A Nightmare

by Moterius

Rating: teen
Tags: Sad, Princess Luna, Death, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 5677

The world of Dreams, a wonderful place. For dreamers, as they can't die. But what about the nightmares?

It was never the goal of the nightmares to make the dreamers fear them, and they always were doing their best to stay away from dreams.
But recently, something has been hunting and killing the nightmares. It has much power and glows a pale, sickly, light blue color, and therefore was nicknamed 'the presence' by the nightmares. One could sense and see it from far away.
This is what pushed the nightmares to become active for the first time, to try and intentionally hurt another being, instead of just scaring them.

Published 2020-09-29 20:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-12-25 08:11:45 UTC

Dream World

Author's Note

Read this, it's important.
So. Someone I know said that this might be a little out-of-context, considering it's currently a 1K-fic while it's setting is the dreamscape. So, here's what you need to know:
- The moment in time is one thousand years ago - after the sisters defeated the mad king Sombra.
- The story is told from the perspective of a dream creature, which have, in the context of this story, named themselves 'nightmares'.
- 'The Presence' is the name they have given to Luna.

On a second, probably less important note: This chapter can be read as a one-shot, but this story? It will go on.

Dream World

The nightmare was not entirely sure what to think. It remembered its brethren getting destroyed time and time again, often after just a few times of visiting dreamers.

However, they returned from time to time, so that they could show the weaker ones how to gain power. Search a pony and make them scared and become stronger yourself.

But there was something around the dreamers that hunted nightmares. It did not kill them outright often, but rather comforted dreamers, meaning they would be able to fight the nightmares would they return.

Some of the wiser nightmares only visited a pony once, and they lived longer. They also theorized that this Presence was a sort-of anti-nightmare, gaining strength by making dreamers happy.

Long ago, there was a sudden increase in bad dreams, and the nightmares decided not to enter those dreams. Instead, they collected all the strength they could, not touching the dreams, and staying apart from the dreamers as far as possible.

It was a wonderful time, and not one nightmare died thanks to the presence during that time. From time to time, a dreamer would manage to fight a nightmare, but this time, the nightmares were stronger and could survive losing against a dreamer, if only once.

However, it lasted not long enough. After just a few hundred dream cycles, the dreams vanished again, not leaving behind normal dreams – but nothing.

The nightmares were scared. For the dreamers, and their future.

If there were no dreamers, the nightmares would not live long, too.

And secondly, they now knew that as soon as the collected energy was gone, they would have to go to enter dreams again, risking dying at any time again.

They did not want that.

A wise nightmare realized that they could either feast for a few hundred dream cycles on the energy they still had left or could try and trap the Presence with the power they had accumulated.

They decided on the latter. If it would not work, they just lost time by losing the energy, but if they won, there would be no one comforting the dreamers, and more importantly, no one killing the nightmares that were traveling to their prey or to their home.

The wise nightmare was not strong. But it was cunning.

And all other nightmares decided to follow it.

The nightmare we are observing was born in the middle of the glorious period, having grown into a very, very quick nightmare that found it could evade the Presence by outrunning it.

It, too, agreed with the plan the wise nightmare came up with.

First, they practiced dreaming. Creating a fake dream was hard, and hiding it from the Presence was harder, but they managed by hiding inside of all the energy they had collected. The wise nightmare decided to become the dream’s center, and it knew it was likely to die, but unfortunately, the nightmares realized that it was the only one capable of fabricating a false dream that was realistic in both feel and image.

Then, the wise nightmare picked out some more leaders. A strong fighter, the second fastest nightmare, and the one that was the wisest after it. They would hide with a number of others for the duration of their plan so that the nightmares would still exist if they failed.

And lastly, they created the fake dream.

After the Presence was gone, they created a small pocket of energy, and the wise nightmare flew there. The nightmare we are observing was tasked with watching out for the Presence and warn them so that the wise nightmare could create the false image, as doing so required energy they could not waste.

