Eventide

Chapter 3: Shadow of a Doubt

by Lan

Dear Princess Celestia,

I would like to request information on a couple of ponies that have recently arrived in Ponyville. Having shown up immediately after the murder of the family down the road, I instantly suspected them. I know this was wrong, but when I tried to talk to them about it, something... happened.

The stallion who goes by the name Dusk, as I found out from Pinkie Pie, began to transform into a horrible creature right before my eyes in his rage. He has a dark black coat and mane with red eyes and a red splatter cutie mark. The other, a mare by the name Shut Eye, was able to calm him, at which time both fled to wherever they are staying. She has a dark blue coat with a redish-purple mane and blue eyes. Her cutie mark is a clock without hands.

This morning, as you probably already know, the body of a young filly was found torn apart and eaten. During Pinkie's party, Shut Eye was the one who pointed her out, leading the mob to the monster, which I have heard a description of second-hand:

It is dark black, a horrible demon in form. Its snout like that of an alligator, its teeth like scythes. All the witnesses describe it as being hard to look upon, as if it wasn't really there. They said that it moved at an unnatural level of speed and surrealism. They only raised more questions for me, however.

Why was Shut Eye outside of the party if she had nothing to do with it? She claimed that Dusk was seeking help at the empty hospital. How convenient that no one saw him. Why would she return to the party to point out the murder if it was Dusk's doing? The only explanation I could think of was that she was trying to cast doubt away from themselves, after all, everypony was at the party except them. It would look mighty suspicious if they vanish and somepony ends up dead.

I believe that Dusk is the same monster described by countless witnesses. His cutie mark, although I am not entirely sure I know what it is, I believe to be a blood splatter. How he came upon his affliction, and his talent, I do not know. What I do know is that I need more information on the couple before I can confront them, and hopefully have them arrested. Please, if you know anything, you'll let me know.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

~~~~~~~

The morning's light shined brightly through the mouth of the cave the pair of ponies resided in. Slumber awoke from her sleep and found her lover returned to his natural form, not yet haven taken the first breath of life for the new day. It was utterly peaceful, the warmth of the light bringing a sense of home to the den. It was a strange feeling, something she was not used to. They had spent the last many years active only at night, when they would have the lowest chance of being caught, and traveling constantly. Suddenly, their cycle was changed and she woke up in the morning. The break in her sleep cycle left her with a mild headache and a wanting to go back to her enchanting dreams. After the events of last night, however, it would look strange if neither of them showed up in town.

But her lover was not yet living and she simply rested her head back down on the bed they had constructed out of the materials they brought with them. In this room, there was the bed on the far wall, opposite the threshold to the hall, which led up to the surface. To her left was a small, collapsible table she had brought with them. On the surface was only a small bag of bits and a carrot, which had begun to whither being left to the exposed air. On the ground opposite the table were two very deflated saddlebags, their contents removed, but still showing the strain of how much they were carrying. The fibers that held it together had started to pull apart in places and they looked like they would fall apart on their own, much less if she were to put anything back inside them.

On the walls, the orbs of blue light started to fade. Her horn pulsed slightly with an aura of magical energy. With the pulse, all the orbs went out, vanishing from existence as if they were never there at all. In the hall, there was a room to her left, where the rest of their belongings were kept. The right side held a staircase going down to the empty, yet-unpurposed rooms in their anthill-style network.

Her stomach grumbled and she levitated the carrot over to her from the table, trying not to move and accidentally reanimate her lover before his time. The glow around her horn changed to a white light instead of the blue that she had been using. The carrot began to unwither as the juices of life began to feed back into it. When her spell was finished, it looked like it had just been pulled from the ground and cleaned. This meal would satiate her until they went back to the market later and purchased some food with the bits on the table. The stallion whose legs wrapped around her body would not be hungry. After all that he had eaten recently, he would not be hungry again for a week. The knowledge of what his last meal had been no longer bothered her. The stink of death on his breath that would haunt him as soon as it returned would not bother her. The blood that still caked his coat did not bother her. She loved him and he loved her. That was all that mattered.

Finally, the stallion's breath returned to him in a gasp as though he had been underwater for days without returning to the surface. As his heart began to beat with a new vigor, he stood up and stretched out the muscles in his body. Slumber, slightly startled by her lover's sudden return to life, stood up immediately with him. “Good morning, sunshine.” she stated coyly.

“Very funny.” the stallion replied, a heavy weight resting on his forehead. “What are we doing today?”

“I thought we'd go into town and-”

“After what happened last night? I don't think that's a very good idea.” he interrupted.

“If we don't go back, they'll wonder why and from there it won't be hard to figure out what happened.” she stated back. “And besides, I need to get some food. And maybe we can find some way to earn some bits. Our supply is running low.”

“Fine, if you think that's best.” the stallion grumbled, moving towards the exit as if his legs were made of wood. Slumber followed him into the town. “What happened last night? I remember being at that purple filly's house and...” his voice trailed off, waiting for her to fill in the blank.

“You transformed. Luckily, there was only one witness.”

He stopped in his tracks. “What?! I -”

“-killed her.” she finished. “And I tied up the lose strings. No one suspects a thing.”

“Good,” he grunted, continuing along the path from Everfree Trail,stifling a yawn as he began to clean his coat. “Wait. Who was it?”

“Some little filly. Not Twilight.”

“Oh well. Maybe next time.”

~~~~~~~

Dearest Twilight Sparkle,

I have received your letter. There is no documentation on any ponies with the names Shut Eye or Dusk matching your description. It is entirely in the realm of possibility for the events you have described to me thusforth to have been quite within the bounds of coincidence. Maybe you misheard their names or produced them from your own need to solve the case.

What I have heard is a rather brave tale of two new ponies in your town trying their hardest to save a young filly's life.

Although I admire your dedication to the pursuit of this effort, I do advise that you consider all the variables before arriving to your decision rather than forcing the evidence to conform to your predetermined conclusion.

