A Walking Nightmare

I walked along the side of the road as I drifted to my next town, Canterlot. I was passed by many caravaneers, none offering me a ride. My hooves ached from the long walk from Manehattan, where I never settled down and kept moving. I just started reminiscing when I heard walking from behind me. I ignored the hoof falls, and acted to be in a day dream.

"Sir, can you hear me," a older stallion asked me. I acted to come back to the real world and apologized. I watched the old stallion look me over hoof to head, head to flank, determining if I was dangerous or not. "Would you like sir, me and my family are headed to Ponyville to meet up with family for a family reunion."

"Yes please, and thank you, you were the first to stop and ask," he smiled and walled with me to the back of the carriage. I climbed in and sat across from a mare with stunning emerald green eyes. I got comfy and finally happy to be off my feet. Determining where this family where headed I changed my next destination to Ponyville. I haven't ever messed up a family reunion. "Hello, it's nice to meet you miss."

"Nice to meet you too, my name is Apple Fritter, and your's is," she exclaimed while reaching her hoof out towards me. I grabbed it and we shook.

"My name is... just call me Somnium," she looked at me with a crossed look. Her brain turned trying to figure out my name.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Somnium," she told me, I nodded and moved to stretch my legs out and rest my eyes. My legs popped, and I let out a small moan of pleasure. I closed my eyes and forced myself into sleep.

I opened my eyes to find myself in an empty carriage. I stepped out into a black void that I filled with all of the faces I recorded on the road, ending with Fritter's. I vaporized the ponies, besides the old stallion and Fritter. I touched the image of the old man and all of his fears and wants rushed into my mind. His greatest fear was that of heights, and his deepest desire was that of his long deceased wife. Apple Fritter was afraid of many things, but her greatest flowing fear was that of ponies finding out she was in love with a pegasus, and her greatest want was that very same pegasus, a pegasus by the name of Blurry Night. I vaporized the images and shoved the information into the deepest recesses of my mind.

I was shook awake by Apple Fritter. I opened my eyes and sat up. She walked over to the back of the carriage and hoped out. I walked over to the back of the carriage and hoped out myself, and saw rows and rows, and yet more rows of apple trees. The scent of a properly running farm filled my nose, the same old familiar scent as the ones on the outskirts of Baltimare. I twisted my head and arched my backing, receiving spine tingling pops.

"Well, hello there partner, you must be Somnium," I looked over and saw an orange mare with a big Stetson hat adorning her head. I nodded, which she took as a go ahead to give my back a pat, which crushed my ribs. I wheezed for a second, but eventually caught my breath. She apologized for it. "Sorry, I'm Applejack, proud owner of Sweet Apple Acres, the largest apple farm in all of Equestria!"

"That's nice, but do you know where the closest inn, bar, and restaurant are," I asked. Her expression soured immediately as I said 'bar'. "I'm not looking to get drunk, I just need to clear my nerves."

"Yeah, the closest restaurant would be Sugarcube Corner, the closest bar would be the Drunken Three, and Ponyville doesn't have an inn, at least not that I know off," she spouted that all off as I burned holes into her eyes with my own. Her body language became uneasy with my unnerving stare. "Golly, you and Fluttershy put each other to shame with your stares. I'll show you a place that you can stay."

"Sure," I responded, although I doubt I had a choice. We walked down the dirt road separating the farmhouse from the orchard. The dirt was wet and muddy, most likely from a scheduled rainstorm, the sun was high in the sky, showing I was asleep for little more than a few hours. I looked back at the farm mare and noticed her staring back at me from the corner of her eye. I pretended not to know, and she continued staring. "Where are we headed?"

"Sugarcube Corner, my friend might have a spare room for you," she told me. I was starting to get antsy following somepony else around, instead of them following me. "Where you from,Somnuim?"

"I don't have a home," my answer made her more curious.

"Oh, yes you do, everypony has a home," her attitude pissed me off. "So, I'll ask again, where are you from?"

"No where," I told her, gritting my teeth and growling at the back of my throat. "Don't ask again."

"Fine, be that way," she groaned. Her smile vanished. We made our way into town and made our way to the center of it. We approached a building made of enough sweets to make my ancestors to have a tooth ache. We walked in and at a table were several mares sitting and playing a game of Go-Fish. A mare with pink hair was winning by a landslide. "Hey, ya'll, I have a visitor, I guess."