It worked, and the Presence ignored the seemingly peaceful, normal dream.

Over the next few circles, they moved nearly all the energy they had collected, creating a black orb of it inside of the dream. Eventually, their trap was ready to be sprung, and all the nightmares not necessary left.

Three stayed. A strong nightmare, the wise nightmare, and the quick nightmare.

The strong one would assault and assist the wise nightmare, while the quick nightmare would lure the Presence to the dream.

They all knew that their chances of survival were basically zero. But they had to do it, the Presence was growing stronger and faster with every passing circle, and only sometimes seemed slow.

They were okay with it. Others would follow, and others would fill the spots they left behind. There would eventually come a nightmare stronger than the Presence, but for now, they were content with damaging it.

The quick nightmare eventually spotted the Presence, and it touched a nearby dream, alerting it. It then pretended to flee, coming close, but not too close to the fabricated dream, in which the wise nightmare was creating a fake, bad dream.

There seemed one sort of bad dream that made the Presence ignore anything it chased, when it displayed mortal danger. And it worked, causing the Presence to move towards the dream.

The quick nightmare moved away, but then returned, hidden between dreams, needing to watch and warn the others if something bad would happen.

The Presence entered the dream, and a quick, legendary battle began that would be remembered for eons.

The strong nightmare was faking an assault on the wise nightmare, and the Presence stepped between the two, creating a shield. Before the Presence did turn to the strong nightmare, she turned to the wise one, realizing something was off, but it was too late.

The dream was cut off from the dream realm to ensure the Presence could not flee, and if the wise nightmare would get injured, the dream would collapse anyway, so it was a win-win.

However, the Presence was still too strong, even with the wise and strong nightmare having absorbed all the energy.

The dream started cracking, but what happened next shocked the quick nightmare.

From everywhere, nightmares came. And they sealed the dream, helping, smiling.

Peace

They – they were all the nightmares that helped before! All those that didn't hide!

The quick nightmare smiled, then slipped through a crack with others. Alone, the wise and the strong nightmare would not win, but together, they would.

After all, the presence was one being. And from dreams, the nightmare knew that numbers were the deciding factor.

It flew around the presence. Others tied down its movement, binding the legs of the form it had chosen. The quick nightmare realized that the presence was not perfect. It was strong, very strong, and it was abstract – but it was NOT perfect.

Otherwise, it would just turn into mist.

The quick nightmare lashed out at the Presence while the others held it. Hundreds of strikes were delivered, and eventually, the presence became weaker.

As soon as it only faltered a little, every single nightmare clung to her, sealing her movement, except for the strong one that fought her before. It seeped into it, into the hated presence.

The others felt that it was not strong enough to beat the presence fully, so it did something genius as well. It turned itself into a single, precise strike at the Presence, and it hit it perfectly. A shockwave flowed through the dream world, showing how deeply the intruder had rooted itself, and then vanished from it.

The nightmares looked at each other, dumbfounded, while the wise nightmare was slowly pulling back the fake dream.

They… they had won?

Slowly, one by one, the nightmares realized that they had won. The presence was gone!

But the wise nightmare reminded them of two facts. One, the presence could return next dream cycle, as many, many creatures did. There were even nightmares that could reappear after being killed, by just waiting a dream cycle.

This sent chills down the necks of the nightmares. If the Presence was the same as them, or the same as the dreamers, it was not defeated. Not at all.

Waiting. They had to wait, to make sure the Presence was finally gone from their realm. Then, and only then they could traverse the dream realm safely again.

Carefully, they started absorbing the energy from nearby bad dreams they had not caused, careful, and ready to flee at any moment were the presence to return, ready for war.

But alas, it did not.

And after a few hundred, nearly a thousand dream cycles, the presence still did not return.

And for a dream circle, the nightmares decided to help the dreamers for once. Not to show them how to overcome their fears, that would have been stupid, but by giving them good, nice dreams.

