Hyrulequestria

Ch.3

Our daily routine seemed set after that. I would do some gardening in the morning, hunt in the afternoon, and cook in the evening. Nightmare would check in on me, nearly at the exact same time through the day too. Then we would go to bed, me sexually frustrated to the nines, and then I would wake up the next day feeling beyond refreshed despite how anxious I was going to sleep. The only reason I got any sleep despite the sexual tension and the fear of the undead apparently shambling outside was Nightmare snuggling me just as tightly as ever.

Anyway, Nightmare didn’t seem to lose hope with her situation, despite finding little to nothing every day that went by. Sure, she figured out how the barrier was working, what general direction out of the forest to go, but nothing else and she wasn’t ‘ready’ to head out on a prolonged excursion.

“Well, this is a pickle,” I whispered, noticing a group of reindeer walking through the edge of the ruins when I was going for my daily hunt. They didn’t look to be on alert, but they were soldiers and from the same faction as that one group that attacked Nightmare, dickgirls too judging by the bulges in their trousers and their breasts. They had rifles this time instead of just pistols and were heading for the ruins with intent. “I’d better hide, hopefully, Nightmare doesn’t-.”

“Doesn’t what?” Nightmare asked behind me, nearly making me squeak before I turned around and pressed my hands to her mouth, her eyes shocked.

“Shush~ more of those soldiers are here, and they brought rifles this time,” I explained pointing to the group below. “We should hide until they pass through.”

“You have any idea why Gamma went missing?” One of the reindeer called out from the back.

“Wild animal most likely, Kettle always did think more with her dick.” One of the others yelled out. “No point trying to find them.”

“That’s cold sarge!” The first barked even as she watched her leader’s ass and rubbed her bulge.

“Keep it in your pants.” The leader said as Nightmare and I backed away, creeping slowly away from the patrol. “Hold up! Spread out! There’s signs that someone has been here recently!” Before I could panic, Nightmare wrapped her arms around me and I had to blink spots out of my vision to see she’d taken me to a cellar filled with new weapons and armor, as well as several disassembled Luger pistols. I’d wondered what Nightmare did with all of that gear.

“Stay here John.” Nightmare whispered and then vanished on me, leaving me absolutely fraught with worry. The last time she went up against those guys she was defenseless without her magic.

“Crap! I can’t just leave her alone!” I whined, looking for something useful, sifting through the weapons and armor for something that could help me. I found some lamellar armor, the padding and lt being very thick, might stop a bullet.

I grunted as I started putting it on, tying the straps in a place like I’d been doing it for years. I didn’t know Robin Hood wore armor, but then again, I also didn’t know he knew how to use a rifle, so I’ll take it. I grunted from the weight of the gear before I grabbed a bundle of arrows to top off my quiver. I checked for more rifle rounds but didn’t see any. The round form the Lugers would not work with my current Springfield, and there weren’t many to speak of anyway.

Frowning at the lack of rounds, I pocketed a few of those gas grenades the first group of soldiers had and started moving for the door while drawing my sword. I put myself on guard as I moved upstairs, ready to stab anyone trying to attack me. I was more prepared to kill someone as I blended into the shadows, disappearing from view as I snuck out of the cellar Nightmare had left me.

I found no signs of them as I crept around the ruins, moving lightly and keeping my steps from disturbing the brush. I was even pocketing sand to blind these soldiers with if things got too close, my mind bringing up how to skillfully pick their pockets or sweet talk them if I could keep hidden or manage a parlay. Walking around I found the dead reindeer, noting how animals had started scavenging from their corpses.

I could faintly hear the soldiers looking for us, always missing me as I grabbed old cloth and sticks. Tripwires were on my mind right now as I walked ahead of the soldiers to a choke point and carefully set one up. That left me with two more as I moved to two more gates that they would most likely use. One behind them and the other to their left.

