Masks Lie and Nightmares Never Die

/

Many years in the past…

“Desmond, c’mon this way!”

“Mother, wait up! I know you want to help Joseph, but do really think this is a good idea?”

His mother shot him a glare for asking the question. They agreed together that they will check up on the government that runs their town just to be sure if they caused the epidemic in the first place.

“Desmond! Joseph is my friend and he and his people need our help!”

Desmond flinched a bit from her voice. He never really liked it when she yelled; it scared him a little bit.

“Yes mother.”

“Good, now boost me up. I can’t over the fence.”

Desmond could only sigh as he made his way to her and picked her off the ground, so she can stand on his shoulders. The fence itself is tall as Desmond himself with metal bars painted black and tipped with rather pointy spikes. Jocelyn slowly stepped off his shoulders and over the fence doing her best to keep her grip as she slowly slid her way to the ground.

“Okay your turn.” She said quietly.

Desmond nodded as he took a step onto the fence and in one swift motion jumped over the obstacle before landing gracefully onto the ground.

“Hmph…showoff” Jocelyn said grumpily as they made their way to the building.

“Hey you’re the one that said I should try doing cooler stuff. Doesn’t that count as ‘cool’?”

“Not when you upstage your mommy, Desmond.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Apology accepted.”

The building itself despite being a government building wasn’t anything too impressive due to its odd grey color and only have two floors, but it held its purpose of being the meeting place, for all sorts of officials.

The duo slowly sneaked to a nearby window where they spotted a few officials talking to each other.

“So…do you have the gold you promised?” asked the skinny official.

“Yes do you? We did what you asked. Those annoying non-sense spattering rodents won’t know what’ll them till it’s too late!” added the greedy looking one.

“All in due time my friends…once the ‘pests’ become infected with the new plague I developed. We shall flood the sewers forcing them to the surface and infecting the rest of the populace of this dumb town. Once that happens then you shall receive your rewards for assisting me in my goals,” said the odd looking official.

“Damn it Lucius! You said after we done all your dirty work you’ll give us riches beyond our wildest dreams!” complained the skinny official.

In response the odd looking official now known as Lucius in a blink of an eye grabbed the official’s tongue and took out a small knife.

“Still thy tongue Mort, lest you lose it,” Lucius said menacingly as he waved his knife in front Mort.

“Nffff!Dfffft!” was all the man could say as he attempted to plead with Lucius.

“So…I guess we have an understanding now?” The man nodded, “Good boy…” Lucius then let go off the man’s tongue and in turn hurryingly crawled away behind his cohort. “Now you two…leave me. I wish to have some time to myself.”

The officials left the room leaving Lucius by himself. The man gave out a deep frustrated sigh as he sat in a nearby chair.

“Ah mortals…even in the greenest of grass there’s always a weed for me to exploit. I do love it when a plan comes together. This will be another step towards my ultimate goal…heh heh heh.”

Lucius then began to glow in a sinister green light. Jocelyn and Desmond could only look on with shock and awe as the man’s body change and morph into a more serpent like form. Once body reached this state the light began to fade. Slowly the body of Lucius was replaced with a grey two armed serpent.

Desmond quickly placed his right hand over his mother’s mouth already feeling that she was going to scream.

“Ah…this is more like it. Although, taking the appearance of a human mortal has it uses, I find the form to be a little bit distasteful. However, now’s not the time to show my true face to the world…well not yet anyway.”

Desmond decided they seen enough. He took his mother hand and quickly took her out of the area all the while doing it quietly as possible. Once they got out they headed straight into the sewers in order to warn Joseph and his people.

/

“What! He transformed into a serpent?!” Joseph yelled; he was flabbergasted by this new information.

“I don’t believe it either, but it’s true! The man’s a snake! I saw it with my own eyes!”Jocelyn affirmed.

“A snake within a group of officials…that can’t be good.”

“Worse still he had two other seedy looking men with him, and they said they did something that’ll put you and your people in danger.”

“Gods! I got to warn the elder! Do you know what they did?”

“No they didn’t say what they did in detail, but just the sound of it means bad news.”

“Dammit! We can’t warn the others if we don’t have any evidence to back up our claims. They’ll think we’re lying.”