Their biggest enemy was gone, and they would not have to hunt so much anymore, to make up for those that died every night. Some would still vanish into oblivion, because dreamers overcame them, or because they forgot to feed, or because they got tired of their existence, but now, for the nightmares, life was peaceful.

A few more thousand cycles of dreams passed, and eventually, the wise nightmare visited the quick nightmare.

No longer required to enter dreams that often and having always enough energy with them to save themselves, no nightmare had died in a long time. But for some reason, the wise nightmare was carrying that exact amount of energy to the quick nightmare.

By now, it was carrying messages, and paid in energy for that, so it wondered what the wise nightmare could want. The wise nightmare led it to a strange dreamer. The dreamer could control its dream, and emitting energy available for the nightmares, while not having a bad dream at all.

The quick nightmare wondered why it was here, and the wise nightmare explained that it would soon become part of the dreamers. Confused, the quick one asked what that meant, and the wise explained that after two to four hundred thousand dream circles, a nightmare would vanish, and return a few hundred to thousand cycles later as a dreamer, without memory, but as one, nonetheless.

They were destined for greatness, and their dreams always gave off a small amount of energy available for nightmares but would nearly never have a bad dream.

It was the last nightmare alive to know about this and told the quick nightmare that with the defeat of the presence, many more nightmares would eventually become dreamers, giving the nightmares more and more sustenance. Maybe, it mused, one day they could collect enough energy to visit the world of the dreamers, but it was content to know it led the nightmares to their most important victory yet.

Before the quick nightmare could say anything, the wise told it that it would inform the others of this soon and pointed back at the dream in front of it.

There was a flicker in the energy. The wise nightmare explained that this dreamer was not once a nightmare, but instead born a dreamer, and as the overall strongest nightmare, the quick nightmare would be the one to meet with the dreamer, as the dreamer was seemingly interested in speaking with a nightmare.

The quick nightmare was worried at first, but then realized it could survive long enough to escape with the energy it was given. In fact, it could do so twice.

And with a big smile, the wise nightmare explained how they could collect nearly twice as much energy as usual, not having to fear the presence, and not having to fear death anymore.

Amazed by this, the quick nightmare turned around again, carefully touching the dream. It got nearly sucked in but managed to stay in the space between dreamers.

In it, it could see a furred, thin dreamer. There were dreamers in many different forms, but they usually had a big and a small variant, with the small one being slightly shorter, thinner, and weaker, but also quicker than the bigger variant.

And after receiving another nod from the wise nightmare, it entered the dream.

Thelestral

The quick nightmare found itself in a small space, with the dreamer resting on something the nightmare did not know the name for. For a moment, it hovered there, not detected by the dreamer, but the small winged dreamer eventually looked up at it, giving a small smile.

“ᚥᚧᚿᚿᛩ ᛪᛩ ᛨᛩᛠ ᛙᛝᚧ ᚥᚧᛝᚧ” ㅤ

Confused, the nightmare hovered there, no way to indicate that it was not understanding the dreamer, but the dreamer then beckoned it to come closer. Then, the dreamer touched it, before repeating the weird sounds it made.

“Hello. So, you are here.”

Surprised by the meaning behind the previously nonsensical voices, the nightmare tried to ask a question, sending it through the realm.

“I felt something, but not enough. I cannot communicate like you, so please try to match my way of communication,” the dreamer then said, causing the nightmare to nod.

It understood that, and it was surprising how easy it could understand the dreamer.

It tried a few times to express different things in the way the dreamer used, eventually managing to bring forth a word.

“Wonder.”

“Yes, like that. You probably wonder why I talk with you?”

“Affirmative,” was the next closest thing the nightmare could say.

“Well, I am part of a race called thelestrals,” the dreamer said, extending a wing. It held none of the fluffy looking things wings usually had.