-Princess Celestia

~~~~~~~

“What?!” Twilight shouted, startling Spike, causing the baby dragon to fall off his ladder. The stack of books in his hands scattered across the floor with several thumps.

“Ouch. Jeez, Twilight, what's the matter?” he questioned, somewhat annoyed.

“This, is the matter, Spike,” Twilight lectured, levitating the letter inches away from the young dragon's face. “Princess Celestia doesn't believe me! Oh, this is just like Nightmare Moon all over again!”

Condescendingly, Spike replied, taking the letter from the air, “I dunno, Twi. This seems to make sense to me. Why don't you question everypony before accusing these two?”

Rather irked, Twilight shot back, “I dunno, Spikey, why don't I question everyone in town when it was obviously these two?! I can't believe I'm the only pony who sees this. It's obviously them, I just need some way to prove it.”

“Exactly,” the dragon responded, now leaning over the top of Twilight's head,“prove it before you go causing another riot like that time you tried to make your own friendship lesson.”

“Ugh!” Twilight groaned in frustration, rolling her eyes before storming out of the library and knocking Spike to the floor.

She proceeded to Sugarcube Corner, intent on interrogating Pinkie again, when she spotted the two in the marketplace. Deciding to at least try her mentor's advice, she trotted up to the couple. Shut Eye had a bag of groceries on her back. Dusk looked as solemn as ever.

“Hello, guys!” she jumped in front of them. “I think we started off on the wrong hoof yesterday. Let's try it again. I'm Twilight Sparkle.” She forced herself to smile as wide as she could, until it began to hurt, and raised her right hoof.

The couple looked at each other briefly before they turned their attention back on the strangely grinning pony blocking their path. Of course, Shut Eye was the one to break the silence, “Hello, Twilight, I'm Shut Eye. And this is Dusk.” she replied warily, suspicious of Twilight luring them into a trap, and shook her hoof. Once again, “Dusk” did not.

“So, what brings you to town?” Twilight inquired, a hint of tension in her voice as she tried to hold her crocodile smile.

“Just passing through” Dusk grunted as Shut Eye replied,

“Just looking for a place to settle.” The two glared at each other and returned their gaze once more to the crazed purple pony, whose eye began to twitch at this contradiction. “Like I said, we're looking for a place to settle down.”

The one who went by the name Dusk sighed, but otherwise seemed unchanged in demeanor from when Twilight first spotted them.

“Uh huh...” Twilight pondered. “Why Ponyville?” Suspicion filled her mind once more, her mentor's words completely forgotten.

Slumber did all the talking this time. “It seems like a very pleasant place to stay, you know, ignoring the murder part. How's your investigation coming along?”

Ignoring the question, Twilight responded, “Yeah... Uh... Where'd you say you come from again?”

“Uhh,” Shut Eye hesitated, eying Dusk.

“That's none of your concern.” he declared bluntly, his voice like sandpaper. “And if you don't mind, we'd like to be on our way.” The pair tried to step around Twilight, both taking a step to the right in unison. Twilight, however, blocked their paths once more.

Her voiced raised and speaking quickly, she questioned, “Where are you going? What did you think of Pinkie's party yesterday? How come no one saw him while Lemon was attacked?” The barrage of questions, ever increasing in accusation, was simply ignored by the pair, who shrugged it off, each stepping to opposite sides of Twilight, who grunted in frustration at their nonchalant attitudes and flew off to Sugarcube Corner in a storm.

“Are you sure you don't just want me to kill her?”

“Quite. Now lets drop these groceries off back home and find out how we can make some money in this town.”

As it turned out, the Cakes at Sugarcube Corner were hiring, but the couple immediately decided against working there on account of Pinkie's antics, even if her completely trusting personality would be beneficial in establishing themselves as trustworthy citizens. They visited many other shops, all of which either had no opening or one of them refused to work at.

Their lengthy expedition had to draw to a close, concluding fruitlessly. The couple sat down near the fountain back in the town square, watching the sun set over the horizon grazed by countless trees. The warmth of day that the glowing orange-yellow ball in the sky brought with it cast an extraordinary change. Unaccustomed to the new sensation, they feared the dangerous fire as much as they relished the conversion from crisp night air to the dry warmth of day. The blue-haired mare sighed, defeated not as much by the town as much as the lazy feeling direct sunlight brought. As the sun began to set, casting a magnificent array of autumn colors over the cerulean sky, the lovers began to return to their old selves, craving the frore breezes of the witching hour.

Eying the mare, the stallion presented, “I know how to make some money here.”

She already knew what he had in mind. “Just be careful not to get caught.”

“I know what I'm doing.” He turned his gaze to one of the nearby shops, a jewelry store. The earth pony began to stare at the storefront, his eyes intensifying. Had anyone cared to pay attention to him, they would have noticed a strange black aura surrounding his eyes, which had become pitch black. The amaranthine seconds passed, the aura faded and the stallion raised his hoof, inspecting a rather large diamond that had materialized in his grasp.

Irate, the mare hissed, “What are you thinking?! The only place we could possibly sell that is the place you just took it from! If we're caught with that on us...” She let her voice trail off, letting the consequences manifest on their own in his mind.

“Fine. I'll just put it back.” But before another moment could pass, an earth pony ran out of the store, the manager by the looks of him.

In a blind panic, the pony yelled to everyone in the vicinity, “Help! I've been robbed! My largest diamond is missing – vanished before my own eyes!”

“Oh great.” The blue mare whispered. “Now what are we going to do with it? We can't just put it back now. Everyone's watching. Hide it!” The stallion dropped the diamond into the clear blue water in front of him. No one noticed the sickening splash as the rather large gemstone floated to the bottom below, taking with it all its wealth and glory. “Quick, let's get out of here before somepony finds it.”

Everypony in the square was searching left and right for anyone suspicious. One orange pony with blue hair confronted the couple, seeing as they were the only one's not helping the search, trying to get away. “Just where do you think you're going? Why are you the only ones trying to leave?” His suspicious eyes turned to Slumber's dark blue horn before returning accusingly at her.

“We have prior plans and we were just on our way. Now if you don't mind, please let us pass.” Slumber answered formally, although an air of exhaustion hovered over her words.

The other ponies in the square had taken notice of the confrontation and were all heading over, the fuming store manager leading the pack. He squawked, “What's going on over here?”

“These two were just leaving.” The orange coated pony replied, raising a hoof to the couple.

“Is that so?”

“We were just on our way. Is that a crime?” Slumber retorted.

“It is if you're trying to get away with stolen property.” lectured the manager, a rather weak looking pony, but one with a glare that meant business, directed at the blue unicorn.

The one called Dusk, infuriated at the accusation directed towards his lover, “We don't have anything of yours, and I think you deserve having lost it. We didn't do anything wrong, and here you are accusing us of petty theft! We were just minding our own business when this fine fellow stopped us because we didn't help an idiot look for what he lost. It's probably back in your crummy shop. Did you check under the table before you decided to prosecute us? Or maybe you took it for yourself! Don't think that I will just stand back and let you berate my wife for something we didn't do!” The stallion had seemed to grow a foot taller than before, now towering over the manager, who gulped at the thought of what the pony might do to him in his seething rage.

Inside, the mountainous stallion grinned, but somehow remained stone solemn on the exterior. The counterfeit fury broke the manager, a pony half Dusk's size, whose hind legs began to quake. Dusk had all the advantage now. The manager's mind was weakened by fear, feeble like a turtle without its shell. He reached out through his consciousness into the dark realm of thoughts, feeling for the exposed consciousness of the frightened pony.

He could see the minds of all those around him. The crowd all had the glow of consciousness shrouded and preserved with mental defenses. All except the cowering pony he was staring at dead in the eyes. That mind was shining brightly, unobscured and without protection, the white light like staring at a sun without the burning retinas associated with such an act. His mind was prey before Dusk, a mouse trapped in a corner with nowhere to run. The black void surrounding all their thoughts became an immense field with nowhere to flee from the demon.

Dusk's mind grasped the quivering pony and constricted like a snake, the inky tendrils feeling the mind resist pathetically as it was crushed beneath his might. The manager's eyes bulged and he looked like the wind had just been knocked out of him, as if his body was also being squeezed of life. His mind popped like a balloon under the pressure choking it and Dusk gathered the remnants in an instant, like candy pouring out of a pinata. The manager's eyes dilated inwards and he stopped shaking, standing back up as if the confrontation had never happened. Dusk now had total control over his thoughts, the pony's consciousness like a child's plaything.

“Quite sorry,” the once alert unicorn said in monotone, a glaze over his eyes. “I can see now that it wasn't you. I guess it was my own foalish fault for leaving the case unlocked. Here, take this for your trouble.” He handed the stallion a bag of bits, heavy and full from the day's work. The stallion smiled as the manager proceeded back to the door in a zombie-like trance, pushing members of the crowd out of his way.

One of them called out, “But what about the diamond?”

“I'll just have to get a new one.”

The crowd all stared at each other, confused over the manager's behavior. They all gave up, seeing no point in helping out now that the manager didn't want any. The crowd, once pent up and ready for conflict, reluctantly went back to their normal lives, somewhat addled by the strange events that had just transpired. When the manager would slip back into consciousness the next morning, he would find the diamond sitting right in the display case where he had left it.

“Told you I could make some money around here.” The stallion playfully jibed to his lover as the pair slowly sauntered to their home over the cobblestone road, their hooves making light clopping sounds as they traveled.

“Was there ever any doubt?” She replied, giggling, nuzzling her head against his shoulder.

~~~~~~~

Twilight paced around her home back and forth for hours. She knew that she had to reveal the two to be just what they were – monsters that don't deserve to inhabit her town, or anywhere for that matter. Princess Celestia wouldn't help her, so she had to rely on herself. She gathered all the facts and listed them on a parchment sitting on her desk.

She knew that the stallion who called himself Dusk was the monster. She knew that it could easily rip open a young filly, that it could jump to the roofs from street level, and that it could teleport. It's dark nature, masking itself in shadow and producing its own if there were no shadows to be found, could only mean it was a creature that thrived in the darkness. She hypothesized that it could only transform at night, or that if it did during the day that it would be significantly weakened. The conditions for transformation she could only speculate at. It could be emotion-based, time-based, or even something else which she could not comprehend. There had to be some stimulus that facilitated the alteration, though. Of that, she was certain.