Once done setting up the kill zone I moved to get away from the gas, knowing it’s range, and taking up a sniping position in the trees upwind of the grenades, heavily concealed as I notched an arrow. Soon enough, a couple of the soldiers neared my trap. I didn’t aim for their hearts or heads, but for a canister that looked similar to the grenades, I just used for the tripwires.

I waited as they crossed the courtyard, they were moving in a square, watching each other as they checked every nook and cranny they could. I needed a clearer shot, and for them to move closer, even if I had traps, getting them all in one go was better.

“Dammit! This wasn’t some wild animal.” The leader snarled as they came upon the corpses in the main foyer of the keep. “Whoever it is, they have a decently powerful rifle on hand. Check on high, the wound is at a high angle.”

I swore before backing up into hiding, hoping my traps would at least thin them out. I waited...and waited. “...Why isn’t anything going off?” I carefully peeked back down and saw that a couple of them had gone right past one of my traps. I silently facepalmed and ran my hand down my snout. I forgot they have cloven hooves, not single hooves like Nightmare or paws like me. Even if they are wearing boots, they step differently. Should have made a pressure plate...if I had the time.

My frustration was short-lived however, as one of my traps finally went off. I looked down below to see it caught a single doe, and she went down like a sack of potatoes, only her eyes moving as she breathed. “Oh great, watch out for booby traps! Nicole just got paralyzed!” Paralyzing gas? Oh yeah, they did call it that.

Wishing I’d kept more grenades on me, I readied the one I didn’t use for a trap, only to snarl at seeing them all pull up scarves around their snouts. Probably in case they had to use their gas in enclosed spaces. Damnit, I forgot militaries tend to be smart. Oh well, guess they all have to die...well, besides Nicole who was basically left to gurgle helplessly next to the archway I’d trapped. Wow, these girls have no love for each other, do they?

I backtracked a bit to get another angle as they turned into the area that had the Church building. I was keeping to the shadows still as I crept around the towers and trees. Creeping around one roof that had a hole in it I slid down to the floor below, looking out the window of a third-story building, making sure the light didn’t hit me.

I was still considering what to do when Nightmare burst out of the shadows, twin Lugers out and she promptly capped them all in the domes like she’d been a professional badass like Two Hands Revy from Black Lagoon. I was gawking down at the scene as she blew her pistols and looked straight up at me. “John. Get down here. Now.”

“Eep…” I reluctantly jumped down and landed before her like an overly-armored ninja.

“I told you to stay in the forge. I haven’t just been staying in bed with you every night. I can handle myself.” Nightmare chided me with disapproval and disappointment, like an upset parent. Or an upset girlfriend…

“H-how’d you guess I thought you’d need help?” I weakly asked the Princess who simply started using her magic to strip the soldiers and sending their gear away, likely to her cellar/forge. “I was concerned, and I got one of them.”

“Yes, you were, and you did. Alive at that. It’s why I’m not putting a collar on you and making you go walkies all the way back home like a bad fox.” Nightmare leered angrily down at me and I whimpered, my ears bending so far back and down I thought they might melt into my neck. “Oh well, you showed initiative and you captured a prisoner.”

“So what now?” I asked as I grabbed more grenades from the recently deceased.

“Now, you get to help me carry our new prisoner back to the bakery.” Nightmare then vanished the corpses. “I’d rather they not rise like the others. The fewer of the Undead shambling about, the better.”

“Um...what are you planning to do with those?” I asked I walked back over to her.

“Leaving them for the Everfree to possess and use for whatever purpose it has in mind is lazy and a bad decision. I’ll be turning them into fertilizer for the garden.” At her words, I felt a little sick at the idea of eating vegetables grown from the remains of thinking/feeling people. Even if they are dual-sexed nazis. Then again, it’s how nature works, after all, Circle of Life and all that. Lion King is educational.

---]===>

“I have mixed feelings about this,” I admitted, looking at the stark naked doe tied to a chair with rags and a gag in her mouth, Nightmare leering at our visibly scared prisoner with hatred.