“That’s not good…well…time for Plan B,” Jocelyn felt a tap on her right shoulder. She looked to her right and to Joseph’s undying frustration spoke with her son who he still cannot see. “What’s Plan B Desmond? That’s eas,; we look for the problem ourselves.”

Joseph sighed, “Why do you have to be so reckless?”

“Hey! If it’s the only option we have left then we should follow through with it!”

“That is the most flawed logic I ever heard, but you’re right I don’t see any other way out of this. Okay count me in as well. I know the sewers like the back of my hand, if they did something to the sewers I know a few spots we can check for sabotage.”

“Great! Now let’s go!”

Like that the group set off to find the possible danger that threaten the lives of Jospeh’s people. After some searching they came across something strange.

“Hey guys! I think I found something!” yelled Jocelyn. She pointed to a strange object that looked like it was made from clay, “But what is it?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it. It looks like some sort of modeling clay, but why would they stick it on a pipe?” Joseph question as he examined the strange object, “This must be how those officials plan on carrying out their plan.”

“But how? It’s just clay…right?”

Jocelyn also examined the clay closely and noticed strange wires sticking out of the clay.

“You see it too don’t you?” Joseph asked.

“What the heck is it?”

“If I knew I would have answer ready for you, but I don’t.”

“Desmond, do you know what it is?”

Desmond unseen to Joseph, took a small glance at the object before looking back at his mother and shaking his head negatively.

“Not even Desmond knows what it is,” she said with a disappointed tone.

“That’s not surprising considering that you created him. He doesn’t know more than you do.”

“Is that how it works? Never mind…all we know is that this thing is bad news.”

“Agreed,” Joseph then grabbed the clay object before stuffing it into a bag, “Who knows how many they put down here. We have to act fast who knows when they decide to activate whatever this stuff is.”

With this said the trio took off. They searched all around the sewer taking every odd clay object they find while checking some sensitive spots in the smelly underground. Eventually, the bag became so heavy Desmond had to carry the bag during the rest of the search much to Joseph’s discomfort. They later reached the last sensitive area Joseph mentioned which is the water regulator. The machine kept the sewage water at a reasonable level and kept it away from the Nomats settlement. Not surprisingly they found a few more clay objects placed all over the regulator.

“Just as I thought there’s more over here. C’mon just like the others rinse and repeat.”

Joseph then started to peel off the clay objects like he and Jocelyn done before, but right before he took the last one; a multitude of beeping noises was heard simultaneously.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Jocelyn said as the beeping grew faster.

Joseph quickly looked back at the clay object in his and saw it was counting down in bright green colored numbers. As of now the number has already reached the strange count of zero dot forty and counting.

“What?! A timer! These are bombs!”

“Yeah we kinda figured that out…when they started beeping, but more importantly we have a bag full of these things right next to us!”

Desmond eyes widen when he heard of this revelation. He has to act and fast. Quickly snatching the bombs from Joseph and stuffed them into the bag.

“Desmond! What are you doing?!” Jocelyn yelled with concern.

“Mother…thank you for everything,” Was all Desmond said before he took off running determined to get rid of the bombs.

“Desmond!!!”

/

Life in the city above remained blissfully unaware of the events taking place below. That is until a manhole suddenly flew out of it spot in the ground alerting nearby passerby’s. To everyone’s shock and surprise a large bag came out of the manhole being carried by an invisible force.

“Ah! What is that!”

“An invisible man?”

“Invisible man?”

*Screams*

“Ow! Was that even necessary?”

“Sorry…”

Desmond ignoring the chatter and odd looks from onlookers took off down a street in the direction of the forest. He ran as fast as he can hoping to get the bombs out of range from the city he called home, and into cave or something that can reduce the possible damage. His mind went to his mother. He owns her everything for his existence and purpose in the world. He just wishes that there was a better way to deal with these bombs without resorting to this rash decision. Desmond checked the bag only to see 15 seconds left on the bombs. “Oh boy…” he said as he picked up the pace.

/

He eventually reached the forest, but as he looked at the timer for the bombs; he only had 5 seconds left.

“Damn it! I don’t have enough time to reach the cave. C’mon Desmond think fast!”

With no time left Desmond instinctively throw the bag onto the ground and pointed his hand at the bag.

/

Meanwhile back in the city. Jocelyn and Joseph eventually got out of the sewers only to see the resulting explosion from the bombs.