The mare who called herself Shut Eye seemed to have some power over him. She did something to revert the process, preventing her from fully witnessing the mutation in person. But it failed, or wore off, and he transformed in the street, killing the filly. It had to have something to do with her cutie mark, the clock without hands, whatever it meant. Twilight could not think of anything such a symbol could represent.

If she could somehow separate the two and spur the metamorphosis, she would have all the proof she needed that Dusk was the monster. It would be simple from there to have him arrested and tried for murder. She would like to perform some experiments on him to see what ailed him, but she would probably never get that chance.

It is a dangerous game. Luring the monster out should not be the problem. Controlling it is a far different matter. Once out in the open, exposed for all the world to see, it could react violently, even destructively. Containing the horror safely would be quite an accomplishment in and of itself.

The rhythmic clicking her hooves made when clashing with the soft wooden floor elicited a deeper state of thought in the troubled apprentice, helping her plan for what was to come. Across the ligneous dwelling lay reports and scripts, plans and sketches, essays and notes of a strewn psyche, all for the singular purpose of defeating her adversary. Deep purple circles dragged at her eyes like sandbags. She hadn't slept since that first encounter at Pinkie's party. Sleep would only leave her vulnerable. Sleep took away valuable time that she needed to hamper any future attempts on the lives of Ponyville residents.