“Don’t. She’s a soldier of the Caribou. They enslaved My Little Ponies when they conquered my lands.” Nightmare snarled as she pulled out the gag. “Now start talking before I start cutting prisoner.”

“Wait, your land?” The caribou cow chuckled. “I thought it was the land of the bitch that’s always sucking my king’s cock!” Nightmare blinked as she looked at the mare. “The white gal that had the big boobs and rainbow hair, Our king had her on her knees sucking her off days after we took the capital.” She chuckled again.

“Is she stupid?” I asked knowing this a bit of a boon of info, even if vague.

“She might not be.” Nightmare groaned. “She knows we can barely do anything with that, She didn’t say where this ruler is, nor if they’re still in this land and not their homeland.”

“Okay, so what about the patrols?” I asked but the reindeer stayed quite this time, grinning as if she already won.

Nightmare snarled before using magic to grab her apple-sized nuts and pull. She cried out in pain and struggled in the chair for a good five minutes. Nightmare seemed to be just moments from castrating the Caribou before she yelped. “WE ALWAYS SEND A SQUAD IN TO CHECK ON THE ELEMENTS!” She slumped back into the chair when Nightmare let her family jewels go, her poor testicles red and inflamed, causing me to hiss and cross my legs in sympathy.

“So that means so long as we’re here, we’ll always have to deal with you lot coming here and endangering us.” Nightmare growled as she paced back and forth in irritation.

“Yeah, bitch.” The Caribou named Nicole growled.

“Maybe it’s just the ruins?” I suggested.

“Where else in this damn forest would be worth the time?” Nicole the Caribou raked her eyes up and down us both. “All the worthwhile parts of it are here. Though even then we can’t stay after sundown or the legions of dead kills any caribou still inside the border established by the Elements.” Nicole was eye-fucking us and shamelessly eyeing our groins the most.

“Head on your shoulders, not between your legs.” Nightmare hissed, using her magic to force Nicole to keep her head looking up at us from her seat. “Now, talk. Tell me everything willingly and I won’t rip it from your mind as you sleep.”

“Wait...you’re her!” Nicole suddenly looked incredibly terrified, jerking back to try and escape Nightmare’s magic grasp in futility. “The Mare in the Moon! You’re what the ponies keep telling boogie-mare stories about!”

“Ah, so My Little Ponies do still remember me! At least for a righteously angry outburst that lasted all of an hour before sister banished me!” Nightmare let the cow’s head go and crossed her arms under her bust in annoyance.

“Wait...so that damage outside happened in an hour?” I asked and Nicole pissed herself in fear. Or, at least looked like it. She pissed herself when she was hit by the paralysis gas, stuff knocks out everything but your eyes and lungs apparently.

“Okay, okay!” Nicole gasped. “We check this place once a month, we only go from our base straight to the Elements because of all the dangerous wildlife here and the undead, only during the day is it safest. The only reason my team came after just a week of the previous one was because they never returned. When my team doesn’t come back, they’ll probably send a whole platoon to find out what happened. Day patrols just don’t vanish.”

“Great, same issue. We should plant an animal with the bodies in its belly and have it rush your fort. Maybe convince some beast got a taste.” I suggested.

“The only issue with that John is that the only beasts here that could be big enough to do that are next to impossible to control in any means that wouldn’t implicate them being controlled.” Nightmare huffed and looked at the darkening sky outside.

“What about Undead? Take some of their weapons and shoved them into the corpses?” I suggested.

“Might work, but I Don't want to risk provoking them to attack us.” Nightmare sighed.

“So we need to move then?” I asked in disappointment. This former ruin of a bakery has been a better home in the past week than anything after leaving Mom’s place. Especially after that bitch somehow got nearly everything in the divorce. Damned bitch, damned corrupt lawyer.

“That would be the best course of action.” Nightmare admitted before looking at Nicole. “Now, let’s get rid of this thing.” Nightmare took out a Luger, causing Nicole to scream and I suddenly found myself pushing Nightmare’s wrist down. “...John. You have five seconds to explain why you’re stopping me.”

