Apple Bloom shivered with fright as the voice came closer.
"Apple Bloom! Are you in there? It's me, your big sister! There's nothing to be afraid of."
Applejack hugged her sister tighter as the voice drew nearer. They had both seen the blood in the kitchen, and were locked in Applejack’s room as the thing claiming to be Applejack drew nearer.
“Are you in here, sis?” The voice was right outside her door now, the handle rattled, the lock cracked, and the door opened. In entered a creature that looked not entirely unlike Applejack. It was as if something had been described her in detail, but had never seen a pony. While looking eerily similar to Applejack, its mouth went back too far, like a dog’s, and it’s eyes were filled with pure malice. Also, Applejack’s hat, despite her attachment to it, was not a physical part of her head.
"Peekaboo,” the Applejack-Thing giggled, “I found y-"
It did not have time to finish it's threat before its head exploded.
There in the doorway, horn glowing like the last light in the darkness, stood Princess Luna, Guardian of the night.
"Princess!" The Apple sisters called out at the same time.
“Fear not, my little ponies!” Luna announced slightly too loud for comfort, “Your dreams have been cleansed!”
“What was that thing, your majesty?” The elder Apple inquired.
“And is she dreaming’ this? Or am I?” Apple Bloom piped in.
“To answer the little one’s question first,” Luna nodded toward the young crusader, “the two of you are sharing a dream right now. This is a rare occurrence, but not entirely unheard of, especially when the dreamscape is turbulent, as it has been of late.”
“To answer your question, Element of Honesty, that foul beast was a malevolent dream spirit. You both may be aware that nightmares are caused by the fears and doubts you carry throughout your waking moments.” The earth ponies nodded. “Dream Spirits such as this are the exceptions to that rule. They are malevolent parasites that feed off of your fear and can influence the dreamscape the produce more fear from their victims. I have fought many over the centuries, indeed it would not be inaccurate to say that a part of my duty as guardian of the night is to slay those spirits that seek to harm the ponies under my protection.”
“It is curious,” Luna went on. “Tonight I have fought seven such spirits already. tis a rare thing to see more than one in a fortnight, but to come across so many in a night leads me to suspect foul play at work.” Luna opened a portal into raw dreamscape. “I bid the both of you farewell, enjoy your dream, for I fear I am needed elsewhere.”
Rarity was trapped, with nothing but cold, dirty, rock behind her and her captors in front of her. She had nowhere to run.
“Pretty pony not gonna get away this time,” the largest of the Diamond Dogs growled.
“Not going to need you for digging up gems anymore” The middle one grinned widely.
“We've got other things in mind for the pretty ponies loud mouth,” the third one laughed and licked his chops in a manner most uncouth.
“Stay away from me, you ruffians!” Rarity was more terrified than she let on. She had a bad feeling her previous tactic of annoying her foes into submission might backfire here.
The Largest of the dogs took a threatening step forward. “We’re going to shut pretty pony up by-”
It is unknown how he had been planning on shutting Rarity up, as he was interrupted by a bolt of magic liquifying his head.
The survivors turned to find Princess Luna burst through a hole in the cave that had not been there before, her horn charged with magic
The second one had barely had time to move before being bisected buy a beam of magic. The third one tried to flee, but Luna’s horn pierced it through the shoulder, holding it in place as she interrogated it.
“Where are you coming from?” She demanded. “How are you so adept at mixing natural fears with the unnatural? WHO IS LEADING YOU?!?”
The smallest diamond dog grinned a grin so wide she thought his head might fall off.
“Ask the pretty pony.” he laughed. Then he started glowing and heating up. Luna barely had time to throw him away from her before he exploded, cracking Rarity’s dream down to the foundation.
“Oh, thank you, your majesty! I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been here. Who knows what they would have…”
“The dream spirits would have fed off your fear, until there was nothing left but a broken husk.” Luna interrupted. “What did they mean by ‘ask the pretty pony’?”
Dream spirits? Why, I have no idea why those brutes would refer you to me, I…”
“I think I might have an idea,” Luna said, ripping a hole in Rarity’s dream and depositing her next to a confused Applejack. “Miss Rarity’s dream was badly damaged in an accident, would the two of you mind sharing?”
“No! No! Get away!” the Diamond Dogs cowered as a beast that looked not entirely unlike Rarity advanced upon them. “We don’t want any more trouble!”
It opened its mouth and an unnaturally painful sound emitted from it as the dogs collapsed, paws covering their ears as the pain.
“Don't the three of you want to spend some time with me?” it laughed, driving the dogs into deeper pain.