She paced and paced endlessly through the night trying to figure out how to separate the couple. They were always together and would never trust her enough to convince them to go to two separate locations. She would have to do something unconventional.

~~~~~~~

The nocturnal inhabitants of the subterranean habitat on the edge of Ponyville, bordering the Everfree Forest, were forced once more to rise with the blazing sun. Neither wished to stir from their slumber, but they convinced themselves that they needed to be in the town or endure the mistrust of the locals. Never had such a situation come up in their years together. They had never caused the townspeople to be so mistrusting. It would have been completely avoided if not for the Pinkie incident. That party was a mistake and should never have occurred. And now the Twilight Sparkle matter would make it difficult to do anything without being put under scrutiny.

With a sigh and a groan, the two lovers made their tired way out of the den and into the town. Having nothing better to do, they went to their usual spot beside the fountain in the marketplace. Greatly disturbed by their lack of natural sleep, they just sat there, resting their heads on each other, staring at the fountain and listening to the gentle flow of water. Slumber fell asleep first, then “Dusk.”

Slumber's dream was one that had recurred to her since foalhood, but had not had the pleasure to experience in the past few weeks. A line of doors down a hallway with no end sprouted into existence, highlighted with a bright white light that lacked a source. Each door had a unique combination of color, material, and design. The first door on her left was a gray steel door, rivets bolting it to the wall. It stuck out further than most, with no visible means to reveal its unseen contents. The next was a door that had once been light blue, but had faded to gray from years of neglect. She had been in this room many times before. She ignored this door and walked slowly down the hall, looking at the familiar doors she had seen innumerably, but refusing to open a single one.

Dusk's dream, if it could even be labeled as such, consisted of darkness. Nothing happened; He thought nothing. There was only the emptiness. He could not recall having ever dreamed anything but darkness in his life. That's what it always had been and all it ever would be.

The sun had reached its peak in the sky and had begun to descend as the two slept under the clement weather. The one called Dusk finally opened his eyes.

“Good. You're finally awake.” The voice startled him. There was a familiar quality to it. He turned his head and met a set of antagonistic eyes staring at him. “I was wondering which of you would be the first to come out of it.” It was Twilight Sparkle.

Slumber was sleeping peacefully beside him, he checked. “What do you mean?” the stallion questioned.

“I put a sleep spell on the both of you. I figured you'd come out of it first, Dusk.” she spat.

“Excuse me? You did what?” Dusk was fully awake now. He reached over to his lover's body, still sleeping next to him, proding her. When she did not stir, the stallion began to panic, gripping his lover with both hooves. “No no no no no.” beginning to shake her violently. She did not wake.

“I put a sleep spell on you two. It would have been just her, but it works only in an area rather than a target.” She sounded like she was teaching a lesson in school. “I needed you awake and her alseep.”

“Undo it this INSTANT!” he screamed at her, oblivious to the surrounding bystanders, now staring at him.

A smile spread across the purple pony's face. “I can't. And even if I could I wouldn't.”

“You don't know what sleep spells do to her!” He grabbed “Shut Eye” by both shoulders and shook violently, yelling “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” He let go and she slumped to the ground, a ragdoll.

Everypony was now watching him to see what he would do next. All were surprised, but none more so than Twilight, as not rage filled the stallion's voice, but sadness. Tears poured down his face, his mouth open in shock. “Please wake up.” he whispered to her and lay still. He did not sob, but the red-hot tears seared down his face nonetheless. He reached out through the realm of thoughts once more. He could not find her light.

He turned to face Twilight, a grimace in anger. “What have you done?!” he spat, standing up and marching over to her. Tears blinded him and the purple pony became a purple blur. Throttling her, he picked her up by one hoof. “Fix herrrrr” he hissed.

Something was different. He wasn't beginning to transform. Why wasn't he transforming? Maybe it does only work at night, thought Twilight. “I can't.”

“You have to do something!”

“There's nothing I can do.”

Someone from the crowd called out, “That pony needs to be taken to the hospital!” The others murmured in agreement.

Twilight, ignoring the crowd, questioned, “What do you mean before? What happens when she's under a sleep spell?”

“Not here. I'll tell you when we're some place where the truth won't cause a panic.”

“Then we'll have to take her to the hospital.”

The black stallion walked back to his lover, tears still fresh in his eyes, and placed her more gingerly than Twilight would have thought he was capable of on his back. He glared at her, “Not 'we.' You've done enough damage.”

Slumber wandered the hall of her dream. She passed door after door. She stopped to look at one, wooden with pink paint, three bright, cheerful balloons adorning it. The sounds of laughter and music leaked out from inside and enveloped the hall with its pleasure. Soon, she passed it too and continued walking. Some were faded from not having any connection to them in some time and would not open and others, like the one she had just passed, were very bright from recent contact.

The light that illuminated the start of the hall so powerfully before began to fade the further she wandered from it. She had not usually come this far in her dream. Whether it had an end or not, she did not know. The length of the hall was impossibly long, too distant for her to have ever crossed. The iron door at the start of the hall was where she spent the most time when she had this dream, desperately trying to open it and reveal what lay inside, but always to no avail.

Either there or the once-blue-but-now-grey room, where she would talk to her mother. Each door was the entrance to another acquaintance’s soul. Her mother had died years ago. Now the room was empty and bleak, but she still found its allure entrancing. The relics that remained, totems of her mother's thoughts and feelings, brought a sense of peace to Slumber, who lived so much of her life without it, without her. It was a cathartic place for her.

The fact that she was not yet awake bothered her slightly as she roamed the corridor, but she mainly ignored the feeling of growing dread and continued to inspect the doors. She passed a door with a chain strung across the light blue frame in the shape of an 'X'. She knew who this was. This door belonged to the one she hated most, whom she would kill if she ever saw again. With a snort, she turned her snout away and inspected the next door, a light green paint over a light oak body with a landscape design etched on the surface.

“Quite simply, I don't know what's wrong with her. She seems fine, but she just won't wake up. You said that all it was was a 'simple sleep spell?'” Nurse Redheart asked Twilight. The black stallion sat next to “Shut-Eye,” staring dismally at his lover, his heartbeat arrhythmic in fear for her.

“Yeah. I've used it many times before on my assistant, Spike, whenever he refused to go to sleep. I've never had this kind of reaction before.” Twilight explained.

“We don't know what to do. The best I can ask is for you two to just let her rest and see if she recovers on her own. Until then, we can keep her well cared for and hope she gets better.”

“Thank you, nurse.”

“You're welcome. I'll be in my office if you need me.” She turned and walked out the door, her hooves tapping on the sterile clinic floor, the only sound other than Dusk's heavy, ragged breathing. The sheet he leaned over on Slumber's bed had collected all his tears for the past hour. Now, the tears no longer flowed, but his tired, red eyes still held the same mournful gaze, his chest rising and falling rapidly, but not hyperventilating.

Twilight watched, an eternity of waiting, staring at the stallion and his lover, waiting for the right time to bring up her question again. Finally, curiosity seized her mind and she blurted out, “What's happening to her?”

A deep sigh arose from the mountain of a pony. Never taking his sight off the mare in the bed, he answered, “She is a vessel for dreams and time. She can see any pony's dreams and desires from any point in their lives. She even knows when they will die. More importantly, dreams can control her if they are powerful enough. Normally, her mind is warded with many mental barriers, but with her consciousness gone, they will be able to enter this world through her, attracted like ants to honey. If she does not return to us by nightfall, all the dreams and nightmares of this town will come to life.”

“That's amazing,” Twilight gaped.

“Normally, most ponies don't have nightmares, but nightmares are more powerful than dreams. Tonight, everypony will have nightmares, and every night until she returns. I will be able to stop the weaker ones from emerging, but the strongest fears of those in this town will make it through.”

“How do you plan to stop them? I don't see a horn on your head.”

“I'm sorry, Twilight, but I cannot tell you everything. You just need to take my word that I will do my best to keep them from coming through her and into existence. Most importantly, as much I hate to ask it, I need your help. The nightmares will vanish when the pony that dreamed them wakes. However, they can continue to live after this if they possess her. I will need you to help guard her.”

“Okay, I'll help. But first, tell me. Why did my sleep spell make anything different? Shouldn't she just be sleeping normally?”

“When she sleeps naturally, she has control, some way of finding her way back. Being forced into sleep unnaturally rips her focus apart. She will need to find her way back on her own, rather than relying on her own paths.”

“How do you know all this? Has it happened before?”

The stallion paused. “I have never seen it happen. It is just what she told me when we met. It is the reason why she is a wanderer. She destroyed her home when she was just a small filly. They exiled her for it, forbidding her to return.”

“Why do you travel with her if she is so dangerous?”

“Why does anypony do the the things they do? It is the love for another that drives us all. I will always stay with her. Now, go out into the town and make sure no one's nightmares have come to life!”

Startled at the sudden outburst, Twilight reared back for a moment before obeying his order and galloping out into the street. It was still daylight out, so there shouldn't be much trouble for the next couple hours, but she patrolled nonetheless.

The doors began to all become the same to the rambling apparition, a blur of colors in her mind as she wandered aimlessly, lost in thought. She passed them all without seeing them, thinking intensely. Why haven't I woken up yet? I've been wandering for hours. I should have woken up by now. Maybe I should just head back. All she had to do was find her own door to wake up. The mind cannot perceive itself and forced her from sleep whenever she tried to open it. Deciding on this to be the best option, the mare turned around and gasped.

Behind her, where there was once just a single, infinitely long hallway, now lay two halls, going off in different directions at right angles. She turned back around to the direction she had been facing. Again, the hall split apart. Peering down one of the paths revealed another fork. The linear passage had now become an impossible endless maze of doors, each taking her to the mind of any pony she had ever met or seen.

Hours later, the sun finally began to set itself down on the horizon. The inhabitants of the town were now all on their way back to their homes, fleeing the blanket of darkness shrouding the town. Laying themselves down to what they believed to be a peaceful night of sleep, not a one could have any approximation of the appalling scene they would bring forth.

Many fell asleep, not yet dreaming in the early stages of their rest. In under an hour, Dusk shattered the first nightmare to try to enter the physical world. His mind wrapped around the foal's formless fear and twisted until it could do no more. It would be back the next time the child would fall asleep. Jerked from the realm of dreams, a young foal cried out for her mother at the other end of the town at the sudden, rude awakening, frightened also in part by the nightmare.

The first wave of petty nightmares were all crushed before they could coalesce into the physical realm. All these were primal fears, not fully developed in the minds of young foals all over Ponyville. Soon, however, the adults themselves would fall asleep and spew forth more developed, monstrous hallucinations.

As Slumber navigated her dream, she saw something, a small shadow from the corner of her eye. A door was open, revealing the callow environment of a child's mind. How can that be? No one can open these doors but me! She approached the door, a sense of dread filling her stomach. A siren's call whisked away her attention. Down the path a shadowy ball floated, singing. It didn't seem to notice her yet. It's whistles were soothing, relieving the dread moderately as the tune rose in pitch and fell softly. The foreign entity seemed strangely familiar to her. She neared cautiously, trying to make out what the thing was and what it could possibly be doing.