“DESMOND!”

/

Watching the explosion from the calmness of his office, the mastermind look on with interest, “Hmm…the bombs shouldn’t be exploding over there…looks like we have some interlopers…”

/

Jocelyn and Joseph headed toward the direction of the explosion. When they got closer to the source of the explosion Jocelyn realized the bombs exploded in the forest where she and Desmond commonly play at when they have time.

“Joseph over here!” she shouted as they got closer to the smoke tower.

When they reached the source of the smoke the two could only stare dumbfounded at what they saw. Desmond covered in ash was sitting in front of a campfire that was placed inside of a crater. Noticing his mother and her friend’s presence he looked at them and smiled.

Jocelyn felt her eyes blur as she ran up to Desmond and hugged him tightly.

“Sorry for making you worry mother,” he said as tears threatened to fall from his eyes.

“Just don’t do anything stupid like that again, and if you are make sure I’m with you. What kind of mother am I, if I let my own son go off and do dangerous things on his lonesome?”

“C’mon I said I was sorry mother.”

“Just shut up.”

While the two were hugging each other, Joseph was staring wide eye at the slightly visible Desmond. Whose invisible form was outlined by the ash covering his body.

/

Twilight gave a slow yawn as she got up from bed. Today was her second day in the Nightmare realm and so far it wasn’t bad. I mean she still hold the fact that she was fillynapped against Fredrick, but after hearing his story she decided to give him a chance.

“I’ve been told breakfast is ready at 8:30, so I better get ready,” she said shaking off her sleepy state. She opens some of her drawers and looked through them to see what she should wear today. As she was searching she found some more copies of her human world clothes among other things, "Just in case I wasn't feeling adventurous I suppose," she said as she looked at the clothes with the same questioning look she had when she first lay her eyes on them, "Fredrick has a lot of explaining to do."

Twilight smiled to herself. To her this was exciting, for she was going to learn new spells from a professional spellcaster. Granted she learn plenty from Princess Celestia herself, but she’s curious what she can learn from Fredrick. Her thoughts went back to their first encounter with each other. To say she lost was an understatement, he completely decimated her with advance spells she knew and some she never knew. Twilight wondered what would be her first lesson, she remembered Fredrick mentioning that they will go over offensive spells, granted after he is back in full swing considering he just woke up from an ‘episode’. Twilight shuddered at the memory that he nearly tried to gouge her eyes out, but was glad that his mentor Boog was there at the right time.

Going through the routine of any good morning Twilight headed to the bathroom to clean herself, and dry herself. Doing this she returned to her room and put on her selected clothing, "It's great look that's for sure, but I think next time I should experiment some more. I know Rarity would have wanted me to with the selection given to me."

With a sigh Twilight decided not to ponder on the matter any further, "I should hurry up, Fredrick is waiting for me and I don't want to keep him waiting."

/
Meanwhile in the dining room and Kitchen...

“Is everything all set?” Paranoia asked a nearby bat-like nightmare. The nightmare immediately straightens up with fright and look at Paranoia with fear in his eyes.

“Yes all the preparations are done sir! Should we get the guests?”

“Please do, this is for them after all.”

With a hasty bow the nightmare gathered few other nightmares and ran off into the darkness of the halls.

“I’m I really that intimidating? I normally see this reaction when they talk to Fear.”

In response to his name, Fear pokes his head out of nearby window in the kitchen he was cooking in, “I know right?”

Cooking has been a favorite hobby for Fear, this was clearly shown in his voice as his adrenaline already had him talking normally, “Brother, do have any leftover pancake mix?”

“Plenty, why do you ask?”

“I have a feeling we might need it.”

“Whatever man…I’m still getting over the fact I just cooked pancakes made for a bunch of horses.”

“Well their diet is different from a regular omnivore and we need to respect that. Also they’re ponies not horses there’s a difference.”

“Meh…that means more meat for me,” Fear then return his head into the kitchen and as he does it the boys and the girls appeared from separate hallways across from the dining room table.

“This is the Dining room?”

“Wow fancy”

“I thought we were having breakfast?”

“Well this is certainly different…”

“Hey look it’s the others!”