Out from under the Diamond Dogs Treasure Trove, burst a Regal dark blue alicorn. The Rarity-thing snarled as it was encased in a magical Shield.
“Ask the pretty pony, indeed.” Luna snorted as the dream spirit flailed.
“Who is leading you? Why are the dream spirits so restless this night?”
The creature glared at her, eyes filled with rage, as it drew a thin steel dagger glowing with eldritch runes from one of it's folds of flesh.
“For Nightmare!” It roared, cutting through Luna’s shield spell. Luna reared back yo avoid being slashed by the magic blade, and when she did, the rogue dream spirit took off like a bolt of evil lightning.
‘You aren't going to get away that easily, monster!” Luna used her magic to latch onto the Beasts leg. “I'll follow you to the ends of the Earth if need be.”
Luna followed the fleeing creature thru the dreams until they reached a giant castle in the midst of the dreamscape. The Rarity-thing bolted towards it only to catch itself in the previously unseen barbed wire surrounding it. Luna, who was latched on at the time, had no choice but to crash into it. The sudden addition of a few hundred extra pounds of horse on to the spirit’s already cut frame wound up shredding it.
The castle loomed before her. It's tall, dark spires seemed to stretch into the heavens above. As Luna approached the open doorway, it slammed shut, sseming to mock her as tiny gargoyles that weren't there before began laughing. Luna briefly considered knocking before just blasting the door down
“Come out, monster! You’ll not harm any more of my little ponies. Stand forth and do battle with the princess of the night, ruler of the dreamscape, and co-ruler of equestria.”
At first, nothing happened. The castle sat dark and restless and Luna briefly wondered if this was somehow a distraction. Then a voice echoed out from the darkness.
“Well, well, well. If it isn't little Luna herself. Last time I saw you, you were far closer to my height. Oh how the years just fly by.”
A remarkably unremarkable pony stepped out of the shadows. He was a Sky Blue Unicorn with dark blue hair and the Cutie Mark of a bed surrounded by clouds his most striking feature work is bright, golden, eerily happy eyes. That and a smile unnaturally chipper for a leader of an army of nightmares.
Luna was unfazed. “Thou hast heard of me villain?”
“Ah, Luna, I'm offended. Don't you remember? That wild night we spent in Prance dancing the night away?”
Luna wasn’t used to being addressed in such a casual fashion. She also had never been to Prance. “No such event ever occurred, fiend. Why have you come here?”
“Is that so?” He tilted his head quizzically. “Oh, Then it must have been a hallucination. I had an awful lot of hallucinations over that thousand years I spent trapped in the nightmare box.” His eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
Luna’s brain began sending out warnings, but she persisted. “The nightmare box? I have not used such a barbaric punishment since…” Then she remembered.
“Since one little pony got too big for his britches and tried to become a major player in the dreamscape.” He finished her sentence for her. “I remember it well. After all, I was there.”
Memories came flooding back as Luna recalled the name of her adversary. And memories of the ambition that had led to his being locked in a part of the dreamscape Luna had filled with an unpleasant number of dream spirits.
“Sweet Dreams? Is that you?” Luna began feeling very guilty. “By the gods...
“I'm afraid the gods don't have much to do with our current predicament, Luna. Unless you’re counting you and your sister, which to me seems a bit arrogant.”
“Let me see if I can recall what you said correctly. You said: ‘if thou wishes to rule the dreamscape, val shalt first this one region. I shall return in a week's time I'll expect your apology then.’ 20 years later I got a suspicion you wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.”
Luna was appalled. “I am so sorry Sweet-” she began.
“My name is not Sweet Dreams anymore Luna.” He interrupted with a slight growl in his voice.
Luna racked her brain to remember what the deluded soul had called himself when he had tried to take over the dreamscape years before.
“Lucid, then-”
“Sorry,” he cut her off, “you're close, but Lucid died after a few hundred years in the Box. Still, nice of you to remember that much. I really would have appreciated it, however, if you'd let me out of the box when you escaped the Moon, but I'm sure you had more important things on your mind.” The shadows slowly started moving towards them.
“Lu... What is your name then?” Luna asked, shifting her weight in anticipation.
“So nice of you to ask. You know, I thought long and hard about what my title should have been and then it came to me. So blatantly obvious, if you weren't going to be using it anymore, I suppose that freed it up for me to use.” He grinned wider, and Luna saw his mouth was filled with razor sharp fangs.
“You can call me... Nightmare.”
The shadows encircled him, lifting him into the air.
“I think it fits my status as the new ruler of the dreamscape.” He went on.