“Maybe we can still use her. Find a place like this that is not patrolled by their army.” I suggested. “We both barely know of the land beyond.”

“Speak for yourself, John. I’ve been dream delving for the past week. Where else do you think I could have learned how to use a gun, let alone two at the same time?” Nightmare demanded but stopped trying to push the gun in Nicole’s face.

“Look. She’s a readily available source of that kind of information. One you don’t have to go out into the smog during the day to understand the modern-day situation.” I urged the Princess.

“A point.” She growled as Nicole wiggled and looked us over again. “But she’s a Caribou. The whole race is invariably a Hopelessly Horny Hermaphrodite Harem that is always sexually charged like a mare in near-constant heat.”

“Won’t lie, she’s right.” Nicole grinned sheepishly, her cock hard and dripping. “I’m scared for my life and I’m also somehow turned on by this. Mind helping a girl out?”

“John is straight as an arrow and I’m afraid I’m not in any sort of mood.” Nightmare declared...wait, she didn’t say she wasn’t interested! Wait, pervy things aside. This is a serious talk.

“How should we move?” I asked, looking around.

“I already have contingencies in place. We’ll still have to come back and get vegetable seeds to transplant later, but for now, I can take us somewhere I would much rather not be.” Nightmare looked saddened for a moment.

“Where?” I asked out of concern.

“I’d rather not talk about it. I’ll say more when we’re there.” She told me, her eyes still forlorn.

---]===>

When the spots in my eyes cleared, we seemed to be standing in a large round chamber with pillars occasionally interrupting the space and a winding staircase leading up along the walls to the second floor with stairs also leading down.

“Huh?” I asked as I heard a whining Nicole, who quickly fished out her uniform scarf. It wasn’t until then that my eyes started watering and I began coughing until Nightmare put a scarf over my snout.

“That’s the air outside Everfree. I managed to make my way here under the oppressive cover of night by flying just above the smog, but below anything in the clouds.” Nightmare stated as she moved to the left-hand stairs.

“Where are we?” I asked looking about as I followed.

“Starswirl Tower, or as most local slaves call it these days; the Hallow Hall.” Nightmare informed us as she led us upstairs.

“We could never find this,” Nicole commented as she followed. “How did you?”

“None of your business.” Nightmare growled as we climbed up. “Now I know he had something here to clear the air of bad weather for just under the roof.” Nightmare mumbled as she led us into a dusty and cobweb-filled library. Enormous bookcases stretched to the ceiling, lining up with the pillars in a maze of knowledge.

Nicole and I stuck close to the Princess as the dark and eerie library felt almost oppressive as if just being here felt incredibly wrong and it was hard not to just turn around and run away. Maybe this is part of why nobody could find it? Is this place cursed? “Hey, um, Princess? Is this place cursed?”

“Oh, yes. Very. Don’t touch anything.” Nightmare casually said, as if it was an afterthought as she moved to a table in the center of the library.

“What?!” Nicole yelped, jumping away from a misplaced book.

“Starswirl liked his solitude, so he enchanted the whole tower with a misdirection curse to start. Then he placed several layers of illusions over it to hide it on top of that. Then the counter-magic wards, then the anti-magic wards, then the anti-ANTI-magic wards. The old nag was paranoid to the extreme.” Nightmare calmly informed us as she rooted around the contents under the central desk.

“Yes, yes, now what do you want Luna.” A floating ghost-flaming SKULL said while rounding a corner.

“Oh, Starswirl. I guess you went the lich route. But I’m Nightmare moon, not Luna, have you not paid attention-”

“Stop being such an edgy bitch and use the name your parents gave you Luna. Insist on it again and I’ll cast you out of my tower for a week.” He told her with a glowing white glare in his eye sockets. “I tried several other methods of obtaining immortality, like time travel, it took my left leg, planting a damn magical seed to save Equestria and a toothbrush.”