Only feet away, the ball stopped singing. She froze. Despite having no physical form with which to move, the wisps of inky smoke seem to turn around. Whatever it was, it had no eyes; it couldn't possibly see her. A sound like a gasp, but sounding as though it were far away and reaching her ears only by echo, emitted from the gas. Slumber blinked her eyes as if making sure it wasn't a figment of her imagination. Suddenly, the ball lurched forward, hunting for the observer. It passed through her, chilling the very core of the pony, a shiver creeping down her spine. The thing was gone, nowhere to be seen in the hall. The door that was open suddenly slammed itself shut with a bang!

Recognition filled the young mare's eyes. She knew where she had seen such a creature before. It was the night her town was destroyed and she was banished. She gasped at the sudden memory returning to her and galloped down the hollow halls, quickly trying to find her room. I can't let any more get out! The dark blue pony screamed in her head. She had to find her room before one of the thoughts that made it to the physical realm could hijack her mindless being. A door behind her slammed open, but she just galloped faster, barely having time to inspect each door for her own. She passed hundreds of doors in just one minute, racing as fast as her somnolent mind could navigate the endless corridors.

As time flew by, more and more doors swung open with deadly force, the constant booming sounds echoing ahead of the terrified pony, desperately trying to escape the unseen horrors continually gushing from the rooms. The pony could hear the ever-growing horde of nightmares behind her, gathering closer with each heartbeat.

One of the doors on the left sprung open, almost causing the pony to run into it. She expertly jumped to the side, however, as the apparition charged at her. This one was different, possessing a form rather than being a disembodied thought. Successfully ambushing its prey, the beast stumbled for the mare, an ungodly screech puncturing the rabble's racket. Unlike before, when this nightmare touched her, a burning sensation filled the pony's body as if her insides were on fire. She broke out in a cold sweat, paralyzed at the fiery sensation, her conjured lungs gasping for imaginary air.

Another cold sensation broke the paralysis and she bolted from the spot, heart beating at a million miles per hour. The numbness in her legs quickly gave way to pain, electrifying every step the mare took. As she ran, scanning each wall for asylum from her mind, more and more doors burst open ahead of her. Ignoring the heat and the cold, she never stopped galloping, never stopped searching. She could no longer feel the intolerable pain in her appendages. The only thing left in her fragile mind was the image of her room, a dark blue door covered in broken clocks like a badly decorated house.

The uproar behind the pony grew to a deafening height, the rage of the succubus monstrosities hunting her building with every passing moment she eluded them. No longer seeing the doors slamming open in front of her, the blue blur charged, taking random turns, trying to shake the vicious blood-thirsty menagerie from her shoulders.

The abrupt surge in the number of nightmares was astonishing, their quantities tripling in number. Although he did his best to destroy as many as possible, the nightmares grew more powerful with every waking moment, desperate for the freedom of the physical world. There were too many. “Dusk” reached out with dozens of tendrils, his mind stretching to its furthest bounds, straining under the load. How can there possibly be this many ponies in such a small town? Questioned the stallion to himself.

Salt on his tongue from the beads of sweat breaking out all over his body, he collapsed when an unusually fast nightmare slipped through his grasp. Not even realizing that he had been holding his breath, the black being gasped for air, his lungs stale from being held so long. Immediately realizing that more could be trying to get through, he refocused his mind on the task at hoof, a razor-sharp determination slicing through the crowd gathering around the vessel. The first wave of thoughts burst into nothingness, their lights replaced instantly by even more. He could only imagine what was happening to his lover, lost in her dreams, pursued by the monsters of hundreds of ponies' worst dreams.

Out in the street, Twilight turned around at the explosion reverberating through the air. It was not a real explosion, merely a shattering of glass, but to Twilight, it might as well have been a cannon being fired next to her. The window to one of the nearby houses now lay glittering in the darkness lining the cobblestone road. A low growl stopped the purple pony dead in her tracks. She could see the light reflecting off the beast's eyes as it crouched otherwise beyond view in the dark shadows of the building. A second later, it was gone, nowhere to be seen. Looking left and right, the pony could see no sight of what was hiding before her moments ago. She could still hear the growl, fading away in the distance.

The number of nightmares still increased, the pace paying no heed to the efforts of the umbrageous guardian. Now that the night reached to its darkest hour, the older citizens set off to sleep, ignorant to the results of their nightly rituals. The strongest nightmares would begin to rear their hideous faces.

The first door for this new wave of monsters did not open like the others previously. The hinges squealed as the door inched its way into the hall. A dead pony, rotting and falling apart stepped out into the maze. The empty sockets searched for the vessel, unobscured by the darkness that clung to every surface. Here, the original light did not penetrate the darkness. All throughout the maze, the sourceless lamps went out, flickering before giving way to the black. The dark blue pony was enveloped in the pure darkness, blind. In reaction, her horn let out a blue light, a small orb barely visible attached to the tip of the bone, illuminating the path before her in a pale blue light. She did not react fast enough to the new light levels and crashed into the T-junction where the three halls separated.

Her light went out as she staggered to her hooves, the sounds of the monsters undeterred by the darkness still beat at her ears. Before her light flickered back on in the darkness, she could smell the sickening stench of decay. Had she not been asleep, she would have thrown up. The light finally flickered on and she came face to face with the undead pony, staring into her eyes with vacant sockets. The thing opened its mouth, a tooth falling out from rot, its snake-like tongue reaching for her. She reared back, unable to take her eyes off the horror straight from somepony's nightmare. Her hooves slid on the floor as she scrambled, desperately trying to stand up, succeeding only in flailing about on the floor, gasping in a high pitched tone. Pain shot throughout her incarnation with every motion. She flailed even more at this additional stimulus, picturing the lesser horrors having finally caught up to her.

The gangrenous corpse stepped forward, its stiff limbs shambling, unused to movement, heading for the helpless pony writhing on the floor. Down the hall, the sounds of the horde drew ever-closer, raising in volume every second. Regaining a miraculous degree of control over herself, adrenaline pumping, the mare thrust the abomination away telekinetically. It splattered against the wall in a sickening crunch and explosion of gore. She scrambled to her hooves and took off sprinting in the other direction, leaving the flesh to crawl along the floor until it reformed the living corpse, which continued to shamble down an adjacent hall.

This was only the first horror.

Struggling to meet the new demand, Dusk strained to keep his mind focused on all the dreams. Up to this point, they were all defeated with relative ease. Only one had managed to break through his defense and escape into the physical world. Now, however, there was a light in the realm of thoughts and dreams that refused to be extinguished. It was much stronger than the previous lights and was actually fighting back, resisting Dusk's grip. Focusing on this one would give the others an opportunity to break through. Not focusing on it would give it a chance to break his hold. For all he knew, this one nightmare could be far worse than all the others combined.

Back in the street, three more monsters arose from the sleeping minds of the Ponyville citizens and made their gleeful ways outside. Soon, Twilight heard cackling and snarling from many different directions all at once. She spotted one and seized it telekinetically, floating it closer for inspection. The thing seemed flat, almost two dimensional. It had a grainy texture to it, almost like it had its picture taken with an old camera. Not knowing what to do with the creature now that she had it helpless, she did the first thing that came to mind and dashed it against the cobblestone street. The thing exploded in a puff of gray smoke. The pop seemed to displace the atmosphere, bringing it back in for a second subsequent pop.

Dusk was now grappling with three powerful thoughts at once, grinding his teeth and holding his eyes shut tightly. The sweat billowing off his body presently gave the tiny humid room a musky odor. A fourth orb entered the fray and when the tendril's of Dusk's mind neared, it pushed him away. Before the stallion could counter, the thing had won. A powerful nightmare was now somewhere in Ponyville.

Twilight's ears flicked, shifting rapidly to various directions. Something was different. A sound like a fire crackled along the empty streets. An orange light lit a window. The source, an alarming mix of phobias, presented itself as it squeezed out the window and scaled the down to street level. A flaming black-widow spider, easily ten times the size of Twilight herself, screeched at the top of its lungs, sounding almost like the needle had jumped off a record. How it's wailing didn't wake anyone in the adjacent houses, Twilight couldn't even begin to guess.

As it yelled, the arachnid's pincers quivered, thoroughly soaking the street in venom, which in turn caught on fire. Before its target could recover from the sudden attack on her ears, the widow scuttled towards her, leaving a trail of red-hot flame in the air.

Twilight didn't even realize that she was screaming as it raised a sharp, pointed limb into the air with the speed and grace of a machine. In her blind panic, a purple force field appeared around her, narrowly deflecting the spider's attack. Frustrated, the gigantic flaming elemental cried out again, bringing Twilight to wince at such close range, this time like nails on a blackboard. She screamed again, barely managing a “H-Help!” at the end of her overdrawn breath.

Inside, the black earth pony did not hear his assistant's cries for aid, too focused on the task at hoof. Wrangling the essences of such powerful nightmares was difficult enough, and the desperation of the situation did not make it any easier. Lesser thoughts still made their way through constantly with these new distractions. They were pouring out into the streets from the houses. Searching for those not joined in sleep, the creatures scoured the streets in an attempt to find either someone to harm or the vessel that would grant them permanence. They would not attack their dreamers, knowing that if they did, they would cease to exist as soon as the hosts were roused.

That thought brought a mischievous smile to Twilight's face. Letting lose a blinding flash of light, she took off running as the spider cringed and tried to regain its sight. She sprinted to the marketplace from the front door of the hospital, galloping as fast as she could. Her heart pounding at the thought of the flaming nightmare catching up to her. She would have to act quickly before the monstrosities could get to Dusk, and more importantly, to Shut-Eye.

Knocking the door to Sugarcube Corner off its hinges, she shouted, “Pinkie! Get down here now! I need your help and its really, really important!”

As bright and cheery as always, as if she hadn't ever gone to sleep, the cotton-candy colored pony hopped down the stairs, smiling and humming to herself. “Good morning Twilight! Or is it good night? What time is it?” She gasped. “Are you here for a late-night slumber party?! This will be sooo much fun! I-”

“That's right Pinkie, I'm here for a party! I need the biggest, loudest party-throwing machine to announce how awesome it will be! And quickly. The faster I get it, the better!”

Squinting slightly and raising one eyebrow, Pinkie asked, “How did you know about the Party-Orchestrating Noisematron, Yellow edition?”

Twilight paused and the two ponies stared briefly at each other. “It doesn't matter. How does it work?” she prompted curtly.

Returning to normal, the pink pony replied happily, “You just press this button right here!” Grinning broadly, she reached into an adjoining room and pulled out a very large contraption of many colors, mostly yellow. It had a wide variety of instruments decorating it. From trombones to kazoos, from tubas to noisemakers, every instrument she knew, and some Twilight had never seen before, was attached to the organ-piano-sized machine. Pinkie pointed her hoof to a bright green button with three balloons exactly like her cutie mark on it, the words “DON'T PANIC - PARTY” in large, friendly letters on the chassis.