“We have a small chance to be able to dreamwalk, and I eventually spotted you,” she continued, drawing a nearly inaudible hiss from the nightmare.

“Presence!”

That word, that meaning, it could be conveyed perfectly.

The dreamer scrunched up its face.

“I do not know what you talk about. Something that also moves between dreams?”

“…affirmative,” the nightmare responded, deciding that the dreamer had probably no connection with the Presence.

“Death. Much, much death,” the nightmare then said, settling down opposite of the dreamer, noticing that it came to rest on the same sort of structure the dreamer used itself.

“I am not here to harm you – I want to help you. Somewhere in the last decade, I realized what you truly were, after sensing you time and time again near to my dreams,” the dreamer said, once again surprising the nightmare.

“Presence… not. We dead then,” it said, getting a shrug out of the dreamer.

“The world of dreams is quite mysterious, that much is true,” the dreamer said, smiling.

“But the world you cannot see is interesting as well. And I think that I know how you can live without having to fight.”

While skimming the energy of dreams gave them enough to survive, it did not allow them to increase their numbers. So, the nightmare was interested.

“Tell,” it finally said, getting the dreamer to smile.

Oh, what a joyous occasion! There were dreamers that enjoyed bad dreams!

The nightmare dared not to ask why, but this was wonderful news! And even though it did not ask, it still got explained!

If one defeated a nightmare, they overcame their fear! But if someone has a bad dream not related to fear, dreamers could learn from it, and nightmares could live from it!

There were many dreamers, many times more than there were nightmares! And only a few dreamers wanted bad dreams, but even that was a huge boon, again!

The real advantage was that this was something originating from the dreamers and nightmares, not from wherever the dreamers came from. That meant, those dreamers would not simply disappear, but stick around for thousands of cycles!

The wise nightmare was very surprised by this. It knew that dreamers sometimes did not fight their bad dreams, or the nightmares attracted by them, but always thought it was because it was of too much fear. It now started thinking again, eventually realizing the main difference between a dreamer that would fight a bad dream and one that would not.

A dreamer would fight a bad dream if it was off. How off was to define was hard to say, but the wise nightmare realized that things that were the same in many dreams were not off. So, the less off things a dream continued, the more likely it was that the dreamer would not fight the bad dream.

This did not tell them if they wanted to fight the bad dream or not, but it once again made their hunting easier.

The wise nightmare tried to talk with the dreamer that talked with the quick nightmare and eventually learned that the more fear a dreamer showed, the more they wanted to fight a bad dream. But if they had no fear within a bad dream, they would never fight the nightmares that came.

That was the last thing the wise nightmare did, and it would be remembered by the nightmares as the ‘white nightmare’, the one who had lead the nightmares into a golden age, and when it eventually became a dreamer, the energy it provided was slightly higher than that of other dreamers, showing how important it was even when it no longer was a nightmare.

For some three hundred and twenty thousand dream cycles, everything was good, and the nightmares became both stronger and more numerous. The quick nightmare watched as most of those that fought alongside it became dreamers themselves, but none was ever as good of a dreamer as the wise nightmare, now known as the white nightmare, was.

However, some time after watching the strong nightmare vanish that originally helped out the white nightmare, something happened.

Something terrifying.

Something unimaginable.

The Presence was felt again, if only for a moment.

Never having forgotten their history, the nightmares panicked, but the presence did nothing and vanished again. They thought it was just a scare. But then, three cycles later, the presence returned.

And it did with a vengeance.

A terrible, terrible vengeance.

Fearful, the nightmares hid. But the presence found them again and started killing again. One after another…

And so, the quick nightmare fled, too.

Not-Presence

Author's Note

I don't care what FF says, this chapter's 1000 words.

Not-Presence

The Presence was very fast and far more intelligent than it once was. The quick nightmare found that it could hide from it by using normal dreams, but it was gradually losing its strength.

It knew that the other nightmares were not as old, not as fast, not as powerful, and not as knowledgeable about the Presence. There were barely any nightmares left from that time.