“Wait your name is Luna?” Nicole asked as Nightmare snarled and stomped up the stairs.

“The room that is holding the BLUE glowing orb is the weather control system.” Star Swirled shouted after her. “The red one will blow up the Canterhorn. As enticing as that option might be with those deviants having occupied the country, please refrain from killing innocent people.”

“Why do you have a button to blow up a mountain?” Nicole asked.

“Reasons.” Star Swirled told her before floating away.

“Uh...” The Caribou blinked.

“Let’s just follow Nightmare.” I tugged at the rope around the prisoner’s hands to get her going. Getting to the bottom floor was not really hard, it was finding the room that Nightmare was in that was. That was mostly because this place was a maze of bookshelves and I had no idea which way she went after getting to the bottom.

“So she’s actually called Luna? Would explain who the bitch was talking about.” Nicole said with a smile, trying to get under my skin. I actually had no idea what she was talking about so It didn’t really bother me. “Okay, where is she?”

“I don’t know, shut up.” I groaned as we aimlessly walked around.

“How did you two end up back down there?!” Nightmare called from upstairs with annoyance. “Did you touch something?”

“Ah...” Nicole was holding a book about sex with tentacles slowly squirming out of the pages. Um, not that I wouldn’t mind her giving that book a try, but not with me right next to you please!

“The reindeer did.” I groaned before guiding said prisoner back to the stairs to climb up.

“Hey, I’m a Caribou you twit. We’re bigger, better, and bolder than those little ninnys. Especially the does with their tiny little antlers.” Nicole huffed in frustration, still keeping the book in her bound hands, the tentacles thankfully content to just wrap around her wrists for now.

“Reindeer,” I told her.

“They’re Caribou John. if there’s one thing I don’t condone, it’s racism.” Nightmare affirmed offhandedly while leading us up the stairs, keeping an eye on us.

“Fine.” I groaned. “Just been calling them reindeer in my head since I first spotted them. Couldn't tell the difference really.”

“They’re the same family of species, like how cattle and buffalo are in the same family, or how all ponies despite tribe are all ponies still.” Nightmare informed me as we continued climbing up the floors of the tower. Geez, this place is huge. Big enough to easily take up a quarter of the keep at the ruins and it’s just a singular tower.

“Ah.” I acknowledged as we walked up the stairs until we reached the top floor which had four rooms. One glowed red, the other blue, one green, and the last just had a blue-robed skeleton without a head on it sitting in a stone throne. “Too much climbing.”

“It’s why I opted to float about instead.” Star Swirl told us idly as he floated over a book on a lectern next to what must be his body in the throne. “I would spend more time hauling my old bones up and down this tower than I would spend reading, and teleportation without sufficient breaks in between can cause molecular instability unless you have cellular regeneration or a stabilizing blah blah blah, yadda yada….”

Nicole and I blinked at him in confusion as he kept going until Nightmare walked into the room that was glowing blue and touched the orb inside. We followed her in and ignored the yammering skull as we watched her randomly touch the orb before some rain dripped on us all from the ceiling. I looked around and noticed there was a cloud up there, some magical shield protecting the books below.

Before I could ask, the cloud suddenly swept through the air, making Nicole and I yelp as we watched it sink to the floor and start flowing downstairs, getting darker as it went. “There. That will clean the smog out of the air as the system seals the tower against the elements.”

“Okay. So now we have a safe place to stay…and a floating undead wizard.” I commented.

“Hmph!” Star Swirled harrumphed from his place over his book. “It’s not like it isn’t my tower you’re intruding in. ‘Oh, thank you great and noble Star Swirl for suffering our ignorance and getting greasy handprints all over everything’.” Star Swirl sarcastically snarked.

“Yes, thank you, Master.” Nightmare told him respectfully with a bow. “I’ll be moving back into my old quarters and setting the forge back up.”

“Oh? Well, it has been forever and a day since I practiced my weapon and armor enchanting, do so please.” Star Swirl nodded to her and went back to his book, Nightmare leading us off at the apparent dismissal.