"Visitor," a violet unicorn whispered. She looked up and her face twitched slightly when she saw me. "Who are you?"

"My name is Somnium," I told them all. I watched the violet unicorn scan me with her eyes.

"Somnium, Somnium, where have I heard that before," she tapped her hoof to her chin, while still scanning me. "Wait, isn't that old English for Dream?"

"Yes, it is," I told them. I felt a tugging at my side and looked over to see the pink mare from early pulling an imaginary rope. The rope was pulling, and annoying me. I removed myself from the rope and threw it to the ground. The pink mare was saddened by my attitude. "I need a place to stay and the directions to the closest bar."

"The bar is down to the left and you can stay at my library for the mean time," she told me, as I left the bakery. I walked down the street and to the left and eventually found the bar. The Drunken Three, how fitting. I walked in and found a seat closest the jukebox. I sat down and watched as three stallions harrase one of the female waiters. I stood up and walked over to the three and exhaled loudly so they knew I was there.

"Oi, what do you want, can't you see we're having fun with our lady friend here, so book it bastard," I stood my ground as I memerized their faces. "You deaf, I told you to fuck off, and it wasn't a fucking question!"

"No," I replied. He was stunned, by both my bravery and that his taunts didn't work. His buddies started egging him on to stab me, the waitress screaming. I took one last glimpse around the bar, at the bartender who was watching the event unfold, two other bar patrons who were having a fun time drinking away their pains, and the waitress. I heard the door to the bar and watched the door open to reveal the violet unicorn from early. I felt a stab on the side of my neck, from the drunk pony. I grabbed the knife and fell to my side.

In my void, the faces of the bar goers popped up, the two drunk friends who were now trying to keep the violet unicorn from leaving and pulling her into the back room, the bartender had a sword drawn on the violet unicorn, making sure she didn't move or use her magic. The three drunk ponies were now mercilessly stabbing me and the waitress. I quickly found out what the waitress loved and saw that of her three foals growing up into proper ponies and continuing the family legacy. I played her last good thought of her kids in her head and her mind faded. I scanned the the rest of the ponies in the bar. Starting with the three murders, the leader was afraid of spiders, the other two were scared of death, rather their own death. The bartender was scared of his mind turning against him, and the two drunk friends were afraid of who they truly were. I closed my eyes shut and forced myself awake. When I awoke, the waitress was dead on top of me, the three drunkards were elsewhere. My skin grew hot, and I watched the black fire roll over my coat turning my once, navy blue coat into a mixture of red and black. I pushed the waitress off of me and stood up.

"How are you still alive, and the hell happened to your coat," one of the cronies asked me. I reached into his mind showing him being mangled into bloody and dead corpse, I changed the image and showed him getting his throat ripped out by Timberwolves, and finally I showed him getting murdered by his own friends. I removed myself from his mind, as his eyes dilated and he started laughing, he brought his pocket knife to his neck, digging it in and slitting his own throat. As he laughed he also cried, blood pouring from his wound. The laughing brought out the rest of the drunkards. The leader stared at the dead pony on the floor, and then at me.

"What did you do," the leader asked. The other killer tried to flee but I caught him time. Reaching into his mind, I gave him the same images as the first killer, and once I removed myself he went over to a table and repeatedly slammed his head into it, until he fell to the floor, his skull caved in. "What the actual fuck, leave me alone!"

He threw his knife at me, piercng me in the leg. I pulled the knife out of my leg and dropped it to the floor. He ran back into the back of the store, only to come scrambling out. To him, he saw millions upon millions of small spiders charging him, to me he looked like a foal crawling from a... spider. I kicked the knife over to him, just in his reach. He grabbed it and started stabbing himself, trying to kill the spiders. Eventually, he had a heart attack from the sheer panic of the fake spiders. I walked into the back of the bar. To find the bartender holding the unicorn hostage. The unicorn was unconscious and he had his sword against her throat.

"Come any closer and I'll kill her, you killed my best god damn customers, and I sure as hell ain't dying myself," I stopped and reached into his mind, leaving him in control of his thoughts, but not his body control. I made him drop the unicorn and into the back of the bar. He entered the storage and I found the two drunk friends and I cut them down where the stood. I released control of the bartender, but I stayed to watch the show as the bartender turned the sword against himself and seared himself in the heart, crying while doing so.

I woke the violet unicorn, and she was scared and dazed. She asked me questions, but I collapsed to return to my domain. My safehaven.