for the dramatic effect and for him to phrase what he wanted to say the right way. “I don’t think that most ponies would pay for it.” She looked like she was about to deflate, so he continued quickly, “Most ponies don’t want to see thing as others do, they want to see things as they see it. However! I know a pony, a former royal guard in Canterlot, he loves to see art from the perspective of other ponies! Or dragons in this case. Regardless! I remember you said you didn’t have money for another ticket, right? Well, I just so happen to have a spare ticket for Canterlot! It was for another train, but you shouldn’t have any problem trading it for next one to come! I can give you the directions to where you can meet him, and I assure you he’ll help you out. How about it?” He said while taking the ticket from his bag.

Drachen was speechless for almost an entire minute, constantly fidgeting. Spike suspected that if he could see her face it would have morphed between many expressions. But he just waited with bated breath, a claw with the ticket extended towards her. When she finally spoke he almost felt like the world had pulled the carpet, the floor and the bedrock from under him.

“I don’t take charity.”

He almost felt despair at those words, but just like a brave little caterpillar, he did triple backflip, sprouted wings and screamed, ‘Screw you world!,’ to the heavens. Metaphorically.

In reality he didn’t jump nor scream, and what he actually said was: “Who said anything about charity? I’m not just giving it to you, I’m… Buying one of your painting! Yeah! The still life one! For this ticket” He said, pointing between the two smaller paintings, just to make sure he didn’t point at the wrong one. “And the information is just a friendship bonus! ‘Cause I think we could be pretty good friends. So, how about it?”

Drachen wanted to refuse, no matter how he put it, this was charity, and her pride wouldn’t have any of it. But then she stared at him. It was difficult to see through the smoke, but she was used to it. She could see his earnest smile, and his extended claw with the ticket. When she was about to first her works to him she was apprehensive, when he just kept staring at it she was worried. That wasn’t the reaction she expected. She expected… She didn’t know what she expected, but it wasn’t that, but then, like a switch had been flipped, he looked so enthusiastic about it. She was almost worried that he was faking it, but she couldn’t hear a single trace of dishonest in his voice. When he critiqued it she knew it wasn’t out of malice or discontent, not like other dragons she had shown it to, that just thought of it as a waste of time. It was out of a genuine want to help!

Drachen took all of that in consideration before making her decision. Her pride fought hard, but in the end it stood no chance; She was going to accept it. Didn’t mean she’d be lame while doing it.

“Friends, hm? I wouldn’t usually sell it for just a ticket, but I think I can give you a discount. A friendship bonus.” She took his claw and shook it, coming out the ticket for Canterlot in hand and then gave him his new painting. They both stood there for a second before Spike remembered to tell her how she could find his friend in Canterlot.

By the time he finished, his train had just parked and opened the doors. He quickly stuffed his new painting inside his bag before leaving, not without waving goodbye to Drachen, who waved back.

After taking his seat he just happily watched the landscape passing by. He had just done his good action for the week, and everything was going well. There was absolutely nothing that could ruin his mood now.

“You sly, sly, dragon.” There was, however, someone who could. A very smug someone, it seemed. “You thought I wouldn’t notice it.”

“What are you talking about?” He asked, he wasn’t even annoyed, more curious actually. He honestly expected her to do something soon, the smugness got him off guard, though.

“This clever ruse of yours, don’t think I haven’t noticed it.” The sheer amount of smug on her voice made it more thick than his blood after all the sugar from the candy got to it.

“Oh, have you now?” He decided to play along, just so he could find what she was going on about.

“Oh, I have. Setting a fake trail like this, and with such good acting. I’m almost impressed.” She said, and Spike could almost feel much she approved of this. “Using another dragon to mislead any who might be looking for you? Genius, almost! Afterall, what are the chances of two dragons taking a train for Canterlot, on the same day? Through the same route, no less. Especially when they know that you took a train to Canterlot, it’s impossible they don’t, not after you used that check. I can barely contain my laughter when I picture their faces when, after carefully looking for you, using all the clues that should by all means point towards you, they find the wrong dragon!” At this she chuckled darkly. “And you even were smart enough to ‘befriend’ her! After all that show you put, there is no way she’d betray our trust and reveal to where we are going.” The emphasys she put on ‘ befriend’ almost sent shivers up Spike’s spine, but she seemed no to notice. “I will not lie, you are a great actor; Almost made me believe that you were doing it all by the goodness of you heart! Masterfully done, I’d say. But I know better, dear Spike. I know better.”

“Whatever you say.” He said. He was honestly scared of her for a second. The way she said his name… It gave him the heebie jeebies. All that she said did. But the way she put it… It made almost made sense. In a twisted and worrying way, but it did. It almost made him wonder if he had done that completely out of will, that there was not a little part of him, a subconscious part, that did it for the reasons she believed in. He wasn't a hundred percent sure.

He decided to not dwell on it and just went back to staring out of the window.

Author's Note

Wanna know what happens when you decide to procrastinate 2 years before writing something? You get into college, learns a whole lot about eletronics on the web, build an f-117a model that was laying around for more than 17 years, and discovers that your bycicle is your new best friend, discovers that your bycicle was actualy a pretty shitty friend. You also learn to love apples because apples are the best (except you Red Delicious, nobody likes you, your existence is a crime against good taste).

Yeah.

Anyway, leave comments! I love'em. They are nice, even the ones that are bad. So just leave them. also, I just imported the chap straight form G Drive, so tell me if you find any formating errors that I haven't