“Have patience with the old nag, he’s always been eccentric.” Nightmare insisted to us as she led us back down the tower. “Ugh, he may not need to climb these steps, but he could have at least left the elevator on.”

“There’s an elevator?” I asked as we got closer to the middle, my paws aching.

“More like a short distance teleporter chain that runs up and down the tower floor-by-floor. Using it too often can cause slight splinching though.” Nightmare admitted as we reached the ground floor and went for the stairs leading underground.

“Slight?! No wonder the king ordered all casual magic illegal. You ponies are insane.” Nicole declared in disbelief.

“So we have an advantage in magic?” I asked her as Nightmare cleaned the corridor and all the empty rooms down here with a sweep of her dark magic.

“Fuck no. We made ways of detecting it and shutting it down. Though there are those caribou who use magic if they are advanced enough in rank and trusted. Or pass an aptitude test for a license.” Nicole chuckled. “Though...what magic were you using in the ruins? We couldn’t spot you.” She asked me.

“Uh...I was not using magic.” I said blinking.

“Neither was I...at least up close.” Nightmare told her.

“Well damn. Makes our defeat even more embarrassing then, since you beat us with just good-old tactics and grit.” Nicole pouted, her cervid face looking incredibly cute now that I wasn’t filled with dislike for her.

“You weren’t close to any of your team?” I asked as Nightmare seemed to have claimed the rooms at the very back and was summoning our stuff from the Everfree to furnish them.

“You mean how? We fucked a lot, does that count?” Nicole asked as she watched Nightmare work. Heh, if I didn’t know any better, I’d have thought Nightmare was a Domestic Goddess with how well she cleans up and takes care of things.

“Not really? I meant weren’t they your friends? Comrades? People you knew and liked as people?” I clarified as the air out the window cleared about two miles out, letting me see that this tower was perched atop a mountain. “Nice Nightmare.”

“All in an afternoon’s work.” Nightmare visibly preened, looking incredibly proud and pleased with herself.

“Um...no? They were all bitches. Each and every one of them. Especially the sergeant. As sergeant of our squad, she had the right to fuck any of us she wanted, and she always fucked us up the ass with no lube or anything. Besides what are friends?” Nicole scrunched her snout in disgust and I balked at her in genuine shock and concern. How does she not even know what a friend is?

“Well now, as interesting as that is, here’s your new room prisoner.” Nightmare suddenly yanked Nicole away from me, causing the cow to yelp as her bindings were undone and she was tossed into the second-to-last room on the right, the wooden door slammed shut and a barricade bar fell into place, locking her in. “You’ll get lunch and dinner at the appropriate times, no breakfast since the hunger is easier to handle in the morning.”

“That was mean, she’s been a good and obedient captive.” I crossed my arms as I tried to stress my disapproval.

“She is still the enemy and our prisoner.” Nightmare told us. “I’m sure her loyalties are still to her King. Do you want to wake up with her fucking your throat or dragging us off someplace in the night?”

“To be fair, I’d totally do the first one! If you consent I mean?” Nicole called through the thick door. “A lot of cows might get off on rape, but I don’t, I like my partners to want to get wrecked!” Then there was wet squelching heard within, and she yelped. “Holy shit! Yes! I’ve always wanted to try tentacles se-MM~!” Nicole was silenced by the cursed book she’d been carrying this whole time and I winced, hoping she’d be okay.

“Ah,” I said, blinking before feeling Nightmare guide me. “Where to?” She didn’t answer verbally, instead of taking me to the last room on the left and bodily tossing me onto the bed. “Oof! Hey what’s-eep…” I shrunk back into the bed as Nightmare crawled up to me like a predatory cat, kissing me hungrily once she made it to my head.

“You are-*smooch*-so damn-*kiss*-pathetic~.” I groaned into her mouth in response to her words as she started unbuckling my belt, the door slamming shut.