“Great! Thanks, Pinkie.” Twilight hollered back as she wheeled the contraption out of the confectionery, its wheels grinding in protest to the top-heavy load. The streets were filled with all kinds of nightmares now. She spotted the spider again, highlighted against the darkness of the town by its flaming ligaments, as well as the skeleton of a pony wielding a rather large blade, a dark silhouette of another, like a living shadow, a living gas that threatened to smother anything it came in contact with, and a number of other indescribable abominations that the ponies of Ponyville feared. A number of smaller, undeveloped nightmares also followed in pursuit. Attracted to the large, colorful, moving target, the nightmares all gave chase to the little pony, who still pushed her burden to the center of town.

The monsters were all drawing near, to the point Twilight could smell their rancid stenches, consisting primarily of decay, ammonia, and blood. Her stomach heaved as she pressed the button. A number of bright lights flashed on, stunning some of the creatures. The trumpet began the “orchestra,” mechanical lips blowing through the cold metal. As the bleating horn began to die down, the machine appeared to malfunction, the lights turning off and becoming silent once more. Her plan had failed, she would not be able to wake up Ponyville.

The entities of terror surrounded Twilight, prepared for the first kill of the night. Suddenly, the machine sputtered to life all at once, disco lights in all colors shone brightly, like it was daylight again. The music now pumping through the machine was deafening, forcing Twilight to clench her hooves to her ears and lay on the ground, wincing. All the instruments had come to life in a resounding chorus, followed by the same techno beat the DJ had played at the party two nights prior. Feeling like her eardrums would burst, Twilight rose to her hind legs and ran away from the blaring music.

All over town, ponies were rudely ripped from the slumber, although much to their relief. The nightmares from their minds vanished, popping from every direction. The spider, confused and disoriented over the sudden sounds and lights, thrashed violently. As Twilight watched it beat closer, she hoped its dreamer would wake up. She needed the dreamer to wake. It was getting too close!

She had no such luck. The razor-sharp, flaming limb stabbed into her flesh, bringing her off the ground like the filly from the other night. Her breath left her. Time seemed to slow down as her brain tried to comprehend the agony piercing through her chest. She raised her trembling forehooves as if to grab the knifey limb. Thick, red blood poured down it. Her blood.

The spider, still writhing in agony, threw her across the marketplace. Landing bluntly in the fountain, the cold slap of the water chilled by the night sent the poor purple pony even further into shock. Twilight looked up and saw the stone figure of her mentor, Princess Celestia, watching over her. The full moon passed directly overhead,  just about to touch the statue's horn, looking as if the spread wings were pulling it in. As the water submerged her body, invading her last working lung, she lost consciousness, fading away into dreams. Or nightmares.

Slumber paused. She turned around in the dark hall, shining her horn like a flashlight. All the creatures had vanished; their doors slammed shut. Confused, but relieved, she took a deep breath and slumped to the floor. A door a little while down the hall slowly opened. It was a purple door covered in stars. Listening to the eerie groan from the hinges, Slumber turned her head. Out stepped a completely black stallion with an even blacker mane. She watched in disbelief as the caricature of her lover stalked closer, keeping to the close wall, barely visible in the darkness. Her horn's light grew weaker as her heart began to beat against her chest faster and faster.

She knew it was not her lover. Something was different. He was different. An unnatural toothy smile lit up across his face. His eyes were totally black, showing no emotion other than delight as they sparkled, thinking of what it would do once it reached the real world. The transformation took less than a second.

Having taken a much needed break from repelling the nightmares, “Dusk” collapsed over his lover, panting as he listened to her breathing. He closed his eyes and relaxed, too relieved from his efforts to question why the onslaught had stopped. The pulsing in his ears prevented him from hearing the parade emanating from the marketplace. Faster than he expected, the final horror sped through the vessel. Dusk straightened up, reaching quickly back through the darkness, but it had already gotten through before he could stop it.

At the fountain, Twilight's head began to pulse with a black aura. From her thoughts emerged the beast that terrorized the town so many nights before. The smokey tendrils poured from her forehead, convalescing just outside the border of the fountain. Several of the nearby houses lit up with new lights, the angry tenants emptying out into the street to inspect the ruckus.

The beast's first course of action was to destroy the source of the earsplitting cacophony. Gears flew across the square and the music ended like the chorus of a dying animal.

Pinkie, wondering what happened to her device, stepped out into the street only half-prepared for the party. She was wearing a party hat and had only partially decorated the bakery. She caught sight of the beast raking its spikes over the large piece of party equipment and immediately turned around, stepping back into the house, muttering, “Nope.”

Sensing something odd, “Dusk” dragged himself off the bed and out of the hospital, peering down the street. Mentally exhausted, he slowly followed the odd sense that something was wrong. His hooves against the stones in the street were the only sound he could hear. He did not realize it, but as he walked, his posture changed. He was walking on two legs, his forehooves  began to grow spikes out the bottom. His hair matted and became connate to armor. His waking mind faded to instinct and the pony became monster again, a renewed vigor in its step. It could smell the fake imitative look-alike and hunted for it, enraged at the mockery that it was. The sounds of the spikes that grew from its hooves clinked down the streets, replacing the clopping from moments earlier.

Tears streaming down her face, Slumber finally stood up off the floor of the hall, quaking as if she was just touching the ground for the first time. Disoriented and feeling betrayed, she could still feel the sting where the spikes had reached through her disembodied consciousness and punctured through to reality. The pain of this betrayal was like being forced to give birth as she gave it life. The tears burned as she limped down the hall, continuing the search for the portal to her own mind. She glanced into the room the door had opened from.

It was filled with water, like looking at a fish tank, reaching almost to the ceiling but not flowing out of the room. Looking around, she saw a little filly in an air pocket lying in the fetal position perfectly in the center of the floor. A large number of books floated around, pulled by the swirling tide. Slumber reached out to touch the water, but it was solid like a stone wall. The air bubble was slowly decrementing in size, shrinking as if attached to some kind of clock that was ticking away.

Giving up, the mare persisted in her search, wiping the water from her eyes and examining the next door along this wall. It was her own: A bronze door with dark blue paint on it, covered in broken clocks. She reached out her hoof to turn the doorknob, but stopped herself. She put her hoof back on the ground and went back to the previous room with a sigh.

“You're lucky you're cute, kid.” she whispered to the sleeping filly in the shrinking air bubble. The light on her horn went out, only to be replaced by a new white aura. The air bubble began to grow and the water level depressed away from the ceiling. One minute later, all the water was gone, but the filly did not stir. The mare stepped beyond the threshold and into the room.

The surroundings began to warp, pulsing like a series of drops in a puddle, until the dark blue mare entered the dream. She was standing ankle-deep in water. Glancing around, she recognized the location as the interior as some kind of library. Everything had a clay texture to it, almost like it was from a cartoon. A large black spider with large mandibles hissed in one corner, declaring its territory to the newcomer. The windows showed nothing of the outside, the obsidian color like a paint glazed over the glossy surface. Except for the corner housing the arachnid, the room was fairly well lit, with the light seeming to emanate from nowhere in particular.

It would be difficult to find the dreamer, as dreams are seen from the dreamer's perspective. To the intruder, the host to the party would never be able to show herself to the guests. Only in reflections would the dreamer reveal herself.

“Hello?” Slumber whistled through the air. No response. She was beginning to feel alone, stranded in a dying dream.

A childlike voice cautiously called back, “Who's there?” Slumber felt her spectral form's heart lurch at the pitiful melancholy tone. The voice originated from the upper floor.

Ascending the serpentine staircase, looking around for any evidence where the child may be, she heard a slight whimper from under a bed. “There's no reason to be frightened.” she coaxed the source of the sound. “I'm here to help you.”

“M-Make them go away.” Melting inside at the innocent voice, Slumber inspected the surroundings.

Soothing the voice, “I don't see anything here. Why don't you come on out?”

She heard the patter of tiny hooves from under the bed, gingerly inspecting the floor. Recognition filled the voice, “S-Shut Eye?” it squeaked, hiding under the bed once more.

“Do you know me?”

The voice only chirped again in response, shuffling back under the bedstead.

Pressing further for information, Slumber prompted, “Who are you?”

“T-Twilight Sp-Sp-Sparkle.” stuttered the voice. Now Slumber recognized the library as the one in Ponyville. It was warped to the personal bias of the student, giving it a different appearance than she remembered from the night of the party.

In her weakness and trepidation, Twilight's mind had regressed to her fillyhood. If Slumber was going to make any progress, she would need to bring back Twilight to her full lucidity, rather than hiding behind the mask of a frightened child. Slumber would need to find the root of the fear powering the nightmare. “What are you so afraid of? What is in this house?”

Babbling, the disembodied voice mumbled loudly, with a level of articulation far beyond the years of a filly, “The fear of fear is the first of mortal consciousness. When the end becomes black, the beginning returns to claim all again.” A gasp. “He has taken what is his and seized from us. We need to hide. Hide!” Hissing, the voice warned, “If you don't hide, he'll find you. Then, the demons will not find their way back. They will succeed if you do not hide!”

The level of urgency in the voice brought doubt into Slumber for what she was about to do. “Just look around. There's nothing he-” she saw the water level rising above the staircase. It flowed to her hooves like the tide coming in to the shore. The strange dark liquid was not water anymore. It was abnormally cold and a fine mist floated above the surface. Her eyes could not penetrate the veil and she could no longer see the floor, despite the liquid being less than an inch deep.

The voice under the bed squealed as the numbing fluid reached her. The house began to sway as if it were a boat on the ocean. The water surged out of the hole in the floor where the staircase was, washing the off-balance mare in a wave that brought shivers to her spine before it even touched her coat, which she could feel standing on end.

In a slightly more panicked tone, she hissed at the bed, “Come on! We need to get out.”

“There is no way out.” The voice was pitiful, almost a whine.

Slumber reached back in her mind to remember what was downstairs. She couldn't remember the door to the house being there. There's no way she could check now that the liquid filled the entire first floor, rising to claim the second in a matter of minutes. She needed to think of a plan, and fast.

The beast tore through the streets, once again on all fours, the cobblestones coming loose from their resting places, some shattering under the force of the spikes extending out the bottom of the thing's hooves. It reached the marketplace in moments, eying the insulting look-alike in eyes of pure hatred. It stopped. The other had not yet noticed it. Standing bipedal, it clung to the wall of one of the nearby houses. Bringing a spiked hoof up to the wall with its hind leg, it pounded and the spikes slid in, the hoof now securely anchored to the surface. It did the same with the other hind hoof. Doing so again, it began to scale the wall, facing the duplicate the whole time.

When the creature deemed it had reached a sufficient height, it launched itself perpendicular to the wall, rocketing toward the other in a black blur, leaving a wispy trail in the air. Appearing to sense the original hurtling toward it, the other paused from its conquest of destruction and glanced in the direction of the rocket propelling towards it. Uncomprehending of the sight, it froze in place, like a deer in headlights.