The nightmare was not surprised that it felt terror when looking at the Presence.

However, it was surprising when it realized that it could grasp this terror and feed on it. It theorized that it had stayed a nightmare for too long and was supposed to have become a dreamer already.

Luckily, the presence never could stay permanently hunting nightmares. After a while, it vanished again, and the quick nightmare darted to all the other nightmares. They quickly devised a new plan.

Every nightmare would search a dreamer they knew to sometime have bad dreams and enter a state of hibernation. The bad dreams would provide them with barely enough sustenance, but it would keep them alive.

The presence had changed, and by now resembled dreamers more than nightmares. The quick nightmare theorized that if they could hide long enough and search another dream when the dreamer vanished, they would eventually find one cycle that the presence was gone for good.

But the quick nightmare also knew that the presence had learned, and that was why it did not plan on attacking the presence again. The presence had prepared itself, and now even touching it had become a death sentence.

And before the quick nightmare could find a suitable dream, it was shocked to feel the presence start to phase into the dream realm right next to it. It dove into the next closest dream, shocked.

The presence never teleported!

It could just hope that the presence had not noticed it and that the others had hidden themselves already.

Looking around, it found that it landed in an entirely empty dream.

There was nothing, and the nightmare made itself as small as possible. There were just some things it was not willing to risk.

However, it seemed like for some reason, even though it knew the presence had to notice it by now, it decided to ignore it. Why? If for any reason, the presence was scared of this dream, then that would be a great thing!

It would be even better if it could just not enter this dream. Because then, the only problem the nightmares would have was collecting energy.

However, it soon realized why this dream was not visited by the presence.

The nightmare could not leave!

Normally, this would have been a death sentence, but the nightmare could feed off its own terror. Not for long, mind you, but maybe long enough to find some way to escape.

Ah, a most interesting little thing I have found here.

Whirling around, the nightmare spotted a dreamer’s image, but it was twisted. The dreamer it was an image of was an enigma to the nightmares, as it seemed to have neither good nor bad dreams.

However, this being in front of the nightmare, it was something far, far different than a dreamer, or a nightmare.

It was almost like…

The Presence!

The Presence.

The Presence…

Those two… they were the same.

Burning with rage and energy that should have been reserved for the presence, the nightmare enlarged to a form far bigger than before. It was not hiding anymore. It was done hiding.

“Destroy, vanish, die! Not-presence!” the nightmare screeched, breaking the one rule nightmares abridged by.

No direct attacks.

Because they usually ended in disaster.

However, in this specific instance, the nightmare had more than enough energy, and only one choice. It could win. And it was determined to win.

Rushing forwards, a black blade formed along one of its extremities, crude, but sharp.

A nightmare was not an existence that fought very often. Not like this, in any case. And never to kill.

The quick nightmare found time to drily chuckle.

It was setting a lot firsts during its existence.

Barely raising the ‘blade’ in time, the other being in this dream crashed a red sword into it. The nightmare scowled – but had to acknowledge the speed this being showed.

However, the nightmare still was a being with hundreds of thousands of dream cycles experience! It would not let itself be defeated! True, even the Presence was not fighting this being – but the Presence probably never fought this being in a battle to the death, either!

Additionally, this was still a dream. Not a normal one, that the nightmare could tell – but it was still a dream.

Summoning a mountain above the other being, it let it crash down, and the expression of the being told the nightmare that it managed to surprise the being.

Enraged and with flaming sword the being broke free of the mountain, but the nightmare was not lazing around – and had summoned hundreds of clones of itself. They all were weak, but they could not be told apart.

And they all rushed at the being that attacked their creator, while the nightmare itself was rushing forwards to not be spotted, as well.

However, the being seemed to have another ace up its sleeve… a flame ball formed atop its head, and shot into the nightmare clones and the nightmare, blasting all but the nightmare to pieces.