“How dare you?” Luna cried, “This land is mine by right of-”
“By right of what exactly? Being an alicorn? I hardly think that just because some magic spell made you grow a horn, that that in any way entitles you to rule an entire dimensional plane.”
His coat had been bleached by the darkness, and a tuft of hair fluttered down from the ceiling. Lucid, or Nightmare as he was now calling himself was not doing too well.
“You remember how my plan was to become a draconequus, the spirit of imagination and the immaterial? I didn't just get out of the box 30 seconds ago, Luna I've been out for 200 years now, and I've spent that time setting up some devious little punishments for those responsible for my eons of agony.”
A few small portals into other dreams began appearing around the room.
After the shock of being in the Box for centuries wore off, I wanted nothing more than to make you suffer. I imagine the most painful of scenes to place you in, and I will admit those gave me some Solace those long long luck nights.”
In some of the dream bubbles Luna could see rusted chains, dream Spirits with ropes, and a lot of red on the ground.
“Then I spent another few centuries in the Box and I feel that I grew and matured during that time. After that I decided um or psychological torture would be more prudent for you.”
In a few more of the bubbles, Luna could see what look like her friends and family with malevolent smiles on their faces.
“Then, after a few more centuries I feel I matured enough to realize that wasn't important. That Revenge was not the important thing. But simply getting you out of the way was.”
“Nightmare, I'm sorry but you have to to understand…”
“I do understand Luna,” he said with a warmth that put Luna off her guard. “I understand you couldn't exactly let me out of the box while you were on the moon, I don't blame you for that. I blame you for putting in the Box in the first place. But I accept that some things are beyond even your control. Celestia is the one I blame for that Thousand Years, and don't you worry, I have something special in mind for her as well.”
“If you harm so much as a single hair on my sister's head I will-”
“You are not in a position to be making threats Luna, I spent my 200 years of freedom uniting the dream spirits, staking my claim in this dimension, and preparing to strike. You've known about me for what, 5 minutes? I hardly think that's enough time to come up with a decent plan.”
Luna smirked. “I plan to slaughter your armies, break you down and take you before Celestia for judgement. How does that sound as a plan, villain?”
By now all but his head was completely enveloped in shadow. “That sounds like you weren't listening when I said the word ‘draconequus.’ I suppose I don't really look the part now, so here, let me show you what I meant.”
Nightmare’s head separated from his body and floated up into the air. As his body crumbled to dust, a new body grew out from his neck, but this was not a pony’s body. It was instead the body of a huge bipedal dragon. Bulging muscles and long sharp claws made his tiny, pony sized head look out of place. His head then morphed into a exact replica of Luna's head, and all around it a new head matching his old features grew to match the scale of his new, draconic body. The Luna head started laughing maniacally as beneath his dragon arms grew a pair of crab like pincers. His lower body begin to stretch as he grew longer and longer. New pairs of limbs would sprout at points, no two pairs being alike, as his lower body became more and more centipede-like.
Luna gasped as any last shred of pon-anity, vanished from the poor beast, and in his stead, stood a creature of, Luna was loathe to admit, nightmares.
“I believe the qualifications for draconequus were to have the head of a pony and the body made up of all sorts of things. And if that's the case then I surely qualify.” The pony head around the speaking Luna head didn't move.
“So, princess of the night, I challenge you for rulership of the dreamscape.”
Luna knew there was no hope for him at this point, so she simply held up a hoof, and beckoned it come and face her.
“Then let us dance, princess.”
With that, the monster that was once named Sweet Dreams charged her.
Luna reares up to avoid his first haymaker punch, then turned to buck him straight in the face. Her hooves hit bone with a satisfying crunching sound. Her satisfaction faded when his claw reached down and snatched her up. He began applying enough pressure to crack her spine. But in the few seconds before she was pulped, she summoned the powers of the dreamscape to her, and formed a suit of armor around her vulnerable flesh. Another burst of magic shattered his chitinous appendage, freeing her.
Without so much as a word, his remaining claw ripped open a hole to another dream. He was fleeing. Luna was not about to let him get away.
It was a beautiful day in Ponyville, and Twilight Sparkle was excited. A picnic with her friends have been planned and all the best friends we're going to be there. Rarity and Applejack had already arrived, and Twilight was nose deep in her book as she waited for the rest of her friends to show up.
Turned her head of notice Pinkie Pie running towards them at high speed. A smile on her face that was honestly slightly unnerving but Twilight Shrugged it off as Pinkie being Pinkie. She waved, Pinkie’s smile expanded, and her speed increased.