The residents of the surrounding houses all watched in terror from their windows as the titans clashed before them in their once-peaceful town. Their breath brought a fog to their windows in the cold night air. One mother pushed her foal away from the window, whispering hushedly, “Go to bed, sweetling. Everything's fine. Just go back to sleep.” The screaming cry in the street did not soothe the child.

The torrent of stabbing strokes moved in a shadowy blur, the dark mists pouring off the two creating a fog that hid the event from their captivated audience. Every swing, kick, and buck came through instinct. No thought was required to anticipate the enemy's next attack. Each stabbed the other, bit the other, and struck it in any way possible. They did not bleed, the flesh tumbling off the umbral phantasms in rotten chunks. The shooting pain only infuriated each more with every passing second. The roars echoed down the otherwise noiseless square, causing many of the observers to step back from their windows in shock.

The original monster grabbed the other in an embrace almost reminiscent of a hug. Struggling to throttle it in any direction, they were finally taken off balance, tumbling to the ground. The duplicate rolled to the top and kicked off the original, using it as a spring board, spiked hooves digging into its flesh. The abnormal strength of the creature threw it into the air, landing deftly on top of the alicorn statue's head on one knee.

As it was about to pounce again, it took notice of the aroma of fresh blood emanating from below. It looked down and saw a purple pony bleeding out and drowning motionless in the crimson pool below. Something about it attracted the creature's gaze and held it there, a shadow of a thought forming in its mind. It had to do something for the equine in the water, something vital to the duplicate's own survival. But as its primitive mind struggled to figure out what to do, the original pounced and knocked it from its perch.

Tumbling again, the pair rolled around in the water below, the virgin blood washing over them, bathing them. The taste and scent of the dilute ambrosia invaded their senses as they fought harder and more viciously, snarling at each other. Their bout gradually circled the circular fountain and they found themselves fighting on top of the dying faucet of velvety blood.

Understanding now what to do, one of the monstrosities took action. Letting the other bite into its shoulder, the doppelganger kicked one leg in such a fashion as to raise the breathless mare out of the water and onto the edge of the fountain. In a brilliant move of ingenuity, it leaped away from her, dragging the other monster in the opposite direction, ready to continue the fight.

Astonished, the pair of figments took a deep breath, relieved as the arctic water sunk away from the ceiling. Gasping for breath heavily on the ground, Slumber realized something, her eyes growing wide. “The water must be leaving through somewhere! Quick, Twilight, take my hoof and we'll follow it.” She felt an invisible touch grab her extended hoof. Throwing themselves downstairs, she was baffled. The water level was still plummeting, but there was nowhere for it to be going to. No drain, no hole in the wall, no avenue of escape.

“But. I. This... How?!” her grip tightened as she shouted at the empty library, still panting.

The inconspicuous filly let out a gasp. If Slumber could have seen her, she would have known that she was pointing to the far wall. Slumber was just barely able to catch a glimpse of the spider as she searched for whatever caused the child to gasp.

The spider had scuttled behind a very large cocoon in the corner, the same color as the wooden wall. It's head peered back out over the side as its fangs pierced the shell and it began to suck away at whatever was inside.

Slumber winced as a high-pitched wail filled the air, the filly screaming in pain. Instantly figuring out the situation, Slumber levitated the heaviest nearby book she could find and shot it like a cannon at the arachnid, hitting it dead center in the head. The filly quieted down, but still whimpered to herself, lying invisibly on one of the steps.

Enraged, the spider spat venom at the attacker, who grabbed it out of the air with her horn and lobbed it into the thing's numerous beady eyes. Now blind, the black invertebrate gave a high-pitched hiss and cowered behind the cocoon, hoping that the unicorn would go away.

The unseen filly shivered on the steps. “What's in there?” Slumber wondered aloud. Magically severing the strands of spider silk, she simultaneously raked her hooves over the steps, finally finding the grumbling filly. Slumber placed her cautiously across her back and finished her descent down the stairs.

Twilight stirred, mumbling, “Where did it go?”

“It's still there. It's just hiding, like you were.”

“Oh.” An unseen smile of content slid over her face.

At the foot of the stairs, Slumber's horn flared and the cocoon rolled away with a slight brushing sound against the wooden floor. The spider had shrunk tremendously in size. It was now less than half the length of one of the many books adorning the shelves. “Care to do the honors?” A sly half-grin presented itself to Twilight. Or at least Slumber hoped it was to her face and not on the other side.

“Huh?” She wiped the remnants of a tear from her eye. Slumber pointed to one of the nearby books, lying open and waterlogged on one of the desks. “Ohhhh.” Slumber saw a small purple light encase the tome and the book fell on the spider with a satisfying slap. “I feel so much better.”

“So do I, kid.” she responded as the cocoon levitated through the air and set itself down in the center of the room. Her horn began to glow with a pulsing blue aura as she severed the strands to the silky envelope. A small line formed down the shell as she cut it open. Once she was done, the mare extended a hoof and peeled the sticky substance away to reveal what was inside.

A purple unicorn with cutie mark of many stars lay inside, breathing shallowly. It was the fully-grown adult Twilight. The filly over Slumber's back gasped again and disappeared. The body in the cocoon woke up, becoming invisible to the guest as consciousness returned.

The room seemed to illuminate brighter until the two felt like it was daylight out. Even the warm feelings of the sun seemed to come from the windows, now lacking the obsidian cover. The real Twilight would now wake up soon, whenever her last nightmare was vanquished on the outside. Or if it found its way to Slumber. She hoped for the former.

“Mommy, what's going on?” A butterscotch-colored foal, barely able to speak, stepped out from his room.

His father answered, “Now is not the time, son. Stay away from the windows. It's dangerous out there.” A chilling roar shook the window in its frame and the family of three cringed, flattening out to the floor. “And put that light out!” the father rasped to his wife, who turned into her son's room and blew out the candle.

When she came back, she noticed him staring intensely out the window. Her son stood in the other corner. “What is it?”

“Somepony's out there.” he whispered, as if the monsters could hear him from the windowsill. He added, “In the fountain. She looks hurt.”

“Well don't go out, it could be dangerous.”

“They're gone, though. I have to help her. It's what I've been trained to do.” He worked down at the hospital and could at least try to help her injuries, assuming she was still alive.

“Daddy, don't go.” pleaded the foal from the corner.

Ignoring his son, the white pony with the medical cross cutie mark crossed the room and opened the front door, bringing the chill from the night into the tiny home, first aid kit strapped to his back. “I'll be right back. You don't have to worry about me.” He left his wife and son with a smile of confidence, feeling considerably less so on the inside.

His steps down to the fountain proceeded like a dance. Two steps there and pause. Three steps and pause. Finally sauntering the whole way down without any sight of where the creatures had gone, he pulled the pony the rest of the way out of the fountain, spilling some rust-colored water as she hit the ground. Putting his ear up to her chest, he realized she had stopped breathing. She still had a pulse though. She couldn't have stopped breathing for more than two minutes.

Acting as quickly as he could manage, the stallion applied disinfectant and put a cotton pad on her wound. It had punctured one lung and the other had to have been filled with water. Next he applied CPR, opening her mouth to check the airway, which was empty. Drawing a deep breath, he breathed for her and began chest compressions.

Statistics told him that he would probably do nothing, that the success rate for on-site CPR was low. It wouldn't even matter after six minutes, when the brain dies. He continued nonetheless. A minute passed. No change occurred. Two minutes passed. Her heart stopped beating. Preparing to give up, he gave himself one more minute, despite beginning to become light headed.

Miraculously, the pony coughed, her heart and lung recovering from the lapse in performance. The water that had filled one lung poured over her muzzle and she lied still, breathing once more. Somewhat shocked that she had defied the odds, the stallion grinned to himself, breathing a sigh of relief.

Dragging her back to his house quickly but smoothly, on guard for the return of the beasts, he started a fire for the drenched mare in the fireplace and left her sleeping on a rug. He had applied the gauze  and now her wound would have to heal. The lung, however, would have to wait until he was sure the monsters would not return. Setting a timer for thirty minutes, he waited, watching over the purple unicorn solemnly, wondering if she had any chance of recovery.

The hulking silhouettes raged on in their unending battle, the new location: Everfree Fields. Dirt and soil flew, debris in a hurricane. Trees tumbled and boulders shattered. War torn, the two monsters no longer resembled their former appearances. Severed body parts lay half buried in the dirt. One no longer had its fore legs and the other was missing a hind leg, a large chunk of shoulder, and a jaw. Their bodies, riddled with holes from where they had been stabbed, began to resemble changelings.

One of them had deliberately shredded its own foreleg, replacing the array of spikes with a long, sword-like appendage. Moonlight illuminated their tattered bodies, but they did not need it. Moving with great swiftness, they propelled themselves over the fields, which now resembled the trench warfare of World War II, including some little gulleys scattered throughout. No grass still grew in the wake of their carnage.

Delivering blow after blow, the kind which would have killed any normal pony, their struggle began to look more like a black, sooty tornado than a fight. Tooth and nail, neither would stop until the other moved no more. As the night dragged on, many of the inhabitants remained too scared to leave their houses, too worried of the shrieking in the distance as the monsters ripped each other to shreds.

Wielding its sword-arm, one of the indistinguishable creatures sliced, blade whistling through the air, to no avail as its target jumped back, lashing in retaliation with a kick. Snarling as the kick impacted its shoulder, it spun, knocking the other off-balance. The upright fighter landed on the ground with a soft thud and kicked off with its hind legs, flipping through the air and landing back on its hooves, their spikes sinking back into the soft earth. Much more nimble without the additional weight of its forelegs, it dashed at a slight curve towards its opponent.

As the grounded foe swung at the umbral bullet, the black silhouette jumped into the air. Unable to rear up onto its one hind leg, the tattered figure that remained on the ground attempted to look upward at the enemy, only to have one spiked hoof rip through the left side of its neck. In a scream of rage rather than agony, it swung blindly with its last attached limb at its recovering adversary, missing by a hair. The attacker jumped back, staring at the monster that shared its form as it tried to crawl in pursuit, leaving the severed remains of its left leg, spine, and hind leg in the dirt, unphased at its losses. Gnashing its teeth and snarling, the mobile head used its sword-arm to inch closer. It swung into the ground and pulled the snarling face through the clods of torn-up soil.

Its target snorted, in something barely resembling a chuckle. Walking calmly over to the head, it deflected the sword with one leg, pinning it to the ground. It raised the other hoof and brought it slamming down into the incapacitated monster's head. The skull crumbled with a crunch and lay still. A soft breeze of warming air blew over the field as the sun peered over the horizon. The form disintegrated into a wispy cloud of gray smoke, an audible pop the only other evidence that something had once occupied the space. In victory, the monster roared at the top of its lungs, piercing the fresh morning air.

Slumber suddenly found herself in the hall again. Twilight's door now stood firmly shut. Twilight's dream had ended. She could have just woken up, meaning that her nightmare had been defeated, or she could be dead, having been killed on the outside. Dusting herself off as she rose from the floor, Slumber shuffled to her own door and turned the nob.

The monster, satisfied with its victory, walked across the field to the mouth of a small cave. Entering, it strode across the hall and laid its body down to the rest of the soft, welcoming bed in the opposing room. As usual, it did not dream of anything but darkness.