The two groups waved to each other before being told by the nightmares that led them here to take their seats. Applejack and the rest of Twilight’s friends including her brother looked around for Princess Luna and Twilight herself.

“Where’s Twilight? Isn’t she going to be here? And what about Princess Luna?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“For the former, don’t worry about her. Our lord is getting her as we speak. As for your princess of the night,” Paranoia snapped his fingers as he trailed off opening a portal in the process and slowly out came Panic who was leading a bandage Luna to the table. Paranoia noticed that Panic was wearing a new half mask. “Panic what happened to your mask? Last time I checked you never change your mask.”

“Err…my other mask broke,” he said as he tipped his hat downward.

Paranoia sighed he already had an idea what happened so he decided not to press the minor issue further, “Just lead the Princess to her seat.”

Doing as he is told Panic lead the Princess to an empty seat next to Pinkie Pie much to cotton candy looking pony excitement.

“Luna! We’re so glad your okay!” Pinkie said estactically as she bounced up and down in her seat.

“Good to see your still with us and still a pony,” Applejack added.

“Quite right…Paranoia told me of your transformation, but still I am finding hard to believe such concoctions can cause such changes in your bodies.”

“Well it takes some getting used to, but other than that there isn’t anything bad about them,” Rainbow said as she gave a small glare at Panic.

They were going to continue their conversation, but then Paranoia tapped on the table loudly to get everyone’s attention, “Attention everybody our Lord and the main guest of honor has arrived please direct your attention to the south hall” he then pointed to the wall south of the table. Everyone was confused at first until the wall opened up and two figures stepped into the room. One they weren’t familiar with, but the other was their friend Twilight Sparkle whose face brigthen up when she saw her friends.

“Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Princess Luna, Shining?!” She exclaimed.

“Uh hey what about us?” Grey said as he pointed to himself and Nurse Redheart.

“Oh sorry,” Twilight said as she rubbed her head in embarrassment as she went off to talk to her friends. She spent a few minutes talking to her friends and hugging her brother before Fredrick called her back and brought her to her seat which was next to his. Before he seated himself he removed his coat, and hat, and looked at everyone who was seated, “Greetings colt and mares, lady and gentlemen. I’m glad to meet you all in one room. I am Lord Nightmare, the ruler of this realm and from what I can guess, all of you are intruders that invaded my estate one way or another. But, all of that is in the past, from now on all of you are guests and to celebrate this breakfast is now served!” Right after he said this Fear busted into the room wearing a chef’s hat and a apron that reads ‘FEAR the COOK’ while carrying trays that carried an assortment of breakfast items such as hay pancakes with berries and hash browns on the side, to the classic eggs and bacon, and the unconventional platter for the baby dragon himself nothing but gems.

“WHOS HUNGRY!!!” He yelled on the top of his lungs causing everyone to cover their ears from the sheer volume. As everybody recovered from the ear shattering yell they were greeted with a small army of Panic’s dressed in both maid and butler outfits who took the platters from Fear and placed them to the person they were meant for. This continued for a few moments much to everyone’s surprise and before they knew it empty cups were placed in front of them along with a jug of milk and orange juice for their convenience.

“Bon appétit no?” Said the real Panic as he clapped his hands together; causing the Panic clones to disappear.

Everyone present took a moment to understand what just happened, except for Pinkie Pie and Fredrick whom the former after pouring syrup started to eat her pancakes. Later, everyone else follow suit as well. Breakfast went smoothly much to The Nightmare Brothers relief though they can’t help but feel that a few of their guests where giving them the evil eye.

Fredrick wasn’t excluded from this as at times when he tried to converse with Twilight he always felt someone was shooting daggers at him from across the table. Although he didn’t really care, it’s not like they could have attacked him right here and now; they were too smart for that.

*Gurgle*

A noise rang out from his position or more specifically from inside of him; he was hungry. Fredrick could only sigh at this as he snapped his fingers signaling Paranoia to get him a glass of blended nightmares. As Paranoia went away to get the cup ready, he felt a pair of eyes look at him with concern. He looked to his right where Twilight was sitting and spoke to her, “I appreciate your concern my dear, but I too must eat.”

“But, didn’t you say that blended nightmares were also helping fuel your ‘problem’?”

“Yes, but I have no choice. I must be at my full strength in order to keep my position in this realm.”

