A Little Nightmare to a Wonderful Dream

Standing in front of the tree, the two children were staring up at the crystalline facimal of a regular tree. After a moment, the boy stood in front of the girl, hand stretched out, as if ready to defend against the thing. The girl seemed to make a face at this from behind him, an unsure expression. The crystalline foliage glowed, and the two children's eyes widened.

The tree pulsed, and the two children watched the light flicker in and out. After a few moments, the boy lowered his hand and turned to the girl. He tilted his head at her, and she nodded in return. “Ponies?” The girl asked, and the boy looked away, crossing his arms and tapping his foot for a few moments.

“...Dangerous.” He murmured back, frowning under his rain hat as he looked back at her. The little girl hummed back, looking up for a moment.

“True…” She said, humming for another couple seconds, her own arms crossing. “Sneak?” She questioned, looking back at him and tilting her head.

After a few moments, the boy hummed. He started, letting out a little gasp and smiling. “Chaos.” He said back, and the girl smiled back. Taking her hand, he led them out of the cave. Looking around, he saw a staircase made out of the stone around them and headed towards it, climbing up when they got there, his friend following the whole way.

“After.” The girl said as she followed, the boy nodding in reply to her. When they reached the top of the tall staircase, they slowly went across the old, rigidity bridge. Across the bridge was a bunch of stone structures that once may have been a grand castle, and the two didn’t hesitate to move into the structure through the open front gates.

The two stopped holding hands for a moment, looking around the inside. “Home?” Asked the girl, looking at the boy.

Humming, the boy nodded. “Tower.” He said back, looking at her and tilting his head. Squirming a bit, stepping nervously, the girl frowned.

“Unsure.” She said back, and he walked forwards to hug her.

“Control, safe.” He assured her, rubbing her back.

“Okay… trust.” The girl almost whispered back, the boy nodding. After another couple seconds of hugging, he stepped away. The two wandered through the castle, looking around. They searched through every room, until they reached a very large one, with two large chairs, thrones, that seemed to once be ornate masterpieces, but were now hole ridden things not worth sitting on.

Crouching down in the center of the room by some rubble, the boy held out both hands. He tensed, and two streams of static left his hands, wrapping around the rubble and debris and pulling it together. After some time spent concentrating, the girl watched on with worry, a small metal box with a light on the top formed where the rubble once was. Around it static noises played from small televisions in the side of the metal cube, and the stone under it seemed… smoother, more intact than it was moments ago. Moments later, the boy fell to his side, panting a bit.

Rushing over, the girl sent a wary glance at the box before kneeling next to her friend. “Okay?” she asked, a concerned frown on her face. The boy nodded his head.

“Tired… draining.” He said back, a yawn accompanying his words. Standing up, she lifted him, an arm over her shoulders.

“Rest… bed.” She said, more to herself as her friend tiredly moved his legs. The two wandered off from the large room, searching. After some time, the two found a suitable intact bed, it had only two holes in it with moon markings on it, and star patterns dotting around it. The girl set her friend into the bed, going around it and climbing in on the other side. The two held each other, falling asleep quickly in the bed.

Rushing, a blue sweatered boy swam frantically, away from what was in the water swimming after him. He climbed up a piece of metal, throwing himself on it and crawling forwards away from the edge. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a metal tube. Flipping a switch on the end, he shined the light that came from it on the water. After a few moments of making sure they weren’t there anymore, he walked on, continuing his journey…

A while later…

The boys face grimaced, coming across a flooded area with a bunch of objects floating in it. Looking around, the boy sighed. Putting his light away, he ran forwards, jumping into the water and kicking his feet, swimming to a box and pulling himself up. The box wobbled, whatever was underneath hitting it, and the boy went to all fours to stabilize himself.

Another moment went by, before the boy got up and ran again, this time jumping towards a large red couch. The jump took him most of the way there, so he quickly clambered onto the seat, going to the back and making sure his legs could not be grabbed. He did this again for a barrel, from which he jumped across a couple more. Another swim found him on a bit of a metal outcropping, which held a bottle. Picking it up, the boy broke the bottle, taking a fairly sized shard for himself and ignoring the black puff that came from it.

With the help of some boxes, the boy made his way across, finding a wheel with a lever on it. Spinning it brought up a bag, a child's arm sticking out of it that made him make a distressed whimper. Jumping onto the bag, and using that to get on a hook, he finally landed onto a platform with a tub with water nearby, meat floating inside.