~~~~~~~

Returned to its true form, the pony returned to life still in a dreamy state. The light from the sun burned into his retinas and he rubbed them with his hooves. Getting up slowly, he noticed his lover was nowhere to be found. Memory rushed back into the stallion as his eyes grew wide. Breaking off into a sprint, he soon found himself galloping through Ponyville, nearly knocking down several ponies in his wake. He could hear his breath and his heart pounding as he sprinted through the town, his body numb to all other sounds and to the impact his hooves made against the stones lining the street.

The door to the hospital slammed open, startling the few occupants inside. Striding to the room where he last left his lover, time seemed to slow down for the stallion as he slowly pushed open the door with one hoof, his ears deaf to the squeaking from the unoiled hinges. At first, he didn't see her move and assumed the worst. Then, he thought he saw movement and stared, holding his breath, from the doorway. Her chest rose and fell and he breathed a sigh of relief, feeling his legs start to wobble. Still in a daze, he slowly stumbled over to her, his steps barely audible. Remembering all that she meant to him brought tears of joy to his eyes. All the monsters were gone and he could feel that she had returned.

He sat down, bringing his hooves up to her bed. Feeling the movement, the ultramarine figure stirred, taking in a deep, much-needed breath. She turned and blue met red as their eyes locked. She too felt tears swell forth. The mare lurched forward and took the stallion in a firm embrace, her breath ragged. “I was so worried about you.” she gasped into his ear through the tears.

“I was about to say the same.” Neither moved for the longest time, just letting the joy and relief flood the moment as they took it all in. When their tears finally dried, they loosened their grasps, but did not let go. “I love you so much, Slumber.” was the most his tired mind could manage.

“It is with equal force and pleasure that I say the same, Eventide.” A short laugh sprang forth and she brought her muzzle to his, reveling, for she was made whole again.

Across the hall, a purple unicorn with a bandage over her chest observed the couple through her accommodation’s right-side window. Her door ajar, she could hear everything that was said. “Eventide...” She whispered to herself lethargically, a small, devilish grin spreading over her face as plans swarmed in her mind.