“Well please be careful…the last thing I want is to see you in another bed unconscious again.”

“Well if there was one silver lining, I would say at least the drink tastes good,” After he finished his sentence his drink was placed in front of him. Not thinking twice he took the cup and let the essence drift off from the cup to underneath the brims of his mask much to the surprise and shock to those seated near him.

/

Time: 9:26 A.M.

Breakfast is over and it was safe to say everyone was satisfied. Though, all the extra batter Fear has left over is gone thanks to a certain pink pony. With all the food gone everyone simply talked to each other until Fredrick stood up from his chair. With every one’s attention now on him Fredrick placed his hat back on his head and put his coat back on before speaking, “Thank you all for coming for breakfast I really appreciate it. But now I must ask all of you to meet me at the lobby,” He then turns to Twilight, “As for you my dear wait for me in the training room. Paranoia will take you there. I will join you shortly after I’m done talking to your friends.”

Twilight gave him a reluctant look before nodding in agreement much to the protests of her friends.

“Good…and don’t worry you’ll see more of your friends during their stay here just remember our agreement right?”

“Right,” She said with a resolute voice. She really wanted to spend more time with her friends, but right now in her current situation she can’t make any room for error. She hopes her friends would understand her decision when they learn the truth themselves.

Paranoia created a shadowy portal behind them and without another word he and Twilight stepped into the portal and disappeared. Once they left, a bolt of magic was shot straight at Fredrick, but he quickly took off his hat and pointed it at the magic bolt. The bolt went into the hat and disappeared never to be seen again.

“I appreciated that you didn’t try to do this during breakfast Shining Armor,” Fredrick said coldly.

“Grr….”

“I can feel everyone’s animosity towards me and I can understand that…but first, follow me into the lobby. We have things to discuss.”

/

After reluctantly following Lord Nightmare into the Lobby, the group stopped at the foot of the stairs as Panic and Fear blocked their path. Fredrick took a few steps up the stairs before stopping and facing the group.

“Well here we are. Now… if you have anything to say, say it now.”

“What did you do to my sister!” yelled Shining.

“Wasting no time with that question huh? Well then to be honest I did nothing…we simply came to an agreement.”

“An agreement?! You foalnapped her!”

“Yes I did, but that’s in the past. Although, initially I wanted to keep her at arm’s length, but…a certain unforeseen complication came up.”

Everybody in the group raised a brow when they heard this, but only one voiced their confusion, “Complication?” asked Luna.

“It’s none of your concern at least if everything goes according to plan it won’t be. But if doesn’t then it will be,” For a moment Fredrick’s eye briefly flashed violent and blue which caught Luna’s attention. She felt something during that brief moment; something familiar.

“Now I would like to make a deal with all of you,” This caught the group’s attention. They had a feeling he might want to bargain with them, but whatever it is they won’t accept any bribe this man has to offer, “I will give you three challenges no more…no less. If you beat two out of three of them, I will give Twilight back to you and turn myself in for my crimes. But, if you fail…you will leave my estate and return to your homes never to speak of the events that happened here to NO ONE.”

The group was surprised at the terms. But, the choice is obvious, “We accept your challenge!” yelled Rainbow Dash as she raised her fist into the air.

“Rainbow Dash that was a reckless answer, but I be lying if I said you didn’t speak our minds,” Applejack said as she adjusted her hat.

“Yeah!” added Pinkie.

“We were sent here to investigate originally, but now our new objective is to stop you!” Lucain exclaimed as he pointed his finger at Fredrick.

Fredrick closed his eyes for a moment before responding, “Good…that’s what I wanted to hear…” He then pointed his cane at Princess Luna and shot a red magic blast at her much to everyone’s surprise and shock. But, instead of hurting her it surrounded her body and trapped her in a bubble.

The rest of the group attempted to react to this only to hear Panic yell, “Thanks for dropping by!” He then press a hidden button on railing opening a trap door below the group causing them to fall into the dark unknown with their cries of surprise and anger slowly fading away. When the door closed Panic started to laugh maniacally with Fear join along as well.

“What did you do to them!” Luna yelled as she tried her best to get out of the bubble.

“It is simple your majesty…the first challenge starts now and you’re going to play as well…just not as a contestant…for now,” Fredrick said as he smiled under his mask.

/