Taking a breath, the boy walked over and grabbed a piece of meat, turning and throwing it as far as he could back the way he came. With that he turned around and jumped, swimming for the other side, trying to get to safety. He heard splashing, and confusion went across his face before a hand burst from the water. It grabbed the boy, who pounded on the hand and wailed, before abruptly dragging him under…

A girl in a raincoat followed a trail of blood through two giant doors, entering a tiled area. Pushing a cart over, she climbed up it and through a window. She found herself in a room filled with various edibles- carrots, bottles filled with something, condiments and more. Looking through them all, she found one with three x’s on it. Grabbing some cloth from one of the bags, she stuffed it into the bottle and carried it forwards…

Some time later…

The girl ran, ducking and dodging as plates were thrown at her. Two large, grotesque people waddled after her quickly, vacant expressions on their faces. When the two were close, the girl suddenly turned and pulled a lighter from her pocket. Lighting the cloth, she picked up the bottle and threw it at the two as they lumbered towards her.

Seeing it hit, the girl jumped in joy for a single moment before the two started screaming. They wailed in pain, flailing around and running into each other, falling down. The girl smelt burning flesh in the air, and watched as their wax like faces melted under the intense heat of the flames she had thrown at them. It only got worse when their eyes started to melt. She heard loud meaty pops from inside of the two as their organs burst, their bodies melting.

The girl covered her mouth, backing up a step, two… before puking up the contents of her stomach just as the fire ended. The rumbling of a stomach was heard as the girl looked at the cooked chefs, stepping closer...

The boy and the girl both awoke with a start, breathing heavily in panicked breaths. The boy shook his head after a moment, turning to the girl. “Dream?” She asked, the boy shaking his head.

“Nightmare…” He said back, bringing up his legs and hugging them to himself. The girl nodded, and the two sat in silence for a moment, before the boy started. “Danger!” He said, grabbing her hand and tugging.

“Spy?” The girl asked. The boy nodded after a few moments, and the two started to sneak through the ancient ruins, eventually reaching the large doors to the large room and peeking inside.

Inside, they saw the purple woman from yesterday, her friends, and a new man. “What are you getting from it, Twilight?” The man questioned, looking right at the purple woman.

She sighed. “Nothing… there’s too much interference. All I know is it’d be a bad idea to destroy or move it… that’ll just cause the static to burst, Shining.” Twilight replied, crossing her arms. A frown was on her face, and her brows furrowed.

“Aw, come on. We can handle a little static! I say we just break the thing.” The floating light blue woman said, rearing a leg back.

“No Rainbow! It’s too dangerous!” Twilight said, and Shining leapt to action, he conjured a shield around the little cube that was to be a Tower, Rainbows foot bouncing off the magical shield.

The yellow one stepped forwards. “M-maybe they s-set this up to d-defend their home?” She suggested, her voice soft and hard to hear.

“We know at least one of them possesses illegal magic. This is likely them preparing to attack Equestria, Fluttershy. We need to take them in as soon as possible.” Shining said to the timid mare, making her flinch back.

“Retrieve?” The girl whispered to the boy, who grimaced. After a couple seconds, he nodded.

“Lead… tree.” He whispered back, turning to her.

“Bait?” The girl asked, pointing at herself. He shook his head.

“Me. Static, no catch.” He said back. “Backup.” He added, pointing at her.

“No! Both!” The girl insisted, crossing her arms.

“Magic… resists.” He said, pointing to himself. “Vulnerable.” he said a moment later, pointing at her.

“Faster!” The girl insisted, her shadow underneath her writhing a little.

“THERE THEY ARE!” One of the people in the room shouted.

“Split!” Said the boy, turning and bolting. The girl did the same, going the other direction and slipping into a shadow.

The two ran, with the boy dodging the horned ones lasers, ducking and weaving. The girl evaded the other four, travelling by shadow whenever the fast one almost caught up to her. Together the two led them on a seemingly wild goose chase, until both met up at the exit. Neither stopped, running out and bolting across the bridge and down the stairs.

Of course, their pursuers followed after them without hesitating, a fog coming in around the two as they went down. About halfway, the sound of beating wings reached the ears of the kids, and the girl pulled the boy into a shadow. From that, they teleported to the bottom, running for the cave which held the tree.

When they got there, they immediately hid behind the ancient crystalline artifact. They could hear voices, but not the words. Eventually, they heard the sound of something charging, and peeked out to see what was going on.

The six were now floating, their eyes white pools of power. A beam of rainbow fired from Twilights horn, going up before arching down and at the tree. The tree, in response, seemed to suck in the beam, glowing bright as it did. The rainbow split into six separate beams, each connecting to the jewelry the people were wearing. They struggled, resisting, but eventually the tree ripped out the gems and seemed to absorb them.

“Bye…” The children said as one, right before the tree blasted a spiraling rainbow at the seven people. They were launched far, far in the sky, probably out of the area entirely.