Pinky left into the air as if to give a wild hug, and Twilight notice just a moment too slow that the pose her friend was making was not one for hug giving, but for head punching off.
Fortunately that was not to be the case as a chimerical abomination crashed through a hole in reality right into the manic element of laughter. It was soon followed by Princess Luna dressed in battle armor and shouting a very descriptive threat at the creature.
The beast turned on its heel (heels) and punched Luna hard in the face. Luna brought her head down slightly so as to use her helmet to absorb the brunt of the blow. When knuckles met steel, things broke, not the steel.
As the monster shook it's now very broken knuckles off and Luna charged a blast to her horn, Twilight woke up, swearing never again to eat peanut butter and Daisy sandwiches before bed
--
The two of them crashed into Pinkie Pie's dream.
As streamers fell and balloons popped, Luna leapt in front of Nightmare to prevent his escape.
“No more. No more running. No more frightening my subjects. You challenge me, then you flee? You have already proven you are not fit to rule the Dreamscape.” Her Expressions softened ever-so-slightly Let me help you Lucid. I know I can never make up for trappinf in there for a thousand years, but it is not too late for you. Let me…”
Nightmare started laughing.
“Sorry Luna, you falling into my trap. I've been setting up these dreams for months now.”
Luna’s horn stopped glowing.
“You may not know this, but here's an interesting little fact about pre-made dreams. You can twist the logic of a dream to your rules if you've spent enough time making it. And I spent a very long time on midd Pinkamina Diane Pie’s dream. So much so that you may have just realized you can no longer use magic here.”
Luna cursed herself for letting her self be led into a trap.
“Another special little fact you might have wanted to pick up on, is that Miss Pie’s dreams are a bit closer in sync with reality. Have you figured out what that means?”
He drew his remaining claw against the wall and a hole opened up into Celestia's throne room.
“It means I can access realspace from here.”
“You are not going to get any further than this, Lucid. I've been going easy on you up till now, but even you should know I can't let you into real space. Equestria does not have room for another draconequus. If you continue to press the matter I will be forced to stop you. Permanently.”
The figure several feet taller than her and considerably more muscled smiled wth her face.
“So what do you think you can do without your magic, dearheart?
“You forget,” she panted, “I still have my horn.”
“Oh what are you going to do,” he laughed, ‘stab me with it?”
“Yes!!” Luna roared as she charged him.
Nightmare retwisted the magic around her as her horn pierced his flesh.
Nightmare screamed in agony, as did Luna as she felt her armor twisting and tightening around around her, as if to crush her ribs and drive the air from her lungs.
As the two of them crashed into real space, Luna felt a surge of power return to her body.
“I'm sorry”, she whispered, as a bolt of magic pulsed into his body, transforming him back into a simple unicorn, one without armor plating. As the two fell into the middle of Celestia's throne room Twilight Sparkle, her friends, and Celestia were all staring in horror as his lifeless course slumped to the ground.
“Sister, I'm glad you're here, an ancient threat has returned from…”
“Luna. what have you done?”
“What do you mean?” the look of triumph in her eyes turned to fear in an instant.
“You have slaughtered a pony in cold blood, Nightmare Moon! For that you will Pay!” Celestia
“What no I…” , too late Luna realized what he had done. He hadn't been destroying her armor, he had been changing it. Luna's once regal protection had been twisted into the frightening plate she had worn when going by the name of Nightmare Moon.
“We have always been worried you would return to your evil ways as Nightmare Moon, And now I see those fears brought to life.”
“So now we have no choice but to use the elements. I'm sorry I have to do this to you again sister, but you left me with no other option.”
Twilight Sparkle and her friends began glowing with a rainbow of lights Luna had seen once before.
“Please, Celestia, I-” A blinding flash of light cut her off from her pleading, and then, Luna felt a familiar chill.
Luna opened her eyes, looked around at the gray Barren landscape, then up at the planet, then screamed.
“Sister, are you alright?” Celestia ran into the room. I heard the commotion, has something happened?”
Luna was sitting up in her bed white as a sheet. She panted for a few moments, caught her breath, then turned to her sister.
“I'm sorry, Celestia, I just had a long night and more than a few bad dreams. I'm sorry I woke you.”
“That's alright, Luna,” Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. “I had a bad dream myself. I can stay and talk about it if you'd like, if work too hard for you I can-” she trailed off.
“Actually, sister, this has only strengthened my resolve. That such monsters continue to haunt the night only goes to show…” She smiled a smile ever so slightly too wide as her eyes flashed with a gold glint.
“I've got a lot of work ahead of me.”
To Be Continued...