Then, another flame ball appeared, but the nightmare reiterated with a blast of black energy.

Deep black clashed with deep red, creating a ball of energy, half black, and half yellow.

But even though the nightmare was strong, against this foe, it still was weak. Additionally, the nightmare realized, these flames were not blocking the black energy it used – but absorbed it!

And there was nowhere to dodge. The nightmare tried but couldn’t move.

The black energy got consumed by the red, and the nightmare found itself burning away…

Alive

Author's Note

I just knew I forgot something. Sorry guys.

Alive

…but it also found that it was not being destroyed. Maybe it just had insane luck and got turned into a dreamer at this very moment?

No. That was impossible. As it still held his memories. A nightmare would lose its memories while turning into a dreamer.

So, what was happening?

The nightmare was getting stronger and stronger with every passing second. It could not help but wonder why. The flames that hit the nightmare, like its energy when it hit the flames, got absorbed, strengthening it.

After a few more moments, the stream of flames vanished, and it could see the being in front of it again. It looked surprised and angry.

Why are you not dead?!

“Unknown,” the nightmare responded, now knowing that this being could not hurt it.

Curious, it started to move towards the being, which retaliated by conjuring up another fireball and slamming it into the nightmare, sending it flying back.

The fireball hurt. But it got absorbed by the nightmare, healing and strengthening it. And now it was the nightmare who was in control of the fight.

Lifting up its mass, it found that it could still move quite fast, even though it had absorbed so much energy. Creating some tendrils, it launched them at its opponent, who tried to dodge and blast them aside but was not succeeding with it.

“Death… prepared to kill, prepared to die…” the nightmare said, slamming another, quite heavy tendril in the being’s side, now in a quite good mood. It knew that it had changed, it knew it should not feel pleasure by torturing this being.

But… it was like the Presence. Not quite, but similar. It tried to kill the nightmare, and the nightmare was fighting back. Now, for the first time, the roles were reversed – the nightmare was stronger.

A massive, black beam of energy slammed into the flaming being, but instead of destroying it, it just emerged again, seemingly unscathed.

When they clashed again, they soon enough realized they now were of equal strength, and their attacks when energy-based would only strengthen their opponent.

This was a fight none of them could win.

It seems we are at an impasse, the being said, causing the nightmare to nod, suspicious of the being’s intentions.

“…true. Your… offer?” the nightmare asked, knowing someone like this would not say something like that without some sort of goal.

A ceasefire.

“…fine,” the nightmare responded, recompressing it to the same size as the being in front of it.

Why did you attack me, though?

“…Presence. You are… similar. Too similar,” the nightmare responded, causing the being to tilt its head.

I have not heard that name before.

The nightmare explained what the Presence was, but the being seemed to not understand it until the nightmare said that it phrased into existence just next to this dream but a few moments ago.

Ah, you mean that existence. I have seen it before, and it takes a look at me from time to time, seemingly pleased that I cannot escape from this domain – neither to the world it resides in, nor to the dreamer that gave me my form.

It hunts your kind. Maybe so that it can have the dream realm to itself?

“Possible,” the nightmare responded, having lost spirit.

Trapped with someone like the Presence, but it’s enemy nonetheless.

“Trapped… forever, this… is.”

Unfortunately. Maybe… maybe we can do something about it.

“…truly?”

I loathe accepting help or helping others, but it seems like we have no choice here. If we combine our strength, and I can tell that you have quite a lot, we might be able to break through the barrier separating us.

It could be our only chance, as well. We would have to wait until someone frees us otherwise, and by then, we probably would have driven each other insane, the being commented, gesturing around it.

So, yes. I would rather try something dangerous to try to break us free of this confinement my creator unknowingly subjected us to than to stare at this white void for any longer than necessary.

Holding out an appendage, the being waited for the nightmare’s response.

It took her a while. Could it trust this being? They could not hurt each other, so it was not too suspicious of the offer, but then, too, it was nearly reborn…

But if it would be reborn, it would forget everything… and leave this being behind. It also seemed to stand against the Presence.

Sighing, it formed into a black copy of the being, mirroring it’s pose, stretching out an appendage.

“…try to break free.”

Excellent.

The nightmare felt itself flow into the being, but that being also flowed into her. A second later, and it found it could not move anymore.

Their form looked up, and a shimmering barrier became visible. A jump and a stretched-out appendage was formed, hitting the shield.

However, the shield held, and all the power they put in the attack slammed into them.

Their eyes grew wide, but they could not react in time, and far faster than they launched themselves, they slammed into the white plain that made up the dream, which shattered under the impact.

The nightmare found itself ripped away from the being, but a hot, burning piece of the being that asked for its help stayed behind. Looking, it could see the other being trying to reach out to it, seemingly pained by a black piece of energy on its middle section, like how it left a piece behind in the nightmare’s form.

No! That is where I was supposed to be! it exclaimed, looking at the nightmare, before whisked away.

The nightmare, in turn, found itself propelled downwards even further through its non-existent surroundings, eventually slamming into something, and losing consciousness.

Before it faded, though, it saw something that made it smile. In the distance, it could see the being, breaking through the barrier to the dream realm. Both had escaped.

Interlude: Luna

Author's Note

Christmas update here as well.

Interlude: Luna

Luna was patrolling the dream realm as usual, when she suddenly stopped, noticing something. The fake dream her sister had created to protect herself had started to shake.

She knew that a nightmare was trapped in it already, and now there was a second one in it, too. It was not something she did worry about too much.

But in retrospect? She should have realized that something was… off. She knew that it had more to it than she knew, more than it showed.

YOU!

Whirling around, she came face-to-face with a dark red cloud of energy, seemingly decaying at the edges.

It was you… always you. It was always, always, ALWAYS… you.

A red-black beam of energy shot out of the cloud, and Luna jumped to the side, not managing to avoid getting grazed by the beam. It hurt, which was surprising, but to her horror… it felt dark, corrupting.

She could tell that the being attacking her wasn’t aware of this ability. It looked around, having condensed into a silhouette of a wendigo.

It… it strengthened me… and now, this allows me to move in this realm! Oh, Presence, you should never have come here! It exclaimed, invisible gaze boring into Luna’s own representation.

“What art thou?”

I am a being just like you.

“We art nothing alike!” Luna exclaimed, realizing her opponent was like the beings that had trapped and corrupted her – just two, tens, dozens, hundreds of times stronger…

Oh?

Then, let me disprove you.

You have another side, like me.

Luna froze, paying that mistake with a fast, strong punch to her side.

“Thee art who made our ‘other half’!”

We both gather strength from dreamers! I did not realize, but you dared not to fight me – I was draining one of the strongest dreamers! That’s why you ignored me! That is why YOU were attacked!

“Tis’ a lie! Thou art saying what thee wish to be the truth!”

The cloud managed to somehow chuckle, firing another blast at Luna.

And if I am lying? What would that mean? You clearly knew! YOU SAW ME THERE! TRAPPED! YOU KNEW WE WERE SIMILAR! And yet… you did nothing. Yet you came to watch me. Again. Again. Again… thousands, hundreds of thousands of times you gazed at me, ignoring my need for help!

The being stopped screaming at Luna and slithered up to her, whispering now into her ear instead.

You? You already were a monster when you got ‘corrupted’. I am not sure what to believe anymore… did those small, conscious slivers of magic truly corrupt you? Or did they just provide you with an excuse to finally cut loose?

“LIES!” Luna exclaimed, trying to retaliate, but her opponent dodged.

Look into a mirror for once. And ask… am I the monster? For existing? Or… are you the monster… for stealing power not yours, for ignoring my silent plea for help, for attempting GENOCIDE?!

This time, the blast crashing into Luna was far bigger than before.